Windows 7
Quick exits- shortcut to shut down your PC in Windows 7
A very popular class of shortcuts consists of those that provide a quick way to shut down the PC. I have previously given some for Windows XP and Windows Vista and now here is one for Windows 7. Like the previous keyboard shortcuts, the Windows 7 procedure involves a sequence of keys individually pressed. To [...]
System repair and backup in Windows 7
Did you get a nice new PC for Christmas? If you have a Windows 7 system, there’s two essential maintenance jobs to do. Material from this post is now at my Windows site.
Install, reinstall, or uninstall Windows
Sometimes you have to reinstall Windows to repair corrupted files or a malware infection. Or you may want a clean, new installation to improve performance. Maybe you just got a copy of Windows 7 and want to install it or even dual-boot with it. For all these scenarios and more Microsoft has a useful site [...]
Windows Start-up & Shutdown Sounds from Windows 3.1 on up
It seems that people will collect almost anything. Vince Bognot has put together Windows Start-up and Shutdown Sounds from Windows 3.1 to Windows 7. I am not sure who cares but here is his collection:
Via the Windows Club
Scrap files scrapped
Windows is a complicated operating system and has many properties and features that most PC users are unaware of. One of the odder and lesser known features in Windows 98/XP was something called a scrap file. I wrote about scrap files some years ago in connection with their use by virus writers. I visit the [...]
Windows 7 borrowed from the Mac?
A small ruckus broke out when Simon Aldous, partner group manager at Microsoft, acknowledged that the design of Windows 7 had drawn on some inspiration from the Mac. In an interview at PCR, Aldous said:
One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that [...]
Fixing Windows update problems
For one reason or the other, it sometimes happens that a file or a Registry entry gets corrupted in one of the never-ending Windows updates. In that case, it often becomes impossible to carry out updates without getting error messages. The problems are common enough that Microsoft has come up with a tool to fix [...]
Customize your icons
Many Windows users are unaware that they are not stuck with the default set of icons that comes with their setup. In fact, it is quite easy to edit or replace the existing icons. Some years ago I wrote an article on how to customize your icons. Why should all your folder icons be the [...]
How to pay less for Windows 7
The retail price for Windows 7 is pretty steep. In fact, you can pay almost as much for some versions as the price of a new laptop. But there are legitimate ways to pay less. At ZDNet, Ed Bott has posted Seven perfectly legal ways to get Windows 7 cheap (or even free):
Only suckers pay [...]
Is Windows 7 the last major release?
Windows 7 is currently the focus of attention and will likely dominate the PC for a few years. But what about the future? At PCMag, technology industry analyst Tim Bajarin speculates about what comes after Windows 7:
So, Windows 7 does, in fact, matter. But for how long? At the moment, we live in a client/server [...]
How 32-bit software runs on 64-bit Windows
When I took a look at the many PC offerings being rolled out for the advent of Windows 7, I was struck by how many of them were 64-bit systems. It’s a little geeky but an explanation of how Windows Vista/7 64-bit systems manage 32-bit software may interest some. TechSupportAlert has an overview of how [...]
