STFU && RTFM

Many of the innovations in Windows 7 are more about estetics and eye-candy than anything else. Some of them are downright silly; such as this one:
 
You’re working on your computer, and you have a lot of windows open. You then need to focus on a specific window, and minimize all the others. That’s done by clicking the title-line of a window, and shaking it, which will make the other windows minimize.
 
You can still use the keyboard shortcut Win+d to achieve the same result.

In addition to using libraries to see files from several places on your computer, you can also use it to display files sorted by meta-data, such as the date the files was edited last, or tags.
 
Libraries have an arrange-by option, which, by default, is set to Folder. By clicking it, you get the option to arrange by day, month rating or tag. The music library can be arranged by album, artist, song, genre, or rating.

Windows 7 takes a new approach to file management, which they have called libraries. Simply put, you library will show files from any and all folders you choose. There are libraries for documents, videos, pictures and music.
 
You can create folders in the libraries, the same way that you would create a folder elsewhere on your computer. You can also have your library display folders from different locations on the computer. There are two ways:
 

1. Open the library in question
2. Click the link that says “Includes # locations”
3. Click add
   
4. Browse to the folder that includes the folder you want to display, then click the folder you want to display
5. Click “Include folder”, then OK

 
-OR-
 

1. Open the Explorer window
2. Browse to the folder you want to include
3. Click “Include in Library”, then select which library to include the folder in, or choose to create a new library
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 | Posted by razumny | Categories: Windows 7 | Tagged: libraries, Windows 7, Windows 7 month |

When working with two windows at the same time, you can have them aligned so that they take up half the screen each. Simply click and drag the title line of the window to the left or right hand side of the screen, and you’ll see the window autmatically adjust to fit half the screen’s width.
 
There’s also the option of doing this through a keyboard shortcut. Win+left arrow will align the window to the left hand side, while Win+right arrow will align the window to the right hand side. To maximize the window, use Win+up arrow, and to minimize, use Win+down arrow.
 
Note: Comments disabled due to massive amounts of comment spam

I recently wrote about the so-called God mode in Windows 7. As it turns out, there are as many as seventeen of them. In addition to the “full” God mode, you also have the following:
 

 
To use the different modes, simply follow the guide from My original post.

A nifty little way of getting a more finegrained level of control over Windows 7, is using the so-called GodMode option. By creating a folder, and giving it a specific name, you will get access to loads of options:
 

Click on the image to view the full size
 
To enable GodMode, you need to do the following:
 

1. Create a new folder, anywhere you like
2. Call the new folder GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

 
That’s it. You’ll see the folder icon changes, adn looks like a control panel, and you can create shortcuts to it wherever you want.
 
Note: You don’t actually have to call the folder GodMode. What’s important is that you leave everything behind the . as shown above.

Microsoft recently released, then withdrew a piece of software called Windows 7 download tool. Originally released under GPLv2, it was withdrawn as some of the code included had licensing problems, and as such could not be released under GPLv2.
 
Having fixed this problem, they have now re-released it, as free (as in freedom and beer), open source software, under the terms of GPLv2. The fixed tool is now available at Microsoft’s CodePlex open-source repository.

An old joke says that there are three kinds of lies; black lies, white lies and the internal polling data of political parties. The latter example is typically statistics, and while statistics can be presented in such a way as to prove almost anything, raw, unprocessed statistics are a great tool.
 
One of my habits when troubleshooting troubles is to have a look at the event viewer. While event viewer allows you to see specific events, it can sometimes be difficult to see trends. In Windows XP, we don’t really have a choice, we’ll have to look through the data, and parse it ourselves.
 
Enter Windows Vista, and Windows Reliability Monitor. As the screendump below shows, it will show you, as a graph, when things have started to deteriorate. You can look through the history, and see on what days there have been many errors. It also gives you a reliability index rating, from 10 to 1 (Ten being very good, 1 being exceedingly bad. Coupled with event viewer logs, Reliability Monitor makes it that much easier to read logs, and solve problems.
 

Click the image to see the full size version

Note: The comment-function for this post has been disabled due to 200+ spam comments over the last 24 hours Lately, I’ve been annoyed that a few of the computers I’ve set up have had NumLock on after each and every boot. The problem lies somewhere in the installation scripts, I’m sure, but as I have no power over those scripts, all I can do, is fix the problem whenever I spot it.
 

1. Open the “run” dialog box, enter regedit, and click ok
2. Find the following key: HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators
3. Set the value of the key in accordance with the following table

Working in IT, I often have people ask me about issues they are having with their computer. Now, while I’m happy to help out, I often find that the problems I solve for them are problems they could have solved themselves. Mitch Tulloch, a Microsoft MVP and lead author of the just-published Windows 7 Resource Kit (Microsoft Press, 2010; ISBN: 9780735627000; 1760 pages), has created a short e-book called “What You Can Do Before You Call Tech Support.” Here are the opening paragraphs:
 

Your sound card has stopped working, your computer seems sluggish, the network is down, your hard drive is clicking, you can’t view a website, your monitor is hard to read, your new webcam isn’t working, your favorite program won’t run, and a funny burning smell is coming from your computer. What can you do on your own to try to troubleshoot the issue before you pick up the phone to call tech support?
 
If you’re running Windows 7, quite a lot. Microsoft has included a lot of self-support tools in Windows 7 that you can try using before you seek the help of others, and we’ll examine these in a moment. Then there are the tools you were born with—your five senses (see, hear, smell, taste, touch) and most importantly your brain. And by brain I’m including your memory, experience, and capacity for logical reasoning. Finally, there is ancient and sacred lore passed on in secret from Master to Disciple over the millennia. We’ll see shortly how your brain, your senses, and the secrets of the Wise Ones can be very helpful for troubleshooting computer problems. But first let’s look at what troubleshooting tools are built into Windows 7.

 
You can download the e-book in XPS format here and in PDF format here. Enjoy!