Seven Little Known Windows 7 Features that Will Improve Your Computing Experience.

Microsoft Windows 7 is one of the best operating systems that we have seen in years from this software giant. While many have bad memories about slow performance and obsolete features in other versions of Windows such as Vista, Windows 7 is filled with both performance and features that make it an excellent choice.


Many great features such as Snap and an enhanced Media Center have been featured in many headlines over the last year. While these well known features have been well received, Windows 7 has many new cool things that most people have never heard of. There are so many new features that some of them can be considered as Windows 7 secrets. In this article we will feature 7 new and often not known "secrets" that will help you to have a better computing experience.

Secret-1

Ever wish that you could have access to all the important operating system controls in one place? If so then "God Mode" is for you. This handy addition to the system allows you to create a new folder that will hold most of the important settings. These settings include access to mouse pointers, create a new hard drive partition, network settings and many more. To use "God Mode", simply create a new folder on your hard drive. Once this folder has been created and then change the name of the folder to,"GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}". Now that you have done that the icon for that folder will change to resemble a control panel. It will contain dozens of powerful windows settings.

Secret-2

The "Problem Steps Recorder" is a great new tool to help you figure out why the programs that you run may be misbehaving. To use this new tool, click on the start button. In the search bar type in, "PSR" and press enter. A small window will show up. Simply hit the "Start Record' button. Pressing this button will allow you to record the clicks and key presses that you make. It also take screen grabs and package everything up in a tidy MHTML file. The you can either review the results yourself or email them off to your favorite support person.

Secret-3

Windows 7 has been advertised as so easy to use that a young child can operate it without assistance. This presents both good and bad things. On one hand your children can do almost anything with your new computer. On the other hand you may not want them to do somethings that you may not want them to do. A great solutions to bar kids from running unwanted applications is to use the new "AppLocker" tool. To use this feature click on the start button. In the search line enter, "GPEDIT.MSC", and then press your enter key. A new window will open and the computer configuration screen will be available. From this point navigate to Configuration > Windows Settings > Application Control Policies > AppLocker.

Secret-4

Windows Movie Maker allows users of all ages to edit and share video. One draw back to this program is that out of the box it does not support importing files over a network. This is not very useful if you store your files on another computer or if you use products like Microsoft Windows Home Server. To enable this feature you have to use the REGEDIT program. Word of caution the registry editor can have significant impact on your computer. Please be careful when using this too. To begin click on the start button and enter, "regedit" in the search bar and press enter. When the registry editor appears navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live\Movie Maker value. Once you are there add a "DWORD" value called AllowNetworkFiles and set the value to 1. Now you can import files over the network.

Secret-5

There is a new and mostly unheard of feature in this version of Windows. Virtual WiFi turns your computer into a software based router. Now you can use your computer to allow other WiFi devices such as, an other desktop computer, laptop computer, IPod, and other devices access to your home network and the internet. One note this will only work if your wireless adapter support this feature. It is advised that you get the latest drivers available for your adapter. Once you have a supported driver then your best approach to getting this set up is to get a network too that can set up your Virtual WiFi for you. I recommend Virtual Router (http://virtualrouter.codeplex.com/). It is free and easy to use utility that will have you up in a jiffy.

Secret-6

Have you ever wanted to put your own picture up on your logon screen. This used to take complicated editing of the system. There are a couple of good tools that will let you change your logon experience. Ones free tool that does the job is Logon Changer (http://tweaks.com/software/tweakslogon/). This utility accepts one picture. If you want to have different images in rotation, Logon Screen Rotator (http://lukepaynesoftware.com/lsrotator/), may be the tool for you. This tool accepts multiple images and is also free.

Secret-7

The UAC or User Account Control was meant to be an easy way to manage how programs react related to system security. This feature was added to Windows Vista but was a bit chatty and not very easy to use. The people at Microsoft did listen to the complaints that people had about this feature and have done a lot to make it a better user experience. It is now much easier to manage the UAC. To set your UAC preferences, click on Start > Control Panel > Change User Account Settings.

If you take the time to explore these seven Windows 7 Secrets you will be on your way to a better windows experience.


Read more: http://tecland.blogspot.com/2010/06/seven-windows-7-secrets.html#ixzz112nYp6VI
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