I have started a series of articles here on my blog titled the 7 Windows 7 tips for week WW-YY… which (obviously) is a weekly installment. If anyone of you out there have any tips or tricks you want to see here, feel free to contact me through the comments section of this post..
In this second installment I have the following 7 Windows 7 tips;
Tip #1: Customize Your Windows Log-on Screen
Ever wanted to customize your Windows Welcome screen? There are many posts floating around the web describing the process of how to do this. Rafael Rivera explains it in this post, but the most elegant way of doing it is via the Windows 7 Logon Background Changer made by Julien Manici. After downloading and extracting the tool, you run it and are greeted with this interface;
You then change your background log-on wallpaper by selecting from the theme backgrounds depicted on top, or by navigating your preferred picture somewhere on your computer. After selecting your picture – hit Apply and you are done!
This tool has been made in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and is a gorgeous example of what can be made utilizing WPF. Highly recommended.
Tip #2: Make a System Image Backup
After having installed Windows 7 plus your applications and settings it is time to make a system image. With an image like this you can easily go back to the state your system was in at the time of the backup without doing all the hard work once more.
Hit the Start orb and type backup. Backup and Restore should be the first choice. Click and you will be greeted by this menu;
In the left pane click on Create a system image.
Then select your backup media – on a hard disk or on a network location is recommended.
You then select the drives you want to include in the backup before hitting next.
The last step is to confirm your setting before clicking on Start backup.¨
You can stop the process whenever you want (but why..?). After a while (depending on the size of your backup) you will be greeted with this;
At the end of the process you will be given the opportunity to create a system repair disc which you can use to boot the system in order to restore your computer from a system image. I recommend that you do this…
That’s it. You have now got a back-up of your system image and a repair disc – all set for the day when your system wont work any longer.
Tip #3: Encrypt your removable USB disk with Bitlocker To Go
One of the really nice features of Windows 7 Professional Enterprise or Ultimate is the Bitlocker encryption feature, and more particularly the Bitlocker To Go utility which allows you to encrypt your removable USB media for enhanced security.
After having inserted your removable USB disk, right click it in Explorer, and select Turn on Bitlocker
After the initial preparation of the media your are presented with these choices;
You then have to decide on how to save your recovery key;
Your drive is soon ready to be encrypted; hit Start Encrypting and the process starts.
There is of course a process indicator;
When the process is finished you will get this one;
In Windows Explorer the removable disk will have the Bitlocker icon added to it and it will look something like this;
Tip #4: Quickly Open The First 10 Applications On Your Taskbar
By hitting 
+ any number between 1 and 0 you will open the application that occupies that position on your taskbar. 0 in this instance is actually 10.
On my taskbar holding down and hitting 8 will open Windows Live Writer.
Tip #5: Stream Your Media To A Remotely Connected Computer
Windows 7 and Windows Media Player 12 allows you to stream your media on one computer to any other Windows 7 computer as long as you are integrated with an online ID provider like Windows Live ID. The procedure for configuring Remote Media Streaming is the same on both the remote and local computer. The first thing you have to do is to start Windows Media Player. Then you click Stream and Allow Internet Access to home media.
Now you will need to link an online ID to your Windows account. Click on Link an online ID
As long as you have already set up an online ID like Windows Live ID you will be presented with this screen. Click on Link online ID (written in blue).
You are then provided with this Sign in to Windows Live ID screen;
Back in the previous screen you now hit OK.
After that is done you are once again back in this screen, and it is now time to choose Allow Internet access to home media.
You will get a UAC-prompt, select Yes and you will be rewarded with this dialog;
You are now finished with configuring Remote Media Streaming on one computer, repeat the above process on the other computer(s). Restart Windows Media Player on them all and you will see the shared media under Other libraries
Tip #6: Pin Your Favorite Folders To The Windows Explorer Jump List
Do you have particular folder that you access all the time? For easy access you can pin those folder to the Windows Explorer Jump List. Open Explorer and navigate your way to the folder you want to pin. Right click and hold and then drag it down to the taskbar;
The next time you right-click the Explorer icon in the taskbar you will find your folder at the top of the Jump list;
Tip #7: Do You Have Unanswered Questions Regarding Windows 7?
Ed Bott has written a great article on his Microsoft Report Blog at ZDNet with the answers to the questions he is getting most frequently. A great resource that can be found here.
That rounds up the second installment of my 7 Windows 7 Tips. Got any comments, suggestions or advice? Feel free to post them in the comments section of this post.
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thank you for all.
Thank you for the tips on Windows 7.
I am having a blue screen issue and am thinking it’s my mobo BIOS. After installing Windows 7, I started getting the dreaded Blue Screen of Death.
My system is comprised of an Asus M3A32-MVP Delus Boars with a BIOS version of 1063. I am running 2 matching sticks of Corsair CM2X2048-8500C5D memory.
After installing Windows 7, I tried running my mobo driver disk. The OS poped up a window saying Not supported by this version of Windows.
I went to the Asus site and downloaded all that the OS would allow and continued to get that Blue Screen.
I found that the USB Drivers in Windows 7 was causing part of the problem and kept getting error strings containing a bunch of 0’s and X’s. To me this looked like a memory issue and removed one stick of memory. Haven’t had a Blue screen yet.
Is there a fix for this so I can run both sticks of memory again?
I do not believe that Windows 7 professional includes BitLocker as indicated in tip #3.
(sorry, I fat fingered my website on my last post)
I do not believe that Windows 7 professional includes BitLocker as indicated in tip #3.
I understand from several magazine articles that one can:
“Shove a window into the left or right edge of the screen and it’ll
expand to fill half of your desktop. Nudge another into the opposite
edge of the screen, and it’ll expand to occupy the other half.”
I have been trying to do this with Windows Explorer screens without
success — what could I be doing wrong?
HOw do I print your windows 7 tips … when I try to do so, it comes up only with a narrow column at the side of the page ?7 Windows 7 Tips for Week 46-2009
thanks
Bitlock is only available in the Ultimate and Enterprise versions of Windows 7, NOT the Professional version. It dates back to Vista and the same is true for that version of windows.
good question Douglas S.
I have matched set Corsair CM2X2048-8500C5D 1066 speed memory and have not got it to work for very long before blue screen appears and have another set of other name brand that does the same…and with XP Pro, Vista and 7, even changing voltage to printed on the RAM 2.10v and umteen other varitions with no good results.. I have set all RAM “auto SPD ” etc. setting .. the same BS comes up… I’ve not tried 1 stick before… but now I am thinking I have 1 bad stick in each set…? any RAM experts got an Idea?.. Thanks ahead of time…
….and on a very good note… Win 7 is an awesome user friendly ops system…. Enjoy The Ride, Axee5
@hhs
If you are using Internet Explorer 8 do the following;
1. Select the whole article from title to finish.
2. Click on the Print preview option in the toolbar in IE
3. Select the “As selected on screen” option and not “As laid out on screen”
4. Hit print
I will check into this further. The above mentioned procedure should not be necessary. Anyone know of a plugin that would enable an easy print option for my viewers.
Good luck and thank you for your feedback.
@Tom Gough!
The nudging you are describing is a basic feature of Windows 7. As long as you have that OS you should be fine. Do not nudge. Select the window and drag it to one side until you see the placeholder for the windows filling up half the screen. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts as described in this post: http://abokevin.com/?p=528
Good luck and thank you for your feedback.
@Pelokee
You are quite right, of course. I will edit the post to reflect that. Bitlocker is only available for Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Enterprise editions.
Thank you for your feedback. Much appreciated.
@Douglas Sheppard
It is very difficult for me to perform a diagnosis of your system just based on the information you provide. My recommendation is that you go to this site;
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/upgrade-advisor
and download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and run it (it will still work even if you have Windows 7 installed). It will provide you with a detailed overview over your hardware and any potential problems as well as advice on what to do IF your system can run Windows 7.
Good luck to you, and thank you for your feedback.
Thanks, Merry Christmas
thankn you very much
I quite could not find an answer to my problem, with Windows 7, I can’t add a phot to a message when I “Reply”. plus, when I add a photo to a new message, or forward, the animation is lost.
Such problems did not exist with Windows Vista.
Your help please!
I thought this was to be a weekly article. Where are weeks 48, 49, 50 51 and 52?
Richard, you found a ‘bug’, report it and earn some respect for your completness… also you are sure of none of the other ways to do that ?… everything seems to have 3 way to get there with PC’s. ?
7 working great for me in all that I use it for, Great system.
Enjoy The Ride
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Since upgrading from Vista to Win 7 on my HP desktop I have had a problem with a garbled output from my keyboard after it has been on sveral hours. I try to type something and the charagcters are lik…..87b*m# meaningless. I have no idea what causes this, it is universal in that it affects all programs and rebooting will correct it. It was suggested by a user group that it might be my Zone Alarm Security system but have found nothing addressing it on their web site, not did I turn up anything pertinent on a web search…..any thoughts?
I thought this was to be a weekly article. Where are weeks 48, 49, 50 51 and 52?
Richard, you found a ‘bug’, report it and earn some respect for your completness… also you are sure of none of the other ways to do that ?… everything seems to have 3 way to get there with PC’s. ?
7 working great for me in all that I use it for, Great system.
Enjoy The Ride