Windows 7 Start & Search
In Windows 7, one can find more things in more places—documents, email messages, songs— and do it faster.
- Start typing in the Start menu search box, and we will instantly see a list of relevant files on your PC.
- One can search by typing the name of the file, or based on its tags, file type, and even contents. To see even more matches, click a category in the results, like Documents or Pictures, or click See more results. The search terms are highlighted to make it easier to scan the list.
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Windows 7 Start & Search |
Right Click Everything
At first glance Windows 7 bears a striking resemblance to Vista, but there's an easy way to begin spotting the differences -‐ just right-‐click things.
- Right-‐click an empty part of the desktop, for instance, and you'll find a menu entry to set your screen resolution. No need to go browsing through the display settings any more.
- Right-‐click the Explorer icon on the taskbar for speedy access to common system folders: Documents, Pictures, the Windows folder, and more.
- And if you don't plan on using Internet Explorer then we probably won't want its icon permanently displayed on the taskbar. Right-‐click the icon, select 'Unpin this program from the taskbar', then go install Firefox, instead.
Use Snipping Tool to Capture Screen Shots
- Start>Snipping Tool. One can use Snipping Tool to capture a screen shot, or snip, of any object on your screen, and then annotate, save, or share the image. Simply use a mouse or tablet pen to capture any of the following types of snips:
- Free-‐form Snip. Draw an irregular line, such as a circle or a triangle, around an object.
- Rectangular Snip. Draw a precise line by dragging the cursor around an object to form a rectangle.
- Window Snip. Select a window, such as a browser window or dialog box, that you want to capture.
- Full-‐screen Snip. Capture the entire screen when you select this type of snip.
- After you capture a snip, it's automatically copied to the mark-‐up window, where you can annotate, save, or share the snip.
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Windows 7 Snipping Tool |
Problem Steps Recorder
As the local PC guru you're probably very used to friends and family asking for help with their computer problems, yet having no idea how to clearly describe what's going on. It's frustrating, but Microsoft feels your pain, and Windows 7 will include an excellent new solution in the Problem Steps Recorder.
- When any app starts misbehaving under Windows 7 then all your friends need do is click Start, type PSR and press Enter, then click Start Record. If they then work through whatever they're doing then the Problem Steps Recorder will record every click and keypress, take screen grabs, and package everything up into a single zipped MHTML file when they're finished, ready for emailing to you. It's quick, easy and effective, and will save you hours of troubleshooting time.
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Problem Steps Recorder |
Recover Locked‐Up Applications
If an application locks up under a previous version of Windows then there was nothing you could do about it. A new Windows 7 option, however, can not only explain the problem, but may get your program working again without any loss of data.
- When the lockup occurs, click Start, type RESMON and click the RESMON.EXE link to launch the Resource Monitor. Find your frozen process in the CPU pane (it should be highlighted in red), right-‐click it and select Analyze Wait Chain.
- If we see at least two processes in the list, then the lowest, at the end of the tree, is the one holding up your program. If it's not a vital Windows component, or anything else critical, then save any work in other open applications, check the box next to this process, click End Process, and your locked-‐up program will often spring back to life.
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Recover Locked Application |
Calculate More
At first glance the Windows 7 calculator looks just like Vista's version, but explore the Mode menu and we will see powerful new Statistics and Programmer views. And if we are clueless about bitwise manipulation, then try the Options menu instead.
- This offers many different unit conversions (length, weight, volume and more), date calculations (how many days between two dates?), and spreadsheet-‐type templates to help you calculate vehicle mileage, mortgage rates and more.
- Don't take any Windows 7 applet at face value, then -‐ there are some very powerful new features hidden in the background. Be sure to explore every option in all Windows applets to ensure us don't miss anything important.
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Windows 7 Calculator Trick |
Desktop Slideshow
Windows 7 comes with some very attractive new wallpapers, and it's not always easy to decide which one you like the best. So why not let choose a few, and let Windows display them all in a desktop slideshow?
- Right-‐click an empty part of the desktop, select Personalize > Desktop Background, then hold down Ctrl as you click on the images you like. Choose how often you'd like the images to be changed (anything from daily to once every 10 seconds), select Shuffle if you'd like the backgrounds to appear in a random order, then click Save Changes and enjoy the show.
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Windows 7 Desktop SlideShow |
Use Sticky Notes
The Sticky Notes app is both simpler and more useful in Windows 7. Launch StikyNot.exe and you can type notes at the keyboard; right-‐click a note to change its colour; click the + sign on the note title bar to add another note; and click a note and press Alt + F4 to close the note windows (your notes are automatically saved).
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Windows 7 Sticky Notes |
Minimize Quickly with Shake
If we have multiple windows open on your desktop and things are getting too cluttered, it used to be a time-‐consuming process to close them all down. In Windows 7 one can use the Aero Shake feature to minimise everything in seconds, using a cool mouse gesture. Grab the title bar of the window we wish to keep open and give it a shake, and rejoice in a clear desktop area.
Windows Snap
Snap is a quick (and fun) new way to resize open windows, simply by dragging them to the edges of your screen.
- Depending on where you drag a window, you can make it expand vertically, take up the entire screen, or appear side-‐by-‐side with another window. Snap makes reading, organizing, and comparing windows a...well, you get the picture.
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Windows 7 snap Trick |
Windows 7 Flip 3D
Windows Key + Tab. With Windows Flip 3D, one can quickly preview all of your open windows (for example, open files, folders, and documents) without having to click the taskbar. Flip 3D displays our open windows in a stack. At the top of the stack, you'll see one open window. To see other windows, one can flip through the stack.
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Windows 7 Flip 3D |