Thursday, 9 February 2012
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
10 Windows 7 Tips and Hidden Features You Should Know
10 Windows 7 Tips and Hidden Features You Should Know
Windows 7 is around for many months now and everyone is enjoying this lighter aspect of Windows operating system. If you haven't switched to it, I'd highly recommend it even if you have a system with low specs.
Some features of Windows 7 are redesigned taken from previous versions while most of them are new and advanced like Taskbar, Explorer, Start menu, control panel and many more.
After using Windows 7 for few weeks now, I found many new, hidden and interesting features, keyboard shortcuts and tips that still most of the users are unfamiliar of. Out of which here are 10 best and worth sharing tips for Windows 7 users. Hope you'll learn and enjoy!
1) Windows Docking
To Dock a window to the left or right half of the screen, simply drag it to the edge; similarly, you can drag the window to the top of the screen to maximize it, and double-click the window top / bottom border to maximize it vertically with the same horizontal width.
You can control Windows through keyboard shortcuts as well:
Win+Left Arrow and Win+Right Arrow dock;
Win+Up Arrow and Win+Down Arrow maximizes and restores / minimizes;
Win+Shift+Up Arrow and Win+Shift+Down Arrow maximizes and restores the vertical size.
2) Switching Through Opened Windows
To Quickly Jump to Opened/Minimized Application or windows in Taskbar; Press Win+1, Win+2, Win+3 .... (upto Win+9) to control Running Application # 1, 2 and 3 and so on.
3) Controlling Taskbar Applications
To focus the control to Taskbar; press Win+T. Once you’re on Taskbar, use the arrow keys to select a particular window or group and then hit Enter to launch or activate it. To remove the focus from taskbar press Esc.
4) Pinning a folder to Explorer Jumplist
If you frequently work on some folders you can quickly pin them with the Explorer icon on the taskbar. Just hold the right-click button down and drag the folder to the taskbar, and it will be automatically pinned in the Explorer Jump List.
5) Show Only Current Window and Minimize Rest All
If you're working on a folder or a single window and want to hide/minimize all other open in the background; Grab the window from the title bar and shake it! Yes Shake it a little to left and right and all your opened windows open in background will be minimized.
You can do this from keyboard by pressing Win+Home to minimize all the non-active background windows, keeping the window you’re using in its current position. When you’re ready or done working on your window, press Win+Home again to restore all the background windows to their original locations.
(Tip: To Minimize ALL running windows at once, press Win+D)
6) Powerful Calculator
The Windows 7 calculator may look simple like you've seen in previous version of Windows, but It includes many new advanced features like units conversions, date conversion and worksheets for mortgage and leasing calculations, vehicle and fuel economy calculations. You can switch between basic, scientific, programming and statistics mode of the calculator.
7) Hidden High Resolution Wallpapers
Windows 7 comes with many new high resolution wallpapers which can be accessed through Personalization option in Control Panel. But did you know that there are some hidden wallpapers and themes inside Windows installation folder? No, then open Windows Explorer and enter this address:
C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT
You'll notice some folders of different locations with their theme files. If you want to apply those themes (which off course automatically sets associated wallpapers) then just double click any theme file.
8) Inbuilt Screen Recorder
Windows 7 comes with a in-built diagnostic tools - Problem Steps Recorder, that can be used internally to send feedback for a particular problem to someone to troubleshoot it. The Problem Steps Recorder provides a simple screen capture tool that enables you to record a series of actions.
Open Start menu, and find "Problem Steps Recorder" to find the application.
Once you hit “record”, it tracks your mouse and keyboard actions and captures screenshots. Once you stop recording, it ask you for a saving location and saves the whole thing to MHTML format in a .ZIP file.
9) Display Projection
To control over presentation/projector settings, press Win+X to open the Windows Mobility Center, which allows you to turn on a presentation “mode” in one click.
After switching to Presentation mode, you can try different modes of Multiple Display settings by pressing Win+P.
10) Multiple Instances of Single Application
If a program supports multiple instances like, default windows applications; calculator, paint, command prompt etc, then you can open its multiple instance without going to start menu to run it again.
If the program is already running, just hold down SHIFT key and press the taskbar icon of that program, this will open another instance of that same program. To do this without keyboard, press the middle (or wheel) button of your mouse on the taskbar icon of that running program.
Fast Shut Down Windows With A Double Click / Win Xp
Hi all users, am going to show the trick to shutdown Windows Xp in an easy and cool way.There is no need of any use of softwares you can do it by following the simple steps.
Follow these steps to fastly shutdown Windows XP:-
1.Right click on a blank area on your desktop2.Click on New.
3. Click Shortcut to create a shortcut on your desktop.
4. The Create Shortcut dialog - To have Windows shut down immediately.
5.You double click the shortcut, and type shutdown -s -t 00.
NOTE: To Have Windows count down for a specific number of
seconds before shutting down, type the number of seconds
instead of 00 in step 4.
6 .Click Next to continue.
7. Type the name you want the shortcut to display on your desktop.
8. Click Finish to create the shortcut.
Did You Get a New Android Phone? Do These 5 Things Immediately
Did You Get a New Android Phone? Do These 5 Things Immediately
If you got a new Android smartphone for the holidays, here are some things you want to do right away!1. Don’t Skip the Google Account Setup
When you set up your Android for the first time, you’re asked to provide your Google account credentials. Doing so is the fastest way to set up your email, calendar, and contacts (core PIM functionality), but it’s optional, some people don’t have Google account, or for whatever reason they decide to skip the step. If you skipped it, go back and complete it, even if you’re using someone other than Google for your basic PIM functions.
Why? There are a few reasons. Not only will your contacts be synchronized with your Google account, they’ll also be synced with any Android’s you get in the future (if your current phone is lost, stolen, damaged, or in a year or so when you decide to upgrade). Additionally, you’ll need it for the Android Market.
While it’s probably true that you don’t need the Android Market to install apps on your phone, there is one case in particular where you’d want to: if your phone is lost. To the best of my knowledge, the Android Market is the only app store for Android that allows for remote installation of apps. Simply log into the Market using a desktop browser, then find an app called Plan B and install it (remotely) to your phone. Within minutes you’ll have an email telling you exactly where your phone is! Of course there are other apps that let you do similar things, but most have to be installed and configured before you lose your phone. The appropriately named Plan B app takes care of all of that for you, all you have to have done is set up your Google Account.
2. Get a Car Kit
It’s becoming illegal in more places — and is generally frowned upon everywhere — to use your phone in your car. Take that as an opportunity to trick out your ride for Android!
Two things you’ll want to get are a Bluetooth headset and a USB car charger, but if your phone has a car dock built specifically for it, you’ll probably want to consider that option first.
A car dock usually attaches to your windshield or dash and holds your phone where you can see it. Many have a charging solution built in (some will plug into your phone’s USB charging port, others, like the dock for Nexus One charge using three gold dots to carry the power — the dock for the Galaxy Nexus). Some also connect to your phone’s audio, which not only lets you listen to music on your car’s sound system, they also do double-duty as a speaker phone.
Whether or not you opt for a car dock with these features built-in or opt for a USB charger and Bluetooth headset, you’ll appreciate having a fully-charged phone when you start your day at school or the office, and will be much safer keeping your phone out of your hands while driving.
3. Turn on Your WiFi
There are three reasons why you’ll want to turn on your WiFi right away.
WiFi is probably faster than your phone’s 3G or 4G data connection, so when you’re under a WiFi bubble, your phone will be faster!
WiFi uses less power than traditional cellular data, so your battery will last longer when using WiFi rather than cellular data.
With almost all carriers throttling or limiting your data once you hit their data threshold, using WiFi whenever possible could save you quite a bit of money and frustration, which lets you save your cellular data for when you need it.
4. Set Your Data-Hungry Apps to Update Less Often
If you’re like me, you’ve got at least a couple social networking apps, a couple news and RSS apps, and maybe even a couple weather apps installed. These apps try to connect to various data services to keep the information on your phone up-to-date. This makes their apps feel faster because the information is already on your phone, before you ask for it. Unfortunately that means the app is going out on the Internet frequently to get updates — updates that you may never see.
To help keep data usage down and battery life from magically disappearing, you should open each type of app that I mentioned above and check its settings for “Update Frequency”. Some social apps are come set top update every 15 minutes. I set mine to update every 4 hours, or “only when charging”. Some apps even have an option to only sync when connected to WiFi. Keep in mind that some of the smarter apps use something called “push notifications” which only update when the server “pushes” a notice to them that there is something to update.
Check your apps and set them to something that’s more in-line with how often you actually use the apps.
5. Log in to Google Talk
Google Talk is the chat app that comes built-in to your Android, and it’s terribly under-used. You can use Google Talk not only to instant message people with other Android smartphones, but also those who use Gmail on their desktop and laptop computers.
What’s really cool is that many of those computer users have microphones and speakers, and with the right plugin can audio chat with you. This is essentially a free way to make voice calls to anyone in the world with a Gmail account — and it’s built in to every Android out there.
What’s more, if your Android Smartphone has a front-facing camera, you can also use Google Talk to make and receive video calls! You can video call with other Android users, or computer users that have a webcam. This comes in particularly useful during the holidays when friends and family may not be able to come together. Unlike other video chatting solutions, Google Talk should work just fine over 3G, 4G, or WiFi.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)