Windows 7 – The Pocket Guide pdf

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Windows

The Pocket Guide mintywhite.com (v1.0)

Windows 7 – The Pocket Guide

v 1.0

Master Microsoft’s Newest Operating System

Rich Robinson

mintywhite.com

© 2009 Windows Guides | mintywhite.com All rights reserved

Windows 7 – The Pocket Guide

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~~~

Dedicated to my wife, Mallory—thank you for putting up with all the hours I spend writing books, writing guides, and getting to know like-minded

Windows enthusiasts You are very special to me

~~~

About the Author

Rich Robinson is t he aut hor and creator of Windows Guides, Windows Forum s, and MyWindowsPC Rich is a

Microsoft MVP in t he Desk top Ex perience cat egory and aut hored Windows Vist a – The Pock et Guide and Windows Vist a – Cust om izat ion Manual His hobbies include

spending t im e wit h fam ily, web design, program m ing, running, soccer, sk iing, and swim m ing

See m ore book s Rich aut hored

Acknowledgments

I consider all visit ors t o Windows Guides and Windows Forum s cont ribut ors to t his book Your quest ions and advice helped inspire m e t o com pile t his book Many of you t ak e hours of your t im e helping m e im prove m y work and helping m e find errors Ot hers share t he word of t his book wit h t heir friends, fam ily, and online acquaint ances Many readers of t his book are referred by ot her Windows-

t hem ed websit es and I t hank t he respect ive owners of

t hese sit es for t heir k ind words and advice

Thank you to m y wife, Mallory, who work s hard as I isolat e

m yself for days on end t o com plet e t his book ; you are

m ore wonderful t han you can ever perceive

Contents

Int roduct ion x x Not at ional Convent ions x x ii Addit ional Help x x iii

1 Get St art ed 1

1.1 Windows 7 Syst em Requirem ent s 2

1.2 Which Version of Windows 7? 4

1.2.1 Buy Your Copy of Windows 7 4

1.3 Windows 7 32 or 64- bit 7

1.3.1 What Does 64- Bit 7 Get Me? 7

1.3.2 How Mainst ream is 64 bit ? 8

1.4 Inst all Windows 7 9

1.4.1 Upgrade t o 7 from Windows Vist a 9

1.4.2 Inst all Windows 7 as a Virt ual Machine 15

1.4.2.2 Inst all Windows 7 as a VM 27

1.4.3 Dual Boot 34

1.4.4 Inst all Windows from Scratch 41

x i Cont ent s

1.5 Use Virt ual XP 45

1.5.1 Requirem ent s for XP m ode 45

1.5.2 Windows Virt ual PC feat ures for Windows XP Mode 46

1.5.3 Inst all and Use Virt ual XP Mode 47

1.6 Transfer Your Files from Your Old PC 50

1.7 About t he Windows Regist ry 53

1.7.1 What is t he Windows Regist ry? 53

1.7.2 Access t he Windows Regist ry Edit or 54

1.7.3 Add Keys or Values 54

1.7.4 Back up t he Regist ry 56

1.8 About t he Group Policy Edit or 56

1.8.1 Access t he Group Policy Edit or 57

1.8.2 Work wit h t he Group Policy Edit or 58

1.9 You Are Ready t o Begin 59

2 Back up Your Dat a 60

2.1 Back up and Restore 61

2.1.1 Launch Backup and Rest ore 61

2.1.2 Back up Your Files 61

2.1.3 Rest oring Your Files 66

2.2 Back Up and Restore t he Regist ry 67

2.2.1 Back up t he Regist ry 67

2.2.2 Rest ore the Regist ry 67

2.3 Creat e a Syst em Recovery Disc 69

2.4 Recovering Lost Dat a on Your Drive 72

3 Securit y 73

3.1 Choose an Ant i- virus Program 73

3.2 Ant i- spyware Soft ware 74

3.3 Firewalls 74

3.4 Add Tak e Ownership t o Cont ex t Menu 75

3.5 Encrypt your USB Drive’s Dat a 76

3.5.1 Download TrueCrypt 77

3.5.2 Encrypt part of your USB drive 79

3.5.3 Verify Your Encrypt ed Drive Work s 80

3.6 Prot ect Your Dat a in a Hidden Cont ainer 81

3.7 Max im ize Privacy: Browser Ad Block ing 87

3.7.1 Int ernet Ex plorer 8 88

3.7.2 Mozilla Firefox 89

3.7.3 Google Chrom e 90

3.7.4 Opera 91

3.7.5 Safari 91

x iii Cont ent s

3.8 Max im ize Privacy: Windows Media Player 12 92

3.8.1 Configuring Privacy When Set t ing up WMP12 for t he First Tim e 92

3.8.2 Configuring Privacy aft er WMP12 is Set Up 95

4 Windows 7’s New Feat ures 99

4.1 Libraries 99

4.2 AeroSnap and AeroPeek 101

4.2.1 AeroSnap 101

4.2.2 AeroPeek 103

4.3 Federat ed Search 104

4.4 Im provem ent s in User Account Cont rol 105

4.5 Bit Lock er To Go and Biom et ric 107

4.5.1 Bit Lock er To Go 108

4.5.2 Bit Lock er Biom et ric 118

4.6 The Windows Hom eGroup 119

4.6.1 Set up Your Hom eGroup 120

4.6.2 Joining Your Hom eGroup wit h Another PC 123

4.6.3 Accessing Files Shared on t he Hom eGroup 126

4.7 Device St age 127

4.8 Act ion Cent er 128

4.8.1 Act ion Cent er – Securit y 130

4.8.2 Act ion Cent er – Maint enance 131

4.8.3 Act ion Cent er – Troubleshoot ing 132

4.9 Int ernet Ex plorer 8 137

4.9.1 Configuring IE8 for t he First Tim e 138

4.9.2 Web Slices 144

4.9.3 Accelerat ors 145

4.9.4 Quick Tabs 147

4.9.5 Im proved Search 148

4.9.6 InPrivat e Browsing 149

4.9.7 Autom at ic Crash Recovery 150

4.10 Geographic Locat ion 151

4.11 Conclusion 153

5 Syst em Maint enance and Managem ent 154

5.1 Aut om at ically Delet e Tem porary Files 154

5.1.1 Creat e t he Batch File 155

5.1.2 Autom at e t he Process 156

5.2 Clean up Windows 157

5.3 Rem ove Ent ries from Add/ Rem ove Program s 158

5.4 Rem ove Unwant ed Soft ware 161 5.5 Disable Mem ory Dum p Files and Save HDD Space 162

x v Cont ent s

5.6 Shrink/ Ex t end a Part it ion on Your Hard Drive 165

5.7 Schedule Defragm ent at ion 168

5.7.1 What does “Defragm ent ” m ean? 168

5.7.2 Sett ing up Scheduled Defragm ent at ion 169

5.8 Tak e Charge of Autom at ic Updat es 170

6 Increase Perform ance 173

6.1 Reduce Boot Tim e 174

6.1.1 Use St art up Delayer t o Reduce Boot Tim e 174

6.2 Rat e and Im prove Your Com put er’s Perform ance 177 6.3 Enhance SATA Disk Perform ance 179

6.4 Speed up Your Ex t ernal Hard Drives 181

6.5 Use ReadyBoost to Speed up Program s 183

6.4.1 What is ReadyBoost? 183

6.4.2 How Does ReadyBoost Work? 184

6.4.3 What are t he Requirem ent s for ReadyBoost? 184 6.4.4 How Can I get ReadyBoost Work ing for Me? 185

6.6 Mak e Windows Shut Down Fast er 188

6.7 Run Mem ory Diagnost ic Tool 190

7 Cust om ize Your St art Menu and Desk t op 195

7.1 Custom ize Your St art Menu 196

7.1.1 Cust om izing t he Right - hand Panel 196

7.1.2 Cust om izing t he Program s List 199

7.2 Change St art Menu Power But t on Act ion 203

7.3 Change Your Account Pict ure 204

7.4 Custom ize Desk t op Icons 207

7.5 Rem ove Shortcut Overlay Icon 212

7.6 Custom ize Your Mouse 213

7.6.1 Set the Mouse But tons 213

7.6.2 Set Mouse Point er Opt ions 215

7.6.3 Set Scroll Wheel Opt ions 216

7.7 Add an OS X Style Dock t o Your Desk t op 218

7.8 Custom ize t he Task bar 219

7.8.1 Move the Task bar 219

7.8.2 Resize t he Task bar 220

7.8.3 Auto- hide t he Task bar 221

7.9 Rest ore t he Quick Launch Toolbar 222

7.10 Add Ex t ra Clock s 225

8 Wallpapers, Them es, and Screensavers 229

8.1 Change Your Desk t op Wallpaper 230

8.2 Mak e Your Wallpaper More Funct ional 233

x vii Cont ent s

8.3 Shuffle Desk t op Back grounds 234

8.4 Act ivat e Hidden Regional Them es 235

8.5 Get More Them es 240

8.6 Save Your Set t ings as a Them e 241

8.7 Choose a Screensaver 243

8.8 Recom m ended Screensavers 245

8.8.1 Photo/ Video Slideshow Screensaver 245

8.8.2 Other Recom m ended Screensavers 248

9 Cust om ize Windows Ex plorer 249

9.1 Set Views for all Folders 249

9.2 Set up Short cut s t o Com m on Folders 252

9.2.1 Adding Short cut s t o t he Short cut Menu 252

9.2.2 Rem ove Shortcut s from t he Shortcut Menu 253

9.3 Select Mult iple Files wit h Check box es 254

9.4 Custom ize Folder Icons 256

9.5 Set AutoPlay Default s 260

10 Work Efficient ly 262

10.1 Windows 7 Short cut Keys 262

10.2 General Windows Short cut Keys 264

10.2.1 Single Keys 265

10.2.2 Ct rl- Key Short cut s 266

10.2.3 Shift Key Short cut s 267

10.2.4 Alt Key Short cut s 268

10.3 Windows Phot o Gallery Shortcut Keys 269

10.3.1 General Shortcut Keys 269

10.3.2 Short cut Keys When Work ing wit h Videos 271

10.4 Microsoft Word Short cut Keys 273

10.5 Remot e Desk t op Short cut Keys 278

10.6 Useful Windows Com m ands 280

10.6.1 Windows Environm ent Cont rols 280

10.6.2 Consoles, Program s et c 281

10.7 Windows Shell Folder Com m ands 290

10.7.1 Personal Folders 291

10.7.2 User Folders 292

10.7.3 Syst em Folders 294

10.7.4 Applicat ions 297

10.7.5 Int ernet Ex plorer 298

10.8 Sync Syst em Clock wit h Int ernet Tim e 299

11 Organize Your Files 302

11.1 Autom at ically Move Files from Your Desk top 302

x ix Cont ent s

11.2 Use Nam ing Convent ions to Organize Your Dat a

303

11.3 Batch Renam e Your Files 306

11.3.1 D- File MU Feat ures 307

11.4 Relocat e Personal Dat a Folders 307

11.5 Organize the Search Index 311

11.6 Index Zip File Cont ent s for Searching 314

11.7 Scan Your Drive for Duplicat e Files 316

11.7.1 Easy Duplicat e Finder Feat ures 316

Glossary 318

Appendices 322

Appendix A: Version Hist ory 323

Appendix B: Cont act Me 325

Appendix C: Creat e a Syst em Rest ore Point 326

Creat e a Syst em Rest ore Point 326

Rest ore t o a Previous Rest ore Point 329

Appendix D: Launch Windows Regist ry Editor 333

Appendix E: Back up t he Windows Regist ry 335

Appendix F: Burn Dat a t o CD/ DVD/ Bluray 337

Appendix G: Burn an ISO Im age t o a Disc 343

Burn an ISO to Disc in Windows XP or Vist a 343

Burn an ISO to Disc in Windows 7 349 Appendix H: Boot from a CD or DVD 352 Appendix I: Creat e a Part it ion wit h GPart ed 353 Appendix J: Change t he Default Program t o Handle a File Type 355 Index 358

Introduction

Windows 7 is Microsoft ’s newest operat ing syst em If you are look ing to add a personal t ouch to your inst allat ion of Windows 7, t his book will help you get st art ed

There are t housands of cust om izat ions you can apply and

t his pock et guide only scrat ches t he surface As always,

I’ve writ t en t his book so anyone can pick it up and work

t hrough it

I recom m end you begin by reading t he first chapter—Get

St art ed; t his chapt er will give you a good foundat ion for

x x i Int roduct ion

t he rest of t he book A basic k nowledge of how Windows work s is required t o follow m ost of t he sect ions; however,

if you are very new wit h com put ers, I am confident you will learn a great am ount as you go through this book—t ak ing

t hings one st ep at a t im e

Once you have read t he Get St art ed sect ion, you’re ready

t o ex plore t he rest of t he book and personalize your

m achine t o m at ch your st yle I’m sure t here’s som et hing here for everyone; t ak e a browse t hrough t he Cont ent spage and see what st rik es your int erest You do not need

t o read t his book in order; feel free t o ex plore

If you have quest ions or feedback , head t o t he Cont act Mesect ion at t he end of t his book and get in touch wit h m e

If t his version of t he book seem s a lit t le dat ed, head t o Windows Guides for an updat ed version

I began writ ing t his book as soon as t he public bet a cam e out I felt t his was a good t im e t o st art gett ing fam iliar wit h t he feat ures t hat would soon be ready wit h t he

released version of t he operat ing syst em The book is now considered com plet e as Windows 7 is now ret ail

Notational Conventions

In t his guide, I have used t hese not at ional conventions:

It alic: Tex t from t he current dialogue you are working wit h

Bold: t he nam e of a k eyboard k ey

: something you t ype as shown, e.g.,

Unless ot herwise specified, you can use uppercase or

lowercase let t er Not e t hat som e URLs ex t end over m ult iple lines in t his guide; when you t ype t hem , do not insert

spaces bet ween part s of t he URL

Click : move t he cursor t o t he referenced it em and press

t he left m ouse but t on

Press: push on a k eyboard k ey

Select : choose from a list

Blue Link s: Link s t o ex t ernal websit es

Green Link s: Link s t o navigat e wit hin this book

x x iii Int roduct ion

Additional Help

I’ve organized t he following resources t o help you use t his book and im prove your sk ills wit h and k nowledge of Windows 7:

• Glossary: Com m on t erm s are ex plained here

• Appendices: Com m on t ask s are t aught here

• Index: Search t he book and find relevant inform at ion

• Windows 7 Forum: Meet Windows 7 enthusiast s and get your quest ions answered

• Windows 7 Resources: Get t he lat est t ips and guides here

• Cont act Me: Get in t ouch wit h m e if you have quest ions

1 Get Started

Before you get st art ed wit h t his book , t here are a f ew quest ions you should ask yourself:

• Should I inst all Windows 7 and st ill k eep Vist a XP

on m y com put er?

• What version of Windows 7 should I use?

• Should I upgrade or do a clean inst allat ion?

• Should I use t he 32 or 64 bit version of Windows 7?

This chapt er addresses t hese quest ions and helps you get

t he answers t hat best suit your needs

In t he lat t er half of t his chapt er, you’ll learn about t he Windows Regist ry and Group Policy Edit or, which are referenced t hroughout t his book Enjoy work ing through

t his book and rem em ber: More is less when you cust om ize your syst em ; don’t t ry t o change every last t hing Mak e changes t hat look good and k eep your syst em clean and

t idy

1 1 Windows 7 System Requirements

The m inim um syst em requirem ent s t o run Windows 7 are:

• 1 gigahert z (GHz) or fast er 32- bit (x 86) or 64 bit (x 64.)

• 1 gigabyt e (GB) RAM (32- bit ) or 2 GB RAM (64- bit )

• 16 GB available hard disk space (32- bit ) or 20 GB (64- bit )

• Direct X 9 graphics device wit h WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Addit ional requirem ent s t o use cert ain feat ures:

• Int ernet access (fees m ay apply.)

• Depending on resolut ion, video playback m ay

require addit ional m em ory and advanced graphics hardware

• For som e Windows Media Cent er funct ionality a TV

t uner and addit ional hardware m ay be requir ed

• Windows Touch and Tablet PCs require specific

hardware

• Music and sound require audio out put

Product funct ionalit y and graphics m ay vary based on your syst em configurat ion Som e feat ures m ay require advanced

or addit ional hardware

I’ve t est ed Windows 7 wit h 512MB of RAM and found it t o work well; however, I do not recom m end running wit h such low m em ory—unless you really have t o

1 2 Which Version of Windows 7 ?

Windows 7 is available in four edit ions Windows 7 St art er

is not sold individually, so I will not ex plain it s feat ures I personally recom m end Windows 7 Hom e Prem ium as t his

is suit able for hom e use and will provide you wit h m ost of

t he funct ionalit y needed t o do everyt hing in t his book

However, if you want all t he feat ures, you’ll need Windows

7 Ult im at e

1 2 1 Buy Your Copy of Windows 7

Upgrade Full Version

5 1 Get St art ed

Upgrade Full Version

Upgrade Full Version

Microsoft com piled a feat ure chart, which is included in

t his guide for your convenience:

7 1 Get St art ed

1 3 Windows 7 3 2 or 6 4 - bit

When deciding t o m ove up t o a 64- bit operat ing syst em , you should first consider what 64- bit get s you Knowing what soft ware runs on 64- bit should influence your

decision; you will see no advant age if you are running bit soft ware on a 64- bit OS You also lose t he abilit y t o run 16- bit soft ware, which shouldn’t be a problem unless you rely on older soft ware, such as old work soft ware or

32-hom e- m ade pack ages you haven’t yet updat ed

1 3 1 What Does 6 4 - Bit 7 Get Me?

More bit s get s you access t o m ore m em ory; t he processor inside your PC com m unicat es wit h your syst em mem ory (RAM) wit h num eric addressing Thus, t he m ax im um

am ount of m em ory a 32- bit processor can address is 4 gigabyt es Newer 64- bit processors—not t o m ent ion t he 64- bit operat ing syst em s t hat run on t hem —can address 17,179,869,184 gigabyt es (16 ex abyt es) of RAM Windows

NT, released in 1993, was Microsoft ’s first fully 32- bit

operat ing syst em ; however, it t ook eight years before t he plat form , which had since evolved into Windows 2000 and

t hen XP, becam e m ainst ream (Yes, Windows 9x ran 32- bit applicat ions, but it was a hybrid OS t hat ran on a 16- bit

DOS foundat ion, which was one of t he reasons it was so unst able.) 64- bit Windows becam e a realit y in XP, and

Vist a was Microsoft ’s first serious at t em pt t o m ake 64- bit com put ing m ainst ream I am sure m ore people will use

Windows 7 64 bit because of t he increasing dem ands for

m ore RAM The quest ion is: how m ainst ream is 64 bit ?

1 3 2 How Mainstream is 6 4 bit?

While 64- bit Windows 7 can run m ost 32- bit applicat ions wit hout a problem , it ’s not com pat ible wit h 32- bit

hardware drivers or 32- bit ut ilit ies lik e Windows

ex t ensions (e.g., cont ex t m enu add- ons.) This m eans you need a nat ive 64- bit driver for every device on your PC;

finding support for all your hardware can be a bit of a

challenge, at least on older com put ers

Now, 64- bit soft ware running on 64- bit Windows has been

k nown to run as m uch as 10% fast er, which illust rat es t he

9 1 Get St art ed

ot her reason—aside from m em ory addressing—t hat people find 64- bit 7 alluring Just be prepared for lack lust er indust ry support , at least for t he nex t few years unt il Microsoft releases a 64- bit - only OS

1 4 Install Windows 7

Now you’ve decided which version of Windows 7 to use, you should check your syst em ’s com pat ibilit y online If your PC is com pat ible, you have four opt ions:

1 Upgrade t o 7 from Windows Vist a

2 Inst all Windows 7 as a Virt ual Machine

3 Dual Boot

4 Inst all Windows from Scrat ch

You’ll learn how t o do each of t hese in t his sect ion

1 4 1 Upgrade to 7 from Windows Vista

Upgrading is t he easiest opt ion of t he t hree However, upgrading can t ak e a long t im e To upgrade t o Windows 7 from Windows Vist a

1 Insert t he Windows 7 DVD int o your DVD- ROM

drive

2 Click Run set up.ex e from t he Aut oplay menu

3 Click Inst all now on t he Inst all Windows screen

11 1 Get St art ed

4 Set up will begin by copying files t o your com put er

5 I recom m end you get Windows updat es online

before upgrading Windows This will ensure great er securit y and com pat ibilit y

13 1 Get St art ed

6 Accept t he license t erm s and click Next

7 Now click Upgrade and follow t he inst ruct ions You

m ay get a com pat ibility report , which will help you det erm ine what m ay not work properly aft er t he

upgrade

15 1 Get St art ed

1 4 2 Install Windows 7 as a Virtual Machine

If you would lik e t o use Windows 7 and st ill use Windows Vist a or XP, reboot ing your com put er every t im e can be a pain A virt ual m achine (VM) can be used t o sim ulat e hardware and run Windows (or any operat ing system ) wit hin Windows

1 4 2 1 Install Virtual Box

Virt ual box is a VM host t hat facilit ies in VM creat ion and deploym ent To inst all virt ual box :

1 Download Virt ual Box

2 Inst all Virt ual Box and ensure all opt ions are

select ed via t he Cust om Set up

3 You’ll be ask ed whet her you want t o inst all drivers;

t hese are essent ial and should be inst alled

17 1 Get St art ed

4 Open Virt ual Box and click New

5 On t he Virt ual Machine Wizard, click Next