Great Tweaks For People Upgrading to Windows 7 on 10/22
Windows 7 is going to be released this week, and it’s a huge upgrade from previous versions of Windows. The big question for us geeks, however, is “Will all of my favorite tweaks still work?”
This list is not comprehensive by any means—if you have a favorite tweak that you like to use, leave us a comment and we’ll see about adding it to the list.
Add Defrag to the Right-Click Menu
Want to be able to quickly defrag a drive whenever you want? You can use a little hack to add the Defragment option to the context menu for each drive. It’ll open up the command prompt, and start the defrag process.
Add Defragment to the Right-Click Menu for a Drive
Create Shortcuts to Lock the Screen, Shutdown, Restart
It doesn’t matter where Microsoft puts the shutdown buttons, people seem to still want to have another way to do it. The good news is that all the same shortcuts that worked in previous versions of Windows will still work in Windows 7.
Create a Shortcut for Locking Your Computer Screen in Windows 7 or Vista
Create Shutdown / Restart / Lock Icons in Windows 7 or Vista
Create a Shortcut to Toggle the Desktop Icons
Sure, you can easily head into the desktop context menu to toggle the icons on or off, but it’s a lot simpler to use a hotkey, or stick an icon into the Quick Launch (which you can get back on Windows 7 with a little trick). This how-to teaches you how to use a little utility that toggles the icons for you.
Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Turn the Desktop Icons On or Off
Disable Aero (to Speed Up Video Games)
If all you do is use your computer for gaming, you might not even care about using Aero. Personally, I don’t know why you’d want to run Windows 7 or Vista without Aero—but if that’s what you want, it’s easy enough to do.
Disable Aero on Windows 7 or Vista
Mount an ISO
So this one isn’t so much a tweak as an additional piece of software—but if you do a lot of geeky stuff on your PC, you’re going to need to be able to mount an ISO image. My favorite tool, by far, is VirtualCloneDrive—it’s just the simplest possible utility that you can get. All you need to do is double-click on an ISO to mount it.
Mount an ISO image in Windows 7 or Vista
Disable those Stupid Gadgets
Windows 7 moves the gadgets onto the desktop, instead of having them on a sidebar like Vista did—but the net effect is the same: it’s all pointless! You can easily disable them in Windows 7, just like you could in Windows Vista.
Disable Sidebar / Desktop Gadgets on Windows 7
Enable Mapping to Hidden Shares
If you did much networking on previous versions of Windows, you probably know about the C$ share that gives you access to the whole drive. Sadly, those shares don’t work since Vista, at least by default. There’s a simple tweak that you can do that will re-enable them for business, however.
Enable Mapping to \\Hostname\C$ Share on Windows 7 or Vista
Make Windows Log On Automatically
If you are the only one that is using your machine at your house, logging on can really be a drag. Thankfully every version of Windows since forever has let you do a simple tweak to make it automatically log on for you. Just make sure your door is locked.
Make Windows 7 or Vista Log On Automatically
Use Compatibility Mode
Does your favorite XP application have problems working in Windows 7? You can often make them work anyway by using Compatibility mode to trick the application into thinking it’s running on a previous version of Windows. Tip: This really helps when you’re trying to get a video game working.
Using Windows 7 or Vista Compatibility Mode
Add Defrag to the Right-Click Menu
Want to be able to quickly defrag a drive whenever you want? You can use a little hack to add the Defragment option to the context menu for each drive. It’ll open up the command prompt, and start the defrag process.
Add Defragment to the Right-Click Menu for a Drive
Create Shortcuts to Lock the Screen, Shutdown, Restart
It doesn’t matter where Microsoft puts the shutdown buttons, people seem to still want to have another way to do it. The good news is that all the same shortcuts that worked in previous versions of Windows will still work in Windows 7.
Create a Shortcut for Locking Your Computer Screen in Windows 7 or Vista
Create Shutdown / Restart / Lock Icons in Windows 7 or Vista
Create a Shortcut to Toggle the Desktop Icons
Sure, you can easily head into the desktop context menu to toggle the icons on or off, but it’s a lot simpler to use a hotkey, or stick an icon into the Quick Launch (which you can get back on Windows 7 with a little trick). This how-to teaches you how to use a little utility that toggles the icons for you.
Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Turn the Desktop Icons On or Off
Disable Aero (to Speed Up Video Games)
If all you do is use your computer for gaming, you might not even care about using Aero. Personally, I don’t know why you’d want to run Windows 7 or Vista without Aero—but if that’s what you want, it’s easy enough to do.
Disable Aero on Windows 7 or Vista
Mount an ISO
So this one isn’t so much a tweak as an additional piece of software—but if you do a lot of geeky stuff on your PC, you’re going to need to be able to mount an ISO image. My favorite tool, by far, is VirtualCloneDrive—it’s just the simplest possible utility that you can get. All you need to do is double-click on an ISO to mount it.
Mount an ISO image in Windows 7 or Vista
Disable those Stupid Gadgets
Windows 7 moves the gadgets onto the desktop, instead of having them on a sidebar like Vista did—but the net effect is the same: it’s all pointless! You can easily disable them in Windows 7, just like you could in Windows Vista.
Disable Sidebar / Desktop Gadgets on Windows 7
Enable Mapping to Hidden Shares
If you did much networking on previous versions of Windows, you probably know about the C$ share that gives you access to the whole drive. Sadly, those shares don’t work since Vista, at least by default. There’s a simple tweak that you can do that will re-enable them for business, however.
Enable Mapping to \\Hostname\C$ Share on Windows 7 or Vista
Make Windows Log On Automatically
If you are the only one that is using your machine at your house, logging on can really be a drag. Thankfully every version of Windows since forever has let you do a simple tweak to make it automatically log on for you. Just make sure your door is locked.
Make Windows 7 or Vista Log On Automatically
Use Compatibility Mode
Does your favorite XP application have problems working in Windows 7? You can often make them work anyway by using Compatibility mode to trick the application into thinking it’s running on a previous version of Windows. Tip: This really helps when you’re trying to get a video game working.
Using Windows 7 or Vista Compatibility Mode
Add Any Folder To Your Taskbar
This tweak has worked on every version of Windows for a very long time, and even with the new taskbar in Windows 7, it still works perfectly. Just right-click on the taskbar, choose Toolbars –> New Toolbar, and pick the folder you’d like to add. You can make them icon-only, remove the label, or make them use large icons. You can even use this trick to add the Quick Launch folder back to Windows 7.
Add “My Computer” to Your Windows 7 / Vista Taskbar
Add “Take Ownership” to the Context Menu
If you were rocking an administrator account on Windows XP, you pretty much had access to do anything you wanted, but since Vista, Windows made it extremely difficult to change files and folders in any of the system directories. To easily solve this problem, there’s a simple little registry hack that will add a “Take Ownership” item to the context menu, after which you can rename, delete, or do whatever you’d like.
Add “Take Ownership” to Explorer Right-Click Menu in Win 7 or Vista
Add Copy/Move to the Context Menu
Sure, there are loads of ways to copy or move files around in Windows, but there’s one simple little registry hack that will add a “Copy To folder” and “Move To folder” option to the context menu. Once you’ve added them to the menu, you can pop up a dialog box that lets you easily choose a folder to move or copy the items to—it’s one of those great little hacks that’s been around forever, and still works in Windows 7.
Add Copy To / Move To on Windows 7 or Vista Right-Click Menu
Disable Shortcut Icon Arrows
This is one of those little annoyances that doesn’t really affect functionality at all, but if you are worried about making your system look just right, you might want to get rid of the unseemly arrows that show up on any shortcut. There’s loads of different methods to get rid of these icons—back in XP you could just use Tweak UI, but starting with Windows Vista you needed another application. The Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover still works in Windows 7, and is just about the simplest way to get rid of the arrows. Why this setting isn’t built into Windows, I just don’t know.
Disable Shortcut Icon Arrow Overlay in Windows 7 or Vista
Disable the Caps Lock Key
The Caps Lock key is by far my least favorite key on the keyboard—at least the scroll lock key doesn’t interfere with my typing when I hit it by accident. Thankfully it’s easy enough to get rid of with a simple registry hack, or you can map any key to any key using an easy freeware utility. If you’d rather not disable it, you can instead use Caps Lock as a keyboard-friendly navigation tool or turn it into a dedicated minimize button.
Disable Caps Lock Key in Windows 7 or Vista
Stop Windows Update from Automatically Restarting Your PC
This is my personal pet peeve with Windows—you are right in the middle of a few dozen things, with a ton of applications open on your screen, and you come back to your computer only to find that your PC has restarted because of Windows Update decided that rebooting that instant was more important than all that work you had on your screen. If you are sitting in front of your PC, you can always temporarily disable the automatic reboot, but there’s another registry hack that will prevent it from happening in the first place.
Prevent Windows Update from Forcibly Rebooting Your Computer
Stop Losing the Sleep/Shutdown Button to Windows Update
So you’re rushing to finish up that TPS report so you can duck out early and avoid Lumberg asking you to work on the weekend, only to realize that Windows hijacked your Sleep/Shutdown button and is now slowly installing updates for the next twenty minutes or so. Thankfully there’s another simple registry hack that will prevent Windows from changing out your regular shutdown button with the install updates variety.
Stop Windows Update from Hijacking the Sleep Button
Enable Remote Desktop
Remote Desktop doesn’t come with all the flavors of Windows–you can only use it if you are running the Ultimate, Pro, or Business editions. If you are using one of those versions and want an excellent way to control the PC in the other room, Remote Desktop is where it’s at—in Windows 7 or Vista it will even enable Aero through the Remote Desktop session. To enable for yourself, simply head into System properties, choose Remote Settings, and then change the radio button to enable it.
Turn on Remote Desktop in Windows 7 or Vista
Disable Sticky / Filter Keys Dialogs
Have you ever been playing a game, or doing something else that required pressing the Shift or Ctrl keys a bunch of times, and then had the “Do you want to turn on Sticky Keys?” question pop up on your screen? It might be a great feature for some people, but it’s not useful for the rest of it. Thankfully you can disable the keyboard shortcuts entirely by heading into the Control Panel’s Ease of Access center and looking under the keyboard section.
Disable the Irritating Sticky / Filter Keys Popup Dialogs
Disable Windows Explorer Click Sounds
Have you ever noticed that every time you click on anything in Windows Explorer, it makes an annoying clicking sound? If you do a lot of file management, this sound can quickly drive you batty. Thankfully there’s a really simple way to disable it—just head into the Sounds panel and find the item called “Start Navigation” in the list. Once you’ve disabled that sound, you should be finally free of the irritation.
Turn Off Windows Explorer Click Sounds in Windows 7 or Vista
Disable User Account Control’s Annoying Prompts
This is the one area where Windows 7 makes it so much easier to get rid of those annoying prompts—you can simply head into Control Panel, find the UAC settings panel, and then drag the slider to fit the level of annoyance you feel like dealing with. If you’d rather keep UAC enabled but want to prevent the prompts for a particular application, you can always create shortcuts that bypass the UAC prompts with a simple task scheduler trick.
Disable User Account Control (UAC) the Easy Way on Win 7 or Vista
So what are your favorite Windows tweaks? You can leave your comments here, or join in the discussion over at Lifehacker.
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