Build your own internet Search Connector: Windows 7

Windows 7 has a very useful new feature called a search Connector that lets you search through a Web site from right inside Windows Explorer. With it, you type in a search term and select the search Connector for the site you want to search, Windows Explorer searches the website without having to open the Internet Explorer and the result appear right inside Windows Explorer. Click any of the result to head there using your default Web Browser.

Normally, you’ll need to get each search connector from the Web site through which you want to search, and very few connectors are available, but you can create your own by this simple trick. Sites normally stick to OpenSearch standards in order for their connectors to work.

The search connector uses Windows Live search as a kind of go-between. You Don’t need to know any code for this, Just follow these steps:

1. Copy the following text and paste it into notepad. The text you will need to change is in bold:

2. Save the file in notepad, choose UTF-8 from the Encoding drop down list near the bottom of the Save As screen and give it an .osdx extension.

3. A sample search connector (searching Wikipedia) has the above modified code as:

4. In Windows Explorer, right click the .osdx file and select Create Search Connector. The Search Connector will be created.

5. You can now use your Search Connector. To use it go to Your_User_Name –> Searches –> Connector.

Windows 7 Explorer Tips: Use Check boxes to select multiple files

Windows Explorer is the heart and soul of Windows interface ad overall it works quite well but you can make it much better.

In order to select multiple files for tasks such as copying, moving, deleting, in Windows Explorer, you generally use the keyboard and mouse, CTRL-clicking every file you want to select. But if you are a mouse centric, there is a way to select multiple files in Windows 7 using only your mouse, via check boxes. To do it:

1. In Windows Explorer, click organize, and then select ‘Folder and Search Options.’

2. Click the View Tab.

3. In Advanced Settings, scroll down and then check the box next to ‘Use check box to select items’ and click OK.

4. From now on, when you would hover your mouse over a file in windows explorer, a checkbox will appear next to i; click it to select the file. Once the file is selected, the checkbox remains next to it. If you uncheck it, the box will disappear when you move your mouse away. For details look at the screenshot below:

Get a Power Efficiency Report: Windows 7

This is a must if you are using your laptop and you are puzzled that why your laptop’s battery drains so fast. Windows 7 includes a built in hidden tool that will examine your laptop’s energy use and then make recommendations on how to improve it. To use it follw these steps:

1. Run the command Prompt as an Administrator. To do this , press Start button   and type cmd and when the cmd icon    appears, just right click on it and choose “Run as Administrator” as shown below:

 

2. Provide the confirmation and then in the command prompt type  powercfg –energy –output \Energy\energy_report.html

Note: Here there is a space between powercfg and –energy and similar space exists between –energy and output and also with –output and \Energy\energy_report.html. Here ‘Energy’ is the name of the folder which is present at C: drive and Energy_report.html is the name of the file that would be generated after windows check the power settings.

Make sure that you don’t type the complete path, like if you are making a folder ‘ABC’ at root of C: drive, then make sure to mention the name of the output folder as \ABC and not as C:\ABC, otherwise Windows would interpret the output folder as C:\C:\ABC and not C:\ABC. For further reference see the figure:

After the efficiency report is generated, the Command Prompt will notify you to see the energy report at the pre-set location. From this energy report, you can follow the recommendations for ways to improve the power performance of your computer.

Force activation of Aero in Windows 7

If you are experiencing problems with activating and run Aero in windows 7,you can try the Aero Peek hack for Windows 7. Read more to learn how. 

1. Open the registry (Write regedit in run)

2. Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ DWM
If the DWM key is not found in the registry, right click on the Windows folder and pick New -> Key and calll it DWM.
3. In the second detail window to the right, a new DWORD (32-bit value) has to be made, with the name UseMachineCheck, this has to be set to 0.
4. In the same detail window to the right a new DWORD (32-bit value) is created with the name Blur, and this has to be set to 0 as well.
5. In the end a new DWORD (32-bit value) has to be made with the name Animations, this again has to be set to 0.
6. Restart Desktop Window Manager Session Manager in Services in Controlpanel: Write services.msc in the Run field (windows button + r) or use the following commands in a command prompt with administrator rights.

net stop uxsms
net start uxsms
7. You can now try to activate and use Windows Aero in Windows 7. Restart the computer if needed.

Speed Up Windows 7 Shutdown Time

1. Open the registry editor (enter regedit into search field)
2. Go to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control”
3. Lower the value (12000 is the default value = 12 seconds) to a value of your choice

Speed up Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnail Preview

1. Click on Start, enter “regedit” into the search field.
2. Goto: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse

3. Double-click on “MouseHoverTime” and change the value to 100 or lower:

Change the mouse hover time to 100 or lower

4. Your thumbnail previews should appear a lot faster now.

How To Increase Your Internet Speed By 20%

If you use Windows XP Professional then it is possible to squeeze an extra 20% out of your internet connection. By default Windows XP Pro holds back 20% of your Internet speed for various services like windows update and spyware checks.If you want to tap into this locked speed then make the following changes:

1. Go to Start-> Run-> and type gpedit.msc
2. Expand the Administrative Templates branch
3. Expand the Network tab
4. Highlight QoS Packet Scheduler
5. Click on Limit Reservable Bandwidth and check the enabled box
6. Then Change the Bandwidth limit % to 0 % 

Once you have done this click apply and restart your PC. After rebooting you should see a noticeable improvement in your net speed.

New GUI: Windows 8

Multiple Logins in Yahoo Messenger without software

1) Go to Start
2) Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER-->Software-->Yahoo-->Pager-->Test
3)ON the Right side if the page , Right click and choose new Dword Value.
4) Rename it as " Plural ".
5)Double click and assign a decimal value of 1.
6) Now close registry and restart yahoo messenger and try Multiple Login.

How to turn your Windows 7 laptop into a wireless hotspot

Sharing your Windows internet connection via software has traditionally been a tricky business. There are programs that can help you do it, but they're often awkward to set up, and prone to complicated security and reliability issues, so most people don't even try. But that could all be about to change, thanks to a new Windows 7 feature called Virtual Wi-Fi.

The idea is a simple one: the operating system can virtualise any compatible wireless adapter, to make it appear as though you've as many additional adapters as you need. The effect is dramatic. Once it's set up, then any Wi-Fi compatible device that can connect to you - another desktop, laptop, or an iPod Touch, say - will immediately be able to get online, by sharing your internet connection through a duplicate of your wireless adapter. Getting this working isn't too difficult, either, as long as you can get over the first hurdle: finding a virtual Wi-Fi-compatible driver for your wireless adapter.

Intel's latest 32-bit and 64-bit drivers now include support, as do various others for Atheros, Broadcom, Realtek and other big players, but these don't apply to every chipset. Check the support site for your wireless adapter to see what's available. If you're in luck and manage to find and install an up-to-date Windows 7 driver for your adapter, then the next step is to set it up, and for that you'll need an elevated command prompt. Click Start, type CMD, right-click the Cmd.exe link and select "Run as Administrator".

Now type the following command:

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=MyNet key=MyPassword

and press [Enter]. Replace "MyNet" with the name you'd like to use for your custom network, and "MyPassword" with a password that's a little harder to guess.

Still at the command line, type

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

and press [Enter] to fire up the virtual adapter.

Now click Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Centre > Change Adapter Settings, right-click your internet connection and select Properties. Click the Sharing tab, check "Allow other network users to connect...", choose your virtual Wi-Fi adaptor - and that's it.

Any nearby Wi-Fi enabled device should see a new network appear with the SSID you defined above. They'll be able to connect to it using your password, and can then immediately share your internet connection.

While it's worth knowing how to do this manually, if it's something you do often then you'll probably prefer a simpler solution.

You could speed things up a little by creating a batch file to run the netsh commands, perhaps, but for a really easy life we'd recommend you install Virtual Router. It's compact, free, and will automate the whole process for you with the minimum of hassle.

Hidden Themes for Windows 7

Windows 7 by default has only few themes available for customization. People who are not satisfied with these in build themes can get few more themes for Windows 7 which are actually hidden. These themes are available for certain regional countries such as Australia, Canada, Great Britain, United States and South Africa. These themes can be revealed and used by the following steps.

1. Open Windows Explorer and click Organize

2. Select Folder and Search Options and navigate to the View tab.

3. Select Show hidden files, folders and drivers and uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended). Click Yes, if prompted for confirmation.

4. Click OK and now browse to the folder: Windows\Globalization\MCT

5. There are five folders here with the name with format MCT-XX (where XX is AU, CA, GB, US, or ZA) which represents globalization settings for each region. Go into the folder that you want to activate its theme.

Note that AU, CA and ZA regions have the same themes.

6. Open the Theme folder inside the selected region folder.

7. Double click on the XX.theme file to apply the theme to the Windows 7 desktop system. Once a theme is executed and activated, the theme will be available and saved into Personalization options, so that user can select this theme directly from the personalization settings.

8. Now to go to Folder Options to reverse the first 5 steps to hide the hidden and protected system files and folders again.

9 Essential Tips To Speed Up Windows 7

The Microsoft Windows 7 operating system has been designed for delivering better speeds than its predecessors. However, as time passes by, the laptop/PC might tend to get slower. This is not exactly the fault of the OS. As the matter of fact, it is a common problem faced by many operating systems. The major reasons for this are accumulation of junk in the system or a highly stuffed hard drive or running of too many unnecessary services and programs. Here we shared a few essential tips that can help speed up Windows 7 performance on laptops or computers. Hope it helps!

 

1. Using minimal Visual Effects

Disabling certain (or all) visual effects can definitely enhance performance. To disable visual effects, do the following:

1. Press Windows key and while holding it down, press Pause/Break key.
2. In the window that appears, click on Advanced system settings in the left side pane.
3. In the Advanced tab, under Performance Section, click on Settings
4. In the Performance Options window (refer figure) that appears, under Visual Effects tab, disable the options that you do not need. Or simply selecting ‘Adjust for best performance‘ will disable all options.
5. After disabling the option, click Apply and then OK.

Doing the above might make the screen less attractive. But, the performance will surely get a boost.

 

2. Using minimal Sound Effects

For disabling sound effects, do the following:

1. Click Start. In the search box type mmsys.cpl and press Enter
2. In the Sound window (refer figure) that appears click on Sounds tab
3. Set the Sounds scheme to ‘No Sounds‘
4. You could set only the essential sounds if needed in the Program Events, by selecting the specific event and then choosing the sound from the Sounds drop-down menu below.
5. You can as well disable the "Play Windows Startup sound" option.
6. After the settings are done, click Apply and OK.

 

3. Run a trusted Anti-Virus program

Ensure that you have a good anti-virus software loaded on your laptop/computer. This will ensure that no malware or spyware gets planted in your system. Without such protection software, there are chances of third party malware and virus being installed or stored on your system, causing harmful effects and also eating up precious space.

 

4. Install only essential software

Ensure that you install only that software which you need. If you install any trial software and find out that you don’t really need it, uninstall and delete it immediately. Else, they might hog precious disk space, RAM and processor cycles. If you’ve installed a software, which you are unable to get rid of, and which is hampering the normal functioning of your laptop, then you might have to format your hard drive. Be aware that formatting your hard drive might wipe out all your data. Therefore it is best you take a back-up before going ahead with formatting.

 

5. Disable or make unneeded services Manual

Some processes and services, which might not really be necessary, are by default made to start automatically once the system starts up. They will consume RAM as well as the processor’s attention, slowing down other important tasks. It is best to disable them. For this, do the following:

1. Click Start. In the search box type services.msc and press Enter
2. Go to Services & Applications > Services. You’ll see the Services window (refer figure).
3. Right-click on a service that you wish to set to manual or disable. If the service is already started, Stop it first.
4. Once the service is stopped, again right-click on it and select Properties.
5. In the Startup type, you can either set the service to Manual, if you would be using it later, or Disable it, if not needed.
6. Once done, you can close the window.

 

6. Disabling Unwanted Start-up programs to speed up System Start-up

Some programs are set to start during system start-up. These might slow down the start-up process. Programs that are not really needed during start-up can be disabled. For this, do the following:

1. Click Start. In the search box type msconfig and press Enter.
2. In the System Configuration window (refer figure), go to Startup.
3. Uncheck the box next to those processes that are not important for start-up. This will disable them.
4. Once you’ve disabled the processes, click Apply and OK.

 

7. Clean up the hard drive

Remove unwanted files, like temp files, downloaded program files, recycle bin, etc. You could use Disk Cleanup option to do this, as follows:

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup
2. The system will first calculate how much space can be freed up this way. In the Disk Cleanup window (refer figure) that appears, select the files in that need to be deleted under the Files to delete list.
3. For deleting ‘System Restore‘ and ‘Shadow copy‘ files, click "Clean up system files" and then on "More Options" tab
4. Finally click OK. You’ll be prompted again before the deletion. Click Yes.

 

8. Enable Write caching on device

This is an option which allows the OS to flush changed data to the hard disk when the system is idle, so that performance is not affected when in use. For enabling this, do the following:

1. Press Windows key and while holding it down, press Pause/Break key.
2. In the window that appears, click on Device Manager in the left hand pane.
3. In the next window that appears, expand Disk drives.
4. The drop-down list will show the hard drive. Right-click on it and select Properties.
5. Click the Policies tab in the Device Properties window (refer figure).
6. Check the box next to "Enable write caching on the device"
7. You can as well check the box next to "Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device" and then click OK.

Note: However, there is one disadvantage in enabling these options – if there is a power outage or a system crash, data might be lost or corrupted. If you have a secondary power supply, like a UPS, you could go ahead with checking these options.

 

9. Perform Disk Defragmentation

When there is no sufficient space to store in a hard drive, the OS splits the file into parts and stores it in different areas on the hard drive. Defragmenting allows all these parts to be stored in contiguous memory locations. For defragmenting disk do the following:

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
2. In the window (refer figure) that appears, click on the drive that you want to defragment and then click Analyze disk.
3. This will estimate the time required for the process. When done click on Defragment disk.
4. Once done you can either View Report or click Close.

These pretty much sum up the small things that you can do, to make a big difference to your Windows 7′s performance. If you have some personal tips you’ve done yourself to improve the performances, we’d like to hear from you.

Windows 7 Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are most important for power computer users. If you want to increase your productivity then you must know all windows keyboard shortcut which is required to carry out your day to day computing activity. Windows Vista and XP have almost same keyboard shortcuts but microsoft latest operating system windows 7 has got many new keyboard shortcuts.

General Windows 7 Shortcuts

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Shortcut	Description
Win + UP Arrow	Maximize the current window
Win + Down Arrow	Restore down or minimize current windows
Win + Left Arrow	Dock the current window to the left half of the screen
Win + Right Arrow	Dock the current window to the right half of the screen
Win + [number]	Activate and run the program pinned on Windows 7 Taskbar, running program won’t be affected
Win + Home	Minimize all but the current window
Win + Space	Makes all windows transparent so you can see through to the desktop
Win + Pause/Break	Open System Properties
Win + Tab	Flip Aero 3D [press Tab to cycle between Windows]
Win + B	Move focus to notification tray (the right-most portion of the taskbar)
Win + D	Show/Hide desktop
Win + E	Windows Explorer is launched
Win + F	Search
Win + G	Bring all gadgets on top and foreground
Win + L	Lock Computer
Win + M	Minimize all windows
Win + P	Open the projection menu (generally used for laptops connected to projectors)
Win + R	Run Command is launched.
Win + S	OneNote Screen Clipping Tool
Win + T	Show preview thumbnail of running applications in Windows Taskbar one by one without mouse over
Win + X	Mobility Center
Win + #	Quick launch
Win + =	Magnifier
Win + [+/-]	Enables the magnifier and zooms in/out
Win + Shift + Up Arrow	Maximize vertical size
Win + Shift + Down Arrow	Restore vertical size
Win + Shift + Left Arrow	Jump to left monitor
Win + Shift + Right Arrow	Jump to right monitor
Win + Shift + M	Undo all window minimization
Win + Shift + T	Cycles backwards
Win + Ctrl + F	Opens the Active Directory Find Computers dialog
Ctrl + Right Arrow	Move the cursor to the beginning of the next word
Ctrl + Left Arrow	Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous word
Ctrl + Up Arrow	Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous paragraph
Ctrl + Down Arrow	Move the cursor to the beginning of the next paragraph
Ctrl + Click	A pinned taskbar icon to cycle through the program’s open windows (e.g. IE)
Ctrl + Win + Tab	Persistent flip 3D
Ctrl + Shift with an arrow key	Select a block of text
Ctrl with any arrow key + Spacebar	Select multiple individual items in a window or on the desktop
Ctrl + Shift + Esc	Open Task Manager directly
Ctrl + Shift + N	Create new folder

Shortcuts for Ease of Access

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Shortcut	Description
Right SHIFT for eight seconds	Turn Filter Keys on and off
Left ALT+left SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN (or PRTSCRN)	Turn High Contrast on or off
Left ALT+left SHIFT+NUM LOCK	Turn Mouse Keys on or off
SHIFT five times	Turn Sticky Keys on or off
NUM LOCK for five seconds	Open the Ease of Access Center
Win + U	Cycle through all open windows

Shortcuts for Windows Explorer

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Shortcut	Description
Alt + Left Arrow	Go back
Alt + Right Arrow	Go forward
Alt + Up Arrow	Go up a directory
Alt + Enter	Open the Properties window of the current selection
Alt + Spacebar	Open the shortcut menu for the active window
Alt + F4	Close the active window
Alt + Tab	Switch to previous active window
Alt + Esc	Cycle through all open windows
Alt + D	Move focus to address bar
Alt + P	Show/hide the preview panel
Ctrl + N	Open a new window
Ctrl + Mousewheel	Change the view type (extra large, small, list view, detail, etc.)
Num Lock + Asterisk (*) on numeric keypad	Display all subfolders under the selected folder
Num Lock + Plus Sign (+) on numeric keypad	Display the contents of the selected folder
Num Lock + Minus Sign (+) on numeric keypad	Collapse the selected folder

Shortcuts for Taskbar Modifiers

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Shortcut	Description
Shift + Click on icon	Open a new instance
Middle click on icon	Open a new instance
Ctrl + Shift + Click on icon	Open a new instance with Admin privileges

Shortcuts for Dialog Box

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Shortcut	Description
Ctrl + Tab	Move forward through tabs
Ctrl + Shift + Tab	Move back through tabs
Shift + Tab	Move back through options
Tab	Move forward through options
Alt + underlined letter	Perform the command (or select the option) that goes with that letter
Enter	Replaces clicking the mouse for many selected commands
Spacebar	Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check box
Arrow keys	Select a button if the active option is a group of option buttons
Backspace	Open a folder one level up if a folder is selected in the Save As or Open dialog box

Shortcuts for Photo Gallery

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Shortcut	Description
Ctrl + F	Open the Fix pane
Ctrl + P	Print the selected picture
Ctrl + I	Open or close the Details pane
Ctrl + Period (.)	Rotate the picture clockwise
Ctrl + Comma (,)	Rotate the picture counter-clockwise
Ctrl + Mouse scroll wheel	Change the size of the picture thumbnail
Ctrl + B	Best fit
Ctrl + E	Search for an item
Alt + Left Arrow	Go back
Alt + Right Arrow	Go forward
Plus Sign (+)	Zoom in or resize the picture thumbnail
Minus Sign (-)	Zoom out or resize the picture thumbnail
Shift + Delete	Permanently delete the selected item
Enter	View the selected picture at a larger size

Shortcuts for Logging In And Out Windows 7

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Shortcut	Description
Win + Right Arrow + Enter	Shutdown
Win + Right Arrow + Right Arrow + R	Restart
Win + Right Arrow + Right Arrow + S	Sleep
Win + Right Arrow + Right Arrow + W	Switch users

I will update this list as an when I get more keyboard shortcuts for windows 7.

Code To Make Pen Drive Bootable For Window 7

Pen drive installation process for windows 7 is much faster than DVD/CD. There are some simple steps to make bootable pen drive which can be used for installing windows 7 in future as well. For this you need a pen drive having minimum space of 4 Gb and a files of Windows 7in a folder at your harddisk.Now just follow this steps:-

1. Plug-in your USB flash drive to USB port and move all the contents from USB drive to a safe location on your system. Then follow the following steps:

• Run the command prompt as an Administrator
• Now to find the drive number of your USB Drive, you need to type this and press enter every time.
  
  • diskpart
  • list disk
• Here you can see the disk listed.Note down the disk number of your pendrive for the next step. Assume that the number is '1'.
• Now type all these words to format the drive:
  
  • select disk 1
  • clean
  • create partition primary
  • select partition 1
  • active
  • format fs = NTFS Quick [Quick is used for quick format]
  • assign
  • exit
• Now the disk partition program will exit and you’ll have a formatted USB flash drive ready to be made bootable.

2. Now to make the bootable pendrive, follow this steps:-

• Now assume that Folder of Window7 Files is in G: Drive as Folder Named "Win7" and Pendrive as F
•  Now type G:CD Win7
• Now type G:\Win7\CD BOOT
• Now type this command BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 F: to update your USB drive with bootmgr code. Here F: is your pen drive letter.
• Finally copy all the contents from the Windows 7 Folder to your Pendrive.

Here you have created the bootable pendrive. Now what you need is to make your BIOS to boot from USB.So foolow this steps:-

• Insert your pendrive to the PC and reboot the system.
  
• Now Enter the Bios system accordingly by pressing the key delete.This is where you’re on your own since every computer is different. Most BIOS’s allow you to hit a key at boot and select a boot option.
  
• Now select the USB/ Pendrive as the first boot device.
  
• Now save the settings in Bios and restart and you will be able to Install Windows 7 using that pendrive.