Even though there are a ton of new features and usability improvements in Windows 7, there is still no harm in fine tuning or enabling a couple of features that Microsoft decided to hide under the mat for one reason or the other. Tweaks are nothing new to Windows. End users have been able to tweak operating systems according to their requirements since the beginning, so you shouldn’t worry about any tweak damaging your system.
Still, I’ll be including a level indicator for an estimated technical level required to execute the tweak, with Level 0 being the easiest. As for the tweaks I’m about to share today, none of them require any tweaker utility to activate. You can access them from within Windows itself.
The new “Superbar” in Windows 7 is an awesome improvement. You can pin icons directly to the taskbar as shortcuts, plus we have support for Jumplists which give us quick access to common tasks in every program. Still, some of you might be accustomed to the classic taskbar as seen in the previous versions of Windows and prefer to revert back. Lucky for you, Microsoft decided to include the old functionality as well.
To get the classic taskbar back, all you have to do is:
Right-click on an empty area in the taskbar and click on Properties. You would reach the dialog box displayed above. Check the box next to Use small icons and select Combine when taskbar is full from the Taskbar buttons dropdown menu. Hit Apply, and you’re all set.
Explorer Checkboxes – (Level 0)Remember the tiny little checkboxes in Vista that used to appear on files when you hovered your mouse over them in Windows Explorer. While they only served the purpose of allowing you to select multiple files which you can also do by holding CTRL or SHIFT key, the boxes were useful in situations when you didn’t want to use the keyboard.
Hit the Start button and type Folder Options in the search bar and hit enter.
Click on the view tab and scroll to the bottom of Advanced Settings Listbox.
Check the box next to Use check boxes to select items and click Ok or Apply to commit the changes. Check boxes should now appear when you hover your mouse over items.
Web Search Connectors – (Level 1)
Did you know that you can perform web searches directly from within Windows Explorer? You can search for anything you like (e.g. YouTube videos) and get results displayed in the Windows Explorer interface.
Enable GodMode – (Level 1)
Wondering why there is a GodMode in Windows 7? Well don’t get excited. It doesn’t make your PC immune to malware. It just shows all the options in the Control Panel as a single page instead of being divided into categories. Useful if you like to use the Windows Search feature to find stuff rather than navigating through different screens.
Quick Launch Toolbar – (Level 2)
The Quick Launch toolbar (the shortcut icons that used to appear right next to the start button) got killed in Windows 7 because of the introduction of the new Superbar. While the new taskbar is a thousand times more useable then Quick Launch, it is interesting to know that you can still enable the functionality by a simple trick to get a fully classic look with the Classic Taskbar.
To enable Quick Launch:
Right-click on an empty area of the taskbar and goto Toolbars > New Toolbar…
Navigate to your user account >> AppData >> Roaming >> Microsoft >> Internet Explorer >> Quick Launch and click Select Folder button to add the toolbar. ({User}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch). You can right click on the title of the new Toolbar to play with its look and feel and adjust it to the way you like.
Change Logon Background – (Level 3)
You might have heard that you can change the Welcome screen background in Windows 7 too like you could in Windows Vista. While Microsoft only intended this functionality to be used by OEMs, there are ways for you to get it done as well.
What you need to do is:
Open up the Registry Editor (Type regedit.exe in the start menu).
Goto HKLM > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Authentication > LogonUI > Background.
Look for a DWORD value named OEMBackground and change it to 1. If the DWORD doesn’t exist then create it.
Now in Windows Explorer, goto %windir%\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds and place the background image of your choice there. Again you’ll have to create the folder if it doesn’t exist already.
Rename the image you just place to backgroundDefault.jpg. You can add multiple images for different resolutions as well following this naming convention: background{resolution}.jpg. For example, if your desktop resolution is 1980×1080 then background1920×1080.jpg.
Oh and the image needs to be under 256kB for it to work properly.
~networld