Windows7How

Windows 7 Tweaks – Sticky Notes, Shortcuts, Compatibility & Turn-off programs

November 15, 2009

There were some good, or at least useful, tweaks for Windows 7. We can look even further into some decent tweaks to simply make your life with Microsoft’s new OS a little easier.

Windows Vista had the first Microsoft Sticky Notes, and it could be a useful gadget. In Windows 7, it has been improved a little to offer more flexibility. However, if you are not happy with the default settings, you can make some changes. The Sticky Notes application is launched from the Start menu. Once you have it up and running, you can make changes to the text format through some easy keyboard shortcuts. The text can be re-sized, italicized, or even made Bold. Here are those shortcuts:

• Ctrl + B = Bold text
• Ctrl + I = Italic text
• Ctrl + U = Underline text
• Ctrl + T = Strikethrough text
• Ctrl + Shift + L (one time) = Bulleted list
• Ctrl + Shift + L (twice) = Numbered list
• Ctrl + Shift + < = Decrease text size
• Ctrl + Shift + > = Increase text size

With Windows 7, Microsoft has given you the ability to turn off some Windows components. Now, this could be due to the European anti-trust case, but it could also be that Microsoft wanted to make the OS much more flexible. Either way, the fact remains that Windows 7 is much more customizable than Windows Vista. Some of the components you can disable are Internet Explorer, Gadgets (entire platform), Windows Search, and several media features. All of this part of the new Windows 7 is completely new, so have fun! To make these changes, follow these steps:

• Go to the Start menu and open Control Panel
• Select ‘Programs and Features’
• In the left pane before you, click on ‘Turn Windows Features On Or Off’
• Now, simply choose which Windows features you want to enable or disable and click the appropriate box
• When done, click ‘OK’

Problems with Adobe Reader are common with Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8. We can hope that either Microsoft or Adobe will fix this issue soon and this tweak will be unnecessary. However, until that happens, we have one decent solution which will make it possible to read PDF files as you are used to doing. All you have to do is set Adobe Reader to not open PDF files in Internet Explorer. Here is how that is done:

• Open Adobe Reader
• Go to Edit | Preferences
• Choose ‘Internet’ in the left-side ‘Categories’ pane
• Right under ‘Web Browser Options’ simply uncheck ‘Display PDF In Browser’ and click ‘OK’

Problem solved, or at least avoided.

There are new keyboard shortcuts in Windows 7 which will make it much easier for the people out there who type very well and often. Those of you who are like that often hate taking your fingers away from the keyboard to use the mouse or touch-pad. No problem, Windows 7 has some very useful new shortcuts for you to learn. First of all, I will refer to the small button on the bottom left of the keyboard as the ‘Windows Logo Button’, just so you can understand these:

• Windows Logo Button + E = Opens a new Explorer window
• Windows Logo Button + P = Opens the Display Switcher applet
• Windows Logo Button + Spacebar = Shows Windows Desktop; makes open application windows transparent
• Windows Logo Button + Plus sign (+) = enables the screen magnifier which zooms in on the Desktop
• Windows Logo Button + Minus sign (-) = zooms back out when using screen magnifier
• Windows Logo Button + Left or Right Arrow key = will shift the active application window to the left or right and is will automatically fill half of the screen (like Aero Snap without the mouse)
• Windows Logo Button + Shift + Left or Right Arrow key = when using multiple monitors, it will shift the open and active application window to the left or right monitor
• When using Windows Explorer (not IE), Alt + P = turns on preview pane
• Using Ctrl + Clicking on icon in Taskbar = toggle between multiple instances of the application using that icon

The last tweak actually only applies to the installation of Windows 7. It will be very helpful if you have a compact laptop which does not have a DVD-ROM drive. It is tough to install Windows (any Windows) without a media drive. However, with Windows 7 you can create a USB key drive installation. This will work very well for situations when only a USB port is available and you do not have an available USB DVD-ROM drive. All that needs to be done is to copy the contents of the Windows 7 ISO image to a 4GB or larger USB key drive. This may very well be even faster than a DVD install.

There are plenty of useful new tweaks for Windows 7 and many of them are useful to many users and administrators. Once you have the OS installed, try some of these to see if your life gets at least a little easier when working on your PC. And, perhaps best of all, you will learn more about the Windows 7 OS while attempting these useful changes.

Filed under: Tips, Windows 7 Tweaks

Tags: adobe, adobe reader, compatiblity, disable gadgets, disable internet explorer, dvd rom, gadgets, install windows 7, iso image, keyboard shortcuts, notepad, pdf, shortcuts, sticky notes, turn off, tweak, USB, usb key drive, windows 7