2 replies to this topic

[James (Jim) Hillier]

It's official folks...I have finally migrated wholly from Vista over to Windows 7 64-bit. I still have a couple of codecs to install but apart from that I am now using Windows 7 full time.

I know that doesn't sound like much but for me it has been a big move; in contrast to the apparent majority, I have enjoyed my Vista.

Anyway, now I have gained a certain familiarity with my new operating system I thought it might be time to start sharing a few Windows 7 tips and tricks. I shall be posting many tips & tricks over the next few weeks, or months....time will dictate.

Please bear in mind, these are simple/basic tips and tricks mainly for the benefit of XP users who have not had any experience with Vista nor Windows 7:

* How to: Add Expanded View to Start Menu Items.
* How To: Add extra time zones to System Tray Clock.
* How To: View extra-large icons in Windows Explorer.
* How To: Add 'Run' command to Start Menu.
* How To: Pin applications to the Taskbar.
* How To: Manually create a System Restore Point.
* How To: Turn off Messages from Action Center.
* How To: Schedule Windows Disk Defragmenter.
* Useful Windows 7 hotkeys.
* How To: Create/Restore a System Image (and create System Repair disc)
* How To: Hide/Show icons in the Notification Area on the Taskbar
* How To: Customize the Power button
* How to: Calculate more - Using Windows 7 Calculator
* How To: Reduce the size of icons pinned to the taskbar
* How To: Access and use Problem Steps Recorder
* How To: Access additional destinations in the 'Send to' menu
* How To: Access & use Resource Monitor
* How To: Display all drives in 'Computer'
* How To: Locate and use 'Aero Peek'
* How To: Burn an ISO image to disc (CD/DVD)
* How To: Prevent taskbar icon stacking and display them individually
* How To: Pin personal folders to the taskbar
* How To: Set programs to always run as administrator
* How To: Restore previous versions of files & recover deleted files
* How to: Access Windows Memory Diagnostic tool

[TheRaven]

Vista was highly misunderstood, but it was Microsoft getting back to its UNIX roots and they did a good job. I've heard Vista being coined as the Windows 7 beta - I liked the beta in allot of ways more than 7. Vista was huge and demanding running like a tank where if you look at 7 the wrong way sometimes it wants to curl up and crash. Many obvious features for networking and systems monitoring have been buried and in some cases looks foreign telling me that there were two different development teams and they weren't communicating entirely - or so it appears. It literally took me six months and three full installations of Windows 7 to get all of the kinks rolled out.


Yeah - update your drivers, but make certain that anything that looks like intel PCI Bridge is updated first or you will pay with all kinds of random system kernel crashes and erroneous DLL reports in your system dump files at recovery time. Ask me how I know this...



Nice to know you're still alive James.



Between Windows 7, building a low end workstation and entry into college I've had zero percent life - I have both my Math courses split between two separate sessions so I might actually be able to move around on the web again for a short time.



PCI Bridge is what links everything together on the mother board and without it properly being updated it can cause Windows 7 some serious problems as the kernel is more tuned in 7 than in Vista. This explained why my system would crash because of a hard drive then ten minutse later it was my audio card followed two hours later by a virtual directory that I was not even aware that it existed. Got ugly real quick and so did my language. After it was all said and done I had to go and get all my software reactivated because my system was registering different I.D.s so things like Adobe CS4 Premium didn't work anymore - I was livid.



Check those board drivers Jim - seriously!

[James (Jim) Hillier]

Hey Raven - Been running Windows 7/Vista in dual boot system for almost 2 years now.....absolutely no problems to date.

I am hearing you though; motherboard/chipset drivers can (and do) cause heaps of issues. I guess I have been lucky.