3 most useful tips and tricks in Windows 7

Windows 7 is by far the most complete operating system creating by Microsoft as yet. The release of Microsoft Windows 8 might change that fact but as with all previous operating system releases, that might take a lot of time.

Users generally prefer the Windows 7 interface due to its ease of use and very high level of reliability. Those days of operating systems experiencing total failures are gone, and Windows 7 has played a very important role in achieving that.

So it is imperative that you have a good grip on your system to extract the maximum benefit from it. We are laying down the 3 most useful tips and tricks in Windows 7.

1. Remember your shortcuts!

- Windows + Left / Windows + Right

This combo will shift your open window to either left or right, covering half part of your screen. It's a nice thing to have when you need to organize all your windows quickly.

- Windows + (Number)

This combo will open up the particular window in your taskbar. So if you press the number 1, the first window on your taskbar will open up. It's a neat option to have if you don't want to scroll around with mouse.

- Windows + E

Opens up your My Computer window. Good to remember this if you don't want to minimize all of those active windows to get to your My Computer icon on the desktop.

2. Reveal hidden drives in your system

Windows 7 generally doesn't show drives such as the floppy disk, or any micro card reader you might have. If you want them to be displayed on your My Computer screen, you can easily do that. Just head over to Folder Options (Organize ---> Folder and Search options), and select View.

Uncheck the option for 'Hide empty drives in My Computer folder'. Done!

3. Arrange your files by artists, songs, date, and various other methods

There are a variety of ways you can arrange your files in folders, and Windows 7 allows you to easily do that. For songs, it allows many options like authors, track rating, and so on. Other options include track length, artists etc.

There are various other very helpful tricks that you can learn to maximize your operating system's experience. We'll be covering more in another article soon.

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How To: Enable your PC to speak as you type!

Are you bored enough that you would want your PC to have the ability to speak?

Yes its possible, we're not joking! It's actually pretty simple. Anything you type in your PC, it will say it back to you. You can enable this option for fun, and maybe prank your friends or impress a fellow geek....

Think of it as a text-to-speech converter, and what's more: It's free!

Okay, so here's how it goes. You need to create a simple script. Open up a blank notepad file.

Copy the following code (as it is) into that blank notepad file.

Dim message, sapi

message=InputBox("What do you want me to say?","Speak to Me")

Set sapi=CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")

sapi.Speak message

Now here's the important part. Click on File, and then 'Save as'. Look below at the filename and make sure it ends with a '.vbs' extension.

You will need to replace the '.txt' extension with a '.vbs' extension. Simple!

Now, just double click on the new file that's been created, and type in whatever you want your PC to say!

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How To: Remove the Virus which creates .exe files in your folders

It happened to me a number of times in college, when I used to freely share my friend's USB drives for assignments. I would plug in the USB in to my PC and carelessly click on every folder I could see.

What I wouldn't recognize was that the USB's were infected. It's a common virus, particularly when you're sharing with your friends. All you see on your USB are a lot of folders.


The common symptoms of this virus are:

• Your task manager is not visible anymore. Ctrl + Alt + Dlt does not work.
• The registry editor is also not available. Typing in regedit in your windows start menu doesn't do anything.
• The folder options list don't work. 
• Overall slowing down of system.

So usually, people freak out and think that there is no cure except a total hard drive format.

But there is! All you need to do is download a virus scanner from a different computer (preferably) and run it on your system. It will delete your 'Autorun.inf' file. That will cure everything and you can go back to normal. 

Here's the link for the virus scanner. 

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How To: Remove the 'Games' option from Windows 7

If you are like me who has no use games, particularly the ones included by default in every Windows 7 installation, then it can be a bit annoying to have them popping up in your 'All Programs' list.

The good news is that you can easily get rid of them. This is how it's done.





- First thing you need to is click on your Start menu and type in 'Windows Features' in the search bar.

- This will open the Windows Features menu, through which you can enable/disable any service.

- Now look for the 'Games' option in the list, and un-check it.

- Wait for a moment while it processes the request.

- Also remember that you can expand the 'Games' option to selectively disable any particular game you want.

- That's it. Head over to the 'Games' explorer menu again to confirm that all games have been disabled.

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How To: Change Icons to Extra Large View in any Folder

Windows 7 gives its users the flexibility to modify the look of their operating system and the overall feel of it. As a user, you can easily change the way your icons appear on your desktop or on any folder.

You can easily modify the size of the icons of any folder according to your liking. You can make them small, medium, with thumbnails and even extra large.

In this article, we will show you how you can change your icon size to the 'Extra Large' option.





- First of all, head over to any folder for which you want to change the icons to. Now move your mouse cursor to the small list icon over on the top right side. Click on 'More Options' to show the available icon sizes.

- Now select the top most option titled 'Extra Large Icons'. This will make all your icons extra large, and easy to see and navigate.

- Remember that you can easily change your icon size by going back to the "List Views" icon and selecting the size of your choice.

That's it!

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How To: Show 'My Computer' on your Windows 7 Taskbar?

Some people want a quick way to get to their 'My Computer' screen rather than first going to the Desktop and then clicking on the 'My Computer' icon.

Luckily, there's a much quicker way you can have access to your 'My Computer' files and folders.

In this article, we will show you how you can easily add 'My Computer' files to the Windows 7 taskbar. That way, you can easily access it whenever you want and you won't have to minimize everything to go to the Desktop. Here goes!

-  Right click on your Taskbar. Click on 'Toolbars' and select 'New Toolbar' from the menu.

-  Now just select the 'My Computer' icon and click on the Select Folder to confirm your choice.

That's it!

You can now access all your drives and folders right from the taskbar.

Please remember that you can use the same procedure to add any particular folder of your choice, even the Desktop!

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How To: Enable/Disable Windows Screensaver

We all are in a hurry one way or the other. Particularly when it comes to the time we are using our personal computers. Using the Windows operating system is a very simple task. However, simple things can get us all muddled up and frustrated when things are not going our way.

So it's always extremely helpful to have a basic knowledge of some of the most simple shortcut commands and tips to make your life easier in situations when time is of the most importance.

In this article, we will discuss the method which will allow you to easily enable/disable the windows screensaver.

- Create a shortcut to  enable/disable your Windows screensaver

It can be extremely frustrating to have you have Windows screensaver pop up and reset a certain program installation for example. In fear of that happening, you're always moving your cursor around so that the screensaver option doesn't activate itself. But there is a much simple way to get rid of this irking problem.

You can use a useful utility called (flipss.exe), which will enable you to safely de-activate your screensaver using a simple command on the 'command line'. Make sure you have download this utility. A simple Google search for 'flipss' will do the trick.

Here is how it goes...

- Head over to your Desktop and right click on it.
- Select 'New' and click on 'Shortcut'

- Type the full address to the location of the 'flipss' utility followed by /off (For disabling the screensaver)

- Now you just have to give it a nice file name and repeat the above procedure followed by /on after the located file name (For enabling the screensaver).

That's it! Now whenever you need to disable your screensaver, all you have to do is double click on the '/off' shortcut on your Desktop. Good Luck!

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How to automatically start up your PC from sleep mode?

Under normal circumstances, when you put your PC on sleep mode, it usually requires manual (human) intervention) to put it back on.

But there's a way to automatically make your PC start up once it's into sleep mode. It's fantastic when you can do that. Like for instance you need to make sure your PC starts up and does a few chores (cleanup, downloads)  for you in the morning before you wake up.

Setting up your start up time

Right then, the first thing you need to do is create a scheduled task. Enter your task scheduler by typing it in as 'Task Scheduler' in your start-menu.

Now, press the drop-down menu labelled as 'Action' and click on 'Create task'. Give it a name, let's say 'PC Start-up'. Make sure you select your desired option to tell it to either run while user is logged in or not.

Now select 'Trigger' tab and click on New. Enter the details of the time you want your PC to start up. Now once that's done, head over to the 'Conditions' tab and select the option for 'Wake the computer to run this task'.

Now you need to open up the 'Actions' tab and create a new action. Specify what you want it to do. It can be 'Start up a program', 'Send an email', or 'Display a message'.

That's it!

Now, once your PC goes into sleep mode, it will be ready to 'wake up' on the time you set it to and will perform the action you told it to. Easy!

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