After a number of delays and setbacks BlackBerry 10 finally arrived
in January and BlackBerry's new mobile platform has already witnessed
its major first update in its life cycle with BlackBerry 10.1 now
available on all three BB10 devices.
We've explored the new
version of the operating system and have updated our BlackBerry 10
review accordingly - you lucky, lucky people.
The PhonesBlackBerry Z10BlackBerry Q10BlackBerry Q5
The BlackBerry Z10
kicked off the Canadian firm's renewed onslaught on the mobile market,
but it has since been joined by the QWERTY keyboard toting BlackBerry Q10 and more recently the budget focused BlackBerry Q5.
While
in the short term focus will be put on the devices it's the software
the handsets are running that is really the key to BlackBerry's long
term success, or ultimate demise.
The BlackBerry smartphone range has been in desperate need of a reboot for a while as the likes of iOS 6, Android Jelly Bean and Windows Phone 8 have outstripped the extremely outdated BB OS7 platform.
Whereas
the other systems have witnessed incremental upgrades, BB 10 is a
totally new offering – the BB OS7 base has been completely scrapped and
the new platform rebuilt from the ground up.
BB10 sees the
implementation of a whole new user interface, doing away with the
familiar BlackBerry system we're all used to in favour of something that
resembles the likes of Android and iOS, although with its own unique
features thrown in for good measure.
BlackBerry 10 has merged
homescreens, widgets, app lists and a unified inbox into one slick
interface, offering up an easy-to-navigate user experience.
Lock screen
The
first thing you're greeted with on BlackBerry 10 is the lock screen,
which not only shows the time and date, but also notifications, unread
messages and upcoming calendar events.
There's a button to launch
the camera straight from the lock screen to grab a quick snap, just hold
down on the icon for three of seconds.
It's slightly longer than we'd like and the simple slide action on some Android handsets is quicker.
To
unlock a touchscreen BB 10 handset you need to slide your finger up the
screen. As you do, the homescreen below will begin to appear, giving
you a sneak peek of what's underneath.
What you can't do from the
lockscreen is jump straight into a new message, email or other
notification. Instead you' have to unlock the handset in the normal way
and then slide into the BlackBerry Hub.
It's not a huge issue but
it's something we'd like to see crop up in a future update as it will
further enhance the fluidity of BB 10.
When viewing the lock
screen you can drag down from the top of the display to show the night
time clock mode - which has a lovely analogue clock face and a toggle
for your alarm.
The black background and red highlights mean when
you check the time in the middle of the night you won't be blinded by a
bright display, which is always a bonus.
Homescreen
The
main BlackBerry 10 homescreen is comprised of 'Active Frames',
technically mini-applications, which give you an overview of information
from a particular app and launch the full version when tapped.
BB10
will display up to eight of these active frames, showing your most
recently used apps with the latest app appearing in the top-left
position.
Only four of these panes can fit on the screen at one
time, so you'll need to scroll down to see the rest – which all seems a
little pointless, since you can just as quickly swipe sideways to access
the app list and launch the app you want from there.
For those of
you who may be concerned that these 'Active Frames' could be both data
and battery-intensive, BlackBerry assures us that this is not the case,
with the QNX core of BlackBerry 10 providing efficient power management,
and the frames only downloading the minimum amount of data required for
them to update.
To be fair we've seen pretty good battery life
from both the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 during our in-depth review process,
so we're inclined to believe BlackBerry's claims.
If
you get fed up of seeing a particular frame then you can easily close
it by hitting the small cross in the bottom right corner and if you
close all the panes you'll be taken by default to the first page in the
app list until you open another.
When you're in an app there's no
back button on screen to help you exit. This brings us to another key
feature of BB10, as it encourages you to use a gesture to quit
applications by running your finger up from the bottom of the screen,
returning you to the active frame view.
While this is easy to do
on the Z10 and Q5 it's a little trickier with the Q10 which doesn't
provide any additional space between the bottom of the display and its
QWERTY keyboard.
Those who are already familiar with other
smartphones will find the action pretty unnatural and it takes a while
to get used to the new way of doing things on BlackBerry 10.
Swiping from right to left on the homescreen will take you to the app
list, with 16 apps on the screen at any one time if you're using the
fully touchscreen Z10, while the 3.1-inch display found on the Q10 and Q5 only manages to squeeze 12 on at a time.
If
you have more than 16 (or 12) apps, additional pages are added and can
be accessed by swiping the same way again, which is familiar territory
for iOS and Android users.
You can manage your applications by
creating folders, which will reduce the number of pages you need to sift
through - which is especially useful on the smaller screened devices.
Hold
down on an app any they'll begin to pulsate. Simple drag one on top of
another to create a folder (sound familiar?), which you can then rename
to some relevant.
There's also the option to uninstall apps in
this throbbing view, with a small trash can icon appearing in the top
right of each app icon - although stock apps such as contacts, browser
and calendar cannot be removed. No huge surprise there.
There's
a pleasant fading animation as you flick between pages, and you'll see
the previous page of apps fade away to the side of the screen, to be
replaced by the new page.
When you select an application from the
list BlackBerry 10 doesn't automatically open it up. What you get
instead is a short animation which sees BB10 zoom to the active frame
page where the app appears and then enlargers to fill the screen.
It
may be a nice visual effect but it has absolutely no practical
advantage and all it does is slow you down, adding another second or so
to the app's load time.
At the bottom of both the homescreen and
app list you'll notice a shortcut bar, with quick links to the phone and
camera applications, enabling you to quickly jump to these regularly
used features.
These
shortcuts cannot be changed which is a little annoying as we'd like the
flexibility to be able to put our most used apps in this handy space.
If
you're rocking the Z10 you also get a search link here which isn't
available on the other handsets as search is conducted by simply tapping
out what you want on the physical keyboard.
For those of you who are a fan of quick settings you'll be pleased to learn that BB 10 delievers in this department.
Slide
down from the top of the screen when you're viewing the homescreen or
app list and a bar will pop down - in a similar vein to the notification
bar in Android - giving you toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, alarm and
silent mode.
Tap the icon to turn a particular service on or off,
or if you want to fine tune one tap it's name instead you'll be
propelled to the relevant area of the settings menu.
A slight
annoyance with BlackBerry 10 is the fact that you can only set one
alarm, so unless you're good at getting up promptly or adept with the
snooze button you may find yourself oversleeping if you're relying on a
BB10 device.
This
is something which should be able to be tweaked in a software update,
but it hasn't arrived with BlackBerry 10.1, so the wait continues.
Something which did arrive with the BlackBerry 10.1 update is the ability to customise your notifications for various accounts.
The
famous red notification LED is present on all three of BlackBerry's new
handsets and you can now control this along with ringtones and
vibration on an account by account basis, and even contact by contact.
We'd
have liked it if the LED in question was multi-coloured so you can have
it flash, for example blue for a Facebook update, red for a message and
green for an email.
Peek and Flow
Peek and Flow are two core aspects that come heavily baked into BlackBerry 10 and they dictate the way you use the system.
Flow
refers to the way the whole of BB 10 operates, as you glide between
applications and screens with no hard navigation tools such as the back
or home buttons that are found on rival handsets.
It's very
different to any system we've experienced before, so it took us a few
days to get our heads around the various gestures required to
effectively use BB10.
At times we wished there was a simple back
button below the screen, since it wasn't always clear how to return to
the previous screen. But the more we used BlackBerry 10 the more we
became used to the way it should be used.
Our
concern here is that BB 10 requires a relatively steep learning curve
for everyone, even those who have owned BlackBerry handsets in the past.
It
becomes easier once you've played with BlackBerry 10 for a few days,
but we fear customers may be turned off in-store when they preview a
handset.
Onto Peek and this is a smart little gesture enabling you
to check your latest notifications and messages without having to exit
the current app you're using.
As you swipe up over the screen, BB10 will minimise the pane you're viewing and display notification icons down the left side.
This
includes icons for new texts, emails, BBMs, social updates and missed
calls, and if any of these pique your interest then continue your
finger's motion to the right and the screen will slide over to reveal
the BlackBerry Hub so you can see who the message is from.
If
it's just a boring newsletter you can return to the app, video or game
(which are automatically paused) you were viewing without having to go
back to the app list and navigate to it. Unless it's the TechRadar newsletter, which you'll obviously want to read straight away.
This
action can be sped up it you want to get straight to the Hub view, just
start your finger to the left of the base of the screen and drag
diagonally up, which will see the peek movement streamlined.
The
whole BlackBerry 10 interface does appear to be very smooth with no sign
of lag on any of the three handsets, which makes for a pleasing user
experience – once you've worked out the various gestures required to get
around, that is.
The BlackBerry Hub is the universal inbox
found on BlackBerry 10, and it pulls in all forms of communications from
calls and texts to emails, BBMs and social updates.
A
new addition to the Hub in the BlackBerry 10.1 update is pin to pin
messaging, allowing you to communicate directly with other BlackBerry
smartphones in a secure fashion.
Of course with so many accounts
feeding into the handset, the more popular among us will be quickly
inundated with notifications from various different channels, and this
is where the Peek idea makes it easy to see when you've got anything new
to look at.
To make the reams of messages easier to manage, tap
the title in the bottom-left corner of the message centre to reveal a
list of all the accounts you have linked up, and then select the one
you're interested in – this will then populate the Hub with
notifications from just that source.
There are also various
options which can be selected for a particular message, hold down on the
communication in question and a slim column of tools will pop up to the
right for you to choose from, including reply, forward and delete.
If you're using the QWERTY keyboard toting BlackBerry Q5 or Q10 there are predefined shortcut keys to speed up the messaging process.
For example you can hit "R" to reply, "L" to reply all or "F" to forward the email you're currently viewing on screen.
You
can start tapping out a text, email, tweet or Facebook post from the
homescreen on the Q10 and Q5, as the BB10 integration has the smarts to
detect what action you want.
While the BlackBerry Z10
cannot benefit from these shortcuts it has the advantage of packing a
larger screen, allowing more content to be displayed at once resulting
in much less scrolling for you.
The amount of scrolling on the Q5
and Q10 really bugged us at time as it's frustrating that you can only
see four messages at a time.
Drag down from the top of the message
centre and the BB10 Hub will automatically pull in your calendar events
for that day in the top half of the screen, enabling you to quickly see
what you've got on without having to launch the full calendar app.
It's an impressive setup and we reckon other platforms may be looking at the BlackBerry Hub with a little bit of envy.
It's not without its faults though and one of our biggest bug bears is its integration with the peek gesture.
If
you read a message and then immediately exit the Hub without returning
to the main overview next time you want to peek at your inbox you'll see
the message you last read, instead of your new entries.
The way
round this is to remember to hit back once you've read/replied to
someone, but it feels like a bit of a waste of time and a little
unintuitive.
BBM
BBM,
or BlackBerry Messenger, has been a cornerstone of the BlackBerry
experience for years, and it gets a revamp with BlackBerry 10.
The dedicated application has been given a lick of paint, with easier navigation and a new feature called BBM Video.
BBM
Video joins up with BBM Voice, which launched recently on BB OS7, to
bring both voice and video calls to the BBM application on BlackBerry
10.
The days of the BlackBerry bolt-ons on phone tariffs have been
and gone, with all your BBM activity coming out of your data allowance
if you're not connected to Wi-Fi. So you'll need to keep an eye on your
data usage.
Adding contacts is easy and within the BBM app you have the choice of tapping in your friend's pin, or scanning their QR code.
You
can send, receive and reply to BBMs from the BlackBerry Hub but if you
want the full range of options you'll need to fire up the dedicated
application.
BBM is set to roll out on iOS and Android this summer
which makes it an even more attractive proposition as all your friends
will be able to use no matter what phone they're rocking - apart from
those suckers with a Windows Phone who aren't getting treated to the
social messaging app.
Keyboard
Now all this messaging
capability is nothing without an input method, and keyboards are
arguably the thing BlackBerry handsets are most known for.
BlackBerry
has spoken in length about how it has engineered its on-screen keyboard
to bring users the experience they get on the physical version with the
all-new touch offering.
Straight up, we can say the BB 10
keyboard on the Z10 is miles better than the pitiful attempt that
adorned the Torch range of BlackBerry handsets, but it's not perfect. The keyboard sports the silver frets that can be found on the Bold 9900, providing additional spacing between lines and allowing for better travel between keys.
These
frets also act as the space for the next word prediction, and the more
you type the more BB 10 learns and offers smarter suggestions.
We
were able to type at a reasonable pace, but we found the next word
prediction if anything slowed us down, since the font is too small to
easily see, and we found our fingers were covering most of the
suggestions anyway.
It's a different story over on the Q10 and Q5
where BlackBerry's prowess in physical keyboards are once again brought
to the fore.
While there's no dynamic suggestions popping up above
each key you do still get spell check and predictions on screen to aid
your typing experience.
In the BlackBerry 10.1 update text
manipulation has been greatly improved, making it a lot easier to
highlight text on screen, leading to an easier way of editing your
missives as well as copying and pasting.
BlackBerry is calling it
Fine Cursor Control, and a blue circle will pop up on screen when you
hold down on text, allowing you to place the cursor where you want, and
also highlight various words and characters.
BlackBerry is making a big song and dance about its BB
10 camera application as well, especially the 'Time Shift' feature,
which enables you to select the perfect smile of your subject after
taking the photo.
Fire up the camera app (from the lock screen if
you so wish), select 'Time Shift' mode and snap your subject, and the
app will then search for faces in the image.
Once a face is
located in a photo, you can tap it and literally roll back time to find
the point at which your friend had their eyes open and the perfect grin. If
there are multiple people in your snap, you can individually adjust
each person, however during our demo we found 'Time Shift' struggled in
lower lighting conditions – subjects' faces need to be illuminated well
for the camera to detect their mugs. 'Time
Shift' did take a couple of seconds after the photo was taken to detect
faces and offer us the chance to tweak the image, but this could be
down to the fact it's running on a development build of the BB10
software, and speed could be improved in the final product.
Of
course the camera can take standard photos and record video alongside
the 'Time Shift' function, which itself is an impressive function, but
we wonder how much we'd actually use it day to day.
In terms of
other features the BB10 camera app is pretty sparsely populated,
offering you flash and aspect ratio toggles, the ability to switch
between front and rear cameras and a handful of scenes and shooting
modes. A new shooting mode which arrived with BlackBerry 10.1 is HDR, although the lower-end BlackBerry Q5 hasn't been gifted this fancy camera tech with the feature appearing to be reserved for the higher end Z10 and Q10.
We
found the auto-focus could be a little tardy at times which resulted us
in missing a shot or blurring the image, but the ability to use the
volume keys on each of the handsets as a shutter button is a welcome
bonus.
Browser
The BlackBerry browser has also had a
refresh for BB10, bringing it in line with the minimalist style of
current offerings on other devices. The location of the URL bar at the
bottom of the page is reminiscent of Internet Explorer on Windows Phone.
Even
though Adobe has already ditched future support and upgrades of its
Flash platform, BlackBerry has made sure it's built in support for the
dying format in BB 10, enabling you to access all your favourite
Flash-built sites and videos of Korean men dancing on invisible horses.
Sweep
from left to right while in the browser and the Peek functionality
comes into play again, this time showing various internet-centric
options such as History, Bookmarks, New Tab and your currently opened
tabs.
There's also a Reader mode built into the new browser, which
lifts article text and images from a web page and displays it in a more
manageable and easy to read format, stripping out fancy ads, menu bars
and any other clutter that gets in the way of actually reading
something.
Reader mode is especially useful on the Q10 and Q5, as
their peculiar screen sizes don't work particularly well with regular
sites, so having the ability to pull the text out by itself makes it a
far more pleasing experience.
The key browser boon however is
speed. We found that on all three BlackBerry 10 devices websites loaded
in a blink of an eye and it's one of the quickest browsers - if not the
quickest - currently on the market.
All three handsets come with
4G connectivity (although the Q5 will be available as 3G only in select
markets) which boasts load times when you're out and about and of course
Wi-Fi is fully supported as well.
Cascades
Then there's
Cascades, a new navigation system cooked up by BlackBerry especially for
BB10, enabling quick multitasking from within applications.
The
example we've seen is in the messaging app - open an email and it will
display full screen, but drag your finger from left to right and the
message will slide with you, revealing the inbox below.
This means
if you get a new message in the middle of reading an email, you can
check who it's from without having to close the application – similar to
the notification bar on Android and also now on iOS.
If
you were to open an attachment from the email – a PDF document in the
case of our demo – pulling to the side to view the Cascade will show the
app's layers stacked up. It's a more visual paper trail, if you will.
It's
certainly an intuitive feature that we found worked smoothly on the
development handset – but it will be interesting to see how this feature
is embedded into other applications and if it will have the same
pleasing results.
BlackBerry World
Apps were a big talking
point in the run up to the launch of BlackBerry 10, with BlackBerry
assuring everyone that it had loads of developers creating applications
especially for the platform.
BlackBerry
World launched with over 70,000 applications in the store and within
just a few months that has grown to 120,000 which is pretty impressive
and big names like WhatsApp and Skype have finally made it on after
being promised at launch.
While 120,000 doesn't sound like a lot
when you compare it to the likes of Android and iOS which boast over
700,000 apps each, BlackBerry reckons it's the quality not quantity in
BlackBerry World that makes all the difference.
Facebook has
popped in and updated its app for BB 10, which brings with it the
ability to activate the Chat feature. It also enhances scrolling and
gives a 'better photo experience' to make you want to use your new
BlackBerry to socially network more than ever before.
It's good to
see strong growth in the BB 10 app store, although it still has a long
way to go and there are numerous high-profile absentees which will put a
lot of consumers off.
BlackBerry Word itself isn't our favourite
app store in terms of design and navigation, with a confusing list of
various apps, music and videos on the main page making it difficult to
digest all the information.
You can refine your search by
categories, which goes some way to working out what's on offer, but
there's no option to view just free apps, for example.
The way you
go about updating applications has been improved in the BlackBerry 10.1
update, with a notification popping up in the BlackBerry Hub to alert
you when a new upgrade is available.
BlackBerry 10 is a solid smartphone operating system offering up all
the functionality you'd expect, wrapped up in a package that does set it
apart from the likes of Android and iOS.
Buying guide20 best mobile phones in the world today
It's
not yet at the stage to challenge these two big players, but BB 10's
firm foundations means it's more than capable of taking on Windows Phone 8 for the coveted third spot.
We liked
The
BlackBerry Hub is an excellent messaging manager tool, giving you total
control over all your accounts and it makes it quick and easy to
respond to urgent things, while allowing you to ignore others without
disrupting what you're currently doing.
We're also seriously
impressed by the BlackBerry 10 which offers super some super fast
surfing speeds which puts in on par with the best.
The gesture
based interface provides an attractive and novel way of controlling the
smartphone, but BB10 risks confuses customers as it requires users to
operate their handset in a very different way.
We disliked
The competitionAndroid Jelly BeaniOS 6Windows Phone 8
Applications
will be a big sticking point for many, since most people will take the
vast offering on Google Play or the Apple App Store over the
undernourished BlackBerry World.
Of course it's still early doors
for BlackBerry 10 and the app store has seen significant growth since
its launch, but its late arrival to the market has seen rivals amass
libraries which could be almost impossible to match.
It's great to
see Skype and Whatsapp finally land on the BB 10 platform, but there's
still many big name apps missing from the line up, and that could be its
undoing.
While BB10 provides the Canadian firm with a good start
it's still a work in progress and minor niggles which crop up around the
operating system can jar at times, reminding you that this is still a
fledgling offering.
Some areas of BlackBerry 10 appear to be
lacking in terms of features, with budding photographers likely to be
disappointed about the lack of options in the camera app, while the
ability to set just one alarm is baffling and rather frustrating.
Final verdict
The
way you navigate round BB10 is very different to its rivals, and it
requires the user to spend a decent amount of time with it to fully
understand its complexities.
Once you get to grips with BlackBerry
10 you'll find it's a quick and fluid user experience that enables you
to get to the main features quickly without getting lost in various
menus and settings.
The thing is, it just doesn't feel as complete an offering as iOS, Android or even Windows Phone, and we reckon BlackBerry 10 has a bit of an uphill struggle if it's to steal users away from those three.
Alleges that it fed investors 'false and misleading' statements
It's landing Microsoft in more trouble
Microsoft's Surface RT scenario has gone from bad to worse. First it wrote off $900 million of unloved stock as CEO Steve Ballmer reportedly admitted
that it had made 'a few' more tablets than it could sell, and now the
company is being hit with a class action lawsuit for allegedly failing
to notify shareholders of the device's paltry sales.
The dispute came to light after US law firm Robbins Geller sent out a press release claiming that Microsoft issued 'false and misleading' financial statements for its third fiscal quarter 2013 ending March 21.
Specifically,
the complaint alleges that although Microsoft knew that customer demand
for its Surface RT tablet was low and sales were poor during the
period, it continued talk up the device.
It wasn't until Microsoft
released its financial results for its fourth quarter and annual
results on July 18 that it revealed it had taken a $900 million (£580
million) charge related to Surface RT "inventory adjustments".
To
make matters worse, it also revealed that combined revenue from Surface
RT and Pro sales was just $853 million (£550 million), less than the
charge it had taken on the former as the Pro performed better in the
market. This caused the company's stock value to suffer its biggest
decline in more than four years, plunging 11.4% to $4.04 per share.
Taking action
As
such, Robins Geller is aiming to recover damages on behalf of anybody
that purchased Microsoft shares during the third fiscal quarter from
April 18 to July 18, as anybody that did so would have been none the
wiser regarding its dismal performance.
A Microsoft representative declined to comment on the class action suit.
Despite the onslaught of trouble it's bringing, Microsoft is pushing ahead with its ARM-based Surface RT devices and is expected to release new products in both the RT and Pro families some time next year.
Windows 7 is easy to customise with your favourite kitty pictures
Whether you've just bought a second-hand PC running Windows 7 or you've been using it for a while, there are bound to be things you didn't know you could do.
Whether
it's tweaks to get the desktop the way you want it, tips for
troubleshooting or ways to squeeze more performance from Windows 7,
we've got it covered.
Windows 7: the complete guide
We've
updated our popular Windows 7 tips article with a load of new ones,
including how to recover and reset your system, how to tweak your screen
resolution and the legibility of text, play music on a network of PCs,
and more.
Read on for over 90 tips to help you get the best from Windows 7.
1. Problem Steps Recorder
As
the local PC guru you're probably very used to friends and family
asking for help with their computer problems, yet having no idea how to
clearly describe what's going on. It's frustrating, but Microsoft feels
your pain, and Windows 7 will include an excellent new solution in the
Problem Steps Recorder.
When any app starts misbehaving under
Windows 7 then all your friends need do is click Start, type PSR and
press Enter, then click Start Record. If they then work through whatever
they're doing then the Problem Steps Recorder will record every click
and keypress, take screen grabs, and package everything up into a single
zipped MHTML file when they're finished, ready for emailing to you.
It's quick, easy and effective, and will save you hours of
troubleshooting time.
Windows 8 coverageWindows 8 reviewHands on: Windows 8.1 review60 Windows 8 tips, tricks and secretsBest Windows 8 tabletsBest Windows 8 laptopsWindows 8 versions: which is right for you?All our Windows 8 content
2. Burn images
Windows
7 finally introduces a feature that other operating systems have had
for years - the ability to burn ISO images to CDs or DVDs. And it
couldn't be much easier to use. Just double-click the ISO image, choose
the drive with the blank disc, click Burn and watch as your disc is
created.
3. Create and mount VHD files
Microsoft's Virtual
PC creates its virtual machine hard drives in VHD files, and Windows 7
can now mount these directly so you can access them in the host system.
Click Start, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter, then click Action >
Attach VHD and choose the file you'd like to mount. It will then appear
as a virtual drive in Explorer and can be accessed, copied or written
just like any other drive.
Click Action > Create VHD and you
can now create a new virtual drive of your own (right-click it, select
Initialise Disk, and after it's set up right-click the unallocated space
and select New Simple Volume to set this up). Again, you'll be left
with a virtual drive that behaves just like any other, where you can
drag and drop files, install programs, test partitioning software or do
whatever you like. But it's actually just this VHD file on your real
hard drive which you can easily back up or share with others.
Right-click the disk (that's the left-hand label that says "Disk 2" or
whatever) and select Detach VHD to remove it.
The command line
DISKPART utility has also been upgraded with tools to detach a VHD file,
and an EXPAND command to increase a virtual disk's maximum size. Don't
play around with this unless you know what you're doing, though - it's
all too easy to trash your system.
4. Troubleshoot problems
If
some part of Windows 7 is behaving strangely, and you don't know why,
then click Control Panel > Find and fix problems (or
'Troubleshooting') to access the new troubleshooting packs. These are
simple wizards that will resolve common problems, check your settings,
clean up your system and more.
5. Startup repair
If
you've downloaded Windows 7 (and even if you haven't) it's a good idea
to create a system repair disc straight away in case you run into
problems booting the OS later on. Click Start > Maintenance >
Create a System Repair Disc, and let Windows 7 build a bootable
emergency disc. If the worst does happen then it could be the only way
to get your PC running again.
6. Take control
Tired of the
kids installing dubious software or running applications you'd rather
they left alone? AppLocker is a new Windows 7 feature that ensures users
can only run the programs you specify. Don't worry, that's easier to
set up than it sounds: you can create a rule to allow everything signed
by a particular publisher, so choose Microsoft, say, and that one rule
will let you run all signed Microsoft applications. Launch GPEDIT.MSC
and go to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security
Settings > Application Control Policies > AppLocker to get a feel
for how this works.
7. Calculate more
At first glance the
Windows 7 calculator looks just like Vista's version, but explore the
Mode menu and you'll see powerful new Statistics and Programmer views.
And if you're clueless about bitwise manipulation, then try the Options
menu instead. This offers many different unit conversions (length,
weight, volume and more), date calculations (how many days between two
dates?), and spreadsheet-type templates to help you calculate vehicle
mileage, mortgage rates and more.
Don't take any Windows 7 applet
at face value, then - there are some very powerful new features hidden
in the background. Be sure to explore every option in all Windows
applets to ensure you don't miss anything important.
Windows
7 now provides a standard way to switch your display from one monitor
to another, or a projector - just press Win+P or run DisplaySwitch.exe
and choose your preferred display. (This will have no effect if you've
only one display connected.)
9. Get a power efficiency report
If
you have a laptop, you can use the efficiency calculator to get Windows
7 to generate loads of useful information about its power consumption.
Used in the right way, this can help you make huge gains in terms of
battery life and performance. To do this you must open a command prompt
as an administrator by typing 'cmd' in Start Search, and when the cmd
icon appears, right-click it and choose Run as administrator.
Then
at the command line, just type in 'powercfg -energy' (without quotes)
and hit Return, and Windows 7 will scan your system looking for ways to
improve power efficiency. It will then publish the results in an HTML
file, usually in the System32 folder. Just follow the path it gives you
to find your report.
10. Understanding System Restore
Using
System Restore in previous versions of Windows has been something of a
gamble. There's no way of telling which applications or drivers it might
affect - you just have to try it and see.
Windows 7 is different.
Right-click Computer, select Properties > System Protection >
System Restore > Next, and choose the restore point you'd like to
use. Click the new button to 'Scan for affected programs' and Windows
will tell you which (if any) programs and drivers will be deleted or
recovered by selecting this restore point. (Read our full Windows 7 System Restore tutorial.)
11. Set the time zone
System
administrators will appreciate the new command line tzutil.exe utility,
which lets you set a PC's time zone from scripts. If you wanted to set a
PC to Greenwich Mean Time, for instance, you'd use the command
tzutil /s "gmt standard time"
The
command "tzutil /g" displays the current time zone, "tzutil /l" lists
all possible time zones, and "tzutil /?" displays details on how the
command works.
12. Easily set screen resolution
Choosing a
new screen resolution used to involve locating and browsing through the
Display Properties applet. Windows 7 made this far simpler, though -
just right-click an empty part of the desktop, select Screen Resolution
and you'll immediately see the appropriate options.
13. Calibrate your screen
The
colours you see on your screen will vary depending on your monitor,
graphics cards settings, lighting and more, yet most people use the same
default Windows colour profile. And that means a digital photo you
think looks perfect might appear very poor to everybody else.
Fortunately Windows 7 now provides a Display Colour Calibration Wizard
that helps you properly set up your brightness, contrast and colour
settings, and a ClearType tuner to ensure text is crisp and sharp. Click
Start, type DCCW and press Enter to give it a try.
14. Clean up Live Essentials
Installing
Windows Live Essentials will get you the new versions of Mail, Movie
Maker, Photo Gallery and others - great. Unfortunately it also includes
other components that may be unnecessary, but if you like to keep a
clean system then these can be quickly removed.
If you left the
default Set Your Search Provider option selected during installation,
for instance, Windows Live will install Choice Guard, a tool to set your
browser home page and search engine, and prevent other programs from
changing them. If this causes problems later, or you just decide you
don't need it, then Choice Guard may be removed by clicking Start,
typing msiexec /x {F0E12BBA-AD66-4022-A453-A1C8A0C4D570} and pressing
[Enter].
Windows Live Essentials also adds an ActiveX Control to
help upload your files to Windows Live SkyDrive, as well as the Windows
Live Sign-in Assistant, which makes it easier to manage and switch
between multiple Windows Live accounts. If you're sure you'll never need
either then remove them with the Control Panel Uninstall a Program
applet.
15. Add network support
By default Windows Live
MovieMaker won't let you import files over a network, but a quick
Registry tweak will change this. Run REGEDIT, browse to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live\Movie Maker, add a
DWORD value called AllowNetworkFiles and set it to 1 to add network
support.
16. Activate XP mode
If you've got old but
important software that no longer runs under Windows 7, then you could
try using XP Mode, a virtual copy of XP that runs in a window on your
Windows 7 desktop. This only works with Windows 7 Professional,
Enterprise, or Ultimate. And your system will need to have hardware
virtualisation (AMD-V or Intel VT) built in and turned on, too (check
your Bios to make sure).
An alternative is to use VirtualBox, a
free virtualisation tool that doesn't insist on hardware support, but
you will need to find a licensed copy of XP (or whatever other Windows
version your software requires) for its virtual machine.
17. Enable virtual Wi-Fi
Windows
7 includes a little-known new feature called Virtual Wi-Fi, which
effectively turns your PC or laptop into a software-based router. Any
other Wi-Fi-enabled devices within range - a desktop, laptop, an iPod
perhaps - will see you as a new network and, once logged on, immediately
be able to share your internet connection.
This will only work if
your wireless adapter driver supports it, though, and not all do. Check
with your adapter manufacturer and make sure you've installed the very
latest drivers to give you the best chance.
Once you have driver support then the easiest approach is to get a network tool that can set up virtual Wi-Fi for you. Virtual Router (below) is free, easy to use and should have you sharing your internet connection very quickly. If
you don't mind working with the command line, though, maybe setting up
some batch files or scripts, then it's not that difficult to set this up
manually. See Turn your Windows 7 laptop into a wireless hotspot for more.
18. Recover locked-up apps
If
an application locks up under a previous version of Windows then there
was nothing you could do about it. A new Windows 7 option, however, can
not only explain the problem, but may get your program working again
without any loss of data.
When the lockup occurs, click Start, type RESMON and click the RESMON.EXE link to launch the Resource Monitor.
Find your frozen process in the CPU pane (it should be highlighted in red), right-click it and select Analyze Wait Chain.
If
you see at least two processes in the list, then the lowest, at the end
of the tree, is the one holding up your program. If it's not a vital
Windows component, or anything else critical, then save any work in
other open applications, check the box next to this process, click End
Process, and your locked-up program will often spring back to life.
19. Fault-Tolerant Help
Windows
7 includes a new feature called the Fault Tolerant Help (FTH), a clever
technology that looks out for unstable processes, detects those that
may be crashing due to memory issues, and applies several real-time
fixes to try and help. If these work, that's fine - if not, the fixes
will be undone and they won't be applied to that process again.
While
this is very good in theory, it can leave you confused as some
applications crash, then start working (sometimes) for no apparent
reason. So if you'd like to check if the FTH is running on your PC,
launch REGEDIT, and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\FTH -
any program currently being protected by the FTH will be listed in the
State key.
Experienced users may also try tweaking the FTH
settings to catch more problems, and perhaps improve system stability. A
post on Microsoft's Ask The Performance Team blog (bit.ly/d1JStu)
explains what the various FTH Registry keys mean.
20. Control devices and printers
Device
Manager is a powerful tool for managing hardware, but it's also rather
technical and intimidating, which is probably why Windows 7 has
introduced a more basic alternative in the Devices and Printers applet.
The
first improvement is purely visual, with lengthy and cryptic device
names replaced by large icons for major hardware items only (monitor,
mouse, hard drive, printer and so on).
The new applet can also
save you time, though, by providing a quick and easy way to access
relevant functions for each device. If you've got some printer-related
issue, say, right-clicking your printer icon displays a list of useful
options - See What's Printing, Printer Preferences, Printer Properties,
Delete Printer Queue and more - and all you have to do is select
whatever you need.
21. Automatically switch your default printer
Windows
7's location-aware printing allows the operating system to
automatically switch your default printer as you move from one network
to another.
To set this up, first click Start, type Devices, and click the Devices and Printers link.
Select
a printer and click Manage Default Printers (this is only visible on a
mobile device, like a laptop - you won't see it on a PC).
Choose
the Change My Default Printer When I Change Networks option, select a
network, the default printer you'd like to use, and click Add.
Repeat the process for other networks available, and pick a default printer for each one.
And
now, as you connect to a new network, Windows 7 will check this list
and set the default printer to the one that you've defined.
Windows 7 has changed Control Panel a
little, but it's still too difficult to locate all the applets and
options that you might need. God Mode, however, while not being
particularly godlike, does offer an easier way to access everything you
could want from a single folder.
To try this out, create a new folder and rename it to: The
first part, "Everything" will be the folder name, and can be whatever
you want: "Super Control Panel", "Advanced", "God Mode" if you prefer.
The
extension, ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C, must be entered
exactly as it is here, though, including the curly brackets. When you
press [Enter] this part of the name will disappear, and double-clicking
the new folder will display shortcuts to functions in the Action Centre,
the Network and Sharing Centre, Power options, troubleshooting tools,
user accounts and others - more than 260 options in total.
23. Right-click everything
At
first glance Windows 7 bears a striking resemblance to Vista, but
there's an easy way to begin spotting the differences - just right-click
things.
Right-click an empty part of the desktop, for instance,
and you'll find a menu entry to set your screen resolution. No need to
go browsing through the display settings any more.
Right-click the
Explorer icon on the taskbar for speedy access to common system
folders: Documents, Pictures, the Windows folder, and more.
And if
you don't plan on using Internet Explorer then you probably won't want
its icon permanently displayed on the taskbar. Right-click the icon,
select 'Unpin this program from the taskbar', then go install Firefox,
instead.
24. Display the old taskbar button context menu
Right-click
a taskbar button, though, and you'll now see its jumplist menu. That's a
useful new feature, but not much help if you want to access the
minimise, maximise, or move options that used to be available.
Fortunately there's an easy way to get the old context menu back - just
hold down Shift as you right-click the taskbar button.
25. Desktop slideshow
Windows
7 comes with some very attractive new wallpapers, and it's not always
easy to decide which one you like the best. So why not let choose a few,
and let Windows display them all in a desktop slideshow? Right-click an
empty part of the desktop, select Personalise > Desktop Background,
then hold down Ctrl as you click on the images you like. Choose how
often you'd like the images to be changed (anything from daily to once
every 10 seconds), select Shuffle if you'd like the backgrounds to
appear in a random order, then click Save Changes and enjoy the show. Select multiple background images and Windows will cycle through them
26. RSS-powered wallpaper
And
if a slideshow based on your standard wallpaper isn't enough, then you
can always install a theme which extracts images from an RSS feed, and
so ensures a regularly updated stream of top quality backgrounds (if you
choose wisely, anyway). To see what's available, right-click an empty
part of your desktop, select Personalise > Get more themes online,
and click RSS Dynamic Themes in the left-hand list.
Another option is to produce an RSS-based feed of your very own. Long Zheng has created a few sample themes to illustrate how it works. Jamie Thompson takes this even further, with a theme that always displays the latest BBC news and weather on your desktop. And MakeUseOf
have a quick and easy tutorial showing how RSS can get you those
gorgeous Bing photographs as your wallpaper. Or you can watch our custom theme video tutorial.
27. Customise the log-on screen
Changing
the Windows log-on screen used to involve some complicated and
potentially dangerous hacks, but not any more - Windows 7 makes it easy.
First, browse to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background
in REGEDIT, double-click the DWORD key called OEMBackground (not there?
Create it) and set its value to 1.
Now find a background image
you'd like to use. Make sure it's less than 256KB in size, and matches
the aspect ratio of your screen as it'll be stretched to fit.
Next,
copy that image into the %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds folder
(create the info\backgrounds folders if they don't exist). Rename the
image to backgroundDefault.jpg, reboot, and you should now have a custom
log-on image.
Alternatively, use a free tweaking tool to handle everything for you. Logon Changer displays a preview so you can see how the log-on screen will look without rebooting, while the Logon Screen Rotator accepts multiple images and will display a different one every time you log on.
28. Disable Windows Features
Windows
7 enables you to remove many more Windows features than ever before:
Internet Explorer, Media Player, Windows Search, its indexing service,
Windows Gadgets and more. This is something that you need to do
cautiously, if at all (since removing something like Media Player will
break many programs which rely on it), but can be useful if you're
looking to create a very simple, slimmed-down system.
Click
Start, type OptionalFeatures and press Enter to launch the Windows
Features dialog. Clear the checkbox to the left of any features that are
surplus to requirements, and click OK to remove them.
29. Recover screen space
The
new Windows 7 taskbar acts as one big quick launch toolbar that can
hold whatever program shortcuts you like (just right-click one and
select Pin To Taskbar). And that's fine, except it does consume a little
more screen real estate than we'd like. Shrink it to a more manageable
size by right-clicking the Start orb, then Properties > Taskbar >
Use small icons > OK.
30. Make text easier to read
Equipping
your PC with an ultra high resolution displays sounds like a great
idea, but it can mean text becomes very small, and as a result some
people manually reduce their screen resolution to compensate.
Unfortunately this then introduces another problem: if you run LCDs
below their native resolution then text (and other objects) will
inevitably become fuzzy.
The solution? Leave your LCD at its
maximum resolution, but scale text and other objects up so they become
easier to read, while also remaining sharp. You could do this in Vista,
but Windows 7 now makes the process even easier. Click Start, type
"DPIScaling" and press Enter, select the size increase you need - 125%
or 150% - then click Apply and restart to see the results. Resizing your text can make it sharper and easier to read
31. Enjoy a retro taskbar
Windows
7 now combines taskbar buttons in a way that saves space, but also
makes it more difficult to tell at a glance whether an icon represents a
running application or a shortcut. If you prefer a more traditional
approach, then right-click the taskbar, select Properties, and set
Taskbar Buttons to Combine When Taskbar is Full. You'll now get a clear
and separate button for each running application, making them much
easier to identify.
32. Remove taskbar buttons
One problem
with the previous tip is the buttons will gobble up valuable taskbar
real estate, but you can reduce the impact of this by removing their
text captions. Launch REGEDIT, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics, add a string called MinWidth, set it to 54,
and reboot to see the results.
33. Restore the Quick Launch Toolbar
If
you're unhappy with the new taskbar, even after shrinking it, then it
only takes a moment to restore the old Quick Launch Toolbar.
Right-click
the taskbar, choose Toolbars > New Toolbar, type
"%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch"
(less the quotes) into the Folder box and click Select Folder.
Now
right-click the taskbar, clear 'Lock the taskbar', and you should see
the Quick Launch toolbar, probably to the right. Right-click its
divider, clear Show Text and Show Title to minimise the space it takes
up. Complete the job by right-clicking the bar and selecting View >
Small Icons for the true retro look.
34. Custom power switch
By
default, Windows 7 displays a plain text 'Shut down' button on the
Start menu, but it only takes a moment to change this action to
something else. If you reboot your PC a few times every day then that
might make more sense as a default action: right-click the Start orb,
select Properties and set the 'Power boot action' to 'Restart' to make
it happen.
35. Auto arrange your desktop
If your Windows 7
desktop has icons scattered everywhere then you could right-click it
and select View > Auto arrange, just as in Vista. But a simpler
solution is just to press and hold down F5, and Windows will
automatically arrange its icons for you.
36. Disable smart window arrangement
Windows
7 features interesting new ways to intelligently arrange your windows,
so that (for example) if you drag a window to the top of the screen then
it will maximise. We like the new system, but if you find it
distracting then it's easily disabled. Run REGEDIT, go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop, set WindowArrangementActive to
0, reboot, and your windows will behave just as they always did.
37. Browse your tasks
If
you prefer the keyboard over the mouse, you will love browsing the
taskbar using this nifty shortcut. Press Windows and T, and you move the
focus to the left-most icon on the taskbar. Then use your arrow keys to
change the focus to other icons, and you get a live preview of every
window.
38. Display your drives
Click Computer in Windows 7
and you might see a strange lack of drives, but don't panic, it's just
Microsoft trying to be helpful: drives like memory card readers are no
longer displayed if they're empty. We think it's an improvement, but if
you disagree then it's easy to get your empty drives back. Launch
Explorer, click Tools > Folder Options > View and clear 'Hide
empty drives in the computer folder'.
39. See more detail
The
new and improved Windows 7 magnifier offers a much easier way to zoom
in on any area of the screen. Launch it and you can now define a scale
factor and docking position, and once activated it can track your
keyboard focus around the screen. Press Tab as you move around a dialog
box, say, and it'll automatically zoom in on the currently active
control.
40. Extend your jumplists
By default a jumplist
will display up to 10 items, but it can often be useful to extend this
and add a few more. Right-click Start, select Properties > Customize
and set Number of Recent Items to Display in Jump Lists to the figure
you need.
41. Disable Aero Peek
Hover your mouse cursor
over the bottom right hand corner of the screen and Windows 7 will hide
open windows, showing you the desktop. Seems like a good idea to us, but
if the feature gets in your way then it's easy to turn off. Simply
right-click the Start orb, select Properties > Taskbar and clear the
box marked Use Aero Peek to Preview the Desktop.
42. Pin a drive to the taskbar
The taskbar isn't just for apps and documents. With just a few seconds work you can pin drive icons there, too.
Right-click
an empty part of the desktop, select New > Text File, and rename the
file to drive.exe. Drag and drop this onto your taskbar, then delete
the original file.
Right-click your new "drive.exe" taskbar
button, then right-click its file name and select Properties. Change the
contents of both the Target and Start In boxes to point at the drive or
folder of your choice, perhaps click Change Icon to choose an
appropriate drive icon, and you're done - that drive or folder is now
available at a click.
43. Expand your taskbar previews
Move
your mouse cursor over a Windows 7 taskbar button and you'll see a
small preview of the application window. To make this larger, launch
REGEDIT, browse to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband,
right-click in the right hand pane and create a new DWORD value called
MinThumbSizePx. Double-click this, choose the Decimal option, set the
value to 350 and reboot to see the results. Tweak the value again to
fine-tune the results, or delete it to return to the default thumbnail
size.
Windows Media Player is great for accessing local
music and videos, but that's just the start. You can also browse the
media libraries on other PCs across your network, and the Play To
feature means it's now even possible to 'push' media from one system,
and have it automatically begin playing on another.
To set this
up, first launch Media Player, click Stream > Turn on media
streaming, then click Turn On Media Streaming in the Options dialog.
Click
Stream, select Allow remote control of my player > Allow remote
control on this network, then click Stream > Automatically allow
devices to play my media.
Repeat this on any network PC which
you'd like to include, then right-click any file within Media Player,
and select the Play To menu. Choose a remote computer from the list, and
the media file will be pushed across the network, automatically playing
on the other system.
45. Customise UAC
Windows Vista's
User Account Control was a good idea in practice, but poor
implementation put many people off - it raised far too many alerts.
Fortunately Windows 7 displays less warnings by default, and lets you
further fine-tune UAC to suit your preferred balance between security
and a pop-up free life (Start > Control Panel > Change User
Account Control Settings).
46. Use Sticky Notes
The Sticky
Notes app is both simpler and more useful in Windows 7. Launch
StikyNot.exe and you can type notes at the keyboard; right-click a note
to change its colour; click the + sign on the note title bar to add
another note; and click a note and press Alt + 4 to close the note
windows (your notes are automatically saved).
47. Open folder in new process
By
default Windows 7 opens folders in the same process. This saves system
resources, but means one folder crash can bring down the entire shell.
If your system seems unstable, or you're doing something in Explorer
that regularly seems to causes crashes, then open Computer, hold down
Shift, right-click on your drive and select Open in New Process. The
folder will now be launched in a separate process, and so a crash is
less likely to affect anything else.
48. Watch more videos
Windows
Media Player is a powerful program, but it still won't play all the
audio and video files you'll find online. Fortunately Windows 7 codecs pack
supports just about every file and compression type there is, and
installing it should get your troublesome multimedia files playing
again.
49. Preview fonts
Open the Fonts window in Windows
XP and Vista and you'll see the font names, probably with icons to tell
you whether they're TrueType or OpenType, but that's about it. Windows 7
sees some useful font-related improvements.
Open the new fonts
window and you'll find a little preview for every font, giving you a
quick idea of how they're going to look.
The tedium of scrolling
through multiple entries for each family, like Times New Roman, Times
New Roman Bold, Times New Roman Bold Italic and so on, has finally
ended. There's now just a single entry for each font (though you can
still see all other members of the family).
And there's a new
OpenType font, Gabriola, added to the mix. It's an attractive script
font, well worth a try the next time you need a stylish document that
stands out from the crowd.
50. New WordPad formats
By
default WordPad will save documents in Rich Text Format, just as before.
But browse the Save As Format list and you'll see you can also save (or
open, actually) files in the Office 2007 .docx or OpenDocument .odt
formats.
51. Protect your data
USB flash drives are
convenient, portable, and very easy to lose. Which is a problem,
especially if they're carrying sensitive data. Fortunately Windows 7
Ultimate and Enterprise have the solution: encrypt your documents with
an extension of Microsoft's BitLocker technology, and only someone with
the password will be able to access it. Right-click your USB flash
drive, select Turn on BitLocker and follow the instructions to protect
your private files.
If
you have multiple windows open on your desktop and things are getting
too cluttered, it used to be a time-consuming process to close them all
down. In Windows 7 you can use the Aero Shake feature to minimise
everything in seconds, using a cool mouse gesture. Grab the title bar of
the window you wish to keep open and give it a shake, and rejoice in a
clear desktop area.
53. Configure your favourite music
The
Windows 7 Media Centre now comes with an option to play your favourite
music, which by default creates a changing list of songs based on your
ratings, how often you play them, and when they were added (it's assumed
you'll prefer songs you've added in the last 30 days). If this doesn't
work then you can tweak how Media Centre decides what a favourite tune
is- click Tasks > Settings > Music > Favourite Music and
configure the program to suit your needs.
54. Customise System Restore
There
was very little you could do to configure System Restore in Vista, but
Windows 7 improves the situation with a couple of useful setup options.
Click
the Start orb, right-click Computer and select Properties > System
Protection > Configure, and set the Max Usage value to a size that
suits your needs (larger to hold more restore points, smaller to save
disk space).
And if you don't need System Restore to save Windows
settings then choose the option to Only Restore Previous Versions of
Files. Windows 7 won't back up your Registry, which means you'll squeeze
more restore points and file backups into the available disk space.
System Restore is much less likely to get an unbootable PC working
again, though, so use this trick at your own risk.
55. Run As
Hold
down Shift, right-click any program shortcut, and you'll see an option
to run the program as a different user, handy if you're logged in to the
kids' limited account and need to run something with higher privileges.
This isn't really a new feature - Windows XP had a Run As option that
did the same thing - but Microsoft stripped it out of Vista, so it's
good to see it's had a change of heart.
56. Search privacy
By
default Windows 7 will remember your PC search queries, and display the
most recent examples when searching in Windows Explorer. If you're
sharing a PC and don't want everyone to see your searches, then launch
REGEDIT and browse to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer.
Right-click in the right-hand pane, create a new DWORD value called
DisableSearchBoxSuggestions, set it to 1, and this will take effect
after you next reboot.
57. Tweak PC volume
By default
Windows 7 will now automatically reduce the volume of your PC's sounds
whenever it detects you're making or receiving PC-based phone calls. If
this proves annoying (or maybe you'd like it to turn off other sounds
altogether) then you can easily change the settings accordingly. Just
right-click the speaker icon in your taskbar, select Sounds >
Communications, and tell Windows what you'd like it to do.
58. Rearrange the system tray
With
Windows 7 we finally see system tray icons behave in a similar way to
everything else on the taskbar. So if you want to rearrange them, then
go right ahead, just drag and drop them into the order you like. You can
even move important icons outside of the tray, drop them onto the
desktop, then put them back when you no longer need to keep an eye on
them.
59. Extend your battery life
Windows 7 includes new
power options that will help to improve your notebook's battery life. To
see them, click Start, type Power Options and click the Power Options
link, then click Change Plan Settings for your current plan and select
Change Advanced Settings. Expand Multimedia Settings, for instance, and
you'll see a new Playing Video setting that can be set to optimise power
savings rather than performance. Browse through the other settings and
ensure they're set up to suit your needs.
60. Write crash dump files
Windows
7 won't create memory.dmp crash files if you've less than 25GB of free
hard drive space, annoying if you've installed the Windows debugging
tools and want to diagnose your crashes. You can turn this feature off,
though: browse to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl, create
a new DWORD value called AlwaysKeepMemoryDump, set it to 1, and the
crash dump file will now always be saved.
61. Protect your data
If
you have confidential files in a particular folder or two, and would
like to keep them away from other network users, then right-click the
folder, select Share With > Nobody, and they'll be made private, for
your eyes only (or your user account, anyway).
62. Reorganise the taskbar
Windows
7 taskbar buttons are now movable - feel free to drag, drop and
otherwise reorganise them to suit your needs. And then remember that
each button can be launched by holding with the Windows key and pressing
1 to activate the first, 2 the second and so on, up to 0 for the tenth.
63. Repair your PC
If
Windows 7 won't start, you may not need an installation or repair disc
any more, as the repair environment is now usually installed on your
hard drive. Press [F8] as your PC starts, and if you see a Repair Your
Computer option, choose that to see the full range of Windows 7 recovery
tools.
64. Reset and repair
Troubleshooting
Windows problems can be complicated, since there are so many settings
and options to consider. Windows 8 has simplified this with its own
Repair and Refresh tool, but if you're not in the mood to upgrade just
yet, there's always Tweaking.com's Windows Repair.
This
compact program is able to resolve Registry and file permission
problems, fix IE and the Windows firewall, repair icons, get Windows
Update working again and a whole lot more. And in theory it's quite
simple, too - just select the area you want to repair and it'll be fixed
in a click or two.
Windows Repair has worked well for us in the
past, but needs to be treated with care. Applying fixes you don't need
can cause more problems than you solve. Select only options you're sure
are appropriate, and don't run the program at all unless your PC has a
full system backup available. A helpful wizard walks you through every step of the repair process
65. ReadyBoost revamped
If
you were unimpressed by ReadyBoost in Vista, it may be worth trying the
technology again under Windows 7. The operating system now allows you
to combine multiple USB drives, each with larger caches, to deliver an
extra speed boost.
66. Fixing Windows 7 N
If you have
Windows 7 N then this means you'll be missing key multimedia
applications, like Media Player, Media Centre, DVD Maker and more. But
that's not all. You also won't have some of the subsystems required by
third-party apps like Nero MultiMedia Suite, which means that even if
they install, you could have problems getting them to work correctly.
Fortunately
there's an easy fix, though, as the missing components are available in
the form of Microsoft's Windows Media Pack. If you're currently having
media-related issues on a Windows 7 N installation, grab your copy from support.microsoft.com/kb/968211.
Navigating the Control Panel has
never been the easiest of processes, however Windows 7 has tried to
improve the situation by equipping the Control Panel window with its own
search box. And, just as you might think, if you enter part of an
applet name - "Display", say - then matching applets will be listed
right away.
You don't have to be quite so specific about what you
type, though, because Search generally does a very good job of figuring
out what's relevant. Entering "hacker" displays the Firewall applet, for
instance, while typing "virus" provides a link to Windows Defender.
It's all very helpful, but keep in mind that you don't have to launch
Control Panel to get these results: simply type your key words into the
Start Menu search box and the same links will appear.
68. Repair libraries
Windows
7's new Libraries are a great way to simplify file management, when
they're all working properly. Unfortunately, if their settings become
damaged then they might not always display the files you expect, or you
might not even be able to access them at all. If the problems survive a
reboot then right-click the Libraries folder, select Restore Default
Libraries, and your system should be back in full working order. (You'll
lose any library customisations you made, though, so try this only as a
last resort.)
69. Add network folders to libraries
Windows
7 Libraries are all about making it easy to view content that's
scattered across many folders, and even hard drives, but there are
limitations. And in particular, Explorer won't enable you to add network
folders.
If this is a problem, though, all you have to do is grab a copy of the Win7 Library Tool, a simple free program that enables you to freely add any network location to whatever library you like.
70. Hide unused libraries
If
you don't use some Windows 7 libraries then it's generally a good idea
to hide them, since this recovers valuable space in the left-hand
Explorer navigation pane and cuts down on scrolling. Just right-click an
unwanted library and select Don't Show in Navigation Pane to hide it.
To bring it back, click Libraries, right-click whatever you need and
choose Show in Navigation Pane.
71. Find bottlenecks
From
what we've seen so far Windows 7 is already performing better than
Vista, but if your PC seems sluggish then it's now much easier to
uncover the bottleneck. Click Start, type RESMON and press Enter to
launch the Resource Monitor, then click the CPU, Memory, Disk or Network
tabs. Windows 7 will immediately show which processes are hogging the
most system resources.
The CPU view is particularly useful, and
provides something like a more powerful version of Task Manager. If a
program has locked up, for example, then right-click its name in the
list and select Analyze Process. Windows will then try to tell you why
it's hanging - the program might be waiting for another process, perhaps
- which could give you the information you need to fix the problem.
Windows 7 supports several useful new keyboard shortcuts.
Alt+P
Display/ hide the Explorer preview pane
Windows Logo+G
Display gadgets in front of other windows
Windows Logo++ (plus key)
Zoom in, where appropriate
Windows Logo+- (minus key)
Zoom out, where appropriate
Windows Logo+Up
Maximise the current window
Windows Logo+Down
Minimise the current window
Windows Logo+Left
Snap to the left hand side of the screen
Windows Logo+Right
Snap to the right hand side of the screen
Windows Logo+Home
Minimise/ restore everything except the current window
73. Drag and drop to the command line
When
working at the command line you'll often need to access files, which
usually means typing lengthy paths and hoping you've got them right. But
Windows 7 offers an easier way. Simply drag and drop the file onto your
command window and the full path will appear, complete with quotes and
ready to be used.
This feature isn't entirely new: you could do
this in Windows XP, too, but drag and drop support disappeared in Vista.
There does seem to be a new Windows 7 complication, though, in that it
only seems to work when you open the command prompt as a regular user.
Run cmd.exe as an administrator and, while it accepts dropped files, the
path doesn't appear.
74. Customise your jumplists
Right-click
an icon on your taskbar, perhaps Notepad, and you'll see a jumplist
menu that provides easy access to the documents you've been working on
recently. But maybe there's another document that you'd like to be
always available? Then drag and drop it onto the taskbar icon, and it'll
be pinned to the top of the jumplist for easier access. Click the pin
to the right of the file name, or right-click it and select Unpin From
This List when you need to remove it.
75. Faster program launches
If
you've launched one instance of a program but want to start another,
then don't work your way back through the Start menu. It's much quicker
to just hold down Shift and click on the program's icon (or middle-click
it), and Windows 7 will start a new instance for you.
76. Speedy video access
Want
faster access to your Videos folder? Windows 7 now lets you add it to
the Start menu. Just right-click the Start orb, click Properties >
Start Menu > Customize, and set the Videos option to Display As a
Link. If you've a TV tuner that works with Windows 7 then you'll
appreciate the new option to display the Recorded TV folder on the Start
menu, too.
77. Mount ISO images
Windows 7 introduced the
ability to burn an ISO image to disc, but it doesn't provide any way to
browse that image beforehand - which is why you need a copy of WinCDEmu.
This simple tool mounts ISO and other image files as virtual drives,
enabling you to access them in Explorer just as though they were
physical discs.
Once you've set up WinCDEmu, it will instantly mount any image file with a double-click
78. Run web searches
The
Windows 7 search tool can now be easily extended to search online
resources, just as long as someone creates an appropriate search
connector. To add Flickr support, say, visit I Started Something,
click Download the Connector, choose the Open option and watch as it's
downloaded (the file is tiny, it'll only take a moment). A Flickr Search
option will be added to your Searches folder, and you'll be able to
search images from your desktop.
A multitude of other ready-made searches, such as Google and YouTube, can be downloaded from the windowsclub.com website.
79. Schedule Media Centre downloads
You
can now tell Windows Media Centre to download data at a specific time,
perhaps overnight, a useful way to prevent it sapping your bandwidth for
the rest of the day. Launch Media Centre, go to Tasks > Settings
> General > Automatic Download Options, and set the download start
and stop times that you'd like it to use.
80. Multi-threaded Robocopies
Anyone
who's ever used the excellent command-line robocopy tool will
appreciate the new switches introduced with Windows 7. Our favourite,
/MT, can improve speed by carrying out multi-threaded copies with the
number of threads you specify (you can have up to 128, though that might
be going a little too far). Enter robocopy /? at a command line for the
full details.
81. Load IE faster
Some Internet Explorer
add-ons can take a while to start, dragging down the browser's
performance, but at least IE8 can now point a finger at the worst
resource hogs. Click Tools > Manage Add-ons, check the Load Time in
the right-hand column, and you'll immediately see which browser
extensions are slowing you down.
82. An Alt+Tab alternative
You
want to access one of the five Explorer windows you have open, but
there are so many other programs running that Alt+Tab makes it hard to
pick out what you need. The solution? Hold down the Ctrl key while you
click on the Explorer icon. Windows 7 will then cycle through the
Explorer windows only, a much quicker way to locate the right one. And
of course this works with any application that has multiple windows
open.
83. Block annoying alerts
Just like Vista, Windows 7
will display a suitably stern warning if it thinks your antivirus,
firewall or other security settings are incorrect.
But unlike
Vista, if you disagree then you can now turn off alerts on individual
topics. If you no longer want to see warnings just because you've dared
to turn off the Windows firewall, say, then click Control Panel >
System and Security > Action Centre > Change Action Centre
settings, clear the Network Firewall box and click OK.
84. Parallel defrags
The
standard Windows 7 defragger offers a little more control than we saw
in Vista, and the command line version also has some interesting new
features. The /r switch will defrag multiple drives in parallel, for
instance (they'll obviously need to be physically separate drives for
this to be useful). The /h switch runs the defrag at a higher than
normal priority, and the /u switch provides regular progress reports so
you can see exactly what's going on. Enter the command
defrag /c /h /u /r
in a command window to speedily defrag a system with multiple drives, or enter defrag /? to view the new options for yourself.
85. Fix Explorer
The
Windows 7 Explorer has a couple of potential annoyances. Launching
Computer will no longer display system folders like Control Panel or
Recycle Bin, for instance. And if you're drilling down through a
complicated folder structure in the right-hand pane of Explorer, the
left-hand tree won't always expand to follow what you're doing, which
can make it more difficult to see exactly where you are. Fortunately
there's a quick fix: click Organize > Folder and Search Options,
check Show All Folders and Automatically Expand To Current Folder, and
click OK.
86. Faster file handing
If you hold down Shift
while right-clicking a file in Explorer, then you'll find the Send To
file now includes all your main user folders: Contacts, Documents,
Downloads, Music and more. Choose any of these and your file will be
moved there immediately.
87. Create folder favourites
If
you're regularly working on the same folder in Explorer then select it
in the right-hand page, right-click Favourites on the left-hand menu,
and select Add to Favourites. It'll then appear at the bottom of the
favourites list for easy one-click access later.
88. Disable hibernation
By
default Windows 7 will permanently consume a chunk of your hard drive
with its hibernation file, but if you never use sleep, and always turn
your PC off, then this will never actually be used. To disable
hibernation and recover a little hard drive space, launch REGEDIT,
browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power,
then set both HibernateEnabled and HiberFileSizePerfect to zero.
89. Create a new folder shortcut
When
you need to create a new folder in Windows 7 Explorer, don't reach for
the mouse. Just press Ctrl+Shift+N to create the folder in the active
Explorer window, then type its name as usual.
90. Open a jumplist
Most
people right-click a Windows taskbar icon to view its jumplist. You can
also hold the left mouse button over the icon, though, then drag
upwards to reveal the jumplist and choose the option you need, a more
natural action that should be just a little faster.
91. Search quickly
If
you'd like to search for something in an Explorer window then there's
no need to use the mouse. Simply press [F3] to move the focus to the
search box, enter your keyword and press [Enter] to run the search.
92. Search file contents
There's
no obvious way in the Windows interface to search the contents of files
that haven't been indexed, but all you need to do is start your search
with the "content:" search filter. So entering "content:Microsoft", for
instance, will find all documents (whether they're actually indexed or
not) that contain the word Microsoft.
93. Close in a click
Hover
your mouse cursor over a Windows taskbar button will display a preview
thumbnail of that application window. You don't need that app any more?
Then middle-click the thumbnail to close it down.
94. Leave the Homegroup
Homegroups
are an easy way to network Windows 7 PCs, but if you don't use the
feature then turning it off can save you a few system resources.
Click
Start, type Homegroup, and click Choose Homegroup and Sharing Options.
Click Leave the Homegroup > Leave the Homegroup > Finish.
Now click Start, type services.msc and press [Enter] to launch the Services Control Panel applet.
Find
and double-click both the HomeGroup Listener and HomeGroup Provider
service, clicking Stop and setting Startup Type to Disabled in each
case, and the services won't be launched when you need reboot.
Don't
despair, though, help is at hand. We've poked around every part of
Windows 8, uncovering many of its most important tips and tricks, so
read our guide and you'll soon be equipped to get the most out of
Microsoft's latest release.
1. Open from the lock screen
Windows 8 coverage
Windows 8 reviewWindows 8 vs Windows 7: 8 ways it's differentWindows 8 tablets: what you need to knowMaking sense of the Windows 8 versionsAll our Windows 8 content
Windows 8 opens on its lock screen, which looks pretty but unfortunately displays no clues about what to do next.
It's
all very straightforward, though. Just tap the space bar, spin the
mouse wheel or swipe upwards on a touch screen to reveal a regular login
screen with the user name you created during installation. Enter your
password to begin.
2. Handle basic navigation
Windows 8's
interface is all colourful tiles and touch-friendly apps. And if you're
using a tablet then it'll all be very straightforward: just swipe left
or right to scroll the screen, and tap any tile of interest.
On a regular desktop, though, you might alternatively spin the mouse wheel to scroll backwards and forwards.
And
you can also use the keyboard. Press the Home or End keys to jump from
one end of your Start screen to the other, for instance, then use the
cursor keys to select a particular tile, tapping Enter to select it.
Press the Windows key to return to the Start screen; right-click (or
swipe down on) apps you don't need and select Unpin to remove them; and
drag and drop the other tiles around to organise them as you like.
3. Group apps
The
Start screen apps are initially displayed in a fairly random order, but
if you'd prefer a more organised life then it's easy to sort them into
custom groups.
You might drag People, Mail, Messaging and Calendar
over to the left-hand side, for instance, to form a separate 'People'
group. Click the 'minus' icon in the bottom right corner of the screen
to zoom out and you'll now find you can drag and drop the new group (or
any of the others) around as a block.
Right-click within the block
(while still zoomed out) and you'll also be able to give the group a
name, which - if you go on to add another 20 or 30 apps to your Start
screen - will make it much easier to find the tools you need.
4. Use the quick access menu
Right-click
in the bottom-left corner (or hold down the Windows key and press X)
for a text-based menu that provides easy access to lots of useful
applets and features: Device Manager, Control Panel, Explorer, the
Search dialog and more. Download the Win+X Menu Editor and you'll be able to further customise the list with programs of your own.
5. Find your applications
The
Win+X menu is useful, but no substitute for the old Start menu as it
doesn't provide access to your applications. To find this, hold down the
Windows key and press Q or either right-click an empty part of the
Start screen or swipe your finger up from the bottom of the screen and
select 'All Apps' to reveal a scrolling list of all your installed
applications. Browse the various tiles to find what you need and click
the relevant app to launch it.
6. Make access easier
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If
there's an application you use all the time then you don't have to
access it via the search system. Pin it to the Start screen and it'll be
available at a click.
Start by typing part of the name of your
application. To access Control Panel, for instance, type 'Control'.
Right-click the 'Control Panel' tile on the Apps Search screen, and
click 'Pin to Start'. If you're using a touchscreen, press and hold the
icon, then flick down and select 'Pin to Start'.
Now press the
Windows key, scroll to the right and you'll see the Control Panel tile
at the far end. Drag and drop this over to the left somewhere if you'd
like it more easily accessible, then click the tile to open the desktop
along with the Control Panel window, and press the Windows key to return
you to the Start screen when you're done.
7. Shut down
To
shut Windows 8 down, just move the mouse cursor to the bottom right
corner of the screen, click the Settings icon - or just hold down the
Windows key and press I - and you'll see a power button. Click this and
choose 'Shut Down' or 'Restart'.
Some of the tricks available in
previous versions of Windows still apply. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del, for
instance, click the power button in the bottom right-hand corner and
you'll be presented with the same 'Shut Down' and 'Restart' options.
And
if you're on the desktop, press Alt+F4 and you'll be able to choose
'Shut Down', 'Restart', 'Sign Out' or 'Switch User' options.
