10 best Power Tips for Windows 7

Windows 7 Power User’s Guide was making news for quite a few weeks. But, who wants to shed a £3.99 for Windows 7 power tips when there are bounty of free tips available on Internet. All you power users must have been craving for some geeky ideas to make the most of the new OS. Well, most of you lack the time and patience to go thorough those complex user manuals. Especially, following the step-by-step process in the manuals is an exhaustive task. To reduce your burden we listed the top 10 power tips for Windows 7 after an extensive research. Let’s see what are the best things you can do to better your Windows 7 experience.

1. Speed up your boot time

Windows 7 has considerably downsized the boot time, but its still behind Ubuntu. Well, if you still crave for a faster boot up, try this Power tip.

Step 1: Type msconfig into the Start menu search bar

Step 2: Click through to the System configuration screen

Step 3: Select the boot tab. Click on Advanced options and set the number of processors from 2 to 4, depending on whether you system is dual core or quad core.

2. Restore the Quick Launch Toolbar

Windows 7 comes with a huge Quick Launch taskbar that can hold all the shortcuts. Those used to the old Quick Launch Toolbar, might find it somewhat cluttering.  Why not restore the old Quick Lunch toolbar? You can do this with an easy trick provided below

Step 1: Right click the taskbar

Step 2: Choose Toolbars>New Toolbar

Type %UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

Step 3: In the Folder box and click Select Folder.

Step 4: Right click the taskbar and clear the Lock the taskbar.

The Quick Launch toolbar will appear on the right.

Now to minimize its space right click the divider, clear the Show Text and Show Title.  Now right click on the toolbar and select View >Small Icons

3. Open folder in new process

In Windows 7 the folders are opened in the same process. This essentially saves the system’s resources, but even one folder crash can bring down the entire shell. You might encounter system crashes whenever you do something in Explorer. There’s an easy way to avoid this. Open the Computer, hold down the shift key, right click on your drive and select Open in New Process. Next time you open a folder it will be launched in seperate process and so a crash won’t affect the other processes.

4. Removing the clogs

Windows 7 offers a far better performance than Vista. Still your PC might get sluggish due to some anomly.
Click on the Start and type RESMON and press Enter. This will launch the Resource Monitor. Click  on CPU, Memory, Disk or Network tabs. Windows 7 will immediately show,  which processes are engaging the highest system resources.

The information on CPU offers you something beyond what you use to get in Task Manager. Suppose a certain program has been blocked you can right-click on its name in the list and select Analyze process. It reveals why the program was halted. The reason might be that it had to wait for another process. This could be the clue to solve your problem.

5. Get rid of the Send Feedback link

In Windows 7 you Microsoft has incurred a feedback. It allows you to report about the bugs or provide any good idea that comes to your mind. Just by clicking the Send Feedback button you can send your feedback to Microsoft.

Now when you have completed sending feedback you might think of removing the Send feedback option. This would require you to apply a simple workaround on the registry.

Step 1: Go for the regdit

Step 2: Search for the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

Step 3: Set the FeedbackToolEnabled value to zero and restart your PC

Note: In case, you would like to suspend the Send Feedback links temporarily set the value to 3.

6. Add network support

Windows Live MovieMaker doesn’t allow you to import files over a network. There’s a quick Registry tweak using which you can change this in two steps.

Step 1:  Run REGEDIT, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live\Movie Maker

Step 2: Add a DWORD value called AllowNetworkFiles and set it to 1 to add network support.

7. Custom power switch

In the default Windows 7 display you will be able to see the Shut down button on the Start menu. In case you are rebooting the system too often, it could be a better idea to set a default action. This can be easily accomplished in a jiffy.

Step 1: Right click the Start orb
Step 2: Select Properties
Step 3: Set the Power boot action to Restart

8. Multi-threaded Robocopies

Are you in the habit of using the command-line robocopy tool? Windows 7 has introduced new switches that are really appreciable. The new multi-threaded operation can be called by a new switch that is supported by Robocopy. To enable the new multi-threaded copy feature use the following parameter

/MT[:n]

Here n denotes that multi-threaded copies with n threads. The value of n cannot exceed 128. Robocopy copies files and folders in multi-threaded operation by default.

9. Search all

Windows 7 allows you to search the contents of almost any type of file. This would be useful only if it is not finding the data you need. Although the search might be very slow you might try it in tight situation. For this you need to do this

Step 1: Launch the Explorer
Step 2: Click Tools > Folder Options > View
Step 3: Check Try to search the content of unknown file types

10.  Skip the log-on screen

It’s gets on your nerves when you have to reboot the system time and again, and the log-on screen keep you waiting. Just disable it by pressing WinKey+R and typing control userpasswords2 in the box that appears. Uncheck the Users must enter a username and password to use this computer.