ALL ABOUT WINDOWS 10 TECHNICAL PREVIEW

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Before you install Windows Technical Preview

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Is it right for me?System requirementsWhat can I keep?Updates and feedbackHelp and support

A preview for PC experts

Windows Technical Preview is here today, but it’s a long way from done. We’re going to make it faster, better, more fun at parties...you get the idea. Join the Windows Insider Program to make sure you get all the new features that are on the way. If you’re okay with a moving target and don’t want to miss out on the latest stuff, keep reading. Technical Preview could be just your thing.

Download and install the preview only if you

• Want to try out software that’s still in development and like sharing your opinion about it.
• Don’t mind lots of updates or a UI design that might change significantly over time.
• Really know your way around a PC and feel comfortable troubleshooting problems, backing up data, formatting a hard drive, installing an operating system from scratch, or restoring your old one if necessary.
• Know what an ISO file is and how to use it.
• Aren't installing it on your everyday computer.

We're not kidding about the expert thing. So if you think BIOS is a new plant-based fuel, Tech Preview may not be right for you.

Things to keep in mind

Unexpected PC crashes could damage or even delete your files, so you should back up everything. Some printers and other hardware might not work, and some software might not install or work correctly, including antivirus or security programs. You might also have trouble connecting to home or corporate networks.

Also, if your PC runs into problems, Microsoft will likely examine your system files. If the privacy of your system files is a concern, consider using a different PC. For more info, read our privacy statement.

What does it work with?

Technical Preview should work with the same devices and programs that work with Windows 8.1, but you might need to update or reinstall some of them.

Drivers for basic functions like storage, networking, input, and display come with Windows. These drivers allow you to complete the Windows installation and connect to the Internet. You might be able to get more drivers from Windows Update.

For compatibility info, see the Windows 8.1 Compatibility Center.

If you use a mouse and keyboard

Your apps and devices should work as expected, though of course there will be exceptions. We’d love to know what you think about how the new Windows works with mouse and keyboard and whether it provides the best of new and familiar functionality for Windows and apps.

If you have a touch PC

Technical Preview works with touch, but some things will be rough and unfinished. More touch-friendly improvements are on the way. In the meantime, let us know what it’s like to interact with Windows and apps in the preview.

If you want to go back to your previous operating system

You'll need to reinstall your version of Windows from the recovery or installation media that came with your PC (typically DVD media). If you don't have recovery media:

• For Windows 7 or Windows Vista: Before you update, you might be able to create recovery media from a recovery partition on your PC using software provided by your PC manufacturer. Check the support section of your PC manufacturer's website for more info.
• For Windows 8.1 or Windows 8: You might be able to create a USB recovery drive. For more info, see Create a USB recovery drive. If you didn’t create a USB recovery drive before you installed the preview, you can create installation media forWindows 8.1.

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WINDOWS 10

Windows 10 kills the Start Screen, runs on wide variety of devices

Windows 10 shrinks Windows 8's Start Screen and moves it to the Start Menu

Image Gallery (3 images)

It’s no secret that Windows 8 was not a particularly successful release, as Microsoft struggled to convince both consumers and businesses of the virtues of its split nature. Fast forward to today, and the company has announced its successor, known as Windows 10. The next version of Microsoft’s operating system makes some big changes, perhaps most notably the removal of the much-hated tile UI.

First of all, that’s not a typo – Microsoft has decided to skip a number with the new release. Apparently somebody in Marketing thought "Windows 9" didn't sound like big enough a departure from the maligned Windows 8. But "Windows 10?" Now that's something completely new!

Interestingly, Microsoft has designed Windows 10 to scale from devices with screen sizes as small as four inches – meaning that it isn’t just the next desktop OS, but also the new software for Windows smartphones and Xbox game consoles. As you might expect, the user interface will be different on the phone version of the OS, with no desktop. Past that, we’ll have to wait for further announcements to learn more about the cross-device nature of the new release.

On the desktop OS side of things, the first big change won't surprise anyone who's either used or followed the fortunes of Windows 8.x. The Start screen (initially known as Metro UI) is effectively dead. We say effectively, as the upcoming release won't completely eradicate the tile-based interface from the platform. Instead it shrinks it down to fit inside a reincarnated Start Menu.

Though the tile UI has been shrunk down to fit inside half the Start Menu, you can actually resize the menu if you so desire. There’s a touch mode that pulls it up to fill the screen, adding more tiles and closely resembling the Windows 8.1 Start screen UI. While the majority of users probably won’t make use of that feature, it’s something that Windows tablet and 2-in-1 owners will likely be thankful for.

To coincide with the removal of the full-screen tile UI, Windows Store apps will run in windows, just like standard desktop programs, helping to unify the platform and making the experience of using the OS effectively much more like Windows 7.

If you're an OS X or Linux user, then virtual desktops won't be a new concept (it's essentially exactly what it sounds like – extra, virtual desktop spaces that help you better organise open programs). Microsoft is finally on board with the feature, adding the ability to run apps in different virtual spaces, viewing all open programs at the press of a button – something the company calls Task view.

Microsoft was also keen to stress the benefits of Windows 10 for enterprise users, highlighting the ability for companies to choose how quickly they adopt new features and customize an app store so that it caters specifically for the needs of its workers.

Microsoft will start distributing the Technical Preview build of Windows 10 for laptops and desktop machines on October 1. The consumer version of the operating system is expected to ship mid-2015.

It’s likely that you still have some pretty significant questions about Windows 10. Given the questions that Microsoft left unanswered today, that’s a reasonable reaction. The company sees this initial announcement of the OS as a step on the road to its eventual release. It intends to listen closely to enterprise customers and preview testers over the coming months, tweaking and improving the experience leading up to release.

Source: Microsoft

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR SWITCHING FROM WINDOWS 8  TO WINDOWS 8.1

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR WINDOWS 8.1

With the upgrade from Windows 8 to 8.1, Microsoft has made several changes mainly to improve on certain aspects that Windows 8 has received criticism for. For starters, there’s the return of the good old Start button, ability to create a lock screen slideshow, and even support for 3D printing!

We have got for you here a list of 20 useful tips and tricks for Windows 8.1. Whether you are entirely new to or beginning to get familiar with Windows 8.1, the following list should help you get the most out of this latest offering by Microsoft.

Recommended Reading: 50 Windows 8 Keyboard Shortcuts You Should Know

1. View Options From The Start Button

The Start button is back. It is similar to the Start button found on Windows 7. Left-click on the button (bottom left of the screen) and it will redirect you to the Start Screen. If you right-click on it, it will show options for Run, Search, Desktop, Shut Down, and many more.

2. Log In Straight To Desktop

When you start your computer, by default it will take you to the Start Screen. There is a way to start your computer and go straight to the Desktop instead. Right-click on the desktop toolbar, select Properties and go to the Navigation tab. Under the Start Screen options, enable the box "When I sign in or close all applications on a screen, go to the desktop instead of Start".

3. Customize Home Screen Tiles

Besides resizing icons, you can also customize your home screen tiles on Windows 8.1. Tomove and group tiles, just go to your Start Screen and right-click on any of the tiles. After grouping your tiles, you can also name them by filling in the Name Group field.

4. Customize Start Screen Background

Windows 8.1 also allows you to customize your start screen. Just swipe the Settings Charmmenu and tap on Settings. Click on Personalize to change the colors of the background as well as the accent.

5. Create A Lock Screen Slideshow

Previously, your Windows lock screen could only be a static photo. On Windows 8.1, you are able to create a lock screen slideshow with your favorite photos. To do this, go to theSettings Charm menu, click on Change PC Settings, select PC and Devices then click onLock Screen. Enable the option On to create a lock screen slideshow.

6. Use Internet Explorer 11 Reading View

When you load any webpage using Internet Explorer 11, a Reading View icon can be seen on the address bar. If you click on it, Internet Explorer will automatically reload the page anddisplay a clean version – free of ads. This makes it very easy to read as there are no distractions. However, this feature is not available for the desktop version of Internet Explorer 11.

7. Make Use Of 3D Printing Support

Windows 8.1 is the first operating system to provide support for 3D printing! You can print from the Windows Store apps and desktop applications. For more information on how this works, click here.

8. Customize Privacy Options

Windows 8.1 offers you options to set what devices and data are used by apps found in the Windows Store. You can allow or block apps from accessing your personal information. You are also able to turn off your advertising ID so that advertisers do not use your personal data to display personalised ads. To customize these settings, go to Change PC settings and navigate to Privacy.

9. Smart Files

Smart Files is a new feature on Windows 8.1 that allows you to view your SkyDrive files without having to download everything onto your computer. When you browse through your SkyDrive folder in File Explorer, you’ll see a column called Availability.

By default, all the files are listed as Online-only, which means that as long as you are connected to the Internet, you can view the files without actually having them on your computer’s hard drive. If you want a particular SkyDrive file or folder to be available offline, just right-click on it and select the Make available offline option.

10. Customize Quiet Hours

Integrated notification pop-ups were first introduced on Windows 8. What’s new on Windows 8.1 is the option to turn the notifications off or set a period of time for which the notifications may appear. To do this, go to Change PC settings, click on Search and Apps, select Notifications, and configure the relevant options.

11. More Windowing Options For New Style Apps

On Windows 8, users could split their screen to run up to 8 apps on two 2560 x 1600 monitors. Depending on your screen size, some may only be able to split and run 2 apps. On Windows 8.1, you can do all that and more – you can add another app and resize it so that it runs horizontally (see screenshot). However, that works only if the developer has allowed it for the app.

12. Scale Each Screen Independently

In the past, Windows allowed you to scale up icons and fonts to a maximum of 500%. However, what is best for your screen may not necessarily translate on a secondary display. Text and icons may not be in proportion to one another. To solve this problem, Windows 8.1 allows you to scale each screen independently. To customize these settings, right-click on the Windows Desktop, select Screen Resolution, and select Make text and other items larger or smaller.

13. Discover The App Bars

The App bar is featured on every new Windows 8.1 app. To enable this option, right-click on the app’s screen and it will show the app’s functions and options.

14. Configure Automatic App Updates

Unlike Windows 8, app updates in Windows 8.1 will be automatically installed by default without the user’s consent. To stop this from happening, open Windows Store and access the Settings Charm menu – the charm must only be activated once in the Windows Store or else it will not display the required menus. In the Settings Charm menu, select Settingsand navigate to App Updates. Enable or disable the option to automatically update apps.

15. Prevent Apps From Running In The Background

Previously on Windows 8, when you drag a Start Screen app down to the bottom of the screen, it will close the app. However, on Windows 8.1, this action will only make the app disappear – it is still running in the background. To close the app, drag the app down to the bottom of the screen but instead of letting it go, hold on to it. Wait until the app card flips over, and only now the app is closed.

16. Use Hands-Free Mode

One of the coolest features that not many know about is found in the new Food & Drink app. If you do not like to get your computer all dirty when you are cooking, then this app is for you. Going through the recipe, you can set the app on Hands-Free Mode. It will detect your hand motion via your computer’s webcam.

17. Restore Libraries

By default, Windows 8.1 has hidden Libraries. If you want to get it back, open File Explorerand you will find the newly renamed This PC view. Here, select View, and click onNavigation pane. Lastly, enable the option to Show Libraries.

18. Delete Old Windows Installation Files

When you upgrade from an old version of Windows, Windows keeps a C:\Windows.old with your old files. You can delete this folder to free up some storage space. To do this, Searchfor Disk Cleanup, and click on Free up disk space shortcut. Next, click on Clean up system files, enable the Previous Windows Installation(s) option, and run a disk cleanup. If this option does not appear, that means there is nothing to clean up.

19. Use Help & Tips App

For further help on how to get the most out of Windows 8.1, an app has been added toguide you on pretty much everything. There are short animations to show you the correct gestures and concepts to master Windows 8.1. You can find this app on the Start Screen, titled Help+Tips.

20. Use Keyboard Shortcuts

Last but not least, we have put together a list of 15 new keyboard shortcuts you can use on Windows 8.1.

Shortcut	Action
Windows Key + S	Open Search Charm to search Windows and Web
Windows Key + Q	Search within the opened app
Windows Key + F	Search files
Windows Key + Z	Get Commands and Context Menus within an app
Windows Key + . + Right Arrow	Snap app to the right
Windows Key + . + Left Arrow	Snap app to the left
Ctrl + Plus (+)	Zoom in on Start Screen
Ctrl + Minus (-)	Zoom out on Start Screen
Windows Key + Down Arrow	Close an app
Windows Key + Start Typing	Search your PC
Windows Key + O	Lock the screen orientation (portrait or landscape)
Windows Key + Ctrl + Spacebar	Change to a previously selected input language
Windows Key + P	Choose a presentation display mode
Windows Key + X	Open Start Button options
Windows Key + Home	Minimize all but the active desktop window

MOST USEFUL WINDOWS 7 TIPS AND TRICKS YOU MUST KNOW

Feature

Show the Windows Desktop with a new shortcut

If you’re anything like us, once you’ve installed a new operating system or bought a new PC, you start out organizing files and documents with the best of intentions. But before long your Windows Desktop becomes your de facto filing cabinet, peppered with shortcuts, frequently used spreadsheets, random photos, and abandoned detritus. The easy way to access that debris field to find something—the Windows key + D combination, which minimizes all Windows for a clear view of the desktop—is a helper that most of us know.

Windows 7, though, lets you bring up the desktop without taking your hand off your mouse or pointing device—but it’s not obvious how until you stumble upon it. In the extreme lower right portion of the screen, at the far-right edge of the taskbar, you’ll see a little vertical rectangle with a “glossy” finish. Hover the mouse pointer over it, and the Windows Desktop appears, letting you inspect it. (You’ll still see ghostly outlines of the windows you have open.) Move the mouse off the rectangle, and your windows reappear. You can also activate this via a keyboard shortcut:Windows key + spacebar.

Click on the rectangle, though (as opposed to hovering), and you’ll minimize all windows, allowing you to interact with the desktop, open folders, and the like. If you don’t open or maximize any new windows manually, clicking the rectangle a second time restores the view to the state it was in before you clicked.

Miss your old taskbar buttons? Revert ’em

For the first few weeks we spent with Windows 7, we stumbled around the new default taskbar like we were lost in a corn maze. Don’t get us wrong—we like most of the changes to it. But the big graphical icons signifying programs, as opposed to the horizontal-tiles-with-text that we were used to from Windows XP and Vista, made us think twice every time we approached the taskbar region. Was the app launched, or merely pinned to the taskbar?

We’re sure we’ll get the hang of the new taskbar yet, but in the meantime, we poked around and discovered that you can revert things to the way they used to be. (That’s comforting, since that can be said of so few things in life.)

Right-click on the taskbar, and choose Properties. This launches theTaskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box. (We’ll be coming back to this box more than a few times in this story.) On the Taskbar tab, you’ll see a drop-down menu called Taskbar buttons. We've circled it here:

Windows 7’s default installation has this menu set at Always combine, hide labels. Change the setting to Combine when taskbar is full or Never combine, as you see fit. (Never combine prevents the taskbar from grouping a given program’s multiple windows together when the taskbar gets crowded.) Voila: You’ll see the familiar taskbar buttons of old, replete with text labels

Install Control Panel submenus in the Start menu

If you’re any kind of PC tweaker, like we are, you spend way too much time inside the Windows Control Panel. One of the quibbles we’ve had with past versions of Windows was the several layers of clicks you’d have to negotiate to get into the depths of Control Panel—especially with the Category as opposed to Classic view of the panel that was the default with Vista.

In Windows 7, you can set up the OS to allow you direct access to individual Control Panel items straight from the Start menu. To set this up, right-click the Start button in the taskbar, and choose Properties from the resulting context menu. In the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box that pops up, click the Start Menu tab, then the Customizebutton. Under the subcategory named Control Panel on the ensuing screen, choose Display as a menu. It's here:

Now, when you click Control Panel in the Start menu, you’ll get a selection list that shows all the same Control Panel sub-items that you’d get if you launched the Control Panel into its own window. It looks like this:

Launch Web pages straight from the taskbar

If you’re an all-day Web user—constantly jumping online in the midst of other tasks—you probably do a frequent two-step you might call the IE Shuffle (substitute “Firefox,” “Opera,” or “Chrome,” if you’re so inclined): Find your open browser or its launch icon (perhaps buried behind open windows or sitting on the Windows Desktop somewhere), launch it or maximize it, and enter your destination address in the address bar.

Not exactly a terrible hardship, but Windows 7 can save you some steps by letting you install a miniature address bar right in the taskbar. When you type an address into it, it launches a browser window and goes directly to that site. Handy! It also works with the uber-useful browser shortcut domain-name-plus-Ctrl + Enter. So, for example, if you want to visit www.computershopper.com, you can type just computershopperin this mini-address bar, then press Ctrl + Enter. The browser will autofill the “www.” and the “.com,” just like it would in your main browser window.

The address-bar-in-the-taskbar isn’t active by default, though. To set it up, right-click on the taskbar, and choose Properties, to launch the now-familiar Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog. Under the Toolbarstab, check off Address, then hit OK. Here's the dialog box:

You’ll now see the miniature address bar in the taskbar. It looks like this:

   

Enter a Web address, and Windows 7 will launch a browser window, already headed to your Web destination. Of course, this is Microsoft here, so this works by default with Internet Explorer 8, assuming that IE8 is set as your default browser. If you want to use the taskbar address wind

Access the Windows Desktop without minimizing anything

In the first tip, we showed you how to get to the Windows Desktop by hovering over or clicking on the new transparent zone in the lower-right corner of the screen—a.k.a., the Aero Peek feature. But perhaps you access your Windows Desktop constantly, or it contains lots of nested folders that are home to your everyday working files. You can get fast-click access to them from the taskbar without minimizing all your windows and losing your place.

You’ll have to set this up, though. Right-click on the taskbar, and choose Properties, to launch the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog. Under the Toolbars tab, check off the Desktop button.

Hit OK, and a mini-menu called “Desktop” appears in the taskbar, followed by two angle brackets (>>). Click it, and you’ll see all of the items on your Windows Desktop, complete with nesting folders. Now it’s easy to access anything on your Windows Desktop without having to navigate back to it. Especially useful: The Computer entry in this menu lets you browse your PC’s entire drive-and-folder hierarchy from here (including any networked drives).

ow with another browser, you’ll have to set that one as your default.

Open DOCX files without installing a converter (or Office 2007)

Unless you’ve updated your PC to Microsoft Office 2007 or Word 2007 (by no means a given, since earlier versions of Microsoft’s suite still work well for many folks), you might be confounded on occasion if you’re presented with a file with the DOCX extension. (DOCX is the native word-processing file format that the latest version of Word uses.)

Rather than fussing with and installing Microsoft’s Compatibility Packs, you can use Windows 7’s version of WordPad to open DOCX. To track down WordPad (it’s a bit buried, as usual), from the Start menu, go to All Programs > Accessories > WordPad. Once you're in WordPad, you can simply use the Open command to open a DOCX file:

This is a handy solution if you only encounter DOCX files once in a while. WordPad has semi-adopted the ribbon interface of the latest Office, so it might take some getting used to, but you should be able to save your DOCX document into a more amenable file format (including the earlier DOC format for Word files) without too much trouble. Most of the formatting should be maintained. (Puzzlingly, Windows 7 WordPad seems to be less competent at opening “original” DOC files, losing the formatting and peppering the files with header gibberish, in our tests. Hmmm.)

windows via taskbar thumbnails

If you’re a Windows Vista veteran, you’re familiar with the taskbar thumbnails feature—hover over an item in the taskbar, and you see a miniature version of that program’s window. (Sometimes the thumbnail is even live-animated, for example if you’re looking at a video window.) In Windows 7, these thumbnail previews are still around, but the new OS takes the preview a big step further, letting you see a full-size preview of the window without “committing” and clicking on it to make it active. That way, you can quickly check info on a buried-but-open window and immediately revert to the window you currently have active. In the sample picture below, we're hovering over the taskbar thumbnail and seeing a preview of the Internet Explorer page circled:

Though it’s easy, it’s not immediately apparent how to do this. Hover your cursor over the program’s taskbar icon, which brings up the thumbnail-size preview. Then move your mouse cursor to hover over the thumbnail preview itself. When you do, the relevant window will come to the fore, and all others will fade to the background. When you move the cursor off the thumbnail preview, your desktop window arrangement reverts to its previous state. And if you click on the thumbnail preview, you can bring that window to the front.

Incidentally, Windows 7 also lets you close the program window straight from the thumbnail, using the red “x” at upper right or by clicking the center button on your mouse—typically the scroll wheel, if it has one.

Select multiple items in Windows Explorer the easy way

It’s a familiar problem: You’re facing a folder full of MP3 files or vacation photos, and you want to copy out (or perhaps delete) only certain ones en masse. Everyone knows the old way: Hold down the Ctrl key while you click on each file with the mouse, highlighting the specific ones on which you want to take action. We’ve all been there, and we’ve all had it go wrong: Take your eye off it for a second, and you deselect (or select) the whole group. Time to start over again!

There’s an easier way in Windows 7, though you need to dig a bit to activate it. In a given folder, click on the Organize button at the top of the Windows Explorer window. Choose the Folder and search optionsentry from the menu that ensues, to launch the Folder Options dialog box. You’ll see three tabs; click the one called View. In the Advanced settingslist that appears, scroll down and look for the entry Use check boxes to select items. Make sure it has, um, a check mark in it, then hit OK. We circled the appropriate option here:

In the relevant folder, if you’re looking at it in a file-thumbnail view, you’ll now see empty check boxes next to the files’ individual thumbnails. Otherwise, if you’re in a list or detail view, check boxes will appear if you hover your cursor just to the left of the line items, like they do here:

Check these boxes off, as desired, to select multiple files in a folder for mass action. It’s a lot more accurate and less nerve-wracking

Make use of multiple flash drives or cards for a speed boost

One of the celebrated upgrades in Windows Vista was ReadyBoost, a handy technology that lets you make use of a USB flash drive or flash-memory card (such as an SD card) to serve as extra fast-access cache memory for frequently used files and data. (In essence, it serves the same purpose as cache on your hard drive, but the fact that solid-state memory is being used is a speed plus.) When you plugged in a USB key or flash card, you would be prompted whether you wanted to use it as storage, or as a supplement to speed up your PC.

The introduction of ReadyBoost coincided with the precipitous fall in price of flash media. With 4GB flash drives selling now for well under $20, most users own at least a few of these handy devices in various capacities. Why let yours sit idle when they’re not being used to store or transport files?

Windows 7 retains the ReadyBoost feature but adds support for multiple USB keys or flash cards used at once. So, if you have a few old 1GB keys around gathering dust, it can’t hurt to plug them in, so long as you have the USB ports to spare. When you plug in a key, Windows 7 will bring up a prompt asking whether you want to open the drive in Windows Explorer or use the drive to speed up your system. Choose the latter:

In the following screen, choose the Use this device radio button and adjust the memory slider below it to the amount you want to dedicate to ReadyBoost:

This won’t change the drive in any fundamental way; you can always unplug it and redeploy it for normal storage down the road, or use the unallocated portion for storage in parallel with ReadyBoost. Note, though, that the file system, even with 64-bit Windows 7, will keep you from accessing more than 4GB of the memory per key or card. So don’t expect to bulk up on cheap 8GB keys and go wild.

Feature

Fine-tune hard drive indexing for faster searches

We can’t emphasize enough the difference that a properly indexed drive or folder makes when you need to perform a search in Windows. If your PC is anything like ours—multiple hard drives, all containing loads of nested folders, some of them hosting thousands of data, photo, video, or audio files—a simple search for a particular MP3 file or Word document can feel like swimming in Jell-O.

Windows will index certain portions of your drives in the background during idle time, primarily e-mail and the files in your Windows-default library areas (Documents, and the like) but you can speed matters along by specifying which file types Windows should index. This is handled by a Control Panel item, Indexing Options. It’s not new (Vista had it as well), but it’s not much trafficked.

Visit this panel, and click the Advanced button. Then click the File Typestab. Here, you can examine which file types are being indexed, and to what extent. For each file type, you can designate to index the file’s properties alone, or both the properties and the actual content. That’s important—check your most frequently searched file types to ensure that the actual content is being indexed. You can find that selection here, in the circled area:

You can also designate which drives and folders are being indexed. Hit the Modify button, and you can specify which locations Windows 7 should index; make sure the ones where you’ll often conduct searches are designated. You can also tell the system to ignore certain huge drives or folders you know you’ll never need to search

Feature

Download Windows Live Essentials to restore common Windows apps

If you’re a Windows XP user who has just migrated to Windows 7, you’re likely to notice a few old friends missing: notably, a mail client (Outlook Express) and Windows Movie Maker. And if you’re using Vista, the Windows Mail, Movie Maker, and Photo Gallery apps might be conspicuous by their absence in 7.

In Windows 7, Microsoft has moved these programs off-OS and made them part of a downloadable package of apps called “Windows Live Essentials.” (Why, if they’re “Essentials,” they’re not included as part of the OS is another story, though.) This is the Live Essentials page; the download link is below (click the page image to go there now, if you like):

You’ll need to sign up for a free Windows Live account to download the lot. (You may well already have one.) You may or may not need Live Essentials, depending on the e-mail client you tend to use and whether you already own some favorite photo- and video-editing software, but we think the download is worth the trouble, regardless. For one thing, the Windows Photo Gallery app has been bulked up a bit from Vista’s; it now has more editing functions, so it can be a time saver versus launching a full-featured photo editor. And Windows Movie Maker, as in Vista, incorporates the ability to burn a DVD Video direct from the app, so no need to fire up Nero, Roxio, or another big burning app for straightforward jobs. Check out the Live Essentials pack athttp://download.live.com.

Fix the Column views in Windows Live Mail

Here at ComputerShopper.com, some of the editors migrated their home PCs from Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7, and we encountered a little glitch with Windows Live Mail that drove us bananas for the better part of an afternoon. We’d like to save you the same grief.

Our e-mails imported fine from XP’s Outlook Express, but we found that in the “Sent items” view in Live Mail, it was impossible to tell at a glance to whom we sent our mails. That’s because the columns in the default view didn’t include the one for the “To:” field. (Your mileage may vary. The missing “To:” field didn’t happen in another install we performed, but the next step—the grey-out issue—did.)

Simple enough, we thought—it’s easy to customize the view to show the “To:” field. You’d just hit Alt, go the View menu, choose the Columnsitem, and…hey wait a minute, the Columns menu option is greyed out! Hmmm. All we wanted was to restore this little column:

An afternoon of tweaking and searching later, we discovered that, strangely enough, repositioning the preview pane (the region of the screen that shows you a preview portion of a selected e-mail) was the only thing that would “un-grey” the Columns item on the View menu. This is likely a bug, and we’d expect it to be fixed before long. But how to work around it, for now?

In your Sent Mail view in Live Mail, hit Alt to bring up the menu bar, clickView > Layout, and in the Layout dialog box, change the Reading pane (Mail) entry to At the bottom of the message list. (You can also uncheck the Show the reading pane box if you’d like to get rid of the pane altogether.) Hit OK, and you should be able to access the Columns entry in the View menu to tweak the columns that are displayed.

Pin frequently used files or folders to taskbar program icons (Jump Lists)

Windows 7’s taskbar rethink means that a large number of the tips and tweaks here involve this thin bit of real estate, but here’s another taskbar-related tidbit that’s nonetheless invaluable. It’s been possible to set up shortcuts to frequently used files or folders on the Windows Desktop for ages, of course, but accessing them requires minimizing or otherwise moving around windows to uncover them. Windows 7, however, allows you to “pin” files or folders you use often onto relevant program icons in the taskbar for easy access, always keeping them above the desktop-window fray.

For example, say you often work with a spreadsheet file called “TAXES.XLS” in Excel. Launch Excel, then find the file “TAXES.XLS.” Left-click or right-click on the file itself, then drag it onto the Excel taskbar program icon. You should see a message to “Pin to Microsoft Excel”; when you do, release the mouse button.

The file will be added to what Windows 7 calls a Jump List, a list of frequently accessed files, folders, and actions that you can get to right from the taskbar via the program’s icon. Here's a sample Jump List for Microsoft Word:

For a Jump List to be at hand, the program needs to have been launched, however—or its icon permanently pinned to the taskbar. (More on that inTip 15, and we’ve got more on Jump Lists themselves in the next tip.

Let Windows tune your LCD for top text legibility

Windows 7 is the first Windows OS for which, at its introduction, LCD monitors have truly been the overwhelming display standard. (They were well on their way at the time of Vista’s introduction, but the trend has accelerated with the ascendancy of laptops and the wholesale move to LCDs on desktop PCs.) The new OS includes a dedicated LCD-tweaking wizard that lets you improve the look of text on your screen. It’s called the ClearType Text Tuner (CTTT).

You access CTTT from the Windows Control Panel; click on the Displayitem, and, in the resulting dialog, click on Adjust ClearType text. That will launch the wizard. Make sure on the first screen that the box next toTurn on ClearType is checked, and follow the prompts. Windows 7 will first check that your monitor or monitors are running at their native resolutions. (Native resolution generally delivers the best possible text legibility.) Then, it will take you through some comparisons reminiscent of a vision test at the eye doctor. The wizard runs a series of visual tests, asking you which block of text looks clearer to you, like this:

When you’re done, chances are you’ll see a noticeable difference in text quality. After you’ve run CTTT, you may wish to return to the Display Control Panel and tweak the size of default Windows text. Under the subhead Make it easier to read what’s on your screen, try tweaking the setting from Smaller to Medium or Larger if that’s more comfortable for you. If you do indeed decide to change the default text size, however, we recommend running CTTT again so your screen is optimized for the new size.

App switching made easy with Windows key + T

The keyboard shortcut Alt + Tab is the ancient Windows standby for switching between apps. And those of us immersed in Windows Vista (on a PC with the enhanced Aero interface active) have seen Aero Flip, Vista’s flashy means of task switching, in which the Windows key + Tab combination lets you cycle through three-dimensional planar renderings of your open windows.

Aero Flip and old-reliable Alt + Tab continue to work in Windows 7. But the new OS introduces yet another means of task switching, which stands apart because it lets you cycle in turn through not only all open apps but also see grouped windows within each app. It’s tied in, once again, with the taskbar rethink in Windows 7. It’s the shortcut Windows key + T.

Repeatedly hitting this combination will scroll you through the different apps that you have open, popping up thumbnail previews above each program’s icon in the taskbar. If you have multiple windows open for a given app, you’ll see all of the windows grouped as a set of thumbnails. Same behavior with Internet Explorer 8 (though, interestingly, not with Firefox): If you have multiple tabs open in a browser, you’ll see each tab displayed as a discrete window thumbnail. Releasing the keys with a particular app thumbnail active, interestingly, doesn’t launch the program but leaves the thumbnail suspended; you need to click it or hit Enter to bring up that program. (That’s unlike with Alt + Tab or Aero Flip; with those, releasing the keys brings the window to which you’ve cycled to the fore.)

And, as mentioned earlier in a previous tip, there’s a hidden new option with these thumbnails: You can close any window via its taskbar thumbnail by clicking on it with your middle mouse button. You don’t necessarily have to navigate to the little red “X” in the corner of the thumbnail.

Launch or maximize programs with the shortcut Windows key + 1, 2, 3

Windows 7 certainly isn’t hurting for new shortcut keys, and this one can be applied in a number of ways, including some we probably haven’t thought of yet. With it, you can launch a program from the keyboard—or bring its minimized or buried window to the forefront—so long as the program is showing live or pinned icons in the taskbar.

Each program icon in your taskbar, whether pinned there or representing a launched app, gets assigned a virtual number, starting with “1” for the leftmost icon and increasing by one as you go right. If you tap the Windows key in combination with a numeral, it will launch or bring forward the program corresponding to it in the taskbar. So, for example,Windows key + 1 will launch the leftmost taskbar program icon.

Why is this useful, as opposed to using one of the many other window- or task-switching options in Windows 7? We can think of one good application: If you pin a series of frequently used programs to the left side of the taskbar, you can launch them in sequence shortly after bootup (or at any time you choose) with a few brisk keystrokes.

Easily switch the active window to a second monitor

For some years now, we’ve been ardent advocates of using two monitors on our desktop PC. And if you’ve discovered the pleasures of using an extended desktop spread across two side-by-side LCDs, you’ll agree that it’s hard to go back to just one screen once you’ve made the jump.

You’ll also probably agree, though, that with two displays, you spend a good deal of time pushing windows around when working in multiple programs. Notably, sometimes you just want to shift a window that’s in your way over to your other monitor, without necessarily minimizing or covering it.

In earlier Windows versions, that was a two- or three-click process: If the window was maximized, you’d hit the resize icon in its upper right corner to downsize it for moving. (A fully maximized window couldn’t be dragged.) You’d then drag it by the title bar over to the other display, and then perhaps maximize it again.

We’re used to the routine, but in Windows 7 that rigmarole has been reduced to a key combination: Windows key + Shift + Left Arrow (or Right Arrow).

Hitting this combination moves the active window over to your other monitor in the same relative position. This exposes (hopefully!) the window you were looking for beneath it, while leaving the shifted window still visible. It works with more than two monitors, too.

Aero Shake: Mass-minimize windows by shaking the mouse

If you didn’t read about this tip here or elsewhere first, you’d probably only discover it in the midst of a fit of frustration sometime down the road. If you grasp the title bar of a given window, then shake the mouse rapidly while still holding down the left mouse button, you can minimize all windows except for the shaken one. (This feature is called, unsurprisingly, Aero Shake.) Grab the window here, and shake:

Aero Shake is handy for reducing onscreen clutter, and if you happen to own a touch-sensitive tablet PC or other touch-enabled computer, Aero Shake is especially satisfying to use. And if you don’t have a touch screen at your fingers or your mouse in hand at the moment, you can also perform the same operation from the keyboard, by hitting the combination Windows key + Home (not nearly as fun, alas).

To restore the window arrangement as you had it before, just repeat the action: Shake the title bar again (or hit Windows key + Home again), and your other windows will pop back up in the same positions as before.

Unhide hidden non-U.S. Windows 7 wallpapers

When you install Windows 7 (or buy a PC based on it), you’ll find a set of wallpapers installed that correspond to the country that was specified at install time. Assuming you’re in the United States, you’ll get the U.S. great-outdoors treatment, replete with national-park eye candy and other scenic shots. All well and good, but you can uncover some international wallpapers in Windows, if you feel like dressing up your Windows with foreign flair.

The wallpaper files reside in a directory you can’t see unless you know where to look, however. Look in C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT, if the folder is visible in Windows Explorer. (It may not be; if not, skip ahead to the end of this tip to learn how to uncover it.) There, you should see several folders. On our install, the folders were labeled AU, CA, GB, US, and ZA, containing image sets for Australia, Canada, Great Britain, the United States, and South Africa. Inside each of these folders is a folder called “Theme”; to import one of these national theme sets, open the theme folder and double-click on the file inside ending in a “.theme” extension.

Doing so will make the theme available in the Personalization dialog box. To access it, right-click on an empty area of the Windows Desktop, and select Personalize from the pop-up menu; you should see the new theme under My Themes. Double-click on a theme to make it live. Note: You can right-click on the Windows Desktop and choose Next desktop background to cycle through different wallpapers in the theme set.

It’s possible, though, that you couldn’t see the MCT folder where we specified. If so, hit the Windows key + R key combination, which will bring up the Run box. In the box, type (or paste in) the following text, and then hit Enter:

%systemroot%/Globalization/MCT

This should launch the hidden folders in a new Explorer window. If still nothing appears, though, you need to, in the resulting window, hit theOrganize button, select Folder and search options, and click on theView tab. In the ensuing list, you’ll need to do two things: uncheck the box next to Hide protected operating system files and click the radio button next to Show hidden files, folders, and drives. Hit Apply, thenOK, and the folders should show up.

Incidentally, you can also download other themes at Microsoft’sPersonalization Gallery. It was a bit scanty when we looked at it (just before Windows 7’s official release date), but the company says that it should offer more themes with the full release of the operating system.

And a bonus! You can go to the Microsoft Musings blog (not affiliated with Microsoft itself) to download a huge ZIP file of lots of other official Windows wallpapers, compiled by this blogger. A lot of genuinely striking sample backgrounds have come and gone through the various Windows 7 builds and release candidates, including some psychedelic ones and many, many more international themes.

Use Windows 7’s Compatibility mode to run a troublesome older app

It happens every time a new OS debuts—a few of your favorite programs get left behind in the shuffle, no longer compatible with the new OS. Windows 7 will likely be no different in that regard, but you may not need to abandon your apps or wait for a new, compatible version of the software to emerge. Microsoft claims that most Vista-compatible software should work without a hitch on Windows 7, but it remains to be seen how true that is.

If you didn’t use Vista, you may not be aware of Windows Compatibility mode, introduced with that OS. It’s back in Windows 7, and we suspect that it will get more attention in this release. A tool for dealing with balky older software, it lets you run a given app as if it were running under an earlier version of Windows.

To activate Compatibility mode, right-click on the affected program’s icon, then click on the Properties item in the menu that pops up. In the Properties window, you’ll see a set of tabs across the top; chooseCompatibility. In the resulting dialog box, you’ll want to check off the box Run this program in compatibility mode, then select the latest version of Windows with which your app worked properly:

You can also try out several additional settings here that can eliminate problems, such as running at 256 colors or 640x480 resolution (unlikely to help unless your app is really old) or disabling themes (which can help with troubles displaying menus or buttons properly). Experimentation is the order of the day here, though Microsoft warns that you don’t want to use Compatibility mode with crucial system-level apps such as antivirus software or disk utilities. For obvious reasons, that can lead to bigger problems

Easy external-monitor or projector setup for laptops

If you’re a businessperson who gives lots of presentations from your laptop, this one is for you. We bet that you have probably encountered more than your fair share of frustration with configuring external displays or projectors to work with your laptop in unfamiliar environments. Between negotiating HDMI, DVI, and VGA outputs (each with its own quirks), and figuring out a resolution amenable to both pieces of hardware, you likely wish there was an easier way.

Here’s a bit of help. If you’re running Windows 7 on a laptop, memorize this shortcut: Windows key + P.

   

Tap it with a monitor or projector attached to the laptop’s video output, and you’ll get a new selector box that helps you configure the external display device:

You’ll see four options, from left to right. Computer only lets you revert your video settings to using just the laptop’s LCD. Duplicate, predictably, lets you display the same image on your laptop’s screen and the external display. (That’s the one you’ll most likely use for presentations.) Extendlets you stretch your Windows Desktop across the laptop display and the external display (much like in a multiple-monitor desktop-PC arrangement). And Projector only shifts the video output strictly to the external display device, blanking the laptop screen.

You can still make these adjustments the old-fashioned way, through the Control Panel (check out the Display subcategory there), but this method makes at least the initial setup snap-simple.

Restore the main menu bar in Internet Explorer 8, Windows Live Mail

This malady is not new with Windows 7 (it first reared its head in places in Windows Vista), but in a few major Windows apps, the familiar old top menu bar has disappeared. (That is, the one containing the File, View, and such crucial menus.) This was especially noticeable in Internet Explorer 7; now we’re seeing it in Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Live Mail.

It’s no big deal if you’ve dealt with it before—you hit the Alt key, and the menu bar pops up temporarily—but we still find it disconcerting and prefer to revert to the old, always-visible menu bar in these programs when we can. And if you’re a new recruit to Windows 7 straight from XP, the missing menu bar might be outright unnerving.

To keep the menu bar always visible in Internet Explorer 8, first hit theAlt key to bring up the bar (comprising File, Edit, View, Favorites, and so on). Then, right-click on the menu bar itself. On the context menu that pops up, you’ll see that the Menu Bar entry (the topmost in the list) is not checked off. Left-click on Menu Bar to check it, and that should lock the old-school bar back in its familiar place:

In Windows Live Mail, the process is a little different. On the right side of the topmost icon bar, you’ll see an abstract “menu” icon. (It’s between the paint-brush and question-mark icons.) Left-click it once, and select the Show menu bar option with a left-click:

Your File menu and its menu friends will be back where they belong. (You can deactivate them in the same place.)

Drag around maximized windows without resizing them first

In Windows 7, Microsoft finally fixed a recent pet peeve of some Windows users: the need to first resize a maximized window before it could be dragged around. This was a speed bump encountered often by users of multiple monitors, who are often in the habit of dragging windows from one display to another.

In older versions of Windows, if a window was maximized, you needed to hit the resize button in the upper right corner of the window (the box between the minimize and close buttons) to “downsize” it before dragging. In Windows 7, it’s possible to simply grab the title bar of a maximized window, and drag it around right away, no fuss. Just grab the circled area and go:

It’s a subtle thing, but a welcome revision and one that you might not notice is possible for some time, because habit would keep most of us from even bothering to try. The ability to drag windows around more freely also relates to our next tip: Aero Snap, which also provides new window behaviors (auto-resizing, in its case) when dragging a window around

Aero Snap: Use the Windows key and arrow buttons to rearrange windows

Much has been made of Windows 7’s Aero Snap feature, which automatically resizes and arranges program windows when you drag them to the top or sides of the screen. It’s a great feature, to be sure, and particularly handy for making use of larger and wide-screen displays while multitasking.

For example, if you drag two windows to opposite sides of the screen, you get an arrangement like this, with each window auto-arranged side by side:

But as easy as it is to drag windows around with a mouse and have them magically snap into place, many users, particularly the more keyboard-inclined, will find this simple set of keyboard shortcuts invaluable once they try it: Hold down the Windows key, and press any arrow key. The mouse method will soon seem so…antiquated? (If it's possible for a brand-new feature to be antiquated...)

Hitting the Windows key and the up arrow maximizes your currently selected window, down arrow minimizes it, and right or left arrowdocks the window to the side of the screen, where it conveniently resizes to take up just half the width of the screen. Those using multiple monitors will also be able to shunt windows between screens by repeatedly arrowing over while holding down the Windows key. A few seconds using this shortcut can turn a jumbled mess of windows into an organized layout that will improve your productivity

Document processes and (troubles) easily with the Problem Steps Recorder

If you’re the perpetual tech-savvy friend who’s always asked to troubleshoot, Windows 7’s Problem Steps Recorder will be your favorite Windows 7 feature when something goes wrong. It’s an exceedingly simple way to visually record the steps that lead to any problem within Windows 7.

Simply type PSR in the search bar on the Windows 7 Start menu, and hit Enter to launch the app. Click the Start Record button, then click away through whatever task it is that causes the problem. Problem Steps Recorder automatically takes screen captures of every step you take. At any point, you can click the Add Commentbutton to add your own notes to the process. When you’re finished documenting the problem, click Stop Record, and you’ll be asked to give a name to a ZIP file that will be saved to the desktop for easy e-mailing. The ZIP file contains an MHTML document like this one; it opens in Internet Explorer to reveal a neatly organized list of all of the steps you just recorded:

You can scroll through it like a Web page or view it as a slide show. Clicking on the Additional Details link reveals version numbers for whatever software was used in the problematic process, as well as other details—even whether you single- or double-clicked on a given window.

Master the simple Problems Steps Recorder, and you’ll never have to struggle to explain a Windows-based software problem again. The only Windows problem this app won’t help you with is the notorious Blue Screen of Death. But we haven’t seen one of those in Windows 7 since running the beta, anyway.

Dock the taskbar to the side of the screen

In earlier versions of Windows, it was possible to reorient the Windows taskbar vertically. But the way XP and Vista rendered the vertical taskbar (and sometimes sliced off the icons) made it feel like a half-finished, tacked-on feature. With Windows 7, all the taskbar icons and pinned programs cascade nicely if you turn the taskbar vertical.

If you have multiple instances of a program open (such as multiple Office documents), having the preview pane tile vertically makes finding the right window seem easier, at least to us. See the screen shot below for what we mean; we're displaying multiple open thumbnails of IE:

Docking the Taskbar on the side of the screen is also a great option for netbook users stuck with lower-resolution screens. On a netbook, gaining a bit more vertical space on the Windows Desktop can save a serious amount of scrolling on Web sites.

To move your taskbar to the side of the screen, simply right-click on any space on the bar that isn’t occupied by an icon and click Properties. In the Properties box that pops up, you’ll find a line labeled Taskbar location on screen. You can choose Bottom, Left, Right, or Top:

Give the Left dock a try. It definitely takes a day or two to get used to, but once you do, you just might like it enough to leave it there.

Do serious math with Windows 7’s advanced calculator

It may sound humdrum, but Windows 7 has really upped its game when it comes to its calculator functionality. Now, instead of just standard and scientific functions, you can also do programming and statistical functions, as well as make short work of real-life tasks such as juggling mortgage numbers, computing hourly wages, and figuring out gas mileage.

The Calculator resides in the Start menu. (If it got shunted off the first level of your Start menu by other items, check under Accessories.) Use the View menu to switch among Standard, Scientific, Statistics, and Programmer modes. (Only the first two were available in Windows XP and Vista.) Plus, investigate the options further down the menu to address everyday calculation scenarios, such as adding and subtracting time in terms of dates. You can figure out, for example, how many days there are between now and Christmas—not typical calculator fare:

The final option in the menu, Worksheets, unfolds to show some additional calculation templates (figuring out payments on a vehicle lease, for example).

We also love that the new calculator includes a converter for units of measurement. These tweaks won’t change your life (and some of them Google can do for you), but now that you know they’re there, you’ll get some use out of them.

Shift-click (or middle-click) to open another instance of a program

At times, you want to open a completely separate, second version of a program, as opposed to an additional document window or tab within a single instance of a program. You may do it for ease of window organization, or for one of a host of other reasons. You can, of course, simply hunt up the program in the Start menu and launch it a second time, but there’s a much easier way, new in Windows 7.

Simply hold down the Shift key and click on the app’s icon in the taskbar—a second instance of the program will pop up. Or, if your mouse has a middle button (that is, a clickable scroll wheel), pressing that accomplishes the same task. Anything that replaces a meandering jaunt through the branching Start menu with a simple click is a very good thing, in our book.

Note that in some apps, and depending on how you have your taskbar set up (especially if you tweak it with the help of some of our tips), telling the difference between a second copy of an app that’s open and merely a second open window within a single copy of an app can be tricky. If your taskbar is set up to group like windows together, you may not see a second, discrete icon for a second, open version of the program, even though it is open. So rest assured: If you Shift-click and only get another grouped window under the original icon, you didn’t do anything wrong