Windows 7 Tips

Disclaimer: I am not responsible if your system behave strangely after using and applying my guides. I am just sharing what I know best and that has been great for my system.

1.     Hidden Themes

There are many hidden themes in Windows 7! Just browse at:

 

C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT MCT-AU, MCT-CA, MCT-GB, MCT-US, and MCT-ZA

Each subfolder has wallpapers for a specific country: AU for Australia, CA for Canada, GB for Great Britain, US for the United States, and ZA for South Africa. Altogether, there are 5 hidden themes and 30 hidden wallpapers.

2.     Power Efficiency Report

Windows 7 includes a hidden tool that will analyze a laptop's energy consumption and make recommendations on how to improve it.

Run the command prompt as an administrator.

Type in the following:

powercfg -energy -output \Desktop\Energy_Report.html

 

The report should be ready by about a minute and will be saved at Desktop in HTML format. Review the report and follow the recommendations to improve laptop’s power performance.

3.     Speed up your system

Regularly clean up the system unused temporally files.

Open the Run Command, type the following one by one and delete all the contents.

temp

%temp%

recent

prefetch

4.     Windows Updates

Hope Microsoft doesn’t read this one. It’s important you update (download and install) the Windows 7 Updates provided by the Microsoft online. But if your copy of Windows 7 installed in your computer is not genuine/ cracked/ counterfeit version, DO NOT install the update KB971033. After installing this update, you keep receiving really annoying messages from Microsoft like reminder at every start-up and indelible water-mark message on the desktop that says something like Get A Genuine Copy. Other updates are safe and always keep upto date!

5.     Disk Defragmentation

Fragmentation makes your hard disk do extra work that can slow down your computer. Removable storage devices such as USB flash drives can also become fragmented. Disk Defragmenter rearranges fragmented data so your disks and drives can work more efficiently. 

 

 

Disk Defragmenter runs on a schedule, but you can also analyze and defragment your disks and drives manually. Don’t forget to Defragment your drives once in a month.

6.     System Restore Point

System Restore helps you restore your computer's system files to an earlier point in time. It's a way to undo system changes to your computer without affecting your personal files, such as e‑mail, documents, or photos.

Sometimes, the installation of a program or a driver can cause an unexpected change to your computer or cause Windows to behave unpredictably. Usually, uninstalling the program or driver corrects the problem. If uninstalling doesn't fix the problem, you can try restoring your computer's system to an earlier date when everything worked correctly.

 

So create a Restore Point manually every now and then to free  from the prospect of reinstalling the Windows 7 (read formatting) all over again.

This page is to be updated periodically for new tips!
Last Updated on 3 July 2010.