Tutorials

How to Change Number of Recent Items to Display in Jump Lists in Windows 7 This will show you how to change the number of Recent Items to display on the Start menu and taskbar pinned icon Jump Lists in Windows 7. On a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, the Jump List of an application may disappear permanently when you use the application to open or save a new item. This issue occurs when there are 999 items in the Jump List already. Installing the update at the link below resolves the issue and enables the displaying of the Jump Lists. A Jump List is not displayed in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2 if the list contains more than 999 items Recent Items will need to be turned on in order for the...

How to Change the "Bubbles Screen Saver" Settings in Windows 7 and Windows 8 By default the Bubbles screen saver has no settings to set in the Screen Saver Settings window in Windows 7 and Windows 8. However, you can change the Bubbles screen saver settings through the registry instead. This will show you how to. The default location of the Bubbles screen saver file is at: C:\Windows\System32\Bubbles.scr.You will just need to play with the settings below and adjust the Value Data (step 8) until you get the desired affect from the selected DWORD Name (step 5). EXAMPLE: Bubbles Screen Saver To Restore the Default Bubbles Screen Saver Settings1. Click/tap on the download button below to download the file...

How to Change the Default Location of User Folders in Windows 7 and Windows 8 This will show you how to change (move) the default location of your account's C:\Users\(user-name) folders to another location of your choice instead in Windows 7 and Windows 8, and still have access to the user folder from the Start Menu (Windows 7 only) location. If you are just wanting to save HDD space, then you might consider this below to be able to access the files from your libraries with the files actually located where you like instead. This way you will not have to worry about any potential issues that come with moving user folder locations. For example, whatever partition you move your user folders to will now be included in a system image in...

How to Change the Orange Flashing Taskbar Button Color in Windows 7 This tutorial will show you how to change the orange flashing taskbar button color in Windows 7. You could use it to change to other states also. You should make a new theme so the defaut aero.msstyles does not get corrupt. Look at Post #38 to see how http://www.sevenforums.com/customization/135985-start-menu-color-change-4.html#post1358071 You will need to do 1 of these 2 ways of Enabling custom themes so the new theme will work. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/34579-enabling-custom-themes-windows-7-a.html Or http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/28377-theme-how-apply-custom-themes.html?filter These image #s are only for the default aero.msstyles 3rd party...

How to Add or Remove "Open File Location" and "Open Folder Location" from the Context Menu This will show you how to add or remove "Open File Location" and "Open Folder Location" from the context menu for all users in Windows 7 and Windows 8. This is when you right click on a shortcut of a file or folder, or an included library folder. You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial. EXAMPLE: "Open File Location" and "Open Folder Location" in Context Menu Here's How: 1. Do step 2 or 3 below for what you would like to do. 2. To Add "Open File/Folder Location" to Context Menu NOTE: This is the default setting. A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go...

How to Speed up Menu Show Delay Time in XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 This will show you how to change the amount of time it takes for a menu to pop, fade, or slide open when you hover the mouse pointer over it in XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. This setting will only affect the user account that you are currently logged on to. The Fade or slide menus into view and Fade out menu items after clicking Visual Effects options will also affect how fast menus open and close. Unchecking these options will help speed it up in addition to doing the steps in this tutorial below. If you set the MouseHoverTime setting, then it may override the MenuShowDelay setting in this tutorial. To Change the Menu Show Delay Time using a...

How to Export and Import Email Messages in Windows Live Mail This will show you how to export (backup) and import (restore) all or select message folders that contain your email messages, or only single email messages in Windows Live Mail. To Export or Import All Email Messages in One or More Account Folders Export (Backup) All Email Messages in One or More Account Folders 1. Create a New Folder on your desktop, and name it what you like. NOTE: This is the folder that you will be exporting your message folders that contain your email messages into. 2. Open Windows Live Mail. 3. Click on the Tools icon drop down arrow, select Export email, and click on Email messages. (see screenshot below) 4. Select Microsoft Windows Live...

I have been looking for a long time to find suitable programs to produce video tutorials like this one or that one. Most free screen capture programs produce poor quality and editing the resulting video is also a quality challenge. The particular problem for tutorials is the fact that one often uses text pages (PDF documents or webpages) in the tutorial. That is a real challenge for the screen capture program. Very often you are unable to read the text or it is very fuzzy in the resulting video. Action movies are a lot easier to capture because the quality deterioration is not so obvious. After trying about a dozen free and paid options, I have settled for two capture programs and two editing options. I also use YouTube and Vimeo...

How to Change Return to Sleep Timeout for Unattended Wake Up in Windows This tutorial will show you how to change how many minutes Windows will wait idle after waking up in an unattended state before automatically going back to sleep or hibernation in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. Adjusting this wait timeout period can also be handy if you had created a task in Task Scheduler to wake up the computer to run something. You could set this wait timeout period to be long enough for the task to have time to finish running before Windows 7 went back to sleep automatically. If the computer wakes up from sleep mode and is used by you (no longer idle) during this default timeout period, then Windows will not go back to sleep mode...

How to Remove the Desktop Background Picture Location History in Windows 7 and Windows 8 This will show you how to either reset to default or remove a folder in the desktop background picture location drop down list in Personalization in Windows 7 or Windows 8. EXAMPLE: Desktop Background Picture Location To Reset Picture Location to Default using a REG Download NOTE: This option will reset the picture location drop down menu list back to only having the default folders removing any folders that you have added (Option Three below) by browsing to them. 1. Click on the Download button below to download the file below. Reset_Desktop_Background_Picture_Location_History.reg...

How to Add or Remove "Gadgets" from Desktop Context Menu in Windows 7 This tutorial will show you how to add or remove Gadgets from the desktop context menu for all users without turning off or disabling Gadgets in Windows 7. You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial. EXAMPLE: "Gadgets" in Desktop Context Menu NOTE: This is when you right click on a empty area of the desktop. To Remove "Gadgets" from Desktop Context Menu 1. Press the Windows+R keys to open the Run dialog, type regedit and click/tap on OK. If you have already previously done steps 1-4, then you can just skip them and only have to do step 5 below instead. 2. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes. 3. In...

How to Enable or Disable Program Compatibility Assistant in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 The Program Compatibility Assistant (PCA) runs in the background and monitors user initiated programs for known compatibility issues at run time. Whenever a potential issue with an application is detected, the PCA will prompt the user with pointers to recommended solutions. This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable Program Compatibility Assistant (PCA) for all or specific users in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. Turning off PCA is useful for system administrators who require faster performance and are aware of the compatibility of the applications they are using.With the PCA turned off, users will not be presented with...

How to Enable or Disable Explorer Thumbnail Previews in Windows 7 and Windows 8 This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer for all or specific users in Windows 7 and Windows 8. Displaying thumbnails in Windows Explorer will require that Windows Photo Viewer is set as the default program with all of it's default associations (except .gif files) set with it as well. If you disable thumbnail previews, then they will also not display in the preview pane in Windows 7 or Windows 8. If there are a lot of thumbnails in a Windows Explorer window, then it can slow down your computer while you wait for the thumbnails to load. If this happens, then disabling thumbnails will speed up how fast...

How to Convert GPT Disk to MBR Disk A disk is a separate physical hard drive. This will show you how to convert a GPT (GUID - Globally Unique Identifer) disk to a MBR (Master Boot Record) disk in Windows Disk Manager or in a command prompt. By default Windows uses MBR disks. While all Windows can boot from a MBR disk, you can only boot from a GPT disk if you have a operating system (see below) that supports GPT and your motherboard has a EFI BIOS and is enabled. Windows 7 and Vista does support booting from a GPT disk. You can still have a separate GPT disk as a data disk if your operating system (see below) supports reading a GPT disk, even if your system disk that Windows is installed on is still a MBR disk. Differences...

How to Use Display Driver Uninstaller to Uninstall any Installed Display Driver This tutorial will show you how to use Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to uninstall the Insialled display driver completely from your system. As a model, the current tutorial will uninstall Nvidia 347.88 WHQL driver. When this driver is installed in a computer, it appears in Programs and Features as You are suggested to reboot to Safe Mode before you start. If you dont, the program will prompt you to do so when you will be in step 3. So to avoid duplication of work, better you do it before you start. Here's how: 1. To obtain Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU)Use any of the following links:Guru 3D: Display Driver Uninstaller Download version 14.3.0.0...

How to Restore Default User Folder Icons in Windows 7 and Windows 8 This tutorial will show you how to restore the default folder icon for all of your personal user folders icons in the Start Menu (Windows 7 only) and C:\Users\(user-name) locations in Windows 7 and Windows 8. EXAMPLE: Default Personal User Folders Icons To Restore Default User Name Profile Folder Icon1. Open the change Desktop Icon Settings window. (See screenshot below) 2. In the lower box, click/tap on your User Name folder to highlight it in blue. (See screenshot above) 3. Click/tap on the Restore Default button. (See screenshot above)A) Click/tap on Apply, and go to step 5 below. NOTE: If it did not restore the default User Name folder icon, then proceed...

How to Turn Windows Defender On or Off in Windows 7 This will show you how to turn Windows Defender On or Off in Windows 7. When Windows Defender is on, you will be alerted when spyware and other potentially unwanted software tries to install itself or run on your computer. By default, Windows Defender is turned on in Windows 7. If you installed Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), then it will disable Window Defender by default, and MSE will be used by instead. You will not be able to turn on Windows Defender as long as you have MSE installed. The release of the Microsoft Safety Scanner has resulted in confusion about the available anti-malware tools provided by Microsoft and questions about when they should be used. Read more...

How to See What Woke Up Your Computer Last This will show you how to see what device, task, or etc... has woken up your computer from sleep or hibernation last in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. This will work best if you do this right after your computer wakes up, and before the next time is sleeps. Otherwise you may miss what last woke it previously. Using the "lastwake" Command 1. Open a command prompt in Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8. 2. In the command prompt, copy and paste the command below and press enter. (see screenshot below step 3) powercfg lastwake 3. You will now see what last woke up your computer. (see screenshot below) For example: This is what last woke up my computer from above. Just for information...

How to Add "Open with" to Context Menu of URL Files in Windows A URL file is a internet shortcut. The Favorites in Internet Explorer, Bookmarks in Firefox, and favorites in your C:\Users\(user-name)\Favorites folder are all URL files as well. This will show you how to add Open with to the right click context menu of URL files for all users in Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial. EXAMPLE: "Open with" in URL Context Menu Here's How: 1. To Remove "Open with" from the Context Menu of URL Files NOTE: This is the default setting. A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 3 below. URL-remove_Open_with.reg...

How to Restore "Windows Energy Screen Saver" Back in Windows 7 and Windows 8 This tutorial will show you how to restore the Windows Energy screen saver back into Windows 7 and Windows 8. You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial. EXAMPLE: Windows Energy screen saver EXAMPLE: Screen Saver Settings NOTE: If restored, the Windows Energy screen saver will be added back to the Screen Saver Settings screen to be available to select as Branded. Here's How: 1. Click/tap on the Download button below to download the Windows_Energy.zip file below. http://www.sevenforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=8222&stc=1&d=1239857622 2. Save the .zip file to the desktop. 3. Open the .zip file and...