Tutorials

How to Start or Disable Services in Windows 7 Services are a computer program or process that runs in the background and provides support to other programs in Windows 7. This will show you how to start or disable a Windows 7 service of your choice. For more information on each service, see: Standard Windows 7 Services Svchost.exe You must be logged in as an administrator to start or disable Servces. If you want to cut down the overhead of what is running in the background and speed Windows 7 up some, then only disable the services you do not use. If you disable a service that you need or use, then it could actually lower your computer's performance. The Services apply to all users on the computer.It is highly recommended that...

How to Install and Configure WinDBG for BSOD Analysis WinDBG (Windows DeBuGger) is a Microsoft software tool that is needed to load and analyse the .dmp files that are created when a system BSOD's. The latest version of WinDBG allows debugging of Windows 10.x, Windows 8.x, Windows 7 and Windows Vista. This tutorial will show you how to download, install, configure and test WinDBG in preparation for analysing BSOD's. . WinDBG requires .NET Framework 4.5.2 in order to run. If it's not installed, download it from this location, and install it before downloading and installing WinDBG. Downloading and Installing WinDBG 1. Download the WinDBG sdksetup.exe setup file. 2. Run sdksetup.exe, and specify the installation location (this...

How to Back Up User and System Files in Windows 7 This will show you how to configure and back up user file types and system files of your choice in Windows 7. Windows Backup logs are stored in the .evtx file below. It will open in Event Viewer when double clicked on. C:\Windows\System32\winevt\Logs\Microsoft-Windows-Backup.evtx New backups are saved in this format: drive letter:\computer name\Backup Set YYYY-MM-DD HHMMSS For example: If your computer name is Brink-PC, your backup location is on hard drive (network or local) F: , and you backed up on July 9th 2011 at 3:10:38 PM (it will use 24 hour time), then your backup would be located at: F:\BRINK-PC\Backup Set 2011-07-09 151038 There will be a incremental Backup Files...

How to Create Shortcut with Relative Path Shortcuts are an indisputable necessity of any user-friendly OS, and Windows is no exception. Their lingering existence make them an accustomed part of the Windows experience, providing a effortless means of navigating the file system, or launching our most used programs. They serve to boost user productivity by about 55%, and crowd desktop space by 10%. The Windows Shortcut file, a metadata file that is interpreted by the shell, has adapted to support a number of features such as being able to display a custom icon, assign hotkeys to the link, store compatibility setttings including being able to run the program as administrator, link to web resources (not to be confused with .URL files)...

More recent, complete walkthrough tutorial here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/319903-windows-7-image-customize-audit-mode-sysprep.html How to Use Sysprep to Customize Windows 7 and Windows 8 This tutorial is a short introduction to the wonderful world of Sysprep :). The built-in Windows System Preparation Tool, Sysprep to put it short, is a tool not very well known outside the geek circles although it is quite easy and simple to use. Alone it can do quite little, basically only two tasks: boot Windows to a so called Audit Mode, and generalize your Windows setup by removing all hardware independent information and drivers to allow the Windows image be transfered to another computer. Add an Answer File and everything is...

How to Allow or Prevent Devices to Wake Up Computer This will show you how to allow or prevent devices installed on your computer to be able to wake up your computer from sleep in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. You will need to be logged in as an administrator to be able to do this tutorial. Using Device Manager 1. Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the Device Manager icon. 2. To Prevent a Device from Waking up the Computer A) Check and see a list of your installed devices that are able to wake up the computer to help know what devices to set in Device Manager. (see screenshot below) B) In Device Manager, expand the category (ex: Keyboards) that the device is under, then double click on the device (ex...

How to Kill all Explorer.exe Instances with One Move This tutorial will show you how to kill all running explorer.exe (windows explorer) windows at once in Vista and Windows 7. (in cases of crashes or debugging reasons) The usual way of killing explorer.exe process is by opening Task Manager, going to the Processes tab , right clicking the explorer.exe instance and clicking "End Process". Here's How: 1. Click on Start to open the Start Menu. Now while holding down the Ctrl+Shift key, right click on the power button, and click on Exit Explorer. That's it. If you need to start explorer again though, the only way is to open task manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and goto File-> New task (run) and type explorer.exe {enter}...

How to Add or Remove Homegroup from Navigation Pane in Windows 7 This will show you how to add or remove Homegroup in the Windows Explorer Navigation Pane in Windows 7. You can only do this while logged into an administrator account. This will affect all user account's on the computer. EXAMPLE: Homegroup in Navigation Pane NOTE: This is Homegroup added (default) (left screenshot below) and removed (right screenshot below) from the Navigation Pane. Here's How: 1. Open the Start Menu and type regedit.exe in the search line, then press enter. 2. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes. 3. In Regedit, go to the location below: (See screenshot below step 4)...

How to Enable or Disable Quick Launch in Windows 7 By default Quick Launch is disabled in Windows 7. This will show you how to enable or disable Quick Launch as a taskbar toolbar using small or large icons in Windows 7. Quick Launch is a toolbar on the taskbar. Quick Launch is used to open a program quickly from a shortcut from within it separate from the pinned programs on the taskbar. The Quick Launch folder is located at the hidden system folder location below to add shortcuts to. C:\Users\(user-name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch Microsoft has made available a hotfix that will resolve a problem where the taskbar customizations are lost and reset to defaults when automatic logon is enabled in...

An MTU limit that is set too high can cause fragmented packets and packet loss on your connection. This tutorial will explain how to test if your MTU limit is sending fragmented packets and will explain how to find what value you should be using. 1) Open an elevated command prompt and type: netsh interface ipv4 show subinterfaces and hit Enter. You should get a list of all your network adapters installed on your PC. The MTU value is listed on the left. All PPP connections (Point-to-Point Protocol) have a default MTU size of 1500 bytes and VPN connections have a defualt size of 1400. 28 bytes of this number is reserved for IP/ICMP overhead, so the effective MTU size here is 1472 (1500-28). To work out if this MTU is too...

How to Change the Default Control Panel Icon in Windows 7 This will show you how to change the default Control Panel icon in the Windows 7 Start Menu, Desktop icon, and navigation pane to be a icon of your choice. You should use a 256x256 pixel .ico (icon) file to have the best support for all icon view sizes. EXAMPLE: Default and Changed Control Panel Icon To Change Control Panel Icon for Current User Only NOTE: This option will only change the default icon for the user account that you are currently logged in, and will override the icon from OPTION TWO below for only this user account. This option will not change the icon for all users like OPTION TWO below, but only for the current user. 1. To Change the Control Panel...

How to Change the Windows 7 Pinned Windows Explorer Taskbar Icon Open To Target This will show you how to change the Windows 7 pinned Windows Explorer taskbar icon from the default Open To the Libraries window target to Open To the Computer window target or other possible locations that are available to choose from instead when you click on the Windows Explorer icon on the taskbar.Special thanks to Chappy (aka: Dave) for pointing this out to me, and to Limneos for the additional locations.By design in Windows, these shortcuts will open a new window in a new process (explorer.exe) each time you use the shortcut. When you close the opened window from the shortcut, the extra explorer.exe process will close with it as well a few moments...

How to Use Windows DVD Maker in Windows 7 This will show you how to open and use Windows DVD Maker in Windows 7 to create and burn a pictures and videos DVD that you can watch on a computer or on a TV using a regular DVD player. You can also customize the DVD menu style and text before you burn the DVD. See also: Burn a DVD-Video disc with Windows DVD Maker Windows DVD Maker is only available in the Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions. . The N and KN editions of Windows 7 have all the features that normally come with each individual Windows 7 edition, except for Windows Media Player 12 and related programs, such as Windows Media Center or Windows DVD Maker. The N editions of Windows 7 allow you...

How to Back Up and Restore Taskbar Toolbars in Vista and Windows 7 A toolbar is a folder, row, column, or block of buttons or icons representing tasks you can do within a program. Some toolbars can appear on the taskbar. This will show you how to back up and restore your taskbar toolbars automatically with one click in Vista and Windows 7. This does not include backing up and restoring your pinned taskbar icons or Jump Lists. This can be handy if you do not want to have to manually add or create your current taskbar toolbars again say after a clean install of Windows 7. By default, your user account's taskbar toolbars are saved in the registry location below. This is what this tutorial will be backing up and restoring for you...

How to Install and Setup Zorin in VMware Player This tutorial is aimed at Windows users who want to try out a Linux distro and learn about a virtual OS installation at the same time. If you are not interested in the virtual part, you can skip directly to Chapter 2 which explains the Zorin setup. Zorin is a Linux distro with an Ubuntu base. Of all the Linux distros I know, it comes the closest to Windows as far as the user interface (UI) is concerned. If you are not familiar with Linux and want to experiment with it, I recommend you try Zorin. It can be downloaded from the Zorin site (click on the 'Get it' button). I suggest you take the 64bit version which is the one used in this tutorial. Coming from Windows, you will not be...

How to Install Windows 7 on Computer with Less than 512MB RAM This is a process by we can install Windows 7 on computers with less than 512 MB of memory. This is only for 32-bit version of Windows 7 because it is nearly impossible to run 64-bit version of the OS in a computer with less than 512 ram. Although you can install Windows 7 Ultimate edition, but I recommend to install Home Premium, Home Basic, or Starter editions. Use at least 256MB ram. Things you need: 1) Windows 7 32bit ISO 2) A HEX editor. I prefer Free Hex Editor Neo. 3) UltraISO or powerISO. Lets get started: 1) mount the ISO and copy the file "winsetup.dll" from the sources folder to any of your local drive. 2) Now open winsetup.dll with the help...

How to Delete a File in Windows from the Command Prompt This tutorial will show you how to permanently delete a File in Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 using the DEL or ERASE command from within a command prompt. This can be handy if you cannot delete the file normally.While you can run this command in a non-elevated or elevated command prompt, you would get the best results using a elevated command prompt. The file will be deleted immediately and not placed in the Recycle Bin first. EXAMPLE: DEL and ERASE Command NOTE: You can use either the DEL or ERASE command in the command prompt. They are the same command. Here's How: 1. Do step 2, 3, or 4 for how you would like to delete your file(s). 2. To Use an Elevated...

How to Uninstall IE11 in Windows 7 to Restore Previous Version of Internet Explorer This tutorial will show you how to uninstall Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) to return to the previously installed version of Internet Explorer for all users in Windows 7. You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to uninstall IE11. EXAMPLE: About Internet Explorer 11 NOTE: In Internet Explorer, click on Help (Menu bar) and About Internet Explorer to see this. Uninstall IE11 in "Installed Updates" in Windows 7 1. Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click on the Programs and Features icon. 2. In Programs and Features, click on the View installed updates link on the left side. (see screenshot below) 3. In Installed Updates...

How to Allow Users to Run Only Specified Programs in Windows This tutorial will show you how to allow all or specific users on the computer to be able to run only a list of allowed programs you specify in Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8. You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial. This will not prevent users from being able to run a program through the command prompt unless you do not add cmd.exe to the list of allowed applications, or add cmd.exe to the list of disallowed applications. Even if you have an .exe file of a program in the list of allowed applications and also in the list of disallowed applications, then users will not be able to run the .exe. Anything disallowed will always...

How to Change the User Folder Name of a User Profile in Windows 7 Normally, you could change your account name in User Accounts from the Control Panel (icons view), but that still would not change your accoun's user profile folder name in C:\Users. This will show you how to change your account name and change the user profile folder name of any user account, including the built-in Administrator account (if enabled), in Windows 7 without losing anything in that user account. This will affect the user account's name for the C:\Users\(user-name) folder, Start Menu, Log on screen, Welcome screen, security permissions, etc...... You must be logged in as an administrator, and is a different account than the account you are changing...