Activate The Quick Launch Toolbar

The Quick Launch Toolbar in Windows XP and in Vista seems a very good idea that you might miss when using Windows 7. Fortunately though, you can get it back in a quick few steps. Right click the taskbar, go to Toolbar -> New Toolbar and type “%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch” into the folder box, then click Select Folder. To make it look like it would in Windows Vista, right click the taskbar, uncheck “Lock the Taskbar”, then right click the divider and uncheck “Show Title” and “Show Text”. Then right click the taskbar and check “Show Small Icons” and you should be done.

Minimize The Active Window

Press Windows Key + Down Key

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Maximize Or Restore The Foreground Window

Press Windows Key + Up Key.

Background Photo Slideshow

If you are like me, lazy and bored, then you will want to change the background from time to time, wasting a lot of time. Now you don’t have to do this anymore, because you can set up a slideshow. Right click on the desktop then go to Personalize -> Desktop Background and hold the CTRL key while choosing the images. Then you can choose the time intervals between images and opt to display them randomly or in a row.

Display Gadgets On Top Of Other Windows

Press ALT + G

Display Or Hide The Explorer Preview Panel

Press ALT + P to hide it then once again to display it.

Dock The Current Windows To The Right Side Of The Screen

Press the Windows key + Right key to dock it to the right side of the screen.

Dock The Current Windows To The Left Side Of The Screen

This new feature seems useful because sometimes it’s disturbing that windows seems to float like crazy on the screen and it’s hard to attach them to one side of it. Now this can easily be done using a keyboard shortcut. Press the Windows key + Left key to dock it to the left side of the screen.

Display Empty Removable Drives

Windows 7 will not show empty drives by default, so if you connect an empty drive to your PC, don’t worry, just go to Tools -> Folder Options -> View and uncheck “Hide empty drives in the computer folder”. This doesn’t seem like a good idea and it should not be default setting, because it will be hard for inexperienced users to figure it out. I bet a lot of users will return their newly bought drive thinking it’s broken.

Burn Images

We all had trouble with image burning in Windows, because it couldn’t do it itself, a standalone software being needed. With Windows 7 this will not be a problem anymore. All you have to do is double-click the ISO image and burn it on the CD or DVD that’s inserted in the drive.

AppLocker

If you are usually sharing your computer with someone else, then you might want to restrict their access to your applications, files or documents. Using the AppLocker tool, you have a few options to do this by blocking other users to access Executables, Windows Installers, Scripts, a specific publisher or path. You can simply do this by pressing the Windows key then typing Gpedit.msc. Then go to Computer Navigation -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Application Control Policies -> AppLocker. Right click on one of the options ( Executables, Installers, or Script ) and create a new rule. That should save you from a lot of headaches.

Windows 7 is doing quite good these days. After Microsoft launched the Betarelease that is available for everyone to download. And many people who are lucky enough to use the new Windows 7 beta say that it is cool, fast, and nice looking! Well, I must say that I totally agree. I am using it and I haven’t had any problems with it… It works like a charm…

But if you have some crap pc ( don’t worry, I know it’s only temporarily) or maybe some other obstacles that don’t let you install Windows 7 then I might have something for you…

I know that you would, at least like to feel that Win 7 design if you can’t use the Windows 7 itself. All those newly designed features like big and iconized taskbar buttons, Windows 7 Superbar, or even full Start ORB. Now you can have all that in Windows XP too. (cool ins’t it?)

Here’s how your desktop will look like after you complete the steps below:

And here’s how to make it possible:

1. Download SevenVG Refresh Theme here and extract its contents. You should see a folder named: “SevenVG Refresh Theme for Windows XP by Vishal Gupta“.

2. In this folder, you’ll get 3 more folders:

a) Fonts (This folder contains Segoe UI fonts required for the theme. Run Fonts.exe file to install them.)

b) Styler Toolbar (This folder contains Styler setup and SevenVG styler toolbar skin. It will provide toolbar and commandbar in Explorer that looks like Windows 7)

c) Theme (This folder contains the main theme. Run “Theme.exe” file to install it.)

3. Apply the theme using Desktop Properties and you’re ready to go! Enjoy!

4. Also make sure you have patched the “uxtheme.dll” file (needs to be patched to allow 3rd party visual styles), if it’s not patched, then download and run the UXtheme Patcher from here:

For XP SP3 Users - Download UXTheme Patcher here
For XP SP2 Users - Download UXTheme Patcher here

Ok, you applied the new theme. But now you need to make iconized taskbar buttons on your XP to look just like on Windows 7.

How to make iconized taskbar buttons on your XP:

Windows 7 taskbar doesn’t show text in application buttons, it only show their icons. Here’s how it will look like after you follow these steps:

And as you already know, previous Windows versions used to show icon as well as text in all application’s taskbar buttons. That takes too much space when you open lot of applications. And here is how it looks (although you know how it looks because you are using it now, but just for the record…)

As you can see, Windows 7 new iconized taskbar feature looks cool and it also saves a lot of space in the taskbar area.

There are 2 ways to do this.

1. Download a registry file that will automatically make necessary changes in your registry base and make your toolbar look like in the image above (the easy way - strongly recommended)

2. Manually make the changes in your Windows registry base to apply the above effect. (Only for advanced users - not really recommended).

I hope you have chosen the easy way (as we all do when choosing to do things in life right?), but if you really insist that you want to do it yourself, manually, then here’s how to do it:

1. Type regedit in RUN dialog box and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor. Now go to following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

2. In right-side panel, create a new String value MinWidth and set its value to -255

3. That’s it. Log off or restart your system and get ready to have iconized taskbar in your system.

4. To restore the default taskbar behavior, delete the MinWidth String value and log off or restart your system.

That’s all you need to do to make that XP desktop look as shiny and cool looking as Windows 7.

Credits for theme created to Vistart skin at DevianArt.

Enjoy! And don’t forget to share this post if you like it