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Archive for May, 2010

Online
privacy expectations are evolving, but whether Facebook likes it or
not, a lot of us want the privacy settings we signed up for when we
joined the service. Here’s how to use Facebook’s new privacy controls to regain your original privacy.

These days, Facebook seems seriously invested in a struggle to rule
the entire internet, incorporating features from nearly every social
service that pops up (see Twitter, Foursquare, FriendFeed, etc.). The
problem is, not every application fills the same niche, and in order to
compete with other social tools, Facebook has slowly and surely changed
from a primarily private service to a very public one.

Users have always known and expected that Twitter, for example, is a
public service. Sure, you can make your account private, but its very
nature as a public microblogging service is that people can use it and
have their voice heard by the many. Conversely, the idea of Facebook
was always connecting with your real life friends, and sharing things
with them and them alone. That’s why everyone flocked to it over
MySpace in the first place.

Yet, as Facebook tries to spread itself across all of cyberspace, it
makes your activity more and more public, trying to squeeze itself into
the niches of Twitter and Digg, all the while becoming a shadow of its
former self. Thankfully, Facebook’s new privacy controls, while
certainly not perfect, do make it easier to control your social
experience on the site. We’ve gone through the new privacy settings
extensively, and have created this guide to help you take Facebook back
for yourself, making it what you signed up for, not what Facebook is trying desperately to make it.

(The amount of data you want and expect Facebook to share publicly
varies from person to person; below, we’ve highlighted the settings
that we think align most closely with both what we think of as good
settings and what feels closest to Facebook’s earlier privacy settings.)

The screenshots throughout the guide depict the recommended
settings we describe, and you can click on them to view a larger, more
readable version.

Note: Remember that Facebook’s new privacy settings will roll
out to users over the next couple of weeks, so if you don’t have them
yet, keep an eye on your Facebook page for a popup at the top of your
news feed (shown above).

Control Your Basic Directory Information

Facebook’s new system
splits your privacy settings up into four sections. The first, brand
new section is your directory information, which controls the kind of
information that people searching for you would use to identify you.
This includes your friend list, education and work, hometown/current
city, and interests and other pages. This also includes settings on who
can search for you, send you friend requests, and send you messages.
This section works much like the old privacy settings: once you click
on “view settings” under basic directory information, you’ll be able to
choose who can view each specific type of item, whether that be
“everyone”, “friends of friends”, or just friends.

While Facebook recommends you keep all this information public, so
people searching for you can tell who you are, it doesn’t all seem
necessary. Your interests, pages, and hometown can likely be set to
“friends only”, as shown above. We’d recommend setting your education
and work to “friends and networks”, so people you are not friends with
but that go to the same school or work in the same office can easily
find you. The rest can be set to public, unless you’d really prefer
that you initiate all friend requests yourself—which is fine—but for
most people, being in Facebook’s search results helps people find you.
I’ve personally set “send me messages” and “see my friend list” to
friends of friends, which is still fairly public, but rarely will
anyone not connected to me by someone else need to do either of those
things, so I’ve set them accordingly. That part is really up to you.

Privatize Your Personal Information

The most revamped section is the “Sharing on Facebook” section,
which has been greatly simplified. This section includes your more
personal details, like statuses, photos, posts, bio, contact
information, and so on. Facebook has a few quick links on the side to
set everything to public, private, or their recommended settings, which
honestly are still a bit too open for our tastes. Thus, our
recommendation is simple: just hit the “friends only” link on the
sidebar, then hit the “apply settings” button. There’s no reason the
rest of the world needs to see all this information if you’re using
Facebook in the same way you did back in 2005, and there’s no reason to
make it complicated and use custom settings (unless you really, really
want everyone to know your favorite quotations).

Lock Down Those Annoying Applications

Down in the corner of the main privacy settings page is the
“applications and websites” section, which controls access to your
information outside Facebook. Click on the edit settings button and
take a look at what applications you are using, if any. While your
first instinct may be to turn off all platform applications, take note
of the fact that if you use, say, Facebook for Android or the previously mentioned Desktop Notifications Mac app,
this will make them unusable. In addition, if you link your Twitter
account with Facebook, or use iPhoto to upload pictures to Facebook,
you’ll need applications active to do so these types of things as well.

Thankfully, the applications menu is a bajillion times simpler than
the old one, so you can use custom settings without worrying about
spending all day tweaking them. All you need to do is click the “remove
unwanted or spammy applications” link and remove the applications you
don’t want on your account at all. Keep the ones you need, and move on.

You’ll
probably want to completely lock down the rest of this page. Set “game
and application activity” to friends only (although this very well may
not matter depending on the apps you use). The other three options have
“edit settings’ buttons that take you to windows with one or many
checkboxes, all of which you should probably uncheck. You don’t need to
share your personal information with any applications, nor do you
probably want your information all over other sites. Showing up in
Google searches is up to you, though if you’re using Facebook purely
for personal reasons, you might as well uncheck that box as well.

Block Crazy People and Excruciatingly Annoying Applications

The last section is your block list, which you probably won’t tweak
too much at the moment, but it is beneficial to become acquainted with
the feature itself. Here, you can block specific users (such as overly
friendly high school acquaintances and angry ex-girl/boyfriends) by
name or email, as well as block invites from particularly spammy
applications. While this would be a good time to enter in any people or
applications that come to mind, remember that you can also block them
from pretty much anywhere on Facebook, so as you discover how annoying
that application or person is, you can just click the block button on
your news feed or their profile.

---

Obviously, these are merely recommendations from those of us at
Lifehacker that are fairly privacy conscious, but not enough to quit
Facebook altogether. You can tweak the settings to your liking anywhere
you want. The main idea of this guide was to use Facebook’s new privacy
settings (which are rather simple and give you a good amount of
control) to bring the Facebook experience back a few years, when you
spoke its name with a positive tone and not one of spite. Have the new
privacy settings rolled out for you yet? If so, let us know what you
think of them and our recommendations in the comments.

Windows
7 adds loads of great shortcuts for switching between apps, moving
windows around your screen, moving them to another monitor altogether,
and much more. Here’s a quick-reference master list of the best new
Windows 7 shortcuts.

We’re nuts for keyboard shortcuts here at
Lifehacker, and Windows 7 brings a handful of great new ones to add to
your muscle memory. It’s also got a few handy mouse-based shortcuts
you’d do well to add to your repertoire. So let’s get shortcuttin’.

Window Management Shortcuts

One of the best changes in Windows 7 is the ability to “snap”
windows to the side of the screen, maximize them by dragging to the top
of the screen, or even move them to another monitor with a shortcut
key. Check out the video for a demonstration of how some of the keys
work.

The full list of keyboard shortcuts includes:

• Win+Home: Clear all but the active window.
• Win+Space: All windows become transparent so you can see through to the desktop.
• Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window.
• Shift+Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window vertically.
• Win+Down arrow: Minimize the window/Restore the window if it’s maximized.
• Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the window to each side of the monitor.
• Shift+Win+Left/Right arrows: Move the window to the monitor on the left or right.

You can also interact with windows by dragging them with the mouse:

• Drag window to the top: Maximize
• Drag window left/right: Dock the window to fill half of the screen.
• Shake window back/forth: Minimize everything but the current window.
• Double-Click Top Window Border (edge): Maximize window vertically.

Taskbar Shortcuts

In Windows 7, using the Windows key along with the numbers 1-9 will
let you interact with the applications pinned to the taskbar in those
positions – for example, the Windows key + 4 combination would launch
Outlook in this example, or Win+Alt+4 can be used to get quick access to the Outlook Jump List from the keyboard.

You can use any of these shortcut combinations to launch the applications in their respective position on the taskbar, or more:

• Win+number (1-9): Starts the application pinned to the taskbar in that position, or switches to that program.
• Shift+Win+number (1-9): Starts a new instance of the application pinned to the taskbar in that position.
• Ctrl+Win+number (1-9): Cycles through open windows for the application pinned to the taskbar in that position.
• Alt+Win+number (1-9): Opens the Jump List for the application pinned to the taskbar.
• Win+T: Focus and scroll through items on the taskbar.
• Win+B: Focuses the System Tray icons

In addition, you can interact with the taskbar using your mouse and a modifier key:

• Shift+Click on a taskbar button: Open a program or quickly open another instance of a program.
• Ctrl+Shift+Click on a taskbar button: Open a program as an administrator.
• Shift+Right-click on a taskbar button: Show the window menu for the program (like XP does).
• Shift+Right-click on a grouped taskbar button: Show the window menu for the group.
• Ctrl+Click on a grouped taskbar button: Cycle through the windows of the group.

More Useful Hotkeys You Should Know

The
new hotkey goodness didn’t stop with the taskbar and moving windows
around—one of the best new hotkeys in Windows 7 is the fact that you
can create a new folder with a hotkey.
Just open up any Windows Explorer window, hit the Ctrl+Shift+N shortcut
key sequence, and you’ll be rewarded with a shiny “New Folder” ready
for you to rename.

Here’s a few more interesting hotkeys for you:

• Ctrl+Shift+N: Creates a new folder in Windows Explorer.
• Alt+Up: Goes up a folder level in Windows Explorer.
• Alt+P: Toggles the preview pane in Windows Explorer.
• Shift+Right-Click on a file: Adds Copy as Path, which copies the path of a file to the clipboard.
• Shift+Right-Click on a file: Adds extra hidden items to the Send To menu.
• Shift+Right-Click on a folder: Adds Command Prompt Here, which lets you easily open a command prompt in that folder.
• Win+P: Adjust presentation settings for your display.
• Win+(+/-): Zoom in/out.
• Win+G: Cycle between the Windows Gadgets on your screen.

If you need help upgrading or using Windows 7 please dont hesitate to call 678PC today (678)404-1001
Serving Metro Atlanta, Gwinnett County, and Surrounding areas.  Lawrenceville, Snellville, Buford, Suwanee, etc

Windows
7 officially launches today, but we’ve been testing, tweaking,
customizing, fixing, and writing about this OS for a year now. We
present here a guide to everything we’ve learned about the OS, from
first install to final settings change.

Whether you’ve played
around with Windows 7 during its beta or release candidate versions,
launch day is finally here, and Windows 7 is finally ready for
widespread, public consumption. This guide will take you straight
through from system requirements and upgrading your PC to highlighting
Windows 7’s best new features to helping you hit the ground running
with all of the awesome tweaks Windows 7 has in store for you.

System Requirements

According to Microsoft:

• 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Buying, installing, and upgrading

• Figure Out Which Windows 7 Edition Has the Features You Need: Not
  everybody needs Windows 7 Ultimate, but what if there’s a certain
  feature you must have when you grab your upgrade this Thursday? CNET
  breaks down each Windows 7 edition feature by feature in a handy chart.
• Prep Your PC for Windows 7: When
  Windows 7 drops this Thursday, you can either spend many, many hours
  watching a progress bar, or you can boot into a clean, speedy system
  with that new-OS smell. Let’s get your system set up for a proper
  Windows 7 upgrade.
• Get Windows 7 Home Premium for $30 With a College Email Address: If
  you’re a U.S. college student, or at least having a working .edu email
  address, you don’t have to pay $120 to upgrade Vista to Windows 7. You
  can get the Home Premium upgrade for just $30.
• Run Windows 7 for 120 Days Without Activation: The command line code (slmgr -rearm)
  that could be entered at the end of three different 30-day periods to
  give Vista 120 days without activation works just the same in Windows 7.

Our take on Windows 7

• Top 10 Things to Look Forward to in Windows 7: Windows
  7 isn’t a dramatic overhaul of its predecessor Windows Vista, but it
  does fix several sore spots and add a few welcome features.
• Windows 7’s Best Underhyped Features: It’s
  these less sexy, but very useful features, that make me think the more
  I use Windows 7, the less chance I’ll ever use Vista or XP again.
• Windows 7 Versus Mac OS X Leopard: The Feature-by-Feature Showdown: Oh,
  I know: the Mac versus PC debate is so played out. Perhaps, but dumb
  commercials aside, if you’re deciding between buying a Mac or a PC in
  the coming months, it helps to know what you’re getting from one or the
  other.

New features

• Windows 7 Tells You Why You Can’t Touch That File: Windows
  7 doesn’t just give you a wagging finger (and pretend-useful “Try
  Again” button) when you want to move or delete a file that’s in use. It
  actually tells you which application is using the file.
• Windows 7 Lets You Customize Your Logon Background: Expert
  Windows hacker Rafael Rivera finds a change in the latest build of
  Windows 7—you can finally customize the log-on screen natively.
• Windows 7 Transfers Your Wireless Settings Easily: To
  transfer the settings for yourself, head into the Network and Sharing
  Center, click on Manage Wireless Networks, and then in the properties
  for your wireless network you’ll find the link to open the wizard that
  will copy all your settings onto a flash drive.
• How to Burn ISOs in Windows 7: Burning
  that ISO to a disc is as simple as: 1. Double-click the ISO file (or
  right-click and select Burn disc image); 2. Click Burn.
• Play Your iPod Through Your Windows 7 PC’s Speakers: You
  can play an external audio device through your computer’s speakers
  without any extra software using a simple configuration setting.
• Windows 7 Makes UAC Less Annoying Than Vista: The
  biggest change in Windows 7 is the new User Account Control “slider”
  setting, where you can choose your own balance between annoyance and
  security—but behind the scenes, Microsoft reduced the amount of actions
  that will prompt you.
• Netflix Update Comes to Windows 7 Media Center, Looks Excellent: Starting
  this week, Microsoft is rolling out an upgraded Watch Instantly
  interface to Windows 7 Media Center for users looking to get their
  streaming TV and movie fix on their upgraded PCs.
• Setup File and Printer Sharing From XP to Windows 7: This
  guide walks you through the process of enabling network discovery,
  sharing your folders and printers, and accessing your shared resources
  from either Windows 7 or XP.
• IE8 Can Proactively Close Crashing Tabs in Windows 7: The
  copy of IE8 found only in (Windows 7) has a “timer” that monitors new
  tabs as they open. If they aren’t responsive within a relatively short
  amount of time, the browser will pop up and tell you this, possibly
  with a reason why, and ask whether you want to wait or kill the tab
  before it causes further problems.
• Windows 7 Lets You Finally Uninstall Internet Explorer (Kinda): …
  It won’t completely uninstall—only the executable is actually removed.
  Still, being able to finally banish IE proper from your system is a
  pretty good start for folks who really don’t like IE.
• Windows 7 Will Let You Uninstall Most Built-In Apps: You can turn almost every built-in application on or off, including Windows Search, Gadgets, and even Media Player.

The Taskbar

• Aero Peek: Peek
  supercharges Windows’ taskbar thumbnail previews, and lets you view,
  close, and switch between multiple windows by just hovering over the
  taskbar thumbnail, as well as pin programs to the taskbar permanently.

• Pin Individual Folders to the Windows 7 Taskbar: Windows
  7’s taskbar lets you pin any running program to the taskbar for easy
  future access, but it treats folders like second-class sub-items of the
  Explorer icon. Create a fake “program” to pin individual folder
  shortcuts to your taskbar.
• Middle-Click to Close Applications from Windows 7’s Taskbar: In
  Windows 7, middle-clicking a taskbar button opens a new program
  instance. The easy solution for closing an app? Middle-click its
  preview window.
• Hold Shift While Dragging to Windows 7 Taskbar to Open Files:
  All you have to do is hold down the Shift key while dragging a file to
  an icon on the taskbar, and the tooltip will change to say “Open with”
  instead of pinning to the taskbar.
• Pin Any Item to the Windows 7 Taskbar: We already showed you how to pin specific folders, and this is just a slightly tweaked application of that method.
• Put a Recycle Bin Shortcut on the Windows 7 Taskbar: Once
  you are finished, you’ll have a separate recycle icon on the
  taskbar—useful for quick access to deleted files without having to hunt
  down an icon on your desktop.
• Get a Functional Recycle Bin on Windows 7’s Taskbar: TechSpot’s
  solution—creating a Quick Launch taskbar, removing its text and title,
  then bringing the desktop Recycle Bin icon into it—covers all the
  bases, and lets you place your Recycle Bin pretty much wherever you’d
  like on the taskbar.

Jump lists

• 
• Master Windows 7 Jump Lists to Boost Your Win7 Productivity: For
  those of you that haven’t yet tried out Windows 7, when you right-click
  on a taskbar button in Windows 7, a menu slides out with recent
  documents and application tasks. Here’s a rundown of our favorite Jump
  List boosters.
• Winfox Adds Jump Lists to Firefox on Windows 7: Jump
  Lists are one of the best new features in Windows 7, and since Firefox
  still doesn’t take advantage of them, a small utility called Winfox
  adds the feature for you.
• Win7shell Adds Windows 7 Jump List Support to Winamp: Once
  you’ve downloaded, installed the plugin, and pinned Winamp to the
  taskbar, the Jump List should immediately start tracking your recently
  played media files.

Built-in Applications

• Set Up and Use XP Mode in Windows 7: Windows
  7’s new XP Mode lets you seamlessly run virtualized applications
  alongside your regular Windows 7 applications—so your outdated software
  will continue to work.
• Calculator: While
  mathletes, scientists, coders, and statisticians will appreciate
  Windows 7’s built-in calculator’s programmer, statistics, and
  scientific modes, everyday people will love figuring out things like
  hourly wages and mortgage payments without a spreadsheet.
• PowerShell: (A) souped-up command line and scripting GUI that frees you, finally, from the limits of DOS batch scripts.
• Windows 7 Media Center’s Music Player Is Hot Hot Hot: Good
  news for music lovers excited for Windows 7: The new and improved music
  interface in Windows 7 Media Center is overflowing with eye candy and
  usability.
• Windows 7’s WordPad Opens Word 2007 DOCX Files: …
  The ribbon-style WordPad in Windows 2007 opens Word 2007 files, the
  .docx kind, pretty handily, albeit with some formatting loss.
• Backup and Restore Center: For the average user with both media and crucial file needs, Windows 7’s default backup features look promising.
• Windows 7 Guest Mode Creates Bomb-Proof Accounts: In
  the simplest terms, Guest Mode takes a snapshot of how a PC was working
  before the kid, friend, coffeeshop customer, or whoever else is using
  the Guest Mode account logs on. That user can’t do much to alter the
  system, and whatever they can do, like dropping files on the desktop,
  is discarded when they log off.
• Windows 7 Calibration and ClearType Tools Fine-Tune Your Displays: Windows 7’s color calibration and ClearType tools might be good enough for non-graphic-designers to stick with.

Themes, wallpapers, and login screens

• Windows 7 Beta’s Many Free and Legit Themes: Microsoft is offering 20 fresh themes (in Windows 7). Here’s a closer look.
• Grab Every Region’s Windows 7 Wallpapers in One Download: Microsoft
  allowed Windows Vista Magazine to bundle up every wallpaper from
  Windows 7’s regional releases and, boy, we’re glad they did. One file
  brings a lot of new looks to any desktop, Windows 7 or otherwise.
• Secret Registry Hack Customizes Windows 7 Logon “Button Set”: Rafael
  Rivera, the same expert Windows hacker that figured out how to
  customize your Windows 7 logon background, finds another hack that
  changes the UI to look better with darker background images.
• Microsoft Releases More Free Windows 7 Theme Downloads: The
  full-fledged themes are specific downloads for Windows 7 users, but
  anyone can grab the wallpapers from Windows 7’s Personalization Gallery
  for their system.

Mouse and Keyboard Shortcuts

• The Best New Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts: Windows 7 has more cool new shortcuts than you can shake a stick at.
• Aero Shake: When
  you want to focus on the task at hand on a desktop cluttered with
  windows, just grab the window bar of the app you want to work in and
  shake it back and forth to clear away the rest. Another shake will
  restore the background apps to their former state. You can also drag
  and drop a window to the edge of the screen to maximize it, and click
  on its top bar again to restore its previous size.

• Snap windows to half screen size: …
  Dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes it. Following
  that, if you drag a window all the way to the left or the right of the
  screen, Windows 7 will display a glass overlay on the desktop. Let go
  of the mouse button and it will snap the window onto that overlay,
  which is half the screen’s size—a handy helper for widescreen monitor
  owners.
• Maximize Windows Vertically with a Double-Click in Windows 7: Reader
  John points out that you can simply move your mouse to the top of a
  window until the pointer switches to the resize icon, and then
  double-click your mouse to instantly maximize the window to fill all
  the available vertical space.
• Shift and Right-Click to Expand Windows 7’s Send To Menu: Just as with Vista, holding down the Shift key while right-clicking in Windows 7 gives you a fuller range of options.
• Activate Windows 7 Jumplists with the Left Mouse Button: You
  don’t have to right-click on the taskbar buttons to activate Windows
  7’s Jumplists—you can hold the left mouse button and drag upwards.
• Windows 7 Creates New Folders With a Hotkey:
  To create a new folder, simply press Ctrl+Shift+N with an explorer
  window open and the folder will instantly show up, ready to be renamed
  to something more useful.

Tweaks, fixes, and customizations

• The Best Windows Tweaks that Still Work in Windows 7: The
  final version of Windows 7 is being released this week to the general
  public, and after you get your hands on it the first thing you’ll need
  to know is: Do all my tweaks still work?
• Customize or Disable Windows 7’s Action Center: Windows
  7’s Action Center does a great job of compressing all of Windows’
  update/alert/whatever notifications into one icon, but it takes some
  tweaking to make it show what you want, or disable it entirely.
• Add text to the Windows 7 taskbar buttons: Just
  right-click the taskbar, select Properties, then change the Taskbar
  buttons drop-down from “Always combine, hide labels” to “Never combine.”
• Set Default Printers Based on Network in Windows 7: Windows
  7 sports a great new feature that allows you to set default printers
  based on what network your computer is connected to, perfect for folks
  who carry laptops from network to network.
• Get Quick Access to Windows 7’s Jump Lists From the Keyboard: When
  we showed you how to master Windows 7’s new Jump Lists feature, there
  was one extremely useful tip that we left out: you can also access them
  from your keyboard.
• Create and Share Custom Themes in Windows 7: Microsoft’s
  Engineering Windows 7 weblog details how to create, save, and share
  your own custom Windows 7 themes, complete with wallpaper, window
  color, and sounds.
• Get the Old “Show Desktop” Back in Windows 7—Kinda: The
  short version: Create a folder, place a “Show Desktop.scf” file in
  there (either your standard Google-found kind or the script available
  at the bottom link), then right-click your taskbar to create a “New
  Toolbar” that points to that folder. Turn off the text and titles on
  that new toolbar, change the icons to large size, and then put your new
  one-button toolbar where you’d like.
• Hidden Windows 7 Tool Troubleshoots Sleep Mode Problems: The
  report lists all of the devices that are causing problems with sleep
  mode, explains the different power saving modes your computer supports,
  and even gives you detailed information on your battery—invaluable
  information when your system takes forever to go in and out of sleep
  mode.
• Disable the New Libraries Feature on Windows 7: Simply
  download, extract, and double-click on the provided registry hack file,
  then restart your computer and you’ll see that the Libraries are
  completely gone. There’s also an uninstall registry script provided
  just in case.

Third-party helpers

• Logon Changer Customizes the Windows 7 Login Screen: Tiny
  system customizing utility Logon Changer for Windows 7 swaps out the
  logon screen wallpaper easily. Using the utility is simple—just select
  a new wallpaper, test it, and you are done.
• Xdn Tweaker Updates to Tweak Windows 7: If
  you want your system to remember or not remember how you sort certain
  folders, edit what’s accessible through the right-click menu, or
  de-hook Windows Media Player from all the files it tries to glom onto,
  Xdn does those things for Windows 7.
• Glass CMD Enables Aero Transparency for the Command Prompt: Glass CMD for Vista forces command prompt windows to use Aero’s glass transparency effect.
• Gmail Notifier Plus Adds Email Alerts to the Windows 7 Taskbar: Gmail
  Notifier Plus displays your unread email count right in the Windows 7
  taskbar, including popup message previews and Jump Lists integration.
• Switch Power Management Plans With a Hotkey: Once
  you’ve created the shortcut, you can assign a hotkey in the properties
  dialog—even better, put the shortcut in a location to be indexed by
  Launchy or the Vista start menu search, or even add it to your
  AutoHotkey automation script.
• CSMenu Brings the Classic Start Menu Back to Windows 7: Application
  launcher CSMenu makes up for the lack of a classic start menu option in
  Windows 7 by creating a menu that looks and works just like the ancient
  Windows 2000 menu did.
• Ultimate Windows Tweaker Updates, Improves Windows 7 Support: Ultimate
  Windows Tweaker adds new features to an already excellent tool for
  tweaking all of the hidden Windows settings you normally can’t access.
• VistaSwitcher is an Absolutely Awesome Alt-Tab Replacement: It’s
  a little difficult to showcase how well this thing works with just a
  screenshot, but you can see the partially transparent Alt-Tab switcher
  window, complete with a massive preview window and the window titles
  easily readable.
• Windows 7 Recovery Discs Gets Your System Out of Tight Spots: Boot
  your system from NeoSmart’s CD, and you’ll get a stripped-down Windows
  system with a window offering startup file repair, Restore Point
  returns, recovery from a whole-cloth image, memory testing, and a
  command prompt for those dire moments when only frantically Google-d
  terminal instructions can save you.
• Hulu Desktop Integration Brings Hulu to Windows 7 Media Center: Free application Hulu Desktop Integration brings Hulu’s remote-friendly desktop app to your Windows Media Center.

If you need help upgrading or using Windows 7 please dont hesitate to call 678PC today (678)404-1001
Serving Metro Atlanta, Gwinnett County, and Surrounding areas.

Since
we don’t store a lot of business numbers in our phones, it can be a
pain to figure out which unnamed number in your log is the right one.
You can use Google Maps, however, to do reverse phone number lookups.

If
you don’t do regular business with someone, you’re not going to store
their number in your phone for just a few days, though you may need to
follow up on something. Reader Lord_Cathbad writes in with a solution using a Google Maps feature we didn’t know about:

I just made a whole bunch of calls to different businesses and ended
up with their numbers in my GV memory, but couldn’t remember which one
is which. By searching the numbers in Google Maps, I could find the
names of their business.

This is also useful if a business calls you and you don’t know who
it is. Thankfully, this doesn’t apply to residential numbers—so your
privacy is not at stake—but it’s still a super handy way to get a
businesses’ name and location with just their phone number.

For help improve business processes at your company please call 678PC today at (678)404-1001 for a free estimate – located in Lawrenceville, Ga – Serving Metro Atlanta, Gwinnett County, and surrounding areas.

Anyone can sit down at a Windows PC and get along fine, but with the right tips and tricks, you can get around much faster. Here’s a handful of clever tricks to boost your Windows skills (and show off to friends).

You
might recognize a few of these tips (we’ve covered most of them here
before), but chances are good there’s something new in the list for
just about everybody. And if you know all of them already? Pat yourself
on the back for your masterful geek skills.

(Note: This list far from exhausts Windows’ full slate of
shortcuts and tricks; instead, I aimed for lesser-known tips. To round
out your Windows 7 master class, be sure to check out our complete guide to Windows 7, the master list of Windows 7 shortcuts, and the power user’s guide to Windows 7.)

Use the Secret Send To Menu Items

When
you right-click on any file or folder, you can use the Send To menu to
create a zipped version, or send the file to an application, but in
Windows 7 there are hidden items on the Send To menu that can’t be seen
by default.

All you have to do is hold down the Shift key, then right-click on a
file and access the Send To folder—you’ll see a whole bunch of new
items in the list, like special folders, and even an item for each one
of your drives. It’s a really useful tip for quickly sending a file to
the flash drive you just plugged into the PC, without having to do
anything else.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Secret Items on the Windows 7 Send To Menu [How-To Geek]

Open a Command Prompt from Any Folder

This
is one of those tips that most real geeks already know, but chances are
there’s somebody reading this that doesn’t know about it—if you hold
down the Shift key while right-clicking on any folder, including the
desktop background, you’ll see a new item for “Open command window
here”, that will open a command prompt with that folder as the default
path.

This tip only works in Windows 7 or Vista, for Windows XP you’ll need to use a registry hack to accomplish the same thing. We can’t mention this tip without telling you how to do the opposite—you can open a file browser from your current command prompt directory as well.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Open a Command Prompt From the Desktop Right-Click Menu [How-To Geek]

Hide Secret Data Inside Any File

There’s
any number of great ways to hide data from prying eyes—TrueCrypt,
anyone? But if you want to simply hide some text data inside a secret
“compartment”, you can abuse the Alternate Data Streams feature in the
underlying NTFS file system. All you have to do is open up a command
prompt, and then use a command similar to this:

notepad SomeFile.txt:SecretWordHere.txt

The special filename with the colon and second filename tells NTFS
to actually store the data in an alternate stream, instead of the
regular file. You can put whatever you want into the file, and nobody
will be able to access it unless they know the command to retrieve it.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Hide Data in a Secret Text File Compartment [How-To Geek]

Tile or Cascade Specific Windows

Sure,
Windows 7 has the awesome Aero Snap feature that lets you drag windows
to the side of the screen to fill one side, but what if you want to
cascade them, or tile them stacked on top of each other?

Back in the XP and Vista days this was relatively simple—you
could hold down the Ctrl key while selecting multiple windows on the
taskbar, and then right-click on any of them to tile or cascade them.
For Windows 7, you can do the same thing, but you’ll need to open up
Task Manager instead, hold Ctrl, select the open windows, and then you
can cascade them from there.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Tile or Cascade Multiple Windows in Windows 7 [How-To Geek]

Undo an Accidental File Move or Deletion With the Keyboard

Have
you ever tried to select a bunch of files while holding the Ctrl key,
and then accidentally copied all of them because you slightly moved
your mouse? Maybe you just deleted a file and don’t feel like hunting
it down in the Recycle bin. In either case, you can use the Ctrl+Z
shortcut key to immediately reverse whatever you didn’t mean to do.

Readers will probably point out that you can also do this from the
context menu in Windows 7, but it’s surprising how many people don’t
realize the keyboard shortcut works.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Undo an Accidental Move or Delete With a Keyboard Shortcut [How-To Geek]

Navigate the Open / Save Dialogs With the Keyboard

Opening
or saving files can be so very tedious when your application doesn’t
start with the right default folder, but instead of clicking and
clicking your mouse to get where you’re going, you can simply use the
keyboard to change the folder.

You can use “..” without the quotes to go up a folder, use
shell:desktop to change to the desktop folder, or just start typing in
the full path to a file.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Navigate in the File Open/Save Dialog With the Keyboard [How-To Geek]

Use the Secret Trick to Close Windows Explorer

Have
you ever wondered how to restart the Start Menu? The more tech-savvy
among you probably know that you can just pop open Task Manager and
kill the explorer.exe process, but there’s actually another way to do
it built right into Windows 7 and Vista—it’s just a bit of a secret.

Hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys, then open up the start menu, and
right-click anywhere on the blank space. You’ll see a new menu with an
Exit Explorer item on it, which will immediately terminate the desktop
shell—keep in mind to reopen it you’ll need to use Ctrl+Shift+Esc to
open Task Manager, and then File –> Run and type in explorer.exe.
That’s not the only right-click menu trick you can do here, however—if you want to open up the Start Menu folder in Windows 7, you can right-click on the All Programs menu item to access the old Start Menu context menu from previous versions of Windows.

Hidden Trick to Close Windows Explorer in Windows 7 or Vista [How-To Geek]

Create a Zip File with the Same Name as a Selected File

If
you regularly use the built-in Send To –> Compressed (zipped) folder
feature to create zip files in Windows, you might notice that it seems
to randomly pick a filename for the generated file. If you want to save
the step of renaming the file, you can make sure that you right-click
on top of the file that you want to have the same name.
For instance, if we had right-clicked on the Readme.txt file in the
screenshot and used the Send To –> Compressed feature, the resulting
file would have been called Readme.zip. Since that’s not very helpful,
it’s better to right-click on one of the selected HTGBack.x files,
which will give us HTGBack.zip instead.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Make Zipfiles With the Same Name as a Selected File [How-To Geek]

Show the XP Alt-Tab Prompt in Windows 7

This
tip isn’t so much useful as an interesting trick that you can show your
geek friends—you can trigger the old XP Alt-Tab dialog even in Windows
7 with Aero enabled by using a series of shortcut keys. First, hold
down one of the Alt keys, press and release the other Alt key, and then
press the Tab key. Just like that, the old XP prompt will show up.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Windows 7 Easter Egg Shows the XP Alt-Tab Prompt [How-To Geek]

Pin a Folder to the Start Menu

It’s
easy to pin any application to the Start Menu by just right-clicking on
the icon, but folders aren’t quite as easy—or are they? There’s a bunch
of complicated registry hacks out there that enable the “Pin to Start
Menu” item for folders, but it’s so much simpler to just drag the
folder to the Start button, and then drop the folder wherever you want
it in the menu.

Bonus tip: You might notice in the screenshot that there’s something different below the Downloads button-and you can easily add My Dropbox to your own Windows 7 Start Menu too.

Shrink the XP Volume Control

This
is one of those tips that’s great to show off to your friends that have
been using Windows XP for years, because they probably don’t know about
it yet. You can shrink the Volume Control dialog down to a much smaller
size by simply using the Ctrl+S shortcut key with the dialog open.

Sure, it could be useful if you wanted to keep the dialog up on the
screen without wasting space, but it’s mostly just a fun trick to show
off your skills.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Shrink the XP Volume Control [How-To Geek]

Remove Old Drivers by Showing Hidden Devices in Device Manager

Once
you’ve upgraded your PC’s hardware, you won’t see the old devices
sitting around anymore in the Device Manager, but rest assured that
they are still there. If you want to clean up all the old drivers, you
can use a special trick to enable hidden devices by simply typing the
following into a command prompt:

SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1

Once you’ve done that, type in devmgmt.msc to open up Device
Manager, and then you can use View –> Show hidden devices to show
all the devices you couldn’t see before.

Remove Old Drivers After Upgrading to New Hardware [How-To Geek]

Find Secret Messages in Web Site Headers

The
world of HTTP protocol headers is something that even geeks don’t
usually have to deal with, much less normal people. But they are out
there, and many of them contain hidden messages that you would never
know are there. For instance, Slashdot embeds random quotes from Futurama in every page load, and other sites embed many other things.

To see them for yourself, you can install the Live HTTP headers extension for Firefox, or you can use curl –I http://slashdot.org to see them from the command line in Linux or OS X.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Find the Secret Messages in Web Site Headers

Contact 678pc for more tricks and tips to make your windows installation more user friendly (678)404-1001

Located in Lawrenceville, Ga – Serve Metro Atlanta, Gwinnett County, and surrounding areas

We’ve already mentioned the new Jump Lists feature in Windows 7 as one of our favorite features of the burgeoning operating system, and today we’re taking a closer look at how you can use them to save time.

For
those of you that haven’t yet tried out Windows 7, when you right-click
on a taskbar button in Windows 7, a menu slides out with recent
documents and application tasks. You can even access it with the left mouse button if you choose. Here’s a rundown of our favorite Jump List boosters.

Display More Items on Jump Lists

Before
we even dive into all the great things you can do with Jump Lists,
you’ll probably want to increase the number of recent items that show
up on the list. You can easily do so by heading into the Taskbar
properties, choosing the Start Menu tab, and then clicking the
Customize button. At the bottom of this window you should be able to
choose the amount of items you want to show up in the Jump Lists—though
you might want to play with the setting a bit to see what works best
for you.

Quick Access to Media

Having
quick access to your music is essential for a productive work
environment, and the Jump Lists feature lets you access your frequently
used media, hit the next button, or pause whatever is playing when the
boss walks in—right from the taskbar button. Windows Media Player users
have this functionality built in, as does anybody using iTunes 9, but foobar2000 or Winamp users aren’t left in the cold either, with the same functionality available through plugins.

Open Private Browsing or Bookmarks Easily

When
you want to quickly open up a new Private Browsing window, you really
don’t want to have to open up the browser, find the button for private
browsing, and then switch the browser to private mode—you want an
instant way to open it up, and Jump Lists give you exactly that.
Internet Explorer has this feature baked in, Google Chrome added this functionality recently as well, and while Firefox users are currently left out, you can use an add-on application called Winfox to at least add Jump List support under Windows 7, though private browsing isn’t currently an option.

Pin Document Templates to the Taskbar

Reader Stephen showed us how to pin Outlook templates to the taskbar
for quick access when emailing the same thing over and over, but the
same technique works for just about any application—you can create a
template document in your favorite application, and then simply drag it
to the taskbar button to pin it to the Jump List. Then, the next time
you need to use the template you can simply right-click on the taskbar
button to open it up. It’s a huge time-saver, especially if your job
involves a lot of repetitive tasks.

Pin Applications To the JumpList

You can’t, by default, pin applications to a Jump List—that’s what the start menu is designed for—but with an add-on application called JumpList Launcher,
you can do just that. Simply pin the launcher to your taskbar, and then
use the settings to add all of your favorite applications. You can
create separate groups, and consolidate many of your taskbar launcher
buttons to save space when you want quick access to an application, but
don’t necessarily want it taking up space on your taskbar. If the
JumpList Launcher doesn’t do it for you, you should take a look at how StandaloneStack can do application launching and file browsing right from your taskbar.

Pin Folders and Searches To the Taskbar

Perhaps
the biggest time-saver for me is the ability to pin your most
frequently used folders to the taskbar, but most people don’t realize
you can actually pin a search as well. Simply open up the Windows 7
search, put in your search criteria, and then drag the icon from the
location bar down to the Windows Explorer taskbar button to pin the
search there. I’ve got a habit of losing that file I was just working
on, so I’ve created a search that finds recently modified files and
pinned it to the start menu—this way I never completely lose that
document again.

If you would like help settings up your computer for a more customized
experience and are in Metro Atlanta, Specifically Gwinett County and
Surrounding areas then please contact 678PC at (678)404-1001

With all t

he talk lately about
Facebook’s flawed privacy systems, it’s a good time to consider what
you’re making available elsewhere on the web and on your system. These
10 settings tweaks and setups make your web life a little less public.

Note: The most basic means of boosting your privacy in any computer system is encrypting your data,
but that’s more of a system setup than a slight change to your usual
setup. Still, it’s worth looking into if you’ve got files for your eyes
only.

10. Run a Background Check on Yourself to Know What’s Out There

It
takes only a few seconds to know what Google knows about you, but there
are many, many other avenues into your past and present on the web.
Want to know more about what a potential employer can know? Consumer
action blog Consumerist has a nicely comprehensive list of background check tools
to try out. You shouldn’t try and run them all, but at least get a feel
for what can be known about you with just a few clicks. Photo by omk_489. (Original post)

9. Skip Incognito/Private Browsing and Really Leave No Trace

Private
browsing modes might prevent your coworkers or roommates from seeing
where you wander on the web, but you still leave plenty of traces for
someone who knows where to look. Take the How-To Geek’s advice and really browse without leaving a trace. Wipe away Flash cookies, clean out DNS caches, and automate your system so every boot-up is a fresh start.

8. Pick Better Security Questions

Some
security questions and password recovery schemes offered by webapps are
so bad, anyone with your casual acquaintance and a small amount of
Google savvy could poke into your email whenever they felt like it. To
get around weak security questions, use blogger danah boyd’s security question algorithm.
Instead of straight-up providing your mother’s maiden name, use a
scheme, such as “[Snarky Bad Attitude Phrase] + [Core Noun Phrase] +
[Unique Word],” so that your answer becomes “StupidQuestion MiddleName
Booyah,” substituting “MiddleName” for the actual answer. If you’re
lucky enough to be able to choose your own security questions,
Lifehacker reader James has written about the best kinds of questions at his blog. (Original posts: memorable answers, good questions).

7. Set Up BitTorrent for Private Downloading

BitTorrent
is a public commons of file sharing, and that means that all kinds of
folks interested in, say, what your home IP address is, and what you’re
downloading, can dig into it. With both a proxy and settings in your
favorite torrent app, you can protect your privacy when downloading. Nothing’s foolproof, but a few checkboxes and a different downloading path can do a lot to give you great peace of mind.

6. Know Your Google Settings

If
you’re anything like us, or most of our readers, you’ve got a lot of
your life floating around in Google’s cloud-based apps. It pays, then,
to know how to set what Google shares publicly about you, how much of
your search history is being saved, and how to back up your data so
you’ve always got your own copy. These are among the 10 Google settings you should know about
that center on privacy and data retention, though it’s always a good
idea to know the parameters of the spaces you share your data in.

5. Know How to Travel Without Being Spied On

Just
because some countries have widespread net access doesn’t mean it’s an
open and private web. It’s often meant to deter dissidents in
strong-handed regimes, but why take the chance of letting your web data
fall into the wrong hands? One Lifehacker reader, wishing to remain
anonymous and in a non-specific region, crafted a survival guide for traveling where privacy isn’t respected. Using secure Gmail, carrying two cloned USB sticks, relying on KeePass and TrueCrypt
for passwords and encryption, and knowing how to send data over the web
without having it looked at are all good skills to have, both for
traveling and in general. Image a composite of photos by hemmob and nolifebeforecofee

4. Know Where You Stand With Facebook at a Glance

Facebook has promised “simplistic” privacy settings coming soon,
but in the meantime, knowing exactly what you’ve offered to share or
keep private is far from transparent. One very crafty hacker at
ReclaimPrivacy has put together a settings-scanning bookmarklet
that shows what you’re sharing beyond your social circle, and offers
links and automatic fixes for those settings. Another coder, Ka-Ping
Yee, offers a site that shows what the public web can see on Facebook,
some of which you can then remove. They’re both excellent eye-openers,
both for your own account and for friends who refuse to consider what’s
being shown out there. (Original posts: ReclaimPrivacy bookmarklet, Facebook public).

3. Run Your Browser Through a Proxy

It’s
not something you’ll want to do all the time, but once in a while, you
might want to hide your online tracks. To do so, you can use the go-to
web randomization tool, TOR,
which has tools available for nearly every OS and browser. For a DIY
solution that can work from any browser, we’ve detailed installing the
free PHProxy tool on your home computer or hosted web space to get around restrictions and slightly disguise your tracks. You could also run a proxy through Google’s App Engine, and go the full-tilt geek route of encrypting your browsing with an SSH SOCKS proxy. Any way you choose, it’s a smart skill to have handy for dodgy connections and restrictive networks.

2. Better Protect Your Mint.com or Other Financial Accounts

The
thing that makes Mint.com such a convenient one-stop shop for financial
data and budgeting also makes it a gold mine for anyone looking to
learn more about you, or know which accounts they could try to jump
into. Security professional Jason Owens provides some smart tips on better protecting your Mint.com account
that can apply to any site where you manage your financials. Key among
them—don’t use your regular email address. Set up a new email address
you don’t tell anyone about as your login/password verification
address. You can forward its mail to your main email, sure, but if
someone compromises your email, don’t make it too too easy for them to
get a hold on your finances.

1. Stay Available on Facebook Without Really Being In It

You
might have considered quitting Facebook, but stopped short because it’s
how a few far-flung friends and relatives stay in touch, or a place
those without your email address can ping you. We can understand, and,
luckily, have a halfway solution to recommend. Quit Facebook without really quitting,
as Whitson did. Create a new account, linked to a different email, and
set it up so that your old friends are still there, but Facebook, even
at its most Draconian, can’t really reveal all that much about you, and
your friends can’t really overshare without your permission.

---

What steps have you taken recently to bolster your own web or
desktop privacy? What would you like to fix, but need some pointers on
doing so?  For a free estimate and great prices call 678PC today at (678)404-1001

Now
you can know what Big Brother knows about you and get access to the
same dirt everyone from your boss, landlord, insurance agent, to your
favorite casino has on you. Here is a comprehenisve list of websites
and phone numbers for most of the “specialty” consumer reports, like
your employment, rental, and check writing history. Be sure to check
them out and correct any errors, before a crisis hits.

Employment History Reports
The Work Number
ChoicePoint (866) 312-8075
Acxiom
Abso

Tenant History Reports
ChoicePoint (877) 448-5732
First Advantage SafeRent (888) 333-2413
Tenant Data Services
RentBureau
UD Registry (818) 785-3905

Auto & Home Insurance Claim Reports
ChoicePoint
Insurance Services Office (ISO) (800) 627-3487

Credit Bureaus Reports
Equifax
Experian
Transunion
Innovis
Payment Reporting Builds Credit (PRBC)

Full File Disclosure/Personal Information Reports
ChoicePoint
LexisNexis

Check Writing History Reports
ChexSystems (800) 428-9623
TeleCheck (800) 835-3243.
Shared Check Authorization Network (800) 262-7771 Fax: (800) 358-4506

Health History Reports
Medical Information Bureau (MIB) (866) 692-6901

Prescription Drug Purchase History Reports
Ingenix MedPoint
Milliman IntelliScript

Social Security Statement
Social Security Administration

Purchase Returns History Reports
Retail Equation

Gaming Patron’s Credit History and Transaction Data
Central Credit

Other Reports
TeleTrack

Utilities & Telecommunications Reports
National Consumer Telecom and Utilities Exchange, Inc (NCTUE) Call 1-888-201-5643 for reports

(Thanks to Bob!)

SOURCES:
Do A Background Check On Yourself [Consumerist]
[Consumer Reports]
[PrivacyRights]
[Bankrate]
[Listergeant]
[MyFico Forums]
[CreditBoards]

If you would like assistance in researching information regarding yourself or others please contact 678PC at 678-404-1001 especially for those in the Metro Atlanta area.

It seems like every week we learn about a new tip to enhance the Windows 7 taskbar, and it's hard to keep them all straight. Here's the complete power user's guide to tweaking and using your taskbar like a pro.

Learn to Use the Taskbar Like a Pro

Before you even get started trying to tweak your taskbar, you should make sure that you understand how to use all of the features, and there might be more than you think—check out our complete guide to Windows 7 shortcuts to learn useful basic maneuvers, like how you can hold down the Ctrl key while left-clicking to cycle through a group of taskbar buttons, or hold down Shift while right-clicking to show the regular window menu. Here's the full list of Taskbar-specific shortcuts:

• Win+number (1-9): Starts the application pinned to the taskbar in that position, or switches to that program.
• Shift+Win+number (1-9): Starts a new instance of the application pinned to the taskbar in that position.
• Ctrl+Win+number (1-9): Cycles through open windows for the application pinned to the taskbar in that position.
• Alt+Win+number (1-9): Opens the Jump List for the application pinned to the taskbar.
• Win+T: Focus and scroll through items on the taskbar.
• Win+B: Focuses the System Tray icons.
• Drag+Drop taskbar buttons or System Tray icons: to reorganize them.
• Shift+Click on a taskbar button: Open a program or quickly open another instance of a program.
• Ctrl+Shift+Click on a taskbar button: Open a program as an administrator.
• Shift+Right-click on a taskbar button: Show the window menu for the program (like XP does).
• Shift+Right-click on a grouped taskbar button: Show the window menu for the group.
• Ctrl+Click on a grouped taskbar button: Cycle through the windows of the group.
• Drag a File to a taskbar button: to pin the file to the current application's Jump List.
• Shift+Drag a File to a taskbar button: to open a file with the current application.
• Middle-Click on a taskbar button: to open a new instance of the application.
• Middle-Click on a Aero Thumbnail: to close that application instance.
• Left-Click + Drag upwards: to open the Jump List for an application.

Once you've mastered the shortcut keys and mouse tricks, or at least those you'll actually use, it's time to learn how to fully use Windows 7's Jump Lists, from tweaking the number of items shown to pinning document templates and quickly accessing private browsing modes.

Tweak Your Taskbar Settings

Now that you fully understand all of the tips and tricks to using the built-in features, it's time to tweak the taskbar to work just the way you want it to-for instance, if you don't want taskbar buttons pulling up the Aero Peek thumbnails every time, there's a registry hack that can change the default left-clicking behavior to switch to the last active window instead.

Rather than dealing with messy registry hacks, the 7 Taskbar Tweaker customization tool gives you fine-grained control over what happens when you left, middle, or right-click on taskbar buttons, and even customizes window grouping and whether dragging to the taskbar pins items or opens them. If the new Aero Peek doesn't work quite the way you want, you can use a registry hack to make Aero Peek display instantly, or just use the Desktop Peek Tweak tool to make the changes more easily.

If the look and feel is what you want to change, you can check out AeroWorks to re-skin your Windows 7 taskbar without patching anything, or use the Windows 7 Start Button Changer to change that orb to something that fits your mood a little better. You can use the Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnail Customizer to tweak the size and spacing of the thumbnail windows that show up when you hover your mouse over a taskbar button. You can even get the old-style network activity icon back in the system tray if you really want it.

Pin Anything to Your Taskbar

So you've mastered the taskbar, tweaked the settings just the way you want, and it's time to pin all of your favorite applications to the taskbar, but there's just one problem: Windows doesn't let you pin just anything. No worries, however, because you can use a trick to not only pin individual folders to the taskbar, but actually pin any item. If you really want to tweak your system, you can use transparent shortcuts to separate and organize your taskbar icons, or add a fully functional recycle bin.

Once you've pinned an application to the taskbar, there's a simple trick to customizing it that might not be immediately obvious—just pop up the Jump List, and then right-click on the application name to get to the real properties screen, where you can add extra command-line parameters, or set the compatibility mode.

Enhance the Taskbar's Application Launching

The Windows 7 taskbar combines window management with an application launcher, since you can right-click on any item and pin it to the taskbar, but that's not nearly enough for a power user. We've already told you how you can boost your productivity with Jump Lists, and that starts with using some more powerful application launchers that enhance your taskbar experience-Jumplist Launcher consolidates applications into a single button, while JumpLaunch turns your Quick Launch folder into a Jump List.

If you like some minimal eye candy for your taskbar, check out the slick 7 Stacks utility, or use Standalone Stack to not only launch applications, but browse through your file system with popup navigation that can be pinned to your taskbar. Of course, you aren't limited to launching applications, since you can also close all windows from the taskbar.

Monitor Your System with Add-ons

There's any number of desktop widgets that can show you the weather or monitor your system, but they all have the same problem-if you've got a window maximized, you won't be able to see anything. You can get around this problem by simply docking an application to the taskbar that gives you your system monitoring right there in the taskbar button itself.

If weather is your thing, check out how Weatherbar integrates weather forecasts directly into the taskbar, or you can use SuperbarMonitor to add drive space, battery life, and memory or CPU usage into separate buttons on the taskbar. If monitoring the web is more your thing, you can integrate a taskbar RSS reader, or put Gmail notifications into a taskbar button.

Virtual desktop application Dexpot is not only a powerful virtual desktop manager, but the latest version includes full support for Windows 7's Aero Peek thumbnails—you can pin the application to the taskbar, and use the thumbnails to easily navigate between multiple virtual desktops.

Revert the Whole Thing Back to XP/Vista Style

If the new taskbar with all of the great functionality just isn't your thing, you can actually revert everything back to work almost the same as it did back on the Windows XP or Vista days.

One of the first things most Windows 7 adopters ask is how to get the Quick Launch back, and luckily there's an easy trick to add the Quick Launch bar back—just add a new toolbar with %appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch as the folder location. You can also head into the taskbar settings and tweak the whole thing to look just like older versions of Windows. Of course, if you really hate the taskbar, there's always the option of using Taskbar Eliminator to ditch the taskbar entirely.

If you would like help settings up your computer for a more customized experience and are in Metro Atlanta, Specifically Gwinett County and Surrounding areas then please contact 678PC at (678)404-1001

While poking around in Windows 7, I discovered extra context menu items using the same Shift + Right-click trick, and we’ve got big colorful screenshots to show you today.

Viewing the Secret Items

These are the default items that you should see on the Send To menu when you right-click on a file:

 

Hold down the Shift key while right-clicking on the icon, and then try the Send To menu… all sorts of extra options!

If you want any of those to show up normally without holding down
the Shift key, you can create shortcuts in the Send To folder. Just
type the following into the location bar:

shell:sendto

And then drag shortcuts to your preferred folders into this folder.

I’ve found that using custom shortcuts in the Send To menu can
be very handy… I use them to upload images to the HTG web server
on a daily basis.

If you would like help settings up your computer for a more customized experience please contact 678PC at (678)404-1001