63. Find bottlenecks
From what we've seen so
far Windows 7 is already performing better than Vista, but if your PC
seems sluggish then it's now much easier to uncover the bottleneck.
Click Start, type RESMON and press Enter to launch the Resource Monitor,
then click the CPU, Memory, Disk or Network tabs. Windows 7 will
immediately show which processes are hogging the most system resources.
The
CPU view is particularly useful, and provides something like a more
powerful version of Task Manager. If a program has locked up, for
example, then right-click its name in the list and select Analyze
Process. Windows will then try to tell you why it's hanging - the
program might be waiting for another process, perhaps - which could give
you the information you need to fix the problem.
FIND BOTTLENECKS:Resource monitor keeps a careful eye on exactly how your PC is being used 64. Keyboard shortcuts
Windows 7 supports several useful new keyboard shortcuts.
Alt+P Display/ hide the Explorer preview pane
Windows Logo+G Display gadgets in front of other windows
Windows Logo++ (plus key) Zoom in, where appropriate
Windows Logo+- (minus key) Zoom out, where appropriate
Windows Logo+Up Maximise the current window
Windows Logo+Down Minimise the current window
Windows Logo+Left Snap to the left hand side of the screen
Windows Logo+Right Snap to the right hand side of the screen
Windows Logo+Home Minimise/ restore everything except the current window 65. Drag and drop to the command line
When
working at the command line you'll often need to access files, which
usually means typing lengthy paths and hoping you've got them right. But
Windows 7 offers an easier way. Simply drag and drop the file onto your
command window and the full path will appear, complete with quotes and
ready to be used.
This feature isn't entirely new: you could do
this in Windows XP, too, but drag and drop support disappeared in Vista.
There does seem to be a new Windows 7 complication, though, in that it
only seems to work when you open the command prompt as a regular user.
Run cmd.exe as an administrator and, while it accepts dropped files, the
path doesn't appear. 66. Customise your jumplists
Right-click
an icon on your taskbar, perhaps Notepad, and you'll see a jumplist
menu that provides easy access to the documents you've been working on
recently. But maybe there's another document that you'd like to be
always available? Then drag and drop it onto the taskbar icon, and it'll
be pinned to the top of the jumplist for easier access. Click the pin
to the right of the file name, or right-click it and select "Unpin from
this list" when you need to remove it. 67. Faster program launches
If
you've launched one instance of a program but want to start another,
then don't work your way back through the Start menu. It's much quicker
to just hold down Shift and click on the program's icon (or middle-click
it), and Windows 7 will start a new instance for you. 68. Speedy video access
Want
faster access to your Videos folder? Windows 7 now lets you add it to
the Start menu. Just right-click the Start orb, click Properties >
Start Menu > Customize, and set the Videos option to "Display as a
link". If you've a TV tuner that works with Windows 7 then you'll
appreciate the new option to display the Recorded TV folder on the Start
menu, too. 69. Run web searches
The
Windows 7 search tool can now be easily extended to search online
resources, just as long as someone creates an appropriate search
connector. To add Flickr support, say, visit I Started Something,
click Download the Connector, choose the Open option and watch as it's
downloaded (the file is tiny, it'll only take a moment). A "Flickr
Search" option will be added to your Searches folder, and you'll be able
to search images from your desktop.
A multitude of other ready-made searches, such as Google and YouTube, can be downloaded from the windowsclub.com website. 70. Schedule Media Centre downloads
You
can now tell Windows Media Centre to download data at a specific time,
perhaps overnight, a useful way to prevent it sapping your bandwidth for
the rest of the day. Launch Media Centre, go to Tasks > Settings
> General > Automatic Download Options, and set the download start
and stop times that you'd like it to use. 71. Multi-threaded Robocopies
Anyone
who's ever used the excellent command-line robocopy tool will
appreciate the new switches introduced with Windows 7. Our favourite,
/MT, can improve speed by carrying out multi-threaded copies with the
number of threads you specify (you can have up to 128, though that might
be going a little too far). Enter robocopy /? at a command line for the
full details. 72. Load IE faster
Some
Internet Explorer add-ons can take a while to start, dragging down the
browser's performance, but at least IE8 can now point a finger at the
worst resource hogs. Click Tools > Manage Add-ons, check the Load
Time in the right-hand column, and you'll immediately see which browser
extensions are slowing you down. 73. An Alt+Tab alternative
You
want to access one of the five Explorer windows you have open, but
there are so many other programs running that Alt+Tab makes it hard to
pick out what you need. The solution? Hold down the Ctrl key while you
click on the Explorer icon. Windows 7 will then cycle through the
Explorer windows only, a much quicker way to locate the right one. And
of course this works with any application that has multiple windows
open. 74. Block annoying alerts
Just like
Vista, Windows 7 will display a suitably stern warning if it thinks your
antivirus, firewall or other security settings are incorrect.
But
unlike Vista, if you disagree then you can now turn off alerts on
individual topics. If you no longer want to see warnings just because
you've dared to turn off the Windows firewall, say, then click Control
Panel > System and Security > Action Centre > Change Action
Centre settings, clear the Network Firewall box and click OK. 75. Parallel defrags
The
standard Windows 7 defragger offers a little more control than we saw
in Vista, and the command line version also has some interesting new
features. The /r switch will defrag multiple drives in parallel, for
instance (they'll obviously need to be physically separate drives for
this to be useful). The /h switch runs the defrag at a higher than
normal priority, and the /u switch provides regular progress reports so
you can see exactly what's going on. Enter the command
defrag /c /h /u /r
in a command window to speedily defrag a system with multiple drives, or enter defrag /? to view the new options for yourself. 76. Fix Explorer
The
Windows 7 Explorer has a couple of potential annoyances. Launching
Computer will no longer display system folders like Control Panel or
Recycle Bin, for instance. And if you're drilling down through a
complicated folder structure in the right-hand pane of Explorer, the
left-hand tree won't always expand to follow what you're doing, which
can make it more difficult to see exactly where you are. Fortunately
there's a quick fix: click Organize > Folder and Search Options,
check "Show all folders" and "Automatically expand to current folder",
and click OK. 77. Faster file handing
If
you hold down Shift while right-clicking a file in Explorer, then you'll
find the Send To file now includes all your main user folders:
Contacts, Documents, Downloads, Music and more. Choose any of these and
your file will be moved there immediately. 78. Create folder favourites
If
you're regularly working on the same folder in Explorer then select it
in the right-hand page, right-click Favourites on the left-hand menu,
and select Add to Favourites. It'll then appear at the bottom of the
favourites list for easy one-click access later. 79. Disable hibernation
By
default Windows 7 will permanently consume a chunk of your hard drive
with its hibernation file, but if you never use sleep, and always turn
your PC off, then this will never actually be used. To disable
hibernation and recover a little hard drive space, launch REGEDIT,
browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power,
then set both HibernateEnabled and HiberFileSizePerfect to zero. 80. Create a new folder shortcut
When
you need to create a new folder in Windows 7 Explorer, don't reach for
the mouse. Just press Ctrl+Shift+N to create the folder in the active
Explorer window, then type its name as usual. 81. Open a jumplist
Most
people right-click a Windows taskbar icon to view its jumplist. You can
also hold the left mouse button over the icon, though, then drag
upwards to reveal the jumplist and choose the option you need, a more
natural action that should be just a little faster. 82. Search quickly
If
you'd like to search for something in an Explorer window then there's
no need to use the mouse. Simply press [F3] to move the focus to the
search box, enter your keyword and press [Enter] to run the search. 83. Search file contents
There's
no obvious way in the Windows interface to search the contents of files
that haven't been indexed, but all you need to do is start your search
with the "content:" search filter. So entering content:Microsoft , for
instance, will find all documents (whether they're actually indexed or
not) that contain the word Microsoft. 84. Close in a click
Hover
your mouse cursor over a Windows taskbar button will display a preview
thumbnail of that application window. You don't need that app any more?
Then middle-click the thumbnail to close it down. 85. Leave the Homegroup
Homegroups
are an easy way to network Windows 7 PCs, but if you don't use the
feature then turning it off can save you a few system resources.
Click
Start, type Homegroup, and click "Choose homegroup and sharing
options". Click Leave the Homegroup > Leave the Homegroup >
Finish.
Now click Start, type services.msc and press [Enter] to launch the Services Control Panel applet.
Find
and double-click both the HomeGroup Listener and HomeGroup Provider
service, clicking Stop and setting Startup Type to Disabled in each
case, and the services won't be launched when you need reboot.
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