Change Default Folder (Option 1)

In Windows 7, the default location when opening Windows Explorer is the Libraries folder. Here is a simple trick to set a custom location:

1. Right-click on your desktop and select > New > Shortcut.
2. Under Type the location of the item enter: explorer.exe /root,path
3. Then click Next, enter a name for your shortcut, and click Finish.

Note that you need to give the full path to the desired folder. If you wish to point to Computer, paste the following location: explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

Once you have a working shortcut, you can pin it to your taskbar, move it to the QuickLaunch bar or use it from your desktop.

Change Default Folder (Option 2)

To simply change the default Windows Explorer startup folder anywhere, do this:

1. Right-click a folder or the Windows Explorer icon in the taskbar to bring up the jump-list.
2. In the jump-list, right-click on Windows Explorer and select Properties.
3. In the Shortcut tab change the Target to the desired location, as per the list below.

Alternatively, you can also change the properties of any other shortcut you are using to open Windows Explorer.

Potential locations:

• Documents folder: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n,::{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}
• Computer: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /E,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
• Recycle Bin: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /E,::{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
• Default (Libraries): %windir%\explorer.exe

For information on how to find out the GUID (Globally Unique Identifiers) for your desired location, check out the following article on How-To Geek: Enable the Secret “How-To Geek” Mode in Windows 7

Navigate Windows Explorer With Keyboard Shortcuts

Nothing is more easy and geeky than nifty little keyboard shortcuts. Here are some relevant key combinations to navigate through the Windows Explorer folder structure:

• [Windows] + [E] = launch Windows Explorer
• [ALT] + [RIGHT] = go forward
• [ALT] + [LEFT] = go back
• [ENTER] = open selected folder
• [ALT] + [UP] = move to parent directory
• [ALT] + [TAB] or [F6] = move between focus areas
• [ALT] + [D] = focus on address bar and select current path
• [F4] = open address bar drop-down menu
• [F3] = focus on search bar and drop down search filter options
• [ALT] + [P] = open preview pane
• [ALT] + [ENTER] = view properties of selected file
• [F2] = change file name of selected file
• [F10] = jump to file menu
• [F11] = switch to full screen mode and back
• [CTRL] + mousewheel = change icon size (works almost everywhere, useful in browser)

Gently Terminate & Restart Windows Explorer

When an application hangs and won’t let you close it, or when Windows Explorer crashes, or to see the effects of editing a current user registry entry, what do you typically do? You either log off and back in or you reboot? However, closing and restarting Windows Explorer has the same effect and is much faster.

Here is a safe way to terminate and then restart Windows Explorer in Windows Vista and Windows 7:

1. Go to Start.
2. Click [CTRL] + [SHIFT] while you right-click an empty space of the Start menu.
3. Select Exit Explorer from the menu that appears.

This procedure will gently terminate Windows Explorer, meaning all your folders will close, your desktop will be empty, and the taskbar will be gone. Your system, however, is still running.

To bring Windows Explorer back, do the following:

1. Use the keyboard combination [CTRL] + [SHIFT] + [ESC] to launch the Task Manager.
2. Go to > File > New Task (Run…)
3. Type explorer.exe in the Create New Task text field and click OK.

Et voilà, Windows Explorer is back and fresh as rebooted.

Do you know of any other tips and tricks everyone should know about? Please share with us in the comments!

1. Customize Folder Options

Using the folder options you can tweak the appearance and behavior of your folders. You can reveal hidden files, edit the display of icons and thumbnails, or control how searches are performed.

You can access the Windows 7 folder options in several different ways. When you presently have a folder open, click Organize in the top left and then select Folder and search options from the menu. Another way is to search for the term ‘folder options‘ in the Start menu search and open the respective result under the Control Panel header. Finally, you can access the folder options via the Control Panel under Appearance and Personalization (screenshot below).

Clicking on Folder Options will launch the window displayed below. Within the General tab you can adjust basic things, such as the behavior of the Explorer navigation pane. I highly recommend to check both boxes. Before you do that, open a folder and see how it behaves after you hit Apply.

Switching over to the View tab, you can get into some more juicy details, such as enabling the folder menu pane, enabling the restoring of previous folder windows at logon, or enabling the use of check boxes to select items. An example of a customized folder is shown in the screenshot below.

2. Optimize File View & Preview

How do you prefer to view your files inside a folder? Do you like to view a list with details or just icons? You can set a different view for each folder, which is very convenient as folders contain different things that each demand a custom setting. To cycle through the different view options, simply click the respective button (red).

In the screenshot above you can see a preview of the selected image on the right. You can enable or disable the preview pane, as well as other panes, under > Organize > Layout.

3. Pin Favorite Folders To Explorer Jump List

The jump list is the list of options that come up when you right-click any item in the taskbar. To access specific folders faster, you can pin them to the Explorer jump list. This can help with un-cluttering the desktop. Simply right-click a folder icon inside Explorer and drag the folder to the taskbar (black). It will automatically be added to the Explorer jump list.

By the way, if your Windows Explorer is not currently pinned to the taskbar (icon with red frame in screenshot above), simply open any folder, e.g. your computer, right-click its icon in the taskbar and select Pin this program to taskbar from the menu.

Were these improvements not quite good enough? You might want to look into alternative file managers to replace Windows Explorer, for example these:

• SE-Explorer: A Portable Full-Featured Windows Explorer Alternative
• Forget Windows Explorer, Explorer++ Is The Perfect, Powerful Alternative
• The 5 Good Free Windows File Managers

If replacing Windows Explorer is a bit too radical for you, maybe you’re happy with simply editing it a little. The following tools can be of great help:

• How To Improve Windows Explorer With Additional Features Using FilerFrog
• Enhance Windows Explorer’s Context Menu With Shell Tools
• 6 Power Ways To Customize & Enhance Windows

You may also want to stay tuned for a follow-up article on advanced tricks and tips for working with Windows Explorer.

What tips and tricks do you know that improve Windows Explorer?

OnTopReplica

OnTopReplica uses the DWM Desktop Composition found in Windows Vista and Windows 7 to clone a window and run it in a small thumbnail that always stays on top. This is perfect for keeping only the video frame of a video player on top. OnTopReplica requires .NET Framework 2.0 and a Windows Aero theme.

When you launch OnTopReplica, you will see an empty grey window on your screen. Right-click the frame and select the window you want to clone.

Next, right-click the frame again, pick select region to define the region of the screen you want to clone. Finally, enjoy the result!

Note that the original window cannot be minimized and if you choose to replicate a browser window, you cannot switch the tabs. Also see this article for a more thorough review of the tool: Two Ways To Sneak A Peek At Videos While You’re Working

4t Tray Minimizer

4t Tray Minimizer adds several additional buttons to the title bar of your windows. One of them, the pin icon, will fix the respective window on top of everything else, until clicked again. A very simple and easy solution.

Besides keeping our windows on top, 4t Tray Minimizer allows you to manage open windows in many different ways. Besides the new title bar buttons, the options are also available via the top level system menu. 4t Tray Minimizer was previously mentioned in this article: 3 Best Strategies & Tools For Open Window Management In Windows 7

PowerMenu

This tool adds additional menu options to all top level system menus without compromising the standard options. Apart from making a window stay Always On Top, you can also minimize it to the tray or change its transparency. It offers some of the same options as 4t Tray Minimizer, but it does not add the extra buttons to the title bar.

See a full review of PowerMenu here: Keep Windows on Top & Minimize To Tray with PowerMenu

DeskPins

DeskPins lives in your system tray. When clicked, your cursor turns into a pin and whichever window you click next, will be pinned to the top of your screen. Clicking the red pin in the title bar of the respective window, will unpin it. Very neat one task app that doesn’t add any extra clutter to your windows or menus.

DeskPins was also reviewed in this article: How To Pin Any Application Window To The Top

AquaSnap

Like the previously mentioned tools, AquaSnap offers a host of features. One of them is shaking a window to at once make it stay on top and change its opacity. The shake detection sensitivity, speed, and duration can be customized.

See this article for a full review of AquaSnap: How To Enhance Your Windows Experience With AquaSnap (Not Only in Windows 7!)

For even more useful tools to manage your windows, have a look at these articles:

• 3 Simple Programs That Can Help You Manage Multiple Windows
• 3 Programs That Help You Snap Windows Like a Win 7 User
• 3 Useful Programs That Help Manage Multiple Monitors

Do you still need to manage several applications on one screen or have you dedicated a second or third screen to parking your videos or other must watch items on?

Image credits: Tatiana Popova

We described a similar method before, but it required a few external utilities. This time I’ll assume you have a working Windows 7 computer with an existing DVD drive somewhere – and a working installation DVD to go with it. You’ll use this machine to format, set up, and copy over the relevant files to a USB stick. You could also do this without a DVD drive from the ISO, but in that case your job would be a whole lot simpler because you could use the official ISO -> USB creator.

Note: You cannot use this method to install to a Parallels virtual machine. Your only option in that case is to use either a physical DVD or an ISO download and connect to that to the VM instead.

You’ll need:

• A working Windows 7 system with a DVD drive and administrator rights.
• A Windows 7 installation DVD.
• 4GB USB drive or larger.

This will also work with larger external hard drives instead of a USB thumbdisk, but be aware that all the data on the drive will be formatted and deleted.

Open An Elevated Command Prompt

Click Start -> All Programs -> Accessories and right-click on Command Prompt. Select Run As Administrator. Of course, you need to be able to authenticate as the administrator on the PC you’re using.

Partitioning The Disk

Type:

DISKPART

This will open up the partitioning application. Next, type:

LIST DISK

Figure out which of the drives listed is your USB drive, and note the number. It’s crucial you get this right, or you’re going to end up losing data on other drives.

Next, type the following series of commands, but replace the DISK number in the first line with the appropriate number from the above list. Here, my disk is number 1. Don’t confuse this with PARTITION 1. That number should not change, even if your disk is 3.

SELECT DISK 1
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS
ASSIGN
EXIT

Make It Bootable!

The format step may take a little while (it actually took about 30 minutes on my machine). When you’re done, put in your installation DVD if you haven’t already. Note down which drive letter your USB disk and Windows installation DVD are located at.

Go back to your command prompt and type – assuming D: is your DVD drive with the install DVD, and U: is your USB drive:

D:/BOOT/BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 U:

This will basically make your USB drive bootable.

Copy Everything

The final step can be done from My Computer. Just open up the installation DVD, highlight everything, and drag it over to your USB drive.

This will also take a while.

Now you should be all set – just insert the USB disk into your new PC, and enter the BIOS to adjust the boot order, or choose the option during start up which says Choose Boot Device.

Let’s hear it for computers with no noisy and clunky DVD drives! Death to physical media! Or not – what do you think? Are you ready to go DVD-less?

Geosense is a sensor that can use this technology and feed the data into location-aware applications.

Setting Up Geosense

After installing the sensor, you need to enable Geosense. Go to your > Windows Start menu, search for > location, and select > Location and Other Sensors from the results listed under > Control Panel.

Check the box next to > Geosense Location Sensor and click > Apply to enable Geosense.

To view more information about the Geosense Location Sensor, change its description, change who can access the sensor, and to uninstall Geosense, click on > Geosense Location Sensor.

Now that the sensor is enabled, you can use it with location-aware applications.

Google Maps

To demonstrate the functionality of Geosense, its developers have created a Google Maps demo client, which you can download from the Geosense homepage or through this link (ZIP file). The app reveals your current location on a Google map and allows you to quickly locate facilities in your area.

In my tests, the accuracy was so good that the street address displayed in the Google Maps sidebar diverted only by meters, i.e. it calculated that I was sitting in the house next door.

This location-sensing Google Maps client can be very useful for travelers. When stranded in a foreign city, not knowing your current street address, all you have to do is connect to the Internet, launch the client, and it will tell you right where you are. You can then use the Google Maps > Search nearby feature to look for restaurants, bars, or other public facilities in the area.

We have written many interesting articles about Google Maps, check out some of them here:

• How Does Google Maps Work? [Technology Explained]
• 5 Tips To Perform A Smarter & Faster Google Map Search
• 10 Impressive Spots On Earth You Can See With Google Maps Satellite View
• 3 Awesome Historical Google Maps Mashups
• How to Use Google Maps for Your Business
• How To Create Shared Collaborative Google Maps

Weather Gadget

The Windows 7 Weather gadget for your desktop is a location-aware application. To add it to your desktop, search for > gadget in your Windows Start menu and select > Desktop Gadget Gallery from the results under > Programs.

When the Gadget Gallery has opened, double-click the > Weather gadget and it will load on your desktop.

If it works, you will see a blue WiFi signal next to your location, which indicates that your location is detected. If it does not work, this little icon will be marked with a red cross and it will probably display the default city, which is Seattle, Washington.

More cool Windows 7 desktop gadgets can be found in these articles:

• Top 7 Coolest Windows 7 Desktop Gadgets You Have To Use
• The 7 Best Windows 7 Gadgets
• 7 MORE Windows 7 Gadgets To Make Your Life Easier
• 7 Must-Have Google Desktop Gadgets for Productivity

Another application that supports Geosense is MahTweets, a social network client for Twitter, Facebook, and FourSquare, including multiple accounts for each. Since its release in early March 2011, however, not much has happened and it seems like it has not been developed further. Therefore I will not explore this application further.

Unfortunately, although the Windows Sensor and Location platform and the relevant technology have been around for several years, there are very few location-aware applications for Windows 7. Geosense hopes to “kickstart a pool of cool location-based or location-enhanced applications on Windows 7.” Until further applications are available, the tool remains a fun demonstration of how accurate free location sensing technologies are these days.

If you are concerned about your privacy and don’t want to share your location under any circumstances, be sure to check out this article: How To Disable Or Fake Your Location In Firefox, Internet Explorer & Chrome.

What do you think of this technology? Do you use location sensing on your mobile devices and would you like to see more location-aware applications for Windows?  Or does this kind of thing scare you with its privacy implications?

Image credits: Tobias Machhaus

It’s probably surprising to most gamers, who stopped paying attention to the default Windows games around the time Windows 98 came out, but many people still play the default collection of card games at work, instead of working. Solitaire, Minesweeper, Hearts and Spider Solitaire remain a favorite of many office workers.

As a quick Google search reveals though, many of these people aren’t happy with the Windows Vista/7 versions of Solitaire and other classics. The cards are hard to see, some rules have changed and everything just feels slower. So if you want your classic XP games back then don’t worry, it’s possible. Here’s how.

Step 1: Find A Windows XP Computer

That’s right, you need access to a computer running Windows XP before you can do anything. There’s no way around this – I couldn’t find a safe download for the files, and I can’t provide them for you because of copyright complications.

It’s OK though, because Windows XP is still very much out there. Check your closet for an old Windows XP computer, or even a hard drive from such a computer. See if your friends, family or co-workers are still using XP. Heck, you can even grab the files from a VirtualBox or other virtual machine version of XP, if you have one.

Step 2: Grab The Relevant Files

Got your hand on a Windows XP computer? Good. Open the Windows Explorer, then go to

C:\Windows\System32

. You’ll see a warning when you do:

Don’t panic; you won’t break anything. Get into the folder and you’ll see the unholy mess that is Windows internal workings:

You’re going to need to scroll through here and grab a few files. I highly recommend you “copy” them to an empty folder on your desktop:

• cards.dll
• freecell.exe
• mshearts.exe
• sol.exe
• spider.chm
• spider.exe
• spider.hlp
• winmine.exe

You’re going to need

cards.dll

for most of these games, but other than that you can just grab the files related to the games you want. Get them into their own folder and you’ll have something that looks like this:

Wondering where Pinball is? It’s in it’s own folder:

C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Pinball

.

Microsoft removed this game from Windows, which angers more than a few people (my amazing wife included.) Right this injustice – copy this entire folder and add it to the collection you just amassed.

Step 3: Copy To Your New Computer

Grab the folder you just created, and get it to your new computer. You can do this with a thumb drive, Dropbox, or however you like; it doesn’t matter.

Once you’ve got the folder on your new computer, put it wherever you like. You can open the games directly from your folder, or create shortcuts to them in your start menu.

Your games will all run flawlessly in Windows 7, and will work exactly the way you remember. Enjoy!

Conclusion

This post helped me to figure out how to get the classic XP games, so check it out if you run into any problems. Or if you want, join me in the comments below and I’ll do what I can to answer your questions.

Got your useless games working, but want more useless fun? Get Nyan Cat progress bars, because they’re awesome.

This is a pretty obvious oversight from Microsoft. It seems as though they didn’t care initially, and users were left wondering when and if this update would make its way to their Macs. It seems as though it has now been rectified. Even if it is a small market segment that needs this to work, they still paid for the device, and they are entitled to have it work as promised.

There are other improvements in this update as well. They added support for ringtone transfers and the ability to drag and drop files the “Browse Device” screen. They also improved support for podcast sync and photo import. Basically, this update addresses many of the features that should have been included from day one.

Users can get the free update from the Mac App Store now. If you own a Mac and a Windows Phone, let us know if the update solves your issues in the comments below.

Source: TechCrunch

Out of 197 voters, an impressive %10 already use an alternative layout, 7% tried it but went back to Qwerty, 49% are curious, but think the switch is probably too hard to tackle, 18% love Qwerty and don’t want to switch at all, and 17% heard about it in the poll for the first time!

It’s nice to know that our poll could enlighten 33 readers about the existence of alternative layouts. Who knows, they might switch now! Overall, around 17% of the voters have tried alternative layouts, so if you’re curious, the switch may be possible after all.

This week’s poll question is: What Do You Think About Windows Phone 7?

WP7 has been around for almost two years, but only recently has it started gaining popularity. The latest Nokia release might or might not give WP7 the push it’s been needing all this time. But is the OS any good? Is it being underrated by the technology world, or are we all better off sticking to what we already have? Now is the time for you to have your say!

If you already use it, what makes it good or bad? What are the reasons you would consider switching to it? And if you never will, why? Tell us everything in the comments.

According to Spotify, the app is available on a wide variety of WP7 mobiles, which together with their apps for Android and iOS makes them one of the most widespread music apps, at least for mobile platforms. While the WP7 app is definitely a move in that direction, other similar services offer apps for the Blackberry, for example, something which is not yet available for Spotify.

Using the WP7 Spotify app you can:

• Browse through Spotify’s music collection and stream tracks.
• Create offline playlist to play when you have no connection.
• Sync every track you add to your computer automatically.
• Browse and play your friends’ music.
• And more.

The app is free to download from the Windows Phone Marketplace for free, but like all Spotify mobile services, requires a premium subscription (currently $9.99) to play music. Spotify’s service is also limited to a small number of countries, including the US, the UK and selected other countries in Europe.

Have you tried Spotify for WP7? Tell us what it’s like!

Source: Spotify

So how does it work? First, you need to have Windows 7, otherwise you can’t even get IE9. You also need to be a US resident so you can enjoy the free stuff. If you’re all set with these, you can head over to the Where’s the love? holiday campaign site, download IE9 and get cracking.

The offerings include 3 months for free on Slacker and AOL Radio, one free month on Grooveshark, Hulu, Vimeo and Pandora, a free movie from Flixter and some discounts on tickets from Fandango and Ticketmaster. Some of there offers will only be available later this month or at the beginning of December. To get them, click on the prize of your choosing and follow the instructions. These include pinning the icon to the taskbar and sharing on Facebook or Twitter. Should be easy enough.

Will this convince you to download and install IE9? Will you actually continue to use it afterwards or immediately uninstall? Will this technique work for Microsoft?

Source: Geek.com