1.Use Windows Explorer to open “My Computer”

Windows Explorer’s default touchdown folder is the Libraries directory, but “My Computer” must have been more comfortable for most of us as the default node, especially if we have more than one hard drive and also external storage devices.

• To modify the default mode, do the following

• Find Windows Explorer type “explorer” in the Start Menu search field and right click the first result.
• Now select “Properties”. In the Shortcut tab, the Target location should be like: % windir % and the Target should be: % windir%\explorer.exe (sometimes it can be: %SystemRoot%)
• Now paste the following tweak in the Target place: %windir%\explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
• A new instance of Explorer will be created which will open “My Computer”. Obviously you will have to unpin the older one and put the new one on the Taskbar to complete the transition. You know how to do it isn’t it? Just right-click the icon, and click, “Unpin this program from the taskbar” to remove it, and then drag Explorer from the Start Menu to the taskbar.

2.  Activate Quick Launch

The Quick Launch is unessential with the occurrence of the updated Taskbar, but one can still bring it back with the following steps:

•    Right-click the Taskbar–> move to Toolbars–>select New Toolbar.

•    In the resultant browse field at the bottom, enter the following string:

%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

•    Now turn off the “lock the Taskbar” setting, and right-click on the divider. Then click to Disable “Show Text” and “Show Title” and also change the view selection to “Small Icons”.

•    Drag the divider as you want and to put Quick Launch in the desired position, and then again lock the taskbar.

3. Viewing & Adding Items to the Windows 7 ‘Send To’ Menu

• Viewing the extra items in the menu:

There are some default items are seen under the Send To menu when you right-click on a file. In order to see some extra options, hold down the Shift key while right-clicking on the icon then check the ‘Send to’ menu.

• Adding items:

You can add any of those or even any other folders to show up normally without holding the Shift key; you just have to create shortcuts in the ‘Send To’ folder. Just type “shell:sendto” without the quotes in the address bar of the explorer window. And then add shortcuts to your preferred folders into this folder.

4. Change settings of UAC

 In spite of good purpose, User Account Control pop-ups are one of the most irritating aspects of Vista, and a feature that most of us instantly inactivate after a complete install. UAC in Windows 7 although displays lesser warnings, but one can also modify its warning habits by launching the UAC Settings from the start menu itself. Just write “UAC” in the Start Menu search field and select the first option. Now select the type of settings you want to have.

5. Windows 7 – touch OS?

 Windows 7 do support touchscreen devices and has included a gesture-based system to direct the desktop with a ‘stylus’. Some of them even work with a mouse. In place of right-clicking a Taskbar icon to access its Jump List, hold left-click and drag it upwards to smoothly bring it up.

6.Remove “Shortcut” Text From New Shortcuts in Windows 7 or Vista

 Most of the Windows users get frustrated by the “– Shortcut” text that is added with the name of newly created shortcuts, and they have to manually edit the shortcut and remove that text every time. Thankfully I have a registry tweak for this:

Open runàregedit.exe, and then go to the following registry key:

 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

On the right-hand side you’ll find a key that is just called “link”, with a default value of 1e 00 00 00 or 15 00 00 00. Open this key up and modify the 1e (or 15) to 00, leaving you with 00 00 00 00.

Log off and then back on to make the change take effect. It will be reflected to the shortcuts that you make from now on. To roll back the setting, just change back to the values and log off and back on.

 Hope you find it interesting… Stay connected for more.