Windows 7 Articles - How-To Geek

Backup/Copy Files that are "In Use" or "Locked" in Windows (Command Line)

If you’ve ever tried to copy a file that is locked by another application, you’ve probably seen an error message similar to “The process cannot access the file because another process has locked a portion of...

Lowell Heddings Mar 9th, 2008

Add "Run as Administrator" for AutoHotkey Scripts in Windows 7 or Vista

As regular readers know well, I’m a huge fan of using AutoHotkey to automate my entire computing experience… but in Windows 7 and Vista there’s a serious limitation since you can’t run a script a...

Lowell Heddings Mar 3rd, 2008

Hidden Trick to Close Windows Explorer in Windows 7 or Vista

If you want to test an explorer shell plugin or registry hack without having to log off, more technical users will usually just kill the explorer.exe process in Task Manager. Windows Vista has another way to do the same thing...

Lowell Heddings Feb 14th, 2008

Completely Disable the System Tray on Windows 7 / Vista / XP

If you are the type of person that never uses any applications in the system tray, you might be interested in this registry hack to turn it off entirely. I can’t imagine using my own system this way, but we’re all...

Lowell Heddings Feb 13th, 2008

Easily Disable Win 7 or Vista’s Aero Before Running an Application (Such as a Video Game)

You might be concerned with squeezing every last bit of performance out of your machine, or may have compatibility problems between Aero and an application that you are running. Either way you are looking for the simplest way...

Lowell Heddings Jan 16th, 2008

Create a Shortcut to Enable/Disable Aero Transparency in 7 / Vista

In the interests of exposing all of the secrets in Windows Vista, I’ve decided to explain how to create a shortcut that turns on or off the transparency in Windows Vista. I don’t find this especially useful, but I...

Lowell Heddings Jan 13th, 2008

Create Icons to Start the Screensaver on Windows 7 or Vista

Reader Jeffrey wrote in asking how to create an icon to start up the screensaver in Windows Vista. This question is so common that I figured I’d write up the answer for everybody, as well as provide a downloadable set o...

Lowell Heddings Nov 8th, 2007

Create Shutdown / Restart / Lock Icons in Windows 7 or Vista

If you dislike the new Windows Vista shutdown menu, you are probably in the majority. An alternative option is to create icons that will let you shut down, lock, or restart your computer without having to mess with that stupi...

Lowell Heddings Nov 1st, 2007

How to Add Registry Editor to Control Panel

It’s always struck me as odd that system tweakers use the registry editor all the time to fix annoyances in Windows, but nobody has created a tweak to add the registry editor to the control panel… until now....

Lowell Heddings Oct 21st, 2007

Enable Mapping to \\Hostname\C$ Share on Windows 7 or Vista

Just about everybody knows about the hidden administrator C$ share that is always built into Windows file sharing, but you might have wondered why you can’t use that in Windows 7 or Vista.

Lowell Heddings Oct 10th, 2007

Scroll the Window Under the Mouse in Windows 7 / XP / Vista

Have you ever noticed that you have to switch to a window before you can use the wheel button to scroll it? This is especially annoying if you are trying to multi-task or follow along with a lengthy tutorial in your browser w...

Lowell Heddings Oct 2nd, 2007

Change the Number of Recent Items Shown on the Windows 7 / Vista Start Menu

If you’ve ever wondered how to configure the number of documents shown on the Recent Items menu, you’ve found the right article. The default value is set to show 10 documents, but you can increase that with a regi...

Lowell Heddings Sep 24th, 2007

Hotkey for Creating New Folder in Windows Explorer

Have you ever wondered if there is a hotkey to create a new folder in Windows Explorer? A conversation with MysticGeek last night prompted me to look into this, and so I’m posting the answer for everybody....

Lowell Heddings Sep 13th, 2007

Stop Windows Update from Hijacking the Sleep/Shutdown Button

As an avid user of the Sleep function on my laptop, I’ve been more than irritated with Windows 7 or Vista’s habit of changing the Sleep/Shutdown button into an “Install Updates and Shut Down” button wh...

Lowell Heddings Aug 28th, 2007

Disable Win+X Shortcut Keys on Windows 7 or Vista

Windows 7 and Vista have all the same Windows+X shortcut keys as other versions of Windows, such as Win+E for explorer and Win+D for the desktop, but adds in all of the Win+<num> keys to launch the shortcuts in the Vist...

Lowell Heddings Aug 24th, 2007

Disable Windows Mobility Center in Windows 7 or Vista

Windows Mobility Center is a fairly useful tool for those of us using Windows 7 or Vista on a laptop computer, but might not be for everybody, especially since it takes over the Win+X keyboard shortcut....

Lowell Heddings Aug 23rd, 2007

Hide Drives from Your Computer in Windows 7 or Vista

If you’ve got drives in My Computer that you never access, such as a USB Flash drive that you are using solely for ReadyBoost, a floppy drive, or a network drive only used for a particular piece of software, then you mi...

Lowell Heddings Aug 22nd, 2007

Remove Old Drivers After Upgrading to New Hardware

If you are experiencing weird issues after upgrading your hardware, or you’ve just upgraded to the latest hardware device and aren’t seeing the performance you’d like, you might want to remove the old driver...

Lowell Heddings Aug 1st, 2007

Disable Delete Confirmation Dialog in Windows 7 or Vista

Every time you delete a file, Windows asks you “Are you sure you want to move this file to the Recycle Bin?” This is typically a good thing, to prevent you from deleting files by accident, but if you are trying to...

Lowell Heddings Jul 24th, 2007

Add Copy To / Move To on Windows 7 or Vista Right-Click Menu

Here at geek central, we’re in the business of making things as easy as possible. There’s a registry hack for Windows that will let you add a Copy To Folder or Move To Folder to the right-click menu, which can be ...

Lowell Heddings Jul 23rd, 2007

The "Up" Keyboard Shortcut for Windows 7 or Vista Explorer

The new Explorer window in Windows 7 and Vista doesn’t have an Up button, which drives me completely batty. Thankfully I found a keyboard shortcut replacement.

Lowell Heddings Jun 27th, 2007

Create a Restore Point for Windows 7 or Vista’s System Restore

If you are thinking of installing an application but aren’t quite sure what it’s going to do to your computer, I would absolutely recommend creating a restore point before you install that application, and here ar...

Lowell Heddings Jun 20th, 2007

Add "My Computer" to Your Windows 7 / Vista Taskbar

I like to have the quickest access possible to folders on my desktop, which usually means putting something onto the taskbar if possible. You can add the Computer menu as a folder on the taskbar for the easiest access to your...

Lowell Heddings Jun 16th, 2007

Switch Windows by Hovering the Mouse Over a Window in Windows 7 or Vista

This isn’t for everyone, but you can enable a mouse mode in Windows 7 or Vista where just hovering over a window with the mouse will switch to that window. In the old days, this used to be called the XWindows mode,...

Lowell Heddings Jun 9th, 2007

Temporarily Disable Windows Update’s Automatic Reboot in Win7 or Vista

So you’re in the middle of doing something important on your computer when the “Restart your computer to finish installing important updates” dialog comes up, and asks you to restart your computer....

Lowell Heddings Jun 3rd, 2007