From the category archives:

Windows 7

Turn Windows 7 into a wireless access point

February 26, 2010
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For years now I have been able to share my Verizon wireless connection with friends and family using my Apple running OSX. Linux can do this too.
It has not been possible with Windows until now. Microsoft has added some features to 7 that allow a wireless card to be put into promiscuous mode and [...]

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Add checkboxes for file selection in Windows 7

February 18, 2010
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From time to time I will have a folder that I need to clean out. Usually with a large number of files. The problem is that I want to select only specific files or folders:

This is easy to do by holding down the CTRL key, but I always find that halfway through my selection process [...]

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Bring the quick launch bar in Windows 7

February 3, 2010
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If you have been using Windows 7 you may have noticed that the quick launch bar is missing.
The quick launch bar was available in Vista, XP, and Windows 2000.
Here it is a shot of it under Windows XP:

There is probably a good reason for them to remove it. With the complete redesign of the [...]

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Open a hidden control panel in Windows 7

January 27, 2010
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I have been hearing lots of chatter about this hidden feature in Windows 7. Everyone is calling it “God Mode”
You will see why it is called that in a minute, but essentially it is a hidden control panel that gives you easy access to just about every setting in Windows 7.
To get to it, simply [...]

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Troubleshoot Windows 7 with the “Problem Steps Recorder”

December 9, 2009
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While digging around, I found this very cool utility included with Windows 7. It is called “Problem Steps Recorder”.
The program allows you to record a set of actions, and then save it as a zip file, and allow someone else to see what you did.
This is perfect when trying to troubleshoot an issue, but [...]

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Hide user accounts in Windows 7

October 14, 2009

Many times it is convenient to create a special administrator account that can be used for the task scheduler.
Unfortunately, if your Windows 7 computer is not joined to a domain, any accounts you create are shown at the start-up screen:

It would look better if you could remove this special account from the welcome screen, and [...]

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Windows 7 – "Identifying Network" (Resolved)

October 7, 2009

I was at a friends house last weekend. I found a very interesting problem with Windows 7. They had a laptop they just purchased in Taiwan, and no matter how they tried to connect it to their network, it would always say “Identifying Network”:

Now, in the screen shot it is the wireless network, but this [...]

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Windows XP vs Windows 7 – Who Won?

September 10, 2009

I installed Windows 7 on my ASUS Atom N270

Before I did that, I recorded how long it took to do a few things:
-Copying a 45 MB file over the network
-Boot Time
-Shutdown Time
-Memory used at idle, after startup
-IE Launch time
Then, after I installed Windows 7, I did the same, and recorded how long it took. [...]

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Install Windows 7 from a USB Memory Stick

September 1, 2009

About a year ago I purchased a nice little machine from ASUS.
It is an Atom N270:

When I opened the box, the machine was preloaded with Windows XP. It performs well with XP, and has 1 GB ram, and a 160 GB hard drive. A big mistake I made was installing Vista on it – Very [...]

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Windows 7 – The $admin share

August 19, 2009

I got my shiny new copy of Windows 7 today from MSDN. It became available to MSDN subscribers earlier this week.
If you have access then give it a spin, there are some excellent improvements over Vista.
I installed it today to test some of our software. One issue, that is also in Vista, is that file [...]

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