New Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows 7

We love shortcuts! They make our lives easier and our computing more productive. For those of us whose hands ache from over using the mouse, shortcuts can add hours of pain-free computer time. Along with the new window management features in Windows 7 comes shortcuts for those features to completely bypass the mouse. This makes the new features more user-friendly, and solidifies the hope that Microsoft really is listening to their customers. Well, at least the share our affection for shortcuts.


Windows Logo + Right Arrow: Sends the window to the right half of the screen. This is a new feature in Windows 7—usually, you must drag the window all the way to the very bottom right corner for windows to recognize you want to dock this window on the right. This shortcut sends the windows there with just a button click.


Windows Logo + Left Arrow: Sends the window the left half of the screen. When used with the shortcut above, you can see your windows side by side. This is great for comparing products online or fact checking with the internet in one window and a Word file in another.

Windows Logo + Home: Minimizes or restores everything but the current window. Windows 7 allows users to “shake” the current window to minimize all other windows. This shortcut takes the place of the awkward shaking.

Windows Logo + +: Hitting this shortcut will zoom in. Windows 7 has a magnifier that works with almost any window. This shortcut activates the magnifier. Windows Logo + –: Conversely, this shortcut allows you to zoom out. It should be easy to remember—plus zooms in, minus zooms out.

Windows Logo + G: Displays gadgets in front of other windows. So, if you are making use of the gadgets and want to see what they are doing behind your current windows, just quickly hit this shortcut and the gadgets appear on top of your current windows.

Windows Logo + Up Arrow: Maximizes the current window.

Windows Logo + Down Arrow: Minimizes the current window.

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How to create an "Invisible" hidden drive in Windows

You’ve probably read a bunch of posts on how to create hidden folders, secure folders, locked folders, etc, etc in windows on many occasions!

But there’s yet ANOTHER way you can hide your “private” files using a nifty little registry hack that will completely remove an entire drive from your computer. The drive will not show up in My Computer, will not be accessible from the command prompt, and won’t even show up in Safe Mode!

Ok, so here’s how to implement the hack: first off, back up your registry as this requires adding a key to the registry. Once you’ve backed up your registry, open the registry editor by clicking on Start, Run and typing in regedit.

Now navigate to the following registry hive shown below:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\

Policies\Explorer

Right-click on Explorer and choose New and then DWORD Value.

Name the new value NoDrives and then double click on it to open the properties dialog box. Click on Decimal for the Base unit.

Type in one of the following values depending on that drive letter you want to hide.

A: 1B: 2C: 4D: 8 E: 16

F: 32G: 64H: 128I: 256 J: 512

K: 1024L: 2048M: 4096N: 8192 O: 16384

P: 32768Q: 65536R: 131072S: 262144 T: 524288

U: 1048576V: 2097152W: 4194304X: 8388608 Y: 16777216

Z: 33554432All: 67108863

If you want to hide drive E, just type in the value 16. The really cool thing about this trick is the fact that you can hide multiple drives by adding the numbers of the particular drives together. For example, if you want to hide drive E and drive G, you would type in the number 80, which is 64 + 16.

Restart your computer and your drive will now be hidden! Trying to hide your system drive (C) will not work as Windows has to use this drive to run correctly, so don’t store your secret files there!

When you want to get your drives back, change the value of NoDrives to 0 or simply delete the value altogether. Of course, having to do this everyday can be a pain, so if you’re up for it, you can try and write a registry file that will allow you to insert and delete the value by just double-clicking a file.

This trick also works for mapped drives, so if you want to hide mapped drives, you can do it this way (though it might just be easier to disconnect a mapped drive).

Enjoy!

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More Useful Laptop Tips And Tricks

Upgrade with care: Support techs report that the most troublesome laptop components are the hard drive, screen, and keyboard. While you probably won't want to replace an expensive laptop screen, anyone with the right tools and even a slight mechanical inclination can replace the hard drive, keyboard, and other components, with some patient tinkering.

Opening your laptop case may void the warranty, so if your system is still under warranty, let the manufacturer deal with repairs. Notebooks are delicate, so never force anything. Vince Dougherty, who has repaired countless laptops for Wine Country Computers in Healdsburg, California, says the most common mistake is using the wrong-size screwdriver. One slip and your motherboard is ruined.

Before doing anything else, remove the notebook's battery and disconnect its power cord. Remember to ground yourself before you open the case, either with a grounding strap (the safest way), or by touching a piece of grounded metal (a lamp or water pipe will do), while touching a metal part on the case's exterior.

Replace your hard drive: Adding a new hard drive to a laptop is usually easier than doing the same thing on a desktop PC: You just remove a few screws from the bottom of the case, slide or lift the hard drive assembly out of the system, and swap a new drive into the assembly (always handle drives by the edges).

Most notebook PCs use a standard 2.5-inch hard drive, but ultralights and other diminutive systems may use a smaller 1.8-inch drive. Drives also come in different heights; the most common are 12.5 millimeters and 9.5 millimeters. Check your laptop's documentation, or visit the vendor's Web site to determine the drive size compatible with your machine.

A 2.5-inch, 100GB drive costs less than $200. Third-party vendors such as Drive Solutions and NewEgg.com often charge less than laptop manufacturers. Check with your notebook vendor to find out whether you need a SATA or parallel ATA model. Buy only from vendors that offer a money-back guarantee--any reliable seller will provide one lasting at least 30 days.

Boost your RAM: Most laptops come with only one or two memory sockets, which may leave no open slots for upgrades. Adding memory may require that you discard at least one existing memory module. The RAM on most laptops resides behind a removable panel. The modules slip into a slot and are secured at the ends by clips or retainers. Crucial offers an excellent tutorial on installing laptop RAM.

Crucial and Kingston will tell you the type of RAM your laptop needs. The high-quality modules they sell are well worth the small, additional expense over no-name RAM.

Change your keyboard: Installing a new keyboard usually requires disassembling the laptop's case, but in other respects it is straightforward: First snap the old keyboard out, and then snap the replacement keyboard in. You can expect to pay $50 to $100 for a new notebook keyboard. Appropriate replacement keyboards may be available only from the notebook's vendor.

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SPEED UP UR ACROBAT READER LIKE A NOTEPAD

1. Go to the installation folder of acrobat reader
(C:\program files\adobe\acrobat\reader\.. whatever)

2. Move all the files and folders from the "plugins" directory to the "Optional" directory. (I repeat.. cut and paste the files NOT copy & paste).

Also make sure that acrobat reader is not open else it will lock the files and not allow you to move the files).

Now your acrobat reader will load very fast and almost as good as notepad..

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