Control, Shift and ALT

Yes, it’s the good old CTRL and SHIFT Click combinations, all over again.

Flip through Open Documents

Press the CTRL-button and click the Taskbar Button multiple time. This will show each document in full-sized view. Stop Clicking when you find the preferred document

Open a blank Document or Window

Press the SHIFT-button and click on any Taskbar button.

• Doing this on a Notepad, Word, Photoshop etc. will open a blank document.
• Doing this on programs such as Outlook, will duplicate the window

About Thomas

Computer geek from the age of 7, which amounts to 30 years of computer experience. From the early days (when every computer company had their own OS) of DOS, Windows 1.0 through Seven...

In this guide, we’ll show you a couple of ways to make the Windows Explorer Jump List work for you by saving you time.

The first thing you’ll want to do is make sure Windows Explorer is pinned to your Taskbar. By default, Windows 7 has it pinned out of the box. If you removed it, you can simply add it by clicking the Start button, typing Explorer, right clicking Windows Explorer, and clicking Pin to Taskbar.

When you’re done, your Taskbar should have this icon:

Pin Frequently-used Files and Folders to the Windows Explorer Jump List

To pin files and folders, which you use the most, to the jump list:

1. Right click on the Windows Explorer icon on your Taskbar

2. Hover over the item you’d like to pin and click the Pin icon:

Your file or folder will be pinned to the list:

Pin Other Files and Folders to the Taskbar

If the file or folder is not listed under Frequent:

1. Navigate to the file or folder in Windows Explorer

2.  Drag the file or folder to the Taskbar icon:

Unpin an Item from the Jump List

To unpin an item from the list:

1. Right click on the Windows Explorer icon on your Taskbar

2. Hover over the item you’d like to unpin and click the Pin icon:

About Rich

Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix the problems he creates.

Remember the quick launch bar in Windows Vista? The one with the Flip-3D, Show desktop, and IE shortcuts? You can have it in Windows 7 too; in this guide, you’ll learn how to restore this toolbar.

More Windows 7 Guides

Updated 2011/05/15: Updated guide and screenshots after feedback in the comments. Thank you for providing feedback.

Note: If you’d like to get Windows 7 looking just like Windows Vista, scroll further down to “Make Windows 7′s Taskbar look like Vista’s“

Get the Quick Launch Toolbar

To enable the quick launch toolbar:

1. Right click the Taskbar and click Toolbars > New Toolbar…
2. Paste the following into the folder field and click Select Folder:
   

   %AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

   

3. Right click the Taskbar and uncheck Lock the taskbar
   
4. Optional: To remove the text next to the icons, right click the toolbar and uncheckShow Textand Show Title
   
5. Optional: To enable large icons, right click the toolbarand click View > Large Icons
6. Now move the quick launch bar to the left (where it was in previous versions of Windows) by clicking and dragging it to the left of you pinned shortcuts:
   (Click to enlarge)
7. Optional: Lock the task bars to get rid of the resize bars by right clicking the Taskbar and checking Lock the taskbar

You now have your Quick Launch toolbar back:

Add Shortcuts to the Quick Launch Toolbar

There are a few ways to add shortcuts to the Quick Launch toolbar. By far the easiest way is to find the shortcut on your desktop or start menu and drag it to the toolbar:

About Rich

Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix the problems he creates.

Image Resizer is an evolved product from the Image Resizer Powertoy Clone (which we have covered previously) by Brice Lambson, which allow the user to resize images with just a few clicks. Once it is installed, it sits comfortably in your right click context menu (only when you right click on images), and it is always ready for your resizing command.

How does it work?

Fairly simple. Just select all images, right click on them, and click Resize Pictures. Select your desired resolution (I suggest 1024×768 which is best balanced between quality and size for quick sharing, unless you want to share higher quality photos), click OK, and you are basically done.

However, you still have several advanced options to choose from if it’s needed.

Only shrink pictures – This option will only make the image smaller, not bigger. It means that if the original image is smaller than the resize scale, Image Resizer will not resize it.

Replace the originals – This option will directly resize the original image, without having the resized copy of it. Useful when you have to resize the images that are not meant to be kept in its original size.

What’s new since we last covered?

Currently the latest version of Image Resizer had stepped into Version 3 Preview 1, but don’t worry about the Preview 1 tag, it is fairly stable for normal usage (as claimed by the developer and tested by me.) .NET Framework 4 is required to run the new version though.

In this version, there are couple of new features implemented, and there are more promising features coming.

Resize image to new folder – This is a really interesting feature (the developer called it Black Magic). It will allows you to resize images into a newly created folder, which is particularly useful if the original images are meant to be kept. Create a new folder together with your bunch of images, select the images you want to resize, right-click-hold and drag-and-drop to the newly created folder, then select Resize pictures here. I really liked this feature a lot.

Progress bar – Compared to the older version, this one comes with a progress bar to show the resizing progress, which is really something good, since the older version tends to become unresponsive during the resizing process. No integration with the Windows 7 taskbar yet, but it’s a good start.

Metadata – The developer has rewritten the component for information preservation, therefore in this new version, all metadata from the original image will be kept. Good news for those who need every information from the original image.

Recycle replaced images – If you have selected the option Replace the originals before the resizing, all the replaced images will be transfer to Recycle Bin to avoid any complicated issue caused by the replacement. Just clean the Recycle Bin if the resized one is working well.

More features coming – Click on the Advance Settings, you can see the upcoming features, including JPEG quality level adjustment, user-defined default size, user-defined filename format, and selective metadata stripping. Good stuffs.

Performance

You might want to know how it performs in a bulk image resize. I did a simple test and the results will vary for everyone since it depends on the performance of your CPU, HDD etc., but I think it will be a good reference for those who wanted to know.

This test is performed on the PC equipped with AMD Athlon 7750 Dual-Core Processor (2.7GHz), 4GB DDR2 RAM, and SATA HDD 7200rpm. Image Resizer 3 Preview 1 and 130 images were resized to perform this simple test. After the test, I found that all 130 images are resized to 1024×768 in 1 minutes 45 seconds, which is pretty good in my opinion. Below is the comparison of the size before and after resizing:

Original: Average 2MB, 130 images, Total 293MB

Resized: Average 180KB, 130 images, Total 21.3MB

For quick sharing, the reduction of the total size from 293MB to 21.3MB is definitely much appreciated. All thanks to the Fant resampling algorithm, Image Resizer 3 is now able to produce small size, but higher quality output than the conventional JPEG compression algorithms.

If you prefer a official stable version of Image Resizer, you still can get the latest 2.1 stable, although I strongly recommended to get the version 3 since it is quite stable as well.

Download Image Resizer 3 Preview 1

Download Image Resizer 3 Preview 1 (Download .NET Framework 4 – Needed for v.3)

Download Image Resizer 2.1

Download Image Resizer 2.1

About ghost301

Biomedical Engineer graduate in Malaysia, currently Software Application Engineer and UI/UX Designer in Materialise. Graphic Design/UI/UX/Tech/Formula 1/Gadget/Android/iOS Enthusiast. Windows Guides writer (mintywhite.com) and run Techie Talkz.

The New and improved

Where the 2.0 beta promised more gadgets and functionality, this version delivers. The weather gadget now comes bundled with 4 free weather providers, and several skin options (about 30 skins to choose from). But HTC Home does more.

One of the cool features added is the option to let the Weather Widget change your desktop- or widget background (or both) to suit the weather outside. But if you don’t like that sort of thing it’s not on by default.

The interface

The interface is about the same as before, only improved. The settings can now be accessed from any widget running, and it’s much more intuitive. Even if you’ve never used the HTC Home Gadget before it shouldn’t take your more than a few minutes to familiarize.

Only thing annoying me is the taskbar icon. The taskbar icon shows you the weather directly in your taskbar. To me it’s just a feature which luckily may be switched off entirely. I’m not that depended on knowing the weather outside all the time. If they could put it in the tray instead of the taskbar I might be more willing to keep it on.

More widgets

In addition to the Weather’n'Clock widget, you also get a standalone analogue Clock (which is perfect to put on that secondary monitor), a RSS News widget (which can be download most RSS-feeds), and my new favourite; Image Rotator.

The Image Rotator is an improved version of the original one, that comes with the Windows Desktop Gadgets. The improved part means you can set it up to suit your images.

Aero Transparency

As before, every widget support transparency which can be set to almost 100% when out of focus. Then, when you hover over a widget, it fades in, smoothly.

So what are you waiting for ? Go download it

Download

About Thomas

Computer geek from the age of 7, which amounts to 30 years of computer experience. From the early days (when every computer company had their own OS) of DOS, Windows 1.0 through Seven...

New in Windows 7, Peek gives you the power of X-ray vision, so you can peer past all your open windows straight to the Windows 7 desktop. Simply move your mouse over the little transparent rectangle in the lower right corner of your screen—and watch open windows instantly turn transparent, revealing all your hidden icons and gadgets. That’s a fast way to find files on your desktop, or get a peek at the latest traffic report.

If, however, you don’t want to use Aero Peek or if you find yourself accidentally activating it when your mouse works it way in to the bottom right corner of your screen, you can easily disable (and enable) it again.

Disable or Enale Aero Peek

To disable Aero Peek:

1. Right click a blank spot on your taskbar and click Properties.

   

2. On the Taskbar tab, uncheck Use Aero Peek to preview the desktop, and click OK.

   

To enable Aero Peek again, just follow the steps above, check Use Aero Peek to preview the desktop, and click OK.

Note: The show desktop button will still function and will show you the desktop if you click it. Alternatively, you can use Winkey+M or Winkey+D to show the desktop. I prefer Winkey+D because pressing it a second time will restore all your windows again.

About Rich

Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix the problems he creates.

You can get great help and advice from our resident team of super-geeks, browse our community art and tools sections, or just let it all out in the Shoutbox.  It’s entirely up to you.

Here’re some interesting topics you may want to check out.  Feel free to jump in on the discussion!

Unable to hear in Skype and Messenger Live

Window 7 Taskbar Alternative

Bit Of Fun

Post your Screenshot! (Part II)

CheckDiskGUI Tool

Yahoo Messenger will not install – Vista

Which Android Phone….?

New cable Hardware

Download Holiday Lights Windows 7 Theme

XP Firewall

Remember, registration for Windows Forums is completely free!

See you there

About Stu

As promised, here’s two of the best so far.  Of course, a big thanks to all who have contributed.

Speed up Show Menu Delay (Context Menu)

Submitted by Bugsy:

Step 1.

Open the Start Menu – then type regedit in the search box and press Enter.

Step 2.

In regedit, navigate to \HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop

Step 3.

In the right pane, right click on MenuShowDelay and click on Modify.

Step 4.

Type in a number between 0 to 400 – for how many milliseconds you want the Menu to wait before it opens, the lower the number, the faster the response time. It is not recommended you use 0 as it will be difficult to navigate through at that speed.

Click on OK to apply.

Step 5.

Quit regedit and reboot your PC to see the changes.

The Taskbar Extender

Submitted by Bugsy:

Step 1.

Right click an empty part of the desktop select New > Text Document.  Rename the file to drive.exe

If you do not see this warning message (which you must accept) whilst renaming the file;

You may need to uncheck the option that hides known file type extensions (Alt+T > O) ;

Make sure that after the rename the file looks like this;

And not this;

Step 2.

Drag and drop drive.exe onto your taskbar, then delete the original file.

Step 3.

Right-click drive.exe taskbar button, then right-click its file name and select Properties.

Step 4.

Change the contents of both the Target and Start In boxes to point to the drive or folder of your choice (eg C:\User\Stuff).  Click Change Icon to choose an appropriate drive icon, and you’re done – that drive or folder is now available at a click.

Props go to Bugsy for these great tips and tricks.  If you like them, say thanks to by visiting the original posts and clicking the small “Thanks” button in the top left of the post here & here.

About Stu

• What versions of Windows 7 have Sticky Notes?
• How do I open Sticky Notes?
• How do I create a new note?
• How do I change the color of notes?
• How do I resize notes?
• How do I delete a note?
• How do I change the fonts of a note?
• How can I backup my notes?
• How do I format text within my notes?
• How do I save my notes for later?

If you know of a trick that we missed, please let us know in the comments.

What Versions of Windows 7 have Sticky Notes?

Sticky Notes is available only in the Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions of Windows 7.

Source

So, if you have Windows 7 Starter edition, you wont have access to Sticky Notes — sorry.

How Do I Open Sticky Notes?

To open Sticky Notes, click the Start button, type notes and click Sticky Notes.

How Do I Create a New Note?

Either: click the plus sign on a previously-existing note:

Or: Right click the notes icon in the taskbar and click New Note.

How Do I Change the Color of Notes?

Right click a note and choose a new color:

How Do I Resize Notes?

Notes will resize as you add content to them:

Alternatively, you can grab the bottom right corner of a note to resize it. You can also overlay notes if you like that kind of thing :)

How Do I Delete a Note?

On a note you’d like to delete, click the X in the top tight corner.

You’ll be asked to confirm deletion and can check a box (Don’t display this message again) to remove the confirmation dialog.

Advanced tip: If you want to be prompted again (I closed a note with the fonts examples after taking about five minutes preparing it):

Not sure how to use the Registry to make edits? Learn here: Working with the Windows Registry.

1. Open the registry and navigate the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\StickyNotes

2. Change the value of PROMPT_ON_DELETE to 1.

How do I Format Text Within my Notes?

You can format text in your notes with the following shortcuts:

More shortcuts:

Alan Wade shares the following shortcuts–thanks Alan:

How do I Change the Fonts of a Note?

The only way I could find to change the fonts in a note is to first format the font in a program like Microsoft Word and then copy and paste the formatted text:

How Can I Backup My Notes?

To backup your notes, you’ll first need to show hidden files and folders.

Now open My Computer and enter %appdata%\Microsoft\Sticky Notes\ in the address bar:

Copy StickyNotes.snt to a backup location of your choice. You can also copy this file to another PC running Windows 7 to view your notes there.

How do I Save My Notes for Later?

If you’d like to close Sticky Notes but not lose your current notes (i.e. avoid clicking the X to delete a note), you’ll need to do the following:

Right click the Sticky Notes icon in the taskbar and click Close. This will save your notes for next time.

What Did We Miss?

If you know of a trick that we missed, please let us know in the comments.

About Rich

Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix the problems he creates.

Pin the Control Panel to the Taskbar

To pin the Control Panel icon to the taskbar:

1. Click the Start button and click Control Panel to open the Control Panel.

   

2. Right click the Control Panel icon on the taskbar and click Pin this program to taskbar.

   

3. Now you can click the Pin to list icon to pin frequently used Control Panel tools to the jump list:

   

Even when you close the Control Panel, you’ll still have quick access to your most frequently-used tools:

Want to learn more about Jump Lists? Check out this guide about Windows 7 Jump Lists.

About Rich

Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix the problems he creates.