Top 5 items of Windows 7 improvement

Are you already running Windows 7 beta? There’s a lot to love in the OS, and unlike the usual service pack update, we actually get a whole new batch of things that can be tweaked and tuned. We’re only just getting our feet wet with Windows 7, but already we have a Top 5 items list for you to improve in the new operating system:

1. For the first time in over a decade, you can now uninstall Internet Explorer. The core IE rendering files used by other apps will remain, but the application itself can be snuffed. The quickest way to do this is to go to the Start menu’s Search bar and type turn windows features on or off. This will bring up the Windows Features box. Scroll down to Internet Explorer 8, uncheck it, and click OK.

2. If you do want to run Internet Explorer 8, you may find that new browser tabs exhibit problems, especially with slow load times. So far, this seems to be the result of an upgrade process glitch. While running with administrator rights, go to a command prompt (type cmd at the Search bar) and type regsvr32 actxprxy.dll. Reboot, and the problem should be fixed.

3. Few, if any, features in Windows Vista were more maligned than UAC pop-ups, which ask if you’re really sure you want to do the thing you just went through several clicks to do. Rejoice, friends. Type UAC at the Search bar to bring up the UAC settings window. The vertical slider has four settings. We recommend the third, just above Never Notify. This will still give you a permissions prompt in case of a really odd request, but otherwise, Windows will leave you alone.

4. Windows 7 changes the Start Menu’s power button from Hibernate to the more common sense Shut Down function. However, this can be changed to suit your taste. Right-click the Taskbar and select Properties. In the Start Menu tab, use the pull-down menu for Power button action and take your pick of power functions. While you’re there, click the Customize button and look for ways to fine-tune Start menu operations. For example, you can speed up searches by changing the Search Other Files And Libraries item to Search Without Public Folders. If you do a lot of video viewing, perhaps displaying videos (look under Videos) as a link or a menu off of the Start menu will save more time than going through Computer.

5. For some people, every fraction of a second counts. You may have noticed in Vista that when you mouseover a Taskbar application, its preview thumbnail waits 0.4 second before appearing. In Windows 7, you can change this delay period. Go into the Registry Editor (type regedit in the Search bar) and navigate into this folder: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse. Right-click MouseHoverTime and pick Modify. The default is 400 milliseconds. If you crank this down to 100 or even 50, over the course of a year, you will have saved enough time to have at least two extra thoughts while staring at your screen. Make ’em count.


Source of Information : CPU Magazine 07 2009