11. Set the time zone
System administrators will appreciate the new command line tzutil.exe utility, which lets you set
a PC's time zone from scripts. If you wanted to set a PC to Greenwich Mean Time, for instance,
you'd use the command
tzutil /s "gmt standard time"
The command "tzutil /g" displays the current time zone, "tzutil /l" lists all possible time zones,
and "tzutil /?" displays details on how the command works.
12. Calibrate your screen
The colours you see on your screen will vary depending on your monitor, graphics cards settings,
lighting and more, yet most people use the same default Windows colour profile. And that means
a digital photo you think looks perfect might appear very poor to everybody else. Fortunately
Windows 7 now provides a Display Colour Calibration Wizard that helps you properly set up
your brightness, contrast and colour settings, and a ClearType tuner to ensure text is crisp and
sharp. Click Start, type DCCW and press Enter to give it a try.
13. Clean up Live Essentials
Installing Windows Live Essentials will get you the new versions of Mail, Movie Maker, Photo
Gallery and others - great. Unfortunately it also includes other components that may be
unnecessary, but if you like to keep a clean system then these can be quickly removed.
If you left the default "Set your search provider" option selected during installation, for instance,
Windows Live will install Choice Guard, a tool to set your browser home page and search
engine, and prevent other programs from changing them. If this causes problems later, or you
just decide you don't need it, then Choice Guard may be removed by clicking Start, typing
msiexec /x and pressing [Enter].
Windows Live Essentials also adds an ActiveX Control to help upload your files to Windows
Live SkyDrive, as well as the Windows Live Sign-in Assistant, which makes it easier to manage
and switch between multiple Windows Live accounts. If you're sure you'll never need either then
remove them with the Control Panel "Uninstall a Program" applet.
14. Add network support
By default Windows Live MovieMaker won't let you import files over a network, but a quick
Registry tweak will change this. Run REGEDIT, browse to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live\Movie Maker, add a DWORD
value called AllowNetworkFiles and set it to 1 to add network support.
15. Activate XP mode
If you've old but important software that no longer runs under Windows 7, then you could try
using XP Mode, a virtual copy of XP that runs in a window on your Windows 7 desktop. But
there's a big potential problem, as XP Mode only works with systems that have hardware
virtualisation (AMD-V or Intel VT) built-in and turned on. If you've a compatible CPU then this
may just be a matter of enabling the option in your BIOS set-up program, however some high
profile brands, including Sony Vaio, disable the setting for "security reasons". And that blocks
XP Mode from working, too.
One solution has emerged, but it's a little risky, as essentially you'll have to alter a byte in your
laptop firmware and hope this doesn't have any unexpected side-effects. Gulp. If you're feeling
brave then take a look at the Feature Enable Blog for the details, but don't blame us if it goes
wrong.
A safer approach might be to use VirtualBox, a virtualisation tool that doesn't insist on hardware
support, but then you will need to find a licensed copy of XP (or whatever other Windows
version your software requires) for its virtual machine.
16. Right-click everything
At first glance Windows 7 bears a striking resemblance to Vista, but there's an easy way to begin
spotting the differences - just right-click things.
Right-click an empty part of the desktop, for instance, and you'll find a menu entry to set your
screen resolution. No need to go browsing through the display settings any more.
Right-click the Explorer icon on the taskbar for speedy access to common system folders:
Documents, Pictures, the Windows folder, and more.
And if you don't plan on using Internet Explorer then you probably won't want its icon
permanently displayed on the taskbar. Right-click the icon, select 'Unpin this program from the
taskbar', then go install Firefox, instead.
17. Desktop slideshow
Windows 7 comes with some very attractive new wallpapers, and it's not always easy to decide
which one you like the best. So why not let choose a few, and let Windows display them all in a
desktop slideshow? Right-click an empty part of the desktop, select Personalise > Desktop
Background, then hold down Ctrl as you click on the images you like. Choose how often you'd
like the images to be changed (anything from daily to once every 10 seconds), select Shuffle if
you'd like the backgrounds to appear in a random order, then click Save Changes and enjoy the
show.
DESKTOP SLIDESHOW: Select multiple background images and Windows will cycle through
them
18. RSS-powered wallpaper
And if a slideshow based on your standard wallpaper isn't enough, then you can always create a
theme that extracts images from an RSS feed. For example, Long Zheng has created a few
sample themes to illustrate how it works. Jamie Thompson takes this even further, with a theme
that always displays the latest BBC news and weather on your desktop. And MakeUseOf have a
quick and easy tutorial showing how RSS can get you those gorgeous Bing photographs as your
wallpaper. Or you can watch our custom theme video tutorial.
19. Customise the log-on screen
Changing the Windows log-on screen used to involve some complicated and potentially
dangerous hacks, but not any more - Windows 7 makes it easy.
First, browse to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\Log
onUI\Background in REGEDIT, double-click the DWORD key called OEMBackground (not
there? Create it) and set its value to 1.
Now find a background image you'd like to use. Make sure it's less than 256KB in size, and
matches the aspect ratio of your screen as it'll be stretched to fit.
Next, copy that image into the %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds folder (create the
info\backgrounds folders if they don't exist). Rename the image to backgroundDefault.jpg,
reboot, and you should now have a custom log-on image.
Alternatively, use a free tweaking tool to handle everything for you. Logon Changer displays a
preview so you can see how the log-on screen will look without rebooting, while the Logon
Screen Rotator accepts multiple images and will display a different one every time you log on.
20. Recover screen space
The new Windows 7 taskbar acts as one big quick launch toolbar that can hold whatever program
shortcuts you like (just right-click one and select Pin To Taskbar). And that's fine, except it does
consume a little more screen real estate than we'd like. Shrink it to a more manageable size by
right-clicking the Start orb, then Properties > Taskbar > Use small icons > OK.
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