31. Customise UAC
Windows Vista's User Account Control was a good idea in practice, but poor implementation put
many people off - it raised far too many alerts. Fortunately Windows 7 displays less warnings by
default, and lets you further fine-tune UAC to suit your preferred balance between security and a
pop-up free life (Start > Control Panel > Change User Account Control Settings).
32. Use Sticky Notes
The Sticky Notes app is both simpler and more useful in Windows 7. Launch StikyNot.exe and
you can type notes at the keyboard; right-click a note to change its colour; click the + sign on the
note title bar to add another note; and click a note and press Alt + 4 to close the note windows
(your notes are automatically saved).
33. Open folder in new process
By default Windows 7 opens folders in the same process. This saves system resources, but
means one folder crash can bring down the entire shell. If your system seems unstable, or you're
doing something in Explorer that regularly seems to causes crashes, then open Computer, hold
down Shift, right-click on your drive and select Open in New Process. The folder will now be
launched in a separate process, and so a crash is less likely to affect anything else.
34. Watch more videos
Windows Media Player 12 is a powerful program, but it still won't play all the audio and video
files you'll find online. Fortunately the first freeware Windows 7 codecs package
[shark007.net/win7codecs.html] has been released, and installing it could get your troublesome
multimedia files playing again.
35. Preview fonts
Open the Fonts window in Windows XP and Vista and you'll see the font names, probably with
icons to tell you whether they're TrueType or OpenType, but that's about it. Windows 7 sees
some useful font-related improvements.
Open the new fonts window and you'll find a little preview for every font, giving you a quick
idea of how they're going to look.
The tedium of scrolling through multiple entries for each family, like Times New Roman, Times
New Roman Bold, Times New Roman Bold Italic and so on, has finally ended. There's now just
a single entry for each font (though you can still see all other members of the family).
And there's a new OpenType font, Gabriola, added to the mix. It's an attractive script font, well
worth a try the next time you need a stylish document that stands out from the crowd.
36. Restore your gadgets
Windows 7 has tightened up its security by refusing to run gadgets if UAC has been turned off,
so limiting the damage malicious unsigned gadgets can do to your system. If you've disabled
UAC, miss your gadgets and are happy to accept the security risk, though, there's an easy
Registry way to get everything back to normal. Run REGEDIT, go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Sidebar\Setting
s, create a new DWORD value called AllowElevatedProcess and set it to 1. Your gadgets should
start working again right away.
37. New WordPad formats
By default WordPad will save documents in Rich Text Format, just as before. But browse the
Save As Format list and you'll see you can also save (or open, actually) files in the Office 2007
.docx or OpenDocument .odt formats.
38. Protect your data
USB flash drives are convenient, portable, and very easy to lose. Which is a problem, especially
if they're carrying sensitive data. Fortunately Windows 7 has the solution: encrypt your
documents with an extension of Microsoft's BitLocker technology, and only someone with the
password will be able to access it. Right-click your USB flash drive, select Turn on BitLocker
and follow the instructions to protect your private files.
PROTECT YOUR DATA: Your USB flash drives can easily be encrypted with BitLocker
39. Minimise quickly with shake
If you have multiple windows open on your desktop and things are getting too cluttered, it used
to be a time-consuming process to close them all down. In Windows 7 you can use the Aero
Shake feature to minimise everything in seconds, using a cool mouse gesture. Grab the title bar
of the window you wish to keep open and give it a shake, and rejoice in a clear desktop area.
40. Configure your favourite music
The Windows 7 Media Centre now comes with an option to play your favourite music, which by
default creates a changing list of songs based on your ratings, how often you play them, and
when they were added (it's assumed you'll prefer songs you've added in the last 30 days). If this
doesn't work then you can tweak how Media Centre decides what a "favourite" tune is- click
Tasks > Settings > Music > Favourite Music and configure the program to suit your needs.
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