Thread: Talking about Microsoft Windows 7

With Windows 7 there's a way to use hidden international wallpapers and themes, even one from South Africa!

When you first install Windows 7, it asks for your language, time and currency. Based on your responses, it installs a set of wallpapers and themes. If you choose English (United States) for your time and currency format, for example, the available desktop backgrounds and themes will include a United States section with scenery from locations such as Maine, the Southwest and so on.

Hidden, though, are background scenery and themes from other English-speaking countries -- Australia, Canada, Great Britain and also South Africa. Namibia ain't on the list yet, but hopefully one day it will be!

Normally, you can't access those backgrounds or themes, but there is a simple way you can install and use them:

1. In the search box in the Start menu, type C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT and press Enter. (Note: If Windows 7 is installed in a drive other than C:, use that letter instead.)

2. Windows Explorer will launch and show you a list of subfolders under C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT: MCT-AU, MCT-CA, MCT-GB, MCT-US, and MCT-ZA. Each subfolder has wallpapers for a specific country: AU for Australia, CA for Canada, GB for Great Britain, US for the United States, and ZA for South Africa.

For any of the countries whose wallpaper and themes you want to use, go into its Theme folder, for example, C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT\MCT-ZA\Theme. Double-click the theme you see there (for example ZA).
Windows 7 South Africa theme
A South Africa theme, ready to use.
Click to view larger image.

3. That will install a shortcut to the theme and wallpapers in the Personalization section of Control Panel.

You can now use them as you would any other theme or background, by right-clicking the desktop, choosing Personalize, and choosing a background or theme. They will be listed in their own section.

I like this new feature a lot because it keeps my desktop organised. Sometimes windows seem to float all over the screen and it’s hard to attach them to one side of it. Now this can easily be done using a keyboard shortcut. Press the Windows key + Left key (arrow) to dock it to the left side of the screen. To dock them to the right side of the screen press the Windows key + Right key to dock it to the right side of the screen.

This is such a cool new feature, and invaluable for IT Professionals and NEtwork Admins: The Problem Step Recorder is a great tool that can be used in many circumstances. You can turn it on by pressing the Windows Key, then typing “PSR.exe” and click Record. Now it will record all your moves and save them as a HTML document that you can view or write descriptions to it. This can help you with troubleshooting or when writing a guidance or tutorial.

So your browser loads sluggishly? If it feels as if Internet Explorer is taking a long time to load your page, it’s worth taking a look at the add-ons you have installed. There's a really useful little addition in Internet Explorer 8 called instrumentation for add-on initialization. Basically this allows you to quickly see whether you’re sitting around waiting for plug-ins to load.

Just click Tools / Manage Add-ons, and then scroll right in the list view to see the load time.

I had a Research add-on that Office 2007 install, which slowed down load times and which I disabled since I never use it.

This one's handy: Automatically switch your default printer

Windows 7's location-aware printing allows the operating system to automatically switch your default printer as you move from one network to another.

To set this up, first click Start, type Devices, and click the Devices and Printers link.

Select a printer and click Manage Default Printers (this is only visible on a mobile device, like a laptop - you won't see it on a PC).

Choose the "Change my default printer when I change networks" option, select a network, the default printer you'd like to use, and click Add.

Repeat the process for other networks available, and pick a default printer for each one.

And now, as you connect to a new network, Windows 7 will check this list and set the default printer to the one that you've defined.

Read more: 85 Windows 7 tips, tricks and secrets | News | TechRadar UK

Worx lyk a bomb!!! thanx guys.....share more,share more.... ;-)

Here's a quick way of changing the Windows log-on screen, which used to involve some complicated and potentially dangerous hacks. First, launch the registry editor and then browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background in REGEDIT

Then double-click the DWORD key called OEMBackground - if this key does not exist, then 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.

Once you have your background image, copy that image into the %windir%\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds folder - again, if this folder does not exist, then create the info\backgrounds folders . Rename the image to backgroundDefault.jpg, reboot, and you should now have a custom log-on image.

We recently enabled this in our organisation, after a few USB pen drives disappeared. Although they are convenient, portable, and very easy to lose it's very easy to lose sensitive data as well. Windows 7 has the solution, that enables you to 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.