Whether you run Windows 7, Vista or XP, these tricks will make your PC faster, safer and even more fun to work with.
Rick Broida is your guide Windows 7 is being lauded as Microsoft's best operating system (OS) to date. It's stocked with genuinely handy interface upgrades such as Aero Snap, offers long-overdue networking improvements in the form of HomeGroups, and adds touchscreen support and the best Windows Media Center experience yet. Windows 7 was made publicly available as a downloadable beta for most of 2009, giving plenty of scope for people to critique it and develop add-ons and tweaks. The result is an OS that's more modest in its hardware demands than Vista, more stable than Me and more secure than XP. But while the OS doesn't need many outright improvements, there's certainly room for refinements. Over the following pages we've assembled more than 50 such tips and tweaks. Most of these are designed to work with Windows 7, but many have equivalent workarounds for use in XP and Vista. In many cases, the suggestions we offer will give your system a bit of a fillip, either because they tame the programs and services Windows deems fit to run by default, or because they prioritise what happens when rather than having everything clamouring for processor cycles. Windows 7 isn't as much of a resource hog as its often maligned predecessor, Vista, but there are certainly ways and means of making it leaner and cleaner. But our tips aren't just about changing how Windows works; they also explain how to achieve common tasks quicker using shortcuts and key combinations that fast become second nature. Experienced PC users will recognise some long-standing favourites in our run-through of best ever tips on the final two pages. Here, we've brought together the best of the best of Windows tips across the board. Together, these tips can help you make Windows faster, easier, safer and more fun. GO FASTER Is Windows 7 really speedier than Vista or XP? Various tests have yielded different results, and ultimately your Windows 7 experience depends on your hardware and the applications you run. In fact, with just a few simple tricks, you can wring better performance from any machine. Go 64bit Works in: Vista, Windows 7 Windows loves RAM. The more memory you supply, the less the OS has to rely on the hard drive. But if you want Windows to get the benefit from more than 3GB of memory, you'll have to run the 64bit version. If you're buying Windows 7 as an upgrade, you should find a 64bit installation disc in the box; ignore the 32bit disc entirely. In addition to recognising more memory, the 64bit edition of Windows makes better use of your PC's processor, giving you the best possible Windows experience. Turn off the eye candy Works in: Vista, Windows 7 Everybody loves bells and whistles, but Windows' fancy graphics come at a price - particularly on older PCs with single-core CPUs or minimal RAM. If you're more concerned with zippy performance than you are with transparent windows and animated controls, consider turning off visual effects. Open the Control Panel, type visual in the Search field, then click 'Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows'. Choose Adjust for best performance, then click Apply. After a few seconds you'll see a decidedly starker Windows interface and enjoy a much snappier response. If the look is too plain, choose the Custom option and select any effects you want to restore. The more you enable, the more performance will suffer. Boot up quicker Works in: XP, Vista, Windows 7 Windows 7 boots up a little more rapidly than other Windows versions. Even so, the more programs you install, the slower your PC will start up (something that's true of all Windows editions). Many apps force Windows to run them at startup, a situation not unlike a dozen cars trying to merge into one lane, slowing down everything in the process. Startup Delayer (tinyurl.com/b8ypj) is a great tool that tells the lower-priority programs you select to sit tight, be patient and run a little bit later, after some of the traffic has cleared. The end result is that your computer boots up much more quickly. The utility presents you with a list of all the programs that launch when your system does. To set a delay for any of them, just drag the item to the white bar at the bottom of the window. You'll see a line representing the application; drag it left or right to decrease or increase the delay. Startup Delayer is free and one of the best ways we know of to speed up a slow-booting PC. Even one that runs Windows 7. Tweak the power settings Works in: Vista, Windows 7 Using Windows' power-management features to save energy makes sense, but you shouldn't do it at the expense of productivity. If you're working on a PC or on a laptop plugged into the mains, you don't need your hard drive to turn off after 5 minutess, your processor to throttle back when idle or your video playback to be optimised for power saving. Since you're not attempting to preserve battery life on this machine, you should crank up the performance settings. By default, both Vista and Windows 7 come configured with a 'Balanced' power plan. To crank up performance, click Start, type power and select Power Options. Choose the 'High performance' plan. (If you don't see it listed, click 'Show additional plans'.) Now your machine will run with desktop-optimised power settings. If you want to tweak individual settings, such as how long the hard drive should sit idle before shutting down, click 'Change plan settings', 'Change advanced power settings'. Get an efficiency report Works in: Windows 7 If you're using Windows 7 on a laptop, you can check that it's running efficiently and that its battery will last as long as possible. First run a command prompt. Open the Start menu and type cmd in the search box. When the cmd icon appears, right-click it and choose 'Run as administrator'. At the command line, type powercfg --energy -output \Folder\Energy_Report.html (where \Folder represents the folder where you want the report to be placed). Be patient while Windows examines the behaviour of your laptop. It will analyse this and create a report in HTML format in the folder you specified. Double-click the file to view the report. Follow its recommendations for ways to improve power performance. Remove unwanted extras Works in: XP, Vista, Windows 7 Many PC manufacturers insist on stuffing their new systems with free and trial software that consumes precious hard-drive space and slows down the machine's startup. We're talking about security suites you may not require, games you might not want and vendor-branded utilities that are more nuisance than necessity. To get rid of this bloatware, go to the Start menu and open the Control Panel, then click 'Uninstall a program'. Alternatively, use one of our favourite free utilities, Revo Uninstaller ( revouninstaller.com), to make a clean sweep; the tool not only uninstalls software, but also removes leftover files and Registry entries. Just make sure you don't uninstall anything important, such as Adobe Flash Player or Microsoft .Net Framework. Switch to Chrome Works in: XP, Vista, Windows 7 The web browser is probably the most frequently used program on your PC. Switching to a faster browser can therefore speed up your Windows experience. Google Chrome loads pages faster than Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 8.0, Opera 10.0 and Safari 4.0 (see bit.ly/7cXHIB). The advantage may amount to only a second or two, but every second counts. Run Performance Monitor Works in: Windows 7 If you like charts, numbers and data sets, Windows 7 has just the tool for you. Performance Monitor tracks your PC's hardware and applications in real time, generating all kinds of data that you can review and compare. It's aimed at system administrators rather than everyday users, but it can help you discover which programs are sapping system performance. Press the Windows key, type perfmon and press Enter. Start assessing your system by expanding the Monitoring Tools folder and clicking Performance Monitor. From there you'll probably need to delve into the built-in help files, as the tool isn't exactly userfriendly. For more, check out the Microsoft Developer Network blog post on using Performance Monitor at bit.ly/7FEwaJ. EXPERT TIP: ELIMINATE THE AERO PEEK DELAY Aero Peek, one of Windows 7's most celebrated enhancements, temporarily turns all your windows transparent when you hover the cursor over the Show Desktop button. If you accept the default settings, the effect takes nearly a full second to kick in. However, a simple Registry hack will enable instantaneous transparency. Press the Windows key to open the Start menu, type regedit in the search box and press Enter. Navigate to Hkey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced. Right-click an empty area in the right pane, then choose New, Dword (32bit) Value. In the field, enter DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime. By default, Windows assigns a value of 0, which is exactly what you want. Restart the PC. Next time you hover the cursor over Show Desktop, you'll be peeking at light speed. EXPERT TIP: CLEAR YOUR DESKTOP OF CLUTTER If you often run several programs at once, your desktop can get extremely cluttered. This can get annoying if you're working on one program and want to minimise all the other windows. In previous versions of Windows you had to minimise them individually, but with Windows 7's 'shake' feature you can minimise all except the window you're currently working in. Click and hold the title bar of the window you want to keep on the desktop, then shake it quickly back and forth until all the other windows minimise to the Taskbar. Then let go. Shake the title bar again to make the other windows return onscreen. Admittedly, you can accomplish the same thing by pressing the Window key, Home key combination, but it's not nearly as much fun. Preston Gralla PROTECT YOURSELF Still looking for a good reason to trade in XP for Windows 7? Security is the top reason. The new OS is inherently better at fighting infections, blocking hackers and thwarting phishing attempts. And with the extra tools described here, you can lock it down like a digital Fort Knox. Install MS Security Essentials Works in: XP, Vista, Windows 7 Windows 7 comes equipped with some solid security tools, including a robust firewall and the spyware-blocking Windows Defender. On top of that, you need a good antivirus program that works in the background and won't bog down your system. Microsoft's Security Essentials (download it from tinyurl.com/kwsxcu) provides real-time protection against viruses and other malware, and its impact on performance is negligible. Our recent tests found it holds its own against other free antivirus utilities. In other words, it's a great alternative to paying an annual fee for virus protection. Install Web of Trust Works in: XP, Vista, Windows 7 The seemingly innocent act of clicking a web link - even one that's at the top of a Google search results page - can result in 'drive-by downloads' infecting your computer. Even seasoned users can have trouble knowing which links are safe to click. For an extra layer of security, try using Web of Trust ( mywot.com), a browser add-on that will warn you of unsafe sites. The plug-in adds colour-coded icons to every link that your search engine produces: green for safe, yellow for risky and red for dangerous. You can also right-click any link, such as one that appears in an online forum, and choose 'View WOT scorecard' to perform a manual safety check. Web Of Trust is free and available for both Firefox and Internet Explorer. Although its rating icons add a little clutter to some web pages, we recommend it for anyone who is concerned about security. Create a system repair disc Works in: Windows 7 Before you do anything with your PC, you should have a plan of action in case something goes wrong. Dig out the box it came in. Do you see a Windows 7 disc or a system recovery disc? They're less common these days, so the chances are it falls to you to create your own. And it's vital that you do so, because if your system ever becomes unbootable, a recovery CD or DVD might be your only recourse. Thankfully, Windows 7 makes the task exceedingly easy. Just pop in a blank, recordable CD or DVD (you'll need a burner, of course), click Start, type repair and choose Create a System Repair Disc. Follow the instructions from there, remembering to label the disc when you're finished. If you ever run into trouble, boot up your system with the repair disc. It includes a variety of recovery and diagnostic tools, and also lets you choose a System Restore point to help get your PC back to a previous, working state. Make this disc now. If you wait until after you have a problem, it's too late. EXPERT TIP: TWEAK USER ACCOUNT CONTROL You remember User Account Control (UAC), right? Incessant annoyance? Symbol of everything that was wrong with Windows Vista? Yep, that's UAC. It's back in Windows 7, and its heart remains in the right place: it's still meant to protect you from accidentally running dangerous software on your machine or from malware being able to make unauthorised changes to your system. UAC can still be annoying, though. Fortunately, Microsoft now gives you control over when and why UAC issues warnings. To tweak the settings, click Start, type account and select 'Change User Account Control settings'. You'll see a slider with four notification levels. By default, UAC is now a little less intrusive than it was in Vista, notifying you only when programs attempt to make changes and not when you make changes to Windows yourself. Want UAC to take a hike altogether? Drop the slider down to 'Never notify'. MAKE THINGS EASIER When is an OS easy to use? When it works the way you want it to. Here's how to make using Windows simpler and more productive. Close all your apps in a flash Works in: XP, Vista, Windows 7 Finished work for the day? Close all your apps at once with a click of the Close All Windows icon. Unlike the Show Desktop function, which merely minimises all open windows, Close All Windows (get it from ntwind.com) terminates each running program. If an open document needs saving, the program will prompt you to do so. To make the best use of the app, pin it to your Taskbar. XP and Vista users can add the icon to the Quick Launch toolbar. Move the Taskbar Works in: Vista, Windows 7 Widescreen monitors are great for watching films and organising windows side by side, but much of the time that generous screen area goes to waste. One option is to move the Taskbar to the side where it will be accessible but not in your way. This may sound an odd thing to do, but since web pages, Word documents and the like run top to bottom, the more vertical space you can give them, the better. Right-click an empty area of the Taskbar and remove the tick by 'Lock the Taskbar'. Next, left-click and hold on an empty area of the Taskbar, and drag it to the left (or right) side of the screen. Once you get close, you'll see it lock in. Now release the mouse button. Vista users may want to extend the width of the Taskbar (by clicking and dragging the right edge) to better see the labels for currently running programs. But Windows 7 users can keep the Taskbar narrow, as the new OS doesn't use Taskbar labels anyway. Reload programs after a reboot Works in: XP, Vista, Windows 7 Windows XP, Vista and 7 have at least one thing in common: they always urge you to reboot after installing new updates and patches. You'd think the OS would be courteous enough to restore your running programs, much as Firefox and Internet Explorer restore tabs after a crash or restart, but, alas, it doesn't. Thankfully, the free Cache My Work ( cachemywork.codeplex.com) can reopen your apps after a reboot. It's particularly handy for those times when you step away from your PC only to discover upon your return that Windows has restarted without your permission. Install apps quickly Works in: XP, Vista, Windows 7 If you've just made the move to a Windows 7 machine and need to install all your software, try Ninite ( ninite.com). This excellent free service automatically downloads and installs popular apps. Just scroll through its list of 70-plus free programs, checking off what you want. It offers current versions of nearly every major freebie, including Firefox, iTunes, Microsoft Security Essentials, OpenOffice, Picasa, Skype and Steam. Tweak the Taskbar Works in: Windows 7 With Jump Lists, program pinning and rich thumbnail previews, the Windows 7 Taskbar offers some nice amenities. However, since it's your Windows, you may as well make it work the way you want it to. The 7 Taskbar Tweaker (download it from rammichael.com) offers six adjustments, including one that replaces the Jump List with the old window menu when you right-click a running app. Our favourite tweak reassigns the middle mouse button to close or focus a window instead of opening a new instance of the app. EXPERT TIP: MAKE YOUR PC A WI-FI HOTSPOT Imagine you've got a broadband card in your laptop, but no way to share its wireless connection with your iPod touch or another PC. Or maybe you've paid for a hotel's Wi-Fi service, but you don't want to pay again just to connect other devices. You need Connectify ( connectify.me), a clever utility that turns your web-connected computer into the equivalent of a Wi-Fi hotspot. Although it's still an early-stage beta, it worked quite well on our test systems. After installing the program, just click the Connectify icon in the system tray, choose the connection you want to share, then enter a name and password for your wireless network. Now fire up your other devices and look for the new connection. Join it, enter the password and you'll be connected. Keep in mind, however, that because Connectify is still in development, it may not work perfectly with every device. On the plus side, the utility is free while it stays in beta, and it may remain an ad-supported freebie once it's finished. HAVE MORE FUN If you're looking for entertainment, Windows 7 has a couple of tricks up its sleeve: media sharing and Windows Media Center. The latter is available in the Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate editions of the OS; only Starter doesn't have it. Here's how to get more enjoyment out of your Windows entertainment applications. Autorotate your wallpaper Works in: Windows 7 Wouldn't it be nice if Windows greeted you with a new wallpaper every time you started up your PC or at regular intervals throughout the day. Consider it done. Press the Windows key, type background, then click 'Change desktop background'. By default, Windows will show you its stock background art, but you can peruse different images by clicking the Picture location drop-down menu or choosing Browse to pull images from a folder on your hard drive. Tick the box next to each image you want to add to the rotation, then click 'Change picture every' and set the interval to a length of time of your choice. Save changes. Download themes Works in: Windows 7 Microsoft has stocked Windows 7 with some stunning Aero themes - packages of wallpapers, sounds and a pervasive colour palette. To access the array of choices, press Windows, type theme and click 'Change the theme'. You can browse what's there or click 'Get more themes online' to tap into Microsoft's Personalization Gallery (head to bit.ly/8QqQF4). The gallery is home to about a dozen branded themes, plus 20 international themes. You'll also find instructions on creating or customising a theme. Watch TV without a tuner Works in: Windows 7 Although Windows Media Center offers pretty good digital video recorder (DVR) features, you typically need at least one TV tuner to watch and record live programming. If your PC doesn't have a tuner, however, you can stream a selection of shows on-demand in the Windows 7 version of Media Center. Stream media to other PCs Works in: Windows 7 Windows 7 lets you stream music, photos and videos (including recorded TV shows) from your home PC to other Windows 7 machines. It's a neat trick if you're on the road with your laptop or netbook and you want to see the football match you recorded at home. What's not so great is the number of hoops you have to jump through. Launch Windows Media Player and click Stream, 'Allow Internet access to home media'. Click 'Link an online ID' and select 'Add an online ID provider'. On the web page that appears, choose either 'Download for 32bit' or 'Download for 64bit', depending on which version of Windows 7 you're using. Save and then run the downloaded file, which installs the Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant app. Having done this, return to the Link Online IDs window and, under Online ID Provider, click 'Link online ID'. Enter your Windows Live ID username and password. (Click the link in the box to sign up if you don't already have a LiveID.) Finally, click ok. Return to Windows Media Player and click 'Allow Internet access to home media'. That's one PC done. On the second system, you'll need to repeat the procedure. You'll then be able to browse the Other Libraries section in Windows Media Player to find the media you want to view from afar. EXPERT TIP: DOWNLOAD WEB VIDEO TO A TV YouTube is all very well, but sometimes you want to be able to watch TV programmes and other video content in its original broadcast quality. For this, there's always BBC iPlayer and its ITV, Channel 4, Five and Sky equivalents. But if you're after a broader selection, you'll need to look to the web. Blinkx ( blinkx.com) is a good starting point, aggregating video content from around the web and letting you create watch folders based on keywords so you don't have to initiate a new search every time to you want to locate an episode of 'True Blood' or 'Glee', for example. To view programmes for free in a full-screen web browser pane, you're taken to a third-party service such as VuReel. This is ad-supported, but you can pay a monthly subscription of $5.49 (around ukp3.37) to skip the adverts and to be able to download content for viewing on a TV or a portable entertainment device. For additional ease of use, beam your favourite programmes to a TV and use a GlideTV ( glide.tv) remote control to select what you want to watch. OLD FAVOURITES Superb shortcuts Toggle between apps: Use Alt, Tab to switch open programs without touching your mouse. The oldest (and still the best) Windows timesaver. Navigate app windows: Press Ctrl, Tab to cycle through an application's windows (or through a web browser's tabs). This is probably the most underrated tip around. When in doubt, type it out: If you don't want to hunt through nested menus and the like, you can access most functions, applets or files by entering their details into the Search box. Type Calculator, Control Panel, or even the name of a piece of music on your hard drive and press Enter. Unobtrusive updates: Keep your OS current by opening Windows Update (Automatic Update in XP) and setting it to 'Download updates but let me choose whether to install them'. To access this option, press the Windows key and type Windows Update. Now you won't have Windows urging you to restart when you don't want to - or, worse, triggering a restart when you're away from the PC with an unsaved document open. Tweak your Taskbar: Right-click the Taskbar and choose Properties to find options for switching to the old Start menu, choosing which icons show in the notification area, setting default programs to appear in the Start bar menu and more. Folder reveal: In Windows Explorer, click Folder Options to reveal hidden files, show the full path in the title bar, display file extensions and more. Partition, partition, partition: Make backups and restores easier by partitioning your hard drive and keeping one partition for the OS and the other for your data. Make your text special: Need a special character such as (copyright) or a? Press the Windows key and type character map in the field to bring up an app that will let you copy and paste the characters you need. Use sticky keys: Holding down two keys at once, such as Ctrl, C to copy, can be tricky. Press the Shift key five times to start Sticky Keys and you'll be able to initiate a keyboard shortcut simply by pressing Shift, Ctrl, Alt or Windows, instead of holding down that particular key. Press Shift five more times to toggle Sticky Keys off. Simple screen capture: Take a screenshot by pressing the Print Screen (PrtScrn) button at the top right of your keyboard. This copies an image of your entire screen to your clipboard so you can paste it into Paint or your preferred image editor. To capture only the active window, use Ctrl, Alt, Print Screen. For more finely tuned controls, try Screenshot Captor ( bit.ly/7U4f8G). Take a shortcut: Right-click on any application icon, bring up the Properties menu and click the Shortcuts tab. You can specify a keystroke combination to start your application here. What's more, making a shortcut for Windows 7's Snipping Tool makes screenshots much easier. Line 'em up: To arrange two (or more) windows side by side in XP or Vista, hold down Ctrl and click on the desired windows in the Taskbar; then right-click the Taskbar and select Tile Vertically. In Windows 7, you can simply drag any open window to the edge of your screen and then let go. Take control: Windows' old Control Panel conveniently displayed all of its items at once. To revert to this sensible approach in Windows XP and Vista, open the Control Panel and select 'Switch to Classic View'. In Windows 7, click the View by drop-down menu in the upper-right corner and select your preference. Speedier service Process Explorer: Windows' Task Manager (press Ctrl, Alt, Del and click Task Manager) is great for seeing what your system is up to, but for more detail try Process Explorer (download it from bit.ly/6zwhms). Its additional information can help you find a memory leak or troubleshoot a pesky DLL problem. Index options: The Windows Search indexer speeds up built-in search functions, but the indexing process itself can consume system resources at inconvenient times. Open Indexing Options in Control Panel (or press the Windows key and type Indexing Options). The resulting dialog box will let you specify which folders or types of data are indexed to avoid needlessly bogging down your PC. Clean up your startup: If your machine drags its feet during the startup process, press the Windows key and type msconfig to open the System Configuration utility. Check in the Startup tab to see what your machine is loading. It might be loading services or apps that you don't need or want to use on startup. Nudge your network: If you have network problems, try opening the command prompt (enter cmd in the Start menu's search box) and typing ipconfig /renew to reset your network connection. Better sharing: For a little assistance in tracking your shared folders, right-click My Computer (or Computer in Windows 7) and click Manage to bring up the Computer Management tool. Then click Shared Folders to see a list of all your machine's shared folders, file-sharing sessions and open files. Essential add-ons Go mouse-free: XP users should grab Launchy ( launchy.net), a free keyboard-driven launcher application that allows you to access programs, files and websites with just a few keystrokes. Vista and Windows 7 users get the same functionality from the Start menu's search tool. Cleaner than ever: To make sure your programs uninstall completely, use Revo Uninstaller ( revouninstaller.com). It's often more thorough than the programs' own supplied uninstaller routines. Annoyance buster: If you're tired of UAC dialog boxes popping up all the time in Vista, but you don't want to disable the security feature completely, grab TweakUAC (visit tinyurl.com/24hw7u) to set it to Quiet Mode. Windows 7 has its own UAC controls, but can still benefit from TweakUAC. Better browsing: Optimise your web browsing with Greasemonkey for Firefox (head to greasespot.net). This add-on lets you choose scripts (see userscripts.org) for blocking adverts, changing the layouts of popular sites and more. Variants also exist for Internet Explorer, Chrome and Safari. Windows key workout Lock it up: Stepping out for a minute? Remember to press Windows, L to lock your computer screen so no one can nose around without entering your account password. Run, Windows, run: To access the Run command easily, press Windows, R. Keyboard explorer: Want to open a new Windows Explorer window without leaving the keyboard? Press Windows, E. Declutter your desktop: Access your desktop instantly by pressing Windows, D to hide all open windows. Press Windows, D again to return to where you were before. HASSLE-FREE PC Fix compatibility issues in Windows 7 Windows 7 is far easier to get along with than Vista, but it still has issues, writes Rick Broida Like every other technology upgrade, Windows 7 suffers from its share of mismatches with existing programs and devices. Here, we'll show you how to make all your old stuff work with your new operating system (OS). We'll also describe how to retrieve your media when it gets jammed in an optical drive. Compatibility issues Windows 7 has the same core code as Vista, so, in theory, application compatibility shouldn't be an issue. Unfortunately, that's not quite the case. We recently tried to apply a firmware update to a Blu-ray drive, but the installer was designed for Vista and produced an error in Windows 7. Meanwhile, ongoing problems getting an iPhone to sync with iTunes has been causing grief, even though it worked fine in Vista. As much as we like Windows 7, at times like these we wish we could turn back the clock and run Vista or even XP. Actually, we can. Windows 7 has a feature for troubleshooting program compatibility. Right-click the icon of the application that isn't working properly and click 'Troubleshoot compatibility'. Windows will try to detect compatibility issues. If it finds any, it'll give you two options: 'Try recommended settings' and 'Troubleshoot program'. Choose the first option. If it doesn't work, you can always go back and try the second option (which gives you the opportunity to specify the Windows OS with which you want to achieve compatibility). After Windows applies the settings, click Start Program and see whether the change has solved the problem. Click Next and Windows will make the changes permanent. Alternatively, try using different settings. This tool solved both of our problems. For iTunes, we let Windows choose the settings (it chose XP with Service Pack 2) and the iPhone synchronised properly. For the firmware updater, we chose Vista with SP1 (the installed OS before our Windows 7 upgrade), and again it worked. Compatibility problems can be vexing, but for once Microsoft has supplied a simple workaround. Eject your discs The next problem is about a media centre PC, but could happen to any machine. It has an annoying glitch: the Blu-ray drive's Eject button doesn't work. Discs stay trapped in the drive unless we minimise Windows Media Center, open Computer, right-click the drive icon and choose Eject. Tech support offered a few ways to resolve this issue, but we've found an easier solution: a freeware app called EjectCD. After extracting the program from the .zip file, we pinned it to the Windows 7 Taskbar. Vista users can accomplish the same result by enabling the Quick Launch toolbar and dragging it there. Now a click of the EjectCD icon opens the drive, and this can be made simpler still with a keyboard shortcut. Every icon in the Taskbar (and in the Quick Launch toolbar) is automatically assigned a numerical value, beginning with 1 for the icon situated closest to Start, then 2 for the one next to it and so on. Pressing the Windows ( . ) key and the appropriate number launches the program. We pinned EjectCD in the first position and press . Windows 1 to open the drive. We haven't been able to locate the origin of this application, but you can grab it from tinyurl.com/y8p2xwm. To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
