Windows 7 Beta MP3 Corruption Fix

A bug in Windows 7 Beta 1 (build 7000) is known to corrupt MP3 files if you use the Windows Media Player to modify or automatically update (the default setting) MP3 file meta data.  Microsoft has released a QFE patch and the bug has been fixed in more recent builds.

If you are running Windows 7 Beta 1 Build 7000 be sure to download the patch:


Windows 7 Beta 1 32-bit Patch Download
Windows 7 Beta 1 64-bit Patch Download
Read More in KB961367

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Window Management Keyboard Tricks

Windows 7 includes many new way to manage your windows such as window snapping and cool tricks like Aero Shake. One secret that few users know about are the new keyboard shortcuts that are a big help for any power user.  The following keyboard shortcuts provide another way to use the new window management features in Windows 7.

    - Windows key + up will maximize a window to fill the screen

    - Windows key + down arrow on a maximized window will restore it to the original size.

    - Windows key + down will minimize any regular window to the task bar.

    - Windows key + M will minimize any window to the task bar.

    - Windows key + right or left arrow will snap a window to half of the screen. This is the same as dragging a window to far left or right side of the screen.

    - Windows key + home will minimize all open windows in the background except the top most active window. This is the same as shaking the window (Aero Shake).

    - Windows key + T will iterate through your task bar thumbnails of open applications.

    - Windows key + D will minimize all windows.

    - Windows key + Space bar will let you peek at the desktop.

    - If you have multiple monitors, Windows key + shift + right arrow will move the active window to your next monitor. Windows key + shift + left arrow will revert it back.

    - Good old Flip 3D is still there. Use Windows key + Tab to bring it up. While holding the Windows key hit tab to iterate through the windows. Hold down Windows key + shift and then hit tab to reverse the direction.

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Where Did All My Free Space Go?

It happens to everyone eventually. Your hard drive is suddenly full and you are left wondering where did all my free space go? Now you must begin the task of deleting old files and folders to reclaim space but where do you start? In the past I would suggest manually checking the sizes of all of your folders so you know where to begin the hunt but now there is a great utility called WinDirStat that does the work for you.  After inspecting a drive you are shown exactly how much data is in each folder, what file types are taking up the most space and even a visual representation of the files on your disk.

Now you know exactly where to target your cleanup effort.


WinDirStat Web site.
Free Download.

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What Is svchost.exe?

One of the most common questions about system processes is what is svchost.exe and why are there so many processes running? First appearing in Windows XP, svchost.exe hosts multiple services within one process.  This allows the operating system to save memory by reducing process overhead by cutting down on the number of processes that need to be running.

Every system service such as Windows Update, Event Log, Terminal Services, Audio Service, etc. runs within svchost.exe.  Depending on the access the services need, they are grouped together and are run in a number of processes which explains why you see so many in Task Manager running under different accounts such as System, Local Service and Network Service.

Identifying what services are running is different depending on the version of Windows you have.

Windows XP

In Windows XP at a command prompt run:

tasklist /svc

The tasklist utility will show you what processes are running under each svchost.exe process.

Windows Vista and Windows 7

Task manager in Windows Vista and Windows 7 has been enhanced so you can easily see what services are running inside a host process such as svchost.exe.

Click on the Start Button, type in taskmgr and hit Enter. When task manager loads, click on the Processes tab and click Show processes from all users to see all of the svchost.exe processes. Then, right click on a svchost.exe process and select Go to Service(s). You will be taken to the Services tab with all services running in that process highlighted.

All Versions of Windows

Microsoft Sysinternals has a great free utility called Process Explorer that is like a task manager on steroids.  It works on all versions of Windows and allows you to easily see services running inside of svchost.exe.  Download Process Explorer here.  Once you have it running right click on any process and select Properties. Then click on the Services tab and you will see all processes running inside the host process.

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Virtualization On Windows

Operating System virtualization on the client side has many benefits including better security and more flexibility.  Depending on the resources available on your computer you can setup an entire virtual lab running numerous operating systems for testing.  Additionally, virtualization allows you to test software and perform other activities in a sandbox environment that will not affect your primary operating system.  You can infect your VM (virtual machine) but the rest of your computer will be safe.

There big players in the client virtualzation arena are VMWare Workstation, Microsoft Virtual PC and Sun VirtualBox. All have good products but only the Microsoft and Sun products are 100% free (and just a good as VMware IMO).

I have personally used both Virutal PC and VirtualBox for many years and recommend both for your virtual environment. Virtual PC always has great support for Windows operating system while VirtualBox does Windows well and is compatible with more Linux and Unix distributions.

Depending on what operating system you run on your physical computer will determine what client virtualization software you can run.

For Windows 7 Users:

Windows Virtual PC 32-Bit
Windows Virtual PC 64-Bit
VirtualBox

For Windows Vista Users:

Virtual PC 2007
VirtualBox

For XP Users:

Virtual PC 2007
VirtualBox

Using client virtualization software is very simple.  It is just like using a physical computer but your virtual monitor is just another window on your desktop.

You can boot up from a CD/DVD in your physical optical drive or use .ISO file and install the operating system in your virtual machine. Once you have your OS installed make sure you install the VM tools/additions/integration components on the virtualized machine for best performance.

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Unlock Hidden Windows 7 Themes

There are a number of regional themes with multiple unique background images hidden from Windows 7 users.  On a Windows 7 install with United States regional settings only the United States theme is shown but there are actually four more themes hidden from view.  Below are all the regional themes included in Windows 7:

          

     

Accessing all the themes is easy to do once you know where to find them.  The trick is to navigate to the C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT directory.  The MCT directory within the Globalization directory is super hidden so it will not display even if show hidden files and folders is enabled.  Just click on the address bar of any folder and manually type in or copy and paste in C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT and hit Enter.

Once you have reached the MCT folder you will see five directories as listed below:

    - MCT-AU

    - MCT-CA

    - MCT-GB

    - MCT-US

    - MCT-ZA

To view and use the theme for each region just navigate into each MCT-Region directory, enter the Theme sub-directory and double click the theme file.

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Start Explorer In Drive View

Many users like to start explorer in drive view to directly access their data instead of the document folders. This tweak will show you how to modify the Windows Explorer shortcuts to launch directly in drive view.

Update the Start Menu Shortcut

    1. Click on the Start Button and type in Windows Explorer.

    2. Right click on the shortcut when it appears in the search results and select Properties.

    3. On the Shortcut tab, change the target to:

        %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

    4. Click Ok to save the changes.

Update the TaskBar Shortcut

    1. Right click on the Windows Explorer TaskBar icon.

    2. Then Right click on the Windows Explorer shortcut in the Jump List and select Properties.

    3. On the Shortcut tab, change the target to:

        %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

    4. Click Ok to save the changes.

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Spell Check Add-on For Internet Explorer 9

Internet Explorer 9 is big improvement over Internet Explorer 8 but it is still the only modern browser that does not include spell check as a native feature. With this release Microsoft focused more on the browser engine adding HTML 5 support and hardware acceleration. Web standards and performance are very important but the lack of a basic feature such as spell check can prevent users from making Internet Explorer 9 their default browser.

Thankfully, there are a number of free spell check add-ons available for Internet Explorer 9 that will help you modernize your browser:

    - The first option has been the unofficial Internet Explorer spell check add-on for years known as IE Spell. This free add-on allows you to check the spelling of any text box by right clicking and selecting Check Spelling.

    Click here to download IE Spell.

    - My new favorite spell check add-on for Internet Explorer 9 is called Speckie. This free add-on adds the familiar red squiggly line under misspelled words similar to other browsers or Microsoft Word.

    Click here to download Speckie.

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Share Your Screen With SharedView

Microsoft SharedView is a free utility that allows you to share your desktop, applications and documents with up to 15 people online at a time. It is perfect to hold a small meeting or to show a family member how to do something. Best of all it works well through firewalls and routers so you don’t have to worry about connection issues.

Getting Microsoft SharedView up and running requires a Microsoft Live ID, broadband connection and a short download.

Click here to download SharedView

Once downloaded and installed just start up the utility from the start menu and sign in. Then click Start a new session and send your participants the link and details provided. Finally,click the Start button to start your meeting/event.

After the meeting has started you need to share something for your participants to view.  Click the Share button on the top of the screen and select the app you want to share.  You can also select your entire desktop on the bottom of the list.

Once selected click the Start button to begin sharing.


Read more on the Microsoft SharedView site

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Search The Office 2010 Ribbon With Search Commands

While the ribbon interface in Office 2010 is a refined version included in Office 2007 it is completely new for many users that upgraded from Office 2003 directly to 2010. For new users the most popular problem is finding where settings and features are located in the redesigned ribbon menu.

Microsoft Office Labs has released the perfect add-on utility for any new Office 2010 user.  Instead of manually searching through the ribbon for what you need, simply type it in.

After installing the add-on just click on the Search Commands tab and key in what you are looking for.  Relevant buttons will appear allowing you to directly select what you need.

Click Here to download Search Commands for Office 2010.

Office Labs Search Commands home page.

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Search The Office 2007 Ribbon With Search Commands

The new interface in Office 2007 has a great new look but finding your favorite feature can be a little difficult at first. Microsoft Office Labs offers a helpful utility called Search Commands that brings search to the ribbon. Can’t find a specific feature? Just search for it!

Just download and install the Search Commands utility and you will have a new search tab in Word, Excel and Powerpoint.


Download Search Commands from Microsoft Office Labs


Visit Search Command homepage

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Restore Start Menu Internet Search

In Windows 7 the ability to search the Internet from the Start Menu was removed by default.  I'm sure that Microsoft has usage data to support their decision to remove the feature but as usual power users are disappointed. If you were a user of Internet search from the Start Menu then follow these steps to restore the feature:

    1. Click on the Start Button, type in gpedit.msc and hit Enter.

    2. One the Local Group Policy Editor has loaded navigate through User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Start Menu and Taskbar, and locate Add Search Internet link to Start Menu near the top.

    3. Right click on Add Search Internet link to Start Menu and select Edit.

    4. On the edit screen select Enabled and click OK.

    5. Close the Local Group Policy Editor.  You should now see the link restored on the Start Menu.

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Recover Deleted Photos, Pictures And Other Files

Have you ever accidentally deleted a photo or other file from your computer or digital camera?  Even if you clear the recycle bin, there is still a chance your pictures can be recovered.

Even though a file was deleted there is a good chance the contents of the file are still around.  When a file is deleted the contents of the file are not removed. Only a pointer to the file in the file system table is deleted. 

Time is your worst enemy when restoring files. When the pointer to the file has been deleted the operating system can use that storage space to write and store new data.  The longer it has been since you realized the file was deleted increases the chance any remaining file content has been overwritten.

It is very important to immediately stop writing to the storage device that previously contained your pictures so that the old file contents are not overwritten.  For example, don’t take any more pictures with your digital camera because new pictures will overwrite the deleted files.

Next, you will need to use a utility to reassemble the file remains back into the original files.

I like to use a free utility called Recuva by Piriform.  Head over to http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download/standard to download a copy.

After the utility is installed start it up and click cancel on the Recuva Wizard screen.  I’m not a big fan of wizards, instead I’m going to show you the power user method.

First, select the drive you want to scan for the deleted files.

There are two ways to scan for deleted files. First we are going to use the default scan method by just clicking Scan.

The results pane will be populated when the scan is completed. Files that are  green can be recovered by other files that are yellow or red have been overwritten. Previews are shown for some files when you click on them.

Check the boxes next to the files you want to restore and click Recover.

Select a location to restore the files to and click OK. Make sure you select a different storage device/drive than where the files are currently located so you don’t overwrite the file remains.

Your files will now be recovered.

Deep Scan

Earlier I mentioned there is another method to recover deleted files with Recuva that is helpful when the files you want do restore were not found with the normal scan. 

Running a deep scan will check the actual sectors on the storage device for file remains. You can enable this scan option by clicking Options on the main screen.

Click on the Actions tab, check Deep Scan and click OK.

Now just click Scan again and go for a walk because the deep scan can take a while depending on the size of the drive.

When the scan is completed restore the files the same way discussed above for the normal scan.

Good Luck!

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Remove Personal Information From Office Documents

Microsoft Office and other Windows Applications store all sorts of personal information when you save a file. Your name, computer name, company, date and time last edited are all examples of data included in a simple Word document file.

If you are concerned about your privacy there is an easy way to strip this information from a file.

    1. Right click on the file and select Properties

    2. Click on the Details Tab

    3. Click Remove Properties and Personal Information on the bottom of the window

    4. Select Remove the following properties from this file option and check all the items you want to remove. I suggest using the Select All button.

    5. Hit OK and you are finished. All personal information is now removed.

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Publish Native XP Apps On XP Mode (Use IE6 On Windows 7)

I have already talked about the benefits of XP Mode that is part of Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise editions and how to get it setup but some of the most useful features are not enabled by default. All of the native Windows XP applications that come with a standard Windows XP install are not configured to show up in your Windows 7 Start Menu.  Native applications such as Internet Explorer 6 can be configured to also appear in the Windows 7 Start Menu under XP Mode Applications. IE6 in particular is very useful for Web sites that are not compatible with IE7 or IE8 so I'm going to use it as an example to show you how to configure any native Windows XP application to work in Seamless mode.

The secret is creating an additional shortcut in the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\ folder on the Windows XP Mode virtual machine for each application you want to publish to the Windows 7 Start Menu.

     1. Click on the Windows 7 Start Menu, expand All Programs and navigate through Windows Virtual PC and click Windows XP Mode to start XP Mode in desktop mode.

    2. After the Windows XP desktop is displayed, click on the Start Button and select My Computer.

    3. Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\ and right click and select New and then Shortcut.

    4. Click on the Browse button and select the executable for the native windows app you want to use. For Internet Explorer 6 navigate through C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\ and select IEXPLORE.exe and hit OK. Then, click Next on the Create Shortcut screen once the location is filled in.

    5. Type in a name for the shortcut such as Internet Explorer 6 and click Finish.

Eventually the new shortcut you created will show up in the Windows 7 Start Menu under Windows XP Mode Applications within the Windows Virtual PC folder.

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Projector Tricks In Windows 7

In older versions of Windows using an external projector with your laptop can be a difficult task. It seems like every laptop has a different function key combination to enable output for a projector. In Windows 7 that has finally been improved. Now, all you have to do is hit the Windows Key + P and the projector menu will be displayed.

The on-screen display will allow you to:

    - Show Desktop only on Computer

    - Duplicate Desktop on Projector

    - Extend Desktop to Projector

    - Show Desktop only on projector

If you don’t like keyboard shortcuts you can also create a desktop or taskbar shortcut to the projector menu. To do that, create a shortcut to "C:\Windows\System32\DisplaySwitch.exe".

Displayswitch.exe also has command line parameters that allow you to create a shortcut that will set a specific display mode. 

    - /internal

    - /clone

    - /extend

    - /external

If you wanted to create a shortcut that would turn off your external monitor then point a shortcut to "C:\windows\system32\displayswitch.exe /internal".

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Pin Recycle Bin On The Taskbar

The new taskbar in Windows 7 does not allow you to pin anything directly on the taskbar by default. If you tried to pin Recycle Bin already you would have noticed that it is pinned under the Windows Explorer program instead of a separate icon. In order to pin it directly on the taskbar you have to know a few tricks. In the end, your will have a dedicated Recycle Bin shortcut pinned directly on the taskbar as shown below.

The secret is creating a special shortcut that you can pin to the taskbar that points to the recycle bin:

    1. Right click anywhere on your desktop and select New and then shortcut.

    2. In the location of the item box type in:

        %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe shell:RecycleBinFolder

    3. Click Next.

    4. For the name type in Recycle Bin.

    5. Then click Finish.

    6. Now your shortcut will be created but it will not have the right icon. Right click on the shortcut, select Properties.  Then, click Change Icon as shown below.

    7. Change the icon file to:

        %SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll

        Hit Enter and select the Recycle Bin Icon and click OK.

    8. Finally, drag the new shortcut onto the taskbar and it will be pinned directly.  Once the shortcut is pinned, you can delete the original on the desktop.

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