Category: Windows 7

Normally, when you want to open a file or program, you double-click on its icon or shortcut in Windows. But some people do not like double clicking. If you also do not like the double clicking, you can change Windows settings to use single-click to open a file or program.

Windows 7 has a highly limited user account called the Guest account. This account has bare minimum privileges and is ideal for people who want to use your computer for a few minutes. In such a situation, you can let them use the Guest account. But the Guest account is disabled by default in Windows 7.

If you share your computer with many people, then there is possibility that everyone is installing their own themes on your computer. If you do not like this, you can disable changing of themes in Windows 7.

If you share your computer with many people like in a family, then it is very often that you find the desktop background (wallpaper) in Windows changed. What you can do is that you can disable changing of the desktop background altogether after setting your favorite one.

Microsoft has created the XPS format of documents, in the hope that one day they would replace the popular PDF documents. Windows 7 has a built in XPS document viewer. In Windows 7, you can convert any other document into the XPS format easily.

Windows 7 shows only the Recycle Bin icon on the desktop by default. This is unlike the older versions of Windows which showed shortcut icons My Computer, Control Panel, Network etc. on the desktop. If you like the older style of desktop, you can choose to display these classic icons on your desktop in Windows 7 too.

Windows 7 comes with many sidebar gadgets like clock, weather, calendar etc. You can install more gadgets in the Windows Sidebar if you want. But the Gadgets and the Sidebar will not work if you have not installed the Windows Gadget platform. Here is how you can install the Windows Gadget platform.

When you play a song, CD/DVD or movie in Windows Media Player it saves the played item in the list of frequently played items. It also stores information about all the devices that you have ever connected to the computer. This may be a privacy risk for some people and you might want to clear this history.

Microsoft has completely removed the classic Start Menu in Windows 7 and the users have no choice but to use the modern Start Menu. If you have become comfortable with the classic style of Start Menu and want to use it in Windows 7, then you have to install the open source Classic Shell which imitates the classic Start Menu.

If you want to show the Windows 7 version on your desktop just for the sake of fun, then you would have to do a little registry editing. The version string is shown on the bottom right of your desktop and shows the Windows 7 as well as the build number.