Monday, May 10, 2010

Tricks and Tips: Windows 7

I just recently started using Windows 7 and I have got to say I am impressed.

One of my favourite improvements over XP is the improved searching, particularly the Start menu's search bar which is very convenient. But as always when I use something I think, how could this be improved.

The following are a few tricks I was easily able to implement to greatly speed up my everyday tasks.

General Tips:
  • To open up a window explorer view of Windows start menu folder. Start Menu>(right click) All Programs>Open
  • All of the Start menu folder (C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu) is searched by the search bar
  • The only folder in the Start menu folder that is shown is Programs (All Programs) and its sub folders
  • The previous 2 points can be used to create files and folders that do not clutter up your Start menu but are still searched
  • Folders and normal folder shortcuts cannot be searched for with the search bar
  • To create a shortcut to a folder, simply create a shortcut with the string: (explorer "path"). for example (explorer "E:\Movies")

In addition to shortcuts to useful folders and files I also created some scripts to duplicate some of the functionality of the command line.
A batch file must be run with Administrator right, so when creating a shortcut use: runas /user:USERNAME /savecred "path".

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