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Windows 7 tips and tricks

Tom Warren
14 January 2009 - 21:28
23 Comments
Liked this (2)

Two Microsoft employees have posted helpful Windows 7 tips, tricks and secrets this week.

Tim Sneath has posted 30 secrets/tips on his blog. Some of the highlights include the following:

Get Quick Launch toolbar back

  1. Right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars / New Toolbar
  2. In the folder selection dialog, enter the following string and hit OK:
    %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
  3. Turn off the "lock the taskbar" setting, and right-click on the divider. Make sure that "Show text" and "Show title" are disabled and the view is set to "small icons".
  4. Use the dividers to rearrange the toolbar ordering to choice, and then lock the taskbar again.
Windows Vista taskbar

Right-click on the taskbar and choose the properties dialog. Select the "small icons" checkbox and under the "taskbar buttons" setting, choose "combine when taskbar is full".

Starting explorer from "My Computer"

To do this, navigate to Windows Explorer in the Start Menu (it's in the Accessories folder). Then edit the properties and change the target to read:
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

Old behaviour for Windows Live Messenger

Navigate to C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\ and set the properties of msnmsgr.exe to Vista compatibility mode. This will place the Messenger icon back in your system tray and remove the 2 annoying tabs on the taskbar.

If you're wondering about the fish in the Windows 7 fish then it's a Betta Fish and also has 7 bubbles to signify Windows 7.

Brandon Paddock has posted a full list of the Winkey combinations for Windows 7 on his blog too.

Don't forget so far in our Windows 7 Overview series, we have published the following:


Over the next few weeks we will be adding many more focus items on Windows 7 including Touch, Windows 7 networking and media enhancements. Stay tuned for the ultimate Windows 7 focus from Neowin.net.

Comments (23)

  1. vetSHoTTa35 - 14 January 2009 - 21:36

    nice list of hotkeys there should come in handy.

  2. Lee® - 14 January 2009 - 21:37

    Nice shortcuts. Will use these, thanks.

  3. AgentGray - 14 January 2009 - 21:38

    What would the benifit of quick launch be? I mean i get that it's nice it's there, but What's the point?

  4. +GreenMartian - 14 January 2009 - 22:19

    The point is, if you're showing taskbar text, it makes sure that the other icons dont move around and stays at the same spot.

  5. Soldiers33 - 14 January 2009 - 21:53

    maybe becuase some people prefer to hav quicklaunch icons?

  6. +Turion - 14 January 2009 - 22:07

    Soldiers33 said,
    maybe becuase some people prefer to hav quicklaunch icons?

    I for one do.

  7. este - 15 January 2009 - 14:33

    Soldiers33 said,
    maybe becuase some people prefer to hav quicklaunch icons?

    +1
    me too

  8. +Decaytion - 14 January 2009 - 23:11

    nice post. saw these earlier on the W7 Beta forums, should've posted this myself lol.

  9. hhernan - 14 January 2009 - 23:41

    I don´t understand... They create a new taskbar, a new concept, and they release tricks to use the taskbar the old fashioned way. That´s not consistent.

  10. mocax - 15 January 2009 - 01:22

    some people are resistant to change...

    i was bitchin about the loss of quicklaunch, but for the few days using win7, i realize i only used 5% of them, which can be pinned to the taskbar.


    not sure if this is mentioned before, but for those people adverse to using right-clicks (or using a 1-button apple mouse for your PC), you can hold and drag a taskbar icon (in an upward motion) to show the jump-list.

    to close the jump list, just hold and drag downwards.

  11. tvcat - 15 January 2009 - 00:07

    strange....C:WindowsGlobalizationMCT do not exits on my installation.....
    EDIT: Got it....it was hidden...

  12. +Brandon Live - 15 January 2009 - 01:59

    This suggestion is incorrect:

    To do this, navigate to Windows Explorer in the Start Menu (it's in the Accessories folder). Then edit the properties and change the target to read:
    %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

    The /root option is incorrect here and will cause unexpected behavior in the window that is launched.

    Instead, just make the shortcut to:
    %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

    ...and it will work much better.

  13. Marc Podito - 15 January 2009 - 02:27

    how 'bout unpinning 'Recycle Bin' from start menu?

  14. Tikitiki - 15 January 2009 - 02:31

    Anyone notice #11 - "I love that I can quickly fire up a Notepad2 instance on my machine with a simple Win+5 keystroke, for instance."

    The guy, whom is a Microsoft employee, has to use a third-party text editor. That's pretty sad, no?

  15. +Brandon Live - 15 January 2009 - 05:54

    Tikitiki said,
    Anyone notice #11 - "I love that I can quickly fire up a Notepad2 instance on my machine with a simple Win+5 keystroke, for instance."

    The guy, whom is a Microsoft employee, has to use a third-party text editor. That's pretty sad, no?


    Why is that sad? Notepad2 is awesome, I use it as well.

  16. unknownsoldierX - 15 January 2009 - 06:09

    Weird thing about the quick launch toolbar, is that there's an option in group policy to enable it. But it doesn't do anything.

  17. guruparan - 15 January 2009 - 07:12

    unknownsoldierX said,
    Weird thing about the quick launch toolbar, is that there's an option in group policy to enable it. But it doesn't do anything.





    Pls submit this as a bug :-) its critical too...bcos grouppolicy is wat most of enterprise rely upon.

  18. xrandallx - 15 January 2009 - 08:22

    thanks so much for the quick launch i love my taskbar now woohoo

  19. +Northgrove - 15 January 2009 - 09:15

    Wow, Windows 7 got rid of the "Install Fonts" dialog box!? ;)

    This OS will definitely be a success now!

  20. Ci7 - 15 January 2009 - 11:10

    Thanks for the list

    you have sumed it up

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