Ibikunzwe

Burn ISO disc images directly from Windows 7 They’re a bit toward the geekier side of Windows: ISO files. You may have heard of them but not known exactly what they were. Simply put, an ISO file is an image of all the data on an optical disc, encapsulated in a single file. ISO files are commonly used for burning a perfect copy of any bootable disc, such as a recovery or boot disc. You may have been given, or have downloaded, ISO files in earlier versions of Windows. (If you ran a beta version of Windows 7, you likely got it via an ISO-file download.) And if you did, you know that Windows didn’t provide any native provision for burning these files

See full-size previews of open windows via taskbar thumbnails If you’re a Windows Vista veteran, you’re familiar with the taskbar thumbnails feature—hover over an item in the taskbar, and you see a miniature version of that program’s window. (Sometimes the thumbnail is even live-animated, for example if you’re looking at a video window.) In Windows 7, these thumbnail previews are still around, but the new OS takes the preview a big step further, letting you see a  full -size preview of the window without “committing” and clicking on it to make it active. That way, you can quickly check info on a buried-but-open window and immediately revert to the window you currently have active. In the sample picture below, we're hovering over the taskbar thumbnail and seeing a preview of the Internet Explorer page circled: Though it’s easy, it’s not immediately apparent how to do this. Hover your cursor over the program’s taskbar icon, which brings up the thumbnail-size preview. Then ...

For the first few weeks we spent with Windows 7, we stumbled around the new default taskbar like we were lost in a corn maze. Don’t get us wrong—we like most of the changes to it. But the big graphical icons signifying programs, as opposed to the horizontal-tiles-with-text that we were used to from Windows XP and Vista, made us think twice every time we approached the taskbar region. Was the app launched, or merely pinned to the taskbar? We’re sure we’ll get the hang of the new taskbar yet, but in the meantime, we poked around and discovered that you can revert things to the way they used to be. (That’s comforting, since that can be said of so few things in life.) Right-click on the taskbar, and choose  Properties . This launches the  Taskbar and Start Menu Properties  dialog box. (We’ll be coming back to this box more than a few times in this story.) On the Taskbar tab, you’ll see a drop-down menu called  Taskbar buttons . We've circled it here: SEE...

Show the Windows Desktop with a new shortcut If you’re anything like us, once you’ve installed a new operating system or bought a new PC, you start out organizing files and documents with the best of intentions. But before long your Windows Desktop becomes your de facto filing cabinet, peppered with shortcuts, frequently used spreadsheets, random photos, and abandoned detritus. The easy way to access that debris field to find something—the Windows key + D  combination, which minimizes all Windows for a clear view of the desktop—is a helper that most of us know. Windows 7, though, lets you bring up the desktop without taking your hand off your mouse or pointing device—but it’s not obvious how until you stumble upon it. In the extreme lower right portion of the screen, at the far-right edge of the taskbar, you’ll see a little vertical rectangle with a “glossy” finish. Hover the mouse pointer over it, and the Windows Desktop appears, letting you inspect it. (You’ll ...

Ibikunzwe: Windows 7 : Configuring a High-Speed Connection (part 2) - Setting Up a Fixed IP Address

How to Install Windows 7 Using Pen Drive Two Methods: Using an ISO File Using the Command Prompt This article will teach you how to install Windows 7 using your Flashdrive. It steps you through using Windows Command Prompt to format your USB drive correctly. Method 1 of 2: Using an ISO File 1 Obtain a Windows 7 ISO file. This is an image file of the Windows 7 installation disc. You can either create this yourself or download an ISO file from various tech sites on the internet. Ad 2 Download the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. This is a free program developed by Microsoft that will automatically format your USB drive and copy the ISO file onto it. You can download it from the Microsoft website, and it can be run on virtually any Windows version. 3 Insert your USB device. When the installation files are copied onto the USB drive, any existing files on the drive will be deleted. Make sure that any important files are copied to a saf...