Display Control Panel applets with small icons

By default, the Windows 7 Control Panel shows the Category view (Figure C), similar to the default in Windows Vista.

Figure C

The default Control Panel view in Windows 7 is Category.

You can easily change to a more classic view by clicking All Control Panel Items at the bottom of the categories list, but that gives you a list of the items represented by large icons, as shown in Figure D.

Figure D

Clicking All Control Panel Items gives you a view of the applets with large icons.

What if you’d like to display the items with small icons so more of them will fit in the same space? Your first thought might be to click the View menu on the taskbar, but at least in the public beta (build 7000), the icon size choices are all grayed out. However, there’s a little trick: Right-click on an empty space in the window, and you’ll get a context menu from which you can pick View Small Icons. Selecting this command will allow you to display many more items in the same size window, as shown in Figure E.

Figure E

You can display Control Panel items with small icons to fit more into the same space.

6: Format the text in sticky notes

Another new feature in Windows 7 is the built-in Sticky Notes application. You’ll find it on the Start menu. You’ve probably already discovered that you can change the color of notes by right-clicking and selecting a new color. You may also have figured out that you can use the Ctrl + B and Ctrl + I shortcuts to format the text as bold or italic. But did you know that you can make bulleted and numbered lists in your sticky notes, and increase or decrease the text size? Here are some more handy keyboard shortcuts that work within sticky notes:

• Ctrl + Shift + L (once): Bulleted list
• Ctrl + Shift + L (twice): Numbered list
• Ctrl + Shift + >: Increase text size
• Ctrl + Shift + <: Decrease text size
• Ctrl + U: Underline
• Ctrl + T: Strikethrough

Figure F shows an example of how the shortcuts can be used to format text in sticky notes.

Figure F

You can format the text within Windows 7’s sticky notes with keyboard shortcuts.

Turn off Aero Snap

A new feature in Windows 7 is Aero Snap, which causes your application windows to automatically snap into a preconfigured place when you move them to the edges of the screen. Drag a window to the far right, and it will size itself to fill exactly half the screen. Drag it to the top corner and it will maximize to fill the whole screen. This can be handy, but it can also be annoying if you prefer that your windows stay the size you made them. Luckily, you can easily turn Snap off. Here’s how:

1. Click Start and select Control Panel.
2. Click Ease of Access Center.
3. Click Make the Mouse Easier to Use.
4. Select the Prevent Windows From Being Automatically Arranged When Moved To The Edge Of The Screen check box and click OK.

Put different wallpapers on multiple monitors

If you’re using Windows 7 with two or more monitors, you’ll be pleased to find that multi-monitor support has been improved. One thing I really like about Windows 7 is that when I connect to it via Remote Desktop from another computer, it doesn’t rearrange all my icons as Vista often did with multiple monitors. However, one thing Microsoft didn’t build into Win 7 that some of us were hoping for is the ability to set different wallpapers on different monitors.
In XP and Vista, I used UltraMon to do that, but it costs $40. In a tough economy, many people don’t want to spend that much for a program of that kind. Besides, based on what I read in the forums, it doesn’t yet work reliably on Windows 7. Luckily, I was able to hunt down another application called DisplayFusion. The free version gives you multiple wallpaper support, and the paid version, which costs $20 less than UltraMon, gives you multiple taskbars and window management features. I’ve installed it on two Windows 7 computers and it works great. As you can see in Figure B, you can configure a variety of settings.

Figure B

You can use the free DisplayFusion application to put different wallpapers on each monitor.

Hack 9 (7000) - Windows 7 Installed on a MacBook Pro

Apparently several MacBook Pro users have been able to successfully install Windows 7 onto MacBook Pro’s, the site’s below detail the installation procedures as well as offer a glimpse of the latest operating system running on a Mac.

Hack 8 (7048) – Uninstall Internet Explorer for Good

As a web publisher I would recommend against uninstalling Internet explorer. The reason for this is that it is always good to check your website for browser compatibility. For those users who do not publish online or simply cannot stand Internet Explorer the solution is here.
1. Click on the Start Menu > Control Panel
2. Click on Programs and Features
3. Click on Turn Windows features on or off link located on the left pane.
4. The Turn Windows features on or off window will open, uncheck Internet Explorer 8 and click OK.
5. After a couple of restarts Internet Explorer should be gone for good.

Hack 7 (6801/7000) – Make Windows 7 Trial Last 120 Days

Microsoft was nice enough to allow users to extend the 30 day trial period 3 times, which means that you will be able to use the Operating System for 120 days, assuming you follow the instructions below.
Note: In order for you to achieve the 120 days you must wait until day 29 or 1 day before trial expiration in order to take advantage of the loophole
Before proceeding make sure you backup your registry
1. Click on the Start Menu and type “regedit” into the search box, click to open the regedit.exe icon when the program appears in the search results.
2. Locate the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsNTCurrentVersionSoftwareProtectionPlatform
3. Right-click to open SkipRearm located on the right pane.
4. IF SkipRearm is NOT set to 0 modify it to 0 and click OK to save.
5. IF SkipRearm is set 0 then,
6. Click on the Start Menu and type “cmd” into the search box, right-click on cmd.exe when the program appears in the search results, select Run as Administrator from the drop-down.
7. Type the following command slmgr -rearm and press Enter

8. Click OK when prompted

You can only perform this work around 3 times, after which you will receive an error and you will have to activate Windows to use it.

Hack 5 (6801/6956/7000) - Install TimerNuke (Remove Time based Windows 7 Expiration)

 The TimerNuke patch removes files associated with activation and disables related services. This prevents Windows 7 from blocking you out after you’ve exceeded activation timelines. The patch is simple to install, just download, install, and voila! No more activation blues. You can download the patch from this site or the mirror.