We all know that Microsoft is upgrading all its services and products to
match with Windows 8 Metro UI. Recently we saw it in
upcoming "Office 2013" Customer Preview
version and now its turn of a new announcement from Microsoft.
Microsoft has introduced a brand new email service Outlook.com.
We all are aware of Microsoft Outlook
and Outlook Express products. Microsoft Outlook is a part of Office suite and
is one of the best and widely used email Desktop client for Windows. Outlook
Express was a part of Windows but it was discontinued by Microsoft in Windows
Vista. Outlook.com is a new email service from Microsoft
which comes with a clean interface inspired by Windows 8 Metro UI. Windows 8
also comes with a built-in Mail app which looks very similar
to Outlook.com UI.
Since its a new service, chances are you'll get your desired username for
your email account.
If you already have a Hotmail or Live email account, you can upgrade it to new
Outlook.com UI using Options menu.
Outlook.com comes with many interesting features such as integration with
your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google and SkyDrive accounts.
You'll not see any annoying ads in this new email service and its UI
has been optimized to provide more reading space for your emails. It uses
Exchange ActiveSync which helps you in accessing your emails, calendar and
people experience on your smartphone, tablet and Outlook 2013.
Following is a preview of Outlook.com UI:
How to apply?
According to Microsoft,
if you're a Hotmail customer and want to upgrade to the Outlook.com
preview, just click "Upgrade" in the options menu of Hotmail. Your email
address, password, contacts, old email, and rules will remain
unchanged, and you can send/receive email from your @hotmail.com or
@msn.com or @live.com address. You'll experience it all in the new
Outlook.com preview user interface. You can also add an @Outlook.com
email address to your account if you want.
If you don't have a Hotmail account and using Gmail, Yahoo, or another email service, you can create a brand new email account by going to following URL: Create New Email Account at Outlook.com
Here’s a frustrating issue that hasn’t yet been solved by anyone at
Microsoft from what I can tell. For as yet unknown reasons, occasionally
some PCs exhibit an error when launching Office 2010 Starter (which is
preinstalled on many new PCs). The error is worded as such: “Click2Run Configuration Failure”
Although
many solutions on the internet (even from Microsoft employees and the
KB) suggest that a simple Repair install or Uninstall of Click2Run from
the Programs and Features menu will correct this, executing the
uninstaller actually triggers the exact same error message. Update (June 2012): I
have now been able to confirm that this problem is caused by the use
of registry cleaners. For more details on why you should never use a
registry cleaner, see my blog entry here.
This
error may also occur on other downloadable versions of Office 2010, but
I haven’t seen it yet anywhere else. Correcting the problem with the
preinstalled OEM Starter versions is tricky enough, so I decided to make
that the focus of this post.
Here’s what you do to fix the
problem. First, you’ll need a special Click2Run cleanup tool that has
seemingly disappeared from Microsoft’s server. You can download it here: Click2Run Cleanup Tool
Once in possession of this tool, take the following steps to correct the problem:
First,
be sure to have a copy of the required installation files for Office
2010. Make a backup of them if you don’t have access to them elsewhere
by copying the following directory to another location:
Execute the CleanC2R.exe file
from the zip archive provided above to completely remove C2R, including
the virtual Q: drive containing the relevant install files.
Reboot the PC, then execute the CleanC2R.exe tool a second time.
Reboot once more, then execute the offcln.exe tool to completely remove Office 2010 Starter.
Reboot
yet again, then navigate to the ProgramData directory containing the
Office Starter installation files (they must be located in the exact
directory detailed above for the installation to work properly). Run
the SetupConsumerC2ROLW.exe file to install C2R once again, along with a fresh copy of Office 2010 Starter.
This
should finally correct the issue. If you happen to be missing the
installation files for Office 2010 Starter, you can actually find them
available for download in various places.
Downloading the files and installing the suite is perfectly legal as
long as it was already once provided with the PC new by the OEM.
If this tip has helped you, please drop me a line and let me know! If you’re looking for computer help in the Louisville area, look no further. Call me today and get it done right!
You should note that the new Windows 7 taskbar allows you to dock
items to the taskbar, combining the features of both the normal taskbar
as well as the Quick Launch. For more on this, be sure to read through our coverage of the Windows 7 beta if you haven’t already.
The above screenshot is the Windows 7 taskbar after changing back to
XP/Vista mode, and adding the quick launch bar back. Looks just like
Vista doesn’t it? Adding the Quick Launch Bar Back to Windows 7
To add the toolbar back, you’ll want to right-click on an open area
of the taskbar, and choose Toolbars \ New Toolbar from the menu. You
should probably also unlock the taskbar at this point.
Now’s the slightly tricky part… you’ll want to paste the following path into the location bar:
Make sure that the location bar shows the full path, like the next screenshot, before you choose the “Select Folder” button.
You’ll immediately notice the Quick Launch toolbar on the taskbar,
but it’s all the way over on the right, so you’ll want to click on the
dotted lines and then drag the toolbar all the way to the left (which is
slightly tricky sometimes). Note that you’ll need to right-click and unlock the taskbar before you can move the toolbar.
There we go, it’s over on the left… but now you’ll want to adjust the
regular taskbar toolbar to be closer to the left, so use the dotted
lines to drag it over as well.
The normal Quick Launch that we’re used to doesn’t have text, so
right-click on the dotted lines and uncheck “Show Text” as well as “Show
Title” from the menu.
Once you’re sure it’s the way you want it, you should check the “Lock the taskbar” again.
And there you are, the quick launch bar has returned and there’s virtually no way anybody would know this is Windows 7.
Do you have an external drive connected to your Windows 7 computer
and would like to access it from the Taskbar? Here we show you a work
around that will allow you to pin it to Taskbar.
Adding Drive to Windows Explorer
You would think the process would be as easy as dragging the external
drive icon to the Taskbar. Unfortunately that isn’t the case. If you
try to drag the external drive icon to the Taskbar, it just adds it to
Windows Explorer.
Then if you right-click on the Windows Explorer icon, you’ll be able
to access it from there. This might be enough for some users, but we
want to add it to the Taskbar as an icon.
Steps for Pinning External Drive to Taskbar
With a quick work around we can add the drive as an icon. First what
you need to do is right-click an empty area on your desktop and select
New \ Text Document.
Then name the text doc whatever you want to call it and change .txt to .exe. Like in this example we’re adding the external E:\ drive, so we named it Drive E.exe then hit Enter.
After hitting Enter you will get a message asking if you’re sure you want to change the extension, click Yes.
Now you’ll have the “dummy” executable on the desktop. Right-click on it and select Pin to Taskbar.
Now you’ll have the executable icon on the Taskbar. Right-click on
it, then right-click on the name of the file and select Properties.
Under the Shortcut tab change the Target to the drive letter and Start in
to the drive letter as well and click OK. You can actually use this
technique to add any folder to the Taskbar too. The main thing to
remember is changing the Target to the correct path.
While you’re there, you might want to change the icon to something
more appropriate like a hard drive icon. Or if you want to change the
icon to something not included in Windows 7, check out our guide how to customize icons in Windows 7 and Vista.
And there you go! As you can see we have a more appropriate looking hard drive icon on the Taskbar…
And when we click on it, it opens up to our external USB drive so we can access its content.
Or maybe you want to have the drive open to a specific folder. Just change the Target path to the folder you want it to open in.
Then when you click the icon it will open to the directory you specified.
Although it might seem like a goofy method for simply pinning a drive
or other folder to the Taskbar, the work around is effective. This will
allow you to access the external drive with only one click and save a
few steps in navigating to it.
When you are troubleshooting network problems, one of the first
things to do is disable the built-in Windows Firewall… but there are
just way too many steps required to the firewall on and off. Can’t we
make a simple shortcut icon instead?
Naturally we can, using the built-in netsh utility that is usually
used on the command line to perform advanced networking functions. We’ll
simply create a shortcut to it with the appropriate parameters. Note: Always remember to turn the Firewall back on after you are
done troubleshooting, especially if you use public wireless networks. Create Shortcut Icons for Enable/Disable
Right-click on the desktop or elsewhere, and choose New \ Shortcut from the menu.
Then in the shortcut location box, you’ll add one of two commands listed below. Disable Firewall
netsh firewall set opmode disable
Enable Firewall
netsh firewall set opmode enable
Once you’ve added the correct command, go to the next screen and give the shortcut a helpful name like “Disable Firewall”
At this point you should have a shortcut icon, but it won’t work yet without choosing to run as administrator.
Right-click the shortcut and choose Properties, and then choose the shortcut tab.
In this screen you can assign a shortcut key for this shortcut by
adding it into the Shortcut key box. The most important step is to click
the Advanced button, so we can choose “Run as administrator” to always
run the shortcut in administrator mode.
You can also change the icon by using the Change Icon button. If you
want the shortcuts to really match, you can change the “Look for icons
in this file” to the following:
%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll
In that file you can find the red shield icon as well as the green one…
So now I have two shortcuts that not only look good, but are functional.
If you want to verify that the shortcuts are working, use one of them
and then open Windows Firewall through the start menu, and click on the
link for “Turn Windows Firewall on or off”
Then you should be able to see that the firewall is either on or off.
The same shortcuts should also work on Windows XP or Windows 7, even
though the screenshots are all for Windows Vista. You don’t need to run
as administrator in XP, of course.
Forgetting your password is never any fun, but luckily there’s a
really easy way to reset the password. All you need is a copy of the
Windows installation disk and one simple command line trick.
Resetting Your Forgotten Windows Password
Boot off the Windows disk and select the “Repair your computer” option from the lower left-hand corner.
Follow through until you get to the option to open the Command Prompt, which you’ll want to select.
First you’ll want to type in the following command to backup the original sticky keys file:
copy c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe c:\
Then you’ll copy the command prompt executable (cmd.exe) over top of the sticky keys executable:
Once you get to the login screen, hit the Shift key 5 times, and you’ll see an administrator mode command prompt.
Now to reset the password—just type the following command, replacing the username and password with the combination you want:
net user geek MyNewPassword
That’s all there is to it. Now you can login.
Of course, you’ll probably want to put the original sethc.exe file
back, which you can do by rebooting into the installation CD, opening
the command prompt, and copying the c:\sethc.exe file back to
c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe.
The Group Policy Management is a great tool
from Microsoft, which lets you manage your own domain based network. If
you are a network administrator or you are managing a small network at
home then you are probably familiar with the Active Directory and Group
Policy Management (GPM) as they both work together and help in managing
your network infrastructure.
Don’t confuse the Local Group Policy (gpedit) with Group Policy
Management, Gpedit is used to work with the registry settings of your
local system while Group Policy Management is a server administration
tool and is used in the context to Domain based network. The Group
Policy Management falls into the Remote Server Administration category,
and Remote Server Administration tools are not installed in Windows 7
by default.
First of all download and install the Windows Remote Server Administration Tools from here, once the download and installation of this toolkit is completed, go through the following guidelines to enable it.
Open the Windows Features window by clicking Start, then type Turn Windows features on or off and then hit Enter. Once the Widows Features window is loaded, navigate to the Remote Server Administration Tools and here enable the Group Policy Management Tools.
It will take some time to apply these changes.
Now click Start, type gpmc.msc and hit Enter, the Group Policy Management Editor will be loaded and you are ready to go with your Domain based network.
This guide works 100% for Windows 7 and Windows 8 unlike most of the guides
out there. I have seen many sites/blogs that have “Install Vista from USB
guide” but either with incomplete steps or not working guide. I have also seen
some guides that don’t’ use proper commands in this guide. After spending many
hours I have come up with this 100% working guide to install Windows 7 and
Windows 8 from USB flash drive.
I just did this method on one of my friends
machine and installed Windows 7 and Windows 8 . The main advantage is that by
using USB drive you will be able to install Windows 7 or Windows 8 in just 15
minutes. You can also use this bootable USB drive on friend’s computer who
doesn’t have a DVD optical drive.
The method is very simple and you can use without
any hassles. Needless to say that your motherboard should support USB Boot
feature to make use of the bootable USB drive.
Requirements:
*USB Flash Drive (Minimum 4GB)
*Windows 7 or Windows 8 installation files.
Follow the below steps to create bootable Windows
7/Windows 8 USB drive using which you can install Windows 7 or Windows 8
easily.
Procedure:
1. Plug-in your USB flash drive
to USB port and move all the contents from USB drive to a safe location on your
system.
2. Open Command Prompt with
admin rights. Use any of the below methods to open Command Prompt with admin
rights.
*Type cmd in Start menu search
box and hit Ctrl+ Shift+ Enter.
Or
*Go to Start menu > All programs >
Accessories, right click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
3. You need to know about the
USB drive a little bit. Type in the following commands in the command prompt:
First type DISKPART and hit
enter to see the below message.
Next type LIST DISK command and
note down the Disk number (ex: Disk 1) of your USB flash drive. In the below
screenshot my Flash Drive Disk no is Disk 1.
4. Next type all the below
commands one by one. Here I assume that your disk drive no is “Disk 1”.If
you have Disk 2 as your USB flash drive then use Disk 2.Refer the above step to
confirm it.
So below are the commands you need to type and
execute one by one:
SELECT DISK 1
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS
(Format process may take few seconds)
ASSIGN
EXIT
Don’t close the command prompt as we need to
execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.
5. Next insert your
Windows7/Windows 8 DVD into the optical drive and check the drive letter of the
DVD drive. In this guide I will assume that your DVD drive letter is “D” and
USB drive letter is “H” (open my computer to know about it).
6. Maximize the minimized
Command Prompt in the 4th step.Type the following command now:
D: CD BOOT and hit enter.Where
“D” is your DVD drive letter.
CD BOOT and hit enter to see the
below message.
7. Type another command given
below to update the USB drive with BOOTMGR compatible code.
BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
Where “H” is your USB drive letter. Once you enter
the above command you will see the below message.
8. Copy your Windows 7 or
Windows 8 DVD contents to the USB flash drive.
9. Your USB drive is ready to
boot and install Windows 7 or Windows 8. Only thing you need to change the boot priority
at the BIOS to USB from the HDD or CD ROM drive. I won’t explain it as it’s
just the matter the changing the boot priority or enabling the USB boot option
in the BIOS.
Note: If you are not able to boot after following
this guide means you haven’t set the BIOS priority to USB. If you got any
problem in following this guide feel free to ask questions by leaving comment.
1. Problem Steps Recorder
As the local PC guru
you're probably very used to friends and family asking for help with
their computer problems, yet having no idea how to clearly describe
what's going on. It's frustrating, but Microsoft feels your pain, and
Windows 7 will include an excellent new solution in the Problem Steps
Recorder.
When any app starts misbehaving under Windows 7 then all
your friends need do is click Start, type PSR and press Enter, then
click Start Record. If they then work through whatever they're doing
then the Problem Steps Recorder will record every click and keypress,
take screen grabs, and package everything up into a single zipped MHTML
file when they're finished, ready for emailing to you. It's quick, easy
and effective, and will save you hours of troubleshooting time. 2. Burn images
Windows
7 finally introduces a feature that other operating systems have had
for years - the ability to burn ISO images to CDs or DVDs. And it
couldn't be much easier to use. Just double-click the ISO image, choose
the drive with the blank disc, click Burn and watch as your disc is
created. 3. Create and mount VHD files
Microsoft's
Virtual PC creates its virtual machine hard drives in VHD files, and
Windows 7 can now mount these directly so you can access them in the
host system. Click Start, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter, then click
Action > Attach VHD and choose the file you'd like to mount. It will
then appear as a virtual drive in Explorer and can be accessed, copied
or written just like any other drive.
Click Action > Create VHD
and you can now create a new virtual drive of your own (right-click it,
select Initialise Disk, and after it's set up right-click the
unallocated space and select New Simple Volume to set this up). Again,
you'll be left with a virtual drive that behaves just like any other,
where you can drag and drop files, install programs, test partitioning
software or do whatever you like. But it's actually just this VHD file
on your real hard drive which you can easily back up or share with
others. Right-click the disk (that's the left-hand label that says "Disk
2" or whatever) and select Detach VHD to remove it.
The command
line DISKPART utility has also been upgraded with tools to detach a VHD
file, and an EXPAND command to increase a virtual disk's maximum size.
Don't play around with this unless you know what you're doing, though -
it's all too easy to trash your system. 4. Troubleshoot problems
If
some part of Windows 7 is behaving strangely, and you don't know why,
then click Control Panel > Find and fix problems (or
'Troubleshooting') to access the new troubleshooting packs. These are
simple wizards that will resolve common problems, check your settings,
clean up your system and more. 5. Startup repair
If
you've downloaded Windows 7 (and even if you haven't) it's a good idea
to create a system repair disc straight away in case you run into
problems booting the OS later on. Click Start > Maintenance >
Create a System Repair Disc, and let Windows 7 build a bootable
emergency disc. If the worst does happen then it could be the only way
to get your PC running again. 6. Take control
Tired
of the kids installing dubious software or running applications you'd
rather they left alone? AppLocker is a new Windows 7 feature that
ensures users can only run the programs you specify. Don't worry, that's
easier to set up than it sounds: you can create a rule to allow
everything signed by a particular publisher, so choose Microsoft, say,
and that one rule will let you run all signed Microsoft applications.
Launch GPEDIT.MSC and go to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings
> Security Settings > Application Control Policies > AppLocker
to get a feel for how this works. 7. Calculate more
At
first glance the Windows 7 calculator looks just like Vista's version,
but explore the Mode menu and you'll see powerful new Statistics and
Programmer views. And if you're clueless about bitwise manipulation,
then try the Options menu instead. This offers many different unit
conversions (length, weight, volume and more), date calculations (how
many days between two dates?), and spreadsheet-type templates to help
you calculate vehicle mileage, mortgage rates and more.
Don't
take any Windows 7 applet at face value, then - there are some very
powerful new features hidden in the background. Be sure to explore every
option in all Windows applets to ensure you don't miss anything
important.
CALCULATE MORE:The new Calculator is packed with useful features and functionality 8. Switch to a projector
Windows
7 now provides a standard way to switch your display from one monitor
to another, or a projector - just press Win+P or run DisplaySwitch.exe
and choose your preferred display. (This will have no effect if you've
only one display connected.) 9. Get a power efficiency report
If
you have a laptop, you can use the efficiency calculator to get Windows
7 to generate loads of useful information about its power consumption.
Used in the right way, this can help you make huge gains in terms of
battery life and performance. To do this you must open a command prompt
as an administrator by typing 'cmd' in Start Search, and when the cmd
icon appears, right-click it and choose Run as administrator.
Then
at the command line, just type in 'powercfg -energy' (without quotes)
and hit Return, and Windows 7 will scan your system looking for ways to
improve power efficiency. It will then publish the results in an HTML
file, usually in the System32 folder. Just follow the path it gives you
to find your report. 10. Understanding System Restore
Using
System Restore in previous versions of Windows has been something of a
gamble. There's no way of telling which applications or drivers it might
affect - you just have to try it and see.
Windows 7 is different.
Right-click Computer, select Properties > System Protection >
System Restore > Next, and choose the restore point you'd like to
use. Click the new button to 'Scan for affected programs' and Windows
will tell you which (if any) programs and drivers will be deleted or
recovered by selecting this restore point. (Read our full Windows 7 System Restore tutorial.) 11. Set the time zone
System
administrators will appreciate the new command line tzutil.exe utility,
which lets you set a PC's time zone from scripts. If you wanted to set a
PC to Greenwich Mean Time, for instance, you'd use the command
tzutil /s "gmt standard time"
The
command "tzutil /g" displays the current time zone, "tzutil /l" lists
all possible time zones, and "tzutil /?" displays details on how the
command works. 12. Calibrate your screen
The
colours you see on your screen will vary depending on your monitor,
graphics cards settings, lighting and more, yet most people use the same
default Windows colour profile. And that means a digital photo you
think looks perfect might appear very poor to everybody else.
Fortunately Windows 7 now provides a Display Colour Calibration Wizard
that helps you properly set up your brightness, contrast and colour
settings, and a ClearType tuner to ensure text is crisp and sharp. Click
Start, type DCCW and press Enter to give it a try. 13. Clean up Live Essentials
Installing
Windows Live Essentials will get you the new versions of Mail, Movie
Maker, Photo Gallery and others - great. Unfortunately it also includes
other components that may be unnecessary, but if you like to keep a
clean system then these can be quickly removed.
If you left the
default "Set your search provider" option selected during installation,
for instance, Windows Live will install Choice Guard, a tool to set your
browser home page and search engine, and prevent other programs from
changing them. If this causes problems later, or you just decide you
don't need it, then Choice Guard may be removed by clicking Start,
typing msiexec /x {F0E12BBA-AD66-4022-A453-A1C8A0C4D570} and pressing
[Enter].
Windows Live Essentials also adds an ActiveX Control to
help upload your files to Windows Live SkyDrive, as well as the Windows
Live Sign-in Assistant, which makes it easier to manage and switch
between multiple Windows Live accounts. If you're sure you'll never need
either then remove them with the Control Panel "Uninstall a Program"
applet. 14. Add network support
By default
Windows Live MovieMaker won't let you import files over a network, but a
quick Registry tweak will change this. Run REGEDIT, browse to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live\Movie Maker, add a
DWORD value called AllowNetworkFiles and set it to 1 to add network
support. 15. Activate XP mode
If you've old but important software that no longer runs under Windows 7, then you could try using XP Mode,
a virtual copy of XP that runs in a window on your Windows 7 desktop.
But there's a big potential problem, as XP Mode only works with systems
that have hardware virtualisation (AMD-V or Intel VT) built-in and
turned on. If you've a compatible CPU then this may just be a matter of
enabling the option in your BIOS set-up program, however some high
profile brands, including Sony Vaio, disable the setting for "security
reasons". And that blocks XP Mode from working, too.
One solution
has emerged, but it's a little risky, as essentially you'll have to
alter a byte in your laptop firmware and hope this doesn't have any
unexpected side-effects. Gulp. If you're feeling brave then take a look
at the Feature Enable Blog for the details, but don't blame us if it goes wrong.
A safer approach might be to use VirtualBox,
a virtualisation tool that doesn't insist on hardware support, but then
you will need to find a licensed copy of XP (or whatever other Windows
version your software requires) for its virtual machine. 16. Enable virtual Wi-Fi
Windows
7 includes a little-known new feature called Virtual Wi-Fi, which
effectively turns your PC or laptop into a software-based router. Any
other Wi-Fi-enabled devices within range - a desktop, laptop, an iPod
perhaps - will "see" you as a new network and, once logged on,
immediately be able to share your internet connection.
This will
only work if your wireless adapter driver supports it, though, and not
all do. Check with your adapter manufacturer and make sure you've
installed the very latest drivers to give you the best chance.
Once you have driver support then the easiest approach is to get a network tool that can set up virtual Wi-Fi for you. Virtual Router (below) is free, easy to use and should have you sharing your internet connection very quickly. If
you don't mind working with the command line, though, maybe setting up
some batch files or scripts, then it's not that difficult to set this up
manually. See Turn your Windows 7 laptop into a wireless hotspot for more. 17. Recover locked-up apps
If
an application locks up under a previous version of Windows then there
was nothing you could do about it. A new Windows 7 option, however, can
not only explain the problem, but may get your program working again
without any loss of data.
When the lockup occurs, click Start, type RESMON and click the RESMON.EXE link to launch the Resource Monitor.
Find your frozen process in the CPU pane (it should be highlighted in red), right-click it and select Analyze Wait Chain.
If
you see at least two processes in the list, then the lowest, at the end
of the tree, is the one holding up your program. If it's not a vital
Windows component, or anything else critical, then save any work in
other open applications, check the box next to this process, click End
Process, and your locked-up program will often spring back to life. 18. Fault-Tolerant Help
Windows
7 includes a new feature called the Fault Tolerant Help (FTH), a clever
technology that looks out for unstable processes, detects those that
may be crashing due to memory issues, and applies several real-time
fixes to try and help. If these work, that's fine - if not, the fixes
will be undone and they won't be applied to that process again.
While
this is very good in theory, it can leave you confused as some
applications crash, then start working (sometimes) for no apparent
reason. So if you'd like to check if the FTH is running on your PC,
launch REGEDIT, and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\FTH -
any program currently being protected by the FTH will be listed in the
State key.
Experienced users may also try tweaking the FTH
settings to catch more problems, and perhaps improve system stability. A
post on Microsoft's Ask The Performance Team blog (bit.ly/d1JStu)
explains what the various FTH Registry keys mean. 19. Automatically switch your default printer
Windows
7's location-aware printing allows the operating system to
automatically switch your default printer as you move from one network
to another.
To set this up, first click Start, type Devices, and click the Devices and Printers link.
Select
a printer and click Manage Default Printers (this is only visible on a
mobile device, like a laptop - you won't see it on a PC).
Choose
the "Change my default printer when I change networks" option, select a
network, the default printer you'd like to use, and click Add.
Repeat the process for other networks available, and pick a default printer for each one.
And
now, as you connect to a new network, Windows 7 will check this list
and set the default printer to the one that you've defined.
Sometimes, while trying to connecting
connect new devices to the PC, like a new printer, scanner or USB flash
drive, we run into USB issues. Some of the most common problems related
to USB flash drives is when ejecting the USB device, Windows doesn’t
allow you to remove it using the Safely Remove Hardware dialog box. It
displays messages such as USB can’t be ejected currently, or sometimes,
the icon doesn’t do anything when clicked. You have plug it out without
performing the Safely Remove Hardware check, which can result in data
corruption. To solve all these USB related issues faced by the users of
Windows, Microsoft has released a tool called USBFix It that automatically diagnoses and repairs all common USB device related problems.
USB Fix It checks for the following issues in Windows:
When USB device is not recognized
When USB printer device is not printing
When USB storage device cannot be ejected through the Safely Remove Hardware dialog box
A common reason for the USB device not getting recognized is that the
upper and lower filters are being used in the registry and are corrupt,
whereas when the USB printer device is not printing, it might be caused
by an earlier failed attempt to unplug the USB printer.
The application provides you with two basic USB troubleshooting modes. The first is Detect Problems and apply the fixes for me;
when using this mode, the program searches for the problems and
automatically applies the most viable fixes for them without prompting
you to do anything. The second mode, namely Detect problems and let me select the fixes to apply,
also searches through the computer for all USB related problems, but
once the search is complete, it allows you to choose which fixes to
apply.
When the diagnosis is complete while running the manual (2nd) mode,
if any problems are found with the USB devices, you will be given an
option to select the fixes that you want to apply. You can also select Explore additional solutions online and Get you PC’s support in one place to access other solutions offered by Microsoft.
The application works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows
XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Testing was done on a 64-bit
Windows 7 machine. Download USB Fix It
“Click2Run Configuration Failure”
![sshot-2010-09-03-[00-08-28]](http://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/sshot20100903000828.png "sshot-2010-09-03-[00-08-28]")
![image[2]](http://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image2_thumb.png "image[2]")
