To learn new things, to be faster to navigate the computer's folders and also to amaze friends and colleagues by showing them how easy some operations are, let's see a list of 10 tricks, simple, but, in some cases, not as obvious as It may seem. We all know that you can move files by dragging them, that you can open any program from the Start menu and that the taskbar at the bottom can be customized in different ways, but to speed up these search, move and start programs, there are modes on Windows 7 (also on Vista and XP) that allow you to move faster on the system . Therefore, given that we know the ABC of Windows, let's see how to become better and more "Geek".
READ ALSO: Windows 10 File Explorer tricks and folder options to edit
1) Make the menu bar appear in Windows 7 windows .
I don't know why but by default, in Windows 7 the folder menu bar is hidden even though most of the controls still remain handy at the top of each window. However, I personally believe that the traditional menu bar is important for finding all the commands available more quickly. You can view the menu bar in Windows Explorer, temporarily or permanently. To view it temporarily, just press the Alt key. To show the menu bar permanently, without it disappearing, click the Start button, type " folder options " in the search box and press Enter or click the Folder Options link. In the options window, on the Display tab, put the cross under " Always show menus " and apply the change. While we're at it, it is better to remove the cross, from the same window, on the item " hide extensions for known files " since extensions allow to recognize the types of files and it is good to get used to reading them. After enabling the extensions, all the files will have their name followed by the point and three letters: for example foto.jpg or word.exe and so on.
2) Add the Run command to the Start menu
In Windows 7, the run command is hidden and there is a search box that works both to execute commands and to search for programs or files. To bring up the Run command box, you need to open the properties of the Start menu (right click on the Windows icon at the bottom left), press on Customize and put the cross where " Run command " is written. You can also open the Run window with the Windows-R key combination
3) Cancel a deletion or a move of files .
When you happen to have accidentally deleted a file by putting it in the trash, or if you copy and paste a file by mistake by duplicating it, or if you move it to the wrong folder, this operation can be canceled using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Z, or, from the top menu, go to Edit -> Cancel . This becomes particularly useful even when selecting a group of files, and accidentally moving them with the mouse to the same folder creating a useless copy. This trick works in any version of Windows but nobody ever uses it.
4) Hide data and text files
There are many ways to protect data on Windows and prevent another person using the computer from reading it. A very geeky and very fun way is to hide data in a text file so that it cannot be seen by anyone else unless they know the name of the file that has been made secret.
On an NTFS-formatted drive, ADS (Alternate Data Stream) files hidden inside other files can be created and run .
It is an easy, if somewhat laborious, trick.
If you want something faster, you need to use additional programs and refer to the guide to hide files inside a photo .
5) Navigate the folders in the "Open File" or "Save File" windows, using the keyboard .
When you use a program such as the image editor or Word when you open a new file, or if you save a file from the internet, an explorer window appears in which you can search for the file or the location where to save. To go faster in browsing the folders you can use the keyboard:
- write .. and press the Enter key to go to the folder higher than the one where you are.
- write .. \ to get to the directory above the current one and navigate to another root folder ; for example, from the Documents folder, you can immediately switch to that of images by writing .. \ and choosing from the list .. \ Images
You can also use .. \ .. \ to move up two levels along the directory tree and so on.
- Shell folders are accessible via keyboard shortcuts: for example, you can write shell: desktop to open the desktop folder.
In this page there are all the Windows Shell folders, to try one by one to enter the system folders and the default ones.
The shell command can also be written in the Run box or search from the Start menu.
- You can also use environment variables to quickly switch to a system folder : for example, to open the Programs folder you can write % ProgramFiles% .
This is very useful for opening the application data folder with % appdata%, which, in Windows 7, takes you to the C: \ Users \\ AppData \ Roaming folder.
To see a complete list of these variables, open a command prompt (from the Start menu - Run - write cmd - press enter) and type set .
Just remember to surround the variable name with percent signs.
- UNC paths are those for opening network folders : for example \\ Servername \ shared_folder . or \\ ip_address
It is likely that you will be asked for the computer username and password to enter this folder which is shared on the corporate or home network (see how to share files on the network between computers)
- it is also possible to connect to an FTP server to open a file using the following syntax: ftp: // / path / but, generally, it is done first with an FTP client
- Browse folders with Copy and Paste : in Windows Vista and Windows 7, if you hold down the shift key and click on a file or folder with the right button, a new option called Copy as path appears, which allows you to paste the path in any search field or in the " Open File " or " Save File ".
- See full paths in Windows 7 where the true path of the folder is hidden in the address bar.
To view it, simply click in the empty part of the address bar.
6) Find programs and applications faster from the Start menu search box in Windows
By typing something in the search box of the Start menu, you can quickly find any program to start it instantly.
After some time using Windows, the files grow and the search tends to be slower.
To keep program search fast, you need to use programs like Ccleaner to clean up Windows.
In addition, it is advisable to limit searches from the Start menu to programs only and, to do so, press the right mouse button on the Start button at the bottom left, access the properties, click on Customize, search for " Search in other files and other collections " and select " don't search ". This change is useful if you don't want to search for documents, images, videos, etc. from the start menu menu search box (other than the general folder menu).
7) The new search function in Windows 7 is greatly improved for browsing the computer and can also be used to search the Internet from the Start menu . Type, from the search bar, the command gpedit.msc (not available in the Home versions of Windows 7). From the Local Group Policy Editor, select User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Start Menu and Taskbar . Double-click Add Internet Search link to the Start menu and enable it.
Searching now for any word from the start menu, a link appears to open the search on Google with the default browser.
8) To configure the number of files and documents shown in the Recent Items menu (default are 10), you need to change a registry key.
From the search box, type regedit and hit enter.
In the registry editor, navigate to the path HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer, add a new DWORD value (right click on the white space on the right) called MaxRecentDocs with a value, in decimal basis, of 20 or 50 to have 50 entries on recent items. Recent items can instead be disabled from the properties of the Start menu.
9) Close Windows Explorer and restart it in case of problems with the Explorer.exe process
In Vista and Windows 7 you can close Windows Explorer from the Start menu, pressing the right mouse button on an empty space of the menu, holding down the CTRL and Shift keys together. The taskbar should completely disappear as well as all open folder windows. To restart Windows Explorer, press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open the task manager, go to File -> New Task and write explorer.exe. Closing Windows Explorer means ending the Explorer.exe process that I talked about extensively in the article "Solutions if Windows Explorer stops working and Windows freezes" where it is written how to restart explorer when it freezes.
10) If you work with many open windows, you can cascade them on the screen to see them all at once .
In Windows XP there is a tiling of the windows if you press on a group of them, from the application bar, holding down CTRL.
In Windows 7 there is the Aero Snap effect so just move one window on the right side and the other on the left to place them horizontally.
In Windows 7, however, you can do more, placing the windows side by side, in cascade: open the task manager (Task Management with CTRL-Shift-Esc ) go to the applications tab, select multiple applications by holding down the Shift key, press the key right and, in the menu, select Tile horizontally or vertically or press on Cascade.
11) The multiple selection of files can also be done with the crosses. Then open any folder, go to the Tools menu and press on Folder Options. In the " View " tab, scroll through the list of options and locate the one that says: " Use checkboxes to select items ". Click Apply and then OK.
In other articles, I remember other nice and useful tricks with programs in the quick launch of the taskbar and 10 other tricks for Windows 7, the explorer resources and slow folders.
