Thinkworx » Computer Tips

Introducing the new Windows 7 Taskbar

Thomas Bowcut — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:19:20 +0000

For the most part, Windows 7 doesn’t present a radical change to the user interface and operating system features for those migrating from Windows Vista. One area, however, that users will find different and which may take some adjusting to is the Windows Taskbar. Here’s quick a look at the new Taskbar in Windows 7 and how you will find it different.

What Happened to the Quick Launch Toolbar?

Many Windows users may be accustomed to using and customizing the Quick Launch toolbar, a useful means of always having an always visible icon to your most commonly used programs. In my experience it is not uncommon to find users that add icons to almost all of their applications on this useful toolbar. To these users it may be especially disappointing to find that the Quick Launch toolbar has been removed from the Windows 7 Taskbar.

The Quick Launch bar has now been replaced with the concept of “Pinning” an icon to the taskbar. By dragging an icon to the taskbar in Windows 7 you will be presented with a menu item to “Pin to” taskbar.

Pinning an icon to to the taskbar will basically replicate the Quick Launch bar with some minor differences. First of which is that a pinned icon is not a static icon that allows you to click and open as many instances of the application as you like (useful in the case of your browser or file explorer window), rather once clicking on the icon it will expand to represent the opened window in the taskbar.. This can create confusion as your other icons may get shifted further to the right from where your eye traditionally expects to find it. Clicking again on this icon will either just minimize the application or select the window if in the background.

More Menu Options

The taskbar has become more useful, by right clicking the taskbar you are presented with a new menu of options from which you can quickly arrange your windows or start the Task Manager.

This quick reference allows you to quickly and easily arrange all of your open windows or to find your desktop.

Window Preview with Command Buttons

The Windows 7 Taskbar buttons, similar to Windows Vista, make it quick and easy to see a preview of the application window it represents. Hovering your mouse over the taskbar button you will be presented with a miniature preview of the window and not only. Windows 7 also will display command buttons on some relative applications allowing to perform simple tasks without opening the full window (useful for Windows Media Player as there is no longer the Windows Media Player Toolbar, this almost replicates the functionality from within the preview window). Computers that are not able to support the Aero graphical themes will not have the window preview, but will still have a pop-up menu item with a description and with the option to directly close the window.

Move your mouse over the preview window and the window will appear in full size and all other windows will become invisible until you move your mouse again away from the preview window. So far I find it to be a useful way to find the right window when you have a lot of applications open.

Better Button Grouping

I have never been fond of the button grouping for multiple instances of the same application, but it is useful when the taskbar gets completely full. Apparently Microsoft realized that and has now made this an option under the taskbar properties.

Additionally, the grouping experience has been improved. The grouped button icon has changed, illustrating that the button has multiple instances. Hovering your mouse over the button will provide the “Aero Peek” preview of each of the windows allowing you to quickly open the one you seek.

New Show Desktop Button

Afraid that with the lose of the Quick Launch bar you will no longer have the Show Desktop icon? Fortunately it hasn’t been removed, rather it just changed position. You will now find it hiding in the right hand bottom corner.

Want a quick peek at the desktop without having to close all your windows? Just hover your mouse over this button and all other windows will be invisible until you move your move away from the button.

Enhanced Graphical Effects

A new Windows release would not be the same without an onslaught of newly enhanced graphical effects; not overlooked were the taskbar buttons! Watch the color glow that follows the mouse as you move over each button. Notice that the color reflects the primary color of the icon of the button. Some of the graphical effects are also useful, such as the rolling color across the button to indicate that the specific application is still processing.

Productivity Tip: Consuming more Podcasts

Thomas Bowcut — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 07:09:28 +0000

Does your playlist of favorite podcasts run longer than you have time to dedicate listening to them? If you can get past the chipmunk voices, try increasing the play back speed. You can reduce the play length by up to 20% before it gets too obnoxious.

If you are using a Windows Mobile Device you will not be able to do this with the mobile version of Windows Media player. Try using a media player such as TCPMP (The Core Pocket Media Player).

FTP Substitutes

Thomas Bowcut — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:39:03 +0000

I think everyone has faced the issue of needing to share a large file with someone when the file is too big to be sent by email. Historically FTP sites have been the solution to this for the tech savvy or those with a web host.

I have never been a fan of using FTP sites for sharing individual files. Fortunately there some great Web 2.0 alternatives that I recommend the next time you run into this issue:

drop.io – It doesn’t get any easier than this. You don’t even have to sign-up, just go to the site and drop your item. It even gets better, you don’t even have to go to the site, you can also add items by email, fax, phone or a widget from another site. This seems to be the easiest and best solution for files up to 100 MB, for larger files you are going to need to upgrade your account.
File Dropper – Need to share larger files? Then head over to File Dropper where you can upload files up to 5 GB for FREE! You can even keep the files up there as long they continue to be downloaded.

What other solutions would you recommend?

Keeping It All Synchronized

Thomas Bowcut — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:00:59 +0000

I rediscovered a very useful tool that I started using a couple of years ago, but have since stopped tracking their new developments. A tool that I would think that anybody using multiple tools and services such as Outlook, Gmail or other new Web 2.0 services would want to take advantage of. I’m talking about Plaxo which many began using to synchronize Outlook calendars and contacts between multiple computers. Now this tool goes much beyond by allowing you to also synchronize with Google, Hotmail/Windows Live, Windows Mobile, AOL, Mac OS X and others.

One of the benefits it offers for those using Outlook 2003 is the ability to add iCal calendars. New Web 2.0 services typically offer this format. Using Plaxo with Outlook 2003 I can add my TripIt.com calendar so that I don’t have to manually enter flight details and I can add my tasks with deadlines from my tracks.tra.in iCal into my Outlook calendar.

Plaxo has made it back to my radar as one of my recommended must have Web 2.0 services.

How To Stop Your Outgoing Email Being Marked As Spam

Thomas Bowcut — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:00:02 +0000

I have been asked this question several times so I thought it would be beneficial to post some information about the subject. To avoid making your ‘legitimate’ email being identified as Spam, pay attention to the following recommendations:

avoid sending email to a large number of recipients
avoid attaching any file in mass mailings
avoid using highly formatted text especially with colored headings.
do not USE ‘ALL CAPS’ FOR MORE THAN THE OCCASIONAL WORD.
do not use background graphics or logos.
avoid using ’sales patter’ e.g. Hot Deal, Special Offer.
avoid using ‘rude language’

University websites often provide useful information on the subject.

Specifically, people ask how many recipients to include with mass mailings, as spam filters could use this as a criteria. Unfortunately I have not found data on this, so I would love to hear your recommendations. What else do you do to avoid being marked as SPAM?

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Most of the 642-825 and 642-845 students are more interested in doing 70-646 and EX0-101 than the basic 642-552.

Tip for Dual Booting Windows Vista and XP

Thomas Bowcut — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 13:18:14 +0000

A new order of hot machines from Dell got me excited to load them with Microsoft Vista. However, due to uncertainty about program compatibility I wanted to create a second partition where I would load Windows XP. Come to find out I was approaching this in reverse order with out knowing it…meaning that by painful experience I learned that in this scenario you need to load Windows XP first followed by Windows Vista. Otherwise the boot manager installed with Windows XP won’t recognize the installation of Windows Vista.

If you know of a solution to avoid installing Windows XP prior to Windows Vista with a dual boot system please let me know how it is done.?

Web Super Heroes

Thomas Bowcut — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 13:32:10 +0000

The web is full of Super Heroes, sites that come and save the day in your moment of need without requiring anything in exchange. The combination of Google, expert forums and valuable Super Hero websites make tackling almost any task possible.

I was recently rescued when my programs stopped minimizing to the taskbar in Windows XP. My useless efforts were unable to restore the taskbar. A quick search on Google lead me to a posting on Experts Exchange where another user had this problem and had a posting with the resolution. If this happens to you go to my Super Hero website of the day at http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm where you can find a downloadable VB script to change the necessary registry value to fix the problem.

Scan Disk in Windows XP

Thomas Bowcut — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 09:19:52 +0000

With the introduction of the NTFS file system and Windows 2000, Microsoft must have been hoping that disk checks and bad clusters would be a problem of the past. Unfortunately bad clusters continue to occur, as I recently experienced, and a disk scan is necessary to resolve the problem. ScanDisk, the utility previously available in Windows to perform this operation, has been removed from Windows 2000 and Windows XP, having been substituted with the lesser known CHKDSK.

If you need to perform a disk scan in Windows XP here are some instructions from Microsoft:

Manual steps to run Chkdsk at the command prompt

Click Start, and then Run.

In Open, type cmd, and then press ENTER.

Use one of the following procedures:

•

To run Chkdsk in read-only mode, at the command prompt, type chkdsk, and then press ENTER.

•

To repair errors without scanning the volume for bad sectors, at the command prompt, type chkdsk volume:/f, and then press ENTER.Note If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message:

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

Type Y, and then press ENTER to schedule the disk check, and then restart your computer to start the disk check.

•

To repair errors, locate bad sectors, and recover readable information, at the command prompt, type chkdsk volume:/r, and then press ENTER.Note If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message:

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

Type Y, and then press ENTER to schedule the disk check, and then restart your computer to start the disk check.

Manual steps to run Chkdsk from My Computer or Windows Explorer

Double-click My Computer, and then right-click the hard disk that you want to check.

Click Properties, and then click Tools.

Under Error-checking, click Check Now. A dialog box that shows the Check disk options is displayed,

Use one of the following procedures:

•	To run Chkdsk in read-only mode, click Start.
•	To repair errors without scanning the volume for bad sectors, select the Automatically fix file system errors check box, and then click Start.
•	To repair errors, locate bad sectors, and recover readable information, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.

Note If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message:

The disk check could not be performed because the disk check utility needs exclusive access to some Windows files on the disk. These files can be accessed by restarting Windows. Do you want to schedule the disk check to occur the next time you restart the computer?

Click Yes to schedule the disk check, and then restart your computer to start the disk check.

The following table lists the exit codes that Chkdsk reports after it has finished:

Exit code	Description
0	No errors were found.
1	Errors were found and fixed.
2	Disk cleanup, such as garbage collection, was performed, or cleanup was not performed because /f was not specified.
3	Could not check the disk, errors could not be fixed, or errors were not fixed because /f was not specified.

Corrupted Windows Update

Thomas Bowcut — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 10:06:53 +0000

Yesterday I battled with the unpleasant experience of having a corrupted Windows Update. As a result every time I logged into Windows XP I got a svchost.exe application error “0×745f2780″. Performing a system restore failed on each attempt and since no other application or hardward modifications had been made I assumed a problem had a occured with the Windows Update from the prior day. Here are some steps I performed to finally resolve the problem.

Checked for errors in the Windows Update Log. The Windows Update Log can be found in the following paths:

C:\Windows\Windows Update.log (Win XP & Win98/Me)
C:\WINNT\Windows Update.log (Windows 2000)

Deleted Temporary Internet Files for Internet Explorer

Disabled Auto Updates from the Windows services, to prevent the error from occuring immediately at log-on.

Rebooted

Did a manual windows update

Turned on auto updates

Following these steps seemed to resolve the problem and hopefully this will be of benefit to others that run into the same issue.

*Another tip is not close the error windows that appear as that causes windows to freeze.

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The actual tests of 350-001 as well as 640-822 and 70-236 can be attempted only if a student has already done 640-863 or 642-436.

Web 2.0 Characteristics: Social Searching

Thomas Bowcut — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 13:20:31 +0000

What Web 2.0 is, is continuously being defined or interpreted. Beyond Ajax, RSS, pastel colors and big buttons you will also find social searching (the ability to interact with the search engine and promote what they feel are the relevant results). One popular manifestation of social searching is a tag cloud or a swicki. The folks at Flickr give an excellent example of implementing a tag cloud and I recommend checking out the free customizable tools available to post a swicki to your website.