tips

Windows 7 harnesses the power available in the latest video cards and integrated motherboard graphics to display translucent windows that reveal part of the background around the edges. If you find this distracting – the window title can prove particularly hard to read – then you can switch the feature off. Open up Control Panel [...]

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User Account Control was introduced with Vista to warn users when changes were made to the system, but many found it too intrusive. In Windows 7, you can customise the level of User Account Control and thus the number of confirmation messages that will appear on screen. To do this, follow the Change User Account [...]

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If you have family members or work colleagues in other parts of the world, then you can configure Windows 7 to display two or three clocks instead of just one. Click the time and date in the notification area, then follow the settings link to add new clocks. The additional times will be displayed both [...]

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Any search run in Windows 7 can be saved as a virtual folder ready to be recalled again at a later date. On every results screen you’ll notice a button labelled Save Search – click on this to store the query in the Searches folder associated with your user account. Each time you open up [...]

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The job of the new Action Centre is to warn you about potential security and maintenance problems with your Windows 7 PC. If you’d rather have fewer notifications popping up, you can switch some of them off via the Change Action Centre settings link on the left hand side of the Action Centre itself. It’s [...]

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If you find it hard to see the text displayed by Windows 7, you can make it larger very easily – open up Control Panel and find the Appearance and Personalisation section. Click the link labelled Make text and other items larger or smaller (under the Display heading). You’ll then find yourself at a screen [...]

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Using a simple plug-in named MacroTube, you can access content from YouTube, DailyMotion and MSN’s Soapbox in Windows Media Centre. You’ll be able to access the sites and browse content without launching your Web browser via the Extras menu. Note that Media Centre is only available in the Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate editions of [...]

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In Windows 7, Microsoft has tweaked the Start menu so that recent documents are easier to access. Many of your applications will have a small arrow to the right – hover over the program name to see a list of files you have previously opened. You can click on any of these entries in order [...]

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Thanks to the digital media technologies built into Windows 7, you can preview most of your music, videos and images without launching a third-party application. Browse to the relevant file in Windows Explorer, then open up the Preview Pane via the Organise/ Layout menu. Most media formats are supported, and while there are few options [...]

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