Paul McFedries Microsoft Windows 7 ® UNLEASHED 800 East 96th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46240 USA
Microsoft Windows 7 Unleashed Copyright © 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein.
Contents at a Glance Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Part I Unleashing Windows 7 Customization 1 Customizing Windows Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2 Customizing Internet Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
iv Microsoft Windows 7 Unleashed Part VI Unleashing Windows 7 Networking 24 Troubleshooting Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491 25 Setting Up a Small Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511 26 Accessing and Using Your Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
v Contents Table of Contents Introduction 1 Who Should Read This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 How This Book Is Organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Part I: Unleashing Windows 7 Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
vi Microsoft Windows 7 Unleashed 3 Customizing the File System 45 Understanding File Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 File Types and File Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 File Types and the Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Contents 5 Customizing the Start Menu and Taskbar vii 89 Customizing the Start Menu for Easier Program and Document Launching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Getting More Favorite Programs on the Start Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Pinning a Favorite Program Permanently to the Start Menu. . . . . . . . . . . 92 Clearing the Recent Programs List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
viii Microsoft Windows 7 Unleashed Optimizing the Hard Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Examining Hard Drive Performance Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Performing Hard Drive Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Disabling Compression and Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Contents ix Alternative Methods for Opening Control Panel Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Putting Control Panel on the Start Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Removing an Icon from Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Showing Only Specified Control Panel Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
x Microsoft Windows 7 Unleashed Keeping the Registry Safe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Preventing Other Folks from Messing with the Registry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Backing Up the Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Saving the Current Registry State with System Restore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Contents xi Checking Your Computer’s Security Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 Making Sure Windows Firewall Is Turned On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 Making Sure Windows Defender Is Turned On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 Making Sure User Account Control Is Turned On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 Making Sure the Administrator Account Is Disabled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
xii Microsoft Windows 7 Unleashed Sending a Secure Message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356 Receiving a Secure Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356 17 Securing the File System 359 Setting Security Permissions on Files and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359 Assigning a User to a Security Group. . . . . . . .
Contents xiii Renaming Built-In Accounts for Better Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405 Using the Guest Account to Give Folks Temporary Access. . . . . . . . . . . . 406 Determining Who Is Logged On. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 19 Implementing Network Security 409 Configuring Windows 7 for Secure Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
xiv Microsoft Windows 7 Unleashed Did You Recently Change Any Application Settings?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445 Did You Recently Install a New Program? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446 Did You Recently Install a New Device? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446 Did You Recently Install an Incompatible Device Driver?. . . . . . . . . . . . . 447 Did You Recently Apply an Update from Windows Update? . . . . . . . . .
Contents xv Last Known Good Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484 Directory Services Restore Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484 Debugging Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484 Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
xvi Microsoft Windows 7 Unleashed Using a Network Connection to Wake Up a Sleeping Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539 Disabling a Network Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541 Managing Wireless Network Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Contents xvii Configuring Windows 7 or Vista to Act as a Remote Desktop Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587 Configuring XP to Act as a Remote Desktop Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590 Installing Remote Desktop on an XP Client Computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591 Connecting to the Remote Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
xviii Microsoft Windows 7 Unleashed Renaming the Default Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629 Changing the Website Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630 Setting the Website’s Default Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631 Working Without a Default Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Contents xix Working with Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682 Working with Registry Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685 Working with Environment Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687 Programming the WshNetwork Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
xx Microsoft Windows 7 Unleashed A Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts 731 B Understanding TCP/IP 741 What Is TCP/IP? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742 Understanding IP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743 The Structure of an IP Datagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
About the Author Paul McFedries is a full-time technical author who has worked with computers in one form or another since 1975 and has used Windows since version 1. He is the author of more than 60 computer books that have sold over three million copies worldwide. His recent titles include the Sams Publishing book Microsoft Windows Home Server Unleashed and the Que Publishing books Tweak It and Freak It: A Killer Guide to Making Windows Run Your Way, Networking with Microsoft Windows Vista, and Build It.
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Introduction We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. —T. S. Eliot Well, that was easy.
2 Introduction the focus from components (Internet Explorer, Mail, and so on) to subjects: customization, performance, power tools, security, troubleshooting, and networking, and scripting. You get in-depth and useful coverage of these seven areas that will help you unleash the full potential of Windows 7. Who Should Read This Book All writers write with an audience in mind.
How This Book Is Organized 3 . I assume that you’ve used Windows for a while and are comfortable with concepts such as toolbars, scrollbars, and, of course, windows. . I assume that you have a brain that you’re willing to use and a good supply of innate curiosity. How This Book Is Organized As I mentioned earlier, I’ve completely revamped the structure and coverage in this edition, so the next few sections offer a summary of what you’ll find in each part.
4 Introduction Part V: Unleashing Windows 7 Troubleshooting Windows 7 may represent the state of Microsoft’s operating system art, but it is still Windows, which means problems, bugs, and glitches are pretty much inevitable. The four chapters in Part V can help when the Windows demons strike. You learn general troubleshooting techniques (Chapter 21), and how to troubleshoot device (Chapter 22), startup (Chapter 23), and networking (Chapter 24).
Conventions Used in This Book 5 Conventions Used in This Book To make your life easier, this book includes various features and conventions that help you get the most out of this book and Windows 7 itself: Steps Throughout the book, I’ve broken many Windows 7 tasks into easyto-follow step-by-step procedures. Things you type Whenever I suggest that you type something, what you type appears in a bold monospace font. Filenames, folder names, and code These things appear in a monospace font.
6 Introduction CAUTION The all-important Caution box tells you about potential accidents waiting to happen. There are always ways to mess things up when you’re working with computers. These boxes help you avoid at least some of the pitfalls. How to Contact Me If you have any comments about this book, or if you want to register a complaint or a compliment (I prefer the latter), please don’t hesitate to send a missive my way.
CHAPTER 1 Customizing Windows Explorer IN THIS CHAPTER . Returning the Menus to Their Rightful Place . Changing the View . Viewing More Properties . Turning On File Extensions . Stopping Delete Confirmations Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. —Ralph Waldo Emerson . Running Explorer in FullScreen Mode Although I’m sure you’ve got countless more important .
8 CHAPTER 1 Customizing Windows Explorer have several useful commands that simply aren’t available through the taskbar, keyboard shortcuts, or even by right-clicking. Still, it sticks in my craw that accessing the Windows Explorer menus requires the extra step of Alt, particularly if I’m in mouse mode. If you feel the same way, follow these steps to force Windows Explorer to display the menu bar full-time: 1. If you have a folder window open, select Organize, Folder and Search Options.
Viewing More Properties . 9 FIGURE 1.1 In Windows 7, Windows Explorer comes with a new Content view. Viewing More Properties Explorer’s Details view is the preferred choice for power users because it displays a great deal of information in a relatively compact format. (The new Content view also provides lots of information, but each object takes up quite a bit of space, and the object properties that you see aren’t customizable.) Details view also gives you a great deal of flexibility.
CHAPTER 1 10 Customizing Windows Explorer TIP To adjust all the columns so that they’re exactly as wide as their widest data, right-click any column header and then click Size All Columns to Fit.
Turning On File Extensions 11 Turning On File Extensions For example, Figure 1.3 shows a folder with 18 different files, all apparently named Project. Windows unrealistically expects users to tell files apart just by examining their icons. To make matters worse, if the file is an image, Windows 7 shows a thumbnail of the image instead of an icon. (This happens in thumbnail views such as Tiles, Medium Icons, and Large Icons.) The result is that in Figure 1.
12 CHAPTER 1 Customizing Windows Explorer The need to become an expert in Windows iconography is bad enough, but it gets worse. Not being able to see file extensions also leads to two other problems: . You can’t rename extensions—For example, suppose you have a text file named index.txt and you want to rename it to index.html to make it a web page file. Nope, sorry, you can’t do it with file extensions hidden.
Stopping Delete Confirmations 13 1 FIGURE 1.4 With file extensions turned on, it’s much easier to tell the files apart. Stopping Delete Confirmations My biggest Windows pet peeves center around tasks that require you to jump through extra hoops that are totally unnecessary. In Windows XP, for example, clicking the Shut Down command on the Start menu doesn’t shut down your computer, at least not right away. Instead, a dialog box shows up and you need to click Shut Down yet again.
14 CHAPTER 1 Customizing Windows Explorer Now let’s consider this tweak from the opposite point of view. The reason Windows displays the delete confirmation dialog box by default is to prevent you from accidentally deleting a file. You and I are savvy, knowledgeable users, so we know when we want to delete something, but not everyone falls into this boat.
Running Explorer in Full-Screen Mode 15 HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer NOTE The Remove Properties from the Recycle Bin Context Menu policy has a misleading name because, when enabled, the policy disables some but, strangely, not all instances of the Recycle Bin’s Properties command. For example, if the user displays the desktop in a folder window and clicks Recycle Bin, the Properties command is disabled in both the Organize menu and the File menu.
16 CHAPTER 1 Customizing Windows Explorer Restore button.) This mode takes over the entire screen and hides the title bar, menu bar, status bar, address bar, and search bar. To work with the address bar or search bar, move your mouse pointer to the top of the screen. To restore the window, either press F11 again or display the address bar and search bar and then click the Full Screen button (which is to the right of the Search box).
Exploring the View Options 17 . Display File Icon on Thumbnails—When this check box is activated, Windows Explorer superimposes the file type icon on the lower-right corner of each file’s thumbnail. This is usually a good idea because the extra icon allows you to figure out the file type at a glance. However, if you find the icon getting in the way of the thumbnail image, deactivate this setting. .
18 CHAPTER 1 Customizing Windows Explorer . Hide Extensions for Known File Types—As you saw earlier (see “Turning On File Extensions”), you deactivate this setting to display file extensions. . Hide Protected Operating System Files—This setting is activated by default, and it tells Windows 7 to hide files that have the System attribute activated. This is not usually a problem because you rarely have to do anything with the Windows system files.
Moving User Folders 19 Reading pane. For example, when you display a video file in the Reading pane, Windows Explorer includes playback controls such as Play, Pause, and Stop. . Use Sharing Wizard—When this check box is activated, Windows 7 uses a simplified file and folder sharing method called the Sharing Wizard. Power users will want to disable the Sharing Wizard (see Chapter 26, “Accessing and Using Your Network”). . See “Deactivating the Sharing Wizard,” p. 410. .
20 CHAPTER 1 Customizing Windows Explorer TIP An ideal setup is to have Windows 7 and your programs in one partition and your documents (that is, your user folders) in a separate partition. That way, your documents remain safe if you have to wipe the system partition. Taking Ownership of Your Files When you’re working in Windows 7, you may have trouble with a folder (or a file) because Windows tells you that you don’t have permission to edit (add to, delete, whatever) the folder.
Taking Ownership of Your Files 21 NOTE You can find the Registry Editor file (TakeOwnership.reg) on my website at www.mcfedries.com/Windows7Unleashed. LISTING 1.1 A Registry Editor File That Creates a Take Ownership Command Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas] @=”Take Ownership” “NoWorkingDirectory”=”” [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\runas\command] @=”cmd.exe /c takeown /f \”%1\” && icacls \”%1\” /grant administrators:F” “IsolatedCommand”=”cmd.
22 CHAPTER 1 Customizing Windows Explorer FIGURE 1.7 When you install the Registry mod, you see the Take Ownership command when you right-click a file. Running Custom Searches When you open a folder window, you know that you can click inside the Search box, type some text, and you get a list of files and folders that match your text. This worked well in Windows Vista, but it really rocks in Windows 7 because the latest version of the Desktop Search engine is even faster.
Running Custom Searches 23 To fix this kind of thing, you can create powerful and targeted searches by using a special syntax—called Advanced Query Syntax (AQS)—in your search queries. property:value Here, property is the name of the file property you want to search on, and value is the criteria you want to use. The property can be any of the metadata categories used by Windows. For example, the categories in a music folder include Name, Track, Title, Artists, Album, and Rating.
24 CHAPTER 1 >= Customizing Windows Explorer Matches files where the specified property is greater than or equal to the specified value. For example, the following code matches files where the Size property is greater than or equal to 10000 bytes: size:>=10000 < Matches files where the specified property is less than the specified value.
Running Custom Searches Choose. For example, the following code matches pictures where the Type property is not JPEG: type:NOT jpeg NOTE The Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT must appear with all-uppercase letters in your query. Using Natural Language Queries In the preceding section, I showed you how to use advanced query syntax to create powerful search queries. The only problem is that it’s a chore having to memorize all those operators and what they’re used for.
26 CHAPTER 1 Customizing Windows Explorer Similarly, if you want all the JPEG images that were created today, you’d use the following query: jpeg images created today You can keep adding more properties and values to target your searches. For example, if we want our Sloan search to return only those songs rated with five stars, we’d modify the search as follows: pop music by sloan rating ***** You can still perform Boolean searches in natural language queries.