When you open the Windows Live Photo Gallery Screensaver settings dialog, theme controls may be missing and the message "This computer’s video card can’t play themes" is displayed. You might be knowing that the themes in Windows Photo Gallery slideshow as well as in Windows Live Photo Gallery screensaver won’t be enabled if the Graphics card score (Windows Experience Index) is less than 3.0. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Tips’
“This Computer’s Video Card Can’t Play Themes” Message in WLPG Screensaver Settings Dialog
On Resume, Password Protect vs on Resume, Display Welcome Screen Setting in Windows XP
When you open the Display Settings Control Panel applet and click the Screensaver tab, one of the following options are shown:
- On resume, display Welcome screen
- On resume, password protect
The second option is seen in systems which are connected to domain (which disables the Welcome screen.) If you enable this option, you’ll see the "Unlock Computer" classic logon prompt when resuming from screensaver mode. Whereas the former displays the Welcome screen when resuming from screensaver mode.
What if the "On resume, password protect" option is shown in a standalone system where the Welcome screen is enabled? What causes the "On resume, password protect" option to be shown in standalone systems and systems in a Workgroup?
This was asked by many Windows XP users over these years in various forums where I participate, but no entire explanation for this observation has been found anywhere. Hence this article was written.
The "On resume, password protect" is displayed if at least one the following conditions is true:
- Fast User Switching is disabled. (REF Enable Fast User Switching in Windows XP)
- There is only one user account in the system (not taking the "Guest" account into consideration)
- There are more than one user account, but only one is shown in the Welcome Screen and all others hidden.
- Terminal Services is not running. This in turn disables Fast User Switching. (To start Terminal Services, launch Services.msc, double-click Terminal Services, set its start type to Manual. Restart Windows.)
Fix Services MMC Extended View Is Blank in Windows XP
The Extended view of Services Management Console (services.msc) displays the service description and also has links to Start or Stop services. In some systems, the Extended view may appear blank, as in figure below:
This has to do with broken JScript.dll registration. To fix this problem, login as Administrator or equivalent, and then run the following command from Start, Run dialog:
regsvr32.exe jscript.dll
Press {ENTER}
You should see the output message "DllRegisterServer in jscript.dll succeeded."
This fixes the Extended view. Close and re-open Services MMC.
How to Restore .BKF Files Using NTBackup in Windows 7 and Windows Vista
There are so many users who back up their data using the NTBackup Tool in Windows XP, then clean install/upgrade to Windows 7 or Windows Vista and later realize that Windows 7/Vista do not include the NTBackup Tool to restore the image. Also, Microsoft haven’t released the NT Backup Restore Utility for Windows 7 yet (should be out soon), as they released for Windows Vista. If you have critical data contained in a NTBackup image (.BKF) and want to restore it in Windows 7, then this article is for you. (more…)
How to Restore All Windows in a Grouped Taskbar Button in Windows 7?
If you haven’t gone through the Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts list yet, you may be wondering if it’s possible to open all the windows which are grouped under a single icon in the Taskbar. Luckily, there is a keyboard shortcut available for this so that you don’t have to open each window in the group one at a time.
Restore all windows in a group
To restore all windows in a group, press the SHIFT key down, right-click on the group icon in the Taskbar. You’ll see a menu with the following options.
- Cascade
- Show windows stacked
- Show windows side by side
- Restore all windows
- Minimize all windows
- Close all windows
Click Restore all windows.
Open windows one at a time
To open each window at a time, hold the CTRL key and click on the group icon. This cycles through the windows in that group.
Check out the Windows 7 Keyboard shortcuts list and make the most use of it. Additionally, you’d like to read about the Hidden context menu items in Windows 7.
How to Disable Taskbar Thumbnail Preview in Windows 7
Windows 7 does not include a GUI to disable the taskbar thumbnail preview feature. I’ve experimented with the registry setting TaskbarNoThumbnail and its equivalent GPO Turn off taskbar thumbnails. That setting seems to apply only to Windows Vista, and has no effect in Windows 7.
You can however disable the taskbar thumbnail feature (sort of) in Windows 7 using a registry edit. This can be done by setting the taskbar thumbnail preview hover delay to a large value (say 10000 milliseconds or more), so that the preview is not immediately generated when you hover over a taskbar icon. Well. Then the article title should have really been "How To Delay Taskbar Thumbnail Preview in Windows 7".
I heard about this registry value via article Adjust Taskbar Preview Hover Delay at WinGeek.com (Credits to Steve Sinchak), and experimented the registry value by inputting a large decimal value to prevent immediate display of thumbnails in the Windows 7 Taskbar.
1. Click Start, type Regedit.exe and press {ENTER}
2. Navigate to the following location:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced
3. Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value named ExtendedUIHoverTime
4. Double-click ExtendedUIHoverTime and click Decimal
5. To increase the hover delay to 5 seconds, type 5000. Type 10000 for 10 seconds and so forth…
6. Exit the Registry Editor.
7. Logoff and login back, or restart the Shell ("Exit Explorer" method).
Related Article
Adjusting Aero Peek Desktop Preview Mouse Hover Delay in Windows 7.
Snipping Tool Is an Integrated Feature in Windows 7?
In Windows Vista, turning off the Tablet PC Components also removes the Snipping Tool. This is not the case in Windows 7, where the Snipping Tool is integrated with the Operating System.
Fig 1: Windows Features dialog box in Windows Vista. (See InfoTip)
Fig 2: Windows Features dialog box in Windows 7. (See InfoTip)
Those who use the Snipping Tool but don’t use other Tablet PC features, can remove Tablet PC Components with no problems.
Note: Snipping Tool is available only in the Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate editions of Windows 7.
Microsoft Support Knowledge Base Search Using Windows 7 Search Connector
Here is a Windows 7 Search Connector which uses Windows Live Search to search Microsoft Knowledge Base (MSKB) articles from within Windows Explorer.
Download MSKB.osdx and save to Desktop.
Double-click the file to add the Search Connector, and click Add when prompted.
This adds the MSKB Search Connector and then opens Windows Explorer. Type in a sample search query.
Fig 2: List of Windows 7 articles about "Aero".
And, to download the Winhelponline Search Connector, see article Creating Search Federation Providers (Connectors) in Windows 7.
Microsoft Newsgroup Setup Instructions for Windows Live Mail
Earlier we saw how to access Microsoft Newsgroup using Windows Mail. If you’re using Windows Live Mail, it’s even more easier, as Microsoft Communities Newsgroup account is already built-in to Windows Live Mail. You just need to customize it and pick the necessary groups from the listing.
1. Start Windows Live Mail
2. From the Tools menu (press ALT + T to show the Tools menu), click Accounts.
3. Select the Microsoft Communities news server and click Properties
4. Type in your name (this name will be displayed in your newsgroup posts), and the email address. Never use your primary email address in the newsgroups as it invites spam. Use an obfuscated ID instead. Click OK to close the dialog.
5. Click the Newsgroups tab on the left.
6. You’ll be prompted to set Windows Live Mail as the default news client. Click Yes if you want to set Windows Live Mail as the default news handler.
7. Click the View Newsgroups button on the right pane. Alternately, click the Newsgroups button at the top.
8. Select the Newsgroups from the list and click OK.
Selecting a newsgroup downloads last 300 message headers from the group. You can increase the number of headers to download, via the Windows Live Mail Options dialog, which can be accessed from the Tools menu.
Using the Mouse to Copy Command Prompt Text to Clipboard
A useful tip for mousers. Earlier we saw how to copy Command Prompt output to the Windows Clipboard. Did you know that you can accomplish the same using your pointing device (mouse)? Also, you can select a particular section (word or line) and copy it to the Clipboard. Here is how to do so.
1. Create a Command Prompt shortcut (cmd.exe) on the Desktop.
2. Right-click on the Command Prompt shortcut and choose Properties
3. In the Options tab, enable QuickEdit mode, and click OK.
4. Open a Command Prompt window (using the custom shortcut) and type a command.
5. To copy the output, select the text area using the mouse pointer and click the right-mouse button (or press ENTER.)
This tip applies to Windows Vista & Windows 7 as well.
Editor’s note: The above setting works only if you access the Command Prompt using the desktop shortcut that you created earlier. In one of the upcoming articles, we’ll instruct how to make the Quick Edit setting enabled by default, so that it works irrespective of the method you use to access the Command Prompt.
