Windows 7 tweaks and tips - John Meister http://johnmeister.com/CS/MSinfo/WIN7 ----------------------------- January 2011 ----------------------------- NOTE: what follows is a collection of steps to fix or configure win7, along with internet links and comments, and editorial comments. it is with much foot dragging and complaint that many of us are forced to migrate to this eye candy laden bloatware that removed useful functionality from earlier versions. the clean, crisp and clear interface of NT 4.0 (windows classic) is only partially there, it is hoped through these tweaks and hacks below to return the win7 environment into a useful and productive interface, because many of us are forced by employment needs to actually use this piece of work (optional spelling suggested elsewhere). If you have a choice of operating systems I would highly recommend Linux (SuSE) if you are a power user, and a Mac system if you aren't. --------------------------------------------------------- tweaks and issues: 1) windows file manager 2) dos shell (cmd.exe) config - useful colors 3) unix commands and shell - tbd (was SFU) 4) virtualized environment for a linux shell - tbd (details to follow) ==================================================================================================== 1) file manager links: --------------------- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_managers --------------------- ANNOYANCES: (slowly we quantify the subtle and not so subtle feature failures in win7, if someone using win7 doesn't notice these annoyances they are likely only a casual user and not a power user, they may feel free to continue drinking the kool-aid. for the rest of us, read on and hope to find what you're looking for below.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7files/thread/e77b4cd7-c551-4d61-ab07-bd54a5b29fc0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Major annoyances (3) (or you might call them bugs) in Win7 'Windows Explorer: 1. In Explorer, in dual pane view, when you double-click on any item in the left pane, the selected result is annoyingly auto-scrolled to the bottom of the pane. XP or WinServer2k3 did not behave in this way. 2. When you were scrolling with your mouse wheel in one pane, if you move to the other pane and try to scroll it wont work in that pane until you actually click somewhere in that other pane before you can scroll, and vica versa when you go back to original pane. XP and WinServer2k3 would scroll the pane of whereever your mouse pointer was at without have to apply focus by clicking in the given pane. 3. If you are in 'Thumbnail' view say, in a folder and suppose you select 20 random files (all highlighted blue), and you are halfway down on the scroll bar say, and if you change the view to 'Details' at that time. Windows7 ANNOYINGLY forgets all of your highlighted files and just simply resets, and automatically scrolls you back to the top so that you have to re-select all of your files again to be able to do what you wanted to with them. XP and WinServer2k3 would remember where you were scrolled, and keep all of your selections highlighted. ----------------- Most important features that need to be returned to Windows Explorer: 1) The option to disable Auto Arrange. 2) Fix The Left Pane Scroll Bug: If you are viewing a folder and expand it in the left pane to show it's subfolders, the folder is annoyingly auto-scrolled to the bottom of the pane causing the subfolders to not be shown, making it difficult to work with. 3) When multiple files are selected they should stay selected when changing the sorting order (ex: Name to Size). Maintaining selected files when sorting should be a requirement and this feature should not have been removed. 4) The option to remember each folder's view settings (remembering individual folder window sizes and positions). 5) The option to remove "Full row selection" for details view. "Full row selection" is very annoying when the folder is full and has no empty space to click on. Also, when dragging/dropping files to a different folder - if you release the file on the row of a subfolder or .exe/.zip/.rar file "full row selection" causes the file to be moved into the subfolder or .exe/.zip/.rar file rather the the intended folder. 6) A search window with all the advanced search options. No syntax required. 7) The option to always show free disk space and folder size in the status bar and/or details pane. Also always automatically show the size of selected files (when many files are selected it will not show the total size). 8) The option to scroll the window/pane the mouse is in with mouse wheel even if that window/pane is not selected. ------------------------------------------- Auto Arrange #1 - How to disable Auto Arrange in Windows 7 http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/disable-auto-arrange-folders-windows-7/ Auto Arrange #2 - How to disable Auto Arrange in Windows 7 http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/92758-windows-explorer-auto-arrange-disable.html Libraries Folder - How to Add or Remove the Windows 7 Libraries Folder from the Navigation Pane http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/35627-libraries-folder-add-remove-navigation-pane.html How to Add or Remove your User Folder from the Windows 7 Navigation Pane http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/48123-user-folder-add-remove-navigation-pane.html How to Disable Full Row Select in Explorer in Windows 7 http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/disable-full-row-select-explorer-windows-7 ===================================================================================== How to Fix The Left Pane Scroll Bug Left Pane Scroll Bug threads: 1. Bug: Windows Explorer expands folders inappropriately, jumping the folder you expand to the bottom of the navigation pane http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7files/thread/50a81b05-da98-4d55-821d-55ffbbd0e998 2. Windows explorer tree view expands at the bottom, not at the top as it used to be http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7files/thread/fb07b088-bc03-42dc-a8d6-79b360154d7c 3. Windows Explorer navigation pane issue http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7files/thread/f1b1b8b9-be69-4c50-9405-17efd8bff4e3 4. Windows explorer moves the selected folder to bottom of folders list. How do I stop this? http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7files/thread/78c18738-2818-43f7-8ca2-b3322cd8ff0d 5. Strange folder behavior in left pane of Windows Explorer http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproperf/thread/17a83954-8c3c-4d45-9dd6-03f6cdd1604c ===================================================================================== Using Classic Shell To Restore Some Features To Windows Explorer http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/ After installing the free Classic Shell you can customize Windows Explorer closer to how you want it, the quote below is just one way to do so. Click here to see some of the options you can customize, and here is the FAQ page. A solution which did work for restoring some features. 1) Install the free Classic Shell. This is free, quite customizable and works as a mod for Windows Explorer, rather than a full blown replacement. Personally, I didn't install the Classic Start Menu option, but you can if you want. 2) Reboot the computer. 3) Launch Windows Explorer and turn on "Always Show Menus" (this is just for configuration, you can turn it off again afterwards if you want). 4) Right click on the menu bar and turn on the "Classic Explorer Bar". This adds a series of cut/copy/paste icons to Explorer. Crucially, it also adds the "Configuration" icon. 5) Go into the configuration and from here you can tweak things to your heart's content. To kill the horrible Windows 7 folder-jumping, switch the "Navigation Pane Style" to Vista. You can even go more retro and knock it back to XP mode if you want (this adds in the lines to the folder tree and adds a classic "+" icon for expanding folders). 6) Tweak the other settings as well. I have it so that the "More details" bit in copy dialogs is automatically expanded, I've checked the "Show free space and file size in status bar" option (no more having to right click on the drive to see how much space is left), personally I decided to stick with the Windows 7 style "file overwrite" dialog (the default is for the simpler Vista/XP style dialog), and I went for the Windows Vista style folder view which looks pretty much the same as the Windows 7 view, but gets rid of the horrible jumping. After this, you can turn the toolbar and menus back off in Explorer if you wish. Windows Explorer looks largely the same, but folders no longer jump around. Now, if only MS could code properly so that we don't have to mess with third party apps to get Windows to actually work properly... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Libraries Folder - How to Add or Remove the Windows 7 Libraries Folder from the Navigation Pane http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/35627-libraries-folder-add-remove-navigation-pane.html How to Add or Remove the Windows 7 Libraries Folder from the Navigation Pane =============================================================================== For all users C:\Users\Public\Libraries For current user only C:\Users\(user-name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries ------------------------------ ** BOTTOM LINE: regedit, going to CLSID - adding permission to change and changing key to "9" from "8" ** ------------------------------ 1. regedit 2. go to the key below: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}\ShellFolder (hint: go to path, copy bracketed value and search) 3. left pane - regedit, right click on the ShellFolder key and click on Permissions. 4. top, select Administrators - Allow box - Full Control - click OK. 5. right pane - right click on Attributes - click on Modify. 6. To REMOVE All Libraries from the Navigation Pane A) Type in b090010d and click on OK. 7. To ADD All Libraries Back to the Navigation Pane (WHY???) NOTE: This is the default setting. (8 to add, 9 to delete) A) Type in b080010d and click on OK. 8. 64-bit Windows 7 one more step: To also add or remove Libraries from the "Open" and "Save as" type windows as well in 64-bit Windows 7, you will also need to do this step. A) In Regedit, go to the location below: Code: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID\{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}\ShellFolder (hint: go to path, copy bracketed value and search) B) Repeat steps above 10. Close regedit. 11. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to apply. =========================================================================== http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/48123-user-folder-add-remove-navigation-pane.html How to Add or Remove your User Folder from the Windows 7 Navigation Pane KEYS: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}\ShellFolder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID\{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}\ShellFolder A) TO REMOVE: f094012d 1. regedit Code: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}\ShellFolder 2. left pane of regedit, right click - ShellFolder key and Permissions. 3. select the Administrators group. check Allow - Full Control - OK. 4. right pane of regedit, right click on Attributes and click on Modify. 5. To Add your User Folder to the Navigation Pane NOTE: This is the default setting. A) Type in f084012d - OK. B) Go to step 9. (win7 64bit) 6. To Remove your User Folder from the Navigation Pane A) Type in f094012d and click on OK. (see screenshot below) 7. If you have 64-bit Windows 7 Installed To also add or remove your User Folder from the "Open" and "Save as" type windows as well in 64-bit Windows 7, you will also need to do this step. A) In Regedit, go to the location below: Code: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID\{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}\ShellFolder B) Repeat steps above. 10. Close regedit. 11. Restart the computer to fully apply. =========================================================================== from: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/38933-favorites-add-remove-navigation-pane.html keys: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder 1. regedit 2. Code: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder 3. left pane - regedit, right click - ShellFolder - click on Permissions. 4. Administrators group. - Allow - Full Control - OK. 5. right pane - regedit, right click - Attributes - Modify. 6. To Remove Favorites from the Navigation Pane A) Type in a9400100 and click on OK. 7. To Add Favorites to the Navigation Pane NOTE: This is the default setting. A) Type in a0900100 and click on OK. 8. 64-bit Windows 7 A) Code: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder B) Type in a9400100 and click on OK. 10. Close regedit. 11. Restart the computer to fully apply. ===========================================================================