Techinch.com | Tag Archive

Tag Archives | Windows 7

Get Angry Birds on Your Windows PC

By Matthew Guay on February 22, 2011 in Featured, Techinch

Want to get the most popular mobile game on your PC? Angry Birds has taken the iPhone and Android world by storm, and it was recently released on the new Mac App Store. Windows doesn’t include an App Store by default, so for the most part you have to manually find, purchase, and install new programs you want. That is now changing with Intel’s AppUp Store. The AppUp store is designed to bring new applications to Windows XP and 7 based netbook, but it works fine on normal Windows desktops and laptops as well. Best of all, Angry Birds is now available for $4.99 on the AppUp Store and runs great on any Windows computer.

Angry Birds is now avilable for all Windows Computers directly from Rovio, so you can now get it without the Intel AppUp store. Just go to http://download.angrybirds.com/, and you can download trial and paid versions of all the editions of Angry Birds!

Install the AppUp Store

First, though, you’ll need to install the Intel AppUp application on your PC. Download and install it as normal on your computer. This should only take a few minutes, and once it’s installed, you’ll have quick access to tons of great, new free and premium apps for your Windows PC.

Note: While the AppUp Center works great on both Windows 7 and Windows XP computers, it is not working at all on Windows Vista in our tests. If you try it on Vista and get it to work, please let us know in the comments below!

In the mean time, you’ll need to register for an AppUp account. Head over to the AppUp registration site, and enter your personal and credit card info so you’ll be ready to purchase new apps like Angry Birds.

As soon as the install is finished, the AppUp Center should automatically open. If it doesn’t, you’ll find it in your Start menu or on your desktop. You can now browse the store and see the different games and apps that are included. Apps are organized into categories, with featured apps front and center similar to the way the iOS App Store looks in iTunes. Only difference is, this time, the programs are designed for your PC.

Getting Angry Birds

Ok, enough talk. Let’s get the game everyone wants: Angry Birds. It’s currently a featured app, so you could just click Buy App right from the front page. Alternately, click its link or search for it via the top search bar to see more info. Once you’re sure you want to buy it, click Buy App.

When prompted, sign in with the account you made previously, then confirm that you want to purchase the app. The AppUp Center gives you a 24 hour free trial, so you can return the app within 24 hours if you decide you don’t want it.

Angry Birds will now start downloading, and will automatically install once its downloaded. It still uses a standard Windows Installer, and you may have to click an UAC prompt during the installation, but overall it’s quicker and easier than traditional Windows program installs. It’s not as easy as installing apps from the Mac App Store, but it’s not that bad either. And, if you have multiple PCs, you can install the same app on up to 4 computers with the same account for no additional charge!

Smash Those Pigs!

Once its installed, you can launch the game straight from the AppUp center, or from the Angry Birds link in your Start menu. Seconds later, you’ll be playing the world’s favorite touch screen game … on your PC with a mouse! I’d say it’d be rather fun on an HP Touchsmart or other PC with a touchscreen, though I don’t have a touchscreen PC to try it on. If you’ve got a touchscreen PC, let us know how it works on it!

Angry Birds worked great on my main PC, which is a Windows 7 desktop with an AMD Athlon 64 x2 processor … definitely not a netbook! It also works great on netbooks, of course. The only computer I couldn’t get it to work on was a Vista desktop with an Intel processor; hopefully they’ll support Vista in the near future, but for now, the App Center only runs on Windows 7 and XP.

Angry Birds for PC includes everything you love about Angry Birds, including all of the standard levels. The only problem is, you can’t import your score from your iPhone or Android phone, so you’ll have to go beat all the levels all over again! Or, if you haven’t gotten to experience Angry Birds because you don’t have a modern smartphone, it’ll be all new to you.

Since most PCs don’t have touchscreens, you’ll have to drag the screens with your mouse to pan and see the whole level. Then, just click and drag your bird back, aim, and release your mouse to set your bird sailing through the air to the birds.

Oddly, the only major problem I had with Angry Birds for PC was with taking screenshots. It interferes with almost every screenshot program, so the only way I could get shots is to press Alt-tab and then hover over the Angry Birds icon in my taskbar. Camtasia Studio couldn’t take a video screencast of it, either; it just recorded my desktop with my mouse going back and forth and the Angry Birds sounds in the background. But hey, you don’t usually need to take screenshots while playing a game, so this shouldn’t be a problem!

Returning AppUp Center Apps

Of course, Angry Birds isn’t the only interesting app in the AppUp center, so feel free to check out other apps in the store. There’s plenty of free and for-pay options, and you just might find a fun, new app that you’ve never come across before. Best of all, you can try out any app, even paid ones, for free for 24 hours. If you decide you don’t want the app, just open the AppUp Center and click the My Apps tab on the left. Select Transaction History, then click the Options button on the app you want to return. Click Cancel Purchase before your 24 hour timeframe is up to return it. You’ll be asked to tell why you’re returning the app, and then it will automatically uninstall from your computer. That’s tons easier than most ways of trying out new programs!

Conclusion

It’s exciting as a Windows PC user to see new apps coming out for PCs again. Recently it’s seemed like all the developer focus is on mobile and Mac apps, but Intel’s AppUp Center just might turn things around again. In fact, some developers are finding it easier to get their new apps out for PCs than on Apple’s App Stores. TinyGrab, a great freemium screenshot utility for Macs, Windows, and iOS, has recently found Apple’s restrictions on the App Store too restrictive for their app, while at the same time they’ve found it easy to work with Intel on getting their app on the AppUp Center.

Hopefully Intel will continue to improve the AppUp Center and make it fully supported on computers other than netbooks. And, of course, hopefully Microsoft will make their own App Store for Windows and make it easier to get apps on all modern versions of Windows. For now, though, all the apps I tried work great on Windows 7 and XP. And hey, who would have thought that Angry Birds would finally be available for PCs?

Download Intel AppUp

Angry Birds Info Page on the AppUp Store

The Angry Birds Official Site

New! Download directly from Rovio Without the Intel AppUp Store

Comments { 8 }

Make Sure Chrome Will Keep Playing h.264 Video

By Matthew Guay on February 3, 2011 in Quick Tips

Last year, it looked like the HTML5 video codec war was over. All major browsers other than Firefox had announced or added support for h.264/MPEG video playback. This was a great win for users, and many websites began switching from Flash powered videos to h.264 videos with the HTML5 <video> tag. Whether you’re using Safari on a Mac, Chrome on a Windows computer or Chrome netbook, or an Apple iPhone or iPad, h.264 videos would playback the same without requiring frustrating, CPU intensive plugins like Adobe Flash Player.

That’s all changed now, as Google announced that they will be dropping support for h.264 encoded videos in favor of their own WebM format. The problem is, WebM formatted videos would only playback right now in Firefox 4 beta and Chrome. Google has announced that they will make WebM plugins for Safari and Internet Explorer, but the facts remain that many sites already are either using h.264 videos in HTML5 or are simply using Flash Player to decode the videos.

So, what can you do if you want to playback h.264 encoded videos in your browser, but still want to use Chrome? If you’re using Windows 7, Microsoft’s already got a solution for you. Media Player in Windows 7 already includes a licensed h.264 playback codec, so they made a Chrome extension that will let you playback h.264 videos in webpages using the codec already on your computer.

To make sure you’ll always be able to playback h.264 videos in Chrome, just head to the Microsoft Interoperability Bridges site to download the free Windows Media Player HTML5 Extension for Chrome. Install the extension as usual. Now, once Google actually drops h.264 support from Chrome, you’ll never notice the difference!

Then, when Google releases the WebM extension for IE and Safari, you could install it in those browsers to make sure you’ll be able to see any video on any site. Flash is being used less and less, though unfortunately, that doesn’t mean you’ll quit having to install extensions and plugins to view everything online. Maybe someday…

Comments { 2 }

Speed up Evernote on Windows

By Matthew Guay on January 14, 2011 in Featured, Techinch

Have you ever fired up Evernote for Windows to find something you’ve jotted down only to find that it’s running glacially and takes forever just to open a note? Even with the new and improved Evernote 4, sometimes it still is one of the slowest apps on my PC. So much so, in fact, that I’d nearly switched to using Evernote web instead of the desktop interface.

Today, thanks to an Evernote forum thread, I found a couple tricks that can help speed up Evernote. Follow along, and we’ll see if you can get Evernote feeling snappy again.

Activate Detective Mode

Ok, it’s not quite that dramatic, but Evernote does have some hidden developer tools that can help improve Evernote for Windows’ performance. First, if you have Evernote running, exit it from your system tray.

Now, open the Run command by pressing your Windows key and R at the same time (Win+R). Enter the following in the box, the press Enter or click Ok:

Evernote.exe /DebugMenu

When Evernote opens, you’ll notice a new [Debug] menu on your toolbar. This includes two options that really seemed to speed up Evernote on my computer: Optimize Database and Recreate Note Images. Optimizing your database is likely to help Evernote’s performance the most, though if you have some notes that have odd thumbnails (or no thumbnails), then you might try recreating the note images as well.

Both of these options will take several minutes to run, during which time you’ll see the status updated in a progress bar. If you’d like to give both options a shot, just run one, then the other.

Once it’s finished, you can continue to use Evernote as normal, or restart it to get rid of the [Debug] menu. Evernote still isn’t the fastest app, but it’s much improved after optimizing my database. I’ve got tons of notes in Evernote, and love the Evernote apps on iOS, so would really hate to quit using it. I really hope Evernote works to optimize Evernote for Windows and make it run faster, but in the mean time, this at least provided a bit of help for me. Hopefully you’ll find this helpful too … let us know in the comments!

Comments { 7 }

Window Clippings 3 | Aero Screenshots the Way They’re Meant to be

By Matthew Guay on November 29, 2010 in Featured, PC Software

So you want to show off the latest app on your blog or help your sibling figure out what menu they’re supposed to be opening on a program. The handy Prt Scr key should be your answer, but unfortunately, it doesn’t take very good shots of the Aero interface in Windows 7 or Vista. Today let’s look at the latest version of Window Clippings that was just released today and see how easy it can be to make your screenshots look professional and modern.

Window Clippings was one of the first screenshot apps that was designed to capture the full Aero glass and shadows interface in screenshots. You can use it to capture shots of windows, menus, or even a free-form selection quickly and easily.

Getting Started

Window Clippings is simple to install and use. Just run the installer and accept the license as normal.

Launch Window Clippings after it’s installed, select the About tab, then enter your license key. If you don’t have a license yet, you can run it as a trial but all of your shots will include a watermark on the bottom.

Now you can tweak your settings to make Window Clippings work just like you like. The UI has been fully updated in Window Clippings 3, so if you’ve already used a previous version you’ll be pleased how nice and easy to use the new settings dialog is. From the Actions window, you can choose what you want Window Clippings to do after you take a screenshot. It can automatically save shots to disk, copy them to the clipboard, send them to OneNote or Paint.NET or more.

You can also choose from capture options that let you include your mouse pointer, remove font smoothing, and more.

Taking Great Screenshots

To take a screenshot with Window Clippings, just press your Prt Scr key or click the Create Screenshot button in the Window Clippings window. Your desktop will fade out similar to the way it did when opening the Shutdown dialog in XP. Now click on the windows you want to capture, or just click and drag to draw a rectangle selection. To capture multiple windows, hold down the Ctrl key while selecting windows.

Or, if you want to capture a free-form area, hold down the Alt key while drawing with your mouse. Once you’ve satisfied with your selection, press Enter to save your capture.

If you already know which window you need to capture, you can simply select its name from the Window Clippings app and snap it directly.

For the truly geeky, you can even capture screenshots directly from the command prompt with a variety of parameters. Check out the Window Clippings blog post on Command line capture for more info.

The Results:

No matter what you need to capture, Window Clippings makes your shots look just like they did on your screen when you shot them. This shot was taken with a background image set and windows right against the taskbar, but Window Clippings still captured the full transparency and shadows of the aero preview and tooltip.

Just to demonstrate how flexible these screenshots are, here’s the same shot on top of two background images in Paint.NET. Notice the beautiful transparency makes it look like the preview was running on this background!

No need to layer your screenshots in an image editor afterwards, though; Window Clippings can capture all the windows you select at once if you wish.

It works great for freeform screenshot too. Notice that freeform and rectangle clips won’t include drop shadows, as Window Clippings only includes the Aero shadows on windows and menus. No matter what shape you capture, it’ll look great with PNG transparency and smoothing on the curved areas.

Window Clippings works great for capturing menus; just hold the Ctrl key down while selecting all the elements you want to appear in your shots. However, we did have some trouble with menus closing after pressing Enter but before the shot was saved. To alleviate this problem, you may want to enable delayed capture. Then, if your menu closes, re-open it before the time’s up and your screenshot is fully captured.

If you ever need to change your settings again, just right-click the tray icon and select Open Window Clippings. Alternately, double-click on the tray icon to take a quick screenshot.

Conclusion

Window Clippings runs on Windows 7 and Vista, and is available for download for $35 per user. If you still need to take screenshots in XP, you’ll also receive a license for Window Clippings 2.1 which works similar but will also run on Windows XP. Also, if you’ve bought a Window Clippings 2 license previously, you’ll be receiving a free upgrade key for Window Clippings 3 soon.

This app is cheaper than many competing screenshot tools such as SnagIt, and captures screenshots of modern apps better than most other apps we’ve tried. I did experience a few issues in testing, such as screenshots that included the edge of another app on the bottom, but in general it did this less than most alternate screenshot tools. It’s also extremely lightweight, using less than 2Mb of ram when running in the taskbar, so you won’t need to worry about keeping it running.

Window Clippings 3 is definitely one of the best screenshot tools in my opinion, and the only thing that SnagIt still does better is that you can edit and catalog your screenshots directly in the app. But when you can auto-save and directly edit screenshots in Paint.NET with Window Clippings, there’s not much to miss. Give the trial a shot, and then get a license if you’re needing a great way to take high quality Aero screenshots.

Our Rating: 9/10

Download and Purchase Window Clippings 3

Get Started with Window Clippings 3 Tutorials

Comments { 0 }

Use Droplr on Your PC with windroplr

By Matthew Guay on November 4, 2010 in PC Software, Techinch

If you’re a PC users but have friends or collegues that use Macs, you may have envied Droplr, the cool Mac file sharing service. Thanks to a new app, windroplr, PCs can now get in on the action. Let’s take a look at windroplr and the Droplr service, and see you can use it to quickly share files, links, and text with anyone.

What is Droplr?

Droplr is a dead simple way to share files, images, notes, code, or almost anything you can think of on the internet. Simply drag your content to the Droplr icon, and it’ll be uploaded and ready for you to share in seconds, no second step required. Until now it was only available on Mac OS X and iOS devices via Droplr for iPhone. Today PC users can get the same great service thanks to the brand new app windroplr, which gives you all of Droplr’s features on your Windows PC.

Getting Started

Head over to the windroplr site and download the installer, then install it as normal. Windroplr requires .NET 4.0, so if you’re still using XP you’ll need to install it first. Once it’s done installing, run windroplr and click Next to start setting it up. Droplr uses your Twitter account, so enter your username and password, then click Go!.

windroplr will verify your settings, then within seconds you’ll be ready to start sharing files and more. Once it’s done, you’ll see a Droplr drop target on the bottom right corner of your screen, as well as a new windroplr icon in your tray. You can press Win+Shift+W to show or hide the Droplr drop target.

Using windroplr

To start sharing files, just drag and drop any file you’d like to the drop target in the corner of your screen.

If the file you’ve selected is large, you’ll notice the windroplr tray icon filling up with purple to show the upload progress. Do note that you cannot upload any over 32Mb, so this works best for sharing smaller images and documents.

Seconds later, you’ll see a link for your file. Click the notification bubble to copy the link to your clipboard so you can share it in a tweet, email, or any way you want.

Here’s how our image looks online once it’s been uploaded. Droplr’s web interface gives you a very stylish way to share content.

Droplr also makes it easy to send a screenshot to someone. Right-click the tray icon and select Grab screenshot or press Win+Shift+S to capture and upload a screenshot automatically.

When capturing a screenshot, your screen will darken and you’ll be able to select any area to capture and upload.

You can also upload plain text in a drop. Simply right-click the tray icon and select Compose Note, and you’ll see a small text editor open. Alternately, just select some text in any application you’re currently using, and drag it to the drop and it’ll automatically open the text editor with the text you’re uploading. Now, type or paste any text and edit it as you want in the box, select whether it’s plain text, formatted with Markdown markup, or code, and click Upload.

Here’s how a text Drop looks:

Update: After using Droplr for a while, I discovered you can upload more than one file at a time, too. Simply select all the files you want, or a whole folder, and drag it to the windroplr drop button. Your files will be uploaded as a zip archive, ready to share just like any other files. This is a great way to send everything you need from a project to your coworkers or friends quickly and easily.

Viewing your Droplr Files Online

Once you’ve got some files uploaded to Droplr, you may want to manage them online. Simply head to the Droplr site and click Sign in in the top right corner to get started.

You’ll need to verify your account with your Twitter account before you’ll be able to see your files.

Once this is done, you’ll see your online Droplr dashboard with all of your uploads. You can view all of your uploads by type from the buttons on the top, or select a file to delete it. You can even see the number of times each file has been viewed and get its link again, or search for a certain file from the top bar. This gives you a great way to manage all the files you’ve shared as easily as you’d manage files on your computer.

Select the Gear icon to view the Droplr preferences. You can even add your own custom domain to Droplr if you redirect it to Droplr!

Conclusion

Droplr is a Mac app we’ve envied for a long time, and we’re excited to get to use it in Windows 7. Droplr is truly an easy way to share small files, and makes a great alternative to simply adding shared Dropbox folders will everyone you need to share files with. Since Drop.io is closing down this year, Droplr is a great alternate service that works similarly but looks much nicer. Plus, if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can get the Droplr app to add files to your account and view your old drops on the go. Give it a try and let us know your thoughts on Droplr below!

Download windroplr and get started sharing today! – Update: http://windroplr.com/ now works as well

Check out Droplr’s site

Hat tip to AddictiveTips for the link!

Comments { 6 }

Access Your Windows System Tray From Your Keyboard

By Matthew Guay on October 25, 2010 in Quick Tips

Have you ever wanted to quickly access an app in your Windows system tray but didn’t want to grab your mouse? Here’s how you can use anything in your system tray directly from your keyboard.

There are keyboard shortcuts for almost anything you want to do on your computer. Most of use know the shortcuts for copy, paste, and other common tasks, but there’s tons of useful ones that are slightly less known. Recently I was wanting a way to quickly access apps in my system tray directly from my keyboard. Low and behold, there is an easy shortcut to access your system tray from the keyboard. Here it is:

Simply press Win + B on your keyboard (the Windows key and B at the same time) to select your system tray.

Please Note: This trick only works in newer editions of Windows, including Windows Vista and 7, so it won’t work in Windows XP.

Here’s how it works. On Windows 7, I pressed Win + B, and it automatically selected the Show hidden icons button in the system tray.

Press enter to see your hidden icons. Then, move between your tray icons with your up and down arrows. When you’ve selected the icon for the app you want to open, just press the Enter key on your keyboard.

Pressing Enter on a system item, such as the Network icon, will open the preview window just like it would when you left-click it normally.

Or, to see the options for an item like you’d usually see by right-clicking, press the menu button on your keyboard (usually located beside the right Ctrl button, or press Shift + F10.

This works with the Windows tray elements such as the expand button and clock as well. Here we’ve pressed Win + B, then pressed the menu button to get the system tray menu, all without leaving the keyboard. Just press the up and down arrows to access the various options, and press Enter to select the highlighted option.

And, as we mentioned before, it works in Windows Vista as well. Here, though, it’ll just expand your tray since Vista doesn’t include the nice hidden icons popup.

Keyboard shortcuts are a great way to make your tech life simpler, and there’s tons of useful keyboard shortcuts in Windows 7. This shortcut is a welcome addition to our keyboard shortcut arsenal, and I regularly use it to view the time in other time zones or view my to-dos in GeeTeeDee without leaving the keyboard. Feel free to share your favorite keyboard shortcuts in the comments below!

Comments { 0 }

Add Administrative Tools to Your Windows Start Menu

By Matthew Guay on September 16, 2010 in Quick Tips

Did you just notice that the Administrative Tools folder is missing from your Start Menu, or can you not find crucial tools such as Event Viewer, Performance Monitor, or the Advance Firewall quickly from your start menu search? Here’s how to add it back in 10 seconds.

This demo was done on Windows 7 Professional, but it works the exact same in all versions of Vista and Windows 7, and is almost the exact same in Windows XP.

Get your Administrative Tools

Right click on your start menu, and select Properties.

Alternately, you can click any empty area of the start menu itself, and select Properties.

Now, select the Start Menu tab, and click Customize.

Scroll down to the System administrative tools section, and choose whether you want to display it on the All Programs menu or on the front of the Start Menu as well. I personally keep it in the All Programs menu, but the choice is yours! Click Ok to save your settings.

Now, when you open the All Programs part of your Start Menu, you’ll see the Administrative Tools folder you were looking for, with all of your missing tools! You can also now quickly find anything in this folder from the Start Menu search.

Alternately, if you chose to add it to your Start Menu directly, here’s how it will look.

Now you’ve got quick access to your administrative tools back in your Start Menu where it belongs. This should be the default setting in Windows, especially in the Professional and Ultimate editions, but for some reason, it’s hidden by default. At any rate, it’s easy to get it back the way it should be. Enjoy!

Comments { 0 }

Windows 7 Calculator features

By Matthew Guay on September 7, 2010 in Quick Tips

Want to check out some of the latest features in calculator in Windows 7? This quick video will help you get a quick overview of how it works and some of the new features it includes. Enjoy!

I made this video actually just to test out Camtasia Studio 7, but it worked so good that I hope to do more videos here in the near future. If you have any input or suggestions, please let me know!

Comments { 0 }

Discover if Your Computer is Running a 32 or 64 bit Edition of Windows

By Matthew Guay on August 9, 2010 in Quick Tips

64 bit editions of Windows are quickly becoming the standard on new computers as more computers are sold with 3Gb or more of ram. Almost all computers sold nowadays, including netbooks with Intel Atom N45x processors and newer, are 64 bit capable, and most programs work just as good on the 64 bit version of Windows as they do on the 32 bit editions. Many new programs, including Photoshop CS5, Office 2010, AutoCAD 2011, and more are available in 64 bit editions to take full advantage of your hardware. If you’re wondering if your computer is running the 64 bit version of Windows to see which programs to install, here’s how you can tell what your computer is running.

See What Edition of Windows 7 or Vista You’re running

64 bit versions of Windows 7 and Vista are fairly popular, so if you have a newer computer running either of these you have a fair chance of your computer running the 64 bit version. If your computer came with 3Gb ram or more, it most likely came with the 64 bit edition preinstalled; otherwise, you likely have the 32 bit edition.

To find out for sure, open the Start Menu, right-click on Computer, and select Properties.

Fun Fact: Windows Server 2008 R2 is only available in 64 bit, so if your system is running it you’ll know for sure you’re running a 64 bit edition without checking.

This dialog will show what version of Windows you’re running near the top; this computer is running Windows 7 Home Premium as you can see in the green circle. Then, under System on down, you’ll see what processor your computer is running, as well as how much Ram you have. Underneath that you’ll see if you’re using a 32 bit version of Windows beside System type. This computer includes 1Gb of ram and is running a 32 bit edition of Windows as you can see in the red circle.

And here’s what it looks like on a computer running a 64 bit edition:

See if Your Computer Could run a 64 bit Edition

If your computer is running a 32 bit edition of Windows 7 or Vista, you can quickly see if your computer is capable of running a 64 bit edition. To do this, click your Experience Score rating; if you haven’t updated the score in a while, the link may say that the score needs to be refreshed, but it will still work fine for this check.

Click View and print detailed performance and system information to get more info.

Now, under System, you’ll see if your computer 64 bit capable or not. Here we see that this netbook is 64 bit capable!

See if Your Running a 64 bit Version of XP

The 64 bit version of Windows XP was seldom used, as it had to be purchased as a separate version and was not included by default. If you’re still running XP, most likely you’re running the 32 bit version, but you can check to be sure if you’d like.

Fun Fact: XP Mode on Windows 7 uses a 32 bit version of XP even if you’re using it on a 64 bit edition of Windows 7. So if you’re wanting to install a program in XP Mode, you’ll need to use the 32 bit version. If you’re using a program that does have a 64 bit version, you’d likely be better off to run it directly in Windows 7 anyhow.

To check, right-click on My Computer in the start menu and select Properties. This window will show you your system properties, including the version of Windows. If you’re running the 64 bit version of XP, it will say Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.

Conclusion

As more programs are designed to take advantage of 64 bit computers, it’ll be increasingly needful to know what edition of Windows you’re using. I’ve been using the 64 bit edition of Windows 7 since the first beta in January 2009, and haven’t had problems with any standard programs in it. Plus, you can always run older, 32 bit programs in XP Mode if you have any that won’t work in the 64 bit edition of Windows 7.

Comments { 0 }

Remove the Clock, Volume, and More From the Windows 7 Taskbar

By Matthew Guay on August 6, 2010 in Quick Tips, Techinch

Are you tired of the default system icons and clock taking up precious space on your taskbar? Here’s how you can tweak the system tray to your liking and remove any or all of the default icons.

Windows 7 keeps the system tray much cleaner than previous versions of Windows, as it automatically hides new icons in the tray. However, it does usually have several default icons, including Action Center, power, network, sound, and the clock. While each of these can be useful, sometimes extra space in the taskbar can be more useful, especially if you’re using a small screen on a laptop or netbook.

One way to quickly reclaim some space is to drag the default icons such as network and power to the hidden icons section. Simply click and drag the icons to the end of the tray, and the hidden icon pane will open for you to place the icons where you want. We find that we seldom need to use these icons, as we’re more likely to use hotkeys on our laptop to turn volume up or down, or turn off WiFi. Now your icons are a click away, and your tray is cleaner.

However, that still left the clock in the tray. If you really want your tray to be as clean as possible, you can remove that, too. To remove the clock, right-click on it and select Customize notification icons.

This dialog will let you choose which icons to hide, though we find it easier to just manage the icons by dragging and dropping them to or from the hidden icons pane as above. There’s no option for the default system icons and the clock here, though, so click the Turn system icons on or off link near the bottom of the dialog.

Now you can choose to turn on or off the clock and any of the default system icons. Most of the icons are handy to keep around, so we’ve simply moved them to the hidden icons section in the tray, but this is the only place you can turn off the clock.

Once you’ve done this, your system tray will be fully empty, showing on the Show Desktop button and the up arrow to see the hidden icons.

You can still access the hidden icons as before, so you can still access the volume and network info easily.

Conclusion

Although it can be handy to quickly see the current date and time in the system tray, sometimes it can be best to have an uncluttered taskbar, especially on small screens. Windows 7 lets you pick exactly what you want to show in the system tray so the taskbar can work just like you want it to. Whether you prefer to use the clock desktop gadget or your trusty wrist watch, or still prefer to see the time in the system tray, you can tweak Windows to work like you want.

Comments { 0 }

1 2 … 4 Next »

Install the AppUp Store

Getting Angry Birds

Smash Those Pigs!

Returning AppUp Center Apps

Conclusion

Activate Detective Mode

Getting Started

Taking Great Screenshots

The Results:

Conclusion

Our Rating: 9/10

Getting Started

Using windroplr

Viewing your Droplr Files Online

Conclusion

Get your Administrative Tools

See What Edition of Windows 7 or Vista You’re running

See if Your Computer Could run a 64 bit Edition

See if Your Running a 64 bit Version of XP

Conclusion

Conclusion

Sponsors: