Some tips I discovered in Win 7

[Rudi]

1. Most people right click on the taskbar icons to access the typical context menu options to control the open application (or icon). Well I found that if you just left click and drag off the icon, it shows the same context menu of options. Its quite cool...the slower you drag, the nicer the animation.

2. If you need another session of the same application, simply hold down SHIFT and click on the taskbar icon. It opens a new session of the same program. (Great for notepad).
PS: Use CTRL+SHIFT to open the application as an administrator.

3. Move the pointer over the small bar to the right of the clock to get a peek at the desktop. (Great if you have gadgets on there you need to access).

4. You can change the icons of the taskbar to small in the property settings if you want to simulate the old style Vista taskbar style.

Any more tips??

Please add!

[HansV]

3. Move the pointer over the small bar to the right of the clock to get a peek at the desktop. (Great if you have gadgets on there you need to access).

And clicking in that small bar will minimize all applications - it's the equivalent of the Show Desktop button that used to be available on the Quick Launch toolbar, and of the WinKey+D and WinKey+M shortcut keys.

Already mentioned in this forum: if you use an AeroGlass theme, you can use AeroShake and AeroSnap:

• Grab a window by its title bar and shake it a few times to the left and right. All other windows will be minimized. Shake the window again and the other windows will reappear.
• Move a window to the top of the screen to maximize it; move it away from the top to restore it.
• Move a window to the left edge of the screen to expand it to the left half of the screen (keyboard shortcut: WinKey+left arrow)
• Move a window to the right edge of the screen to expand it to the right half of the screen (keyboard shortcut: WinKey+right arrow)

[HansV]

Another one:

If you resize a window by dragging its top border up until it bumps into the top of the screen, the window will be maximized vertically while maintaining its width. Same if you drag the bottom border down until it bumps into the Windows taskbar.

[Rudi]

Another one:

If you resize a window by dragging its top border up until it bumps into the top of the screen, the window will be maximized vertically while maintaining its width. Same if you drag the bottom border down until it bumps into the Windows taskbar.

Wow...thats a new one!
And the shaking story is interesting too. Whoever would have thought of that!!

[Rudi]

Show desktop behind active window
If you are working in a document and have multiple other apps open in the background, you can simply hit Win+Home to minimize all the non-active windows, keeping the window you’re using in its current position. To restore the background windows to their original locations again, use Win+Home again.

Shortcut keys to access a new instance of the first 5 appls on the taskbar
You can start a new instance of any of the first five icons on the taskbar by pressing Win+1, Win+2, Win+3 etc.
Also (if you have not discovered this yet, you can drag the icons on the taskbar to re-arrange them in a specific order!)

Hidden cool wallpaper
If you browse to C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT, you can access additional wallpaper of various county landscapes. Usually you will only see wallpaper of the country your windows was registered under. To see all the various country wallpaper, go to the link above which is a hidden directory. (Ensure that you can see hidden folders in your folder settings, or use Run.

If you use the command prompt often, here is a shortcut
To access the command: “Open Command Prompt Here”, you can simply hold the Shift key down while selecting the context menu to get exactly the command prompt with a direct point to the drive or appl. you right clicked on. If the current working directory is a network location, it will automatically map a drive letter for you.

Record your steps
There is a in-built diagnostic tool in Win 7 that can be used to send feedback on the product. The Problem Steps Recorder provides a simple screen capture tool that enables you to record a series of actions. Once you hit “record”, it tracks your mouse and keyboard and captures screenshots with any comments you choose to associate alongside them. Once you stop recording, it saves the whole thing to a ZIP file, containing an HTML-based “slide show” of the steps.

[HansV]

If you hold down the Shift key while right-clicking a folder in Windows Explorer, you'll get extra options in the popup menu, such as
- Open in a new process
- Open command prompt window here (this was a PowerToy in Windows XP)
- Copy path

For a file, there are also extra options:
- Pin to start menu (if appropriate for the file type)
- Copy path