Link Safe

If you do not like the drive icons in Windows 7, you can change them with a simple trick. Press [Win] and type “regedit” in the opening window and confirm with [Enter]. Then go to the patt

 “HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\DriveIcons”. If the key “DriveIcons” does not exist, click on “Explorer” and create the key via “Edit | New | Key”. Now, in the same way, create a key for every drive in the “DriveIcons” folder, whose icon you wish to change. Name the key with the drive letter. Create another key with the name “DefaultIcon” in each of these keys. In the key last created, click on the right side on “Standard”. Changethe value to 

“C:\Windows\system32\shell32.dll,X”. The "X" is a placeholder for the desired icon. What you have to use here, you will read it in the next paragraph. Proceed in the same manner with all drives which you wish to change and, in each case, click on “OK”.

To find the variables that stand for your desired icon, go to the Desktop and right-click on any link like your

browser. Now select “Properties” and go to the tab “Link”. Click on “Another Icon” here and type “C:\Windows\system32\shell32.dll” in the field above the icons. Confirm with [Enter]. Now start counting from 0 on top left and go through the icons, column for column, from top to bottom. Enter the number of the desired icon in the Registry instead of “X”.

Microsoft’s OneDrive is an excellent online cloud-storage option for backing up your files (especially photos, PDFs and documents). It comes with 15GB of free storage space, which should be more than enough for most people. What’s more, OneDrive comes pre-installed with Windows 10, so you’ll have easy access to your synced files if you upgrade your PC.

The fastest way to move files to OneDrive in Windows 7 and 8 is to install the Desktop program, then add OneDrive as a destination to your PC’s right-click Send To menu. If you don’t have the OneDrive Desktop program, go to 1drv.ms/1MDs6va, click the ‘Download now’ button on the left, launch the setup file, follow the onscreen instructions to install it, then log in with your Microsoft account. 

To add OneDrive as a Send To menu location, press the Window key+R to open the Run dialogue box, then type shell:sendto and press Enter. You’ll see a folder containing all the locations in your PC’s right-click Send To menu. Drag the OneDrive icon from your Desktop into this folder to add it as a location. Now whenever you want to move your files/folders to OneDrive, simply select those items, right-click any of the selected ones, move your cursor to Send To and click OneDrive. This tip won’t work in Windows 10, but you should add OneDrive to your Desktop for easy access. To do that, open the Start menu, click ‘All apps’ at the bottom left, navigate to the OneDrive tile and drag it on to your Desktop.

Defragging (defragmenting) tidies up the space on your computer’s hard drive letting Windows find data stored on it more quickly, so it’s a very effective way to speed up your PC. A boot defrag is a super charged defrag, doing its work before any other processes (including Windows itself) start running. It’s therefore able to include files that Windows normally locks, resulting in an even greater speed boost. Some free defragging tools, such as Defraggler (www.piriform.com/defraggler) and open-source program UltraDefrag (bit.ly/1I7SSJX), have boot-defrag options. But on most PCs you can set up a boot defrag via the Registry without installing software.

Open Regedit and go to:MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction. If your PC

supports boot defrag, you’ll see Enable in the list on the right. If it’s set to ‘y’, your PC is already set to defrag when it boots. If it’s set to ‘n’, double-click Enable and change the ‘Value data’ to ‘y’ (see screenshot right). Restart your PC to run the boot defrag. While this will speed up your PC, don’t leave it to run every time you switch on your computer because it will slow down your startup. The first time you do it, it may take hours to complete. So make the Registry edit described above then restart your PC last thing before you go to bed. Then go back into Regedit next day and change the BootOptimizeFunction value back to ‘n’ to prevent it running every time you start your PC.

Every few weeks your PC automatically downloads important system updates in the background. You’re then prompted to install them by restarting your PC. You can choose to delay the restart by selecting a time (from ‘10 minutes’ to ‘4 hours’) from the dropdown menu. After that time elapses, your PC will automatically reboot.

If you’re working on something important and need to continue using your PC beyond four hours, then there’s an easy way to bypass this automatic reboot using the Command Prompt. You first need to open it as an Administrator. To do that, press the Windows key, type cmd, press Ctrl+Shift+Enter, then Yes (to confirm you want to open the Command Prompt as Admin). Now type the following command net stop “windows update”, into the Command Prompt (see screenshot below), then press Enter. 

Windows 7 the best operating system of all time. But it could be even better. By hacking it yourself you can make it faster, disable irritating features and add more great functionality without having to install new software. All the hacks we're Suggesting here involve editing the Windows Registry, which is a lot less scary than it sounds. You need to be logged in with an Administrator account, then open the Registry Editor by clicking Start, typing regedit and pressing Enter. Follow the instructions in each tip to locate the relevant Registry keys and edit them-in most cases all this really involves  is typing text. You may need to restart your PC in each case.

Before making changes to any Registry keys‘ you Should back them up in case anything goes Wrong or you later decide you want to reverse the changes. To back up individual keys, highlight the item in question in either the left or right pane of the Registry Editor then click File and select Export. Choose somewhere to save your backup, name the file something memorable and click Save.

To restore an individual key, locate the .reg file you backed up and double-click it, then click Yes twice. You'll see a message telling you the key has been added to the Registry Click OK. If you're planning to make lots of changes to the Registry, then it makes sense to back up the whole thing instead or-for as well as- individual keys. To do this, create a system Restore point before carrying out your edits. Click Start, type restore point and press Enter. Click Create, name your restore point and click Create again.

There are a number of simple Registry hacks that will instantly make your PC feel faster by minimising the unnecessary delays that Microsoft has built into the operating system's behaviour. For example, you can eliminate the annoying pauses that occur when you move your mouse over the taskbar icon for a preview, or over the Aero Peek button at the end of the taskbar to view the Desktop. Open the Registry Editor and navigate

to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/Advanced

Right click in the blank area in the right-hand pane and select New then choose ‘DWORD (32-bit) Value’ and name it ExtendedUIHoverTime. Double- click the new key put a check next to Decimal, change the ‘Value data’ to 10 and click OK. Right-click in  the right-hand pane again and create another ‘DWORD (32-bit) Value‘ as above, naming this one DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime. As before, double-click it, put a check next to Decimal, change the ‘Value data’ to 10 and click OK.

For many people, one of the more annoying aspects of Windows 7’s interface is Aero Snap. This is the feature that automatically resizes and fixes the position of a program window if you drag it near the sides or top of your screen. If you find this a constant source of irritation, you’ll be pleased to hear that there's a Registry hack that will turn Aero Snap off Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Desktop. Scroll down and double-click on the key named

WindowArrangementActive. Change the number in the ‘Value data’ field from 1 to 0 then click OK

It's best to set Windows Update to download and install the latest updates automatically However, this inevitably results in the sporadic appearance of a reminder window that pops up and nags you to restart your PC. You can choose to postpone the restart, but if you happen to be away from your PC later on, Windows Update may eventually elect to restart your computer automatically anyway, interrupting any downloads and programs that are running. Here's how to stop the restarts happening without disabling automatic updates altogether. In the Registry Editor, navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU.

If you can’t find entries for WindowsUpdate or AU, you can create these yourself To do so, right-click on the Windows key in the left.-hand tree and select New, then Key. Type WindowsUpdate, and press Enter. Then right-click on the new  WindowsUpdate key, select New, then  Key. Type AU and press Enter. With the AU key highlighted on the left, right-click in the blank space in the right-hand pane and select New, then ‘DWORD (32—bit) Value‘. Name this NoAutoRebootWithLogged0nUsers, then double-click it, set the ‘Value data’ field to 1 and click OK

If you rarely-or never-use the Caps Lock function it can be irritating when you accidentally hit the key, especially if you're trying to enter a case-sensitive password that’s hidden on-screen. If you want to disable the Caps Lock key altogether, you can use Registry hack that effectively changes it to a blank key. Open the Registry Editor and browse to:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\KeyboardLayout. Right—click in the blank space in the right-hand pane, select New, then Binary Value. Type the name Scancode Map and press Enter, then right-click the new entry and select Modify Binary Data. Enter the following into the text box exactly as it is written here: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 3A 00 00 00 00 00.

If you‘ve typed everything correctly the ‘Value data’ field will look the same as the one shown in the screenshot (below left) -the numbers in the left column appear automatically. Click OK, restart your PC and the Caps Lock key will no longer do anything.

You can add programs and files to the Start Menu by holding down the Shift key, right-clicking the item and selecting ‘Pin to Start Menu’. Oddly though, Windows 7 doesn’t let you do the same thing with folders. To change this, open the Registry Editor, browse to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\ShellEx\ContextMenuHandlers. Right-click the ContextMenuHandlers key in the left-hand tree and select New, then Key. Type the following, exactly as it’s printed here, including the curly brackets: {a2a9545d-a0c2-42b4-9708-a0b2badd77c8} then press Enter. Close the Registry Editor and restart your PC. Next time you want to add a folder to your Start menu, hold down the Shift key and right-click the folder. You’ll see a new option labelled ‘Pin to Start Menu‘- click this.

To make Windows 7’s taskbar bigger, open the Registry Editor and navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband. Right-click in the blank area in the right-hand pane and select New, then ‘DWORD (32-bit) Value’. Type the name MinThumbSizePx, then double-click this item and enter the number 500 into the ‘Value data’ box and click OK. Once you've restarted your PC, you’ll get much larger previews of your open windows when you hover your mouse cursor over taskbar items. If they’re still not big enough, increase the number in the ‘Value data’ box as required.

Every few weeks your PC automatically downloads important system updates in the background. You’re then prompted to install them by restarting your PC. You can choose to delay the restart by selecting a time (from ‘10 minutes’ to ‘4 hours’) from the dropdown menu. After that time elapses, your PC will automatically reboot. 

If you’re working on something important and need to continue using your PC beyond four hours, then there’s an easy way to bypass this automatic reboot using the Command Prompt. You first need to open it as an Administrator. To do that, press the Windows key, type cmd, press Ctrl+Shift+Enter, then Yes (to confirm you want to open the Command Prompt as Admin). Now type the following command net stop “windows update”, into the Command Prompt (see screenshot below), then press Enter.

Some keyboards have small light indicators for the Caps Lock key. If you don’t have one of these keyboards and tend to use that key a lot (to type your passwords in upper and lower case, for example), then you should install the free tool Keyboard Indicator. This displays a small icon on your Taskbar that tells you whether your Caps Lock is on or off. To download it, go to bit.ly/1OzDje3 and click the ‘Download Keyboard Indicator v1.6.0.1’ link. Next, click the downloaded zipped file, open the folder inside, click the ‘KeyboardIndicator.exe’ setup file, then click Run. You’ll now see a small blue or pink ‘A’ icon in your Taskbar. If the icon is blue it means that Caps Lock is off. A pink icon denotes it’s on. Whenever you press Caps Lock key, you’ll see a notification at the bottom right of your PC (see screenshot a below) and the icon will change colour accordingly.

We are all very familiar with the default Windows notification sounds for specific events. These include the start-up fanfare, the abrupt beep whenever you insert and remove USB devices or receive a new email, and the brief melody when you shut down your PC. However, you can change these default sounds or even remove individual ones that annoy you.

First, open the Control Panel, click ‘Hardware and Sound’, click the green Sound link, then the Sounds tab. Untick ‘Play Windows Startup sound’ at the bottom if you’d prefer your PC to boot up in silence. There’s an easy way to change the sound scheme for all your notification alerts. For example, to hear the sound that plays whenever you insert a USB device into your PC, click the Device Connect option in the Program Events pane, then click the Test button. Now click the Sound Scheme dropdown menu at the top (which is set to

Windows Default), then click one of the other options (for example, Afternoon). Click the Test button again and you’ll notice that the tone is slightly different to the Windows default. You’re other notifications will also change to a similar tone. To turn off a notification sound for a particular event in Windows, click its option (so click Device Disconnect within the Program Events pane, for example), then click the Sounds dropdown menu at the bottom and select ‘(None)’.Click Apply, then OK.