Windows 7 - Help
Here are some tips for Windows 7, most of these will also work with Windows Vista.

Windows 7 Basics
Desktop background, sound, icons... If you would like to change these settings.
Right Click desktop – Left Click Personalize:
Left Panel Control Panel Change desktop icons (Add or Remove desktop Icons)
Change mouse pointers.
Change your account picture.
Right panel Windows Color and Appearance
Desktop Background, Screen Saver, Sounds and Windows 7 Themes

Turn Off Programs Running on Start-Up
Go to the start button, then to run, type msconfig in the run box hit enter.
A new window will pop up, "System Configuration" Click the tab that says Startup.
Un-check everything you don't need starting on the computer start up.

You should leave anything with your anti-virus name in it checked. Anything you turn off here will still work, when you start that program. It only stops them from starting up and running in the background when you're not even using them.

99% of the things under start-up you DON'T need to start when the computer starts.

Examples of things you can un-check:
itunes, itunes updates, Any itunes running in the background will slow the computer down and get you hacked.
facebook updates, facebook messenger, anything facebook running in the background will slow the computer down and get you hacked.
apple update - Anything apple running in the background will slow the computer down and get you hacked.
quicktime, quicktime updates
google update (spyware)
google ANYTHING never let google run in the background. You should really never have anything google on your
computer unless you want to get hacked!
adobe update - Any adobe junk running in the background will slow the computer down and get you hacked.
"Your Printer" printer updates - ink level, paper checker, all of these things slow your computer down.
ANY EXE file that says under Manufacturer UNKNOWN, unless you see and know the product.

Download for Windows 7, New Themes:
https://beast-usa.com/downloads/windows/win7.html

Display Setting
Change font size
Right Click on the desktop, Left Click Screen resolution
Left Click Make text and other items larger or smaller
Set a custom text size on the left, or just choose one of the per set sizes.

Advanced Settings
Right Click on the desktop NVidia Cards, Left click on NVidia Control Panel.
Ati Cards, Left click on Catalyst Control Panel

Windows Gadgets (Side Bar)
To add gadgets right click desktop, left click Gadgets, Choose the gadget you want double click,then drag the gadget to your desired location. Most gadgets have options, right side of the gadget choose options.

Start Menu (bottom left blue button)
Most recently used shown on open. Right Panel has buttons that are short cuts to different folders.
Click or hold your mouse over “All Programs” Click on the folder to open it, and then click the program you wish to start. Click and hold the left mouse button down to drag any icon to the Rocket Dock or Stardock if you are using one.

USB Hard Drives, Memory Sticks:
When you plug in an external USB hard drive or a memory stick it may not have a drive letter.
And it does not show up in your windows file explorer or a window does not pop up asking you to browse the drive or memory stick.
Go to your Start Button, pinned to the Start Menu you will see a command called Computer Management, left click on Computer Management.

If it you do not see Computer Management type compmgmt.msc in your search after you click the start button. Then you will see One Program (compmgmt.msc) at the top Left Click it.

On the left side under Storage you will see Disk Management left click on Disk Management.
Look at the right panel for a disk without a drive letter.
Right click on that disk, and left click on change drive letter and paths.
You will then see an empty window left click the add button (choose a drive letter if you want) then click OK.
Then a window should pop up asking you if you would like to view the folders. It should now also be available in your Windows File Explorer.

Desktop - Laptop Computers Built or Serviced by No Fear Computers or Beast-USA Remote Service.
Hard Drive Setup: Your default OS (operating system) drive will be C:\win7x64, C:\Win7x86, C:\Vistax64, C:\Vistax86 if installing windows.
Your default document drive will be D:\Documents. If you are having a gaming system built you will have a partition or drive named E:\Games. If you have requested a single hard drive system it will be two or three primary partitions. No Fear Computers always suggests two hard drives, one for the OS and one for software apps the other hard drive for personal documents, games and back-up. Most laptops will only have one hard drive.

Add-on Software:
In your “Documents” folder or on your Documents drive "D:\", you will see a folder named “Software”. In this folder you will see the software installed on your computer by No Fear Computers or Beast-USA Remote Service. Anti-virus, anti-spyware, paragon hard drive back-up, disk-defrag, stardock, registry tweaks to remove Favorites, Home Group, Libraries icons from your Windows File Explorer, installed by No Fear Computers

Back-up:
On delivery there will be a folder called HD-Image, either on D:\Documents or *:\Back-up partition or back-up drive. That folder contains an image back-up of your OS - C:\ on delivery. So in the event you download something bad, add to many toolbars and it's just not repairable. You can use the “Paragon Boot Disk” and restore your C:\ drive (OS) without changing or losing any of your personal files, pictures, music etc.

Unlike most recovery software installed by other companies that will wipe the whole system by deleting everything including all your personal files.

Menu \ All Programs:
(To move any item into a folder or file to Rocket Dock or Stardock, hold down the left mouse button and drag & drop.)
Accessories = Windows default programs.
Adobe = adobe reader, adobe bridge, adobe acrobat, adobe drive (if installed)
Anti-Virus / Anti-Spyware = AVG, SuperAntiSpyware free editions. (if installed)
Burning = Windows movie maker, Nero, NTI, any CD-DVD writing/burning software. (if installed)
Dos = Dos command prompt.
Entertainment = Media center & player, VideoLan (VLC), itunes, DVD play back software. (if installed)
Games = Windows default games, games you have requested to be installed. Graphics = MS paint, ulead photo impact, adobe CS4, paint shop pro. (if installed)
Internet = Mozilla firefox, IE8 or IE9 or IE10, Web cam, IM’s. (if installed)
Office Programs = Calculator, ms works, ms office, open office, notepad, wordpad, windows fax and scan, windows speech recognition, XPS viewer. (if installed)
Startup = Empty
Tools = Default programs, desktop gadget gallery, disk clean-up, system restore, window update, 7-zip, administrative tools, auslogics disk defrag, maintenance, paragon partition software, rocket dock, stardock. If setting up a Acer, Dell, Gateway, HP, Toshiba…any tools from their company.

Rocket Dock - Items (top or bottom of your screen)
To see the items name just move your mouse over the icon. To change the way your Rocket Dock looks look for and open “Dock Setting”. To make changes to an icon right click, then left Icon Settings.

Stardock - Items (top or bottom of your screen if added)
Click the tab for the items you want to see, To make changes on how star dock looks or opens look under “Tools” “Configure ObjectDock” To add new icons to the star dock, Just drag and drop any icon,
shortcut to the star dock. (if your stardock gets turned off, go to your start menu under tools, StarDock, ObjectDock. Left click ObjectDock Plus.

Internet:
Make sure you are using the most current version of your browser.
Never use Google Chrome, ANY version of Internet Explorer unless you want a very SLOW and UN-SECURE browser. So if you don't want to get hacked and don't want a really SLOW browser stay clear of those browsers.
More information on the fastest browsers and safest internet browsers over here:
https://happyasis.com/forums/topic/814/internet-browser-updates/view/post_id/4578  

Tabbed Browsing:
All new browsers use “Tabbed Browsing” Right click on bookmark or link, left click open in new "Tab" to read multiple links from the same browser window, and not have to keep hitting the back button. If you are using FVD Speed Dial, dials can be set to open in a new tab.

DO NOT USE ‘LIMEWIRE,’ ‘FoxWire’, ‘KAZZA,’ ‘KAZAA,’ ‘ROCKET MP3,’ OR ‘BEARSHARE.’ THESE PROGRAMS DO NOT SCAN FOR VIRUSES. YOU WILL DOWNLOAD VIRUSES AND THEN RESHARE THEM CAUSING DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER AND THE PEOPLE/FAMILY/FRIENDS YOU EMAIL AND NETWORK WITH.

DO NOT ADD ANY TOOLBARS SUCH AS ‘Google,’ ‘Yahoo,’ ‘ASK,’ ‘MSN’, ‘AVG’, ‘MySearch,’ etc,.Most tool bars have PERMISSION to write to your system and download more malware & viruses.

Windows 7 Tweaks
Remember when working with the registry TO ALWAYS BACK-UP WHAT YOU ARE CHANGING.
Turn on hidden Administrator acct.
Go to Start, All programs, Accessories, then right click command prompt and then left click Run as Administrator. Once the command prompt opens type this command and press enter. net user administrator /active:yes That command will enable the hidden Administrator account. Log off and log back into the new account, or just restart the computer. This command will disable the hidden Administrator account. net user administrator /active:no

How to remove the annoying Favorites, Homegroup and Libraries icons:
Open regedit.exe from the Start bar\Run and navigate to: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\
In the NameSpace folder, there will be a folder (key) with the name {B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
The value of the default item should be "Other users". This is the registry entry for Homegroup icon. Delete the folder from the registry.

In the NameSpace folder, there will be a folder (key) with the name {031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5} The value of the default item should be "Libraries". This is the registry entry This is the Libraries icon. Delete the folder from the registry.

Remove "Favorites" folder in tree-view of Windows Explorer:
1. Open regedit and go to
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder]
2. Right click and go to "Permissions" and allow your user/userclass full control of the folder. (if you're unsure about how to do this, see this article: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/0...ows-7-explorer)
3. In "ShellFolder" go to 'Attributes' and change the value from 0xa0900100 to a9400100 or a4001000.
4. Leave regedit.
5. Reboot your machine. If everything is done correctly "Favorites" should now be disabled completely when your system is rebooted.

How to Re-enable Quick Launch in Windows 7
Click run....Type Edit Group Policy in Search Bar hit enter.
(%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch)
Left Side Under User Configuration Click the Arrow-triangle next to Administrative Templates.
Click on Start Menu and Taskbar. On the right side scroll down and find "Show QuickLaunch on Taskbar, Double Click it and check Enable. Now right click on the taskbar go to toolbars then Click Add New Toolbar. In the address bar right click and click Edit Address.
Then type or copy & paste this in the address:
C:\Users\(YOUR USER NAME)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer
Select Quick Launch. Your Quick Launch is back. (unlock taskbar drag it to the right if you want it back on the right side) To just show only icons, right click quick launch, un-check Show Text, un-check Show Title. Drag to quick launch to add programs. No more right click and add to Quick Launch. (Like Vista)

Disable and Turn Off Windows 7 Snap Smart Window Arrangement:
1. Run Register Editor (RegEdit).
2. Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
3. In the right-pane, double click (or right click and select Modify) on WindowArrangementActive, and set its REG_SZ value to 0.

Reset Red X on your network icon when the network is working:
Open DOS command prompt (right click run as admin)
Type: netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt (hit enter) 
Restart.

Network to slow:
Open DOS command prompt (right click run as admin)
Type: Netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled (and hit enter.)
Type: Netsh interface tcp show global (and hit enter to make sure it's disabled) 

Clear DNS Cache:
You can remove the DNS cache from computer, so new DNS requests will be solved by updated DNS server.
This will stop your computer from trying to use broken or changed DNS records from cache.
Open DOS command prompt (right click run as admin)
Type: ipconfig /flushdns (hit enter)

Change Cache Settings in Windows 7:
Open DOS command prompt (right click run as admin)
Type to increase the cache setting: fsutil behavior set memoryusage 2 (hit enter)
To check the current value, type in this command: fsutil behavior query memoryusage (hit enter)
To change the setting back to the default, use this command: fsutil behavior set memoryusage 1 (hit enter)
This post was edited by beastusa at May 25, 2019 10:42 AM PDT