In case you are anxious and cannot wait until the first beta version of Windows 8 will be released, try out Windows 8 UX. This good looking kit gives to any Windows 7 desktop the official look of the Windows 8.

In order to use it, just click the setup and watch the transformation. Before the installation process you will be asked what Windows 8 theme do you want to choose, including the logon screen wallpaper and the desktop wallpaper. In case you decide to give up using the Windows 8 look, the uninstall process is clear enough to restore your former state of Windows 7 on your desktop.

Windows 8 UX comes with three new main features: Taskbar User Tile (an additional taskbar which sits in the bottom right of the normal taskbar), the Metro user interface and Aero auto-colorization feature. The Metro user interface is a radically different approach on how to use the desktop, giving a high profile usage for the touchscreens systems. Along with the new Aero, both features will radically change the way the user will use the Windows’ desktop.

download Windows 8 UX

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In an earlier post, I described how can you create a system repair disc for the situations where Windows 7 cannot start successfully. Well, it’s time to find out how can you use the system repair disc you’ve created.

Here is what you must do:

- First of all, insert the system repair disc into your CD or DVD drive.
- Restart your computer using the computer’s power button.
- If prompted, press any key to start the computer from the system repair disc. If your computer isn’t configured to start from a CD or DVD, you’ll have to check the information that came with your computer. You might need to change your computer’s BIOS settings in order to boot from the repair disc.
- If you could start the computer using the repair disc,  choose your language settings, and then click Next.
- Select a recovery option, and then click Next.

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Sooner or later, you will get bored of seeing the same old desktop wallpaper on your computer screen. Well, you might select another pre-installed wallpapers from your operating systems ,  or you can get a Windows 7 theme that sends you two new photos from Bing every week, updated automatically through an RSS feed.

Download Bing Dynamic

Note: Bing Dynamic is a Windows 7 theme that works only if you’re using Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate editions.

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Sometimes one needs to change the Windows 7 CD key. There are more ways to do so but I’ll present just two simple ways. One of the easiest way is via the shortcut in the System menu (Control Panel > System and Maintenance > System > Change product key) or you could also use the command line tool to do this. Here is what you’ll have to do:

Click Start. Type “command”. Right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator.

In the Command Prompt windows, type “slmgr.vbs -upk” and press Enter. This will remove any product key installed.

Then, type “slmgr.vbs -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx” where you’ll replace the x’s with your product key, then press Enter.

After this, to activate Windows 7, type “slmgr.vbs -ato” in the command prompt and press Enter.

Note: You should create System Restore Point before proceeding. If something goes wrong, no need to worry, just restore your system.

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Should you be worried about the fact that your USB flash drive might get stolen or lost and your sensitive data compromised? Well, the answer is no – not absolutely necessary. Why?

Because Windows 7 (Ultimate and Enterprise) has a feature called BitLocker Drive Encryption and thanks to this you’re able to use a password to encrypt an entire storage drive and protect those irreplaceable files and folders of yours.

Let’s get it started…
1. Insert the USB flash drive, click Start, and then click Computer.
2. Right-click the USB flash drive, and then click Turn On BitLocker. BitLocker initializes the drive.
3. On the Choose How You Want To Unlock This Drive page, choose one or more for the following options, and then click Next:

• Use A Password To Unlock This Drive Select this option if you want the user to be prompted for a password to unlock the drive. Passwords allow a drive to be unlocked in any location and to be shared with other people.
• Use My Smart Card To Unlock The Drive Select this option if you want the user to use a smart card and enter the smart card PIN to unlock the drive. Because this feature requires a smart card reader, it is normally used to unlock a drive in the workplace and not for drives that might be used outside the workplace.

4. On the How Do You Want To Store Your Recovery Key page, click Save The Recovery Key To A File.
5. In the Save BitLocker Recovery Key As dialog box, choose a save location, and then click Save.
6. You can now print the recovery key if you want to. When you have finished, click Next.
7. On the Are You Ready To Encrypt This Drive page, click Start Encrypting. Do not remove the USB flash drive until the encryption process is complete. How long the encryption process takes depends on the size of the drive and other factors.

The encryption process does the following…
1. Adds an Autorun.inf file, the BitLocker To Go reader, and a Read Me.txt file to the USB flash drive.
2. Creates a virtual volume with the full contents of the drive in the remaining drive space.
3. Encrypts the virtual volume to protect it.USB flash drive encryption takes approximately 6 to 10 minutes per gigabyte to complete. The encryption process can be paused and resumed provided that you don’t remove the drive.

As a result, when AutoPlay is enabled and you insert the encrypted drive into a USB slot on a computer running Windows 7, Windows 7 runs the BitLocker To Go reader, which in turn displays a dialog box. When you are prompted, enter the password, smart card PIN, or both to unlock the drive. Optionally, select Automatically Unlock On This Computer From Now On to save the password in an encrypted file on the computer’s system volume. Finally, click Unlock to unlock the volume so that you can use it.

Image source|Article source

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Every computer has physical temporary storage memory called RAM which provides space for your computer to read and write data to be accessed by the CPU. More RAM  usually allows your computer to work considerably faster so generally speaking, the more RAM you have, the better.

However, running multiple applications, games and so on can cause your computer to run out of RAM. That’s the moment when something called Paging File is used.

The Paging File practically allows the computer to use hard drive space as RAM. This means that if your computer has 1 GB of physical RAM and your computer needs to use 2 GB, it will firstly use the 1 GB of physical RAM and then anything else will be used from the hard drives Pagefile which is called virtual memory.

As a USB Flash drive is  faster than a hard disk (in general; excluding SSDs), Windows 7 has a feature called ReadyBoost which can improve your system performance by using a faster USB Flash Drives instead of your hard disks when the computer runs out of RAM.

When you insert a device with this capability, the AutoPlay dialog will offer you the option to speed up your system using Windows ReadyBoost. If you select this option, you can then choose how much memory to use for this purpose.

The recommended amount of memory to use for ReadyBoost acceleration is one to three times the amount of random access memory RAM installed in your computer. For example, if your computer has 1 GB of RAM and you plug in a 4 GB USB Flash drive, setting aside from 1 GB to 3 GB of that drive will offer the best performance boost.

Note: Only Windows 7 and Vista has the ReadyBoost feature.

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As suggested in an earlier post, when the installation of a program (driver,etc) causes Windows to behave unpredictably (errors, system freeze, etc), one of the best thing you could do is to use Windows System Restore to undo all the changes made to your system and causes troubles. Most of the time, System Restore solves the problem but what if Windows no longer boot properly in order to use System Restore? This is the case when you’ll need a Windows installation disc or access to the recovery options provided by your computer manufacturer. If you don’t have either of those choices, you can create a system repair disc to access system recovery options but of course, you do this when your system is still working properly (or from another working computer) so wait no longer, create a system repair disc. How? It’s simple, really.

Start by typing ‘system repair disc’ into the search box in the Start menu and press Enter.

Soon after that, a dialog box opens where you select the right drive and click Create disc.

A CD will be fine as it only takes up around 150MB of space.

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Sometimes, the installation of a program (or a driver) can cause an unexpected change to your computer or cause Windows to behave unpredictably (errors, system freeze, etc). Usually, uninstalling the program or driver corrects the problem. If this doesn’t help, you can try restoring your computer’s system to an earlier date when everything worked correctly. How can you do that? Using Windows System Restore.

To access Windows System Restore, start by clicking Windows Start button > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools, and then clicking System Restore.‌

Note: System Restore can undo system changes to your computer without affecting your personal files, such as e‑mail, documents, or photos. However, is not intended for backing up personal files, so it cannot help you recover a personal file that has been deleted or damaged.

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