Windows Daily News

How do I install a new theme in Windows 7?

Dave Taylor — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:03:05 +0000

I know how to install and change themes in Windows XP, but I haven’t figured out the same in Windows 7 yet. Can you step me through the process of downloading and applying a new Windows 7 theme, Dave?

Dave’s Answer:

One of the best things about Win7 is that there are a ton of themes available from Microsoft, ranging from Angry Birds to gorgeous images of China, all one click away from being installed on your Windows 7 computer. There are also commercial themes available on DVD or otherwise available for download either free or for a small fee. Still, I’m always leery of getting anything like this from a third party because of the rampant problem of malware.

Anyway, let’s stay focused on installing themes in Windows 7, shall we?

The best place to start out is the Windows 7 personalization section of the microsoft.com Web site. Start by going here: Personalize Windows 7.

The site looks like this:

Yes, it’s darn attractive and there are lots of cool backgrounds, gadgets, themes, etc. For this, we’re interested in Windows 7 themes, so click on that first item.

Now you’ll find that there are literally hundreds of free themes available. Here’s just a small sampling of the most recently published themes:

Find the one that appeals to you and click on “Details”. I’m a huge World Cup soccer fan, so when I saw an EA Sports FIFA World Cup theme, I wanted to see more. I did so by clicking on ‘Details”, which produced the following info:

Looks great! To download and install it, simply click on the “Download” button on the lower left, which pops up one of those useful Win7 warning windows:

We do want to download this theme, so click on “Open” and…

Yup. We want to do this too, so a click on “Allow” lets you proceed with the download of the World Cup theme.

Once it’s done, the “Appearance and Personalization” control panel pops up and the theme’s displayed as an option:

More importantly, however, the theme is also now automatically installed and live on your computer>, as is immediately obvious when I zoom out a bit and show you the entire PC desktop:

That’s it. Easy enough, and since they’re both free and small, you really can download and switch between dozens of different themes based on your fancy. Have fun!

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How Do I Force A Windows Update In Windows 7?

Dave Taylor — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:23:55 +0000

I think I have automatic updates set for my Windows PC, but it never seems to tell me there’s an update, and my experience with Windows and Microsoft is that there are updates typically every week or so. Is there some way i can manually run a Windows Update to see if there’s anything pending or available for my Win7 laptop?

Dave’s Answer:

It’s definitely smart to have automatic updates enabled in any operating system, whether it’s Windows or Mac. My suggestion is to have it automatically check for updates but have you manually decide when to apply them, so you don’t find you have to restart your system in the middle of an important work project, but that’s easily set.

The problem with these automated systems, however, is that they’re generally designed for computers that are on all the time. I know that on my Win7 system, for example, it’s set to check for updates at 3:00am every morning. Problem is, if my computer isn’t turned on, that time will come and go without the update utility ever launching. Result is that if I don’t use the computer for a while or only use it business hours and power it off at other times, I can go weeks — or longer — without applying important operating system updates. That’s a problem, and doubly so for Windows with all the nefarious code, spyware and malware floating about.

In this article, I’ll show you two easy ways to force a Windows Update and along the way we’ll also bump into the spot where you can change when the system checks for updates too. One possibility in that regard might be to set it to noon if it’s common that you leave for a lunch break.

But let’s start at the beginning. My favorite way to launch Windows Update is to do it through MS Internet Explorer. You probably have your system set up like mine, so it’s easy to launch MSIE from the taskbar:

A click on the “e” icon and Internet Explorer pops up, ready to go:

Notice on the right there’s a menu called “Safety”. If we look a bit more closely at it, you’ll see that the bottom option is “Windows Update”:

Choose “Windows Update” and it’ll open up a Control Panel that then checks and tells you what updates, if any, are available and ready for download:

27 important updates. Sheesh.

The other way to get here is to actually go through the “Control Panels” start menu option: one of the specific panels available is “Windows Update”, as you can see here:

However you get to here, notice on the left side of this Control Panel window that there’s an option for “Check for updates” (what we’ve been doing) and also an entry for “Change settings”:

Choose “Change settings” and you’ll see that this is where you can modify the time that Win7 checks for updates:

Click on “Check for updates” again, once you’re ready, then click on “Install updates” so you can start downloading and installing everything as needed:

Remember that once it’s downloaded all the updates you’ll need to restart so it can actually install things, but usually that’s just part of the process.

Hope this helps you tame the wild Win7 windows update jungle!

Manage The Size Of Your Outlook Mailbox

Chad Sweely — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:22:41 +0000

The power of e-mail is one of the strongest ways to communicate a message to someone online, especially within the business world. Many businesses (especially ecommerce-based) utilize e-mail as the sole method of communication between their customers and themselves. With this in mind, businesses need a robust e-mail product to keep up with the high demand of e-mail, and Microsoft provides this product called Microsoft Outlook.

With e-mail being such a popular medium to communicate with, the more that you send and receive e-mail messages, the amount of free space decreases on your hard drive. To make sure that Outlook properly manages mail, a process called “compacting folders” will help you keep the e-mails you would like to save without compromising your hard drive’s free space. To compact the folders for the different sections of your Microsoft Outlook session, please follow the steps that I have provided below.

Compacting your personal folders:

From the File menu, click on the Data File Management option. This will load the “Outlook Data Files” window.
Under the Name, Filename, and Comment list, select the data file that you would like to compact, and then click on the Settings button.
Within the “Settings” window that will appear, click on the Compact button to automatically compact the data file that you have selected.

Compacting your offline folder:

After you have deleted any unwanted e-mails, empty the Deleted Items folder.
From the Tools menu, click on the Account Settings option. This will load the various account settings pertaining to the e-mail accounts that you have set up.
Within the list that will appear, select the “Microsoft Exchange Server” option, and then click on the Change button.
From the window that will appear, click on the More Settings button, and then select the “Advanced” tab.
Under the “Advanced” tab, click on the Offline Folder Settings and then Compact Now.

Always be sure to perform these tasks on a routinely basis so that you can savor as much free space as you can with the many e-mail messages that you receive and archive.

Perform a Disk Check Within Windows

Chad Sweely — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:30:31 +0000

If you have been in the computing world for a long time, many of you will know of the MS-DOS command of chkdsk. This is a tool in MS-DOS that has been around since the early Windows 3.x days that thoroughly scans your hard drive, and can fix and report any logical file system errors. While chkdsk is running, the program can also check for physical issues, such as bad sectors, and also attempt to recover information that may be damaged associated with the bad sectors that it finds.

Up until Windows 2000 and XP, users could only run this command from an MS-DOS prompt; however, if you would like to use a more GUI-based application of this helpful tool, Windows 2000 (along with operating systems released after it) offers you a way that you can check the integrity of your hard drive without an MS-DOS prompt. To run chkdsk within Windows (called “Check Disk”), please follow the steps that I have provided below.

From the Start menu, click on the My Computer item. This will display the various drives and media that are connected to your computer.
From within My Computer window, right-click on your hard drive (most commonly classified as C / Local Disk) and select the “Properties” option. This will load the “Local Disk Properties” window.
With the “Local Disk Properties” window open, select the “Tools” tab (if it is not already selected).
Within the “Tools” section of the “Local Disk Properties” window, under the “Error Checking” section, click on the Check Now button.
After the Check Now button has been pressed, a prompt window will appear that asks you to select the following options:

Automatically fix file system errors
Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors

After you have selected one or both of the options listed above, click on the Start button, and the process of checking your hard drive’s integrity will commence.

Apply “Persona”lity To Your Firefox Browser

Chad Sweely — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:35:48 +0000

Do you remember about 10 years ago when you could change the faceplate of your cell phone? The faceplate that you changed was from the original/default look of a cell phone to a specific thing. You can also perform this alteration on your browser. Below, I will show you how to add a different theme to your Firefox web browsing session.

In this popular web browser by Mozilla, apply the following steps to do add a “Persona” while browsing the web:

Visit Firefox’s GetPersonas.com website. This website is full of personas that you can add to your web browser.
Choose a persona that you would like to add to your Firefox browser. You can choose one of the “Featured Personas” or browse the gallery for all different kinds of personas from categories, such as:

After you have chosen a persona that you would like to add to your Firefox browser (and have hovered over it to preview how it looks), click on the “Wear It” link, and your Firefox browser will automatically be transformed with the new persona that you have chosen.

If you want to remove the persona that you have chosen, please follow these steps:

From the Tools menu, click on the “Add-ons” option. This will load the Add-ons Manager in Firefox.
Within the Add-ons Manager, select the “Appearance” tab locate on the left-hand side. A list of all of the personas you have utilized will be displayed.
To set your Firefox session back to the original/default theme, click on the “Enable” button associated with the “Default” theme.

Make Your Windows XP Desktop Look Like Windows 2000

Chad Sweely — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:43:54 +0000

If you are familiar with the range of various Microsoft Windows distributions, you will notice that Windows XP is cosmetically different than its previous versions, giving the user three new color choices: Blue, Green, and Silver. If you would like to change the look of your desktop back to the way it was in Windows 98 and ME, I will show you how in this post’s tutorial.

The steps that I have provided below will be fairly similar if you are using the operating systems of Windows Vista and 7; however, since a majority of consumers still use Windows XP, I will show you how to transform your desktop back to the Windows 98/ME look with Windows XP.

From the Start menu, click on the Control Panel option. This will load your computer’s Control Panel, which will allow the user to make various changes of how the Microsoft Windows XP operating system functions.
After the Windows XP Control Panel has loaded, you will see various options. From this list, choose the Display option by double clicking on it. This will load the Display Properties window, giving you various tabs to choose from: Themes, Desktop, Screen Saver, Appearance, and Settings.
From the tab list within the Display Properties window, select the Appearance tab. This will show you the type of skin you are currently using within your Windows XP operating system, as well as a visual preview of what the settings you choose will look like prior to applying them.
From the “Windows and buttons” drop-down list, select the “Windows classic style,” option. A preview will instantly appear of how the windows and buttons will look with the option you have chosen.
After you have selected the “Windows classic style” option from the “Windows and buttons” drop-down list, and chosen any other options to further enhance the look of the “Windows classic style,” press the “OK” button, and your Windows desktop and appearance will automatically be transformed back to the original look of the Windows 98/ME operating system.

A Friendly BSOD For Windows 8

Chad Sweely — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:05:36 +0000

In today’s society, we all know that we as human beings are not perfect. Operating systems for computers are the same way, basically because a whole lot of people and businesses use them in many different situations and with various hardware combinations. With this in mind, Windows (all distributions) will sometimes encounter issues communicating with this hardware and will report these issues in a screen commonly known as the “Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).”

BSODs have been around since the early versions of Windows, and have been known to cause aggravation to both consumers and techies alike. To see how the BSOD has cosmetically changed throughout the years, I have provided this YouTube video below.

The BSOD that has recently received a lot of attention is the one for the upcoming operating system of Windows 8 (which many developers have the beta version of). With the Windows 8 BSOD, the user does not receive a full paragraph on the various technical terms that you will need to look up, but a simple “Your PC ran into a problem that it couldn’t handle, and now it needs to restart” message. The BSOD will also provide a phrase that you can look up (on another computer, of course) that will explain a process that you can perform to help resolve the issue that you have encountered.

For your convenience, I have provided an example below of what Windows 8’s BSOD will look like.

Customizing Your Start Menu in Windows

Chad Sweely — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:44:14 +0000

The Start menu in Windows is basically the main area where users can access different programs on their company (if they are not already placed on the Windows Desktop), and it is also one of the most-clicked areas within the Microsoft Windows operating system. The Start menu has cosmetically changed throughout the years since its original appearance in Windows 95, and even in the latest version of Windows 7, it has changed even more.

With the Start menu always changing with the different Windows releases, there is a method that you can use to customize your Start menu which I will show you below. I will be showing you how to customize your Windows start menu using Windows XP; however, this set up is pretty much the same throughout all of the latest Windows releases.

To customize your Windows start menu:

Right-click on the Start button and then the select Properties options. The “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” window will appear.
Within the “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” window, select the “Start Menu” tab located at the top of the window (if it is not already selected).

To designate what kind of Start menu you would like to have displayed, you will be given two choices:

Start Menu - This will display the Start menu that is defaulted to Windows XP (or your version of Windows). This will display the most recently used programs that you have accessed, and it will also allow you to access: My Computer, My Documents, My Music, Control Panel, and many other commonly used Windows features.
Classic Start Menu - This will display the Start menu as seen in Windows 95, 98, and 2000. Recently used programs will not be displayed, but this option will present you with the options of: Programs, Documents, Settings, Search, Help, and Run.

Assign Programs to a Schedule Using Windows

Chad Sweely — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:28:12 +0000

If you are a schedule-oriented person, and want to have certain events and happenings to be performed at a specific time of the day, Microsoft Windows allows you to schedule specific programs or tools within your operating system with this premise in mind. All versions of Microsoft Windows (95/98, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7) provide a way for the user to schedule a program at a specific time or date. In this tutorial post, I will be showing you how to access the Scheduled Tasks program in Microsoft Windows XP.

To open Scheduled Tasks, please follow the steps that I have provided below:

From the Start menu, click on All Programs and access the Accessories menu.
When the Accessories menu is open, click on the System Tools submenu, and select the Scheduled Tasks application.

As you will see, in my Scheduled Tasks window, I have various “Google Update” tasks scheduled because I am running Google Chrome; however, your Scheduled Tasks may look different than mine with different tasks or be completely empty.

If you would like to add a new tasks to be included within the Schedule Tasks window, I have provided the steps on how to achieve this below:

Double click on the Add Scheduled Task. This will automatically load the Scheduled Task Wizard.
The first window that will appear in the Scheduled Task Wizard is a comprehensive list of all of the programs that are currently installed on your computer.
Select the program that you would like to run at a specific day/time from the application list, and then press the “Next” button.
After you have selected the program that you would like to run, enter a unique name for this task. If you would like to keep the current name of the program, do not alter the name.
Under “Perform This Task,” select the duration of when you would like your application/program executed (e.g. Daily, Weekly, Monthly, etc.) and then press “Next.”
The next window of the Scheduled Task Wizard will depend on the type of duration that you set in the previous step. After you have completed the necessary information for the duration of your program’s instance, click “Next.”
You will be prompted to enter the username and password of the user who is associated with the scheduled task you have specified. The user you are currently logged in with will automatically be displayed by default.
When the user associated with the task scheduled has been verified, click on the “Finish” button, and your new scheduled task will be placed within the “Scheduled Tasks” list.

Please feel free to leave any questions that you may have in the comments section below.

Install Windows XP on your Windows 7 PC with VMware?

Dave Taylor — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:19:43 +0000

Dave, I have a new PC that is running Microsoft Windows 7 and I really like it, but I’ve got a problem: a few of the programs I used for data analysis in my job haven’t been updated since the days of Windows XP and I can’t run them on Win7 at all. Can I install Windows XP and dual boot or otherwise have the best of both worlds?

Dave’s Answer:

I’ve got a way better solution for you, actually, one that surprisingly few people know but that is a huge boon for power users, whether you’re on a Mac or a PC: running an additional operating system within your existing OS through a virtual machine. On my Mac OS X system, for example, I also have Windows 7 running within a virtual machine. It’s not as fast as my slick Dell PC laptop, but for testing and compatibility, it’s a terrific setup and launches in just seconds. Better, virtual machines share all the hardware resources — including Internet connection — with the master system too.

On the PC there are a couple of solutions, but my favorite has always been VMware Workstation. It’s expensive, but works flawlessly and if you need it for some older software, there’s no question that it’s cheaper than buying a second computer and dealing with all the hassles and data sync issues.

To demonstrate, I installed VMware Workstation on a new HP desktop PC running the latest version of Microsoft Windows 7. Once installed, I launched VMware Workstation and clicked on the “File” menu…

As you can see, the path I needed was File -> New -> Virtual Machine… which led me here:

That certainly looks easy and reassuring, which is good. It’s a complicated process, so grab a cup of tea or glass of water before we go further.

Ready? Insert your old Windows XP installation disk into the computer’s optical drive and unearth your license code (probably on a piece of paper in the WinXP box), you’ll need it too.

Choose “Typical” and click on “Next”…

Don’t have an install disk? That complicates things. Try to borrow one or go onto eBay or similar to find an old, cheap OS disk someone’s not using any more. There are no legal places you can download a disk image that I’m aware of, so I’m not sure about the “.iso” option.

We’ll proceed on the assumption that you have a real, legal copy of WinXP, so “Installer disc” is your choice. Click “Next” again…

VMWare Workstation can actually enter the product key for you when it gets to that point in the installation, which is terrific. At this point simply enter the code from your Microsoft product — carefully! — and give yourself a default account name and password, then, again, click “Next”.

I’d keep the defaults, though you can rename the virtual machine if you want. Not a big deal. Ready? Click on, well, you know the drill…

This step is one that’s hard to fix later, so I’d encourage you to think through if you need lots of space because you’re really going to do a lot of work in the virtual machine or not. If not, you can reduce the size of the virtual disk that VMware will use.

Continuing….

That all looks good. Click on “Finish” and VMware Workstation will start chugging away.

Oh, no it won’t! First thing it shows you are the external peripherals on the computer, reminding you that any or all of them can be automatically connected to the virtual machine on boot if desired. It’s really just an information dialog:

I’ll figure all that out down the road. For now, I’ll click “OK” and proceed with the installation of Windows XP on my virtual machine.

Tell me that’s not cool. The blue installation screen shows up — and proceeds through all the installation steps — within the VMware Workstation window. Sweet.

And proceed it’ll do. It’s quite a long process to fully install Windows XP…

And a while later…

Eventually it finishes the installation and restarts. This doesn’t mean anything at all happens on the Windows 7 level, it’s all safely trapped within VMware Workstation! Amazing:

Do you remember these screens as we’re going along?

Finally Windows XP is completely installed. Excellent. One more step is required, though, for VMware Workstation to install its own helper utilities to optimize the performance of XP within the virtual world. This happens automatically…

When it’s done, you’ve got a full and complete version of Windows XP running within the virtual workstation world, ready for you to insert CDROMs and install new software, download apps that are WinXP compatible, and more:

Running Windows within a virtual machine on a Mac system (via VMWare’s “Fusion” product) works well but it’s not super fast. On the PC, however, VMware Workstation has very good performance and you’ll be surprised how workable it really is.

Now, go and have fun crunching those numbers.

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