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Logon Changer Customizes the Windows 7 Login Screen [Downloads]

Posted on March 24, 2009
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Windows 7 only: Tiny system customizing utility Logon Changer for Windows 7 swaps out the logon screen wallpaper easily.

Using the utility is simple—just select a new wallpaper, test it, and you are done. The only small issue is that the image must be less than 256k and in JPG format, which means you'll need to convert most downloadable wallpaper backgrounds. If you'd rather do it the manual way without additional software, all you really need to do is a simple registry hack originally figured out by Windows expert Rafael Rivera.

Tweaks.com Logon Changer for Windows 7 is a free download. To customize your login wallpaper for XP or Vista, take a look at previously mentioned LogonStudio, and then be sure and check out our guide to getting Windows 7′s best features right now, or learn how to dual-boot Vista and Windows 7.





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Windows 7 Lets You Customize Your Logon Background [Windows 7]

Posted on March 16, 2009
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Expert Windows hacker Rafael Rivera finds a change in the latest build of Windows 7—you can finally customize the log-on screen natively. In the meantime, XP and Vista users still have third-party solutions like previously mentioned LogonStudio.





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Windows 7 Upgrade Details for XP and Vista Users [Windows 7]

Posted on February 12, 2009
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If you’re planning to upgrade your current PC to Windows 7 when Microsoft releases their new OS, there’s good and bad news for XP and Vista users. Here’s a closer look at your upgrade options.

Upgrading from XP to Windows 7

Pros: According to tech site Ars Technica, XP users can purchase a cheaper “upgrade” version of Windows 7, despite XP’s version gap. (Normally only users who purchased the latest OS get the cheaper upgrade option.)

Cons: Windows XP users will have no direct upgrade path. That means that in order to upgrade to Windows 7, you'll have to do a fresh installation of Windows 7 and manually migrate your files and apps to Win7—so you'll want to make sure to back up XP before upgrading or just dual boot XP and Windows 7.

Upgrading from Vista to Windows 7

Pros: Unlike XP, Vista users do get a direct upgrade path to Windows 7, so your files and apps should migrate to Win7 without any problems. (You should always backup before upgrading to be safe, and just to hedge your bets, you may also still want to dual boot Vista and Windows 7 rather than installing Windows 7 over Vista.) Vista users will also get the cheaper upgrade price.

Cons: It probably won’t affect most users, but the Vista-to-Windows-7 upgrade paths are actually limited by version in the following ways:

  • Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium
  • Windows Vista Business to Windows 7 Professional
  • Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate

If you don’t follow one of those three upgrade paths, you’ll have to perform a fresh install.

Be sure to check the Ars post for a more detailed rundown of the differences, including a discussion of the fate of your Windows Vista Ultimate Extras.






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Windows 7 Shortcuts Enables the Best Win7 Shortcuts in XP or Vista [Windows 7]

Posted on January 16, 2009
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Windows only: If you like the look of Windows 7′s great new keyboard shortcuts but aren’t planning to upgrade for a while, Windows 7 Shortcuts enables some of the best Win7 shortcuts for XP and Vista.

Windows 7 Shortcuts was submitted by Lifehacker reader Rupert and was written in one of our favorite scripting languages, AutoHotkey. Right now, Windows 7 Shortcuts supports the following keyboard shortcuts:

Included:
Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the window to each side of the monitor
Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window
Win+Down arrow: Minimize the window/Restore the window if it’s maximized

Partially Included
Win+Space: Note from the developer: AHK won’t allow multiple windows to be made transparent easily. Therefore, I’ve changed it to make the active window transparent until it is released.

If you’re an AHK user, you can grab the source and paste it into the script you use daily. If not, download the EXE by clicking the Download link above.

Windows 7 Shortcuts is a free download, Windows only.






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The Best New Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts [Video Demonstration]

Posted on January 15, 2009
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No matter what OS you use, keyboard shortcuts are a one-way ticket to enhanced productivity (plus you look awesome to friends and colleagues); Windows 7 has more cool new shortcuts than you can shake a stick at.

Windows 7 boasts a lot of great new shortcuts, but I’m focusing on several of my favorites. Check out the video above for a closer look. For those of you who prefer text to video, here are all of the shortcuts I highlighted:

  • Win+Home: Clear all but the active window
  • Win+Space: All windows become transparent so you can see through to the desktop
  • Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window
  • Win+Down arrow: Minimize the window/Restore the window if it’s maximized
  • Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the window to each side of the monitor (If you’ve got dual monitors, adding Shift to the mix (e.g., Win+Shift+Right arrow) will move the window to the adjacent monitor.)
  • Win+T: Focus and scroll through items on the taskbar.
  • Win+P: Adjust presentation settings for your display
  • Win+(+/-): Zoom in/out
  • Shift+Click a taskbar item: Open a new instance of that application

Got a favorite shortcut of your own now that you’ve installed the Windows 7 Beta? Let’s hear about it in the comments. (Apologies for the poor video quality… tried something new, but clearly it didn’t work out.)






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Get the Old “Show Desktop” Back in Windows 7–Kinda [How To]

Posted on January 15, 2009
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Windows 7 gives users better ways to clear most everything but the desktop—namley Aero Shake and Aero Peek. But if you still cling to “Show Desktop,” however, you can kind of get it back.

Pinning a Show Desktop icon to the taskbar in Windows 7 won’t work the way it did in pretty much every earlier version of Windows. While you can still create the “Show Desktop.scf” script, it just won’t pin itself correctly. The Tweaking with Vishal blog offers a kind of work-around that makes use of Windows 7′s utterly transparent toolbars.

The short version: Create a folder, place a “Show Desktop.scf” file in there (either your standard Google-found kind or the script available at the bottom link), then right-click your taskbar to create a “New Toolbar” that points to that folder. Turn off the text and titles on that new toolbar, change the icons to large size, and then put your new one-button toolbar where you’d like.

The drawback: If you pin it too close to the right of your standard tasks and pinned items, you’ll compress them and require an extra click to get to them. If you don’t mind having your desktop button on the left, though, or have a totally re-tweaked taskbar altogether, you’re good to go.






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Remove the Send Feedback Link from Windows 7′s Title Bar [How To]

Posted on January 13, 2009
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Microsoft offers Windows 7 as a free beta to get feedback on what needs fixing. Still, if you’re endlessly annoyed with the “Send Feedback” link in every single title bar, there’s a way to remove it. Hit the Tech-Recipes blog for a simple registry tweak that should take less than two minutes to pull off, removing the “Send Feedback” link for good.






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Windows 7 Beta Product Keys Now Available (For Real!) [Windows 7]

Posted on January 9, 2009
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After a daylong rollercoaster drama during which Windows 7 Beta gave us a false-alarm release followed by a server smackdown, Microsoft is finally handing out honest to goodness product keys for the beta.

Update: Gina says, "If the instructions below don't work for you—and they didn't for me when this was posted on Friday night or on Saturday morning—try these links, which did.”

Reader Daniel says:

The following steps worked for me:

  1. Login in you Passport account, for example, here.
  2. Without closing the Passport page, open one of the following in a new tab:
    Windows 7 Beta 32-bit
    Windows 7 Beta 64-bit

The 32-bit link may need to be refreshed many times, about 15 for me until it worked.

I gave it a try, and the same worked for me and several Lifehacker commenters. I’m guessing these servers are going to take the same sort of hits we saw earlier today, so your mileage may vary. Other Lifehacker editors are reporting redirects when they try it, as are many commenters. Oy.

One reader suggests that keys are only going out to those who registered earlier today, before the beta was taken down. We can’t confirm this, but it seems to hold true for what we’re experiencing here at Lifehacker HQ.

It’s been a long day, Windows enthusiasts, so smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. If you were able to secure the download and a key (or just the download, really, since it works just fine without the key for at least a month), here’s how to install and dual-boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista for your weekend project.






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How to Dual Boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista [Windows 7]

Posted on January 9, 2009
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If you’re dying to try out Windows 7 but aren’t ready to give up your installation of XP or Vista, let’s take a look at how to dual boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista.

Step 0: Download the Windows 7 Beta and Burn It to a DVD

Assuming you’ve already downloaded a fresh copy of Windows 7, you’ll need to burn it to a DVD in order to do a fresh installation. To handle this task, grab a copy of the most popular CD and DVD burning tool ImgBurn, burn the ISO to a DVD, and move right along to step 1.

Step 1: Partition Your Hard Drive

Before you go installing Windows 7, the first thing you need to do is create a new partition on your hard drive to hold the new installation of Windows. Partitioning your hard drive will vary depending on whether you're running XP or Vista—namely because Vista has a partition tool baked in, XP does not.

Partition Your Hard Drive in XP

To partition your hard drive in Windows XP, you’ll need to download some sort of third-party partitioning software. There are a lot of options available, but I prefer to stick with the previously mentioned GParted live CD, a free, open source boot CD that can handle all kinds of partitioning duties.

To use it, just download the GParted Live CD, burn it to a CD, then reboot your computer (booting from the disc). You’ll boot right into the partitioning tool. HowtoForge’s previous guide to modifying partitions with GParted is a great place to start, but it’s a fairly basic procedure:

  1. Resize your current OS drive to free up enough space for a Windows 7 partition (the minimum system requirements ask for 16GB).
  2. Create a new partition from the newly freed space.
  3. Apply your changes.

Partition Your Hard Drive in Vista

The folks at Redmond were kind enough to include a disk partitioning tool in Vista if you know where to look. So go to Control Panel -> System and Maintainence (skip this one if you're in Classic view) -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management. Once you launch the Computer Management tool, click on Disk Management under the Storage heading in the sidebar. It's partitioning time.

Luckily we’ve already gone down this road before in step-by-step detail, complete with pictures, so check out our previous guide to creating a new partition in Vista. In a nutshell, you’ll need to shrink your current OS partition to free up at least 16GB of disk space (per the Windows 7 minimum system requirements), then create a “New Simple Volume” from the free space.

Step 2: Install Windows 7

Now that you’ve done all the heavy lifting, it’s time for the easy part: Installing Windows 7 on your new partition. So insert your Windows 7 disc and reboot your computer (you’ll need to have enabled booting from your DVD drive in your system BIOS, but most PCs will have this enabled by default).

Once the DVD boots up it’s a simple matter of following along with the fairly simple installation wizard. When you’re choosing installation type, be sure to select Custom (advanced) and choose the partition you set up above. (Be careful here. Choosing the wrong partition could mean wiping your other Windows installation altogether, so make sure you pick the new partition you just created.)

After you select the partition, go grab yourself a drink and let the installer do its work. Windows will run through some installation bits, restart a few times in the process. Eventually you’ll be prompted to set up your account, enter your license key, and set up Windows. Keep your eyes open for fun new Windows 7 features, like your new homegroup (and the accompanying password). When it’s finished, you’re up and rolling with your new Windows 7 installation.

Congratulations! You should now have a new entry for Windows 7 on your boot screen when you first start up your computer. You've now got all the tools necessary to dual-boot Windows 7 and XP or Vista—or even to triple-boot Windows 7, Vista, and XP.

This isn’t the only way to set up a multi-boot system by any means, but it’s how I pulled it off. If you’ve got a method of your own that you prefer, let’s hear it in the comments.






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