The control and shift keys have long been the imprecise means of selecting multiple items on a Windows system. The How-To Geek’s blog away from Lifehacker reminds us that, as with Vista, Windows 7 users can use check boxes instead.
As always, the How-To Geek’s site has an extensive, step-by-step screenshot guide to flicking on the check box selection tools in Windows 7. For those who know their way around, however, the process is simple: Enter “folder options” in the Start menu’s search bar and hit Enter, click the “View” tab on the resulting window, and then check to enable the “Use check boxes to select items” option. Hit Apply and OK, and you’ll see check boxes pop up next to the items you’re hovering next to with your cursor.
How To Enable Check Boxes for Items In Windows 7 [the How-To Geek]
If you spend a lot of time in text editors, you almost certainly use something other than Windows’ default Notepad. Weblog Online Tech Tips details how to set an alternative editor as your default to complete your Notepad replacement.
Windows 7 features a guest account that can make it easy for friends and housemates to quickly check their email or the web on your system. Giving it a different name, however, makes it a bit more secure.
Reader Nakul writes in with a useful script that quickly pastes content from the clipboard into any application with nothing more than a double-click of your right mouse button.
Most modern browsers implement the Ctrl+K shortcut key for quickly focusing the built-in browser search box—and now you can use the same shortcut in 
Reader Raghav writes in with a small, but useful tip: using AutoHotkey, you can re-map the Win+E shortcut key combination to open something other than My Computer.
Yesterday we showed you 
Reader John writes in with a tip to prevent Windows from continuing a shutdown operation—very useful for those times you want to shutdown but you accidentally chose restart.
If you've used Windows for any amount of time, you've already had to deal with the dreaded (Not Responding) frozen application—so instead of using task manager, why not create a shortcut to auto-kill them?