Calibrate your screen

The colours you see on your screen will vary depending on your monitor, graphics cards settings, lighting and more, yet most people use the same default Windows colour profile. And that means a digital photo you think looks perfect might appear very poor to everybody else. Fortunately Windows 7 now provides a Display Colour Calibration Wizard that helps you properly set up your brightness, contrast and colour settings, and a ClearType tuner to ensure text is crisp and sharp. Click Start, type DCCW and press Enter to give it a try.

Desktop Peeking

While you’re on the taskbar, it’s worth noting a few subtleties. You’ve probably seen the small rectangle in the bottom right hand corner: this is the feature we call “Aero Peek”, which enables you to see any gadgets or icons you’ve got on your desktop. I wanted to note that there’s a keyboard shortcut that does the same thing – just press Win+Space. 

Protect your MP3 files

Along with many good new features, the Windows 7 beta also includes a nasty bug. Its version of Windows Media Player 12 will automatically add missing metadata, including album art, and this can overwrite the first few seconds of the file. Oops. Installing an update may fix this (fromhttp://300allpctips.blogspot.com/2009/01/kb961367-windows-7-beta-wmp-12-corrupt.html) but it would be a very good idea to back up your MP3 files, too.

Running with Elevated Rights

Want to quickly launch a taskbar-docked application as an administrator? It’s easy – hold down Ctrl+Shift while you click on the icon, and you’ll immediately launch it with full administrative rights (assuming your account has the necessary permissions, of course!)

Problem Steps Recorder(PSR)

PSR is a great little tool in Windows 7 used for recording the steps to reproduce a problem in the computer. The captured data is stored in a MHTML document which is enclosed in a zip file. You can send the zip file to someone else who can help you fix the problem.

                                                

The Problem Steps Recorder provides a simple screen capture tool that enables you to record a series of actions. Once you hit “record”, it tracks your mouse and keyboard and captures screenshots with any comments you choose to associate alongside them. Once you stop recording, it saves the whole thing to a ZIP file, containing an HTML-based “slide show” of the steps. It’s a really neat little tool and I can’t wait for it to become ubiquitous on every desktop! The program is called psr.exe; you can also search for it from Control Panel under “Record steps to reproduce a problem”.

Fix the Clutter:

Remove all background windows while running/using a document by just pressing WIN+HOME keepong the window while ur in the current position,to restore the background windows press WIN+HOME again.

Leave the Homegroup

Homegroups are an easy way to network Windows 7 PCs, but if you don't use the feature then turning it off can save you a few system resources.

Click Start, type Homegroup, and click "Choose homegroup and sharing options". Click Leave the Homegroup > Leave the Homegroup > Finish.

Now click Start, type services.msc and press [Enter] to launch the Services Control Panel applet.

Find and double-click both the HomeGroup Listener and HomeGroup Provider service, clicking Stop and setting Startup Type to Disabled in each case, and the services won't be launched when you need reboot.

Close in a click

Hover your mouse cursor over a Windows taskbar button will display a preview thumbnail of that application window. You don't need that app any more? Then middle-click the thumbnail to close it down.