Windows 7 is great, but if you’re a control freak like me, you want to be able to change all your settings easily, and preferably, all in one place. Well, the developers at Microsoft heard your cries of woe, and have enabled a super folder.
Create a new folder (can be located anywhere, like on the Desktop), with the following name: SuperFolder.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
Once you hit enter, it will look like this:
Opening this folder, you will see all the Admin goodness – 277 administrative tasks, all in one place!
This has been a much needed feature for Windows. My only wish is that it was easier to create the super folder – for instance if I were to work on someone else’s machine, I’m not going to remember what that long string of numbers and letters are – would be nice to remember a word, or sentence to call the folder… oh well, at least we got it!
One more tip, I added this SuperFolder to my Favorites, so it’s accessible from any open explorer window! (Just drag the folder onto the Favorites star, and it will add it to the favorite list!)
Syncing my iPhone with work (Microsoft Exchange) is great, but I still wanted a to view personal calendar from Google Calendar to be synced to my iPhone too. And yes, I know you can use ActiveSync to sync Calendar on the iphone. This can be done by adding the CalDev calendar sync!
First, click the settings button on the home screen, select Mail, Contacts, Calendars:
Select Add Account, then Other,
Now select Add CalDev Account:
Enter the following information:
- Server: www.google.com
- User Name: Your Google account email address (can be your Google Apps email address)
- Password: Ummm… your Google account password…
- Description: Google Calendar (or whatever you want to put here)
Tap the Next button in the top right, and that’s it! I did a quick test, and added an items from both Exchange and Google Calendar, and within 1-2 minutes, it was on synced to my iPhone!
For Windows 7 / Server 2008 R2 only – Medo has created a great little utility that will attach (mount) or detach a VHD Hard drive image file. This is a wonderful time saver for those that use VHD’s on a regular basis!
[ VHD Attach ]
Seems that you can perform a clean install of Windows 7 – with an upgrade disk (read much cheaper here).
Normally, if you install with an upgrade disk, you cannot activate windows. The work around is to perform a clean install, ensure that there are no pending Windows Updates waiting to install (orange shield on restart icon), and make the following registry change:
HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/
Change MediaBootInstall from "1" to "0".
Open Regedit (Start, Type in Regedit and press enter)
Click “Yes” on the User Access Control
Navigate Regedit to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/
Right click on the MediaBootInstall key and choose Modify. Change the “1” to a “0”
Restart the computer, and you should be able to activate your “Clean” install of Windows 7!
Now, easier than before, Microsoft has released a handy utility to turn an ISO image of Windows 7 into a bootable DVD or Flash drive!
Select the ISO file for Windows 7
Choose USB or DVD
That’s it!
It doesn’t get much easier than this! I will say, that I have first knowledge that installing Windows 7 with a USB device is MUCH faster than with DVD. From start to finish, USB only took about 20 minutes… DVD took close to 30-40 minutes.
[ Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool ]
