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Windows 7 Customization and Tweaks

How do you customize your Windows 7 Desktop? Let us know and if it's a big one please give us a step by step on how to get it done.

Here's some of what I do:

*One of the first things I do is change the Power Options so that it's set as far as possible to be "Always On". I still have a bit of an issue fully understanding the CPU control, with the choices limited to Active or Passive.

*The other is to change the desktop background and I use a custom image for that which I install using the Personalization context menu item and then save the background once I've selected it.

*Next, I get rid of the shortcut arrows on the desktop shortcuts. If there's enough interest in that I'll post how to do that by including a new registry entry and by giving the shortcuts arrow a blank transparent .ico file.

*I also take ownership control of my user account Documents and Settings as I often need to access things like Application Data and Local Settings.

*The desktop icon size can be customized by clicking anywhere on the desktop, holding down the Ctrl key and then using the mouse wheel to either increase or decrease the size. I prefer mine smaller than the standard size.

*The Windows Explorer landing zone can be changed, so that by default it opens at Computer, showing all drives. I do this for easy access to my external drives. Just right click Windows Explorer on the start menu, select Properties and then add the following application switch to the text in the "Target" dialog box: /e, so that it reads %windir%\explorer.exe /e,

Here's how Windows Explorer and my desktop look:

WExplorer.jpg (66.33 KiB) Viewed 1165 times

786DTop.jpg (75.47 KiB) Viewed 1164 times