Windows 7

Tips

Miscellaneous

Windows Explorer

• Press shift then right click, to get more options in context menu / SendTo folder
• Enter shell:sendto to configure SendTo menu

Change location of special shell folders (desktop, favorites, my documents)

• Method 1 — Right click on the folder → properties... → Location pane → change location
• Method 2 — Edit registry locations HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders ([1]).
• Note there is also HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders. I also update that one, but the tips does not say so.

Map network drives for ALL accounts, including administrators

• With UAC enabled, network drives mounted by a user are not available to administrators, nor apps running with elevated privileges
• [2], [3] recommends setting a registry key to bypass that, but it does not work in my Windows 7

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"EnableLinkedConnections"=dword:00000001

• Best solution, use this script to remount shares for admin at startup [4]. Copy following file at C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\remount-admin.vbs

Startup\remount-admin.vbs ([{{#filelink: remount-admin.vbs}} download])

{{#fileanchor: remount-admin.vbs}}

' Script from http://superuser.com/questions/105173/how-to-access-network-shares-from-an-elevated-process-in-windows-7?rq=1
'
' Automatically remount local mapped drives for administrator account, so that these shares are also available to apps
' running in elevated privileges
'

Option Explicit
Dim objNetwork, objShell
Dim strDriveLetter, strNetworkPath
Dim colDrives, intDrive, strDrives


If WScript.Arguments.length =0 Then
    Set objNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")
    Set colDrives = objNetwork.EnumNetworkDrives

    For intDrive = 0 To (colDrives.Count -1) Step 2
        rem WScript.Echo colDrives.Item(intDrive) & " is mapped to: " & colDrives.Item(intDrive + 1)
        If Len(strDrives) > 0 Then strDrives = strDrives & " "
        strDrives = strDrives & " " & Chr(34) & colDrives.Item(intDrive) & Chr(34) &  " " & Chr(34) & colDrives.Item(intDrive + 1) & Chr(34) 
    Next

  If Len(strDrives) > 0 Then
      ' re-call script with elevation
      Set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
      objShell.ShellExecute "cscript.exe", Chr(34) & WScript.ScriptFullName & Chr(34) & strDrives, "", "runas", 1
    Else
        WScript.Echo "No drives Mapped."
    End If

Else
  ' elevated part
  Set objNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")

  For intDrive = 0 To (WScript.Arguments.Count - 1) Step 2
        rem WScript.Echo WScript.Arguments(intDrive) & " is mapped to: " & WScript.Arguments(intDrive + 1)
        On Error Resume Next ' ignore already mapped drives
        objNetwork.MapNetworkDrive WScript.Arguments(intDrive), WScript.Arguments(intDrive + 1)
        On Error GoTo 0
    Next

End If

Share bluetooth device between dual boot Linux and Windows

Reference: [5]

The trick is to copy the bluetooth link keys from Windows into Linux:

• Pair the device with Linux first
• Then pair the device with Windows
• Boot back in Linux, and extract the bluetooth keys using chntpw. Edit the registry file C:\Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM.

aa1111111111 is the bluetooth device id of the device to pair as given in Windows control panel → bluetoot devices, or in Linux Bluemanager.

chntpw -e SYSTEM

> ls
> cd ControlSet001\Services\BTHPORT\Parameters\Keys
> ls
> cd aa1111111111
> ls
> hex bb2222222222

Note that it does not work from Windows because the keys are either denied access or hidden.

• Copy the key value (remove the spaces) into file /var/lib/bluetooth/AA:11:11:11:11:11/linkkeys

Repair Laptop brightness not working or stuck

Easiest

• Close the lid and open it again (make sure the laptop does not go to sleep).

From [6]

• Go to control panel, devices management, then go to monitors and open properties for "Generic PnP Monitors".
• In "details" pane, open property Hardware Ids, and copy the value field (something like MONITOR\LGD02F1)
• To re-enable brightness control, run:

devcon.exe -remove =MONITOR *LGD02F1*
devcon.exe -rescan

• To disable it:

devcon.exe -remove =MONITOR *LGD02F1*

Use Caps Lock as another Escape key

See Map caps lock to escape in Windows. Import the registry file (Win7/Win8):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,3a,00,46,00,01,00,3a,00,00,00,00,00

Open Windows Command anywhere

• Open Windows File Explorer at any folder.
• Press Shift, and right click anywhere on the white space in folder files area.
• Select Open command window here.

Windows script

Opening file with default application in CMD shell

Recommended solution is to use START (see SO and ss64.com):

START "Title" my_document.doc

Access denied

However when the file is on an mapped drive, we get access denied. The solution is then to call explorer directly:

explorer my_document.doc

Cleaning up Windows 7

Windows 7, as any Microsoft product, comes with a lot of bloat and crap. Unfortunately design is so bad that there is no way to clean it up. Here some links to help a bit.

Best Guides

• Tutorial: Reclaim disk space in Windows Seven, Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2

dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded      # To run in admin, and in sys32

• Move the Users Directory in Windows 7
  Using Junctions (hard symlink)

Disable hibernation

• Disable it as follows

powercfg.exe -h off

winsxs

• Disk Cleanup update
  Microsoft issued an update of Disk Cleanup that allows to reduce a bit the winsxs folder.
  • Breaking News! Reduce the size of the WinSxS Directory and Free up Disk Space with a New Update for Windows 7 SP1 Clients
• How to reduce the size of winsxs in windows 7 ultimate x64

ctts.exe C:\Windows        # Get real size of windows folders (handle soft links / hard links)

• Engineering Windows 7 - Disk Space
  Windows engineering trying to justify what cannot be justified, with bad arguments.

DriverStore

• How do I delete folders from the Windows 7 DriverStore?
  This was of no help for me on pc-112-597. I had to delete the folder manually

Other links for general information:

• How to Reduce the Size of the Winsxs directory and Free Up Disk Space on Windows Server 2012 Using Features on Demand

Upgrading to Windows 7 SP 1 on dual boot system

Upgrading to Win 7 SP1 fails on dual boot system because Windows does not find the boot disk (error code XXXX).

To fix the issue, Grub must be removed.

• Boot on Windows 7 Recovery disk, and start a command prompt.
• First restore the MBR [7]: bootsect /nt60 all /mbr.
• Then update BCD: bcdboot C:\Windows
• If getting error Failure when Attempting to Copy Boot Files, this is because the boot partition is not marked Active. To fix [8]:

diskpart
select disk 0
list partition
select partition 1
active

• Now retry again: bcdboot C:\Windows

Note: maybe the three usual commands would have worked:

bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /rebuildbcd

Keyboard shortcuts

Aero shortcuts [9]:

• Win-Up — Maximize active window.
• Shift-Win-Up — Maximize active window vertically.
• Win-Down — Restore / minimize window.
• Win-Left/Right — Dock the window left/right, possibly to the display on the left/right, or restore
• Shift-Win-Left/Right — Move the window to the display on the left or right.
• Win-Home — Clear all but active window.
• Win-Space — Make all windows transparent.