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].

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\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 (it does not work from Windows because the keys are either denied access or hidden). Note that aa1111111111 is the bluetooth device id of the device to pair as given in Windows control panel → bluetoot devices:

chntpw -e SYSTEM

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

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

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