Click on the Windows key to open the start menu. Type ‘mmc’ in the search box without quotes and hit enter.

A new window will pop up. Go to File> Add/Remove Snap-in.This will open up Add/Remove Snap-in box. Check out for ‘Group Policy Object’ on the left hand side and add it to the right column by clicking on ‘Add’.

‘Select Group Policy’ box will pop up. Here you can rename the Group Policy Object if you desire. Now click on browse to allocate this policy to a particular type of profile. For instance; Non-Administrators. If you choose ‘Non-Administrators’, you are selecting custom settings for this type of group. In this case we are going to hide shutdown option from non-administrators. You can select the type of group by clicking on the User tab. Click Ok once done.

You’ll be brought back to the console window. On left hand side column navigate to User Configuration> Administrative Templates> Start Menu and Taskbar.

On the right hand side look for “Remove and Prevent Access to Shutdown, Hibernate, Restart and Sleep”.

Double click on it and select ‘Enabled’. Click on ‘Ok’ to apply changes and exit.

Method 1: Using Command prompt
Click on the Start button and in the search box type ‘cmd.exe’ without quotes, hold the shift key and hit enter.
Type ‘net stop spooler’ without quotes then hit Enter.
Type ‘del %systemroot%\System32\spool\printers\* /Q’ without quotes and hit Enter.
Lastly, type ‘net start spooler’ then hit Enter.
The print queue should now be cleared. Simply close the command prompt window.

Method 2:
Click on the start button and type ‘msconfig.exe’ without quotes and hit enter
Under the services tab, search for ‘Print Spooler’ and stop it.
Now, go to C:\System32\Spool\Printers\ and delete everything. This will delete the entire queue.
Lastly, Go back to the Services window that you opened earlier and Start the ‘Print Spooler’ service.
Once done, try using the printer again.

Fix for Redsnow stuck at uploading ramdisk in Windows 7

Fix 1:
Right click on the Redsn0w.exe and click on ‘Properties’.

Click on the Compatibility tab and under the head ‘compatibility mode’ check the box and select ‘Run this program in compatibility mode for’ and choose Windows XP service pack 3.
Click ‘Apply’ and then ‘OK’ to close the window and apply settings.
Now, try redsn0w again to jailbreak, if it does not work then try Fix 2.

Fix 2:
Double click on redsn0w to launch it.
Open task manager by holding the buttons Ctrl+Alt+Del.
Find redsn0w.exe, right-click on it and select ‘Set Affinity’.

Uncheck all the CPU and tick only CPU 1, then hit OK. This will force the process to run only on one core. Well, I’m not sure how this helps but it does help.

I tried the compatibility fix and the above fix when I was jailbreaking iPhone 4 OS 4.3.1 on Windows 7. So, I’m sure it should work for you too.

How to Disable or Kill mscorsvw.exe?

1. Open My Computer and in the address bar enter C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727

2. Click on start and then type cmd and hit enter to start command prompt.

3. Specify the above path (in step1) in the command prompt and type ngen.exe executequeueditems and hit enter. If you’re confused it should like the one below without quotes:
“C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727>ngen.exe executequeueditems”

This command will help to process all the pending works under this process and once everything’s done it will automatically shutdown. You need to wait for the process to precompile all assemblies. Within two or three minutes the process will be done and you won’t see it anymore in the task manager.

Go to Start and in the search box type cmd and hit enter.

Type CHKDSK followed by the drive letter and it hit enter. For instance, if the drive letter is G, it should look like CHKDSK G:

At the end of the report, you’ll find the bytes in each allocation unit.

So, here’s a simple and easy way how you can remove unwanted startup programs in Windows 7 and improve the startup speed.

Click on the Start button and in the search bar type ‘msconfig’ and hit enter. This will bring up the System Configuration Window.

Click on the Startup tab. Here you’ll be able to see the programs or applications that load/ startup whenever you start your computer. The ones that start every time will have checked boxes. If you don’t want the program to start when you start your computer then simply uncheck the box.

Programs that should be unchecked include programs like Winamp, VLC, live messenger, Skype, Adobe reader, etc. Don’t uncheck programs like Antivirus, display driver, audio driver, etc.

Once, you’re done with unchecking the boxes, click on ‘Apply’ and then ‘OK’.

Now, you’ll be prompted to restart. You can restart immediately or maybe later by clicking on ‘later’. Once, you reboot you should see the difference on the startup. There will definitely be a huge difference.

Go to My Computer and then Press the Alt key on your keyboard. This will bring up the File and Edit menu on the top area of your screen.

Click on Tools and select Folder Options.

Under the General tab, change the Click items as follows from Double-click to open an item (single-click to select) to single-click to open an item (point to select).

Now, you can select the underline settings. You can select to ‘underline the icon titles always’ or ‘only when you point at them’. The underline when you point option gets selected automatically once you change the setting to single click. I prefer this option when I’m using single click because the ‘always underline the tiles’ option looks a bit messy.

Click Apply to make the changes and then click OK.

That’s it! Now, a single click on files and folders will open up the files and folders!

Fix for Files or Folders changed to Shortcuts

If you have such a problem with your external hard drive or pen drive don’t panic and format the drive as you’ll lose all the data on it.

You need to first check the Drive Letter of your external hard drive or your pen drive and make a note of it.

Now, Go to Start>Run>type ‘cmd’ and hit enter.

Let’s assume that your drive letter is G; then you need type the below command in the command prompt and hit enter.

attrib -h -r -s /s /d g: *.*

If the drive letter is something other than ‘G’ then you need to change the letter ‘g’ in the above command to the drive letter.

That’s it! Now your files and folders should be visible.

How to Keep Laptop On when Closed

You can keep the laptop on and running when the lid is closed by changing some simple settings. Here’s how you do it:

On the right side of the task bar click on the power icon and click on ‘More power options’.

Here you will find three power plans. Click on ‘Change plan settings’ on the selected power plan and select ‘change advanced power settings’.

A new window will pop up. Under your power plan, expand ‘Power buttons and lid’.

Expand the ‘Lid close action’ button.

Change it to ‘Do nothing’ on both ‘On battery’ and ‘Plugged in’. This will keep the laptop on whether the laptop is connected to power or not.

Now, Click ‘Ok’.

That’s it! The laptop won’t turn off or sleep when it’s closed anymore.

Firstly, click on the start menu and in the search box type cmd and hit enter.

Now, command prompt window will launch. Right click on the title bar and click on properties.

In the Properties window, click on the colors tab and click on the screen text button. On the right hand side, under selected color values, change Green to 255.

Once done, click ok. This should change the text of the command prompt box to green. It will look some like the above. Voila! You now have a monochrome command prompt box.

RELATED: How to Add Command Prompt to the Right-Click Menu in Windows

How to enable default games in Windows 7 Professional?

Firstly, go to Control Panel

Click on Programs and Features and then Click on Turn Windows Features On/ Off on the left hand side.

Now, a box will popup. In this box tick the option ‘Games’. You can also enable only specific games by expanding the box and ticking selected games.

Windows 7 Cheat Sheets
Cheat Sheet by Webjawns
Hotkey Cheat sheet by radicaldevelopment

Windows Vista Cheat Sheets
Cheat sheet by customguide

Windows XP Cheat Sheets
Services cheat sheet
Shortcuts cheat sheet

Windows 2000 Cheat Sheets
Error Cheatsheet
Shortcuts Cheatsheet

Command Line Cheat Sheets
XP Command Line Sheet
Command Shell Overview by Microsoft

How to Fix “Windows 7 does not Recognize DVD Drive”?

Here’s a quick solution that worked for many users. Follow the below instructions carefully:
In the start menu search, type in ‘regedit’ and hit enter.
The registry editor will now open. Look for the below registry key-
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Class \ (4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318)
In the right window, right click on UpperFilters and delete it. Also, right click again on LowerFilters and delete it as well.
Restart your computer for changes to take effect.

Another Solution to the problem:
Go to Start> All programs> Accessories> Right click on Command Prompt> Run as administrator.
Type the following and press enter.
bcdedit /set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS

RELATED: Lock and Protect CD/ DVD Drives

As, you can see in the above pic there are no desktop icons and the taskbar is missing. You can also spot a sexy dock and a couple of gadgets. Looks neat and clean isn’t it?

To get a desktop like the one above you need to…
Get an attractive wallpaper for your desktop. You can download free high quality wallpapers from the list here.

Download and install Rocket Dock. It’s a small dock that allows you to access applications, folders, etc from a single tray like docklet. Once, the dock is installed run it. You should see a simple dock on your desktop screen.

Create a folder with the name ‘Programs’ on your desktop. Cut all the application shortcuts and paste them into this folder. This will reduce the clutter. You can also group other stuff like game shortcuts, etc into another folder in a similar way. You can drag this folder into the dock to create a shortcut to access the folder directly from the dock.

To get different icons, skins, docklets, etc you can have a look at the Rocketdock website or Wincustomize website.

You can also download Object Dock which not only helps you to add one dock but several docks.

To hide desktop icons you need to simply right click on the desktop and hide desktop icons.

You can also change the taskbar start button using the taskbar start button changer app.

To hide the taskbar, you need to download a small app RunandHide or taskbar hider from rocket dock website.

To get more Windows 7 gadgets, have a look at the Microsoft website. You can try out the launch control gadget which can show tiny shortcut to applications.

I guess that’s pretty simple isn’t it? Well, if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Windows 7 Start Button Changer is quite small in size and is pretty easy to use as well. It creates a backup of the original button before a new button is selected. You can restore the original button in a single click if you aren’t satisfied with the change.

To change the button, download the software from below and extract the zip. Run the app as administrator. Choose ‘Select and Change button’. In the zip, you’ll get 10 samples. Browse to the folder and select any one. Voila! You should see a new button!

Download Windows 7 Start Button Changer