Tragedi Black Screen of Death Windows 7

Belum genap dua bulan sistem operasi "gres" besutan Microsoft ini dirilis, sudah ada laporan yang menyebutkan bahwa muncul masalah black screen pada beberapa PC pengguna Windows. Laporan tersebut diperoleh Microsoft dari vendor keamanan bernama Prevx.
Laporan tersebut disampaikan pada tanggal 10 November 2009. Di sana disebutkan kalau update keamanan Windows telah mengubah Access Control List (ACL) di registry, alhasil membuat software tidak dapat berjalan dengan baik.
Ciri-ciri kesalahan tersebut mengakibatkan layar menjadi berwarna hitam (blackscreen) atau lebih dikenal sebagai "black screen of death", disamping istilah "blue screen of death" yang biasa tampil ketika sistem mengalami crash.
Dalam forum sosial di situs technet, disebutkan bahwa 4 pengguna PC bersistem Windows 7 juga sempat mengalami masalah black screen setelah melakukan login. Masalah lainnya adalah Windows XP tidak kompatibel dengan PC yang menggunakan video card ATI Radeon HD 2400-series, alhasil komputer tidak dapat berjalan normal.

"Sejauh ini, Microsoft sedang menginvestigasi laporan mengenai persoalan di beberapa customer," jelas Christopher Budd (Microsoft security response communications lead). Selanjutnya, setelah Microsoft melengkapi investigasi, maka akan disediakan panduan lengkap mengenai bagaimana mencegah kasus black screen of death ini. Sementara itu, update keamanan dari Microsoft akan dirilis pada 8 Desember mendatang. (Indah PM/PCWorld)

Windows XP to Windows7. Easy?

Windows 7 finally launched and things looked great. Test drive any lappie with the new OS installed and you’ll just itch to upgrade every existing machine you have. Even netbooks! Yes folks, even these relatively underpowered laughingstocks of the gaming world can run Windows 7. What’s amazing is that a netbook on Seven can feel much faster than a CoreDuo on Vista.

Now your big question is: when you will upgrade your dodgy XP machines.

Microsoft made it very easy for Vista users. All you do is plug in the disc and run UPGRADE. It isn’t so simple for the XP loyalists who abhorred the trainwreck that was Vista . If you look at the fine print on that glossy windows 7 box, you’ll discover quite a few things that can make your head steam.

1. Windows XP users can’t upgrade to Windows 7 directly. Check out the stats on the box. Microsoft explicitly makes it clear that any XP iteration, from Home basic to Professional can’t make the upgrade. The recommended mode is to do a clean install (which is not so bad- you end up with a faster PC!) and overwrite all programs. The downer is that you’ll spend hours of brewing coffee reinstalling every app needed by your office. And settings migration can be a pain! The average office PC has at least 20 apps (including Virtua Girl) and network settings that can be vexing to reinstall. The official excuse is that Seven contains many brand new tweaks that are incompatible with XP. Yeah right.

2. But There’s A Workaround. And it may make Bill Gates richer. And the secret is this: simply buy a copy of Vista. Once you install Vista over XP, you preserve all the apps and settings. From here you can the UPGRADE to Windows 7! Isn’t that marvy? For the economically minded, that may sound a tad foolish because it’s like you’re paying twice the price just to get at Seven. But don’t fret. Put on your blackhat and be a pirate for just 20 minutes of your life. BORROW a copy of Vista from a friend and upgrade from there. Technically, that isn’t stealing because you don’t even have to crack or activate Vista. You’re just using it to upgrade.

Happy upgrading!

10 Intermediate Ways To Speed Up Windows

Update: If you are using Windows Vista then check out 10 Simple Ways To SpeedUp Windows Vista.

Given how successful my Simple Guide to Tweaking Windows XP has been I’ve decided to post some more complex tweaks. The effectiveness of each of these tweaks will vary from machine to machine.

I’ve tried to focus on tweaks that I’m confident can be made on any XP machine regardless of the individual setup. Please do not make any of these changes if you are not sure what you are doing, and remember to make backups first and good luck!

1. Disable Unnecessary Services
Because Windows XP has to be all things to all people it has many services running that take up system resources that you will never need. Below is a list of services that can be disabled on most machines:

• Alerter
• Clipbook
• Computer Browser
• Distributed Link Tracking Client
• Fast User Switching
• Help and Support – (If you use Windows Help and Support leave this enabled)
• Human Interface Access Devices
• Indexing Service
• IPSEC Services
• Messenger
• Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)
• Portable Media Serial Number
• Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (disabled for extra security)
• Remote Procedure Call Locator
• Remote Registry (disabled for extra security)
• Remote Registry Service
• Secondary Logon
• Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra security)
• Server
• SSDP Discovery Service – (Unplug n’ Pray will disable this)
• Telnet
• TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
• Upload Manager
• Universal Plug and Play Device Host
• Windows Time
• Wireless Zero Configuration (Do not disable if you use a wireless network)
• Workstation

To disable these services:

1. Go to Start and then Run and type “services.msc”
2. Doubleclick on the service you want to change
3. Change the startup type to ‘Disable”

2. Turn Off System Restore

System Restore can be a useful if your computer is having problems, however storing all the restore points can literally take up Gigabytes of space on your hard drive. To turn off System Restore:

1. Open Control Panel
2. Click on Performance and Maintenance
3. Click on System
4. Click on the System Restore tab
5. Tick ‘Turn off System Restore on All Drives’
6. Click ‘Ok’

Windows Trick: How To Recover Your Windows Serial Number For Free

Sometimes the best solution for a complicated PC performance issue is to reinstall your operating system and other applications you run. Although a radical and time-consuming step, format and reinstall normally speeds up your PC and enhances your productivity at the long run.

The issue many people i know faced when reinstalling their PC, is to find their Microsoft software serial numbers. In most cases ,when acquiring a PC you also purchase your Operating system of choice (XP, Vista and others) and productivity suite (Office). The dealer installs the purchased software, but sometime fails to provide you with the serial numbers for the software you purchased. The thing is that you need those serial numbers if you want to reinstall your PC.

Prodkey, a free and easy-to-use utility made by Nir Sofer, helps you to recover your Windows and Office serial number from an existing installation. Prodkey runs on all Windows platforms and is capable to retrieve serial number info for the main Microsoft products:MS-Office, Windows, Exchange Server, and SQL Server.

Usage is quite simple.All you need to do is download and unzip Prodkey Then click on the Prodkey.exe file. The utility will display the list of your installed Microsoft products and their product key information. I recommend that you print the output and keep it in a safe place for further reference.

(Note that i deleted my PC product key information for obvious reasons)

Remember: Always run Prodkey BEFORE reinstalling your system. Otherwise you won’t be able to recover the serial numbers.

Enjoy! ok^^

More Ways to Speed Up Windows 7

In my post ‘10 Simple Ways To Speedup Windows 7‘, I covered some easy ways to make Windows 7 faster. If you’re looking for even more speed from your Windows 7 PC, then here are more ways to speed up Windows 7:

Speedup External Hard Drives

Write caching is disabled for external drives by default in Windows, so that you can remove external drives without losing any data. Enabling write caching will provide a significant performance increase for external drives:

1. Click Start and type “Device Manager” and open Device Manager
2. Expand “Disk drives” and right-click your external hard drive and select Properties
3. click the “Policies” tab and click “Optimize for performance”
4. Check “Enable write caching on the device” and “Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device” then click Ok
5. Reboot to apply changes

Increase SATA Disk Performance

Enabling write caching will also improve SATA hard drive performance

1. Follow steps 1 to 3 above, but select your SATA drives
2. Only check “Enable write caching on the device” and then click Ok
3. Reboot to apply changes

Faster Menus & Mouse

Reduce the amount of time it takes for menus to appear:.

1. Click Start and type “regedit” and open the Registry Editor
2. Left-click on the expandable arrow next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER and expand the Control Panel folder, and then select “Desktop”
3. On the right hand side find “MenuShowDelay” and doubleclick it. Reduce the value to any number between 400 (default) and 1 – the lower the number the smaller the delay in ms between clicking on a menu and the action occuring
4. Now below Desktop on the left select “Mouse”. On the right hand side find “MouseHoverTime” and doubleclick and chose a low number for faster mouseovers
5. Reboot

Disable Thumbnail Previews

Windows 7’s thumbnail preview feature takes up a lot of resources just to show a few small images rather than folder icons. To disable the thumbnail previews:

1. Open Computer and click on “Organise” in the menu and select “Folder and Search” options
2. Click on the “View” tab and in the “Files and Folders” options check the “Always show icons, never thumbnails” option
3. Click “Apply” and then OK

Faster Windows 7 Taskbar

Another registry tweak that will reduce the amount of resources used to create your Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnail previews:

1. Click Start and type “regedit” and open the Registry Editor
2. Left-click on the expandable arrow next to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” and then “Software” and expand until you get to the Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced folder
3. Right click on Advanced and select “New DWORD”, then enter the following value: “ThumbnailLivePreviewHoverTime”
4. Right click on “ThumbnailLivePreviewHoverTime” and select “Modify”. Choose “Decimal Base” and enter your new number in milliseconds. A good number to use is 200.
5. Select “Ok” and then reboot

7 Free Tweakers For Faster Windows 7

I’ve been using Windows 7 for many months now and I think it’s a great OS that works well on nearly any PC. However, you can still have more speed…..If you want to make your Windows 7 PC run even faster or if you want to tweak Windows 7 then you could follow my 10 Simple Ways To Speedup Windows 7, or an even easier way is to use one of these 7 Free Tweakers For Windows 7, which make it easy for even novice users to speedup Windows 7.

Windows 7 Manager

Windows 7 Manager is my favourite Windows 7 tweaker as it just does so much. Using the simple wizard and helpful guide, you can very quickly optimize, tweak, secure and cleanup Windows 7. It’s free for 15 days, which should be enough for most users.

More: Windows 7 Manager

Windows 7 Little Tweaker

Windows 7 Little Tweaker is a very small utility that lets you tweak some normally hard to get features within Windows 7 such as disabling low disk space warnings, speeding up thumbnail previews and turning off UAC prompts. 32-bit only

More: Windows 7 Little Tweaker

EnhanceMySe7en Free

65MB in size, but comes with many options include registry and disk cleaning tools. EnhanceMySe7en works on 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

More: EnhanceMySe7en

Giga Tweaker

Gigatweaker tweaks Windows 7 and Windows Vista. Very fast with built-in Startup Manager and Uninstall Manager.

More: Gigatweaker

XDN Tweaker

Recommended for the average user, without the huge amount of tweaks that most users don’t need. Features some interesting tweaks and a well designed interface.

More: XDN Tweaker

Ultimate Windows Tweaker

Very, very small at 345KB but still packs a lot in – over 150 tweaks and settings in fact. Works with Windows 7 and Vista, both 32-bit and 64-bit flavours.

More: Ultimate Windows Tweaker

Vispa

Vispa is an excellent utility for tweaking Windows 7 and Windows Vista security settings. If you’re looking a very simple tweaking utility with literally on/off options, then Vispa is for you.

10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Windows Vista

Windows Vista is a rather heavy operating system with many neat features, but unfortunately they all come at a price. Right out of the box it requires a pretty hefty system to run (arguably).

Before you run out and buy a new computer just so you can run your base operating system, check out these 10 Simple Ways To Speedup Windows Vista tips to lighten the load. This is just the first in the series, so many of them may be very apparent to those experienced in tweaking.

If you’re still using Windows XP, then check out 10 Simple Ways To Speedup Windows XP. Or, if you moved onto Windows 7 then this post.

1. Turn off UAC, or at least make it less annoying

Now, there’s a lot of talk about the new user account control policy in Vista, and all I can say is: as it is, it annoys the hell out of me and slows down my normal computer usage. Just why, oh why, does it have to flash my video card to a black screen, take 5 seconds and really just make itself a royal pain in the arse?

To turn it off, the easiest way is to go into the Control Panel and type in ‘UAC‘ into the search bar. It’ll bring up a search result of ‘Turn User Account Control (UAC) on or off’. Just follow the prompts from there.

To keep some of the security of the UAC, let’s just turn off the crazy annoying blacking out screen bit. To do this:

• open group policy (start | run | gpedit.msc)
• then navigate to Computer Configuration | Windows Settings | Security Settings | Local Policies | Security Options
• Find the policy named ‘User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation’. Set this to disabled.

Much better, eh? You might say ‘but what’s that got to do with speed?’ Well, as I mentioned, it prompts me a couple times an hour at least and then takes several seconds to figure itself out. My productivity goes up, so it’s a speed enhancer ;)

2. Disable Aero

I personally do not do this, as I am a fan of the graphical styles, but I realize it comes at a cost. It does tend to eat up both RAM and CPU usage (as well as video card usage). While it is turned off during gaming, you can still notice its effects during normal computer usage. When it is really cranking, it can use 15% of your CPU. Ouch. Vanity comes at a cost.

If you do like it, at least turn it down a couple notches. Some performance increases have nothing to do with strain on hardware, or amount of processing. Sometimes, things are designed to take longer than they should, though only maybe a fraction of a second, but the end result to the user is a faster machine. Minimizing and maximizing does an animation. Watch closely. Pretty quick eh? Still, it does slow you down, and, really, what does it add to your experience? I am all about vanity and aesthetics, but this feature has got to go.

Relish in the fact you will be increasing your productivity by 0.2 seconds per minimize/maximize. :)

• Open your start menu, go to run, and type in ’systempropertiesperformance’
• From the Visual Effects tab, uncheck ‘Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing’
• While you are here, might as well check out the other goodies you can disable.

3. ReadyBoost

ReadyBoost is one of the more innovative features of Vista. The idea behind it is to use solid state memory as a secondary memory cache (before hard drive caching). It does require a certain level of speed from your USB (or other) flash drive. Do a quick search on google for just the fastest USB flash drive you can get your hands on (don’t worry they are cheap) and buy one.

To enable ReadyBoost, just plug in a fast flash drive, and AutoPlay should come up with a dialog stating that you can use it for readyboost. If you have disabled it, you can just go to the properties for the drive and select it under the readyboost tab. Easy as cake. It is no substitution for RAM, but one can get a several GB flash drive for very little. Some sites have stated that the improvements are not as much as MS says they are, but even a minor improvement for such a low investment makes this worth your while. Do find the best drive you can for random reads/writes (the drive speed is usually rated for sequential reads which won’t help you much).

• What speed drive do I need? 2.5MB/sec throughput for 4K random reads and 1.75MB/sec throughput for 512K random writes.

• What size drive do I need? 256MB to 4GB, where as best performance is gotten at around a 1:1 to a 2:1 flash to ram ratio. So really, you should never try this with a flash drive smaller than 1GB-2GB.

Continue on, and see the rest. I’ll get more complex as I go.

How To To Dual-Boot Windows 7 And Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a great OS and many users would like to run both Windows 7 at the same time at Ubuntu. If you are one of these users, then Lifehacker have pulled together a very detailed guide to setting up a dual-boot windows 7 and Ubuntu PC. Like most Lifehacker posts, it’s actually written in plain english and not in geek speak so users of all abilities will be able to follow the guide.

To dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 7 you’ll need:

• Windows 7 installation disc: For clean installations, either a full installation copy or an upgrade disc is needed.
• Ubuntu 9.10 installation image: You can grab an ISO at Ubuntu.com
• Blank CD or empty USB drive
• All your data backed up

The whole process should take around 2 hours if you don’t make any mistakes. To read Lifehacker’s guide click here.

Buy Windows 7 Or Buy A New PC? ^_^

Now that Windows 7 is out, some of you may be debating whether you should buy Windows 7, or if you would be better off just buying a new computer. With computer prices at an all time low, now is a great time to pick up a decent spec machine for very good value. What’s more, lots of the PC manufactures released new machines to add to their line up when Windows 7 was released which gives you, the consumer even more choice.

Courtesy Techtree.com

Even better than that,if you buy a new PC, with Windows 7 pre installed , you don’t have to go through all that stress of upgrading your current PC to Windows 7. While some users may not be put back by the challenge of updating an OS, I know many people who just wouldn’t be up to it. And the chances are if your thinking of getting a new machine, your running Windows XP, and the upgrade process to Windows 7 is a long and tedious process. But if your up for the challenge have a look at our guide here. If your updating from Windows Vista this process is easier but it does take quite a while.

And even if you have decided to stick with your current computer and update it with Windows 7, there is still the question – Clean Install Or In Place Upgrade? You need to weigh up the various advantages and disadvantages, luckily we have yet another guide for that, see it here

But wait! Have you decided which version of Windows 7 that you want to install onto your machine? Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate? There is different features in each, you can compare them all by seeing our post here

And finally, have you decided where you are going to buy Windows 7? Unfortunately you can’t avail of the special pre-order offers any more, but if you shop around you may find that some places are giving discounts. Try the likes of Amazon, Play.com and Microsoft’s website.

Personally, I would buy a new computer if my current machine wasn’t 64 bit compatible. Why? Well 64 bit computing is starting to become the standard for computers. Yes I know the majority of computers out there are still running 32 bit OS’s but Microsoft and Apple have both started pushing 64 bit with Windows 7 and Snow Leopard respectively. 64 bit has its benefits and disadvantages but if your buying a new computer running 64 bit Windows 7 you will have little or no problems as your machine is already configured for 64 bit. To find out a bit more about 64 bit computing see this post from Jason

Or even if your buying a new computer running a 32 bit version of Windows 7, see if it’s 64 bit compatible as you may decide to change some time in the future. Ideally your looking for a machine with a Intel Core 2 Duo or Quad-core or higher processor, or AMD’s line of 64 bit processors. If your current machine hasn’t got one of these 64 bit compatible processors I’d recommend buying a new 64 bit PC with Windows 7 pre installed, because this will hopefully give your computer an extended lifespan and it won’t become out of date so quickly. And also you don’t have to be worrying about how you are going to install Windows 7.

While Windows 7 has been receiving high praise for its ability to run on low spec machines better than Vista, I still think it would be better to get an average spec machine and you can fully enjoy the benefits Windows 7 has to offer. I’m not saying you have to buy a new machine just to run Windows 7, in fact it’s quite the opposite. But look at it this way, Windows 7 costs from $120 -$220, for an extra few hundred you can buy a decent spec machine and get Windows 7 included.

But of course if your current machine is already quite powerful or relatively new, then upgrading to Windows 7 will probably suffice. And don’t forget that if you purchased your computer after 26th June 09 you may well be eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 7 so don’t forget to look into that first.

How 7Stacks Can be Used to Organize Windows7 Icons

If your desktop gets cluttered with Icons, one way to remedy the problem is to use 7Stacks, a freeware program from Alastria Software.

With 7Stacks, you can organize you icons and make them available as a stack or a menu or a grid. You can put the Icons that are in common, or a folder. It is easy to do. Here are the steps.

First is the Installation process

Next is the Setup.

7Stacks-Setup

This is followed by the license agreement:

Accept the License Agreement

Pick the destination to install to.

Pick the Destination Location

Where to install select the Menu Folder

The additional tasks screen appears, where you can select additional icons.

Do You Want to Create a Desktop Icon?

With all of these items answered or selected, you are now ready to install.

Click to Install the Program

The installation is complete.

The Setup is Complete and you can launch the 7Stacks program

A Computer DeskTop

Current Desk Top Before Running 7Stacks

Launch the 7Stack application.

Select the Folder To Use For the Icon Stack

Select a folder, which will stack the icons.

Create a New Vertical Stack

Or create a different type of stack.

There are 5 different Stack Types to Use

Launch the program, and stacking the icons in a grid like fashion.

A Desktop Stack using the Grid Format

Another benefit for users is that one can use it to browse and access documents within a folder very quickly. The typical experience is that if you want to open a file in a folder, you have to launch the app, or locate it in Computer and find the folder that contains the application. Then you can launch it. In the 7stacks format, create a stack with a folder that will contain your document, and lauch it. The clicks or keystrokes will be cut down dramatically.

You can download 7Stacks from: http://www.alastria.com/index.php?p=home

How To Restore the Master Boot Record in Windows 7

Anyone who’s ever played around with partitions and dual booting different OS’ knows that the Master Boot Record (MBR) is always overwritten and keeps the user from booting back into their original Windows 7 installation. Recently, I underwent the tedious task of trying to install Mac OSX Leopard on PC hardware and ran into many issues including a problem with restoring the MBR to the previous Windows 7 installation. Usually, running the repair option from the Windows 7 Install disc works it’s magic and the Startup Repair fixes the issue, but it was not to be the case this time. What I had to do, was use the command prompt and use the BOOTSECT.EXE command to fix the MBR. Why Startup Repair didn’t work, I don’t know…it usually does, but everything was successfully restored and Windows 7 is running fine now.

Just a fair warning: If you are not comfortable with the command prompt, dual boots and partitions, you may not want to attempt this method. While it is safe, I would recommend having someone who is familiar with these procedures perform this restore.

Here’s how to update the bootsector code:

Boot from the Windows 7 DVD or image and follow the prompts until you reach the option to Repair Your Computer.

You will be asked which Windows installation you would like to recover. Check the option for Use Repair Tools that can help fix problems starting Windows. Select the appropriate installation and click Next.

You will then be given the following screen of Repair options. Normally, you can just select Startup Repair and Windows will do its thing and take care of everything automatically. I would always attempt this option first before delving into the command prompt. However, if the Startup Repair does not work on your installation, you can select the Command Prompt and continue.

We will need to access the CD Drive, so type the appropriate drive letter (e.g. E:) at the X:\Sources=> prompt, then hit Enter.

Now, with the E:\ prompt up, we need to switch to the boot prompt, so type CD Boot.

The Prompt should change to E:\boot>. Type bootsect /nt60 SYS (there should be a space between bootsect and the ‘/’) then hit Enter.

You should receive a message that the ‘Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes’.

Type exit to return to the recovery options window and Restart or Shutdown.

Hope this helps. Happy dual booting.

How To Enable Ctrl-Alt-Del in Windows7

Using Windows7 is very different from Vista, including the sign-in feature to authenticate the user. The ctrl-alt-del feature is missing from the screen so anyone can access the computer. But there is a simple way to put that feature back on line. Follow the next few steps to enable that feature.

Go to the start icon.

Click The Start Icon

The next step is to use the search and type the netplwiz command.

Type NetPlwiz

The User Accounts box opens with two tabs: Users and Advanced.

Select User Accounts

Next select the advanced tab.

Check the box to enable Ctrl-Alt-Del

The secure logon feature will now be enabled when you check “require users to press Ctrl + Alt + Delete.”

This is nominal security to be sure, but if you want it enabled, it is easy to do.

Access All Windows 7 Settings In One Place

Making a claim like ‘…make the complete novice seem like a pro in just seconds’ is a very bold claim for any application, but Windows 7 In a Box may be able to genuinely claim this. The application brings together many Windows 7 settings into one place in an attempt to make it easier for users to find Windows 7 settings:

After a quick glance around Windows 7 In A Box, it does seem to have most Windows 7 Settings covered, but I’m not sure whether having so many long lists makes it easier for users to find the setting that they want. If you’re looking for specifically to tweak Windows 7 then maybe one of these Windows 7 tweakers may suit you better.

Autoruns – What is Running on Your Windows 7 PC

If you have wondered what programs are automatically configured and loaded when you startup, Autoruns, by Microsoft will give you that information. Autoruns is an MS download program that will show you locations, and startup order of many programs. It will provide you with information about Explorer shell extensions, and toolbars, as well as helper objects, auto-start services and Winlogon.

AutoRuns Winlogon

What does Autorun provide?

• It shows you the currently configured auto-start applications
• The full list of the Registry settings used.
• File system locations used for auto-start configuration.
• There are 18 tabs that can focus your attention to individual performance or configuration options.

AutoRuns - The Everything Tab: Places information about all settings

It is a configuration tool that can be used by administrators to monitor and tweak the performance of the system. There are multiple tabs to work with. Here is the Logon tab which contains information about what programs load at logon.

AutoRuns-Logon: Files that Load Upon Logon

Another important component is that it allows you to see third party auto-starting programs. Through Autoruns’ Hide Signed Microsoft Entries option you can see third-party programs that have been added to your system.

AutoRuns - Other Options Available

If you prefer the command-line equivalent you can run Autorunsc from the command prompt which is automatically included in the download package. The output result is in CSV format.

AutoRunSC - The command line executable

There are a number of command switches that can be used with AutorunSC:

autorunsc [-a] | [-c] [-b] [-d] [-e] [-g] [-h] [-i] [-l] [-m] [-n] [-p] [-r] [-s] [-v] [-w] [-x] [user]

You can download the Autoruns executable from the following locations, and there is a forum available as well:

http://live.sysinternals.com/

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

The Autoruns forum can be found at http://forum.sysinternals.com/forum_topics.asp?FID=16

Windows 98 Themes For Windows 7

Windows 7 is the first Microsoft operating system that is providing a better third party theme compatibility. The themes can change wallpaper images, sounds, desktop icons and other aspects of the Windows 7 operating system. We already mentioned a few theme packs that have been created for Windows 7. You can take a look (and download the themes) by following these links:

• Windows 7 Regional Themes
• Windows 7 Theme Packs
• Windows 7 Wallpaper Themes

The newest addition are 16 retro themes that bring back old memories to computer users that still remember Windows 98. The Windows 98 theme pack for Windows 7 is a collection of 16 themes in four packages for Windows 7 that resemble Windows 98. All themes contain the following objects:

• Wallpaper
• Mouse pointers
• Desktop icons
• Sounds
• Color scheme

A simple double-click on any of the theme files will install them on the Windows 7 system. It is naturally possible to change the theme to the default one (or another one) after installation. The author gives some instructions on how to do that. For a list of additional themes visit our Windows 7 Themes page containing themes not only for the Windows 7 operating system but also themes that resemble Windows 7 for older Microsoft systems.

To download one of our many Windows 7 Themes click on one of the category icons below:

1. Official Windows 7 Themes
2. Unofficial Windows 7 Themes
3. Windows 7 Themes For XP
4. Windows 7 Themes For Vista
5. Windows 7 Themes For Non-Windows OS

Windows 7 Themes

To download one of our many Windows 7 Themes click on one of the category icons below:

1. Official Windows 7 Themes
2. Unofficial Windows 7 Themes
3. Windows 7 Themes For XP
4. Windows 7 Themes For Vista
5. Windows 7 Themes For Non-Windows OS

Latest Windows 7 Theme

Start Windows 7 Theme (8/11/09)

This theme can be downloaded from the Unofficial Windows 7 Themes section. Remember, many more Windows 7 Themes are available – just use the links at the top of the page.

Note: Some themes can only be installed on the operating systems if a system file has been properly patched that locks third party themes from being installed. For links to the uxtheme.dll patcher and other help using Windows 7 Themes, check out these posts:

• How To Install Windows 7 Themes on XP or Vista
• Managing Windows 7 themes (Part 1): How to use Windows 7 Themes
• Managing Windows 7 themes (Part 2): How to use custom Windows 7 Themes

Don't forget to also check out the latest Windows 7 Screenshots, Windows 7 Videos, and Windows 7 Wallpapers.

To download one of our many Windows 7 Themes click on one of the category icons below:

1. Official Windows 7 Themes
2. Unofficial Windows 7 Themes
3. Windows 7 Themes For XP
4. Windows 7 Themes For Vista
5. Windows 7 Themes For Non-Windows OS