Windows 8

1.Windows Vista/7/8/

 View WiFi network password 

Viewing the password for the 
WiFi network your computer's connected 
to is pretty simple. Right-click on the 
network symbol in the taskbar, open 
“Open Network and Sharing Center” and 
click the link “Manage Wireless networks”. 
In the next dialogue, right-click on the 
relevant wireless network and select the 
context command “Properties”. Switch to 
the “Security” tab and then activate the 
option “Show characters”. The “Security 
key” field will show the WiFi network's 
password. 

2.Windows XP/Vista/7/8

 View the status of drives and  SSDs in detail

Data loss due to defective hard 
drives is very exasperating. In order to 
prevent it, you should regularly check 
the status of your drives by perusing 
the internal SMART values. Look for 
the entry “Error-free” in the Control 
Panel under “System and Security | 
Management | Computer management 
| Disk management”. This entry denotes 
that there is nothing wrong with your 
system. 
However, you can perform a more 
accurate test using the application 
CrystalDiskInfo. It automatically analyses 
all the accessible drives and represents 
them according to their status and 
current temperature. Besides some 
information about the interface and the 
serial number, you will find data about 
the drives' operating hours and startup 
operations. In case of SSD drives, the 
“Host write processes” field will be listed 
in terabytes and should be noted. The 
other area shows the SMART parameters 
read from the hardware. You can choose 
to view the results in decimal values by 
using the command “Options | Additional 
Options | Hex-value | 10 [DEC]”. 
In the list, the column “Hex value” 
shows the raw data, while the “Current 
value” field shows the data normalised 
in relation to a “Limit value”. In case of 
drives, “Reallocated sectors” occasionally 
emerge. This may indicate user 
interface problems and even imminent 
breakdowns. Even if the drive itself 
evaluates the value as good (higher 
than limit value), you should carefully 
observe any developments. You can set 
the tool to run at start-up and even send 
you notifications via e-mail. A detailed 
evaluation of individual SMART values is 
difficult, but is not required in most cases. 
If you want to explore this topic further, a 
look at Wikipedia may prove to be useful: 
http://bit.ly/ZMbOCD.

3.Windows 7/8

 Set a slideshow as the  desktop background

A slideshow of preset image 
folders can be set as the desktop 
background by using the option "Change 
all images". The images are changed 
with a short crossfade by default. The 
time interval for replacing the individual 
images can be confi gured in the Registry. 
For this, type "regedit" in the Start menu, 
press the Enter key and click "Yes" on 
the User Account Control dialogue box. 
Once the Registry Editor opens, navigate 
to the key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\
Control Panel\Personalization\
Desktop Slideshow". Now click in 
the right side panel and generate the 
new entry "AnimationDuration" with 
the command "Edit | New | DWORDvalue". Now open the new value with a double-click for editing. Change 
the base to "Decimal" and enter the 
desired duration in milliseconds. For 
example, a value of "0" will result in 
an immediate change without any 
animations and a value of "5000" 
will result in a smooth cross-fade 
animation. Confirm your changes with 
"OK" and close the registry editor. The 
changes will be effective immediately.

4.Windows 7/8

 Configure auto-complete in  Internet Explorer

When you type in the address bar 
of Internet Explorer, some websites that 
you visited earlier are suggested. This 
behaviour remains in effect even when 
you have deleted the browsing history. 
This phenomenon results from the rather 
close connection Internet Explorer has 
with Windows search. Here, visited web 
pages are also suggested and options 
from the index are suggested when 
similar URLs are being typed in. This 
functional expansion exists in Internet 
Explorer 8 and even in Windows XP, 
despite Windows search being installed 
as an extra. Those who do not want 
their browsing history to be suggested 
can do away with this integration. For 
this, open "Extras | Internet options" 
in Internet Explorer or click on the 
Settings symbol and then on "Internet 
options". Now click on the "Contents" 
tabs and then on the "Settings" 
button under "Auto-complete". 
Deactivate the option "Windows 
search for better search results" as 
well as—if available—"Suggest URLs". 
Further, you can choose to delete the 
auto-complete history and carry out 
adjustments in the following dialogue.

5.Windows XP/Vista/7 

 Repair problematic Recycle bin

It is possible for the Recycle bin 
to malfunction all of a sudden due to 
system problems and thus become 
useless. The windows error notification 
with the option to empty the Recycle bin 
does not help any more. What's more, 
each delete process is accompanied by 
an error. To solve this problem, manually 
delete the hidden system folder; it will 
be automatically re-created without 
errors by Windows. 
You need to open a command line 
with administrative rights to access the 
system folder. To do this, type in "cmd" 
in the Start menu, click on the result 
"cmd.exe" with the right mouse button, 
and then select "Run as administrator". 
Confirm the User Account Control 
dialogue box. Now using the command 
line, change to the parent folder of the 
concerned drive.
In XP, the hidden folder is called 
"Recycler", and from Vista onwards 
"$RECYCLE.BIN". To make Windows 
show this folder, use the command "dir 
/a". If your system has multiple Windows 
installations, you might fi nd both kinds 
of Recycle bin folders, but you must 
delete the one which belongs to the OS 
with the problem. For this, use a similar 
command: "rd /s /q $RECYCLE.BIN". Pay 
attention to the exact capitalisation in 
case of the folder names, because the 
system will otherwise not find the folder. 
If the access is denied, it is possible that 
you do not have administrative access. 
On the system drive, the Recycle bin 
is blocked by Windows and you must 
start the system in Secure Mode to be 
able to perform the described steps. 
Delete the relevant folders from all the 
relevant drives. Windows will re-create 
the Recycle bin folders when the system 
starts next and you can use it again. 

6.Windows XP/Vista/7/8 

 Browse through the Windows  Store without the app

Until now, the only way to access 
the contents of the Windows Store was 
by means of an app in Windows 8. If 
you want an overview of the Store's 
45,000 apps, but don't have Windows 8 
installed, you don't really need to install 
Windows 8. You can now manage to 
do so free of cost with the help of the website 
MetroStore Scanner. 
Open the webpage www.metrostore.
preweb.sk. The search function with the 
field "Filter" lets you search for specifi c 
apps. Using the menu fi lter, the view 
can be restricted to the apps available 
in India under "Country" and with the 
setting "en-in". The filter "Type" enables 
you to select from categories like Finance, 
Games or Social. 

Tips for windows 8

1.Windows 7/8 

Configure the logon menu to give 
you additional options

The Windows logon screen offers an 
accessibility symbol to make it easy for 
impaired users to log-in, but most of us 
barely even notice it. However, you can 
make it more useful by having it show 
applications and input options with the 
help of a free tool and some tweaks. The 
tool you need is called Ease of Access 
Replacer and can be found on this link: 
http://goo.gl/z1NoPb.
Before you can use the tool, you must 
allow Windows access to the relevant file. 
To do this, open the folder “C:\Windows\
System32” in Windows Explorer and search 
for the file “utilman.exe”. This file is called 
up from the logon screen and must be 
replaced. You need administrator access to 
make this change.
Right click on “utilman.exe” and select 
the context command “Properties”. Now, 
click in the section “Safety”, click on 
“Expand” and activate the field “Owner”. 
Select “Administrators” in the list below 
and confirm the selection by clicking on 
“Accept” and then on “OK”. Now click 
again in the section “Safety” and then 
on “Process”. Select the group name 
“Administrators”. In the list below, select 
the option “Approve” in the row “Full 
access”. Confirm that with “Apply” as well 
as “OK”, and close the dialogue. Now open 
the folder you unzipped earlier in Windows 
Explorer. In the sub-folder, “EOAR”, rightclick on “EOAR Setup.exe” and select the 
context command “Run as administrator”. 
Confirm the user account control dialogue 
box by clicking on “Yes”, and in the 
following dialogue, deactivate the option 
for the restore point because only the file 
“util.exe” is replaced and the original file 
will be backed-up. Now click on “Install”.
If the process ends with an error 
message, you have not changed the 
necessary authorisations correctly. If the 
process runs successfully, you will see the 
file “utilman.exe” with another symbol and 
only 191KB in size. For the new functions, 
click on the accessibility symbol on the 
logon screen. A small dialogue with some 
useful features will now be available. 

2.Windows 8
Configure the Windows button to 
trigger the Start menu

Traditionally, the Start menu could be 
triggered by pressing the Windows 
button, but this functionality is missing in 
Windows 8, and pressing it opens the Start 
page of the Modern UI. But you can set 
Windows to trigger the Start menu with a 
mouse click, by writing and running a small 
script. To do this, open notepad and type 
the following: 
"Set.WshShell.=.WScript.CreateObject(_
WScript.Shell”)WshShell.sendkeys..^{ESC}”
Save the new text file as an EXE file 
under a name such as “win_key.exe”. This 
is necessary so that you can pin it to the 
taskbar. Now open Windows Explorer and 
navigate to the file you saved. Right-click 
the entry and select the context command 
“Pin to taskbar”.
Now right-click again on “win_key.
exe” and select the context command 
“Rename”. Change the name to “win_key.
vbs”. Confirm the warning for changing the 
file type with “Yes”. Now you must edit the 
target for the shortcut in the taskbar. To 
do this, press and hold the [Shift] button 
and right-click on the file you pinned earlier. 
Select the context command “Properties”. 
In the "Target" field, change the link to 
the location of the VBS file. You can also 
choose to set an icon of your choice using 
the button “Other icons”. The file offers 
several selections such as “C:\Windows\
System32\shell32.dll”.
On the other hand, you will find a 
typical windows logo in the file “C:\
Windows\ehome\ehdrop.dll”. Finally, 
confirm the selection and acknowledge the 
settings with “Apply” and “OK”. The new 
icon will be updated in the taskbar. Clicking 
this icon will let you open the Start menu 
easily and without too much of a fuss. 



3.Windows 8

Deactivate the lock screen for 
quick access

The lock screen is added in Windows 8 as 
an additional layer of security. You must 
first click there or press a button to go to 
the logon screen.
But if you find it troublesome, you can 
deactivate the lock screen to quickly go to 
the logon screen. You will need to make 
some changes to the Windows registry 
to enable this. Change to the Desktop 
view and press the buttons [Windows] + 
[R]. Now enter “regedit”, press [Enter] and 
confirm the user account control dialogue 
box by clicking “Yes”. Navigate to the key 
“HKEY_LOCAL_MACINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\
Microsoft\Windows\Personalization”. If 
the subkey “Personalization” is still not 
available, create it with the command 
“Process | New | Key”. Once done, click on 
the right-hand panel and open the option 
“Process | New DWORD value”. Name 
the new value “NoLockScreen” and press 
[Enter]. Double-click the new entry, change 
its “Value” to “1”, and confirm the changes 
by clicking “OK”. Now close the registry. 
The lock screen has been disabled and the 
logon screen will be presented when you 
next start the system. 

Tips and tricks for windows

1.WINDOWS XP/VISTA/7/8

Back up any folder automatically

Regular backups of the entire system are 
important but are also time-consuming 
when you have a lot of data. That’s why 
a weekly interval is usually the default for 
backup software. If you want to take more 
frequent backups of a specific folder, you 
can automate the task with a few steps. 
The command line tool Robocopy, which 
is included with Windows Vista, 7 and 
8, is perfectly suitable for this purpose. 
Windows XP users can download the tool 
for free at www.microsoft.com/en-us/
download/details.aspx?id=17657.
First, type ‘cmd’ in the search field of 
the Start menu or anywhere on the Start 
screen and then select ‘cmd.exe’. Robocopy 
needs you to type the source folder and 
the target folder with the full path and 
the additional options you'll need. Use 
the option ‘/E’ to include all subfolders. 
It’s possible that some files will be open, 
so disable the standard retry attempts to 
prevent the process from stopping midway. 
For this, the two options ‘W:0 and R:0’ 
will need to be specified. Lastly, you'll 
also require the parameter ‘/MOT:n’ for 
time-dependent monitoring of the source 
folder; ‘n’ indicates the time between 
repeated operations if changes to any files 
are detected. The complete command for 
backing up your folder every hour will look 
like this: ‘Robocopy C:\source\folder D:\
backup\folder /E /R:0 /W:0 /MOT:60’.
Robocopy processes and monitors 
your system only when the command 
is executed. To make the computer 
automatically run the command at startup, 
create a new text file with Notepad and 
type the command inside it. Now rename 
the file so that the extension reads ‘.BAT’. 
Add this file to the Startup folder of your 
user account to make sure it runs every 
time you reboot or log out.
NOTE: You will notice some system lag 
while files are being copied, especially if the 
files are very large. As with all backups, the 
target folder must be on a different drive; 
preferably an external drive or a network 
location so that physical disk failures do not 
result in the loss of both the original and 
the backup.

2.WINDOWS XP/VISTA/7
Use Dropbox on the go

You can set Dropbox to automatically 
synchronise its folder to exchange data 
between different computers. This works 
well, but requires you to set up Dropbox 
on your PCs, so you can’t use it on other 
computers. However, if you need to carry 
your Dropbox folder along, you can take it 
with you on a USB drive. The installer for 
the portable version of Dropbox is available 
for download at www.nionsoftware.com/
dbpahk.
First, extract the archive to any 
folder on your hard drive and run 
‘DropboxPortableAHK.exe’. The program 
won't be installed but will run directly. 
After checking your Internet connection, 
specify the location of the Dropbox 
folder on your PC. Confirm the process 
by clicking ‘Next’. For the next step, you 
must be careful. Select the option ‘Previous 
Dropbox folder’ and then click the ‘Copy’ 
command to copy the folder that exists on 
your hard drive. Doing this lets you avoid 
downloading the folder’s contents again. 
Click ‘Next’; now all you have to do is just 
confirm the process. You might need to 
download some program components using 
the ‘Download Dropbox files’ button in 
the last step. Now select the desired icon 
for differentiating the normal Dropbox 
application from DropboxPortableAHK and 
click ‘Next’. Click ‘Start Dropbox setup’ in 
the new window and sign-in with your 
account name and password. To go ahead 
with the installation, select the setup 
type ‘Upgrade’ and the option ‘I want 
to choose where to put my Dropbox’ in 
the next step. Then add the path to the 
existing Dropbox folder and proceed with 
the other steps. All your Dropbox data will 
now be saved under the program folder 
or the given relative path. This process 
can take some time. When the icon in the 
notification area signals that the process 
has been finished, end the program and 
copy the entire folder to your USB drive. 
If you use another computer that doesn't 
have Dropbox installed, it will be enough to 
just run DropboxPortableAHK from the USB 
drive. The software will take some time 
to verify your user name and password, 
and sync the data. You can now use your 
Dropbox folder like it was on your own PC. 
Whenever you're done, exit Dropbox using 
the notification area icon, and safely eject 
the USB drive to avoid losing data due to 
file system errors.



3.WINDOWS XP/VISTA/7/8

Set up Windows file sharing in a 
few simple steps

The process of setting up Windows 
file sharing can be simplifi ed with a 
step-by-step wizard. To run the wizard, type 
'shrpubw' in the Windows 'Run...' dialogue 
box and press [Enter] to execute it. Click 
'Next', navigate with 'Search' to the desired 
path, 'Open' it, and again click 'Next'. 
Now you can change the 'Share name' 
and 'Description'. In the next step, quickly 
define all intended permissions such as 'All 
users have write-protected access'. On the 
other hand, to make individual exceptions, 
select 'Edit permissions' and then click 'User 
defined'. Then make the desired detailed 
settings and confirm these with 'OK'. After 
clicking 'Complete', you will see a summary 
of the shared folders' permissions for you 
to double-check them. 
In order to remove a share, use the 
context menu of the folder. Use the 
'Sharing' option and disable the options you 
see in the dialogue box.


4.WINDOWS XP/VISTA/7/8

Restart router with new IP 
address

If a website refuses to let you download 
fi les, you can try changing your IP address. 
If your router supports UPnP (Universal 
plug and play), use the freeware “Router 
reconnect” to switch your IP. This software 
saves you from having to restart the 
router every time you want to reset your IP 
address. Get the utility from here: http://
goo.gl/JrrOG. Extract the package, type 
“cmd” in the search field of the Start menu 
and open the command prompt. Navigate 
to where you extracted the utility and run 
“Router reconnect.exe”. Check the output 
messages. If the program is compatible 
with your router, you’ll see an indication to 
the identified router. Then you can set up 
the connection and even program a file to 
facilitate reconnections.
NOTE: Router Reconnect is not compatible 
with all routers. Instead of the router 
restarting, the tool may deactivate the 
LAN, making connecting to the Internet 
impossible. If this happens, click on 
“Network and Internet” in the Control 
Panel, and then go to “Network and release 
center”. Follow the link “Change adapter 
settings” and click the disconnected LAN 
connection with right mouse button and 
select the option “Activate”. You can now 
connect to the Internet again, but you 
won't be able to install the tool.



5.WINDOWS 8
Predetermine the number of tile 
rows on the Start screen

Depending on the screen resolution, 
Windows 8 determines how many 
rows of tiles will be displayed on the 
Start screen. In case of displays with low 
resolutions, you get three rows, while 
higher resolutions can accommodate five 
or more rows. You can reduce these values 
or increase them if you want to. For this 
purpose, you will need to edit the Windows 
registry through the Registry editor.
Change to the Desktop view and press 
[Win]+[R]. Then enter ‘regedit’, press the 
[Enter] key and confirm that you're an 
Administrator check with ‘Yes’. Navigate 
to the key ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\
Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current 
version\ImmersiveShell\Grid’. Here, 
search for the DWORD value ‘Layout_
MaximumRowCount’. If you can't find it, 
create it with the command ‘Edit | New | 
DWORD value’. Open the value by double 
clicking it. Then enter the desired maximum 
set number as the decimal value (for 
example, 6) and confirm this with ‘OK’. In 
order for the changes to reflect, close the 
registry editor and restart the computer.
NOTE: For screens with high-resolutions, 
you can set the value to a maximum of ‘6’ 
against the standard setting ‘5’. Windows 
will not support values over 6, but you can 
always reduce the number of rows down to 
the minimum value of ‘1’.


6.Windows 8 
    Hard disk

Use Windows 8’s built-in 
resources to replace the system 
disk safely

Windows 8 may sometimes report 
that your primary hard drive or 
system disk is defective and it must be 
replaced. But you may not notice anything 
wrong with your computer, and probably 
won't feel like reinstalling Windows as 
well as all your applications just to get 
rid of the error. But don't fret: Windows 
8 can manage disk removal—as opposed 
to Windows Vista and Windows 7—on 
its own. Open the Control Panel, go to 
“Maintenance” and select “Save complete 
computer”. Windows will now ask you 
which hard disk must be saved where. You 
have the option to burn all your data onto 
DVDs. However, a standard 50GB Windows 
installation would occupy 12 DVD blanks. 
However, you can use a second, internal 
hard disk to back-up your system. Make 
sure the target disk drive is a basic data 
carrier. Dynamic disk drives are rejected by 
Windows and must be converted in the 
Disk Management section to basic. Before 
the backup process, make sure that the 
disk has enough free space and that it is 
formatted in the NTFS file system. The 
backup process doesn't take long: My 60GB 
Windows 8 installation was copied onto an 
external disk in less than half an hour via 
USB 2.0. The PC must be shut down before 
you replace the defective drive. Afterwards, 
restart the computer and insert the 
Windows 8 installation DVD. After booting, 
the Windows 8 installation routine will 
begin. Now select “Repair options” instead 
of “Installation”. Click “Next” and the 
wizard will lead you through the steps to 
successfully repair your computer.



6.USB memory sticks
Troubleshoot memory sticks not 
appearing as drives

It is often the case that your USB stick will 
blink when inserted into a USB drive on 
the PC and appear as a removable drive 
in the My Computer folder, but Windows 
reports that the drive is not inserted and 
does not assign any character or drive 
label to it. This is mostly due to the drive 
having a corrupted file system. First verify 
whether the file system can be read on 
the stick. If you are sure that the drive 
was not used earlier in a Linux or Apple 
computer, then you can assume that a 
partition has not been created on the 
stick or the existing partition has been 
damaged. Your computer may also consider 
the USB stick as a removable hard disk. You 
must therefore ensure that all partitions 
on the stick are properly formatted and the 
partition table is intact. 
Open the Windows disk management 
utility by right-clicking on “My computer” 
and selecting “Manage”. Now click on ‘Disk 
Management’ and check whether the USB 
stick appears as a formatted partition or 
whether it is accessible. You could have 
accidentally deleted the partition tables 
on the stick or the partition tables were 
damaged. 
Right-click on any unallocated space 
on the flash drive and select the option 
"New partition" to create a partition on the 
stick. Any data available on the stick will 
now be deleted and the wizard will begin 
formatting the disk. If you have special 
requirements such as a specific cluster size, 
you can format the drive manually.