How To

What do you do when you want to select multiple files at once in Windows ? Traditionally, we have been accomplishing this task by holding down CTRL or SHIFT keys while selecting the files to select multiple files at once. Even though we have got used to this, yet there can be instances when we accidentally click on the blank space resulting in deselecting all the items that you gathered with much effort. Our hand or keyboard may tease you at times, causing these type of annoyances, but a mouse cannot. That is why many people prefer to use mouse over keyboard particularly when doing this kind of multi-selection.

Keeping this in mind, the folks at Windows 7 development team included a pretty nice option to select multiple items using check boxes (this kind of selection method is incrementally getting popular with smartphone devices now!) using a mouse without needing to hold any key on the keyboard. By default, this options would be turned off in Windows 7 and Windows Vista. Follow the steps to learn how to select multiple items all at once in Windows 7 (and Vista)  using the check boxes:

Steps:

1. Open Windows Explorer (Or use Windows + E shortcut).

2. Click on Organize button to expand it’s dropdown menu items. Select Folder and search options.

3. Go to View tab in the Folder Options window. Scroll until you find “Use check boxes to select items”. Just check against this option.

4. Click OK to apply the changes to Folder Options and close the window.

5. Now go to any explorer window and you will now be able to select multiple files using the check boxes:

Windows 7 Navigation pane shows Favorites folder, which contains links to your favorite folders on the computer. You can add any folder to the Favorites simply by dragging the folder to the Favorites in the Windows 7 explorer or even by placing the shortcut to that particular folder in the following locations:

C:\Users\(Username)\Links

However, if you don’t use them much, you might want to remove this from the Windows Explorer.

Steps:

1. Press Start button + R to open the run dialog box. Type “regedit” in the text filed and press OK to open the Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to the following path in the Registry Editor:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder

3. Right-click on “ShellFolder” and select Permissions [Since you need special permissions to change the DWORD value of “Attributes”].

4. A new window will open up. Select Administrators from the user names and check against the Allow option on the right to the Full Control click OK to apply changes and close the window.

6. Click OK and close the Registry Editor.

7. Restart the Windows Explorer (Go to Task Manager, end explorer.exe, then go to File > New Task, type explorer and click OK).You should now see the change, the “Favorites” in Navigation pane would disappear from the explorer.

If you want to get “Favorites” back, just go back to the step 5 and change the DWORD value data back to a0900100.

Related: You might also want to disable the entire Navigation pane in Windows 7 explorer.

Windows explorer in Windows 7 looks great, showing the drives and other devices on the most prominent right side pane and quick links to important locations on your computer in a relatively thinner pane, known as “Navigation Pane”. This Navigation Pane contains the following icons in general:

• Favorites
• Libraries
• Homegroup
• Computer
• Network

While it is highly handy to have quick access to different locations through this navigation pane, there are few people who might like the Windows 95 version of the Windows Explorer, where we don’t have such a pane in the left sidebar. Follow the steps mentioned below to disable or enable the navigation pane in your Windows 7.

Steps:

1. Open any Windows explorer window (or use Start button + E shortcut).

2. Click on Organize dropdown menu button. Expand “Layout” options as shown:

4. And once you have done that, the Windows 7 Navigation pane would be disabled (or hidden):

To enable the Navigation pane again, just check the “Navigation pane” option in the step 3.

Windows 7 lets you change the font in any part of Windows including menus, Active Title Bar, Icon, Inactive Title Bar, Message Box, Palette Title, Desktop, Selected Items etc. Please note that changing these Windows fonts doesn’t change any program fonts, which means that these are the settings for changing the outer view of any program window rather than the look that we see inside the program which depends on the fonts and styles adopted for that particular program.

Follow these steps to change the default Windows 7 fonts

Steps:

1. Go to Start menu and type “window colors” in the search box:

2. Click on “Change window colors and metrics” link from the search results in “Control Panel” section:

3. A new “Window Color and Appearance” window opens up *:

4. Choose the part of the Windows for which you want to change fonts in the Item list.

Once you select the item from the list, you will be able to change its fonts and color settings:

You can change the fonts parameters like the font type, size of the font, color etc.

Click on B icon to make the font bold or click on I icon to italicize the font as shown:

Repeat these steps for each item in the list for which you want to make changes.

5. Click OK to apply the changes and close the window.

You are done!

[*] Alternatively, you can launch the Window color and Appearance settings from these steps:

Right-click on vacant space on the desktop and select Personalize.

Click on the Window Color link found at the bottom of the Personalization window.

It will open the same Window Color and Appearance Settings window as shown in the step 3.

SFC (System File Checker) is a very useful command to check the integrity of all the protected system files in Windows 7 and Vista and replaces any corrupt, changed or missing system files (including DLL files) to correct versions (undamaged versions), if possible.

Even though there are several switches available under the SFC command, the sfc scannow is the most used command. If SFC can’t fix the corrupted system files, then you need to consider other options like using a recovery, reinstalling  Windows, restoring from backup, or restoring to an earlier system restore point.

Here is the step-by-step guide on using the SFC /scannow command tool in Windows 7 or Windows Vista:

Steps:

1. Click Start button, type “cmd” in the start button, right-click on the “cmd.exe” and select “Run as administrator” to run the command prompt in elevated or administrator mode.

2. Type the following command in the command prompt and hit enter:

sfc /scannow

3. Now the toll will run a verification of integrity of every protected operating system file. Wait until the system scan is finished. This usually takes 5-10 minutes.

4. When the scan is finished, you will “Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations” message when it doesn’t find any corrupted files.

On the other hand, if it does find any corrupt files, it will automatically (if it’s possible) repair them. Restart your computer once the repairing process by the SFC tool gets over (as indicated in the command prompt). Please note that if the System File Checker (SFC) finds any integrity violations and fixes them, you should restart your computer immediately even if you are not prompted to do so.

Run the sfc / scannow command once again (after restarting your PC) to see if all the corrupted system files have been repaired.

The SFC command writes the log to CBS.log file found in C:> Windows > Logs > CBS.

When To Use The SFC Tool ?

When any Windows Resource Protection (WRP) file goes missing or corrupted, your Windows behaves in an odd manner. Windows functions may not work or entire Windows may crash unexpectedly. Run the SFC tool in such situations to repair any missing or corrupted system files.