Auslogics Blog

User Account Control is one of the most hated features in Windows Vista because of its constant annoying messages.  In Windows 7 UAC is a lot better and you can still tweak it to your liking. Here are a couple of tips.

Modify UAC Settings

You can make Windows 7 UAC less intrusive, or more vigilant, or turn it off completely. To change the default settings:

1. Go to the Control Panel – User Accounts and Family Settings
2. Click User Accounts and then Change User Account Control settings
3. A new window will open
4. 
5. Now use the slider to set the protection level that suits you
6. Click OK.
7. You may need to restart. Depends on what you selected.

Use Gadgets Without UAC

If you turn UAC off, you won’t be able to run gadgets that run on your desktop. Windows regards them as a security threat, you see. However, that threat is only potential and most likely nothing bad will happen. If you are comfortable with that, here’s how to use gadgets with UAC turned off:

1. Create a Restore point or backup the Registry, because you’ll need to edit the Registry
2. Type regedit in the Search bar and press Enter to launch Registry Editor
3. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Sidebar\Settings
4. Create a new DWORD value called AllowElevatedProcess. To do that select Edit - New DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it AllowElevatedProcess
5. Set its value to 1
6. Close Registry Editor. Right-click the desktop and select Gadgets. Now you will be able to add and use gadgets as you would normally.

Here are some more  tips to optimize Windows 7. They will save you a lot of time and make using Windows 7 even more enjoyable.

Hidden Send To Menu

Personally I love right-clicking because it’s such a great way to get more options quickly. For example, the Send To option when you click on a folder in Windows Explorer can save you a lot of time.

By default the Windows 7 Send To menu contains only a few locations and doesn’t give you that much choice:

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Windows 7 looks and feels a lot better than any previous Windows versions (though I still like XP a lot). Nevertheless, it still can be tweaked and made a lot faster. Like in any previous Windows versions, you can disable visual effects for maximum performance.

1. Go to System Properties (press Windows + Pause/Break keys)
2. Select Advanced
3. Then press the Settings button in the Performance section
4. A new window will open
5. Select the Adjust for best performance radio button

If you don’t like the minimalistic look, choose the Custom radio button, disable the effects you don’t need, and leave the effects you like.

Another thing you can do is customize folder and search options:

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Go to Organize - Folder and Search Options
3. Disable the following:

• Hide extensions for known file types
• Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items
• Display file size information in folder tips
• Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in colour

Another good thing to do would be running Auslogics Service Manager, which is part of BoostSpeed, and check out which services can be safely disabled. Running some services can take up a lot of hard drive space and it’s a shame, especially if you never use those services.

For more Windows 7 tips and tricks read my other post here.

Windows 7 Beta was made available for download a while ago and I’m sure a lot of you installed it. I guess some of you started looking for ways to tweak and optimize it.

First of all run Auslogics BoostSped 4.3 to get the most out of your new OS, as BoostSpeed now offers full Windows 7 Beta support. And after that you can fine-tune it manually.

Back Up Your MP3 Files

Windows Media Player 12 has a feature that auto fills-in missing metadata on your music files, large albums included. It’s all good in theory, but the thing is that there is a nasty bug that can damage your music  – it can permanently cut off a few seconds at the beginning of the track. To fix it, read this Microsoft article and install the fix. But I would advise you to back up your music files in any case, just to keep them away from harm.

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