Tag Archives: Windows 7

Windows 7 shortcut keys

In a follow up to my previous post about restoring the standard right-click menu options on a window below are a list of further Windows 7 shortcut keys.

General

Windows Key + UpMaximise window
Windows Key + DownRestore window if maximised, otherwise minimise window
Windows Key + LeftSnap window to left
Windows Key + RightSnap window to right
Windows Key + Shift + LeftJump to left monitor
Windows Key + Shift + RightJump to right monitor
Windows Key + HomeMinimise or restore all other windows
Windows Key + TFocus on first taskbar entry, multiple presses cycles each taskbar entry
Windows Key + Shift + TFocus on first taskbar entry, multiple presses cycles each taskbar entry in reverse
Windows Key + SpaceAero Peek, peek at desktop
Windows Key + GBring gadgets to the front
Windows Key + PExternal display options
Windows Key + <number>Launch the taskbar program at position <number>
Windows Key + PlusZoom in
Windows Key + MinusZoom out

Explorer

Alt + PToggles display of preview pane

Taskbar

Shift + Left-clickOpen a new instance
Middle-clickOpen a new instance
Ctrl + Shift + Left-clickOpen a new instance with administrator privileges
Shift + Right-clickShow window menu
NB: Used to be standard right-click on previous versions of Windows
Ctrl + Left-click <on grouped icons>Cycles through each window in that group

How to restore ‘Minimize all windows’ in Windows 7

As great as Windows 7 is it does have a few annoyances one of which is the changed taskbar, I’m getting used to the taskbar but one I am missing is the ability to minimise multiple windows grouped by the program. Apparently this has been removed by default due to the implementation of Aero Shake and Aero Peek. After a bit of research I did find that you can restore the options by holding Shift and right-clicking on the button, this should display the menu with the old options of Cascade, Show windows stacked, Show windows side by side, Restore all windows, Minimize all windows and Close all windows.

Cascade, Show windows stacked, Show windows side by side, Restore all windows, Minimize all windows and Close all windows taskbar options

As an extra I also found that if you hold down Shift and left-click then it will open a new instance of the icon you clicked on, very handy.

Installing Virtual PC 2007 on Windows 7

When recently upgrading my work PC to Windows 7 Enterprise I was told that I needed to uninstall Virtual PC 2007 before installation. I did this but as I use it for website compatibility testing I needed to reinstall it afterwards. I found that Virtual PC 2007 has been superseded by Windows Virtual PC for Windows 7 so I installed that instead, the only problem is my work PC does not support hardware virtualisation and as such I could not use it. I then tried to reinstall Virtual PC 2007 but kept getting the following error:

Virtual PC 2007 Installation Message

Read the rest of the article in order to see how to get around this.

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