If you have ever done presentations using your notebook computer, you know the kind of nightmare you sometimes have to go through to get your display projected correctly on the projector screen—find the right key combinations on your keyboard, toggle a couple of times, and so on. If you want to use the projector screen as an extension of your screen, you need to go to the screen settings and mess with the setup again.

In Windows 7, you can now quickly control the display projection by pressing the Windows-P key combination. You will see the pop up shown in Figure 8.22.

Figure 8.22. Controlling the display output options

As you can see, you can easily control how the display is shown on your computer and the projector simply by selecting the option that applies to you.

One very cool tool shipped in Windows 7 is the Problems Steps Recorder application. This is one of the internal tools that Microsoft uses for feedback, now available in Windows 7. The Problems Steps Recorder application basically captures screenshots of what you are doing and details each step with descriptions of the actions that you performed. When you are done recording, the details are saved as a web archive.

To launch the Problems Steps Recorder application, use the command psr.exe (you can also find it by searching for “Record steps to reproduce a problem” in the Control Panel). When the application is launched, you will see the window shown in Figure 8.23.

Figure 8.23. The Problem Steps Recorder

To start recording, click the Start Record button. From this point onward, whatever items you click on the desktop will be recorded. In the process, you can also add your own comments (in addition, the system will automatically insert detailed descriptions of what you are doing). When you are done, click the Stop Record button. You will now be asked to specify a filename for saving the recording.

The recording will be saved as a .mht file (archived web page) and zipped automatically to save space.

Open the archived report and you will see a detailed description of what you did (see Figure 8.24).

Figure 8.24. Viewing the recorded problem steps

You can also view the report as a slideshow. Click the “Review the recorded problem steps as a slide show” link. Figure 8.25 shows the report as a slideshow.

Figure 8.25. Viewing the recordings as a slideshow

If you use Windows 7 for some time, you may realize that your computer will suddenly wake up from sleep mode, or that the battery of your notebook computer drains very quickly. The possible causes of these symptoms are many and are often difficult to troubleshoot.

Windows 7 includes a very useful tool to troubleshoot potential problems with your computer that may cause unexpected drain on the battery of your notebook. It can also troubleshoot areas that cause problems with sleep modes, and display the different power saving modes supported by your computer. To launch this tool, launch the command window in Administrator mode (type cmd.exe in the Start menu, right-click the cmd.exe item, and select “Run as administrator”).

Then, type the following command:

powercfg -energy

powercfg -h off

The Power Policy Configuration tool will take a while to complete; when it is done, you will see the information displayed as follows:

C:\Windows\system32>powercfg -energy

Enabling tracing for 60 seconds...

Observing system behavior...

Analyzing trace data...

Analysis complete.



Energy efficiency problems were found.



9 Errors

14 Warnings

10 Informational



See C:\Windows\system32\energy-report.html for more details.

The report generated is named energy-report.html and is saved in your current working directory. You can navigate to the folder and use IE8 to view its content (see Figure 8.26).

Figure 8.26. Viewing the report generated

start energy-report.html

In previous versions of Windows, you needed a third-party application to burn an ISO image to your CD or DVD. In Windows 7, this capability is built right into the OS. By default, you can double-click an ISO image and Windows will display the prompt shown in Figure 8.27.

Figure 8.27. The Windows Disc Image Burner

Select the CD/DVD burner, insert a disc, and click the Burn button to start burning your CD/DVD.

Windows 7 includes two cool tools to calibrate your display for text and graphics. These tools are especially useful for notebook computer screens, as they make your display much sharper. These two tools can be launched using Control Pane→Appearance and Personalization→Display.

The cttune.exe application (the “Adjust ClearType text” link on the left of the window) helps you to calibrate your display for displaying ClearType text (see Figure 8.28).

Figure 8.28. The cttune application

The dccw.exe application (the “Calibrate color” link) helps you to calibrate the color of your display so that colors can appear accurately (see Figure 8.29).

Figure 8.29. The dccw application

If you have trouble running applications designed for the previous versions of Windows, you can also use the Windows 7 Compatibility Mode to run them in Windows 7. Using the Compatibility Mode, you can configure an application to try to run in the version of Windows that it was written for.

To configure an application to run in Compatibility Mode, right-click the application’s shortcut, .exe, or installation program, and select Properties. Next, select the Compatibility tab and you should see the option “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” (see Figure 8.30).

Figure 8.30. The Compatibility tab in the Properties window

Check the option and you will be able to select the versions of Windows to use to run the application (see Figure 8.31).

Figure 8.31. Selecting the Windows version to run the application in Compatibility Mode

You will also be able to modify various other settings such as colors, resolutions, themes, desktop composition (disabling this turns off Aero effects), and DPI settings. You will also be able to run the application as an administrator.

If you are not sure which are the best settings to use, you can use the Program Compatibility application shipped with Windows 7. To invoke the Program Compatibility application, type the following command in the command window or the Run dialog (see Figure 8.32):

msdt -id PCWDiagnostic

Figure 8.32. Launching the Program Compatibility application

Follow through the wizard and it will guide you and provide recommendations for the settings to use.