Here is the download link. This MSI contains the all the ADMX and ADML files that are applicable to windows 7 and windows 2008 R2 computers.
Have you heard about “GOD Mode” in Windows 7? It sounds like a crazy and exciting stuff, right? Initially I felt the same when I came across this topic in one of technet support forums. After some reading I realized that is *not* exciting but a bit useful stuff. 
Basically, when you view control panel, you will get few initial options and selecting one will take you inside and show you few more options which are under it. Basically its like a categorization. But with this “God Mode”, you can view all items in control panel in a single page. Nothing more.
Let’s see how to configure this in Windows 7 computer.
That’s sit. It converts the folder Icon to Control Panel Icon and clicking on which takes you to the single page view of all control panel items.
Well story not ended here. After trying above procedure, one question kept lingering in my mind — why it is called “God Mode” while it is not doing any “godly” things. I just replace the “God Mode” with my name — ha ha there is no change in functionality and it is still showing the things which it used to show when named as God mode. So there is no significance in that name and you can use any name you want but you should suffix it with the GUID which is related to control panel. Below is the sample screenshot which shows the view.
Hope this is somewhat informative for you guys…
Microsoft has announced Service Pack 1(SP1) beta for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2.
Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta helps keep your PCs and servers on the latest support level, provides ongoing improvements to the Windows Operating System (OS), by including previous updates delivered over Windows Update as well as continuing incremental updates to the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 platforms based on customer and partner feedback, and is easy for organizations to deploy a single set of updates.
Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta will help you:
To download SP1, first your should register yourself at this LINK and after successful registration it will display the options to update your computer either via Windows update or ISO. The ISO contains the SP1 for both 32 and 64 bit architectures of Windows 7 and 64-bit version for windows 2008 R2.
Source : TechNet
Windows+E opens explorer, Windows+R starts run, and Windows +D shows desktop, etc….. Do you want to know all the keyboard shorts in windows 7? Hmm I also looked for it this morning and stumbled on below link which has the complete and segregated list.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Keyboard-shortcuts
You will definately find it useful.
OS keyboard(On Screen Keyboard) helps you to type in letters when your physical keyboard is not functioning. This is not a new feature in windows 7, XP also has it but in Windows 7 it enhanced a bit.
To launch OS keyboard in windows 7 just type “osk.exe” in Start->Run. You should see keyboard like below.
The Aero Snap feature allows you to arrange open windows, including maximizing and resizing, just by dragging and dropping a window to different edges of the screen. When a window is dragged to the correct position, a ripple effect will emanate from the cursor and you’ll see an animated outline of the window instantly appear in its new position. As soon as you release the mouse button, the window will snap to that position. You can read more about this Aero Snap feature at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/features/snap.aspx
Though this feature provides lot of flexibility, some people are not liking for various reasons. And they are feeling in convenience. To help such people I came with steps to disable Aero Snap Feature alone in Windows 7 desktops. After this, other Aero features(peak, shake) will continue to work normally like before.
Procedure
Today while working troubleshooting a issue I had to continuously monitor event viewer to know if there are any new events logged in that section. The thing I used to follow is, bother F5 buttom on keyboard or refresh option on MMC. But this is no more a case with Windows 7/Windows 2008 R2 event viewer MMC. It displays a small information message at the top of windows if there are any new events added to the section you are watching saying “New events available”. I liked it very much because it is displaying this message without any action. An example screenshot is provided below. I am not saying that it’s a great feature..but a small improvement 
I am working on testing a specific functionality in Windows 7 today and as part of that I have to clear “Application” event viewer every time I repeat the test. After running the test for few times, I got vexed up to open eventvwr to clear it manually from GUI. I quickly looked out for powershell option to clear event viewer and ended with below command.
Clear-EventLog -LogName Application
Look at the syntax of Clear-EventLog cmdlet to know more about it’s options.
I saved this command as ps1 and kept it on my desktop. Now I am able to clear event viewer by single mouse click..hey hey..
Happy Learning..,
Sitaram Pamarthi
Microsoft has announced list of applications which are compatable with Windows 7. I am sure this reduces some of work for IT professionals who are working on migrating their desktops to Windows 7. I am not saying this covers all softwares but gives information on some of(or most of) software you have in your org.
Download link is here..
Happy Learning..,
Sitaram Pamarthi
This post talks about the command line options for enabling/disabling features in Windows 7 OS.
Features like, GPMC, telnet, DHCP, DNS and other can be enabled or disabled with the command “dism”. This utility can also be used for querying features, packages, adding drivers, etc. Below are the some of the examples.
To view list of installaed features:
dism /online /Get-features
To enable a feature(GPMC in this example)
dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Features-GP
To disable a feature(GPMC in this example)
dism /online /disable-feature /featurename:RemoteServerAdministrationTools-Features-GP
Note: Please note that feature names are case sensitive and make sure to provide them as you see in query results.
More information about DISM(Deployment Image Servicing and Management) is available at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744566(WS.10).aspx
Happy Learning…,
Sitaram Pamarthi
