4. 5 Troubleshoot problems

If some part of Windows 7 is behaving strangely, and you don't know why, then click Control Panel > Find and fix problems (or 'Troubleshooting') to access the new troubleshooting packs. These are simple wizards that will resolve common problems, check your settings, clean up your system and more.

5. Startup repair
Windows 7 is more reliable than we'd expect from a beta, but you still might run into problems, and the worst might stop it from booting. Even into Safe Mode. And that's very bad news if you downloaded Windows 7, as you've no CD or DVD to use for re-installation. Which is why you need to click Start > Maintenance > Create a System Repair Disc, right now, and let Windows 7 build a bootable emergency disc. If the worst does happen then it could be the only way to get your PC running again.

3. Create and mount VHD files

Microsoft's Virtual PC creates its virtual machine hard drives in VHD files, and Windows 7 can now mount these directly so you can access them in the host system. Click Start, type diskmgmt.msc and press [Enter], then click Action > Attach VHD and choose the file you'd like to mount. It will then appear as a virtual drive in Explorer and can be accessed, copied or written just like any other drive.

Click Action > Create VHD and you can now create a new virtual drive of your own (right-click it, select Initialise Disk, and after it's set up right-click the unallocated space and select New Simple Volume to set this up). Again, you'll be left with a virtual drive that behaves just like any other, where you can drag and drop files, install programs, test partitioning software or do whatever you like. But it's actually just this VHD file on your real hard drive which you can easily back up or share with others. Right-click the disk (that's the left-hand label that says "Disk 2" or whatever) and select Detach VHD to remove it.

The command line DISKPART utility has also been upgraded with tools to detach a VHD file, and an EXPAND command to increase a virtual disk's maximum size. Don't play around with this unless you know what you're doing, though - it's all too easy to trash your system.

2. Burn images

Windows 7 finally introduces a feature that other operating systems have had for years - the ability to burn ISO images to CDs or DVDs. And it couldn't be much easier to use. Just double-click the ISO image, choose the drive with the blank disc, click Burn and watch as your disc is created.

1. Problem Steps Recorder

As the local PC guru you're probably very used to friends and family asking for help with their computer problems, yet having no idea how to clearly describe what's going on. It's frustrating, but Microsoft feels your pain, and Windows 7 will include an excellent new solution in the Problem Steps Recorder.

When any app starts misbehaving under Windows 7 then all your friends need do is click Start, type PSR and press [Enter], then click Start Record. If they then work through whatever they're doing then the Problem Steps Recorder will record every click and keypress, take screen grabs, and package everything up into a single zipped MHTML file when they're finished, ready for emailing to you. It's quick, easy and effective, and will save you hours of troubleshooting time.

Move or Copy Files at Will

Intuitively, when you drag a file from one place to another, it would seem reasonable that the file will be moved, not copied. That is, when you see an object disappear from a location, it shouldn't still be there next time you look. One of the worst inconsistencies in Windows is what actually happens to files when they're dragged. Dragging from one place to another on the same disk ends up moving the files, while dragging from one disk to another copies them. If you're just dragging EXE files, a shortcut is created, and the file is neither copied nor moved. The only consistency here is that this same design flaw is duplicated on Macintosh and OS/2. To cope with this, follow the following instructions:

• To copy a file under any situation, hold the Ctrl key while dragging.
• To move a file under any situation, hold the Shift key while dragging.
• To choose what happens to dragged files, drag them with the right mouse-button, and a menu will appear when the files are dropped.

• Note: Notice that the mouse cursor changes depending on the action being taken. A small plus (+) appears when copying, and a curved arrow appears when creating a shortcut.

• Note: There is no way to set the default action when dragging files - a glaring omission.

• Note: A handy and well-designed utility, WinZIP, utilizes the right-drag menu to ZIP and unZIP files (version 6.0 and later).

Copy or Move to Specified Path

To copy or move a file in Windows Explorer, both the source folder and the destination folder must be open and visible to copy files with drag-drop. For some reason, there is no provision for specifying a destination folder to a copy or move a file, making this task next-to impossible without a mouse. To add this functionality, obtain and install the Creative Element Power Tools, and turn on the Copy or Move files anywhere tool.

Display an index all the files on your system

To get an index of all (or a subset thereof) of the files on your system, follow these directions:

Windows Vista:

• Open Windows Explorer, select Computer in the tree, and type *.* in the Search box on the upper-right side of the window.

Windows Me/2000/2003/XP:

• Select Search and then For Files or Folders from the Start Menu, select a drive (or use Local Hard Drives for all drives), and click Search Now without specifying anything in the Named field.

Windows 95/98:

• Select Find and then Files or Folders from the Start Menu, select a drive (or use My Computer for all drives), and click Find Now without specifying anything in the Named field. Note that Windowx 95 and Windows 98 have an arbitrary limit of 10,000 entries, so you may need to limit your search, or upgrade to a newer version of Windows (see below).

After the search:

• You can then sort the results by clicking on the appropriate column heading (useful for finding the largest or most recent file on your system).
• To save the results, you'll need the Copy to Clipboard as Filename utility (one of Microsoft's PowerToys). This allows you to select all the files in the results list, right-click, select Send To and then Clipboard as Filename. You can then paste the listings into a text editor, such as Notepad, for saving and printing.

How do I know if I can delete a specific file?

• Check the date of the file (right-click on it and select Properties) - if it's recent, it's most likely being used.
• If the file is large, and you want to know if you can delete it, try renaming it or moving it to another directory before to see if everything still works before you delete it.
• No, you shouldn't delete WIN386.SWP (your swap file in Win95/98/Me) or PAGEFILE.SYS (your swap file in Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista).

Downloading Windows Updates

The Windows Update feature can be a convenient way to make sure you have all the latest patches and bug fixes that Microsoft didn't bother including in the boxed version of Windows. However, if you have more than one computer, or you have a slow connection, it can be tedious and quite inconvenient to be forced to download all the files over and over again. Although there's no mention of it on the Windows Update site, Microsoft has made all of the updates available for separate download (for installing later) here:

Make a Duplicate of a File

Windows lets you copy and move files from one folder to another by dragging them with different combinations of keystrokes. You can also rename a file by clicking on its name or pressing F2. However, if you want to make a duplicate of a file in the same directory, with a different name, the process might not be as obvious. Here's how you do it:

On the desktop, or in an open folder window:

• Hold Ctrl, and drag the file from one part of the window to another part of the same window.

In Explorer:

• Explorer won't let you do this, but you can Ctrl-drag a file from the right pane, and drop it on the same folder in the left pane.

In either case:

• You can also use the right mouse button to drag the file from one part of the window to another part of the same window, and select Copy Here.
• The duplicate of a file called, say, MyFile.TXT would be automatically named Copy of MyFile.TXT.
• For keyboard users; press Ctrl-c and then Ctrl-v to create a duplicate of a file using the clipboard.

Duplicate a group of files:

• Obtain and install Power Rename, part of O'Reilly Utilities and Creative Element Power Tools.
• It lets you rename files in a multitude of ways, including making duplicates (renaming without removing the original).