Set User Account Control settings individually

              The User Account Control (UAC) is a matter of dispute. In Vista, a user has the option of disabling it entirely. You wonder how it works in Windows 7.
               In Windows 7, you can select from four different User Account Control levels.For this, open ‘Start | Control Panel’ and then click ‘System and Security’ and ‘Security Center’. In the classic view of the control panel, you can go to this window directly via the ‘Security Center’ icon. Then click the ‘Change Settings of  User  Account  Control’  link  in  the left  side  of  the  window.  This  must  be confirmed via the User Account Control and must be authorized by selecting an account with administrator rights and
entering the password. You can now select  from  four  security  levels  of  the User Account Control in the next dialog box. For this, move the scroller to the desired setting using the mouse and confirm  with  ‘OK’.  This  must  also  be confirmed by means of an authentication via an administrator account.
                  The securest setting informs you about all changes made to the system settings that require administrator rights. For this, Windows dims the desktop out and you cannot access other applications till you decided about the changes to be made to the system settings. Microsoft calls this status ‘Safe Desktop Mode’.
                 The next level only provides information about attempts to make changes using external programs. As against that, if you make changes manually, they are ignored by this new User Account Control level. The third level functions exactly like the second but does not involve the dimming out of the desktop.
                The fourth level provides no more information and is completely automatic in  it  functioning:  If  you  are  logged  on  as the administrator, hackers or viruses can make easily system changes without any kind of control. If you are using a user account without administrator rights, Windows rejects all system changes
without any queries.

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Set up different views for open and closed folders in Explorer

                 You do not find Windows’ way of displaying open and closed folders in the tree structure of Explorer clear enough. You thus want to use other, more meaningful icons.
                 For this, open the Registry Editor, click ‘Start’ and enter ‘regedit’ in the ‘Programs | Search Files’ field. You then see the search results directly in the start menu. Then right click ‘regedit.exe’ under ‘Programs’ and select the context command ‘Run as administrator’. This instruction must be confirmed via the Control Panel and authorized by selecting an account with administrator rights and entering the relevant password.

                 Then  browse  to  the  left  side  of  the editor in the tree structure to the key ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons’. Now right click a free point and select the context command ‘New | Character String’. Overwrite the name suggested by Windows  with  ‘4’  so  that  an  internal  key  is defi ned for the open folders. The closed 
folders are represented by the number ‘3’.
                 Open the new character string by double-clicking your entry and enter the complete path to the ‘shell32.dll’ fi le as ‘Value’. You can access the icons in this file by entering the internal index value of the desired icon right after the path and separating it with a comma. For instance, use ‘%SystemRoot%/system32\SHELL32.dll,144’ in order to replace the icon of an open folder with a red checkmark in Windows Explorer. 
                  After making these changes, close the Registry Editor with ‘File | Close’ and then restart the system.
                 Also, if you want to know which icons the file ‘shell32.dll’ contains, here is a small trick: Right click any folder and select the context command ‘Properties’. In the ‘Customize’ tab, click the ‘Choose icon’ button. The next dialog box displays all the icons from the ‘shell32.dll’ file. You still need to count the position of an icon in order to define its index value. Start with 0 and go in ascending order to reach the correct icon. Since Windows 7 lists icons in four rows, the second icon in the fi rst row has the number ‘4’.

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Trace and delete personal metadata from files

               When  trying  to  manage a large  number of applications, private metadata tags such as your name, designation and other information manage to sneak into the fi le without being noticeable. You now want to check and clear this information before forwarding the files.
              In Windows Explorer, you can not only trace hidden additional data, but can also delete it. For this, browse to the relevant fi le, right click its entry and select the context command ‘Properties’. Then  go  to  the  ‘Details’  tab.  Depending on the selected file type, you will see a long list of information there that can be saved along with the file. Then, place the cursor  over  a  particular  specification in the ‘Value’ column. If this information can be changed, you will now see an input field or a combination field.
              There, you can change the value. If you  want to  just  delete  all  personal information, this method is a little cumbersome. In such a case, click the link ‘Delete Properties and Personal Information’. The option ‘Create a copy with all properties deleted’ is activated by default in  the next dialog box.If you retain it and click ‘OK’, a new file containing all the information is created as a backup.

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