Taskbar Properties [windows 7]

In all windows operating system we are having very useful taskbar. It is getting used mostly when we  are operating our computer. But have you gone through its properties in details. There are many good options available their to modify that taskbar. Let’s talk about those properties from which we can make lots of changes to the taskbar.

Pin the Programs on Taskbar:

In windows 7 you can put your programs on the taskbar permanently. It is like you can pin your programs on the taskbar. So with that you don’t need to find out them in the deep of your drives. Just open any program and right click on it from the task bar like shown in below image. Now just click on Pin this program to taskbar. That will do all for you.

Increase the size of Taskbar:

You can also increase the size of the taskbar. It can be beneficial for you if you have pin lots of icons on your taskbar. By this way you can put lots of icons on your taskbar too.

Just Right Click on taskbar and click on properties.

Now uncheck the Lock the taskbar option. And apply the settings.

Now as shown in below image click on boarder of the taskbar and drag it up, it will increase the size of your taskbar. You can lock it again so that you don’t make changes in its size by mistakenly.

Changing the Taskbar position:

By default we are having taskbar at the bottom of our windows. But you know we can change position of this taskbar as we like. I mean we can put it on left side, right side and top also.  Yes we can put it on any one side from 4 sides as we feel it comfortable.

Just Right Click on taskbar and select properties.

Now you will see the Taskbar location on screen option in those properties.

Select any side from that option and your taskbar will be adjusted in that side after applying the settings. Just see this image, I have adjusted it on right side. 

Hiding Taskbar:

Hiding means, you can hide taskbar when you don’t need it. If you are working on your program or surfing net then you can hide that taskbar on that time. But don’t you worry it will be reappear again when you will move your mouse cursor on the area of your taskbar. So it’s an automatic process.

To activate this option, go to properties of taskbar similarly you opened above. Now just check on Auto-hide the taskbar option and apply the settings. Now it will work as I mentioned above.

Make Icons small on Taskbar:

In windows 7 we are having big icon sets on our taskbar. We can make those icons small too with the properties option. Just open the property again and check on use small icons option and apply the settings. It will be done.

Hide Unwanted Icons near clock:

Just see the image above. Sometimes after installing some software we get many icons in this section. Also sometimes we keep getting alerts from some icons during our work. But you can hide those icons and make the list shorter with this taskbar property.

From the properties page, just click on Customize from the Notification area section. By this, you will get the list of icons from the notification area. From this list you can hide (and also reshow) those unwanted icons.

So this is it. Using above method we can personalize the taskbar by our own way. Thanks for reading and have a great day and have fun.

Windows Taskbar Toolbar

Have you used this option anytime on your windows 7? If not then surely you are missing a good effective option of windows operating system. Using windows taskbar toolbar you can put many shortcuts on your windows taskbar. Taskbar is a bar which is available at the bottom of the windows which is carrying the start menu, other icons and that date/time tool.

How to Use It?

It is very easy. Just right click on the Taskbar and go in Toolbars option. You will found many options like address, links, desktop, etc… You can select any of them and put a shortcut of that thing on taskbar. You can also choose your own program or folder or file by choosing New toolbar from those options.

Few useful shortcuts using this option:

Address Toolbar:

Let me tell you about few useful shortcuts using this method. Select the first option Address from those options and you will get the address bar for surfing any site on the toolbar!! Just like below image.

Now using this you can directly write any website’s address and enter, that page will directly open into your default browser. Isn’t that amazing? You even don’t need to open any browser to start your surfing session. It is surely a useful thing.

Other Folders and Application:

You can put your other important folders/file/applications on the toolbar. By which you can open them anytime more easily especially when your file is deep inside of some drive and folders.  By this you can open them instantly without wasting more time for searching them.

So this is it. There are other options too you can put instead of these. It is quite simple, but I never see any person using this option. This one is helpful, just try it. Have fun.

Change the time of auto changing wallpaper in windows 7

In windows 7 themes we are having auto changing wallpapers function. We already saw about how to make our own theme with our own photos in previous post. Now let’s see how we can change the timing of this changing wallpaper.

Image Credits : digitalart

Follow This Steps:

• Right click on Desktop.
• Select Personalize.
• From personalize window select ‘Desktop Background’ from the bottom.
• Now you will get new windows with different themes and also your selected theme.
• At the bottom you will see the option of ‘change picture every’. Select the time in which you want to change your wallpapers.  For Example, select 10 second if you want to change your desktop wallpaper on every 10 seconds.
• Click on ‘Save Changes’.

That’s it. Now your time is changed. With this your wallpapers will keep changing as per your selected time. Have fun. 

Make your own theme with your selected moving wallpapers [Windows 7]

In windows 7 we have the different themes like ‘Characters’, ‘Landscapes’, ‘Nature’, etc. with collection of wallpapers as per their category. And those wallpapers keep changing in regular interval automatically.

Now, we can also make our own theme in this section with our selected photos or wallpapers. By this way, we can move our own selected photos or wallpapers in regular time interval. We can also choose our own color appearance with our own theme. This can surely attract your friends and others.

Image credit to: Idea go

How to do it?

• Before you start just make collection of photos in one folder which you want to put in theme and which will move automatically as your desktop wallpaper later.
• Now right click on your desktop and select Personalize.
• Using this Personalize window we are selecting our different themes.
• Now click on ‘Desktop Background’ at the bottom of window as shown in image.

• Now you will get new window. In this window click on ‘Browse’ and select the folder destination in which you have saved your photos for theme.
• Now check on each photo which you want to include in your theme and click on ‘Save Changes’.
• After saving you will be back to the Personalize window.  In this window you will notice a theme you just made in ‘My Themes’ section without name. Just right click it and give name you want.
• Now you can make changes in Color Appearance, Sounds and Screen Saver of your theme from the bottom of Personalize window.

That’s it. This will make ready your own theme and you can always select it or change it from the same Personalize window. It’s a quite easy procedure but this will surely change your computer look as you like.

I have noticed that almost no people using this given feature. So I think about sharing on my blog. It’s always good to use all given features. ;) Have fun.

Set videos as your desktop background

This is surely not new. But just few days back one of my friends was asking me about this so I thought I should post it here too.

I hope you have heard about DreamScene. If not than you should read this.

It is like addon from Microsoft using which you can set videos as wallpaper. So you can set your video songs or any other videos as your desktop background. So there is no need of those boring static wallpapers.

How to get it?

There may be direct download link available on the internet. But as I said in my previous post any unknown download source can be risky. So better you follow the proper and safe way.

•          Open windows update from the Control Panel.
•          Now check for Windows DreamScene in View Available Extras list.
•          If there is no such thing than you should check for new updates.
•      After updates, you will able to see Windows DreamScene in list. Just install that update and all done.

How to set videos as wallpaper?

Now we already completed the download section. Now time to set video as desktop background. It is quite easy.

For setting wallpaper as our desktop background, we used to right click on image and click on ‘set as desktop background’. As we completed download process now we can set videos as background just by right clicking on video file and selecting ‘set as desktop background’ like we do with images.

But remember Dreamscene supports only WMV and MPG video formats. So you need to convert your videos before in these formats before setting them as your background.

Note:- Surely setting videos as your desktop background instead of simple wallpapers can slow down your computer(not much). So make sure that you having more RAM in your system.

You can ask me if you have any queries on this. Bye.

Windows Speech Recognition !! You Talk Your Computer Write

I guess many people don’t know about this facility on windows 7 or maybe it is available on windows Xp too. I am talking about Speech Recognition.  It is the one of coolest feature available Windows. Using it we can give commands to our system by our voice form micro phone. Yes you read it correct our computer will listen to us. Not only the command, our computer will type too whatever we say to it. Isn’t it amazing?

You can open Speech Recognition program from the control panel (it is available their).  Just click on it and you will get the below list:

Now you better follow all 5 topics listed in image. Because they are quite important before you go for using Speech Recognition Tool.

The First option is “Start Speech Recognition”. Please connect your micro phone before opening this. Now you will get few instructions to set-up your speech recognition program. Just follow the steps and that will setup all the things.

Now from the second option “Set up Microphone”, you can select the hardware from which you are inputting your voice to give commands to your computer.

Now the third option “Take Speech Tutorial” is quite important. From here you will learn the commands to handle the speech recognition tool. You will learn the basics of this tool from this option. This is the most important part of it. So hear all carefully with full concentration.  You will learn some useful instruction to handling the program.

The fourth option “Train Your Computer to Better Understand You” is also important. Here your computer will understand your voice that how you are speaking some common words and commands to use speech recognition tool. So better you use this option first before going for making any document by your voice using this tool. So your computer can understand your voice more clearly that what you are saying.

The fifth and the last option “Open the Speech Reference Card”.  Now here you can read all the commands and other helpful tip that is much needed when you are using speech recognition.  So please remember all the commands from this page before you use this tool. So you can easily give commands to speech recognition during working on it.