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| 14th July 2012 | USING WINDOWS 7 - GETTING STARTED |
Brian Grainger
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This article, probably the first in a series, describes how I am slowly getting to grips with Windows 7 and making it work for me, rather than against me. This article will cover the first steps of starting with Windows 7. During 2010 I bought a new computer system. It was to replace the previous system bought in 1998, because I felt I could not trust that system to go on much longer. I mean physically survive as, by using a mix of Windows 98 and Linux, it still quite happily does everything I want, except it doesn't have the processor speed to play high resolution video. The new machine would come with Windows 7, Home Premium 32 bit, which I was dreading. I knew enough about Windows 7 to know I was not going to like it - being written according to how Microsoft thinks the man on the street wants to react with their computer. I am a techie and I do NOT want to work the Microsoft way. So, for over a year the machine stood there, occasionally being switched on to play video, while I quite happily continued on my older machine for everything else. Changes are coming though. Windows 7 will be introduced at work this year, so I will have to use it then. That, coupled with the fact that I wanted to move the data off the old system, meant I have made a concerted effort to get started with Windows 7. In order to explain the hassle I have with Windows 7 I should explain a little about how I operate with Windows now. I hardly ever start programs by accessing the start menu. My most common programs are on a toolbar I keep permanently on the right edge of my screen. This is visible whenever any programs are open. Whenever I am manipulating files or for programs I use on a less frequent basis I invariably use Windows Explorer. For file moving and copying I usually have 2 instances open on the task bar and can drag and drop files between them. Another thing you should know is that I like to keep a record of what I do on my PC with regard to configuration and adding of new programs. When the day came to start using Windows 7 properly I decided the first thing to do, before anything else, was to take a directory listing of the 'C' drive and save it to a file. Then I would know how my system was when it was first delivered. A simple enough task. Drop to the command prompt move to c:\ and do the following: dir /ogne /s /a > dirlist.txt The first thing you notice is the start menu doesn't work like it used to. Rather than cascading to the right it overwrites one list with another as you click through the tree of programs. Ok if you know where you are going but not if you don't. Many more clicks of the back arrow could be needed. Of course, Microsoft doesn't expect you to do this any more. You are supposed to start a program by sticking all or part of their name in the search box and hoping it finds the right file to start it. This assumes you want to take your hand off the mouse to type and type names you might not be sure of! In this case I know the name of the program and where it is, Accessories - command prompt, so it is not too great a hardship. I type the command and then get a surprise!
Access is denied Pardon me? This is my computer - I am the only user and access is denied? I haven't a clue what is going wrong so a trip to the web is required to find out. The simple task is turning out to be taking up a lot of time. You begin to realise this is the norm with Windows 7. Everything you knew previously is turned on its head. In this particular case the problem is due to the fact the default user of the machine is NOT the all encompassing user who can do anything, usually called the Administrator user. Although you are the only user, you are not the Administrator! With all previous versions of Windows you did have administrator powers and this is seen to be a security weakness in Windows. I would agree with that. However the solution is not to make the only user a non-administrator user (and forget to mention the fact). The solution is for the owner of the PC to be allowed to create an Administrator user as well as the default non-administrator user and be aware why they should not run the Administrator user except when absolutely necessary. To further fill in the picture on this particular problem I should point out that Microsoft believe the c:\ folder is an important one, because it contains system files, and the ability to write to it is not given to the default user! As you get to use Windows 7 you find there are a few folders like this. You are very definitely not in charge of your own machine. In the particular case of writing to c:\ there is a solution for the default user. A default user can be granted temporarily SOME administrator privileges. The way to do it is to search the start menu for the Command prompt BUT instead of left clicking it to start you right click and choose run as administrator. The same thing applies if you want to run any application and write to a protected folder. You have to right click and run as administrator. Sometimes you will have to click on a warning message to make sure you really want to do it. This is another feature of Windows 7. Lots of extra clicks to do things! Some times you might have to click AND press a key on the keyboard.
It is worth mentioning at this point there are other folders you cannot access but not for the reason described above. The one I found really irksome, initially, is C:\Documents and Settings. If you try to access that in Windows Explorer you get Access denied. I was expecting this to contain the user profile because that is its location on Windows XP. I fully expected to be able too see my own user settings and was really annoyed that I couldn't. After some time I found I COULD see my user settings. The user profile in Windows 7 is stored under c:\Users. If you look for a folder with the name <username>.<computername> then you will find your profile and can view it without restriction. So what is it with c:\Documents and Settings? It is a backward compatibility issue. Some programs written for XP may want to view or write to c:\Documents and Settings but this is no longer the right place in Windows 7. Microsoft have solved this problem by creating what they call Junctions. In Windows Explorer Junctions have a little padlock attached to the folder icon. The idea is that if a program calls the XP folder the Junction will automatically route it to where the location is in Windows 7 - in this case c:\Users. I have no problem with that - sounds like a good idea. But why cannot a user be automatically taken to the right folder if they click on the Junction in Windows Explorer - rather than get a nasty Access denied message leaving them totally bemused? Obviously, Microsoft don't want you to write to the now obsolete location, which is presumably why access is denied. Nevertheless, if the user is automatically routed to the right location you still would not write in the wrong folder anyway. The little padlock icon does not mean you will ALWAYS get access denied. C:\Users\All Users has a padlock but it is accessible. I guess I haven't found the real meaning of the padlock icon yet! Now that I have found there is only the one default user and it is not a true Administrator a thought crossed my mind. What happens if I corrupted my user account? I would not be able to access the machine as the Administrator to create a new account! You would be locked out of your own machine. This got me to investigating the Windows 7 Administrator accounts - it is quite fascinating and a separate topic all by itself. The simple solution to this particular problem is to provide some backup in case of future problems.
When you first get a Windows 7 PC there are 2 things I would recommend be done to give you some protection to catastrophic problems in the future. (1) Create a System Repair Disk. Put a CD in your CD drive. Go to Control Panel and select Backup your computer under System and Security. Select Create a system repair disk from the left panel. If at some future point you cannot boot up to Windows 7 you can use this disk to try and sort it out. (2) Set up another user account. Go to Control Panel and select Add or remove user accounts under User Accounts and Family Safety. It is interesting to note on this screen that the Default user is shown as Administrator. Clearly Microsoft has a different meaning of an Administrator account! Nevertheless, what it does mean is we have the privileges to create a new account. We should do so. Create a new account and select an administrator account. This newly created account can be used should the default user account get corrupted. This new account will be basic. None of the settings from the default account will apply. Keep to using the default account for day to day use. This new account is for an emergency. You will notice when you boot up that there will now be a welcome screen so that you can choose which user to login as. We haven't got very far in this session but at least we now know:
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