How to Customize Windows 7 Interface

Windows 7 is a good operating system, but you might find some of its features incompatible with your work style. Here are three tips for altering the interface to better match your preferences.

Restore the Classic ‘All Programs’ Menu

Vista offers the option of restoring that "classic" Start menu, but Windows 7, inexplicably, doesn’t. Fortunately, you have at least two ways to accomplish this: one, a simple Registry tweak; the other, a shareware utility. I'll start with the latter, since it’s arguably the easier of the two. Classic Start Menu Pro replaces the Windows 7 Start menu with just what you'd expect. Install and run the utility, and then click Start for a blast from the XP past.

Classic Start Menu also takes advantage of Windows' Aero features, so you get some of the best of both worlds. Unfortunately, the app is nagware for the 30-day trial period; it will cost you $20 to own free and clear. If you'd prefer a free alternative, you can modify Windows 7 so that the Favorites menu becomes an XP-like Programs menu.

1. Click Start, type regedit, and press Enter.
2. Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders key.
3. Double click the Favorites entry, and replace the existing path with C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\WIndows\Start Menu\Programs.
4. Move to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders, and repeat step 3.
5. Exit Regedit, and than restart your PC.

Now, when you click Start, you should see a Programs menu on the right side. Mouse over to see the fly-out menu of yore. (If you don’t see it, Right-click Start, and click Properties. In the Start Menu tab, click Customize. Scroll down to the Favorites menu entry, click its check box, and then click OK, OK.)

Restore the Classic Control Panel in Windows 7

First, allow me to champion the new Control Panel for a moment specifically, its search capabilities. For example, suppose that I want to adjust the settings for my mouse. All I have to do is click in the Search Control Panel field (in the upper right) and type mo. The first thing that it shows me is the Mouse category, along with numerous options. I can click an option or keep typing; if I want to modify the mouse-wheel settings, for instance, I type mouse wheel. That said, if you really want the old XP-style Control Panel, just click the View by menu (located in the upper-right corner, below the Search field), and then choose Large icons. The result isn’t exactly the same, but it's close. And the Search option still works.

Show More Icons in the Windows 7 System Tray

The Windows system tray is a necessary evil. It shows status icons for system elements (like volume and network connections) and programs running in the background. Until Windows 7, controlling what did and didn’t appear in the system tray was challenging at best. Now, Microsoft has made it easy to choose what you see. Start by clicking the small white arrow at the left edge of the system tray. You’ll see any icons that aren't currently configured to appear full time in the tray. Click Customize for a list of all the Notification Area Icons. Click the drop down menu next to one of them, and you get three choices: ‘Show icon and notifications', 'Hide icon and notifications, and ‘Only show notifications' Notice that any changes you make are implemented immediately (no clicking Apply or OK required). Obviously your changes won’t be permanent until you do click OK; this just gives you a chance to see what your system tray will look like before you finalize it.

Can You Really Belive Facebook Privacy

Responding to yet another user uproar, Facebook recently made efforts to simplify its privacy controls and introduce some other welcome changes. They are good steps to take but considering that Facebook had to be forced to respect users basic wishes regarding their own information, it suggests a serious disconnect in how the company and its users view privacy.

In January, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had said that his company was updating its systems to "reflect what the current social norms are." So when Facebook announced in April that it would automatically enroll users into new features such as Instant Personalization which handed users publicly available Facebook info to selected Websites that users visited the implication was that users wishes, not the company’s bottom line, prompted the move from a largely private system shared only with approved friends to a largely public system that freely gave data to search engines, marketing companies, and anyone else who wanted it.

Facebook Users Revolt

The shift suggests that, according to Facebook, the current social norm is to share everything with everyone. But many users clearly disagree, judging from the spike in the number of people searching in Google for "delete Facebook
account"

In May, reacting to complaints, Facebook drastically simplified its labyrinthine privacy controls. Instead of having to sift through as many as 50 settings and 170 options users see a chart outlining which info is shared with everyone, with friends of friends, or with friends only. Just as important, Zuckerberg says that the company will no longer arbitrarily change those settings when new controls or features are added.

Good moves. But it's beyond me as to why any business would have to be forced to acknowledge that reversing a user‘s privacy control changes to make previously personal information public is a bad idea.

If you’re willing to stick with Facebook to see if the clue-bat whacking takes hold this time, try a tool that can hedge your bets. Originally made to assist with the previous sorry maze of privacy controls, a bookmark let from ReclaimPrivacy.org can scan your settings and report whether you might be sharing more than you'd like. Its creator, Web developer Matt Pizzimenti, says his organization will be keeping the tool updated to scan the newly simplified settings as well as any future controls, in part because he believes that the current defaults are still too open for comfort.

Wondering what the fuss is about? Data mining firms are vacuuming up this now public information for marketing and advertising databases. One company, Marketo.com, offers to "monitor what prospects say on social sites" for use with sales leads.