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Creating a VHD in Windows 7

windows7support247 — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:00:00 +0000

How To Create A VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) In Windows 7?

Unlike previous Windows versions, Windows 7 lets you create a new Virtual Hard Disk without the help any third-party applications.

Creating a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) in Windows 7 is very simple.

Steps to create Virtual Hard Disk

1. Type in diskmgmt.msc in Start menu search filed and hit enter to open Disk Management window. Alternatively, right-click on Computer icon on the desktop, select Manage. In the Computer Management window, click on Disk Management link open the program.

2. In the Disk Management window, go to Action, and select Create VHD option.

3. In the following window, select a drive/folder location to create a new VHD file.

4. Next, enter the size of VHD. Make sure that you have enough free space before entering the VHD size. Here, you have the choice to choose between two VHD formats: Dynamically expanding, and Fixed Size (recommended).

In the dynamically expanding format, the size of the VHD expands to a fixed maximum size as data is saved to it. However, the disk size doesn’t compact automatically when data is deleted. As the name suggests, Fixed size VHD format uses a fixed amount of space regardless of the amount of the data stored in it.

5. Click on the create button to start the process. You will see a new VHD file.

Restoring files from previous versions

windows7support247 — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 03:00:00 +0000

Restoring files from previous versions

You can restore deleted files and folders or restore a file or folder to a previous state.

To restore a deleted file or folder

Open Computer by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, and then clicking Computer.

Navigate to the folder that used to contain the file or folder, right-click it, and then click Restore previous versions. If the folder was at the top level of a drive, for example C:\, right-click the drive, and then click Restore previous versions.

You’ll see a list of available previous versions of the file or folder. The list will include files saved on a backup (if you are using Windows Backup to back up your files) as well as restore points, if both types are available.

Note

To restore a previous version of a file or folder that’s included in a library, right-click the file or folder in the location where it’s saved, rather than in the library.

For example, to restore a previous version of a picture that’s included in the Pictures library but is stored in the My Pictures folder, right-click the My Pictures folder, and then click Restore previous versions.

Double-click a previous version of the folder that contains the file or folder you want to restore. (For example, if a file was deleted today, choose a version of the folder from yesterday, which should contain the file.)

Drag the file or folder that you want to restore to another location, such as your desktop or another folder.

The version of the file or folder is saved to the location that you selected.

Tip

If you don’t remember the exact file or folder name or its location, you can search for it by typing part of the name in the search box in the Documents library.

To restore a file or folder to a previous state

1. Right-click the file or folder, and then click Restore previous versions.

You’ll see a list of available previous versions of the file or folder. The list will include files saved on a backup (if you’re using Windows Backup to back up your files) as well as restore points, if both types are available.

2. Before restoring a previous version of a file or folder, select the previous version, and then click Open to view it to make sure it’s the version you want.

Note

You can’t open or copy previous versions of files that were created by Windows Backup, but you can restore them.

3. To restore a previous version, select the previous version, and then click Restore.

Warning

The file or folder replaces the current version on your computer, and the replacement can’t be undone.

Note

If the Restore button is unavailable, you can’t restore a previous version of the file or folder to its original location. You might be able to open it or save it to a different location.

Windows 7 Features - Virtual Hard Disk

windows7support247 — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 01:00:00 +0000

Virtual Hard Disk

The Microsoft virtual hard disk (VHD) file format specifies a virtual hard disk, which is encapsulated in a single file and is capable of hosting native file systems and supporting standard disk operations. This topic contains an overview of the new functionality that is offered in this version of Windows.

In Windows 7, VHD can be used as the running operating system on designated hardware without any other parent operating system, virtual machine, or hypervisor. You can use the disk management tools (the DiskPart command-line tool and the Disk Management MMC snap-in) to create a VHD file. You can then deploy a Windows 7 image (in .wim format) to the VHD and configure the boot manager for a native or physical boot of the Windows image, which is contained in the VHD.

Benefits of the new and changed features of VHD

Enterprise environments that already manage and use VHDs for virtual machine deployment will find the most benefit from the new features in this release. Although enterprise environments are moving an increasing number of applications to virtual machines, they still use physical computers to operate a significant part of the data center. For this reason, IT administrators have to maintain two sets of images: one set based on the .wim format for physical computers, and another set based on the VHD format for virtual machines. The VHD format supports physical computers and virtual machines, and it provides flexibility in image deployment and simplifies image management.

An image format that runs on both physical computers and virtual machines also benefits developers and testers. This is because they use virtual machines to test new system and application software, but sometimes they need to run tests on physical computers to access a specific hardware device, like the graphics card, or to get accurate performance profiling. Native VHD boot also enables developers and testers to boot into a Windows 7 image without creating a separate partition on the physical computer for installing Windows.

Missing USB Drive in Windows 7

windows7support247 — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 01:00:00 +0000

Sometimes when you plug a USB drive into your machine you won’t see it in Computer or AutoPlay in Windows 7.Now we would take a look at how to change the drive letter so you can can access it.

The problem with not being able to see your USB drive happens quite often in XP. Our Texperts have pointed out instances, where the same problem can occur in Windows 7 as well.

Locate and Access the USB Drive in Windows 7

The problem is when you plug in a thumb drive or external USB hard drive…nothing happens. You hear the USB sound but AutoPlay doesn’t run, and when you look in Computer you don’t see the drive. More than likely Windows named the drive to a letter that is already in use.

To fix the problem right-click on Computer from the Start Menu or Desktop Icon, and select Manage.

In the Computer Management window, under Storage, click on Disk Management to see a list of drives connected to your machine.

You should be able to determine which one is the drive you’re trying to access by its size and format type. Here we’re trying to find a 4GB thumb drive. Right-click on the drive and select Change Drive Letter and Paths.

Now click on the Change button…

You can select from a list of drive letters to rename it. Make sure it’s not one already in use or could be in use at some point. Pick a letter toward the end of the alphabet for best results.

You will be prompted with a warning dialog making sure you want to change the drive letter…click Yes.

Here you can see we changed the drive from the letter “J” to “U”…

If you have AutoPlay enabled, you’ll see the familiar screen asking what you want to do with the drive.

You will also see it in Computer now and be able to access the files and programs from it.

That’s all there is to it! It’s definitely annoying when you plug in an external USB drive and Windows doesn’t give you access to it right away, but following these steps solves the issue.

Run program in Administrator Mode

windows7support247 — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 01:00:00 +0000

Many utilities need to be run as administrator in order to function properly, especially older utilities that haven’t been updated to support Windows 7.All shortcuts in Windows since Vista have a special property that you can set that will allow the application to run as Administrator. This works perfectly for creating a batch file to restart a service, for instance.

To set this property, just right-click on any shortcut, and click the Advanced button on the Shortcut page to get to the Advanced Properties dialog.

You’ll see a dialog with a checkbox for “Run as administrator”.

From now on, the application will always run as administrator if you use the shortcut to launch it. (You’ll be prompted by UAC if you have it enabled in Windows 7).

Change Wallpaper In Win 7 Starter Edition

windows7support247 — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:00:00 +0000

HOW TO CHANGE THE WALLPAPER IN WINDOWS 7 STARTER EDITION

Tired of the Windows 7 Wallpaper that comes by default and couldn’t change the wallpaper?

Here’s a workaround to get the wallpaper changed:

Click on “Start” and type in “%windir%\Web\Wallpaper\Windows\” and hit “Enter”

You will find a folder open with an image img0.jpg

Now right click on the image and go to “Properties”

Go to the “Security” tab

Click on “Edit”

“Permissions for img0.jpg” will open up

In the new window that appears click on “Add”

Add the name “Everyone” and then click on “OK”

In the “Permissions for img0.jpg” window, highlight everyone and make a check mark on “Full Control” and then “Apply”

Click on “OK” on the other open Windows.

Now delete the image img0.jpg and copy the desired image in the same folder that you want to set as wallpaper with the name img0.jpg

Whatever image here you place here with the name img0.jpg becomes the wallpaper of your desktop!!