Tech Talk (10/03)
Windows 7 Tech Tips
by Brian K. Lewis, Ph.D.*
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.
Have you ever wanted or needed information
about the hardware in your computer? Did
you know that Windows 7 contains a command that can provide you with a
list of your hardware components including memory information? It does
and it is very easy to explore and to save to a file. There are other
helpful little bits of information hidden in the recesses of Win7, so
let’s take some time to explore a few of them.
First let’s check out the system information command. Go to Start and
type “cmd” in the Search box (without the quotes), then press Enter.
This will open a command window in which you can type “systeminfo”, also
without the quote marks. Press Enter again and you will get a detailed
profile of your computer. This list will include the processor, BIOS
version, operating system and updates, both installed and available
memory and much more. In all, there are thirty-two categories of
information provided by this command. You can scroll up and down through
this information. Then, if you want to save this info to a disc file,
type the command “systeminfo /FO CSV > systeminfo.csv”. Again, without
the quotes. This file will be saved in the directory shown at the
beginning of the command line. So be sure you remember this location
when you go to look for the file. A CSV file can be opened in a
spreadsheet or a database program. Now you will have a ready reference
for the components which make up your computer. It’s not a bad idea to
create this file and keep it for reference purposes.
Of course, if you are a frequent reader of Dr Herb’s “Computer Buffet”
you would have seen references to “Belarc Advisor”. This free program
gives you a profile of all the hardware and software on your machine. It
also highlights problem areas such as non-working applications. The
software information can be quite extensive. The last time I ran this
application on a Windows machine I had more than eight pages of
information. Far more than I really wanted. The systeminfo command gives
you a summary which is printable in one page.
There is another use for system information. If you type this “system
information” command into the Start-Search box, it will bring up a list
of applications before you finish typing. Select “System Information”
from the list and click on it. You now have a double pane window with a
tree of topics on the left and an information window on the right. The
first item is a general summary of system information similar to the
information we obtained in the command window. But there are other more
detailed topics under the headings in the tree list. For example,
hardware resources, components and software environment. Under
components you will find a very important topic – problem devices.
Hopefully, at this point there will be nothing listed when you highlight
this topic. But if there are, it can lead you to solutions for some of
your hardware problems. Under software environment you will find a topic
called Startups. This lists the applications that are loaded into memory
when your computer starts. Always something worth knowing.
Another interesting item under Software Environment is Windows Error
Reporting. This gives you a detailed list of applications that have
“misfired” or produced system hang-ups. This can be useful when you have
problems with either Windows or third-party applications. All of the
errors I found on my system were related to missing drivers that I had
to install after installing Win7. Once that was completed the errors
disappeared. Yes, I said that with crossed fingers – no use asking for
bad luck, right?
If you haven’t backed up your computer recently, then you should try the
backup built into Win7. In previous versions of Windows the backup
application provided by Microsoft was very slow and some versions were
very limited in the media to which they would write the backup file. It
was also useless when you changed your Windows version as the file
formats in the backup file were not compatible with the newer version.
In the Win7 help files there is information on how to restore a backup
made with Vista to Win7. So at least the latest versions should be
compatible.
These latest versions of the backup applications are much faster than
previous versions. To try the backup applications, open the Control
Panel and select System Security, then backup and restore. Here you have
several options. You can do a complete image of your hard drive, just
backup your data, or make a system repair disc. If you did not get a
Windows installation disc when you purchased your computer, then the
first thing you should do is make a system repair disc. All you need for
this is a blank CD and then just follow the on-screen instructions. The
next step would be to make a complete image file, preferably on an
external drive. It’s really not a good idea to put it on the same drive
you are imaging even if it is a separate partition. Why? Because when
the drive fails you won’t be able to access the image file to restore
anything to a new hard drive. Even if you do have a Windows installation
disc the repair disc plus the image file are a better solution for
restoring Windows and your files after a drive failure. The image file
you create will be more current than the original installation disc when
it comes to Windows updates. It will also include the installation of
all the applications you added after you purchased the system or
upgraded to Win7.
Once you have the repair disc and the image backup you can start doing
data backups, or you can create new image files periodically. There is
no need to make image files unless you have added applications or made
substantial changes to your system. Windows file backup can be set to
run automatically to save your data files. It will also add new folders
and files to the backup list when you create them. I would also
recommend that this be saved to an external drive.
Do you have a need for a system to remember user names and passwords?
Win7 has a credential manager which can be used for storing user names
and passwords in an encrypted file. This application can be found in the
Control Panel under User Accounts. If you can’t find it, try searching
within the Control Panel.
I frequently have a need to write down short notes or references to
information I found on the Internet or in other sources. This is where
Sticky Notes comes in quite handy. You can run this application by
typing “stikynot” in the Start – Search box and clicking on the program
that shows in the popdown menu. Alternatively, you can go to All
Programs – Accessories and click on Sticky Notes. These can be placed
anywhere on your desktop. You can also pin the application to the
taskbar so it will be readily available. Just right click on the menu
item or one of the sticky notes and select “pin to taskbar”.
If you want to see the minute by minute performance of your computer,
try typing “resource monitor” in the Start - Search box. The complete
term will show up before you have completed typing and you can then
click on the item. This brings up a window in which you can view the
memory utilization, cpu utilization and other resources as you use your
computer. It’s a great way to see which applications are using the most
memory.
By playing around with the Control Panel and other aspects of Windows 7,
you can find many helpful built-in functions. You can also query the
Help files. On my system the Help response is much quicker than it was
in Vista and XP. I also found that many subjects are better explained
and more detailed. So if you are stuck on something, try the Help
application that’s on the Start menu. The more you play with Win7, the
more you will find that may be useful.
*Dr. Lewis is a former university and medical school professor of physiology. He has been working with personal computers for over thirty years, developing software and assembling systems. He can be reached at bwsail at yahoo.com.
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Copyright 2010. This article is from the
March 2010 issue of the
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