Disable Search History Display in Windows

The new search feature in Windows 7 has been enhanced greatly in this version of Windows, and by default it saves recent searches. If you’re annoyed by this and want to turn it off, we will show you how using Group Policy Editor.

Note: This method uses Group Policy Editor which is not available in Home versions of Windows 7

Notice that when you go to the search box and start entering in something, the last three searches you’ve done appear. It can get old looking at mistyped words or seeing a search term that is old.

To turn that feature off we need to go into Local Group Policy Editor. Type gpedit.msc into the start search box and hit Enter.

Navigate to User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Windows Components \ Windows Explorer then double click on “Turn off display of recent search entries in the Windows Explorer search box”.

Set it to Enabled then hit Apply then OK and close out of Group Policy Editor.

That’s it! Now when you start searching for something there is no longer the search history popping up to annoy you.

 

This won’t improve performance in your system, but is a quick tweak to get rid of an annoyance if it bothers you.

Disable Scan and Fix for Removable Drives in Windows

Sometimes you’ll be prompted to scan and fix a removable disk before using it in Windows. The proper way to fix this is to scan for file system errors, but here is how you can make the prompt go away permanently.

What is the Scan and Fix For?

This is caused by Windows detecting errors in the filesystem of the drive, or the drive not being unmounted properly. To never get this prompt you can make sure to use the safely remove option built into Windows before pulling out your drive.

One possible downside to getting rid of the scan and fix prompt is the service that runs to show you scan and fix also shows you AutoPlay. By disabling scan and fix you will also be disabling your AutoPlay functionality.

How Do You Disable It?

If you don’t care about AutoPlay, or want to stop it from prompting you too, go to your start menu and search for msconfig.

Note: You will have to be an administrator on the computer to use msconfig and apply this fix.

Click on the services tab and then scroll down to Shell Hardware Detection and uncheck it. This will prevent it from starting up with the computer.

To kill the service immediately go back to the start menu and search for services.msc.

Note: You can optionally just restart you computer and it will automatically make the next changes for you.

Find the same Shell Hardware Detection service in the list.

Note: It was pointed out in the comments that if you use a scanner in Windows you may need this service.  Instead of disabling it completely you can set the service to manual startup for better hardware support.

Double click on it and on the general tab click stop.

Drop down the startup type option and set it to disabled.

Click OK on the service window and then close out services.msc as well.

Plug in a few removable disks to test, but you shouldn’t be prompted to scan and fix another disk ever again.

Enable Delete Confirmation Dialog in Windows 8

Every time you delete a file in Windows 7, Windows asks you “Are you sure you want to move this file to the Recycle Bin?” This is by default not available in Windows 8 and 8.1

There’s a simple way to turn it on,

Just right-click on your Recycle Bin and choose Properties from the menu.

Now you’ll see the Trash Properties dialog, and notice the “Display delete confirmation dialog” at the bottom.

Just check the box, click OK button and close the dialog. That is all.

Disable Delete Confirmation Dialog in Windows 7 or Vista

Every time you delete a file, Windows asks you “Are you sure you want to move this file to the Recycle Bin?” This is typically a good thing, to prevent you from deleting files by accident, but if you are trying to do some cleanup and need to delete a lot of files, you might not want to be prompted every single time.

There’s a simple way to turn it off, thankfully, although I’d recommend you leave it on the majority of the time.

Just right-click on your Recycle Bin and choose Properties from the menu.

Now you’ll see the Trash Properties dialog, and notice the “Display delete confirmation dialog” at the bottom.

Just uncheck the box, and close the dialog. No more confirmations!  (I’d still recommend that you turn it back on when you are done cleaning up your computer)

Create Shutdown/Restart/Lock Icons in Windows

If you dislike the new Windows Vista shutdown menu, you are probably in the majority. An alternative option is to create icons that will let you shut down, lock, or restart your computer without having to mess with that stupid popup menu.

Of course, Windows 7 makes the shutdown menu a lot better, but if you want a shortcut elsewhere or to assign a hotkey, this should help you out.

This tip is nothing new, and probably very old hat to most of the advanced geeks reading this feed. I’ve been asked this question so many times in the last month that I decided to finally just write it up for everybody.

First right-click on the desktop, choose New and then Shortcut.

In the shortcut location box, you’ll need to enter the correct command, which I’ve listed for you below.

Shutdown Computer

Shutdown.exe -s -t 00

Restart Computer

Shutdown.exe -r -t 00

Lock Workstation

Rundll32.exe User32.dll,LockWorkStation

Hibernate Computer

rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll,SetSuspendState

Sleep Computer

rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState 0,1,0

When you’ve clicked next on the above dialog, you’ll be asked to name the shortcut. Probably best to name it according to the right function.

After you click Finish, you should now have a new icon that you can double-click to immediately shutdown, restart, or lock your computer.

Change Shortcut Icon

The default icon is really ugly, and if you want to have separate shortcuts for each function you might want to change the icon. Right-click on the icon and choose properties.

Click the Change Icon button, and then you can pick from the available icons in the system, or you can use the Browse button to pick an icon you downloaded off the web.

Note that you can drag them to your quick launch bar if you’d prefer to have them there.

And so ends the tale of the shutdown icons…

Create a System Restore Point in Windows

When System Restore was introduced in back in Windows Me it has helped save some major computer snafus on several occasions.  The feature is still included in the new Windows 7 operating system and today we will take a look at how to create a new restore point.

Create a Restore Point

It is recommended that you create a restore point before installing new software or making any major changes to your computer.  Often times when you install new software you’re given the choice to create a point but if not                                                                                                    you can do one manually as well.

Right-click on My Computer and go to Properties.

Next click on the System Protection link.

The System Properties dialog screen opens up and you will want to click on Create.

 

Type in a description for the restore point which will help you remember the point at which is was created.

 

The time it takes to create the restore point will depend on the amount of data, computer speed etc.

All done!  Now if something goes wrong you have the satisfaction knowing that you can go back in time to the point before the changes were made.

Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Clear the Clipboard in Windows

Have you ever copied something to the clipboard that you don’t want to leave there in case somebody else is going to use your computer? Sure, you can copy something else to the clipboard real quick, but can’t you just make a shortcut or hotkey to clear it?

And of course you can, with the built-in clip.exe utility in Windows 7 or Vista. It’s not really meant for clearing the clipboard, but with a little command line magic in a shortcut, we can make it do just that.

Note: This is also useful if you copied a very large amount of data to the clipboard and you don’t want it wasting memory anymore.

Create a Shortcut Icon to Clear the Clipboard

Right-click on the desktop or elsewhere, and choose New \ Shortcut from the menu.

 

Then in the shortcut location box, enter the following command:

cmd /c “echo off | clip”

At this point you’ll have an icon that will immediately clear the clipboard… but we can tweak it a bit further.

Right-click on the icon and choose Properties, and then change the Run drop-down to “Minimized” to make sure you don’t see the command prompt. You can also assign a shortcut key here.

If you click the Change Icon button and then browse down to this file, you can find a clipboard icon:

%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll

Now we’ve got a nice-looking icon that will clear out the clipboard: