Book II Chapter 3 Maintaining Your System 157 Using System Restore and Restore Points 157 6. Click Close on the message, and then click the X button to close the System Properties dialog box. Your new restore point is ready for action. Rolling back to a restore point If you ever want to manually restore your computer to a previous state, follow these steps: 1. Save your work and then close all running programs. System Restore doesn’t muck with any data files, documents, pictures, or anything like that. It only works on system files. Your data is safe. But it can mess up settings, so if you recently installed a new program, for example, you may have to install it again. 2. Choose Start➪All Programs➪Accessories➪System Tools➪System Restore. Windows 7 recommends that you restore to a recent system-generated restore point, as shown in Figure 3-14. 3. If you’re willing to accept System Restore’s recommendation, click Next. But if you want to take a look around and see what options are available, select Choose a Different Restore Point and click Next. System Restore presents a list of recent available restore points, shown on the left in Figure 3-15. Figure 3-14: The rec- ommended restore point isn’t always the best restore point. 158 Scheduling the Task Scheduler 158 Figure 3-15: Pick a restore point — and see which programs will be affected. 4. Before you roll your PC back to a restore point, click it once and then click the Scan for Affected Programs button. System Restore tells you which programs and drivers have system entries (typically in the Registry) that will be altered and which pro- grams will be deleted if you select that specific restore point. Refer to the right side of Figure 3-15. 5. If you don’t see any major problems with the restore point — it doesn’t wipe out something you need — click Next. System Restore asks you to confirm your restore point. You’re also warned that rolling back to a restore point requires a restart of the com- puter, and that you should close all open programs before continuing. 6. Click Finish. True to its word, System Restore reverts to the selected restore point and restarts your computer. System Restore is a nifty feature that works very well. Scheduling the Task Scheduler Windows 7 has a built-in scheduler that runs just about any program according to any schedule you specify — daily, weekly, monthly, middle of the night, or on alternate blue moons. Book II Chapter 3 Maintaining Your System 159 Scheduling the Task Scheduler 159 The scheduler comes in handy in three very different situations, when you want to  ✦ Always do something at the same time of day every day, week, or month: Perhaps you always want to start Outlook at 6:15 every morning so that your machine is connected and your mail’s ready by the time you drag your sorry tail into your desk chair. Or maybe you want to run a PowerPoint presentation every morning at 7:30 so that your boss hears the telltale sounds as she walks by your cubicle. (And who said Dummies aren’t devious?)  ✦ Make sure that the computer performs some mundane maintenance job when it won’t interfere with your work time: Thus, you may sched- ule disk cleanups every weekday at 2:00 in the afternoon because you know you’ll always be propped up in the mop closet, taking a snooze.  ✦ Do something every time you log on or when your computer starts: You can even have the Task Scheduler send an e-mail message to your boss every time you log on. Interesting possibilities there. Any discussion of scheduled tasks immediately conjures up the old question “Should I leave my computer running all night, or should I turn it off?” The fact is that nobody knows which is better. You can find plenty of arguments on both sides of the fence, although Microsoft’s progress with Sleep mode has taken some wind out of the sails of those who insist that PCs need to be turned off. Suffice it to say that your computer has to be on (or sleeping) for a scheduled task to run, so you may have to leave your computer on at least one night a week (or a month) to get the maintenance work done. I go into more detail on the environmental consequences in Green Home Computing For Dummies, which I wrote with Katherine Murray (Wiley). You find absolutely no debate about one “should I leave it on” question, though. Everybody in the know agrees that running a full surface scan of your hard drive daily is a bad idea (specifically running Check Disk; see the “Running an error check” section, earlier in this chapter). A full scan simply inflicts too much wear and tear on the hard drive’s arms. It’s kind of like forcing yourself to fly every morning just to keep your shoulders in shape. One of the most important uses of the Task Scheduler is driving a Windows file cleanup program called, imaginatively, Disk Cleanup. Here’s how to get Disk Cleanup scheduled — and how to use the Task Scheduler in general. Starting with your parameters First, you need to set the Disk Cleanup parameters. Because Disk Cleanup can be run in many different ways, Windows 7 allows you to store many different sets of parameters, each set identified by a number. In this case, I (completely arbitrarily) call this set of parameters 9. Follow these steps to set your Disk Cleanup parameters: 160 Scheduling the Task Scheduler 160 1. Choose Start. Immediately type cleanmgr /sageset:9 in the Search box and press Enter. Be sure to put a space before the slash, but don’t type spaces anywhere else. This command runs Windows 7 Disk Cleanup, saving your settings as “number 9,” just like on The Beatles’ White Album. The Disk Cleanup Settings dialog box appears (see Figure 3-16). Figure 3-16: Make your Disk Cleanup choices here. 2. Select the check boxes that correspond to the types of files you want Windows 7 to delete. 3. Click OK. Windows doesn’t run a disk cleanup. It merely saves your Disk Cleanup settings, identifying them as “number 9.” Scheduling a task With Disk Cleanup configured properly, you can set it to run every night, by following these steps: 1. Choose Start➪All Programs➪Accessories➪System Tools➪Task Scheduler. The Task Scheduler appears, as shown in Figure 3-17. 2. On the right, select the Create Basic Task option. The Create Basic Task Wizard appears (see Figure 3-18). Book II Chapter 3 Maintaining Your System 161 Scheduling the Task Scheduler 161 Figure 3-17: In spite of its intimidating appearance, the Task Scheduler can help you schedule almost any repetitive task. 3. Type a name for the task, and then click the Next button. The wizard asks for a trigger — geek-speak for “Under what circum- stances do you want the scheduled task to run?” Figure 3-18: Give the scheduled task a descriptive name. 4. Choose Daily if you want the cleanup to run every day, and then click the Next button. 5. Set the time of day that you want the cleanup to run, and click Next. 162 Zipping and Compressing 162 6. Choose an action. In this case, select the Start a Program option, and then click Next. The Task Scheduler asks you for the program you want to run, clean- mgr.exe. 7. To run Windows 7 Disk Cleanup, click the Browse button, navigate to \Windows\System32\cleanmgr.exe, click the program once, and click the Open button. You can similarly run any other program with the Task Scheduler by click- ing the Browse button, navigating to the program, and clicking Open. 8. In the Add Arguments (Optional) box, type /sagerun:9 As you probably guessed, this step tells Windows 7 Disk Cleanup to use the “number 9” parameters. 9. Click Next, select the Open the Properties Dialog for This Task When I Click Finish check box, and then click the Finish button. The Task Scheduler Wizard adds your cleanup run to its list of active tasks. You can verify it by clicking the Refresh button at the bottom of the Task Scheduler window and then scrolling through the active tasks. 10. In the Task Properties box, select the Run Whether User Is Logged On or Not option, and then click OK. If prompted for a password, type it and click OK. You have to complete this final step in the Task Properties dialog box so that the cleanup can run whether you’re logged on or not. Zipping and Compressing Windows 7 supports two very different kinds of file compression. The distinction is confusing but important, so bear with me. File compression reduces the size of a file by cleverly taking out parts of the contents of the file that aren’t needed, storing only the minimum amount of information necessary to reconstitute the file — extract it — into its full, original form. A certain amount of overhead is involved because the computer has to take the time to squeeze extraneous information out of a file before stor- ing it, and then the computer takes more time to restore the file to its original state when someone needs the file. But compression can reduce file sizes enormously. A compressed file often takes up half its original space — even less, in many cases. How does compression work? That depends on the compression method you use. In one kind of compression, known as Huffman encoding, letters that Book II Chapter 3 Maintaining Your System 163 Zipping and Compressing 163 occur frequently in a file (say, the letter e in a word-processing document) are massaged so that they take up only a little bit of room in the file, whereas letters that occur less frequently (say, x) are allowed to occupy lots of space. Rather than allocate eight 1s and 0s for every letter in a document, for example, some letters may take up only two 1s and 0s and others could take up 15. The net result, overall, is a big reduction in file size. It’s complicated, and the mathematics involved get quite interesting. The two Windows 7 file compression techniques are as follows:  ✦ Files can be compressed and placed in a Compressed (zipped) Folder, with an icon to match.  ✦ Files, folders, or even entire drives can be compressed by using the built-in compression capabilities of the Windows 7 file system (NTFS). Here’s where things get complicated. NT File System (NTFS) compression is built into the file system: You can use it only on NTFS drives, and the compression doesn’t persist when you move (or copy) the file off the drive. Think of NTFS compression as a capability inherent to the hard drive itself. That isn’t really the case — Windows 7 does all the sleight-of-hand behind the scenes — but the concept can help you remember the limitations and quirks of NTFS compression. Although Microsoft would have you believe that Compressed (zipped) Folder compression is based on folders, it isn’t. A Compressed (zipped) Folder is really a file — not a folder — but it’s a special kind of file, called a Zip file. If you ever encountered Zip files on the Internet (they have a .zip filename extension and are frequently manipulated by using programs such as WinZip, www.winzip.com), you know exactly what I’m talking about. Zip files contain one or more compressed files, and they use the most common kind of compression found on the Internet. Think of Compressed (zipped) Folders as being Zip files, and if you have even a nodding acquaintance with Zips, you’ll immediately understand the limitations and quirks of Compressed (zipped) Folders. Microsoft calls them Folders because that’s supposed to be easier for users to understand. You be the judge. If you have Windows show you filename extensions — see my rant about that topic in the section on showing filename extensions in Book II, Chapter 1 — you see immediately that Compressed (zipped) Folders are, in fact, simple Zip files. Table 3-2 shows a quick comparison of NTFS compression and Zip compression. 164 Zipping and Compressing 164 Table 3-2 NTFS Compression versus Compressed (Zipped) Folders Compression NTFS Zip Think of NTFS compression as a feature of the hard drive itself. Zip technology works on any file, regardless of where it is stored. The minute you move an NTFS- compressed file off an NTFS drive — by, say, sending a file as an e-mail attachment — the file is uncompressed, automatically, and you can’t do anything about it: You’ll send a big, uncom- pressed file. You can move a Compressed (zipped) Folder (it’s a Zip file, with a .zip filename exten- sion) anywhere, and it stays compressed. If you send a Zip file as an e-mail attachment, it goes over the ether as a compressed file. The person who receives the file can view it directly in Windows 7, or he can use a prod- uct such as WinZip to see it. A lot of overhead is associated with NTFS compression: Windows has to compress and decompress those files on the fly, and that sucks up processing power. Very little overhead is associated with Zip files. Many programs (for example, antivirus programs) read Zip files directly. NTFS compression is helpful if you’re running out of room on an NTFS- formatted drive. Compressed (zipped) Folders (that is to say, Zip files) are in a near-universal form that can be used just about anywhere. You have to be using an admin- istrator account to use NTFS compression. You can create, copy, or move Zip files just like any other files, with the same security restrictions. You can use NTFS compression on entire drives, folders, or single files. They cannot be password protected. You can zip files or folders, or (rarely) drives, and they can be password protected. If you try to compress the drive that contains your Windows folder, you can’t compress the files that are in use by Windows. Compressing with NTFS To use NTFS compression on an entire drive, follow these steps: 1. Make sure that you’re using an administrator account (see Book II, Chapter 2). 2. Choose Start➪Computer and right-click the drive you want to com- press. Choose Properties and then click the General tab. Book II Chapter 3 Maintaining Your System 165 Zipping and Compressing 165 3. Select the Compress This Drive to Save Disk Space check box. Then click the OK button. Windows asks you to confirm that you want to compress the entire drive. Windows takes some time to compress the drive — in some cases, the estimated time is measured in days. Good luck. To use NTFS compression on a folder or single file, follow these steps: 1. Make sure that you’re using a full-fledged administrator account (see Book II, Chapter 2). 2. Navigate to the folder or file you want to compress (for example, choose Start➪Documents or Start➪Computer). Right-click the file or folder you want to compress. Choose Properties and click the Advanced button on the General tab. The Advanced Properties dialog box appears. 3. Select the Compress Contents to Save Disk Space check box, and then click the OK button. To uncompress a file or folder, reopen the Advanced Properties dialog box (right-click the file or folder, choose Properties, and then click the Advanced button) and deselect the Compress Contents to Save Disk Space check box. Zipping the easy way with Compressed (zipped) Folders The easiest way to create a Zip file, er, a Compressed (zipped) Folder is with a simple right-click. Here’s how: 1. Navigate to the files you want to zip. (For example, choose Start➪Documents or Start➪Computer and go from there.) 2. Select the file or files that you want to zip together. (You can Ctrl+click to select individual files or Shift+click to select a bunch.) Right-click any of the selected files and choose Send To➪Compressed (Zipped) Folder. Windows responds by creating a new Zip file, with a .zip filename extension, and placing the selected files in the new Zip folder. The new file is just like any other file — you can rename it, copy it, move it, delete it, send it as an e-mail attachment, save it on the Internet, or do anything else to it that you can do to a file. (That’s because it is a file.) 3. To add another file to your Compressed (zipped) Folder, simply drag it onto the zipped folder icon. 166 Using the Windows 7 Resource Monitor and Reliability Monitor 166 4. To copy a file from your Zip file (uh, folder), double-click the zipped folder icon and treat the file the same way you would treat any “regular” file. 5. To copy all files out of your Zip file (folder), click the Extract All Files button on the command bar. You see the Windows 7 Compressed (Zipped) Folders Extraction Wizard, which guides you through the steps. The Compressed (Zipped) Folders Extraction Wizard places all copied files into a new folder with the same name as the Zip file — which confuses the living bewilickers out of everybody. Unless you give the extracted folder a different name from the original Compressed (zipped) Folder, you end up with two folders with precisely the same name sitting on your desktop. Do yourself a huge favor and feed the wizard a different folder name while you’re extracting the files. Using the Windows 7 Resource Monitor and Reliability Monitor Ever want to look under the hood? The Windows 7 Resource Monitor lets you peek into the inner workings of the beast, with graphs and statistics galore. If you’re having trouble with a program taking over your computer, or if you’re curious to see how much of its memory is being used, the Resource Monitor knows all, sees all, tells all. To peruse the internal behavior of your system, follow these steps: 1. Choose Start➪All Programs➪Accessories➪System Tools➪Resource Monitor. They buried it deep, eh? To get there quickly, click Start, type resmon, and hit Enter. The Windows 7 Resource Monitor appears, in its Overview state (see Figure 3-19). 2. To keep a watch on which programs are hogging the CPU, click the Average CPU column heading. That column presents a 60-second running average of CPU utilization. The hogs float to the top. If a program has stopped responding, right-click it here and choose Analyze Process. You may be able to glean some worthwhile information that helps you whack the program upside the head. [...]... uninstaller, you’re at the mercy of the uninstaller and the programmers who wrote it Windows doesn’t even enter into the picture Book II Chapter 3 Maintaining Your System Windows 7 itself doesn’t do much in the Uninstall or Change a Program dialog box Windows 7 primarily acts as a gathering point: Well-behaved programs, when they’re installed, are supposed to stick their uninstallers where the Uninstall... find the controls for adjusting the Windows 7 outbound firewall anywhere in the long Control Panel list If you want to change a Windows setting, by all means try the Control Panel, but don’t be discouraged if you can’t find what you’re looking for Instead, look in this book’s table of contents or index Maintaining Your System Book II Chapter 3 170 Controlling the Control Panel Removing and changing... choose all the files you’re going to burn and then burn them all at once Windows 7 performs a kind of preprocessing step to convert all the files to the ISO format and then writes all the files continuously onto the disc ✦ Live File System formatting (sometimes called, confusingly, File System or UDF), the new version, is a good choice for discs that are used in computers running Windows XP, Windows. .. system Click the one that’s the most likely source of your problems, and then click the Remove button If you’re allowed to uninstall the patch, Windows 7 does it for you Chapter 4: Getting the Basic Stuff Done In This Chapter ✓ Burning CDs and DVDs ✓ Using Windows Experience Index to beef up your machine ✓ Word processing, calculating, painting, and more ✓ Sticking sticky notes ✓ Lots of boring stuff that... Uninstall or Change a Program dialog box to obliterate the Office speech recognition capabilities That’s the kind of large-scale capability I’m talking about Yes, it’s true If you want to install a big chunk of a program, you have to click the Uninstall a Program link in the Control Panel The terminology stinks Windows 7 really should say something like “Bring up a program’s installer or uninstaller.”... out the components of the Windows 7 mighty security arsenal, including Windows Firewall (at least, the inbound part of Windows Firewall; see Book VI, Chapter 3) , Windows Defender (Book VI, Chapter 5), and the efficacy of your antivirus software This is also the place to make changes to the Internet Explorer security settings (Book V, Chapter 3) Unfortunately, this category also includes all the tools... more files into the holding area than can fit on the disc you’re burning, or if you select more data than will fit on the disc and click Burn, Windows 7 doesn’t warn you (see Step 7, when Windows 7 finally gets smart) 6 In the Mastered/ISO burn window, click the Burn to Disc button Windows 7 opens the first window in the Mastered/ISO disc burning wizard, filled in with the title you typed in Step 4... cool Windows 7 support for burning CDs and DVDs, and what you can (and can’t!) do to improve your performance rating, er, experience index You know Stuff Burning CDs and DVDs Windows 7 includes simple, one- click (or two- or three-click) support for burning CDs or DVDs — burning, or writing, is the process of putting stuff on a CD or DVD You can burn music, video, recorded TV shows, photos, and all kinds... Video Disc Using Windows DVD Maker.) 2 Click the Burn Files to Disc Using Windows option Windows 7 responds with the Burn a Disc dialog box (refer to Figure 4-2) 3 Choose Like a USB Flash Drive/Live File System (UDF) formatting Use the guidelines in the section “Mastered or Live File System?” earlier in this chapter If you know that the CD or DVD will be used only in Windows XP or Windows 7 computers,... bring the total memory up to 3GB I installed Windows 7 on the same machine and ran the WEI again, with the results shown earlier in this chapter (refer to Figure 4-9) Note how my hard drive score went from a 5.6 under Vista to a 3. 0 under Windows 7 Same hard drive No changes If it weren’t for the totally bogus hard disk score of 3. 0, my souped-up $295 Pavilion would rate an impressive 5 .3 in the Windows . you’re allowed to uninstall the patch, Windows 7 does it for you. Contents Chapter 3: Maintaining Your System 133 Coping with Start-Up Problems 133 Working with Backups 138 Maintaining Drives. Check out the components of the Windows 7 mighty security arsenal, includ- ing Windows Firewall (at least, the inbound part of Windows Firewall; see Book VI, Chapter 3) , Windows Defender (Book. of the unin- staller and the programmers who wrote it. Windows doesn’t even enter into the picture. 172 Controlling the Control Panel 172 Removing Windows patches If you install a Windows patch