Posts Tagged ‘add’
How to add games to the game index of Windows 7
The Windows 7 games index, which is accessible through Games in the main menu, usually imports all game executables that are installed on your system. But if it fails to recognize a game, it can be difficult to figure to figure out how to add it afterwards.
The trick to add items is to look for the executable of it, which is located in the folder you installed it in, and to just drag and drop it in the Games window. To hide it again, just right-click it and select the appropriate option.
Add own Windows logo in system properties
The system properties Window in Windows 7 has space for two Windows logos – one is the Windows logo that is shown by default on most systems and one is for manufacturers (computers by Dell and others will have their logo placed there). This manufacturer logo can be changed to an own picture using the registry.
- To start, edit the picture you want to use as logo. It has to be 120×120 pixel large and a bitmap file (.bmp, color range is up to you).
- Save the file into any directory now, I will choose C:\Windows\System32 for that but it can be any other. Name it oemlogo.bmp
- Open the registry by entering regedit into a Run… prompt. On the left column, navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OEMInformation key.
- On the right column, if there is no value called Logo, create it by right-clicking the empty space and choosing New > String Value.
- Assign the full path of the picture to the Logo value (C:\Windows\System32\oemlogo.bmp).
- Close the registry and open the system properties window to view your beautiful new logo:
Add language packs on Windows 8
Before Windows 8, language packs other than the one your Windows shipped with were reserved for users of the more expensive versions. This however will change in future as one can read on the msdn blog and see on the Windows 8 consumer preview.
Up to now the number of language packs is limited to a few languages but according to the large number of listed languages in the menu, there are much more to follow in the final release.
To add a language pack, open the Charms menu by pointing to the top or bottom right corner of the screen and click on Settings. Afterwards open the Control Panel from the menu and select Add a language from the Clock, Language, and Region menu. There, click on Add a language in the menu bar:
From the next screen, choose one of the many language tiles listed alphabetically and click on add (as mentioned before, not all of them are already installable). If the language pack for the language you chose is available you can double click the new entry in the menu to open its Options window. Click on Download and install language pack to get started.
After the installation, log out and in again to use the installed language. You can always switch between languages in the same menu.
Add Right-Click Menu to Open Any Folder on Windows
The context menu you gain by right-clicking the desktop is a powerful tool to open any kind of data and program. If you have a folder that you need to access regularly it might be a clever idea to simply pin it to that right-click menu to shorten the access time.
To achieve that you need to add a few keys to the registry. Open it by typing regedit into a run prompt which you get by hitting Windows key + R. In the registry, navigate to the Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\background\shell key and right-click it to create a new key (New > Key). Give it the name of the command that shall later appear in the menu (Custom Folder in the example above). Afterwards right-click the created key and create another one called command. Left click the command key and change the (Default) value by double-clicking it. It has to be something like
explorer.exe C:\Users\howtoforge\Pictures
Replace the path I used with the one to your folder (embrace it in double-quotes if it contains spaces) and put the explorer.exe in front of it, so the system knows which program to use to open the command.