{"id":1522,"date":"2012-01-13T07:21:39","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T07:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.obieta.com\/?p=1522"},"modified":"2012-01-13T07:21:39","modified_gmt":"2012-01-13T07:21:39","slug":"top-5-most-common-windows-7-problems-and-how-to-fix-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/?p=1522","title":{"rendered":"Top 5 Most Common Windows 7 Problems and How to Fix Them"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. Windows 7 Seems Slow<\/h2>\n

Windows 7 is hungry for resources. It features many visual effects that draw heavy on your graphics card and system memory. If your system was slow out of the box, chances are you can easily fix that by turning off superfluous effects.<\/p>\n

Go to >\u00a0Start<\/em> and type \u2018performance<\/em>\u2018 in the search field. Select > \u2018Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows<\/em>\u2018 from the results. The >\u00a0Performance Options<\/em> window will open. Under >\u00a0Visual Effects<\/em> select >\u00a0Adjust for best performance<\/em>. If you would like to retain a nice interface, select >\u00a0Custom<\/em> and check > \u2018Use visual styles on windows and buttons<\/em>\u2018.<\/p>\n

\"windows<\/p>\n

2. Windows Aero Not Working<\/h2>\n

I recently wrote an article on\u00a0How To Enable & Troubleshoot Aero Effects In Windows 7<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In addition to this article, you should make sure that your graphics card supports Aero and that graphics driver is up to date. However, if your computer came with Windows 7 this should not be an issue.<\/p>\n

Finally, Aero could be disabled in your registry. Before I proceed to explain how to check and edit your registry, I must warn you!\u00a0Editing the registry can cause permanent damage to your Windows installation<\/strong>. Please\u00a0backup your registry<\/a> and know what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

Go to >\u00a0Start<\/em> and type > \u2018regedit<\/em>\u2018 into the >\u00a0search option<\/em>. Launch regedit and browse to >KEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsDWM<\/em>. The value of the entry > \u2018EnableAeroPeek<\/em>\u2018 should be set to 1, rather than 0.<\/p>\n

\"windows<\/p>\n

3. Older Programs Not Compatible<\/h2>\n

Before upgrading to Windows 7, it is advisable to check which of your programs will be compatible. The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor checks the most common programs. However, as I have outlined in my article\u00a0How To Use Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor To Check PC Compatibility<\/a>, you may have to do a manual check at the\u00a0Windows 7 Compatibility Center<\/a> for many other programs. Now, if you have already upgraded and if it turns out that a dear program of yours is not compatible, there is a way out: Windows 7 Compatibility Mode.<\/p>\n

To install a program in Compatibility Mode, right-click its >\u00a0installation file<\/em> and select >Properties<\/em>. In its >\u00a0Properties<\/em> windows switch to the >\u00a0Compatibility<\/em> tab, check > \u2018Run this program in compatibility mode for:<\/em>\u2018 and from the >\u00a0pull-down menu<\/em> choose the latest version of Windows of which you know that the program was running on.<\/p>\n

\"problems<\/p>\n

You may have to repeat this step with the program itself once it is installed. Right-click the >program icon<\/em>, select >\u00a0Properties<\/em>, switch to >\u00a0Compatibility<\/em> tab, check > \u2018Run this program in compatibility mode for:<\/em>\u2018, and choose the respective Windows operating system.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, you can change the settings for the respective program and you should explore these, depending on the issue you\u2019re facing.<\/p>\n

\"problems<\/p>\n

Finally, if you went with Windows 7 Professional or up, you can use Windows 7\u2032s XP Mode. It runs Windows XP as a virtual machine and you can install all programs that worked on Windows XP in this environment. Ars Technica has a very decent article on\u00a0Windows 7\u2032s XP Mode<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4. DVD Drive Not Found<\/h2>\n

Windows 7 can not find your optical drive? This is another issue that involves editing the registry. The warning from point 2 applies!<\/p>\n

Click >\u00a0Start<\/em>, search for > \u2018regedit<\/em>\u2018 and launch it from the >\u00a0results<\/em>. Navigate to > \u2018HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlClass<\/em>\u2018. In the >\u00a0right-hand panel<\/em> delete > \u2018UpperFilters<\/em>\u2018 and > \u2018LowerFilters<\/em>\u2018, restart Windows and see if the problem was resolved.<\/p>\n

If not, click >\u00a0Start<\/em>, type >\u00a0Disk Management<\/em>, and select > \u2018Create and format hard disk partitions<\/em>\u2018. In the >\u00a0Disk Management<\/em> window right-click on the >\u00a0optical drive icon<\/em> and select \u2018Change Drive Letter and Paths<\/em>\u2018. In the >\u00a0Change Drive Letter and Paths<\/em> window click the >Change\u2026<\/em> button and choose a new drive letter. Restart Windows and hope the issue was fixed.<\/p>\n

5. New Themes Change Custom Icons<\/h2>\n

So you switched themes and found that some of your custom icons where changed? That\u2019s quite annoying, but it\u2019s easy to prevent. Right-click >\u00a0desktop<\/em>, select >\u00a0Personalize<\/em>, in the control panel windows that opens switch to >\u00a0Change Desktop Icons<\/em>, and in the >\u00a0Desktop Icon Settings<\/em> window uncheck > \u2018Allow themes to change desktop icons<\/em>\u2018.<\/p>\n

\"problems<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. Windows 7 Seems Slow Windows 7 is hungry for resources. It features many visual effects that draw heavy on your graphics card and system memory. If your system was slow out of the box, chances are you can easily fix that by turning off superfluous effects. Go to >\u00a0Start and type \u2018performance\u2018 in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1522"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}