Anyone still running Windows 7?

Eric Hughes522 said:Full disclosure here—I don't actually know what a backup is.

It wouldn't be such a huge deal if Windows 7 wasn't doing its own thing by default,
running a backup once a week or whenever it feels like it and saving some sort of image file to my D: drive. I've got about 20-30 gigs of this stuff piling up now.

Could someone please explain in plain English what a backup is, how often I'm supposed to run it, and what I'm even meant to do with it?

😕😕😕

Basically, a backup is just a safety copy of your hard drive. To put it simply, the computer takes a snapshot of your current system, files, and programs and saves them to a different partition. Why bother? Well, if things go south—like if Windows crashes—you can use a Windows installation disc to restore everything back to normal using that backup.
You can turn it off or tweak the schedule whenever you want. (Control Panel - Backup and Restore)

>>To set up automatic backups
If you've never used Windows Backup before, the Windows Backup wizard automatically creates a schedule for you, which you can change.

Click to open Backup and Restore.

Click set up backup, and then follow the steps in the wizard. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

To change automatic backups
Click to open Backup and Restore.

Click Change settings. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.<<<<<

So, if I’m getting this right, creating a backup basically just means taking everything on my C: drive and dumping it onto my D: drive. If some nasty virus decides to wreck my system, I can just use that backup to roll everything back to how it was before the chaos. My laptop came with a 64-bit version pre-installed, but I ended up with this Windows 7 recovery disc that’s actually 32-bit. Hypothetically, if things go south
and I try to run that installation disc, what happens then?
Also, could someone walk me through the actual process—how do I turn that backup image into an actual working system?
And one more thing: does a System Restore point have anything to do with what we're talking about here, or am I totally off base?

Eric Hughes522 said:If I'm getting this right, a backup basically just saves my C drive onto my D drive. So if some virus wrecks my PC, I can roll everything back to how it was. My laptop came with the 64-bit version, but I got a Windows 7 recovery disc that's 32-bit. Hypothetically, if things go south
and I pop in an installation CD, what happens then?
Could you explain a bit more about how I actually turn that backup image into something useful?
And does a System Restore point have anything to do with what we're talking about?

Pretty much—you grab the C partition and stash it on D. A System Restore point is a different thing entirely.

If you type "Backup and Restore" into the Windows Help search, it pretty much walks you through the whole process.

If you can't access Control Panel, you can restore your computer using a Windows installation disc or a system repair disc (if you have one).

1) Insert the installation disc or system repair disc.

2) Restart your computer using the computer's power button.

3) If prompted, press any key to start the computer from the installation disc or system repair disc.

If your computer is not configured to start from a CD or DVD, check the information that came with your computer. You might need to change your computer's BIOS settings. For information about which settings to change, check your computer manufacturer's website. For more information about BIOS, see BIOS: frequently asked questions.

4) Choose your language settings, and then click Next.

5) Click Repair your computer.

This step only applies if you are using a Windows installation disc.

6) Select a recovery option, and then click Next.

🙂It looks something like this:

http://www.petri.co.il/restore-windo...ckup-image.htm

Here's another visual guide on using "Backup and Restore," maybe it helps.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/1838/...-in-windows-7/

Thanks

How to speed up Windows 7

🤦What they forgot to mention right off the bat: just install Windows XP!

Kevin Nelson said:I have a quick question...

Using WMP on Windows 10, and lately it's been refusing to load certain songs... basically everything I've downloaded since a specific point in time. It's weird because sometimes they *do* show up (though not all of them), but then they just vanish again later. 🤷

Does anyone know what might be causing this?

It's driving me a little crazy.

driftingnomad68 said:🤦 They missed one crucial step: just stick with Windows XP!

They also forgot to mention disabling the thumbnail preview.

Man, looking back at this search issue—I actually wrote about this a while ago. I’ve never been able to get this working smoothly.
I tried turning off indexing and switching over to Google search (which doesn't really cut it for me either), but without indexing, it's not just slow—it finds absolutely nothing. It's a lose-lose situation.

I have no idea what the default indexing settings are supposed to be, so maybe I'll try tinkering with them again to see if that fixes anything...

Honestly, the search options on Windows XP were way better. I can't make heads or tails of this current setup. (I initially added extra directories and drives to the index beyond the defaults, because it wouldn't find anything on those disks otherwise. But once I did that, it just indexed constantly and hogged my CPU. So, I disabled all Windows indexing entirely and installed Google search, though even that isn't quite hitting the mark.)

Turn off that default indexing on your system partition and just set it to index your own personal files instead. Honestly, that’s what I recommend—you don't want that index getting bloated and sluggish. It works perfectly for me on my Windows 7 machine; everything I actually need, whether it's a song, a photo, or whatever else, I can pull up from the Start menu in a heartbeat. The search is incredibly fast when you keep it lean like that.

Anonymous said:speeding up Windows 7

http://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/how-to-speed-up-windows-7

I don't need to disable any of this stuff when I'm running on 2GB of Ram. Aside from that annoying UAC, I'd much rather people just buy more Ram instead of constantly churning out these useless tutorials. 😛

Taylor Morales31 said:Just turn off the default indexing for the system partition and set it up to only index your own files—it’s actually better that way so the index doesn't get bloated. It works great for me on Windows 7; everything I need, whether it's a song or a photo, I find instantly through the Start menu. It's super fast.

Yeah, I get what you mean, so I'll give that a shot.

My whole philosophy regarding searching is usually about hunting down something I've misplaced, forgotten where I saved it, or accidentally dumped in the wrong spot. And if that specific spot isn't indexed—well, then you're out of luck; it'll never show up.
I don't even know why my iTunes Library is in the index database when I have all my music neatly organized in folders, much like how I have things in my Documents folder, my Videos folder, and so on.

The real issue is when I need to dig through an old hard drive from a previous computer—which I basically use as a backup now—to find some ancient document I forgot to move over to my primary Documents folder. In those cases, this whole indexing thing is useless.

Because of that, I'm pretty frustrated with this search tool. On Windows XP, it actually worked quite well, and the search options felt more intuitive and easier to navigate.
Everything else feels better on Windows 7, though.

I honestly don't understand why there isn't a simple way to index by file type—like being able to search specifically for .doc, .pdf, or .cdr files across all folders, including .exe and .rar files... 😕

Also, I agree that 2 GB of Ram is plenty for most needs. I'm still running with 128 MB less than that due to integrated graphics. I only hit my limit when I have five or six programs open at once, along with over 20 tabs loaded up with Flash and videos in Chrome. But that's an extreme case.
If programs become even more resource-heavy in a year or two, I can easily just pop in another 2 GB of Ram.

Kevin Nelson said:I have a quick question...

Windows Media Player on Windows 7 isn't loading certain songs for me lately, specifically everything I've downloaded since a certain point. Sometimes they show up, though even then it's inconsistent, and then they just vanish again. 🤷

Honestly, you shouldn't be using Windows Media Player 12 for your music if you want to avoid headaches,😂 because there are much more capable programs out there, like Jaangle for instance. Once you install it and start importing your tracks through Collections, things just work, and you'll find that once you get used to it, you won't ever want to touch Windows Media Player again.😁😉

http://www.jaangle.com/

http://i44.tinypic.com/8vurrd.jpg

Andrew Miller102 said:Don't bother using Windows Media Player 12 for your music—you're doing yourself a disservice,😂 because there are plenty of much better and more capable programs out there, like Jaangle for example. Just install it, toss your music into the Collections, and you'll be good to go. Once you get the hang of it, you'll realize that once you start listening through this program, you won't want to touch Windows Media Player ever again.😁 😉

http://www.jaangle.com/

http://i44.tinypic.com/8vurrd.jpg

👍

I used to use MediaMonkey... but once I moved over to Windows 7, I just stuck with Windows Media Player...

So, I just installed this one... it's actually a pretty interesting little program. 👍

I just need a bit of time to figure my way around it. 😁 ☕

That’s awesome! 👍 🙏 😁

It’s really not worth worrying about FooBar 😁

I’ve run into a bit of an issue here on Windows 7

Whenever I try to create a new folder by clicking the "New Folder" button on the toolbar, nothing happens—it just doesn't react at all.

The same thing occurs when I attempt to use the right-click menu; strangely enough, the option to create a new folder isn't even listed among the available choices.

I have already attempted to adjust the folder options and view settings to ensure everything necessary is enabled, but to no avail.

Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this?

It’s probably just some junk stuck in your registry—honestly, it happens all the time. Grab this: http://cid-be2a687d297ce921.skydrive.../folderfix.zip

Just unzip the file and run it—it'll force the correct keys back into the registry... should fix everything right up.

Benjamin King2 said:It’s likely an issue within the registry. Try downloading this: http://cid-be2a687d297ce921.skydrive.../folderfix.zip

Just extract the file from the zip and run it; it should write the correct keys into the registry... that ought to fix it.

Thanks!👍

dustypanther12 said:I am not entirely certain if this is the appropriate venue for my inquiry... I am running Windows 7 and I attempted to install PhotoScape, just as I had done on my previous versions of Windows, yet the software refuses to open a single photograph. Does anyone happen to know why this might be occurring? THANK YOU

Try right-clicking the application and navigating to Properties; from there, examine the Compatibility mode settings to see what is currently selected. If it is set to Windows 7, try switching it to Windows XP, and conversely, if it is set to Windows XP, attempt setting it to Windows 7.

What exactly is Windows search filter Host? Every few days, it just pops up in my process list and starts eating up an entire CPU core—hitting 95% or higher. I have no clue what it’s actually doing or why it triggers out of nowhere. What's its purpose? Should I just kill the process when it starts acting up? It usually happens while I'm either sitting idle or just browsing the web.