This is the second post in what I see as being a long running series on Windows 7 tips and hints and ones that I hope prove useful to you or your users.

• One of the beauties of XP was that you could do a “clean install” using upgrade media. This wasn’t meant as a means to cirumvent paying full price but to deal with the need to occasionally wipe clean and do a fresh install of XP. Well now that facility is also available for Windows 7. However, rather than repeat the article I’ll simply point you at Paul Thurrot’s fabulous site.

• Second in today’s tips is a link to my friend Lee’s site where he has an article on How to configure Windows 7 firewall. Personally I still disable the MS firewall and use a third party addin such as Comodo or Tall Emu – see my post from yesterday about my top 5 free security tools).

• How about some keyboard shortcuts? You’ve probably seen the “I created Windows 7″ adverts where folks claim credit for Windows 7 and then show you a tip. Well one of them shows the user “drag n dock“ing two windows to fill up half the screen… instead, try this:
  • Win+Left Arrow and Win+Right Arrow dock the window to the left and right side of the screen – note if you have a dual monitor setup then this docks to the left of the left screen and the right of the right hand screen. Simply drag whichever window to the other monitor and you’ll have the two docked side by side.

• And finally, some more keyboard shortcuts.
  • Win+Up Arrow and Win+Down Arrow maximize and restore/minimize
  • Win+M minimizes everything
  • Alt+Up, Alt+Left Arrow, Alt+Right Arrow navigate to parent folder, or browse Back and Forward through folders in Explorer
  • Win+Home minimizes/restores all open windows except the active window
  • Alt+Win+# accesses the Jump List of program number ‘#’ on the taskbar