Windows 7 Tips #3

Welcome to the third edition of my sporadic Windows 7 tips …

This one covers backups and some more stuff to make life simpler.

One of the ways I’ve read over the years that folks should backup their system is by ‘imaging’ it. Why, well in short it allows you to setup your system the way you want and then you can take an exact ‘bit by bit’ replica of it and store elsewhere.

It’s been this store elsewhere that has caused problems over the years. But with Win7 you get a clean and elegant process. As with previous versions the backup icon is in your Control Panel. Once there click the “Create a System Image” in the top left corner and then Windows runs off and identifies where it can backup too (see image).

After selecting your appropriate image destination (I recommend not using a had disk built into your system) simply click next and follow the prompts. Note the hyperlink that takes you to a help page that tells you how to restore your image.

- Talking of images, did you know that Win7 is the first Microsoft O/S that allows you to burn ISO’s direct instead of having to use a third party application? Simply double click the ISO in question, pick the drive with your blank CD / DVD and burn. However, I still by far prefer to use ImgBurn.

-  To round up this set of tips here’s one for any who have ever struggled to work out what key combination works with external screens / projectors. Well fret no more as Win7 provides a ‘standard’ (I hesitate to call it this) way to access them. Simply press “Win+P” and all is revealed. There’s also a command line of “displayswitch.exe” that will do the same job.