Darkoshi

After downloading photos I've taken with my digital camera to my computer, I generally edit the photos (crop/brighten/etc.) and rename them so that the file-name includes the date the photo was taken, as well as some descriptive text of the content of the image.

Before editing the photos, I've been in the habit of opening a command prompt and doing a directory listing of the photo files. The directory listing shows the original file-names along with the dates the photos were taken (the dates the files were last modified). This way, when I edit the photos in my image editor and save them (thereby changing the files' last-modified attribute), I can still see when the photo was taken, when renaming the files, based on the dates shown in the open command prompt window. Keeping a Windows Explorer window open on the directory does not offer the same functionality, because Explorer automatically refreshes the dates when the files are re-saved... Ah. I see now that when you choose to display the folder with the "Contents" view in Explorer, then it shows the dates the photos were taken (the file creation date, I presume), which is what I need.

But still, the reason for my bewilderment....
Here I am, using Windows 7. Yesterday, I downloaded photos from my camera to the computer, and today I edited a few of them. In the Explorer window, using the "Details" view, it shows the files' last-modified dates correctly. For the photos I already edited, it shows today's date. For the rest, it shows the dates I took the photos.

But when I do a directory listing of the same folder from a command prompt, it shows yesterday's date for the photos I did not edit yet. That is the date I downloaded them from the camera, not the date they were created or last modified! Then I tried using the "/tw", "/tc", and "/ta" options which are supposed to control which date is displayed (last written/modified, created, or last-accessed), but for all options, the listing still only includes yesterday's and today's date! There doesn't seem to be way of seeing the file's actual last-modified date from the command prompt window in Windows 7!

Oh, good golly, even worse....
Even in Windows Explorer, when you right-click an unedited photo file and view its properties, the created, modified, and accessed dates all show the date the photo was downloaded from the camera!

Maybe there's a Windows setting somewhere that lets you control whether a file's original dates are kept when it is copied from external media, versus the dates being updated to the time of copy? This never was a problem when using XP, and it doesn't make sense to me why the date functionality would have been changed.

When I copied my files from an external hard-drive to this computer, the files' last-modified date wasn't changed. That was after I had installed Windows 7. So why it is working differently when I'm copying files from my camera, than when I copied files from the external HD?

If you hover the cursor over the top edge of a window so that it changes to the up-down pointer, and then double-click, it resizes the window to the maximum height while not changing the width. This can be handy.

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I dislike that when you drag a window to the top edge of the screen, it is automatically maximized ("aero snap" feature). But I like the half-width maximization that you can get by dragging a window to the side edges of the screen; this makes it easy to tile 2 windows side by side, when you need to see both at the same time. Therefore, I won't disable this feature. This page shows how one could disable it.

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Deleting the "Extended" string value under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd in the registry causes an "Open Command Window Prompt Here" to display in the context menu in Explorer when clicking a folder. The Extended part makes the context menu only show up when you shift-right-click (that was working, but I don't want to have to press shift to get it).

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The default height of the Start Menu is less than the screen height; therefore you may need to use the vertical scroll bar to scroll through the All Programs list.
To make the Start Menu taller, you can do this:
- Open the Start Menu Properties window
- Select the "Store and display recently opened programs in the Start Menu" checkbox (don't worry; it can be unselected again at the end)
- Click "Customize" and set "Number of recent programs to display" to a large number such as 30.
- Click OK and again OK.
- The Start Menu will be taller.
- Now you can go back and unselect the "Store and display recently opened programs in the Start Menu" checkbox. That will cause the Customize window to display zero in the "Number of recent programs to display" field, but the Start Menu will remain the taller size.

(This is also mentioned here).

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To disable animations...
System Properties - Advanced (tab) - Performance (section) .. Settings (button) ... Visual Effects (tab)
- Select the "Custom" radio button and then unselect any of the following:
"Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing" and
"Animations in the taskbar and Start Menu".
"Fade or slide menus into view"

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The following registry change can be done to prevent (delay) the mini-windows from popping up when the mouse hovers over the taskbar.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced
- Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value named ExtendedUIHoverTime
- Double-click ExtendedUIHoverTime and click Decimal
- To increase the hover delay to 5 seconds, type 5000. Type 10000 for 10 seconds and so forth…
- The change may not take effect until after rebooting.

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To get the QuickLaunch toolbar to work like it did in XP...

For all the icons on the taskbar, right-click and select "Unpin...." to remove them, and do the following to instead create Quicklaunch icons.

1. Right click on a empty space on the taskbar and click on New Tool.
2. In the Folder line, type or copy:
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
3. Click on the Select Folder button.
4. You now have a Quick Launch toolbar on the taskbar.
NOTE: Click on the arrow to see your Quick Launch shortcuts.

6. To Remove Quick Launch Toolbar Icon Text or Title -
A) Unlock the taskbar.
B) Right click on the Quick Launch toolbar title name, then uncheck the Show Text and Show Title by clicking on them. (See screenshot below step 5B)
C) Lock the taskbar.

8. To Have Quick Launch Toolbar on Left Side of Taskbar -
A) Unlock the taskbar.
B) Left click on the dotted lines of the pinned taskbar programs of the left side and hold, then drag it to the right past the Quick Launch toolbar and release.
C) The Quick Launch toolbar is now on the left side of the taskbar.
D) Left click on the dotted lines of these and hold and drag them to make any adjustments to how you want them place on the taskbar.
E) Lock the taskbar.

Then save your desktop theme - the page says you need to do that.

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I like that with Window 7, you can use drag and drop to rearrange the open programs/buttons on the taskbar. But you can't separate different instances of the same program - they are all grouped next to each other, even if they were started at different times, after other programs were started. You can only drag and drop the whole group.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Change-how-buttons-appear-on-the-taskbar
"You might notice that multiple buttons representing the same program remain grouped together on the taskbar, whether you've chosen to display the expanded button labels or not. In previous versions of Windows, windows appeared on the taskbar in the order you opened them, but in Windows 7, related windows always appear next to each other. "

It makes sense that some people would like that functionality, but I prefer to have them shown in the order I opened them, not always next to each other, and to be able to drag and drop individual instances of a program.

There's a program "Taskbar Tweaker" at the bottom of this page that lets you do this. In the program, select the "Don't group" option. The settings also include an option for running the program at startup.

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KatMouse is a nice little utility which lets your mouse scroll the window which is under it, even when that window does not have the focus. This is especially useful for Windows Explorer, as you can click in the left pane to open a folder, and then scroll the right pane without first having to click there to give it focus.

WizMouse is another utility similar to KatMouse. It apparently includes functionality for horizontal scrolling (of non-focus windows?), but that part does not work for me. It also does not work for scrolling non-focus windows when the Task Manager has focus; therefore I prefer KatMouse.

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I've been having a problem with "TrustedInstaller.exe" ("Windows Modules Installer") causing continuous hard drive activity, for up to an hour or more (until I terminate the process).
My Windows Updates configuration is set to check for updates but ask me before downloading or installing them. There were no updates in progress at the time of the excess hard drive activity.
I also have Indexing ("Windows Search") and Superfetch disabled.
I haven't been able to figure out what is causing the problem.
For the time being, I've disabled the Windows Modules Installer service, but I need to remember to turn it back on. Otherwise I may not get any more updates.

Update: Today I restarted the Windows Modules Installer service, and TrustedInstaller started back up with a lot of disk activity, mainly in the c:\windows\system32\config\COMPONENTS** files, and also the c:\windows\winsxs\ files.

Based on this page, the COMPONENTS files correspond to the HKLM\COMPONENTS hive of the registry. So for some reason TrustedInstaller appeared to be continuously updating that part of the registry. After about an hour, the hard drive activity stopped, and the TrustedInstaller process was no longer running. TrustedInstaller has not restarted again in the last hour, so hopefully it is finished doing whatever it was doing, and won't start again.