Remove Active Partitions In Windows 7 And Free Up Space

Disk partition in Windows 7

A hard drive that is portioned is equal to several devices. Users have the complete freedom to store information in different disk partitions, without making any changes to the data stored in other parts of the drive. With an active disk partition, users can store more than one operating system in the PC, and facilitate the choice to switch between different operating systems and platforms.

An active partition in a system is the partition employed by BIOS at the time of start up. This partition enables the booting up of the operating system. Having more than one bootable partition in the system, takes up a large amount of space on your hard drive. You can eliminate existing active partitions by making changes in the currently used active partition. This step will free up the additional space taken up by two or several partitions in your machine. It will also speed up the booting.

Instructions to remove an existing active partition

• Launch Computer Management by navigating to “Start” menu and then typing “Computer Management” in the search bar and hitting on the “Enter” tab. Once the Computer Management window is displayed, highlight “Disk Management”.
• Select the partition you want to use for your system boot up. Select the option that says “Mark Partition as Active”. This step will disable the current active partition, and enable a new partition for system boot up. Make sure that you set a specific partition, where repair utility and OS are stored, as active. Activating a non-bootable partition causes system failure at startup. Once you are done with the selection the specific partition, hit on “Yes” button to continue.
  

  Windows 7 bootable partition

• Now, highlight the deactivated partition (old active partition) and right click. Choose “Delete Volume” from the drop down menu. Hit the “Yes” button when you are prompted to confirm. This step will clear all the content in the partition. You cannot clear the “C” drive partition, as this is where the operating system is stored. However, you can clear it if you are performing this step from another OS or booting device.
• Restart your computer now. You are now booting to the newly activated partition. In case your system boots up to a different OS, use the tools of that OS to activate your Windows OS.

While dealing with BIOS and disk partition, a basic knowledge of Windows is necessary. If you are not sure of any step, avail Windows 7 help. Alternatively, you can visit the Windows 7 help forums to find articles related to disk partitions.

Tips To Import Wireless Certificates In Windows 7

Windows 7 support

Wireless networks allow you to gain access to internet from anywhere in the range of the network without the hassles of wires. The security features in wireless networks vary from network to network. There are some networks, which may not require an authentication code. You will have no troubles in accessing such networks. On the other hand, in most of the Wireless networks, you might be asked for a verification code. You can find this security feature in most wireless networks. However, in some other wireless networks, you will find the verification process, which requires you to have a wireless certificate.

Although you may not find this feature in many wireless networks, it is becoming more and more common as a part of increased security feature. If you do not have a wireless network certificate, you will not gain access to these networks. Windows 7 help you to import these wireless certificates. You should make sure that the wireless certificates are imported in the correct manner so that they function properly. Just follow the steps below and find out how to import wireless certificates in Windows 7.

Make sure that you are logged into the computer as administrator to perform these tasks. This is because you require administrator rights to perform these import tasks.

Steps involved

• Go to the folder that contains the wireless certificate and to begin the import process, click on the icon of wireless certificate twice.
• In the window that pops up, select the option ‘Install Certificate’. This will initiate the Certificate Import wizard.
• Choose ‘Next’ on the welcome screen.
• In the next screen, select the option ‘Place all certificates in the following store’ and then choose ‘Next’.
• In the next window, select ‘Trusted Root Certification Authorities’ and select ‘Next’.
  

                                     Fix windows 7 issues

• In the last window, select ‘Finish’. Although this is the last step in many systems, you might be asked to click on ‘Yes’ in the next step and this depends on your system configuration.
• When the import process finishes, select the option ‘OK’ to close down the Certificate Import Wizard.

That is all. Now you have successfully imported the Wireless certificate and now you will have complete access to the wireless network without any authentication issues. If you are still not able to connect to the wireless network, get in touch with the Windows 7 help and support centre to troubleshoot the issue.

Disabling Windows 7 Sidebar

Windows 7 help on desktop gadgets

Windows 7 users may find a vertical section at the left side of the desktop known as the Sidebar. Many small programs or gadgets which provide instant information occupy this space. Some of these gadgets are the calendar; clock, system performance meter, etc. Windows 7 help can show users how to access the sidebar’s many features and enable and disable widgets as per their desire. There are two methods to remove the sidebar & desktop gadgets.

First method is going to the Control Panel, which helps to uninstall any program from the computer. Follow the steps below to switch off the Sidebar with the help of Control Panel;

• Open the “Start” menu on the main screen & go to “Control Panel”
• Select “Programs” link on the Control panel window
• In the “Programs and Features” section, select “Turn Windows On or Off”
• Search for “Windows gadget platform” by scrolling down & uncheck the box against it.
• Select “OK” and close the “Control panel”
• Restart the computer. Upon restart, right click on the empty area of the desktop & check for “Gadgets” option, which should no longer be available. The gadgets present on the desktop will be removed automatically.

Another way to delete the gadgets & switch off the sidebar is through MSConfig file. MSConfig or Microsoft System Configuration Utility is a program for troubleshooting and managing the Windows startup process. You should be very careful with this program, as any minute fault can cause trouble in Windows startup procedure.

Carefully go through the following steps to disable the sidebar with the help of MSConfig file;

• Go to the “Start” button on the main screen, & enter “msconfig” in the search box.
  

           Uninstalling Windows 7 sidebar

• Select the “Startup” tab & search for “C:\Program files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe /autoRun” in the window. Uncheck the box against it. Select “Apply” and Click “OK” to close the window.
• Restart the computer. Upon restart, the sidebar & any gadgets will be removed from the desktop.

The above set of instructions from Windows 7 help will remove the Sidebar from the desktop, but not from the computer completely as it is a program that comes with the operating system. So, if you want to bring it back onto the desktop, simply mark on the check box, which you had earlier removed, against the “Windows gadget platform” in the previous steps.

Tips For Adding An Application To Windows 7 Firewall

Windows 7 help support for Windows 7 Firewall

Microsoft has released several versions of Windows operating system from its initial launch. One such version of Windows, released in 2009, is Windows 7. This version has several advanced features and is rated as one of the most versatile operating system of Microsoft. To know more on the topic, read through the rest of the article.

Importance of Firewall

Security features in Windows 7 are much better than its previous versions. Among the many security features included in the OS, Windows 7 firewall has an important role. It is possible for you to set some rules in the Windows 7 Firewall to make it block and allow the access to networks. Sometimes this firewall may block a trusted application that needs access to get to the network. In this case you need to add the safe program or application to the Windows 7 Firewall so that it permits the access to the network. Well here I’m going to discuss some of the steps given by the Windows 7 help team for adding an application to the Windows 7 Firewall. Just follow the same to get it done.

Instructions

• Go to the Windows “Start” menu that is seen on the lower left side of your monitor and select the option called “Control Panel.”
• Next you can see a green link called “System and Security.” Click on it. After that under the “Windows Firewall” option you can see a blue link called “Allow a program through Windows Firewall”, click on it.
• Next up select the button called “Change settings” button that’s seen on top of the window. After that at the bottom of the Window you can see “Allow another program.” Click it.
  

      Tips for adding program to Windows 7 Firewall

• As a result a list will be seen on your monitor. From that list of applications, select the application that you wish to add to the Windows 7 Firewall. If the application is not listed on the list then select the option called “Browse” and add it manually.
• Next is adding the program to the Windows 7 Firewall. To do this select the button called “Add.” Put a tick mark on the boxes for “Home/Work” and “Public.” This will allow the programs to get access to the network.

That’s all with the instructions provided by the Windows 7 help team for adding an application to the firewall. Good luck!

File Association Techniques For Windows 7

Windows 7 Help instructions

Unlike the previous operating systems, in Windows 7, registries are used to save the file association information. In Windows XP and Vista, the file association tasks are quite difficult to perform. Thanks to the Windows 7 operating system of Microsoft. The files are classified according to the type of extension. The user can modify the file association settings with the help of Internet Explorer. When you have made this modification using the Windows Explorer, the default handler associated with the particular file will be changed automatically and this remains as a permanent modification. In order to bring it back to the previous file type association, you may have to manually perform the dissociation tasks. Here are the Windows 7 Help instructions to perform both the association and dissociation tasks.

Steps to create file association in Windows 7

• Load your system and then locate the folder where you have saved the file, which requires a file type association. Once you have located the folder, double click on it in order to open it.
• Locate the particular file and then right click on it. Select the Open With option followed by “Choose the default program”. This will load the “Choose the default program” box on your screen.
• This box contains the list of programs that can be used to open the selected file type. Choose any of the listed programs. If you are not able to find the file type association program, you may select the Browse option. This will help you choose the desired program from the hard disk of your system.
• Choose “Always Use the Selected Program to Open This Kind of File” and then select the OK tab.
• Now you have made the file type association for the selected file.
  

       Windows 7 File Association

File type Dissociation

As I have already mentioned in the introduction, the file type dissociation tasks are supposed to be performed manually.

• Select the Start button and then enter “cmd” in the search box. Wait for the search outcome and then right click on the “cmd” option displayed in it. Choose “Run as Administrator” option.
• Enter “assoc .EXT=” in the space provided. Now you may modify the extension as you wish. For example, “.ext” extension can be changed using an “.avi” file extension. After you have typed down the extension, click on the Enter tab.

These are the file association and dissociation tasks for the Windows 7 operating system. For further clarifications about the same, contact the Windows 7 Help team.