Windows 7 - Making Search/Finding files Easier

Tried finding a file in Windows 7? How many time have to come across inaccurate search results or felt limited by the search options? Desktop Search is bad and ineffective , in my opinion in Windows 7.

Lol.. Win XP was rather advanced in terms of file search capability.

Feeling frustrated at my efforts to finding a file, I finally found a nifty little tool to help me get a Win XP style search.. rather an advanced version of it.

Try it out
http://download.cnet.com/SearchMyFiles-64-bit/3000-2248_4-75445352.html

This is a 64-bit version of Searchmyfiles that I used for my purpose. I am sure a 32-bit version exists too if you need.

Happy Searching!

Hide Desktop Icon - Windows 7

Do you have a cool new theme or photos on desktop that you like , but the cluttered look taking its sheen away?
Well I have a love hate relationship with those desktop icons. They are handy, but left unmanaged (as it often happens) clutters up your desktop background.. which we selected after so many google searches :)

One way to get around is to mnaully hide/Unhide desktop icons every time.

Tried a few Desktop Icon Hide & Unhide tools. Butmost of them were not working on my x64 based Win 7 system.

However, finally found a working solution and this one seems to be quite good to handle this more gracefully.

Kudos to the developer!

http://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Microsoft/AutoHideDesktopIcons

Lost Safely Remove USB Hardware icon in Windows XP?

I plugged my 4GB USB drive into my home laptop and copied some recent tours photos to share with friends.. I copied over the select photos.. and then plugged the USB out once copying was over... and then when I connected to my friends laptop..my flashdrive FAT had been corrupted!!

See.. i missed the step to Safely remove my hardware from Windows XP and removed the USB key without actually turning it off from Windows..and since Windows has some sort of delayed write to these disks... the end result was that Windows was not aware that USB stick has been removed and I lost all data on my list.. most likely the FAT table got corrupted..

And why did I not eject the drive?It turns out.. I do not have that icon appearing on my taskbar when I insert my USB stick...

Formatted my USB key again...:( and then googled to see if can get around the problem caused my messy Windows...

and yes you can manually trigger that Safely remove hardware by following :-

1. Click on Start-> Run

2. Type %windir%\system32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

3. Hit Ok.. and you should be done..

Another better approach.. if you would like to use it more often is to create a Windows shortcut and add the above command to shortcut.. and then just double click and stop any USB hardware and eject them safely...

Hope it helps..