Windows 7 Help with problems I'm experiencing?

sakau2007

New Member
I recently installed Windows 7 RC1 x64 from the download Microsoft had been providing. I have many questions about it as a new user to Windows 7 and am curious if there are solutions to these, or if they are known bugs. Also, some questions are more general in nature.

1) Sometimes while using various programs (J River Media Center, Mozilla Firefox, Picasa) the window I am in loses focus, though I'm not doing anything other than playing music. I have heard that it may be some kind of filter like ffdshow or Haali or something along those lines takes the focus. But it can be very annoying as I lose the ability to scroll with my mouse wheel, right click, and even type. To solve the problem, I must minimize and then restore the window

2) Networking/Power Saving. I have put Windows 7 on both my laptop and PC. I use the homegroup feature which I really like as the sharing seems to work seamlessly and is very well organized. However, I am annoyed at how when my laptop (or PC)has been idle for several hours, it goes to sleep, or essentially shuts down. I know where to change these options at, but I also want to be cognizant of power usage. What is the lowest power setting I can set my computers to go into and still be accesible across the network. Is there not a way for the computers to go into some kind of mode that is reduced power, but then when called upon, the system awakens?

3) Google Friend Connect. This is not a windows 7 issue, but a question that I have since joining this site. I used the Google Friend Connect option to essentially link my Google account with this one when I registered. This site was the first time I have heard of this. When I go to Google, I don't see where to really "manage" my Friend Connect sites. Is there a place to do so? I only see a method of adding sites I own to the Google Friend Connect Network, not ones I where I am merely a user.

4) Optimizing for performance. This is a big one. I'm not all that skilled when it comes to computer mumbo jumbo. But I have just built a relatively powerful computer and I want to maximize its speed on a day to day usage. I went with 8GB of RAM (DDR2-800) and a Core 2 Quad 2.83GHz system for plenty of power. I mainly use the computer for media playback (I have an extensive library of images, recorded tv shows, movies, music, etc.), internet browsing, email, etc etc. Nothing too power intensive. And I've got all this RAM, (at the moment 1662MB used, 6527MB free). I know RAM is worthless if its not being used, so I am interested increasing the amount of things Windows stores in memory. As I understand it, the system can load from memory much faster than from disk, so I'd like to store things in RAM if possible. What adjustment to settings should I make for my favorite websites to load faster, for my media library within J River Media Center to build faster (along with its cover art, etc? What about searching hard drives? I want it to scream.

5) Desktop Gadgets. I really like these. Used them extensively in Vista and Windows 7 x86 when I used it as well. They generally work (except for a small graphic problem that I cover in 6). However, in Vista and x86 Win7, I was able to install 2 of the same gadgets on the desktop. This was really useful for me for a particular Gadget called iWeather. I was able to view the weather in multiple places on my desktop. Now, I have to use a different weather gadget for each city I want to see, which looks ugly and disorganized. Is there any way to view 2 of the same gadget? Right now, Windows 7 detects that I already have said Gadget on my desktop and asks me if I want to overwrite it.

6) Graphics Driver? I have the latest ATI driver for my 4600 series card that is dated like August 17, 2009 I believe (9.8?) However, occasionally, the font on my computer or size of the gadgets will seem to get aggravated causing things to not display properly, have text cut off, etc. Very annoying, and doesn't happen often, but it takes a reboot to fix. Any ideas? I kind of assumed it was probably a driver issue, but it really could be anything I guess.

7) Powertoys. I know XP had PowerToys which gave you a lot of flexibility over the OS that wasn't available out of the box. Are there any similar programs out there for Windows 7?

Thanks for any help,
Steve
 
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