The disappointing part however is that Windows Vista and Windows 7, the two most recent version of Windows operating system do not support classic DOS games and show random errors like the following:

This System does not support full screen mode. Choose “Close” to terminate the application

Windows7 and Windows Vista can’t run the classic DOS games the way they used to run on Windows95 or Windows 98 (even some builds of Windows XP did support the old Ms-Dos games). However, the following guide will help you run Dos games in Windows7 and you can even install them in a USB drive and play from any computer you want to.

Run Classic DOS Games On Your Windows 7 Computer

DOSBox is a DOS-emulator that uses the SDL-library which makes DOSBox very easy to port to different platforms. If you’re only concerned about running DOS games on Windows7, chances are that you don’t need to learn about DOSBox. Instead, you can install D-Fend Reloaded which is a great little frontend for DOSBox which allows you to install DOS programs on Windows 7 operating system and additionally works on Windows Vista and Windows Xp (both 32 bit and 64 bit versions are supported).

Following are the steps involved:

1. Download D-Fend Reloaded and install it on your computer.

2. While Installing, choose “User defined installation” and select a custom folder where you would be installing all the files of D-Fend Reloaded.

3. In the next step,choose “portable mode installation”. This will ensure that all program settings are stored in the program folder and all the links will be stored relative to the program folder. This will allow you to run the DOS Box emulator from any computer or removable drive – all you need to do is copy paste the entire D fend reloaded program to your USB drive and you can play DOS games from a USB stick.

4. Once D-Fend reloaded is installed, you are ready to run and Ms-Dos application using the DOS emulator. First you will need to download a zip package of the specific DOS games you want to run, some links are provided at the bottom of this tutorial.

5. To run the game, all you have to do is drag and drop the zip package within the D-Fend reloaded program window. The program will automatically extract the contents of the zip file and allow you to launch the game.

Note: Your Windows display settings will be changed temporarily, you can simply hit “Alt + Enter” to close Full screen or hit “Control + F9” to quit D-Fend Reloaded. To capture or save a screenshot of the DOS game, hit “Control + F5”

Download Old Classic DOS Games For Free

Here are a few sites where you can download addictive DOS games for free:

1. DosgamesArchive.com: This site has a large collection of free Dos games including cheat codes, screenshots, user ratings and reviews. From arcade to action to puzzles, this is definitely worth a bookmark.

2. D-Fend Game Packages : This one is easy to setup because D-Fend reloaded already has hundreds of free DOS games which can be installed using their one click installer.

3. Dos Games.com: This one is ideally suited for kids and small children who want to play classic DOS games from any computer using their removable drive.

Download some of the games and try this once, it’s sometimes good to bring back old memories and try your gaming skills on an older platform

How To Play Classic DOS Games On Windows7 Or Windows Vista originally published on Ampercent

Regardless of the size, your computer’s hard drive fills up with a lot of junk files and folders as time passes. From photos, thumbnails, expired backups, temporary files, videos, torrents, movies or other system files – it becomes really impossible to find out what is causing such a huge amount of disk space on the system. You might be running on low disk space and want to recover hard drive space but the first step is to turn on the detective hat and find the big folders, subfolders or empty directories.

Another point is that in some situations you might want to filter file types according to sizes and it’s type and bulk delete files from a specific folder without having to inspect each file manually.

This is when JDiskReport proves to be useful.

It’s a free program for Windows, MAC OSX or Linux which can be used to run a thorough scan of your computer’s hard drive and filter out the folders and file types which are consuming the maximum amount of hard drive space. This is extremely useful for you as well as shared users of the same computer, who normally have hard drive space limits imposed, thanks to Windows disk quota management.

You can choose to run a complete scan of all the hard drives or scan only specific folders e.g “My Documents”, “Downloads” and so on.

Iran the check on my Windows 7 computer’s C drive and the results were quite impressive. The tool creates different pie charts to represent the files and folders consuming a fair amount of disk space on the system drive. I found that I was using a lot of unnecessary program files which were installed months earlier and I never cared to uninstall them.

Clicking a particular segment within the tool will break the chart into it’s subordinate folders.

Example: If you want to find out which folders under the “Program Files” folder are consuming the maximum space, simply click the “program files” segment, and the tool will create a sub chart as shown below:

The tool also shows charts, size distribution, date of last modification and detailed statistics of the files and subfolders contained in the folder you inspected. This is quite handy when you want to figure out unnecessary directories and remove empty folders in bulk.

Sure, there is always Windows disk cleanup but I would recommend running the disk report tool for Windows first and then use disk clean up to remove junk files from your system. Two reasons why I say so:

1. First, you will have a basic idea what’s lying in your hard drive and more importantly, where are the junk files located. So you know exactly what to delete and from which directory, this will prevent you from deleting important system files or backups which you may need at a later point of time.

2. Second, running the reporting tool will give a brief rundown of the files you interact most often. This way, you get to know about your usage habits are and which files are downloaded or saved without any reason.

Here are some screenshots of JDiskReport:

Showing File type distributions

Size Distribution of Files and folders within a particular drive or Parent folder

As it turns out, JDiskReport tool is one of the best ways to find the source folders who have large files placed within them. You can save a scan report for later use, back it up or print it on paper for more hard core analysis.

Removing unnecessary files didn’t helped ? It’s a good idea to use another free program called SteamMover and move installed programs to a Non operating system drive without reinstallation.

Find Out Which Files And Folders Are Consuming Large Disk Space On Your System originally published on Ampercent

1. IE9’s User Interface Redesign

The new visual representation of Internet Explorer is first on my list because it is what most people will notice first when they install the program. Looking at the new design, I think it is clear that Microsoft is trying to make the user experience feel very familiar to users of Windows 7. They have done away with the clunky, Widows XP-like frame and file bar, and have switched to a more updated set of shortcut buttons.

They have also taken a page from Google’s design book and integrated in an omnibar that rolls both address bar and search bar into one place. Also taking a note from Chrome, Internet explorer 9 now has a tabs page that gives you access to your most used pages when opening a new tab. If the default number of frequently visited sites is not enough for you, you can always display more sites in the IE9 Tabs page.

I personally find the changes to the user interface to be very positive. If Microsoft’s goal was to make IE9 feel more like it belongs in Windows 7, then they completely accomplished that goal for me. I tried to keep this section relatively short in my article, but as you can see, there are so many changes in the design of Internet Explorer that it is hard to list just a few.

2. IE9 Tracking Protection

One of the most talked about features in all new browsers is privacy settings, specifically those related to user tracking. All of the major browser developers are now including anti-tracking features into their products, and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is no different. If you click the Settings cog in the upper right-hand corner of the browser window, and go to Safety and then Tracking Protection, you will find the new Anti-Tracking settings pane.

I included this feature on my list because of the principle, but not really the implementation. Microsoft is handling the issue of browser tracking by having ‘lists’ of sites that are not allowed to track you or your browsing activity. While I think this may work in theory, I do not like that is it completely user dependent. It is my hope that website hosts and content creators will shy away from user tracking on the whole, thus making the steps in Internet Explorer 9 obsolete.

3. IE9 Windows 7 Integration

As I mentioned when talking about the new UI design for Internet Explorer, I believe it was Microsoft’s hope to make using IE feel more like an integrated part of Windows 7. This feeling extended beyond the new look of the browser. As we have previously mentioned, it is possible to add dynamic IE9 shortcuts to the Windows 7 Taskbar. Certain websites, like Facebook, are more highly integrated into this process, while others will work simply like bookmarks. Another great feature is the ability to open a specific tab from its Windows 7 taskbar preview.

Finals Thoughts on Internet Explorer 9 RC

Like I said before, I am mostly impressed with what Microsoft has done with IE9. The changes make it more user friendly, safer, faster, and over all a better experience. I can see IE9 becoming the new standard for web browsing, with a few changes coming down the pipe for the internet as a whole. It is a more than ample update and replacement for any of it predecessors.

We have a host of great articles on Internet Explorer 9 Tips and Tricks that you can read if you are looking for a specific feature or functionality.

What are your thoughts on Internet Explorer 9? Do you have a favorite feature? If you have an answer to these, or any other comment or question, please leave a comment in the section below. We love to hear from you.

3 Changes In IE9 That Made It Better Than Its Predecessors originally published on Ampercent

Windows 7, the incredibly popular follow-up to Windows Vista, does not have an edition of TweakUI to call its own. For Windows 7 users, there is a free tool called Ultimate Windows Tweaker. UWT gives the Windows 7 user access to a large number of the options and settings available to Windows XP users via TweakUI.

Using Ultimate Windows Tweaker

When you start UWT, you may be a little overwhelmed at first. There are a large number of check boxes with a lot of text. Some of it may be confusing, but what you will soon learn is that it can be very simple to use. Let’s look at some of what I consider to be two of the best features that are packed with UWT, and how to find those settings in the pool of black on white text.

1. Disable Shortcut Arrows in Windows 7 :

To disable shortcut arrows on the Windows 7, first open up your copy of UWT. Once it is up and running, find the Additional Tweaks on the left hand side. Once in the proper pane, you can find the Remove arrows from Shortcut Icons checkbox under Some additional tweaks.  The photo above shows you exactly where to find the setting.

2. Disable Start Menu Highlighting of New Programs :

One of the most annoying features of Windows 7, in my opinion, is the highlighting of newly installed applications in the start menu. You can disable this feature very easily with UWT. To do so, select the Personalization tab from the left hand pane, and find the Customize Start Menus. In that section you will find a check box that reads Disable highlighting newly installed programs. Click that check box, and your new programs will no longer be highlighted in the Start Menu. See the photo for a visual representation of where to find the setting.

Windows Customization Made Easy: Ultimate Windows Tweaker

UWT makes taking control of your Windows Installation incredibly easy. For power users who miss TweakUI, UWT is a great alternative for Windows 7. I fully approve of this free application, and use it to its fullest.

What are your thoughts? Do you have a favorite feature in UWT? Please let us know in the comments below.

Customizing Your Windows 7 Installation With Ultimate Windows Tweaker originally published on Ampercent

There are command line tricks to delete empty folders from a Windows partition or remove empty subfolders from a specific parent folder. But if you are no geek and need a one click solution to remove all empty folders from your computer, try RED

RED (stands for Remove empty directories) is a simple yet useful freeware for Windows which scans your entire computer for empty folders and lets you delete all of them with one click. You can specify a parent directory, a hard disk partition, an external hard drive and the program can run a quick check to find  and filter the folders with the following attributes:

• Filter hidden folders from a specific parent folder, disk partition or parent folder.
• Filter folders that contain no files
• Filter folders  that are locked
• Filter folders that contain autorun files like *.inf, thumbs.db and other junk files.

Running a thorough scan and removing the empty folders from Windows7 is easily achieved through the “Delete Folders” button. Nice !

So the next time your computer is hit by a virus, trojan and there are a thousand empty folders lying randomly over your hard drive, spare yourself from deleting each and every folder manually and use this tool. Handy !

RED is a free download, works with Windows Xp, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Related: Remove empty folders and items from Windows start menu

Remove Empty Folders Or Junk Directories From Your Computer originally published on Ampercent

Windows Media Center is not just a fancy version of Windows Media Player. It’s actually an entertainment powerhouse, offering you everything from sports scores to free games. But one feature you might not know about is its slick Internet TV interface, a one-stop shop or close to it for all your favorite streaming services. With a built-in Netflix interface, and access to programming from Fox News, PBS, the Smithsonian, and much more, the only thing Windows Media Center is really missing is Hulu integration, though that can be easily fixed.

Setting up the Internet TV service is simple (and free!). Just follow these steps:

1) Open Windows Media Center. Scroll down to TV and click “Internet TV.”

2) Once you’ve read and agreed to the Terms of Service, click “Install.”

3) Windows Media Center will begin automatically downloading the Streaming Internet TV add-on. Wait for the download to complete.

4) Welcome to the main interface. The top row shows the featured content. At this time, most of the prime time programming comes courtesy of CBS. You can scroll down (or click the lowermost row) to see more options, like Channels, Top TV, Top Rated Movies From Netflix, News Headlines, and more.

5) If you have a Netflix account, you’ll want to set it up to communicate with Windows Media Center. Click on Netflix in the channel row. This will open the Netflix window. Enter the information you use to sign into your Netflix account. At any time, click on the blue back arrow in the upper right hand corner to get to the previous stream.

6) That’s just about it! You’re almost ready to watch a movie or television. Just click on the TV show or movie of your choice. A list of episodes will come up. Pick the episode you want to watch.

7) A box will pop up showing you a synopsis of the episode you’ve selected. Just click “Play.”

8) If you’re prompted to update Flash, follow the on-screen instructions to do so. And then… your show will begin!

And that’s it! It’s that simple. In fact, it’s even simpler. If you know how to read and click buttons, you should have no problem setting up and using Windows Media Center. If you have a TV-Tuner card, you can even use the program to watch live network TV.

And that’s how you use Windows Media Center to watch Internet TV. Enjoy!

Related Read:

1. Browse Facebook Photos in Windows Media Center

2. Watch YouTube Videos in Windows Vista Media Center

3. How to Install/Uninstall Media Player And Media Center in Windows 7

How To Setup Internet TV Streaming On Windows Media Center originally published on Ampercent

To create your Windows 7 Installation Drive, you’ll need a few things. First, you’ll need the original Windows 7 Installation disc, or an .iso file that you can mount using a program like Virtual Clone Drive.  Second, you’ll need a flash drive big enough to accommodate the files (4 GB should suffice). Make sure the flash drive is empty, as this process will wipe the drive clean of all data.

Finally, you will need a free utility called WinToFlash. Once you’ve downloaded it, unzip the files and open WinToFlash.exe. For creating a Windows 7 Installation “Disc,” we’re just going to use the “Windows Setup Transfer Wizard.” Go into the Advanced Mode if you want to create an installation disc for a different version of windows, or create a bootable MS-DOS flash drive.

At this point, your USB Drive should be plugged in, and the Windows 7 disc should be in or mounted as an .iso file. Open the Transfer Wizard. Select the appropriate directories for your Windows disc and your jump drive.

If a “Windows License Agreement” pops up, read and accept the terms.

WinToFlash will warn you that the process will wipe your USB Drive of all existing data. They’re not joking, so make sure all your personal data is backed up. Click OK. WinToFlash will now format your drive, then transfer all of your Windows files over to it. This could take between 5 and 20 minutes.

When it’s done, restart your computer and access the boot menu. How you access the boot menu varies from computer to computer, so consult your machine’s reference manual. At the startup screen (where your computer’s manufacturer logo appears) it should give you a number of options in the lower left hand side of the screen, including which F key to hit to access the boot menu. Hit the appropriate key.

When the boot menu appears, select your USB drive and hit enter.

And then? Then you’re ready to go. Begin installing or repairing Windows 7 as you normally would from a disk. Remember: While you can always reformat the USB drive to use it for personal data again, it might be helpful to save in case you ever need to reinstall or repair Windows.

Get Rid Of DVDs, Use Your USB Drive To Repair Windows 7 originally published on Ampercent

These tools are collectively known as the Windows Compatibility Mode. This feature of Windows 7 essentially tricks installers and applications into believe that they are running under a different version of Windows. It can usually be found in the compatibilities tab of the properties window for the application in question, or you can use the provided wizard. Here is how to get to both.

Installation Compatibility

1. The most common way to work with compatibility mode is during an installation. During the installation process of some legacy applications you may receive an error similar to the one below. Simply click OK to move forward.

2. After closing the error, a new windows will open. Click Reinstall using recommended settings to start the Compatibility Assistant. This will reinstall the program and allow it to run in compatibility mode.

Troubleshooting Program Compatibility

1. There may be times when the Compatibility Assistant does not work the way it should, or cannot find a solution to the problem. When this happens, you need to go through the Program Compatibility Troubleshooter. To begin, right-click on the program icon and select Troubleshoot Compatibility.

2. Windows will detect any issues and and you can try to run it with the recommended settings. To do this, click Try recommended settings.

3. This option allows us to test the program to see if the new compatibility settings fix the problem. Select Start the program… to begin testing it out. After determining whether or not the settings work, click Next.

4. If the program is now running correctly, you can save the settings. If not, you can try different settings. To do this, select No, try again using different settings.

5. The next windows is the troubleshooter where you can specify the problems you are having with your program. Select the options that best apply to your situation. Depending upon your selections, you may be asked for additional information.

6. After the troubleshooter, a new set of settings will be applied to the program, and you can try running it again. If that does not work, you will be prompted to send a generated problem report to Microsoft.

Manual Compatibility Selection

1. You can also access the compatibility settings manually by right-clicking on the program icon and selecting Properties.

2. In the Properties window, select the Compatibility tab, check Run this program in compatibility mode and then select the version of windows from the drop down list. Once applied, the program will always start with these compatibility settings.

Conclusion

Hopefully, by using the steps here, you will be able to run the programs you need in Windows 7. However, each program is different, so these steps will never be exactly the same. Most programs written for Vista should work in Windows 7, but not all of them. If you find that you cannot get a particular program running and have completed the Compatibility Troubleshooter, you should search for a new version of the program, or go to the developer for their assistance.

How To Install A Program Using Compatibility Mode In Windows 7 originally published on Ampercent

1. Right click on desktop and select New > Shortcut.

2. Paste the code below in the “Type the location of the item:” field.

3. In the next step, you can rename the new shortcut whatever you like. I am naming it “Flip Windows”. Press Finish.

4. Right click on the newly created shortcut and choose Properties.

5. Use the button “Change Icon” and then locate a flip 3D icon which can be found under C:\Windows\explorer.exe.

6. Select the 3D flip icon and press OK. Next in the Properties window press Apply and then OK to save the changes.

7. Now right click on the shortcut and “choose Pin to Taskbar”. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the shortcut onto the taskbar to pin it there.

Now that the new shortcut is created, click it to verify. Once the 3D view is displayed, use the scroll keys or Tab key to switch between opened windows.

Rotate Windows With 3D Flip Using A Windows 7 Taskbar Shortcut [Mini How-To] originally published on Ampercent

Running A Free Scan For Outdated Drivers And Installing Them

1. Download the tool. Since the application is portable, you’ll not need any installation. So you can start the tool right away.

2. Click the button “Scan Now” to start scanning for outdated drivers.

3. Once the scanning is complete, the tool will display how many updates are necessary and available. You can ignore any available update. However, for better system performance, its recommended to download all of them.

4. Now since this is the free version, you have to manually download and install the available updates one by one. Clicking the “Download Update” option (to the right of every found update) will download the driver update and invoke the installer for you to carry on installing the update on your computer.

Backup Drivers:

Use the Backup button from the top menu of the app window, choose the drivers you wish to backup and hit the Backup button at the bottom. Now all the selected drivers will be backed up in the default backup folder. Or you can also use the Backup To… button to choose the folder where the backup files will be saved. You can also change the default backup folder from Options > Backup.

Restore Drivers To Previous State:

If any update is causing you trouble, you can easily revert back to previous system settings for drivers. So, it is highly recommended that you always create a backup for the present drivers before scanning or installing the available updates for the outdated drivers. To restore the drivers to previous state, use the Restore option from the top menu.

Once the restore window opens, you’ll be shown the backups from the default backup folder. Select any state and press the button Restore. However, you can also use the Restore From… button to locate driver backups if they were saved to a different location on your hard drive.

Play around with the tool options to unleash its full power. You can schedule updates, start the app as Windows starts and tweak lot more things to suite your needs.

The tool is an obvious choice for any user who really wants to stay out of PC errors due to outdated drivers. The update database worked good enough for me and promises to provide support for devices from most manufacturers. However downloading multiple updates and installing them manually one at a time is quite painful, but then, that is the price you have to pay for staying free.

A Portable Solution To Update Drivers For Windows XP, Vista and 7 originally published on Ampercent