Fine-Tune Your Windows 7 Machine

How to Add and Modify User Accounts in Windows 7

In Windows 7, you can create and customize accounts all from Control Panel.

Adding user accounts in Windows 10 is a relatively straightforward process. You can add and manage accounts from the Accounts screen under Settings. In Windows 7, the process isn’t difficult but it is different. You create and modify accounts from the good, old-fashioned Control Panel. You can add new accounts, change their names, change their passwords, change the account type between a standard user and an administrator, and create a password reset disk for your own account. For those of you still running Windows 7, let’s go through the steps for creating and tweaking user accounts.

Creating multiple user accounts is a convenient option if you’re sharing a single PC among different people. Those of you in the same household or small office can sign in with your individual account and create your own individual desktop, wallpaper, color scheme, and other settings. Windows 7 supports three types of accounts: Administrator, Standard, and Guest. With an administrator account, you can create and modify other accounts and change virtually all system settings in Windows. With a standard account, you can modify your own settings but you can’t create or modify other accounts or change certain Windows system settings. And a guest account is limited in capability and can be used by someone who just needs temporary access to the computer. By default, a guest account is turned off, however, since it can pose a security risk if enabled all the time. If you installed Windows 7 on your shared PC, you should already have your own account as an administrator, which means you can create and modify other accounts.

To make sure you’re set up as an admin, open Control Panel in icon view and click on the icon for User Accounts. You should see your name listed with the role of Administrator. We can now start creating new accounts. At the User accounts window, click on the link to Create a new account. At the Name the account and choose an account type window, type a name for the account and then choose whether it should be an administrative or standard account. Depending on who else will share the PC, you may want to keep yourself as the sole administrator and make all others standard users, or you may want to make at least one another person an administrator to serve as a backup for you. In many cases, though, a standard user will be asked for the administrative password when trying to change a key Windows setting. Therefore, another option is to make everyone an administrator so you’re not constantly being tapped on the shoulder to sign in. When finished, click on the Create Account button.

To add more accounts, click on the link to Create a new account and follow the same steps. Now let’s say you want to modify some accounts. Let’s take your own administrative account to start. At the User Accounts or Manage Accounts screen, click on the icon for your own account. You’ll see several options. Let’s go through each one.

To modify the account name, click on the link to Change the account name, type the new name in the appropriate field, and click on the Change Name button. To secure your account with a password, click on the link to Create a password. Type and then retype the new password and then enter a password hint if desired. Click the button to Create password. The next time you start Windows, you’ll be prompted to enter your password.

After you create a password the first time, you’ll see a new link to Change the password. Click on that link. Type the current password, type and retype the new password, and then click on the Change password button. If you grow weary of entering your password each time you launch Windows, click on the link to Remove the password. Enter your password and then click on the Remove Password button. Keep in mind that a password protects your account and your PC, so using one provides a certain measure of safety and security.

If you wish to change your account picture, click on the link to Change the picture. You can choose one of the images that comes with Windows or click on the link to Browse for more pictures and choose an image file from your PC, such as a picture of yourself.

Are any children using your PC? Then you may want to set up Parental Controls to manage and monitor their activities. Click on the link to Set up Parental Controls. Click on the icon for the child’s account. At the setup page, turn on the option under Parental Controls to On, enforce current settings. Then select each of the three settings – Time Limits, Games, and Allow and block specific programs – and choose the desired options.

Return to the Manage Accounts screen. Now, let’s say you want to change one of the standard accounts into an administrative account. Click on the account and then click on the link to Change account type. Select the option for Administrator and then click on the Change Account Type button.

You, can of course, remove an account. Click on the account and then click on the link to Delete the account. At the next screen, click on the button to Delete Files if you wish to remove that individual’s personal files, or click on the button to Keep Files if you wish to retain those files. At the next screen, click the button to Delete Account.

Finally, what happens if you forget your Windows password and can’t log in? To take precautions before that happens, you can create a password reset disk. Stored on a USB flash drive, the reset disk gives you the opportunity to change your password without having to sign into Windows 7. To set this up, insert a flash drive into a USB port on your PC. Return to the User Accounts page so you see your own account. Click on the link to Create a password reset disk.

At the Welcome to the Forgotten Password Wizard screen, click Next. At the screen to Create a Password Reset Disk, make sure your flash drive is identified and then click Next. At the next screen, type your Windows password in the appropriate field and click Next. After the disk creation has completed, click Next. Then click Finish to close the wizard.

Okay, now let’s travel forward to some future time when you’ve forgotten your Windows password. Insert the flash drive in your computer. Boot up your PC if it’s not already on. At the login screen, click on the link to Reset password. Follow the screens and prompts for the Password Reset Wizard. At the appropriate screen, type and then retype a new password and a hint if so desired. You can now type your new password to log into Windows. Oh, and be sure to keep your password reset drive safe and secure so no one else can snag it.

How to Use the Windows 7 Media Center

Still running Windows 7 but have never used the Media Center? Here’s how it works and what you can do with it.

Microsoft put the kibosh on Windows Media Center as a built-in application in Windows 10 and Windows 8.1. But those of you running Windows 7 can still tap into the Media Center program. With Media Center, you can access your videos, music, photos, and more. You can play DVDs and view slide shows. You can even watch live TV and record TV shows. So, how can you get Media Center up and running to view your multimedia content? Let’s check it out.

First, if you’re running Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate, then Media Center is automatically baked in and accessible. If you’re running Windows 8.1, you could access Media Center by purchasing an add-on program called the Windows 8.1 Pro Pack. Microsoft stopped selling the Pro Pack back in 2015. But you may still be able to find the program from third-party resellers via Amazon.

And what about those of you running Windows 10? Are you out of luck as far as Windows Media Center? Officially, yes. Unofficially, no. Microsoft doesn’t make a version of Media Center for its newest flavor of Windows and even removes the program if you upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10. But you can grab an unofficial, and I mean very unofficial, version that you’ll find from a thread on the My Digital Life forums. You’ll have to set up an account on the forums to view the links to download this unofficial version. But you’ll want to be cautious since this is a third-party product that is not supported by Microsoft and may or may not fully work in the latest edition of Windows 10.

Here, I’ll show you how to set up and use Media Center in Windows 7. To get started, click on the Windows 7 Start button, click on the All Programs link, look for the Windows Media Center shortcut, and click on it to launch the program. Windows Media Center loads.

Hover over the Continue button, and Media Center asks if you want TV on your PC. Click Continue. Media Center then asks if you want to set up the program using Express settings or Custom settings. Let’s choose Custom settings to have more control over the process. Click on the Custom button.

Media Center asks you to complete two sections: one for a required setup and another for an optional setup. Click Next. The program asks if you want to join Microsoft’s Customer Improvement Program to help improve Media Center. Since Microsoft no longer develops or supports Media Center, there’s no point in joining this program. So, click on the No thank you option. Click Next. Media Center next asks if you want it to connect to the Internet to get cover art for albums, music and movie information, and other content. Click on Yes and then click Next. Click Next to move to the next section.

Media Center now prompts you to set up your speakers and your media libraries. Click on the option to Set up my speakers. Click Next. One of Microsoft’s wizards pops up to take you through the process of setting up your speakers. Click Next. You should hear sound from your speakers. If not, Microsoft offers some troubleshooting steps to make sure your sound is working. Click Finish. Next, click on the option to Set up my media libraries. Click Next. Media Center asks which of the following libraries you want to set up: Music, Pictures, Videos, Recorded TV, or Movies. You’ll probably want to set up all or most of them. Click on Music to start and click Next.

You now want to select any folders that contain music you wish to play through Media Center. Click on the option to Add folders to the library. Click Next. You can add folders from your current computer (including mapped network drives), from another computer, or from a shared folder. For example, I store my iTunes library on a network drive, so I can add that mapped network share to Media Center to pick up my iTunes music. Click on any or all of the three locations one at a time and the select the corresponding folders to add music to Media Center.

You’ll find that Media Center automatically chooses the default folders for your music, pictures, videos, and recorded TV. So, you can bypass those default locations and just add other folders, such ones on a network drive. When done, you can review the folders that you and Media Center have chosen. If you’re finished, click on the option for Yes, use these locations. Then click Finish. Windows Media Center now adds those locations. You can click on the I have finished button and click Next. Then click Finish to start using Media Center, even while the program indexes and adds the locations for your media.

To use Media Center at this point, scroll up and down through the various categories, such as Pictures & Videos, Music, Movies, and Recorded TV. You’ll find two other categories – one for Extras and one for Tasks.

Let’s check out the Pictures library first. Under Pictures & Videos, click on picture library. You can now select a particular folder and then drill down until you find a subfolder that contains pictures. Click on the thumbnail for a specific picture to make it pop out and then click it again to view it full screen.

Viewing a picture full screen, you can click on the left or right arrows surrounding it to move to the next or previous picture. Return to the previous view of all the pictures by clicking on the blue arrow in the upper left corner. Click on the play slide show link to view an automated slide show of your pictures.

Return to the Media Center home screen by clicking on the Windows icon in the upper left corner. From here, you can now check out your other media content. Click on the video library to view your videos. Click on the music library and then click on a specific album to listen to it.

From the music library, right-click on an album and you’ll see a popup menu with commands to play the song, add it to a song list, delete it, edit its properties, burn it to a CD or DVD, manage your music library, and access overall settings for Media Center. You can also search for a particular album or song by clicking on the Search icon at the top and typing the name of the album, song, or artist.

Next, you may want to click on the movie library where you can watch any movies or TV shows stored on your PC or network. From the Music category, you can listen to FM radio. And from the TV category, you can watch live TV shows and record them. But for these options, you would need to connect a TV tuner to your PC, assuming one isn’t already built in to your machine or monitor. The Extras category offers some games you can play.

Finally, click on the Tasks category. From here, you can perform certain tasks, such as burn content onto a CD or DVD, display Media Center full screen, and set up a Media Center Extender to watch content from Media Center on a TV or other device. You can also access the Settings screen where you can control and customize all the settings for Media Center.

You’ll find more information on setting up Windows Media Center from the Microsoft webpage “Getting started with Windows Media Center.”