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With Windows 7, Microsoft has vastly simplified the process of applying new themes. However, dealing with 3rd party visual styles is still a hassle. Yes, you can apply them by just double clicking on the *.theme file. However, if you want it to appear in the Windows Personalisation center, you will have to manually copy/extract it to the C:\Windows\Resources\Themes directory. Moreover, just like in XP and Vista, 3rd party visual styles (i.e. themes which do a bit more than just changing wallpapers and the glass colour) can’t be installed unless you patch your system.

Many of these visual styles also contain modded system files, which are used for changing the Start Menu orb (explorer.exe), navigational buttons (explorerframe.exe) etc. Manually backingup and replacing system files is just too much work for most users. Thankfully there is a better solution and it doesn’t involve shelling out money.

TheWindowsClub has released an excellent utility called Windows Theme Installer (WTI). This utility basically takes care of every aspect of Windows Vista and Windows 7 visual style and theme installation. You can select an installed theme (i.e. themes present in the C:\Windows\Resources\Themes directory) or manually browse to the location of the *.theme file and have WTI install it for you. Replacing system files is also as simple as specifying the path to the modded files and clicking on ‘Install theme’. If you wish to restore the original files later on, you can do so through the Restore Default System Files option.

Windows Theme Installer makes getting an all new user interface really simple. If you are into modding your desktop, then this free portable app is a must have for you.

Download Windows Themes Installer (147 KB)
License: Freeware
Version Reviewed: 1.1
Operating System: Windows Vista/7

Recently I took a look at Avira AntiVir 10 (Personal and Premium). In that post, I had briefly mentioned a new service called avshadow.exe. I have noticed that many users have been baffled by this new service (its shadowy name isn’t perhaps the most comforting). Anyway, as mentioned in my earlier post, AvShadow is Avira’s own enhanced implementation of the Shadow Copy feature present in Windows Vista and 7.

However, what does an antivirus product have to do with Shadow Copy? The answer was provided by an Avira GmbH employee in the public forums.

This process (avshadow.exe) is our implementation of the Shadow Copy Service
(something offered by current Windows Versions). It is used to scan
files that are locked or in use by creating a “shadow copy” of the file,
which:

a) allows us to scan it and
b) does not interfere with any processes continuing to modify the “original” file.

So there you go. Now you know why avshadow.exe is required.

Cancelling or deleting a job from the print queue takes ages in Windows. This is a common annoyance, which pretty much anyone who has ever used printers would be familiar with.

Apparently, this occurs because the temporary file created for the print job can’t be deleted while it is still being accessed by Windows. The solution is to manually kill the spoolsv.exe service using Task Manager and delete all job files present in C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS. Off course, if you need to continue printing you would have to either restart your computer or manually restart the spoolsv.exe service.

The trouble with this solution is that it demands too much work. However, a helpful Reddit user has created a batch file to automate the process. In order to use it you can download the batch file from here or manually copy the following code into Notepad and save it as file_name.bat.

@echo off
echo Stopping print spooler.
echo.
net stop spooler
echo deleting stuff... where? I'm not sure. Just deleting stuff.
echo.
FOR %%A IN (%systemroot%\system32\spool\printers\*.*) DO DEL %%A
echo Starting print spooler.
echo.
net start spooler

Now, whenever you need to delete all printing jobs, just double click on the batch file. However, be careful while using this in a work environment as if you are on a print server, it would cancel printing jobs for all connected printers.

(via LifeHacker)