Here are Ten Windows 7 Tips that everyone can use .....

1. Add Videos to Your Start Menu
You can make your video library easy to access by adding it to your Start Menu. To do so, right-click the Start button, go to Properties > Start Menu > Customize and set the Videos to "Display as a link." There are plenty more options for what you want displayed in the Start menu here, so browse through the list to see what would work for you. Choosing "Display as a Link" puts a text choice on the right side of the Start menu, and choosing "Display as a menu" will add a fly out menu to the link with sub choices. One particularly useful entry here is Recent Items, to help you quickly get to documents you've been working on.

2. Make Internet Explorer 8 Load Faster
You can make IE8 load faster by disabling add-ons that slow it down. To find which add-ons you need to eliminate go to Tools > Manage Add-ons, check the load time listed here for each, and delete accordingly.

3. Troubleshoot and Document System Problems
Windows 7's new Problem Steps Recorder comes in handy when you're looking to troubleshoot and document problems with your system. Typing psr into the Instant Search launches a recorder that can document what shows up on your screen as you recreate the problem step by step. You can even add comments. When you're done, the recorder compiles the footage into a zip file you can then e-mail to a tech expert.

4. Configure your favorite music
The Windows 7 Media Centre now comes with an option to play your favorite music, which by default creates a changing list of songs based on your ratings, how often you play them, and when they were added (it's assumed you'll prefer songs you've added in the last 30 days). If this doesn't work then you can tweak how Media Centre decides what a "favorite" tune is- click Tasks > Settings > Music > Favorite Music and configure the program to suit your needs.

5. Minimize quickly with shake
If you have multiple windows open on your desktop and things are getting too cluttered, it used to be a time-consuming process to close them all down. In Windows 7 you can use the Aero Shake feature to minimize everything in seconds, using a cool mouse gesture. Grab the title bar of the window you wish to keep open and give it a shake, and rejoice in a clear desktop area.

6. New WordPad formats
By default WordPad will save documents in Rich Text Format, just as before. But browse the Save As Format list and you'll see you can also save (or open, actually) files in the Office 2007 .docx or OpenDocument .odt formats.

7. Find bottlenecks
From what we've seen so far Windows 7 is already performing better than Vista, but if your PC seems sluggish then it's now much easier to uncover the bottleneck. Click Start, type RESMON and press Enter to launch the Resource Monitor, then click the CPU, Memory, Disk or Network tabs. Windows 7 will immediately show which processes are hogging the most system resources.

The CPU view is particularly useful, and provides something like a more powerful version of Task Manager. If a program has locked up, for example, then right-click its name in the list and select Analyze Process. Windows will then try to tell you why it's hanging - the program might be waiting for another process, perhaps - which could give you the information you need to fix the problem.

8. Keyboard shortcuts
Windows 7 supports several useful new keyboard shortcuts.

Alt+P
Display/ hide the Explorer preview pane

Windows Logo+G
Display gadgets in front of other windows

Windows Logo++ (plus key)
Zoom in, where appropriate

Windows Logo+- (minus key)
Zoom out, where appropriate

Windows Logo+Up
Maximise the current window

Windows Logo+Down
Minimise the current window

Windows Logo+Left
Snap to the left hand side of the screen

Windows Logo+Right
Snap to the right hand side of the screen

Windows Logo+Home
Minimise/ restore everything except the current window

9. Aero Peek
Another option for navigating a screen cluttered with windows is Aero Peek. Hover the mouse over the lower-right corner of the screen. Click the button if you want to keep this view, showing only the desktop. This takes the place of previous Windows versions' Show Desktop icon in the vanished Quick Launch toolbar. If you've moved your Taskbar to the top or sides of the screen, this button will be at the top right or bottom of the taskbar, respectively.

10. Desktop slideshow
Windows 7 comes with some very attractive new wallpapers, and it's not always easy to decide which one you like the best. So why not let choose a few, and let Windows display them all in a desktop slideshow? Right-click an empty part of the desktop, select Personalise > Desktop Background, then hold down Ctrl as you click on the images you like. Choose how often you'd like the images to be changed (anything from daily to once every 10 seconds), select Shuffle if you'd like the backgrounds to appear in a random order, then click Save Changes and enjoy the show.