HELP! Windows 7 Automatically Moves and Resizes My Windows! How do I Turn This Off?

As soon users have discovered inadvertently Windows 7 now comes installed with a feature that can automatically move and resize your Windows depending on where they are dragged on the screen. This feature in Windows 7 is known as “Aero Snap” and was designed to increase productivity by allowing users to manage their windows easier.

Though in some cases this can lead to pure frustration for users, which is the case for many of the people who have emailed me asking how to fix this from happening.

If you prefer to manage your windows yourself and would like to disable Aero snap altogether simply follow these 3 easy steps:

1. First click “Start” > “Control Panel” and click on “Ease of Access”. Under Ease of Access Center select “Change how your mouse works”.
2. In the new window look for an option that says “Make it easier to manage Windows”.
3. Put a check mark next to the option that says “Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen”. Then click “Ok” to save your settings.

(The option above can also be set under “Change how your keyboard works” under the Ease of Access Center.)

You have now disabled the Aero Snap feature in Windows 7 and should no longer have to worry about your workspace being arranged automatically when you accidently move a window.

How to Fix Problems with Windows 7 Aero

One thing on Windows 7 that a lot of users have been emailing me about is Windows Aero. Aero is the 3D default Windows 7 theme that utilizes visual effects and transitions to make navigation more graphical in Windows 7.

In some cases Aero may not be functioning because it was not fully enabled on your system or various features are disabled.

To fix this do the following:

Click “Start” and in the Run / Find line type “Aero”.

In the bottom of the new window click on the “Troubleshoot problems with transparency and other Aero Effects” link.

This will open the “Aero” troubleshooting wizard. Click “Next” and follow the prompts to automatically resolve issues with Aero.

If the wizard finishes and does not detect or fix the problems you are having with Windows 7 Aero make sure you have the most updated video drivers for your system. This can be done by going to the video card manufacturer’s website and downloading the latest drivers. (In most cases this will be ATI or NVidia.)

If you are using onboard video you may need to check the motherboard manufacturer’s website for updated video drivers, or visit the website of the company that manufactured your computer if it is a gateway, HP, Dell, etc.

(If you are using onboard video and you continue to have issues with Aero not functioning correctly you may want to consider adding a video card to the system. It doesn’t need to be anything expensive, but just something that will give you dedicated video for the PC.)

If the above suggestions do not work you may be running into an issue with Aero features being disabled in the registry. One common feature that can be disabled is Aero Peek, which makes your windows semi transparent so you can see your desktop underneath the windows.

You can check for the this by clicking “Start” and in the Run / Find line type “Regedit”

Browse to the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM

And make sure that EnableAeroPeek is set to 1, and not 0 (1 being on, and zero being off)

Hopefully the above methods have helped you resolve any issues you may have been having with Windows 7 Aero.

Windows 7 Not Detecting CD / DVD ROM Drive

Some Windows 7 users have reported issues lately where Windows 7 is not detecting their DVD Drive after they have installed Windows.

In most of these cases there are two things users can do to attempt to fix the problem.

The first fix involves removing two registry entries referencing the DVD Rom Drive. These two entries can be found in the following location.

Click the Start Menu > and in the “FIND” or “RUN’ field type “REGEDIT”.

In the Registry Editor go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\

Once you have found this key, look in the right hand pane and remove the “UpperFilters” and “LowerFilters” key.

(Do not remove UpperFilters.bak and LowerFilters.bak)

If this does not correct the issue for you, other users have reported that renaming the Drive “Letter” has resolved the issue for them.

To rename the Drive letter right click on “Computer” and select “Manage”. Under the “Manage” window look for “Disk Management”

Under Disk Management right click on the white bar next to your optical Drive and on the menu select “Change Drive Letter”. Follow the prompt in the new window and it should take you to a drop down menu that will allow you to assign a new drive letter for your DVD Rom.

Once you have renamed the drive letter check under “My Computer” or “Explorer” to see if the drive is now showing. If it is you can repeat the process to change the drive letter back to its original and it should still be detected by Windows 7.

If the above methods fail try rebooting the system after you have made the changes outline above and see if this corrects the issue.

The Vista to Windows 7 Upgrade Hangs & Stops at 62% Percent

I have had a couple people mention to me lately that they have purchased the Windows 7 upgrade from Vista and have run into some problems. Many users are reporting a case where the system will hang at 62% during the Windows 7 upgrade.

This can actually be caused by several factors. To determine what might be affecting your installation you should check in the “Setup Log”. To do this you need to reboot your PC > roll back to Windows Vista > and then check the following file:

\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setupact.log

(You can open and view this file in Notepad)

This may give you a better idea of what happened that caused the system to hang at 62% during the Windows 7 upgrade / installation.

Microsoft has reported this issue can commonly be caused by a service called “lphlpsvc”. What this means to you as an end users is you should go to the Microsoft Support site and get the hotfix for this problem which can be located here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/975253

If the hotfix doesn’t correct the issue you may want to double check the Setup log for any clues as to other issues that may be causing the problem. This information can be helpful if you are familiar with PCs or are troubleshooting with tech support.

If all else fails I recommend attempting to do a clean install of Windows 7 as this is the least problematic way to upgrade to Windows 7. Just make sure you have all your data backed up beforehand as a clean install will format your hard drive.

Windows 7 Does Not Come Out of Sleep Mode (Hibernation / Stand By)

With Windows 7 Microsoft took the sleep mode / power saving options a little to the extreme. Because of this some users have been having issues getting their PC to come out of sleep mode. After working with Windows 7 for awhile I have come up with several common fixes that users can try if they are running into these problems.

Using the Power Button to Wake to the PC with Windows 7

In some cases with Hibernation / Sleep mode under Windows 7 waking the PC by jiggling the mouse or hitting any key on the keyboard will not wake the computer.

In these cases users should try hitting the power button on the front of the PC to bring the computer out of sleep mode.

When hitting the power button hold the button for the count of “One, One Thousand” and this should be enough to wake the computer up without sending it into an instant off.

Changing Power Saving Settings under Windows 7

In some cases this issue can just be so annoying that users prefer not to deal with it altogether. If this is the case you can change your power saving settings under Windows.

To do this, do the following:

1. Right Click on the Desktop and select “Personalize” from the menu.
2. At the bottom right hand corner of the Personalize window click the “Screen Saver” icon.
3. At the bottom of the Screen Saver window look for “Power Management” and click the “Change power settings” link.
4. In the new Window you should see an option that says “Balanced (recommended)” with a link that says “Change plan settings”. Click the Change plan settings link.
5. In the new window you will be given two options. (“Turn off the display” & “Put the computer to sleep”.) To prevent your computer from going into sleep mode change the settings to “Turn off the display: 20 minutes” and “Put the computer to sleep: Never”.
6. Once you have done this click the “Save changes” button. The click “OK” on the Screen Saver window.

Your system is now set to not go into Stand By

USB Keyboard and Mouse will not Wake PC in Windows 7

In some rare cases you may continue to experience issues with your computer not coming out of sleep mode. This may not necessarily be caused by the computer being in Stand By. But it may be that either the PC or Monitor is in Power Saving mode or the system won’t accept input from your USB Keyboard or Mouse to wake it.

This is because in Windows 7 the system may shut off power to USB devices to save power. In order to make sure this doesn’t happen you would need to do the following:

1. Click the Start Menu and then right click “Computer” and select “Properties”.
2. In the new window select the “Device Manager” link that is in the upper left hand corner.
3. In the Device Manager window look down towards the bottom of the window for “Universal Serial Bus Controllers”. Click the arrow to the left of this section.
4. In the drop down menu look for any instances of “USB Root Hub”. When you find the first one right click on it and select “Properties”.
5. In the USB Root Hub Properties window look for the tab in the upper right that says “Power Management”.
6. Click on “Power Management” and uncheck the option that says “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”. Then click “OK”.
7. Continue to do this for every instance of “USB Root Hub” in device manager.

What we have just done is make sure that the computer does not turn off power to the USB ports when it goes into a Power Saving mode. This should allow us to always wake the PC by use of the USB keyboard or mouse.

Hope some of these suggestions help!