Administering Windows 7: Tools

In 2009, Microsoft introduced the new operating system Windows 7. In this OS, in addition to a large number of innovations, many management tools were implemented in almost all the key settings of the Windows 7 system. System administration provides the ability to manage users, groups, files and folders, access to them, Security system, printers, etc.

Types of Windows 7

There are several versions of the operating system Windows 7. They are designed for different tasks and applications, and, accordingly, have different capabilities and administration tools.

The most common modifications of Windows - the maximum, professional and home. Administration of Windows 7 has its own peculiarities in each of the types of OS. The most complete package for administration is presented in Windows 7 Ultimate, as it is universal for work tasks and for entertainment. The least settings in Windows 7 Starter. It is designed to solve basic problems, is installed on low-power laptops or netbooks, often intended for pre-sales demonstration of the possibility of computer equipment.

Why do I need administrator rights?

To perform full administration of Windows 7, you must have administrator rights. The user that is created during the installation of Windows has rather limited rights for security reasons. Under the current user's account, malicious programs or viruses will not be launched, important system files will not be accidentally deleted, no significant damage will be done to the OS files. But there are unpleasant moments. When installing some programs, for example, office software, the user may be faced with the fact that the changes made to the system have not been saved or the installed programs are malfunctioning and do not save data. When determining the reasons it turns out that the user does not have enough rights to certain operations, for example, to write files to the Program Files folder.

Ways to obtain administrator rights

To have more rights to administer Windows, you need to increase your authority in the system. You can do this in many ways. Two of them are most often used:

- Through the user management window. On the keyboard, you must type "WIN + R", type lusrmgr.msc in the opened window and click "OK". In the "Local Users and Groups" window that opens, you need to go to the "Users" item. On the administrator account, right-click the menu and select "Properties", in which to clear the check-out checkbox for the account. Then select the completion, click "OK" and restart the device.

- You may need to administer Windows 7 for a short time, for example, to run a program that is unstable in normal mode. To do this, right-click on the program and select the item "Run as administrator" from the menu. The program will work with elevated privileges.

To enable elevated permissions for permanent operation, you need to run a command prompt on behalf of the administrator, enter the line "net user Administrator / active: yes" (provided that you enable Windows 7 administration of the Russian version), and then press Enter. After the reboot, you will be able to select the administrator account on the welcome screen along with the other accounts.

It should be noted that permanent work under the administrator account is carried out with very low level of protection, since all programs, including viruses and malware, will be launched with maximum privileges.

Entering the computer control point

This is the place where administration in Windows 7 is most convenient through basic computer management tools. You can get there in many ways. The easiest way is to right-click the "My Computer" icon and select "Management" or "Tools" separately. There are also options for starting from the "Administration" panel in the Control Panel or through the command line with the command compmgmtlauncher. This snap-in includes such common Windows 7 administration tools as managing services and disks, viewing events and other management tools. Experienced users and administrators in case of system failures can quickly find the problem, just by examining the system lags in the "Event Viewer" tree. Logs are conducted on almost all events occurring in the system, from starting services when the computer is turned on and ending with recording the actions of users in the system.

Managing Windows Services

On the Services Management tab, you can see the list of services, their status. It is possible to change the mode and parameters of their operation and start-up. Often the administration of the Windows 7 service is used when a computer infects with viruses that themselves add as a service and are launched when the computer boots. To fight them you need to stop the service, and then remove it from the list of autorun.

Disk Management and Device Manager

It is equally important to administer Windows 7 disks. This makes it possible not only to create partitions on the hard disk, but also to resize them, assign them names and an alphabetic identifier, under which it appears in the system. In this section, the control panels are looked in the event that it is not detected in the flash drive system or the drive letter is not specified. When you connect new disks in the snap-in, you can assign them dimensions, perform formatting, and other operations.

Information about the hardware of the computer can be seen in the device manager. There are cases when new equipment is not determined by the system and it is necessary to look for drivers for it is not known where. Administration in Windows 7 allows in the device manager to look at information not only on the installed devices, but also on those drivers for which were not found. In the properties of each device, the unique identifier of the device, the group to which the device belongs, is specified. According to these parameters, you can easily find the driver for a new device. Most often, there are problems with video card drivers, Wi-Fi adapters, and so on.

Remote administration of Windows 7

Remote administration tools allow you to perform system settings and to fix errors in the operation of programs and the operating system remotely over an internal network or via the Internet. Remote administration of Windows 7 is not possible in all types of OS, the connection is configured only for corporate, professional and maximum versions (see the version of the operating system in the "Computer properties").

The built-in "Remote Desktop" utility allows an administrator to connect to a computer and make certain settings on it without affecting the user's session. To activate the connection, you need to go to the Control Panel, then in the system properties, make changes to the item "Setting up remote access". With Windows Firewall enabled and allowed remote connection, remote administration of Windows 7 is not difficult.

Administering Accounts

The operating system provides for the administration of Windows 7 accounts. It is possible to manage not only local accounts (creating new ones, editing, deleting existing ones, changing the password, etc.), but also with remote access user accounts. As mentioned above, for security reasons, it is recommended that you create a user account and log on to the system under it. Since it is with reduced privileges, then in the case of infection by the virus or with little experience of the user, the harm to system files will be minimal.

If you have multiple users on your computer, you can create multiple accounts. The user is selected when you log in to the Welcome screen. Each user can customize personal settings of the system, for example, such as shortcuts and desktop background, which are stored in the user's personal profile. The administrator has the ability to work with all profiles of computer users.

Network Administration

Another important subject of administration is the configuration of network parameters. To start administering Windows 7 networks , go to the "Start - Control Panel - Network and Internet" menu. Most often, administration consists of creating a homegroup and setting up sharing of files and folders of home devices, as well as accessing the printer on the home network.

Also, there are convenient options such as "Diagnosis and Troubleshooting", which allows for quick diagnosis and search for network problems.