There are plenty of ways to do this, the simplest is to just copy and past the files. But there is one limitation, you can’t copy and past software program files that easily. Your program won’t work if you do that. Either you have to re-install the software again or find another way to move the already installed programs from one partition onto another.

Luckily, there is a program, Steam Mover, that can move your already installed software from one partition to another partition. So in case if you are running out of disk space on your primary hard drive, you can use that to unload some heavy weight onto your secondary partition or hard drive.

Steam Mover, was initially designed for moving games in Steam. So if you are a hardcore PC gamer, you might heard of this. However, thanks to one of the Intern working for lifehacker, this tool actually do work for other programs other than steam games.

How Does Steam Mover work ?

First there are couple limitations, this tool will only work on Windows 7 or Vista. It will not work on XP. And this tool will not work on the OS that have hard drive formatted in FAT32. Also note, it might not work for all programs, which means unexpected things can happen and program might not be functional after the move.

You can start by download the Steam Mover

Unzip and run the program.

Select the programs you want to move from one hard drive (on the left) and select the destination location on the right.

Once you have confirmed click on the arrow of the program which you would like to move.

Once its finished moving the programs on your source now has a shortcut, and you will find new folders be added on your new destination.

Last thing, test it once the programs are moved! Nothing is more awful than finding out that your program has stopped working after the migration. For the couple of programs that I’ve tired, all worked quite well.

Download the Steam Mover

Related Articles From Windows7hacker:

• CrystalDiskInfo Is A Nice Portable Tool That Checks And Monitors Your Running Hard Disk
• What is hiberfil.sys and how to delete in Windows 7 free up hard drive space
• How To Use Built-in Disk Management Tool to Shrink or Extend Partition Volume in Windows 7

Both TickClick and TicTac are the portable FREE tool designed only for one purpose, snap the active window to 9 pre-defined positions. They also are the system tray utilities that stay quietly in the system tray waiting for the call. A registered hotkey combination is used when the tool is running.

TicTac uses WinKey + 1-9 numbers on the number pad to quickly snap the active window while TicClick uses WinKey + mouse click to bring up the position window to snap.

Both tools are developed by the developer for his own use. Because he doesn’t have a multiple-monitor setup so these two tools are only able to snap the active window within one active desktop. They don’t move the active window between the monitors.

You can also use Gridy to snap the active window to the grid if you want more snap options.

Note that the download link for both tools is located in the middle of this page.

Related Articles From Windows7hacker:

• Gridy Snaps Your Active Window to Grid in Windows 7
• ShellFolderFix Manages Your Folder Windows Sizes and Positions in Windows 7
• [Tips] Screen Shot Active Window only in Windows

EVERYTIME I try to open the .theme file it opens in notepad. what do i do?

Good question, instead of replying in the comment, I am sharing the fix here.

The program used to open .themepack file directly in display personalize is called Windows Shell Common DLL, so all you need to do is to re-associate the .themepack file extension to it. You can simply

1. right-click on the themepack file, go to Open With, and select Choose Default Program.

2. make sure the option "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" is checked and double click on Windows Shell Common DLL.

If you don’t see Windows Shell Common Dll in the list, you will then have to manually pick the shell32.dll file from %SystemRoot%\system32 folder.

If you currently don’t have a themepack file to start with, you can also do so from Control Panel.

1. Type "file type" in the search box from the start menu, and select Make a file type always open in a specific program from the list.

2. Find and highlight .themepack from the Name list and click on Change Program… button at the top.

3. Double-click on Windows Shell Common Dll to make the change. Again, if you don’t see it from the list, you will have to manually select the shell32.dll file from %SystemRoot%\system32 folder.

4. Once it’s done, you won’t be able to see the .themepack from Set Associate name list.

That’s about it. Once you’ve gone through either of the method, you should be able to open themepack file properly next time.

The same method can be applied to the other file extension as well.

Related Articles From Windows7hacker:

• How to show file extension in Windows 7 with keyboard shortcut
• How To Pin Folders In Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to change user Account display picture in Windows 7

Summer went by quickly, its another new month, September to me means it’s a new start for school again. For you it might mean something different. It’s the beginning of a new month as usual we bought you a complete set of Windows 7 Themes for this month’s wallpaper calendar theme from Smashing Magazine.

For tutorials on how to create Windows Themes click here.

Download Smashing Magazine September 2010 Windows 7 Theme (calendar)

Download Smashing Magazine September 2010 Windows 7 Theme (no calendar)

Related Articles From Windows7hacker:

• Download Smashing Magazine Desktop Wallpaper Calendar August 2010 Windows 7 Theme
• Download Smashing Magazine Desktop Wallpaper Calendar May 2010 Windows 7 Theme
• Download Smashing Magazine Desktop Wallpaper Calendar June 2010 Windows 7 Theme

And because it’s a new feature only introduced since Windows 7, how can I access a BitLocker encrypted data drive in previous Windows, like XP or Vista? It’s actually really simple.

When BitLocker encrypts a volume, for example, an USB drive, it automatically puts a copy of BitLocker-To-Go Reader tool in the drive.  And then later on when you plug in this encrypted drive into a Windows XP machine, instead of being prompted with a window letting you type in the password to unlock the drive, you will see two files in the drive, BitLocker-To-Go Reader and a Read Me html help file.

You can then simply double click the Reader, type in the password to unlock the drive.

You can now see the content stored in the storage.

As the tool’s name states, you can only read the content from encrypted drive but not write or change to it.

You can also download this tool from Microsoft website to your local XP/Vista computer so that you won’t be stuck if you don’t see the tool from the BitLockered storage.

Also note that, you won’t be able to see these two files from a Windows 7 computer. They seem to be hidden and can only be seen when it is connected on any previous windows that don’t support BitLocker-To-Go natively.

Related Articles From Windows7hacker:

• BitLocker in Question, But Don’t Worry, It’s Still A Foolproof Way of Protecting Sensitive Data
• [How To] Using Easy Transfer to Migrate Data Between XP, Vista, & Windows 7
• Native Boot to Windows 7 in VHD from Windows Vista

Desktops is a free utility tool, part of the famous Sysinternals toolkit,.developed by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell. The tool offers you more desktop spaces by providing you up to four virtual desktops, including the primary one you are currently using right now. You can then separate your applications to better organize them. For example, surfing the web on one desktop, reading and replying emails on the second, testing new software on the third, and working on your project on the fourth.

Desktops is also a portable tool that does not require an installation process in order to run it. You can simply download, extract the executable file from Zipped file, and run it. When it is first launched, it pops up the option window so that you can set up the hotkeys that will be used to switch between the virtual desktops. You can also set so that the tool can be run automatically at logon.

And then, the tool will hide in the system tray after you click on OK button. From this point on, the tool will be lightweightly running at the background, approximately only occupies 1.5m in memory,  managing the 4 virtual desktops for you. You can then switch desktops either pressing the hotkeys you set up earlier, or from Desktops program in the system tray.

Desktops can be smoothly run in Windows 7 on both 32-bit and 64-bit editions, however, with some limitations.

First, There is no way moving one window from one desktop to the other.

Second, because each desktop has its own Explorer process running to provide each desktop a dedicate taskbar, and start menu, most of the tray applications are only shown in the first primary desktop.

Third, Aero seems only available on the first primary desktop, but not on the rest of ones.

Related Articles From Windows7hacker:

• Dexpot With SevenDex Plugin Combines an Excellent Virtual Desktop Tool for Windows 7
• [How to] Enable Aero Theme With Remote Desktop and Virtual PC in Windows 7
• How To Completely Shut Down A Running Virtual Machine in Windows 7?

I actually do have experienced this before, quite a few times. When it did, in order to avoid a reboot I always have to poke around in the system trying to find a place where I can turn it back on. If you had experienced the same, here is a quick way to bring the Aero back without a reboot.

1. Type "Aero" in the search box in the Start Menu, and click on "Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects" program from the list. You may have to wait a few seconds for having it shown up.

2. An Aero Troubleshoot and help prevent computer problem wizard pops up. Click on Next button to start.

3. The wizard will then start the process trying to detect and fix any the problems related to Aero service. In most of cases, Aero will be turned back on during the process.

In addition, there are the hacks, mostly registry changes, that you can try to force the Aero enabled. However, I don’t see a need to use any of them. This simple built-in problem fix wizard is all you need.

[update]

Thanks to Glenn, who shared an even better way of re-turning Aero back on in the comment. You will have to open Dos Prompt window with administrator privilege first and run the following two command, basically to re-start uxsms, the Desktop Window Manager Session Manager service.

net stop uxsms

net start uxsms

Related Articles From Windows7hacker:

• [How to] Enable Aero Theme With Remote Desktop and Virtual PC in Windows 7
• Windows 7 Aero Shake & Snap with Keyboard Shortcut
• Love The Windows 7 Aero Theme ? Try Out “Aero” Apps That Are Semi Transparent

We have covered a nice free hard disk tool from Acronis not long ago that no only checks but also monitors the failure on your hard disk the same time. Here is another one that you may want to check.

CrystalDiskInfo, from the same guys who developed CrystalDiskMark, a tool we covered before that checks and benchmarks your hard disk’s read and write speed, is a HDD/SSD utility freeware that

• provides very detail information about your hard disk
• supports S.M.A.R.T
• supports external USB drives
• monitoring health status and temperature
• graph of S.M.A.R.T information
• control AAM/AMP settings
• etc.

CrystalDiskInfo has both installer and portable edition. With the portable edition, you can directly run the program without installing it first. And you can add it into your USB toolbox and use it when you need it.

The tool scans your computer to collect all hard disk info first once it’s launched and then will automatically detects any external hard disks connected later on if auto-detection is enabled.  It also provides many other functions from Function menu for you to pick and use. Even though you don’t need to change them to make the program work, it’s nice to have the options to have more control.

When the tool is in resident mode, it hides itself into the system tray, quietly monitoring the healthy of the running hard disk in your computer, and will pop up and alert you when detected any error.

Overall, CrystalDiskInfo is a pretty neat hard disk tool that you should keep it in your toolbox. It may even worth it having it quietly running in your system to keep monitoring your hard disk to prevent from data loose down the road.

Related Articles From Windows7hacker:

• Acronis Free Drive Monitor Tool Monitors and Predicts When Your Hard Drive is About To Fail
• NetSpeedMonitor Monitors Your Network Speed and Data Transfer [Tool]
• Microsoft Hardware-Assisted Virtualization Detection Tool Checks If Your PC is Windows XP Mode Ready

Here is a little trick that uses a neat job scheduling feature in Windows 7 to wake up a computer while it’s in sleep mode to perform the scheduled scanning job in Microsoft Security Essentials. Thanks to 7tutorials for finding and sharing this tip.

First of all, in order to make it work,

1. The computer has to be in a sleep mode. If it’s in hibernation or turned off, it cannot be woken up later on.

2. The schedule scan in Microsoft Security Essentials has to be on and set to a certain time. For example,

Then, turn on the wake up option in Task Scheduler

1. Open the task manager by simply typing “task scheduler” into the search box from the start menu.

2. Locate and highlight Microsoft Antimalware from Task Scheduler Library / Microsoft.

3.Highlight and right-click on MP Scheduled Scan job from the task list, and select Properties. If you don’t see the job, make sure View Hidden Tasks option is checked in the View toolbar.

4. In MP Scheduled Scan Properties window, click on Conditions tab, and tick the option “Wake the computer to run this task”.

The change will take effect immediately after clicking OK.

A few notes

1. This conditional option is not limited only to Microsoft Security Essentials. It can be applied to any task you want to schedule, preferably those backup jobs.

2. Besides this wakeup condition, you can also set the task to run

• only if the computer is on AC-Power.
• only if the computer is idle for certain amount of time.
• and only if the specified network connection is available.

3.  When the task scheduler service wakes up the computer to run a task, the screen will remain off even though the computer is no longer in sleep mode. The screen will be turned on only when Windows detects the activities from a user who returned to use the computer.

Related Articles From Windows7hacker:

• Updating Microsoft Security Essentials without Using Windows Update [Tips]
• How to Stop Mouse Wake Up Your Computer
• Microsoft Security Essentials 2. 0 Beta Goes Public Now

If you are out looking for an awesome word auto-completion tool to make your daily writing work more efficient with less typos, you may want to check out eType, a free tool that

• completes your words, while typing;
• translates to your native language;
• prevents spelling mistakes.

It’s currently still in beta so you can download the beta program and give it a try for FREE. And it most likely will remain as FREE tool after it leaves beta, as it complains their revenue model as follows:

“With the privilege of having strong financial backing, eType is completely free because it is truly focused on building a strong community of users, improving its predictive algorithm and releasing new features that will continue to enhance users’ writing skills.”

The tool is aimed to work in full integration with almost every program, browser, and website, including MS Word, Outlook, Gmail, ICQ, Live Messenger, and many more. It also offers you translation feature in your native language as well. Not only that, eType also gathers the contributions from the users all over the world and centralize it into one common dictionary to benefit back to the community.

The tools is very easy to install and use. Once it’s installed and launched, it will automatically prompts you the word suggestions  after you type the first 3 letters of the word in any of supported programs.

You can also change many of the settings to make the program to fit more in your preferences, including suggesting words after how many letters, hot-key to disable/enable the program, add more dictionaries, etc..

What is my impression then?

After 10 minutes of using it, I have already fall in love with it. It works as it promises, prompt and accurate. I will definitely keep this little program on every computer I use and hope it helps me write better with less mistakes.

However, because I have already loved it, I am obligate to point out the things I wish eType should have or fix. There are only two things, really.

• Please add support to Windows Live Writer. As a blogger, I actually use Live Writer much more than any of the word composing program, including MS Word.
• Please also make the program support better with dual-monitor setup. Currently, when I am writing on the secondary monitor, eType suggestion box pops up on the primary monitor, which makes my eyes busy scrolling back and forth between two monitors.

[update on Aug 24, 2010]

Thanks to Daniella from eType who pointed out a trick to enable eType in Live Writer in the comment. Yes, pressing Ctrl+F8 while in the Live Write did the trick and now I can enjoy the auto-completion while writing. Cool. Furthermore, the same trick can be applied to any other programs that aren’t enabled first after eType was installed. And that makes the tool look even better, as it can be used universally on almost every program in which you need to write things.

Related Articles From Windows7hacker:

• How to wisely use Microsoft Word as the Best Blogging tool
• A System Wide Tool That Can Help You To Check Any Misspelling Word In Any Application In Your Windows OS
• Acronis Free Drive Monitor Tool Monitors and Predicts When Your Hard Drive is About To Fail