10 Tips for Turbocharging Windows 7 Gaming
Windows Games Explorer Tips
The Games Explorer in Windows 7 is much more useful. In Vista, it was almost as if Microsoft was ashamed of the idea of people playing games on their PC. The Explorer lived in the right side start menu, not show up in the programs listing and, if you had a lot of games, it would take forever to load.
The Games Explorer in Win7 is much more flexible. It actually shows up as a group in the "All Programs" now. And there's other nifty stuff you can do with it. It's still not the release version of Windows 7, so some features (like finding updates) don't work. But you can still get a lot of benefit out of the Games Explorer.
Drag the Games Explorer to Your Desktop
Those of you who are neatniks about their desktops can ignore this, but you can now drag the Games Explorer from the Start Menu to the Windows 7 desktop. It's just another shortcut, and a double click will open it.
Drag Your Game to the Games Explorer
If you've ever had to scroll down a lengthy list of applications to find the publisher of your game, then launch it, the Games Explorer is your friend.
In the old days, some users would create a kind of virtual Games Explorer by force-installing all games to a common directory, like D:\Games. The Games Explorer now effectively virtualizes this.
Even Steam and Stardock Impulse games can now be dragged from their Start Menu entries into the Games Explorer.
Pin Frequently Used Games to the Task Bar
If you find yourself playing a hot new often—something we all do on occasion—even the chore of opening the Games Explorer takes too long. If you right click on one of the game icons in Games Explorer, it will give you the option of pinning it to the Task Bar. Now your game is just a single click away. You can right click on the icon in the task bar any time to unpin it.
Use Parental Controls
If you're using a shared family PC, and you want to avoid exposing small children to violent games, use Parental Controls. Note that Parental Controls only work if all accounts are password protected, and the account you allow your kids to log into is a standard user account (not an administrator account).
Other Windows 7 Gaming Tips
Calibrate your display—Windows 7 includes a nifty display calibration setup. In the control panel click "Hardware and Sound", then "Display", and then the "Calibrate color" link in the left column. This will create a profile for gamma and color adjustments, and optionally even TrueType settings.
If you already have a profile installed for your display, particularly if it's a wide color gamut display, then you may not want to use the Windows 7 calibration tool. This is particularly true if you're a digital photographer or videographer who wants to have a wide gamut display calibrated for Adobe RGB or other wide gamut color space.
On the other hand, if you have a wide gamut display, and you want to calibrate it for gaming and normal desktop use, you might want to set it for sRGB. Once set up for sRGB, you can use the Windows 7 calibration tool to get the color output that's most accurate.
While we're on the topic of displays, screen resolution has its own context (right click) menu. This will bring up the screen resolution menu. On it, you'll find a link to "Advanced Settings." Click on that, and you'll get the classic display property sheet. See the tab labeled "Color Management?" That takes to a screen with a single button labeled, oddly enough, "Color Management."
From that button, you can get to a very detailed screen that helps you manage the color for your display devices, and also includes another route to the Windows 7 display calibration tool. Tread carefully, though, as you could end up making all your images and games look either very dull or quite garish.
If there's a profile for your specific display, you can choose either ICC or sRGB viewing conditions. This way, you can have the best of both worlds: ICC profiles for photo and image editing and sRGB for normal desktop use and gaming.
DOS Games? On Windows 7?
Play old DOS games with DOSBox—Windows 7, like Vista, doesn't play nice with a whole lot of old DOS games. If you want to get your nostalgia fix on, we suggest trying DOSBox, a great, free, open source DOS emulator. Get it at DOSBox.
The Return of MSConfig.exe
Disable unwanted startup programs with msconfig.exe. In Vista, the easy way to do this was through Windows Defender. Just go to the Tools menu and choose Software Explorer.
That option is gone from Windows 7, at least in the RC. Instead, open the Start menu and type "msconfig" then press Enter. Our good old friend the System Configuration menu will pop up, and the Startup tab can be of great help in preventing unwanted applications, background services, and tools from running every time you boot up. (I'm looking at you, QTTask.exe.)
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