Sergey Tkachenko, Author at Winaero

Snowy v2.0 visual style for Windows 8

ElevatedShortcut for Windows 7 and Windows 8

ElevatedShortcut has been superseded by Winaero Tweaker and is no longer being maintained. Unlike this app, Winaero Tweaker supports all recent Windows versions, including Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 and above. It constantly receives updates to improve the end user experience and make all its options more friendly for the end user.

Instead of the standalone ElevatedShortcut app, use the following options from Winaero Tweaker:

You can download Winaero Tweaker here: Download Winaero Tweaker.

Base theme for Windows 8

Chess theme for Windows 7

Mysterious Colors theme for Windows 8

Far Galaxies theme for Windows 8

Night City theme for Windows 8

How to remove Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos and Downloads folders from the Computer folder in Windows 8.1

Update: This manual method is no longer needed if you are not comfortable fiddling with the Registry. Use our easy to use tool, This PC Tweaker to hide and show the folders you want.

In Windows 8.1, there are some additional folders that show in the Computer folder. In case you don't like them showing in Computer or don't need them, follow this simple tutorial to learn how to remove them.

Open regedit.exe (See our Windows Registry Editor fundamentals)

Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\

Delete the following sub-keys:

{1CF1260C-4DD0-4ebb-811F-33C572699FDE} (Music)
{3ADD1653-EB32-4cb0-BBD7-DFA0ABB5ACCA} (Pictures)
{A0953C92-50DC-43bf-BE83-3742FED03C9C} (Videos)
{A8CDFF1C-4878-43be-B5FD-F8091C1C60D0} (Documents)
{374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B} (Downloads)

Before:

After:

How to enable the new Bing Search panel in Windows 8.1 (aka ‘Blue’)

Update: This trick is no longer needed for Windows 8.1 RTM where the Bing-powered search pane is already on by default.

Windows Blue comes with a new Bing-powered search pane for the Start screen. Although it is disabled by default, it is easy to enable it.

Open registry editor and navigate to the following key:
```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SearchPane
```
Tip: See our Windows Registry Editor fundamentals
Create here a new DWORD value, name it NewSearchPane and set it to 1.
Sign out and sign in back, and you will get the following search pane:

Via h0x0d's twitter

Thanks to my friend Nick for pointing me to this.

New Shell Commands and Shell Locations in Windows 8.1 (aka ‘Blue’)

Just for note: Windows 8.1 (aka 'Blue') features new shell commands and shell locations:

shell:::{A8CDFF1C-4878-43be-B5FD-F8091C1C60D0} - Documents folder pinned in the Computer folder.
shell:::{1CF1260C-4DD0-4ebb-811F-33C572699FDE} - Music folder pinned in the Computer folder.
shell:::{3ADD1653-EB32-4cb0-BBD7-DFA0ABB5ACCA} - Pictures folder pinned in the Computer folder.
shell:::{A0953C92-50DC-43bf-BE83-3742FED03C9C} - Videos folder pinned in the Computer folder.

shell:Camera Roll - A new folder to store pictures taken by the Camera pp
shell:SkyDrive - The SkyDrive shell folder which is synchronized online with SkyDrive
shell:SkyDriveDocuments - The Documents folder inside the SkyDrive shell folder
shell:SkyDrivePictures - The Pictures folder inside the SkyDrive shell folder

Stay tuned for more tips.