94 Windows 7 tips, tricks and secrets Updated Help and advice for your Windows 7 PC
Whether you've just bought a second-hand PC running Windows 7 or you've been using it for a while, there are bound to be things you didn't know you could do.
Whether
it's tweaks to get the desktop the way you want it, tips for
troubleshooting or ways to squeeze more performance from Windows 7,
we've got it covered.
We've
updated our popular Windows 7 tips article with a load of new ones,
including how to recover and reset your system, how to tweak your screen
resolution and the legibility of text, play music on a network of PCs,
and more.
Read on for over 90 tips to help you get the best from Windows 7.
1. Problem Steps Recorder
As the local PC guru you're
probably very used to friends and family asking for help with their
computer problems, yet having no idea how to clearly describe what's
going on. It's frustrating, but Microsoft feels your pain, and Windows 7
will include an excellent new solution in the Problem Steps Recorder.
When
any app starts misbehaving under Windows 7 then all your friends need
do is click Start, type PSR and press Enter, then click Start Record. If
they then work through whatever they're doing then the Problem Steps
Recorder will record every click and keypress, take screen grabs, and
package everything up into a single zipped MHTML file when they're
finished, ready for emailing to you. It's quick, easy and effective, and
will save you hours of troubleshooting time.
2. Burn images
Windows 7 finally introduces a feature that
other operating systems have had for years - the ability to burn ISO
images to CDs or DVDs. And it couldn't be much easier to use. Just
double-click the ISO image, choose the drive with the blank disc, click
Burn and watch as your disc is created.
3. Create and mount VHD files
Microsoft's
Virtual PC creates its virtual machine hard drives in VHD files, and
Windows 7 can now mount these directly so you can access them in the
host system. Click Start, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter, then click
Action > Attach VHD and choose the file you'd like to mount. It will
then appear as a virtual drive in Explorer and can be accessed, copied
or written just like any other drive.
Click Action > Create VHD
and you can now create a new virtual drive of your own (right-click it,
select Initialise Disk, and after it's set up right-click the
unallocated space and select New Simple Volume to set this up). Again,
you'll be left with a virtual drive that behaves just like any other,
where you can drag and drop files, install programs, test partitioning
software or do whatever you like. But it's actually just this VHD file
on your real hard drive which you can easily back up or share with
others. Right-click the disk (that's the left-hand label that says "Disk
2" or whatever) and select Detach VHD to remove it.
The command
line DISKPART utility has also been upgraded with tools to detach a VHD
file, and an EXPAND command to increase a virtual disk's maximum size.
Don't play around with this unless you know what you're doing, though -
it's all too easy to trash your system.
4. Troubleshoot problems
If
some part of Windows 7 is behaving strangely, and you don't know why,
then click Control Panel > Find and fix problems (or
'Troubleshooting') to access the new troubleshooting packs. These are
simple wizards that will resolve common problems, check your settings,
clean up your system and more.
5. Startup repair
If you've downloaded Windows 7 (and even if
you haven't) it's a good idea to create a system repair disc straight
away in case you run into problems booting the OS later on. Click Start
> Maintenance > Create a System Repair Disc, and let Windows 7
build a bootable emergency disc. If the worst does happen then it could
be the only way to get your PC running again.
6. Take control
Tired
of the kids installing dubious software or running applications you'd
rather they left alone? AppLocker is a new Windows 7 feature that
ensures users can only run the programs you specify. Don't worry, that's
easier to set up than it sounds: you can create a rule to allow
everything signed by a particular publisher, so choose Microsoft, say,
and that one rule will let you run all signed Microsoft applications.
Launch GPEDIT.MSC and go to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings
> Security Settings > Application Control Policies > AppLocker
to get a feel for how this works.
7. Calculate more
At first glance the Windows 7 calculator
looks just like Vista's version, but explore the Mode menu and you'll
see powerful new Statistics and Programmer views. And if you're clueless
about bitwise manipulation, then try the Options menu instead. This
offers many different unit conversions (length, weight, volume and
more), date calculations (how many days between two dates?), and
spreadsheet-type templates to help you calculate vehicle mileage,
mortgage rates and more.
Don't take any Windows 7 applet at face
value, then - there are some very powerful new features hidden in the
background. Be sure to explore every option in all Windows applets to
ensure you don't miss anything important.
8. Switch to a projector
Windows 7 now provides a standard
way to switch your display from one monitor to another, or a projector -
just press Win+P or run DisplaySwitch.exe and choose your preferred
display. (This will have no effect if you've only one display
connected.)
9. Get a power efficiency report
If you have a
laptop, you can use the efficiency calculator to get Windows 7 to
generate loads of useful information about its power consumption. Used
in the right way, this can help you make huge gains in terms of battery
life and performance. To do this you must open a command prompt as an
administrator by typing 'cmd' in Start Search, and when the cmd icon
appears, right-click it and choose Run as administrator.
Then at
the command line, just type in 'powercfg -energy' (without quotes) and
hit Return, and Windows 7 will scan your system looking for ways to
improve power efficiency. It will then publish the results in an HTML
file, usually in the System32 folder. Just follow the path it gives you
to find your report.
Windows 7 is easy to customise with your favourite kitty pictures
Whether you've just bought a second-hand PC running Windows 7 or you've been using it for a while, there are bound to be things you didn't know you could do.
Whether
it's tweaks to get the desktop the way you want it, tips for
troubleshooting or ways to squeeze more performance from Windows 7,
we've got it covered.
We've
updated our popular Windows 7 tips article with a load of new ones,
including how to recover and reset your system, how to tweak your screen
resolution and the legibility of text, play music on a network of PCs,
and more.
Read on for over 90 tips to help you get the best from Windows 7.
1. Problem Steps Recorder
As
the local PC guru you're probably very used to friends and family
asking for help with their computer problems, yet having no idea how to
clearly describe what's going on. It's frustrating, but Microsoft feels
your pain, and Windows 7 will include an excellent new solution in the
Problem Steps Recorder.
When any app starts misbehaving under
Windows 7 then all your friends need do is click Start, type PSR and
press Enter, then click Start Record. If they then work through whatever
they're doing then the Problem Steps Recorder will record every click
and keypress, take screen grabs, and package everything up into a single
zipped MHTML file when they're finished, ready for emailing to you.
It's quick, easy and effective, and will save you hours of
troubleshooting time.
Windows
7 finally introduces a feature that other operating systems have had
for years - the ability to burn ISO images to CDs or DVDs. And it
couldn't be much easier to use. Just double-click the ISO image, choose
the drive with the blank disc, click Burn and watch as your disc is
created.
3. Create and mount VHD files
Microsoft's Virtual
PC creates its virtual machine hard drives in VHD files, and Windows 7
can now mount these directly so you can access them in the host system.
Click Start, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter, then click Action >
Attach VHD and choose the file you'd like to mount. It will then appear
as a virtual drive in Explorer and can be accessed, copied or written
just like any other drive.
Click Action > Create VHD and you
can now create a new virtual drive of your own (right-click it, select
Initialise Disk, and after it's set up right-click the unallocated space
and select New Simple Volume to set this up). Again, you'll be left
with a virtual drive that behaves just like any other, where you can
drag and drop files, install programs, test partitioning software or do
whatever you like. But it's actually just this VHD file on your real
hard drive which you can easily back up or share with others.
Right-click the disk (that's the left-hand label that says "Disk 2" or
whatever) and select Detach VHD to remove it.
The command line
DISKPART utility has also been upgraded with tools to detach a VHD file,
and an EXPAND command to increase a virtual disk's maximum size. Don't
play around with this unless you know what you're doing, though - it's
all too easy to trash your system.
4. Troubleshoot problems
If
some part of Windows 7 is behaving strangely, and you don't know why,
then click Control Panel > Find and fix problems (or
'Troubleshooting') to access the new troubleshooting packs. These are
simple wizards that will resolve common problems, check your settings,
clean up your system and more.
5. Startup repair
If
you've downloaded Windows 7 (and even if you haven't) it's a good idea
to create a system repair disc straight away in case you run into
problems booting the OS later on. Click Start > Maintenance >
Create a System Repair Disc, and let Windows 7 build a bootable
emergency disc. If the worst does happen then it could be the only way
to get your PC running again.
6. Take control
Tired of the
kids installing dubious software or running applications you'd rather
they left alone? AppLocker is a new Windows 7 feature that ensures users
can only run the programs you specify. Don't worry, that's easier to
set up than it sounds: you can create a rule to allow everything signed
by a particular publisher, so choose Microsoft, say, and that one rule
will let you run all signed Microsoft applications. Launch GPEDIT.MSC
and go to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security
Settings > Application Control Policies > AppLocker to get a feel
for how this works.
7. Calculate more
At first glance the
Windows 7 calculator looks just like Vista's version, but explore the
Mode menu and you'll see powerful new Statistics and Programmer views.
And if you're clueless about bitwise manipulation, then try the Options
menu instead. This offers many different unit conversions (length,
weight, volume and more), date calculations (how many days between two
dates?), and spreadsheet-type templates to help you calculate vehicle
mileage, mortgage rates and more.
Don't take any Windows 7 applet
at face value, then - there are some very powerful new features hidden
in the background. Be sure to explore every option in all Windows
applets to ensure you don't miss anything important.
The new Calculator is packed with useful features and functionality
8. Switch to a projector
Windows
7 now provides a standard way to switch your display from one monitor
to another, or a projector - just press Win+P or run DisplaySwitch.exe
and choose your preferred display. (This will have no effect if you've
only one display connected.)
9. Get a power efficiency report
If
you have a laptop, you can use the efficiency calculator to get Windows
7 to generate loads of useful information about its power consumption.
Used in the right way, this can help you make huge gains in terms of
battery life and performance. To do this you must open a command prompt
as an administrator by typing 'cmd' in Start Search, and when the cmd
icon appears, right-click it and choose Run as administrator.
Then
at the command line, just type in 'powercfg -energy' (without quotes)
and hit Return, and Windows 7 will scan your system looking for ways to
improve power efficiency. It will then publish the results in an HTML
file, usually in the System32 folder. Just follow the path it gives you
to find your report.
10. Understanding System Restore
Using
System Restore in previous versions of Windows has been something of a
gamble. There's no way of telling which applications or drivers it might
affect - you just have to try it and see.
Windows 7 is different.
Right-click Computer, select Properties > System Protection >
System Restore > Next, and choose the restore point you'd like to
use. Click the new button to 'Scan for affected programs' and Windows
will tell you which (if any) programs and drivers will be deleted or
recovered by selecting this restore point. (Read our full Windows 7 System Restore tutorial.)
11. Set the time zone
System administrators will appreciate
the new command line tzutil.exe utility, which lets you set a PC's time
zone from scripts. If you wanted to set a PC to Greenwich Mean Time, for
instance, you'd use the command
tzutil /s "gmt standard time"
The
command "tzutil /g" displays the current time zone, "tzutil /l" lists
all possible time zones, and "tzutil /?" displays details on how the
command works.
12. Easily set screen resolution
Choosing a
new screen resolution used to involve locating and browsing through the
Display Properties applet. Windows 7 made this far simpler, though -
just right-click an empty part of the desktop, select Screen Resolution
and you'll immediately see the appropriate options.
13. Calibrate your screen
The
colours you see on your screen will vary depending on your monitor,
graphics cards settings, lighting and more, yet most people use the same
default Windows colour profile. And that means a digital photo you
think looks perfect might appear very poor to everybody else.
Fortunately Windows 7 now provides a Display Colour Calibration Wizard
that helps you properly set up your brightness, contrast and colour
settings, and a ClearType tuner to ensure text is crisp and sharp. Click
Start, type DCCW and press Enter to give it a try.
14. Clean up Live Essentials
Installing Windows Live
Essentials will get you the new versions of Mail, Movie Maker, Photo
Gallery and others - great. Unfortunately it also includes other
components that may be unnecessary, but if you like to keep a clean
system then these can be quickly removed.
If you left the default
Set Your Search Provider option selected during installation, for
instance, Windows Live will install Choice Guard, a tool to set your
browser home page and search engine, and prevent other programs from
changing them. If this causes problems later, or you just decide you
don't need it, then Choice Guard may be removed by clicking Start,
typing msiexec /x {F0E12BBA-AD66-4022-A453-A1C8A0C4D570} and pressing
[Enter].
Windows Live Essentials also adds an ActiveX Control to
help upload your files to Windows Live SkyDrive, as well as the Windows
Live Sign-in Assistant, which makes it easier to manage and switch
between multiple Windows Live accounts. If you're sure you'll never need
either then remove them with the Control Panel Uninstall a Program
applet.
15. Add network support
By default Windows Live
MovieMaker won't let you import files over a network, but a quick
Registry tweak will change this. Run REGEDIT, browse to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live\Movie Maker, add a
DWORD value called AllowNetworkFiles and set it to 1 to add network
support.
Windows 7 is easy to customise with your favourite kitty pictures
Whether you've just bought a second-hand PC running Windows 7 or you've been using it for a while, there are bound to be things you didn't know you could do.
Whether
it's tweaks to get the desktop the way you want it, tips for
troubleshooting or ways to squeeze more performance from Windows 7,
we've got it covered.
We've
updated our popular Windows 7 tips article with a load of new ones,
including how to recover and reset your system, how to tweak your screen
resolution and the legibility of text, play music on a network of PCs,
and more.
Read on for over 90 tips to help you get the best from Windows 7.
1. Problem Steps Recorder
As
the local PC guru you're probably very used to friends and family
asking for help with their computer problems, yet having no idea how to
clearly describe what's going on. It's frustrating, but Microsoft feels
your pain, and Windows 7 will include an excellent new solution in the
Problem Steps Recorder.
When any app starts misbehaving under
Windows 7 then all your friends need do is click Start, type PSR and
press Enter, then click Start Record. If they then work through whatever
they're doing then the Problem Steps Recorder will record every click
and keypress, take screen grabs, and package everything up into a single
zipped MHTML file when they're finished, ready for emailing to you.
It's quick, easy and effective, and will save you hours of
troubleshooting time.
Windows
7 finally introduces a feature that other operating systems have had
for years - the ability to burn ISO images to CDs or DVDs. And it
couldn't be much easier to use. Just double-click the ISO image, choose
the drive with the blank disc, click Burn and watch as your disc is
created.
3. Create and mount VHD files
Microsoft's Virtual
PC creates its virtual machine hard drives in VHD files, and Windows 7
can now mount these directly so you can access them in the host system.
Click Start, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter, then click Action >
Attach VHD and choose the file you'd like to mount. It will then appear
as a virtual drive in Explorer and can be accessed, copied or written
just like any other drive.
Click Action > Create VHD and you
can now create a new virtual drive of your own (right-click it, select
Initialise Disk, and after it's set up right-click the unallocated space
and select New Simple Volume to set this up). Again, you'll be left
with a virtual drive that behaves just like any other, where you can
drag and drop files, install programs, test partitioning software or do
whatever you like. But it's actually just this VHD file on your real
hard drive which you can easily back up or share with others.
Right-click the disk (that's the left-hand label that says "Disk 2" or
whatever) and select Detach VHD to remove it.
The command line
DISKPART utility has also been upgraded with tools to detach a VHD file,
and an EXPAND command to increase a virtual disk's maximum size. Don't
play around with this unless you know what you're doing, though - it's
all too easy to trash your system.
4. Troubleshoot problems
If
some part of Windows 7 is behaving strangely, and you don't know why,
then click Control Panel > Find and fix problems (or
'Troubleshooting') to access the new troubleshooting packs. These are
simple wizards that will resolve common problems, check your settings,
clean up your system and more.
5. Startup repair
If
you've downloaded Windows 7 (and even if you haven't) it's a good idea
to create a system repair disc straight away in case you run into
problems booting the OS later on. Click Start > Maintenance >
Create a System Repair Disc, and let Windows 7 build a bootable
emergency disc. If the worst does happen then it could be the only way
to get your PC running again.
6. Take control
Tired of the
kids installing dubious software or running applications you'd rather
they left alone? AppLocker is a new Windows 7 feature that ensures users
can only run the programs you specify. Don't worry, that's easier to
set up than it sounds: you can create a rule to allow everything signed
by a particular publisher, so choose Microsoft, say, and that one rule
will let you run all signed Microsoft applications. Launch GPEDIT.MSC
and go to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security
Settings > Application Control Policies > AppLocker to get a feel
for how this works.
7. Calculate more
At first glance the
Windows 7 calculator looks just like Vista's version, but explore the
Mode menu and you'll see powerful new Statistics and Programmer views.
And if you're clueless about bitwise manipulation, then try the Options
menu instead. This offers many different unit conversions (length,
weight, volume and more), date calculations (how many days between two
dates?), and spreadsheet-type templates to help you calculate vehicle
mileage, mortgage rates and more.
Don't take any Windows 7 applet
at face value, then - there are some very powerful new features hidden
in the background. Be sure to explore every option in all Windows
applets to ensure you don't miss anything important.
The new Calculator is packed with useful features and functionality
8. Switch to a projector
Windows
7 now provides a standard way to switch your display from one monitor
to another, or a projector - just press Win+P or run DisplaySwitch.exe
and choose your preferred display. (This will have no effect if you've
only one display connected.)
9. Get a power efficiency report
If
you have a laptop, you can use the efficiency calculator to get Windows
7 to generate loads of useful information about its power consumption.
Used in the right way, this can help you make huge gains in terms of
battery life and performance. To do this you must open a command prompt
as an administrator by typing 'cmd' in Start Search, and when the cmd
icon appears, right-click it and choose Run as administrator.
Then
at the command line, just type in 'powercfg -energy' (without quotes)
and hit Return, and Windows 7 will scan your system looking for ways to
improve power efficiency. It will then publish the results in an HTML
file, usually in the System32 folder. Just follow the path it gives you
to find your report.
10. Understanding System Restore
Using
System Restore in previous versions of Windows has been something of a
gamble. There's no way of telling which applications or drivers it might
affect - you just have to try it and see.
Windows 7 is different.
Right-click Computer, select Properties > System Protection >
System Restore > Next, and choose the restore point you'd like to
use. Click the new button to 'Scan for affected programs' and Windows
will tell you which (if any) programs and drivers will be deleted or
recovered by selecting this restore point. (Read our full Windows 7 System Restore tutorial.)
11. Set the time zone
System
administrators will appreciate the new command line tzutil.exe utility,
which lets you set a PC's time zone from scripts. If you wanted to set a
PC to Greenwich Mean Time, for instance, you'd use the command
tzutil /s "gmt standard time"
The
command "tzutil /g" displays the current time zone, "tzutil /l" lists
all possible time zones, and "tzutil /?" displays details on how the
command works.
12. Easily set screen resolution
Choosing a
new screen resolution used to involve locating and browsing through the
Display Properties applet. Windows 7 made this far simpler, though -
just right-click an empty part of the desktop, select Screen Resolution
and you'll immediately see the appropriate options.
13. Calibrate your screen
The
colours you see on your screen will vary depending on your monitor,
graphics cards settings, lighting and more, yet most people use the same
default Windows colour profile. And that means a digital photo you
think looks perfect might appear very poor to everybody else.
Fortunately Windows 7 now provides a Display Colour Calibration Wizard
that helps you properly set up your brightness, contrast and colour
settings, and a ClearType tuner to ensure text is crisp and sharp. Click
Start, type DCCW and press Enter to give it a try.
14. Clean up Live Essentials
Installing
Windows Live Essentials will get you the new versions of Mail, Movie
Maker, Photo Gallery and others - great. Unfortunately it also includes
other components that may be unnecessary, but if you like to keep a
clean system then these can be quickly removed.
If you left the
default Set Your Search Provider option selected during installation,
for instance, Windows Live will install Choice Guard, a tool to set your
browser home page and search engine, and prevent other programs from
changing them. If this causes problems later, or you just decide you
don't need it, then Choice Guard may be removed by clicking Start,
typing msiexec /x {F0E12BBA-AD66-4022-A453-A1C8A0C4D570} and pressing
[Enter].
Windows Live Essentials also adds an ActiveX Control to
help upload your files to Windows Live SkyDrive, as well as the Windows
Live Sign-in Assistant, which makes it easier to manage and switch
between multiple Windows Live accounts. If you're sure you'll never need
either then remove them with the Control Panel Uninstall a Program
applet.
15. Add network support
By default Windows Live
MovieMaker won't let you import files over a network, but a quick
Registry tweak will change this. Run REGEDIT, browse to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live\Movie Maker, add a
DWORD value called AllowNetworkFiles and set it to 1 to add network
support.
16. Activate XP mode
If you've got old but
important software that no longer runs under Windows 7, then you could
try using XP Mode, a virtual copy of XP that runs in a window on your
Windows 7 desktop. This only works with Windows 7 Professional,
Enterprise, or Ultimate. And your system will need to have hardware
virtualisation (AMD-V or Intel VT) built in and turned on, too (check
your Bios to make sure).
An alternative is to use VirtualBox, a
free virtualisation tool that doesn't insist on hardware support, but
you will need to find a licensed copy of XP (or whatever other Windows
version your software requires) for its virtual machine.
17. Enable virtual Wi-Fi
Windows 7 includes a little-known
new feature called Virtual Wi-Fi, which effectively turns your PC or
laptop into a software-based router. Any other Wi-Fi-enabled devices
within range - a desktop, laptop, an iPod perhaps - will see you as a
new network and, once logged on, immediately be able to share your
internet connection.
This will only work if your wireless adapter
driver supports it, though, and not all do. Check with your adapter
manufacturer and make sure you've installed the very latest drivers to
give you the best chance.
Once you have driver support then the easiest approach is to get a network tool that can set up virtual Wi-Fi for you. Virtual Router (below) is free, easy to use and should have you sharing your internet connection very quickly.
If you don't mind working with the command line, though, maybe setting
up some batch files or scripts, then it's not that difficult to set this
up manually. See Turn your Windows 7 laptop into a wireless hotspot for more.
18. Recover locked-up apps
If an application locks up under a
previous version of Windows then there was nothing you could do about
it. A new Windows 7 option, however, can not only explain the problem,
but may get your program working again without any loss of data.
When the lockup occurs, click Start, type RESMON and click the RESMON.EXE link to launch the Resource Monitor.
Find your frozen process in the CPU pane (it should be highlighted in red), right-click it and select Analyze Wait Chain.
If
you see at least two processes in the list, then the lowest, at the end
of the tree, is the one holding up your program. If it's not a vital
Windows component, or anything else critical, then save any work in
other open applications, check the box next to this process, click End
Process, and your locked-up program will often spring back to life.
19. Fault-Tolerant Help
Windows 7 includes a new feature
called the Fault Tolerant Help (FTH), a clever technology that looks out
for unstable processes, detects those that may be crashing due to
memory issues, and applies several real-time fixes to try and help. If
these work, that's fine - if not, the fixes will be undone and they
won't be applied to that process again.
While this is very good in
theory, it can leave you confused as some applications crash, then
start working (sometimes) for no apparent reason. So if you'd like to
check if the FTH is running on your PC, launch REGEDIT, and go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\FTH - any program currently being
protected by the FTH will be listed in the State key.
Experienced
users may also try tweaking the FTH settings to catch more problems, and
perhaps improve system stability. A post on Microsoft's Ask The
Performance Team blog (bit.ly/d1JStu) explains what the various FTH
Registry keys mean.
20. Control devices and printers
Device
Manager is a powerful tool for managing hardware, but it's also rather
technical and intimidating, which is probably why Windows 7 has
introduced a more basic alternative in the Devices and Printers applet.
The
first improvement is purely visual, with lengthy and cryptic device
names replaced by large icons for major hardware items only (monitor,
mouse, hard drive, printer and so on).
The new applet can also
save you time, though, by providing a quick and easy way to access
relevant functions for each device. If you've got some printer-related
issue, say, right-clicking your printer icon displays a list of useful
options - See What's Printing, Printer Preferences, Printer Properties,
Delete Printer Queue and more - and all you have to do is select
whatever you need.
21. Automatically switch your default printer
Windows
7's location-aware printing allows the operating system to
automatically switch your default printer as you move from one network
to another.
To set this up, first click Start, type Devices, and click the Devices and Printers link.
Select
a printer and click Manage Default Printers (this is only visible on a
mobile device, like a laptop - you won't see it on a PC).
Choose
the Change My Default Printer When I Change Networks option, select a
network, the default printer you'd like to use, and click Add.
Repeat the process for other networks available, and pick a default printer for each one.
And
now, as you connect to a new network, Windows 7 will check this list
and set the default printer to the one that you've defined.
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