If you've settled into Windows 7 but find the change in the functionality of the backspace key while browsing files to be too much to bear, use this simple hack to turn the backspace key back to its XP state.

For the unfamiliar: in Windows XP pressing the backspace key while browsing files in Windows Explorer would navigate you up one folder level. In Windows Vista and Windows 7 however, the same keystroke doesn't move you up a folder level but back one stop in the history. It's a small thing but if you've coded the backspace into your muscle memory as a quick way to navigate up the folder hierarchy it can be a very annoying small thing to deal with.

Over at How-To Geek they've put together a guide to using AutoHotkey to resolve the backspace issue. You can either add their script to your AutoHotkey installation or download a stand alone executable—both are provided. Throw a link to the application in your Startup folder and you'll never have to deal with the backspace key not navigating the way you want. Check out the link below for full details and the files.

Windows only: Start menu replacement utility Classic Shell adds back some of the missing features in Windows 7 or Vista that used to exist in XP—like the Classic-style Start Menu.

During the installation process, you can choose to install two optional pieces—the first is the Classic Start Menu, which is a full-featured replacement that includes drag and drop, recent documents, and keyboard navigation. The second is Classic Explorer, a plugin for Windows Explorer that adds a toolbar with buttons for Up, Delete, and Copy/Paste, changes the file copying UI to look like XP, and a number of other changes. You can install one or both of these components, so if you want the start menu but don't want the explorer plugin, it won't waste resources on your system.

If this sounds familiar, it's because we've previously mentioned a similar utility, but this one is a superior replacement—with 64-bit support, drag/drop organizing, expanding Control Panel, right-click item management, and if that wasn't enough, it even keeps the native Windows 7 start menu around—just Shift+Click on the start button to access it.

Most readers will probably point out that the newer Windows 7 start menu format is well worth getting used to, but for those of you that just prefer the old way of doing things, the free, open-source Classic Shell is definitely for you.

If you're sick and tired of typing in your password every time your PC comes out of sleep mode, there's a simple tweak you can do to prevent it from happening again.

Over at the How-To Geek site (my home away from Lifehacker), I've written up a guide to changing the setting in each version of Windows, since it's different in all of them. For Windows 7, you can simply head to Power Options and find the Require a password on Wake Up link on the left-hand pane, in Windows XP it's on the Advanced tab of the Power Options, and in Windows Vista there's a whole bunch of extra steps—you'll need to head into the advanced power options and change the setting there.

It should go without saying that you probably don't want to enable this on your laptop, especially if you are traveling and keep your PC in standby most of the time—but it could really save you a lot of time, especially if you usually configure your PC to logon to Windows automatically.

Windows: The last updates from Microsoft have caused a headache for some users. A bug in the update causes certain programs to fail to render properly blacking out the whole screen. A third-party security company has released a fix. Updated below.

The problem—according to Prevx, the security firm that released a patch to fix the issue—involves the Microsoft patches altering the way registry keys are accessed:

[...] the cause of this recent crop of Black Screen appears to be a change in the Windows Operating Systems lock down of registry keys. This change has the effect of invalidating several key registry entries if they are updated without consideration of the new ACL rules being applied. For reference the rule change does not appear to have been publicised adequately, if at all, with the recent Windows updates.

If your black screen woes started as a result of your last Windows update, the Prevx patch should have a high probability of fixing the issue. If you don't have automatic update enabled you'll want to skip doing any updates until the next patch release comes out and corrects the black-screen-of-death issue. Check out the link below to read more and grab the patch.

Update: According to the Microsoft Security Response Center, Microsoft hasn't released any updates that could have caused the Black Screen problem described by Prevx, so if you're experiencing this problem, it's very unlikely that it was caused by a Microsoft update. (via @edbott)

Windows only: My Movies is a free plug-in for Windows Media Center designed to manage and play all of your movies within Windows Media Center, pulling in rich metadata for your movie collection, including cast, trailers, DVD art, and more.

Whether you rip your DVDs to your hard drive or you still prefer using the discs each time you watch a movie, My Movies 3 is a must-have. We mentioned the previous version, My Movies 2, in our roundup of eight killer Windows Media Center plug-ins, but My Movies has grown steadily since then, and with the release of My Movies 3 it also supports Windows 7. Once installed, the tool automatically indexes and downloads metadata for your movies whenever you insert a DVD.

Keep in mind that while My Movies 3 is designed specifically for Windows Media Center, other applications available from the My Movies people, like Collection Management, can work to supply great metadata to other applications, including XBMC.

My Movies 3 is a free download, Windows only. It is donation-supported, however, and you can unlock more features with your donations. Without spending a dollar, though, My Movies 3 is still a must for your Windows Media Center box.

Microsoft put far more work into the look and themes of Windows 7 than its previous operating systems. Pull down that design work into your non-7-system with Digital Inspiration's simple work-arounds.

You can't just grab the files from Windows 7's themes gallery and set them as your own. You can, however, use tools like 7-Zip and John's Background Switcher to pull out each theme pack's files, install them, set them to rotate (a la Windows 7), and even get the sounds, cursors, and other elements running.

It's a bit more work than "Click to install," but it's also a new source of themes, wallpapers, and other modifications that are more than compatible.

Windows Vista/Windows 7: If you're running multiple operating systems—and if you weren't before the release of Windows 7 you most likely are now—EasyBCD is a simple application for tweaking your bootloader through a clean GUI and well-detailed prompts.

With EasyBCD you can edit the names of entries, add and remove entries onto the bootloader menu, change the timeout on the bootloader selection menu, and tweak boot-related items like enabling PAE mode or run with the debug process enabled. EasyBCD includes support for adding Windows, Linux, Mac, NeoGrub, and WinPE loaders.

If this is your first time tinkering with a bootloader, EasyBCD makes the process fairly simple. By default the application is in basic mode instead of expert mode—in expert mode it won't prompt you if you're doing something that could be difficult to undo. For additional information you can visit the EasyBCD wiki.

Note: Although we didn't have any problems doing some minor tweaks on our test machine with the current public release of EasyBCD, if you're doing any heavy overhauling you'll want to play it safe and download the beta release. The beta officially supports Windows 7 and is available here.

Have a boot-related trick or tweak? Let's hear about it in the comments. EasyBCD is freeware and works with Windows Vista and up.