How to switch between two OSes. How to quickly switch between audio devices in Windows

Windows' standard methods of switching between active audio devices are inconvenient. Comfort does not increase from version to version. You need to open “Playback devices”, select an audio device from the list and make it work by default. You can also switch the device in the volume mixer window. Such solutions are controversial from the point of view of convenience and aesthetics.

Installing and configuring Audio Switcher

Audio Switcher is a free audio device switcher focused on speed of use. When creating it, the developers did not take care of packaging: the program does not shine with beauty, but you will quickly forget about it, because you will not have to see the interface.

Download Audio Switcher from the official website. After the download is complete, open the archive in .ZIP format and copy the single AudioSwitcher.exe file to comfortable spot. Installation completed! Run the file, the program icon will appear in the system tray. Right-click on the icon, select Open Preferences and make preliminary settings.

We recommend checking the box Start when Windows starts. This feature allows the program to start automatically when you log into Windows. We suggest checking the Show Default Playback Device icon in tray checkbox. The active device icon will appear in the tray. Check Start minimized so that the program does not remind you of itself when starting.

After completing the preliminary setup, open the Playback tab and select which device will work by default. Now you can switch between headphones and speakers in just two clicks:

• right-click on the Audio Switcher icon in the notification area;
• select the desired device from the pop-up list.

Audio Switcher supports the use of hotkeys. Each device can be assigned its own combination or select a common one to switch between them.

In the near future, the developers are going to release Audio Switcher 2.0. A new version will provide users with an improved interface, translation into various languages ​​of the world, support for JavaScript-based scripts, the ability to configure automatic operation of the program (for example, turn on speakers when watching a movie, and turn on headphones when starting music) and color themes. The program is automatically updated, so it will be difficult to miss the release of version 2.0.

To be honest, I am very skeptical about all new programs, especially if they are not considered “vital”. 99% of everything I try in one way or another ends up in the trash within the first hour of use. But the iReboot utility turned out to be a pleasant exception from the crowd. I tested it for five days and can note the following advantages: it is convenient, lightweight and bug-free.

General information

To the author of the utility iReboot standard way to reboot to another OS ("Start ---> select "Reboot" from the shutdown menu ---> select the desired OS from the boot menu ---> Enter") seemed too long, so he decided to simplify it.

So, if you have several Windows operating systems installed and you need to switch between them often, use the iReboot utility. It will create an icon in the system tray, and rebooting to another OS will be done in two clicks.

The program can:

• restart the computer and enter the desired OS, without using the boot menu.

The program cannot:

• restore the boot store (BCD), e.g. Windows installation XP after Windows 7. Requires that the BCD have entries for all installed systems (ie, those OSes can be booted from the boot menu).
• delete the boot menu, it just does not appear during the next reboot.
• boot Linux.

Downloading and installing iReboot

The program requires .NET Framework 2.0 or higher to be installed. In Windows 7 and Windows Vista, a suitable version of the .NET Framework is available, in Windows 8 you must enable .NET Framework 3.5.1 (the system will prompt you to do this during program installation), and for Windows XP you must download and install it, otherwise the program will not start: "An error occurred while initializing the application (0xc0000135). Click OK to exit the application."

After this, restart iReboot and make sure that the renaming was successful.

Enjoy using it!

Instructions

By default, the operating system is selected when the computer is turned on, after the basic input/output system (BIOS) has finished working. Therefore, to change the OS, you need to initiate a reboot of the computer - in Windows this is done from the main menu, opened by pressing the Win key. After the new boot cycle begins and a list of systems installed on the computer appears on the screen, navigate through its lines using the arrow keys and make a selection by pressing the Enter key. This menu is displayed for 30 seconds (the timer is also present on the screen), and then, if the user has not made a choice, the OS loads by default - it is first in the list.

If this menu does not appear when you boot your computer, it is most likely disabled in the settings. In this case, use the boot protocol controls built into the operating system. In Windows 7, to do this, first press the Win + Pause key combination, then click on the “Advanced system settings” link and on the “Advanced” tab of the new window, click the “Options” button in the “Startup and Recovery” section.

In the next open settings window, check the checkbox next to “Display a list of operating systems” and select the length of time to wait for the user to select in seconds. After this, click the OK buttons in the two open windows and you can proceed to reboot to select the OS change.

The simultaneous operation of two operating systems on one computer is impossible, but there are programs that, under the control of the main OS, imitate the actions of the other. If you install such a “virtual machine”, you will be able to switch between the main OS and the simulated one without having to restart the computer. Find software To implement such a scheme, you can use the Internet - for example, it could be VMware or Connectix Virtual PC.

Windows OS continues to provide the ability to use a DOS command emulator in standard distributions. However, now the job descriptions in command line are not so common, and from time to time questions arise about which command and with which syntax should be used for relatively simple operations. One of these questions is how to switch to another drive in the terminal.

Instructions

Use the chdir command (from Change Directory) to switch between physical or virtual disks of your . The syntax allows you to use this command in its abbreviated form - cd. To get complete help about this command, type this: chdir /? Using this modifier (/?) you can get help not only about this, but also about any other command.

Add the /d modifier to the cd (or chdir) command to change the current drive. For example, to switch to drive E you should type the following command: cd /d E: And the command to go to the root folder of the current drive does not require you to specify anything other than a backslash: cd

If you need to switch to a specific directory of another virtual or physical disk, you should specify the full path to it from the root directory of the new disk. For example, to go to the InnerFolder folder located in the OuterFolder folder of drive D, the corresponding command should look like this: cd /d D:OuterFolderInnerFolder It is not necessary to type long paths to the desired directories in the terminal each time - it is possible to use copy operations using the mouse. You can, for example, in standard Windows Explorer, copy the full path to the folder in the address bar, then switch to the line terminal, right-click and select paste from the context menu.

If there are spaces in the name of the directory you want to switch to, then specifying the full path to the desired folder will not always be enough. In some cases it must be enclosed in quotation marks. For example:cd "D:Program Filesmsn gaming zone"

The need for quotes only arises when so-called "shell extensions" are enabled. They can be disabled with the appropriate command: cmd e:off

Tip 3: How to switch between operating systems

During the operation of a computer, a situation may arise when it is necessary to test the operation of a particular software on different operating systems. Or some programs are designed for a strictly specific operating system, while all the rest work under your main “OS”. In any case, quite often users have a question: “How do I switch between operating systems?”

You will need

• Computer running operating systems, Acronis OS selector application

Instructions

Specialized software is designed to solve this. One such program is the Acronis OS selector application. This allows you to

If you are not the only user of your computer, then most likely you will need to create several accounts. Thanks to this, you can separate personal information and any data in general. But not every user knows how to switch between profiles, because in Windows 8 this procedure has been slightly changed, which misleads many. Let's look at how to change account in this OS version.

Multiple users using the same account can be inconvenient. In order to avoid this, Microsoft allowed us to create multiple accounts on the computer and switch between them at any time. In new Windows versions 8 and 8.1, the process of switching from one account to another has been changed, which is why we are raising the question of how to change a user.

Method 1: Through the Start menu

Method 2: Through the system screen

By performing these simple manipulations, you can easily switch between accounts. We've looked at two methods that will allow you to quickly switch to using another account at any time. Tell your friends and acquaintances about these methods, because knowledge is never superfluous.

When you have a dozen windows open, switching between them can be inconvenient. However, you can always make work a little more comfortable.

Key switching

In operating rooms Windows systems There is a special keyboard shortcut that allows you to quickly switch between windows. This combination is Alt+Tab. However, it works a little unusually compared to other hotcases. Pressing this shortcut once will move you between the last two active windows, and by holding down the Alt key and pressing and releasing the tab key, you can sequentially select any of the open windows. To go to the window, simply release the Alt key.

If there are too many windows open and you accidentally missed the one you need by pressing Tab while holding Alt, then simply add the Shift key to the combination - in this case, the selection of the active window among the open ones will be done in the opposite direction.

Another way to switch between windows from the keyboard is to use the combination Win + Tab. In some versions Windows data the keys opened a 3D window selection interface, and in Windows 10 they open what's called "Task View" (which may also have a button on the Taskbar). This view shows all open windows, which you can simply select with your mouse.

You can also add additional virtual desktops through Task View and transfer open windows between these desktops. In some cases, this significantly simplifies the work - some of the tasks are located on one Desktop, and some of the tasks are located on another. The number of virtual desktops can reach up to hundreds.

Convenient window location

Often, when working, it would be nice to have several windows in front of your eyes at once. In this case, the question arises of their convenient location relative to each other. And the option of covering one window with another definitely will not work here. Windows allows you to quickly arrange windows into equal parts of the screen, dividing the work area into two or four parts.

Simply use your cursor to grab the application window by its title bar and drag it either to the edge of the screen or to one of the corners. By moving the cursor to the edge of the monitor, the window will automatically occupy either half of the space (when brought to the edge) or a quarter of it (when brought to the corner). For convenience, you are immediately prompted to select the next active window, which will automatically take the dimensions to be located next to it. You can switch between such windows simply by moving the mouse cursor, and often there is simply no need for switching itself - it is enough that the information we need is already before our eyes.

Switch between office documents

If you actively work with office documents in Microsoft Office applications, then you may like the developers' solution to quickly switch between windows. When working with the Word text editor, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations, look at the “View” tab, where there is a button called “Go to another window”. By clicking on it, a list will open open files in the application of the same name. Just click on the name of the one you want to make it active.

In principle, the same can be done on the regular Taskbar by clicking on the application icon. But some may be distracted by unnecessary animation in Windows, especially if there are really a lot of open windows. Therefore, a “dry” list with the names of open documents may be more convenient.