Creating a Partition During Windows 7 Installation

During the installation of Windows 7, you must choose a partition on which to install the operating system. Reading Microsoft's recommendations, you must make this partition at least 16GB in size. However, this is a minimal size and should not be used as the recommended size. As you know by now, the system partition (meaning the partition on which the operating system is installed on) is a place that just begs for more space as time goes by. Hotfixes, Patches, Service Packs, installed applications such as Microsoft Office and many others - all consume a lot of space on that partition. The more it is used, the more space will be consumed by these apps.

That is why it is strongly recommended to properly configure the partition's size. While it is possible to extend this partition (if un-used space is available on the hard disk - read my "Extending the System Partition in Windows 7" article), it is best to plan in advance. As a rule of thumb, I personally give that partition at least 40 GB of space, and when using more than one hard disk on the computer, I give it as much as 100 GB. Just in case.
Anyway, while it is possible to extend that partition later, even after installation of the OS, it is best to plan accordingly and create the right partition size during the installation process. Read my article on how to install Windows 7 for more information.
Starting a Windows 7 installation, after passing the first initial screens, you will get to the screen where you are asked which type of installation you want to perform.

At that point you will need to click on "Custom (advanced)", as this is a fresh installation of Windows 7.
The next screen will ask you where you want to install the system, meaning on what partition.

At that point, you need to decide on one of the two options:

1. Install Windows on the entire available disk space
2. Create a partition on the hard disk, and install Windows on that partition

If you pick option #1, then you simply click "Next" and get done with it. The setup program will create a partition on the entire hard disk and format it with the NTFS file system. It will then install Windows on that partition.

However, if you pick option #2 you can then create the partition exactly as you want it.
Click on "Drive options (advanced)". The screen will change and show you several new buttons:
New - to create a new partition.
Delete - to delete a specific partition - all data on that partition will be deleted!
Format - to format a specific partition - all data on that partition will be deleted!
Extend - to extend a partition beyond the barrier of the physical disk, and to span the partition on more than one physical disk. This is useful when you run out of space on that physical hard disk, and have brought in a new physical hard disk that you wish to use. However, unlike using that new disk as a totally new partition by itself, this disk (or part of it) becomes a part of a partition located on the first disk. While useful in some cases, this scenario might cause fault tolerance issues, because this extended partition is NOT fault tolerant, and if something happens to one physical disk, all the data on that extended partition becomes unavailable, and data loss can occur.

To create a new partition click "New". In the "Size" box, enter the size for the new partition. When done, click "Apply".

The setup program will let you know that it will create an additional partition on that drive. That partition will be, by default, hidden, and contain the necessary files to boot the computer. This partition will consume 100 MB of disk space.
Note: Actually, even if you do not manually create the partition by using this procedure Windows will still create this partition. However, since you did manually create the partition, Windows will tell you that another partition will also be created.

You can now see the partition you've created, and the hidden boot partition. In most cases, the partition on which Windows will be installed is partition number 2.
Press "Format" to format the new partition.

You'll be warned that all data will be deleted. That should pose no issue because the partition was just created, and it is blank.

Installation will now commence as usual.
Fact is that there's another way to manipulate partitions during the Windows installation. This is done by using the DISKPART command. This command is very useful for creating, extending, expanding, shrinking and performing other tasks on partitions and disks. To get to it you need to press SHIFT + F10 while the setup program is running.

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A command prompt window will open. In it, type

diskpart

An interactive command will be displayed.

You can use /? to get to the DISKPART help.

Remember that you can always resize the system partition, but there's no substitution to a proper planning in advance!

How to install a FTP server in Windows 7?

Having an FTP server along with your webserver has benefits of it's own. You can transfer files very easily to and from your server. Also, editing files on your webserver is a breeze if you enable FTP. We have already shown you how to install the IIS Webserver in Windows 7.

Now, we will tell you how you can install a FTP Web server along with your IIS webserver in Windows 7. Please note that installation of FTP and the IIS Web server are not inter-dependent, which means you need not compulsorily install a webserver in order to install an FTP server and vice-versa.

1. Go to Control Panel > Programs. Then click on "Turn Windows features On or Off". You can check this detailed guide on how to add or remove Windows features in Windows 7.

2. Now from the list that opens, locate the option for Internet Information Services and select FTP Server. Click on OK. Installation will take some time.

3. After your FTP server is installed, you can check the installation using an ftp client by entering localhost as the hostname and 21 as the port number. You should also read the article on how to manage the settings for your FTP server in windows 7.

Some additional steps for configuring the FTP sites and servers to work: (Thanks to Wildfire in the comments)

1. Open the IIS Manager
2. In the tree view (on the far right), right-click “Server (ServerUser)” and select “Add FTP Site…”
3. Follow the wizard to configure the FTP server.
Once you've done this, IIS will have your FTP server listed under Web Sites so you can configure it.

Create a New Partition on a Windows 7 Hard Disk

The Windows 7 Disk Management tool provides a simple interface for managing partitions and volumes.

Here’s an easy way to create a new partition on your disk.

1. Open the Disk Management console by typing diskmgmt.msc at an elevated command prompt.
   
   
   
2. In Disk Management’s Graphical view, right-click an unallocated or free area, and then click New Simple Volume. This starts the New Simple Volume Wizard. (Note: If you need to create unallocated space, see the Tip Easily Shrink a Volume on a Windows 7 Disk for information on how to do this.)
   
   
   
3. Read the Welcome page and then click Next.
   
4. The Specify Volume Size page specifies the minimum and maximum size for the volume in megabytes and lets you size the volume within these limits. Size the partition in megabytes using the Simple Volume Size field and then click Next.
   
   
   
5. On the Assign Drive Letter Or Path page, specify whether you want to assign a drive letter or path and then click Next. The available options are as follows:
   
   
   
   Assign The Following Drive Letter Select an available drive letter in the selection list provided. By default, Windows 7 selects the lowest available drive letter and excludes reserved drive letters as well as those assigned to local disks or network drives.
   Mount In The Following Empty NTFS Folder Choose this option to mount the partition in an empty NTFS folder. You must then type the path to an existing folder or click Browse to search for or create a folder to use.
   Do Not Assign A Drive Letter Or Drive Path Choose this option if you want to create the partition without assigning a drive letter or path. Later, if you want the partition to be available for storage, you can assign a drive letter or path at that time.
   
6. Use the Format Partition page to determine whether and how the volume should be formatted. If you want to format the volume, choose Format This Volume With The Following Settings, and then configure the following options:
   
   
   
   File System Sets the file system type as FAT, FAT32, or NTFS. NTFS is selected by default in most cases. If you create a file system as FAT or FAT32, you can later convert it to NTFS by using the Convert utility. You can’t, however, convert NTFS partitions to FAT or FAT32.
   Allocation Unit Size Sets the cluster size for the file system. This is the basic unit in which disk space is allocated. The default allocation unit size is based on the size of the volume and, by default, is set dynamically prior to formatting. To override this feature, you can set the allocation unit size to a specific value. If you use many small files, you might want to use a smaller cluster size, such as 512 or 1,024 bytes. With these settings, small files use less disk space.
   Volume Label Sets a text label for the partition. This label is the partition’s volume name and by default is set to New Volume. You can change the volume label at any time by right-clicking the volume in Windows Explorer, choosing Properties, and typing a new value in the Label field provided on the General tab.
   Perform A Quick Format Tells Windows 7 to format without checking the partition for errors. With large partitions, this option can save you a few minutes. However, it’s usually better to check for errors, which enables Disk Management to mark bad sectors on the disk and lock them out.
   Enable File And Folder Compression Turns on compression for the disk. Built-in compression is available only for NTFS. Under NTFS, compression is transparent to users and compressed files can be accessed just like regular files. If you select this option, files and directories on this drive are compressed automatically.
   
7. Click Next, confirm your options, and then click Finish.
   
   

The Windows 7 Disk Management tool will now show the space configured as a new partition.

Understand why AutoRun no Longer Works for Some USB Devices

AutoRun is the mechanism that proposes a default action when you insert an optical disc in the drive. For example, the contents of a file called AutoRun on the inserted CD is responsible for suggesting the action Run index.html.

Because of the rising incidence of malware that uses AutoRun to induce unwary users into running Trojan horses, the designers of Windows 7 decided to disable AutoRun capability on USB devices other than removable optical media.

Because of this security change, some devices that executed programs automatically when plugged into a Windows Vista computer might appear not to work in Windows 7. If your device seems inert when attached to your Windows 7 system, don’t assume it’s broken. Open Computer in Windows Explorer, and then open the entry for your device. You will probably find a file there called AutoRun. Opening that file in Notepad will reveal the name of the program that would run automatically had AutoRun not been disabled for your device. Run that program from Windows Explorer.

Run (and Automate) Windows Defender from the Command Line

Windows Defender includes a command-line utility, MpCmdRun.exe, which can be handy if you want to automate the use of Windows Defender. The utility is located on Windows 7 at %ProgramFiles%\Windows Defender\MpCmdRun.exe.

The basic usage at the command prompt is:
MpCmdRun.exe [command] [-options]



Here’s an overview of available commands:

Command	Description
-?	Displays all available options for the tool
-Trace [-Grouping #] [-Level #]	Starts diagnostic tracing
-RemoveDefinitions [-All]	Restores the installed signature definitions to a previous backup copy or to the original default set of signatures
-RestoreDefaults	Resets the registry values for Windows Defender settings to known good defaults
-SignatureUpdate	Checks for new definition updates
-Scan [-ScanType]	Scans for malicious software
-GetFiles	Collects support information