See expanded Send To menus in Windows Explorer

Now here’s a head-scratcher of a Windows 7 shortcut. The puzzling part is why Microsoft even made it necessary! 

Many of us are familiar, from earlier versions of Windows, with the Send To command in Windows Explorer. In a nutshell: If you right-click on a file in Windows Explorer, one of the options in the menu that pops up, Send To, lets you move the file to certain locations, such as to a zipped folder or onto a local/network drive. 

Simple enough. But in Windows 7 you have the option to see an extended list of Send To destinations by using a shortcut.

In 7, before you right-click on that file, hold down the Shift key. Once the context menu pops up, release Shift and left-click on the Send To menu item as you normally would. You’ll likely see, depending on your PC, that the number of Send To items has increased substantially versus if you hadn’t held down Shift. Here's what we saw, with the expnded Send To menu at left, and the "normal" one at right:
 

 
On our test system, we saw the former “My” folders (Documents, Music, and so on) now appear in the list. The Windows Desktop itself is also given as a possible destination for your file.
Our big beef here is why we need to hold down Shift at all; the extra Send To menu items are handy, but there’s not a whole lot of reason for Microsoft to have required an extra step to access them, that we can see. Well, at least there’s room for improvement in Windows 8.

How to Downgrade Windows 8 Pro to Windows 7

The Professional edition of Windows 8 comes with “downgrade rights.” If you’re not happy with Windows 8 on a new computer, you can downgrade it to Windows 7 for free – as long as you have Windows 8 Pro.
This isn’t as easy as it should be: Microsoft designed this procedure for businesses, and individual users will have to jump through a number of hoops to downgrade their Windows 8 Pro systems.

Downgrade Rights vs. Other Ways to Downgrade

This article is about exercising downgrade rights on a computer that comes with Windows 8 Pro. Downgrading to Windows 7 is simpler in other situations:

• If your computer came with Windows 7 and you upgraded it to Windows 8, you can revert your computer to the Windows 7 system it came with.
• If you have a retail copy of Windows 7 you aren’t using, you can install it on a new computer that came with Windows 8. (Ensure the new computer has hardware drivers that work with Windows 7.)

How Downgrade Rights Work

Downgrade rights are intended for businesses. When buying new computers, businesses purchase computers that come preloaded with Windows 8 licenses and install a previous version of Windows without buying separate licenses.
Downgrade rights can be a bit confusing. Here’s how they work:

• Downgrade rights are only available on computers that come with Windows 8 Pro. Upgrade copies of Windows 8 Pro don’t include downgrade rights, so you can’t purchase the Windows 8 Pro Pack to get downgrade rights.
• You can only downgrade to Windows 7 Professional or Windows Vista Business, not Windows XP. (For the purpose of this article, we’ll assume you probably want to downgrade to Windows 7.)
• After downgrading, you can reinstall Windows 8 at any time.

Before Downgrading Windows

If you have a new computer that came with Windows 8 Professional and are itching to get Windows 7 Pro on it, there are a few things you should do first:

• Ensure the computer actually supports Windows 7. Manufacturers may only provide hardware drivers for Windows 8, preventing you from using your hardware to its full capabilities. Check the manufacturer’s website for Windows 7 drivers for your computer.
• Create a recovery drive that contains a copy of your new PC’s recovery partition. This will allow you to restore the original Windows 8 system if you wipe the recovery partition.

How to Downgrade Windows 8

If you’re using a new computer that came with Windows 8, you’ll probably have to enter your computer’s UEFI settings screen and enable the Legacy boot option, not the UEFI boot option. Consult your computer’s manual for more information.
To downgrade Windows, you’ll need a Windows 7 Professional installation disc and a valid license key for it. Neither Microsoft nor your computer manufacturer will provide this disc or key for you – you’re on your own when finding it, although Microsoft insists you should find a legitimate copy instead of downloading one from an illicit website. Downgrade rights are intended for businesses, who will likely have a disc and key on hand.
Once you’ve found the disc, insert it into your new computer and restart into the Windows 7 installer. Install Windows 7 Professional as you normally would, providing the legitimate Windows 7 Pro key during the installation process. Note that you can use this same key to downgrade multiple Windows 8 computers – you’ll just need this key to get past the mandatory key check during the installation process.

After Windows 7 finishes installing, the online activation will fail because your product key is already in use. If you don’t see an “activation failed” message, you can press Start, type Activate, and click Activate Windows. You’ll need to activate by phone. Call up the phone number displayed in the activation window and explain that you’re exercising your Windows 8 Pro downgrade rights. Have your Windows 8 Pro key ready; you’ll need it to prove your PC has downgrade rights.
After explaining this, you’ll be given a long, single-use activation code. Enter that activation code into the window and your Windows 7 Professional installation will be activated.

To downgrade multiple computers, you can use the same installation disc and Windows 7 product key. However, you’ll need to call up Microsoft each time to receive an activation key.

How to Import Contacts Into and Export Contacts From the Windows Contacts Folder

In Windows 7 and 8, there is a Contacts folder in your user directory. This folder can be useful if you have your contacts in a single .vcf file and want to move them into a .csv file for importing into programs like Outlook 2013.
To import contacts from a single .vcf file into your Contacts folder, open the Contacts folder at the following location in Windows Explorer.

C:\Users\%username%\Contacts

On the toolbar, click Import. If the Import button is not visible on the toolbar, click the >> button and select Import from the drop-down menu.

The Import to Windows Contacts dialog box displays. Select vCard (VCF file) from the list and click Import.

On the Select a vCard file for import dialog box, navigate to the folder containing your .vcf file. Select the file and click Open.

The Properties dialog box displays for each contact in the .vcf file. This allows you to change information in or add information to each contact as needed. When you are ready to import each contact, click OK.

Once you have gone through the Properties for each contact in your .vcf file, you are returned to the Import to Windows Contacts dialog box. Click Close to close the dialog box.

Each contact displays in the Contacts folder as a .contact file.

Now, you can export all your contacts into a .csv file for importing into programs such as Outlook. Click Export on the toolbar in the Explorer window. Again, if the Export button is not visible, click the >> button and select Export from the drop-down menu.

On the Export Windows Contacts dialog box, select CSV (Comma Separated Values) and click Export.
NOTE: You can also create separate vCard files from one vCard file by selecting the vCards (folder of .vcf files).

On the CSV Export dialog box, click Browse.

Navigate to the location where you want to save the .csv file. Enter a name for the .csv file in the File name edit box and click Save.

The path to the .csv file is entered in the Save exported file as edit box. Click Next.

In the Select the fields you wish to export list, select all the fields you want to include in each contact in the .csv file. Click Finish.

A dialog box displays telling you the process was successful. Click OK to close the dialog box.

The Export Windows Contacts dialog box is not closed automatically. Click Close to close it.

Your contacts are now available in .csv format.

You can use the .csv format to import your contacts into programs like Outlook and Excel.