51 BRILLIANT WINDOWS TIPS TO MAKE YOUR PC WORK FASTER Christopher Null shares the best Windows productivity tricks in his arsenal to help you get more work done with your PC in less time.
Contributors: David Allen, Tim Ferriss, Adam Pash When Microsoft first launched Windows, it was a revelation. Not only did it bring together the disparate parts of the operating system (OS) in a way that made it navigable, but it added basic tools for communication and productivity for more on the first editions of the OS). Over the years, Windows has been refined and extended - not always for the better - while PC users have found themselves using third-party programs and tools to supplement those found in Windows itself. The result is that we now have multiple ways of achieving different tasks - and far too many means of communicating or being contacted. It's therefore more important than ever to have Windows set up the way that works best for our particular needs and to be able to easily access the tools we need, when we need them. With an ever-growing number of distractions that are fighting for your attention throughout the day, it's important to be as productive as possible. With that in mind, we've dug up the best Windows tricks and talked to several productivity experts to find 51 tips sure to help you get more work done with your PC in less time. Although these tips apply primarily to Windows 7, most also work in Vista and many apply to XP as well. 1. Minimise all windows When your desktop becomes so cluttered that you can't find anything, a good way to regain focus is to minimise all the windows except the one you're working on. Grab the title bar of the window you want to use and shake your mouse a little. All other windows will vanish into the Taskbar. Shake again to restore the windows. Ctrl, Home also works. 2. Use folders in your email client Letting email accumulate in your inbox makes it difficult to quickly find important messages. It also increases the odds that you'll overlook a message that requires urgent attention. Right-click to delete the junk and file non-actionable messages into clearly defined folders. 3. Be judicious with email folders An email folder shouldn't be so narrow of purpose that it's never used, but neither should it be so broad that it becomes overstuffed with messages - unless you use it for archiving. Use a descriptive name and keep it short enough that it doesn't require scrolling within the Mail Folders pane. Folders can usually be nested, too. 4. Use rules to route messages When your personal involvement isn't necessary, email rules can save time. For example, do newsletters from the same company arrive 10 times a day? Put them into a folder for 'later review'. In Outlook, select Tools, Rules and Alerts. Other clients have a similar option. 5. Remap the Windows key If you never use the Windows key or would rather swap its keyboard position with another button, download a keyboard remapper. Many cheap or free applications for this purpose are available, but Keyboard Remapper (tinyurl.com/38w8jk3; $10, about ukp6) works well. Remap to your heart's content, but keep in mind that, since it bypasses Windows, there's no way to change or disable a laptop's Fn key. You can also use the utility to check your computer's Bios for any potential tweakability. 6. Choose your own search engine Your computer maker probably preset Internet Explorer's default search engine to whichever company paid it. Otherwise, it'll be set to Microsoft's liking: Bing. Either way, it may not be the best choice. Change the search default engine by clicking the drop-down arrow in the top-right corner of the Internet Explorer window (within the search box), and click Find More Providers. You won't find Google without a hunt, so type Google into the 'Find add-ons...' search box and select the first result, Google Search Suggestions. Click 'Add to Internet Explorer' and, at the pop-up, click 'Make this my default search provider'. 7. Improve Windows Search If Windows Search isn't finding everything that you know you've saved, check the Windows Indexing Options and the locations included in the search index. Type indexing options into the Start Menu search bar, then click Modify and navigate through the C drive to add more locations to index. 8. Rename files fast If you need to rename several files in Windows Explorer, save time by selecting the first file in your list, pressing F2, and typing in the new name. When finished, press Tab instead of Enter. Explorer will jump you to the next file in the list and automatically select the entire file name so you can rename it without having to press the Backspace key. Continue pressing Tab, and you'll zip through the list one file at a time. 9. Drag-and-drop items in Outlook Outlook lets you drag any item to any other area of the program, where it will create a new item that includes the dragged information. Drag an email to the Contacts button to create a new contact for the sender, for example, with Outlook automatically populating the Name and Email fields, and putting the body of the message in the Notes field. Alternatively, drag a contact to the Calendar to create a Meeting Invitation for that person. 10. Don't keep checking your email Frequent checking breaks your concentration and interrupts what you're doing, wasting time as you return your focus to the task at hand. Reduce how often your email client checks for new messages to something less distracting: every 10 minutes should give you time enough to focus without keeping people waiting too long for a response. In Outlook, click Ctrl, Alt, S and change the setting for 'Schedule an automatic send/receive every X minutes' (where X is the number of minutes). 11. Easily find important email Just change the subject lines. Few things are more annoying than receiving an important email message that carries a clueless subject like 'hey'. A more meaningful subject line improves your search index and makes your email thread more valuable in general. In Outlook, open the message, select the subject line, then type over it with something more useful. 12. Select multiple files easily Using the Ctrl or Shift keys to select multiple files in Windows Explorer can introduce errors. If you frequently need to open or manipulate multiple files at once, turn on Windows' tick-box system. You can find this setting in Windows Explorer under Organize, Folder and search options, View. Scroll down and select 'Use check boxes to select items'. 13. Use Outlook categorisation Outlook lets you colour-code messages, task-list items, calendar entries and contacts into as many as six categories. Work out a system and stick to it: red for business, for example, and blue for personal items. Or colour-code items by level of urgency: green for 'must do today', blue for 'to do this week' and yellow for 'to do this month'. 14. Make use of 'Send To' Hold down Shift and right-click a file in Windows Explorer, then select Send To. Windows will reveal a host of additional options, including one to move the file to an often-used folder. 15. Use Outlook's Search Folders Although it has somewhat less usefulness now that PC indexing and document search are commonplace, Outlook's Search Folders feature still has a function. These folders store copies of messages on the basis of predefined rules that you set - messages that have a keyword in the subject line or that are sent to or from a certain contact, for example. The folders update themselves as new messages arrive. If you need to constantly refer to a topic or to a particular person's messages, but organising them individually into folders doesn't work for you, Search Folders can be a great timesaver. You can set one up under New, Search Folder. 16. Alter Windows Explorer's Favorites Drag folders to the top left of Windows Explorer and organise them however you like. Right-click and select Remove to get rid of anything you don't want. 17. Use the Windows 7 Calculator You don't need to hunt for a special website or a pocket gadget to do complicated maths. The Calculator in Windows 7 is far more powerful than it appears at first glance. Click the View button to pull up Scientific, Programmer and Statistics calculators as well as a date calculator, a unit converter and even a mortgage calculator. 18. Control User Account Control This is an instant way to save time if you are a confident PC user. Head to Control Panel, 'User Accounts and Family Safety', User Accounts and click 'Change User Account Control settings'. If you're a power user, you can safely turn down User Account Control to 'Never notify' or to 'Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer (do not dim my desktop)'. Work smarter, not harder 19 Experts suggest spending the first few hours of each work day dealing with outstanding projects before you even check your email. When you do finally open your mail, knowing who's messaging you can help you prioritise. Use Firefox plug-in Rapportive (rapportive.com) to replace Gmail's ads with detailed, web-sourced information about the sender of each message in your inbox. Versions are also available for Chrome, Mailplane and Safari. Outlook plug-in Xobni (xobni.com) does a similar job for a small fee ($29, around ukp18). 20 If you have a pile of work to get through but lack the will power to avoid the distractions of the web, try RescueTime.com. This webbased tool lets you shut off access to certain websites - Facebook and Twitter, for example - after a set amount of use. It's easier to sustain than pretending your boss is standing over you. 21 Most of us spend hours of each working week searching for important files and contacts. Use free download Evernote (evernote.com) to clip to the cloud web pages, photos, business cards and even printed matter - if you have access to a scanner. Since all the data is searchable, you'll no longer have to rely on folders and data management, and you'll never lose a file again. 22 Mindjet's MindManager (free on our site: tinyurl.com/325Laaa) is a great way to keep tabs on long-term projects and your brainstorming notes. Use it as a kind of a weekly review of what's going on. 23. Install a good spam filter If you don't already have one, you can find many spam filters in our Downloads library. We like SpamFighter (tinyurl.com/2uocrff). 24. Customise your PC's System Tray Windows 7 helpfully decreases the amount of space dedicated to the Notification Area by putting all but the most essential notifications within a drop-down (or, in this case, drop-up) box. It looks nice, but you can waste lots of time looking for what you need. If you want regular, click-free access to some of these notifications, change the default layout. Open the tray's spillover window and drag the icons you want to the Taskbar area. You can rearrange icons, too. 25. Default to the Documents Library In Windows 7, when you launch Windows Explorer, the view automatically defaults to the Libraries folder, which for many users isn't very useful. Busy types will typically head straight to the Documents Library from there. Save a click by instructing Explorer to default to the Documents Library. To do this, right-click the Windows Explorer shortcut (the Taskbar shortcut won't work). In the Target field, type: %windir%\explorer.exe ::{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103} and hit Enter. Finally, replace the icon in the Taskbar with your tweaked shortcut. 26. Use Jump Lists Jump Lists are accessed by right-clicking any icon in the Taskbar. You'll find recently used documents here, along with program-specific functions (such as setting your instant messaging client to 'Away'). One little timesaver: you can pin a web URL to your browser's Jump List by dragging it to the browser icon in the Taskbar (do this by clicking on the mini icon in the URL bar). 27. Use Outlook's Conversation view Conversation view in Outlook 2010 can make your inbox much more manageable. It compresses related email messages into groups and displays only the most recent message in the thread - similar to the way that Gmail works. To give this view a try, click the Arrange By tab in the message list pane and then select Conversation. Outlook will display only the most recent message in a thread. Use the spinner next to each headline to see previous messages in the thread. 28. Use Outlook's Clean Up button Is your inbox still out of control? In Outlook 2010, click the Clean Up button in the ribbon to sweep the inbox's redundant messages into the trash with a single click. 29. Use Problem Steps Recorder Tech support calls are a pain. If you're having PC problems, don't get stuck on the phone for hours trying to explain the difficulty. Run Windows' Problem Steps Recorder to save a step-by-step history of what you're doing so you can share it with someone who can help. Type PSR in the Start menu search box to find and run the recorder. Then go through the steps that lead to your problem; PSR will record a screenshot of each step, logging everything you type and click. When you're finished, click the Stop button and save the file. Email the archive to someone who's better informed for a solution. 30. Give yourself more screen space You can shrink Windows 7's Taskbar icons by right-clicking the Taskbar, choosing Properties and selecting 'Use small icons'. This option shrinks the size of the Taskbar by half, giving you a little extra screen space. 31. Turn off Aero Snap By now you know that, in Windows 7, dragging a window to the side of the screen will auto-resize it to fill exactly half of your available space; dragging it to the top will cause it to fill the entire display. This is great for some people, but not all. You can turn off this behaviour with a Registry hack. Type regedit in the Start menu search bar, then browse to Hkey_Current_User\Control Panel\ Desktop. Set WindowArrangementActive to 0, then reboot the PC. 32. Snap windows faster If you like Aero Snap, however, it's faster to snap windows right or left by using keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse. Windows key, left arrow snaps left, and Windows key, right arrow snaps right. While we're at it, Windows key, up arrow will maximise your window, while Windows key, down arrow will minimise it. Note, however, that if you completed the Registry hack in the preceding tip to turn off Aero Snap, these shortcuts will be disabled. 33. Lower-case text in a trice In Microsoft Office programs, convert text to lower-case by selecting it and pressing Shift, F3. Press Shift, F3 a second time to convert the text to title case (Which Looks Like This). 34. Pin almost anything to the Taskbar There is practically no limit to the things you can pin to the Taskbar: often-used folders, the Control Panel, even a button to shut down your PC. For the last option, find shutdown.exe in the System\Windows32 directory, create a shortcut to it, and then append the following text to the target in Properties: /s /f /t 00. 35. Make Internet Explorer load faster When Internet Explorer loads very slowly for no clear reason, it's usually due to an add-on. Fortunately, one of Internet Explorer's best features is that it allows you to see how long each add-on is taking to load. You can find this under Tools, Manage Add-ons. Check the 'Load time' column to see what has been weighing you down. 36. Work around Jump List limitations Jump Lists are great, but Windows 7 no longer offers a way for you to open a new instance of an application - a new Word document or a new browser window, for example - by right-clicking the program's icon in the Taskbar. Instead of resorting to the File menu, hold down Shift and left-click the Taskbar icon to open a new instance of the program, leaving your other open windows in place. 37. Get a quick peek at the desktop Use Windows key, spacebar to hide all open windows. Keep the Windows key held down, then release it to return to your former environment with all its windows in place. 38. Save downloads elsewhere The Windows 7 Downloads directory sounds convenient, but few users browse there and downloaded files may be forgotten for days. Most browsers will default to downloading into this directory. Firefox and Chrome users can change this relatively easily to something more convenient. In Firefox, click Tools, then Options. Under the General tab, change the 'Save files to' setting to the directory of your choice. In Google Chrome, click the Tools icon (it looks like a spanner), then Options. Click the Minor Tweaks tab and change the 'Download location' setting there. Internet Explorer users have to hack the Registry to make this change (a step that only advanced users should consider taking). 39. Zoom faster In Windows 7 and Vista, Ctrl, mousewheel lets you zoom in and out. In Windows Explorer, this combo makes icons and thumbnails larger or smaller. In browsers it changes the font size or zoom level. 40. Control your post-holiday time Never schedule anything for the day after you come back from a holiday, since you'll need this day to catch up on everything you've missed while you were away. If you use a shared calendar system, book the entire day of your return with 'meetings' before you leave. 41. Save time with VoIP You can save significant time - and money - by using a VoIP system that allows you to click phone numbers in web pages and in email messages and dial them directly via your PC. Skype offers such an option, which works broadly in email and on most websites. 42. Get rid of splashscreens and pop-up windows Splashscreens don't aid productivity. GNag (gnag.sourceforge.net) will get rid of many of them for you with a simple install. The application focuses on eliminating the vanity videos that play when you launch many video games, but it also suppresses, for example, the annoying pop-up message that you get daily with the free version of the popular Avira AntiVir Personal Edition Classic antivirus software (avira.com). 43. Kill a stuck program Everything halted due to a non-responsive program? The fastest fix is often to press Ctrl, Alt, Delete and bring up Task Manager and to kill off whatever's stalled. Click Task Manager, then Processes. Crashed programs often appear at the top of the list under the Memory tab. Outlook, Firefox and Internet Explorer are common culprits. Click End Process to release the memory they're hogging and regain processor cycles. Do more with fewer clicks 44 Launchy (launchy.net) lets you type the first few letters of a program's name to launch it. Windows 7's integrated search features may make Launchy somewhat less critical, but it's still a useful application. 45 Belvedere (download the installer: tinyurl.com/yeyLsn3) is an automated file manager for Windows that lets you apply rules to folders and take action on them as certain criteria are met. For example, you can specify that folders that go untouched for extended periods of time be deleted, or that Jpeg files be automatically routed to a pictures folder. (Note: some security software may flag Belvedere, but we believe this is a false positive.) 46 Dropbox (dropbox.com) is not just invaluable for backing up a PC but also for synching its data with multiple PCs. This is critical if you use more than one machine. It also works with the iPhone, the iPad and Android devices. 47 Simplenote (simplenoteapp.com) is a plain-text note-taking system that, like Dropbox, can sync among multiple desktops, the web and an iPhone. This no-frills utility ensures that notes never get lost. 48 Gmail's Priority Inbox feature is a pretty good attempt at helping you deal with the glut of things that arrive in your Gmail inbox every day. If you use Gmail as your primary email client, switch to the Priority Inbox and you'll spend less time dealing with less important email. 49 Keyboard shortcuts are critical for helping a busy person get through a long list of tasks quickly. We like ActiveWords (activewords.com), which creates simple macros to open frequently used documents, and even to insert the current date on command into any document or application. 50 If you're a Lotus Notes fan, enhance the spartan interface with the eProductivity add-on (eproductivity.com), which adds next-generation features to the software. One of these features, for example, enables you to drag an email message to a 'call' button to place an immediate phone call to the person who sent the message. 51 Skype users should give Pamela Professional for Skype (pamela.biz/en/download) a try. A call-management tool, Pamela makes it easy to record VoIP phone calls of any length, meaning you don't need to go through a lengthy transcription session. To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in