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.
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