Many people don't realize that rather than installing dozens of applications, you can control nearly any aspect of your computer with simple shortcuts that don't take up any resources.

You can even take this approach a step further and assign shortcut keys using the built-in Windows hotkey functionality, or access them from the keyboard using your favorite application launcher. In my article today over at Lifehacker, I covered some of the more useful shortcuts for controlling your computer.

Of course, none of these will be really news to the regular How-To Geek reader… this is the kind of stuff we cover all the time!

• Mute the System Volume
• Clean Up Your Computer
• Open Task Manager in All Users View
• Turn Desktop Icons On or Off
• Clear Your Clipboard
• Turn the Windows Firewall On or Off
• Create a System Restore Point
• Eject Removable Devices
• Start or Disable the Screensaver
• Shutdown, Reboot, Sleep, Hibernate or Lock Your PC
• Access Your Shortcuts Quickly with the Keyboard

Read the Article Here:

Control Your Computer with Shortcuts to Common Windows Tasks

Sometimes the most effective way to clean up Windows is to just wipe your hard drive and start over with a fresh re-installation, and that process can be so long and tedious—unless you know the shortcuts.

In the second article over at Lifehacker, I covered how to create a USB flash drive with a bootable installation of Vista, after first trimming down the installation to the bare essentials using vLite. The benefit to using a flash drive is much faster installation speeds compared to using a DVD.

There's some command line magic involved in order to make the USB drive bootable, but it's pretty simple to follow.

Read the Article Here:

Speed Up Your Vista Installation with vLite on a Flash Drive