The more software you install on your computer, the longer it may seem to take to start up Windows. Many programs add themselves to the list of programs started when you boot your computer, and that list can get long.
Occasionally, you might want to print or save a list of the files in a directory. Windows doesn’t feature a simple way to do this from its interface, but it’s not too hard to accomplish.
When you hover your mouse over a Taskbar button for an app with open windows, a thumbnail preview of those windows pops up. By default, there is a slight delay before the preview appears. With a simple Registry edit, you can eliminate that delay, or even turn off those thumbnail previews entirely.
You’re not a loyalist: your network has both Windows and macOS machines. The good news is you can access your Windows shares from macOS pretty easily, if you know how.
Windows normally animates windows whenever you minimize or maximize them. These animations can be disabled, if you like, making windows hide or appear immediately. This option is available on all modern versions of Windows, including Windows 7, 8, and 10.
Your PC makes lots of Internet connections in a day’s business, and not all of them are necessarily sites you’re aware connections are happening with. While some of these connections are harmless, there is always a chance that you have some malware, spyware, or adware using your Internet connection in the background without your knowledge. Here’s how to see what’s going on under the hood.
If you’ve been using Windows for a while, you likely remember how annoying the User Account Control (UAC) was when it first popped up in Windows Vista. We showed you back then how to disable it, and you can still disable it in Windows 8 and 10. Here’s how.
From Enhance Pointer Precision to DPI and pointer speed, there are a lot of options that affect how your mouse pointer moves in Windows. The below tips will help you move your mouse pointer more accurately—and even allow you to move it pixel by pixel.
Your PC’s hard drive could fail tomorrow, or a software bug could erase your files, so backups are critical. But you don’t need to back up all the files on your PC. That would just waste space and make your backups take longer to complete.
Most laptop touchpads make it possible to perform a middle-click, but not all do. In some situations, you may need to enable this option in your mouse driver’s control panel or install the appropriate drivers first.
Mapping a network drive to a shared folder from Windows’ graphic interface isn’t hard. But if you already know the network path for the shared folder, you can map drives a lot quicker using the Command Prompt.
Reinstalling Windows isn’t as simple as just clicking through an installer. You’ll want to have important data backed up first, and then you’ll need installation media and a product key before continuing—and those are just the basics. This checklist will walk you through reinstalling Windows and ensure you won’t forget anything.
Whether you’re at work and forgot some file on your home computer, want to play some music on a train, or just want to move some files between your computers, accessing your files from anywhere is a life saver.
Do you have documents or pictures that you don’t want anyone else to find? Read on to find out how you can embed your important files inside of other files so that nobody will ever know that they existed, except you of course.
Windows has the built-in ability to function as VPN server using the point-to-point tunneling protocol (PPTP), although this option is somewhat hidden. Here’s how to find it and set up your VPN server.
Remote Desktop is disabled by default in Windows, but it’s easy enough to turn on if you want your PC to be remote control requests from the network.
If you’ve previously added or removed the some of the “special” icons like Computer, User, and Control Panel to the desktop—or just want to know how to add them in Windows 10—here’s how to do it.
If you’ve got multiple computers at your desk, you probably know that it’s a pain to use more than one keyboard and mouse. Here’s how to use a single keyboard and mouse on more than one PC using a tool from Microsoft.
There are tons of third-party partition managers for Windows, but did you know that Windows includes its own? Microsoft did a good job of hiding the Disk Management tool, but it’s there.
If you’ve ever bought a new computer with Windows already installed, you might be annoyed by the default name of your PC. Or maybe you’re just ready for a change. Here’s how to rename your PC to whatever you like.
Do you like to keep Start menu clean, tidy, and organized? All you have to do is open a special Start Menu folder and organize to your heart’s content. Here’s how to get it done.
Software like DVD Flick is great for burning video to DVDs, but Windows 7 actually includes built-in DVD burning software. Strangely, it’s the last time the company did so—while Windows 8 and Windows 10 can play back DVD movies, they can’t create them with a DVD burner without tools from third parties.
When your hard drive starts to fill up, you don’t have to dig through File Explorer to see what’s using space. You can use a disk space analyzer to scan your drive (or just a single folder) and see exactly which folders and files are using space. You can then make an informed decision about what to remove and quickly free up space.
Bringing up Task Manager is not much of a task itself, but it’s always fun knowing different ways of doing things. And some of them might even come in handy if you can’t open Task Manager the way you’re used to.
The Run box is a convenient way to run programs, open folders and documents, and even issue some Command Prompt commands. You can even use it to run programs and commands with administrative privileges.
