Glary utilities
Glary can securely uninstall programs.
It is another piece of
cleaning software, which gets rid of left over files. Glary can also securely
uninstall programs, which is a notoriously messy experience when done in
Windows.
Autoruns
Autoruns stops Windows from grinding to a halt
This free program will
stagger your start-up apps, which stops Windows from grinding to a halt. This
is the happy medium between having your programs start automatically and having
a responsive PC.
Foxit reader
Foxit reader speeds things up.
If you regularly read PDFs
you probably get frustrated by Adobe Reader’s lumbering lack of speed. Foxit
reader speeds things up, making viewing PDFs quick and easy. It also uses very
little of your computer’s memory.
Auslogics disk defrag
Auslogics keeps your Windows computer in shape.
Windows Defrag works fine,
but third-party software is faster and offers many more options. Auslogics is
one such free utility that’s great for keeping your Windows computer in shape.
Use Windows faster
Windows offers many tricks
to help you work more efficiently.
Instant PC folder
Hold down the Windows key,
press [R] to launch the Run box, type, and hit [Return].
Access your user folder
Launch the Run box, type,
and press [Return] to launch the user folder.
Access the shell
To open your Startup
folder, for example, click ‘Start’, type shell:startup and press [Return].
Search faster
When you want to search
for something in an Explorer window, just press [F3].
See recent folders
Press [F4] and you can
choose recent folders from the History list much quicker.
Refresh now
If an Explorer window
seems to be missing a file, folder or drive, hit [F5] to refresh the window.
Full-screen view
If you’re examining an
enormous list, press [F11] to toggle full-screen view.
Open a folder tree
Press [+] on the numeric
keypad to expand the currently selected folder.
Use one defrag tool only
If you’ve installed a
third-party defrag tool, disable the Windows version, because it may still be
running, wasting time and resources. To turn it off, click ‘Start’, type Defrag,
click ‘Disk Defragmenter’ and select ‘Configure Schedule’. Clear the ‘Run on a
schedule’ box and that’s it.
Browse menus at speed
A registry edit can
shorten the pause before Windows menus expand, speeding up navigation. Launch
‘REGEDIT’, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop, double-click
‘MenuShowDelay’, and select ‘Decimal’. Change the default – 200, which is 0.2
seconds – works for us. The result is a noticeably more instant browsing
experience, which is highly addictive. Once you’ve enjoyed Windows opening like
lightning, going back to the normal setting will feel like watching a
slow-motion replay.
Solve slow starts
Event Viewer may tell you which program on driver is responsible
If Windows 7 is taking a
long time to launch, or shut down, the Event Viewer may tell you which program
on driver is responsible. Click ‘Start’, type Eventvwr.msc and press
[Return]. Expand the Applications and Services Logs section and browse to
Microsoft\Windows\Diagnostic Performance\Operational. Scroll the events list on
your PC to see if Windows knows who to blame for your performance issues.
Fix the boot bug
Is your Windows 7 desktop
background a solid colour? Then it may mean your PC takes 30 seconds longer
than usual to boot. One solution is to change your background to an image to
restore normal start-up performance, which will make your desktop look better
as well. But if you’re set on solid colours, then install a hotfix from
Microsoft (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977346) that will return your system to normal.
Search the web from your
start menu
Windows 7 Professional and
Ultimate users are able to set up the Start Search option to search the web. In
Start Search, type gpedit and open the app. Then navigate to ‘User
Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar’. Then
double-click on ‘Add Search Internet link to Start Menu’. When you type a
search into the Start Menu, there will be the option to make it a web search,
so you can get the information you need faster.
