Usefull little computer tips to make things more effecient...

Zascar

Like many of you I spend a huge amount of time in front of a computer. Personally I have everything customised to my liking, and generally I’ll do as much as I can do make things as efficient as possible. It’s probably just cause I’m lazy, but why click 4 times when you can do it in 2 if set up correctly? However it always amazes me how many people who also spend a lot of time at a PC but don’t do many of these things and take the long way around instead.

I thought I’d post a few here. I’m sure this is old news to many of you, but hopefully some of you will learn a trick or two, and perhaps you can post your own if you have any

I’ll start with the incredibly obvious and work from there.

• Always use the “Quick Launch” in the taskbar should always have your 6-10 most often used programs, not need to click Start>Programs every time.
• Drag the taskbar up one notch so it is twice the normal size. This way I have a lot more room to see all the buttons, but also on the right it shows the Day and the Date, as well as the time. (People ask me what date it is in work several times a week…)
• Use Windows Explorer. It’s So much better than My Computer cause you have the directory Tree on the left.

It really amazes me how many people do not know these simple things that make such a difference…

Now a few less obvious and more useful ones:

• Windows Classic Search: Why Microsoft thing we need help with what type of file we are looking for is beyond me. This simple registry change brings back the Windows Classic Search which is way better. Also;
• Download and use Google Desktop. It index’s all your files so no waiting time when searching. Just hit CRTL twice and you have a search box in the middle of your screen.
• Copy To and Move To: Do this to get “Copy to Folder” and “Move to Folder” when you right click a file. Saves a lot of time if you move stuff about a lot.
• Thumbnails: If like me you play with photos a lot, make them bigger and easier to see. Download Tweak UI – loads of great stuff in there.
• Customise Windows Explorer Further. In the “Details” view, right click on any of the fields (Name, Size, Type etc) to get a list of which ones you want to show. Handy if you want to see things like Created Date, Mp3 bitrates or Photo Dimensions etc.
• Right Click above that and click “Customise” to add or remove buttons from the bar at the top. I always make sure to put the “Delete” one in, and sometimes “Move To”, “Copy To” and “Undo”, there are lots more.
• If you are not using Mozilla Firefox, stop reading this and go download it now. Honestly there is no reason I can think of to still be using Internet Explorer. Firefox has some fantastic extensions for everyone. My favourite is “Mouse Gestures”. Instead of clicking the “Back” and “Forward” icons, you can click and drag the right mouse button to go back and forward between pages, Totally invaluable. Other Essentials are “Customise Google”, PDF Download, Downlaod Statusbar and the spellchecker.
• Google Notebook: This is just a fantastic little program. Anything interesting or useful I find on the web, highlight a little portion, right click and “Add to Notebook”. You’ve then got a “Virtual Notebook” with all your web clippings that you can access from any computer.
• Gmail Drive: Use your 2.7GB of Gmail space to store any files you want. Installed as a shell extension in my computer and you can right click any file and “Upload to Gmail Drive”.

That’s all I can think of now. Honestly I cannot operate on a computer without all of these things.

Do you have any tips of your own?

Kali

CTRL+ALT+C .. calc
CTRL+ALT+I .. iexplore
CTRL+ALT+N .. notepad
CTRL+ALT+O .. outlook

Quick Launch and hundreds of icons in a taskbar? *shudder*

matt-dublin

for those who do like internet explorer and want some extra add ons similar to firefox, check out ie7pro.com

Has a lot of firefox plugins built into it, and makes it one big IE plugin