CFCS Presentation 9/20/2009 ---------------- I presented a number of ways to enhance your productivity with Windows tweaks that cost nothing, as well as programs that make your computing life easier and more enjoyable. -------- Internet Explorer 7 - Using too much CPU Does it ever seem to be hogging your CPU time? Maybe it's because you launched too many copies of it. Instead of launching it fresh from a shortcut, just press Ctrl-N to open a new IE window. It will belong to the same process, won't start a fresh process. - Tabs To see tabs guidance, enter "about:tabs" in the address bar. You can learn more about tabs and see available shortcuts. -------- Google - Define a word In Google, type "Define:yadda." Google will provide several definitions for the word "yadda." - Search within a give web site In Google, type the word or phrase to find, followed by "site:" and the name of the site to be searched. For example - "site:www.cfcs.org" (without the quotes, of course). Google will search only the site in question - Google toolbar Search Google without visiting Google.com. Let Google remember past searches and suggest them as you type. Use a variety of additional toolbar buttons, such as "Search current site only," "Search Google Groups" (highly recommended), and "Google Maps" FREE. http://toolbar.google.com/ -------- IE7Pro - Add-in for Internet Explorer. - Quick searches in IE7. - Highlight all found words. - Save and reload tabs later. - Reload tabs after abnormal IE7 shutdown. - Open link in a new tab by dragging. - Much, much more. Highly recommended. - FREE. http://www.ie7pro.com/ -------- HP Smart Web Printing - Add-in for Internet Explorer. - Lets you select portions of a Web page for printing. - You can choose to print your selection right away, or you can save it to print later. - You can print selections from several sites on a single piece of paper. - Saves paper and ink. - At this writing, does not work with IE8. - FREE. http://www.hp.com/global/us/en/consumer/digital_photography/free/software/smart-web-printing.html -------- Everything Search - Lets you find files in an absolute flash. - Indexes every file on your hard drive. - Doesn't index contents. - Fast as lightning. - FREE. http://www.voidtools.com/ -------- QLiner Hotkeys - Keyboard enhancer. - Assign your favorite files, folders, programs, and links to key combinations. - FREE. - http://qliner.com/hotkeys/overview.htm -------- Total Commander - File manager. - Beats Windows Explorer hands down. - Fast search. - Two windows for easy copying/moving of files. - Remembers folders you visited recently, even between sessions. - Much, much more. Highly recommended. - Shareware. http://www.ghisler.com/ -------- Registrar Lite - Terrific registry editor. - Fast search. - Backup and restore registry entries. - Great default bookmarks with comments. - FREE, with a paid version with enhanced capabilities. http://www.resplendence.com/registrar -------- Battle Encoder Shirase (don't ask) - Throttles CPU-hungry software. - Ever had a process hog all your CPU? Try this app. - Can set a percentage of CPU a process can use. - FREE. http://mion.faireal.net/BES/ -------- Startup Delayer - Control which apps start first when your computer boots up. - Set the exact sequence in which apps start, and the time at which each one will start. - FREE. - http://www.r2.com.au/software.php?page=2&show=startdelay -------- Secunia Personal Software Inspector - Is your PC secure? Do you have all the latest security updates and patches? - Secunia PSI pinpoints exactly which patches you need to secure your PC. - Tracks updates for your software. - The typical user has 80 programs installed. Do you know which programs you have installed? - Do you know which programs expose you to security threats? - Security patches are usually free and available for download from the program vendors. - FREE. http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/ -------- AutoRuns - Control what starts up when the computer starts. - Displays all of them, including services, scheduled tasks, and much, much more. - Good alternative to MSCONFIG (shown last time for disabling Automatic Updates). - You can restore an item at any time. - Can search online for info on the item - VITAL! Will open in your default search provider (Mine is Dell) Just drag the search item from that to the Google toolbar, to search in Google. Many search results will be offering advertisements. * Good places to search: PCPitStop Process Library - http://www.pcpitstop.com/libraries/process/ - For services, note that it will DISABLE any service you deselect. May be preferable to find the service using services.msc and set it to Manual. That way it can still be started if needed. - FREE. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx -------- Keyboard shortcuts - Press a key combination of your choosing to start any program on your Start Menu. - No need to click the Start Menu to start your programs. Here's how you might set it up for Microsoft Word. Open the Start Menu and find the shortcut for Word. Right-click the icon and choose Properties. In the Shortcut Key text box, press the combination of keys you want to use to start Word, and click OK. I recommend a combination of Ctrl, Alt and Shift, plus the key of your choice. Example: for Microsoft Word you could use Ctrl + Alt + Shift + W - From now on, you can start Word by just pressing those keys, regardless of where you are in Windows. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1559208,00.asp -------- Hotkey Detective - Show your keyboard shortcuts. - When you've created a lot of keyboard shortcuts, you can sometimes lose track of them. - This program displays all your hotkeys so you can easily remember them. - You also can see which key combinations are still available. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1558892,00.asp -------- Windows Secrets - High-quality newsletter. - Know when to accept Microsoft patches and when to wait. - Find out about dangerous viruses before they get you. - Get the latest news and tips on Windows, Microsoft, updates, patches, and cool programs. - Receive a weekly newsletter filled with information you can use today. - FREE. Paid version has additional nuggets of information. Worth paying for. http://windowssecrets.com/info/ -------- Older versions of software - Download previous versions of many software packages. - FileHippo has both new and older versions. - The older versions are on the right on the download page. http://www.filehippo.com/ -------- LogMeIn - Remote control software. - Access your home PC while you're at work or on the road. - You can even do it from your iPhone. - Take control of a remote computer from anywhere on the Internet. - Requires LogMeIn to be installed on the remote machine. - Similar to GoToMyPC. - FREE. Paid version has additional capabilities, such as file transfer. http://www.logmein.com/ -------- Automatic Updates - Getting automatic updates for Windows and Microsoft applications is valuable, even vital. - The Automatic Update service can sometimes be a resource hog, slowing your machine to a crawl. - You can stop it temporarily like this: Click Start|Run. Enter "net stop wuauserv" (without the quotes) and click OK. The service will stop, freeing resources. It will start again when you reboot. - If you'd rather have the service run only when you say so, you can change its startup from automatic to manual. Click Start|Run. Enter "services.msc" (without the quotes) and click OK. Double-click "Automatic Updates" and set "Startup type" to "Manual." - If you do the above, be sure that you run the service at least once a week to get the latest updates. - Wednesday is the best day, since Microsoft issues updates on Tuesdays. -------- External Drives - When you plug in a thumb drive or external hard drive, Windows issues it a drive letter. - Windows sometimes uses the same letter when you remove one drive and insert another. - If you like, you can set a specific letter for a given drive, like this: Insert the drive. Right-click "My Computer" and choose "Manage." The "Computer Management" dialog appears. Under the "Storage" node, choose "Disk Management." Right-click the device whose drive letter you want to set and choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths..." A dialog appears. Click the "Change..." button. A dialog appears. Choose a drive letter from the drop-down list on the right. When you click OK, Windows will warn you that "Changing the drive letter of a volume might cause programs to no longer run." This means you might have installed programs that expect to find their files on the existing drive letter. If you're sure that won't be an issue, click "Yes." - Now each of your external drives can have its own drive letter. - Windows remembers each device uniquely. -------- More stuff you might enjoy - Visit http://www.rugless.com and check out these items: Must-have utilities several freeware and shareware apps you'll love. Tips & shortcuts quick, easy ways to get things done faster in Windows. Laugh-n-learn nuggets of humor, wisdom and uplift.