Windows Tips, Tricks, and Hacks

The 50 Best Registry Hacks that Make Windows Better

2012-01-14T19:00:00.001-08:00

We’re big fans of hacking the Windows Registry around here, and we’ve got one of the biggest collections of registry hacks you’ll find. Don’t believe us? Here’s a list of the top 50 registry hacks that we’ve covered.

It’s important to note that you should never hack the registry if you don’t know what you’re doing, because your computer will light on fire and some squirrels may be injured. Also, you should create a System Restore point before doing so. Otherwise, keep reading.

Prevent Windows Update from Forcibly Rebooting Your Computer

We’ve all been at our computer when the Windows Update dialog pops up and tells us to reboot our computer. I’ve become convinced that this dialog has been designed to detect when we are most busy and only prompt us at that moment.

There’s a couple of ways that we can disable this behavior, however. You’ll still get the prompt, but it won’t force you to shut down. Here’s how to do it.

Prevent Windows Update from Forcibly Rebooting Your Computer

How to Clean Up Your Messy Windows Context Menu

One of the most irritating things about Windows is the context menu clutter that you have to deal with once you install a bunch of applications. It seems like every application is fighting for a piece of your context menu, and it’s not like you even use half of them.

Today we’ll explain where these menu items are hiding in your registry, how to disable them the geeky way, and an easier cleanup method for non-geeks as well.

How to Clean Up Your Messy Windows Context Menu

Stop Windows Update from Hijacking the Sleep/Shutdown Button

As an avid user of the Sleep function on my laptop, I’ve been more than irritated with Windows 7 or Vista’s habit of changing the Sleep/Shutdown button into an “Install Updates and Shut Down” button whenever there are updates from Windows Update.

After the last time I accidentally clicked this stupid button when I just wanted to enter sleep mode, I decided to look for a solution.

Stop Windows Update from Hijacking the Sleep/Shutdown Button

Add “Take Ownership” to Explorer Right-Click Menu in Win 7 or Vista

Taking ownership of system files or folders in Windows 7 or Vista is not a simple task. Whether you use the GUI or the command line, it takes far too many steps.

Here’s a registry hack that adds an item to the menu that will let you take ownership of the files in a single step, so you can delete, move, or otherwise modify the file.

Add “Take Ownership” to Explorer Right-Click Menu in Win 7 or Vista

Disable Aero Shake in Windows 7

One of the interesting new features in Windows 7 is the way you can grab a window by the title bar and “shake” it back and forth to minimize everything else. It’s a fun feature, but just in case you want to disable it we’ve got the solution for you.

All you’ll have to do is apply a simple registry hack, and that

Disable Aero Shake in Windows 7

Add “Open with Notepad” to the Context Menu for All Files

The default method of opening unknown files forces you to go through a list of known applications and is generally a pain to deal with.

That’s why I like to have a context menu option for “Open with Notepad” so that I can quickly open up files without having to go through a lot of trouble.

Add “Open with Notepad” to the Context Menu for All Files

Disable All Notification Balloons in Windows 7 or Vista

If you find the popup notification balloons in the Windows system tray to be too annoying, you might be interested to know that you can completely disable them. This would be an extreme option, of course… typically you can just turn them off in any offending applications, but if you want to disable them across the board, this is the solution.

Disable All Notification Balloons in Windows 7 or Vista

Change the Registered Owner in Windows

If you’ve ever wondered how to change the name of the person that Windows is registered to, this is the quick tip for you. It’s not all that useful for most people, but it might come in handy if you got a computer from somebody else.

To show off the new changes, just type winver.exe into the start menu search box to see the About Windows box.

Quick Tip: Change the Registered Owner in Windows

Kill Windows with the Blue Screen of Death in 3 Keystrokes

Have you ever wanted to show off your keyboard ninja skills by taking down Windows with just a couple of keystrokes? All you have to do is add one registry key, and then you can impress your friends… or use it to convince people to switch to Linux.

This isn’t a bug, it’s a “feature” in Windows that is designed to let users trigger a crash dump for testing purposes. Note: this one doesn’t work in Windows 7 anymore. Also, it clearly doesn’t make Windows better, but we included it because it’s lots of fun.

Keyboard Ninja: Kill Windows with the Blue Screen of Death in 3 Keystrokes

How to Add Any Application to the Windows Desktop Right-Click Menu

If you want really quick access to launch a frequently used application without putting extra icons on your desktop, you can add that application to the context menu for the desktop with a simple registry hack. Here’s how to do it.

For today’s lesson we’ll show you how to add Notepad to the menu, but you could add any applications you want instead.

How to Add Any Application to the Windows Desktop Right-Click Menu

How to Add Google Documents to the Windows Explorer “New” Menu

We’ve already shown you how to create shortcuts to create new Google Docs easily, but what if you want total Windows integration? Here’s how to add them to the Windows Explorer “New” menu for easier access.

This should work for all versions of Windows, and you can modify it to work with Google Apps for your Domain as well. Keep reading for the full instructions.

How to Add Google Documents to the Windows Explorer “New” Menu

How to Add Registry Editor to Control Panel

It’s always struck me as odd that system tweakers use the registry editor all the time to fix annoyances in Windows, but nobody has created a tweak to add the registry editor to the control panel… until now.

I’ve created a registry hack to add the registry editor as another option in the Control Panel in any version of Windows.

How to Add Registry Editor to Control Panel

Remove “Shortcut” Text From New Shortcuts in Windows 7 or Vista

A source of annoyance for many Windows users is the ” – Shortcut” text that is added to the name of newly created shortcuts, and every time you have to manually edit the shortcut and remove that text. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a registry hack for this?

Most long-time geeks will remember that there was a hack for Windows XP, and probably already know that the same hack works in Windows 7 or Vista as well.

Remove “Shortcut” Text From New Shortcuts in Windows 7 or Vista

Disable Win+X Shortcut Keys on Windows 7 or Vista

Windows 7 and Vista have all the same Windows+X shortcut keys as other versions of Windows, such as Win+E for explorer and Win+D for the desktop, but adds in all of the Win+<num> keys to launch the shortcuts in the Vista Quick Launch menu (or switch to apps in Windows 7), as well as Win+X for mobility center, etc.

But what if you want to disable all these extra keys?

Disable Win+X Shortcut Keys on Windows 7 or Vista

Stupid Geek Tricks: Enable the Secret “How-To Geek” Mode in Windows 7

We haven’t told anybody before, but Windows has a hidden “How-To Geek Mode” that you can enable which gives you access to every Control Panel tool on a single page—and we’ve documented the secret method for you here.

NOTE: Do not use this on Vista or XP: things will break.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Enable the Secret “How-To Geek” Mode in Windows 7

Disable Windows Mobility Center in Windows 7 or Vista

Windows Mobility Center is a fairly useful tool for those of us using Windows 7 or Vista on a laptop computer, but might not be for everybody, especially since it takes over the Win+X keyboard shortcut.

If you would rather disable Windows Mobility Center, all it takes is a single registry tweak.

Disable Windows Mobility Center in Windows 7 or Vista

Hide Drives from Your Computer in Windows 7 or Vista

If you’ve got drives in My Computer that you never access, such as a USB Flash drive that you are using solely for ReadyBoost, a floppy drive, or a network drive only used for a particular piece of software, then you might want to simply hide the drive from your computer.

This tip will only hide the drive from being displayed, applications and the command prompt will still have access to it, and you can still manually browse to the folder if you type in the path.

Hide Drives from Your Computer in Windows 7 or Vista

How to Put a Real Libraries Icon On Your Windows 7 Desktop

We’re big fans of hidden registry hacks around here, so when our friend Justin showed how to put a real, working Libraries icon on the desktop, we figured it would make a perfect article for for a few extra geek points.

Yeah, you can always create a shortcut icon for anything on the desktop, but this one is the actual icon without the shortcut overlay. Plus it’s a geeky hidden trick—what’s not to like?

How to Put a Real Libraries Icon On Your Windows 7 Desktop

How to Restore Previous Versions of the Registry in Windows 7

If you want to manually restore a specific section of the registry from a previous System Restore snapshot, or access some specific keys from an older version of the registry, you can do so by getting access to those files and then exporting sections from them. Here’s how to do it in Windows 7 or Vista.

How to Restore Previous Versions of the Registry in Windows 7

Remove or Hide Unwanted Items From the Control Panel in Windows 7

Have you ever opened the Control Panel in Windows 7 and thought there is no reason to have some of the icons listed? Today we take a look at how to remove unwanted or unneeded items from Control Panel in Windows 7.

For some items you won’t be able to easily delete the CPL file if it’s a Windows system file or in use. You could use a program like Unlocker, but we can tweak the Registry to hide items in Control Panel.

Remove or Hide Unwanted Items From the Control Panel in Windows 7

Make the Taskbar Buttons Switch to the Last Active Window in Windows 7

The new Windows 7 taskbar’s Aero Peek feature, with the live thumbnails of every window, is awesome… but sometimes you just want to be able to click the taskbar button and have the last open window show up instead. Here’s a quick hack to make it work better.

Make the Taskbar Buttons Switch to the Last Active Window in Windows 7

Make Aero Peek Display Instantly (or Disable it) in Windows 7

Aero Peek is one of the more useful new features in Windows 7… just move your mouse to the taskbar for half a second, and everything else hides so you can see the desktop or application window. But why does it take half a second?

There’s a simple little registry hack that will change the amount of time between hovering your mouse over the show desktop button in the lower right-hand corner, and the Aero Peek display showing up. The same thing should work for when you hover over an application window on the taskbar.

Make Aero Peek Display Instantly (or Disable it) in Windows 7

Why Doesn’t Disk Cleanup Delete Everything from the Temp Folder?

After you’ve used Disk Cleanup, you probably expect every temporary file to be completely deleted, but that’s not actually the case. Files are only deleted if they are older than 7 days old, but you can tweak that number to something else.

Why Doesn’t Disk Cleanup Delete Everything from the Temp Folder?

Remove “Troubleshoot Compatibility” from the Windows Context Menu

Reader Jeevus wrote in asking how to remove the “Troubleshoot Compatibility” item from the Windows context menu whenever you right-click on an application—naturally, we were happy to explain how to do it, and share with the rest of you.

You’ll want to note that we’re not necessarily recommending that you remove this item, since it could be useful if you’re having compatibility issues with an application, but we’re fans of showing how to do something—also, we just like tinkering in the registry.

Remove “Troubleshoot Compatibility” from the Windows Context Menu

Show the Classic “All Programs” Menu in the Start Menu in Windows 7

There are a lot of new users to Windows 7 who are not happy with the new Start Menu and wish they could revert to the Classic menu. Here is how to at least get back the Classic “All Programs” Menu.

While it’s not quite the same as the good old XP days, if you’re looking to get the All Programs Menu back, this Registry hack will do the trick without installing 3rd party software.

Show the Classic “All Programs” Menu in the Start Menu in Windows 7

How To Add Recycle Bin to “My Computer” in Windows 7 or Vista

Have you ever wanted to add the Recycle Bin to your My Computer screen? Yeah, it’s probably not the most common request, but here’s how to do it anyway with a simple registry hack.

To make this tweak, we’ll be doing a quick registry hack, but there’s a downloadable version provided as well.

How To Add Recycle Bin to “My Computer” in Windows 7 or Vista

Remove Gadgets and Screen Resolution on Windows 7 Desktop Context Menu

One of the first things you might notice in Windows 7 is the addition of the new Gadgets and Screen Resolution items to the context menu. The only problem is that you might not really want them there—so we’ll explain how to get rid of them.

No clue what we’re talking about? If you are using Windows 7 and you right-click on the desktop, you’ll see a bunch of new items at the bottom:

Remove Gadgets and Screen Resolution on Windows 7 Desktop Context Menu

Stupid Geek Tricks: Enable More Fonts for the Windows Command Prompt

Have you ever noticed that there are only two fonts to choose from in the Command prompt properties window? What you might not know is that you can use a simple registry hack to enable alternate fonts, including a very readable font that comes with Windows 7, Vista, or Office 2007.

But that’s not all… you can enable a number of fixed width fonts if you really want to. We’ll cover how this works, as well as one of my favorite “interesting” fonts for the command prompt.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Enable More Fonts for the Windows Command Prompt

Remove ATI Catalyst Control Center from the Desktop Right-Click Menu

Have you ever wondered how to remove the “Catalyst(TM) Control Center” item from the desktop context menu? Here’s the simple registry hack to remove it.

Remove ATI Catalyst Control Center from the Desktop Right-Click Menu

Remove NVIDIA Control Panel from Desktop Right-Click Menu

Have you ever wondered how to remove the “NVIDIA Control Panel” item from the desktop context menu? If so, you probably didn’t realize that it’s trivially easy to remove.

Remove NVIDIA Control Panel from Desktop Right-Click Menu

Make “Command Prompt Here” Always Display for Folders in Windows

We’ve previously explained how you can open a command prompt by holding down the Shift key and right-clicking on a folder or the desktop… but how do you make that item show up without having to hold down the shift key?

There’s a simple registry hack you can do that will enable “Open Command Window Here” item without holding down the shift key:

Make “Command Prompt Here” Always Display for Folders in Windows

Add Encrypt / Decrypt Options to Windows 7 / Vista Right-Click Menu

If you use the built-in file encryption in Windows 7 or Vista, you might be interested in adding an option to the right-click menu to more easily encrypt and decrypt your files, rather than having to use the file properties dialog.

Adding this to the menu couldn’t be simpler – there’s only a single registry key to add.

Add Encrypt / Decrypt Options to Windows 7 / Vista Right-Click Menu

Customize the Default Screensavers in Windows 7 and Vista

Windows 7 and Vista include a nice set of backgrounds, but unfortunately most of them aren’t configurable by default. Thanks to a free app and some registry changes, however, you can make the default screensavers uniquely yours!

You can customize the Bubbles, Ribbons, and Mystify screensaver to enable hidden options with this registry hack.

Customize the Default Screensavers in Windows 7 and Vista

Skip the Annoying “Use the Web service to find the correct program” Dialog

If you’ve used Windows for any length of time, you’ve likely tried to open a file with an unknown extension. Instead of getting a list of programs to open the file with, you get an annoying dialog asking you to use a web service to find a program. So how do we change this?

You can use a registry hack to force Windows to skip this dialog altogether, and give you a list of applications to use to open the file instead, just as if you had selected the second option.

Skip the Annoying “Use the Web service to find the correct program” Dialog

Disable Caps Lock Key in Windows 7 or Vista

The caps lock key is one of those remnants of another age of computers, back when people used to shout at each other more often. Since it’s not entirely useful anymore we’ll learn how to disable it. If you aren’t interested in the explanation you can skip to the bottom for the registry files.

Windows doesn’t have a default setting to allow for disabling the key, so what we have to do is re-map the key to something non-existent so as to completely disable it.

Disable Caps Lock Key in Windows 7 or Vista

Add Defragment to the Right-Click Menu for a Drive

We’ve received lots of requests to add Defrag to the right-click menu for a drive, so we created a simple registry hack that can be easily added that does just that.

After manually applying or downloading the hack, you’ll have a new item on the right-click menu for your drives…

Add Defragment to the Right-Click Menu for a Drive

Add Control Panel to the Desktop Right-Click Menu in Vista

A couple of days ago I noticed a thread on our forum asking how to add Control Panel to the desktop context menu, so I decided to write up the solution for everybody, since it seems like a really useful hack.

There’s a manual registry hack that you can apply if you’d like, or you can download the reghack version and apply it easily.

Add Control Panel to the Desktop Right-Click Menu in Vista

Use Verbose Boot Messages to Troubleshoot Windows Startup Problems

If you’ve ever had problems with your PC starting up or shutting down slowly, there’s lots of different troubleshooting techniques that you can use—today we’ll talk about how to enable verbose messages.

Enabling these verbose messages is not going to magically solve your problems, of course—the point is to use this to identify a problem, which you can then solve through other means, generally by uninstalling a problem application or upgrading a faulty driver.

Use Verbose Boot Messages to Troubleshoot Windows Startup Problems

How to Enable or Disable TortoiseSVN Menus Easily

If you’re a programmer that uses TortoiseSVN to manage your Subversion source control project, you might wonder how to easily disable the menu items without completely uninstalling. Here’s a quick way to do it.

The general idea is that we’ll remove the Windows Explorer context menu items from the registry with one script, and then add the registry entries back with another script.

How to Enable or Disable TortoiseSVN Menus Easily

How to Add Control Panel to “My Computer” in Windows 7 or Vista

Back in the Windows XP days, you could easily add Control Panel to My Computer with a simple checkbox in the folder view settings. Windows 7 and Vista don’t make this quite as easy, but there’s still a way to get it back.

To make this tweak, we’ll be doing a quick registry hack, but there’s a downloadable version provided as well.

How to Add Control Panel to “My Computer” in Windows 7 or Vista

Increase the Speed of the Aero Taskbar Thumbnails in Windows 7

By default you may notice that there is a slight delay when hovering your mouse over a Taskbar Thumbnail. Here is a neat registry hack that will allow you to speed it up.

Once you apply the hack, you’ll notice when you hover your mouse over a thumbnail of an open app on the Taskbar the preview pops up instantly with no delay.

Increase the Speed of the Aero Taskbar Thumbnails in Windows 7

Remove Programs from the Open With Menu in Explorer

Would you like to clean up the Open with menu in Windows Explorer? Here’s how you can remove program entries you don’t want in this menu on any version of Windows.

This simple trick can help you keep your Open withmenu tidy, and only show the programs you want in the list.

Remove Programs from the Open With Menu in Explorer

Add “Run as Administrator” to Any File Type in Windows 7 or Vista

Have you ever tried to unzip a file to the Program Files directory in Windows 7 or Vista? You’ll get all sorts of permission denied errors, and generally be unsuccessful. So how do we open up the zipfile as an administrator? For that matter, how do you open any file as administrator?

There’s a simple registry tweak that will let us specify the action to run as administrator for a file type. Unfortunately you’ll have to make the tweak manually, but we’ll walk you through it.

Add “Run as Administrator” to Any File Type in Windows 7 or Vista

Create a Context Menu Item to Copy a Text File To the Clipboard in Windows 7 / Vista / XP

If you are the type of person that likes to keep a lot of information stored in text-format files on your drive, you’ve probably encountered a scenario where you want to copy that information to the clipboard… so you open the file in notepad, select all, then copy to the clipboard. What if you could do it with a simple context menu item instead?

Using a little registry hacking and the clip.exe utility built into Windows 7 and Vista, we can do just that, and we can even hide it behind the Shift + Right-Click menu so that it won’t waste space on the menu unless you hold down the shift key.

Create a Context Menu Item to Copy a Text File To the Clipboard in Windows 7 / Vista / XP

Disable the “Send To” Folder on the Windows Explorer Context Menu

After writing the article about adding Notepad to the context menu I noticed all the comments from users that prefer to use a shortcut in the Send To menu, which got me thinking… I wonder if you can disable the Send To folder?

Of course you can easily disable it… naturally it’s a registry hack, so standard disclaimers apply.

Disable the “Send To” Folder on the Windows Explorer Context Menu

Remove “Map Network Drive” Menu Item from Windows Vista or XP

If you have never used the “Map Network Drive” dialog box, do you ever wonder how to get rid of it? Personally I only map drives from the command line so I never use it either… so I’m thankful there’s a registry hack that can remove the menu items.

If you are unfamiliar with what I’m talking about, just right-click on the Computer icon and you’ll see it.

Remove “Map Network Drive” Menu Item from Windows Vista or XP

Enable or Disable Task Manager

Some time ago I received an email from a reader curious why their Task Manager option was grayed out on the taskbar right-click menu. After a bit of research his problem was solved, and now I’m sharing the solution with everybody.

There is a registry key that will disable Task Manager, although it’s not always clear how or why it was set to disable. In many cases the problem is related to spyware, so you should also scan your computer. Here’s how to enable or disable it.

Why is Task Manager Disabled?

How to Clean Up Your Messy Internet Explorer Context Menu

Is your Internet Explorer context menu completely out of control? Is it so long that it actually runs off the screen? Here’s how to quickly take a few steps to get rid of all that ridiculous clutter without installing Google Chrome instead.

Sometimes you can remove the items just by using the Manage Add-ons screen, but other add-ons embed themselves a lot deeper, and you’ll need to use a registry hack to get rid of them. Here’s how to do that.

How to Clean Up Your Messy Internet Explorer Context Menu

How to Restore the Real Internet Explorer Desktop Icon in Windows 7

Remember how previous versions of Windows had an Internet Explorer icon on the desktop, and you could right-click it to quickly access the Internet Options screen? It’s completely gone in Windows 7, but a geeky hack can bring it back.

Microsoft removed this feature to comply with all those murky legal battles they’ve had, and their alternate suggestion is to create a standard shortcut to iexplore.exe on the Desktop, but it’s not the same thing. We’ve got a registry hack to bring it back.

How to Restore the Real Internet Explorer Desktop Icon in Windows 7

Enable or Disable Displaying a Message During the Boot Process

If you’ve ever had a corporate laptop, there’s a good chance that you’ve seen a message before you login that talks about the corporate policies and all of that stuff.

Here’s how to enable or disable that login message using a registry hack.

Display a Text Message During Bootup of Windows 7

That was a lot of registry hacks… guessing nobody will even read far enough to see this line.

Windows 7 Hack: Playing with "GodMode"

2012-01-14T18:59:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered what else lies under the hood of that new Windows 7 laptop you got recently? The clever folks at CNET have found a simple hack that will grant access to all of those options in one easy-to-set-up shortcut.

The aptly named GodMode is a built-in, yet unadvertised feature in Windows 7 that gathers all Windows utilities in one spot. To access it, simply create a new folder and name it:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

And that's it! Open it up and you'll find access to display options, backup/recovery, power management and more. This is a useful trick for those of you that easily forget where to access the defragmenter or the device managager. You may even find a useful utility you didn't know existed.

[Important note: Readers have noted that this tip also works on the 32-bit version of Windows Vista. If you are running the 64-bit version of Windows Vista, do not use this hack. It can cause Windows Explorer to crash. If you've experienced this problem, see these instructions to remove the GodMode folder.]

For quite a few years now, Microsoft has tinkered with its Control Panel in order to provide a robust set of options in an elegant and accessible package. GodMode is certainly not the solution to that problem. By throwing all of the settings into one spot, it's more akin to organized confusion than friendly accessibility. GodMode probably won't work too well for Grandma, but for those of you that get giddy at the thought of tweaking your settings, you might want to get this shortcut up on your desktop.

Hidden Administrator Account

2012-01-13T21:31:00.000-08:00

This is a fairly old hack. Not really even a hack. It's a great tip though.

Next time you try to login to Windows XP at the login screen, press Ctrl+Alt+Del until a Login screen allowing you to type your user name.

Last of all type Administrator into the User and leave the password box blank. Press login and you in!

The Best Free Windows Software

2012-01-12T19:25:00.000-08:00

On this page you will find the best 117 free Windows programs for all your needs.

We’ve taken the effort to categorize the apps and picked only those we believe to be the best ones and which will most likely be useful to you.

Anti-virus	Malware removal	Firewall Apps	Defragmenters
File Recovery	Uninstallers	Backup Apps	PC Maintenance
Browsers	Email Clients	Communication	Photos/Images
Audio Tools	Video Tools	Files/Drives	Documents
Productivity	Archive Managers	CD/DVD Tools	Downloads
Others

	avast! Free Antivirus Expect great all-around protection against viruses and trojans. Download		AntiVir Free Version Lightweight and solid. Good ratings. Worth looking into. Download		AVG Antivirus Free Edition Not as good as Avast or Avira but with considerably less bloat. The most popular free antivirus. Download
	Microsoft Security Essentials Simple, effective and lightweight protection suite. Download		Comodo Internet Security Free security suite, includes both a firewall and anti-virus protection. Download

	Spybot S&D Detects and removes spyware. Compliments anti-virus apps. Has a very good reputation. Download		Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware Easy-to-use, simple, and very effective anti-malware application. Download		IObit Malware Fighter Advanced malware & spyware removal utility. Download
	Threatfire Spyware removal tool with real-time antispyware protection. Lightweight and memory sparing. Download		Superantispyware Lightweight scanner to detect and remove spyware, adware, trojans, and other threats. Download

	PC Tools Firewall Plus 6 Powerful firewall capable of providing excellent protection. Download		Comodo Firewall (standalone) Long been considered one of the best free firewall tools available. Download		ZoneAlarm Free Firewall Provides the best overall firewall protection for advanced users. Download
	Online Armor Free All of the normal features of a firewall and more. Download		Ashampoo FireWall Free Very easy to use and navigate. For intermediate users. Download

Auslogics Disk Defrag
Simple, reliable and quite fast. A must-have free PC tool. Considered no.1 by many.

Download

Defraggler
Another excellent defrag tool. Portable. From the same guys behind hugely popular CCleaner.

Download

IObit Smart Defrag
Extremely easy to use. Works continuously in the background.

Download

Recuva
Very effective in restoring deleted files. Extremely popular.

Download

FreeUndelete
No frills, just focused on the zen of file recovery.

Download

ADRC Data Recovery Software
The Renaissance Man of free data recovery. Not as popular as Recuva but still has its own fans.

Download

Revo Uninstaller Free
Fast and very effective at uninstalling just about anything. Popular choice for the purpose.

Download

IObit Uninstaller
New kid on the block. Gaining popularity. Boasts a bunch of features not found on other uninstallers.

Download

Absolute Uninstaller
Less popular than the other two but probably the simplest to use one.

Download

Mozy Incredibly smart, highly secure, set-it-and-forget-it backup solution. Backups data to web. Download	FBackup Easily backup important files and documents, personal settings and plugins. Download	Todo Backup Able to backup the entire operating system, program settings, browser data, emails and other data. Download
Clonezilla Live CD to completely clone your hard drive. Download	SyncBack Freeware Selective synchronisation, local and remote backup to an FTP server. Download	FreeFileSync Open source folder comparison and sync tool. Optimised for speed and usability. Download
CopyTo Synchronizer Wide set of options for backing up, updating, and synchronizing files. Download	DriveImage XML Easily Backup or copy entire disks block-for-block directly to another drive without the need to reboot your computer to run the cloning process. Download

	Glary Utilities Includes over 15 useful system maintenance tools. Been recommended by MakeUseOf several times! Download		CCleaner Scores high points all around. The most popular choice at the moment. Not as many features as in others. Download		IObit Toolbox The amount of system maintenance tools included in this free app is truly staggering. Download
	Soluto Speed up Windows boot time by removing unnecessary apps from startup. Very effective. Download		IObit Advanced SystemCare Free One-click approach to help protect, repair, clean, and optimize your PC. Download

	Google Chrome The fastest, minimal design browser (from Google) now with extension support. Growing extremely fast. Download		Firefox More than 6,000 add-ons for every possible feature. The most customisable browser to date. Download		Safari A web browser from Apple. Designed to emphasize browsing. Also features extensions. Download
	Opera The “fastest and most advanced” browser available today. Download

Thunderbird
Increasingly popular email client from the same guys behind Firefox browser. One of the best email clients for Windows.

Download

Postbox Express
A simple, yet powerful, new email application for Windows. Check it out.

Download

Google Notifier
Alerts you when you have new Gmail messages. Simple and handy.

Download

	Skype The most popular cross-platform VoIP application. Must-have for everyone online. Download		Pidgin Easy-to-use, cross-platform, multi-protocol chat client. Supports all major chat programs. Download		Digsby An alternative multi-protocol instant messaging app. Cross-platform. Extremely popular. Download
	Trillian Astra Popular multi-protocol instant messaging client. Download

	Paint.NET Strong candidate as a potential substitute for Photoshop for beginner/intermediate users. Download		FastStone Image Viewer One of the best image viewer, converter & editor bundles. Download		IrfanView The Swiss Army knife of image viewers/editors. Extremely popular. Download
	Google Picasa Powerful photo manager software from Google. Includes 1-click photo retouching features. Easy online photo sharing. Download		GIMP Very capable graphic editor with Photoshop-like features. Often labeled as free Photoshop alternative. Download		PhotoScape Another good free and easy-to-use photo editing application. Download

foobar2000 Advanced audio player for Windows with highly customisable user interface. Download \| Full Review	Songbird A popular music player based on Mozilla’s code. Includes some really useful plugins. Download	Audacity Very popular open source software for recording and editing audio tracks and sounds. Download
iTunes Music player and video library organiser. Hosts the iTunes Store. Download	MediaMonkey Full-featured music player and music collection organiser. Download	Winamp Well-known, lightweight, small-footprint media player. Download
CopyTrans Manager Alternative iPod manager app. Sync and transfer music & files to iPod, iPhone, iPad. Download	TagScanner A multifunction program for organizing and managing your music collection. Download

VLC Media Player Extremely popular cross-platform video player that can play almost any video file. Highly recommended by many. Download	Handbrake Open source, cross-platform, video converter that can convert video files between many video formats. Download	VirtualDub Open-source and portable video editor. Download
Media Player Classic Replica of WM Player. Includes only the most basic controls but can play pretty much any video. Download	Freemake Free video converter & DVD burner that’s easy to use. Download	Format Factory Multifunctional audi and video converter. Supports MP4, AVI, WMV, FLV, SWF, RMVB and lots more. Download
KMPlayer Highly customisable, popular, multi-format video player. Download

FileMenu Tools Customise the right-click context menu of Windows Explorer. Adds lots of useful functions and utilities. Download	FreeCommander Free file browser and Windows Explorer replacement. Two-pane browsing, secure file deletion and more. Download	TeraCopy Copy and move files at maximum speed. Pause and resume file transfers. Download
EASEUS Partition Master All-in-one, easy to use disk partition manager. Create, resize and merge partitions. Download	Unlocker Can’t delete a folder or a file? Getting an error that it’s being used by another program? Unlocker can easily delete it. Download	TreeSize Free Shows you where your precious hard drive space has gone to. Easily view how much space is being used by each folder. Download
DropIt Tiny tool to automate categorizing files and folders. Drag a file on top of it and it will place it for you where you need it. Portable version available. Download	Free Opener An easy way to quickly open over 80 types of file types using one tiny program. Download	SyncToy Free application that synchronizes files and folders between locations. Download

LibreOffice Microsoft Office alternative. Open source professional productivity and office suite. Download	Dropbox Must-have for everyone. Sync folder with docs and files to web or other PCs / Macs. Share documents. Download	Notepad++ Popular open source text editor. Favoured by many, including programmers. Download
FoxIt Reader Really light alternative to Adobe Reader. Open PDF files. Download	doPDF Easily convert documents and pictures to PDF files from any Windows program with two clicks. Download	PDF Xchange viewer Desktop and portable PDF viewer. Lightweight and fast. Download
Nitro PDF Reader Read PDFs, create PDFs. Extract content, annotate and fill PDF forms. Download	OpenOffice Another popular free alternative to Microsoft Office. Download	PDFTK Builder Free graphical interface version of PDFTK. Merge, split, decrypt, encrypt, watermark PDF files. Download
VIM Text Editor Highly configurable text editor. Download	PDFsam Easily split and merge PDF files. Download

Fences Provides rectangular containers for your desktop to visually organize your icons. Very handy! Download	Rainlendar Very easy to use and lightweight calendar for your Windows desktop. Download	Evernote Save your ideas on the go and instantly take notes. Access notes from anywhere. Highly recommended! Download
VirtuaWin Gives you multiple virtual desktops to organize your workflow. Highly customisable. Download	Launchy A powerful keystroke based program launcher that lets you open program and files really quickly. Download	Send to Toys Enhances the right-click ‘Send To’ system menu. Personalise and configure the Send To menu content. Download
Dexpot Create virtual desktops to separate different running apps and Windows. Comparable to Spaces on Mac OS X. Download	Q-Dir Free multi-pane file manager to save you time. Portable version available. Download	ClipX Tiny, free clipboard history manager. Access up to 1024 items in your clipboard’s history. Download
Bruce’s Unusual Typing Wizard Gain typing speed and accuracy with its unique touch-typing teaching program. Download	SendToSendTo Easily add new entries to the right-click “Send To” menu. Download	Ditto Saves each item placed on the clipboard allowing you access to any of those items at a later time. Download

7-zip
Takes care of most of your archive extracting/compression needs. Supports ZIP, RAR and many others formats.

Download

Universal Extractor
With over 50 supported file formats, Universal Extractor is superb.

Download

IZArc
One archive utility to rule them all. Supports almost all formats.

Download

ImgBurn CD/DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-ray burning tool. Also, lets you easily create image files from CDs and DVDs. Download	CDBurnerXP The most popular free alternative to Nero Burning ROM. Burn CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. Download	bitRipper Back-up your DVDs as AVI files or MPEG to your hard drive. Excellent backup tool for DVDs. Download
CDex Open-source digital audio CD extractor. Saves CD tracks as MP3′s. Download	DuBaron CD2ISO A great tool to extract ISO images from CDs or DVDs. Very simple and easy to use. Download	Virtual CloneDrive Mount a virtual drive to open and playback ISO image files (CD/DVD images). Download
DVDShrink The easiest and one of the better free DVD ripping and backup tools. Download	Exact Audio Copy The most accurate and error-free audio CD extractor. Can extract MP3s from a CD. Download	DVD Flick Easy-to-use DVD creation software. Allows adding subtitles and making DVD menus as well. Download
WinCDEmu Mount ISO, CUE, NRG, MDS/MDF, CCD, IMG images by simply clicking on them in Windows Explorer. Download

	uTorrent Speedy, efficient, and free. The most popular BitTorrent client. Download		Deluge An awesome but unappreciated cross-platform BitTorrent client. Download		YouTube Downloader HD Downloads YouTube videos with just a few clicks of the mouse button. Download
	PeerBlock Control/block your PC’s communication with ad or spyware servers. Secures P2P activities. Download		Free Download Manager Open source download accelerator and manager. Increase download speeds and resume broken downloads. Download		Jdownloader The most popular downlaod manager. Quickly and efficiently download files from sites such as Rapidshare, Megaupload and many others. Download

LastPass Secure plugin to store and synchronise login passwords across browsers. Comes auto-login and form filler. Download	TrueCrypt Free open-source, cross-platform disk and data encryption tool. Encrypt and hide sensitive files. Download	TeamViewer Request remote technical assistance. Connect to remote computer. Zero setup required. Download
PortableApps Suite A collection of useful portable apps that can be stored on USB stick. Carry the apps with you wherever you go on a thumbdrive. Download	Sticky Password Free password and identity manager. Browser add-on for automatic login and form-filling. Download	KeePass Free, open source, lightweight and easy-to-use password manager. Download
LiberKey Suite of over 300 free useful software apps that you can carry with you wherever you go. Download	Hiren’s BootCD All-in-one bootable CD providing an alternate boot environment to troubleshoot Windows problems. Download	Eraser Advanced security tool to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive. Download
iPrint Print multiple pages on each sheet of paper, delete unwanted pages. Lowers printing costs. Download	Antirun Protects your PC by blocking viruses and malware from infected USB thumbsticks and flash drives. Download	Everything search engine Locates files and folders by name instantly. Download
Game Booster 3 Speeds up your PC for faster gaming. Download	DriverPack Solution 11 Makes the job of finding and automatically installing drivers really easy. Download

Disclaimer: All applications listed were thoroughly reviewed. Windows Tips & Tricks is not responsible for any damage and/or data loss
that might result from use of any of the above mentioned applications.

Undo an Accidental File Move or Deletion With the Keyboard

2012-01-12T02:39:00.001-08:00

Undo an Accidental File Move or Deletion With the Keyboard

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Have you ever tried to select a bunch of files while holding the Ctrl key, and then accidentally copied all of them because you slightly moved your mouse? Maybe you just deleted a file and don't feel like hunting it down in the Recycle bin. In either case, you can use the Ctrl+Z shortcut key to immediately reverse whatever you didn't mean to do.
Readers will probably point out that you can also do this from the context menu in Windows 7, but it's surprising how many people don't realize the keyboard shortcut works.

Hide Secret Data Inside Any File

2012-01-12T02:28:00.000-08:00

Hide Secret Data Inside Any File

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There's any number of great ways to hide data from prying eyes—TrueCrypt, anyone? But if you want to simply hide some text data inside a secret "compartment", you can abuse the Alternate Data Streams feature in the underlying NTFS file system. All you have to do is open up a command prompt, and then use a command similar to this:

notepad SomeFile.txt:SecretWordHere.txt

The special filename with the colon and second filename tells NTFS to actually store the data in an alternate stream, instead of the regular file. You can put whatever you want into the file, and nobody will be able to access it unless they know the command to retrieve it.

Protect the privacy of your Explorer searches

2012-01-12T00:15:00.001-08:00

Protect the privacy of your Explorer searches

Note: This tip relies on the Group Policy Editor, which isn't available in some versions of Windows 7. Thus, this tip will not work if you have the Home Premium, Starter, or Home Basic editions of Windows 7.

Select "Enabled" to protect search privacy.
Click to view larger image.

When you search through your PC from Windows Explorer, you can see the most recent searches that have been performed. If you share a PC and don't want others to see what you've searched for, you can turn off the recent searches feature:
1. In the Start menu's Search box, type GPEDIT.MSC and press Enter to launch the Group Policy Editor.
2. Go to User Configuration --> Administrative Templates --> Windows Components --> Windows Explorer.
3. Double-click "Turn off display of recent search entries in the Windows Explorer search box" and select Enabled from the screen that appears. Then click OK. The recent searches feature will now be turned off.

Open a command prompt at any folder

2012-01-12T00:14:00.003-08:00

Open a command prompt at any folder

Command prompt fans will welcome this tip. With it, when you're in Windows Explorer, you can open a command prompt to any folder. This tip does exactly what the Windows XP PowerToy "Open Command Window Here" does.
To use it, hold down the Shift key and right-click a folder, then choose "Open command window here" from the context menu that appears. (Note that this tip doesn't work in the Documents folder.)

Windows Explorer tips

2012-01-12T00:14:00.001-08:00

Windows Explorer tips

Windows Explorer is the heart and soul of the Windows interface, and overall it works quite well. But you can make it better.

Use check boxes to select multiple files

Selecting multiple files using your mouse and check boxes.
Click to view larger image.

In order to select multiple files for an operation such as copying, moving or deleting in Windows Explorer, you generally use the keyboard and the mouse, Ctrl-clicking every file you want to select.
But if you're mouse-centric, there's a way to select multiple files in Windows 7 using only your mouse, via check boxes. To do it:
1. In Windows Explorer, click Organize, and then select "Folder and search options."
2. Click the View tab.
3. In Advanced Settings, scroll down and check the box next to "Use check boxes to select items." Click OK.
4. From now on, when you hover your mouse over a file in Windows Explorer, a check box will appear next to it; click it to select the file. Once a file is selected, the checked box remains next to it; if you uncheck it, the box will disappear when you move your mouse away.

Add a Videos link to the Start Menu

2012-01-12T00:12:00.001-08:00

Add a Videos link to the Start Menu

The Windows 7 Start Menu includes links to your Pictures and Music folders, but not to your Videos folder. If you watch a lot of videos and want a link to them on your Start Menu, here's what you can do:

Displaying the Videos folder on the Start Menu.
Click to view larger image.

1. Right-click the Start button and select Properties.
2. On the screen that appears, go to the Start Menu tab and click Customize.
3. In the dialog box that appears, scroll to the bottom, look for the Videos section, select "Display as a link," and click OK and then OK again.
If you'd prefer that Videos display as a menu, with links to files and submenus, instead select "Display as a menu."

Customize the Shut down button

2012-01-12T00:11:00.003-08:00

Customize the Shut down button

The default action of the Start Menu's Shut down button is to turn off your PC. If you want to use the button for another action, such as restarting your PC, you click the arrow to the right of the Shut down button and select an action from the drop-down menu.
What if you rarely shut your PC down completely but frequently restart it? You can change the Shut down button's default action to be Restart -- or Switch user, Log off, Lock, Sleep or Hibernate.
To change your default, right-click the Start button and select Properties. On the Start Menu tab, click the "Power button action" drop-down menu and select which action you want to be the default. Then click OK, and OK again.

Start Menu tips

2012-01-12T00:11:00.001-08:00

Start Menu tips

Many people overlook the Start Menu, rarely using it except as a jumping off point to run an application or get to the Control Panel. But there's actually plenty you can do with it.

Search the Internet from the Start Menu

Enabling Internet search from the Start Menu.
Click to view larger image.

The Start Menu's search box is a convenient way to search through your PC -- but you can also have it do double-duty and perform Internet searches as well. To enable this feature:
1. In the Start Menu search box, type GPEDIT.MSC and press Enter to run the Group Policy Editor.
2. Go to User Configuration --> Administrative Templates --> Start Menu and Taskbar.
3. Double-click "Add Search Internet link to Start Menu," and from the screen that appears, select Enabled. Then click OK and close the Group Policy Editor.
4. From now on, when you type a search term in the Search box on the Start Menu, a "Search the Internet" link will appear. Click the link to launch the search in your default browser with your default search engine.

Get a power efficiency report

2012-01-12T00:07:00.001-08:00

Get a power efficiency report

A laptop's power efficiency report.
Click to view larger image.

Have a laptop and want to get more battery life out of it? Windows 7 includes a hidden built-in tool that will examine your laptop's energy use and make recommendations on how to improve it. To use it:
1. Run a command prompt as an administrator. To do this, type cmd in the search box, and when the cmd icon appears, right-click it and choose "Run as administrator."
2. At the command line, type in the following:
powercfg -energy -output \Folder\Energy_Report.html

where \Folder represents the folder where you want the report to be placed.
3. For about a minute, Windows 7 will examine the behavior of your laptop. It will then analyze it and create a report in HTML format in the folder you specified. Double-click the file, and you'll get a report -- follow its recommendations for ways to improve power performance.

Modify UAC

The User Account Control security feature was one of the most reviled additions to Windows Vista, with good reason -- its constant warning messages asking for permission to continue many operations drove users around the bend.
UAC has been significantly improved in Windows 7 so that it's not as intrusive as in Vista, but you can still tweak it if you like.
Here's how to turn UAC on or off, and make it less or more intrusive than the default:
1. Go to the Control Panel --> User Accounts and Family Safety.
2. Click User Accounts, then click Change User Account Control settings.
3. From the screen that appears, use the slider to select the level of protection you want. Here are the four levels and what they mean:

Modifying UAC. Click to view larger image.

Always notify me. Think of this as UAC Classic. It works like Vista's UAC: When you make changes to your system, when software is installed or when a program tries to make a change to your system, an annoying prompt appears.
Default -- Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer. This is, obviously, the default; make a change yourself and UAC leaves you alone. When a program makes a change, a prompt appears and your desktop goes dark, just like it does in Vista. Otherwise, UAC sits there silently.
Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer (do not dim my desktop). This setting is identical to the default setting, with one difference: It won't dim your desktop so that you only see the UAC prompt asking you to take action. This presents a slightly elevated security risk over the default setting, because theoretically a program could allow a malicious program to interfere with the UAC prompt.
Never notify me when: In this one, UAC is completely turned off. This is, of course, an insecure option and not recommended for most users.
After you make the selection, click OK. Depending on the selection you made, you may need to restart your system for it to take effect.

Shake your desktop free of clutter

2012-01-12T00:04:00.000-08:00

Shake your desktop free of clutter

If you frequently run multiple programs simultaneously, your desktop can get extremely cluttered. This can get annoying if you're working on one program and want to minimize all the other windows -- in previous versions of Windows you had to minimize them individually. With Windows 7's "shake" feature, though, you can minimize every window except the one in which you're currently working -- in a single step. Click and hold the title bar of the window you want to keep on the desktop; while still holding the title bar, shake it quickly back and forth until all of the other windows minimize to the taskbar. Then let go. To make them return, shake the title bar again. You can accomplish the same thing by pressing the Window key-Home key combination -- although doing that is not nearly as much fun.

Use hidden international wallpapers and themes

2012-01-12T00:02:00.000-08:00

Use hidden international wallpapers and themes When you first install Windows 7, it asks for your language, time and currency. Based on your responses, it installs a set of wallpapers and themes. If you choose English (United States) for your time and currency format, for example, the available desktop backgrounds and themes will include a United States section with scenery from locations such as Maine, the Southwest and so on. Hidden, though, are background scenery and themes from other English-speaking countries -- Australia, Canada, Great Britain and South Africa. Normally, you can't access those backgrounds or themes, but there is a simple way you can install and use them: 1. In the search box in the Start menu, type C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT and press Enter. (Note: If Windows 7 is installed in a drive other than C:, use that letter instead.) 2. Windows Explorer will launch and show you a list of subfolders under C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT: MCT-AU, MCT-CA, MCT-GB, MCT-US, and MCT-ZA. Each subfolder has wallpapers for a specific country: AU for Australia, CA for Canada, GB for Great Britain, US for the United States, and ZA for South Africa. For any of the countries whose wallpaper and themes you want to use, go into its Theme folder, for example, C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT\MCT-ZA\Theme. Double-click the theme you see there (for example ZA). Windows 7 South Africa theme A South Africa theme, ready to use. Click to view larger image. 3. That will install a shortcut to the theme and wallpapers in the Personalization section of Control Panel. You can now use them as you would any other theme or background, by right-clicking the desktop, choosing Personalize, and choosing a background or theme. They will be listed in their own section.