15 simple, secret Windows tips and tricks designed to save you time
15 simple, secret Windows tips and tricks designed to
save you time
By Brad Chacos, PCWorld | Aug 27, 2014 4:13 AM PT
These small, yet obscure Windows tips and tricks can make
a big difference in your workflow—and save you tons of time in the process.
Hidden powers and secret timesavers
Time is money, or so the saying goes. And even if you're
plunked down in front of your PC for fun or a hobby project, every unnecessary
click and hassle you bump into burns away precious seconds of your life.
Nobody wants to waste time endlessly navigating menus.
Fear not! Dr. PCWorld has the cure. Take these 15 secret Windows tricks to
streamline your computing experience and eradicate little irritations that trip
you up throughout the day. You won't need to call me in the morning.
Launch taskbar programs with your keyboard
Many of us—especially users of the Start Menu-less
Windows 8—use the Windows taskbar as a quick launch bar, populating it with our
day-to-day programs. Opening those programs is as simple as clicking them, but
there's actually a faster way to launch software on your taskbar: Simple
keyboard combinations.
Every program to the right of the Start button is
assigned its own numerical shortcut, with the first program being
"1," the second being "2," and so on, all the way to the
10th taskbar shortcut, which gets "0." Pressing the Windows key, plus
the number of the program you want to open, launches it. For example, in the
image at left, pressing Win + 3 launches the Chrome browser.
Quickly launch a new instance of a program
Those taskbar icons can also be used to quickly launch a
second (or third, or fourth, or…) instance of a program—a fresh browser window
alongside an already populated one, for instance, or another Windows Explorer
window.
Doing so is easy: Just hold down the Shift button, then
open the program as you normally would, either via a left click of the mouse or
the aforementioned quick-launch keyboard trick. Boom! A new, clean version of
the software appears alongside the one you already have open.
Copy a file path to the Clipboard
Why would you ever want to copy a file path to the
Windows Clipboard? Well, you may just want to tell someone how to browse to a
common location for a given application. I, however, use it to mark the spot of
a local file I've found using Windows Explorer, so it'll be handy later—to
upload photos to Facebook or document attachments to Outlook emails, for
instance.
To copy a file path to your Clipboard, hold down the
Shift key, right-click the file or folder you want, then select the newly
revealed "Copy as Path" option. Now you can paste the info wherever
you'd like—including the "File name" portion of Browse dialog boxes,
with no extra browsing required.
More secret right-click options
Secret right-click options revealed by the Shift key
don't end with file paths, though.
The basic Send to tool that appears as an option when you
right-click on a file or folder is handy enough indeed, allowing you to move
the item quickly to a handful of locations on your PC, add it to a .zip
archive, or send it off in an email or fax.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg! Holding down the
Shift key as you right-click a file or folder will add an absolute ton of new
folder locations to the basic Send to menu.
Tweaking the Send To menu
What's that, you say? None of the stock Send to options
offer the ability to shuffle your files to the locations you commonly use?
Force the issue!
First, create shortcuts to the folder locations you're
like to add to the Send To menu by right-clicking them, then selecting Send to
> Desktop (create shortcut). Once that's done, open Windows Explorer, then
type shell:sendto in the location bar at the top, followed by Enter. You'll be
brought to the location that holds your Send To options; just drag and drop in
the shortcuts to the folders you want to add to the tool.
Erase the past
When you're shuffling files around willy-nilly, you're
bound to accidentally drop one in the wrong folder—or almost more irritating,
errantly make copies of a slew of files rather than simply dragging them to a
new location. Arrrrrrrrg.
Rather than trying to track that missing file down or
manually delete the legion of copies, whip out the universal Get Out of Jail
Free card that, somewhat surprisingly, also works within Windows proper: Crtl +
Z. The keyboard shortcut undoes your last action, restoring order when chaos
suddenly appears. (Crtl + C and Crtl + V for copying and pasting, respectively,
also work properly within Windows.)
Add mouse-friendly checkboxes to icons
For every geek who swears by keyboard shortcuts, there
are a dozen casual users who rely on their mice. Activating icon checkboxes
lets you select multiple files to manage simultaneously, without having to hold
down the Ctrl button as you click each one.
…unless you add checkboxes to Windows icons, that is. In
Windows 7, type Folder options into the Start Menu's search bar. Next, open the
"View" tab in the window that appears and ensure the "Use check
boxes to select items" checkbox is checked. In Windows 8, just open
Windows Explorer, open the "View" tab, and check the "Item check
boxes" box in the Show/Hide pane.
Aero Snap desktop windows
One of the most appealing aspects of Windows 8's
touch-friendly side is its ability to "Snap" multiple open apps
side-by-side. The feature comes in very handy on the desktop as well if you
need to start multitasking. Simply click an open window and drag it to the left
or right edge of the screen to automatically resize it to fill that half of the
desktop. Dragging a window to the top edge expands it to full screen.
If you're more into keyboard commands, Windows key + left
arrow, Windows key + right arrow, and Windows key + up arrow snaps the selected
window in the same manner.
Windows' powerful, rarely used search tools
Most people search Windows using the Start menu or
Windows 8's "start typing to search" Start screen. But for more
granular results, try the search box in the upper-right corner of Windows
Explorer.
The advanced search tools let you add fancy filters, from
date and file type to Boolean operands. This Microsoft page offers a full list
of such commands in Windows 7. In Windows 8, you'll find similar functionality
in the Search Tools section of the File Explorer's Ribbon UI.
You can create a shortcut to a custom search by simply
dragging the magnifying-glass icon in the File Explorer location bar to the
desired location. Clicking it will always give you up-to-date results.
Pin common items to Jump Lists
You can also pin the custom search shortcut to the File
Explorer Jump List, causing it to appear when you right-click File Explorer's
taskbar icon. Which brings up another point: Jump Lists rock.
Right-clicking a taskbar icon brings up that's program's
Jump List—quick links to the most recent files you've opened with that program.
Got a file or template you open often? Pin it to the Jump List by dragging it
onto the program's taskbar icon, or by clicking the pin icon to the right of
the file name in the Jump List itself. Jump Lists can skirt around Windows'
frustrating refusal to pin individual folders to the taskbar, pinning folders
to the Jump List instead.
Increase the number of items in Jump Lists
If you come to lean heavily on Jump Lists (as yours truly
does), there may eventually come a time when you have so many files pinned to
programs that the default 10-item limit on Jump Lists just won't cut it.
Fortunately, it's easy to alter the number of files displayed by Jump Lists.
Right-click on the taskbar, select Properties, then open
the Jump List tab in the dialog box that appears. Here, you'll find some basic
tools that let you fiddle with how Jump Lists behave—including the number of
items you want displayed when you open a Jump List. Set it to the number you
desire (more than 15 to 20 gets unwieldy) and click OK to save your changes.
Add new folders to File Explorer's Favorites
Another way to quickly open favored folders is, well, by
adding them to the Favorites section at the top of File Explorer. The process
for doing so isn't exactly obvious, however.
Drag the folder itself onto the Favorites icon in File
Explorer's left-hand pane, or navigate to the chosen folder directly, then
right-click the Favorites icon and select Add current location to Favorites.
Dropping common folders into Favorites is especially handy
when it comes time to save files. If you wind up filling your Favorites with
too much stuff, just right-click the icon in File Explorer and select Restore
Favorites links to wipe the slate clean and bring back the default folders.
DIY keyboard shortcuts
Windows has a ton of keyboard shortcuts baked right in,
but you can roll your own to open the software of your choice lickety-split—no
mouse-clicking or launcher-hunting required.
Right-click the program's launch icon and select
Properties. Open the Shortcut tab, then click in the "Shortcut key"
field and press the key you want to use to launch the program. Windows will
assign Ctrl + Alt + as a keyboard shortcut to open
the program. It's a seriously useful trick, especially if you don't want to
stuff your taskbar full of quick-launch program icons. Don't forget to click OK
when you're done to save the shortcut.
Browse all of the web or all of your PC from your taskbar
If your taskbar isn't already overflowing with software
icons and their associated Jump Lists, you can add even more functionality with
toolbars.
Right-click on your taskbar once again, select
Properties, then open the Toolbars tab. A list of Windows' available toolbars
appears/ Simply check the box next to ones you want to add to your taskbar and
click OK. I like the Address and Desktop toolbars. Address plops a URL bar in
your taskbar, which you can use to browse directly to any website in your
default browser. Desktop adds a drop-down (drop-up?) menu you can use to browse
to any folder or file on your PC. Sweet!
Old-school task switcher
Okay, okay, this won't cure any headaches, but it's just
plain cool. By this point, most people know the age-old Alt + Tab keyboard
command to quickly switch between open programs (and the desktop). But did you
know the classic Windows XP-style task switcher is still hidden within even the
latest versions of Windows?
Just hold one Alt button, press and release the other Alt
button (while still holding the first one), then start pressing Tab to rotate
through software like it's 2001.
Deeper, darker, more powerful secrets
These tips are just the tip of the iceberg. If you truly
want to squeeze Windows for all its worth, check out PCWorld's guide to 17
obscure Windows tools and tricks too powerful to overlook. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2365754/17-obscure-windows-tools-and-tricks-too-powerful-to-overlook.html
Windows is so deep and flexible that many of us never touch its more potent
tools—and beneath Internet Explorer and the Start button hides a universe of
features that are positively brimming with potential.
Comments
Post a Comment