Windows: 8 Desktop and Window Management Shortcuts

If you are serious about productivity, one of the best "upgrades" you can pull up in your computer knowledge arsenal is learning a few nifty Windows shortcuts to manage your desktop and the arrangement of your windows. Here are 8 Windows shortcuts that uses the Win key to organize the open program windows on your desktop:

How To Make Windows 7 Run Faster

Its quite evident that the persons who've tried Vista and were disappointed by its shortcomings, and Microsoft answered their prayers with Windows 7. It is basically a better Vista; faster, snappier, and more productive, should I say. But a lot of consumers are still using older Intel Dual Core machines (or even P4's) with only 1GB of RAM and just an on-board graphics processor, so they need to squeeze Windows 7 for performance rather than just all eye-candy.

This is a helpful post for everyone who's sporting Windows 7 on their machines but wants to get more mojo from their grumpy hardware. There are other "ultimate guides" out there that also tackle the same topic, but this guide is basically to pimp up and condition your Windows 7 box for optimum performance. It is a short guide, but I'm tackling only the essentials - if you're a more of a tweaky guy, you can check out the link below the post for the ultimate guide.

So here are my tips on how to make Windows 7 run faster:

Make Taskbar Smaller in Windows 7

Windows 7 is the latest version of the Windows operating system created by Microsoft. And one of the interface changes compared to Vista is the taller (bulkier) taskbar. Some like it, and some don't. I feel that the default fatter taskbar eats up some essential screen real estate. Luckily, it is very simple to make it smaller, more like the one Vista has. Here's how to make your windows 7 taskbar smaller (thinner):

1. Right-click on an empty area on the taskbar.


2. Click Properties.


3. Check Use small icons.

That should make your windows 7 taskbar slimmer and sexier! :)

How to Make XAMPP work on Windows 7

If you are running into problems making XAMPP work with Windows 7, try installing it on a different partition (or other physical hard drive if available) where Windows 7 is installed. For me, this worked. I have my Windows 7 installed on drive C while my XAMPP installation is on drive D.

Show File Extensions in Windows 7

If you need to see the file extensions of your files in Windows 7, here is the way to do it:

1. Open Control Panel from the Start Menu


2. If your current view is by Category, switch to Small Icons


3. Click on Folder Options


4. Uncheck Hide extensions for known file types


5. Click OK

You should be able to see the file extensions now. Hope this helps!