Work smarter with Windows & Mac!

Over 140 tips to save time and optimise your computer

MACS ARE FAMED for their ease of use: “it just works” was always so much more than a marketing slogan. Macs are made to do things elegantly and efficiently, and the more time you spend discovering what yours can do, the more you’ll be able to get things done.

Every Mac is jam-packed with useful features that are designed to make things easier, faster or both. Once you’ve discovered the ones that suit you, your days will be brighter, your work more efficient and your hair more glossy. We’re only lying about that last one... From Safari’s shortcuts to Mission Control’s multiple desktops, from fiddling with the Finder to mastering Mail, these tips will help you get even more from your Mac.

With Windows, off-the-shelf is good as far as it goes... But there comes a time when you want to put your personal stamp on something, and when it comes to Windows, you’ll be surprised by just how much control you can wield over its look and feel. In this feature we’ve dug out no fewer than 60 tips to help you customise it to your personal satisfaction.

There’s a reminder of some familiar tips, but we’ve dug deeper to reveal buried settings and little-known techniques that can do more than simply change the background picture or apply a colour scheme. Indeed, we’ll open the feature by introducing two free tools that, between them, open up a wide array of customisable options that normally require a dab hand in Registry editing.

You’ll tackle the desktop and its constituent parts: Start menu, Taskbar and File Explorer. You’ll also discover how to replace parts of the desktop with more visually appealing (but no less practical) alternatives, transform the way you navigate your filesystem with a handy File Explorer add-on and even make fundamental changes to the desktop itself, replacing the Windows ‘skin’ with an alternative offering not just a new coat of paint, but a fresh approach to how you interact with Windows.

Come on, let’s get those brushes out...