Miscellaneous shortcut tips
UNIVERSAL KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
We’re not talking about the well-known shortcuts you should have mastered such as Ctrl-C (copy), Ctrl-X (cut) and Ctrl-V (paste) – instead, it’s making use of the Alt key. Press Alt and look out for underlined letters on menus – press this letter and that option will be selected (or menu opened to reveal more shortcuts). But Alt also works with the Ribbon – press it and you’ll see a list of keys to press to activate specific tabs or features.
TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR TOUCHPAD OR MOUSE
Are you taking full advantage of your mouse or keypad? Try running X-Mouse Button Control (www.highrez.co.uk) to take full control of your mouse – including the middle mouse button. If you’re using a touchpad, check you’ve installed the latest drivers from the manufacturer, then access the old-style Mouse Control Panel (see the ‘Control Panel shortcuts’ box on the previous page) and look for a specific tab where its features reside. If your touchpad supports gestures, for example, you can speed up the way you navigate your PC.
TIGHTEN PRIVACY QUICKLY
Windows 10 doesn’t have a great reputation for privacy, but if you’re confused by all the different options out there simply download and run the free portable O&O ShutUp 10 ( www. oo-software.com/en/shutup10), which can do all the hard work of choosing the appropriate settings for you – or you can go through each setting individually, get an explanation, and decide if you want to disable it or not.
GROUP WINDOWS TOGETHER
How much time do you lose to switching between open windows on the desktop? TidyTabs ( www.nurgo-software.com) is our go-to program for tabulating open program windows together just like in your web browser. You can mix and match different programs together – for example, grouping related apps together – and easily switch between, rearrange and add or remove individual programs from a tab group. The free program has a few restrictions, but an upgrade to the Pro version costs just US$9, with bonus features including the ability to automatically group open windows from the same program together.
CREATE CUSTOM SHORTCUTS
Want to assign your own keyboard shortcuts to programs? If the Alt-Ctrl shortcuts available by right-clicking a program’s shortcut and choosing Properties don’t appeal, try WinHotKey ( https://directedge.us/content/ winhotkey) instead. It utilises the Win key as its primary trigger, and while most of the basic ones (such as Win-X) have been taken by Windows, you can pair it with other key combos – Shift, Alt or Ctrl – to create as many additional shortcuts as you need. It’ll work with folders and documents, too.
BYPASS THE LOGIN SCREEN
If you’re the only user of your PC, and it’s kept in a secure location, save time when you start Windows by bypassing login. Press Win-R, type netplwiz and press [Enter]. Make sure your user account is selected from the list, then untick ‘Users must enter a username and password to use this computer’. Click ‘Apply’, enter your password twice when prompted, then click OK and reboot to test. Re-tick the box if you want to restore the default behaviour.
SEARCH YOUR PC QUICKLY
Windows’ indexed file searches are swift and great – but only if the folders in question have been indexed. If all you want to do is perform a quick search for a specific filename or folder, then WizFile ( https://antibodysoftware.com) is the tool you need, producing results almost instantaneously across entire drives, not just those that have already been indexed by Windows.
MOVE PROGRAMS SAFELY TO ANOTHER DRIVE
Running out of drive space? It’s possible to move certain Microsoft Store apps to your data drive to free up space – go to Start > Settings > Apps and work through the list, clicking each app in turn to see if a Move button is available; if it is, click it and choose your alternative drive.
Most programs won’t fall into this category, but rather than uninstall and reinstall them, use SteamMover ( www. traynier.com/software/steammover), which cleverly moves your files then creates special links so that Windows still thinks the program resides in its original location, enabling it to continue working seamlessly. Remember to run the program as an administrator – it won’t work otherwise.
AUTOMATE DRIVE CLEANING
Fed up with having to manually go into Disk Cleanup to keep your drives relatively free from clutter? Navigate to Settings > System > Storage and flick the Storage Sense switch to On to have Windows automatically clear out temporary files (and Downloads) after a set interval as well as periodically empty the Recycle Bin. Control how it performs by clicking ‘Change how we free up space automatically’ where you can also perform a manual cleanup, too.
BYPASS ITUNES
Think the slow and ponderous iTunes is the only way to transfer music to and from your iPod or iPhone? Think again. Download CopyTrans Control from www.
copytrans.net/download/ – once launched, click Install next to the free CopyTrans Manager utility. Plug in your iPhone or iPod and if iTunes hasn’t been installed already, the program will offer to download the core drivers you need – basically the Apple Application Support and Apple Mobile Device Support packages – and then you’ll be able to use CopyTrans Manager to sync music to and from your device quickly, easily, and painlessly.
UNIVERSAL AUTOCOMPLETE
Autocomplete is one of Word’s best features for speeding up the way you type, but why restrict it to Word? Install and run the free Texter app through https://portableapps.com/ and you can build a library of text snippets complete with abbreviations and – crucially – a trigger key such as Tab so the full text is only inserted when you specifically want it. These so-called ‘Hotstrings’ can be plain text or include special operators such as %c (insert text from the clipboard at this point) and %|, which places the cursor at that point in your replacement text after it’s been inserted.
A MORE POWERFUL CLIPBOARD
It can be time-consuming copying and pasting text from multiple sources – so install or run Ditto ( https://ditto-cp. sourceforge.io/) and you can save individual clipboard items – whether text, image, HTML or some other custom format – to paste again in future without having to first track them down and copy them back to the clipboard. You can even sync your saved clipboards over the network for sharing securely on other PCs.
GET WINDOWS PHOTO VIEWER AND MAKE IT THE DEFAULT
One of Microsoft’s worst decisions was to retire Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 10 in favour of the bloated, clunky Photos app. Thankfully, it’s not yet physically removed the tool, simply ‘hidden’ it, and you can get it back through Winaero Tweaker via Classic Apps > Activate Windows Photo Viewer.
Once done, the app will appear as an option under Start > Settings > Apps > ‘Default apps’ where you can make it the default photo viewer once more.
REBOOT QUICKLY TO SAFE MODE
So you need to boot into Safe mode? Avoid the convoluted path through Settings – instead, press Win-R, type msconfig and press [Enter], then switch to the Boot tab, tick ‘Safe boot’ and choose Network to retain access to the network if necessary. Click ‘OK’ and reboot – you’ll go straight into your choice of Safe mode. To come back again, return to msconfig and untick ‘Safe boot’ before clicking OK and rebooting your PC.
CREATE SAFE MODE SHORTCUTS
The above technique works best for occasional forays into Safe mode, but if you want an even quicker way to reboot into Safe mode, then head into Winaero Tweaker’s Shortcuts section and plump for the Safe Mode Shortcuts option. Choose which Safe mode shortcuts to create – Normal, With Network or ‘Safe mode with command prompt’ – alongside the obligatory Normal shortcut (you’ll need this to return to Windows proper), chose where to place them and click the button to create the shortcuts, ready for use.