There are many different ways to make your computer faster out there, but once you have that handled there really is a limited amount of things that you can do to increase your productivity. One of these things being to simply make your applications quicker to get to. Think about it just for a second – how much time could you save if you were able to get to your applications quicker?
If you were to add up all of that time spent looking around your computer it would eventually accumulate to a fair bit by the end of the week. So what’s the alternative? In this article I’m going to show you two little tricks that you can do so that you will be able to find your applications much quicker.
Let’s begine with the quick launch (if you are not sure what the quick launch is, its the group of icons that are right beside your start button). For those of you that don’t see a group of small icons right beside your start menu, just right click on the taskbar and select the Properties option. Then just select the “Show Quick Launch” option. Now, in order to do anything you are going to have to unlock the quick launch since it is locked by default. To unlock it, right click on the task bar and select “Lock Taskbar”. Now you should see small dotted lines which will allow you to resize it your quick launch. Now all you have to do is to just find the top 3 applications that you frequently use by going through your All Programs list (in the start menu) and then just right click on their icons and select the Copy option. Now go to your desktop, right click and select the Paste option. Now you should see a copy of that icon on your desktop. All you have to do is to just drag it into the quick launch area and the icon should be in bottom right hand corner next to the start menu. So now when start up your computer you don’t have to look all over the place for your main programs – there right in front of you now.
Now the start menu can also be of use to you when you are looking around for your applications. If you click on the start menu you will notice a faint horizontal line on the left hand side. Everything that is above this line is permanently there unless you manually remove it and everything below this line is programs that you have most recently used. What you’re going to want to do here is to add 3-5 programs that you use regularly to the permanent (the top part) of the list. Just go to All Programs on the start menu, right click on the program icon and select “Pin To Start Menu”. Do this for all 3-5 programs that you want to add to your start menu. Now you have your main 3 programs on your task bar and the other 3-5 regularly used ones on your start menu so you don’t have look around your computer to find where they are.
Another thing that you can do is to spend some time cleaning up your desktop. Only keep icons for programs – everything else, like random files, you should either delete or place into folders so that they are completely organized and in order so when you go looking for them you know exactly where they are.
Learn more about Registry Cleaners. Stop by Bill Orion’s site where you can find out all about Registry Cleaners Reviewed and what it can do for you.