Windows 7 offers plenty of new features and changes from Windows Vista, so it’s worth taking the time to learn them. If you’re new to Windows 7, or just need a few tips on how to better use it, check out these seven tricks for Windows 7 that every user should know. You’ll have your computer running faster and smoother in no time! 7 Windows 7 Tricks
1) The Secret: How to Open the Task Manager
If you’re trying to figure out why a computer is running slowly, or why a certain program won’t close, it can be frustrating. The secret trick? Press CTRL + ALT + DEL and then click on Task Manager. This will open up an interface showing all active programs and their processes; you can then kill them one by one until your problem goes away.
2) Maximize the Screen Real Estate on Large Screens
If you’re using a computer with a large screen, try increasing your window size. You can change how big icons, dialog boxes and other on-screen elements appear by clicking on View at the top of your screen. Click on Make Text Smaller to make everything smaller, or Make Text Larger to make it larger. You can click on one of these options repeatedly until you find a size that works for you.
3) Copy Text from Your Web Browser
When you’re browsing a site and come across a long line of text you want to copy, highlight it, right-click it and select Copy. Then, open Notepad or WordPad (or whatever program you prefer) and press Ctrl+V to paste. The text will appear at your cursor’s location. Click Enter to start a new paragraph in your document.
4) Getting a Better View of What’s Playing in iTunes
If you use iTunes, you can take advantage of a handy little feature that lets you view an alphabetical list of artists whose songs are currently playing in your library. To do so, simply click once on an artist’s name to highlight it. iTunes will display a pop-up containing all your playlists that contain music by that artist and any other similar artists in your library. Click on any entry in a playlist to see which songs it contains and then play them individually or within one of those playlists!
5) Add Multiple Email Accounts to Outlook
If you’re like most people, your inbox is overflowing with messages. If you have multiple email accounts, it can be helpful to have a separate folder for each account. Adding multiple accounts to Outlook makes it easy to access all of your email without having to switch back and forth between inboxes.
6) Pin Programs to the Taskbar for Quick Access
We spend a lot of time working in our programs, so it’s nice to have quick access to them at all times. The quickest way to pin a program is by right-clicking on its icon and selecting Pin to Taskbar. If you are using a keyboard with your computer, hold down Shift + Alt while pressing your desired program’s button (or buttons) on your keyboard.
7) Maximize Productivity with Quick Launch Toolbar
Many computer users like having a lot of icons on their desktop, but sometimes you have so many that you can’t find what you’re looking for. The Quick Launch toolbar has a small number of icons, making it easy to find programs when you need them. You can customize and add as many program shortcuts as you like onto your Quick Launch toolbar to make accessing your most-used programs as simple as possible.