Category: Windows 8

Windows 8.1 is here and has come up with a few changes. One of the most notable changes is the return of the Start button in Windows 8.1. Although this is mainly due to outcries made by PC users about the missing start button, yet the new Start button is nowhere near the Start button found in Windows 7, neither in looks nor in functionality. If you want to get rid of this Start button, then you can use the free StartIsGone utility.

Normally, the windows color in Microsoft Windows is specified by the theme that you are currently using. But now you can dynamically change the windows color to match that of your desktop background or active applications using a free application called Aero Blend. Aero Blend automatically changes the windows color to match the current desktop wallpaper or active application icon or their contents.

Although latest versions of Windows do not really need third party device drivers to be installed, yet there are still some devices like printers which require their own drivers to be installed. Some of these device drivers are not even available online. This is where the free Driver Magician Lite software comes in. It can create a backup of your installed device drivers to a folder so that you can reinstall them when needed.

Just like in any other operating system, there are some applications that start automatically in Windows as you boot your Windows. If you have a large number of such auto-starting applications, then they all run at startup and can make Windows very slow to boot. The freeware software Startup Sentinel can be used to control, block or remove these auto-starting applications easily.

If you have ever used Ubuntu Linux, then you know as soon as you insert a USB key or CD in your computer, its shortcut icon is displayed on the desktop. These shortcut icons make it very easy for you to access these removable drives in Linux. But nothing like this happens in Windows and you have to open the File Explorer to access such drives. But now using the free DriveShortcut program, you can have the same functionality in Windows.

If you use Microsoft Word or some other text processor extensively at work then you know the irritable situation when you accidentally press the Caps Lock on your keyboard. One of my wise co-workers suggested that I should use a screwdriver to remove the Caps Lock key from the keyboard. CapsUnlocker is a free software that can automatically unlock the Caps Lock key after a few seconds. So even if you have accidentally or deliberately turned it on, it turns off after some time by itself.

Microsoft Office is the premier office applications suite in the world. The main reason for its popularity is its versatility, ease of use and the profusion of features. But it sometimes annoys you when it stops working or throws up errors and refuses to work as expected. Microsoft has come up with a tool called Office Configuration Analyzer Tool (OffCAT) that can help you diagnose and fix Office related problems easily.

When you power on your Windows PC, the first thing it does is play the startup sound. If you forget to turn down the volume before shutting down your PC, then it is going to play a loud startup sound as your switch it on. This may become especially awkward at work as you would be distracting everyone by playing your loud volume sound. A solution for this problem is to use free Auto Mute program which automatically turns off your system sound at events like shutdown, startup and logon.

The WebDAV protocol makes it very easy to access a readable and writable medium, e.g., a network drive. Some of the cloud storage servers, like the Yandex Disk, allow you to access the online storage through the WebDAV protocol. Using this protocol you can access your network drive in Windows just like you would use any other hard disk drive. But before you can access the network drive through WebDAV, you have to setup the WebDAV account in your computer.

When you are looking for a software, you find so many and you want to try them all out before you can pick the one that suits your requirements. During this trying out period, you end up installing dozens of applications on your system – all of which leave behind unwanted files and registry entries in your PC. If you want to try the software without having to install them, then you can use the Zero Install software.