Category: Windows 8

We have previously discussed about how we can use the Disk Cleanup tool in Windows to get rid of garbage files. But it does not cover all kinds of junk files present on a typical Windows system. You can use the free FMJ CleanDisk tool to get rid of various different types of unwanted junk files from Windows. CleanDisk is a free tool that allows you to scan and remove over twenty different types of junk files.

The internet is full of freeware and commercial software that claim to generate PDF files from any application. But there are fewer applications that can convert PDF files to other formats. The free Glorylogic PDF Shaper is such a tool that allows you to convert PDF files to the RTF format. After converting PDF to RTF format, you can easily edit them as per your requirements using the Microsoft WordPad which comes with Windows.

These days everybody has large hard disks, so there are very few chances of you running out of hard disk space. But if you want Windows to keep running smoothly, then it is essential that you clean your hard disk of junk files that get accumulated over time. These junks files can be temporary internet files, thumbnail files, error reports etc. In Windows 8, you can get rid of these types of files using the Disk Cleanup tool.

Windows 8 has a new feature called Refresh which allows you to restore Windows back to original installation state without losing your personal files, photos, music and videos. While Windows Refresh keeps your personal files and apps intact, it wipes out all of your desktop software. This is an undesirable side effect of Refresh. But you can create a custom Refresh image so that after refreshing Windows, your desktop software is not wiped out.

Microsoft has removed Start Menu from Windows 8. Without a start menu, most of the people are finding it difficult to work their way around Windows 8. You can use a third party software like Classic Shell to add Start Menu feature in Windows 8. But if you do not want to install any software, then you can easily create your own simple start menu in Windows 8.

The God Mode shortcut in Windows 8 is a special folder shortcut that holds all the settings for the operating system. You can create this shortcut on your desktop so that you do not have to look for settings in many different places on your Windows 8 PC. If you want to change a setting but you forget where it was in the Control Panel, then you can just use the God Mode shortcut and find it.

The User Account Control is in-built Windows protection against changes being made to the system files. You usually see the UAC prompt when you install a new software on your computer. When UAC prompt is shown, Windows 8 hides all other windows, dims the desktop background and switches to secure mode so that no malware can automatically click Yes in the UAC prompt. As anticipated by Microsoft, not all users like the default settings of the UAC.

If you have a BitLocker encrypted drive, then you have to enter the password each time you want to unlock it and access it contents. But this is very uncomfortable to enter the password each time you attach it to your computer, especially if you use a drive too often. Windows 8 presents a solution to this problem by allowing you to automatically unlock a BitLocker protected drive whenever you attach it to your PC.

Windows 8 BitLocker is a disk encryption system that can encrypt all the contents of a disk. A BitLocker protected disk is unlocked by using the password or the smart card that you specified at the time of encryption. But what if you forget the unlock password? Do not worry, if you have the recovery key that was generated at the time of protecting the disk with BitLocker, then you can use it to unlock that disk.

BitLocker encryption in Windows 8 uses very strong AES cipher for encrypting the contents of the drive. It is not possible to access the contents of BitLocker protected drive without the password. If you have forgotten the password to your BitLocker encrypted drive, then you can still use the recovery key to unlock the drive and reset its password. By resetting the password, you assign a new password for future use and erase the older password.