Shorten the list of frequently used programs in the Start menu

Windows XP, Vista, 7

Windows maintains a list of the most

frequently used programs in the Start

menu. These shortcuts enable quick

access to the applications. But the

long list also tends to be unclear.

You can reduce the number of

entries in the list. Right-click ‘Start’ for

this. Select ‘Properties’ in the following

context menu. The ‘Taskbar and Start

Menu Properties’ dialog box opens.

In case of Windows XP and Vista,

ensure that the ‘Start menu’ option

is selected. As opposed to that, the

‘Classic Start menu’ option sees to

it that Windows displays the Start

menu in the layout of older versions,

where the list for the most frequently

used applications had not yet been

integrated.

The ‘Customize Start Menu’ dialog

box opens on clicking ‘Customize’. It

diff ers depending on the version of the

operating system. In case of Vista and
Windows 7, you must type the number
of desired program shortcuts under
‘Number of recent programs to display’.
If you use Windows XP, you will fi nd the
‘Number of recent programs to display’
option in the ‘General’ tab. Windows
carries out the modifi cations after
confi rming with ‘OK’.
NOTE: By entering ‘0’, you completely
remove the list of the most frequently
used programs.

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End hanged programs with a mouse click

Windows XP, Vista, 7

A program has crashed and is
blocking several other processes.
Normally, the only way out is to use the
Task Manager and end all programs
individually by confirming
in each case.

The ‘taskkill’ command can be used to generate a

tool for automatically ending hanged processes.

You can end programs without
any query in the command line, using
the ‘taskkill’ command. It even off ers
other options. For instance, it can fi rst
determine all the programs that are not
reacting anymore and only end those. If
you create a shortcut, you can save the
necessary options along with it. Rightclick
on a free spot on the desktop and
select the context command ‘New |
Shortcut’. Enter the following command
in the input field: taskkill /F /F1
“STATUS eq NOT RESPONDING” and
click ‘Continue’.
The first option ‘/F’ compels the
processes to end while ‘/F1’ activates
the following fi lter. This fi lter verifi es the
status of all processes and reports those
with the message ‘NOT RESPONDING’
instead of ‘RUNNING’. Provide the
shortcut with a suitable name such as
‘Ending hanged programs’ and click
‘Finish’. You can subsequently even assign
another icon using the context command
‘Properties’. In the future, calling this
shortcut will suffice for ending all
processes that have crashed.
CAUTION: Make sure that you do not lose
the saved application data. Always try to
wait for a response and end the program
in the regular manner.

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Switch between applications quickly with Apple’s Exposé function

When you fl ick the cursor to a specifi c
corner of the monitor, Exposé shows
thumbnails of all active programs
minimised on the desktop. You
can then quickly switch to another
application – but only on Mac OS X.



The tool SmallWindows equips
Windows with the practical Exposé
functionality of Mac OS X. SmallWindows
has two functions: It either minimizes
all windows so that it is easy to toggle
between applications, or it moves all
windows to the screen border so that you
get a free view of the desktop. You can
download it from http://smallwindows.
sourceforge.net. A wizard guides you
through the setup. Under Vista and
Windows 7, you need to authorize the
installation by selecting a user account
with administrator rights and entering the
relevant password if needed.
At the time of the fi rst start, confi gure
the program asks whether Windows
should automatically load it during
startup so that it is at your disposal
immediately, so confi rm the query
with ‘Yes’. After the start, a new icon
is displayed in the system notifi cation
area. Right click it and select the context

Add the cool Exposé feature to Windows XP with

this simple free tool

command ‘Settings’ to open the dialog
box for confi guring the application.
Here you can also deactivate the
automatic start during system start by
removing the checkmark on ‘Start when
Windows starts’.
The hot zones are the four corners of
the desktop via which you can activate
SmallWindows. For every hot zone,
defi ne a reaction using the relevant fi eld.
In case of all ‘All’, Windows displays all
the open programs in one minimized
view. You can select a program with
just a click and bring it into foreground.
You can deactivate the function with
‘None’. ‘Desktop’ moves all windows to
the screen border and gives a free view
of the desktop. ‘Related’ minimizes the
current program. This function is however
of no use otherwise. In addition to fl icking
the mouse, you can also defi ne key
combinations for individual functions via
‘Hotkey Activation’.

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Defragment several disks automatically without monitoring

Regular defragmentation keeps the
system performance consistent. But
you cannot sit at your PC through this
entire process. What is also irritating
is that defragmentation needs to be
manually activated if there are several
hard disks.

The graphical interface of
Windows’ defragmenter does not provide
the option to process several drives one
after the other, at least under XP. What a
lot of people don’t know is that Windows
has an additional command line tool
called ‘defrag.exe’ that is suitable for
batch processing as well. You can use
it to automate the defragmentation of
several drives. If you operate a system
with the drives C, D and E for instance,
enter the following in Notepad:
@echo off
defrag.exe -f c
defrag.exe -f d
defrag.exe -f e
Save the fi le as ‘defrag.cmd’. If you
are using other drive names or more
drives, change the fi le accordingly.
Double click this fi le to defragment
all hard disk partitions one after the
other automatically without a break.
However you need to be logged in with
administrator rights for running the fi le.
The used parameter ‘-f’ carries out the
defragmentation even if the hard disk has

less than 10 percent free space, without
pausing for an error message. But the
process takes too long in that case. What
you can do is delete the large fi les that
are no longer required.
Vista and Windows 7 regulate
defragmentation automatically on the
basis of a schedule. Irrespective of that,
you can either use the batch processing
operation via ‘defrag.exe’ or even select
several drives simultaneously with the
graphical interface.
For this, right click a drive entry (e.g.
in Explorer) for both the versions, select
the context command ‘Properties’,
activate the tab ‘Tools’ and then click
the ‘Defragment now’ button. Under
Vista, click the ‘Select Volumes’ button
and you can then activate several drives
for defragmentation or select ‘Select all
data carriers’. Under Win7, keep the [Ctrl]
key pressed and then select the desired
drives by clicking the entries one after
the other.

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