No matter how a lot expertise you’ve with Microsoft’s Windows, it may nonetheless be improved by turning to software program and instruments that may make the working system that significantly better.
Take Windows 11, for instance: When Microsoft launched it with extraordinarily strict system necessities in autumn 2021, it was solely a matter of time earlier than these limitations could possibly be circumvented.
In order to put in the brand new working system on older PCs, the registry first needed to be modified manually. Later, this could possibly be simplified with a batch file, and now even that’s superfluous because of Rufus, a small instrument for creating bootable USB sticks. Now, with only a few further mouse clicks, you’ll be able to run Windows 11 on nearly any laptop.
Let’s begin this have a look at useful, lifeless easy Windows software program with that very program, earlier than diving deeper into a number of completely different classes.
If you’d favor to wade right into a deep, highly effective program, try our guide to Microsoft Sysinternals, the very best Windows troubleshooting instrument.
Download the installation file for Windows 11 from Microsoft by way of the choice “Download a Windows 11 disk image (ISO).”
Now insert a flash drive with no less than 8GB of space for storing into the pc. Start Rufus, click on on “Select” on the interface, choose the Windows 11 ISO file, after which click on “Start”. The “Customize installation” dialogue then seems, providing you with an choice to keep away from Windows 11’s obligation to arrange a web-based account. Follow the setup course of till Windows 11 is put in.
This Rufus-loaded flash drive won’t solely reinstall Windows 11 on any PC, but additionally improve any Windows 10 set up by way of the setup.exe file!
If you need to transfer an older Windows 10 system 1:1 to a brand new PC, we advocate Easeus Todo Backup. With it, you create a picture of your outdated laptop’s storage, from which you restore your system with all settings, applications, and information in your new PC. In addition, Windows 10 can then be upgraded to Windows 11 with none issues.
To set up an older Windows model – for instance Windows 8.1, 10, or 11 model 21H2 – put it aside to your storage with Windows ISO Downloader and create a setup flash drive from it with Rufus.
Depending on the Windows model, the {hardware} and the historical past of the PC, you might want a product key to activate the working system for the brand new set up. You can learn this key in your current system with Showkeyplus.
Reset Windows Update Tool solves varied replace issues: Almost 20 options can be found after beginning this system with administrator rights.
If you’ve put in a number of variations of Windows, Linux, or different working programs in your laptop, you should use Easy BCD to regulate the boot entries and their prioritization.
Creating a flash drive as a multiboot system for booting completely different dwell programs was a fancy matter for a very long time. Ventoy essentially modifications that. With this instrument, all you need to do is make the flash drive bootable by clicking on “Install” after which merely save the ISO recordsdata on the stick inside Windows. After booting from the flash drive, you choose the specified dwell system by way of the Ventoy interface. The key profit right here is you don’t have to create a brand new bootable flash drive when a brand new system model seems, however merely change the older one with the brand new ISO file. Another plus: You can proceed to make use of free area on the USB stick to avoid wasting and transport your information.
2. PC start-up, optimisation, error evaluation, {hardware} & drivers
Glary Utilities makes each downside evaluation and their elimination doable with a mouse click on, all the things else is finished robotically by the software program within the background.
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The promise of “1-click maintenance” is hit and miss on the PC. The causes of doable errors are too various and the options too advanced. That stated, Ccleaner and Glary Utilities are at all times price a attempt. You can begin the system evaluation and the next downside elimination with only one mouse click on.
Bootracer requires just a few extra clicks. The program analyzes the start-up course of and breaks it down into particular person segments. This exhibits at a look which course of or autostart program has an issue. You can select to start out the boot evaluation as a standard full Windows begin, or restricted to the system with out autostarting software program. The wizards make it straightforward to make use of Bootracer, together with the mandatory restarts. You can see within the particulars the place and why your start-up might take an unusually very long time. These limitations assist to resolve the trigger or, if it is sensible, to exclude the software program in query from autostarting when Windows hundreds.
The evaluation instruments Hwinfo and Speccy present whether or not one thing is incorrect together with your {hardware}. Both applications present a wealth of data and sensor measurement information. Even extra info in your processor is supplied by CPU-Z and Core Temp, whereas GPU-Z digs deep into graphics card particulars. Unknown Device Identifier is useful in figuring out unknown elements; the instrument exhibits many extra elements than the native Windows machine supervisor.
Memtest86 assessments the principle reminiscence for errors, whereas Crystaldiskinfo analyzes SSDs and magnetic exhausting drives by studying out the SMART parameters. A have a look at the “overall status” exhibits whether or not all the things is OK. The instrument sounds an alarm within the occasion of irregular values, which is essential for drives full of private information.
Snappy Driver Installer recognises outdated {hardware} drivers and robotically updates them with the most recent variations if desired.
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Snappy Driver Installer checks whether or not your put in {hardware} drivers are up-to-date. The instrument begins with out set up. Click on the choice “Download indices only” and wait till the system evaluation is full. Now, if desired, activate the “Restore point” subject. To change all out of date drivers, proceed by clicking on “Select all – Install” on the high left. Alternatively, examine the out of date entries individually. Due to the file sizes of some drivers, downloading and putting in might take a while.
3. Windows Explorer, Desktop Tools and Remote Maintenance
Windows Explorer and the desktop are at all times used on a pc — even when principally unconsciously. While Microsoft has outfitted the file supervisor with tabs in Windows 11, you need to retrofit the file explorer tabs into Windows 10.
To do that, set up Qttabbar, restart the PC, open Explorer, and click on on the down arrow within the “View” tab beneath the “Options” image on the appropriate. There, you activate the listing entry “Qttabbar” to point out the brand new tab bar.
The free model of Tidy Tabs permits as much as three tabs in a window, throughout applications – for instance, an Excel sheet, a Word doc, and Outlook. It makes it simpler to view photos with a big preview that you simply begin and shut by urgent the area bar.
Treesize Free exhibits you at a look which recordsdata are consuming up area in your exhausting drive. The already talked about Ccleaner additionally provides a fast search operate for duplicate recordsdata (“Extras -‘ Duplicate Finder”). Other instruments like Anti-Twin supply extra choices, however are extra difficult to make use of.
Small intervention, large impact. Capslock Goodbye prevents you as soon as and for all from by chance urgent the Caps Lock key once more.
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Clipboard Master can do extra and is extra handy than the Windows clipboard. If you’re irritated by unintentional clicks of the caps lock key, Capslock Goodbye is the instrument for you. The software program deactivates the important thing or assigns an alternate operate to it. Desktop OK restores the icon placement on the desktop if it has been blended up.
Three different applications present extra order (and more room on the exhausting disk): Should I Remove it exhibits which pre-installed software program you’ll be able to safely delete on new computer systems. O&O Appbuster makes it simpler to take away Windows apps that hardly anybody wants. Unchecky prevents the key set up of undesirable applications and toolbars. It’s a godsend.
Remote assist, i.e. “taking over” a distant laptop by way of the Internet, will not be solely environment friendly, but additionally quite simple with only one click on in TeamViewer Quicksupport. The one that wants assist begins the instrument and provides his or her displayed ID and password to the helper. The helper takes care of the remaining with the fully comprehensive Teamviewer software, which can also be free for personal use.
Changes to exhausting drives and partitions have a profound impact in your system and are sometimes not straightforward to reset. Smaller instruments could cause a lot much less injury: Superdiskformatter, for instance, lets you change the file system (FAT32, NTFS, and so on.) – aside from the Windows partition. Fat32formatter codecs nearly arbitrarily massive information media as a FAT32 system, and Drive Letter Changer is used to assign fastened drive letters to USB drives.
Raidrive assigns a drive letter to cloud storage units corresponding to Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive for fast 1-click entry in Explorer. To do that, choose a storage service and a letter by way of “Add”, log in together with your login information and permit Raidrive to entry the cloud. Done!
Cloudevo combines a number of cloud storages beneath Windows into one drive. This is handy and lets you retailer even outsized recordsdata on the web.
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Cloudevo additionally simplifies the dealing with of on-line storage by combining various cloud storage swimming pools right into a single drive with theoretically limitless capability. This can also be doable with a number of free accounts from the identical supplier. While you as a person solely see your Cloudevo drive, the service behind it robotically distributes the saved information to the varied cloud storage suppliers.
Drive pooling with native drives, for instance with a number of USB drives, could be completed with Liquesce. Data that’s too massive to be despatched by e-mail could be forwarded with O&O FileDirect. The software program creates an entry hyperlink to your PC, which the recipient can use to switch the shared information. Your laptop have to be switched on and on-line through the switch.
If Windows blocks entry to sure recordsdata, thus stopping deletion, renaming, or copying, Lock Hunter releases them once more. You can change different permissions of folders and recordsdata with Attribute Changer.
5. Security, information safety, and privateness
Have I been pwned? and HPI Identity Leak Checker should not applications to put in, however a easy mouse click on is sufficient right here too. Just kind in your e-mail tackle and also you’ll know whether or not your account has been affected by one of many numerous account and password hacks. If so, please you’ll want to change the corresponding password!
Defender UI supplies a brand new, easier-to-use interface for all Microsoft security measures than the built-in Windows Defender provides. The software program incorporates 4 predefined safety profiles and clearly teams collectively many security measures and settings in any other case scattered all through the working system.
Virustotal Uploader simplifies the method of importing doubtlessly harmful recordsdata to the Virustotal scanning platform. Instead of manually calling up the web site, choosing the file. and importing it, this free app works a lot quicker by way of the Windows context menu. The browser plug-in I don’t care about cookies eliminates the effort of deselecting cookies on many web sites by blocking or hiding the standard pop-up dialogues. It is greatest to mix the add-on with the automated deletion of all cookies whenever you shut your browser.
Wipe is appropriate as a complement for eradicating on-line traces. The software program not solely deletes browser information, but additionally momentary recordsdata and extra.
You can securely delete information out of your exhausting drive with Eraser: The title says all of it.
Ungoogled Chromium is a particular fork of the free Chromium browser, on which Google Chrome can also be based mostly. Unlike Chrome, Ungoogled Chromium does with none Google providers for extra privateness.
Simple Code Generator creates QR codes for personal info that you simply wouldn’t need to entrust to a web-based QR generator, corresponding to mail addresses, Wi-Fi entry info, Outlook or private contacts, and the like.
Last however not least is USB-Logon. It allows you to create a USB stick for quick and safe Windows logon and not using a password. USB-Logon is an efficient various for PCs and not using a Windows Hello-enabled webcam or fingerprint sensor.
Microsoft Powertoys provides many one-click capabilities
The Microsoft Powertoys tool collection has grown to over 20 amazingly useful options, lots of them with (nearly) one-click operation. For instance, “Always on top” retains any program window seen within the monitor always; “Awake” switches off the facility settings for a sure time; “FancyZones” permits a number of home windows to be simply organized even beneath Windows 10; the “File Explorer Add-Ons” present the contents for varied file codecs as a big preview; and “Image Resizing” modifications the scale of pictures merely by way of the context menu. Also by way of the context menu, “PowerRename” capabilities permit automated renaming of recordsdata.
Because we needed to wait so lengthy for it, the brand new EnergyToys function “Paste as plain text” is downright ingeniously easy. The keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Windows-Alt-V inserts the content material saved within the clipboard unformatted into any program – superb, for instance, for rapidly transferring net content material into phrase processing.
This article has been translated from German to English and initially appeared on pcwelt.de.