June 11th, 2008
10 top tweaks for Windows Vista
1. Get installed programs organized and up-to-date
As I’ve shown before, one of the best ways to make a Windows system work better is to clean unwanted programs off it. On any platform, your goal should be to uninstall software you don’t want or no longer use and keep programs you regularly use updated. In an era when security exploits commonly target third-party applications, that’s even more essential.
The starting point for this essential maintenance task is the Programs and Features window in Control Panel. Its default list format is similar to the Add or Remove Programs list in Windows XP and isn’t all that helpful. But the Vista version allows some interesting tweaks not possible in XP. To make the Programs and Features listing more useful, I supplement the four columns in the default display with additional information, including the version number and links to support and update pages. The new, improved format shows more useful information at a glance and also allows a variety of grouping and sorting options.
[Click image to see full sequence of step-by-step instructions.]
To create the revised list format, open Control Panel’s Programs and Features list, right-click any column heading, and click More. That opens the Choose Details dialog box, which allows you to choose from an additional 15 columns. Many of those additional columns contain little or no information, but a handful are exceptionally useful. On my systems, I like to display the Version column, so I can see at a glance whether a program update applies to my system. I also like to display the Location column, which shows the name of the folder where a program’s files reside.
After adding extra columns, I rearrange their order and width to fit the screen, then use the drop-down group and sort menu to rearrange the display on the page. The result? I get a more complete picture of all installed software.
A few annoyances remain: Although the Programs and Features list allows you to display links to update and support sites (as supplied by a program’s publisher), those links aren’t live, and there’s no way to copy them to the Clipboard. There’s also no easy way to save a list of installed programs (complete with version numbers) from the Programs and Features list. (You can create a WMI script that retrieves information for most programs installed with Windows Installer, but that list isn’t complete.)
Tweak #2: Bigger taskbar, cleaner desktop –>
Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 06/11/08
