.. Ten awesome Windows tips & tricks By Marc Saltzman | Digital Crave . 23 hours ago.. .

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It certainly looks sweet, but we'll see what Microsoft's radically redesigned Wi ndows 8 operating system will offer computer users later this year. Until then, there's still a lot to learn about your existing Windows PC. Yes, even if you've been tapping and clicking away on it for years, you've proba bly only scratched the surface of what it can do. Like our brains, it's estimate d we only use about 10 percent of what our tech toys are capable of. To help bridge the gap, here we offer a number of assorted tips and tricks, shor tcuts and other little-known features built into your Windows machine. Some are tied specifically to Windows 7, where indicated, but most are applicable for all versions of Windows released over the past decade. Get to know shortcuts If the extent of your shortcuts is CTRL+C for copy and CTRL+P for paste, you're not taking advantage of all Windows has to offer. There are many, many dozens of handy shortcuts to master, including one of my favorites: Windows key + left or right arrow button, which snaps the window to the left or right, so you can see two open windows equally perfect for multitasking. As a journalist who uses a w ord processor every day, I've also grown reliant upon "undo" (CTRL+Z) and "redo" (CTRL+Y). By the way, you can even create your own shortcuts to get more done i n less time. Pin those apps See that taskbar at the bottom of the screen? In Windows 7, you can pin any appl ication, website, file or folder you use a lot, so you can easily click to open it regardless of what program you might be in. That is, if you use the calculato r a lot, simply right mouse click on the app and choose "Pin to Taskbar" and mov e it wherever you like. This is much faster than clicking on the Start button, s electing All Programs, then Accessories and finally Calculator. For files, such as a Word or PDF document, simply drag to the taskbar and let go. If you have a lot of pins on your taskbar, you can press the Windows key (beside Alt) and a nu mber (e.g. 1 or 2) and the corresponding app will launch from your taskbar. Jump around Speaking of those pinned apps on your taskbar, Windows 7 can take advantage of "

jumplists" by simply right mouse-clicking on the pinned app and selecting from o ne of the options. For example, if Internet Explorer is one of your pinned apps, right click to select your most visited websites. If you've got Windows Media P layer you can listen to recently played songs. Not all pinned apps offer jumplis ts, of course, but those that do let you get more done in less time. Experiment to see what's available. Watch this short video to get you started, too. Need more time? This is one of my favorites. If you're using Windows or Microsoft Office and you 'd like to extend the activation period to the maximum 120 days instead of the u sual 30-day period, it's possible if you use Windows Vista and Windows 7 and you 're the administrator of the PC. Simply click on the Start button and in the sea rch window, type in cmd and you'll see the Command Prompt at the top of the page . Don't press Enter yet instead, right-mouse click on the shortcut and select Ru n as Administrator. Now, after the Command Prompt loads up, type this: slmgr.vbs -rearm and the hit Enter and reboot. That's it. Stop YELLING at people Have you ever written an email to someone and when you look up at the screen you realize you accidentally tapped the Caps Lock key? Now it seems like you're YEL LING AT SOMEONE IN THE EMAIL? It's happened to most of us especially those who l ook at their keyboard while typing instead of the monitor. If you're nodding rig ht now, chances are you've manually deleted everything you wrote in uppercase an d wrote it all over again in lowercase. That's a waste of time when you can simp ly highlight the text in question, hold down the Shift button on the keyboard an d tap F3. Doing so will immediately change the case from lower to upper (or vice -versa). Yes, really. Tap a third time to change the highlighted text to Title c ase, Where The First Letter Of Every Word Is Capitalized. This little-known SHIF T + F3 shortcut will save you time and frustration and works in Outlook, Word an d other Microsoft programs. Shake it up Ever glance at your computer monitor and see a cluttered mess of open windows, s uch as a browser, media player, IM window and word processor? A quick way to clo se it all and focus on one application is to click and hold your mouse on top of an open pane and give your mouse a shake. Doing this will minimize all your ope n windows, except for the one you're in. Give your wrist a shake again and they all reappear. Windows calls this "Aero Shake" and it can be a fast way to get ri d of the clutter in a snap. Give it a shot. If your version of Windows doesn't h ave it, you can download it for free here. Batch rename Photo takers should get to know the "batch rename" feature in Windows Explorer. Instead of all your images having arbitrary names like IMG_0339.jpg or DSC01121. jpg, you can highlight all your photos in a folder, right mouse-click and select Rename; now type in something relevant to the photos, like Spring Break 2012. A nd hit Enter. Now, all of those files will be renamed with a number at the end, such as Spring Break 2012 (1).jpg, plus you can quickly see what's inside the ph oto file by changing from "list" view to "large icons." This batch rename tip ca n also be used for documents and other media. Encrypt it If you share your Windows computer with someone and have a folder or files you w ant to password-protect, there's an easy way to do it with a built-in encryption tool. First select the folder or file you wish to encrypt, right-click on it an

d choose Properties. Now click the Advanced button and add a check beside "Encry pt contents to secure data" option. Click Apply and then Ok. To access this file you'll type in your Windows password used to log into your account. If your ver sion of Windows doesn't offer this feature, there's always the free TrueCrypt so ftware. Get a boost If you own Windows Vista or Windows 7, a little-known feature called ReadyBoost can give your PC a boost without having to add more RAM (system memory). Instead , ReadyBoost lets you use a USB flash drive or SD memory card -- which you might already have in your desk drawer -- to improve performance without having to in stall purchased memory. The flash memory you connect externally serves as an add itional memory cache -- meaning the computer can access data quicker on this tha n on the hard drive. You can choose to allocate part of a USB drive's memory to speed up performance and use the remainder to store files. More information on R eadyBoost is here. Search me It might be an obvious one but be sure to use the search window to find what you 're looking for be it a program or file. Simply click the Start button and you'l l see a universal search window at the bottom of the pop-up window. Start typing a few letters and Windows will try to guess what you're looking for by showing you matching apps or files near the top of the window (such as typing C and U, a nd immediately seeing Cute FTP Professional as a selectable option). This simpli fies the search process that used to take a while on older versions of Windows.