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1. Open the File Explorer

Windows keyboard shortcut: Windows key + E

Easily the most valuable utility on your PC, the File Explorer (formerly known as Windows Explorer) lets you view, sort, and inspect all the files and folders on your system, as well as any connected or networked drives. Launch File Explorer in a flash with this simple keyboard shortcut.

2. Minimize all open windows

Windows keyboard shortcut: Windows + M

Got a bunch of open windows cluttering your Windows desktop? Use this keyboard shortcut to make them all hide in the Windows taskbar (the bar that sits at the bottom of your Windows desktop).

3. Peek at the desktop

Windows keyboard shortcut: Windows key + comma

Just want to take a quick look at what’s behind your open desktop windows? Press and hold the Windows key plus the comma to take a peek. When you release the keys, your open windows will instantly reappear.

4. Lock the screen

Windows keyboard shortcut: Windows key + L

Need to step away from your PC for a moment? Here’s a keyboard shortcut that lets you quickly shield your desktop from prying eyes.

5. Open Settings panel

Windows keyboard shortcut: Windows + I

You can tweak everything from your lock screen password to your screensaver by diving into the Settings panel, and you don’t have to click to do it.

6. Rename a file or folder

Windows keyboard shortcut: F2

Nope, no need to right click a file or a folder to give it a new name. Instead, just select the file, then tap a single function key.

7. Put an item in the Recycle Bin

Windows keyboard shortcut: Control + D or just press the Delete key

Want to toss a file or folder into the Windows Recycle Bin without having to drag and drop? Just select it, then use this keyboard shortcut.

8. Delete the selected item immediately

Windows keyboard shortcut: Shift + Delete

Here’s a clever trick you might not know: rather than putting a file or a folder in the Recycle Bin for future deletion, you can instead wipe it instantly off your hard drive. All you have to do is use this simple keyboard shortcut.

9. Launch an app in the Windows taskbar

Windows keyboard shortcut: Windows key + a number key

Want to open or launch a pinned item in the taskbar using only the keyboard? Just press the Windows key, then press the number key that corresponds to the order of the taskbar item, counting from left to right (and not counting the Task View button, which sits immediately to the right of the search box.)

10. Move the cursor quickly between words and paragraphs

Windows keyboard shortcut: Control + right arrow, left arrow, down arrow, or up arrow

Here’s a powerful shortcut that’ll let you zoom around a document with ease. By pressing Control + the left arrow, you’ll zip the cursor to the beginning of the next word. Press Control + right arrow to move the cursor to the previous word. Control + up arrow sends the cursor to the beginning of the previous paragraph, while Control + down arrow make the cursor jump to the beginning of the next paragraph.

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When was the last time you gave the trash can on your Windows desktop any thought? Not recently, I’m guessing. But if you take a closer look, you’ll find the humble Windows Recycle Bin has a few cool tricks up its sleeves.

Read on for four gotta-try Windows Recycle Bin features, from making the recycle bin empty itself automatically to putting trashed files back where you got them.

1. Delete files from the Windows Recycle Bin immediately

When you toss a file in the recycle bin, it doesn’t actually get deleted right away. Instead, it’ll sit in the trash—and take up space on your hard drive—until you empty it manually or until it hits a preset limit (which I’ll cover in a moment).

Just change a single setting to make the Recycle Bin delete files the moment they’re trashed.

Of course, keeping trashed files on your system temporarily is a good idea in case you change your mind later. But if you’re positive you want to ditch a file right away, you can skip the recycle bin and delete it immediately.

One way to do it is to right-click it, hold down the SHIFT key, and then select “Delete” from the pop-up menu.

Want all the files you delete to be trashed permanently and skip the can? Right-click the recycle bin, select “Properties,” then click the “Don’t move files to the Recycle Bin” option.

2. Set a size limit

Let’s say you do want to temporarily keep deleted files in the recycle bin. That’s fine, so long as you remember to take out the trash once in a while. But who wants to bother with that? Me neither.

The recycle bin will empty itself automatically once you set a maximum size.

Well, you can always set a size limit for the recycle bin. Once the total size of your deleted items hits the limit, the recycle bin will automatically toss the oldest files.

Here’s how you do it:

• Right-click the recycle bin, then select “Properties.”
• Make sure the “Custom size” option is selected, then choose a maximum size—anything up to the total size of your hard drive.
• Click the “Apply” button, then click “OK” to close the settings window. You’re done!

3. Put trashed items back where you found them

So, you dumped a bunch of files in the recycle bin but you’re having second thoughts. Now what?

You can restore everything in the Recycle Bin to their rightful place with a single click.

You could just open the recycle bin, pluck the items out and drop them onto your desktop. A handy alternative, though, is to let Windows send the file back to its original location.

Just open the recycle bin, select the file you want to “un-delete,” click the Manage menu at the top of the recycle bin window, then click the “Restore the selected items” button. You can also click the “Restore all items” button to put everything in the recycle bin back where it was.

4. Hide the Windows Recycle Bin from your desktop

Don’t want the recycle bin icon cluttering up your desktop? You can hide it in just a few clicks.

Just check or uncheck the box to reveal—or hide—the Recycle Bin from your desktop.

Click the Windows button in the bottom-left corner of the screen, then click Settings (it’s the icon on the side that looks like a little gear), Personalization, Themes (look in the left column), scroll down to the Related Settings heading, then click “Desktop icon settings.”

Now, see the Recycle Bin checkbox? Uncheck it, then click the Apply button; once you do, the Recycle Bin icon will disappear from your desktop.

To get the Recycle Bin back (and remember, it’s not really gone, just hidden from your desktop), check the Recycle Bin box, then click Apply again.

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Luckily, both Windows and Mac systems come with a handy feature called “sticky keys.” Turn the feature on, and you’ll be able to press individual keys in a two- or three-key combination one at a time, rather than all at once. It’s a clever alternative to playing “Twister” with your fingers.

You can set your Mac’s “sticky keys” feature to display pressed key combos on your desktop.

Ready to give sticky keys a try? Let’s get started.

For Mac:

• First stop: System Preferences, which you’ll find under the Apple menu in the top-right corner of the screen. Under the “System” heading, select the “Accessibility” icon.
• On the next screen, click “Keyboard” in the left column, then check the box next to the “Enable Sticky Keys” setting.
• Click the “Options” button to customize how the “sticky keys” features works. For example, you can toggle sticky keys on and off by pressing the shift key five times in a row (recommended), as well as having your Mac make a sound and/or display the label for any “modifier” key (such as shift, control, or command) that you press.

You can find your Windows PC’s “sticky keys” setting in the Control Panel.

For Windows 7 or 8:

• Go to the Windows “Ease of Access” control panel; open the Start menu and type “Ease of Access” in the search box, or click Start, All Programs, Ease of Access, and Ease of Access Center.
• Click the “Make the keyboard easier to use” link under “Explore all settings,” then check the “Turn on Sticky Keys” box.
• Next, you can tweak your sticky keys settings by clicking the “Set up Sticky Keys” link. Among the options: turning sticky keys on and off by pressing the shift key five times in a row (same as on the Mac), playing a sound any time a “modifier” key is pressed,” and displaying the sticky keys icon in the Windows task bar.

Click here for more Mac tips, or click here for Windows help.

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That usually means something (hopefully minor) is amiss on your system. Maybe your computer is running low on memory because it’s doing a few too many things at once; or, perhaps, the program you’re using has wandered into a corner that it can’t get itself out of.

Now, the best way to deal with either the spinning Windows disc or the Mac’s beach ball is, typically, to do nothing. With any luck, your system or application will settle down after a few seconds or so.

But if several minutes have passed and you’re still staring at a frozen program, it might be time to take matters into your own hands and force the stalled program to quit.

Doing so may, of course, lead to losing any unsaved data; then again, you may not have much choice.
Ready to unstick a stuck program? Here’s how.

Stuck with a frozen Windows program? Open the Task Manager, select the app that’s causing you trouble, then click the End Task button.

For Windows:

• If you’re still seeing the spinny circle after waiting a few minutes, it’s probably time to call up the Task Manager, a tool that details all the programs and other system “processes” that are currently running on your PC. To do so, press and hold the CONTROL, ALT, and DELETE keys all at the same time, then click the Task Manager option.
• Once Task Manager is running (if you’re using a Windows 7 PC, make sure the Applications tab is selected), check out the list of running programs; you should see the misbehaving program flagged with a status of “Not Responding.” Click the program, then click the “End Task” button at the bottom of the Task Manager window.
• Next, you’ll be prompted to either a) wait a little longer for the program to right itself, or b) go ahead and quit the program. Waited long enough? Then click “quit.”

You can force a frozen Mac program to quit in just a few clicks.

For Mac:

• Open the Apple menu (just click the Apple icon in the top-left corner of the screen) and select “Force Quit”—or, if you like, press the COMMAND, OPTION, and ESCAPE buttons all at the same time.
• You should now see a list of all the running programs on your Mac, including the application that’s frozen (probably labeled “Not Responding”). Click the name of the program, then click the “Force Quit” keys in the bottom corner of the Force Quit menu.
• A prompt will appear warning that you may lose any unsaved changes if you force the program to quit. Ready to put your program out of its misery? Click the Force Quit button once more, or Cancel if you’re rather wait it out.

Click here for more Windows tips, or here for help with your Mac.

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The Windows 8 Task Manager has a nifty feature that not only lists all the programs that launch when your system starts up, but also rates the “impact” they have on your PC’s startup speed.

Now, some “high” startup-impact programs will probably be ones that your system can’t live without—like, for instance, the “Rundll32″ application, an essential Windows app that helps other Windows program access shared “libraries” of computer code.

Others, however, may be programs that you forgot you even installed—and now they’re sitting on your PC, launching themselves whenever you start your system and gobbling up precious system resources.

So, ready to put a leash on programs that are slowing your system right out of the gate?

Not sure what a specific startup program does? Right-click its name to get more details.

Here’s how…

• To launch the Task Manager, just start typing “Task Manager” from the Windows 8 Start screen; you should see the Task Manager sitting at the very top of your search results. If you’re already in the “classic” Windows desktop, just press and hold CONTROL + ALT + DELETE and select Task Manager from the menu.
• If it isn’t already, toggle the “More details” setting at the bottom of the Task Manager window to reveal a series of tabs at the top of the windows, then click the “Startup” tab.
• You should now see a list of all the programs and processes that launch when your PC starts up. Click the “Startup impact” heading to sort the list from “High” startup impact to “Low.”
• Now, take a look at the programs that are having the greatest “impact” to your system’s startup time. See any you don’t need? Select the slowpoke and click the “Disable” button to keep it from launching itself when your PC starts up. (I, for example, spotted Facebook’s “Messenger” app—which I never use—near the top of the list. Yep, it’s now disabled.)
• Not sure what a particular startup program is for? Right-click its name and select “Open file location” to find out where the app sits on your hard drive; you can also “Search online” for more information or inspect the program’s “Properties.”
• Change your mind about preventing a program from starting when you power-on your PC? Just open the Task Manager, select its name under the Startup tab, then click then Enable button.

Click here for more Windows tips!

Note: This updated tip was first published in June 2013.

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Hi Ansley! Don’t worry. It’s easy to create a folder on your desktop that’ll display only the files you’ve created or worked with in the past day, week, month … you name it.

On a Mac, the key is to build a so-called “Smart Folder”; for Windows, we’re going to create a “Saved Search.”

Ready? Here we go…

On a Mac:

Click on your bare desktop, then select “New Smart Folder” from the File menu in the top-left corner of the screen. An empty folder with a “Search” bar along the top will appear on your desktop.

Next, you’ll need to decide on the scope of your search—either your entire hard drive, or just your Desktop. Let’s go ahead and click This Mac.

Press and hold the “Option” key, then press the “…” button for more search filters—including the option to exclude items from your search.

Since you want to see each and every file that you’ve created in the past week, we’re going to leave the search box blank and instead add a search filter. Start by clicking the little “+” button in the top-right corner of the folder.

A new filter bar will appear just below the main “Search” bar, and it’ll contain a couple of pull-down menus for narrowing down our search results. Click the first pull-down menu, select “Created date” (or “Last opened” or “Last modified” date—it’s up to you), then select “this week” from the second menu.

Bam! A big list of files will now appear in the folder, including all files that you’ve created in the past week.

Want to narrow your search even further? Click the “+” button again to add a new filter, then select some new criteria—maybe, say, only a certain type of file (“Kind” is “document,” for instance).

Want to exclude something from your search, such as email messages? Press and hold the “Option” key; when you do, the little “+” buttons in the top corner of the search window will turn into “…” buttons. Click the new button, and you’ll get a search filter that reads “[Any/all/none] of the following are true.” Select “None,” from the pull-down menu, select “Kind” is “Other” in the following search filter, then type “Mail Message” in the blank. Poof! All the mail messages in your Smart Folder will disappear.

Ready to save your search? Click the “Save” button—and, if you wish, click the “Add to sidebar” checkbox.

On a Windows PC:

Right-click on your desktop (make sure you’re in the “classic” Windows desktop environment, not the Windows 8 Start screen), move the cursor over the “New” option, then select “Folder.”

Open the folder you just created, then select the scope of your search by clicking a directory in the left-hand column. Want to search every file on your system? Then click “This PC.”

Click the “Date modified” button to narrow your saved Windows search to “this week.”

Click in the search box in the top-right corner of the folder window. When you do, a new Search tab will appear at the top of the search window, and you should see a “Date modified” button just beneath. Click the button, then select “This week” from the drop-down menu.

To narrow your search even further, click “Kind,” “Size,” or “Other properties” drop-down menus to add more search filters.

All done? Click the “Save search” button.

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Read on seven of my favorite Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts, including one that’ll help you return to the Start screen with a single keystroke, another that makes searching a breeze, and a third that reveals the new Windows “charms” that hide behind the right side of the screen.

Related: 25 keyboard shortcuts for “classic” Windows

1. The Windows key

Before the new Windows came around, tapping the Windows key would open the late, lamented Start menu.

Now, under Windows 8, pressing the Windows key takes you to the Start menu’s replacement: the eye-popping Start screen.

Just tap Windows key + C to reveal the Windows 8 “charm” menu.

Tap the Windows key again, and you’ll jump to the last app you were using—such as, say, the Windows Desktop app.

2. Windows key + C

Looking for search, sharing, and settings features in Windows 8? You’ll find them hidden in the “charm” menu on the right side of the screen.

There are a few different ways to open the slide-out charm menu: you can mouse to the top- or bottom-right corner of the screen, or swipe in from the right side of a touchscreen-enabled Windows 8 PC.

Or, just do this: press Windows key + C (for “charm,” I’m guessing). Done.

3. Just start typing

Want to search your PC? One way is to open the “charm” panel and click the “Search” icon.

Want to search your PC? Just start typing.

Here’s an easier way, though: From the Start screen, just start typing the name of whatever you’re searching for.

The Search menu will open automatically, and search results will start popping up immediately.

4. Windows key + H, or I, or K, or F

What about the other “charms” in the charm panel—are there shortcuts for them? You bet.

Just tap the Windows key then press H (for the Share charm), I (for Settings), K (for Devices), or F (for Search—although again, you can search by simply typing your search terms directly from the Start screen).

5. Windows key + Z

So, feeling a little lost in the new, touch-friendly Windows 8 apps—you know, the ones with interfaces so sparse that they hardly have any buttons at all?

Not sure what to do next in a Windows 8 app? Press Windows + Z to reveal some app commands.

The trick is to remember the hidden strip of “app commands” along the bottom of the screen.

To reveal the app commands, you have a few different options: you can right-click the screen, for example, or swipe up from the bottom of the display (assuming you’re using a touchscreen PC or tablet).

But if you prefer an old-school keyboard shortcut, try this: Windows key + Z.

6. ALT + F4

Quits the Windows 8 app that’s currently running. From the “classic” Windows desktop, ALT + F4 will launch the system shutdown window. (Thanks for the tip, Mark!)

Press Control + “-” for a big-picture view of the Start screen.

7. CONTROL + “+” or “-“

Got several “groups” of tiles cluttering your Start screen? Press the Control key plus “-” key for a zoomed-out, big-picture view of all your tiles, or Control plus the “+” key to zoom in again.

Got more Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts you’d like to share? Post ‘em below!

Looking for more Windows tips? Click here!

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Well, you could always get up and unlock your handset to see what all the fuss is about, but you’ll risk breaking your train of thought.

Instead, try this: an app that sends all the notifications from your Android device—including alerts about incoming text messages, phone calls, and notifications triggered by your various apps—straight to your PC or Mac desktop.

Both Moaxis and Pushbullet send notifications from your Android phone to your Mac or PC.

If the concept sounds familiar, maybe you’re thinking of the upcoming notification features in iOS 8 and Mac OS X Yosemite, which promise to let iPhone and iPad users answer texts and phone calls on their Macs.

All very nice, but iOS notifications won’t be coming to your Mac until this fall.

Meanwhile, there are a couple of Android apps that can do the desktop notification trick right now.

The apps I’m thinking of are Moaxis and Pushbullet, and they’re both free on the Google Play store.

The two apps have their differences, but in general terms they do the same thing: they push most of the notifications from your Android device to your Mac or PC desktop.

Both Moaxis and Pushbullet have helper apps that sit on your Android phone, where they listen for incoming notifications.

When an Android notification gets triggered, the apps send the alert to your PC with help from an easy-to-install desktop client—or, if you wish, you can skip the desktop program and install an extension for your web browser of choice.

The alerts show up as little banners that slide into view in the top corner of your PC or Mac desktop—same as with (most) standard system alerts.

Moaxis lets you answer or decline Android calls from your Mac or PC, but—for now, at least—you’ll need a Bluetooth headset connected to your phone to speak to callers.

Moaxis, for its part, sounds a bit more similar to Apple’s vision of iOS notifications on a Mac. For example, you can actually respond to text messages through Moaxis’s desktop alerts, and you can also answer or decline phone calls—although if you actually want to speak to a caller, you’ll need a Bluetooth headset that’s connected to your phone.. (Actual “hands-free” voice calls through your PC or Mac isn’t ready yet, but it’s in the cards, Moaxis promises.)

Pushbullet lacks Moaxis’ ability to let you respons to text messages or answer calls; indeed, Pushbullet won’t let you interact with “pushed” Android notifications at all, except to dismiss them.

That said, Pushbullet has a nifty feature up its sleeve: the ability to push messages, links, small file attachments, photos, addresses, and to-do items back and forth between your linked devices. Neat.

Pushbullet will also let you sign in using the Google ID stored on your Android phone, making for a fairly easy setup process. Moaxis, on the other hand, requires you create an account, complete with another password.

Intrigued? Then give ’em a try—after all, both Moaxis and Pushbullet are free.

Download from the Play Store: Moaxis and Pushbullet

Click here for more Android tips!

Note: In case you’re wondering, no—I haven’t received any compensation from the developers of these apps for writing about their products.

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