This page contains small tips for Windows users who want to minimize annoyances. This page is currently updated extremely rarely. Expect this page to be in a state of TODO pretty much forever.
Warning, these tips mainly fit my way of using Windows, your mileage may vary. The main purpose of this page is to remember this stuff myself.
I take no responsibility whatsoever for disasters happening on your end as a cause of following these tips.
Warning, I don't claim to be an expert at Windows at all. These are just random tips that make my life easier, and I found most of them elsewhere on the net.
This is a remake of my previous tips page that became too messy.
I added dates to each tip now. Each date will be refreshed as I later verify that the tips still work.
Here be recommendations of good programs. TODO add links.
| Program type | Recommended program | Comment | Date of recommendation |
| PDF viewer | SumatraPDF | It's fast. It can also view .djvu and comic book (cbr, cbz etc) files. If you want to fill in forms in pdf files, get another program (but avoid Adobe). | 2017-10-09 |
| Image viewer | Pictus | 2018-09-22 | |
| Video player | Potplayer | Supports stepping through individual frames. | 2018-09-22 |
| C compiler | gcc | 2018-09-22 | |
| Simple text editor | notepad2 | notepad replacement that can show line numbers | 2020-08-17 |
| Programming editor | Notepad++ | ||
| Web browser | Firefox | It's huge and slow, but that's really the fault of the contents on the internet. | 2018-09-22 |
| Ad blocker | uBlock Origin | 2020-04-16 | |
| Screen video recording | OBS | ||
| Audio editor | Audacity | Avoid versions with analytics/data collection (or turn it off, or get a fork). | |
| 6502 assembler | ACME | 2018-09-22 | |
| File copying | Robocopy | Command-line tool that comes with Windows. | 2020-08-17 |
| File archiver | 7-zip | Sadly, it doesn't seem that 7-zip supports changing the character encoding for file names. If you need to unpack archives with file names in a different encoding, the demo version of winrar can be used. | 2020-08-17 |
| Audio (mp3) player | winamp | I like the tiny desktop footprint. | 2020-08-17 |
| Audio (mp3) player | foobar2000 | It handles huge playlists efficiently, and it can calculate the total playlist length exactly down to the millisecond. Good ReplayGain support. | 2021-07-19 |
| Check SSD health | CrystalDiskInfo | 2021-07-26 | |
| Disk usage stat | WinDirStat | Quickly find out what's taking up harddisk space. | 2021-08-10 |
Please avoid programs that try to install crapware (unwanted programs) such as toolbars.
This is a task that runs regularly with high CPU usage, and sends data to Microsoft. To disable, do the following:
Open run box (Windows key + R), enter shell:::{80F3F1D5-FECA-45F3-BC32-752C152E456E}, click the "Other" tab, select Left-handed.
The photo screen saver in shuffle mode in Windows 10 has a bug that wasn't there in Windows 7: it always begins with the image that comes first in the alphabetic order in the specified directory (after that it shows random images correctly). This thread doesn't exactly inspire confidence that the bug will ever be fixed.
Instead, install a third party photo screensaver like gPhotoShow free which has non-bugged shuffle mode (and some more features like different transitions).
Stop animated gifs: Install SuperStop extension. Unfortunately, this extension breaks on newer versions of Firefox. I don't currently have a fix. Maybe block all annoying animated gifs manually with ublock origin or something.
Reinstate "open image in new tab": Install View Image extension.
Re-enable backspace keyboard shortcut (for previous page): Navigate to about:config, change browser.backspace_action to 0.
When a USB drive is connected, Winamp might ask if it's allowed to manage the drive. I guess the easiest way is to uninstall the component that causes this (or answer "no" a sufficient number of times, apparently Winamp remembers the answer).
Menu -> Options -> Preferences -> Plug-ins -> Portables -> Uninstall plugin
Language settings -> Keyboard -> Input language hot keys -> Change key sequence -> Select "Not assigned" on both options.
This program prevents an automatic reboot by installing a service that adjusts the Active Hours each hour.
This program adds a confirmation dialog when drag and drop is attempted.
While paused, use . (period) and , (comma) to step a frame forward or backward in a video.
To get rid of suggested search terms and clutter when attempting to type an url in the address bar:
Windows will by default hide the extension of file names (why anyone would want this is beyond me, also not seeing the actual extension can be a security risk). To change this, open explorer and from the menu, select Organize -> Folder and search options, select the View tab, and under Advanced settings, locate "Hide extensions for known file types" and turn off. (The actual menu names might be different on other versions.)
Sometimes it can be useful to edit the standard keyboard layout. I use it to replace shift-4 with $, since the Norwegian layout normally has a character there that I've never used.