Welcome to our Windows tips listing. This category lists tips for the Windows operating system that we have published over the years. The majority of tips, tutorials and how-tos that you find here are for Windows XP or newer versions of Windows, in particular Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.
Tips cover a wide range of topics, for instance how to change, add or remove features to a version of Windows, how to change the appearance of the operating system, or how to disable some of the annoyances that it ships with.
The majority of tips listed here should work for all versions of Windows, while some may only work for a single operating system. We make sure to list limitations when we know about them so that you do not have to find out the hard way that a tip is not working on your particular Windows edition.
All tips and tricks are tested thoroughly before we publish them on the website. The instructions should make each topic understandable to users of all experience levels, from new computer users to experienced system administrators.
When you delete huge folders in Windows, you will notice that the process takes quite a bit of time to complete. I keep backup folders of Ghacks locally on a platter-based drive, and these folders come close to 30 Gigabytes in size with more than 140,000 files and 350 folders. When I need to delete […]
Windows creates the folder Windows.old on a PC running Windows when you upgrade the PC to a new version of the operating system. The Windows.old folder contains files and folders of the old installation of Windows, and the main reason it is there is that it is used to restore the old system if the […]
You may save Gigabytes of hard disk space after upgrading a Windows PC to the Windows 10 Creators Update by running the Disk Cleanup Tool. Veteran Windows users know that previous versions of Windows installed on a computer are kept on disk when the operating system is upgraded to a new version. These upgrades can […]
Windows Defender is the default antivirus solution of Windows 10 just like it has been on Windows 8. The program is enabled by default and will turn itself off if another antivirus solution is installed provided that it is recognized by the operating system. One core difference between the implementation on Windows 8 and 10 […]
Microsoft has created several security solutions in the past that are either available as standalone downloads or integrated in Windows directly. The most common ones are Windows Defender, which Microsoft included in Windows Vista and successive versions of the Windows operating system, Microsoft Security Essentials, which is offered as a standalone version for versions of […]
I have received the error message "the application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000018)" twice already ever since I upgraded one of my machines to Microsoft's new operating system Windows 10. A double-click on the application icon in the taskbar does not start the linked program at all but throws the error message instead. The […]
Microsoft reintroduces a proper start menu in its upcoming operating system Windows 10 after throwing the start menu to the trash in Windows 8 and reviving it in an unloving way in Windows 8.1. Windows 10's start menu differs in two essential ways from the start menu in Windows 8.x. The first, and in my […]
If you are running a recent version of the Windows 10 Insider Preview, build 10122 or greater to be precise, then you may have noticed a new "For developers" option in the operating system's settings. This configuration option allows you to enable modes intended for development, for instance to test applications that you are developing […]
Windows 7 and 8.1 users who have started their system today may have noticed a new update notification in the operating system's system tray area that allows them to reserve an upgrade to Microsoft's upcoming operating system Windows 10. Microsoft Windows 10 will be offered as a free upgrade to systems running a genuine version […]
While most apps for Windows 10 are considerable small in size, there are some games and larger apps available for the system that occupy hundreds of Megabytes or even more than that. This may not be an issue if you have plenty of space available, but if your main drive is running low on space, […]
Microsoft will ship Windows 10 later this year and with it comes an offer to upgrade existing versions of Windows to the operating system for free. Since the majority of Windows users probably does not know about that offer as they may not read tech sites at all or only sporadically, Microsoft pushed updates to […]
Wisptis.exe, the Microsoft Pen and Touch input component, is a process that may be running on your system even if it is not connected to a touch screen or has no pen connected to it. I monitor tasks on Windows regularly using basic tools like the Windows Task Manager and more advanced tools like Process […]
Device drivers are important files as they allow you and the operating system to interact with hardware connected to the system. Drivers, just like executable files, can be digitally signed to improve their verifiability. Manufacturers can submit drivers to Microsoft to get them signed. While many do so, some don't do this for all drivers […]
It is common sense that any program that autostarts with the Windows operating system extends the startup process. Depending on the program, its impact may be small and barely noticeable or high and thus noticeable. Most programs that add entries to Windows' various autostart locations don't really need to be started. In fact, even if […]
Whenever a preview of a new operating system is shown chance is good that someone will create a transformation pack that turns older versions of an operating system into the new one. We have seen transformation packs for a variety of systems in the past. You can turn current versions of Windows into Mac OS […]
It takes some getting used to time to get accustomed to the new start menu that Microsoft ships with its Windows 10 operating system. While there is still enough time for changes, it is likely that they won't be major unless feedback is predominantly negative. One of the things that you can do for instance […]
