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.
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 […]
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 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 […]
Microsoft ships the Windows 8 operating system with a set of apps that provide core functionality such as reading news, opening emails or managing photos. The company has added more apps with every major release of the operating system and it is now the case that about 20 different core apps are installed on the […]
Back when I worked in tech support I encountered many customers who did not know a thing about the computer they were using. It took a while usually to find out which operating system and web browser they were using. If you'd ask them right away, they'd usually tell you Windows but not the version […]
Whenever you install a new application on Windows 8 that can be used as the default handler for file types or protocols, and you open a file of that type afterwards or an address, you receive the notification "you have new apps that can open this type of file". Only one application can be the […]
Most desktop PCs ship with an optical drive, usually either a DVD drive or a Blu-Ray drive while mobile PCs may not always ship with one. Especially tablets, netbooks and other low cost or small form factor devices do not ship with one usually. If you need to access files stored on a DVD, drivers […]
When you play different types of audio in Windows, you may have noticed that some are louder than others, while others may be quieter. This can be an extremely frustrating experience that you may push by changing the volume regularly. That's a problem that you may be able to overcome by changing the volume of […]
Most Windows users that I know use the mouse to navigate in the operating system's default file manager Windows Explorer (called File Explorer in Windows 8). While that is comfortable, it is often not the fastest way of opening files or folders. If you are tech-savvy, you probably know that you can use the keyboard […]
After I replaced the hard drive of my laptop with a faster Solid State Drive two days ago, I had to install an operating system on the device as the disk was empty. I picked Windows 7 at first, downloaded the ISO image from Technet, used Microsoft's Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool to copy it […]
