Here's How To Get To Your Applications Quicker To Save Some Time

By Bill Orion

Having a slow computer can be very frustrating. If you like me, you are probably trying to do just about everything in order to speed up the process of what it is that you are doing. One of the best ways to do this is to get to your most commonly used applications as quickly as possible. Just think of how much time is wasted when you are looking all over your computer trying to find the applications that you use all of the time.

At first it wouldn't seem like much but it would eventually add up as the day goes on, and it would also be a lot more convenient if you could almost instantly get to your applications quicker instead of having to look all over your desktop to find them.

Let's begine with the quick launch (if you are not sure what the quick launch is, its the group of icons that are right beside your start button). For those of you that don't see a group of small icons right beside your start menu, just right click on the taskbar and select the Properties option. Then just select the "Show Quick Launch" option. Now, in order to do anything you are going to have to unlock the quick launch since it is locked by default. To unlock it, right click on the task bar and select "Lock Taskbar". Now you should see small dotted lines which will allow you to resize it your quick launch. Now all you have to do is to just find the top 3 applications that you frequently use by going through your All Programs list (in the start menu) and then just right click on their icons and select the Copy option. Now go to your desktop, right click and select the Paste option. Now you should see a copy of that icon on your desktop. All you have to do is to just drag it into the quick launch area and the icon should be in bottom right hand corner next to the start menu. So now when start up your computer you don't have to look all over the place for your main programs - there right in front of you now.

Now the next step is to work on your start menu. If you click on your start menu you will notice that there is a faint horizontal line on the left hand side. Everything that is above this line is permanent unless you manually remove them and below this line are programs that you have most recently used. Here is where you are going to add 3-5 programs you use often to the permanent part of the start menu (the top half). Just go to the All Programs on the start menu, right click on the program icon and select "Pin To Start Menu". This will then put it on the permanent part of the start menu so that you can quickly get to them without having to search around your messy desktop.

One more smaller thing that you can do is to just clean up your desktop of its unused icons. This may seem pointless, but dont underestimate an organized desktop - it will save you some time.

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