Downloads That Enhance Windows’ Built-In Tools
Windows has a ton of great utilities, and while we can't
live without some of them, there's a special place in our heart for
programs that merely improve Windows, rather than adding new software.
Here are our top 10 apps that take Windows' built-in tools and make them
better.
MenuUninstaller
Unless
you make regular trips through Add/Remove Programs uninstalling
programs by the bunch, chances are you run into unwanted programs when
you're browsing the Start Menu, or sifting through your Program Files.
Instead of going all the way to Add/Remove programs to uninstall
something,
MenuUninstaller
puts an Uninstall option right in your context menu. Just right-click
on a shortcut or app, hit Uninstall, and it'll uninstall it for you. It
usually works pretty well. However, if you want something a little more
powerful, you can always go with another app uninstaller altogether—like Revo Uninstaller, which can uninstall every trace of a program just by clicking on its window.
MiniBin
If
you like to keep a clean desktop—and who doesn't—that Recycle Bin icon
might drive you mad, sitting in the corner. Even if it doesn't, you
might not like how it handles deletions, and
MiniBin
can fix that. MiniBin moves your Recycle Bin to your system tray, and
tweak how the Recycle Bin works. You can double-click on the system tray
icon to empty the bin, and even get rid of the prompt or system
progress display that comes with that operation, not to mention turn off
the sounds. It even has a CPU optimization option for older computers.
XnView Shell Extension
If Windows Explorer's preview pane isn't your cup of tea, you can still get quick previews of images with something like the
XnView Shell Extension.
Not only will it show you a thumbnail of an image when you right-click
on it in Windows Explorer, it'll also add context menu options for
converting the image, setting it as your wallpaper, and more. If that
clutters up your context menu a bit too much, you could also try
FastPreview, which only adds the thumbnail feature.
OpenWith Enhanced
When
Windows doesn't know how to open a certain file type, it does its best
to offer you possible programs that will—but it can't recommend you
anything beyond the programs you already have.
OpenWith Enhanced
adds a few extra features to Windows' Open With menu, like the ability
to recommend other programs from the net. It'll also tell you which
programs are more likely to open that file than others, so you can make a
more informed decision, and even head to their download page right from
the Open With menu. You can also clean up the "Open With" portion of
the context menu for any file type, which is handy.
Process Manager
While
Process Manager
aims to be an easy way to kill programs from the right-click menu, it
can do so much more than that. Process Manager adds more options to the
system menu of any given application, letting you kill it, hide it,
minimize it to the system tray, make it transparent, and more. You can
even kill all y our running apps or hide all your running apps, if the
boss is walking by and you need to get rid of all those Reddit tabs.
It's just a few more ways to manage the mass of windows that build up
during the day. Of course, if you need something a little beefier for
managing tasks, you can always
turn to a 3rd-party task manager, too.
QTTabBar (and Other Explorer Add-Ons)
Windows Explorer leaves a lot to be desired, and while you could always install a completely new file browser, there are also a few great Explorer add-ons out there that beef up your existing tools.
QTTabBar
is one of the best, adding tabs to the top of the window, in addition
to other useful options like copying the path of a folder, custom
keyboard shortcuts, and more. If that isn't your thing, you can try
Better Explorer, which adds a ribbon-like interface to Explorer in an effort to emulate
Windows 8's upcoming version of Explorer. And, if all you want is a few small tweaks,
CustomExplorerToolbar adds and removes buttons from Windows Explorer's toolbar for you.
Bins
Mac OS X's "Stacks" feature is still one of our favorite features of the OS X dock, and
Bins
brings this functionality to Windows 7, letting you pin nearly anything
to the taskbar. Pinning a bin means that clicking that icon opens up a
"stack" of other icons, which is great for keeping your taskbar
organized. It also lets you pin files and folders to your taskbar, which
is a feature annoyingly missing from Windows. If you don't like Bins,
7stacks and
StandaloneStack are both great alternatives for getting a stacks feature in Windows, and
Taskbar Items Pinner will give you the pin-documents-to-the-taskbar feature.
Fences
If you use the desktop to hold files but need a bit more organization than it offers,
Fences
is for you. Fences lets you sort different types of icons into
different boxes on your desktop, toggle visibility of all your icons, or
even auto-detect which kinds of icons should go where. It's one of the
best ways to design and create an organized desktop, and is one of the first installations I make on any Windows PC.
Teracopy
You
may not realize it, but Windows' default method for copying files is
pretty slow, not to mention kind of unreliable. It doesn't tell you what
was successfully copied and what wasn't, it doesn't let you pause and
resume transfers, and it doesn't optimize the process to make it go as
fast as possible—all of which
Teracopy does beautifully. It's the best way to transfer files on a Windows machine,
and best of all, it plugs itself right into Windows Explorer. All you
need to do is install it, and all future file copies will go through
Teracopy's speedier, more advanced copying process. Install it, forget
it, make your life simpler.
Bonus Item: ShellExView
After
installing your favorite tweaks from this list, it's likely that your
context menu has grown to a monstrous size. That's fine if you use a lot
of the options within, but if you don't use a lot of the context menu's
features, you can trim it down with something like
ShellExView.
We thought it irresponsible to not at least give it a mention
considering we talk about so many context menu additions in this post,
so here it is as a bonus tool. We also recommend checking out
this guide to cleaning up your Windows context menu
from our friends over at the How-To Geek, which details lots of
ways—from ShellExView to tweaking the registry itself—to trim down the
context menu to your liking.
Unless
you make regular trips through Add/Remove Programs uninstalling
programs by the bunch, chances are you run into unwanted programs when
you're browsing the Start Menu, or sifting through your Program Files.
Instead of going all the way to Add/Remove programs to uninstall
something, MenuUninstaller
puts an Uninstall option right in your context menu. Just right-click
on a shortcut or app, hit Uninstall, and it'll uninstall it for you. It
usually works pretty well. However, if you want something a little more
powerful, you can always go with another app uninstaller altogether—like Revo Uninstaller, which can uninstall every trace of a program just by clicking on its window.
If
you like to keep a clean desktop—and who doesn't—that Recycle Bin icon
might drive you mad, sitting in the corner. Even if it doesn't, you
might not like how it handles deletions, and MiniBin
can fix that. MiniBin moves your Recycle Bin to your system tray, and
tweak how the Recycle Bin works. You can double-click on the system tray
icon to empty the bin, and even get rid of the prompt or system
progress display that comes with that operation, not to mention turn off
the sounds. It even has a CPU optimization option for older computers.
If Windows Explorer's preview pane isn't your cup of tea, you can still get quick previews of images with something like the XnView Shell Extension.
Not only will it show you a thumbnail of an image when you right-click
on it in Windows Explorer, it'll also add context menu options for
converting the image, setting it as your wallpaper, and more. If that
clutters up your context menu a bit too much, you could also try FastPreview, which only adds the thumbnail feature.
When
Windows doesn't know how to open a certain file type, it does its best
to offer you possible programs that will—but it can't recommend you
anything beyond the programs you already have. OpenWith Enhanced
adds a few extra features to Windows' Open With menu, like the ability
to recommend other programs from the net. It'll also tell you which
programs are more likely to open that file than others, so you can make a
more informed decision, and even head to their download page right from
the Open With menu. You can also clean up the "Open With" portion of
the context menu for any file type, which is handy.
While Process Manager
aims to be an easy way to kill programs from the right-click menu, it
can do so much more than that. Process Manager adds more options to the
system menu of any given application, letting you kill it, hide it,
minimize it to the system tray, make it transparent, and more. You can
even kill all y our running apps or hide all your running apps, if the
boss is walking by and you need to get rid of all those Reddit tabs.
It's just a few more ways to manage the mass of windows that build up
during the day. Of course, if you need something a little beefier for
managing tasks, you can always turn to a 3rd-party task manager, too.
Windows Explorer leaves a lot to be desired, and while you could always install a completely new file browser, there are also a few great Explorer add-ons out there that beef up your existing tools. QTTabBar
is one of the best, adding tabs to the top of the window, in addition
to other useful options like copying the path of a folder, custom
keyboard shortcuts, and more. If that isn't your thing, you can try Better Explorer, which adds a ribbon-like interface to Explorer in an effort to emulate Windows 8's upcoming version of Explorer. And, if all you want is a few small tweaks, CustomExplorerToolbar adds and removes buttons from Windows Explorer's toolbar for you.
Mac OS X's "Stacks" feature is still one of our favorite features of the OS X dock, and Bins
brings this functionality to Windows 7, letting you pin nearly anything
to the taskbar. Pinning a bin means that clicking that icon opens up a
"stack" of other icons, which is great for keeping your taskbar
organized. It also lets you pin files and folders to your taskbar, which
is a feature annoyingly missing from Windows. If you don't like Bins, 7stacks and StandaloneStack are both great alternatives for getting a stacks feature in Windows, and Taskbar Items Pinner will give you the pin-documents-to-the-taskbar feature.
You
may not realize it, but Windows' default method for copying files is
pretty slow, not to mention kind of unreliable. It doesn't tell you what
was successfully copied and what wasn't, it doesn't let you pause and
resume transfers, and it doesn't optimize the process to make it go as
fast as possible—all of which Teracopy does beautifully. It's the best way to transfer files on a Windows machine,
and best of all, it plugs itself right into Windows Explorer. All you
need to do is install it, and all future file copies will go through
Teracopy's speedier, more advanced copying process. Install it, forget
it, make your life simpler.
After
installing your favorite tweaks from this list, it's likely that your
context menu has grown to a monstrous size. That's fine if you use a lot
of the options within, but if you don't use a lot of the context menu's
features, you can trim it down with something like ShellExView.
We thought it irresponsible to not at least give it a mention
considering we talk about so many context menu additions in this post,
so here it is as a bonus tool. We also recommend checking out this guide to cleaning up your Windows context menu
from our friends over at the How-To Geek, which details lots of
ways—from ShellExView to tweaking the registry itself—to trim down the
context menu to your liking.
