Windows Help & Advice - UK (2020-03)

/HʋʢɚKʝɦWɛ

Use desktop shortcuts

to speedup Windows

“Desktopshortcutscanbeusedforso

muchmorethanjust launchingapplications

• weshowyoujustwhatthey’recapableof”

ou’realmostcertainly

familiarwithdesktop

shortcuts.Manyapplications

willhaveaddediconstothedesktop,

andbydouble-clickingthese,you

launchtheassociatedprogram.But

youcanusedesktopshortcutsfor

muchmore.

Whateveryou’reusingyourPC

fortherearecertaintasksthatyou

almostcertainlyperformtimeand

timeagain.Fromsimplethings

likeshuttingdownWindowsor

downloadingthelatestupdates,to

ejectingUSBdrivesandemailingthe

samepeoplerepeatedly.

Youcanusedesktopshortcutsto

makeit easiertoaccessthepartsof

yourcomputeryouneedmostoften,

thesettingsinWindowsyouneedto

adjustmostfrequently,andmuch

more.Therearealmostlimitless

possibilities,buthereweintroduce

someofthemostusefulshortcuts

youcancreate.

1 EasyaccesstoWindowsUpdate

You probablyhaveWindowsconfiguredtoautomatically

install updates,buttherearestilltimeswhenit’susefultobeable

to quickly accessWindowsUpdate.Rightclickthedesktop,select

New > Shortcutandenter“ms-settings:windowsupdate”asthe

shortcut. Ifyouuse“ms-settings:windowsupdate-history”asthe

shortcut, youcanseethelistofupdatesyou’vealreadyinstalled.

2 Eject media

You should eject USB drives before unplugging them, and if

you create a shortcut to “RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL

hotplug.dll” you can access the dialog. Is ejecting your DVD drive

fiddly? NirCmd (nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html) can open the tray.

Download and install the software, then create a shortcut to

“nircmd.exe cdrom open x:” (where x is the letter of your drive).

<ʝʦɠʔʦLȫɏ0ʋʁɖ:\ʎL϶ʙɵɖ:ɵOVʝɚVʋ\ɡ

Y

Ƴ$Ǜ.›6%NJ67ƼǏ3

0ɪȴɏʂKʝUWʎXWɡʑɃʑɚPʝȾɏ

XȿHʓʅɗʍɨʏUDJʔʖQɒʃȱʑəWɛ

ʃȱɏ7DʂɷEʋɠʇȱʑȾɏʃȱʑɨʨɵɸɗ

ȩɏʧLʣɵɬȵɏDɢɪɸɗʤʖȷHɡ

Step-by-step Useful desktop shortcuts

Anyonecandoit

Straightforward

Trickyin parts

Windows 10

Windows8.1

Windows^7

At a glance

Skill level...

Suitable for...

30 |^ |^ March 2020