Windows 8.1 comes with a built-in antivirus protection software called Windows Defender. It provides basic protection and according to Microsoft, it is good enough for many users. If you need to check some file or folder, for example, files on a removable drive, you should launch the Windows Defender app using the Control Panel and customize the scan options. This is not handy and takes too many clicks. In this article we will see how to add it directly to the File Explorer right click context menu, so you will be able to scan for files with just a right click.
Category: Windows 8.1
How to disable UI animations in Windows 8.1
Animations in Windows are meant to give you a fast and smooth UI perception however many users prefer a UI that responds instantly without any animation. In this article, we will look at how to improve the responsiveness of Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 by disabling unnecessary animations. With animations disabled, the user interface will feel more faster and responsive.
FIX: Windows plays no sound for tray balloon tips (notifications)
Windows has played sounds for various events for a long time now. Windows 8 also introduced some new sound events such as Metro toast notifications. But in Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows Vista, no sound is played for desktop notifications it shows in the system tray area. In Windows XP, it played a popup sound for balloon tips in the notification area so that even if you were away from the PC or the display was turned off, you would come to know that the system was notifying you about something via balloon tips. In modern versions of Windows, balloon tips are displayed silently. Well, luckily this can be fixed quite easily.
Turn on Xmouse active window tracking (focus follows mouse pointer) feature in Windows 8.1, Windows 8 and Windows 7
Ever since Windows 95, the operating system has had a feature called Xmouse where the focus of windows can follow the mouse pointer, meaning, as you move the mouse pointer around, the window which is under the mouse pointer becomes the active window. This feature is disabled by default. Let us see how it can be turned on.
Change your user account picture quickly in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8
Unlike Windows 7, Windows 8's settings to change the User Account Picture aren't very usable. They are located inside the PC Settings app and browsing to the picture you want is very annoying because the Metro File Picker UI isn't at all intuitive. Let us see how to change the user account picture in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 quickly.
Avoid accidental and automatic shut down or restart with ShutdownGuard
Microsoft has always allowed applications to shut down or restart Windows programmatically. Installers of various desktop apps, or the apps themselves as well as various Windows components such as Windows Update can automatically shut down or restart your PC on demand or on a schedule. If you do not like this behavior, thankfully, Windows has a way to avoid it. Using a simple, third party tool called ShutdownGuard, we can stop automatic shutdown, restart, and logoff without affecting manual ways to do it.
The complete list of the keyboard shortcuts of the Mail app in Windows 8.1
Windows 8.1 comes with a modern application, Mail, which serves as the replacement for the good old Outlook Express, Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail. This new Mail app was designed to be used on touch screen devices, but many Windows 8.1 users are classic desktop PC users who do not have a touch screen. Those users may want to control the Mail app with keyboard shortcuts. In this article, I would like to share the complete list of keyboard shortcuts for the Mail app in Windows 8.1.
How to change the default Shut down power action in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8
Windows 8 made it more cumbersome for PC users to shut down the PC by increasing the number of clicks it takes using the mouse and keyboard. There are actually a dozen ways to shut down so you can use any method you like. One of them is the classic Shutdown dialog which appears when you press Alt+F4 on the Desktop. It is a good way to shut down as it can do a hybrid shut down and it doesn't show the Metro UI. However the default action in that dialog is no longer changeable from the Taskbar Properties in Windows 8 because of Start Menu settings going away. Let us see how we can change this action.
Sync files in Windows Briefcase without any errors
Windows Briefcase remains an easy way to sync files locally between your PC hard drive or SSD drive and removable storage such as USB flash drive or microSD/MMC storage. It can also be used to manually sync a folder on the network. Even though it was removed in Windows 8, it can be restored using a registry tweak. Briefcase doesn't offer sophisticated sync options like advanced tools have such as Microsoft's SyncToy etc, nor does it have any integration with online storage services. But for the basic task of keeping two folders in sync, it's still a handy tool. Unfortunately, Windows Vista broke some Briefcase functionality. Luckily, Briefcase can be used without errors if you follow this trick.
Open any program as administrator without UAC prompt
Often, you need to run apps elevated in Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8. Programs which require admin privileges show a UAC prompt. The Registry Editor app is a good example of such an app. If the application you are using frequently requires a UAC request every time you start it, it can be a bit annoying. In this article, we will see how to create a shortcut to run apps elevated without a UAC prompt in Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8.
