How to unlock the hidden Aero Lite theme in Windows 8.1

Windows 8.1 comes with a secret hidden visual style called Aero Lite. The Aero Lite theme is the default in Windows Server 2012. You might wonder why I called it 'hidden'? That's because you cannot apply it easily on Windows 8 since Microsoft does not ship a corresponding *.theme file with Windows 8.1 or Windows 8. However, this can be fixed easily. In this tutorial, I will show you an easy way to unlock this hidden Aero Lite theme and share with you the benefits which you can get with that theme.

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Christmas theme for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1

Be ready for the upcoming Christmas: we have prepared for you the awesome theme for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 with cute and beautiful wallpapers to decorate your desktop!

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How to speed up search on the Start screen in Windows 8.1

Windows Search is one of the really awesome feature of Windows. I cannot imagine how my productivity would be affected if Windows Search wasn't available. Although search has various behaviors depending on the Start screen, Explorer or the Start Menu (in Windows 7), the most useful part of search for me is to launch installed apps and Control Panel items. Today, I am going to share with you a simple trick which allows you to speed up the search in Windows 8.1 and increase your productivity.
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How to enable Quick Launch in Windows 8.1

Quick Launch was a special, useful toolbar on the taskbar near the Start button. It was there since the Windows 9x era. With the release of Windows 7, Microsoft de-emphasized the Quick Launch toolbar in favor of pinning. Quick Launch however is not completely removed from Windows 8.1, Windows 8 and Windows 7. It is not obvious for a novice user how to enable Quick Launch as it involves numerous steps and cannot be automated.

I was getting a number of emails from Winaero readers on how to enable Quick Launch in Windows 8 as they prefer its compact size. Even with the modern taskbar, many users consider the Quick Launch toolbar still useful. For example, even if you set pinned icons to a small size, they are still spaced too far apart from one another. Another issue is that the taskbar mixes running programs with non-running ones, whereas if you use the Quick Launch toolbar, running programs will always appear to its right.

Quick Launch has a more customizable appearance; you can easily put any shortcut or folder there without having to use tools like Winaero Taskbar Pinner or Pin to 8. You can change their icons, have multiple rows of icons if you make the taskbar larger, and save overall space on the taskbar. In this tutorial, we will look at how to enable Quick Launch in Windows 8.1.

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