Sort last used documents chronologically(Windows Vista, 7)

              In the Start menu, the entry ‘Recent items’ makes quick access to recently used documents and files easy. However, Windows does not sort the entries in chronological order.
              The sequence of the icons shown in the Start menu cannot be changed. However, a small detour through the Windows Explorer can help you in your search for particular files, for example, in order of last modified. For this, right click on ‘Start | Last used’ and select the context command ‘Open’. The folder ‘Recent’ appears in Windows Explorer and there you can see last used files and folders like normal links. ‘Recent’ is the memory location for the menu ‘Last used’.
               Click on ‘Change view’ and select ‘Details’. Then, click on ‘Date modified’ in the sub-menu in order to sort the entries chronologically according to when they were last changed. After this, you will find the last edited Excel tables or the last written Word file higher in the list.
               By the way: You can determine the number of files shown in the Start menu in the registry with the DWORD value ‘MaxRecentDocs’ in the key ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ExplorerAeroSnap’.

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Providing drive icons with level indicator(Windows XP)

             Since Vista, Explorer immediately shows you a graphical view of how much space has been occupied on the individual drives. You wish you had this optical aid even in XP and look for a setting to get it.

             Windows XP only shows the space utilization of a drive in the context menu. But you can also copy the new design in XP with the small free tool Vista Drive Icon, so that you do not have to execute a command first. That is available at drvicon.sourceforge.net. At the time of installation, follow the steps in the wizard. In the end, start the program.
              A user interface as such does not exist, but the tool can be integrated in the Windows Explorer and started automatically instead. The level indicator is displayed by graduated individual icons for system drives and removable drives. The icons are available by default in the ‘C:\Programs\Vista Drive Icon\Icons’ folder. If you want, you can also change these icons individually with the help of a normal graphic program. To remove the small program, simply use the provided Uninstall tool.

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Block unmanageable Windows updates temporarily(Windows Vista, 7)

               It sometimes so happens that an update is not installed properly, which delays the system startup. This problem often occurs at the time of a restart. You want to work faster again.
              Totally deactivating automatic updates is the wrong method, since you will then be taking unnecessary security risks. Instead, you can find out in the settings for updates as to which individual element causes problems and leads to delays when you try to install something. This update can then be blocked specifically.      

For that, click in the Control Panel on ‘System and security’, on ‘Security’ and then ‘Windows Update’.
               Follow the link ‘View update history’. In the ‘Status’ column, check which updates have ‘Failed’ and then check whether the relevant update with the same name (KN number) has been reported further up in the list as ‘Successful’. If an update has failed several times and if it is also the latest entry, there is clearly a problem, and you can block this update.
               For that, again switch to the ‘Windows Update’ page. Click the links ‘optional updates are available’ and then ‘important updates are available’. In the lists displayed there, search for the entry of the problematic update. As soon as you find it, right click it and select the context command ‘Deactivate update’. In future, Windows will not try to install this update automatically. If you however want to access it later, click the link ‘Show deactivated updates’. Then activate the desired entries clicking the link on the relevant checkbox followed by a click on the ‘Restore’ button. You will then have to confirm the User Account prompts.

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Reuse search requests in Windows Explorer(Windows 7)

              You often enter search requests with the same search terms and settings in Explorer. The repeated execution of these requests is annoying and takes just too much of time.
              In order to solve this problem, open Windows Explorer with [Win]+[E]. On the left side of the window, navigate to the desired drive or folder in whose substructure you want to look for files. Enter the search term in the input field to the upper right corner. The OS comes up with results even as you enter the search term and the number of hits in the list reduces with every alphabet that you type.
              You can also refine your search by entering more criteria. For this, click in the input fields and select the ‘Type’, ‘Date Modified’, ‘Size’, ‘Name’ and/or ‘Folder location’ links in the following menu. Another menu or a dialog box is displayed in which you can select the desired limitations. In case of just ‘Name’ and ‘Folder location’, you need to enter the searched character string right after the colon in the search request. Wildcards such as ‘*’ are unnecessary since Windows lists all results containing the search term. If you are unable to see any of the specified options, move the cursor to the left border of the input field, click, keep the mouse button pressed and drag and increase the size of the field.
              Click ‘Save Search’ in order to save the search request that you have just defined for reusing. You can find the command in the toolbar right below the address field. In the next dialog box, name the search and ‘Save’ it.
               Windows manages your search requests with the ‘.search.ms’ file extension under your profile in the ‘Searches’ folder. In order to repeat the search, just double click the entry of this saved file in Windows Explorer.

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