We have covered other ways to lock windows folders, such as Easy File Locker and TrueCrypt, among others, but My Lockbox is different in many ways. One major feature being that not only will the newly locked windows folder not be able to be accessed directly, but it will disappear completely from view and not viewable from anywhere on your local or networked computers, which is not a common feature among similar applications.

To start, download My Lockbox (Windows only).

The My Lockbox installation should promptly load and is relatively self explanatory, except for one essential part.

Make sure to enter in a secure password that you can easily remember. (Note: For ways to create secure passwords check out these MUO articles.)

The rest of the installation should be pretty simply and standard. Accept the agreement, click “Next”, select a directory, click “Next”, Upon completion of the setup, load My Lockbox from your desktop. What you should see is this:

Simply enter your “Super Duper Secret Password” and BAM! you are in.

To lock Windows folders with My Lockbox, simply browse for a folder anywhere on your computer, and click “Lock.” The status message on the left of the program should change from “Unlocked” to “Locked.”

Furthermore, if you attempt to find the folder in the directory it was located in, for example C:\User\will\Downloads\Documents\ no folder labeled super_secret_folder will show! And if you were apprehensive about My Lockbox simply moving it to the C:\My Lockbox directory as it seemed to state in the install, this is not the case as there does not seem to be any files or folders located there after locking a folder.

The following is what My Lockbox should look like when after you have locked a folder:

My Lockbox can even be set up to open with a hotkey (by default: Ctrl+Shift+P) without the program being open and visible on your task manager at the bottom of the screen.

For even more secrecy and security, delete the My Lockbox desktop icon from view and access the program from the C:\Program Files\My Lockbox directory OR install My Lockbox on a password-protected flash drive for that ultimate (and of course legitimate) computer nerd/spy feeling.

(Note: Although the version of My Lockbox featured here is the free edition, there is also a paid, premium version for $29.95 that allows for the hiding of an unlimited number of folders, unlike the free version which only allows for the hiding of one folder.)

What do you use to keep your important files and folders out of view? Tell us in the comments!

Image Credit: mklingo

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• Hide & Protect Your Files with Easy File Locker [Windows] (18)
• Protect And Track Your Laptop In Case Of Theft (18)
• Keeping Under the Radar and Securing Your PC Files (21)
• Really Delete Your Browsing History – wipe MRU & index.dat files (23)
• Ophcrack – A Password Hack Tool to Crack Almost Any Windows Password (24)

Did I forget to mention that the ebook folder was really filled with a lot of titles? It must have had almost 120 ebooks. I almost started manually typing the names when I figured that there must be a less laborious way to print out the directory contents.

Printing directory contents seems so mundane an activity that we forget it has very useful applications in our day to day usage. Especially in a professional setting where you might be told to send over a list of so and so files about such and such subject. In a jiffy. If it’s a small bunch of files then manually writing it down is not a problem. But what if it numbers a few dozen?

Instead of searching for a poor flunky to lend a hand, you can just tap a few keys and get it for yourself. All in double quick time with a few methods.

So let’s work on not one but five ways to print folder and directory contents and get that file list.

Command DOS

This is one command line that’s easy to remember and easy to do.

1. Start the command prompt from Run – cmd. Type cd and the directory path of the folder you want to list.
2. Type dir > print.txt
3. Press Enter and exit from the DOS window.
4. Open the folder you wanted the listed file content for and you should see a print.txt file. This is a simple Notepad file that can be copied or printed easily.

Setting A Contextual Menu

A print directory feature can be added to the right-click context menu for a folder. This sends the folder content list directly to the printer. For Windows XP follow these steps:

1. Create a batch file in Notepad by pasting the following text
   

   @echo off
   dir %1 /-p /o:gn > “%temp%\Listing”
   start /w notepad /p “%temp%\Listing”
   del “%temp%\Listing”
   exit

2. Save the file as %windir%\Printdir.bat
   
3. Open Control Panel – Folder Options. Click on the File Types tab. Under the registered file types select the entry for Folder. Click on Advanced.
4. In the Edit File Type box, click on New. In the Action box, type Print Directory Listing. In the Application used to perform action box, type printdir.bat.
5. Click on OK and close all boxes.
6. Right-click on any folder and use the Print Directory Listing command to send the list to the printer.

The above instructions and those for Windows Vista can also be found on the Microsoft Help and Support page.

Software solutions introduce a lot of ease and flexibility to the above process. Here are three freeware apps for the listing job:

Karen’s Power Tool

Karen’s Directory Printer brings with it a GUI and rich features that let you print the name of files on your computer with the file’s size, extension, date and time of last modification, and attributes. Also, the list of files can be sorted by name, size, date created, date last modified, or date of last access. Files can also be selectively listed using a filter. Some limited formatting options and selective highlighting for executable files and macros are available.

Karen’s Directory Printer can be included in the right-click context menu. It also works for networked computers. The file list can be sent to the printer or saved as a text file.

Karen’s Directory Printer (v 5.3.1) is a 1.25MB download compatible with Windows XP and Vista.

Display it with Directory List & Print

Directory List & Print is a simpler and smaller solution to the earlier one. The generated lists can be copied to the clipboard and incorporated in other programs. It can be directly inserted into Word and Excel with a click as the data is separated by tabs allowing error free pasting directly into a program like Excel as a table. Along with the file attributes, the program can control the display of file names with or without file extensions. Sorting of the list and integration into the context menus make this a nice alternative to use.

Directory List & Print (v 1.9) does not need an installation which makes this 603KB software a portable solution. The freeware is compatible with Windows 98/2000/XP/Vista.

More Options with JR Directory Printer

This freeware comes in as an even smaller download of 173KB. Select the folder or directory to list, check the display options and click on start to get the list as a text file. The freeware supports lowercase/DOS style filename, file size in KB/bytes, attributes and custom file length. Though the freeware lacks the data control options of the previous applications, it’s a simple utility for a simple task. The download can be unzipped and used without an installation.

JR Directory Printer (v1.2) is compatible with Windows 95/98/2000/NT/ME/XP.

Windows may not have given us the ability to print out folder contents in a user friendly way. But thanks to the workarounds and the freeware, it’s actually a snap. Do you know any other utility to print the contents of a folder? Let us know your way if it differs from any of the above.

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Tweak Windows XP/Vista/7 to Your Taste with XdN Tweaker (10)
• The 4 Proven Simple Tips to Organize Your Files on Windows (19)
• How To Set Default Programs, File Associations & Context Menus Easily (9)
• How To Add & Remove Entries from The Windows Right-Click Menu (19)
• Windows Registry Tweaks (Part 2) (8)

My desktop has only the documents that I am working on today, plus the shortcuts I use each and every day. If I don’t use it within 48 hours, I create a folder and file it. Much like the situation with my desk, keeping my computer organized improves productivity. It also helps my less organized co-workers. The moment they can’t find an important email or paper, they ask me for it. I find it – quickly.

Let’s look at some simple and basic tips to organize Windows that you may be overlooking and won’t cost you a nickel.

Folder Structure

Many people go through their day to day computing work not even realizing they can create a new folder practically anywhere by right-clicking and then selecting New –> Folder. You can then rename the folder to whatever you would like. Your desktop, in Outlook Mail, within My Documents, within My Music, and in your browser’s “Favorites” or “Bookmarks” are all places you can create new folders.

If you have all your pictures grouped into one huge folder labeled “Pictures” and you have to spend an inordinate amount of time hunting a specific picture taken on the beach in 2007, you may need to organize your Windows folders a bit. Having a folder within the Picture folder that is labeled “Beach pics 2007” might save you time.

The key to organize Windows folders is to do a little planning first with pencil and paper. I have a strong preference for the “drill down” method when it comes to organizing. For example, you may use a folder that is generically named “Music” or “MP3s”. Inside are 857 different songs from various artists and albums. I like it much more organized. Inside my “Music” folder, I have different folders for different genres of music – say “Alternative”, “Hard Rock”, “Classic Rock”, “Country”, and well, you get the drift. Inside the genre folders, I have individual folders for each band. Within the band folders, I have individual folders for the albums. Finally, inside these folders are the actual MP3 files. This seems like a lot of work, and it can be, but doing the background work of building the framework secures your organization for a long time to come.

When it comes to free applications out there to help you get organized, there are very few. Fortunately, Windows builds many of these functions right into your operating system. There are plenty of free resources for icons and color templates to organize Windows and dress up your folders, but when I fill up my screen with neat icons and pictures on my folders I find them distracting.

Program Launcher

Enhancements that you don’t want to miss for organization, convenience and productivity include Launchy, which allows you to have files, folders, shortcuts, etc. at your fingertips with a simple Alt+Spacebar hotkey combo. This free utility has previously been reviewed on MUO (See Launchy).

Bulk File Renaming

You may also want to consider any one of many bulk renaming utilities available. These allow you to seek and destroy those nutty “DCIM002354” file names faster than right-clicking and renaming each one manually. They also give you various capabilities such as changing file names to all caps, all lowercase, capitalize words and many other nifty things. Check out MUO reviews of D-FileMU and Renamer.

File Comparator

Finally, if you do use a lot of folders to keep organized, you need to make use of a file comparator. These normally lightweight utilities allow you to basically replace Windows Explorer with a program that has added functionality of comparing files, swapping directories, and oftentimes renaming. You can find multiple copies of your files that have been hidden away in numerous different directories and consolidate your files, deleting unneeded multiples. I used to love the old Windows File Manager, but now that I am using Commander, it feels like File Manager on steroids.

How do you keep your computer organized? How do you find files fast? What free utilities do you use to organize Windows? Share your ideas.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• The Ultimate Extension for Windows Explorer (9)
• The Essential Keyboard Shortcuts to whip your Windows (18)
• The 5 Good Free Windows File Managers (51)
• Take Back Control Over Your Right Click Menus (11)
• Speed up file Copy’n Paste with Piky Basket (9)

We have discussed the usage of tags in file management, but it would be nicer if all of those files are automatically sorted and placed in a specific folder pre-configured for them. MP3s will go into music folder, images into pictures folders, PDFs into document folders, and so on.

I figured that there should be a few apps that I could offer as tips for organizing electronic files. After a quick search, I found three alternatives: Hazel (powerful, but not free: US$21.95 with 14-day trial), File Actions (not as powerful as Hazel, but free) and Apple’s Automator (powerful and free). Since MakeUseOf prioritizes on free applications, let’s dig a little deeper into File Actions and Automator.

Monitor and Move
The basic function of File Actions is simply to monitor certain folders and automatically move files based on a set of rules.

The first time you open this application, you’ll have a blank window. What you have to do now is set the time intervals between checks. After that click on the plus (+) button to add new rules.

There are three factors that will determine the rules:

• The locations to be monitored –> there are several location that you can choose by ticking the box next to it, such as: desktop, documents, downloads, and other. Ticking ‘other’ will make this app check all other locations on the hard drive. You can choose multiple locations to be monitored.
  
• The destination – where the files should be moved –> just like the first item, you have several options to choose. But here, you can only choose one location as the destination.
  
• And of course, the rule itself –> you set some rules by deciding what string should be matched to activate the process. There are four options: file extensions should match the strings (File Suffix is equal), file extensions should not match the strings (File Suffix is not equal), name should match the strings (File Prefix is equal) and name should not match the strings (File Prefix is not equal). Then you can write the strings. Use comma to separate multiple strings.
  

For example, if you want to move all of your downloaded MP3s to the music folder, you can choose the Downloads folder to be monitored, choose the music folder as the destination, choose “File Suffix is equal” and add MP3 as the string. Click OK to save and you can rename the rule from the main window by clicking it.

Automate with Automator
But File Actions is an old application dated back to 2007. Even though I can use it just fine in Snow Leopard, I found some glitches like the inability to choose a specific folder to be used as “Other” in the destination. So let’s try the second option: Automator.

For the purpose of moving files automatically to their destined location, you’ll need a very simple workflow. Open Automator (Applications –> Automator) and choose Folder Action. This is an action which will be activated everytime there’s a new activity happened to a specific folder.

Suppose we want to achieve the same thing as before: automatically move all the downloaded MP3s to the music folder, the first thing to do is to choose which folder to monitor. We’ll just set this to Downloads folder.

Then we’ll choose “Actions” tab, and “Files and Folders” from the library and we can start building our own Automator Workflow.

We can build the workflow by dragging and arranging the actions into the main window. We only need two action items here: “Filter Finder Items” and “Move Finder Items”.

Set the file extension to be filtered to MP3 on the first action, and Music folder as the location to move Finder items.

Then we save the file and let Automator takes care everything else.

Repeat the process for other folders and other types of files.

The example I provided here for organizing electronic files is just a very simple one. But we can create far more sophisticated automations using Automator by tinkering with all the filters and rules. The limit is your imagination. What have you used Automator for?

File Actions

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• The 4 Proven Simple Tips to Organize Your Files on Windows (19)
• Simple Ways To Organize Your Files In Mac (10)
• Monitor Files & Folders for Changes with HDD Profiler (10)
• How To Use Automator To Batch Rename Images on Mac (0)
• How To Trigger the Download of a File Remotely (Mac Only) (11)

The download is a little less than 3MB and the memory footprint on this bad boy uses about 12MB of memory. Can you spare 12MB to make your life easier? I sure can!

Now let’s take a look at how it works and how it can create shortcuts and save you some time. First you need to download and install the application from the above link. You will run through the normal barrage of next, next, and a little more nexting. Finally hit finish and we can get started.

Now you will see a new icon in your system tray. It looks like this:

By clicking on the red starred folder you will bring up this menu:

We do not have any shortcuts listed just yet as we have not added them yet! So click on your only option and Open Medal Folders. That will bring you to a ultra simple interface for adding folders. To create shortcuts, all you need to do is drag a folder into the box below and it will be added to your MedalFolders. How easy is that?

This is what the interface looks like:

So open up Explorer and simply drag your folders, drive letters or mapped drives right into the application and they will be available to you at the click of a button. Once you drag your folder in, you will be asked to give it a display name or as they refer to it a Media Folder Name. Add that and hit the Add button.

Continue adding folders to your hearts content. Here are some of the ones I added.These are the drives I use the hell out of on a daily basis, But feel free to add whatever you want to the list.

Now after you finish adding your items to your interface they will appear at the click of your mouse. I hovered over the Medal Folder icon and clicked. This is what I see:

Now simply clicking on one of those links like my MUO Drive for instance opens a Windows Explorer window to that folder like so:

Once you get your folder straight you can export your settings for use on another machine. Just hit File – Export menu. On the machine you want to import to hit File – Import menu and point it to the file you exported. Easy peasy…

Do you have another favorite launcher or file manager? Do you have some slick tricks that help you navigate your files or folders like a champ? If so please leave a comment in the comment section below. We would love to hear from you about your tricks. Maybe one of them can even become an article on its own!

MedalFolders.

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Use the Places Utility to Customize Locations in Open File Dialogue Box [Windows] (19)
• How To Make Your Own Windows Run Menu Shortcuts (12)
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Changing the colors of our folders has certain visual advantages. Other than the superficial visual appeal, different colors for different folders can serve as visual tags. We can color code folders according to importance (for instance, red for red hot documents) or say, according to contents (green for country music, orange for grunge?) or whatever strikes our fancy.

Looking at a bunch of yellow folders can make us unsighted as to the true value of the folders. And it’s quite easy to inadvertently delete the wrong folder. With color labeling, we can easily make the important ones standout amidst the sea of yellow.

So, let’s begin to paint our folders in any colors other than yellow, with these three free icon changer programs.

iColorFolder

iColorFolder (ver. 1.4.2) is a small icon changer program that lets us color Windows XP folders with a right click. Choose from 7 different colors (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Pink and Gray) or eight differently colored folder icons. Selecting a new color is a cinch. Just right click on the selected folder and select Color Label to go into the sub-menu with the seven colors. And if you hanker for the old yellow, you can go back to it easily by selecting None.

iColorFolder also comes with three skins – Agua, Mac OS X and Vista. Additional folder skins are available for download in a 7MB pack. The skins can be easily applied with the installed Skin selector. On un-installation, all icons return to the same ol’ yellow.

The only two negatives I could observe were its tendency to realign my desktop icons when they weren’t auto-arranged. The other peeve relates to the lack of skins. But beyond this, iColorFolder is a simple color labeler for our folders.

iColorFolder is an Open Source project and supported by Windows XP.

Folderico

Folderico (ver.3.7.2) is another icon changer program built for Windows XP just to give it some touch of color. Folderico is quite similar to iColorFolder but it has its individualistic pluses.

Using Folderico, we can browse to the target folder and select any icon to apply from the five icon libraries provided.  A further bit of customization can be added by putting in a custom tooltip for the folder that gets displayed with a mouse hover.

Additional Folderico themes (i.e. icon libraries) can be downloaded from the website. Using an associated program called ICL Builder (Beta), we can create ICL-files from standalone ico files.

Right click integration is a matter of choosing the choice theme and setting it. We can opt for one theme and set it to apply on folders using the right click context menu. The best feature of this little free software (apart from the tooltip customization) is that it stores the folder’s new icon within the folder itself. So, if we transfer the folder to another computer it will retain the new icon.

Folderico is a free software and supported by Windows XP.

StyleFolder

Customizing a folder’s icon is just one feature in the repertoire of StyleFolder (ver.1.0.3). It goes one up on the first two icon changer programs by letting us customize the entire folder starting with its icon.

Let’s start with changing the icon – StyleFolder does not offer any unique sets of icons but we can use it with any available (or downloaded) icon resources.

The folder can be given its own ‘wallpaper’ using any picture as a background. Set contrasts within the folder by giving the sub-folders names their own color. Like Folderico again, you can change the folder’s info tip. Right click integration makes the whole process easier and if going back to square one is easy with a click.

Again, the best thing about this freeware (like Folderico) is its ability to keep the look ‘permanent’ even with a change in folder location, as the customizations are stored within the folder itself.

StyleFolder is a free software and supported by Windows XP.

As with all things related to customization, the ultimate goal is to create an intuitive system for ourselves. These three are just a few among the many tools which help us to change a bit of our Windows user experience.

Probably, Varun’s post on 10 Tools to Overhaul Your Windows Interface would make good reading for those bored with timeworn milk-and-water looks of our PCs. If you happen to read his post, then do also click through to the mention of Rainbow Folders, another of the ilk we talked about here.

Are you caught up in colors and customizations? Or do you like your yellows just the way they are?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Customize Your Linux Desktop With GnomeART-NG (7)
• Your Easy Guide to Windows 7 Themes (16)
• Use the Places Utility to Customize Locations in Open File Dialogue Box [Windows] (19)
• Your Computer, Your World – How to Keep Out the Mindless (51)
• Tweak Windows XP/Vista/7 to Your Taste with XdN Tweaker (10)

Yeah I know Windows will do that to you <Insert Switch To Apple or Linux Joke Here>.

There has been one little thing that has been bugging me since I started writing for MakeUseOf way back when. I take an insanely large amount of screenshots and manage images for my posts on a daily basis.

<BeginRant> So when I open my file open dialogue box it always tends to show me the same open file locations on the left bar. Some times it remembers  the last place I browsed it over to and some times it doesn’t. There is no good rhyme or reason to why it does what it does.

Some programs like Outlook open the file box to a suitable folder – so why don’t they all? </EndRant>  But what if I want to replace the links on the left with my most common folders?

Yeah there is a piece of software for that. Let’s help you make use of it. You can download the small 623kb file from here. It is compatible with Windows 2000 upwards, so that means XP, Vista and Seven friendly!

Before installing this application this is what my normal file open dialogue box looks like, pretty plain eh? How many of you actually use My Documents? Do you really think your Desktop is a good place to store stuff? Well I don’t!

Now that I have Simpli Software’s Places Utility v1.0 installed I launch it from my start menu and get to customizing. At first glance this is what the GUI looks like. I pulled down the options next to the choices in the center of the screen. They had a crap load of options but the last one was what I was looking for.

I don’t need all sorts of pre-defined folders to open up. I want my MUO folder and my ATA folder to be on my folder list for open file locations. Is that so hard? Actually it is not. It was very easy. As easy as pulling down those menus and choosing custom. I select the path and I was on my way.

After adding the custom folders or picking some of the predefined ones like My Music, the Users folder or My Pictures you will see each of your new icons appear on the left where they belong. This is exactly how your left bar will look from now on – on all file open dialogue boxes that use this interface.

After setting your options hit the Save key. If you quit without saving you will not have your items show up in the open file locations when you hit File – Open. You can also restore back to default by hitting Restore Defaults and the Test button will bring up a file open dialogue box. This is what I see now after I hit test:

Awesome that is going to save me a lot of typing and clicking! Do you have a favorite little known utility? If so share it with us in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• The Essential Keyboard Shortcuts to whip your Windows (18)
• Openup Right Click Menu Options with Open++ (Windows) (0)
• Access Frequently Used Folders with 1 Click (8)
• 4 Easy Ways to Customize Common Dialog Box on Windows XP (8)
• 3 Free Icon Changer Programs to Customize Your Folders (8)

Sure you could use Group Policy to monitor files for changes, but how many of you out there know how to do that? Instead, a small portable application called HDD Profiler rocks hard core. It can tell you who has modified, accessed or created a new file/folder inside the folder you are monitoring….that’s a mouth full! Long story short – you can tell what was accessed or changed by a simple snapshot method.

I have a directory in mind. One that I want to monitor, but I also don’t want anyone to know that I am watching this folder and with HDD Profiler that is exactly what you get.

When you run it, you will see a screen that looks like this:

You can see that there are tabs for each of these: New Files, Removed Files, Created Files, Modified Files, Resized Files, New Folders and Removed Folders. There will be nothing in any of the tabs initially. We need to take a snap shot of the folder we want to monitor first. I choose my desktop by hitting either F8 or go to the Menu – Task – Snapshot.

Choose a folder you want to monitor for changes and a folder to store the snapshot file. If you are working locally check the Local Snapshot button. Leave it un-checked if you are using a remote machine’s folder. Then simply hit SnapIt.

It will save the snapshot file to your specified directory. These snapshot files all will have a .hps extension. I save mine to My Documents. Next go ahead and make some changes to that folder. I created some new sub-folders, renamed a file, deleted a file and opened a document. HDD Profiler recorded all of that for me. Let’s take a look.

To compare the current version of the folder against your snapshot you hit Menu – Task – Profile or F9. After you do that you should be able to see all the changes you made to the folders contents. There is no user information associated with it but you will know that someone messed with something!

This is an awesome way to manually monitor files for changes that no one will know is in place. The only downside of this application is that you need to manually snapshot the folder in question and you need to know about the problem before it happens….hey some of us Admins stay ahead of the game!

For me I will be using this to watch some of the executive folders on a local server to see who has been accessing what. You can put this to use when you think someone is spying on you or maybe someone is randomly deleting files. This will help you become Sherlock Holmes!

How do you track folder usage or audit your file system? Maybe someone out there has an easier way or something a little more automated?

We would love to hear about your ways in the comments!

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Hide & Protect Your Files with Easy File Locker [Windows] (18)
• How To Lock Windows Folders With MyLockbox (17)
• Hide Your Drives From Prying Eyes with No Drives Manager [Windows] (6)
• Your Computer, Your World – How to Keep Out the Mindless (51)
• What To Do When You Get A Copyright Infringement Notice from ISP (2)

Easy File Locker is a pretty small file at 224KB and will do exactly what it says. It will let you protect a file or folder from being seen or accessed by anyone on your system. This is a light-weight program that does not slow down your system and even continues working if the machine is booted in safe mode. It does not require the application to be running for the security to work and it can be password-protected as well.

Let’s take a look at how it works.

On first start, you will see a user interface like the one below:

Now to protect a file or folder, the method is almost the same. All you have to do is hit Edit – Add File or Add Folder to either protect a file or folder. Talk about straightforward!

Next up, you will have to pick your file or folder as well as choose from the following options. You can:

• Make the file or folder accessible
• Make the file or folder writable
• Make the file or folder erasable
• Make the file or folder invisible

Click the Browse button represented by the box with three dots next to the path to select your target file/folder like so:

You will see a window like this when you are done.

Next, you can set a password for the application by hitting System – Set password

My favorite ability is making a folder visible and not accessible.

When the user tries to open the folder whamo – Access is denied!

Also see:

- 2 Ways to Hide “Important” Files and Folders in Windows
- How To Hide Files Like a Super Villain

Do you have another easy solution to keep unwanted grubby little fingers off of your stuff? Let’s hear about it in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Lock Windows Folders With MyLockbox (17)
• Protect And Track Your Laptop In Case Of Theft (18)
• Keeping Under the Radar and Securing Your PC Files (21)
• How to Easily Protect & Encrypt Files with Conceal (Windows) (6)
• Ophcrack – A Password Hack Tool to Crack Almost Any Windows Password (24)

I just can’t remember how I was able to live without them before I discovered them a couple of years ago. I don’t remember if I found them by accident or if I read about them somewhere but since then, I’ve told all my friends about it.

What’s So Cool About It?

The ability to automatically restore opened Windows folders and Firefox tabs when Windows restarts is very convenient for people who have the habit of opening many folders and tabs. I usually have at least 5 folders open and some of them are located rather deep in the file system (i.e. F:\Work\Freelance\WritingComputers\MakeUseOf) and it is very irritating when I have to navigate to such a folder manually.

I usually keep all the folders I am currently using open, plus some folders with music, movies, books, and other non-work related stuff. These folders are open any time I am at my PC. For me, it is a great relief that when I restart Windows, I don’t have to open all of them individually.

How to do it?

If you have messed with a lot with the settings in Windows, you’ve most likely already discovered this options. But if you don’t know (or don’t remember) where to enable it from, let me tell you.

To enable the automatic restoration of opened folders, open Windows Explorer (or any folder) and in its menu bar, go to the Tools menu. Select Folder Options and then click the View tab. This will open the dialog box shown below:

If there isn’t a tick in front of the ‘Restore Previous Folder Windows at Logon’ option, just check it and there you go!

Similarly to Windows, Firefox offers a similar function. When you enable it, you will have your tabs from the previous session automatically restored when you launch Firefox. Since I typically have 20+ tabs opened and many of them are of sites I check all the time, you can imagine how much I value this option in Firefox.

To restore tabs on startup in Firefox, just open the Tools menu → Options → Main and have a look at the “When Firefox Starts:” option under Startup section. Click the arrow on the right of the drop-down list and select ‘Show my windows and tabs from last time’. When you are done, click OK and that’s it.

When Automatic Restoration Doesn’t Work

The above settings work almost every time you restart Windows and/or Firefox. One of the cases when the opened folders will not automatically restore is when Windows restarts after a crash. If Windows is terminated abnormally (for instance, when you didn’t restart your computer by selecting Start → Turn Off Computer or Restart but you unplugged it instead), the folders are not restored.

Also, if you have two or more instances of the same folder (i.e. C:), only one instance will open after restarting. Sure, this is a minor glitch to a great feature, so there is no reason to complain about.

Unlike Windows, when Firefox crashes, its tabs are usually restored. If Firefox has crashed, when you launch it, you see the following message:

If you select ‘Start New Session’, your tabs will not be restored. If you select ‘Restore Previous Session’, you will see the tabs that were opened before the crash. This feature is pretty cool, right?

Did you know about the “restore” function in Windows Explorer? Do you like your folders to automatically reopen magically when you turn on your computer? Comment it out.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Visualize your Hard Drive Usage with WinDirStat (16)
• Tweak Windows XP/Vista/7 to Your Taste with XdN Tweaker (10)
• Too Many Tabs? Firefox Add-ons to manage a TAB JAM (78)
• The Winners of ‘Extend Firefox’ – Best Firefox Addons (14)
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DirSync Pro is an open source portable application that can help you to quickly set up, synchronize and manage synced folders. A mere 670 KB download, you just need to extract the ZIP file and it’s ready to rock!

DirSync Pro is a Java application, this means that it can run on Windows, Linux and Mac. What this also means is that you need to have Java runtime on your machine to run DirSync Pro (which is generally installed on most systems or else you can download it here).

Once DirSync Pro is up and running you need to set up the directories you want to sync. You can specify a directory label (something descriptive that you will use to identify your sync setup) and then the directories, of course. You can setup a one way sync from A to B or B to A or a two-way sync between A and B.

DirSync Pro also gives you full control over what you want to copy and what not to. You can specifically include or exclude files and folders within the directories you are syncing. You can specify which files you want to sync – newly created, larger, modified or all. You can optionally keep backups of changed or deleted files, specify how sync conflicts should be handled and how to handle file deletions.

In addition, you can create a set of default settings according to your needs. These default settings are used, unless you override them with custom settings for a directory pair.

One feature that I truly adore is the ability to create lists (which are somewhat like profiles). You can setup directories just like above for each list. When you are done just hit save and DirSync Pro will generate a config file. This allows you to have separate directories synced according to your current need. If, for example, you have connected your laptop, you can load the laptop list and then synchronize all your file between laptop and desktop computer. No need to run those syncs everytime you try to sync a directory or two when you don’t even have a laptop connected.

DirSync Pro can be used to sync files across different file systems and over a network. It can handle symbolic links and time stamps very well and has worked flawlessly for me for quite sometime now. I use synced directories to back up my USB pen drives, backup my files to an external hard disk, set up automatic syncing of project files or important configuration files (vimrc’s, bookmarks etc) between work and home using a combination of DirSync Pro and Dropbox.

Do you sync directories? What clever hacks have you come up with in terms of syncing? Are you a devout Dropbox user? How do you think this compares? Mention them in comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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XdN Tweaker has been around for some time and we have used it to tweak Windows XP, Vista and now it supports Windows 7. XdN Tweaker provides you with a number of tweaks to get the system working the way you want it to. It provides options to tweak UAC, file and folders views and settings, some user interface tweaks and much more.

You just need to download and install XdN Tweaker or if you prefer you can download the portable version and run it as it is without having to install. This is what you would see when you fire it up:

One of the XdN features that I loved with Vista was the ability to modify UAC prompts, this of course is not a problem with Windows 7 as there is a UAC control is built into Windows 7, so you can simply launch it and adjust the settings according to you needs.

Then there are tweaks for the right click menu. We have shown you various tools in the past that you can use to customize your right click context menu. If you are looking for something quick and simple you will find some pretty handy tweaks XdN Tweaker has to offer. You can quickly disable the Send To menu, add copy to and move to to right click menu.

Another great feature that XdN provides is the ability to remove program associations for a particular file extension. Let’s say you installed iTunes and set it to handle mp3 files but don’t want to launch it everytime you play one, change the association here. Although Windows has provided ways to do this from quite some time now but none of them are as intuitive and straightforward as using XdN Tweaker to get the job done.

There are some Windows 7 specific tweaks like changing the delay for aero peek and to disable the windows arrangement features new and unique to Windows 7 (although I must admit I like them).

There are other nifty options like adding a “Take Ownership” entry to right click menu for files and folders to manipulate files you dont have permission to perform operations on, make folder views persist, tweak the IE interface, enable disable hibernation with a single click, change Windows performance settings, getting info and so on.

No doubt all this can be achieved via registry editing but XdN Tweaker makes the task easier. Do you know some other tools for similar purposes? Do you like to use programs like these or do you prefer getting down and dirty with the registry?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Get Aero Shake, Aero Peek & Aero Snap Features In Vista & XP (12)
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Well we came across a program called OverDisk. OverDisk can analyze your hard drive or just a folder and break down what’s actually taking up your space. Let’s take a look at how OverDisk works.

After downloading and installing the 503kb file I was greeted by this screen.

It looked pretty blank and void of information. It was begging me to run a scan… And that is exactly what I did. I pulled down the Root menu and selected my C:\ drive as you can see below.

OverDisk started doing it’s thing and began scanning my C Drive which is a 40gb IDE drive that the system sees 35 Gigabytes of.

It looked like it was going to take a while…

8 minutes into the scan I was not even 50% complete. Did I mention that I have NO PATIENCE whatsoever? Yeah well that might be my OCD… So I went for some coffee.

Luckily this isn’t a live blog! But seriously I came back and my results were still not where I wanted them to be:

I gave up and decided to scan a smaller area for this test. This time I choose my Azerus download folder and let it rip:

This was a folder that contains around 2gb of data so I figured it would be done much quicker… It was almost instant and this is what I saw:

And by hovering over on any part of the graph I can see what it is representing. Check it out:

So by just hovering my mouse over a chunk of data I can see that Website Templates are holding about 20% of my scanned directory. Then I can drill down on the left by clicking on that directory to see what is in it:

That is the main purposes of Overdisk but let’s go through the rest of the menu options as well.

Check out the settings that OverDisk has:

Wow information overload! But, this can be a huge help in cleaning out your hard drive and freeing up space. That is something I SERIOUSLY need to do! Do you use another program similar to this or something that accomplishes the same goal? Well then share em’ with us in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Visualize your Hard Drive Usage with WinDirStat (16)
• Tweak Windows XP/Vista/7 to Your Taste with XdN Tweaker (10)
• The 4 Proven Simple Tips to Organize Your Files on Windows (19)
• How To Move My Documents Folder To A Different Drive (25)
• How To Automatically Restore Opened Folders After Restarting Windows (4)

My Documents is the common folder which by default stores all our personal data i.e. our document files, music, movies, downloads and photos. Within it has the My Music, My Videos and a My Pictures folder to stash a particular file type. So it pays to deal with it like an important filing cabinet and not as a junk drawer.

Over time this folder becomes the ‘Big Daddy’ of all folders. Our personal data storehouse thus needs to be handled well and safeguarded from a digital disaster. It can be done by simply moving it to a safer backup location. In this article we are going to show you how to move the My Documents to a different drive.

There are two serious reasons to do this with immediate effect.

1. Imagine that all your precious documents, photos and sundry other files are organized beautifully in this folder on the system partition (commonly the C Drive). Imagine a system crash. Imagine the loss of never able to recover that data. And now imagine a simple step which could have saved the day.
2. The usual good word is to partition your hard disk into multiples with a minimum size kept for the system drive. With time My Documents will fatten up as more data is stashed away in it. Moving the folder to a different drive saves space and more importantly safeguards it.

How To Move My Documents Folder in Windows XP

1. Right click on the My Documents icon on the desktop.



2. Click on Move and choose your chosen location for the folder. Move it to a different partition. For instance, I have it on my D Drive.



3. Click Apply and then Ok. A prompt will ask whether you want to move all of the current documents to the new location or not. Choose Yes. All your documents are switched to the new location and it’s all like before except now they are safer from a system crash.



4. These are the elementary steps which will save you a ton of bother at a future date.

How To Move My Documents Folder in Vista

There is a slight change in Vista as the My Documents has given way to a Documents folder. The default location for this folder is C:\Users\[username]\Documents where [username] is your Windows Vista username and C Drive is the default installation drive. Vista creates Documents folder for each User profile on the computer and stores it in the appropriate profile folder. The process to change the location is relatively same,

1. Click on the Start button.
2. Right-click on Document. For multiple users click your account name in the right-hand menu. Select Properties.



3. In the Properties dialog select the Location tab.



4. Next, click on Move. In the Destination dialog select the new location for your Documents folder. Click on Select Folder to return to the Properties dialog. The new location appears in the text box.



5. Click on Ok. Vista prompts you to confirm again and with a Yes click your task is done as the documents get shifted over to the new location.

The brief tutorial might be simplicity itself and experienced users might even scoff at it. But I have seen many neglect this fundamental step of data backup. And isn’t it true that the small things we take for granted are sometimes taken away from us. With few uncomplicated steps, at least it won’t be the documents in our My Documents folder.

Have there been times when you have found movinf My Document folder to a different drive a lifesaver? Or have overlooked it to your loss?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Thanks to the luxury of virtually unlimited storage space that we have today, computer users have developed the “save everything now, think about them later” attitude. The problem is, for some “too many things to do” people – like me (and maybe most of you) – “later” might never come.

Then one day, the hundredth time you find yourself rummaging your hard drive(s) for that one specific file that you really need without a clue about the file identity, you’ll wish you’d done something earlier in the file-organizing department.

The Grouping & The Searching

The most common solution to file organization problems is to group the similar files into folders. For examples: all the files related to Project X would go into folder “Project X”, while all the MP3 files will go into the “Music” folder.

Problems arise when you have to decide where to put files from Project X that are also a MP3. And most of the time, it is far more complicated than that.

To help you increase the effectiveness of using folders as a means of organizing files, you can try Smart Folder.

• Go to Finder then to File → New Smart Folder menu (or Command + Option + N)

You can also create a smart folder by doing a search in the Finder window.

• Set the rules of the folder by choosing the options available there.
• Click the plus button (+) to add more rules.
• Click the minus button (-) to delete a rule.

A few things that you can set for example: the location of the file, the kind of file, last opened date, last modified date, name, etc.

Don’t forget to hit the “Save” button after all the rules have been customized and tick the “Add To Sidebar” box to put the smart folder to the sidebar so that you can access them easily.

This way, you can set the contents of the smart folder to be PDF files which were created within a week and have the word “billing” in the name. Once a PDF file is more than one week old, it will automatically be out of the smart folder.

If you no longer need the smart folder, just right click and choose “Remove from Sidebar” from the pop-up menu.

The Tagging

Mac users can improve the usability of Smart Folder and Spotlight searching by adding tags to the files. You can assign multiple tags to a file or folder and go beyond the grouping files inside folders.

The traditional way of doing tagging is by adding Spotlight comments from the file info window. You can access the file info windows by right clicking on the item and choose “Get Info” from the pop-up menu, or select the item and press Command + I.

But doing the tagging one file or folder at a time is a tedious and time-consuming activity. Not to mention boring. The simpler way is by using TagIt.

It is a small application that will help you to tag multiple files easily. TagIt also makes the process of searching files based on their tags easier. And as a bonus, you can also assign ratings to the file(s) or folder(s).

You can search tags directly from Spotlight by using the search string “tag:the_name_of_the_tag” sans quote.

Few possible scenarios of using tags to files and folders are:

• Assign “Ongoing” tag to something that you are currently working on and change the tag to “Done” after finishing the project.
• Assign the client’s names as tags to the file.
• Use the ratings as the “Importance” level.
• Add the team member’s names.
• Add the revision number.

And by adding tags to the Smart Folder’s rules, you can organize your files and folders so much better.

What about you? What method do you use to organise files? Share using the comment section below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• The 4 Proven Simple Tips to Organize Your Files on Windows (19)
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A 2 MB download, Hawkscope requires JRE (Java Runtime Environment) to be installed on your computer. If you don’t have it installed, it will take you to the download page.

With the downloads out of the way its time to check Hawkscope out! Fire it up and you will see a Hawk (icon) in your system tray, clicking on which gives you access to all your files and folders. The default configuration shows your home folder, all the partitions and few more options for settings and for exiting the application.

Hover over any of the entries and you see next the contents of the folder, hover over any subfolder and you will see the contents of the subfolder and this can go on and on till you reach the required file.

If you are an adept user you might be thinking all this can be achieved by adding “My Computer” as a toolbar. Yes it can be done but the real power of Hawkscope lies in its customization and plugins.

Click ’settings’ and you can configure Hawkscope according to your liking. You can choose the icon theme, a reload delay value, show/hide common extensions and others.

My favorite feature is however the Quick Access list. You can add the folders you access frequently to this list and they will show up next to your home folder.

There is also a blacklist functionality that allows you to add locations that will not show up in the menu while you are browsing from folder to folder.

The Hawkscope plugin page lists a few plugins that you can use to enhance Hawkscope’s functionality. There is a plugin for Gmail, Google Search, Twitter and to execute commands from the comfort of your Hawkscope menu.

Once you download the plugins you need to place the jar file within the “.hawkscope-plugins” folder under your home directory.

While the plugin list is not overwhelming by any means, it surely lists some good plugins and one can expect the plugins to increase over time as Hawkscope gets popular.

Hawkscope is good and you will enjoy it, especially if you take some time to configure your “Quick Access” locations wisely.  A hotkey to summon Hawkscope would be at the top of my wishlist for the application. This single feature alone would make it even more useful as one could then browse folders quickly with the keyboard itself using hotkeys. It is still a work in progress though and let’s hope we see hotkey support in the future.

Hawkscope is available for Windows, Linux and Mac. Do you use any other software for similar purposes? Tell us in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Besides, there’s not much compression that can be done to multimedia files, and we know that today’s hard drives can be filled with LOTS of pictures, sounds and videos. I tried to compress a 2,142KB video file and the result was a 2,088KB Zip file. Insignificant savings.

Folder versus Archive

Sure, people still use compression utilities, although these days we call them by a different name – archiving utilities – simply because the purpose is more to archive than to compress.

“Then why not use a folder instead?” some might ask. Because ten files in a folder will be counted as ten files while ten files in an archive equals one file. A folder is better if we talking about storing the files in the hard drive for easy browsing and viewing.  An archive is better and faster for sharing and moving files between storage spaces.

But there are times when you will need / want to do a quick browse inside an archive without needing / wanting to unarchive it first. There are a few commercial pieces of software which are able to do that while the free options are second to none. Luckily, I found Zipeg.

Quick and Simple Archive Explorer

Available for Windows (XP and Vista) and Mac (Tiger and Leopard), Zipeg is a free alternative archiving utility to WinZip, WinRAR, and/or StuffIt. It supports a wide variety of archiving formats (ZIP, RAR, ARJ, LHA/LZH, 7z, TAR, and more) and provides users with the ability to browse, preview and open specific file(s) directly from inside the archive.

You can read the full list of features from their website, but here are a few that I find helpful:

• users can see what’s inside the archive BEFORE extracting files.
• it allows users to open files using associated application directly from the archive
• it displays image thumbnails (EXIF) in tooltips;
• it can explore CD and DVD “.iso” image files.
• users can extract/unzip items simply by dragging them.
• users can choose which archiving formats to associate with Zipeg (using menu: “Options –> Settings –> Files” for Windows or “Zipeg –> Preferences –> Files” for Mac).

Zipeg supports password protected archives – the user still needs to provide the password to be able to extract the content. Zipeg also supports multi-part archives – just open the first part and the other parts will be picked up automatically. Just make sure that all the parts are within the same folder.

As an added bonus, Zipeg is also able to open CBR (Comic Book Archive – RAR) and CBZ (Comic Book Archive – Zip) format. So now I can decide wheter or not to read the comic by previewing the pages quickly.

Do you know any other free alternatives to Zipeg or do you have thoughts about it to share?  If so, let us know in the comments below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Quick Zip File Compressor & Extractor (Free WinZip Alternative) (21)
• 7Zip – A Free Program to Unzip Uncommon Archive Formats (13)
• Visualize your Hard Drive Usage with WinDirStat (16)
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In this week’s Macnifying OS X, I’m going to show you how easy it is to share files on your Mac so that it appears on Windows computers automatically.

In System Preferences, go to ‘Sharing’ and check the box for ‘File Sharing’. By default, only your Public Folder will be shared. If you want to add other folders to the shared list, click on the ‘+’ sign under the Shared Folder box and choose the folders you wish to share.

After you’re done selecting, you’ll need to set the Permissions for each shared folder. Generally, you should allow Read Only rights to avoid others from messing around with your files. As you can see from the screenshot below, I removed the group labelled ‘Users’ from the users list so only ‘Everyone’ and I appear on the list. I do this to make things easier, only to allow guests logins from other computers.

Next, click on ‘Options’ and on the resulting window, check the box that says “Share files and folders using SMB” and hit ‘Done’.

Now, you’ll need to add your Mac into a Microsoft workgroup. To do this, click ‘Show All’ at the top of the System Preferences windows and click on ‘Network’. Select your active connection and click ‘Advanced’.

In the window which pops up, click on the ‘WINS’ tab and enter a workgroup in the appropriate field. Microsoft has two workgroups: MSHOME and WORKGROUP. Find out which workgroup the majority of your Windows computers belong to and set the workgroup to that.

Click on ‘OK’ and you’ll return to Network preferences, now hit ‘Apply’. Now you’re halfway there – the rest of the work is performed on the Windows machines.

On your Windows desktop, right-click on ‘My Computer’ and select Properties. Click on the ‘Computer Name’ tab and make sure that your workgroup is the same as the one set on your Mac. If it isn’t then click on ‘Change’, set it and restart your computer.

Once that is done, double-click on ‘My Network Places’ and voila, all of your Mac’s shared folders should be visible. Take note that the Drop Box in your Mac’s Public folder won’t be accessible. If you want to use the Drop Box to let other users “drop” their files onto your Mac, you’ll need to change its permissions.

On your Mac’s Home folder, double-click the Public folder. Right-click on Drop Box and choose ‘Get Info’. Click on the lock icon on the bottom right hand corner of the Info window and enter your account password. Then set the permission for Everyone to Read & Write hence, allowing anyone to conveniently “drop” files onto your Mac.

Did you find this tutorial easy to follow? Did it work for you? Is there an easier way to share files between Mac and Windows computers?

Let us know in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Fortunately, this is help for your bogged-down drive. WinDirStat, one of the least appealingly named pieces of freeware out there, is also one of the most useful. The program rapidly indexes your entire hard drive, creates a visual map of every file, and helps you delete the stuff you don’t need.

Once you start up WinDirStat and select the drive you want to search (you can also select “all drives”), the indexing process begins. Depending on how large your drive is and how much data you have, this CAN be a lengthy process, but compared to some other indexing programs, WinDirStat does a remarkably efficient job. The folders are then organize in a standard drill-down interface. Each one has an indicator of how large it is and how much of its parent (or “higher level”) folder it takes up. This interface alone is enough to make the software worth the download.

Beyond the complex file manager, the most noticeable feature of WinDirStat is their visualization system. Check out my “C” drive’s image below:

You’ll immediately notice there are a number of colors and most of the blocks are different sizes. This is because WinDirStat marks every type of file (determined by file extension) with a unique color. The larger the file, the larger the block. Also, each visible section is part of the same folder. The column on the right, for instance, is the system folder and contains two giant, blue pagefiles (one is the regular pagefile and the other is the hibernation file).

Navigating around the image is fairly intuitive once you understand how it’s laid out. Left clicking snaps the file manager to the file or folder in question. Right clicking on any section brings up a contextual menu including the ability to zoom in as well as the ability to select the parent folder.

At the top of the screen there are several toolbar options:

From left to right they are:

• Open – for selecting a drive to index
• Refresh – this can repopulate the map with new changes
• Open Item – opens the selected item
• Copy Path – a very useful tool to copy the path (address within the computer) of a file or folder
• Explorer – opens the selection in Windows Explorer
• Command Prompt – opens a command prompt window (pretty handy)
• Refresh Selected – repopulates the map of the selection with any new changes
• Delete to Recycle Bin – equivalent to hitting the delete key in Windows Explorer
• Delete (instant) – immediately deletes the selection, bypassing the Recycle Bin
• Properties – Shows the properties of the selection
• Zoom In/Out – Enables zooming around the graphic interface (this will highlight the enlarged area in the file manager
• Help – opens WinDirStat help

There are more options in WinDirStat, but these particular ones are those that I have found most useful in cleaning out undesirable files. One thing to keep in mind is that while WinDirStat may allow you to access any file on your computer, be careful what you delete. Some of the files will be large and have names you are not familiar with. Deleting them directly might cause irreparable damage to your PC. I suggest Googling anything you aren’t sure about before you delete it.
[rating=4]

If you’ve used WinDirStat, what are some things you use it for? Personally, I use it to quickly navigate my iTunes library because old podcasts sometimes get hung up in the labyrinthic file system it uses.

(By) Jimmy Rogers is a biology major at George Mason University and an avid freelance tech blogger. Check out his blog, Mason Tech Beat.

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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