Microsoft Windows Archives - Rick's Daily Tips

6 ways to make your Windows PC boot up faster

Posted on December 24, 2025

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One of the most irritating things about using a Windows PC is having to wait for it to boot up into a usable state after we turn it on.

To their credit, Microsoft has tweaked newer versions of Windows to reduce average boot times, but in my opinion it still takes longer for them to start up than it should.

Luckily, there are several things you can do to make your own PC boot up a lot faster than it does right now, even if your computer is brand new. Do as many or as few of them as you wish, then enjoy the fruits of your labor. [Read more…]

Should you optimize the Windows Registry?

Posted on December 13, 2025

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Countless articles have been written over the years on the topic of optimizing PCs that run Microsoft Windows in order to make them run faster.

Many of those articles offer a number of good tips, but they almost always include one that I don’t recommend: Optimizing the Windows Registry.

[Read more…]

Linux replacements for popular Windows programs

Posted on December 10, 2025

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A while back I wrote a post explaining how to give an old PC new life by replacing Windows with Linux as a means of extending the useful life of older PCs.

After that post was published I received a number of emails asking for a list of Linux programs that can replace the Windows programs they’d leaving behind if they made the switch.

I decided that it might be a good idea to publish that list in its own blog post, and here it is: [Read more…]

Q&A: How do I find the Control Panel in Windows 11?

Posted on October 21, 2025

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Question from Kerry: I have a Windows 11 question for you if you don’t mind.

I used to be a Windows guy, but several years ago when Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 7 I decided to switch to a Mac.

Well, my Mac recently bit the dust and I decided to switch back to Windows. Long story short, I ended up buying a new Windows desktop computer with Windows 11 on it.

Back when I was using Windows 7 I could open the Control Panel from the Start menu, but that’s apparently not the case with Windows 11. I’ve looked high and low and I can’t find it anywhere.

I’m pretty sure Windows 11 still has a Control Panel because I think I remember seeing it mentioned on your site a while back. Can you tell me how to find it? [Read more…]

Here’s the best way to open a link in a new browser tab

Posted on October 5, 2025

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If you’re like me you probably want many of the links you click to open in a new browser tab.

Most people do this in one of two ways:

1 – Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking the link.

or…

2 – Right-click on the link, then click on Open link in new tab.

Both of those methods work great in the browsers that support them, but there’s an even better way to get a link to open in a new tab… [Read more…]