Make Your Desktop More Productive and Useful

Microsoft Windows  is the most popular operating system on the planet. It’s used by mighty corporations, students, teachers, and just average users. And as an operating system it has a lot of configurable options. You can determine what your desktop wallpaper is, and you can even configure some of the ways things function. You can configure sounds and cursors and lots more. And for some people that might be enough. People who don’t like to ‘tweak’ things and make them better. I’ve always been one of those people who loves to try out new things on my computer. I like to push the limits. I like to see what programs are out there that can help make me just a little bit more productive. Things that can make my computer just a little more useful. So, today I’m going to share a few of my favorite programs that help to  make me more productive each and every day. 

Tools Always A Click Away

One program that I find incredibly useful is the QnE Companion from TeraByte, Inc. This is a set of quick and easy to use utilities for your PC. It’s amazing to me how this useful tool can help to boost my productivity and help me to get more done every day. The QnE Companion consists of a clipboard manager, a launcher, a screen capture utility, and a desktop icon utility. Having these handy tools right at my fingertips is incredibly useful. You can set up QnE Companion so it can be conveniently accessed from the Windows taskbar, a small floating window, or through traditional keyboard shortcuts. I love how it’s always there when I need it, just a click away. Let me tell you just a little bit more about it. 

QnE Companion 

Once you’ve installed QnE Companion it’s right there and ready to get to work. As I mentioned you can configure it to be a part of your Windows taskbar, which is what I do. Or, you may wish to have it as a small, floating window on your desktop. The  choice is yours. The QnE Screen Capture utility makes it really easy to take a screenshot of your Windows desktop. Capture the whole screen or just a segment of it. You can easily save your captures to print, email, and view at your leisure. All your screenshots are right there for you to review and use them how you wish. 

The QnE Clipboard Companion is like putting your Windows clipboard on steroids. It greatly expands the Windows clipboard and stores all of your clips in a handy list. This makes it so easy to access things you’ve clipped, paste clips into another document, and much more. The QnE Clipboard Companion also lets you search your clips, filter them, and even categorize them. You can even keep commonly used clips and save them to use over and over again. It’s amazing to me how these abilities can really increase my productivity. It really helps having these tools right at your fingertips. You never have to stop what you’re doing to load a screen capture utility or fiddle with the limited Windows clipboard. You have to try it to see what I mean. 

The next segment of the QnE Companion is the Icon Companion. This lets you manage the locations of icons on  your desktop and even manipulate them. So many people have large numbers of icons on the Windows desktop and it can be a nightmare to find anything. With  the Icon Companion you can save a copy of how your desktop looks, give it a name, and then you can restore that exact desktop layout anytime you wish. You can also search your desktop icons and icons that match your search criteria will flash. You can search by oldest, last modified, and much more. 

And last but certainly not least in my opinion is the QnE Launcher. The QnE Launcher gives you a  popup menu that you can configure exactly how you want. Populate it with the programs, files, and folders that you use most! You can even create sub-menus. If you want you can even include the Windows Start Menu as one of your submenus. The QnE Launcher gives you the ultimate power because you decide everything that goes in it. There’s no need to hunt for the things you use most or spend time clawing through multiple levels of menus and folders. The QnE Launcher lets you put all the things you use most front and center, the way it should be. 

The QnE Companion is a dynamic set of utilities that can really increase your productivity and make your desktop, and you, more efficient. It’s available for download from the TeraByte site.

WindowBlinds Renovates Your Desktop

While QnE Companion added power and functionality to your Windows desktop, it’s still the same old Windows. To fix that in steps WindowBlinds by Stardock. WindowBlinds lets you completely customize the look and feel of Windows. You can truly make Windows your own by using WindowBlinds. Let me tell you just a little bit about what this cool program can do to perk up your dull copy of Windows. 

WindowBlinds Rocks

To begin with, WindowBlinds lets you “skin” your copy of Windows. You can customize control buttons, the taskbar, window frames, and much more. A large number of skins are included with the program, but you can customize any skin so it suits your personal taste. You can change colors, change the transparency, and even change what fonts are used.

With WindowBlinds you can change the colors and textures used on your desktop. And when you’re happy with how it looks you can save the arrangement as a preset. That means you can then swap out one preset for another. This gives you a lot of flexibility in changing the entire look and feel of your system. If you wish you can even configure WindowBlinds to change your skins randomly at a certain interval. Make it so you have a new look every time you log on to your computer. 

Another cool feature is the ability to choose different skins for different applications. Maybe have all your music-related programs in a shade of blue and all your text editing apps in a soft shade  of orange. The neat thing about WindowBlinds is that it’s totally up to you.  When you purchase WindowBlinds you also get a copy of SkinStudio. This is a high-powered companion tool that lets you create  your own skins. I found it extremely easy-to-use and very user friendly. I’m not an expert with graphics of any kind so I really appreciated how I could easily create skins on my own. If you’re so inclined you can tweak just about every aspect of the Windows experience. 

WindowBlinds lets you totally renovate your boring copy of  Windows and lets you make it your owl. It’s available for download Stardock site.

Summing It Up!

I’ve been using computers since 1980 and in that time I’ve evaluated a lot of software. I’m  personally really impressed by the increased functionality that’s provided by QnE Companion.

Its handy tools make it a snap to take screenshots, manage the Windows clipboard, and easily manipulate all  the icons on your Windows desktop. It’s ability to act as a launcher makes your desktop work the way you want it to. It just doesn’t get any better than that. And to this the functionality that WindowBlinds provides and you’ve got yourself a powerful desktop that looks exactly how you want  it to look. I recommend both products and I hope you’ll give them a try.