Spend five minutes tweaking your desktop and save hours off your day!

There are never enough hours in the day for all the things you need to do – not to mention the things you’d like to do. But help is at hand, and from a place that might seem unlikely: your PC desktop.

You may think of your Windows Vista desktop as just a place to display a nice background picture or save downloads, but then you’d be missing out. It’s actually crammed with functions to save you time and make your computer easier and more comfortable to use – you just need take a few moments to set them up.

As a quick first step, right-click the desktop, select Personalize > Change desktop icons and try adding User’s Files to the usual Recycle Bin. Now your documents, contacts, favourites, pictures, music and more are just a double-click away, without touching the Start menu at all: much better.

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Speedy program access

Locating applications in the All Programs menu can be tricky, even with the new Search box, but there are ways to make this easier. Open Start > All Programs, then navigate to and right-click on the link to a favourite application. Select Pin to Start Menu and your program will always appear at the top of the lefthand menu panel, no searching needed.

Alternatively, right-click your program link, select Add to Quick Launch and a little icon for the program should appear on your taskbar. Now you can launch the application with a single click, or even a key press (hold down the Windows key and press 1 for the first Quick Launch icon, 2 for the second and so on); it’s much quicker than browsing menus. And that’s just the start – read on for more great speed-up ideas.