Essential Windows 7 add-ons

By Jay Dougherty - Microsoft focused on the right things with Windows 7. It addressed the annoyances in Vista that were the cause of myriad complaints, and it made the operating system more stable and easier to use in the process. But there are still plenty of areas in need of improvement, including desktop organisation, disk management, file recovery, and file copying. The good news is that there are some very capable — and free — utilities that you can use to fill the void.

Organise your desktop: One thing Windows 7 hasn’t improved upon is the clutter that invariably overtakes Windows desktops. Sooner or later, you’ll probably find dozens of icons scattered on your screen, and locating the one you want ends up becoming a time-sapping chore. Enter Stardock Fences. Free for personal use, this tool makes it easy to group your desktop icons into readily identifiable categories — or “fenced in areas,” to follow Stardock’s fences metaphor.

Create a category for graphics, one for office applications, and another for Internet. Create a separate fenced in area for document files. Within minutes, you can use this tool to create blissful organisation out of chaos. And you’ll likely be impressed with how well Fences leverages Windows 7’s transparency effects to make your fenced in areas fun to roll over with your mouse cursor. You can move groups of icons around with ease, as well.

Partition your hard drive: Disk partitions still make a lot of sense. Savvy PC users put their operating system and installed applications on their main (C) drive and create another partition for documents and other files. That way, backing up data on a regular basis is quick and easy — and the prospect of reinstalling an operating system isn’t the harrowing experience it otherwise might be. You’ll be certain that your vital document files won’t get lost in the process.

While it’s possible to adjust the size of disk partitions with Windows 7’s built-in Computer Management tool, it isn’t easy. And it surely isn’t fun. EASEUS free Partition Master (http:”www.partition- tool.com’download.htm) makes creating and resizing partitions a drag- and-drop affair.

The product both resembles and works like the now-defunct Partition Magic utility — a staple in the Windows XP era. It even includes disk-related features that go beyond partitioning. You can copy or clone entire disks, create bootable disks, and see advanced properties for each drive or partition in your system. You may not use Partition Master often, but when you need it, you’ll be glad it’s there — and that it’s free.

Retrieve lost files: Accidentally deleting a file can be worrisome. Finding out that the deleted file is not even in the Windows 7 Recycle Bin can ruin your day. That’s why you need some type of file recovery utility that goes beyond the lowly Recycle Bin, which will begin purging its contents once its maximum size is reached.

Recuva (http:”www.piriform.com’recuva) gives you the chance to recover not only deleted data files from normal disks but can also attempt to recover data from damaged or formatted disks, deleted e-mail messages, unsaved office documents, and lost images or videos from flash cards. Wizards walk you through the process, so there’s no advanced knowledge required. The tool even offers a “deep scan” feature that will scour media for any traces of a lost or deleted file.

As with any advanced undelete utility, attempts at recovery are not always successful. But it’s better to have a shot at getting back a lost file than to have to redo your work altogether. And because Recuva is free, you have even less to lose by adding it to your Windows 7 machine. Copy files faster: Despite the glitz and glitter of Windows 7, the pedestrian act of copying files is still a big part of using a computer. For that, there’s always been Windows Explorer, but Microsoft’s default file manager leaves a lot to be desired.

It provides very little information about the copy process as it’s occurring, it prompts you at awkward times about whether you want to overwrite existing files, and it’s slow — sometimes very slow. TeraCopy solves a lot of those problems at once — and it does so without drawing attention to itself. Install the free TeraCopy, and just continue to copy and paste files using Windows Explorer as you normally do.

The difference will be that during the copy operation, you’ll see the TeraCopy status window, and you’ll also note that file operations occur at a healthier clip — especially when a large number of files is involved. TeraCopy adds some features, too, that you’ll wonder why Windows Explorer never included, such as the ability to pause and resume file transfers and a listing of files that for some reason failed to copy so that you can try again. Install TeraCopy it and enjoy it without disrupting your normal workflow. That’s the kind of utility we can all get used to.— DPA