It stands to reason: the less software you have on your system, the lower the risk of software conflicts.

Windows 7 is complete enough to not need any added helper programs. The Windows Firewall, Security Essentials, Windows Update, and other components of Windows 7 are sufficient to keep your machine running smoothly and virus-free.

(Technically, Security Essentials is freeware supplied separately by Microsoft, but I consider it part of the operating system.)

In the past, I have recommended free file-management programs for Windows Vista and XP to replace or enhance Windows Explorer. Windows 7 Explorer is not a big departure from its predecessors, but with a few tweaks it can meet the file-management needs of most PC users--no add-ons necessary.

These changes to settings can improve Windows 7's performance and reduce the amount of time you spend accessing and managing files. Save even more time by using Explorer-specific keyboard shortcuts to change views and navigate between files and folders.

Speed load times by switching off thumbnails Who has time for folders? I prefer to throw all my files onto the desktop. With thumbnail view enabled, it can take several seconds for thumbnails of files to appear as I scroll through a folder.

To reduce scroll times, switch to viewing faster-loading file icons by disabling thumbnails. You do so by changing an entry in Windows Explorer's advanced settings.

To open Windows Explorer... [Read more]

When will Facebook get an app that connects it to one of the oldest archiving utilities around is one of the questions that "The Social Network" movie left disappointingly unanswered, but the new WinZip makes up for it. WinZip 16 (download), released today, not only lets you pack up your files into a tidy compressed box, it also provides a one-click method for sharing them either by e-mail or onto your Facebook "wall."

The new ZipSend feature pulls WinZip into the large-file sending game.

The features, called ZipSend and ZipShare, aim to bring WinZip into the 21st century and get it to compete with similar small-scale file-distributing services like YouSendIt. ZipSend lets you e-mail up to 50MB of archived files for free, with a Pro option that bumps the data cap to 2GB. WinZip and its publisher Corel are betting that people will find the convenience of a one-click e-mail plug-in and WinZip's 256-bit AES encryption more appealing than a competitive data cap, since YouSendIt, Dropbox, and competitors generally let you send or share up to 2GB worth of files at once.

While ZipSend sounds like it's designed more for business users with its paid license for a feature that others offer for free, ZipShare is clearly aimed at a slightly less-staid crowd. The Facebo... [Read more]

For many of us, the Web is a great research and learning tool.

It can be hard to make the most of it, though, as when we encounter an unfamiliar term or a concept that we want to follow up on, it can be a pain to navigate away from our tab. QuickWiki is a great extension for Firefox that makes it easy to stay focused, letting you right-click any word or phrase to bring up a definition from Wiktionary or an entry from Wikipedia. Here's how to use it:

1. Install the QuickWiki extension.

QuickWiki context menu

(Credit: Screenshot by Rob Lightner)
2. The next time you spot a word that hasn't quite made it into your vocabulary, select it, then either hold down Shift while right-clicking it or just right-click it and then select "QuickWiki" from the context menu. If it's in Wiktionary, you should see a definition pop up right away. Click anywhere on your tab to kill the pop-up.

QuickWIki Wiktionary pop-up

(Credit: Screenshot by Rob Lightner)
3. If you want more information, you can select a term, then either hold down the Ctrl key wile right-clicking or right-click for the QuickWiki menu. The Wikipedia search is a bit trickier than the Wiktionary search, as the term must be a precise match to yield any results.

[Read more]

The cover was yanked off the stable version of Chrome 15 today, as Google updated its New Tab page to emphasize Web apps and customizations along with Most Visited sites. Google Chrome 15 stable for Windows (download), Mac (download), Linux (download), and Chrome Frame also made several serious security improvements. However, the ability to synchronize your Omnibox history remains relegated to the less-stable Chrome beta and developer's channels.

Google's new 'new tab' page contains robust organizational features.

The intuitive New Tab page allows you to create custom categories by dragging and dropping apps and bookmarks, and includes navigation arrows on the left and right edges of the page that become more visible on mouse-over.

Related stories • How to use Chrome's latest new tab page • ... [Read more]

The Finnish security firm F-Secure gains a large percentage of its business from corporate accounts and platform operators, but that doesn't mean that it treats its consumer security suites as a ginger-haired child of indeterminate parentage and poor temperament. The new versions of F-Secure Internet Security 2012 (download) and F-Secure Anti-Virus 2012 (download) focus on keeping its security ahead of the curve, along with some ease-of-use improvements. However, as other suites emphasize their engine improvements along with an ever-expanding feature set, F-Secure remains steadfastly lean.

F-Secure 2012's Launch Pad lives fixed to the bottom of your screen, and provides the only point to jump between the suite's two core sections.

The only major visual change to the suite is the debut of the Launch Pad. Sadly, it's not a device that catapults your computer through your window and on to unsuspecting bystanders below, but instead a widget-like desktop tool that provides quick access to different parts of the suite. It's a tripartite tab from which you can switch between Computer Security, Online Safety, and a third tab labeled F-Secure. That one takes you to the publisher... [Read more]