Showing posts with label Windows 10. Show all posts
We’re just a few days away from receiving the next iteration of Windows 10. The aptly named Anniversary Update.
Certain new features and some design changes are included. But in all
these changes one thing is gonna remain the same. The same boring
folders and file explorer. Yes, no doubt, Microsoft totally nailed it
with the design language of Windows 10. The sleek and minimalistic
design are eye pleasing. But, I still find File explorer and folders to
be boring in looks. Well, if you feel the same and are a “Tweaker” then
let me show you 3 tools that will help you customize the look the
folders in Windows 10.
There are many tools available for customization in Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. No specific tools have yet been developed for customizing Windows 10. The below tools are updated versions (compatible with Windows 10) and some are not (but, they work). I’d still recommend you to take a System backup before performing any tweaks. By the way, there weren’t any damaging issues in my usage. So, it’s safe to proceed. Let’s dig in.
The usage is pretty simple. After installing go to the folder location. Right-click on the folder. Choose Colorize! and select your color.
Now, after you select the color it will do some loading and present you an error. Just hit OK and the folder color should change. Restoring the color back to original works fine. The custom colors option doesn’t work. The dialogue box does show up but crashes after few seconds of opening.
Also, there are few things to note:
Open the tool and browse to the folder which you’d like to customize. Now, you can replace the icon with an image or else add a color and overlay to it.
You can use any PNG or JPEG image as an overlay. Here I’ve used the Counter-Strike logo. You can also add color to the background. If you think you want to use the icon again with other folders then you can even save it by clicking on Save to User Icons. Also, there are some preinstalled icons that you can use.
I recommend you to download skins from skinpacks.com. I’ve been using their skins since Windows 7. There’s also a Skin Pack Creator and IconPack Creator to create your own custom skins. One thing to note here is that the whole Windows UI will change not only the file explorer. If you don’t want to change the whole UI then you can use the SkinPack creator to create your own customized skins for file explorer and folders.
There are many tools available for customization in Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. No specific tools have yet been developed for customizing Windows 10. The below tools are updated versions (compatible with Windows 10) and some are not (but, they work). I’d still recommend you to take a System backup before performing any tweaks. By the way, there weren’t any damaging issues in my usage. So, it’s safe to proceed. Let’s dig in.
1. Folder Colorizer: Add Colors to Your Folders
Folder Colorizer is the tool that you must have used in Windows 7 to add colors to your folders. The tool is not updated for Windows 10 but it still works.The usage is pretty simple. After installing go to the folder location. Right-click on the folder. Choose Colorize! and select your color.
Now, after you select the color it will do some loading and present you an error. Just hit OK and the folder color should change. Restoring the color back to original works fine. The custom colors option doesn’t work. The dialogue box does show up but crashes after few seconds of opening.
Also, there are few things to note:
- The sub-folders of the customized folder will also change their colors.
- The thumbnail view of the folder icon won’t show the preview of files that are stored in it.
2. Folderico: Completely Customize the Folder Icons
Folderico has full compatibility with Windows 10 and works perfectly. With this tool, you get the freedom to completely customize the look of the folder icon. You can add custom color, images, and overlays.Open the tool and browse to the folder which you’d like to customize. Now, you can replace the icon with an image or else add a color and overlay to it.
You can use any PNG or JPEG image as an overlay. Here I’ve used the Counter-Strike logo. You can also add color to the background. If you think you want to use the icon again with other folders then you can even save it by clicking on Save to User Icons. Also, there are some preinstalled icons that you can use.
3. Windows 10 Skins
One of the way to completely change the look and feel of the file explorer and the folders is to install skin packs. There are many cool themes and skins available for Windows 10. Skins for your favorite games, metro themes, and Android themed skins.I recommend you to download skins from skinpacks.com. I’ve been using their skins since Windows 7. There’s also a Skin Pack Creator and IconPack Creator to create your own custom skins. One thing to note here is that the whole Windows UI will change not only the file explorer. If you don’t want to change the whole UI then you can use the SkinPack creator to create your own customized skins for file explorer and folders.
Few Other Add-ons
In the past, we had shared a tool that gives Chrome-style tabs in the file explorer. Also, if you know the file explorer doesn’t show folder size in details view. So, in order to quickly view the size of the folder, you can use this tiny tool called Folder size.
Ever since I started using Windows 10,
every time I opened the Task Manager in detailed view, the disk usage
activity always touched the mark of 100%. If not a century, it was
always above 90% which was quite odd. For the first few days, I thought
that it might be because of the heavy video rendering that I did on my
PC for our YouTube channel related
work. But after a few weeks I realized that even while my system was
idle with no major background processes running, it was hitting the 100%
mark just for disk usage. The CPU state was mostly idle, going from
just 2 to 10%.
It was enough to convince me that it’s not the workload that’s causing my PC to be slow all the time with obnoxious disk usage. It was time to find a solution and after hours of online research, I managed to find out some working tricks. These tips solved the issue on my PC and now my computer shows decent disk usage with a significant improvement in performance.
So if you too are facing similar issues on your Windows 10 computer, here are the 4 things that you should check on your PC.
Note: If you are not sure what your disk usage in Windows 10 is, right-click on the taskbar to open up Task Manager and here enable the detailed view. In the Processes tab, you can see the CPU, Memory, and Disk Usage on your computer.
Once the Services window opens up, look for Windows Search and double click on it to open up the properties page. Here, the first thing you should do is click on Stop to immediately stop the service and then change the Startup Type to Disabled. That’s all, save the settings and after some time, you should notice an improvement in the disk usage activity. But if you still have the issue, don’t worry, there are still a few things you can try.
While disabling the Superfetch service, make sure you stop it first and then change the Startup Type to Disabled.
I haven’t tried this myself, but from the comments on the Reddit page, it looks like that the trick is working for users and is definitely worth a shot.
It was enough to convince me that it’s not the workload that’s causing my PC to be slow all the time with obnoxious disk usage. It was time to find a solution and after hours of online research, I managed to find out some working tricks. These tips solved the issue on my PC and now my computer shows decent disk usage with a significant improvement in performance.
So if you too are facing similar issues on your Windows 10 computer, here are the 4 things that you should check on your PC.
Note: If you are not sure what your disk usage in Windows 10 is, right-click on the taskbar to open up Task Manager and here enable the detailed view. In the Processes tab, you can see the CPU, Memory, and Disk Usage on your computer.
Disable Windows Search
The first thing you must check out is the Windows Search services which are kind of buggy and cause Windows 10 on your computer to enter a search loop. Once Windows 10 enters the search loop, it starts indexing files over and again which cause the high disk usage with minimal CPU and Memory usage. I am not sure when Microsoft is going to take care of this bug, but the only option you can go with is to disable the Windows Search Properties permanently. To get started, open up Windows’ Run box and execute the command services.msc.Once the Services window opens up, look for Windows Search and double click on it to open up the properties page. Here, the first thing you should do is click on Stop to immediately stop the service and then change the Startup Type to Disabled. That’s all, save the settings and after some time, you should notice an improvement in the disk usage activity. But if you still have the issue, don’t worry, there are still a few things you can try.
Disable Superfetch Services
The next thing you can try is to disable Superfetch services from services.msc window itself. Superfetch service caches data to RAM so that it can be immediately available to your application. Unfortunately, the service is not always right about which software you’re going to use and can keep your hard drive busy for minutes after booting and closing applications.While disabling the Superfetch service, make sure you stop it first and then change the Startup Type to Disabled.
Disable Windows 10 Tips
Disabling the above two services did the trick for me, but if you still are not seeing any improvement, you can try a tip I read on Reddit. A few users suggested to open Windows 10 settings and then navigate to Notifications & actions. Here turn off Show me Tips about Windows and that’s all. It should just take a minute or two before you see the results.I haven’t tried this myself, but from the comments on the Reddit page, it looks like that the trick is working for users and is definitely worth a shot.
Conclusion
Those were the few tips you can try to get the Windows Disk usage to behave. If none of them works for you, I am afraid it might be because of some malware on your computer and you might have to disinfect the Windows 10 or clean install from the scratch in a hope that the issue is fixed.
Blessed are those who know the power of Command Prompt in Windows
and are aware of the awesome things that can be done with it. Even
though it looks simple, it can do incredible things that you will have a
tough time doing on the regular Windows GUI. One of the best example I
can give is of sfc /scannow and DISM commands used to scan and fix system errors in Windows 10
which is otherwise not possible on normal Windows 10 GUI-based
environment. Even some of the powerful virus protection suits
use Command Prompt to scan and disinfect the system when there’s a virus
outbreak on your computer.
However, the Command Prompt doesn’t look that trendy when compared to other Windows 10 application you have on your computer. It’s a boring black screen with white text on it, which is rather small; making it barely readable on a large screen with full HD resolution. But that’s the default view and there are options using which you can customize the looks of the boring Command Prompt and make it look cool.
Now to start the customization, right click on the CMD Prompt Title Bar and select the option Properties from the context menu. A window will open up with 4 separating tabs namely Option, Font, Layout, and Colors. So let’s see how you can use the options available in all the four tabs to customize your Command Prompt.
Apart from that, you have editing option which makes it easier for users familiar with Windows hotkeys to work with Command Prompt with the same hotkeys. But if you want to use the old, legacy type environment, just check the option and relaunch the CMD.
There are ways to add a custom font for the Command Prompt, but that’s beyond the scope of this article. Let me know in the comments section if you are interested in it. If there is enough response, I will definitely take it up in one of my next tutorials.
The Layout tab is where you can configure the CMD Windows size and position.
The option to choose the opacity would ultimately give the final touch to the customization option. You might have to restart the Command Prompt for the changes to take effect, but it would be worth it.
However, the Command Prompt doesn’t look that trendy when compared to other Windows 10 application you have on your computer. It’s a boring black screen with white text on it, which is rather small; making it barely readable on a large screen with full HD resolution. But that’s the default view and there are options using which you can customize the looks of the boring Command Prompt and make it look cool.
Getting Started
To get started, the first thing you will have to do is launch the Command Prompt and according to me, the best way to get that done is by simply searching for ‘CMD’ in the Start menu. The second option is by opening up the Run box using Windows+R button and executing the CMD command.Now to start the customization, right click on the CMD Prompt Title Bar and select the option Properties from the context menu. A window will open up with 4 separating tabs namely Option, Font, Layout, and Colors. So let’s see how you can use the options available in all the four tabs to customize your Command Prompt.
Command Options
Here you can control the cursor size and make it Small, Medium or Large based on your requirements. The command history keeps track of all the commands you enter and using the up arrow you can access these commands again. So here you can control the amount of buffer that needs to be kept.Apart from that, you have editing option which makes it easier for users familiar with Windows hotkeys to work with Command Prompt with the same hotkeys. But if you want to use the old, legacy type environment, just check the option and relaunch the CMD.
Command Fonts and Layout
In here you can edit the display font of the Command Prompt. You can increase the size of the text to make it readable and also add the bold text effect depending on your needs. When it comes to font section, there are only 3 fonts that you can choose from by default.There are ways to add a custom font for the Command Prompt, but that’s beyond the scope of this article. Let me know in the comments section if you are interested in it. If there is enough response, I will definitely take it up in one of my next tutorials.
The Layout tab is where you can configure the CMD Windows size and position.
Command Colors
This tab is the one where most of the magic lies. You can control the colors of Screen Text, Screen Background, Popup Text and Popup Background here. There are some preset solid colors you can choose from or use the RGB to define a custom color. All the changes you make here will be previewed in the box below which would help you in deciding the suitable color.The option to choose the opacity would ultimately give the final touch to the customization option. You might have to restart the Command Prompt for the changes to take effect, but it would be worth it.
