Windows 7 Professional is the standard for dental practice management software, even with Windows 8 on the scene. With the recent Windows XP end of life, many people are just beginning to learn the ropes of Windows 7. Below are some tips that help you to stay productive in the office.
Show Desktop
Right next to the clock on the bottom of your taskbar, you’ll find a vertical bar. No matter what you are doing and how many windows are open, clicking this bar will take you right to the desktop. All of your windows will be hidden, but your work will still be open. Click it again, and your windows will reappear just as they were before you clicked it. This saves frustration and time every time you need a file that is buried behind all of your open windows.
Open a Web Page from the Desktop
You can create for yourself a web-address bar right on the taskbar, which you can access from any program – without having a browser open. To set this up, simply right-click on the Taskbar, select “Properties”, click the “Toolbars” tab, and check the box for Address.
Use a Flash Drive for a speed boost
If you have a USB flash drive, you can plug it in and use the storage on it as virtual memory, thus reducing slowness due to low RAM. Plug the drive into the PC, and you’ll be presented with the menu to the right. Simply select “Speed up my system”, go through the setup wizard, and your PC will now use its storage as a faster alternative to virtual memory on your hard drive! If you don’t want to devote an entire USB drive to the speedup, then you can allocate just a portion of it for Readyboost. This is the quickest, easiest way to increase performance on low-RAM workstations.
Pin frequently used programs to the taskbar
This is a great first-step when setting up your PC. Launch the programs that you use regularly, and you’ll see their icon down below on the taskbar. Simply right-click the icon, and select “Pin this program to the Taskbar”. Now, you can open the app with one-click from anywhere.
Move the active window to a new monitor
Replace programs like Ultramon with just a built-in keypress. Select the Window that you want to move to your secondary monitor, hold down Win, Shift, and one of the arrow keys as shown below, and you can pop your window from monitor to monitor with ease!
Those are just a few tips to get you started with Windows 7. For more, visit our Dental tech blog, or visit our home page for an overview of how we provide Dental Office Support in the Bay Area.