Top 10 Computer Annoyances - And Ways To Fix Them

Kevin Purdy over at LifeHacker.com came up with a fantastic list of annoying computer problems, and ways to battle them. Below is a summarized list of annoyances that you'll face, and quick fixes for them.

10. Dashboard widgets (Mac OS X).
If you just want to make these annoying widgets go away for one session, you can install the simple Dashquit widget or use these terminal commands for the job. Killing multiple widgets, like those iterations that pop up from delivery trackers, is easier if you hold the Option key.


9. Remembering passwords.
Mozilla FireFox can be used more securely, and made to remember any password.


8. Google search result links are indirect, awkward, and too long to copy.
CustomizeGoogle, fixes your messy links that are filled with "gobbley-gook", using one if its many tweaks—"Remove click tracking," which is found in the first "Web" set of options. You'll get nice, clean links to copy or send.

7. Hours spent re-installing Windows
Re-installation of Windows itself can take 20-30 minutes, but the updates can kill your day. With the nLite tool for XP, or vLite for Vista, you can skip a ton of clicking and pop-up answering during installation and first boot-up—in the case of nLite, pretty much all of it. Here's a guide to slipstreaming XP Service Pack 3 into a new, automated installation CD. nLite's also a great tool for creating a stripped-down, speedier XP for virtualization or older machines.

6. Windows Vista, in general.
The How-To Geek did a solid write up called 10 ways to make Windows Vista less annoying, each with a link to a detailed explanation over at his own site.


5. RE: Fwd: Fwd: Email (and time-wasting email in general).
Your best options for dealing with chain forwards, repetitive conversations, and other email gaffes are smart filters, including a fwd filter for those "Did you know" emails from Aunt Margie and Uncle Bif. Correspondents just not getting the message? Take the next step with an explanatory email etiquette page. Need proof that wasteful messages are eating up your time? Gmail/Google Apps users can take a detailed look at the waste with Mail Trends.

4. File copying freezes and awkwardness (Windows).
Have you copied large files when suddenly Windows times out? Free Windows add-on TeraCopy is exactly what you need. It makes file transfers faster, more consistent, and it provides realistic job times and status reports. You'll hardly notice it's there—which is just about perfect.

3. Office IT restrictions.

Just trying to get that basic toolbar to show you the weather, but you have no access? Here's the guide to surviving IT lockdown; for responsible, tech-savvy employees. It should get you around most IT restrictions.


2. GIANT email attachments.
The best suggestion we've got for nearly any account is to create a Gmail account to manage your other mail. That way, you can jump in and check your important messages, while your dedicated mail client is frozen trying to grab that huge file. You can then use tools like Gmail Drive (Windows), gDisk (Mac OS X), and GmailFS (Linux) to clear space-hogging attachments from your email accounts. Or you can just simply filter and kill giant attachments with Gmail's advanced search-and-filter tools. If you're stuck with big attachments in Outlook, there are ways of extracting attachments without having to open the actual email, using Outlook Attachment Remover or this simple trick described by the Digital Inspiration blog. The real solution? Get your friends or relatives a copy of Picasa or another photo manager that auto-magically shrinks pictures before sending.

1. All that crappy "default" software.
RealPlayer? Pop-ups asking to renew Norton/McAfee/Symantec? Limewire?? We've rounded up the free, and superior, alternatives to those persistent programs, and many of our suggestions are cross-platform, open source, and do a better job than the system-dragging softs you find in the wilds of computing.

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