How to Make Managing your Installed Programs Easier in Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 [1]
If you install and uninstall a lot of programs, here is a way to make the process quicker and easier. Use a little-known feature in Control Panel that allows you to group installed programs into useful categories. If you have a lot of installed programs, this makes it easier to find things.
One setting that I quite like is being able to group programs that were installed in a specific time frame. Here is how to use it.
- Open Control Panel. This is straightforward in Windows 7 but is more complicated in Windows 8. See this tip [3] for a Windows 8 shortcut. Windows 8.1 makes it easier. Right-click the new version of a start button and Control Panel can be opened from the context menu.
- Click Programs-Uninstall a Program
- Make sure that you are displaying the Control Panel dialog in “Details” view
- Place your pointer on the heading "Installed On"
- Click the down arrow that appears to the right of the heading "Installed On"
- The figure below shows the calendar that opens
- Click the generic boxes for pre-selected installment time periods or pick a specific date or range of dates. A range can be selected in the usual way by holding down the shift key.
A display of only programs installed on the selected dates will be shown. This can be useful if you do a lot of program installing as I do.
Another useful grouping is to create a display that shows installed programs from a specific publisher.
- Place your pointer on the heading "Publisher"
- Click the down arrow that appears to the right of the heading "Publisher".
- A list of all the publishers of your installed programs will appear
- Put a check by the name of the publisher you are interested in
- A display with only programs from the selected publisher will appear
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This tips section is maintained by Vic Laurie [5]. Vic runs several websites with Windows how-to's, guides, and tutorials, including a site for learning about Windows and the Internet [6] and another with Windows 7 tips [7].
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