Ultimately, it's a fast and easy way to find your downloads -- and, therefore, a shortcut worth learning.

By the way, for those novice users out there, when you see a reference to something like Ctrl-D or Ctrl-J, it means to hold down the Ctrl key and then tap the corresponding letter. The hyphen is there merely for readability purposes; you don't press it as part of the keystroke. (In Safari, you hold down Ctrl and Alt, then tap L.)

Contributing Editor writes about business and consumer technology. Ask for help with your PC hassles at hasslefree@pcworld.com, or try the treasure trove of helpful folks in the . Sign up to have the e-mailed to you each week.