Works in: XP, Vista, 7 Done working for the day? Don't try to close all your open programs individually. Instead, close them all in one fell swoop with a click of the Close All Windows icon. Unlike the Show Desktop function, which merely minimizes all open windows, terminates each running program. Don't worry about losing your work: If an open document needs saving, the program will prompt you--the same as if you had clicked the red Close button up in the corner.

To make the best use of Close All Windows, pin it to your taskbar. (Windows XP and Vista users can add it to the Quick Launch toolbar.)

Works in: Vista, 7 Widescreen monitors are great for watching movies and organizing windows side by side, but much of the time all that screen real estate goes to waste. Why not move the Windows taskbar to the side of the screen? This may sound crazy at first (and you'll need a few days to get used to the results). But since Web pages, Word documents, and the like run top-to-bottom, the more vertical space you can give them, the better.