The best one-click tools for the lazy

Love nested menus, gray on gray, with hundreds of vaguely worded options? Then you should better not read this article.

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These one-click tools make it short and sweet.
© istockphoto.com/bezov
Do you know this feeling? You have bought or downloaded a new program and are groping questioningly with the mouse pointer over some of the dozen or so menu items at the top edge of the screen. With every mouse-over, a large gray towel with option gibberish folds out and you frown and take a look at the probably hundred-page manual. It’s especially bad when you have to scour Internet forums to sort out the confusion. By now you are probably already regretting installing the program.
One-click tools prove that there is another way. With just a click of the mouse, they do their job automatically. The programs often have a minimalist structure and are limited to the essentials in terms of design and functionality. This not only saves time, but also makes it easier for less experienced users to use the program.

One click play
Free One Click Play creates playlists in M3U format. The small program takes into account all MP3, MID and WMA audio files that are in the same directory as the program file. Any existing subdirectories are also taken into account by One Click Play.
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Many of the programs mentioned above are free and, due to the simple functionality, real flyweights with little more than a few megabytes. Some one-click tools require a one-time short configuration before the first use. However, this is also usually minimal and is often limited to selecting the hard drive to be cleaned or ticking a box. And some of our programs are not purely a one-click tool, but have a 1-click feature. They deliver the best of both worlds, so to speak: lots of options for advanced users who want as much control as possible, and a convenient way when things have to be done quickly.