You have just created a whole new, undocumented entry in the registry.
This will cause the short name versions of the files to be as close as
possible to that of the long name. E.g., Thiscomputer.doc will be
Thiscomp.doc and not Thisco~1.doc. It will only start adding numbers if
you have more than one short name with the same result.
Change the file description to anything you like
Explorer
shows you the type of a file. Some applications choose file type names
that are difficult to remember. Once you sort your files by their type,
that can make it harder for you to find the files you are looking for.
You can
change the file type descriptions to anything you like!
From the Explorer menu choose View | Options | File Types.
Select the file type you want to edit and press Edit.
You can then change the description.
Keep in
mind that if you make it a rather short description, such as "BMP Image,"
the type column will take less space, giving you more room for the display
of long file names.
What are GID files? (and the Find tab in Help)
Those files
are mainly found in the \Windows\Help folder. GID files are index files
the help engine creates when one accesses the Find tab. You can
safely delete them since the index will be recreated when you again access
the Find feature. It is normal that GID files show a generic icon and are
not associated with Help.
Note that
intuitive boolean searches are possible on the Find tab: you can type one
word and after hitting the spacebar a list of secondary words associated
with the first one will appear automatically!
Indexed
searches are a great help for those Help files you access frequently, as
they allow you type in any word you are looking for and result in
displaying all help topics inside which the word occurs.
Sorting files
To sort
your files click on one of the file's column headers. You can sort files
by name, size, file type or modification date. To change from ascending to
descending sorting order click the same column header again.
Adding
applications to the SendTo folder
Right
clicking on a file in Explorer will open up a context sensitive popup
menu. One of the commands on this menu is the Send to command. You can add
several handy things to the Send to command by adding shortcuts to the
\Windows\SentTo folder. A good choice is a shortcut to Notepad. It allows
you to edit text files, no matter what their extension, such as readme
files. Just 'send it' to Notepad! Just like with the Start button menu you
are not limited to putting applications into the SendTo folder. Consider
adding shortcuts to some of your folders to ease frequently performed file
management tasks.
Creating a
Quick Viewer for HTML source code
Open Explorer. From the menu choose View | Options.
Go to the File Type tab and find the association for Web pages. The name
for those files is determined by the Web Browser that created the
association and should be something similar to "Internet Document."
Select the association and click Edit.
Now put a check mark next to "Enable Quick View."
Voila, you
now can choose to view the HTML source code by right clicking on the file
and choosing View.
Disk space
occupied by folders, including subfolders
In Explorer
right click on the folder who's size you want to see and choose
Properties. The Property sheet will show you the number of sub folders
and files contained therein and the size of the combined folder content.
Two ways to
see free disk space on all partitions
Open
Explorer and select My Computer or right-click on the My Computer icon and
choose Open. Partition sizes and free disk space for each partition will
be displayed in the file windows.
To see the information for all drives at once you need to be in Details
View (menu: View | Details). In all other views hover with the mouse over
the drive icon to get the info in form of a tooltip.
If you choose a drive and display its Property sheet you can see a
graphical display of the drive's space, but there is a faster way to see
this for all drives: Right-click on the My Computer icon and choose Open.
Now, as you move with the mouse over the drive icons, you will see a pie
chart of the drive space on the left, along with capacity, free and used
space data. (If this doesn't work, choose View | As Web page from the
menu.)
Adding a
Control Panel menu to the Start button
To do this,
create a new folder on your desktop. Rename the folder to (best to cut and
paste this!):
Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
This will create the Control Panel icon and through it you can access a
menu of all items in the Control Panel. If you right-click on the Start
button and choose open you can move the new folder into the /Windows/Start
Menu folder, which will put the Control Panel menu at the very top of the
items on the Start menu. Of course, you can also move the new item to the
Programs folder - wherever you want it!
Using
Explorer to manage the Start menu
Starting
with Windows SE or IE5, you can now
drag and drop, rename and delete menu items right on the menu panel
itself.
For
older versions of Windows:
Windows
gives several options of how to manage your menu, but if you use Explorer
for file management tasks, it makes sense to use Explorer to arrange your
menu as well.
The Startup
Menu is a special folder, \Windows\Start Menu. You can manipulate menu
items from there and use all regular file operations such as copy, move
and delete. To open Explorer to the Start Menu folder right click on Start
and choose Explore. If you prefer to work with the My Computer style
folders right click on Start and choose Open. This will take you directly
to the Start Menu folder also. Note that all entries in the Start menu are
shortcuts!
Navigating
the Start menu with the keyboard
Ctrl-Esc
will open the Start menu.
Pre Windows SE or IE5:
To navigate through the Start menu hierarchy, press the first key of each
object's name. If, for instance, you want to access the Readme file in the
My Program menu folder you would type Ctrl-Esc-P-M-R. This keystroke
sequence will sequentially open, say, Start menu, Programs, My Program,
Readme.
Windows SE or IE5:
The first letter for each object continues to work, but you will need to
navigate to submenus pressing Enter or using the arrow keys. The sequence
in this case would be Ctrl-Esc-P-M-Enter-R
Moving, hiding
and seizing the Taskbar
To move the
Taskbar point your mouse to an unoccupied spot of the Taskbar. Holding
down the mouse, drag the Taskbar to either side or the top of the screen.
To seize the Taskbar move your mouse over the upper edge of the Taskbar
until the pointer turns into a double-arrow. You can then drag the edge of
the Taskbar and make room for, say, two rows of running programs.
To hide the Taskbar right-click an empty spot of the Taskbar and choose
Properties. Select Auto Hide. This will hide the Taskbar from view. Moving
the mouse to the edge of the screen where the Taskbar is located will make
the Taskbar slide into view. It will disappear again once you are done
using it.
Time and
date
Hovering
with your mouse over the time display in the Taskbar Notification Area
shows you the date and day of week in a tool tip.
Double click on the time to bring up the dialog that lets you set date,
time and time zone and whether or not you want to let Windows
automatically adjust for Daylight Savings Time.
Accessing the Find dialog
The fastest
way to bring up Find is to click anywhere on the desktop and press F3.
If you do
this while using Explorer, Find will automatically fill in the search path
with the name of the folder currently open.
If you have
a Windows keyboard Windows-f will bring up Find from wherever you
are.
Focusing on
the Desktop
In
Windows 98 + you can find a Show
Desktop icon on the Quick Launch menu on the Taskbar.
In
Windows 95 there are two ways:
If you prefer the mouse, right click on an empty spot of the taskbar and
choose Minimize All Windows.
The keyboard
equivalents are Ctrl-Esc, Alt-M for a regular and Windows-D
for Windows keyboard.
Starting a
screen saver manually
Setting up your favorite screen saver
First,
create a shortcut to your favorite screen saver on the Desktop. Here is
how:
Open Explorer and
navigate to the \Windows\System folder.
Click on the
heading of the Type column.
Scroll down to the
Screen Savers.
Right-click on the
screen saver of choice and drag it to the desktop.
Let go off the
mouse button and choose Create Shortcut Here.
Activating the screen saver
You can
activate the screen saver by double clicking on the shortcut you just
created. If you want the screen saver icon off your desktop, move it to a
folder of your choice or drag it to the Start button. Alternatively, you
can assign a shortcut-key to the screen saver through the property sheet
of the screen saver shortcut you just created.
Default screen saver for Office users
Steve added
yet another twist to your options:
If you use Microsoft
Office you can create a shortcut on the desktop called, say, "Screen
Saver", with the following command line. "C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Office\Office\OSA.EXE" -s (or substitute the location of your Office
installation). This activates the default screensaver rather than a
specific one.
Changing the
icon spacing
To change the
icon spacing on your desktop right click on the Desktop. Choose
Properties from the popup menu. On the Appearance tab look in
the item list box. Once you find Icon (vertical spacing) and Icon
(horizontal spacing) you can choose different values. Press the Apply
button to preview your new settings. Hit OK once you are satisfied with
the settings.
Windows 95 (I)
Follow
these instructions exactly to see the people behind the magic in
the Windows 95 Developer Credits:
Right click on the
desktop and select New Folder.
( Should you have a non-U.S. version of Windows 95, rename the first new
folder you create to its English name: New Folder.)
Click anywhere on
the desktop each time before renaming this folder.
Name the folder:
and now,
the moment you've all been waiting for
Right click the
folder and rename it to:
we proudly
present for your viewing pleasure
Right click the
folder and rename it to:
The
Microsoft Windows 95 Product Team!
Open the folder
and enjoy!
But the fun isn't over! Now open Explorer and drag the folder from the
desktop to the Windows folder, so the "Easter egg" folder will become a
sub folder under the Windows folder. Now every time you select the The
Microsoft Windows 95 Product Team! folder you will see the credits in the
window pane that usually shows you the file names. To stop the animation,
just select any other folder. (This will only work for the duration of
your current Windows session.)
Windows 95
(II)
As always,
follow the instructions religiously:
Click on an empty
spot of the Desktop and press the F1 key to display the Help Topics
(Windows Help) dialog box.
Click the Find
tab. (If you haven't used it before, a "wizard" will guide you through the
setup, you will only have to do this once.)
Click the
Options... button, then select the All the words you typed in any
order radio button.
In the Show
words that dropdown list, make sure the Begin with the characters
you type option is selected, then click OK.
Once you return to
the Find tab, select the text box at the top and type
Who knows
who built this tool?
(Make sure
you capitalize the W and include the question mark.)
Hold down the
Shift + Ctrl keys as you click the Clear button.
Now, click the
Options... button once more, only this time, select the radio button
titled At least one of the words you type.
In the Show
words that dropdown list, choose the Contain the characters you
type option, then click OK.
In the Find tab,
type
The Shadow
knows!
in the text
box at the top. Make sure you capitalize the letters T and S and that you
include the exclamation point.
Finally, hold down
the Shift + Ctrl keys as you click the Clear button.
Sending email
from the Desktop
Right-click
on the Desktop and choose Shortcut from the New menu. In the
Command line field type:
mailto:
Click
Next and give the shortcut a name - that's it!
Removing the
logon dialog (Win 95 +)
If you
don't need a password secured Windows logon (e.g., you are the only user
and not networked) you can remove the entire logon dialog. Here is how:
From the Start
button navigate to Settings, then Control Panel.
Open Passwords
and click on Change Windows Password.
Type in your old
password (the one you are currently using) as requested, but leave both
fields for the new password blank.
Click OK, close
all windows and restart Windows.
The logon
dialog should now no longer appear.
System file
backup and restore (Win 98 +)
Once a day
on bootup, Windows 98 now automatically creates backups of the Registry,
user.dat, win.ini and system.ini files. They are saved to the \Windows\Sysbckup
folder with the file names rb001.cab through rb005.cab. The ERU utility
that was part of Windows 95 is hence no longer included in the operating
system. To restore your configuration extract all files from the most
recent cab file. Reboot to the command prompt and replace your current
files.
You need to
be familiar with the extract command and have to change the hidden
and system file flags before replacement, using the attrib command.
This is information you need to write down before your system
crashes :-).
System file
backup and restore (Win 98 +)
In most
cases, like after the installation of new software, there is no need to
reboot the machine, but rather to restart Windows.
Hold down
the Shift key while pressing OK in the Shutdown dialog.
Viewing info
on IRQ's, DMA channels, I/O and BIOS address space)
"Hard to
find" is the Windows UI's middle name! As Bungsuputra Linan rightly
pointed out to me you can see the information using the System
Information tool. But unless you need sysinfo's extensive reports here
is a quicker way requiring fewer mouse clicks:
Right-click on My
Computer.
Select Properties.
Click on the
Device Manager tab.
Select Computer
(topmost entry)
Click on
Properties.
Dial-Up-Networking does not remember your password
This
happens especially on standalone systems with the most likely cause that
the Microsoft Network Client is not installed.
To add it,
have your Windows CD-ROM ready. Choose the Network icon from the
Control Panel. You should see the TCP/IP protocol and the
Dial-Up-Adapter installed. Choose Add, select Client.
From the vendor list choose Microsoft and install the Microsoft
Network Client.
