Technology TALKS - computer tips , tricks ,fixes and insides.: Windows General

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Adding the Command Prompt to your Shortcut Menu (Win2k/XP)

Adding the Command Prompt to your Shortcut Menu (Win2k/XP)
By Kumar Gaurav,B.Tech(E.C.E),New Delhi.

If you find that you frequently open a Command Prompt window and change to a specific directory, you can add the Command Prompt to your shortcut menu in Windows Explorer. This option enables you to right-click on a folder within
Windows Explorer and choose the Command Prompt option. Windows 2000 will then open a Command Prompt window with that folder as your current directory.

To add a Command Prompt option to your shortcut menu:

begin by creating a batch file. In our example, we created a batch file named StartPrompt.cmd. Add the
following commands to your batch file:

@echo off
cd /d %1
Title %~f1

Save this batch file to your Windows 2000 directory (usually C:\WINNT).

Next, open Windows Explorer.

Choose Tools | Folder Options to display the Folder Options dialog box.

Select the File Types tab.

In the list of Registered File Types, select Folder.

Click Edit to edit the file types associated with the folder.

Next, click Advanced to display the Edit File Type dialog box

Then click New to display the New Action dialog box.

In the Action text box, type Command Prompt.

In the Application Used To Perform Action text box, type:

cmd.exe /a /k c:\winnt\StartPrompt "%l"

Click OK to close the New Action dialog box

Then click OK to close the Edit File dialog box.

Finally, click Close to close Folder Options.

Now you're all set. In Windows Explorer, right-click on a folder. You should now
see a new option called Command Prompt on the shortcut menu. If you choose this
option, Windows 2000 opens a new Command Prompt window with the selected folder
as your current folder.

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Screen Capture or Print Screen

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Screen Capture or Print Screen

By Kumar Gaurav,B.Tech(E.C.E),New Delhi.

While many people are well familiar with "taking a screen-shot of your PC", some others might wonder what it is. On an Windows PC, the "Print Screen" feature can either capture the entire screen of your PC, or an individual window. This is a simple but very helpful tip. Once you know about it, you will find it very useful in many situations, i.e. when you need to show a tech-support person an error alert on your screen, or a sample screen of an application software...
The following instructions will show you how to capture a screen shot of your entire desktop or an individual window. On most standard keyboards, the print screen button is often identified as "Print Scrn".

To capture a screen shot of your entire desktop:

Hit "Print Screen" key on your keyboard (or "Print Scrn").
Open an image editor (i.e. Photoshop, Paintshop, or the Windows built-in "Paint").
Press Ctrl-V to paste the image and save the file as your favorite picture format (i.e. *.JPG).

To capture a screen shot of an individual window, a popup, or an error dialog:

Make sure the window or popup which you want to capture is active (on the very front of your screen).
Hold the "Alt" button and press "Print Screen" key on your keyboard (or "Print Scrn").
Open an image editor and press Ctrl-V to paste the image and save the file as your favorite picture format (i.e. *.JPG).

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Hard Drive Defragmentation

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Hard Drive Defragmentation

By Kumar Gaurav,B.Tech(E.C.E),New Delhi.

Windows Disk Defragmenter Utility let you "re-organize" the used spaces of your hard drives. You can think of your hard drive as a drawer with full of stuffs that you just dump in again and again. The problem is, when you need to find something from that drawer, you might need to spend a good amount of time to search through the mess. Same for the Windows operating system, your hard drive is the messy drawer, and Windows just has to search through it to execute your command. So it's time to re-organize it to make your PC run faster.
The defragmentation process might take a very long time, depending on the usage size of your hard drive. To clean up your PC and to speed up the defragmentation process, it is recommended to do a drive cleanup prior to the defragmentation. For information how to do a disk Cleanup, see this article.
Most likely, operating and application files are stored in your "C drive", but it doesn't hurt to do a cleanup + defragmentation on all of your hard drives every once in awhile.
Use this trick at your own risks

Launch the Disk Defragmenter utility by either:
- "Start" >> "Programs" >> "Accessories" >> "System Tools" >> "Disk Defragmenter", or:
- "Start" >> "Run", enter "dfrg.msc" then press Enter.
Select the disk you want to perform defragmentation (i.e. "Local Disk C") and click "Defragment":
Windows starts to defragment your selected hard drive as follow:
This process might take awhile depending on the size and usage of your hard drive. During this process, your computer might be running slow. Fortunately, you can always pause and resume the process if you want to use other applications on your PC at a normal speed.

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Hard Drive Cleanup

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Hard Drive Cleanup

By Kumar Gaurav,B.Tech(E.C.E),New Delhi.

Wonder why your computer is getting so slow lately? Most often, it's just your hard drive is getting full or carying too many junk files. Most of these files are temporary files and perfectly safe to be deleted. Cleaning up your hard drive every once in awhile will improve your PC performance.
You might wonder: Why Windows keeps those files if they're not necessary? "Temporary Internet Files", for example, everytime you browse to a webpage, your web browser requests the contents from the host, saves them locally as cache, then displays the contents to your browser window. Now, to speed up the access time when you come back to the same page, your web browser might re-use those cache files if they're not changed from the webpage.
"Temporary Internet Files" are just one example of the temporary files you can clean up. Follow the steps below to clean up other temporary sources as well.
Most likely, temporary files are stored in the Operating System drive ("C Drive"), but it doesn't hurt to do a cleanup all of your hard drives every once in awhile.
Use this trick at your own risks

Launch the Disk Cleanup utility by either:
- "Start" >> "Programs" >> "Accessories" >> "System Tools" >> "Disk Cleanup", or:
- "Start" >> "Run", enter "cleanmgr" then press Enter.
Select the disk you want to clean up from the drop-down box (i.e. "Local Disk C") and click "OK":
Windows will calculate the space on your selected hard drive. This might take a few minutes depending on the size of your hard drive:
Once Windows is done with the calculation, Disk Cleanup Utility displays. Here you can select which temporary sources you want to clean up (under "Files to delete"). It doesn't hurt if you select them all when you really need some spaces on your hard drive. Notice the usage size on some of these sources may be very big
Click "OK" after your selections, then click "Yes" on the prompt.
Disk Cleanup Utility starts to clean up your hard drive. This might take a long time depending on the current usage level of your hard drive. During the cleanup process, your computer might be very slow, so go watch a TV show or something. After cleaning up your hard disks, perform a disk defragmentation could really help your pc run faster.

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Basic PC Shortcut Keys

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Basic PC Shortcut Keys

By Kumar Gaurav,B.Tech(E.C.E),New Delhi.

The followings are some basic PC shortcut keys that are supported in most IBM compatible computers. They are also supported in most application software.
Use at your own risk.

Shortcut Keys	Supported Window Versions	Description
Alt + e	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Pull down the top Edit menu.
Alt + f	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Pull down the top File menu
Ctrl + a	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Select all text.
Ctrl + c	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Copy selected item(s) (to clipboard).
Ctrl + f	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Find.
Ctrl + v	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Paste copied item(s) from clipboard
Ctrl + x	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Cut.
Ctrl + Ins	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Same as Ctrl + c
Ctrl + (left arrow)	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Move one word to the left at a time.
Ctrl + (right arrow)	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Move one word to the right at a time.
Shift + Ins	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Same as Ctrl + v
Shift + Delelte (or Del)	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Cut. Or permanently delete selected item(s) on Windows Explorer.
F1	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Help.
Home	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Jump to the beginning of the line or page.
Ctrl + Home	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Jump to the beginning of the document or page.
End	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Jump to the end of the line or page.
Ctrl + End	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	ump to the end of the document or page.
Shift + Home	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Set selection (highlight) from current position to beginning of the line or page.
Shift + End	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Set selection (highlight) from current position to end of the line or page.
Shift + (left arrow)	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Set selection (highlight) from current position to the left, one character at a time.
Shift + (right arrow)	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Set selection (highlight) from current position to the right, one character at a time.
Shift + (down arrow)	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Set selection (highlight) from current position to the next line down.
Shift + (up arrow)	95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista	Set selection (highlight) from current position to the next line up.

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Any Folder as a Photo Folder

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Any Folder as a Photo Folder

By Kumar Gaurav,B.Tech(E.C.E),New Delhi.

This tricks shows you how to setup any folder to display its contents as a photo folder. In many cases, you save your images/photos in a folder different than "My Pictures" (under "My Documents"). Since this folder you choose is just like any other normal folders, its contents displayed as a listing of files. You can temporary change it by just right-click and select "View" >> "Thumbnails". But if you want to change the folder so that everytime you come back, the folder itself, as well as all its subfolders, display the contents as photo thumbnails.
Here's How

Right-click on the folder you choose and select "Properties"