MS Windows tricks and tips

My new blog

2011-01-04T00:09:00.001-08:00

Hey guys.I am posting here after such a looooooooooong time.Sorry,didn't keep you guys updated.That's because I have started another blog !
Visit my new blog http://karanspeaks.wordpress.com/

Thanks :)
Love you all !!

BOOTING STEP BY STEP

2010-06-05T22:21:00.000-07:00

BOOTING STEP BY STEP: You can interrupt the system startup with the help of the[Pause] key in order to read on-screen information or error messages. Then, hit the [Enter] key to continue booting.

SETTING BLUETOOTH OPTIONS(Vista)

2010-05-31T00:24:00.000-07:00

Select “Run” in the start menu and type the “bthprops.cpl” (without quotes) command for direct access to Bluetooth settings under Vista

QUICKER SETUP Of Windows XP

2010-05-31T00:22:00.001-07:00

Copy the “i386” folderfrom your XP setup CD to the harddisk if you often reinstall components.Installations will take place faster.

SMOOTHER SCROLLING

2010-05-31T00:21:00.001-07:00

Set the“SmoothScroll” entry in the “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\ Desktop” registry key under XP to “1” for smoother scrolling.

Abort The Mistaken Shutdown Operation In Windows

2010-05-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

If You’ve mistakenly pressed shutdown button on your pc or you mistakenly choose restart. In such condition,you are wondering how to abort it ?

This article will show you how to abort it
To abort shutdown, immediately after initiating shutdown, go to run (Start>Run) or quickly press (win+R)and type the following command.

Shutdown –a

Note this command may not work if the shutdown operation have already closed the explorer.exe.

You maybe wondering that it would take a lot of time so this trick is of no use.But you can make a shortcut on the desktop and enter the location as
Shutdown –a

Name it whatever you like.This would definately help you

Use keyboard as a Mouse

2010-05-28T23:53:00.001-07:00

When mouse isn’t working properly , this trick can be very helpful. To activate mouse keys all you do is press Alt+Left shift key + NumLock and click OK or press enter .

Use the Numerical pad for controlling the mouse pointer.
5 is for click.
+ is for double click
- for right click.

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Create your own bootable USB pen drive in 3 steps.

2010-05-27T22:50:00.000-07:00

To begin with you will need a PC with a CD/DVD ROM drive, the Windows CD/DVD, and a 2GB pen drive if you are creating a Windows XP bootable USB or a 4GB pen drive if the requirement is for Windows Vista/Windows 7.
To start with, download and extract the program “WinToFlash”.
Once extracted execute the file called “WinToFlash” and follow these simple steps.

Click the 'Windows Setup transfer wizard' and then select 'Next'
Here you will need to define the two paths where the 'Windows File Path' points to the location of the Windows installation disk and the 'USB Drive' specifies the location of your pen drive.Click on 'Select' and choose an appropriate path for both.Accept the 'Windows License Agreement' and click on continue.
Here you will get a warning about that your pendrive is going to be formatted.Click 'OK' to proceed on.

That's all You have created your bootable USB pendrive and to access it you need to change the BIOS settings and you have to change the boot priority to Removable Disk

Keyboard and mouse shortcuts Google Chrome

2010-05-25T00:03:00.000-07:00

Keyboard and mouse shortcuts

Tab and window shortcuts

Ctrl+N	Opens a new window.
Ctrl+T	Opens a new tab.
Ctrl+Shift+N	Opens a new window in incognito mode.
Press Ctrl+O, then select file.	Opens a file from your computer in Google Chrome.
Press Ctrl and click a link. Or click a link with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Opens the link in a new tab in the background .
Press Ctrl+Shift and click a link. Or press Shift and click a link with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Opens the link in a new tab and switches to the newly opened tab.
Press Shift and click a link.	Opens the link in a new window.
Ctrl+Shift+T	Reopens the last tab you've closed. Google Chrome remembers the last 10 tabs you've closed.
Drag a link to a tab.	Opens the link in the tab.
Drag a link to a blank area on the tab strip.	Opens the link in a new tab.
Drag a tab out of the tab strip.	Opens the tab in a new window.
Drag a tab out of the tab strip and into an existing window.	Opens the tab in the existing window.
Press Esc while dragging a tab.	Returns the tab to its original position.
Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+8	Switches to the tab at the specified position number on the tab strip.
Ctrl+9	Switches to the last tab.
Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+PgDown	Switches to the next tab.
Ctrl+Shift+Tab or Ctrl+PgUp	Switches to the previous tab.
Alt+F4	Closes the current window.
Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4	Closes the current tab or pop-up.
Click a tab with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Closes the tab you clicked.
Right-click, or click and hold either the Back or Forward arrow in the browser toolbar.	Displays your browsing history in the tab.
Press Backspace, or Alt and the left arrow together.	Goes to the previous page in your browsing history for the tab.
Press Shift+Backspace, or Alt and the right arrow together.	Goes to the next page in your browsing history for the tab.
Press Ctrl and click either the Back arrow, Forward arrow, or Go button in the toolbar. Or click either button with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Opens the button destination in a new tab in the background.
Double-click the blank area on the tab strip.	Maximizes or minimizes the window.
Alt+Home	Opens your homepage in your current window.

Google Chrome feature shortcuts

Alt+F	Opens the Tools menu, which lets you customize and control Google Chrome.
Alt+E	Opens the Page menu, which lets you control the page you're viewing.
Ctrl+B	Toggles the bookmarks bar on and off.
Ctrl+Shift+B	Opens the Bookmark manager.
Ctrl+H	Opens the History page.
Ctrl+J	Opens the Downloads page.
Shift+Esc	Opens the Task Manager.
Shift+Alt+T	Sets the focus on the browser toolbar. Use right and left arrows on the keyboard to navigate to different buttons on the toolbar. Press Shift+F10 to bring up any associated context menu (e.g. browsing history for the Back button). Press Escape to move the focus back to the page.
Ctrl+Shift+J	Opens Developer Tools.
Ctrl+Shift+Delete	Opens the Clear Browsing Data dialog.
F1	Opens the Help Center in a new tab (our favorite).

Address bar shortcuts

Use the following shortcuts in the address bar:

Type a search term, then press Enter.	Performs a search using your default search engine.
Type a search engine keyword, press Space, type a search term, and press Enter.	Performs a search using the search engine associated with the keyword.
Begin typing a search engine URL, press Tab when prompted, type a search term, and press Enter.	Performs a search using the search engine associated with the URL.
Ctrl+Enter	Adds www. and .com to your input in the address bar and open the resulting URL.
Type a URL, then press Alt+Enter.	Opens the URL in a new tab.
F6 or Ctrl+L or Alt+D	Highlights the URL.
Ctrl+K or Ctrl+E	Places a '?' in the address bar. Type a search term after the question mark to perform a search using your default search engine.
Press Ctrl and the left arrow together.	Moves your cursor to the preceding key term in the address bar
Press Ctrl and the right arrow together.	Moves your cursor to the next key term in the address bar
Ctrl+Backspace	Deletes the key term that precedes your cursor in the address bar
Select an entry in the address bar drop-down menu with your keyboard arrows, then press Shift+Delete.	Deletes the entry from your browsing history, if possible.
Click an entry in the address bar drop-down menu with your middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Opens the entry in a new tab in the background.
Press Page Up or Page Down when the address bar drop-down menu is visible.	Selects the first or last entry in the drop-down menu.

Webpage shortcuts

Ctrl+P	Prints your current page.
Ctrl+S	Saves your current page.
F5 or Ctrl+R	Reloads your current page.
Esc	Stops the loading of your current page.
Ctrl+F	Opens the find bar.
Ctrl+G or F3	Finds the next match for your input in the find bar.
Ctrl+Shift+G, Shift+F3, or Shift+Enter	Finds the previous match for your input in the find bar.
Click the middle mouse button (or mousewheel).	Activates auto-scrolling. As you move your mouse, the page automatically scrolls according to the direction of the mouse.
Ctrl+F5 or Shift+F5	Reloads your current page, ignoring cached content.
Press Alt and click a link.	Downloads the target of the link.
Ctrl+U	Opens the source of your current page.
Drag a link to bookmarks bar	Bookmarks the link.
Ctrl+D	Bookmarks your current webpage.
F11	Opens your page in full-screen mode. Press F11 again to exit full-screen.
Ctrl and +, or press Ctrl and scroll your mousewheel up.	Enlarges everything on the page.
Ctrl and -, or press Ctrl and scroll your mousewheel down.	Makes everything on the page smaller.
Ctrl+0	Returns everything on the page to normal size.
Space bar	Scrolls down the web page.
Home	Goes to the top of the page.
End	Goes to the bottom of the page.
Press Shift and scroll your mousewheel.	Scrolls horizontally on the page.

Text shortcuts

Ctrl+C	Copies highlighted content to the clipboard.
Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert	Pastes content from the clipboard.
Ctrl+Shift+V	Paste content from the clipboard without formatting.
Ctrl+X or Shift+Delete	Deletes the highlighted content and copies it to the clipboard.

Make a shortcut to launch any screensaver in Vista

2010-05-24T04:42:00.000-07:00

Shortcuts in Windows are good,they save time Just think instead of clicking many times,you can accomplish specific tasks in a single click or a single hot key,wouldn’t that increase productivity?
Let us take a look at how to make a shortcut to launch any screensaver in Vista.In Windows,screensavers are having the extension .scr.These files are located in Windows\system32 folder.

If you want a quick look at what kind of .scr files are there,navigate to command prompt ( Start > run > cmd) and type cd /windows/system32.
Once in the system folder,list the scr files with dir *.scr
Suppose,you want to make a shortcut to launch the cool Aurora screensaver directly from your desktop.To do this,you create a shortcut that simply points to that particular .scr file.
To make a new shortcut,right click on desktop (that’s where you want the shortcut) and select New > Shortcut.

Accessing temporarily zipped files from installation archives

2010-05-24T04:40:00.000-07:00

Accessing temporarily zipped files from installation archives

Many hardware manufacturers still offer only large all-in-one programs for installing sound
or graphics cards drivers that also install some applications that you don't need. You want to
update only one driver. More installers first unzip their contents to
a temporary folder and then follow the remaining steps. You can manipulate the process here.

Start the setup and wait till the welcome dialog appears, but don't click 'Next' when prompted.
Under XP, open Windows Explorer, enter “%userprofile%” in the address bar and press [Enter]. Navigate to the hidden folder “Local Settings\Temp”.
Click “View | Details” and look for a folder with the “.TMP” extension, which shows the current time in the “Modified on” column. You will find the unzipped files here.

You can use Vista task manager; open it with [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del]. Look for the installation which has started in the “Applications” tab.
Right-click it and select 'Go to process'.
The task manager now selects the relevant entry in the next tab.
Right-click this process and select the “Open
file path” context command. Windows Explorer
opens the temporary folder.
Then just browse through the files for the installer file you need.

Enable Remote Desktop Client In Windows 7 HP

2010-05-22T21:41:00.000-07:00

Windows Remote Desktop can also be enabled or disabled from the registry.
You can connect to the registry of the remote computer through remote registry and make changes accordingly.

To enable Remote Desktop through registry, do the following:

Go to this registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSetControl > Terminal Server

In the right hand pane, find the key fDenyTSConnections and make the value to 0 to ENABLE Remote Desktop

If you want to enable Network Level Authentication, then do the following:

Go to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSetControl > Terminal Server > WinStationsRDP-Tcp

In the right hand pane, find the key UserAuthentication and change the value to 1.

MANAGING DATA CARRIER

2010-05-20T02:31:00.000-07:00

In order to start the disk management tool directly,

go to ‘Start | Run’,
then type 'diskmgmt.msc' (without the quotes)
Click on ‘OK’.

START YOUR SYSTEM WITH COLOR

2010-05-20T02:30:00.000-07:00

In the Registry key ‘HKEY_USERS\ .DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors’, define the background color while booting in RGB values.
The original values are as follows--
R=0,
G=78,
B=152

How to Back Up the Registry

2010-05-19T01:10:00.000-07:00

How to Back Up the Registry

How to Export Registry Keys------

Click Start, and then click Run.

In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.

On the File menu, click Export.

In the Save in box, select the box at the bottom according to whether you want to export all or only selected Files/branches of the registry.

Now select a location in which to save the backup .reg file. In the File name box, type a file name, and then click on Save.

How to Restore the Registry

To restore registry keys that you exported, double-click the .reg file from the location where you have saved.

How To Remove the Shared Documents folders from My Computer

2010-05-19T01:04:00.000-07:00

Go to registry editor and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ My Computer \ NameSpace \ DelegateFolders

You'll see a sub-key named {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}. If you delete this, all of the Shared Documents folders (which are normally under the group called "Other Files Stored on This Computer" will be gone.

Displaying Menus Quickly

2010-05-19T00:58:00.000-07:00

Displaying Menus Quickly:
Pressing the keyboard combination [Shift]+[F10]displays the context menu for selectedelements, while the key combination[Alt]+[spacebar] shows the control menu of the active window.

Reconstructing your deleted bookmarks

2010-05-18T02:39:00.000-07:00

Reconstructing your deleted bookmarks
Your favorite sites are quickly accessible through your "Most frequently visited" folder on the Bookmarks toolbar. However, you accidentally deleted or overwrote this while backing up your computer.
There is unfortunately no menu option to undelete the folder. This is because your bookmark
library is actually a small database and you have to define a database query for that. To solve the problem here is a simple sloution------------

Right-click on the bookmark symbol bar and select 'New bookmark' in the context command.
Enter 'Most frequently visited websites' as the “Name”. The query you have to enter in the “Address” field is important. There, type “place:queryType=0&sort 8&maxResults=20” for example.
Confirm the dialog by clicking “Add".

The individual parameters work as follows: you state that the results must be pulled from the
browser history with “queryType=0”; sort them in decreasing order of visit frequency with “sort=8”;
and limit the number of displayed results with “maxResults=20”.

Change the owner name of a computer

2010-05-16T20:09:00.000-07:00

1.Go to Computer

2.Right click on a blank spce(white area) and go to Properties

3.Click on the tab computer name

4.Click on the lower button change

5.In the new window that opened rename your computer

6.Click on OK

That's it
.--------------------------------********************-----------------------------------------

That's it the computer name has been changed :D

Calculate your vehicle's fuel economy in windows 7

2010-05-15T01:12:00.000-07:00

This tutorial will show you how to calculate your vehicles' fuel economy in windows 7 using calculator

Go to Start
Search for Calculator
Now click on View > Worksheets > Fuel economy (mpg)/ Fuel economy(L/100km)

Now enter the values and here you go..

Also view all the other features of this calculator.They are really helpful

How to access the math panel feature in windows 7

2010-05-15T01:06:00.000-07:00

How to access the math panel feature in windows 7

Math Input Panel uses the math recognizer that's built into Windows 7 to recognize handwritten math expressions. You can then insert the recognized math into a word-processing or computational program.Math Input Panel is designed to be used with a tablet pen on a Tablet PC, but you can use it with any input device, such as a touchscreen, external digitizer, or even a mouse.
To open a math panel go to start>accessories>math input panel

Or just search for math input panel

How to Rename the Recycle Bin

2010-05-15T01:04:00.000-07:00

How to Rename the Recycle Bin

To change the name of the Recycle Bin desktop icon, open Regedit and go to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID/{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

and change the name "Recycle Bin" to whatever you want (don't type any quotes).

Make special signs with keyboard

2010-05-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

Alt key + Four digits

To make special signs in windows

¤ Alt+0164
† Alt+0134
× Alt+0215
÷ Alt+0247
‡ Alt+0135
± Alt+0177
— Alt+0151
– Alt+0150
¶ Alt+0182
§ Alt+0167
ˆ Alt+0136
˜ Alt+0152
« Alt+0171
» Alt+0187
¦ Alt+0166
‰ Alt+0137
© Alt+0169
® Alt+0174
™ Alt+0153

á Alt+0225
à Alt+0224
â Alt+0226
ä Alt+0228
å Alt+0229
Á Alt+0193
Ã Alt+0195
Ä Alt+0196
Å Alt+0197

À Alt+0192
Â Alt+0194
æ Alt+0230
Æ Alt+0198
ç Alt+0231
Ç Alt+0199
ê Alt+0234
é Alt+0233
ë Alt+0235
è Alt+0232
Ê Alt+0202
Ë Alt+0203
É Alt+0201
È Alt+0200
ï Alt+0239
í Alt+0237
î Alt+0238
ì Alt+0236
Í Alt+0205
Ì Alt+0204
Î Alt+0206
Ï Alt+0207
ñ Alt+0241
Ñ Alt+0209
œ Alt+0156
Œ Alt+0140 ô Alt+0244
ö Alt+0246
ò Alt+0242
õ Alt+0245
ó Alt+0243
ø Alt+0248
Ó Alt+0211
Ô Alt+0212
Õ Alt+0213
Ø Alt+0216
Ö Alt+0214
Ò Alt+0210
š Alt+0154
Š Alt+0138
ú Alt+0250
ü Alt+0252
û Alt+0251
ù Alt+0249
Ù Alt+0217
Ú Alt+0218
Ü Alt+0220
Û Alt+0219
ÿ Alt+0255
Ÿ Alt+0159
ý Alt+0253
Ý Alt+0221
ž Alt+0158
Ž Alt+0142 ª Alt+0170
Þ Alt+0222
þ Alt+0254
ƒ Alt+0131
ß Alt+0223
µ Alt+0181
Ð Alt+0208
° Alt+0176
º Alt+0186
• Alt+0149
„ Alt+0132
… Alt+0133
¬ Alt+0172
¿ Alt+0191
¡ Alt+0161
¥ Alt+0165
£ Alt+0163
€ Alt+0128
¢ Alt+0162
¹ Alt+0185
² Alt+0178
³ Alt+0179
½ Alt+0189
¼ Alt+0188
¾ Alt+0190

Enable Windows Aero in Windows 7

2010-05-09T08:23:00.000-07:00

The hack below forces Aero on your PC so that you can enjoy the beauty of transparency. Before proceeding make sure you backup your registry

1. Click on the Start Menu and type “regedit” into the search box, click to open the regedit.exe icon when the program appears in the search results.

2. Locate the following Key HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsDWM

3. In the pane to the right of the key hierarchy, right-click on the white space and select New > DWORD (32 bit) Value.

4. When the value appears name it UseMachineCheck.

5. Repeat and create two more DWORD Values, Blur and Animations

6. Double-click the value you just created (UseMachineCheck) and enter 0 in the Value Data box. Do the same for Values Blur and Animations. Click OK.

7. Close the Registry Editor.

8. Click on the Start Menu and type “cmd” into the search box, right-click on cmd.exe when the program appears in the search results, select Run as Administrator from the drop-down.

9. When the Command Prompt opens type the following commands.

A. Net Stop uxsms – this command will stop the Desktop Windows Manager Session Manager

B. Net Start uxsms– this command will restart it

10. Once you close the Command Prompt, right click on the desktop and click on Personalize from the menu.

11. In the Personalization window, click on Window Color and Appearance, select Windows Aero from the Color Scheme menu.

This hack would also work on Virtual installations of Windows 7 except VMWare.
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Making Photo folders in Windows

2010-05-08T06:58:00.000-07:00

This trick shows you how to setup any folder to display its contents as a photo folder. In most cases, you can 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.

Right-click on the folder you choose and select “Properties“
Select “Customize” Tab. Then under “Use this folder type as a template“, select “Pictures (best for many files)“
Check on “Also apply this template to all subfolders” to apply the setting to subfoders as well
Click OK to exit