Explorer, Desktop & Shortcut Tips

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Zerone - Stands for Zero(0) and One(1), the very basics of computing. So Binary Matters. Infact only Binary Matters in our world of computers. The motive behind Zerone is to make job hunting an easier process or atleast that is what we intent to... This is a one stop jobs group with the best inputs from most of the available job groups. The content in this document is collected from various groups, sites & medias and it can be distributed freely. Mail your feedbacks to [email protected]

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"If You Have An Apple And I Have An Apple And We Exchange Apples Then You And I Will Still Each Have One Apple. But If You Have An Idea And I Have An Idea And We Exchange These Ideas, Then Each Of Us Will Have Two Ideas." --- George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

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EXPLORER TIPS… Changing the Explorer's Web View Background Moving Up and Down Directory Levels Hiding the File Menu in the Explorer Explorer Session from the Start Menu Automatically Adjusting Right-Panel Column Widths Inserting the Name of a File into a Document Added Non-Expanded Explorer when Right Clicking on a Folder Finding Files from Explorer Printing a Directory from Explorer Opening a DOS Prompt in the Directory You Want Starting Explorer with No Drives Expanded Opening Explorer and System Properties from My Computer Opening Explorer from My Computer Undo Last Command in Explorer File Copying in Explorer Without Opening Two Sessions Easier File Copying with Explorer Quickly Expand all folders in Explorer Starting Explorer when you open a Folder Explorer Shortcut Keys Starting Explorer from the Current DOS Directory Changing the Sort order in Explorer Using the Explorer's Send To Feature

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Changing the Explorer's Web View Background If you use Web View for your Internet Explorer, you can change the background that appears. Edit or recreate the file C:\Windows\Web\Wvleft.bmp Make sure you keep the file dimensions the same 182x237 pixels -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Moving Up and Down Directory Levels\ To go one directory deeper, key RIGHT ARROW To back out one directory level, key LEFT ARROW

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hiding the File Menu in the Explorer To hide the File Menu in Explorer:

Start Regedit Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer Create a new Binary Value Name it NoFileMenu Give it a value of 01 00 00 00 Reboot the computer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Explorer Session from the Start Menu To open the Explorer with a session on the Start Menu, you can just right click on the START button and choose EXPLORE Most avid windowers know that "Start | Settings | Taskbar | Start Menu Programs | Advanced..." will start an Explorer session focused on the Start Menu directory. This allows you to easily and quickly add/modify your Start menu. To immediately access this Explorer session from the Start menu itself, Open Explorer and open the Windows directory. Right-drag EXPLORER.EXE to the desktop, then select "Create shortcut here." Open the properties to this shortcut, select the Shortcut tab and add the following switches to the command

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line in Target: "/e,/root,c:\windows\Start Menu". Double-click on the title of the shortcut and change it to "Configure Start Menu." Open "Start | Settings | Taskbar | Start Menu Programs | Advanced..." and drag the shortcut just created into the window on the right. This will place a configuration item in the first level of the Start Menu. These command-line options will allow a similar Explorer session to be started with any folder as the root. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Automatically Adjusting Right-Panel Column Widths The column widths in the right hand panel of the Explorer might not be the correct sizes to display all the file information. To automatically adjust all the columns at once to show all the information, Click somewhere on the right-hand panel Simply press the Ctrl-+ key. The Name, Size, Type and Modified columns will automatically adjust themselves to display all their information. Note: The + is the one on the numeric keyboard --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Inserting the Name of a File into a Document When you need to insert the exact name of a file into a document:

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Open the Explorer Right click on the file you want to reference Select Rename. You can either right click and select Rename or press the F2 key. Instead of renaming it, right click on it again, and select Copy. Then you can paste the exact file name into your document

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Added Non-Expanded Explorer when Right Clicking on a Folder Adding a second Explorer to the menu that pops up when right clicking on any folder or the Start Button. This is handy to be able to open Explorer non-expanded and also for being able to open a second Explorer (non-expanded) while already in Explorer.

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Open My Computer Choose View-Options-File Types Select the File Folder file type Click Edit For ACTION, type EXPLORER2 For APPLICATION USED, type C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /n,/e,/select,C:\ Click OK and close all windows Run REGEDIT Expand HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT Locate and expand DIRECTORY Locate and expand SHELL Locate and expand EXPLORER2 Select COMMAND On the right window RIGHT CLICK on DEFAULT Select MODIFY Remove the space and %1 at the end of the line Click OK and close REGEDIT EXPLORER2 will show up and launch a non-expanded view of Explorer whenever you right-click on the START BUTTON or any folder, even if you are already in Explorer. The whole procedure can be done in REGEDIT, but this may be safer for users not experienced with REGEDIT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Finding Files from Explorer To find files from a particular directory:

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Start the Explorer Go to the directory you want to search Press the F3 key The Find File dialog box will come up with the initial directory being the one you highlighted -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Printing a Directory from Explorer To make a Print Directory option from a right-click in Explorer: In Explorer, choose View / Options / File Types Highlight Folder (not File Folder) Click on the Edit button Click on the New button In the Action box, type &Print Dir In the Application use to perform action box type C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /C DIR %1 /S /A /O:N > PRN You can use other switches for COMMAND.COM (COMMAND.COM /?) or DIR (DIR /? | MORE) to customize to your preference. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Opening a DOS Prompt in the Directory You Want You can use the Explorer to easily open up a DOS window to a specific directory.

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From Explorer Option Menu select File Types Highlight the object for Folder - NOT File Folder Click the Edit button From the 'Edit File Type' panel click the 'New' button Action is '&Goto DOS Prompt' Application used is C:\windows\command.com /k cd %1 Select OK, then Close and Close. Now from Explorer secondary (right) click the folder you want to go to in DOS From the menu select 'GotDOS Prompt' (or hit G) and you are in that directory with a DOS windows For Win NT 4.0 same tip, but substitute cmd.exe for command.com) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Starting Explorer with No Drives Expanded Normally when you start the Explorer, it expands the folders on the root of the C: Drive. For those computers with multiple hard drives plus CD ROM Drives, this might not always be what you want. If you want it to start without expanding any drives, use the following switches: EXPLORER /n, /e, /select, c:\ This will work with NT 4.0 as well

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Opening Explorer and System Properties from My Computer By holding Shift key and double-clicking My Computer you get an Explorer view of My Computer. By holding down Alt and key and double-clicking My Computer you get the System Properties of Control Panel. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Opening Explorer from My Computer To open an explorer view of "My Computer", in "My Computer" or an Explorer window, Select the View menu, Options. Click the File Types Tab Highlight the Folders entry Click the Edit button Highlight the action you wish (Open, Explore, Explore From Here) Click the Set Default button.

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This is much easier than editing the registry and easily changeable. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Undo Last Command in Explorer When you use the Explorer to Copy, Move, Rename or Delete Files or Folders, you can Undo your last action by pressing Ctrl-Z -------------------------------------------------------------------------------File Copying in Explorer Without Opening Two Sessions There was a previous tip regarding opening two Explorer sessions, tiling them, and drag and dropping files from one to the other. An another way to copy files without needing to open a second Explorer session is to: Highlight the file(s) you want to copy Right click on the mouse Select Copy In Explorer, move to the target directory Right click on the mouse Select Paste The files will now be copied

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Easier File Copying with Explorer One difference between Explorer and File Manager is that with File Manager you could open up two windows to more easily copy files between drives. To do the same thing with Explorer: Close all running applications Start two copies of Explorer Press Ctrl-Esc to bring up the task bar Right click on an open space Select Tile Horizontally or Vertically depending on your preference Your two Explorer sessions will now split the screen and you can copy between them by dragging files like before. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Expanding All Subfolders in Explorer To quickly have Explorer expand all subfolders for a selected drive or folder, simply press the asterisk (*) key on the numeric keypad. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Starting Explorer when opening a Folder To have an Explorer window be the default when you open up a Folder: Open up any folder. Select View / Options Select File Types Go down to Folder Click on Edit Highlight Explore Click on Set Default Click on Close Click on Close again Now when you open a folder, you will get an Explorer window with the programs or shortcuts in the right panel and the regular explorer window in the left panel. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Explorer Shortcut Keys F4 - Displays the Combo Box F5 - Refresh the display Ctrl+G - Go to a specific directory Ctrl+Z - Undo last action

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Backspace - Go up one directory -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Starting the Explorer from the Current DOS Directory To start Explorer from whatever subdirectory you are in when shelled out in DOS: Type "Start .\" The Explorer will start in that very same directory "Start ..\" will start the Explorer one directory above the current one. "Start \" will start the Explorer at the root of the drive. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Changing the Sort order in Explorer To change the sort order of the right window of MS Explorer simply double click on the Name button underneath the toolbar to change the sort order from ascending to descending, a single click after that will toggle. The same works for Size, Type and Date Modified. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Using the Explorer's SEND TO Feature When you right click on a file, SEND TO is one of the options. To add other directories or programs, simply drag them to the SEND TO folder that is directly under the directory where you installed Win95. This will allow you to quickly move files to commonly used areas. For example, you can SEND TO applications like WinZip.

DESKTOP TIPS

Restoring a Lost Desktop Creating a New E-Mail Shortcut Creating 3D Window Effect Creating Shutdown, Restart and Logoff Icons Having your Favorites and Start Menus Sort Alphabetically Increasing the Icon Cache Make Icons 256 Color 16-Bit Removing Shortcut Arrows Adding the Control Panel to the Start Menu Making Desktop Changes Permanent Easy Shortcuts on the Desktop Changing a Folder's Icon Full Window Drag ( Without Plus! ) Fixing Corrupted Desktop Icons Getting Screen Shots Increasing the Size of the Scroll Bar Unable to Create Shortcuts on the Desktop Removing the Inbox from the Desktop Customizing Individual Folder Icons Removing the Recycle Bin Adding Send To the Recycle Bin Having Icons with No Name Moving the Start Button Aligning Drop-Down Menus to the Right Repositioning a Background Bitmap Changing Drive Icons Adding Any Folder and Mail to Send To Adding Shortcuts to Desktop Without "Shortcut To" text Easier User Interface Removing the Start Button Changing the clock to 24-Hour Time Removing the Inbox and Recycle Bin Icons from the Desktop

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Removing Items from NEW on the Desktop Modifying Default Desktop Icons Changing or Removing the Start Menu Icons Adding a Protected Briefcase Customizing the Start Button's Name and Icon Adding the Device Manager to your Desktop Adding Options to the Right-Click of the Start Menu How to make the task bar auto hide More Removing Shortcut Arrows Closing Nested Folders Changing Application Icons Moving and Resizing the Taskbar Correcting Corrupted Fonts Changing Desktop Folders - With No Registry Changes Updating the Desktop Adding the Desktop to your Start Menu – Removing the shortcut arrows (potential problem) Getting rid of Click here to continue Adding the Control Panel icons to the Desktop Adding the Control Panel to the Start Menu Minimizing all windows Removing the shortcut icon arrows Turning on Auto Arrange Creating document scraps Quick access to your Desktop Restoring corrupted icons Turing off Windows Animation Renaming the Recycle Bin Turning off Desktop Icons Using old Window's Groups Speeding up the Start Menu Changing the My Computer or Recycle Bin icons Removing the Tildes in filenames Removing the Network Neighborhood icon Changing the Startup and Logoff Bitmap screens

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Restoring A Lost Desktop If you ever lose the Desktop but Explorer is still running with the Start Button, you can do this to bring back your Desktop in a Windows box. Click Start Click Run Type a period " . " Then press Enter

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Creating A New E-Mail Shortcut To create a shortcut that will open your default e-mail program starting a new e-mail, Right click on an open area of the desktop Select New / Shortcut For the Command Line, enter mailto: For the title enter something like New E-Mail When you click on this your default e-mail program should start with a new e-mail form. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Creating 3D Window Effect You can create a nice 3D effect for your windows Start Regedit Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Colors

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Make sure the following setting are there: ButtonHilight=128 128 128 ButtonShadow=255 255 255 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Creating Shutdown, Restart And Logoff Icons To create the icons, create a shortcut on the desktop. For Shutdown, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindows For Restart, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindowsexec For Logoff, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Having Your Favorites And Start Menus Sort Alphabetically If your Start Menu Program or Favorites are not sorting alphabetically, it is easy to fix this:

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Start Regedit Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/MenuOrder Under here is are Favorites and Start Menu folders In each there is a value called Order Simply delete (or rename this) and restart Winodws Your Favorites or Start Menus should now sort alphabetically

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Increasing The Icon Cache Run Regedit Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer Create a new string called Max Cached Icons Give it a value of 10000 This will increase response time in windows and give the Shellicon cache file more elbow room. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Make Icons 256 Color 16-Bit Open the Registry Hit Ctrl+F Type Shell Icon BPP When found, right click the Shell Icon BPP icon Click Modify Change the value from 4 to 16 Click Ok Close the registry Restart your computer

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Removing Shortcut Arrows An easy way to remove those irritating arrows from your desktop shortcut icons and not change their properties Right click the Desktop / Properties / Appearance tab Select Item Scroll for Icon The default size is 32 Change this to 30 Clicking Apply ------------------------------------------------------------------------------Adding The Control Panel To The Start Menu Open up the Explorer Go to \WINDOWS\Start Menu Right click in the right-hand panel Add a new folder

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Name it Control Panel.{21ec2020-3aea-1069-a2dd-08002b30309d} This makes getting to the Control Panel items a little easier --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Making Desktop Changes Permanent To make changes to the Desktop like window size, positon after rebooting: Start Regedit Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer Create a New Binary Value Name it NoSaveSettings Give it a value of 01 00 00 00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Easy Shortcuts On The Desktop Here is an easy way to put shortcuts on the Desktop where they can easily be moved to other group icons.

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Changing A Folder's Icon To change the icon of a Folder on desktop:

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Using the Explorer, create a SHORTCUT to the \Windows\Desktop directory in your \Windows\SEND TO directory. Now whenever you want to make a shortcut and move it to the desktop: Just make the shortcut you want using Explorer Right click on that shortcut In the pop up menu select the Send To and Desktop shortcut. Submitted by Jerry Airaudi

Using the Explorer, move the folder from the Desktop directory to another directory on the hard drive Right click on the new folder and select "Create Shortcut" Move the shortcut to the Desktop Right click and select a new icon Submitted by Kim Schmidt

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Full Window Drag (Without Plus!) Start Regedit Open HKEY_CURRENT_USER /ControlPanel /Desktop /DragFullWindows On "DragFullWindows" properties change 0 to 1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Fixing Corrupted Desktop Icons Easier way to reset icons then deleting SHELLICONCACHE. There's no need to exit Win95 and delete the SHELLICONCACHE file in order to reset icons that you may have changed (like Network Neighborhood). Go to Control Panel, Display, Appearance Tab. Select Icon from the Item drop down list. Change the Size up or down one and apply. Change the Size back to your original and apply. If your Start Menu is slow or your icons are black for some reason, it means your Shelliconcache file is corrupt and should be deleted. Delete the hidden file C:\WINDOWS\SHELLICONCACHE It will be recreated the next time you start Win95 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Getting Screen Shots If you need to get a screen shot, and you do not have a screen capture program, try this:

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Hit the Print Screen key. This copies a bitmap of the full screen into the Windows clipboard. Start up a graphics editor and paste it in. Alt + Print Screen will capture only the active window. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Increasing The Size Of The Scroll Bar How to adjust the width of the scroll bar: Select Properties Select the Appearance tab Go to the item list and find scrollbar. Increasing the value in the Size field will increase the scrollbar width. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Unable To Create Shortcuts On The Desktop If you can't create shortcuts on your Desktop, you might have a corrupted registry.

Removing The Inbox From The Desktop A faster way to remove "Inbox" from the Deskop is to

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Start Regedit Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellNew\Command Make sure it has a value of: RunDLL32 AppWiz.Cpl,NewLinkHere %1 if you don't have IE 4 or RunDLL32 AppWiz.Cpl,NewLinkHere %2 if you have IE 4.0 or IE 4.01

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Right mouse click on "Inbox" Select delete It will then tell you "you cannot store the inbox in the recycle bin. . .etc" Click "Yes" Wait 2 secs and it's gone. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Customizing Individual Folder Icons To change a folder's icon:

Open Notepad and enter two lines, [.ShellClassInfo] IconFile=file name,number (e.g. IconFile=C:\Icon\CustomFolder.ico,0)

Save the file as DESKTOP.INI in the folder you wish to change. Click Start -> Run, type in the command line, ATTRIB +S "folder name" (e.g. ATTRIB +S "C:\Custom Folder") Open Explorer or My Computer and refresh (press F5 key). This tip only work Windows 95/NT 4.0 + IE 4.0 with shell integration, or Windows 98/NT 5.0. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Removing The Recycle Bin To remove Recycle Bin from the desktop: Run REGEDIT. Find NAMESPACE key in left pane (HKEY_Local_Macine \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Current Version \ Explorer \ Desktop \ Namespace) Expand NAMESPACE (click '+' box) Delete the value RECYCLE BIN in right pane --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Adding Send To The Recycle Bin Add a SHORTCUT TO THE RECYCLE BIN in your SEND TO folder. That way you can just right click on a file you want to delete, and send it to the recycle bin without having to confirm each time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Having Icons With No Name Normally you have to have a name for an icon, just spaces are not allowed. To create an icon with no name attached: Make sure NumLock is on Highlight the Icon you want to change Right-Mouse click and select Rename While holding down the Alt key, type 0160 Now the icon will have no name below it. To Create Multiple Icons with No Name - From John R.

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Moving The Start Button How to move or close the start button!

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Follow directions detailed above With the second icon simply add one space-bar character AFTER the 0160 number. Each successive icon gets an additional space-bar character at the end (to prevent a duplicate naming error).

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Click on the Start button Press the Esc key Press the Alt and the - keys together This will give you a menu, you can move or close But if you move it you need to use the arrow keys and not the mouse. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Aligning Drop-Down Menus To The Right All dropdown menus can be aligned to the right. This features becomes useful when trying to access menus with submenus that appear directly to the right.

Open the Registory editor (e.g. regedit.exe) Goto \\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop Create a string entry called "MenuDropAlignment" Set its value to 1 Reboot Note: Will not work under NT 4.0. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Repositioning A Background Bitmap Normally, you only options for displaying a background bitmap are tiled, centered, or stretch to fit (with the Plus Pack). You can edit the registry and have a third option which is to place the bitmap anywhere on your screen by specifying the X and Y coordinates. Start Regedit Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel / Desktop Create new Strings called WallpaperOriginX and WallpaperOriginY Give them values to position them around your desktop The bitmap must be smaller than your desktop size --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Changing Drive Icons To change a drive's icon when you open My Computer Create a file called AUTORUN.INF on the root of your hard drive Enter the lines [autorun] ICON=Name of the ICON file For the name of the icon file you can either specify the path and name (e.g. ICON=C:\WINDOWS\ICONS\MY_ICON.ICO) or a specific icon in a library (e.g. ICON=ICONFILE.DLL,2) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Adding Anyfolder And Mail To Sendto Previous examples of adding items to the SendTo usually require editing the Registry. An easy way around this is to use the following methods.

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To Add Anyfolder: Open the Explorer Go to \Windows\SendTo Right click in the right hand panel Select New / Text Document Name it anything with a .otherfolder extension When you want to send files to another folder:

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Select The Files With Explorer Right Click Select Send to and the name you just created You them have the option of copying or moving the file to a folder of your choice To add Mail:

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Open The Explorer Go to \Windows\SendTo Right click in the right hand panel Select New / Text Document Name it anything with a .MapiMail extension (ignore any warnings about the file extension) When you want to Mail files as attachments: Select The Files With Explorer Right Click Select Send to and the Mail name you just created This allows you to easily mail multiple files -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Adding Shortcuts To Desktop Without "Shortcut To" Text Start Regedit Go to:HKEY_USERS \ .Default \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer Add binary value to Explorer:link="00,00,00,00" Now You can make Shortcuts to desktop without Shortcut To" text. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Easier User Interface Add a menu item named "Open THIS folder!" to each of your cascading menus off of the Start menu. This makes it easier to put items wherever you want them! Go to Windows \ Start Menu \ Programs \ (etc.) in the Explorer Start right click/dragging folders to the desktop, one by one. Rename them and left click/drag them back to the same folder. It takes a little while, but when you are finished you have a much easier interface to work with. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Removing The Start Button Click on the start menu button twice, so there is a dashed line around the button Press Alt and the minus sign Choose Close to make the start button disappear, or move to move it to the right! Submitted by Justin Nachod Note: - You have to re-boot to get it back again, or: Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete Highlight Explorer Click on the End Task button Select No to doing a full shutdown Wait a few seconds and the click on the End Task button -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Changing The Clock To 24-Hour Time To change the display of the clock on the taskbar to 24-hour format: Open the Control Panel Double-click on the Regional Settings icon Click on the Time tab In the Time style section select H:mm:ss

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Removing The Inbox And Recycle Bin Icons From The Desktop To remove the InBox from your desktop, without needing to run the Policy Editor:

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Start Regedit Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ explorer \ Desktop \ NameSpace Below that should be a few keys Rename the key {00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}. I usually put another character before or after the curly braces. Restart Windows and the InBox icon should be gone You can do the same for any other items you don't to show such as the Recycle Bin or The Internet icons --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Changing Or Removing The Start Menu Icons Download Microangelo and install it. Create a blank.ico file. Put it in a directory (C:\Windows. Then double click on the Microangelo Engineer to run it. When you get it up on the screen click on the "start" tab. You will see a list of all the icons in the start menu. Highlight the first one (programs) and select "Change". It will bring up a dialog box - select "browse". Go to the directory that contains the blank icon and select it. Hit OK until you get back to the main Engineer window and do all the rest exactly the same way. When you have finished changing them all to the blank icon, Hit "Apply". Hit your start button and look to see if all the icons are invisible. (They should be.) Close out Micro Engineer and you're finished. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Adding Drive To The Sendto List I have recently found that if you want to send something from A: drive or from any where to any drive, you can just make a short cut of that drive in subdirectory SENDTO. For example I have two hard drives, a Floppy Drive, and a CDROM After I have make a copy of each of my drive I will be able to send a whole directory of E:\XXX from the CDROM drive to A: drive or any other drive that i have had made the short c t in the SENDTO subdir of WINDOWS. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Adding A Protected Briefcase You can make your briefcase a shortcut on the on desktop so if you have multiple users on your PC and

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you don't want to have a password for your briefcase, you can at least protect it from inadvertent deletion by just making the briefcase a hidden file or in a different location other than \Windows\Desktop\My Briefcase, then send a copy or shortcut to the desktop. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Customizing The Start Button's Name And Icon To change the name of the Start button: Copy EXPLORER.EXE in your Windows directory to another directory Start a hex editor (I've been using Diskedit from Norton) Edit EXPLORER.EXE Search for the string 53 00 74 00 61 00 72 00 74 This is the word Start with the letters separated by a null character The section you are in should also have the words "There was an internal error..." also separated with the null character immediately following Now just replace the Start letters with any of your choice (up to 5 characters only) Exit Windows Boot to DOS Copy your new Explorer file over the original To change the Start button icon:

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Copy USER.EXE in your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory to another directory Use an icon editor that can replace icons in executable files Edit USER.EXE and replace the flag icons with the icon of your choice Boot to DOS Copy the new USER.EXE The same can be done with NT 4.0, just the offset will be different but the location to just before "There was an internal error..." is the same.

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Adding The Device Manager To Your Desktop This allows you to quickly see all the devices attached to your computer. I use it a lot to select Refresh when I add new external SCSI devices that were not powered up at startup. This way you do not need to restart the computer. To add the Device Manager Icon:

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Right click on an open area of your desktop Select New / Shortcut Type in C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL SYSDM.CPL, SYSTEM, 1 Replace C:\WINDOWS with whatever directory you installed Windows95 Click on the Next box At the next dialog box type in Device Manager Click on the Finish when you are done Note: Replacing the 1 with a 3 will bring up the Performance Status -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Adding Options To The Right-Click Of The Start Menu To add an option to the Right-Click of the Start button: Go to Control Panel, View, Options Click on the File Types Tab Scroll down until you see File Folder Click on Edit Click on New Type in the Name you want to in the Action box Type in the Application you want to use A good option to add is an MS-DOS Prompt: Try this c:\command.com /k cd %1 It also puts the shortcut on a regular folder. This command will open a DOS window with that folder as the current directory. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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How To Make The Task Bar Autohide Click the right button on a blank area of the task bar Select Properties Select Autohide Click OK This will make the task bar slide off the screen when the cursor moves away from it, and it will slide back on when the cursor is moved near it again. The same can be done for the MS Office task bar. The "sliding" effect is nice, and can free up some desktop space. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------More Removing Shortcut Arrows 'lnkfile', 'piffle' and 'internetshortcut' are the three places that I have seen the isshortcut arrow. The best way to deal with this is to rename the 'isshortcut' to 'isshortcutbak' by right clicking on the 'isshortcut' then select rename and add 'bak' to the end. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Changing Application Icons To have a wider choice of application icons:

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Right click on the icon shortcut Chose Properties Click on the Program tab Chose Change icon Click on Browse Select Files of type All Files Browse to the directory where your icon files are kept You can even use some bitmap files for you icons

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Closing Nested Folders If you have several nested folders (folders within folders) and want to close them all, simply, hold the Shift key while closing the last folder This will close all previous ones as well.

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Moving and Resizing the Taskbar You can move the taskbar by pointing on a corner panel and dragging it It is easier to move if you close all your windows first You can also resize it by moving the mouse to the edge and dragging it larger or smaller. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Correcting Corrupted Fonts If you have a problem with your non-true type fonts, here's what you do: Open the Control Panel Double click on Fonts Search for the "Monotype Sorts" font Delete this Font -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Changing Desktop Folders - With No Registry Changes From the Explorer, create a folder somewhere OTHER than the desktop, and call it something like "Desktop Folders." Move all your desktop folders into that folder. Create shortcuts to all of those folders on your desktop. Now, you are free to change the icons of each shortcut individually, to anything you like!

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Updating The Desktop If you want to update the desktop, for example after you've been changing the registry. Right-Click anywhere on the desktop Press F5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Adding The Desktop To Your Start Menu Create a shortcut to the Explorer on your Desktop Right click on the Start button Choose Open Go into the Programs Folder Drag the Windows Explorer Icon on your Desktop using the RIGHT Mouse button Choose copy here Change the command line switch

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Right click on the Shortcut you created Choose Properties Choose Shortcut Type in following command line as target: C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /n, /root, The last "," is vital! If you want the two pane Explorer view ad the switch ,/e Then rename the Shortcut to "Desktop" or whatever you choose and drag the icon onto the start button. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Removing Shortcut Arrows One problem when removing shortcut arrows is that if you delete a desktop item, it will remove it. If it is a shortcut it will just remove the icon. If it is not a shortcut, then it will remove the program. Having the little icon arrow is one way to tell the difference

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Getting Rid Of Click Here To Continue Start the Registry Editor Open HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Policies / Explorer Create a binary value and call it NoStartBanner Double-click on it and give it a value of 01 00 00 00 You will need to repeat the same steps for HKEY_USERS / .Default / Software / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Policies / Explorer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Changing The Desktop And Explorer Folder Icons The following steps will change the icon that is displayed as the default Folder icon. Start the Registry Editor. Search for "Shell Icons". This will bring you to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / explorer / Shell Icons. Double-click on the one has the value name of "3" in the right pane. Type in the new icon you want to use. If you have a DLL file specified, you need to count for the location of the particular icon you want to use, starting at 0. To reset the icon cache, use a program such as Tweak with comes with the PowerToys from Microsoft. Note: I haven't experimented with too many of the other icon changes possible. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Adding Control Panel Icons To The Desktop This is an easy one.. Simply open up the Control Panel. Right Click and Drag the icon you want to your desktop or folder. This will create a shortcut for that icon. It could come in handy if there are always certain items you need to get to quickly. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Create A Control Panel Menu Directly Below The Start Button Click the Start Button once with your right mouse button. You should see a right-button menu (called a context menu because it offers different choices in different contexts). You should see the items Open, Explore, and Find on the context menu. Click Explore with your left mouse button. An Explorer file management window should open. A directory tree should appear in the left pane, with the right pane displaying the contents of the Start Menu folder. Right-click any empty space within the right pane. A context menu should appear. Click New and then Folder. The Explorer will create a highlighted icon called New Folder. Type in the following string, all on one line, replacing the words New Folder with this new line. You must type the period, the curly braces, all four hyphens, and the hexadecimal numbers exactly as shown. After the closing curly brace, press Enter. Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} Other Folders can be added following the same instructions.

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Dial-Up Networking.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48} Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D} Inbox.{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D} My Computer.{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} Recycle Bin.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} Network Neighborhood.{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D} Desktop.{00021400-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} Briefcase.{85BBD920-42A0-1069-A2E4-08002B30309D} Fonts.{BD84B380-8CA2-1069-AB1D-08000948F534} --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Minimizing All Windows To minimize all windows:

Press Ctrl-ESC ESC to bring up the Task Bar Right Mouse Click on an open area of the Task Bar Select Minimize all Windows This makes it a lot easier to minimize windows when all your open applications are full screen. With the Microsoft Keyboard, you can accomplish the same thing by pressing the Window-M key. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Removing The Shortcut Icon Arrows Open REGEDIT.EXE Open the Key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT Open the Key LNKFILE Delete the value IsShortcut Open the next Key PIFFILE Delete the value IsShortcut Restart the Win95 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Turning On Autoarrange For Folders To make all folders keep AutoArrange turned on: Open up an existing folder Select View / Arrange Arrange the Icons the way you would like, (e.g. Name, Size,etc.)

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Select View / Arrange again Select AutoArrange Press the Ctrl-key while you close the window. This folder should now have AutoArrange always selected. This should allow you to create new folders that have AutoArrange selected by default. You only need to specify by Name, Size, etc. if you want to change it from the default you set above. Note: I have only tested this on a few computers. Please give me feedback regarding any problems. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Creating Document Scraps If you are using Microsoft Word 7.0, you can highlight a section of the document then drag and drop the highlighted area to your desktop. Windows will create a file for you with a name something like "Document Scrap From..." followed by the first few words you selected -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Quick Access To Your Desktop How do you access your darn desktop when you have a ton of applications open? Well you could right click on the taskbar and do a minimize all, but that can be slow. Instead:

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Open a browser window (double-click on "My Computer") If there is no toolbar, select View from the menu and select Toolbar. Then from the dropdown list-box in the toolbar select desktop. Now minimize it and forget about it. The next time you want to access your desktop just click the desktop window on the taskbar. As long as you don't close the window when you shutdown, it will reopen when you start windows again.

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Additional Note: You can also drag the Desktop folder to the start menu. Then you just press Ctrl-ESC and click on Desktop -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Restoring Corrupted Icons If you use a graphic Card and you change the resolution, sometimes the icons are bad. End Win95 and restart. When you see the starting message press F8 then type standard. After this start of Win95 exit and restart. Change back to your Resolution and restart. The icons should be corrected. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Turn Off Window Animation You can shut off the animation displayed when you minimize and maximize windows. This tip makes navigating Windows 95 a lot faster especially for those that don't have super fast video cards. Open Regedit HKEY_CURRENT_USER Control panel Desktop WindowMetrics Right Mouse Click an empty space in the right pane. Select new/string value. Name the new value MinAnimate. Doubleclick on the new string value (MinAnimate) and click on "Modify" Enter a value of 0 for Off or 1 for On then hit Close Regedit and all programs then reboot. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Renaming The Recycle Bin Start the Registry Editor

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Type Ctrl-F to bring up the Find Menu In the Find What box type Recycle Double click on the Recycle Bin in the right pane Type in the new name under Value Data Restart Win95 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Turning Off Desktop Icons If you want to turn off all the icons on your desktop: Start the System Policy Editor Select File / Open Registry Select Local User Select Shell / Restrictions Select Hide all items on Desktop All Icons will now be hidden. Note: One side effect is the your CD will no longer automatically play when it is inserted. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Note: Any DLL's the programs require will need to be copied.

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Adding In Old Windows Groups If you are setup to dual boot between your old Win 3.x and want to add in the old groups, just click on the *.GRP file in your old windows directory. The programs will be added to your list under Programs in the task bar.

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To Speed Up The Start Menu Start the REGEDIT program Search for the word desktop This should be in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT / CLSID / {00021400... Right Click on the right panel Pick NEW / String Value. Name it MenuShowDelay, all one word. Select a value from 1-10, 1 being the fastest. Exit REGEDIT Restart Windows --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To Change The My Computer Or Recycle Bin Icon Open Regedit Find My Computer or Recycle Bin Tab to the left panel Double click on the highlighted line Double click on DefaultIcon in the left panel Double click on DefaultIcon right panel Type in the value for the new icon Note: DLL files can be used. Specify the location of the new icon with the filename,# -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Remove The Tildes In Short Filenames Open Regedit Go to Hkey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem Right Click on the Right pane Select New / Hex Add the value NameNumericTail= 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------To Remove The Network Neighborhood Icon

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Start POLEDIT. It is on the CD in \Admin\Apptools\Poledit Open Registry Select LocalUser Select Shell Select Restrictions Select Hide Network Neighborhood --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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To Change The Startup And Logoff Screens Startup Screen Create a 320x400 bitmap in the root directory and name it LOGO.SYS You can use LOGOW.SYS file in the Windows directory as a starter Logoff Screens There are several files called LOGOX.SYS They are actually bitmaps 320x400 that just have a different extension The hidden one in the root directory LOGO.SYS is the startup logo. There are two files in the Windows directory. LOGOW.SYS is the Wait while Shutting down ... screen LOGOS.SYS is the You may now shut-off or Reboot screen To edit them, rename them with a BMP extension and use your favorite graphic editor You can edit these files or create you own They just need to be the same size

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Note: Be Careful While Editing Registry… Take Backup Before Modifying Registry Values

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Go to the Inbox CTRL+SHIFT+I Go to the Outbox CTRL+SHIFT+O Check for New Mail F5 or CTRL+M Start a New E-mail message CTRL+SHIFT+M Open the address book CTRL+SHIFT+B Start a New appointment CTRL+SHIFT+A Start a New contact CTRL+SHIFT+C Start a New meeting request CTRL+SHIFT+Q Start a New a task CTRL+SHIFT+K Make the Find a Contact box active F11 Open the Advanced Find dialog box CTRL+SHIFT+F Mark an e-mail message as read CTRL+Q Delete an e-mail message, contact, calendar item, or task CTRL+D -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Front Page 2000 Shortcut Keys Front Page has quite a few shortcut keys. My favorites are: Center a paragraph CTRL+E Left align a paragraph CTRL+L Right align a paragraph CTRL+R Display HTML tags CTRL+ / Apply the Heading 1 style (ect.) CTRL+ALT+1 Apply the Normal style CTRL+SHIFT+ N Not listed in their help is: Cycle through Normal / HTML / Preview Ctrl-PgUp/ Down If you are at the last row in a table, the TAB key will add a new row below the current one. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Fast Access to the Desktop

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To get an Explorer view of the Desktop Press Ctrl-Esc or click the Start button Press R to go to Run. Note: If you are using a Win keyboard, you can get to this point by pressing Win+R Type in a period -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Opening Up the Task Manager in NT 4 In Windows NT 4, to quickly bring up the task manager, press Ctrl-Shift-Esc --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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MS-Natural Keyboard Shortcuts Open the start menu Display the pop-up menu for the selected object - Submitted by Daniel F. Win+F1 Start Explorer Win+E Find Files or Folders Win+F Find computer Ctrl+Win+F Minimizes all windows Win+M Undo Minimize All Shift+Win+M Display Run Dialog box Win-R Cycles through taskbar buttons Win+Tab Displays System Properties Win+Break --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Getting to My Computer from the Control Panel If you're in Control Panel, hitting the Backspace key will switch you into the My Computer folder. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Undo Press CTRL + Z to undo things like renaming a file in Explorer

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Minimizing All Windows To minimize all windows:

Press Ctrl-ESC to bring up the Task Bar Press Alt-M This makes it a lot easier to minimize windows when all your open applications are full screen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Shortcut to System Properties To access the System Properties screen quickly, simply hold down the ALT key while double clicking on the My Computer icon. While holding the windows key, press the Pause / Break key. This will open up the System Properties box. From here you can easily get to the Device Manager -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Duplicating the Right Mouse Click Pressing the Shift-F10 key will be the same as clicking the right-mouse button. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Accessing Programs from the Start Button

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To access your programs more quickly from your start button, with out aid of a mouse, hit ctrl+esc to open your start menu. Then, type the letter for the directory you are looking for. For example, to access the ever popular game of solitaire, CTRL+ESC, then "P" for programs, "A" for accessories, "G" for games, then "S" for Solitaire. If there is more than one entry for the letter, keep hitting the letter until you reach your desired location. Then, hit enter. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Quickly Starting Explorer You can quickly start an explorer session by holding down the Windows key on a Microsoft Keyboard and pressing the E.key -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Remapping the Keyboard You can download Keyboard Remap (20 K) from Microsoft to reassign you keystrokes. With this you can also assign a key to function like the Windows key on the Microsoft keyboards.

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Internet Explorer Shortcuts Here are a few IE keyboard shortcuts:Go ‘Back’ to the previous page Alt+Left Arrow Go ‘Forward’ to the next page Alt+Right Arrow Add to Favorites on the current web page Ctrl+D Open the History folder Ctrl+H Open the Organize Favorites window Ctrl+B Lets you open a new web page Ctrl+L Open a new browser window Ctrl+N Reload the current page Ctrl+R Close the active Internet Explorer window Ctrl+W --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Bringing up the Properties Window While holding the ALT key double click on an icon to bring up the properties. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Resizing and Moving a Window To Resize or Move a window:

Press Alt-Space Press the S key - To Resize Press the M key - To Move You can now use the arrow keys to resize or move the window -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Key stroking is faster than mouse moving In desktop you can press "m", "My Briefcase is highlighted, press "enter" will open this applet. If you do not press "enter", The next "m" key stroke will highlight "My Computer". "Ctrl"-"Esc", press "P" for Programs, "enter","M""enter", you get to the first program or folder that starts with "M" Other applets will also be opened the same way. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Explorer Shortcut Keys F4 - Displays the Combo Box

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F5 - Refresh the display Ctrl+Z - Undo last action Backspace - Go up one directory -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Quickly Search for Files To quickly open up the Find all Files window Press Ctrl+ESC ESC Press F3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------To copy a file with a Mouse/Keyboard combo Drag the file while holding down the CTRL key - A + will appear on the icon To move a file with a Mouse/Keyboard combo Drag file while holding down SHIFT key - Nothing appears on the icon

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If moving a icon with the mouse and an arrow appears, it will create a shortcut. You can press shift or ctrl at anytime during the drag and it will change this little part of the icon.

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