The "Best Windows Tip You Know" Thread

By WastedJoker
in Tips, Tweaks & Customization

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Wolvereen

Posted
Posted

i'm pretty sure everyone knows about this one but it's a combination that i use a lot. when you're in IE or Firefox and you want to go to a site, google for example, you can just type google in the address bar and then hit ctrl+enter and it automatically completes the whole address and takes you to the site.

To add to that...

CTRL + Enter = http://www.example.COM

Shift + Enter = http://www.example.NET

CTRL + Shift + Enter = http://www.example.ORG

Grand Master

lardiop Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

To add to that...

CTRL + Enter = http://www.example.COM

Shift + Enter = http://www.example.NET

CTRL + Shift + Enter = http://www.example.ORG

Use those all the time, greatest thing ever in Firefox. Only the ctrl-enter works inside IE I believe.

Ctrl-Tab in Firefox rotates throught the open tabs just like Alt-Tab rotates through open-windows

Win-D Minimizes everything regardless of the Window lock state. Baically everything will get minimized to the task bar, even more things then Win-M does for you.

Ctrl-Esc will bring up the start menu

Grand Master

theyarecomingforyou

Posted
Posted

One that took me ages to find but has been really helpful:

Right-click on My Computer > Manage > Disk Management

If you just installed a new hard-drive and it doesn't show up in My Computer you can go there and partition it, format it and assign drive letters to any drives.

Grand Master

Brian M. Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

Ok its not really a tip or shortcut... but it makes your start menu neater.

If you have lots of admin apps, enable the "administrative tools" on the start menu (right click, properties, customise). Then put all of your admin tools in there. It also gives you quick access to other things, like the disk management above :)

  • 2 weeks later...
Collaborator

Blazkowicz

Posted
Posted

you might now CTRL-INS for copy, SHIFT-DEL for cut and SHIFT-INS for paste.

I'm going to explain why these are great, and why that block of six keys above the arrow keys is great too.

basic things to move around text :

the arrows off course, page up/down which make for good scrolling (I use that all the time to scroll web pages)

Home takes you to beginning of line, End takes you to end of line. Use without moderation!

Now I don't know how known is it, but ctrl-home takes you to the beginning of file or text area, and ctrl-end to the end of it!

ctrl-left and ctrl-right moves you to next or previous word, I don't use that much but it may be good to know.

selecting text :

shift+arrow makes you select text. you can thus easily select a few words or few lines.. and copy or cut a tiny fraction of second after that, as ctrl-ins and shift-del are right there.

similarly, move around with arrows and home/end, then paste with shift-ins.

shift also works with the other ways or moving around. so, you can select characters from cursor position till the end of the line with shift-end. then copy, cut or paste. I'll remember, if you select text then paste, you'll paste over it.

shift-home also works. shift-ctrl-left/right works but is a bit awkard.

To select from cursor till the end of your text area : shift-ctrl-end !

should I add, easy to delete text also.

I guess quite a number of you people know this, but what a big time saver. no having to use the mouse.

all of that works for any text entering in windows (and in the old DOS edit.com), and you can even do things that way when exploring folders.

Explorer

brain_freeze

Posted
Posted

Keep a Log in Notepad

1. Open a new Notepad document.

2. Enter .LOG at the top.

3. Save and close the file.

4. Open it and you will see the current time and date inserted.

5. Enter your log entry, save and close.

5. Next time you open the file, Notepad will again insert the current time and date.

Collaborator

Blazkowicz

Posted
Posted

A cool one I discovered yesterday : use a theme half-way between classic and luna!

you only have to enable Luna, then stop the "Themes" services. it will look a bit like ass, so to correct that, go to "appearances", "advanced" and reduce the "Active title bar" size to 20. (notice you can reduce that size with Luna too, if you want to use Luna but less fat).

here's how "classic olive" looks, I love it!

classicolive1am.th.png

warning, if you don't set the Themes services to disabled, next time you boot up you'll get Luna :huh:

you could manually set classic to look like this actually (that would involve setting the fonts, sizes, RGB colors..)

this is the theme you can get for a program while using Luna, if you check "disable visual themes" in the .exe's compatibility options.

Collaborator

Blazkowicz

Posted
Posted

one I read about elsewhere : hit the windows key (or ctrl-esc), then escape. you have the start menu selected but closed. now you can use tab to cycle through quicklaunch, tasks, systray. I'll expand on the tip : use enter for "left click" and "win properties" key or shift-F10 for right-click. shift-tab works as usual to cycle backwards.

Now you can use the systray and quicklaunch when you don't have a mouse (or, if you use a laptop without a mouse, and the ****ty touch pad doesn't work because it doesn't work or you don't have the driver for it..)

on the right of systray (or the left of start menu), you're actually on the desktop. you can "right-click" on the desktop with the keyboard that way!

Grand Master

Orange

Posted
Posted

OK People, Here it is, the PIC TRICK. :D

Ever need a program to rename all your digital photo's. You know, from DSC0001, DSC0002, ect....

I had over 1500 photo's named this way. And everytime I copied photo's to my photo directory from my camara, it always ask me if I wanted to replace an existing file. Because my camara always starts at the beginning whenever I download my pictures. If you have this problem try this:

1. Goto to your photo directory

2. Goto to Edit Menu and <Select All>

3. Goto to File Menu and <Rename>

4. Enter a title for you photos. Press <Enter Key>

Example: SpringBreak06

Every picture in that directory will be renamed ----> SpringBreak06 (1), SpringBreak06 (2), SpringBreak (3), ect.....

No matter what you name it, the format will be ---> WhatYouNameIt (1), WhatYouNameIt (2), ect....

Hope you like this one.... It saves me alot of time :yes:

Koolance :D Man that saves me so much time now :yes: Thanks for that. :D

Grand Master

Orange

Posted
Posted

there exist software made for renaming lots of files with powerful options, google around to find them.

still that trick is simple and already so much better than IMG0001 and other nonsense :)

But why do i need software and waste space/memory when i can do it for free :devil:

  • 3 weeks later...
Collaborator

ikyouCrow

Posted
Posted

UI Tricks...

1. Alt+Spacebar opens the control box for the main window

2. Alt+minus opens the control box for a child window (not dialogs)

3. Alt+* expands all tree nodes in a tree view

4. Ctrl+double-click the title bar of any Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer window to jump to full-screen mode.

Grand Master

E t h a n

Posted
Posted (edited)

I'm not responsible for the use/misuse of this suggestion. It's merely something I like to do as I like to have a clean Start Panel with my "All Programs" folder neatly organised -- and I don't like having the "Startup" folder showing under "All Programs" on the Start Panel.

If you don't like having the "Startup" folder showing in your Start Menu/Panel:

1. First you should move all the shortcuts in your account's "Startup" folder -- the ones in "C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR NAME OR ACCOUNT NAME\Programs\Startup" -- to the All Users "Startup" folder. This may be a problem unless you're the only one who uses the computer and you only ever use your own single account. The point here is that, if you take step 2 below, none of the shortcuts in your personal account's "Startup" folder will run when you next boot your machine. That's why you've got to move them to the All Users "Startup" folder, and they'll boot from there.

2. Second you right-click on the "Startup" folder IN THE START MENU/PANEL (you must have "Dragging and Dropping" enabled for the Start Menu/Panel) and give the folder the property "Hidden" (and then select "Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files" and then OK).

No longer will you have to see the Startup folder in the Start Menu/Panel.

If you do need to go in there for whatever reason, you can do so through Windows Explorer (making sure you've got hidden files visible there: Windows Explorer --> Tools --> Folder Options --> View, and select "Show hidden files and folders"; this only shows them in Explorer, not on the Start Menu/Panel). Also, this would be the way to make it reappear in your Start Menu/Panel -- ie, you'd right-click the "Startup" folder (actually, just the one under "C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR NAME OR ACCOUNT NAME\Programs\Startup") and untick the Hide box. :cool:

---

Note: For people who use Internet Explorer but don't like the "Links" folder under Favourites, you can likewise "hide" it.

Edited by Calder
Rookie

rich.bradshaw

Posted
Posted

Change the Windows Explorer context menu to enable you to select your files, right-click and select Copy To Folder or Move To Folder. Windows will open the standard file selector dialog so you can quickly move/copy the files to that location.

Go to HKEY_ CLASSES_ROOT\AllFileSystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers.

Right click on ContextMenuHandlers and select New/Key. Name the new key Copy To. Right-click the icon marked (Default) in the right-hand pane, and enter the string value as {C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}.

Next repeat, and add a new key called Move to. Right click on its Deafult in the right hand side and enter value as {C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}.

Now go to any file in Explorer and right click the context menu, it will have Send to as well has Copy to and Move to.

Very useful!

Apprentice

DookieToo

Posted
Posted

A great bunch of minds here. My first contribution:

Renaming System Folders -

Open Regedit & from My Computer do a search for LocalizedString. The (Default) line will let you know what the original name is. Just change value of LocalizedString to whatever you wish & that's it. Hit F3 to advance to the next key.

Note that you can also add this to any key that doesn't already have it by Right Clicking in the right pane of Regedit & creating a New String Value.

You can also change most System Icons from these same keys, under DefaultIcon.

Rookie

r01n3

Posted
Posted

get a gradient on your desktop :

create a tiny image such as a 2x2 BMP (yes, two pixels by two pixels), then set it as your wallpaper in stretch mode.

Very cool,I've always wanted a gradient,this should be an OPTION in Windows,

just like in Linux!

Why not,Mr.Gates?

:rolleyes:

And another thing are those very few & boring screensavers Windows have

while Linux have totally awesome screensavers!?

:whistle:

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