Computers Tips and Tricks For Desktop

[Zeepk]

today i am going to share all desktop tricks and tips in one place so that you may not go elsewhere to find them... hope you like it!!

1.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.
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2.Creating 3D Window Effect:-
You can create a nice 3D effect for your windows Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Colors
Make sure the following setting are there:
ButtonHilight=128 128 128
ButtonShadow=255 255 255
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3.Creating Shhuutdown, Restart and Logoff Icons:-
To create the icons, create a shortcut on the desktop. For ****down, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindows
For Restart, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindow***ec
For Logoff, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE shell32.dll,SHExitWindow*** 0
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4.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: 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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5.Increasing the Icon Cache:-
Run Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\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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[Zeepk]

6.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
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7.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
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8.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
Name it Control Panel.{21ec2020-3aea-1069-a2dd-08002b30309d}
This makes getting to the Control Panel items a little easier
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9.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\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer
Create a New Binary Value
Name it NoSaveSettings
Give it a value of 01 00 00 00
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10.Changing a Folder's Icon:-
To change the icon of a Folder on desktop: 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
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[Zeepk]

11.Full Window Drag ( Without Plus! )
Start Regedit
Open HKEY_CURRENT_USER /ControlPanel /Desktop /DragFullWindows
On "DragFullWindows" properties change 0 to 1
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12.Getting Screen Shots:-
If you need to get a screen shot, and you do not have a screen capture program, try this: 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.
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13.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.
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14.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.
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15.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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[Zeepk]

16.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.
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17.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.
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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18.Moving the Start Button:-
How to move or close the start button! 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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19.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.
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20.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
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[Zeepk]

21.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.
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22.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:mms
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23.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.
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24.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.
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25.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:
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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[Zeepk]

26.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. 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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27.Turn Off Window Animation:-
You can Tturrn off the animation displayed when you minimize and maximize windows.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.
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28.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
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29.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 shutt 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.