Turn off AutoPlay

One of the main reasons why some people like to disable Auto Playing of inserted CDs/DVDs/USB Thumbdrives is because viruses nowadays embed themselves within these media. When plugged into a machine, the machine will helpfully autorun the viruses to inflect it.

You can disable the autorun temporarily by pressing the right shift button when you insert the media, or disable it permanently using the following:

1. Ensure you're using an administrator account
2. Goto Start -> Run
3. Type gpedit.msc
4. Click on Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System
5. Double Click on Turn off Autoplay
6. Click on Enabled radio button
7. From the Turn off Autoplay on:  dropdown list, select All drives
8. Click on OK

That's it... This will permanently disable Autoplay for that machine. Do note however that if you play games or you wish to install software, the media will no longer auto run the software when you insert the media.

Alt key is your best friend

Have you noticed that the trend nowadays is for the software to not have a menu bar? However, the problem is that some of us are too used to it and we're "powerless" without it.

The solution is simple though. Just press the ALT key. The menu bar will magically appear for most software.

Easy right?

Clear your Clipboard

I think many of us are guilty of copying and pasting when we use our PC. However, few of us know that whenever we copy and paste, previous memory is being lost as whatever that we copied is stored in memory, also known as the clipboard.  If whatever you copied is sensitive, someone else who have access to your machine can also access it.

To clear the clipboard, do the following:

1. Go to Start > Run
2. Type clipbrd and press Enter

That's it. You will see everything that you've copied in this program. To delete it, just click on the cross icon near the menubar.

Change Sort Order of Files in Folders

I always have the problem where some of the folders are not able to remember my "sort" settings (e.g. Sort by Type, Sort by Date Modified, etc). Rather than editing the registry which I have detailed in the post here previously, I found another way of making the sort settings stick.

Just do the following:

1. Open the explorer window (Windows Key + E).
2. Navigate to the folder and sort the folder in the order which you want
3. Hold down the CTRL key while clicking the X in the upper right corner (close the explorer window). 

That's it. The folder will remember your sort setting after the explorer window is closed.

Enable IPV6 for WinXP

We have ran out of IPV4 IP addresses and it should not be news to you that we should get ready for IPV6. Surprisingly, Windows XP does support IPV6. The only catch is that it does not come in pre-installed.

To enable IPV6 on Windows XP, just do the following:

1. Login to windows as Administrator
2. Goto command prompt by going to Start > Run and type cmd
3. Type netsh interface ipv6 install

That's it... Your Windows XP will be IPV6 after typing this command.

The Magical "Shift" Key

It seems that Windows like the Shift key quite a bit, and it's most commonly used to stop some process/program that is triggered automatically.

The most commonly used is to prevent CDs/DVDs from autoloading when it is inserted into your machine. To do that, just hold down the Shift key after inserting your CD/DVD.

The other not so commonly used is to stop your programs from auto-loading after login. To do that, just hold down the Shift key after keying in your password to your user account. If your machine auto-logins and doesn't have a password, then I guess you have to time your Shift key. This is useful if you have an auto-loading program that crashes/slow-down your machine.

Hope this helps.

Auto-complete in your command prompt

Ever tried to type in a long directory name and wish that you're able to auto-complete it? Actually this feature has been there for some time but few people know it.

Just go to the command prompt (e.g. run: cmd), and type out: cd\ |Tab| (e.g. cd \Pro|Tab|)


Using the key will help you scroll forward all the different directory names. Use shift |Tab| to scroll backwards.

That's it. For your information, the above also helps you auto-complete any filename within the directory you're in too. Have fun.

Open several websites in one click

Ever wish to open several Internet websites in one click? The secret lies in writing a batch file.

For example, if you wish to open Google website using both IE and Firefox with one click, just do the following:

1. Create a Google.bat using your favourite editor
2. Type this to open the Google website using IE: start iexplore -new http://www.google.com.sg
3. Type this to open the Google website using Firefox: start firefox -url http://www.google.com.sg
4. Save and click on Google.bat.

In the end, your Google.bat will look like the following:

start iexplore -new http://www.google.com.sg
start firefox -url http://www.google.com.sg

That's it. Just run this Google.bat and Google will be open in both Internet Explorer and Firefox. Hope this helps.

Force Shutdown, the software style

I believe all of us know how to force shutdown a laptop/desktop when the application causes the whole system to hang. Press on the power button and hold it there until it powers down. However, I heard that there is another secret to force shutting it down, using Windows. Just do the following:

1. Launch Task Manager by pressing Ctrl, Shift and Esc.
2. Click on the Shutdown menu on top
3. Hold down your Ctrl key and click on Turn Off.

Apparently, this will cause all the applications to shut down without saving. Not sure how true it is. I haven't got a chance to try it yet (*touch wood*).

Quickly Clear your Temporary Directory Folder

The temporary directory is a place where some applications use for storage of temporary files when it is being executed. The good applications will clear itself after exit but most of the applications don't. Therefore, the temporary directory actually takes up quite a bit of valuable space in your hard disk. There is a quick and easy way to quickly clear your temporary directory folder.

To quickly access your temporary directory, just do the following:

1. Click on Start > Run
2. Type %temp% and hit Enter

That's it. The temporary directory folder will open and you can delete most / all of the files within it. Do note that if the temporary file is currently being accessed by some application, you'll not be able to delete it.

Run any application with a maximized window

Just realised that there is a quick and easy way to run any application on a maximized screen automatically upon execution. You just need to:

1. Right-click on the application icon and click on Properties
2. Under the Run field, select Maximized
3. Click on OK

That's it. The application will launch in a maximized window. Conversely, you can also run an application in a minimized window.

Executing programs with administrators rights without switching users

There is a simple way in executing programs using administrator rights without switching from the current login user to the administrator account. There's a powerful utility called runas that will allow you to do just that.

To open up a command prompt (example) using administrator rights, just do the following:

1. Goto Start > Run
2. Type runas /user:"mydomain\admin" "cmd"

Just type in the password for the account used in the "/user" field and that's it. You have opened up a command shell using the administrator account. You can replace cmd in the above example with any other command/program that you would want to execute.

Hope this is useful.

Look for your missing mouse pointer

Have you ever encountered situations where your mouse pointer just disappears into thin air? Not able to find the pointer on the screen no matter how vigorously you are moving the mouse? Well, it seems that Windows has an option to allow you to pin-point the location of the mouse pointer.

Just do the following:

1. Goto Start > Control Panel > Mouse
2. Click on the Pointer Options tab
3. Ensure that the checkbox for Show location of pointer where I press the CTRL key is checked
4. Click on the Apply button

That's it. Now whenever you press the CTRL key, you will be able to find the exact location of your mouse. Hope this is useful.

Recreate the Show Desktop icon

I believe some of us have deleted icons by mistake. However, if you have deleted the Show Desktop icon, you will not be able to get it back easily. Luckily, Microsoft has actually provided instructions to re-create that icon.

To re-create the Show desktop icon, follow these steps:

1. Goto Start > Run, type notepad in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Copy and paste the following text into the Notepad window:
   [Shell]
   Command=2
   IconFile=explorer.exe,3
   [Taskbar]
   Command=ToggleDesktop
3. On the File menu, click Save As, and then save the file to your desktop as "Show desktop.scf". The Show desktop icon is created on your desktop.

That is it. You can drag this icon to where ever you want it.

Get an alert if you hit the CAPS lock

Have you ever hit the CAPS lock by mistake without realising and typed a whole paragraph in uppercase? Windows actually has a setting that will trigger a BEEP when the CAPS lock is hit. To do that, just do the following:

1. Goto Start > Control Panel > Accessibility Options
2. Under the section ToggleKeys, check the option Use ToggleKeys
3. Click on OK

That's it. Now when you enable the CAPS lock, a high pitch beep will sound out. Hit the CAPS lock again and a low pitch beep will sound to signal that the CAPS lock is off.

How to kill multiple processes using one command

Have you ever faced the problem where you want to kill multiple processes all at one shot due to some problem (i.e. iexplorer.exe )? Previously I thought the only way is to go to the task manager and kill the process one by one. Actually, you can kill all the processes using a command in the command prompt.

Identify the process first by typing tasklist in the command prompt to list all the Image Names.

To kill the process, just type taskkill /im |Image Name| /f /t in the command prompt (e.g. taskkill /im iexplorer.exe /f /t).

That's it... It will kill all the processes with that image name, and any child processes that were started by it.

Activate System Restore from Command Prompt

There might be instances where you are unable to access the Windows XP GUI safe mode due to some corruption. You may want to use Windows System Restore to restore to a previous backup, but you're only able to access Windows XP Safe Mode Command Prompt.

You can actually activate the System Restore using this mode. Just do the following:

1. Log on to the "Safe Mode with a command prompt" option using an administrator account
2. Type cd %systemroot%\system32\restore
3. Type rstrui

That's it. This command will trigger the system restore from the command line.

Shortcut for Full-screen Internet Explorer

Realised recently that there is a short-cut to maximize your Internet Explorer to full-screen easily.

All you need to do is to press CTRL while double-clicking on your mouse. This only works if your Internet Explorer has not yet been maximized.

That is it... This tip also works for your Windows Explorer.

Disconnect Session after Retrieving File from Server

Previously, I have encountered a situation in Windows when I use my account on someone's machine to access a SAMBA shared folder to retrieve a file that someone needs. The problem is that my account is able to access to some areas that the user is not suppose to access, and once you've accessed the shared folder with your account, the shared folder will be accessible without any further password prompting until it gets auto-disconnected.

The solution is to disconnect the session after you have done whatever that you wish to do on the SAMBA server. To disconnect, just do the following:

1. Goto Start > Run
2. Type net session \\[computer name] /delete
   

The session will be disconnected, and the user will get the password prompt again if they wish to access the same folder.

Hope this helps...

Shortcuts to useful folders

The Run command in the Start menu is actually a shortcut to many useful folders. Just go to Start > Run and type the following to open the related folders:

• desktop
  Links to the desktop folder that contains your files and shortcuts on the desktop
  
  
• application data
  Links to the application data folder that contains some of your programs settings
  
  
• sendto
  Links to the Send To folder which is what you see when you right-click on a file or folder.
  
  
• recent
  Links to your Recent Documents
  
  
• temp
  Links to your Windows Temporary folder
  
  
• cookies
  Links to your Internet Explorer cookies
  
  
• favorites
  Links to your Internet Explorer favorites
  
  
• my documents
  Links to My Documents

Hope this helps...