Some computer tips and tricks vol3

Moving the Start Button

How to move or close the start button!

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

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.

1. Open the Registory editor (e.g. regedit.exe)
2. Goto \\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
3. Create a string entry called "MenuDropAlignment"
4. Set its value to 1
5. 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.

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel / Desktop
3. Create new Strings called WallpaperOriginX and WallpaperOriginY
4. Give them values to position them around your desktop
5. The bitmap must be smaller than your desktop size

Changing Drive Icons

To change a drive's icon when you open My Computer

1. Create a file called AUTORUN.INF on the root of your hard drive
2. 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.

To add ANYFOLDER:

1. Open the Explorer
2. Go to \Windows\SendTo
3. Right click in the right hand panel
4. Select New / Text Document
5. Name it anything with a .otherfolder extension

When you want to send files to another folder:

1. Select the files with Explorer
2. Right Click
3. Select Send to and the name you just created
4. You them have the option of copying or moving the file to a folder of your choice

To add Mail:

1. Open the Explorer
2. Go to \Windows\SendTo
3. Right click in the right hand panel
4. Select New / Text Document
5. Name it anything with a .MapiMail extension (ignore any warnings about the file extension)

When you want to Mail files as attachments:

1. Select the files with Explorer
2. Right Click
3. Select Send to and the Mail name you just created
4. This allows you to easily mail multiple files

Adding Shortcuts to Desktop Without "Shortcut To" text

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to:HKEY_USERS \ .Default \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer
3. Add binary value to Explorer:link="00,00,00,00"
4. 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!

1. Go to Windows \ Start Menu \ Programs \ (etc.) in the Explorer
2. Start right click/dragging folders to the desktop, one by one.
3. 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.

Removing the Start Button

1. Click on the start menu button twice, so there is a dashed line around the button
2. Press Alt and the minus sign
3. Choose Close to make the start button disappear, or move to move it to the right!

Note from Bob: - You have to re-boot to get it back again, or:

1. Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete
2. Highlight Explorer
3. Click on the End Task button
4. Select No to doing a full shutdown
5. Wait a few seconds and the click on the End Task button