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Archive for the ‘Shortcuts’ Category

Windows
7 adds loads of great shortcuts for switching between apps, moving
windows around your screen, moving them to another monitor altogether,
and much more. Here’s a quick-reference master list of the best new
Windows 7 shortcuts.

We’re nuts for keyboard shortcuts here at
Lifehacker, and Windows 7 brings a handful of great new ones to add to
your muscle memory. It’s also got a few handy mouse-based shortcuts
you’d do well to add to your repertoire. So let’s get shortcuttin’.

Window Management Shortcuts

One of the best changes in Windows 7 is the ability to “snap”
windows to the side of the screen, maximize them by dragging to the top
of the screen, or even move them to another monitor with a shortcut
key. Check out the video for a demonstration of how some of the keys
work.

The full list of keyboard shortcuts includes:

• Win+Home: Clear all but the active window.
• Win+Space: All windows become transparent so you can see through to the desktop.
• Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window.
• Shift+Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window vertically.
• Win+Down arrow: Minimize the window/Restore the window if it’s maximized.
• Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the window to each side of the monitor.
• Shift+Win+Left/Right arrows: Move the window to the monitor on the left or right.

You can also interact with windows by dragging them with the mouse:

• Drag window to the top: Maximize
• Drag window left/right: Dock the window to fill half of the screen.
• Shake window back/forth: Minimize everything but the current window.
• Double-Click Top Window Border (edge): Maximize window vertically.

Taskbar Shortcuts

In Windows 7, using the Windows key along with the numbers 1-9 will
let you interact with the applications pinned to the taskbar in those
positions – for example, the Windows key + 4 combination would launch
Outlook in this example, or Win+Alt+4 can be used to get quick access to the Outlook Jump List from the keyboard.

You can use any of these shortcut combinations to launch the applications in their respective position on the taskbar, or more:

• Win+number (1-9): Starts the application pinned to the taskbar in that position, or switches to that program.
• Shift+Win+number (1-9): Starts a new instance of the application pinned to the taskbar in that position.
• Ctrl+Win+number (1-9): Cycles through open windows for the application pinned to the taskbar in that position.
• Alt+Win+number (1-9): Opens the Jump List for the application pinned to the taskbar.
• Win+T: Focus and scroll through items on the taskbar.
• Win+B: Focuses the System Tray icons

In addition, you can interact with the taskbar using your mouse and a modifier key:

• Shift+Click on a taskbar button: Open a program or quickly open another instance of a program.
• Ctrl+Shift+Click on a taskbar button: Open a program as an administrator.
• Shift+Right-click on a taskbar button: Show the window menu for the program (like XP does).
• Shift+Right-click on a grouped taskbar button: Show the window menu for the group.
• Ctrl+Click on a grouped taskbar button: Cycle through the windows of the group.

More Useful Hotkeys You Should Know

The
new hotkey goodness didn’t stop with the taskbar and moving windows
around—one of the best new hotkeys in Windows 7 is the fact that you
can create a new folder with a hotkey.
Just open up any Windows Explorer window, hit the Ctrl+Shift+N shortcut
key sequence, and you’ll be rewarded with a shiny “New Folder” ready
for you to rename.

Here’s a few more interesting hotkeys for you:

• Ctrl+Shift+N: Creates a new folder in Windows Explorer.
• Alt+Up: Goes up a folder level in Windows Explorer.
• Alt+P: Toggles the preview pane in Windows Explorer.
• Shift+Right-Click on a file: Adds Copy as Path, which copies the path of a file to the clipboard.
• Shift+Right-Click on a file: Adds extra hidden items to the Send To menu.
• Shift+Right-Click on a folder: Adds Command Prompt Here, which lets you easily open a command prompt in that folder.
• Win+P: Adjust presentation settings for your display.
• Win+(+/-): Zoom in/out.
• Win+G: Cycle between the Windows Gadgets on your screen.

If you need help upgrading or using Windows 7 please dont hesitate to call 678PC today (678)404-1001
Serving Metro Atlanta, Gwinnett County, and Surrounding areas.  Lawrenceville, Snellville, Buford, Suwanee, etc

Anyone can sit down at a Windows PC and get along fine, but with the right tips and tricks, you can get around much faster. Here’s a handful of clever tricks to boost your Windows skills (and show off to friends).

You
might recognize a few of these tips (we’ve covered most of them here
before), but chances are good there’s something new in the list for
just about everybody. And if you know all of them already? Pat yourself
on the back for your masterful geek skills.

(Note: This list far from exhausts Windows’ full slate of
shortcuts and tricks; instead, I aimed for lesser-known tips. To round
out your Windows 7 master class, be sure to check out our complete guide to Windows 7, the master list of Windows 7 shortcuts, and the power user’s guide to Windows 7.)

Use the Secret Send To Menu Items

When
you right-click on any file or folder, you can use the Send To menu to
create a zipped version, or send the file to an application, but in
Windows 7 there are hidden items on the Send To menu that can’t be seen
by default.

All you have to do is hold down the Shift key, then right-click on a
file and access the Send To folder—you’ll see a whole bunch of new
items in the list, like special folders, and even an item for each one
of your drives. It’s a really useful tip for quickly sending a file to
the flash drive you just plugged into the PC, without having to do
anything else.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Secret Items on the Windows 7 Send To Menu [How-To Geek]

Open a Command Prompt from Any Folder

This
is one of those tips that most real geeks already know, but chances are
there’s somebody reading this that doesn’t know about it—if you hold
down the Shift key while right-clicking on any folder, including the
desktop background, you’ll see a new item for “Open command window
here”, that will open a command prompt with that folder as the default
path.

This tip only works in Windows 7 or Vista, for Windows XP you’ll need to use a registry hack to accomplish the same thing. We can’t mention this tip without telling you how to do the opposite—you can open a file browser from your current command prompt directory as well.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Open a Command Prompt From the Desktop Right-Click Menu [How-To Geek]

Hide Secret Data Inside Any File

There’s
any number of great ways to hide data from prying eyes—TrueCrypt,
anyone? But if you want to simply hide some text data inside a secret
“compartment”, you can abuse the Alternate Data Streams feature in the
underlying NTFS file system. All you have to do is open up a command
prompt, and then use a command similar to this:

notepad SomeFile.txt:SecretWordHere.txt

The special filename with the colon and second filename tells NTFS
to actually store the data in an alternate stream, instead of the
regular file. You can put whatever you want into the file, and nobody
will be able to access it unless they know the command to retrieve it.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Hide Data in a Secret Text File Compartment [How-To Geek]

Tile or Cascade Specific Windows

Sure,
Windows 7 has the awesome Aero Snap feature that lets you drag windows
to the side of the screen to fill one side, but what if you want to
cascade them, or tile them stacked on top of each other?

Back in the XP and Vista days this was relatively simple—you
could hold down the Ctrl key while selecting multiple windows on the
taskbar, and then right-click on any of them to tile or cascade them.
For Windows 7, you can do the same thing, but you’ll need to open up
Task Manager instead, hold Ctrl, select the open windows, and then you
can cascade them from there.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Tile or Cascade Multiple Windows in Windows 7 [How-To Geek]

Undo an Accidental File Move or Deletion With the Keyboard

Have
you ever tried to select a bunch of files while holding the Ctrl key,
and then accidentally copied all of them because you slightly moved
your mouse? Maybe you just deleted a file and don’t feel like hunting
it down in the Recycle bin. In either case, you can use the Ctrl+Z
shortcut key to immediately reverse whatever you didn’t mean to do.

Readers will probably point out that you can also do this from the
context menu in Windows 7, but it’s surprising how many people don’t
realize the keyboard shortcut works.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Undo an Accidental Move or Delete With a Keyboard Shortcut [How-To Geek]

Navigate the Open / Save Dialogs With the Keyboard

Opening
or saving files can be so very tedious when your application doesn’t
start with the right default folder, but instead of clicking and
clicking your mouse to get where you’re going, you can simply use the
keyboard to change the folder.

You can use “..” without the quotes to go up a folder, use
shell:desktop to change to the desktop folder, or just start typing in
the full path to a file.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Navigate in the File Open/Save Dialog With the Keyboard [How-To Geek]

Use the Secret Trick to Close Windows Explorer

Have
you ever wondered how to restart the Start Menu? The more tech-savvy
among you probably know that you can just pop open Task Manager and
kill the explorer.exe process, but there’s actually another way to do
it built right into Windows 7 and Vista—it’s just a bit of a secret.

Hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys, then open up the start menu, and
right-click anywhere on the blank space. You’ll see a new menu with an
Exit Explorer item on it, which will immediately terminate the desktop
shell—keep in mind to reopen it you’ll need to use Ctrl+Shift+Esc to
open Task Manager, and then File –> Run and type in explorer.exe.
That’s not the only right-click menu trick you can do here, however—if you want to open up the Start Menu folder in Windows 7, you can right-click on the All Programs menu item to access the old Start Menu context menu from previous versions of Windows.

Hidden Trick to Close Windows Explorer in Windows 7 or Vista [How-To Geek]

Create a Zip File with the Same Name as a Selected File

If
you regularly use the built-in Send To –> Compressed (zipped) folder
feature to create zip files in Windows, you might notice that it seems
to randomly pick a filename for the generated file. If you want to save
the step of renaming the file, you can make sure that you right-click
on top of the file that you want to have the same name.
For instance, if we had right-clicked on the Readme.txt file in the
screenshot and used the Send To –> Compressed feature, the resulting
file would have been called Readme.zip. Since that’s not very helpful,
it’s better to right-click on one of the selected HTGBack.x files,
which will give us HTGBack.zip instead.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Make Zipfiles With the Same Name as a Selected File [How-To Geek]

Show the XP Alt-Tab Prompt in Windows 7

This
tip isn’t so much useful as an interesting trick that you can show your
geek friends—you can trigger the old XP Alt-Tab dialog even in Windows
7 with Aero enabled by using a series of shortcut keys. First, hold
down one of the Alt keys, press and release the other Alt key, and then
press the Tab key. Just like that, the old XP prompt will show up.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Windows 7 Easter Egg Shows the XP Alt-Tab Prompt [How-To Geek]

Pin a Folder to the Start Menu

It’s
easy to pin any application to the Start Menu by just right-clicking on
the icon, but folders aren’t quite as easy—or are they? There’s a bunch
of complicated registry hacks out there that enable the “Pin to Start
Menu” item for folders, but it’s so much simpler to just drag the
folder to the Start button, and then drop the folder wherever you want
it in the menu.

Bonus tip: You might notice in the screenshot that there’s something different below the Downloads button-and you can easily add My Dropbox to your own Windows 7 Start Menu too.

Shrink the XP Volume Control

This
is one of those tips that’s great to show off to your friends that have
been using Windows XP for years, because they probably don’t know about
it yet. You can shrink the Volume Control dialog down to a much smaller
size by simply using the Ctrl+S shortcut key with the dialog open.

Sure, it could be useful if you wanted to keep the dialog up on the
screen without wasting space, but it’s mostly just a fun trick to show
off your skills.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Shrink the XP Volume Control [How-To Geek]

Remove Old Drivers by Showing Hidden Devices in Device Manager

Once
you’ve upgraded your PC’s hardware, you won’t see the old devices
sitting around anymore in the Device Manager, but rest assured that
they are still there. If you want to clean up all the old drivers, you
can use a special trick to enable hidden devices by simply typing the
following into a command prompt:

SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1

Once you’ve done that, type in devmgmt.msc to open up Device
Manager, and then you can use View –> Show hidden devices to show
all the devices you couldn’t see before.

Remove Old Drivers After Upgrading to New Hardware [How-To Geek]

Find Secret Messages in Web Site Headers

The
world of HTTP protocol headers is something that even geeks don’t
usually have to deal with, much less normal people. But they are out
there, and many of them contain hidden messages that you would never
know are there. For instance, Slashdot embeds random quotes from Futurama in every page load, and other sites embed many other things.

To see them for yourself, you can install the Live HTTP headers extension for Firefox, or you can use curl –I http://slashdot.org to see them from the command line in Linux or OS X.

Stupid Geek Tricks: Find the Secret Messages in Web Site Headers

Contact 678pc for more tricks and tips to make your windows installation more user friendly (678)404-1001

Located in Lawrenceville, Ga – Serve Metro Atlanta, Gwinnett County, and surrounding areas

We’ve already mentioned the new Jump Lists feature in Windows 7 as one of our favorite features of the burgeoning operating system, and today we’re taking a closer look at how you can use them to save time.

For
those of you that haven’t yet tried out Windows 7, when you right-click
on a taskbar button in Windows 7, a menu slides out with recent
documents and application tasks. You can even access it with the left mouse button if you choose. Here’s a rundown of our favorite Jump List boosters.

Display More Items on Jump Lists

Before
we even dive into all the great things you can do with Jump Lists,
you’ll probably want to increase the number of recent items that show
up on the list. You can easily do so by heading into the Taskbar
properties, choosing the Start Menu tab, and then clicking the
Customize button. At the bottom of this window you should be able to
choose the amount of items you want to show up in the Jump Lists—though
you might want to play with the setting a bit to see what works best
for you.

Quick Access to Media

Having
quick access to your music is essential for a productive work
environment, and the Jump Lists feature lets you access your frequently
used media, hit the next button, or pause whatever is playing when the
boss walks in—right from the taskbar button. Windows Media Player users
have this functionality built in, as does anybody using iTunes 9, but foobar2000 or Winamp users aren’t left in the cold either, with the same functionality available through plugins.

Open Private Browsing or Bookmarks Easily

When
you want to quickly open up a new Private Browsing window, you really
don’t want to have to open up the browser, find the button for private
browsing, and then switch the browser to private mode—you want an
instant way to open it up, and Jump Lists give you exactly that.
Internet Explorer has this feature baked in, Google Chrome added this functionality recently as well, and while Firefox users are currently left out, you can use an add-on application called Winfox to at least add Jump List support under Windows 7, though private browsing isn’t currently an option.

Pin Document Templates to the Taskbar

Reader Stephen showed us how to pin Outlook templates to the taskbar
for quick access when emailing the same thing over and over, but the
same technique works for just about any application—you can create a
template document in your favorite application, and then simply drag it
to the taskbar button to pin it to the Jump List. Then, the next time
you need to use the template you can simply right-click on the taskbar
button to open it up. It’s a huge time-saver, especially if your job
involves a lot of repetitive tasks.

Pin Applications To the JumpList

You can’t, by default, pin applications to a Jump List—that’s what the start menu is designed for—but with an add-on application called JumpList Launcher,
you can do just that. Simply pin the launcher to your taskbar, and then
use the settings to add all of your favorite applications. You can
create separate groups, and consolidate many of your taskbar launcher
buttons to save space when you want quick access to an application, but
don’t necessarily want it taking up space on your taskbar. If the
JumpList Launcher doesn’t do it for you, you should take a look at how StandaloneStack can do application launching and file browsing right from your taskbar.

Pin Folders and Searches To the Taskbar

Perhaps
the biggest time-saver for me is the ability to pin your most
frequently used folders to the taskbar, but most people don’t realize
you can actually pin a search as well. Simply open up the Windows 7
search, put in your search criteria, and then drag the icon from the
location bar down to the Windows Explorer taskbar button to pin the
search there. I’ve got a habit of losing that file I was just working
on, so I’ve created a search that finds recently modified files and
pinned it to the start menu—this way I never completely lose that
document again.

If you would like help settings up your computer for a more customized
experience and are in Metro Atlanta, Specifically Gwinett County and
Surrounding areas then please contact 678PC at (678)404-1001

It seems like every week we learn about a new tip to enhance the Windows 7 taskbar, and it's hard to keep them all straight. Here's the complete power user's guide to tweaking and using your taskbar like a pro.

Learn to Use the Taskbar Like a Pro

Before you even get started trying to tweak your taskbar, you should make sure that you understand how to use all of the features, and there might be more than you think—check out our complete guide to Windows 7 shortcuts to learn useful basic maneuvers, like how you can hold down the Ctrl key while left-clicking to cycle through a group of taskbar buttons, or hold down Shift while right-clicking to show the regular window menu. Here's the full list of Taskbar-specific shortcuts:

• Win+number (1-9): Starts the application pinned to the taskbar in that position, or switches to that program.
• Shift+Win+number (1-9): Starts a new instance of the application pinned to the taskbar in that position.
• Ctrl+Win+number (1-9): Cycles through open windows for the application pinned to the taskbar in that position.
• Alt+Win+number (1-9): Opens the Jump List for the application pinned to the taskbar.
• Win+T: Focus and scroll through items on the taskbar.
• Win+B: Focuses the System Tray icons.
• Drag+Drop taskbar buttons or System Tray icons: to reorganize them.
• Shift+Click on a taskbar button: Open a program or quickly open another instance of a program.
• Ctrl+Shift+Click on a taskbar button: Open a program as an administrator.
• Shift+Right-click on a taskbar button: Show the window menu for the program (like XP does).
• Shift+Right-click on a grouped taskbar button: Show the window menu for the group.
• Ctrl+Click on a grouped taskbar button: Cycle through the windows of the group.
• Drag a File to a taskbar button: to pin the file to the current application's Jump List.
• Shift+Drag a File to a taskbar button: to open a file with the current application.
• Middle-Click on a taskbar button: to open a new instance of the application.
• Middle-Click on a Aero Thumbnail: to close that application instance.
• Left-Click + Drag upwards: to open the Jump List for an application.

Once you've mastered the shortcut keys and mouse tricks, or at least those you'll actually use, it's time to learn how to fully use Windows 7's Jump Lists, from tweaking the number of items shown to pinning document templates and quickly accessing private browsing modes.

Tweak Your Taskbar Settings

Now that you fully understand all of the tips and tricks to using the built-in features, it's time to tweak the taskbar to work just the way you want it to-for instance, if you don't want taskbar buttons pulling up the Aero Peek thumbnails every time, there's a registry hack that can change the default left-clicking behavior to switch to the last active window instead.

Rather than dealing with messy registry hacks, the 7 Taskbar Tweaker customization tool gives you fine-grained control over what happens when you left, middle, or right-click on taskbar buttons, and even customizes window grouping and whether dragging to the taskbar pins items or opens them. If the new Aero Peek doesn't work quite the way you want, you can use a registry hack to make Aero Peek display instantly, or just use the Desktop Peek Tweak tool to make the changes more easily.

If the look and feel is what you want to change, you can check out AeroWorks to re-skin your Windows 7 taskbar without patching anything, or use the Windows 7 Start Button Changer to change that orb to something that fits your mood a little better. You can use the Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnail Customizer to tweak the size and spacing of the thumbnail windows that show up when you hover your mouse over a taskbar button. You can even get the old-style network activity icon back in the system tray if you really want it.

Pin Anything to Your Taskbar

So you've mastered the taskbar, tweaked the settings just the way you want, and it's time to pin all of your favorite applications to the taskbar, but there's just one problem: Windows doesn't let you pin just anything. No worries, however, because you can use a trick to not only pin individual folders to the taskbar, but actually pin any item. If you really want to tweak your system, you can use transparent shortcuts to separate and organize your taskbar icons, or add a fully functional recycle bin.

Once you've pinned an application to the taskbar, there's a simple trick to customizing it that might not be immediately obvious—just pop up the Jump List, and then right-click on the application name to get to the real properties screen, where you can add extra command-line parameters, or set the compatibility mode.

Enhance the Taskbar's Application Launching

The Windows 7 taskbar combines window management with an application launcher, since you can right-click on any item and pin it to the taskbar, but that's not nearly enough for a power user. We've already told you how you can boost your productivity with Jump Lists, and that starts with using some more powerful application launchers that enhance your taskbar experience-Jumplist Launcher consolidates applications into a single button, while JumpLaunch turns your Quick Launch folder into a Jump List.

If you like some minimal eye candy for your taskbar, check out the slick 7 Stacks utility, or use Standalone Stack to not only launch applications, but browse through your file system with popup navigation that can be pinned to your taskbar. Of course, you aren't limited to launching applications, since you can also close all windows from the taskbar.

Monitor Your System with Add-ons

There's any number of desktop widgets that can show you the weather or monitor your system, but they all have the same problem-if you've got a window maximized, you won't be able to see anything. You can get around this problem by simply docking an application to the taskbar that gives you your system monitoring right there in the taskbar button itself.

If weather is your thing, check out how Weatherbar integrates weather forecasts directly into the taskbar, or you can use SuperbarMonitor to add drive space, battery life, and memory or CPU usage into separate buttons on the taskbar. If monitoring the web is more your thing, you can integrate a taskbar RSS reader, or put Gmail notifications into a taskbar button.

Virtual desktop application Dexpot is not only a powerful virtual desktop manager, but the latest version includes full support for Windows 7's Aero Peek thumbnails—you can pin the application to the taskbar, and use the thumbnails to easily navigate between multiple virtual desktops.

Revert the Whole Thing Back to XP/Vista Style

If the new taskbar with all of the great functionality just isn't your thing, you can actually revert everything back to work almost the same as it did back on the Windows XP or Vista days.

One of the first things most Windows 7 adopters ask is how to get the Quick Launch back, and luckily there's an easy trick to add the Quick Launch bar back—just add a new toolbar with %appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch as the folder location. You can also head into the taskbar settings and tweak the whole thing to look just like older versions of Windows. Of course, if you really hate the taskbar, there's always the option of using Taskbar Eliminator to ditch the taskbar entirely.

If you would like help settings up your computer for a more customized experience and are in Metro Atlanta, Specifically Gwinett County and Surrounding areas then please contact 678PC at (678)404-1001

While poking around in Windows 7, I discovered extra context menu items using the same Shift + Right-click trick, and we’ve got big colorful screenshots to show you today.

Viewing the Secret Items

These are the default items that you should see on the Send To menu when you right-click on a file:

 

Hold down the Shift key while right-clicking on the icon, and then try the Send To menu… all sorts of extra options!

If you want any of those to show up normally without holding down
the Shift key, you can create shortcuts in the Send To folder. Just
type the following into the location bar:

shell:sendto

And then drag shortcuts to your preferred folders into this folder.

I’ve found that using custom shortcuts in the Send To menu can
be very handy… I use them to upload images to the HTG web server
on a daily basis.

If you would like help settings up your computer for a more customized experience please contact 678PC at (678)404-1001