ACCESS YOUR DESKTOP ICONS FROM YOUR TASKBAR

Do you ever want to access your desktop, or shortcut icons on your desktop when your screen is cluttered with windows which you don't want to minimize?
A simple solution. Place a shortcut to your desktop atop your START Menu. Here's how:
1) Right click on your TASKBAR and choose PROPERTIES.
2) Select the START MENU PROGRAMS tab, then the ADVANCED button.
3) In the right panel, under the PROGRAMS folder, you will see any shortcuts you have already placed atop your START menu. Right click here in the white space here and choose NEW, then SHORTCUT.
4. In the command line for your shortcut, type c:windowsdesktop (If your Windows directory has another name, substitute that name for windows).
5. Click NEXT. Then in the name box, name your shortcut Desktop.
6. Click the FINISH button.
7. Close the Explorer window, then click ok in TASKBAR PROPERTIES.
8. Now, open START on your taskbar. VOILA! Your desktop folder icon should be visible. Click it to open your desktop folder.
Success!
You will now be able to view and access your desktop shortcut icons (not non-shortcut icons). If you want ALL desktop icons to be visible (Recycle Bin, My Computer etc.), you will need to place shortcuts to these other icons on your desktop.
Hint:
If you normally hide your taskbar, so that it is not always on top of other windows, you can access it at any time from any program by pressing and holding control, then pressing escape (the ESC key at top left of your keyboard). You may then quickly choose your desktop folder and access desktop icons as well as any other programs accessible via your taskbar and programs menu.


OPEN ANY NEW DOCUMENT FROM YOUR DESKTOP

(Associate files with programs)
Yes, we can teach you how to edit your Windows registry in order to add any new document to your desktop - and in a future tip, we will!
But the easiest way to add any new document to your desktop, whether
or not it is listed in your NEW menu is to simply:
1) Right click on your desktop and choose NEW.

2) Choose TEXT document (assuming it is listed there, and associated with Notepad or the equivalent). Otherwise, choose any kind of document included in your NEW menu.

3) Retype the name by clicking inside the name box and typing OR by right clicking the icon, selecting RENAME, the typing. Type in a document name, and the extension for the kind of document you
wish to open (e.g. .doc for Microsoft Word).
NOTE: The above tip assumes that you have associated this document
with a particular program on your computer. If not:
1) In MY COMPUTER, select view, options, then the FILE TYPES tab.
2) Choose NEW TYPE.
3) In the DESCRIPTION box, type a name for the kind of document or file you are associating (e.g. Adobe Acrobat file)
4) In the ASSOCIATED EXTENSION field, type the extension of the kind of file in question (e.g. pdf).
5) Below the ACTIONS field, choose NEW.

6) Type OPEN (in capitals).

7) Using the BROWSE button, browse to find the executable program
(usually ending with .exe, in the primary directory for the program)
of the software which will open this particular file type. Select it.
Click ok or close until you've exited all your open screens.

9) Now your document type is associated. When you type in the
extension on a file you create from the desktop and then double
click on the icon, Windows will open its program.



OPEN EXPLORER RATHER THAN MY COMPUTER TO VIEW FILES

(This is a great tip!! One of the most useful customizations...)
Have you created drive icons for your hard drives and floppy drives on your desktop
If so, you may wish that they opened in the two-paned Explorer view, rather than in My Computer.
To change the default view to Explorer:
1) Open Explorer (from Start, Programs, Explorer, or if you have created it, from the Explorer icon on your desktop).
2) Choose the View, Options menu.
3) Select the File Types tab.
4). Under registered file types, double click on FOLDER.
5) From the list of actions, select explore.
6) Click on the SET DEFAULT button at bottom right!
Now when you double click on a folder or open a drive icon shortcut Explorer will open instead of My Computer.


Bypass the recycle bin when deleting a file

If you do not wish a file or folder you are deleting (or a group of files or folders) to end up in the recycle bin, for security or privacy reasons, there is a simple keyboard shortcut to avoid it.
To bypass the recycle bin when deleting a file, press and hold the SHIFT key as you press delete or select the delete command from the menu. You will see a request for confirmation, and once you say 'yes' the files will be permanently deleted, and absolutely non-restorable from WindowsXP


Create a link to shutdown your PC

To create a useful link desktop link to shutdown or restart your PC, follow these directions: Right click on an empty area of your desktop, then select 'new' and 'shortcut' to open the new shortcut wizard. When prompted for the location of the shortcut, enter 'SHUTDOWN -s -t 01' to shutdown the system or 'SHUTDOWN -r -t 01' to restart the system. Name the shortcut and give it an appropriate icon from the '%SystemRoot%system32SHELL32.dll' location.

Rename multiple files simultaneously

In windows XP explorer, you can rename multiple files at the same time simply by highlighting all the files you wish to change, right clicking one of them and selecting 'rename.' Once you have done this, all the files will share the same name with a number in brackets differentiating them


Hosting online games through the Windows XP firewall

If you are using the Windows XP firewall and you wish to host an online game such as Quake 3, or other applications that require users on the Internet to contact your computer directly, you will need to customize your firewall slightly to allow these specific communications through. Fortunately the XP firewall makes these changes fairly easy to do. To customize your firewall: Go to 'startcontrol panelnetwork connections'. Right click on the network connection that has the firewall enabled and go to 'properties.' Choose the 'settings' button at the bottom. On the 'services' tab, click the 'add' button.
This window will add the application that you are using to the firewall's list of data that is allowed into your computer. You will need to find out the port that your application uses. This information should be available from the documentation or from the software manufacturer's website. Input a description for your convenience, then the computer name or IP address of the computer that is hosting the program, then put the port number that the program uses. Note that as long as the program is running on the computer that uses the XP firewall, the internal and external port will be the same. Click 'ok' to apply the rule. Your firewall will now allow connections through the port you specified.


Clean out the prefetch folder

Windows XP uses a system called 'prefetch' to organize and preload some of the data necessary for commonly used applications and files. A folder called prefetch is used to store the information the operating system needs to carry out this operation. After several months of use, the prefetch folder may become quite overloaded with older references to software and files that may no longer be in use.
It's a good idea to manually empty the older files out of the prefetch folder every few months or so. To do this: Navigate to 'c:windowsprefetch' and delete all .PF files that are older than a week or two.

Set priority for individual programs

If you regularly multi-task while you are working at your computer, but some of the applications you use require more horsepower than others to work effectively (for example using Adobe Photoshop along with Word or other less demanding programs), you may want to consider setting a custom priority for the high-demand applications. Priority is how the operating system determines how to share the processor time among applications. Most applications default to the 'normal' priority, so by setting your high demand application higher, you can increase its performance when multitasking. To do this: Load the program you wish to change the priority for and press CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the Task Manager. Select the applications tab and highlight your program. Right click the program and select 'go to process.' Now right click on the highlighted process and choose 'set priority.'
The higher you set the priority above normal, the more CPU time the program will steal from other applications when you are multitasking.


Cleaning up unwanted startup programs

Many freeware and commercial software programs have a habit of setting themselves up to run automatically upon Windows startup. This can contribute to the gradual decline in startup speed that most Windows XP systems (and windows PCs in general) experience. Also, having programs that you only use selectively, or not at all, load automatically is a waste of system resources that could be better used for other things.
To top it off, many internet nasties such as spyware programs, viruses and Trojan horses will install themselves into one of the automatic start locations on your system in order to make sure that they are run on startup. So the point is, take a look at what is currently running every time you load your PC, and disable what you don't need or can't identify.
To do this: The first place you should go is 'startprogramsstartup' which is a directory Windows XP uses to launch application shortcuts on boot-up. If you remove the shortcuts from this directory, the applications will not load on startup. This directory can also be a repository for various badness such as spyware and virus software, so if there are files here which are not shortcuts and you don't recognize them, you may wish to consider removing them anyways, as Windows will not place critical files in this directory.
The next location for removing unnecessary startup files is the handy MSCONFIG utility that has been resurrected from the graveyard of Windows 9x especially for XP. Go to 'startrun' and type 'msconfig' to access the utility. The 'startup' tab in MSCONFIG provides access to several other applications that are started at boot up and are running in the background. By examining their Filenames and irectories, you should be able to get a feeling for what is necessary and what is not. Be aware than several viruses and worms have a habit of disguising themselves with authoritative sounding Windows system file names,such as win32.spybot.worm present in the above screenshot as MSCONFIG32.EXE. Leave these for now if you are not sure. The other method for removing these programs is through the programs themselves, as many applications, for example MSN messenger, contain the option to remove the software from startup.



Compressing files and folders to save space

Windows XP includes a built in compression utility which can save you some valuable space on your hard disk by archiving little used files. Working similarly to compression programs such as PKZIP and WINRAR, the built in software reduces the space your files take up on the disk at the penalty of increased disk access time for the compressed files in question. There are several ways of compressing data on your system: If you have a pre-existing folder and would like to compress everything in it, right click on the folder, select 'properties' then the 'advanced' button at the bottom. In the 'compress or encrypt attributes' section, check the 'compress contents to save disk space' option.
If you wish to create a compressed folder for a file or folder separate from the one it is in now, right click on the item you wish to compress and choose 'send tocompressed (zipped) folder.' This will create a new compressed folder in the same location as the original file or folder.



Open explorer window from current command prompt directory

There is a built in command prompt ('startrun' then type 'cmd') command that will open a Windows Explorer window to your exact current directory location in the DOS-oriented command prompt. Simply type 'Start .' from the prompt to open up explorer in that location. And yes, that is 'start(space).


Using Quick Edit in the Command Prompt

The Quick Edit function allows you to cut and paste text to and from the command prompt window, something which you may have become used to not being able to do. To activate Quick Edit: Open a command prompt Window ('startrun' and type 'cmd'). Right click on the toolbar at the top and select 'properties.' Put a checkmark in the Quick Edit mode box. When prompted, opt to apply changes to all similar windows. Now that Quick Edit is enabled in the command prompt, you can click and drag to highlight text, then press ENTER to copy it to the clipboard. To paste text from the clipboard, simply right click on the command prompt window.


Select 'No to all' when copying files in XP

Have you ever noticed that Windows XP gives you the 'yes to all' option in its file copy dialog box, useful if you would like to overwrite files in a directory with newer files of the same name from another location, for example, but fails to offer a 'no to all' option for doing the opposite. Kind of annoying if you think about it. What if you have a lengthy file copy operation partially finished, and wish to restart it? If you use the default options, you essentially have to recopy every file, since saying 'no' to each and every duplicate file will take just as long, and cause your mouse finger to fall off. Fortunately, there is a way to tell your computer not to copy all duplicated files with a single command:
To do this, when the file copy dialog box appears asking you whether you wish to overwrite the first file, hold down SHIFT and click 'no.' This will automatically answer no for all following files. Note that it will ask you again for the first folder it encounters, so follow the procedure again to answer no automatically for all folders. This will dramatically speed up the file copying process.