Restoring a Lost Desktop
If you ever lose the Desktop but Explorer is still running with the Start Button,
you can do this to bring back your Desktop in a Windows box.
1.Click Start
2.Click Run
3.Type a period " . "
4.Then press Enter
Creating a New E-Mail Shortcut
To create a shortcut that will open your default e-mail program starting a new e-mail,
1.Right click on an open area of the desktop
2.Select New / Shortcut
3.For the Command Line, enter mailto:
4.For the title enter something like New E-Mail
5.When you click on this your default e-mail program should start with a new e-mail form.
Creating 3D Window Effect
You can create a nice 3D effect for your windows
Start Regedit
1.Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Colors
2.Make sure the following setting are there:
3.ButtonHilight=128 128 128
4.ButtonShadow=255 255 255
Creating Shutdown, Restart and Logoff Icons
To create the icons, create a shortcut on the desktop.
1.For Shutdown, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindows
2.For Restart, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindowsexec
3.For Logoff, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 0
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:
1.Start Regedit
2.Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/MenuOrder
3.Under here is are Favorites and Start Menu folders
In each there is a value called Order
4.Simply delete (or rename this) and restart Winodws
5.Your Favorites or Start Menus should now sort alphabetically
Increasing the Icon Cache
1.Run Regedit
2.Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\explorer
3.Create a new string called Max Cached Icons
4.Give it a value of 10000
5.This will increase response time in windows and give the Shellicon cache file more elbow room.
Make Icons 256 Color 16-Bit
1.Open the Registry
2.Hit Ctrl+F
3.Type Shell Icon BPP
4.When found, right click the Shell Icon BPP icon
5.Click Modify
6.Change the value from 4 to 16
7.Click Ok
8.Close the registry
9.Restart your computer
Removing Shortcut Arrows
An easy way to remove those irritating arrows from your desktop shortcut icons and not change their properties
1.Right click the Desktop / Properties / Appearance tab
2.Select Item
3.Scroll for Icon
4.The default size is 32
5.Change this to 30
6.Clicking Apply
Adding the Control Panel to the Start Menu
1.Open up the Explorer
2.Go to \WINDOWS\Start Menu
3.Right click in the right-hand panel
4.Add a new folder
5.Name it Control Panel.{21ec2020-3aea-1069-a2dd-08002b30309d}
6.This makes getting to the Control Panel items a little easier
Making Desktop Changes Permanent
To make changes to the Desktop like window size, positon after rebooting:
1.Start Regedit
2.Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer
3.Create a New Binary Value
4.Name it NoSaveSettings
5.Give it a value of 01 00 00 00
Easy Shortcuts on the Desktop
Here is an easy way to put shortcuts on the Desktop where they can easily be moved to other group icons.
Using the Explorer, create a SHORTCUT to the \Windows\Desktop directory in your \Windows\SEND TO directory.
Now whenever you want to make a shortcut and move it to the desktop:
Just make the shortcut you want using Explorer
Right click on that shortcut
In the pop up menu select the Send To and Desktop shortcut.
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
Full Window Drag ( Without Plus! )
Start Regedit
Open HKEY_CURRENT_USER /ControlPanel /Desktop /DragFullWindows
On "DragFullWindows" properties change 0 to 1
Fixing Corrupted Desktop Icons
Easier way to reset icons then deleting SHELLICONCACHE.
There's no need to exit Win95 and delete the SHELLICONCACHE file in order to reset icons that you may have changed (like Network Neighborhood).
Go to Control Panel, Display, Appearance Tab.
Select Icon from the Item drop down list.
Change the Size up or down one and apply.
Change the Size back to your original and apply.
If your Start Menu is slow or your icons are black for some reason, it means your Shelliconcache file is corrupt and should be deleted.
Delete the hidden file.
It will be recreated the next time you start Win95
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.
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.
Unable to Create Shortcuts on the Desktop
If you can't create shortcuts on your Desktop, you might have a corrupted registry.
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellNew\Command
Make sure it has a value of:
RunDLL32 AppWiz.Cpl,NewLinkHere %1 if you don't have IE 4
or RunDLL32 AppWiz.Cpl,NewLinkHere %2 if you have IE 4.0 or IE 4.01
Removing the InBox from the Desktop
A faster way to remove "Inbox" from the Deskop is to
Right mouse click on "Inbox"
Select delete
It will then tell you "you cannot store the inbox in the recycle bin. . .etc"
Click "Yes"
Wait 2 secs and it's gone.
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"
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.
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
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel / Desktop
Create new Strings called WallpaperOriginX and WallpaperOriginY
Give them values to position them around your desktop
The bitmap must be smaller than your desktop size
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)
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:
Open the Explorer
Go to \Windows\SendTo
Right click in the right hand panel
Select New / Text Document
Name it anything with a .otherfolder extension
When you want to send files to another folder:
Select the files with Explorer
Right Click
Select Send to and the name you just created
You them have the option of copying or moving the file to a folder of your choice
To add Mail:
Open the Explorer
Go to \Windows\SendTo
Right click in the right hand panel
Select New / Text Document
Name it anything with a .MapiMail extension (ignore any warnings about the file extension)
When you want to Mail files as attachments:
Select the files with Explorer
Right Click
Select Send to and the Mail name you just created
This allows you to easily mail multiple files
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.
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!
Go to Windows \ Start Menu \ Programs \ (etc.) in the Explorer
Start right click/dragging folders to the desktop, one by one.
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
Click on the start menu button twice, so there is a dashed line around the button
Press Alt and the minus sign
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:
Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete
Highlight Explorer
Click on the End Task button
Select No to doing a full shutdown
Wait a few seconds and the click on the End Task button
Removing the InBox and Recycle Bin Icons from the Desktop
To remove the InBox from your desktop, without needing to run the Policy Editor:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ explorer \ Desktop \ NameSpace
Below that should be a few keys
Rename the key {00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}. I usually put another character before or after the curly braces.
Restart Windows and the InBox icon should be gone
You can do the same for any other items you don't to show such as the Recycle Bin or The Internet icons
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.
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.
Adding a Protected Briefcase
You can make your briefcase a shortcut on the on desktop so if you have multiple users on your PC and you don't want to have a password for your briefcase, you can at least protect it from inadvertent deletion by just making the briefcase a hidden file or in a different location other than \Windows\Desktop\My Briefcase, then send a copy or shortcut to the desktop.
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.
