This is really a tip rather than a shortcut. It works in Windows 98 & 98SE and it should also work in Windows 95 or NT with a Windows keyboard. Probably the most common way of opening Windows Explorer (not IE) is to right click on start, then select Explorer from the pop - up context menu. When you do this, Explorer is opened focused on the expanded Windows folder. Unless you need to access Windows or one of its sub - folders, you have to scroll up or down to the desired folder. Scrolling up to the Windows folder & collapsing it in order to have a shorter tree can get frustrating. Of course you can right click on the MY Computer icon on the Desktop and select Explorer from the context menu to get the shorter tree, but there is a quicker way.
This is an undocumented tip. If you have a 104 - key keyboard, hold down the Windows key (the one with a flag on it) and press E. Explorer will open with the shorter tree, focused on My Computer. This tip first came to me from winmag.com's Tip of the Day, www.winmag.com
Now, lets look at some Shortcuts. Shortcuts provide quick access to documents, application programs, drives, printers and other entities on your computer. Shortcuts can take the form of an icon or key combination (hotkey) on your keyboard. They can be created in a number of ways and placed in a variety of places. Following are a few examples and how to accomplish each.
First, lets look at the uses and locations for shortcut placement. Suppose you frequently transfer files to a project folder you have created. Wouldn't it be convenient to have that folder show up on the Send To list of your right click context menu? The printer can be added to this list as well. I'll tell you how. Perhaps you are working on a project in which you access one or two documents frequently. How about putting a shortcut to the document on your Desktop or Taskbar, or create a hotkey shortcut on your keyboard? With a shortcut to your printer, you can drag documents and drop them on the printer icon. I guess that's enough for now. Let's see how to do all of this.
This is one of the selections available on the context menu when you right click on a file in Windows Explorer. The entries on your Send To list are just shortcuts. These shortcuts appear in the Send To folder, a subfolder under the main Windows folder. You can add shortcuts of your own to the Send To folder and they will appear on your Send To list in the context menu. If you put an executable file on this menu, the program will open when you send a file to it. For example, suppose Notepad (or Wordpad or another word processor) has been added to the menu. If you right click on a text file, move your mouse arrow to Send To and choose Notepad, the program will open with the file ready for you to edit. If a printer is on this menu, you can right click on a printable file and follow the same procedure to print your document. Following is a simple way to add a shortcut to this menu. Some will prefer other methods, but this one is simple enough for those who are not so experienced with the computer.
Open Explorer, navigate to the document, program file, or item to which you wish to create a shortcut. Right click on the item. From the context menu that appears, chose Create Shortcut. The shortcut will appear at the bottom of the file list window. Right click on that shortcut and choose Cut from the context menu. Navigate to the Send To folder, a sub - folder of the Windows folder. Right click on the Send To folder icon. Select Paste from the context menu. Viola!! You have successfully placed the item on your Send To list.! There are other ways with fewer moves, but this one is for everyone. To put a printer on the list, it will be easier to place the shortcut on the Desktop (see instructions below), then right click on the shortcut and select either Copy or Cut (depending on whether or not you want to copy or move it). Go to the Send To folder with the same actions just mentioned.
Most of the icons on your desktop are shortcuts to programs and other items. Probably the simplest way to put a shortcut on your computer's Desktop (the large area of your monitor with icons all over it) is this: Right click on a blank area of the Desktop. On the context menu which will appear, place your mouse pointer on New and select Shortcut. A dialog box will appear. Left click on the Browse button and, in the Browse Window, navigate to the item to which you wish to create a shortcut. If the file is not a program, click on the down arrow in the Files of Type box and select All Files. Otherwise your item will not show up. Left click on the item. Left click on the Open button. Left click on the Next button. Rename the shortcut if you wish (a choice on the right click context menu), then left click the Finish button. You've done it! A shortcut icon will appear on the Desktop with all the other shortcuts there.
For placing a shortcut to your printer, it will be easier to access its icon by left clicking on Start, moving to Settings, then left clicking on Printers. Select the printer, hold down the right button and drag it to the Desktop. A menu box will appear. One of the options is "Create a Shortcut Here." Left click on that option and you've created the shortcut. This right button drag does not move the printer icon. It provides for a shortcut.
You can also create a shortcut to any other file on the Desktop by dragging the file while holding down the right mouse button. In the pop - up window, select Create Shortcut Here. This may not work on Windows 95. If it doesn't, just hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys as you drag the file with the left mouse button.
The Taskbar is the bar across the bottom of the Desktop with little shortcut icons on it. Generally, a shortcut should be put only on the left section of the Taskbar (called the Quick Launch section). Icons residing here do not use system resources.
The right end of the Taskbar is the System Tray. These icons are usually paced there by programs and those programs start when Windows boots up. They run minimized in the background and use some of the system's memory. Your virus checker is an example of such programs.
In the middle section will be mini - bars indicating which programs you are using. The one that is active will be lit up. You can switch among them by a click of the mouse.
One way to add a shortcut to the Taskbar is to place it on the Desktop, then simply drag (left button) and drop it on the Taskbar.
You may wish to go this route for quicker access. Right click on a shortcut icon (perhaps one you created on the Desktop). In the pop - up context menu, click on Properties (When I just say "click on," I'm referring to the left mouse button). In the box that appears, there will be a place for you to enter a key combination as a shortcut to the file. This is usually Ctrl+Alt plus a character you choose (You would hold down the Ctrl and Alt while you press the key you selected). If you select a combination that is already taken, a message will tell you so you can select again. Ideally the character you select will in some way relate to the file so you can remember it. You may need to make a list to memorize or refer to keyboard shortcuts.
If you move or rename a file that has a shortcut, you will need to delete the old shortcut and create a new one. Otherwise the shortcut may not find the file. If you delete a file or uninstall a program, also delete the shortcut.
Have you ever wanted to make a list of the folders and files on your computer? Windows does not provide a direct way to do it. If you highlight a number of files and choose "Print," the entire content of each file will be printed instead of the list that you perhaps thought you were getting. This could take reams of paper. The Print command is just like the Copy command in that you copy to a printer instead of to a file or pasting into a document. However, there are ways to copy or print a list of the files. Here are two of them.
First Way, Use DOS. Remember, before Windows everything was done with DOS commands? No, I forgot, you're to young for that. Just take my word for it. In Windows you can open a DOS window and use those commands. It's easy to make a list of the files in any folder or group of folders on your computer. I'll show you how.
1. To get the DOS window, click on Start and then on Run. In the blank of the Run box type "cmd" or "command" without the quotes and click OK.
2. At the prompt in the DOS window, type the command as listed below. On my computer I have moved the My Documents folder from its original location on drive C: to another hard drive partition which is drive D: so if I want to produce a file list as a file, showing all of my sub-folders and files in the My Documents folder, I would type the following at the prompt in the DOS window:
"dir d:\"my documents"\ /s >c:\filelist.txt" (without the beginning and ending quotes) and press Enter.
If your My Documents folder is in its original location and you have Windows XP, it is probably located at C:\Documents and Settings\your name\My Documents\. If not, you can use the Search utility to locate it. Remember the quotes for long filenames. If you want to list all of Drive C:, the first part of the command would be "dir c:\ /s" (without the quotes).
Explanation: In the My Documents example, dir d:\"my documents"\ tells DOS to look in the My Documents folder on drive D: (In the days of DOS and early Windows, folders were called directories). Notice the space after "dir". My documents is in quotes because DOS only allows file names to be eight characters or less long plus up to three letters for the extension (such as filelist.txt), with no spaces. When using long file names, the quotes tell DOS that this is a legitimate name. DOS will shorten it (if printed or copied) to mydocu~s. DOS uses the first 6 letters, ignoring spaces, then puts a tildee (~) for the 7th letter (representing all others but the last letter) and displays the last letter, making eight characters.
The /s is called a switch. It tells DOS to include the sub-directories. Notice the space between the \ and /. A space also follows the switch, before the greater than sign (>) -- no more spaces. C:\filelist tells DOS to name the file "filelist" and place it in the root director of drive C:. It will not be one of the folders, so look in the root directory itself. You can move the file to where you want it. I made a folder on drive C: and named it "File Lists." I moved the file from C:\ to that folder and renamed the file "My Docs 2-9-2005." I can send file lists directly to that folder and give them unique names. If you rename a file, be sure not to change the extension.
To read the file list, just double-click on it and your text editor (probably Notepad) will open. First will be a summary of the folder, then each sub-directory will be listed with all of its files.
There are other switches you can use. To make a file listing only the files in a directory, without the files of its sub-directories, leave out the /s switch (ex: dir c:\ >filelist.txt). If you only want the file list to appear on the screen, just type "dir c:\" (without the quotes) and press Enter.
The above formulas will result in some additional information being listed with the folder and file names. If you want just the folder/file list without the other information, use the bare format switch (ex: dir d:\"my documents"\ /s /b >c:\filelist.txt).
Once you have this information in a file, you can do anything you want with it (print, or copy and paste part or all of it and/or delete it).
Second Way, Use a utility program. You can accomplish this task, with more options, by using a utility program that runs under Windows. One such program Is free (with no ads or information feedback). It is Directory Printer by Karen Kenworthy and is available at KarenWare.com. A link to the free programs is in the left panel of that page. Karen is a quality programmer who has written for Windows Magazine and Winmag.com, for several years.
The Directory Printer is asmall program, has an excellent intuitive interface, and a load of options. You can save the list to a file or print it out directly. You can print files and folders, just files, just folders or just a selected type of file (such as a list of images) and choose among other options.
I would choose this over the MSDOS method.
I have detested receiving PDF files by e-mail or website download because it takes so long for them to open and you cannot edit them or copy/print selections from them with some expensive software. But, I'll have to admit that the formatting can be attractive.
Now you can create PDF documents from Microsoft Word and other files. You can edit and manipulate them -- for FREE. You will need a PDF viewer such as Acrobat Reader, which is free and probably already on your computer. You do not need the expensive Acrobat software for document creation and editing. The following information is basically drawn from the OmniFormat website to be sure that I don't mislead you:
OmniFormat is a free document conversion utility that allows conversion and image manipulation of over 75 file formats including HTML, DOC, XLS, WPD, PDF, JPG, GIF, TIF, PNG, PCX, PPT, PS, TXT, Photo CD, FAX and MPEG. A full list of formats is available on OmniFormat's FAQ page. This free version will display a sponsor ad each time you launch the program but if you like it, you can register it for $9.95 and get rid of the ads.
Omniformat requires that Pdf995, also FREE, be installed. More information on this software is available at Pdf995. Pdf995 will create professional-quality documents in the PDF file format. You can create PDF files by simply selecting the "print" command from any application (File menu/Print). Pdf995 is shown as one of the printers and you select that "printer" to convert a document. If converting Word formats, a Pdf995 sponsor ad can also be avoided for a $9.95 license. Or you can get the pdfSuite (Pdf995, plus PdfEdit995 and Signature995) for $19.95. More information is available at Sponsor Key and License Key.
(This wasn't supposed to be a sales pitch and I don't make a nickel on it.)
According to the American Heritage Dictionary A utility "performs a specific task related to the management of computer functions, resources, or files, as password protection, memory management, virus protection, and file compression."
Karen's Power Tools. In the article about making a file list (column 1) I mentioned one very nice free utility, the Directory Printer by Karen Kenworthy. Karen has a whole set of utility programs and they are all free. They are called Karen's Power Tools.
In addition to Directory Printer, Karen's programs include Time Sync to synchronize you computer's clock with world clocks for split-second accuracy, Autorun.inf Editor that enables you to make CD's that automatically start when they are inserted, and Cookie Viewer for managing the cookies that many websites deposit on your computer's hard drive, among others. They are free. Just download and install them. You will not need the available VB6 source code unless you are a programmer and if you have a recent version of Windows, you probably already have the necessary Visual Basic Runtime v6.0. If you don't, however, you can download it from her site.
Karen also makes available a CD-ROM for $29 that contains all of her Power Tools and some others (over 25 programs), all of her newsletters and more. I don't make a cent off of this and I didn't even tell Karen I was going write about it. In fact, I didn't even know until just now. Just click on KarenWare.com to get all of this. You will find a link to the free programs in the left panel of that page.
1st Page 2000 v2.0 is professional HTML editing software that lets you create websites quickly. The program comes with over 450 Javascripts and supports all the latest web languages.
AM-DeadLink will find dead or duplicate links in your favorites (or bookmarks) list. A free and a pro version are available. A few non-critical features are disabled in the free version and it has no technical support.
Atomic Clock Sync can help you keep your local computer up-to-date with the exact current time.
AVG Antivirus 6.0. Free Edition. The pro edition has a few non-critical features that are disabled in the free edition. Also the free one has no technical support. But AVG is highly touted whether free or not. If you can afford it, however, I suggest Norton's Antivirus.
Easy Thumbnails is a free utility for creating accurate thumbnail images and scaled-down/up copies from a wide range of popular picture formats. It has an easy to use graphical interface.
Eraser allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times. You can also program overwriting of unused disk space. Some type of overwriting program should also be used before transferring your computer to another person in order to protect sensitive data. Some similar that can be bought have more features.
History Washer Pro. Computers retain a hidden record of your online activities. This freeware utility removes all traces of your Net surfing history, E-mail correspondence, etc. There is also an option on the site to get a serial number to register the program, for free. Before transferring your computer to someone else, it you might want to run a program such as this.
Infranview is a graphics viewer supporting many formats.
JustZIPit is an archiving freeware utility that lets you zip and unzip files with a single click. The program has no adware, spyware or registration requirements.
Kill Disk is another free utility that lets you overwrite files and/or free space to prevent data recovery by software designed for that purpose. As a DOS program, it works with all operating systems and file formats. A User's Manual is also downloadable.
Mailwasher allows you to stop spam and attachments containing viruses before they get to your computer. It will even send a message to the sender saying that their message could not be delivered. The free version that works with only one e-mail account seems to have been discontinued, but the pro version that works with one or multiple e-mail accounts has a free trial period. This is a highly recommended program, so I'm leaving it in this group for you to examine.
Mechanical Engineering software. A number of free mechanical engineering software programs can be downloaded here.
Passwords stores your passwords, user names, registration info and other related items in encrypted data files. In the left panel, click on "Software"/"Utilities."
Popup Calendar puts a small calendar by your system clock. In the Side Menu, click on "Utilities."
Pricelessware lists a number of free utilities and other programs that reportedly are quality software.
Show Calc is a Calculator with a tape. On the Side Menu click on "Utilities."
Whisper 32 is another password manager for Windows. Listed on the left side panel.
ZoneAlarm is a highly praised free firewall. You especially need a firewall if you have DSL or a cable modem.
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If you live in the United States, you are probably familiar with the US domain names ending in .com, .org,
.net, .edu, .gov and some others made available by NSI.
But what about the international domain names? They have
two letter extensions, such as .uk, .za, .at and many more,
denoting the country of origin. In fact, right now there
are 245 of them. Below I have listed all of them (without
the dot that will precede each one). Now you can know
where that international web site is located. You may wish
to print the list for handy reference.
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ad Andorra
ae United Arab Emirates
af Afghanistan
ag Antigua & Barbuda
ai Anguilla
al Albania
am Armenia
an Netherlands Antilles
ao Angola
aq Antarctica
ar Argentina
as American Samoa
at Austria
au Australia
aw Aruba
az Azerbaidjan
ba Bosnia - Herzegovina
bb Barbados
bd Bangladesh
be Belgium
bf Burkina Faso
bg Bulgaria
bh Bahrain
bi Burundi
bj Benin
bm Bermuda
bn Brunei Darussalam
bo Bolivia
br Brazil
bs Bahamas
bt Bhutan
bv Bouvet Island
bw Botswana
by Belarus
bz Belize
ca Canada
cc Cocos (Keeling) Isls.
cf Central African Rep.
cg Congo
ch Switzerland
ci Ivory Coast
ck Cook Islands
cl Chile
cm Cameroon
cn China
co Colombia
cr Costa Rica
cs Former Czechoslovakia
cu Cuba
cv Cape Verde
cx Christmas Island
cy Cyprus
cz Czech Republic
de Germany
dj Djibouti
dk Denmark
dm Dominica
do Dominican Rep.
dz Algeria
ec Ecuador
ee Estonia
eg Egypt
eh Western Sahara
es Spain
et Ethiopia
fi Finland
fj Fiji
fk Falkland Isls.
fm Micronesia
fo Faroe Islands
fr France
fx France (European
Terr.)
ga Gabon
gb Great Britain
gd Grenada
ge Georgia
gf French Guyana
gg Guernsey
gh Ghana
gi Gibraltar
gl Greenland
gm Gambia
gn Guinea
gp Guadeloupe (French)
Gq Equatorial Guinea
gr Greece
gs S. Georgia &
S. Sandwich Isls.
gt Guatemala
gu Guam (USA)
gw Guinea Bissau
gy Guyana
hk Hong Kong
hm Heard and
McDonald Isls.
hn Honduras
hr Croatia
ht Haiti
hu Hungary
id Indonesia
ie Ireland
il Israel
im Isle of Man
in India
io British Indian
Ocean Terr.
iq Iraq
ir Iran
is Iceland
it Italy
je Jersey
jm Jamaica
jo Jordan
jp Japan
ke Kenya
kg Kyrgyzstan
kh Cambodia
ki Kiribati
km Comoros
kn Saint Kitts &
Nevis Anguilla
kp North Korea
kr South Korea
kw Kuwait
ky Cayman Islands
kz Kazakhstan
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la Laos
lb Lebanon
lc Saint Lucia
li Liechtenstein
lk Sri Lanka
lr Liberia
ls Lesotho
lt Lithuania
lu Luxembourg
lv Latvia
ly Libyama Morocco
mc Monaco
md Moldavia
mg Madagascar
mh Marshall Islands
mk Macedonia
ml Mali
mm Myanmar
mn Mongolia
mo Macau
mp Northern Mariana Isls.
mq Martinique (French)
mr Mauritania
ms Montserrat
mt Malta
mu Mauritius
mv Maldives
mw Malawi
mx Mexico
my Malaysia
mz Mozambique
na Namibia
nc New Caledonia (French)
ne Niger
nf Norfolk Island
ng Nigeria
ni Nicaragua
nl Netherlands
no Norway
np Nepal
nr Nauru
nt Neutral Zone
nu Niue
nz New Zealand
om Oman
pa Panama
pe Peru
pf Polynesia (French)
pg Papua New Guinea
ph Philippines
pk Pakistan
pl Poland
pm St. Pierre & Miquelon
pn Pitcairn Island
pr Puerto Rico
pt Portugal
pw Palau
py Paraguay
qa Qatar
re Reunion (French)
ro Romania
ru Russian Federation
rw Rwanda
sa Saudi Arabia
sb Solomon Islands
sc Seychelles
sd Sudan
se Sweden
sg Singapor
sh Saint Helena
si Slovenia
sj Svalbard & Jan Mayen
Isls.
sk Slovak Republic
sl Sierra Leone
sm San Marino
sn Senegal
so Somalia
sr Suriname
st St. Tome & Principe
su Former USSR
sv El Salvador
sy Syria
sz Swaziland
tc Turks & Caicos Isls.
td Chad
tf French Southern Terrs.
tg Togo
th Thailand
tj Tadjikistan
tk Tokelau
tm Turkmenistan
tn Tunisia
to Tonga
tp East Timor
tr Turkey
tt Trinidad & Tobago
tv Tuvalu
tw Taiwan
tz Tanzania
ua Ukraine
ug Uganda
uk United Kingdom
um USA Minor Outlying Isls.
us United States
uy Uruguay
uz Uzbekistan
va Vatican City Sta
vc Saint Vincent &
Grenadines
ve Venezuela
vg Virgin Isls. (British)
vi Virgin Islands (USA)
vn Vietnam
vu Vanuatu
wf Wallis & Futuna Isls.
ws Samoa
ye Yemen
yt Mayotte
yu Yugoslavia
za South Africa
zm Zambia
zr Zaire
zw Zimbabwe
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The United States also has one of the above codes. It is .us and many cities have it in their domain name. The URL for such a city reads like this: http://www.ci.name_or_abreviation_of_city.us A URL cannot have spaces, so words will be run together or an underline or hyphen will be used between them or code for a space (%20) will be used instead. Some cities will have a .com or .org instead of the .us and leave out the .ci. Just thought you might like to know.
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Registered as
Children-Safe by:
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The use of information or software downloads from QuestGems©, or from any of its links, is at the sole responsibility and risk of the user.