WINDOWS TRICKS & SHORTCUTS

To add to Bogey's list:
CTRL+ENTER (puts www. and .com behind whateveryou type in url, ex: type "google" only into firefox and press CTRL+ENTER)

And I didn't see CTRL+Y (Redo)
Also in FF F6 highlights the url.

No, F6 turns on caret browsing. I read about it somewhere. It lets you highlight and copy text on a web page like you would on a text field. At least that is what my computer is doing.

I like the CTRL+ENTER one. Thanx since on many occasions I'm too lazy to type in WWW even though it doesn't make a difference.

I was thinking of putting firefox shortcuts (I started to), but I thought that people have firefox and just click ALT+ (whichever letter on the top menu) and see the short cuts listed there). Some of the shorcuts do different things than what they are listed to do in the menus. It might be my computer, my firefox, or simply it just coded incorrectly, doubt though.

I have read up to page 12 so far and don't recall seeing the firefox full maximize shortcut. They key is f11 to maximize and f11 again to undo. It hides the start bar, shrinks the utilities bar, and keps the address and tabs. I'm not sure if this is very useful but in case you need that extra space for browsing, now you know(if u didn't already).

same with most browsers.

On my computer F11 gives me the Find box at the bottom. Is my computer messed up?

Another one i just stumbled across, on my OS (XP Pro) Tab+ Windows Key moves through the taskbar items without opening them, then press space to open, or alt to bring up the window options.....

Learning Something New Everyday! thats my motto lol

If like me and your explorer browser doesn't display the file edit view... etc tool bar then just press F10, walla it will appear then when you have finished it will disappear again, (Ref. IE 7 on XP Pro)

Remove Properties Option from My Computer Right Click (2000, XP 2003)


If you want to remove the option to select system properties when a user right clicks on the My Computer icon, make the following change in the registry.

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Windows | CurrentVersion | Policies | Explorer.
Right click on the right side pane and select New-->DWORD Value and name it NoPropertiesMyComputer .
Double click on NoPropertiesMyComputer and assign it a value data of 1.
Close the registry editor and logoff for the effects to take place. .

Disable Access to Contents of Drive (2000, XP 2003)


By employing the following registry hack you can prevent access to any drive letter you choose that is accessible from My Computer, Explorer, Run, and Network Mappings. However the drives will be accessible from a Command Prompt. This hack does not hide the drive letter. To hide the drive letter see the next tip.

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Windows | CurrentVersion | Policies | Explorer.
Right click on the right side pane and select New-->DWORD Value and name it NoViewOnDrive .
Double click on NoViewOnDrive and assign it a value data of corresponding to one of the following values. The value you enter depends on which drive you want to disable access to. Read further and see the example for additional clarification.


A: 1 B: 2, C: 4, D: 8, E: 16, F: 32, G: 64, H: 128, I: 256, J: 512, K: 1024, L: 2048, M: 4096, N: 8192, O: 16384, P: 32768, Q: 65536, R: 131072, S: 262144, T: 524288, U: 1048576, V: 2097152, W: 4194304, X: 8388608, Y: 16777216, Z: 33554432, ALL: 67108863



These values are the decimal value; make sure you select Decimal when you assign the value to NoViewOnDrive. If you want to disable access to more than one drive, than add the value of those drive together and enter that Decimal value. For example, to disable access to both the C and D drive enter a decimal value of 12.

Close the registry editor and restart Windows for the effects to take place.

Hide Drive from Windows Explorer and My Computer (2000, XP 2003)


By employing the following registry hack you can hide any drive letter you choose from My Computer and Windows Explorer. However the drives will still be accessible from a Command Prompt, the Run Menu, and Network Mappings. This hack is best used in combination with Disable Access to Contents of Drive.

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Windows | CurrentVersion | Policies | Explorer .
Right click on the right side pane and select New-->DWORD Value and name it NoDrives .
Double click on NoDrives and assign it a value data of corresponding to the following values. The value you enter depends on which drive you want to hide. Read further and see the example for additional clarification.


A: 1 B: 2, C: 4, D: 8, E: 16, F: 32, G: 64, H: 128, I: 256, J: 512, K: 1024, L: 2048, M: 4096, N: 8192, O: 16384, P: 32768, Q: 65536, R: 131072, S: 262144, T: 524288, U: 1048576, V: 2097152, W: 4194304, X: 8388608, Y: 16777216, Z: 33554432, ALL: 67108863



These values are the decimal value; make sure you select Decimal when you assign the value to NoDrives . If you want to hide more than one drive, than add the value of those drives together and enter that Decimal value. For example, to hide both the C and D drive enter a decimal value of 12.

Close the registry editor and restart Windows for the effects to take place.

Restrict Access to Display Properties (2000, XP 2003)
If you do not want users to be able to change display settings such as wallpaper, screensavers and other desktop appearances which are accessed by right clicking on the desktop or using the Display Control Panel applet, make the following change in the registry. After the changes have been made, any user attempting to access the Display properties will get a warning informing them that this applet has been disabled.

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Windows | CurrentVersion | Policies
Right click on Policies and select New-->Key . Name it System. If HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Windows | CurrentVersion | Policies |System is already present on your system you can ignore this step.
With HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Windows | CurrentVersion | Policies | System highlighted, right click on the right side pane and select New-->DWORD Value and name it NoDispCPL .
Double click on NoDispCPL and assign it a value data of 1.
Close the registry editor and logoff Windows for the effects to take place.

Make Google Your Default Search Engine in Internet Explorer (2000, XP, 2003)


By default Internet Explorer will automatically use MSN as the search engine whenever the search button in IE is utilized. However, as most of us know Google is the best search engine available and therefore would be a better choice to use as the default search. To make Google the default search engine, make the following changes in the registry:

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Internet Explorer | Main and right click in the right side pane and select New-->String Value and name it Use Search Asst. Double click on Use Search Asst and assign it a Value date of no.
Right click in the right side pane and select New-->String Value and name it Search Bar. Double click on Use Search Bar and assign it a Value date of http://www.google.com/ie .
Double click on the Search Page string value in the right side pane and assign it a Value data of http://www.google.com.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Internet Explorer | SearchURL and double click on (Default) and assign it a value of http://www.google.com/keyword/%s.
Double click on provider and assign it a value of gogl .
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | SOFTWARE | Microsoft | Internet Explorer | Search and double click on SearchAssistant and assign it a Value data of http://www.google.com/ie.
Close the registry and restart Internet Explorer.

Reset Default Location of Internet Explorer Window (2000, XP 2003)


Occasionally you may move the Internet Explorer Browser windows to a location where the title bar is off screen. If you are unable to click on the title bar, you will not be able to drag the window back onto the screen. In other cases you may find that you can only Maximize and Minimize the browser window. If either of these situations occur, you need to reset the default location of the Internet Explorer window by making the following change in the registry.

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Internet Explorer |Main.
Select the Window_Placement Binary value and delete it to restore the Internet Explorer window to the default location.
Exit the registry and restart Internet Explorer for the changes to take effect. If you cannot close IE using traditional methods kill the process and relaunch IE.

Change Internet Explorer Window Title (2000, XP 2003)


When you purchase a computer from a company such as Dell or Gateway they may brand your copy of Internet Explorer with the name of their company. You can change it back to the default title of Microsoft Internet Explorer or you can name it anything you desire. To change the IE window title make the following modification in the registry.

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Internet Explorer | Main and look for the string value Window Title. Right click on this string and select Delete to return the title to the default value of Microsoft Internet Explorer.
You can also change this value to any text you desire. If you do not see the Window Title string value you can create it by right clicking the right side pane and selecting New-->String Value. Name this string value Window Title.
Double click on Window Title and name it whatever you want your IE browser window to be titled.
Close the registry editor and restart Internet Explorer for the changes to take effect.

Change Internet Explorer Logo (2000, XP 2003)



When you purchase a computer from a company such as Dell or Gateway they may brand your copy of Internet Explorer with their own logo. This is the logo that appears the upper right hand corner of the browser window. To change this logo back to the default Windows logo make the following modifications in the registry.

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Internet Explorer | Toolbar and delete the BrandBitmap and SmBrandBitmap string values.
Also navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | SOFTWARE | Microsoft | Internet Explorer |Main delete the SmallBitmap and BigBitmap string values.
Exit the registry and restart Internet Explorer for the changes to take effect.