Best of Tech Tips - Part Two

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This month's issue has the second part of the best of the Tech Tips articles from previous issues of Ray's Computer Tips. The articles below are the full articles.

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Make an Explorer Link

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        Windows Explorer always seems to start in the worst possible place. If you use it much, it can be a real pain to always have to find and open the folder that you want. What if you could get Windows Explorer to open up to the folder that you want automatically?
        This can be done with the help of a shortcut. Last month I explained what shortcuts are and how to make them. Below are step-by-step instructions on how to make a shortcut which opens Windows Explorer to a specified folder.

1. Right click on an empty area of the desktop.
2. When the popup menu is shown, move your cursor to New and a submenu will appear. Click on Shortcut in the submenu. The Create Shortcut dialog box will appear.
3. In the textbox insert this line - C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /n,/e,d:\
   Change the d:\ in the line above to the folder you wish to open. For example, if you want to open Explorer to a folder named WinRescue in the Program Files folder on C drive, you would change the line to C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /n,/e,c:\Program Files\WinRescue
4. Click on the Next button.
5. Type in a name for the shortcut in the textbox and then click on the Finish button.
6. If you want the shortcut to be located somewhere other than the Desktop, like in the Quick Launch area or on the Start menu, drag the shortcut on the Desktop to that area and drop it between existing items (if you drop it on an existing item it will open that item instead of adding the shortcut).

        Now when you double click on the shortcut that you created, it will open Explorer in the specified folder.

Using the Windows button

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        Most keyboards have a key on either side of the space key between the Alt and Ctrl keys with a Windows logo on it. This is the Windows button. If you press it, the Start menu is displayed. Below is a list of other functions that the Windows button (called Windows Logo below) can do when it is pressed in combination (at the same time) with other keys.

• Windows Logo alone: opens the Start menu
• Windows Logo and R: opens the Run dialog box
• Windows Logo and M: minimizes all of the windows.
• Windows Logo, SHIFT, and M: undoes the "minimize all" that the previous combination did.
• Windows Logo and F1: starts Windows' Help and Support Center.
• Windows Logo and E: opens Windows Explorer
• Windows Logo and F: opens Windows Explorer's Search to find files or folders.
• Windows Logo and D: minimizes all open windows and displays the desktop.
• Windows Logo, Ctrl, and F: opens Windows Explorer's Search to find computers on the network.
• Windows Logo, Ctrl, and TAB: if the focus is on Start, Quick Launch, or the system tray, this moves the focus through these three menus (use RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW to move the focus within these menus). This is helpful if your mouse is not working and you need to navigate using the keyboard.
• Windows Logo and TAB: cycle through taskbar items.
• Windows Logo and Break: display the System Properties dialog box.

Why is Drive Size Smaller?

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        This is a common problem. You buy a new large harddrive and install it on your computer, but when you start up your computer, it shows your harddrive as being much smaller than its actual size. What happened?
        One of the factors to this problem is that no one foresaw the expansion of harddrive technology to the extent that someday home computers would have 250gb harddrives. Another factor has to do with how big of a number it takes to express the size of the harddrive. A computer is limited in how big of a number it can use. A 16-bit number can only go up to 32767 or 65535 (depending on whether you use negative numbers or not) and a 32-bit number can only go high enough to handle a 4 gb harddrive. Operating systems figure out ways around this but usually their solutions are not that far ahead of the size of harddrives. Because of these factors, if you have a computer that is a few years old, it may not give you all of the space on newer harddrives.
        A third factor is the difference in binary and decimal numbers. Some places on your computer like to express the size of your harddrive in binary numbers and some places in decimal numbers. The difference is less than 10 percent. This is normal and there is nothing that you can do about this. Just know that a difference of less than 10 percent may exist.
        Please realize that you can still use the harddrive even if the correct size is not detected. You just will not be able to use the entire harddrive, but you will be able to use the part that your computer can handle. Also realize that if you want at a later time to figure out how to enable the rest of the harddrive, enabling it will destroy all of the data on the harddrive.
        When it comes to tracking down the problem, there are two general areas that can cause the problem: BIOS and the operating system.
        The first place to go is into BIOS (there are certain keys to press when the computer is starting which will get you into BIOS) and have it detect the harddrive. If the LBA option is off, turn it on. If the stated size does not come close to the actual size, your BIOS is probably not big enough to handle it. Some BIOSs can be upgraded with software to handle bigger harddrives. Check with the manufacturer of your BIOS (this is probably the manufacturer of your motherboard and/or computer) to see if this is possible and how it is done.
        If BIOS shows a size close to the correct size of the harddrive, then the problem is with the operating system. If you have Windows 95, 98, or ME, first you must check MSDOS. Try typing chkdsk, a space, the drive letter, a colon (:), and the Enter key at a DOS prompt and see if it lists the correct size. If so, MSDOS is OK. If not, you either need to update your MSDOS (WinME's DOS is the most up-to-date) or you need to update your file system (only NTFS can handle bigger sizes).
        The last place to check is Windows. The earlier versions of Windows have size limits. WinXP and Win2000 should handle any size, but even these may have problems. If you have an earlier version of Windows, you will need to upgrade to Win2000 or WinXP. If you have Win2000 or WinXP, do a search on Microsoft's website (http://search.microsoft.com) for an answer or check out these articles:

• http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013
• http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305098

        Another place to look for information on this is at the harddrive manufacturer's website.
        If you can't figure out the problem from this article, ask your local computer repair shop.

The Prt Scr key

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        You may have seen this key on your keyboard. Since I don't use it that often, I never remember exactly where it is. So when I want to use it, I usually have to put my reading glasses on and hunt for it. It is located near the right end of the top row of keys on your keyboard. On my keyboard it is above the Insert key.
        Though seldom used, it can come in handy if you know how to use it.
        Prt Scr stands for Print Screen. When you press this button (Compaq computers may require also holding down on the Fn key), it doesn't seem to do anything, but it does. In the olden days it printed the screen out on the printer. Today it puts a copy of your screen in Windows' clipboard. If you open Paint (you can find Paint on the Start menu, under All Programs then under Accessories), go to the Edit menu and select Paste, an image exactly resembling your screen is put in Paint. Why don't you try it right now and see what it does?
        In Paint or any other graphics editor you can crop, resize, and edit the picture. Then you can save it to a file.
        Here is an extra little tip: if you hold down on the Alt key as you press the Prt Scr button, it will only capture the active window instead of capturing the entire screen.
        Most keyboards also have Sysrq on the Prt Scr key. In the olden days this stopped run-away programs in DOS. Today, in most cases, it does nothing.
        If you put your mind to it, you can come up with some good ways to use Prt Scr. I used it to get the pictures of our programs which are on our website. Some people use it to report problems in my programs (I would rather that you write a good explanation, but sometimes a picture helps). Though it can be illegal, some people use it to get pictures from the internet. It is also a quick way to transfer pictures to a file.
        Prt Scr is not a key that will get worn down from over-use, but it is a good key to know about.

Pictures on your Computer

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        A picture may be worth a thousand words, but on your computer screen a picture is actually a thousand (or more) dots. The dots, called pixels, are so small that your eye does not distinguish the individual dots and instead groups them all together into a picture.
        Behind the scenes each dot is represented by a number which tells what color that dot is. Using a RGB (red, green, blue) color scheme, this number is the combination of three numbers which tell how much red, green, and blue are in the color. For example, black is the number 000000 which is the three numbers: 00, 00, and 00. Black has 0 amount of red, 0 amount of green, and 0 amount of blue. Red is represented by the number FF0000 (F is the highest single digit in computer numbers with a base of 16) and so it has all red (FF), no green (00), and no blue (00). White is FFFFFF (all red, all green, and all blue).
        A picture made up of dots is called a bitmap. All pictures shown on your screen are displayed as bitmaps, but that is where the similarities stop. Different picture formats are saved differently on your computer. It can be a great help to you if you know the differences.
        The simplest file format for a bitmap is a BMP file. If you were to open a BMP file, after the introductory part of the file, all you would see is numbers, like this: fc001ffffff3fff800ffc7cff3f3f9fffffef807ff9fff0001fffcfc0007fffffc001ffffff3. The first number (fc001f) is the color of the upper left dot of the picture. The second number (fffff3) is the color of the second dot on the first row, and so on and so forth.
        The problem with a BMP file is that listing a number for each dot in a picture can cause the file to be quite large. A BMP picture the size of a standard screen is 2.25 mb. That is twice as big as the download file for our program, RegVac Registry Cleaner. If the pictures on the web were all BMPs, you would have to wait for several minutes to see each page.
        To make pictures files smaller, other formats were produced, the most common of which are GIF, JPG, and PNG. You can tell what kind of file it is by the extension of the filename. The filename of a BMP file called picture would be picture.bmp, a JPG file - picture.jpg, a GIF file - picture.gif, and a PNG file - picture.png.
        JPG and GIF files are actually bitmaps which make the file size smaller with special compression schemes (it is like putting a BMP in a ZIP file). JPG is the most common type and uses a compression scheme that favors photographs. Most digital cameras save pictures in JPG format. A JPG file of the same 2.25mb BMP image mentioned above is 245kb (that is one-ninth the size of the BMP).
        GIF uses a compression scheme that favors line drawings. The above mentioned picture saved in GIF format is only 165kb. Even though it is quite a bit smaller, the quality of the picture is also much poorer. For this reason, photos should not be saved in GIF format.
        PNG is a completely different type of picture called a vector image. Instead of specifying the color of each individual dot as a bitmap does, a vector image specifies lines and areas using mathematical equations. For example, a vector image of a square would specify where each corner of the square is located, connect those points with lines, and fill in the square with the specified color. A PNG file with a 30 foot square and a PNG file with a quarter inch square would be the same size because the information in each one would be the same except for the location of the four corners of the squares. Unlike bitmaps, the file size of a vector file more depends on the detail and contents of the picture than the size of the picture. PNG files also have layers and can show photos.
        An easy way to change the format of a picture is to open it in Microsoft Paint (it is located in the Start menu under All Programs and then Accessories) and then save it in one of the other formats.
        There is a lot more to know about pictures, but this is enough to give you a basic understanding of the common picture formats. Hopefully, the next time that you start attaching those huge BMP pictures of your family to an email, you will stop and realize that you can convert them to JPG and make room on the internet trafficways for others.

The F Keys

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        Along the top of your keyboard is a row of keys numbered F1 to F10 or F12. Even though you may never use them, they do have function. In fact, the F stands for Function and they are called Function keys. Below is a list of what each key does. After the list is a trick that you can use Function keys for.
        Most of the items on the list below apply only to Windows and Windows' programs, especially Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer.
        Some programs have their own set of functions that they have assigned to the Function keys. You can find these in the menu of the program. The menu items which are assigned a function key have the corresponding function key designated after the item name. If you press that function key, you can perform that function without using the menu or buttons. The program's help or manual should also tell which functions are assinged to the function keys.
        You might want to try each one of these as you read through them.

Function Keys for Windows

• F1 - Opens Help for the currently displayed program (this does not work on all programs).
• Windows Logo key and F1 - Opens Windows' Help.
• F2 - Highlights the name of a selected object for renaming in Windows Explorer, desktop, and some other Windows' programs. First, you need to select an item that can be renamed (like, a file or shortcut). After pressing F2, you can then type what you want to rename the object to.
• F3 - Brings up Search in Windows Explorer.
• F4 - Drops down the Address bar in Internet Explorer showing your previous locations. This allows you to scroll down and select one.
• Alt and F4 - Closes the currently displayed program.
• F5 - Refreshes the view in Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer (in other words, it looks at the source again and reloads the contents), and other programs. In MailWasher it checks the mail (which I guess would be a kind of refresh).
• F6 - moves the cursor around the structure of a program. Pressing it may cycle you from window to window or from place to place within the program. In Windows Explorer it moves you from the left pane to the right pane and back. This is similar to what the Tab key does.
• Alt and F6 - Switches between multiple windows in the same program (for example, when the Notepad Find dialog box is displayed, ALT+F6 switches between the Find dialog box and the main Notepad window).
• F7 - does not have any functionality in Windows. It may be used in individual programs.
• F8 - accesses Safe Mode if pressed at the right time while the computer is starting. Safe Mode is a trouble-shooting mode, which will start the computer with minimal drivers.
• F9 - does not have any functionality in Windows. It may be used in individual programs.
• F10 - Changes the focus to and from the menu. Pressing the Alt key will also do this. Once the focus is on the menu items, you can use the arrow keys to navigate to an item and the Enter key to select it.
• Shift and F10 - brings up the popup menu in Windows Explorer much like right clicking on an item does.
• F11 - Switches between regular screen mode and full screen mode. Full screen mode is like a maximized screen but with more screen space and less toolbar controls.
• F12 - does not have any functionality in Windows. It may be used in individual programs.

        You may have noticed that some of the Function keys are not used (F7, F9, F12) in Windows. That doesn't mean that they can't be used. There are two ways to use the unused F keys.
        The best and easiest way to use these keys is to get our program, Design Your Keys. Design Your Keys quickly lets you customize the F keys and many other keys to do what you want them to do (for example, go to websites, hibernate the computer, see System Properties, and etc.). Get more information at http://www.superwin.com/designyourkeys.htm. Free 30 day trial. Download Design Your Keys at http://superwin.swmirror.com/designyourkeyz.exe
        The second way to use the unused F keys or any other key combination is to reconfigure a shortcut. This can only be used on shortcuts. Here are instructions for doing that.

1. Locate the shortcut of that program. The Start menu is a good place to find shortcuts (every icon in the Start menu is a shortcut). If the program doesn’t have a shortcut, create one.
2. Right click on the shortcut and select the Properties item from the popup menu.
3. The Properties dialog will open. Go to the Shortcut tab.
4. Put the curser in the Shortcut key textbox and press the Function key or key combination (like Alt + Ctrl + 2) which you want to use to start the program.
5. The Function key name or key combination name will appear in the box.
6. Click on the Apply button (or the OK button) and close the dialog.

        After you have done this, whenever you press that Function key or key combination, that program will start. Please note that if you use a Function key or key combination that is already used by Windows or other programs, it will no longer work in Windows or the other programs as it used to and will instead start your program.
        To disable this, follow the above instructions but press Backspace or Delete in the Shortcut key textbox.
        The Function keys are there to make your life easier. Now you can start using them.

How to Recover without Preparation

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        Every once in a while someone who has crashed their computer will write me wanting to know what they can do to get everything back. The easy answer is: "Nothing, if you have not prepared for a crash by backing up regularly, there is nothing you can do." While in most cases that is true, it is not always true. There is a slight chance that you can recover from a crash without prior preparation. Here is what to do.
        First you need to know what kind of crash it is. This article covers three types of crashes: data loss, Windows crash, and hard drive crash.
        Data loss happens when a file is deleted or when a program that is editing a document freezes.
        If you have deleted a file, there is a slight chance that you can get it back. Older DOS environments came with a program called Undelete. If you have it, it can recover deleted files in DOS. There are also programs that run in Windows that show all of the deleted programs that can be found on your drive and they may be able to get deleted files back. If you are going to try to recover a deleted file, it is important that you do as little activity on the drive of the deleted file as you can so that it is not overwritten before you can recover it.
        If you are editing a document and the program freezes, this can be almost as devastating as if you deleted the file. Some programs, like Word or CorelDraw, have been known to freeze up in certain situations. If you have been working on a document all day and you have not saved your changes, you will not be able to save the changes when the program freezes. This means that you may end up redoing the changes in the document. After this happens to you a few times, you will probably learn to save your document more often.
        But there is one way to rescue a frozen document. These programs usually keep the document that you are working on in a temporary file. This may have the same filename as the document that you are working on with a different extension or it may have a temporary filename with the same extension. In any case, it usually is kept in the same folder as the document you were working on. Look in that folder and try opening the temporary files. You just may find one that will save you from having to redo everything again. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't.
        A Windows crash occurs when Windows does not start properly. In most cases, the culprit is the registry. When a registry file becomes corrupt, it cannot be rebuilt or fixed (many people ask me that). The only way to rescue a bad registry is to replace it with a good one. Some versions of Windows automatically keep registry backups. Windows 95 keeps one that usually does not work. Windows 98 and ME keep 5. Windows 2000 does not keep any. And Windows XP keeps them in restore points (which are not accessible from the Recovery Console). Each version of Windows has a different way of recovering these backups. You may find information on the internet or our WinRescue program can restore them.
        If you can recover the registry, you will get everything back without having to reformat and reinstall anything.
        The worst kind of crash you can have is a hard drive crash. Windows may warn you at startup if a drive is failing. If you get these warnings or Windows scans the drive every startup, get a new drive and transfer the contents over while you can. If you don't and you end up with a dead hard drive, you will lose everything on the hard drive.
        There is a way to recover the contents of a crashed hard drive, but it is expensive and may not work. You will have to buy a new hard drive to put the contents of the crashed drive on. The computer repair shop will open the old drive, fix what was broken, and copy it to the new drive. Because the crashed drive is opened, they only get one chance to do this before the crashed drive becomes totally unusable. If they are not successful, you still have to pay for their attempt.
        I hope you never have a crash, but if you do and you have not prepared for it, maybe these tips will help. But the best thing you can do is backup, backup, backup. Next month, I will discuss backing up.

Where did that File Go?

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        It happens to the best of us. You download a file and then go to run it and can't remember where you put it. Or you write the next bestseller, leave it for a month or so, and then can't find it on your computer. Where do those files go?
        I can't tell you where the files go, but I can tell you how to find them.
        In the first example above, it may be eaiser to start the download process again. You do not have to go through the whole download process. You just have to go to the point where it asks you where you want to put the file. Since the default location is probably the same place you put it before, you can look to see what the default location is that it shows and the file that you downloaded before will probably be there. You can then click on the Cancel button and go get the already downloaded file.
        If that does not work, here is the process for finding files on your computer.
        Click on the Start button in the lower left corner of your screen, find the Search item, and click on it. This opens the Search Results window.
        If you know the name of the file or part of the name, type it in the "All or part of the file name:" textbox.
        You may use wildcards to help you. A wildcard is a character that stands for one or more other characters. The two most common wildcards are * and ?.
        The asterick (*) is used to represent any amount of any number or letter. So if you know that the filename you are looking for begins with a "t" and ends with a "y", you can put t*y (the * represents all numbers and letters that would be between the "t" and "y") and it will find all filenames that start with a "t" and end with a "y". If the files, "try", "they", "treachery", "t483isey", exist on your computer, it will find them.
        The question mark (?) is used to represent only one number or letter. So if you know that the filename starts with a "t" and ends with a "y" and that there is only one letter in between, you would put t?y. That would find "try" and "t8y", but not "they", "treachery", or "t483isey". If you know that two letters are between "t" and "y", you can put t??y.
        WinXP and WinVista search as if you put an asterick before and after the text in the textbox.
        The other textbox on the Search screen is the "A word or phrase in the file" textbox. If you know a distinct word or phrase that is inside of the file that you are looking for, you can type the word or phrase in this textbox and it will find only files with that word or phrase inside of it. A business woman I know is always misplacing the records for her clients so she uses this function to search for that client's name and thus finds the needed record. Wildcards do not work here.
        You can use just one of these textboxes and leave the other blank or you can use both (to find only the designated filenames with the designated text in them).
        Next you should choose where you want the search to happen. You can choose all of the drives on your computer (which will take a long time), just one drive, or individual folders (to select an individual folder, click on the Browse item at the bottom of the dropdown menu).
        To start the search, click on the Search button. The folder being searched is shown at the bottom of the window. The results are shown in the right box. When the file you are looking for is found, you can run it or open it from the list by double clicking on it.
        Please be aware that if you have Windows Explorer set up to hide files or folders (which it does by default), Search will not search the hidden locations. You can change these settings by going to the Tools menu in Search and selecting Folder Options. When the Folder Options window opens, click on the View tab and scroll through the Advanced Settings. Select "Show hidden files and folders" and uncheck "Hide protected operating system files".
        There are advanced features that can be used with Search by clicking on "When was it modified?", "What size is it?", and "More advanced options."
        Once you know how to use Windows Search, you can say goodbye to lost files.


Questions on our Discussion Board

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• Outlook Express emails
  
• Iexplore.exe application errors
  
• highlighting text in browser
  
• windows im send button
  
• What's new files?
  
• Running SFC /SCANNOW
  
• ctrl alt del
  
• Multiple Windows Task Managers
  
• Windows Internet Explorer
  
• Zippin the Drives
  
• License Question
  
• File Associations Being Deleted
  
• XP Restore not working properly
  
• Volume is in use by another process
  
• SpeedStart
  
• Reading CDs
  
• FULL SCREEN
  
• Do I need to update to WinRescue Vista?
  
• Video Editing Software
  
• RegVac and Vista 64
  
• Service Pack installation failure
  
• Theme Deleted
  
• Sudden Slow Down
  
• email page freeze
  
• Adding USB wifi to laptop remove drivers
  

Thanks for reading,
Ray Geide