A Slice of Pie ...
There are more ways to skin cats in Windows than you can imagine. When you want to see how much hard drive space you have left on your C drive (or even a floppy disk), you can just look down at the bottom of your My Computer window, and the drive you have highlighted will have that information showing for you. If the numbers don't mean much to you, and you would like to see a more graphic representation of the space you have left, try right-clicking on the drive in question and choose Properties with your left mouse button. You will see the cutest little pie chart. The pink part is how much hard disk space you have left. If you have a little sliver, you may have to think twice about adding that nifty new program you just bought.
Refresh It! ...
When your window doesn't seem to be showing what you think it should, you may need to refresh it. The F5 key at the top of your keyboard will do this for you. Sometimes a computer can get "confused," and may still have stuff showing from the last things you were doing. Refreshing your screen just puts everything back to where it should be at that moment.
Refreshing ...
If you're viewing the contents of a floppy disk, and then insert another disk into your floppy drive, you don't have to open My Computer and double-click on the Floppy Drive again. A quicker way is to simply hit F5 to refresh the open floppy disk window's contents. The contents of the old disk will disappear from the window and the new contents will appear. It's magic!
View Details ...
When you are in File Manager or Explorer (for Win95, XP and Vista) and the large icons make looking for a particular file or folder a little ridiculous, try clicking the word view, then click details. All of your files and folders will line up nice and neatly for your perusal.
 Did you notice? ...
If you right-clicked on your desktop while trying out the last tip, did you notice all the other neat things you could do with just one more click of your mouse? Enough said.
Instant gratification ...
Windows users don't have to sit and stare at the screen waiting for the screen saver to activate. Screensaver files have a .scr at the end of their file name. Click Start and Find and do a search for .scr files. scroll down until you see the name of your favorite screensaver, right-click on it, drag it to your desktop, and choose the create shortcut option with your left mouse button. After the shortcut is created, you can right-click on it to give it any name you want. When you double-click on your new shortcut, your screensaver will instantly activate. Isn't that special???
Empty the trash ...
If your computer seems to be running a little slower, try emptying out the Recycle Bin to clear up some of that precious hard drive space. To permanently delete a file, rather than sending it to the Recycle Bin, hold down the SHIFT key when pressing the DELETE key or selecting Delete from the drop-down menu. This should only be done if you are certain you aren't going to change your mind and want it restored later. The Recycle Bin is a terrific tool, but it's just like any other trash can. It needs to be taken out and emptied every now and then.
Sound Advice ...
If you click once on the speaker icon in your System Tray (at the bottom right of your screen), you can quickly adjust your volume. If you double-click on that same icon, you can bring up all sorts of other controls to adjust and tweak.
Alt-Advice ...
The ALT key is used to call up extra functions. For example, if you have a program open and hold down the ALT key while pressing the E key, you will see the Edit menu drop down. It is conveniently placed where you would expect to find the SHIFT key. Sometimes it lets you delete entire documents when all you wanted was a capital L. What I'm trying to say is...It's always Something!
A Different View ...
You can view a folder's contents in an Explorer view instead of a standard window view. Right-mouse click the folder and select Explore. If you prefer to use the keyboard command, hold down Shift and double-click on it. The Explorer view will have two windows, making it much easier to drag and drop from one folder to another.
Select a Bunch ...
If you need to select more than one item in a folder or on the desktop, and they're all next to each other, use the mouse to highlight them all at once. Click once (left mouse button) on a blank area next to the first item you want to select, then (while holding your left mouse button down) drag to create a box around the whole group of items you want. Let go, and every item within the box will be highlighted. Another way to select more than one item is to hold down your CTRL key while you click each one (at a time) until you have all you want ready and waiting. REMEMBER, once something is highlighted, you can do something with it, to it, or for it. That means, copying, moving to another place, deleting, and anything else you can think of.
The Adult View ...
If you are tired of looking at that large popup when you click the Start button, you can change it to something a little more manageable. Right-click on an empty area of your Taskbar, select Properties, and place a check mark in Show small icons in the Start menu.
Auto Hide ...
While you are in the Properties area of your Taskbar settings, you might want to click the Auto Hide button. It will cause your Taskbar to disappear when you are not using it. To get to it when you need it, simply swing your mouse pointer to the bottom of the screen and it will pop right back up for you.
Perfect Backup ...
If you need to copy a file or folder, or lots of them, from your hard drive to a recordable cd drive, the Send To command is the easiest way. In any file management window, right click on the file (or folder) you want to backup. From the drop down menu, choose Send To. Then select your cd drive in the popup menu with your left mouse button. Of course you will want to make sure there is a disk in that drive.
Move that Taskbar ...
If your Windows get in the way of your taskbar, you can move it as easy as spitting seeds from a 4th of July watermelon. Just position your pointer on an empty spot on the taskbar and, while holding your left mouse button down, drag it to the top, bottom, left, or right of your screen. While dragging it from one side of the screen to another, it won't look like anything is happening until you get close to your target. Then, you should see the taskbar almost magically disappear from your starting point, and reappear where you want it to be. All I want to know is why everything in Windows isn't this straightforward and easy? Hmmmmm?
Got questions?
Search mrswizard.com and compuquicktips.com
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