Internet Fixes Weekly Microsoft Windows Newsletter

August 09, 2004Keeping you up-to-date every week!
 
Adding to the "Send To" Command!
When you right-click on a file and go to "Send To," you get the standard list of My Documents, Mail Recipient, or what ever drives you have installed on your machine. This is a great feature that has been around since Windows 95. If you send files to other folders or drives not listed, such as a network drive, wouldn't it be nice to be able to right-click on the file and send it to any place you want? You can, and today I will tell you how!

First, create a folder on your Desktop if you don't already have a place in mind where you want to put the files. You can do this by right clicking on the Desktop, selecting "New," and then "Folder." Name it whatever you would like. For the purpose of this article, I'll call mine "STM."

Now that we have our destination, we want to tell Windows that it's there and it's ready to receive files. To do this, hit the Windows key and E. This will open up an Explorer window. Before you do anything else, go to the "Tools" menu and select "Folder Options." Click on the "View" tab and find the option "View all files and folders." Check that box so we can see everything on the drive.

Next, find the drive where Windows is located, which usually is C:. Find the folder named "Documents and Settings" and open it. You should then see a folder named "Send To," which of course is the folder we are looking for. Double-click to open the folder. There you will see the list of items that is already in our Send To menu.

Right-click in the window and select "New." This time, we want to select "Shortcut." A box will then appear and ask you to "Type the name of the item." To make things easier, we are going to click on the button just to the right that says "Browse." Navigate to the location of your folder or drive (which in my case is to my Desktop, and then the newly created STM folder). Select the folder and hit Enter. Windows will ask you if you want to rename the shortcut. You can do this if you like, and it will not change the actual name of the folder or drive. The text you type - if you choose to do so - will only appear in the Send To menu.
Encrypt a compressed folder in Windows ME!
In a previous tip I introduced you to Windows Me's compressed folder feature, which you can use in place of a third-party zipping utility to create file archives on your hard drive. To create an added level of security, you can encrypt your compressed folder by assigning the folder a password. This can be an especially helpful security feature if your computer is used by multiple users.

To encrypt your compressed folder, right-click on it and choose Encrypt from the shortcut menu. In the Encrypt dialog box, enter a password for the folder, and then type it again to confirm it. Click OK. Now when any user attempts to open the compressed folder, he will have to supply a password in order to gain access to the files inside.
Clean up your taskbar in Windows 2000 Professional!
The notification area in the taskbar's corner, also called the tray, generally contains at least a few icons for applications running on your computer in the background. Common icons that appear in the tray by default include the clock and volume control. If MSN Messenger is installed on your computer, that shows up on the tray as well. Other icons might live there, too, such as the network status icon and the Unplug or Eject Hardware icon.

In some cases, you can allow the application to continue to run in the background yet hide the icon. For example, you might want to remove the clock or volume control. To hide the clock, right-click the taskbar, choose Properties, and clear the Show Clock check box. To hide the volume control, open the Sounds And Multimedia object in the Control Panel and clear the Show Volume Control On The Taskbar check box. You'll find the option to control the network status icon on the General tab for the network interface's Properties (which you can access in the Network And Dial-Up Connections folder).

Many third-party applications that live on the tray give you the option of turning off the tray icon and still allowing the application to run. Removing others from the tray requires that you actually shut down the program. Although some tray-bound applications start through the Startup folder, many start from the registry. To prevent these applications from starting, open the Registry Editor and remove the application's entry from the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun key.

Reminder: Editing the registry can be risky, so be sure you have a verified backup before making any changes
http://internetfixes1.brinkster.net/customer_support/registry_tips/registry.htm
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