Fresh Tips and Tricks

Restoring a Lost Desktop If you ever lose the Desktop but Explorer is still running with the Start Button, you can do this to bring back your Desktop in a Windows box. Click Start Click Run Type a period " . " Then press Enter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Creating a New E-Mail Shortcut To create a shortcut that will open your default e-mail program starting a new e-mail, Right click on an open area of the desktop Select New / Shortcut For the Command Line, enter mailto: For the title enter something like New E-Mail When you click on this your default e-mail program should start with a new e-mail form. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Creating 3D Window Effect You can create a nice 3D effect for your windows Start Regedit Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Colors Make sure the following setting are there: ButtonHilight=128 128 128 ButtonShadow=255 255 255 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Creating Shutdown, Restart and Logoff Icons To create the icons, create a shortcut on the desktop. For Shutdown, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindows For Restart, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindow***ec For Logoff, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE shell32.dll,SHExitWindow*** 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Having your Favorites and Start Menus Sort Alphabetically If your Start Menu Program or Favorites are not sorting alphabetically, it is easy to fix this: Start Regedit Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/MenuOrder Under here is are Favorites and Start Menu folders In each there is a value called Order Simply delete (or rename this) and restart Winodws Your Favorites or Start Menus should now sort alphabetically