The dreaded slow boot problem.

You know, the kind that makes you want to start your Windows computer and log on the night before, so it’s ready for you in the morning.

As always in these cases, I usually turn to the trusty Sysinternals tools, Autoruns, that’s known to fix slow Windows boot up and logon problems.

But this time, the changes made with Autoruns did not seem to make much of an improvement. Something else, somewhere was….being a real pain in the butt.

So, to fix the problem, I needed to do something else…

My problem started after I became complacent and “just” started to install updates and software at once.

I had recently purchased an HP Printer (Photosmart C410a) and installed the available software that came with the printer, as well as run Windows update to get the latest security patches (and Windows 7 SP1) installed.

Because Windows 7 has been running smoothly, reliability issues have become a thing of the past. So I let it rip.

And when everything was completed, I was left with a boot up and logon time, that took forever to complete and connect to my wireless network.

To start the troubleshooting, I used Autoruns and disabled any programs (set to auto run) that could be causing the problem, while keeping track of every change. Soon, it became apparent, that the problem was not with programs that wanted to run during system bootup or login.

So the next logical area that can cause slow boot and login issues, is with Services that are set to auto start.

To see which services are set to start automatically, just click on Start and type services.msc in the run box (on Windows Vista and Windows 7, you can just type services in the search box).

Once the Services console opens, click on the Startup Type column to sort first in the list all services that are set to Automatic. When a service is set to Automatic, the process will run automatically when the computer is started.

Identifying the Culprit

So how do you know which Service or services are causing the problem?

In my case, since I had just installed software (and typically patches do not create new services), I looked for anything that was HP printer related.

In doing so, I found four HP services that were set to Automatic.

To test and see if these services were the culprit, I set them to Disabled clicked Ok to save the changes and reboot the computer.

What A Difference

During boot up, the logon screen appeared quickly. So far so good, but the real test remained. What happens when I log on to the computer?

After logging in, I saw a big difference. The network connected to the wireless router in under 10 seconds (previously it took approx 90 seconds), and the response time of being able to open applications improved greatly.

To permanently solve the original slow boot and logon problem, I opened the Services console again and set the four HP services to delayed start up (Automatic Delayed Start), clicked OK and rebooted.

Problem solved. The computer started up quickly as if it was just rebuilt. No more waiting for eternity just to use my computer.

As it turns out, because the network was being delayed in starting up and connecting to the wireless router, the four services caused the computer to bog down, until they eventually timed out, finally allowing the network to connect.

By setting the four HP services to delay being started, this will give the system time to start up necessary process (such as the network) before the HP services begin to start and prevent them from bogging down the system unnecessarily.

So the next time you have a problem, keep your cool, and think back on what was installed. Then start troubleshooting until you find the problem.

I can understand why you might be concerned.

There is nothing worse than that sinking feeling when you see something out of the ordinary on your Computer hard drive that you never saw before. Immediately you start to think of a virus or spyware.

The good news is, this is normal and your PC is fine.

What really is going on here is that you are viewing files that have been compressed by Windows. And, more than likely, one of your folder view options settings is set to display compressed NTFS files in color.

Let's take a look at what I mean.

Open up Windows Explorer (or just double click on My Computer).

The most common folder to see compressed files or folders is located in C:\Windows directory (except for Windows 7 & Vista).

As you can see normal files and folders are black and the compressed files and folders are blue.

The reason compression is being used, is to save disk space on your hard drive. Back in the early days of computers, having plenty of hard drive space was minimal compared to today's mammoth hard drives (see some of these drives here).

Those days, we did anything to free up disk space in Windows, including using compression to squeeze down the size of files and folders. Not all files can be compressed, such as mp3 or jpg and video files for example.

Fortunately with today computers and hard drives, compression is rarely needed if not at all.

But, sometimes the operating system will still compress files and folders, such as the ones inside C:\Windows folder. These files are good candidates for compression, since they are rarely accessed (compressing and decompressing files that are being accessed causes extra CPU usage…which is no longer a problem with multi core CPU's).

Control How Windows Explorer Displays Folder/File Name Colors

By default Windows Explorer is set to display compressed files in blue (and encrypted files in green).

This setting can be disabled in Windows Explorer (or My Computer) by clicking on Tools \ Folder Options and selecting the View tab.

Note: Folder Options can also be found in the Control Panel.

Under the Advanced settings: section, scroll down to you see the Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color settings, then click the box to check it for displaying colors or uncheck it to disable displaying of colors.

When finished, click the Apply to All Folders button and click Ok.

If you have enabled the option, any files or folders that are encrypted will be blue with non-encrypted files/folder displayed as black.

It's probably a good idea to keep the setting enabled, since it will help you recognize files and what state they are in, as oppose to not knowing and possibly realizing something funny is going on with your computer.

For example, when an error occurs and one of those mysterious error dialog box (window) appears with a cryptic message, along with no text in the title bar (that normally would identify the program that caused the error message).

As usual, you are left wondering what happen. How am I going to find out what application or program caused the error so I can fix it and get on with my life?

First….don't panic. There's a quick solution for identifying what program or application caused that unknown error message window to appear.

To solve this problem, we'll need to use Microsoft Sysinternals awesome tool – Process Explorer which has a nifty feature built-in called Find Windows Process.

NOTE: The tool is free to use and runs on many versions of Windows including XP, Vista and Windows 7. Best of all, Process Explorer does not need to be installed.

Download Process Explorer

To get started, download Process Explorer from Microsoft Windows Sysinternals site by clicking on the Download Process Explorer link found on the right side of the page.

NOTE: You can also run the tool directly from the Windows Sysinternals site by clicking the Run Process Explorer link.

After downloading is completed, go ahead and unzip the file -  ProcessExplorer.zip to your desktop (or to a folder on your hard drive).

Identify Unknown Error Message Windows

Say you are minding your own business when an error occurs. As expected an error message window appears. When this occurs, DO NOT click OK or do anything to close the window.

• Go to your desktop or the folder where Process Explorer was unzipped, and just double click on procexp.exe to run it. If needed, position Process Explorer (or resize smaller) next to the error dialog window (make sure it's not on top of the error window).

• In Process Explorer toolbar area, click and hold the target-like icon, called Find Windows Process…

• …and drag and drop it on top of the error message window.

Process Explorer will highlight the process name that generated the error message.

NOTE: If Process Explorer does not identify the process when using Windows 7 or Vista, restart Process Explorer using elevated priviliges by right clicking and select 'Run as administrator".

From here, you can mouse over the process to see the path of the process or right click and select properties to view more details about the process that generated the error message.

If needed, you can go online and search for solutions to fix the problem (see How To Identify Unknown Process In Windows for more information).

As you can see in my example above, the mysterious error message window was caused by the process cscript.exe which I was running from a command prompt that had a problem and caused the error message to appear.

Needless to say, Process Explorer is a powerful tool to have around.

If you are running Windows 7 you may want to pin Process Explorer to the taskbar, so it's always within reach when a problem occurs. This way, you can quickly get on with more important things…like Watching The Net!

Oh….one more thing. If you don't have Windows 7 yet (you really should by now), check out this deal here.

If you have created shares to allow access to folders and files, you can easily view who is connected to each share and what files they have opened.

Knowing who is connected to your computer shared folders can be useful if you are on a public wireless network (hopefully your firewall is blocking access) or even when you are on your home wireless network.

While utilities may exist for viewing folder shares and connections, Windows already has a  built-in tool that is simple to use: the Computer Management console.

Since Computer Management console is included in XP and Windows 7 (as well as Vista), and accessing it is the same in either version, the screen shots below are from Windows 7 (unless noted otherwise).

Opening Computer Management Console

In either Windows XP or Windows 7, if you have the Computer icon on your desktop, just right click on it and select Manage.

Or in Windows 7 and Vista, you can click on Start and type computer in the search box, and click on the Computer Management link.

Or in Windows XP, click on Start \ Run and type compmgmt.msc in the run box and click OK.

Once Computer Management opens, expand System Tools \ Shared Folders (click on the small arrows as shown circled in the image below) then click Shares.

Here you will see all the shares on your Computer and the number of connected users listed in the Client Connections column. As you can see on my computer, one user is connected to the Data share.

Who's On My Computer?

To view "who" is connected to a share or shares, click on Sessions (from left navigation pane).

You will then see all the connected users.

In the example shown in the above screen shot, one user is connected, named "winsvc",  his computer name is also displayed (Cobra), along with: the number of files that is open by the user (Open Files column) and how long the user has been connected to the share (Connected Time column).

NOTE: if you want to disconnect the user, just right click on the user name and select Close Session.

To view which files the user is accessing, click on Open Files (from left navigation pane).

Here you will see a list of files that have been accessed by the user (or users). If the full path to a file is not fully displayed, just mouse over a file to see the path.

NOTE: if you want to close the connection to an open file,  just right click on the file and select Close Open File.

Monitoring Connections

As you can see, using the Computer Management console provides a great way to keep tabs with viewing who is access what folders and files on your computer.

It's also another method that can be used to keep tabs on who is connected to your wireless network or wired network.

To stay up to date with Windows and how to set up shares securely, see these resources at this link.

Being able to see how long a Windows process has been running and when it started can provide valuable information that can tell you if the problem began when Windows started or long after the system has been running.

While Windows Vista and Windows 7 has greatly improved task manager and added addition performance tools, such as resource monitor, they still fall short in some areas with providing needed information. Such as when a process started.

To find when a Windows  process started and how long it has been running, I like to use Windows Sysinternals tool, Process Explorer.

Process Explorer runs on many versions of Windows including XP, Vista and Windows 7, and does not need to be installed.

To get started, download Process Explorer from Microsoft Windows Sysinternals site by clicking on the Download Process Explorer link found on the right side of the page.

NOTE: you can also run the tool directly from the Windows Sysinternals site by clicking the Run Process Explorer link.

After downloading is completed, go ahead and unzip the file ProcessExplorer.zip to your desktop (or to a folder on your hard drive).

Now go to the folder where Process Explorer was unzipped, and just double click on procexp.exe to run it.

Once Process Explorer starts you will see something similar to the screen shot below:

While it may look daunting, don't let Process Explorer scare you. First I like to sort the processes by alphabetical order by clicking on the Process column.

Now to find when a process started, just double click on a process, (in my example I clicked on Firefox) to open the properties page.

Make sure the Image tab is selected, and look for the Started field.

Listed will be the date and time the process was started. In the above example Firefox was started at 6:53:15 AM on 8/30/2010.

With this information I can determine how long Firefox has been running and and when it was started based on when the operating system was booted.

Keep in mind, if you hibernate your computer, it does not effect the time and date listed in Process Explorer. In other words, Process Explorer correctly reports the time the process was first started, not after you brought your computer out of hibernation.

As you can see, having this type of information when troubleshooting can be a big help in fixing problems. All it takes is the right tools or utilities.

If you are a gamer or need to install certain software, you may come across specifications that require a minimum amount of graphics memory to properly run the software or play a game on your computer.

If this is the case, finding the amount of memory your video card has, is easily to find. Here are three quick and easy ways to display the memory size of your video card in your computer.

NOTE: Screenshots

1 – Use System Information Utility

• Click on Start, then Run and type msinfo32 in the run box and click OK.

• In the System Information utility window, expand Components and click on Display.

• In the right window pane, the item Adapter RAM will display the amount of memory your video card has in MB (Mega Bytes).

2 – From Display Properties

On Vista and Windows 7

• Right click anywhere on an empty space on your desktop, and select Personalize.

• In the Personalize appearance and sound window, click on Display Settings then click on the Advanced Settings… button (at bottom of window).

Make sure the Adapter tab is selected and you will see the amount of video memory listed as Dedicated Video Memory Size in MB (Mega Bytes). This is the amount of memory in your video adapter card.

On XP

• Just right click anywhere on an empty space on your desktop, and select Properties.

• In the Display Properties window, click on the Setting tab, then click the Advanced button at the bottom.

• Now click on the Adapter tab. You will see the Memory Size in MB (Mega Bytes). This is the amount of memory in your video adapter card.

3 – SIW Tool

A great tool that I like to use for finding a wealth of system information in my computer is the portable SIW (System Information for Windows) tool. The best thing about this tool is that it requires no installation, is easy to use, and runs on many Windows versions including XP Vista and Windows 7.

• First download SIW from their site buy clicking on the following link and saving it to your Windows desktop —> SIW Standanlone version.

• After downloading has completed, go to your desktop (or the folder where SIW was downloaded) and double click on siw.exe to run it.
• Now scroll down to the Hardware section (expand if necessary) and click on Video.
• In the right window pane, the Memory property will display the amount of memory your video card has in MB (Mega Bytes).

The next time you need to find the amount of memory your video graphic card has, you have three easy ways to find the memory size, without needing to call up your favorite geek in the family or neighborhood.

But what if one day, you need to verify if a hotfix has been installed on your computer. One way you can check is to open up Add or Remove Programs from the Control Panel.

As you can see, viewing updates from Add or Remove Programs don't offer much information for each update and is pretty useless. Instead there are better alternatives that provides more useful hotfix and service pack information installed on your system.

View Hotfixes On Windows XP

For XP systems, an excellent portable freeware utility called WinUpdatesList from nirsoft.net, provides an easy to use interface that displays a list of all Windows updates (Service Packs and Hotfixes) installed on your computer.

To run the program, download the zip file from http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wul.html (scroll to bottom of page and click on "Download WinUpdatesList in zip file "). Now unzip the file, wul.zip , then double click on wul.exe to launch the utility.

WinUpdatesList list all hotfixes and service packs that have been installed, who installed the update and when it was installed. You can sort the list by clicking on any column. For example, to view by date, click on Installation Date column. Scrolling over to the right, reveals more information such as Web Link for each update and the uninstall Command.

Clicking on an update in the list displays all the files associated with the update in the lower pane including version information and file path. To display detailed information, right click on an update in the upper pane, and select Open Web Link. Your browser will open and display the knowledge base article on Microsoft web site for the update.

WinUpdatesList also allows you to search for an update (select Edit \ Find from menu) and can print a report by selecting View \ HTML Report .

View Hotfixes On Windows Vista

Unfortunately WinUpdatesList has not been updated for Vista yet. But you can get similar information by clicking on the Start menu and searching for update (from Start menu). In the search results, click on Windows Update.

Then in the left navigation pane, click on the View update history link.

You will then see all the updates that have been installed on your Vista computer and you can sort them by clicking on the Date Installed column or view all successful and failed update installations by clicking on the Status column.

Although Windows Update does not provide as much information as WinUpdatesList, it does provide the capability to view the knowledge base article on Microsoft web site, by right clicking on an update and selecting View details.

Then click on the link under More information to open up the knowledge base article.

Now that you know how to view installed updates on your XP or Vista computer, it can be usefull for times when you are having problems and need to verify which updates are installed.

This process is a nonessential process and can be safely terminated since it sits there eating memory space only to check once a month for updates from the Sun community. Note that terminating the process will prevent automatic updates to Java.

To prevent the Java Update Scheduler from launching on Startup, in Windows XP/Vista open up the Java Control Panel and uncheck "Check for Updates Automatically".

When asked if you would like to update monthly, click on "Never Update." However this will mean that if a Java security update is made available you will miss it. If you want to update Sun Java at a later stage, simply go back to the same Java plug-in icon in the Control Panel, to the "Update" tab, and click the Update Now button.

What you can also do to set it up to run once a month automatically without you having to remind yourself to switch the feature on is, go to Start >> Control Panel and find Scheduled Tasks. Follow the wizard along to pick a month and date, and then when you get to the "Start a Program" screen, use this as the path:

"C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_01\bin\jucheck.exe"

adjusting the path if you are running a different version of Java. The key thing to note is that you run the jucheck.exe in your Java directory thus if you don't know JAVA Runtime Environment you're running, go to "C:\Program Files\Java\" and check in there.

Well, as the file extension might suggest, they are temporary files. These files are typically created by applications to store some form of temporary data, in a permanent form than RAM, on your hard disk. TMP files are commonly produced either when a program can't allocate enough memory for its tasks, or as part of inter-process communication.

Modern operating systems usually employ a virtual memory system, where if a program exceeds its allotted memory space usage, it can provide the application with part of the hard disk space as a substitute for memory. Programs which use large amounts of data, like video editing software, may need to create many TMP files.

TMP files are usually deleted automatically by their parent application (the software, game, application) which created them. However there may be instances where these files aren't removed from your computer and end up taking unnecessary space. This happens particularly either because the parent application crashed during runtime, or because the program's developer forgot to add the necessary code to delete TMP files when finished using them. TMP files tend to accumulate over time and take up a lot of disk space.

All this said, I have to add an important note: not all TMP files are safe to remove. So how do I know when a TMP file can be removed or not?

Usually it is safe to assume that if a TMP file is several weeks or months old, you can delete. You can check the meta data to know when the file was created or last modified, by right clicking on the file and choosing Properties. For example when you are using a word processor and have the auto-save option enabled, the application will most probably create some form of temporary file to store the content of the document you're working on in some pre-defined location in your hard disk.

Other temp files as they are usually called, are created by the Windows and its default applications. One well known default application which creates hoards of temporary files is the Internet browser.

Whenever you access a webpage, buy from an online shopping cart, access your email, your browser is transparently saving and caching some data pertaining to the action you've taken for various reasons. One of the reasons is for optimizing your web experience and loading the web-pages you visit the most frequently faster.

Temp files which are created by default Windows applications are usually stored in a few pre-defined locations in your hard drive mainly C:windowstemp folder. For these reasons there may be temp files, unbeknown to you, scattered in various locations all over your computer. The easiest way to remove temporary files created by Windows and its applications is to use the Disk Cleanup service.

If so, you can easily change it to a more friendly name. Doing so can have many benefits, especially on a home network.

Instead of connecting to a system with an ugly name such as D2347TB998, you can change it to JOEPC or DUDE if you want and easily identify whose PC you are connecting to without guessing.

Changing the computer name is performed the same way no matter what system you are running – Vista, XP or Windows 7.

NOTE: Before starting, make sure any programs or applications that you have open are closed.

Now, just click on Start \ Run and enter sysdm.cpl in the run box and click OK.

When the Systems Properties window opens, click on the Computer Name tab…

…then click on the Change button next to "To rename this computer…."

You will see your current Windows computer name in the Computer name: field as well as the full name if your computer is a member of a Windows Domain (which many home users are not members of a Domain).

To change the name, just type a new name in the Computer name: field and click OK.

You will then see a dialog box informing you that you must restart the computer for the changes to take place.

Click OK again to close the Systems Properties window, then reboot your computer.

After rebooting, your computer name will be change to it's new name. If you want, you can verify it did change by checking the  System Properties (sysdm.cpl) Computer Name tab.

Changing Your Computer Name From The Command Prompt

For those of you who prefer to use the command prompt to change the name, you can do so by using the Netdom command.

If you are running XP, Netdom is available in the Support Tools installation, which can be found on the Windows XP CD in the tools directory, or as a download from Microsoft web site.

If you are running Vista or Windows 7, Netdom is not included on the CD and you cannot install the XP support tools on a Vista or Windows 7 system. Instead, you will need to copy the executable from a XP computer. If that's not possible, you won't be able to use the command prompt for changing the computer name.

Once you have the Netdom executable on your hard drive, open a command prompt by clicking on Start \ Run and enter cmd, then follow these instructions for changing the computer name.

N ow that you have a more friendlier computer name, it will make connecting computers together on your home network much easier to identify.

One drawback to killing processes on a remote computer, is if the process was started by a service, once it's killed it's no longer running anymore.

NOTE: If you are unfamiliar with Windows Services, see the following article on services.

Being able to restart the service again, remotely, may be necessary with out rebooting the remote computer, especially if the service is needed by the user.

One of the best utilities to accomplish this, is to use Sysinternals PsService tool.

PsService is a service viewer and controller that allows you to connect to a remote system and stop or start services. Two things that make this utility great – it's free and requires no installation at all (yeah!).

But before you can connect to a remote system using PsService, you need to make sure ports 445 and 139 are open on the remote computer. This means, if the computer is running a firewall, or a firewall exists between your computer and the remote computer, those ports need to be open.

Also you need to use an account that has administration rights on the remote computer, that can stop and start services.

To use PsService, first download it from Microsoft's Sysinternals site (PsServices is bundled with the PsTools suite).

Next, unzip PsTools.zip and you should see the psservice.exe executable.

Now, PsService is easy to use. Say you just killed the spooler process on a remote computer because of a printing problem and need to start the spooler service.

First, open a command prompt on your computer (click Start \ Run and enter cmd in the run box) then change to the directory where you copied the psservice executable, and enter the following command at the prompt:

NOTE: The first time you use PsService, you must agree to the license agreement. To do so, just click on the Agree button.

psservice.exe \\rcomputer -u mike -p 123456 start spooler

Where:

\\rcomputer – is the name of the remote computer.

-u mike -p 123456 – is the username and password of the account that has administration rights on the remote computer.

start spooler – is the command to start the service named spooler.

After executing the command and starting the service, PsService will display the results and the state of the service, which in this case is running.

PsService can also stop services using the following command:

psservice.exe \\rcomputer -u mike -p 123456 stop spooler

One nice feature with PsService is the capability to query the list of services on the remote computer. This can be useful if need to find the service before killing a process.

To query the list of service, just use the following command:

psservice.exe \\rcomputer -u mike -p 123456 query

If you have not noticed, the list scrolls by in a hurry. To make it stop before scrolling off the screen, you can use the more command as follows:

psservice.exe \\rcomputer -u mike -p 123456 query |more

This will allow you to page through the list by pressing the space bar. If you want to quit before the end of the list, just press CTRL+C.

PsService is a great utility to add to your toolbox. One drawback to the tool that I have found is that it can be a little quirky at times. I find that it works well in a Windows domain environment or even when computers are in a workgroup. While other times it has trouble connecting.

Either way, it's a time saver that does not require any installation of remote control software.

You know you are if your desktop looks anything like this:

What a mess. Sure, all the icons are organized in nice neat rows and columns. But honestly, that's the only thing organized about it. What a double-vision-icon nightmare these desktops are when I have to work on people's computers.

So instead of telling them to get rid of everything, I show them a better way to clean up and organize their desktop, with out deleting anything.

Quick Launch

Quick Launch is just a folder on your computer, which the content can be made visible as part of the task bar located next to the Start button.

Quick Launch is the perfect companion to the Start menu, except you only drop items in it that you use frequently (the reason why it's called Quick launch).

These items are usually shortcuts to programs, files and folders. So if you look at your desktop, that's really what you have…shortcuts to programs, files and folders.

Now, I only use my Quick launch for programs and files that I use frequently (later I'll show you a  better solution for folders).

If you don't see Quick Launch next to the Start button, just right click on the taskbar then select Toolbars \ Quick Launch.

From here, you can add items by dragging them on top of Quick Launch, or right click just before the double arrows to open the Quick Launch folder.

NOTE: Right clicking before the arrows can be a little tricky. Instead you can access the Quick Launch folder under your user profile in the folder – \Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch (in XP) and \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch (in Vista).

You can also create new folders to organize your items, add files to your preference. When finished, just close the folder.

The width of the Quick Launch bar can be adjusted by grabbing the bar and moving left or right to display more or less icons. If you don't see the bar, unlock it by right clicking on an empty area of the taskbar and un-select Lock the Taskbar.

Adding Toolbars To The Taskbar

Have a lot of shortcuts to folders? Then adding a toolbar to the taskbar is the perfect solution to de-cluttering your desktop.

Start off by creating an empty folder, called Folder Shortcuts (or what ever you want to call it) somewhere on your hard drive, such as in your My Documents folder.

Next, drag all those folder shortcuts sitting on your desktop into this folder (you can also include files if you want to).

Now, right click on an empty area of the taskbar and select Toolbars \ New Toolbars and browse for the folder that you just created.

You will now have a new toolbar, similar to Quick Launch, next to the System tray. This will allow for easy access to those folder shortcuts that USED to clutter up your desktop.

Just like the Quick Launch bar, you can add items to the toolbar by dragging them on top of the toolbar.

Create A Docking Toolbar

If you don't like adding toolbars to the taskbar, then create a docking toolbar.

To do this, open My Computer or Windows Explorer and create a new folder any where on your hard drive. Then add the shortcuts (from your desktop) to the new folder.

When finished, shrink Windows Explorer or My Computer window so you can see part of your desktop, now left click and drag the folder to the very top of your screen and release your mouse (make sure you touch the top of your screen before releasing).

The new toolbar will dock itself to the top of the screen. You can also dock toolbars to either side of the screen if you prefer.

NOTE: To remove the toolbar, just right click on it and select "Close Toolbar". To move it to another location on your screen, left click and hold on the very left side of the toolbar (before the sliding bar) and drag it.

Cleanup The Start Menu By Sorting and Organizing

One of the reasons why people clutter up their desktops is because their Start menu becomes a cluttered mess. But if you spend a little time and organize the contents, it will become more useful.

First, start off by opening the Start menu folder by right clicking on the Start button and select Open. At this level you can add/delete and organize items that appear when you click on Programs (Classic style) or All Programs (default style). Make sure you organize the Start Menu folder and the Program folder.

Next, right click on the Start button and select Properties then Customize. Depending on which style you are using, several options exist to enable or disable items that appear on the Start menu. Take time to go through everything and only enable items you really need.

Make sure you click on the Sort button. By doing so, will alphabetize the items in the list allowing you to easily find items.

Once you have finshed, your desktop will (hopefully) never look the same again!

Take shortcuts for example. You know…the ones on your desktop or in the start menu.

You click on a shortcut that you have not used in a while, and chances are, it works as expected or you get the dreaded Problem with Shortcut error warning:

So to fix it, you re-point to the new location of the source or delete it. Now you wonder, how many more shortcuts do I have that are broken?

Well you could go one by one and click on each shortcut on your desktop or start menu and fix them. But that would take a be ridiculously long time (who wants to do that anyway).

Instead there is an easier way…

…and that way is to use a utility called ShortcutsMan from nirsoft.net.

ShortcutsMan is a standalone program,that does not require any installation or additional DLLs. To use it, just download it, copy the executable (shman.exe) to any folder you prefer (after it's unzipped) and run it.

A few seconds after running ShortcutsMan utility, a list of all your desktop and Start menu shortcuts will load in the main window.

Now. what's cool about ShortcutsMan, it wall automatically display broken shortcuts in pink. No need to hunt them down, one by one.

To try fixing a broken shortcut,  just check the box next to a broken shortcut (you can select more than one shortcuts at once), and either delete them, resolve them or save the shortcut's details to HTML/Text/XML file.

The first thing I usually do is have ShortcutsMan fix the shortcut by resolving it. This process searches your computer and points it to a valid file name (typically the orignal file name may have been changed or moved to another folder).

To resolve, select the check box next to the broken shortcut (pink color), then right click on it and select Resolve Selected Shortcuts.

If it can not resolve, then I usually delete the shortcut (otherwise if I really used it often…it wouldn't be broken in the first place). You can also edit and fix shortcuts yourself directly in ShortcutsMan by right clicking on a shortcut and select Edit.

ShortcutsMan is a great utility to have around to help clean up your system of dead shortcuts. If anything, having the capability to display all shortcuts on my desktop or under the Start menu in one interface is a big time saver. Either they get fixed or deleted. Real simple.

You can download ShortcutsMan from nirsift.com.

Looking for more Windows tips, check out our Windows Tips.

Let face it, trying to remember an IP address is like trying to remember a phone number (unless you are old school and don't program phone numbers in your phone).

https://192.168.1.1 isn't something that an average computer user wants to remember.

So how can you make it easier to remember? By using a host name, similar to how you remember sites on the Internet, like watchingthenet.com.

But your probably thinking that you don't have DNS running on your wireless home network.

No problem. Here's how you can utilize DNS-like-service with your Windows computer.

Using A Host File

When it comes to DNS (Domain Name Service) name resolution, your computer first checks it's local host file to resolve the host name to an IP Address. If no record exist for the host name, it will then query the DNS servers (that are listed in your IP configuration of your NIC card).

To create a record in your local host file:

• Double click on the My Computer icon (or open Windows Explorer) and navigate to the following folder:

c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc

• You should see a file named hosts, as shown in the below screen shot.

• Double click on the file and open the file with Notepad.

• Once the hosts file is open, you will want to add the following line (to the bottom of the file) similar to mine. In my example, I want to connect to my Linksys wireless router using the host name myrouter.

192.168.1.1    myrouter

NOTE: You can use any host name you want, but don't use a name that is known on the Internet, such as google, or yahoo.

• After adding the line, save the file and close it.

You will now be able to connect to your wireless router using the new host name.

Using OpenDNS

If you use an external DNS service, such as OpenDNS you can add a shortcut.

Shortcuts allow you to a create single word to specific URLs. So, using my example above, I can the shortcut myrouter with the URL https://192.168.1.1.

To create a shortcut, see the following how-to on OpenDNS web site.

As you can see, these are two easy methods for having DNS like services…with out running an actual DNS server. If you are fortunate, some routers include a built in DNS server that you can use.

But if you just want to make things easy, using a host file is simple enough. Just remember, if you rebuild your computer or buy a new one, don't forget to modify the host file using the steps above.

But say you want to save a copy of the output from the command that was executed. For example when using ipconfig to view the TCP configuration of your computer network card (NIC) or executing the dir command to view a list of directories.

One way is to copy from the command prompt window and paste it in a text file. Unfortunately, this can be cumbersome at times.

Instead, there is a better way to easily capture the output directly from the command prompt window to a file by using the redirection command.

To use the redirect command, just use the symbol > (press Shift + greater than arrow) and the file name at the end of the command you want to execute.

For example to redirect output of the ipconfig command to the file tcpinfo.txt, enter the following command at the prompt:

ipconfig /all > tcpinfo.txt

This will create the file called tcpinfo.txt in the current directory you are at (shown in below screen shot), with the output results of ipconfig command.

If you want the file created at another location on your hard drive, enter the full path to that location:

ipconfig /all >c:\mystuff\tcpinfo.txt

When using a single redirect command, it will always over-write (delete) the contents of the file (unless you specify a different file name) before writing any new data.

If you want to append (concatenate) data to an existing file, use two redirection symbols as shown in the following example:

dir c:\mymusic >> c:\tcpinfo.txt

This example adds the output of the dir (directory) command to the end of the file – tcpinfo.txt.

Now, you are not limited to redirecting output to a file. You can also redirect to devices such as a printer.

Say you have a printer connected to LPT1. You would use the following command:

dir c:\mymusic >LPT1

You can also use PRN or CON to output data results. Just make sure the device is working correctly.