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Today's Tips 08/07/2006
Use The Open/Close Button When Using The CD-ROM
Drive!
Putting a CD into the CD-ROM tray and pushing the tray closed may be
easier than pushing the open/close button, but you risk breaking the
drive. Although it is a little more work to find the open/close button,
you will ensure that the mechanical parts that control the drive tray
are not damaged by accidentally pushing the drive tray too hard.
In addition, keep the CD-ROM drive closed when not in use. A quick twist
of the chair is all it takes for a user to bump the drive tray and
render it worthless.
Cathy Chambers
Troubleshoot Windows XP With The Driverquery
Command!
When you're troubleshooting a suspected device driver problem, you can
find detailed information about specific drivers being used in a Windows
XP system by going to Device Manager, selecting the device from the
list, and drilling down to the device's properties sheet. While this
technique is fine when you're looking for information on one specific
device driver, it's not very efficient when you're interested in
information about a number of device drivers-it's just too time
consuming.
To ease the task of gathering information on a number of device drivers,
you can use a tool called Driver Query (Driverquery.exe). When you run
this tool, Driver Query provides you with a detailed list of all the
device drivers installed on a local system, or on any system on a
network-and using it is easy. Here's how:
1. Open a Command Prompt window.
2. Type Driverquery on the command line.
The results are displayed in a table format in the Command Prompt
window. If you want to perform more detailed analysis, you can direct
the Driver Query to save the results in a CSV file so you can open them
in a spreadsheet application such as Excel. To do so, type the following
on the command line:
Driverquery /v /fo csv > drivers.csv
Note: This tip applies
only to Windows XP Professional.
Gary Chambers
Disable The 8.3 Filename Creation Process!
Are you using the NTFS file system on your hard disk? If you've ever
used the DIR command along with the /x parameter in a command prompt
window, you've seen firsthand that Windows XP creates an 8.3 filename
for each long filename that you create. The OS does this to maintain
backwards compatibility with older 16-bit applications.
However, the process of creating and maintaining 8.3 filenames adds a
lot of overhead that can significantly degrade the overall performance
of the NTFS file system. Chances are good that you're not using any of
these older 16-bit applications, so why suffer the performance hit?
Here's how to disable the 8.3 filename creation process:
1. Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
I don't publish the actual hacks in my
newsletters! You can get this one at my
Customer Support Site!
This is a Free Site that I am combining several sites to. All that
you have to do is register if you haven't already!
5. Close the Registry Editor, and restart the computer.
Note:
Editing the registry is risky, so be sure you have a verified backup
before making any changes.
Gary Chambers
Toggling Windows XP's Taskbar Grouping Feature!
The grouping feature on Windows XP's taskbar is designed to reduce the
button overcrowding problem that you may experience when you have a lot
of applications open. The feature keeps tabs on the amount of space
being occupied on the taskbar and groups similar windows under a single
button once the amount of space on the taskbar starts to dwindle.
For example, if you have nine windows open and three of them contain
text documents, the three text document taskbar buttons will combine
into one button, named Notepad. This single button is then accompanied
by an arrow button that, when clicked, will display a menu of all the
documents in the group. In most cases, this taskbar grouping is very
helpful. However, there may times when it is counterproductive to
navigate through an additional menu to access your files-especially if
you're simultaneously working with all of the documents in the group.
Fortunately, it is easy to toggle the taskbar grouping feature on and
off with a few clicks. Here's how:
1. Right-click an empty space on the taskbar.
2. Choose the Properties command from the context menu.
3. Clear the Group Similar Taskbar Buttons check box and click OK.
Now you can easily switch between each individual document without
having to navigate an intermediary menu. To re-enable the taskbar
grouping feature, repeat these steps and select the Group Similar
Taskbar Buttons check box. Then, click OK.
Note: This tip applies to
both Home and Professional Editions.
Gary Chambers
Stop Windows 98 from Altering Floppy Disks!
Windows 98 will change the contents of any floppy inserted into a
Windows 98 System. This is to update the file system on the floppy to
accept long filenames. This can have disastrous effects on your valuable
disks. Diskettes affected include some older versions of MS-DOS startup
diskettes, many copy-protected programs, and software that inspect the
validity of the diskette before installing. To prevent Windows 98 from
altering your floppies, the solution is quite simple:
Write protect any floppies before putting them into a Windows 98
machine!
Gary Chambers
Being Prepared For The Worst Will Stand You In
Good Stead In Case Of A System Meltdown. Your preparation will save you
time and trouble during that nerve-wracking initial stage of disaster
recovery, considerably ease your tension and anxiety, and ensure a
smoother, more focused approach of the final stages.
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