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Today's Tips 08/16/2006
Keep The Keyboard Free Of Debris!
To help prevent a buildup inside a keyboard, use a can of compressed air
to blow out the dust and debris. Although keyboards are inexpensive
these days, you don’t want users wasting valuable support time with
faulty keyboards.
Cathy Chambers
Change File Association In Windows XP!
Want all your .TXT files to open in Word instead of the default program,
Notepad? Change their association.
Inside any Explorer window, select Tools, Folder Options. Click the File
Types tab and under "Registered file types," select the file type for
which you'd like to change the association in this case, TXT Files.
Click Change, select your program of choice in this case, Microsoft
Word-click OK then click Close.
Gary Chambers
Unread Messages Notice On Welcome Screen!
Wondering why the Windows XP Welcome Screen says you have unread
messages when you've read them all? This information refers to Outlook
Express and Windows Messenger (the only e-mail clients that can update
the Welcome Screen), and can be confusing if you don't use one of these
programs. Somehow, you've received new mail in one of these programs for
example, you or another user opened Outlook Express and downloaded
messages by mistake and the Welcome Screen is letting you know.
To remove the unread message notification under your user name, open
Outlook Express or Windows Messenger and either "read" or delete all
unread messages.
(Tip-in-a-tip: If Outlook Express is the culprit, disable the "send and
receive messages at startup" option on the General tab of the Tools,
Options dialog box. Then even if you open this program, it won't
download messages.)
Gary Chambers
Disable The Windows XP Tour Prompt!
As you may know, when you install Windows XP on a computer, it prompts
you to take the Windows XP Tour. This prompt appears as a balloon that
pops up from the Windows XP Tour icon in the notification area of the
taskbar. By default, the prompt appears the first three times that
someone logs on to the system.
If you've been using Windows XP for a while but have recently
reinstalled the operating system, you may find this prompt annoying. If
so, you can prevent it from appearing.
Follow these steps:
1. Open 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 Windows XP.
If you're installing Windows XP on a computer for a novice user and you
want to increase the likelihood that he or she will take the Windows XP
Tour, you can enter a higher number in the RunCount Value Data text box.
Note:
Editing the registry is risky, so be sure you have a verified backup
before saving any changes.
Gary Chambers
Manage Windows 2000 Terminal Services With
Command-line Utilities.
Terminal Services provides you with a graphical interface to a remote
computer, which makes Terminal Services extremely useful for
administration. While Terminal Services makes for a great remote
administration utility, you'll sometimes want to use command-line
utilities to manage it.
Logoff: Logs off a user from a Terminal Services session and deletes the
session.
Msg: Sends a message to other Terminal Services users.
Query: Allows you to query Terminal Services for information about
processes, sessions, Terminal Services running on the network, and user
sessions.
Reset session: Use this utility only when Terminal Services malfunctions
or isn't responding. Data loss might occur.
Shadow: Remotely controls sessions from other users, either actively or
passively.
Tscon: Connects you to another existing session.
Tsdiscon: Disconnects a session from a Terminal Services server. (Note:
You must have Full Control permissions to disconnect another user.)
Tskill: Ends a process running on Terminal Server. As an administrator,
you can also kill processes belonging to other users.
Tsshutdn: Shuts down or reboots a remote Terminal Services server.
Microsoft recommends that administrators shut down the server using this
command-line utility, instead of shutting down the server via the Start
menu. The Start menu method doesn't notify users before ending their
sessions.
Gary Chambers
Cut And Paste From The Command Prompt In
Windows 98!
If you came to Windows 98 from Windows 3.x and even DOS, you probably
remember how to create a snapshot of the results of a command-line
program by redirecting its output to a file. Lost already? Type dir *.*
>dir.txt and you create a file in the current folder named dir.txt,
which contains the list of files from the dir command as it would have
appeared on the screen. For several years, this was the way to pass on
this type of output to others; however, you can do it more easily now:
Open a command prompt window and make sure you have the toolbar open. To
display the toolbar, click the MS-DOS icon for the Control menu at the
top-left of the window. Then, click the Toolbar icon.
Click the Mark icon and then drag the mouse over the text contents of
the window to highlight it.
Click Copy to copy the selection to the standard Windows clipboard. It's
now ready for you to paste into any Windows application. This method is
easier than first redirecting to a file.
Similarly, when you're viewing a text document in Notepad or Word, you
can paste any commands that appear in the text into the command prompt,
saving yourself the trouble of typing them.
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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