Windows tips & tricks

[Friendz]

Rename a Series of Files

When you download photos from your digital camera, they often have unrecognizable names. You can rename several similar files at once with the following procedure. This also works for renaming other types of files.

1.Open the My Pictures folder. (Click Start, and then click My Pictures.) Or open another folder containing files that you want to rename.
2.Select the files you want to rename. If the files you want are not adjacent in the file list, press and hold CTRL, and then click each item to select it.
3.On the File menu, click Rename or press F2
4.Type the new name, and then press ENTER.

All of the files in the series will be named in sequence using the new name you type. For example, if you type Birthday, the first will be named Birthday and subsequent files in the series will be named Birthday (1), Birthday (2), and so on. To specify the starting number for the series, type the starting number in parentheses after the new file name. The files in the series will be numbered in sequence starting with the number you type. For example, if you type Birthday (10), the other files will be named Birthday (11), Birthday (12), and so on.

[Friendz]

Disk Tools to Speed Up your PC

Every month or two you should do a little disk maintenance to optimize the performance of your computer.

1 - Disk Cleanup - Click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. Click the unnecessary files you want to remove, and click OK.

2 - Run ScanDisk - Click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, ScanDisk.(run Standard and check Automatically fix errors)

3 - Run Disk Defragmenter - Click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. (note this may take a long time to run the first time.)


Disabling Error Reporting

By default, WindowsXP will request to report application errors to Microsoft.
To turn this off:

Right click on the My Computer icon on the desktop
Select Properties / Advanced
Click on the Error Reporting tab
Check Disable error reporting


Speeding Up the Display of Start Menu Items

An easy way to speed up the display of the Start Menu Items is to turn off the menu shadow.

Right click on an open area of the Desktop
Select Properties
Click on the Appearance tab
Click on the Effects button
Uncheck Show shadows under menus


Setting System Time Over the Internet

You can set your system clock to a time server on the Internet.

Double-click the time on your taskbar
Click the Internet Time tab
Check Automatically synchronize with an Internet time server
Click on the Update Now button


Creating a Password Recovery Disk

In case you forget your password, you can create a password recovery floppy disk beforehand to help you out of this problem.

Single-click Start menu
Go to the Control Panel / User Accounts
Click the User Account
On the left hand side, click on Prevent forgotten password
You will need to know your password to create the disk.
If you don't remember your password sometime in the future, click on the green arrow like normal at the login and you will be prompted to insert the password recover disk.


Changing the Default Search Settings

By default, when you start a search,
you are prompted for what you want to search for.
(e.g. Pictures, Documents, Files, Computers)

To change the preferences, simply click on Change preferences

From here you can:

Turn off the animated screen character
Change files and folders search behavior (setting it to Advanced changes the default search screen to be for simply files)
Internet search settings
Turn off balloon tips