1. Change the way Control Panel applets are displayed by clicking the Category button just to the right the View by: label and select either Small icons or Large icons. This is how I prefer to see Control Panel, but it can be tough to find what you want amongst the 50 or more icons.
2. Another way is to launch Windows Defender directly, click Start; in the search box, type Defender; click Windows Defender to open the program; and then click Scan.

There are some others I usually just access with the search box like Credential Manager, Configuration Manager, Autoplay, and Desktop Gadgets.

Kurt Dillard

kurtdillard.com

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Windows 7 let’s you maximize a window by dragging it to the top of the screen, or size a window to half the screen by dragging it to the left or right side of the screen. I hate it–I already know other ways to do it, and sometimes it resizes windows for me when I want to just move them to the edge of the screen.

Disabling it is easy, if you know where to look. Watch the video above, or follow these steps (after the jump):

1. Click Start and then click Control Panel.

2. Click Ease Of Access, Ease Of Access Center, and then Make the mouse easier to use (at the bottom of the screen).

3. Clear the Prevent windows from beign automatically arranged when moving to the edge of the screen checkbox.

4. Click OK.

Hey VistaClues.

I am looking for some way to make a keyboard shortcut for the volume control (Volume Mixer) so I can have fewer taskbar icons, but still have easy acces to the various things.

I’m also looking for a volume control tool, for the side bar menu.

In other words, a gadget that can control the master volume on the speakers (and microphone if possible).

Can you help me with the one, the other or both problems?

Thanks for all the help from your site.

Answer:

On any Windows Vista computer that you might sit at, you can quickly launch the Volume Mixer by clicking Start, typing sndvol, and then pressing Enter.

For me, it’s easier to remember “Sndvol” than a special keyboard shortcut, and it works on any Windows Vista computer, so that’s my preference. You can, however, launch any shortcut with a single key. The Volume Mixer doesn’t have a shortcut by default, however, so you first need to add one. Follow these steps:

1. Click Start and type sndvol. Right-click sndvol on the Start menu, and then click Copy.

2. On the taskbar, right-click the clock and then click Show the Desktop. Alternatively, you can press Windows+D.

3. Right-click the desktop, and then click Paste Shortcut. This adds a SndVol shortcut to your desktop. You can always double-click this to launch the Volume Mixer now, but that’s not the real point–we want to use this to add a keyboard shortcut.

4. On the desktop, right-click the Sndvol -Shortcut and then click Properties.

5. On the Shortcut tab, click the Shortcut key field. Now, press the keyboard shortcut you want to use, such as Ctrl+Shift+Alt+V.

6. Click OK.

Now, just press the keyboard shortcut you chose to launch the volume mixer. You can do this for any program or batch file. Also, let me recommend getting a keyboard with volume controls built-in. If you can find one with a volume wheel (instead of just volume up and down buttons), all the better. I’m using the Microsoft Natural Ergo Keyboard 4000 (it has the buttons, rather than the wheel, unfortunately).

Search will index most common file types (based on their file extension), but it might not index all file types that are important to you. For example, it doesn’t index .log files, like those generated by Mirc. It does index .XML log files, like those generated by Windows Live Messenger.

To index .LOG files or any other type of file, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

2. Click System And Maintenance.

3. Click Indexing Options.

4. Click Advanced, and provide administrative credentials at the UAC prompt.

5. The Advanced Options dialog appears. Note that the Index Encrypted Files check box doesn’t let you search EFS encrypted files–nothing does, because Search indexes files as the system rather than your user account, and therefore can’t decrypt your files.

6. Click the File Types tab. Scroll through the list to find your file type (for example, .log) and click it. Then, select the check box. Click Index Properties And File Contents at the bottom of the dialog box. Finally, click OK.

7. If prompted to rebuild the index, click OK.

8. Click Close.

Windows Vista begins rebuilding your index, including the newly selected file type. Give it a couple of hours. Then, when you search, your file type will be included in the results.

If your custom file types aren’t in your user profile (you know, like your Documents or Pictures folders), configure the folder to be indexed.

Like Descapa the mystery Microsoftie, you’re a busy person with an active lifestyle. You don’t have time to type “www.” or “.com”.

In either Internet Explorer or Firefox, just type the name of the website (ie., “Vistaclues” or “Cnn”). Then, press Ctrl+Enter. Your Web browser will add the www. and .com automatically.

If you type a word in the address bar and just press Enter, Internet Explorer will search for the phrase in your default search engine, while Firefox will take you to the website you’re most likely looking for.

Let’s say I want to find pictures taken on New Year’s Eve, 2006. I’ll type date:december31, 2006 and press Enter. Windows Vista immediately shows all my files modified on that date.

Then, to limit it to only pictures, I can click Picture on the Show only toolbar.

Instantly, I see all the pictures I took that day. Any of these variations work, too:

• date:today
• date:yesterday
• date:december
• date:dec
• date:tuesday

You can combine this with other criteria. For example, to find text files that I modified today, I can search for date:today *.txt.

AQS goes far beyond just date. Check out these examples:

• genre:rock. Find all music with a Genre defined as “Rock”.
• Artist:”Beastie Boys“. Find all your Beastie Boys songs.
• conductor:”Gerard Schwartz”. Find everything on your computer that Gerard Schwartz conducted.

Like Google, you can use a minus symbol to exclude something (or the keyword NOT). For example:

• genre:rock -wait. Find all rock songs, except a song named Wait or songs by an artist named wait.
• date:today *.txt -cookies. Find all text files modified today except files named Cookies.

“OR” works as well, if you want to search by multiple criteria. If you have other good examples, please add a comment.

You can stay more informed (or entertained) by reading more blogs. To do it without wasting your life in front of a computer, use an RSS reader than aggregates your blogs. This is built into Internet Explorer and most browsers, but I wouldn’t recommend that–I find it slow and clumsy, and I don’t know the point of reading one blog at a time.

I use Google Reader to view dozens of blogs at once. It keeps track of which entries I’ve looked at, and only shows me the new stuff. I can flip through hundreds of entries in just a few minutes to find the ones that really interest me (I always use the All items link in the upper-left corner). Pictures and instructions after the break…

If you use Firefox, adding a blog to Google Reader is easy. Just visit the website, and click the orange RSS button:

Then, just follow the prompts to add the page to Google Reader. You can use Internet Explorer, too, you’ll just need to use the Add subscription link in Google Reader.

If you have an RSS reader that you prefer, please let me know. I’m open to options.

Windows Vista groups your files by date. Now, you can also manage them using that grouping. Click the down-arrow to collapse a group, and click it again to expand it. Click the line itself to select the entire group so you can easily delete or move the files.

If you have too many files in a folder, or in search results, you can quickly narrow it down if you know when the file approximate date the file was modified.
In Explorer, hover your cursor over the Date Modified column. When the down-arrow appears, click it. Then, select the date ranges you want to see. Windows Vista filters the display to show only the files or folders in the selected range.

You can do this for any of the columns–Type and Date are also very useful.

To quickly pull up a calendar, just click the clock on the Windows Vista taskbar. You can also put a calendar on your Sidebar, but why waste the space?

You can do this using the registry, but it requires you to put your password in plain text, where someone might be able to find it. Here’s a better way: the AutoLogon.exe tool provided by the Microsoft Shell developers. It’s not officially supported, but it’ll do the job. Instructions after the break.

You’ll need to run the tool from an administrative command prompt. To do that, click Start, type cmd, right-click cmd, and then click Run as Administrator.

Then, at the command prompt, run the following command:

Autologon.exe /Set /Username:<YourNameHere>

If you upgraded from Windows XP and you had configured autologon using the registry, run the following command to move your password out of the registry and into LSASecret, which is a much safer place:

Autologon.exe /Migrate

Thanks to the Shell Blog!

To quickly copy the full path of a file to your clipboard, hold down the Shift key, right click a file, and then click Copy as Path. The full path to the file is placed on your clipboard.

This is particularly useful if you need to open a file that requires administrative privileges, for example a log file in the system directory. If you were to double-click the file to open it in Notepad, Notepad would give you a file not found error–because Notepad is running as a standard user (thanks to UAC) and it needs admin privileges to open the file. So, if you wanted to quickly open that protected file in Notepad, click Start, type Notepad Ctrl+V, and then press Ctrl+Shift+Enter. Then, press Alt+C to approve the UAC prompt. Ctrl+Shift+Enter runs the program from the Start menu using admin privileges.

I manually setup this hack in Windows XP. Thoughtfully, it’s built into Windows Vista. Just Shift-click any folder, and then click Open Command Window Here to open a command prompt.

Now if I could just figure out how to always open an Administrator command prompt…

This is a HUGE help if you have a high-resolution monitor, and i love the huge Recycle Bin.

The Quick Launch toolbar gives you one-click access to your favorite programs. Windows XP had it too, but Windows Vista adds keyboard shortcuts for the first ten programs.

To enable the Quick Launch toolbar (if it’s hidden), follow these steps:

1. Right-click your taskbar, click Toolbars, and then click Quick Launch (if the checkbox isn’t already there).

The Quick Launch toolbar appears near your Start button. It probably has some programs you don’t use; just right-click them and click Delete.

To add programs to the Quick Launch toolbar, follow these steps:

1. Click Start.

2. Find your program in the Start menu. Then, drag the icon to the Quick Launch toolbar, as shown here:

Now, you can run the program by clicking it on the Quick Launch toolbar. If you don’t see the icon, click the >> to list all icons in the Quick Launch toolbar. You can also grab the edge of the toolbar to expand it.

To launch the first program on your Quick Launch toolbar, hold down the Windows key () and press 1. To launch the second program, press  +2, and so on.

I like to drag folders that I frequently access to the Quick Launch toolbar so that I can open the folder with a single click.

• Reduce the number of times you move your hand from your mouse to your keyboard
• Reduce the distance you need to move your mouse for repetitive actions

You can accomplish both of these by programming the special keys that are on most new mice, such as the two buttons on the side of the mouse in the picture above. If you have a Microsoft mouse like I do and you’re using Windows Vista, you’ll need to download the latest version of IntelliPoint. Vista shipped with a beta version of the software.

After you install the software, follow these steps to configure your special buttons:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

2. Under Hardware and Sound, click Mouse.

3. Click the Buttons tab (you might have more than one). Click the list for the button you want to program, and then select the desired action.
4. At the Mouse Properties dialog, click OK.

Now, when you press the button on your mouse, it’ll do whatever you configured.

One of the best ways to improve your computer productivity is to take advantage of the programmable keys on your keyboard and mouse to save yourself some keystrokes. If you have a Microsoft keyboard like I do and you’re using Windows Vista, you’ll need to download the latest version of IntelliType. Vista shipped with a beta version of the software.

After you install the software, follow these steps to configure your special keys:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

2. Click Hardware and Sound.

3. Click Keyboard.

4. Click the Key Settings tab. Click the key you want to reprogram, and then click Edit.

5. Follow the steps in the Reassign A Key wizard to reprogram the key. Click Finish when you’re done.

6. At the Keyboard Properties dialog, click OK.

Now, when you press the key on your keyboard, it’ll do whatever you configured.

Type Access is the autoreplace feature that should have been built into Windows. When it’s enabled, it’ll work with any application. And, it works in Windows Vista and earlier versions of Windows.

It’s good, and I’m using it right now, but it’s not without its drawbacks (especially when compared to AutoComplete it Word):

• It’s not integrated into your spell checkers
• It won’t automatically detect common typos, such as holding down the Shift key too long and capitalizing the first two letters of a word
• It comes with a couple of dozen phrases built-in, but none of the common ones you’d expect, such as: (c), ™, (r), or commonly mistyped/mispelled words.

Of course, you can add your own phrases, but I’d really need to add thousands of phrases to make it as helpful as AutoComplete built into Word.

If you know of a similar app that you prefer, please add a comment.