Category: Tips

Die, Caps Lock, die!

Over the past few days, I’ve seen a flurry of posts about someone’s campaign to kill off the Caps Lock key. Dwight Silverman notes, sadly, that the movement is the online equivalent of peasants with pitchforks storming the castle:

Unfortunately, the link goes off to a Google Groups discussion, rather than a reasoned, written argument. The point here, as best I can ascertain it, is to remove the caps-lock key from keyboards to prevent anyone from typing e-mail in all capital letters, ever.

While we wait for the hardware industry to kill off this mostly useless useful but occasionally annoying (see the comments for more of this debate) appendage, here’s a more practical suggestion: disable the key so that hitting it by accident has no effect. This post at the Annoyances.org forum lists the keyboard scan codes for Windows and explains how to manually edit the Registry to neuter the Caps Lock key. John Haller was kind enough to create a collection of .REG files (for Windows and Unix) that disable the Caps Lock key or change its function so it acts like a Ctrl key.

Related: If you use Microsoft Word, you probably have a similar grievance with the Insert key. If you hit it by accident, you switch in Overtype mode and whatever you type wipes out what’s already on the page. The cure is here: How to disable Word’s annoying Overtype key.

You’ve got Windows XP questions, I’ve got answers

A few weeks ago, I asked readers to send along their Windows XP questions. Here are some answers.

Jim Konzak had a tech support question:

My question is how to fix what seems to be a corrupted Windows XP (driver?) file related to USB devices. If I plug in a USB drive, it is recognized and functions fine. But when it is removed, an immediate BSOD results with the message

NO_MORE_IRP_STACK_LOCATIONS

I have Googled this and posted to several sites, including Dell’s forum (the PC is a Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop) to no avail. Thoughts?

I exchanged a bit of e-mail with Jim over this one. I’ve seen similar issues before and my first suspicion was that it was caused by a third-party firewall product. Sure enough, the culprit was the latest release of ZoneAlarm. Disabling ZoneAlarm made the error message go away. Apparently other ZoneAlarm users are experiencing similar problems.

Ken asks a performance-related question:

You have made me a big fan of task manager. But what do you think about the Performance console? Do you use it to monitor performance on a workstation, and if so what performance counters do you recommend tracking? It seems to yield more detailed information than task manager, but that can be a good thing or a bad thing. [Related question: does Vista have a Performance console as well, and how [if at all] is it new and improved from the XP version?]

The Performance console includes two snap-ins to the Microsoft Management Console. System Monitor tracks data from different counters, and Performance Logs and Alerts allows you to set up log files for those counters. You can open the Performance console by typing Perfmon in the Run box and pressing Enter, or use it from the Administrative Tools menu. We have written extensively about Perfmon in Windows XP Inside Out, but I rarely use it in day-to-day operation. It’s a great troubleshooting tool for those times when you’re trying to figure out why something that was working well is suddenly slower. It’s also good for benchmarking new hardware. System Monitor is still around in Windows Vista (although it’s been renamed Performance Monitor). Its interface is cleaned up, but its functionality is essentially the same. But it’s just one part of the new Reliability and Performance Monitor, which you access by typing Perfmon. The new tools include a resource overview that’s like Task Manager on steroids, and there’s also a Reliability Monitor (I’ve written about this new tool here and at ZDNet). If you liked playing with the XP version, you’ll love the new toys in Vista, which provide much more accessible information for easy scanning as well as many more logging options.

Kishore is looking for a Windows utility:

Is there an easy way to backup the device-drivers used by the system. The manufacturer supplies only exe files to install the drivers (along with all those “helpful programs”). I need those when I reinstall my machine.

I ran across something like that years ago, but haven’t seen anything like it lately. Because of the way drivers are installed, I’m a little leery of the concept. (My preference is to save drivers to a known good location and keep them backed up.) But if anyone can point me to something that does this I’ll be happy to take a look.

Sanza reports an annoyance:

Can this be ‘fixed/changed’?

When I’m in a folder (let’s call it MUSIC) that contains 400 other folders and I go into one of those other folders (let’s call it PINK FLOYD – THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON) and then go back out into the MUSIC folder, I want to be where I was when I left that MUSIC folder. That is, looking at the PINK FLOYD – THE WALL folder, not back at top of the folder list looking at AC/DC – BACK IN BLACK where I have to scroll all the way down to to the PINK FLOYD folder again.

Does this happen in Vista also? It bothers me all the time when I’m seraching through folders I have arranged by date and such.

How are you getting back to the original folder? If you use the Up button, this is the normal behavior. You end up at the default folder in the parent directory. To fix this annoyance, change your habvits. Use the Back button in Windows Explorer (or press the Backspace key) to return to the previous folder. That option remembers your previous settings.

I just tried this on two computers running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and one running Windows XP Home Edition and can reproduce the behavior.

And that’s all for today!  If I didn’t get to your question, sorry. Maybe next time.

Tip of the day: Make your own Windows Lock shortcut

This one’s by request. A commenter who goes by the handle justforfun wants to know is there’s a way to create “a windows lock icon (something that replicates what the ‘show desktop’ icon does for win+D, except for win+L.”

Yes, indeed. I’ve written about the Lock keyboard shortcut before, but this option is useful if you’re mouse-centric or if your keyboard doesn’t have a Windows log key.

Create a new shortcut using the following command:

rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

Note that there’s a space after the initial executable and no space after the comma.

Give the shortcut a descriptive name and place it on the desktop or the Start menu. You’re now able to lock your computer with a single click.

Windows Vista Tip #5: Assign a keyboard shortcut to a program

Gerard has a Windows Vista question:

I can’t create Shortcut Keys for Start menu Shortcuts, UAC denies me permission to do so. I specifically tried to assign ctrl-alt-R to Remote Desktop Connection, is it just me? I disable UAC and it works.

This will happen if you try to assign a shortcut to any item on the Start menu that you didn’t personally create, because it exists in the All Users folder, where you’re not the owner of the shortcut. Two solutions:

Option 1: Open Windows Explorer using an administrator account (click Start, All Programs, Accessories; right-click on Windows Explorer and choose Run as Administrator). Now browse to %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories and locate the shortcut for Remote Desktop Connection. Right-click and choose Properties. Click in the Shortcut Key box and press the keyboard sequence you want to use. Now you can save the shortcut.

Option 2: Create a new shortcut on the desktop and assign the shortcut key to it. Because you own this shortcut, you can edit it without any UAC prompts.

Windows Vista Tip #4: Move your data folders to a separate drive

Update 24-Feb-2007: There’s an even easier way to accomplish this. Details here:

Vista Hands On #7: Move user data to another drive

If you prefer the manual approach, keep reading…

Windows Vista makes a few fundamental changes in the default folders used to store personal data. For starters, the Documents and Settings folder is gone, replaced by the Users folder, which is located in the root of the system drive (usually C:). Each user account has its own profile folder here, which contains 11 folders, each devoted to a different type of data.

If you have multiple hard drives (or multiple partitions on a single hard drive) you can relocate any of these user folders. The advantage? By separating system files from data, you make it easy to back up and restore each. At least once a month, you can use the backup program in Windows Vista Ultimate Edition to create an image-based backup on DVD or an external hard disk. If something happens to your system drive, you can restore the image, and your data files remain unaffected.

In my experience, the Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos folders are most likely to contain large amounts of data and will benefit most from relocation. In this case, I assume you have a separate empty drive or partition that uses the letter E:. If your system is configured differently, you’ll need to adjust the instructions accordingly.

Here’s how to relocate the Documents folder:

  1. Open Windows Explorer, navigate to the empty drive that you want to use to store data, and create new folders for each of the existing folders you want to move. If you’re the only user on your computer, you can put them in the root of the drive: E:\Documents, E:\Music, and so on. If you’re planning to use the drive to store data for two or more users, you should create a separate top-level folder for each user and then create subfolders for each type of data: E:\Ed\Documents, etc.
  2. Click Start and click the bold user name at the top of the right column in the Start menu. This opens your profile folder.
  3. Right-click the icon for the Documents folder and choose Properties.

    4. Move_docs_folder_1

     

  4. On the Location tab, click the Move button.
  5. In the Select a Destination dialog box, double-click Computer, double-click the icon for your data drive (E: in this example), and select the folder you want to use as the new location. Don’t double-click this folder, just click to select it.
  6. Click Select Folder to return to the Location tab, and then click OK. You will see two dialog boxes:
    • Do you still want to proceed and redirect to <new folder location>? Click Yes.
    • Would you like to move all of the files in your old location to the new location…? Click Yes. (If you click No, the original folder remains intact and you risk having documents split between the two locations.)

That’s it. You can now repeat the process for Music, Pictures, Videos, and any other data folders you want to use. When you click the Documents shortcut on the Start menu, it takes you to the new location, which appears to be in the same old location. In the Vista namespace, your profile folder always appears under the Desktop, and each link in that folder points to the location you specify. So you can leave some folders (especially those you rarely use) in the original location and just move those that are chock full of data.

Windows Vista Tip #3: Add an extra clock to the taskbar

Some of the new features in Windows Vista are well hidden but useful in specific circumstances. A little thing like the clock on the taskbar has a nice improvement that you might not notice: You can add a second (or third) clock to the display to keep track of the current time in a different part of the world. This comes in handy if you’re a telecommuter who has to keep in touch with the home office on the other side of the country, or if you build web applications and need to keep track of timestamps in GMT.

Start by clicking the clock in the taskbar. That opens up this display, showing your system time and the time zone you entered during setup.

Date_time

To add a second clock, click the Date and Time Settings link and click the Additional Clocks tab. Select the Additional Clock 1 check box and then choose a time zone. Give the new clock a label, if you wish.

Date_time_2

After you save your changes, click the taskbar clock again to see the new clock in action.

Date_time_3

Because this change doesn’t affect the system date or time, any user can customize the setting this way. You don’t need to be an administrator to make the change – and thus no User Account Control dialog boxes will appear.

Windows Vista Tip #2: Add the Run box to the Start menu

Longtime Windows users know what a time-saver the Run box is. Instead of digging through menus or Explorer windows to find a shortcut or folder, you can enter a command or folder location directly in the Run box. This is also a great way to start a program with a command-line switch or other option.

In Windows Vista, the Search box takes over many of the functions of the Run box. When you enter the name of a command or shortcut, it appears in the search results list almost instantly, and you can run the command or program by pressing Enter or clicking that item. But there are still a few tricks that you can’t do with the Search box. For that, Run is still around.

To display the Run box quickly, use the Windows Key logo + R shortcut. If you don’t have a Windows logo key or if you prefer to use the mouse, you can add the Run option to the Start menu in Windows Vista.

  1. Right-click the Start button and choose Properties.
  2. On the Start Menu tab, click the Customize button to the right of the Start Menu option.
  3. In the Customize Start Menu dialog box, scroll down and place a check mark next to the Run option, as I’ve done here.

Start_menu

Make any other changes you want and then click OK to save your changes. (I prefer small icons, for example, so I scroll all the way to the bottom of the list and clear the default Use Large Icons check box.) A new Run option now appears at the bottom of the Start menu’s right pane.

Windows Vista Tip #1: Get quick access to a network connection

Vista Beta 2 is about to go public, so I thought I’d start sharing some of my Vista tips. I’ll number them and collect them on a special page.

In recent reviews of Beta 2, I’ve read several complaints that it takes too many clicks to get to the Network Connections folder. Here’s the quickest route:

  1. Click Start.
  2. Click Network. This opens the Network folder, which lists all available shared resources on your local network.
  3. Click the Network Center button, which opens a new Control Panel window.
  4. Click the Manage Network Connections link in the task pane on the left.

You’re now at a window that lists all available network connections on your computer.

(Update: In the comments, Chris Smith points out that you can open Network Center a few clicks quicker by just double-clicking the network icon in the tray.)

For quicker access next time, point to the icon at the left of the address bar (I’ve circled it in red below).

Network_connections_folder

Click and drag that icon onto the Start button. You now have a shortcut that takes you directly to the Network Connections folder.

Want instant access to a specific connection icon? Drag the icon itself onto the Start button, or right-click the icon and choose Create Shortcut. In the latter case, your shortcut will show up on the desktop.

Yet another silly set of Windows tweaks

Dwight Silverman takes a closer look at some XP tweaks that made it to the front page of Digg and says, Don’t Digg that XP tweak. His conclusion bears repeating:

It’s not a great idea to apply random tweaks you spot on the Web to your system, even if you spot them on a high-profile tech site such as Digg. Get a second opinion by doing some searching, and do some research at sites such as XP Myths.

Dwight’s absolutely right. Many so-called Windows tweak sites are filled with misinformation. (See the prefetch myth for a prominent example.) I’m certain the people who pass this stuff along are well-meaning, but they don’t understand the internals of memory management, and so they’re easily misled. They’re convinced that there’s some secret group of Registry settings that can magically improve performance (one Microsoft engineer called this the “make rocket go now” urban legend).

In particular, Dwight wonders whether it’s OK to enable a Registry change to the DisablePagingExecutive setting. Here’s my take:

For the average person, making a chance to the DisablePagingExecutive setting is like trying to perform a lobotomy on yourself with a pair of knitting needles.

What this setting does is to prevent drivers and kernel code from being written to the pagefile. Now, think this through logically. If you’re running so many programs that you exceed the amount of physical memory in your system and you start up a new program or process, the operating system has to move some program code and data out of memory and into the pagefile to make room for the bits you just requested. You could let the OS make intelligent choices about which bits to swap. Or you could constrain it by saying, “Don’t ever swap this type of code out.” If you enable this tweak, you limit the flexibility of the OS and force it to throw something else out, which in this case is one of the other programs you’re running. That increases the delay you’ll encounter when you switch back to the other app.

This setting is provided for use in servers, where administrators run a limited and well-known set of applications and need to debug or tune for performance in a controlled environment. Using it in a workstation is asking for trouble.

In general, I recommend against trying to change the way Windows memory management works. It’s a system. Tweaking one aspect of it runs the risk of destabilizing the entire system. It’s also worth noting that this setting has been around since the Window NT era. Now, Microsoft’s engineers are obsessive about performance. They know that reviewers will put a stopwatch to every new release, and so they tune and tune and tune to get the memory paging system working effectively. If this setting really made a difference in performance, don’t you think it would be enabled already?

If you’re really concerned about performance, the smartest thing you can do is monitor memory usage in your environment. If you’re consistently exceeding the amount of physical RAM in your system, either do less (shut some programs down before running memory-intensive applications) or install more memory.