By default, the only way to move a window around the screen in Windows is to click on the title bar and drag it. While this typically works fine, it becomes a big problem if you have a window where the title bar is off the screen. Rather than doing some keyboard combination or minimize/maximize/restore hocus pocus, try applying this AutoHotkey script to enable...

These tips are for use in supported browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc.), meaning they probably won’t work in Opera or other alternative browser. JavaScript also needs to be enabled in order for these to work (you would know if you turned if off). Yahoo! MailSearch mail: s Forward message: f Reply to all: a Turn the reading pane on or off:...

A little known trick that you can do with a standard Windows message box is to copy the text displayed. For example, when you get an error message dialog and you want to search to see what might cause it, just do the following:Click on the message box. Press Ctrl + C. Open Notepad. Press Ctrl + V.When you do this, you should see all the text from the message...

I utilize middle click shortcuts in my browser all the time. By middle clicking a link, it opens the location in a new tab and by middle clicking a tab, it closes it. So when I ‘accidentally’ did this on my Windows 7 taskbar I was pleasantly surprised to see that is works (almost) exactly the same. By middle clicking on an item in the taskbar, it...

Since the Quick Launch toolbar was added in Windows XP, there has been a simple shortcut you click which minimizes all open Windows and displays your desktop. A shortcut available in Windows 7 is the ability to see your desktop without minimizing open windows by using the Windows Key + Spacebar shortcut. While you have this pressed down, you can see your desktop...

Sometimes, particularly with plain text files, you want to save a file as a certain extension. For example, you might want to save a text file with an INI or an XYZ extension. One option you have for doing this in the Save As dialog box is changing the option in the “Files of type” drop down appropriately and then typing the filename. However if you...

For those of you who have upgraded to Windows 7 and are looking for some shortcuts which were not previously available in Windows XP, check out this quick post: The Best Windows 7 Shortcuts. These shortcuts were derived from a huge list of shortcuts available in Windows. I do not yet have Windows 7 so I cannot test them, however I can see the quick closing of...

If you do a task which requires you to have several programs open, a time saving thing you can do is create a batch script to open these programs and/or files at once. This is accomplished by using the START command. Using the syntax: START /D “path_to_program” program_name For example, to open both Firefox and IE, the batch file would look like...

In the past, I have written about how the copy-paste function works in a lot of places even though it may not be ‘advertised’ as a function. The same can be said about the undo function (Ctrl + Z). For example, you can use this function:in just about any application text box in browser text boxes in find and replace dialogs lots of other...

As I say in the video below, it does amaze me how many people are not aware of the simple shortcuts one can use to navigate though text quickly – and in many cases faster than you would with a mouse. For some of you, what’s listed here will make you say to yourself, "Okay, who doesn’t know these keyboard shortcuts?" Quite a few,...

On a day to day basis, I probably use copy-pasting of text at least a couple of dozen times. While selecting/highlighting text using the mouse is quick in most cases, if you have to be precise or need bulk selection, nothing beats keyboard shortcuts. For a handy list of universal shortcuts, check out this article. I use the combinations listed quite a bit and...

One of the really nice improvements Windows Vista makes is the addition of the Search Bar to the Start Menu. This allows you to easily locate any program installed on your system by simply typing a few letters. A tool which enhances this functionality which you might find useful is Start++. There is a nice page here which gives a description of what Start++ does...

By default whenever you create a shortcut in Windows, a small arrow is placed on the shortcut icon to indicate this is indeed a shortcut. If you would like to remove this arrow, you can do so easily by following the applicable instructions for your OS:Windows XP Windows Vista / 7Both articles show you how to make a registry change and offer a utility which...

Two of the most common dialog boxes you use are the save and open file prompts. As you probably know, there are shortcuts to common locations available along the left side which allow you to quickly jump to specific folders. If you would like to customize these locations, a simple way to do so is with the freeware utility PlacesBar Tweaker. With this utility you...

Did you know you can access just about any configuration dialog box via a simple Start > Run command? When you think about it, knowing these commands is significantly faster than than trying to navigate to them through the graphical interface and also is a great way to send instructions to people with much fewer steps. If you don’t have all the commands...

One of the first thing Windows Vista users will probably notice is there is a pretty signficant change to the way navigation works in Windows Explorer. One notable change is how you go ‘up’ a level, that is easily get to the parent folder of the folder you are currently in. There are several ways to do this, such as:In the address navigation bar,...

One really nice feature which was added in Office 2007 is the ability to make certain files in your recently opened document list ‘sticky’ so that they always appear in the list. This is really easy to do:In the respective application (Word, Excel, etc.), click on the Office icon in the upper left. In the ‘Recent Documents’ listing,...

Perhaps the most well known keyboard shortcuts in the computer universe are the commands to copy (Ctrl+C) and paste (Ctrl+V). An average computer user probably utilizes these shortcuts dozens of times a day without even thinking. In fact, this shortcut is so ubiquitous that it most likely works in places you haven’t tried. For example, the other day I...

A really nifty time saver when using a web browser is to control it by using simple mouse gestures. For example, whenever you need to go back to the previous page, instead of going to the back button at the top of the screen simply hold down the right mouse button and drag it to the left. Much quicker.To activate mouse gestures in Internet Explorer 7, use IE7...

The Windows command line offers access to many useful tools ranging from file system control to networking. A switch you might not know about the cmd.exe tool is /k which keeps the command line window open after the command is run instead of closing it. This is useful for creating shortcuts to run command line tools. For example, if you want to create a shortcut...