Shorten the list of frequently used programs in the Start menu

Windows XP, Vista, 7

Windows maintains a list of the most

frequently used programs in the Start

menu. These shortcuts enable quick

access to the applications. But the

long list also tends to be unclear.

You can reduce the number of

entries in the list. Right-click ‘Start’ for

this. Select ‘Properties’ in the following

context menu. The ‘Taskbar and Start

Menu Properties’ dialog box opens.

In case of Windows XP and Vista,

ensure that the ‘Start menu’ option

is selected. As opposed to that, the

‘Classic Start menu’ option sees to

it that Windows displays the Start

menu in the layout of older versions,

where the list for the most frequently

used applications had not yet been

integrated.

The ‘Customize Start Menu’ dialog

box opens on clicking ‘Customize’. It

diff ers depending on the version of the

operating system. In case of Vista and
Windows 7, you must type the number
of desired program shortcuts under
‘Number of recent programs to display’.
If you use Windows XP, you will fi nd the
‘Number of recent programs to display’
option in the ‘General’ tab. Windows
carries out the modifi cations after
confi rming with ‘OK’.
NOTE: By entering ‘0’, you completely
remove the list of the most frequently
used programs.

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End hanged programs with a mouse click

Windows XP, Vista, 7

A program has crashed and is
blocking several other processes.
Normally, the only way out is to use the
Task Manager and end all programs
individually by confirming
in each case.

The ‘taskkill’ command can be used to generate a

tool for automatically ending hanged processes.

You can end programs without
any query in the command line, using
the ‘taskkill’ command. It even off ers
other options. For instance, it can fi rst
determine all the programs that are not
reacting anymore and only end those. If
you create a shortcut, you can save the
necessary options along with it. Rightclick
on a free spot on the desktop and
select the context command ‘New |
Shortcut’. Enter the following command
in the input field: taskkill /F /F1
“STATUS eq NOT RESPONDING” and
click ‘Continue’.
The first option ‘/F’ compels the
processes to end while ‘/F1’ activates
the following fi lter. This fi lter verifi es the
status of all processes and reports those
with the message ‘NOT RESPONDING’
instead of ‘RUNNING’. Provide the
shortcut with a suitable name such as
‘Ending hanged programs’ and click
‘Finish’. You can subsequently even assign
another icon using the context command
‘Properties’. In the future, calling this
shortcut will suffice for ending all
processes that have crashed.
CAUTION: Make sure that you do not lose
the saved application data. Always try to
wait for a response and end the program
in the regular manner.

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Start system tools without annoying user account queries

Windows Vista, 7

The security query every time you start

a system tool like Regedit is annoying.

Although the User Account Control can

generally be deactivated, this stops

Windows from warning you before

starting unknown programs.

Calling system tools via the Task Scheduler helps

avoid the annoying security query.

You can avoid the annoying
security query with a trick. Arrange for
an indirect program start using task
scheduling. Subsequently, start the
scheduled task using a shortcut which
then does not trigger off a User Account
Control, although this security mechanism
remains active for all other programs.
Click on ‘Start | Control
Panel | System and Security
| Administrative Tools | Task
Scheduler’. Confirm the User Account
Control query. Click ‘Create Task’ in the
actions pane towards the right. Enter the
name of the task in the ‘General’ tab.
Activate the ‘Run with highest privileges’
option shown below. Then switch to the
‘Actions’ tab and click ‘New’. Select ‘Start
Program’ and click ‘Browse’ to navigate
to the desired program. You can also
directly enter the call with the complete
path, for e.g. ‘C:\Windows\regedit.exe’.
Confirm with ‘OK’ and switch to the
‘Conditions’ tab. Here, deactivate all the
set options and confirm the dialog box
with ‘OK’. In the future, you will also find
this task in the list under ‘Task Scheduler
Library’.
Now, create yet another shortcut
for directly starting the task. For this,

and select the context command ‘New |
Shortcut’. Type the following in the input
field: C:\Windows\System32\schtasks.
exe /RUN /TN ??
For ‘??’, use the name that you have
assigned to the previously defined task.
Both the parameters ensure that the
named task is immediately executed.
Click ‘Continue’ and provide the shortcut
with a suitable, preferably short name
such as ‘regx’. Click ‘Finish’.
If you start the Registry Editor using
this shortcut in the future, there is no
annoying User Account Control query.
This method can also be used for other
programs.

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Define the actual folders hidden behind shortcuts

From Vista onwards, specifi c
folders seem exist for the sake of
compatibility, but actually redirect
to other real folders. This messes up
scripts and batch files you’ve written
yourself.

Backward compatibility is maintained through

logical shortcuts called Junction Points.

These shortcuts, called junction
points, exist throughout Windows.
For example, programs can try to
save data to the old ‘Documents and
Settings’ folder, but will be seamlessly
redirected to the applicable new ‘Users’
folder. The operating system however
hides this persistently. Attempts to
access the junction points directly
(Windows displays them if you enable
the display of the system fi les via the
folder options) are aborted with an
error message. And another stumbling
block is that real folder names need
to be used in scripts or batch files.
Else, they hang during execution.
The free tool NTFSLinks-View provides
help. It lists the active junctions in the
system. Download the program from
www.nirsoft.net/utils/ntfs_links_view.
html. The tool ‘nftslinksview.exe’ can
immediately be started. The program lists
all active junctions in the folder of your
user profi le.
In the ‘Target Path’ column, it displays
the relevant real folder which the junction
controls in the ‘Full Path’ column. Right
click an entry and select the context
command ‘Open Target Path’ to open
this target folder in Explorer.
In order to check other directories,
enter the folder in the input fi eld, e.g. ‘C’
and click ‘Go’. Use the key combination
[Ctrl]+[A] to select all entries and then
‘Save’ them to a text fi le using ‘File I Save
selected items’.

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Switch between applications quickly with Apple’s Exposé function

When you fl ick the cursor to a specifi c
corner of the monitor, Exposé shows
thumbnails of all active programs
minimised on the desktop. You
can then quickly switch to another
application – but only on Mac OS X.



The tool SmallWindows equips
Windows with the practical Exposé
functionality of Mac OS X. SmallWindows
has two functions: It either minimizes
all windows so that it is easy to toggle
between applications, or it moves all
windows to the screen border so that you
get a free view of the desktop. You can
download it from http://smallwindows.
sourceforge.net. A wizard guides you
through the setup. Under Vista and
Windows 7, you need to authorize the
installation by selecting a user account
with administrator rights and entering the
relevant password if needed.
At the time of the fi rst start, confi gure
the program asks whether Windows
should automatically load it during
startup so that it is at your disposal
immediately, so confi rm the query
with ‘Yes’. After the start, a new icon
is displayed in the system notifi cation
area. Right click it and select the context

Add the cool Exposé feature to Windows XP with

this simple free tool

command ‘Settings’ to open the dialog
box for confi guring the application.
Here you can also deactivate the
automatic start during system start by
removing the checkmark on ‘Start when
Windows starts’.
The hot zones are the four corners of
the desktop via which you can activate
SmallWindows. For every hot zone,
defi ne a reaction using the relevant fi eld.
In case of all ‘All’, Windows displays all
the open programs in one minimized
view. You can select a program with
just a click and bring it into foreground.
You can deactivate the function with
‘None’. ‘Desktop’ moves all windows to
the screen border and gives a free view
of the desktop. ‘Related’ minimizes the
current program. This function is however
of no use otherwise. In addition to fl icking
the mouse, you can also defi ne key
combinations for individual functions via
‘Hotkey Activation’.

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Get a constant overview of several time zones

When making a call to another country

such as the USA, you don’t want to

inadvertently wake someone up in

the middle of the night. But this can

actually happen if you do not pay

attention to the time diff erence.

Additional clocks can be placed in the system tray

to help you work better with international clients.

Windows provides help in

displaying several time zones. Click

the clock to the right of the taskbar.

A window with an analog clock and a

calendar is displayed. Use the ‘Change

Date and Time Settings’ link in this

window. The ‘Date and Time’ dialog box

opens. Activate the ‘Additional times’

tab in it. This tab can be opened via the

control panel as well as via the ‘Time,Language and Region’ and ‘Add times for

diff erent time zones’.

Alternatively, in the classic view of

the Control Panel, double click ‘Date

and Time’ and activate the ‘Additional

Times’ tab. You can defi ne up to two

more time zones that Windows then

displays near the analog clock with the

local time. For this, there are two ‘Display

this time’ fi elds in the ‘Additional Times’

tab. Checkmark the heading to activate

the fi eld. You can then select ‘Select time

zone’ and ‘Enter display name’ with the

help of which you can later identify the

time zone. The country name would be

an ideal entry. Repeat these settings for

the third time if required and confi rm

with ‘OK’.

Now after clicking the taskbar clock,

Windows will show both additional time

zones. If you simply hover the cursor over

the time, a small tooltip with the current

date and the various times is displayed.

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Defragment several disks automatically without monitoring

Regular defragmentation keeps the
system performance consistent. But
you cannot sit at your PC through this
entire process. What is also irritating
is that defragmentation needs to be
manually activated if there are several
hard disks.

The graphical interface of
Windows’ defragmenter does not provide
the option to process several drives one
after the other, at least under XP. What a
lot of people don’t know is that Windows
has an additional command line tool
called ‘defrag.exe’ that is suitable for
batch processing as well. You can use
it to automate the defragmentation of
several drives. If you operate a system
with the drives C, D and E for instance,
enter the following in Notepad:
@echo off
defrag.exe -f c
defrag.exe -f d
defrag.exe -f e
Save the fi le as ‘defrag.cmd’. If you
are using other drive names or more
drives, change the fi le accordingly.
Double click this fi le to defragment
all hard disk partitions one after the
other automatically without a break.
However you need to be logged in with
administrator rights for running the fi le.
The used parameter ‘-f’ carries out the
defragmentation even if the hard disk has

less than 10 percent free space, without
pausing for an error message. But the
process takes too long in that case. What
you can do is delete the large fi les that
are no longer required.
Vista and Windows 7 regulate
defragmentation automatically on the
basis of a schedule. Irrespective of that,
you can either use the batch processing
operation via ‘defrag.exe’ or even select
several drives simultaneously with the
graphical interface.
For this, right click a drive entry (e.g.
in Explorer) for both the versions, select
the context command ‘Properties’,
activate the tab ‘Tools’ and then click
the ‘Defragment now’ button. Under
Vista, click the ‘Select Volumes’ button
and you can then activate several drives
for defragmentation or select ‘Select all
data carriers’. Under Win7, keep the [Ctrl]
key pressed and then select the desired
drives by clicking the entries one after
the other.

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