If you’re like me, you use the run menu. A lot. One of the features I like about the run menu is that it stores your recently used commands in a list, called the Most Recently Used list (MRU for short). From time to time, I like to remove superfluous items from that list. Here’s how:
(more…)Tag: Windows
-
Identifying the version of a Windows client
Back in December, I showed you how to install RSAT on a Windows client. As you will have seen, the method depends on what version of Windows the client is running, which means that correctly identifying the version running is somewhat important (although trial and error does work – eventually).
(more…) -
Batch replace file extension of all files in a folder
From time to time, I need to quickly change the file extension of all files in a folder. While there are tools that can do that for you (one of which I’ve written about previously), if you need to append the same file extension to all files in a folder, using the command line in Windows can be just as quick. Here’s how: (more…)
-
Platform agnosticism and my preferred platform
The debate over ones preferred platform has for a very long time felt more like a religous discussion more than anything else. Whether it’s PC vs. Mac, iOS vs. Android, or Windows vs. Linux, proponents of the various platforms tend towards an almost religious level of zeal for their preferred platform, and against the other platform.
-
Deleting a service from the command prompt
Sometimes, as an administrator, you will need to remove a service from Windows. This can be because it is malfunctioning, and reinstalling the software it came with does not solve the issue, or because an uninstall of the software it came with does not solve the actual problem. Whatever the cause, removing a service takes a little bit of legwork before you can get to the actual removal of it.
In order to remove a service, you need to know what name Windows uses to refer to it. This can be found as follows:
(more…) -
Windows 7: Shake the windows away
Many of the innovations in Windows 7 are more about estetics and eye-candy than anything else. Some of them are downright silly; such as this one:
You’re working on your computer, and you have a lot of windows open. You then need to focus on a specific window, and minimize all the others. That’s done by clicking the title-line of a window, and shaking it, which will make the other windows minimize.
You can still use the keyboard shortcut Win+d to achieve the same result. -
More God modes
I recently wrote about the so-called God mode in Windows 7. As it turns out, there are as many as seventeen of them. In addition to the “full” God mode, you also have the following:
(more…) -
A better way to see trends
An old joke says that there are three kinds of lies; black lies, white lies and the internal polling data of political parties. The latter example is typically statistics, and while statistics can be presented in such a way as to prove almost anything, raw, unprocessed statistics are a great tool.
One of my habits when troubleshooting troubles is to have a look at the event viewer. While event viewer allows you to see specific events, it can sometimes be difficult to see trends. In Windows XP, we don’t really have a choice, we’ll have to look through the data, and parse it ourselves.
Enter Windows Vista, and Windows Reliability Monitor. As the screendump below shows, it will show you, as a graph, when things have started to deteriorate. You can look through the history, and see on what days there have been many errors. It also gives you a reliability index rating, from 10 to 1 (Ten being very good, 1 being exceedingly bad. Coupled with event viewer logs, Reliability Monitor makes it that much easier to read logs, and solve problems.
Click the image to see the full size version -
Free eBook: Troubleshooting Windows 7
Working in IT, I often have people ask me about issues they are having with their computer. Now, while I’m happy to help out, I often find that the problems I solve for them are problems they could have solved themselves. Mitch Tulloch, a Microsoft MVP and lead author of the just-published Windows 7 Resource Kit (Microsoft Press, 2010; ISBN: 9780735627000; 1760 pages), has created a short e-book called “What You Can Do Before You Call Tech Support.” Here are the opening paragraphs:
(more…) -
The "Show Desktop" icon has disappeared from Quick Launch
I had a user call in, complaining that her “Show Desktop” icon had disappeared from the Quick Launch bar. She was unable to find it again, and was really distressed as she used it a lot.
As it turns out, Show Desktop is not a regular program, but rather an OS command, known as an SCF-file, which according to FileInfo.com is a
(more…)