Adding the Control Panel to your Start Menu You may find it necessary to visit the control panel for a variety of options and information concerning your computer. Through the steps below Open the start menu Press enter on run Type the words "start menu" with the quotations (this will open the contents of the start menu in a "My Computer" view. Open the file menu Press enter on "new" Press enter on "folder" Type the following without the quotes "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" Press enter The Control Panel of your computer will now be added to the start menu as a sub menu. Adding a Printer List to your Start Menu It is possible to have a number of printers available to a single computer. A submenu containing a list of available printers may be added to the start menu by following these steps: Open the start menu Press enter on run Type the words "start menu" with the quotations (this will open the contents of the start menu in a "My Computer" view. Open the file menu Press enter on "new" Press enter on "folder" Type the following without the quotes "Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}" Press Enter The list of printers available to your computer will now be added to the start menu as a sub menu. Adding a list of Dial-up Networking Entries to your Start Menu You may have a number of dialup accounts entered in the dialup networking option of your computer. Perhaps you have a primary dialup and a backup. Whatever the case, you may add a drop down menu list of your dialup networking through the following steps: Open the start menu Press enter on run Type the words "start menu" with the quotations (this will open the contents of the start menu in a "My Computer" view. Open the file menu Press enter on "new" Press enter on "folder" Type the following without the quotes "Dial-Up Networking.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48} " Press Enter A drop downmenu of dialup networking options will now be added to the start menu as a sub menu. Bypassing Startup Programs There may be a number of applications which add themselves to the "startup" of your computer. this means that they all launch and stay in the bakcground when you boot your computer. If you wish to boot your computer without any programs running aside from the operating system, just hold down the shift key as the computer finishes booting, all programs within the startup will be bypassed. Creating a Shortcut for Display Properties The Display Properties can be of special importance to screen reader users. Some applications may tweak the settings, causing misinformation to be fed to screen readers. By following the steps below, you can create a shortcut to immediately show the display properties. Open the start menu Press enter on run Type "desktop" without the quotations open the file menu Press enter on new Press enter on shortcut Input the following without the quotes: "C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.EXE Desk.CPL,Display,1 " Press enter Type a name for the shortcut, possibly, "Display Properties" Press enter The new shortcut will be placed on your desktop. You may wish to associate a shortcut key with the new icon. Shutting down your Computer via a Shortcut If you are one who grows weary of having to go through the shut down dialog everytime you wish to shut down your computer, you may create a shortcut on your desktop to quickly shut down the computer. Just follow these steps: Open the start menu Press enter on run Type "desktop" without the quotations open the file menu Press enter on new Press enter on shortcut Input the following without the quotes: "C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL32.EXE user.exe,ExitWindows" Press enter Type a name for the shortcut, possibly, "shut down" Press enter The new shortcut will be placed on your desktop. You may wish to associate a shortcut key with the new icon. Deleting a File, bypassing the Recycle bin To delete a file permanently from your computer, bypassing the recycle bin: focus on the file or folder name in any list view of Windows hold down the shift key and press the delete key when asked if you are sure, answer yes. Finding your Windows Product Key So, you have your Windows 98/Millennium disk but can't find the 25 character alpha-numeric code that allowed for the installation of Windows. If you cannot find your product key, it is easily located in the registry of Windows. Just follow these steps: In Windows 95/98/ME Open the start menu Press enter on run Type the words "regedit" without the quotations Use the down arrow to locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Press the right arrow to expand the list of options within the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder. Use the down arrow to locate Software Once again, expand the tree view through the use of the right arrow use the down arrow to locate Microsoft Expand the view with the right arrow Use the down arrow to locate Windows Expand the view with the right arrow Press enter on Current Version Press F6 to move to the other side of the display use the down arrow to locate Productkey Just to the right of "Productkey," you will find the 25 character alpha-numeric code for your copy of Windows Windows XP/2000: In these versions of Windows, the product key is encrypted. You can use a special program such as the Magic Jelly Bean Keyfinder. This little program will decript your Windows Key and display it in an easy to access dialog. Download the Magic Jelly Bean Keyfinder Resizing the Columns in Windows Explorer When viewing files in the detail view of Windows Explorer, you may notice that some file names, dates, etc.. may become abbreviated. This is because all of the text cannot fit into the window. You may wish to resize the columns within the display. This is easily accomplished by enabling your numlock and pressing control + + (plus0 on the numeric keypad. Once the hot key is pressed, the columns within the file list of Windows Explorer will be immediately resized to display the full name of the file. This is a standard Windows control which will work in any number of applications. The best way to tell if it works, is to try it! *Help: for everyone who is as frustrated as I was with the "help & support" center in Windows XP which replaced the old familiar "classic" help system from earlier versions of windows, there is a way to revert to Classic help in XP, bypassing the "help & support" center. If you open a run dialog with the key combo WindowsLogoKey + R, and type "HH Windows.chm"(without the quotes) and press enter, it will bring up the old style help. Unfortunately, there is no "contents" tab which was great for browsing, only an "index", "search", or "favorites" tab. Just in case I forget how to do this in the future, I made a desktop shortcut for this by : 1. right clicking on the desktop 2. selecting "new" 3. selecting "shortcut" 4. in the target field, typing c:\windows\hh.exe windows.chm 5. naming it "windows Classic Help" in the dialog that appears after entering the target. *TroubleShooting How to disconnect from the internet when "auto disconnect does not. 1. Press insert F11- "system tray icons". 2. Arrow down to the string of numbers. 3. Press "Enter". 4. Jaws will say "context menu". 5Arrow down to "disconnect" , then press enter. 6. Alt f4 to close. NotePad When working in this application, the window should be maximized, and word wrap should be checked. If there seems to be a problem, with Jaws reading the text properly, try this: Alt, spacebar, then X to maximize the application. Insert, Escape, to refresh the screen. When working in any application, if there seems to be some problems, simply reboot and start over. If this corrects the problem, keep track of what applications were being used and log the symptoms for future reference. Many times applications do not clean up after themselves, When closed. This means that they do not release the resources they used while in use, causing other applications to not function properly. Once an application or applications that seem to have this problem have been identified, you will know when a reboot is necessary.