Replies

If you like the built-in DOSKEY functionality of CMD.EXE, here’s a few others you might like.

You can enable Automatic Completion of file & folder names, if you use start CMD with the /F parameter (ie. CMD /F). With this on you can type a command and part of a file name, then press CTRL-F to fill in the rest. Repeated CTRL-Fs cycle through available matches (within the current folder). If you don’t enter any characters to match, all names are cycled. To limit the auto complete to folders, you can use CTRL-D (could it be a ‘D” because folders used to be directories in the bad old days before politically correct Winspeak started to creep in?). You can make auto complete permanent for your PC, or on a per user basis, see KB 310530. (I haven’t bothered with this step, partly because the instructions for file & folder name completion seem to be a… about face.)

The Windows file associations are also supported. For example, if you type test.txt at the command prompt, the file is opened by Notepad, in a new window. Handy occasionally, especially with auto completion.

QuickEdit Mode allows you to mark, copy & paste text with the mouse, instead of the Edit menu. Not always useful in a command line environment where your fingers are hovering over the keyboard, but it has its moments. You can toggle QuickEdit in the properties for the window, the official method is in KB 282301.

Many of the old DOS commands & programs have become seriously more useful with each reincarnation of Windows. To dig deeper/wider, the Help command lists some commands you can get more help for (a subset deemed safe by Bill?). You can usually get help for unlisted commands (eg NET) if you use a “HELP”, “/?”, or “/HELP” command line parameter. I don’t know if there’s a list of these hidden commands floating around somewhere.

It’s almost a pity that batch files are hardly needed, now that all this functionality is available.

Another oldie but a goodie, AutoIt, and a freebie to boot. In the the author’s own words:
[indent]

---

AutoIt is a simple tool that can simulate key presses, mouse movements and window commands (maximize, minimize, wait for, etc.) in order to automate any windows based task (or even windowed DOS tasks).

---

[/indent]
And the “any” in the quote seems pretty close to the truth! I’ve used AutoIt almost from it’s inception in ’99, and I’d hate to have to live without it. Of course it has room for improvement. It lacks a record function. But, it is more capable than any macro recorder I know of, especially in it’s price bracket. Also, while you don’t need to be a programmer, a technical inclination won’t do any harm. But, when things do get tricky the documentation and help are comprehensive and well written.

AutoIt has been mentioned in a few posts here & there (well, not here, hence this), but only incidentally as a part of a problem solution. I think it”s worthy of a specific recommendation.

Unfortunately none of these fixes seems to offer a permanent cure for this particular XPerience.

Reading between the lines of the relevant KB article 330216 it maybe possible to avoid recurrences. Just refrain from foolishly opening new IE windows via the file menu (or the keyboard shortcut)!

Oh, and there is an official workaround:[indent]

---

To work around this issue, click Status Bar on the View menu.

---

[/indent]Now that is clever – build in the workaround before you introduce the problem, sorry issue.

I’ll second that. TClockEx lets you decide what you see, and how, rather than Bill saving you the effort.

Seems like XP has taken the opportunity to enhance / improve / optimise a default here and a behaviour there in minor ways. Just enough to make your life that little bit simpler, while introducing just a hint of mystery.

As noted, when all three lines of the clock are visible, you get the time, weekday, and date. If you’ve reduced the taksbar height so only two clock lines are visible, you get the time and weekday. Great for those of us who can never remember what day today is, but can recall the date at the drop of a hat.

Thanks Dave – saved some precious time!

I’ll follow the leader – order the CD and leave the IE upgrade ’til it arrives.

Related query: Is it safe to use my Windows XP Home SP1 (oem) CD as the source to install IE6 on my brother’s W98 PC?

The reason I’d like to do this is that his IE died a few days ago, along with the Windows explorer. I tracked his problems via MS KB articles, and have Windows back OK, but according to the final relevant KB article (160158) may need to uninstall/reinstall IE. So, rather than using the version on his W98 CD, I’d prefer to skip the upgrades (& downloads via modem) and move directly to IE6.

I’m concerned that using my XP CD to source IE6 could screw up his W98, even though I don’t see why it should. After all, since IE is a freebie, it shouldn’t matter where it comes from?

Given the dramas of the last couple of days, a clean rebuild of the PC is overdue, but I can’t spare more time for this than absolutely needed right now. So. a band aid will suffice for now, and I know it’ll take more time overall, when the rebuild is eventually done.

Tick the “Show this folder as an e-mail Address Book”, in the “Outlook Address Book” tab under properties for the subfolder(s) you want to use. Then you can select these subfolders in the “Select Names” dialog box from the “Show Names from the:” drop down list.

I don’t know of a way to show all the names from all the folders simultaneously. It would be a nice option though!

I needed a good to start off the day – thanks .

The original request seemed to be after some firm handholding, rather than mission critical barriers, so this shouldn’t be an issue.

Maybe you’re thinking of XP Pro, the Security tab is absent in Home?

As you can see from the screen shot (under NTFS), the options are somewhat limited. You get to this screen only after braving the warnings about sharing the root of a drive on your PC.

That’s why I like the idea of cacls being there as a 2nd last resort. The last resort is all users as admin .

You get (almost) the same result if you drag the current page to your desktop to create a shortcut and use that to start IE. (Drag the icon in the top left corner of the title bar, or on the far left of the address bar.) With this approach you can resume IE at one of several places, if you want.

I use the bottom right corner of my desktop for these links, with two folders to help. Links I have to get back to go on to the desktop. The folders are “Follow Up”, for links I want to check out, and “Curios” for when I’m bored or searching for serendipity.

I’ve tried using subfolders in my Favs for the same purpose, but found it more cumbersome. This way, I get to keep my home page as a personal portal and don’t clutter up my Favs with transient links. It can get a bit messy without a little occasional pruning (either delete or move to Favs), but works for me.

Quite right. cacls won’t help with the original request.

I intended it as an example of how Home has a bit more scope than at first appears. Also forgot to say that a likely use for cacls may be when the “simple file sharing” proves too simple.

Unfortunately, I don’t know of any GUI options to cacls with Home, but if there are any, I’d love to know about them. I grew up with the DOS prompt, and it’s predecessors, but prefer to keep life simple where possible.

Edited by WyllyWylly to clean up markup code.[/size]

I’m a homie too, unfortunately . I believed the salesmen, and PR material, that said Pro had a few extra security features useful only for networkng .

But, it seems it’s not quite as crippled as it appears

I just tried out the NET command, as suggested by Bruce, and it seems to work. I set up a new limited user, timetest, and made sure it worked OK (log on/off). Then, as admin, used the command:

net user timetest /times:M-F,06:00-07:00

When I tried to log on as timetest I was asked for a password (it doesn’t have one!), effectively preventing a logon. As admin I then used the command:

net user timetest /times:ALL

Now timetest was back to normal, able to log on/off.

So, you can define logon times. However, without gpedit , the forced log off needs another solution. In your situation, maybe just a scheduled task to pop up a reminder to go at the appropriate time.

Another potentially useful command that’s available is cacls, to fiddle with file access control lists.

NB Either net, and cacls, could cause similar grief as playing with the registry, so tread carefully.

Thanks for making the suggestions . As expected, no major revelations, but at least I know I haven’t missed anything obvious .

I’ve set up a shared PST, with individual mail folders for each user. A bit crude, effective, easy, and reasonably robust. The real mail, via ISP, remains an option for private (in a famly? ) communiques.

The mini mail server is probably the correct solution, but I’ll chase that one when/if our single PC evolves to a network.

The dial-up hits in Oz are on a per call, not duration, basis, so they can mount up. Very obvious when new software is installed, with multiple reboots and dial-up connections to find out how it really works, rather than what the documentation tells you.

I fixed my Java probs with the genuine article, from Sun. Since you know what you’re up to, probably best to do the manual download.

I wasted hours with my OEM XP SP1 (Home) trying to work what was going on with Java. According to MS KB Java is included with SP1, but I couldn’t see any evidence it was installed. A hunt throught docs on the CD told me that Java was there, but again I couldn’t find a hint of it on the CD either. Attempts to download it from the MS Updates site failed because the link pointed nowhere (a msg to say that the item was no longer available). Further searches in KB led to docs that said Java had to be dropped from XP because Sun was being silly with legal action, but had could be downloaded form MS Updates, and was again invluded with SP1. Foolishly I persisted with more attempts trying to get it from MS .

Luckily I woke up in the end , and remembered where Java came from. Apart from the real Java VM, their site also gives a slightly different version of the shenanigans with MS.

Hi Cynthia. I’m a newbie here, but if I understand what you’re after, the key word(s) is “user profiles”.

Look it up under outlook help and you’ll be told to head for control panel mail show profiles add. You can set up multiple profiles, each with one, or more email addresses.

You’ll need to change tools options mail services to “prompt for a profile”, or set up a shortcut for each profile (eg “”C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOfficeOUTLOOK.EXE” /recycle /profile DEMO”).

As for your common address book (aka contacts) OL2K allows you to share your contacts, as well as calendar & tasks. I haven’t used this, but it sounds like what you’re after.

Hope this helps. (It also helps if you can guess the magic word!)