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Windows Tips and Tricks

Toronto Star Fast Forward column for February 8, 2001 

Copyright ©, Myles White, 2001

It has been many months since I offered some tips about using Windows and some of its features. Based on my mail from readers, it's long overdue.

Start

One of the biggest jokes about all modern versions of Windows (95, 98, 98SE, ME, and 2000 Professional) is that in order to shut it down, you have to press the "Start" button. The Start Menu, and and its associated Taskbar and "System Tray" are pesky things. They're also quite useful. Below are a few common, and not so common, tricks you can play with them.

Now you see me, now you don't 

By default, the Start Menu / Taskbar lies at the bottom of your screen, and it stays there, visible at all times. Windows programs respect it and don't overlap it. However, you can pick up some screen real estate by telling it to get lost. 

Position the mouse cursor over any part of the bar that doesn't already have something on it (such as a program icon or the button representing open and/or minimized applications). 

Right-click (use the secondary mouse button) on this open area. A context menu will appear. Choose properties. 

Content of the "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" dialogue that appears next depends on the version of Windows you have. Windows Millennium Edition (WinMe) and Windows 2000 Professional (Win2K) have more choices than the Win9x versions. But what they have in common are two checkbox fields that allow you to cause the bar to "auto-hide" and to always be on top - which appear at first glance to be contradictory. 

If you select auto-hide, then click on OK, the Start Menu and Taskbar will disappear! Don't panic. As soon as you move your cursor close to the portion of the screen where the menu is supposed to be, it will appear again. 

If you also selected "always on top," it will appear over any open application, even if you've set that program to run in full-screen mode; otherwise it will be under the application. 

There's also a way to force the taskbar to appear without your mouse, but it requires you to have a keyboard with the so-called Windows Key (generally located between CTRL and ALT keys on both sides of the keyboard). 

Without doing anything other than tapping this key, the taskbar will appear with the Start Menu visible.

Seek me here, seek me there

For this next tip to work, you have to understand what is meant by "click (or grab) and drag." This will be common knowledge to many readers, but if my mail is any clue, not to everyone. 

There are click and drag tricks you can play with both left and right (primary and secondary) mouse buttons and I'll reveal at least one with the right button below. 

The essential piece of information you need is that click and drag means to position the mouse cursor over the object you wish to drag, then to select it by pressing the appropriate mouse button and holding it down until you're finished dragging it (by moving the mouse) to where you want it to go. 

The Start Menu / Taskbar, located at the bottom edge of your screen when any version of Windows is first installed, doesn't have to stay there. It can lie against the left, right, or top edges. 

The most common letter I get asking for Start Menu solutions are from people whose children (or visiting friends) have moved it, either deliberately or by accident. "How do I get it back?" is the plaintive result. 

The short answer is to click and drag it to the new position. Unfortunately, there's a subtlety. Above, in the visibility tip, I said you right-clicked on an open section of the bar where there was nothing else. 

In this case, the area where you left-click and hold has to be in a portion of the bar close to the Start button, but one not occupied by another toolbar (such as the one immediately to the right of the button, known as the Quick Launch toolbar). 

That small area can be difficult to find unless you also expand the bar to two levels (see below). However, it also works if you position the cursor inside the portion of the bar at the far right, known as the System Tray (again over a portion of the tray that isn't occupied by an icon). 

Once you've found the correct portion of the bar to grab, we go back to the simple instruction: Press the left mouse-button and hold it down; then move the cursor in the direction you want the bar to go. 

It will very quickly move to the edge you want. And it will still auto-hide as described above. Note: if you grab the wrong portion of the bar, it simply won't move.

Reclaiming your desktop

If you're like most experienced Windows users, your desktop quickly becomes cluttered with icons that allow you to quickly select and launch programs (either directly or by clicking on the documents they've produced to open the program with the document already loaded - it's a personal choice). 

However, you can have them take up less space and be more quickly available by moving these desktop shortcuts to the taskbar, either by adding them to the Quick Launch toolbar that is created by default (it's the one that has icons for Reveal Desktop, Internet Explorer, perhaps Outlook Express, and one or two other odds and sods) or by creating additional toolbars (again, see below). 

This is actually two tips in one, because we're also going to discuss how you use the right mouse-button to move and copy things. Also note that this trick only works in Windows 98 or above, unless you've also updated to the most recent versions of Internet Explorer. 

One of the first things I put in the Quick Launch toolbar is the file manager, Windows Explorer. I like it handy instead of buried two levels deep under the Start Menu. 

Click on the Start button, move your cursor to Programs, then scan down the flyout menu until you find Windows Explorer. Right-click on it (NOT left) and hold, then drag it from the menu to the Quick Launch portion of the taskbar. You'll know you've got it in the correct position when the circle-with-a-stroke-through-it symbol changes to an I-beam symbol. 

Release the mouse button; when you do, another menu will appear that asks what you want to do with the icon. The choices are Move, Copy, Create Shortcut Here, or Cancel. 

Now, I know that the icon on the Start Menu representing Windows Explorer is a shortcut to it; the actual program is housed in the main Windows folder, not in the Start Menu folder, so in this case, I choose copy. It's an important distinction, because I can do this same trick with other programs. And I can do it from my desktop, and from both the Start Menu or from Windows Explorer - by opening the folder in which the actual program is stored, right clicking on its icon and dragging it to the taskbar. 

In this case, I don't want to copy the whole program (it's too big, would waste disk space, and probably wouldn't work because its listing in the Windows Registry says its in its own folder, not in the Start Menu folder). 

So, in this instance, I'd choose to create a shortcut. When dragging desktop icons to the bar, I generally choose "move."

Getting organized

Of course, if you use only Quick Launch, then load it up with program shortcuts, it will quickly occupy all of the space on the taskbar, leaving no room for the buttons representing open applications. You'll also be faced with another problem; if you do add more toolbars, icons on the right side of the Quick Launch bar disappear to be replaced by a double arrow you have to click and hold to get the hidden icons to appear (see below).

Creating another toolbar also helps you to group icons by whatever criteria you choose. I have Internet-related applications in one, Office 2000 programs in another; and system utilities in yet another. 

To create a toolbar, right-click on an empty portion of the Taskbar, select Toolbars from the context menu, then New Toolbar from the flyout menu. It doesn't really matter what name you give it. The name and the toolbar's contents are stored in the Windows/Desktop folder (or possibly in Windows / All users / <username> / Desktop if you have Windows customized for multiple users). 

Options here include having the toolbar's name visible or not and having the name of the programs represented by the icons visible or not. I usually turn both of these options to "not visible" to save space. Now you can right-click and drag items to the new toolbar as described above. 

Other choices you get under Toolbars include some pre-sets. You can turn Quick Launch on or off, for example. I usually add Address to mine, because it allows me to enter an Internet address without having to start Internet Explorer first.

Bar bloat

Taskbar filling up? Why not make it bigger? 

This works best if you're running your system at fairly high resolution (1024 by 768 or more). 

Grab (left-click and hold) on the top margin of the taskbar, then slowly drag upwards. Viola! It becomes two rows (or even three if you insist). Now there's plenty of room for all of the items you may wish to add later. If icons disappear because there's more of them than space to display them, you can also grab the raised left margin of any toolbar and move it to another position on the taskbar or slide the handle beside it to make the toolbar longer or shorter.

Have fun!

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