A Tip A Day ~ {ERG}

[LoneRanger]

17 March 2008:



Predict Moves and Copies

Sometimes when I drag a file, it gets copied. Other times, it gets moved. It
doesn't really make sense. How can I predict what will happen, and more importantly, how can I choose?

The problem is that drag and drop works differently in different situations. If you drag a file or folder from one place to another on the same physical drive (e.g., from c:\docs to c:\files), the object is moved. If you drag an object from one physical drive to another physical drive (e.g., from c:\docs to d:\files), the object is copied, resulting in two identical files on your system.(There are other specific exceptions, most too obscure to mention here.)

Note: If you press Ctrl or Shift before you click, Windows may assume you're using these keys to select multiple files. If Explorer isn't behaving as you expect, make sure to press these keys only after you've started dragging, but before you let go of the mouse button.

Fortunately, you can control what happens regardless of the drives in question by using a combination of keystrokes. To copy an object in any situation, hold the Ctrl key while dragging.

To move an object in any situation, hold the Shift key while dragging.

To help you out when you're dragging files, Explorer provides some visual feedback. If there's a tiny plus sign (+) next to the mouse pointer, the files will be copied; if there's a curved arrow, Explorer will create shortcuts to the files. A standard, unadorned arrow means the files will be moved.

To choose what happens to dragged files each time without pressing any keys, drag your files with the right mouse button. When you release the button at the destination, a special menu will appear (see Figure). Select the action you want (Copy Here, Move Here, or Create Shortcuts Here), or click Cancel to abort.

[LoneRanger]

18 March 2008:



Copy Files to a Hidden Destination

Dragging and dropping has become a real drag. Every time I want to move a file, I have to open the destination folder first, and then fuss with the windows until the file and the destination are both visible simultaneously. Is there an easier way to do this?

Actually, there are several! The first requires a little patience. Drag the file over to Explorer's folder tree, and hover the pointer near the top or bottom of the tree; with a steady hand, you can make Windows Explorer scroll the tree. Once the desired folder comes into view, hover the file over the folder until it expands (this usually takes a second or two).

Keep doing this to dig down to the appropriate subfolder if necessary, and release the button when the destination is finally visible to drop the file into place.

Another method uses good ol' copy and paste. Right-click the file (or files) you want to copy, and select Copy (or Cut, if you want to move the file). Open the destination folder, right-click an empty area, and select Paste.

Note: The keyboard shortcuts for the cut, copy, and paste operations are Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C, and Ctrl-V, respectively.

[LoneRanger]

19 March 2008:



FILE DIALOGS

Customize File Dialogs

The folders listed in the gray bar along the left side of most File --> Open and File --> Save As dialog boxes aren't terribly useful. Can I put my own folders in there?

Absolutely, but as you've undoubtedly figured out, you can't do it from within the file dialogs themselves (except in Microsoft Office applications, as discussed later in this fix).

If you have Windows XP Professional or Media Center Edition, open the Group Policy Editor (go to Start --> Run and type gpedit.msc ). On the left, navigate to User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\ Windows Explorer\Common Open File Dialog , and then in the right pane, double-click the "Items displayed in Places Bar" entry (see Figure). Select the Enabled option, and in the five Item fields, type the full path of each folder you'd like to appear in your Places bar.

Click OK when you're done. Your custom Places bar will appear in the file dialogs in most of your applications right away, although you'll need to restart any running applications to get them to recognize your changes.

The big exception is Microsoft Office applications, which use nonstandard
dialogs. Microsoft saw the need to allow users to customize the Places bar, but only made it easy in Microsoft Office applications (Versions 2002 and later). In the File --> Open or File Save As --> dialog boxes, highlight any folder in the listing, click the Tools button, and then select "Add to My Places" to add it to the end of the list. To remove a folder from the bar, right-click it and select Remove. (If you want to rearrange the folders and the Move Up and Move Down menu items are grayed out, you must remove and re-add folders until they're in the order you want.)


Note: Want to keep some of the default folders in the Places bar? Just type in their special code names, such as Recent (for My Recent Documents) , Desktop, MyDocuments, MyComputer , and MyNetworkPlaces . You can also display other special folders by entering their code names, such as CommonDocuments, CommonMusic, CommonPictures, MyFavorites, MyMusic, MyPictures, Printers , and ProgramFiles . (The so-called "common" folders are special shared folders used by multiple users on the same machine.)

[LoneRanger]

20 March 2008:



List Recently Used Folders



Search in a New Window

When I'm viewing a folder in Windows Explorer and I press Ctrl-F or F3 to
search for something in that folder, the folder tree is replaced with a Search pane (see Figure). I want my tree back!

There are a bunch of ways to get to the Search tool in Windows, but few are as convenient as starting a search based in the current folder with Ctrl-F. Of course, it's decidedly inconvenient when you lose your current view every time you start a search this way. And what's worse is that there's no way to get the folder tree back without a lot of clicking (pressing Ctrl-F again doesn't do it); you have to go to View Explorer Bar --> Folders (or press the Folders button if the toolbar is visible, to show it again.

The workaround is to open Search in a new window by right-clicking a folder in Windows Explorer and selecting Search; it's not as quick as Ctrl-F or F3, but it does the trick.

To force Windows Explorer to open a new window every time you press Ctrl-F or F3, you'll need Creative Element Power Tools, available at http://creativelement.com/powertools/ . Once you've installed the software, open the Creative Element Power Tools Control Panel and turn on the "Fix the Windows Search tool" option.

[LoneRanger]

21 March 2008:



ump to Advanced Search

Every time I open the Search tool, I'm asked "What do you want to search for?" and then I have to pick from a list. Is my Photoshop file a "picture" or is it a "document"?These unnecessary steps drive me crazy. How can I go right to the Search window?

To skip this menu in the future and go straight to the "All files and folders" Search tool (see Figure), return to the "What do you want to search for?" page and click "Change preferences." Click "Change files and folders search behavior," and select Advanced. Explorer will
remember your preference, and you won't have to deal with the menu again unless you want to.

[LoneRanger]

22 March 2008:



Take the Dog for a Walk

The dog was cute at first, but it's always making scratching sounds while I'm trying to work. How do I keep him quiet?

You can't turn off the sounds, but you can turn off the dog. In the main Search window, click Change Preferences, then click "Without an animated character." You can also click "With a different character" to choose between Rover (the puppy), Merlin (a wizard), Earl (a surfboarding banana), or Courtney (anybody's guess).

See the Whole Megillah

When I perform a search, I have a hard time making out the full filenames or complete folder names in the search results.

The columns in Explorer's Search Results are too small by default (see Figure 1).

Start by enlarging the window horizontally. Then, drag the column dividers with your mouse to enlarge the Name and In Folder columns, as shown in Figure 2 . Alternatively, you can double click the column dividers this will automatically resize the columns to accommodate their contents.

Windows Explorer should remember your column preferences for future visits to the Search window, but it doesn't always get it right and sometimes inserts unwanted columns (such as the pointless Relevance column) or reverts to the default layout. Unfortunately, there's no way to
definitively save your favorite Search window layout, as you can in the main Explorer window, so you may have to reassert your preferences from time to time.

[LoneRanger]

Reserved

[LoneRanger]

23 March 2008:



Reveal Missing Paths in Search Results

I'm looking at a list of search results, and some of the folder names (shown
in the "In Folder" column) are missing or incomplete, like in Figure. How do I find out where these files are located?

Those folder names are missing because the files are located inside ZIP files, which Windows XP searches along with ordinary folders. Alas, there's a bug in the Search tool the In Folder column is left blank for any file found inside a ZIP file. The only way to find the location and name of one of these ZIP files is to select File --> Open Containing Folder.

If you want to avoid this problem altogether, you must disable Windows XP's built-in support for ZIP files.

To do this, go to Start --> Run, and type the following at the prompt:
regsvr32 /u %windir%\system32\zipfldr.dll

Click OK when you're done, and the change will take effect immediately.

[LoneRanger]

24 March 2008:



Find Recent Files

The Documents menu in the Start menu shows only some of the documents I've worked on recently. How do I get a complete listing of recently modified files?

The Recent Documents folder contains shortcuts to files you've double clicked in Windows Explorer, as well as documents you've opened and saved in certain applications, and the last dozen of these are shown in your Documents menu. But, for whatever reason, not all programs support this feature. Fortunately, you can find all recent files with a quick search.

Go to Start --> Search --> For files and folders, and select Local Hard Drives from the drop down "Look in" list. Next, click "When was it modified," choose the appropriate option (say, "Within the last week"), and click the Search button. When the search completes, sort the listing
by date by clicking the Date Modified column header. (Don't see the Date Modified column? Select --> View --> Details and then right-click any column header to display a list of available columns.)

Double-click any file to open it.

[LoneRanger]

25 March 2008:



Save Your Searches

I need to run the same searches over and over. Is there a way to quickly
repeat past searches?

Once you've performed a search, or at least started one, you can save your settings in a file. In the Search Results window, select File --> Save Search, choose a location and name for the file (a good place is your desktop), and click the Save button. To repeat the search, just
double click the file and then click Search. (It would be nice if the search started automatically, but no such luck.)

Save Your Search Results

Okay, I saved my search, but when I close the Search window and then double-click the file, all my previous search results are gone. What happened?

The Save Search feature doesn't save search results; it only saves the search parameters , such as the folder path that's being searched, the text to search for, the date range (if you specified one), and other options.

Although Windows has no way of creating a permanent record of search results, you can do this. After completing a search, press Ctrl-A to
highlight all the files in the Search Results window, right-click, and select Copy Filename. Open any plain-text editor (such as Notepad), press Ctrl-V to paste in your results, and save the file listing.