ChuckOp's eXPeriences : Tip

Windows Media Player not adding albums to media library

ChuckOp — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 19:05:00 GMT

Have been moving my music collection around and noticed that nearly half of the files didn't get added to the media library when monitoring the folder, or manually scanning it.

After investigating for awhile, I discovered that folders marked with the System attribute were being ignored by the media library. I guess this is understandable, but left me with two questions: First, how did only certain folders get this attribute set. Secondly, how do I go about changing it?

About 130 of 410 total folders had the System attribute set. I don't know exactly how it got set, but it may have something to do with the folders being stored temporary on a Samba-based file share.

My first though was to type attrib -s *. /s /d

However, while *. should match only files without extensions (which includes directories), attrib matches all files when given the *. wildcard pattern. I was worried that the various WMP related files such as AlbumArt* and Folder.jpg and Thumbs.db would also lose their System attribute.

Executing the attrib command above did attempt to reset those files as well, but since they are also marked with the Hidden attribute, and error was presented and attrib moved on.

What I learned was that with Windows Media Player version 10, the media library will not automatically add folders that are marked with the System attribute. If you are having problems getting artists or albums to import correctly into the media library, check the System attributes.

Backup Favorites Quickly

ChuckOp — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 23:18:00 GMT

A friend and former co-worker at Microsoft recently sent out an e-mail to several people describing a way to backup the Favorites folder to a writable CD/DVD-ROM drive. I started thinking that it could even be easier:

Start Menu -> Run (or press WIN+R)
Type %userprofile% and press ENTER
Right-click Favorites folder
Choose Send To -> and the drive to copy all the favorites to

Works with floppies, USB drives and writable CD/DVD-ROM drives.

Google toolbar tip - Shift+Enter

ChuckOp — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 06:56:00 GMT

When using the Google toolbar, you can press SHIFT+ENTER after typing a search query to open a new browser window with the search results. Nifty.

Also try out the new version 3 beta.

Defending Your Computer

ChuckOp — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 17:42:00 GMT

My good friend Dave Dockery of Synergy Publishing has put together a nice seminar on cleaning PC's infected with spyware and other unwanted pieces of software.

He gives his Defending Your Computer seminar all over the West Coast of Florida, often at meetings of the Tampa Bay Computer Society.

Doc and I disagree on somethings, like I'd put installing Service Pack 2 as the first thing anyone should do, but he's a great speaker and a accomplished educator.

Windows Server 2003 SP1 notes

ChuckOp — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 04:25:00 GMT

I just installed the new Release Candidate for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1. Superfically, it appears to have most of the security features from Windows XP Service Pack 2. So far no problems with the install or interaction with anything I previous had running.

I use Windows Server 2003 as my main workstation. I do this for many reasons which I won't go into here. One thing I have found out is that 128MB of memory simply isn't enough. On a 2.4Ghz Dell PowerEdge server with 128MB of memory, the system is pretty slow with a couple of Microsoft Office applications (like Outlook and PowerPoint). I just put in 256MB of memory and responsiveness is much better.

I did configure most of the advanced settings to change priorities to boost foreground services and other performance tweaks.

I'm going to get 1GB of memory shortly, but I wanted anyone else who's thinking of running W2K3 as a workstation to know that 256MB is neccessary for productivity. Here's another link if you're considering using W2K3 as your main workstation.

Terminal Services and Remote Desktop Connection

ChuckOp — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 22:39:00 GMT

Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 include a new client for Terminal Services. The long name is “Remote Desktop Connection”. Instead of looking for it through the menus however, to quickly connect to another Windows machines that have Remote Desktop (AKA Terminal Services) turned on type the following at a command prompt:

mstsc /console /v 192.168.10.10

The /v specifies the IP address or hostname of the remote computer. /console will connect you to the same session as the console. This is handy if you’ve started something via the console and wish to check on it remotely. Note that when you do this, the console is locked out while you’re connected (or until someone at the console unlocks it).

You can easily get a command-line by pressing WIN+R which pops up the Run dialog. By placing the address last, you can use AutoComplete to find a previous instance and change the last few digits to a new address

Show all in Device Manager

ChuckOp — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 15:26:00 GMT

The Windows registry keeps track of all hardware devices that have been installed on the machine. The Device Manager only displays the hardware devices that are currently connected to the machine. Hardware that is not currently connected, such as a USB device, or a Firewire hard disk is not shown. Over time, a lot of devices can be registered, particularly if you connect the same device to different USB ports.

By using an environment variable, you can have the Device Manager display all the hardware that have been installed on the machine. Set the devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices" environment variable to “1” using the System Properties dialog. Alternatively, just type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 at a command prompt.

Then using Device Manager, make sure the "Show hidden devices" option is set on the view menu. Normally when "Show hidden devices" is set, only non-PnP devices are shown. With the environment variable set, Device Manager also shows disconnected hardware using a semi-transparent icon. You can then uninstall the device and all the associated drivers.

An easy way to load Device Manager is to type devmgmt.msc at the Run dialog or command prompt. A quick way to get to System Properties is to press Win+Break.

Pasting random text into Microsoft Word

ChuckOp — Thu, 15 Jul 2004 00:21:00 GMT

Ever need to put some text into a document quickly? Maybe you need to demonstrate a feature or want some filler. I used to type qwerty or asdf over and over again. Microsoft Word has a quick and easy way to do it. Just type =rand() on a blank line and press Enter. Word will replace that line with:

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

This feature works in Microsoft Outlook when using Word to compose e-mail messages. In addition you can do the same trick in Microsoft PowerPoint.

Handy Internet Explorer Keyboard Shortcuts

ChuckOp — Thu, 06 May 2004 20:42:00 GMT

Here are keyboard shortcuts for use with Internet Explorer. Most work on all versions since 4.01. Not an exhustive list, just those that I use often.

Space
This scrolls downward a page at a time. Note that oftentimes a form control or a ActiveX object (like Flash) can have the focus and consume the keystroke.

ALT+Left Arrow and ALT+Right Arrow
Move backwards and forwards. Same as pressing the Back and Forward toolbar buttons. Very handy

CTRL+D
Add the current page to Favorites without prompting

ALT+D
Move focus to the Address bar. This is handy when you have a search toolbar, as you can then press TAB and have the focus placed in the search text box.

ALT+HOME
Go to your home page

CTRL+N
Open a new browser window

F11
Switch to full-screen mode. Great when needing to maximize the viewing area

Copy message box text to the clipboard

ChuckOp — Fri, 09 Apr 2004 00:53:00 GMT

Ever get a error message and need to write it down? Particular one with an obscure error number like 0x80040e09? Starting with Windows 2000, you can copy the entire contents of a message box to the clipboard by pressing CTRL+C.

Software developers often put error messages into a “message box.” A message box is a type of dialog box managed by Windows. It's very easy to implement from a programming standpoint, and thus many error messages are shown this way.

Users see message boxes all the time. They are the ones with a either a icon to the left and some text. There will be buttons, like OK, Cancel, Yes, No, etc.

To see a message box in action, go to the Start menu and choose “Run...“ Then type in something that doesn't exist, such as “foobar“ and press Enter (or click OK if you really like moving your hands back and forth from the keyboard to the mouse).

You'll get a message box dialog that says “Windows cannot find 'foobar'.“ and a lot more information that I didn't want to bother to type in manually.

Since the text is presented in a static text box, there is no way to select all or a portion of the text. Another method would be to use the edit text box control, and set the text to read-only. That's what the Windows shell does for the file property sheets, which allows users to select and copy text such as the full pathname of a file.

In Windows 2000 however, a shortcut was added to the message box code to look for the copy operation. So, if you press CTRL+C, the text of the message will be copied to the clipboard. If you paste it into notepad, it'll look like this:

---------------------------
foobar
---------------------------
Windows cannot find 'foobar'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

I seem to remember this feature being talked about in 1998 as a benefit to accessibility, and it is. I don't think the feature was added solely for accessibility purposes however.

Now, this only works for message boxes. Many dialog boxes are shown by applications. Those are generated and handled by the application. Only when an application asks Windows to display a message box will this shortcut work. For example, Microsoft Word displays dialogs that appear like message boxes, but they are not. Actually, they aren't the dreaded Standard Dialog Manager (SDM) type of dialogs either, so Word is all screwed up.

More taskbar/tray keyboard access

ChuckOp — Tue, 03 Feb 2004 02:36:00 GMT

Apparently, the shell team at Microsoft threw in another keyboard shortcut to get focus to the tray notification area. This is the section of the taskbar that contains the clock and various status icons. For example, if updates are available on Windows Update, the Volume control (if enabled), and network status.

Press WIN+B to place keyboard focus on the first icon in the notification area. If the “hide inactive icons“ feature is enabled, the first icon might be the left-facing cheveron ( < ) that toggles inactive icons into view.

Interestingly, when using WIN+B, no focus rectangle is shown. Thus, it's difficult to tell where the focus is. When using the Tab key to focus the taskbar, a small focus rectangle is shown around the selected icon.

One way to tell what has keyboard focus is to use the Context Menu key (or SHIFT+F10).

Also, when each icon gets focused, the tool tip associated with it appears.

WIN+B is undocumented in the standard Windows help. Thanks to a poster on the Windows Off-Topic Tech mailing list for brining it to my attention.

Keyboard access to the Windows taskbar

ChuckOp — Wed, 28 Jan 2004 06:40:00 GMT

[Edited 2004-01-29 to fix mistakes]

Windows 95 introduced the “taskbar.” Designed to remind users what programs were running and to provide a single STARTing point, it was intuitive and original¹.

I didn't join the Windows team until late in the development cycle and there was no keyboard access to the taskbar, often known as the “tray“. With Nashville, the codename for shell-intergrated Internet Explorer, the taskbar code was completely rewritten and given basic keyboard access.

The taskbar is really a series of sections. At a minimum, there will be three sections. The first is the Start button, the second is the series of open windows commonly known as the taskbar. The next section will be the tray notification area, which includes the clock and any notification icons, like the Volume control, and Dial-Up networking status.

Normally, the taskbar doesn't have focus - one of the open windows does. There is no direct keyboard shortcut to the taskbar, but there are a couple of ways to get it focus. The first is to open the Start menu by pressing it's shortcut. That would be the Windows key, or CTRL+ESC for keyboards without a Windows key. The Start menu will appear and have keyboard focus. You can use the arrow keys to move around the menu and press Enter to select an item.

To set focus to the taskbar, you can press ESC to dismiss the Start Menu. The keyboard focus will then be placed on Start button. Notice the faint dotted rectangle indicating focus. Pressing Space or Enter will open the Start Menu again. Pressing the Context Menu key or the older SHIFT+F10 shortcut will present the shortcut menu for the Start Menu.

With the focus on either the Start Menu itself, or the Start button, pressing the TAB key will move focus to the next section. This maybe the Quick Launch toolbar, or the buttons representing open windows. Each acts like a toolbar, and you can move between the items with arrow keys. Pressing Space or Enter activates the item just as if you clicked on it. Similarly, pressing the Context Menu key or SHIFT+F10 will present the menu for that item.

Pressing TAB again moves to the next section - either an enabled toolbar or if none, the tray notification area. The focus will be placed on the first icon. Unlike a toolbar however, the tray icons have three methods of input - primary (left) click, secondary (right) click, and primary double-click. When keyboard focused, pressing Space performs the same action as primary click, while the Enter key is the same as a primary double-click. The Context Menu key or SHIFT+F10 would do the same as a secondary click, normally presenting a context menu for the item.

To see this in action, play around with the Volume icon. It's disabled by default in Windows XP, you might have to enable it first.

A single click on the Volume icon presents the volume slider control. When focused, the slider will appear after pressing Space. A secondary (right) click produces a context menu with two items, “Open Volume Control“ in bold letters and “Adjust Audio Properties“. The bolded item indicates the default action when the icon is double-clicked. To replicate the double-click, press Enter and the full Volume Control appears with several sliders.

The notification icons are always the last section. If you press TAB while on any icon, focus is given to the desktop. Note that focus is actually on the Desktop itself since no icons are selected. Pressing Context Menu or SHIFT+F10 here gives you the (in)famous desktop menu. Pressing Space will select whatever icon has focus.

Pressing TAB while focus is on the desktop will move focus to the next toolbar is enabled (such as Address bar docked to one edge of the screen). If no other toolbars are enabled, focus will be given to the Start button and the cycle is started over.

Basically, if you are a keyboard-only user, the taskbar has full functionality available.

There is one piece of functionality I didn't demonstrate, and that's the ability to turn on or off other Toolbars. That can ONLY be done from the taskbar context menu. Usually the cursor is placed over a empty area of the taskbar and a secondary click is done. A Toolbars sub-menu lists those installed. To get to the taskbar context menu, you have to get the focus on the clock and press the Context Menu key.

If you want to play around with the keyboard, note that the taskbar can be moved and resized by the keyboard. Press ALT+Space to activate the system menu. Choose Move and press the arrow keys towards the new screen edge the taskbar should dock to. Nothing will appear to happen at first, but as you get near the screen edge, the taskbar will snap from it's old location to the new one. Press Enter when finished to exit the Move or Size operation.

The keyboard access to the taskbar and desktop is hardly optimal, but fits with Windows overall keyboarding scheme. When other toolbars are enabled, quirks get into the mix, so I can't recommend them. For those users who are forced into keyboarding only due to physical or machine limitations, this functionality can be very useful.

¹ No, the Apple menu bar does not count. Ever try figuring out what other programs are running on a Mac? Maybe it's easier now with OS-X.

Combo Box Shortcut Keys

ChuckOp — Thu, 15 Jan 2004 06:10:00 GMT

Combo boxes in Windows can be dropped down using the keyboard. Press F4, or ALT+Down Arrow or ALT+Up Arrow.

Windows Task Manager Keyboard Shortcut

ChuckOp — Fri, 09 Jan 2004 06:25:00 GMT

The Windows Task Manager is a handy tool to monitor the load on the machine. To quickly call it up via the keyboard, press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC.

Minimize Outlook to notification area

ChuckOp — Wed, 07 Jan 2004 21:47:00 GMT

Outlook 2003 has an option that allows it's window to be minimized to the system notification area, near the clock. You can also have Outlook 2002 do the same thing, with some registry hacking.

For OL2003, the option can be found by right-clicking the Outlook icon in the notification area. Choose the “Hide when minimized“ option on the menu.

For OL2002, there is no user interface available to turn on the option. By modifying the registry, you can control the behavor.

The registry path is:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Preferences

The registry key is called “MinToTray“ and is a DWORD value. If the key doesn't exist, use RegEdit to create it. When set to a non-zero value, typically 1, the feature is turned on. Setting it to zero turns the feature off.

If you have Windows XP or later, copy the following command and paste it into Run dialog:

reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Preferences /v MinToTray /t REG_DWORD /d 0x01

The REG.EXE program is included with Windows XP, and I believe was available for earlier versions as part of the Resource Kit. It's a very handy program.

After making the change, you'll need to restart Outlook 2002 for it to take effect.

FYI, in case you're wondering, OL2003 uses the same key name for it's option, so you can use the registry to turn it on or off as well. However, change the registry path to reflect “11.0” instead of “10.0”.

Can anyone try this on OL2000 and let me know if it works there as well? The path for that would be “9.0”. Thus:

Outlook 2000 (unverified):

reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook\Preferences /v MinToTray /t REG_DWORD /d 0x01

Outlook 2002:

reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Preferences /v MinToTray /t REG_DWORD /d 0x01

Outlook 2003:

reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Preferences /v MinToTray /t REG_DWORD /d 0x01