How often have you been frustrated by the ’speed’ with which Windows shuts down. It seems to take ages, especially when you are in a hurry.
If you normally shut down Windows from the ‘Turn Off Computer‘ on the Start menu, then here is an alternative that works almost like magic.
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You can minimize all open Windows quickly by pressing Windows key+M. To restore the windows back, press Windows key+Shift+M..
First, let me make it clear that this post is only meant to be informative. Please do not misuse it. On the other hand, if you are an administrator, then this post could be useful to you in being wary of how your system could be compromised with a very simple trick.
Now here is how you do it.
Here is a simple trick to shutdown Windows quickly from a shortcut on your desktop rather than going through the Start menu.
Right-Click on the desktop and click ‘New‘ and then click on ‘Shortcut‘. When prompted to fill in ‘Type the location of the item‘, enter ‘shutdown -s -t 00‘ . Click Next and enter a name for the shortcut. You can now shutdown Windows through the shortcut. The -t flag lets you set the time lapse in seconds.
Changing the ‘-s‘ to ‘-r‘ will cause the shortcut to restart Windows instead of shutting down.
This may interest you: How to shutdown Windows almost instantly
Adding your own destinations to the ‘Send To’ context menu in Windows XP is quite easy. While it isn’t too difficult to do the same in Windows Vista, it is a little different. Here is how to do it in Vista.
Open the Control Panel, then Folder Options, then move to the View tab and select the option labelled ‘Show hidden files and folders’ and click OK. Now click Start, Computer, and open the C drive. Open the folder called users, then the one with your user name and navigate through the folders AppData, Roaming, Microsoft, Windows and finally SendTo. Add any shortcuts you want in the Send To menu to this folder.
In the pre-Vista days, copying a file or folder path to the clip-board involved 5 steps. You had to right-click on the file or folder, select Properties, highlight the path, right-click again, and select Copy. That’s way too many steps for a task as simple as copying a path.
In Vista you have a much simpler and straight forward way of doing the same. Hold the Shift key when right-clicking on a file or folder and select Copy as Path.
The most infamous error message in Windows is the Blue Screen Of Death. It’s so well-known that it has crept into the vernacular: “Aw, man! I was almost finished with my term paper when I got blue- screened!” The phenomenon is also known by its acronym, BSOD.
The conditions that cause a blue screen have changed since the days of Windows 95/98, as has what it means. In either case, chances are pretty good that, if you get blue-screened, any unsaved work will be lost, as either Windows (in NT/2000/XP) or your application (in 95/98) has been shut down. The BSOD is perhaps the most despised error not only because it has wiped away countless hours of work over the years, but because of the obtuse way in which it does so. The messages delivered in the typical blue screen are meant for developers more than end users. For example, a blue screen delivered by Windows may deliver a message such as the following:
“0×0000001E, KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED.”
And if you don’t find that sufficiently informative, you’ll see four variables in parentheses to help developers figure out what’s happening. Again, none of this will mean much to most of us, but a support rep or developer can often learn a great deal from such cryptic messages.
Fortunately, blue screens are rare in recent versions of Windows and may disappear after a reboot. But if the problem recurs, you could have a real problem. Here are some troubleshooting steps to follow if you encounter a BSOD:
While your system is booting, press F8 and select Safe Boot Mode, which loads a subset of Windows with minimal drivers. If things run smoothly in Safe Mode, you likely have a software problem with a recently installed application. Try to decipher the error message to see if you can trace it to a specific program. If all else fails, uninstall your most recently-installed application.
If you still see blue screen errors in Safe Mode, restart again and use F8 to get to the advanced options. This time, choose Restore Last Known Good Configuration, which is a snapshot of your system as it existed before you last installed any drivers or other software. You will lose any system changes you’ve made since that point, but your documents will normally remain untouched by this process.
If you’re still having problems, you are likely suffering from a hardware problem or a corruption of vital system files. Again, any hints that you can glean from the error message could help you (or a tech support rep) trace the source of the problem. Remove any recently installed hardware and try booting again.
In the worst case, it’s not uncommon to have to resort to reinstalling device drivers or even the whole operating system.
Ultimately, the best cure for the BSOD is prevention: Save often, create frequent backups, and burn a little incense to curry favor with capricious PC spirits.
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| By N2H | |||||
