Add Videos to Start Menu (Windows 7)

There are links to several things on the Start Menu by default, but the Videos folder is not one of them. To add it right-click on the Start button and select Properties, and under the Start Menu tab click on Customize.

Now scroll down to Videos and select Display as a link and click Ok.

Videos now appears on your Start Menu.

Add Internet Search to Start Menu

A few weeks ago we showed you how to  search websites from your desktop using search connectors in Windows 7. Another neat trick is adding Internet search to the Start menu (this uses Local Group Policy Editor which is only available in Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate versions of Windows 7).

Go to Start and type in gpedit.msc into the search box.

In Local Group Policy Editor go to User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Start Menu and Taskbar.

Under Setting double click on Add Search Internet link to Start Menu.

Set it to Enabled and hit Apply and OK.

Now when you go to search from something from the Start Menu you will see the Search the Internet link.

Show More Recent Programs Without making the Start Menu huge

The program icons in the Start Menu are large by default and if you want to display more recent programs, it makes the menu much larger on the screen.

We can make the icons smaller and add more items by right-clicking on Start \ Properties and click the Customize button. Scroll down and uncheck the box next to Use large icons then click Ok. Under Start menu size increase the number of recent programs to display. 

The result is smaller icons with more being displayed in the menu without taking up extra screen real estate like in this example.

Even More Start Menu Tweaks

Here’s a list of more Start Menu tweaks that we’ve already covered,but are worth revisiting to help you take control of the menu. Most of these are for Windows 7 and Vista but a few are for XP too.

• Disable Highlighting New Programs in Windows 7, Vista, and XP
• Get the Classic Star Menu in Windows 7
• Enable Run Command on Windows 7 or Vista Start Menu
• Change the Number of Recent Items Shown on the Windows 7 and Vista Start Menu
• Change the Windows 7 or Vista Power Buttons to Shut Down/Sleep/Hibernate
• Stop Windows Update from Hijacking the Sleep/Shutdown Button
• Enable “Pin to Start Menu” for Folders in Windows Vista/XP
• Remove the Username from the Start Menu in XP

These should get you started for now, and we’ll undoubtedly have more in the future. How about you guys? Share some of your favorite Start Menu tweaks that help you manage Windows more effectively.

Click on any of the images below for a larger version of the image more suitable for using as a wallpaper. Since everybody’s desktop might be a different size, you may have to crop or adjust the images for best effect. Happy Halloween! 

Setup

There is no installation required for Default Programs Editor. Just unzip the exe file, place it into a “Program Files” folder, and create a shortcut for it. Once you start the program up, this is the interface that you will see each time. You can navigate to the settings area that you are wanting to work with from here. Notice the “Gear Button” in the lower left corner…this will also take you to a settings area…

When you click on “File Type Settings”, this is what you will see. There are five areas/functions that you can access from here. Make changes to the “Context Menu” with the first category…

Would you like to have a different icon for your most used file types? Change it in the “Icon” area.

Not really happy with the description for a file type? Give it a name that you thinks suits it better here.

You can also change the associated file types based on extensions (i.e. .png) or delete an extension (i.e. .docx) if you desire using the links at the bottom.

Modify your Autoplay Settings to best suit your personal needs. On our example system all autoplay has been disabled…

Change what is associated with the Default Programs on your computer.

Access these options using the small “Gear Button” shown in the opening screen. These options work on a “click to active/deactivate them” principle.

Default Programs Editor in Action

We decided to go ahead and try out the “Icon Changing Option” on our example system.

We scrolled down until we found the .rtf listing, selected it, and clicked on “Next”.

Next we browsed for the icon that we wanted to replace the original with.

One nice icon to go…

Then it was only a matter of saving the change.

Curious about the options available with the drop down menu on the “Save Button”? There are two that you can select from…”Save to Registry” is the default if you simply click on the “Save Button”.

All finished up!

Conclusion

Default Programs Editor provides a nice convenient way to access basic Windows settings on your system without the hassle of digging through the Control Panel.

Note: Requires .NET Framework 3.5+

Links

Download Default Programs Editor (version 2.3.1269.2247)

Download the .NET Framework

Works On: Windows XP – 7

A Look at FotoSketcher

Installation is simple and you can have FotoSketcher up and running very quickly. When you open FotoSketcher each time, you will see the following pair of pictures displayed as examples. Getting started is as simple as clicking on the Folder Icon or using the File Menu.

Note: There is also a portable version of this software available!

Here is a look at the menu setup for FotoSketcher. Nice and straightforward to help you “recreate” your desktop!

Converting Wallpapers and Pictures

When you open a wallpaper or picture in FotoSketcher, this window will appear allowing you to choose the style that you would like to convert to. Notice that there are also options regarding edge softening, frames, variations for texture, and adding text (very nice!). Simply select the style that best suits your mood and have fun watching your new photo being created!

Note: At the moment FotoSketcher only works with .jpg, .jpeg, and .bmp files.

Drawing Style Examples

Curious about what your pictures could look like? Here are some examples we created using FotoSketcher.

Painting 5 (Water Color)

Painting 6 (Oil Painting)

Pencil Sketch 3 (Color)

Pen & Ink Sketch 1

Frame, Texture and Text Only

Conclusion

You will certainly be able to add some fresh variety to your desktop with FotoSketcher, so have fun and explore the possibilities!

Links

Download FotoSketcher (version 1.9) – Exe Install File & Portable Versions

The application is running. You can see it in the taskbar, but you can’t see it on the screen, because it still thinks it’s running on the secondary monitor. You try and use right-click, Move, but that doesn’t do anything, and the window doesn’t move anywhere. You end up rebooting and cursing Microsoft.

There’s a simple trick to get around this. First make sure you’ve alt-tabbed to the window, or clicked on it once to bring it into focus. Then right-click on the taskbar and choose Move

At this point, you should notice that your cursor changes to the “Move” cursor, but you still can’t move anything.

Just hit any one of the arrow keys (Left, Right, Down, Up), move your mouse, and the window should magically “pop” back onto the screen.

Note: For keyboard savvy people, you can just alt-tab to the window, use Alt+Space, then M, then Arrow key, and then move your mouse.

This should work on any version of Windows. It’s really amazing how many people are not aware of this little trick.

Update: Note that you can also right-click on the taskbar and choose to Cascade your open windows, which will often help bring the windows back onto the screen.

There’s a really useful utility that you can use called Hidden Start (hstart), which will start up a command line application hidden in the background, which eliminates the flashing window.

If you launch the utility with no parameters, it will pop up the settings dialog.

When using this utility, there are three key things to remember: Use the /NOWINDOW parameter to keep the window hidden, use the /D=path argument to make sure that the current directory is set correctly, and make sure to surround your application argument with quotes.

For instance, if I had a batch file stored in c:\scripts\mybatch.bat, I would start it by using the following parameters in my shortcut:

hstart /NOWINDOW /D=c:\scripts “c:\scripts\mybatch.bat”

You’ll probably want to copy hstart.exe into somewhere in the system path, for instance C:\windows might work nicely.

Download Hidden Start (hstart)

I was searching for a quicker method of doing a copy and paste than having to use Ctrl+Ins key combination, when I stumbled on a much simpler way of doing it….  just have it automatically copy the text to the clipboard when I select it with my mouse. Pasting is just as simple: just click the middle mouse button.

Here’s how to enable this: Go to Options \ Global Options on the menu:

In the Category listing, click on Terminal, and you should see this section of the configuration screen:

Just check the first two checkboxes, and you are now in business.

For example, I wanted to copy this line into the clipboard, so I just selected it with my mouse as shown, and it was immediately on the clipboard, no questions asked.

There’s not a known perfect solution to the problem. The way to make everything start working again is to do the following:

• Right click the taskbar, choose properties, and uncheck the checkbox that says “Keep task bar on top of other windows”.
• Click Apply
• Check the checkbox again.
• Click Apply again.

This will temporarily make the system work right again, but you will have to repeat these steps if it happens in the future.

Update: Neosmart has created a small application that will fix this problem. The only thing is that the application will need to be running all the time, but if you have this problem often enough, you won’t care.

Download ToolTipFixer from NeoSmart

You will first need to download the skin named WMP11 from the skins page. This skin looks a lot like Windows Media Player 11. It’s not exact, but it’s a pretty good skin.

To install on Ubuntu Linux:

Hit Alt+F2 to bring up the run dialog, and type in this:

vlc -I skins2

This will bring up the player in the right mode to let you install new skins. Right click on the title bar area and choose Select Skin \ Open Skin, and choose the skin file that you have downloaded.

That’s pretty much all there is to it.

To install on Windows:

Select the “VLC media player (skins)” option from the Start menu program group. This will start VLC in the right mode to select skins.

Right click on the title bar area, and choose Select skin \ Open skin and choose the skin file that you have downloaded.

Easy stuff. Now you have a great looking media player.

Update:Changed the article to point to the newer and better looking WMP11 skin instead of the Dalin one.

There’s a quick and easy fix for this problem. Open up regedit.exe by using Start\Run and then browse down to this registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell

Double-click on the default value and set it to “none” without the quotes, as seen here:

This will restore the normal behavior.

Update

If you are also experiencing this problem when you try to click on a drive, you can run this command from the run box or command prompt:

regsvr32 /i shell32.dll

This should restore the normal behavior.

If you are getting a message that says “Windows cannot find ‘PET32.exe’”, then at some point you had a virus, or still have a virus. First, make sure that you run a virus scanner to get rid of the virus. Then run the regsvr32 command above, which should fix the problem.