How to Master Timesaving Windows Tricks

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By eHow Contributing Writer

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(3 Ratings)

Let the Digital Goddess help you get the most out of your Windows 95 or 98 computer with her tried-and-true techniques.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Computers
Microsoft Windows

Using the Windows Key

Step 1

Start Windows Explorer by pressing the Windows key (the funny Windows symbol) + E.
Step 2

Minimize all open windows on the desktop by pressing Win key + M.
Step 3

Undo the minimizing of all open windows on the desktop by pressing Shift + Win key + M.
Step 4

Display the Run dialog box by pressing Win key + R.
Step 5

Display the Find dialog box by pressing Win key + F.

Getting Out of "Frozen" Programs in Windows

Step 1

Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete when a program stops working.
Step 2

In the Close Program dialog box, select the "frozen" program - in most cases it will have the words "Not Responding" after it.
Step 3

Click End Task.
Step 4

After about 10 or 15 seconds, a second box appears, asking whether you still want to end the task. Click End Task again.
Step 5

Windows shuts down the locked-up program but leaves everything else running. Depending on when your last "Save" was, you can reopen the offending program, reopen the file you were working on, and pick up right where you left off.

Changing the Focus of Windows Explorer

Step 1

Right-click the Explorer shortcut, and then select Properties.
Step 2

Type "C:\Windows\Explorer.exe /n,/e,/root,,/select,C:\" on the Target line. (Don't type the quotation marks.)

Comments

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on 11/22/2005 The Alt+Tab keyboard shortcut is used to toggle between open programs. You can also toggle backward by pressing the Shift key while pressing Alt + tab. That is:
Press Alt +Tab
Release the Tab key while holding down Alt.
While holding down Alt, press and hold down Shift.
While holding down Shift, press Tab. Each time you press Tab you will toggle back one program at a time. Release Shift (but keep holding Alt) and press Tab again to go forward.

on 11/22/2005 Hold Alt and press Tab causes a little box in the middle of the screen to appear. While holding Alt and continuing to press Tab causes the cursor box to scroll through a list of windows that you have open. Also, note that the most recently used windows are some of the first items in the list. Thus, you can hop back and forth between only 2 windows if you want to use only those 2 windows.

on 11/22/2005 Start Game by pressing F2 key. Then press Ctrl + Shift + F10
you will see three options - Abort to win, Retry to lose, and Ignore to cancel.

on 11/22/2005 This is just for fun rather than to save time. Press ALT + CTRL + [Down arrow key] and see! Your displaying area will be turned upside-down. ALT + CTRL + [Up arrow] will undo the action.

on 11/22/2005 To skip the recycle bin and just delete a file all by itself, select the file, then press and hold the shift button and press delete. Also, holding shift while your computer CD tray retracts stops autostart from activating.