Force Windows to open maximized (or any size)
When you click a desktop shortcut or a hyperlink, you open a program, document or Internet page (html document) in a new window. These windows will often open at a size that you don't want - e.g. they will be less than maximized (normal). If you start from a desktop shortcut, you can usually select the size you want. Right click over the icon and select Properties. Then in the Run box, choose the size desired in the drop down menu.

If this does not work and/or for choosing the default size in opening other windows, use this next method. For example, to make all hyperlinks open in a full sized window, go to a typical hyperlink that would open a new page and hold down the Shift key. While holding the Shift key down, open the new page, maximize or expand the window to the desired size, and (still holding the Shift key down), close the window using File>close or close in the menu available from the icon in the top left corner. Don't use the close x in the top right corner.

When you reopen a window in this circumstance, it will open to the size chosen above.

MP3 Multi-Media Files
The most common use of mp3 files is for downloading - however, sometimes a site will want to play these when you click a link. In Internet Explorer, the plug-in used is Windows Media Player and this works well. In Firefox, Windows Media Player won't play mp3 files in this situation. However, Quick Time will if it is configured to do so. You can configure it as follows:

• Go to Start>Control Panel>QuickTime
• Select Browser Plug-in (top) and then Mime settings (bottom)
• Check MP3 audio box - make sure Miscellaneous "Flash media " is unchecked.

You can now play embedded mp3 files in Firefox. Note that some files that play as "background" won't play in Firefox if obsolete code is used (bgsound tag).

To play files using Microsoft's proprietary formats wma and wmv in Firefox, you will need to make sure Firefox has the Windows Media Player Plug-ins installed correctly and may need to add a "patch". Full information on how to do that is here.

Microsoft Programs

All Office Programs - When you need to open a file, you get a dialog and on the left of the list of files is a pane listing possible folders. You can add to that list of Files to Open as follows: Open the Open File dialog, then navigate until the desired folder is in the window. Then go to top right hand corner of the dialog box to "Tools". In there, select "Add to my Places (or Favorites) ". To remove it again, on the left pane, right click the folder you just added and select remove.

Autocomplete
Internet Explorer saves all entries you've entered into the browser address field as well as certain forms. This is to help autocomplete the entry next time you want the same thing. But sometimes you'd prefer to delete these autocomplete entries. To do so, in Internet Explorer, select Tools>Internet Options>Content>Autocomplete and select the desired option(s).

Similarly, Outlook (not Outlook Express) saves names you've typed into the address field and you may want to re-set or delete these names. First be sure you can see hidden files. Do this in My Computer - go to Tools>Folder options>View and check "Show Hidden files and Folders". Then Search for file Outlook.nk2. It will typically have a path like this: C:\Documents & Settings\<User_name>\Application data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.nk2. Rename it as something else (e.g. Outlook_nk2.bak) to allow you to reverse this process if desired. A new Outlook.nk2 will be created next time you start Outlook. (Note that if you have more than one user, you may find more than one copy of this file.) The saving of names will then be re-set.

Auto Insertion of HyperLinks
Microsoft wants you to use their programs (e.g. Word) to make a web page although here are many people (I'm one) who do not want to do that. So Microsoft has made it a default in Word that if you type something that looks like a web site or e-mail address, it will automatically turn it into a hyperlink. For example, type www.cobourginternet.com and you'll automatically get www.cobourginternet.com. To correct this for each case, highlight the unwanted new hyperlink, go to Insert>Insert Hyperlink and select Remove Link. To stop it happening forever more, go to Tools>AutoCorrect Options and select the AutoFormat as you Type tab. Then uncheck Internet and Network paths with Hyperlinks under Replace as you Type. The same process applies for Excel. Another way to eliminate hyperlinks on a one time basis is to use the paste format function - paste an otherwise identical format with no hyperlinks.

Windows Tricks
Copy your current screen for saving or printing. Press Print Screen - this copies the screen to the clipboard. After doing this, use "Paste" into (e.g.) Word to get a copy of what the entire screen looks like including Windows headers etc. You can then print it. Since it is a picture, you can open the picture tool-bar and crop or do other simple edits. You can also paste into a photo editing program like PhotoShop - so no picture can be truly immune from getting a copy on the Internet - that's why people with photos to sell don't put high resolution versions on the internet!

Keyboard Shortcuts - There are many keyboard shortcuts available - the trick is to remember them. Two that I find handy are:

Files can't be copied, deleted, moved or renamed
This could be because it does not exist - if it's still there after you press F5 then there is some other problem. Another possibility is that the file name including its path is too long. A file name including its path must be no longer than 255 characters. This length is quite possible if you have deep directories in My Documents. For example, the file Tricks could have a name plus path of: C:\Documents and Settings\User name\My Documents\Windows Tricks\Tricks which is 70 characters already! To fix the problem, delete some characters in the file or folder name(s) or move it higher in the folder tree. For more causes and solutions, see Microsoft article.

Quick Launch
In Windows XP, along the bottom and in the toolbar, are two groups of small icons. On the right is the system tray that is added during the default Windows XP installation. This includes the date, anti-virus spyware icon, a speaker icon to allow volume adjustment and possibly many others. On the left, next to the Start button are the optional Quick Launch icons. To activate Quick Launch, hover your mouse over Start and left click Properties. Select the Task Bar tab and check the Quick Launch box. Now, next to the Start button, there will be a collection of small icons that are mostly shortcuts. If you don't want some of them, right click them and select delete. To add something, "right click" drag a desktop icon to this space. If there is not enough room (or too much room), right click any free space on the task bar and uncheck "Lock Task bar". Then drag the divider bar left or right. While you are there, you can also drag the top of the tool bar up to make it wider if you'd like. When satisfied, right click any free space on the task bar and check "Lock Task bar".

The Quick Launch area is very useful for programs that you often use - e.g. e-mail, Internet browser, Word - or even particular folders. One icon that will be there when you first set up Quick Launch is the Show Desktop icon. Very handy for minimizing all open applications. If you inadvertently delete this icon but want it back, go to this Microsoft site for instructions on how to restore it.

File types
The file type is determined by its extension - that's the 3 letters after the dot in a file name. By default, Windows hides extensions but you can change this. Go to My Computer>Tools>Folder Options and select the View tab. Uncheck Hide extensions for known file types.

Changing File Types
If you want to change the program that opens files with a particular extension e.g. .jpg, go to Windows Explorer (or My Computer), then to Tools then Folder Options. Then select the File Types tab. Go down the list on the left till you find .jpg. Click on that row then select Change. Choose the desired program from the list. Then click OK. In future, whenever you double click a file with a .jpg extension, it will open with the program you just selected.

But what if you come across a program that you can't open and you don't even know what program will open it? You need a very large list of all file types and information about them. Fortunately there is a web site that does this. When you find the extension, you can then search the Internet for the program and decide if you want it.

Undoing a Lock placed by a Virus on not using a web site
Some viruses protect themselves by blocking Anti-Virus programs, web sites and tools that could be used against them. For Windows XP, go to C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc and open the file Hosts (with no extension). The easiest program to use to open it is Notepad. If the virus wants to block a site, it will make an entry here so simply delete any line in the file that refers to an anti-virus site and save the result.

Send To
There are times that you would like to copy a file from where it is to another location. The (fastest way without this hint) is to select the file(s), right click, select copy, then navigate to the location you want, right click then paste. But if you select a file (or files) then right click, in the menu you'll see Send To. This menu includes a range of destinations including My Documents and Mail Recipient. Click one (e.g. My Documents) and a copy of the selected file(s) will be sent to My Documents.

While these are good, more would be better. In my case, I often copy files to another computer on a small network. You can add such a location by adding a shortcut to it to your SendTo Folder. First find your SendTo folder - it will be in your "Documents and Settings/User Name Folder" (where User Name is your name) possibly hidden (more on hidden files) - then open the folder. If you have a problem use Windows Search to find SendTo. You'll see files corresponding to the menu seen when right clicking. Now right-click the destination folder and drag it to this SendTo folder and drop, then select Create shortcut here. Rename if you like. Now when you select a file and right click you can send a copy to this location. You can repeat this as often as you like.

Printing Directory Contents (Directory is another name for Folder)
To print a list of the files and folders in a directory, you first need to make a small batch file. Go to Notepad and type the following - exactly as shown complete with spaces etc:

@echo off
dir %1 /-p /o:gn > "%temp%\dir.txt"
notepad /p "%temp%\dir.txt"

Navigate to the SendTo Folder (see previous item) and save the file as Print Directory with a .bat extension, that is as: Print Directory.bat

To use, right click on any folder (directory), go to SendTo, select Print Directory.bat and the list will be printed on your default printer. If you want it edited or otherwise want it as a soft copy, the file is kept until you next use this feature, is called dir.txt and is located in Documents and Settings/User Name/Local Settings/Temp/ .

Re-activating Windows XP after a re-install
If you ever have a major problem with Windows and end up re-installing Windows, then you'll have to re-activate it unless Windows can find a particular file. To make sure this happens, before destroying your old copy of Windows off your hard drive, backup this file: c:\windows\system32\wpa.dbl. Then after you finish installing a new copy of Windows XP, all you have to do is restore this file. Be sure to back it up to somewhere that will be available - e.g a removable file or a drive on a computer networked with yours.

Note: If you change any of your hardware before copying this file back to your new installation of Windows XP, you may still have to reactivate.

Stop big downloads in your e-mail - Outlook Express and Outlook
If you are on dial-up and you simply do not want any large downloads (e.g. large attachments), configure your e-mail to stop them.

In Outlook Express, create a rule: Select Tools>Message Rules>Mail>Modify, and then scroll through the conditions and check Where the message size is more than size. In the Select actions for your rule menu, scroll to and check Do not Download it from the server. (Unfortunately, you'll never know that the person sent you an e-mail.) In the Rule Description box, click the size link, set the maximum allowed message size, and click OK twice. About 1000KB would be suitable.

In Outlook 2003, choose Tools>Options, select the Mail Setup tab, click Send/Receive>Edit, and check Download complete item including attachments and Download only headers for items larger than xx KB (where xx is a number you pick from a drop-down menu). Be sure to check the box next to Receive mail items.

Attachments
In Outlook (not Outlook Express), when you insert an attachment, it will normally go in the attachment box immediately below the address boxes. However, if you have selected Rich text format instaed of HTML or Plain Text, it will go in the body of the e-mail. Very confusing.

Font Colors in Outlook
You are supposed to be able to change font colours in Outlook 2003 by going to Tools>Options> Mail Format> Choose Font then Color. If this doesn't work, at least not when you use a signature, go to an email, do a reply then highlight the signature and right click. Then select menu item, email signature, then personal stationery tab. Change the font colour here and it "sticks" (works!). There may be other sequences that work (e.g. make a signature after you change the font colors) but this one worked for me.

Disable the Insert key
The insert key converts typing from inserting to overtype and back. If you never use Over-ride except accidentally, you will likely wish it did not exist. Here is one way to "turn it off": Go to WORD, click Tools>Customize> Options>Keyboard. In the Categories box (left side) select All Commands. In the commands box (right side) select Overtype. In the "Current keys" box, highlight Insert and click Remove.