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Clu's Archives Ram And Your Clipboard |
| Ram And Your Clipboard Whenever you're doing work that involves cutting large files to your Clipboard, remember to purge the Clipboard after you finish your work by copying something small to it. The Clipboard is stored in RAM, and if it's full of a massive file such as an image file, it can make your system behave a bit sluggishly. Type a few letters into a text editor and cut them to the Clipboard to free up that precious memory. |
| Saving A File Search If there are certain file-searching parameters you return to again and again, you should know that you don't have to retype your search parameters every time. You can save the search and execute it with a couple of mouse clicks. To save a file search, first execute the search as you would normally (by pressing Windows key-F and entering the search parameters). Then go to File, Save Search. The search is saved as an icon on your desktop; the icon looks like a folder with a computer on top of it. You can open this icon to pre-load the Find utility with the given search parameters. Instead of pointing to the files found on your original search, this folder saves the search parameters themselves, so that as more files fit the search parameters, they will also be included in the search. And if you already have Find open, you can access your saved searches by selecting them from the Named pull-down menu. Half the world has never made a phone call and the other half is probably stuck right now in voice-mail jail. |
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Protect Yourself Against Catastrophic Installs So how do you install new software without risking disaster? One way is to use PowerQuest's Second Chance or WildFile's GoBack. These programs track all of the changes made to your hard drive. If an installation messes things up, either program can roll your hard drive back to an earlier condition. Another way is to use PowerQuest's Drive Image to make a restorable image of your harddrive which is probably the best solution IF you have another harddrive. A word of caution: Before you use one of these programs to restore your setup, back up your data. You might want to get Windows back to where you had it last Tuesday, but you don't want to lose a week's work in the process. If you would rather not spend money or risk installing these programs, you can simply back up the Windows Registry before installing a new piece of software. This won't protect you as well as GoBack or SecondChance, but it will let you restore the part of Windows that sustains the most damage after a bad installation. You can back up the Registry in Windows Explorer...
If you need to restore the Registry, exit to DOS. Do this by selecting Start, Shut Down, Restart in MS-DOS mode. At the DOS prompt, type the following commands, pressing Enter at the end of each line
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| Shortcut To Properties When you want to know all about an icon--file, folder, whatever--you right-click the icon and select Properties. Are you tired of dragging your pointer all the way down to the bottom of that context menu to the Properties command? Next time, hold down the Alt key as you double-click the icon. Properties dialog box, at your service. Hmmm: Did you ever notice when you blow in a dog's face he gets mad at you? But when you take him in a car he sticks his head out the window. |