Maggie's FarmWe are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for. |
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Saturday, March 5. 2011Doc's Computin' Tips: Minimizing stubborn programs
Well, I'm currently using one of those pesky programs a bunch, and I obviously tired of the painstaking, laborious process of opening Task Manager and minimizing the window every dang time, so I solved the problem using a DOS batch file. It's now just a click away. Details at the bottom of the post.
Pic: Artist's conception of our Editor when we ask for a raise. Every now and then you might run into some stubborn program that won't minimize while doing its thing. For programs like video editors that might take an hour or two to render a file, it can be a tad aggravating when you want to get to the Desktop for something. The Windows key actually has a number of functions, but I've never found any of them to be of much use. If you have kids in the room and want to dash to the kitchen for a few minutes, hitting Win-L will lock the keyboard and keep things safe while you're away. For a complete list of keyboard shortcuts, try this site. Info on the 'one-click' closing method is below the fold.
Minimizing With a DOS Batch File Once it's working, it's time to make the batch file. Go find a permanent folder somewhere and make a new TXT file. Change the file extension from ".TXT" to ".BAT". If you're not seeing file extensions, open its Properties and change it that way. Comments
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"The Windows key actually has a number of functions, but I've never found any of them to be of any real use...."
Generally agreed, but Windows key-L is pretty useful. And if pressing Windows Key - L isn't something that comes naturally, you can create a shortcut on the Desktop that will do the same thing.
Right-click -- New -- Shortcut, and enter this string: %windir%\system32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation Give this shortcut the an icon of your choice (you'll find a nice gold padlock in \system32\shell32.dll). Anton -
Say, you're right. I'd never tried it before, but if you've got some kids in the room and you want to dash to the kitchen for a few minutes, Win-L is a nice, quick way to lock the little urchins out. Of course, as it turns out, the little imps had placed a tiny 'spy video camera' near the computer table and they now know your password -- but that's a story for a different day! Thanks for the tip, and I've updated the post with your suggestion. Doc Of course if you own a MAC then everything works easily.
RBM -
Too true. I loved my Mac, and I had fun running Mac emulation back in my Amiga days. IIRC, I ran the very first version of Netscape using the Mac emulation. Do I presume you're on a Mac? I've got a few questions I'd like to ask a Mac owner, if you've got a few minutes. 1. Can you see the videos I posted a few days ago okay? I've recently switched the hundred-plus WMV videos on my own site to FLV format so the Mackies can view them as easily as the PC'ers, but videos behave differently on different sites. Do these play okay? 2. Have you ever installed the OS from scratch? Can you put a "difficulty level" on it? Anybody can do it? Should have some experience? Qualified techies only? 3. Can you burn a CD or DVD and still use the system while it's burning? If so, is there any lag? 4. Like on the PC, I presume that many programs install 'pre-loaders' that run during boot-up, putting a few choice files into memory so the program will pop up faster when you run it. Is there an easy way to identify and eliminate these unnecessary system resource hogs? 5. Don't you think any kind of Mac vs PC debate became kind of pointless when Macs started using Intel processors? With both of them using the same hardware, isn't it really a Snow Leopard vs Vista debate? Thanks in advance (to you or any other Mac owner who'd like to jump in). Doc 1. I have no issues with the .flvs
2. I have never installed the os from scratch. 3. Sorry. I never tried 4. The mac boots SO fast that you never think about it. Seriously. 5. I sorta agree, however, I also run VMWare's fusion so I can run XP on my MACBook and frankly, XP runs faster, boots quicker and has fewer hanging apps and GPF's than when running on any other machine I have used. VMWare wrote the Fusion emulator from scratch and it is rock solid. Sold me on VMWare. BTW.. I used to scram at my XP laptop because it was slow, took forever to boot up and apps hung all the time. This MACBook is a pleasure to use. No BS. It's a great machine. RBM Windows E opens the explorer window -- I use that all the time. Windows F gets the search window.
James -
Two quick additions to your comments: - The problem with Windows Search is that it won't look inside bracketed code. It also won't look inside certain system areas, like Temporary Internet Files. To do an actual thorough search, I use a program called Super Finder. A Google seach should pop it up. - Assuming you're using WinXP, if you don't like the way the Windows Search box doesn't open full-screen size, dig up a program called AutoSizer. Also makes a second browser window pop open full-screen size. You can also use it with programs like Calculator so they'll open in the center of the screen. Very slick little program. Hey Doc,
What do you push to open your "Remedial Geography" homework? (ref: answer to your last post on your "While the cat's away...." column which I choose to call..."Here kitty kitty !! " The Canuck (sorry for cross-posting) DrM, the other day during a slight earthquake some ball bearings rolled off the overhead conveyor belt and landed right on my keyboard. i looked at the monitor and there spelled out by the ball bearings was this:
(for the meaning of life, key alt, shift, control and then ...and that was all it said. An unfinished sentence that had needed but a liiittle longer of an earthquake. So I get excited (a message from --Mother Earth? --in ENGLISH?) and in lieu of waiting perhaps years for another quake i start dropping on the keyboard first one and then twos and then double handfuls of the standard ball bearings that had written the unfinished sentence. Soon enough with no rational answers just random letters and numbers flashing on the monitor i find myself sort of throwing heavier and larger ball bearings at the keyboard and suddenly after a few hours it quit sizzling and just kind of fizzled out flat kaput. And now, of course, on top of having to forget about THAT keyboard ever finishing THAT sentence, i have to, i suppose, move on, and concentrate my mind on how best to procure a replacement for what had been a perfectly good keyboard. This message, I'm typing it on a vintage Underwood uplinked thru a radio crystal in this old J. Verne 'glass & brass' vacuum-tube steam manifold router i found in the attic --but it roars like Dorothy's tornado and vibrates the house to where you drink with your bottle jackhammering your face, it eats coal like Dewey's battleship and is so hot you could fry an egg on a window sill even with the AC set at Winter on the Moons of Saturn. So here's what's bothering me --should i, or not, spring for a new keyboard? When a used one might be the better thing? What with the gov't showing sign of sinking soon to some sort of serious cyber obsolescence subsidy, should i stand by for a keyboard bail lout? What do you think, DrM? How would you handle this matter? Thanking you in advance for your kind response, i remain your grateful correspondent, "Mr N. A. Quandary" Dang, Buddy Turgidprose, you are Tabasco for my syn apses.
Will you marry me? ` Your church or mine (we cantalope, that'd be too fruity) --?
Buddy - You have a question awaiting you near the bottom of the 'Cat's Away' thread. We'll pick it up there.
Perhaps better than forcing a program to minimize in order to get at the desktop is to provide alternate access to the desktop. Right click on an empty section of the task bar, navigate to "Toolbars" and select "Desktop". A desktop menu that provides access to anything on the desktop will now appear at the right end of the task bar.
MRK - Although I used "get to the Desktop" in the example, it's really more a matter of just getting the rascal out of the way, rather than what you're intending to reach.
I have had success with another alternative, albeit it is not available for everything. I have a couple of programs that have the full/small screen and kill buttons but not minimise[-to-taskbar]: left-clicking their icon in the taskbar (WInXP) shows the minimise option.
CinemaCraft Encoder does that -- puts an icon in the SysTray whose sole function is to minimize the program. Weird, actually.
Hi Doc
To minimize apps, try Windows key + M. One Other useful function of the Windows key is to launch applications that you have pinned to the task bar. For example, if you had Firefox, Excel and Notepad pinned then Windows key + 1 will launch Firefox, Windows key + 2 will launch Excel etc. This works for up to 9 apps. NBC - Windows Key D & M do the same thing -- oddly enough. D is for 'Display Desktop', M is for "Mimimize All". I didn't know about using it to launch programs, though, that's a pretty clever trick.
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I can't guarantee all of these will work on every Windows operating system, but most should. Programs AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full-screen mode every time it opens, and for small progra
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Here's an index of my Maggie's Computin' Tips. I can't guarantee all of these will work on every Windows operating system, but most should. Programs AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full-s
Tracked: Jul 10, 11:21
Here's an index of my Maggie's Computin' Tips. I can't guarantee all of these will work on every Windows operating system, but most should. Programs AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full-s
Tracked: Jul 10, 11:25
Here's an index of my Maggie's Computin' Tips. I can't guarantee all of these will work on every Windows operating system, but most should. Programs AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full-scr
Tracked: Jul 22, 19:45
Here's an index of my Maggie's Computin' Tips. I can't guarantee all of these will work on every Windows operating system, but most should. Programs AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full-scr
Tracked: Jul 22, 21:39
Here's an index of my Maggie's Computin' Tips. I can't guarantee all of these will work on every Windows operating system, but most should. Programs AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full-s
Tracked: Jul 23, 13:06
Here's an index of my Maggie's Computin' Tips. I can't guarantee all of these will work on every Windows operating system, but most should. Programs AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full-s
Tracked: Aug 28, 08:29
Here's an index of my Maggie's Computin' Tips. I can't guarantee all of these will work on every Windows operating system, but most should. Programs AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full
Tracked: Jan 08, 20:00