Tips

If you ever lose the Desktop but Explorer is still running with the Start Button,
you can do this to bring back your Desktop in a Windows box.

1. Click Start
2. Click Run
3. Type a period ” . “
4. Then press Enter

Creating a New E-Mail Shortcut

To create a shortcut that will open your default e-mail program starting a new e-mail,

1. Right click on an open area of the desktop
2. Select New / Shortcut
3. For the Command Line, enter mailto:
4. For the title enter something like New E-Mail
5. When you click on this your default e-mail program should start with a new e-mail form.

Creating 3D Window Effect

You can create a nice 3D effect for your windows

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Colors
3. Make sure the following setting are there:

• ButtonHilight=128 128 128
• ButtonShadow=255 255 255

Creating Shutdown, Restart and Logoff Icons

To create the icons, create a shortcut on the desktop.

For Shutdown, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindows

For Restart, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindowsexec

For Logoff, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 0

Having your Favorites and Start Menus Sort Alphabetically

If your Start Menu Program or Favorites are not sorting alphabetically, it is easy to fix this:

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/MenuOrder
3. Under here is are Favorites and Start Menu folders
4. In each there is a value called Order
5. Simply delete (or rename this) and restart Winodws
6. Your Favorites or Start Menus should now sort alphabetically

Increasing the Icon Cache

1. Run Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer
3. Create a new string called Max Cached Icons
4. Give it a value of 10000
5. This will increase response time in windows and give the Shellicon cache file more elbow room.

Make Icons 256 Color 16-Bit

1. Open the Registry
2. Hit Ctrl+F
3. Type Shell Icon BPP
4. When found, right click the Shell Icon BPP icon
5. Click Modify
6. Change the value from 4 to 16
7. Click Ok
8. Close the registry
9. Restart your computer

Removing Shortcut Arrows

An easy way to remove those irritating arrows from your desktop shortcut icons and not change their properties

1. Right click the Desktop / Properties / Appearance tab
2. Select Item
3. Scroll for Icon
4. The default size is 32
5. Change this to 30
6. Clicking Apply

Adding the Control Panel to the Start Menu

1. Open up the Explorer
2. Go to \WINDOWS\Start Menu
3. Right click in the right-hand panel
4. Add a new folder
5. Name it Control Panel.{21ec2020-3aea-1069-a2dd-08002b30309d}
6. This makes getting to the Control Panel items a little easier

Making Desktop Changes Permanent

To make changes to the Desktop like window size, positon after rebooting:

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
3. Create a New Binary Value
4. Name it NoSaveSettings
5. Give it a value of 01 00 00 00

Easy Shortcuts on the Desktop

Here is an easy way to put shortcuts on the Desktop where they can easily be moved to other group icons.

1. Using the Explorer, create a SHORTCUT to the \Windows\Desktop directory in your \Windows\SEND TO directory.
2. Now whenever you want to make a shortcut and move it to the desktop:
3. Just make the shortcut you want using Explorer
4. Right click on that shortcut
5. In the pop up menu select the Send To and Desktop shortcut.

Changing a Folder’s Icon

To change the icon of a Folder on desktop:

1. Using the Explorer, move the folder from the Desktop directory to another directory on the hard drive
2. Right click on the new folder and select “Create Shortcut”
3. Move the shortcut to the Desktop
4. Right click and select a new icon