Opening a Command Prompt to a Particular Directory from Explorer

If you want to open a command prompt to a directory that is selected in the Explorer:

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT  \ Directory \ shell
3. Create a new key called Command
4. Give it the value of the name you want to appear in the Explorer. Something like Open DOS Box
5. Under this create a new key called command
6. Give it a value of " cmd.exe cd %1 " (no quotes)
7. Now when you are in the Explorer, right click on a folder, select Open DOS Box, and a command prompt will open to  the selected directory.

Windows 2000 and DOS - Get a List of Commands

To get a list of the available DOS commands in Windows 2000, enter in the following command at the DOS prompt:

HELP | MORE

Dell Computer Not Keeping Correct Time

If your Dell computer is loosing time while the computer is turned on,
You can run the following commands:

1. Start / Run / CMD
2. Net stop w32time
3. w32tm /unregister
4. w32tm /unregister
5. w32tm /register
6. Net start w32time

You can also download a Dell Patch to do the same process automatically

Safely Working with the Registry

Anytime you want to delete a registry key or value, try renaming it instead. I just insert an "x" at the beginning of the name. Using your previous newsletter as an example, instead of deleting "IsShortcut" just rename it to "xIsShortcut". Applications won't find the original name and will behave as if it were deleted, but the change can be easily undone by just deleting the inserted "x".

For some entries you'll want to modify the value instead of the value name. For example, entries in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Run\

are executed regardless of the value name. But if you insert an "x" in the actual value's path, the file fails to load. Change one of these entries from something like

"C:\Program Files\Someapp\Someapp.exe"

to

"xC:\Program Files\Someapp\Someapp.exe"

Autoloading of "Someapp.exe" is now disabled, but can be easily restored in the future.[ by removing the x ]

Last, the "F2" key is a shortcut under Regedit.exe that will put you right into editing a registry name.

by Ron Kyker

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Outlook Express is Missing in XP

You may have upgraded your machine to Windows XP only to find that both your Outlook Express mailbox and your address book were missing. Don't worry, they're still on your hard drive.

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AutoDeFrag for Win2k

AutoDeFrag is a freebie launcher for the standard defragmenter built into Windows 2000. The standard defragmenter does not support the ability to be scheduled, and therefore must be manually launched when required, once for each fixed disk in your system. AutoDeFrag works around this limitation and allows the Windows 2000 Task Scheduler to be used to schedule the defragmenter.

What Platform Does It Run On?

AutoDeFrag runs only on Windows 2000 platforms. It has been tested on Windows 2000 RC2, RC3, and the final release. 

Installation of AutoDefrag

AutoDeFrag is a tiny (~50k) Win32 console application that does not require any user input.

It may be installed anywhere, but in order guarantee that it is in the system path it is recommended to place it in the WINNT system directory (typically c:\winnt).

Download AutoDefrag v1.2 

at 21:00 /interactive /every:M,T,W,Th,F,S,Su "autodefrag"

This particular example will cause the defragmenter to run every day at 9:00pm.

In order to verify that the task was correctly scheduled, an maybe to test the installation use the 'Scheduled Tasks' icon in the Control Panel.

AutoDefrag Command-line options

When executed without any command-line arguments it defragments each disk in turn. This allows the use of a very simple 'at' command to schedule it.

If a drive-letter is provided on the command-line then that drive, and that drive only, will be defragmented.

from Morphasys.com