RHFtech™ Write on Tech » windows

Copy as Path in Windows 7, Vista and XP

Richard Frisch — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:30:38 +0000

Copy as Path lets you place a file name along with its path information into the Windows 7 clipboard. I only learned about this great Windows 7 feature in November from my friend Ed Bott’s article Ten Tricks every Windows 7 power user should know. I didn’t know that Microsoft had added this function in Vista. It does not exist in Windows XP, but keep reading to find out how to get it in XP.

If you hold down the Shift key when right-clicking on a file or folder in Windows 7 or Vista Windows Explorer you get an extra context menu item Copy as path. If you select this, Windows copies the complete path and file name into the Clipboard. You can then paste it into dialogs or documents. For example, if you simply right-click on the file 02 – Santa Clause Is Coming To Town, the only context menu copy command is to copy the entire file. But if you hold down the Shift key and then right-click, you can select Copy as path. Doing this puts “D:\Music\Jackson 5\Ultimate Christmas Collection\02 Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.m4a” into the clipboard rather than a copy of the file. You could then copy that information into a document like this one, which is what I did to get it into this paragraph.

I find Copy as Path extremely useful in two situations:

Attaching files to email.
Filling in dialog boxes launched from the Browse button in many applications.

It saves you from hunting for the file. In many instances you are already looking at the file in Windows Explorer before you launch the application or write the email.

I find myself using this daily. But I quickly grew weary of having to remember to hold the Shift key before right-clicking. Fortunately, I found a solution to make Copy as path a regular (non-hidden) context menu item, no Shift key required!

Path Copy Copy is a free Windows Explorer add-on that also works in Windows XP as well as Windows 7 and Vista. Here’s a direct link to the download http://pathcopycopy.codeplex.com/releases/view/78108#DownloadId=313146

I suggest you alter the configuration of Path Copy Copy if you install it. The default configuration gives normal users too many choices, when all we want is the path and file name surrounded by quotation marks.

After you install it:

Open Windows Explorer and right-click on a file or folder.
Select Path Copy > Settings…
Select Default Command tab.
Select Copy Long Path.
Select the Disabled Commands tab.
Uncheck everything to disable all these geeky choices.
Click the OK button.

Now the Windows Explorer context menu will always include Copy File/Folder Path as a choice.

I searched for a comparable Mac OS X solution for Mac users. Surprisingly, I couldn’t find one.

Why I haven’t written much about Windows and its applications recently

Richard Frisch — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:05:40 +0000

The simple answer is that Windows 7 just works.

You may have noticed that in the past six months the only post I wrote specifically about Microsoft Windows or a Windows-specific application was Windows 8 – Why do they call it Windows? I still use Windows 7 on a daily basis. Contrary to what you might think from my posts, Windows 7 is my primary desktop operating system. I like it a lot and prefer it to any version of Mac OS X. It is undoubtedly the best version of Windows that Microsoft has ever sold. But, desktop Windows and its applications are mature compared to the mobile market or even compared to Mac OS X. There were significant improvements in moving from XP to Vista and then to Windows 7. I love the unified search baked into the Start button and Windows Explorer. I make great use of the Window 7 taskbar and jumplists. Many of Windows 7’s improvements are under-the-hood and not apparent to the user.

I am unaware of any new, astounding applications written specifically for the Windows Platform. Important applications like Microsoft Office continue to change, perhaps to evolve, but for the most part there has been little new in the last five years, perhaps the last decade. Some might argue the Office Ribbon, first introduced with Office 2007, is a significant improvement. Yet, the Ribbon primarily rearranged the user interface (UI) and denigrated the user experience (UX) for anyone who was already proficient with Office applications.

Non-Microsoft, Windows applications are not standing still. For example, in the last several years, Adobe has significantly enhanced its high-end video editing application, Premiere Pro. If you have the right hardware, the current version, CS5.5, outshines previous versions and competitive products. I don’t think Adobe is done yet. However, Premiere Pro is an expensive niche product and few of my readers care.

Microsoft is hard at work on Windows 8. I expect to write more and more about Windows 8 as its 2012 public release approaches. Until then: security, privacy, cloud services, synchronization, mobile platforms, the trend of consolidating control in technology industries, and my Titans and Tyrants of Technology project will garner the lion’s share of my attention.

Windows 8 – Why do they call it Windows?

Richard Frisch — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:14:35 +0000

Microsoft released the Windows 8 Developer Preview download shortly after they started their 2011 Build Conference in Anaheim, CA. I downloaded and installed it to see what’s cooking.

Windows 8 is a radical departure from earlier versions of Windows. The user interface (UI) has been reimagined as a touchscreen UI. It is called Metro and follows design work originally shown in the Vista Windows Media Center and Microsoft’s Zune software and hardware. It is similar to the Metro UI used in Windows Phone 7.

The title of this post comes from an email I received from my friend Walt, who had also played with the preview. He wrote,

I downloaded and installed the W-8 Preview yesterday as I’m sure you did. Of course I installed it on a PC rather than a mobile or tablet device and, for use with a big screen, dual screens, keyboard and mouse, Metro is a giant step backwards. It’s impossible to do much of anything without landing in Metroland where, without the ability to “swipe,” there’s no escape (the Windows key lets you toggle but not escape – the escape key does nothing, there’s no simple “back” button.)

Metro seems to be where Microsoft is headed but in no way is it “Windows.” The apps are full screen – you can’t move them, resize them, minimize or maximize them – they’re not windows.

Members of the press have been given shiny new tablets and are therefore raving about Metro. Maybe the final W-8 release will let enterprise users completely disable the App Crap but, short of that, I don’t see how it’s going to fly in productivity situations. I’m not even sure we need an all-in-one OS as opposed to a modular approach with compatible features. Maybe it’s a viable idea but it needs to scale correctly to the device at hand. W-8 does not – at least not for non-mobile, non-tablet devices, at least not yet.

One more thing – that green is UGLY, almost as ugly as Ubuntu brown! What were they thinking? Steve Jobs was right years ago when he said, “Microsoft has no sense of style, no taste!”

My own impression mirrors Walt’s. I don’t “get” the Metro UI on a desktop or laptop computer without a touchscreen. It makes no sense to me. I quibble with Walt’s characterization as it is a step “backwards.” It is not like anything Microsoft has ever implemented in the Windows UI. It is more like a step off a very high cliff, IMO.

Windows 8 is currently pre-release software. Microsoft has many months to tweak or change the UI to make it more like Windrows 7, Vista and Windows XP. I don’t think they will.

Both Microsoft and Apple are moving their desktop operating system UIs to be more like a touchscreen tablet interface. Apple added the Launchpad application and many multi-touch gestures to their Lion release. Some of the gestures are quite useful.

Launchpad makes a Mac look like an iPad with columns and rows of app icons and the Dock at the bottom. I don’t know any Lion user who likes Launchpad. I have read many online comments disparaging it. However, Apple does not require a user to use Launchpad. It’s there if you want it but can be ignored. Microsoft’s Metro UI in Windows 8 is almost impossible to ignore in the Developer Preview.

Windows 8 is designed to run on many more devices than previous Windows versions. It will run on Intel, AMD and ARM chips. It will work with traditional keyboard and mouse/trackpad using computers and touchscreen tablets. It will break many applications, and more importantly, it will break whatever knowledge you have about how to configure and use Windows.

If Windows 8 were released “as is” today, my advice to my customers would be as follows:

If you are a home user buy a Mac the next time you need to replace or upgrade. The Mac OS X Lion UI is more like Windows 7 than Windows 8 is.
Businesses should begin testing their applications on Windows 8 to see what breaks. If mission critical apps don’t work, consider switching to Macs or Linux. Stay with Windows XP or Windows 7 as long as you can.

Since Windows 8 is so unlike any other version of Windows from 1.0 to Windows 7, Walt’s question, “Why do they call it Windows?” is a great question. It isn’t like Windows. Maybe they should rename it Microsoft Windows Phone 7 for Desktops, Laptops and Tablets or MWP7DLT for short.

Whither the Personal Computer?

Richard Frisch — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:36:16 +0000

August 2011 has been a big news month in the tech world. First Google announces it is acquiring Motorola and now Hewlett Packard (HP) announces it is disposing of its PC business and shutting down its TouchPad tablet business, too. These two corporate moves have significant implications for large technology companies like Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo, HTC, Samsung, Apple and many others. It also has significance for consumers like us.

Would you buy an HP PC after their announcement? I wouldn’t. And this bad publicity spills over to the printer business, which is not on the chopping block right now. I was already turned off to the cheap, poor build quality and the high price of supplies for HP printers. I am unlikely to recommend or buy a printer from HP again.

Personal computing is in flux. According to Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, we are at the beginning of the post PC era. Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President, Corporate Communications, says we are in the PC plus era. Jobs referred to PCs, Macs and Windows, as “trucks” in a 2010 interview with Walt Mossberg, a Wall Street Journal reporter, and Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO.

Regardless of what you label this era, the PC is now competing with smartphones and tablets for our dollars and attention.

Each of these devices has an operating system (OS). The main PC OSes are Microsoft Windows and the Max OS X. There are many smartphone OSes but the two dominant ones are iPhone’s iOS and Google’s Android. iOS powers the iPad and Android powers most of the iPad’s competitors’ tablets.

Applications, apps, programs (call executable code whatever you want) are generally specific to one operating system or a family of OSes. A program may run under Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, but not on Mac OS X or Android.

Each operating system has its own user interface (UIs) and ways of manipulating that UI. Many features, such as left and right mouse clicks are used similarly, but not always identically on multiple OSes. An example is that “Ctrl+C” copies whatever is selected in Windows, while “command+C” is the Mac OS X keyboard equivalent.

Having a common operating system that works across multiple devices makes it easier for us since we don’t have to know the nuances of using multiple OSes and a plethora of similar apps built for each OS. I suffer a form of tech-induced dyslexia because I may be working on Windows XP, 7, and Vista, Windows Servers, Mac OS X—Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion—iOS devices like iPads and iPhones and Android phones, all in the same day!

Unfortunately, if we want to have both personal computers (Windows, Macs or Linux) and mobile devices like a smartphone or a tablet we can’t have that single operating system. Apple uses the Mac OS X for its PCs and iOS for its mobile devices, like the iPhone or iPad. Google provides the Android OS for mobile device manufactures to install on their smartphones and tablets, and also makes Chrome OS for inexpensive, cloud-oriented PCs. Microsoft sells Windows for PCs and Windows Phone 7 (WP7) for smartphones. Currently, Microsoft has no true tablet operating system. WP7 will not run on tablets and Windows 7, which has some built-in touch features is only found a few special purpose tablets.

Windows 8, due out sometime in 2012, will run on both personal computers and tablets, but not smartphones.

Apple added UI enhancements and multi-touch gestures to Lion, the newest version of Mac OS X, in an attempt to unify the OS X and iOS experience, as much as possible. Some of the changes like Launchpad are resounding failures, while some of the multi-touch gestures, and full-screen mode are nice UI tweaks.

The PC is not going away. We will still be buying Windows PCs and Macs for years. But its heyday is over. Most of the innovation in computing technology is in the mobile and social space today. And so is much of the fun stuff.

Why I am abandoning Windows and you will too

Richard Frisch — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:51:35 +0000

Microsoft recently released the final version of Window 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1). Thus far, my experience in updating 8 machines is: 2 succeeded, 5 failed, and one “succeeded” by force. This last one is my main Windows machine. It failed to install SP1 using Windows Update. SP1 installed when I used the Microsoft 2GB administrator’s download. The forced upgrade worked, but now the machine does not hibernate properly. It did before.

[Update 2011-03-20: Using Windows Update on 9 W7 machines: 2 succeeded, 7 have failed.]

I wasted over 10 hours trying to get Windows Update to install SP1 on my main machine, troubleshooting the failed update, downloading the DVD file, installing SP1 from the DVD, troubleshooting hibernate issues and unsuccessfully attempting to restore the machine to just before SP1 was installed.

Though Microsoft has improved over the years, this is still not an atypical experience. Issues like this also occur with Apple and Google. However, I have lost tolerance for Microsoft-induced problems. After three decades of these issues. Microsoft should know better. They do. They just don’t seem to care enough about their end-users.

In the past this would have been more than simply frustrating. It might even have been catastrophic. Today it doesn’t much matter.

I am slowly moving away from Microsoft platforms. As recently as five years ago, I spent 100% of my computing time on Microsoft Windows. Today is different. I spend about 50% of my time on Windows (mostly Windows 7), 30% on Mac OS X (mostly Snow Leopard), 15% on Apple iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV) and 5% on Google Android devices. I expect Android and iOS to grow within the next 2 years to more than half of my computing time. Truthfully, I am agnostic when it comes to operating systems or platforms. There are features to like and dislike about all of them.

Today we want and expect to do whatever we want, where we want, and when we want, without regard to OS or hardware. It should just work. And it often does because we are no longer dependent upon a single provider to satisfy our computing needs. Choice means we can use Microsoft if they fit our needs, Apple if they are best, Google when they dominate, or some other company.

I depend upon cloud computing more and more. Dropbox and Google services form the basis of much of my computing today. I use Microsoft Live services to a lesser degree. (This article was created and edited in the Microsoft Word Web App, part of the free Microsoft Live cloud-services. I wrote and edited it on both Windows and OS X machines. Since the file and the application are on Microsoft servers that I access via the Internet I am indifferent to the platform.)

I also maintain an Apple MobileMe account so that I can support customers foolish enough to want to use Apple cloud services. Apple has a long way to go before I will trust their cloud-based services.

Although this document was created on Microsoft Live SkyDrive using the Word Web App, I primarily depend upon Dropbox to make my active files available on whatever device I need them on. I depend upon Google email, contacts, calendar, documents and spreadsheets to augment that experience. I still use Microsoft Office on both Windows and OS X. But the times have changed. I could give up Microsoft Outlook but not Google calendar. In fact, the main reason I continue to use Outlook is to help me support my clients that depend upon it.

Your experience will vary from mine. But the handwriting is on the wall. Microsoft’s dominance is waning and no single company is ever likely to dominate computing like they once did.

Legal file names

Richard Frisch — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:01:38 +0000

A friend recently asked,

Since when is it possible to use $ and ! characters in file names?

I just noticed an exclamation point in the name of a file I had ripped from a CD a few weeks age. I don’t recall seeing it there before…

I hadn’t thought about this topic for many years. I remember in the days of DOS having to limit ourselves to files names in an 8.3 format, eight legal characters plus up to a 3 character file extension. The extension was how the operating system associated in what program a data file should launch.

Oddly, in an interest in dumbing-down the user interface (UI) the default setting in both Windows Explorer and Mac OS X Finder is to hide file extensions from users. I always opt for showing the extensions on my computers.

The 8.3 limitation was removed along the way. Windows and Mac OS X can accommodate file names, including extensions, up to 255 characters long. This makes it much easier to create meaningful file names.

But the question wasn’t, “how many characters” rather “what characters” can’t we use in files names. The answer is:

Windows
The following characters are not allowed:

< (less than)
> (greater than)
: (colon)
” (double quote)
/ (forward slash)
\ (backslash)
| (vertical bar or pipe)
? (question mark)
* (asterisk)

Mac OS X

The only illegal character for file and folder names is the colon :

Additionally, file and folder names cannot begin with a period .

Simple way to wipe Windows user data

Richard Frisch — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 18:50:06 +0000

People often ask me how to wipe their old computer that they want to give away.

An easy way to do this is to:

Open Control Panel
Go to User Accounts
Create a new administrative user account.
Log out of your existing account.
Log into the new account you created in step 3, above.
Go Control Panel > User Accounts
Delete the old account(s). Answer yes when asked if you want to delete the user files.

Your personal files are deleted when the old user account is deleted. The operating system and installed applications remain intact and the new user can immediately make use of the machine.

You can also find free utilities online that will wipe the free hard drive space, obscuring the detritus of the old user accounts.

Fix for Microsoft Windows DLL Remote Execution Vulnerability

Richard Frisch — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:09:16 +0000

It must take years of advanced linguistic training to become a Microsoft software engineer. During the training, one learns how to communicate with machines and other software engineers. Sometime late in the process it appears you lose the ability to communicate with anyone else.

A marvelous example of this effect appears in the Microsoft Support Article,

A new CWDIllegalInDllSearch registry entry is available to control the DLL search path algorithm.

The title informs us that this is going to be a humdinger of a read: obtuse, confused, lengthy (over 7,000 words) and soporific. It makes a wonderful non-narcotic sleep aid and is available without a prescription.

If you wade through the engineer-speak, about five percent into the article, you find a small graphic

If you click on the Microsoft Fix It button a download dialogue will appear in Internet Explorer, prompting you to Run, Save or Cancel. If you run it, it will patch your system and protect your Windows computer from the widely publicized DLL remote execution vulnerability.

I suggest you do that whether or not you can make sense out of the support article.

Files, you think you know but what are they really?

Richard Frisch — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:13:24 +0000

Pictures, music, video, spreadsheets, documents and applications are files on your computer. Do you ever wonder what they are and how they differ from each other? What makes a document open in Microsoft Word and a song open in iTunes? Why do files designed to run on Windows PCs like Word documents or Excel spreadsheets also run on Macs and Linux computers? What makes a file an application that a computer can run, instead of displaying lines of computer code?

File names have two parts, the actual file name and the extension. The file name might be something like “Document1” or “IMG_0317”. This is shown to us whether we are working in Windows Explorer or the Mac Finder. The extension, the second part of the complete file name, might be “.doc” or “.jpg” for the two file names above. Both Windows and Macs hide file extensions by default so you may rarely see the “.doc” or “.jpg”. They show application icons instead. But they hide whether that Word file is a “.doc”, “.docx”, or “.dotx”.

I suggest your reconfigure your computer to show the extensions. This is done via XP’s “Folder Options…” or Windows 7/Vista “Folder and search options” in Windows Explorer. Click on the Folder Options “View” tab and uncheck the “Hide extensions for known file types” box. The Mac Finder is easily configured to show file extensions. Go to “Preferences”, click on the “Advanced” tab and check the box labeled “Show all file extensions”.

Now the computer will show both a filename and the extension. This makes it easier to tell what program a data file works with. You no longer need rely upon an icon to tell you. A Word data file usually has the extension “.doc” or “.docx”. An Excel file has an “.xls” or “.xlsx” extension. A photo usually has the extension “.jpg”. Audio files commonly have the extensions “.mp3”, “.m4a”, “.m4p“ or “.wma”.

File extensions are associated with applications. This is why when you click on a data file it opens in its correct program, whether on a Windows PC or a Mac. Typically a Mac computer associates images with iPhoto, audio files with iTunes, Word files with Word or Pages, and spreadsheets with Excel or Numbers. Windows machines may use Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Media Player, Word, and Excel as the associated programs, respectively. Adobe PDFs are displayed by default in the Mac Preview program. Most Windows machines use Adobe Reader to open PDFs.

You can open a file in a program other than its default application. Perhaps you want to open an audio file in the VLC media player, a free media player that works on Windows, Mac and Linux computers, but iTunes is your default music playing application (Windows or Mac). If you right-click on the audio file you can choose “Open with” from the Windows Explorer or the Finder context menus. You then select a program from the list or browse for the application you want to use.

Applications (also called programs) are different than data files. They run when clicked rather than launching another program. In the Microsoft world applications typically have the extension “.exe”. Older DOS apps may use “.com”. The Mac application extension is “.app”. So iTunes on Windows is “iTunes.exe” and on Macs “iTunes.app”.

How does the original program code get turned into an application? Programmers use special applications called compilers to transform their program code in to executable applications. Programs issue commands to the computer and its peripherals. A program might tell the printer to print what you are looking at or, if you are in email application, to send the message you wrote.

Create a desktop shortcut to open your CD-DVD drive

Richard Frisch — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:14:10 +0000

Macs have an eject key on the keyboard to eject discs from their optical drives. Most Windows machines do not.

I describe below how to create a desktop shortcut to do that for Windows computers. The shortcut can be assigned to a keyboard key, pinned to the Windows 7 Taskbar or added to the XP or Vista Quick Launch toolbar.

Download the Nirsoft NIRCMD utility.
Unzip the file.
Three files are included in the zip. Double-click on the nircmd.exe file.
A dialog window will appear with a button Copy To Windows Directory; click on it.
Then click the OK button.
Open up My Computer from the Start button.
Find the drive letter of your DVD/CD drive. Make a note of it. You will need it in a moment.
Next, right-click on a blank area of your desktop.
Select New —> Shortcut from the context menu. The Create Shortcut wizard opens.
Type in the space labeled Type the location of the item:.
nircmd.exe cdrom open D:

Change the letter D to the appropriate letter for your DVD/CD drive, as noted above.
Now click the Next button.
The shortcut wizard will ask you to name the shortcut. Replace the default text nircmd.exe with something like Open DVD-CD player.
Then click the Finish button. But we are not yet finished.
Right-click on the new shortcut icon on your desktop and select Properties from the context menu.
Click on the Change Icon… button.
A warning dialog pops up telling you that there are no icons in the nircmd.exe file. Click the OK button.
The Windows default icon repository shell32.dll opens up. Select an icon. I like the one with the optical disk above the drive. Click the “OK” button.Now let’s assign a keyboard shortcut key to open the optical drive.
Do this by clicking on the space with the word none next to the Shortcut key: label. Press whichever key or key combination you want. Try not to use existing shortcuts like Ctrl-C (copy) or F1 (help). The F7 key seems to work fine.
Now one more time click the OK button.

We are now finished with creating the shortcut.

Test out your new shortcut by double-clicking on the desktop icon you created. If you did it correctly the optical drive transport tray should come out. You have to close the tray by gently pushing it in. Next test your shortcut key. I used F7 which works fine on my Windows 7 computer.

If you are using Windows 7 you can pin the new shortcut to the Windows Taskbar. Right-click on the desktop icon and select Pin to Taskbar from the context menu.

If you are using Vista or XP you can add it to the Quick Launch toolbar. Make certain you have the Quick Launch toolbar visible by right-clicking on the Taskbar and selecting Toolbars. If there is a checkmark next to the Quick Launch item in the menu it is open. If not, click on it to open it.

Now right-click on the new DVD-CD shortcut on the desktop and drag the icon down to the Quick Launch toolbar and let go. Select Create Shortcuts Here from the context menu.

Windows users shouldn’t be envious of Macs because of the eject key. Macs are big-time trouble when a disc gets stuck in their optical drives. There is no little hole where you can stick an unbent paper click to mechanically open the optical drive transport. You may have to take it in for costly repairs to remove the disc and regain use of the optical drive.