Windows XP Hacks [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Hack 27 Forcing Windows Explorer Into True Usefulness

A grab bag of ways to make better use of
Explorer.

There are plenty of small ways you can
hack Explorer to make your computing life more productivefor
example, by hacking the right-click shortcut menu. Try out these
hacks and see.

3.8.1 Add Shortcut Menu Items to Specific File Types

When you right-click on a file in Explorer,
you get a shortcut menu that includes a list of programs with which
you can open the file. But the programs that you want to open those
files might not always be on the shortcut menu. It's
easy to add new programs to that list. Let's say
that you want to add a shortcut menu item that allows .gif
files to be opened with the freeware graphics viewer
IrfanView #86]. From Windows
Explorer, choose Tools Folder Options File
Types. In the Registered File Types list, select the file type for
which you want to add a new shortcut menu item. In our example,
we'll choose a GIF file. After this hack, any time
you click on a file of this type, you'll get a new
choice to open the file with.

Once you've chosen your file type, choose Advanced
New. You'll see the New Action dialog box
shown in Figure 3-16.

Figure 3-16. Adding a new program to the shortcut menu

In the Action box, type the text you want to appear on the shortcut
menufor example, Open with IrfanView. In
the "Application used to perform
action" box, enter the executable program you want
to open the file with, including the full path. Surround it by
quotation marks. Then leave a space and type in
"%1". The "%1" is a
placeholder; it will be used as a substitute for the name of the file
on which you right-click. In our instance, the entire string looks
like this:

"C:\Program Files\i_view32.exe" "%1"

Click OK. The change will take place immediately, and the new command
will appear on the shortcut menu for the specified file type.

3.8.2 Add Global Shortcut Menu Items to All File Types

The

previous section
of this hack showed how to add shortcut menu items on a
file-type-by-file-type basis. In other words, it will only be
available on the shortcut menu for the one specific file type you
specify. But you can also add that shortcut menu item to every type
of file, by using a Registry hack. This is useful when you have a
program that can open a wide variety of file types, and you
don't want to have to go add a shortcut menu item
for every one of those file types. I use the IrfanView graphics
viewer for many different types of graphics, so I want it to show up
on all those types. Although it will also show up on file types that
I won't use it with, such as Word files,
it's still worth putting it on the menu globally
because of all the time I save by not having to add shortcut menu
items over and over again for each file type.

Run the Registry Editor #68] and
go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*. Create a new subkey
called Shell if it doesn't yet
exist. The Shell subkey can control parts of the
user interface. Create a new subkey under Shell
and name it what your new command will befor example,
OpenWithIrfanView. For the default value of the
new subkey, type in the text you want to appear on the shortcut
menufor example, Open with IrfanView.
Create a new subkey named Command under the subkey
that you just created. This subkey will contain the command string
that you want to be executed to open the file. For the default value
of the Command subkey, enter the command string
you want to be executed when the shortcut menu item is
chosenfor example:

"C:\Program Files\i_view32.exe" "%1"

Exit the Registry. The new shortcut menu item should be available
immediately, though you may need to reboot in order for it to take
effect.

3.8.3 Edit File Association Actions

You can use Windows Explorer to change how XP
handles file types; for example, you can choose the default action
when the file type is double-clicked upon, the application associated
with the file type, the icon for the file type, and whether the
extension should be displayed or hidden in Windows Explorer. To
perform most of these actions, choose Tools Folder Options
File Types, choose the file type for which you want to
customize an action, then click Advanced. You'll see
the screen shown in Figure 3-17.

Figure 3-17. Editing file associations and their actions

From the Edit File Type dialog box, you can change the icon, edit the
action to be taken on the file, and choose whether to display the
file type in Windows Explorer. The dialog box is fairly
self-explanatory. For example, click Change Icon to change the icon;
to edit any action, highlight it and click Edit. If you want to
change the application associated with the file, choose Tools
Folder Options File Types, choose the file type
whose association you want to change, click Change, and then choose
the application you want to be associated with the file type in the
same way as shown in Figure 3-16.

3.8.4 Remove Context Menu Items from Explorer

Explorer's menus can get
messy at times. But you can use a
Registry hack to clean
it up a bit by removing two items from the Tools
menu: Map Network Drive and Disconnect
Network Drive. Run the Registry Editor and go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Create the DWORD entry
NoNetConnectDisconnect. Give it a value of
1. Exit the Registry. You might have to reboot in
order for the setting to take effect and the items to disappear from
the menu. To place the items back on the Explorer menu, edit the
value to 0, or delete the entry.

3.8.5 Organize the All Programs Menu with Explorer

If you're using the default
Windows XP Start Menu view and you're not happy with
the way your All Programs menu is organized, you can use Windows
Explorer to modify it. The All Programs menu is nothing more than a
collection of shortcuts found in two folders: the
C:\Documents and Settings\<Your Account>\Start
Menu folder (where <Your
Account> is your account name), and the
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu
folder. Items that you want to appear at the very top of the All
Programs menu should be put in one of the /Start
Menu folders (depending upon whether you want the item to
appear only on your All Programs menu, or on all
users' All Programs menu.) Items that you want to
appear on the lower part of the All Programs menu should be put into
the \Start Menu\Programs folder, again,
depending on whether you want the item to appear only on your All
Programs menu, or on all users' All Programs
menu.