June 23, 2009
Using Disk Defrag on Windows XP
Accessing Disk Defragmenter
• Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Defragmenter
• Start | Run | and type dfrg.msc in the Open line.
Click OK
• Start | Administrative Tools | Computer Management. Expand Storage and select Disk Defragmenter
The first two methods take you to a standalone window containing Disk Defragmenter. The last method opens Microsoft Management Console and displays Disk Defragmenter as one of the snap-in modules. In all cases, a window similar to the one below will be displayed.
When Disk Defragmenter first opens you'll see a list of the hard drives displayed at the top of the screen. The Estimated Disk Usage Before Defragmentation and Estimated Disk Usage After Defragmentation will be blank until a drive is selected and the Analyze button is clicked. In the screen shot above, I've already analyzed the drives as evidenced by the Session Status showing as Analyzed and the Estimated Disk Usage Before Defragmentation area containing a graphical representation of the drive fragmentation.
After the Analyze button has been clicked and the process completes the window shown above (Fig. 02) opens with a brief recommendation of what action Disk Defragmenter thinks should be taken regarding the drive. It's important to note that this is just a recommendation based on the percentage of fragmented files to total files and doesn't prevent the drive from being defragmented if you feel it needs to be done and might improve system performance. If you want to go ahead and defragment without more information, click the Defragment button. If you're in agreement with their recommendation and don't want to defragment, click the Close button. Click the View Report button to view a more detailed drive analysis.
An Analysis Report contains quite a bit of additional information about the selected drive. The report shown above (Fig. 03) details the File Fragmentation status of drive New Volume (D:). The top pane provides Volume information, and as you can see there are 3,851 fragmented files. This may not seem like many fragmented files, but consider that this is only a 29GB drive, which is very small by today's standards, and that 97% of the total drive space is currently unused. Look at the Average Fragments Per File number of 1.04 and this tells you that approximately 4% of the files on the drive are in two or more pieces. My experience has been that when this number reaches 1.05 the message in the quick analysis window (Fig. 02) will recommend defragmenting the drive. The bottom pane, Most Fragmented Files, lists the files in descending order that are the most fragmented.
Click on Defragment button to Defrag the drive.
You can see the status of Defragmentation in the status bar.
Disk defragmentation is now complete, click on View Report button to view the Defragmentation Report.
In spite of the recommendation not to defragment this particular disk, I went ahead and clicked the Defragment button. The results of that choice are shown above (Fig. 04) in the Estimated Disk Usage After Defragmentation section. The graphical representation clearly shows that not only have the red lines depicting fragmented files been eliminated, many of the contiguous files indicated by the blue have been repositioned toward the beginning of the drive, reducing the amount of searching the drive heads have to do to locate a file. The drive in this example is not a system drive, nor does it have a paging file which would be indicated by the lime green Unmovable Files color.
After the defragmentation process completes, clicking the View Report button will bring up the Defragmentation Report (Fig. 05). It takes the exact same form as the Analysis Report (Fig. 03) but shows the post defragmentation results. The Total Files and Average File Size remain identical, but notice that Total Fragmented Files and Total Excess Fragments have been reduced to zero (0) and the Average Fragments Per File is now 1.00, indicating most or all of the files are contiguous. In addition, there are no files listed that did not defragment.
June 20, 2009
Google Search
Several of us use Google through out the day for simple stuff, but we've never quite grasped the power of this tool. Several of us use Google through out the day for simple stuff, but we've never quite grasped the power of this tool.
1. .. Download and install the Google toolbar. Not only does it put the Google search box into your browser full-time, but it also blocks pop-up ads and fills in forms for you. For Windows at http://toolbar.google.com .. (Ad blocking, form-filling and Google's search box are already built into the Apple's Web browser, Safari.)2... Phrase your question in the form of an answer. So instead of typing, "What is the average rainfall in the Amazon basin?", you might get better results by typing "The average rainfall in the Amazon basin is."
3... This is an old one, but very important: Put quotes around phrases that must be searched together. If you put quotes around "electric curtains," Google won't waste your time finding one set of Web pages containing the word "electric" and another set containing the word "curtains."
4... Similarly, put a hyphen right before any word you want screened out. If you're looking up dolphins, for example, you'll have to wade through a million Miami Dolphins pages unless you search for "dolphins -Miami."
5... Google is a global White Pages and Yellow Pages. Search for "phonebook: home depot norwalk, ct," Google instantly produces the address and phone number of the Norwalk Home Depot. This works with names ("phonebook:robert jones las vegas, NV") as well as businesses. Don't put any space after "phonebook." And in all of the following examples, don't type the quotes I'm showing you here.
6... Google is a package tracker. Type a FedEx or UPS package number (just the digits); when you click Search, Google offers a link to its tracking information.
7... Google is a calculator. Type in an equation ("32+2345*3-234=").
8... Google is a units-of-measurement converter. Type "teaspoons in a gallon," for example, or "centimeters in a foot."
9... Google is a stock ticker. Type in AAPL or MSFT, for example, to see a link to the current Apple or Microsoft stock price, graphs, financial news and so on.
10... Google is an atlas. Type in an area code, like 212, to see a Mapquest map of the area.
11... Google is Wal-Mart's computer. Type in a UPC bar code number, such as "036000250015," to see the description of the product you've just "scanned in." (Thanks to the Google Blog, http://google.blogspace.com, for this tip and the next couple.)
12... Google is an aviation buff. Type in a flight number like "United 22" for a link to a map of that flight's progress in the air. Or type in the tail number you see on an airplane for the full registration form for that plane.
13... Google is the Department of Motor Vehicles. Type in a VIN (vehicle identification number, which is etched onto a plate, usually on the door frame, of every car), like "JH4NA1157MT001832," to find out the car's year, make and model.
14... For hours of rainy-day entertainment, visit http://labs.google.com .. Here, you'll find links to new, half- finished Google experiments-like Google Voice, in which you call (650) 623-6706, speak the words you want to search for and then open your browser to view the results. Disclaimer: It wasn't working when I tried it. (Ditto a lot of these experiments.)
15... Poke around the "Services & Tools" link on the Google.com home page and you'll find some of the better-known lesser-known Google features, if that makes any sense.
For example, there's Froogle (product search), News, Groups (Internet discussion boards), Google Catalogs (hundreds of scanned- in product catalogs), Images (find graphics and photos from other people's Web sites), Blogger (publish your own online journal), Google language translation, Google Answers (pay a couple of bucks to have a professional researcher find the answers for you) and much more.
December 25, 2008
Five Firefox Shortcuts
"Three Keyboard Shortcuts OneNeed to Learn" I'm a big fan of keyboard shortcuts. Its common scenario that no one wants to reach to the mouse everytime to do any operation . I am providing a list of five Firefox shortcuts I use all day, every day:
* Alt-Left Arrow: Sends you back to the previous page you were viewing. Alt-Right Arrow, of course, takes you forward one page.
* Ctrl-F: Brings up the Find tool, which works dynamically (i.e. as you type). Then I press F3 to jump to the next instance of my search item.
* Ctrl-T: Opens a new tab. Note that you can start typing a URL immediately upon doing so, as the cursor automatically appears in the Awesome Bar.
* Ctrl-Tab: Switches you to the next open tab. Ctrl-Shift-Tab takes you back a tab.
* No "www" prefix: Are you still typing "www" at the beginning of every Web address? Guess what: The browser doesn't need it. So the shortcut here is to just leave it off. You can try it
Three Keyboard Shortcuts One Need to Learn
Do you know the potential of windows key on your keyboard ?
Most people leave it unnoticed, but that's a mistake. One press is the same as clicking the Start button with your mouse. And pressing it in combination with other keys can save one from having to reach for the mouse at all. Here are three Windows-key shortcuts you should memorize immediately:
* Windows-D - Minimizes all open windows so you can see the desktop. A second tap restores them.
* Windows-E - Opens Windows Explorer (the file-management tool, not the browser). This is much quicker than right-clicking the Start button and then Explore, or trying to find Explorer in the Start menu.
* Windows-F - Launches Windows' search tool (remember "F" for "find").
December 11, 2008
RUN COMMANDS:
Microsoft Word Shortcut Keys
Note: A plus sign indicates that the keys need to be pressed at the same time.
Action ............................................................. Keystroke
- Open a file----------------------------------------- CTRL+O
- New file-------------------- ------------------------CTRL+N
- Close a file ------------------------------------------CTRL+W
- Save As ---------------------------------------------F12
- Save ------------------------------------------------CTRL+S or SHIFT+F12
- Print Preview ---------------------------------------CTRL+F2
- Print ------------------------------------------------CTRL+P
- Show/Hide paragraph symbols ----------------------CTRL+*
- Spelling and grammar------------------------------- F7
- Help ------------------------------------------------ F1
- Find ------------------------------------------------CTRL+F
- Replace ---------------------------------------------CTRL+H
- Go To---------------------------------------------- CTRL+G
Cursor movement
- Select all - entire document-------------------------------- CTRL+A
- Select from cursor to beginning of line ----------------------SHIFT+Home
- Select from cursor to end of line --------------------------- SHIFT+END
- Go to beginning of line -------------------------------------HOME
- Go to end of line -------------------------------------------END
- Go to beginning of document------------------------------ CTRL+Home
- Go to end of document ------------------------------------CTRL+End
Formatting
- Cut ----------------------------------------------------- CTRL+X
- Copy---------------------------------------------------- CTRL+C
- Paste ---------------------------------------------------CTRL+V
- Undo---------------------------------------------------- CTRL+Z
- Redo ----------------------------------------------------CTRL+Y
- Format painter -----------------------------------------CTRL+SHIFT+C
- Left alignment -------------------------------------------CTRL+L
- Center alignment ---------------------------------------CTRL+E
- Right alignment -----------------------------------------CTRL+R
- Justified ------------------------------------------------CTRL+J
- Delete previous word -----------------------------------CTRL+Backspace
- Apply bulleted list --------------------------------------CTRL+SHIFT+L
- Indent------------------------------------------------- CTRL+M
- Page break --------------------------------------------CTRL+Enter
Text Style
- Font face--------------------------------------------- CTRL+SHIFT+F
- Font size ---------------------------------------------CTRL+SHIFT+P
- Bold-------------------------------------------------- CTRL+B
- Italics ------------------------------------------------CTRL+I
- Underline -------------------------------------------- CTRL+U
- Double underline ------------------------------------CTRL+SHIFT+D
- Word underline--------------------------------------- CTRL+SHIFT+W
- All caps --------------------------------------------- CTRL+SHIFT+A
- Change case -------------------------------------------SHIFT+F3
- Subscript -------------------------------------------- CTRL+=
- Superscript------------------------------------------ CTRL+SHIFT+=
- Make web hyperlink---------------------------------- CTRL+K
- Go to next cell --------------------------------------------------Tab
- Go to previous cell ----------------------------------------------SHIFT+Tab
- Go to beginning of column --------------------------------------ALT+PageUp
- Highlight to beginning of column--------------------------------ALT+SHIFT+PageUp
- Go to end of column --------------------------------------------ALT+PageDown
- Highlight to end of column --------------------------------------ALT+SHIFT+PageDown
- Go to beginning of row ------------------------------------------ALT+Home
- Highlight to beginning of row -----------------------------------ALT+SHIFT+Home
- Go to end of row ------------------------------------------------ALT+End
- Highlight to end of row ----------------------------------------ALT+SHIFT+End
- Column break-------------------------------------------------- CTRL+SHIFT+Enter
Miscellaneous
- Copyright symbol ------------------------------------ © ALT+CTRL+C
- Date field ---------------------------------------------ALT+SHIFT+D
- Go to footnotes---------------------------------------- ALT+CTRL+F
- Show/Hide -------------------------------------------¶ CTRL+SHIFT+8
- Thesaurus ---------------------------------------------SHIFT+F7
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