December 27th, 2007

A couple of lesser-known Windows-key shortcuts

I’m a die-hard keyboard user, and always like to know when there’s a keyboard shortcut to accomplish something that might otherwise take a few strategic mouse clicks. The Windows key, while a bane to gamers’ existence, actually provides us with some useful functions.

I’ve known about several Windows key shortcuts for years, but there are a couple that I learned about more recently (sometime in 2007, I think), which I now use on a daily basis. The title of this post refers to these as ‘lesser-known’, but I base that purely on the fact that *I* did not know about them, not on any sort of user experience testing or published statistics.

Windows-D: Show Desktop

Hides all open windows, bringing the Windows desktop to the front. This duplicates the functionality of the ‘Show Desktop’ icon that exists in the Quick Launch toolbar by default, and the ‘Show the Desktop’ option in the context menu that appears when you right-click the taskbar. It does not actually minimize the other windows, and those windows can be re-focused via Alt-Tab or by clicking their taskbar entries.

Windows-L: Lock Computer

This duplicates the functionality of the ‘Lock Computer’ button in the Ctrl-Alt-Delete Windows Security dialog. On Windows XP systems that use Fast User Switching, it takes you back to the screen that lists user accounts.

I make it a habit of hitting Windows-L whenever I’m done using my PC at home, so that when my wife sits down to use it, she can just click her name and login (or resume her existing session). At work, it’s always a good idea to lock your computer, so I hit Windows-L whenever I get up to leave my desk.

Now, here are a few more well-known (i.e. I’ve known about them for a long time) ones:Windows-M: Minimize AllThis minimizes all open windows. Programs that hide out in the system tray when you minimize them will be sent to the system tray. Everything else will be minimized to the taskbar. This has the same effect of clicking the ‘Minimize’ icon in the top-right corner of all of your open windows.Windows-F: Search for Files and Folders

This pops up the Windows file search feature. This duplicates the functionality of clicking the Start Menu, clicking the ‘Search’ menu option, and clicking the ‘For Files or Folders…’ sub-menu option.

Windows key (by itself): Open the Start Menu

This pops up the Start Menu, just like what happens when you press Ctrl-Esc or click the start menu. I use this all the time.

Please note that I’ve still never used Windows Vista, so I am unfamiliar with any Windows-key shortcuts which may have been introduced with it. The shortcuts I’ve described, above, are valid in Windows XP Professional (and most of them were usable in previous versions of Windows as well). I did read about a change to the way the Start Menu works, in Vista, with the introduction of a smart search box.

If you know of any useful Windows-key shortcuts that I may have missed, for ANY version of Windows, please leave a reply and let me (and other readers) know!

Posted by spugbrap at 01:22pm EST 6 Comments 

Categories: reference, useful, keyboard, user_interface, hotkeys, windows, tips, lists, geek

August 23rd, 2006

Batch file: Trillian global disconnect and reconnect

I use Trillian for most of my instant messaging, because it allows me to connect to AIM and Yahoo through one common user interface (it also supports ICQ, MSN, and IRC, but I don’t use [it for] those). The features I like about it are numerous, but one of my major complaints is the way it sometimes has trouble reconnecting after being disconnected from one of the networks.

Normally, it tries a few times to reconnect, automatically. But sometimes it seems like it gives up too soon. When this happens, you have to right click the system tray icon, go to the “Connections” submenu, and choose “Global Disconnect”. Then, you have to do the exact same thing, but choose “Global Reconnect”. The initial “Global Disconnect” is usually required, because Trillian is stuck in a state where it thinks you are connected in some way, such that just doing “Global Reconnect” wouldn’t do anything.

As anyone that knows me could tell you, I hate doing extra steps, particularly involving the mouse, when a simple keyboard shortcut could suffice. So, several years ago, I made this simple batch file, which doesn’t do anything magical, but I use it almost every day.

The batch file, included in the box below, uses TrillKey to send a “Global Disconnect” command to the currently-running instance of Trillian. Then, it waits 1 second, to give Trillian time to deal with the first request. Then, it uses TrillKey to send a “Global Reconnect” command to Trillian. For the brief delay in between commends, I use the ’sleep’ command from cygwin, but a couple other ways to put delays into batch files can be found here: http://malektips.com/xp_dos_0002.html.
To call this batch file, I have a shortcut to it on my desktop, with a shortcut key assigned to it (Ctrl-Alt-T). Works like a charm!

@echo off
c:\programs\trillkey.exe disconnect
sleep 1
c:\programs\trillkey.exe reconnect

While writing this post, I noticed that I’m using a really old version of TrillKey (from 2002). The latest version includes additional features, so my batch file can be simplified to a single command:

@c:\programs\trillkey.exe disconnect delay 1 reconnect

TrillKey can do a LOT more than just disconnect and reconnect, though. I highly recommend checking it out.

Posted by spugbrap at 11:35am EDT 2 Comments 

Categories: batch_files, hotkeys, instant_messaging