Tip of the day/General Tips etc

[gonwk]

Hi Burrell,

Nice Tip ... never noticed that before ... and I actually have a WINDOWS Icon button on my keyboard so I can do that & hit U twice ...

I'll try it this afternoon when shuting down for the day!

Thanks,

G!

[MilesAhead]

short scripts

Many times you can use a scripting language to customize a function like shutting down your computer the way you want.

For example, using a few lines of AutoIt you can do a script to shutdown after a set number of seconds if Cancel isn't pressed.

If you mess around with a few easy scripts like this to start, you might
find you enjoy programming

I assigned the text message displayed by MsgBox to $msg variable
just to avoid word wrap posting here but you can just put the text
inline instead. AutoIt3 is free and great for messing with little Windows
system things without a lot of effort.

#cs ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

AutoIt Version: 3.2.12.1
Author: MilesAhead

Script Function:
Simple Windows Shutdown Script

#ce ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

; Script Start - Add your code below here

$msg = "Computer will power down in 10 seconds "
$msg = $msg + "unless you hit Cancel"
$val = MsgBox(4096 + 1,"Shutdown Dialog",$msg,10)

; a return of 2 means the user pressed Cancel so we quit

If $val = 2 Then
Exit
EndIf



;uncomment the Shutdown call to really power down your machine
;Shutdown(9)

$msg = "You did not press Cancel so I would have shut down"
;comment out the following line when done testing results
MsgBox(0,"Shutdown Dialog Test", $msg)

[gonwk]

Miles,

I see what you are doing ... you are trying to make a Programmer out of me even if it kills you!

Thanks .. I'll try it on my stand-by if I BBQ it I won't be mad.

G!

[MilesAhead]

Miles,

I see what you are doing ... you are trying to make a Programmer out of me even if it kills you!

Thanks .. I'll try it on my stand-by if I BBQ it I won't be mad.

G!

Hehe. I think the most fun are these little programs less than 10 lines.
For one thing, they are easy to debug!!

[MilesAhead]

AM-Deadlink and Firefox 2 location search

I was trying to use AM-Deadlink to clean out my Firefox 2 bookmarks but when checking the results I found a lot of bookmarks went to a search page with a bunch of results related to something in the URL.

I found out what was happening is my Firefox is set to google for Location Bar Search. When it tries to go to the bookmark and gets error 404, page not found, then instead of reporting that back to AM-Deadlink, google was catching error 404 and substituting the results of an "I'm feeling lucky" search.

That doesn't make me feel lucky. Anyway, to fix it in Firefox 2:

type about:config in the location bar.

In the Filter edit line that pops up type keyword

If you are using google search in location bar you should see
stuff about google in keyword.URL

Underneath that line should be keyword.enabled
If it has the value true double click it and it should
toggle to false.

Now when you enter a dead link you should get a 404 error instead
of a search page and AM-Deadlink should work. After cleaning your
bookmarks you can always go back and reset the toggle if you
like location bar search.




edit: btw from what I read Firefox 3 stores bookmarks in a database format instead of a plain html file. The word is to use AM-Deaklink in Firefox 3 you need to export the bookmarks to a plain .html, clean them with AM-Deadlink, then import them again. Guess I'm sticking with Firefox 2.x for another 6 months.

[blutach]

I use FavOrg for icons and old bookmarks/favourites.

Regards

[MilesAhead]

More info... it appears to avoid the search page substitution in Firefox 2 you also need
to set [b]bookmarksftp.keyword[b] to false and keyword.URL to blank.
Just double-click on keyword.URL and when the dialog asks for the URL string blank it
out and click OK. I just tried it on a non-existent URL and got the Server Not Found so hopefully I've got it right now.

[MilesAhead]

I use FavOrg for icons and old bookmarks/favourites.

Regards

I'll take a look.

Er, ain't this an IE only gizmo?
Sorry but I can't feature IE.
Too many hostile BHOs out there.

[blutach]

Not sure if it is IE only. But it works.

Regards

[MilesAhead]

Not sure if it is IE only. But it works.

Regards

Ok. It's worth taking a look at. It seems like it's tougher to get a 404 error than not these days. Just messing around I typed a bunch of expletives into the Firefox 2 location bar and it was tough to think of one that didn't return a search page! And this is with google search disabled!! They must be plugging into the DNS name servers now!! Sheesh!!

[soup]

Not sure if I posted this before, but it does come in handy. Update Checker, but like anything, if you are not sure, then check first before updating anything.

http://filehippo.com/updatechecker/

[MilesAhead]

Sort of a negative tip of the day: got ZDNet letter via email and one of the free
downloads is One Click App Killer

Well, it took 2 clicks, but my XP taskbar and start menu was gone!!
I'd say it needs more debuggin'

[gonwk]

Not sure if I posted this before, but it does come in handy. Update Checker, but like anything, if you are not sure, then check first before updating anything.

http://filehippo.com/updatechecker/

Hi Soup,

I personally DO NOT trust this "UpDate Checkers" ... even from within it's own program ... I always Turn-Off the Update Checker ... If I want to check Updates I do it myself.

G!

[soup]

Hi Soup,

I personally DO NOT trust this "UpDate Checkers" ... even from within it's own program ... I always Turn-Off the Update Checker ... If I want to check Updates I do it myself.

G!

That's no problem, but I have used it since it came out & had no problem. But then again, I don't update everything that it shows.

[MilesAhead]

a few free Window toys

I posted a few free Windows toys on my site. They're just small
AutoIt3 programs I've been messing with to run programs at particular positions, resize or kill windows by title etc..

You can download directly from this link
RunAndPlace Utilities


They should work on just about any 32 bit Windows but
I've tried them out on XP and Vista.