Quick Access to Commonly Used Folders

 

This is one of the best tips around - You can drag any Desktop Icon of a folder to the edge of the screen and Windows will create a docked tool bar of that folder - There's a lot of steps involved, but they are all 'automatic' (Windows does almost all the work) and fast -

 

Opening Windows Explorer and navigating to a desired folder that you use over and over can get tedious - Instead create a folder that contains commonly used items and call it 'Common Folders' -

 

·                     Right Click the Start Button

·                     Left Click on Explore

·                     Click on the menu item File|New

·                     Click Folder

·                     Type 'Common Folders' and <Enter>

·                     Right Click the newly created Common Folders Icon and drag to the Desktop

·                     Left Click 'Create shortcut here' in the popup menu that appears affer the Right Click

·                     Left Click the shortcut and drag it to the right (left, top or bottom) edge of the screen

·                     Right Click the newly created empty toolbar

·                     On the popup, move over View and click Small Icons

 

Just for grins, here's some items to add -

 

·                     Click Start|Settings|ControlPanel|Open

·                     Right Click the Add/Remove Programs Icon and drag to the new tool bar

·                     Release and select Create shortcut here -

 

Open up Explorer and navigate to the C:\WINNT\system32 folder -

·                     Right Click and drag devmgmt.msc to the new tool bar -

·                     Release and select Create shortcut here -

·                     Right Click and drag compmgmt.msc to the new tool bar -

·                     Release and select Create shortcut here -

 

In the folders pane,

·                     Right Click and drag the (C:) icon to the new tool bar -

·                     Release and select Create shortcut here -

·                      

Right Click and drag any other folders you frequently use as well

 

You must be connected to the internet for the following

·                     Click on Start|Run -

·                     Copy the following link into the Run Dialog Box and click OK

 

http://www.accuweather.com/adcbin/local_index.asp?thisZip=21061&btnZip=Go&nav=home

 

In the address bar of Internet Explorer,

 

·                     Right Click and drag the Icon to the new tool bar -

·                     Release and select Create shortcut here -

 

Do it again with this link

http://www.tvguide.com/Listings/index.asp?I=61285&zip=

 

Other things you can do are

 

·                     Make the tool bar a little wider if you like - position the mouse near the right edge and the pointer changes into a double headed arrow - click and drag to make it wider

·                     Undock the toolbar and let it float on your desktop if you prefer – click on the name and drag to the middle of the desktop

·                     Delete an item by Right Clicking it and select Delete -

·                     Arrange items by Left Clicking an item and dragging it to some other location on the tool bar -

·                     Close the tool bar by right clicking a blank area and click on close -

 

Note that the folder is also in the Start Menu, so you still have access to it even with the tool bar closed - And you can Right Click Common Folders in the Start Menu, drag to desktop and Create shortcut here - And drag that shortcut to the edge of the screen if you want to recreate the tool bar -

 

You can right click the folder in the Start menu and select delete to remove the entire folder, but if you do, you will have to reload it again -

 

[Generally speaking you should NOT create folders on your desktop - create a folder someplace else and then create a shortcut to that folder on the desktop - While not quite as important for a home user, this is especially true with NT systems on a corporate intranet because if you log onto another computer all those files and folders on your desktop will be downloaded to that computer over the network and will remain on that computer, unless you delete them - The same is true with files - Don't store them on your desktop, put them in My Documents, My Pictures or some other folder and then create a short cut to that item on your desktop]

 

To give you an idea, here is a low res picture of my Common Folders toolbar - it has my drives, some commonly used control panel items, frequently navigated folders and a few very frequently used Internet sites – note that most of my URLs are in sub folders of the Website’s folder -

 

 

 

 

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