Best part about windows is; you can change, customize or modify whatever you like to. Cool. eh! For now lets see how we can change windows desktop Recycle Bin icon’s name. We can do it via registry editor by changing a value.
Go to start
Click Run
write regedit
Hit Enter
Registry editor will be opened
See its menu; file, edit, view, favorites, help
Click at edit and then find or just press Ctrl+F
Find box will be opened
write Recycle Bin in it
Hit F3 and find next entry or just click at next button at find box
Compare the values as described in picture below in here and find the same
When you find written, Recycle Bin there; click at that
Modify its name (lets say; Deleted Files)
Hit Enter
Refresh Registry Editor
Close it
Refresh your desktop
There you are
You have just changed your Recycle Bin’s name into Deleted Files
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If you have accidentally deleted the show desktop icon in your quick launch toolbar, then you can restore it from the following place:
C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
Where C:\ is your Windows drive.
If unfortunately, you can’t find the quick launch file from the above location, then you can create the shortcut yourself again. But it is a special type of shortcut whose method of creation is also different. I am reproducing the method of creating quick launch toolbar shortcut from Microsoft site here.
1. Click Start , click Run, type notepad, and then click OK.
2. In Notepad, type the following text on individual lines:
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop
3. On the File menu, click Save As, and then save the file to your desktop as Show Desktop.scf.
Note Notepad might automatically append a .txt extension to the file name. Remove this extension if present. The file name should be Show Desktop.scf.
The file must now be moved to the correct folder in the user profile to appear in the Quick Launch toolbar. To manually do this, use one of the following methods.
Method 1
1. Use the mouse to drag the Show Desktop.scf icon to the Quick Launch toolbar or another location where you want the shortcut to appear.
2. Click Move Here.
Method 2
1. Use Windows Explorer to locate the following folders:
Microsoft Windows 95 and Microsoft Windows 98
Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft Windows 2000, and Microsoft Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
Note Username refers to the account name where you want to put the icon.
2. Use the mouse to drag the Show Desktop.scf file to the Quick Launch folder.
3. Click Move Here
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One of the things I love to have in my Windows machine is the ability to run all my softwares from the Run menu. It’s fun and time saving. I just have to remember the names of the programs that I want to run from the Run menu. For example, I rename the Mozilla Firefox shortcut as “ff” and then I can write ff in the Run menu to open the Firefox browser. So here’s what I do:
Make a folder named shortcuts in your C:\ drive.
Right click My Computer –> Properties –> Advanced –> Environment Variables –> In System Variables (second one) select Path and click Edit. Go to the end of the line and type the following(only the one in bold):
C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32;C:\Shortcuts
So you have to include ;C:\Shortcuts at the end of Path Variables text field. And you’re done. Click OK to continue. Now create a shortcut of your program you want to run from Run menu, rename it to whatever you like and place it in C:\Shortcuts. For example, I create a shortcut of Internet Explorer and rename it to “ie” and place it in the C:\Shortcuts folder. Now whenever I type ie in my Run menu (Start –> Run), it will open up Internet Explorer. I have shortcuts of about every software I’ve installed and I love these two letter shortcuts.
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There are times when you might want to hide one or more of your windows drives because of security reasons (children getting up on the system and messing up everything or if the computer is in use by multiple people). For theses reasons, you would just prefer to hide your data in a safe place and if one of your drives is full of sensitive information, you would rather hide the drive from My Computer.
There are two ways of doing it, one from the group policy editor and the second from registry editor. I will explain both of them here:
1-Hiding drives using Group Policy Editor
Go to Start –> Run –> gpedit.msc
The group policy editor will open. Go to the following node:
User Configuration –> Administrative Templates –> Windows Components –> Windows Explorer
Now go to the right hand window and double click the value “Hide these specified drives in My Computer”, select enable and select the drives from the drop down menu.
This is restrictive in the sense that it only specifies drives up to D drive. Or all the drives can be hidden.
2-Hiding the drives using Registry Editor
To open the registry editor
Go to Start –> Run –> regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE
\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer
In the right hand pane, right click –> new –> DWORD Value
Rename it to “NoDrives” (without quotes)
To calculate the value, add together the numbers for the drives you want to hide, using the formula: A=1, B=2, C=4, D=8, E=16, F=32, G=64, H=128, I=256 and so on. Put the result in the NoDrives key value. Remember to select decimal instead of HEX from the NoDrives key. For Example if I want to hide C and F drives, C+F = 4+32 = 36. Put the value 36 in NoDrives key.
Alternatively, you can use NoDrives!!! (NT Drive Calculator) for calculating the drive values. It’s a lot easier than calculating by hand.
Note: Always use the registry editor with caution because, if used inappropriately, it can mess up the whole system. I recommend creating a restore point before getting your hands on the registry editor.
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