Creating Custom Shortcut Keys In Windows Vista

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Windows Vista offers many shortcut keys that you can use as an alternative to the mouse. They’re summarized in Appendix C at the back of this book. Most programs also offer shortcut keys. Those you can discover by looking at pull-down menus or by searching that program’s Help for “shortcut keys.” You can create your own custom shortcut keys for launching favorite programs or opening folders. By default, these custom keys will be a Ctrl+Alt+key combination to avoid conflicts with built-in shortcut keys. Also, they’ll only work when you’re at the desktop. That’s because keystrokes only apply to the active window. So if there’s any program window open at all on the desktop, your keystrokes will apply only to that window.

You can minimize all open windows to get to the desktop without losing your place in open program windows. Right-click an empty area of the taskbar or the clock and choose Show the Desktop. Or click Show Desktop in the Quick Launch toolbar, if available.

Before you create a custom shortcut key, make sure it’s not already assigned to something else. Get to the desktop and press the Ctrl+Alt+key combination you intend to use. If nothing opens, you know the shortcut is available. If something does open, you need to come up with a different shortcut key, or remove the shortcut key from the item to which it’s currently assigned. You can assign a shortcut key to any item that offers a Shortcut Key option in its Properties dialog box. But the easiest way is to first create a desktop shortcut to the item. Then define the key in the desktop shortcut icon. So the first step is to get to the icon that opens the program or folder of interest. Then right-click that icon and choose Send To  ->  Desktop (create shortcut).

If all of your desktop icons are hidden, right-click an empty portion of the desktop and choose View  ->  Show Desktop Icons.

Next, get to the desktop and locate the shortcut icon you just created. Right-click that icon and choose Properties. Click the Shortcut tab in the Properties sheet. Then click in the Shortcut Key box and type the letter you want to use as the shortcut. Windows automatically added the Ctrl+Alt+ in front of that letter C I typed. Click OK to close the dialog box. To test the shortcut, make sure you’re at a clean desktop and press the shortcut key combination. For example, pressing Ctrl+Alt+C after doing the preceding example opens Windows Calendar. There is one slight disadvantage to assigning the shortcut key in a shortcut icon. If you delete the shortcut icon from your desktop, you also delete the shortcut key. If that’s a problem, you can hide, rather than delete, the desktop icon. Just right-click that icon and choose Properties. Click the General tab in the Properties dialog box and select (check) the Hidden checkbox. Then click OK. The icon will disappear (or go dim), but the shortcut key will still work. Whether hidden icons are dim or invisible depends on a setting in Folder Options. To get to that dialog box, click the Start button, type fol, and click Folder Options on the Start menu. Click the View tab in the dialog box. To make hidden icons invisible, choose Do not show hidden files and folders. To make them visible but dim, choose Show hidden files and folders. Click OK after making your selection.

Customizing the Taskbar

The taskbar at the bottom of your screen is one of the most useful tools in Windows. It contains the Start button, a button for each open program window, and the Notification area. It can also contain some toolbars, such as the Quick Launch toolbar, which provides easy one-click access to a few programs. You can customize the taskbar in many ways, so don’t worry about what you see on yours right at this moment. Some options for customizing the taskbar are in the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box. To open that dialog box, use whichever of the following techniques is easiest for you:

- Right-click the Start button, current time, or any empty spot on the taskbar and choose Properties.

- Tap the Windows key, type task, and click Taskbar and Start Menu.

- Click Start and choose Control Panel  ->  Appearance and Personalization  ->  Taskbar and Start Menu.

In the dialog box, click the Taskbar tab. The options on that tab are summarized as follows:

- Lock the taskbar: If you select this option, you’ll lock the taskbar, which will prevent you from accidentally moving or resizing it. If you want to move or resize the taskbar, you first need to clear this option to unlock the taskbar.

- Auto-hide the taskbar: If you select this icon, the taskbar will automatically slide out of view when you’re not using it, to free up the little bit of screen space it takes up. After the taskbar hides itself, you can rest the tip of the mouse button on the thin line at the bottom of the screen to bring the taskbar out of hiding.

- Keep the taskbar on top of other windows: Selecting this option ensures that the taskbar is always visible and can’t be covered up by open program windows. To ensure that the taskbar is always visible, select (check) this option, and clear the Auto-hide the taskbar checkbox.

- Group similar taskbar buttons: Choosing this option allows the taskbar to combine multiple open documents or pages for a program into a single taskbar button. Taskbar buttons that represent multiple documents will display a number next to the program name on the button. You can open any document by clicking the taskbar button and clicking a document name. To close all open documents or pages in one fell swoop, right-click the button and choose Close Group.

- Show Quick Launch: Select this option to make the Quick Launch toolbar visible on the taskbar. Clear this option to hide the Quick Launch toolbar. (More on the Quick Launch toolbar later.)

- Show window previews (thumbnails): Choose this option to make mini-versions of open program windows available from taskbar buttons. Click OK after making your selections from the dialog box. There are some other things you can do to customize the taskbar, outside that dialog box, as described next.

Locking and unlocking the taskbar The taskbar doesn’t have to be at the bottom of the screen. And it doesn’t need to be a specific height either. When the taskbar is unlocked, you can move and size it at will. If the taskbar is unlocked, putting the tip of the mouse pointer at the top of the taskbar changes the pointer to a two-headed arrow. Also, if you have any toolbars on the taskbar, you’ll see a dragging handle (columns of dots) next to each toolbar. Also, when you right-click and empty area of the taskbar or the current time, the Lock the Taskbar option on the menu is unchecked.

Moving and sizing the taskbar

When the taskbar is unlocked, you can dock it to any edge of the screen as follows:

1. Place the tip of the mouse pointer on an empty portion of the taskbar (not in a toolbar or on a button).

2. Hold down the left mouse button, drag the taskbar to any screen edge, and release the mouse button.

To change the height of the taskbar, put the tip of the mouse pointer on the top of the taskbar so it changes to a two-headed arrow. Then hold down the left mouse button and drag up or down until the bar is at a height you like. The minimum height is one row tall. The maximum is about a third of the screen.

If you have any problem getting the taskbar back to the original one-row tall size, close all open toolbars. Then size the taskbar to the height you want. Then choose which toolbars you want to view.

If you want to hide the taskbar altogether, select the Auto-hide the taskbar option in the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box described earlier in this article. The taskbar will stay hidden until you move the mouse pointer to the edge of the screen where you placed the taskbar.

Customizing the Quick Launch toolbar

The Quick Launch toolbar provides easy one-click access to programs. Initially yours will likely contain just a few icons. Maybe even for programs you don’t use very often! But the default icons are just examples. You can put any icons for any program you like on the Quick Launch toolbar. Likewise, you can remove any you don’t need. First, you want to make sure the Quick Launch toolbar is visible. If it’s on it will appear just next to the toolbar (unless you move it somewhere else). Like any toolbar, you can show or hide the Quick Launch toolbar by right-clicking the current time or an empty portion of the taskbar and choosing Toolbars  -> Quick Launch. You can add new icons to the Quick Launch toolbar in several ways. Perhaps the easiest is to click the Start button, then right-click a program icon at the left side of the Start menu and choose Add to Quick Launch. If the program you want to add isn’t on the left side of the Start menu, click All Programs, right-click the program’s icon on the All Programs menu or a submenu. If the Quick Launch toolbar isn’t wide enough to show all of its icons, the new icon won’t be visible until you click the >> button on the right side of that toolbar. The Quick Launch toolbar isn’t just for programs. You can also add icons for frequently used folders or even files. You don’t want to get too carried away. A Quick Launch toolbar that contains a zillion icons isn’t going to feel very “quick.” But here’s how it’s done:

1. Navigate to the folder icon (or document icon) for the item to which you want to create a Quick Launch icon.

2. Right-click that folder or file icon and choose Send To  ->  Desktop (create shortcut).

3. Get to the desktop so you can see the shortcut icon you just put there.

4. Drag that shortcut icon and drop it between any two icons that are already on the Quick Launch toolbar.

You can delete the desktop shortcut icon if you don’t want it. You just used that as an intermediate step here to create the Quick Launch icon. Contrary to popular belief, icons in the Quick Launch toolbar don’t consume computer resources or slow down your PC. So don’t delete useful icons on the assumption that doing so will fix a problem or make your computer faster. It won’t. But if you want to get rid of some Quick Launch icons that you never use, the process is simple. To remove an icon from the Quick Launch toolbar, right-click it and choose Delete. Click Yes when asked for verification. If you delete a Quick Launch icon by accident, you can restore it from the Recycle Bin. When placed back on the Quick Launch toolbar, it will be added to the end of the list of icons. So you might need to click >> to see it.

Items in the Quick Launch toolbar are shortcuts. So deleting a Quick Launch icon will never delete the actual item to which the icon refers.

To rearrange Quick Launch icons, just drag the icon to a new location between existing icons. Make sure you get the tip of the mouse pointer between two existing Quick Launch icons before you release the mouse button to drop. If there are more icons than space on your Quick Launch toolbar, you’ll see a >> symbol at the right side of the toolbar. To alphabetize Quick Launch icons by name, click that >> symbol. Then right-click any icon on the menu and choose Sort by Name.

You can also use the sidebar Launcher gadget to store shortcuts to frequently used programs. See “Using Windows Sidebar” later in this article for more information on gadgets. Customizing the Links toolbar

The links toolbar is similar to the Quick Launch toolbar, but it offers easy one-click access to favorite Web sites. As with the Quick Launch toolbar, you don’t want to clutter up the Links toolbar with too many icons. Better to use Favorites in Internet Explorer for a really large collection of favorite Web sites. Use the Links toolbar only for sites you visit very often. You can make the Links toolbar visible in Internet Explorer, the taskbar, or both. It’s easiest to add links to the toolbar from Internet Explorer. So if you don’t see that toolbar in Internet Explorer, click its Tools button and choose Toolbars  ->  Link. Normally it shows up under the Address bar. The rest is easy:

- To create an icon for the page you’re currently viewing, drag the icon to the left of the URL in the Address bar to the far right edge of the Links toolbar (so the mouse pointer turns to an I-beam). Then release the mouse button.

As with any toolbar, when there are more links than space, you see >> at the end of the toolbar. Click that to see hidden links.

- To create an icon for a link on the current page, drag the link from the page onto the Links toolbar.

- To remove an icon from the Links toolbar, right-click the item and choose Delete.

- To rearrange items on the Links toolbar, drag the item’s icon to a new location on the toolbar.

To manage Links toolbar shortcuts as a folder, click the Start button and click your User Account name. Then open the Links folder. Each icon in that folder is an icon on your Links toolbar.

Any changes that you make to the Links toolbar in Internet Explorer will automatically be reflected in the Links toolbar on the taskbar.

Getting rid of Notification area icons

You cannot delete a Notification area icon by right-clicking and choosing Delete. That’s because unlike toolbars, its icons are not shortcuts for opening programs. Icons in the Notification area represent things that are already running—albeit in the background where there’s nothing showing on the screen. There is no single, simple step you can perform to get rid of a Notification area icon. There are hundreds of programs on the market that can run in the background. To keep such a program from showing up in your Notification area, you might need to prevent that program from auto-starting with your computer. Or you might need to remove the program from your system altogether. Then again, you might only need to get to the program’s Options dialog box and clear the checkbox that makes it show a Notification area icon. One thing’s for sure, you don’t want to delete anything from the Notification area unless you know exactly what you’re deleting and why. For example, an icon could represent your virus or spyware protection. You wouldn’t necessarily want to delete such programs, or prevent them from auto-starting, because they need to be running in the background to keep your computer secure. To see what options are available for a Notification area icon, right-click the icon. Some Notification area icons can show up on the screen in a program window. If so, double-clicking the Notification area icon will usually open that program.

From there you can learn more about the program that the icon represents. If it has a menu bar, choosing Tools  ->  Options might take you to a dialog box where you can prevent the program from auto-starting, or prevent it from showing up in the Notification area. If the Notification area icon represents a program you don’t want on your system at all, you can remove the program through Control Panel. Just make sure you don’t remove a program you actually need and cannot replace. See Article 43 for the goods on removing programs. If you want to keep a program, but just want to prevent it from auto-starting and can’t find a way to do that from within the program, there are still a couple of other ways to do that. If the program has an icon in your Startup folder, you can just remove that icon from that folder. Or, you can click Change startup programs in Control Panel to disable auto-starting. See “Using Software Explorer to control startup programs” in Article 8 for more information.