Holy Hotkeys!
Access everything quicker with Enso
Think of Enso (free beta,
http://www.humanized.com)
as the ultimate hotkey,
because that’s essentially
what it is. You unlock the
magic behind Enso by
holding the Caps Lock key
(or designate a different
key) and typing com-
mands, which range from
looking up highlighted
words or phrases on
Wikipedia to translating
text. Load maps into emails, control your media player, check your Gmail, and much more
without ever having to open the Start menu.LET’S GET VIRTUALSave Search Results and Save Time
There was a time when hard-drive space was considered a hot commodity, but with
500GB and even 1TB drives now the norm, we fi nd ourselves becoming digital pack
rats. This also means we’ve developed a dependency on the Search function, but
instead of repeating searches for the same sets of fi les, save the results to a virtual
folder instead. After Windows fi nds the fi les you’re looking for, click Save Search.
Windows will even keep track of any changes to the search results, so you’ll never
receive outdated information.THINK INSIDE THE BOX
Enable Check Boxes for
Selecting Multiple FilesIt never fails: Just as we’ve almost fi nished
highlighting several fi les while holding down the
Control key, our fi nger slips, instantly deselect-
ing every single fi le. We thought there had to be
a better way, and it turns out there is. Open My
Computer and select Folder and Search Options
from the Organize pull-down menu. Under the
View tab, put a check mark next to “Use check
boxes to select items.” Now you can select mul-
tiple fi les by clicking on their check boxes.BAR HOPPINGRestore the Menu Bar
In XP, we got accustomed to seeing File, Edit,
View, Tools, and Help in the menu bar, but in
Vista, Microsoft redesigned folders and windows
so they resemble IE7’s less than intuitive inter-
face. One way to bring the menu bar back is to
click Organize, highlight Layout, and select Menu
Bar, which makes the change permanent. For a
temporary solution, press the Alt key, which can
bring up menus for windows that don’t normally
have them.BE SHIFTYQuickly Copy a File’s Path to the Clipboard
In the pre-Vista days,
copying a fi le or
folder path to the clip-
board meant you had
to right-click, select
Properties, highlight
the path, right-click
again, and select
Copy. That’s more
steps than are in a
Broadway musical!
To perform the same
action in Vista, hold
the Shift key when
right-clicking and
select Copy as Path.http://www.maximumpc.com | MAR 08 | MAXIMUMPC 35