url URL date NUMBER NUMBER NUMBERtNUMBER NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER _joe gregorio_ my next pet project NUMBER NUMBER trying to re create the good easy NUMBER on a windows machine NUMBER i have also made half hearted attempts in this direction as i am forced to use windows during the day i say half hearted because i m still application centric and i don t go as far with keyboard shortcuts as i could but i don t use the desktop at all never have on any system and i don t use ctrl alt keyboard shortcuts because i personally find them awkward ymmv if you must use windows the first step towards a productive system is managing your start menu i use the main level of the start menu with numbered shortcuts to my most common programs NUMBER control panel NUMBER NUMBER mozilla NUMBER NUMBER emacs NUMBER NUMBER dos home NUMBER dos work NUMBER dos incoming each of which gives me a command line but in different directories NUMBER python NUMBER NUMBER ie also explorer home explorer work explorer incoming which open explorer windows in various useful directories the same directories as the dos shortcuts only with the shift key held down and yes i intentionally set it up so that went to my work folder less used programs are taken out of their useless submenus as installed and moved directly into the programs submenu and given unique first letters as needed ad aware NUMBER excel NUMBER im netscape NUMBER NUMBER paint shop pro query tool odbc NUMBER vmware NUMBER word NUMBER all other submenus except startup are removed from the programs menu yes delete accessories do you honestly ever use it if so it s probably a sign of a larger productivity problem things which never need to be run manually like winzip and quicktime are removed from the programs menu maintaining a clean programs menu is an ongoing struggle but well worth it on most modern keyboards there is a key next to your left alt key that opens the start menu which you can press with your left thumb without taking your fingers off the home keys otherwise ctrl esc always works menu NUMBER gives me a new command prompt in my work directory menu p n runs netscape NUMBER for compatibility testing in my day job ugh mozilla and emacs are almost always open but i quit lesser used applications as soon as i m done using them mostly because my laptop doesn t have a lot of memory i install cygwin NUMBER so that the command line is actually useful cygwin is a collection of windows ports of all your favorite unix utilities including mv cp scp ssh man tar less grep patch ncftp cvs and many others and bash which i don t use because i dislike how it handles windows pathnames i also set the properties of my command line shortcuts to set the window size to NUMBER x NUMBER almost full screen at NUMBER x NUMBER and screen buffer size to NUMBER x NUMBER set window position at NUMBER x NUMBER and don t let the system position the window in mozilla i set my home page to about blank set internet search to search with google use tabbed browsing open tabs instead of windows in all possible cases always show the tab bar and load links in the background essential for weblog surfing you can ctrl click links to open them in new tabs in the background under scripts plugins i do not allow scripts to open unrequested windows i turn off the sidebar turn on the site navigation bar delete all pre installed bookmarks and create two bookmarks one which takes me to my webmail and another which takes me to my internal site search NUMBER from which i can find all other bookmarks i need in internet explorer i set my home page to the page to edit my weblog since that s the only thing i do in internet explorer alt tab back and forth between mozilla and ie is easier than ctrl pgup pgdown between tabs within mozilla since textareas in mozilla lose focus when you switch tabs making copying and pasting weblog entries virtually impossible i use emacs locally and vi remotely because the default behavior of emacs is so heinous as to render it unusable for instance editing a cgi script named foo cgi on a web server with emacs would generate a foo cgi backup file which is world readable and is sent as plain text to any browser that asks try this sometime on your favorite web site among other things my emacs file which is actually called _emacs on windows instructs emacs to store all backup files in a single directory d backup to treat all xml files as docbook all cgi scripts as python and all sql scripts as pl sql to use cygwin s bash shell for m x shell to use a single maximized frame with no menubar titled as the name of the current file to show column numbers to accept y and n for yes no questions not to blink not to beep and to close the current file when i press m w i use some weird registry hacks and a hacked notepad exe to get all text files to open in emacs i got this idea from ultraedit NUMBER my _emacs file is my second most backed up possession i don t use windows useless directory structure for user home directories on my d drive i have d home contains directories for my books and other personal projects each under cvs control NUMBER also set as my home directory using the home environment variable d work contains directories for each work project also under cvs d incoming set as default download directory for all programs that download things and d backup used by emacs and for temporary storage for instance for storing originals when checking out newly created cvs projects i don t know or care what s where on my c drive i have tried many many address books and still store all my contacts email addresses snail mail addresses phone numbers and other vital personal information in a text file called phone stored in d home phone it is not in any particular format other than being plain text and usually including blank lines between entries i categorize people with simple keywords in parentheses after their name and use m x occur in emacs to search by keyword this file is my single most backed up possession other essential free windows utilities i use in no particular order tweakui NUMBER cygwin NUMBER guidescope NUMBER zonealarm NUMBER NUMBER URL NUMBER URL NUMBER URL NUMBER URL NUMBER URL NUMBER URL NUMBER URL NUMBER URL NUMBER URL NUMBER URL NUMBER URL NUMBER URL NUMBER URL NUMBER URL NUMBER URL replacing notepad with ultraedit NUMBER NUMBER URL NUMBER URL NUMBER URL NUMBER URL 