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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
February 25, 2007
A.
When Internet Explorer is first installed,
the items in the Favorites will
automatically be sorted alphabetically by
Internet Explorer. If Internet Explorer adds
a new item, it too will automatically be
sorted in the correct position.
However,
if you ever manually move an item in this
list, or copy and paste one to it, Internet
Explorer immediately gives up the sorting
chore and releases it to you from then on.
The only way to sort the list after that is
to right click on an item and choose "Sort
by name" from the displayed menu. Well,
almost the only way.
When you
manually change this Favorites list, a
registry key is created to store the new
menu order the way you have ordered it. So,
it stands to reason that If you could delete
this registry key, the automatic sorting
would return. Well, if you could, it would.
This key is:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\Favorites.
Now,
editing the registry is a little tedious and
should not be attempted unless you are very
knowledgeable, brave or foolish. So, I have
written a little program that will remove
this registry key for you. You can download
it
HERE.
Before
you run it, be sure that Internet Explorer
is closed. When you run this program you
will get this message that says it is
"adding" a value to the registry. This is
true in that it is adding a negative value
which in reality is removing it. If you
don't remember your high school algebra, I
won't go into how adding a negative value
actually subtracts it, just believe me that
it will.
Click
yes, and you will get this message:
Actually, it has been removed from the
registry by adding a negative value. These
are Microsoft's messages, not mine.
Now when you open Internet Explorer the
favorites menu will be listed in
alphabetical order. New items added via
Internet Explorer will automatically list in
their proper place. This will continue until
you manually make a change to the favorites
list, and then IE will again give up the
chore and leave it you. Of course, you can
then run this little program again to return
the sorting to alphabetically.
Q.
When a friend uses the ALT Tab key press to
switch between open programs he has a
thumbnail of the pages displayed. I only
have an icon. How can I get the thumbnail
too?
A.
Well, you could upgrade to Windows Vista
Home Premium, but if you are still happy
with Windows XP, then there is another easy
and free way. Apparently your friend has the
Microsoft "Task Switch" Power Toy installed.
If you
click on Download under the Topics on the
left side of this page then on "PowerToys
for Windows XP", you will go to Microsoft's
PowerToy web site. There you will find all
of the PowerToys. On the right side of the
screen look for the one called Alt-Tab
Replacement, then click on Taskswitch.exe
and the download will start. After you
install it, you will also have the thumbnail
of the selected open application when you
use Alt-tab.
While you
are there, you should checkout all the rest
of the PowerToys. Tweak UI is probably the
most powerful and widely used. Also
accessible from my Download page is a link
to "PowerToys Fun Pack for XP". These are collections of all kinds of add-ons for XP
that you can download and use for free.
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