Windows Tools, Help & Guides

New to using the command prompt? Check out the Windows Command Prompt Beginner’s Guide

Windows Guides subscriber, Engineer, submitted the following guide and shows us how to change file associations using the command prompt:

Dear colleagues, many of us get problems when your registry gets corrupted or settings get changed and you have mixed up extensions associated with the wrong programs. Well, don’t panic–everything is easy, we are here to raise and offer up solution to make your life easy. I will explain how to disassociate a file that has been wrongly associated with the wrong program:

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I don’t know what I would have done without the System Restore functionality in Windows. Curl up in a corner and cry perhaps? It is a well-known fact that Windows will on occasion be messed up – even after an Update-Thursday (the day most updates roll out from Microsoft).

If you never had to used it (I’m not quite sure I believe you) or you rarely do, the old (and unused) Restore Points will undoubtedly take up a lot of hard-Drive space. If you are on Windows 7, you may have discovered that Windows on occasion deletes the old Restore Points Automatically so you really don’t need to worry much about it. If you use an older Windows – chances are that your Restore Points are piling up on you.

So How do you easily remove the old Restore Points, yet – keep the new ?

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New to using the command prompt? Check out the Windows Command Prompt Beginner’s Guide

Have you ever experienced that windows won’t allow you to delete a file, presumably because some service or dll is still using it ? Even when you know for a fact that it’s not in use ? Or maybe you have tried to delete a folder, but you couldn’t because a “File in the selected folder is still in use by Windows” ?

Oh, I can hear you: “yes, but I use the “take ownership” function that I’ve added to my Context menu”. ALAS, Sometimes not even that will work – what then ? Do you have to Reboot your computer to be able to delete that file ?

Earlier, Harry had an article about the Command Prompt (read it here) and his top ten commands. One of those were the command we are looking to use now: DELETE (DEL).

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Yesterday I showed you how to automatically backup your data from any PC across your home network. If Windows Backup and Restore doesn’t give you enough control (i.e. you also want to have the option to backup to a remote location by IP or you want the files more easily accessible without having to open backup and restore to view them, GFI backup may provide what you need. In this guide, I’ll show you where to get GFI Backup and how to use it to make backups of your data from any PC to any PC on your home network.
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Windows comes with a Backup and Restore tool that lets you back up your files to your hard drive, another hard drive, a USB thumb drive, CD, DVD, and across a network. In keeping with this week’s theme, this guide will show you how to use Backup and Restore to back up your files from any Vista or 7 PC across your home network.
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This solution I owe to my brother – who made me figure this one out for him. My brother is one of you Laptop users that, when home (or the office), hooks up his computer to an external monitor, extending his desktop. This works fine – unless you forget to move every application window back to your main desktop before disconnecting the extra monitor. Then what do you do ?

If you’re still at home (or the office) then it’s no “biggy”, but if you’re on the road somewhere, suddenly realize that your PowerPoint presentation is showing on the “other” monitor… What then ?

Don’t worry – Read on

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