You may want to disable some keys on the keyboard; for example, if you are a gamer, you might have wanted to disable the Windows key because accidentally clicking on it might pause your game and invoke the Start menu.

Here is a simple way to disable any key on the keyboard of your computer running Windows.

The registry in Windows can be edited to “map” one key to another key or disable a key. Manual registry editing for this might be a bit tough. Fortunately, here is software which does this – SharpKeys.

How to disable the Windows key:

1. Download SharpKeys here, extract the zip file, and install and run it and it shows a screen as below:

Note: SharpKeys works with all currently-supported versions of Windows

2. Click on the “Add” button on the bottom select the “From Key” (the key with function you want to change – Left Windows key in our case). To select it, you can scroll down or type the key

3. Now select the “To Key” – the new function which you want to assign to the From Key. (Here we select “Turn Key Off” option)

4. Click OK. Click on Write to Registry and that’s it you are done (log off and on to put the changes into effect before your next computer restart.)

If you want to restore the key (From Key – whose function is changed) to its original function, just select the entry in the main screen and click on Delete. Then click Yes and then click on “Write to registry” and once again your keys work as before.

MSP is a writer whose work can be seen at The Netizens. To find out more about his work or to contact him, please visit TheNetizens.net.

If you want to change the function of a key, do read this article on how to Change–Modify–Reassign keys or buttons of keyboard in Windows.

Download SharpKeys

Download SharpKeys

Adjust volume

• Double-Click  the Speaker icon in your lower right corner.
• Click  on the Mixer-link
• Now you will see all running applications playing sound. Adjust the sliders to your likings. The volume can be equal to or lower than the main sound volume.

We like using Sysinternals tools here at Windows Guides; these tools bring core Windows functions together and help you administer to your systems more easily.

In this guide, we’ll cover the basics:

1. What are the Sysinternals tools?
2. How to download and run these tools on your PC
3. Where can I learn more about these tools?

We’ll then take a look at two of my favorite tools: Bginfo and Process Explorer.

Here are some other tools that we’ve covered in the past on Windows Guides:

• AutoRuns – What is really going on inside your Windows?
• SDelete Deletes Your Files Permanently
• Microsoft Desktops Gives You Multiple Desktops to Work With

What are the Sysinternals tools?

Sysinternals utilities help you manage, troubleshoot, and diagnose Windows and applications. These tools are created by the Microsoft community and are kept up to date to work with the latest versions of Windows. I’ve used some of these tools for as long as I can remember using modern versions of Windows (Windows 2000 and beyond) and you might just find one or two useful–even if you don’t consider yourself a PC geek.

How to Download and Run these Tools on Your PC

You have a few choices when using the Sysinternals tools:

1. Download individual tools from the Sysinternals website
2. Run Sysinternals tools from the command line (requires internet connection)
3. Download the Sysinternals Suite (all troubleshooting tools in one)

Where can I Learn More about these Tools?

Control, Shift and ALT

Yes, it’s the good old CTRL and SHIFT Click combinations, all over again.

Flip through Open Documents

Press the CTRL-button and click the Taskbar Button multiple time. This will show each document in full-sized view. Stop Clicking when you find the preferred document

Open a blank Document or Window

Press the SHIFT-button and click on any Taskbar button.

• Doing this on a Notepad, Word, Photoshop etc. will open a blank document.
• Doing this on programs such as Outlook, will duplicate the window

Method 1 – Shortcut Key Combination

Method 2 – Windows Key + # Combinations

If you’re more of a visual person, you may want to use Taskbar shortcuts to your programs. Here are the progams pinned to my taskbar:

Learn how to pin programs to your Taskbar.

You can open pinned programs by pressing the Windows Key + #. Where # is a number between 1 (first item) and 0 (tenth item.) In my case, Winkey + 2 will open Internet Explorer. Once you’ve memorized the numbers, you’ll find your getting around your computer quicker than ever.

1. How to pin programs to your taskbar
2. How to rearrange your taskbar
3. How to unpin programs from your taskbar

How to Pin Programs to Your Taskbar

To pin a program to your taskbar, you have a couple of options. The easiest is to simply drag the program or shortcut:

How to Rearrange Your Taskbar

To rearrange your taskbar, simply click and hold on an icon and drag it to its new position:

How to Unpin Programs from Your Taskbar

To unpin a program from your Taskbar, right click in and click Unpin this program from taskbar:

In this guide, we’ll show you a couple of ways to make the Windows Explorer Jump List work for you by saving you time.

The first thing you’ll want to do is make sure Windows Explorer is pinned to your Taskbar. By default, Windows 7 has it pinned out of the box. If you removed it, you can simply add it by clicking the Start button, typing Explorer, right clicking Windows Explorer, and clicking Pin to Taskbar.

When you’re done, your Taskbar should have this icon:

Pin Frequently-used Files and Folders to the Windows Explorer Jump List

To pin files and folders, which you use the most, to the jump list:

1. Right click on the Windows Explorer icon on your Taskbar

2. Hover over the item you’d like to pin and click the Pin icon:

Your file or folder will be pinned to the list:

Pin Other Files and Folders to the Taskbar

If the file or folder is not listed under Frequent:

1. Navigate to the file or folder in Windows Explorer

2.  Drag the file or folder to the Taskbar icon:

Unpin an Item from the Jump List

To unpin an item from the list:

1. Right click on the Windows Explorer icon on your Taskbar

2. Hover over the item you’d like to unpin and click the Pin icon:

Clear a Taskbar Jump List

Taskbar Jump Lists are stored here:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations

As you can see, the files in this directory aren’t named in a way that makes sense to us:

Before you go and delete all the lists (which you’re welcome to do–at your own peril), you can identify which list goes with which application:

Order the files by Date modified, with the newest modified files at the top:

Now modify the Jump List you want to clear by pinning an item:

Go back to the folder, look for the newest modified file, and delete it:

Before:

After:

If you run a lot of scripts from the Command Prompt, I’d like to share a quick tip that saves me time every time I open it.

To open the command prompt in your scripts (or any) directory, locate the shortcut to the command prompt, right click it, and click Properties.

Change the Start in field to match your scripts directory i.e.:

“E:\Documents\My Dropbox\Scripts”

Now, when you open the command prompt (using the shortcut you modified) you’ll start in your new base directory:

Bonus Tip: Start in Multiple Directories

If you have multiple directories from which you’d like to start, you can simply create a number of command prompt shortcuts in your start menu.

Name each shortcut a different name i.e. “scripts“, “media“, “tasks” etc. and update the Start in field for each shortcut. Now you can press the Windows Key, type media, press Enter, and have a command prompt ready to roll in your media directory.

Should you ever want to customize the content of the Computer Folder, then this is how:

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Click Organize | Folder and Search Options | View tab.
3. Check the box to show hidden files, folders and drives, and click OK.
4. Now navigate to this folder:
   %AppData%\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts
5. Create or copy the shortcuts into this folder.

Open the Computer (Winkey+E) and you will see the added shortcuts and files. To group them together underneath Network Locations, set Explorer to sort by Type.