Did you just delete the Recycle Bin icon on the Desktop?? Can’t go to the Recycle Bin to restore the Recycle Bin itself!!
In Windows Vista, you can bring it back by doing the following:
1. Right click on the empty space on the Desktop and click Personalize.
2. Select Change Desktop Icons.
3. Check Recycle Bin.
and you are done.
The steps for Windows XP are a little more technical and involve registry manipulations which is not recommended unless you are an advanced user. Luckily, Microsoft has a tool that can take care of it automatically.
Link to Microsoft’s Fix it for me tool
Utilities, Windows
Ever deleted the Show Desktop icon from the Quick Launch menu by mistake? I use it all the time and even with the Windows Key+D shortcut still available, the missing icon bothers me a lot. Here is how to bring it back.
1. Download the following zip file:
For Windows XP – show_desktop_xp.zip
For Windows Vista – show_desktop_vista.zip
2. Extract the contents of the zip file. It should be one file named Show Desktop.
3. Move that file to where ever you want to put the Show Desktop functionality. To put it back to the Quick Launch menu, copy the file to the following location:
For Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\
For Windows Vista:
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\
That’s it. The Show Desktop icon is back in the Quick Launch menu!!
Source: Microsoft Support
The above link for Microsoft’s support website also has a tool to create this automatically for Windows XP. Check out the Fix it for me section.
Utilities, Windows
Your Windows crashed again and you didn’t back up your data anywhere else. When I used to work on a desktop, it never really was a big problem for me since I could just take out the Hard Drive and plug it in as a slave on another desktop and copy the data between the two drives. It used to be time consuming and painful but at the end of the day, I always had my data recovered.
Working with laptops is different. You can take out the hard drive (much easier as compared to desktops) but you cannot just plug it to another laptop or a desktop just like that. You may, if you have the right external hard drive enclosure but I had some bad experiences using them.
If you had saved all your data on a separate partition, your data is safe since you can just format your Windows partition and re-install the Operating System without harming the data.. What to do if that is not the case? Reinstall and forget the data? Not everybody can afford that. Luckily, you don’t have to!!
There are free utilities available that can create a CD with an Operating System on it. Then you can use that CD to boot your computer and access your Hard Drive and recover your data. Reatogo-X-PE and BartPE are two such tools that use your original Windows OS CD to create a bootable recovery CD. Once you have created the recovery CD, just connect a USB drive to the computer and boot from that CD. The system may bot detect the USB drive if you attach it after booting from the system. BartPE has a very basic where as Reatogo-X-PE gives you a more Windows like experience with some advance features. Once you are logged-in, just go to My Computer and copy the data from your Hard Drive to the USB Drive and Woala!!
Links:
Reatogo-X-PE
BartPE
Note - Please read the Licensing issues on BartPE website. Same should apply for Reatogo-X-PE as well.
Software, Utilities Crash, Data, Windows
Ever came across a situation when you are asked for help to fix some software issue and you are miles away from the troubled computer? Even more, the person asking for help is not much of computer literate!! I had this issue a bunch of times and I find it very hard to get it resolved. People are not able to describe the problem exactly and even if they do, your solutions may not be that straight forward for them. Guiding them step-by-step may also prove to be troublesome sometimes.
After going through numerous such occasions, I spent some time on Google and found this Free utility, TeamViewer, that can help you take control of a remote computer and do what ever you need to as long as the connection remains active. You just need to have this utility downloaded on both the machines and you will need internet obviously. The connection can be established by putting the auto-generated TeamViewer ID and Password of one system on to the other. Happy troubleshooting… Remotely!!
Link to TeamViewer website
Screenshot:
Internet, Utilities
In last couple of years, I have a seen sudden increase in Spywares/Malwares attacks on my computer. Some of them look like they are softwares that fight against such attacks but that is not the case. You may see a message box in your Taskbar saying that your system is infected and click to download anti-virus/anti-spyware or click to scan the system. Once you do that, it will harm your system even more. One such common software that shows up for download is Antivirus 2008. If you run this, a screen similar to the one below will show up on your screen:
Prevention is Better than Cure!! Follow these steps to prevent your system from getting infected:
Install a Firewall
Firewalls may slow down your internet browsing a little by throwing in additional confirmations boxes but it may keep unwanted softwares out of your machine.
Install a AntiMalware
These keep a check on computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, most rootkits, spyware, dishonest adware, crimeware and other malicious and unwanted software.
You can download these tools from here: Download Utilities
Update your software
Whether it is your Windows Operating System, Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware or the Firewall, keep the auto-updates on and update your software as soon as an update is available since this way your armory will be up-to-date to fight against all these Malwares.
Fianlly, browse the internet safely since sometimes what you see is not what you may end up with. Pay extra attention when opening attachments even if it seems to be coming from a friend. Install Active-x controls only from reputed websites.
Have fun browsing!!
Internet, Software, Utilities
