If you'd rather not take the time to send error reports to Microsoft when things go wrong, you can disable the feature. To turn it off, run Msconfig. Choose the Services tab and remove the check from the Error Reporting Service check box. Starting with the next time you reboot your system, the error-reporting service will no longer load.
Configuring the Start menu to match your habits can help you work more smoothly in small but noticeable ways. First, choose either the default Windows XP menu or the classic menu, which resembles earlier Windows Start menus: Right-click on the taskbar, choose Properties, then go to the Start menu tab and choose Start menu or Classic Start menu.
Whichever one you pick, follow up by choosing the Customize button that goes with it, and experiment with any options you don't understand. Also, be sure to follow the suggestions for organizing the Start menu that we will talk about in next month's TipSheet.
You can easily add entries to the Send To menu, invoked by right-clicking on a document, folder, or other item. Navigate to C:\Windows\Sendto and create shortcuts to directories and applications where you might want to send an item. Items added to the Sendto directory will appear on the Send To menu.
There isn't any Themes Control Panel applet in Windows 2000, but there is still a desktop themes tool. Just click the Start menu, select Run, and, in the Open box, type Themes and hit Enter. You can then configure your desktop theme as you wish and click OK when you're done.
To do this, you must be logged on with Administrator rights. Run Regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Command Processor. Right-click on the CompletionChar DWORD and choose Modify. Change its value to 9.
After you reboot, the next time you're in a command prompt, try typing cd followed by the first letter of the folder you're interested in and then hit the Tab key. You'll see the first directory that begins with your letter; continue to hit Tab, to scroll through all of the folders with your designated letter. This trick works with files and folders and various commands, such as rd and copy.
If you know the path and name of the folder you want to go to, typing it in the Address toolbar can get you there faster than pointing and clicking. To make the toolbar available, right-click on the taskbar; choose Toolbars and then Address. Windows will add the toolbar just to the left of the system tray in the taskbar. You can then open files and folders by typing in their paths. Windows folders, such as My Documents and My Computer, can be opened simply by typing their names.
You can also launch a program from the Address toolbar or open Internet Explorer and go to a Web site by entering its URL. Type winword and Microsoft Word will launch.
If a program doesn't launch from the Address bar, you can fix this by placing a shortcut on your desktop. Then you can open the program by typing the shortcut name (not the program's filename). If you have a shortcut named Lotus Notes, for example, enter the name as lotus notes, not as notes or notes.exe.