... Windows Tips 'n Tricks 15 ...
As he teaches, so he learns.

Windows' Recycle Bin acts as a last chance buffer zone between you and your deleted files. There will be times, however, when you don't want to send a file to the Recycle Bin, but rather purge it immediately. You can do this quickly by pressing the Shift key as you delete the file.

If your Recycle Bin looks less like a bin and more like a dumpster, keep your trash manageable by setting its hard drive space.

Make sure the percentage of disk space your Recycle Bin uses is small. To do so, right-click the Recycle Bin from your desktop. From the pop-up menu, select Properties. Click the Global tab from the Recycle Bin Properties window and select the radio button labeled "Use one setting for all drives." Next, move the slider labeled "Maximum size of Recycle Bin" to control the percentage of hard disk space the Recycle Bin can occupy. Move the slider to the left so that the Recycle Bin occupies less space or move it to the right to increase maximum hard drive percentage. Of course, emptying your garbage periodically doesn't hurt either; shame on you. We in Brighton Beach are experts in garbage.

Open the Registry Editor by selecting Start, Run, typing regedit and clicking OK. Navigate your way to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ keep going to ... explorer\Desktop\NameSpace.

In the left pane, right-click the NameSpace key and select New, Key. Type exactly {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} and press Enter. (To save yourself some typing, copy the above line to your clipboard, then press Ctrl-V after selecting New, Key.) In the right pane, right-click (Default) and select Modify. In the resulting Edit String dialog box, on the Value Data line, type Recycle Bin and click OK. Close the Registry Editor, right click the desktop, Refresh, or press F5 (for refresh), and there's your Recycle Bin icon.

You can rename most anything on the Windows desktop by right-clicking its icon and selecting the Rename option. Can you name it Trash? Sure enough, both RegEdit and TweakUI make this easy to do. Here's the RegEdit way:

1. Open RegEdit (select Run in the Start menu and enter RegEdit in the text box).
2. Open HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and locate CLSID (the Class ID option). Scroll down to the {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} key and click it.
3. In the right hand window, double-click (Default) and change the name from Recycle Bin to whatever you prefer.
4. Click OK and close RegEdit.
5. To make the new name take effect, click once anywhere on the desktop and press the F5 key.

And here's the TweakUI way to rename your recycle bin:

1. Select Start/Settings/Control Panel and launch TweakUI.
2. Under Desktop, right-click Recycle Bin and select Rename.
3. Type in the new name (perhaps "Circular File") and click OK and exit the registry.
4. Click on the open Desktop of Windows and press the F5 key to refresh the image.

   You should see your new Recycle Bin, er, that is, Circular File

When you delete a file from Windows Explorer or My Computer, it doesn't immediately disappear into the ether. Instead, it's moved to another folder on your hard drive, known as the Recycle Bin, where it remains until you take further action on it. Although it may sound strange that Windows holds on to files you've deleted; it's actually a handy safety net so you can change your mind about a file at a later date. You can access the Recycle Bin by double-clicking its icon on your desktop. As long as you haven't emptied the Recycle Bin since your deletion, you can restore that file to its original location. To restore a file you previously deleted, right-click the file and choose Restore from the context menu. To empty the Recycle Bin and permanently purge all your deleted files, choose File, Empty Recycle Bin from the menu. (You might want to empty the Recycle Bin periodically to free up disk space.)

Note: This tip assumes you haven't opted to bypass the Recycle Bin. Right-click the Recycle Bin icon, select Properties, and make sure Do Not Move Files To The Recycle Bin.... is not selected. Also, if you permanently delete a file the first time around--by pressing Shift-Delete and then clicking Yes--the Recycle Bin can't help you.

Normally, when you "delete" something in Windows, the operating system simply moves the file to the "Recycle Bin," which is just a special kind of system folder. As long as the file remains in the Bin, it can be "restored," which sounds fancy but really is nothing more than copying it back to its original location.

Things get a little more complex when you empty the Recycle Bin, or when the Bin empties itself because it's full or because the files are old. Then, the OS (operating system) erases the file's name from the directory, and marks the file's space as available for reuse. But note that at this point, all that's gone is the file's name: The data is still there, and with programs that are available on the internet, they can be restored (assuming the space on the harddrive was not overwritten and no defragging took place).

Deleting sends things to the Recycle Bin. You can always get things back from recycling up to the point where the bin is full, even if they've been there months or years. It only matters how full the bin is. When it is full, the oldest items placed there are sent to cyber-space, (gone forever). The first in are the first out; having no "union" they never heard of seniority.

Deleting avoids the clipboard whereas cutting or copying doesn't. You can get these back immediately with a Paste command; until, that is, another Cut or Copy command. Then the item is gone and the newer copy is on the clipboard.

Exceptions? Items deleted from other drives (your floppy, zip drive) are immediately gone, finished, poof, "kaput" ... so be careful there.

Remember that the Clipboard is always erased whenever you quit Windows. Take care that you don't forget to paste something you've cut. After quitting, you can't get it back.

The default configuration for the recycle bin is 10% of your memory. To configure it, right-click the Recycle Bin, Properties, and move the slider to suit your needs. I find the default more than enough. To empty the bin, you right-click it, read the menu etc., but remember, there's no coming back.

If you are absolutely sure you want something out of your system (totally fed up with it), press Shift + Delete and it is immediately out.

Are you tired of getting that "Are you sure?" message every time you send something to the recycle bin? From the desktop, right-click the Recycle Bin icon and select Properties. In the resulting dialog box, deselect "Display delete confirmation dialog," click OK, and the next time you delete something, it goes straight to the Recycle Bin, no questions asked. Note: If you hold Shift + Delete, you'll still get the "Are you sure?" message, but the recycle bin will not be an option.

Do you feel as though you never get around to emptying your recycle bin? Fortunately, Windows has a built-in reminder. If the total size of files in the recycle bin exceeds a set limit (by default, 10 percent of your hard drive's total storage space), a message pops up letting you know you should take out the trash.

Many programs register the file extensions they use for their files. Microsoft Word, for example, registers .DOC as the default file extension for Word files. When you double-click a file with a .DOC extension, the file automatically opens in Word. Sometimes, however, you want to open the file in a program other than the one it's registered to. You can do this quickly by selecting the file in Windows Explorer, then pressing and holding the Shift key while you right-click the file. Select Open With from the context menu and choose the program you want.

You want to change or correct the registered name on your computer? The way is in your Registry.

1. Start -- Run - type in: regedit
2. Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/
   Windows/CurrentVersion
3. Click on Current Version folder, not the plus ("+") sign
4. Scroll down to name in the Registered Owner key.
5. Right-click and select Modify to edit the name.
6. Repeat these steps for the other values, if desired, and close the Registry.
7. Close Registry.

1. BACKING UP THE REGISTRY OR PART OF THE REGISTRY

I always stress that it's a good idea to back up your Registry files--System.dat and User.dat, which are hidden files on the root of your hard drive--first. Another way to back up the Registry involves using the Registry Editor to export all or part of the Registry to a *.reg file. This information can then be restored to your system quite easily. This is how you perform a complete or partial Registry backup.

Open the Registry Editor ... select Start, Run, type: regedit ... and click OK. Assuming you want to back up the entire Registry, select Registry, Export Registry File, navigate to wherever you'd like to store the backup file (for example, the desktop, for easy access) and type a name for the file.

I like to give it a date name (two digits for year, two digits for month, and two digits for day) storing it in a folder which I name Registry Backups. So June 27, 2001 would be 010627, and February 3, 2001 would be 010203, and in the Registry Backups folder they would line up with latest backup last.

Select All under Export Range, then click Save. The result is a *.reg file in the location you specified.

If you'd prefer to back up only part of the Registry--for example, the key you'll be editing--you can do that, too. It takes a little less time than a full backup, and the result is a much smaller *.reg file. Assuming you've already navigated to and selected the key you'll be working on, select Registry, Export Registry File, navigate your way to a destination folder, name the file, and click Save. (You'll notice that Selected Branch will be selected for you, under Export Range.)

2. RESTORING THE REGISTRY

Now let's suppose you've made a mistake while editing the Registry, or you've made a change you want to undo. Rather than messing around trying to correct your mistake, simply restore the backed up information from the *.reg file. Double-click the *.reg file, click Yes to confirm that you want to restore this information, then click OK when the operation is complete. Or, if you're already inside the Registry, select Registry, Import Registry File under Registry, select the *.reg file, and click Open.

Some Registry changes require restarting Windows before the changes take effect. However, there's a way to reinitialize your Registry and refresh your Desktop without fully restarting the system. Save your work, then press Ctrl+Alt+Del (also called "task menu" the three finger salute), to bring up the Windows task list. Select the Explorer entry and click on End Task. If the Shutdown screen appears, click on Cancel. After a few seconds an error message will appear. Click on End Task, and Windows Explorer will reload with any new Registry settings.

The Windows Registry is a database of all your system's settings and software. Whenever a Windows 95 or 98 program is installed, removed, or modified, Windows updates the Registry to reflect the change - or at least, that's how it's supposed to work.

Real life is less tidy. System crashes, buggy uninstall programs, and plain old bad luck can clutter your Registry, leaving it full of improper associations, bogus lists of installed programs, and all sorts of other junk that can slow down and even crash your operating system.

If you really know what you're doing, you can clean the Registry with RegEdit (the Windows Registry editor). For most users, though, we suggest a safer alternative: Microsoft's RegClean. This download hunts down and removes bogus Registry entries automatically. It can also reverse any changes you make and restore your previous Registry if something goes wrong. Most uninstallers, such as CleanSweep, also clean your Registry - and do a better job than the free RegClean. Make a routine of cleaning the Registry and Windows 98 will run faster and more reliably.

Like other stores of data, you can edit the Windows registry directly by adding, deleting, or changing values. To access the registry editor, click the Start button, choose Run, type regedit, and click OK. The registry contents opens in a Windows Explorer type of view. There are many editing tricks (some are included in this section) to manipulate the behavior of Windows. But be forewarned: the registry is unforgiving when it comes to mistakes. One typo in the wrong place can render Windows unusable. Always back up your registry before making any changes to it, even if you're comfortable working with the registry editor.