Windows – Page 67 – Paul's Tech Talk

Apple Keyboard Windows Key Mapping

PaulNovember 29, 2007

If you run Windows on your Mac with Boot Camp with an Apple keyboard, you start to miss certain keys: like Print Screen, Del, the Windows key, and Insert. For a while I was just living without them, but turns out there are key combinations that map to all the Windows keys in Boot Camp, like:

Forward Delete in Windows – Fn+Delete
Print Screen in Windows – F14
Backspace in Windows – Delete
Insert in Windows – Help

The rest of the list is over at the Apple site. Good bookmark for that Boot Camp’ed Windows install.Boot Camp Beta: Apple keyboards and keyboard mapping in Windows XP

This is for those who have to use Bootcamp with Windows. Thought this was interesting!!

Synchronize Folders with SyncToy 2.0

PaulNovember 28, 2007

Windows only: Synchronize the contents of two folders, either across your home network or on the same PC with a free utility from Microsoft, SyncToy. The 2.0 beta’s been released and gotten smarter since the first time we pointed out SyncToy, adding smart drive letter detection (for when your USB drive gets assigned a different drive letter when you plug it in) and a more robust mechanism to include or exclude files from the synchronize action. Great for sync’ing files from your desktop to a USB drive or between two different computers on your home network, Adam uses it to sync his iTunes library between PC’s. The SyncToy 2.0 beta is a free download for Windows only.

Download details: SyncToy v2.0 Beta [Microsoft Download Center]

Hot Image Your PC’s Hard Drive with DriveImage XML

PaulNovember 27, 2007

You don’t need a complicated boot CD or expensive software to create a restorable system disk image for your PC: free utility DriveImage XML can save a full, working snapshot of your Windows hard drive while you work on it. (That’s hot.) When your PC crashes and burns or just slows down over time, the best insurance you can have is a mirror image of your operating system, complete with drivers, user settings, software applications, and documents in one place. A while back we covered how to partition and image your Windows hard drive using the Linux-based System Recovery Boot CD, a process that involves command line work, disk-burning, rebooting, and video driver wrangling. With DiskImage XML, imaging your PC’s hard drive is a matter of a few clicks, no reboots required. Let’s check it out.

Go check out the full article on DriveImage XML, I actually like this article and how they talk about making backukps!!

Create Global Folder Bookmarks with Dirkey

PaulNovember 23, 2007

Windows only: Create custom folder bookmarks accessible from your keyboard in any Explorer window or save or open file dialog with freeware system tray application Dirkey. You can set any folder as a bookmark on-the-fly by pressing Ctrl-Alt-0..9, then quickly jump to any of your bookmarks by pressing Ctrl-0..9 for the corresponding bookmark (e.g., if you set a folder as a bookmark with Ctrl-Alt-1, you can access that folder any time by pressing Ctrl-1). Dirkey does the work of previously mentioned applications like FindeXer, PlacesBar Editor, and FinderStyle but offers the quickest access to both creating new bookmarks and jumping to your most frequently used folders. Dirkey is freeware, Windows only.

Dirkey [via gHacks]

Synchronize Your Computer’s Time with DS Clock

PaulNovember 21, 2007

Windows only: Synchronize your computer’s clock with numerous time servers around the world using freeware application DS Clock. On its first run, it will dock itself on the top right hand corner of your desktop, but you can customize its look and feel as well as its position quite easily. As an added bonus, DS Clock comes with a stopwatch so that you can track the time it takes to perform certain tasks online. Not bad. DS Clock is a freeware application for all flavors of Windows.

DS Clock