Map a Drive Letter to a Folder the Easy Way in Windows

Have you ever needed to repeatedly access a folder that is nested deep inside a giant hierarchy of folders? Sure, you can always create a shortcut to that folder, but did you know you can actually assign a drive letter to a folder instead? Today we'll show you how to do this.

This ability has existed in Windows via the subst command for quite a while, so this will also work for you XP users as well.

Map a Drive Letter the Easy Way

The easiest way to assign a drive letter to a folder is to use a simple utility called Visual Subst, which gives you a nice graphical interface to assign drive letters, but also does something that the command line version can't… you can set your virtual drives to apply again at startup.

You can download and run the utility without needing to install it, and then simply use the Browse button to select your path, and click the green plus symbol after choosing the drive letter.

At this point you should see the drive letter show up in the list. (Note that you can delete it by highlighting and choosing the red X icon, or change the path / letter by using the Save button.

If you want to save the drives, you'll want to select the "Apply virtual drives on Windows startup" option.

Now when you open up your Computer window, you should see the new drive show up in the list.

The contents of the new M: drive will actually be the contents of my desktop folder.

Download Visual Subst from ntwind.com

Courtesy : www.howtogeek.com

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Q-Dir 3.33

»»» Download «««

Q-Dir makes your files and folder easy to manage.
Fast and easy access, with an amazing Quadro-View technique.
You don't have to renounce the usual, Drag and Drop, all Views, and other functions of your system.
No! Q-Dir gives you other nice functions, that make you happy.
One can save many hand moves and also time!

Q-Dir does not have to be installed and can be executed easily from the desktop.
Rename Q-Dir_Installer.exe to Q-Dir.exe and GO.

It's a small famous utility for Windows PC-s and also an USB-stick friend :).

WARNING :Once Q-Dir, always Q-Dir ;)!

:Some Features::

Favorites:
Quick access to most often used folders.
Drag&Drop:
Move files by dragging in Q-views, and other programs such as MS Explorer.
Clipboard:
Copy/ Paste between the Q-Dir directory views, and other programs such as MS Explorer.
Folder-Type:
ZIP-, FTP-,cabinet-,network-, system - folders, shortcuts ...
Views:
Large icons, tiles, list, detail, thumbnail (Vista: extra large symbols) .
Export:
to XLS, CSV, TXT, HTML.
Popup Menus:
Desktop, My Computer.
Screen magnifier:
anything on the screen can be enlarged.
Color Filter:
Different colors for different item types (e.g. *.log;*.txt).
Highlight-Filter:
Effective way for fast items highlighting.
File-Filter:
Allows for quick and easy filtering of the items.
Columns:
All columns support, and save function .
Quick-Link's:
For fast folder access.
Folder-Select:
Fast & flexible folder selection address-bar/ desktop menu/ my-computer menu/...
Multi-INI:
Several INI files for Q-Dir.
Tree-View:
Simple and quadruple.
Preview:
Allows a quick preview.
Portable:
from 2.77 is Q-Dir portable.


New in 3.27 / 08/11/2008
Improvements and corrections: Address bar, Tree-view, menu bar, L-mouse double-click ... .


New in 3.25 / 08/06/2008
1. Vista SP1 Search Fix [F3] and new [Alt + F3] selected item.
2. Tree-view switch problem fixed.
3. Tree-view in Vista in Vista look.
4. Correct updated when you connect and disconnect network drives.
5. The folder deletion is possible even if this is open.
6. With second click on [F2] will select only the name.
7. Couple corrections.


New in 3.23 / 07/31/2008
Small improvements, optimization and beauty fixes.



New in 3.22 / 07/24/2008
1. Win98: corrections in color filter and directory structure.
2. Vista: graphics bug terminated in the address bar.
3. New optional treeview-popup with drive bar: above the button Desk. .



New in 3.20 / 07/19/2008
1. Mini bugs kick: vista, statusbar, address bar!


New in 3.19 / 07/18/2008
1. Delete the Start.qdr at Q-Dir crash.
2. More space for data, address bar either 1x or 4x or no
3. No crash at various removable storage media!
4. Small optimization and bugs


New in 3.17 / 07/04/2008
1. Optimization especially in the memory usage in prolonged use.
2. Treeview: adjustable auto expand drag over time.
3. Singel panel mode for small screens.


New in 3.16 / 06/15/2008
1. Corrections in the launch window positioning of Q-Dir.
2. Some of Vista bugs trod.
3. Better Path interpretation in the address bar, and support the environment variables "%temp%", "%appdate%", "%AppData%", "%UserProfile%", "%AllUsersProfile%", "%ProgramFiles%", "%SystemRoot%", "%SystemDrive%", "%Temp%", "%Tmp%" ....


New in 3.15 / 06/07/2008
1. Corrections and improvements in the microscope.
2. Optional display of directory or name in the title bar.
3. View updated when enable/disable the file filter.
4. Better optics under flat-Design.
5. Renaming on Shell Context-Menu in the Tree-View.
6. Preview and general optimization.


New in 3.13 / 05/29/2008
1. Support for the mouse XButtons Previous and Next navigation.
2. Network access in the tree-view improved and accelerated.
3. Auto update problem in the tree-view for zip folders and network is fixed.
4 PDF preview is possible when Adobe Acrobat Reader >7.0 is installed.
5. Optimization stories.


New in 3.11 / 05/24/2008
1. Driver name change in the tree view is possible, also 'UNDO' last rename command.
2. Auto update correction in the tree-view, improvement for List-View.
3. Start error message suppression: removable media or unreachable/deleted folders!
4. Shell menu display the full folder path in the status bar.


New in 3.09 / 05/19/2008
1. Direct rename in the Tree-View is possible, also copy/paste/cut [Ctrl] + C V X.
2. Two views more 2 & 3 rotated.
3. Small size optimization!


New in 3.07 / 04/27/2008
1. Speed-Optimizing in color filters for larger directories.
2. Optional activation of colors or bold font for the tree view's.
3. Font size corrections in the display (accwiz.exe).


New in 3.05 / 04/20/2008
1. Corrections:Tree-View,Color-Filter,Popup-Menue.


New in 3.03 / 04/13/2008
1. File filters corrections.
2. Color filter correction .
3. Marking filter corrections.
4. Tree-view corrections.
5. The view-settings will be saved in the INI. For portable also everything else.
6. Q-Dir is 100% portable.
7. Optimization and fine-tuning;).


New in 2.99 / 04/07/2008
1. English translation.
2. View transferor right mouse button on the Q-Icon.
3. Quick Links folder problem resolved
4. Portable Install corrections.
5. ALT + LEFT / RIGHT = Back / Forward navigation.
6. The marker filter can be used as file filter
7. Unicode version: support of Asian, Arabic, Hebrew, ... Writings.
8. Speed and other optimization;).

....

Courtesy : http://www.softwareok.com/

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Autofill Forms enables you to fill out web forms with one click or a keyboard shortcut.

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Greasemonkey

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Interclue

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WOT

WOT, Web of Trust, warns you about risky websites that try to scam visitors, deliver malware or send spam. Protect your computer against online threats by using WOT as your front-line layer of protection when browsing or searching in unfamiliar territory. WOT's color-coded icons show you ratings for 20 million websites - green to go, yellow for caution and red to stop – helping you avoid the dangerous sites. Surf safer and add WOT to your Firefox now.

.

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Sysinternals Desktops v1.0 allows you to create up to four virtual desktops and to organize your applications on the different desktops. Browse the web on one desktop, read your e-mail on a second desktop and organize your work applications (Word, Excel, Photoshop, etc.) on another desktop.
You can easily switch between the different desktops using the tray icon with preview or using configurable hotkeys.

What makes Desktops different from other virtual desktop applications is the way it has been implemented. Desktops uses a separate Windows desktop object, running its own explorer.exe instance, for each desktop, rather than faking virtual desktops by hiding applications.
Application windows are bound to one desktop object when they are created. This approach has some advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:
- Desktops is lightweight and very fast
- Desktops actually works and seems bugfree. All other tools I've tried had issues with inconsistencies between desktops (application windows showing up on the wrong desktop, etc.)
- No installation required. Desktops can be run from a USB key.

Disadvantages:
- Applications cannot be moved from one desktop to another
- Most tray icons are only visible on the first desktop
- Switching between applications using Alt+Tab only works on the first desktop
- The same desktop background for all desktops
- Vista Aero is only available on the first desktop


Although the list of disadvantages is longer than the list of advantages, Sysinternals Desktops v1.0 is one impressive tool. But I didn't expect anything else from Sysinternals.
It is lightweight, fast, reliable and easy to use. Make sure to give it a try. You'll be impressed!

Desktops tray icon with desktop preview

One remark:
If you use Comodo Firewall Pro with Defense+, make sure to add Desktops as a trusted application BEFORE creating a second desktop or you will end up with a deadlock situation: Desktops will try to create a new desktop, but Comodo blocks this attempt on the first desktop.

Sysinternals Desktops runs on Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3.
You can download Sysinternals Desktops here.

Courtesy : http://technet.microsoft.com/

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Remove duplicate files the easy way

I have always wanted this kind of software. I have thousands of mp3 songs packed in various partitions of my hard disk. I have collected these songs from several places and keep them storing, but the problem while augmenting my collection is that I am never sure whether I have copied the set of songs before or not, so I just copy them irrespective of the fact that they may be already present. The consequence is that my hard disk space is almost filled with duplicate files

That is why I always wanted a software that could compare the contents of two folders and remove the duplicate elements.

File Comparator is a program which compares any files by their contents. This utility allow you to quickly compare contents of any files in specified folders, and allow to show files which contain same data.

Download Now (493.72K)

Tested spyware free

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Make any icon / folder on your desktop invisible

This is a trick by which you can make any icon invisible and can access it in the invisible state only ..... Its not altering the properties to hidden ...... Here are the steps : 1. Locate the icon and then right click ..... go to properties .... then go to customize tab ..... there will be a transparent(invisible) icon as shown in the screenshot .... select it and click on Apply.....



2. Now rename the icon / folder



press ALT + 255 .......... (enter 255 from the right numpad with numlock off) .....

TADAA!!!!!

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Speed up the Start Menu

The default speed of the Start Menu is pretty slow, but you can fix that by editing a Registry Key. Fire up the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ MenuShowDelay

By default, the value is 400. Change this to a smaller value, such as 0, to speed it up.

If this doesn't work for some reason, then you might try the following: Navigate to Display Properties then Appearance then Effects and turn off the option titled Show menu shadow. You will get much better overall performance.

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