Power User Steps
Dec 27th, 2005 by jbloom
As promised here are the main steps that I go through to setup new Windows machines for a better computing experience.
Obviously these are just my settings so pick and choose what you like.
Personal folders
First up is your personal folders:
- Create a folder with your initials: c:\jb (Your main personal folder)
- Create a downloads folder: C:\jb\downloads (for downloads)
- Create a scratch folder: C:\jb\scratch (this is a folder for your temporary stuff, things you wouldn’t miss if the folder deleted)
Windows Explorer
Now in the explorer, bring up the view menu and pick the details option.
Also under the view menu turn on the status bar.
Now bring up tools | folders options.
Set the click items as follows to “single click, underline only when I point at them.”
Then go the view tab and set the following:
Display full paths in the title bar | ful path in the address bar.
Then uncheck Hide extensions for known file types (important, you should know what you are clicking on!)
set show hidden files and folders.
Finally apply to all folders.
Start Menu and task bar
Right click the start button and select properties, then on the taskbar tab check auto-hide the task bar. Now you’ve got more screen real estate.
Now for some things to download
SlickRun This is a great little floating command line replacement tool.
Notepad2 A great replacement for the notepad text editor that comes with Windows. Small, fast, robust and has highlighting for all types of file formats.
You should also download this .bat file which will help you to replace the regular notepad. Another text editor i’ve been playing with and recommend is notepad++. (google search for it)
CommandPrompt here Lets you right click a folder and open a command prompt right there.
Send to Extensions Lets you right click on files and send their full paths to the clipboard. There’s also an option to send the contents of the file to the clipboard.
Treesize is a nice little extension that quickly shows you the sizes of your folders, and which ones are sucking up your hard drive space.
Then of course get yourself Firefox and all the happy little extensions that you like.
At some point I may write up my FF extension list and recommendations.