Share uncommon useful computer tips.

[Raziaar]

Well... Actually I was sort of inspired to make this thread, and encourage people to post little computer tips that they figured are rare enough that most members will not know. What inspired me? Wikipedia.

I was fiddling with some image editing programs and I happened to do a wikipedia search on Print Screen... and what do I find? An option I never knew existed.

The ability to take an isolated screen capture just of the window you're working in, and nothing else. I cannot believe there was this feature and I never knew about it, so just in case you people don't know, I want to share it with you!

This is certainly going to save me a lot of time since I'd always print screen, crop out the window and have it be sloppily done, and then save it again.

From wikipedia:

In Microsoft Windows, pressing print screen will capture the entire screen, while pressing the alt key in combination with print screen will capture the currently selected window. The captured image can then be pasted into an editing program such as a word processor, email, or graphics software.

I know there have been other things like this I have seen before, and my jaw pretty much dropped because I never knew they existed, yet they could have been so useful for me. Share some of yours!



A tip on saving screen information of your media players instead of having that black box. The examples I know of how to do are Windows Media Player(I have version 11, should work with earlier ones), and Media Player Classic.

For Windows Media Player Classic... go to tools, options, performance tab, and drag the acceleration slider down a notch or if you have to, all the way down. This sort of stops the overlay and lets you actually capture that pixel information.

For media player classic, I couldn't find a similar acceleration slider, so instead I went into the options, keys, and set a key to the save picture hotkey, and that accomplishes the task just nicely.

 

[Kyorisu]

Also using mpc you could just print the damn screen. I can perform a print screen on any moving picture and capture a perfect still image. That or File - Save Image. Both are assuming your smart enough to put mpc into VRM9 renderless as your playback output. Heres another thing not so much a tip as an order. Stop using codec packs made by idiots use this http://www.cccp-project.net/

Example of awesome print screen action: http://www.adam.com.au/pom007/example.JPG

 

[cctoide]

You can lock your Windows XP box by hitting the Windows key together with L.

Also, I only found out what "Cut" (as opposed to "Copy") does a few months ago, despite using computers for the past ten years. True story.

 

[Raziaar]

Also using mpc you could just print the damn screen. I can perform a print screen on any moving picture and capture a perfect still image. That or File - Save Image. Both are assuming your smart enough to put mpc into VRM9 renderless as your playback output. Heres another thing not so much a tip as an order. Stop using codec packs made by idiots use this http://www.cccp-project.net/

Example of awesome print screen action: http://www.adam.com.au/pom007/example.JPG

Errr? Okay, thanks but It's not really because of what codecs I use as much as what codecs I'm not using. It's default how it really works, really.

Hardware overlays

Screenshots of games and media players sometimes fail, resulting in a blank rectangle. The reason for this is that the graphics are bypassing the normal screen and going to a high-speed graphics processor on the graphics card called the hardware overlay. Generally, there is no way to extract a computed image back out of the graphics card, though software may exist for special cases or specific video cards.

One way these images can be captured is to turn off the hardware overlay. Because many computers have no hardware overlay, most programs are built to work without it, just a little slower. In Windows XP, this is disabled by opening the Display Properties menu, then clicking, "Advanced", "Troubleshoot", and moving the Hardware Acceleration Slider to "None."

DVDs are often encrypted using a patented algorithm called Content-scrambling system or CSS, making it much more difficult to take screenshots of them. Many DVD-capable media players will only play them on the overlay layer, where they cannot be captured.

I have to do the methods I mention in my first post, because doing what is listed from wikipedia here, simply doesn't allow my media players to work even one slider tick down doing it from the graphics card rather than software side.

 

[Kyorisu]

On default settings yeah maybe hence why I suggest shoving it on VRM9 should solve all your black box problems. If I put mpc onto system default and cap the screen I can actually watch the movie through mspaint (Or get a black box if mpc is no longer running). I cannot recall a time where a print screen has actually failed now that I think about it. The latter part about CCCP had nothing to do with print screen I just thought it'd be a good idea to throw out there. Now back to my movie.

 

[Escaep]

http://xfire.com/xf/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=83634

 

[Asus]

I've needed to get around on a PC a few times without a working mouse.
And Shift+F10 is needed. (same as right-clicking)

I always end up changing one or two actions to default by file types. Example. If you prefer to browse your files with the folder tree on the left, you probably right click on the folder each time and go to "Explore" or click the FOLDER button after the window is up. But you can set it to be the default action instead of "Open".
Open an explorer window. Go to Tools, Folder Options, File Types tab, and then find your file type. For the example it would be Folder (not File Folder). Highlight and click advanced. Highlight (explore) and Set Default.
You can also change icons for the file types in there.

The ability to take an isolated screen capture just of the window you're working in, and nothing else.

It is very cool. I always question myself if it is ctrl or alt before I use it. hehe
But I usually get it right because I think of alt+tab.

Also, I only found out what "Cut" (as opposed to "Copy") does a few months ago, despite using computers for the past ten years. True story.

No way..

 

[Barney Fife]

Never let your PC know you're in the rush.

 

[Raziaar]

Read this please!


I didn't want to make a new thread, so I posted it here.

I was just watching an xhtml video and I saw a guy highlight a series of text on multiple lines, and press what sounded to be a single key multiple times(like the space bar) to indent the text out uniformly without deleting the text(as would pressing space with it all highlighted).

Anybody know? This will save me so much time.

 

[Saturos]

If any of you have people in your family that's computer illiterate, and there are times you need to get up from your desk, but you don't want anyone to see what you are doing, you can always just bring up the task manager and kill the explorer.exe process. Alot of people don't even know what to do without a GUI anymore.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

ctrl shift esc. The new ctrl alt del for vista.

 

[Saturos]

ctrl shift esc. The new ctrl alt del for vista.

How retarded. Task manager has always traditionally been Ctrl+Alt+delete for XP (and for me). I couldn't be arsed to worry about the key bindings though if I had Vista. I would just have to get used to Ctrl+shift+esc and whatever other key bindings are different. Thankfully, I don't have Vista installed on my PC anyways.

 

[Raziaar]

Wow... seriously... retarded. It's so unnatural for me to reach my right hand all the way over there. Whereas with normal keyboard positions, I don't have to move them at all from their standard positions. I don't have gargantuan hands to be able to comfortably do all three strokes with my left hand. I have to twist it and extend it up the keyboard.

If any of you have people in your family that's computer illiterate, and there are times you need to get up from your desk, but you don't want anyone to see what you are doing, you can always just bring up the task manager and kill the explorer.exe process. Alot of people don't even know what to do without a GUI anymore.

So true, and good tip! I never thought to use it that way before. I just close it out and pop it back into existence when I'm noticing problems with it.

 

[Vegeta897]

Windows Key + D shows the desktop.

I use it all the time. Most people probably know it though.

 

[Raziaar]

Windows Key + D shows the desktop.

I use it all the time. Most people probably know it though.

I only ever used the quicktask show desktop. Nice knowing there's a key for it.

Honestly, I have never ever used the windows key for anything before except accidentally, or rarely(aka never) to bring up the start menu.

 

[Saturos]

Hey Raziaar, I moved this post to a new thread. I hope you won't be disappointed that I've abandoned you or anything. I feel that it deserves exclusive attention. It took me a few minutes to type it. Go have a look!

 

[CyberPitz]

ctrl shift esc. The new ctrl alt del for vista.

I never use Ctrl - Alt - Delete for XP, since on some PCs, it takes you to the task manager, and some it makes you have to click "Task Manager" button, or Lock, shut down, whatever. I just use Ctrl-Shift-Esc...it's been this way for a long while on XP..