A couple more keyboard shortcuts

CTRL + ALT + ESC

While in a full-screen window will launch the task bar. If used while not in a full screen window, it will work like ATL + TAB without the option of choosing which window and simply go to the window whose button is to the RIGHT of the current window.

ALT + D [MSIE]

This will move the cursor to the Address bar, highliting all the text in the bar as well.

ALT + TAB (With Shift)

If you have many windows open, using ALT + TAB can be kind of annoying if you miss the program you're seeking. Adding SHIFT and pressing TAB again will move the highlite back one.

CTRL + TAB

When working with multiple frames/panes, this will jump from one frame to another without having to TAB to the end of the current pane to move to the next. Press TAB again to enter the frame/pane you select.

SHIFT + CLICK (Explorer/MSIE)

This does the same thing as RIGHT CLICKing and selecting "Open in new window". Sometimes, however, I find that you have to DOUBLE CLICK to make it work.

SHIFT + RIGHT CLICK (Explorer)

This gives you an extra option, "Open With..." for certain (most) files types.

WINKEY + L (Using the "Welcome" style logon)

Same as [Start>Log Off>Switch User].

F1

Opens the Help dialogue for most programs.

F3

When searching using a typical text "Find..." feature, this will do the same as "Find next".

A better disk cleanup

A Better Disk Cleanup

This tip will show you how to create an unattended disk cleanup which will also empty your prefetch folder. This tip assumes you have Windows XP installed in c:\windows.

Step 1.
Create a new text file and place the following contents inside:

c:\windows\system32\cleanmgr.exe /dc /sageset: 1
c:
cd \
cd c:\windows\prefetch
del *.* /q

Step 2.
Save the file, changing the extension from .txt to .bat
For this tip's purpose, we will call it clean.bat

Step 3.
Execute the file. This will run the Disk Cleanup program in a special mode which asks what items you will want cleaned when Disk Cleanup performs an unattended cleanup. Check the items you wish to have cleaned up, then click OK.

Step 4.
Right-click on the clean.bat file and click edit. Change the first line to read:

c:\windows\system32\cleanmgr.exe /dc /sagerun: 1

Step 5.
Save the file. You can execute this file in place of running Disk Cleanup, or, to have this program run unattended, run the Add Scheduled Task Wizard in the Control Panel and create a scheduled task using the clean.bat file you just created.

Note: This cleanup script will also clear windows prefetch directory. Often this directory can become cluttered with old appication and a cleaning would free up disk space but it will result in a one time performance decrease and windows has to rebuild the cache with active software afterwards.