Quick Application Launching in Windows (Vista and XP)

Here’s a quick tip for launching applications with a simple keypress rather than having to hunt it down in the program files menus (although I really like the search facility in the Vista start menu!)

First up, I created a Keyboard Shortcuts folder in my program files folder and added shortcuts for each of the applications I want to launch from a keypress. I’ve also included the shortcut key I’ve assigned in the name for simple reference. It’s important to be able to track down which keys are assigned to which apps because you can re-assign the key without realising you’re overwriting a previous one. Here’s my shortcuts in the start menu…

Then it’s just a simple matter of assigning the keypress in the properties for each shortcut…

The compatibility tab also lets you run programs automatically as admin if that’s required.

The only issues I’ve noticed when I’ve done this is I’ve re-mapped a keypress that already exists in another application. This usually isn’t a problem if I choose a shortcut of CTRL + SHIFT + ALT (which is only two key presses on a keyboard – ALT GR and SHIFT) since that’s a pretty unusual shortcut for an application. But it just so happened at one point that Visual Studio on my machine had assigned a keypress of CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + E which meant that the one I had defined took priority!

Cannot delete a sync partnership in Vista’s Sync Center

This has really been bugging me recently. Once in a while the relationship with my Windows Mobile (a HTC TyTn) seems to break down between my work PC and the device and I’m left with a greyed out device in Sync Center which, even though the menu option is enabled and selectable, cannot be deleted. Without much help from searching the internet (everything seemed to suggest deleting system files which seemed a bit dodgy to me) I finally stumbled across the solution…

The screenshot below shows my device in Sync Center now happily activated and connected. Previously it was greyed out and called ‘Tytn’ – I added the month and year to the name to see how long it lasts this time! Every time I tried to delete it the menu option simply did nothing.

However, I just happened to selected ‘Network and Internet’ from the address bar and found my old friend the Windows Mobile Device Center – I selected that and the device was recognised and I could re-establish the partnership.

Seems soooo simple now that I’ve done it but it just seems to be one of those interfaces in Vista that seems to confuse rather than help – I was so preoccupied by the Sync Center interface not working and not allowing me to remove the device that I forgot about the interface I should have been looking at in the first place! (There’s a ‘mini rant’ in there somewhere!)

Vista Unzipping with SP1

I’ve downloaded and installed SP1 for Vista now but am still surprised by how long unzipping small files can take! I’ve been staring at this dialog for about a minute now…

Surely it’s not that difficult