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Help! I’ve Lost My Recycle Bin Icon…

This post, like the previous one, is also related to Windows Vista…

Don’t ask me why, but for some reason in Windows Vista Microsoft decided to give us the ability to delete the Recycle Bin Icon… Grrrr……

And chances are, if you can’t find the icon, you probably got rid of it by mistake and you want it back…. Right? If so, you’ve come to the right place. Let me show you how to get it back:

Goto the Start Menu and choose “Control Panel” (maybe Settings / Control Panel)….

Click on “Personalization”…

In the left hand pane, choose “Change desktop icons”

Once this screen opens you should see a menu with the names of different desktop icons….Computer, User’s Files, Network, Recycle Bin, and Control Panel. You need to make sure that Recycle Bin is checked!

Click OK

…And wala, the Recycle Bin icon should reappear on your desktop!

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Software Won’t Run On Vista

Okay so at some point, if you’re running Windows Vista (I still am resisting and using XP!), you’re PC is going to complain about a certain program or application not being compatible.  Windows Vista includes some core components that make many older programs incompatible, and therefore, unusable.

Fortunately though, Microsoft has made some provisions within the OS that will sometimes allow it to see it as compatible and effectively launch it.  But for some reason, they did a real good job of hiding this useful feature…  I have no idea why…

But at any rate, if you ever get a message about an application being incompatible with Vista, try this:

Find the specific executable file you’re trying to run (via Windows Explorer).  Then just right click on the file and choose “Properties”.  Now click on the Compatibility tab.  Make sure you check off “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” and choose the operating system that most closely matches the program you’re trying to run (I would start with Windows XP and work my way backward if it doesn’t work)…

Good luck!  :)

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How To Get Into DOS

DOS — you know, MS-DOS?? Believe it or not, MS-DOS can still be useful for some things, even in 2008! Every now and then if you have an issue with your computer and you call technical support, inevitably they will want you to run some DOS command. Also, once you some DOS commands, you may find you actually want to use MS-DOS from time to time to perform certain repetitive tasks (like searching through a bunch of subdirectories for a particular file name).

Okay, if you’ve got a PC running Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, or Windows NT, here’s what you want to do…

Click “Start”.

Then click “Run”.

Type “cmd” and hit the ENTER key.

Typing “cmd” will enter “command mode”, which effectively is MS-DOS. If you’ve done the above steps successfully, you should have a screen that looks similar to the following:

* Please note if you are running Windows 95 or Windows 98, the steps above are close but slightly different. In these cases you want to type “command” instead of “cmd”. Also note that this will bring you to a “DOS Shell” (a scaled-down version of MS-DOS). To truly enter MS-DOS on a Windows 9x computer, you should really reboot your computer into MS-DOS mode. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Reboot the PC.
2. As the computer is booting up, press the F8 key when you hear a beep or when you see “Starting Windows 95″ or “Starting Windows 98.”
3. If done properly you will get a screen asking you to enter a boot choice. Choose the number that corresponds to “Command prompt only”.

I hope that helps you! Any questions please let me know…in a future article I’ll go over some different DOS commands that are still valuable in 2008! :)

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