Display DLL files with separate icon(Windows XP, Vista, 7)

               As a standard, all DLLs are given a single icon by the system. You would rather like to use a unique icon contained within each DLL file for display in the Explorer.
              With a small change in the registry, you can change the appearance of the standard icons. In order to change the DLL icons, type ‘regedit’ in the search field of the start menu or in the ‘Run’ dialogue and if necessary confirm the query of the user accounts manager with ‘Yes’ or ‘Continue’. Then, navigate to the key ‘HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\defaulticon’. On the right, the character string ‘Standard’ is defined which symbol is used by the Windows system for display. For editing this, double click on this entry. Change ‘Value’ to ‘%1’ and confirm with ‘OK’. Through this parameter, the particular file will itself be referred to for the icon. Then, close the registry and open Windows Explorer.
               In the future, you will immediately recognize in the Explorer if a certain DLL contains any icons at all. All other DLL files will only get an standard empty icon.

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View hidden files in FTP client(FileZilla)

            An FTP client normally hides files whose names begin with a dot. You want to still access such files.
            If you use FileZilla as FTP client, open the “Server | Force showing hidden files” command. Confirm with “OK”. Some servers do not accept this option and show an incorrect file list or no file list at all. In such a case, deactivate the option.

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Minimize programs in the taskbar or the info field(iTunes)

             You play music on iTunes 24x7, but you don’t like the fact that the icon of iTunes occupies space in the taskbar even though you seldom access it.

              In the program options, you can configure a setting so that the icon is automatically minimized in the info field of the taskbar. You can also decide with the functionality of Windows whether the icon should be displayed or hidden. For this, select the command 'Edit | Settings' and click the Advanced icon in iTunes. Activate the 'Display iTunes icon in taskbar' option there. This is deceptive because the icon is still displayed but the option moves the display in the info field. Then activate the 'Minimize iTunes window in the taskbar' option.
             The next time the program window is minimized, it is visible only in the info field and disappears from there after some time. If you want to see the icon, click the small triangle there and then the “Adapt” link. Search for the “iTunes” entry in the list and change the setting to “Display icon and messages” in the relevant combination field to its right. The icon will be visible after you click “OK”.
Note: The mini mode of iTunes is a practical alternative. For this, minimize the program window and right click a free place in the taskbar. Then select the context command “Toolbar → iTunes”. Both these space saving variants are however mutually exclusive. You see a mini control bar that gives you direct access to the important playback and volume functions instead of the program icon only if iTunes is normally minimized.

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Reuse search requests in Windows Explorer(Windows 7)

              You often enter search requests with the same search terms and settings in Explorer. The repeated execution of these requests is annoying and takes just too much of time.
              In order to solve this problem, open Windows Explorer with [Win]+[E]. On the left side of the window, navigate to the desired drive or folder in whose substructure you want to look for files. Enter the search term in the input field to the upper right corner. The OS comes up with results even as you enter the search term and the number of hits in the list reduces with every alphabet that you type.
              You can also refine your search by entering more criteria. For this, click in the input fields and select the ‘Type’, ‘Date Modified’, ‘Size’, ‘Name’ and/or ‘Folder location’ links in the following menu. Another menu or a dialog box is displayed in which you can select the desired limitations. In case of just ‘Name’ and ‘Folder location’, you need to enter the searched character string right after the colon in the search request. Wildcards such as ‘*’ are unnecessary since Windows lists all results containing the search term. If you are unable to see any of the specified options, move the cursor to the left border of the input field, click, keep the mouse button pressed and drag and increase the size of the field.
              Click ‘Save Search’ in order to save the search request that you have just defined for reusing. You can find the command in the toolbar right below the address field. In the next dialog box, name the search and ‘Save’ it.
               Windows manages your search requests with the ‘.search.ms’ file extension under your profile in the ‘Searches’ folder. In order to repeat the search, just double click the entry of this saved file in Windows Explorer.

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