See icons in DLL files and extract them(Windows XP, Vista, 7)

                While searching for other program and desktop icons, you should comb through the available DLL files in the system. However, the icons in them cannot be copied easily.
                There are innumerable DLL files in the Windows system folders which contain diverse icons in addition to procedures as libraries that are already used by the system. In order to use such icons yourself, you either have to extract them from the DLL file and save as a separate ICO files, or at least know the serial number of the icon within the library. Both these tasks are easily and quickly done with the help of the NirSoft tool IconsExtract (www.nirsoft.net/utils/iconsext.html). After a short installation or unpacking from the ZIP archive, you can start the tool immediately.
                 The dialogue box ‘Search For Icons’ will appear automatically at the start. Activate the option ‘Scan icons in files’ and enter the complete path to the appropriate file containing the icons under it. Basically, you can also search through folders with subfolders or drives for this. However, it is not recommended for ‘C:’, as this can take a long time. With ‘More Options’ the selection can be limited to certain characteristics. With a click on ‘Search For Icons’, the main window shows all the matches found. They are the assigned the file name of the origin and the index numbers within this file in brackets. You will need this value, for example, to refer in the registry to a certain icon from a file. The index number cannot be determined in other dialogues by counting. All icons can also be exported individually to ICO files. For this, mark one or more, if necessary with the pressed [Ctrl] key. Then open the command ‘File | Save Selected Icons’, change the target folder and the process by clicking on ‘Save Icons’. All icons will then be in individual files which still contain the original file names and the index numbers.

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Access file properties without context menu(Windows XP, Vista, 7)

              In order to see the properties of a folder or a file, you have to first rightclick with the mouse on the symbol and open the context command ‘Properties’. You want to see the information in a quicker way.
              How to get the information you want faster: Select the entry or the icon of the desired file or folder. Then, press the key combination [Alt]+[Enter]. Thereafter, Windows opens the dialogue ‘Properties’, without you having to go through the context menu of the file. If you prefer to work with the mouse, you can still avoid using the context menu by keeping the [Alt] key pressed while you double click on the icon of a file or folder.

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Set the time when the photograph was taken as the name of the photograph(Namexif 1.5)

             When you transfer photos from a camera to your PC, the files have cryptic names. You want to name the photos with the date and exact time.
              Download Namexif from digicamsoft.com and just save the installation file “Namexif.exe” in any of the folders or directly on desktop.

              Start the tool with a double click on the file entry in Windows Explorer. For newer versions of Windows, you will have to authorize these instructions by selecting a user account with administration rights and enter the related username. Finally click “Next” and confirm the license agreement. You will have to repeat this procedure each time you call up this application.
              Now you can add single photos with “Add files” or an entire folder with “Add Dir”. You can delete entries from the list with “Clear list”. However, keep in mind that you cannot remove individual entries. As a final step, click “Next”.
              Now specify the format you wish to rename the photos on the next page. Here, "YYYY" stands for year, “DD” for date and “HH” for hour. Furthermore, you can keep the date, time and the original name of the file or rename it. If you wish to retain the original name then select the option “Add original name at the end”. If you want to specify any other ending, then select “Add name (suffix)” and add the desired name in the following box. However, do not use both these functions together.
              With the “Shift time by” option you change the time zone by adding or subtracting time. This is especially handy when you have pictures that you clicked while on a trip abroad, but forgot to calibrate the camera time with the local time there.

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Ascertain the cause of nondeletable files and remove them(Windows XP, Vista, 7)

            When cleaning the hard disk, you bump into files and folders that cannot be deleted. You want to know what is blocking access so you can release the files for deletion.

            Mostly, access by another program is the cause for causing a file to become non-deletable. Windows unfortunately does not provide any information about it. The limit is when you get the message ‘The file is being used by another person or program’. That’s as useless as the message ‘Close all programs that are using this file, and repeat the process’. The free tool UnlockIT (emcosoftware. com/unlock-it) determines the corresponding program and enables deleting the specific file.
             After the quick installation, start the tool. Click the selection arrow under the ‘Browse’ icon and decide whether you want to look into a ‘File’ or a ‘Folder’. Then navigate to the desired entry and confirm the selection with ‘Open’ or ‘OK’. The tool will now show you whether a block exists, and lists the programs that cause it. Check the details so that you do not delete important files. For instance, an open Office document causes even the relevant folder to be blocked. If you want to remove a block, right click the program in the list and try to remove the existing blocks via ‘Close Handles’. This is safe to a large extent as no processes are ended. Only when this doesn’t work should you end the application, which you can do via the ‘Kill Processes’ command in the next step. The element can then be deleted.

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