Contro Optical Drives from the Taskbar

This trick is for the lazy ones, like me :)

But it has other uses too. Too much pressing of the eject button could ruin it. And if you're like me, changing between 5 optical media in under half an hour, then the buttons will bless you for this. Along with this, you could just show off to your friends and be cool.

Now for this trick you need a software with which you can do more than just this trick. Get the software here.

After you get the software, start the 50KB exe and the program will start. No need to install. But I recommend that you put Tooler in the Program Files under it's own folder, so that there's no confusion. Then open the program, and do the following:

1. For shortcut location, select Desktop

2. For Function select, for each of your optical drives:

        a) Eject CD-ROM Tray

        b) Close CD-ROM Tray

3. For the Drive letter, put the appropriate drive letter

Like this:

After this, get the shortcuts to a separate folder for safe-keeping. Then right-click on the taskbar and click lock the taskbar, if it's already locked.

Right click the taskbar again, and select Toolbars -> New Toolbar... and navigate to the folder where you kept the newly created shortcuts, and select OK to confirm.

Move your mouse over the newly created toolbars doted vertical line until the pointer changes to a double-headed arrow. Drag the toolbar out and drop it off at the corner of the screen until it docks to the side. Then rightclick on the docked toolbar and select show text and show title to remove the text and title from the toolbar.

At this point, right click the shortcuts and click Properties and then change icons. Navigate to %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll in the box that pops up and you'll get XP's icon repository. You can also use your own icon collection too. If you have a good icon, please do mention and I'll show it here, and I might use it too. ;)

Remember to choose icon that'll tell you what each shortcut will do. Then rightclick on it again and select rename and put in the proper sentences.

Then drag out the docked toolbar and place it on the taskbar and resize the toolbar until you are satisfied with it. After this, rightclick (this is the last time!!) and select Lock the Taskbar.

Now check your shortcut.

nJoy....

XP/Vista Task Manager Trick

This had me bowled over for quite few moments. I thought it was virus attack. It was discovered by me accidentally. This trick makes the window controls disappear. It's really very easy, no programming knowledge needed, just the mouse.

Bring up the task manger by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL simultaneously. (In Vista, select Start Task Manager from the list. It's the last option). Then Double click on the area just around the buttons, but not on the button or the title bar, the grey area. And voila you have a task manager without any titlebar or windows controls. You can freak out a friend by closing the Task Manager in that state by pressing ALT+F4. The next time someone brings up the Task Manager it'll remain like that, devoid of the titlebar and the controls.

To get it back, just Double click the grey area again, and everything will be back to normal :)

Here are the pics: