Category Archives: Miscellaneous

XP – Removing Read Only For Files Or Folders Copied From A CD

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When you copy files off a CD you will have to remove the read only attribute, before you can edit the file.

There are a few ways to do this, but I will show you what I think is the easiest:

  • In Windows Explorer, find the file / folder you copied from the CD.
  • Right Click that file / folder and select Properties.
  • Uncheck the Read-only box in the Attributes section.
  • Click on OK.

Of course there are utilities out there you can use and commands that can be entered in DOS mode, but this should be the cheapest and easiest way for most people. If you do a lot of copying from CDs you might want to look for the alternatives.

If you want to make a file read only, so you don’t make a change by mistake for instance, follow the same basic procedure outlined above, but place a check in the Read-only box, instead of unchecking it.

Internet – Firefox Multiple Home Pages

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Would you like to have more than one home page automatically open when you start Firefox? Here is one way to do so:

  • Open the pages you want to see in separate tabs.
  • Go to the Tools menu.
  • Select Options.
  • Click on “Use Current Pages”, in the Home Page of the General Tab.
  • Click on OK.

I use this to show tabs with a blank page, the Broward Personal Computer Association home page, and the Boca Raton Computer Society, each time I open my Portable Firefox on my thumb drive  That way I can see if there is any updated information for the user group pages and have a blank tab for anything else I want to check on.

See my July 17, 2006 post Open Browser To A Blank Page for how to set your browser to open to a blank page and the reasons I like to do that.

XP – Lost Window?

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For some reason, known only to the computer gods, every once in a while a window disappears. This tip should get it back for you.

  • Hold down the Alt key and keep tapping the Tab key until you get to the icon of the program you want.
  • Hit the Alt key and the Spacebar at the same time.
  • Press the M key and use the arrow keys to position the window to the right place and the Esc key when it is where you want.
  • Drag on the window edges to resize it as you like. (Caution: Do not use the Maximize button for this.)

Now the next time you open the window it should work correctly.

Actually, there are no computer gods of course, at least to my knowledge, somehow or other we must have inadvertently dragged the window beyond the accessible area of the screen. This doesn’t happen often thankfully but can be really frustrating when it does happen.

I have only used this myself in both XP Home and XP Pro but, I believe it works the same in older versions also.