Are you a POWAR user?

F

fury

Administrator
Staff member
Do you have shortcut bars strewn about the screen giving you instant access to frequently used parts of your computer?

I have the Windows taskbar off to the right side of the screen with the Quicklaunch and My Computer toolbars on it, and a Desktop toolbar auto-hiding on the top of the screen which contains shortcuts to my downloads folder and htdocs folder.

:beerbang:
 
i dont know what powar is... but i have a lot in my quicklaunch... lots of programs i use a lot.
the six that appear all the time are:
IE, Livejournal, Notepad, AIM, Paint, and Desktop.

when the nearby double-arrow is clicked,
Sound Recorder, WinAmp, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Shortcut to My Computer, Kazaa k++, Semagic (another livejournal thing), and Skype appear.

ummm... is that what you mean?

oh, and i have my toolbar set to double-height so i can fit two rows of stuff in it, and it's not auto-hide.
 
I've always considered the term "power User" to refer to those who seldom need to touch their mouse....For instance, a PhotoShop power user would know all of the keyboard commands for all of the tools and processes as opposed to chasing down the menues with his mouse...I've seen them work and its amazing how much faster they can accomplish things with the keyboard.

I have a dock at the bottom of my screen (sometimes side) which gives me access to all of my most frequently used applications and folders...But i don't consider myself a power user by any means...
 
I'm not a big fan of the auto hide taskbar, I like mine to always be visible, it takes less time to click on my quick launch icons. If there's something I'm a freak about, it's getting information as quickly as possible. Because of that, I do have the quicklaunch handy, have Windows Explorer shortcuts in my favorites, same shortcuts in my Start Menu etc. The one step I have yet to take is to make all the icons one-click hyperlinks. I think the double click is just too ingrained in me.

One thing that bugs me is the Windows default folder for My Documents and My Pictures: C:\Documents and Settings\your profile\My Documents. Too long, too many clicks! That's why I always create a folder named ~Stuff~ in the system root. The tilde puts it at the top of any alphabetized list when searching and I always know where I put everything. Makes it easier also if I need to get to it from a command prompt for any reason, less typing.
 
I'm a big fan of the right click "context menu"
I setup as much as possible (that I really use) in there.
 
does having all your shortcuts handy on your desktop count? Any thing i use often has a shortcut on the desktop, and i use the right click feature on the task bar to get to it all, i rarely close windows down. and i see to have 8-12 windows open at once.
 
I hear ya.
My desktop stays about half filled all the time @ 1024x768.
I'm also with greenfreak, I don't really like the auto hide thing.
 
I never thought I'd get used to 1024x768, now I'm thinking of going higher. Once I get my new eyeglasses of course. ;)
 
I don't use Photoshop much. If I had a reason to, I'd learn the combinations for that too ;)

Here's the keyboard shortcuts I use most, besides the obvious Ctrl+ZXCVYAS... (undo, cut, copy, paste, redo, select all, save)

Windows + D Switch between windows and desktop
Windows + M Minimizes all windows.
Shift + Windows + M Restore all windows.
Windows + E Open Explorer.
Windows + F Explorer search
Windows + R Run
Windows + SysRq System properties.

Plus, my keyboard has built in shortcut buttons for back, forward, stop, refresh, web search (which I have customized to open Google), favorites, home page, mail, mute, volume, play, stop, track forward/back, media (which I have customized to open my, uhh... non-existent pron folder. ;)

There's also My Computer, Calc, and Sleep buttons over to the right, just above the number pad. I use the first two frequently and am about ready to rip the third one out for how many times I accidentally hit it ;)
 
fury said:
Do you have shortcut bars strewn about the screen giving you instant access to frequently used parts of your computer?
Click to expand...

Shortcuts? you mean I don't have to keep the actual files on my Desktop :lloyd:
 
The hot keys I use most are..
winkey+pause/break - to get to the device man, and stuff.
ctrl+ins - for copy
shift+del - to cut
shift+ins - for paste
alt+F4 - to close ie windows sometimes.
ctrl+a - to highlight all
ctrl+c to close some dos apps

that's all I can think of right off, that I do use alot.
 
I have twelve frequently used apps in Quick Launch. My Documents expands from the Start Menu, and I have My Computer in the start menu, and it expands as well. I also have a shared folder in root that has useful stuff in it to share with the wife and the pvr. My Linux setup is pretty much similar. I like having pictures on the desktop and icons get in the way. I have five in Windows and three in Linux.
 
I love keyboard shortcuts. Love 'em. F7 and Shift-F7 are my friends. :D

I set hotkeys to open common programs, and the rest I use the Quicklaunch bar. Everything that gets saved to my desktop gets saved to a folder on my desktop called....desktop. I don't like a cluttered screen. :p


By the way...anyone know if there's a way to put icons below the start button?
 
There isn't. Believe me, I've tried. Well, for me it would be across from the start button. Cause there is a significant amount of space there... would hold at least the time of day; sometimes does when I don't have any programs running in the taskbar or system tray. :D
 
Umm, I just figured out why I had to whip out the on-screen keyboard every time I wanted to take a screenshot.

The print-screen key and the Pause keys were switched around after I had finished cleaning it after the last time I spilled crap in it. So, the System Properties are actually Windows + Break, and I've been hitting Pause every time I wanted a screenie.

:tardbang:
 
I'm not a POWAR user. It gives me a rash.

Although I can't say I'm a minimalist, I do like to keep my desktop uncluttered for the most part.

In the past, I used to use the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar for everything. But it got annoying after awhile. A friend gave me this program called H-Menu. He loves it, but I haven't tried it yet.
It's available at http://www.h-menu.com/
The site is in German, but he says the program is in Engrish... I mean English.

Also, I haven't wallpapered my desktop yet because I love that default shade of blue.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top