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Look Up Error Messages in Windows

Cheryl — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:55:43 +0000

If you use Windows, chances are you get error messages with different Microsoft software from time to time. Of course, this being Windows, you don’t get a straight error message. Instead, you have something like ‘You have encountered error 11456’ or something along those lines.

So, how do you figure out what the error code means. Usually, you trot off to the Microsoft site or Google, type in the code and wait for the results to be displayed. Not a very effective method if I might say so.

If you are fed up of always having to hunt for meanings of error messages, then Gregory Braun has just the thing for you. He’s developed a software called Error Messages for Windows. The software, as its name suggests, offers an easy way to decipher those error codes.

This free software is easy to use. Simply open it up, type in the error code and voila! you get a short description of the error corresponding to that particular number. At just over 200 kilo bytes, this program is small, which is another plus. In addition, the program runs on all versions of Windows.

Do you think this program is helpful? Have you heard of anything else that can perform a similar function? Do let me know.

Manage Open With Programs

Martin Brinkmann — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:11:30 +0000

A left-click on a file opens it with the default application while a right-click offers a menu with the option to open the file with a different application. You get the choice to pick another application that added itself during installation to that menu or to browse your computer for another application not in that list.

Sometimes however the choices are kinda strange and do not make sense at all. If I choose the Open With option for a text document on my computer I get to choose between Notepad++ (default), Firefox, Office and Thunderbird. At least two of those applications do not make sense in my opinion.

Open Expert is probably the best application to configure the available applications for the Open With dialog for each filet ype in Windows. A list is populated with all Open With programs after selecting a file type from the list of available extensions.

Each program in the list can be rearranged in position or removed from the list completely. Alternatively new programs can be added from the hard drive. Open Expert is easy to use and the results are immediately visible.

Start Multiple Applications from the Start Menu

Martin Brinkmann — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 06:33:45 +0000

Clicking on Start, All Programs, the folder of the software that you want to start and finally the software is the normal way to start applications using the Windows start menu. Unfortunately though it closes every time you have started a software from it which means that you have to follow the same path again if you want to open another application from it.

I used this way to start several applications after system start until I discovered that it is possible to start multiple applications from the start menu without that auto-closing feature.

If you press the SHIFT key while clicking on the start menu it will not close after launching an application. It will simply remain open which means that you can start as many applications as you want from the start menu. This is also nice if you want to delete several entries from the start menu.

Normally deleting an entry would also close the start menu which would mean that you have to open it five times if you want to delete five items. If you press SHIFT this is not happening. You may now delete all folders in the start menu without it being closed after each process.