Use the links next to the caption "Tips for Internet & Windows" to read old tips.

***WINDOWS*** (Click here for Internet Tips)

Automatically clearing your cache
If you're using Internet Explorer 5.x, you should know about a hidden feature that allows the browser to automatically clear its cache each time you close the program. To activate this feature, pull down the Tools menu and select the Internet Options command. When you see the Internet Options dialog box, select the Advanced tab and scroll down the Settings list box until you see the Security section. Then, select the Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder When Browser Is Closed check box.
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Exporting information from the Administrative Tools
Have you noticed that your Windows 2000 Administrative Tools include an "Export List" option? (You'll find it on the Action menu in most of the Microsoft Management Consoles.) This option enables you to export a list of whatever it is your managing in the tool you're using. You can export to either a tab or comma delimited file; you might find a comma delimited file handy for importing information into a database. For example, you can use the Export List option to export a list of all of the users and groups in the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC.
Keep in mind that Export List exports whatever columns you've configured your administrative tool to display. You can further customize this export capability by configuring the MMC to display additional columns-which will then be included in your export file. For example, Active Directory Users and Computers displays the Name, Type, and Description columns for your users by default. By right-clicking on the User object and choosing View | Choose Columns, you can select other columns to display. Once you've configured the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC to display these columns, Export List will automatically include them in your export file.
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Creating a shared folder on a remote computer in Windows NT
As an administrator, you'll find that you will occasionally want to create a shared folder on a remote computer's hard drive. One way you can share a folder is within Server Manager. Begin by running Server Manager. In the list of computers in your domain, select the computer on which you want to share a folder. Choose Computer | Shared Directories. This will give you a list of the existing shares on that computer. To share a folder on the remote computer, click New Share. Specify a share name and the path on the remote computer-and that's it!
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Using pushd and popd to change directories
You're probably accustomed to using the old DOS cd command to change directories when you're working at the command prompt. But Windows 2000 includes two enhanced utilities for changing directories: pushd and popd. You can use the pushd command just like you use the cd command: to change directories. So why use pushd instead of cd? Well, when you use pushd to change directories, Windows 2000 remembers the directory you were previously in--and you can then use popd to change back to that directory. For example, let's say you're currently working in the c:\Program Files directory. If you type pushd c:\winnt, you'll now be working with the c:\winnt directory. If you then type popd, you'll be returned back to the c:\Program Files directory.
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Creating a quick format shortcut
If you format many floppy disks, you know how tedious it is to get to the Format command. You have to first open either Windows Explorer or My Computer, then right-click on the floppy disk drive icon, and select the Format command from the shortcut menu.
Wouldn't it be neat if you could cut down this three-step procedure to a single double-click? Fortunately, we've discovered how to create a shortcut to the Format dialog box. To begin, right-click on the desktop and select the New/Shortcut command from the shortcut menu. When you see the Create Shortcut wizard, type the command
Rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHFormatDrive
in the Command Line text box. To continue, click Next and give the shortcut an appropriate name, such as Floppy Format. Then, click the Finish button.
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Uncovering multimedia properties
Have you ever wondered how many minutes a MID or WAV file will play? Fortunately, you can find out easily. To do so, just right-click on the file and select Properties from the shortcut menu. Once the file's properties sheet appears, click the Details button and check out the Media Length field. You can then click the Preview button and listen to the sound clip.
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Determining who has a file open in Windows NT
There are several techniques you can use to figure out who has a specific file open on your server. One method is to open a Command Prompt window and run the net file command. This command provides you with a list of all of the open files on your server. If you're looking for a specific file, though, you'll have to search through the output to figure out who has the file open.
You can also use Server Manager to figure out who has a specific file open. Begin by running Server Manager and then double-clicking on your server. Next, click In Use to see what files are open on your server-and who has them open. Like the net file command, the In Use list shows you all files open on your server-so if your server has a lot of users connected to it, you'll have to search through the list to find out who has the file open.
If you want to see who has a specific file open, the easiest way to find out is to use the old Windows NT 3.51 File Manager. From the Start menu, choose Run. Type winfile in the Open text box, and then click OK. In File Manager, select the file for which you want to determine who has it open, then choose File | Properties. On the Properties page, click Open By. You'll now be able to see which user has the file open on your server.
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***INTERNET*** (Click here for Windows Tips)

Handle rollover events with a single JavaScript function
Often, on Web sites, we've seen developers create two separate procedures to handle rollover effects--one for the mouseover() event and another for the mouseout() event. In many cases, however, the two procedures perform similar actions. For instance, they may change an image's source from one URL to another. Under these circumstances, why not combine the two procedures into one?
Of course, when you do, you'll need a way to determine which event the browser triggered so you can perform the appropriate action. Fortunately, JavaScript provides everything you need to do just that in the Event object. Whenever you trigger an event, JavaScript creates a corresponding Event object and automatically passes it along to whatever procedure you've set up to handle the event. By including a parameter to capture this event object, then testing it, you can determine which specific event triggered the procedure. For instance, in the rollover example, you could use the following code:
function alter(evt) {
var myImg = document.myButtonImage;
switch (evt.getType())
{
case 'mouseover':
myImg.src = "/buttons/rollover.gif";
break;
case 'mouseout':
myImg.src = "/buttons/rollout.gif";
break;
}
}
Here, the code uses the Event object's getType() method to test for the event type, and sets the image's source accordingly. To use this procedure in an HTML element's event handler, you'd use
<img src="/buttons/rollout.gif" DEFANGED_Onmouseover="alter(evt)" DEFANGED_Onmouseout="alter(evt)" />
As you can see the 'evt' keyword represents the event that triggered the procedure, similar to the 'this' keyword.
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Permanently deleting Outlook items
Outlook protects you from deleting items that you don't want to lose permanently by using a two-step deletion process. When you delete an item, Outlook moves it to the Deleted Items folder where you can retrieve it if need be. To delete the item permanently, you must delete it from the Deleted Items folder. However, if you want to delete an item permanently, you can bypass the Deleted Items folder by selecting the item and pressing [Shift][Delete]. When prompted, click OK to delete the item permanently.
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Changing the destination of your FrontPage thumbnail links
As we described in last week's tip, FrontPage's Auto Thumbnail feature lets you quickly replace an image with a smaller version of itself. Clicking that thumbnail brings up the original image in the browser.
When you display an image in the browser, however, you have no control over its appearance. You can't, for example, change the background color of the browser window or center the picture within the window.
What you can do, however, is create an HTML page containing the image and link the thumbnail to that page instead of to the original image. To do so, right-click on the thumbnail and choose Edit Hyperlink from the shortcut menu. Change the content of the URL text box to reflect the URL of your HTML page. For best results, give the HTML page a similar name to the image (whitehouse.htm instead of whitehouse.jpg, for example).
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Retrieve page elements in IE 5.x and NN 6.0 with getElementById()
As you probably know, if you've done any type of coding with JavaScript, obtaining a reference to a Web page element takes two different code statements: one for IE 5.x and one for Netscape Navigator 4.x. For instance, IE exposes the handy document.all collection. This collection contains every page element in a Web document. So, to create an object variable in IE based on a Web page element, you'd use something like:
var myObj = document.all["myFunkyDiv"]
In Netscape 4.x, it takes a little more doing. For layers or absolutely positioned div's, you can access the layers collection:
var myObj = document.layers["myFunkyDiv"]
For other elements, such as form fields, images and links, you must work your way down through the object model hierarchy.
Fortunately, with the introduction of Netscape Navigator 6.0, you now have a way to retrieve page elements with a single DOM-compliant function: getElementById(). This function works in both NN 6.0 *and* IE 5.x. As its only parameter, this function takes the id of the element you want to retrieve, and would look as follows:
var myObj = document.getElementById("myFunkyDiv")
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Determine your link popularity
If you have your own Web site, you know that increasing your link presence on other sites is a great way to increase traffic to your site. You can persuade other site owners to feature links to your site by building relationships and creating a sponsorship program. Of course, sometimes you'll just get lucky and a site owner will add your URL to their page simply because they like it. Many search engines-AOL, HotBot, MSN, AltaVista, Excite, Go, Northern Light, FAST and Google for example-index sites based on link popularity. So by increasing your link popularity you can increase your site's appearance among search results. To determine your current link popularity, visit any of the above-named search engines and enter
link:sitename
in the search field, where "sitename" is the URL of the site whose link popularity you'd like to research.
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Changing the "auto" in FrontPage's Auto Thumbnail feature
When you select an image in FrontPage and click the Auto Thumbnail button on the Pictures toolbar (Images toolbar in FrontPage 98), FrontPage creates a miniature version of the image and links this thumbnail to the full-size original.
You can change the default size of your thumbnails by choosing Page Options from the Tools menu (or Options from FrontPage 98 Editor's Tools menu). The dialog box that appears also lets you specify whether the thumbnail will have a border and/or a beveled edge.
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