Windows 11: Where’s the calendar in the system tray?

Another annoyance with Windows 11 is the apparent lack of a quick and easy calendar that in many previous versions has popped up when you clicked on the time/date in the system tray.

But it’s not there in Windows 11—instead you see the notifications and something called Focus. No calendar. Off to the internet, where, after a bit of sleuthing, I found that the calendar IS there, but it’s an extra (annoying) click away. To see it, you have to click the up arrow icon in the Focus section (illogically, clicking the actual date does nothing—you have to click the up arrow icon).

Once you click that icon, you can see the calendar.

Thanks, Microsoft, for hiding a common and well-used function under an extra click and with no information to tell you it’s there! I’d like to send you the bill for my time spent in finding this and other things like the recent list of Word documents!

Windows 11: Show recent documents on Word taskbar icon

One of the annoyances I’ve found with my Windows 11 laptop is that the list of ‘recent’ documents when I right-clicked the Word icon on the taskbar showed documents I created 5 years ago that were stored on a OneDrive account I never use! And except for one template, none had file extensions, even though that I had turned on that setting as one of the first tasks when I first started using the laptop.

How those old documents got on to my new laptop is beyond me (likely a background link to OneDrive?) and no matter how many other Word documents I opened, saved and closed, that list didn’t change. I hunted Google for some possible answers, looking for information on Recent Lists, Jump Lists, etc. but nothing I tried worked—that old OneDrive list remained stubbornly as my ‘recent list’. And yes, my Personalization settings for Start were set to ‘show recently opened items’.

Based on some internet information, I decided to try one more time by turning off that setting. Immediately, the recent list for Word was cleared of those old documents. So I turned the setting back on—the list was still empty. I then opened and saved some Word documents and check the taskbar icon for Word again—the most recent items were now listed!!!

It was as simple as turning that setting off then turning it back on again.

Windows 11: Install without a Microsoft account (local machine)

Contributed by one of my clients. I’m pretty sure my IT people did this when I got my new Windows 11 laptop recently—they told me to NOT turn it on until they were on the phone with me to walk me through this.

1. Start the computer/laptop and get to the installation point where it asks for a WiFi connection. Unfortunately, there’s no option to choose ‘I don’t have internet’ as you could in previous Windows versions.
2. Press Shift+F10 to open the command prompt.
3. Type: oobe\bypassnro (no spaces, not case-sensitive)
4. Press Enter.
5. The computer will restart and begin the installation process again.
6. On the screen where you’re asked for a WiFi connection, there’s now an option to choose I don’t have internet. Click that option.
7. The next screen will also ask you to connect to the internet—don’t.
8. Set up a local account name, then follow any further prompts.
9. Once the desktop appears, you can connect to WiFi or LAN and download any Windows updates and continue on with your life.

This YouTube video from 2020 shows the steps above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-Ecj1eU6Uo

[Link last checked January 2024]

Windows 11: Get rid of search suggestions

My last laptop purchase was in 2015 (!) so after 8+ years of faithful service it was time to upgrade. Which means I’ve been exposed to Windows 11 Pro for the past few days as I set it up as I want it. One of the immediate annoyances was the search ‘suggestion’ (with an obscure graphic) in the Search box on the task bar. That had to go! Here’s how to get rid of it:

1. Go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Search Permissions > More Settings
2. Switch Show Search Highlights to off.

That’s it!

 

 

 

Add message to login screen on laptop

I thought I’d documented this somewhere, but no, I haven’t. Some years ago I discovered that you can modify a Registry entry to display a message on your computer screen before the login screen. It’s not particularly useful for a PC that lives in your house or office, but I added it to my laptop some years ago. I mainly use my laptop when I travel, so having some form of contact details on the screen means that if I leave my laptop and anyone finds it they’ll know how to contact me… if I’m lucky! I’m about to get a new Windows 11 laptop so I needed to hunt out where and how I did this.

These instructions are for Windows 10—with luck they’ll work on Windows 11 too.

1. Open the registry editor (regedit).
2. Go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\
   Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
3. Go to legalnoticecaption and double-click it. In the Value Data field add whatever caption you’d like. I added Hi!
4. Go to legalnoticetext and double-click it. In the Value Data field add whatever message you’d like displayed on the opening screen. I added If you found this laptop, email [my email address] or call [my phone number in international format]
5. Close the Registry.

 

Word: Use the keyboard to add a word to the dictionary

In the category of ‘OMG—I didn’t know I could do that!!’ comes this tip from Allen Wyatt’s WordTips newsletter: https://wordribbon.tips.net/T010898_Spell-Checking_from_the_Keyboard.html where he describes several ways of using the keyboard instead of right-clicking with the mouse to add a word to the dictionary.

I just tested the ‘right-click’ button on my keyboard on a misspelled word in Word and it does as he says! But more importantly, it’s not just for adding words to the dictionary—in fact, you can use it ANYWHERE and in ANY program where right-click options are available (including your browser, desktop etc.) and, depending on the context, you’ll get the relevant shortcut menu displayed, from which you can use the arrow keys to navigate to the function you want.

I guess I’ve never really noticed some of the newer keys on the keyboard over the years (I started with computers in the mid-80s, getting my first PC in 1994). And if I knew about that right-click key at any point, I’d forgotten about it.

So, where is this magic key? On 104-key Windows keyboards it’s immediately left of the Ctrl key on the right. Try it out! (I have no idea if there’s anything similar on a Mac)

Windows 11: Customise Explorer views and options

One of my clients sent me an email despairing of the changes in how Windows 11 displays folders etc. in Windows Explorer/File Explorer (Microsoft seems to change what they call it so I’ll just use ‘Explorer’ here). Basically, he lost the functionality he used to have and wanted to get it back. I helped him with a few things, like pinning most-used folders to the Quick Access area of the left navigation pane, but because I don’t use Windows 11 yet, I couldn’t help him with others.

He got back to me with a link to an EXCELLENT YouTube video that explains how to customise Explorer so that it better matches what you’re used to in Windows 10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DLZL1_Ymcg

(NOTE: This video is useful for Windows 10 users too, as most of the things the narrator talks about can also be done in Windows 10 [Options settings are under the View tab  > Options icon drop-down list > Change File and Folder Options.)

Some other resources I sent my client include:

• Pinning items (including, files, folders, drives) to the task bar:
  • https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-11-taskbar-pin-almost-anything/
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/pin-apps-and-folders-to-the-desktop-or-taskbar-f3c749fb-e298-4cf1-adda-7fd635df6bb0
• Creating a new folder in Explorer (various methods):
  • Right-click in a blank area on the right (or on a folder name on the left), select New > Folder
  • On the Home tab, click New Folder (if you can’t see the ribbons, just the tabs, click the tiny arrow immediately to the left of the help (the blue question mark) icon on the far right of the tab area to expand to the full ribbons and all their commands.
  • https://www.makeuseof.com/ways-to-create-a-new-folder-in-windows/
• Creating shortcuts to folders (OLD blogposts of mine, but they still work):
  • https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/shortcuts-to-multiple-drives-and-folders/
  • https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/opening-windows-explorer-to-a-folder-of-your-choice/
• Quick Access (Windows 10, but should work the same in Windows 11):
  • Open Explorer at Quick Access instead of This PC: https://www.isunshare.com/windows-10/open-file-explorer-to-quick-access-or-this-pc-in-windows-10.html
  • https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-retrieve-folders-files-with-windows-10-quick-access

[Links last checked April 2023]

 

Windows: Can’t see files in folders

I was freaking out a few minutes ago thinking I’d lost ALL my files on the server. I could see the folders, but NO files. I checked the various drives with the same result—folders, but no files. What on Earth had happened to them?

I was getting ready to call my IT people to restore all the files from a backup. And then I realised I was navigating the folder structure via a ‘Save all attachments’ window from Outlook! As soon as I closed that navigation window, everything was available to me again. But it certainly gave me a scare!!!

 

Windows 10: Display hidden system tray icon

Back in the dim dark ages of Windows XP etc., there was a method to display hidden system tray icons (see this blog post from 2010: https://cybertext.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/windows-show-all-system-tray-icons/). But those instructions don’t apply to Windows 10.

I’d installed something that had ended up in the system tray, but it was hidden under the arrow and I had to click the arrow each time to see it. I wanted to see this icon all the time because when it’s off it indicates that my IT people can’t see my computer and thus the internet connection may have failed.

Displaying a system tray icon is very simple in Windows 10:

1. Click the arrow to show the hidden icons.
2. Click and drag the one you want into the visible area on the system tray. (To put it back in the hidden group, click and drag it onto the arrow and then into the group.)

That’s it!

Once it’s on the system tray, you can click and drag it to another position.

Windows: List all files in a folder and its subfolders using Excel

I first wrote about the methods for doing this back in 2008 (!), but today I found another, much simpler way of getting a list of all files in a Windows folder and its subfolders using Excel (any version after 2010, I believe). (Update 28 November 2022: There are some issues with Method 1 that I found while testing it, so for an even quicker and cleaner method, skip to Method 2 below)

Method 1

It’s quick, clean, and you can specify which data to keep, delete or add before you get your final list. And any updates to the folders can be updated automatically via Excel if you save your list. Details and demo in this 3 minute YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsBtczyaPnc

In case that video ever gets deleted or moved, here are the basic steps:

1. Open a new Excel document.
2. On the Data tab, click the drop-down arrow next to Get Data.
3. Select From File > From Folder.
4. Click Browse and choose the topmost folder containing the files you want to list.
5. Click OK. Depending on how many files there are, the list could take several seconds (or more) to display.
6. A preview of the data found is shown in a new window (NOTE: This is NOT all the data, just a sample).
7. Check the data columns:
   • If you’re happy with what you see, click Load and go to Step 8.
   • If you want to add or delete columns, click Transform Data. In the next window, right click on the column header of any column you don’t need, then select Remove. By default the Attributes column likely displays ‘Record’—you can click the double-arrow icon to the right of that column header to show the attribute types you can select from. By default, all are selected. To clear the list and just select one or two, clear the ‘Select All’ checkbox at the top of the list, then choose the attributes you want to list. If not all attributes are shown, click the ‘Load More’ link. Don’t expect to see everything related to a file’s properties—for example, for a list of photos, the Tag, Title and Subject properties were NOT listed. Once you’ve selected your attributes, click OK to close this window.  To now load it all into Excel, click Close and Load on the Home tab.
8. Once all the data loads, you can continue to modify columns etc. Save the file if you later want to update the list.

(NOTE: In my testing, everything worked fine initially, but in later testing, I ran into an ‘Evaluation ran out of memory…’ error message consistently, even after closing and reopening Excel. In the comments under the YouTube video some people said that they’ve been able to extract 37,000+ file listings, but mine were nowhere near that big, more like 200 to 500. I couldn’t find the cause or how to fix it. If I do, I’ll report back here.)

Update from testing (27 Nov 2022): Testing results: I think the ‘Evaluation ran out of memory…’ error message MIGHT be related to the size (or type?) of the individual files. It runs perfectly well on a set of Word docs in a client’s folder and subfolders, where the biggest docs are 80 MB or so. But it chokes on a folder of videos, where most are in the several GB range. It’s almost like Excel is looking to load the actual files into the spreadsheet in the background, as versus just reporting the names of the files. This is a guess and further testing would be required, but as it ran perfectly well on a set of Word (and related docs) but not on videos, and then ran correctly on the Word docs again, I’d say file size might be the reason. I just tried it on a top-level folder of music files—it ran fine (3200+ files, with a total size of 20 GB). So I tried it again on a smaller subfolder of just 12 videos with a total file size of just over 3 GB, and it gave the error message again. So, more likely the file type than the size?

Method 2

For an even simpler option, check this 3-minute YouTube video. It’s all good, but if you’re looking for just the method to copy everything in subfolders as well as the selected folder, jump straight to the 2-minute mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7SE5h7AUBg

As before, if that video ever goes missing, here are the basic steps:

1. Open Word or Excel or another text editor where you’ll copy your results.
2. Open Explorer to the top-level folder.
3. In the Search box type a single period and press Enter. This will list everything in the top-level folder and all its subfolders (the default option on the Search tab showing the results).
4. Go to the Home tab in Explorer.
5. Select Copy Path.
6. Paste (Ctrl+v) the results into your Word, Excel, or other document.

[Links last checked November 2022]