Removing Duplicate Files

Want to save some disk space? How about removing all duplicate copies of your files? Fortunately, there are free tools to help you do this. I used DoubleKiller after reading the LifeHacker post: http://lifehacker.com/330037/top-10-free-windows-file-wranglers.

• Found many data files that were duplicates
• Found many copies of VIRSCAN*.dat files from Symantec AntiVirus. Deleted all the ones in *.tmp folders (actually, moved them to a holding location). No issues so far.
• If you have multiple copies of Matlab installed, I would recommend removing those from the search path

Check out WinDirStat from the that LifeHacker post too.

Modifying the Windows-E Shortcut Key's Behavior

Background: Pressing the key combination [Windows Logo Key] + [e] opens Windows Explorer.

I use this short-cut all the time, but I was annoyed that it always opened with the C:\ fully expanded, which took-up most of the viewable space in the left-hand pane of Windows Explorer.

After a bit of web-searching and playing around, I found a solution.

1. Go to: Start Menu -> Run -> regedit
2. Locate the registry key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\explore\ddeexec
3. The (Default) value should be something like: %SystemRoot%\Explorer.exe /e,/idlist,%I,%L


4. Delete this value so that the entry is blank (right-click on (Default), choose "Modify")

[EDIT] Recently noted my personal computer has "My Documents" appearing ahead of C:\. I need to find out how to get that for my work computer.