How to Open File or Folder Path from the Clipboard Using Shortcut

copy path to clipboard to Run dialog

Sometimes we may need to copy a file or folder path from your email or chat window to the clipboard, and open the file or folder manually. Most people open the file or folder by launching the Run dialog, pasting the path from the Clipboard, and clicking OK.

paste path from clipboard to Run dialog

If your job involves doing this sort of task repeatedly, manually opening the Run dialog and pasting the path every time can be tedious. You can simplify this using a keyboard shortcut (hotkey) with the help of a small AutoHotKey (AHK) script.

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How to Batch Convert Excel Sheets into PDF Files

excel save as pdf

Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets are commonly used to store financial data and prepare invoices. Often, you may need to convert the .xls or .xlsx files to .pdf format especially if you’re sending out invoices to your clients.

Microsoft Excel has a built-in option using which you can save your workbook, active sheet, or selected cells to a PDF file. This can be accomplished using the Save as… dropdown box.

excel save as pdf

By clicking on the More options… link, you can configure the page range, and the item to export (entire workbook, active sheet, etc) to PDF.

excel save as pdf - options dialog

tips bulb iconAnother option would be to use the Microsoft Print to PDF driver in Windows 10 to output the .xls or .xlsx file to a .pdf document. For this, you’d use the Print option (instead of Save as) to print the document to PDF.

excel print to microsoft pdf printer or cutepdf printer

Pre-Windows 10 systems don’t have the Microsoft Print to PDF driver. As an alternative. you can use the free CutePDF Writer or Foxit PDF Printer (part of Foxit PDF Reader software.)

Bulk conversion of Excel sheets to PDF

However, if you have hundreds of invoices (in .xls or .xlsx format) that you need to batch/bulk convert the files into PDF, the above options are not ideal and take a long time.

  • There are plenty of online portals that can bulk convert Excel sheets to PDF documents quickly without charging any fee. However, if your Excel sheets are confidential and you don’t want any intermediary portal or service to access them, then you may use the Excel to PDF offline conversion methods discussed in this article.

Fortunately, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel lets you automate the above task using scripting. This article tells you how to batch convert multiple Excel sheets into PDF files quickly.Read more

Find the Total Execution Time of a Command or Program in Windows

measure total execution time of a command or program

You may sometimes want to to find the total execution time of a command or program you run. To optimize a script or program, it’s essential to know how long does it take for it to complete execution. This helps you compare the total run time of Program A vs. Program B and optimize your code, especially if you’re a professional software developer, analyst, or software tester.

Measuring the total execution time of a script or process is one of the most critical aspects of performance optimization. This article discusses various methods to find the total execution time of a program, script, or command in Windows.

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How to Check if a Program (.EXE or .DLL) is 32-bit or 64-bit

find out if exe is 32-bit or 64-bit

Software developers compile separate executable files (.EXE or .DLL) for 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) systems. The 64-bit version of the program is usually denoted by suffixing 64 or x64 with the filename — e.g., sigcheck.exe vs. sigcheck64.exe. In some cases, the bitness notation may be missing, and you may be wondering if the executable is 32-bit or 64-bit.

This article discusses various methods to determine if a program or executable file is 32-bit or 64-bit in Windows.

Note that some vendors may combine the 32-bit and 64-bit executables into one 32-bit self-extractor file that would detect the platform, extract, and run the correct EXE for the current platform.Read more

How to Change Shortcut (.lnk) Target in Bulk Using Script

shortcuts search and replace bulk

Many users have shortcuts pointing to various network shares from other systems or your domain’s storage server. If your company migrates the server and changes the computer name, share name, or folder path, you need to manually update the shortcut targets to point to the right destination. In most cases, the folder structure may remain the same, but the server name usually changes.Read more

How to Auto Shutdown after Installing Updates in Windows 10

install updates and shut down windows 10

On patch Tuesdays, you’ll see a bunch of updates such as Adobe Flash Player Security Update, Servicing Stack update, and/or the Cumulative Update showing up in the queue when you open Windows Update settings page. For Asian countries, the updates arrive at night or late night.

Installing a Feature Update or Cumulative Update always requires a restart. Once done, you then have to shut down the device manually if you don’t prefer leaving the computer in sleep or hibernation mode overnight. This means your sleep schedule gets delayed as you’ll have to be awake until the Cumulative Update is fully downloaded and installed.

You may be wondering how to automatically shut down your Windows 10 computer after the updates are installed.Read more

How to Flip or Reverse a Text File Using Different Ways in Windows

reverse lines in a text file windows

When analyzing plain-text log files such as the Web server logs or the Sfc, or DISM log files, you may sometimes prefer the most recent items appearing at the top. However, most of the log files that Windows generates would have the oldest entries listed first — entries listed in chronological order. You may be … Read more

How to Batch Convert Word Documents into PDF Files

batch convert word documents to pdf

Microsoft Word is a top-notch word processor using which you can save documents in .doc, .docx, and different other formats. When you need to send a document to someone who doesn’t have Office Word installed, you usually convert the document to PDF and send it.

As you may have known, Microsoft Word lets you convert or save a document (.doc or .docx file) as a PDF file using the Save As dialog.

batch convert word documents to pdf

Open the document, and launch the Save as dialog. Select PDF (*.pdf) from the list and save the file.

Another option would be to use the Microsoft Print to PDF driver in Windows 10 to output the .doc or .docx file to a .pdf document. For this, you’d use the Print option (instead of Save as) to print the document to PDF.

batch convert word documents to pdf

Pre-Windows 10 systems don’t have the Microsoft Print to PDF driver. In those systems. you can use the free CutePDF Writer or Foxit PDF Printer (part of Foxit PDF Reader software.)

But, if you have tens or hundreds of Word documents that you want to convert to PDF, using the GUI option would be a time-consuming and tiring task.

This article tells you how to batch convert multiple .doc or .docx files to PDF files using Windows Script and other methods.
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Get File Hash Checksum (MD5, SHA-256) via Right-click Menu

get file hash via the right-click menu

Hashing means taking an input string of any length and giving out an output of a fixed length. Using the cryptographic hashing algorithm — e.g., MD5, SHA-256, SHA-384, you can verify if two files are identical or not. The checksum is a hash value used for performing data integrity checks on files. It’s a kind of signature for a file.

When you download large files from the internet such as the Windows 10 ISO images, there are chances that the file gets corrupt or a few bits lost due to inconsistent connection or other factors. Hash verification is the best way to compare the two hashes – source file on a website or server versus the downloaded copy.Read more

Register Google Chrome Portable with Default Apps or Default Programs

register chrome portable with default apps

A long time back, I made a simple program that will register Mozilla Firefox Portable with Default Programs or Default Apps in Windows. Many users asked if a tool can be made for other portable browsers, such as Opera, Chrome, etc.,

This post has a VBScript that will register or unregister Google Chrome Portable (from PortableApps.com) with Default Apps in a single click. After registering, you can set Chrome Portable as the default browser via Default Apps.Read more