Fun Tip: Add “Speak” Option to the Context Menu for Text Files

The amazing NirCmd utility now has a new “speak” command that allows you to easily cause your computer to speak the text that you wish. In this command, NirCmd uses the Speech library (SAPI) that is installed in Windows. Here is a fun tip on how to add the Speak command to the context menu for Text Documents (.txt).Read more

How to Make Folders Appear as Cascading Menu in the Quick Launch Toolbar

When you create sub-folders in the Quick Launch folder to better organize the shortcuts, the folders will appear in the Quick Launch toolbar correctly, but clicking them would launch Windows Explorer.

Some people would like to view the contents of the folder (cascaded as a list) rather than opening the folder when clicked. Here is how to make folders in the Quick Launch toolbar cascade as menu when clicked.Read more

How to Create a Custom Theme Pack in Windows 7

In previous versions of Windows, you could save the current theme settings to a text-based file with a .theme extension. To apply the theme to another computer, you needed to manually include the mouse cursor, wallpaper images, icons, and other files (referenced in the .theme file). Windows 7 introduces a new theme file format (.themepack) which helps users to share themes.Read more

How to Change the Icon for a File Type in Windows

change file type icon - icon picker dialog

Surprisingly, Windows doesn’t have a built-in option to allow users to set custom icons for file types. If you have a custom file type and the corresponding program doesn’t have a nice-looking icon in its .exe or .dll resource, you can manually change or customize the default icon for that file type.

This article explains how to change the default icon for a file type using different methods in Windows. Instructions apply to all versions of Windows, including Windows 10Read more

Prevent Themes from Changing Desktop Icons and Mouse Cursors

A theme file can contain references to custom Visual Styles, namespace icons, mouse pointers, window metrics, colors and other visual elements. If you wish to preserve the existing icons for the namespace items such as Computer, Documents, Recycle Bin, Network etc, you can change a setting so that applying a custom theme does not affect the existing desktop icons and mouse cursors.Read more