From The Tips Box: Gmail Virus Filters, Alternative File Explorers

Readers offer their best tips for sending programs over Gmail, taking screenshots on Windows, and using alternative file browsers in Windows.

Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favourites. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or send it using the contact tab on the right.

Rename File Extensions to Send Programs in Gmail

Imajoebob shares one solution for Gmail’s annoying virus filters:

Changing file extensions is also an easy way of beating email filters. If your work email filters out videos, audio, or other types of files (like Gmail and its filtering of EXE files), just change the extension to XLS. Nobody filters Excel files.

Make sure you’ve set your OS of choice to always show file extensions for this to work, otherwise you’ll just append the file name and Gmail will still detect it as a program.

Replace Windows Explorer With Your Favourite File Manager Using a Registry Tweak

Our favourite file explorer, Xplorer2, can replace Windows Explorer from its options menu, but Lifehacker reader EternalCharax notes that any explorer can do this with a registry hack:

Almost any file manager can replace explorer as the default file manager with a simple registry key:

Open Regedit and navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/DIRECTORY/shell. Create a new key called “open”, then create a new key called “command” within that. Set the default value for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Directory/shell/open/command to:

"C:\PATH\TO\NEW\FILE\MANAGER.exe" "%1"

Including the quotes. The “%1” is a variable for the folder path being opened, as long as your file manager can be opened with those arguments (and almost all of them can, it’d be kind of stupid not to) they now replace Windows Explorer as the default.

To undo it, just delete the “open” key and everything above. I used to have two shortcuts on my desktop, one to create the key and one to delete it. I prefer XYplorer, myself.

Take Screenshots of the Current Window in Windows

Photo by Nick Ares.

Destructive Appetite shares a little trick for Windows’ built-in Print Screen function:

Apparently pressing Alt while taking a screenshot with the PrntScr button (Alt+PrntScr) it takes a screenshot of ONLY the window you’re currently focused on.

Of course, if you want more advanced features, you can check out some of our favourite screenshot tools for Windows.