Short Bytes:The humble Notepad of your laptop goes unappreciated many times. This little tool is capable of doing some amazing tricks with just few simple steps. In this article, I’m going to tell you my 10 favorite Notepad tricks.
Check these tricks out and if you have some more, don’t hesitate to share with us.
Top 10 Coolest Notepad Tricks and Hacks for Your PC
1. Make Notepad your Personal Diary
Do you want a diary in your computer? Notepad can be turned into a personal logbook by simple steps. Everything you type will be saved with the particular date and time.
Follow these steps to make notepad your diary:
1. Open Notepad
In the first line, type “.LOG”
Save the file as “log.txt”
2. Password-protected Folder using Notepad
You can protect the files and folders in your computer by using this Notepad trick. A password-protected folder is created using few lines of code and you can keep your important stuff safe.
Type the following code. Instead of “fossBytes” written in the code, type in the password of your wish. Save the file as private.bat and choose File type as All Files (.). Double click on the file private.bat. A Private folder will be created in which you may move the files and folders that you want to protect. Now, a password will be required to open this folder.
@ECHO OFFtitle Folder Privateif EXIST “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}” goto UNLOCKif NOT EXIST Private goto MDLOCKER:CONFIRMecho Are you sure you want to lock the folder(Y/N)set/p “cho=>”if %cho%==YgotoLOCKif %cho%==y goto LOCKif %cho%==n goto ENDif %cho%==N goto ENDecho Invalid choice.goto CONFIRM:LOCKren Private “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}”attrib +h +s “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}”echo Folder lockedgoto End:UNLOCKecho Enter password to unlockfolderset/p “pass=>”if NOT %pass%==fossBytes goto FAILattrib -h -s “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}”ren“Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}” Privateecho Folder Unlocked successfullygoto End:FAILecho Invalid passwordgoto end:MDLOCKERmdPrivateecho Private created successfullygoto End:End
3. The Matrix Effect
‘Matrix’ movie fan? Create your own window of random strings of green digits displayed all over.
Type the following code, save the file as .bat, open the saved file and see the Matrix magic! (You can find the saved file by performing a simple search in start menu).
@echo offcolor 02:startecho %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random%goto start
4. Shutdown your Computer with a Message
Don’t you find the process of shutting down too tedious? Open Start menu, Click on Turn Off button, Click Ok! Why not just double click an icon! Follow the steps and you can shut down your system by just double clicking on an icon. Also, a message of your choice will be displayed.
Open Notepad, type the following code and save the file with any name but with extension .bat
@echo offmsg * Computer will now shut downshutdown -c “Sweet Dreams. Take care.” –s
5. Pop out the CD Drive continuously
Set oWMP = CreateObject(“WMPlayer.OCX.7?)Set colCDROMs = oWMP.cdromCollectiondoif colCDROMs.Count >= 1 thenFor i = 0 to colCDROMs.Count – 1colCDROMs.Item(i).EjectNextFor i = 0 to colCDROMs.Count – 1colCDROMs.Item(i).EjectNextEnd Ifwscript.sleep 5000loop
6. Text to Speech using Notepad
What if your computer speaks what you type! Follow these steps and Notepad will speak to you:
- Open Notepad and type the following command.
Dim message,sapimessage=InputBox(“What should I speak?”,”Speak to me”)Set sapi=CreateObject(“sapi.spvoice”)sapi.Speak message
Save the file as speak.vbs
Open the file, type the sentence you want Notepad to speak and click OK.
7. Shortcuts for Changing Header and Footer in Notepad
Open Page Setup from File menu and use the following codes in the header and footer fields for the particular purpose:
&d Print the current date&t Print the current time&f Print the name of the document&p Print the page number
&l Left-align the characters that follow&c Center the characters that follow&r Right-align the characters that follow
8. “Bush hid the facts” Trick
This trick is one of most popular tricks of Notepad. Follow these steps to use the trick:
1. Open Notepad.
Type “bush hid the facts” or “this app can break”.
Save the file and close it.
4. Open the file again.
What happens is when you open the saved file again, you see some different characters instead of what you had typed and saved (i.e. bush hid the facts or this app can break). This happens due to 4-3-3-5 string length bug in old versions of Windows.
9. Toggle Capslock
You can make the Capslock key of your keyboard toggle repeatedly by just typing a simple code in the Notepad.
Type this code in Notepad and save the file as .vbs Open the saved file. See what happens on using Capslock key
Set wshShell =wscript.CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)dowscript.sleep 100wshshell.sendkeys “{CAPSLOCK}”loop
10. Fake Windows Error Message
Type the following command in Notepad and save the file as error.vbs then Open the saved file and your fake error message will appear.
X=Msgbox(“Press OK and Windows will restart now.”,0+16,“There is a serious problem in your system”)
Did you find this top 10 coolest Notepad tricks list interesting? Tell us your views in the comments below.
