Matt Refghi

How to Open Excel 2010 Spreadsheets In A New Window

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Here’s a quick trick for all the Excel 2010 users out there that like to work with multiple monitors, or simply desire to have more flexibility when working with spreadsheets. By default, when you open a spreadsheet (.xls or .xlsx extensions, usually), Excel will try to reuse any existing Excel window you have open. This is probably because Microsoft felt it was more resource-friendly, in the end, but in doing so, the user loses the flexibility of working with windows. Instead, they have to work with pseudo-windows within a sandbox. What if you wanted to have two copies of Excel: one with one spreadsheet, and the second with another? If you have Excel open, and you try to open it again, it will only show you the window you already opened.

Solution

To do this, we must make use of a useful Windows key known as SHIFT. In Windows 7 and 8, holding SHIFT while clicking the Excel icon in the task bar will make a new copy of Excel appear.

A screenshot of the Excel 2010 icon as it appears in the sidebar. It is circled in red, and a red arrow points to it. Above the red arrow is the text, in black, which states "Left-click while holding SHIFT."

Unsurprisingly, in Windows 8, the same thing works in the start screen:

Excel 2010 showing up in the Windows 8 start screen, as a search result

Once again, all one needs to do is hold SHIFT while left-clicking the search result, or while pressing ENTER.

How to Set Google as the Default Search Engine In Internet Explorer

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UPDATE: As of November 25, 2016, I have a video tutorial for this. The written post continues below.

Internet Explorer has matured quite a bit since the release and subsequent infamy of its 6th version, IE6. Over the years, Microsoft has made many changes to the way the browser works, and overall, I’d say they’ve been successful in delivering a better browsing experience. However, they’ve also formalized certain parts of its configuration, and as a side-effect, it’s not always easy to make changes that are fairly straight-forward in one’s mind. A good example of this is changing the default search engine that’s used by the address bar.

When IE is first installed, it comes with Bing pre-configured as the only search engine, which should come as no surprise since Bing is Microsoft’s own search solution, a rival to Google. (Note: It’s possible that in my case, I had Bing pre-installed because I skipped the setup wizard when first installing Internet Explorer, so they reverted to the default settings.) However, as much as Microsoft loves to promote its own solutions, it’s fairly safe to say that Google’s the most commonly used search engine. So, naturally, it’s fairly normal for people to ask themselves how to remove Bing, and restore Google as the one go-to engine within Internet Explorer. If that’s what you’re looking to do, follow the steps:

Steps

  1. Click on the gear icon to the top right in the main Internet Explorer window.
  2. In the menu that appears, click “Manage add-ons.”
  3. In the “Manage Add-ons” dialog, locate the “Add-on Types” section to the left, and click “Search Providers.”

The "Manage Addons" page

At this point, you should see the list of installed search providers on the right. In my case, I only saw Bing. From this point on, depending on whether or not you see Google, the steps will be different.

If you don’t see Google in the list:

  1. In the “Search Providers” section of the “Manage Add-ons” dialog, look for a link called “Find more search providers…” it should be to the bottom left. Click it.
  2. A website called the “Internet Explorer Gallery” should appear, and on it, you’ll see many popular search providers. Click on the title that represents Google.
  3. You should now see the page for the Google Search add-on, and on it, you’ll see a big “Add to Internet Explorer” button – click it.
  4. In the “Add Search Provider” dialog that appears, check the box that says “Make this my default search provider.” (If you also want Google to suggest websites to you when you’re typing in the address box, you can check the “Use search suggestions from this provider” box too.) Then, click “Add.”
  5. If you have the “Manage Add-ons” window open, close it.
  6. Close Internet Explorer, and re-launch it. (This is just to be safe. A friend of mine had to do this recently, even though it shouldn’t be necessary.)

Google should now be your default search engine – try by typing in the address bar for a search term, and pressing Enter.

If you do see Google in the list:

  1. Right-click “Google,” and click “Set as default.”
  2. Click “Close.”
  3. Close Internet Explorer, and re-launch it. (This is just to be safe. A friend of mine had to do this recently, even though it shouldn’t be necessary.)

And that’s all there is to it. It’s a bit more involved than it needs to be, especially if you don’t have Google in your list, but Microsoft has a way of formalizing things, in general. In terms of development, in my opinion, generalizing the concept of a “search provider” so that it’s a type of “add-on” is actually a healthy practice, I just feel they could have been done better from a user interface perspective.

Update #5: New Hal-Con 2013 Interviews, Portal 2 Video

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People of the internet, hello! How are things? Good? Everything shiny? Glad to hear. On my side, I’m happy to the report numerous new additions in this update. One exciting little tidbit is that I’m down to one last Dragon Con 2013 video, and though it’s not fully finished yet, it will be ready quite soon! I’m also set to attend another convention, shortly, and that’ll mean more interviews in the near future. In fact, overall, I’m ramping up production in all of my content creation plans. It’s an exciting time!

  • Added the second part to my Portal 2 Let’s Play series.

Google Chrome: An Error Has Occurred: Could Not Create Download Directory

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As a devout user of Google Chrome, I was surprised to discover that all of a sudden, I couldn’t install any extensions. The developer in me (who communicates in binary, by the way) knew that it was probably a permission-related issue that had something to do with my download folder. But, being a creature with many other things to do, I avoided the problem for a while – I had other things to deal with. That is, until today, when I really wanted it to work. So, here’s the error message as I saw it:

A dialog with the title "An error has occurred," and the message "Could not create download directory." Two buttons are visible: on the left, a blue button that says "Reload," and on the right, "Close," in gray.

Solution

And here’s how I solved it.

  1. I clicked on Chrome’s menu button – the three gray line icon to the right of the address field.
  2. Then I clicked “Settings.”
  3. In the “Settings” page, I searched for “download directory.”
  4. Then, I looked at the path set as my download directory, and realized what my error was: The "download location" field as it appears in the Settings search result page, highlighted. A rounded red rectangle highlights the path's drive letter.

To solve the problem, I simply had to change it to use a location that was always available and connected. In the end, it wasn’t as tricky as a permission issue, which I appreciated – but keep in mind, even with permission issues, changing the folder may resolve the issue, depending on the change you’re making. But in the end, my goal here is to simply share my solution so you know how to potentially fix the problem.

See Also Google Chrome Forum – An error has occured – Could not create download directory