%APPDATA%\\\\Microsoft\\\\Internet Explorer\\\\Quick Launch

\\r\\n\\r\\n(APPDATA is an environment variable which can be found by typing echo %APPDATA% at the command prompt.)\\r\\n\\r\\nI checked it on Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server, but it is possible that this location is preserved across OSs. I can’t fathom the reason behind placing quick launch icons in the APPDATA folder belonging to the Internet Explorer. Some might consider it harmless, but say when a custom slipstream installation of Windows is made where the Internet Explorer is not installed, it is possible that Quick Launch is also gone. The location is senseless and a bug, whatever maybe its priority. It is just a tiny example of bad software.\\r\\n\\r\\nWhile there are tools that can help you clean your quick launch cache, etc., if you are not a complete newbie the best way would be to navigate to the Quick Launch folder and see the various files present in that folder (mostly .LNK or shortcut files). You could see for yourself if the files are wrongly pointing to any dead or moved links and update them if necessary. You can also add your own shortcuts directly using Right Click –> New –> Shortcut.

Post from: EveryJoe

The Obscure Location of Quick Launch

The command env typed in your command prompt or Cygwin terminal will list the entire set of environment variables and their current values. My Computer –> Properties –> Advanced –> Environment Variables will also show you the Windows environment variables divided into two categories: System variables and User variables.

While on cmd each variable can be referred to using %ENVIRONMENT-VARIABLE%, on Cygwin and all Unix-based OSs they are referred to using $ENVIRONMENT-VARIABLE. ($ echo %ENVIRONMENT-VARIABLE% or $ echo $ENVIRONMENT-VARIABLE)

ALLUSERSPROFILE, APPDATA, COMPUTERNAME, HOMEDRIVE, HOMEPATH, PATH, PROGRAMFILES, SYSTEMDRIVE, SystemRoot, USERNAME, USERPROFILE, WINDOWS are a some important environment variables some of which may be modified and are usually quite useful while writing batch programs. OS, NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS, PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE, PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER, PROCESSOR_LEVEL are a few other interesting variables which are best left untouched.

$ set ENVIRONMENT-VARIABLE=value can be used to change an existing or define a new environment variable.

Image Source: Microsoft Windows on my desktop.

Post from: EveryJoe

Environment Variables

Prompt
export PS1=”\[\e]2;\u@\h:\w\007$green\]\u@\h:\[$pink\]\w\[$blue\]$ \[$BLUE\]”

The PS1 is a defined environment variable that determines how a prompt should behave. It stands for “Prompt Settings”. There are three variables \u, \h, and a \w. \u is the username, \h is the hostname, \w is the complete path of the working directory. The pre-defined colors $green, $pink, $blue, $BLUE (set in the .profile shown) specify the color of the display immediately following. Notice that PS1 seems to have a repetition of \u, \h and \w. The first part — until \007 — sets the window name of Cygwin which otherwise would’ve been something like C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe.

There is another environment variable called the PS2 and is secondary and is set to ‘>’ by default. It is displayed whenever you have pressed Return and the command is incomplete.

History
In command prompt, when you press Up arrow, you can find previous commands you’ve typed within that session. In Cygwin, a user-specified log file of a user-specified size logs all commands and that can allow you to easily run previous commands across sessions.

Aliases
alias pingg=’ping www.google.com’

Alias understandably is your nickname to a command. e.g. When you’re connected to a network and want to find out whether there are any problems with the Internet connection (slowdown or disconnect) you can try pinging www.google.com. Because Google is one of those big sites that rarely goes down or is never too slow. The ping gives you an idea. Instead of the complete command you can now just type ‘pingg’. Remember that this alias takes precedence over any previously defined usage of a command with the same name.

Post from: EveryJoe

The .profile in Cygwin