function of Alt+right click in Windows Explorer, pls?

Hi all

(this is probably more general than Windows98... not sure where to put it)

I'm used to shift+right click, it's really neat...

reading another thread, I found mention of the use of Alt+right click, but (tantalisingly) it didn't say what it does...

...and I cannot find it in Windows Help. Please explain, someone!

thanks in advance & best wishes, HJ

edit: I posted this at the end of the thread which mentioned it in the W95 forum, but it's off topic for that thread and no-one picked up on it
so gave it a title of its own here (it wasn't really to do with "how to fix this problem" anyway); but now find I cannot get rid of the other one (1440 mins has expired) - apologies

 

Hi Pete

thanks for looking in, also for indirectly pointing out what I omitted from the question (Doh! braindead HJ again) (on the original thread it was just above...)

...the function of Alt+right clicking a filename in Windows Explorer... on the original post this was suggested as a cure if shift+right click failed to raise the "Open With..." menu. Which hasn't happened to me yet!

edit** I've altered the title of the original post to make it clearer what I'm after and avoid wasting more peoples' time. HJ requires brain upgrade (again)

I did try a Google search before asking, yes there are quite a lot of hits (962000), I've only gone through the first hundred or so, but they're all to do with particular software, games, etc., unless I'm missing the one I want to see


...a bit like the shift+escape combination, I've used that for years but never seen it documented...

best wishes, HJ

 

I don't think that combination does anything in 98! A list of keyboard shortcuts is here.

 

Hi brett

cheers for the link, BBS is often good at pointing to the correct place in M$ KB (maybe it's just me but I find it quite hard to search - particularly in this case as I was looking for something that wasn't there!)

best wishes, HJ

 

Shift -Right Click

HJ:
This has always worked for me, but sometimes you "need" to "highlight" the item first. The right click invariably doesn't always do it by itself, for some reason! Hth, enjoy, George.

 

Hi George

mmm, know what you mean about selecting the file first, the other thing that avoids is over-sensitivty to thinking it's getting dragged (producing Copy Here... etc when all you were after was the right-click menu)...

...so I tend select 'em first just by habit now. But that's just a single left click

I'm still not convinced about this though. Because, when I try Alt+right-click, something does happen - something different to the effect of a left click to select the file normally. (although the "something" might just be a slight period of confusion followed by Windows deciding that it doesn't have to do anything!)

I'm using a prehistoric PC with only 32MB RAM, so I depend upon the swapfile heavily. The swapfile is on E: (various reasons, long story) and is the only file on E: which is a physically separate hard drive. And it's noisy!

If I just select with a left click the file selects, no noise.

If I try the alt+right click, yes indeed - the file selects... but there's usually a good "chitter" from the swapfile en-route. Rather like the chitter I get with a shift+right click to get at the "Open With" option. That never happens with a left click select.

can it be something as simple as... that doing the Alt+right click selects the file and opens it briefly, then closes it, to bring the file into physical memory? I dunno.

whatever happens, you end up with it selected, so a subsequent right-click works first time... as you so rightly observe...

good luck & very best wishes, HJ