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USES OF THE SHIFT KEY

You may remember a previous column where I mentioned that you can keep your Startup programs from executing when you boot up your computer if you hold down the Shift key when Windows starts up. There are other uses for the Shift key. For example, many CD-ROMs have an autorun facility, which causes them to automatically start up after you insert the CD-ROM in its drive. What happens if you want to bypass this? (For example, you might just want to "browse" the CD in Windows Explorer.) Well, just hold down the Shift key as the CD-ROM loads. Another use of the Shift key is to hold it down as you click on the Start button on the Taskbar. You can click on an item in the Start Menu to start it up, and then -- since the menu stays visible instead of disappearing -- you can click on another menu item immediately. This last trick seems to be true only for Windows 98; I couldn't get it to work in 95.