One thing you might find quite useful on a Windows computer, and in particular, Windows 11, is how
to create and use batch files.
So there's two tutorials on this topic, but in this first tutorial, I'm going to show you how you
can open up certain websites with a batch file.
Now you might be thinking, OK, well, what is a batch file?
What a batch file allows you to open up batches of things like maybe websites within a Chrome browser
and or applications.
So the first batch file we're going to create, which is one that will allow you to access this course
straight from your desktop.
Now you don't have to use it, strictly speaking, just for this course.
You can create the batch file with any websites you want.
But just in this particular instance, we're going to link the batch file to this actual course.
So first of all, I'm just going to right click on my desk top because I've hated my icons away.
I'll come to view and then I'll click on show desktop icons and this can see already have to batch files
here.
So this is what they look like.
They have these sort of gears in the middle.
So first and foremost, what you need to do is you need to come to the Chrome browser or whatever browser
you're using.
And then basically you should have something that looks like this.
Maybe not exactly the same because I'm still creating the course at the moment, but the principles
will still be the same.
All you have to do is go and get the URL for this course.
So just click on the URL bar up here, right click and copy.
And we use this in a second.
And you can just minimize the window and then what you need to do is you need to open up the notepad,
so come to the magnifying glass.
Comes a search.
Type in notepad and open that.
Now there's a little bit of code to write, but there isn't that much.
Start off with the at symbol.
Then type echo space.
And then type off.
Press enter to go down one line type and start.
In this particular instance, I'm starting Chrome, but you can just type in whatever browser you use
and put in double quotes.
Then in between those two quotes, hold down control and press V to paste in the URL for the course.
Now we need to save this as a batch file and not as a text document, so you can come to file, come
down to save us, and then you can place it on your desktop or wherever you like.
You can call it whatever you like, but maybe Windows course is probably the most relevant name.
So once you've typed in your name, put in a full stop.
And type in bat, which stands for Patch.
So if you've done that, you can come to this dropdown here.
Click on all files because this is the type we need to save it as.
And then click Save.
Now you can just access the notepad itself.
So here we have the batch file itself.
And if I were to double click on this now.
You can see that the course opens up so pretty handy stuff, but let's say you wanted to also include
another website.
Let's just go for Wikipedia.
Their main landing page.
I'll copy the URL control policy once I've selected it.
And I'll go back to my batch file and what I want to do is right click on it, come down to show more
options and then come to edit.
I'll put in another two double quotes.
And I'll paste in my URL.
A whole down control and process to save because it's still registered as a batch file, so I don't
have to go through all of that and add the dot bat extension or anything like that.
I can just save it by holding down control and pressing s.
I can now get rid of this and what I'll do is for good practice.
I'll get rid of this here as well, and I'll double click here.
You can see Wikipedia is opened up and then also my course as well.
Now it's actually landed on this page.
This is the sort of the course creator's page.
But when you use this URL, you won't actually be taken to the curriculum itself.
So that's how you create a batch file.
It's really useful to have, especially if, let's say you're quite a heavy user with regard to opening
up various websites and maybe applications, which is something I'll show you later on down the line.
Or you would have to do is just double click on that batch file and then all of those websites and applications
would open up in one go.
Of course, there's something to be aware of here, and that is the processing power of your computer.
If you ask it to do too much in one go, it might crash your computer.
So just be careful about the amount of websites you asking your batch file to open up for you.
OK, so we'll move on now.