1 00:00:00,180 --> 00:00:06,060 One thing you might find quite useful on a Windows computer, and in particular, Windows 11, is how 2 00:00:06,060 --> 00:00:08,100 to create and use batch files. 3 00:00:08,370 --> 00:00:12,660 So there's two tutorials on this topic, but in this first tutorial, I'm going to show you how you 4 00:00:12,660 --> 00:00:16,230 can open up certain websites with a batch file. 5 00:00:16,620 --> 00:00:19,770 Now you might be thinking, OK, well, what is a batch file? 6 00:00:20,340 --> 00:00:28,530 What a batch file allows you to open up batches of things like maybe websites within a Chrome browser 7 00:00:28,740 --> 00:00:30,630 and or applications. 8 00:00:31,020 --> 00:00:36,380 So the first batch file we're going to create, which is one that will allow you to access this course 9 00:00:36,390 --> 00:00:38,280 straight from your desktop. 10 00:00:38,430 --> 00:00:41,280 Now you don't have to use it, strictly speaking, just for this course. 11 00:00:41,550 --> 00:00:44,550 You can create the batch file with any websites you want. 12 00:00:44,670 --> 00:00:49,890 But just in this particular instance, we're going to link the batch file to this actual course. 13 00:00:50,460 --> 00:00:54,990 So first of all, I'm just going to right click on my desk top because I've hated my icons away. 14 00:00:55,290 --> 00:01:02,400 I'll come to view and then I'll click on show desktop icons and this can see already have to batch files 15 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:02,700 here. 16 00:01:02,710 --> 00:01:03,870 So this is what they look like. 17 00:01:03,870 --> 00:01:06,120 They have these sort of gears in the middle. 18 00:01:06,660 --> 00:01:11,730 So first and foremost, what you need to do is you need to come to the Chrome browser or whatever browser 19 00:01:11,730 --> 00:01:12,480 you're using. 20 00:01:12,900 --> 00:01:15,780 And then basically you should have something that looks like this. 21 00:01:16,110 --> 00:01:20,340 Maybe not exactly the same because I'm still creating the course at the moment, but the principles 22 00:01:20,340 --> 00:01:21,280 will still be the same. 23 00:01:21,810 --> 00:01:24,960 All you have to do is go and get the URL for this course. 24 00:01:25,350 --> 00:01:30,180 So just click on the URL bar up here, right click and copy. 25 00:01:31,110 --> 00:01:32,310 And we use this in a second. 26 00:01:33,830 --> 00:01:39,380 And you can just minimize the window and then what you need to do is you need to open up the notepad, 27 00:01:39,410 --> 00:01:41,210 so come to the magnifying glass. 28 00:01:42,440 --> 00:01:43,280 Comes a search. 29 00:01:45,240 --> 00:01:48,570 Type in notepad and open that. 30 00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:51,900 Now there's a little bit of code to write, but there isn't that much. 31 00:01:52,350 --> 00:01:54,090 Start off with the at symbol. 32 00:01:56,720 --> 00:01:59,060 Then type echo space. 33 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:01,990 And then type off. 34 00:02:03,160 --> 00:02:07,480 Press enter to go down one line type and start. 35 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:16,050 In this particular instance, I'm starting Chrome, but you can just type in whatever browser you use 36 00:02:16,620 --> 00:02:17,940 and put in double quotes. 37 00:02:18,330 --> 00:02:24,360 Then in between those two quotes, hold down control and press V to paste in the URL for the course. 38 00:02:25,590 --> 00:02:32,370 Now we need to save this as a batch file and not as a text document, so you can come to file, come 39 00:02:32,370 --> 00:02:38,130 down to save us, and then you can place it on your desktop or wherever you like. 40 00:02:39,530 --> 00:02:43,850 You can call it whatever you like, but maybe Windows course is probably the most relevant name. 41 00:02:44,690 --> 00:02:47,240 So once you've typed in your name, put in a full stop. 42 00:02:48,510 --> 00:02:51,510 And type in bat, which stands for Patch. 43 00:02:52,140 --> 00:02:54,480 So if you've done that, you can come to this dropdown here. 44 00:02:54,780 --> 00:02:58,500 Click on all files because this is the type we need to save it as. 45 00:02:58,980 --> 00:03:00,030 And then click Save. 46 00:03:02,210 --> 00:03:04,360 Now you can just access the notepad itself. 47 00:03:05,640 --> 00:03:07,290 So here we have the batch file itself. 48 00:03:07,530 --> 00:03:09,480 And if I were to double click on this now. 49 00:03:10,670 --> 00:03:16,910 You can see that the course opens up so pretty handy stuff, but let's say you wanted to also include 50 00:03:16,910 --> 00:03:17,870 another website. 51 00:03:19,250 --> 00:03:20,840 Let's just go for Wikipedia. 52 00:03:21,350 --> 00:03:22,640 Their main landing page. 53 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:29,170 I'll copy the URL control policy once I've selected it. 54 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:35,270 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 55 00:03:35,270 --> 00:03:38,030 options and then come to edit. 56 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:42,570 I'll put in another two double quotes. 57 00:03:44,660 --> 00:03:46,220 And I'll paste in my URL. 58 00:03:48,290 --> 00:03:52,910 A whole down control and process to save because it's still registered as a batch file, so I don't 59 00:03:52,910 --> 00:03:57,560 have to go through all of that and add the dot bat extension or anything like that. 60 00:03:58,010 --> 00:04:01,580 I can just save it by holding down control and pressing s. 61 00:04:02,570 --> 00:04:05,750 I can now get rid of this and what I'll do is for good practice. 62 00:04:05,750 --> 00:04:08,960 I'll get rid of this here as well, and I'll double click here. 63 00:04:11,610 --> 00:04:16,500 You can see Wikipedia is opened up and then also my course as well. 64 00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:17,990 Now it's actually landed on this page. 65 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:21,060 This is the sort of the course creator's page. 66 00:04:21,270 --> 00:04:25,650 But when you use this URL, you won't actually be taken to the curriculum itself. 67 00:04:26,070 --> 00:04:27,810 So that's how you create a batch file. 68 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:34,620 It's really useful to have, especially if, let's say you're quite a heavy user with regard to opening 69 00:04:34,620 --> 00:04:39,210 up various websites and maybe applications, which is something I'll show you later on down the line. 70 00:04:39,570 --> 00:04:44,610 Or you would have to do is just double click on that batch file and then all of those websites and applications 71 00:04:44,790 --> 00:04:46,290 would open up in one go. 72 00:04:46,660 --> 00:04:51,150 Of course, there's something to be aware of here, and that is the processing power of your computer. 73 00:04:51,570 --> 00:04:55,470 If you ask it to do too much in one go, it might crash your computer. 74 00:04:55,800 --> 00:05:00,840 So just be careful about the amount of websites you asking your batch file to open up for you. 75 00:05:01,470 --> 00:05:03,000 OK, so we'll move on now.