Don't Buy Windows 95
That is, not until you have a CD-ROM drive installed. The diskette version takes forever (or longer) to install, and it lacks many features found on the CD-ROM setup disc.
Disinfect Your System First
Run a thorough virus-check first, then disable the anti-virus software and reboot without it. Otherwise, the virus-checker will get very upset as Win95 attempts to run its setup procedure.
Let Your CD-ROM Drive Be Last
If the MSCDEX.EXE line in your current AUTOEXEC.BAT file specifies a drive letter, delete that switch (/L:x, where x is some letter beyond the actual last physical drive letter) and then reboot. Otherwise Win95 may "forget" its instructions midway through setup and let the CD-ROM disc drop down to the next available drive letter. Then it can no longer find what it wants on drive x, and you'll have to redirect it to the new drive letter.
Custom Windows
Windows 95 offers four setup options: Typical, Portable, Compact and Custom. Microsoft says Custom is for the "advanced user or system administrator." But it's also just right for anyone curious about what's going on. Select Custom and make your own choices from among the options; when in doubt, just accept whatever is proposed. Even if you make no changes at all, you'll have a better idea of what's on your system.
Flip Those Setup Switches
Type SETUP /? at a DOS prompt for a brief summary of a few available setup options. Or download Microsoft Knowledge Base paper Q128400 (http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q128/4/00.htm) for a more extensive list. (See "When All Else Fails" to find out how to get this paper via fax.)
Don't Overaccessorize
Make a minimalist fashion statement by carefully reviewing the accessories list and not installing anything you don't absolutely need. You can always add something later.
Is Your Setup Validated?
If you run Setup over an existing copy of Windows 95, you have the option to restore files that have changed or copy all files again. Both options take about the same time, because both check the validity of all currently-installed Win95 files. In either case, damaged files are restored to their original condition.
What's the Password?
If you don't want to use a password, leave that entry blank when you're prompted for a user name and password, and you won't be asked again. To get rid of a password you've already entered, select Control Panel/Passwords, click on the Change Windows Password button, enter your current password in the Old password box and click on OK.
Surf Your CD-ROM
The setup procedure finds what it wants in the \Win95 folder, but that's only a small corner of this world. Open some of the other folders and see what's in them. You may find something interesting.
Easy Come...
Sometimes the setup procedure doesn't find everything in your system. If an installed hardware device is missing, select Control Panel/Add New Hardware and let the Hardware wizard search for whatever it is. To speed up the search, click on the No button and narrow the search to a specific device type. If it's a missing modem, Control Panel's Modem applet may find it faster.
...Easy Go
Setup sometimes "finds" things that aren't really there, such as a non-existent serial mouse and a standard PS/2 port mouse. If the Device Manager shows this or any other such ghost, highlight it and click on the Remove button.
Don't Leave Windows To Its Own Devices
As soon as Setup is finished and Windows opens successfully, select Control Panel/System. Select the Device Manager tab and review the list of devices. If you see a device with a small exclamation mark on a yellow background, highlight that device and click on the Properties button to learn more about the configuration conflict. If you're not sure how to resolve it, click on the Remove button and then restart. Windows will probably get it right the second time.
Moving Day For Your StartUp Files
After Win95 has been up and running for a week or so, open your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files in any text editor. You'll probably discover Win95 has disabled quite a few items by inserting REM at the beginning of the lines. If you don't see anything important on the other lines, move the entire file into a C:\TEMP folder for a few days. If Windows doesn't miss them, neither will you.
Out with the Old
If you upgraded over Windows 3.x and saved your old system files as part of the Windows 95 setup procedure, here's how to reclaim some disk space if you don't want to go back again. Select Control Panel/Add/Remove Programs, highlight the Old Windows 3.x/MS-DOS line and click on the Remove button.
Easy Editing of HTML Files
If you edit HTML files regularly, you can add an Edit function to the context menu of Web documents. Selecting that option will launch your favorite HTML authoring tool and load the file you want to edit. To set it up, in Windows Explorer select View/Options and click on the File Types tab. Select Internet Document (or Netscape Hypertext Document if Navigator is your default browser) from the list, and click on the Edit button. Click on the New button, type Edit in the Action box, click on the Browse button and select your favorite HTML authoring tool.
CD Shortcut
You probably already know creating shortcuts on your Desktop to diskette, network and CD-ROM drives is an easy way to fast access. But Win95 does something special with shortcuts to the CD-ROM drive: The icon changes to reflect the CD you've installed, just as it does in My Computer.
Click (Pause) Click to Rename
If you click once on an icon, wait a second and then click again, you'll be able to rename the icon.
Faster Backup
Win95 shipped with a backup utility that wasn't quite ready for prime time. Fortunately, Microsoft now offers a free update that fixes several known bugs in the original utility. It's faster, too. Download Faster Backup from the WinMag Free Win95 Software page at http://www.winmag.com/win95/software.htm.
Faster Web Shortcuts
The current versions of both Netscape Communicator and Microsoft Internet Explorer create shortcuts on your Desktop to the current page when you right-click on the page and select Create Shortcut.
Tell Your Apps Where to Go
Here's how to tell any application where to look for documents and where to save them by default: Find the shortcut to the app on your Desktop or Start menu (for Start menu shortcuts, right-click on the Start button and select open, then drill your way to the shortcut). Right-click on the shortcut and select Properties. Click on the Shortcut tab. Now type the path to the folder of your choice in the Start In box.
Boot Up Faster
Win95 pauses for about two seconds during boot-up to give you the opportunity to press a start-up key such as F8. To remove the pause and make boot-up faster, open the MSDOS.SYS file in Notepad and add the entry BootDelay=0 to the [Options] section.
Faster Mail
Likewise with the Exchange client. Microsoft fixed bugs, improved speed and added an Internet mail service. Faster Mail is also available at the Free Win95 Software page mentioned above.
Program Group Therapy
When you install Win95 over Win3.x, a utility called GRPCONV.EXE (in the WINDOWS folder) converts all your Program Manager program groups into cascading menus on your Start menu. You can use this utility to restore the default configuration of cascading menus by clicking on Start/Run, then typing GRPCONV /S and clicking on OK. You can also manually convert Win3.x program groups by typing RPCONV/ M, picking the program group files and clicking on Open.
Shrewd Moves
When you drag and drop a file, you're moving, copying or making a shortcut to that file, depending on where you're dragging it from and dropping it to. Look at the lower right corner of the icon you're dragging, right before you let go of the mouse button, to find out what it's going to do. A plus sign means the file will be copied. An arrow means you'll create a shortcut. If you see nothing, the file will be moved.
Save-As Trick
If you're using real Win95 applications, you can do some neat things in the Save As dialog box (File/Save As). Right-click in the dialog's white space, and you'll get the familiar context menus for the folder you're working in. Right-click on individual files to cut, copy, delete, rename and see properties.
Blazing Web Speed
If you have an ISDN terminal adapter, download the Microsoft ISDN Accelerator Pack from the WinMag Web site (http://www.winmag.com/win95)
Get Small Fast!
The fastest way to minimize all the windows on your desktop is to press Ctrl+Esc, then Alt+M.
Buried Taskbar?
If your taskbar is buried under a pile of open windows, there's a permanent fix and a quick but temporary one. The permanent fix is to right-click on the taskbar (find a spot where there are no tray icons or minimized app or folder buttons), select Properties and make sure Always on Top is checked. The quick fix is to press Ctrl+Esc.
Smooth Fonts
A utility that makes screen fonts look much better was included in the Microsoft Plus add-on bundle. Now the utility is free. Download it from the WinMag Web site. (Note the utility works only if you're using the English-language version of Win95 and your system is set to 16-bit color.)
The X Files
If you want to keep files-or even folders full of files-from prying eyes, just right-click on each file and select Hidden in the Attributes box at the bottom of the Properties dialog. To see the files you've hidden, double-click on My Computer, select View/Options, click on the View tab and select Show All Files.
Relief for Printing Pains
If you're having a printer problem, your Win95 CD offers help in the form of the Enhanced Printer Troubleshooter. Double-click on the file EPTS.EXE in the \OTHER\MISC\EPTS folder of your CD and follow the instructions.
Clear Control Panel Clutter
If your Control Panel is cluttered with icons you don't need, clean it up. In the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory, you'll find a corresponding CPL file for each Control Panel item. Move the ones you don't want to a safe place on your hard disk. When you open Control Panel, those icons won't appear.
Text Tips
Launch Find and search your WINDOWS folder for all text files (*.TXT). Among those you'll find are FAQ.TXT, PROGRAMS.TXT, MOUSE.TXT, README.TXT and GENERAL.TXT. These files contain tons of help and trouble-shooting tips for very specific Win95 problems.
Screen Test
Change your screen resolution and color depth on the fly (without rebooting) with a free utility called QuickRes. Download it from the WinMag Web site.
Selection Shortcut
You can select a bunch of files by clicking near them and dragging the cursor over them. If you do that with the right mouse button, however, you automatically get a context menu that offers the Open, Send To, Cut, Copy, Delete, Rename, Create Shortcut and Properties commands.
Out, Out Temp Files!
Win95 creates a lot of "temporary" files when it opens documents. It puts these files in the C:\WINDOWS\TEMP folder and intends to close them when the application is finished with them. But sometimes, temp files can become permanent. Open the folder periodically (after you shut down all your apps) and delete these files.
Hard-Disk Help
Win95 Help sports some cool hand-holding videos for beginners. But those videos take up about 7MB of hard-disk space. If you don't need them, go to the C:\WINDOWS\HELP folder and delete all the AVI files.
ClipBook Maker
Win95's free ClipBook utility lets you store items from the Clipboard and share them across a network. You can view text, graphics or anything else you can copy to the Clipboard in thumbnail view-and copy as many items as you like. To install it, open the OTHER folder on the Win95 CD, then drag the CLIPBOOK folder from the CD to your C: drive. Open the new folder, drag the file CLIPBRD.EXE and drop it into your C:\WINDOWS\START MENU folder.
Hardware Housecleaning
Sometimes Win95 thinks you have more hardware than you do. This can lead to problems. Here's how to troubleshoot: First, make sure you have a good backup. Restart Windows and press F8 at the beginning of the boot cycle to bring up the Mode menu. Select Safe mode and open the Device Manager by right-clicking on My Computer, selecting Properties and clicking on the Device Manager tab. Expand all the categories and look for hardware that shouldn't be there. If you find duplicates within a single category, delete them all and restart; let Win95 identify and reinstall the drivers. Remember, don't delete hardware from the list unless you're sure it shouldn't be there.
Fast Move
When you use Win95's Send To feature (right-click on the item, then select Send To from the Context menu) to place something on a floppy disk or on a drive other than your C: drive, the file is copied. To move it, hold down the Shift key while clicking on the Send To item.
Expedite E-Mail
To launch e-mail from your Run dialog, create a batch file (which is just a text file with a BAT extension) called SEND.BAT and type START "mailto:%1". Close the batch file and put it in your WINDOWS folder. (If you prefer, create a shortcut to SEND.BAT in the WINDOWS folder, right-click on the shortcut, select the Program tab and "Close on exit.") Now, whenever you want to dash off a quick message, just open the Run dialog (Start/Run). Type Send followed by the e-mail address of the intended person (send [email protected], for example) and hit Enter. If a wizard pops up, fill it in, then send your mail.
Mouseless Moves
You can move or resize open Windows applications using only your keyboard. First, press Alt+Spacebar to bring up a menu. Press S, then use the arrow keys to resize the window. Press M and move the window using the arrow keys. Press Enter to keep the window change or Esc to return the window to its previous state.
Hot, Hot, Hotkeys
Assign hotkeys to your most frequently used programs. Right-click on a program and select Properties. Click on the Shortcut tab; in the Shortcut Key field type in the hotkey combination you want to assign, then click on OK. Assigning a hotkey this way will allow you to switch to the program if it's already running on your Desktop.
Hotkey Secret
A shortcut's hotkey combination will launch a program only if it's on the Start menu or the Desktop.
Lurk in the Background
If you want documents and programs you double-click on to open in the background, rather than in the foreground, hold the Ctrl key when you double-click.
Quick! Put It on a Diskette
The quickest way to put a file or folder on a diskette is to right-click on it, select Send To from the context menu and choose "3 1/2 Floppy (A)."
Quick Keys
You can determine how fast your keyboard repeats characters and moves the cursor. Launch the Keyboard applet in Control Panel, then experiment with the speed settings on the Speed tab.
Good Memory
To see how your system is using its memory, select Start/Run and type MEM.
Fast, Fresh Restart
Restarting Win95 is a four-step process (Click on the Start button, select Shut Down, click on Restart the Computer, then click on OK). You can make it a one-step process by creating an icon on your desktop that restarts Win95. Open Notepad and type @exit. Close the document and give it a name with a BAT extension. Now stash the file away somewhere on your hard disk. Create a shortcut to the file by using the right mouse button to drag it to the desktop, and selecting Create Shortcut(s) Here. Right-click on the shortcut and select Properties. Click on the Program tab and select the Close on Exit box. Next, click on the Advanced button and make sure "MS-DOS mode" is selected and "Warn before entering MS-DOS mode" is not. Click on OK and on OK again. Give your new shortcut a unique icon and name. Whenever you double-click on the icon, Win95 will restart, no questions asked.
Get It on Paper
Right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties from the context menu. Click on the Device Manager tab, then the Print button. Select the "All devices and system summary" radio button, then click on OK. This will give you more information about your hardware, IRQs, ports, memory usage, devices and drivers than you probably want to know, but it can be handy for future reference or troubleshooting.
"Welcome Back" Screen
When you first installed Win95, a Welcome Screen popped up, offering tips, a guided Win95 tour and a few other things. If you deselected the "Show this Welcome Screen next time you start Windows" option, you haven't seen it since. To get it back, select Run from the Start menu, type welcome and click on OK.
Recycling Hazards
The Win95 Recycle Bin can give you a false sense of security. You know you can retrieve items you move there, so you might dump stuff there without a second thought. But beware! Items from other drives (say, the network or floppy disk drives) you place in the Recycle Bin are permanently and instantly deleted, not stored.
Leaning Toward the Left
You already know that when you drag an object to or from the desktop using the right mouse button, you're given the option to Move, Copy, Create Shortcut or Cancel when you release the button. If you don't want to use the right mouse button (or you don't have one), you can accomplish the same thing by pressing and holding Ctrl+Shift, and using the left mouse button.
Letter-Perfect Selection
In any open folder, type the first letter of the name of the file you want to select, and you'll go right to the first file in the folder that begins with that letter. Type the letter again, and you'll go to the next file and so on. Press Enter, and the file will open.
Put Things in Context
By right-clicking on folders, documents, programs and desktop objects, you can bring up the Context menu for that item. Using the Context menu, you can invoke the Properties dialog, as well as do file management tasks.
Boxed In
You can select groups of icons or folders on the desktop or within folders by clicking outside the body of icons and, while holding the left mouse button, dragging a rectangle to surround all the icons you want to select, then letting go. You can then move, copy or delete them en masse.
Turbocharge the Start Menu
To launch folders quickly, open My Computer and find the programs you use most. Drag the programs' executables onto the Start button. This puts your most frequently used programs on the Start menu.
Multiple File Associations
Normally, when you double-click on a document type, the system tells Windows to open the document in a specific application. Here's how to expand your options. Double-click on My Computer, select View/Options and click on the File Types tab. Choose the document type you'd like to open in other applications in the Registered File Types list. Click on Edit, then on New. Click on the Browse button to choose an application. Type something like Open in name of application in the Action field. Click on OK, Close, then Close again. Now, whenever you right-click on that document type, you'll be able to see the option you typed in.
Uncover Secret Win95 Tips
In your WINDOWS folder, you'll find a text file called TIPS.TXT full of tips and tricks written by the Microsoft's Windows 95 development team.
Your Disk Toolbox
Most of us use the Start menu to find ScanDisk, Disk Defragmenter or Backup. But there's a better way. In My Computer, right-click on a drive and select Properties. Click on the Tools tab. Here you'll get information on the last time you performed each operation, with launch buttons for each.
Don't Overextend Your Files
If you create a new file in WordPad or Notepad and save it, these applets add a TXT extension regardless of whether you add an extension yourself. You can end up with filenames like REPORT.TXT.TXT. To prevent them from adding the extension, put quotation marks around your filename ("REPORT.TXT") in the SaveAs dialog. Do the same in Word if you've chosen an extension other than DOC.
Easy File Associations
Here's an easy way to change file associations. Click on a document to select it, then hold the Shift key while right-clicking on it; select Open With from the context menu. In the Open With dialog, make sure there's a check mark in the "Always use this program to open this type of file" box, then double-click on an application in the Choose window.
Warning: Once you've done this, the box will be checked by default next time the dialog comes up.
Copy Control
If you press and hold the Ctrl key while you drag and drop a file or folder on the same storage device (say, from one location on your hard disk to another), the object is copied (not moved) to the new location.
Get with the Program
If the object you're dragging and dropping is a program file, Windows will create a shortcut in the new location by default.
View Master
Your Win95 CD contains a utility called LOGVIEW.EXE. You'll find this utility in \OTHER\MISC\LOGVIEW. LOGVIEW lets you view and edit your SCANDISK, CALLLOG, MODEMDET and NDISLOG files. These files can be helpful when you're troubleshooting some parts of your system. You can move LOGVIEW onto your hard disk, or just leave it on the CD.
Forget Your Password?
If you forget your Win95 password, just hit Escape at the password box, launch the MS DOS Prompt and enter dir *.PWL in the WINDOWS directory to find your PWL files. Delete the one with your name in front of it. Restart your system and enter a new password when prompted (Win95 will ask you to verify it).
Behind the Curtain
Temporarily remove the Win95 screen that pops up during boot-up by pressing the Escape key. You'll see what's going on behind the Win95 curtain.
Familiar Faces
Print out the fonts on your system. Open Control Panel, double-click on the Fonts icon, select the font of your choice and click on the Print button. Do this for each of the fonts you want to take a good look at.
ScanDisk-Ouch!
The Windows 95 Resource Kit contains the following gem: "To remove long filenames from removable disks, include the drive letter with the command; for example, scandsk /o a:" However, it doesn't mention that this will automatically strip long filenames from the hard drive as well.
More BMP Icons
Any bitmap file can serve as an icon without moving, resizing or renaming. From within any shortcut's Change Icon dialog box, click on the Browse button, select All Files from the Files of Type box and double-click on the BMP file of your choice.
Maximize and Restore
Double-click on the title bar of any application, document or folder window to toggle between maximized and restored states.
Control Panel Handy
If you're always launching Control Panel to fiddle with your system settings, make your life a little easier by putting Control Panel on your Start menu. Drag CONTROL.EXE from your WINDOWS folder and drop it on the Start button. Another way to do this is to right-click on the Start button and select Open. Create a new folder and give it the following name: Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
DOS Vanishing Act
If you have a program or batch file that you don�t want lingering on your Desktop after it runs, tell it to go away. Create a shortcut to the program, right-click on the shortcut and select Properties. Click on the Program tab and select Close On Exit.
The Perfect Power Prompt
Graphical computing is better than working from a command prompt. But you can still have the command line in Windows 95 and the graphical interface. Right-click on the Start button and select Open. Double-click on the Programs folder and then the StartUp folder. Right-click anywhere in the window, select New/Shortcut, and a wizard will open up. Click on the Browse button, navigate to the Windows directory and double-click on the file DOSPRMPT. Finish the wizard, launch the MS-DOS Prompt and place the command line window where you want it on the Desktop. The next time you start Windows, it�ll open in the same location.
Start with A Clean Slate
After a while, you�ll probably end up accumulating a bunch of unnecessary stuff in your WINDOWS folders and Registry that could slow things down. When you first buy a PC and every year thereafter, you should reformat your hard disk and start over. But before you do, make sure you have a full system backup and all your application installation diskettes or CDs, plus a Win95 boot disk that contains your CD driver (if you don�t have the CD Driver, you can�t install Win95 from a CD). It�s also a good time to visit your PC vendor�s Web site and grab all your hardware�s updated drivers. But before you do any of this...
Scrutinize Your Setup
Right-click on your My Computer icon and select Properties. This tabbed dialog is your hardware�s Rosetta Stone. By exploring the various tabs and items, you can find out about all the devices installed on your system, as well as your memory and port settings.
Defrag Virtual Memory
Defragmenting your hard disk speeds up file access by putting files together at the faster part of the disk. But it doesn�t defrag your swap file, which is the file used as virtual memory in Windows. You can get additional performance gains by disabling your swap file, defragging your disk, then re-enabling the swap file. (Note that this tip works only if you have plenty of physical RAM. If you try it and your system hangs, you don�t have enough.) To disable your swap file, right-click on My Computer and select Properties from the context menu. Click on the Performance tab, then on the Virtual Memory button. Select the "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings" radio button, then put a check mark in the "Disable virtual memory" box by clicking on it. Click on OK, then on OK again. After defragging your disk, follow the same procedure, but remove the check mark this time.
Create Your Own Internet Shortcuts
The Win95 versions of Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer let you drag and drop Web links directly to your Desktop. Those links become shortcuts that you can e-mail and share over a network. Both types of links will work with either browser. Here�s something you may not know: These shortcuts are simple text files that you can edit or create with Notepad. To edit a link, open it in Notepad and change the URL to whatever you�d like it to be. To create a new shortcut, open Notepad and type InternetShortcut on the first line, then URL= followed by the URL of your choice on the second line. Save the file and give it a .URL extension.
Get Right to the Point
You probably already know how to create a shortcut to a document. You can also create a shortcut to a specific place in a document. Make sure you can see the desktop from the open document, then simply drag and drop any part of the document (say, a sentence in a word processing document or a range of cells in a spreadsheet) to the desktop using the right mouse button. When you let go, choose Create Document Shortcut Here and close the document. The next time you want to open the document to that place, double-click on the new shortcut. This will launch the document and take you right to the selected text, which will be highlighted.
Heaven Sent
If you�ve put lots of destinations into your SendTo folder, you may want to organize them into cascading menus. Open the SendTo folder, which you�ll find in the Windows folder. Select New/Folder, then place your shortcuts in the new folders.
Modems, Modems Everywhere
After you install a new modem, sometimes one or more incorrect modems appear in Control Panel�s Modems item. Just remove the modem(s) from the list and restart Windows. If Windows doesn�t tell you it detected new hardware, go back into Control Panel and double-click on Add New Hardware. Follow the instructions and have Windows search for the hardware. When the search is complete, click on Details and see if it detected the right modem. If not, correct it.
Quick-Close Trick
If you give Win95 the ol� three finger salute (Ctrl+Alt+Del) you�ll get the Close Program dialog, which gives you the option to close running applications one at a time. Task Manager, a holdover from Windows 3.x, lets you close any number of running applications�or all of them�at once. To launch Task Manager, select Start/Run and type TASKMAN and press Enter. From the resulting Task dialog, hold the Ctrl key as you click on each of the programs you�d like to close and then select Windows/End Task. To close all your running applications, press and hold the Shift key, click on the first application, then the last and select Windows/End Task.
Free Net Utility
Win95 ships with a free Internet utility called IP Configuration that lets you check out all the vital stats of your Internet setup. Launch Start/Run and type WINIPCFG, then click on the More Info button.
TRACERT followed by the Internet location (say, http://www.winmag.com).Close Minimized Apps
Right-click on the Taskbar button of a minimized application and select Close to shut it down quickly.
Survey Your Properties
Bring up the Properties dialog fast by holding down the Alt key and double-clicking on the object of your choice.
Disable Call Waiting
If incoming phone calls disconnect you from your online sessions, you probably have call waiting. To disable it, open the Control Panel, double-click on the Modems icon and select Dialing Properties. Choose the code that disables call waiting on your phone line.
Out with the Old
Win95 could very well be loading your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files unnecessarily. It will do so if it thinks you still need them. To find out if you do, make backup copies of each, and make sure you have an emergency boot diskette handy. Change the name of CONFIG.SYS to CONFIG.OLD. Shut down your system and restart. If everything works, then do the same with your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
No Questions Asked
If you use the ERASE *.* command in an MS-DOS Prompt window, it asks you if you�re sure, and you have to answer Y or N. Here�s an undocumented Win95 feature: By omitting the period and simply typing ERASE **, it deletes the contents of the folder�no questions asked.
Escape Clause
If you�re halfway through a drag-and-drop operation and change your mind, just press the Esc key to bail out.
Track Conventional Memory
Conventional Memory Tracker lets you track conventional memory. You can download it free from WinMag�s Win95 Software page (http://www.winmag.com/win95.htm).
Easy Desktop Access
DeskView lets you select any item on your desktop from the Tray (the area in the taskbar where the time is displayed) with a single click. Download DeskView (or all the Power Toys) from our Win95 Software page and double-click on the DESKMENU.EXE file. You�ll now see the Desktop Contents icon in your Tray. Click on it once for one-click access to all your desktop items.
Talk Can Be Cheap
You can use any "Sony Walkman" style headphone set as a microphone. Just plug them into your sound card�s microphone plug, and talk into the speakers.
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Quick (and Safe!) View
Quick View lets you look at many documents without actually opening them. One advantage of this is speed. Another is safety, especially for MS Word documents. Reading Word documents in Quick View reduces your chances of contracting one of the Word viruses. To enable Quick View for a given file type, you must install the option. Launch Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs applet, click on the Windows Setup tab, select the Accessories component from the list, and click on the Details button. If Quick View is checked, you've got it. If not, check it! Then, select View/Options from Explorer, click on the File Types tab, the document type you'd like to see in Quick View and the Edit button. Now select Enable Quick View and click on OK twice. Now when you right-click on a file of this type, Quick View will appear in the context menu.
Win95 Etiquette
It's enough to miff Miss Manners! Sometimes Win 3.x apps just don't mind their manners in Win95. Fortunately, Win95 comes with a handy utility that forces good behavior. Select Start/Run and type MKCOMPAT. Rein in rogue apps by selecting File/Choose Program, then clicking on the behaviors you'd like to induce.
Double Your Download Speed for Free...
If you access the Internet primarily by dial-up connection, Win95 may be holding you back-way back. That's because, by default, Win95 optimizes some of its internal Internet settings for LANs, and not for modems. For example, Win95 normally sets an MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) packet size of 1500, an Ethernet standard. But standard dial-up Internet connections use a packet size of 576 bytes. The packet-size mismatch can lead to needless slowdowns. If you use your company's Ethernet LAN, leave MTU and its related settings alone. But if you access via modem, grab a free copy of Mike Sutherland's MTU-Speed applet at http://www.mjs.u-net.com/mtuspeed/mtuspeed.htm. This nifty little utility lets you easily adjust MTU and various other Registry settings that can affect dial-up speed. Some users report their download speeds have doubled after using the optimizations suggested by MTU-Speed!
...and Then Double It Again
No, this one isn't free. But if you're serious about going online and you're still connecting at 28.8Kb per second or less, you owe it to yourself to get the high-speed connection that fits your budget: a 56K modem, ISDN, a cable modem or a satellite downlink. Someplace in that range (from about $150 to $700) is a solution that will let Windows-and you-do far more online in less time and with fewer hassles.
They're Tools, Not Toys
It sounds like a silly collection of games, but "Power Toys" is actually a set of free tools that no serious user should be without. There's a tool to make Win95's "CD AutoPlay" work on any nonaudio CD; a taskbar audio CD control; a way to change your screen's resolution and bit depth without rebooting; customized Find menus; and lots more, including Tweak UI 1.1. Tweak UI is a great way to adjust your Windows user interface. It's worth a download just by itself. (Incidentally, many of the Power Toy tools also work on NT.) Grab a copy at http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/powertoys.htm.
Monochrome Is Dead
You wouldn't work on a monochrome monitor. Then why are you still working with monochrome output? Color printer prices have been in near-freefall for months, and you can now pick up an excellent ink-jet color printer for just a couple of hundred dollars. Once you work in color, you'll never go back.
Squeeze More from Your Hard Drive
Why doesn't DriveSpace get more respect? There's no better way to avoid wasted disk space-in some ways, it even surpasses the new FAT32 system in Win95 SR2 and in Win98. Here's why: Standard Windows (using FAT16) will dice a large hard drive into 32KB chunks, so that saving even a 1-byte file will consume 32KB of disk. The new FAT32 can use 4KB chunks, but that's still wasting a lot of space. DriveSpace dices a disk into 0.5KB chunks, then optionally lets you compress your data. (If you don't want compression, you can turn it off.) Check out DriveSpace in the Accessories/System Tools menu.
More Glass Is Good
Spend some time with a 17-inch or 19-inch monitor, and you won't want to go back to something smaller. You'll appreciate both the extra eye-ease afforded by the larger screen and the ability to work with more than one application at a time.
Zap! You're Dead!
You've invested thousands of dollars in your system and even more in the data it contains. But chances are you're relying on some cheesy $8 power strip to protect your system from electrical problems. It's time to get serious. For less than $100 you can get a basic uninterruptible power supply that will let you sail through brief brownouts or blackouts. Some of the better UPSes can also protect your modem and LAN connections, and even automatically perform a safe, proper system shutdown in the event of an extended outage.
Cheap and Painless Backups
Yes, backups once were a pain, and that's why no one did them. But new media makes backups too cheap and easy to be left undone: In the past year or so, all manner of inexpensive, ultra-high-capacity mass-storage devices have become available. These range from $100 "Ditto" tape drives through "Zip-"type drives to low-end CD re-recordables, and so on. Whatever your needs, you can find fast, affordable backup solutions that will let you safely archive all your data at a cost of less than a penny a megabyte.
If One Hard Drive Is Good...
Two may be better. Hard drive prices are at all-time lows now, and almost every PC made in the past few years can easily accommodate a second hard drive. It's just a matter of opening the case, plugging in a couple of cables, turning a few bolts and replacing the cover: The whole operation can be done in minutes. Besides the obvious benefits of having more space for your data, you can also use the second drive for live, online backups of your most important files.
Get Win95 SR2 or Win98
The version of Win95 that originally shipped in August 1995 is getting long in the tooth-two years is an eternity in the computer industry. If you're still running Win95 or Win95a (check your Control Panel/System applet), you could benefit from the later software that's become available. Check out my column in the August 1997 issue of WINDOWS Magazine for free ways to upgrade many of the components of Win95 or Win95a to Win95b levels. And grab a copy of Win98 as soon as it becomes available late 1997 or early 1998!
Automatic Thumbs Up
Make the icons that represent bitmap images automatically show a thumbnail of the images themselves. Open the Registry, then drill down to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Paint.Picture/DefaultIcon. Now, double-click on (Default) in the right pane and change the value of DefaultIcon to %1. (Note that in order for this to work, you must replace the entire entry with a percent sign followed by the number 1.) Now all your BMP images will be represented in Explorer by icon versions of themselves.
Make Icons from Cursors...
To use a mouse cursor file as an icon, right-click on the document or shortcut and select Properties from the Context menu. Click on the Shortcut tab, then the Change Icon button. Use the Browse button item to navigate to the C:\Windows\Cursors folder. Select All Files from the Files of Type drop-down menu. Select the cursor file of your choice and click OK.
...And Vice Versa
You can also use icons as mouse pointers or cursors. Just launch the Mouse Control Panel item, select the Pointers tab, then double-click on the pointer or cursor you want to change. Select All Files from the Files of Type box, then find and double-click on the icon of your choice. Click OK.
...And from Bitmaps
If you have Microsoft Plus!, you can create an icon from any bitmap image. Open Control Panel and double-click on Display. Select the Plus tab, then select the icon you want to change. Press Change Icon, then press Browse. Find a bitmap, click on Open and hit OK for both dialog boxes.
Color Control
You may already know how to change colors in Windows: by right-clicking on the desktop, selecting Properties, clicking on the Appearance tab and either selecting one of the existing themes or modifying the elements by clicking on them in the example window and changing the colors below. But you should also note that if you select your own colors, you can click the Save As button and name your own custom theme. You can save as many custom themes as you like.
Out of Control Color
There are some window elements you can't change in the Desktop Properties item; you have to edit the Registry. Since the Registry understands colors only as combinations of RGB (red, green and blue) numbers, you'll need a color key to find out what numbers to enter. Fortunately, Windows has one. You'll need to go back to the Appearance item using the instructions in the "Color Control" tip. Once there, click on Colors, then Other. Near the bottom right corner of the dialog box, you'll see three boxes labeled Red, Green and Blue, respectively. Here's where you'll get your numbers. Use the four-point color identifier and the sliding rule to choose the color of your choice. When you've got it, write down the three numbers in the RGB boxes. Repeat for each additional color you want to use. Now open the Registry editor and drill down to HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Colors. Here you'll find all the screen elements. To change one, double-click on it and replace the current value with one of your sets of numbers. When things look the way you want them to, go back to the Appearance item and Save As a new scheme.
Put Recycle Bin on a Diet
By default, Recycle Bin can occupy up to 10 percent of your hard disk space, which means it has files so old you can't remember them. To determine a reasonable size, open it and click twice on the Date Deleted button to sort the deleted-files list in reverse chronological order. Scroll down to the first file that's more than a month old. Select it, then scroll to the bottom of the list. Hold down the Shift key and select the last file, thereby highlighting all files older than one month. Press the Delete key to permanently remove them. Now open Explorer and highlight the Recycle Bin icon. Note the amount of space occupied by the remaining files, as reported on the Status Bar at the bottom of the window. That's how much space your Recycle Bin really needs to hold one month's worth of discarded files. Convert it to a percentage of your total drive space, then move the Recycle Bin's Maximum size slider to that value.
Time for Refreshment
If you power up an external SCSI drive after Windows opens, its drive letter will remain among the missing in any Explorer window. Of course you can exit and restart, but it's faster to double-click Control Panel's System icon and then click the Refresh button on the Device Manager tab.
Find the Missing Link
It's wonderful to click a hotlink and be transported somewhere else in an instant or two (or three or four, depending on your browser's mood). But what if someone prints that page and sends it to a colleague? Needless to say, a little something gets lost, and that something is your URL. If you create a page that is likely to be distributed via print, and you want readers to be able to find you, include the URL as part of the page text.
Don't Buy the Windows 95 Resource Kit
You already have a copy. It's the WIN95RK.HLP file, and you'll find it on your Windows CD-ROM disc in the ADMIN\RESKIT\HELPFILE folder.
The CD-ROM Explorer
If you frequently search through folders on a CD-ROM disc, create a Desktop shortcut and type the following string into the shortcut tab's Target box: EXPLORER /e, /root, x:/ where x is the CD-ROM drive letter. This opens a two-pane Explorer view that shows the contents of the current disc. If you simply drag the CD-ROM drive icon from a regular Explorer window onto the Desktop, the resulting shortcut will launch the disc's AutoPlay feature (if present) or open a single-pane Explorer window.
Take Device Manager Express
If you're a frequent visitor to the Device Manager, create a shortcut with this string in the Shortcut tab's Target box:8CONTROL SYSDM.CPL,,18
Note the two commas before the number. This line directly opens the System applet and selects tab 1, which is the Device Manager (2 is for Hardware Profiles and 3 is for Performance). Although you can use CONTROL filename.CPL to quickly access some other CPL file in the C:\Windows\System folder, the tab selection (, , x) does not work with all such files.
Hail a CAB
Hard disk space permitting, create a Win95 folder and copy all the CAB files into it. Next time you need a new file, you won't have to dig out the CD-ROM disc to get it. If you're not sure which CAB contains the file you want, locate it with the Find option. Search all files named *.CAB and enter the name of the desired file in the Containing Text box.
Make a Clean Start
Why is it so important to "cascade" from Programs-to-Accessories-to-Games when it's time to play FreeCell? If you don't know, then move the Games folder up one level. Next, do the same thing with all the other folders that sit in the Accessories folder. To do so, open the C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories folder and drag each sub-folder up to the Programs folder. Follow the same general procedure to clean up the rest of the Start Menu\Programs folder system.
Let This Be a Warning
If you frequently hit the Caps Lock key by accident, open Control Panel's Accessibility Options applet and put a check in the Use ToggleKeys box on the Keyboard tab. Then select the General tab and clear the check box next to "Turn off accessibility features." From now on your computer will beep if you press the Caps Lock, Num Lock or Scroll Lock keys.
Print That
The Device Manager can send a system summary report directly to the printer. Better yet, send it to a file, as follows. Open the Printers folder, double-click the Add Printer icon and select Local Printer. Scroll down the Manufacturers list to Generic and install the Generic/Text Only printer. When you get to the Available Ports box, select File and follow the prompts to finish the installation. Now click on Device Manager's Print button, but do not check the Print to File box. Instead, click the Setup button, then click the radio button next to Specific Printer. Choose "Generic/text only on FILE:", then click the OK button twice, name the file and click OK one more time. Open the file in your word processor, remove the extraneous page breaks and spaces, and you can now print the complete report on about two pages instead of the six or so it would otherwise require.
Running Start
You can use the Run command on the Windows 95 Start menu to view a networked drive, or even an entire disk. Select Run and type in the server name or server and share name, as in \\sue_smith\c_drive.
File Right
If you have some kind of mysterious executable file (EXE, DLL, OCX) on your system, right-click on it in Explorer, select Properties and click on the Version tab. This displays the version resource inside the file (if it has one), which normally includes the name of the company that created the file, the product the file is associated with, and the file's version number.
Wall Painting
If you're bored with the opening and closing bitmaps Windows 95 displays, you can edit them. The files are bitmaps in the Windows folder, named LOGOS.SYS and LOGOW.SYS. You can edit them with the copy of Microsoft Paint that comes with Windows 95.
A Fine Line
In a pinch, you can use two phone lines, a fax machine and a PC with a fax modem as a low-resolution scanner. Just fax the image on fine resolution to the computer with the fax modem and you'll have it online, usually with quality that's high enough for OCR software to handle.
Space Saver
If you're really tight on disk space under Windows, display the folder C:/Windows/Temporary Internet Files in Explorer and delete all the files. You won't be getting rid of anything important-these are the cached files from your Internet Explorer browsing sessions.
Send TO Can Do
If you often copy or move files to particular directories or networked drives, add a shortcut to each destination in your C:\Windows\SendTo folder. This way, when you right-click on a file in Explorer, those items will appear on the Send To submenu.
No More Cloudy Days
So you hate those clouds hovering on your screen as you launch Windows 95? Just add the line: logo=0 to the [options] section of the hidden system file MSDOS.SYS in your boot drive's root directory, and Windows 95 won't display its cloud logo at boot time.
Cursor Keys
If you want to control your mouse with the cursor keys, including single-pixel movements, just open the Accessibility Options applet in Control Panel, and turn on MouseKeys via the Mouse tab. This lets you operate the mouse cursor with the keys on your numeric keypad and still use the inverted-T cursor keys to move the text cursor.
Expand Your View
You can fully expand the folders in the Windows Explorer Folders pane hierarchical view with a single keystroke. Select the drive you'd like to expand, then press the asterisk key on the numeric keypad. Note that if you select My Computer, you'll expand your diskette drive (if there's a diskette in it), all local hard drives and your CD-ROM drive. Select "Desktop" and you'll add all connected network drives too.
- Edward Wernich
Hail a CAB
Copying all the CAB files (Windows 95 installation files) from the Win95 CD to your hard disk is a great way to save time when reinstalling individual components or the whole shebang. First, copy all the CAB (Cabinet) files from the CD's Win95 folder to a Win95 folder on your hard drive. Make this process even quicker by modifying the Registry to point to the new location. Open the Registry Editor (Start/Run/Regedit), drill down to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion key and highlight the Setup subkey. Right click on the SourcePath item and select Modify from the Context menu. Enter the path of the folder that contains your CAB files and click on OK.
- Joao Valverde
Defrag Virtual Memory
Although the Disk Defragmenter utility speeds up file access, it doesn't defrag your swap file, which is the file Windows uses as virtual memory. You can get additional performance gains by disabling your swap file, defragging your disk, then re-enabling the swap file. The new swap file will be effectively defragged and therefore faster. To do so, right-click on My Computer and select Properties from the Context menu. Click on the Performance tab, then the Virtual Memory button. Select the "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings" radio button, then select Disable Virtual Memory. Click on OK, then OK again. After defragging your disk, follow the same procedure above, but this time select "Let Windows manage my virtual memory setting."
- James Huckabey
Win95 Has Your Number
Someday you may need to do a complete reinstallation of Win95. Do you have your registration number, which Win95 requests during installation? If not, right-click on My Computer and select Properties. Write the registration number (the last number under Registered To:) on a piece of paper and keep it with your startup disk.
- Randy Watts
Skip Scandisk
The Win95b or SR2 version of Windows runs the DOS version of Scandisk automatically during boot up if the system didn't properly shut down after it last ran. You can modify this feature by making a minor change in the MSDOS.SYS file. First, open a DOS window, log onto the C:\ root directory, type ATTRIB MSDOS.SYS -S -H -R and press the Enter key to clear its attributes. Then open the file and edit or add the following line to the [Options] section:
AutoScan=x.Make x 0 if you do not want to run ScanDisk; 1 if you want ScanDisk to prompt you before running (default); or 2 if you don't want ScanDisk to prompt you before running, but to prompt you before fixing errors. Save the file, then reset the attributes by typing ATTRIB MSDOS.SYS +S +H +R.
Open In the Back
Make your documents and programs open behind the currently active window by pressing and holding the Ctrl key while you double-click on its icon. Then click on any open title bar to return the focus to that window.
- Joao Valverde
Last-Ditch Effort
If Win95 crashes and Ctrl+Alt+Del fails to bring up the Close Program dialog, try hitting Ctrl+Esc. The Start menu may come up, letting you perform a graceful and safe reboot.
Boot Options
Here's how to force Windows to open the Startup menu and give you the option to boot into Normal, Safe, Command Prompt Only and other modes each time you start your computer. Find and open MSDOS.SYS, locate the line BootMenu=0 and change the 0 to a 1. If you don't have the line, simply type BootMenu=1 in the [Options] section.
Terrific Troubleshooting
And speaking of boot options, if you're having trouble at startup and want to find out what's going on, check your boot log. Once your PC starts up, find and launch the hidden BOOTLOG.TXT file. It will tell you what loaded and whether each file was successful. When you're sure your system is functioning properly, make a copy of BOOTLOG.TXT and rename it (to BOOTLOG1.TXT, for example). If you experience startup problems again, compare your BOOTLOG.TXT file to your backed-up, "clean" copy to help pinpoint problems.
The Bigger Picture
You can't enlarge BMP files using Paint, but you can use WordPad or Exchange to do it. Just copy the bitmap image from Paint and paste it into a new document or Inbox message. Grab the edge of the image with the cursor and stretch it to the size and proportion you want. Hit the PrintScrn key to copy, then paste into a new Paint document. It's not pretty, but it works.
- Russ Bomhof
Revise the Run List
You can edit the list of previously executed commands found in Run's drop-down box. Launch Regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU. In the right-hand pane, double-click on the letter that corresponds to the item you want to delete or modify, and make your changes in the Edit String dialog box that pops up. Be careful not to delete the MRUList items.
Fast File Renaming
Rname is a free utility that lets you rename large groups of files in one step. It's highly configurable and very powerful. Download it from http://www.winmag.com/win95/software.htm.
Make Windows Settings Stay Put
If you want to make sure Windows remembers how you've sized your windows, try this after making a change: From an Explorer window you've customized, select Options (or Folder Options, if you have IE4 and Web View installed) from the View menu, make any change and then change it back (that activates the Apply button). Click on Apply and then OK. The next time you open a window, it should retain the size you set.
Organize Your Desktop
By default, Win95 places all your "permanent" Desktop items (My Computer, Network Neighborhood and so on) on the left-hand side of your screen. But if you put them on the right-hand side, any new files-those you're working on or files you download-will show up on the left by default. It's a great way to keep them separated.
For Real Win95 Help...
Windows 95 Help isn't always helpful. A better place to turn is the Windows Resource Kit (WIN95RK.HLP), which you'll find on the Win95 CD-ROM in ADMIN\RESKIT\HELPFILE. We recommend that you copy it to your hard disk and refer to it often.
Reboot the Taskbar
If you change a Registry setting that affects the taskbar or Start menu, here's how to enable the new setting without restarting Windows. After making a change, press Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up the Close Program dialog. Select Explorer and click on the End Task button. In the Shut Down Windows dialog that pops up, click on No (or Cancel if you have IE 4.0 installed)
Tile Your Windows with Taskman
Stop resizing multiple windows by hand to make them tile horizontally or vertically. Let Task Manager do the job. Launch this Win3.x leftover by selecting Start/Run and typing Taskman at the prompt. In the dialog box that appears, choose the windows you want to tile by clicking on their corresponding tabs while holding down the Ctrl key. Select Windows/Tile Horizontally or Tile Vertically.
Customize Win95
A handy-and free-utility called WinDuh makes it easy to customize system settings that can't be modified in the Control Panel. Add powerful cascading menus to your Start button, speed up menu pop-ups, assign sounds to application events and much more. Download it from WinMag's Free Win95 Software site at http://www.winmag.com/win95/software.htm.
Where's the LOGO.SYS File?
We've mentioned before that LOGO.SYS is the Wait screen you see when you boot Win95, LOGOW.SYS is the Wait screen you see after you shut down Win95, and LOGOS.SYS is the "It's now safe to turn off your computer" screen. Although each has a SYS extension, these files are standard bitmaps you can modify with the Paint applet to create custom StartUp and Shutdown screens. Some readers wrote back and told us they couldn't find the LOGO.SYS file. Some systems don't have a LOGO.SYS file and instead grab the StartUp logo from the hidden IO.SYS file. If you'd like to change the StartUp screen, create a LOGO.SYS file (whether you already have one or not) and put it in your root directory. For more information on how to create your own Win95 system logos, check our Customize Your Desktop! home page (http://www.winmag.com/windows/cd/) and click on the link labeled "Click here for tips on how to customize your desktop!"
No Go on the Logo
If you'd prefer not to have any StartUp splash screen at all, find the LOGO= line in your MSDOS.SYS file and change the value to 0.
Multiple Floppies Maneuver
Sometimes you want to store a file that's too big for a single floppy. You can store it on more than one with Win95's Backup utility. (Note: You may need to first install the utility with the Add/Remove Programs option in the Control Panel. Click on the Windows Setup tab, then highlight Disk Tools and click on Details. Check the box next to Backup, click on OK and then Apply.) When you're ready to transfer your file, instead of copying it, choose Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Backup from the Start menu and follow the wizard to back up a file to floppy disks. Once the backup is stored on your disks, you can use Backup's Restore feature to place the backed-up copy on another system. Unless the directory structure of the new machine is identical to the original, you'll need to change one restore setting: Choose Settings/Options, click on the Restore tab and select the Alternate Location radio button.
- Randall Chiu
More Than One Find Is Fine
When you need to search for more than one file, speed up the process by running more than one instance of Find at a time. This is especially useful for searching for multiple items in the background.
- Andrew Germishuys
Supercharge Your Menus
You can adjust the pop-up speed of your menus by opening REGEDIT and going to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\desktop. Double-click on the MenuShowDelay string (if you can't find MenuShowDelay, create it by right-clicking in the right-hand pane of REGEDIT and choosing New and then String Value). Place your desired delay time in the Value Data field (the default is 500 milliseconds)
Get Inside Information
Win95's Device Manager lets you view the list of your PC's assigned interrupt requests, input/output addresses, direct memory access numbers and allocated memory ranges. Right-click on My Computer and choose Properties from the Context menu. Click on the Device Manager tab and then double-click on the entry labeled Computer.
- Alex Norris
Here's a Wild DOS Tip<
DOS 7.0 (the version that underpins Win95) lets you add advanced wildcards to the DIR command. For example, typing either DIR *T.* or DIR *T*.* under previous versions of DOS simply displayed all the files in the directory. Under DOS 7.0, DIR *T.* shows only the files or folders that end in the letter T. And DIR *T*.* shows only the files or folders that contain the letter T anywhere in the first part of their names. Note: This tip only works when you launch DOS using Win95's MS-DOS Prompt icon.
- Samantha Embrey
And Speaking of DOS...
Under DOS 7.0, type DIR /V within a desired directory. This adds additional information to DIR listings and places long filenames in the left column.
Get Back to Win95
Have you ever pressed the Full Screen button on the toolbar of an MS-DOS Prompt window and then couldn't find your way back to Win95? If so, simply press Alt+Enter to return to Windows.
A More Direct Dial-Up
If you don't like pressing Dial-Up Networking's Connect button each time you call your ISP, you can bypass it. Open Programs/Accessories/Dial-Up Networking from the Start menu and click on the Connections menu. Choose Settings and clear the box labeled "Prompt for information before dialing." As long as you've directed your browser's default dial-up connection to save and reuse your password automatically, you'll be able to initiate a connection just by launching your browser.
- Jason Itell
Text File Trickery
Here's an easy way to always open TXT files in WordPad rather than Notepad. Click once on any TXT file, then hold down the Shift key and right-click on the file. Choose Open With from the pop-up menu, scroll through the list of programs and choose WordPad. Check the box labeled "Always use this program to open this type of file" before you click on OK.
Close Sesame
If you've opened multiple levels of a folder, you can close it and all of its parent windows by holding down the Shift key and clicking the Close button in the upper right-hand corner. Note: Win95 must be set to browse folders using a separate window for each folder. To check this setting, choose View/Options from any folder. The top radio button on the Folder tab must be clicked on. In IE4, select View/Folder Options, click on Custom and then on Settings. Check the option labeled "Open each folder in its own window."
Give Your PC a Mini Tune-Up
Keep your system in shape by practicing a little preventative maintenance on your hard drive. At least once a month, perform these steps, in this order:
Keep Your Desktop on Top<
You can gain easy access to your Desktop by creating a folder containing all your Desktop items, and then creating a single-click shortcut to that folder. First, create a shortcut in your StartUp folder and specify this target: C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /root,. This will show a folder with all the default icons on the Desktop, as well as any items you've added. Make the folder automatically minimize on the taskbar by choosing Run: Minimized in the shortcut's Properties dialog box. Whenever you want to access your Desktop's items, simply click on the shortcut in the taskbar.
Tuck Away the Taskbar
If the taskbar gets in your way, there are a few ways to move or hide it. You can move it to the top or sides of your screen by dragging and dropping it on the appropriate edge. Wherever the taskbar is, right-click on it, choose Properties and check the Auto Hide option to make it disappear until you move the mouse pointer to the screen edge where it hides. To hide it permanently, turn off Auto Hide and drag the taskbar off the screen. Its edge will stay visible so you can drag it back again.
Not-So-Private Properties
You can access Control Panel's Network, System and Display Properties from the Desktop. Right-click on the Network Neighborhood or My Computer icon and select Properties to access the Network or System settings, respectively. Right-click on the Desktop itself and select Properties to access the Display Properties. To quickly access the Properties for any object on the Desktop, hold the Alt key and double-click on the object.
Accommodating Columns
If you open a folder in Details view, and part of the file/folder information isn't visible because the columns are either truncated or too wide for the window size, here's a quick fix: Press Ctrl and the Plus (+) key on the numeric keypad. The columns will automatically adjust to fit the window or widen to display all the information (if your resolution and screen size are large enough). In an Explorer window, you may need to select the pane first by pressing Tab.
Faster Folders
You can eliminate tedious right-clicks and menu selections when you create a new folder by pressing Alt+FWF instead within any My Computer, Network Neighborhood or Explorer window (press Alt+FNF with IE 4.0's Desktop Update installed). The folder appears instantly, highlighted and ready for naming.
Define DOS Results
An undocumented Win95 command switch eliminates the long filename column in a DOS window directory listing. Simply type the command DIR /Z. Typing DIR /B displays the long filename only and DIR /Z/B displays 8.3 names only.
- Jeremy Vandenberg
Quick Fix for Registry Problems
If you receive a Windows Protection Fault error in DOS when booting Win95, your problem could be a corrupt Registry. To remedy the problem, use the DOS version of RegEdit to export and then recreate your Registry. Start by booting your system to DOS (press Shift+F5 when you see "Starting Windows 95 ..." on your screen, or boot to your Win95 boot floppy disk if necessary). From the boot directory of your primary hard disk, type: regedit /e reg.reg and press Enter. Go to your Windows folder and type these commands to make your Registry files visible: attrib -h -s -r system.dat and attrib -h -s -r user.dat. Rename the SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT files to SYSTEM.BUP and USER.BUP. (Delete these files later when you're sure Win95 is working properly.) Navigate back to your boot directory and then type regedit /c reg.reg. Finally, reboot and see if your problems have disappeared.
Note: All your applications and devices should work as they did before, because the new Registry imports the old one.
Temporarily Defeat StartUp
During an isolated Win95 boot, it's possible to prevent the programs in your StartUp folder from automatically launching-this is helpful for troubleshooting or fast boot-ups. Start your PC, and when you see the Windows splash screen, hold down the Shift key until Win95 completely finishes loading. If you're on a network and you're prompted for a password, hold down the Shift key after you've clicked on OK in the network log-on dialog box.
Dump Unwanted Autoloads, Part I
You can also permanently prevent programs from autolaunching by removing their program strings from the following Registry keys: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServ ices. But remember, any changes you make to the Registry will be permanent, so you may want to back up your settings before you do anything else.
Dump Unwanted Autoloads, Part II
Another way to prevent programs from autolaunching is to remove their entries from the LOAD= or RUN= line in the WIN.INI file. Launch the file from the Run command line and delete any unwanted program names you find on either line. You can also place a semicolon at the head of either line to prevent Windows from reading it-a good way to test your changes while preserving previous settings.
Sharing in Private
Improve the security of shared drives, folders and printers on a peer-to-peer network by making your shared devices invisible to hackers. Set the last character of your share name to $
Note: This won't prevent users from accessing resources they know exist.
Save Your Searches
If you frequently run the same search query within Win95's Find utility, here's how to automate it. Open the Options menu and put a check next to Save Results. Run your search and select File/Save Search. This places a small FND file icon on your Desktop that's automatically named for your search values. To access the same search again-including your previous results-double-click on the FND icon.
Awesome Icons And More!
We've put together an awesome set of icons-plus some other fun goodies-you can use on your Desktop. You'll find them at our Win95 super site: http://www.winmag.com/win95.
Change Your Desktop Icons
You can change the Win95 Desktop icons by editing the Registry. Note: Only power users with complete Registry backups should edit the Registry. To change the desktop icons, go to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT section of the Registry, find the CLSID Key, right-click on it, Select Find and check the Keys box only. Now enter the specific series of numbers (listed below) in the Find What box for each desktop item. The easiest way to do this is to find the online version of this article on our Web site (http://www.winmag.com), then copy and paste the code from the article to the Registry Find dialog box. Click on Find Next to search. Once you've found it, double-click on it and select DefaultIcon. In the right pane, double-click on the word Default. In the Value Data box, type the path to the file containing the icon you want to use. For the Recycle Bin, you can set different icons for empty and full. See the tip "Awesome Icons and More!" for where to find icons.
Here are the secret CLSID codes:
My Computer
20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D
Network Neighborhood
208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D
Inbox
00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046
Recycle Bin
645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E
Keyboard Selection
When a window or dialog box has more than one button, one of the buttons always has a darker outline or shadow. The Enter key will always activate that highlighted button. If the button you want to click isn't highlighted, use the Tab key to switch the highlighting between buttons. Shift+Tab lets you go backwards.
- Ruben Lopez
Tres Cool Tray
You can customize the Win95 tray (the indented area on the right side of your taskbar that holds the clock and small icons) using a utility called the Tray applet. You can download it from our Win95 Free Software page (http://www.winmag.com/win95)
Cache in CDs
You can set performance parameters on practically every computer that comes with a built-in CD-ROM. Go to Control Panel/System/Performance, click on the File System button under Advanced settings and open the CD-ROM tab. You can increase your cache size and inform Windows 95 of your CD-ROM's speed so it can optimize access to the CDs you use.
Fast Browser Startup
Launch your browser at top speed by setting up a start page that's on your hard disk. Better yet, create a page with links to all your favorite Web hotspots.- Lane Rettigvia
Update: We ran a tip in the November 1997 issue that said you can type URLs in either Internet Explorer or Navigator without the "http://" part of the URL. Dozens of readers quickly pointed out that you may omit the "www" part as well.
Start-Menu Reform
Installing a new application creates a cascading menu off your Start menu and loads it with a bunch of junk. Eventually, the menu gets way out of hand. To simplify, open the Programs menu by right-clicking on your Start button, selecting Open from the context menu, then double-clicking on the Programs folder. In the folder window, create new folders for your streamlined categories. Move all the program shortcuts you want to keep into the new folders by right-clicking on each in turn and selecting Cut, then right-clicking on the appropriate new folder and selecting Paste. Delete the rest.
When What's New Is Old
Some applications add themselves to the Context menu's cascading New menu that appears when you right-click on the Desktop or within a folder. You may find that even after you've deleted a particular application, it stays on the New menu. If you want to remove it, launch My Computer, select Options from the View menu and click on the File Types tab. Find the offending application on the list, select it and click on the Remove button. Click on Yes when it asks for confirmation.
Stuff Your Start Menu
When you "add a folder" to your Start menu by dragging and dropping it onto the Start button, you're really just adding a shortcut to the folder. It's usually better to put the actual folder there instead of a shortcut. The Start menu is just a special folder in the Windows folder called, unsurprisingly, "Start Menu." If you put folders that contain your documents into this folder, you gain three advantages. First, what you see on the Start menu is always correct; delete a folder, for example, and it disappears from the Start menu as well, while a shortcut would remain. Second, actual folders appear on the Start menu as cascading menu items, whereas shortcuts to folders just open the folder on your Desktop when selected. And finally, the Start menu is always available, even if your Desktop is packed with clutter.
Win Tunnel
Tunneling enables remote users to use the Internet as a secure "virtual private network." This feature has been available in NT for a while, and now Microsoft has a version for Windows 95. Download Microsoft's point-to-point tunneling protocol utility at the WINDOWS Magazine site: http://www.winmag.com/win95/software.htm.
Explorer Function Key: F4
If you're a killer keyboard commando-we're guessing that you are-you should know the three function keys that let you rip through Windows Explorer. The first (you'll find two others in the next two tips) is F4. This function key opens the Address drop-down menu and highlights it so you can quickly use your arrow keys to navigate local or network drives, plus My Computer and Desktop folders.
Explorer Function Key: F5
When you're in Explorer (either dual- or single-pane view), press the F5 key to refresh the contents.
Explorer Function Key: F6
The F6 function key lets you quickly toggle between Explorer's left and right pane and the Address box.
Know Your File Types
Power users, it's time to get really familiar with your File Types dialog. This is where you can turbocharge Windows and customize the way it works for you. Launch My Computer, select Options from the View menu and click on the File Types tab. Scroll down the list of file types, highlight a file that you use a lot (an HTM file, text file or e-mail file, for example) and click on the Edit button. In the dialog box that comes up, you can change the icon for that file type, add extensions of the same file type, put items on the Context menu, enable QuickView and much more.
OSR2... Free!
You may have heard about the latest version of Windows-9.50b, or the "OSR2 release." It's packed with file updates, utilities and other enhancements. You can't buy it in stores unless you buy a new computer to go with it, but you can get most of the updates free. You'll find them at the Win95 Free Software page (http://www.winmag.com/win95/software.htm)
Change Your Name
When you install Windows 95, it asks for your name. From that point on, the computer recognizes the entered name as the official registered owner. Here's how to change it: Launch the Registry Editor. Drill down to and click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version. In the right pane, find the RegisteredOwner entry and double-click on it. In the Value Data box of the Edit String dialog that pops up, change the name to whatever you wish and click on the OK button. To change the company name, repeat the procedure for the RegisteredOrganization entry.
- George M. D'Auria
Faster than E-Mail
Need to set up a convenient routing system for documents within your small workgroup? Each person in the workgroup should do the following: First, create a folder on the Desktop and label it "In." Then right-click on the In folder; select Properties and then the Sharing tab. Click on the Shared As radio button and put your own name in the Share Name box. Click on the Full Access type button, and then click OK. After all in the group have completed these steps, open Network Neighborhood, find all the shared In folders and create shortcuts to each of them in your C:\WINDOWS\SENDTO folder. (Use the right mouse button to drag and drop them from Network Neighborhood and select Create Shortcut Here from the Context menu.) Whenever you want to send a document to a workgroup member, just right-click on it, then select Send To and the person's name.
- Adrian Scott
Mouseless Moves
You can move or resize open Windows applications by using only your keyboard. First, press Alt+Spacebar to bring up a menu. Press S, then use the arrow keys to resize the window. Press M and move the window using the arrow keys. Press Enter to keep the window change or Esc to return the window to its previous state.
Sort Your Recycling
The Recycle Bin lets you view items you've tossed in the same way as an ordinary Windows folder. If you're looking for something in the Recycle Bin, select Details from the View menu and click on the bar of your choice (Name, Original Location, Date Deleted, Type or Size) to sort by that category.
For That 'UNIX Look'
Here's how to make the most efficient use of space in Windows: Right-click on the Desktop, select Properties and then the Appearance tab. Put each listed item at the given setting: Active Title Bar-16, Active Window Border-0, Caption Buttons-16, Inactive Title Bar-16, Inactive Window Border-0, Menu-15, Scrollbar-8 and Selected Items-15. If you really crave your space, set your icons to 16!
Minimize All Windows-Fast
Press Ctrl+Esc, followed by Alt+M, and all open windows will be instantly minimized.
Fast as a Server
Gabe Cheek's tip about changing the role of a network computer to a server (see WinTips, May 1997) works if you have version 9.50b of Windows 95 (otherwise known as the OSR2 release). If you have any earlier version, a bug prevents the tip from working. You can fix it, though, by manually editing the Registry (note that this tip is for advanced users with full system backups). Open the following Registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\FSTemplates\Server\. Now edit the Contents pane entries to read:
Name: NameCache Data: a9 0a 00 00
Name: PathCache Data: 40 00 00 00
- Dennis McKay
Editor's Note: Here's a replay of Gabe's tip.
Fast Cache
Right-click on My Computer, select Properties, then click on the Performance tab and the File System button. In the box next to "Typical role of this machine," select Network Server and turn the Read-Ahead Optimization indicator all the way up to improve disk performance.
A Data Doggie Bag
Whenever you copy text or graphics using Ctrl+C or another method, the data goes into your Windows Clipboard until the next time you copy something, at which time it's blasted into the ether. If you'd like to hang on to the contents of your Clipboard, simply launch the Clipboard Viewer applet, select Save As from the File menu and name the file. Next time you want the data, launch the Clipboard Viewer, select Open, then find and double-click on the file you saved. Once it's in the Clipboard, you can paste away. If you don't have the Clipboard Viewer installed on your system, install it from the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel item. Warning: A saved Clipboard file (CLP extension) is humongous, because the data is saved in multiple formats.
Speedier CD
You can speed up your CD-ROM by telling Windows the drive is more capable than it really is. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties. Click on the Performance tab, the File System button and then the CD-ROM tab. Move the Supplemental Cache Size sliding bar all the way to the right (toward Large) and select "Quad-speed or higher" from the "Optimize access pattern for" drop-down menu, regardless of your particular drive's speed. This tells Windows to create a larger cache for your CD, so it will run faster.- Dennis McKay
Easy Customization
Many of the Win95 customization tips we've printed can be accomplished with point-and-click ease using a free program called More Properties. No more risky editing of the Win95 Registry! Among the dozens of customizations you can perform with this utility: Hide the Network Neighborhood icon, turn off the splash screen and show a thumbnail icon for each bitmap. Download the file from our Free Win95 Software page (http://www.winmag.com/win95/software.htm)
Upgrade Without Previous Version
If you're installing Win95 on a system without a previous version of Windows installed, Win95 asks you to prove you have installed a previous version of DOS or Windows. If you don't have your old diskettes handy, here's how to get around the dialog: Open Notepad and save a document as WIN.CN_ (the final character is an underline). Put your new WIN.CN_ file on a diskette-your boot diskette or Win95 Startup disk will do. When you reach the point in the installation where Win95 asks you to show it a previous version, put in the diskette with the WIN.CN_ file on it. The installation program will accept it as proof of a previous version.
Launch Control I
Some programs tell Windows to launch them at start-up by placing a shortcut in the StartUp folder. To remove start-up programs, right-click on the Start button and select Open. Double-click on the Programs folder, then the StartUp folder. Delete shortcuts to programs you don't want to run at start-up. Or just drag the shortcut out to the Desktop to temporarily remove it from the StartUp folder. You can drag it back later or delete it.
Launch Control II
Other programs tell Windows to launch them at start-up by editing the Windows Registry. (This tip is for the advanced user with a backed-up Registry.) To remove these programs, open the Registry Editor, and then open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. Delete any programs from the Name column that you don't want to run at start-up.
- Cody Robbins
Launch Control III
To temporarily abort all StartUp folder launches, hold down the Shift key as Windows opens. Programs listed in the StartUp folder won't open this time, but will be there next time. To selectively launch these unopened programs, open the StartUp folder and double-click on any icon.
Find a Better View
Most people don't know that the Win95 Find utility (Start/Find) can display results not only in the default Details view, but also in Large Icons, Small Icons and Lists views. These options are listed on the View menu.
And I Quote
You may have heard that you must enclose long filenames within quotation marks when working in the DOS-Prompt window. But if nothing follows the filename in the command, you need only the first quotation mark.
- Per L'vgren
Wallpaper Hanger
A neat utility called Panorama 32 changes your Win95 or NT wallpaper as often as you like. Instead of using just BMP files, it supports JPG, GIF and PNG files as wallpaper, too. The utility is packed with neat surprises, such as fully customizable attributes (tiling, scale to screen, background color and so on) for each image. Download Panorama at the WINDOWS Magazine Free Win95 Software site (http://www.winmag.com/win95/software.htm)
The Ultimate System Checker
Check out the all-new, all-Web WinTune 98 at http://www.winmag.com/WinTune98/. You run it right from the Web-you don't have to download anything. WinTune 98 clocks everything on your system and gives you every detail about your hardware.
Fast Blank Floppy
If you often reformat floppy disks just to erase the contents and make them available for other uses, there's a faster way. Right-click on the desktop and select New/Shortcut. Type deltree /y a: in the Command line box, click on the Next button, type Drive A Zap in the Select a name box, click on Next again and select an icon. Just double-click on the icon when you want to zap everything on the diskette that's currently in your A: drive.
- Jason Wellband
Open Current Folder From DOS
Here's how to open the Windows folder that corresponds to the DOS directory you're working in. Select Start/Run, type Explorer or whatever program you want and click on OK.
- Kevin Draper
Change Your Drive Icon
You can change the icon in My Computer that represents any hard-drive partition. Open Notepad and type [autorun]. Below that, type icon=c:\icon.ico, replacing c:\icon with the actual path for your chosen icon file. Save the file, name it AUTORUN.INF and place it in the root directory of your drive's partition. If you point to a file that has more than one icon in it, type a comma after the icon path followed by the icon's number (for example, if it's the third icon in the file, then use the number 2 because the first icon is 0)
Fast Network Properties
Most people get at their Network Properties by launching Control Panel, then double-clicking on the Network icon. There's a faster way: Right-click on the Network Neighborhood icon and select Properties.
Find Your Path, Part I
By default, Windows 95 hides from you the paths of files and folders. If you want the full paths spelled out on your window title bars (the colored area at the top of all open file and folder windows), double-click on My Computer, select View/Options, click on the View tab and select "Display the full MS-DOS path in the title bar."
Find Your Path, Part II
If you tried the previous tip, you may find that it's hard to fit the entire path of some documents into the title bar. Here's how to change the font to something more compact. Right-click on your Desktop, select Properties, click on the Appearance tab, select Active Title Bar from the Item menu, then Arial Narrow from the Font menu.
- David A. Devonport
Find Your Path, Part III
Here's another trick for finding out the path of a file: Launch the Run command dialog (Start/Run), clear the Open box by hitting the Backspace key, and then drag and drop the file of your choice into the Open box. Windows will type the full path of the file into the box.
Move the Start Button
Here's a neat, undocumented trick for moving your Start button to another place on the taskbar: Click on the Start button, then hit the Esc key. Press Alt+ - (the Alt key and, at the same time, the hyphen key), and then let go of both. Click on Move from the menu, and then use your right- and left-arrow keys to move the button. When the button is where you want it, press the Enter key. Note that when you restart Windows, the Start button will be back in its original location on the far left of the taskbar.
- Sulaiman Alireza
Remove the Start Button
Follow the steps outlined in the "Move the Start Button" trick, but instead of selecting Move from the Context menu, select Close. The button will come back when you restart Windows.
A Fast Move
When you use Win95's Send To feature (right-click on the item, then select Send To from the Context menu) to place something on a floppy disk or on a drive other than your C: drive, the file is copied. To move it, hold down the Shift key while clicking on the Send To item.
- Manos Roudas
Take a Sneak Peek
The next version of Windows will sport a cool new browser-like user interface based on Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0. Download a beta copy of IE 4.0 at the WINDOWS Magazine Free Win95 Software page (http://www.winmag.com/win95/software.htm)
Put ALL Programs Together
Most well-behaved 32-bit Windows 95 applications install by default into your Program Files folder. Since the folder uses a long filename, you can't install 16-bit Windows 3.x applications there-or so it seems. You can do it by using the truncated name, which is C:\PROGRA~1, during the installation.
- Matthew Olson
Enlarge Your Pointers
It's easy to miss Win95's pointer schemes. But if you want bigger pointers and cursors, here's the easiest way to get them. Just double-click on the Mouse item in the Control Panel, click on the Pointers tab, then click on the drop-down Scheme menu. Choose from 3-D, Animated Hourglasses, Large and Extra Large pointer schemes.
Wipe Out Temp Files
Win95 creates a lot of "temporary" files when it opens documents. It puts these files in the C:\WINDOWS\TEMP folder and intends to close them when the application is finished with them. But sometimes, temp files can become permanent and eat up a lot of hard-disk space. It's a good idea to periodically open the folder and delete these files. Make sure no applications are running when you do it.
- Bill Keesing
Kill DriveSpace
If you don't use DriveSpace to compress your drive, you can free up lots of space by getting rid of it. From any Explorer window, select Options from the View menu, then click on the View tab. Make sure Show All Files is selected. Launch Find and type DRVSPAC*.* in the Named box, then go ahead and delete all the files it finds. Warning: Before you try this tip, make sure you're not using DriveSpace!
- George Gombos
Real Hard-Disk Help
Win95 Help sports some cool hand-holding videos for beginners. But those videos take up about 7MB of hard-disk space! If you don't need them, go to the C:\WINDOWS\HELP folder and delete all the AVI files.
- Coley Couture
Free Tips Delivered!
Get a free daily Windows tip delivered right to you via e-mail. Just send a message to our automated listserv at [email protected] and type the following: SUBSCRIBE TIPS <your name>. Don't use punctuation or put anything into the subject field.
Prime Time
To gain instant access to your favorite Web sites, put a shortcut to your C:\WINDOWS\FAVORITES folder on your desktop or Start menu.
- David Buchin
Use Your ClipBook
There's a free utility that comes with Windows 95 called ClipBook. It lets you store items from the Clipboard and share them across the network. You can view text, graphics or anything else that can be copied to the Clipboard in thumbnail view-and you can copy as many items as you like. To install it, open the OTHER folder on the Win95 CD, then drag the CLIPBOOK folder from the CD to your C: drive. Open the new folder, drag the file CLIPBRD.EXE and drop it on your Start menu.
Better Dial-Up Networking
Even if you don't have an ISDN modem, you can still take advantage of Microsoft's free ISDN 1.1 Accelerator Pack. The pack upgrades your Dial-Up Networking applet and gives you some nifty new features. The program installs the ISDN-specific files only if it detects an ISDN modem. (Download the pack from the WinMag Free Software page at http://www.winmag.com/win95/software.htm.)
- Bill Dearing
Hardware Troubleshooting Tip
Sometimes Win95 thinks you have more hardware than you do. This can lead to problems. Here's how to troubleshoot: First, make sure you have a good backup. Restart Windows and press F8 at the beginning of the boot cycle to bring up the Mode menu. Select Safe mode and open the Device Manager by right-clicking on My Computer, selecting Properties and clicking on the Device Manager tab. Expand all the categories and look for hardware that shouldn't be there. If you find duplicates within a single category, delete them all and restart; let Win95 identify and reinstall the drivers. Remember, don't delete hardware from the list unless you're sure it shouldn't be there.
- Lyle Caldwell
Faster E-Mail
Launch e-mail from your Run dialog. Create a batch file (which is just a text file with a BAT extension) called SEND.BAT and type START "mailto:%1" into it. Close the batch file and put it in your WINDOWS folder. (Optionally, you can create a shortcut to SEND.BAT in the WINDOWS folder, right-click on the shortcut, select the Program tab and "Close on exit.") Now, whenever you want to dash off a quick message, just open the Run dialog (Start/Run). Type Send followed by the e-mail address of the intended person (for example, you could type "send [email protected]") and hit Enter. If a wizard pops up, fill it in, then send your mail.
- Frederic Jezegou
Fast Cache
Right-click on My Computer, select Properties, click on the Performance tab and the File System button. In the box next to "Typical role of this machine," select Network Server and turn the "Read-ahead optimization" indicator all the way up to improve disk performance.
- Gabe Cheek
Fast Find
Sometimes simple tricks are the most useful. If you want to search for a file and you know roughly where it is, just right-click on the folder it's in and select Find from the Context menu. Find will search the folder and all the subfolders within, based on the search criteria you specify.
The Ol' Switcheroo
When tiling open windows on your desktop (right-click on the taskbar and select either Tile Horizontally or Tile Vertically), Win95 decides which windows go where. Here's how you decide: If you're tiling horizontally, whichever window is selected will go on top. When tiling vertically, whichever window is selected goes on the right. Click once on the title bar to select a window.
- Bob Cook
Know Your Computer
Windows 95 comes with a utility called MS-Info that tells you more about your computer than you'll ever want to know. It lists detailed information on all your DLLs, drivers, fonts, memory, hardware and much more. Just launch the Find utility (Start/Find/Files or Folders) and search for the executable: MSINFO32.EXE.
Put Favorites Back Where They Belong
Do you sometimes create shortcuts to Web sites by right clicking a Web page displayed in your browser window and choosing the Create Shortcut context menu item? That places a bookmark on your Windows desktop, which is handy for a while, but gets messy not too much later. To make clean up no sweat, create a standard shortcut to Favorites (C:\Windows\Favorites) and place it in your Send To folder (C:\Windows\SendTo). Now you can just right click any URL shortcut on your desktop, choose Send To on the context menu, and select Favorites to tuck it away in a place where you can find it again.
Near Perfect File Management
Ever wish you could make Windows 95 show a two directory view similar to the way the old Windows for Workgroups File Manager? You can. Open to folders you want to drag and drop from. Then right-click on the Taskbar and choose "Tile Vertically" from the context menu.
Set Default Folder Size, Position, and State
One of the more annoying aspects of Windows 95 for people who use it every day, all day long, is it's inability to set and permanently retain defaults for folder or Explorer windows, including size, position, sort order, toolbar on or off, and display type (large icons, details, etc.). Here's an imperfect solution, but it's better than nothing for many people. Open the folder for the C: drive on your computer. Without opening any other folders, arrange and configure it exactly as you'd like folders to appear. When you're ready to set the default, hold down the Ctrl+Alt+Shift key combination while you click the close box (also called the X box) in the upper right corner of the folder. There's a limit to how many specific folder instances Windows 95 can keep track of, and eventually this setting may also roll off the list, so eventually you may have to do it again.
- Scot Finnie
Getting Around
Instead of opening Control Panel and clicking on the Network icon, just right-click on Network Neighborhood and choose Properties. Instead of opening Control Panel and clicking the System icon, just right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Instead of opening Control Panel and clicking the Display icon, just right-click the desktop and choose Properties. To quickly access the Properties information for any object (except the desktop), hold the Alt key while double-clicking it.
Find Stuff Quickly, Again and Again
Windows 95's Find utility (Start | Find | Files and Folders) is one of the most useful tools you may have overlooked in the operating system. The fastest way to open Find is to press F3 from any part of Win 95. Once you start using Find, you'll probably think of new uses for it all the time. And you may find that you frequently run the same searches. To make repetitive searches faster, choose Find's Options menu and click Save Results. Next, run the search and, when you're done, choose File | Save Search. This places a small .FND file on your desktop that's automatically named for your search values. To access the same search again, including your previous results, just double click the .FND icon.
-Scot Finnie
How to Restore Your Previous Registry
Windows 95 keeps one backup copy of your System Registry, created each time you launch Windows. If you install software or hardware that creates a problem on your PC, you may need to restore this backup. Follow these steps to accomplish that: Click the start button, and then click Shut Down. Restart The Computer In MS-DOS Mode so you won't create a backup over the backup you need. From DOS, change to your Windows directory. For example, if your Windows directory is C:\Windows, you would type the following: cd c:\windows. Type the following DOS commands, one after another, pressing Enter after each one:
attrib -h -r -s system.*
copy system.dat system.bak
copy system.da0 system.dat
attrib -h -r -s user.*
copy user.dat user.bak
copy user.da0 user.dat
attrib +h +r +s system.*
attrib +h +r +s user.*
Now restart your computer.
- Pam Lansdowne
Customize the Start Menu
Reorganize, add and delete Start menu shortcuts by choosing Start/Settings/Taskbar. Under the tab Start Menu Programs, click on Advanced, and you'll see an Explorer view of the cascading menus within Start. You can manage them like other sets of entries in Explorer.
Open Applications Fast
If you keep shortcuts to applications in the area at the top of the Start menu, you can start them even more quickly. Rename each shortcut with a unique letter or number, then launch one using the key combination Control+Esc (which expands the Start menu) followed by its assigned letter or number.
Talk This Way
Have fun with the sounds Windows 95 plays to inform you of events like closing a program or emptying the Recycle Bin. Pick your own by going to Control Panel/Sounds.
You and Your Shadow
In certain circumstances, you may get increased performance out of Windows 95 by turning off ROM shadowing. This is usually effective only if your system does not use any 16-bit drivers. Experiment with the settings to see which work best.
Prevent Autolaunch Overwrites
The Windows 95 Registry contains file-extension associations that automatically launch the appropriate application when you double-click on a particular file type. However, older applications can sometimes reclaim file extensions, even though the Registry associated a different program with them. That's because whenever Windows 95 starts up, it automatically reads into the Registry the file-extension associations stored in WIN.INI. Although the WIN.INI file isn't needed by Windows 95, it's kept around for compatibility purposes. One way to prevent WIN.INI from overriding the Registry's autolaunch preferences is to delete the file-extension associations in WIN.INI. Open WIN.INI in Notepad, scroll down to the [Extensions] section, and remove any lines that conflict with Registry associations.
Squeeze Your Swapfile
Swapping drivers and applications between virtual memory and your hard disk can chew up a lot of cycles. Set the size of your swapfile intelligently-to 2.5 times RAM-and you'll increase performance. Go to Control Panel/System/Performance and click on the Virtual Memory button. Select the option "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings." Select the disk partition on which to place virtual memory (defragment it first for best results), then type in the same value for Minimum and Maximum (this reduces the time Windows 95 spends resizing the file). If you have a 16MB system, that value is 40MB; for a 32MB machine, that value is 80MB. You'll have to restart your computer for the change to take effect.
Multilingual Switch
A simple key combination enables you to rotate among keyboard layouts for almost all languages. Open Control Panel/Keyboard/Language. Add the languages you need and pick a radio button to give you a key combination to switch among languages-you can choose either Left Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift. Make sure you check the box for "Enable indicator on taskbar." As you rotate among your selected languages, a two-letter abbreviation for that language will appear in the system tray.
Shortcut to the Control Panel
If you use the utilities under the Control Panel often, place shortcuts to them on the Start menu. Right-click on the Start button and pick Explore. Make a new folder within the Start menu named Control Panel (or another name of your choice). Go to Start/Settings/Control Panel and select all the programs within it. Drag them to the folder you just created. Don't worry when you're told you can't move those files; just pick the option to create shortcuts. Now, when you open the Start menu, moving your mouse over the name of the newly created folder brings up a menu of Control Panel shortcuts.
Have the Freshest Folder Views
To set Windows 95 to perform a constant refresh of file and folder views, launch the Registry Editor (type regedit in the Run command line), then drill down the left-hand pane through HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/control/Update. In the right-hand pane, right-click on UpdateMode and select Modify. In the edit window, change the 01 to 00. You'll have to exit regedit and reboot your computer before the change takes effect.
Explore a Different Folder
The Windows Explorer normally opens to your C: drive, but you can make it launch with the contents of any folder you want. Go to your Windows Explorer shortcut, right-click and select Properties. Open the Shortcut tab. Edit the entry in the Target field to read explorer.exe /n, /e,<drive:\path\folder>, where <drive:\path\folder> is whichever folder you want to first see when Explorer launches.
You Send to Me
When you right-click on most objects, you'll see a Send To option that offers a number of locations-floppy, mail, etc.- to which you can send the item. You can expand that list with your personal choices. Open the SendTo folder in the Windows directory and put in shortcuts to the applications or locations you want to add to the list.
Expand Right-Click Options
You can expand the right-click options of a particular file type by setting up a custom file association for it. Go to My Computer/View/Options/File Types. From the list, choose the file type for which you want to create a new association, then click the Edit button. You'll see a new dialog; pick the New button. You'll get yet another dialog box; in the Action space, give a description of the new action, like "Open bitmap file with Paint Shop Pro." Click the Browse button and then select the program you want associated with this file type.
Keep Your Hard Drive in Tip-Top Shape
Corrupted sectors and physical errors on your hard drive will affect performance. You can clean your disk using Windows 95�s built-in ScanDisk utility. Its default location is under Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/ScanDisk. For fastest results, use the Advanced options.
Get Cache For CDs
It's easy to set performance parameters for nearly every computer equipped with a built-in CD-ROM. Go to Control Panel/System/Performance, click on the File System button in the Advanced settings section and open the CD-ROM tab. Here you can increase your cache size and inform Windows 95 of your drive's speed, so it can optimize access to any CDs you use.
Pump Up the Volume
To quickly reach the utility that lets you fiddle with your computer's volume, go to Control Panel/Multimedia. Open the Audio tab. Place a check mark in the box next to the line "Show volume control on the taskbar." A speaker icon will appear in your tray; double-click on it to adjust your volume controls.
Click on the Question Mark
If the dialog box you're working in has a question mark in the corner, you can get Help on each item in the box by clicking the question mark and then clicking the item.
DOS Does Help
You can also display Help for an MS-DOS command. At the command prompt in DOS, type the name of the command you want help on, followed by /? For example, type Edit/? to get help on the Edit command.
Wizard to the Rescue
Ask for help in your own words by using the Answer Wizard. From the Help menu within an application, choose Answer Wizard, type your question in the space provided and click on Search. Select the desired topic and then click on Display. If you want to view more topics, click on Help Topics to return to the Answer Wizard window.
Search Word by Word
For a thorough word-by-word search of all Help contents, use the Find index. It's not preloaded, but you can prepare it by clicking on the Find tab in Help and then choosing either Express or Custom, depending on your preference. Click on Finish and you're ready to use Find. You only have to create this index once.
Customize Font Size
You can easily change the font size used in the Help topic window. From within the Help topic window, click on Options/Font. A choice of Small, Normal and Large will appear.
Stop! Back Up First
Don't even think about editing the Windows 95 Registry until you've made an extra backup. Windows is supposed to recover from Registry mishaps, but why take chances? Copy the hidden SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT files into another directory for safe-keeping.
Just Call Me 'HK'
As part of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the six Registry keys are frequently abbreviated as follows:
| HKCR | HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT |
| HKCC | HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIGURATION |
| HKCU | HKEY_CURRENT_USER |
| HKDD | HKEY_DYNAMIC_DATA |
| HKLM | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE |
| HKU | HKEY_USERS |
Practice Safe Edit
If you'd rather think about an edit before making a permanent commitment, export the associated Registry subkey to a BEFORE.REG file. Then open the Registry menu and select either the Import or the Export option. Highlight the exported REG file, open its Context menu and select the Edit option. The file contents are displayed in the Notepad applet, and you can make edits as desired. Then save the file as AFTER.REG and import it into the Registry. To return to the original version, delete the subkey and then import the BEFORE.REG file.
Get into the Export/Import Business
If you're about to edit a Registry entry, highlight its open subkey first. Then open the Registry menu and select the Export Registry File option. Type the name of the open key into the File name box and click the Save button. Now that you have a valid copy of the current key in storage, do your editing as desired. If it doesn't work out right, delete the edited key and import the saved version to restore the Registry to its former condition.
A 3D Problem (Delete Doesn't Delete)
If you export a Registry subkey and delete an entry within its REG file, that deletion will have no effect if the file is imported back into the Registry. That's because the Import action makes additions and corrections only; if there are none for an existing Registry entry, that entry is left undisturbed. To guarantee total replacement, erase the current Registry key before importing the new one.
Find the Unfindable
If you search the Registry for a Desktop object and can't find it, edit the object's icon title and try again. By default, some objects (My Computer and Network Neighborhood, for example) don't write their name into the Registry unless you edit the title. You can even "rename" My Computer back to My Computer to force it into the Registry.
What's in a Name?
If you're working with a Registry sub\sub\ ... \subkey, there's room for error-and lots of it, if the name includes a lengthy CLSID hex string. To get it right the first time, highlight the subkey and then select the Edit menu's Copy Key Name option to copy the entire key path to the Clipboard. Then paste it into a document file, and you can be sure there'll be no typos in it. (This tip is valid for the SR2 version of Windows 95 only.)
Cut Your Search Time
The Find option can search all Registry Keys, Values and Data columns when you click the Find Next button. Let it do so if you have no idea where an item is. Otherwise, check only one of these categories so you don't waste time searching all three.
Color-Code Your Open Folder
If you search for a Value or Data entry, the associated open-folder icon can be hard to spot in the long chain of folder icons in the Key pane. To make it stand out from the crowd, first make a backup copy of REGEDIT.EXE, then open the file in your favorite icon editor utility. Recolor the open-folder icon as desired.
Resolve an Identity Crisis
If the System Properties General tab doesn't have your name spelled correctly, search the Registry's Values for RegisteredOwner (no space between words). When you find the Value entry that shows the current name in the adjacent Data column, double-click on it and make the necessary corrections. To change all other occurrences of the same name, search Data for the name and do the same thing.
For Your INFormation
If a new application is accompanied by an information file (filename.INF), that file may contain Registry-revision instructions. If so, search it for lines beginning AddReg= and DelReg=. These lines point to the sections of the INF file that contain those instructions. Review the sections to get an idea of what changes are about to be made to the Registry.
There's Just No Comparison
At least, not in the Registry Editor itself. But if you export before and after versions of the same key structure, you can open them in the Norton Utilities File Compare applet (or similar) to see what has changed. Or use your word processor's revisions option for the same task.
Plug That Registry (Book)
For still more Registry tips, pick up a copy of The Windows 95 Registry: A Survival Guide for Users by WINDOWS Magazine consulting editor John Woram (1996, MIS: Press, ISBN 1-55828-494-X, $24.95)
All Changes Are Final
Remember that all Registry edits take place as you make them-there's no such thing as an Undo button.
Make a Minimum-Impact Erasure
If you attempt to delete a folder and get a message that "This change may impact one or more registered programs," consider that a warning. The Registry still thinks you need some of its contents-often a symptom of an uninstall operation that didn't clean up properly. Before proceeding, search the Registry for the name of the executable file(s) contained in that folder, then delete the key structure that contains the reference to that file. But first, search the key structure for pointers to other keys that may also need to be erased. This can be a tedious operation, so refer to the August Optimizing Windows column if you need further details or help.
Don't Let ERU Scare You
If you run the Emergency Recovery Utility (ERU.EXE in the \other\misc\eru folder on the Windows 95 CD-ROM disc) and save the recovery files to diskette, the Registry's SYSTEM.DAT won't be saved due to lack of space. Look at ERU's list of Files to Be Saved and then click the Custom button to examine the complete file list. Save SYSTEM.DAT and other unchecked files to a backup directory on the hard drive, so you'll have them when you need them.
Don't Double-Click
Remember not to double-click on any file with a REG extension, unless you're sure you want its contents written into the Registry. To prevent such a file from being used by accident, change its extension to RE_ or something similar.
Remove the Remover
If an uninstalled application is still listed on the Install/Uninstall list in Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs applet, drill down to the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\ key and open the subkey whose name identifies that application. Make sure the
CurrentVersion\UninstallDisplayName entry matches the one shown on the Install/Uninstall list, then delete the key to remove that application name from the list.
Get Real, but Get Careful, too
If you use the Registry Editor in real mode (that is, from a DOS command prompt), watch out for the dreaded /C switch. That's a "C" as in create, not as in copy, and it replaces the entire Registry with a new one taken from the file you specified. If all you want to do is import a small file into your current Registry, then type REGEDIT filename.REG and leave out all switches.
Open a Registry Warehouse
If you go into the import/export business full-time, create a dedicated Registry folder to store your REG files. Then create a shortcut to the REGEDIT.EXE file and type that location into the Start in box (D:\Registry, for example). Otherwise the REG files wind up in the C:\Windows folder, which is probably crowded enough already. This is also a convenient location to store your own backup SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT files.
Print That (Not!)
A hard-copy printout of the entire Registry can run to 1,000 pages or more. Before you hit the Print button, make sure you select just the section of the Registry that you want to study. Better yet, export that section and view it in your word processor. Search the file for whatever you�re looking for, and then print only what you need.
Folder Finder
Type the command START followed by a period (.) at the MS-DOS Prompt to open the current folder. Type the command START followed by two periods (..) to open the parent directory (if there is one) of the directory that you are currently in.
Use Long Filenames in DOS
There's a trick to launching Win95 programs or folders with long filenames from the MS-DOS command prompt. Enclosing the file or folder name in quotation marks should allow you to open a file this way. For example, to open a folder called My Favorite Folder from the command prompt, type Start "My Favorite Folder" and press the Enter key.
A Period Piece
DOS veterans know that typing two periods after the Change Directory command (CD ..) brings you to the parent directory of the current directory. The Win95 MS-DOS Prompt improves on this quick command by letting you use three, four or more periods to move you further up the directory chain to the grandparent and great-grandparent directories.
Make DOS Apps Ask for Input
You can run a DOS program from a Windows 95 shortcut even if it requires variable parameters each time it's run. Create a shortcut for the DOS program, right-click on the shortcut and pick Properties from the Context menu. Click on the Program tab and add a question mark to the end of the path in the Cmd Line field. When you run the program from the shortcut, it will open a parameter window where you can type the variable information.
Drag-and-DOS I
Here's a shortcut for typing in a long path to a DOS program. From Explorer, a folder or the Desktop, drag any file and drop it into the MS-DOS Prompt window. The path and the filename will appear on the command line.
Drag-and-DOS II
A quick way to paste into the MS-DOS Prompt is to click on the Paste button, which is the third button from the left on the toolbar. If the toolbar doesn't appear in the MS-DOS Prompt window, right-click on the title bar and select Toolbar from the Context menu.
Drag-and-DOS III
To copy data from the MS-DOS Prompt, right-click on the title bar and select Edit/Mark. In the MS-DOS Prompt window, highlight the area you want to copy by pressing and holding the left mouse button and dragging across the data. Press Enter, and you're ready to paste the information.
Make DOS Cooperate
Create a shortcut for a DOS program by right-clicking on the shortcut icon and selecting Properties. Select the Program tab, click on the Advanced button and select the MS-DOS Mode check box. Windows 95 will run the application in real DOS, quitting all current Windows and DOS-box applications. Windows will automatically restart when you exit the DOS application.
DOS, Behind-the-Scenes
Click on the toolbar's Background button to set a DOS window to run in background. You can then open a second MS-DOS Prompt and execute commands while the other DOS app runs.
Down-and-Dirty DOS
DOS applications and games can be finicky about system configuration and drivers. Get around this by giving each DOS program a custom setup. Create a shortcut for your programs, then right-click on the shortcut and select Properties. Click on the Program tab, then the Advanced button. Click on MS-DOS Mode, then the "Specify a new MS-DOS configuration" button. Now type in whatever AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS commands your DOS program needs. Note that you can launch batch files from the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
Auto-Launch DOS
If you're a fan of the MS-DOS Prompt, make sure it's always readily available. Right-click on the Start button and select Open. Double-click on the Programs icon, then drag the MS-DOS Prompt shortcut and drop it on the StartUp icon. Now, double-click on the StartUp icon, right-click on the MS-DOS Prompt shortcut and select Properties. Select Minimized from the Run drop-down box. Finally, click once in the Shortcut Key box and type in the hotkey of your choice (say, Ctrl+D). From now on, the MS-DOS Prompt will launch at startup, but minimized. Whenever you want to enter a quick command, just press your shortcut key and it'll come right up.
Dress Up DOS
Set the size of the type that appears in the DOS window from the MS-DOS Prompt Properties dialog. Click on the Font tab and choose a set of font dimensions from the scrolling window. When you select one, the preview window shows what it will look like. You set the font size for individual MS-DOS Prompt windows, so if you have two or more running, they can use different type sizes.
Fun, 32-Bit Style
Game players, listen up! For maximum DOS memory in an MS-DOS session, add the following line to the [386Enh] section of SYSTEM.INI: LocalLoadHigh=1. Players of Duke Nukem 3D and Quake-or anyone who plays a game that uses 32-bit DOS extender software-will reap the benefit of that much more memory.
New DOS DIR
Type the DIR command in an MS-DOS Prompt window to see a new variation on an old theme. In addition to the standard DOS 8.3 filenames displayed on the left, the Windows 95 long filenames are displayed on the right.
Check Your Config
For help troubleshooting your TCP/IP connection under Windows 95, run WINIPCFG from the command prompt or the Run dialog. A window will pop up with lots of information on your TCP/IP configuration, such as your IP address, Default Gateway, DNS Servers, WINS Servers and more.
Be a Net Watcher
You can easily manage shares by using the NetWatcher utility. This program gives you information on all of your shares, including who's accessing them. You can also create and remove shares with this applet, or disconnect a user from your share.
Quick Network Directories
Shortcuts can greatly reduce the time and effort it takes to access network resources. While browsing Network Neighborhood, drag a computer or share to your Desktop and Windows 95 will automatically create a shortcut. Alternately, you can manually create a shortcut using the object's UNC name.
There Goes The Neighborhood
If you have no use for it, the Network Neighborhood icon on the Desktop can be a real nuisance. You can get rid of it using system policies. First, install the System Policy editor from the Windows 95 CD-ROM. Open Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel and choose the Windows Setup tab. Select Have Disk and browse down to the ADMIN\APPTOOLS\POLEDIT directory on your CD-ROM. Once it's installed, you can run it from the Programs/Accessories folder on the Start menu. Select File/Open Registry, and double-click on Local User/Shell Restrictions. Check the Hide Network Neighborhood box, click OK and Save. Once you reboot, the icon will be gone.
What's the Holdup?
Has your network been running a bit slower recently? The TRACERT utility will help you identify the bottlenecks. From the command prompt, type TRACERT <IP Address>. You will get a list of all hosts that your packets pass through enroute to their destination, as well as the number of milliseconds it took to do so.
Share from Anywhere
Navigating through Network Neighborhood can be extremely time-consuming. If you know the exact location of the shared resource you wish to access, then it may be wise to use its UNC name. The format for the Universal Naming Convention is \\server\share. Simply type the UNC name in the Start/Run dialog box or type START \\server\share from the MS-DOS command prompt; an Explorer window will appear with a listing of all files within the share.
Down with Passwords
If you're one of those anarchists who is opposed to passwords, you may like this tip. You can bypass the network log-on dialog when you start up by making Windows log-on your primary network log-on and then removing your Windows password. This causes Windows to use passwords from your PWL file to log you onto Microsoft and NetWare networks.
Sharing Your Secrets I
If you would like to share some of your resources, but don't want them to be accessible to everyone, you can password-protect them. In My Computer, click the folder you want to share, then choose File/Properties/Sharing. You'll find three radio buttons pertaining to passwords. They are Read-Only, Full and Depends on Password. Select the desired button and specify your password.
Sharing Your Secrets II
Another way to share your resources, without making them accessible to the whole network, is to hide them. If the share name ends in a $, it will not appear in the Network Neighborhood browse windows. Hidden shares can only be accessed via their UNC names.
Play Ping-Pong
The PING utility will come in handy if you're having trouble connecting to remote hosts over TCP/IP. From the command prompt, type PING <IP Address> to find which hosts you can reach. If you can communicate with all hosts, try PING <host.domain.com>. If this doesn't work, then DNS resolution is your problem.
Automate ISP Connections
Some ISPs require lengthy log-in procedures. You can script these procedures to automate the dial-up connection. You can install scripting tools from the ADMIN\APPTOOLS\DSCRIPT directory of the Windows 95 CD. Or you can download the shareware application RoboDUN from http://www.filemine.com. To configure the script, open the Dial-Up Networking (DUN) folder in My Computer. Right-click on the connection for the ISP and select Properties. Click on the Configure button in the Connect Using section and select Options. Check the box labeled "Bring up terminal window after dialing" and click OK. Initiate the connection; after you've dialed, a window will appear, allowing you to type any necessary commands. Write down all the case-sensitive prompts and enter the commands into the scripting utility.
DUN Remembers Passwords
To get DUN to remember your dial-up password, you'll need to install the client for Microsoft Networks. Open the Control Panel, double-click on Network, then highlight Client for Microsoft Networks. Select Add, Client and Add again, then click on all of the OK buttons. There's a bug in Service Pack 1, so if you're using it, you'll have to upgrade to version 1.2 of Dial-Up Networking. Download it from http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/info/PPTPdown1.htm.
Enable AutoRedial
By default DUN's AutoRedial is turned off. You can enable AutoRedial by opening the Dial-Up Networking folder and selecting Connections/Settings from the title bar. Then check the Redial option and set your preferences.
Get Off the Network!
Ending a dial-up connection doesn't always mean you're logged off the remote network. The appropriate way to end the session is to click on Start, Shut Down and then select "Close all programs and log on as a different user." Win95 won't reboot, but it will disconnect your Dial-Up Networking connection and log you off correctly.
Searching for Domains In All the Wrong Places
A bug in Win95 4.0.953 and SR2 causes an occasional error message when dialing into a Microsoft Domain Network. The message reads, "No domain controller was available to validate your logon." Download one of these patches to resolve that problem for your version of Win95: For SR2 release of Win95, pick up http://www.microsoft.com/kb/softlib/mslfiles/ras2upd.exe; for 4.0.953 release of Win95, get http://www.microsoft.com/kb/softlib/mslfiles/rasupd.exe.
Lessen Your Packet Load
A simple shareware application can dramatically improve the performance of your Internet connection via Dial-Up Networking. MTU-Speed works by applying tweaks to the Win95 Registry and increasing the transmission packet size. More data can fit into a frame, resulting in fewer packets to download and better performance. Download MTU-Speed from http://www.mjs.u-net.com/mtuspeed/mtuspeed.htm.
Get More from Your Modem
Some Plug-and-Play modems won't allow you to change or increase the default speed of the modem. To get around this, click on Start/Run. Type sysedit in the Open field, then select WIN.INI and go to the [Port] section. Find the port that connects to your modem and edit it this way:COMx:=921600,n,8,1,p where:
x = your modem's COM port
921600 = the maximum bps rate
n = non-parity
8 = 8 data bits
1 = 1 stop bit
p = hardware flow control
Use Only What You Need
If you are using Windows 95 Dial-Up Networking to connect to an ISP, you've probably noticed that the modem has already established a connection but Dial-Up Networking is still plodding along. You can reduce the lag time by removing what you don't need. From the Dial-Up Networking folder, right-click on the ISP connection and select Properties. Click on Server Types and uncheck Netbeui, IPX/SPX Compatible from the Allowed Network Protocols section. Then uncheck "Log on to network" from the Advanced options section.
Customize Your Interface
If you�re looking for some great ways to customize Windows 95, try Tweak UI. Make a folder on your desktop called TWEAK, go to the WinMag Free Win95 Software page (http://www.winmag.com/win95.htm) and click on the Tweak UI item to download the file TWEAKUI.EXE to your new folder.
Install Tweak UI
Open the Tweak UI folder on your desktop and double-click on the EXE file to auto-extract its contents. Right-click on the file TWEAKUI.INF and select Install from the context menu. A Help file will come up during installation. After you close this file, Tweak UI will be installed. You can then delete the entire TWEAK folder.
Get Rid of Annoyances
Double-click on the Tweak UI icon in Control Panel and select the Tweak UI Explorer tab. Check Light Arrow in the Shortcut Overlay section, Animated "Click Here to Begin" (If Room) and Tip of the Day in the Startup area and Prefix "Shortcut to" on New Shortcuts boxes in Settings. You�ll like Win95 a whole lot better.
Speed Up Menus
Click on the Mouse tab and slide the Menu speed slider all the way to the left to make menus appear instantaneously.
Windows Shutters
To make windows snap rather than zoom when you minimize, maximize or restore, select the General tab and deselect the Window Animation box under Effects.
Move Desktop Icons
Tweak UI lets you move any of the desktop items into other folders. Click on the Desktop tab, click on the icon you want to move, then click on the "Create As File" button.
More Tweak UI Tips
Click on the Mouse tab, then the Tips button for more Tweak UI tips in Windows Help format.
Put Your Screen Saver on Hold
Here's the fastest way to temporarily disable your screen saver (if you're defragmenting a drive or doing something similar). Click on the Start button and bring up the Start menu. When the menu is up, your screen saver won't launch.
- Jason Paluszak via the Internet
Custom Drive View
If you want Explorer to show by default all your drives with none expanded and the C: drive selected in the right pane, then change the shortcut for Explorer to read explorer /e,/root,,/select,c:\. Be sure to type the commas.
- Joseph A. Dziedzic via the Internet
Selection Shortcut
You can select a bunch of files by clicking near them and dragging the mouse pointer over them. If you do that with the right mouse button, however, you automatically get a context menu that offers the Open, Send To, Cut, Copy, Delete, Rename, Create Shortcut and Properties commands.
- Andrew Clelland via the Internet
Kill the Arrow
Here's how you can remove shortcut arrows without editing the Registry or installing Tweak UI. First, right-click on the Desktop, and bring up the Properties dialog box. Then select Appearance and choose Icon from the Item box. Select a size of 30 or less, click on OK and voila, they're no longer there. Set a size of 31 or bigger and poof, they're back.
- David R. Officer via the Internet
Have a Cleaner Control Panel
If your Control Panel is cluttered with icons you don't need, here's how to clean it up. In the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory, you'll find a CPL file that corresponds to each Control Panel item. Move the ones you don't want to a safe place on your hard disk. Now, when you open Control Panel, those icons are gone.
- Shaun Lyle via the Microsoft Network
Cool CoolSwitch Tip
The most recently "CoolSwitched" application is always the first choice. That means that by selecting via Alt+Tab item A, then item B, you can toggle between them regardless of how many applications or folders you have open by repeatedly pressing Alt+Tab and letting go.
Remove Read-Only
We've run tips in the past that involved editing the MSDOS.SYS file. Some readers sent mail saying the file is "read-only" so they couldn't edit it. Here's how to remove the read-only and other attributes of MSDOS.SYS. Open Explorer, select View/Options and click on the View tab. Select "Show All Files" and then OK. Now, use Find to search for the MSDOS.SYS file. When you find it, right-click on it and select Properties from the Context menu. When the Properties dialog appears, remove all the check marks in the Attributes section at the bottom. Then use the instructions above to "Hide these types of files."
Find Files Faster
Use Win95's Find utility to search for several files at once. Type in as many filenames as you like in Find's Named box, each separated by a space.
Edit Docs Menu
The items on your Documents menu (Start/Documents) are really just shortcuts in your C:\WINDOWS\RECENT folder. You can selectively delete items there by opening the folder and deleting the shortcuts you don't want.
Fast Access to Favorite Files
Here's a great way to get at your most important documents fast: Move them into your C:\WINDOWS\START MENU folder. If you have dozens or even hundreds of documents, keep them in separate subfolders to categorize them. Best of all, the menu changes as the folder's contents change.
- Mark Murphy
Tell Docs Where to Go
A well-behaved Windows 95 application lets you pick the folder your documents are dumped into by default. You can do the same thing for all other documents as well. Just give each application a shortcut, right-click on the shortcut and select Properties from the context menu. Select the Shortcut tab and type in the path to the folder of your choice in the Start In box.
Take Inventory
Chances are, you have useful programs on your computer you didn't even know were there. And just as likely, you have programs you don't want that are eating up valuable hard disk real estate. The solution? Take an inventory! It's easy. Just create a folder on your desktop called PROGRAM SHORTCUTS, launch the Win95 Find utility (Start/Find/Files or Folders), type *.EXE *.COM in the Named box, then click on the Find Now button. After Find is finished with the search, choose Select All from the Edit menu and drag and drop all the files in the Find window into your new desktop folder. Now you have a folder with shortcuts to every program on your Windows PC. (Before proceeding, make sure you have a good backup.) Now, one at a time, double-click on each shortcut to find out what it is. Once it's identified, you can find and delete the program if you don't want it or move the shortcut to another folder if you do. Remember, if you're not absolutely sure, don't delete it.
Open Dialog
Right-click on the command line of any dialog box and you'll get a handy context menu with options to Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete and Select All.
Faster Keyboard
You can determine how fast your keyboard repeats characters and moves the cursor in a document by launching the Keyboard item in Control Panel, then experimenting with the speed settings on the Speed tab.
Near-Perfect File Management
Ever wish you could make Win95 show a two-directory view similar to the way the old Windows for Workgroups File Manager did? You can. Open two instances of Explorer, navigate to the folders from which you want to drag and drop, then right-click on the taskbar and choose Tile Vertically.
Try to Remember
Win95 has trouble retaining default folder and Explorer window settings-such as size, position, sort order, toolbar status and display type (large icons, details and so on). Here's a temporary workaround. Open the folder for your C: drive, and without opening any other folders, arrange and configure it exactly as you'd like all your folders to appear. When you're ready to set the default, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift while you click the close box in the upper right-hand corner of the window. There's a limit to the number of specific folder instances Win95 can remember, so eventually your setting may roll off the list. Repeat the steps to restore your settings.
Start Changes
An easy way to make a change to items you've placed in the Start menu is to right-click on the Start button and choose Explore. A dual-pane Explorer view will open, letting you navigate through the directory tree in the left pane and open the contents of the folder you want in the right pane. To produce the same view for a folder, you can either right-click on the folder and choose Explore, or hold down the Shift key and double-click.
Double Vision
You can set a dual-pane view as your default Explorer view by opening any folder and choosing View/Options (or View/Folder Options under IE 4.0 or Windows 98). Under the File Types tab, select the Folder item from the Registered File Types list and click on the Edit button. Highlight Explore in the Actions window, click on the Set Default button and hit OK twice. If you ever want to reverse the setting, follow the same steps, but highlight Open instead of Explore.
Restore the Registry
Here's how to restore Win95's backup copy of the Registry in the event of a system error: Select Start/Shut Down and click on the "Restart in MS-DOS mode" option. From DOS, go to your Windows directory and enter the following commands, pressing Enter after each one (select Yes when you're prompted to overwrite SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT), and then restart your computer.attrib -h -r -s system.*
copy system.dat system.bak
copy system.da0 system.dat
attrib -h -r -s user.*
copy user.dat user.bak
copy user.da0 user.dat
attrib +h +r +s system.da?
attrib +h +r +s user.*
- Pam Lansdowne
Avoid Drag-and-Drop Confusion
By default, Win95 copies a file when you drag and drop it between two drives, but moves it when you drag and drop it between local folders. If you're always getting the two methods confused, use the right mouse button for drag-and-drop operations. A Context menu will pop up and give you the choice of copying, moving or creating a shortcut to the item.
Mouseless Shutdown
Instead of clicking on Start/Shut Down to exit Win95, try this: Hit Alt+F4 and press Enter when you're prompted with the Shut Down dialog box.
Faster Dialing
You can pump up your modem's dialing speed. Double-click on the Modems item in the Control Panel and then click on the Properties button. Open the Connections tab and click on the Advanced button. Try entering S11=50 in the Extra Settings field. The number specifies the time, in milliseconds, for each tone and the delay between tones. Lower numbers after the equal sign make the dialing go faster; higher numbers make each tone last longer and slow down the dialing. However, the supported settings depend on your modem; some modems, for example, may support only a range of 50 to 100. Enter the lowest possible value that your modem supports. If you enter a value lower than the supported setting, your modem will default to its lowest value.
- Tom Barnash and Pam Lansdowne
System Chronicles, Part I
Want to keep a hard-copy log of your System Properties? Right-click on My Computer, choose Properties and select the Device Manager tab. Click on the Print button. You'll have the option to print a three-page system summary, a detailed 13-page system report or information about a selected class or device.
System Chronicles, Part II
You can also save your System Properties to a text file-helpful if you're troubleshooting a system problem and want to e-mail the data to a technical support representative. First, install the Generic/Text Only printer driver from the Win95 CD-ROM by opening Control Panel/Printers and double-clicking on Add Printer. Follow and complete the Printer Wizard, and make sure you select Generic from the Manufacturers list. Then repeat the same steps in the previous tip, but before you click on the Print button, check the Print To File option and click on Setup to select the Generic/Text Only printer format.
Mouseless Context Menus
To open an item's Context menu without a mouse click, select the item and press Shift+F10.
Famous DOS Quotation
Because the default MS-DOS view doesn't show long filenames, you need to enter the abbreviated filename when performing a DOS function (for example, enter cd PROGRA~1 to get to your Program Files folder). If you'd rather enter the actual file or directory name (because it's easier to remember than the abbreviated name), enclose it in quotation marks: cd "PROGRAM FILES".
More Famous Quotations
By default, WordPad saves a file with a DOC extension, and Notepad saves a file with a TXT extension-unless you assign an extension that's registered with Windows via the File/Save As dialog box. But if you try to save a WordPad or Notepad file with an extension that Windows doesn't recognize, it will tack the default extension onto the end of the file's name, which is how you end up with filenames like BUDGET.JUN.DOC. The workaround is to save the file and new extension in quotation marks ("BUDGET.JUN" for example).
Ditch Office Applets
Office's StartUp and Find Fast utilities boost the performance of various aspects of Office, but they tend to drag down Windows. To remove them, delete their icons from your StartUp folder. Find Fast is also a Control Panel applet, so your best bet is to fully remove it by running Add/Remove Programs and deselecting the option in the Office Tools setup. Reboot your PC. You might also have to remove the FINDFAST.CPL file from your WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory to permanently delete the tool after rebooting.
Swap File Secret
If you have two physical hard drives in your system, you can boost performance by placing your Windows swap file on the second drive. Right-click on My Computer and choose Properties. Click on the Performance tab, then on the Virtual Memory button. Select "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings," click on the Hard Disk drop-down list and select your second hard drive. (Note: If there's less free space on the second drive, either leave things as they are or clear up some space there.) Click on OK to restart Windows; after booting, check the virtual memory screen to make sure Windows is managing virtual memory again.
WinKey Cheat Sheet
If your keyboard includes a WinKey (it's got the Win95 logo on it and is usually located near the Alt key), you probably already know that pressing it once opens the Start menu. But did you know it also offers shortcuts to several system functions when used in combination with other keys? Here are a few:
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Faster Setup
Facing another Win95 setup chore? Save yourself some time and toil and enter these Setup switches in either a DOS command line or the Run dialog box before you begin: Setup /is to defeat the automatic ScanDisk check; Setup /id to defeat the disk space check; Setup /iq to disable the test for cross-linked files and folder integrity; Setup /in to skip the network setup module; and Setup /iw to skip the Microsoft legal warnings.
Express E-Mail
The fastest way to create an e-mail message to recipients you regularly contact is to use shortcuts that open a new message addressed to a specific person. Right-click on the background of the Desktop or any folder and choose New/Shortcut. In the Command Line type mailto:[email protected], inserting the appropriate e-mail address after mailto. Whenever you want to send that person a message, just double-click on the shortcut and Windows will launch a preformatted message in your e-mail client. You can even create a folder containing multiple shortcuts on the Start menu so they'll always be easy to access.
- Frank Field
More Ways to Send E-Mail
Once you've implemented the previous tip, add the shortcuts to the IE 4.0/Win98 Quick Launch toolbar or to your WINDOWS\SENDTO folder for more ways to send a message. Adding them to your SENDTO folder will let you attach files to a message simply by selecting them from a window, right-clicking on them, selecting Send To and then choosing the recipient's e-mail shortcut.
More Swap File Secrets
Last month, we showed you how to optimize your swap file; here are some more ways to boost its performance. First, if possible, move any files off your your second drive; that places the swap file at the beginning of the disk and minimizes seek time. Defrag the drive using full optimization (even if Disk Defragmenter indicates that you don't need to) to eliminate pockets of free space that could fragment the swap file. Next, right-click on My Computer, choose Properties, select the Performance tab and click on the Virtual Memory button. Check the "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings" option. Select your second drive and set both the minimum and maximum virtual memory sizes to 2.5 times your installed RAM. (For example, if you have 16MB of RAM, set both the minimum and maximum sizes to 40MB.)
- R. Brines
Give Win95b a DMA Boost
If you have Windows 95b (or OEM Service Release 2), you can boost performance by turning on DMA (direct memory access). DMA lets your PC access CD drives, hard disks and removable drives without tapping your processor. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties. Click on Device Manager, expand the Disk Drives (or CD-ROM) item and double-click on the entry for your disk. Click on the Settings tab and check the DMA option. Repeat the process for your other drives, then restart your PC. (Note: This only applies to IDE- or EIDE-type devices, and the Windows 95b default bus mastering drivers must be installed.)
Dump Ugly Folders
Windows 9x doesn't make it easy to change the look of Desktop folders, but here's a simple solution: Instead of right-clicking on the Desktop and selecting New/Folder, create the new folder somewhere else (My Documents, for example), then right-click on the folder, drag and drop it to your Desktop, and choose Create Shortcut(s) Here from the Context menu that appears. You can now customize the shortcut's look by right-clicking on it, choosing Properties, selecting the Shortcut tab and clicking on the Change Icon button. Win98 adds an icon palette for added customization options.
- Chris Burt
'Send To' LAN Trickery
If you work on a small network and often e-mail attachments among co-workers, you can streamline the process. Instead of using e-mail, create a Send To item that lets you copy a document directly to your colleague's Desktop (you'll need shared access to that person's PC). Locate your colleague's C: drive in Network Neighborhood, right-click on it and choose Map Network Drive from the pop-up menu. Map it to an available drive and check the Reconnect At Logon box. Next, open your WINDOWS\SENDTO folder, right-click on the background and choose New/Shortcut from the pop-up menu. In the Command Line field, type H:\Windows\Desktop (where H: is your co-worker's drive letter). Now you can right-click on any object, choose Send To from the pop-up menu, and pick the destination PC to copy the file to your co-worker's Desktop.
- The Underground Guide to Windows 95, Scot Finnie
Send It to My Desktop
You can also use the previous tip to hasten objects to your own Desktop. Follow the same steps above, but point the new shortcut to your local WINDOWS\DESKTOP directory. Then click on the Next button in the Create Shortcut Wizard dialog box, name the shortcut Desktop and click on Finish. (Note: By default, this Send To operation moves items; if you're using it from a different drive than the one your Desktop is stored on, Windows 9x copies the objects.)
A Dialog for All Drives
Here's an easy way to view the properties for multiple hard drives all at once. Open My Computer and select all your hard drives by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on each drive. Next, right-click on any one of the drives and choose Properties from the Context menu that appears; Windows will create a single dialog with tabs for each drive. It also works for floppy, removable and mapped network drives.