| Windows 95 | |
| CHANGE FOLDER ICONS | |
| CHANGE YOUR MOUSE POINTERS
DISABLE WINDOWS KEY USING KERNEL TOYS Have you ever accidentally pressed the Windows key while playing a DOS game and caused your system to freeze up? Disable the Windows key during your DOS session using the Windows Logo Key Control for MS-DOS Programs (one of the Kernel Toys). Point your Web browser at http://www.pcworld.com/fileworld/file_description/0,1458,746,00.html and download krnltoys.exe. Double-click this file to extract its contents, then double-click Diswinky.inf for information on installing and using the program. SAVE PASSWORD OPTION WOES Reader G. Svihus writes, "How can I save my dial-up networking password in Windows 95? I failed to save it on the original setup, and now the Save Password check box is gray." The problem you're having is a common one, and is answered in detail in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. (No point rehashing it all here.) Point your Web browser at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q137/3/61.asp and with any luck, Microsoft's suggestions will solve your problem. Also, for those of you whose Save Password box is available, but simply doesn't work, check out http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q148/9/25.asp UPDATED LINKS FOR PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED UTILITIES Reader C. Igo writes, "I was looking over some of the older tips I'd saved and found that the links for the files Print Directory and File Split no longer work. Would it be possible to print the new links?" Links do change quite frequently. We've mentioned a number of third-party utilities that print directories and that split files into smaller pieces. Here are a couple of each, with current links: Print Directory http://www.pcworld.com/fileworld/file_description/0,1458,2290,00.html Directory Printer http://www.pcworld.com/fileworld/file_description/0,1458,5188,00.html File Fission Wizard http://www.pcworld.com/fileworld/file_description/0,1458,2286,00.html Master Splitter http://www.pcworld.com/fileworld/file_description/0,1458,5132,00.html FOREIGN LANGUAGE SPELL CHECKERS Reader R. writes, "Recently you told us how to change to the English-International alphabet. Now I am wondering where I can get a spell checker for Spanish. (I do some translating work as a volunteer.)" Actually, that depends on the word processor you're using. Windows 95 doesn't have a system-wide spell checker, per se. If you're using Microsoft Word, you can obtain language-proofing tools through: Alki Software Corporation 300 Queen Anne Ave. N., Suite 410 Seattle, WA 98109 Phone: (206) 286-2600 Fax: (206) 286-2785 Support: (206) 286-2780 Orders: (800) NOW-WORD (669-9673) Internet Web page: http://www.proofing.com Also, you may wish to check out the following Web page for more info: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q186/0/37.ASP If you're using another word processor, check with that company for information. DISPLAY MS-DOS TOOLBAR In our last tip, we showed you how to switch your MS-DOS Prompt window to the old-fashioned, full-screen view: Press Alt-Enter or click the Full Screen button (the one with four arrows on it). Don't see any buttons? Either you're already in full-screen mode (press Alt-Enter to return to a window), or you've hidden the toolbar by mistake. To display the toolbar, click the MS-DOS icon in the window's upper-left corner and select Toolbar. (Of course, you can use this same command to hide the toolbar.) SWITCH TO FULL-SCREEN MS-DOS VIEW Want to switch your Windows-style MS-DOS Prompt window to the old-fashioned, full-screen view? You have two options: Click the Full Screen button (the one with four arrows on it) or press Alt-Enter on your keyboard. To get back to the window view, press Alt-Enter one more time. SYSTEM PROPERTIES SHORTCUT The next time you need to open the System Properties dialog box, don't waste your time opening the Control Panel and double-clicking System (unless you're already in the Control Panel). Assuming you're staring at your desktop, there's a much faster way. Just hold down Alt as you double-click My Computer. Who knew? CHANGE REGISTERED USER INFO We frequently receive requests for the steps required to change Windows 95's registered user information--the name and organization that appears in the System Properties dialog box. (You all remember the shortcut to System Properties from a previous tip, right? Hold down Alt as you double-click My Computer.) All it takes is some quick Registry editing. (Note: As always, back up your Registry files--System.dat and User.dat, hidden files in your Windows folder--before proceeding.) Open the Registry Editor by selecting Start, Run, typing regedit and clicking OK. Navigate your way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft \Windows\CurrentVersion. In the right pane, you'll see RegisteredOrganization and RegisteredOwner in the Name column. Right-click the one you want to change, select Modify, and on the Value Data line of the resulting dialog box, type the correct information. Click OK, repeat these steps for the other value, if desired, and close the Registry Editor. DELETE INSTALLED SCREEN SAVERS In our last tip, we showed you where to find a few Thanksgiving-related screen savers: Point your Web browser at http://www.pcworld.com/fileworld/0,1392,,00.html and search under the keyword Thanksgiving. Of course, not every screen saver will float your boat, so you'll need to know how to get rid of the unwanted files. The first place you should look is the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs dialog box. If you see the item in the list of installed programs, select it, click Add/Remove, and click Yes to confirm the deletion. Done deal. If the screen saver does not appear in the Install/Uninstall list (and most won't), look in the Windows/System folder for the corresponding *.scr file and delete it. (Tip-in-a-tip: Switch to Details mode and click the Type column heading, so that all *.scr files appear together.) You can use this same technique to delete any screen saver from your system. POWERTOYS' NEED DISK MESSAGEREORGANIZE START MENU (WITH ACTIVE DESKTOP INSTALLED) Need to reorganize your Start menu's Programs list? If you have the Active Desktop (that's part of IE 4 and beyond) installed, all it takes is a simple click and drag--or two, or three.... Display your Programs list--select Start, Programs--right-click an item you'd like to move, then drag it up or down the list to the desired location. Release the mouse button, and all the other programs shove over to make room. (As you're dragging up or down the list, a horizontal black line will show you where you can drop the item; that is, it will indicate whether you're hovering over a legitimate new location for the item. If you don't see the line, don't release the mouse button.) Follow these steps for every item you'd like to relocate. START YOUR DAY WITH A MIDI FILE Tired of the little ditty that plays (or the silence) when you start Windows 95? Then try starting your day with a MIDI file. Just place a shortcut to any *.mid file on your system in the Startup folder, and it'll play every time you start Windows. First, silence the sound that's currently set to play at startup. Select Start, Settings, Control Panel, and double-click Sounds. Inside the Sounds Properties dialog box, under Events, select Start Windows. Select None in the list of sounds under Name, then click OK. Now make a shortcut to the *.mid file in your Startup folder. Open any Explorer window and locate the *.mid file you want to use--for example, Windows\Media\Canyon.mid. Then open your Startup folder by right-clicking the Start button, selecting Open, double-clicking Programs, and double-clicking Startup. Right-click and drag the *.mid file into the Startup folder, release the mouse button, and select Create Shortcut(s) Here. Finally, a Properties adjustment: Right-click the new shortcut, select Properties, and click the Shortcut tab. Edit the Target line to read exactly: c:\windows\mplayer.exe /play /close c:\windows\canyon.mid where c:\windows\canyon.mid is the target of your new shortcut, then click OK. That's all there is to it. The next time you start Windows 95, the *.mid file starts too! VIEW DATE ON SCREEN WITH TRAYDAY OR TITLETIME Reader T. Meisner writes, "I have a simple question. In Win95, can the date be displayed beside the system clock in the tray area?" We've received numerous requests for this tip, and for good reason. It would be nice to view the date at a glance. Windows 95 doesn't let you display the date, but there are a number of shareware programs that do. TrayDay displays an icon with the current date on it (two digits only--you'll need to know the month by heart!) right on the Taskbar. As an added bonus, you can double-click this icon to insert the current date into the currently active document. (Click the icon once to select a format.) To download TrayDay, go to: http://www.pcworld.com/fileworld/file_description/0,1458,3277,00.html TitleTime, another no-frills (and free) program, adds the time and date to the title bar of the currently active application window. TitleTime is available at: http://www.pcworld.com/fileworld/file_description/0,1458,6430,00.html WHERE TO FIND CD-ROM EXTRAS Throughout these tips, we frequently refer to Windows 95 components that need to be installed off the installation CD--things such as the Character Map, Mouse Pointers, ClipBook, and so on. Don't have the CD? Not a problem. Microsoft has made most of these extra components available for download (the ones on the CD, but not on the floppies). Point your Web browser at: http://support.microsoft.com/support/downloads/PNP178.asp Select the appropriate category, then select a file to start the download process. FOCUS EXPLORER ON MY COMPUTER USING THE WINDOWS KEY Reader K. Whitmire writes, "You recently ran a tip describing how to create a shortcut that opens Windows Explorer with the focus on My Computer. Assuming a user has a Windows key, there's a much faster way to open Windows Explorer with the same focus (on My Computer). From anywhere on the system, hold down the Windows key and press E." Thanks for the tip, K.! PUT A LITTLE DOS ON YOUR DESKTOP! Let's face it: We'll never be rid of DOS. No matter how many latest-and-greatest, new-and-improved, point-and-click operating systems the techno-wizards create, you'll still need DOS to run those slow, crude, but strangely irresistible computer games your Luddite uncle Mort keeps giving you for your birthday. So if you're stuck using DOS more than occasionally, you may as well make DOS easy to get to by placing a DOS icon on your desktop: - Click on the Windows 95 Start button. - Choose Settings + Taskbar. - Click on the Start Menu Programs tab and click on Advanced. - Under All Folders, click on the Programs folder. - Under Contents of "Folders," find and select MS-DOS Prompt. - Hold down the Ctrl key while you drag MS-DOS Prompt to your desktop. Windows 95 creates a Shortcut to MS-DOS Prompt button on your desktop. When you click on this button, you go instantly to DOS. OPEN (WITH) SESAME Previously, we ran some tips explaining how to remove a file extension from a file type with multiple extensions (via File Manager), and then how to re-associate that extension with another application. Boy, did we get a lot of feedback on those tips, with suggestions and variations on the theme! We've discussed many of them in previous tips, but one bears repeating: You can change the association of a file type using the Open With dialog box. While holding down Shift, right-mouse click on a SELECTED icon of the file type you want to change and select Open With. (If you don't hold down Shift, this command won't appear.) In the Open With dialog box, choose the application you'd like to use to open files of this type, make sure you've selected Always Use This Program to Open This Type of File, and click on OK. FORMATTING FLOPPIES Place the diskette in the floppy drive and then do the following: - On your desktop, right-click on the My Computer icon and choose Explore from the shortcut menu. - Under All Folders, right-click on 3-1/2 Floppy (A:) and choose Format from the shortcut menu. - Under Format Type, choose Full. - Click on OK. FAX MACHINES OF THE WORLD, LOOK OUT! Sure, Windows 95 makes working with your computer easier (we think). But did you know that it also gives you the power to communicate instantly with virtually anyone in the business and home office world? No, we're not talking about e-mail, which offers instant communication only if the recipient decides to check his or her mailbox. We're talking about FAXING--perhaps the most intrusive and, consequently, the most immediate form of electronic communication ever developed! Yes, as long as you have Windows 95 and a modem--and your intended recipient has a fax machine that's turned on--you can send that recipient a fax ANY TIME, whether he or she wants it or not: - In any program, open the document you want to fax. - Choose File + Print. - In the Name drop-down list, choose Microsoft Fax. - Click on Print. - Follow the instructions in the Microsoft Fax dialog box. There's no escaping your message now. THE NOT-SO-EXACT SCIENCE OF CONTROL PANEL FOLDERS In our last tip, we showed you how to add a Control Panel folder to your Start menu: Create a new folder there named exactly: Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} If you have Microsoft's Tweak UI PowerToy, there's another, no-typing-necessary method you may wish to try. You can download Tweak UI from Microsoft's Web site, at http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/powertoys.htm. On Tweak UI's Desktop tab, select Control Panel and click the Create As File button. In the Save As dialog box, navigate your way to the Windows\Start Menu folder (or wherever you'd like to create this folder), leave the name "Control Panel" on the File name line, and click Save. Mission accomplished. From now on, you'll see a Control Panel item at the top of the Start menu. Select it to display a submenu of all the items inside. DOS DOES WINDOWS If you're working in an MS-DOS session, you can open a file or folder just as you would using the Start, Run command (or just as you would by double-clicking its icon outside of the DOS session). The difference is, you need to precede the file name with the Start command. Let's suppose you normally type c:\data\myfile.doc on the Start, Run command line to open myfile.doc in Microsoft Word. You can accomplish the same thing by typing the following at your DOS window's C:\ prompt: start c:\data\myfile.doc Press Enter and Microsoft Word launches, and myfile.doc opens. The Start command works with folders, too (again, just like the Run command line). For example, you might type start sendto at the command prompt to open the Windows\SendTo folder (in a separate window, of course). (Tip in a-tip: If the file or folder you're trying to open from the command prompt is in the Windows folder--or is, for any other reason, recognized by Windows 95--you don't need to type the full path of the item you're trying to open--just the file name. If you aren't sure, try it without the full path first. The worst that can happen is you'll get a message telling you Windows doesn't recognize the file, in which case you can try again with the full path.) SPLIT THE DEFRAG If you're defragmenting your drive, keep in mind that you don't have to tackle the whole job at once. The Disk Defragmenter breaks the operation into two parts--defragmenting files and consolidating space. If you need to get back to work as quickly as possible, you might try just defragmenting now, to gain performance improvement, then coming back to the consolidation part later, when you have more time. Select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter to open Windows 95's defragging utility. Select the drive you want to defragment, click OK, and in the resulting dialog box--the one telling you the percentage of your drive that's fragmented--click the Advanced button. Under Defragmentation, select Defragment Files Only (and select one of the options at the bottom of the dialog box, to indicate if this is a one-time-only or an all-the-time thing) and click OK. Click Start, and you're off! (Note: You'll definitely want to come back to the consolidation part later. Otherwise, future files are more likely to become fragmented. For more information on each of the defragmenting options, right-mouse click it and select What's This?) RUN-NING ON URL Want a quick way to get to your favorite URL? Try the Run command line. Select Start, Run, type the URL you want to go to on the command line, and click OK. Presto--your browser opens and takes you directly to that site. (Note: If you've installed Internet Explorer 4.0, selecting an item in the Start menu's Favorites folder is even faster.) PUT THAT WINDOW IN ITS PLACE Looking to move an active window but don't feel like using that pip-squeak mouse? Then move the window with your keyboard: 1. Hold down the Alt key and press the spacebar. 2. Choose Move (by pressing M). A four-pointed arrow appears in the title bar of the active window. 3. Use your arrow keys to move the window outline left, right, up, or down. To move the window diagonally, press two arrows simultaneously (a right or left arrow with an up or down arrow). 4. When the window outline is where you want the window, press Enter. (Tip: To back out of a move, press Escape before pressing Enter.) SIDEOUT In our last tip, we showed you how to move an active window around on-screen without the mouse (Press Alt + spacebar, press M, use your cursor keys to move the window, and then press Enter). Did you know a similar, mouse-free technique for sizing a window is also available? 1. Press Alt + spacebar. 2. Press S to choose Size. A four-pointed arrow appears in the middle of the active window. 3. Press the arrow key that points to the side of the window you want to size (for example, press the left arrow to resize the window from the left side, or press the up arrow to resize the window from the top, and so on). A double-pointed arrow appears on that edge. 4. Use your arrow keys to adjust the size. 5. Press Enter when the window is the size you want. The arrow disappears. Using two arrow keys, you can easily make adjustments to both the height and width of the window. After performing steps 1 and 2 in the preceding instructions, do the following: 1. One at a time, press the arrow keys that correspond to the two sides you want to adjust. (A diagonal arrow appears in the corner of the window.) 2. Use the arrow keys to adjust each side. (Use the up and down keys to adjust the horizontal side, and the right and left keys for the vertical side.) 3. When the lines representing the sides you're adjusting are where you want them, press Enter. (To back out of a sizing operation, press Esc before pressing Enter.) CTRL YOUR WINDOWS When you double-click a folder inside a folder inside a folder (and so on), does each folder open in a separate window? There are two ways to switch to a one-window view, so you don't have all that mess on-screen. - Hold down Ctrl as you double-click a folder icon (inside an already-open window). Its contents will replace those of the current window. - To make the one-window view a permanent thing, in any Explorer window, select View, Options, and on the Folder tab, select the second of the two browsing options. Click OK. (Tip: If you want to go back to multiple windows temporarily, use the Ctrl trick, above. It toggles you between the two browsing options on the Folder tab.) Note: If you have Internet Explorer 4.0 installed, getting to the option described in the second method, above, is a little different. In any Explorer window, select View, Folder Options, and on the General tab, select Custom, Based on Settings You Choose. Click the Settings button, select an option under Browse Folders as Follows and click OK. MINUTE LOGOS Back in October, we ran a four-part series on replacing the three startup and shut-down logo files: logo.sys, logos.sys and logow.sys. Do you find all the necessary sizing and resizing tedious (who doesn't)? Unless you have a personal picture that you simply MUST have on-screen, try ready-made logo screen replacements (and get on with your life). You'll find these replacements screens all over the Web. For a mind-boggling selection, all in one place, check out http://www.windows95.com/apps/startup.html To use the ready-made screens, copy any downloaded logo.sys file to your root directory and copy downloaded logos.sys and logow.sys files to your Windows folder. Just make sure to rename your original files first, in case you want to use them again. (For more detailed instructions, each download typically includes a readme.txt file.) Ready to check out all that hard (ha!) work? Restart. FILE TYPE DRESS-UP--PART 1 OF 2 You know that boring icon Windows 95 uses to represent .TXT files, or any other file type for that matter? You can change it to any icon on your system. It's just like changing the icon used to represent a shortcut--the difference is, you start on the File Types tab of the Options dialog box. Open any Explorer window and select Options under the View menu. (If you have Internet Explorer 4.0 installed, select Folder Options under the View menu.) On the File Types tab, find the file type whose icon you'd like to change in the Registered File Types list. Select this type, click the Edit button, and in the Edit File Type dialog box, click Change Icon. (Note: If this button is grayed out, you can't change the icon for that file type.) Select a new icon (alternatively, click Browse, select the file that includes the icon you want, click Open, and select an icon) and click OK. From now on Windows will use the icon you've selected to represent every file of that type on your system. FILE TYPE DRESS-UP--PART 2 OF 2 In our last tip, we showed you how to change the look of any file type by changing its icon: In any Explorer window, select View, Options (or Folder Options in Internet Explorer 4.0), click the File Types tab, select a file type, click Edit, click Change Icon, select a new icon, and click OK. If you change a whole bunch of icons, you may worry that you'll become confused and forget which is which. One way to prevent this confusion is to show all file extensions. (On the View tab of the Options [or Folder Options in IE 4] dialog box, make sure Hide MS-DOS Extensions [or Hide All Extensions in IE 4] is deselected.) But if you typically don't show extensions globally, an even better solution is to show them only for the file types for which you've selected custom icons. Each time you change a file type's icon, opt to always show the extension for that file type--at least until you get used to the new icon. After you change an icon, still in the Edit File Type dialog box for that file type, select Always Show Extension. (To access this command at a later date, select any file type in the Options [or Folder Options] dialog box and click Edit.) Click OK, and from then on, you'll see the extension for that file type no matter what. Once you master the new icon, you can turn the Always Show Extension option off the same way you turned it on. QUICK-START YOUR SCREEN SAVER Is there a screen saver on your system that you find mesmerizing? Wish you could start it on cue, whenever you need a little entertainment? Then place a shortcut to it within easy reach, such as on the desktop or in your Start menu. The first thing you need to do is find the screen saver's file. Select Start, Find, Files or Folders, select your hard drive next to Look In, and type *.scr on the Named line. Click Find Now, and Find will create a list of all the screen savers on your system. (Tip: If you're short on time, instruct Find to search only the Windows folder, where most--but not all--screen savers are located. To limit the search this way, click the Browse button, select your Windows folder, and click OK.) Once you locate your screen saver, adding it to your Start menu or the desktop is a snap. Just click and drag it from the Find window to the Start button or the desktop and let go. From now on, relief from boredom is just a click away! (Note: Selecting the new screen saver shortcut has no effect on the screen saver selected in the Display Properties dialog box.) HAND ME MY HIGHLIGHTER, PLEASE--PART 1 OF 2 Want some tips for quick text highlighting in Word Pad (or most any other word processor that runs under Windows 95)? All that fussy letter-by-letter clicking and dragging is for the birds. Here are three shortcuts you're sure to love: - To highlight a word, double-click it. - To highlight a single line, click once directly to the left of the line, in the left margin. - To highlight an entire paragraph, double-click directly to the left of the paragraph, anywhere in the margin. HAND ME MY HIGHLIGHTER, PLEASE--PART 2 OF 2 In our last tip, we gave you three ways to highlight text in a word processing document: To highlight a word, double-click on it; to highlight a single line, click once directly to the left of the line in the left margin; and to highlight an entire paragraph, double-click directly to the left of the paragraph anywhere in the margin. Moving on to four bigger and better selections . . . To highlight a whole bunch of text: Place the cursor at the beginning of the text, hold down Shift, and click at the end of what you want to select. OR, place the cursor at the beginning of the text you want to select, and then, while holding down Shift, use the arrow keys to expand the selection. Of course, we saved the biggest for last: highlighting an entire document. In some word processors, you can choose Edit, Select All. But if your word processor doesn't have that command or if you're especially fond of keyboard combinations, hold down Ctrl-Shift and click in the left margin of the document (Note: In some word processors, this method may highlight only text below the cursor.) OR, place the cursor at the very beginning of the document and press Ctrl-Shift-End. With all these options, who needs mice? QUICK CLOSE Subscriber W. P. asks if there's a way to close all open windows with a single command or mouse click. The answer is yes. Well . . . sort of. Let's say you double-click My Computer to open it. Now double-click the Drive C icon to open it. Double-click one of the folders in Drive C to open it. Now hold down Shift and click the last window's close box. All the windows you just opened will close; this includes My Computer. Any other open windows that are not related to My Computer will not close. You can also right-click the taskbar and choose Minimize all Windows. This doesn't close them, but it does get them off your desktop and out of the way. NICE VIEW A reader, L. Breithaupt, asks: "Is there a way of telling Windows 95 that I want the view of every window I open to be Details?" As the old saying goes, if only we had a nickel for every time someone has asked this question! Finally, with the release of Internet Explorer 4.0 (which, in case you haven't heard, changes Windows 95 quite a bit), we can answer this question with a solid "yes"--that is, as long as you've installed IE 4. In any open window, choose your ideal view options. Select View, Folder Options, and on the View tab, click the Like Current Folder button. Click Yes to confirm, click OK, and rest assured--any window you open from then on will use the same view options. JOINED AT THE SHORTCUT Is there a batch file you want to run every time you start an MS-DOS session under Windows 95? Then attach it to your MS-DOS Prompt shortcut. Right-mouse click the shortcut you use to open a DOS window (probably in your Start menu, so you'll need to right-mouse click Start, select Open, and so on, to get to it). In the context menu that appears, select Properties. Click the Program tab, and on the Batch File line, type the name of the batch file you want to run (just the name--no extension necessary). Click OK, and from now on, using that shortcut to open DOS runs the batch file automatically. LIKE ROME NEEDS ANOTHER STATUE That's about how badly Microsoft needs free advertising. And yet think of how much it gets: Every day about 50 million people turn on their computers and, thanks to Windows 95's snail-like load time, all 50 million of these people stare at the Microsoft logo for the first three minutes of their workday. There isn't a brand manager in America that doesn't dream of that kind of daily exposure. If you've seen so much of this logo that you wouldn't mind starting your day with meaningless command-line babble instead, try this: 1. Turn on your PC. 2. When the Windows 95 logo screen appears, press Esc. The Windows 95 logo screen disappears, and you see all those DOS messages telling you which of your devices are loading. Sure, it's dull, but think of it as doing your part to prevent worldwide mind control. PUT THE WINDOWS KEY OUT OF ORDER In a previous tip, we discussed the conflict users experience when the Windows key (on a Microsoft Natural Keyboard) is pressed by mistake while playing a DOS game. If the fix we suggested, disabling the System Agent, doesn't work for you, you may wish to disable the Windows key altogether while in your DOS session. A Microsoft program, the "New! Windows Logo Key Control for MS-DOS Programs" (one of the "Kernel Toys"), can accomplish this task for you. Point your Web browser to http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/kerneltoys.htm and select the link to the Kernel Toy mentioned above. Once the download is complete, double-click Doswinky.exe to extract the files. For information on installing and using the program, double-click Diswinky.inf. START-SMART APPS A reader, D. McGlothen, asks: "How do you change the default folder for a program such as Notepad (where the application doesn't offer a command to change this default)?" You can change the default folder of an application such as Notepad (or WordPad, Clipboard Viewer, etc.) by changing the properties of the shortcut you use to open that program. This means, of course, that you'll need to use that shortcut to open the application in order to keep this default in effect. In an Explorer or My Computer window (or on the desktop) find the shortcut you use to open the application. Right-mouse click the shortcut, select Properties, and in the resulting dialog box, click the Shortcut tab. On the Start In line, type the path of the folder you'd like the program to recognize as the default and click OK. From now on, selecting File, Open inside that application points to the specified folder--again, assuming you use the shortcut you just modified to open the application. (Note: If you navigate your way to another folder using the program's Open dialog box, you'll return to that folder the next time you select File, Open--that is, until you navigate your way to a different folder, or until you close and reopen the application using the shortcut you've modified. Whew--got it?) HEY, IT COULD HAPPEN Manila folders: They are to America's office workers what cigarettes are to America's prisoners. Drop into any office in the country, and you can find employees wheedling office supply overseers for just a few more folders, keeping secret stashes in their cubicles, trading folders for favorable performance reviews, even shamelessly looting the desks of recently fired or deceased coworkers when no one is looking. Forget sucking up to the boss: HE WHO HAS THE FOLDERS HAS THE POWER. OK, maybe not. But it's a nice thing to fantasize about as you create as many folders as you darn well please in any Window 95 Explorer or Folder window: 1. Choose File + New + Folder. 2. Type the name for your new folder. 3. Press Enter. Just think of the effect this will have on prices in the folder black market. (All right, we've let this little drama get totally out of hand.) MY COMPUTER TELLS ALL You know you can double-click My Computer to access the disk drives, printer installation, the Control Panel, and dial-up networking. You can also use My Computer to obtain system information. Right-click My Computer and choose Properties. This opens the System Properties dialog box. You can right-click My Computer and choose Explorer to open My Computer in Explorer view. Here's a My Computer trick that you might like to use: Double-click My Computer to open it. If you don't see the toolbar, then choose View, Toolbar to activate it. Now click the arrow at the right of the Address list box (right now the contents are My Computer). When the list expands, select Desktop. Now the window displays the contents of your desktop. You can minimize the window and choose it later from the taskbar when you need to get to one of the desktop icons. THOSE WHO CAN'T FORGET THE PAST DOOM THEMSELVES TO REPEAT IT Sure, Windows 95 has improved your life immeasurably (although "immeasurably" can have two exactly opposite connotations here). But sometimes, well, you get a little nostalgic for Windows 3.x. You miss the warm, homey feeling of a cozy screen layered with program group windows. And you yearn for all those leisurely, carefree, unproductive moments you spent with the Windows 3.x File Manager. Apparently Microsoft shares your sense of nostalgia: If you've upgraded to Windows 95--that is, if you previously ran Windows 3.x on your current Windows 95 machine—Microsoft has provided an easy way to relive those glory days of yesteryear: To run the Windows 3.x Program Manager: 1. Click the Start button. 2. Choose Run. 3. Type progman and press Enter. To run the Windows 3.x File Manager: 1. Click the Start button. 2. Choose Run. 3. Type winfile and press Enter. Returning to Program Manager and File Manager is like flipping through your family album (especially if your family is dysfunctional). ALL SYSTEMS GO In a previous tip, we showed you how to create a system disk: a boot disk that gets you to an MS-DOS prompt if you have trouble booting your system. (The technique we suggested was to place a formatted disk in your floppy drive, right-mouse click your floppy drive icon, select Format, select Copy System Files Only, and click OK). A reader, M., suggests two more ways to create a system disk: 1. Place a formatted disk in your floppy drive; select Start, Run; type sys a: and press Enter. OR 2. Place an unformatted disk in your floppy drive, select Start, Run; type Format /s a: and press Enter. When it finishes, you'll be prompted to enter a Volume label (you can type in a name for the disk or press Enter to leave it blank). DOS MADNESS! Windows, shmindows--you're a DOS fiend, and you always will be. In fact, your only sad memory of the heyday of DOS was that you could run only one DOS session at a time. You rationalized: Like the finest perfume, DOS was something to be enjoyed singularly, in small amounts. Well, get ready to overindulge! Because in Windows, you can have--are you ready for this?--YOU CAN HAVE AS MANY CONCURRENT DOS SESSIONS AS YOUR COMPUTER'S MEMORY CAN TOLERATE! See for yourself: 1. Click the Start button. 2. Choose Programs + MS-DOS Prompt. 3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 ad infinitum. Because after all, what more glorious sight is there than 20 C:\ prompts staring you in the face? HOLY VOLCANOES, BATMAN! If you have the 3D Text screen saver (part of the OEM Service Release 2 version of Windows 95), here's a neat trick: Type 'volcano' as the text for this screen saver, and it will rotate through names of famous volcanoes. Follow these steps: Right-click the desktop, select Properties, and click the Screen Saver tab. Select 3D Text in the list of screen savers, click the Settings button, and under Display, type volcano on the Text line. Adjust the other options to your liking, click OK, and on the preview screen, you'll see this Easter Egg in action. Click OK again to keep the screen saver active. OUT TO LAUNCH--PART 1 OF 2 Hey, IE 4.0 users! Wish you could place your favorite shortcuts in the Quick Launch toolbar button after you install IE 4.0)? Go right ahead. Click and drag any shortcut, file, or folder icon over to the Quick Launch toolbar, place it between any two icons, and a vertical black line will appear to let you know where the shortcut will land. Slide over to exactly where you want the shortcut to go (the line will move with you), drop it, and there's your new Quick Launch button. To remove an item from the Quick Launch toolbar, right-click it and select Delete. (Note: In case you were wondering, the contents of the Quick Launch toolbar mirror those of the c:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch folder, where X is the drive on which Windows 95 is installed.) OUT TO LAUNCH--PART 2 OF 2 In our last tip, we showed you how to add a new shortcut to your IE 4.0 Quick Launch toolbar: Click and drag any shortcut, file, or folder icon over to the Quick Launch toolbar, make sure the vertical black line is where you want the new button to be, and let go. If you end up with more than four icons on the Quick Launch toolbar, an arrow will appear on each edge, so that you can scroll through the icons. (We're assuming you've left the Quick Launch toolbar in the default position--to the right of your Start button, with your Taskbar at the bottom of the screen--and that you haven't resized it.) If you'd prefer that all the Quick Launch icons appear on screen, so you don't have to scroll through them, you'll have to resize the toolbar to its right. Hold the cursor over the toolbar's left edge, and when it changes to a double-pointed arrow, click and drag to the right. Now those Quick Launch icons have plenty of room to breathe. THE INCREDIBLE GROWING TASKBAR A reader, "rrichard" writes: "I was fiddling around with options when I suddenly found my Taskbar at double height, stacking open items rather than squeezing them onto a single-height bar. Now I can't find the setting that affects this." Actually, there isn't a true "setting" that adjusts the height of your Taskbar. Instead, you adjust its height manually, by clicking and dragging its edge with the mouse: Assuming the Taskbar is positioned at the bottom of the screen, hold the mouse pointer over its edge until it changes to a double-pointed arrow, then click and drag up or down. It's easy to change the Taskbar's size by mistake while moving and resizing open windows. TOSS IT IN THE FOLDER COMPACTOR I use Windows Messaging, and my C:\Windows\Mailbox.pst folder recently grew to 33MB. After much fishing, I discovered an option for compacting this folder, accessible through the Control Panel. Open the Control Panel and double-click the Mail and Fax item. On the Services tab, select Personal Folders and click the Properties button. Click Compact Now and get back some of that wasted disk space! START MENU CLEANUP Want to clean some unwanted items out of your Start menu without opening lots of windows (right-mouse clicking Start, selecting Open, and so on)? The Taskbar Properties dialog box has a Remove button just for this purpose. Right-mouse click on a blank area of the Taskbar and select Properties to open the Taskbar Properties dialog box. Select the Start Menu Programs tab. Under Customize Start Menu, click the Remove button and navigate your way to the Start menu item you want to remove. With the unwanted item selected, click the Remove button, and the item is history. Repeat these steps to remove all unwanted items, click Close, and click OK. (Note: IE 4 users: You can right-mouse click a Start menu item [right on the actual menu] and select Delete.) RECENT CHANGES In a previous tip, we explained how to remove items from the Start menu's Documents list manually: With hidden files displayed, navigate your way to C:\Windows\Recent and delete any of the items inside. An anonymous reader points out that these instructions apply only to systems on which user profiles are not enabled. If user profiles ARE enabled, then the location of the Recent folder is C:\Windows\Profiles\[username]\Recent. (Note: IE 4.0 users, you can remove an item from the Documents list by right-clicking it [on the actual Start menu list] and selecting Delete.) Later this month, we'll run a five-part series on disabling and removing user profiles from your system. Stay tuned. ZERO DOWN YOUR ICONS IE 4 users: If you open an icon file (right-mouse click a shortcut, select Properties, click the Shortcut tab, and click the Change Icon button), you'll notice that the icons no longer appear in a horizontal, straight-line sequence (as they did before you installed IE 4). Instead, you'll see at least one vertical column of icons and probably multiple rows of icons. Whereas you might think that the numbering of these icons would begin with 0 in the top-left corner, then move across the row, start at the beginning of the next row, and so on--it doesn't. Instead, starting in the top-left corner, the numbering moves DOWN the first column on the left, starts at the top of the next column, and so on. (Actually, this numbering method makes more sense than a horizontal one, given the fact that scrolling moves you across columns.) Keep this numbering in mind the next time you need to reference a specific icon. WELL, AW-RIGHT-Y THEN! An anonymous reader asks: "Is there a keyboard function that acts like a right-mouse click?" Absolutely. Highlight the item whose context menu you'd like to display, then press Shift-F10. Who knew? NO-NAME ICONS--PART 1 OF 3 Wish you could create an icon with no name? An icon has to have SOMETHING for a name, but if you use a nonprinting character, the name won't appear on-screen. Select the icon that you want to appear nameless and press F2 for Rename. With Num Lock turned on (on your keyboard), hold down Alt as you type a nonprinting character, such as 0160. Press Enter to make the new "name" stick, and there you have it: the icon and nothing but the icon! (Of course, when the icon is selected, you'll see a small area highlighted where you typed the nonprinting character.) NO-NAME ICONS--PART 2 OF 3 In our last tip, we showed you how to create seemingly nameless icons: Select the icon, press F2 for Rename, make sure Num Lock is selected on your keyboard, hold down Alt as you type a nonprinting character (such as 0160), and press Enter. The question is, how do you know which characters are nonprinting? Check the Character Map. First, confirm the font used for your icon titles. Right-mouse click a blank area of the desktop, select Properties, and click the Appearance tab. Under Item, select Icon, and you'll see your icon font listed under Font. Click OK to close the Display Properties dialog box. Now open the Character Map by selecting Start, Programs, Accessories, Character Map. (If you don't see this item under Accessories, you'll need to install it. Open the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs, click the Windows Setup tab, double-click Accessories, select the box next to Character Map, click OK twice, then insert your installation disk when it asks.) Inside the Character Map, select your icon font under Font and look for blank spaces in the rows of characters. For most fonts, you'll see two blanks: one in the top left corner and one four boxes down from that. Select each blank space separately, then look to the lower right corner of the Character Map window for the keystroke that represents that character. (You'll discover that the keystrokes for these two most common nonprinting characters are Spacebar and Alt-0160, respectively. We could have just told you that, but then you wouldn't have the necessary background for our next tip.) NO-NAME ICONS--PART 3 OF 3 In a previous tip, we showed you how to create seemingly nameless icons: Select the icon, press F2, select Num Lock on your keyboard, hold down Alt as you type a nonprinting character (such as 0160), and press Enter. Then, in our last tip, we told you how to determine which characters are nonprinting. Open the Character Map (Start, Programs, Accessories, Character Map); under Font, select your icon font (as determined on the Appearance tab of the Display Properties dialog box) and look for blank spaces. Select one, and its keystroke appears in the lower right corner of the window. Most fonts offer only two nonprinting characters, the keystrokes of which are Spacebar and Alt-0160. So, what if you want to use more than two no-name icons on your desktop (or inside a folder)? You have two options: 1. Name each icon with various combinations of nonprinting characters--for example, two (or more) Alt-0160 characters in a row. 2. Choose an icon font that has loads of nonprinting characters. Inside the Character Map, scroll through the Fonts until you find one with lots of blank spaces (most likely, an oddball font from a graphics-intensive application, such as Bazooka or Jester). Take note of the keystrokes of these nonprinting characters, then go back to the Appearance tab of the Display Properties dialog box and set your icon font accordingly. Now just use any or all of the nonprinting characters to name your icons. THE WINDOWS 95 SWAP MEET Want to move Windows 95 to a new hard disk (to make it the boot drive), keeping your current system configuration and data files intact? It can be done, but we should warn you--it isn't the most straightforward operation. We can't possibly reproduce the entire procedure here (it would span about a month of tips!), but we can point you in the right direction. You'll find complete instructions in Microsoft's Knowledge Base, at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q166/1/72.asp Be sure to follow the steps EXACTLY, heeding all of Microsoft's warnings. DIAL 'P' FOR PROPERTIES A reader, A., asks: "When you open an MS-DOS Prompt window, how do you get to Properties without using the mouse?" An MS-DOS Prompt window doesn't offer a row of menu commands. However, you can access Properties through a menu that appears when you select the icon in the upper-left corner of the window. Press Alt-Spacebar to display this menu; then type P for Properties. DOS DOES WINDOWS If you're in an MS-DOS Prompt window and you need to view a folder's contents, you aren't limited to DOS commands. Type explorer . at the command prompt, press Enter, and presto--up pops a single-paned window focused on the current directory. (Note: Simply typing 'explorer' without the space and period opens a window focused on the root directory.) If you'd prefer a two-paned, Windows Explorer-style window, type explorer /e at the command prompt. WALLPAPER YOUR DESKTOP Reader S. Hane asks: "How do I get my wallpaper to start tiled instead of centered?" All the settings for desktop wallpaper are located on the Background tab of the Display Properties dialog box. To get there, right-mouse click the desktop and select Properties. (Alternatively, open the Control Panel and double-click Display.) In the Wallpaper box, next to Display, click the Tile radio button. (IE 4 users: Under Display, click the drop-down arrow and select Center.) Make sure that the wallpaper you want to use is selected and click OK. From now on, that wallpaper will cover your desktop. IE 4.0 UNINSTALL ALERT Per Microsoft, Internet Explorer 4.0 MUST be uninstalled before 'installing or uninstalling operating system upgrades (for example, Windows 95 Service Pack 1)'. Now that's what we call a big pain in the hard drive. For more information on other circumstances under which Internet Explorer 4.0 should be uninstalled, as well as instructions for completing the uninstall operation, check out Microsoft's Knowledge Base Article ID 174265 at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q174/2/65.asp PALETTE WHAT? A reader, M. Lorenzo, asks: "On the Appearance tab of the Display Properties dialog box, one of the Items you can modify is 'Palette Title.' What on earth is a Palette Title? I've tried adjusting its size and font, but nothing changes." The Palette Title setting affects the title bar of floating palettes. Examples are: Paint's color box after dragging it away from the edge of the Paint window; Word 98's little help box (the one with the dancing paper clip); or Netscape Communicator's Component Bar. Who knew? WHICH WINDOWS IS WHICH? PART 1 OF 2 Want to know which version of Windows 95 you have on your system? Right-mouse click My Computer and select Properties. On the General tab, you'll see the version listed under System. Version 4.00.950 is the original version of Windows 95. This same version number followed by the letter "A" indicates that the original version of Windows 95 was installed and then updated with Service Pack 1 or OEM Service Release 1. The letter "B" after the version number indicates Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2. WHICH WINDOWS IS WHICH? PART 2 OF 2 In our last tip, we showed you how to determine the version of Windows 95 you have on your system: Right-mouse click My Computer, select Properties, and on the General tab, you'll see the version listed under System. (In case you missed that tip, an "A" in the version number indicates that the original version of Windows 95 was installed and then updated with Service Pack 1 or OEM Service Release 1; a "B" indicates Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2.) While we're on the subject, a reader, F. Foresman asks: "Is there a way to acquire from a Windows 95 installation CD the specific version number of Windows 95? I want to verify which CD goes with which computer." To determine which version is on an installation CD, pop the CD into your CD-ROM drive, and in the blue Windows 95 CD-ROM window that appears, click Browse This CD. (If your CD-ROM drive doesn't offer AutoPlay capability, double-click your CD-ROM drive icon inside a My Computer or Explorer window and click Browse This CD.) Right-mouse click Setup.exe, select Properties, and in the resulting dialog box, select the Version tab. There you'll find the "File version." (You can also select "Product version" under "Other version information.") Version 4.00.950 indicates the original, or retail, version of Windows 95. ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL--PART 4 OF 5 In our last tip, we showed you the first step toward permanently removing user profiles from your system: Open the Registry Editor (select Start, Run, then type regedit and click OK), navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\[username] and delete the appropriate [username] keys, or the Profile List key to remove all user profiles at once. The second step is to delete the user profile information from inside the Windows folder. First, make sure all "hidden" files are visible: In any Explorer window, select Options under the View menu, click the View tab, select Show all files, and click OK. (IE 4.0 users, select Folder Options under the View menu, click the View tab, and select the same option under Advanced settings.) Then in the same Explorer window, navigate to X:\Windows\Profiles, where X is the drive on which Windows 95 is installed. To delete an individual profile, delete the corresponding C:\Windows\Profiles\[username] folder. To remove all user profiles, delete the entire C:\Windows\Profiles folder. (Important Note: If there's any part of a user profile you want to keep around--such as a desktop configuration--be sure to read our next tip before deleting that profile.) THE EXACT SCIENCE OF A DIAL-UP NETWORKING FOLDER Back in January, we showed you how to add a Control Panel folder (complete with a pop-out menu) to your Start menu. In case you missed this tip, here's a quick review: Make a new Start Menu folder (right-mouse click Start and select Open; then select File, New, Folder). Type the following name for the new folder (noting that there's no space between the period and the open bracket): Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} Press Enter. In response, J. Montz writes: "How do you add a Dial-Up Networking Folder (that brings up a listing of all my DUN connections) to the Start Menu? I read about this technique somewhere, but can't seem to find the information." And the answer is . . . Follow the same technique as above, but name the folder: DUN.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48} (Tip-in-a-tip: To add a Printers folder to the Start Menu, name the folder "Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}".) ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL--PART 5 OF 5 An anonymous reader writes, "How do I get rid of user profiles but keep the desktop configuration I've set up under a specific user profile?" After you disable or remove user profiles, Windows 95 goes back to retrieving information from its default locations. For example, without user profiles enabled, it looks to the C:\Windows\Desktop folder for the desktop configuration. So if you want to use any of the settings from a user profile AFTER removing the user profile, you'll need to retrieve those settings from the user profile folder before you delete it. (Note: If you simply disable user profiles you can retrieve the settings at any time, because you haven't deleted them from the system.) To retain a user profile's desktop settings: First, delete the contents of the default desktop folder--probably C:\Windows\Desktop. (You can skip this step if you want to add the user profile settings to the default settings instead of replacing them completely.) Then, copy the contents of the user profile's Desktop folder (C:\Windows\Profiles\[username]\Desktop) to the default desktop folder. (Tip: Similarly, to keep a profile's Start menu configuration, copy the contents of the C:\Windows\Profiles\[username]\Start Menu folder to C:\Windows\Start Menu before deleting the profile.) THE TROUBLE WITH DESELECTING Reader B. writes: "Recently, I installed the dial-up networking component from the Windows 95 installation CD. But then, when I went to use my Calculator, it (and the remaining Accessories from the Start, Programs, Accessories menu) had disappeared! What gives?" The thing to keep in mind when installing components from the Windows Setup tab (of the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs dialog box) is that deselecting an item instructs Windows 95 to uninstall that component. Our guess is that you mistakenly clicked the check box next to Accessories (deselecting it and all the items inside) while you were installing DUN. To resolve the problem, go back to the Windows Setup tab, double-click the Accessories tab, and reselect the Accessories you want to install (being especially careful not to deselect anything along the way)! (Tip-in-a-tip: If, while selecting items to install on the Windows Setup tab, you think you may have deselected an item by mistake, go the safe route: Click the Cancel button and start over.) THREE CHEERS FOR THE POLICY EDITOR--PART 1 OF 3 Want to keep people from messing with your Display Properties settings--for example, if you're going on vacation and someone else will be using your system? You can set this restriction (among others) using the System Policy Editor, a handy utility found on the Windows 95 installation CD. If you don't have the CD, you can download the Policy Editor from Microsoft's Web site, at http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/admintools.htm To open the Policy Editor, with the Windows 95 installation CD in your CD-ROM drive, navigate your way to X:\Admin\Apptools\Poledit (where "X" is your CD-ROM drive) and double-click Poledit.exe. If prompted, open the Admin.adm file. Now, in the System Policy Editor window, pull down the File menu, select Open Registry, and double-click the Local User icon. Now to set that restriction. Double-click the Control Panel book, then the Display book. Select Restrict Display Control Panel, and a list of options appears at the bottom of the dialog box. To lock the entire Display Properties dialog box, select Disable Display Control Panel. To restrict access to only individual tabs of the dialog box, select the appropriate options. (For example, if you don't want anyone messing with your wallpaper, select Hide Background page.) After making your selections, click OK and select File, Save. What happens now? If you've locked the entire Display Properties dialog box, an error message will appear when someone tries to open it. If you've restricted access to specific tabs, the Display Properties dialog box will open, but without those tabs. (Notes: Keep the Windows 95 installation CD out of sight, so no one else can access the Policy Editor. Also, you'll need to undo any restrictions [the same way you set them up--just deselect the appropriate options] if you want to access the forbidden zones.") AND A TRIPLE MAKES THREE In a previous tip, we offered two ways to highlight an entire word processing document. In case you missed this one, here's a quick review: - Ctrl-Shift-click in the left margin of the document (Note: In some word processors, this method may highlight only text below the cursor.) - Place the cursor at the very beginning of the document and press Ctrl-Shift-End. A number of you wrote in with a third neat trick for selecting an entire document: Triple-click in the left margin. THREE CHEERS FOR THE POLICY EDITOR--PART 2 OF 3 Don't want a temporary user to be able to search your system easily? Then disable the Find command until you're back at the helm. You can accomplish this restriction using the System Policy Editor, a utility found on the Windows 95 installation CD. If you don't have the CD, you can download the Policy Editor from Microsoft's Web site, at http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/admintools.htm To open the Policy Editor, with the Windows 95 installation CD in your CD-ROM drive, navigate your way to X:\Admin\Apptools\Poledit (where "X" is your CD-ROM drive) and double-click Poledit.exe. In the System Policy Editor window, pull down the File menu, select Open Registry, and double-click the Local User icon. To disable the Start menu's Find item, double-click Shell, double-click Restrictions, and select the Remove Find Command option. Click OK, select File, Save, and exit the Policy Editor. When you restart Windows, Find will no longer appear in the Start menu, and pressing F3 does nothing--nada--zip-o. MORE STARTUP BUSTERS In a previous tip, we mentioned that if an unwanted program starts when Windows 95 starts, one place to look for the reference (so you can delete it) is inside the Registry, at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RUN. (Always back up the Registry before making any changes. The easiest way is to zip your user.dat and system.dat files and store them on a floppy disk.) A reader, M. Bero, suggests two more places to look for unwanted program references: HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RUN and (if user profiles are enabled): HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RUN GROUP SIZING In a previous tip, we mentioned that while viewing the contents of any Explorer window in Details view (select View, Details), you can resize a column to fit its widest entry: Hold the mouse pointer over the vertical line at the right edge of the column's title, and when it changes to a double-pointed arrow, double-click. Want to resize EVERY column to fit the widest entry? Don't waste your time repeating the steps above for each one. Select any item in the right pane, then hold down the Ctrl key as you press the plus (+) sign on your numeric keypad. Windows resizes all the columns in one fell swoop! THREE CHEERS FOR THE POLICY EDITOR--PART 3 OF 3 A reader, S. Kovacsi, asks: "Is there a way to hide every icon on the desktop?" There is a way, using the System Policy Editor, a utility found on the Windows 95 installation CD. If you don't have the CD, you can download the System Policy Editor from Microsoft's Web site, at http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/admintools.htm To open the Policy Editor, with the Windows 95 installation CD in your CD-ROM drive, navigate your way to X:\Admin\Apptools\Poledit (where "X" is your CD-ROM drive) and double-click Poledit.exe. In the System Policy Editor window, select File, Open Registry and double-click the Local User icon. To hide everything on your desktop, double-click the Shell book, then the Restrictions book. Select Hide All Items on Desktop and click OK. Select File, Save, close the Policy Editor, and restart Windows 95. That desktop is clean as a whistle (other than your background or wallpaper selection). (Note: If user profiles are enabled , this setting will affect the specific user only.) YOUR FINGERS DESERVE A BREAK TODAY In a previous tip, we mentioned that you can close an active window without the mouse by pressing Alt-F4. In response, several of you offered the following alternative that's easier on the fingers: Press Alt-spacebar, then press C. EASY, BREEZY DATA--PART 1 OF 2 Do you have lots of data files scattered all over your system? Take the time to arrange them into one central data folder. That way, you'll know where everything is at a moment's notice; and even better, backups become a breeze. Start by creating a new folder on your hard drive. (Alternatively, you may want to partition your drive, making one virtual drive a "Data" drive.) Name the folder or drive something appropriate, such as "Data" or "My Data." Within this folder or drive, create subfolders that correspond to the types of data you have on your system. For example, you might create "Home," "Business," and "Personal" folders; and then within these three, you might create a series of folders corresponding to the various types of home, business, and personal data. Once you've set up your data storage area (the hierarchy of folders), the rest is just a matter of moving the data from various locations on your system into the appropriate folders. It takes a little time, but the end result is worth it: The next ti me you need to back up all your data files, just select your main data folder and be through with it. All those precious files are right in the same place. EASY, BREEZY DATA--PART 2 OF 2 In our last tip, we suggested an efficient means of organizing your data files: Create one central data folder containing a series of subfolders (corresponding to the type of data you have on your system), then move all your data files into this new folder hierarchy. Of course, moving all your data files will render anything that points to the data files at their old locations--shortcuts, items in the Documents list, and the files listed at the bottom of File menus (within your applications)--useless. But that doesn't mean you can't get everything back in sync again. As far as shortcuts are concerned, you can give Windows a chance to find the file that a shortcut points to in its new location (when you click one, it'll try to find it), but it's probably quicker just to delete the old shortcuts and set up new ones. Clear your Documents list and start over again. It'll fill up again in no time. (To clear the list, select Start, Settings, select the Start Menu Programs tab, click the Clear button, and click OK.) As for the files listed at the bottom of an application's File menus,just forget them and use the File, Open dialog box for a day or two. You'll have new items on those menus in no time. Aren't these slight inconveniences a small price to pay for such great organization? PUT A NEW COAT OF PAINT.EXE ON IT Are you suddenly receiving error messages ("This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down . . .") when trying to open certain types of graphics files in Paint? And did these messages just happen to start popping up after you installed Microsoft Office 97? According to Microsoft, there's a conflict between Office's graphic import filters and Microsoft Paint. To resolve the conflict, point your Web browser at http://support.microsoft.com/support/downloads/LNP195.asp and click PAINT95.EXE: Updated Microsoft Paint for Windows 95. Complete the download process and then double-click the resulting Paint.exe file to extract its contents. Copy Mspaint.exe to the Program Files\Accessories folder, copy the three .DLL files to the Windows\System folder, and restart Windows 95. Your Paint troubles should now be solved. POWER UP, DUDE! As you may have noticed, we frequently reference the Windows 95 PowerToys, available for download from http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/powertoys.htm as the most convenient way to accomplish certain Windows 95 tasks. In keeping with this let's-keep-all-the-cool-features-out-of-the-actual-program-so-we'll-l ook-good-when-we-come-up-with-them-later mentality, Microsoft also offers Internet Explorer 4.0 PowerToys. The Image Toggler PowerToy allows you to turn images on and off at the click of a button (on the Links bar). Want to highlight some text on a Web page? Just select it, right-mouse click the selection, and choose Highlight--and so on, and so on. To get your hands on these toys (which, Microsoft reminds you, are not supported by them), point your Web browser at http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie40/powertoys/ and click the PowerToys Set for Internet Explorer 4.0 link. Power up, dude! THERE'S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO SELECT A DOCUMENT A couple months back, we ran some tips entitled "Hand Me My Highlighter, Please" for quick text highlighting in Word Pad (or most any other word processor that runs under Windows 95). As R. Kelly and others have pointed out, you can triple-click in the left margin to select an entire document. J. Morrison reminds us that you can press Ctrl-A to accomplish the same thing. Another reader, T. from California, adds this text-highlighting trick: To highlight an entire document, hold down the Ctrl key as you click anywhere in the left margin. HEY, WHO TURNED OUT THE WINDOW? PART 1 OF 2 C. Jones writes, "When I select Start, Programs, MS-DOS Prompt, I get a full-screen DOS view rather than a window. I pressed the button on the DOS window's toolbar to switch to a full-screen view, but I can't remember how to get back to a window view. Help!" Select Start, Programs, MS-DOS Prompt, if you haven't already; then press Alt-Enter on your keyboard. You'll be right back to the MS-DOS Prompt window, both now and whenever you select MS-DOS Prompt (in the Start, Programs menu) in the future. For those of you who want to do the opposite and ditch the window view, after opening the MS-DOS Prompt window, press the Full Screen button--the one with the four arrows on it--on the toolbar; or press Alt-Enter. (If you don't see the toolbar, click the MS-DOS icon in the window's upper-left corner, then select Toolbar.) HIDDEN TASKBAR TRICK In the past, we've suggested some ways to retrieve windows that have mysteriously snuck off your screen. For example, you can press Alt-spacebar, type M for Move, use your cursor keys to move the window, and then press Enter. A reader, M. Borzcik, suggests another quick (albeit quirky!) way to get those windows back into view. Hold the mouse pointer over the edge of the Taskbar, and when it changes to a double-pointed arrow, drag the edge of the Taskbar up or down to resize it (then drag it back, unless you want to keep it that way). When you do, every open window jumps back into full view on-screen. Who knew? CAN WE GET SOME SERVICE RELEASE 2 HERE, PLEASE? A reader, J.A. George, writes, "Regarding your recent tip on determining which version of Windows 95 you have on your system, how do I get my hands on OEM Service Release 2? I didn't see it on Microsoft's Web site." The OEM Service Release 2 version of Windows 95 (a.k.a. OSR 2) is only available preloaded on new hard drives. (Or you might be able to obtain it through an industry connection.) However, Microsoft has made many components of OSR 2 available from its Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pr/win95osr.htm And believe it or not, they're free. (On the downside, it takes a while to go through the list of components, decide what you want, and then actually download them.) HEY, WHO TURNED OUT THE WINDOW? PART 2 OF 2 In our last tip, we showed you how to switch back and forth between a window view and a full-screen view when you open an MS-DOS Prompt: For the full-screen view, press the Full Screen button (the one with the four arrows on it) on the MS-DOS Prompt toolbar, or press Alt-Enter; to go from a full-screen view to a window view, press Alt-Enter. If you prefer, you can set this option in the Properties dialog box of the shortcut you use to access an MS-DOS Prompt, before starting DOS. Right-mouse click your MS-DOS Prompt shortcut and select Properties. (If you use the shortcut in the Start menu's Programs folder, right-mouse click Start, select Open, and then double-click Programs to access it.) Select the Screen tab, and under Usage, select Full-screen or Window. Click OK, and that shortcut will open DOS in your view of choice (until you switch the view manually, as described in our previous tip). WHEN HISTORY REPEATS--PART 1 OF 6 There are certain tips that readers continuously request. With so many new subscribers (and the likelihood that the rest of you have certainly missed a tip or two here or there--shame, shame), we feel that these tips deserve a second chance at stardom. R. Gregory asks: "How do you change the registered user information (the name and organization you enter when you install Windows 95?)" To make this change, you'll need to venture into the Registry. (Note: We recommend backing up your Registry files--User.dat and System.dat--first.) Open the Registry Editor by selecting Start, Run, typing regedit and clicking OK. Next, navigate your way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion. You'll see RegisteredOrganization and RegisteredOwner string values (among others) in the right pane. To change either one of these values, right-mouse click it and select Modify. In the resulting dialog box, type the new information on the Value data line and click OK. Repeat these steps for the other value if necessary, close the Registry Editor, and you've changed your Windows 95 identity! WHEN HISTORY REPEATS--PART 2 OF 6 There are certain tips that readers continuously request. With so many new subscribers (and the likelihood that the rest of you have certainly missed a tip or two here or there--shame, shame), we feel that these tips deserve a second chance at stardom. L. Scheuermann writes: "How do you print a detailed listing of the directory structure of a disk (or diskette) in Windows 95?" You have two options: You can create a rather lengthy batch file (which also involves editing the Registry so that the file runs whenever you right-mouse click a folder and choose Print); or you can use a shareware program. If you choose to go the batch file route, point your Web browser to the Windows 95 Annoyances Web site at http://www.annoyances.org/win95/ Select Coping With Windows 95, scroll all the way down to the second to last tip in this group, and follow the instructions under Print Out a Directory Listing. If you think that solution is way too much work (we do), a good shareware option is Print Directory, available for download from http://www.pcworld.com/software_lib/data/articles/essential/2290.html After downloading PrintDir97.zip, extract its contents and then double-click PrintDir97.exe to start the program. Select the folder or drive for which you'd like to print a directory, click Config to adjust your options, then click the giant Print button. WHEN HISTORY REPEATS--PART 3 OF 6 There are certain tips that readers continuously request. With so many new subscribers (and the likelihood that the rest of you have certainly missed a tip or two here or there--shame, shame), we feel that these tips deserve a second chance at stardom. Tired of waiting for those menus to pop out as you navigate your way through the Start menu? Or just the opposite--do you wish these menus would slow down a bit? The easiest way to adjust the "menu delay" is using the Tweak UI PowerToy. If you don't have this freeware, you'll need to edit the Registry (ick). If you don't have Tweak UI, you can download it (and the remaining PowerToys) for free from http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/powertoys.htm Follow the installation instructions given on the Microsoft site; once it's installed, open the Control Panel, double-click Tweak UI, and you'll find yourself on the Mouse tab. Use the lever under Menu Speed to adjust the menu delay, then click OK. (To try out a setting, before clicking OK, right-mouse click the Test Icon and select an item in the drop-down menu.) Now for the Registry method. (As always, back up the Registry files--User.dat and System.dat--before proceeding.) Open the Registry Editor (select Start, Run, type regedit and click OK) and navigate your way to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Right-mouse click a blank area in the right pane, select New, then select String Value. Name the new value "MenuShowDelay." Right-mouse click the new value, select Modify, and in the Edit String dialog box, type a number to indicate the delay in milliseconds. (The default is 400, close to half a second.) Click OK, close the Registry Editor, and restart Windows 95. WHEN HISTORY REPEATS--PART 4 OF 6 There are certain tips that readers continuously request. With so many new subscribers (and the likelihood that the rest of you have certainly missed a tip or two here or there--shame, shame), we feel that these tips deserve a second chance at stardom. Many of you have asked how to stop unwanted applications from loading at startup. Last month, we offered three Registry locations that may include references to these programs. In case you missed that tip, they are: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RUN HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RUN and (if user profiles are enabled): HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RUN Note: If you plan to delete references from the above locations, make sure to back up the Registry files--User.dat and System.dat--first, in case you make a mistake. There are two more places to look for references to pesky applications: Your WIN.INI file. Select Start, Run, type sysedit and click OK. Inside the System Configuration Editor, select the WIN.INI window and under the [Windows] section, search for a "run=" or "load=" line. These lines instruct programs to load at startup. (Note: Don't mess with this file unless you know what you're doing. Ask for assistance from someone who does.) The Startup folder. We saved the most obvious for last. To open this folder, right-mouse click the Start button, select open, double-click Programs, and then double-click Startup. (If you have IE 4.0 installed, navigate your way to this folder right on the Start menu, right-mouse click it, and select Open.) Is there a shortcut in there that looks like the culprit? Delete it! WHEN HISTORY REPEATS--PART 5 OF 6 There are certain tips that readers continuously request. With so many new subscribers (and the likelihood that the rest of you have certainly missed a tip or two here or there--shame, shame), we feel that these tips deserve a second chance at stardom. We can't tell you how many people ask, "How do I make my Explorer shortcut mimic right-mouse clicking My Computer and selecting Explore?" Here's the technique: First, locate your Explorer shortcut. (For example, if you use the one in the Start menu's Programs menu, right-mouse click the Start button, select Open, and double-click Programs.) Right-mouse click the Windows Explorer shortcut, select Properties, click the Shortcut tab, and type the following on the Target line: C:\Windows\Explorer.exe /n,/e,/root,,/select,C:\ Click OK, and from now on, selecting that shortcut is identical to right-mouse clicking My Computer and selecting Explore. WHEN HISTORY REPEATS--PART 6 OF 6 There are certain tips that readers continuously request. With so many new subscribers (and the likelihood that the rest of you have certainly missed a tip or two here or there--shame, shame), we feel that these tips deserve a second chance at stardom. G. Finkbeiner writes: "On the right side of the Taskbar, there used to be an icon I used for volume control. After having some work done on my computer, the icon disappeared, and I can't figure out how to get it back. Any suggestions?" You'd think you could just right-mouse click the Taskbar, select Properties, and find this setting in the resulting dialog box. No such luck. You'll need to go through the Control Panel to restore the speaker icon. Open the Control Panel, double-click Multimedia, and you'll find yourself on the Audio tab of the resulting dialog box. Select Show Volume Control on the Taskbar, click OK, and that little yellow speaker is back. (Incidentally, to remove the speaker from the Taskbar, right-mouse click it, select Adjust Audio Properties, and deselect the Show Volume Control option.) ONCE A FAVORITE, ALWAYS A FAVORITE A reader, D. Montplaisir, asks, "Is there a way to copy my Internet Explorer Favorites to another system?" Just copy your Favorites folder to a floppy disk, then copy its contents onto the same location on the second PC. Whether you're using IE 3.x or 4.0, you'll find your Favorites folder right in your X:\Windows folder (where X is the letter of the drive on which Windows 95 is installed). SEEING YOUR FILES By default, Windows Explorer opens at the root of drive C, but you can change it to open (and expand) any drive and folder you want. For example, if you want Windows Explorer to open at the My Documents folder: 1. Right-click the Start menu and click Open. 2. Double-click the Programs icon. 3. Right-click the Windows Explorer shortcut and click Properties. 4. Click the Shortcut tab. 5. In the Target text box, add My Documents to the end of the default C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /n,/e,C:\ leaving no space, and click OK. WRITE BACK SOON, MICROSOFT Often, in discussing a lengthy tip solution, we refer you to an article in Microsoft's Knowledge Base. However, a number of you have had trouble getting this information because Microsoft's server is so often overloaded (the understatement of the week). Fortunately, there is another way to get the information, assuming you already have the article ID number, and provided you don't need your answer that very second. Just send an e-mail to mailto:mshelp@microsoft.com with the six-digit article ID on the subject line. Microsoft will write back with the article you requested in the body of the e-mail. (Note: In case you're curious about the time frame, it took us 16 hours to get a response.) DISK SCHMISK A number of readers have asked what to do when, during installation of one of the downloaded PowerToys, they receive a message stating that they need to insert an installation disk. In fact, you don't need a disk at all. The message appears when, after extracting the PowerToys files, you move the files to a new location and THEN try to install a PowerToy (by right-mouse-clicking an *.inf file and selecting Install). It asks for the disk because it can't find the file it needs. To resolve the problem, click OK, and in the resulting dialog box, click the Browse button and navigate your way to the folder where the extracted PowerToys files are now located. Click OK twice, and the installation will proceed normally. THAT URL IS JUST A HOP, SKIP, AND A WINDOW AWAY If you have IE 4.0 installed, there's a great way to jump directly to a Web site--and this time, you won't have to use the Run command. >From any window, replace the current Address, such as My Computer, with your URL of choice. (If you don't see an Address bar, select View, Toolbars, Address Bar.) For example, you might type tipworld to access http://www.tipworld.com (For an address of this format, Windows 95 fills in all the Ws, dots, and so on.) Press Enter and presto! The Web page you were after shows up inside the current window. A special thanks to J. Sellman for suggesting this tip! MAXIMUM VIEWING PLEASURE G. Lawson writes: "Is there a key combination to maximize a window in Windows 95?" Just as you can minimize a window using the keyboard (select Alt-spacebar, then press N for Minimize), there's a similar combination for maximizing a window: Press Alt-spacebar, then press X for Maximize. (Tip: To restore the active window to its less-than-screen-size state, press Alt-spacebar, then press R for Restore. CUT TO THE TASKBAR--PART 1 OF 2 Want instant access to all the contents of a folder, without having to open that folder? If you have Internet Explorer 4.0 installed, you can turn any folder into a Taskbar toolbar. Simply click and drag a folder, such as My Computer, to a blank area on the Taskbar. (You'll know it's a "blank" area because the black circle-with-the-line-through-it icon will disappear from your mouse pointer.) Let go, and each item inside the folder now appears as a toolbar item. Once the folder's contents appear on your Taskbar, you can resize this new toolbar just like any other. Hold the mouse pointer over the vertical line on its left edge, and when the pointer changes to a double-pointed arrow, click and drag in either direction. To delete the toolbar, right-mouse-click this same vertical line (or any blank area on the Taskbar), select Toolbars, and deselect the folder name in the pop-out list. A special thanks to R. for suggesting this tip! CUT TO THE TASKBAR--PART 2 OF 2 In our last tip, we showed IE 4.0 users how to create a Taskbar toolbar from any folder: Right-mouse-click and drag the folder to a blank area on the toolbar and let go. If you followed the example we gave in this tip, and created a toolbar from your My Computer folder, you now have a handy list of My Computer icons on your Taskbar. The problem is, the toolbar's so darn long that you have to scroll way over to get to the items that don't fit on the Taskbar. The solution? Cut down on the amount of Taskbar real estate that the toolbar requires by getting rid of all of its text. Right-mouse-click the vertical bar on the left edge of the toolbar and deselect Show Title. Right-mouse click the same bar again, and this time select Show Text (to deselect this option). You're left with the icons and nothing but the icons--and a much shorter toolbar! (Tip in a tip: Hold your mouse pointer over any icon on your new toolbar, and a little box pops up with its name--or in some cases, full instructions--inside.) MUSIC, MAESTRO! B. Allen writes: "Way back when, you ran a tip explaining how to silence your system by turning off all sound effects. Now I'm wondering how you turn them back on. (It's been so long, I can't remember the original technique.) The only time I hear anything is when I play an audio CD." The sounds your system makes (in response to certain events) are controlled through the Control Panel. To access these settings, open the Control Panel and double-click Sounds. Now, to un-silence your system, select any scheme but No Sounds in the drop-down list of Schemes. Click OK (and make sure your speakers are turned on), and you'll find your speakers are back to their old tricks! Note: If, after selecting a scheme and clicking OK, you see the Save Scheme dialog box, click No (unless you need to save the previous scheme), then click OK again. MATCHING A NAME WITH AN ICON A reader, B. B. Brown writes: "Recently, while trying out some software, I managed to disassociate the default icons used to represent JPEG and BMP files. Now, these file icons display a red, white, and blue icon. How do I restore the original icons?" You can change the icon used to represent any file type. All it takes is a trip to the File Types dialog box (and, of course, you need to know the exact location of the icon you want to use). In any open Explorer window, select View, Options (or Folder Options, in IE 4.0) and click the File Types tab. Under the list of Registered file types, select the file type to which you'd like to assign a new icon and click the Edit button. In the Edit File Type dialog box, click the Change Icon button, then click Browse and navigate your way to the file containing the icon you'd like to use. Select the icon, click OK, then click Close twice. From now on, files of that type will have a brand new look. THE ABCs AND 123s OF PROGRAMS A reader, M.B. Parker, writes, "How do I get the items in my Start menu's Programs list to appear in the order I want them to, rather than alphabetically? The only solution I've found is to put numbers at the beginning of each shortcut name." Unless you have IE 4.0 installed, adding numbers to each shortcut name is indeed the best solution. For those of you who aren't familiar with the technique, right-mouse-click the Start button, select Open, then double-click the Programs folder. Inside, rename each item with a number at the beginning of its name. For example, select the item you want to appear at the top of the Programs list and Press F2 for Rename. Click once at the beginning of the highlighted shortcut name, type the number "1" and press Enter. Repeat these steps for each shortcut, numbering them in the order in which you'd like them to appear in the Programs list. From now on, selecting Start, Programs will display these items in the order you specified. In our next tip, we'll show you how to reorganize your Programs list if you DO have IE 4.0 installed. WITH A CLICK, CLICK HERE AND A DRAG, DRAG THERE . . . In our last tip, we showed you how to reorganize the list that appears when you select Start, Programs: Open the Programs folder and rename these shortcuts with a number at the beginning of each (in the sequence in which you'd like them to appear, of course). But if you have IE 4.0 installed, there's a much easier way to reorganize this list. Simply click and drag each item to a new location on the menu. Select Start, Programs to display the Programs list. Right-mouse-click an item you'd like to relocate, then drag it up or down the list until the horizontal black line appears in the desired location. Let go, and the item slides right into place. Repeat these steps until the list is ordered exactly as you'd like it. (Of course, you can follow these same steps to reorder any submenu within the Start menu.) GET YOUR VERSION OF IT In a previous tip, we showed you how to determine the version of Windows 95 loaded on your system: Right-mouse-click My Computer, select Properties, and on the General tab, you'll see the version listed under System. The original version of Windows 95 is 4.00.950; the letter "a" after this number indicates that the original version of Windows 95 was installed and then updated with Service Pack 1 or OEM Service Release 1; the letter "b" indicates Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2; and a "c" indicates OEM Service Release 2.5. In response, a reader, J.T. Selkowitz, offers this tip: You can also get the Windows version number by typing ver at a DOS prompt. Doing so will return 4.00.950 for the original release of Windows 95, 4.00.1111 (for OSR2), or 4.00.1212 (or higher) for updates to OSR 2, such as OSR 2.1. HEY, I WANT A 3D SCREEN SAVER, TOO! A reader, C. Pantoja, writes: "I am running the OEM Service Release 2 version of Windows 95 and have a screen saver called 3D Flying Objects. A friend of mine, who is running the original release of Windows 95, claims he doesn't have this screen saver. Is there a way for him to use it? We tried copying the 3D Flying Objects.scr file to his system, but it didn't work." There are a number of screen savers that are unique to the OSR2 version of Windows 95. In order for them to work on a system running a previous version of Windows 95, you'll need to copy the screen saver file (*.scr) AND two additional files--GLU32.DLL and OPENGL32.DLL--to the older system. Copy the two DLL files above, along with any or all of the following screen saver files to the Windows\System folder of the system not running OSR2: 3D Flying Objects.scr, 3D Flower Box.scr, 3D Maze.scr, 3D Pipes.scr, 3D Text.scr The new screen savers will now join the ranks of the others on your system. (To use one, right-mouse-click the desktop, select Properties, click the Screen Saver tab, select a screen saver in the drop-down Screen Saver list, and click OK.) WHERE THERE'S A BUCK, THERE'S A WAY A while back we ran a tip called "The Windows 95 Swap Meet," which referred you to an article in Microsoft's Knowledge Base for instructions on copying Windows 95 to another hard drive. A number of you wrote in with third-party software suggestions for facilitating this process. The most straightforward of these programs is PowerQuest's DriveCopy ($29.95). In just a few simple steps, it copies everything from the old drive to a new one. If you prefer a fuller-featured program, try Partition Magic ($54.95 after a $15 rebate), also from PowerQuest. For more information, point your Web browser to http://www.powerquest.com/product/dc/index.html (for DriveCopy) or http://www.powerquest.com/product/pm/index.html (for Partition Magic) THREE CHEERS FOR SANDRA! Looking for information on your system, as well as quick access to all your system files? Download and install SiSoft Sandra, an information and diagnostic tool for Windows 95 and 98 (free for home users, $29 otherwise). To obtain this utility, point your Web browser to http://www.sisoftware.demon.co.uk/sandra/index.htm If you're a home user, click the Download & Update Sandra Standard link, then select a download site. Commercial users, click the Buy Sandra Professional On-line link, and so on. Install and open the utility, then feast your eyes on more information than you could ever want. Pick an icon, any icon! (For example, click the System Summary icon for processor information.) IF YOU ASK ME TO ENTER A PASSWORD ONE MORE TIME--PART 1 OF 2 If you just got your hands on a PC that was hooked up to a network in a former lifetime, chances are you still see the Enter Network Password dialog box each time you start Windows 95. You can bypass this dialog box by pressing Esc, but a more satisfying solution is to get rid of it altogether. Right-mouse-click your desktop's Network Neighborhood icon and select Properties. (Alternatively, open the Control Panel and double-click Networks.) On the Configuration tab, under Primary Network Logon, click the down arrow and select Windows Logon. Click OK, wait while Windows builds its information driver base (zzz . . .), then click Yes to restart your computer (or restart at your convenience). That annoying log-in box will never bother you again. Are you trying to get rid of TWO log-in dialog boxes--one for networks and one for Windows 95? Don't follow the above tip just yet. In our next tip, we'll show you how to ditch them both in one fell swoop. IF YOU ASK ME TO ENTER A PASSWORD ONE MORE TIME--PART 2 OF 2 In our last tip, we told you how to get rid of the Enter Network Password dialog box: Open the Control Panel, double-click Networks, select Windows Logon under Primary Network Logon, and click OK (then restart Windows 95). Trying to get rid of the Windows 95 log-in dialog box, too? Here's how to ditch both dialog boxes at once: Follow the steps above, but when Windows asks if you want to restart your system, click No. Back at the Control Panel, double-click Passwords, and on the Change Passwords tab, click the Change Windows Password button. Type the Old password, press Tab to move the cursor to the New password field, then press Enter. You'll see a dialog box telling you that the password has been changed successfully. Click OK, click Close, restart Windows 95 at your convenience, and enjoy your log-in-box-free startups! Note: To ditch only the Windows 95 log-in dialog box, just follow the second part of this technique: Double-click the Control Panel's Passwords icon and so on.)STUBBORN ICON MAKEOVERS--PART 1 OF 3 A reader, C. Jones, asks, "How do you change the icons for desktop items such as My Computer and the Recycle Bin?" Another reader, J. Earl, asks, "How do you change the Recycle Bin icon?" And N. Piazza writes, "I recently installed a program that changed the icons for My Computer and Network Neighborhood. How do I change them back to their originals?" Back by popular demand, in the next few tips, we'll show you how to change (or delete) these seemingly unchangeable icons. You can change the icons that Windows 95 uses to represent My Computer, Inbox, The Internet and the Recycle Bin (full or empty). All it takes is a little Registry editing (to be safe, back up your Registry files--System.dat and User.dat--first). Today, we'll show you how to locate the Registry data that determines the icon used for each of these desktop items. First, open the Registry Editor--select Start, Run, type regedit and click OK. Next navigate your way to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ CLSID. Now, depending on which icon you're after, select the following key: For My Computer, select: {20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} For Inbox, select: {00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} For the Recycle Bin icons (full or empty), select: {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} For The Internet, select: {FBF23B42-E3F0-101B-8488-00AA003E56F8} Expand the key you just selected (the one with all the numbers and letters in it) and inside, select the DefaultIcon key. You'll see the path of the default icon in the right pane, under Data. In our next tip, we'll show you how to change the default icon. OFF THE BIG SCREEN K. Jarvis asks, "How do I delete unwanted screen savers from the list that appears on the Screen Saver tab of the Display Properties dialog box?" In our last tip, we mentioned that to use a downloaded screen saver, you need to copy the *.scr file to your Windows/System folder. Well, to delete a screen saver from your Screen Saver list (and from your system entirely), you need to do just the opposite: Delete its *.scr file from the Windows/System folder. (Tip: If all you want to do is remove it from the screen saver list, just move the *.scr file to a location on your system other than the Windows/System folder.) RECENT DEVELOPMENTS A couple of months ago, we told you how to remove INDIVIDUAL items from the Documents list on a system for which user profiles are enabled: Navigate your way to C:\Windows\Profiles\[username]\Recent and delete any or all of the items inside. A reader, R. Urmann, suggests an alternative in the event that you want to modify the Documents lists of multiple users: Use Find to locate all Recent folders in your Windows folder. Select Start, Find, Files or Folders, and type recent in the Named text box. Click the Browse button, navigate your way to the Windows folder--probably C:\Windows--and click OK. With Include Subfolders selected, click the Find Now button, and Windows 95 tracks down the Recent folders of every user on the system. Double-click one to display its contents and start deleting. Thanks for the suggestion, R.! (Tip: To clear the entire Documents list of the current user, right-mouse-click a blank area on the Taskbar, select Properties, select the Start Menu Programs tab, click the Clear button, and click OK.) ATTENTION, SOUTHPAWS! Are you a left-handed mouse user? Then you're probably getting good and tired of dragging your right hand all the way over to the left side of the keyboard to use Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C, and Ctrl-V--the Cut, Copy, and Paste equivalents. And no, not using them isn't an option! (Nor is picking your left hand up off the mouse.) If you're hooked on keyboard combos, you'll be happy to know there are keyboard combo equivalents for Cut, Copy, Paste, and even Undo, on the right side of your keyboard. Still around from the days of Windows 3.0 and before (but just not documented), the following CUA (common user access) commands spell relief for sore wrists: Shift-Delete = Cut Ctrl-Insert = Copy Shift-Insert = Paste Alt-Backspace = Undo (also Ctrl-Z, for right-handers) These commands are supported by many (but not all) applications and also by Windows 95. You'll have to try them out in your own applications. Of course, the one hitch is that you can't use Shift-Delete outside of an application (for example, to cut a selected icon from an Explorer folder). Remember, as far as Windows 95 is concerned, Shift-Delete means you want to delete the items without sending them to the Recycle Bin. So be sure not to use this combo unless you're inside an application, such as Word or Notepad. A special thanks to J. Johnson for suggesting this tip! ZIP 'N' SAVE A reader, C. Smith, writes, "When I download a screen saver off the Internet, I understand how to unzip the resulting ZIP file, but where do I go from there [to actually use the screen saver]?" Extract the contents of the ZIP file (or double-click the EXE file), then move the resulting *.scr file(s) to your Windows/System folder. (In some cases, you can accomplish all of this in one step--for example, if you use WinZip, you can extract the files to a specified folder.) Right-mouse-click the desktop, select Properties, click the Screen Saver tab, and you'll find your new screen saver right where it should be--in the Screen Saver list. Select it and click Apply or OK. (Tip in a tip: For a large collection of downloadable screen savers, point your Web browser to http://www.pcworld.com/software_lib/data/articles/desktop/index.html then click Screen Savers. We highly recommend the Hey, Macaroni! screen saver.) TROUBLE WITH A SHARED FILE Here's a "heads up" from reader P. Whittaker, in case the same thing happens to you: "I had a recent problem that I wanted to bring to your attention. In its infinite wisdom, Microsoft has issued two versions of CTL3D32.dll, an important shared file on 95/98 systems. One version is for 95/98, and the other is for NT. "The problem crops up when a programmer releases software that has the NT version in it. When the user loads the software, it overwrites the current CTL3D32 file and replaces it with the NT version. From then on, many applications (especially TWAIN operations) will not work. HP products, such as scanners, are very vulnerable. "When this hit us at work (a school), it not only rendered our scanner useless but also our digital camera and an HP laser printer. It also provided enough error messages with other apps to keep a techie busy for weeks! "We finally tracked the problem and a solution on the Net. However, it was a frustrating two days while we tried to figure out what the problem was." One preventive measure: Make a backup copy of CTL3D32.DLL so that you can restore it should trouble arise. And for more info, check out http://www.annoyances.org/cgi-bin/ce-showtopic/005_007 Thanks for sharing, P.! BACKUP ERROR IN WINDOWS 95
CHANGING THE COMMAND PROMPT'S LOOKARROWLESS SHORTCUTSEDITING THE MSDOS.SYS FILEIE 5 DOESN'T INCLUDE WINDOWS DESKTOP UPDATEVIEW DATE ON SCREEN WITH CHAMELEON CLOCK
DEFRAG ON STARTUPSET NOTEPAD AS YOUR CATCH-ALL FILE ASSOCIATION
EXPLORE OR OPEN FILES?FILTERING THE WINDOWS 98 HARDWARE INFORMATION REPORTTO RECYCLE OR NOT TO RECYCLE?WHERE TO FIND SOLITAIRE (AND OTHER WIN95 GAMES)CAN'T FIND GAMES ON WINDOWS SETUP TABTURN OFF SOUND SCHEME WHILE LISTENING TO AUDIO CDCHANGING THE DEFAULT PRINTERBROWSE FOLDER USING SINGLE WINDOWCHANGE DEFAULT CD PLAYER | |
| AN EMPTY BIN, PART 1 | |
| AN EMPTY BIN, PART 2 | |
| AN EMPTY BIN, PART 3 | |
| INSIDE THE RECYCLE BIN, PART 1 | |
| INSIDE THE RECYCLE BIN, PART 2 | |
| DUAL BOOTING WINDOWS 95 AND WINDOWS NT WORKSTATION | |
| AN EMPTY BIN, PART 4 | |
| LONG URL OR UNC PATHS CAN CAUSE SERIOUS PROBLEMS | |
| TAKE SOME SHORTCUTS | |
| NETWORKS: LONG SHARE NAMES | |
| MICROSOFT CLIENT FOR NETWARE NETWORKS | |
| THE NOVELL CLIENT, PART 1 | |
| THE NOVELL CLIENT, PART 2 | |
| SERVICE FOR NETWARE DIRECTORY SERVICES | |
| CREATE YOUR OWN TOOLBARS | |
| HIDING THE BATCH FILE WINDOW | |
| USING PIFs FROM THE COMMAND LINE | |
| Staying Alive | |
| Getting Burned Buring CD's | |
| THE ONE-WAY UPGRADE FROM WIN9X TO WINDOWS 2000 | |
| OPENING A COMMAND PROMPT IN A SELECTED FOLDER IN EXPLORER (contributed by Sandeep Anand, sandeep.anand@pauwels.com) | |
| It's all mine! | |