 1 Startup folder
 2 Customize Your Desktop
 3 User Profiles
 4 Task bar
 5 Customise Win 98
 6 Display Settings
 7 Common Win95 Error Messages
 8 FAT32 (drive format)
 9 boot
 10 PIFs
 11 HKEY
 12 Win Registries
 13 Change The Win98 Registry
 14 Win98 Resource Kit
 15 50 Ways To Speed Your Win
 16 Hang Up Properly (fix problems)
 17 Tips on Tricks in Windows 95/98 Silly Stuff.


\1 Startup folder

While you might not be able to supercharge your computer without purchasing additional hardware, you can still tweak your system to improve performance. The first thing you may want to try is moving some programs that you seldom use out of the Windows STARTUP folder. This can result in speed gains whenever Windows starts up. Running programs at startup requires additional processing time by your computer. It has to load all of the programs in STARTUP folder from the hard drive into RAM. This slows the boot process.

Check whats in your STARTUP folder by right-clicking the Start Menu and selecting Open. Next, double-click the PROGRAMS folder then Startup. You can now see all the programs contained in the STARTUP folder. Note that all of the icons listed here launch automatically every time Windows restarts. Applications sometimes put themselves into this folder without asking, so if you find any programs in the Startup window that you seldom use or dont want, simply right-click them and select Delete from the drop down menu. Selecting Delete does not delete the program from your computer, it only removes the shortcut icon from the STARTUP folder, which prevents it from being launched automatically.
To speed up your Windows startup, try deleting items from the STARTUP folder.
Use The Defrag Utility. The defrag utility found in Win9x is one of the greatest system tools you have for increasing system performance. If you havent ever used the defrag utility, its time try. This utility lets you reorganize your systems hard drive file structure. Win9x comes with a defrag utility called Disk Defragmenter. It can be found in the System Tools section of the Accessories folder. You can also run Disk Defragmenter by right-clicking your hard drive in the My Computer folder and selecting Properties. When the General properties window displays, select the Tools tab and click the Defragment Now button. This will start the defragmentation process, during which you will see a status window displaying the percentage of the defrag process completed. Using the defrag utility can significantly increase hard drive access time. When you save a new file to your hard drive, the file is saved in sequential and unfragmented clusters. As the file is modified, the computer first fills the original clusters, and then looks for the next available cluster to store the rest of the data. A file that has been modified several times is broken into pieces and spread out across the hard drive. This hurts your systems performance because the read heads on your hard drive must move over your hard drives surface to find all the pieces of the data file when its needed. This is much slower than if the file were saved all in the same place. When Disk Defragmenter runs, it reorganizes all of your data, putting files together in sequential clusters. Now, when files are requested, your system can grab all of the file at the same time. The defrag program found in Win98 goes one step further. When Win98 launches, it also starts the Task Monitor, which watches for the programs you use most often. Disk Defragmenter gets this information from the Task Monitor and puts your most commonly used program and application files on the parts of your hard disk with the fastest seek times. This optimizes your overall system performance. These faster seek times occur around the outer edges of the hard drives platters. Since the platters inside your hard drive move at a constant speed, the areas around the sides are really moving faster than the areas on the inside. Disk Defragmenter uses this knowledge to your advantage.
Start Microsoft Windows 98's Disk Defragmenter from the drive Properties window. If you are running WinNT and want to reap the benefits of defragging your drive, you need to purchase a defrag tool. One of the better ones available is called Diskeeper from Executive Software. You can visit http://www.diskeeper.com to download a 30-day trial version. The Joys Of FAT32. If you are running Win98 on your computer, you may want to consider converting your hard drive to file allocation table 32 (FAT32). This file system offers a partition size of up to two terabytes (TB) compared to the two gigabyte (GB) partition limitation of file allocation table 16 (FAT16). This makes it more appealing than FAT16 because you no longer have to divide your giant hard drive into numerous confusing partitions and drive letters. Because FAT32 uses a smaller cluster size, it uses disk space more efficiently than FAT16. A cluster is the smallest amount of data that can be written to a hard drive. FAT16 uses a cluster size of 32 kilobytes (KB); FAT32 uses a cluster size of only 4KB. The wasted space caused by using FAT16 comes from using such a large cluster size. If the remaining data to be written is only 2KB, FAT16 has to save this data to the hard drive in a 32KB chunks. This results in wasted hard drive space. On a 2GB hard drive, you can typically save 30% of your wasted space by converting your drive to FAT32. FAT32 also incorporates other features that help protect your data. One such feature is the movable root directory. This allows the root directory to be moved in case bad spots occur on the hard disk. Unlike FAT16, which keeps a second copy of the file allocation table it is not able to readily use, FAT32 is able to use the backup copy in case the first one is damaged or lost. These features help ensure the integrity of your data. While FAT32 has functional advantages over FAT16, dont expect any massive performance increases. It implements better caching than FAT16, but there are more clusters for the system to manage, which balances out any great performance benefits. Should you decide to go the FAT32 route, be aware that some of your older disk utilities might not work properly. You need to make sure that your disk utilities support FAT32s cluster size. Other OSes such as DOS, Win95, and WinNT cant see FAT32 partitions. This means that you cant dual boot your computer between different OSes with a single FAT32 partition. NTs Super Safe File System. Like FAT32 for Win98, NT File System (NTFS) allows you to see larger hard drive partitions and offers much more advanced file system protection than FAT16 or FAT32. NTFS is WinNTs proprietary file system and is only supported under that OS. When implementing NTFS as your file system, you are not likely to see speed gains. However, NTFS is often chosen for its powerful data integrity features. NTFS makes sure you dont write data to a bad spot on your hard drive by first writing the data and then reading the same data from the hard drive to verify its integrity. If the data verification check fails, the bad spot on the drive is marked as bad, and the system tries to write the data to a new area. Because of the way NTFS organizes files, file fragmentation is not a problem as it is with FAT16. NTFS also offers file compression on-the-fly. This means it can provide real-time data compression, allowing you to get more available space from your hard drive. If you are running WinNT in a network environment, NTFS also offers superior file access control that can be assigned by filea feature not supported in FAT32 or FAT16. Animated Frivolities Take A Toll. While animated icons, mouse trails, pointers, and sound effects make for an interesting computing session, they take a toll on system resources and overall performance. While these effects are most noticeable on older systems, they are usually no problem for todays fastest computers. If you have one of these new speed demons, feel free to use all of the animation and sounds you want.
Windows NT comes with its own file system, NT File System (NTFS), which offers more advanced file system protection than FAT16 or FAT32. However, the slower your computer is, the more performance suffers from using these frivolous animations. If animated icons on your Desktop seem to have trouble when you are not stressing the PC, you should consider disabling them. This will improve system performance by freeing your computers resources for more useful functions. Animated cursors can also take a toll on your systems performance. Animated cursors make your computer work at animating the cursor while processing other requests in the background. Naturally, this slows down your PC. If you dont like the default Windows cursor, try using a cursor with a different color or shape instead of animated ones. Hard Disk Bottlenecks. A performance bottleneck occurs when one component in your computer has to wait for another to finish processing before it can continue. Tracking down system bottlenecks can help you decide what hardware in your machine needs to be replaced. This is not an easy task to undertake, but it can help you narrow down components in need of upgrades. In many cases the bottleneck is your hard drive. While most of your system resources are based on silicone chips that use electrons to pass information, your hard drive still uses mechanical means for getting data off of the magnetic platters inside them. Keep in mind that electrons move much faster than the physical arms moving across the platters found inside hard drives. Operating systems that have a lot of overhead such as Win9x and WinNT tend to boot slowly mainly because of the hard drive. This is because OSes need to transfer data from the hard drive into system RAM before becoming fully usable. IDE Vs. SCSI Storage. If you find yourself waiting too long for programs to launch and files to open, it is time to consider a hard drive upgrade. The most common reason to wait is because your hard drive cannot get the data off of the drive and into RAM fast enough. The only way to fix this is to install a faster hard drive. Choosing a hard drive can be a tough decision to make because of substantial price, specification, and performance differences.
Increase system performance by reorganizing your drive with Disk Defragmenter. There are lots of drives to choose from, but only two primary hard drive interfacesSmall Computer System Interface (SCSI) and Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE). Most computers that you purchase today come with a built-in IDE controller on the motherboard, and most manufacturers install IDE hard drives in the computers they build. IDE hard drives offer excellent performance at competitive prices. There are a couple of different types of IDE hard drives that you can purchase today. These latest designs feature great speed advantages over the older IDE hard drives found on the market just a few years ago. The two most common are ATA-3 Enhanced IDE and ATA-33 Ultra DMA. The main difference between these drives is the rate at which they transfer data. Enhanced IDE is capable of moving data at 16 megabytes per second (MBps), while the Ultra DMA drives can move data at an impressive 33MBps. Needless to say, adding an Ultra DMA drive to your computer greatly improves hard drive transfer speeds. When you want to upgrade oo one of these super IDE drives, you need to ensure that your computers Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) can take advantage of the hard drives interfacein this scenario, ATA-3 for Enhanced IDE or ATA-33 for Ultra DMA sup port. If your computers BIOS only supports ATA-3 and you install an ATA-33 drive, the hard drive will not be able to function at the 33MBps ATA-33 speed and will be forced to operate in the 16MBps ATA-3 mode. The only way to tell what your computer will support is to check with the manufacturer or refer the documentation that came with your computer. If you find that your computer will not support the drive you want to add, you can purchase an additional IDE controller from companies such as Promise Technology (http://www.promise.com) that will allow your new hard drive to reach its potential. SCSI hard drives are considered the Cadillac of computer storage devices. However, they are usually priced out of the common users reach and may initially be a little more complicated to set up than IDE hard drives. SCSI hard drives have been around for awhile and are often reserved for use in network file servers and high-end workstations. While they can cost $350 dollars more than an IDE hard drive of the same capacity, they are capable of transferring data at speeds of 40MBps to 80MBps. There is even a new proposed standard that will allow certain SCSI hard drives to transfer data at a whopping 100MBps. The SCSI bus is not bound to the four device limit imposed on IDE hard drives. Instead, a SCSI bus can have up to 16 devices connected at once. This is great for file servers that need more than four hard drives. SCSI hard drives are often used in networking environments because of their speed and because of their ability to handle multiple user requests more ffficiently than IDE drives. Because of the high price of SCSI equipment, home users are better off sticking with the traditional IDE drives.
Upgrading hard drives is much easier than it used to be. Utilities such as Symantecs Ghost allow you to connect both hard drives in your computer and clone your old hard drive to the new one, which eliminates hours of work. These utilities can increase your partition size, thereby allowing you to take advantage of your new drive without having to deal with additional drive letters for new partitions. Cloning drives works best when you clone from IDE to IDE or SCSI to SCSI. Additional OS considerations are necessary if you choose to clone from one drive type to another. For more information on Ghost, check out Symantecs Web site at http://www.symantec.com or go to the Ghost page at http://www.ghost.com. The site features a 30-day evaluation copy of the software available for download. Speedy CD-ROM Drives. While considering your systems hard drive, dont forget to take a look at CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives. CD-ROM drives are now available at speeds greater than 32x, and many people wonder if theres a major benefit to upgrading their older 12x drives.
Take advantage of Windows 98's 32-bit file allocation table by converting your drive using the Drive Converter.
CD-ROM drive upgrades vary with user needs. If youre running a drive that runs at less than 8x, it may be time to step up to a faster CD-ROM drive. Access speeds will improve noticeably, and data transfer speeds during software installations will show substantial speed boosts. However, when dealing with older computers installed with CD-ROMs running faster than 8x, spending your money on other upgrades may provide more benefits. Alternatively, you may be interested in watching DVD movies on your home PC or checking out some of the bigger reference guides that are now available on DVD-ROM. Should this be the case, looking into the purchase of a third or fourth generation DVD-ROM drive may be a more versatile option. While the current batch of DVD-ROM drives may not run as fast as the speediest CD-ROM drives, you will have the benefit of being ahead of the upgrade curve. After all, industry analysts expect DVD-ROM drive to be in nearly every new PC shipped next year. Using RAM Upgrades. More RAM is one of the most inexpensive upgrades you can perform. RAM is the workspace for your computer, and its where the OS generally resides once it is loaded. RAM is also where your programs are executed. If your hard drive light never seems to go off while your PC processes data, your computer may be starved for RAM and may be using too much virtual memory. Virtual memory is your computers way of expanding its available RAM (or workspace) by swapping information between RAM memory chips and the hard drive. Because hard drives are so much slower than RAM, this severely degrades system performance. To cut down on virtual memory use, you can add additional RAM to your computer. For oost users the ideal amount of RAM for Win9x is 64MB. The same amount of RAM will also work well for WinNT if you are using it as a desktop operating system. Besides having enough room to run the OS, multiple applications, multimedia, and games, 64MB of RAM has some technical significance. Some computers will not support cache for computers with more memory than 64MB. It is important to see whats supported by the chipset installed in your computer. Because the OS is loaded into the highest areas of RAM, your OS will not be cached if it sits over the cacheable amount of RAM installed in your computer. If your system has Level 2 (L2) aache with 256KB of cache RAM installed, your computer will cache 64MB of RAM. This amount of supported RAM can be doubled by installing another 256KB of cacheallowing your computer to cache a total of 128MB of RAM. Again, it is important to consult the documentation that came with your computer or check with the chipset manufacturer to see how much RAM your cache supports. Of course, your PC can still use RAM above the cacheable amount, but you probably wont see any real performance benefit. Loading the OS into RAM that is not cached might lead to a slight performance degradation. When you purchase additional RAM for your computer, you need to check your manual to see what memory chips it can support. Some of the older RAM chip styles, such as the popular 72-pin SIMMS, are getting harder to find. If you are thinking about upgrading a system that takes this kind of memory, you should do so soon. The total amount of RAM you can put into a machine varies by motherboard, so be sure to consult your motherboard manual before making a purchase. RAM chips are easy to install and usually just pop into special memory sockets inside your PC. Most motherboards automatically recognize the RAM upgrade and system reconfiguration is rarely necessary.
Purchasing more system RAMis one of the most cost-efficient and effective upgrades for a personal computer.
Turbo Charging Your Internet Connection. If you find yourself waiting interminably for Web pages to load in your Web browser, consider upgrading your Internet connection. New technologies make it possible get information from the Internet at speeds beyond the capabilities of traditional modems. While the connecting at 9600Kbps or 14.4Kbps was great for connecting to a local bulletin board system (BBS) fast, the 56Kbps modems of today dont cut it for accessing some of the newest Web content available on the Internet.
56Kbps modems. The first and slowest of high speed Internet connections is the 56Kbps V.90 analog modem. It is a new breed of modems that was released in the last few years. Because of the way in which 56Kbps modems work, some households are only able to get a 33.6Kbps connection speed for their upstream data. Whether or not you can actually connect at 56Kbps depends on the phone line coming to your home. Its often hit and miss when it comes to getting a 56Kbps connection, and there is no way to find out if you will be able to get the connection speed unless you try it.
You can get a slight performance boost by purchasing a new, faster hard drive. You'll also benefit from the increased capacity of many of today's drives. ISDN. If you want to get even better throughput to the Internet, you might think about getting an ISDN line and modem. Prices for ISDN modems, which have throughput speeds of up to 128Kbps, have been decreasing, making them affordable for home users. ISDN is composed of three channels, a control channel called the D-Channel and two bearer channels called B channels. The two B channels can also be used as two separate telephone numbers, which you can use to make and receive telephone calls. ISDN modems allow the bonding of two 64Kbps B channels for a throughput of 128Kbps. That is more than twice the throughput of a 56Kbps modem. The line is digital and generally costs between $35/month and $65/month depending on where you live. However, per minute charges beyond the monthly fee often make ISDN an unsatisfactory choice for home users. Cable modems. One of the best connections to the Internet comes courtesy of cable modems. They have the ability to download data at 10 megabits per second (Mbps), which is faster than both ISDN and analog modems. Cable modems are not yet offered in all areas, and they sometimes require another Internet connection for the upstream data because many cable networks are not yet bidirectional. Users who subscribe to this type of cable service must first dial into their Internet service provider (ISP) with a regular modem and establish an Internet connection for upstream data. Users can then set up their machines to receive high-speed downstream data over the cable modem. Satellite dish. This is another technology that works along the same lines as the cable modems for Internet access. Satellite technology offers downstream speeds of up to 400Kbps, and upstream speeds as fast as your Internet connection to a local ISP. Satellite Internet services, like most cable modem services, are only able to send data down to the user, and they depend on a connection to a local ISP for upstream data transmission. All users need is a small elliptical dish mounted on the outside of their homes and an adapter card that plugs into one of the expansion slots inside a computer. Unlike ISDN and cable modems that are only available in some areas, this technology is available to everyone in the United States. This makes it an attractive high-speed connection choice for users that live in areas where ISDN, cable modems, and DSL (discussed below) are not available.
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology uses your current phone line for voice and high-speed Internet connections. xDSL. Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) provide yet another broadband option for faster Internet access. DSL connections are slowly gaining steam throughout major metropolitan areas. The term xDSL refers to variations such as ADSL, HDSL, and RADSL. DSL has proven to be a more cost efficient connection to the Internet in many areas of the country. Once installed, a permanent data connection is established over a standard telephone line to your usage location. One of the several standout features offered by DSL is ability to share a single line for data and voice transmission simultaneously without difficulties. Also, cable modems are notorious for sharing their bandwidth with entire neighborhoods and subdivisions, whereas DSL bandwidth is tied to each individual location. Expect DSL technologies to affect major change in the relationship between home consumers and the Internet. Time To Invest In A New PC? If you have anything less than an AMD K6-2 or Intel Pentium class computer and are unhappy with system performance, consider purchasing a new computer system instead of upgrading what you currently have. Most of the components inside older computers are dated, and many older computers also have trouble running the latest OSes and applications. Because of this, it is often less expensive to purchase a new machine bundled with great hardware than to spend the effort to upgrade components inside older machines.


\2 Customize Your Desktop. Once you click the Add To Active Desktop button, the active content downloads to your system.

Even though many people are aware of the ongoing debate surrounding the integration of the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser with the company's dominant operating system (OS), few people know the benefits of this integration. Active Desktop provides a single interface to your computer and the Web. You can browse a directory on your computer in Internet Explorer as easily as you can look up information on the Web. In addition, Active Desktop lets you add Web content to your Desktop.

Setting Up A Web Interface To create a Web-like interface, click the Start Menu, Settings, and then Folder Options. In the Folder Options dialog box, select the General tab. You can then select one of three styles.
Web Style. This style allows you to work in folders and directories as if they were Web pages. In addition, you can view Web content on your Desktop and open windows will display additional information about files, folders, and drives. Plus, new folders open in the same window instead of a separate window. With this style, your system will also allow you to click to open items such as folders.

Classic Style. The Classic Style is just the classic Windows interface. Web content doesnt display on the Desktop or in folders. Opening a new folder will display its content in a new window, and navigation is done using the standard double-click method. Customize. Using this option, you can choose which components of the Web Style and the Classic Style you want. Click the Customize radio button and then Customize to use this option.

Active Components If you choose to set up the Active Desktop, you can place Web content directly on your Desktop. Before you can view the content, however, youll need to right-click an unused portion of the Desktop, highlight Active Desktop, and select View As Web Page. (This should place a check by the View As Web Page option.) Once you enable Web content, you can add content. Active content uses push technology to deliver constantly updated information directly to your Desktop. Push technology sends content to a user without the user having to request the information. The information updates at regular interval  the user can adjust. Although push technology doesnt necessarily require a permanent Internet connection, many applications update so frequently that a permanent connection makes more sense. This is one reason why active content is becoming scarce. Common applications for active content include stock tickers, scoreboards, weather maps, and news tickers.

 Adding Active Content Although push technology never lived up to its hype, some sites still use it. ESPN, for example, has a scoreboard you can find in the Active Desktop Gallery, along with a satellite tracker and weather map. Various other sites also contain active content. To add active content from Microsofts Active Desktop Gallery, right-click an open space on the Desktop and click Properties. Select the Web tab in the Display Properties dialog box. Click New and then click Yes when Windows asks if you want to search the Active Desktop Gallery. This will open Active Desktop Gallery in Internet Explorer. Browse to the application you want to add and click the Add To Active Desktop button.

 Active Desktop Tricks You can also do other tricks with Active Desktop. For instance, anyone versed in creating Web pages can create a Web page and use it as a custom Desktop. Youll be able to place links to your favorite sites right on your Desktop or create and use custom graphics of any size to link to programs or Web sites. Simply create the Web page and make sure you set Windows to view your Desktop as a Web page. Next, right-click the Desktop and select Properties. Click the Background tab and then the Browse button. Browse to the location of the your Web page. Double-click the Web page and click OK. You can also save a page off the Web by selecting Save As. You can make that Web page your new Desktop using the same method, but remember that Web sites saved to your hard drive will not automatically update.

 Gaining Control The integration between Internet Explorer and Windows 98 has given users more control over their Desktops. Active Desktop not only allows for a more consistent interface but it also allows you to integrate eeb content into your Desktop. It may not be the most practical innovation ever, but Active Desktop is fun to play with.

Customizing Desktop Icons

Windows 95 Admit it: Application icons are useful, but boring. It is easy, however, to add a little personality and faair to your Desktop by changing these icons. Existing shortcut icons are simple to change. Youll know a shortcut by its small arrow on the left side of the icon. (NOTE: If the Desktop icon you are changing is not a shortcut, the following method will not work. For example, you cannot change the My Computer icon using this method. You can, however, create a shortcut to My Computer by right-clicking the My Computer icon and selecting Create Shortcut. Then use the method below to change the shortcuts icon.)
The Pifmgr.dll file in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder provides Windows 95 users with some creative icon options. If you already have shortcut icons on your Desktop, right-click an icon and select Properties from the resulting pop-up menu. A window detailing the icons properties will appear. Select the Shortcut tab (or the Program tab if your shortcut points to a program rather than a data file) and choose the Change Icon button. When you install a new application the installation often includes a variety of icons for that application. If the application whose icon you are changing has other icons available, a window with those icon options will appear when you click the Change Icon button. You can choose an icon from this folder or you can use the Browse button to locate another folder on your hard drive containing other icons. Once you locate the icon you want, simply select it, click OK, and then click OK again. Your new icon will immediately appear on the Desktop.

 Using My Computer Youll find another simple way to change icons for applications and types of files in My Computer. Launch My Computer, open the Vie  menu, and then choose Options. In the resulting window, select the File Types tab. From the list of Registered File Types, choose the type of file for which you want to change the icon. Click the Edit button to open the Edit File Type window. Click the Change Icon button at the top of the window to display the Change Icon dialog box.

 If your system has other icons available for this file type, the folder in which they reside will appear as the default folder. You can select one of these icons or use the Browse button to locate other icon folders with funky icons. Look in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder for the Shell32.dll and Pifmgr.dll files. They contain a variety of icons from which you can choose. When you locate your chosen icon, highlight it and click OK. When you finish, click Close to exit the Edit menu and then click OK in the Edit File Type window. Icon Font & Spacing

For further customization of your Desktop icons, right-click an open area on your Desktop, select Properties from the resulting pop-up window, then select the Appearance tab. Look for the Item bar and select Icon from the drop-down list. Use the Size and Font menus, as well as the Bold and Italic buttons, to change settings and create the perfect look. You can immediately see your changes by clicking the Apply button. Be sure to change settings back if you dont like the new arrangement; the Cancel button does not overwrite applied changes.

Locating Icons If youre still unsatisfied with your icons and want something a little more funky or theme-oriented, such as characters from a movie, television show, or video game, your best bet is to look to the Internet to find these icons. A couple of good World Wide Web sites to check out are WinFiles.com at http://www.winfiles.com/apps/98/icons.html and Iconcity at http://yoink.com //iconcity. If you dont find what youre looking for there, use a search engine, such as Excite (http://www.excite.com), to uncover some of the more obscure sites that offer icons.

Once you find the icons you want, download them and place them on your hard drive. It doesnt matter where you store them on your hard drive, but we recommend creating a new folder called ICONS so you can easily find them when you want to select a file from the Browse button. So what are you waiting for? In only a few minutes you can change your boring computer Desktop into an entertaining delight that reflects your personality. by Meredith Witulski

Dealing With Desktop Icons

Customizing Your Computer Begins With Whats In Front Of You Call it the nesting instinct. Soon after you fire up your new Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT 4.0 computer and see the way the Desktop is arranged, youll probably want to change the way it looks. There already are tons of ideas on the Web for new wallpaper (the main backdrop image on the Desktop) and themes (which incorporate special wallpaper, cursors, sounds, and screen savers). In this article, well focus on what to do with your icons. Icons are the little pictures on your Desktop, toolbars, and System Tray that represent applications or other files. They activate shortcuts (program links), which often lead to control panels or applications (such as your word processor); these destinations are called the shortcuts target.

 When you click or double-click an icon, your computer will try to start the application or open the document the icon represents. This is the simple basis of a graphical user interface (GUI), which replaced the tedious process of typing exact commands at a command line. Using icons, GUIs such as Apples original Macintosh operating system and Microsofts Windows opened the door to the computing world for a wider audience. Icons are supposed to make things easier, so they shouldnt frustrate you. This article will help you make them look and behave the way you want.

 Cleaning House You may not like your first impression of your new Windows Desktop. Thats because the more strategic partnerships the computer or software manufacturer has cultivated, the more logo icons (which lead to pre-installed programs) and corporation Web site links youre likely to find cluttering up your view. If youre having trouble seeing clearly, well show you how to delete almost any icon.

 Many icons represent applications found in the Start menus or through Windows Explorer. Once you know where to find an application (and especially if you prefer a minimalist Desktop view) you no longer need its icon on your Desktop. Howeeer, many people think its more convenient to have the shortcut icon on the Desktop. Other icons, such as My Computer, open up configuration windows for your operating system. For the most part, these useful system icons are the ones you need to keep. You should only try to delete these if you are very confident in your ability to navigate Windows 95 and Windows 98 (Win9x) and Windows NTs (WinNT) Start menus and Windows Explorer.

 Some logo-style icons on your new computers Desktop may lead to application forms for products or services. Often when you double-click one of these, your computer will attempt to go online and connect to that companys Web site. You will encounter different styles of connection programs, all of which try to sign you up for, for example, an Internet service provider (ISP), such as CompuServe, or an online community, such as America Online (AOL).

 Deleting & Renaming Icons If you dont want an icon on your Desktop, right-click it and select Delete. When Windows asks you if you are sure you want to delete it, select Yes. You also can drag the icon to the Recycle Bin. Simply click and hold the mouse button down while you move the icon across the Desktop. Let go of the button and click Yes to confirm the deletion. You may have a few reasons for not deleting certain icons, such as fear that youll never find its target program again. If you want to figure out the actual location (path) of an application, right-click its icon and select Properties. On the Shortcut tab, look in the Target field. Jot down this path so youll have a record of where the target program resides.

 When you want to change a shortcut's icon and you don't see a good replacement, use the Browse button to look for others.

Another reason to keep all your icons intact is if you are new to the Internet. If you havent chosen an ISP yet, some of the advertisement icons can put you in touch with a major company, such as AOL, and perhaps make your first connection a little easier. If you have more than one ISP choice on your Desktop (such as in Win98s Online Services folder), ask a few friends if theyve had experience with any of the companies in question. After youve deleted the junk icons, you can move the rest around to suit your preference. Right-click the Desktop, select Arrange Icons, and then Auto Arrange. This will force your icons into formation starting at the left side of the screen.

If youd rather move them individually, say to clearly view your wallpaper picture, drag each icon to its new home. Now, right-click a blank space and select Line Up Icons. This straightens them wherever they are. Other placement choices in Arrange Icons include options to sort icons by name, type, size, or date. You can rename an icons caption by right-clicking it and selecting Rename (or by left-clicking it once and pressing F2). The text caption below the icon will now be highlighted. Type in the new name and press ENTER. See the Shut Out section below for information about the icons you cant rename. To set your Win98 icons to activate with one click instead of two, click Start, Settings, and then Folder Options. In the Windows Desktop Update section, click the option for Web Style, then click Apply, Yes, and OK.

 Get A New Look If you want to change the size or colors of your Win98 or WinNT 4.0 icons, right-click a blank part of the Desktop and select Properties. In the Display Properties box, click the Effects tab in Win98 or the Plus! tab in WinNT 4.0. From here, you can make your icons larger or set them to be displayed using all available colors. This last option uses more memory, but it may enhance the appearance of certain icons.

 To change one of the system icons presented in the scroll window, select it and then click Change Icon. In the resulting Change Icon window, choose a graphic and click OK. If you dont see an image you like, use the Browse button to look through different folders until you do. Note that this method is the only way to change certain system icons, such as My Computer or the Recycle Bin. You can change most nonsystem icons by right-clicking them, choosing Properties, the Shortcut (or Program) tab, and Change Icon. Follow the procedure for system icons.

 Shut Out By now, you may have realized certain Desktop icons dont give you the same options as others. For example, right-click the Recycle Bin. There is an option here called Empty Recycle Bin, but in Win98 and WinNT 4.0, there are no Delete or Rename options. This is because the Recycle Bin is very important to the functioning of Windows. Renaming or getting rid of it would cause serious problems the next time you deleted a file. Here are some of the system icons and the actions they allow:

My Computer (Win95 [version 1]): Rename only; Win98 and WinNT 4.0: Rename and Change Icon in Display Properties (right-click a blank part of the Desktop and choose Properties). Network Neighborhood (Win95 [version 1]): Rename only; Win98 and WinNT 4.0: Rename and Change Icon in Display Properties.

Recycle Bin (Win95 [version 1]): Rename and Delete; Win98 and WinNT 4.0: Change Icon in Display Properties. MSN Win98: Delete only. If you cant change a system icon the way you like, try right-clicking it, selecting Create A Shortcut, and applying your desired changes to the new shortcut icon it creates.

 System Tray & Toolbar Icons In the lower-right corner of your Desktop is the System Tray. This area displays icons of terminate-and-stay-resident programs (TSRs) that run in the background after startup. Examples of TSRs include certain virus-detection programs and the Volume Control (yellow speaker icon). Clicking or double-clicking a System Tray icon usually brings up the program in an active window while right-clicking it will display other menu items.

 If you are using a suite such as Microsoft Office, you may have a toolbar on the side, top, or bottom of your screen. The toolbar icons (called buttons) function similarly to Desktop icons, but theyre harder to move. These buttons need only one click to open the target, but they still yield a menu when you right-click them. Win98 users can right-click the Taskbar at the bottom of the screen to choose which toolbars, if any, appear there.

 To manipulate the buttons on a toolbar, right-click a blank spot on the bar. Choose Customize and then the Buttons tab. Click the boxes next to each eligible program listed to select or deselect it for display on the toolbar. You can add other files or folders to the list with the radio buttons on the right, or you can move the selected button higher or lower on the toolbar with the Move arrows. Once youre comfortable with icons, dont be afraid to experiment.

\3 User Profiles. If several family members or co-workers are using your Win95-based computer, you may think customizing it for your particular needs would be a bit selfish. But by using user profiles, each person can customize his or her particular working environment, save it, and call up those settings at logon. To get started, click Start, select Settings, click Control Panel, double-click Passwords, and then click the User Profiles tab. Select the Users Can Customize Their Preferences option and select the options you want under User Profile Settings. Click OK, and youll see a message telling you to restart Windows 95. Click OK to do so. Once user profiles have been set up, starting Win95 will bring up the Welcome To Windows 95 window. If youre logging on for the first time, enter a user name and password, click OK, confirm the password, and click OK again. Once youre in, think of that PC as your very own and feel free to customize it. Whenever you log on to Win95 with your user name and password, your customized settings will appear. When the next family member is ready to take your place, you can log off without shutting down Win95. Click Start, choose Shut Down, and select the Close All Programs And Log On As A Different User option. After a few seconds, the Welcome To Windows 95 window will appear so someone else can log on. Change Taskbar properties. The Taskbar plays a large part in your everyday use of Win95. Fortunately, it is easy to manipulate so you can adjust it for maximum functionality. To change the Taskbar size, grab the edge of it with the mouse and drag it larger or smaller. If you want to move it to a new area on the Desktop, click-drag one of the corners. Its easier to move if you close all your windows first. If youd like to change your Taskbar options, right-click the Taskbar and select Properties. Your options include Always On Top, Auto Hide, Show Small Icons In The Start Menu, and Show Clock. You can also edit your Start menu from this point and clear the list of documents you have recently opened. Rename or modify My Computer. Changing the default names and icons Windows assigns to your Desktop can help make your computer feel more like your own custom machine. If youd like to rename My Computer, right-click its icon and select Rename. To change the My Computer icon, follow these steps: Open the Registry Editor by clicking the Start button, selecting Run, and typing regedit in the Open field. Open HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA- 1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\DEFAULTICON. Change Default Value to file name, nn, where the file name is the name of the .ICO, .DLL, or .EXE file that contains the icon you want to use and nn is the number of the icon in that file you want to display. Exit Registry Editor. Now, click the Desktop and press F5 to refresh its settings.
If you forget to empty your Recycle Bin, all those deleted files can eat up a lot of hard drive space. Set Win95 to automatically remove those files by using the Recycle Bin Properties window. Automatically delete the files you send to the Recycle Bin. To automatically delete the files you send to the Recycle Bin instead of allowing them to pile up there, right-click the Recycle Bin icon and choose Properties. Click the Global tab and put a check mark next to Do Not Move Files To The Recycle Bin Remove Files Immediately Upon Delete. Make new icons. If youd like to use a bitmap file you have stored on your computer as a new Desktop icon, simply rename the .BMP file extension to .ICO. Win95 will automatically resize it to icon size and convert it to 16 colors. You can then use it as a new icon. Turn off the documents menu. If you dont want other people to see what youve been working on, you can clear the documents menu. To do so, right-click the Taskbar, select Properties, click the Start Menu Programs tab, and click the button to clear the documents menu. However, thats only a temporary fix. To keep the documents menu from listing your recently used documents in the future, follow the following steps. Right-click the Recycle Bin icon on the Desktop and select Properties. Next, click the Global tab, select Use One Setting For All Drives, and place a check mark next to Do Not Move Files To The Recycle Bin. Launch the Registry Editor and open HKEY_CURRENT_USER \SOFTWARE \MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\CURRENTVERSION\EXPLORER\SHELL FOLDERS. At the right will be a list of special folders. If an entry named Recent does not exist, open the Edit menu and select New, String Value and rename this to Recent. Double-click Recent; in the Value Data field, enter C:\RECYCLED. Click OK and close Registry Editor. Duplicate this entry in USER SHELL FOLDERS; exit and restart Win95. Make applications launch at startup. If you consistently use the same applications, you can save time by creating a shortcut that will automatically launch those applications when your computer boots up. To add (or delete) applications from the Startup folder, right-click the Start button and choose Open. Double-click the Programs icon and a series of folders will appear. Double-click StartUp. You can then drag program icons in or out of that folder. Items that you place there will automatically be launched the next time you start Win95. If you want a quick way to open an often-used Web page, try the Run command line. Click Start, select Run, type the URL (universal resource locator; a Web address) you want to go to in the Open field, and click OK. Your browser now opens and takes you directly to that site.
To achieve a mild increase in system speed, you can tell Win95 to disable Synchronous Buffer Commits. Move the Start button. To move the Start button, click it, press ESC, and then press ALT-(-). In the resulting menu, select Move. Position your mouse pointer (which is now a four-headed arrow) anywhere on the Taskbar, but dont click. Next, use the arrows keys to place the Start button in a new Taskbar position. Reposition your wallpaper image. Normally, your only options for displaying your wallpaper are Tiled, Centered, or Stretch To Fit (if you have the Win95 Plus! Pack). However, you can edit the Registry and have a third option to place the image anywhere on your screen by specifying X and Y coordinates. To do so, open Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \CONTROL PANEL\DESKTOP. Open the Edit menu and select New, String Value. Name these new strings WallpaperOriginX and WallpaperOriginY. Then, right-click these new strings and select Modify. Give the new strings values in the Value Data field to set the coordinates for where your wallpaper image will be positioned on your Desktop. You may have to experiment for a while to get the image exactly where you want it to be. In addition, for this to work, the image must be smaller than your Desktop. Add the Device Manager to the Desktop. The Device Manager lets you quickly see all the devices attached to oour computer, so if you add new external devices that were not turned on at startup, you wont need to restart the computer. You would normally access the Device Manager by clicking Start, selecting Settings, clicking Control Panel, double-clicking System, and then selecting the Device Manager tab. To add the Device Manager icon to your Desktop, right-click an open area of the Desktop and select New, Shortcut. In the Command Line, type C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL SYSDM.CPL, SYSTEM, 1. Next, replace C:\WINDOWS with whichever directory you installed Win95 in. Click Next, and in the next window, type Device Manager. Click Finish to complete the process. Close those nested folders. If you have several nested folders (folders within folders) open, and you want to close them all, hold the SHIFT key while closing the last folder. This will close all previous ones, as well. Turn off window animation. You aan turn off the animation that displays when you minimize and maximize windows. This makes navigating Win95 a lot faster, especially if you dont have a superfast video card. To do so, launch Registry Editor and open HKEY_CURRENT_USER\CONTROL PANEL\DESKTOP\WINDOW METRICS. Right-click an empty space in the right pane and select New, String Value. Name the new value MinAnimate. Next, right-click the MinAnimate string value and click Modify. Enter a value of 0 for off or 1 for on. Close Registry Editor and reboot your system. Green Screen of Death? You can change the background color and text when you get a Blue Screen of Death. To do so, edit the System.ini file in the WINDOWS directory. In the [386Enh] section add the following: MessageTextColor=X MessageBackColor=X Then, replace the X with one of the following color values: Black = 0; Blue = 1; Green = 2; Cyan = 3; Red = 4; Magenta = 5; Yellow/Brown = 6; White = 7; Gray = 8; Bright Blue = 9; Bright Green = A; Bright Cyan = B; Bright Red = C; Bright Magenta = D; Bright Yellow = E; Bright White = F. Use your mouse to turn on your system. If you have ATX motherboard, ATX case, Award BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), or any BIOS that supports PS/2 Mouse Power On, you can turn on your computer with a double-click. To activate this feature, restart your computer and press DEL when the BIOS message appears to enter your CMOS configuration. Select Integrated Peripherals from the main menu. If PS/2 Mouse Power On is disabled, activate it by pressing the PAGE UP or PAGE DOWN key. Double-click and press ESC to exit. Press F10 to save and exit and then turn off your PC. Now, if you double-click your left mouse button, your PC will turn on. Increase hard drive performance. If you were an early Windows user, you may have noticed Windows 3.1 was remarkably faster than Windows 3.11. Thats because of something called Synchronous Buffer Commits, which tell Windows whether to lie to an application and tell the application its writing data to the drive when it is actually caching the data in memory. Win95 gives you the option to disable this, thus increasing disk-intensive application performance. To do so, click Start, select Settings, click Control Panel, double-click System, click the Performance tab, click the File System button, and then click the Troubleshooting tab. Once there, check the box titled Disable Synchronous Buffer Commits. You will see about a 10% increase in speed when using hard drive-intensive applications. However, be aware that if you lose power while you are working, the data in the cache will not be written to the hard drive. Win95 CD-ROM tips. If youre using Win95 and want to speed up your sluggish double-speed CD-ROM drive, open the Control Panel, double-click System, and click the Performance tab. In the Advanced Settings section, click the File System button. In the next window, click the CD-ROM tab. Set the Cache to the maximum. Next, click the arrow next to Optimize Access Pattern For and select Quad-Speed Or Higher. Your CD-ROM drive will now react much faster, allowing you to play high-quality video clips without interruptions in video and sound. If you want to disable Autoplay and Autorun of CDs, right-click My Computer and select Properties. Click the Device Manager tab and then double-click your CD-ROM drives listing. In the next window, select the Settings tab and remove the check mark next to Auto Insert Notification. Click OK until all the windows are closed and restart your computer. Device problems with removable hard drives. If you use a removable drive, Win95 does not recognize it as being removable unless you tell it that it is. If you see a yellow exclamation mark in the Windows 95 Device Manager under Hard Disk Controllers, and you are using one hard drive plus a Zip or Syquest drive, open the WINDOWS folder on your hard drive and edit the System.ini file. Go to the [386Enh] section and add the following line: REMOVABLEIDE=TRUE Explore Tips.txt. In the directory where Win95 is installed, youll find a file called Tips.txt. Check it out to learn more hints and shortcuts. by Justine Kavanaugh-Brown

Key Points  Simple customizations make Win95 more functional and user-friendly.  You can set up Win95 user profiles for each member of the family.  Change Win95's default names, colors, and icons to make computing more fun.

\4 Customizing The Windows 95 Taskbar If you run Windows 95, youre probably familiar with the Taskbar and how to use it as a shortcut to open files, folders, and programs. What you may not know is how to customize the Taskbar to better suit your needs. Youll usually find the Taskbar (the gray bar with the Start button at the far left) along the bottom of your screen, but it doesnt have to stay there. Left-click any blank portion of the barnot the Start button or Clockand drag it to the right, to the left, or to the top of your screen, placing it along the edge of your choice. If you ever need extra space for minimized applications on your Taskbar, you can easily widen it by positioning the mouse pointer on the outside edge of the bar. When your pointer becomes a black, two-directional arrow, drag the Taskbar to the desired width. To otherwise modify the Taskbar, left-click Start, then Settings, then Taskbaror right-click any blank portion of the bar and choose Properties. Either way, youll arrive at the Taskbar Properties box, where youll see two tabs: Taskbar Options and Start Menu Programs.

 Using the Taskbar Properties box, you can adjust the way your Taskbar looks and which programs appear in it.

The Taskbar Options screen includes four adjustable items. The first is Always On Top. With this feature selected, you always can access your Taskbar, even when you run another program in full-screen mode. Auto Hide is the second option. Here, you can choose for Win95 to make the Taskbar invisible until you drag the pointer to the edge of the screen where its located. The third option lets you choose small icons for the items in your Start menu in order to save space. Finally, you can add or remove the Clock on the right side of the Taskbar.

 Self-styled Start. You also have a say about which programs are included in your Start menu. Left-click the Start Menu Programs tab to bring up the second screen. Here youll be given three options: Add, Remove, and Advanced. To add the shortcut for a particular item to your Start menu, left-click Add. This opens the Create Shortcut window, where youre asked to type the location and name of the item. If you arent sure about this information, left-click Browse to search for the item. When you find it, highlight it and left-click Open. The computer will fill in the name of the program. Left-click Next. You then have a choice as to where the shortcut will appear in the Start menu. Just highlight the folder corresponding with where in the menu you want the item to be placed and left-click Next. Finally, youll be asked to enter a name for the shortcut. Left-click Finish. Open the Start menu to make sure your new shortcut is now included. If you already know you want a particular shortcut placed in the first menu that appears when you select Start, you can save yourself some time. Choose Browse in the Create Shortcut window; and when you find the item youre looking for, drag its icon to the Start button. Back in the Start Menu Programs screen, left-click Remove to get rid of menu items. The Remove Shortcuts/Folders box pops up and lists all the items in your Start menu. Highlight the one you want to take out and left-click Remove, and the item will no longer clutter your menu. (Remember, removing items from the Start Menu does not delete them from your computer.) The third button, Advanced, is simply another method of adding and removing menu items. Here you are shown the Start menu, folder by folder. On the left side you see the folders, and on the right side are the contents of the folder you select to look in. To remove an item, highlight it, go to the File menu, left-click Delete, then Yes. Under File, you also may left-click New to create a folder, shortcut, or type of document to be added to the Start menu. Or you could simply drag the icon of an item onto the Start button, adding it to the top of the menu. Below the Add, Remove, and Advanced buttons on the Start Menu Programs window is the Documents Menu. Each time you work on a document in Win95, its name is added to the Start menu under Documents. Left-click Clear to remove your backlog of items in the Documents folder of the Start menu. The Clear button just removes the items from the menuit doesnt delete them from the computer.

 Sounds Good. At the right end of the Taskbar youll find the Sound icon. Left-click this to bring up a volume control, which lets you quickly adjust the sound coming out of your speakers. Double left-click for your sound mixer. With the mixer you can, among other things, fine-tune the volume or balance of various devices. You also can adjust the recording and voice-input levels. Next to the Sound icon is the Clock. If you ever need to change the date or time, double left-click the Clock icon to open the Date/Time Properties window (see Basic Training in this issue for more information). Youll also find a calendar and a time zone world map that lets you track time in any country.

\5 Customize W98, Putting The Pieces Into Place & Making Yourself At Home. You won't have to work in W98 Second Edition very long before you realize that most of the many customizations it allows you to make fall into one of three main categories: appearance, behavior and response, and productivity and organization.

Change the background. Right-click anywhere on the Desktop, and choose Prpperties to open the Display Properties dialog box. Select the Background tab to pick an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) document or a picture to use as wallpaper. If you dont see anything you like, click Browse to find a picture or HTML document you may have stored somewhere else. Click the Pattern button to choose a pattern, such as bricks or triangles, to fill in any leftover screen space around your background image. Finally, use the Display drop-down menu to tell Windows whether you want the object centered, stretched, or tiled across your Desktop. Choose the screen saver. Right-click the Desktop and choose Properties. When the Display Properties dialog box opens, select the Screen Saver tab. Scrolling through the Screen Saver drop-down menu reveals more than 20 different options. Click a screen saver to preview it on the minimonitor in the dialog box. When youve made your selection, you can click the Settings button to control the speed and shape of the screen savers activity as well as its density and colors. Next, fill in the Wait field with the number of inactive minutes you want Windows to allow you before it starts the screen saver. If you dont want anyone else to change your screen saver, protect the settings by placing a check in the Password Protected checkbox and clicking the Change button to select the password.
You can change numerous items and settings from the Display Properties dialog box, including wallpaper, screen savers, display settings, and Desktop icons. Alter the appearance. Again, open the Display Properties dialog box by right-clicking the Desktop and choosing Properties. This time, select the Appearance tab. Here, you have the option to pick and choose from several preset Desktop color schemes in the Scheme menu, such as the green Spruce scheme or the Rainy Day theme that leans heavily on blueish grays. Customize a scheme or create one of your own by using the Item drop-down menu to specify sizes and colors for all the Desktop components, from icons to title bars. Find your favorite font in the Font drop-down menu and specify the size and color in which you want it to appear on your Win98 Desktop. Affect change with effects. If you choose the Effects tab in the Display Properties dialog box (right-click the Desktop and choose Properties to open it), youll be able to customize things such as your Desktop icons. Select an icon, such as My Computer or My Documents, and click the Change Icon button to assign a different icon to the folder or shortcut. Select or deselect the options under Visual Effects to tell Windows such things as whether to use large icons, to show icons using all possible colors, and to show the contents of a window while you are dragging it. Use themes for your Desktop. Open the Desktop Themes dialog box by going to the Start menu, choosing Settings, Control Panel, and then Desktop Themes. If you dont care for the standard Windows look, try Baseball, Nature, Sports, Travel, or one of the many other theme options in the Themes drop-down menu. Themes include a screen saver, sounds, mouse pointers, Desktop wallpaper, icons, colors, font names and styles, and more. If you dont see Desktop Themes in your Control Panel, youll need to install it first from the Win98 installation CD-ROM. Within the Desktop Themes dialog box, youll see a preview of the themes wallpaper and colors, and you can click the Screen Saver button to preview each themes screen saver. Click the other associated buttons to see what they have to offer. For example, see what the mouse pointer looks like in different situations, such as normal, unavailable, busy, or working in background. You can also test the sounds each theme associates with various events, and you can check out the icons used for visual elements such as My Computer or My Documents. When you find a theme that fits you, click Apply, then OK. Bring the Web to the Desktop. With a click of the mouse, you can make your Desktop behave as a Web page. Right-click the Desktop and choose Properties to open the Display Properties dialog box. Under the Web tab, you have the option to view your Active Desktop as a Web page (meaning that you can subscribe to channels from the Desktop), use a single-click to open Desktop items, and add active content (such as a stock ticker) to the Desktop. If you decide to try the Active Desktop approach, you can return to this tab of the Display Properties dialog box to manage your active Desktop items, add new ones, delete old ones, or change settings. Set display settings. If youre not satisfied with your monitors current color or screen area settings, try the Settings tab of the Display Properties dialog box. (Right-click the Desktop and choose Properties to open the dialog box.) Use the drop-down menu to pick another color setting, such as True Color, High Color, or 256 Colors. Adjust the screen area by using the slider to choose 640 x 480, 800 x 600, or 1,024 x 768. Remember that the higher number of pixels you choose, the more information you can display on-screen. Customize folder options. Win98 offers several options for customizing the way in which many of your folders behave and respond. Go to the Start menu, choose Settings, Folder Options to open the Folder Options dialog box. Or, from Windows Explorer (where you most frequently manage folders), go to the View menu and choose Folder Options. Under the General tab in the dialog box, the first folder option is Web Style, in which the folders and Desktop look and act like the Web. For example, one click opens an item, and pointing to it selects it. In the Classic Style, folders and the Desktop look and act as they did in previous versions of Windows, where a single click selects an item and a double-click opens it. Or, select Custom, then click Settings to specify your own preferences for clicking, viewing Web content, browsing folders, and enabling an active Desktop item. Customize the mouse. Win98 lets you configure several mouse properties from within the Mouse Properties dialog box. From the Start menu, choose Settings, Control Panel, and then Mouse. In this dialog box, you can adjust the double-click speed, the function of the mouse buttons, acceleration and speed, pointer trail, and other such features.
The Taskbar Properties dialog box houses several customizable options for your Taskbar and Start menu. Customize the keyboard. As with the mouse functions, you can easily set preferences so that the keyboard responds the way you like. Choose Settings, then Control Panel from the Start menu, and then double-click Keyboard to open the Keyboard Properties dialog box. Within this box, you can control the character repeat delay and repeat rate as well as the rate at which the cursor blinks. Assign sounds to events. Make the hours spent in front of your computer a little less mundane by customizing the sounds Windows makes for different events, such as closing a program, exiting Windows, or receiving new mail. Go to the Start menu, choose Settings, Control Panel, and then Sounds. In the Sounds Properties dialog box, select a particular event, and then use the Name drop-down menu to choose the sound you want associated with it. Click the Preview button to hear the sound. You may use the Windows default sound scheme or you can opt for one with more character, such as the Jungle Sound scheme or a custom scheme of your own creation. Organize the Desktop. Windows is always ready to lend a hand when it comes to organization. Right-click the Desktop and choose Arrange Icons. You may then specify whether you want your Desktop icon shortcuts arranged in order by name, type, size, or date. Add Taskbar toolbars. The Win98 Taskbar has an amazing capacity for toolbars. Determine which toolbars appear on the Taskbar by right-clicking a blank spot on the Taskbar and choosing Toolbars. The Links toolbar adds the contents of Internet Explorers Links bar to the Taskbar. The Address toolbar places your browsers address bar on the Taskbar, enabling you to open Web sites from the Taskbar. Choosing BatteryScope or PowerPanel places information about your battery or shortcuts for Idle, Suspend, Hibernate, and Video Off modes on your Taskbar. The Desktop option puts your Desktop shortcuts in toolbar button form on the Taskbar, and the Quick Launch toolbar places your open applications as buttons on the toolbar so you can conveniently navigate between them. Finally, choosing New Toolbar lets you specify any folder or Internet address you want to incorporate as a Taskbar toolbar. Rearrange and resize Taskbar toolbars. With multiple toolbars residing on the Taskbar, you might decide that you could be more productive if they were arranged in a slightly different order. To move a toolbar, simply click the short vertical bar at the left end of the toolbar and drag it to the desired position. Similarly, you may prefer certain toolbars to be larger or smaller than other toolbars. Grab those same vertical bars with your pointer and use the click-and-drag method to shrink or expand a toolbar. Cascade windows. Right-click the Taskbar and choose Cascade Windows if you want to organize all your open windows in a cascading, slightly overlapping fashion across the Desktop. This enables you to have multiple windows open and be able to easily access any one of them by clicking the title bar. Choose Undo Cascade if you decide you dont like the formation after all.
To remove items from the Start menu, use the options under the Start Menu Programs tab in the Taskbar Properties dialog box. Tile windows. Use the Tile Windows Horizontally or Tile Windows Vertically commands (by right-clicking the Taskbar to open the menu) to view all your open windows simultaneously by shrinking and stretching them to fit either horizontally or vertically tiled across your screen. Remember that tiling works best when you have only two to four open windows. Tiling any more windows than that makes the screen appear cluttered and results in windows that are really too small to work within. Choose Undo Tile when you tire of the arrangement. Minimize all windows. Right-click the Taskbar and choose Minimize All Windows for a fast way to minimize all your open windows down to Taskbar buttons. You can accomplish the same thing by clicking the Minimize button in the upper-right corner of each window, but if you have several windows open and want to minimize all of them, this is a welcome shortcut. Select Undo Minimize All to resurrect the windows back to the way they were. Taskbar options. When you right-click the Taskbar and choose Properties, the Taskbar Properties dialog box opens. The first tab, Taskbar Options, lets you make choices about the way the Taskbar behaves. If you choose Always On Top, the Taskbar remains visible, even when other applications are maximized. The Auto Hide feature dissolves the Taskbar into a thin line along the edge of the screen. It reappears only when you move the pointer over it. Select Show Small Icons In Start Menu to shrink the icons in the Start menu so they occupy considerably less space. Finally, select or deselect Show Clock to either show or hide the clock in the right corner of the Taskbar. Start menu customization. Start Menu Programs is the second and final tab in the Taskbar Properties dialog box. (Right-click the Taskbar and choose Properties to open the dialog box.) Under this tab, you can customize the Start menu by adding or removing items from it. Use the Clear button to empty the contents of the Documents menu and other personal history lists. (Choose Start, Documents to view the Documents menu.) Move the Taskbar. Click any empty portion of the Taskbar and drag to relocate it. The Taskbar typically resides along the bottom of the screen, but theres no reason it cant sit on either the left, right, or top edges of the screen. Simply click and drag it to the position you want. Resize the Taskbar. If youve added a few too many toolbars to the Taskbar, you can buy yourself a little more space by resizing it. Place your pointer over the top edge of the Taskbar until the large arrow turns into a double-sided arrow. Click and drag it upward to stretch the Taskbar to twice its original size. Rearrange Start menu items. Not only can you add and remove items from the Start menu, but you can also rearrange the items within it, shuffling them around to best suit your productivity needs. Click the program or folder you wish to move and then drag it to the desired location. As you drag, a black horizontal bar appears. When the bar is where you want to place the menu item, simply release the mouse button to drop the item there. The only Start menu items you cannot rearrange are the standard ones such as Programs, Favorites, Documents, Settings, Find, Help, and Run. Customize folder viewing. When you are in either My Computer or Windows Explorer, you may wish to customize the style and order in which your folders and their contents appear. From either location, go to the View menu. Here, youll find the option to view items with large icons or small icons, depending on the amount of space you have available. Alternately, you can view them in list form or with details, such as the size, type, and date last modified. Additionally, you may choose to arrange icons in order of name, date, size, or type. (In My Computer, you can arrange them in order of free space or drive letter, too.) Once you have Win98 customized the way you like it, youll feel more at home in front of your computer and probably also be more productive. by Hannah Henry Key Points  Customize the appearance of Windows by changing such things as the wallpaper and screen saver or choosing a Desktop theme.  Customize the way Windows behaves or responds by setting preferences that make it act like the Web or by controlling settings for the mouse, keyboard, or sound effects.  Customize Windows for your own productivity and organization when you tweak things such as the Taskbar, the toolbars, and the Start menu.

Set Your PC To The Ultimate Settings Get The Best Results From Your System, Monitor, Modem, Drives & More

 Control Your Display. The monitor, sometimes referred to as a display, serves as the window through which you can observe the actions of your computer. When the display settings are not configured properly, its like youre looking through a dirty window. Images may appear distorted and fuzzy, or you may not see anything at all. By configuring the display settings properly, you effectively wipe the window clean so that you get the best view possible. Youll find the majority of the display settings in the Display Properties dialog box. You can access it indirectly through the Control Panel (open the Start menu, highlight Settings, select the Control Panel option, and click the Display icon) or directly by right-clicking a blank area on the Desktop and choosing the Properties option from the resulting pop-up menu. Either way, the Display Properties dialog box will appear on-screen.

 By default, the Display Properties dialog box in Windows contains several tabs. Windows 95 has four: Background, Screen Saver, Appearance, and Settings. Windows 98, on the other hand, features these four, plus Effects and Web, for a total of six. The actual contents of the Display Properties dialog box vary from one computer to the other, however, depending on your PCs graphics card and monitor. If your PC is equipped with a TV tuner card, for instance, the Display Properties dialog box also might contain a Panning tab for adjusting the on-screen perspective, or it might contain an Adjustments tab that has controls for repositioning the picture on the monitor screen. Although all the tabs and settings are important, the ones on which well focus most of our attention are Web and Settings.

 Web. The Web page lets you configure your Desktop as an active Web page (called the Active Desktop), meaning you can have live hyperlinks on-screen at all times. These links let you directly access the online information you need conveniently from the Desktop. Of course, the Active Desktop only works when the PC is connected to the Internet. For this reason, youll get maximum benefits from this setting if you have a permanent connection, such as through a cable modem, DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), or direct leased line. To set up the Active Desktop, click the View My Active Desktop As A Web Page option. You then can add hyperlinks to the Desktop by clicking the New button and following the instructions provided by the New Active Desktop Item Wizard.

 Settings. The Colors and Screen Area settings, both of which are under the Settings tab, are arguably the two most important graphics settings on your PC. These settings let you specify the amount of color and detail you want in your on-screen images, so getting this configuration right is crucial. Settings that are too low will cheat you out of the viewing quality you should be getting. Conversely, settings that are too high will overtax system memory and impede performance. As a rule, the Colors setting is determined by graphics card specifications, and the Screen Area setting is determined by the size of the monitor.

 The Colors setting tells you how many different colors can display on-screen. To configure this setting correctly, you must know the graphics cards bit specification and how much on-board memory it has. The bit specification indicates how many bits (individual pieces of data) the card uses to describe each color. A 24-bit graphics card, for instance, uses 24 bits of data to describe each color, while an 8-bit graphics card uses only eight bits of data to describe each color. Most graphics cards have a bit specification of 8, 16, 24, or 32 bits. The more, the better.

 The philosophy of more is better holds true for video memory. You need plenty of on-board memory if you want to look at numerous colors, and 8MB of video memory is more than enough to satisfy all the graphics demands of the average user. Fortunately, most graphics cards sold today come equipped with far more than that. Read the users manual to learn how much memory is built into your graphics card. Once youve determined both the amount of video memory installed on your graphics card and the bit specification of the graphics card, you can figure out which Colors setting you should use. Refer to the sidebar How Many Colors Can You See for details about selecting the best Colors configuration for your PC.

 When youre done with the Colors setting, its time to configure the Screen Area setting. This essentially defines how many pixels (dots of light) will be used to create each on-screen image. A Screen Area setting of 800 x 600, for example, means that the images will be created on a matrix that is 800 pixels wide and 600 pixels deep. The clarity and definition of an image will depend on the number of pixels used to create it. But from this information, you might assume that you would want the highest Screen Area setting possible; this isnt the case. As you increase the size of the Screen Area, on-screen images get smaller. This happens because the number of pixels used to create each image often remains the same regardless of the screen resolution. Consider the example of a square icon that has an area of 400 pixels by 300 pixels.

This icon, when viewed on a monitor that has a Screen Area setting of 640 x 480, would consume most of the viewable area. When the same square icon is viewed on a monitor that has a Screen Area setting of 1,600 x 1,200, however, the icon consumes only a quarter of the screen. For this reason, you should select a Screen Area setting based on the size of the monitor, not on the monitors advertised maximum resolution. To find out the ultimate Screen Area setting for your monitor, see the Optimum Screen Area Settings sidebar. Beyond the Colors and Screen Area settings, you should also look at the refresh rate (a measurement of how often an on-screen image is redrawn per second) setting while you have the Settings tab open. You can access this setting by clicking the Advanced or Advanced Properties button to open the dialog box for the specified display properties.

When this box opens on-screen, click the Adapter tab and locate the Refresh Rate setting. This should be set to Adapter Default. If it isnt, make sure your graphics adapter is listed properly at the top of this page and then set the Refresh Rate to Adapter Default. If you must set the refresh rate manually, choose a refresh rate of 75Hz (hertz; cycles per second). You should never use a refresh rate of more than 85Hz. Finally, you should familiarize yourself with one other advanced display setting that can make a significant difference in system performance. This is the hardware acceleration setting, and youll find it by clicking the Performance tab in this same dialog box for specified display properties.

The Hardware Acceleration sliding marker under this tab determines the speed of the accelerator (a special-purpose processor) on your graphics card. By default, it should be set to Full. If it isnt, you may notice such problems as dialog boxes and e-mail messages not displaying properly. Move the sliding marker to the Full position.

 Speed Up The Drives. Getting optimal performance from your storage drives is essential if you want your system to run at its best. Windows gives you several drive settings that help you maximize performance. Most of the settings deal with the way Windows reads (accesses) data from the drives. Basically, you dont want the processor to wait for data. That slows down overall system speed. But you dont want the processor getting deluged with data, either. That can lead to a system lock-up as the processor tries to sort things out. Hard drive. Windows offers two basic hard drive settings: one for read-ahead optimization and one for virtual memory.

The read-ahead optimization setting, which determines how much data Windows will read when loading data sequentially, can be accessed by opening the System Properties dialog box (right-click My Computer and select Properties from the resulting pop-up menu), clicking the Performance tab, and clicking the File System button. When the File System Properties dialog box appears on-screen, click the Hard Disk page tab. You want the Read Ahead Optimization setting to be set at Full, which means Windows will access 64KB (kilobytes) of data at a time, thereby optimizing system speed.

 The virtual memory setting defines the relationship between the hard drive and system memory. Under normal operating conditions, system memory will transfer some data to a reserved portion of the hard drivethis is known as the virtual memory areauntil the data is needed. You can let Windows dictate the size of the virtual memory area or you can manually control the virtual memory area on your own. We recommend that you let Windows do it. To check this setting, click the Virtual Memory button under the Performance tab of the System Properties dialog box. The Let Windows Manage My Virtual Memory Settings option should be active.

 CD-ROM drive. For peak CD-ROM drive performance, you want to focus your efforts on the supplemental cache. The supplemental cache is an area in the memory where data from a disc is stored temporarily until the processor can get to it. The cache improves drive performance by allowing the processor to access the data directly from system memory, which is fast, rather than from the disc drive, which is not quite as fast as system memory. You want to ensure that your system has a large supplemental cache.

To access this supplemental cache setting, click the CD-ROM tab in the File System Properties dialog box. Make sure the sliding marker next to Supplemental Cache Size is set to the Large position. At the bottom of the page, you can see just how much physical memory is reserved for the supplemental cache. This number shouldnt exceed the amount of total system memory. You also should set the Optimize Access Pattern For setting to the option that best matches your drive specifications. The default setting is Quad-Speed Or Higher.

 Backup storage drives. Youll fine the lone system setting that pertains to backup storage drives by clicking the Removable Disk tab in the File System Properties dialog box. The setting under this tab gives you the option of enabling write-behind caching. Write-behind caching, which is also called write-back caching, refers to the process of holding small amounts of data temporarily in memory until a sizeable amount has accumulated there. The entire mass of data is then transferred to the storage media at a time when system resources are readily available. Write-behind caching maximizes system performance by strategically timing data transfers that consume a lot of system resources. That means no more waiting while the system writes data to the backup drive.

 Unfortunately, write-behind caching carries some risk. If the system crashes, you will lose all the data contained within the write-behind cache. For that reason, you must weigh the value of your data against the value of getting a slight boost in system performance. If you deal with mission-critical data that is more important than any minor improvement in system performance might be, you should make sure that the write-behind cache option is not enabled.

Fine-Tune Online Connections. The primary factor that determines the quality of your Internet connection is the type of connection you have. If you have a 56Kbps (kilobits per second) analog modem, for instance, and you want significantly faster Web access, you need to upgrade to a cable modem, DSL, or some other high-speed alternative. No amount of system tweaking is going to improve your Internet access speed so dramatically. Nevertheless, you can get minor performance improvements from your modem and the rest of your system if youre willing to fine-tune a few of your PCs Internet-related settings. You can get to these settings either through the Control Panel or your browser.

Modems. In the Control Panel, double-click the Modems icon to access the Modems Properties dialog box. This box contains information about your modem or modems. Unless your ISP (Internet service provider) tells you differently, you should leave most of the modem settings in their default position. That holds true for the Port Settings and Advanced Connection Settings, as well as for the Connection Preferences and Diagnostics information. There are a few settings, however, that you might want to adjust for better performance.

To reach the first of these settings, click the Dialing Properties button. In the resulting Dialing Properties dialog box, locate the To Disable Call Waiting Dial option. If you have call waiting service, you should click this option so a check mark appears in the checkbox and then select a deactivation code from the corresponding drop-down menu. The most common deactivation code is *70. The deactivation code helps you maintain an active Internet connection even when you receive an incoming phone call.

 Before you leave the Dialing Properties dialog box, you also should make sure the Dial Using option is set correctly for either a tone or pulse dial. You can contact your local telephone company to find out what type of phone line you have. Enter any appropriate dialing prefixes in the To Access An Outside Line boxes, as well. Click OK when youve made all your changes. After you return to the Modems Properties dialog box, highlight your modem and click the Properties button. The only setting that you should modify in the resulting dialog box is the Maximum Speed setting, which is located at the bottom of the General tab page. The Maximum Speed should be set to the number that more closely matches and is greater than your modems maximum access speed. If you have a 28.8Kbps modem, for instance, then you should set the maximum speed to 38,400. Click OK to save your changes.

 Internet. The majority of your PCs Internet settings are concerned primarily with personal customization and security preferences that wont have a significant effect on PC performance. You can ignore these settings for the moment. The setting that most affects overall system performance is the one that specifies the size of the cache in which temporary Internet files are stored. This cache is actually a folder on the hard drive where the browser stores copies of Web pages and other Internet files youve accessed recently.

When you enter the URL (universal resource locator, Internet address) for one of the Web pages contained in the cache, the browser loads the cached page immediately instead of searching for its original on the Internet. In a way, caching is like making photocopies of a book at the library. The first time you want information from the book, you have to go all the way to the library to get it. Once you have photocopies of the book, however, you can get the same information without leaving home. Caching lets your browser stay at home.

You can check the cache settings in Microsoft Internet Explorer by clicking the Internet Options (or Options in older versions of IE) command, which is found in the Tools menu. Under the General tab, locate the Temporary Internet Files area and click the Settings button. In the resulting dialog box, check the amount of space dedicated to the temporary Internet files folder. Basically, you want to ensure that the cache is large enough to support your browsing habits but small enough to accommodate your other storage needs. A cache of anywhere between 50MB and 100MB should suffice.

 Users of Netscape Navigator can find the cache settings by opening the browsers Edit menu and selecting Preferences. Click the Advanced heading and then select the Cache subheading in the Categories field. Look for the Disk Cache setting. Navigator measures the cache in kilobytes, so you must adjust accordingly. If you want a 50MB cache, for example, you should set the Disk Cache to 50,000KB. You can disregard the Memory Cache setting. It determines how much Internet data is held temporarily in system memory and should be left at the default setting.

 Power Management. One of the best ways to tweak system performance is to devote a little energy to the area of power management. This is where you set the computer to go into low-power mode or shut down completely during periods of inactivity. These energy-saving settings can make a significant dent in your electrical bill. Indeed, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that these settings can help you conserve as much as 80% of the energy that would have been consumed under normal operating conditions. To access most of the power management features, open the Control Panel and click the Power (in Win95) or Power Management (in Win98) icon. The Power Management Properties dialog box will open on-screen.

 The power management options listed in this dialog box vary from one computer to the next, depending on the brand of PC, the type of operating system, and whether you have a desktop or portable PC. Regardless, search the dialog box for references to low power mode, sleep mode, hibernate, or standby. Wherever you find mention of these various power-saving modes, you should have the option of activating them. You also may have the opportunity to specify how much downtime (period of inactivity) must transpire before the power-saving mode will click in.

The Power Management Properties dialog box usually features power-saving options for the computer system, the hard drive, and the monitor. If it doesnt offer power-saving options for the monitor, youll have to get them elsewhere. Fortunately, you dont have to look far. Simply open the Display Properties dialog box and click the Screen Saver tab. Near the bottom of this tab page, youll find an area devoted to energy-saving settings for the monitor. Generally, its a good idea to activate all power-saving modes after 30 minutes of inactivity. The most notable exception applies to users who download numerous large files from the Internet. Many computers fail to recognize downloads as system activity. Consequently, the system may switch to hibernate mode when youre halfway through a 10MB download. If you frequently download large files, you should skip the power-saving modes.


\6 Display Settings

Changing Dspy and controls how images appear on your monitor screen. The two key words to know here are RES and color DEPTH. RES refers to the number of pixels that create the image on-screen. 640 x 480 is a basic res (640 pixels across the screen and 480 pixels from top to bottom), but the res can be much higher. Color-DEPTH refers to how many colors are used to display the images that appear on-screen. The setting of 256 colors is a rather low color depth. The 65,500 colors setting (known as 16-bit) is more common, but the 16.7 million colors setting (24-bit or true color) is also used frequently.

Higher res and color settings make the images on-screen appear more lifelike but require more system resources. Some programs, such as spreadsheets, don't require high color settings, and word procs typically don't need high res. DOS and W31 are somewhat restricted in their ability to use these settings, but you can still change them. W9x, on the other hand, offers much greater control of your display settings.

DOS 6.22 is not an o/s known for its aesthetic appeal. But even dour old DOS can provide a little flash if you know a few choice keystrokes and commands. You may need to make a mods to your Config.sys file before you can kick DOS up a notch, however. In order to implement the changes the CONIG.SYS file must include the Ansi.sys driver.

Adding Ansi.sys to the Config.sys file is not hard to do. BU the file before you make any changes. Then, add the foll line: C:\dos\ansi.sys - Save the file, and reboot. Ansi.sys should be loaded and ready to go.

DOS is rather limited when it comes to res because graphical features are not a major aspect of DOS. However, you can change the res (to a certain degree) by using the PROMPT command, followed by the Escape character ($E), followed by a number that represents a given resolution. It will look something like this: prompt $E[=1h$P$G

In this example, we changed the resolution to color text, with 40 char per line (a rather light res). We use the letter h to terminate the command. (In addition, you have to end the command with the $P$G char.) Here are some of the res you can use, along with their corresponding code numbers: 1=color text, 40 x 25 (40 char per line) 3= color text, 80 x 25 4=4 colors, 300 x 200 6=2 colors, 640 x 200 14=16-color graphics, 640 x 200 18=16-color graphics, 640 x 480 19=256-color graphics, 320 x 200

So, if you want to change your DOS settings to 16-color graphics at a resolution of 640 x 480, youd type: prompt $E[=18h$P$G Experiment with some of the diff res until you find one that suits you.

The various Win ver are much more graphical than DOS. But changing the color depth and res in W31 is something one should do with caution. There are several diff settings avail in W31, but if you choose one that is not compat with your monitor, a driver conflict could lock up your sys. The on-screen image could also be greatly distorted. If either of these events occurs, break out your W31 install disks, because you'll have to reload your o/s.

So, before you start clicking here and there, find out what type of monitor you have, what color depths and res it supports, and whether it is video graphics array (VGA) or super video graphics array (SVGA). (The vast majority of monitors out there should at least support VGA, but many also support SVGA.)

To change your monitor settings in Win3.1, double-click the Main icon, then double-click the Windows Setup icon. The first line should state what setting youre currently using for your monitor (such as VGA, SVGA, EGA, etc.). Click Options in the Menu bar and choose Change System Settings. Click the down arrow for the Display drop-down list, and youll see several different drivers, each corresponding to the different colors and resolutions that are available. Click the monitor setting you wish to use, then click OK. You might be asked to insert a Windows diskette if a particular driver is not currently loaded. Once youve made your selection, the system will reboot, and the new settings will go into effect. Windows 95/98 Windows 95/98 (Win9x) is the most graphical of the operating systems we cover, and changing the color depth and resolution is simple. Right-click an empty part of the Desktop, then click Properties from the pop-up menu. Click the Settings tab in the Display Properties dialog box that opens. Youll see a sliding bar labeled Screen Area in the bottom right, which controls the resolution . Move the sliding bar to the left to reduce the resolution and move it to the right to increase the resolution. Youll see the resolution settings change as you move the sliding bar. Once you have the resolution you want, click the Apply button. A message will appear stating that Windows is resizing your Desktop. Click the OK button. The new resolution will then take effect, and youll have the option of keeping the new setting or reverting to the old one. You can also change the color depth in the Display Properties dialog box. Again, click the Settings tab. There is a drop-down list at the bottom left of the dialog box labeled Colors. Click the down arrow to see which color depth options are available. Choose the one you want by clicking it and then click the Apply button. Youll have to restart your computer in order for the change to take effect. If you want to use the true-color setting (24- or 32-bit), make sure your video card and monitor are equipped to handle it. Renaming Files, Folders & Directories Maybe you mistyped the name of a file when you created it. Or, perhaps you changed a file, and its name is no longer indicative of its nature. Or, maybe you think a folder named MISSIVES simply sounds cooler than LETTERS. Whatever the reason, changing the name of files, folders, and directories is a simple skill that youll use often. Its easy to do in any of the following operating systems, and it takes just a few seconds. MS-DOS 6.22 To rename a directory in DOS, youll have to use the MOVE command, curious as that may sound. Dont worry, the directory isnt going anywhere. Type move, followed by the name of the old directory (including its root directory), and follow that up with the name of the new directory. For example, if you want to change the name of your LETTERS directory to MISSIVES, type the following: move c:\letters c:\missives The only thing to remember when renaming a directory in DOS is that you cannot rename the directory that youre currently in. So, if youre in the LETTERS directory, type cd\ to move up a notch in the directory, and then rename it. Renaming a file in DOS is somewhat different. First, you have to make sure youre in the directory in which the file resides. Otherwise, youll get one of DOSs lovely error messages. Use the REN command to rename a file. Type ren at the prompt, followed by the current file name, followed by the new file name: ren newletter.txt oldletter.txt Be sure to include the three-letter file extension (.TXT or .EXE, for example) when you rename the file. Windows 3.1 Renaming files in Win3.1 involves delving into Win3.1s File Manager. Double-click the Main icon in Program Manager, then double-click File Manager.
The File Manager window consists of a right and left pane. Click through the directories in the left pane to find the directory that contains the file that you want to change. The file should appear somewhere on the right side of the window. Highlight the file by clicking it. Next, click File in the menu bar, then click Rename. This opens a text box in which you can type the new name of the file in the bottom line (the current name of the file appears in the top line). Make sure you use the appropriate file extension (last three letters after the period in the file name). Click the OK button after you type in the new name. The new name will appear in the File Manager window. You can use the same method to change a directorys name. Again, double-click the Main icon, then double-click File Manager. Click through the directories on the left side to find the directory you want to rename. Click the directory to highlight it. Then, click File in the menu bar and choose Rename. Type the new name for the directory in the bottom line of the text box. (As before, the current name appears in the top line.) You dont have to worry about file extensions here, of course. Click the OK button, and youre done. The new directory name appears in the File Manager window. Windows 95/98 Changing the names of files and folders (Win9xs fancy name for directories) is very similar to that of Win3.1. Win9x uses Microsoft Explorer rather than File Manager, however. To open Microsoft Explorer (not to be confused with Microsoft Internet Explorer), right-click the My Computer icon and click Explore. The Explorer window is divided into two sections, much like File Manager. To change the name of a file, click through the folders in the left side of the window to find the one that contains the file you want to rename. When you find the folder, click it to highlight it. The folders contents, including the file you want to rename, will appear in the right side of the window. Right-click the file, and choose Rename from the pop-up box that appears. Then, simply type in the new name for the file and press the ENTER key. You can follow the same method to rename a folder in Win9x. Open Explorer by right-clicking the My Computer icon and choose Explore. Find the folder you want to rename by clicking through the folders on the left side of the window. Highlight the folder by right-clicking it (you can highlight it in either the right or left side of the window; either way will work), and click Rename from the pop-up box. Type the folders new name, press ENTER, and the folder appears with its new name. Moving Files & Directories Moving files and directories is another common skill and is easy in DOS and Windows. MS-DOS 6.22 To move a file in DOS, use the MOVE command (makes sense, right?). Type move at the DOS prompt, the name of the file to be moved, and the location you wish to move it to. For example, if you wanted to move a file named Letter.txt from a directory named NEWLETTERS to one named OLDLETTERS, you would type the following: move c:\newletters\letter.txt c:\oldletters\letter.txt The file will appear in its new location. You can also rename the file when you move it, like this: move c:\newletter\letter.txt c:\oldletters\letter3.txt Moving directories in DOS has some restrictions. You can move a directory from a diskette to the hard drive, like so: move a:\letters c: However, you cannot move a directory from one place to another in the c: root directory. If you do, itll simply rename the directory, as we noted in the Renaming Files, Folders & Directories section of this article. Therefore, the command move c:\letters c:\missives simply changes the name of the LETTERS directory to MISSIVES and does not make the LETTERS directory a subdirectory in MISSIVES.
Windows 3.1 In Win3.1 just open File Manager and drag and drop the file or directory from its current location to the new location. Double-click Program Managers Main icon, then File Manager. Click through the directories on the windows left side to find the directory containing the file you want to move. Highlight the directory so the file appears in the windows right side. Click the file and hold down the mouse button, then drag the mouse pointer to the windows left side to the directory where you want to place the file and release the mouse button. A box will ask you to confirm that you wish to move the file to its new location. Click the Yes button, and the file will move to the designated directory. Move directories the same way. Double-click the Main icon in Program Manager, then File Manager. In the left side of the window, click the drive icon or directories holding the directory youll move. The directory you designated (to move) should appear on the right side. Click the directory and hold down the mouse button while you drag the pointer to the left side and place it on the drive icon or directory where youll move the directory and then release the button. Windows 95/98 The process for moving files and folders in Win9x is almost identical to that of Win3.1. Right-click the My Computer icon on your Desktop and click Explore in the pop-up menu. This will open Microsoft Explorer. The layout of Explorer is similar to that of File Manager. The Explorer window is split into right and left sections. To move a file, click the directory (in which the file resides) on the left side of the window. The file will then appear on the right side of the window. Click the file and hold down the mouse button while you drag it to a folder on the left side of the window. This action moves the file to that folder. You can also move folders using this method. On the left side of the Explorer window, click the drive or folder that contains the folder you want to move. On the right side of the Explorer window, click the folder you want to move, hold down the mouse button as you move the folder to the windows left side to the designated drive or folder, and let go of the button. The folder now resides in its new location. Checking Memory New PCs have enough memory to run almost any program. Even so, we know that many readers are dedicated 286/386/486 users whose systems may not have several megabytes of memory. You can easily check your PCs memory. MS-DOS 6.22 DOS wasnt designed with a good memory. In fact, some users will remember how frustrating it could be to load a new program and get it to work properly without running into memory problems. This is because DOS typically tries to load programs in only the first 640KB of memory, called Conventional Memory. That doesnt mean memory beyond the first 640KB is totally useless; but before you can use that extra memory, its a good idea to know how much you have. Checking memory in DOS is a snap. Type mem at the DOS prompt, and a little table will show how much memory your PC has, and what type of memory it is. Several types of memory are listed: conventional, upper, reserved, and extended. Conventional memory is the first 640KB of memory used by your system. This is where a lot of the action in DOS takes place. Upper memory is an extra 384KB of memory, which DOS usually uses to control your PCs hardware. Reserved memory is the memory DOS is actually saving for hardware use. Extended memory is any additional memory beyond 1MB that is present on your system. All of these memory types add up to determine the Total Memory. You can also check out your systems memory by using the MSD command. Type MSD at the prompt and choose the Memory button. A map of your systems upper memory will appear. The amount of extended memory will be listed along the right side of the screen along with conventional memory. Add the two together to get your systems total memory. Windows 3.1 Checking the memory in Win3.1 is easy, but unfortunately, this operating system isnt likely to give you a straight answer on how much total memory is tucked inside that old beige box. Rather than showing you the total amount of memory you have on your system, Win3.1 simply tells you how much free memory is available. Heres a quick way to see how much room you have in your systems memory. Click Help in Program Managers menu and then click About Program Manager. In the bottom of the box that opens, youll see Memory listed, which shows the amount of available memory your system has. Below that is the percentage of how much free memory is available. If youre good with fractions and ratios, you can calculate an approximation of how much total memory your system has. There are other places, such as File Manager and Control Panel, where you can check your systems memory using the same method. Just click Help in the menu bar, then About File Manager (or Control Panel, etc.) Youll notice that, when you check the system memory in one of these places, the amount will be slightly less than the quantity of free memory displayed in Program Manager. Windows 95/98 Win9x users can easily get a no-nonsense answer about a PCs random-access memory (RAM). Simply right-click the My Computer icon and choose Properties. Look at the bottom of the dialog box, where it says Computer. It will list a few details, including how much RAM is installed on the system. Itll say something like 32.0MB RAM. You also can check memory through the Control Panel. Click the Start button, Settings, and then Control Panel. Double-click the System icon, and youll get the dialog box you did with My Computer.

\7 Common Win95 Error Messages Free Your Data From Risk By Following Our Guidelines Fortunately, you can minimize the inconvenience caused by those pesky Windows 95 error messages. Well tell you about some of the most common Win95 error messages and show you how to recover from them without putting your data at unnecessary risk.

Error Message: Missing Shortcut Occurs When . . . you try to open a shortcut on the Desktop or Start Menu. Solution: First, you need to determine the name and location of the file or application associated with the shortcut. You can do that by accessing the shortcuts Properties dialog box. If youre dealing with a Desktop shortcut, right-click the icon on the Desktop and then click Properties from the resulting pop-up menu. If, on the other hand, its a shortcut on the Win95 Start menu, you need to open the Start menu, select the Settings option, and click the Taskbar command. In the resulting Taskbar Properties dialog box, click the Start Menu Programs tab and click the Advanced button. The Exploring window will open on-screen. Locate the selected shortcut and right-click it. Click Properties in the resulting dialog box. Either way, the shortcuts Properties dialog box will appear on-screen. Click the Shortcut page tab. The name and location of the shortcuts associated file or application is listed in the Target field. This is the file or application thats supposed to open when you double-click the shortcut. The Missing Shortcut error message indicates that the application or file listed in the Target field doesnt exist at that location.

 To resolve the situation, you should see if the target file or application exists somewhere else on your PC. Open the Find setting on the Win95 Start menu and select Files Or Folders. In the resulting dialog box, enter the name of the file in the Named field and then click the Find Now button. If the Find utility is able to locate the file, you have two options: either move the file or application to the folder listed in the Target field of the shortcuts Properties dialog box or edit the Target field so that it points to the correct location of the file or application. If the Find utility is unable to locate the file or application, then the file or application doesnt exist on your PC, and you should delete the shortcut that points to it. You can delete a shortcut by highlighting it, either on the Desktop or in the Exploring window, and pressing the DELETE key. Click the Yes button in the Confirm File Delete dialog box.

 Error Message: Windows Was Not Properly Shut Down. One Or More Of Your Disk Drives May Have Errors On It. Press Any Key To Run ScanDisk On These Drives. Occurs When . . . you restart your computer after shutting it down unexpectedly. Solution: Press any key on the keyboard to activate ScanDisk after the computer reboots. ScanDisk will check the integrity of the hard drive. Follow the on-screen prompts to save lost folders and files in a .CHK file. You also will be given the option of creating an Undo Disk, but you can bypass this step safely by selecting the Skip Undo option. Win95 will load when ScanDisk has run its course.

Error Message: Cannot Find File (Or One Of Its Components). Check To Ensure The Path And Filename Are Correct And That All Required Libraries Are Available. Occurs When . . . you try to open a file. Solution: First, figure out where the file is located on your PC. Use the Find utility to determine the location of the file. If the file is located somewhere other than where you expected it to be, you should move it. You can move it by highlighting it in the Find dialog box, opening the Edit menu, and selecting the Cut command. Open My Computer and then burrow through drives and directories until youve located the folder where you want to store the file. When youve located the destination folder, right-click it and select Paste from the resulting pop-up menu. If the file is located in the correct folder, however, you may need to deactivate the DDE (dynamic data exchange; a function that allows two active programs to share a common set of data) setting for the files associated application. To do so, double-click My Computer, open the View menu, and select the Options command. In the resulting dialog box, click the File Types tab. A list of file associations will appear in the Registered File Types field. Scroll through the list until you find the application associated with the file that spurred the error message.

 The Missing Shortcut dialog box refers to a misplaced or nonexistent file. To minimize the occurrence of this message, delete all associated shortcuts when you uninstall applications or delete files.

When youve located this application in the list, click the Edit button. In the resulting Edit File Type dialog box, click the Edit button. An Editing Action For Type dialog box will appear on-screen. Make sure the Use DDE option is not checked. If it is, click the option once to remove the check mark. Click the OK button to save your changes.

Error Message: A Filename Cannot Contain Any Of The Following Characters: \ / : * ?  < > | Occurs When . . . you try to save a file to a storage media. Solution: Rename the file, folder, or shortcut youre trying to save. Win95 only accepts names that consist of letters, numbers, spaces, and any alphanumeric character other than the nine listed above.

 Error Message: Spool32: This Program Has Performed An Illegal Operation And Will Be Shut Down. Occurs When . . . you try to print a document. Solution: You need to reduce the number of different fonts in the document youre printing. Each font you try to print takes up some space in system memory. If you overload the memory space with fonts, your PC cant process the data properly. For best results, try to limit the number of fonts you use in a single document to three or fewer. Not only will this minimize the occurrence of this printer error message, but it will also make your documents look more professional.

 Error Message: Insufficient Memory Occurs When . . . youre simply starting or using your computer. Solution: Determine what caused the message  There are several different Insufficient Memory error messages that might pop-up on-screen. The most common occurs when you have too many open applications running on your system. Each application you open requires a small amount of system memory resources. If you have too many applications trying to share limited memory resources, youll spark an Insufficient Memory error message. The solution is to shut down the PC, let it set for 10 seconds or so, and then restart it. You can also receive this error message if your PC has an overabundance of memory. Win95 is set by default to support a maximum of 512MB (megabytes) of RAM (random-access memory). You can work around this issue if youre willing to edit the System.ini file. To access the system file editor from within Win95, you should open the Start menu, select the Run command, and type sysedit in the Open field of the resulting Run dialog box. All of the system files, including the System.ini file, will appear on-screen. If the Insufficient Memory error message prevents you from opening Win95, however, then you can access the system file editor by pressing the F8 key after booting (powering up) the PC. In the resulting menu, select Command Prompt Only. A command prompt will appear on-screen. Type edit system.ini and press ENTER to access the system file editor. Regardless of how you edit the System.ini file, you need to scroll through the list of its commands until you reach the [386Enh] section. Type the command MaxPhysPage=30000 anywhere in this section. This increases it to 768MB, the amount of RAM Win95 can support. Save your changes, close the system file editor, and reboot the computer.

 Error Message: The Device Has Been Disabled In The Hardware. In Order To Use This Device, You Must Re-enable The Hardware. See Your Hardware Documentation For Details. Occurs When . . . you try to use a hardware component. Solution: You should reinstall or upgrade the offending hardware component. Youll get this error message if the offending device and its associated software are not installed correctly. Loose cables, improperly seated expansion cards, incorrect jumper settings, and incomplete software installations all render a hardware device useless. If the reinstall doesnt work, then its time to see if the device is functioning properly. Install the device on another computer and give it a test run. If that doesnt work, the device is probably broken, and you need to get a new one.

 Error Message: Error Starting Program. There Is Not Enough Memory. Quit Some Programs And Try Again. Occurs When . . . you try to open an application.

 If you get an Invalid Page Fault error message when you try to open Control Panel, you should run the Extract.exe program to replace the damaged file that caused the error. You can use the Extract.exe program to replace any damaged or corrupt file on your system.

Solution: You might need to free up some space on the hard drive. When system memory gets full, your PC temporarily stores some of the data on the hard drive that would ordinarily be held in RAM. If the hard drive is too full, however, then the PC cant use the hard drive to retain overflow data, and you get the above error message. To minimize the occurrence of this error message, you should keep at least 10% of the hard drive empty at all times. Delete old data files, .TMP files, and unused applications. You also can increase the amount of free hard drive space by reducing the size of the Recycle Bin. You can do that by right-clicking the Recycle Bin and, in the resulting window, setting the Maximum Size Of Recycle Bin option to a smaller percentage of the total drive space. The default setting is 10%, but you should be able to get by with 5% or even 3%. If youre still getting this error message after cleaning off the hard drive and decreasing the size of the Recycle Bin, then its time to invest in a RAM upgrade. System memory is fairly cheap, so you should consider increasing the amount of RAM on your system to at least 32MB.

 Error Message: Explorer Caused An Invalid Page Fault In Module Kernel32.dll At <Memory Address>. Occurs When . . . you try to open the Control Panel. Solution: You need to repair the .CPL file that has been damaged or corrupted. You can do that by replacing the damaged file with the original from your installation disc or diskette. But first, you have to figure out which .CPL file has been damaged. Open the Find utility, click the Name & Location page tab, type *.cpl in the Named field, and then click the Find Now button. When the results appear on-screen, you need to double-click each matching file until you trigger the Invalid Page Fault error message described above. The .CPL file that sets off the error message is the file youll replace. Delete the damaged file by highlighting it and pressing the DELETE key. To replace the file you just deleted, you need to extract the replacement file from the appropriate .CAB file on the Win95 installation CD-ROM or diskette. Start by inserting the installation disc or diskette 1 in the appropriate drive. Open the Find utility and search the installation disc or diskette 1 for the Extract.exe file. When youve located it, open the Find utilitys Edit menu and click the Copy command. Next, open My Computer and double-click the icon representing your hard drive. Open the Edit menu in the resulting window and select the Paste command. The Extract command should pop up as a file on the hard drive. The Extract.exe program must be activated at a command prompt, so you need to open the Start menu, select the Programs setting, and click the MS-DOS Prompt command. In the resulting MS-DOS Prompt window, type the following line at the command prompt: extract /a <location of win95_02.cab> <filename>.cpl /l c:\windows\system So, if you are trying to extract the Mmsys.cpl file from the Win95 installation disc, you would type: extract /a d:\win95\win95_02.cab mmsys.cpl /l c:\windows\system Press ENTER. The Extract.exe program will search the .CAB files for the needed .CPL file and transfer the file to your hard drive. When complete, reboot your PC and try to open your Control Panel. It should open without a hitch. (NOTE: You may encounter problems running the Extract command within Win95. If so, you should access the command prompt from outside Win95. To do that, open the Start menu and click the Shut Down command. In the Shut Down Windows dialog box, select the Restart Computer In MS-DOS Mode option and click the Yes button. After the computer restarts, type the extract command at the prompt.)

Error Message: Fatal Exception Error Occurs When . . . youre performing regular computing functions. Solution: If possible, save your work. Next, reboot the system. Fatal Exception Errors (a.k.a. the blue screen of death) have numerous causes, including illegal instructions, invalid data, and invalid operations. Fortunately, you can recover from most Fatal Exception Errors by pressing the ENTER key, saving your work (save open files to a new location in order to mitigate potential data loss), and rebooting your PC. by Jeff Dodd

Key Points From the error message, determine the cause of the problem or locate its source. Search for a solution at Microsofts Knowledge Base by copying the error message and entering it in the search field at http://search.support.microsoft.com. Make a note of the problem and solution for future reference. In a perfect world, you would never lose money on the stock market, never get indigestion from eating too many deep-fried cheese sticks, and never see an error message on your computer screen. But alas, we live in a world of mortals and mistakes, where failed investments, greasy cheese, and the blue screen of death are all-too-common realities.
Eliminate Error Messages For Good Error messages may be a fact of life, but you can make them an extremely rare fact if you take a few preventative actions. Weve described seven such actions below. Run ScanDisk. Use ScanDisk once a week to keep your hard drive running smoothly. Hard drive errors can lead to inefficient performance; lost storage space; and corrupt data files, which are a frequent cause of error messages.

 Run Disk Defragmenter. You should try to run Disk Defragmenter at least twice a year. It will organize the data on your hard drive, thereby maximizing operating efficiency and minimizing the likelihood of data corruption.

 Use uninstall commands. The only way you can be sure to remove all traces of an unwanted application from your PC is to use the uninstall command or Win95s Add/Remove Software utility. If you try to delete an application without using an uninstall function, you risk leaving orphaned files all over your hard drive. Orphaned files are error messages just waiting to happen.

 Periodically reboot your PC. As you open files and run applications, system memory resources are gradually depleted. The only way to replenish the supply is to reboot the PC at least once a day.

 Maintain 10% of free space on your hard drive. If you dont keep 10% of the hard drive free at all times, you dont give your systems memory resources enough storage space to work with. This leads to insufficient memory errors. Let Win95 manage your virtual memory setting. Another cause of insufficient memory errors is an incorrect virtual memory setting. Virtual memory is an area on the hard drive where your system temporarily stores data that doesnt fit in RAM (random-access memory). To check that your virtual memory setting is correct, right-click My Computer and select Properties. In the resulting dialog-box, click the Performance page tab and the Virtual Memory button. When the Virtual Memory dialog box opens on-screen, make sure the Let Windows Manage My Virtual Memory Settings option is checked. If it isnt, click it so that a check mark appears next to it. Dont install unnecessary applications on your PC. Unnecessary applications clutter up your hard drive and increase the likelihood of encountering error messages. Unless you really need an application, dont install it.

 Decipher Common Error Messages Find Out What Windows Is Trying To Tell You We all know computers arent perfect. We understand that anything as tremendously complex as an operating system causes errors occasionally and that third-party applications have their problems, too. We can acknowledge that its one of the few frustrations we have to put up with so we can enjoy the many advantages of computing. But such informed acceptance is about the last thing that occurs to us when an error appears. We want justice! We want an explanation! We want back all that data we lost!
Theres no way to prevent errors from occurring on your system, but understanding a few things about them prepares for these unpleasant eventualities. The various incarnations of Windows are certainly not impervious to errors. Even Windows 98 (Win98), the latest version of the mighty operating system, will malfunction occasionally. Some errors are so severe that you only can reboot your computer and start from scratch. Most errors, however, arent quite so bad. They may cause the program youre using to shut down, but they wont shut down the whole computer. When you know what causes error messages and whether one is caused by the operating system or an application, you can cut down on the frequency of error messages and better fix errors when they appear. To further your error message IQ, we talked with Earle Roberts, software engineer for the Escalation Team at Microsoft, who is familiar with the mysteries of Windows error messages.

 Know The Source A good place to begin our study of error messages is by learning how to tell whether the operating system or the application youre running is causing them.

Application. If the error is application-based, the applications name will appear in the title bar of the error dialog box. These types of errors are runtime errors, which means they take place while a program is running and dont cause the program or the operating system to crash. Roberts says if a program name doesnt appear in the title bar, the application error is probably a little more serious and you may not be able to recover from it. The dialog box will contain a description of the error and may include a Details button that will clear up the errors cause. The information that appears may as well be Latin as far as youre concerned, but it will be valuable to a technical support engineer, if you have to call them. The first two types of information in the Details section are descriptions of the modules in which the error occurred. A module is a piece of code that runs on its own or can start a new process on its own. The first module is the one that actually caused the error, and the second module is the software the first module was trying to use or access. Part three of this information triangle lists the memory address where the error occurred. Memory addresses are often extremely long, but you dont necessarily need to record it if you plan to call technical support. They can be helpful to technical support engineers, but knowing the two modules involved in the error should be enough to speed up the technical support process. Operating system. Operating system errors come in two categories. The first is similar to the runtime error. Youll see a dialog box with a name in the title bar and a description of the error. Often, these dialog boxes include the Details button, which can give you more specific information on what caused the error.

Another, more serious type of operating system error creates a blue screen on your monitor, with a description of the error. You wont even be able to see your windows interface when this blue bomb occurs. A blue bomb occurs when data loss in a particular data packet, the block of data being transmitted, becomes so great the operating system cannot process any further information. This Blue Screen of Death is almost impossible to recover from. If you experience this type of error (usually containing the message Fatal Exception Error), about the only thing you can do is give your computer the three-finger salute (pressing CRTL-ALT-DELETE simultaneously) to reboot (well discuss this monstrosity in more detail later).

 Dr. Watson Some of Microsofts operating systems contain a special utility, Dr. Watson, that can provide information regarding more troublesome errors. Dr. Watson helps even if the error causes the program to stop responding. Youll receive the module information as well as the memory address, just as you would in a normal error message. Dr. Watson is built into Windows 3.1, Win98, Windows NT (WinNT) 3.51, and WinNT 4.0. If you want quick access to Dr. Watson in Windows 3.1, youll need to place the icon for it in a Program Group. To do this, open File Manager, find the Drwatson.exe file, and drag it into the Program Group of your choice. Dr. Watson does not automatically install with Win98 or WinNT, so youll have to set it up. Click the Start button and select Find and then File And Folders. In the Named field, type drwatson. Your version of Windows should find a few references to Dr. Watson. Double-click the file Drwatson.exe once Windows finishes searching your hard drive. Follow the instructions on-screen, if there are any, and youll have Dr. Watson running in the background watching for any errors.

 Common Problems, Common Cures Roberts says the two most common types of errors in Windows operating systems are page faults and protection faults. Page faults will occur a little more frequently than protection faults, which is good, because protection faults usually lead to the Blue Screen of Death. Page faults. Page faults occur when your systems memory crashes. Either a program is looking for something at a particular memory address and it finds the wrong thing there or it tries to put something in a memory address thats already in use by another program, Roberts says .

 One can usually recover from a page fault error. You may have to shut down the program, but thats about the worst that will happen. Protection faults. Protection errors are another matter. Hardware devices or their drivers cause these vicious errors that usually occur when you first boot up or shut down the computer. The most common protection error is the Fatal Exception Error, which signals the end of your computing session.

 You can use Microsofts Knowledge Base to find information on errors.

Fortunately, these types of common errors dont have to be a frequent part of your computing life. You can take several steps to prevent them. Roberts says, The single-most helpful thing is to keep your hardware and software straightened out. If youre the type of person who removes a program by highlighting and deleting it in Windows Explorer, stop it! Youre begging for errors to occur, especially page faults. Most of the program may be gone, but it will leave remnants that can interfere with your other programs. If you want to remove a program from your hard drive, check whether it has an uninstall option. Many programs include a native uninstall option that will (ideally) remove all the files properly. If the program you wish to uninstall is in your Program Menu (click the Start button, then highlight Programs to find it), highlight the program and see if it has an uninstall option.

 If the program you wish to uninstall doesnt include its own uninstall option, you may want to consider purchasing a third-party uninstall utility. These programs claim to safely and easily remove unwanted programs and unnecessary files without hassle. Norton Uninstall Deluxe, Remove-It 98, and Dr. Solomons Anti-Virus Suite are examples of programs that can take care of uninstalling for you.

 Another option, if you dont care to shell out a few bucks for an uninstall utility, is to remove unwanted programs with the Add/ Remove Programs utility, found in the Win95, Win98, and WinNT Control Panel. This shouldnt be your first option because it may still leave behind a few bits and pieces of the program, but its a better method than simply deleting a program in Explorer.

 Roberts also recommends using the Windows ScanDisk and Defrag utilities on a regular basis. If you run these utilities at least once a week, they should catch any stray files or other trouble spots on your hard drive, which will reduce the chances of errors popping up. Win98 also includes the Registry Checker, which automatically cleans up errors in the Registry (a collection of critical files that control the operation of Windows 98). It makes five backup copies of the Registry from your previous five computing sessions. If things get really bad, and you suspect a problem in the Registry, replacing your current version of the Registry with a backup may solve your problem.

 Call In the Cavalry Sometimes you run into an error message so cunning, so exotic, so unfamiliar, you have no idea what it means or how to fix it. Thats when its time to call in reinforcements. If youre a Win98 user, you should try to take advantage of its built-in Help features. Win98 has several troubleshooting guides that resolve specific errors in specific conditions. You can check out Windows 98s troubleshooting features by clicking the Start button, then Help. In the dialog box that opens, click the Contents tab. The last item listed should be Troubleshooting. Click Troubleshooting to expand this category. The last item in this list is Windows 98 Troubleshooters. Click it to see a collection of troubleshooting guides for various items, such as modems, DirectX drives, and Dial-Up Networking. Of course, not everyone is using Win98, so you may need to call upon other resources to find some information on a specific error message. Roberts recommends searching the Knowledge Base on Microsofts World Wide Web site (http://search.microsoft.com/default.asp), if you want to find more detailed information about a specific error.

 Roberts says much of the error-related information found in the Knowledge Base is exactly the same information used by Microsofts technical support engineers. You can use information from an error message as query words in your search. Having some detailed information about the error, will often produce a very detailed article about the exact error that theyre experiencing, Roberts says. The feature lets be your own tech support technician without spending time on hold or paying for a phone call.
The articles on the Knowledge Base are continually updated, so even if youre using newer products, there is a good chance you can find information regarding that product if its producing errors. Roberts, who reviews many of the articles before they appear on the Knowledge Base, says articles appear on the Knowledge Base two or three days after he finishes reviewing them. Its very current information thats available to everybody, he says.

 Having continually updated information available is a boon for most users, but there are some who stand by the tried-and-true products of yesteryear. Those who prefer the no-frills DOS and Windows 3.x operating systems to Win95 and Win98 probably wont need the very latest news to help them resolve their error problems, but theyll still find the Knowledge Base useful. It contains articles from the past several years.

 Of course, the disadvantage of having so much material available on the Knowledge Base is you may be inundated with too many articles when you perform a search. If you dont have the patience to sift through hundreds of articles at a time, its probably time for the last resort: a call to technical support. Many users dread calling technical support because of the long waits and cost. But when your quick-fix resources dont produce a solution, technical support is probably your best (and maybe only) bet. Roberts recommends recording the two modules involved in the error for the technical support engineer. That information should speed up the troubleshooting process. He also recommends you note any hardware you were using at the time the error occurred, as well as the specific task you were attempting to carry out. The more information you can give the technical support engineer, the faster youll be able to resolve your error problem.

Generally, errors wont cramp your style too much. Operating systems and programs alike are becoming more stable, as programmers learn better ways to make them work together. Programmers also are giving users a better chance to help themselves, through the availability of better troubleshooting tools. If you take the time to learn the source of an error, you greatly increase your chances of finding out how to prevent its recurrence. We dont foresee a magic, error-free operating system appearing anytime soon, so it pays to learn how to fix it yourself.

 Windows 95 Error Messages. Error Message:Protection ErrorSystem Halted Cause:This could mean a couple of things: either there is a serious configuration problem with your computer or there was a momentary glitch in the system. Solution:If it is a momentary glitch, you can simply turn off your computer and restart it. If it is more than that, for instance if you just installed a new disk drive that must be initialized on boot up, the drive may not be properly configured. To help determine the problem, press F8 during the bootup process and select Logged (\BOOTLOG.TXT) as the startup option. This creates a hidden file called Bootlog.txt. The file you created is hidden from the DIRECTORY command, but it can be seen with the EDIT command. The last line of the file will point you to the problem. You can then determine whether it is a bad piece of hardware or a bad driver file for that hardware.

 Error Message:The Specified Path Is Invalid Cause: The program name and/or path are incorrectly entered, or the file is in a path name that contains a space in the name of one of the parent folders. Even though the folder name is valid and accepted by Win95, this is a problem. This is a known bug in Win95. Solution: You can move the file to a path name that does not contain spaces or you can rename the parent directory a name that does not contain spaces.

\8 FAT32 permit larger partitions smaller clusters, manages hard drive over 1GB more efficently. However, FAT32 drives once converted cannot be undone except with third party PARTITION MAGIC.

FAT32 utilizes the FATs more efficiently than FAT16 switching to the 2nd FAT if the primary FAT is corrupted.

Estimates the amount of free space you'd get if you go 32.

FAT32 considerations Cannot format compressed drive Laptops and RHD shd not be FAT32 Bios must support LBA (logical Block Adrs) Cannot uninstall W98. Incompatability with NT or any other sys.

FAT32 & Drive Converter Building A Better Hard Drive
Its not a low-calorie diet plan or a new type of artery-clogging food substance. In fact, it has nothing to do with personal health. But FAT32 can do marvels for your hard drive. This is one instance where fatter is definitely better. FAT32, the latest version of the file allocation table (FAT) file system, promises to convert flabby and inefficient hard drives into mean, lean storage machines. It improves drive efficiency and allows users to work with larger storage areas. To understand how FAT32 benefits the hard drive, however, its necessary to understand how hard drives store data.

 A Bit About Storage. To illustrate the way data is stored on a hard drive, think of a hard drive as a huge warehouse with one or more rooms, hundreds of shelves, and thousands of crates. When a shipment of widgets is received at the warehouse, the widgets are placed into small groups that can fit into the crates. The crates are then stacked on shelves inside the rooms of the warehouse. Instead of rooms, shelves, and crates, hard drives are divided into partitions, clusters, and sectors. A partition, which is akin to a room in a warehouse, is an area on a hard drive that is treated as a complete storage unit. Partitions are often referred to as drives because each partition assumes its own identifying letter, such as C, which is called its drive letter. Each partition is divided into uniformly-sized smaller compartments called sectors, which are similar to the crates in a warehouse. Data is stored in groups of sectors, called clusters, which are similar to the shelves in the rooms of the warehouse. All the clusters in a partition are the same size, and each cluster can store a maximum of one file. Files that contain more data than a single cluster can hold are broken down into pieces and divided among a number of clusters. Although this system of partitions, clusters, and sectors is great for keeping a hard drive organized, it may not be very efficient. For example, lets consider a hard drive that has 32-kilobyte (KB) clusters, a fairly common cluster size for most drives. (A kilobyte is a unit of data measurement equal to a little more than 1,000 bytes). A 32KB file will fit just nicely within one of the drives clusters; an 8KB file, on the other hand, will leave 24KB of extra space in the cluster. Because a cluster can store a maximum of only one file, this extra space, which is referred to as slack, is not only unused, but also unusable. Consequently, if you have lots of 8KB files to store on your hard drive, you could fill your hard drive when it reaches a quarter of its capacity.

 The Long & Thin Of FAT. Solving this problem of storage inefficiencycutting the slack, per sehas been a goal of operating system developers for some time. The operating system determines the way data is stored on a drive, and the operating systems primary tool for putting data on a hard drive is the file allocation table. The FAT has two primary functions: First, it keeps track of the location, the size, the order, and the health of the data stored in the drives intricate system of partitions, clusters, and sectors. Second, it determines the size of the clusters. Tracking files. Every file written to the hard drive is recorded in the FAT. The FAT is a directory, similar to a telephone book, for the hard drive. When you tell the operating system to access a certain file from the hard drive, the operating system searches the FAT to learn where it is located. Then the head actuator positions the access arm over the appropriate location on the platter. If the file consumes more than one cluster, the FAT refers the read/write head to the position of each cluster that constitutes the file. As well as listing the location of each file, the FAT also keeps track of the size of each file and the order of the clusters that constitute the file (this is called the FAT chain). Clusters are specially marked if they are the first cluster or last cluster of a FAT chain, and each cluster points to the cluster that succeeds it, thereby maintaining the correct order of the clusters. In a five-cluster file, for example, cluster one would be marked as the starting point and would point to the location of cluster two, which would point to the location of cluster three, etc. This chain-like system of organization makes it easy for the FAT to locate a specific piece of data in a large file. Finally, the FAT keeps track of the health and availability of the clusters. Clusters that have been damaged or contain corrupt data are marked as bad clusters and are unavailable for data storage. When data is written to the hard drive, the FAT identifies the healthy clusters that are available for data storage and sends the data to the appropriate clusters. Clusters that contain data are marked as full by the FAT and are not able to accept new data. (When you run the ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter utilities, the bad and full clusters are identified for you.) When you delete a file from the hard drive, the FAT marks the corresponding clusters as empty and available, once again, to hold data; the next time you store data to the drive, the data might be recorded in those clusters. Cluster size. The other important function of the FAT is to determine the size of a hard drives clusters. This is an automatic function of the FAT, and users cant override the way FAT determines the cluster size. As a rule, the size of the cluster is based upon the size of the partitions, and the larger the partition, the larger the cluster. As drive capacity has ballooned in the past three years, so has partition size, cluster size, and the amount of slack on each drive.

Cutting The Slack. To cut the slack on a hard drive, it became apparent that operating system developers had to find a way to decrease the size of the cluster. For years, the general advice for cutting slack was to divide a drive into multiple partitions. You could, for example, convert a 1.5 gigabyte (GB) drive, which had 32KB sectors, into six 250MB partitions, each of which had 4KB sectors. This increased the efficiency of data storage, but it also became quite confusing to users who didnt want to deal with multiple partitions. (A gigabyte is a unit of data measurement equal to a little more than 1 billion bytes.) So Microsoft developed 32-bit FAT (also referred to as FAT32). Microsoft promised that FAT32 would cut the slackdecrease the cluster sizewithout increasing the number of partitions. And it worksvery well for some people. But to understand FAT32 and whether its a feasible solution for your hard drive, we need to put it in context.

 FAT was developed by Microsoft in the late 1970s. Originally, it was limited to hard drives that had capacities of 32 megabytes (MB). (A megabyte is a unit of data measurement equal to a little more than 1 million bytes). Remember, this was when most personal computers had 64KB of memory and no hard drive. This original version of FAT is referred to as FAT12 or 12-bit FAT because it used 12 bits to record each entry. In the late 1980s, as hard drives became more common and began to increase in size, Microsoft was able to push the drive capacity limit back to 128MB; a little later, the limit was pushed to 2GB. The FAT that made this possible was referred to as FAT16 or 16-bit FAT. DOS 2.0, which was released in 1983, was the first operating system to use FAT16. A variation of FAT-16, called Virtual FAT (VFAT), was released with Windows for Workgroups and Windows 95 (Win95). VFAT is most noted for using Protected mode, which allows the operating system to access all its memory. VFAT also is designed to support the 32-bit operating systems, to support 32-bit file access, and to support long file names. Until recently, FAT16 or VFAT has been the file allocation table most associated with the DOS and Windows operating systems. In fact, most computer users still run operating systems that conform to these standards. But FAT16 has begun to reach its limits as a file allocation table. For one thing, it cannot support partitions that have a capacity greater than 2GB. Back when 2GB drives were the daydreams of data storage developers, FAT16 was more than capable of handling the needs of any computer user. But now that 2GB drives are on the small side of the hard drive norm, FAT16 has become an inconvenience. Users with drives that are larger than 2GB must partition their multi-gigabyte drives into multiple partitions. For example, a 6GB drive must be partitioned into at least three partitions, each of which cannot have a capacity greater than 2GB. Partition size, however, isnt the only limitation of FAT16. The cluster sizes determined by FAT16 are very inefficient for todays computing needs. For example, partitions between 1GB and 2GB in size must deal with clusters of 32KB. (See the FAT16 & FAT32 Cluster Sizes chart for more details about the cluster sizes of FAT16). Users must choose between data storage efficiency and data storage, which can lead to dilemmas down the road. For example, users who increase their data storage efficiency by dividing a large drive into a number of smaller partitions run the risk of using clusters that are too small to contain some of the newest software. Users who want to deal with only one partition run the risk of filling their drive with a lot of slack.

Thats where FAT32 comes into the picture. FAT32 or 32-bit FAT was released on a limited basis in 1996 with the Windows 95 OEM Service Pack 2. Although it wasnt advertised as loudly as many of the other features that have been added to later versions of Windows 95 (Win95), it is being touted as a key feature of the Windows 98 (Win98) operating system. FAT32 offers two major benefits: It supports partitions up to two terabytes (TB) in size, and it offers 4KB clusters for partitions between 260MB and 8GB in size. (A terabyte is a unit of data measurement equal to a little more than 1 trillion bytes). That means you dont have to limit your drive to partitions of a certain size; an 8GB hard drive, for example, can be treated as a single partition with a single drive letter. That also means you get excellent storage efficiency; switching to FAT32 and its 4KB clusters can have the effect of increasing your drives storage space by 20% to 30%, possibly even more.

Drive Converter. The Drive Converter system tool that is built into Win98 allows you to convert your hard drives file allocation table from the 16-bit format to the 32-bit format. It performs the conversion without disrupting the data stored on the drive and without taking too much time. For many users, making the switch to Win98 is a no-brainer. Users who should seriously consider switching to the FAT32 format include those who have made the complete switch to Win98 and know they wont be switching back to Win95. have hard drives larger than 1GB. want to deal with only one partition.

Not all users will benefit from the FAT32 format, however. Those users who should not convert their drives to a FAT32 format include those who have upgraded to Win98 but may switch back to Win95 or their previous operating system. computers that run antivirus software or utilities that are incompatible with FAT32, especially if these users rely heavily upon these incompatible applications. hard drives smaller than 512MB and plan to use the Fdisk utility (Fdisk supports FAT32 only for drives larger than 512MB). vitally important data stored on the hard drive and have no means of backing it up. Although Drive Converter has proven to be a stable product, the possibility of data corruption exists. For a more complete list of factors to consider before making the switch to FAT32, see the Warnings About FAT32 sidebar.

 Making The Switch. If the conditions are right, and you decide to convert your drive to the FAT32 format, set aside a little time to perform the conversion. Although its likely the process wont take too long, Microsoft warns users that it could take a few hours. The length of the conversion depends upon the size of the drive and the speed of the computer.

1.Click the Start button on the Win98 Tool-bar. Select Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools. 2.From the resulting list of options, click the Drive Converter (FAT32) command. This opens the Drive Converter (FAT32) window. 3.This window contains a brief description of FAT32. For more information about converting your drive to FAT32, click the Details button to open the Windows Help window. When youve finished reading the information about FAT32, close the Windows Help window and click the Next button.

 4.Select the drive you want to convert to the FAT32 format. Your hard drive should be highlighted as the default selection. If your computer contains more than one hard drive, select the hard drive you want to convert. (NOTE: If the drive has already been converted to a FAT32 format, the word FAT32 will appear next to the drive letter, and you dont need to run Drive Converter.) 5. If you have antivirus software on your computer, you might receive a warning message indicating that the antivirus software could be incompatible with FAT32. Click Cancel to end the conversion, then check with the manufacturer of your antivirus software to make sure it is compatible with FAT32. If you know your antivirus software is compatible with the FAT32 format, click OK. 6.You also may receive a message indicating that you will be unable to access a drive that conforms to the FAT32 standards if you are running DOS, Windows 3.x, or Win95. Click OK to continue the conversion or Cancel to exit the conversion.

7.Drive Converter will check your system to see if your PC contains any utilities that are incompatible with FAT32. Most disk utilities, such as defragmentation and disk scanning utilities, support the FAT32 standard, as do Win98s built-in utilities, including the ScanDisk, Disk Defragmenter, Fdisk, and Format utilities. FAT32 also is supported by most software applications. If Drive Converter finds any utilities that are incompatible with FAT32, it will list them on-screen. You can cancel the conversion process at this point and check with the manufacturers of the listed utilities to see if they offer versions that are compatible with FAT32. If no utilities are listed, or if you are unconcerned about the fate of the non-compatible utilities, click the Next button.

8. At this point, Drive Converter gives you the opportunity to back up your files before converting to FAT32. We recommend performing the backup at this point; click the Create Backup button to start. If you dont have Microsoft Backup installed on your computer, you will receive a message indicating that you need to do so to complete the backup. Click the Yes button and follow the on-screen directions to install Microsoft Backup and perform the backup. You may need your Win98 installation CD-ROM to perform the installation. When the backup is complete, click the Next button to proceed with the drive conversion.

9. Finally, you receive a message indicating that Drive Converter must restart your computer in DOS mode. When you click the Next button, your computer will restart in DOS mode and begin the drive conversion process. Microsoft warns that the process could take a few hours; it may, however, take much less, depending upon the speed of your PC and the capacity of the drive being converted.
10.When the conversion is complete, the computer will restart, and you will be prompted to run the Disk Defragmenter utility. The defragmentation process may take longer than the conversion process, but it is important that you allow it to finish. Bypassing the defragmentation will significantly hamper drive performance. If you must bypass defragmentation at this point, run it as soon as possible to restore your computer to peak operating proficiency. After the conversion has concluded, you should experience no negative side effects, and you should notice that your hard drive has more free space available than it did before. Continue to run the Disk Defragmenter and the ScanDisk utilities regularly to maximize storage efficiency and maintain the integrity of the data stored on the drive. by Jeff Dodd
FAT16 & FAT32 Cluster Sizes

Here are the cluster sizes you will find on various FAT16- and FAT32-formatted disks. FAT16 Disk Size Cluster Size less than 127MB 128-255MB 256-511MB 512-1,023MB 1,024-2,047MB 2KB 4KB 8KB 16KB 32KB FAT32 Disk Size Cluster Size 260MB-8GB 8-16GB 16-32GB more than 32GB 4KB 8KB 16KB 32KB
Here are some things to consider if you use the FAT32 Drive Converter utility.

Dont use the Drive Converter utility unless youve explored the options and have decided that the benefits of converting to a FAT32 format outweigh the possibility of having to reformat your hard drive. Thats rightwe said the R word. The only way to restore a converted FAT32 hard drive to its original FAT16 format is to reformat the drive. Reformatting means youll have to wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall the operating system, all application files, and all data files. To save yourself some time in case the unthinkable happens, back up your entire hard drive before activating Drive Converter.

FAT32 doesnt support most drive compression utilities. If your drive is compressed, you probably cant use the Drive Converter utility. Check with the manufacturer of your drive compression software to see if your compression software is compatible with FAT32.

FAT32 is not supported by most other operating systems. If you convert a removable hard drive to a FAT32 format, you will be able to use that drive only with computers that run Windows 98 (Win98).

We dont recommend converting a drive to a FAT32 format if you have multiple hard drives installed on a computer and each hard drive runs a separate operating system. When youre running the non-Win98 operating system, you wont be able to access data from the FAT32 hard drive. Similarly, if you run two operating systems on a single hard drive, you wont be able to access the non-Win98 operating system after converting the drive to the FAT32 format.

Previous versions of the Windows operating system do not support FAT32, so you wont be able to uninstall an upgraded version of Win98 after you have converted a drive to the FAT32 format. To restore the previous operating system, you must reformat the hard drive.

Some disk utilities are incompatible with the FAT32 format. If you run non-Windows disk utilities on your PC, check with the manufacturers of these utilities before you convert your drive to a FAT32 format. Converting a drive to the FAT32 format could disable a computers hibernate feature. If you use a hibernate feature, check with the computer manufacturer before converting your drive to the FAT32 format. n

Do not use with DriveSpace or a dual drv PC where one is a FAT16 drv. Use only FAT32 utils Real mode dev drv may fail. 2GB is upper limit for VFat Cannot convert FAT32 to VFat OnTrack can be used but don't. Do not use Interlnk. Discontinue any SW that seems problematic.

Do not use with removable HD or laptops. No O/S other than W95 (Spec Ver) W98 can read FAT32. Only way to go backward is REFORMAT or use 3rd party SW.

Administering Security with Office Server Extensions Using Win NT Security with Office Server Extensions MS Office Server Extensions (OSE) use the built-in security mechanisms of Microsoft Windows NT to implement security on an OSE-extended web. When you configure security on an OSE-extended web, you must understand the Win NT security model. id, if you plan to assign per-user permissions to docs and folders, you must understand NTFS file system access control lists (ACLs). As a Win NT admin, you can assign a user diff levels of access to system resources. A user with a Win NT account must enter a user name and PW to gain access to a file share, printer, server appn, and so on. You can also define groups with multiple accounts and then assign privileges to many user accounts simultaneously.

Advantages of the NTFS file sys. MS Windows NT Server, Windows NT Workstation, and all versions of Windows 2000 support the NTFS file system. Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows 98 support only the file allocation table (FAT) and the newer FAT32 file systems to format disks. The NTFS file system offers several advantages over the FAT and FAT32 file systems, including: Fault tolerance Optimization of available disk space Advanced security capabilities, including access control lists and auditing Advanced security The NTFS file system contains advanced security features that allow you to set permissions on a per-file and per-folder basis, which is particularly useful in a Web server environment. OSE uses the file and folder permissions feature to control administration, browsing, authoring, and collaboration on your Web site. By using the Windows 95 and Windows 98 FAT and FAT32 file systems, you cannot set permissions on individual files or folders. Therefore, when you give a user access to a shared drive, that user can modify, rename, or delete any file or folder in the volume. As a deterrent to users who might modify a file, you can set the file to read-only, but any user can easily change that setting. You can use OSE without the NTFS file system, but the advanced security features are not available to you until you format a disk with the NTFS file system. Access control lists An access control list (ACL) is a list of accounts and permissions associated with a file or folder. You can give accounts the following types of access in a file ACL. This type of access in a file ACLPermits this access to the file NoneNo access to a file. Read (Windows NT 4.0) or Read Data (Windows 2000)View data in a file. Write (Windows NT 4.0) or Write Data (Windows 2000)Change data in a file. Execute (Windows NT 4.0) or Execute Data (Windows 2000)Run a program file. DeleteDelete a file. Change PermissionsChange permissions on a file. Take OwnershipTake ownership of a file. (For informational purposes, files are marked with a user account that owns the file. Owners also have all other permissions on the file.)

You can give accounts the following types of access in a folder ACL. This type of access in a folder ACLPermits this access to the folder NoneNo access to a folder. Read (Windows NT 4.0) or List Folder (Windows 2000)View file names and subfolder names in a folder. Write (Windows NT 4.0) or Create Files (Windows 2000)Add files and subfolders to a folder. Execute (Windows NT 4.0) or Traverse Folder (Windows 2000)Change to subfolders. Delete (Windows NT 4.0) or Delete subfolders and files (Windows 2000)Delete subfolders. Change PermissionsChange permissions on a folder. Take OwnershipTake ownership of a folder. (For informational purposes, folders are marked with a user account that owns the file. Owners also have all other permissions on the folder.)

See also You can convert an existing FAT volume to an NTFS volume without losing data by using a tool named Convert.exe, which is included with Windows NT.

 Creating a FAT32 Emergency Boot Disk Did you know that the Microsoft Windows 98 CD-ROM contains a program that you can run to quickly create a Boot Disk thats capable of creating and reading FAT32 partitions? The program is called Fat32ebd.exe and its located in the Tools\Mtsutil\Fat32ebd folder on the CD-ROM. Just place a disk in the floppy drive and double-click on the Fat32ebd.exe file. Then follow the on-screen instructions to create the bootable disk. When finished, we recommend write-protecting the disk to protect it from viruses.

\9 boot

To START from boot directly into DOS command prompt: make BOOTGUI=0 in MSDOS.SYS file.

 LOGO=0, no flying Win logo. BOOTDELAY=0 for no delay

BootMenu= 1 Normal 2 Logged 3 Safe mode 4 Safe mode w/NET 5 Step by Step 6 DOS prompt 7 Safe mode DOS prompt

BootMenuDefault=

W95, W98 SUMMARY

The Win SU pgm creates a file called MSDOS.SYS in the root folder with RSH attrib. Unlike the Msdos.sys file in MSDOS, this file is a text file. It contains a [Paths] section that lists the locations for other W95 files (registry) and an [Options] section that you can use to customize the boot process.

MORE INFO [Paths] section can contain foll settings: HostWinBootDrv=<Root of Boot Drive> Default: C: Purpose: Specifies the location for root of the boot drv.

 UninstallDir=<Root of Boot Drive> Default: C: Purpose: Specifies the location of the W95undo.dat and W95undo.ini files. These files needed to uninstall W95.

NB: This setting is present only if you elect to back up system files when prompted during the W95 Setup.

 WinBootDir=<Windows Directory> Default: Dir specified during Setup (for example, C:\WINDOWS)

Purpose: Lists the location of needed files for booting.

 WinDir=<Windows Directory>

Default: Dir specified during Setup (eg, C:\WINDOWS)

Purpose: Lists the location of the W95 dir specified during Setup.

 The [Options] section can contain the following settings and must be manually inserted:

AutoScan=<Number> Default: 1

Purpose: Defines whether or not ScanDisk is run after a bad shutdown. A setting of 0 does not run ScanDisk; 1 prompts before running ScanDisk; 2 does not prompt before running ScanDisk but prompts you before fixing errors if any errors are found.

This setting is used only by OEM Svc Rel 2 and W98.

 BootDelay=<Seconds> Default: 2

Purpose: Sets time the "Starting Windows" msg stays on the screen before W95 continues to boot.

NOTE: BootDelay is not supported in Windows 98.

 BootSafe=<Boolean> Default: 0

Purpose: A setting of 1 forces PC to boot in safe mode.

 BootGUI=<Boolean> Default: 1 Purpose: Setting of 1 forces the loading of the GUI interface. Setting of 0 disables the loading of the GUI interface.

 BootKeys=<Boolean> Default: 1

Purpose: A setting of 1 enables the use of the function key boot options (that is, F4, F5, F6, F8, and CTRL). A setting of 0 disables the use of these function keys during the boot process

NOTE: A setting of BootKeys=0 overrides the use of BootDelay=n.

BootMenu=<Boolean>

Default: 0

Purpose: A setting of 1 enables the Startup menu. If this setting is 0, then you must press the F8 key when "Starting Windows 95" appears, (or press and hold the CTRL key when your Windows 98based computer restarts) to invoke the Startup menu.

BootMenuDefault=<Number>

Default: 1 if the system is running correctly 3 if the system hung in the previous instance

Purpose: Use this setting to set the default menu item for startup.

BootMenuDelay=<Number>

Default: 30

Purpose: This setting is used to set the number of seconds your system will pause on the Startup menu. If the number of seconds counts down to 0 without intervention, the BootMenuDefault is activated.

NOTE: This option is not functional unless BootMenu=1 has been added to the [Options] section of the Msdos.sys file.

BootMulti=<Boolean>

Default: 1

Purpose: A setting of 0 disables the multiboot option. (For example, with a setting of 0 you cannot boot your previous operating system.) A setting of 1 enables the F4 and F8 keys to boot your previous operating system.

BootWarn=<Boolean>

Default: 1

Purpose: A setting of 0 disables the safe mode boot warning message and the Startup menu.

BootWin=<Boolean>

Default: 1

Purpose: A setting of 1 forces Windows 95 to load at startup. A setting of 0 disables Windows 95 as your default operating system (this is useful only if you have MSDOS version 5.x or 6.x on the computer).

NOTE: Pressing F4 inverts the default only if BootMulti=1. (For example, pressing the F4 key with a setting of 0 forces Windows 95 to load.)

DoubleBuffer=<Boolean>

Default: 0

Purpose: A setting of 1 is a conditional setting that enables double buffering for controllers that need it (for example, SCSI controllers). A setting of 2 is an unconditional setting that enables doublebuffering regardless of whether the controller needs it or not.

DBLSpace=<Boolean>

Default: 1

Purpose: A setting of 1 allows the automatic loading of the DBLSPACE.BIN file. A setting of 0 prevents the automatic loading of this file.

NOTE: Windows 95 uses either Dblspace.bin or Drvspace.bin if either is present in the root folder of the boot drive at startup. To disable a compression driver from being loaded at startup, use both settings in the Msdos.sys file. For example:

 DBLSpace=0 DRVSpace=0

DRVSpace=<Boolean>

Default: 1

Purpose: A setting of 1 allows the automatic loading of the DRVSPACE.BIN file. A setting of 0 prevents the automatic loading of this file.

NOTE: Windows 95 uses either Dblspace.bin or Drvspace.bin if either is present in the root folder of the boot drive at startup. To disable a compression driver from being loaded at startup, use both settings in the Msdos.sys file. For example:

 DBLSpace=0 DRVSpace=0

LoadTop=<Boolean>

Default: 1

Purpose: A setting of 0 does not let Windows 95 load COMMAND.COM or DRVSPACE.BIN/DBLSPACE.BIN at the top of 640K. If you are having compatibility problems with software that makes assumptions about the available memory try setting this to 0.

Logo=<Boolean>

Default: 1

Purpose: A setting of 1 forces the default Windows 95 logo to appear. A setting of 0 prevents the animated logo from being displayed. A setting of 0 also avoids hooking a variety of interrupts that can create incompatibilities with certain thirdparty memory managers.

Network=<Boolean>

Default: 0

Purpose: A setting of 1 means the network was installed and adds "Safe mode with network support" as an option on the Windows 95 Startup menu.

The Msdos.sys file also contains a section that contains seemingly useless information. This information is necessary to support programs that expect the Msdos.sys file to be at least 1024 bytes in length. For example, if an antivirus program detects that the Msdos.sys file is less than 1024 bytes, it may assume that the Msdos.sys file is infected with a virus. If you delete the Msdos.sys file your computer will not start.

The following statement, followed by a series of "X"s, appears in the Msdos.sys file:

;The following lines are required for compatibility with other programs.<BR/> ;Do not remove them (Msdos.sys needs to be > 1024 bytes).

Since each line begins with a semicolon (;), the lines are not read by the system.

How to Edit the Msdos.sys File If you want to change any of the values in the Msdos.sys file, follow these steps to edit the file:

Click Start, point to Find, then click Files Or Folders.

In the Named box, type "msdos.sys" (without quotation marks). In the Look In box, click your boot drive (usually drive C, or drive H if drive C is compressed). Click the Find Now button.

Rightclick the Msdos.sys file and then click Properties.

Click the ReadOnly and Hidden check boxes to clear them to remove these attributes from the Msdos.sys file, and then click OK.

Rightclick the Msdos.sys file and then click Open With.

In the "Choose the program you want to use" box, click WordPad and then click OK.

Make the changes you want to the Msdos.sys file. When you are done, save the file as a text document, and then quit WordPad.

Rightclick the Msdos.sys file, and then click Properties.

Click the ReadOnly and Hidden check boxes to select them to set these attributes for the file, and then click OK. Close the Find window.

Quit and then restart Windows.

Additional query words: Keywords : kbenv kbhw kbsetup kbtshoot diskmem win95 winboot win98 wpp95 Version : WINDOWS:95 Platform : WINDOWS Issue type : kbinfo


\10 PIFs

Understanding & Editing PIFs. Over the past 13 yrs, MS's o/s have evolved from DOS to W98. MS has done a pretty good job at ensuring that older appns still run on the newest o/s. While backward compatibility is not always poss, MS provides you with the tools to make it easier. The tool is the PIF, which facilitates the use of DOS appns in Windows.

In 1985, the first version of Windows arrived as a control panel for DOS, which let users enter commands using a mouse and icons without having to know and type the proper text commands. It was Microsofts first attempt at a graphical user interface (GUI, which uses icons and menus to carry out commands and can be operated with a keyboard or mouse) and a bid to counter the early success of Apples Macintosh, which introduced the use of GUIs at its launch the previous year. Subsequent versions of Microsofts soon-to-be-dominant operating system continued to be essentially point-and-click panels for DOS up through Windows 3.11. Despite the fact that Windows began as an extension of DOS, it nonetheless used its own set of system resources and software drivers (instructions that tell an operating system how to make use of a computers peripheral devices), and therefore needed some help interpreting how to execute an application native to the DOS environment. Enter the PIF. If you are running Windows and launch a DOS application, the first thing Windows does is run a quick search for the applications executable PIF (PIF files are easily recognizable by their .PIF file extension). The PIF then runs, giving Windows all sorts of vital information, such as the applications directory location, how much standard and extended memory the program requires, how much of the computers display space it requires, whether other applications can run simultaneously, and what shortcut keys control the application. Some older DOS applications do not contain PIFs, in which case Windows assigns a standard PIF, _default.pif, to the program. Whether the PIF for a DOS application is original or supplied by Windows, you can alter these useful files to make applications work the way you want them to. Since PIFs help Windows run DOS programs, DOS doesnt use PIFs, and therefore doesnt make use of a PIF editor, so well look at altering PIFs only in Windows. Windows 3.1 Windows 3.1s PIF utility is the PIF Editor. This aptly named tool is in the Program Managers Main group. You can access it by double-clicking its icon, which resembles a yellow luggage tag. The main PIF Editor screen is headed by three menus: File, Mode, and Help. The first two menus are fairly standard, but the Mode menu gives you the option of switching between PIF options for Standard and 386 Enhanced modes (386 Enhanced mode lets multiple applications run at once in either full-screen or windowed formats). To edit a PIF, click File, Open, and then choose the PIF you want to edit by selecting the proper directory and file in the resulting dialog box. The files current details will be ported into the appropriate fields. You can alter any of them to suit your needs. You will see four text fields directly below the menu bar, the first and second of which display the selected DOS programs basic information: its Filename and Windows Title. The third field lets you specify the applications Optional Parameters, including specific variables for commands given as the program executes, such as which files to copy or delete. The Start-Up Directory field lets the user tell Windows what directory to switch to before beginning this application. The Video Memory portion of the PIF Editor window tells Windows how much memory to set aside for saving the video screen when you switch to a different task. Memory Requirements identifies specific minimum and maximum amounts of standard, expanded (EMS), and extended (XMS) memory the system will need to run the application. You can change these settings to accommodate a space crunch if youre running low on system memory. Display Usage tells Windows whether an application must be run on the full screen or within a window, which uses more system resources but enables easier switching between programs. Clicking the Close Window On Exit box lets you shut down Windows without manually closing the application in question. By pressing the Advanced button near the bottom of the PIF Editor main window, you can bring up another window full of options which allows for even more custom configuration. The first section, Multitasking Options, lets you tell Windows how much processing time it should allocate to the application in relation to other open applications when it is in the Foreground (the highlighted window on top of any others) and when it is in the Background. This is accomplished by entering numerical values from 0 to 10000 in the appropriate boxes, where the higher value gets priority processing attention over applications with lower values. Checking the Detect Idle Time box tells Windows it can give other applications more CPU time if no keyboard or mouse input is taking place within the specified application. In the Memory Options section of the window, you can specify whether you want to let Windows swap portions of the applications memory use to temporary space on your PCs hard drive while using memory for other applications. Locking this option out will optimize performance of the current application, but may slow others down. The Display Options portion of this window pertains mostly to solving display problems when running applications on enhanced graphics adapter (EGA) or older monitors, and in most cases is not important. The Other Options section of the Advanced Options window lets you instruct Windows to Allow Fast Paste, which gives your DOS applications access to Windows Clipboard for cutting and pasting purposes. You can select Allow Close When Active, which lets you close the window your DOS application is running in without going into the DOS program and manually shutting it down. You can set aside combinations of prominent keys for use in Windows only in the Reserve Shortcut Keys section of the window by checking the box of the keys you would like to use. Boxes that are checked when you bring up the window are already reserved. You can create a shortcut specifically for use with this application by clicking the field next to Application Shortcut Key and pressing the combination you would like to use. Windows will let you know if your choice is invalid or is being used by another application. When you finish with the Advanced Options window, click the OK button and then click the Save command from the File menu in the PIF Editor window.
The Advanced Options window of PIF Editor in Windows 3.1 lets you configure how much access an application has to your PCs system resources. Exploring Files & Directories Many of the options within Windows 3.1s PIF Editor are rarely used. In fact, many people never have a reason to alter a PIF. But in the event you experience problems running your favorite DOS applications within Windows 3.1 its nice to know there are things you can do to help them run more smoothly. Windows 95/98 Windows 95 (Win95) replaced the PIF Editor program with a special Properties dialog box for DOS applications, which gives you many of the same options that were available in the PIF Editor, plus a few new ones. Windows 98 (Win98) uses the same system. To view and/or alter PIF settings in Win95/98, simply right-click the DOS application of your choice and click Properties. The Properties dialog box appears, with several tabs: General, Program, Font, Memory, Screen, and Misc. The General tab contains the file type, location, size, and MS-DOS name of the program; as well as the date of the file creation, last modification, and the last time it was accessed. At the bottom of the tab are the files attributes: Read-only, Archive, Hidden, and System. You can change one by clicking its box to select or de-select it. You can view or print read-only files, but you cannot alter them. Archive files are files Windows backs up when making a file-backup archive. Hidden files are not listed with other files under normal circumstances, which keeps someone from accidentally moving or deleting them. The System file box, which is often not selectable, indicates files that are crucial for proper operation of your system. The Program tab displays the programs icon and Windows name, as well as its command line, location, and directory. The Working field gives you the option to specify a place for programs that need to save data regularly to store the resulting data by entering the destinations path and directory name. The Batch file line lets you specify a batch file (a text file with DOS commands that execute as the file is read to save the hassle of retyping them each time) to run as the original application is launched. The Shortcut key field lists the shortcut used to select the application, and the Run portion of the tab lets you set whether the application will be run in a Normal window, in Minimized form, or as a Maximized window by selecting the appropriate command from the fields pop-up list. If you want the MS-DOS window to close automatically once the program closes, click the Close On Exit box. Otherwise the DOS window will remain open until you close it. The Advanced button lets you choose whether an application must run within Windows or MS-DOS mode, or whether Windows should suggest MS-DOS mode each time it is run. The Change Icon button is just what it sounds like, giving you the opportunity to choose a new icon for the application if the current one doesnt suit your fancy. The Font tab lets you select the font and font size of text within an application (including whether you want Bitmap only, TrueType only, or both) and gives a preview of what the resulting text will look like within a DOS-mode window. The Memory tab gives you the option of specifying how much conventional, EMS, XMS, and MS-DOS protected mode (DPM) memory the application will use. To adjust various display settings, click the Screen tab, which offers a usage section that lets you choose between Full-screen and Window modes. This section also gives you the option of selecting between default size and several initial window-size settings, including 25 screen lines, 43 lines, and 50 lines. The Window section of the Screen tab offers the option of displaying the toolbar within the application and indicating whether you want Windows to restore default window settings upon startup, in case the changes you are making are meant to be temporary. The Performance section lets you select or de-select Fast ROM emulation, which can speed up the display of your application using techniques found in read-only memory functions; as well as Dynamic memory allocation, which helps squeeze extra memory as needed to applications which use text and graphics. The Miscellaneous tab (labeled Misc) has several sections with various functions. The Foreground section lets you signify whether you want this application to allow a screen saver to preempt it during idle moments. The Mouse section lets you opt to use your mouse for cut-and-paste editing in your DOS application by clicking the box next to QuickEdit and clicking Exclusive Mode makes your mouse work exclusively with this application (clicking this box renders your mouse useless as a standard Windows pointer). Clicking the Always Suspend box in the Background section of this tab keeps Windows from allocating any system resources to the application in question when it is not active. The Termination section has a box labeled Warn If Still Active. Clicking this box will cause Windows to warn you if you try to close the programs window while the program is still running. An adjustable slide switch is in the Idle Sensitivity section, which lets you set the time Windows will let the application go unused before it lets other applications use some of its system resources. To let the program run idle for a longer time and retain its resources, move the slide toward Low, and vice versa. The Other section of the Miscellaneous tab lets you choose whether your DOS application can use Fast Pasting, which gives it access to Windows Clipboard for storing data between copying or cutting and pasting. The Windows Shortcut Keys section of the tab indicates combinations of shortcut keys reserved for use only with Windows; as in Windows 3.1s PIF Editor, you can tell Windows to ignore the shortcuts you want to use in your DOS application by clicking a checked box and clearing it, or reserve combinations that arent already reserved by clicking the box next to one of the shortcut combinations displayed. Exploring Files & Directories One of the cornerstones of effective computing is understanding the organization of directories, programs, and files on your computers hard drive and other storage devices. Insight into the placement of information within the sometimes enigmatic case that is todays PC can go a long way toward saving you time and frustration whether you are working or playing. Each of the operating systems we discuss every month in Basic Training is equipped with a utility that helps you grasp what you have and where it is. MS-DOS 6.22 DOS users can quickly get a handle on the data within their PCs by making use of the directory tree. To view your hard drives directory tree from the DOS prompt, simply type tree x: /f (x represents the letter assigned to your hard drive, and /f instructs DOS to display files as well as directories). When you press ENTER, be ready to press your keyboards PAUSE button; the list of directories and files is usually larger than will fit on one screen and goes by too quickly to read unless you let it know whos boss. Using the PAUSE and Down arrow keys, you can scroll down through the list of data items contained on your hard drive, with directories named at the left margin and file names offset a few spaces to the right. You also can add the /P switch to a DIR command to pause the display automatically.
The Windows 3.1 File Manager window displays graphically the organization of data on the chosen drive, which in this case is the PCs hard drive, labeled C:. For more specific information on the files in a directory, type dir x (dir is short for directory, and x represents the name of the directory you want to explore), and press ENTER. Once again, you may want to use the PAUSE and Down arrow keys to view the rapidly scrolling text at your leisure. The display of information on the files within the directory is in five columns, with the names of the files in the first column, file extensions in the second column, file size in bytes in the third column, the dates each file was last modified in the fourth column, and the times the modifications were made in the last column. Windows 3.1 Windows 3.1 improved upon DOS by introducing a graphical, more user-friendly way to keep track of files: the File Manager. This application is usually found within the Main window of Program Manager and is easy to recognize thanks to its file cabinet icon. To open the File Manager, double-click its icon. It is made up of a menu bar, icons representing each drive, and a split window with the main directory tree of the chosen drive on the left and the contents of each branch on the right.
The menu bar is standard Windows fare, including a File menu containing the usual complement of options. Disk, the second menu, contains commands for copying, labeling, and formatting diskettes. The Tree menu offers several options for customizing your view of the directory tree, including Expand One Level, Expand Branch, Expand All, Collapse Branch, and Indicate Expandable Branches. By expanding or collapsing sections of the directory tree you can broaden or narrow your view of the drives contents. The View menu contains more specific organizational commands that let you see the specific details of each file or sort the files. The Options menu lets you change the way the File Manager window is set up, including turning on and off confirmation messages that Windows offers when a file or directory is deleted, changing the font used in the window, and more. The Window menu is pretty straightforward, with commands that let you select the arrangement of the windows on your Desktop or the arrangement of the icons within the File Manager window. The Help menu is also standard issue. Whether you choose to use menu commands or to just point and click on the directory tree below, finding the file you are looking for is fairly simple, as is obtaining specific size, type, and date information about each file. And File Manager doesnt stop with finding and identifying files. With a quick point and click you can run applications found there, copy files to another directory or diskette, delete them, or rename them. Windows 95/98
Windows 95s Windows Explorer window shows where files are located within a selected directory, and in addition gives quick access to opening, copying, or deleting files. Win95 and Win98 replace File Manager with Windows Explorer, which is similar in that its window is made up of a menu bar and a split window with a directory tree on the left and subdirectory and file listings on the right. Windows Explorer, however, adds a toolbar beneath the menu bar that gives easier access to many of the menu commands and offers a pull-down menu of each drive and directory for point-and-click navigation. In Win95 and Win98, you can open Windows Explorer by clicking Start, Programs, and then Windows Explorer. Win95s menu bar consists of File, Edit, View, Tools, and Help. The File menu offers basic Win95 commands including New, Create Shortcut, Delete, Rename, Properties, and Close, none of which are unique to Windows Explorer. The Edit menu is also just what youd expect if you are familiar with Win95, containing the commands Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Paste Shortcut, Select All, and Invert Selection, which reverses which items are selected in the window. The View menu lets you customize your Explorer window by adding or removing toolbars, changing the way icons display within the window, etc. The Tools command offers the option of using the Find command (also found on the Start menu) to locate a file or folder, and Go To, which lets you enter a path and file name to open a folder. The Help menu contains Help Topics for Windows Explorer, and the About command brings up information on your version of Windows. Win98s Windows Explorer is similar, but incorporates Go and Favorites menus into the menu bar, which facilitate navigation of the Internet from the Windows Desktop. Win98s Tools menu also omits the Go To command and includes two commands that pertain to use within a network of computers: Map Network Drive and Disconnect Network Drive. As in File Manager, finding and even opening files within Windows Explorer is a matter either of using the menu commands or of pointing at the directories or files you want to view or open and clicking them.

\11 HKEY

ASCII DB created during W95 install of all system defaults and properties for all devices, files, folders, and other resources. It replaces autoexec, config, and W3x ini files. specific files are USER.DAT, SYSTEM.DAT, and optionally CONFIG.POL.

semicolon ; in front of line/stmnt, nulls it. It is composed of six root sections, Key=DIR.

 Key Pane Split Bar Contents Pane
 Value Name/Data HKEY_SectionName HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT Mstr/Global HKEY_CURRENT_USER Mstr/Global HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Curr user/HW HKEY_USERS  Curr user/HW HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG Curr user/HW HKEY_DYN_DATA Dynamic

Two of these keys are defined as mstr keys, and each derives its contents from its own hid reg file. Altho these mstr Hkeys may contain data for several HW cfgs and 1 or 2 users, only one of ea cfg can be enabled at a time. Ergo, the mstr Hkeys write the appropiate data into three other Hkeys every time W95 opens. The choice of which HW data to write into a derived key is decieded as W95 detects the curr HW cfg as it opens. The cgg for the curr user is determined as a user enter his PW or defaults.

The 6th Hkey contents are derived from Sys RAM at every BOOT and is neither copied from/to any other key.

"String data" (Value not set) Binary data xx DWORD Double word 0x00000123 (123)

HKEY_Classes_Root (HKCR) stores info/data on file types,ext,and actions performed on files. Its also an alias for HKEY_Local_Machine\software\classes.

HKEY_Current_User (HKCU) Info on curr user, dspy preferences, and customizations. Its an alais for HKEY_Users\default.

HKEY_Local_Machine (HKLM) Similar to HKCU except its info on the machine instead of the user.

HKEY_Users contains info on all users in general and the curr logged on user in particular.

HKEY_Current_Config contains list of curr installed hardware. Alias for HKLM\CONFIG\0001. If key in HCC, it immediatly appears in HKLM\CONFIG\0001.

HKEY_Dyn_Data Holds config & performance stats. Unlike other keys, values can't be changed. The info is gathered on the fly and appear here when needed.

Windows Super Guide June 2000 Vol.6 Issue 6 Change The Win95 Registry Let This Robust Resource Work For You

Microsofts Windows 95 Resource Kit states, The Registry simplifies the operating system. Maybe in Redmond, Wash. it does, but for the rest of the world, the Windows 95 Registry is an arcane and convoluted behemoth, the rats nest of wire at the heart of Windows tackle box. It wasnt designed for easy manipulation like the Windows Control Panel. And although the Control Panel contains most of the operating systems options, there are other settings that are best modified by going straight to the sourceand that means directly manipulating the Registry. That said, editing the Registry is not a task you should take lightly. Creating an error here can severely foul up your system and cause hours of grief. Before making any changes, be absolutely sure youre comfortable here.

 Here, youll gain a working knowledge of the Win95 Registry and learn how to make some common changes. By understanding the general structure of the Registry, youll know where to look for certain settings, just in case some rogue program youve recently installed mangled your configuration. In addition, most of us have gone through the inconvenience and anguish of trying to back up data before attempting to reinstall the operating system. By knowing a little bit about the Registry, you can try patching the monster before reinstalling. Knowing how to edit the Registry is like knowing how to change a tire; you never know when it might come in handy. And just like learning how to change a tire, its better to practice in the safety of your driveway than on the shoulder of a dark, rain-slicked highway.

Registry Structure. Lets begin by demystifying the Win95 Registry. Dive right in and open the Registry Editor by clicking Start, selecting Run, and typing regedit in the Open field. What youll see is a hierarchical file structure that looks a little like Windows Explorer. At the top of this hierarchy are branches. In the left pane of the Registry Editor, youll see these six branches: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. This branch contains all of your file association types, OLE (object linking and embedding; a method of sharing information between applications within an operating system.) information, and shortcut data. HKEY_CURRENT_USER. This branch links to the section of HKEY_USERS that is appropriate for the user presently logged on to the PC. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. This branch contains computer-specific information about the PCs hardware, software, and other preferences. This information is relevant for all users who log on to this computer. HKEY_USERS. This branch contains individual preferences for each computer user. HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG. This branch links to the section of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE appropriate for the present hardware configuration.

 HKEY_DYN_DATA. This branch points to the part of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE for use with the Plug-and-Play features of Windows. This section is the most dynamic part of the Win95 Registry and will change as you add and remove devices. Nested within these branches are keys. Each key can contain other keys (sometimes referred to as subkeys) and values. Values represent the Registrys actual information and are formatted in one of three ways: string, binary, and DWORD. Strings are merely pieces of text and are denoted in Registry Editor by the small ab icon next to each entry.

Binary values, as the name implies, are assigned binary data values consisting of numbers. Binary data values are identifiable by icons emblazoned with 1s and 0s rather than the letters ab. The final variation, DWORD, uses the same icon as binary data but is differentiated by a 0x followed by an eight-digit number. This format, perhaps the most confusing value type in the Registry, is stored in hexadecimal format. Hexadecimal format is a base-16 numbering system that uses combinations of 16 digits to represent all numerical values. In addition to the 10 digits used in the familiar decimal system (0 to 9), hexadecimal uses the letters A through F. For example, the number 10 would be A in hexadecimal. The decimal number 17 would be written as 11 in hexadecimal.

 Exploring The Registry. If you go exploring with Registry Editor, youll find the Win95 Registry contains hundreds of entries. Its impossible for us to document the meaning of every subkey and data value; the sheer number of entries is enough to discourage most from trying. But another problem with the Registry is that many entries are meaningful only to the application that created them. Even the entries native to Windows are largely undocumented, and Registry entries vary from computer to computer according to the hardware and software installed. Still, theres a lot you can learn if youre willing to dig deep enough, so get your shovel. To view the entries associated with a particular subkey, click the subkey name in the left pane to highlight it. The entries will be displayed on the right. Every subkey has at least one entry, an unnamed entry labeled Default. The default value is always there, but it isnt always assigned a value.

 Click on the HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG branch and expand its entries by clicking the plus sign. Next, click the Display key. This is where the Win95 stores information about your display configuration, which includes the screen resolution, the number of colors, the default system font, and so on. Every time you make a change in the Display area of the Control Panel, those new settings are stored here. The Settings subkey contains all the data that relates to the display settings. For example, the desktop resolution is stored in a text value labeled Resolution.

Seven Lucky Tweaks. Now that you have a basic understanding of the Win95 Registry, its time to make some common changes. These are small hidden tweaks that wont overhaul the operating system, but they will allow you to get a little extra horsepower. Before attempting any of these changes, we recommend that you back up the Registry. After you make one of these tweaks, you must reboot your system for the configuration changes to take effect.

 The case of the expanding control panel. If you want easy access to the Control Panel options, you can tweak the Registry to add an expanding Control Panel folder to the Start menu. This trick will work with most special folders, too. The first step is to find the system ID of the folder you want to add. Youll find these IDs under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID. The Control Panels key is called HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD- 08002B30309D}. The system ID is the last set of numbers after CLSID, in this case {21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}. Note that the brackets are also part of the system ID. Once youve found the ID and highlighted it, the hard work is done. Open the Edit menu, click Rename, and then right-click the ID number and select Copy. Now, click somewhere off the Registry to deselect the folder so you dont actually alter the name.

Right-click the Start button and choose Open. In the Start Menu window, create a new folder by opening the File menu and selecting New, Folder. Paste the system ID you copied from the Registry into the new folder name. In front of the ID, type in the name of your choice, followed by a period. In this example, youd type ControlPanel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}. Once the folder is named, it should change into the Control Panel icon. Close the window and click the Start button. There should now be a new expanding folder for the Control Panel at the top of the Start menu, right above Programs.

 Windows installation files location. When you install Win95, it records the location of the installation files in the Registry. From that point on, Win95 will look in that location when searching for new drivers or installing additional Windows features. If you want to change where Windows looks for its drivers, heres how: Expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE branch down to SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\CURRENTVERSION\SETUP. Double-click the value named Source Path and change the value data to the new location (for example, C:\Win95).

Remove item types from the New context menu. When you right-click the Desktop or other selected applications, youll see a New entry in the pop-up context menu, which contains a list of default templates. You can modify this list to include only the templates you want. Each template exists in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT branch associated with a file extension. Whether its visible or not in the New context menu is controlled by whether the related entry has a subkey called SHELLNEW. For example, in the New menu there is usually an entry for Text Document. This is visible because of the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TXT\SHELLNEW. If you were to rename the key so it no longer had a subkey called SHELLNEW, by changing it to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TXT\SHELLNEWOLD] it would disappear from the New menu. To weed out entries in the New menu, open Registry Editor and use the Find function (CTRL-F) to search for any values of SHELLNEW. You should find several subkeys under the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT branch. For those entries you want to remove, rename SHELLNEW to SHELLNEWOLD.

Bitmap thumbnails. Explorer can show a thumbnail version of .BMP (bitmap) files if you execute this simple tweak. Browse the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT branch, click the PAINT.PICTURE key, and then choose the DEFAULTICON subkey. Set the Default value to %1. Remove the Suspend option from the Start menu. If youre not happy with the Suspend feature, or if you want to prevent a user from accidentally clicking it, use this tweak to remove it from the Start menu. Open the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE branch and browse to ENUM\ROOT\*PNP0C05\0000. Double-click the value of APMMENUSUSPEND. Youll notice this value is in binary format. Change the last two numbers to equal 00. This will remove Suspend from the Start menu.

Autodial for Dial-up Networking. Win95 has the option to automatically dial your ISP to establish an Internet connection. Open Registry Editor and browse to HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\CURRENTVERSION\INTERNETSE TTINGS. Create a new binary value (by opening the Edit menu, selecting New, and clicking Binary Value) named EnableAutodial and set the new value to equal 01 00 00 00 to enable Autodial or 00 00 00 00 to disable it. This restriction can be implemented either on a user-by-user basis by adding it to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER branch or on a computer-wide basis by adding it to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE branch.

 Dial-Up Networking password. A common complaint among Win95 users is that the Save Password check box has been grayed out under Dial-Up Networking. A common cause is lack of the Client For Microsoft Networks under the Networking settings. Another poss cause is a corrupt Registry. Check the Registry by browsing HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\CURRENTVERSION\NETWORK \REALMODENET and look for the Autologon value. If you see an Autologon with a value of 00 00 00 00, double-click it and change the value to 01 00 00 00 00. If you dont have an Autologon value, create a DWORD value under the REALMODENET subkey (open the Edit menu and select New, DWORD Value) named Autologon and set the value appropriately. by William Van Winkle

Key Points  Although all the configuration settings in the Control Panel are recorded in the Windows 95 Registry, there are some settings you can change only in the Registry.  The Registry is made up of six branches. Under these branches are keys and subkeys. Stored in these keys are values, which are the meat of the Registry.  Values are stored in one of three formats: text, binary and DWORD. As their names imply, text and binary vales are stored in their namesake formats. DWORD values are stored in hexadecimal format.

Registry Directory Here is a brief directory of the Windows 95 Registry. If youre looking for: Youll find it in: Display settings HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG\DISPLAY\SETTINGS Network logon settings HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\NETWORK\LOGON File associations HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT Software-specific settings HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE Programs that run at startup HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES

Check Your Registry In the days of Windows 3.x, there was no central storage area in PCs to hold important system information, which meant accessing and editing system files was almost impossible. Then came Windows NT and the advent of the Registry, which was subsequently included in Windows 95 and Windows 98 (Win98). The Registry gives users one place that keeps track of all their critical system data. With the new Registry Checker in Win98, they have an easy way to keep it error-free. Registry Rules Using a hierarchical database, the Registry keeps track of information, such as installed hardware and software, operating system extensions, networking connections, and user profiles. For example, when you launch a program, modify your Desktop preferences, or add a new hardware peripheral, the Registry keeps track of those details, making sure all the necessary components of the software and hardware are in place. The Registry does all its work in the background, so you do not have to constantly update it when you make a change to your system. You also do not have to worry about its memory. The Registry is a type of persistent storage, which means it stays intact even after you shut off your computer. Running the Registry Checker takes just a few seconds. If it finds no errors in the Registry, you'll receive this message. To make changes in your Registry, you need the Registry Editor. You can access this by clicking the Start menu, selecting Run, and typing regedit in the space provided. Typically, only advanced users edit the Registry because it can be a rather daunting task. To change settings, you must be precisean errant space or missing bracket could throw off or completely shut down your PC. Checker, Please The Registry Checker looks for and fixes Registry problems and regularly backs up the Registry when you start your computer. Some of the files it backs up include System.dat, System.ini, User.dat, and Win.ini. It then keeps that backup and the next four backups, so you always have five compressed backup files of your Registry. That way, if you ever do edit your Registry and make a mistake, you can revert to one of these backup files. The Registry Checker also searches for and eliminates unnecessary free space in the Registry, which improves the overall system speed. Since it works quietly in the background, you will not find a shortcut to Registry Checker on your Desktop. In fact, it's pretty far off the beaten path. To access it, click the Start button, then choose Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and System Information. This opens the Microsoft System Information screen. Next, click Tools in the menu bar and choose Registry Checker. (A faster way to launch the Registry Checker is to open Run under the Start menu and type scanreg.) When launched, the Registry Checker automatically starts hunting for problems in the Registry. Don't blink or you'll miss the fun; the Registry Checker works in a matter of seconds. If it doesn't find errors, you'll receive a message telling you so. You'll then be told the Registry Checker has already backed up your Registry that day. If you want to go ahead and back it up again, click the Yes button. If the Registry Checker finds errors, it will restore the most recent Registry from the backup copies. If for some reason a backup is unavailable or the Registry Checker can't find it, it will try to repair any errors it finds without using a backup Registry. Customize Your Checker If you'd like to tweak Registry Checker settings to better suit your tastes, choose Run under the Start menu and type scanreg.ini; this opens a Notepad file in which you can edit the Scanreg.ini file. Among other things you can: turn the Registry Checker on or off change the number of backups maintained change the location of the folder that holds the backup copies of the Registry (the default is C:\WINDOWS\ SYSBCKUP) After you make your changes, remember to save the file. For the average user, however, we recommend leaving the Registry Checker as is. After all, why mess with a good thing?


\12 Win Registries

Understanding The Win Registry. When you change Desktop settings, program preferences, or HW params, Windows must remember everything so it re-establishes the settings at each reboot. It accomplishes this storage and retrieval chore with the Registry. Youve likely been warned against tampering with Registry settings, but with a basic understanding of the Registry, you can safely navigate it. Youll have far more control over your computer than most users enjoy. The Registry is a hierarchical database of settings for everything from the Windows Desktop to your most complex piece of hardware. When you install programs, settings are stored in the Registry so Windows knows what to do when you launch the program. The same goes for hardware. Every time the modem is initialized, Windows has to know the minimum speeds youve specified in Modem Properties, so it looks to the Registry. The Registry is vastly superior to preceding system configuration and initialization files. Its structure allows for nearly limitless configuration settings, all stored in a central location, which require fewer system resources than the archaic INI (initialization) files used by older operating systems, such as Windows 3.x. Windows 98 has an advanced Registry that automatically detects and corrects some problems. Most users have experienced a system lockup or involuntary system reboot; ScanDisk appears automatically when the system reboots because the Win98 Registry detects that the system was not shut down properly and takes action to see if the hard drive was either responsible for or damaged by the error.

Registry Structure The Registry is a hierarchical database; its structure is similar to the folders used by Windows, but in Registry, the folders are called keys. Keys contain subkeys, and values can be assigned to any key. For example, the Display key contains a Settings key, which contains the values associated with the Desktop. This is the Registrys greatest strength; it can establish any number of nested configurations. In the past, subkeys were not allowed, which greatly restricted configuration options and made the older files difficult to work with. Its analogous to having only one level of subdirectories, with every file used by a program stored in one folder. Imagine looking for a Word document in a folder containing every file Word needs to operate, along with templates and hundreds of other ancillary files, and its easy to see the advantages of the Registrys nested key structure. When you collapse the Registry, youll notice there are six keys called root keys, which are the main branches of the Registry structure. They begin with the prefix HKEY, which stands for Key Handle. Refer to the chart to learn more about the root keys. Values assigned to each key have one of two icons, depending on their data format. Binary values have an icon with binary digits on it, while text values have an icon with ab. Only advanced users should mess with binary settings, but its much easier to fiddle with text values because theyre in a format that everyone who can read is familiar with.

Working With The Registry Working with the Registry is one scary-looking task. If something goes wrong, at best, a program or piece of hardware wont work or the operating system will have to be re-installed. The good news is you rarely have to tap into the Registry to make typical changes. It is far easier to right-click the Desktop and click Properties to adjust monitor resolution settings than to drill into HKEY_CURRENT _CONFIG\Display\Settings and make manual adjustments. On the other hand, if you want to change the name of the Recycle Bin or update the Registered Owner information that appears on the System Properties page, you have to go through the Registry. Navigation is the toughest part of editing the Registry, mainly due to cryptic key names, but its actually difficult to damage Windows by simply poking around. To access the Registry Editor, click Start, Run, and type regedit.exe into the Open field and then click OK. When the Registry Editor opens, you must create a backup of the current Registry. If you havent, click Start, expand Settings, click Folder Options, and select the View tab. In Hidden Files, choose the Show All Files radio button and uncheck the Hide File Extensions For Known Types box. WinNT/2000 users dont have to perform these steps. Open the folder that Windows is installed in, usually C:\WINDOWS or C:\WINNT, and find the User.dat and System.dat files. If you cant find them, click Start, then Find, choose Files Or Folders, and search manually. Copy the files to a backup folder or diskette, then right-click the files and hold and drag them to the backup diskette. When you release the button, select Copy Here. Create a fresh Windows Startup diskette to recover from any potential Registry errors. Click Start, choose Settings, click Control Panel, and open Add/Remove Programs. Choose the Startup Disk tab, insert a blank, formatted diskette, and click Create Disk. Remove this diskette as soon as its finished so you dont accidentally reboot with it in the diskette drive. Now, lets get to the Registry Editor. The program has two panes displaying keys on the left and their values on the right. Click the folder icon to see the values. Double-click the icon or name for a value to open an editing box where you can enter new values. Heres how to change the name of the Recycle Bin. Find the key where the name is stored; it isnt intuitive. No one would associate {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}, which is the actual name of the key, with the Recycle Bin. Registry Editors search features can help. If you read a tip that doesnt include the entire string of keys, click My Computer (at the top of the left pane, not on the Desktop), then click the Edit menu, Find and enter the information in the tip (usually a key) in the search string. Searching takes time, but this method is faster than doing it by hand. For example, entering that crazy string of numbers, letters, and brackets in the preceding paragraph into the Find string will quickly pull up that key. Once complete, youll see two values in the right pane. One contains the data Recycle Bin; double-click that entry, type a new name, such as Trash, and thats it. Youve made your first Registry adjustment. Click the Desktop and press F5 to refresh the screen and see your new name applied. Changes are applied instantly, and there is no Undo. Write down or cut and paste values before changing them so they can easily be restored.

Disaster Recovery As with most computer problems, prevention is the key to avoiding trouble. Regularly using the Windows utilities can mean the difference between a simple reboot and nightmarish hours of system restoration. You made that Registry backup file and Startup Disk we discussed in the last section, right? If somethings messed up, but you can still boot Windows, you can restore the Registry manually. Find the System.dat and User.dat files and copy them to a folder, but use different names such as SystemBackup.dat. Find the good copies of these files and copy them over the existing System.dat and User.dat files. Reboot your system, and that should restore everything. If you cant boot Windows, either use your fresh Startup Disk or enter MS-DOS mode while booting up by pressing CTRL or the function key specified by your system BIOS during bootup. When you get to the command prompt, type scanreg /restore. (Note the space after scanreg.) Choose one of the backup files from the list and select Restore to fix the Registry. by Tracy Baker

The Six Root Keys There are six main keys, called root keys, that contain all of the other keys and values in the Registry. Knowing what type of subkeys the root keys contain helps when you start digging in to the Registry. HKEY_USERS This key houses settings for all of the computers users; each user has their own sub-key. These values determine Desktop settings, any user-specific program settings, and more. HKEY_USERS holds the default settings, while subkeys can have customized settings that override the defaults. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT This key is a shortcut to the important HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes key, where your software settings reside, along with other settings, such as shortcuts and file associations. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE This is the mother of all keys, containing all hardware and software settings, including Windows settings. The values in these keys apply to everyone who uses the computer, serving as a template that can be further modified by settings in the HKEY_USERS key. HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG This key stores the data for plug-and-play devices and the current hardware profiles. The information changes, depending on the hardware profile (Windows allows for several) and any settings specified in the active HKEY_USERS subkey. HKEY_CURRENT_USER Another shortcut, this key opens user-specific keys in HKEY_USERS, depending on whos logged in when the key is accessed. HKEY_DYN_DATA The contents of this dynamic data key change to reflect on-the-fly settings changes in Windows RAM (random-access memory). This includes actively running hardware, active programs, and the constantly refreshed information regarding the status of that hardware and software. Because of the volatile nature of this key, we recommend you stay away from it; concentrate instead on the keys where permanent changes are stored.


\13 Change The Win98 Registry, Understanding & Using The Power Behind Its Structure. If the Registry is your focal point, then sit down, fire up your Windows 98 machine, and get ready to dig in and check out the inner workings of the Win98 Registry. It is said that people learn best by doing, so follow along with your Win98 computer beside you. This article provides a short tour for making Win98 Registry changes, taking you through each of them step by step. A good way to take this tour is to read the entire article, then follow our examples the second time through.

Before making any changes to the Win98 Registry, one should understand what the Registry is, how it is structured, what it contains, and why you might want to change it. See the article, The Windows Registry, earlier in this issue for a complete discussion and the essential background information youll need. After reading it, you should have a good foundation for exploring and changing your Win98 Registry.

 Any article on the Windows Registry should include a warning, and this one is no exception. So, before making any Registry changes, you need to understand that the Registry is a critical component to the successful operation of Win98. If the Registry becomes corrupted, Win98 or your applications can become unstable and might fail to start properly. Therefore, make sure your system, data, and Registry are backed up before attempting to make any changes. With that in mind, lets now make sure everyone understands the concepts of keys and values, both of which are central to the Registrys operation. Keys are containers for values and other keys, whereas values are containers for data. The data contained by a value is a string of characters, a number, or a binary value. Again, refer to the article, The Windows Registry, for a more in-depth discussion.

 The Registry Editor. The most common way to change the Registry is with a tool called the Registry Editor. This program, which comes with Win98, lets you navigate through the hierarchical information stored in the Registry. You can do more than just browse, however, with the Registry Editor, you can modify a vast array of system and application configuration settings. A caveat before getting started: Any changes you make using the Registry Editor take effect immediately; there is no automatic undo feature.

The first change we will walk you through is changing the Desktop wallpaper that displays while nobody is logged into the system. Start by opening the Registry Editor. From the Start menu, select Run. Then, type regedit into the field provided next to Open and click OK. You should see the Registry Editor window display on-screen.

 The Registry Editor displays two panes, one on the left representing the hierarchy of keys in the Registry and one on the right representing the values that are contained by the currently selected key. The familiar folder icon is associated with each key. Keys that contain other keys have a small square beside them with a plus sign (+) inside. Click one to expand the current key and see the other keys it contains.

 The hierarchical relationships shown in the left pane mirror the actual structure of the Registry. In text, this relationship is frequently depicted as a list of key names with separators, for instance: HKEY_USERS\ .DEFAULT\CONTROL PANEL\DESKTOP. This implies that the DESKTOP key is contained by the CONTROL PANEL key, which is in turn contained by the key labeled as .DEFAULT. Finally, the key containing .DEFAULT is HKEY_USERS. Making any changes to the Registry involves navigating through this hierarchy to the desired key and then adding a value or changing an already existing value.

So, back to our example: Lets change that wallpaper. In the left pane, double-click the HKEY_USERS key or the plus sign beside it. Once its contents display, double-click the .DEFAULT key, the CONTROL PANEL key, and the DESKTOP key. So far, things inside the right pane have been pretty uneventful; but once you double-click the DESKTOP key, the story changes. You should see the right pane fill up with a list of values. The keys (shown in the left pane) are simply a hierarchical containment structure; the values (shown in the right pane) contain the actual configuration data. Before changing the wallpaper, you should do two things.

First, locate a suitable image file that you would like to display instead. The image should be in Windows Bitmap (.BMP) format. You will need the full, correct path to the image. Second, you should make note of the existing data contained by the value. In this case, its a pair of empty quotation marks next to Wallpaper (). This information is useful if you want to change the wallpaper back to its original setting. Next, double-click the Wallpaper value in the right pane. This brings up a simple dialog box that lets you change the data associated with the value. Type in the full path name to the image in the field labeled as Value Data, then click OK. For example, we chose an image of a volcano, so we typed: C:\images\nature\ volcano.bmp

 Remember that the Registry Editor is not going to perform any consistency checking for you, so you should double-check your typing before clicking OK. After completing this change, the next time you log out you should see your picture of choice on-screen rather than the one some Microsoft marketing manager chose for you. As long as were changing default settings imposed by others, lets rename the Recycle Bin something else, such as Wasteland. Youll note that when you right-click the Recycle Bin icon on your Desktop, you dont have the option to rename it. Thats when its time to turn to the Registry Editor.

Open HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID/ {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}. This one may take a little time to find because there are several keys inside of HKEY_ CLASSES_ROOT and CLSID. You can try using the Find command in the Edit menu to search for a key containing 645FF040. Next, double-click the (Default) value in the right pane. Change Recycle Bin to Wasteland or whatever text you desire. Win98 doesnt update the Desktop icon immediately, but the next time you start Win98, youll see the new value.

Registry Scripts. Registry scripts are another method you can use to make changes to your Windows Registry. To use them, you must create and execute a Registry script. Dont worry, this is even easier than it sounds. First, here is just a bit of background information. A Registry script is simply a text file that is named with the extension .REG. Text files are commonly created by text editors such as Notepad.exe. You can even use Microsoft Word to create text files, and thus, create Registry scripts. To do this, create a new document, choose Save As from the File menu, and name the file something similar to: SetScreenSaveTimeout.reg. Be sure to end the name with the .REG extension, choose Text Only in the Save As Type drop-down menu, and click OK.

Once properly created, executing a Registry script is easy. All you have to do is double-click the files icon from within Windows Explorer, and it automatically makes changes to your Registry. By default, Win98 assumes that any file with a .REG extension is a Registry script. Now, lets walk through this entire process step by step and make the concepts described above more solid. For a demonstration, were going to change the time-out value for a screen saver to five minutes (300 seconds). Open your favorite text editor. If you dont already have one, select Run from the Start menu, type notepad.exe into the field provided, and click OK.

In your text editor, type REGEDIT4 on the first line. Press ENTER a couple of times, then type [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop] and press ENTER again. For the next and final line, type ScreenSave TimeOut=300 Yes, you must type everything in bold, including all the quotation marks. Your file should look like Figure 1 on this page. Then, simply save the file under a name similar to: SetScreenSaveTimeout.reg. Now its time to explain this Registry script. There are three basic parts to the .REG file. The first line identifies the rest of the contents as being a Registry script. The second line contains the familiar hierarchical key structure identifying the key that we are interested in changing. The third line indicates both the value and its associated data that we want to set in the Registry.

There is more you can do with Registry scripts, but this example covers the most basic operation: changing a value in the Registry. To execute the script, find the file from within Windows Explorer (right-click the Start button, then click Explore) and double-click its icon. You should see a message display on-screen, stating the file has been successfully entered into the Registry. You can use the Registry Editor skills described above to double-check and see that the value was actually changed.


 There are several reasons why scripts are also more useful than the interactive Registry Editor is. First, if you document the change in a text file, it is easier to remember. Second, you can collect a number of changes in a script file (or several script files) and execute them all at once. This method is much quicker than manually navigating through the Registrys hierarchy, especially if there are several computers you need to change.

 Exiting The Registry. Our Win98 Registry tour has now come to an end. Whether you plan to manually manipulate your Registry by using the Registry Editor or automating configuration changes to a number of Win98 computers by taking advantage of Registry scripts, a little familiarity with the Registry tools can make managing your Win98 system (or systems) much more successful. by C. Reid Turner

Key Points  The Registry Editor is a standard Win98 program you can use to make changes to the system Registry.  When making changes to the Registry, keep in mind there is no automatic undo feature. To protect yourself, make sure you back up your system, data, and the Registry before making any changes.  You can use Registry scripts to store and automate Registry changes.


\14 Windows 98 Resource Kit. To install it, insert your Win98 CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive and navigate to the \TOOLS\RESKIT folder. Double-click Setup.exe to install the utilities and help files, and look for the Windows 98 Resource Kit folder in your Programs menu. Peruse this online book to see the documentation you have been missing out onit is surprisingly thorough.
Have you ever received an error message in Windows 98 and wondered what program was causing it? Use the Microsoft File Information utility to track down detailed information on all types of Windows 98 files and flush out the problem. If you buy the printed version, three initial choices during setup will let you decide if you want a Typical, Custom/Complete, or Complete installation of the Resource Kit. We recommend clicking the Custom/Complete option because it is the only one that lets you choose individual utilities or selectively eliminate entire groups of tools. For instance, you could choose not to install any of the deployment tools if Win98 is only running on a single PC. If you choose the Custom/Complete setup, the following screen lets you decide which components you want to install. Unfortunately, the descriptions for these selections are virtually useless, and you will likely have to refer to the printed book to figure out exactly what the functions are for each of the tools. A full installation takes around 30 megabytes (MB) of hard drive space, so you may what to trim things a bit. ( NOTE: Unless you are running a network, do not install the Windows Logo Requirements option.) Even choosing the full installation leaves seven of the network administration tools out, forcing you to manually install them. The omission of other tools, such as a Password List Editor and a System Policy Editor, occurs because of the security risk they pose if accidentally installed on a client PC. (A client PC is a computer that is connected to a server.) Look for the Readme.doc file on your Resource Kit CD-ROM to see which applications are omitted and how to install each of them.
Basic Tools. The tools that come with the Win98 Resource Kit are not just for experts. Novices and casual users also can benefit from several of the resources. The most useful overall utility is TweakUI. It allows you to customize nearly every basic aspect of your PC, and it is the single best tool for eliminating any elements of Win98 that might annoy you. TweakUI uses a tabbed graphical user interface (GUI) to offer control over the settings for pointing devices, Microsoft Internet Explorer, the Desktop, and other parts of the operating system that are difficult to manually adjust. Youll even find tabs that allow you to remove ghost entries from the Add/Remove Programs list and eliminate irritating Windows animation effects. One tab, aptly named Paranoia, automatically flushes sensitive lists and logs from your computer every time you boot up your system. Another good tool is the ClipStor utility, which adds much functionality to the pathetic Clipboard that comes with Win98. Under normal circumstances, every time you cut or copy an item to the Clipboard it disappears when you cut or copy another item. The Clipboard holds only one thing at a time. With ClipStor you can cut or copy as many items as you want and they will be available until you manually delete them. The Resource Kit comes with a cursor editing program, Animated Cursor Editor, that lets you have fun while editing cursors. With this tool you can easily make a basic cursor that has minimal animation effects (much like the animated hourglass that appears when the system is busy). It has limited colors and drawing tools, but the program is easy to use.
Sick of that logo screen when you boot up your computer? Tired of ScanDisk running every time your PC is not properly shut down? Take control without mucking around in initialization files by using the Windows Boot Editor.
If you download and read many text files, the TextViewer program is a good alternative to the Notepad and WordPad accessories that come with Win98. It opens a window reminiscent of Windows Explorer, with a hierarchical tree of your hard drives contents in a left pane and a bigger blank pane on the right. You can determine which file types to view in the drive contents pane, and double-clicking a file opens it for viewing in the right pane. This makes it easy to read several separate text files without having to constantly access them from a folder; you accomplish everything from one large window.
Tools For Power Users. Some of the utilities that ship with the Win98 Resource Kit could be of use to network administrators but are best suited for use by computer owners who want absolute control over their operating system. They tend to be easier to use than the network utilities, but if you use your PC often, its likely you have been wishing for their features for some time. You can manually adjust the tasks they perform by changing Registry and initialization settings, but most of these utilities use graphical interfaces that only require you to check a box to add or remove a feature. One of our favorites is the Windows Boot Editor, a graphical utility for managing all aspects of our PCs boot-up process. By clicking a few boxes you can disable the startup screen, tell Win98 to automatically boot to the startup menu, and make it so ScanDisk never runs unless you tell it to run. There is even a page with information about the changes Microsoft made to the Msdos.sys file. Microsoft File Information is a terrific utility for displaying detailed reports about files on your machine. Nearly every file that is installed as part of Win98 is covered in detail, so when you receive an error message that says the Umdm16.dll file is missing, you will immediately know the file is the Universal modem driver component for Windows 98. If you use two printers, you are sure to appreciate the Default Printer (DefPtr) utility. It places an icon on the system tray that lets you switch printers without having to wade through a series of menus. Another simple tool is a little UUCode program that lets you encode and decode information with the popular UUEncoding encryption format. If you receive occasional encoded E-mail messages, it does not hurt to have a handy program like this one that can do all the dirty work for you. Tools For Network Administrators. Hailed as the most useful component of the Win98 Resource Kit, Microsoft Batch 98 is one of the easiest methods you can use to make multiple installations of the operating system on network machines run smoothly. Administrators can set up a system to their liking and then use Batch 98 to gather all the information needed to carry the settings to another system. This way, administrators can create a standard network PC and then clone it completely for a company-wide rollout. The option also exists to make minor changes without messing with scripts each time you perform an installation. FileWise is another good tool for administrators and is actually good for more than one thing. At heart, it is a file comparison utility that reports differences between two files, but you can use it to check for differences between two seemingly identical PCs (such as the PCs normally created during the rollout of an operating system). FileWise is great for seeing if the first computer you try to clone is an exact match of the original system, and it can certainly help to head off problems before the operating system is distributed to every PC in your enterprise. The Dependency Walker utility also is great for setting up network systems. It can determine the minimum amount of files necessary to launch an application to make system setups cleaner. It also is useful for uninstalling software because it can determine if a flagged file is shared but no longer in use by another application. Should You Buy It? If you run a network that includes Win98 machines, the Win98 Resource Kit will immediately pay for itself. The tools and technical information included in it are things that administrators will not want to be without, and the price is reasonable. Power users, average users, and computer newcomers would probably be better off using the Resource Kit Sampler found on the Win98 CD-ROM. It includes a searchable version of the book and enough useful tools to benefit anyone. In any case, anyone could learn much and avoid many frustrated calls to technical support by referring to either the electronic or printed version of the Win98 Resource Kit.

\15 50 Ways To Speed Your Windows Boost Performance & Minimize Work

With These Tips. MS Win will not go down in history as being one of the faster o/s of the computer era. While the o/s has evolved into a robust platform capable of meeting the needs of almost any user, its sheer size and comprehensiveness often leave it unwieldy and inefficient.

But Windows is flexible, and there are countless ways of fine-tuning the O/S to increase overall performance. These can range from sweeping HW changes that affect the foundations of your PC to little shortcuts and handy tricks. Here are 50 of the best Win pick-me-ups that hard earned experience can provide.

Upgrade your RAM.More than any other component, RAM is critical to Win efficiency. Essentially, it is the space in which your programs can move around and work. Running Win with insufficient memory is like trying to assemble a car in a closet. These days 64MB is a std amt, but more is always better. And try to get the fastest type compatible with your motherboard.

Upgrade the HD. Slow HDs, or those with little capacity, can seriously harm Win performance. Get the biggest, fastest drive within your budget; the newer ATA/66 (Adv Tech Attachment) drives running at 7,200rpm are good. And don't fill it up with a bunch of useless junk. If your HD reaches 50% cap, start to consider either deleting material or adding a second drive. HDs at 90% cap or more will decrease system speed and likely cause tech probs.

Upgrade your CPU. We mention this third because while CPU horsepower may have a greater impact on Win speed in some situations, it has less impact on Win stability. Saving five sec in proc time doesn't compare with spending five min rebooting your system after a crash. Still, your CPU platform is important. If you really want to jump-start Win, use one of the newer Pentium III or Athlon models.

Consider overclocking. Intel doesn't endorse this, but most CPUs can tolerate at least a little bit of tweeking, in which you set the CPU to run at a faster speed than that at which it's rated. Heat is the most serious issue here, since faster speeds generate more heat, and excess heat may damage your chip and poss the motherboard. You can find good resources on overclocking by searching the Smart Computing site (smartcomputing.com), but remember to use overclocking with caution.

Upgrade your video card. An increasing number of new systems, especially value PCs, use video chips mounted onto the motherboard, many of which cannot be disabled for upgrading. For standard Windows use, such video arrangements are generally fine. However, users interested in 3-D applications, especially games, can see incredible performance boosts by using a current accelerator board with at least 8MB of video memory.

Go legacy-free. The trend in PC architecture is to eliminate antique ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) slots and slow serial and parallel ports. Switching to PCI- (Peripheral Component Interconnect) based cards and opting for USB- (Universal Serial Bus) based peripherals can seriously improve your overall performance.

 Back up! No matter how many times computer users hear it, some of them just dont listen. All systems fail eventually. Someday, you will be forced to reinstall applicationsWindows, maybe even your entire drives contents. With a full system backup, such as to a tape drive, this process is simple and painless. Use automated scheduling so you dont have to remember to do it.

 Consider a second hard drive for backing up. Backing up to a second hard drive is much faster than a tape system, and you can configure backup software, including the Backup utility within Windows, to save to the drive of your choice. By using a second hard drive, you gain speed and additional storage space for other archiving. The downside? Hard drives will be a bit more expensive, and the media is not removable.

Check for firmware and driver upgrades. Once youve invested all this money in fast hardware, check back at the vendors Web site periodically for software revisions that can help increase performance even more. Video cards are famous for driver updates, but even items such as CD-RW (compact disc-rewriteable) drives and printers get updates that boost speed and offer additional functionality.

Run Windows Update.Windows Update, accessed in the Start menu, whisks you to a Microsoft support site, analyzes your PC, and assists you through the downloading of supplemental program elements, including critical ones that can offer virus protection, enhance security, or increase performance in other ways.

 Get FATter. The original release of Windows 95 and earlier Microsoft OSes used a file structure called FAT16 (16-bit file allocation table). Ever since Windows 95 OSR2, consumer Windows (not NT) have offered the option of FAT32, which stores data in smaller, more space-efficient chunks and allows drive partitions of more than 2GB (gigabytes). Windows 98 comes with a format translator, located at Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Drive Converter (FAT32).

 Kick it with 32-bit. Todays Windows versions are predominantly 32-bit operating systems, although there is still some support for older 16-bit processes. However, 16-bit elements can substantially impact system performance, especially in device drivers. From Control Panel, open System and click the Performance tab. Look for the sentence: Your System Is Configured For Optimal Performance. This is good. Otherwise, you may see Some Drives Are Using MS-DOS Compatibility, which means Windows is doing the 16-bit mosey. Either update your Windows drivers or contact the offending devices manufacturer for a solution.

 Spool EMF files to your printer. Often, Windows defaults to outputting, or spooling, data to your printer in raw format, which requires Windows to convert the data from your application to a printer-specific format. Switching to EMF (enhanced metafile) format converts your application data into a generic format, shifting the processing burden to the printer. To switch data formats, click Start, Settings, Printers. Right-click the printer icon, choose Properties, Details, Spool Settings. Use the pull-down option for Spool Data Format and select EMF.

 Be font frugal. Look in Control Panel under Fonts and examine how many fonts you have available. Windows has to devote space to loading these. The more fonts you have, the more you may adversely affect Windows performance. Consider moving unused fonts to a separate folder. Ideally, you should maintain fewer than 50 fonts in your main FONTS folder.

Optimizing drive performance. Windows uses look-ahead caching functions to help boost drive performance. You can fine-tune and/or maximize this caching by doing the following: Click Start, Settings, and Control Panel. Open System and click the Performance tab. Click File System and click the Hard Disk tab. Make sure the read-ahead optimization is set to Full. Under the CD-ROM tab, be sure your Supplemental Cache Size slider is placed at the largest setting and your access pattern is set for Quad-Speed Or Higher, assuming that fits your hardware description.

Change your role. Also under the Hard Disk tab, there is an option for Typical Role Of This Computer. If you have more than 16MB of RAM, set this to Network Server. This setting allocates more memory resources for your most recently used files.

 Less color can mean more performance. Most applications and images dont require millions of colors of detail, especially on the Web where 256 colors is the norm. The more colors you elect to display, the more time it takes your system to compute them. To set your color mode, right-click an empty place on your Desktop and select Properties. Choose the Settings tab. Use the pull-down menu under Colors to select your mode. Typically, High Color (16-bit) is plenty.

Use Tweak UI. This is a utility package assembled by the Windows development team. Win95 users can download it for free from http://www.microsoft.com/windows95 /downloads/contents/WUToys/W95PwrToysSet/Default.asp (its part of the Power Toys). Windows 98 users will find it on their program CD under TOOLS\RESKIT\POWERTOY. Right-click Tweakui.inf and select Install. Tweak UI contains many performance enhancements, and youll spend hours exploring all its nifty tools.

Ditch Temp files. Windows stores many of its working files under C:\WINDOWS\TEMP. Often, these files are left behind, consuming space and slowing the system over time. Periodically use Explorer to dip into this folder, sort the contents by file type and delete everything with a .TMP extension. There will likely be a handful you cant remove because they are currently in use.

A quicker Restart. Youre probably often prompted to restart Windows, especially after installing a new program. Selecting Restart from the Shut Down menu will result in a warm boot, equivalent to having pressed the reset button on your chassis. However, this is usually unnecessary. After youve selected Restart, hold down the SHIFT key as you press OK. This will merely restart Windows, not the entire system, and save you a fair amount of boot-up time.

Get an uninstaller. Despite the install and uninstall wizards that accompany most of todays applications, most Windows configurations are littered with the discarded garbage of past applications. Over time, this can slow your system and cause instability. Use a program designed to monitor and delete software, such as Symantecs Norton CleanSweep (http://www.symantec.com).

 Stabilize your swapping. Windows uses a hard-drive-based swap file to handle overflow when you exceed your memory resources. Give Windows a hand by forcing it to use a set swap file size, typically two to three times your amount of RAM. If you have 48MB of RAM, try a swap file size of between 100MB and 120MB. Click Start, Settings, Control Panel. Open System and click the Performance tab. Click the Virtual Memory button and set the minimum and maximum values as the same number.

Avoid memory leaks. Many applications fail to give back all of the memory resources they commandeer while active. You can check the amount of memory lost to a program by going into Control Panel, then into System. Click the Performance tab. Observe the percentage of System Resources you have free. Then load your application, exit, and check your System Resources again. If you spot applications that cause substantial leaks, consider switching to alternative programs.

 Use the System Monitor. When you want more precise information about how your PC accesses various components, turn to Windows System Monitor. Its available under Start, Programs, Accessories, and System Tools. If System Monitor is not listed, youll need to add it from your Windows CD-ROM by opening Control Panel and selecting Add/Remove Programs. Click the Windows Setup tab and select the System Tools option. Learning all the different readings System Monitor offers will take time, but the payoff in troubleshooting Windows bottlenecks is worth it.

 Kick out the squatters. Press CTRL-ALT-DELETE to see a list of all the programs currently active, both visible and invisible. Those are all utilities and other applications associated with software youve installed, running in the background of Windows and sucking up memory. Most of these applications are unnecessary. Close any applications you dont feel are essential.

 Downsize startup programs. To keep the squatters from reappearing next time you start Windows, go to Start, Programs, Accessories, then System Tools, and System Information. Select Tools, System Configuration Utility and click the Startup tab. Uncheck the items you dont want to load automatically when the system boots.

 Scour with ScanDisk. ScanDisk searches your hard drive for errors and can not only repair faulty file structures, but also isolate defective platter media. You should run a thorough ScanDisk at least once a month. Find it under Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools.


 Defrag dynamite. Microsofts Disk Defragmenter, also located under System Tools, packs all your data together efficiently and also puts your most-used data at the start of your disk, thereby optimizing your retrieval times. ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter have been together since the DOS days, yet, incredibly, most people still neglect to use these tools on a regular basis. Theyre like doing the dishes and cleaning the countersyou just have to.

 Keep it clean. Windows 98 adds a new essential utility to the bunch: Disk Cleanup. This handy application, located under System Tools, helps you wipe away the most common types of file detritus: temporary files, downloaded programs, and Recycle Bin contents. Under the More Options tab, you can also remove Windows components and other installed programs.

 Give your brain a break. Most people only remember to run ScanDisk, Disk Defragmenter, and Disk Cleanup when there are signs of trouble in Windows. Maintenance Wizard (under System Tools) automates all these tasks for you, giving options on what features to implement and when to run them.

 Clean the dark crevices, too. Over time, the Registry becomes cluttered with program fragments and corrupted data, potentially leading to reductions in performance or even an outright system crash. Download RegClean from Microsoft at http://support.microsoft .com/support/kb/articles/q147/7/69.asp and periodically run it to help fix unseen Registry errors.

Roll your own Taskbar Toolbar. In Win98, if you right-click an empty area in the Taskbar, youll see an option for Toolbars and then an option for New Toolbar. From the New Toolbar dialog box, select the folder for which you want to make a toolbar or enter a URL (universal resource locator) for use as a toolbar. For this latter point, youll need to be online and remember to use the full address, including http://. Once you make this URLs toolbar entry, you can right-click it, then select Open In Window to initiate your browser and go straight to the site.

Quick printing. To print documents without the bother of running their host application, go to Start, Settings, Printers and then drag-and-drop the printer on your Desktop to make a copy of it. Open Windows Explorer. Browse to the document(s) you wish to print, then drag-and-drop it onto the new printer shortcut.

 Get an extension. Often, youll have several files with the same name and only differing extensions. For simplicitys sake, Windows often defaults to omitting these extensions, leaving you to ponder the meaning of the icon placed next to the file. To see the whole name and save yourself time lost to confusion and experimentation, try this: In Windows Explorer, click View, Folder Options, View. Make sure Hide File Extensions For Known File Types is not checked.

Come out, come out. While youre in the View options, make sure to set Hidden Files to Show All Files. Occasionally, you may have to edit or address a hidden file or folder, and not being able to see them can be annoying.

 Use Documents. Why take the time to open your application and hunt for a recently used file you need to work on again? Click Start, Documents to bring up a list of your most recent projects. Select the file you want, and Windows will automatically launch the host application and bring up the file for you.

 Less trash to recycle. Windows defaults to allowing up to 10% of your hard drive as a Recycle Bin receptacle. But 10% may be too much, especially when youre low on space and Windows is struggling. Right-click Recycle Bin and select Properties. Slide the maximum size slider lower to restrict the Recycle Bins capacity. You may even wish to check the Do Not Move Files To The Recycle Bin option to immediately wipe deleted files from the drive.

 Dont repeat yourself. Windows normally prompts you with a confirmation box every time you try to delete a file. At the bottom of the Recycle Bin Properties box is an oft-overlooked option: Display Delete Confirmation Dialog. Uncheck this.

Take the shortcut. Save yourself extra clicking by making Desktop shortcuts for both the programs and documents you most often use. Not all programs create Desktop icons upon installation, so it pays to finish the job yourself. Open Windows Explorer, then merely drag-and-drop the document or application program file (typically ending in .EXE) onto the Desktop. You can delete these shortcuts by dragging them to the Recycle Bin.

 Trim some Start menu fat. Most of us only use a handful of the items contained in the sprawling layers of fly-out Start button menus. Remove some of the extraneous entries (which wont remove the programs from your system) by clicking Start, Settings, Taskbar (or Taskbar & Start Menu in Win 98). Click the Start Menu Programs tab, then click Remove. Dont worry too much about over-deleting. You can always use the Add button to put entries back in.

 Find it. Lost a file? Dont waste your time hunting for it manually; let Windows do it for you. Click Start, Find, Files Or Folders. On the Named: line, type in all or part of the file name youre looking for. By using the Look In: pull-down menu, you can elect to search across individual drives or all hard drives at once. Make sure to check the Include Subfolders option for best results.

 Find it again. Dont have a clue about what that lost files name might have been? Fear not. In Win98, the Name & Location tab of the Find dialog box also offers a field called Containing Text:. (This is located under the Advanced tab in Windows at persons nameJohn Smith, for instancein the Containing Text: field and Windows will hunt for that text within your files.

 Improve typing accuracy. Windows helps cut down on typing errors with FilterKeys, available through the Control Panels Accessibility Options, Keyboard tab. The settings for FilterKeys let users screen out brief or repeated keystrokes.

 No-mess mouse trails. Following your mouse pointer around the monitor can be difficultparticularly on laptops. Mouse trails are little ghost images that follow along behind your on-screen pointer, making the mouses location easier to discern. You can enable and customize mouse trails. From Control Panel, open Mouse and select the Motion tab. Check Show Pointer Trails.

 Cutting in the printer line.In a networked office, its not uncommon to find your two-page memo sitting on permanent hold behind someone elses 50MB photo-editing projects. When you need to take cuts in the printer queue, go to Start, Settings, Printers and double-click your target printer. Click your print job and drag it in front of those ahead of you. Note that you cant bump in front of a job that has already started printing.

 A quicker shortcut. Want to save a click? If you drag a file name over the Start button, Windows will open the Start menu. Then drag the shortcut to any spot in the top portion of the menu and drop it into position. Windows may not always know the best programs to use with certain files, so tell it.

Delete multiple devices. Sometimes, Windows Device Manager (under Control Panel, System) accumulates multiple instances of a given device. This can impact speed and reliability. To best eliminate these extras, boot Windows into Safe mode by restarting the system and pressing F8 repeatedly throughout the boot-up process. Choose Safe Mode from the menu. From Safe modes Device Manager, delete all but one of the repeated devices.

 Keep drives active. As much as we advocate green computing, you can save yourself hard-drive spin-up time by keeping the drive from going into power-saving mode. Go to Control Panel, open Power Management, and click Power Schemes. Set Turn Off Hard Disks: to Never. Note that the drive may have its own utilities that handle spin-down, as might the motherboards chipset.

Associate those file types. Windows associates file extensions with different applications. By default, .WAV files, for instance, are associated with Windows Media Player. After downloading some mammoth jukebox program, WAVs may be associated with that application, meaning you may need to load a massive multimedia powerhouse to make sure your Windows ding sound is still intact. Launch the right program for your purpose; Windows may not always have the best associations.

 Point-and-click is not always the fastest. Windows is brimming with keyboard shortcuts, although few users are familiar with them. Here are our 10 favorites: (NOTE: Older keyboards may not offer the Windows key.) ALT-TAB: Toggles between open applications. Keep the ALT key pressed down to view icons for all open applications, then tap the TAB key to move your toggle choice. CTRL-ESC: Initiates the Start menu. ALT-PRINT SCREEN: Performs a capture of the active window. Just paste it into your graphics editor. F10: Activates menu selections, which you can then navigate with cursor control keys and ENTER. Very handy if your mouse is dead. SHIFT-DELETE: Deletes items without sending them to the Recycle Bin. Windows key-M: Minimizes all open windows. ALT-Spacebar-C: Closes the active window. Windows key-E: Starts Windows Explorer. CTRL/SHIFT-Windows key-V: Increases/decreases speaker volume. CTRL-Z: Undoes a previous action. by William Van Winkle Key Points Hardware can limit an operating system, so keep your PCs hardware up to date. Make sure to keep current with all firmware and driver updates offered by your hardware manufacturers. Regularly check Windows Update. Either schedule or make a habit of running system maintenance utilities, especially ScanDisk, Defrag, and Disk Cleanup.


\16 Hang Up Properly (fix problems)

Restart Windows with the <Shift> key held down to disable the launching of programs in your StartUp folder and put Windows in "safe" mode. Then exit and see if the problem goes away. If it does, remove all but one Shortcut from your StartUp group, and try again. If all goes well, add one more Shortcut back and try again. Repeat until you find the program causing the hang-up. If that doesn't find the problem, test for any programs started by the win.ini file: Choose Start*Run, type sysedit, and press <Enter>. In the win.ini window, type a semicolon at the beginning (extreme left) of the 'load=' and 'run=' lines to prevent any applications listed there from launching at startup. If that fixes things, make a note of everything on these lines and remove all but one item; then restart and exit Windows. As before, add listed applications one at a time, restarting and exiting each time until you find the application that's causing the problem. Then contact the manufacturer to get an update or a suggested work-around. 2. Study the startup. Find out if the problem stems from a line in the notorious autoexec.bat or config.sys files. Restart the computer and press <F8> as soon as you see 'Starting Windows 95' on your screen. Choose the Step-by-Step Confirmation option and answer yes (press y) when prompted whether to load DoubleSpace drivers, process the System Registry, and load himem.sys, ifshlp.sys, the Windows interface, and all Windows drivers. Answer no (press n) to all other prompts. Exit and see if the problem persists. If the problem is gone, repeat the steps in this tip, but this time press y for the above-mentioned items plus one item that you previously blocked from loading. Again, shut down and see what happens. Repeat, loading one additional item each time until you find the problem. 3. Manage your memory. To rule out an upper memory conflict, make a backup copy of config.sys and start the System Configuration Editor as described in tip 1. Edit config.sys to include the line device=c:\windows\himem.sys followed by the line device=c:\windows\emm386.exe noems x=a000-f7ff (paths may differ on your system). This disables access to upper memory (the area between your first 640K and 1024K) by terminate-and-stay resident programs unless the software is specifically designed to access upper memory unaided. Save the file, restart your computer, and then exit Windows. If the problem has gone away, the cause is likely an upper memory conflict. Running the Microsoft Diagnostics utility in MS-DOS mode (type msd at the prompt in your Windows folder) can identify some SW that uses upper memory, but you may need to refer to your doc or talk to the manufacturer to ferret out hardware conflicts. Once you find the competing entities, consult their doc on assigning upper memory.

4. Veto the virtual device. Find out if the problem lies with a virtual device driver loaded in system.ini. Start the System Configuration Editor as described in tip 1 and, in the system.ini file, locate the heading '[386enh]'. Put a semicolon at the beginning of each line that follows, beginning with 'device=' and ending with '.386'. Save the file, restart your PC, then exit Windows. If this fixes things, return to the System Configuration Editor and remove one semicolon. Go through the save-restart-exit ritual again to see if the problem returns. Repeat until you find the errant device driver. If you're lucky, the file's name, path, or comments on the line will give you a clue as to its associated product. You can then contact the driver's manufacturer for help. 5. File it down. Your computer may not get along with Windows 95's file system settings. To check this one out, right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Click the Performance tab and click File System. Click the Troubleshooting tab and check each of the boxes in this properties sheet (see FIGURE 1). Click OK, then Close, then Yes to restart your system. If this solves the problem, you can leave all these settings checked, or experiment with unchecking them one at a time. Once you find the guilty party or parties, you'll need to leave them checked. 7. Shut down the speaker. To rule out problems with the PC speaker driver, start the System Configuration Editor as described in tip 1; in the system.ini file, look for the line 'wave=speaker.drv'. If you find it, place a semicolon at the beginning of the line. Save system.ini, restart your system, and then shut down. If this solves the problem, get a new driver--or consider investing in a new sound system. 8. Purge the power. If your system supports Advanced Power Management, that feature could be to blame. Right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Click the Device Manager tab, then double-click the Advanced Power Management icon. Click the Settings tab, then uncheck Enable Power Management. Click OK twice to close the dialog boxes. Restart your computer and shut down Windows. If the problem is gone, contact your system's manufacturer for help. 9. Do away with devices. Check out devices and drivers in the Device Manager. If you haven't found the problem so far, you're in for some fun--not! Right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Click the Hardware Profiles tab. Select Original Configuration and click Copy (see FIGURE 2). Name the new profile Test Configuration and click OK. Then click the Device Manager tab. Select the Computer icon and press * on the numeric keypad to expand the branches in the tree. At the end of one branch, double-click a device icon to open its properties sheet. Click the General tab and uncheck the Test Configuration box (not every device displays this). Then click OK. Repeat for every device in the tree. If any of them prompts you to restart Windows, select No, unless the device is a PCI hard disk controller. Since this cannot be unloaded dynamically you must restart your PC. After you've unloaded all possible devices from your test configuration, restart your PC. Windows will whine about not knowing which configuration you want; choose the option for the Test Configuration. When Windows starts, you'll get error messages about your video not being properly installed; click Cancel in both the message box and the Display Properties sheet. Now shut down W95 again and see if things are better.

If so, the problem is one of the devices or device drivers. Return to the Device Manager, open a Properties sheet for one device and check Test Configuration. Restart Windows, then shut down again. Repeat until the hanging problem recurs; at that point you know the last device you added to the test configuration is the culprit. Contact the manufacturer to make sure you have the latest driver and that it is properly configured. Leaving it out of your normal configuration won't help if you have a Plug and Play system because Windows will automatically configure it again the next time you start up, which brings back your hanging problem. When you're finished testing, right-click My Computer, choose Properties, and click the Hardware Profiles tab. Select Original Configuration, and then restart your computer. Go back to My Computer*Properties* Hardware Profiles, select Test Configuration, and click Delete. 10. Crush corruption. Try reinstalling Windows 95 to a new directory. If the new installation lacks the old problems, your original configuration probably had one or more corrupt files. If your PC still does not shut down properly, and you have a Plug and Play BIOS, try installing Windows again with the command line setup /p I to overlook Plug and Play. If this succeeds, you may have a defective BIOS. 11. Boot it out. Check out the last line of the bootlog.txt file. (This file could be in your root directory or in the Windows folder; make sure you view the most recent one.) This could tell you the last thing Windows successfully terminated as part of its shutdown process. If it ends with 'EndTerminate= KERNEL', shutdown was normal. Otherwise, the last item on a 'terminate=' line may clue you in to a possible source of the problem, to wit: Query Drivers (a memory manager like QEMM), Unload Network (real-mode network drivers in config.sys), Reset Display (video driver), RIT (sound card or old mouse driver), or Win32 (some 32-bit program like Microsoft Visual C for Windows). 12. Seek a higher power. If none of these tactics bears fruit, you may have a hardware problem or need to change your CMOS settings back to their factory defaults. In either case, you're best advised to talk to your system manufacturer. To tinker with your CMOS on your own (not for the faint of heart), write down all the current settings before doing so, and see "Put BIOS in Its Place" in February's Hardware Tips. DOS: Bring Back the DOS Icon If you accidentally delete a program icon in Windows 3.x, you know exactly what you need to do: Choose File*New, select Program Item, click OK, type in the program name for Description and the proper .exe file (and its path if necessary) for Command Line. Then click OK. But what do you do if the deleted icon is your DOS prompt? Simple: Just follow the steps above, typing dosprmpt.pif (or command.com) for Command Line. In Windows 95, right-click the Start button and choose Open or Explore. Open the Programs folder, right-click in an empty area and then choose New*Shortcut. Type command.com, then click Next and Finish. 3.x: Give Program Manager's Icon a Facelift Growing just a wee bit tired of that same old Program Manager icon? If so, it's a snap to fix--and you can change Program Manager's name while you're at it. Just open your StartUp group in Program Manager and choose File*New. Make sure Program Item is selected and click OK to open the Program Item Properties dialog box. For Description, type the name you want to use for Program Manager. For Command Line, type the path to the Program Manager application, usually c:\windows\progman.exe (your path may differ). Skip the Working Directory option; it's not necessary. If you want to be able to switch to Program Manager by using keystrokes, click in the Shortcut Key box and press the key combination you want. Then click Change Icon and select a new icon.

If you don't see one you like, click Browse, specify a new file that contains icons (such as moricons.dll in your Windows directory) and click OK. When you've selected a new icon, click OK, then click OK again to close the Program Properties dialog box. To see the change immediately, double-click your new icon in your StartUp group (see FIGURE 3). The changes will stay in effect as long as you leave the icon there; to undo changes, move the icon to another group or delete it and restart Windows. NT: Kill The Password Prompt In Windows NT Every time you boot to Windows NT you need to press <Ctrl>-<Alt>-<Delete> and type in your password. If this seems to be an unnecessary bother, there is a way to kill the password prompt and make NT log you in automatically--with a few simple changes to the Registry. It's simple, but not risk-free. Because messing with the Registry can have dire consequences, make sure you have the NT emergency repair disk you created when you installed Windows NT; it can repair problems with the Registry if you goof up. If you don't have an emergency repair disk, create one before proceeding: Choose File*Run in Program Manager or File Manager (Windows NT 3.51) or Start*Run (Windows NT 4.0), type rdisk and press <Enter>. Now for the real fun. In File Manager or Program Manager, choose File*Run (version 3.51) or Start*Run (version 4.0) and type regedt32.exe and press <Enter>. Click the title bar of the HKEY[underbar]LOCAL[underbar]MACHINE window to bring it to the front. In that window, navigate to Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon. With the Winlogon key selected (it looks like a folder), make sure the DefaultDomainName and the DefaultUserName entries are those you normally use when you log on. Choose Edit*Add Value. For Value Name, type DefaultPassword. Make sure REG[underbar]SZ is selected in the Data Type drop-down list and click OK. In the String Editor dialog box, type your password and click OK. Next, double-click the entry for AutoAdminLogon, change the 0 to a 1 and click OK. If you don't see an entry for AutoAdminLogon, add one like this: choose Edit*Add Value. Type AutoAdminLogon. As before, make sure REG[underbar]SZ is selected in the Data Type drop-down list and click OK. For String, type 1 and click OK. Finally, choose Registry*Exit. The next time you log on to Windows NT, your password will be processed automatically. But remember that now anyone can use your machine, and your password is emblazoned in the Registry Editor for any savvy user to read. Find files from this article and additional tips at http://www. pcworld.com/hereshow.html. Windows Tips welcomes your questions and tips and pays $50 for published items. Contributing Editor Scott Dunn is a principal author of The PC Bible, 2nd Edition (Peachpit Press, 1995, 800/283-9444). Windows Toolbox: Find Help in Print Do you wish you could print out an entire Windows Help file instead of just one topic at a time? It's a snap with SmartDoc, which works with Windows 95 and 3.x. Just download the file smtdoc.zip from PC World Online. Lost in the Log-On I recently used the Policy Editor to restrict rights for other users who work on my computer. Everything worked perfectly until I needed to reverse the process and change back to a single-user log-on. Now every time I log on, I get an error message stating, 'The following error occurred while loading the device VNETSUP Error 6101: The string specified by the WORKGROUP keyword in the registry was not found'. When I click OK, my computer continues to load without any problems. What's going on? Richard Dykes, Internet Apparently you lost track of your computer name or workgroup when you switched configurations. This can be a problem in Windows 95 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11. To fix the problem in Windows 95, choose Start*Settings*Control Panel. Double-click the Network icon. Click the Identification tab and make sure the computer name and workgroup are entered correctly. If you ever see that error message in Windows for Workgroups 3.11, it means that similar entries are missing or are incorrect in the system.ini file. Open system.ini in a text editor such as Notepad, and look for the [Network] section. Make sure that the correct names are found to the right of the = sign on the lines that begin Workgroup=, ComputerName=, and UserName=. Make any necessary corrections, then save and exit system.ini.


\17 Tips on Tricks in Windows 95/98 Silly Stuff.

 Bring Back That Ol' DOS Feeling If you're tired of Windows 95's colorful, appealing and intuitive interface, you can make it as dark and forbidding as DOS. Right-click on your wallpaper and choose Properties to bring up the Display Properties dialog, then select the Appearance tab. Select each of the items in the Item box and make everything black (except for the typefaces; make them all white, using the font option). Also, reduce the size of everything that's adjustable to minimize buttons and scroll boxes. You can also give Win95 the limited functionality of DOS. Put the DOS Prompt in your Startup group so all your applications are just a DOS command away. Cheating At Hearts Some of you might know this, but while playing both local and network Hearts it is possible to see the cards of your opponents by changing the following values in the appropriate files. Open the registry editor (from the start menu choose RUN then enter REGEDIT, Open the HKEY_CURRENT_USER, SOFTWARE, MICROSOFT, WINDOWS, CURRENTVERSION, APPLETS, HEARTS key. Now enter a new string value called ZB and set that value to 42. Close REGEDIT and start Hearts! Press the CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-F12 keys at the same time and your opponents hands will be visible! Deafening Silence Here's how to keep the peace. Click on the taskbar's speaker icon and move the volume slider to the bottom, then click anywhere on the desktop. When your friends try to play their favorite tunes on your computer's 6X spin CD-ROM drive, they won't hear a thing; they won't even get an error message.

 Don't Play Nice with Your Coworkers Don't want to share that expensive color laser printer with others? From the Start menu, select Settings, then Printers. Double-click on the Printers icon and select Network Printer. When the Add Printer Wizard asks you for a name for that new $10,000 printer you're supposed to be sharing with your peers, throw them off the track by typing in something like 'Bob's 9-pin dot matrix.' Flying Windows with Turbo Power Make Windows really fly by choosing the Display icon from Control Panel and selecting Screen Saver/Flying Windows. Click on Settings and go to warp speed by moving the slider all the way to the right and setting the density, or number of windows, to 75. Then click on OK twice. On a 600 MHz P!!! with 4+ MB of VRAM, these Flying Windows will make your head spin. My Computer's Flipped! Want to drive a co-worker crazy? Find an unattended computer and open the Start menu. Select the Run option, type program in the Open box and click on OK. When Program Manager opens, adjust it to fill one-half to three-quarters of the screen. Press Alt+Print Screen to save the freshly configured Program Manager window to the Clipboard. Then open Paint and paste the Clipboard image into the applet's window. Flip all or part of the image horizontally, vertically or both. Then save the flipped-out file and use it as wallpaper. Protect Your Data With Long Filenames Use Windows 95's support of long filenames to create multiple documents with the same first eight letters. Then pass them to your technologically challenged friends who still run Win 3.x. When they open your files, your meaningful screen name is reduced to hash and underlines.

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 ---------------------------------- Windows95 Annoyances: Getting it All to Work. Mod: 5/3/96

Stop W95 from Wildly Accessing your HD. Many users have complained about W95 seizing up for up to a minute because of random, pointless disk activity. This is due to the way that W95 is set to handle disk caching and virtual memory. Although W95 instructs you to "let Windows handle disk cache settings" for best results, this obviously does not yield the best results. Here's how to eliminate the random disk activity and improve system performance:

Part One: Virtual Memory Right click on My Computer, and select Properties. Click the Performance tab, and then click Virtual Memory Choose Let me specify my own virtual memory settings. If you want to choose a diff drv for swapfile, run Defrag. Specify the same value for the Min and Max size, so W95 won't waste time resizing file. A good size is about 2 1/2 times the amt of installed RAM (ie. 40MB swapfile if you have 16MB of RAM). Press OK, and OK, and cfm to restart computer. 6/9/96.

Part Two: Defragmenting the Swapfile. Once you've set the swapfile size to be constant (see Pt One), you won't have to worry about a fragmented swapfile again. However, you need to defrag it at least once for it to remain that way in the future. If you have Norton Util 95 (w/Speedisk), you'll be able to optimize the swapfile. Otherwise, if you can defrag it manually:

If you have more than one partition or hard disk in your system, defrag all drvs first. Then, move the swapfile (using the config proc in Pt One above) to another drive, defrag the orig one, and then move it back. Although it's also poss to disable the swapfile entirely while you defrag the drive (and then re-enable it so it will be recreated whole), it isn't advisable because W95 may not start w/o Swapfile.

Part Three: Virtual Cache (only if 16+ MB of RAM avail.)

Open SYSTEM.INI for editing. Add the following two lines to the [vcache] section (add the section if it's not there): MinFileCache=4096, MaxFileCache=4096

These values, in KB, regulate the size of the VCache, so you can stop it from filling up all avail RAM and paging all loaded apps to disk. If you have more than 16 MB of RAM, then set (both) above values to about 25% of the amount of installed RAM.

Part Four: RAM You may've thought we overlooked the obvious - add more RAM! The more mem you have, the less frequently W95 will use your HD, and the better your sys performance will be. Since W95 isn't terribly efficient, you'll need to feed it as much mem as you can afford. 12 MB is the absolute minimum, but 16-64 is better.

W95 Keeps Deleting My Appns, 5/24/96 A few users have reported that W95 has deleted entire appns (dirs and all!) without warning. I have personally had WP 6.1 for Windows deleted four times by W95. As of yet, MS has no explanation for this phenomenon, although MS prods seem to be immune to this spontaneous deletion.

Try turning off support for long filenames (which MS calls "enabling the Windows 3.1 file system").

At the command prompt, run scandskw /o to remove long filenames and all extended file attributes from the disk. Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE). Open Hkey_Local_Machine\ System\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\ FileSystem. Set the value of Win31FileSystem to 1 (one). You'll have to restart your computer to effect chng.

Note: Backup often!

Note: You can download Disk Test 32, a DOS prog which can supposedly test for disk corruption problems.

NB: If you use Scandisk to remove your long filenames, you will not be able to get them back unless you back them up first using the LFNBK util that comes with W95.

Note: MS prods may, in fact, not be immuned to this behavior as previously thought. MS Money '95 is among those afflicted.

Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT? 2/27/96 W95 comes with Plug-&-Play, as well as drivers for most of your HW. This means, quite simply, that you can throw away most of the contents of your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files (despite what the folks at Apple tell you). The prob with the driver's you've got already loaded in CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT, is that they're most likely real mode, 16-bit drvrs for DOS. The drivers that come with W95 offer easier installation, better compatibility, plug-&-play, and better performance. Follow these guidelines for removing the old drivers from your start-up files (experienced users only):

Ideally, you shd del CONFIG.SYS and shd have only your PATH in AUTOEXEC.BAT. Generally, your CONFIG.SYS includes drvrs for the disk cache, CD-ROM, sound card, scanner, and params like Files=50, Buffers=20, etc. W95 replaces most of these. Make sure you back up both files before delete. Start off by putting the word "rem" in front of every entry in CONFIG.SYS, and restart your computer. When W95 starts, it automatically scans your computer for any device without a driver, and install drivers as needed. The problem is if W95 doesn't have the correct drivers. See the note below regarding CD-ROM drivers. Once in W95, try out all your devices. If a device works, take out the drvr from CONFIG.SYS. If not, remove the "rem" text you've placed in front of it. The same process applies to AUTOEXEC.BAT, with the exception of the PATH stmnt. For some reason, it never occurred to the folks at MS to include Win support for PATH. (refer to DOS manual for info on path stmnt.) Slowly, as manufacturers release native W95 drvrs for their HW, you'll be able to do away with both CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT.

Note: If you have a CD-ROM drive, odds are that you have a CD-ROM drvr in CONFIG.SYS. However, when you go to remove the driver, W95 asks for the orig install disks so that it can install its own CD-ROM drvr. This doesn't work too well if you're installing from CD-ROM! To get around this design limitation, you must install a W95 CD-ROM drvr before removing the CONFIG.SYS driver. Dbl-clk on Add/Remove HW in Control Panel, and add a driver for your CD-ROM. If your CD-ROM drive isn't listed, you'll have to ctc the manfr for a W95 driver. Once you've installed the driver, remove it from CONFIG.SYS before rebooting. Note that this will disable DOS support for your CD-ROM outside of Win. Be aware that would won't have this prob if you have a SCSI CD-ROM drv. (more info from MS)

Note: If you think that keeping these old drvrs loaded is a good idea in case you need to re-install W95, you are mistaken. You will have better performance and stability if you use the native W95 drvrs. However, you shd BU all your old drivers to a bootable FD, so they are avail in the event of of an emergency, such as a disk crash. No, W95 does not do this automatically.

NB: Refer to Unsupported Devices in W95 for a list of unsupported devices in W95.

NB: To config W95 to automatically load certain DOS drvrs when you exit W95, right click on Exit to Dos shortcut located in your Windows dir, and click Properties. Click on the Program tab, click Advanced, select Specify a new MS-DOS configuration, and enter any desired drivers as though they were loaded in CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT. - note submitted by Brian Kimball

Stop W95 from Randomly Searching the Floppy Drive 4/17/96 A strange bug has popped up in W95, where the FD (or drvs) is searched every time an appn is launched. This problem is not confined to the use of Explorer, or necessarily on systems with Norton Navigator installed. This prob is not caused by an intial access to the floppy, as rebooting does not solve the problem.

The following are possible solutions to this problem:

<Picture: *>Clear the documents menu. <Picture: *>Clear Unwanted Entries from the Start Menu's Run Command. <Picture: *>Check for any viruses on your system (some users have reported the NEUVILLE virus) <Picture: *>Search your hard disk for all .PIF that point to programs on a floppy drive <Picture: *>Take out LocalLoadHigh=1 from your MSDOS.SYS file. <Picture: *>Check HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID in the Registry for any references to OCX's or DLL's referenced on the floppy. - submitted by Joseph LeVasseur

If you're using Norton Navigator '95: <Picture: *>Clear Norton Navigator's Run history (or disable the Run history all together). <Picture: *>If you're noticing this behavior with only a particular applications, you must clear the History List for that application. <Picture: *>Download the bug fix from ftp.symantec.com.

Other programs known to cause this problem:

<Picture: *>McAfee Antivirus '95 - try removing this program entirely, or just disbling the Access & Shutdown options in the Scan Disks On area in the Detection tab of the VShield Configuration Manager. <Picture: *>FirstAid '95 - try removing this program or disabling certain features. <Picture: *>Long Filenames for Windows95 - View Software has a patch that supposedly fixes this problem. <Picture: *>HiJack for Windows95 - turning off "Enable HiJaak shell extensions" in the HiJack Control Panel. <Picture: *>Konica Picture Show - try removing this program entirely.

Stop W95 from Detecting Devices Although there is no way to prevent W95 from detecting and installing drivers for some devices, you can disable certain devices that may be causing conflicts. The lack of a feature to remove an item from the list of detected devices (when you use Add/Remove Hardware) is quite irritating and confusing, but problems can usually be averted by following these steps:

<Picture: *>Right-click on My Computer, and select Properties. <Picture: *>Click the Device Manager tab, and select the device you wish to disable. <Picture: *>Click the Properties button, un-check Original Configration, and click OK.

Wordpad Can't Save Write Files. The W95 replacement for Write is Wordpad the scaled-down ver of the over-rated MS Word. Wordpad can, in fact, read .WRI files (Write's native format), although through a brilliant stroke of design genius, Wordpad cannot save .WRI files. The only way to save .WRI files is to use Word 7.0. What's even stranger, is that the previous ver of Word wasn't able to read or or save .WRI files! I suppose this is MS's polite way of phasing out the Write format. The only apparent solution is: Don't use .WRI files anymore.

NB: If you have W3.x, you can still use the old ver of WRITE.EXE (which W95 overwrites), which can open and save Write files.

Stop W95 from Altering FDs. You may not know it, but W95 will change the contents of any FD inserted into a W95 Sys. This is to update the file sys on the Fd to accept long filenames, but can be detrimental to valuable data. Diskettes affected include some older vers of MS-DOS startup diskettes, copy-protected pgms, and SW that inspects the validity of the diskette before installing. The data changed is the OEM-ID of a disk, offset 3 in the boot-sector. To prevent W95 from altering the FDs, Write protect the FDs.

Restoring W95 After a Crash. If you back up your HD using W95 BU SW (W95 Backup util or a third party solution), and the HD crashes, you'll have to re-install W95 as well as your BU SW from scratch before you can restore everything else. Furthermore, you won't be able to restore most of the files in your W95 dir, because they're system files and will be in use. It is a good idea to be aware of all these issues before the sys crashes, however. There are ways of getting around this:

A complete restore, requiring a re-installation of W95:

<Picture: *>Back up your entire hard disk with Windows95 software, including the Windows95 directory. <Picture: *>After the crash, re-install a bare-bones version of Windows95, and your backup software. <Picture: *>Restore all the files, except for the ones in the Windows95 directory. Now, install your Windows95 files into a different directory or drive temporarily. <Picture: *>Then, exit Windows95 completely, and copy the restored files into the appropriate directories.

A complete restore, without re-installing Windows95:

<Pic> Obtain a DOS version of your backup software (some Windows software packages come with an Emergency DOS restore just for this purpose). <Picture: *>You might have to back up your long filenames separately (see below). <Picture: *>If it's fully compatible with your Windows95 software, you'll only need the DOS counterpart for the emergency restore. <Picture: *>Once you've restored all your files, you can restore your long filenames as well.

<Picture: *>Note: More detailed instructions (4 kb) are available for restoring Windows95 from MS-DOS. - submitted by Wes Summers

<Picture: *>Note: It is a really good idea to back up your registry frequently. <Picture: *>Note: See Getting Windows95 Backup to Work with Your Tape Drive for more information. <Picture: *>Note that if your backup software does not support long filenames, all long filenames will be lost when restoring the files. To back up your long filenames, Microsoft has included a command-line utility on the CD version, called LFNBK, located in \MIG_KIT\ADMIN95\APPTOOLS\LFNBACK. They call it "Temporary Compatibility," as it is only for use with programs that don't yet support long filenames. Read the included text file for more information. There's a free utility called DOSLFNBK which supposedly does a better job of this.

Connect SCSI Devices Without Restarting Windows 1995

One of the great things about SCSI technology, besides plug & play that actually works, is the ability to plug in or turn on a SCSI device and use it without having to restart your computer. However, since Windows95 doesn't automatically refresh your SCSI card, you have to do it manually when connecting devices. Here's how (after you've connected and turned on the device):

<Picture: *>Right-click on My Computer, and select Properties. <Picture: *>Click the Device Manager tab, and select Computer at the top of the list. <Picture: *>Important: Click on View devices by connection. <Picture: *>Press Refresh. This will take several seconds, but the new device(s) should appear in the list. <Picture: *>If you don't see the new device, choose View devices by connection, find your SCSI card in the list, and expand it out to see all the devices attached to it.

<Picture: *>Note: There are some SCSI devices for which this will not work; you may still have to restart Windows to recognize newly attached devices.

Make one of those Keen DOS Startup Menus Last Modified: 2/5/96 Since MS-DOS 5.0, users have been able to create menus to switch between different configurations when first starting the computer. Although the Windows95 documentation doesn't tell you how to do it (or even that it's possible), the old DOS tricks still work (it's a good idea to get your old DOS manual ready). This functionality can be useful for users who use DOS more than just occasionally and don't want to be forced to enter Windows first just to play a DOS game. Note that this procedure can be tricky, and requires some basic knowledge of the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files. Here's how you do it:

Step #1: <Picture: *>Configure your computer to Boot Directly into MS-DOS.

Step #2: <Picture: *>Use a text editor (such as Notepad) and open CONFIG.SYS located in the root directory of your boot drive (usually C:\) - if it's not there, create a new file. <Picture: *>Type the following lines (might need some adjustments for your system) at the top of the file:

[Menu] MenuItem = MS-DOS MenuItem = Windows95 ... put any other menu items you want here MenuDefault MS-DOS,4 MenuColor 15,1

[MS-DOS] ... put all your MSDOS drivers here

[Windows95] ... put all your Windows95 drivers here (should be empty)

[etc.] ... make a section for each additional menu item, with each name matching a "menuitem" command above

[Common] ... put all the stuff you want loaded all the time

Step #3: <Picture: *>Now, save CONFIG.SYS, and open AUTOEXEC.BAT from the same directory, using the same text editor, and type the following at the top of the file (this may need some adjustments if you have added more menu items):

@echo off Rem * If user selects "Windows95" it must be run manually here * IF "%CONFIG%"=="Windows95" win IF "%CONFIG%"=="Windows95" goto skip

... put all your DOS autoexec stuff here

:skip

Save AUTOEXEC.BAT when finished, and restart your computer to test the new menu.

Note: The particular drivers required by your system depend on the devices you have installed. There are no "standard" CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT files to copy.

Note: You might also want to try the 95 Multi Booter (8 kb), which is easier to use, but only allows you to use the predefined W95 startup menus.