~~~~~
Create a new shortcut, and paste in this info:
"C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\MSIMN.EXE" /mailurl:%1
Save, then put into your Quick Launch area.
This will open a new OE email message window, even if OE is not your default email program. Handy for when you want to post a quick note/message without loading all the overhead of your normal email program.
~~~~~
This only works in Windows 98 and SE. Windows ME does this from the start | run.
#1
Type "scanreg" in Run command line to prepare a backup of the windows registry.
#2
If Windows does not start and you need to restore settings from the "good" copy of the registry, start windows, press F8, select Command Mode Only and type "scanreg" in DOS prompt - you will be able to select the backup registry file and restore it.
It must be done in real mode (DOS).
After restoring the Registry, you may also run, "scanreg", as above, with a /fix switch. This will repair any broken links within it.
Afterwards, run "scanreg" with a /opt switch to shrink the overall size of the system.dat and user.dat files. This may help to speed up the system boot up time.
~~~~~
You can create shortcuts to start any Control Panel components.
For example type in Run line:
control main.cpl @1
control main.cpl @2
control main.cpl @3
control modem.cpl
control joy.cpl
control desk.cpl etc. any *.cpl file in Windows\system directory.
~~~~~
It is always a good idea to keep your start menu trim. Each installed program likes to create its own sub folder, although each group will likely contain only one necessary icon. It is very useful to keep only a few active groups*, and move new icons into one of these. Win98 lets you delete items right from the start menu just by right clicking on them
and selecting delete. If you turn off delete confirmation prompting in the properties of the recycle bin, you can delete items more easily because the start menu stays open after each deletion.
* Good candidates for a concise start menu are:
Applications - office like apps
Communications - Internet and telephony
Control Panel - a cascading version
Games - how can you not have this?
Graphics & Sound - multimedia authoring tools
Main & Accessories - the built-in apps and similar applets
Multimedia & CD-ROM - all of your CD titles
StartUp - how can you not have _this_? (literally!) ;-)
System Tools - all the built-in and third party utilities you need to
tune the system
~~~~~
to rid old or redundant shortcuts in your start menu run (without quotes) "smtidy".
~~~~~
Here's a tip for anyone upgrading to a larger hard disk.
Most modern PC's have dual IDE channels. You usually put the hard disk as a master on channel one and the CD-ROM as a master on channel two. After upgrading to a larger hard drive, put the old one as a slave on the the first IDE channel.
Since the backup program that comes with Windows 98 can not only backup to a tape drive but also can backup to a FILE, use the backup program to make backup copies of key critical files from your main hard disk to a file on the old hard disk.
You can tag the items most valuable to you and save them as a JOB for later refreshes. It's a quick and easy backup that can also be automated with the task scheduler in PLUS.
You can drag, and dock, toolbars on secondary monitors. Wow.....that is if you are using Windows 98's multimonitor feature.
~~~~~
If you're accustomed to doing things like honkin' big downloads or insanely huge Zip files, or anything that can progress comfortably in the background, throw it on the secondary monitor and you can play a game on the primary to pass the time and still keep an eye on progress.
~~~~~
Here is a tip if you are networking a couple of computers at home or a small office set-up. Make a shortcut to the other computer's desktop folder on your desktop. When you want to send a file to the other computer so that the user might notice it, just right click drag and drop the file on the desktop shortcut and select copy here. The file will show up on the other computer's desktop.
~~~~~
Create a new shortcut and in the command line type in
c:\windows\control.exe sysdm.cpl, , 1 8
change the 1 to
1= device manager
2 = hardware profile
3= performance
then stick it on the quicklaunch bar or wherever
~~~~~
create a shortcut on your desktop to device manager, bypassing the general tab:
C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.EXE SYSDM.CPL,SYSTEM,1
(changing the number will display the corresponding tab)
~~~~~
Windows 98 makes using the My Documents folder even easier to organize and find your data files.
1. It's on the desktop.
2. It's in Start/Documents at the top if you can't get to desktop.
3. When opening or saving files in an application, if the "Current Directory" is somewhere else, don't Navigate, use the drop down list box and it's right there.
4. Use your own folder name/location by right clicking on the desktop My Documents icon and setting the location.
5. If you remove My Documents from the desktop, right click New on the desktop to create it again. (this only shows up if you've removed the desktop shortcut.
6. My Documents folder shows up with a unique folder icon when viewing the c:\ drive so it's easy to spot.
~~~~~
If you have any web page editing or making tool, you can put your own links on the folder info side of any folder, just open notepad, and then open folder.htt in the web dir, of your windows 98 dir.
Do a find for "<a href="http://www.mylink1.com/">Custom Link 1</a>" and once it finds it change it to what ever you want your link to be, like <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows98">Windows 98 Web Page</a>.
You can add more than the 2 sample links that are all ready there too, just copy the sample link to under your links so it looks like this..
<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/">Windows 98 Web Page</a>
<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/">Windows 98 Web Page</a>
<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/">Windows 98 Web Page</a>
~~~~~
you can place links to a DUN dialup, a telnet app, an Msmail remote mail dial-in, (and an FTP shortcut in IE5) along with some regular Internet shortcuts in a "Work" sub folder of the Favourites folder for convenient access off the Start Menu Favorites menu, as well as the other locations Favourites appear of course. It is not just for URLs any more!
~~~~~
Alt+D Jumps to the Address Bar.
Alt+Left Arrow Back.
Alt+Right Arrow Forward.
Backspace Back, or up one level when using folders.
Ctrl+D Adds the current page to your favourites.
Ctrl+F Brings up the "Find on this page" dialogue box.
Ctrl+N Opens a new window.
Ctrl+O Brings up the "Open" dialogue box.
Ctrl+P Brings up the "Print" dialogue box.
Ctrl+R Refreshes current page.
Ctrl+S Saves the current page.
Ctrl+Shift+Tab Move backwards among frames.
Ctrl+Tab Move forwards among frames.
F4 Displays the Address Bar history.
F5 Refreshes current page.
F6 Jumps to the Address Bar.
F11 Toggles Full Screen mode.
Page Down Scrolls down, one page at a time.
Page Up Scrolls up, one page at a time.
Space Scrolls down, one page at a time.
You can find more keyboard shortcuts for Internet Explorer by going to
the Help menu, choosing Contents and Index and then looking in the
Accessibility section.
~~~~~
Alt+Left Arrow Selects the next message up in the headers list.
Alt+Right Arrow Selects the next message down in the headers list.
F5 Refreshes current view.
Tab Cycles through the folder view, headers view and preview pane etc.
Ctrl+A Select all.
Ctrl+F Forwards the selected message.
Ctrl+I Takes you to the Inbox.
Ctrl+L Toggle the folders view on or off.
Ctrl+N Composes a new message.
Ctrl+O Brings up the "Open" dialogue box.
Ctrl+Q Mark selected header(s) as read.
Ctrl+R Replies to the selected message.
Ctrl+Shift+B Opens the Address Book.
Ctrl+Shift+M Downloads all.
Ctrl+Shift+R Replies to the author and group of the selected message.
Backspace Back, or up one level when using folders.
~~~~~
After backing up your Registry, browse your way to this branch in Regedit:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer
Right click the Download Directory value and choose Modify. Enter the path for the folder you want to use as your default download folder.
~~~~~
If you have more than one email account, and want to be able to check them all in one shot, do the following:
Tools/Accounts/Mail - For each mail account, make sure you choose "Connect using Internet Explorer's or a 3rd party dialler" on the Connection Tab.
This will force you to manually call one of your ISPs each time you start OE, but at least OE will not complain while getting your email from your other accounts in the same session.
No more need to hang up and dial in the other ISPs.
~~~~~
If you are like me you use your desktop as a work area. It gets cluttered with both important stuff and lots of junk that you go through occasionally to organize. That important stuff will need to be moved normally to save it if you decide to delete the Windows directory.
I have found a better solution though that adds a bit of insurance. Windows 98 now allows you to use explorer to cut and paste the desktop from its default location of C:\Windows\Desktop to another location.
For example d:\Desktop would also save that data to a completely remote location from both the Windows folder and the boot drive. I simply move the directory to my D: drive which includes all the data I backup to CD's regularly. Then I do not need to concern myself with it each time I reinstall Windows.
------------------------------------
Are you sick of having the favorites and documents menus on the start menu slow you down? there is a very easy way to get rid of them!
Windows 98 comes with a *new* version of tweak ui on the windows 98 CD-ROM. Just Goto the \tools\reskit\powertoy\ and right click on the
tweakui.inf file then click install, that will install tweak ui, then just restart, and Goto your control panel, the Tweak UI icon should be there. dbl click on it, and Goto the ie4 tab, and uncheck "show favorites on start menu" and the show documents on start menu", and restart, and then the annoying menus won't be there.
~~~~~
Many times do I get the message "PC NOT FOUND" when trying to access another computer over a peer to peer network.
The Solution:
Assign each PC an IP address.
1) Right-Click on Network Neighbourhood and pick Properties.
2) Make sure you have TCP/IP installed for your network adapter.
3) Double click on TCP/IP for your network adapter.
4) Click on the IP Address tab.
5) Select "Specify and IP address"
6) Enter an IP address in the input boxes (can be 192.168.x.x where x is any number between 1 and 255)
7) Enter 255.255.255.0 in the Subnet Mask.
8) Press OK to all dialogs and reboot your system.
Now repeat this for all machines on the peer to peer network but make sure that they all have a different IP address or a conflict will arise.
add dividers to quick-launch or any other toolbar:
If your Quick Launch or other toolbar has become so crowded with icons that it's hard to find what you need, you can reduce the confusion by organizing the icons into groups (communications apps, word-processing, graphics, etc.) and separating the groups with spacers. Since the Windows 98 toolbars don't provide spacers, you have to make your own.
Here's how to do it:
1. Create a blank icon that is either set to the transparency color or the same color as you're using for the toolbar background (you need a graphics program that can save in .ico format for this). You can also create an icon that contains a vertical line or anything else you might want to use for a toolbar spacer.
2. Save the icon file anywhere you want except in the toolbar folder.
3. Open the folder for the toolbar you want to use the spacer in, and create a shortcut to any screen-saver file (e.g., Flying Windows.scr or any other .scr file that you want to use).
4. Name the shortcut "0".
5. Assign the blank icon to the shortcut.
6. Make copies of the shortcut, and rename each copy with the next available number.
Your toolbar now contains a blank icon for each shortcut you created. The spacers appear to be just blank spaces, since the icon is the same color as the toolbar background. You can drag the spacers anywhere you want within the toolbar just like you would any other toolbar icon. Since each file in a directory must have a unique name, naming the
copies with successive numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) is easiest to manage, since they'll be grouped together. Anytime you need another spacer, just make another copy and rename it with the next available number. To delete a spacer, just drag it to the recycle bin (from either the toolbar folder or the toolbar itself).
Here's the reason for making the shortcut point to a screen saver:
First, the shortcut has to point to some executable. Since you may inadvertently click the spacer button once in a while, you don't want it to point to something that takes a while to load and you have to manually close. Since the spacers are all pointing to a screen saver, if you click on one of them by mistake, your screen saver pops up, so you know right away what happened, and as soon as you move your mouse pointer even one pixel, the screen saver is gone. It is best to use a screen saver that loads very quickly, such as Blank Screen.scr, or if you want to go to the trouble, you could create your own unique screen saver, such as a message like, "Hey sucker -- you clicked in the wrong place!"
~~~~~
By adding a shortcut to Notepad in your C:\Windows\SendTo menu you can simply right click and select the Notepad Icon on the SendTo menu to quickly edit a file.
~~~~~
adding send to context menu to favourites:
A tip for adding items to the "Sendto" menu and making this accessible for update.
Click start ...run...and type "sendto" (without the quotes) in the dialog box click okay.
The sendto menu opens as icons for shortuts to be added such as a shortcut to notepad and paint etc.
Now select favorites from the menubar and "add" this window to your favorites. This makes it easily accessible to update with other shortcuts.
~~~~~
When installing, Win98 will generate a setuplog file in the root of your boot partition (c:\). This file can then be used to set up identical machines in batch mode using the setuplog as an input file.
~~~~~
On TweakUI's "General" page, select your favorite internet search engine.
Now you can start a new search by simply typing a question mark followed by your search request (as in "? Windows 98") in any Address bar (for example in Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer or your Taskbar).
~~~~~
On the CD, in \tools\mtsutils, is a defrag.inf. Rightclick/install will set a "RunOnce" entry for the next time you boot, to run Defrag before the login prompt, so that NO other programs are running.
~~~~~
Create a shortcut on your desktop. For the command line, type:
"C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\Msimn.Exe" /mailurl:%1.
Finish the shortcut and move it to the quick launch menu. Now you can easily open the new message dialog box without having to actually open your default mail client.
~~~~~
As you all there is still a small bug in Win98 that scrambles the Quick Launch Toolbar Icons every now and then. Well if that really annoys you, read on.
Here is the fastest way to restore them to the originals. Just right-click on a blank space on the Quick Launch Toolbar and select "Refresh". Its instantaneous and no fuss.
~~~~~
In the Registry, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Internet Explorer\Main
Create a new String Value by clicking "Edit - New - String Value."
Give the String Value the name "Window Title" [without the quotes].
Right click on the new value and select Modify.
Under "Value Data:" enter the String you'd like to appear in the Title Bar of Internet Explorer, such as; My Global Company, Inc., Ltd., PTY. This new string will replace the default string "Microsoft Internet Explorer."
~~~~~
System files do not usually break down, but I find that my system stays on top of the hill if I repair system files once a month.
Using the TweakUI accessory located on your Windows 98 CD-ROM you can tell Windows 98 to repair all system files with fresh backup copies.
Under the last tab in TweakUI select the Repair System Files option, and click 'Repair Now'. You may be prompted to restart your computer. In either case you should restart.
Your system will run faster and any glitches that may have arisen will be alleviated.
~~~~~
Monitor your modem's throughput with Sysmon
1) Right click on START and OPEN your PROGRAM MENUS.
2) Double click on PROGRAMS, ACESSORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS.
3) Right Click & Drag SYSTEM MONITOR to your STARTUP group.
4) Double Click on SYSTEM MONITOR to execute it.
5) View > Numeric Charts
6) Edit > Add Item > Dialup Adapter > Bytes Received/Second
7) Edit > Add Item > Dialup Adapter > Bytes Transmitted/Second
8) Edit > Remove item (Anything else)
9) Double click on the Numeric Chart Display to edit Chart colors.
10) Options > Chart > 500ms
11) View > Always on Top
12) View > Hide Title Bar
13) Drag to minimize so that only a colored border surrounds each readout and there is no other text showing. Drag Sysmon downwards Lower Right so that it sits just above systray on your desktop, and does not impede any toolbar use. Do not place sysmon on the toolbar since it does not honor Sysmon's "always on top" request.
14) Double clicking on Sysmon restores the Title bar for modification.
~~~~~
If you have an Intel Pentium, the General tab on the My Computer screen probably reports that your computer is a GenuineIntel (one word) Pentium(r) Processor (or something close to that).
For more information, open this Registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Hardware\Description\System\CentralProcessor\0
Double-click on VendorIdentifier and put a space ("modify") between "Genuine" and "Intel" on this line.
Now reopen the Properties sheet. Underneath the Genuine Intel line, you'll see that your CPU is displayed as coming from the "x86 Family X Model Y Stepping [version] Z," where X, Y, Z are the correct values in your system.
Close the Properties sheet, reopen the Registry key and the same information will be seen on the Identifier line.
Restart Windows 98 and the default information will be reinstated.
~~~~~
If you try to install Windows 95/98 from a DOS prompt, SETUP allows several command line switches, also available to their Windows counterpart.
Run :
SETUP /?
"Setup Options: SETUP [/C] [/IL] [batch] [/T:TMP] [/IM] [/ID] [/IS]
[/IQ] [/IN]
/C Instructs Setup not to load the SmartDrive disk cache.
/IL Loads the Logitech mouse driver instead of the Microsoft mouse driver. Use this option if you have a Logitech Series C mouse.
[batch] Specifies the name and location of the file that contains Setup options.
/T:TMP Specifies the directory where Setup will copy its temporary files. If the directory doesn't exist, it will be created.
WARNING: Any existing files in this directory will be deleted.
/IM Skips the memory check.
/ID Skips the disk-space check.
/IS Doesn't run ScanDisk.
/IQ Skips the check for cross-linked files.
/IN Runs Setup without the Network Setup module.
Note: The /a and /n options are no longer valid. Use NETSETUP.EXE
instead."
NEW Setup switches added by Windows 98:
/ie Does not create an Emergency Boot Disk.
/ih Skips the registry check.
/iv Skips the display of billboards during setup.
UPDATES: "Undocumented SETUP switch:
/IW Bypasses Microsoft EULA licensing screens/dialog boxes. [EULA = End
User License Agreement]."
/NTLDR Bypasses an existing Operating System detection. By default OEM/VAR Win95/NT full releases can be installed ONLY on a new PC, without ANY previous OS, but this switch allows SETUP to circumvent this "problem".
/Pf Creates a NEW Win95 Registry from scratch, in the case of corrupted registry files [BACKUP your WORKING WIN98/95 REGISTRY FILES FIRST]! Also read the "FRESH REGISTRY" topic (included) for more "SETUP /Pf" details.
/nm Bypasses the internal processor detection, to allow Win95/98 install on systems that do NOT meet Microsoft minimum requirements (i.e. 386, 486SX etc). Also skips the check for the math coprocessor. Works especially for Windows 98!
NOTICE: Also read these Microsoft Knowledge Base articles to learn everything about the "official" SETUP switches:
1. "Windows 95 Setup Switches":
~~~~~
On high-res displays (i.e. 1600x1200), the QuickLaunch toolbar is always at some window edge and a fair distance from where your mouse usually is. This amounts to racking up some additional mileage on your mouse (and your wrist).
Unlike the QuickLaunch toolbar, the Links Bar also appears in the Browser and Explorer windows in addition to the Taskbar. If you drop your application shortcuts to Links instead of QuickLaunch, your apps are always a short-distance away from your mouse. Since your mouse is usually up around that area anyway for clicking menu items, a mouse move to launch an app amounts to just a short roll. Single-click and a tiny mouse roll -- you can't beat that for speed!
Put all Internet apps (ftp, telnet, irc, etc) in the Links Bar making the Browser one stop shopping for all Internet stuff.
~~~~~~
Windows 98 has now been added to the Hardware Compatibility List at
Use the Advanced tab to uncheck other choices so you can search just the Win98 database.
~~~~~
Win98 includes a text file called TIPS.TXT containing several neat tips. To access it, click Start | Run, type in TIPS.TXT and press Enter.
~~~~~
If you accidentally delete email items in OE and empty the Deleted Folder, it seems that you've lost all pieces of email. No worry. You still have a rescue as long as you have not done a "Compact Folders" operation. Here is how:
Try to locate where your email is stored. Default: %windir%\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook Express\Mail. OE will prompt where you want your data stored when you launch OE for the first time. Delete the .idx file for the folder you want to restore, start OE and goto the folder you want to restore and now you will see all email items are back.
Note: you must not compact the folder or you will lose your mail permanently.
~~~~~
In addition to Web View, Windows 98 includes a little known feature which makes it easy to preview images from Explorer. This is known as Thumbnail View.
To enable Thumbnail View, right-click a folder and choose Properties. Place a checkmark in the "Enable thumbnail view" box and click OK. Next, double-click the folder to open it. Click the View menu and choose Thumbnails (below "as Web Page").
You will now see a thumbnail preview of all graphics files in that folder.
~~~~~
An updated version of Notepad is included with Windows 98.
One new feature of Notepad allows you to change the font used to display text files, without having to fiddle with Desktop Properties. To set the font in Notepad, simply click the Edit menu and choose Set Font.
~~~~~
This works for Win95, should continue to work for Win98.
This is for the times where you have scrambled the plug n play configuration or have added or removed hardware and the System settings in the control panel just isn't right.
Control_panel -> system -> Hardware_configuration tab
Normally you will see one setting of "original configuration". Click the Rename button and change it to "saved original configuration". Click the Copy button and make "copied original configuration"
Reboot the machine (it may not take if the machine crashes during shutdown)
At reboot, the machine will prompt to choose which hardware profile to use, select "none of the above" and it will rebuild the profile. (this will reboot your machine again).
Later you may want to delete the other profiles.
~~~~~
Lets say your favorites list is very long and you wish to scroll down the favorites faster... Well all you have to do is click CTRL while selecting the down arrow on the bottom of favorites and there you have it... Favorites scroll at 3x the speed!
~~~~~
If you forget to turn on your scanner or ZIP drive before booting up the system there's no need to do a restart to get device detection. Just go to System Properties > Device Manager and hit the refresh button.
~~~~~
winalign:
Set-up a 2nd monitor and turn on its Active Desktop. Fill it up with some desktop components like stock tickers and cnn.com, etc. and use it to track information in real-time while working in Word or something full screen on your primary monitor.
Or drag your mail client over there and instantly see who mailing you and about what as mail comes in. No clicking, or ATL-TABBING, just glance over.
Dev Tip: I also use it to see what apps look like in different resolutions. Use to see if your dialogues look ok with Large Fonts. Does your web page look ok with VGA? Drag the browser over and take a look without switching res.
~~~~~
If you have the ATI All In Wonder card (which includes a TV Tuner) you might be stymied when you set up WebTV. You'll notice that WebTV will set-up correctly, but you won't be able to set up your TV channels, and hence not watch TV on your PC.
Check your display adapter set-up.
In some instances, Windows98 identifies your display adapter as the "ATI Rage II+ [mach_64]" which allows you to run your All In Wonder at various colour depths up to True Colour. This may lead you to think that your display adapter is set up 100% properly.
While the Mach_64 drivers correctly drive the display adapter for most everyday tasks, these drivers don't include the needed files for WebTV viewing.
Change your display adapter to the "All In Wonder [ati_m64]" drivers which are included with Windows98 using the Display Control Panel applet. After a reboot, you should be able to go into WebTV and fully use all of it's features, including scanning for working TV Channels, and of course, watching TV.
~~~~~
If you frequently send e-mail to the same address, make a shortcut on the Desktop as follows:
1. Right click blank part of Desktop | New | Shortcut
2. For the command line enter
~~~~~
Are you tired of PWS 4.0 autodialing every time you reboot Windows? You can use the handy System Information tool to keep this from happening.
1)Click on Accessories|System Tools|System Information on your start menu.
2)Once the System Information toll has opened simply pull down the tools menu and select System Configuration Utility.
3)Select the Start-up tab.
4)Uncheck the box next to MSDTC (msdtcw-start)
5)Press "OK" and reboot your machine
~~~~~
Make your Task Bar double Height, then add an address bar, by right clicking on an open space in the task bar and selecting the Address Bar. Once it is there, you can drag it to be however long that you would like. You may know that you can open http:// web sites, among other things. But you can also open folders on the network using the UNC convention. OR you can open programs. Like solitaire, just type c:\windows\sol.exe and solitaire will open for you. You can even add switches like c:\windows\format a: /s and it will do it. It even has an auto fill function which is really cool.
Brings back the memory of DOS days don't it.
~~~~~
Use the task bar as your shortcut for your favourite Office and Windows applications. Just drag that shortcut icon to the task bar for easier access and eliminate that extra toolbar on the top, side or bottom.
~~~~~
For those upgrading from earlier version of Windows (Win 3.x or Win 95), ASD might be a very useful tool when you are running into problems.
To see if you have any devices that are not working properly in Win98 after upgrading or if you want to restart the failed devices, just type ASD at from Start->Run.
~~~~~
Windows 95 has built-in support for the Microsoft Natural Keyboard, using the special keys as follows:
WIN + R = Display the Run dialog box.
WIN + M = Minimize all windows currently open.
WIN + Shift + M = Undo Minimize all windows
WIN + F1 = Start Help
WIN + E = Start Explorer
WIN + F = Start Find Files/Folders dialog box.
CNTL+ WIN + F = Start Find Computer dialog box.
WIN + TAB = Cycle through taskbar buttons.
WIN + BREAK = Display Systems Properties panel.
credit to:
~~~~~
You don't need a fancy graphics program to get a screenshot of what's on your computer. If you are in any windows based program, just hit the print screen key on your keyboard and you have a full screenshot.
Paste it into whatever you like! This allows you to get information out of a DOS text box and onto a printer in a desperate situation if you are running in a windowed DOS box...
~~~~~
Hitting the printscreen key captures your whole desktop to the windows clipboard and you can then paste it to any graphics program.
An additional tip is to highlight one window on the desktop and hit printscreen while holding down the ALT key and it captures only that one window to the clipboard.
~~~~~
This allows you to open a file from Explorer or the desktop with a different program than it is associated with.
In Explorer or on the Desktop wherever the file is hold down shift and right click the file. You now have an open with option instead of just open. Click on open with and you can open the file with any program on the computer. Unless you click always open with this program the original association remains.
~~~~~
Here are three ways to open files with a specific program.
METHOD 1. Add to the file's context menu.
Files in Windows Explorer have a context menu with "Open", "Edit", etc.
You can add things to this menu, or change existing ones.
1. Start Windows Explorer.
2. Click View -> Folder Options
3. Select the File Types tab
4. Select the file type you want to add to... "Microsoft HTML Document 4.0" for example
5. Click "Edit..."
6. In the Actions box, you can Edit existing actions.
7. To create a new action:
a. Click "New..."
b. For "Action", type a description of the action... "Edit in &Notepad", for example. (The ampersand will make the next letter appear underlined, so you can use a keyboard shortcut.)
c. For "Application used...", type the command line to start the program, such as "C:\Windows\Notepad.exe".
METHOD 2. Add items to the SendTo folder.
You can put shortcuts to programs in the Send To menu.
1. Start Windows Explorer
2. Go to C:\Windows\SendTo
3. Create a new folder called "Programs" (or whatever you want to call it)
4. Drag shortcuts from the start menu into this folder (be sure to right-drag so you don't remove it from the start menu), or create new shortcuts in it.
When you right-click on a file in Explorer, choose Send To from the context menu. Your newly created folder and icons will be here.
METHOD 3. Drag files to a shortcut.
You can drag a file from Explorer and drop it on a shortcut on the desktop. The application will start and the file will open.
Another way is to create a new toolbar with the programs you use often. Then drag files from Explorer to the program icons on your toolbar. It's easier to do if you have your toolbar set to Large. (For some reason, if you try to drag to an IE icon you get the "no drop" mouse pointer. It works with Netscape... Uh-oh MS :-)
~~~~~
Right click on "My Computer" then click "Properties".
This saves you going into Control Panel.
~~~~~
Ever wanted to delete certain documents from the Documents menu, simply right click on the document of your choice and select the delete option.
~~~~~
Ok, alot of people have stability problems in Windows, here is a way that alot of these problems can be solved:
1. Go to the Start Menu
2. Go into Control Panel
3. Double click the System icon
4. Go to the performance tab
5. Select Graphics
6. Move the performance tab back to none.
7. Reboot and run your apps, if you have no crashes, step the performance slider up 1 notch, reboot, and test. Keep doing this till you get the crashes again, then move it back 1 notch and keep it there
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Ok, after running Internet Explorer, you notice there's some resource leaks and instability, well here's a quick solution to the problem....
1. Go to the Start Menu
2. Go to Settings
3. Open Control Panel
4. Double Click the Internet icon
5. Go to the Advanced Tab
6. Put a check mark in "Browse in a new process"
7. That's it, you have successfully fixed the problem.
~~~~~
Put a CD in your CD-ROM drive then:
#1 Open:
Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information
#2 Click on:
Hardware Resources/ Components/Multimedia/ CD-ROM
#3 You will get some benchmarks.
~~~~~
If you have lost your Microsoft NDS service for netware after your upgrade. Go to the Network properties (right click Network icon on desktop and select properties), and remove the service. Then add the service back again (Click on the Add button->Service->Add and select Service for Netware Directory Services). Click on the ok button to add it, once Windows has copied the selected files, click on the ok button again to accept the changes select Yes to reboot your PC. Once your PC has rebooted you will be able to use the NDS services again.
~~~~~
Converting your primary hard drive to fat32 from a floppy.
*Note: This is handy when you are experiencing problems converting your boot drive.
1. Locate "CVT.EXE" in your C:\Windows\Command directory.
2. Send "CVT.EXE" to the boot floppy you made at setup.
3. Shut your system off for five seconds and reboot with the floppy.
4. Select "Safe Mode" from the dialog box that follows.
5. Once at the command prompt. Type "CVT X:\" at the command line, X = the drive you wish to convert.
~~~~~
Many people are trying to convert to FAT32 with windows98 and discovering that they're unable to do it from windows because the converter is reporting bad sectors on their hard drives. A good workaround is to do it from DOS utilizing a hidden switch. The steps are as follows:
Step 1. Before you run any utility that changes your hard drive, you should perform a full backup (or at least a backup of your important files). Seriously.
Step 2. To run the converter, click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Drive Converter. Once you start the process, it may take several hours to complete, so don't launch it just before you're supposed to print out a major presentation.
Step 3. If the converter refuses to run because it detects bad sectors, run Scandisk by clicking Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Scandisk. Select a "Thorough" scan and "Automatically Fix Errors." Use the defaults for all other choices.
Step 4. After Scandisk marks all bad sectors, you can run the Drive Converter from a DOS prompt with an undocumented switch. Click Start, Shut Down, MS-DOS Mode. Then type cvt x: /cvt32 where x: is the drive
you wish to convert. The /cvt switch gives the converter your OK to proceed.
~~~~~
After uninstalling major programs. It is a good idea to run defrag. The defrag in Win98 optimizes programs in the order of how often you use them.
Running defrag after removing programs will allow other programs to be placed in greater priority. It will also remove the former program from the list of programs to optimize. Thus, leaving room for your active programs to be promoted.
~~~~~
Here's a really quick tip that will help some users to speed up their system:
1. Go to the Start Menu
2. Go Settings
3. Open Control Panel
4. Double Click on the Sounds Icon
5. Go to the Schemes drop box, and select "No Sounds"
6. That's it, your system should be faster now
~~~~~
Pressing the ("Windows" key + E) opens Explorer
~~~~~
Quicker Shutdown:
You've read how to restart Windows without re-booting the machine. A variation of this allows you to shut down the machine, as well.
Create a shortcut on your desktop that points to:
C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,ExitWindows
Double-clicking it will cause Windows to shut down.
use Outlook Express for Newsgroups Only (no email):
~~~~~
Do a custom setup to keep from having AOL, Compuserve, MSN and many other services you probably won't use installed on your machine. Then delete the folder from Program Files, Online Services
~~~~~
You can right click on any item in the start menu and move it, copy it, delete it, change it's properties whatever! Just drag and drop it where you want it in the start menu.
~~~~~
If you right click on an item in the start menu/toolbar and there is no 'rename' option, you can rename the item:
1. Left-click drag the item in question to the desktop.
2. Rename the new item on the desktop whatever you want
3. Right-click drag the newly-renamed item back to its previous location and choose 'Move here'
~~~~~
Click on start, run, type msconfig, and hit enter. Then you can click on the tab farthest to the right and check/uncheck things you do or don't want to load at startup. Find the AOL Instant Messenger item and uncheck it's box. Presto! Gone for good!
~~~~~
To add the rename option to the rightclick menu for the recycle bin create a new text file and add the following:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=hex:50,01,00,20
rename the file extension to .reg rather then text then run the file and it will add the above registry key.
~~~~~
Holding down shift while deleting an item will permanently delete it and keep it from going to the recycle bin.
~~~~~
OK, this one isn't well known, but here goes. MS has built in STAC compression for use over an analog connection. This means that those of you who have ISPs that support STAC for analog (this is particularly evident in ISP's who use Livingston PM3 units and support 56K access, but not always) can get STAC compression on your call to your ISP, drastically increasing performance.
Click on start, settings, control panel, modems, select your modem and hit properties, then click connection, then advanced. Uncheck the box that says compress data under error control. Click Ok until you are back to the control panel and reboot. (Some of you may have to disable error control completely, YMMV)
Call your ISP to see if they support it first and if they do when you connect, you should be able to click on the little flashing lights next to your clock in the taskbar and then click the details button. It will tell you if STAC is currently running. If it's not there, then it probably isn't supported by your ISP.
~~~~~
First open my computer drag the control panel icon down to the quick launch bar. this will create a shortcut to control panel from then on you can access control panel in 1 click.
~~~~~
To keep from rebooting when you change monitor properties, do the following.
Right click a blank area of your desktop. Choose properties, click settings, click advanced properties, click performance, check the box labeled apply the changes without restarting. click ok until you're back at your desktop. you MAY have to reboot just this once, but never again.
Most older monitors (analog particularly) do not support this function, but most new monitors do!
~~~~~
Here's the situation: You're in a windowed DOS box about to run a DOS command that takes a file name as a parameter. If you're lazy like me and don't want to type in the full path name, drag the file from an Explorer window into the DOS box and Windows will automatically type the full filename and path onto the command line for you.
~~~~~
Here's how to to drag a file to the desktop from Explorer without minimizing all the open windows.
Click on the file in Explorer. Drag the mouse (while holding down the mouse button) over an empty part of the taskbar (or even over the time display if your taskbar is full) and wait for a second. All of the windows will be minimized and you can now move the mouse up onto the desktop to complete the operation.
You can also do the same thing with data from one application to another. For example, you can run both Word and Excel maximized. Select a range of data in Excel and drag it onto the Word icon on the taksbar. Wait for a second and Word will be brought to the front allowing you to drop the data into your document.
~~~~~
If you right-click your taskbar, choose the "toolbars" option, and select "Address" you will get a new item on the taskbar that allows you to type in any URL (on the Internet, your hard drive, or a network share) and automatically open that page or folder.
This saves the steps of having to open your web browser, then type the address in. It's a timesaver.
~~~~~
If you have a "Windows 95" keyboard with the special "Windows Key" on it, you can hit the WinKey + Pause/Break to instantly open the System Properties dialog box. This saves you the extra step of going to the Start Menu and opening the Control Panel, then clicking on the System Icon.
~~~~~
With Win98 or IE 4.x you can minimize almost any open window by simply clicking on its depressed button in the taskbar.
~~~~~
If you ever want to reboot just Windows98, and not your whole machine, create a shortcut and use the following text as your Target:
C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,ExitWindowsExec
This takes the place of having to go through a whole reboot of your system when you only want to restart Windows.
~~~~~
If you are working at a DOS Prompt (command line) from within Windows, you can easily switch between full-screen and Windowed mode by simply pressing Alt + Enter at the same time.
~~~~~
Using IE 4.x, you can easily toggle between full-screen mode, and a normal window by pressing the F11 key. This will give you much more screen area on which to view thing from within IE.
~~~~~
1.right click and drag an existing shortcut from the desktop to the area next to the start button and release it. or, using explorer, right click and drag the icon for a program file (exe) in the same manner and release
2. then select create shortcut here
3. if you are always looking for "my computer" to explore or check something, it's a good choice to drag on down to the quick launch bar for instant access at any time!
~~~~~
Drag any folder or any item from the desktop (e.g. My Computer, Recycle Bin, Network Nighborhood, Control Panel icon etc.) to the edge of the screen and release. You get a Single Click Quick Launch Toolbar with all the icons inside it! Does not work, if Intellimouse "move mouse to other side of screen" is turned on.
~~~~~
Instead of going through Start | Settings | Control Panel | Networks, you can shorten the keystroke by right-clicking on Network Neighborhood and selecting Properties.
~~~~~
To cascade the Control Panel applets off your Start Menu:
1. Right-click on the Start button and select Open.
2. Create a new folder and call it Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
You can also do this with Printers by creating a folder called Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}
Don't forget the period in the folder name.