| Microsoft Windows 98 Basic Tips, Tricks, Hacks, and Tweaks... |
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| Reboot WIN95 at least once a day | |||
| The first is a piece of advice I myself practice every day with Windows 95. Reboot Windows once a day to keep trouble at bay. No matter what any one tells you, the Windows 9x line of operating systems has built-in design compromises whose sole purpose is to make it backwardly compatible with real-mode devices and hardware calls, as well as legacy 16-bit applications. That may not sound like much, but it's a big deal. To workaround those and other issues, Microsoft had to make Windows 9.x less bullet proof than it would have liked to. The upshot is, you can't expect Win9x to run forever without eventually choking on its own lack of system resources and the clutter left in memory by exiting applications. Reboot at least once a day. If you turn off your computer(s) at night, as I do, maybe you'll help save a few earth resources over the years to boot. | |||
| Don't install BIOS patches just for fun | |||
| If you're one of those people who never saw a BIOS patch you didn't install, I'm surprised you're still one of those people. Treat BIOS patches with serious skepticism. Never install one unless you have a specific need for it. And only install a BIOS patch that's distributed by your PC maker, a representative of your PC maker, or the same BIOS maker whose BIOS came with your PC. Don't install a BIOS patch if you're not 100% sure it's for your specific PC model. When in any doubt, don't install it. Call your PC maker for hard advice on this topic. | |||
| Create shortcut without seeing the desktop | |||
| From a Windows Explorer or the normal My Computer window, for example, simply right-click the filename for which you want to create a Shortcut and choose Send To|Desktop As Shortcut. Everything else is then done for you. You can then rename the shortcut later if it is necessary. | |||
| Maximize, Minimize & Close All Windows | |||
| This is common. You have a handful of applications which you want to close. Surely you don't close each Window one by one?. Hold down the Ctrl key and click on the application you want to close on the taskbar. Right-click one of them. There will be a context menu for you to Close, Minimize or Maximize. Select one action and all the applications you selected will close, minimize or maximize at the same time. | |||
| Adding Shortcuts To Your Start Menu | |||
| You can drag and drop to insert a Shortcut in a Start menu submenu very easily. To place a Shortcut in your Programs group, for example, drag the filename to the Start button, hover over it until the Start menu opens, then drag the filename to your Programs menu and hover over it until the Programs menu opens. You can then drag the Shortcut to any spot on the Programs menu or hover over one of the third-level menu items to open it and then drag the Shortcut there. Again, as you drag the Shortcut, Windows inserts a divider to indicate the Shortcut's position. | |||
| Moving Shortcuts Around | |||
| Windows will automatically place shortcuts in alphabetical order. If you have a program you use more frequently, just drag it to the top of the order as shown above. Now, we all know we can add items to the start menu as first-level items. However, all items will be placed above the Programs menu separated with a divider. You can actually drag an item between the Run and Programs menu and it will stay there! | |||
| Keeping Desktop & Start Menu Clean | |||
We have seen this too often. A user places all his 'stuff' on to his desktop or start menu. As a result, it is too messy and becomes so cluttered that even the user has trouble finding what he/she is looking for.
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Utilizing The Send To Menu |
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| One of the coolest things you can do with Windows is the Send To menu. You can add shortcuts to the Send To menu and if you have a unknown file format, you don't have to search for the application to open it up. Just right-click the item and select Send To | Application. It is that simple. To customize the Send To menu, go to c:\window\sendto directory and start creating shortcuts to your frequently used applications. Once it is done, you can now right-click any unknown file and open them without further trouble. You can also add items to the Send To menu without opening up Explorer! Create a shortcut on the desktop to your Send To directory. Dump this shortcut in the Send To directory itself. Name this shortcut Add to Menu. The next time you want to add an item to the Send To menu, right-click select Send To | Add to Menu add the item will automatically be added |
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| Set WIN98 Default Folder Attributes | |||
| Microsoft gave us a whole new way to set folder defaults in Windows 98. Open the folder for your C: drive, and without opening any other folders, arrange and configure it exactly as you'd like all your folders to appear. When you've got the C: drive folder the way you like it, choose View, Folder Options, and click the View tab. Next, press the Like Current Folder button to create the new default setting, which will be permanent (unless you hit the Reset All Folders button.) You'll notice that when you deviate individual folders from these settings, those folders will retain the changed settings as long as you have "Remember each folder's view settings" checked under Advanced settings. If you want them all to look exactly the same no matter what, remove the check beside Remember Each Folder's View Settings. Note: Some people report that their systems do not retain certain views, such as the Details view. But on my PCs, I have found that following these steps correctly does, in fact, make Details and other settings the default | |||
| Identify Mysterious Executable Files | |||
| If you have some kind of mysterious executable file
(EXE, DLL, OCX) on your system, right-click on it in Explorer, select Properties and click on the Version tab. This displays
the version resource inside the file (if it has one), which normally includes the name of the
company that created the file, the product the file is associated with, and the
file's version number. |
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| Identify Windows Boot Problems | |||
| If Windows fails to boot properly, press F8 while it boots for the
Windows StartUp menu, and pick the Logged (\BOOTLOG.TXT) option. It attempts a normal boot but records the
status of every step Windows takes during the process. You can use this option to
log a failed boot. Then, reboot to Safe mode if necessary and use a text editor to open
BOOTLOG.TXT (in your root directory.) Search for "fail" to find the boot steps Windows had
trouble with. Failed steps are often excellent clues to the cause of the problem. |
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| Open Explorer in Folder of Your Choice | |||
| Few things in Windows95 are more irritating than the way that Explorer
always opens C:\ when it's first opened. If you have an entry in your Start Menu to run Explorer, you can
change it to "Explore" at the folder of your choice: Open Explorer, and go to your Start Menu folder. Find the shortcut for Explorer, right click on it, and select Properties. Click on the Shortcut tab, and change the Target so it reads: c:\windows\EXPLORER.EXE /n, /e, d:\myfolder (where c:\windows is your Windows directory, and d:\myfolder is the directory in which you want Explorer to start.) Tip: To have Explorer start with My Computer, so no branches are initially expanded, use the following command line options: /n, /e, /select, c:\ |
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| Locate Folders that Slide Disappear from your Screen | |||
| Has a folder or program window mysteriously moved off your screen? It can happen for several reasons-the most common is that you've recently changed your video resolution. Right-click on the taskbar, select either the Cascade Windows or Tile Windows (Horizontally or Vertically) option, and the window will magically appear (you may need to resize your windows.) | |||
| View SCSI Devices without Rebooting | |||
| SCSI hardware such as scanners and tape backup devices often require you to reboot your system before using them. But sometimes you can force Win9x to recognize such devices right after you plug them in. Right-click on My Computer and choose Properties. Click on the Device Manager tab, make sure the Computer entry is highlighted and click on the Refresh button. The device should appear under its appropriate heading in Device Manager. | |||
| Forgot Your Password? | |||
| If you forget your Win95 password, just press Escape at the password box, bring up the MS-DOS Prompt and enter dir *.PWL at the WINDOWS folder to find your .PWL files. Delete the one with your name in front of it. Restart your system and enter a new password when prompted. | |||
| Find Your Path | |||
| Here's a trick for finding out the path of a file: Launch the Run command dialog (Start/Run), clear the Open box by hitting the Backspace key, and then drag and drop the file of your choice into the Open box. Windows will type the full path of the file into the box. | |||
| Repair Corrupted Sectors | |||
| Corrupted sectors and physical errors on your hard drive will affect performance. You can clean your disk using Windows 9x's built-in ScanDisk utility. Its default location is under Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/ScanDisk. For fastest results, use the Advanced options. | |||
| Print Your Fonts | |||
| Print out all the fonts on your system by opening Control Panel, double-clicking the Fonts icon, then on the font of your choice and clicking on the Print button. | |||
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