Customizing Web View Background
Quickly Access The Network Utility
Instantly Launch A New Browser Window
Using Windows 98's Troubleshooting Wizards
Creating A TV Channel Shortcut
Studying Startup With The System Configuration Utility
Activating Slow Motion In Windows 98's DVD Player
Keeping Your System In Great Shape With Disk Defragmenter
Quickly Saving Files To The Desktop From The Save As Dialog Box
Using Windows 98's Fat32 Will Improve Hard Drive Access
Taking Advantage Of The System Recovery Utility
Removing The Log Off Item From The Start Menu
Transform Windows Explorer Into My Computer On The Fly
Creating A Windows 98 Startup Disk
Dealing With Color Distortion When Using A 3d Screen Saver
Using All Upper-Case File And Folder Names
Adding Icons To The Start Button
Close All Your Applications At The Same Time
Exploring The Gradient Fill Feature
Create Email On The Fly With A Special Shortcut
Using The [Spacebar] For Page Up And Down In Your Browser
Removing The Internet Explorer Icon From Your Desktop
Clearing Phone Dialer's History List
Have you ever wanted to change the icons used to display the hard disk in My Computer? If so, you'll be happy to know that doing so is easy. To begin, open Notepad and create a file called Autorun.inf. Then, add the commands
[autorun]
ICON=filename
where filename is the name of the file containing the icon you want to use. Now, save the file Autorun.inf in the root folder of the drive you want to change.
One of the handiest utilities in Windows 98 is the Disk Cleanup tool, which helps you free up hard disk space. Disk Cleanup automatically starts when the available free space falls below a 3 percent threshold, but you can run it at any time. To do so, click Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Cleanup. When Disk Cleanup launches you'll see a Files To Remove list box that contains four check boxes: Temporary Internet Files, Downloaded Program Files, Recycle Bin and Temporary Files. (You may find other check boxes on your particular system.) Simply select the check boxes you want and click OK.
If you click the More Options tab, you'll see two more choices, "Windows setup and Installed programs," that allow you to easily remove unneeded Windows components or application programs.
When you pull down the View menu in either My Computer or Windows Explorer and select the As Web Page command, you know that Windows 98 automatically uses a cloud image for the background of the Web view.
However, if you'd like to use your own image for that Web view background here's what you need to do:
1) Open either My Computer or Windows Explorer and access the C:\Windows\Web folder.
2) Locate and rename the file Wvleft.bmp.
3) Open Paint, press [Ctrl]-E and type 242 and 600 in the Width and Height text boxes respectively.
4) Create your image and save it in the C:\Windows\Web folder as Wvleft.bmp.
If you regularly adjust your computer's network settings, you know that you must open the Control Panel and then double-click the Network icon to access the Network properties dialog box. However, you can save yourself time by simply right-clicking on the Network Neighborhood icon and selecting the Properties command from the shortcut menu.
To back up your Windows Registry, create a folder and copy the hidden files system.dat, system.da0, user.dat, and user.da0 to this directory. If Windows 95 ever crashes and the message, "Error in Explorer.exe. You must reinstall Windows." appears, boot into DOS mode (Command Prompt Only) and replace the corrupted files with the backup you made. Changes on your system after you backed up the files will be lost, but you'll have the
rest of your Windows data back. www.winfiles.com/tips/disk.html
If you want to temporarily configure Microsoft Outlook Express exclusively as newsreader, access the Run dialog box by clicking Start/Run and then type the command
msimn.exe /outnews
in the Open text box and click OK. If you like this trick and want to use it all the time, simply create a shortcut by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting New/Shortcut from the menu. Then, use the above command in the Command Line text box.
If you have a Microsoft mouse with a wheel, you know that you can use the wheel to easily scroll up and down Web pages. To do so, you click in the middle of the page with the wheel to anchor the wheel pointer and then move the mouse up and down to scroll. However, if you move the mouse too much, the page will scroll by at lightning speed. You then have to scroll back up the page to read it. Fortunately, we've discovered a cool technique that will give you much more control over the scroll speed. Once you anchor the wheel pointer on the screen, let go of your mouse and use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll.
For example, to scroll down a page, press the down arrow key once to start the screen scrolling. Press the down arrow key again to
increase the speed of the scrolling. To slow the scrolling down, press the up arrow key. To stop the scrolling, press the up arrow
key once more.
As you surf the Web, there are occasions when it's convenient to have more than one Internet Explorer window open at the same time. For example, when you're investigating the results of search engine, you can leave the search results in one instance of Internet Explorer and investigate each site in a separate instance of Internet Explorer. To do this, hold down the [Shift] key as you click links on the search results page. When you do, a separate Internet Explorer window will instantly launch and connect to that site. To investigate the results
quicker, use the [Shift]/click technique to launch three or four separate instances of Internet Explorer. Then, while the second, third and fourth pages are loading, return to the first one, which should be done loading, and investigate the contents. You can then access the second page and so on.
Got a problem with Windows 98? Before you call for help, you should investigate Windows 98's 15 Troubleshooter wizards. These wizards are found right in the Help system and may be able to help you
quickly and easily diagnose and solve system problems. Once you launch a Troubleshooter wizard, you'll discover that each one presents a number of common problems and walks you through plain-language steps for a variety of possible solutions to those problems.
Accessing the Troubleshooter wizards is as easy as selecting Help from the Start menu and selecting the Contents tab. Then, click Troubleshooting followed by Windows 98 Troubleshooters. When you do,
you'll see all the Troubleshooter wizards.
If you have a specific channel that you like to watch on WebTV for Windows, you can create a shortcut to that channel. Doing so allows you to quickly access the channel that you want without having to launch WebTV for Windows and then click the channel changer on the TV toolbar.
To create a shortcut to channel 29, right-click on the desktop and select New/Shortcut from the shortcut menu. When the Create Shortcut wizard appears, type TV:29 in the Command Line text box. You can also use the station's call letters instead of the channel. For example, you could type TV:HDLN in the Command Line text box. You can then click next and name your shortcut. Now, when you want to watch the channel, you can simply double-click your new shortcut.
Have you ever wondered what goes on in the background when you start Windows 98? If you're curious as to what programs and utilities are starting each time you boot Windows 98[RW1], you need to investigate the System Configuration Utility. This utility contains a series of tabs that show you the contents of several major files including the Config.sys, Autoexec.bat, System.ini, and Windows.ini. The last tab is titled Startup and
contains a complete list of all the items that load automatically from the Startup folder, the Win.ini load= and run= lines, and from the Registry each time Windows 98 starts. To access this utility, you can launch System Information, pull down the Tools menu and select the System Configuration Utility command. You can also access the Run dialog box from the Start menu and type the command C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSCONFIG.EXE in the Open text box.
When you're watching a DVD movie on your system with Windows 98's DVD Player, you might want to view a great scene of the movie in slow motion so that you can dissect every movement [RW2]. To do so, simply right-click on the Play button in the DVD Player. When you see the shortcut menu, open the Play Speed submenu and select the Half Speed command. To return the movie to regular speed, access the shortcut menu again and select the Normal Speed command.
One of the most important things that you can do to keep your system running at peak performance is to regularly Defragment your hard drive with the Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter utility. This utility performs two major tasks. Of course, it reorganizes your hard drive such that the pieces of your files are in contiguous
order so that they can load faster. In addition, Windows 98's Disk Defragmenter utility will move the files that you use most frequently to the beginning of the hard drive where they'll load faster. You can assure that Disk Defragmenter runs regularly by configuring the Maintenance Wizard to run the utility.
When you create and save a file that you only intend to keep temporarily, chances are that you save it to the Desktop, so that you can quickly and easily delete it when you're finished with it. You can expedite this procedure by using the View Desktop button in the Save As dialog box. Once you create the file and click the Save button, you'll see the Save As dialog box. At this point, simply click the View Desktop button, name the file, and click the Save button.
Is your hard drive larger than 512MB? If so, is it using the new FAT32 file system? To find out, open My Computer, right-click on your hard drive icon, and select Properties from the shortcut menu. When you see the Properties dialog box, locate the File System tag near the top of the dialog box. If it lists FAT, then you need to convert it to FAT32. Fortunately, converting your hard drive to FAT32 is easy with Windows 98's Drive Converter utility, which you'll find on the Programs/Accessories/System Tools submenu. The Drive Converter utility uses a wizard interface to walk you through the entire procedure.
Have you ever thought about what you would do in the event of a complete hard drive failure? Fortunately, if you use Windows 98's Microsoft Backup to back up your hard drive on a regular basis, and have a working Windows 98 Startup Disk, then you can easily restore your hard drive using the System Recovery Utility.
If you're the only one who uses your computer and you're not on a network, you can reduce the clutter on the Start menu by removing the Log Off item from the Start menu. To do so, launch the Registry Editor by typing Regedit in the Run dialog box and open the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ \Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer folder. Next, pull down the Edit menu, select the New | DWORD Value command, and name the value NoLogOff. Now, press [Enter] twice to enable the new name and to open the Edit DWORD Value dialog box. Once the Edit DWORD Value dialog box appears, type 1 in the Value Data text box, click OK and close the Registry Editor. To complete the operation, restart your system.
To flip from one application to another using the keyboard, hold down the Alt key and press Tab to select an application. To switch, release the Alt key.
If you're working in Windows Explorer and suddenly realize that the task you're performing could be done more easily in a My Computer style folder window, don't close Windows Explorer and then open My Computer--just transform Windows Explorer into My Computer. To do so, just click the close button in the top right corner of the All Folders pane. You can then reverse the transformation by pulling down the View menu, opening the Explorer Bar submenu and selecting the All Folders option.
Did you create a Windows 98 startup disk when you were prompted to do so during the Windows 98 installation procedure? If you did, do you know where that disk is right now? If you answered "No" to
either of these questions, you really should take a few moments to create a Windows 98 startup disk. Fortunately, doing so is easy. To begin, open Control Panel and double-click the Add/Remove Programs
icon. Once the Add/Remove Programs Properties sheet appears, click the Startup Disk tab. Now, insert a blank, high-density floppy disk into drive A and your Windows 98 CD into the CD-ROM drive. Then, click the
Create Disk button.
Once you've created your Windows 98 startup disk, you should test it to make sure that it boots your system correctly and provides you with access to your CD-ROM drive. To do so, simply restart your system with the disk in drive A. Once your system restarts, you'll see the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu. At this point, select the first item on the menu--Start The Computer With CD-ROM Support. When you do, you'll see several messages on your screen as the commands in the startup files execute. If the generic CD-ROM driver is working correctly, you'll eventually see a message that informs you that the MSCDEX program is loading.
If you can't access your CD-ROM drive, chances are that your system has one of the IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) CD-ROM drives that doesn't work with Windows 98's generic, real-mode IDE CD-ROM driver. As such, you'll need to check out the "How to Modify the Windows Startup Disk with Other Device Drivers," Microsoft's Personal Online Support site at support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q188/1/27.asp.
Do you ever accidentally hit the Caps Lock or the Num Lock key by mistake, only to realize a few words later that what you have written is not what you wanted? Windows has an option to let you know when either of these keys has been hit. To activate it, open the Control Panel, choose Accessibility Options, and select Use
Toggle Keys. Click OK. Now, every time you hit Caps Lock or Num Lock, you will hear a warning tone.
To change the default file association of a file type, simply select the file, hold down shift, and click the right mouse button. Select Open With, and choose the program you want to use for this file type. Select "Always use this program to open this type of file" at the bottom of the dialog box.
When you use Windows 98's 3D screen savers you may notice that when you dismiss the screen saver by moving the mouse, the colors used to display certain items on the screen are distorted—for example, title bars in windows and dialog boxes and, many times, the icons in the system tray. Sometimes these items appear almost
Day-Glo. The reason for this is that Windows 98's 3D screen savers use the OpenGL technology, which can temporarily overload your display adapter. Let's take a closer look.
This advanced graphics technology in OpenGL allows programmers to create high-quality three-dimensional color images. If you use the 3D Pipes screen saver, you'll see that OpenGL allows such graphic effects as shading, lighting, and texture mapping. However, this complex technology comes with a price--it really taxes your display adapter and CPU. There are times when you'll dismiss the screen saver right in the middle of a complex calculation. When you do, the system doesn't have a chance to completely recover the color
scheme as it redraws the screen. Hence, some of the colors may appear distorted.
If this happens on your system, there are two solutions: a quick fix and a permanent fix. The quick fix simply involves maximizing any open window and then restoring it. Doing so forces Windows 98 to redraw the screen and, without the pressure of the OpenGL screen saver, restore the colors accurately. However, some applications may not respond to this, and you'll have to close and reopen them.
The permanent fix may or may not work for you depending on your system's video display adapter. Basically, this fix involves increasing the Colors setting to a setting higher than 256 Colors, such as High Color or True Color. To do so, open the Display Properties sheet by right-clicking the desktop and selecting Properties from the context menu. Then select the Settings tab and choose a setting higher than 256 Colors.
Windows 98 provides you with several OpenGL 3D screen savers. The 3D Text screen saver can display either the time or text on the screen when the screen saver is active. Because you can customize the text that the 3D Text screen saver uses, it's perfect for reminders.
Would you like to use like to use all uppercase letters for some of your folder and file names? If so, you've noticed that when try to name a folder or file with all uppercase letters, Windows 98 renames it using only an initial uppercase letter. To change this behavior, launch My Computer, pull down the View menu, and select
the Folder Options command. When the Folder Option dialog box appears, select the View tab. Now, locate the Files And Folders branch in the Advanced Settings list box and select the Allow All Uppercase Names check box. Once you click OK, all the folders and files that were originally named with all uppercase letters will
immediately be displayed as such. You can now use any combination of upper- and lowercase letters for all new folders or files that you create.
For those of you who like to dabble with individual device managers and hardware profiles and have a keyboard with the Win key on it, here is a poorly documented shortcut to the System Properties dialog box. Just hold down the Win key and press Pause/Break. This is much faster than going to My Computer, Control Panel, System, etc.
As you may know, when you want to shut down Windows 98, you have to go through several steps. First you have to click the Start button and select the Shut Down command. When the Shut Down Windows dialog box appears, you have to select the Shut Down The Computer option and then click Yes. That's four steps.
Fortunately, we've discovered a way to shut down Windows 98 in one simple double-click. To implement this technique, launch the Create Shortcut wizard by right clicking on the desktop and selecting the New/Shortcut command from the shortcut menu. Once the Create Shortcut wizard loads, type
C:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows
in the Command Line text box,. (Make sure that there isn't a space between the comma and the exitwindows parameter otherwise the command won't work.) To continue, click Next.
When the next page appears, type Shut Down Windows 98 NOW! in the Select a Name For the Shortcut text box and click Finish. Now, when you're ready to shut down Windows 98, close all your applications as you normally would, and then just double-click the new Shut Down Windows 98 NOW! icon windows icon.
To add an icon to the Start Menu in Windows 95, 98, or NT, simply click and drag any object from the desktop and drop it on the Start button.
When you're done working on your computer for the day, you probably close each open application one-by-one. If so, chances are that you've wished that you could close all you open applications at the same time. Fortunately, we recently unearthed a hidden technique that will allow you to do so. To begin, hold down the [Ctrl] key and click on each application button on your taskbar. When you do, you'll notice that each button remains selected. Once you've selected all the application buttons on the taskbar, right-click on any one of them and select the Close command from the shortcut menu. When you do, all your applications will close. If you have any application in which an open file hasn't yet been saved, that application will prompt you to save the file.
In Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT, you can print any Explorer screen. To do this, press the Print Screen (PrtSc) button on the keyboard. Then, open Microsoft Paint, select Edit, Paste, and Print to print your screen.
One of Windows 98's fancy visual effect features is the ability to display all windows' and dialog boxes' title bars with a gradient fill. Basically, this means that the color of the title bar gradually changes from one color at the left side to another color at the right side. This visual effect can dramatically enhance Windows 98's overall appearance.
If you want to be able to quickly create an email message without having to launch Outlook Express, right-click on the desktop and select New | Shortcut from the pop up menu. When you see the Create Shortcut wizard, type "C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\Msimn.Exe" /mailurl:%1 in the command Line text box and click Next. Then, name the shortcut Quick Message and click Finish. You can then drag the shortcut to the Quick Launch menu. Now, when you want to quickly create a new message, just click the Quick Message icon.
If you want to differentiate the Quick Message icon from the Outlook Express icon, right-click the Quick Message icon and select Properties from the shortcut menu. Now, click the change Icon button and select one of the other email icons in the Change Icon dialog box.
When you're reading information on a long Web page, there are several ways that you can scroll through the page:
* You can use your mouse and the scroll bars
* You can use the [Page Down] and [Page Up] keys
* If you have a mouse with a wheel, you can use the wheel
However, there's another way to scroll through a long Web page. You can use the [Spacebar] to scroll down a page and [Shift] [Spacebar] to scroll up the page. This alternate method is nice for touch typists.
If you like to like to keep your desktop free from unnecessary clutter, you may have wondered if you could remove the Internet Explorer icon from your desktop. After all it's much easier to launch Internet Explorer by clicking its icon in the Quick Launch tool bar.
To remove the Internet Explorer icon from your desktop, launch Internet Explorer, pull down the Tools menu, and select the Internet Options command. When you see the Internet Options dialog box, select the Advanced tab. Then, scroll though the Settings list until you locate the Show Internet Explorer On the Desktop check box. Now, click the check box to clear it. Finally, click OK to close the Internet Options dialog box.
If you use Phone dialer, you know that it keeps a history list of all the numbers that you've recently called. If you want to clear the history list you can do so by editing the Dialer.ini file, which you can find in the Windows folder.
When you want to quickly open folders, you might want to use the Run dialog box. For most local files, you need the full DOS path, but you can skip that step when opening a folder under the Windows hierarchy. For example, you can open the SendTo, System, or Start Menu folder by typing just the name in the Run dialog box
and pressing [Enter]. (Use quotation marks if the name includes a space.) To instantly open a folder view of everything on the desktop, open the Run dialog box and type desktop. To browse the root directory of your C: drive, type \.
If you would prefer a larger view of your Favorites menu, why not turn it into Web page? To do so, pull down the File menu and select the Import and Export command. Then, use the Import/Export Wizard to export your Favorites menu to an HTML file. To load the file into Internet Explorer, pull down the File menu, select the Open command, and use the Open dialog box to locate the file.
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