Workaround for Installing PWS on Windows ME
Me And Windows Explorer: Viewing Details
Executing Programs from the Address Bar
Using Open With to open files in different programs
Turn your desktop into a Web page with the Active Desktop feature
Run programs at optimum speed with Disk Defragmenter
Rid your system of unnecessary files with Disk Cleanup
Preserve your work with hibernation
Customize the Windows ME taskbar
Archive files with the Compressed Folders feature
Restoring and maximizing windows the easy way
Windows ME doesn't include Microsoft Personal Web Server
(PWS). If you want to use it, you need to download it from the Microsoft Web
site and go through some hoops to set it up correctly.
First, download the newest version of PWS from
http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/nts/downloads/recomMEnded/NT4OptPk/
The name notwithstanding, this is the correct package to obtain PWS for Win95,
Win98, and with this workaround, WinME. Once you have downloaded download.exe,
run it and choose to download PWS for Win95 (this is the version that can be
installed on WinME, using this workaround).
Next, go to
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q246/0/81.asp
a knowledge base article that provides a necessary patch. Follow the instructions
on this page (although if you have not yet installed PWS or Microsoft
Transaction Server (MTS), then you will not need to
uninstall them first). In particular, download the new mtssetup.exe file,
double-click it, and extract the new mtssetup.dll file in place of the one
provided by the NT Option Pack. Verify that you now have the correct DLL file,
by right clicking on it to view its properties and matching its version number
to the one stated in this article.
Now you can run Setup.exe to begin the installation. But DO NOT do a typical
installation! Perform a custom installation instead. Uncheck all the items from
the list of components, and then check only MTS (Microsoft Transaction Server).
Doing so will add a few other checkmarks to other items, and that is fine;
these are components required by MTS. But do not check PWS (Personal Web
Server) at this time. Continue on with the setup, and reboot if and when it
says to.
Finally, run Setup.exe again. This time add PWS to the installation (be sure
not to choose to "remove" MTS or the other components). This
installation may or may not ask for a reboot when it is completed. If all went
well, the Personal Web Manager should be available – either as a System Tray
icon or under Start/Programs Open it and make sure you can start and stop the
PWS server.
Check out Windows ME's Search command by selecting it from
the Start Menu. It's easier to use and more versatile than Windows 98's Find
command. Select People to hop directly to your Outlook Express or
other application's address book or to search for people on the Web via
directory services. Choose For Files Or Folders to quickly find misplaced
files. The Search Results dialog box lays precise search options before you; no
need to select tabs to enrich or limit your search.
The Windows 98 version of Windows Explorer, while in Details
view, allows you to see a file's size, item type (such as file folder or
document application), and the date and time it was last modified. In ME, you
can view many more details by following a few simple steps.
To get to Details view in Windows Explorer, click on the View Menu choice and
select Details. Open any folder, and then go to the top of a column and right-click.
Select More, and from the next dialog box you can add or remove up to 25
columns.
This details customization comes in handy when you want to sort by a particular
file attribute. Say you want to view all the documents by a particular author.
First add Author to your detail list. Then, to sort by author, click on the
Author column head.
As you might suspect, the detail list is full of multimedia items that
complement ME's enhanced multimedia capabilities. Some you might find useful
are Picture Taken On, Audio Format, and Video Sample Size.
For those of us in the upper half of the Northern Hemisphere
longing for a warm spring, "hibernate" is one word we don't want to
hear. But we're talking about your laptop battery's life for gosh sakes.
Windows ME gives you several choices to save battery juice and Hibernate mode
allows you to save the most. Stand By has its place,
especially if you aren't going to be away from the computer for long, but with
Hibernate, you can effectively cut off all power without shutting down. What
makes it better than shutting down is when you press the power key the next
morning or whenever, all your work, applications and desktop settings that were
active before you hibernated are restored. Make sure to save all your open
files before hibernating though.
You can select Hibernate from your Shut Down Menu. If ME wasn't preloaded on
your PC, it may not show up on the Shut Down Menu. If it doesn't, go to Start |
Settings | Control Panel | Power Options | Properties, and enable it there.
If you have an older PC and you can't enable Hibernate, you'll need to update
some of your drivers. Go to Start | Run and type nohiber.txt in the Open text
box. Note the drivers that need updating and find updates for them on their
vendor Web sites.
In Windows ME, one can execute programs from the address
bar. Simply type in the full path and executable name in the bar and press
enter. For example, you could type: c:\windows\sol.exe to start up a quick game
of solitaire.
It's just another benefit of having the browser integrated with the operating
system.
ME makes it much easier to open a file in the program or
utility best suited to your needs. For example, you may choose to open a text
file in Notepad, WordPad, or a word processor, and you can open a JPEG image in
several different image viewers.
To set up Open With, right-click on your file in Windows Explorer
Select Open With, and then choose the program you want to use from the programs
list. Then click OK. To add another choice, follow the same procedure.
After you have selected two programs, whenever you right-click on a file with
that extension and run your cursor over Open With,
you can open the file in one of the applications you set up, or select Choose
Program to add to your Open With list.
The Windows ME desktop can look and work like a Web page
when you use the Active Desktop feature. You can add live content, such as a
weather map, sports scores, or a news ticker that will update automatically to
provide you with up-to-the-minute information in virtually any area you choose.
To begin, right-click on your desktop and choose Active Desktop | Customize My
Desktop Verify that Show Web Content On My Active Desktop is selected on the
Web tab of the Display Properties dialog box, and then click New.
If you have a specific Web page or image you'd like to add to your desktop and
you know its URL, you can type the Web address in the Location text box and
click OK. Windows ME will then display a Message box informing you that you
have designated that Web page or image to be added to your Active Desktop. Click
OK to add the Web page or image to your Active Desktop. You can also click the
Customize button to password-protect the Web page. If you don't have a specific
Web page you'd like to add to your desktop, click Visit Gallery to browse the
Microsoft Active Desktop Gallery on the Internet. The gallery provides several
examples
of content you can add to your Active Desktop.
Windows ME's Disk Defragmenter allows you to group together
similar files and applications so that your computer can access them more
quickly. By Defragmenting your hard drive, your programs will run faster
because your system won't have to search for and gather all the files it needs
in order to perform the commands you give it. The files will all be located
together, thereby enabling your computer to find them quickly.
It's a good idea to first close any open applications before you run Disk
Defragmenter. Click the Start button, and then choose
Programs|Accessories|System Tools|Disk Defragmenter. Click the Settings button,
and then verify that Rearrange Program Files So My Programs Start Faster is
selected. If you would like to check your hard drive for errors, select the
Check The Drive For Errors check box. Then click OK. Select the drive you would
like to Defragment from the dropdown list, and then click OK.
You should run Disk Defragmenter often to keep your existing programs running
at optimum speed. It's also a good idea to run Disk Defragmenter after you
install one or more new applications to ensure that they, too, can run at top
speed.
Just as your home or office needs to be cleaned to maintain
working efficiency, so too does your computer. Windows ME's Disk Cleanup utility
enables you to free up space on your hard drive by listing temporary files that
you can delete without affecting your machine's performance. In order to keep
your system running smoothly, it's good practice to run Disk Cleanup frequently
to delete those unnecessary files that clutter your hard drive.
To launch the utility, click the Start button, and then choose Programs|
Accessories| System Tools| Disk Cleanup. Select the drive you wish to scan from
the Drives dropdown list, and then click OK. Disk Cleanup will then display a
dialog box listing the amount of disk space you can free up by deleting
unnecessary files from your hard drive, as well as a listing of the files you
can remove. Select the check boxes beside the files you'd like to delete. To
see what is included in any of the components, select a component >from the
list box and then click View Files. Click OK, and then click Yes to permanently
delete the files.
You can also remove optional Windows components and installed programs that you
no longer use by selecting the More Options tab in the Disk Cleanup dialog box,
and then clicking the Clean Up buttons corresponding to the components you'd
like to delete.
Renaming files in Windows Explorer or My Computer can be a multi-step
process. First you must select the file, right-click on it and choose Rename,
and then you type the new file name and press Enter. Here's a quick and easy
way to make renaming files a breeze.
In My Computer or Windows Explorer, select the file you'd like to rename and
press F2. The file name is selected, so you can now type the new file name and
press Enter.
Hibernation mode saves everything in computer Memory on your
hard disk, and then turns off your monitor and your hard disk. When you turn
the computer back on, everything that you were working on, including all
programs and documents that were open when you turned the computer off are
restored to the desktop. This process helps to conserve power, while at the
same time preserving your work should you need to step away from your desk at
any time during your day.
Many computers are set by their manufacturers to automatically go into
hibernation mode after a determined period of inactivity. To find out if your
computer can hibernate, choose Start|Settings|Control Panel and double-click on
the Power Options icon. If the Power Options Properties dialog box includes a
Hibernate tab, your computer is equipped to hibernate. Select the Hibernate
tab, and then select the Enable Hibernate Support option. Click Apply, and then
select the Power Schemes tab. From the System Hibernates dropdown list, select
the time after which you would like your computer to hibernate and click OK.
To resume using your computer after it has been in hibernation mode, quickly
press the computer's power button.
The Windows ME taskbar enables you to start programs, view
documents, and launch Web pages all from the same place, and you can customize
the taskbar to best suit your needs.
First, right-click on the taskbar and choose Toolbars, and then select the
toolbar you want to add to the taskbar. You could choose to add the Links
toolbar, which would display all of your default browser's bookmarks, the Address
toolbar, which would display the Address Bar in which you could type a Web
address, or the Desktop
toolbar, which would display the contents of your desktop. The Quick Launch
toolbar is displayed by default, but you could select that toolbar to remove it
from the taskbar.
You can also create a new toolbar by choosing New Toolbar. In the New Toolbar
dialog box, select a folder from the list box, and then click OK. A toolbar
containing all the items in the folder you selected will be added to your
taskbar.
Windows ME includes the new Compressed Folder feature, which
works similarly to the WinZip utility, but it's built right into the operating
system. You no longer need to download and use WinZip (or any other 3rd party
zipping utility) to create file archives on your hard drive. The Compressed
Folder feature also works much
easier than other zipping utilities because once you create the folder; you
simply drag a file onto the compressed folder and drag the file out of the
compressed folder to extract it.
Compressed Folders is not installed by default. To install the feature, open
the Control Panel, double-click on Add/Remove Programs and select the Windows
Setup tab. In the Components list box, double- click on System Tools, and in
the System Tools dialog box, check the Compressed Folders Options, and then
click OK. You'll then be prompted to restart your computer.
To create a compressed folder, open Windows Explorer or My Computer, and then
double-click on the drive and folder in which you'd like to create a compressed
folder. Choose File | New |Compressed Folder. The folder (with a small zipper
icon on it) appears with the default name of New Compressed Folder, which you
can then change. To add files to the compressed folder, select them and drag
them onto the folder. To extract files from the compressed folder, double-click
on the folder to open it, and then select the files you'd like to remove and
drag them out of the folder to their new location.
Have you ever clicked the Close button when you meant to
click the Restore or Maximize button? (This button toggles between the Restore
and Maximize controls depending on the state of the window.) If so, you'll be
glad to know that you can bypass this obstacle and easily perform the restore
and maximize operations simply by
double-clicking on the window's title bar.
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