Windows 95 Tips

Tips & Tricks Archive
Windows 95

Startup-less startup
When Windows 95 loads, it loads every application whose shortcut you've placed in the StartUp folder (in your Start menu under Programs). Occasionally, however, you may not want these applications to load, although you don't want to go so far as to remove them from the StartUp folder. In that case, tell Windows 95 to avoid loading them during that startup only. When you see the Windows 95 logo on-screen, hold down Shift until the operating system finishes loading, and then let go. Those StartUp applications are nowhere to be found!

One less double-click
If you use floppy disks a lot, you may be getting good and tired of opening My Computer or Explorer to get to the floppy drive icon so that you can work with its contents. Make your life easier by placing a shortcut to this drive on the desktop. Right-mouse click and drag your floppy drive icon from My Computer or Explorer onto the desktop, let go, and select Create Shortcut(s) Here. Do you know how many double-clicks you've just saved yourself?

Stand-alone sounds
Is there a Plus! desktop theme whose sound scheme you'd like to use on its own, without the rest of that theme's features? You can activate it on its own from the Desktop Themes dialog box; or, if you frequent the Sound Properties dialog box, place the scheme there for easy access.

To activate just the sound scheme of a Plus! desktop theme, open the Control Panel and double-click on Desktop Themes. Select the theme whose sounds you'd like to use, then deselect all of the options under Settings except Sound events. Click on OK, and that sound scheme is now activated.

To access the scheme from the Sound Properties dialog box, while the scheme is activated, open the Control Panel and double-click Sounds. Click the Save As button, type a name for the current scheme --for example, "Nature" -- and click OK twice. From nowon, you can select this scheme by name in the Schemes list.

Exploring folders
If you'd like to quickly open a folder in Explorer view, select the folder, hold down the Shift key, and double-click the folder. You can open Start in Explorer view by right-clicking Start, then choosing Explore.

Another route to dos
First, configure your system to boot to DOS: In the MSDOS.SYS file, change the line BootGUI=1 to BootGUI=0. In this case, you'll start Windows 95 by typing

WIN

at the DOS prompt (or perhaps you've added the line "WIN" to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file). Once this condition has been met, you can exit to DOS during the shutdown process. As soon as you see the "It is now safe to turn off your system" screen, type

MODE CO80

and press Enter.

If you don't want to type MODE CO80 each time you shut down, and you don't care about the "It is now safe to turn off your system" screen (LOGOS.SYS), delete it from your Windows folder. From then on, the shutdown process will take you directly to DOS.

Two printers for the price of one
Do you frequently print using two different settings? For example, you might print a color document one minute, then a black-and-white, landscape-oriented page the next. Rather than changing these settings each time you print, trick Windows into thinking you have two printers, each with different Properties settings.

Select Start, Settings, Printers; double-click on Add Printer; and then follow the instructions to reinstall your printer the same way you did the first time. When asked, opt to keep the existing driver, and then make sure to give this "new" printer a new name, such as "Landscape B/W."

When the setup is finished, the Printers window will display two different items representing the same printer. Adjust their Properties to the settings you need (right-mouse click on the icon, select Properties, and so on) and, if you wish, create shortcuts to each on the desktop for easy access. From now on, just click and drag the document you want to print to your "printer" of choice. (Or, use an application's Print command, and then select the printer you want to use in the resulting dialog box.)

Those files sure add up!
Want to know the size of all the files and folders (and files within those folders) in a particular directory (or folder--whatever you want to call it)? In a previous tip, we told you about TreeSize, accessible from

http://www.windows95.com/apps/explorer-addons.html

It's a great little shareware utility that provides you with every folder's size at a glance--something Explorer fails to do. However, Explorer does offer a neat little trick.

In Explorer's left pane, click on the plus sign of the directory whose size you wish to determine. Now select all the contents of the right pane, files and folders alike, by clicking on the top entry, holding down Shift, and clicking on the bottom entry. Right click on the entire selection, choose Properties, and you'll see the total number of files and folders, as well as their combined size.

This menu setting is just right
Want to change how fast Windows 95 displays a submenu--a menu that pops out when you select a menu item with an arrow next to it? (An example is the menu that pops out when you select Start and then Programs.) There are two ways to go about it. One is to simply adjust this setting using Tweak UI, one of the free Windows 95 Power Toys. (To obtain this utility, as well as the remaining Power Toys, point your web browser to

http://www.pcworld.com/cgi-bin/database/file_body.pl?ID=3889

and follow the download Instructions.) If you don't have Tweak UI, you'll need to edit the Registry.

Assuming you have Tweak UI, open the Control Panel and double-click on the Tweak UI icon. On the Mouse tab, adjust the menu speed to your liking. To test the setting, right-mouse click on the test icon and select an item in the menu. Make an adjustment, if need be, and test it again. When the setting feels just right, click on OK.

If you don't have Tweak UI, you'll need to venture into the Registry to adjust this setting. (As always, back it up before making any change.) Open the Registry Editor and navigate your way to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Right-mouse click anywhere in the right pane, choose New, and then select String Value. Name the new value MenuShowDelay. Right-mouse click on the new value, select Modify, and in the Edit String dialog box, enter a number to indicate the delay in milliseconds. (The default is 400, or almost a half-second delay.) Click on OK, close the Registry Editor, and restart Windows 95 to make your change stick.

It takes two, baby
Ever wondered where all the information you can view in the Registry Editor is stored on your system? Not in a plain old *.REG file, that's for sure. The Registry is made up of two hidden files--SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT--both of which are found in the Windows folder. (Note: If your system is configured for multiple user profiles, there are different versions of SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT files in each user's Profiles folder.)

Because these two files are so crucial to the successful operation of Windows 95, backups are created every time you boot successfully. You'll find these backups, SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0 alongside the "real" Registry files in the Windows folder.

Fonts and formats
If you get a Word document from someone else and find that the font looks terrible on your computer, you may not have the font that the originator of the document used. When this happens, Word will substitute a font that you do have for the one you don't. The problem is that the selected font sometimes doesn't look very good in the document.

If this is a problem that you encounter often, it may be worth purchasing the needed font. An alternative approach is to reformat the document using a font that you do have--one that hopefully looks better than the one Word selected.

Registry do-over
In our last tip, we told you about the two files in which all of your Registry's information is stored--SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT--both of which are backed up every time Windows 95 starts. These backups, SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0, can be used to replace the *.DAT Registry files in the event of an emergency (for example, if you're editing the Registry, make a mistake you can't undo, and didn't back it up first--oops). Before we show you how this replacement is made, however, we should warn you that this tip is not for beginners. If you make a mistake, the results could be devastating.

First, you'll need to get yourself inside MS-DOS. Reboot your system, press F8 when you see the "Starting Windows 95" message, and select Command Prompt Only. Switch to the Windows directory using the command:

cd windows

Next, remove the hidden, read-only, and system attributes from both the Registry files (*.DAT) and their backups (*.DA0). Type the following at the DOS prompt, and then hit Enter (repeating for each of the four files):

attrib -h -r -s system.dat

Now copy the SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0 files over the SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT files using these commands:

copy system.da0 system.dat
copy user.da0 user.dat

Replace the attributes you removed as follows (again, repeating for all four files):

attrib +h +r +s system.dat

And that's it! Turn your computer off, and when you restart Windows 95, those Registry files will have been replaced with the backups.

Run-ning on empty
Want to delete an item from your Run list--the one that appears when you select Start, Run, and click the down arrow? All it takes is a quick trip to the Registry. (As always, back it up first: Open the Registry Editor, select Export Registry File under the Registry menu; navigate to where you'd like to store the backup file, name the file and click on Save.)

Open the Registry Editor (select Start, Run, type "regedit" and click on OK), and navigate your way to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/RunMRU. In the right pane, right-mouse click on the letter (in the Name column) next to any item you'd like to remove from the list, and select Delete. Click on Yes in the dialog box that pops up, and the item is gone. Repeat these steps to delete any other items [just make sure not to delete "MRUList" or "(Default)"]. Close the Registry Editor, restart Windows 95, and check out your slimmed-down Run list.

The disappearing icon act
Need to move an item (file or folder) from one place to another? You could click and drag its icon from the first location to the second, but that means you have to be able to see both locations on-screen at once. If you can't, and don't want to bother resizing windows so that you can, try a simple cut-and-paste operation.

Right-mouse click on the item you want to relocate and select Cut. (If you're moving more than one item, select them all first, then right-mouse click on the selection and choose the same command.) Its icon will fade. Switch to the location where you'd like to paste the selected item, right-mouse click on it (either directly on the folder where you want it or on a blank location of that folder's open window or the desktop), and select Paste.

(Tip-in-a-tip: Yet another option for moving or copying files is clicking and dragging them from one pane to another in Windows Explorer. Use the method that works best for you.)

Cd player turns DJ - Part 1 of 3
Do you frequently play audio CDs on your computer? The CD Player has some neat programming options to enhance your listening experience. Just enter the title, artist, and song list for a particular CD, and the CD Player will remember this information every time you pop that CD into your CD-ROM drive. You can even select the exact songs you want to hear (or not) and the order in which you want to hear them. Today we'll show you how to enter a CD's information into the CD Player's memory.

With an audio CD in your CD-ROM drive, open the CD Player by selecting Start|Programs|Accessories|Multimedia|CD Player. Click on the far left icon (if you don't see icons, select Toolbar under the View menu) and type the CD's Artist and Title. Next, enter the names of each track. Next to Track 01 type the name of the first track, click on Set Name, and so on, until you've entered the names of all the songs. Click on OK when you're finished.
In our next tip, we'll show you how to customize a CD's Play List.

Cd player turns DJ - Part 2 of 3
In our last tip, we showed you how to enter an audio CD's information into the CD Player's memory: Open this utility--select Start|Programs|Accessories|Multimedia|CD Player--select Edit Play List in the Disc menu, and type in all the relevant information. Now, let's look at creating a custom Play List. Surely there are songs on that CD you could do without and those that you'll want to hear over and over. Just tell the CD Player what you have in mind, and it'll do the DJ-ing.

Assuming you've already entered a CD's information, open the CD Player (with that CD in your CD-ROM drive, of course) and select Edit Play List under Disc. Click on the Clear All button to start with a blank slate.

In the list of Available Tracks, select the first song you want to hear and click on Add. Select the next song, click on Add, and so on until your Play List is complete. Note, too, that you can select a song as many times as you'd like or not at all. When you're finished, click on OK.

Click on the down arrow next to Track and you'll see your new play list. From now on, pressing the play button (or simply inserting the CD into your CD-ROM drive, if you have AutoPlay) plays the CD's songs in that order.
In our next tip, we'll show you more of CD Player's customization options.

Cd player turns DJ - Part 3 of 3
If you have an audio CD in your CD-ROM drive, the CD Player offers quite a few options for customizing how you listen. Pop in the CD, open the CD Player--select Start|Programs|Accessories|Multimedia|CD Player--and take a look at the three icons on the right side of the toolbar (if you don't see them, select Toolbar under View). These icons set the CD Player's approach to the Track list.

Click on the left of these three icons if you'd like the CD Player to play the songs listed under Track in random order. The middle icon plays the tracks in order, but continuously. And the right button--this is a neat one--plays just a short intro to each track. Select this icon, click on the Play button, and the CD Player plays 10 seconds of the first song in the Track list, moves on to the next, and so on. It's a great option if you're looking for a particular track, or you're trying to get a feel for that CD. You can even set the number of seconds for each intro. Pull down the Options menu, select Preferences, adjust the intro play length, and click on OK.

File sneak peeks
Staring at a bunch of file icons, but can't remember which one you need? Quick View lets you view the contents of each file without opening the application in which it was created (assuming the file is of a type supported by Quick View).

Right-mouse click on the file you want to preview and look for the Quick View command. Select it and the Quick View window opens with a quick, albeit crude, preview of that file. (If you don't see the Quick View command, either you haven't installed Quick View [see the note at the end of this tip], or that file type isn't supported. Sorry.)

Drag another file icon into the open Quick View window and instantly it displays that file's contents. When you find the file you were looking for, click on the icon just below the File menu to open the file in its native application.

(Note: If you don't see Quick View in the context menu of a common file type, it may not be installed. To find out for sure, right-mouse click on any TXT file and look for the Quick View command. Don't see it? Pop the Windows 95 installation CD into your CD-ROM drive, open the Control Panel, double-click on Add/Remove Programs, and on the Windows Setup tab, double-click on Accessories. Select Quick View and click on OK twice.)

Make a list and print it twice
A printout of your system settings is a good reference to keep handy for hardware troubleshooting. Right-mouse click on My Computer, select Properties, and click on the Device Manager tab. Click on Print, choose the type of report you'd like to print, and click on OK.

"System summary" prints a report organized by resource type--IRQ, I/O port, memory, and DMA channel--listing the hardware that uses each resource. (Double-click on Computer back on the Device Manager tab to view this information on-screen.) "Selected class or device" lists the resources and any device drivers used by the selected hardware. Of course, you'll need to select the hardware before clicking on Print. And the third option, "All devices and system summary," prints a system summary and details for every piece of hardware on your system.

Flush deletions from your system
If you've left Windows 95's Recycle Bin settings alone, deleting items sends them to the Recycle Bin (after you click on Yes to confirm that you really want to send them there). But keep in mind that this "deleting" process doesn't get the items out of your system. It simply moves them to another folder called Recycle Bin. It's a nice safety net, in case you change your mind about these deletions, but you certainly aren't regaining any disk space.

To flush deleted items out of your system altogether, you have to Empty the Recycle Bin. Right-mouse click on its desktop icon, select Empty Recycle Bin, then click on Yes to confirm.

(Note: You can also set the Recycle Bin to empty itself automatically when it reaches a certain capacity--say, 5 percent of your hard drive. Right-mouse click on the Recycle Bin icon, select Properties, and on the Global tab, adjust the lever to the percentage you have in mind. Click on OK.)

No see 'em start menu items
Are there certain folders or shortcuts on your Start menu that you want to hide (temporarily) from meddling fingers? Mark them hidden, then make sure Windows 95 doesn't show "hidden" files. (Of course, this technique won't work if the person from whom you're trying to hide the items knows how to show hidden files!)

To mark a Start menu item hidden, right-mouse click on the Start button, select Open, and navigate your way to that item. Right-mouse click on it, select Properties, check the box next to Hidden, and click on OK. Repeat these steps for every shortcut or folder you want to hide.

Now ask Windows 95 not to show hidden files. In any Windows 95 view, select Options under the View menu, and on the View tab, select Hide Files of These Types. Click on OK, close any open windows, restart Windows 95, and check out your Start menu. Those items have vanished!

(To show the hidden items again, select Show All Files on the View tab of the Options dialog box and remove the Hidden attribute in the Properties dialog box of each hidden item; then restart Windows 95.)

Shave excess pounds off you hard disk
Looking to free up some hard disk space? Start by deleting leftover files from your system. It's safe to delete all the *.log and *.old files in your Windows folder and root directory. You can also delete *.bak, *.000, *.001 (and so on) files from your Windows folder; and *.prv, *.txt, and *.dos files from your root directory. (Note: If you dual boot, leave the *.dos files alone).

Also, as mentioned in a previous tip, delete all the *.avi files in your Help folder to gain back more than 7MB of valuable disk space. You don't need these help files unless you're a complete novice to Windows 95.

Silence your system's "beep-beep"
Don't want to hear a beep from your system speaker (not speakers that are part of a multimedia system) every time you make an error? Use Tweak UI, one of the Windows 95 PowerToys, to turn off this feature. If you don't have Tweak UI, you can download it and the remaining Power Toys from http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/powertoys.htm

After you unzip the executable file, double-click on tweakui.cpl. It will ask for a disk. Click on OK. Then, in the Open dialog box that appears, browse to tweakui.cnt (it should be in the same Power Toys directory). Click on OK, then OK again. Now Tweak UI will appear in the control panel. In the Control Panel, double-click on Tweak UI and on the General tab, then deselect Beep on errors. Click on OK and from now on, your errors will be met with a deafening silence!

What's the diagnosis?
Did you know you can add programs, such as Microsoft Diagnostics, to your Windows 95 Startup disk? (You do have one, right? If not, inside the Control Panel, double-click on Add/Remove Programs; select the Startup Disk tab; then click on Create Disk and follow the instructions.) It's filled with programs to help you diagnose and repair problems with your system, but it doesn't have everything.

Microsoft Diagnostics is located on the Windows 95 installation CD, in the D:\Other\Msd folder. This oldie-but-goodie utility is great for diagnosing problems, such as IRQ conflicts, that prevent Windows from starting. To add Microsoft Diagnostics to your Startup Disk, simply copy Msd.exe to the disk.

Quick--into the corner!
Want an easy way to keep what's on your computer screen private? If you use Microsoft Plus! and have the System Agent loaded (in other words, this tip doesn't apply to IE 4 users), you can activate any Plus! screen saver simply by moving your mouse pointer to the corner of your screen. If anyone sneaks up behind you, just move your mouse for an instant curtain over whatever you were doing.

Right-mouse click on the desktop, select Properties, and click on the Screen Saver tab. Choose one of the Plus! screen savers (if it isn't already) and click on the Settings button. On the General tab of the Screen Saver Properties dialog box, select the corner you'd like to use to activate your screen saver, then click on Now. Repeat these steps to activate any or all of the corners, then click on OK twice.

Ready for a test spin? Move your mouse pointer as far as possible into one of the corners you selected, wait a second or two, and there's your screen saver.

Dos does windows
If you're working in an MS-DOS session, you can open a file or folder just as you would using the Start, Run command (or just as you would by double-clicking its icon outside of the DOS session). The difference is, you need to precede the file name with the Start command. Let's suppose you normally type: _c:\data\myfile.doc_ on the Start, Run command line to open myfile.doc in Microsoft Word. You can accomplish the same thing by typing the following at your DOS window's C:\ prompt: _start c:\data\myfile.doc_

Press Enter and Microsoft Word launches, and myfile.doc opens. The Start command works with folders, too (again, just like the Run command line). For example, you might type: _start sendto_ at the command prompt to open the Windows\SendTo folder (in a separate window, of course).

(Tip in a-tip: If the file or folder you're trying to open from the command prompt is in the Windows folder--or is, for any other reason, recognized by Windows 95--you don't need to type the full path of the item you're trying to open--just the file name. If you aren't sure, try it without the full path first. The worst that can happen is you'll get a message telling you Windows doesn't recognize the file, in which case you can try again with the full path.)

Split the defrag
If you're defragmenting your drive, keep in mind that you don't have to tackle the whole job at once. The Disk Defragmenter breaks the operation into two parts--defragmenting files and consolidating space. If you need to get back to work as quickly as possible, you might try just defragmenting now, to gain performance improvement, then coming back to the consolidation part later, when you have more time.

Select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter to open Windows 95's defragging utility. Select the drive you want to defragment, click OK, and in the resulting dialog box--the one telling you the percentage of your drive that's fragmented--click the Advanced button. Under Defragmentation, select Defragment Files Only (and select one of the options at the bottom of the dialog box, to indicate if this is a one-time-only or an all-the-time thing) and click OK. Click Start, and you're off!

(Note: You'll definitely want to come back to the consolidation part later. Otherwise, future files are more likely to become fragmented. For more information on each of the defragmenting options, right-mouse click it and select What's This?)

Run-ning on url
Want a quick way to get to your favorite URL? Try the Run command line.Select Start, Run, type the URL you want to go to on the command line, and click OK. Presto--your browser opens and takes you directly to that site. (Note: If you've installed Internet Explorer 4.0, selecting an item in the Start menu's Favorites folder is even faster.)

Ctrl your windows
When you double-click a folder inside a folder inside a folder (and so on), does each folder open in a separate window? There are two ways to switch to a one-window view, so you don't have all that mess on-screen.

- Hold down Ctrl as you double-click a folder icon (inside analready-open window). Its contents will replace those of the current

window. - To make the one-window view a permanent thing, in any Explorer window, select View, Options, and on the Folder tab, select the second of the two browsing options. Click OK. (Tip: If you want to go back to multiple windows temporarily, use the Ctrl trick, above. It toggles you between the two browsing options on the Folder tab.)

(Note: If you have Internet Explorer 4.0 installed, getting to the option described in the second method, above, is a little different. In any Explorer window, select View, Folder Options, and on the General tab, select Custom, Based on Settings You Choose. Click the Settings button, select an option under Browse Folders as Follows and click OK.

Well, aw-right-y then!
Here is a keyboard function that acts like a right-mouse click. Highlight the item whose context menu you'd like to display, then press Shift-F10. Who knew?

Start menu cleanup
Want to clean some unwanted items out of your Start menu without opening lots of windows (right-mouse clicking Start, selecting Open, and so on)? The Taskbar Properties dialog box has a Remove button just for this purpose.

Right-mouse click on a blank area of the Taskbar and select Properties to open the Taskbar Properties dialog box. Select the Start Menu Programs tab. Under Customize Start Menu, click the Remove button and navigate your way to the Start menu item you want to remove. With the unwanted item selected, click the Remove button, and the item is history. Repeat these steps to remove all unwanted items, click Close, and click OK.

(Note: IE 4 users: You can right-mouse click a Start menu item [right on the actual menu] and select Delete.)

The windows 95 swap meet
Want to move Windows 95 to a new hard disk (to make it the boot drive), keeping your current system configuration and data files intact? It can be done, but we should warn you--it isn't the most straightforward operation.

We can't possibly reproduce the entire procedure here (it would span about a month of tips!), but we can point you in the right direction. You'll find complete instructions in Microsoft's Knowledge Base, at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q166/1/72.asp. Be sure to follow the steps EXACTLY, heeding all of Microsoft's warnings.

Format now
There are at least two ways to format a disk: standard format and Quick Format. What's the difference? If you're sure the disk is okay, then you can save time using Quick Format. But if you're not sure, you'd better go for the full format. The Quick Format process doesn't check the disk as thoroughly, so a bad disk can get through.

To format a disk, open My Computer and right-click the disk's icon. Choose Format from the menu and then tell Windows NT you want to use Quick Format (standard format is the default). When you're ready, click Start.

Which windows is which?
Want to know which version of Windows 95 you have on your system? Right-mouse click My Computer and select Properties. On the General tab, you'll see the version listed under System. Version 4.00.950 is the original version of Windows 95. This same version number followed by the letter "A" indicates that the original version of Windows 95 was installed and then updated with Service Pack 1 or OEM Service Release 1. The letter "B" after the version number indicates Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2.

Easy, breezy data--Part 1 of 2
Do you have lots of data files scattered all over your system? Take the time to arrange them into one central data folder. That way, you'll know where everything is at a moment's notice; and even better, backups become a breeze.

Start by creating a new folder on your hard drive. (Alternatively, you may want to partition your drive, making one virtual drive a "Data" drive.) Name the folder or drive something appropriate, such as "Data" or "My Data." Within this folder or drive, create subfolders that correspond to the types of data you have on your system. For example, you might create "Home," "Business," and "Personal" folders; and then within these three, you might create a series of folders corresponding to the various types of home, business, and personal data.

Once you've set up your data storage area (the hierarchy of folders), the rest is just a matter of moving the data from various locations on your system into the appropriate folders. It takes a little time, but the end result is worth it: The next time you need to back up all your data files, just select your main data folder and be through with it. All those precious files are right in the same place.
In our next tip, we'll discuss the minor repercussions of moving all your data files.

Easy, breezy data--Part 2 of 2
In our last tip, we suggested an efficient means of organizing your data files: Create one central data folder containing a series of subfolders (corresponding to the type of data you have on your system), then move all your data files into this new folder hierarchy.

Of course, moving all your data files will render anything that points to the data files at their old locations--shortcuts, items in the Documents list, and the files listed at the bottom of File menus (within your applications)--useless. But that doesn't mean you can't get everything back in sync again.

As far as shortcuts are concerned, you can give Windows a chance to find the file that a shortcut points to in its new location (when you click one, it'll try to find it), but it's probably quicker just to delete the old shortcuts and set up new ones.

Clear your Documents list and start over again. It'll fill up again in no time. (To clear the list, select Start, Settings, select the Start Menu Programs tab, click the Clear button, and click OK.)

As for the files listed at the bottom of an application's File menus, just forget them and use the File, Open dialog box for a day or two. You'll have new items on those menus in no time. Aren't these slight inconveniences a small price to pay for such great organization?

What's that password again?
You say Windows 95 won't remember your dial-up password? It might be because you installed the Windows 95 Service Pack 1. Microsoft admits that this update has a bug that messes with your password cache.

To fix the problem, point your Web browser to
http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/passwd.htm

and download the Windows 95 Password List Update (and read all about it, if you care to). Once the download is complete, double- click on mspwlupd2.exe to install the necessary files.

(Tip: To ensure that all corrupted files have been removed from your system, delete any Password Caches [all PWL files in the Windows folder] before installing this update.

)

Footloose and icon-free
Tired of seeing that little modem icon in the tray of your Taskbar every time you use a dial-up connection? Then ditch it. In a My Computer window, double-click on Dial-Up Networking. Right-mouse-click on the DUN connection you use, select Properties, and click on the Configure button. Select the Options tab, deselect Display modem status, and click on OK. (Repeat these steps for every connection from which you'd like to remove the modem status icon.) From now on, your Taskbar will be modem-free!

The printer doctor is in
If you're having trouble with your printer, help is just a CD away--the Windows 95 installation CD, that is. Pop it into your CD-ROM drive, navigate your way to D:\Other\Misc\Epts, and double-click on Epts.exe.

Introducing the Enhanced Printer Troubleshooter. Just answer the questions it asks, follow any orders, and in no time, your printer will be acting like its old self.

What'll it be, the quickie or the works?
Need to format a floppy disk? Windows 95 offers the Quick (erase) option, to simply wipe out a disk's contents; or a Full format, which takes the disk down to bare bones and rebuilds it.

With the disk you'd like to format in your floppy drive, right-mouse click on your floppy drive icon and select Format. (Don't make the mistake of opening the floppy drive window first, as the Format command is only available from the icon's context menu.)

Which option should you choose? Select Quick (erase) and click on OK to remove the contents of an already-formatted disk. Keep in mind, however, that you should only use this option if you know the disk isn't damaged. Quick (erase) doesn't check the disk for bad sectors.

For a complete formatting job--for example, if you have a disk that was formatted for a Macintosh system, or you think a disk may have errors on it--choose Full. Click on OK and Windows 95 will proceed to wipe out the disk's contents, prepare it for file storage, and check the disk for errors.

All systems go
In our last tip, we showed you how to format a floppy disk: Right-mouse click on your floppy drive icon, select format, and choose from the Quick (erase) or Full options. Assuming you have a blank formatted disk in front of you, now may be a good time to create a system, or "boot" disk. This disk will get you to a command prompt in the event that you have trouble booting your system. (Note: Different from the Windows 95 Startup disk, a system disk does not include any diagnostic or repair tools--it simply gets you to an MS-DOS prompt.)

So, with your formatted disk in your floppy drive, right-mouse click on the drive's icon, select Format and choose Copy System Files Only. Click on OK, and Windows 95 will copy Command.com, Io.sys, Msdos.sys and Drvspace.bin (if applicable) to the disk. Why do you need this disk if all of these files are on the Startup Disk? Well, it never hurts to have a backup of the crucial files.

That darn windows key
Do you have a Microsoft Natural Keyboard 1.0? When you're in a DOS session and press the Windows key by accident, does your system then act as if the Windows key is still pressed? (For example, when you press E, does Windows Explorer start?) Microsoft claims that a conflict between the System Agent and the keyboard is to blame and suggests that disabling the System Agent will solve the problem. To disable the System Agent, double-click on the System Agent's icon in your Taskbar. Pull down the Advanced menu, select Stop Using System Agent, and click on Yes to confirm.

alt-er your start-up
If you want to get to a DOS prompt when starting your computer, you probably press F8 when you see the "Starting Windows 95" message, wait for the menu to appear, and choose the Command prompt only option. Here's a shortcut: Press Alt-F5 instead (at the "Starting Windows 95" message), and you'll go directly to a command prompt.

Audio CD listeners, listen up!
If you listen to loads of audio CDs on your PC and don't want to take the time to input the song information from each into the CD Player, point your Web browser to

http://www.cddb.com

There, you'll find software that can download the contents of your CDs automatically from CDDB servers (provided you're online when you play the CD). Who knew?

Clipboard favors the little guys
If you try to copy and paste a large scanned image (over 10MB) into a graphics application, Windows 95 often returns an "out of memory" error. As a work-around, don't involve the Clipboard at all. Save the image as a file using the scanner's software, then exit that program. Now you can open the scanned image using the File, Open dialog box of your graphics program.

You call that a highlighter?
When you select a menu item and then scroll down its list of options, your mouse functions as a highlighter, coloring each command it passes. (This highlight color will vary depending on the color scheme you're using.) Want to change the color it uses? For example, if you're using the Windows Standard scheme, you may want to change that dark blue to red for some real contrast.

Whatever your taste in colors, right-click on the Desktop, select Properties, and click on the Appearance tab. Click on the down arrow under Item, select Selected Items, and then choose a Color. Click on Apply to try out your change without closing the dialog box, or click on OK to make it stick. There, much better. Who ever heard of a dark blue highlighter anyway?

(Note: If you want to save the change as part of the color scheme you're using, before closing the Display Properties dialog box, select Save As, name the scheme--or leave the name as is, to write over the existing scheme--then click on OK.)

The Taskbar speaks more than one font or color
To change the color of selected menu items (and icons): Right-click on the desktop, select Properties, click on the Appearance tab, choose Selected Items under Item, then take your pick of colors. You can use this same dialog box to change the font and size of the text on your Taskbar items (and in your window title bars--it's all the same option).

Select Active Title Bar in the Item list, then play around with the Font and Size. (Make sure to use the Size option next to Font; the one next to Item affects the size of the Active Title Bar.) Click on Apply or OK, and your changes will show up on the Taskbar and the title bars of open windows.

A window of no-password opportunity
If you've set up a password for a Plus! screen saver, you probably find it annoying that every time you turn your back, you have to enter your own password to get back to work. You can avoid this annoyance without lengthening the time after which the screen saver will kick in.

Right-mouse click on the desktop, select Properties, and click on the Screen Saver tab. Select any Plus! screen saver and click on the Settings button. At the bottom of the General tab set the Wait XX (seconds or minutes) Before Requiring a Password option. Click on OK, and from now on you have a window of opportunity to get back to work without a hassle.

Different strokes for different users part 1 of 2
If more than one person uses a Windows 95 system, then there's more than one idea flying around as to how the desktop should be arranged--or which color scheme looks best . . . and so on, and so on. When it comes to visual and organizational settings, we all have our own ideas of perfection.

With Windows 95's user profiles, each user can customize a working environment and call up these settings at log-on. It's like giving each user his or her very own computer (well, almost).

Before setting up user profiles, make all the settings on the PC fairly neutral. For example, you may want to go back to a blank desktop (no wallpaper or pattern), the default color scheme, and so on. The settings you start with are the ones you'll see when a person does not log on under a user profile. (Once user profiles are set up, you can press Esc to ignore the log-in dialog box.)

In our next tip, setting up and using user profiles . . .

Different strokes for different users part 2 of 2
In our last tip, we explained the purpose of user profiles: to allow each user of a PC to have unique settings. We also suggested that, before setting them up, you return to as many of the Windows 95 defaults as possible, such as the default color scheme. Now, let's look at setting up and using user profiles.

Open the Control Panel, double-click on Passwords, and click on the User Profiles tab. Select the Users Can Customize Their Preferences option, then select the options you want under User Profile settings. Click on OK, and you'll see a message telling you to restart Windows 95. Click on OK to restart. (Note: IE 4 users have a Users item in the Control Panel for setting up user profiles. Double-click on it and follow the wizard's instructions; or use the method described in this tip.)

Once user profiles have been set up on a system, starting Windows 95 will bring up a Welcome to Windows 95 dialog box. If you're logging in for the first time, enter a user name and password, click on OK, confirm the password, and click on OK again. (If it's a networked PC, typically Windows 95 identifies you by your network name and password instead, and you won't see the Welcome dialog box.)

Once you're in, think of that PC as your very own and start customizing. Whenever you log on to Windows 95 with that user name and password, those same settings will appear.

When you're finished using the computer, you can log off without closing Windows 95. Select Start, Shut Down, select the Close All Programs and Log on as a Different User option, wait a few seconds, and the Welcome to Windows 95 dialog box appears for someone else to log in. (IE 4 users: You have a Log Off option on the Start menu.)

Write your own BIOS
Want a printout of your system's BIOS setup? The following technique works on most systems:

Boot your system normally. Select Start, Shut Down, choose the restart option, and click on Yes. During the second boot, press the key indicated (on-screen) to enter Setup mode--probably F1, F2, or Delete. At the first Setup screen, press your keyboard's PrintScreen key. (Whereas in Windows 95, the PrintScreen key sends the screen contents to the Clipboard; here they go straight to the printer.) If necessary, press your printer's page feed button to complete the printing of the first page. Go to the next Setup screen, press PrintScreen, and so on.

File type dress-up - part 1 of 2
You know that boring icon Windows 95 uses to represent .TXT files, or any other file type for that matter? You can change it to any icon on your system. It's just like changing the icon used to represent a shortcut--the difference is, you start on the File Types tab of the Options dialog box.

Open any Explorer window and select Options under the View menu. (If you have Internet Explorer 4.0 installed, select Folder Options under the View menu.) On the File Types tab, find the file type whose icon you'd like to change in the Registered File Types list. Select this type, click the Edit button, and in the Edit File Type dialog box, click Change Icon. (Note: If this button is grayed out, you can't change the icon for that file type.)

Select a new icon (alternatively, click Browse, select the file that includes the icon you want, click Open, and select an icon) and click OK. From now on Windows will use the icon you've selected to represent every file of that type on your system.

In our next tip, we'll show you a foolproof trick for always recognizing a file type.

File type dress-up - part 2 of 2
In our last tip, we showed you how to change the look of any file type by changing its icon: In any Explorer window, select View, Options (or Folder Options in Internet Explorer 4.0), click the File Types tab, select a file type, click Edit, click Change Icon, select a new icon, and click OK.

If you change a whole bunch of icons, you may worry that you'll become confused and forget which is which. One way to prevent this confusion is to show all file extensions. (On the View tab of the Options [or Folder Options in IE 4] dialog box, make sure Hide MS-DOS Extensions [or Hide All Extensions in IE 4] is deselected.) But if you typically don't show extensions globally, an even better solution is to show them only for the file types for which you've selected custom icons.

Each time you change a file type's icon, opt to always show the extension for that file type--at least until you get used to the new icon. After you change an icon, still in the Edit File Type dialog box for that file type, select Always Show Extension. (To access this command at a later date, select any file type in the Options [or Folder Options] dialog box and click Edit.) Click OK, and from then on, you'll see the extension for that file type no matter what. Once you master the new icon, you can turn the Always Show Extension option off the same way you turned it on.

Hand me my highlighter, please - part 1 of 2
Want some tips for quick text highlighting in Word Pad (or most any other word processor that runs under Windows 95)? All that fussy letter-by-letter clicking and dragging is for the birds. Here are three shortcuts you're sure to love:

- To highlight a word, double-click it.
- To highlight a single line, click once directly to the left of the line, in the left margin.
- To highlight an entire paragraph, double-click directly to the left of the paragraph, anywhere in the margin.

Hand me my highlighter, please - part 2 of 2
In our last tip, we gave you three ways to highlight text in a word processing document: To highlight a word, double-click on it; to highlight a single line, click once directly to the left of the line in the left margin; and to highlight an entire paragraph, double-click directly to the left of the paragraph anywhere in the margin. Moving on to four bigger and better selections . . .

To highlight a whole bunch of text: Place the cursor at the beginning of the text, hold down Shift, and click at the end of what you want to select. OR, place the cursor at the beginning of the text you want to select, and then, while holding down Shift, use the arrow keys to expand the selection.

Of course, we saved the biggest for last: highlighting an entire document. In some word processors, you can choose Edit, Select All. But if your word processor doesn't have that command or if you're especially fond of keyboard combinations, hold down Ctrl-Shift and click in the left margin of the document (Note: In some word processors, this method may highlight only text below the cursor.) OR, place the cursor at the very beginning of the document and press Ctrl-Shift-End.

With all these options, who needs mice?

Joined at the shortcut
Is there a batch file you want to run every time you start an MS-DOS session under Windows 95? Then attach it to your MS-DOS Prompt shortcut.

Right-mouse click the shortcut you use to open a DOS window (probably in your Start menu, so you'll need to right-mouse click Start, select Open, and so on, to get to it). In the context menu that appears, select Properties. Click the Program tab, and on the Batch File line, type the name of the batch file you want to run (just the name--no extension necessary). Click OK, and from now on, using that shortcut to open DOS runs the batch file automatically.

The new and improved DUN
If you use Dial-Up networking, grab the Dial-Up Networking Upgrade 1.2 from Microsoft's Web site at
http://backoffice.microsoft.com/downtrial/moreinfo/win95pptp.asp
This upgrade includes ". . . client support for a single PPTP connection, . . . various bug fixes to Dial-Up Networking components and to the TCP/IP stack . . . [and] all networking features and fixes included in the OSR2 (OEM) release of Windows95 and the ISDN 1.1 Accelerator Pack." For more information, and to download this software, point your Web browser to the above URL.

Shave excess pounds off your hard disk
Looking to free up some hard disk space? Start by deleting leftover files from your system. It's safe to delete all the *.log and *.old files in your Windows folder and root directory. You can also delete *.bak, *.000, *.001 (and so on) files from your Windows folder; and *.prv, *.txt, and *.dos files from your root directory. (Note: If you dual boot, leave the *.dos files alone).

What's the diagnosis ?
Did you know you can add programs, such as Microsoft Diagnostics, to your Windows 95 Startup disk? (You do have one, right? If not, inside the Control Panel, double-click on Add/Remove Programs; select the Startup Disk tab; then click on Create Disk and follow the instructions.) It's filled with programs to help you diagnose and repair problems with your system, but it doesn't have everything.

Run faster, with less effort !
When you choose Run under the Start menu, you can click on the down arrow and select any already-used item in the list. But if your Run list is fairly long, there's an easier way. Type the first letter(s) of the item you want to use, then press the up or down cursor key to select the last entry that starts with that letter (or letters).

Keyboard Jammin'
Here are three keyboard shortcuts you shouldn't be without:

Alt-Shift-Tab
You may already know that Alt-Tab cycles you through open programs and windows, but did you know that Alt-Shift-Tab cycles you backward through the same list? It's a useful option if you have lots of applications open at the same time.

Shift-Right-click
If you'd like to open a file in a particular application other than the one it's associated with, don't waste time opening the application first, then using that program's Open command. Instead, hold down Shift as you right-
mouse-click on the already selected file icon. Select Open With, choose the application in which you'd like to open the files, and click on OK.

Shift-Delete
Typically, selecting an item and pressing the Delete key sends it to the Recycle Bin (after you click on Yes to confirm that you actually want to send the item there). To bypass the Recycle Bin altogether, hold down Shift as you press Delete.

Flexibility is Explorer's middle name
When you open an Explorer window, it looks a certain way. The right pane is one size, the left pane another, and there are bars of information and tools at the top and bottom of the window. For maximum viewing pleasure, you can change Explorer's look.

To change the amount of space allocated to the left and right panes, hold your mouse pointer over the divider and when it changes to a double-pointed arrow, click and drag in either direction. For example, you may wish to make the left side bigger if you've opened a folder within a folder within a folder (the more branches you open, the wider that tree gets).

If you'd like more space on the top or bottom of your Explorer window, get rid of the Toolbar or Status Bar. Pull down the View menu and deselect one or both of these options.

Color your Windows world beautiful
Tired of seeing those same boring colors on your Windows 95 desktop, Taskbar, windows and so on? Then change your color scheme. Select from wild and wacky, ready-made schemes, or make one from scratch.

Right-mouse click on the desktop, select Properties, and click on the Appearance tab. There, you'll see a preview of your current color scheme. Under Schemes is a list of all of Windows 95's ready-made color schemes. Select one to see what it looks like in the preview area. (Note: A scheme with "high color" in parentheses looks best with your system's color palette set to High Color or better.) When you find one you like, click on OK to make it stick.

If you don't like any of the schemes in the list, and have a little extra time on your hands, mix and match your own colors to create the perfect scheme. Still on the Appearances tab, select any scheme as a starting point. One at a time, click on the item you want to recolor on the preview (or select it by name in the Item list), and adjust its Color under Item.

Once the preview matches the look you had in mind, click on Save As, type a name for the scheme, and click on OK. Then click on Apply or OK for the life-size version. From now on, you can select this new look by name in the Scheme list.

Homespun Wallpaper, Part 1 of 2
Want to make your own wallpaper? All you need is Paint and a little bit of creativity. Any drawing you create in Paint can be pasted onto your desktop as one big picture or lots of little ones.

Well, what are you waiting for? Open Paint--select Start|Programs|Accessories|Paint--and start drawing! (Note: If you aren't the creative type, just open a picture someone else has drawn.) When you're finished, Save the file, then select Set As Wallpaper (Centered) under the File menu. Close Paint and check out your new wallpaper. To remove it, either repeat the above steps to paste another drawing on the desktop, or choose new wallpaper in the Display Properties dialog box.

(And by the way, from now on, you can choose this hand-made wallpaper by name in the Display Properties dialog box's Wallpaper list.)

Homespun Wallpaper, Part 2 of 2
In our last tip, we showed you how to turn any Paint picture into desktop wallpaper: Open the picture in Paint and select Set As Wallpaper (Centered) under the File menu. Now for the second wallpaper option, Set As Wallpaper (Tiled). This command allows you to place multiple copies of your picture across and down the desktop, with one catch: Unlike Windows 95's ready-made wallpapers, already set to the proper size for tiling, a Paint drawing's size needs to be adjusted manually.

Open your drawing in Paint, select Stretch/Skew under the Image menu, and change the horizontal stretch to any number less than 100%, such as 15%. Click on OK, then repeat these steps to adjust the vertical stretch to the same number. Click on OK again, and your picture will now appear much smaller on the Paint canvas. Save your changes under a new file name (we recommend keeping the original intact), and then select the Set as Wallpaper (Tiled) under the File menu.

Regular Hard Disk Maintenance, Part 1 of 3
To keep your system running with maximum efficiency, you should run ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter on a regular basis (once a month is a good interval to start with, but it depends on how often you use your system). Today, we'll discuss the first half of this necessary maintenance routine, ScanDisk. (Note: It's best to run ScanDisk before Disk Defragmenter, because a disk with errors on it cannot be defragmented.)

ScanDisk checks your hard disk for errors and fixes them for you. To open this utility, in a My Computer or Explorer window, right-mouse click on your hard disk, select Properties, click on the Tools tab and click on the Check Now button. Or select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, ScanDisk. Select your hard drive and choose the Standard or Thorough option. (Standard checks the files and folders on your hard disk, while Thorough does the same plus checks the drive itself for damaged or unusable areas. Standard is a much faster operation, but Thorough is exactly that--more thorough.)

Make sure the Automatically Fix Errors option is selected (unless you want to fix them yourself--ick), click on OK, and wait a while. It takes quite a long time to complete the check, especially if you've chosen the Thorough option, so your best bet is to start it when you won't need your computer for a while. When ScanDisk finishes, you'll see a dialog box detailing the results. Good as new!

Regular Hard Disk Maintenance, Part 2 of 3
To keep your system running with maximum efficiency, you should run ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter on a regular basis, such as once a month. In our last tip, we discussed ScanDisk (select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, ScanDisk; choose Standard or Thorough and click on OK). Today, we'll cover the second half of this maintenance routine, Disk Defragmenter.

Why do you need to defragment your hard disk? As you add and delete files on your system, information that should be grouped together gets split into various locations on the disk, making more work for your system--it has to run all over the place to get the information it needs. Very simply, defragmenting regroups data that belongs together.

First, disable your screen saver. (If it kicks in while the Disk Defragmenter is running, your system may lock up.) Next, open the Disk Defragmenter. In an Explorer or My Computer window, right-mouse click on your hard drive, select Properties, click on the Tools tab, and select Defragment Now. Or, select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. Select the drive you want to defragment, click on OK, and click on Start. (Often, you'll see a message telling you your disk is only a certain percentage defragmented and that you don't need to defrag. It's up to you to decide whether or not you want to proceed.)

You can go about your business as the Disk Defragmenter does its thing, but it works more efficiently if you don't multitask. As with ScanDisk, set it into motion when you won't need your system for a while. When it finishes, restart Windows 95 and you should notice smoother operation of your everyday tasks, especially if a large percentage of the drive was fragmented

Regular Hard Disk Maintenance, Part 3 of 3
In our last two tips, we told you about ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter, two utilities that you should run fairly frequently (every month or so) to keep your hard disk in tip-top shape. One way to access these utilities is to select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and then choose ScanDisk or Disk Defragmenter. Another is to open a My Computer or Explorer window, right-mouse click on your hard drive, select Properties, select the Tools tab, and click on Check Now or Defragment Now. But if you don't want to run these utilities manually, and you've installed Microsoft Plus!, the System Agent will run them for you. Just tell the agent at what time(s) and how often you want each utility to run, and let it worry about the rest.

The System Agent's icon should appear in the Taskbar. Double-click on it to start the System Agent. (If you don't see the icon, select Start, Programs Accessories, System Tools, System Agent. If System Agent doesn't appear in the pop-up list, you'll need to install it: In the Control Panel, choose Add/Remove Programs, select Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 on the Install/Uninstall tab, and click on Add/Remove. Click on Add/Remove again, select System Agent, click on Continue, and follow the instructions to complete the installation. Once it's installed, you'll see the icon on the Taskbar.)

In the System Agent dialog box, you'll see four items under Scheduled program: Low disk space notification, ScanDisk for Windows (Standard), Disk Defragmenter, and ScanDisk for Windows (Thorough). The Time scheduled to run column lists the preset schedules for these programs. You can change these times to match your maintenance plan.

Right-mouse click on an item, select Change Schedule, and take your pick of options. The nice thing is, you can choose whether the program should wait until you haven't used your computer for a certain amount of time and whether or not the agent should stop the program if you start using your computer while it's running. Click on OK to make your settings stick.

Repeat these steps for each utility whose schedule you'd like to adjust, then rest easy. The agent will complete these maintenance routines on time, every time.

Font and Formats
If you get a Word document from someone else and find that the font looks terrible on your computer, you may not have the font that the originator of the document used. When this happens, Word will substitute a font that you do have for the one you don't. The problem is that the selected font sometimes doesn't look very good in the document.

If this is a problem that you encounter often, it may be worth purchasing the needed font. An alternative approach is to preformat the document using a font that you do have--one that hopefully looks better than the one Word selected.

Music, Maestro !
In our previous tip, we showed you how to eject a CD using menu commands. [In an Explorer or My Computer window, right-mouse click on your CD-ROM drive and select Eject.] While you're at it, notice there's another handy command--Play--that appears if you have an audio CD in your drive. This means you can leave a CD in the drive indefinitely. Then every time you want to play it, instead of ejecting the disk and popping it back in to activate your system's AutoPlay feature (assuming you have it--if not, you probably start the CD Player and hit Play), you can simply right-mouse click on your CD-ROM drive icon (which will read "Audio CD") and select Play.

Ok, CD-ROM Drive, spit it out
When you want to eject a CD from your CD-ROM drive, do you reach all the way over there and press the eject button? If that button is a ways away (for example, your tower is under your desk), you may be getting good and tired of making the stretch. Instead, use menu commands to eject that CD.In your My Computer or Explorer window, right-mouse click on your CD-ROM drive and select Eject. Phtooey--out comes the CD!

Windows 95 Annoyances
http://www.creativelement.com/win95ann/

It's true, familiarity breeds contempt. We use Windows 95 all day and are therefore intimate with some of its, er, quirks. Hence the Windows 95 Annoyances page. This isn't just an excuse for token Microsoft bashing. Instead, you get a frank discussion of what's wrong with Windows 95 and lots of practical advice about how to make it right. As the page's author puts it, "Bad design is always recognized as such."

StartUp - Less StartUp
When Windows 95 loads, it loads every application whose shortcut you've placed in the StartUp folder (in your Start menu under Programs). Occasionally, however, you may not want these applications to load, although you don't want to go so far as to remove them from the StartUp folder. In that case, tell Windows 95 to avoid loading them during that startup only. When you see the Windows 95 logo on-screen, hold down Shift until the operating system finishes loading, and then let go. Those StartUp applications are nowhere to be found!

The incredible shrinking window
If you want an application to start upon launching Windows 95, then you just add its shortcut to the StartUp menu. Simple enough. So what happens if you're really picky and want the application to start, but shrink to the Taskbar the minute it opens? No problem. Just tell Windows 95 to start the program minimized. Assuming you already have a shortcut in the StartUp folder, all you need to do is change its Properties.

Right-mouse click the shortcut, choose Properties, and click the Shortcut tab. On the Run line, click the drop-down arrow to display your three possible options--Normal window, Minimized, or Maximized. Select Minimized, click OK, and from now on, that application will shrink out of site when it opens at start up.

See what's free
If you want to see how much space is left on your hard drive, there are a few places you can look:

you can open an Explorer window and select any item on
your hard drive. Again, the status bar displays your Disk free space. (To display the status bar in either window, select Status Bar under the View menu.)

if you relate better to graphics, however, you'll love this option --a pie graph that displays free vs. used space. To display this graph, in a My Computer or Explorer window, right-mouse click your hard drive icon and select Properties.

New looks for icons
You can change the font and size of your desktop and window icons. These settings are part of your Windows 95 current appearance scheme and are accessible through the Display Properties dialog box. Right-mouse click the desktop, select Properties, and click the Appearance tab. In the drop-down list next to Item, select Icon. Now make all the changes you want to their appearance. To the right of the Item box, the Size option changes the actual icon size. Below the Item list, you'll find options for changing the font of the icon names, as well as its size. Play around with different options, clicking Apply after each to see if you like what you see. When you're done, click OK.

Be prepared
Upon installing Windows 95, you're given the opportunity to create a Startup Disk--a boot disk that, should you have trouble starting Windows 95, gets you to MS-DOS, where you can check key files and run utilities in an attempt to figure out what's up. If you're impatient like the rest of us, you probably opted not to make the disk at the moment and figured you'd get to it later. Well, later is here (you never know when something's going to go wrong), so let's make that disk.
Open the Control Panel and double-click Add/Remove Programs. Select the Startup Disk tab and click the Create Disk button. When prompted to do so, insert a blank formatted disk into your floppy drive, then wait as Windows 95 copies all the necessary information to the disk. Better safe than sorry, you know.

Fake the AutoPlay
Do you have a CD-ROM drive without AutoPlay capability? (Meaning, when you pop an audio CD into the drive, it doesn't play automatically.) You can't add this feature, but you can get one step closer to it. Where you normally have to open the CD Player and press Play, you can set the CD Player to automatically play your audio CD when you open this program.
Open Explorer and navigate your way to the shortcut you use to start the CD Player. Right-mouse click it and select Properties. Place your cursor at the end of the text on the Target line, type a space, and then type: "/PLAY/index.html" (without the quotes). Click OK. To test out your handiwork, insert an audio CD, start the CD Player using the shortcut whose target line you just changed, and listen up!

There's a place for .temp files
As you use Windows 95 and the applications on your system, temporary files (*.TMP) are created for various purposes. During the Windows 95 shut down, most of these files are deleted, but inevitably some get left behind. These stragglers take up disk space and aren't necessary to the proper functioning of your system. Delete them to recover valuable disk space.First locate all the .TMP files on your system: Click Start, select Find, then choose Files or Folders in the popup list; type "*.TMP" on the Named line; select the drive you want to search; and click Find Now. When Find comes back with a list of all the .TMP files, sort them by date View|Arrange Icons|by Date) and delete all but those dated today.

New looks for trash
You can change the icons that Windows 95 uses to represent the Recycle Bin when it's full or empty. All it takes is a quick trip to the Registry. (As always, we recommend backing up the Registry first) Open the Registry Editor (select Start, Run, type "regedit," and click OK) and navigate your way to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ CLSID\ {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ DefaultIcon. Right-mouse click "empty" in the right pane; select Modify; and on the Value data line, type the path and number of the icon you want to use for an empty Recycle Bin using the following format: "path, ##." For example, if you were using the seventeenth icon in the c:\Windows\System\Pifmgr.dll file (the red crayon and paper), you would type:

c:\Windows\System\Pifmgr.dll, 16

(Why 16? Because the numbering in an icon file always starts with 0.) Click OK and repeat these steps for the "Full" string value, assuming you want to change that icon as well. Close the Registry Editor.To see your icon changes in effect, send any item to the Recycle Bin (to display the Full icon). Then empty the Recycle Bin (to display the Empty icon).

Straighten up and fight right
When you click Start, select Find, then choose Files and Folders from the popup menu, Find opens with its focus on your hard drive. If you want to narrow your search, you then have to click Browse, navigate your way to the folder you have in mind, click OK, and so on.

Why not start your search from the right location the first time around? In an Explorer or My Computer window, right-mouse click the folder you want to search and select Find. The Find dialog box opens with its focus on that folder.

Shortcut to your own devices
If you frequently open the Device Manager, place a shortcut to it right on your Start menu for one-click access. It beats having to open the Control Panel, double-click System and select the Device Manager tab every time.Right-mouse click the Start button and select Open to open the Start Menu folder. Right-mouse click inside the window, select New, then select Shortcut.

Next to Command Line, type exactly:
C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.EXE Sysdm.cpl, System,1

where c:\Windows is your Windows 95 directory. Click the Next button, name the shortcut Device Manager, and click Finish. The next time you want to open the Device Manager, click Start and select your new shortcut.

Solve your identity crises
When you installed Windows 95, you entered your name and organization. You can change this registered user information using the Registry Editor. (As always, back up the Registry before making this change.)

Click Start, select Run, type "regedit" and click OK to open the Registry Editor. Navigate your way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion. In the right pane, you'll notice RegisteredOrganization and RegisteredOwner string values (among others). To change one of these values, right-mouse click it, select Modify, and type new information on the Value data line. Click OK and close the Registry Editor.

Who needs ya, mouse?
If you're a keyboard person and a mousephobe, you'll be happy to know there's a keyboard equivalent to pressing the right mouse button: with an item selected, press Shif+F10. Once the context menu is expanded, just use your up or down cursor keys to highlight the command you want, then press Enter.

And here's another keyboard tip: In an open window, pressing F10 shifts the cursors focus to the first menu (typically, File). Press the down cursor key to expand the highlighted menu, or press the left or right cursor keys to select another menu.

We showed you that Shift+F10 is the equivalent of pressing the right mouse button, and that F10 moves the cursor's focus to a window's first menu (File). We've got another keyboard shortcut for you. Tired of clicking that straight-line caption button every time you want to minimize a window? Press Alt+Spacebard+N instead.

To minimize all open windows, press Ctrl_Esc (to open the Start menu) then Esc (to close it), and finally, press Alt+M. It seems like a lot of steps, but after a couple of times, you'll get the hang of it.

DOS Boots
You can boot directly to MS-DOS every time you start your computer. All it takes is a simple change to the MSDOS.SYS file. (You'll need to remove MSDOS.SYS's Hidden and Read-only attributes first. In an Explorer window, find MSDOS.SYS [right on your hard drive]; right-mouse click it and select Properties; deselect Hidden and Read-only; and click OK. (And of course, use the reverse technique to reapply these attributes when you're done.)

Open MSDOS.SYS in Notepad. Find the line that reads BootGUI=1, and change it to BootGUI=0. Select Save under the File menu, reboot your computer, and it's DOS-ville all the way. To start Windows 95, just type WIN.

I'm in the mode for DOS
In our last tip, we showed you how to boot directly to DOS: In the MSDOS.SYS file, change the line BootGUI=1 to BootGUI=0. Would you like to exit to MS-DOS? Simply selecting "Restart the computer in MSDOS mode" at shut-down won't get you out of Windows 95 completely.

In order for this technique to work, you need to have configured your system to boot to DOS, as explained in the previous tip. In this case, you'll start Windows 95 by typing "WIN" at the DOS prompt (or perhaps you've added the line "WIN" to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file). Once this condition has been met, you can exit to DOS during the shut down process. As soon as you see the "It is now safe to turn off your system" screen, type MODE CO80 and press Enter.

Got a thing for your Program Manager?
If you really liked Program Manager and don't want to give it up quite yet, open My Computer, double-click the Win NT drive (probably C:) and navigate to the Winnt folder. Double-click Winnt, then double-click System32. Locate Progman.EXE and right-click it, then drag its icon to the desktop. Release the mouse button and choose Create Shortcut(s) Here.

You can now double-click the shortcut to open Program Manager. You'll have to set it up since it isn't aware of anything that's currently on the desktop.

Back Up a minute
Whenever we describe a tip that involves editing the Registry, we recommend backing up the Registry first. A number of you have asked for a review of this technique, so here goes:

Full Backup
1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Pull down the Registry menu and choose Export Registry File.
3. Navigate to where you'd like to store the backup file, type in a name for the file, select All under Export range, and click on Save.

Partial Backup
1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate your way to the branch you'd like to back up.
3. Choose Export Registry File under Registry. (Selected Branch will be selectedunder Export range.)
4. Navigate to where you'd like to store the backup file, type in a name for the file, and click on Save.

Whether you do a full or partial backup, the result is a REG file. To restore this information to the Registry:

1. Double-click on the REG file.
2. Choose Import Registry File under Registry, navigate your way to the REG file, and click on Open.>

KEY Windows secrets
Do you have a Microsoft Natural Keyboard? Then there are some keyboard shortcuts you don't want to be without. Hold down the Windows key and press:

E to open Windows Explorer
R to open the Run dialog box
F to open the Find dialog box
F1 to open Help
M to minimize all open windows (Shift-Windows-M to undo minimize all)
Tab to cycle through the Taskbar buttons
Break to open the System Properties dialog box

Microsoft will sing
Want to see the names of all the people who were part of the Windows 95 Product Team? You can watch them roll by (to music, don't you know) as if you were at the end of a movie. So grab some popcorn and do the following:

1. Create a folder on your desktop called "and now, the moment you've all been waiting for" (no quotes).
2. Right-mouse click on the folder, select Rename, type - we proudly present for your viewing pleasure
- and press Enter.
3. Rename the same folder "The Microsoft Windows 95 Product Team!" (Again, no quotes, but include the exclamation point.)

Double-click on the folder and let the show begin!

Westfield, Massachusetts
Email: networld@westfield-ma.com