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System Monitor (C:\WINDOWS\SYSMON.EXE) lets you track an array of performance measures for your system and network. You can save the results to a text log. Type an FTP address in the Address box of any Explorer view to go to the site and use the window as an FTP client. Did the little yellow speaker that controls audio volume disappear from your taskbar's system tray? If so, open the Multimedia Control Panel. Under the Audio tab, check the "Show volume control on the taskbar" option in the Playback section (in Win98, the option is at the bottom of the dialog box). Click on OK, and the yellow speaker should return. If not, try reinstalling your audio driver and then repeat these steps. If you regularly surf sites written in foreign languages, make sure you configure your browser to read the text. Select View/Internet Options in IE4 or Tools/Internet Options in IE5, open the General tab and click on the Languages button. Click on Add and then choose the language you want your browser to support from the list. You can manually extract files from your Windows CD or IE setup CAB files, which can be very useful when your PC tells you KERNEL32.DLL or another system file has been corrupted. Win98's System File Checker (SFC.EXE in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder) can automatically fix some corrupted files for you. But Win95 users can also make repairs using the DOS EXTRACT.EXE tool (in the \WINDOWS\COMMANDS folder). Type EXTRACT /? from a DOS window to view the syntax requirements and available options for using this tool. For more detailed information, see Microsoft's Web page "How to Extract Original Compressed Windows Files" at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q129/6/05.asp. If Windows fails to boot properly, press F8 while it boots for the Windows StartUp menu, and pick the Logged (\BOOTLOG.TXT) option. It attempts a normal boot but records the status of every step Windows takes during the process. You can use this option to log a failed boot. Then, reboot to Safe mode if necessary and use a text editor to open BOOTLOG.TXT (in your root directory). Search for "fail" to find the boot steps Windows had trouble with. Failed steps are often excellent clues to the cause of the problem. After installing Windows 98 Second Edition (upgrade or full version) you will find that there is no Attribute column in Explorer. You can add this column to Explorer by by launching RegEdit and going to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced and changing the ShowAttribCol Dword value from 0 to 1 by clicking on it. -- submitted by Neal Wood
The Recycle Bin lets you view items you've tossed in the same way as an ordinary Windows folder. If you're looking for something in the Recycle Bin, select Details from the View menu and click on the bar of your choice (Name, Original Location, Date Deleted, Type or Size) to sort by that category. Place a shortcut to your printer right on your Desktop. Right-click on the printer you want in your Printer folder and drag it to your Desktop, choosing the Create Shortcut Here option. Then drag and drop documents to the shortcut to print them. Save disk space by reducing the number of days IE saves pages in your History list. The fewer days you specify, the less space your system uses. Access the History list settings under Tools/Internet Options. You can determine how fast your keyboard repeats characters and moves the cursor in a document by launching the Keyboard item in Control Panel, then experimenting with the speed settings on the Speed tab. Print out all the fonts on your system by opening Control Panel, double-clicking the Fonts icon, then on the font of your choice and clicking on the Print button. Admit it. In your haste and excitement, you didn't make a startup disk when you installed Win9x. Don't worry. You can still redeem your self. Open the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel item and click on the Startup Disk tab. Then just put a diskette in your diskette drive and click on the Create Disk button. When you "add a folder" to your Start menu by dragging and dropping it onto the Start button, you're really just adding a shortcut to the folder. It's usually better to put the actual folder there instead of a shortcut. The Start menu is just a special folder in the Windows folder called, unsurprisingly, "Start Menu." If you put folders that contain your documents into this folder, you gain three advantages. First, what you see on the Start menu is always correct; delete a folder, for example, and it disappears from the Start menu as well, while a shortcut would remain. Second, actual folders appear on the Start menu as cascading menu items, whereas shortcuts to folders just open the folder on your Desktop when selected. And finally, the Start menu is always available, even if your Desktop is packed with clutter. If you want to keep files-or even folders full of files-hidden from prying eyes, just right-click on each file and select Hidden in the Attributes box at the bottom of the Properties dialog. To see the files you've hidden, double-click on My Computer, select Options from the View menu, click on the View tab and select Show All Files. The Windows Explorer normally opens to your C: drive, but you can make it launch with the contents of any folder you want. Go to your Windows Explorer shortcut, right-click and select Properties. Open the Shortcut tab. Edit the entry in the Target field to read explorer.exe /n , /e , (drive:\path\folder) , where (drive:\path\folder) is whichever folder you want to first see when Explorer launches. If you want to print a Web page the way it looks on your screen-with background color-you can enable background printing in Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. In IE , select Tools/Internet Options/Advanced. Scroll down to Printing and check the "Print background colors and images" box. Click on OK. In Navigator, select File/Page Setup, check Print Background under Page Options and click on OK. Remember: Printing the background will slow your print job and might obscure the text if you use a monochrome printer. In Control Panel/System/Performance, select File System and the CD-ROM tab. Move the Supplemental Cache Size slider to the right to allocate more RAM for caching data from the CD-ROM drive, or to the left to allocate less. Multimedia programs perform better with a smaller cache because they seldom reuse data. For reading continuous data, such as AVI files, use a higher setting for Optimize Access Pattern. For reading random data, increase the Supplemental Cache Size and decrease the Optimize Access Pattern. Here's a secret tip for creating a shortcut to the Device Manager: Right-click on the Desktop and choose New/Shortcut. Type C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.EXE SYSDM.CPL,,1 in the Command Line box and click on Next. Name it Device Manager (or another name of your choice), then click on the Finish button. Assign a new icon to the shortcut as you would any other. One of Win98's most powerful hidden gems is a universal command line. From here you can launch programs, open folders, go to Web sites and more. Right-click on the taskbar and select Toolbars/Address. When the Address box shows up on your toolbar, click and hold on the word Address and drag it to the top of your Desktop. Right-click on it and select Always on Top. Now, when you maximize applications, they'll expand between your Address bar at the top and your taskbar at the bottom. If slow-loading Java applets interrupt your Web browsing, turn off Java support. Select View/Internet Options/Security (Tools/Internet Options/ Security for IE 5.); click on the Custom radio button, then on the Settings button. Select the Disable Java option. Create a shortcut to a printer by opening the Printers folder (Settings/Control Panel/Printers) and dragging a printer icon to the Desktop. You can then drag documents onto the shortcut and print instantly. You can also put a printer shortcut in your Send To folder so printing is always a right-click away. Control Panel is one of the more frequently used folders in Windows, but it's not always easy to access. You can, however, make the Control Panel applets available directly from the Start menu. First, right-click on the Start button and choose Open. Then, right-click on the background area in the Start menu folder and choose New/Folder. Rename the folder with this string: Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} (Windows 95 users can copy and paste this filename from the TIPS.TXT file found in the Windows folder.) Press Enter. This will place Control Panel directly on the Start menu, with the applets appearing on a cascading menu that opens when you move the cursor over Control Panel. For frequently used Control Panel applets, make shortcuts to the applets and add them to the Start menu or the desktop.
You can select groups of icons or folders on the desktop or within folders by clicking outside the body of icons and, while holding the left mouse button, dragging a rectangle to surround all the icons you want to select, then letting go. You can then move, copy or delete them en masse. Prepare for possible PC catastrophes by regularly copying the following files to a second hard drive, removable hard disk or diskette-especially if you frequently install and uninstall applications. From your root directory (you may find only some of these), back up AUTOEXEC.BAT, AUTOEXEC.DOS, CONFIG.SYS, CONFIG.DOS and MSDOS.SYS. From your Windows folder, back up CONTROL.INI, SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI, as well as the SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT Registry files (SYSTEM.DAT probably won't fit on a floppy disk). Here's a tip that lets you put Start menu items in the order you want and also launch them with keystrokes. In Win95, Right-click on the Start button, then select Open. Rename each item by placing a number in front of it. Now you can open the Start menu by pressing Ctrl+Esc. Launch the program of your choice by simply pressing the associated number. For Win98, simply drag and drop items to place them in the order you want. Launch items by pressing Ctrl+Esc, then the letter of the item you want to launch, followed by the Enter key. You can set your browser to include time and date information when you print a Web page. Go to File/Page Setup in Navigator or IE. In Navigator, check "Date printed under footer," and your printouts will include the date and time. In IE, you can have the time and date printed in the header or footer. You have to enter the proper codes in the Header or Footer box. If you want the time and date, type &t &d in the appropriate text box. You might want to leave a few spaces between the codes to separate the time and date on the printed page. Some applications add themselves to the Context menu's cascading New menu that appears when you right-click on the Desktop or within a folder. You may find that even after you've deleted a particular application, it stays on the New menu. If you want to remove it, launch My Computer, select Options from the View menu and click on the File Types tab. Find the offending application on the list, select it and click on the Remove button. Click on Yes when it asks for confirmation. If the taskbar gets in your way, there are a few ways to move or hide it. You can move it to the top or sides of your screen by dragging and dropping it on the appropriate edge. Wherever the taskbar is, right-click on it, choose Properties and check the Auto Hide option to make it disappear until you move the mouse pointer to the screen edge where it hides. To hide it permanently, turn off Auto Hide and drag the taskbar off the screen. Its edge will stay visible so you can drag it back again. Sometimes simple tricks are the most useful. If you want to search for a file and you know roughly where it is, just right-click on the folder it's in and select Find from the Context menu. Find will search the folder and all the subfolders within, based on the search criteria you specify. |
