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Windows 95/98 Tips & Tricks
Windows 95/98 Setup Switches
Fat32 or Fat16?
Boot Disk Won't Recognize Hard Drive
Which Version of Windows Do You Have?
Icons on the Right Side
Lose The Speaker From Your Task Bar?
Transfer Your Favorites Folder to Another Computer
Drag and Drop Defaults
View the Properties of Several Drives at Once
Double Pane Explorer Window in Any Folder
Easy Internet Options
Associate an Extension with More Than One Program
Multiple User Profiles
Change the StartUp and Logoff Screens
Left-Handed Mouse
Change to Metric Measurements
Larger Icons? More Details? Change Your View
What's the Date?
Name Your Hard Drive
Windows
95/98 Setup Switches
If you only have to setup Windows once in awhile, this may be
of no interest. However, if you are constantly installing and
re-installing Win9X on different machines, here's a few switches
that could speed things up a bit.
Setup /iw - skips the Microsoft legal stuff
Setup /is - skips the automatic ScanDisk check
Setup /in - skips the network setup module
Setup /id - skips the DiskSpace Check
Setup /iq - skips the test for cross-linked files and folder
integrity Setup /iv - will run the setup program in Win98 without
all the advertising pop-ups.
Want to see all the options?
Try typing - Setup /?
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Fat32
or Fat16
You can easily check to see if a drive is Fat32 or Fat16 by
opening My Computer and right-clicking on whichever drive you
want to check. Choose 'Properties' and see what it says beside
'File System'. If it just says FAT, it means its Fat16, and
if its Fat32 it will say FAT32.
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Boot
Disk Won't Recognize Hard Drive
If you've made your boot disk from an older version of Win95
(before 4.00.950 B) then it probably won't recognize your Fat32
drives. You may try to use your StartUp floppy and find that
you can't access your hard drive. To fix this, boot to the drive
with your operating system and then put the StartUp floppy in
the floppy drive. Type 'sys a:' at the prompt and press enter.
Remember to update your StartUp floppies and boot disks regularly.
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Which
Version of Windows Do You Have?
To find out which version of windows you're running from the
DOS prompt, type ver /r. If you have an installation CD, and
want to know what version it is, find the setup.exe file in
the root directory or the Win9X directory of the CD. Right click
on it and choose properties. Click on the version tab and you'll
find the version number at the top of the dialog box that pops
up. Also, if you're in windows, you can open the control panel
and choose 'system'. The upcoming window will display the version.
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Icons
on the Right Side
For some strange, unknown reason, you may want to line all your
icons up on the right side of the desktop. (When I tried this,
I thought it looked stupid, but to each his own). Right click
on the desktop and choose Arrange Icons, and make sure Auto
Arrange is deselected. Highlight all your icons (click to the
right of the top one and drag down and to the right. This will
draw a box around them, selecting them all). Now click on any
of the highlighted icons and drag to the right side of the desktop.
This will move all icons at once. Now right click on the desktop
and choose Line Up Icons to straighten them out.
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Lose
The Speaker From Your Task Bar?
You can control the volume on your computer by clicking on the
little yellow speaker in the system tray of your task bar. If
your sound card is not configured right, the speaker may end
up with a slash through it or disappear completely. You'll have
to remove it from the Device Manager and reinstall. However,
if your sound card is working properly and you don't see the
little speaker on the taskbar, it's an easy task to restore
it. Simply open your Control Panel (either from 'My Computer'
or from the Start Menu under Settings), double-click on the
Multimedia icon, and choose the Audio tab. Check the box that
says "Show volume control on the taskbar."
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Transfer
Your Favorites Folder to Another Computer
If you are using Internet Explorer 3.0 or greater under Widows95
or 98, you can easily copy your Favorites Folder to another
PC. Navigate to your C:\WINDOWS\FAVORITES folder in Windows
Explorer. Select all the folders and icons, and drag and drop
them onto a floppy disk. Now you can drag and drop these from
the floppy into the FAVORITES folder on another computer.
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Drag
and Drop Defaults
It's easy to make a mistake when dragging and dropping in Win9x.
Whether the file is copied or moved depends on the source, the
target, and the type of file. An easy way around this is to
always drag and drop using the right mouse button. When you
do, a context menu pops up that allows you to choose whether
to Copy, Move, or Create a Shortcut in the new location.
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View
the Properties of Several Drives at Once
You can view the properties of several drives at the same time.
In My Computer, hold down 'Ctrl' and select the drives you want,
right click on one of the selected drives and choose properties.
A Properties Dialogue box opens up with tabs for each drive.
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Double
Pane Explorer Window in Any Folder
If you have a folder open as a single-pane window, just right-click
on the icon at the far left of the folder's title bar and a
double-pane Explorer window will open, ready for any file manipulation
you might want to do.
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Easy
Internet Options
When you're in Internet Explorer, you can access your Internet
properties by clicking 'tools' on the menu bar and choosing
'options'. Here you can change your starting web page, clear
your history folder, access mail and news settings, and much
more. You can access these options without even opening IE by
right-clicking the IE icon on the desktop and choosing properties.
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Associate
an Extension with More Than One Program
You know that file extensions can be
associated with particular programs. For instance, if you have
MS-Word and you double-click on a file with a .DOC extension,
the file will automatically open using Word. But what if you
want to open it with WordPad. You can hold down the shift key
and right-click on the file. This will bring up a menu with
the choice "Open With" and you can choose from a drop-down list
of programs. However, you can associate that file extension
with two different programs. Open any folder window and click
n View/Options/File Types. In the 'Registered File Types' box,
select Microsoft Word Document. Click the Edit button, then
click on the 'New' button at the bottom of that window. In the
'Action' box, type 'Open with WordPad', and in the 'Application
to Perform Action' box type "c:\program files\accessories\wordpad.exe"
"%1". Now, if you double-click on a .DOC file, it will open
in Word; if you right-click on that file, you will see the option
to "Open with WordPad".
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Multiple
User Profiles
If more than one person uses your computer, you can set up a
different profile for each user. Just double click on "Passwords"
in the Control Panel and choose "Properties". Click the radio
button that says "Users Can Customize Their Preferences and
Desktop Settings. Choose the setting you want, and when you
restart your computer, you'll be asked for a user name and password.
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Change the StartUp
and Logoff Screens
The StartUp and Logoff screens in Windows don't really bother
me much. But, it does bother me when dealers replace them with
their own poorly drawn or cheezy graphics. These screens can
be replaced with any image saved as a bitmapped (.bmp) file.
These bitmapped files must be 320 x 400 pixels. The StartUp
screen is called logo.sys and it's stored in the Windows directory.
Simply rename it logo.bak and name your new 320 X 400 pixel
bitmapped file logo.sys. The two Logoff screens are called logow.sys
("wait while…), and logos.sys ( "It is now safe to turn off
your computer").
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Left-Handed
Mouse
If you're left-handed and want to switch the buttons around
on your mouse, just double-click the mouse icon in the control
panel. Choose the Buttons tab and select Left-handed. From here
you can also change your mouse cursor, add mouse trails, and
change the double-click speed.
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Change
to Metric Measurements
By default, Windows is set to use inches as its standard of
measure. You can set it to metric if you want. Click on My Computer,
then choose Control Panel/Regional Settings. Select the Number
tab and change the Measurement System from US to Metric.
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Larger
Icons? More Details? Change Your View
When you open a folder in Windows Explorer or My Computer, you
can change the way the contents are displayed by choosing View
from the menu bar and clicking Large Icons, Small Icons, List,
or Details. Check them all out and decide which you like best.
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What's
the Date?
If you move the cursor over the time displayed in the far right
corner and hold it there for a second, the day and date will
pop up.
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Name Your Hard
Drive
Open My Computer, right-click the Drive icon and choose properties.
Select the General tab and type the name you want in the Label
box.
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