Windows Tips

A little information goes a long way. Hopefully these tips will prove useful for you. I will try to add and update as much as possible. If you would like to submit a tip to appear here, just email it to me

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Windows Tips: Win95/Win98/WinME or click the following link to take you to Windows XP Tips at the bottom

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**August 8th**

Missing Send to the Desktop

If the desktop as shortcut icon is missing from the send to menu, here's how to restore it. Open C:\Windows\SEND TO and right click on the folders background. Choose New\Text Document and rename the new file Desktop as Shortcut.DESKLINK. (click on yes when the Rename warning dialog opens.

**August 9th**

If you accidentally delete the Show Desktop shortcut from the taskbar's Quick Launch toolbar, you can restore it by going to C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch.

Create a new text file with the following contents:

[Shell] 

Command=2 

IconFile=explorer.exe,3 

[Taskbar] 

Command=ToggleDesktop 

Save the file as SHOWDESKTOP.SCF. In the Windows System folder. This will restore the shortcut.

If you just accidentally delete the shortcut you can try this:

Did you just delete the Show Desktop item from your Quick Launch toolbar by mistake? D'oh! (Funny, you don't get a warning message asking if you're sure you want to delete it.) Don't worry--you can get it back. 

Open an Explorer window, navigate your way to the Windows\System folder, and locate a file named Show Desktop. (If you don't see one, see note below.) Open a second Explorer window and navigate your way 

to Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch. Right-click and drag the Show Desktop file from the System folder into the Quick Launch folder, let go, and select Create Shortcut(s) Here.

**August 15th**

Don't merge that file!

Open explorer and select View/Options/Folder Options and find Registration entries, then edit and change the default from merge to edit. You can right click a registry file and select merge, but double clicking it will open the file in Notepad.

**August 18th**

Purge the clipboard

Whenever you're doing work that involves cutting large files to your Clipboard, remember to purge the Clipboard after you finish your work by copying something small to it. The Clipboard is stored in RAM, and if it's full of a massive file such as an image file, it can make your system behave a bit sluggishly. Type a few letters into a text editor and cut them to the Clipboard to free up that precious memory.

**August 27th**

Version Conflicts

Run System File Checker "SFC.EXE" from the system info folder and run FILEINFO.EXE from the Resource kit to find where the files are located. Windows 98 sometimes replaces newer files with older ones instead of the other way around. Another program to run is VCMUI.EXE

**September 15th**

Restart Windows shortcut

Here's one that'll allow you to Restart Windows! Simply create a shortcut (right-click on your Desktop, select New, then Shortcut), then enter the following information (without the quotes): "C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindowsexec" Make sure you copy that ENTIRE string or else it won't work, people (everything between the quotes). Trust me, it works.

**September 16th**

Keep a Diary or running log with Notepad

Open Notepad and type .LOG (all uppercase) then name the file and save it where it can be easily accessed, with a .txt file extension. Each time you open a file with .LOG as the first line, the software program automatically moves to the bottom of existing text and prints the time, the date and the year for your next entry.

**September 23rd**

If you're running into KERNEL32.DLL errors, consider dropping into MS-DOS mode and deleting the swap file from the command prompt. This will effectively clean out previously swapped code which may have been causing system instability. Windows will create a new swap file automatically before its next session.

**October 7th**

If the Windows Update item on your Win98 Start menu stops working, here's how to fix it. First, delete the Windows Update entry on the Start menu by right-clicking on it and choosing Delete. Now replace it with a shortcut to C:\WINDOWS\WUPDMGR.EXE. Name the shortcut Windows Update.

**October 19th**

Add Control Panel to start Menu

Right click Start/explore, select file/new/folder and name it Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

**October 26th**

Add Cascading DUN and Printers to Start Menu

Follow the same technique as above, but name the folder: 

DUN.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48} 

(Tip-in-a-tip: To add a Printers folder to the Start Menu, name the

folder "Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}".)

**November 11th**

If you view your C:\WINDOWS, C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM and 

C:\PROGRAM FILES folders as Web pages in Win98, 

you'll see warning messages about modifying folder contents. In addition, the WINDOWS folders actually hide contents from you, requiring an extra Show Files click. Here's how to remove the warning messages and the extra click while keeping Web View intact: First, make sure Explorer is showing hidden files (select View/Folder Options, 

open the View tab and select the Show All Files radio button). Next, open the target folder and rename 

FOLDER.HTT to FOLDER.OLD. Copy and paste the FOLDER.HTT file from C:\WINDOWS\WEB to the folder you're modifying. This version of FOLDER.HTT activates a standard, warning-free Web view. Make sure the As Web Page option is checked under the folder's View menu. Repeat these steps for each folder, as needed.

**November 19**

Win98 Easter Egg

Okay, just in case you missed it the first time around, or if you haven't heard about it yet, here's the Windows 98 Easter Egg. Open up your Date/Time Control Panel applet (or simply double click on the clock in your System Tray), and select the Time Zone tab. Now, hold down the CTRL key and left-click & hold on Egypt. While still holding down the CTRL key and your mouse button, "drag" Egypt to Tennessee then let go of your mouse button (but not the CTRL key). Click and "drag" Tennessee to Washington (state). Then, let go of the CTRL key and your mouse button. That should work, though it might take a little while to master!

**November 30**

CREATE NO-NAME ICONS

Do you have an icon on your desktop that speaks for itself? You can remove its label altogether (seemingly) by renaming the icon with non-printing characters. Right-click the icon you want to appear nameless and select Rename. Make sure Num Lock is turned on (above the numeric keypad on your keyboard), then hold down Alt as you type 0160 which just happens to be a non-printing character. Press Enter, and there's your no-name icon!

**December 01**

Format a Company Screensaver

I found this tip in the December 19th  2000 issue of PCMagazine. it was submitted via the internet by Mark Cogswell, and is one of those  simple ideas you may wonder why you didn't think of it on your own. You can take any company logo or letterhead and scan it into your computer and save it as a bitmap. You can save it in any directory you choose, but since most bitmap images are in C:\Windows, that may be a good place to try. Right-click the desktop and choose properties. Click the Screen Saver tab and and select the screen saver called 3D Flying Objects. Click settings, and in the Style pull down menu select Textured Flag. then click Texture and browse to where ever you saved the bitmap file of your logo. You can change the size and resolution by moving the sliders, but so far, it seems to look best, moving them all the way to the right. When you are all set, click OK and then Preview. You now have a flag screensaver with you companies logo proudly fluttering on your monitor. For Winholesale companies: I have a disc with all but the newest company logos in a .gif format that I can email to you if you have an image editor that you can convert it with. If not request that I do it for you by email and I will upload it to my downloads page and you can pick it up there. Due to the nature of a screensaver, I haven't figured out how to create an .avi  file to show you, but you can see a couple of captured screenshots here and here. All good things comes to those that use search engines and spend Sundays searching for answers. While I still haven't figures out how to take a full screen .avi of a screen saver, I did figure out how to capture the settings screen. Here is an AVI of the screen you can download or hopefully this "Real" file will stream to you if you have a real player plug-in installed. The AVI is in a .zip file and with the Real file, pick the option to open and run it from this location or save it to disc and run it later.

**December 10**

Clear Your Registry

Typical savings: 500KB, possibly more. It's not just your hard drive that gets filled with junk. Your Windows Registry can get bloated, too. Windows 98 will compress the Registry database if it has more than 500KB of wasted space, but that doesn't take care of superfluous entries that can bloat the Registry even more. Two undocumented keys in the command-line Scanreg program can help. Scanreg is the program that backs up your Registry, but it has other hidden talents, too. Begin by entering DOS mode by selecting Start, Shut Down, then click "Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode" and select OK. When a DOS prompt appears, enter the command SCANREG /FIX. This command will remove superfluous Registry keys if you have any. Now enter SCANREG /OPT. This compresses the Registry. Finally, type WIN to return to Windows.

**December 16**

A, B, C... IT'S EASY AS 1, 2, 3!

Wish your Start menu icons were in alphabetical order--folders first, then shortcuts? (If you've done any manual rearranging by clicking and dragging items to new locations, you'll notice that Windows 98 doesn't alphabetize them for you.) You could rearrange them all by hand, but there's a much easier way. With one simple Registry change, Windows 98 will restore order to the entire Start menu. (Warning: As with all Registry-editing techniques, we recommend backing up your Registry files--System.dat and User.dat, hidden files on the root of your hard drive--before continuing.) Open the Registry Editor--select Start, Run, type regedit and click OK--and navigate your way to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\Start Menu\Menu. In the right pane, right-click Order, select Delete, then click Yes to confirm. Close the Registry Editor, restart Windows 98, and check out your newly arranged Start menu!

**December 30**

Hide Desktop Icons

If you are a person that generally uses the Start menu to access all your programs and would prefer your desktop to be free of icons, use this setting to hide all of the items on your desktop. To set this option, go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Policies\Explorer Edit/create the value NoDesktop (DWORD value) and set the value to "1" (without quotes) to hide the desktop icons, or "0" to display the desktop icons. As with all registry edits, if you are unsure of what you are doing, be sure and back up your registry first.

**December 31**

Clearing Your IE 5.X cache

I had to try this using streaming "Real audio and Video." You can see the tip by clicking on the "Clearing your IE 5.X cache" link and it will launch your Real player and stream the tip. I did discover that if you have a slow connection and the "Beatnik" background music is playing, you will only see the video with no sound. To get around it, after your player launches with this stream, move your browser off of this page. With a fast connection, it will silence the background music and play the video with sound.  I am obviously not an actor nor announcer, but wanted to see how well this 49mb file reduced to 182kb would stream over the internet. It was created with a 3Com camera and I used Real Producer Basic (also free) to convert it. If you don't have the "Real Player" which is free (the best kind) you can get it by clicking the link below

**January 13**

Track Install Changes (Win98)

Find out exactly what a program does when you install it by using the System File Checker's log feature. After installing a program, open the log by launching the System Information utility Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information), choosing System File Checker from the Tools menu, clicking on the Settings button and then on the View Log button. The log will tell you exactly which files were added to your computer and which were updated with a newer version.

**January 21**

Find Your F3 Key (Win98)

When you need to find something on your system, do you automatically select Start, Find, Files or Folders, define a folder on the Look In line, and so on? Sure, the Start menu is one way to start this search utility, but depending on where you are at the moment, there may be a faster way to get your search started. Right-click any drive or folder--on the desktop, in an Explorer window, wherever--select Find, and up pops the Find window with that drive or folder already listed on the Look In line. Ever faster, from the desktop or an open Explorer window, press F3 to open the Find: All Files window already focused on the current folder.

**February 11**

Icons are helpful in visually describing what lies beneath them

Icons are helpful in visually describing what lies beneath them, and sometimes textual reminders are a bit too much. You know that the book icon is for launching your favorite word processor--but you can't have a textless icon... or can you? Rename the icon (select it and tap the 'F2' key). While depressing either ALT key, enter '0160' on your numeric keypad. This should create a blank space. At that point, you can hit ENTER and the icon will no longer have text underneath it. If you'd like other 'nameless' icons on your Desktop, enter an additional '0160' for each one (remember, no two shortcut icons can have the same filename).

**March 4**

Zoom Windows Explorer

Pressing F11 in Explorer will zoom it full screen. Pressing F11 again, returns it to normal Window. This also works in Internet Explorer.

**March 17**

Internet Explorer Window Title

Short and sweet descriptions suit me just fine. I don't need IE telling me that I'm running "Microsoft Internet Explorer" in the title bar of every single browser window, so I prefer to either shorten this string, or eliminate it entirely. The following registry entry controls the text dropped in the space following the actual page title: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Internet Explorer\ Main Create a new String Value named Window Title and set the data to anything you prefer, such as MS IE 5.5x or perhaps Micro$lop Cripplenet Exploder for the MS bashers out there. If the value is created, but empty, no text will be displayed, though you'll have an annoying hyphen after the page title to stare at for all eternity. Potential administrative uses for this might be to insert the workstation name or maybe a tidbit of information you'd like to display to users, such as the help desk phone number. Being that it's a simple registry entry, you can easily use a login script to set this value when the user logs into the network.

**April 15**

Remember changing your Windows 95 startup splash screen

by editing your logo.sys file? Well, that file isn't as evident under Windows 98. LOGO.SYS defaults to the standard Win98 screen - but there isn't an editable file on your C: drive. You can, however, CREATE a 320x400 bitmap, name it LOGO.SYS, and voila! New splash screen. The other tweakable splash screens are: c:\windows\logos.sys (your system shutdown screen) c:\windows\logow.sys (your wait for shutdown screen) Those files can be opened and edited from within your C:\WINDOWS directory; you don't have to create them from scratch.

**April 29**

Using the escape key during drag and drop

If you're moving files or folders around on your desktop, you can always stop a drag-and-drop operation by pressing the Esc key before you drop the file or folder. This is useful if you're moving a folder and you suddenly realize you didn't mean to. Pressing Esc leaves the file exactly where it started, without you having to put it back in exactly the right place.

**May 28**

Windows 98: Speed-Up TCP/IP Transmissions.

MTU stands for Maximum Transmission Unit. In TCP/IP networking, this setting defines how many bytes are in each packet that moves across the network. By default, all PPP connections at speeds below 128K use an MTU of 576. At higher speeds, Windows 98 uses an MTU of 1,500.To adjust these settings, open the Network option in Control Panel, select Dial-Up Adapter, and click on the Properties button. Click on the Advanced tab, and select the IP Packet Size entry in the Property list. The Automatic setting shifts MTU size to match the connection speed; choose Large to set MTU size to 1,500, Medium for 1,000, or Small for 576.

**June 23**

Repairing Master Boot Record

From a DOS prompt, not in Windows, Type fdisk /mbr and it will recreate your master boot record

**November 17**

Shortcut to Send To

If you rely on the Send To option in the right-click menus of Windows to open your files, you can make adding new programs to the Send To menu a snap by adding a shortcut to the Send To folder right on the Send To menu. With the Send To folder listed in the Send To menu, you can add new programs on the fly by using the Send To menu. To add the shortcut, open Windows Explorer and locate the Send To folder (usually c:\windows\sendto). Right-click the Send To folder and choose Copy. Then open the Send To folder, right-click in a blank area of the file list and choose Paste Shortcut. To send a program to the Send To menu, right-click on the executable file, point to Send To, and choose Shortcut To Send To.

Windows XP Tips

**April 7**

Install NetBEUI on Windows XP

The files necessary for installing the NetBEUI protocol on Windows XP are Netnbf.inf and Nbf.sys. Complete the following steps to install NetBEUI: Insert your Windows XP CD into the CDROM drive and browse to the Valueadd\MSFT\Net\NetBEUI folder. Copy Nbf.sys to the %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\Drivers directory. Copy Netnbf.inf to the %SYSTEMROOT%\Inf hidden directory. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Network Connections. Right-click the adapter you want to add NetBEUI to, and then click Properties. On the General tab, click Install. Click Protocol, and then click Add. Click to select NetBEUI Protocol from the list and then click OK. Restart your computer if you receive a prompt to complete the installation. The NetBEUI protocol should now be installed and working.

**December 29**

Minimize Outlook XP/2002 to the System Tray

I know a lot of people who keep Outlook open all the time. That's cool, because email is the Internet's killer app! But when you leave Outlook open all the time, it takes up space on the already crowded taskbar. Here's a registry entry that will place Outlook in the tray (near the clock) when you minimize it:

1.Click Start and click the Run command.

2.In the Run dialog box, type regedt32 in the Open text box and click OK. 

3.Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Office/10.0/Outlook/Preferences

4.Right click in an empty area in the right pane of the Registry Editor, point to New and click on DWORD Value.

5.Type over the New Value #1 entry to rename the entry to MinToTray.

6.Double click on the MinToTray entry. In the Value data text box, type the number 1. Click OK.

7.Close the Registry Editor. You don't need to restart the computer for the change to take effect. After you minimize Outlook, you'll see the Outlook icon in the tray. To restore Outlook, double click on the Outlook icon.

**December 29**

Modifying Windows XP Zip Support

Windows XP supports the ability to uncompress .ZIP compressed files, which is handy for an out-of-the-box installation, but after installing WinZip or other more feature-rich application, the two can argue about which wants to open the files. Disabling the Windows XP support for .ZIP files is quite simple, requiring an unregistration of the appropriate .DLL as follows:

regsvr32 /u %windir%\system32\zipfldr.dll

**March 30**

Open Multiple items in Start Menu

You use the SHIFT key to open multiple items in your Start Menu without losing your position. Now, let's say you don't want to lose your foreground app's focus. While double-clicking on a desktop shortcut icon to launch the associated target, hold down the CTRL key. It'll load it behind all other open windows. Be it a document or be it a program, it should hide behind everything else on the screen.

**March 30 #2 **

Installing the Windows XP Recovery Console

Sometimes installing new software or peripherals can really ruin your day. Things can get so bad that Windows XP won't even boot up, even if you use the Last Known Good option! There's one thing you can do before giving up, and that's to use the Recovery Console. The Recovery Console gives you access to a DOS like environment where you can try to fix things you suspect are wrong. You should definitely install the Recovery Console if you're a power user. Just do the following:

1.Put your Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM drive

2.Click Start, and then click the Run command.

3.In the Open text box, type d:\i386\winnt32.e x e /cmdcons Change the drive letter to your CD drive if   D:  is not your CD drive letter (don't type spaces in the filename).

4.In the Windows Setup dialog box you'll see a description of the Recovery Console. Read it and then click Yes to install.

5.Restart the computer. The next time you start your computer, you will see a "Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" entry on the boot menu.

**November 28**

How to Speed up XP Starting

Click Start | Run and type regedit to open the Registry Editor. Navigate to HKey Local Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters. In the right pane, right click "EnablePrefetcher" and select Modify. Under Value data, change the value form 3 (the default) to 5. After rebooting WinXP should start faster.