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Bumper collection of Windows tips and tricks

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Article ID: 835831 - Last Review: July 8, 2008 - Revision: 3.5

Bumper collection of Windows tips and tricks The articles set out below are articles created and/or produced by Future Publishing Limited. Microsoft is not responsible for the content, accuracy or opinions expressed in these articles.

In this article we’ll show you how to speed up Windows, streamline Windows for better performance, clean up Windows to prevent crashes and much, much more. Looking to spend less time on mundane tasks and more time actually doing something constructive? We reveal some super time-saving shortcuts that’ll make you happy. Having problems with certain parts of Windows? We reveal the solutions. Want to make more of the Internet? We’ve got a healthy dose of Internet Explorer tips that’ll tickle your fancy.

Speed-up Windows

Disable your screen saver It can be annoying if you forget to switch off the Windows screen saver when you’ve just started an important task, such as running Defrag or copying a large number of files from one disk to another. Don’t worry, though, you can temporarily disable it simply by making sure the Start menu is open. Bypass Windows Media Player If you have a lot of multimedia files in a directory, you won’t want Windows Media Player to open each time you access them. To get around this, right-click inside the folder, select Customize this folder and then choose Create or edit HTML document. Click Next, and Notepad will open, then locate the line saying var wantMedia = False; – change the ‘False;’ to True; and close NotePad, saving your changes. Finish the wizard, and then to open media files, just right-click on them and select Play. Use the toolbar To quickly access programs you use regularly, use the toolbar. Right-click on it, and select Toolbars, New Toolbar. From the dialog box, browse to the directory the file is in, and select the file. If the program is in the Start Menu the folder you require is C:\Windows\Startmenu.

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Fast copy in Explorer In a dual-pane Explorer view, if you’re dragging a file or folder from the right pane to a buried folder in the left pane, you don’t need to expand the folders first. Select the files or folders you want to copy, drag them to the left pane, and hold them over the contracted folder for a second or two. The folder will expand automatically, so you can drop the files into the folder or continue drilling down until you reach your desired location. Quick access with QuickTray The QuickTray tool sits in your system tray and gives you an easy way to put other applications on your taskbar. Click on QuickTray to launch it, and use the Add button to add any program. The icon for each program you select will be placed to the right of the Start button, enabling you to launch the program at any time with a single click on the icon. View image thumbnails One of the many excellent new features in Windows 98 is used you view open folders as Web pages - if you haven’t done this, select My Computer, View, As Web Page. In the left-hand pane you'll be able to see a small thumbnail of any image icon that you have clicked on with the mouse pointer. Unfortunately, some JPEGs don’t show up, because JPEGs come in two types – RGB and CMYK – and Windows 98 can read only RGB. One way around this is to use your favourite graphics program to convert your CMYK JPEGs to the RGB format. Not so fast Windows 98’s WinAlign feature speeds up application launches by placing key files on the fast part of the disk during a defrag; it also re-writes programs so that they use memory more efficiently. What you may not know is that only applications that have specifically been designed to work with WinAlign, such as Microsoft’s Office, are supported by the feature. You can find out exactly which files are boosted by WinAlign by checking your WINALI.INI file in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM. You can try adding programs, DLLs and other files to this list to tell Windows 98 to ‘WinAlign’ them, but they may or may not work. If you’re going to add unsupported applications, though, make sure you back up your system first. Select files fast If you've opened up a large directory and want to copy, for example, 95 files out of 100, the quickest way to do this is to select the five you don’t want using [Ctrl], then choose Edit, Invert Selection. Add the date and time to a Notepad document To quickly insert the current date and time in Notepad, just press [F5]. Restart Windows as quickly as possible To bypass the Shutdown dialog box, create a batch file in Notepad. To do this, create a new file and enter the text @Exit on the top line. Save it into a folder called Batch files as something like shutdown.bat. Next, exit Notepad and right-click your .bat file and select Properties. Switch to the Program tab, select Close on Exit and click on Advanced. Next, choose MS-DOS mode and uncheck Warn before entering MS-DOS mode. Click OK. Now, to quickly restart Windows, just double-click on this program (another good idea is to create a shortcut to this program and store it on the desktop or in your Start folder). Easily access the Device Manager

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If you regularly use the Device Manager, you can create a speedy little shortcut to it, and put it on your desktop. Just right click on the desktop and select New, Shortcut. In the command box, type C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.EXE SYSDM.CPL,,1. Now call the shortcut Device Manager. Faster Quickview This enables you to quickly ‘Quickview’ any file, but it's not installed by default. Go to Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs and select Windows Components, Accessories. Select Quickview. You can then also make a shortcut to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ VIEWERS\QUIKVIEW.EXE on the desktop, and just drag and drop files on it. Take control of Explorer To quickly open all folders in Explorer, press [*] on the numeric keypad. To collapse them all, just press [-] on the numeric keypad. Select open windows You probably know how to use [Alt] + [Tab] to cycle through open applications before – basically you hold down [Alt] and press [Tab] to rotate between applications. Now discover how to do a similar thing, this time with the Taskbar. To cycle between items on the Taskbar, hold down [Alt] as shown above, but this time use [Esc] to move between different Taskbar items – as each item is highlighted, so any corresponding windows are brought to the top of the open-window pile. This rotation also includes open windows that don’t appear on the Taskbar, such as the Display Properties box. Shut down without accessing the Start menu To quickly select the Shutdown dialog box from the desktop, just close all Windows and press [Alt] + [F4]. Clear the Documents list Clearing the Documents list in the Start menu can be time consuming, but you can just as easily create a batch file to do the job with a simple double-click. First, create a new file in Notepad and enter the following two lines: ECHO OFF ECHO Y|DEL C:\WINDOWS\RECENT\*.* Now save the file into your Batch files folder and call it something like cleardoc.bat. Quit Notepad, locate the file and create a shortcut to it, which you can then place on the desktop or in your Start menu for easy access. Right-click the new shortcut, switch to the Program tab, and select Close On Exit. On the same tab, under Run, select Minimised, then click OK. Rename files quickly You know that clicking once on a file, then clicking on it again enables you to rename that file. You may also know how easy it is to accidentally double-click the file and launch it with this method. Instead, click once on the file and then just press [F2] to rename it. How to bypass the Recycle Bin If you're absolutely 100 per cent convinced that you no longer need a file, right-click on it while holding down [Shift] and select Delete to skip past the Recycle Bin - this will permanently delete the file. If you’re feeling particularly brave, you can bypass the Recycle Bin by default – just right-click on the Recycle Bin and click on Properties. Select 'Do Not Move Files To The Recycle Bin. Remove Files Immediately Upon Delete' and click OK.

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Minimise windows with the keyboard Do you want to quickly hide all those open windows without using the mouse? Just use the following key combination: [Ctrl] + [Esc], then press [Esc] followed by [Alt] + [M].

Power up the Context menu What do you do if you open files of the same type in different applications, such as text files? You can easily add an option to the file type’s context menu. In this example, we’re going to make it possible for you to open .txt files in WordPad using the context menu. First, open any Explorer window and select View, Options. Switch to the File Types tab, scroll through the list of registered file types and select Text Document. Hit the Edit button, then click New. In the text box under Action, type the command name that will appear in the context menu, such as Open with WordPad. Next, click Browse and go to Program Files\Accessories\. Select Wordpad.exe and hit Open. Click OK to exit the New Action dialog box, and you'll see the new command in the Actions list. Click Close twice. Now whenever you right-click on a .txt file you’ll be given the option to open it in WordPad.

Improve your desktop

The Windows desktop is where you do most of your work. Here’s a selection of juicy tips and titbits to make it more productive.

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Bigger scrollbars If you have difficulty grabbing on to your windows’ scrollbars, make them bigger. Right-click on the desktop and select Properties. Switch to the Appearance tab and select Scrollbar from the drop-down list under Item. Adjust the Size (just to the right of the Item field), using the preview window to help you, then click OK. Organise your shortcuts Shortcuts cluttering up your desktop? What you need to do is put them into a single folder on the desktop or Start menu. To place the shortcuts in a Start menu folder right-click on the Start button and select Open. In the Start Menu window choose File, New Folder, then right-click the new folder, select Rename and give a suitable name for the folder. Then, hold [Ctrl] to select your shortcuts and drag the selection into the new folder. Organise open windows It’s easy to view open windows side by side, without having to manually re-size them yourself. Right-click on a blank area of the Taskbar and select Tile Horizontally or Tile Vertically. All open windows will then shrink down and line up side by side. Undo your change by right-clicking the Taskbar and selecting Undo Tile. Clean up that desktop Lots of icons cluttering up your desktop? Right-click on the desktop and select Properties. Click the Appearance tab, open the Item drop-down menu, and select Icon. Now change the size from 32 to 16. Remove underlining To eliminate underlined folders on the desktop, open the Start menu, and go to Settings, Folder Options. Switch to the General tab, choose Custom and click on Settings. Locate the option Single-click to open an item [point to select], and switch on Underline icon titles only when I point at them. Change Quick Launch icons You can change the icons of programs in Quick Launch by browsing to C:\WINDOWS \APPLICATION DATA\ MICROSOFT\INTERNET EXPLORER\ QUICK LAUNCH. You will find that there are .SCF files instead of normal shortcuts. Just open one with Notepad, and change IconFile= to your own choice of icon. Eject CDs properly Right-click your CD drive letter and select Eject for a quick way to remove CDs. As a bonus, it also removes any icons that have become associated with the CD drive. Control logon settings If your PC serves multiple users and you want to prevent people from inadvertently creating multiple log-on names for themselves, use Microsoft Family Logon. It presents a list of all previously created log-on names for that PC. Users must choose from that list and can’t create a new log-on name. To set it up, open the Network Control Panel, switch to the Configuration tab and click on Add. Double-click on Client, select Microsoft from the left pane and then double-click on Microsoft Family Logon in the right. From the same tab, click on the down arrow next to the Primary Network Logon field and select Microsoft Family Logon from the drop-down menu. Click OK. Keep Taskbar visible

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If you find the Taskbar constantly getting covered up by apps, open the Start menu, go to Settings, Taskbar and check Always on top. Retrieve Show Desktop If you accidentally delete the ‘Show Desktop’ shortcut from the taskbar’s Quick Launch toolbar, here’s how to restore it. Open up a new text file in your favourite text editor and enter the following: [Shell] Command= IconFile=explorer.exe,3[Taskbar] Command=ToggleDesktop Select Save as, browse to C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\ Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch and name the file as ShowDesktop.SCF, and your Show Desktop shortcut should be restored. Restore Desktop as shortcut icon If the Desktop As Shortcut icon is missing from your SendTo menu, here’s how to restore it. Open C:\WINDOWS\SENDTO and right-click on the folder’s background. Choose New, Text Document and rename the new file Desktop as Shortcut.DESKLINK (click on Yes when the rename-warning dialog opens). Drag and drop correctly It’s easy to become confused in Windows about what’s going to happen when you drag and drop a file. That’s because the operating system has context-sensitive defaults for copying and moving objects. Our advice is simple: use the right-mouse button for all drag-and-drop operations. When you do, Windows displays a context menu that enables you to choose whether to Copy, Move or Create a Shortcut in the new location. Disable the Active Desktop If you want to save on resources disable the Active Desktop. If you get your hands on the new version of TweakUI for Windows 98 (it’s on the Windows 98 CD, unless you have the Second Edition, in which case it has been removed), you can access new features. Switch to the IE4 tab, and uncheck Active Desktop Enabled and Allow changes to Active Desktop. Now, Web sites and other PC users cannot enable it by mistake. Change the Taskbar without restarting If you make a change to the Taskbar in the Registry, you can enable the change without restarting. Hold down [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Del], and double click on Explorer. Say Yes to close Explorer, but No to closing Windows. This will refresh the Taskbar and system tray.

Troubleshooting and maintaining W indows

Shutdown blues If the computer crashes and you cannot bring up the close program box using [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Del], try pressing [Ctrl] + [Esc] instead. This may bring up the Start Menu, and enable you to shut down nice and safely as opposed to having to press the reset button. Banish those startup error messages If you start the computer and get an error message saying that Windows could not find a file, don’t panic! Do a search for the file using Windows’ Find function, and if you find it, copy it to

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the Windows and System directories. If your search is fruitless, do a search on your Windows CD for the file – see the walkthrough below on how to find and restore individual files from your Windows CD. If you’re unsuccessful, and Windows boots up fine apart from displaying that error message, select Run from the Start menu and type regedit [Return]. In Regedit, search for the file – if you find a reference to it, export that Registry key somewhere easily accessible, and then delete it. Now open up system.ini from the Windows directory into Notepad, and search for the file again. If you find any references to it then save the file as system.bak, prefix the reference with a semi-colon to disable it, and save the file as system.ini. Re-boot, and the error message should be gone. If you experience further problems, restore the Registry key from within Regedit and rename system.bak to system.ini, then things should work as they did before you made the changes. Missing device files If your missing file is a device file, with a .vxd extension, then try removing and reinstalling the relevant driver. This should fix the problem. Issues with ScanDisk If ScanDisk finds errors on your drive it will ask you if you want to save them. Always say yes, because it could contain vital information. Now go into the root directory of your hard drive and, using Notepad, open any files like FILE000.CHK. If the information looks important, keep it, otherwise, free the disk space and delete it. Unfreeze those system lock ups Sometimes your PC will lock up for no apparent reason. Before you re-boot your system entirely, there's one last hope – try ending the current task. To do this, hold down [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Delete] to bring up the Close Program dialog box. What you should find is that the program or task that is causing the problems is accompanied by a ‘Not Responding’ message. Select that task and click the End Task button – if your mouse isn’t working, use [Tab] to cycle between the option buttons, and hit [Return] when End Task is highlighted.. After a few seconds (be patient!) a separate End Task dialog will pop up, explaining again that the program is not responding. Click End Task again and hopefully Windows will shut down the task and start working again properly. If not, then you’ll have to force your PC to re-boot. Clean up after yourself Even if you've uninstalled a program, some remnants can be left on your system. You can use a dedicated commercial uninstall utility like AShampoo Uninstaller (see www.ashampoo.com) to help you tidy up after yourself, or you can take your own steps to ensure the perfect uninstallation. First, the uninstall utility may throw up warnings about shared files. Any that are situated in the program’s own folder are safe to delete by clicking Yes; any that are situated in the Windows folder can be left alone by clicking No. Once the uninstall process is complete, it’s time to see what’s been left behind. First, check the program’s folder to see if any remnants have been left behind. Then open the Start, Programs menu to see if its entries have been left behind – right-click any lingering entries and choose Delete to get rid of them. Finally, you need to clean out the Registry, but before you begin, take note that when you make alterations to the Windows Registry you’re actually making changes to core parts of Windows. If you alter or delete the wrong key you could cause problems with Windows itself. In some rare cases you might find yourself unable to start Windows again, so it’s important that you always back up all your data before you start making changes. When you come to make changes to a particular Registry key, use the Registry Editor’s back-up

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tools to make a copy of the key in its current state before you proceed by selecting Registry > Export Registry File… Should you ever need to restore this backup you can do so by double clicking the back-up file. Registry editing can then be done manually, but it’s easier to press a nifty free tool called EasyCleaner into service. Download your free copy from www.majorgeeks.com/download414.html and install it. Click the Registry button, followed by Find to scour your system for redundant Registry entries. Remove any that refer to your recently uninstalled program and the process should be complete. Restore the Recycle Bin It’s hard to do – in theory – but it is possible. If you lose your Recycle Bin icon, fear not. Select Run from the Start menu and type in regedit [Return] to launch the Registry Editor. Navigate your way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ explorer\Desktop\NameSpace. In the left pane, right-click the NameSpace key and select New, Key. Now type the following, exactly as it’s written (all on one line, and with no spaces): {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} and press [Return]. In the right pane, right-click on (Default) and select Modify. In the resulting Edit String dialog box, on the Value data line, type Recycle Bin (or whatever you want to call it) and click OK. Close Regedit, click the desktop once, press [F5] to refresh it, and your Recycle Bin icon should be restored to all its former glory. Empty that Temp folder Keep a close eye on your Windows\Temp files folder – by all accounts it should be completely empty, but files do get left behind. Check it regularly, just after you’ve started up Windows, and delete anything you find inside it. Update your drivers When was the last time you checked the Internet for driver updates? A year ago? Never? Now’s the time to go on-line and download the latest drivers for your hardware – you’ll benefit from less bugs and may even notice more speed. Solve printing problems Got a problem with your printer? Let the Enhanced Printing Troubleshooter guide you towards the solution. This troubleshooter is standard in Windows 98 – access it from Help index. Clean up the Add/Remove Programs list There are two ways to gently banish unwanted entries from the Add/Remove Programs list. The first is easiest – use the likes of TweakUI or TweakAll. In TweakUI, switch to the Add/Remove tab, select the offending item(s) and click Remove followed by Yes. The other way is to delve into the Registry. Open Regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Uninstall. In the left pane, expand the Uninstall key, right-click the item in question and select Delete. Click Yes to confirm, and that item is officially off the list. Repeat this step for all unwanted items, then close Regedit at the end. Stop your PC from going on-line If your PC is insisting on trying to log on to the Internet every time you boot it up, open up the Internet Control Panel and switch to the Connection tab. Assuming you’re connected to a modem, make sure that the panel is set to Connect to the Internet using a modem, and click the Settings button immediately to its right. In the check boxes at the bottom of the next screen, make sure that Connect automatically to update subscriptions is unchecked. Your problems should now be solved.

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Messed-up Registry We’ve told you about backing up your Registry, but what happens if your Registry has messed up to the point that Windows refuses to load? Before you reinstall Windows, try the following: First, boot your PC from your emergency boot disk, then enter the following commands, following each with [Return]: C: CD \Windows attrib -r -h -s system.dat attrib -r -h -s system.da0 ren system.dat system.bad ren system.da0 system.dat attrib -r -h -s user.dat attrib -r -h -s user.da0 ren user.dat user.bad ren user.da0 user.dat This will restore your Registry settings to those used the last time that Windows successfully loaded. Can’t delete files If you come across files in Windows that refuse to be deleted, you’ll probably find that they contain illegal characters that aren’t recognised by DOS or Windows. What you’ll find is that Windows replaces that character with an underscore one (_), but then fails to recognise that file when you try to do anything with it, like moving or deleting it. To solution is to delete the file without referring to those illegal characters. Open up a DOS window and change directory to the directory in which the file is in using the CD command. What you need to do is use wildcards – special characters that tell Windows to ignore the illegal character, enabling you to delete it. For example, if you have a file called ‘_play.txt’, you’d need to enter the command DEL ?play.txt to delete it. Alternatively use the command REN to rename the file so you can access it again, and use the command DELTREE to delete folders. Replace missing files If your PC refuses to boot because it claims that files are missing, it could be that your Windows installation isn’t complete. To resolve this, run setup.exe from your Windows CD and choose Verify when prompted to. Uncover hidden files You may lose system files like autoexec.bat and msdos.sys, which should be found in the root directory of your boot disk or somewhere in the Windows folder. If you can’t find them, chances are that Windows has been set up to hide them. To reverse this process, open up My Computer and select View, Folder Options. Switch to the View tab, and then scroll down to the option marked Show all Files. Make sure it’s selected, then finally click OK to finish. Create a safety net You know how easy it is to accidentally alter or delete vital files. To protect your files from such mishaps, set them to read-only by right-clicking on the file, selecting Properties, then switching to the General tab and making sure the Read-only box is checked under File Attributes. ScanDisk repeating itself If ScanDisk tells you that you have cross-linked clusters in various offers, offers to fix them, fixes them and then repeats the process next time you boot up, fret not. Press [F8] as the ‘Starting Windows’ message appears, and select the option Command Prompt only. Now run SCANDISK under the DOS prompt to sort out the problem once and for all.

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Forgotten passwords Forgotten your Windows logon password? Don’t worry, Windows only uses these passwords to identify individual users so it can customise various settings. Thankfully, getting round a forgotten password isn’t a problem. Open the Find Files or Folders… icon in the Start Menu, and search your boot drive for files with the PWL extension. You do this by entering *.pwl in the box marked Named: and hitting the Find Now button. These files you’re looking for are the password lists, which Windows uses to store your user passwords. Each individual user has their own file, and they’re easily recognisable. Either delete this file or move it somewhere else. Now when you re-boot, leave the password request box blank and hit OK. This sets up your user profile to have no password. One note – your password file also includes your dial-up password, so you’ll have to enter this manually next time you open up Dial-Up Networking. How to avoid Net viruses The best way to avoid getting a virus from the Net is to be incredibly careful about what programs you download from there. You should also be wary of any attachments you receive via e-mail. Use a file viewer like QuickView Plus to view any attached documents before opening them. This is especially true for Word 97 attachments – that way, if a macro virus is attached, it won’t be opened and infect your PC. Make an emergency boot floppy Haven’t created an emergency boot disk yet? Do it now – the Windows 98 one will come with basic CD drivers attached. How to restore individual system files Windows 95 included a basic DOS command-line utility to extract individual files from the compressed CAB files on the installation CD, which was useful if you knew that one particular file was missing or corrupted. Windows 98 can do this via this method, but there’s a better one – using the System File Checker, since it means you can avoid tangling with DOS altogether. Run System File Checker (type sfc into into the Start Menu’s Run dialog), and toggle the main screen so that you’re telling SFC to restore a single file. If you know the name of the file you can type it in directly, but it’s far easier to use the Browse button to find the file directly. As before, System File Checker will prompt you to supply some information – where your Windows 98 installation CD is, and where the extracted file should go. Remember that you can always create a folder of your own to extract the files to if you’re worried about overwriting critical files. As with the automatic restoration function in System File Checker, you’ll be prompted to back up any files which SFC needs to overwrite. Once the program finds the file and successfully extracts it from the compressed CAB file on CD, you’ll receive a simple confirmation that all went well.

How to back up and restore your Registry file

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Want to know how to export part or all of your Registry for back-up purposes? Then read on. Want to know how to get it back again should something go wrong? Don’t worry, we’ll tell you that too. First, run Regedit – select Run from the Start menu, enter regedit and press [Return]. To back up all or part of the Registry, first select Registry, Export Registry File and navigate to where you'd like to store the backup file. If you want to back up the entire Registry, just choose Select All under Export Range, give your file a suitable name and finally click Save. The result is a *.reg file in the location you specified. If you only want to back up part of the Registry – say the part you’re currently working on – choose Selected Branch under Export Range instead. Then name your file as shown in step two and click Save. Now you’ve backed up all or part of the Registry, you can make changes without worrying what will happen should they go wrong. We’d recommend you do this before trying any of our tips involving the Registry. What happens if you want to restore a backup? If you’re in Windows, just double-click on the *.reg file and confirm you want to restore this backup by selecting Yes. Finally, click OK once the operation is finished. If you’re already in Regedit, try this alternative. select Registry, Import Registry File, navigate to the *.reg file in question, select it and click Open. Your backup – partial or full – will be restored.

Internet Explorer

Windows and Internet Explorer have become so integrated that you don’t need to use the Net to benefit from IE (although it does help!). Here’s some great tips for getting it to work harder for

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you. Remove AutoComplete It can be useful when you’re entering URLs, but you may want to turn the AutoComplete function off. Go to View, Internet Options and select the Advanced tab, then under Browsing, uncheck Use AutoComplete. Remove channels IE4’s channel bar comes loaded with shortcuts to channels from Microsoft business partners. You can easily clear them off your channel bar by selecting Channels from the toolbar, highlighting each channel, then right-clicking and picking Delete. You can also make any Web site a channel by browsing to the site and dragging and dropping the URL icon from the address bar to the channel bar. Look out for older versions of IE If you have Internet Explorer 4.0 or above, beware of programs or services that install an earlier version of IE over your existing one. Older versions will not detect the presence of new versions, and will therefore install oblivious to their existence, which can cause lockups, and other problems. Save a URL as active content in IE4/5 You probably already know that dragging and dropping a URL or hyperlink from your browser window on to the desktop creates a shortcut to the site. If you use the right-mouse button to drag it, a menu will appear and give you the additional option of saving the page as active content. Browse in full screen Internet Explorer 4.0 or later enables you to surf the net in full screen. Just select View, Full screen, and then right-click on the remaining toolbar and choose Auto Hide. To change back, leave your mouse at the top of the screen until the toolbar appears, select View, Full screen and then press [F11] to bring all the other toolbars back. FTP with Explorer If you type an FTP address in the Address box of any Explorer view (whether you’re on the Internet or just browsing your own hard disk), you’ll go to the site and be able to use the window as an FTP client. Check out the Active Desktop Gallery If you haven’t been to the Microsoft Active Desktop Gallery for a while, it’s time to go back. Microsoft has added lots of new free active content, including an address finder (just type in the address, and it pulls up a map) and a comic-strip-of-the-day clock. To add it to the wallpaper on your PC, just click on the Add to Active Desktop button on the preview page of the component you want. Useful screen saver IE 4.0 comes with a screen saver that displays a slide show of all Active Channel content you select. Right-click on the desktop and select Properties. Switch to the Screen Saver tab and select the Channel Screen Saver. Click on the Settings button and a list of all your channels will appear in the Channels box. Select the ones you want in the screen saver and click on OK. IE4’s Start Menu As you may have noticed by now, items that you add to IE4’s Start menu behave just like regular

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folders and files. Right click on any Start-menu item you’ve added to get a context menu, which enables you to modify the item’s properties as well as offering other options. Using the address bar You already know that the IE4 Address bar doubles as a guide to your local desktop. What you may not know is that the old DOS command of typing two full stops and pressing [Return] works to navigate back up the directory tree. Enter it repeatedly to work your way all the way back to the desktop icon. Access Web sites from the Start menu Love to type? You can type URLs directly into the Run box on the Start menu. Change links’ colours You can tell IE4 to change the colour of any link when the mouse pointer hovers over it. Select View, Internet Options, then click on Colors under the General tab. Check Use Hover Color and click on the colour box to select your desired colour. Please back up your Favorites list! Makes sense, really. Should you ever have to reinstall Internet Explorer or – God forbid – Windows, one thing it’s easy to forget about is your Favorites list, and that can take a long time to reconstruct. In Internet Explorer 5, the process is a simple one. Select File, Import and Export, then choose Export Favorites before picking your entire Favorites folder. Choose a location and a name, and your Favorites will be stored as a single HTML file, which can be re-imported later using the same wizard. If your version of Internet Explorer doesn’t do this, a more time-consuming option remains. Simply open up your Favorites folder, hold [Ctrl] and manually select those favourites you want to keep, then copy them on to a blank disk. Reinstalling them is a simple case of copying them from the disk back into the Favorites folder. Stop Internet Explorer reminding you about updates If you’re perfectly happy with your current version of IE, and don't want to be constantly told that a new version is available you can turn off the update reminders. Open Regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{89820200ECBD-11cf-8B85-00AA005B4383}. Right-click on the Version Available key and select Delete. Finally, close Regedit and you’ll be free from IE’s prompts. Make sure your modem is optimised for the Net If your modem speeds aren’t what they should be, there could be a missing parameter in your Registry. If you have Windows 98, access the Network Control Panel and find Dial-Up Adaptor, Advanced and set the IP Packet Size to 576. First, locate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\ Root\Net, and find the one with DeviceDesc set to Dial-Up Adapter. Within that four-digit subkey is a subkey called Bindings, and within that is a string called something like MSTCP\0000. You’ll need the correct value for the four-digit number in the next step. Now locate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\ Network\MSTCP\xxxx , where xxxx is the number you found in step one. Within this key there will be a string named Driver called NetTrans\0000. You’ll need the correct value for the four digit number in the next step. Finally, locate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans\ xxxx, where xxxx is replaced by the number from step two. Within it, create a new string and name it MaxMTU. Then set this to the value 576. Close Regedit, and restart Windows.

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More great tips!

The following tips refuse to be categorised, but that doesn’t make them any less useful. Go on, find something to brighten your day. Fix your folders You may have noticed that Windows can’t always remember how you’ve positioned or size your folder. To get around this problem, open the folder in question, size it as you wish, hold down [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Shift], then close the window by clicking on the X button. Remember that Windows can only remember these properties for a certain number of folders, so be careful about those you choose. Create a new folder with a simple key combination To quickly create a new folder in Windows 98, press [Alt] + [F] + [N] + [F]. View all folder details When looking at a folder in ‘Details’ view, you may not be able to see all of the information in the columns. To reset the columns to their default size, just press [Ctrl] + [+] on the numeric keypad. Put special characters in your documents If you need to use accents or other special characters in your documents, there’s a program that can help. Go to the Start menu and navigate to Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Character Map. Select the font you are using in the document, and locate the character you want. Now double click it and choose Copy, then go into your document and paste it. Toolkit bonanza The Windows 98 CD comes loaded with tools from the Resource Kit sampler. You’ll find their installation files in your CD’s Tools\Reskit folder. Run setup,exe, and the utilities will be installed on to your PC. Access them via the Start menu – you’ll find them under Programs, Windows 98 Resource Kit, Tools Management Console.

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Re-size the Help text To change the size of text in the Windows 98 Help, you need to modify your Internet browsing settings, because the new Help is based on HTML. Launch the Internet Control Panel applet, click on the Accessibility button and then on the Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages item followed by OK. Now select the Fonts button and pick your choice from the Font Size drop-down menu. Record the time and date in Notepad To make Notepad record the time and date every time you open a file, open a new file, and put .LOG in the first line. Every time you subsequently open this file, the time/date will automatically be logged. Make icons in Paint You can make Icons without any special utility. Just make the icon in Paint, and save it with an .ico extension, making sure to select All files. Keep an eye on startup Want to know what’s loaded into your machine during Windows startup? You have two options. The quick and easy method is to press [Pause] on your keyboard when the line you want to see appears. Booting will continue when you press any other key. The other, more powerful option is to access the Windows Startup menu by pressing [F8] when it says ‘Starting Windows 98…’. Now choose Step-by-step confirmation, and you’ll be able to see each instruction as it’s loaded. You can also choose not to load certain operations – perfect for troubleshooting startup problems. What version of DirectX do I have? If you want to know what version of Direct X you have, just run DXTOOL.exe or DXINFO.exe in your DirectX\Setup folder. When opened, these will display the version number for you. Get the latest version of DirectX from www.windowsupdate.microsoft.com or www.microsoft.com/directx/ default.asp. Customise Windows Help You can tip the balance in your favour by annotating any Help topic you like. Open the topic in question, then right-click on a blank area of its window and select Annotate. Type your notes into the box that appears, then click Save. The next time you open that topic, just click the little paper clip to read your notes. (To remove a note from a topic, open the note, then click Delete.) Save Find criteria for future use Once you’ve finished a search, stop for a second. Will you need to use that search again in the future? If so, save it. Once the search is complete, select File, Save Search. Switch to the desktop, and you'll see a new icon there with a title based on your criteria. The next time you need to conduct the same search, simply double-click this icon, then click Find Now, and feel free to move it somewhere more convenient. Save Find results for future reference Want to save both your search criteria and the results? Select Options and choose Save Results, then pick File, Save Search. Now when you double-click on the icon, you’ll get both criteria and results popping up in the Find dialog box. Alter the size of the Recycle Bin Right-click the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop and select Properties. In the Recycle Bin

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Properties menu, adjust the lever to the desired percentage, then finally click OK. Instantly access the Device Manager If you’ve got a keyboard with the [Windows] key on it, you can access Device Manager instantly, just by holding down [Windows] + [Pause/Break]. But that’s not all you can do. It’s also easy to add Device Manager to the Start menu, enabling you to go straight to it with a single click. Right-click the Start button, and from the context menu select Explore. Next, right-click an empty space in the right-hand pane, select New, Shortcut, then type C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.EXE Sysdm.cpl, System,1 into the field labelled Command Line. Click Next, type Device Manager for the name of this shortcut, and press Finish. To change the Icon used by the shortcut, just right-click it, choose Properties and then press the Change Icon button. Add cascading menus to the Start menu We’ve shown you how to add the Control Panel, Dial-up Networking and Printer folders to the Start menu so many times now, but guess what? There’s even more folders you can add, so here’s the the ultimate guide to adding important folders to the Start menu, giving you faster access to them. To add one, right-click on Start and select Explore. Right-click in the right pane of the Explorer window that opens and choose New, Folder. Then type one of the following strings, all on one line, replacing the words ‘New Folder’ with this new line. You must type the period, the curly braces, all four hyphens, and the hexadecimal numbers exactly as shown. After the closing curly brace, press [Return]. J Control Panel Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} J Dial-Up Networking* Dial Up Networking.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48} J Fonts* Fonts.{BD84B380-8CA2-1069-AB1D-08000948F534} J Internet Cache Internet Cache.{7BD29E00-76C1-11CF-9DD0-00A0C9034933} J Network Neighbourhood* Network Neighborhood.{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D} J My Computer* My Computer.{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} J Printers Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D} J Recycle Bin Recycle Bin.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} J Subscriptions Subscriptions.{F5175861-2688-11d0-9C5E-00AA00A45957} J URL history URL History.{FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000} *These folders will initially be empty – you must manually drag and drop items from their ‘real’ folders into here in order to access them. Remove the shortcut arrow To remove the little arrow that appears on all shortcuts, you need to access Regedit - click on Start, Run, and then type 'regedit'. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile and delete the value IsShortcut, then browse to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\piffile and delete the value IsShortcut. Close Regedit and restart Windows. Remove the Documents list To remove the Documents folder from the Start menu, open RegEdit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\Explorer.

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Right-click an open area in the right pane and select New, DWORD Value, then name it NoRecentDocsMenu. Double-click this entry and add the value 1, then exit Regedit and restart Windows. Hide your desktop icons from view One good reason for hiding all the icons from your desktop could be that you’ve created a load of shortcuts on your taskbar, and no longer need the desktop cluttered up by them. To remove icons from the desktop, run RegEdit, then go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. From the menu select Edit, New, DWORD value and name it NoDesktop. Double-click this entry and give it the value 1, then close RegEdit and restart Windows. To restore the icons to your desktop, just change the value of NoDesktop to 0. View all hard drive properties Here’s an easy way to view the properties for multiple hard drives simultaneously. First ,open My Computer and select all your hard drives by holding down [Ctrl] and clicking on each drive in turn. Next, right-click on any of the drives and choose Properties. Windows creates a single dialog box with Properties tabs for each drive. This also works for removable, floppy disk and mapped network drives. This material is the copyright material of or licensed to Future Publishing Limited (http://www.futurenet.co.uk/)

, a Future Network plc group company, UK 2004. All rights reserved.

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