Copyright: TTS Help & Software Development version 6.2


Tips, Tricks & Secrets for Windows 95 & NT
1Tips, Tricks & Secrets for Windows 95 & NT

In all examples of the tips, I assume Windows 95 and/or Windows NT are installed in the following (standard) directory.

Windows 95 is in: c:\windows

Windows NT is in: c:\winnt

If you have to do something, I won’t say everytime that you maybe have to adjust the directory. You have to think about that yourself.

If it’s for the outmost importance, I will tell it in the tip, else I assume you know where you put Windows (if you haven’t installed it in the standard directory).

It’s possible a tip says: click this, check this or do that. Often I have to guess what an English term is. I still use the Dutch version of Windows 95 and an English version of Windows NT Server 4.0. I can get a lot of English terms from the NT version, but many things are only Windows 95 related and I don’t have an English version of Windows 95. So I have to guess what something is called.
In that case you have to click what seems the best to click on.

If you really don’t understand a tip, you can better mail one of us. Then we can explain it by e-mail.

These tips are tested and shouldn’t contain any errors. Type errors can occur, but errors in paths (like Registry-paths) may not be here.

If you discover an error, would you please be so kind and tell us? In that case we can fix it in the next release of the Helpfile.

There are some basic things you need to know (if you don’t know them already). It will be explaned here and not with every tip.

If a tip starts with: Registry, then the tip you’re reading is a Registry tip, which must be done by editing the Registry, in order to accomplish it.

You have to start the Registry Editor to be able to edit the Registry.

If you’re not familiar with the Registry, we suggest, reading the section Tutorials on Registry entirely before proceeding with a tip. It’s of the most importance you know what you’re doing. Always make a backup of the Registry, before changing something.

You can read all of this in the section Tutorials.

In the list with all the tips:

•	Tips, which are green and underlined, are ‘old’ tips.

•	Tips, which are red and underlined, are the new tips in this version.

•	Tips, which are purple and underlined, are ‘old’ tips which have been changed.

The tips which are red in this release, will be green in the next release (unless they’re changed of course).

At every tip is said under which Windows version is works. Possible options are:

•	Works under Windows 95.

•	Works under Windows 98

•	Works under Windows NT.

•	Not yet tested under Windows xx

We can’t held responsible for any damage these tips may cause on your computer. All tips are on your own risc.

However,if you get into trouble, you always can ask for help at one of us. We’re always willing to help with problems, but we can’t held responsible for what the tips may cause. All tips are tested and aproved safe by us. If it doesn’t work on your computer, we can’t know that at this moment. Everybody has different computer configurations and can experience other things wihle using these tips.

This Helpfile is being created and updated by:

Gerard Beekmans

tts@fist.org

http://www.fist.org/tts/

&

Manuel Otto

mato@xs4all.nl

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mato/

Last updated on Wednesday July 15th, 1998 at 11:22 PM


Index of all the Tips, Trics and Secrets

At the moment there are 156 tips available for you. You can select the tip you want to read in the list which is provided to you below.

Tutorials:

FDISK

Compacting the Registry

Creating a backup of the Registry

Editing the Registry

Importance of the Registry

Restoring the Registry

Starting the Registry Editor

The six main Registry keys explained

A:

Add History to your Start-menu

Adapting your timezone

Add Control Panel to the Start-menu

Add Dial-up Networking folder to the Start-menu

Add drives to the Start-menu

Add Printers folder to the Start-menu

Add your own tips to the Welcome-screen

Automatically close parent folders

Automatically logon the network

Assign drive letters to folders

B:

Bitmapicons

Bypass automatically starting of programs located in the Startup folder

Bypass Scandisk at Start-up

C:

Change Program Files folder

Change CPU identifier

Check which .dll files are used by .exe files

Clear Netscape URL History

Create a shortcut to your network

Create shortcuts to Control Panel items, opening with a specific tab

Cancel mouse-actions

Change color of grayed out items

Change drive letters in Windows NT

Change Logon-screensaver of Windows NT

Change Logon-wallpaper of Windows NT

Change minimize and maximize animation

Change Start-up page of MSIE 3.0 off-line

Change time and date very quickly

Clear Desktop temporarily

Continue working after: it’s safe to turn off...

Connect quicker to your ISP

Control Numlock via config.sys

Convert FAT to NTFS

Convert Windows 3.xx groups to Windows 95 & NT Start Menu groups

CTRL-keycombinations

Customize the DIR command

D:

Disable the Win-key

Dualboot between two Windows 95/98 versions

Delete unnecessary lines from your config.sys and autoexec.bat

Description of some of the extensions

Desktop immediately available

Disabling Autorun of CD-ROM Players

Disable Connect-icon

Disable Documents list

Disable modem logfile

Disabling sounds for events

Display High- or True-Color icons without installing MS Plus Pack

Display Logon message

Don’t display username of last logged on user

Don’t save settings when shutting down Windows

DOS Prompt starting on the current drive or folder

Download Windows 95 CD-ROM files

E:

Edit Crash Control

Edit Add/Remove Programs-list

Edit install-locations

Edit New-menu

Edit SendTo-folder

Edit splashscreens

Edit Start - Run... list

Edit the Start menu contents

Edit the Microsoft Internet Explorer part in the titlebar of MSIE when opening a website

Edit your registration-data

Empty Computer Search list

Empty Documents list quickly

Empty Find Files of Folders list

Explorer Window with root as selected drive or folder

Extend Context Menu yourself

Extend Recycle Bin’s Context Menu

Extend Start - Find

Enable Open With... on all filetypes

Enter location of the Windows 95 sourcefiles

F:

Finding files from a DOS-prompt

Fix the bug of wrong Daylight savings date in Windows 95-A

Fix one of the many MSIE bugs

Free more memory in Windows 95 & NT

Functionkeys

G:

Get rid of the ‘Shortcut to...’ text

H:

Hidden FDISK Parameter

Hidden option in Win95 OSR2 Screensaver

I:

Installing normal Windows 95 version, without deleting and old Windows

Installing Upgrade-version of Windows 95, without having a previous version of Windows

Increasing the size of the directory-cache

Internet from your Context Menu

J:

K:

L:

Let your .txt files function like logbooks

Let Windows show you all the fonts you have

Log faults to a faultlog file

M:

Make icon for copying floppydisks

Manually make Netscape the default browser

Make icons to shutdown and restart Windows

Make the menu’s quicker

Manage the Virtual Memory settings yourself

Maximize windows very quickly

Move System folders

Move the Start-button without changing the Taskbar

N:

No more ~ in short filenames

O:

Organize your SendTo Folder

P:

Power in Save as... dialog-boxes

Permanentely delete files

Print a directory listing

Print to a file

Q:

Quickly access your Win-root directory

Quick reboot

Quickly get the Track List from FlexiCD

Quickly open or explore the Start-menu

R:

Remove old keybord short-keys (hot-keys)

Reason of missing Defragmentation in Windows NT

Recycle Bin doesn’t contain all deleted files

Refresh folders automatically

Refresh screen quicker

Relocate the Taskbar

Remove arrow from shortcuts

Remove bug from IO.SYS

Remove ‘Hand’-icon on shared recoures

Remove little yellow speaker from the Tray

Remove screensaver password

Restrict access on Windows 95/NT

S:

Show all the used recourses in Windows

Start Windows after having booted from a boot-floppy

Search on more than one drive at the same time

Set a default folder for programs

Settings of MSDOS.SYS

•	Enable or disable the functionkeys during start-up.

•	Bypass Scandisk during start-up.

•	Load or not load DriveSpace/DoubleSpace drivers.

•	Start Windows 95 automatically or manually.

•	Start with networksupport or not.

•	And much more...

Setup parameters for Windows 95 Setup

Setup parameters for Windows NT Setup

Scrolling with animation

Show all computers, connected to the network

Show all files

Show more information in System Properties

Speed up CD-ROM Drive

Speed up Defragmentation

Speed up modem

Speed up Scandisk

Start registered filetypes from DOS

Start screensaver instantly

Start Windows without CD-ROM driver in your config.sys

Starting programs automatically using the Registry

Stop the ‘Click here to begin’ banner from appearing

T:

Temporary de-activate the screensaver

Temporary delete the Start-button

Temporary no splashscreen

Turn off unnecessary Internet protocols

U:

Use SCSI-devices without rebooting Windows

Use long filenames in DOS

Use maximum ammount of memory in a DOS-box

Using QuickView with (almost) any filetype

Using third mouse button of a Logitec mouse for double-clicking

Using Windows 95 & NT keys without a Windows 95 keyboard

V:

View modem-strings

W:

Winkey-keycombinations

X:

Y:

Z:

These were the tips for this release.

Do you want more tips? That’s possible. Please wait until the next release.

We have lots and lots of more tips, trics and secrets for you, which will be added in the next releases.

If you want to receive an e-mail when the next version is ready, send an e-mail with subject:

Please inform me when the new version of TTS Help is available

If the next release is done, you will recieve an e-mail. In that e-mail is ofcource the message that the helpfile is ready for download. I will also give you the URL’s where you can download the Helpfile.

See you next time and have much fun with these tips.

Legal notice

These tips may be used freely for you own usage or to share with your friend, colleguages, etc. If you want to publish these tips on Internet, magazines or any other form of copying, you are encouraged to do so, but please do provide that publishment with the source, this Helpfile and it’s download location(s). We also would appreciate it, if you tell us about the publishment of these tips and if possible providing us the magazine, URL-address, etc. of the publishment.

There are no charges for using this Helpfile, nor if you use it’s content for your own publishments. The only thing we ask you is to provide your publishment with the source and the download location(s) of this Helpfile. The Helpfile is and will stay freeware.

With friendly regards,

Gerard Beekmans

tts@fist.org

http://www.fist.org/tts/

and

Manuel Otto

mato@xs4all.nl

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mato/

Last updated on Wednesday July 15th, 1998 at 11:22 PM


Starting the Registry Editor

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

To start the Registry Editor, go to Start - Run... and type regedit.

Press ENTER.

The Editor is loaded now and ready for use.

Note: Under Windows NT you also can use regedt32.exe. This Editor works in a slightly different way and has less functions compared to the Windows 95 version. The special NT version doesn’t have a full search feature on keys, values, etc. The interface of the 95 version is nicer to use, therefore I also use it. With the NT version you can create a bit different values. NT knows 2 others value-types, but they won’t be used in this Helpfile, since the standard values work also just like it should work. If there however really need to be created one of the special NT-registry values, it’ll be told at that specific tip, but otherwise you can use regedit.exe, just like you use in Windows 95.


Editing the Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

The Registry editor has an interface, which is very similar to that of Windows Explorer.

In Explorer you click on the + of a folder, or double-click on the folder itself, when you want to go to its sub-folders or to the files it contains.

When you want to create a new folder or file within a folder, you go to the menu and click "File", then click "New...", etc.

The only difference in the Registry Editor is that, in order to create a new Key, String value, Binary value, or DWORD-value, is that in stead of going to the menu and clicking "File", you go to the menu and click "Edit".

The rest is the same as with Windows Explorer.

If a tip for example says Go to: Hkey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet then you must open all these folders, and single click the last name in the sequence.

If you’re going to edit the Registry, you often must make new values. In most times these values will be String values and Keys. Sometimes you’ll add some binary values. Dword-values are very rare to add by your self.

If it says: Make a new String value, then do this:

Choose New in the Edit menu.

Click String Value and continue reading the tip.

If it says: Make a new Key, then do this:

Choose New from the Edit menu.

Click Key and continue reading the tip.

If it says: Make a new Binary value, then do this:

Choose New from the Edit menu.

Click Binary value and continue reading the tip.

If it says: Make a new Dword-value, then do this:

Choose New from the Edit menu.

Click Dword-value and continue reading the tip.


Restoring the Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If, for whatever reason your Registry got corrupted, or even worse, Windows won’t start at all anymore, you have to replace the Registry with a copy, which isn’t corrupted.

Each time when Windows successfully starts, a backup of the registry is made automatically.

To replace the corrupted Registry with the backup you’ll have to do the following:

For Windows 95 read on.

For Windows NT it’s a lot easier. The NT part is at the bottom of this tip.

Windows 95

Restart your computer, and press F8 when you read:  "Starting Windows 95". You`ll see the bootmenu.

Choose MS DOS-prompt in safe mode.

Now type the following:

cd windows

attrib -s -h -r system.da?

attrib -s -h -r user.da?

copy system.da0 system.dat /y

copy user.da0 user.dat /y

attrib +s +h +r system.da?

attrib +s +h +r user.da?

Attention!

system.da0 and user.da0: the last character is the number 0 (zero), not the letter o.

If restoring the backup doesn’t help at all, you need to restore the backup, which was made when Windows was installed on your computer.

This file is called system.1st

Restart your computer, and press F8 when you read:  "Starting Windows 95".You’ll see the bootmenu.

Choose MS DOS-prompt in safe mode.

Now type the following:

cd windows

attrib -s -h -r system.dat

attrib -s -h -r c:\system.1st

copy c:\system.1st system.dat /y

attrib +s +h +r system.dat

attrib +s +h +r c:\system.1st

Note:

When you take a look in the Help of the Registry Editor you’ll see:

attrib -s -h -r system.dat

attrib -s -h -r user.dat

attrib -s -h -r system.da0

attrib -s -h -r user.da0

copy system.da0 system.dat

copy user.da0 user.dat

attrib -s -h -r system.dat

attrib -s -h -r user.dat

attrib -s -h -r system.da0

attrib -s -h -r user.da0

This is complete nonsense!

Be typing -s -h -r you remove the system- hidden- and read-only attributes.

After restoring the backup you need to add the attributes again by typing +s +h +r

Even in the latest version of Win95 this type-error isn’t fixed

Are they blind at Microsoft ?

Windows NT

In Windows NT you have to restart your computer and press Space to invoke the Hardware Profile/Last Known Good menu, which will restore you Registry to its state when you last successfully started your computer. If this doesn’t do the job, you have to put back the files of the Registry you backed up (if you did so). I refer to Creating a backup of the Registry for more information how to backup those files


Speed up the modem
Speed up your modem

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Not tested under Windows NT yet

By making a few adjustments you can make your modem faster.

These changes improve a 28K8 modem, but they might slow down faster modems. If you have a 33K6 modem or higher and you don’t mind to test it, please let me know about the results. I myself don’t have access to a 33K6 modem, only to a 14K4, 28K8 and ISDN (64K). There are very many articles written about this subject and many tell different things. I’ve tested certain things and the values below had the best results for me.

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans

Below you see one ore more keys, named like 0000, 0001, 0002, 0003, etc.

Click on 0000 and check the string value DriverDesc

If it says TCP/IP then doubleclick this key

If not, click on 0001 and check again. Continue until you found the key containing the value TCP/IP for the string value DriverDesc

If you found the right key, make a new String value

Name it MaxMTU

Double-Click on it and give it the value 576

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP

Make a new String value

Name it DefaultRcvWindow

Double-click on this and give it the value 2144

Make a new String value

Name it PMTUDiscovery

Double click it and give it the value 0

Make a new String value

Name it PMTUBlackHoleDetect

Double click it and give it the value 0

Make a new String value

Name it DefaultTTL

Double click it and give it the value 64

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\NWLink\Ndi\params\cachesize

Double click on default

Give it the value 16


Edit the Add/Remove Programs-list

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

The most Windows 95 programs can be uninstalled through Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs.

But if you already have deleted the program yourself, and not via the normal procedure (you just deleted the directory it was in, for example), the name will still be in this list.

In that case, you have to manually remove the name from the list.

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

Click the name you want to delete from the list.

Press Delete and click Yes

The name is now deleted from this list.

You don’t need to restart Windows.


Edit the Start - Run... list

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you click Start - Run... and click the little arrow, you get a drop-down list with all the items you have entered here. If you want to get rid of that list, you must do the following.

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU

Here you’ll see all the commands you’ve entered.

Delete everything, except (Default).


Edit your Registration-data

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

You’re registration-data is also saved in the Registry. Your name and company are in here and can be changed by yourself.

Windows 95:

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

Windows NT:

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

Double-click RegisteredOwner

Now you can change your name

Click OK

Double-click RegisteredOrganization

Now you can change your company’s name.

Click OK

There’s more to change here, such as OEM-number, paths to certain directories, etc. Just check them out.


Make the menu's quicker
Make the menu’s quicker

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

Usually when you click on the Start-Menu and then Programs it takes a while to extend the next menu.
The time between the appearance of these menus’s can be edited. Maybe you think: finally I got that very fast computer with a superfast SVGA-cart and it is still very slow. It isn’t the computer, but a setting of Windows. Standard is this delay 400 milliseconds (1000 milliseconds = 1 sec). It doesn’t matter how fast your computer is; it always has to wait for 400 milliseconds, unless you change it.

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

Check if you see the value MenuShowDelay

If so, double-click on it and change the value in a lower number. 0 is no waiting time, 10 is wait 10 milliseconds, etc. As you can see this value is in milliseconds (1000 milliseconds is 1 second)

If not, make a new string value.

Name it MenuShowDelay.

Double-click on it and give it the desired value.

The maximum value you can give this String Value is the number 65534 (programmers know this as the Integet-limit)


Change the start-up page of MSIE 3.0 off-line

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT

If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 and you want to change the start-up page, you normally must be online at that page in order to change it.

You can change it also off-line.

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Double-click Start Page

Enter the site you want to be you start-up page.


Edit the install-locations

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you install a Windows 95 program, is sometimes asks you where it can find the installation-files, if Setup can’t find them himself. If so, most of the times this location is stored in the database. You can choose from this list when you install a program. To empty the list, follow the following:

This path is not always available, because of an unclear reason.

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\InstallLocationsMRU

Delete everything, except (Default).


Adapting your timezone

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If double-click the clock in the Tray, you’ll get Data/time Properties. If you click the tab Time Zone, you’ll see the map of the world. Above you can choose which timezone you’re living in.

This text is adaptable. In other words: you can type our own village in here, in stead of seeing the capitals of a few countries in that timezone.

Windows 95:

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TimeZones

Windows NT:

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Time Zones

Click the part of the world you live in, for example W.Europe (Standard time)

Double-click Display

Enter here your own City/Village/Street name, etc.

Click OK

If you double-click the clock now and click on tab Time Zone, you’ll see what you’ve just entered.


Change the minimize and maximize animation

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

When you’ve opened a Folder and you minimize of maximize it you see an animation. The folder moves itself towards or away from the taskbar. You can turn this off.

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

Make a new String value.

Call it MinAnimate

Double-click MinAnimate and give it the value 0.

Click OK.


Add your own tips to the Welcome-screen

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you have Windows set to automatically show a “Tip of the Day”, it’s nice to know that these tips can be changed and extended. If you don’t see these tips after start-up, click on Start - Run... and type welcome. Now you see the screen and you can click a checkbox, which means these tips are shown, every time you start Window.

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Tips

Make a new String value and give it the next number. The next number is one higher than the present number. Most Windows 95 version go to 47. Most Windows NT versions go to 49. If that’s also at your computer, you’re next number is 48 or 50.

Double-click this new number.

Now you can write your own tip.

When Windows comes to number 48 or 50, you’ll see you’re own tip.

You can also edit the existing tips (the standard ones from Microsoft), and put in any text you like. You can even delete tips (as long as you don`t delete the String value with the name (Default), and as long as you have at least 1 tip), and put in just your own tips, as many, or as few as you like.


Automatically logon on your network
Automatically logon on the network

Works under Windows 95.

This used to be a register-tip. Not any more. You’ll need Microsoft PowerToys. If you have it, check Control Panel. There you’ll see Tweak UI. Click on Network and fill in the necessary information. This data will be read by Tweak UI and that will automatically log-in for you.

Because Windows NT is more heavily protected, this option is just not available for Windows NT.


Temporary no splashscreen

Works under Windows 95.

If you see the Windows 95 logo during start-up, press ESC. The logo disappears and now you can read the information, which could be on your screen now. After the processing of config.sys and autoexec.bat the splashscreen appears again.

If you press ESC again, the logo will disappear again, but probably you won’t see any new information.


Settings of MSDOS.SYS

Works under Windows 95.

The file msdos.sys, located in the root (C:\) is now, compared with the MS-DOS 6.xx equivalent, a plain text file, which can be edited. Below are all the settings you can put in msdos.sys. All the settings must be changed or added under the section [options] :

If a setting isn’t present, you’ll have to add it yourself. Just type the name and replace the x with a proper setting.

AutoScan=x:

This setting is standard set to 1. For an extensive explanation, I refer to bypass Scandisk at start-up.

BootFailSafe=x:

This setting is standard set to 0. If you change it to 1, Windows will always start in the Safe Mode.

BootGUI=x:

This setting is standard set to 1. It means that Windows will automatically be started after processing config.sys and autoexec.bat. If you change the 1 into a 0, the computer will stop at the DOS-prompt. In order to start Windows at this point, you have to type win.

BootKeys=x:

This setting is standard set to 1. It means the Function Keys are available during start-up, at the moment you see: Starting Windows 95.... Change it into a 0, then these keys are disabled.

BootDelay=xx:

This setting is standard set to 3. This number represents the number of seconds between the message: Starting Windows 95... and the actually loading of Windows. In other words: First you see the message, then there’s a 3 seconds pause and then the computer continues.

BootMenu=x:

This setting is standard set to 0. This means the bootmenu is only displayed when you press F8 during the pause (see previous setting). Turning it into 1 results into seeing the bootmenu automatically every time the computer boots.

BootMenuDefault=x:

The x represents the number in the bootmenu. If the x is a 2, the bootmenu is set standard to option 2. This can be compared with a MS-DOS 6.xx boot-menu.

BootMenuDelay=x:

This shows a timer, counting backwards, starting at x seconds. If you don’t press a key, Windows will start automatically after x seconds, with the option set by BootMenuDefault (see previous setting).

BootMulti=x:

This setting is standard set to 1. It gives you the opportunity to load the previous DOS-version. If you change it into 0, you can’t boot in the previous DOS-version (this represents option number 7 or 8 in the bootmenu, depending whether or not you’re using a network).

DBLSpace=x:

This setting is standard set to 1. If you change it into 0, you can’t load the drivers for DoubleSpace. If you're harddisk(s) are compressed, they’re not accessible with this setting to 0. With the 0, you also can’t compress a drive, if it isn’t compresses yet.

DRVSpace=x:

The same for DBLSpace=x, but this is for the Windows version of DriveSpace or for the DOS 6.22 version of DriveSpace. The previous one is for the DOS 6.20 version on DoubleSpace.

LoadTop=x:

This setting is standard set to 1. Now command.com and drvspace.sys (or dblspace.sys) are loaded in the HMA (High Memory Area). If you change it into 0, then these two drivers are load in the conventional memory (the first 640 KB). It’s only useful, if older DOS programs won’t work, because command.com (and/or drvspace.sys/dblspace.sys) are loaded in the HMA.

Logo=x:

This setting is standard set to 1. This means you’ll see the Start-up Splashscreen. If this is set to 0, you won’t see the Start-up Splashscreen.

BootWarn=x:

This setting is standard set to 1. It means that Windows will ask you first whether or not to boot in the Safe Mode (after a start-up failure). This setting set to 0, will disable the message and automatically boot in the Safe Mode.

BootWin=x:

This setting is standard set to 1. This means that Windows 95 is the standard OS (Operating System). If you change it into 0, the computer always boots into the previous DOS version (because the previous DOS version is the standard OS).

DoubleBuffer=x:

This setting is standard set to 0. If you change it into 1, then the Double Buffering for SCSI-devices is enabled.

Network=x:

This setting is standard set to 1. If you change it into 0, Windows will be started without Networksupport.


Quick reboot

Works under Windows 95.

There’s a way to really quickly restart Windows.

Click Start - Shutdown - Restart computer.

Press SHIFT+ENTER (of click SHIFT+OK).

Hold the SHIFT, until you have heard the shutdown-sound. If you don’t hear a sound, just hold it until you see the black screen, which says: Restarting Windows.

Sometimes you can release the SHIFT-button earlier, in stead of waiting for the shutdown-sound. This depends on how fast your computer is and how many applications are still active, which need to be closed.

Now only Windows is restarted, in stead of the whole computer.

You can also try the following. Not all changes are active after this trick, but most of the times it saves you lots of time.

Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE.

Click on Explorer en Choose End task.

Press cancel

Wait for about 8 seconds.

Press End task again.

Your Desktop is refreshed and your registry is re-read now. All active programs are still active, however the icons in the Tray are lost, but the programs are still running.


Continue working after : it's safe to turn off.....
Continue working after: it’s safe to turn off...

Works under Windows 95.

If you choose for Shutdown computer and you see: It’s safe to turn off you computer now, there’s nothing you can do now. But there is...

Double-click on My computer.

Double-click your bootup harddisk (on most systems this would be C:\).

Rightclick msdos.sys and choose Properties.

If you don’t see msdos.sys read the tip: Show all files

Uncheck Read-only.

Press OK.

Double-click msdos.sys and choose Notepad to edit it.

Uncheck Always use this program.... before pressing OK.

Find the lines which says: BootGui=1.

Change the 1 into a 0.

Save the file and exit Notepad.

Now Windows isn’t automatically started, but after the processing of config.sys and autoexec.bat the computer stops. You have to type win in order to start Windows.

You can also add win on the last line in your autoexec.bat.

Open autoexec.bat in Notepad by rightclicking it and choose Edit from the Context Menu.

If you now exit Windows and you get the message: It’s safe to turn off... then type the folowing:

MODE CO80

You won’t see anything on the screen right now. Just type it and after that press ENTER.

The logo disappears and you’re at the DOS Prompt. Type win now to reload Windows, or shut off your computer. If you want this to happen every time Windows exits, by typing MODE CO80 under the last line of your autoexec.bat.


Edit the splashscreens

Works under Windows 95.

The three Windows 95 splashscreens (the one you see at start-up and the two when you shutdown) can be replaced by your own pictures.

Find a BMP-Image, which you want to use for your splashscreen(s). The original size must be 640x480. If you found a suitable image, resize is to 320x400. The image you want to see at start-up must be called logo.sys and must be placed in C:\.

The screens at shutdown must be called logow.sys and logos.sys and must be placed in C:\WINDOWS.

Logow.sys is the first screen you see at shutdown (please wait while your system is being shutdown...) and logos.sys is the final screen you see (it’s safe to turn off your computer now).

The files must be in the 320x400x256 format (resolution 320x400 and colordepth of 256 colors), or else this won’t work.


Start Windows without a CD-ROM drivers in your config.sys
Start Windows without a CD-ROM drive in your conig.sys

Works under Windows 95.

If you own a CD-ROM drive, then take a look in your config.sys and autoexec.bat. Out of these two files can be some items deleted.

Put a REM followed by a space in front of the line, which loads your CD-ROM Driver (it’s the line with a /D: in it).

Then, in your autoexec.bat, also put a REM followed by a space in front of the line, which starts with MSCDEX.EXE (if the REM is not there already).

You get something like this:

In config.sys:

REM C:\path to cdromdriver\driver.sys /d:mscd001

In autoexec.bat:

REM mscdex.exe /d:mscd001

In most of the cases Windows will recognise your CD-ROM drive and loads it’s own drivers.

Note: If you start in MS-DOS Mode (without starting Windows first), the CD-ROM drive won’t work, because Windows hasn’t start and therefore there are no drivers loaded.


Temporary delete the Start-button

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

You can temporary delete the Start-button.

Click on the Start-button and close it by pressing the Escape-key.

Press ALT+- (ALT  and the minus-key at the same time).

Choose close.

The Start-button will return when you restart Windows.

You still can shutdown by pressing ALT+F4.


Functionkeys

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

When you click on the desktop and then push F1 you get Windows-help

Click on a file and then on F2 and you can change its name.

When you open a Folder or you are on the Desktop push F3 to search for things.

When you press F6 in an Explorer window, you’ll switch between the two panes.

F5 refreshes the contents of a folder or when you are on the desktop it refreshes the desktop.

to permanently delete it. It won’t be put in the recycle bin.


Add drives to the Start-menu
Add disk-drives to the Start-menu

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

You can put shortcuts of your drives in the Start-menu. If you have to search your harddisk and you don’t want to click your way through My computer, this is the perfect alternative. You click Start, click your drive and Explorer is opened on that drive.

Double-click My computer.

Drag with the right-mousebutton the drive to the Start-button.

If you click Start now, you’ll see the icon.


Add the Control Panel to the Start-menu

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

It’s very handy to add the Control Panel to the Start-menu. When you click Start - Control Panel, you get a list with all the items in the Control Panel, just like you get the list with items when you click on Start - Programs. You don’t need to open the whole Control Panel; you can just select the part you need.

Rightclick the Start-button and choose Open (of Explore if you prefer).

Make a new Folder.

Name it exactly the following (including the decimal-point, the { and the }):

Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

When you entered this, press Enter. If you entered it right, then the icon of the new folder will change in the icon representing the Control Panel. If the icon changes in the standard folder icon, you mistyped something. Click the folder, press F2 and re-type it. It doesn’t matter if you use capital letters of normal letters, as long the dashes (-) are in the right place.


Add the Dial-up Networking folder to the Start-menu

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

It’s very handy to add the Dial-up Networking folder to the Start-menu. When you click Start - Dial-up Networking, you’ll get a list with all the items in the Dial-up Networking folder, just like you get the list with items when you click on Start - Programs. You don’t need to open the whole Dial-up Networking folder, you can just select the part you need.

Rightclick the Start-button and choose Open (or Explore if you prefer).

Make a new Folder.

Name it exactly the following (including the decimal-point, the { and the }):

Dial-up Networking.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}

When you entered this, press Enter. If you entered it right, then the icon of the new folder will change in the icon representing the Dial-up Networking folder. If the icon changes in the standard folder icon, you mistyped something. Click the folder, press F2 and re-type it. It doesn’t matter if you use capital letters of normal letters, as long the dashes (-) are in the right place.


installing an Upgrade-version of Windows 95 without having a previous version of Windows

Works under Windows 95.

There are two different kind of Windows 95 CD-ROM’s. One is a normal version and the other is an upgrade version.

Normally you only can install the upgrade version if you have a previous version of Windows (3.xx or 95) installed on you computer.

But, there’s a way to bypass that, in other words: Let Setup think you have a previous version of Windows if you, for example, don’t want to safe you old Windows 3.xx diskettes or even don’t have them anymore (like me and also have that Upgrade CDROM).

You must get your hands on a copy of gdi.exe. This file can be found on Windows 3.xx disk 1. You also can use the gdi.exe of a Windows 95 version.

This file (gdi.exe) must be placed on an empty-disk. The disk must be empty, else it won’t work. The only file on the disk must be gdi.exe

Now you can normally run the Upgrade-version. If it’s going to check for an existing version of Windows and Setup can’t find it on your harddisk, let Windows seek on your floppy-disk. Then it think you have a previous version of Windows at Setup continues.

You don’t have to worry about missing some files, because you didn’t upgrade from a complete Windows 3.xx version.

A normal version and an upgrade version have exactly the same installation-procedure, only a normal version won’t seek for an existing Windows version.


Installing a normal Windows 95 version without deleting an old Windows version
Installing a normal Windows 95 version, without deleting an old Windows version

Works under Windows 95.

You have a normal version of Windows 95 and on your harddisk is already a version of Windows installed, like Windows 3.xx (or even Windows 95 itself). When you try to install Windows 95, you’ll get an error, which says: “Windows setup has found an existing Operating System, which can’t be replaced by this version of Setup. Please get an update version of Windows 95.”

What now? Must I delete the whole previous Windows version?

No, there’s no need to do so. Just go to the existing Windows directory and delete win.com.

Run Windows 95 setup again and you’ll see there are no problems of any kind. The previous version is still updated and the old settings are preserved.


Using Windows 95 keys without a Windows 95 keyboard
Using Windows 95 & NT keys without a Windows 95 keyboard

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

To open the Start-menu, press CTRL+ESC

To open a Context Menu (rightmouse-click-menu), press SHIFT+F10


All updates of this Helpfile

Version 1.0:

My whole website in this Helpfile

Version 2.0 on Tuesday 13 may 1997:

Date was added, so you can see when this file is being made.

Everything, except the tips are deleted. From now on this Helpfile is only for tips, trics & secrets.

Every tips has it’s own page now.

A few tips where added.

Version 2.1 on Saturday 17 may 1997:

From now on, a Contents File is added.

New tips have a red color, changed tips have a dark-red color.

In total there were 11 new tips added.

Version 3.0 on Friday 6 June 1997:

There were many type-errors. They all have been fixed.

Added 25 new tips.

Changed 5 tips.

All tips are regrouped in sections and sorted on alphabet.

New tips are sorted first, then the rest of the tips.

Version 4.0 on Thursday 8 July 1997:

Added 15 new tips.

Changed 3 tips.

Version 4.1 on Thursday 21 august 1997:

Added 5 new tips.

Changed 1 tip.

Version 4.2 on Friday 5 September 1997:

Added 7 new tips.

Version 5.0 on Saturday 25 October 1997:

This Helpfile was translated in English. That’s the primary reason the next release was a bit late.

Due to the translation it also completely had to be re-ordered by alphabet.

Deleted 2 tips. One tip didn’t work at all. Forgot to add something. It will be re-entered in the next release.

The other tip was a double tip. That tip was already in it.

Changed 4 tips.

Changed 1 tip.

Version 5.1 on Monday 3 November 1997:

Added 11 new tips.

Changed 3 tips.

Version 5.2 on Saturday 29 November 1997:

added 3 new tips.

Version 6.0 on Wednesday March 4 1998:

•	Completely re-checked on grammar and spelling.

•	Re-indexed all tips. Tips are now indexed at the begin letter.

•	Keyworda are optimized. Better restults when searching for keywords.

•	Changed 7 tips

•	Added 11 new tips which brings the Tiptotal to 115 tips

Version 6.1 on Saturday April 25, 1998

•	Added 23 new tip which brings the Tiptotal on 138 tips

•	Changed 3 tips

•	Deleted 1 tip (this one is splitted in two ‘stand alone’ tips)

Version 6.2 on Wednesday July 15th, 1998

•	Added 18 new tip which brings the Tiptoal on 156 tips

•	Changed 5 tip


Bitmapicons

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

When you open a folder which contains Bitmapfiles. (.bmp files), you can automatically preview the file, by changing to standard icon for the Bitmap in the Bitmap itself.

Go to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Paint.Picture\DefaultIcon

If there isn’t a DefaultIcon present, you’ll have to make it first like this:

Click on Paint.Picture

Make a new key

Name it DefaultIcon

Click on DefaultIcon.

When you’ve done that

Double-click on Standard

Modify the value there into %1

Click on OK

Go to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp

Check if the value of Standard is Paint.Picture

If not, double-click on it and give it the value Paint.Picture

Now you should see the bitmap instead of a standard icon in the Explorer.


No more ~ in short filenames

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you make in Windows 95 or NT a long filename, it’s DOS equivalent shortname and with a tilde (a ~), followed by a number (like 1, 2, 3, etc).

Example: In Windows 95 and NT: This is a long filename.txt

In DOS: thisis~1.txt

Those tildes can be disabled. In DOS you get thisisal.txt

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

Make a new Binary Value.

Call it NameNumericTail

Double-click it and enter the value 0 (zero).

Windows puts automatically a second 0 behind it. The total string you’ll see is: 0000 00

Click OK.

You have to restart your computer (not only Windows, but complete reboot).


Winkey-keycombinations

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

You can do a lot more with the special Windows-95 key on you keyboard than only open the Start-menu.

WIN+R	: Run...

WIN+M	: Minimize all windows.

SHIFT+WIN+M	: Undo minimize all windows.

WIN+F1	: Start Windows Help.

WIN+E	: Start Windows Explorer.

WIN+F	: Find files or folders.

CTRL+WIN+F	: Find computers

WIN+TAB	: Scroll through Taskbar buttons without maximising the programs.

WIN+PAUSE	: Same as System in Control Panel, or righclick My computer


Empty the Documents list quickly
Empty Documents list quickly

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

The Documents list in the Start-menu can be quite full after a while. Emptying it through Start - Settings - Taskbar - Start Menu Programs - Clear is just too many mouse clicks, since the same can be done with 1 single double-click.

Open Notepad

Enter: echo y|del c:\windows\recent\*.*

Save it as c:\windows\command\cleardoc.bat

Windows NT users replace c:\windows with c:\winnt

You may change the name cleardoc, but you must keep the .bat extension

Make for example a shortcut on your Desktop or somewhere in your Start-menu.

When you double-click it, the Documents list is emptied.

If you want to let this happen almost invisible, you can add the following options to the shortcut.

Rightclick the shortcut.

Choose Properties.

Click tab Shortcut

Select Minimized at the Run: option.

Enable close window at end.

In Windows NT the last option is not present, because it isn’t needed.

If you double-click (or click) the shortcut, you won’t see a thing, only the name of the shortcut for a brief moment in the Taskbar.

If you use a non-English version of Windows, the line echo y|del c:\windows\recent\*.* needs to be addapted. Only the echo y needs to be changed. If an english version the answer to the ‘delete all files’ question, is the key ‘y’ (stands for yes). If you use a Dutch version, you need to type a ‘j’ for anknowledge it. So, in case you use a Dutch version for example, the line you’ll get is:

echo j|del c:\windows\recent\*.*

If you want this to be run every time Windows starts, you can place a shortcut to this file either in your Start-menu or in your Registry.

For in the Registry:

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Make a new String value and call it Clear Documents or something else you would like to name it (it doesn’t matter how you name it)

Doubleclick on this new String value and give it the value c:\windows\command\cleardoc.bat

If you do this, the Documents History will be cleared every time you start Windows


Refresh screen quicker
Refresch screen quicker

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

When you have a SVGA-videocard in your computer you can configure it with 256 colours. This is for the benefit of the whole computer. It starts working faster. Most images haven’t got more than 256 colours. Because it would take more disk-space.

To change or check the settings:

Right click on an empty place of your desktop.

Choose properties

The properties for Display are being loaded

Choose Settings

Check if the colours are set to 256 colours.

If so Click Cancel.

If not adjust it to 256 colours.

Click on OK.

You’ll probably have to restart the computer to let the changes have effect.

When the computer has restarted the color mode has been set to 256 colours.


Speed up your CD-ROM Drive

Works under Windows 95.

You can let your CD-ROM drive speed up, by increasing the cache size. The bigger the Cache the
faster your drive is. NOTICE: This takes up some memory, but you almost don’t notice it.

Right-Click My Computer.

Choose Properties

System properties are being displayed.

Click on Performances

Click on Filesystem

Click on CD-ROM

Set the Supplemental cachesize to maximum.

Select Quad-Speed or higher in the pull-down menu

Click on OK twice

When asked, restart windows. If you’re not asked to restart Windows, do it anyway or the changes won’t have effect. You’ll notice the difference when you read the same files more. On some computers it goes slower, because they don’t have enough memory. This tip is for computers with 8 MB or more of physical memory.


Empty Find Files or Folders list

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

The list you can see at Start - Find - Files or Folder can also be emptied. This list contains all the search queries you’ve entered here.

Go to: HKEY_CURENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Doc Find Spec MRU

Delete everything but (Default).

You probably have to restart Windows.


Empty Computer Search list

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

The list you can see at Start - Find - Computer can also be emptied. This list contains all the search queries you’ve entered here.

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FindComputerMRU

Remove all the keys, except (Default).

You might have to reboot.


Show all computers, connected to the network
Show all computers connected to the network

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

You need a list of all the computers, which are currently connected to your network?

Go to Start - Find - Computer...

Don’t enter a name, just hit Find now.

Now all computers on the network are listed.


Add the Printers folder to the Start-menu

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

It’s very handy to add the Printers folder to the Start-menu. When you click Start - Printers, you get a list with all the items in the Printers folder, just like you get the list with items when you click on Start - Programs. You don’t need to open the whole Printers folder, you can just select the part you need.

Rightclick the Start-button and choose Open (of Explore if you prefer).

Make a new Folder.

Name it exactly the following (including the decimal-point and the { and } ):

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

When you entered this, press Enter. If you entered it right, then the icon of the new folder will change in the icon representing the Printers folder. If the icon changes in the standard folder icon, you mistyped something. Click the folder, press F2 and re-type it. It doesn’t matter if you use capital letters of normal letters, as long the dashes (-) are in the right place.


Delete unnecessary lines from your config.sys and autoexec.bat

Works under Windows 95.

During the installation of Windows, config.sys and autoexec.bat are created, or updated. But in these two files are a few lines unnecessary.

Open C:\config.sys in (for example) Notepad.

Delete the lines, containing the following settings:

device=.....display.sys

country=.....country.sys

On the dotted lines behind device= and country= is the location of the file. Mostly it’ll say c:\windows.

Open C:\autoexec.bat in (for example) Notepad.

Delete the (one or two) lines which start with:

mode con codepage ...

On the dotted lines behind codepage is some additional information.


Quickly open or explorer the Start-menu
Quickly open or explore the Start-menu

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

A very quick way to open or explore the Start-menu.

Rightclick the Start-button

Choose Open or Explore.


Start registered filetypes from DOS

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you open a folder in Windows 95 or NT and you double-click a txt-file, hlp-file, etc, then Windows knows with what program those files are associated and it can open the file then.

You can also do this in DOS. Normally you only can start .exe, .com and .bat files in DOS, but in a DOS-box you can also start the registered filetypes from the DOS prompt.

Type: start <filename>.<extension>

For <filename> you type a filename, like readme and for extension you type an extension, like txt

You’ll get:

Start readme.txt

If the filename is a long-file name, you have to type in quotes:

Start “read me first.txt”

Now notepad.exe is loaded and the textfile readme.txt is opened in Notepad.


Use long filenames in DOS

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

In a DOS-box you can use long file names.

If you, for example, want to open the folder Tips Trics and Secrets for Windows 95 and NT, you normally would type: cd tipstr~1 (or cd tipstric if you disable the tildes (~)).

But you can also use the long filename:

cd “Tips Trics and Secrets for Windows 95 and NT”

You put the long filename between “ signs. You don’t have to use capital letters.

You may also type:

cd “tips trics and secrets for windows 95 and NT”

It is not necesarry to add the last quote. cd “tip trics and secrets for windows 95 and NT also would work.


Quickly get the Track List from FlexiCD

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you installed Microsoft PowerToys (I recommend this, very nice add-ons for Windows 95 and NT), you can install FlexiCD.

To get the Track List of FlexiCD, you can do two things.

You can rightclick the icon in the Tray and choose Track List.

But, there’s a second, far more faster way do accomplish the same.

Rightclick the icon, while holding the SHIFT-key.

You instantly get the Track List now.


Maximize windows very quickly

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

Double-click on the titlebar of a program and it will be maximized and if it is already maximized it will be restored in its previous size.


Set a default folder for programs

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

Many programs think you want to save your work (like documents, etc) in the same folder where the program also is installed and the programs won’t remember where you have put them the last time.

Here are some hints you can try, to setup a default folder for your programs.

Rightclick the shortcut to the program.

Choose Properties.

Click tab Shortcut.

At Begin in: you can enter a different path.

Press OK.

This won’t work for all programs, but you always can give it a try. If it works, fine. If it doesn’t, too bad. In that case, try this

Maybe the program has an .INI file. Most of the times such a file is called <program_name>.ini. You can open the file and look if there’s a default-path set in it.

If this also doesn’t work, you can try the program itself. MS Office, for instance, gives you the choice of entering your own path for standard save the files to.

If that won’t work, you can try to search throught the Registry for this program and you might find something.


Download Windows 95 CD-ROM files

Works under Windows 95.

You can install Windows 95 from CD-ROM and from diskettes. If you install Windows 95 from diskettes, you don’t have all the programs, which are located on the Windows 95 CD-ROM.

Don’t worry: The programs that are on the CD, but not on the diskettes, are free for download.

Go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/software/cdextras.htm

I don’t know how long these files remain on the Internet. When I wrote this tip, they were on-line, but I can’t check on every release if everything is still on-line.


Extend Start - Find

Works under Windows 95.

0	Works under Windows NT.

2	This only works if you installed the Microsoft Powertoys Find Extensions.

3	Normally under Start - Find you can search for files, folders and computers is you have a network. But there’s more. You can add your own shortcuts here.

4	Rightclick Start.

5	Choose explore or open.

6	Double-click Find

7	Add you own shortcuts (to this Helpfile for example).

8	If you want a letter to be underlined, you must place an & before the letter you want to be underlined.


Show all files

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

Normally Windows won’t let you see all files on your computer. The files with extension .sys, .dll, .vxd, .drv and .386 can’t be seen.

If you can’t see the extension, you also won’t be able to change a filetype for registered files.

Open a folder (doesn’t matter which one).

Click View.

Choose Options...

Click radiobutton Show all files

Disable Hide file extensions for known file types

Click OK.

Now you’ll see all the files on your harddisk(s).


Edit the SendTo-folder

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you right click a selected item, or group of items, you can choose Copy to... In this list are some items you can click on. The selected item(s) are now copied to that location.

The items in this folder, are just plain shortcuts, so you can add and delete shortcuts to and from this folder.

The folder you must use is SendTo, located in your Windows-directory, such as c:\window\sendto

Examples are:

Recycle Bin:

If you click an item, or several items, then Copy to...Recycle Bin, the files are deleted.

The printer:

If you choose this one, the file is printed.

Wordprocessor:

Choose this and the file is being opened in your wordprocessor

Etc, try your own fantasy.


CTRL-keycombinations

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

You can do a lot with the CTRL key. It will work in all programs that come with Windows 95.

CTRL+A: 	Select all the items in the list.

CTRL+C:	Copy the selected items.

CTRL+G:	Goto

CTRL+V:	Paste the selected items.

CTRL+X:	Cut the selected items.

CTRL+Z:	Undo the last action(s).

These keys work in every Windows 95 program

Undo last action restores the thing you did before, like if you deleted a name in a word-processor it recalls it.

There are more CTRL+key combinations but they are depended on the used program.

Here are some common ones:

CTRL+F:	Find

CTRL+P:	Print

Find finds text, Goto goes to a specific page or topic, and Print prints the (highlighted) text.


Start screensaver instantly

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you enabled a screensaver on your computer, you normally have to wait for the timeout (like 10 minutes), before it activates.

If you don’t want to wait on that timeout, you can instantly run a screensaver. Just make a shortcut somewhere (like somewhere on your Desktop) to it. The screensavers can be found in the folder: C:\windows\system.

You can make different shortcuts, in order to choose which screensaver you want to see this time.

If you have enabled a password for your screensaver, the password only works if you double-click your default screensaver. If you choose another screensaver (which is not your default, set in Control Panel - Display), the password will not be active.


Move System folders

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you try to move System folders, such as Desktop, Start-up, Programs, Documents, etc, you’ll get an error which says you may not move those folders.

However, it can be done.

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

Here you’ll the list with System folders. First make a choice which one you want to move, rename, etc.

Now, go to the location on your harddisk where this folder is located.

Make a new Folder.

If you want to rename or move a System folder, you’ll name this folder what the System folder must be.

Return to the Registry on the same place as you were just before.

Double-click the System folder and enter the new location and/or name.

Example:

In the Programs menu of the Start-menu you’ll see Startup. If you want this folder to be called Startup Group, but it must have the same function as the Startup folder, you first make a new folder in the Programs menu. Name in Startup Group.

Move all shortcuts from Startup to Startup Group.

In the Registry double-click Startup.

Enter the new path. In this case you must change Startup in Startup Group

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

Make a new String Value.

Name it exactly the same as the one which you have changed in the previous location.

In this example you call the new String Value Startup

Double-click it and enter the same value as you entered in the previous location.

In this example you’ll enter c:\windows\start menu\Startup Group

Restart Windows.

Now all the shortcuts in Start-up Group are loaded at start-up of Windows. Now you can delete the old Start-up folder.


Free more memory in Windows 95.
free more memory in Windows 95 & NT

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

Here are some tips for if you have a slow computer with not much RAM-memory (such as 8 MB)

•	Don’t use Desktop- wallpaper.

It might look much fun, but it also consumes lots of memory. If you don’t have lots of it (say 8 of 16 MB), then I would suggest not using wallpapers and use a solid color.

Rightclick an empty place on your Desktop.
Choose Properties.
Choose for the Wallpaper None.
Click OK.

•	Switching off devices you don’t use anyway.

You can disable some hardware you don’t use in Windows. You can think of Joystick ports, MPU-401 (compatible)-port, CD-ROM Controllers on you soundcard if you don’t use them, etc.

Rightclick My computer.
Choose Properties.
Click the second tab.
Double-click the device you want to disable.
Select Disable this device in the hardware profile.
Click OK.
Repeat this with other devices.
Restart Windows.

The devices you have chosen, are not enabled in Windows, so you can’t use them. Because they’re disabled, the needed drivers aren’t loaded now. This results in having more RAM and more system recourses free for other use.

•	Deleting unnecessary fonts.

It’s fun to have lots and lots of fonts, but this fun really costs you a lot of memory.
Each time Windows starts, ALL fonts are loaded into Memory, in this way they’re always available.
But, if there are fonts that you never use, just delete them.

Go to C:\Windows\Fonts and look at the contents of all your fonts by double-clicking them. The ones you don’t use, you can just delete.

Be careful: there are some fonts you must not delete, because Windows uses these. Deleting these fonts can result in instability in Windows.

The fonts you must not delete are:
Times New Roman
MS Sans Serif
Courier
Courier New
Arial
Symbol

The rest of the fonts can be deleted. Programs install some of the fonts. If you delete such a font, the program, which uses it, can give an error (MS Word 97 does if you delete some)


Let your .txt function like a logfile
Let your .txt files function like logbooks

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

You can let a .txt file function like a logbook. Everytime you open the .txt file, Windows puts the date and time of opening in it.

Put on the very first line of the .txt file:

.LOG

Note!

It must be entered in caps (the word LOG), else it won’t work.


Disable Documents list

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

Every time you open a textfile, helpfile, etc, there will be a shortcut in the Documents folder in your Start-menu.

There isn’t an official way to disable the making of these shortcuts, but a little trick will do it. What it does: In the Registry you alter the path of the Documents folder on you harddisk. If you change the Documents folder to be the same folder as the Recycle Bin, all the shortcuts which normally go into the Documents list, now go into the Recycle Bin.

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ Shell Folders

Double-click Recent.

Change the current value to c:\recycled

Press OK.

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

Make a new String Value

If Recent already is here, don’t make it, just continue.

Call it Recent

Double-click it.

Enter c:\recycled

Press OK.

Now all the shortcuts are placed in you Recycle Bin. You have to empty your Recycle Bin manually. But you can do something about this as well.

Rightclick Recycle Bin (on your Desktop).

Choose Properties.

Enable do not move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately on delete.

The advantage is that all the Document-shortcuts are automatically removed now. The (big) disadvantage is that all the other deleted files are also permanently deleted. Now you must be extra careful if you’re going to delete something.

Another option is to enter a custom path in the Registry. In stead of entering c:\recycled on two places, you can enter another folder. That folder must be emptied manually. The temp folder (c:\windows\temp) could be the perfect place (for temporary files).


Removing the little yellow speaker from the Tray

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

People who have a Windows 95 compatible soundcard, mostly have a little, yellow speaker in the Tray. With this icon you can adjust the volume level. If you don’t use this, of want to get rid of it, you can’t just righclick the icon and choose Close, Exit, or what ever.

If you want to get rid of this speaker, follow the following steps:

Right-click the speaker-icon

Choose changing Audio Properties.

Uncheck Showing Volume Control on the Taskbar.

Click OK.

If you want this icon to re-appear here, then re-check this option.

Without this speaker, you can change the option through Control Panel - Multimedia


Disable Connect-icon

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

When you make an Internet-connection with your modem, you always see an icon in the system tray. You can turn this off.

Open the Dial-up Folder

Right click on the connection that will be used.

Choose properties.

Click on configure

Click on options

Uncheck Display Modem status.

Click on OK


Edit the New-menu

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you rightclick an empty spot of a window and you choose New, you’ll see a list of items which can be created for you (mostly using a template). Folder and Shortcut are always in this, but you also have standard a Text file, Wave file, etc.

If you want to delete the items in this list, you can.

Press CTRL+F

Enter ShellNew

After a while you’ll see the first extension. This extension represents the file which can be created through the New-menu.

You’ll see the key ShellNew.

You can rename this key. If you rename it, it disappears from the New-menu, but you can restore it anytime, by renaming it back to ShellNew. You can also delete it, but it’s more work to restore it then.

If you press F3, the search continues and soon you’ll get the next extension. Repeat this until you’re done.

If you now take a look at the New-menu, that items you just edited is gone.


Using the third mouse button of a Logitec mouse for double-clicking
Using the third button of a Logitec mouse for double-clicking

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

Most of the Logitec mice have 3 buttons. The middle-button is often not used. Some mice have software, which let you configure the middle-button (as on Logitec Mouseman-mice).

If you don’t have a Logitec Mouseman, but you have a 3-button Logitec moue, you still can use the middle-button as a double-click button. Clicking once with this buttons is equal as double-clicking with primary button (mostly the left-button).

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Logitech\Mouseware\CurrentVersion\Serial?\0000

The question mark can have different values. I both saw SerialV and SerialM. There will probably more variants, you have to check it yourself.

Double-click DoubleClick.

Change the current value 000 into 001

Click OK.


Manage the Virtual Memory settings yourself

Works under Windows 95.

Windows tries to make you believe that it’s best for you if you let Windows manage the settings for Virtual memory.
But, it turns out to be the case that it’s often better to not let Windows manage settings, that is: if you now what you’re doing.

Windows uses a dynamic Swap-file.
This means that, according to the needs of the moment, it can grow or shrink in size. This growing and shrinking can take up lots of time. If you worked with windows 3.11, you know that you better use a permanent Swap-file as that you would use a temporary one.

Rightclick My Computer.

Choose Properties.

Click tab Performances.

Click Virtual Memory.

Click radiobutton Manage the settings for Virtual Memory yourself.

Now you have to enter two values. The minimum size and the maximum size. We want to make a permanent Swap-file, so in order to do this, enter for both values the same number.
You must enter the size of the Swap-file in Megabytes, not in Kilobytes.

If you don’t know how big you Swap-file must be, you can get an indication by proceeding with the next example.

Now start as many large applications as you’ll ever, even in the rarest event, will use together at the same time.
Let these applications perform lots of heavy tasks simultaneously.
Then find the file: Win386.swp (it’s in your Windows-directory), and look what it’s size is.
Add 10 MB to it.
There you have the fixed size of your Swap-file. (Other people say you have to use for the value about 3 to 4 times the size of your RAM-memory, just to be sure, but if you run as many, and as large applications, and that simultaneously everything is fine.

If you have another partition as your C-disk, you might as well use the (entire) free space on it, that is: if Windows is on that disk or partition as well, you have to make sure you KEEP 10 to 20 MB free diskspace !
Many programs use the Windows- directory to create temporary files during installation, or just install themselves in Windows\Program Files, without even asking if that’s what you want.

Or you just can pick a size and set it on that size. I didn’t want to do this all (run many applications at the same time, etc). I just made a swapfile of 100 MB. That is more than enough for me.

The next step you should only perform if you have 16 MB or more RAM-memory.

Open your system.ini-file.

You can open it with Notepad, or with the System Configuration Editor, by clicking on Start - Run... and type sysedit.exe

Look for the section [vcache].

If it isn’t there: create it.

Change, or enter the following values:

MinFileCache=xxxx

MaxFileCache=xxxx

xxxx=the size of your Virtual Cache.

For xxxx you take 1/4 of the size of your RAM-memory, but you have to write it down in kilobytes, not in megabytes.

For example:

If you have 16 MB of RAM, you write down 4096 (4 MB). Because 1 MB=1024 Kilobytes (Vcache=(installed RAM memory/4)*1024)

Restart Windows.


Turn off unnecessary Internet protocols

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

When you make an Internet-connection in the Dial-up Folder, Windows automatically turns on a couple of protocols. You only need the TCP/IP-protocol for the Internet. All the other protocols are not necessary for the Internet. If you turn them off logging in to the Internet becomes much faster.

Open the Dial-up Networking.

Right click on the connection for the Internet

Choose Properties.

Click on Servertypes.

Now turn-off the Network protocols NetBEUI and IPX/SPX-compatible, by removing the checkmark. The three advanced options can be left open with most ISP’s. If you are not sure check with your ISP.

Double-click on Network in the Control-Panel

Click on the Dial-up adapter

Click on Properties

Click on the bindings

Remove all marks, except the one with TCP/IP

Click on OK

Now Click on the TCP/IP Protocol

Click on Properties

Click on the bindings

UNcheck File- and Printersharing for Microsoft Networking

By doiing this you make it virtually impossible for an other person to hack into your computer over the Internet

Click on OK and again on OK

If you are asked to reboot, do so. If not then also reboot, because the other drivers can still be resident in the memory.


Description of some of the extensions

There are very many different file types with all kind of extensions. Below you see al list of many extensions with a description of the file.

.1ST 	Mostly the first copy of the Windows 95 Registry (made during installation of Windows 95)

.386 	Virtual devicedriver

.3GR	Screendriver for DOS-programs (Grabber)

.3IN 	Installation-information of MSN

.ACM	Audiocompression

.AD	AfterDark screensaver

.ADI 	Image

.ADM 	Policy Editor Template

.AFM	Postscript-textfile

.AI	Vector orientated graphic file (readable txt)

.AIF	Sound in the AIFF-format

.ANI	Animated mousecursor

.ARC 	Arc-archive

.ARJ 	Arj-archive

.ASC	ASCII-file (almost the same as .txt files)

.ASM	Assembler Sourcecode

.AU	Sound in the AU-format

.AVI	Videofile

.AWD	Faxviewer file

.BAK	Backup of a file

.BAS	BASIC Sourcecode

.BAT	DOS-batchfile

.BBX	Boom Box for Windows

.BBM	Bitmapfile

.BFC	Briefcase

.BIN	Binary file

.BKP	Backup of a Write-file

.BMP	Bitmap-image

.C	(Turbo) C(++), Borland C(++) of Microsoft C(++) Sourcecode

.CAB	Compressed file (Cabinets : used by Windows 95 setup. Compare with Zip-files)

.CAL	Calendar

.CDA	 Song of an Audio-CD

.CDR	Corel Draw Image

.CFG	Configuration file

.CHK	Saved lost clusters, made by ScanDisk.

.CLP	Clipboard image

.CNF	Configuration file in binary format

.CNV	Textconversion

.COM	DOS-executable file.

.CPL	Extension of the Control Panel (like System, Display, Modem, etc).

.CPP	Textfile

.CRD	Cardfile

.CUR	Standard, non-animated mousecursor

.CUT	Image

.DA0	Backup of the Registry

.DAT	Actual Registry

.DCX	Faxviewer file

.DIB	Bitmap (Device Independent Bitmap)

.DIC	Textfile

.DIF	Excel (Data Interchange Format)

.DIZ	Description of mostly a shareware or freeware file.

.DLL 	Dynamic Link Library (used by .exe files in Windows and OS/2)

.DOC	Word- of Wordpad-document

.DOS	Renamed System file during Windows 95 setup (like msdos.dos and io.dos)

Also: Devicedriver for MDOS-NDIS-networkinterfacecards.

.DOT	MS Word template

.DRV	Driver

.DRW	Image (Micrographix Draw)

.DSP	Sound-devicedriver

.DXF	Image

.EPS	Image textfile (Encapsulated PostScript)

.EXC	Textfile

.EXE	Executable program

.FAQ	Text files with answers. (Frequently Asked Questions).

.FLD	Postmap for use with DOS-workstations

.FMT	Printfile of Schedule+ 95

.FND	Saved search query (Find)

.FON	Font

.FOT	TrueType-font-information

.GID	Index of a Helpfile

.GIF	Image (very common on the Internet)

.GLB	Postoffice file

.GR3	Same as .3GR

.GRA	MS Graph 5.0-file

.GRP	Windows 3.xx program group (can be converted to Windows 95 program group)

.GZ	Compressed file

.H	Texfile

.HGL	Image (HP Graphics Language)

.HLP	Help-file (Binary in Windows, text in DOS)

.HT	Hyper Terminal-configuration

.HTM	Internet-document (HyperText Markup Language. Same as .HTML)

.ICC	ICC-profile

.ICM 	ICC-profile (Image Color Matching)

.ICO	Pictogram

.IDF 	MIDI-instrument-defenition

.IFF	Image

.IMA	Image

.IMG	Image

.INF	Setup information used by programs

.INI	Initialisations date for programs

.JAS	Image

.JIF	JPEG-image (Very common on the Internet)

.JPE	See .JIF

.JPG	See .JIF

.KEY	Index-file for a .MBG-file

.LBM	Image

.LEX	Wordfile-file

.LGO	Logo

.LNK	Shortcut to a Windows program

.LOD	Softwaremodule (Loadable)

.LOG	Logbook

.LST	PowerPoint-viewer

.LZH	Compressed file

.MAC	Image

.MAI 	Mailfile

.MAN	MANdatory desktop for networkusers

.MBG	Post-file (Mailbag)

.MCC	MSN-shortcut (Calling Card)

.MDA	Access-database

.MDB	Access-database

.MEM	Memory Status

.MID	MIDI-musicfile

.MMF	Windows 3.xx mailfile

.MNF	Saved MSN search query

.MOD	File for exchanging data between Windowsprograms and DOS programs

.MOD	Musicfile (can be compared with a .MID file)

.MOD	Modula(2) Source Code file (Modula is light version of programming language Pascal)

.MOV	QuickTime Movie

.MSG	Mail-file (Message)

.MSM	Postoffice-file

.MSN	MSN-document

.MSP	Image

.MVB	Viewer

.NAV	Extension of MSN

.NED 	See .NAV

.NFO	Information file (such as a readme.txt file)

.NME	"Name alias address list" in Mail

.OBD	MS Office Binder

.OBT	MS Office Binder-template

.OBZ	MS Office Binder-wizard

.OFN	Office-document (Office File New)

.OLD	Backup of mostly system files.

.PAB	Personal Address Book (Exchange)

.PAK	Zip-file

.PAL	Image (can probably be edit with Notepad)

.PAR	Permanent Virtual Memory file of Windows 3.xx

.PBK	MSN-phonebook

.PBM	Image (Portable Bitmap) (UNIX)

.PCD 	Image (Kodak Photo CD)

.PCT 	Image (Macintosh)

.PCX	BitMap image

.PGM	Image (Portable Graymap) (UNIX)

.PIC	Image (Picture)

.PIF	Information about DOS-programs (Program Information File)

.PLT	Image

.POL	Policy file

.POT	PowerPoint-template

.PPD	Printer Devicedriver (PostScript Printer Description)

.PPM	Image (Portable Pixelmap) (UNIX)

.PPS	PowerPoint-file

.PPT	PowerPoint-presentation

.PRE	Freelance for Windows

.PRN	Printerfile.

.PRT	Printfile for Schedule+ 95

.PSD	Image

.PST	Personal Folder with messages, forms and documents

.PUB	Publisher-document

.PWL	Passwordfile (Password List)

.PWZ	PowerPoint wizard

.QRY	Query

.RA	RealAudio

.RAM	See .RA

.RAS	Image

.RAW	Image (non-compressed), or disktype of 1.68 MB formatted disks

(1.44 MB disk have a FAT as disktype, 1.68 MB formatted disks have a RAW as disktype)

.REC	Macrorecorder-file

.REG	Registry-file

.RLE	Image (RunLength Encoded)

.RMI	MIDI-sequence (Compare with .MID)

.RTF	Text file (Rich Text Format)

.SAM	AMI Pro-file

.SC2	Schedule+ 95-executable

.SCD	Schedule+ 95-list (Contactpersons)

.SCH	Schedule+ 95-executable

.SCP	Networkscript for Dial-up Networking

.SCR	Screensaver

.SHB	Shortcut to a document

.SHH	Template (of ?)

.SHS	ShellScrap

.SLK	SYLK-data-import-format (Excel)

.SND	See .AU

.SPD	Printer Devicedriver (Simplified Printer Description)

.SWP	Windows Virtual Memory file (Swapfile)

.SYD	Backup of files which can be edited with the System Configuration Editor (sysedit.exe)

.SYS	Systemfile

.TAR	Compressed file

.TAZ	Compressed file

.TGA	Image

.TGZ	Compressed file

.THE	Desktop theme

.THM	See .THE (same as .THEME)

.TIF	Image (Tag Image File Format)

.TMP	Temporary file

.TPL	Template

.TTF	TrueType Font

.TXT	ANSI-textfile

.URL	Internet-address (Uniform Resource Locator)

.VUE	Schedule+ 95-configuration

.VXD	Virtual Device Driver

.W40	Renamed systemfile when booting in Previous version of DOS in Windows 95 A

.WAV	Soundfile (Wave)

.WB1	Quattro Pro for Windows-file

.WBK	Word-backup-copy

.WDB	Works Database-file

.WIL	Windows Image

.WIZ	Word-wizard

.WK?	 Lotus 1-2-3-file

.WKS	Lotus 1-2-3- of Works-file

.WMF	Image (Windows Metafile)

.WPD	Printer Device Driver (Windows Printer Description), or a WordPerfect 6.x-document

.WPG	Image (WordPerfect Graphics)

.WPS	Works & Word workprocessingfile

.WQ?	 Quattro Pro for MS-DOS-file

.WRI	Write-document

.XBM	Image

.XL?	Excel-file

.Z	Compressed file

.ZIP	See .Z


Creating a backup of the Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

In some cases it’s very advisable to make a backup of the Registry yourself.

Here’s how to do it.

Windows 95:

Open a DOS-box and type the following:

cd\windows

attrib -s -h -r system.dat

attrib -s -h -r user.dat

copy system.dat system.xxx

copy user.dat user.xxx

attrib +s +h +r system.dat

attrib +s +h +r user.dat

(Where xxx is any name you want to give the extension of your backup, however: Don't name the extension dat, da0 or 1st!).

Now you’ve created a backup of the Registry.

If you want to replace your current Registry with the backup you’ve made again, do the following:

Open a DOS-box, and type the following:

cd\windows

attrib -s -h -r system.dat

attrib -s -h -r user.dat

copy system.xxx system.dat /y

copy user.xxx user.dat /y

attrib +s +h +r system.dat

attrib +s +h +r user.dat

(Where xxx is the extension you have chosen while you were making a backup.

If you’ve changed anything in the configuration of your computer after you’ve created the backup, it is possible that you have to re-install a program(s) that you’ve installed after you’ve made the backup.

(Some programs change settings in the Registry).

Therefore it might be a good idea to backup your Registry after every important change in your configuration.

You can name the extensions of these backup 000, 001, 002, etc.

Or whatever is convenient for you to remember which backup is which, but NOT dat, da0 or 1st! Windows uses these extensions for other purposes.

Windows NT:

In WinNT 4.0 the Registry is stored in the form of several files, called "hives"in your Windows\System32\Config folder, none of which with extensions, simply save all these files to a folder or to floppy to back them up


Print to a file

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

It’s sometimes very handy to print something to a file, in stead of to a normal paper-printer. Imagine: you’re in Device Management (Control Panel - System) and you want a list of all the device-settings. Normally you must print out everything. If you print it to a file, you can open that file in Notepad or your favourite wordprocessor.

Click Start - Printers.

Double-click Add Printer.

Click Next.

Choose Local Printer.

Click Next.

Choose Generic - Generic/Text only as your printer.

Choose as port: File: make a file

Click next.

Make a testpage to see if the file is made correctly.

Click Finish.

The print file is a .prn file.

The best way to see it, is opening it in Wordpad, MS Word, etc.

Notepad can be used, but the layout is not very nice to read sometimes.


Compacting the Registry

Works under Windows 95.

If you often add and remove programs to your computer, or add and remove items in the Registry yourself, the Registry-files (system.dat and user.dat) can grow very large. In that case it’s advisable to compact these two files.

The Registry works like a database:

Added items are put at the end, and removed items leave empty spaces behind. Compacting your Registry leaves you with exactly the same Registry-values as before compacting, but system.dat and user.dat have become (much) smaller in size.

The procedure consists of several steps. Part of it has to be done in Windows, the other part in DOS. It’s therefore advisable to write down or print this procedure, so that, when you are in DOS later on, you still now what to do.

First make a backup, as described in “Creating a backup of the Registry” in the section “Registry”, because it sometimes doesn’t work out right with very large files, as one of us experienced.

I strongly suggest to backup, because you have to delete your current Registry from your harddisk. If the compacting goes wrong, you won’t have a Registry anymore and you won’t be able to start Windows anymore at all.

Start the Registry Editor.

Click once on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

Choose from the menu "Registry" the option "Export Registry-file..."

Safe the file in c:\windows (replace windows if Windows is in another drive and/or directory than c:\windows) and call the file system.reg

Check if "Selected subkey" is selected. "Everything" should NOT be selected. Click OK.

Now click once on HKEY_USERS

Same procedure as before, put the file in the same folder as you have put system.reg, but THIS file should be called user.reg

Don’t forget to check if "Selected subkey" is selected. "Everything" should NOT be selected. Click OK.

Now restart your computer in MS-DOS mode.

In DOS go to the folder where you’ve put system.reg and user.reg, you’ll get there by typing:

c:

cd\windows

If Window is in another drive and/or directory, you have to adjust these two commands.

Type the following:

attrib -s -h -r system.dat

attrib -s -h -r user.dat

del system.dat

del user.dat

(This is why you must make a backup of you current Registry. You’re going to delete your registry. If  you haven’t deleted it yet and not backed up also, backup now. It’s your own risc).

Now type the following: regedit /l:system.dat /r:user.dat /c user.reg

Press ENTER.

Now type the following: regedit /l:system.dat /r:user.dat system.reg (without the /c)

Now restart your computer.

When everything goes well you have compacted your Registry.

If not, and Windows won’t start without any errors, or even worse: you can’t start Windows al all, then you must restore the backups you’ve made (you did, didn’t you...?)

Again: it’s very advisable to make a backup of your Registry. Especially on large Registry files, it can go wrong. If it goes wrong, you must have a backup to restore your Registry. It can go wrong, because sometimes certain Registry-keys can be too large for the regedit program to handle.

If you don`t enjoy (like whe enjoy) doiing this yourself, a freeware program which does the job for you, can be found at http://www.xs4all.nl/~mato/frw/winreg.html, this program overcame the trouble with Registry-keys which are to large to handle for the Do-It-Yourself-Way, as described above


Extend the Recycle Bin's Context Menu
Extend the Recycle Bin’s Context Menu

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

Did you ever try to rename the Recycle Bin, or try to delete it? Yes, I don’t think you’ve done that by rightclicking the Recycle Bin and choose rename or delete.

Now you can...

Go to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder

Double-click Attributes

The current Binary value is: 40 01 00 20

The 40 is the one you must change. In what, depends on what you want to add to the Context Menu of the Recycle Bin.

If you make it 50 you can rename it.

If you make it 60 you can delete, the Recycle Bin from the Desktop, without losing the ability to delete files.

If you make it 70 you can both rename and delete it.

If you have deleted the Recycle Bin from the Desktop, you still can empty the Recycle bin.

On every hard drive you have the hidden folder Recycled. Rightclick that folder, and choose Empty.

If you don’t see that folder, it’s because it’s hidden and you then have do read the tip Show all files in the section Programs and Files.

If you want to get the Recycle Bin back on the Desktop, it can.

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\ Desktop\NameSpace

Make a new Key

Call it {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

Click this new Key.

Double-click (Default).

Type Recycle Bin.

Click the Desktop on an empty spot and hit F5 (refresh).

The Recycle Bin should be back now.


Disabling Autorun of CD-ROM player

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

There are several ways to disable Autorun of your CD-ROM player.

•	This solution is temporary, the other two are more permanent.
Press Shift (and keep it pressed), while you close your CD-ROM player.

The following two solutions are permanent. The first one is not available on Windows NT.

•	Rightclick My computer.
Choose Properties.
Click tab Device Management.
Doubleclick CD-ROM
Choose tab Settings.
Uncheck Auto-Insert Notification

•	Open the Registry Editor
Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Double-click NoDriveTypeAutoRun
The contents of this Binary value is: 95 00 00 00
Change it into: BD 00 00 00 00

Restart Windows.


Enable Open With... on all file types

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you rightclick a unregistered file, you can choose Open With... in order to choose a program to open that file.

If you righclick a registered file, you can’t choose Open With... However, sometimes its very handy to be able of choose Open With... on registered file type.

Go to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\Shell

If Shell isn’t here yet, make it, by clicking on * and make a new Key, named Shell

Make a new Key.

Call it Openas

Double-click (Default).

Enter the text you want to see in the Context Menu for this action.

If you don’t enter something here, the Context Menu will say: Open with...

Click Openas

Make a new Key.

Call it command

Click command

Double-click (Default).

Enter Rundll32.exe shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL %1

Press OK.

This should do the trick.


Disabling sounds for events

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you do something wrong on your computer, it lets you know be generating a beep, generated by a
.WAV-file. If you choose to not attach sounds to events, Windows let still let you know be generating a beep. If you find this irritating there are a few ways for disabling the beep.

Disconnect the PC Speaker from the Mainboard. Usually this is a broad plug with 4 pins from which the two outmost are connected to a red and a black wire. We don’t advise this because if you ever start your computer, and all you get is a black screen, your BIOS can’t let you now what’s wrong by ways of putting a message on the screen, so it will let you know by generating one or more beeps. How many beeps you hear tells you what’s wrong. Look in your BIOS user manual for the explanation of the different error messages.

Create a new .WAV-file, containing no sound at all. You can use Soundrecorder together with the microphone, but put the microphone on "Off". Then save this file, and attach it to all error events. Because it contains no sound at all, you won’t hear anything either.

This should do it.


Temporary de-activate the screensaver

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If your screensaver starts already after a few minutes of inactivity, and you don’t want to change these settings, but sometimes need more time to work, without having to press a key, or move the mouse to deactivate the screensaver, simply press Alt, which activates the menu.

When the menu is active, the screensaver can’t be active at the same time.

To deactivate the menu again, Press Alt once again, or press Esc.


Cancel mouse-actions

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you’re dragging some selected files and you come to the conclusion you have the wrong files and you haven’t released the mousebutton yet, you can cancel the current operation.

To cancel a mouse-action, press the Escape-key and then release the mousebutton(s).


Increasing the size of the directory-cache

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

By default Windows reserves 32 KB RAM to cache 32 directories and 677 filenames. You can increase the size of this cache to make Windows cache 64 directories and 2729 filenames, Windows will reserve 16 KB RAM for the increased cache.

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\FS Templates\Server

Check the following values:

PathCache: 40 00 00 00

NameCache: A9 0A 00 00

Don’t you see these values, then create these Binary values.

Do you see some values there, but not the ones described above?

Then change them to the above values.

In the A-release of Windows 95, these values are switched. The values of PathCache and NameCache have switched places. The value of NameCache is at PatchCache and vise versa.

Rightclick My computer.

Choose Properties.

Click tab Performance.

Click Filesystem

Put Default task this machine performs on Networkserver, and set the slide bar on the maximum value (all the way to the right side

Click OK twice.

Restart your computer (even if Windows doesn’t asks for it).

Some programs run noticeable faster now and most disk activity is cached now, so when repeating something, it will execute faster.


Extend the Context Menu yourself

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

How about extending your Context Menu with your own programs? In this way you can righclick a folder (such as your Start-button) and choose you favourite program.

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Directory\Shell

Make a new Key.

Name it what you like, as long it’s unique.

Double-click (Default)

Type the text that must appear in the Context Menu.

If you want to underline a letter (press Start and you see one letter of each option underlined), you have to type an ampersand (&) before that letter.

Click the new key.

Make another new Key.

Call it command

Double-click (Default)

Enter the full path of the program, like c:\windows\regedit.exe

The extension isn’t needed, but it doesn’t hurt if you do so.

This program is in each folder Context Menu. In this way you can always access that program very quickly.

If you want to extend the Context Menu of a file, you do the same, but you go to this path:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\Shell

This will add your Context Menu item to every file. If you want to change a Context Menu item for a specific filetype, go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\filetype\Shell

Where filetype is for example txtfile for .txt files.

If you go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.extensionname

Look at the (Default) value. It will give you the string to look at where you can change the settings of that filetype.

Example:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt

(Default) will say: txtfile

Then go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfile

At that key you can change the settings of that filetype (like editing the Context Menu)


Removing screensaver password

Registry

Works on Windows 95.

If you have forgotten you screensaver password, you simple let the screensaver activates without a passwordprotection, but if you do want it to be password protected, you need to remove the old password.

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\desktop

Delete ScreenSave_Data

Now you can make a new password in the usual way.


View modem-strings

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Do you want to know which initialisationstrings your modem is using?

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Modem\0000

Also look at the other keys below modem, to see the current configuration of your modem. You also can edit the current values, if you think it’s needed.


Enter the location of the Windows 95 sourcefiles

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

During setup, Windows 95 and NT remembers where the setup files are. If you install something after setup (Control Panel - Add/remove programs), Window tries to copy the files from the same location as it had copied the files during Setup.

If the original location has changed (due to assigning another driveletter to your CD-ROM, or you copied your files to your harddisk, etc) it still tries to copy from the original location. It can’t find it there and asks you where the files did go. If you enter a different location, Windows won’t remember the new location. The next time it still asks for that same, old location.

You must Windows tell where the new files have go, by editing the Registry

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup

Double-click SourcePath

Enter the new full path of the location where the files are now.

Now Windows will look at this location. It will find the files and don’t bother you with the question where you put the files.


Bypass Scandisk at Start-up

Works under Windows 95.

If you use Windows 95 OSR-2.x (also known as Windows 95 B and Windows 95 C), then you probably have seen you must run ScanDisk if Windows didn’t shutdown correctly. There’s no documented source how to bypass this. I found a way to do so though.

You can bypass Scandisk by editing your MS-DOS.SYS. The following setting goes under the section [Options]

AutoScan=x

Replace x with one of the following:

0: Scandisk isn’t started anymore after incorrect shutdown.

1: Before Windows runs Scandisk, it asks you first, but the annoying is that you can’t bypass Scandisk

     (this is the default setting if this option is not present in MS-DOS.SYS)

2: Windows won’t ask, it runs Scandisk automatically

You probably will enter 0 as the value.


Remove the bug from IO.SYS

Works under Windows 95.

The IO.SYS from the Windows 95 OSR-2 (also known as Windows 95 B) has a very nasty bug. This bug let HIMEM.SYS, the XMS-manager, use 45 Kb of Conventional Memory, while it only uses 1 Kb of it (yes, one kilobyte in stead of 45 kilobyte).

Attention:

This works only with the B-version of non-English versions of Windows 95 - OSR2 (like my Dutch Windows 95 OSR-2 version).

I don’t know if OSR-2.1 has also this bug. I haven’t OSR-2.1, so I can’t tell you.

First make a backup of you IO.SYS by making a bootdisk.

Restart you computer.

When you see Starting Windows 95... press F8.

Choose Only DOS Prompt in Safe Modus.

Now type the following:

attrib -s -h -r io.sys

debug io.sys

Now you’ve started the debugger. On the screen you’ll see an - (minus).

Type the following exactly. If you don’t enter it right, you could srew up you’re whole IO.SYS and won’t be able to boot from your harddisk in the worst case. In that case you must boot from the bootdisk you have made.

e 52F6 58

W

Q

The screen looks like:

-e 52F6 58

-W

Writing xxxxx bytes.

-Q

C:\

Done and you see C:\ again?

Then type:

attrib +s +h +r io.sys

A brief explanation of what you have done:

e 52F6 58

This command puts the hexadecimal value 58 on offset 52F6 (io.sys is located in memory now).

With W you write the file to harddisk, including all changes.

With Q you exit the Debugger.

I can imagine you don’t like to do this by yourself. For those persons who want to remove this bug, but don’t want to edit io.sys, they can mail a copy of their IO.SYS. I will adapt it and mail it back.

Now you must restart the computer.

If you can’t start-up now, you must put the original IO.SYS back. An original of IO.SYS is located on your bootdisk.

Boot from you bootdisk and type the following:

C:

cd windows\command

attrib -s -h -r a:\io.sys

attrib -s -h -r c:\io.sys

copy a:\io.sys c:\io.sys /y

attrib +s +h +r a:\io.sys

attrib +s +h +r c:\io.sys

Restart your computer again.

Note for programmers:

People who have take a look to the old value on IP:52F6 see that I replace a 2 bytes op-code by a 1-byte op-code. Don’t worry, this is what must be done. If you look further, you see that at IP:5300 IO.SYS continues with it’s original ‘path’.

This change fixes the error with the memory-allocation of HIMEM.SYS.


Control Numlock via config.sys

Works under Windows 95.

Normally you can control if your Numlock key is on or off when the computer boots by editing you BIOS setting.

You can control it also via config.sys (without editing your BIOS settings).

Add to your config.sys the following line:

NumLock=xx

Replace xx with one of the next two options:

On	: Numlock on after processing this line.

Off	: Numlock off after processing this line.

l


Internet from your Context Menu

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

There’s a way to add Internetshortcuts to the Context Menu’s of your folders (so also to the Context Menu from your Start-button). You righclick a folder (such as the Start-button), choose the Internet-site, your browser is started and the site is loaded.

Go to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell

Make a new Key.

Call it the way it should appear in your Context Menu (such as the title of the site)

Click this new key.

Now make another new Key.

Call it command

Double-click (Default)

First, enter the complete path to your browser, followed by a space and then the Internet-location.

Click OK.

Example: c:\netscape\navigator\program\netscape.exe http://huizen.dds.nl/~glb/

If Netscape is in the same path as above, then Netscape is started and the site http://huizen.dds.nl/~glb/ is loaded.

If your browser is in another path, put your path instead of c:\netscape\navigator\program\netscape.exe


Starting programs automatically using the Registry

Registry.

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

You can create shortcuts in your Start-up-folder, these programs get started each time Windows get started.

Another way to start programs automatically is by adding a new String value to the Registry.

Useful for programs which always have to be started with Windows, not depending on which user is logging on at that time.

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Make a new String value and name it whatever you want.

Double-click it and enter the full path and filename of the program, which must be started every time when Windows starts.

Click on OK.

When you restart Windows, the program starts automatically too. If you press SHIFT during the startup of Windows, all programs in the Startup folder won’t be loaded, but the programs which are loaded in this way will be loaded.


Scrolling with animation

Registry.

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you have the Microsoft Plus! Package installed, you have the possibility to show the contents of a window when you drag a window. The contents of the window will be refreshed all the time.  Something like this can also be done when scrolling in Registry Editor, Explorer, etc. If you click on the +-sign next to a folder, the sub-folders will fall down.
It’s hard to explain how it looks like, you have to see for yourself. You don’t need The Microsoft Plus! Package for this.

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\desktop

Make a new Dword value

Call it SmoothScroll

Double-click it and give the value 1.

Click OK.

You don’t have to restart Windows for this tip, you can test is immediately.

PS: This Dword value was a String value in the previous versions. If you add a String value, and you give it the value 0, it still will make Windows scroll with animiation. With a Dword value this is overrided. Also, certain software does something to your system, which also causes this animated scrolling, but without having SmoothScroll in the Registry. By using the Dword value and give it the value 0, you can disable it.

PS2: This certain software package is also known as Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x, but also other, non-Microsoft products tend to have this feature (because they tend to be Microsoft-compatible)


Importance of the Registry

This isn’t a real tip actually, but I thought it would be interesting enough to show to you.

The Registry plays an important role in win95.

To get a small impression, see the statistics below from some actions on the computer, it gives you an idea how many times a program accesses the Registry while you’re only performing one action. You can also guess that one small error can have fatal effects, and in the worst case you’ve to re-install Windows.

Double-clicking My computer	591 accesses.

Double-clicking Network neighbourhood	462 accesses.

Opening a DOS-box	100 accesses.

Starting Netscape Navigator Gold 3.0	1521 accesses.

Opening Control Panel	892 accesses.

Just only clicking the Start-button sometimes results in 100 to 200 accesses.


Show more information in System Properties

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

If you double-click on System in the Control Panel, (or press Winkey+Pause) you’ll get the System Properties.

The first tab you’ll see is the General tab.

The information you’ll at this tab, can be extended.

People, who have a Compaq machine with a Pre-Install version of Windows, probably know this.

On this tab is the Compaq logo (beneath the screen-logo) and an extra button, which says: Support Information... If you click this button, you’ll see some text (information about Compaq).

I don’t have a Compaq machine, but I really could use this, so I went searching. It took me a whole afternoon, but finally I found it.

Start Notepad.

Type the following:

[General]

Manufacturer=Here the text for the first extra line

Model=Here the text for the second line

[Support Information]

Line1=The text on line 1 if you click Support Information

Line2=Text on line 2.

Line3=Text on line 3.

The lines-lines just continue, until you think yourself that you’re ready. In this example you continue with Line4=Text on line 4.

Save the text as:

c:\windows\system\oeminfo.ini

The file must be in the system directory and it must be called oeminfo.ini

Windows NT users save this as c:\winnt\system32\oeminfo.ini

If you also want a own logo to appear, do this:

Make a .bmp file. Best size is height 100 pixels, width 200 pixels.

You can make a new image, or use an existing image.

Save the .bmp image as:

c:\windows\system\oemlogo.bmp

The file must be in the system directory and it must be called oemlogo.bmp

Windows NT users save this as c:\winnt\system32\oemlogo.bmp

Ready? Double-click System in the Control Panel of click Winkey+Pause

If all worked out correctly, you’ll see the logo, two extra lines of text above the Support Button and ofcourse the Support Button as well.

Note: This won’t work on certain Windows NT computers. Reason is still unclear.


Connect quicker to your ISP

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

This is not really a tip, it’s just that no one thinks about this.

When you normally want to log-in to your ISP you’ll double-click on the desired Internet connection where you can fill in/change your loginname, password and telephonenumber.

You can bypass this screen and the connection will be made instantly. This might come in handy, when you never change the information in that screen.

Open the Folder Dial-up Networking

Click on the menu Connections and then on Options.

Remove the mark at “Ask for data before dialling the number”

Click on OK.

Close the Folder.

If you double-click on the desired connection, you will no longer see the log-in screen that there was before.

This saves time and does (almost) the same as Dunce®


Hidden option in Win95 OSR2 screensaver

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you have Win95 OSR2 (OEM Service Release 2) installed on your computer, there is a hidden option in one of the screensavers.

Right-click your Desktop

Choose Properties

Click tab Screen Saver

For screensaver you choose 3D text

Then click Settings.

For Text you type Volcano, (you can change other settings too at Settings, for example:

 I don’t like the text to turn in all directions, you can disable that).

Click OK.

Now the names off all the volcanoes in the world will pass by on your screen, if the screensaver is activated. You can also click Preview if you want to see it right away.


The six main Registry keys explained

Below you’ll find a short explanation of the six main Registry-keys.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT:

This “key” is actually a link to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes. That means: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT isn’t a physical key, but insead merely points to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subkey. The primary reason for its existence is to preserve compatibility with Windows 3.1(1) and older 16-bit applications. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT was the single, top-level key in the Windows 3.1(1) registration database, which is the antecedent of the Windows 95/NT registry. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT is used to store information on OLE, DDE and shell integration (like file associations and drag ‘n drop operations).

HKEY_CURRENT_USER:

Like HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, this is key is a link to a subkey, rather than a physical key. It points to the key in HKEY_USERS that belongs to the user who is currently logged on (Windows determines who the current user is based on the username that they enter in the logon dialog). HKEY_CURRENT_USER was implemented in Windows 95 in order to preserve compatibility with applications using the Windows NT registry.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE:

By size, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE is the largest key, and contains the bulk of information relating to the system’s basic hardware configuration, it’s peripheral devices (including PnP devices), it’s installed software, OLE and software configuration, including the configuration of Windows itself. The data found in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE are physically stored in SYSTEM.DAT

HKEY_USERS:

Whereas Windows 3.xx tacitly assumed that there was one user per computer, Windows 95 (and ofcource NT) can handle mulitple users sharing a single computer, each with his or her own Windows environment.

On systems that are not configured to support multiple users, HKEY_USERS contains a single subkey, .Default, which defines the user settings for a user logging on to that system. Phisically, these data are stored in the USER.DAT file file, which is usually located in the computer’s Windows directory.

On systems with “user profiles” enabled, settings for individual users are usually stored in subdirectories of the \WINDOWS\PROFILES directory. When a new user logs on, Windows uses the default settings in the systemwide user registry file (usually \WINDOWS\USER.DAT) to create HKEY_USERS\.Default, while it uses the current user’s registry file (usually \WINDOWS\PROFILES\<user name>\USER.DAT) to create the HKEY_USERS\<user name> subkey. Interesingly, the user profiles of user other than the current user are not included in the registry. For instance, if a particulary Windows 95 system has user profiles for two users, John and Jane, when John logs on the system, HKEY_USERS consists of two subkeys: HKEY_USERS\.Default and HKEY_USERS\John. HKEY_USERS\Jane is present in memory only when Jane is logged on to the system. The means John can’t change or view Jane’s settings without first logging on as Jane (which requires knowledge knowing her password).

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG:

Much as Windows 95 can handle multiple users on a single machine, and therefore preserves individual users’ settings within the registry, so too does it support multiple hardware configurations, which are also preserved within the registry. This “key” is yet another link, in this case pointing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Config\xxxx, where xxxx is a subkey representing the numeric value of the hardware configuration currently being used by Windows 95. For instance, on a system with only a single configuration, its value is 0001. The name of the configuration that is current - and therefore the subkey of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Config to which this key points - is stored to the CurrentConfig value entry of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\control\IDConfigDB key.

HKEY_DYN_DATA:

The date maintained by the previous five top-level registry keys are static - that is, thery are relatively constant, and therefore can safely be stored on disk. HKEY_DYN_DATA, on the other hand, maintains dynamic data. This portion of the registry is used for Plug ‘n Play (PnP) hardware information maintained by the Windows 95 Configuration Manager (CONFIGMG), for performance statistics, and also as a data area for Windows Virtual Device Drivers (VxD’s). Because this information changes constantly, it cannot be stored on disk; instead this registry tree is entirely memory-resident. Its specific contents are defined by various Virtual Device Drivers loaded by the system, usually at system start up. Since much of these data are timesensitive, HKEY_DYN_DATA does not actually store the data values; instead, it stores pointers to functions that generate data “on the fly” (VxD’s install these function pointers with a service called_RegCreateDynKey). When an application attempts to retrieve a particular value, the registry actually calls the function and provides its return value as the value of the entry. This “on the fly” character of dynamic keys, however, is transparent to applications: keys and values in HKEY_DYN_DATA appear like “normal” registry keys and value entries, except that they are read-only.


Search on more than one drive at the same time

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you are looking for some files, but you don’t know on which drive they are, you can search on more drives with one search-command.

You can do this by enering at Look in: the drives you want to search at, seperated by a semicolon

Example: If you want to search on drive C, E and G, you type at Look in: C:;E:;G:


Disable the modem logfile

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

Normally all the modemactivities are recorded in a logfile. Every time you make a connection with your modem, this logfile is adapted.

This file can be found as c:\windows\modemlog.txt

To disable this logfile:

Doubleclick Modem in Control Panel.

Choose Properties.

Click tab Connection

Click Advanced

Disable Make a logfile (of something like this, I don’t know the exact English term).

Click OK twice.

Now the logfiles won’t be created. An advantage is that the connection is made some faster, because the logfile isn’t created now.


Relocate Taskbar

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you get tired of seeing the Taskbar on the bottom of the screen, you can simply drag it to another location. The Taskbar can be at any side of the screet. At the bottom, at the top, at the left and also at the rigt.

Just drag it there and it stays there (because Windows remembers the position also when you reboot the computer or restart Windows only).


Change the time and date very quickly

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

You can change the time and date of your computer very fast. Just doubleclick the clock in the System Tray (in the righthand corner of the taskbar).


Convert Windows 3.xx groups to Windows 95/NT groups

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you someday encounter an old Windows 3.xx Programgroup, you can very easy convert that to a Windows 95 or NT Start Menu group.

It’s very simple: Just doubleclick the .GRP file in Explorer and it will be converted.

You can also use grpconv.exe in a DOS-box, but I find this doubleclicking much easier and quicker than using that program.


Use the maximum ammount of memory in a DOX-box
Use the maximum ammount of memory in a DOS-box

Works under Windows 95.

You can gain some more memory to use in a DOX-box, by following this tip.

Open system.ini (located in your Windows folder).

Find the section [386Enh]

Add a line under it.

Type: LocalLoadHigh=1

Save the file.

Restart Windows.

After you’ve restarted Windows, you should have some more memory in a DOX-box.


Refresh folders automatically
Refresh folders aumatically

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

Normally, all folders are constantly monitored. So, when you unzip files, delete or copy files within Explorer or from DOS, the folders will be updated.

However, sometimes there are circumstances that Windows won’t update the folders automatically. If this also happens with you, you could try the following.

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Update

Doubleclick the value UpdateMode

Replace the current 1 with a 0 (zero).

Click OK.

You might have to restart Windows.

After you’ve done this, the folders should be automatically updated.

If not, maybe you have a program running, which manipulates this feature.

I don’t know for sure if you have to restart Windows. At my computer, folders are already automatically updated. Changing this setting doesn’t change anything about it. So I can’t tell if you have to restart Windows.

If you want to be sure, you can restart Windows. Then you know for sure it works.


Remove arrow from shortcuts

Registry

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

If you make a shortcut to files or folders, the default icon is the same icon as the file or folder linked to, but a shortcut has a little arrow in the lefthand corner.

You can disable that little arrow.

In the Registry Editor press CTLR+F

Enter IsShortcut

Rename all values you find. You also can delete them, but if you rename them, you’re able to more easily undo this change.

Make sure you do rename the IsShortcut found in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile.

This one is responsible for showing the shortcut-arrow in Shortcut to files or folders.

I can’t tell where the others are responsible for, because we all have different keys in the registry, which can contain IsShortcut.


Assign drive letters to folders

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

For making some jobs easier for you, you can assign drive letters to folders. These drives are temporary. As soon as you reset your computer, these driveletters will dissapear, but the data will not, cause the drive letter is not physical, but virtual. It’s a pointer to a folder.

If you change files in the folder, they’re also changed in the drive and visa versa. Using a drive letter can save you a lot of type and/or click work in DOS or Explorer.

Open a DOX-box.

Type the following:

subst drive_letter: path_to_folder

Example: If you want to assign the letter P to the c:\winnt\profiles\gerard\desktop, you type this:

subst P: c:\winnt\profiles\gerard\desktop (don’t forget the : after the drive letter).

This is all. If you use Windows 95, you can add a line in the autoexec.bat file, which sets a drive letter.

In that case you only have to enter it once (in autoexec.bat) and every time you start Windows, the letter is assigned (as long as the folder exists).

If you want to delete the drive-letter, type this:

subst drive_letter: /d

Example: If you want to delete the previous made P-drive, you must type this:

subst P: /d (again, don’t forget the : after the P).

Note:

You don’t have to use a capital letter for a drive letter. I always do so, because I like that. If you don’t like using a capital letter, then don’t. It really doesn’t matter wether you use capital letters or not.


Setup parameters for Windows 95 Setup

Works under Windows 95.

Normally, if you install Windows 95, you type setup from a DOS-prompt (or from Windows 3.xx File - Run...).

You also can manipulate the way Windows 95 Setup works, by using paramters. Parameters can be used by typing: setup /parameter1 /parameter2 etc.

The parameters which can be used with Windows 95 Setup are:

batch: location of the file with setup-options (for an automatically setup)

/T:tmpdir: Subsitute tmpdir for a folder, in which temporary files are stored. If the folder doesn’t exist, il will be made. Warning: All data in the folder will be deleted, so don’t use a folder already containing any data (unless that data can be deleted).

/is: Bypass the Routine checkout of your system (don’t run scandisk before the installation)

/id: Ignore free disk space checkout.

/im: Bypass memory checkout.

/iq: Don’t scan for cross-linked files.

/in: Don’t install the Network-part.

/iw: Don’t display the Licence agreement dialog window (can be handy in automated network installations)

These are all the parameters you can use with Windows 95 Setup.


Setup parameters for Windows NT Setup

Works under Windows NT.

Normally, if you install Windows NT, you type setup from a DOS-prompt (or from Windows  Start - Run...).

You also can manipulate the way Windows NT Setup works, by using paramters. Parameters can be used by typing: setup /parameter1 /parameter2 etc.

The parameters which can be used with Windows NT Setup are:

/S:[:]sourcepath: Specifies the source location of Windows NT files. It must be a full path of the form x:\[path] or \\server\share[\path]. The default is the current folder.

/T[:]tempdrive: Specifies a drive to contain the temporary setup files. If not specified, Setup will attempt to  locate a drive for you.

/I[:]Inffile: Specifies the filename (no path) of the setup information file. The default is DOSNET.INF

/OX: Create boot floppies for CD-ROM installation.

/X: Do not create the Setup boot floppies.

/F: Do not verify the files as they are copied to the Setup boot floppies.

/C: Skip free-space check on the Setup boot floppies you provide.

/B: Floppyless operation (requires /S).

/U: Unattended operation and optional script file (requires /S).

/R: Specifies optional directory to be installed.

/RX: Specifies optional directory to be copied.

/E: Specifies command to be executed at the end of GUI setup.


Change drive letters in Windows NT

Works under Windows NT.

In Windows NT, you have a little program Disk Administrator, which let you choose your own drive letters. The harddisks are given the letters C, D, etc by the computer’s BIOS. Now you can assign your own letters to them.

Run Disk Adminitrator (windisk.exe).

Click the drive you want to edit.

Click Tools from the menu.

Choose Assign drive letter...

Choose the letter you want.

If you are asked to reboot, do so. If not, Windows was able to change it “on the fly”. A reboot isn’t necessary now.

There is a way for Windows 95, but I didn’t get in to work right now. If I get it to work, I will publish it here.

For now, I only have the solution for Windows NT.


Seed up Defragmentation

Works under Windows 95.

You can let Defragmentation run much, much more faster, by minimizing it during the process.

If you start Defragmentation and have choses the disk(s) to Deframentate, click Details...

Now minimize the Window and you’ll notice it runs much faster now.

By minimizing, you reduce the ammount of memory needed to let you see the disk lay-out (or the little animation if you don’t click Details). Especially on less fragmentated disks this really speeds up things.


Let Windows show you all the fonts you have

Works under Windows 95.

Works under Windows NT.

Ever had the problem of too little fonts available in your Word Processing program? You install Windows 95/NT, install your Word Processing program (like MS Word), or use MS Wordpad, you can’t choose between the fonts you have installed in your Fonts-folder. How come? Well, very simple.

It’s caused by the fact you don’t have a printer installed. So, to resolve this problem, install a printer. It doesn’t wether or not you have a printer, as long Windows thinks you have one.

Go to Start - Settings - Printer

Doubleclick Add Printer

Answer the questions you’re being asked.

If you’re at the point of choosing a printer, select any type you wish. I always use the HP Deskjet 520 in these cases (because I had that one myself). You can choose also A Laserprinter if you like. Doesn’t matter, just make sure you don’t print a testpage.

After you’ve installed the printer, you may have to restart Windows in order to test it.

After that, the fonts are available in your Word Processing programs.


Speed up Scandisk

Works under Windows 95.

Just like Defragmentation in Windows 95, you also can speed up Scandisk in Windows 95. The method is exactly the same. Select the drives you want to test and minimize the program during the scanning proces. Especially when you do a bad-sector check on your drive (not the standard check, but the extended check), you will notice an increase of speed. The bigger your harddrive is, the more speed you gain with this trick.


Reason of missing Defragmentation in Windows NT

Works under Windows NT.

Acually this isn’t a tip, just an explanation.

Maybe you’ve noticed that there doesn’t comes a Defragmentation tool with Windows NT. There is a Scandisk, but no Defragmentation program.

Maybe you think: Did I forget to install it?

No, it’s not your fault. It’s the policy of Microsoft.

They just assume you will make a NTFS-partition (NT File System). If you have a NTFS-partition, you don’t need a Defragmentation tool, since these partitions won’t get fragmented.....says Microsoft.

Ok, a NTFS-partition will become less fragmentated than a normal partition, but it never hurts to frequentely defragmentate your harddrive. The problem is that Windows NT doesn’t provide you a Defragmentation tool.

Since I also have to use Windows 95 (primarily because the fact my modem and soundcard aren’t supported in NT), I don’t have a NTFS-partition, but just a plain DOS-partition.

In this case, I can defragmentate my harddrive in Windows 95.

The best (and probably only) Defragmentation Tool is Diskeeper. You can download Diskeeper from:

http://www.diskeeper.com


Edit the Start menu contents

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

Although there is no ‘official’ way to edit the Start menu, it doesn’t mean it can’t be done at all. All parts of the Start menu are editable. You can rename the button itself and rename/permanentely delete the contents of this menu (Like Run, Help, Find, Settings, Documents and Programs). The way this to be done is by editing the explorer.exe file (yes, edit the executable itself) with a Hex(adecimal) Editor.

In this tip will be explaned how to edit the parts of this menu. We won’t explane how to work with a Hex editor. We assume you know how to Hexedit files already or at least know how to work with a Hexeditor.

In order to edit certain things, you have to search for certain Hex-strings. If you want to rename the Start button, you can’t just search for the word Start in explorer.exe, because in the .exe file itself, each letter is proceed with a socalled Null-Character, and you can’t type a Null-character as in an ASCII Search String, so in stead you have to search for the refering hex-string. To make it some easier, in the next table are the letters of the alphabet, the numbers and a few other characters and their refering Hex-numbers.

a	61	A	41	0	31

b	62	B	42	1	31

c	63	C	43	2	32

d	64	D	44	3	33

e	65	E	45	4	34

f	66	F	46	5	35

g	67	G	47	6	36

h	68	H	48	7	37

i	69	I	49	8	38

j	6A	J	4A	9	39

k	6B	K	4B	Null	00

l	6C	L	4C	Space	20

m	6D	M	4D	&	26

n	6E	N	4E	.	2E

o	6F	O	4F

p	70	P	50

q	71	Q	51

r	72	R	52

s	73	S	53

t	74	T	54

u	75	U	55

v	76	V	56

w	77	W	57

x	78	X	58

y	79	Y	59

z	7A	Z	5A

First of all you have to make a copy of explorer.exe (which is to be found in your Windows directory). You can’t edit explorer.exe if you’re using Windows (because the file is in use), so you have to make a backup of the file, edit that file and in DOS-mode backup the original file again and replace the original file with the edited version.

Open the Windows-folder

Click on Explorer.exe

Press CTRL+C

Press CTRL+V

The file Copy of Explorer.exe is now created

Load your Hexeditor and open ‘Copy of Explorer.exe’ in it

Now you have to search for a Hexpattern. How to do this, is different for each Editor, so you have to find that out yourself.

Now you are ready to edit the Start menu.

If you want to rename the name of the Start button, you have to search for the name Start (in a diff. language version of Windows, it’s called different. If the button is called Depart, you have to search for Depart).

NOTE 1: DON’T USE MORE CHARACTERS THAN THERE ARE GIVEN AND NEVER EVER CHANGE THE NULL-CHARACTERS.

NOTE 2: You can permanently disable Windows if you don`t know what you`re doing.

Each letter is proceeded by a Null-character. So, looking in the table above and the Hex string for the Word Start would be: 530074006100720074

Search for this string and replace it with what you want, but again: not the Null-characters, only the characters in between them (which make the word you want to edit..in this case the letters S, t, a r and t).

If you open the Start Menu, you’ll see some letters are underlined (and when you press the letter on your keyboard, corresponding the underlined letter that option is excecuted). Those underlined letters are in the Hex-string preceeded with 26. So, if you see an underlined letter S in the Start menu, the Hex-pattern would be: 26005300 etc etc etc

The name ‘Start’ has 5 characters, so you can replace it by anyother 5 letter word or less. You can use spaces at the end of the word if you have less than 5 characters or in the middle of the word if you need a space. If you replace every letter of a word with spaces, you delete that entry from the Menu. If you for example replace all letters of Settings by spaces, then there won’t be a Settings option in the Start-menu anymore.

Patterns sometimes have multiple instances (there are more of the same patterns in the file). You have to edit the first one you see and see if you get the result you want (the Name Start for example occurs on more places than only as the button-name, so you have to edit one by one to see if you have edited the right pattern), or if you don’t care, you can just rename all instances of that pattern. Be prepared to see some differences in like Windows Explorer. Not necesarry, but it’s possible. If you change Help for example into Asks and you do that with all instances, you run the risc of also having the menuoption Asks in Windows Explorer (you have File, Edit, View, Tools and Help normally..you might see this: File, Edit, View, Tools and Asks if you replace all strings).

The standard Hex-values in the Start-menu are:

Shut Down...	53006800260075007400200044006F0077006E002E002E002E00

Run...	2600520075006E002E002E002E00

Help	2600480065006C007000

Find	2600460069006E006400

Settings	2600530065007400740069006E0067007300

Documents	260044006F00630075006D0065006E0074007300

Programs	2600500072006F006700720061006D007300

After you’ve edited and saved this Copy or explorer.exe, you have to replace the current explorer.exe with this one. But first rename Copy of explorer.exe in a shorter filename, because in DOS you can’t use this long name (I can’t tell what the shortname will be, because the depends on your computer and the files in your Windows folder).

Richtclick Copy of explorer.exe and choose Rename

Rename is to Explor2.exe

Press ENTER.

Not shutdown your computer and restart in MS DOS Prompt in Safe Mode (Press F8 during when you see Starting Windows 95...). If you’ve done that, do the following steps:

cd windows (or winnt)

copy explorer.exe expl.exe

copy explor2.exe explorer.exe /y

The /y switch means automatically overwrite if the file already excists. There is now an extra file, called expl.exe in the Windows folder. This is the original explorer.exe. If you want to undo the Start-button renaming, go to Safe Mode in DOS prompt only and type:

cd windows (or winnt)

copy expl.exe explorer.exe /y

After this, the original explorer.exe will be back and the button is called Start again.

If you use Windows NT, there is a little problem If your Winnt directory is located on a FAT-partition, you can boot with a bootdisk and then go to the folder and give these commands. If, however your WinNT directory is on a NTFS partition, you can’t use a normal bootdisk.You can’t replace Explorer.exe when Windows is also loaded, because the file is in use. You have to replace the file when Windows is not loaded, for example when you boot from a bootdisk. I haven’t figured out how to do this if Windows NT is on a NTFS partition, because I’m currentely still working on a FAT Partition (but in a few days I’m going to reformat the harddisk to a NTFS Partition). When I figured it out, this part will be updated of course.

If you use both Windows NT and a diff. Operation System (like MS DOS or Windows 95) and Windows NT is on a FAT Partition, you can choose the other OS from the NT Boot Menu and go the DOS Prompt (in case of Windows 95 as a second OS, press F8 after selecting this OS to be run to get the Windows 95 Bootmenu and choose MS DOS Prompt in Safe Mode).

If you don’t have a Hexeditor, you can find a freeware editor at http://www.xs4all.nl/~mato/frw/edit/binhex.html or if you don’t want to do this yourself, you can e-mail me and I’ll do it for you. Please send your Explorer.exe file as an attachment, because there is a possibily I have a different Build-version of Windows and if I give you my version of Explorer.exe, you might get in trouble. Also tell me what you want to have changed, I’ll make the changes for you and send the file back within a few days.


Making icons to shutdown and restart Windows

Works under Windows 95

From now on you can shutdown or restart Windows from anywhere you want. From the DOS prompt, from Start - Run..., by clicking an icon in you Start menu, by making a shortcut to that command and assingn a hot-key to it, so you can shutdown or restart using a key-combination. There are more ways to implementate this, find the way you think that works best.

The command for shutting down is:

rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows

The command for restarting is:

rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindowsexec

If you type on of these in Start - Run..., from a DOS prompt or make a shortcut to this line, you can use it for shuttingdown and restarting Windows. You can think up your own usings with this. Put them in a context menu to name something. Let Systemagent run this shortcut at a given time to shutdown the computer, etc, etc.

It uses the same way as Start - Shutdown paths. If you have files that are not saved yet, you get the dialog box if you want to safe the file. Programs are exitted as if you exit them yourself, so in the normal ways and if you have to safe things, you won’t loose data, because you have to confirm first.

When you choose the Restart-command, Windows will actually do a Start - Shutdown - Reboot is MSDOS-mode, meaning it’ll exit Windows, run Dosstart.bat and directly after running Dosstart.bat issues the win.com command, so Windows will load again.


Get rid of the `Shortcut to...' text
Get rid of the ‘Shortcut to...’ text

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

If you make a shortcut and you also get that ‘Shortcut to...’ text as name, we have the way here to get rid of that annoying text.

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

Check if the binary value link is present.

If not, make a binary value and call it link

Doubleclick this and give it the value 00 00 00 00

Click OK

You may have to restart Windows in order to get it to work.


Move the Start-button without changing the Taskbar

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

You can move your Start-button without chaning a single thing on your Taskbar. Standard you have that button at the left on the Taskbar? You can place it in the middle, on the far right, wherever you want it. It goes everywhere. The only limit is the Taskbar itself. You can’t get it off the Taskbar.

Press the Start-button

Press ESC

Press ALT+- (ALT + minus-key)

Choose Move

Now use your cursor keys to move the button around

If you’re done, press the Enter-key

This is only temporary. It won’t stay on that place. When you restart Windows, it will be on the original position again.


Stop the `Click here to begin' banner from appearing
Stop the ‘Click here to begin’ banner from appearing

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

Do you also think that little banner is so annoying when you start Windows or sometimes see when the desktop is rebuild? That banner that runs in your Taskbar and bumps against the Start-button.

Here is the way to disable that banner

Go to: HKEY_ USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Check if the binary value NoStartBanner is present.

If not, make a Binary value and name it NoStartBanner

Doubleclick it and give it the value 01 00 00 00

Click OK

Next time you normally get this banner, it won’t show anymore.


Remove `Hand'-icon on shared recourses
Remove ‘Hand’-icon on shared recoursed

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

If you share a recourse (for networking purposes for example) you standard get that hand-icon on top of the icon of the shared resource. If you want to get rid of that hand-icon, read on.

Go to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Network\SharingHandler

Doubleclick (Default)

Remove the value that is presentely there

Click OK

If you want to get that Hand-icon back, you go to this same path and put msshrui.dll value back for (Default)

You have to restart Windows


Display High- or True-Color icons without installing MS Plus Pack

Registry

Works under Windows 95

If you want to see High- or True-Color icons, but you don’t want to install the MS Plus Pack, here’s the way to accomplish that.

Rightclick on an empty spot on your desktop

Select Properties

Click the tab Settings

Adjust the Color Palette to High Colors (16-bit), or True Color (24-bit), depending on wether you want to see High- or True Color Icons

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

Check if the string value Shell Icon BPP is present

If not, make a String Value and name it Shell Icon BPP

Doubleclick it and give it the value 16

Click OK

You may have to restart Windows


Hidden FDISK Parameter

The partitioning program fdiks.exe has an undocumented parameter. This option rewrites the Master Boot Record (MBR) of your harddisk(s). In case of a virus, you can do this to clean up the MBR without loosing any data, nor the ability to boot from that harddisk.There are some reports which suggest that a possible boot-virus doesn`t allways gets removed this way, but as far as whe know the command won`t do your computer any harm either, and anyway: What have you got to loose if you allready got a virus...? This command won`t damage your data, and maybe kills your virus.

This action can be performed at the DOS-prompt ánd in Windows (using a DOS-box)

The parameter is /mbr

So, the command is:

fdisk /mbr

This also works on your floppydisks if you ever need to clean up the bootrecord of a bootflop.


Log faults to a faultlog file

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

You can make Windows write all faults it gets to a logfile. All General Protection Fautls, Illegal Exceptions, etc will be stored in a file. Handy for debugging applications. It won’t always log files, because sometimes Windows completely freezes up when it gets a GPF. In that case the computer just hangs and can’t write the fault, because Windows is not responding anymore, but most of the time it works.

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

If the key Fault isn’t present, make a new key and call it Fault

If the string value LogFile isn’t present, make a new String value and call it LogFile

Doubleclick this string value and give it the value C:\Windows\Faultlog.txt

If you don’t want that logfile to be in your Windows directory, you can specify a different path. If you, for instance, want the file in your roordirectory, you give it the value C:\Faultlog.txt

Just what you prefer yourself.


Fix one of the many MSIE bugs

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

On of the many Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 bug is, that is screws up an important part of your Registry. Especially when you use a network, this is a very important Registry-part.

MSIE 4.0 renames a Registry-key. The HKEY_USERS\.Default key is renamed. The new name due to MSIE is Default, but it really has to be .Default (preceding with a decimal point). If this is also in your Registry, you have to rename that key back to it’s original name, .Default before you might get some trouble with Windows.

Go to: HKEY_USERS

Click on Default

Press F2

Rename the Default key to .Default (whith the decimal point preceding the word Default)

Restart Windows and it should be fixed now


Don't save settings when shutting down Windows
Don’t save settings when shutting down Windows

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

If you don’t want Windows to save your settings when shutting down Windows, apply this Registry patch.

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

If the last two keys aren’t present, make those two keys

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

Make a new key and call it Policies

Make another new key and call it Explorer

Check if the Binairy value NoSaveSettings is present

If not, make a new Binary value and call it NoSaveSettings

Doubleclick it and give it the value 01 00 00 00

If this doesn’t work, you can try to make a Dword value with the same name, but give it a Hexadecimal value 1

When you restart Windows the next time, the windows-settings for example won’t be saved anymore.


Using QuickView with (almost) any filetype

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

If you haven`t Quickview allready installed, first install it by going to Start - Settings - Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs.

Click tab Accessoires

Click button Details

Check Quick View

Press OK twice

After QuickView is installed (you might have to restart Windows after installing QuickView), proceed with the rest of the tip.

Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\* (Where * is a file-extension, in this case it means "any file")

Make a new Key and name is QuickView

Doubleclick (Default) and give it the value *

Click OK

From now on you should be able to use Quickview with almost any file type. Only files which don’t have an extension don’t have this QuickView option in their Context Menu. It’s also possible you can’t QuickView a program, even if the option is in the Context Menu. The reason is simple the file can’t be viewed (like some executable files).


Print a directory listing

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

Open a texteditor (like Notpad), and typ the following:

CD %1

DIR/AH/AS/AR/AA/ON/S > LPT1

(Assuming that your printer is at LPT1)

Save the file as PRINTDIR.BAT, and put it in C:\Windows\Command

The paramaters /AH/AS/AR/AA/ON/S  mean that all filenames get printed (Hidden-, System-, Read-only, and files to be Archived), as well as all sub-directories and all the files they contain, in alfabetical order.If you want to change the options, go to the DOS-prompt, and typ DIR/? for all the possible options.

You can also save the information to a file, and specify a path for that file, like:

CD %1

DIR/AH/AS/AR/AA/ON/S > C:\PRINTDIR\PRINTDIR.DOC

You have to create the directory C:\PRINTDIR

The file PRINTDIR.DOC gets created automatically in C:\PRINTDIR

Note:  If you don’t specify a directory for the file to be in, like in the following example:

CD %1

DIR/AH/AS/AR/AA/ON/S > PRINTDIR.DOC

but only specify the file PRINTDIR.DOC, the file gets created in the directory who`s list you`re currenly printing to a file.

If you do specify a directory for the file to be in, the file gets overwritten each time you print a directory again.

Now to the next step

Go to  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell

Make a new Key and name is Printdir

Make another new Key and call it command

Double click on (Default) and give it the value: C:\Windows\Command\Printdir.bat

Click on OK

Now you can right-click on any folder (even on the Start-button, but the strange thing is that it then prints out C:\Windows, you have to go all the way to C:\Windows\Start Menu to print out that folder), and choose Printdir to print out a directory-listing of the specific folder, and if you choose to print to a file, in stath of to LPT1, you can always print the file later, but also could send it to somebody else by e-mail, or whatever other electronic forms of communication.

You can do the same trick to you drives:

Go to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell

Make the same two keys with the same value as you did above in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell

It doesn`t works on My computer, as it prints out the directory listing of C:\Windows\Desktop, propabily because My computer isn`t a real folder, but a virtual one, this will be the same reason why the Start-button prints out C:\Windows, and not C:\Windows\Start Menu

Note:  For printing to a file I`ve schosen .DOC, normally assciated with Wordpad or MS Office, cause these word processors can handle large amounts of data (Notepad cann`t), and some directory listings can be quite large...But you can specify any file-extension you like, as long as it`s associated with a word processor which can handle large amounts of data.


Edit the Micrsoft Internet Explorer part in the titlebar of MSIE when opening a website

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer and you open a website, you always see Microsoft Internet Explorer preceeding the title of that page. You can edit thet Microsoft Internet Explorer part of delete it all if you want.

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Check if you see the String Value Window Title

If not, make a new String Value and name it Window Title

Doubleclick Window Title and replace the value with something different, or is you don’t want to see anything, delete the value and leave it blank

Click OK

If you now use MSIE again, you will see either your adapted string (instead of Microsoft Internet Explorer) or nothing (if you leave the field blank).


DOS Prompt starting on the current driver or folder

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

If you want to start a DOX session and you want the prompt to be on the selected drive or folder, this tip is something for you.

Go to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell

Make a new Key and name it Doshere

Doubleclick (Default) and give it the value Command prompt from here

Make another new Key and name it command

Doubleclick on (Default) and give it the value C\Windows\Command.com /k cd “%1”

If you use Windows NT, you must enter the value C:\Winnt\Cmd.exe /k cd “%1”

Click on OK

Now go to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\Shell

Make a new Key and name it Doshere

Doubleclick (Default) and give it the value Command prompt from here

Make another new Key and name it command

Doubleclick on (Default) and give it the value C\Windows\Command.com /k cd “%1”

If you use Windows NT, you must enter the value C:\Winnt\Cmd.exe /k cd “%1”

Click on OK

If you now rightclick a drive or folder and choose Command prompt from here, you get a dos-box and the prompt will be on the selected drive or folder


Explorer Windows with root as selected drive or folder
Explorer Window with root as selected drive or folder

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

If you want to start a new Explorer Window with the root (where it begins with the folder-tree) as the selected drive or folder, this tip is something for you.

Go to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell

Make a new Key and name it Explorehere

Doubleclick on (Default) and give it the value Explore from here

Make a new Key and name it command

Doubleclick on (Default) and give it the value Explorer.exe /e,/root,/idlist,%1

Click on OK

Now go to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\Shell

Make a new Key and name it Explorehere

Doubleclick on (Default) and give it the value Explore from here

Make a new Key and name it command

Doubleclick on (Default) and give it the value Explorer.exe /e,/root,/idlist,%1

Click on OK

If you now rightclick a drive or folder and you choose Explore from here, an new Explorer Window will be opened and the root of that Window is the selected drive or folder.


Restrict access on Windows 95
Restrict access on Windows 95/NT

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

You can configure Windows (for each seperate user) to disable certain functions of Windows. In this tip a few of these functions will be explaned and how to implement them in Windows 95 or NT.

If certain keys/values aren’t there, you have to create them (all values are DWORD-values, except for the (Default) value, which you shouldn`t touch).

There are a few categories of Restrictions which need to be stored in different places in the Registry.The categories are:

Explorer Restrictions:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Network Restrictions:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network

System Restrictiosn:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

We won’t explain every key in detail, since most of them are obvious enough. Only the explanation of what the result will be will be explaned.

All the values you have to add under the above told keys are all Dword-values. If not a Dword-value, you’ll be told the one which it should be.

There are always 2 possible Value Data’s (the contents of a value). 0 and 1. 0 means disable that option, which is the same as removing the Dword-value. 1 means enable that value. If you want such a restriction to be active, you must give the Dword-value the value 1. To disable it, make it the value 0 or remove the Dword-value itself.

Explorer Restrictions:

NoRun : This removes the Run... option from the Start-menu

NoSetFolders : This removes folders from Start - Settings

NoSetTaskbar : This removes the Taskbar option from Start - Settings

NoFind : This removes Find from the Start-menu

NoDrives : This hides drives in My Computer. In stead of giving this the value 1, give it the value 67108863 in stead. This will removes all drives (A through Z) from My Computer.

NoNetHood : This removes Network Neighbourhood

NoDesktop : This removes all icons from the Desktop

NoClose : This disables the user shuttindown the system in anyway (though the reset button still will work of course and the poweroff button also has a great function) :)

NoSaveSettings : When shutting down the computer, settings like Windows Explorer-appearances won’t be saved.

NoFileMenu : This removes the File-menu from Windows Explorer windows.

NoTrayContextMenu : This disables the Context Menu for the taskbar.

NoViewContextMenu : This disalbes the default Explorer’s Context Menu’s.

NoNetConnectDisconnect : This removes the Map Network drive and Disconnect Network Drive options.

Network Restrictions:

NoEntireNetwork : This removes Entire Network from Network Neighbourhood

NoWorkgroupContents : This removes Network Contents from Network Neighbourhood

System Restrictions:

NoDispCPL : If enabled you can’t access the Display-properties. This is rightclicking the desktop and choose Properties or doubleclick on Display in the Control Panel.

NoDispBackgroundPage : This removes the Background tab from the Display properties dialog.

NoDispScrSavPage : This removes the Screensaver tab from the Display properties dialog.

NoDispAppearancePage : This removes the Appearace tab from the Display properties dialog.

NoDispSettingsPage : This removes the Settings tab from the Display properties dialog.

DisableRegistryTools : This disables Registry editing tools, like regedit.exe.

DisableTaskMgr : This disables the use of Task Manager.


Fix the bug of wrong Daylight savings date in Windows 95 A

Registry

Works under Windows 95

In Windows 95 A there is a minor bug, concidered the daylight savings ending date for European countries. The governments of Europe have decided to switch the ending date from September to October, therefore Windows has the wrong time. In Windows 95 B this is already fixed. If you use the A-version of Windows 95, you must change it manually.

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\control\TimeZoneInformation

Check the Binairy value StandardStart

If this value is equal to: 00 00 09 00 00 00 05 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Then replace it with: 00 00 0A 00 00 00 05 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

(You change the 09 to 0A)

Note:  All the 0`s represent numeric values (0), not letters (O)

Now your computer has the current daylight savings ending time and will switch to the correct time when this time comes.


Clear Desktop temporarily

Works under Windows NT

You can clear the contents of your desktop temporarily without needing to add a value to the Registry, which makes it more permanent. This way is only for one time. On next relogon or reboot you’ll have all your icons back like you have them now.

I’ve tested this under Windows NT. Under Windows 95 it didn’t work very well, therefore I only will explain how to do in Windows NT.

You might think, why should I do this? Well, for example: if you have a very beautiful wallpaper and you want to see it entirely, without those icons on it. You can drag the icons to the edge of the screen, but you still would see them. Also that taskbar can be ugly sometimes and you can’t remove the taskbar entirely if you enable Autohide (in Start - Settings - Taskbar) or drag it to the bottom of the screen. This method will clear the screen entire. It also can have some kinda security, because if you don’t know much about Windows NT, it’s harder to figure out how to use the computer again.

Here is how you can do it:

Press CTRL+ALT+DEL.

This will popup the Windows NT Security window.

Click on the Task Manager... button

Click in Task Manager on the tab Processes

Find and click the process called Explorer.exe

Click on the End Process button

Click on Yes to confirm this action.

All program which are currentely running, will still be running. If you minimize them, you’ll see a minimized titlebar at the bottom of the screen. If you exit the program(s) your desktop will be all empty.

If you want back to the ‘normal’ Windows, you do this:
Press CTRL+ALT+DEL

Click the Logoff... button

Click on OK to confirm Logging off.

After that you have your logon screen again and you can relogon and you’re back in the normal Windows session.

It sometimes can happen that your computer is a bit slower than it was before. If that is the case, you better completely reboot the computer to fix that little problem.


Change the Logon-wallpaper of Windows NT

Works under Windows NT

If you logon to Windows NT, you standard will see that wallpaper which says something like Micrsoft WindowsNT Server (or Workstation if you have that) version x.xx (4.00 at my computer).

I don’t think I’m the only one who doesn’t like this wallpaper, so I went looking and I found the way to change this. Since I couldn’t find the setting at which I myself can choose the filename to be used as wallpaper, I guess Windows NT looks for a specific filename. This filename depends on your color-depth. These files are in your Windows NT directory, which is usual c:\winnt

Windows NT either searches for the file named lanma256.bmp (256 colors or more) or for the file called lanmannt.bmp (less than 256 colors).

So, if you have a better file to use as wallpaper, simply rename the current lanma256.bmp or lanmannt.bmp to a differnent name, like lanma256backup.bmp or lanmanntbackup.bmp, and give the file you want to use as logon-wallpaper the name lanma256.bmp or lanmannt.bmp.

That’s it. Not that hard afterall, right ? :)


Change the Logon-screensaver of Windows NT

Works under Windows NT

If you see the Logon-screen of Windows NT and you don’t do anything, you’ll see the Logon-screensaver of Windows NT. Windows NT uses the file named logon.scr as logon-screensaver. The file logon.scr is in your Windows NT directory, which is usual c:\winnt

If you have a better screensaver than this one, you have to rename the current logon.scr file to someting like logonbackup.scr and name the screensaver you want to use as logon-screensaver to logon.scr

If you now see the Logon-screen again and you don’t do anything, you’ll see the screensaver you chose as screensaver and not that default screensaver of Windows NT.


Change the color of grayed out items

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

If you see an option in a menu or something like that which isn’t available, you’ll see it as a light-gray text on a dark-grey background (if you use the standard background colors of Windows). Sometimes it can be very difficult to read what it exactly says. If you move your mouse on that option, it will be highlighted, but still unclear sometimes. You can change the color of such items to something more readable, like the color red which looks quite nice or the colour blue or what colour you prefer yourself.

Changing this option also have a second big advantage: if you open Windows Explorer those dotted-lines in the tree of directories and drives will also have the colour you have selected, which makes Windows Explorer Windows a lot nicer to look at.

Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors

If the String value GrayText isn’t there, then make a new String Value and call it GrayText.

If this value is present, edit this value and enter the new number, resembeling the colour you want to use.

The colour format you have to enter, are RGB-numbers (RGB stands for Reg Green Blue). If you enter the value: 0 0 255 the colour will be blue. If you enter 255 0 0 the clour will be Red, etc. You can play a bit with these colours yourself until you found the colour you like to use.

Red - 255 0 0

Green - 0 255 0

Blue - 0 0 255

If you mix these colour-codes you can get the colours like purple, yellow, orange, etc.


Use SCSI-devices without rebooting Windows

Works under Windows 95

If you use any SCSI-devices, like scanners, you know, that if you start them (like turning them on) after you’ve started your computer, you have to restart Windows for your computer to find the device.There is a much quicker way though.

Rightclick My Computer and choose Properties (or press WIN + Pause)

Click on the Device Management tab (the second tab)

Click on the Refresh-button

Now your SCSI-device is ready for use.

It’s possible this won’t work for all SCSI-devices. In that case you have to reboot Windows in order to use that device, but most devices will work after you pressed the Refresh-button.


Customize the DIR command

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

You can customize the DIR command by adding SET DIRCMD=<options> in your autoexec.bat where <options> are the dir-parameters you want use as standard settings for a dir-command.

Windows NT users don’t put this line in the autoexec.bat file, but elsewhere, which will be explaned at after the Windows 95 way.

Possible parameters are:

/p : is needed to automatically use the pause feature whenever you type DIR from the command prompt and the restult of the DIR is more than one screen of text. After each screen of text, you have to press a key first to see the rest of the output..

/a : will show all files (hidden, system, read-only, archive + all directories)

/o : will show everything in alfabetical order, directories first, files second.

/s : will show all files, also the ones in the sub-directoies

/w : will show the output in columns

For all the options type dir /? at a DOS-prompt.

If you want to use the /p /a and /o parameters as default ones, you must add the following line in your autoexec.bat file:

SET DIRCMD=/p/a/o

You can edit the autoexec.bat file by rightclicking the file and choose Edit. The autoexec.bat file is in your root-directory of your C-drive (in c:\).

If you use Windows NT, you better put this line in here:

Rightclick My Computer and choose Properties (or press Win + Pause)

Click the Environment tab

At the bottom of this windows you see two editboxes, called Variable and Value

In the Variable box you enter DIRCMD

In the Value box you enter the parameters you want to use, like /p/a/o

Click the Set button

Click the OK button if you’re done.

If you added the line in Autoexec.bat or at the Environment tab, you have to reboot your computer to let changes take effect.


Finidng files from a DOS-prompt

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

You can use Start - Find to search for files, but you also can do this on a DOS-prompt. If you were a DOS-user before they invented Windows 95 or NT, you know about this already, but for the new computer users who only have learnt to work with Windows 95 or NT, this can be a very handy tip. Also, if your Find option is disabled from the Registry, you still can search for files, by typing the command on the DOS-prompt.

Open a DOS-box

Enter this command: DIR filename <options> where filename is/are the files you want to search for.

For <options> you can add the dir-parameters you want to use.

Possible parameters are:

/p : is needed to automatically use the pause feature whenever you type DIR from the command prompt and the restult of the DIR is more than one screen of text. After each screen of text, you have to press a key first to see the rest of the output..

/a : will show all files (hidden, system, read-only, archive + all directories)

/o : will show everything in alfabetical order, directories first, files second.

/s : will show all files, also the ones in the sub-directoies

/w : will show the output in columns

Example: you know you have the file called tts61.hlp somewhere on your C-drive, but you forgot where you have put the file, you can search for the file, by typing:

C:

CD\

DIR tts61.hlp /s

This will first switch to the C-drive and than go to the root-directory (with CD\) and search for the tts61.hlp file in the root directory and also in all sub-directories. If you type this command while you are not in the root-directory than only the current directory and it’s subdirectories will be searched for this file. The output is either the full path where the file(s) is/are found or a message which says File Not Found.


Recycle Bin doesn't contain all deleted files
Recycle Bin doesn’t contain all deleted files

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

This is not a tip or secret, but more like a warning or notification. As you all know, if you delete a file (not if you press SHIFT+DEL or SHIFT+delete option from a menu), it ends up in the Recycle Bin. This doesn’t work for all files. If you delete a file which is stored on socalled Removable Media’s, they won’t end up in the Recycle Bin. These Media are floppy drives, network drives or other external drives (like Zip drives). These files will be permanentely deleted.

So, if you are deleting files from these kind off media, make extra sure you’re not deleting the wrong files, since you can’t get them back after you have deleted them.


Organize your SendTo Folder

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

If you have lots of destinations in your SendTo folder, you may want to organize them into cascading menus. This is very handy to keep this folder handy in use.

Open the SendTo folder, which is in your Windows-direcotry.

Right-click on an empty spot in the SendTo folder, choose New, then Folder

Give it any name you like, then place the shortcuts you want in the new folders.

You can create as many subfolders as you want to.

You can think of subfolders like Drives in which you put all your drive-shortcuts, like the floppydrive which is standard in there, etc.


Desktop immediately available

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

Need to access an item quickly on the desktop, but it`s completely obscured by open windows and you don't want to minimize them all to see the desktop again?

Just click the Start-button, choose Run... (or press Win + R)

Then type a dot (.)

Press Enter

There will be an Explorer Window opened, containing your Desktop items.

Note: This doesn’t work all the time. Sometimes it will display the items of the entire C-drive or what other drive is the active one. If you have worked in a DOS-box before you use this, this can be the case. But mostly it will work. This dot opens the current active folder in an Explorer Windows and 99% of the time this will be your Desktop folder.


Automatically close parent folders

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

You can close a folder and all of its underbeneith folders with one click. If you for example open the c:\winnt\system32\repl folder and you close the repl folder, you can automatically also close the system32 and the winnt folder.

Hold down the SHIFT key when you close a folder.

All parent folders will be closed now also (in this example system32 is the parent folder of repl and winnt is the parent folder of system32)


Bypass automatically starting of programs located in the Startup folder

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

If you have programs in your Start - Programs - Startup folder and you want to skip them without permanetely skipping them, you can do this little trick.

As soon as you see the Windows 95 desktop or wallpaper, but before you see the Taskbar, hold down the SHIFT key and keep it pressed until Windows is done booting (when you don’t hear the harddisk reading and writing). This will skip the loading of programs located in this Startup folder.

When you start Windows the next time and don’t hold down the SHIFT key, those programs will be loaded again like they normally do.


Permanentely delete files

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

You can delete files without storing them first in the Recycle Bin. You have to be more carefull when you do this, because the deletion is irriversable.

Hold down the SHIFT key when you delete one or more files. Those files will be deleted permanentely now, in stead of being stored in the Recycle Bin first.


Convert FAT to NTFS

Works under Windows NT

If you run Windows NT on a FAT partition and you want to put Windows NT on a NTFS partition (the special Windows NT File System), you don’t need to reïnstall Windows NT or to format your harddisk. Windows NT provides you with a small program which converts the FAT partition you want to a NTFS partition.

NOTE: This is an one-way convertion. You can’t conver a NTFS back to a FAT system, without reformatting your harddisk

Open a DOS Prompt and type this command:

convert drive: /fs:ntfs

Where drive is your drive letter. If you want to convert your C-partition to NTFS, you should type: convert c: /fs:ntfs

If you want this program to be run in verbose mode (in which you get more information what is happening), you can include the /v parameter (convert drive: /fs:ntfs /v)


Display a Logon message

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

If you logon to Windows 95 or Windows NT, you can let a logon message shown to everybody who logs on. You can specify some information like a default username/password for quests to the network or add some other information (like this is my computer, stay away if you’re not the owner or something like that).

In Windows 95:

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

In Windows NT:

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

If the Winlogon key doesn’t excist, you have to make a new Key and call it Winlogon

Make a new String value and name it LegalNoticeCaption (or edit the allready excisting value)

Doubleclick this new String value and give it the value as it should appear in the titlebar of the Logon message window

Make a new String value and name it LegalNoticeText (or edit the allready excisting value)

Doubleclick this new String value and give it the value as it should appear as the Logon message.

When you logon again, you first get this Logon window before you can actually logon.


Don't display username of last logged on user
Don’t display username of last logged on user

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

If you logon to Windows 95 or Windows NT, you standard see the name of the last logged on user. If you are the only user on your computer, this default setting can be handy, but when you’re in a network where many different users log on on the computer, it’s not that handy to standard display the name of the last logged on user. You can remove this last logged on username, so that you have to type both of your username and password each time you log onto Windows.

In Windows 95:
Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

In Windows NT:

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

If the Winlogon key doesn’t excist, you have to make a new Key and call it Winlogon

Make a new String value and call it DontDisplayLastUserName (if it’s not already there)

Doubleclick this value and give it the value 1

From now on the last logged on username isn’t displayed anymore. If you want to disable this, you simple change the 1 into a 0 and it’s disabled.


Change CPU identifier

Registry

Works under Windows NT

If you display the System Properties (system in control panel, or press win+pause), you’ll see, if you work with Windows NT, the computersystem information. You’ll see something like:

Computer:

x86 Family 5 Model 4 Stepping 3

AT/AT COMPATIBLE

64.948 KB RAM (or any other number, depending on the ammount of RAM in your computer)

You can change this x86 Family 5 Model 4 Stepping 3 part very easily, into something more suitable, like P55C-166 (stands for Pentium 166 MMX).

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Hardware\Description\System\CentralProcessor\0

Doubleclick on Identifier and change the value to something else you want, like the P55C-166 example.

If you display the System Properties again, it’ll show the new value you just entered.


Edit Crash Control

Registry

Works under Windows NT

Maybe you’ve experienced them also? The socalled BSOD of Windows. BSOD stands for Blue Screen Of Death. Normally Windows NT is very stable and can handle most cases of crashing where Windows 95 would free up completely. But sometimes a crash is too big for Windows NT. This can be when the processor crashes itself (an exception error for example which can’t be recovered by Crash Control of Windows NT). You get this blue screen, some cryptic information, like a hexdump, which driver(s) caused this fatal crash and mostly a memory-dump file is created and after the memory dump is completed, the computer will be rebooted. You can change this behaviour of the BSOD, like the filename of the memorydump, if an autoreboot is initialized or not, if you want such a file, etc. These settings can be changed.

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl

Here you’ll find a few Dword values and a string value.

Doubleclick on AutoReboot and change the 1 into a 0 if you don’t want the computer to be rebooted automatically. With the AutoReboot disabled, you can write the information you see on a piece of paper or have a closer look to the information you’ll see.

Doubleclick on CrashDumpEnabled and change the 1 into a 0 if you don’t want a memorydump file to be created.

Doubleclick on DumpFile and change the filename of the memorydump file (this won’t have any effect if you disabled the CrashDumpEnabled setting)

I don’t know yet what LogEvent, Overwrite and SendAlert do.

LogEvent seems very locigal: this fatal error will be logged somewhere and with Overwrite I think you can overwrite this log. SendAlert can be used to alert a second NT Server or something like that, that this computer has crashed and isn’t working anymore. But I’m not sure about these yet.


Disable the Win-key

Registry

Works under Windows NT

If you want, you can disable the Win-key. All functions will be disabled, like opening the Start-menu and the shortcuts you can use, like Win+R for the Run...dialog, Win+Pause for System Properties, etc.

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout

Make a new Binairy value and call it Scancode Map

Give it the value 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 5B E0 00 00 5C E0 00 00 00 00

Reboot your computer and you can’t use the Win-key anymore.

You can’t use the Win-key to open the Start-menu now, but you still can use CTRL+ESC as keycombination to open the Start-menu or just use your mouse.

This tip has been copied from the Windows NT FAQ by John Savill from with this arpoval http://www.ntfaq.com


Change Program Files folder
Change Programs Files folder

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

Sometimes programs just need to install certain files in your Program Files folder, which is usually c:\Program Files. Mostly when you install a program you can select where to install it, but programs like Microsoft Office need to install the shared files in the Program Files folder, so that other applications can find those files also. But what if you don’t have enough harddisk space left on the drive where the Program Files folder is? You can move that folder, but you need to tell Windows also where the Program Files folder is moved to

By editing the Registry, you can ‘order’ Windows to install the files in the new Program Files folder.

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows\CurrentVersion

Doubleclick on ProgramFilesDir

Change the path to your desired Program Files directory (like e:\myfiles)

Doubleclick on CommonFilesDir

Change the path to your desired Common Files directory (like e:\common files)

Now copy the entire contents of the current Program Files directory into your new Program Files directory (including the Common Files directory which is currentely a part of your Program Files directory). Reboot your computer and you can delete the old Program Files directory. You might need to re-install some program since they likely search for files in a specific path, in stead of reading the path from the Windows Registry.


Check wich .dll files are used by .exe files
Check which .dll files are used by .exe files

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows NT

Sometimes you have to know which .dll (Dynamic Link Libraries) are used by certain excecutable files. Normally you would have to re-install the program so that you are sure that the files it needs are back in place again. But if you want to know which .dll files you need to have with a certain program, there is a very simple way to check that out.

Rightclick the application file (the .exe file) and choose Quick View.

Now you get a list with information concerning that program and it also states which dll files it needs to be able to run correctly


Make icon for copying floppydisks

Works under Windows 95

If you want to copy a floppydisk (make a backupcopy of a disk for example), then you can either run the diskcopy.com program within a dosbox, open My computer, rightlick a diskdrive and choose Copy disk.

But in some cases it can be much more convinient by just doubleclicking once and start the diskcopying-module. This diskcopying module in Windows 95 isn’t a normal executable program, but you can make a shortcut to it, because you run rundll32.exe with a few parameters:

Here’s how you can do the trick:

Make a shortcut to the following command:

RUNDLL32.EXE Diskcopy.dll,DiskCopyRunDll

Give the name something you like, like Copy Floppydisks

When you now run this shortcut, you will get the disk copying module, which is built-in to Windows.


Show all the used recoursed in Windows
Show all the used recourses in Windows

Works under Windows 95

Ever needed a list of all the used recourses in Windows? I’m talking about recourses like IRQ, DMA, used Memory-regions, etc. I found that many people didn’t know about this feature (including myself for quiet some time) because it was in a very logical place to find this. Right there where you setup all your settings for hardware.

Open Control Panel and doubleclick on System, or simple press Winkey+Pause or rightclick My computer and choose Properties.

Then click on the Device Managament tab, click on Computer (the first option in the hardware list) and either doubleclick it or press the Properties button.

Now you can select which used recourses you want to see. If you request the used IRQ-list, you see all the IRQ-addresses which Windows is using at the moment. In this way you also can see which ones are available.

This can be handy when you are about to install new hardware and you have to know which IRQ, DMA, Memory addresses are available at the moment.


Dualboot between two Windows 95/98 versions

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows 98

With a little bit of work, it is possible to install two versions of Windows 95 and/or Windows 98 and also be able to boot between them. Where Microsoft says it is not possible to have a choice of booting between Windows 95 and Windows 98, Gerard says there is a possibility to do this.

In order to accomplish this, you mustn’t have the second (of third, forth, fifth, etc) version installed yet. Here’s how you can do the job, follow the steps carefully in order not to screw up your computer.

The key to make your own little bootmanager is in the following files:

io.sys

msdos.sys

config.sys

autoexec.bat

command.com

These files are different in each Windows version and they make up the Windows version you are running, with all the settings for the versions.

You already have a Windows 95/98 version installed. Start that Windows version, open a dos-box and execute the following commands. For these commands I assume that the current version you are running is Windows 95. If not, then you have to change the names in the commands to they apply to your situation.

c:

cd\

attrib -s -r -h io.sys

attrib -s -r -h msdos.sys

copy io.sys io.w95

copy msdos.sys msdos.w95

copy config.sys config.w95

copy autoexec.bat autoexec.w95

copy command.com command.w95

attrib +s +r +h io.sys

attrib +s +r +h msdos.sys

exit

Now you have created the necesarry backup files of the main windows bootfiles. Before you are now going to install a new version of Windows, first edit the following files:

Go to Start - run... and enter sysedit.exe and click on OK

Now the Systemconfigurtion-editor is loaded.

Make sure the autoexec.bat file is the active window and edit the following in it:

Look for a line that says: SET PATH=......

Behind this SET PATH= you’ll see a few folders. Remove the part C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND from it.

Close the program and say ‘Yes’ when you are asked to save changes to the Autoexec.bat file.

Now you are ready to install a second copy of Windows. Do this and make sure you don’t upgrade this Windows version, but that you install this new Windows version is a seperate folder. When that installation is done, open a dos-box again and perform the following commands, assuming you just installed Windows 98:

c:

cd\

attrib -s -r -h io.sys

attrib -s -r -h msdos.sys

copy io.sys io.w98

copy msdos.sys msdos.w98

copy config.sys config.w98

copy autoexec.bat autoexec.w98

copy command.com command.w98

attrib +s +r +h io.sys

attrib +s +r +h msdos.sys

exit

Now you are ready to write your own little bootmanager.

Open Notepad and enter the following lines in it:

c:

cd\

attrib -s -r -h io.sys

attrib -s -r -h msdos.sys

copy io.w%1 io.sys /y

copy msdos.w%1 msdos.sys /y

copy config.w%1 config.sys /y

copy autoexec.w%1 autoexec.bat /y

copy command.w%1 command.com /y

attrib +s +r +h io.sys

attrib +s +r +h msdos.sys

Save this file as c:\boot.bat

Now you are all set and done.

If you are in Windows 95 and you want to boot in Windows 98 on the next reboot of the computer, open a dos-box and type this command:

c:\boot 98

Or vise-versa, if you are in Windows 98 at the moment and you want to boot in Windows 95 on the next reboot, open a dos-box and type this command:

c:\boot 95

Now close the dos-box, go to Start - Shutdown - Restart computer and you will boot in the other Windows version. When in the other Windows version simple open a dos-box again and perform the command (parameter 95 if you want to go to Windows 95 or parameter 98 if you want to go to Windows 98).

If you are in Windows 95 already and you type c:\boot 95 it won’t harm. It won’t have any effect either, but it won’t harm you either.

VERY IMPORTANT:

Don’t add this boot-command to your autoexec.bat if you use something like a multi-config in config.sys. If you know what this is, you know you can choose between multiple configurations in config.sys. If you would for example add ‘Boot in Windows xx on next reboot) and you issue the boot-command in autoexec.bat, then you will get in big trouble if you continue to boot Windows, when just modified the bootfiles. Issue the boot-command only when Windows is already loaded, or issue it from a dos-prompt, without Windows loaded, but do not continue to load Windows if you just modifed the bootfiles.


Clear Netscape URL History

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows 98

Works under Windows NT

If you are using Netscape Navigator 4.xx you probably have noticed that nice long Location-list Netscape has after been using it for a while. You probably also have tried to empty this list, without any results. Here the tip how you can clear this Location-History.

Open your Netscape\Users folder

Under that folder is a folder called after a configuration name you gave to it when you first ran Netscape.

Open the desired user folder

There you will find a file called prefs.js

Rightclick this file, choose Open with...and choose Notepad to open this file. Make sure you haven’t checked the ‘always use this program to open this type of file’

The first two lines are a ‘nice’ warning message (Do not edit this file). Ignore it, since you are going to edit this file, in order to clear this Location-history.

Look for lines that start with:

user_pref("browser.url_history.URL_

Behind that is a number and then the address.

Simple remove the undesired lines. If you remove all the user_pref("browser.url_history.URL_xxxxx); lines, it will result in having a clear Location-history. Don’t modify the other lines in this file, unless you know what it means and you know what you are doing.

Save the file, exit notepad and reload Netscape. This should do the trick just fine.


Manually make Netscape the default browser

Registry

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows 98

Works under Windows NT

If you for what reason so ever don’t get the question from Netscape if you want to make it the default browser, but you do want to have Netscape your default browser, then you need to do that manually

The way described here isn’t the ‘clean’ way, but it will make your .htm .html .shtml files be opened with Netscape again

Start the Registry-editor

Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm

Doubleclick on (Default) and give it the value: NetscapeMarkup

Doubleclick on Content Type and give it the value: text/html

If Content Type isn’t present, make this String value and give it the value text/html

Perform these exact same actions on the following keys:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.shtml

Close the Registry-editor and if you doubleclick .html files again, they will be loaded in Netscape and not in your other browser (probably Microsoft Internet Explorer).


Start Windows after having booted from a boot-floppy

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows 98

If you for what reason so ever want to start Windows, but you want to boot the computer from a bootflop, just simple copy the file msdos.sys from your harddisk (c:\msdos.sys) to your bootflop (to a:\msdos.sys). When you copy the msdos.sys file from your harddisk to your botoflop, Windows knows where to look for the Windows-files (because msdos.sys contains the settings like Windows-directory-path)


Remove old keybord short-keys (hot-keys)

Works under Windows 95

Not yet tested under Windows 98 and NT

If you remove a shortcut without removing the hotkey first, you can sometimes still use the hotkey if the path/application still exists, and if the path/application doesn`t exists anymore and you press the hot-key, you sometimes get bottered with the message that Windows can’t find the file, a pretty annoying bug in Win95...

There are two ways of fixing this problem:

1:  If the path/application still exists you can recreate the shortcut, assign the same hot-key to it, then click OK to close it. Now re-open the shortcut, remove the hot-key, click OK to close, then remove the shortcut itself.

2:  If the path/application doesn`t exist anymore you can give the same hot-key to another shortcut, click OK to close, then re-open the shortcut, remove the hot-key, click on OK to close.

This will stop that message from appearing when you press that hot-key.


Create a shortcut to your network

Works under Windows 95

Not yet tested under Windows 98

You can make a shortcut to your network only. This will open a normal Windows Explorer windows, but it won’t contain any other drives, folders, etc, other than your network folder(s).

Add a shortcut to this command:

Explorer.exe /n,/e,/root,::{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}

Type it exactly as shown above, including the double : and comma’s


Power in Save as... dialog-boxes

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows 98

Works under Windows NT

You can perform any action in a Save as... dialog-box, as you can perform in a normal Windows Explorer window. The only difference is that you don`t have Windows Explorer menu. In stead of that, try right-clicking an empty space between the icons, or right-click the icons itself, and find out what the options are.

The above applies to the Open and the Find dialog-boxes too.

Examples of options are create folders, remove folders, remove files, rename files, etc.


Quickly access your Win-root directory

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows 98

Not tested under Windows NT, but it should be working as well

To quickly open the root-directory of you Windows-drive, simple execute the following command in Start - Run... or make a shorcut to it: \

That’s all, just a simple backslash does the little trick.


Add History to your Start-menu

Works under Windows 95

Not yet tested under Windows 98 and NT

You can make a folder that links to the History folder (when you use Microsoft Internet Explorer you’ll have this folder in use). You can put it in your Start-menu, so that you get a cascading menu, just like the Start-programs menu.

Add a folder with this exact name: History.{FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000}

If you want, you can change the History part, but everything from the dot till the closing curved bracket must be exact as given above.


Create shortcuts to Control Panel items, opening with a specific tab

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows 98

Works under Windows NT

You can create shortcuts to all items in Control Panel in the default way, and by creating a new shortcut to a certain .CPL-file (located in your Windows/System or Windows\System32 directory) with the command:

C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.EXE XXX.CPL

If you however, want this shortcut to open up a specific tab, you can add the number of the tab to the command, in this format:

C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.EXE XXX.CPL ,Y

Where XXX stands for the name of a particular .CPL-file, and Y stands for the number of a tab. E.g. Creating a shortcut to System, opening with Performances would be:

C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.EXE SYSDM.CPL ,3

(as the first tab has the number 0, the second number a 1, etc.). Also, make sure you add a space after the filename, then the comman and the value. If you want, you can add a space between the comma and the value if you like, but do not forget the space after the filename, else the Control Panel Extension simply won’t load.

This won’t work on all Control Panel Extensions (the .cpl files). The reason is still unknown.


FDISK

Works under Windows 95

Works under Windows 98

FDISK - What it does, where it`s good for  & how it should be used

The DOS-program FDISK.EXE is used for the partitioning of hard disks. It has an extremely poor interface, and no Help whatsoever, there are some dangers too, that’s why whe thought it could be usefull to add this FDISK tutorial in here.

We will only discuss partitionizing on Microsoft OS-platforms (on socalled Wintel computers: Windows with Intel processors or Intel clones). Partitionizing on Linux/Unix-systems will be added later on when we will start adding Linux/Unix-tips in this Helpfile.

What is partitioning ?

You do have at least one hard disk on your computer, with on this disk at least one partition, called C:

It is possible to have more as 1 partition on one disk, for example: if you have 3 partitions, you do have C:,D: and E: (you can even have different operating systems on different partitions).

This might give you several advantages:  You can backup your most important files to a partition different from C:, so in case your operating system becomes corrupted beyond repair, you do FORMAT C:, reinstall your operating system, and all your important data still exists on one of the other partitions.

If you can miss 100 MB or more, you could create a partition of that size, and move your Windows Swap-file to it (explained elsewhere in this Help-file), thus avoiding fragmentation of the swap-file, and, by giving it a partition of it`s own, you can improve system speed considerabily, while C: also gets less fragmented cause swap-file isn`t using C: anymore, thus improving system speed drastically.

You could create a folder Program files on D:, and then install every program which doesn`t insist on beiing installed in C:\Program files, in D:\Program files, thus keeping the used space used on C: small, which will improve system speed (if most space of C: is beiing used the system will be MUCH slower as if you have lots of space left over, therefore it`s not a waste of disk space to have lots of room left over on C:). In default, Windows adds the folder Program files on the C-drive. How to tell Windows to use for example D:\Program files is explained elsewhere in this helpfile (Changing Program Files folder).

You will be amazed how much speed your system can gain by partitioning in an intelligent way!

The first thing you`ll see when you type FDISK at a DOS-prompt is a menu with 4 or 5 (depending on wether you have just,1 or more disks installed) options:

1: Create a DOS-partition or logical DOS-station

2: Activating a partition

3: Removing a partition or logical DOS-station

4: Show partion-data

5: Change the current disk (if you have more as 1 disk installed)

1: Create a DOS-partition or logical DOS-station

1.1: Create a primary DOS-partition

Your operating system needs a primary DOS-partition to boot from, a primary DOS-partition can nót contain logical DOS-stations.

1.2: Create an extended DOS-partition

If you have a small disk it might not be interesting to partition it, so then you’ll have only 1 partition, a primary DOS-partition, but, incase your disk is larger you want to partition it.

In case you boot your system from that same disk, it needs to have first of all a primary DOS-partition (to boot from) (You need to activate a partition before it can be used by your system, you can do this with option 2 (Activating a partition), but FDISK will prompt you anyway to activate the partition(s) in case you would have forgotten).

Next step is to create an extended DOS-partition. An extended DOS-partition needs to contain logical DOS-stations, you can create more as 1 extended DOS-partitions on the same disk, though I just create 1 extended DOS-partition from all the space not used by the primary DOS-partition.

The extended DOS-partition itself can not be used by your system, it needs to contain logical DOS-stations.

1.3: Create 1 or more logical DOS-stations within the extended DOS-partition

You may create 1 or more logical DOS-stations within the extended DOS-partition. You may use some of the space, or all the available space. You don`t need to use all the space now, you may create more stations later.

2: Activating a partition

A primairy DOS-partition must be activated before an OS can boot from it. You can have only one activated primairy dos partition per computer (only one bootable harddisk)

3: Removing a partition or logical DOS-station

3.1: Removing a primary DOS-partition.

3.2: Removing an extended DOS-partition.

3.3: Removing logical DOS-stations in extended DOS-partitions.

3.4: Removing a non-DOS-partition.

This all speeks for itself, except for the fact that if the partition/station has a volumename (just a name which you can give to a partition/station), you need to enter this name before you can exually remove the partition/station.

A non-DOS-partition is a partition created by a non-Microsoft operating system. These can be HPFS (High Performance File System) by OS/2, NTFS (New Technology File System, or just NT File System), the filesystem from Windows NT, Ext2 (Extended 2) partitions from Linux, etc.

4: Show partition-data

This shows the current partionizing-information on the currently selected harddisk. You will see the sizes of different partitions, the sizes of Logical DOS stations in an extended DOS partition and how much unused space (available for partitionizing) is available.

5: Change the current disk (if you have more as 1 disk installed)

Selects a different harddisk, so you can manage that harddisks’s partitions. You only can manage one disk at a time with FDISK. You need to switch harddisks every time you want to do/check something on a different harddisl.

Notes and other issues

If you need to remove a partition on which FDISK.EXE itself is installed (usually C:), you need to do this from a bootable floppy with FDISK.EXE on it, cause FDISK needs to read from disk during the operation, or copy FDISK.EXE to a different partition. If you want to partitionize on C, then you can copy fdisk.exe to for example D.

You may remove as many partitions and/or logical stations in 1 session as you like, the same is true for ADDING partitions and/or logical stations, but, in 1 session you may only remove ÓR add partitions/logical stations !

After removing ór adding partitions you first must restart your computer, before doing the opposit things. This is very important, if you don’t do it like this, your Partition Table can become corrupt and then you can loose all the data that is currentely on the disk.

The tricky bit is that FDISK tells you that you need to restart your computer when you exit FDISK, but after adding or removing something you first need to pass by the options before you can exit the program, and at the options you can for example choose to add a partition after just having removed one, while you exually realy need to restart first and then do something new. Do it the wrong way and FDISK will produce errors, or your Partition Table get corrupt while you have no idea whatsoever what you did wrong... In your panic you might even start removing the wrong partitions.

TIP:  After restarting your system start FDISK before starting to format, and choose for Show partition-data of the disk(s) you have FDISKED something on, this is because the letters of the stations might have chanced if you`ve added more partitions as there where previously.

So, if you do FORMAT G:, but G: is now actually what was previously H:, and this partition contains valuable data.......

To make it even more tricky:

Example 1:  Each disk contains a primary DOS-partition

The primary partitions of each disk are listed first, then are listed all logical stations left over on disk 1, then all logical stations left over on disk 2, etc.

DISK 1:

   C:

   F:

   G:

   H:

DISK 2:

   D:

   I:

   J:

DISK 3:

   E:

   K:

   L:

   M:

   N:

Example 2:  Only disk 1 contains a primary DOS-partition, the other disks contain extended DOS-partitions

DISK 1:

   C:

   D:

   E:

   F:

DISK 2:

   G:

   H:

   I:

DISK 3:

   J:

   K:

   L:

   M:

   N:

It`s a very good idea to make a partition-plan befóre you start partitioning !

(How many partitions do I want on which disks, of which size each).

If you upgrade from Win95a to Win95b (OSR 2.x also called Version 4.00.1111 or higher), and you want to make use of FAT32, which creates clusters of only 4 Kb, while allowing to have only 1 partition on a disk of up to 2 Terabyte (the max-size of a partition which uses FAT16 is 2 Gigabyte with clusters of 32 Kilobyte, lots of slack-space then), you’ll need to create your FAT32 partitions/stations with the OSR 2.x version of FDISK.EXE.

It’s good to keep in mind that if you use Win95b, it still can read FAT16 partitions/stations other as the one where it boots from, but if you boot from FAT16, it can’t read other partitions/stations if they are FAT32.

This means that if you want to upgrade from FAT16 to FAT32, and you have more as one partition/station/disk allready, that no data needs to be lost, but that you`ll have to move your data around a bit:

First back-up everything valuable to a different drive than C:

Remove partition C:, restart computer, create new partition with 95b version of FDISK.EXE, restart computer, format C:, install 95b, put back backup to C:, backup the next partition, remove the next partition before making it FAT32 etc.

It can mean a lot of moving things around, upgrading 1 partition/station at a time to FAT32, but at least you know now how it should be done.

Remember: FDISK will COMPLETELY destroy ALL DATA on a partition if you remove that partition, no way to get it back, as with FORMAT, you still have the possibility to restore your data by doing UNFORMAT immediatly after you realised you formatted the wrong partition, but there`s no UNFDISK. Unformat only works if you run MSDOS 6.xx, because that version can put Unformat-information. If you only run Windows 95, then you can’t Unformat either.

DOS/Win 3.x

FAT16:  Min size:  16 Mb*, Max size:  2 Gb

Win95a

FAT16:  Min size:  16 Mb*, Max size:  2 Gb

Win95b (OSR 2.x) / Win98

FAT16:  Min size:  16 Mb*, Max size:  2 Gb

FAT32:  Min size:  512 Mb**, Max size:  2 Tb

* 	Partitions smaller as 16 Mb use the old FAT12 filesystem (used too on floppy disks)

**	Smaller partitions are possible, but FDISK can not a create a FAT32 then, instead it creates

automatically a FAT16.

Note on **: There is a way with a hidden FDISK parameter to create FAT32 on disks smaller than 512 MB, but we haven’t tested that and we are not sure what the effects or even bad effect could be. Therefore we don’t publish them yet, we first will test them thoroughly on our computers and then update this tutorial when needed.

Restoring a corrupted MBR

If your Master Boot Record (MBR) gets corrupted or overwritten by another Operating System and you want the default DOS bootloader back (the DOS bootloader searches for a file called io.sys in your root-directory and that file boots the operating system..in case of a windows version of io.sys, windows will be loaded, in case of msdos version of io.sys, msdos will loaded, etc), you can use an undocumented FDISK parameter, which will restore your MBR. This won’t delete any data and you also don’t need to re-install the operating system. As long as io.sys is present, you don’t need to do anything extra after issueing the FDISK command.

This is also usefull if you have a virus stuck in your bootsector. If you then restore the MBR, the virus is gone also.

This (life-saving) command: FDISK /MBR

Note: If you want to restore the MBR on your C-drive, you need to issue the command when are you on a DOS-prompt on the C-drive. If you, for example, want to restore the MBR of the D-dive, you must issue this command while you are on the D-drive (for example in D:\ or D:\Utils, etc).