The Best of Windows 95 Shareware

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Frank's Windows 95 Bag O' Tips Last Modified: October 25, 1995 These are short little tips and answers to commonly-asked questions that weren't big enough to warrant their own separate page. Enjoy! Index of Tips: Really Quick Tips Clean Install of Win95 Preview Selecting "Command Prompt Only" during bootup doesn't work Startup Folder: Where is the Windows 95 equivalent of the 'STARTUP' folder Interrupt settings (IRQs) - where is a list of my settings? Interrupt settings (IRQs) - where can I change them? Music CDs and Autoplay Explorer isn't showing all files! Icon Problem: Icons in Control Panel are messed up. Microsoft Exchange wants to log into MSN even when used for SLIP/PPP Uninstalling Windows 95 Taskbar Tips Microsoft Natural Keyboard and Windows 95 Speeding Up the Start Menu Windows Setup switches Printing to a File Cascading "Control Panel" on Start menu Turning off the Exploding Windows Animation Adding a File Type to the "NEW" Menu Correcting the "Extra Page with Codes" problem with some HP Printers Changing fhe Fonts in MS Internet Explorer Getting Rid of the Shortcut Arrows Customizing the Startup and Shutdown Screens Refresh the Registry without Rebooting Saving your Password in Dial-Up Networking ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Really Quick Tips * Freeing Disk Space: If you don't need animated help with scrolling, minimizing windows, etc., you can free up just over 7MB of hard drive space by deleting the .AVI files from /windows/help. [Thanks to Tim Gerchmez for this tip!] * Using .BMP files as Icons: You can rename any .BMP file to .ICO, and then use it as an icon! Windows 95 resizes it to icon size, and changes it to 16 colors, but otherwise it works just fine. [Thanks to Jason Richmond for this tip!] * Opening Folders Nicely: If you want to open a sub-folder and have the parent folder automatically close, hold the ctrl key down as you double-click to open the new folder. [Thanks to Simon Garlick and Christophe Jacquet for this tip.] * Escaping from a hang: If you get hung up in win95 and the usual ctrl-alt-delete does not respond, press ctrl-escape. This may bring up the START menu from which you can shut down the system. [Thanks to Shawn St.Jacques for this tip!] * Right-Clicking in Save File dialog boxes: Try it! If you are saving a file, and right-click in the dialog box, you can change your view, arrange the icons, or create new folders prior to saving the file. This is great if you suddenly decide while saving that you want to save the file in a folder that doesn't currently exist. * Expanding all Subfolders in Explorer: To quickly expand the Explorer tree view to show all subfolders for a highlighted drive or folder, simply press the asterisk (*) key on the numeric keypad. * Quickly Closing Windows under My Computer: If you've opened many windows under My Computer (control panel, and windows under that), you can quickly close them all by holding the Shift key while clicking the close window box. * Quickly Seeing Properties: To quickly access the Properties information for any object, hold the ALT key while double-clicking it. * MKCOMPAT Program: In the /windows/system directory is a program called MKCOMPAT.EXE. This program lets you change settings to try to make a poorly-behaved Win 3.1 program compatible with Windows 95. * Restarting Windows 95 without a Warm Boot: Select Shut down, and click the Restart Computer option. Then, while holding down the Shift key, click YES. Windows 95 will now restart without executing a complete warm boot. * Opening an associated file with a different program: Hold the SHIFT key while right-clicking on the file in Explorer. The Open With can now be selected, and you can choose a different application to open the file with. * Avoiding Windows 95 Logo at startup: Either press ESCape during bootup, or edit MSDOS.SYS and add the line LOGO=0 to the Options section. * What .DLL's are being used in a .EXE?: Right-click on the application's name, and select Quick View. * Real Delete instead of Recycle Bin: To immediately delete a file rather than send it to the Recycle Bin, hold down the Shift key when you delete it. * AutoPlay Disable: To disable Autoplay from automatically playing a music cd, hold the SHIFT key for a few seconds after you close the CD-ROM drive door. * Soundcard Volume: Single click on the speaker icon in the tray to bring up the master volume control. Double-click that icon to bring up the full mixer controls. * Dial-Up Networking Auto Redial: Bring up the Dial-Up Networking Folder, highlight the connection, then select Connections from the menu, then settings. * Desktop Properties: A shortcut is to right-click anywhere on the desktop, then select properties. * Windows 95 Backup: The backup program included apparently runs 15-25% faster if you keep it minimized during the backup. * Clock/Calendar: Double-click the time in the taskbar tray to see a calendar, and to change the system date/time. [6/24/95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clean Install of Win95 Preview Boot from a floppy, and run the SETUP program from diskette #1 or from the cd-rom (you'll need your cd-rom drivers on your floppy to do this). The Preview is actually an upgrade, and will search for an existing copy of Windows. If it doesn't find one, you'll have to tell it to look on drive a:, and insert diskette #1 from some previous version of Windows. [6/3/95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Selecting "Command Prompt Only" during bootup doesn't work After a failed bootup attempt, or if you hit F8 while Win95 is starting up, you'll get a menu of bootup options. One of the options is Command Prompt Only. If you select this option, but find that your system still boots into Windows, check your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and make sure you don't have a command in it that starts Windows. Many people do (I did!). When you select Command Prompt Only, Win95 still executes your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS, but skips the automatic load of Win95 afterward. However, if you have a command in AUTOEXEC.BAT that starts Windows, it will execute it! [6/3/95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Startup Folder: Where is the Windows 95 equivalent of the 'STARTUP' folder? If you click the START button, then Settings/Taskbar, you will see the panel to modify the taskbar. Select the other tab option at the top, then click on 'advanced'. A mini-version of the Explorer will pop up, showing the heirarchy of your START menu. One of the items listed is 'startup'. This is the equivalent of your Windows 3.1 startup folder. If you click on that, in the right side of the panel you'll see all the things that are automatically run at startup. Right click on each item and select 'delete', or drag it to somewhere other than the startup area if you want to remove any of these items. [6/3/95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interrupt settings (IRQs) - where is a list of my settings? Control Panel/System/Devices, in this area there is an option to print a detailed or summary report. The detail report is huge - 18 pages on my system! The summary report is two pages, and contains a list of all the interrupts currently assigned in the system, and what they are assigned for. This report also lists DMA channel assignments and port addresses. Another method is to simply right-click on the My Computer icon, and select Properties. This will bring up the System control panel. Select the Device Manager tab, and double-click on Computer within the scrollable window. From here you can view IRQs, DMA channel usage, I/O assignments, and Memory settings. Thanks to Jeremy Moore for this helpful tip. [6/29/95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interrupt settings (IRQs) - where can I change them? Windows 95 assigns IRQs automatically, but if you need to change them to a specific value, you can. Select Control Panel/System/Devices, then find and double-click on the device you want to change the IRQ for, or highlight it and select properties. A panel for that device will appear. If you select the Resources tab, a 'Resources' window will pop up. One of the choices in the window is 'Interrupt Request' with the current value listed. If you click on that to highlight it, the change setting button will become usuable. If you click on that button, you will get the 'Edit Interrupt Request' panel that will allow you to change the interrupt, and will immediately tell you if your new choice conflicts with other equipment. [6/3/95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music CDs and Autoplay By default, Windows 95 is set up to automatically start the CD Player applet and begin playing a music cd as soon as it is inserted into the CD-ROM drive. This is set up in Windows 95 much like a file extension association. To change this, start Explorer, and select View/Options/File Type. Scroll through the list until you find a listing for Audio CDs. Highlight it, and select the Edit button. You'll see a panel showing the option 'play'. Select that, then click on the Edit button on this panel. You'll see the command that is invoked for that option. It is by default set to execute CDPLAYER.EXE with a command parm of '/play'. If you delete the entire line, then when an audio cd is inserted, nothing will happen. If you delete just the '/play' parm, then when an audio cd is inserted, the CD Player applet is started, but it does NOT immediately begin playing the cd. [6/3/95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Explorer isn't showing all files! It's not showing all the files in a folder/directory. Select View/Options. The first tab ,View, has an option for 'show all files.' Change to this option and all files will be displayed from then on. [6/3/95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Icon Problem: Icons in Control Panel are messed up. There is a known bug where the icon in the Control Panel for Display, which normally looks like a monitor, suddenly changes to be something else (usually a joystick icon). Just ignore this - Microsoft claims it will be corrected in the final shipped version. This affects other icons in Control Panel as well, but most usually the Display icon. It's also been reported to me that the icon for Explorer sometimes changes on its own, too. [6/6/95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Microsoft Exchange wants to log into MSN even when used for SLIP/PPP You need to set up a separate profile for Exchange that doesn't contain the MSN drivers. To do this, open Control Panel, and select the Mail & Fax icon. From there you can create a new profile, and only add Internet Mail to it. Be sure to change Exchange to prompt you for which profile to use when started. [6/3/95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Uninstalling Windows 95 What? Are you crazy??? Windows 95 includes a full Uninstall utility - use that. If for some reason that doesn't work, here are some steps that I've heard work: 1. Boot with dos boot floppy that has the DOS system files on it. 2. Execute a 'sys c:' command. 3. Delete the Windows directory and all its subdirectories (deltree works great for this if you have it on the boot floppy). 4. Delete all the hidden files in the root directory that don't match the files from the floppy 5. Reboot, and you should be back to a DOS system. 6. Check the root directory for hidden files with names that do not match those on the bootable floppy. These files should be deleted. [6/9/95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Taskbar Tips * Options: Right-click on an empty part of the taskbar and select Properties for a list of options including auto-hide, always on top, and others. * Location: You can change the location of the taskbar to be the bottom, top, or either side of your screen by simply dragging it to where you want it. * Size: You can increase the size of the taskbar by simply grabbing its edge with the mouse cursor, and dragging it. This is useful if you are running a large number of programs, and want to have bigger buttons on the taskbar so that you can read see of the title on that application's button. [Thanks to Paul Arnote for these tips. 6/14/95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Microsoft Natural Keyboard and Windows 95 Windows 95 has built-in support for the Microsoft Natural Keyboard, using the special keys as follows: * WIN + R = Display the Run dialog box. * WIN + M = Minimize all windows currently open. * WIN + F1 = Start Help * WIN + E = Start Explorer * WIN + F = Start Find Files/Folders dialog box. * CNTL+ WIN + F = Start Find Computer dialog box. * WIN + TAB = Cycle through taskbar buttons. * WIN + BREAK = Display Systems Properties panel. [6/14/95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Speeding Up the Start Menu Note: This has changed slightly with builds 490+. 1. Execute Regedit (start/run/regedit) 2. Double-click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER to expand it. 3. Double-click on Control Panel to expand it. 4. Click on desktop 5. Right-click on the right-hand panel, and select New/String Value. Name it MenuShowDelay. 6. Double-click on this, to bring up the Modify panel. 7. For Value, select a value from 0-10. 0 is the fastest, 10 the slowest. 8. Exit Regedit Note: these changes won't take effect until you restart Windows 95. Another Note: The EASY way to do this now is to get the Microsoft Powertoy, TWEAKUI. See the Microsoft section of the main page for more info! [Thanks to Chris Suleski for the updated version of this tip.] [Modified 10-25-95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Windows Setup Switches Windows 95 has several switches you can use when executing Setup: * /is - Ignores the check of your system check * /id - Ignores the check for whether there is enough disk space * /iq - Ignores the test for cross-linked files and file directory integrity * /in - Runs setup without the Network Setup Module You can also specify a filename (.inf) with setup, that contains information on exactly what to set up. [7/15/95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Printing to a File It's easy to set up a special 'printer' to print documents to a simple text file: * Open the Printers folder in Control Panel * Double-click on Add Printer * Select Local Printer and click on Next * Select Generic from the manufacturer list, and Generic/Text Only from the printer list, then click on Next. * Select File from the available ports list, and click Next a couple times to add the printer. * Highlight the new icon, right-click it and select Properties, then the Paper tab, and change the paper setting to 'continuous, no page-breaks.' You can now select this printer from any Windows application, sending the output in text format to a file. You'll be prompted for the filename when you print. [7/23/95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cascading "Control Panel" on Start menu In the Start Menu folder in your Windows 95 folder, create a new folder and name it, exactly: Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} (All on one line, must include the ".", the curly braces, all four hyphens, and the hex numbers exactly as shown.) After doing this, you'll get a folder in your Start Menu that's called Control Panel with a cascading menu that has all of the Control Panel contents in it. By placing a '.' after the folder name and putting the sequence of numbers in brackets, it associates that folder with a registry entry. You can run the regedit program and do a search for the file you want to get the number sequence if you want to create other such cascading menus. For example, you can name one Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D} to add your Printers to the start menu. [Thanks to Don Skwierawski for bringing this tip (found in WinNews) to my attention, and to Dave Bograd for expanding upon it.] [10-18-95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Turning off the Exploding Windows Animation: DonΓt like how windows seem to ╬growΓ out of the taskbar, then shrink down to it? You can turn this animation off through a Registry setting. Follow these instructions: * Start RegEdit by clicking Start/Run, and entering ╬regeditΓ * Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER * Expand Control Panel under HKEY_CURRENT_USER * Expand Desktop under Control Panel * Double-click on the WindowMetrics folder under Desktop * Choose "string value" from the Edit/New menu, and create a new string called MinAnimate * Double-click the new entry, and enter "0" for the value. * Exit RegEdit, and reboot. ThatΓs it! The window animation should be gone from now on. [8-17-95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adding a File Type to the "NEW" Menu: * First, in the program that creates the file type you are adding, create a "blank" document. To do that, enter the program, start a new file, and save it right away (note that you could save any normally used preferences here - useful for programs that don't support templets). * Copy this file to the \windows\ShellNew folder (it's a hidden folder). Remember the filename! * Now enter the system registry. Under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, find the extension for that filetype. * Add a new key called ShellNew. * Under this new key, add a new string value called "FileName". * Modify the value of this string (double-click it to bring up a Modify panel) to be the filename of the blank templete file you created. You need to include the extension, but the path is not necessary (the /windows/ShellNew folder is the default). And Presto, your New file menu contains an option for your new file type. Note that there are some applications that do their registry entries a little different, so you may have to modify the procedure a little...of course most of those programs are Windows 95 programs, so they should probably appear anyway on the menu (if they set up a ShellNew entry as they should). Note that depending on the application, this may not work. [Thanks to Rob Meyer for this much-sought-after tip!] [8-20-95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Correcting the "Extra Page with Codes" problem with some HP Printers: SYMPTOMS When you print to a Hewlett-Packard (HP) printer, or a printer that emulates an HP printer, you may receive an extra page before each print job. The extra page contains PJL codes or a single character in the upper left corner of the page. The output on this page depends on whether you have enabled bi-directional communications. RESOLUTION There is an updated Lpt.vxd file on the Windows 95 CD-ROM that corrects this problem. To install the updated file, follow these steps: 1. Use Windows Explorer to rename the Lpt.vxd file in the Windows\System folder to Lpt.old. 2. Copy the Lpt.vxd file from the Drivers\Printer\LPT folder on the Windows 95 CD-ROM to the Windows\System folder on the hard disk. 3. Restart Windows 95. For additional information about the Lpt.vxd file, please see the Readme.txt file in the Drivers\Printer\LPT folder on the Windows 95 CD-ROM. [Thanks to Gary Medina (by way of Pete Fanning) for this tip.] [8-29-95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Changing fhe Fonts in MS Internet Explorer: 1. Start the Registry editor (type regedit at the Run command) 2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / Software / Microsoft / Internet Explorer / Styles o A list of all the possible combinations will come up o On the right panel is the Style Name on the left, followed by its value on the right. o Double click on a Style Name and change its font, size, or weight. o Repeat this for all the fonts available for the style you would like. o There are 13 settings to change which only takes a few minutes. 3. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software / Microsoft / Internet Explorer / Styles, and change the Default_Style_Sheet to be the one you just edited. 4. Restart the Internet Explorer You do not need to leave Regedit for the changes to take effect so you can leave it open while you make your changes. There are other changes such as background color which can be modified as well. [Thanks to Bob Cerelli for this tip.] [8-30-95] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Getting Rid of the Shortcut Arrows: Many people seem to be annoyed by the little arrows that Windows 95 puts in the lower-left corner of icons that represent shortcuts. Well, now you can get rid of them! To do this, use the Registry Editor (regedit.exe) to search for these keys: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\piffile Within these keys are strings named "IsShortcut". If you remove (or more safely, rename) these to something else, then once you restart Windows 95, the arrows will be gone! To restore them, go back into regedit and rename the strings back to their previous values. Note: As always, editing the Registry can be dangerous, so be careful! Another Note: There is now a powertoy called TWEAKUI that does this much easier! See "Powertoys" in the Microsoft section of the main page. [Thanks to Martin Bean for this tip.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Customizing the Startup and Shutdown screens: These screens are standard 320x400 bitmaps that can be edited with many different programs, including PAINT. These screens MUST be EXACTLY 320x400!. Logow.sys and Logos.sys are the "wait" and "it is now safe to shutdown" screens, respectively. The startup screen is buried in a different file - but all you have to do to override the standard startup screen is create a replacement (again, exactly 320x400), name it Logo.sys, and place it in your root directory. [Thanks to Jeff Yablon for expanding upon this tip.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Refreshing the Registry without Rebooting: Sometimes you may make a change to the Registry, and want it to take effect without having to completely reboot Windows 95. Here's a tip on how to do that! You can update the Registry without booting by pressing ctrl-alt-del and then selecting Explorer and clicking End Task. When Windows asks to shut down answer No. At the next dialog box (you have to wait a couple of seconds) click End Task. This will refresh the Registry. [Thanks to Nick Duffy for this tip.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saving your Password in Dial-Up Networking: If you are using Dial-Up Networking and find that the Save Password checkbox is grayed out (so you cannot use this feature), check to make sure that you have "Client for Microsoft Networks" listed when you double-click the Network icon in Control Panel. If it is not listed, select Add, Client, and select "Client for Microsoft Networks". When you restart your system, you should find you can now use the Save Password feature. Update:I was sent the following additional information: There is an easier way to do this. In the password section of control panel, simply set a password for Windows logon. If you type in a password at startup, that password will be saved on the DUN screen. This avoids having having the Network Neighborhood icon on screen, and saves disk space as well (assuming you have no need for NN to be installed). Also, under Passwords in Control Panel, under "User Profiles" I have "users can specify their own preferences" checked, and the two boxes checked under User Profile Settings. I assume this fix would work with the "All users have the same preferences" option, but I'm not sure. [Thanks to Brandon Stockton for this information.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ⌐ 1995 Frank Condron, unless otherwise noted.