Full vs. Windowed DOS Prompt


If you are working at a DOS Prompt (command line) from within Windows, you can easily switch between full-screen and Windowed mode by simply pressing + at the same time.

Add New Quick Launches

It's great to be able to create additional Quick Launch icons to the quick launch toolbar to reside next to the 4 built-in defaults and it's easy to do.
1. Right click and drag an existing shortcut from the desktop to the area
next to the start button and release it, or, using Explorer, right click and
drag the icon for a program file (exe) in the same manner and release.
2. Select create shortcut here.
3. If you are always looking for "My Computer" to explore or check something, it's a good choice to drag on down to the quick launch bar for instant access at any time.

New Quick Launch Toolbars

Drag any folder or any item from the desktop (e.g. My Computer, Recycle Bin, Network Neighborhood, Control Panel icon etc.) to the edge of the screen and v release. You get a Single Click Quick Launch Toolbar with all the icons v inside it.

Faster Network Settings Adjustments

Instead of going through Start, Settings, Control Panel, Network, you can shorten the keystroke by right-clicking on Network Neighborhood and selecting Properties.

Cascading Control Panel

To cascade the Control Panel applets off your Start Menu:
1. Right-click on the Start button and select Open.
2. Create a new folder and call it
Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
Don't forget the period in the folder name!

Add Dial-Up Networking folder to the Start menu as a cascading menu.


Create a new folder on the 'Start' menu with Windows Explorer, giving it the following name (including the period, curly braces and hyphens): Dial-Up Networking.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}


NOTE: Dragging the 'Dial-Up Networking' object to the 'Start' menu creates a shortcut to the 'Control Panel' folder. It does NOT create the cascading menu created by the following procedure.


1) Position the mouse pointer over the 'Start' button on the Taskbar.
'Start' button
2) Right-click to activate the 'Start' button pop-up menu.
'Start' button pop-up menu
3) Select 'Explore'. (Windows Explorer appears with the current
directory set to '\Windows\Start' menu.)
4) Right-click in the right-hand pane of the Explorer window.
5) Select 'New' and select 'Folder'. (A new folder appears.)
6) Type the following name for the new folder on a single line,
including the period, curly braces, and hyphens:
Dial-Up Networking.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}
7) Click the mouse outside the new folder to save the new name.

Read News Only Using Outlook Express


If you start Outlook Express (msimn.exe) using the /outnews switch, it will act as a newsreader only. A handy way is to create a shortcut that points to:


msimn.exe /outnews

Start Menu on the Fly


You can right click on any item in the start menu and move it, copy it, delete it, and even change its properties. The only thing you can't do is rename it if you are running Internet Explorer 4.01 or below. If you have Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher, you can right click to rename as well.

Rename Items in Start Menu


This is directly related to the last tip. If you right click on an item in the start menu/toolbar, there is no 'rename' option if you have Internet Explorer
4.01 or earlier. To rename an item:
1. Left-click drag the item in question to the desktop.
2. Rename the new item on the desktop whatever you want.
3. Right-click drag the newly-renamed item back to its
previous location and choose 'Move here'.

Screen Capture Win98

You don't need a fancy graphics program to get a screenshot of what's on your computer. If you are in any windows based program, just hit the print screen key on your keyboard and you have a full screenshot. Paste it into Paint or any other Windows based graphics program.

Rename Win98's Recycle Bin


To add the rename option to the right-click menu for the Recycle Bin create a new text file and add the following:


REGEDIT4


[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\ {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder] "Attributes"=hex:50,01,00,20


Rename the file extension to .reg rather then text then run the file and it will add the above registry key. Right click on the Recycle Bin and Rename it.

Capture Current Window Only


Hightlight one window on the desktop and hit Print Screen while holding down the ALT key and it captures only that one window to the clipboard instead of the entire desktop.

Setup Duplicate Installations of Win98


When installing Win98 will generate a SETUPLOG file in the root of your boot partition (C:\). This file can then be used to set up identical machines in batch mode using the SETUPLOG as an input file.

Hide The Startup Group [Win98]


Right click the Startup Folder and selecting properties I changed its attributes to hidden, and stopped it being displayed, however, this doesn't stop any programs in it from being run. I hope you find this useful."


Note: You must have Windows Explorer configured NOT to show hidden and system files for this to hide the Startup Group from your Programs Menu off of the Start button.

Solving Floppy Drive Problems In Win98


Several people have reported floppy drive problems since upgrading to or installing Windows 98, even when the floppy drives worked perfectly under Windows 95 or previous versions of Windows and MS-DOS.
This tip might help if you are having problems.


Right click on My Computer on the desktop.
Click on Properties, then Performance. Then click on File System. Click on Floppy Disk and if there is a check in "Search for New Floppy Drives Each Time Your Computer Starts" remove it. Then click on Removable Disk and make sure write-back caching is not checked. This may also help with Zip Drives and other removable media such as tape backup, Jazz, and other non-hard drives and CD-ROM/DVD drives.

Stop Programs From Loading at Startup


Everyone at one time or another, has probably installed a program that insists on loading itself on startup, even if it isn't in the Startup group. This could be due to it loading from WIN.INI or the Windows registry. A good way to stop specific programs from loading is to use The System Configuration Utility (MSCONFIG). To run it, click Start, Run, type in "MSCONFIG" (no quotes) and press ENTER. When it comes up, click on "Startup" and check or uncheck items you want to load or not to load. This is very useful if you have a program or programs that you only want to run sometimes or not at all. Then you can almost always load the program from the Start Menu anyway, or simply re-enable it to load on Startup again at any time if you change your mind.

Elementary, My Dear Watson!


If you frequently get illegal operation or invalid page fault error messages in Windows 98, there is a great utility that Microsoft included which you can use to troubleshoot, find the cause of, and correct those errors to prevent yourself from getting them again. It also logs all errors so you can report them to Microsoft or your software program's vendor so that they can fix the problem. To start this program:


Click Start, Run.
Type "DrWatson" and press ENTER. An icon for Dr. Watson will appear on your taskbar tray. Double click it. From here on you can view detailed information about your Win98 system.


I recommend putting a shortcut to Dr. Watson in your Startup group, especially if you frequenty experience crashes, as it will automatically log all illegal operations and invalid page faults/general protection faults that you might get.

3rd Party AutoScan


If you have Nuts & Bolts or Norton Utilities installed on your system, you can cause their DOS mode disk repair utilities to run on bootup after a bad Windows shutdown, instead of ScanDisk. Copy the utility you want to use (e.g. NDD.EXE or DMDOS.EXE) to your \Windows\Command folder, rename SCANDISK.EXE to SCANDISK.WIN and then rename the copied file to SCANDISK.EXE.


The next time you boot up after a bad shutdown, your third-party disk scanning application will run. This can easily be reversed by deleting or renaming SCANDISK.EXE. More information about configuring this is available from AXCEL216@aol.com on his website at http://members.aol.com/axcel216/ listed under his "BYPASS AUTOSCAN" topic in his "OSR2TIPS.TXT" file. I recommend reading that before proceeding with this tip.

Always a Two-Pane Explorer

-Open any folder (i.e. "My Computer").
-Choose "View|Folder options..." from the menu.
-Move to the "File Types" tab.
-Locate the "Folder" entry (to do this fast, click onto the Listview and type the word "folder").
-Choose Edit.
-Select "Explorer",
and finally
-Press "Set as default".
and leave the dialogs using Ok/Close.
Now, whenever you open any sort of folder, may it be a drive/directory, the Control Panel or your Mobile Devices folder, you automatically get the two-paned Explorer view for easier navigation.

Search the Web Using Keywords with Internet Explorer


If you type in "go x" in IE 4.x or later (where "x" is any keyword) you can search for ANYTHING using IE, it will default to Yahoo for searching for that item that you entered for "X".

Gimme Back My Registry!
To restore the registry in Microsoft Windows 98 do this:


Restart the computer to MS-DOS mode. This can be done by choosing Command Prompt Only on boot or by clicking Start, Shut Down, Restart the Computer in MS-DOS mode and clicking "yes" when prompted.


Type:


scanreg /restore


Press enter.


Restart your computer. These steps will restore your registry to its state
when you last successfully started your computer.

WIN98/95/NT EASY MIGRATION


Some people like the dual-boot features of Windows 98/95 that let you keep booting to an existing OS such as Windows 3.x and a previous version of DOS.


I found a simple way to migrate your current Windows 3.x apps to Windows 98/95 without losing Windows 3.x and you don't have to reinstall any of your
programs.


All you have to do is make an exact duplicate of your Windows 3.x folder and all the files and subdirectories within it, and that's usually just your Windows and Windows\System folders and the files contained in them. Usually it is less than 10 megabytes so this isn't a problem if you're short on disk space. All you need to do is make a folder named Win95 or Win98 depending on which version you are installing. Go into MS-DOS or use the Windows File Manager program to copy all your files from C:\Windows (substitute your drive/folder/directory name in place of C:\Windows) and your C:\Windows\System (same) to your C:\Win95 or C:\Win98 System folder. You will need a sub-folder/directory in your DUPLICATE COPY of Windows 3.x named "System" where you copy the old Windows 3.x system files from the Windows 3.x system sub-folder.


Then simply run Windows 95 or Windows 98's installation program and tell it to install to C:\Win95 or C:\Win98, overwriting your "previous" (actually a copy of your previous) version of Windows. All of your existing programs and applications will be automatically ported to Windows 98/95 while still being accessible in your original copy of Windows 3.x. This will update the Win98/95 registry and even put the programs into the Start Menu so you don't have to worry about it. This tip should also work for Windows NT 4.0 and in the future, NT 5.0.

Quad Boot your Computer


It is possible to quad-boot Windows 98/95, Windows NT Workstation 4.0, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, and MS-DOS all on one PC with no special utilities or
third party programs.


Make sure you are using a FAT16 partition on your primary hard drive.


First, install Windows 98 or Windows 95 normally.


Click Start, Shut Down, Restart the Computer. Click Yes.


Once the computer reboots and Win98 or Win95 starts loading, press F8. Choose "Safe Command Prompt Only."


Take an MS-DOS disk (where "A:" is your floppy drive letter) and type:


attrib a:\msdos.sys -h -s -r
attrib a:\io.sys -h -s -r
attrib a:\command.com -h -s -r
copy a:\msdos.sys c:\msdos.dos
copy a:\io.sys c:\io.dos
copy a:\command.com c:\command.dos
attrib msdos.sys -h -s -r
edit msdos.sys


Make sure it has "BootMulti=1" under "[Options]".


Press ALT + F. Press "S" for save. Press ALT + F. Choose "Exit."


Remove the floppy disk. Power off the PC and after 10 seconds power it back on. (The ten seconds gives it time to spin down to avoid un-necessary wear and tear).


Press F4 when Win98 or Win95 starts to load. Windows 95 will say "Starting Windows 95..." but Windows 98 will not, so be careful to press F4 it at the right time.


It will load MS-DOS (in my case 6.22). A "DIR" command will reveal that Win98 or Win95's IO.SYS file has been renamed to WINBOOT.SYS and that the Win98 or Win95 versions of COMMAND.COM and MSDOS.SYS, and AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS now have the extension ".W40" after them.


Now that you are into MS-DOS, you can install Windows 3.1 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11 into a folder. Make sure you don't accidentally install it over Windows98 or Windows 95!!!! I suggest a folder name such as "Win3" or "Wfw" as the location 3.x version of Windows.


Usually Win98 or Win95 are installed in C:\Windows by default.


Now, reboot the computer and let Win98 or Win95 load completely.


Once it's loaded, go to Start, Shut Down, Restart the Computer. Click "Yes." This is an important step so do not skip it!


It will say "It is now safe to turn off your computer." At this point, put in your Windows NT Workstation 4.0 setup disk #1. Restart your computer by pressing reset or ALT CTRL DELETE or by turning the power off and back on again after 10 seconds have passed.


Windows NT Workstation 4.0 setup will load. Follow on screen instructions. It will automatically detect that Win95 or Win98 is installed. If it asks permission to overwrite the Windows 3.x installation tell it "NO".


I suggest installing NT Workstation 4.0 it into the folder C:\WINNT. Once NT setup is done, the next time you reboot you will get a boot menu asking if you want to load "Microsoft NT Workstation 4.0", "NT Workstation 4.0 [vga mode]" (similar to Win95 and Win98's safe mode) and "Microsoft Windows". "Microsoft Windows" actually refers to Windows 98 or Windows 95, not Windows 3.x or Windows for Workgroups.


In System Properties in Windows NT Workstation 4.0, you can easily tell the PC if you want to boot to NT or 98 or 95 by default and you can even specify the delay until it automatically loads the default choice (which you can pick). I set a time of 5 seconds and chose Windows 98 ("Microsoft Windows" as my default OS).


Now, after rebooting Windows NT Workstation, you can let NT load, OR you can choose "Microsoft Windows." This sounds a little complicated but is actually quite simple. If you choose "Microsoft Windows" from the boot menu at startup, Windows 95 or Windows 98 will start to load normally. You can let it proceed by not doing anything, OR you can press F8 for the normal Win98/95 boot menu and make yet another choice there, such as Safe Mode, Command Prompt Only, Previous Version of MS-DOS (such as 6.22 and Win3.x), etc. Or you can just press F4 when Win95 or Win98 starts to load and it will take you to MS-DOS and/or Windows 3.x.


I have found that its okay to use Windows 98's Defrag and Scandisk utilities on the hard disk as well as NT 4.0's CHKDSK. Try to avoid using MS-DOS and Windows 3.x based utilities as they don't understand long file names and other things that are only in 32 bit Windows operating systems. Using Windows 3.x and MS-DOS based utilities can cause problems for Win98/95 and NT 4.


If you can't find drivers for hardware you need to work with any of the operating systems, visit the manufacturer's website.

Win98 Logo Bug


A minor cosmetic bug in Windows 98 is as follows:

Right click on desktop, click on "New, Shortcut". The image displayed on the right side still says "Windows 95."


Microsoft is aware of this and has stated that they will not be fixing it in Windows 98.

WIN98 CPU INFO


If you have an Intel Pentium, the General tab on the My Computer screen probably reports that your computer is a GenuineIntel (one word) Pentium(r) Processor (or something close to that). For more information, open this Registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Hardware\Description\System\CentralProcessor\0 Double-click on VendorIdentifier and put a space between "Genuine" and "Intel" on this line. Now reopen the Properties sheet. Underneath the Genuine Intel line, youll see that your CPU is displayed as coming from the "x86 Family X Model Y Stepping [version] Z," where X, Y, Z are the correct values in your system. Close the Properties sheet, reopen the Registry key and the same information will be seen on the Identifier line. Restart Windows 98 and the default information will be reinstated.

Add a Windows Key to your keyboard


If you wish you had a Windows Key on your keyboard but you don't, and you don't want to shell out money for a new keyboard when your existing one is perfectly fine, then make one. All you must do to complete the operation is the Keyboard Remap Kernel Toy and your Right Ctrl or Right Alt key.


You can download the kernel toy for keyboard remapping at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/wutoys/w95kerneltoy/ Just click the Windows 95 Keyboard Remap link. Download the file to any location of your choice, then open Keyremap.exe to extract its contents. Right-click the Keyremap.inf file and select install.


Next, open the Control Panel, open Keyboard properties, and select the Remap tab. Under Right-hand Side, select the key you want to use--such as Right Alt--in the left-hand box. In the right-hand box (still under Right-hand Side), select Windows. Click OK, and you now have a Windows key. To test it press the key you used once and the start menu pops up.


Please note that this WILL work under Windows 98 as well as Windows 95.

Update Win98 Components


Microsoft has several Windows 98 updates, bug fixes, patches, enhancements, and add-ons available for download from: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/


You must be running Windows 98 and Internet Explorer 4.01 or higher to utilize that site [or Windows 95/NT/2000, with Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher].

Move "My Documents"


Windows 98 comes with a "My Documents" folder in the root folder of your hard drive. By default, it is located at C:\My Documents - but you can change this if you prefer it to be someplace else. Simply right-click "My Documents" on your desktop and type in the new location you want Windows 98 to use for it.

Power Management Troubleshooting


Windows 98 includes support for APM (Advanced Power Management) and ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface). While this may or may not work on many systems, this tip is for use on systems where Win98's power management is not working properly.


If you see a "Standby" option when you load the shut-down menu in Windows 98, chances are that your system supports one of the two standards. Microsoft has recommended that users close all programs, including virus scanners, utilities, and other applications if the system is not suspending or resuming properly. They have also suggested that users upgrade to the latest version of their system BIOS (your vendor has more information). If you have APM support, but the system isn't suspending/resuming properly, try these steps, rebooting after testing each one:


1. Right-click on "My Computer" and choose "Properties." Click "Device Manager" and then click the plus sign next to "System Devices" in the list. Click on "Advanced Power Management support" and then click "Properties." Next, click on "Settings" and then place a check in "Force APM 1.0 mode." Close "Device Manager" and reboot your system. Once it has loaded back up, close any programs that launched on startup, and select "Standby" from the Shut Down menu.


2. Make sure Power Management is disabled in your system's BIOS. Consult your vendor for information on how to adjust this setting manually if you don't know how. Then try suspending the system in Windows 98 again. If this doesn't work, try the opposite. See if the system will suspend/resume using only the BIOS set to manage power resources, and disable Win98's control over it by using the "Power Management" applet in the Control Panel.


3. If you have an NIC (Network Interface Card) try disabling it or removing it from the system. According to Microsoft, network cards can cause many power management problems with Win98. This option may not be a realistic solution for many people, but it might narrow down what is causing your problems.

4. If the failure is a "Your computer cannot go into standy" error, try clicking "Start" then "Run" and type in C:\Windows\Susfail.txt (path may be different). In some cases, this will list what driver, if any, that caused suspend/resume to fail.


5. Try going through Microsoft's online troubleshooter for Power Management problems in Win98: http://support.microsoft.com/support/windows/tshoot/apm98


6. Try suspending just one hardware element - such as your monitor or hard drive. Does it suspend/resume properly? Continue this for all your hardware, until you are able to find out which device caused the failure.


7. Disable USB (Universal Serial Bus) and see if the system suspends/resumes properly.


8. There is a utility called the Power Management Troubleshooter that you can try to use to diagnose what is causing harware failure on your system. This is available on your Windows 98 CD-ROM, but also a *newer* version is available online. The newer version is available at this location: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles/pmtshoot.exe

Configuring Internal PC Speaker Beeps


You can use this tip to enable or disable the internal PC speaker in Win95/98/NT:


1. Click "Start, Run," and type "RegEdit" (no quotes) then press ENTER or click OK.


2. Search for this key: "[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Sound]" (no quotes) by using the "Find" command within RegEdit.


3. Find the "Beep" (no quotes) value. It should already exist, but if it doesn't, the user can create it by clicking "Edit, New, String Value" (no quotes) and naming it "Beep" (no quotes).


4. Change the value of "Beep" to "Yes" (no quotes) if you want PC speaker beeping turned on, or "No" to have the beep sounds turned off.


This works with Windows NT 4.0, Windows 95, and Windows 98.

Browse In A New Process


In Internet Explorer 4.01/5.0 and higher, if you right-click on "Internet Explorer" on your desktop and choose "Properties" there is an optional check-box for "Browse in a new process" or "Launch browser windows in a separate process." This means, if checked, that Windows will open each instance of Internet Explorer in its own separate memory-space process. So if one Internet Explorer window crashes, the others should still continue to work normally. I recommend enabling this option.

Find Your Own IP Address


Click "Start, Run" and type "WinIPCFG.exe" and click OK. Click "More Info" for additional information. It can display information for Ethernet cards, Dial-Up Networking, and America Online Adapter information if applicable.

Find route to a web domain or IP address


Click "Start> Programs> MSDOS Prompt. At prompt type tracertdomain.com or tracertIPADDRESS Whereas domain.com and ipaddress are the sites being checked. To exit DOS type exit and hit the enter key.

Send me your Windows Tips and Tricks to:
HERE and I'll post them here.

Create a Boot Disk With CD-ROM Drivers