Windows Tips And Tricks

You may or may not be aware that Windows 95 is no longer supported by Microsoft and most people now are using Windows 98/98SE or higher so instead of having lots of pages on this I have put most on this page.

Keyboard Shortcuts
There are a number of quick ways to navigate Windows 95 using only the keyboard. Here is a list of some: (please email me with any more that you know of!)

Opening Folders While Closing Previous Ones:
Simpy hold down the control key (Ctrl) as you double-click to open the new folder.

Closing All Windows Under "My Computer"
Holding the shift key down while clicking the close box will quickly close all the windows

Connecting SCSI Devices Without Restarting
If you turn on a SCSI device after starting Windows 95, and it is not recognized,

1. Right-click on 'My Computer', and select properties
2. Click on 'Device Manager'
3. Select 'Computer'
4. Press 'Refresh' -- it will take several seconds, but the device should appear. If not, locate the SCSI card line, highlight it, and press 'Refresh' again.

Altering Properties
Simply right-click on the item; a menu will drop down, from which you can choose 'properties'.

Viewing Properties
To see the properties for an object, hold down the "alt" key while double-clicking on it.

Bypass the Windows 95 Logo at Boot
To do this occasionally, press escape at bootup. To prevent it occuring generally, edit the MSDOS.SYS file and add the line LOGO=0 to the 'options' section.

Deleting Files Immediately
Holding down the shift key will cause items you are deleting to be immediately deleted, instead of being moved to the 'recycle bin'.

Temporarily Disabling Autoplay
Hold down the shift key for a few seconds after closing the CD-ROM drawer.

Changing the Sound Volume
Single-click on the speaker icon in the tray to bring up the volume control.

Quickly Starting the Mixer
Double-click on the speaker icon in the tray to launch the full mixer controls.

Refreshing the Desktop
Simply click on the desktop and press 'F5'.

Making 'Find' Look Where You Want
To search in pre-defined locations, start 'Find', choose where you want to look, and then select 'Save Search' from the 'File' menu. This will place a .fnd file on your desktop. You can then place this file in the directory of your choice, and create a shortcut to it. You may wish to rename the shortcut and add it to your 'Start' menu. To do so, simply open the 'Start' menu with a right-click and drag the shortcut into the folder you desire.

Changing Desktop Properties
Right-click on the desktop, then select properties. You can adjust the background (wallpaper), colors, screen saver, and color depth and resolution with this.

Using the Clock and Calendar
Double-clicking on the time in the taskbar tray will bring up the calendar, and allow to adjust the time.

Expanding All Subfolders in Explorer
Simply press the asterisk key (*) on the numeric keypad to expand all the subfolders for the selected drive.

Opening Files With Different Programs
Hold down the shift key while right-clicking on the file in Explorer; the 'open with' dialog will appear, and you can choose an alternate program to open the file with.

Recovering from a Hang
Besides pressing cntrl-alt-delete, pressing cntrl-escape may bring up the start menu, allowing you to safely shutdown your system.

Restarting Windows 95
To restart Windows 95 without a full warm boot, select shut down from the start menu, click the restart computer option, and hold the shift key down while affirming "yes".

Crashes in Word, etc., Due to OLE
Microsoft has recognized problems in OLE32 that cause crashes in Word 6.0, Word 7.0, and other applications. An updater has been released, and is available from their web site, or here.

Using Long Filenames in Word 6.0
To use long filenames in Word 6.0, get the program Widen.

Changing the Taskbar Size
Simply grab the edge with the mouse and drag.

Changing the Taskbar Location
The Taskbar can be moved to the top or either side simply by clicking and dragging.

Changing Taskbar Options
Right-click on the Taskbar and select properties; options include always on top, auto hide, showing small icons in the menus, and showing the clock.
You can also edit your start menu from this point, and clear the list of documents you have recently opened.

Deleting the Network Neighborhood Icon
 

Changing the Icon for 'Network Neighborhood'
 

Deleting the Inbox Icon
Right click on the 'Inbox' icon, and select 'delete'.

Changing the Icon for 'Inbox'
 

Deleting the MSN Icon
Right click on the MSN Icon and select 'delete'.

Renaming the 'Recycle Bin'
 

Changing the Icon for the 'Recycle Bin'
 

Boot to a Command Prompt:
Using 'Notepad' or another ASCII text editor, edit the MSDOS.SYS file in the root directory, and change BOOTGUI=1 to BOOTGUI=0.
You can also set this with 'TweakUI', available at the Microsoft Web Site or here at this site.

Showing Thumbnail Icons of Bitmap Files:
Using the Registration Editor, RegEdit, find the following:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PAINT\PICTURE\DefaultIcon
Change to:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PAINT\PICTURE\DefaultIcon "%1"

Making Icons from Bitmap Files:
simply rename a .BMP file to (name).ico; Windows 95 will resize it to icon size, and convert it to 16 colors. You can then use it as a new icon!

Turn Off the "Zooming" Windows
When opening, closing, maximizing, or minimizing windows, they 'zoom' with animations. This is not only annoying after a while, it also takes up valuable processor or accelerator time. To turn these 'zooming' windows off, use "TweakUI", available from the Microsoft Web site, or here at this site.
This can also be done with the registry editor, RegEdit, but it is simpler and safer to use "TweakUI".

Hiding the Modem in the Tray
 

this must be repeated for each connection you wish to change

Turning Off Delete Confirmation
 

Turning Off the Documents Menu
Although the documents menu is a neat idea, it is also a nuisance -- not everyone wants someone to be able to look at your computer and see what you have been working on (or playing with!).
The documents menu can be cleared temporarily by right-clicking on the taskbar, selecting properties, clicking on 'Start Menu Properties', and choosing 'clear documents menu'. However, it is only temporary.
To keep the documents menu from listing your recently-used documents in the future:

You can use Microsoft Paint, Photoshop, or Paint Shop Pro to create your new files. (Be sure to back up the originals to a safe location first.) While editing, work at 534x400. Then, before saving, resize them, (do not crop) back to 320x400. After saving, rename them to (filename).sys. Move them into the Windows folder when finished.

Making the 'Explorer' Appear in Lieu of Folders From 'My Computer'
 

Printing to a File
To print to a file instead of one of your installed printers:

Access the Control Panel from the Start Menu
To have direct access to the Control Panel applets via the start menu, create a new folder in the start menu and name it precisely:
Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
You will now have a cascading menu of all the control panel's contents.

Changing the Appearance of Shortcuts
Use "TweakUI", available from the Microsoft Web site, or here at this site.
This can also be done with the registry editor, RegEdit, but it is simpler and safer to use "TweakUI".

Using Iconic Preview of Bitmaps
 

Making Applications Launch on Startup
To add (or delete) applications from the startup folder:

Adding a File Type to the 'NEW' Menu
This requires using the Registration Editor, RegEdit. Be sure to read the notes in 'Key Technical Information' before doing so!
 

Quick Access to Drives, Similar to Norton Desktop Under Windows 3.x
Norton Desktop, under Windows 3.x, allowed you to place drive icons on the desktop for easy file manipulation. There is a simple way to do that for each of your drives under Windows 95.

If you wish to change the appearance of the shortcut, perhaps even deleting the arrow entirely, obtain TweakUI here, or from the Microsoft Web Site.

Showing All Files in Explorer
Select 'View/Options - the tab 'View' has an option for 'Show All Files'.

Using QuikView
On the CD-ROM version of Windows 95 is a handy utility called QuikView. (You can also download it from the Microsoft Site or here at this site.)

There are several ways to easily use QuikView:

Speeding Up the Start Menu
Obtain the Microsoft Powertoy 'TweakUI', either from the Microsoft Web Site or from this one. It contains an option to speed up the Start Menu. This change will not take effect until you restart Windows 95.
This setting can also be changed using the Registration Editor, 'RegEdit', but 'TweakUI' is much safer.

Speed Up the System Restart
Add 'BootDelay=0' to the [Options] section of C:\msdos.sys
You may have to change the attributes on this file to be able to edit it.

Freeing Memory in DOS Windows
In the [386Enh] section of 'System.ini', add 'LocalLoadHigh=1'

Removing DriveSpace
If you are not using DoubleSpace or DriveSpace, delete 'drvspace.bin' and 'dblspace.bin'from both the C:\ and C:\Windows directories. This will free additional DOS memory and speed system startup

Deleting Animated Help Files
If you know how to scroll, minimize windows, etc., you can recover 7.1 Megs of disk space by deleting the .AVI files from /windows/help

Deleting Extraneous or Leftover Files
 

You can safely delete the following files in the root directory:

*.txt, *.prv, *.log, *.old, *.___, and *.dos (unless you use dual-boot).

You can delete these files from the Windows directory:

*.log, *.old, *.___, *.bak, and, *.000, *.001, etc.

Locating Software Drivers
Making sure you have good 32-Bit drivers for your peripherals will boost Windows 95 performance.
For an excellent web site with a wealth of driver information and links, go to Frank's Windows 95 Software/Drivers Upgrades.

Defragmenting Your Disks
As files are opened, modified, and re-written to your hard disk, they gradually become fragmented. This means that your computer has to look in more and more locations to find all the parts of the files. To speed up your system, regularly run 'Disk Defragmenter' included with Windows 95 and located on the 'Start' menu under 'System Tools'.

Virtual Memory
Even though Windows 95 advises you to let it manage your virtual memory for best performance, this means that it will adjust it on the fly, causing moments of wild disk activity while you are virtually frozen. To set the disk cache permanently and stop this activity, do the following:

1. First, defragment your hard disk using 'Disk Deframenter' - see above
2. Right-click on 'My Computer', and select 'Properties'
3. Select the 'Performance' tab, and click 'Virtual Memory'
4. Select the drive you want your swapfile to be located on
5. Specify the same size for both 'Minimum' and 'Maximum' size. You may want to try different sizes for your swapfile. If you have less than 16 Megs of RAM and/or work a lot with 24-bit images, a good starting place is 2.5 times your amount of RAM.
6. Click 'Okay' a couple of times, and restart your computer.

Virtual Cache
Setting these values will prevent VCache from filling up your RAM and causing your applications to be paged out to disk.

1. Using Notepad or Wordpad, open 'System.ini'
2. Find the [vcache] section (or add it if it is not there), and add these two lines:

    

   MinFileCache=0

   MaxFileCache=4000

3. Restart Windows 95

Memory - RAM
Although Windows 95 will run in 4 Megabytes of RAM, I cannot envision anyone wanting to do so. With Windows 95, like Windows 3.1x, adding RAM will significantly boost performance. For the best price-to-performance ratio, 16 Megs is recommended. You will see an additional performance increase with even more RAM, but, unless you are working with many complex applications simultaneously, or editing 24-Bit color images, you get diminishing return on your money above 16 Megs.

Data Throughput
For best disk performance, use a quality EIDE or SCSI controller.

Video Acceleration
A quality, name-brand video accelerator, either VESA Local Bus or PCI, is recommended. Be sure to get one from a major manufacturer -- although good deals are often available on no-name cards with a known chipset, unless you get a major name brand, finding driver updates will be difficult.

Processors
Windows 95 will run on any processor from a 386DX up. For comfortable performance, upgrade to at least a 486DX2-66.
If you have problems with a particular motherboard/CPU, confirm that your BIOS will work with Windows 95. It is possible to get a BIOS upgrade, and that is certainly cheaper than installing a new motherboard.

What .DLL's are Used by Your .EXE's
Simply right-click on the application, and select 'quick view'.

Checking Your System Settings
Under the Control Panel, in System/Devices, you can print either a detailed or summary report of your system settings. This includes interrupts, DMA channels, and port addresses. You can also right-click on 'My Computer', and select 'Properties' from the menu. Select the 'Device Manager', and double-click on 'Computer'.

Changing Your IRQs
To change an IRQ to a specific value:

1. Select 'Control Panel/System/Devices'
2. Double-click on the device you want to change
3. Select 'Resources' for that item
4. Select the listing for the 'Interrupt Request'
5. The 'Change Setting' button will now be usable; click on it
6. 'Edit Interrupt Request' will allow you to change it; it will also tell you if another device is already using your new choice

The Registry is a central storehouse of information about your computer, containing all of your system settings in one database. Generally, it maintains your interface information, the information for the current user, the hardware and software settings, and information about plug-and-play components. Futher, all Windows 95 - specific programs are to store their settings within this file.

This file can be modified using RegEdit, the Registration Editor. However, you need to be careful when doing so. An incorrect entry can render your machine unbootable.

Before you work with the Registry, you should back up your registration database by:

1. copying system.da0 and user.da0 to a floppy, and,
2. forcing RegEdit to write a backup copy to a file named 'file.reg' by using the command line switch "/e".

In the event you corrupt the Registry, you can restore it in two ways:

1. using the RegEdit command line switch "/c" to restore from file.reg, or,
2. executing the following commands in MS-DOS mode:
   1. attrib -h -r -s system.dat
   2. attrib -h -r -s system.da0
   3. copy system.da0 system.dat
   4. attrib -h -r -s user.dat
   5. attrib -h -r -s user.da0
   6. copy user.da0 user.dat