WHICH WINDOW NEXT? ME or 2000?
CUSTOMIZING NETWORK NEIGHBORHOOD
EXPAND AND COLLAPSE FOLDERS WITH THE NUMERIC KEYPAD
BETTER USE OF THE DIR COMMAND, PART 2
BETTER USE OF THE DIR COMMAND, PART 3
BETTER USE OF THE DIR COMMAND, PART 4
SHARING WINDOWS 95 DRIVES AND FOLDERS, PART 1
SHARING WINDOWS 95 DRIVES AND FOLDERS, PART 2
SHARING WINDOWS 95 DRIVES AND FOLDERS, PART 3
WINDOWS 95 BACKUP, PART 1: BACK UP YOUR .DOC FILES
WINDOWS 95 BACKUP, PART 2: SIMPLIFY FILE SET BACKUPS
WINDOWS 95 BACKUP, PART 3: MOVE BACKED UP DATA TO A NON-CONNECTED PC
WINDOWS 95 BACKUP, PART 4: FULL VS. INCREMENTAL BACKUPS
GRAYED-OUT COMMANDS IN START CONTEXT MENU
CREATE A POP-OUT CONTROL PANEL FOLDER IN THE START MENU
MICROSOFT'S LIST OF KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
EXPANDED MARKETING--THE NEXT STEP UP IN E-BUSINESS
POWERTOYS: COMMAND PROMPT HERE
CREATE MORE POP-OUT FOLDERS IN THE START MENU
MANULLY RESTARTING THE DESKTOP
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE PRINT SCREEN KEY
REMOVE SHOW FILES WARNING FROM WINDOWS FOLDER
ADD APPLICATIONS TO THE SOUNDS PROPERTIES EVENTS LIST
INSTALLING MICROSOFT FAX IN WIN 98
CREATING SHORTCUTS TO SYSTEM OBJECTS
ADD NEW SOUND EVENTS TO REGISTRY
SHOW FILE ATTRIBUTES IN DETAIL VIEW
With all the hullabaloo surrounding the recent release of Windows 2000, you may be wondering which direction your upgrade path should go. Windows 2000 may be out already, but there's another product named Millennium being developed and tested that's aimed at the currently installed base of Windows 9x PCs. Should you wait for Millennium to be released or should you go ahead and upgrade to Windows 2000? Here are some pointers to help you decide.
According to Microsoft, you should use Windows 2000 Professional if you need:
* The highest reliability to keep your business running .
* Enhanced security to protect your business data.
* The best support for mobile business computing.
* The best platform for next-generation business technology.
You might be better off waiting for Millennium if you need:
* The best support for working with music and video.
* The best support for PC gaming.
* Easy home networking and Internet setup.
* The broadest support for consumer hardware and software.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
Here's a very simple tip that can help your novice users get a feel for disk usage on their Windows 9x installations. To quickly determine the amount of disk space being used by a particular folder and all its subdirectories, simply show users how to locate the folder in My Computer or Explorer, right-click it, and select Properties. The General tab displays the folder's size in bytes as well as the total number of files and folders contained within that folder. If, as an admin, you need further disk usage analysis, you might want to look at graphical utilities such as TreeSize, available from most good download sites.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
ClipTray (cliptray.exe) has the same role as ClipStor in that it holds frequently used text snippets for use later on. Whether you use ClipStor or ClipTray will eventually come down to personal preference.
Here are a few comparisons:
* ClipStor is more visual; ClipTray runs in the SysTray.
* ClipStor doesn't allow stored entries to survive program termination; ClipTray writes entries out to a text file.
* ClipStor utilizes the point-and-click method of saving entries; ClipTray has a more involved entry and saving process. If you need to have the same texts at your fingers day in and day out, then try ClipTray (and make a shortcut to it in the StartUp folder); if you only need a one-off store then try ClipStor.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
CUSTOMIZING NETWORK NEIGHBORHOOD
It's possible to customize Windows 9x, enabling you and your users to accomplish day-to-day tasks as readily as possible. As many of us use our Windows computers within networks, we should take a look at Network Neighborhood to see what customization options are there to make our lives easier. In C:\Windows, there's a folder named \Nethood. If you create shortcuts in here, they'll be visible when you open the Network Neighborhood. This is useful if you want to find a more convenient home for items that, by their nature, are network-related. For instance, create a shortcut to Netwatch.exe in the C:\Windows\Nethood folder and you'll get Network Watcher available from the Network Neighborhood. Now you can see who's connected to your shares from the part of the system you use to see other folks' shares. Sigh. If only Network Watcher had been built into the Network Neighborhood to start with.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
When working with the low bandwidth typical of DUN, however, you should do your best to ensure that you maximize its efficiency. One way to do this is to ask the computer to communicate over the connection using only the required network protocols. For instance, if you've dialed up to the Internet through an ISP, then you only need to communicate via TCP/IP. The same rule that applies to network protocols over a LAN also applies to dial-up connections--namely, if it isn't needed, don't use it! To check the protocols that are in use on a DUN connection, right-click the connection in the Dial-Up Networking window and select Properties. Select the Server Types tab and take a look at the Allowed Network Protocols section at the bottom of that tab. By default, Windows 98 enables NetBEUI, IPX/SPX, and TCP/IP over the connection. ISP connections and the majority of corporate dial-up implementations only use TCP/IP. Check with your IT administrator to confirm this, then remove the protocols that aren't needed by deselecting the checkboxes beside the unwanted protocols. Click OK to confirm your actions and exit the dialog.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
Making copies of floppy disks is a very simple chore if you know this trick. Forget copying the files out to temporary folders and then back to the new floppy. Simply open My Computer, right-click the floppy drive icon, and select Copy Disk. You'll be prompted for the source disk (the disk you want to copy), which Windows will then read. You'll then be prompted to insert the destination disk, which should be a blank, formatted disk. The contents of the source disk will then be read back out to the new disk. To be safe, you could ensure that you have write-protected the source disk by opening its protection tab so that you can't accidentally overwrite the original.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
EXPAND AND COLLAPSE FOLDERS WITH THE NUMERIC KEYPAD
Using Explorer to navigate around the folders on your hard disk can give you a good view of the layout of your drives. If you want to see a completely expanded view of the subfolders of your current position, simply highlight the folder or drive you want to expand and press [*] on the numeric keypad. Be aware that if you do this on a drive that has many levels of folders, like the system partition, getting the complete listing may take a good bit of time. To collapse the folders again, press [-] on the numeric keypad. And if you want to just expand the first level down, press [+] (also on the numeric keypad).
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
BETTER USE OF THE DIR COMMAND, PART 2
Here's a bit more on how to get the most out of the dir command. The /o switch lets you sort selected files using the normal selection arguments based on these codes: n (Name) e (Extension) g (Group directories first) a (Access date--most recent first) s (Size--smallest first) d (Date and time--earliest first) For example, the command dir *.doc /o:s would list all the .doc files in the current directory in order of size, with the smallest file first. As with the /a switch, the "-" operator can also be used to reverse the filter, so our example could be changed to dir *.doc /o:-s to list all the .doc files in the current directory in order of size, with the largest file first.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
BETTER USE OF THE DIR COMMAND, PART 3
The /v option (for Verbose) opens up some good information in the directory listing that wouldn't normally be visible without running additional commands on your selected files. For example, running the command dir *.* /v would return a list of files and subdirectories in the current directory along with the following information:
* Real vs. allocated disk size
* Last modified and last accessed dates
* Attributes for each entry (which would otherwise require that you run the attrib.exe command)
The /v option also returns at the end of the listing the percentage of the drive currently in use.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
BETTER USE OF THE DIR COMMAND, PART 4
To round out our series on the dir command, here's a tip on how to automatically activate your favorite dir command line switches so you don't have to always remember them. Windows 9x has a reserved environment variable called DIRCMD which is used specifically with the dir command to set command line options automatically. For example, if, after reading yesterday's tip you decided that it would be useful to always have the selected files listed with the largest first, with the Verbose option turned on you could use the DIRCMD variable to set this up automatically. To do so, open the MS-DOS prompt window and type the command Set DIRCMD=/o:-s /v and press [Enter]. Now if you run a dir command without those options, they'll be applied to the command anyway. To make the options permanent through reboots, you could add them to the autoexec.bat file. To clear the options, simply open the MS-DOS prompt window and type the command Set DIRCMD= and press [Enter].
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
Here's a very simple tip that can help your novice users get a feel for disk usage on their Windows 9x installations. To quickly determine the amount of disk space being used by a particular folder and all its subdirectories, simply show users how to locate the folder in My Computer or Explorer, right-click it, and select Properties. The General tab displays the folder's size in bytes as well as the total number of files and folders contained within that folder. If, as an admin, you need further disk usage analysis, you might want to look at graphical utilities such as TreeSize, available from most good download sites.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
SHARING WINDOWS 95 DRIVES AND FOLDERS, PART 1
Windows 95 is often found in small peer-to-peer networks, allowing a small number of users to share files between a small number of computers. In its basic form, this works just fine for the majority of small installations. To fire up file and print sharing, make sure you've enabled the I Want To Be Able To Give Others Access To My Files and the I Want To Be Able To Allow Others To Print To My Printer(s) options in the Network applet of Control Panel. By default, this allows all users to have full access to the shares you set up, and in many cases that's fine. Windows 95 will let you go slightly further than this though, to give you some level of security. Go to the Network applet of Control Panel again (Start | Settings | Control Panel | Network) and click the Access Control tab.
The two choices are:
* Share Level--You can allow Full or Read Only Access, or you can supply a separate password for Full and Read Only access to the share. It's then up to you to make sure only the right people know the passwords.
* User Level--You can supply the name of a computer on your network that's been set up with a list of users and specify which users are allowed Full, Read Only, or Custom access to shares. When deciding how to share your folders, bear in mind the ease with which users will need to access the folders. If security is your main concern, you should seriously consider the move to an NT-based network.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
SHARING WINDOWS 95 DRIVES AND FOLDERS, PART 2
The above tip describs the two different methods of "securing" shared folders on a Windows 95 PC, we described User Level and Share Level security. When you're deciding which method to use, you should also keep in mind the various related issues documented by Microsoft. For example, if you have a mixed network in which some users have Win9x machines while others have NT boxes, you should definitely consult Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q131675. This article describes a problem with NT workstations being unable to connect to shared folders on a Windows 95 or 98 PC because of the different password encryption methods used by NT and Win9x. The suggested workarounds include using all uppercase or all lowercase passwords, removing the Share Level access passwords altogether, or switching to User Level access. http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q131/6/75.asp
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
SHARING WINDOWS 95 DRIVES AND FOLDERS, PART 3
You should know that User Level access is also not without its problems. Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q162325 describes a problem using Dial-Up Networking from a Windows 95 PC. You may receive a message such as: Enter network password. You must provide a password to make this connection. One cause for this problem is having User Level Access Control enabled on the Windows 95 host PC, and specifying the computer that the Users and Groups are contained on as an NT Domain Controller. The workaround is to switch over, in this case, to Share Level Access Control on that computer. Clearly there are issues with both User Level and Share Level Access Control, and you should thoroughly evaluate each one to determine which will give you the functionality you require in your own environment. http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q162/3/25.asp
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
WINDOWS 95 BACKUP, PART 1: BACK UP YOUR .DOC FILES
You're always being told to back up your systems, and considering that Windows 95 comes with a backup utility, you can only blame yourself if you lose something. The basic operation of Backup is self-explanatory, so let's instead look at some of the less obvious features in this short series of tips. Suppose you want to regularly back up all the Word documents on your PC.
Follow these steps:
1. Launch MSBackup.exe (you'll find it under Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools) and, as usual, select the drives you want to include in your backup.
2. Go to Settings | File Filtering.
3. Click Select All to select all the file types registered on the PC.
4. Click Exclude to copy these to the Excluded list in the window below.
5. In this bottom window, highlight the .doc extension, and then click Delete. The .doc extension is no longer excluded from the backup.
6. Choose the destination for the backup and save the File Set. Now when you want to back up your Word documents, run Backup, select Open File Set from the File menu, and select the file set you just saved. The backup program will then back up all your .doc files to the destination you chose before.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
WINDOWS 95 BACKUP, PART 2: SIMPLIFY FILE SET BACKUPS
In the above tip, we describe saving a File Set (a selection of files saved as a .set file), and we showed you how to create a backup set consisting only of your .doc files. If you want to make frequent backups of a certain group of files (and we all do, don't we?), here's another tip you might find useful. Save the File Set onto the Windows desktop. By default, Windows associates the .set extension with the Backup program so that when you double-click the File Set icon, the Backup program automatically launches to back up your selected files to the destination you specified in the File Set. Alternatively, you could create a shortcut to the MSBackup.exe program on the desktop (it should be in the \program files\accessories folder), and then drag the File Set onto the Backup shortcut to start it.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
WINDOWS 95 BACKUP, PART 3: MOVE BACKED UP DATA TO A NON-CONNECTED PC
The Backup program not only works with tape drives, it also lets you back up to folders across the network or on your own PC. If you have a number of files to move between non-connected PCs in your organization, Windows 95's Backup program is a reasonable method of compressing them so you can transport the data via disk. Of course, you should make sure first that the Backup program is installed on both PCs, and that each has a functioning floppy drive. Select the files you want to transfer, and when selecting the destination, select the floppy drive of your PC. Insert a formatted, blank floppy and start the backup. At the destination PC, insert the floppy, start the Backup program, and follow the Restore screens. Voila! Files transferred!
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
WINDOWS 95 BACKUP, PART 4: FULL VS. INCREMENTAL BACKUPS
Suppose you want to run a Full Backup of a set of files at the beginning of a week, and then back up only the files that have changed on the remaining days of the week.
To do this, follow these steps:
1. Create a File Set that selects the files and performs a Full Backup, and then run that backup.
2. Open that File Set again and go to Settings | Options | Backup.
3. In the Type Of Backup section, switch from Full to Incremental.
4. Click OK, and then save the File Set. Now run the File Set again as needed, which will only back up files that have changed since the Full Backup was made. When you need to start the backup cycle again, change the File Set to make a Full Backup, run the backup, and then change the File Set to run Incremental Backups. Note that the Backup program Help file has a further explanation of this procedure and also that to make a full restore of the backups, both the Incremental and Full Backups will be required.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
When starting Windows 95 or 98, you receive the following: VFAT Device Initialization Failed. A device or resource required by VFAT is not present or is unavailable. VFAT cannot continue loading. System halted. More than likely, the problem involves the Ifshlp.sys file.
It's possible that:
* The file is missing from the Windows folder.
* There's a line in the Config.sys folder that points to an old version of the file. (Check for multiple copies of Ifshlp.
* on your hard drive.)
* The device= line in Config.sys that references Ifshlp.sys has been REM'd out or deleted.
* The entries in the [Paths] section in MSDos.sys are incorrect--they don't point to your current Windows installation.
* There's a Winboot.ini file from an incomplete installation of Windows in the root of the boot disk. Identify which of these situations is causing the problem, and you're well on your way to solving it. Clearly, one cause of this problem is the reinstallation, or attempted reinstallation, of Windows.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
If you attempt to reinstall Windows 9x to a different location on your hard disk and all does not go smoothly, you may find yourself with a system that refuses to boot. An understanding of the Msdos.sys file can prevent hours of frustration while you try to work out what's gone wrong or even reinstall Windows from scratch (with possibly the same result). The Msdos.sys file used to be a binary system file in earlier Windows and DOS environments, but now it's a text file that configures some pre-boot Windows options. To edit the file, you'll first need to remove the attributes that protect it. Be warned, however, that damaging the current settings in this file could leave a working system non- starting, so be careful and be sure you have a backup before you begin. To remove the Read Only, System, and Hidden attributes, open a command prompt and type Attrib c:\Msdos.sys -r -s -h. To open the file in a DOS text editor type Edit c:\Msdos.sys. With Msdos.sys open, you can now look at the Paths settings that define where Windows should look for its system files.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
In this short series of tips we are looking at how to use the Msdos.sys file to troubleshoot a non-booting system after an attempted upgrade or reinstallation of Windows 9x to another location on the PC. The Paths section at the top of the file defines where Windows should look for its system files. Typically it will look like the example below: [Paths] WinDir=C:\WINDOWS WinBootDir=C:\WINDOWS HostWinBootDrv=C The WinDir and WinBootDir are nearly always the same, though WinBootDir specifically defines the files Windows needs to boot from, and WinDir defines the rest of the Windows files. These should point to the directory you've installed Windows into. If your reinstallation just failed to update this file, altering these paths may well bring your installation back to its feet. The HostWinBootDrv will nearly always be the same drive letter as specified by the other two paths, unless DriveSpace is loaded. In this case, the value will be the letter of the drive that hosts the drive on which Windows is installed. An incorrect setting here will also clearly cause the system to fail. Next time, we'll look at some of the optional settings within Msdos.sys. An understanding of these can help you both solve unusual boot conditions and give you some flexibility in the boot process in general.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
In looking at the Msdos.sys file we've discussed various settings to check when attempting to solve Windows 9x boot problems. There are other settings that can be made under the Options header that can also provide some control over the Windows boot process. You may, for example, want to stop your users from being able to press the Function keys to invoke the Boot Options menu at Startup. This is accomplished by adding the line BootKeys=0 on a new line under the Options header. When Windows shuts down improperly, Scandisk runs by default, prompting the user but running in 60 seconds anyway if there is no response. To force Scandisk to run without prompting the user, change the setting AutoScan=1 to AutoScan=2 To force the system to boot straight into a command prompt instead of into Windows, ensure that you have the following line in the Options section: BootGUI=0
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
To round off this series of tips on the Msdos.sys file, we'll point you to Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q118579 to find the remainder of the optional settings that can be made to the Msdos.sys file. http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q118/5/79.asp As we've mentioned before, damaging valid settings in this file can leave your system in a nonbooting state, so great care must be taken when editing it. Be sure you have a backup before you begin. When manual editing has been completed, reapply the file attributes to the file with the command: attrib Msdos.sys +s +h +r You'll also notice that the file ends with lines that start with those printed below: ; ;The following lines are required for compatibility with other programs.
;Do not remove them (MSDOS.SYS needs to be >1024 bytes). ;xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxa ;xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxb
These lines are required for backwards compatibility and MUST NOT be removed. They are just padding to make the file larger than 1,024 bytes. You'll notice that the lines start with a semicolon (;), which indicates that these are just remarks. Nevertheless, they are required for a bootable system and must be left in place.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
Deleting files or folders from Windows 9x shares over a network doesn't send them to the Recycle Bin. Without the safety net of the Recycle Bin, users might be nervous (and rightfully so) about sharing data. One workaround is to turn on the Read Only permission on the Sharing tab for a shared folder that contains critical data. But also keep in mind that to operate normally many applications need to create and delete temporary files as they run. If the permissions are set to Read Only for these folders, such applications may not function properly.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
GRAYED-OUT COMMANDS IN START CONTEXT MENU
If you right-click the Start button and the resulting Open and Explore options are inactive (grayed out), youy may be a bit perplexed. It seems this problem arises if you use the Tweak UI PowerToy to hide one or more drives on your system. To resolve this problem, Microsoft suggests that you unhide any drives. Open Tweak UI, click the My Computer tab, select any unselected check boxes, then click OK. Restart Windows 98, right-click Start, and those Open and Explore commands should be back in business. (Quick review: The Tweak UI PowerToy is on your Windows 98 installation CD, in the tools\reskit\powertoy folder. To install it, right-click tweakui.inf and select Install. To open Tweak UI, double-click its icon inside the Control Panel.)
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
In many of our tips, we refer to the Windows 95 PowerToys, a set of tools designed by the Windows Shell Development Team. In this series of tips, we're discussing a few of the more obscure PowerToys. (For information on obtaining the PowerToys, see the note below.) Assuming you have the PowerToys installed, right-click any folder (or the Start button or any drive), and you'll see a new Contents command. Select it, and out pops a menu of that folder's contents. Selecting any item in this list is the same as opening the folder and double-clicking that item--without going through all the extra work. (Note: If you don't have the Contents menu PowerToy, point your Web browser at http://www.pcworld.com/r/tw/1%2C2061%2Ctw-w95-62%2C00.html
and download W95powertoy.exe to your folder of choice, such as a PowerToys folder on the desktop. Double-click this file to extract its contents. Then, to install the Contents menu PowerToy, right-click Content.inf and select Install.)
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
CREATE A POP-OUT CONTROL PANEL FOLDER IN THE START MENU
Want quick access to all the items in your Control Panel? Add a pop-out Control Panel folder to your Start menu. Right-click the Start button, select Open, and in the resulting Start Menu window, select File, New, Folder. To name the folder, type exactly Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} and then press Enter. (Note that there's no space between the period and the opening bracket.) Click Start, select the new folder, and you'll see a menu of all Control Panel items. In our next tip, we'll show you how to create Printers and Dial-Up Networking folders using a similar technique.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
MICROSOFT'S LIST OF KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
Microsoft has compiled a fairly extensive list inside its Knowledge Base. Check it out at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q126/4/49.asp
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
EXPANDED MARKETING--THE NEXT STEP UP IN E-BUSINESS
More involved, the expanded marketing site offers your customers more detailed information than the brochureware site. Expanded marketing might provide detailed descriptions and visual representations of your company's products and services, overviews of current or previous projects, an analysis and projections for your industry or product category, as well as other pertinent information. For instance, if you have a fly-fishing store, you can tell your visitors about current competitions and package deals and trips to popular spots. You can post weekly sales and specials available only on your Web site. To build an expanded marketing site, you may want to work with an Internet services firm, which can ensure the quality of your code, graphic design, and user experience. Or, as with the brochureware site, you may want to find a local freelancer who can build your site without the overhead of a full-service firm.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
POWERTOYS: COMMAND PROMPT HERE
In many of our tips, we refer to the Windows 95 PowerToys, a set of tools designed by the Windows Shell Development Team. In this series of tips, we're discussing a few of the more obscure PowerToys. (For information on obtaining the PowerToys, see the note below.) Assuming you have the PowerToys installed, right-click any folder, and you'll see a new command, Command Prompt Here. Select this command and up pops an MS-DOS window with the command prompt already pointing to that folder. Use this command to open the DOS window from any folder, and you won't have to do all that unnecessary typing to change the directory. (Note: If you don't have the Command Prompt Here PowerToy, point your Web browser at http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/WUToys/W95PwrToysSet/Default.asp and download W95powertoy.exe to your folder of choice, such as a PowerToys folder on the desktop. Double-click this file to extract its contents. Then, to install the Command Prompt Here PowerToy, right-click Doshere.inf and select Install.)
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
A small peer-to-peer network can easily be set up to share files between a small number of PCs. Let's say PC_1 has a shared folder named Accounts set up on its hard disk that other PCs map to as Drive S to run the Accounts package. This works fine because the Accounts package has been configured to see its data files on the S drive, too. However, the user who normally uses PC_1 cannot run the Accounts package because the computer doesn't have an S drive, and mapping a drive back to a share on the same computer just fails, as does the Net Use command. This issue can be overcome if you Subst to the share with a command such as subst s: c:\accounts and add this command to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Now PC_1 also has an S drive and the configuration of the Accounts package is valid for this computer too.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
CREATE MORE POP-OUT FOLDERS IN THE START MENU
To create a pop-out Control Panel folder in your Start menu: Right-click the Start button, select Open, and in the resulting Start Menu window, select File, New, Folder. To name the folder, type exactly Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} and then press Enter. (Note that there's no space between the period and the opening bracket.) To create a Printers folder, follow the same steps, but name the folder Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D} To create a Dial-Up Networking folder, name the folder DUN.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48} (Note: The end result is an empty folder. You'll need to add items to it manually by dragging them from the original folder and dropping them inside the new one on the Start menu.)
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
Here's a quick and useful tip for checking out which version of a given Microsoft Dynamic Link Library (.dll) file you really have. Let's say you have a problem on your Windows 9x PC that's arisen after the installation of a software application. From the error messages, you suspect the problem lies with the version of a particular .dll that's been replaced on your system, and you now want to see whether or not the version currently in place is actually the file you started off with. Go to the Microsoft DLL Help database and search for your .dll. You'll be able to check which products (including which version of Windows) the version you have came from--or whether the file currently in place did not, in fact, originate from the version of Windows you've installed. This Web site will also tell you which .cab file to look in to extract a fresh copy of the .dll you identify as the correct one. http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/fileversion/dllinfo.asp
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
There's a circumstance that can prevent an otherwise perfectly good Windows installation from requesting an IP address from a DHCP server. If the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\DHCP contains eight MAC address entries, Windows 98 cannot create an entry for the current session and will not send a request packet to the DHCP server. To resolve this issue, use Regedit to remove all the keys (except for the DHCPInfo00 key) from the above registry entry, and then restart the computer. Defrag on startup It's possible to schedule a defrag of all your disks during your next system startup. Of course, to do so you'll need to make sure the Windows Defragmenter (Defrag.exe) is installed on the client system. From the Windows 98 CD, browse down to the \Tools\Mtsutil directory and locate the Defrag.inf file. Right-click the file and select Install from the shortcut menu. That's it; all the drives will be defragmented using the Defrag.exe tool when the system restarts. The INF file makes use of the RunServicesOnce key in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion tree to start this one-time task, so you don't have to manually edit the registry. You might also want to copy the Defrag.inf file to your desktop so it'll be handy whenever you need it.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
We all know how useful WinZip is—its name is synonymous with file compression and archiving. If you have the Windows 98 Resource Kit, however, you should never be stuck for means of quickly compressing a file. The command-line utilities Compress.exe and Expand.exe do exactly what their names suggest. There aren't many command-line options for these utilities. If you use the -r option when compressing a file, however, the compressed file's extension is automatically changed to a .xx_ extension (for example, document.do_). The advantage of this approach is that if you then use WinZip to expand the file, WinZip automatically makes its best guess at the extension (dependent on the extension associations on the extracting PC) and extracts the file as such. If you use the command line to specify an extension for which WinZip cannot determine an association, you'll be prompted to name the file before you extract it.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
MANULLY RESTARTING THE DESKTOP
If a client system's desktop has become unresponsive or if you want to activate registry tweaks, you can manually refresh your desktop without having to wait several minutes for the computer to restart. Press [Ctrl][Alt][Delete], select Explorer from the Close Program dialog box, and click End Task. First you'll see the Shut Down Windows dialog box, but wait a few seconds longer and click End Task in the This Task Is Not Responding dialog box. The screen will go blank and then, as Explorer restarts, it will refresh your desktop. You should also find that well behaved applications that were previously open will still be open, although you may lose some of the programs that were open in the system tray. Even a dial-up networking session should continue running.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
Perhaps the most common way to map a drive letter to a network drive is to use Windows Explorer to map the drive letter. You can, however, connect these mapped drives from the Windows 98 MS-DOS prompt using the Net.exe command. This method is used for Windows NT logon scripts, but it can also be useful if you need to complete a specific task during the day (or night) requiring a remote file share. For instance, say you need to map a drive (G) to the \\server1\work share, you could use the command Net use g: \\server1\work If there is already a G mapped on the PC, however, this will return an error. To work around this, it is common practice to run the command Net use g: /delete before the command that maps the drive. This deletes the current mapping of G, allowing the new mapping to complete successfully. If you do not necessarily need to specify the letter to be used in the drive mapping, you can use the wildcard symbol [*] instead. For example, Net use *: \\server1\work will map the first available drive letter (after the letters assigned to fixed disks and removable media) to the network share.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
Tired of hearing all that racket as your modem connects to your ISP? Windows 98 includes a setting designed to silence your modem. (It doesn't work for all modems; you'll have to try it on yours and see.) Open the Control Panel and double-click Modems. On the General tab, select your modem, click the Properties button, and move the lever under Speaker Volume all the way left, to Off. Click OK and then Close. From now on, that modem will connect in silence.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE PRINT SCREEN KEY
Reader C. writes, "My Print Screen key on my keyboard doesn't seem to respond at all. Any suggestions?" Pressing the Print Screen key sends the current screen to the clipboard (not to the printer, as one would expect). To print the contents of the clipboard, you'll need to use a separate application, such as Paint. Open Paint--select Start, Programs, Accessories, Paint--and select Edit, Paste. If you see a message stating that the image is larger than the current bitmap, click Yes to confirm that you'd like to enlarge the bitmap. The image on the clipboard now appears on screen. From there, you can use Paint's Print command to print the screen. In the next tip, more about Print Screen...
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
In the above tip, we show you how to use the Print Screen key to print the current screen: Press the Print Screen key (to send the current screen to the clipboard); open Paint--select Start, Programs, Accessories, Paint; select Edit, Paste; if you see a message stating that the image is larger than the current bitmap, click Yes; use Paint's Print command to print the screen. Now on to a couple of pointers: - Hold down Alt as you press Print Screen to send only the currently active window to the clipboard. - If you're printing an entire screen, switch to Landscape mode first--select File, Page Setup, Landscape, and click OK--so the image will fit on a standard letter-size page.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
Do you keep a basic text journal or diary of your Windows 9x system changes or error messages to help with fault finding? Here's a tip that'll bring new life to the basic text editor that's been with Windows from the start.
Notepad has a feature that makes it a really useful tool for system admins who need to log events.
1. Open a Notepad session.
2. On the first line, type .LOG and press [Enter] to start a new line.
3. Save the file. Each time you open the file, a date and time stamp will be added to the file automatically. So place a shortcut to the file on the desktop, double-click on it, add your notes under the time stamp, and save the file again. You'll build up a record of events without having to repeatedly add the date and time.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
Do you have a particular Windows 95 PC that runs continuously--not just for a couple of days at a time, but indefinitely? If so, and it's controlled enough not to crash for any other reason, you may find that it hangs all by itself after precisely 49.7 days. This is caused by a problem with the timing algorithm in Vtdapi.vxd. The good news though is that there's a fix available from Microsoft. Copy and paste this URL into your browser to download the updated file for Windows 95: download.microsoft.com/download/win95upg/update5/1/w95/EN-US/vtdapi95.exe
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
You've probably noticed that you can create shortcuts to many parts of Windows 98 and copy them to toolbars and the Start menu, allowing you to arrange the user interface to suit you. Some parts of Win 98 appear more rooted, however. Say you want an icon for the whole Control Panel on the Quick Launch toolbar, or you want to be able to access the Printers icon from inside the Network Neighborhood (not too bizarre considering most of your printers may be network shares). If you try dragging these system objects out of the Start Menu, they'll remain rooted to the spot; however, there is a way by which you can create a shortcut to these objects. The basic procedure will be explained in our next tip. All you need to know is the code, called the Class ID (or sometimes Namespace ID), of the system object to which you want to create a shortcut.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
REMOVE SHOW FILES WARNING FROM WINDOWS FOLDER
If you're viewing the contents of your hard drive as a Web page, and you double-click the Windows folder (or the Windows\System folder), you'll see this warning message: "To view the contents of this folder, click Show Files." You can avoid these warnings by opting not to view your folders as Web pages. Not good enough? You can remove those warnings and still view your folders as Web pages. The warning messages are part of the customization for the Windows and Windows\System folders. Remove the customization and you remove the messages. Open the Windows folder, locate the folder.htt and desktop.ini files, and create copies of these files in the same folder. (Name them anything you want, such as folder1.htt and desktop1.ini, or just leave them as "Copy Of folder.htt" and "Copy Of desktop.ini.") Still in the Windows folder, select View, Customize This Folder and select Remove Customization. Click Next twice, then click Finish. Repeat these steps for the Windows\System folder, and those warning messages are history.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
ADD APPLICATIONS TO THE SOUNDS PROPERTIES EVENTS LIST
You probably already know how to associate a sound on your system with an event in the Sounds Properties dialog box: Open the Control Panel, double-click Sounds, select an event in the Events list, and select a sound under Name. But did you also know that if an event with which you'd like to associate a sound is not listed there, you can still associate a sound with it? Just add this event to the list by editing the Registry. (Note: As always, back up your Registry files--System.dat and User.dat, hidden files on the root of your hard drive--before proceeding.) Open the Registry Editor by selecting Start, Run, typing regedit and clicking OK. Navigate your way to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps. There, you'll see a list of applications with events in the Sounds Properties dialog box. (In case you're wondering, .Default is Windows.) Now create a new key for the application whose events you'd like to add to the Sounds dialog box. Right-click the Apps key, select New, Key, type the name of the program's *.exe file without the extension or path (for example, type Winword for Microsoft Word), and press Enter. In the right pane, right-click (Default) and select Modify. In the Edit String dialog box, on the Value Data line, type the application name, such as Microsoft Word Click OK. Repeat these steps for other applications. In our next tip, we'll show you how to add the actual events.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
INSTALLING MICROSOFT FAX IN WIN 98
We frequently receive requests asking how to install the old Windows 95 fax capability on a Windows 98 system. Actually, Microsoft Fax is on the Windows 98 installation CD. Pop the CD into your CD-ROM drive, click Browse This CD, and navigate your way to the Tools/OldWin95/Message/Us folder. To install Microsoft Fax, run awfax.exe. (Note: According to Microsoft, this utility "requires a Full MAPI Client in order to function, such as: Microsoft Exchange, Windows Messaging, Microsoft Exchange Server Client or Outlook [the full version, not Express].")
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
CREATING SHORTCUTS TO SYSTEM OBJECTS
In our previous tip "Get hold of system objects" , we introduced the idea of creating shortcuts to Windows 98 system objects by using their Class IDs. Suppose you want to place an icon on the Quick Launch toolbar that lets you into the Control Panel, rather than having to go to Start | Settings | Control Panel each time.
Here's the basic procedure:
1. Right-click on the desktop and go to New | Folder.
2. Rename the folder exactly as below, including the full stop and the braces: Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
3. Press [Enter] when you've finished in order to commit the change of folder name. The long code is the Class ID that keeps track of the Control Panel system object. Now drag the folder down to the Quick Launch toolbar to create a shortcut, and then delete the folder from the desktop. The shortcut you created is still pointing at the Class ID and so remains functional, regardless of where you ultimately place it.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
ADD NEW SOUND EVENTS TO REGISTRY
The first part to making new application events appear in the Sounds dialog box: Inside the Registry Editor, navigate your way to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps. For each application for which you'd like to add events, right-click the Apps key, select New, Key, type the name of a program's *.exe file without the extension or path, and press Enter. Right-click (Default), select Modify, type the application name, and click OK. Now, under each new application key, create a key for each event with which you'd like to associate sounds. Right-click the application key, select New, Key, type a legitimate event name, and press Enter. (To view a list of these names, double-click the .Default key under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps.) Repeat these steps for each of the application's events you'd like to see in the Events list, then follow these same steps to add events for other applications. When you're finished, close the Registry Editor. The next time you open the Sounds Properties dialog box, you'll see your new application and events in the Events list. You can now associate these sounds with events just as you normally would: Select an event, then select a sound under Name. (Note: If the sound you want to use isn't in the list, click Browse, navigate your way to that file, select it, and click OK.)
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
Last time we showed how you could create a shortcut to the Control Panel to give you quicker access to the computer's configuration ("Creating shortcuts to system objects," ). Using the same technique, you can create shortcuts to other system objects as well. Maybe you want to create a new toolbar that contains these objects, or perhaps you want to place them in the Network Neighborhood or simply on the desktop. To do so, you'll need to know which Class IDs to use.
Here are some Class IDs for commonly created shortcuts:
* Favorites.{1A9BA3A0-143A-11CF-8350-444553540000}
* Internet Cache.{7BD29E00-76C1-11CF-9DD0-00A0C9034933}
* Scheduled Tasks.{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}
* The Internet.{3DC7A020-0ACD-11CF-A9BB-00AA004AE837}
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000
SHOW FILE ATTRIBUTES IN DETAIL VIEW
Want to see file attributes right next to each file, as you could back in the days of Windows 3.x? You can, as long as you have the window in which you're viewing the files set to Detail view. Open any Explorer window and select View, Folder Options. Click the View tab, and in the list under Advanced Settings, select Show File Attributes In Detail View. Click OK. The next time you open a folder in Detail view, you'll see a brand new Attributes column on the far right. (You may need to widen the window to see it.) What's more, if you're viewing the folder as a Web page (select View, As Web Page), you'll see the attributes for any selected file on the left side of the window.
Technical Tips © KRMS Productions 2000