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Miscellaneous Tips

SpeedUp My PC
This is a great program. I've been using it regularly to automatically clean out things like old Temp Files, Internet Cache, Cookies etc. It is very customizable and user friendly

Determining Your Processor's Speed - Updated 11/23/02
While initializing device vkd error - Added 6/22/01
Swapping the Mouse Buttons for Left Hand from the Command Line - Added 6/17/01
Using the Wheel Mouse to Control the Font Size - Submitted 5/12/01
Creating a Directory That is Not Accessible From Windows - Submitted 4/8/00
Creating Custom Boot Floppies - Added 3/15/00
Deleting the TEMP Directory at Bootup - Submitted 2/21/00
Saving File Searches - Added 2/21/00
Searching for Files In All Drives - Submitted 2/12/00
Renaming CD ROM Drive Letter - Submitted 2/12/00
Changing the Colors of the Blue Screen of Death - Added 1/27/00
Powering on the Computer With Your Mouse - Submitted 11/9/99
Removing Programs from the Control Panel - Updated 8/14/98
Not Loading DriveSpace or DoubleSpace Drivers - Submitted 8/12/98
Increasing Performance - Updated 8/11/98
Increasing Disk Performance - Submitted 6/14/98
Clearing the Documents Folder - Submitted 6/7/98
Opening a File with Application that is Different than its Registered One - Submitted 3/29/98
Fixing VMM32 Memory Leak - Added 2/12/98
Removing One Document File from START / DOCUMENTS - Submitted 12/29/97
Finding Files with Specific Text in Them - Submitted 12/29/97
Creating a Support Information Button - Submitted 11/29/97
Create (or replace) the Manufacturer's logo in System Properties - Submitted 11/29/97
Adding printers to the Add Printer Dialog Box - Submitted 10/11/97
Device Problems with Removable Hard Drives - Submitted 10/11/97
Deleting Files Without Sending Them to the Recycle Bin - Submitted 9/13/97
Changing the Recycle Bin Size - Submitted 9/13/97
Displaying Last File Searches - Submitted 9/13/97
Associating Several File Extensions to the Same Program - Submitted 8/23/97
Fast Open of the Start Menu - Submitted 7/4/97
Getting Item Properties - Submitted 4/19/97
Starting Win95 Without Running Apps in the Startup Folder - Submitted 4/5/97
Removing a program from the Control Panel - Submitted 3/12/97
Using FIND to Search Across Multiple Drives - Added 2/19/97
RUNDLL Error Message - Submitted 1/28/96
Automatically Delete Files Sent to Recycle Bin - Submitted 11/29/96
The Simplest Multi-Boot - Submitted 11/24/96
Enabling Telephony Controls - Submitted 11/3/96
Disabling CDs AutoRun - Added 10/20/96
Control Panel CPL Files - Added 10/19/96
Reserving Resources from Plug and Play Devices - Added 10/6/96
Viewing System IRQ, I/O, Memory and DMA Utilization - Added 10/6/96
Installing with an INF File - Added 9/1/96
Automatically Deleting Files in the Recycle Bin - Submitted 8/5/96
Increasing your Sound Card's Bass and Treble - Added 6/8/96
ATI Video Card and COM4 conflicts - Submitted 5/3/96
System Policies when logging on to an NT Domain - Submitted 4/28/96
Changing to Win 3.x Shell - Submitted 4/28/96
Quickly Opening Text Files - Submitted 4/23/96
Changing your Modem's Initialization String - Added 4/9/96
Saving memory by adjusting your CD Cache - Added 3/30/96
Easy File Deletes - Submitted 2/19/96
Update to DTC 2278 D Controller and CD ROMs - Submitted 2/15/96
HP Print Failures - Added 1/27/96
Eliminate banner page from printing when running HP 4 & 5 printer - Submitted 1/26/96
Designating Drive Letter for CD ROMs and other removable media - Added 1/20/96
Upgrading with Pro Audio Spectrum Cards - Submitted 1/16/96
Bypass starting Windows95 - Submitted 1/14/96
Quick Format a Floppy Disk - Submitted 1/13/96
Creating a Boot Menu - 12/27/95
Selecting non-recognized modems - 12/25/95
Creating PRN File Types - 12/13/95
Refresh SCSI Devices - 11/28/95
DTC Controller I/O Problems - 11/18/95
Removing programs listed in Control Panel's Remove Programs - 11/4/95
Drivespace and Memory - 11/1/95
Booting to DOS - 10/2/95
Turning off Numlock - 9/13/95
Quickly Restarting Win95 - 9/12/95
S3 Video and COM 4 - 9/9/95
Potential problems with 16-bit WINSOCK.DLL's - 9/1/95
Speeding up your double-speed CD-ROM - 8/31/95
Copying Graphics
Read the TIPS.TXT File		  

SpyEraser
I've been using the program a lot lately to help remove spyware from customer's computers. It has quite a few options like Live Guard, Startup and Scanning Options. If you are infected with spyware, or more importantly, want to help prevent getting infected, you might give this program a try.

Determining Your Processor's Speed

Updated 11/23/02

You can also The tool can be accessed directly by executing WINREP.EXE

Submitted by Corner Dude

Submitted 2/20/01

To find out how fast the processor is, while in Win95/98,

  1. Go to Accessories / System Tools / System Information
  2. Click on Tools
  3. Select Windows Report Tool
  4. Click on the blue Change System File Selections towards the bottom of the window

This will perform a short scan of your system files

Your processor speed, memory, hard drives will then show up

Submitted by Jason Graine

While initializing device vkd error

Added 6/22/01

If you get the error:

While initializing device vkd -- Windows Protection Error -- You need to restart your computer

while booting your computer, try replacing the keyboard

Swapping the Mouse Buttons for Left Hand from the Command Line

Added 6/17/01

If you want to swap the mouse buttons for a left handed person, 
you can do this from the command line.

Win9x:
RUNDLL user.exe,SwapMouseButton

Win2000:
RUNDLL32 user32.dll,SwapMouseButton

To swap it back again to a right-hand mouse, you need to run the mouse icon from the Control Panel.

Using the Wheel Mouse to Control the Font Size

Submitted 5/12/01

Try using the Control key with the mouse wheel. 
This works a zoom function. 
I know you do this for Office 2k apps as well, but in IE it just works on the text, so the page stays somewhat the same.

Submitted by Bruce Miller

Creating a Directory That is Not Accessible From Windows

Submitted 4/8/00

  1. To create the directory, type md, then a space, then holding down your ALT button type on number pad only 255.
  2. To access cd\ALT+255 from DOS
  3. When you try to access this from the Explorer you get an Access Denied error.

Submitted by Paul Burcham

Creating Custom Boot Floppies

Added 3/15/00

If you have custom drivers or files you want to always have when you create boot disks, 
copy them to the \Windows\Command\EBD directory.

Then when you want to create a new floppy, run \Windows\Command\Bootdisk.bat

This will format the floppy and copy all the files in the EBD directory.

I like this since I usually add a lot more files than the normal StartUp disk Windows creates.

Deleting the TEMP Directory at Bootup

Submitted 2/21/00

Normally your TEMP directory can fill with .tmp files, files left over from installs etc.
An easy way to delete it each time you boot is to add the following lines to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file:

@C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DelTree /Y   C:\WINDOWS\Temp\

Submitted by Bob S.

Saving File Searches

Added 2/21/00

If you want to review the results of a file search at a later time:

  1. While on the Desktop or with the Explorer, press F3 to start the search
  2. Click Options / Save Results
  3. Do the search
  4. After the search select File / Save Search
  5. An icon will be placed on the desktop with the search results.

Searching for Files In All Drives

Submitted 2/12/00

If you want to search for files across all drives, including mapped network drives:

  1. Press F3 to start the search
  2. In the Named box, enter file or folder you want to search for
  3. In Look in select My Computer
  4. This will search all drives including mapped network drives. Easier than using the comma's.

Submitted by Gerald Norman

Renaming CD ROM Drive Letter

Submitted 2/12/00

Rename the drive letters of your CD drive(s) from the back of the alphabet, eg, Z, Y. This way, if you add extra hard disks, your CD drives do not get re-lettered.

Submitted by Stephen Lee

Note from Bob: 

  1. You can do this from the Device Manager. 
  2. Open up the CD ROM section
  3. Open the CD ROM you want to change
  4. Under Settings, change the Start Drive Letter to higher in the alphabet.

Changing the Colors of the Blue Screen of Death

1/27/00

You can change the normal colors of the background and text when you get a Blue Screen of Death.

Edit the SYSTEM.INI file in the Windows directory

In the [386Enh] add the entries:

MessageTextColor=X
MessageBackColor=X

Where X is replace by the number for each of the following colors:

Black = 0
Blue = 1
Green = 2
Cyan = 3
Red = 4
Magenta = 5
Yellow/Brown = 6
White = 7
Gray = 8
Bright Blue = 9
Bright Green = A
Bright Cyan = B
Bright Red = C
Bright Magenta = D
Bright Yellow = E
Bright White = F

Powering on the Computer With Your Mouse

Submitted 11/9/99

If you have ATX Main Board, ATX case Award Bios, or any Bios that supports PS/2 Mouse Power On, then you can power on your computer with a double click.

To activate this feature:

  1. Restart your computer
  2. Then press Del when the BIOS message appears to enter your CMOS configuration
  3. Select Integrated Peripherals from main menu
  4. If PS/2 mouse power on disabled, activate it by press page up/ page down key it will became Double-Click
  5. Press Esc key to exit
  6. Press F10 to save and exit Power off your PC
  7. Now double-click the left mouse button,.. Your PC will turn on

Submitted by Ziad Dabash

Removing Programs from the Control Panel

Submitted 8/14/98

Easier way to remove control panel programs.

  1. Edit your control.ini file in your Windows directory.
  2. Under the section [don't load] add the appropriate .cpl file.
  3. For example to get rid of Network add netcpl.cpl=no
  4. This will disable users from accessing the network control panel.

Submitted by Dennis Riddick

Submitted 3/29/98

  1. You can remove seected icons in your Control Panel by simply moving, deleting or renaming the *.cpl file in your C:\WINDOWS\SYSETM directory.
  2. The icon or file will still work even if it is not on the control panel screen.

At list of the CPL files can be found in this section at Control Panel CPL Files

Submitted by Joseph T. de Leon

Not Loading DriveSpace or DoubleSpace Drivers

Submitted 8/12/98

  1. Even if you never use DriveSpace or DblSpace, Win95 automatically loads the drivers. While the drivers are not huge, they do consume some resources. To keep Win95 from loading them all you need to do is:
  2. Find the MSDOS.SYS file in the root directory of your boot drive.
  3. Right click on the file, clear the read-only attribute then edit the file.
  4. Add these two lines to the Options section.
  5. Dblspace=0
  6. Drvspace=0
  7. Be sure to save the changes, reset the read-only attribute, then reboot.

This does save a significant amount of memory but more importantly, it will reduce the number of threads running in the background.

Submitted by CrashMaster

Increasing Performance

Updated 8/11/98

This concerns the "Network Server" option ... You already know about the screw up in Win95 release prior to OSR2 but, did you know you can also customize the settings in the registry?

  1. Open Regedit
  2. Go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\FS Templates"
  3. Add a new key called "Custom".
  4. Then add two new binary values under that key with the names "NameCache" and "PathCache", just as with the other entries.
  5. I would recommend using values somewhere in-between what the standard values are for "Desktop" and "Network Server". The values I have found to be the best compromise are "00 08 00 00" and "30 00 00 00" respectively, your milage may vary. (2048 filenames and 48 pathnames)
  6. Close Regedit
  7. Right click on "My Computer"
  8. Select Properties then the Performance tab.
  9. Select "File System" and you will now find the "Custom" option in the drop down box.
  10. Select it and click on OK then be sure to reboot.

While this doesn't save a lot of memory, at least your name caches aren't using more than they need.

Submitted by CrashMaster

Added 11/19/96

If you have 24 Megs or more of RAM, you can increase your performance

  1. Right Click on My Computer
  2. Select Properties
  3. Click the Performance tab
  4. Click on File System button
  5. Select Network Server with Full Read-ahead Optimization

If you do not see a performance increase, occasionally the NameCache and PathCache values
are written to the registry incorrectly for the Network Server.
To fix the problem:

  1. Start Regedit
  2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\FS Templates\Server
  3. Make sure the following values are being used:
  • PathCache=40 00 00 00
  • NameCache=a9 0a 00 00

To rename the labels Desktop Computer, Mobile or docking system, or Network Server, see Renaming the File System Profiles

Increasing Disk Performance

Ever wonder why Windows 3.1 was noticeably faster than Windows 3.11? It has to do with something called Synchonous Buffer Commits, this tells Windows whether or not to lie to an application and tell the application that it's writing data to the drive when Windows is actually caching the data in memory. With Windows '95 they give you the option to disable this, thus increasing disk intensive application performance but there are some caveats to consider. If you lose power the data in cache will NOT be written to disk this will be BAD so I'd only recommend using this on a machine with an UPS. Well, Here how you do it.

  1. Go to Start \ Settings \ Control Panel \ System \ Performance \ File System \ Troubleshooting
  2. Check the box Disable synchronous buffer commits.

Expect about a 10% speed increase in disk intensive applications.

Submitted by Matthew Arnold

Clearing the Documents Folder

Submitted 6/7/98

To clear the contents of your Documents Folder

  1. Click the Start menu
  2. Point to Setting
  3. Click Taskbar
  4. Click the Start Menu Programs tab
  5. Click Clear.

Submitted by Ziad Dabash

Opening a File with Application that is Different than its Registered One

Submitted 3/29/98

To open a file with a different program:

Right click a folder while holding down the SHIFT key

This will open the dialog box that includes "Open with" to change what program will open the file

Submitted by Scott Tobkes

Fixing VMM32 Memory Leak

Added 2/12/98

Over time, real-mode drivers which are added to VMM32, might not be releasing memory .
To see if this is a problem on your system, run MEM /C /P and check the size allocated to VMM32.
It should not be much more that 2K or at least not growing over time.


If it is:

  1. Rename both your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT file
  2. Reboot
  3. Rename them back again
  4. Reboot again
  5. Run MEM /C /P again to note any change is size.

Removing One Document File from START / DOCUMENTS

Submitted 12/29/97

To remove one document file on START - DOCUMENTS

  1. Run Explorer
  2. Go to Windows directory
  3. Select View and then Options
  4. Select View Tab
  5. Select show all files and then OK
  6. Back to Windows Directory
  7. Select Recent Folder
  8. Delete the File you want to remove or display on Documents Folder

Submitted by Victor C. Arceo

Finding Files with Specific Text in Them

Submitted 12/29/97

To find all associations with any name/word that exists in your computer.

  1. Click on Start button
  2. Select find
  3. Then Files and Folders
  4. Go to the Advanced tab
  5. Type in text in the "Containing text" field

This is helpful when you get an error message that tells you something can't be run because the file can't be found. You can find the file that is calling the "non-existent" thing.

Submitted by Scott Ibara

Creating a Support Information Button

  1. Create or edit the OEMINFO.INI file in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder
  2. Enter or edit the lines,
  3. [General]
    Manufacturer=your favorite strings
    Model=your favorite strings
    [Support Information]
    Line1="your favorite strings" (require double quotes)
    Line2="your favorite strings>"
    Line3="your favorite strings>"
    etc.
  4. Open System Properties dialog box, you'll see a Support Information button. Click on this will display the information you entered

Note from Bob: This can be extremely useful if you want to include support personnel and their phone numbers

Submitted by Nariaki Ogami

Create (or replace) the Manufacture's logo in System Properties

  1. Create a 210x105 pixels (max.) bitmap.
  2. Save the file as OEMLOGO.BMP in Windows\System folder
  3. When you open the System Properties box, you will see "Manufactured and supported by:" with your logo

Note from Bob: You need to have the OEMINFO.INI file in place noted above.

Submitted by Nariaki Ogami

Adding printers to the Add Printer Dialog Box

Submitted 10/11/97

The details of all printers shown by the add printer dialog when installing a new printer reside in two files, MSPRINT.INF and MSPRINT2.INF.

These files can be edited so that additional printers are listed. It is rather more complicated than editing CONTROL.INF as with Windows 3.1 but by using the OEM95.INF file provided with new printer drivers as a guide a little experimenting should get you there. Of course any new or updated files must be copied to the correct locations.

If you want to apply these changes to a NetSetup Windows 95 distribution point you must specify that the MSPRINT files are precopied using CUSTOM.INF, otherwise standard CAB extracted versions will be used and the additions will not be available. Using this method also allows the added printers to be auto installed from MSBATCH.INF.

Submitted by Bruce Ronning

Device Problems with Removable Hard Drives

Submitted 10/11/97

If you get a yellow exclamation mark in windows 95 device manager under "Hard disk controllers",
and you are using one hard drive plus a Zip or Syquest drive, try editing the Windows/System.ini file.
Go to the [386Enh] section and add the following line:

REMOVABLEIDE=TRUE

Evidently, if you use a removable drive, Windows 95 does not recognize it as being
removable, so you have to tell it that it is.

Submitted by Mark Gill

Deleting Files Without Sending Them to the Recycle Bin

Submitted 9/13/97

You can delete your files without sending them to the recycle bin
Just shift-right click the file icon and choose delete from the menu that comes up.
The file when deleted will not go to the recycle bin.
BEWARE: The deleted file can not be restored

Submitted by Sudip Kumar Bhattacharya

Changing the Recycle Bin Size

Submitted 9/13/97

You can change the size of the recycle bin for any drive.
Just right click the recycle bin icon on the desktop.
Make sure that the 'configure each drive independently' option is on.
Then move to the tab for the drive that you want to configure and specify the size as the percentage of the drives space.

Submitted by Jagan Philip Thomas

Displaying Last File Searches

Submitted 9/13/97

Once inside the "Find|File" dialog box, in order to display the last several searches you tried:
Hit F4
(a drop down box will display showing the last several searches you conducted.)

Submitted by Gary Reilly

Associating Several File Extensions to the Same Program

Submitted 8/23/97

It's easy in Explorer to create a file type for a give extension.
But what if you want several extensions to identify the same file type?
Example- I want BMP, GIF, JPG, JPEG to all be passed to the same program when I double-click them.
You can make a file type for each all using the same program, but then you install some other editing program (for one effect) or worse! a new browser, and it rudely associates each type with itself.
The trick is to make one file type (Image File) which you configure to set your preferred graphics viewer.
Then to associate multiple file extensions with that type, run WINFILE.EXE, the old Win 3.1 File manager.
Use File Associate, and you can quickly associate each extension with that file type.

Submitted by Graham Hill

Fast Open of the Start Menu

Submitted 7/4/97

Fast open of Explorer view of the Start Menu:

  1. Right click on a blank area of the Taskbar
  2. Select options
  3. Select the Start Menu Tab.

Submitted by Mocha Nelson

Getting Item Properties

Submitted 4/19/97

To get to the properties screen for just about anything, hold the ALT key down while double clicking on it's icon.


Submitted by Matt Neville

Starting Win95 Without Running Apps in the Startup Folder

Submitted 4/5/97

To start Win95 without loading anything in the startup group, just hold down the shift key (either one) when Win95 is loading.
Keep holding it down until the desktop is complete with a pointer.

If any application is still loading, it's because it's in registry under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.

Submitted by Marc Lanman

Removing a program from the Control Panel

Submitted 3/12/97

Run the Windows Explorer and go to the Windows/System directory. Find the appropriate CPL file (file with the extension CPL) and delete it.

Note from Bob: If you want them still available but not showing up in the Control Panel itself, you can also move them to another directory.
To invoke them, type CONTROL \path\cpl_file where path is the full path where they are located and cpl_file is the name of the CPL file.
For example, if you don't want users to see the Network icon in the control panel but still want to be able to make changes, you could move the NETCPL.CPL
file to another directory. Then type CONTROL \path\NETCPL.CPL.

A listing of all the CPL files can be found later in this section at: Control Panel CPL Files

Submitted by Neil Ragone

Using FIND to Search Across Multiple Drives

Added 2/19/97

When you use Find from the desktop (F3), you can normally only search on one drive.
To search across multiple drives and directories, separate your searches with a semicolon (;)
For example, to search from the root of C: and the root of D:, you would enter
C:\;D:\ as your look in location

To search from different directories, you can enter them as well

RUNDLL Error Message

Submitted 1/28/96

If when you start your computer you get a RUNDLL error message in a dialog box here is what you do.
First use RegEdit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / MICROSOFT / WINDOWS / CURRENT VERSION / RUN
and delete the string that appears in the dialog box this will remove the string and everything will be groovy!!

Shannon N Leka

Automatically Delete Files Sent to Recycle Bin

Submitted 11/29/96

To automatically delete files sent to the recycle bin, do the following:

  1. Right click on the recycle bin icon
  2. Choose Properties
  3. Choose Global
  4. Check the Remove files immediately upon delete

Submitted by Don Hunter
hunter62@lightspeed.net

The Simplest Multi-Boot

Submitted 11/24/96

Forget about "restart in ms-dos mode"
Use DOS=SINGLE
In your CONFIG.SYS put:

[menu]
menuitem WIN95, Windows 95
menuitem NORMAL, DOS - Normal
menudefault WIN95, 3

[WIN95]

[NORMAL]
DOS=SINGLE
[common]

Submitted by Adam
flot@geocities.com

Enabling Telephony Controls

Submitted 11/3/96

If you are using telephony based modems (unimodem) you can
enable the telephony controls in control panel by renaming
TELEPHON.CP$ to TELEPHON.CPL in the SYSTEM directory.
This will allow you to do diagnostics as well as configure your modem.

Submitted by Rick Munday
pcdoc@earthlink.net

Disabling CDs AutoRun

Added 10/20/96

If you want to disable Windows95's ability to automatically start CD's when they are inserted:

  1. Open the Device Manager
  2. Open CD ROM
  3. Double-click on your CD Player
  4. Click on the Settings tab
  5. Un-check Auto insert notification

Control Panel CPL Files

Added 10/19/96

The following are the files that display icons in the Control Panel.
The reside in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory
They can be run individually by typing Control followed by the CPL file.
If you are missing any icons in the Control Panel, you want to make sure the CPL file is in the SYSTEM directory.

Access.cpl - Accessibility properties
Appwiz.cpl - Add/Remove Programs properties
Desk.cpl - Display properties
FindFast.cpl - FindFast (included with Microsoft Office for Windows 95)
Inetcpl.cpl - Internet properties
Intl.cpl - Regional Settings properties
Joy.cpl - Joystick properties
Main.cpl - Mouse properties
Mlcfg32.cpl - Microsoft Exchange Service properties
Mmsys.cpl - Multimedia properties
Modem.cpl - Modem properties
Netcpl.cpl - Network properties
Odbccp32.cpl - Data Sources (32-bit ODBC)
Password.cpl - Password properties
Sysdm.cpl - System properties
Themes.cpl - Desktop Themes (available with Microsoft Plus!)
TimeDate.cpl - Date/Time properties

Reserving Resources from Plug and Play Devices

10/6/96

If you want to make sure Windows95 doesn't assign certain resources (IRQ, I/O etc.) to you Plug and Play Devices

  1. Open up the Device Manager
  2. Double click on Computer
  3. Click on the Reserve Resources tab
  4. Click on the Resource you want to reserve
  5. Click on the Add button
  6. Enter the value
  7. Click on the OK button

Viewing System IRQ, I/O, Memory and DMA Utilization

Added 10/6/96

To view what resources are currently being used by your system.

Open up the Device Manager

  • Right click on My Computer
  • Select Properties
  • Click on the Device Manager tab

Double click on Computer
You can now see what IRQ, I/O, Memory and DMA addresses are in use.

Installing with an INF File

Added 9/1/96

By default, when you double click on an INF file, Windows95 opens it with Notepad.
To change that so it will install the INF file:

  1. Open any folder
  2. Click on View / Options / File Types
  3. Scroll down the Registered File Types to Setup Information
  4. Pressing the S key will start you off faster
  5. Click on the Edit button
  6. In the Actions box, highlight Install
  7. Click on the Set Default button

Automatically Deleting Files in the Recycle Bin

Submitted 8/5/96

An economical way to use the Recycle Bin is to use it as normal but insert the lines:

CD\Recycled
Echo Y | Del *.*
CD\

in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
This way every time you restart your computer your recycling bin is cleaned.

Submitted by Michael Gilligan
giggs@hare.net.au

Easy way to open up DOS prompt in a specific directory

Added 6/20/96

With the advent of long directory names, it can be difficult to open up a DOS box and CD to the directory you want
particularly if it is several layers of long names deep.

An easy way is to:

  1. Open up Explorer and highlight the directory you want to be in
  2. Select Run / Command from the Start Menu
  3. Your DOS prompt will now be in the directory you highlighted in Explorer

Increasing your Sound Card's Bass and Treble

Added 6/8/96

If you want to boost your sound card's bass or treble:

  1. Double click on the speaker icon on your task bar
  2. Click on the Advanced button
  3. Move the slider bars to the right

ATI Video Cards and COM4 Conflicts

Submitted 5/3/96

ATI cards use I/O address 02e0 -02ef & 03b0-03bf.
This is in conflict with the default for COM4.

Submitted by Marty Roth
marty@absolutesolutions.com

System Policies when logging on to an NT Domain

Submitted 4/28/96

CONFIG.POL, when copied to winnt35\system32\repl\import\scripts, is
then offered in the share netlogon. This files is the only file
needed to establish policies for users in an NT user accounts data
base or SAM. Set up a default user and default computer plus any
more restrictive setting for specific users, groups or computers and
Microsoft 95 system policies will be in place. In addition, if you
force a logon by the client and disable a DOS session, this will be
a very tight security scheme.

Submitted by Bob Rapp
brapp@ariscorp.com

Changing to Win 3.x Shell

Submitted 4/28/96

Do you miss Program Manager?
If so, edit the SYSTEM.INI file in the \WINDOWS directory.
Under [Boot] change:
shell=c:\windows\explorer.exe
to
shell=c:\windows\progman.exe Submitted by Brad Hedlund
bhedlund@isd.net

Quickly Opening Text Files

Submitted 4/23/96

To speed up opening files, if you know the file contains text, but it
it has an extension that isn't recognized, here's what you do:

  1. Open up Windows Explorer
  2. Change directories to C:\WINDOWS\SENDTO
  3. Create a shortcut to Notepad or drag its shortcut to this directory.

Now you'll have an easy way to open documents!
Another helpful thing to do is to do the same thing with the recycle bin.

Submitted by Anthony Keller
amfernee@cs.montana.edu

Changing your Modem's Initialization String

Added 4/9/96

  1. Start REGEDIT
  2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Class \ Modem \ 0000 \ Init
  3. Change the settings to the values for your modem

Saving Memory by adjusting your CD Cache

Added 3/30/96

If you don't use your CD player that often, your system might be assigning
memory for it's cache which you could reclaim.

  1. Right click on My Computer
  2. Select Properties
  3. Select Performance
  4. Select File System
  5. Select CD ROM
  6. Note how much memory you are assigning to the CD cache and adjust as you would like

Easy File Deletes

Hate deleting files out of the Recycle Bin in Windows 95.
Hold the shift key down then drop the file on the icon then its gone.

Submitted by Brian West
ccanpic@netvoyage.net

Update on DTC 2278 D Controller Card

Submitted 2/15/96

They do have a beta driver out now for 95 but it will not work with a CD-ROM on the secondary port.
The work around is:

  1. Load the new DTC driver for the Primary IDE
  2. But load the original 95 Standard IDE/IO for the secondary port
  3. Then you can play music CD's etc..
  4. Then you can remove the DOS Driver and the old Win3.1 driver from the SYSTEM.INI
  5. The performance does seem a little faster after doing all of this.

They also have a web site at http://www.datatechnology.com

Submitted by Jeff Pennington
Jeff@cbsinet.com

Hewlett Packard Printer Failures

Added 1/27/96

If you attempt to print a document that contains complex graphical images to a non-PostScript Hewlett-Packard Laser Jet 4 or Laser Jet 5 printer,
the document may not be printed due to lack of memory installed in your printer.
According to Microsoft, this problem is known to occur with the
Hewlett Packard Laser Jet 4, 4M, 4 Plus, 4M Plus, 4L, 4ML, 4P, 4MP, 4Si, 4Si MX, 4V, 4MV, 5P, 5MP. The work-around:

  1. In Control Panel, double-click the Printers icon.
  2. Right click on the printer
  3. Select Properties
  4. On the Details tab, click Spool settings, and then select RAW in the Spool Data Format box.
  5. On the Graphics tab, click the Use Raster Graphics option.
  6. On the Fonts tab, click the Print True Type As Graphics option.
  7. On the Device Options tab, move the Printer Memory Tracking slider all the way to the right (to the Aggressive setting).
  8. Verify that the Printer Memory setting matches the amount of memory installed in the printer.
  9. If the Page Protection check box is not unavailable, click the check box to clear it if it is selected, or click the check box to select it if it is cleared. The check box may be unavailable, depending on the printer model you are using and the amount of memory installed in the printer.

Eliminate banner page from printing when running HP 4 & 5printer

  1. Rename file to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\LPT.VXD to LPTOLD.VXD
  2. Go to MS/Dos prompt
  3. Put in Win 95 CD
  4. Go to D:\DRIVERS\PRINTER\LPT and copy lpt.vxd to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM
  5. Save it also to a floppy if you have to reload system
  6. Info banner page glitch starts with "%-12345x@PJl and then 5 more lines of info

The readme file points out that this is typically on Compaq Prolinea or Deskpro models

Submitted by Sid Lieberman
wa2fxb@ix.netcom.com

Designating Drive letters for CD ROMs and removable media

Added 1/20/96

If you want to specify the drive letter for your CD ROM, Zip Drive, Bernouli, or Syquest drive:

  1. Right click on My computer
  2. Select Properties
  3. Click on the Device Manager tab
  4. Click on the + by Disk Drives
  5. Double click on the drive you want to set
  6. Click on Settings
  7. Type the Start and End letter you want to use for this drive.
  8. Reboot when requested

Pro Audio Spectrum Cards

Submitted 1/16/96

When upgrading from Win 3.1, remove or rename all .386 and .drv's related to the sound card BEFORE installing Win 95.
Leaving the drivers in place will prevent he new drivers from running properly.

The drivers are:

  • vpasd.386
    mvproadu.drv
    mvmixer.drv
    mscdex.exe

Submitted by Andy McConnell
andym@qnet.com

Bypass Windows95 Startup

Submitted 1/14/96

To bypass starting Win95 at startup without pressing F8,
modify the line in the hidden C:\MSDOS.SYS file:

  • BootGUI=0

The next time the computer is started, You will return to the DOS prompt after the
CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files load.

It's useful when you hate waiting for your slow computer to start
Windows 95 every time you turn on your computer.

Submitted by Keith Lau klau@sac.on.ca

Quick Erase Floppy Disks

Submitted 1/13/96

  1. Select My Computer
  2. Right click on floppy you wish to use
  3. Select Format
  4. Select Quick Erase or Format

Submitted by George Neill
gneill@benedictine.edu

Creating a Boot Menu

Submitted 12/27/95

  1. Go to the DOS prompt.
  2. Type: ATTRIB MSDOS.SYS -r -a -h -s
  3. Edit MSDOS.SYS, adding the following lines under [Options]
    • BootGUI=1 (If you have it set to 0)
    • BootMenu=1
    • BootMenuDefault=5 (1=GUI 5or6=DOS Prompt)
    • BootMulti=1 (Allows you to boot to your old Operating System)
    • BootMenuDelay=2 (# of seconds before default is chosen)
  4. Type Alt-F then S to save your file.
  5. Close the editor
  6. Type: ATTRIB MSDOS.SYS +r +a +h +s
  7. Reboot.

Note: BootGUI needs to be set to 1
if you have the menu running, otherwise even if you select 1 (Normal), it will not go to the GUI.

P.S. Supposedly Drvspace=0 nd Dblspace=0 under the Options section saves on RAM, but I haven't been able to confirm this.

Submitted by Stephen Gipson

Modem Selection

Submitted 12/25/95

When Win95 doesn't recognize your modem
Don't use "Standard 14400 bps modem" or "Standard 28800 bps modem"
Why %3F because this doesn't enable hardware data compression and correction.
(In other words, your modem doesn't work at full speed)
Solution : choose any other modem in the list that's compatible
with you modem and has about the same specifications (speed, V32, V34, ...).
Hayes is very likely to be compatible, as it is used as a standard

Submitted by Pedro Tytgat
Pedro.Tytgat@ping.be

Creating PRN File Type

Submitted 12/13/95

If You often print *.PRN files, you can associate it with batch file like this:
@copy %1 LPT1

  1. Open any directory window
  2. Select View/Options
  3. Select the File Types tab
  4. Define nw file type. In desecration put "Printer file" or something.
  5. In extensions of course PRN with Open as default action.
  6. It will speed up your print jobs

Submitted by Waldek Golebski
bebop@frantic.um.krakow.pl

Refresh SCSI Devices

Added 11/28/95

If you had any SCSI devices that were powered off during the booting of Win95
they will not show as available, even after turning them on.
For example, I often forget to turn on my Zip drive before starting Win95.

In order to use them, without restarting Win95:

  1. Turn on your SCSI device(s)
  2. Open the Device Manager
  3. Highlight SCSI Controllers
  4. Click on the Refresh button

The SCSI device(s) should now be available for use.

DTC 2278E I/O Controller Problems

Submitted 11/18/95

When using the DTC 2278E I/O controller card, beware of how it sets up your drives.
When you install the Win 95 drivers, Win95 will set up all of your drives in a SCSI format.
This may disable your ability to play music on your IDE CD-ROM drive if you are using it off the secondary port.
I had multiple problems with my Mitsumi 4X until i discovered this.

Go to System in the Control Panel, click on your drive type, click on the drive itself and disable the SCSI options in the
drive settings section.

This I/O card will not allow me to use my Iomega Zip drive (parallel port interface) with the CD-ROM as well.
I haven't figured out how to fix this problem yet.

Submitted by Bob Frenz rfrenz@alaska.net

Removing Programs listed from the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs Section

Added 11/4/95

If you remove an installed program and its files by deleting the files,
it may still show up in the Add/Remove programs list through the control panel.
In order to remove it from the list (so you don't need to re-install in order to just remove it again).

  1. Start the Registry Editor
  2. Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Uninstall
  3. Delete any programs here.

This will only delete them from the list, not delete the actual programs.
Only programs designed for Windows95 will show up here in the first place.

Using Drivespace

Added 11/1/95

If you are using Drivespace, check if Windows is wasting 109K of conventional memory.

In graphical windows, type 'mem/c/p' in a Dos box
if you see 'drvspace.bin' or dblspace.bin' you are wasting memory.
That is the *real mode* driver and it is supposed to be unloaded when the GUI starts.
See MS Knowledge base article #Q134364 for how to fix it.

Even if you fix the driver unloading in the GUI, if you boot to Dos, it will happen again if you start windows by typing 'WIN'.

Submitted by Travis B. Jennings
jenningt@db.erau.edu

Booting to DOS

Added 10/28/95

I have a phone controlled switch I use to turn on my computer and have it boot a DOS version of qmodem in host mode.
The switch shuts the computer off 5 mins after I hang up.
When I moved into Win95 I need a way to do this without going into Windows.
Answer, The MSDOS.SYS in Win95 is a text file.
Change the BootGUI=0 to BootGUI=1 and you boot into DOS.
You can always type WIN to start Win95 from there.

Submitted by Jim Crosson
a064@amug.org

Turning off Numlock

Added 9/13/95

By default, Win95 has the Numlock key turned ON
To have it be OFF, simply add the line:
numlock=off
to the CONFIG.SYS file.

Quickly Restarting Windows 95

Added 9/12/95

  1. Select Shutdown
  2. Click the Restart Computer option
  3. While holding down the SHIFT key, click YES
  4. Windows 95 will now restart without executing a complete warm boot

Submitted by Jim Blazevski
jim.blazevski@icacomp.com

In addition to the tip regarding the ability to avoid a warm boot while restarting windows by shift-clicking the yes button,
the same method can be used to avoid a warm boot when restart in MS-DOS mode is selected.
The result is an exit to DOS much like win 3.11. However, regardless of click or shift click. The result is still a DOS Shell, not true DOS.

Submitted by Michael Reach
michael_reach@hotmail.com

S3 Video and COM 4

Added 9/9/95

If you are using a S3 video accelerator card, I believe the Windows 95 documentation says
DO NOT INSTALL YOUR MODEM ON COM PORT 4.
The modem will appear to work fine in DOS mode but will not respond in Windows.
The only two solutions are to change the COM port and IRQ for the modem or get a new video card.

Submitted by Robert Frenz
rfrenz@alaska.net

Potential problems leaving 16-bit winsock.dll's

Submitted 9/1/95

If you re having problems getting some of your winsock applications
to work under Win95, make sure you delete any old 16-bit winsock.dll's.

If this file is in the directory were the application resides, it could
cause problems. Programs that could have problems like this are:

  • Ewan.exe (Telnet app)
  • WSIRC.exe (IRC app)
  • WSGopher.exe (Gopher app)
  • NX.Exe (NewsXpress)
  • Netscape v.1.0

We found that if the software listed above is in the same directory as the
Trumpet Winsock.dll file, then they will NOT work under the MS-TCP/IP stack.

Submitted by Ken D. Walters
support@sunbelt.net

Speed up your Double Speed CD ROM

Submitted 8/31/95

  1. Go into control panel
  2. Click on System
  3. Go to Performance tab
  4. Under Advanced settings click on the File System button
  5. Click on the CD-ROM tab
  6. Set the Cache to max
  7. Set Optimize Access pattern for Quad-speed or higher
  • Your CD ROM reacts much faster.
  • You can now play the high quality video clips on your Win95 CD-ROM without interruptions in video and sound.
  • Used on 486DX40 Vesa with 8 mb ram and normal IDE hard drive.

Submitted by John Knappers
j_knappers@pi.net

Copying Graphics

You can copy graphics from a DOS box as well as you can text. For example, while running a graphics game, you can press

  1. Alt-Enter to make a DOS window
  2. Click on the upper left hand corner
  3. Select Edit/Mark
  4. Select a region with the mouse
  5. Select Edit/Copy or press the Enter key
  6. You can then paste it into another program

Thomas tried it on Heretic. I tried in on DOOM2. Everything worked fine

Submitted by Thomas Kadlec
tmk1@ra.msstate.edu

TIPS.TXT

There is a file TIPS.TXT in the directory where Win95 is installed. There are a lot if little hints and shortcuts there.

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