Windows 9x Tips, by James Lin (2000-11-25)
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* Read the tips.txt file in the \Windows directory. Some items are
repeated here for emphasis.
* When restarting, hold down the Shift key when you click the OK button of
the Shut Down menu. This will just restart Windows without rebooting the
entire computer. (Win95, 98)
* Restart often (depends on usage... usually at least once a day is
sufficient). A lot of Windows programs aren't very good at giving up
memory, even -after- they're closed, and others will just suck up more
and more memory the longer they run. Restart especially when an
application crashes.
* When uninstalling programs, do NOT just delete its program directory!
Check to see if the program has an uninstall option first (under Control
Panel > Add/Remove Programs).
* Install Microsoft's TweakUI PowerToy. You can download it from:
http://www.microsoft.com/NTWorkstation/downloads/PowerToys/Networking/
NTTweakUI.asp
(Ignore the fact that the download link is in Microsoft's NT section.
TweakUI works with Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000, ...) After you download
and decompress it, right-click on the .INF file and select "Install".
* From any open folder, select View > Options to configure folder settings:
* always allow file name extensions to be visible
* always show hidden files.
* If you hold down the Shift key when closing a folder, all parent folders
will close as well.
* There is a folder setting allowing you to set folders either to reuse
windows or to create new ones. If you hold down the Ctrl key when
opening a folder, the opposite method will be used.
* If you hold down the Shift key when opening a folder, it will open an
Explorer view of the folder instead.
* Organize your Start Menu; rather than have leaving all application
shortcuts in the Start Menu's Programs folder, create subfolders and move
shortcuts into them. For example, you might want to differentiate System
Utilities (defragmentation programs, diagnostic programs, etc.), Games,
Internet Applications, Graphics Tools, etc.
* If you hold down the Shift key when Windows starts (and you must keep it
pressed until everything finishes), items in the StartUp folder will not
be run.
* Places where programs run when Windows loads (this is not in
chronological order):
* the StartUp folder, located in the Start Menu
* the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\
SOFTWARE\
Microsoft\
Windows\
CurrentVersion\
Run\ *
RunServices\ *
RunOnce\ * (temporary)
RunServicesOnce\ * (temporary)
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
SOFTWARE\
Microsoft\
Windows\
CurrentVersion\
Run\ *
RunServices\ *
RunOnce\ * (temporary)
RunServicesOnce\ * (temporary)
The keys indicated with asterisks contain the locations of programs to
run at Windows startup.
* The WIN.INI file, located in the main Windows directory. In the
[windows] section, items are executed from the "run=..." line.
If you are using Windows 98 or ME, the configuration utility
(MSCONFIG.EXE) allows you to control these easily.
* Keyboard shorcuts:
* the backspace key will open the parent folder from another folder
window
* Alt+Tab or Shift+Alt+Tab switches between open applications
* Ctrl+Tab or Shift+Ctrl+Tab switch between child windows of the current
application
* Ctrl+PgUp or Ctrl+PgDn cycle through tabs in tabbed dialog boxes
* Win+R opens a Run... dialog box
* Win+E opens an Explorer window
* Win+M minimizes all open windows. Shift+Win+M restores them afterward.
* Win+D toggles between the desktop and running applications (Win98 only,
or Win95 with IE4+ desktop enhancements)
* Alt+Enter typically shows the Properties pane for the selected item
* To open a file with a program that it is not associated with, hold down
the Shift key and right-click on the file. An "Open With..." command
should appear in the context menu. (Not necessary with Win ME.)
* Do NOT install fonts you seldomly use into your Windows\Fonts folder.
Every font installed consumes extra memory. You should instead
temporarily install fonts when necessary. An easy way to do this is to
just view the font; this will load the font into memory for as long as
the viewing window is open. Close the viewing window when you're
completely done to remove it from memory. No installation/uninstallation
hassles. (Some applications, such as Adobe Photoshop, will not reload
font information while they are running. In these cases you must view
the desired fonts BEFORE loading Photoshop.)
(If you need to install/uninstall fonts often, you may want to get a good
font-management utility instead.)
* The PrintScreen key captures a screenshot to the clipboard.
Alt+PrintScreen captures only the active window.
* You can enable/disable the volume control in the System Tray by going to
the Multimedia section in the Control Panel.
* Pressing Ctrl+s in the volume control window will switch it to and from a
compact mode
* You can improve performance somewhat by managing your virtual memory
yourself.
1. Go to Control Panel > System > Performance > Virtual Memory
2. Select "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings."
3. If you have multiple hard disk drives, select a partition on the
fastest drive.
4. Set the minimum (size of the swap file) to be at least twice the
amount of RAM you have.
By setting the minimum size of the swap file to be sufficiently large,
Windows will no longer attempt to dynamically resize it. Because
resizing the swap file can be an expensive operation, fixing the size
manually can improve performance somewhat. This will also reduce disk
fragmentation. Since disk space is plentiful and cheap nowadays, the
large swap file shouldn't be a problem.
* To delete a program without sending it to the Recycle Bin, hold down the
Shift key when deleting.
* To select multiple files in a folder, hold down the Shift key when
clicking clicking on their icons to select a range of files. Hold down
the Ctrl key when clicking on their icons to select/deselect individual
files.
* Dragging files with the right mouse button displays a pop-up menu
allowing you to choose among copying the files, moving the files, or
creating shortcuts for the files.
* Alt+Enter in an MS-DOS window toggles between full-screen and windowed
modes.
* Hit F8 before Windows loads (when you see "Starting Windows [95/98] ..."
to show a menu of boot options, allowing you to log boot events, start
Windows in Safe Mode, etc. (In Windows ME, hold down the Ctrl key while
booting.)
* If you remove hardware before removing the device drivers in Windows, you
may need to boot into Safe Mode to remove them.
Essential Utilities
-------------------
Compression/Decompression
* PowerZip (freeware)
http://www.winzip.com/
* WinZip (shareware)
http://www.winzip.com/
* PKZip (shareware)
http://www.pkware.com/
Web browsers
* Internet Explorer (freeware)
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/
* Netscape Navigator (freeware)
http://www.netscape.com/
Image viewers
* ACDsee (shareware)
http://www.acdsystems.com/products/acdsee/
* IrfanView (freeware)
http://stud1.tuwien.ac.at/~e9227474/
* ThumbsPlus (shareware)
http://www.thumbs.com/
Text editors
* TextPad (shareware)
http://www.textpad.com/
* UltraEdit (shareware)
http://www.ultraedit.com/
FTP clients
* FTP Voyager (shareware)
http://www.ftpvoyager.com/
* Bulletproof FTP (shareware)
http://www.bpftp.com/
* CuteFTP (shareware)
http://www.cuteftp.com/
Miscellaneous
* Quick View Plus
http://www.jasc.com/qvp.html
... more stuff
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copyright (c) 2000 james lin
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