Win95 Tips |
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by Tom Lassiter |
Boy did I have fun New Year's eve (but that is another story as Foster Brooks would say).
Welcome to 1997 and another round of Tips and Tricks designed to provide you with many more "guru points" among your friends and co-workers. While Win97 may be just around the corner (or even announced by the time this is published), many of us will be using Win95 for the near future. So let's keep digging to find those features, both documented and undocumented, that will make our computing life a little more pleasant, and maybe even fun. Hey, if you can't laugh at some of the nonsense that goes on in computers and computing, then life is truly too short. And now - on with the show!
You may already be aware that you can resize column widths in Windows Explorer, Find, and Exchange by clicking on the column header divider bars and dragging them. A cool trick is that you can also make them automatically resize to the narrowest width possible to still show all text by double-clicking on the same column header divider bars.
In December's column we told you how to remove the Windows 95 "wait" screen that appears as you boot up your PC, assuming you knew what Operating System you were using and didn't need that reminder. That file is C:\LOGO.SYS. The "wait" screen that appears as you Shut Down Win95 is C:\Windows\LOGOW.SYS; and the last one that reads "It's now safe to turn off your computer" is C:\Windows\LOGOS.SYS. Even thought these three are named as "*.SYS" files, they are in fact standard bitmap files that are editable in your Paint program. So jump in and customize them with pictures and text to your artistic and personal pleasure, i.e. - "Hey [your name here]! It's OK to turn me off now - you've already turned off all your friends and relatives." or other suitable phrase.
No longer need the icon for the Microsoft Network on your Desktop? Right-click on it and select Delete. (Highlighting and using the Delete key doesn't usually work.)
To use long folder or file names in DOS, enclose then in quotation marks, i.e. - Type C:\Word\"Long Filename Here".
By now you have become accustomed to using long filenames in Win95 applications. It sure beats the old DOS 8.3 (eight characters with a three character extension) system. Most of us use something like "Birthday wishes to Mom.txt". Did you know you can also use a second descriptive extension with a space between the two? It may look like "Mom.txt birthday wishes" They open just like regular files but have an added description at the end. Keep it in mind - don't you just love having options?
You may use wildcards in Find searches, just as do in DOS commands. The "?" and "*" are very useful in the Find screen if you don't know the exact filename.
If unrestricted, your Recycle Bin will consume up to 10% of your harddrive by default before it "overflows" and starts dropping out the oldest files present. To limit the maximum size allowed, and who can spare 10%, right-click on the Recycle Bin icon, select Properties and choose your percentage limit by moving the slider bar.
As you use your computer, bits and pieces of files get scattered around (fragmented) on your hard drive. Searching and dealing with these pieces takes time and slows down your system. Good housekeeping requires that you Defragment periodically (weekly or monthly) and Scan (to pick up and block out any defects that may have arisen in its ability to store data) your hard drive to restore it to good health. Go to START, PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS, DISK DEFRAGMENTER and run as indicated. Then go there and run ScanDisk as well. I'm not sure you will feel better but I know your hard drive will.
To see how much free disk space you have left - Right-click on MY COMPUTER icon then Click PROPERTIES.
This information is also available from within many programs by going to the menu bar and clicking on HELP, then on "ABOUT [program name]". It is commonly displayed along with other information there.
Even if you want to leave your computer on all night, or all the time, to receive faxes etc, you will save electricity by cutting off your monitor when not in use for several hours.
Underlined letters in Menus are Keyboard Shortcuts and many be used by pressing the ALT key while pressing the underlined letter. It has the same result as if clicking on the item with a mouse - and is especially helpful if your mouse goes kaput.
If your mouse goes out, or you have a disability making it hard to use a mouse, try using the Accessibility Options that come in Win95. One of these is Mousekeys. It lets you use your numeric keypad to move your pointer. To activate this feature - Click on START, SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL, ACCESSABILITY OPTIONS, MOUSE tab, and select USE MOUSEKEYS. The Settings button provides speed options. While there, check out the other accessibility options; some of which you may helpful regardless of your physical status.
NOTE: These tips and tricks are provided as an informational member service. Neither HAL-PC, the author, nor the editor of this article accept any liability for the above tips and tricks or their applicability to a particular computer or purpose.
Tom Lassiter is a HAL-PC member, Chairs the Steering Committee of the Build or Buy a PC SIG and emcees that weekly SIG meeting. He is a HAL-PC Ambassador to the America Online (AOL) User Group Forum and was one of the initial HALNet beta testers. He may be contacted at jamesl@hal-pc.org.
Note: This article was to have been in the January issue, but was inadvertently removed from the final list. The Magazine regrets this error.