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BOO!! But there will be no boo-hoo this month at HAL-PC. It is a great month with some truly exciting meeting events in store. The HAL-PC Show (General Meeting) is going to be tremendous; see details elsewhere in this issue. Microsoft will be in town for a couple of meetings, and then there is the computer show and other activities. So strap on your meetin’ chaps and larnin’ cap (10 gallon of course) and head ‘em up to these sessions.
Win98 Beta2 has been released and is gathering some favorable comments. Of course there are also some of the usual bugs but hey – it’s beta (a pre-release trial test version of software). And yes, that “Win98” was not a typo. It will be at least the firs t quarter of 1998 before it is released.
So let us plow ahead with the latest and greatest Win95 tips and tricks. Who knows – many of them may also wind up being applicable to Win98.
Game Cheats
Are you tired of losing at Minesweeper to your nine-year-old child or grandchild? Or even worse – you can’t even beat yourself at Solitaire. Then glom onto these “cheats” for your favorite games. Don’t be surprised if you find your opponent already knew these and that is why you had been losing.
Minesweeper (Win 3.x ONLY) – Start the game, type XYZZY, press ENTER, press SHIFT. Then when you move your mouse over the playing area the pixel in the upper left corner of the desktop will turn white whenever you are over a safe square. COOL! For best r esults close or minimize all other applications and use dark wallpaper so the white pixel can be easily seen. Now go blow that little smart aleck out of the water. It is about time they learned that in the real world the winner is oftentimes the one with the edge of most knowledge.
Solitaire – Isn’t it frustrating to be turning three cards at a time and get down to those last few cards only to be stymied by the arrangement of cards in the Pile? Fear not, my sneaky little card-playing buddy. Merely depress the CTRL-ALT-SHIFT keys and hold them all down at once while you CLICK on the Pile to turn a card. Viola – only ONE card at a time is turned over. Problem solved – you win! And your conscience is clear. After all, if they hadn’t meant for you to use this method they wouldn’t have programmed it into the game – right?
How Big Is That Folder In The Window (…the one with the dog-eared tab?)
Ever have trouble determining just how many bytes are really in that folder (and all its subfolders) that you wish to move to another drive, a floppy, or a ZIP disk? Just go to Windows Explorer, RIGHT-CLICK on the folder, and select PROPERTIES. You will be shown the total bytes in that folder, and the number of other folders and files in it.
Fun With Dick and Jane, oops , I meant – Fun With Pointers
Tired of that same old white arrow you’ve been using as a mouse pointer for the past three years? Then CLICK on START, SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL, and then DOUBLE-CLICK on the MOUSE icon, and CLICK on the POINTERS tab, then on the SCHEMES down arrow. Choose from the listed schemes and see the results in the window below. Also CLICK on the BROWSE button to see other cursors, including animated ones. When you find a scheme you like CLICK on APPLY and OK. For teachers and others making presentations the “Wind ows Standard – Extra Large” shows up well in on-screen demos.
Clipbook - way past Clipboard
This is one of those things that make me/you mad. Sit down and take a deeeep breath. Ever since August 1995 (or whenever you installed Win95) there has been a utility sitting on your Win95 CD called Clipbook. You can use it to view text, graphics, or anything else that can be copied to the Clipboard in a thumbnail view. You can copy as many items as you like. You can even store these items from the Clipboard and share them across a network in the office.
Now, if you aren’t too mad at being left in the dark for so long – install it by putting your Win95 CD in the drive, use Windows Explorer to open the OTHER folder, then drag the CLIPBOOK folder from the CD and drop it onto your C: drive icon. Open this CLIPBOOK folder and drag the file CLIPBRD.EXE from there and drop it on the C:\WINDOWS\START MENU folder.
Enjoy – and remember when Win98 comes out to CAREFULLY examine ALL the folders on the CD for such goodies.
Microphone Mania
Are you too broke (or too cheap) to rush out and buy a microphone for your PC? Then try this little gem – take any “Sony Walkman” style headphones and plug them into the microphone plug on your soundcard. Then just talk into the earpiece. (. . . if you can speak into your earpiece, can you listen with your mouth open?)
In the meantime, ole Tom will be alistenin’ to ya (e-mail me) until he can be atalkin’ to yus agin nes munth. ( Dang it – did that spel chekur brake agin?)
NOTE: These tips and tricks are provided as an informational member service. Neither HAL-PC, the author, nor the editors of this article accept any liability for the above tips and tricks nor their applicability to a particular computer or purpose.
Tom Lassiter is a member of the HAL-PC Board of Directors where he serves as Membership Secretary and Chairs the Volunteer Committee. He Chairs the Steering Committee of the Build or Buy a PC SIG and emcees that weekly SIG meeting, and was one of the initial HALNet beta testers..
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.
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Last modified: 1997:09:30