by Tom Lassiter
SWOOSH! No, NOT the Nike swoosh ,you boob-tube commercialized sports watchers – the wind swoosh of the month of March coming in like a lion. Let’s hope it goes out like a lamb.
Talking of lambs – do all you little Win95ers need to be led to register online for Microsoft’s Saturday March 28 12:00-2:00 p.m. preview of Windows 98 (ta da!!) at George R. Brown Convention Center? Details are at http://www.microsoft.com/ magazine/msextreme/. You must register to attend. It will be a live satellite broadcast to 35 cities and will cover several new products and upgrade releases in addition to Win98. Be there or be (nah – I can’t say that!) I’ll see you there my little nerds and nerdesses. Let ’s all wear pocket protectors, white socks, “high-water” pants and all our other geeky attire. It can be like a Dilbert convention. Sign up quick – the site went up January 23 and attendance may have to be limited.
Before I get off the lamb subject, I do hope you didn’t pay Microsoft for the “privilege” of being a Win98 beta tester. That is the height of audacity by MS. It is bad enough that their products are usually really still beta versions when we pay cash for them in new releases. But to charge you for testing their products is a marketing scheme that defies logic.
Place your bets on the outcome of the Justice Department vs. Microsoft legal battle over incorporating Internet Explorer 4.0 browser as an integral part of Windows 98; mine is on MS.
I can’t see the coordinated release of all other related software being held up by the feds. Shades of 1995 – with same end result.
Take a look at the PC98 System Design Guide from the Wintel power team on the websites of Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/pc98.htm) or Intel (http://developer.intel. com/design/PC98/index.htm). It is your window to the future of the Wintel architecture. Be doubly sure to check it out before buying or building a new PC this year.
However, since we can’t use what we don’t have (yet!) – let’s charge ahead with Win95 for now.
Changing Device Drivers
I have previously recommended that you routinely update your device drivers, those little program files that enable Win95 and hardware devices to talk to each other.
It dawned on me that I never provided the method to install those drivers after you download them from the hardware manufacturers, or other, websites. So, follow this trail – CLICK on START, SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL. DOUBLE-CLICK on SYSTEM icon. CLICK on DEVICE MANAGER tab. DOUBLE-CLICK on the icon for the device on which you wish to change the driver (i.e.- Display Adapter if for a video card driver); then DOUBLE-CLICK on the icon for the device itself (i.e. – Matrox Millennium). CLICK the DRIVER tab, t he CHANGE DRIVER button, and lastly the HAVE DISK button and BROWSE button to select the driver file where you put it when you downloaded it.
Follow the routine from there. New drivers can really add pep to your PC.
Right-Click START for Handy Utilities
RIGHT-CLICK on the START button to gain immediate access to Open, Windows Explorer, Find, DOS Prompt, and other goodies much easier than going through the Programs menu.
Actions on Task Bar Buttons
You have choices to minimize, maximize, size, restore, move, or close any program by a RIGHT-CLICK on its Task Bar button.
Internet Explorer 4.0 and Remembered Login Password
Installation of IE4 may cause your internet login password to no longer be remembered. If so, try reinstalling the updated Win95 Password List file. Download mspwlupd.exe from www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/passwd.htm (or wherever they may have moved it). It may have a 2 in the name on the site but the downloaded file will not. Go to your Windows folder (normally C:\windows) and delete all *.pwl files. Then DOUBLE-CLICK on the downloaded mspwlupd.exe and let it install itself. Now log on to the internet, enter your password and CLICK on the REMEMBER PASSWORD box. Win95 should then remember your password in the future.
Compress Your Hard Drive
If your hard drive is getting full and you aren’t quite ready to replace it, use DriveSpace to compress all or selected drives. CLICK on START, PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS, DRIVESPACE. Read the help file. You can compress the drive(s) and new fil es can be uncompressed while the older seldom used ones are packed to take less space.
Backspace Up A Level
From an open folder in Windows Explorer, press BACKSPACE to open the folder one level higher.
Limit Defrag To 2%
When you go to defrag your hard drive (weekly or at most monthly for sure) Win95 may tell you it is only 4% fragmented so you don’t need to do it. Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!! Don’t let it become over 2% fragmented. After all, each extra percent on a 2GB drive is another 20MB of pieces that need to be made whole again. So if it gets over 2% run it. CLICK on START, PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS, DISK DEFRAGMENTER. CLICK on SHOW DETAILS to see the fun in progress (but it slows it down).
Quick Date Check
Forget the day or date? Place your pointer over the clock in the far right of the Taskbar and hold it there a second (no clicking now).
Clear the Document List
The Start menu’s document list shows your most recently opened documents and lets you reopen them there by a simple click.
To clear that list out RIGHT-CLICK on an empty space on the Taskbar, then CLICK on PROPERTIES, START MENU PROGRAMS tab, CLEAR and OK.
We have MARCHed far enough for this month – see you in April.
Tom Lassiter is a member of the HAL-PC Board of Directors where he serves as Membership Secretary and —Chairs the Volunteer Committee. He may be contacted at jamesl@hal-pc.org.
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.