by Tom Lassiter
“MAY I?” “You MAY”. “MAYbe?” The “… very merry month of MAY”. However you slice it – MAY is a great month in Houston. As much as I know you hate getting up and leaving your PC for any extended length of time – if you’re going to do it, this is a super ti me to take that plunge.
Speaking of plunges – get ready to plunge into Windows 98 next month. At press time the release date was strongly rumored by my industry sources to be set for June 25. (So much for my previously published guestimate of September 1998.) But being as it is a Microsoft product they didn’t say which YEAR. I guess one of these days Bill Gates will emerge from his new home, like Punxsutawney Phil the Groundhog emerging from his den each February, and give us the official word from on high. My bet would be on six more weeks of Windows winter.
Until then we can come inside from the wonderful spring weather and playfully plunge into the ongoing wonders of Win95:
Quick Desktop via Run
If you find yourself needing access to a desktop icon and don’t want to minimize your open windows, CLICK on the START button, and RUN, then type a period (.) and press ENTER.
UNDO Is Our Friend
Should you move a file in Windows Explorer and change your mind just CLICK on UNDO under Edit in the menu Bar. Never ever forget about the UNDO option in all Win95 programs. It is a standard required feature.
Put YOUR Notes in Your Help Files
Ever use a help file and write a side note to yourself on how to use it. Next time just add that note directly into the help file itself with the annotate feature. While in an open help window, RIGHT-CLICK and CLICK on ANNOTATE.
Type your note in the dialog box and CLICK SAVE. A paper clip icon will appear beside the heading in that screen. Next time you are there CLICK on the paper clip to read your own reminder note.
You may delete the note while it is open by use of the Delete button in the window.
Lose Those Open Folders
As you drill down through folders looking for the one you want you soon discover that upon opening the final folder you have a bunch of unwanted ones still open. The secret is to hold down the CTRL key while you DOUBLE-CLICK on the final folder you wish to open. That will cause the parent directory window to be closed and leave you with only your selected folder.
Printout Your BIOS Setup
The BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) of your PC is a set of instructions encoded in read-only memory (ROM) on the motherboard that handles the startup operations and some basic control of disk drives, keyboard, and monitor.
The following technique works on most systems to printout the system’s BIOS setup:
As your system is booting (when you first turn it on and just after all those funny numbers whiz like a speedometer by counting all that RAM you have) there will appear on your screen instructions as to what key to press to enter Setup mode, e.g. – “Pres s DELete to enter setup”. It may be F1, F2, F8, DEL or something else. Press whatever key is indicated. At the first Setup screen press the Printscreen key on the keyboard. (Once a PC has booted into Win95 the Printscreen key sends info to the Clipboard; but at this stage it will go straight to the printer.)
If necessary, press the printer’s page feed button to complete the printing of the first page. From there on just go to the next Setup screen and press Printscreen etc.
Finding Old Tips and Tricks
This is the twenty-fourth column in this series, which began in June 1996. Like any two-year-old it may get a bit feisty at times; but I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do writing it. If you like it tell your friends – if you don’t, tell me. With increasing frequency I am asked by readers what month a certain tip or trick appeared in the column; as they wish to reuse it or share it with a friend needing it.
All of the columns are not in the current online edition of the HAL-PC Magazine so I have placed copies of them on my personal homepage at http://www.hal-pc.org/~jamesl and provided a summary of the monthly topic headings and links to the articles.
They may be found from the homepage link to “Technological Tabletalk Toys”. Enjoy!
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.