Think of great explorers: Hernando Cortes, who liked Mexico so much he annexed it for Spain; Ferdinand Magellan, who made round-the-world cruises fashionable before "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous"; or Wrongway Feldman, who, regardless where he intended to go, ended up on Gilligan's Island. To this list of famous (and fanciful) explorers, add Windows 95 Explorer, a powerful tool that lets you quickly find any folder or directory on a hard drive or floppy disk--without battling piqued natives, squelching mutinies, or ending up stranded with a bunch of yahoos on a desert isle. To use Explorer to find a particular directory or folder, follow these steps:
1. Choose Start|Programs|Windows Explorer.
2. Highlight (that is, click on) the drive you want to search. By default, the Explorer menu opens with your main hard drive selected. If you want to search a different drive, choose it.
3. Choose Tools|Find|Files or Folders to open the Find dialog box.
4. In the Named text box, type in the name of the file or folder you're looking for.
5. Click Find Now.
Version 4.0
Whenever you make a change to your hardware or software setup, you should
also update your Emergency Repair disk. To do this, insert the Repair disk
into the floppy disk drive and click Start. Choose Help, then click the
Index tab. Type Repair Disk and click Display. Click the Repair Disk button.
When the dialog box opens, click Update Repair Info. When the operation
finishes, click Exit. If another dialog box appears asking if you want
to create a Repair disk, click No. Now close Help.
NT 3.1, 3.5, 3.51, 4.0
The Performance Monitor won't monitor disk performance unless you turn on the disk counters first. To do this, go to the Command prompt and type diskperf -Y and press Enter. Now restart the computer. When Windows NT starts again, you can monitor disk activity with the Performance Monitor. Since the counters will affect disk performance (very slightly) you should turn them off when you're finished with your testing. To turn off the counters, go to the Command prompt again, and type diskperf -N press Enter, and then restart the computer.
With just a couple of clicks, you can check on your system's performance. For instance, you can see whether your system uses virtual memory or disk compression or how much random-access memory is sitting behind that pretty desktop:
1. Double-click on the My Computer icon.
2. Double-click on the Control Panel icon.
3. Double-click on the System icon.
4. From the System Properties menu, click once on the Performance tab.
On the Performance tab, you can find everything you wanted to know about
your computer and then some. When you're done with this fascinating display
of technical mumbo-jumbo, click OK.
[Return
to top]
NT 4.0
Some Windows NT 4.0 users have asked about a command similar to the Windows 95 Deltree command. You can accomplish the same thing in Windows NT 4.0 by using the Rmdir command. Try this: Create a new folder and then create within that folder a subfolder. Now place some files in the subfolder. You can use copies of existing files from another folder. Just make sure you copy (not move) the files. Now go to the command prompt and type RD c:\NewFolder\Test /s and press Enter to delete the folders and the files contained within them.
Hey you! Yeah, you, the one who hates the mouse. Want to assign a keyboard shortcut to a program's shortcut so you can launch it without using the mouse? Here's how:
1. Right-click on the icon of the Windows shortcut you want to launch from the keyboard. (Ha, ha! Made you use the mouse!)
2. Choose Properties.
3. Click on the Shortcut tab.
4. In the Shortcut key box, type a letter or number that corresponds with the application you want. For instance, type N for Navigator. (Note that you don't delete what's there or type over it; you simply type the letter you want to assign.)
5. Notice the shortcut command Windows assigns. For instance, typing W gets you Ctrl-Alt-W as the shortcut; typing N gets you Ctrl-Alt-N as the shortcut.
6. Choose OK.
Tapping the new letter while holding down the assigned Windows keys
launches your program. For instance, if you assigned "N" to the Netscape
shortcut, holding down the Ctrl and Alt keys while pressing N opens Netscape.
(Note that in order for this trick to work, you must assign the keyboard
shortcut to a Windows 95 shortcut, not to the program icon itself. A Windows
95 shortcut is an icon that points to the program. You can create a shortcut
to a program by right-clicking on its icon and choosing Create
Shortcut.)
NT 4.0
If you need to open a folder and then open a folder in that folder, etc., etc., but you don't want to leave a trail of folders on your desktop, here 's what you can do: Open the main folder. Now hold down Ctrl and double-click on the subfolder you want to open. The new folder will open and the original folder will close. The only drawback is that the subfolder will open in the same format as the main folder. If the main folder was set to Large Icons, then the subfolder will open with large icons even if it was originally set to List.
NT 4.0
To set up a sound card In Windows NT 4.0, determine the card's selections (I/O port, interrupt number), turn off the computer, insert the card, and restart the computer. Now open Control Panel and double-click on the Multimedia icon. When the dialog box opens, click on the Devices tab. Now select Audio Devices and click on Add. (You'll probably need to insert your Windows NT 4.0 CD at this point). When offered a driver selection, choose the device that matches your sound card. Set the I/O to match your card and click on Continue. Now set the interrupt to match and click on OK. You'll be prompted to restart. After the restart, your sound card should function. If there's an interrupt conflict, you may need to set your sound card to a different interrupt. If so, make the change, reinsert the card, and repeat the installation procedure.
NT 4.0
To launch a search in any active folder (including Windows NT Explorer), press F3. If the folder isn't active, click on it to make it active and then press F3. To launch a search from the desktop, click on it and press F3.
WEB SITE SHORTCUTS
NT 4.0
If you're surfing the Web and run across a site that you'd like to
keep as handy as possible, right-click on the site's URL and then choose
Copy from the menu. Now move to your desktop and right- click where you
like the URL to appear. Choose Paste Shortcut.
[Return
to top]
Open the window that contains the long name. Now right-click on the desktop and choose Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, click on the Appearance tab. Now click on the down arrow at the right of Item. When the list expands, select Icon Spacing (Horizontal). Use the spin box to increase the spacing. Make sure your long icon name is visible and then click on Apply. Now click on the window that contains your icon to activate it and then press F5 to refresh the window.
If the name shows, click on OK and go about your business. If the entire name still doesn't show, increase the spacing again, click on Apply, and refresh the window.
You need to make some compromise on icon spacing. Increasing the spacing
a little to allow longer names to display is OK. But if you increase the
spacing too much, you may be unhappy with the extra desktop space required
by your windows.
[Return
to top]
Choose Start|Settings|Printers and then double-click on Add Printer. Follow the Wizard to install your new printer. Give it a different name from the original printer.
After the printer is installed, set its defaults to those needed by your periodic printing requirements. Go to the document you want to print, choose Print, and choose the new printer. Set up the necessary parameters and print your document.
When you want to print standard documents, choose your original printer.
If you'd like to make the title backgrounds match the wallpaper, run
Microsoft Paint and load your wallpaper file (it's in the
Winnt folder). We used Solstice as our example wallpaper.
Now, select the Pick Up tool (it looks like an eyedropper) and click on what appears to be the most prevalent wallpaper color. Next, choose Options, Edit Colors, and then click on Define Custom Colors. In this dialog box, you'll see values for the primary colors (red, green, and blue). Copy these values and close Paint.
Next, right-click on the desktop and choose Properties. Then, click on the Appearance tab. Now click on the arrow beside the Color list box to expand it and then click on Other. Double-click on the Red value and change it to the value you copied from Microsoft Paint. Press Tab to get to, and select, the Green value and enter the copied green value. Then press Tab again to get to the Blue value and type that in. Click on OK, and when you get back to the Display Properties dialog box click on OK again.
Now your icon title colors will match the wallpaper colors (the color
you selected anyway). Of course, the busier the wallpaper, the harder it
is to get a good match, but at least you won't have blue on brown.
[Return to top]
By the way, for shut down with a bang, there's a great scream in "A
Christmas Story."
[Return to top]
Forcedos yourApp
where yourApp is the full path and name of the application. You may
find this method particularly helpful if you'd like to run
some old MS-DOS games.
An Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) should be made anytime a Service Pack for NT has been installed or an application has been installed or updated. A new ERD should be created at least every month.
To do this click on Start, Run and type in the box rdisk /s, and click OK . The /s is added so that the dialog box is skipped. After the new configuration is saved, create your disk, label it, and put it in a safe place.
The control registers for COM2 overlaps with the COM4 control registers.
(This isn't really a problem unless we try to run COM2 and COM4 at the same time.)
Double-clicking a yellow icon produced the message:
A data error occurred on the tape. Using error correction to recover data. From device: \Device\q117i0
We didn't know this error occurred. It's something to keep in mind,
but it may never occur again. Keep the Event Viewer in mind--it can help
you avoid future problems.
[Return to top]
The first time you press Alt-Esc, all the open windows appear. Pressing
the combination again will cause the current active
window to disappear and activate the next window. This continues until
all the windows disappear and you're back at your
application window.
Note that this only works with windows that are currently open on the
desktop; it does not open and display minimized windows.
[Return to top]
To do this, open Windows NT Explorer and navigate to Winnt\Profiles\Administrator\Send To (assuming you're the administrator). Now click Start, Settings, Printers. When the Printers window opens, hold down Ctrl and drag the printer icon to the Send To folder.
Now you can right-click a document icon and choose Send To, YourPrinter (or whatever you called your printer).
A number of subscribers have asked about printing the screen in Windows NT 4.0. If you press Print Screen to copy the screen to the Clipboard, you can use Paint to print the Clipboard contents. Just open Paint and choose Edit, Paste. This will paste all Clipboard contents into Paint. Now you can use Paint to print the screen: Simply choose File, Print.
0 Timer
1 Keyboard
2 Cascade (for interrupts above 8)
3 COM2, COM4
4 COM1, COM3
5 LPT2
6 Floppy Controller
7 LPT1
8 Clock
9 Sometimes used for ISA in a PCI computer
12 PS2 Mouse Port
13 Math Coprocessor
14 IDE Controller
Note that interrupts 10 and 11 are generally not used.
In the last tip, we listed some of the common interrupt assignments. This time, let's look at some of the common conflicts.
In general, you can't assign two devices to the same interrupt. That said, we have to recognize that any computer with more than two COM ports is using the same interrupt for more than one device. The trick with the COM ports is that you don't use the conflicting ones at the same time. For example, if you have a modem assigned to COM3 and you attempt to use COM1 while the modem is active, you'll get a conflict. In most cases, this won't cause any drastic problems--COM1 will most likely simply decline to open.
You can also have some problems with sound cards that use interrupt 5 and have a second printer port (LPT2). Once again, you can usually handle this. The only problem is when you use the sound card and LPT2 at the same time.
When you work with interrupt conflicts keep in mind that if two devices
must often run simultaneously, you need to assign them to different interrupts.
If they never operate simultaneously, then you have no problem with them
using a common interrupt.
[Return to top]
This is the calling batch file. Let's name it CallIt.bat.
@echo off
echo This is line 1
echo This is line 2
Test.bat
This is the file that's run from CallIt.bat--Test.bat.
@echo off
echo Here I am
When you run CallIt.bat, it will display the two lines that are
echoed and then run the batch file named Test.bat. So the output will
look like this:
This is line 1
This is line 2
Here I am
No problem there. But what if you'd like to use something more like this next example?
@echo off
echo This is line 1
echo This is line 2
Test.bat
echo This is line 3
When you run this batch file, you'll get:
This is line 1
This is line 2
Here I am
and that's all--no line 3. When you run Test.bat from your batch file, control is turned over to Test.bat. To solve the problem, use the Call instruction. For example, if you modify your batch file as follows, you can maintain control:
@echo off
echo This is line 1
echo This is line 2
call Test.bat
echo This is line 3
This time, you'll get:
This is line 1
This is line 2
Here I am
This is line 3
So, your batch file runs Test.bat, but when Test.bat finishes executing,
control returns to the calling batch file.
[Return to top]
You don't know how you did it, but somehow you managed to position one of your program windows so that the title bar--or perhaps even more of the window--has scrolled past the top edge of your screen display. As a result, you can't move the window, or click its handy Maximize/Minimize/Restore buttons--or even, if it's far enough off the screen, get to the program menus.
Time to panic? If you like. But the more stable among you can do the following:
1. Press Alt + spacebar + M.
2. Press the down arrow repeatedly until your title bar appears.
Another disaster averted. Note that you can use this technique to move
a window in ANY direction; just press Alt + spacebar + M and then press
the appropriate arrow key.
[Return to top]
Way back in the 1800s, when we first started Dummies Daily tips for Windows 95, we told you that you could take a picture of the entire screen simply by pressing your Print Screen key. This is a fine thing if, for some reason, you think your entire screen is important enough to paste into a document in a Windows application and subsequently share with the world. However, many times it's not the entire screen that's so darn important but only ONE WINDOW ON THE SCREEN. For those times, you can take a picture of the one window, as follows:
1. Make the application window you want to "photograph" the current
window.
2. Press Alt + Print Screen.
Windows 95 copies only the current application window to the Clipboard.
You can paste it into any document by opening that document and choosing
Edit + Paste (or pressing Ctrl + V).
[Return
to top]
Last time, we sent you a tip from Armand Carrier, who correctly pointed out that you can zip to the System Properties dialog box from the desktop by holding down the Alt key and double-clicking the My Computer icon. Always willing to get as much mileage as possible out of a single tip, we began Alt + double-clicking everything in sight. And guess what we found? You can Alt + double-click desktop icons, folder icons, Windows Explorer, or folder lists--even items in Open, Save, and Save As dialog boxes--to open a Properties dialog box for that item.
To display the Properties dialog box for ANY icon or list item that has one:
1. Hold down the Alt key.
2. Double-click the icon or list item.
(Like we said, we tried it on EVERYTHING in sight.)
Windows NT Workstation 4.0
"How do you create an icon from a graphics file you already have?"
If you'd like to expand your icon library, Windows NT Workstation 4.0 can use existing BMP files as icons. You can even design your own icons if you like.
Let's say you have a shortcut to Windows NT Explorer on your desktop. To change the icon, right-click the shortcut and choose Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab. Now, click Change Icon.
When the Change Icon dialog box opens, select from one of the offered icons, or click Browse to locate a BMP file to use as an icon. Clicking Browse opens another dialog box also named Change Icon. You can use this dialog box to search for those BMP files. First, though, you need to click the arrow at the right side of the Files of Type list box to open the list. Choose All Files from the list. Now, locate a BMP file to use as a test icon. Select the file and click Open. Back in the first Change Icon dialog box, click OK to continue. In the Properties dialog box, click OK to close the box and apply your change.
You'll find that the lighter and less crowded BMP files look best as
icons.
[Return
to top]
Windows NT Workstation 4.0
An unnamed reader sends this comment:
"Some time ago, you suggested editing Bootsect.dos to change the name of the alternate operating system. Based on your suggestion, I opened the file. There was nothing there to edit, so I saved the file and closed it. Now I can't boot Windows 95."
Thanks for the comment. We do always try to inform people when we know a tip is particularly dangerous--and we recognize that many tips have the potential to cause problems. However, you misread the particular tip that you mentioned--we suggested editing Boot.ini, not Bootsect.dos.
The problem that you experienced should warn other readers not to fool with Bootsect.dos. If you damage this file, you will not be able to boot your alternate system.
As a general rule, if you open a file and see that it contains binary data as opposed to all text, don't save the file. Instead, click the Close box or press Alt-F4 immediately. If a dialog box opens asking about saving the file, click No. You do not want to save changes to a binary file using a text editor.
Windows key combinations:
Windows-Pause/Break opens the System Properties dialog box
Windows-D brings up the desktop by minimizing all windows
Windows-E opens Windows Explorer
Windows-F opens Find Files
Windows L closes Windows
Windows-M minimizes applications
Windows-R opens the Run Program box
Sometimes it is useful to have an additional comment besides the machine name. To accomplish this in Windows NT Workstation 4.0, click Start, Settings, Control Panel, and double-click the Server icon. When the Server dialog box opens, type your comment in the Description entry box and click OK. Your comment will now appear under the comment column in Network Neighborhood.
To see the Comment column, open Network Neighborhood and choose View, Details.
"How does one change a program type that has been associated with a file type using the Open With window?"
Once you associate a file type with a certain application using the Open With window, it stays associated. You can change it to another association the same way--in the Open With window. Try this: Run Windows NT Explorer and click the file you want to change. With the file highlighted, hold down the spacebar and then right-click the file. Choose Open With from the menu and the Open With dialog box will open. Select the new program and click OK.
If you want to make the new selection permanent, make sure you select the check box labeled Always Use This Program To Open This Type File before you click OK to close the dialog box and save your new selection.