Here is a list of some tips you will find helpful in making the most out of Windows 95.

Shortcuts and Time Savers
Registry Edits
Internet Configuration
Customizing Windows 95

Shortcuts and Time Savers

Prevent having to reboot!

Have you ever clicked Shutdown and remembered something else you wanted to do on the system? Don't want to wait for the PC to power back up and go through self test? You don't have to - when you get the screen that says "It is now safe for you to turn off you computer" just type "win" and hit enter! Want to be in the DOS mode? Type "mode co80" and there you go. A Windows 95 system shutdown closes the registry, and drops you back to a DOS session, but displays a graphics message for you to turn off your computer. Behind the scenes, your PC is really sitting at the familiar C: prompt!

Update the registry without Rebooting!

Here's how to update the Registry without rebooting Windows - Press Ctr-Alt-Del, select Explorer, and click End Task. When Windows asks if you want to Shut Down, click no, then click End Task at the next prompt. Soon you should see the Start menu and Task Bar reappear as Windows starts the Explorer shell again. Also, to turn off the Auto-Run feature of CDs, go to Settings, Control Panel, System, Device Manager. Click on the plus sign plus sign of your CD-ROM controller, then double-click it's icon to bring up the Properties. Under Settings, turn off the Auto insert notification box and click OK. You will have to SHIFT+RESTART for this to take effect.

Access the Desktop Quickly

How do you access your darn desktop when you have a ton of applications open? Well you could right click on the taskbar and do a minimize all, but on a 486-50 that's pretty darn slow. Instead, open a browser window (double-click on "My Computer") If there is no toolbar, select View from the menu and select Toolbar. Then from the dropdown list-box in the toolbar select desktop. Now minimize it and forget about it. The next time you want to access your desktop just click the desktop window on the taskbar. As long as you don't close the window when you shutdown, it will reopen when you start windows again.

Use Long Filenames at the Command Prompt

Now that you can have long directory names, and particularly now that you can have directory names with spaces in them, how do you deal with that at the DOS command line? You can enter long file names, even those with spaces in them, by enclosing them in quotes:

dir "Cool Windows Utilities"

or cd "cool windows utilities"\insteasy

Note that, as with "real" DOS, case doesn't count.

Mapping Remote Systems as Network Drives

If you have a TCP/IP connection, and do a lot of FTPing from a specific site, why not add that site as a drive icon on your desktop?

First, you must create a file called LMHOSTS in your Windows directory. It has the following structure:

ip-address alias # the octothorpe starts a comment

e.g.:

198.105.232.1 MSFTP # Microsoft's FTP site

Next, right-click on My Computer and select Map Network Drive... Select a drive letter, and in the Path: text box, type the alias and a directory:

\\msftp\data

Select OK, wait, and you're on! Note that this works best with Windows 95 and Windows NT FTP sites. It works more or less with other FTP servers. It works just as well over PPP as over a direct connection. Your mileage may vary.

Add Shortcuts to the Start Menu Quickly

by Rob Willard, rwillard@cadcision.com (8/7/95)

To quickly add a shortcut to the top layer of the start menu, drag it from an open folder or from the explorer onto the start button, and it will be placed at the top of the start menu.

Add Mail Signatures With MS Mail

by Richard Anderson, randers@vvm.com (8/7/95)

When using Microsoft Exchange with Word Mail running (Word Mail is included with Office 95) an easy way to put a signature into your mail is to use the AutoText option. Create your signature, highlight it all, select AutoText from the Edit Menu and add it in. When you want to use it just type in the first few letters and hit F3 and your signature will be added to your E-mail.

Manage Your Tasks

by Tim LaDuca, laducat@fit.edu (8/4/95)

Windows 95 comes with a replacement/supplement for the Taskbar. Look in your \windows directory for TASKMAN.EXE This program works a lot like the taskbar except you can select programs just like you would select files in Explorer. Select the programs you want to close, and select Windows | End Task from the menu and Voila! all those programs go away!

Quick Access to the Desktop

by Ramesh Viswanathan, ramesh@scr.siemens.com (8/3/95)

You can get quick access to the desktop (if you have lots of windows open) by right clicking on the task bar and choosing Minimize All Windows. After you have completed the task you wanted to perform, you can restore all the windows to their original state by again right clicking on the task bar and choosing Undo Minimize all.

Make a shortcut to the Start Menu

by Mike Peele, peele1@marshall.edu (7/30/95)

To put the "Programs" from your Start menu onto your desktop do this:

1. Open up Explorer
2. Make a shortcut from "windows/start menu" to "Desktop"

This makes it a lot easier and quicker to get to the programs in your start menu faster.

Cleaning up Opened Windows

by Roger Suppona, rasuppo@sandia.gov (7/30/95)

To close Windows left open from browsing through "My Computer," you can take the following steps of action:

1. Hold the shift key when you click on the "X" button of the first window you want to close.
2. This will close any and all windows preceding the one you clicked on.

This helps to clean up your cluttered desktop considerably.

Clear the Recent Documents Menu Quickly

It seems as though everyone hates having to do all that clicking to clear the recent documents menu in the start menu. Here's a quick and dirty way to be able to clear them with a double-click:

1. Create a batch file with the line:
   echo y| del \windows\recent\*.*
2. Save the batch file into a convenient directory.
3. Create a shortcut to the batch file on the desktop.
4. Right-click the shortcut and choose properties.
5. Choose the Program tab.
6. Under Run, choose Minimized.
7. Check the Close on Exit box.
8. Click OK.

Now just double click on the shortcut's icon to clear the document menu.

Use the Right Mouse Button and the Shift Key

People used to working with Windows 3.1 or NT often become very "leftbutton-centric." To use Windows 95 productively, use the right mouse button liberally. In addition, the shift key often adds powerful features to a mouse click.

• To format a disk drive, right click on the drive's icon in the Explorer or in My Computer.
• To minimize, cascade, or tile all windows, right click on the taskbar.
• To empty the recycle bin quickly, right click on its icon.
• To close, restore, maximize, or minimize a window, right click on its button on the taskbar.
• If a file has an associated application, but you want to open it with a different application, hold down the shift key and right click on its icon.
• To restart windows without rebooting the computer, go to the shutdown menu and choose restart the computer. When you click OK, hold down the shift key.
• To launch Explorer on a drive or folder, right click on it instead of doubleclicking.

Using the Command Prompt

Here are some tips for people who don't want to leave behind their command prompts.

• In addition to the MS-DOS standards . and .., there are two new directory symbols:
• ... is the parent directory, once removed
  .... is the parent directory, twice removed
• You can drag and drop files to the Command Prompt. The file name appears in the keyboard buffer.
• To have a batch file run each time you enter the Command Prompt, click properties for the Command Prompt and enter its name under program/batch file. Then put your favorite utilities, for example Doskey, into the batch file.
• You can run windows programs from the Command Prompt. You can also open folders by typing "start ." or "start .." at the prompt. The start command can even run programs or documents.

Registry Edits

Speed up the Windows Refresh rate!

Every time I added a new folder, or I deleted something from a window, I needed to hit F5, Refresh, to see the results. This became quite an annoyance. Here is a little tip to change it so that the screen refreshes automatically.

1. Start Regedit.
2. Go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder and open it.
3. Open the System folder, and then the CurrentControlSet folder.
4. Select the Control folder, and then the Update folder.
5. Go to the right window and right-click with your mouse on Update.
6. Select Modify, and change the value from 01 to 00.
7. Click on OK.

Reduce the Start/Run Drop Down List!

Here's how to reduce the Run Drop Down list.

1. From the 'Start' button choose 'Run' and type 'regedit'.
2. Click on the + to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER'
3. Click on the + to 'Software'
4. Click on the + to 'Microsoft'
5. Click on the + to 'Windows'
6. Click on the + to 'CurrentVersion'
7. Click on the + to 'Explorer'
8. Click on the 'RunMRU'

   *On the right hand side you'll see a list of the names being used by the 'Run' command.

9. Click on the name you want to erase and press the delete key. (Be sure NOT to delete the first or last entries.)
10. Exit the Registry Editor and restart Windows to make your changes take affect.

Remove annoying arrows on Shortcuts

1. Run REGEDIT
2. There are 2 'IsShortcut' keys you need to remove One is under a 'lnkfile' branch, the other is under a 'piffile' branch. Search in whatever method you think is best
3. Delete the IsShortcut keys!
4. Restart explorer

Add Items to the New Menu

• First, in the program that creates the file type you are adding, create a "blank" document. To do that, enter the program, start a new file, and save it right away (note that you could save any normally used preferences here - useful for programs that don't support templates).
• Copy this file to the \windows\ShellNew folder (it's a hidden folder). Remember the filename!
• Now enter the system registry. Under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, find the extension for that filetype.
• Add a new key called ShellNew.
• Under this new key, add a new string value called "FileName".
• Modify the value of this string (double-click it to bring up a Modify panel) to be the filename of the blank template file you created. You need to include the extension, but the path is not necessary (the /windows/ShellNew folder is the default).
• Presto, your New file menu contains an option for your new file type. Note that there are some applications that do their registry entries a little different, so you may have to modify the procedure a little...of course most of those programs are Windows 95 programs, so they should probably appear anyway on the menu (if they set up a ShellNew entry as they should). Note that depending on the application, this may not work.

Turn Off Window Animation

You can shut off the animation displayed when you minimize and maximize windows. This tip makes navigating Windows 95 a lot faster especially for those that don't have super fast video cards.

1. Open Regedit
2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER
3. Control panel
4. Desktop
5. WindowMetrics
6. Right Mouse Click an empty space in the right pane.
7. Select new/string value.
8. Name the new value MinAnimate.
9. Doubleclick on the new string value (MinAnimate) and click on "Modify"
10. Enter a value of 0 for Off or 1 for On then hit
11. Close Regedit and all programs then reboot.

Add Sounds to Application Events

An overview on how to add sounds to program actions:

1. Open registry editor
2. Go to folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps
3. There are two folders, .Default and Explorer
4. Click on Apps with the right mouse button. Choose NEW - KEY.
   key name: name of the .EXE file you want sounds for.
   For better reading change the key Default from "none" to the name of the application.
5. Click on the key you created in 4 with the right mouse button. Choose NEW - KEY.
   key name: Open
6. Do the same with
   key name: Close
7. Go to control panel \ sound events. There is a new item and two subitems, Open program and Close program, for the program you just added to the registry.
8. Add sound files to them.
9. The next time you start/close the EXE file the sound will play.
10. Because there is no limitation in the registry database you can add all programs and events you like. For every program you can add all of the standard events:

1. AppGPFault (not very funny)
   Close
   Maximize
   MenuCommand
   MenuPopup
   Minimize
   Open
   RestoreDown
   RestoreUp
   SystemAsterisk
   SystemExclamation
   SystemHand
   SystemQuestion
   
   Other events may be possible; it depends on the events the application generates. The ribbon buttons in Winword are NOT such events.

Enhance Logitech Mice

by Niels van Drimmelen, 199702@student.sepa.tudelft.nl (8/3/95)

You can enable the double-click feature of the middle mouse-button of Logitech mice. Run regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/software/logitech/version???/. Change the value of double click from 000 to 001.

Removing System Icons from your Desktop.

by Dylan Greene, dylan@wam.umd.edu (7/31/95)

1. Run regedit.
2. Find one of the above (example: "Inbox"). You may find multiple occurrences.. The one you want will have long strings of numbers and letters in the left pane.
3. Hit tab to go to the left pane
4. Hit "+" to expand the tree
5. Select "ShellFolder"
   There should be two records: default (value not set) and attributes (a clump of four two digit numbers).
6. Select attributes.
7. Hit delete (or from the edit menu).
8. Hit F5 to refresh, and you are done.

You can now remove or move what you would like. This is very helpful on multi-user machines in which you don't want users to have access to browse the hard drive. It also cleans your desktop of programs you don't use often.

Reappearing values?

by Mark Pennington, mpenning@hq.walldata.com (7/30/95)

If you seem to have problems with Values and Keys reappearing in your registry, try deleting the offending programs from your win.ini file!

Make the Taskbar faster

A lot of people find the speed at which the menus on the taskbar and pull-down menus pop out too slow. To change this, you need to edit the registry:

1. From the Start menu, choose Run. Type in 'regedit' and click OK.
2. Open the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder.
3. Open the Control Panel folder.
4. Open the Desktop folder.
5. From the Edit menu, choose New->String Value
6. Call the new item MenuShowDelay.
7. Doubleclick on the new item and give it a value from 1 to 10, 1 being fastest.
8. Exit the Registry Editor and restart Windows.

Make .bmp Files Be Their Own Icons

It's possible to make the icons for bitmap files be thumbnail images of the bitmap itself. Here's how:

1. Run the Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
2. Open the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT folder
3. Open the Paint.Picture folder
4. Open the DefaultIcon folder
5. Double click on the "default" item
6. Change the value to "%1"
7. Exit the Registry Editor

Internet Configuration

View Your TCP/IP Configuration

by Ramesh Viswanathan, ramesh@scr.siemens.com (8/3/95)

In order to see your present TCP/IP configuration, Microsoft has included a program called winipcfg which gives you details of your setup. Start it using the Run command.

Trace Internet Routes

by Dylan Greene, dylan@wam.umd.edu (7/31/95)

Included with Windows 95 is a program called Trace Route. Open a dos window and type tracert location name. The location name can be any ip address or number, for example www.process.com. The program will the trace the route from your internet provider to that location, and show you every computer system along the way. Watch as you jump from cost to cost and over oceans via satelites and high speed connections instantly. Also very useful for when you can't connect to a site - it will show you if something is down along the way.

Installing Internet Dialup

by Chris Stowell, merlin@enet.net (7/31/95)

The following tip applies to those of you setting up Windows 95 to connect to an ISP, and only using a computer at home, not connected to another network, and using a modem connection:

The 2 components needed for this capability are the Dail-up adapter and TCP/IP Protocol settings. When only selecting the above 2 components, you must reenter the password every time you start to dial, and also when you connect to the ISP. To prevent the above from happening and saving you a few more things to type in, follow the below steps....

1. Go into your network settings, in control panel
2. Click on the Add button, Click on Client, Click on Microsoft, and choose Client for Microsoft Networks, and after you have installed the proper drivers from the disks, goto the Primary network Logon and choose Windows Logon.

After you reboot your computer and the next time you dial up to your ISP, you will be given the option to save your password, and also you will not have to reenter the password the second time also......

For FTPing a lot of stuff!

by Benicia Baker-Livorsi, bakerba@sluvca.slu.edu (7/30/95)

The FTP client that comes with Windows 95 allows for a text file for a list of commands that you would like it to run.

1. Create a text file with a list of commands that you would like to be run
2. Type ftp -s:mytextfile

This tip helps speed up tedious file transfers.

Customizing Windows 95

Command Line Multi-tasking

Sometimes I resort to the command line to do things quickly and "the old way". Its really handy to be able to multitask on the command line, and for that I've written this small batch file.

-- listing for bg.bat ---

start /m command /c %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

--- end listing ----

By putting this batch file on my path, I can run any dos (or windows) command or program in the background. For example,
bg pkunzip data.zip c:\datadir -d
will unzip my data in the background. It's very handy and I use it often. Anybody that uses UNIX or OS/2 will be used to this feature.

Make an Open New Folder Context Entry

Open your notepad and copy this exactly into it.

---



REGEDIT4



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\opennew]

@="Open New &Window"



[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\opennew\command]

@="explorer %1"



---

Changing default from 'Open' to 'Explore'

Converting from Netscape to Microsoft's Internet Explorer?

Migrating from Netscape Navigator to Microsoft's Internet Explorer? If you've made your mind to do that, try to save your bookmarks by drag them from tree view of bookmarks to the 'Favorites' folder.

Changing the Fonts in MS Internet Explorer

If you ever wanted control over the fonts used by Microsoft's Internet Explorer, here's how.

1. Start the Regestry editor
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / Software / Microsoft / Internet Explorer / Styles
   1. A list of all the possible combinations will come up
   2. On the right panel is the Style Name on the left, followed by its value on the right.
   3. Double click on a Style Name and change its font, size, or weight.
   4. Repeat this for all the fonts available for the style you would like.
   5. There are 13 settings to change which only takes a few minutes.

3. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software / Microsoft / Internet Explorer / Styles
   1. Change the Default_Style_Sheet to be the one you just edited.
4. Restart the Internet Explorer

Enhance the Start Menu

by Joel Mueller, jmueller@minn.net (8/23/95)

Create a new folder on your desktop.. Rename it - call it:

Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

Now it should look like a normal Control Panel icon you see in My Computer (not a shortcut). Now right click on the Start button, click on open. Move the new folder we just created to the start menu folder. Close the Start Menu folder. Now when you click on Start, you should see Control Panel on it. Click on it and it will expand to show all the items, fast! You can do the same thing with Printers and Dial-Up Networking - here's the names you need:

Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}
Dial Up Net.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}

Fix Broken Start Menus

by Joel Mueller, jmueller@minn.net (8/23/95)

Sometimes people experience the problem of having a Start menu which is empty and cannot be modified. One possible cause: If the c:\windows\"Start Menu" directory is modified (particularly if anything is deleted) from the MSDOS prompt, Windows 95 will decide that the start menu is invalid. The Start Menu is empty, and if you try to add anything to it, you get "Unable to add to Start Menu" or a similar message.

Solution:

1. If there are still subfolders and links in c:\windows\"Start Menu" that you can access from the Explorer, copy these to another folder as backup.
2. Restart the computer, and when you see "Starting Windows 95..." press F8 to get to the startup menu. Choose "Command Prompt Only."
3. At the c:\ prompt, change to the windows directory and "deltree startm~1". Reboot the computer.
4. When Windows 95 reloads, it will find that rather than being invalid, the Start Menu simply isn't there. It will then create a valid (but empty) Start Menu.
5. At this point you can go to Start / Settings / Taskbar / Start Menu / Advanced and start copying back in the shortcuts you backed up in step one, or you can run GRPCONV.EXE to get your basic icons back, and reinstall or create the other links by hand to get your icons back.
6. You're done. You have a Start Menu again.

Keep Fonts from Disappearing

by Ciss, 100706.2137@compuserve.com (8/18/95)

If you install a generic Textmode Printer into Windows 95 and choose it as default you will not see any of your TrueType Fonts in programs like Word 6.0 or Wordpad.

Delete the Printer or Install another one like HP Deskjet and make it the default printer to regain access to your fonts.

Customize MS-DOS Mode

by Jeff Kohn, jsk9482@tam2000.tamu.edu (8/4/95)

If you want to be able to completely control the settings used when you choose 'Restart Computer in MS-DOS Mode,' use Explorer to go to your Windows directory and find a file called 'Exit To DOS.' (It might or might not show the extension .PIF depending on your settings for Explorer). Right-click this file, choose properties, and go to the Program tab. Click the Advanced button, and you can enter custom CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT commands to be executed. Save your changes, and they will go into effect whenever you reboot into DOS-mode from the Shut-Down menu.

Make Windows 3.1 Programs Behave

by Jason Schloer, Jason_Schloer@ed.gov (8/3/95)

If you're having compatibility trouble with old Windows 3.1 programs try using mkcompat.exe. Start it using the Run command. Just choose a file in the file menu that you want to fix compatibility with and begin selecting options such as:

Lie about Windows version #
Delay comm handshake
Increase Stack Size


etc.

Tired of a GUI Interface?

by Benicia Baker-Livorsi, bakerba@sluvca.slu.edu (7/30/95)

If you want Windows 95 to boot up like a regular MS-DOS session, do the following:

1. Edit your msdos.sys file
2. Add the line "BootGUI=0" to the file.

This will bring a regular DOS session up upon reboot.

For the Multi-boot Users

by Benicia Baker-Livorsi, bakerba@sluvca.slu.edu (7/30/95)

Tired of hitting "F8" every time you boot to change your settings?

1. If you edit your msdos.sys file
2. In the "Options" section
3. Add the line "BootMenu=1"

This will always present you with a boot menu, removing the need to hit F8 every time.

Turn off the Windows 95 Logo When Booting

by Jeff Tjernagel, merlin@txdirect.net (7/28/95)

To remove the Windows 95 logo on startup, you can do the following:

1. Open file msdos.sys in Notepad.
2. Find the [Options] section.
3. Add this line in the Options section: Logo=0

Reboot your machine and there should be no logo on startup.