                 Windows 95 Hints, Tips & Tricks (and more...)


* IMPORTANT : BACKUP Win95's Registry (SYSTEM.DAT, USER.DAT, SYSTEM.DA0 AND
              USER.DA0) and System Files (SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI) BEFORE
              ATEMPTING TO MAKE ANY CHANGES !

* NOTE: The following tips/tricks/speedups/fixes have been tried by Windows
        95 users (and some by me), but with no guarantee they will also work
        on your system!
        So take extreme CAUTION when modifying your System settings!
        Faulty changes to your System settings may result in system crashes
        or/and lockups!


TIP95AOL.TXT Topics Contents:


MS PLUS! + UPGRADE 95
START
EXPLORER
DELETE
SEND TO
ASSOCIATE
MKCOMPAT
RENAME
LINK
QUAD SPEED
AUDIO CD
EXPLORER MENU
SEND TO FOLDER
PC SPEAKER
LOGO
DRAG/DROP
SHUT DOWN
SYSTEM FOLDERS
OPEN WITH
HOT KEYS
EXPLORE FOLDER
EXPLORE C:
SCRAP
EXPAND
CAPTURE
IRQ LIST
INSTANT REFRESH
SETUP SWITCHES
DOS LFNS
EASTER EGG!
EASTER EGG PART 2
ERU
WINSET
MBR REFRESH
FOLDER ICON
EXTRACT CAB
NO AUTOPLAY
LFNFOR
GRP CONVERT
HANG... NO MORE!
MS NATURAL KEYBOARD
PRINT 2 FILE
UPDATE REGISTRY
HELP
DOS MULTITASKING
MULTIPLE DESKTOPS
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
MINSPS
HTML VIEW
COUNT FRAMES
NETWORK SERVER
FIXED SWAPFILE
ALPHABETICAL ORDER
TROUBLESHOOT PRINTER





MS PLUS! + UPGRADE 95

You MUST have the Microsoft Plus! Package for Windows 95 (sells for about 30
to 40 bucks at your local computer store). Among other things, it comes with
a new version of Scandisk and Drvspace, a new Internet Explorer (good
competition for Netscape Web Browser 2.0). Plus you'll get all those fancy
"screen entertainment" features, ranging from desktop wallpapers, to 256
colors icons for your shortcuts, a bunch of fun(k)y screen savers, a great
variety of sound files, and animated mouse cursors.
The System Agent is something that should have been implemented into Win95
(like many other basic utilities that are still missing from the OS, like a
virus scaning/protection program).
By the way: Microsoft just released the first version of the Win95 Upgrade
Service Package, that fixes a few bugs in the original comercial release.
AOL members can connect to the Internet with 3 (three) different choices of
net Browsers:
- AOL's own old, built-in, primitive but fast, net browser (version 3.0
  beta, of AOL Web Browser is much better: AOL software version 3.0 beta is
  available for a free download at keyword PREVIEW),
- Netscape 2.02 16bit, which is free for AOL-ers (at keyword NETSCAPE),
  and
- Internet Explorer 3.0 beta (free to preview from Microsoft's Web page).
Just sign-on on AOL, and then start your choice of net browser (after you
properly installed it/them on your hard drive). You can actually access 2
different Internet areas with 2 different browsers opened at the same time
(or with all 3 at the same time, if you want, for that matter).
Happy cruising!
The Microsoft 95 Upgrade Service Package version 1.0, is available at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/software/servpak1/sphome.htm
for free for Microsoft Windows 95 registered users (you only pay for the
download time). It's also available on AOL at keyword WIN95 (the Windows 95
area).
To download the latest MS Internet Explorer 3.0 Beta for free, point your
web browser at:
http://www.microsoft.com/ie/go/tipjp8.htm


START

To run Win95 programs in a batch file, use START with the "/W" switch.
It's nice to run more than one Win95 program with only one click (i.e.
Scandisk and Defrag). Open Notepad, and type:
@START /W /MAX "C:\WINDOWS\SCANDSKW.EXE /A /N"
@START /W /MAX "C:\WINDOWS\DEFRAG.EXE /ALL /F /NOPROMPT"
Save this as TOOLS95.BAT and create a shortcut for TOOLS95 on your Desktop
(or move it to the Startup folder, to run it every time you load Win95).
START switches:
/M    runs program minimized (in background)
/MAX  runs program maximized (full screen)
/R    runs program in a window in foreground (default)
NOTE: The quote-unquotes on the START lines are necessary!


EXPLORER

To get Explorer to show a 2 directory view similar to File Manager just
open 2 instances of the Explorer, right-click on the Task bar, and select
Tile Vertically. Win95 will retain both if you leave them running when you
shut down, and they'll instantly be available next time you boot up.


DELETE

Hold down SHIFT while dragging items into the Recycle Bin to DELETE them
immediately rather than being placed in the bin. Careful not to accidently
multi-select more files than you want! Same if you press SHIFT-DEL.


SEND TO

Play with the SendTo feature in Explorer! It's a hidden folder in \WINDOWS.
You can add folders to it and be able to quickly move things around (right
click on file - use Send To). You can put WinZip there to make quick ZIP-s,
or any or all of your frequently used "tools" for that matter.


ASSOCIATE

In Explorer you can set up different actions to be performed on a document
in addition to just the standard 'open' command that is available when you
right click on your icon. Go to an Explorer window and choose View | Options
and then the tab 'File Types'.
In the list you see, find the association for the file type you want to add
an action to, e.g. BMP. Double click on it to bring up the edit window. 
You should see there is already at least 1 action here, probably Open, maybe
Print, etc. Click on the New... button and type in a new command, like Edit
or View or whatever you want. Then select the application you want to use to
Edit your Bitmap, as opposed to just viewing it. Now when you right click on
a BMP file you'll see your new command there and you can choose to View,
Edit, Open, Print... whatever you want with whatever app you want.


MKCOMPAT

There's a program automatically installed by Win95, used to make Windows
3.xx programs/applications more compatible under Win95: MKCOMPAT.EXE, in the
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder.
Run MKCOMPAT, Select File/Open. Open the EXE file you have problems with.
Highlight the things that seem likely to make a difference.
Select File/Advanced for more control options. Select File/Save to save
the new configuration. There is no online help, so some trial and error is
in order until you find the optimal settings.


RENAME

To rename a file/folder/desktop item it's a hassle to right click the item,
click Rename, etc... before you can type in the new name. Try this:
1. LEFT click on the file/folder/desktop item as you normally would to
select it.
2. Wait a moment, long enough for Windows to know that you aren't double
clicking it, and LEFT click again.
3. The file/folder/desktop item is now ready for name change.


LINK

Drag icons into your documents. This creates a static link to that icon.
For example, drag "My Computer" icon onto a new Wordpad DOC and double click
it to see!


QUAD SPEED

Want to make your double speed CD-ROM drive perform like a quad+ speed drive
in Win95? Open My Computer, click Properties/Performance/File System/CDROM,
and set the supplemental cache speed to its maximum and the access pattern
to "Quad speed or higher".


AUDIO CD

Win95 allows you to do some strange things with audio CDs:
1. Open Explorer and click on your CD drive with an audio CD in it.
2. In the right panel you will see Track01.cda through Track??.cda.
3. If you right-click on a track, you can play it automatically by choosing
Play from the Quick Menu.
4. If you double-click on a track it plays automatically.
5. Try dragging a track onto your Desktop (you can copy it or create a
shortcut, it doesn't matter). Rename the track's copy/shortcut to the song's
real name. Whenever you have that CD in the drive, you can now double-click
on its Desktop shortcut to play it.
6. You can also drag tracks to your hard drive and put them in your Start
Menu, or create a folder with CD tracks in it.


EXPLORER MENU

Right click in a Win95 application's file open box for New, Copy, Delete,
Arrange, etc. Most of Explorer's functions are there, except half the Toolbar
and no pull down Menus.


SEND TO FOLDER

The "Send To" quick menu shows only the floppy drives as a destination.
You can chose any other disk area or folder as a destination by adding short
cuts to the "Send To" folder. You must add a short cut or a ".LNK" file to
that folder; ie: a short cut to "Recycle Bin" avoids the prompt dialogue
"Do you want to send to Recycle Bin?".
Alternatively, choose any other directory such as a temp directory. 
Here is a bonus, if you have different places to send file to but are related
such as:
"Customers"
           Customer1
           Customer2  etc...
You can place in the Send To folder an additional "folder" (not a short cut)
called "Customers", then open that folder and place short cuts to all your
customer's individual folders and name them appropriately. Then when you
right click a file icon, your "Send To" quck menu will show the new
"Customers" "Sub menu" and then move to it and you will see a submenu of all
your customer's short cuts. (You may want to remove the "short cut to" text
from the icons in the "Send To" folder).


PC SPEAKER

To install a PC Speaker on a Win95 PC (if you don't have a sound card
installed on your system):
Open Control Panel, click "Add New Hardware", and then "Sound, Video, Game
Controller". Don't let Win95 search for new hardware. Select "Have Disk".
Browse to where you have your PC Speaker .DRV file. Install! Presto, your
mute PC now has sound. To modify the settings for PC Speaker open Control
Panel, click Multimedia, Advanced Tab. In the Audio devices list you'll see
"PC Speaker".
The speaker driver for Win31, found on AOL (keyword "Windows", the Drivers
area, "Other Drivers") works fine with Windows 95.


LOGO

To change startup/closeup screens in Win95: start Paintbrush (MSPaint) and
load the files LOGOS.SYS/LOGOW.SYS and change them to whatever you want
(or create new ones), they're just bitmaps with a different extension!
To have another startup-logo place a file named LOGO.SYS in your root
directory. LOGO.SYS must have the same format as logow.sys/logos.sys
(320x400x256colors) bitmap (.BMP).
The size of LOGO.SYS, LOGOW.SYS and LOGOS.SYS MUST BE 129,078 (or 129,080)
bytes exactly!
To do all these easier (especially resize your 95 logos to 320x400x256
colors), download Paint Shop Pro 32bit, version 3.12, the "swiss army knife
of image paint/conversion utilities", from AOL (do a File Search, and type
in "Paint Shop Pro"). Install PSP on your system, and you're off!


DRAG/DROP

Drag and drop files/desktop objects with the RIGHT mouse button and when you
drop them on the target, you get a little pop-up menu giving you options
like Move Here, Copy Here, Create Shortcut Here.
Also, to drag a file from one folder to another, using only one Explorer
window, drag the icon near the top or bottom of a scrolling pane, and
"nudge" to scroll.


SHUT DOWN

Click on Start, Shut Down, Restart computer. Hold down SHIFT and click Yes.
This ONLY restarts Windows 95, NOT the computer (warm boot).
This is also valid in some situations when Windows 95 prompts you to restart
your computer, after you made changes in the system setup (example: when
choosing another video resolution/number of colors thru the Display Settings
dialog box).


SYSTEM FOLDERS

Create a new folder on your desktop, rename it, call it:
Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
Now is should look like the normal Control Panel icon you see in My Computer
(not a shortcut). Right click on start (taskbar), click on open. Move the new
folder 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.
You can do the same with the Printers folder:
Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}
or with the Dial Up Network:
Dial Up Net.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}
To get the Windows 95 hidden Easter Egg folder, create a new folder called:
The Microsoft Windows 95 Product Team!.{869DADA0-42A0-1069-A2E7-08002B30309D}



OPEN WITH

Ever wanted to open an object with a different application than the one it is
already associated with and the right mouse menu no longer lets you choose
Open With...? Hold down SHIFT when you right-click over the object, and the
Open With... command will now appear in the menu.


HOT KEYS

Object dragging with SHIFT and CONTROL: Hold down the following keys for
different actions:
NO SHIFT, NO CTRL
Same Drive: Move
Different Drive: Copy
Unless the objects selected are *ALL* .COM's or .EXE's in which case:
Same Drive: Create Link
Different Drive (Non-Removable Storage): Create Link
Different Drive (Removable Storage): Copy 
SHIFT, NO CTRL: Always Moves
NO SHIFT, CTRL: Always Copies
SHIFT, CTRL: Always Creates Link
Certain folders don't allow objects to be dropped (i.e. Control Panel, and
Printers), others always Move To regardless of SHIFT/CTRL status (i.e.
Recycle Bin).


EXPLORE FOLDER

Want to "Explore" a folder instead of it's icon view? You could open
Explorer, click here, click there, finally get to where you want. A quick
solution: Hold down SHIFT and double click on the folder/drive. 
This will bring up an Explorer window of that folder.


EXPLORE C:

To control the directory/drive where Explorer opens:
Create a shortcut to Explorer with this command line to open it at C:\ root:
c:\windows\explorer.exe /e,root,c:\
Explorer syntax is:
explorer [/e][,root,<object>]


SCRAP

To drag scraps from documents to the desktop or to folders and create
Document Scraps: with Scraps, you can archive bits and pieces of your
documents to use later or to share:
Open Wordpad
Type some text
Select the text
Put the cursor over the highlighted text and drag it to the desktop.
It creates a scrap with some of the actual text in the name of the scrap.


EXPAND

To expand the Explorer tree view to show all subfolders for a highlighted
drive or folder, press the asterisk (*) key on the numeric keypad (also
valid for File Manager).


CAPTURE

You can copy graphics or text from a DOS box.
For example, while running a DOS graphics game (like Doom), press:
1. Alt-Enter to make a DOS window
2. Click on the upper left hand corner
3. Select Edit/Mark
4. Select a region with the left mouse button pressed
5. Select Edit/Copy or press Enter and
6. Paste it into another program.


IRQ LIST

Click Control Panel/System/Devices. In this area there is an option to
print a detailed or summary report. The detailed report is huge - 18 pages
on my system! The summary report is 2 pages, and contains a list of all
the interrupts currently assigned in the system, and what they are
assigned for. This report also lists DMA channel assignments and port
addresses.
Another method is to right-click on the My Computer icon, and select
Properties. This will bring up the System control panel. Select the Device
Manager tab, and double-click on Computer within the scrollable window.
From here you can view IRQs, DMA channel usage, I/O assignments and
Memory settings.


INSTANT REFRESH

Some changes to the Registry or system folders take place only after you
restart your computer (or reload Win95). To refresh the desktop without
restarting Windows, click the left button on any open area of your Desktop
or any icon on your desktop. Press F5, et voila!


SETUP SWITCHES

Windows 95 has several switches you can use when executing SETUP:
/IS  Ignores the check of your system check
/ID  Ignores the check for whether there is enough disk space
/IQ  Ignores the test for cross-linked files and file directory integrity
/IN  Runs setup without the Network Setup Module.
You can also specify a filename (.INF) with SETUP, that contains
information on exactly how/what to set up.


DOS LFNS

You can benefit of the Win95's long directory/file names feature (LFNs) at
the DOS command line prompt. Enter the long file names (using spaces between
words) by enclosing them in quotes (case insensitive):
COPY C:\DOCS\"My Today's Documents" C:\BACKUPS


EASTER EGG!

Undocumented! To see Windows 95's Easter Egg, create a new folder on the
desktop and name it "And now, the moment you've all been waiting for".
Rename it to "We proudly present for your viewing pleasure".
Rename this folder again to "The Microsoft Windows 95 Product Team!".
Double click the new folder and enjoy the show!


EASTER EGG PART 2

Another interesting Win95 Easter Egg can be accessed following the steps
bellow EXACTLY:
1.  Press F1 (the main Help screen opens).
2.  Click Search from the button bar.
3.  Click the Find tab (the Help Wizard will open).
4.  Click Options in the Find dialog box.
5.  Select "All the words you typed in any order" from the top bordered
    menu.
6.  Select "Choose begin with the characters you type" from the second
    bordered menu from the top.
7.  Click OK (to return to the main dialog box).
8.  In the top box (at the cursor), enter EXACTLY these words:
    Who knows who built this tool?
9.  Hold down Shift-Ctrl and click the Clear button.
10. Click Options again.
11. In the top bordered menu select "At least one of the words you type".
12. Click OK (to return to the main dialog box).
13. In the top box (at the cursor), enter EXACTLY these words:
    The Shadow knows!
14. Hold down Shift-Ctrl and click the Clear button.
If you followed these instructions EXACTLY, you should see the scrolling
animation of the names of the Microsoft staff that contributed to the
making of Windows 95.


ERU

Have you tried Microsoft's ERU (Emergency Recovery Utility)? If you have the
CD-ROM version of Win95 go to the folder \OTHER\MISC\ERU. Run ERU.EXE and it
backs up all system files in C:\ERD along with ERD.EXE, a DOS utility to
restore the same files.
A quick and easy way to backup your vital Win95 system files.


WINSET

You can forget about loading DOS mode drivers/devices/TSRs (real mode, 16bit)
from config.sys and autoexec.bat, under Win95.
Actually you can safely delete your config.sys and autoexec.bat (after making
backup copies) if you won't be using any weird DOS program/game, that would
require a custom PIF setup (including custom autoexec.bat and config.sys
files, that is a dedicated MS-DOS mode to run) and enter the real 32bit
computing world.
Most newer DOS games can be run from a PIF file under Win95 (read the game's
documentation on the types/amounts of memory required to run properly, and
modify the game's PIF file to meet those requirements).
If you need to have custom environment variables at bootup, use WINSET.EXE,
a DOS compatibility mode utility, provided with Win95.
Copy the file Winset.exe from the \ADMIN\APPTOOLS\ENVVARS folder, found on
your Win95 upgrade-install CD-ROM to your Windows 95 folder on your hard
disk (default \WINDOWS).
If you type WINSET /? at a DOS prompt (and tpress Enter), you'll see this:
Sets or removes Windows master environment variables.
WINSET [variable=[string]]
  variable  Specifies the environment-variable name.
  string    Specifies a series of characters to assign to the variable.
Winset can be run from Win95's Run command, a DOS prompt, or a DOS batch
file (you can run the batch file from WIN.INI's run= command line). WINSET
must be followed by a SET <variable>=<string> parameter. Examples:
WINSET COPYCMD=/Y
WINSET DIRCMD=/A /O:GEN /P
WINSET PATH=<your_own_path>
You can set/reset/remove the PATH, PROMPT, WINPMT, MOUSE, TEMP, TMP,
BLASTER, MIDI, or any other SET <variable>= command this way.
To remove a variable, type:
WINSET <variable>=
with no strings after the equal sign.
To see the complete list of your system's MS-DOS environment variables, type
SET at any DOS prompt and press Enter.


MBR REFRESH

Undocumented! There is a problem when installing a new hard drive on your
system under Win95. If you upgraded from MS-DOS 5.0 (or earlier), your
primary hard disk, formated under your old version of DOS, contains the MBR
(Master Boot Record, also called the boot sector) written by the hard disk
formatting utility (FDISK) provided by MS-DOS. When you add another hard disk
under Win95, you format and partition it with the Win95's (MS-DOS 7.00)
version of FDISK.
This means that each drive was formatted and partitioned under a different
OS. Windows 95 WON'T RECOGNIZE YOUR NEWLY INSTALLED DRIVE! There is nothing
wrong, don't panic. It's a glitch in the OS (something that Microsoft
overlooked)!
When a drive is formatted/partitioned under Win95, the MBR tells the OS that
the drive is a Windows drive. If your drive was formatted/partitioned under
an earlier version of MS-DOS (3.0 and up), the drive is recognized as an
MS-DOS drive.
All you have to do, is to refresh the MBR, by running FDISK (the Windows 95
version) with the undocumented switch /MBR (repairs a boot sector by
overwriting it with a fresh copy), on the old drive:
FDISK /MBR C:
and press Enter.
The boot record (MBR) will be refreshed without reformatting the drive!
I presumed that your primary (old) hard disk has assigned the letter C
(single logical partition), and your new (secondary) hard disk is D (also
with a single logical partition). Change the drive letters if different on
your system (and if you have more than one partition per each hard disk).
This can only be done from a DOS prompt, after you exit Win95 to MS-DOS
prompt (or when you boot with the "Command prompt only" option from the
bootup menu).
If the Win95 OS doesn't recognize the new drive, then you can only do this
after rebooting into the old MS-DOS OS (using the dual boot feature
implemented into Win95's OS). This means that you need to have kept your old
MS-DOS 6.xx files (including FDISK) on your primary (old) hard disk.
You also need to have kept the old drive as primary (master) and setup the
new one as secondary (slave).
When you're all done, reboot into Win95. Your newly installed hard drive
should now be recognized by the OS.
Now you can change the new drive to "master" (primary boot drive) and setup
the old one to "slave", especially if the new one is faster.
Sounds pretty complicated, but you may have to do this some day, and it's
better than reformatting the entire drive, and loosing precious data.
There is still another way to refresh the MBR. Run Win95's Scandisk utility
for all hard drives on your system. Scandisk will automatically refresh the
MBR on your drives, if needed (if MBR is damaged).


FOLDER ICON

In Explorer, open a folder, any folder, click View, and select Options.
Select the File Types tab and scroll down the list of Registered File Types
to the Folder item. Select the Folder item, click Edit, and click Change
Icon. Select a new icon from an ICO, ICL, DLL or EXE icon file.
Save your changes.
All your folders will display the newly changed icon from now on!


EXTRACT CAB

The file EXTRACT.EXE is by default located in the \WINDOWS\COMMAND folder
by Win95' install routines. It extracts or lists any CAB file on the Win95
install CD-ROM (or floppies).
To get a list of all Win95 install files in all CAB files, run this handy
DOS batch file (name it LISTCAB.BAT) from any MS-DOS prompt:
@C:
@CD\
@MD \EXTRACT
@FOR %%x IN (D:\WIN95\*.CAB) DO EXTRACT /D %%x >> C:\EXTRACT\LISTCAB.TXT
@EDIT C:\EXTRACT\LISTCAB.TXT
Make sure you substitute your boot hard disk letter if different than C,
and/or your cd-rom drive letter if different than D.
To ease your task, LISTCAB.BAT is included in this zip.


NO AUTOPLAY

To disable AutoPlay from automatically playing an audio CD, when you
place it in your CD-ROM drive, hold down Shift for a few seconds after
closing the CD-ROM drive door.


LFNFOR

Undocumented! LFNFOR is an internal MS-DOS mode command for those of you
who like creating and running programs through batch files. LFNFOR, when
enabled, allows for IF, FOR, DO, ERRORLEVEL, GOTO batch style commands to
take in consideration the use of Long File Names (LFNs).
Running LFNFOR from a DOS prompt, without paprameters, will display the
status of LFN DOS batch usage:
LFNFOR is off
Turn it on by running:
LFNFOR ON
By default LFNFOR is off. To turn it on permanently, add this line to
your AUTOEXEC.BAT file:
LFNFOR ON
To turn it off, run:
LFNFOR OFF


GRP CONVERT

You can manually (after setup) convert old Windows 3.x program groups in one
of the following two ways:
1. Double-click on any .GRP file, and it will automatically convert the
program group to a new Programs folder, which you'll then find on the Start
button. Win95 comes equipped with a .GRP file conversion utility called
GRPCONV.EXE (found in your Win95 folder, \WINDOWS is default), which is
automatically associated with .GRP files.
2. Another, perhaps better, way: choose the Run command on the Start button
and type: GRPCONV /M. This switch will provide you with a dialog box that
searches your \Windows folder for all .GRP files, allowing you to select
which groups to convert.


HANG... NO MORE!

If your Win95 system hangs up and the "three-finger salute" (Ctrl-Alt-Del
keypress) doesn't restore your desktop by shutting down the "offending"
program, try pressing Ctrl-Esc. It may bring up the Start menu from which
you can shut down Win95.


MS NATURAL KEYBOARD

Win95 has built-in support for the Microsoft Natural Keyboard, using
its Win95 special keys:
- WIN+R       Start Run dialog box
- WIN+M       Minimize all open windows
- WIN+F1      Start Help
- WIN+E       Start Explorer
- WIN+F       Start Find Files/Folders dialog box
- CTRL+WIN+F  Start Find Computer dialog box
- WIN+TAB     Cycle through Taskbar buttons
- WIN+BREAK   Start Systems Properties Panel.


PRINT 2 FILE

To set up a special "printer" to print documents to a text file:
1. Open the Printers folder in Control Panel
2. Double-click on Add Printer
3. Select Local Printer and click on Next
4. Select Generic from the manufacturer list, and Generic/Text Only from
   the printer list, then click on Next.
5. Select File from the available ports list, and click Next a couple
   times to add the printer.
6. Highlight the new icon, right-click it and select Properties, then the
   Paper tab, and change the paper setting to 'continuous, no
   page-breaks.'
You can now select this printer from any Windows application, sending the
output in text format to a file. You will be prompted for the filename
when you print.


UPDATE REGISTRY

To update Win95, the Registry, or to recover from a GPF without rebooting
Windows 95, press Ctrl-Alt-Del, select Explorer, and click End Task.
Answer No to Shut Down, then click End Task again at the next prompt.
You should see the Start menu and Task Bar reappear as Windows starts the
Explorer shell again. Now everything should be OK again.


HELP

To access any topic of a .HLP file press Ctrl-Alt-J.
Use Ctrl-Alt-Left Arrow and Ctrl-Alt-Right Arrow to browse any HLP file,
even if there is no browsing sequence defined or no browse buttons
available.
To make this work, add the following line to the [Windows Help] section
(create this section if it doesn't exist) of your WIN.INI file, located
in your Win95 folder (default is \WINDOWS):
[Windows Help]
SEQTOPICKEYS=1
Now restart Win95.


DOS MULTITASKING

To resort quickly to the command line and do any tasks in MS-DOS mode:
create a DOS style batch file with the lines bellow, called MSDOS.BAT:
START /M COMMAND /C %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
Put MSDOS.BAT somewhere in your path (look up the PATH line in your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file), to be able to run any DOS/Windows command/program in
the background. For example, running:
MSDOS COPY C:\WINDOWS\*.INI C:\BACKUP
copies all .INI files in the \WINDOWS folder to the \BACKUP folder in the
background.


MULTIPLE DESKTOPS

If you share your Win95 system computer with others, or have different
modes for doing different tasks, you may want to have multiple custom
desktops, each with its own desktop icons, Start menu, and program groups.
Select Start/Settings/Control Panel and double-click the Passwords icon.
To set up Windows 95 for multiple configurations, make sure that you're in
the User Profiles dialog box, and select the second option. Different users
can customize their own preferences and desktop settings. Check both boxes
under User Profile Settings.
When you click OK, Windows asks to restart to set up the new configuration.
As it reloads, it prompts you to set up a new user name and password. You
can leave the password field blank if security isn't an issue.
Answer Yes when asked whether to save the settings for that particular user.
Any desktop customizing you do will be unique to the configuration stored
under this name.
To create additional configurations, just reboot Windows and type a
different name when prompted. To change configurations, choose Start/Shut
Down and select Close all programs and log on as a different user.


KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

- Taskbar:
Action                                 Keys
--------------------------------------------
Open the Start menu                    Ctrl+Esc
Choose an option from the Start menu   Ctrl+Esc
Find a file or folder                  Ctrl+Esc; Esc+F3
Minimize all windows                   Ctrl+Esc; Alt+M
- Desktop, Explorer, Folder/Drive Windows, Common Dialog Boxes:
Action                                                Keys
-----------------------------------------------------------
Find a file in Explorer or folder window              F3
Open drop-down folder/drive list                      F4 (with no other list box active)
Move up one level in Explorer/folder window           Backspace
Refresh or update a window                            F5
Select file or folder                                 First letter of desired option
Select all items                                      Ctrl+A
Select multiple contiguous items                      Hold Shift+cursor keys
Select multiple noncontiguous items                   Hold Ctrl+cursor keys, Space
See shortcut menu for selected item                   Shift+F10
Delete selected item without placing in Recycle Bin   Shift+Del
Open properties sheet for selected item               Alt+Enter
Rename selected item                                  F2, change name, Enter


MINSPS

At some point in your computing life, when running Win95, you may receive
the following message:
"There are no spare stack pages. It may be necessary to increase the setting
of "MinSPs" in System.ini to prevent possible stack faults. There are x
currently SPs allocated."
To prevent this from happening (haven't you had enough of Microsoft's annoying
error messages?!), add the following line to the [386Enh] section of your
SYSTEM.INI file (located in your Win95 folder, default is \WINDOWS):
MinSPs=4
To do this, open/edit SYSTEM.INI with Notepad. Save/close the file and restart
Windows 95.


HTML VIEW

To enable an Explorer Quick View option for Web pages HTML files: Open
Explorer, choose View, and then Options from the menu. Click the File Type tab
and find the association for Web HTML pages. The name for those files is
determined by the Web Browser you're currently using, that created the
association and should be something similar to "Internet Document". Select
that association and click Edit. Put a check mark next to "Enable Quick View".
Now you have the option to view HTML files by right-clicking on the file and
choosing View.


COUNT FRAMES

Windows 95 keeps count of dropped frames during video playback.
To display this feature, after you played a video clip, hold Ctrl and press
F5. A box called "Send MCI String Command" will appear. In the Command box
type "Status Frames Skipped" and click Send. Windows 95 will tell you how
many total frames were displayed.


NETWORK SERVER

Performance tip for standalone Win95 Machines:
Open My Computer/Performance/File System, and set your Machine to "Network
Server". This caches 64 directory paths and 2729 filenames, and takes up 16K
doing it. The "Desktop" setting caches 32 directory paths and 677 filenames,
and takes 8K. The extra 8K of RAM is well worth the file system boost.


FIXED SWAPFILE

Another performance tip for standalone Win95 Machines:
Setting a Win95 fixed size swapfile of about 2.5 times your system's
installed RAM will drastically reduce the thrashing your hard disk takes
from Win95's Dynapage VXD. Open My Computer/Performance/Virtual Memory
Settings, and disable Virtual Memory. Restart Win95 (make sure you load a
minimalist setup, maybe even choose the "Safe Mode"), and then Defrag your
hard disk. Then, restart again, and open My Computer/Performance/Virtual
Memory Settings again, and set up your swapfile by setting the Minimum and
Maximum sizes the SAME. There will be much less waiting around for the HD
to decide what it wants to do from now on.
You can also do this by adding/modifying these two lines into the [386enh]
section of your SYSTEM.INI file (found in your \WINDOWS folder):
MinPagingFileSize=41280
MaxPagingFileSize=41280
Now restart Windows 95.
In this example Win95 swapfile's fixed size is 40MB (41280 bytes). Adapt
these settings depending on the amount of installed memory on your machine
(see above). If your PC has 16MB of RAM, the optimal swapfile size would
be 40MB (2 and 1/2 times your installed RAM).


ALPHABETICAL ORDER

By default, all Files/Programs/Shortcuts/Folders are in alphabetical order
(with folders on top) structured into Win95's Start Menu.
You can change this order by renaming your most frequently used Shortcuts:
Default:       New:                 Or:
----------------------------------------------
Clock          1. Clock             A. Clock
Notepad        2. Notepad           B. Notepad
Paint          3. Paint             C. Paint
You can organize them so the most frequently used Files/Shortcuts/Folders
are together at the top of your list, in the Start Menu, or at the bottom,
depending on your preferences.


TROUBLESHOOT PRINTER

If you ever have printer problems, use the Enhanced Printer TroubleShooter
(EPTS) found on your Windows 95 install CD-ROM, in the \OTHER\MISC folder.
The file is called EPTS.EXE, and is similar to the Printer TroubleShooter
found in Windows Help, but has more horsepower.