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Tips  DUDE®'S WIN 95 TIPS 'N' TRICKS
(Optimized for 16-bit color or greater)


Welcome! Below are some of the tips and tricks I've accumulated, presented in an easy-to-follow manner designed for the beginning to intermediate user. Most are the result of my own experimentation. Please be aware: if you try any of these tips, you do so at your own risk. I will not be held responsible for any mishaps that may occur as a result. I am, however, more than willing to help you in any way that I can. Feel free to email me if you have any questions or if you have tips that you would like to share.

If you find DUDE®'s tips useful, be sure to drop by Frank's Bag O'Tips, a long list of essential tips and tricks and answers for Win95. From here link to a page of Frank's Really Quick Tips to customize your computer in a flash. If you want even more, subscribe to Tipworld Tip of the Day service for new tips delivered straight to your inbox FREE each business day. Tips range from more than a few in the Dummies Daily series to more advanced tips for power users.


Table of Contents
Speed Up Modem Dialing: Have you ever noticed how long it takes for your modem to dial? Jeez, I can dial faster on a rotary phone. Well, not really, but there is a way to add some oomph! to dialing. Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, and then double-click Modems. Highlight the modem you use to access the Internet. Click the Properties button, then the Connection tab on the next dialog box. Click the Advanced... button. Now click in the text box beneath Extra settings and type "S11=50" (without the quotes). Click OK twice and then Close to close the boxes. Now your modem will dial as fast as it can. It won't speed up your Internet connection, but at least you'll get online faster!

Change the "Manufactured by..." Logo: One of the many visitors to the DEN requested this tip so I went to work to figure it out! Mission accomplished. Now you too can change the "Manufacturered and supported by" logo in System Properties (right-click on My Computer and choose Properties then the General tab). A lot of computer manufacturers (Packard Bell, Dell, etc.) include a custom logo and information. Change it! How? First create a logo that is 160 x 120 x 256 colors. Save it as Oemlogo.bmp in your C:\Windows\System directory. To change the text information displayed, modify the Oeminfo.ini file in the above directory. If you don't have an Oeminfo.ini file, open Notepad and create one by following this template:

Preview
Preview
[general]
Manufacturer=Your company

[OEMSpecific]
;SubModel= ;optional additional oem info
;SerialNo= ;etc.

;Support Info displayed when "Support Information..." button selected

[Support Information]
Line1=change this to anything
Line2=change this to anything
...
LineX=theoretically, there can be an infinite number of lines


Click anywhere on your desktop and press F5 to refresh. Now check System Properties to view your results! Tip: For a transparent color when you create your bitmap, use the palette color currently used for "3D Objects" in Display Properties. (Note: if you want a little proggie that will do it all for you, drop by Andrew Moorcroft's Freeware Page and download the System Properties Editor (150 K).)

Icon Tricks with MSIE 4.0: Here are a collection of tips for use with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 sent in by Derek Ozanick. Thanks, Derek! (Note: you'll need to have Desktop Integration turned on for these to work.)
    Hide Desktop Icons: First, if you've never played around in the registry, be careful. You should always make backups of your registry before making any changes. That said, to hide all of your desktop icons, navigate to:

    HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\xplorer

    Add the key, "NoDesktop" (without the quotes) and give it a value of 1. When you reboot, no more icons! But that's only the half of it. With IE 4.0 there are new icons on the tray. One of them is "Show Desktop" which is meant to minimize all open windows for you. If you haven't yet guessed, when you press this button all of the desktop icons come back! The new use of this button is to toggle your desktop icons. Turn them on and off with a click of a button. Enjoy the wallpaper without icon interference!
    Add Icons to the Tray: Simply right click on the tray, select toolbars, and then new toolbar. Add any program you like to the tray. For fast access to often-used programs, this option can't be beat!

Remove More Unnecessary Files: Remove some unneeded files from Win95 and reclaim valuable disk space. 1) If you never use Program Manager, delete all the *.GRP files in the Windows directory. 2) You can also safely delete any *.GID files, which are generated only after you launch the associated *.HLP file. 3) Delete all *.FTS files (Help File Find Speedup) and *.CNT files (Help File Table of Contents) if you're an accomplished Win95 user.

Change Your Hard Drive Icon: Change the default Win95 hard drive icon to any icon your little heart desires. (DUDE® uses a skull!) The easiest way to do this is to open Notepad and type the following:
    [autorun]
    icon=c:\windows\system\newicons\skull.ico
(Of course, change the path statement above to reflect the location of the icon you want to use.) Save the file as autorun.inf on the root of your hard drive. To see the results immediately, go to My Computer, click on the hard drive icon, and hit F5. Presto! You can also use one of the myriad of Windows icons by changing the path statment to point to one of the several icon libraries in \Windows\System. Just remember that the icon numbers start with zero. So if you'd like to use the computer icon (the sixteenth icon) in Shell32.dll, type icon=c:\windows\system\shell32.dll,15. Other icon libraries include: Cool.dll and Pifmgr.dll.

Free 7 MB of Disk Space: The Win95 Online User's Guide installs 7 MB of useful useless .AVI's to your hard drive in the \Windows\Help folder. You don't need 'em, trust me. Delete them all. Or, if you're really bored, watch every last one before you trash them, reclaiming the space on your HD.

Closing All Desktop Windows: If you prefer using My Computer to browse your hard drive instead of Explorer, you may have countless windows on your desktop. Close them all by holding SHIFT and clicking the X in the top right corner of the last window you opened. QwikTip: you can also browse using one window using My Computer. Go to My Computer, View, Options, the Folder tab, and click the radio button to "browse folders by using a single window that changes as you open each folder." Then click OK.

Prevent Items in the Startup folder from Launching: If you're like DUDE®, you have several essential little apps in your Startup folder that launch when Win95 starts. To prevent them from starting automatically, simply hold down the CTRL key when Windows starts. This will free up some system resources for use with other applications. And you can always start them later by going to Start, Programs, Startup, and then select each one manually.

Changing the Default Folder Icon: Getting tired of the boring default yellow folder icons? Want to change them? This tip will change all of your folder icons to the new one of your choice. Click on My Computer, select View from the menu bar, then go to Options. Select the File Types tab. Scroll down the list of Registered File Types and select the "Folder" item. Click Edit, then select Change Icon in the next dialog box. Select a new icon from the available choices or Browse to find another on your hard drive. Don't have any cool ones? Download this tiny zip of eight folder icons, courtesy of DUDE®.

Removing Unnecessary Items From the Control Panel: Problem: you have removed an application from your system and there is still an applet in the Control Panel for it and you're tired of it being there for no reason. Unfortunately, you can't simply drag Control Panel items to the Recycle bin. Solution: Go to Start, Find, Files or Folders, and search for all files with the extension .CPL (use "*.cpl"). Locate the one for the application that you no longer have. (This can be a process of trial and error, as you click on each one to see what it does.) When you locate the file, move it to the Recycle Bin, but don't delete it yet! Refresh your desktop by clicking anywhere on it and hitting F5. Wait. (You may have to reboot, but it's unlikely.) If and when the applet disappears from the Control Panel, you can safely delete the .cpl file.

Add a Complete Cascading Control Panel to the Start Menu: Why click on Start, Settings, then Control Panel just to have another window pop up? Want direct access to your entire Control Panel, similar to the popup Programs menu? Right-click on the Start button, then Open, File, New, Folder. Name the folder exactly:
Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

(All on one line, including the ".", the curly braces, all four hyphens, and the hex numbers exactly as shown.) If you have entered the name correctly the folder will immediately change to the Control Panel applet and you'll get a folder in your Start Menu that's called Control Panel with a cascading menu that has all of the Control Panel contents in it. Another useful one is Dial-Up Networking; use: DUN.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48} Pretty cool, huh?

Add a Cascading Control Panel with Only Select Items to the Start Menu: If you see no use for some items in the cascading Control Panel on your Start menu (yeah, how often do you change Regional Settings, right?), forego the above tip and use this one. (Instead of the standard Control Panel applet, you'll only get a standard Programs folder icon, but that's the only difference.) Right-click on the Start button, then Open, File, New, Folder. Rename the folder, Control Panel. Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, and open the Control Panel. Drag each item that you want in the new cascading Control Panel from the existing Control Panel window to the new folder you've just created in the Start menu. Windows will ask you if you want to create a shortcut; click Yes. Now you're computerizing in style!

Add an Icon on the Desktop to Clear the Documents Menu: Paranoid about the [Recent] Documents menu on the Start menu? Don't want everyone to see what you've been up to? Of course, you can clear the menu from the Taskbar, but why bother with that? Instead, add an icon to the desktop to clear the Documents menu with a double-click! Here's how: Open Notepad and type "echo y| del \windows\recent\*.*" (without the quotes). Save the file as Clear.bat (yes, it's a batch file) in the Windows folder, for example. Right-click the new file, select Create Shortcut, then drag the shortcut to the desktop. Right-click on the shortcut, select Properties, then the Program tab. Beside Run, choose Minimized. Check Close on exit. To get rid of the ugly MS-DOS icon, click Change icon and select the icon you want or Browse to find another on your drive. (A good choice: the window frame with the blue sky and clouds in Pifmgr.dll.) Click OK in succession to close the dialog boxes. Right-click the shortcut to rename it. Now just double-click the shortcut to quickly cover your tracks!

Use System Agent to Clear the Documents Menu: If you have Microsoft Plus! installed, you can use System Agent to clear the Documents menu every hour. Follow the steps above to create "Clear.bat" and then simply add this event to System Agent: Open System Agent, go to Program, Schedule a New Program, then Browse to locate Clear.bat, and click Open. Enter a description, select Minimized from the Run menu, then click When to Run. Click the Hourly radio button, choose OK twice, and close System Agent. Now your Documents menu will be cleared every hour, automatically while you work!

Open a File with Another Program: If a file has an association with it (for example, it automatically opens with Notepad when double-clicked), you can open it with another application by right-clicking on the file while holding the SHIFT key. Choose Open with... from the popup menu and select a new program from the list or browse by choosing Other. (See the next tip for another, more permanent and much easier solution in the long-run.)

Add "Open with [selected application]" to a File's Right-Click Menu: This tip will modify a file's right-click menu, allowing you to right-click on a file to painlessly open it with another select program. It is especially useful if you often find yourself opening a file with another program. Click on My Computer, select View from the menu bar, then go to Options. Select the File Types tab. From the list, select the file type that you want to add an option to (for example, a "Text Document" which normally opens with Notepad.exe). Click Edit, then select New in the next dialog box. Type the action you want, in this example "open with Wordpad." Using Browse, navigate your hard drive until you find the desired application (e.g. wordpad.exe). Select the program and click Open. Click OK until you've closed the remaining three dialog boxes. Now try it out! Right-click on a file normally opened with Notepad and you will have an option to "open with Wordpad." Highlight the option and click!

Change a Program's "Start In" Folder: The default folder for Notepad, for example, is C:\Windows, meaning whenever you want to either Open or Save a text document, Notepad starts in the Windows directory. If you regularly Save to or Open from another folder, you must routinely navigate your hard drive to find this folder. Save yourself some aggravation! To change the default folder for almost any program, including Notepad, use Explorer to find the shortcut you normally use to open the program (or a shortcut on the desktop). (QwikTip: right-click the Start button and choose either Open or Explore to quickly find shortcuts in the Start Menu.) Right-click the shortcut, choose Properties, then the Shortcut tab. Enter the path to your desired default folder on the "Start in" line (e.g. C:\Personal Stuff\New Docs) and click OK. Always use this shortcut to open the program and it will always Save to and Open from your chosen folder!

Add an Item to the "Send To" Right-Click Menu: If you right-click on a file and highlight Send To, the default choices are usually limited to the floppy drive and a mail recipient, for example. To add additional items to this menu or delete existing ones, open Explorer and go to the Windows folder. You will see a SendTo folder, containing the items currently available. To remove an item, simply delete it. To add an item, create a shortcut to the item (right-click a program and choose Create Shortcut) and place it in the SendTo folder. Some examples of possible additions are 1) a specified folder, to instantly transfer items; 2) Notepad.exe, to have the selected file open with Notepad; 3) a graphics program to modify JPEGs and GIFs. Be creative!

Screen Capture in Win95, or How to Create a Bitmap of Anything!: Although the keyboard command, PrintScreen, will not work with Win95 without a special program, you can use this tip to do the same thing with a little more effort. (But it is easy, trust me!) Simply press the PrintScreen key to save the screen to the clipboard; hold the ALT key with PrintScreen to only capture the active window. Open MSPaint from Start, Programs, Accessories, Paint. Choose Edit, then Paste. Save the file with the extension .bmp to be modified in a graphics program, choose File, Print to print it out, or just gaze at it in awe!

Removing Items from the Add/Remove Programs Box: So you've removed a program from your system, but the name still shows up on the list of Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel? How to get rid of this small annoyance? Get the FREE Powertoy, Tweak UI, from Microsoft! Among other things, Tweak UI will eliminate any of these entries. Plus, it has many other useful features, including Paranoia settings, increased popup menu speed, and much more to tweak your system. Don't want Tweak UI? (God knows why not...) OK, then select Run in the Start menu, type "regedit" and click OK. Using the tree hierarchy, go to HKEY_LOCAL MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall. Highlight the folder for the program you want to remove from the Add/Remove box and delete it using a right-click, then Delete. Exit the Registry Editor and that's it!

Removing Shortcut Arrows: Don't those little arrows annoy you? We all know it's a shortcut, so what's the need for a silly arrow obscuring the cute icons? Although you can alter this aspect of Win95 by playing in the Registry (and possibly muck something up while you're at it), get Tweak UI FREE from Microsoft instead. That's twice I've said it now... Get it! Another way to remove the arrows is to simply reduce the size of your icons by two. Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, Display Properties, then click the Appearance tab. (Thanks, Robert Lumley for this tip!)

Restart Win95 without Rebooting: A simple tip that saves a little time, go to Start, Shutdown..., then select Restart the Computer. Hold the SHIFT key and click Yes. Instead of a full shutdown, you will see the message, "Windows is now restarting."

Win95 Easter Egg: Okay, okay, this isn't an essential tip. In fact, it's pretty useless, but it's the only Win95 secret that I know of... First, right-click on the desktop, choose New, then Folder. Right-click the folder and Rename it: "and now, the moment you've all been waiting for". Next, rename it again: "we proudly present for your viewing pleasure". Rename it for a third time: "The Microsoft Windows 95 Product Team!" Type everything exactly as shown, minus the quotes. Now double-click the folder and be treated to the names of the MS Product Team scrolling to a New Age tune. Pretty useless, but sort of cool.



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© 1998, DUDE® (a.k.a. Kevin Kannenberg)