Tips and Tricks - Collected by SK Nayak

Windows 95/98

1. Checking the PC’s memory
2. Behind the splash screen
3. Opening files with a different application
4. An easier way out
5. Fast restarts (warm boot)
6. Quick views in Explorer
7. Finding files quickly
8. Creating shortcuts to parts of documents
9. Finding total space used by folders
10. Create your own icons
11. Stop programs from taking over your file associations
12. Delete it if you want to
13. Adding Notepad to SendTo
14. Adding a file type to the ‘New’ menu
15. Removing Programs
16. Clean Desktop
17. Clear the (Recent) Documents Menu
18. Right-click with the keyboard
19. Print Screen with Windows 95
20. Using the Shift Key

Your PC has 32 MB of RAM and still crawls? Check out what’s gobbling up all that memory. Click the Start button, select Run, and type MEM. This will show you a summary of which program is using up how much memory.

When you’re trying to troubleshoot PC problems, you need to know if the system boots okay and whether all the commands in the autoexec.bat and config.sys files are being executed without errors. But the Windows 95 splash screen obstructs your view. To see what’s going on behind the splash screen, press the Escape key when you see the screen.

To open a file in a different program than the standard one it’s associated with (such as an HTML file in Notepad instead of a browser), hold down the Shift key when you right click on the object, and the Openand choose the program that you command will now appear in the menu. You can select this want to use.

For the previous tip, you may find browsing to the program file every time slightly cumbersome. A faster way is to make a shortcut in the Windows/SendTo folder to the program in which you want to open the file, then right click on the file and choose that application from the SendTo menu!

Click on Start\Shut Down\Restart Computer. Hold down the Shift key and click Yes. This restarts Windows 95 only, not the computer (warm boot). This is good to use when Windows 95 makes you restart your computer after you make changes in the system setup (such as choosing another video resolution).

To expand the Explorer view to show all subfolders for a highlighted drive or folder, press the asterisk (*) key. To expand only the folder you have selected, press the plus (+) key on the numeric keypad. To unexpand either view, press the minus (-) key on the numeric keypad. The plus and minus keys at the top of the keyboard will not work, only the numeric keypad keys will.

In any Explorer folder, typing a letter will take you to the first file in the folder that begins with that letter. Pressing the letter again takes you to the next file which starts with that letter.

You can create a shortcut to a Word document or a cell in Excel the same as you would for any object. Right-drag a selection from any OLE document (one that supports drag-and-drop) onto the Desktop, (or any folder) then select the "Create Document Shortcut Here" item, and a shortcut will be created.

Right-click any folder in Explorer and choose Properties to see the size of all files in that directory and all of its sub-directories. The status bar at the bottom of the Explorer window only shows the size of one directory and not the subdirectories.

If you find Win 95’s selection of icons too meager, you can create some of your own. Rename any .BMP file to .ICO and then use it as an icon. Windows 95 resizes it to icon size, and changes it to 16 colors. An excellent way to give your desktop a personal touch.

Watch out when installing a new application. That could take over your file association—when you click on a file expecting to see it in a particular program, you’ll find it opens up in the new program instead. Some programs give you the choice of associating certain file types with them during installation (Netscape Communicator), but others don’t. It can be particularly annoying when you find, for instance, that a photo-editor or viewer that you use often sits quietly, while a new program takes over your pictures. The icons too will change. A shortcut for choosing a new program to be used with a certain file type is to hold the Shift key while right-clicking on a file, and choose Open With...from the context menu. After choosing the program, place a check-mark in the Always use this program to open this type of file.

If you’ve been using your computer for a while—and have been the only one using the PC— you’re likely to be fairly sure of the files and folders you’re dealing with. You know what you’re doing and you delete files when you want to. If the confirmation message is beginning to annoy you, turn it off:

Right-click the Recycle Bin Select Properties Make sure that the check box for Display delete confirmation dialog box is unchecked

You can also create a shortcut to the Recycle Bin in your SendTo folder. To delete files, right-click, and choose Recycle Bin (Recycled) from the Send To menu. If you are entirely sure you want to banish a file to eternity, press the Shift key while deleting. You can also make this a default solution for all files you want to delete:

Right-click the Recycle Bin and select Properties On the Global Tab, select Do not move files to the Recycle Bin

If you select Configure drives independently, you can choose from which drive you want to delete files immediately.

The SendTo option is more useful than anyone imagines. For instance, you can create a shortcut to Notepad .exe in the \Windows\SendTo folder:

Start Windows Explorer Select the \Windows\SendTo folder Right-click, and from the context menu choose New\Shortcut In the Create Shortcut window, enter C:\Windows\Notepad.exe in the Command line box Press Finish

Now you can very quickly view file contents by right-clicking on the file and "sending" it to Notepad.

In the program that creates the file type you wish to add, create a blank document with any preferences you wish to use. Save it immediately Copy this file to \Windows\ShellNew—it is a hidden folder Start the Registry Editor From the Start menu, select Run, Enter Regedit Open HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and find the extension for that file type. Add a new key called ShellNew Under the new key, add a string value called FileName Double-click on the string, and modify it to the filename of the blank template file you created, including the extension Exit the Registration Editor and restart Windows 95

Try and get rid of it and it just won’t go. Often you want to remove an installed program and its files by deleting it but it may still be stubbornly listed in the Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. To remove it from the list:

Start the Registry Editor Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall Delete the program entry here Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows

Start the Registry Editor Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

From the menu select Edit—New—DWORD value Name it NoDesktop Double-click this entry and give it the value 1 Close the Registery Editor and reboot your computer

To restore the Icons on the desktop, you have to change the value of the NoDesktop Key to 0.

Here’s how to clear the Documents pop-up list in the Start menu. Click on the Start button. Select Taskbar & Start Menu. The Taskbar Properties dialog box appears. Click on the Start Menu Programs button. Under the Documents area, click on the Clear button. That’s it.

Have you ever had your mouse give up on you? If you aren’t much of a keyboard user, you’ll suddenly feel quite lost with a mouse temporarily out of action. To right-click with the keyboard, make sure the desired icon or folder has is active or highlighted and press Shift+F10.

When you press the Print Screen button on your keyboard while you’re in Windows 95, your screen is copied to the clipboard. Now start the Paint program (or any other photo-editing tool) and from the Edit menu select Paste. Now you can print your screen. If you only want to print an active window, and not the whole screen, hit Alt + Print Screen.

The right-click isn’t the only great improvement in Windows 95. You can also use the SHIFT key for many additional features. Try some of the following tasks while holding down the Shift key:

Hold down the Shift key when you double-click on My Computer, Network Neighborhood or the Recycle Bin. This will open these items in the dual-paned Windows Explorer Hold down the Shift key when you double-click on any Folder. This will open the folder in the dual-paned Windows Explorer Hold down the Shift key when you click the Yes button from within the Shut Down Windows dialog box when you select Restart. This will restart Windows only (not completely re-boot the computer). This is useful if all you want to do is just activate some Windows-only changes

There are probably other ways that holding down the Shift key can be useful, so try it when you are doing something that you think could be done in another way