Tips for Windows 95 from Tipworld
I got the tips to begin these pages over a period of a couple of months, I personally got some benefit out of this and I hope you will also.
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When you click Start, select Find, then choose Files and Folders from the popup menu, Find opens with its focus on your hard drive. If you want to narrow your search, you then have to click Browse, navigate your way to the folder you have in mind, click OK, and so on.Why not start your search from the right location the first time around? In an Explorer or My Computer window, right-mouse click the folder you want to search and select Find. The Find dialog box opens with its focus on that folder.
MORE EFFICIENT FILE MANAGEMENT
If you're working in a Windows 95-savvy application, such as Microsoft Word 7.0, you can manage your files right from its Save As or Open dialog box. Try it to see what we mean. Open up either one of these dialog boxes and right-mouse click a file. You'll see all the commands you would see if you right-mouse clicked the file on the desktop or in an Explorer window. For example, you can delete or rename files, all without ever leaving your application!
We receive a lot of requests for tips on freeing up hard disk space. One suggestion is
to search your system for *.ZIP and *.AVI files (and other types of video files you might
have), and delete the ones you don't need. ZIP files are typically left over from Internet
downloads. Once an application is installed, you probably don't need the ZIP file it was
packaged in (unless it's something you know you'll need to reinstall).Video files (*.AVI)
also take up quite a bit of space. For example, you can regain 7 MB of precious space by
deleting the *.AVI files from your c:\Windows\System folder.
In our last tip, we pointed out that ZIP files and video files (such as *.AVI files) take up loads of hard disk space, so they're a good place to start when trying to recover space. We should mention another culprit--bitmaps (*.BMP). If you do a lot of Paint-ing--for example, you draw your own wallpaper--you need to be especially careful. It's easy to save four or five different versions of the same picture, then forget about them. Search your system for extraneous bitmaps and delete them, or at least save them in a more efficient format, such as *.GIF or *.PCX.
CORRECTION
In our July 29 tip referred to in today's tip, we mentioned that you can recover some disk
space by deleting *.zip and *.avi files that you no longer need. Unfortunately, we cited
the wrong directory in that tip. Here is the correct tip in its entirety.
EXCESS BAGGAGE
We receive a lot of requests for tips on freeing up hard disk space. One suggestion is to search your system for *.zip and *.avi files (and other types of video files you might have), and delete the ones you don’t need. ZIP files are typically left over from Internet downloads. Once an application is installed, you probably don’t need the ZIP file it was packaged in (unless it’s something you know you’ll need to reinstall).Video files (*.avi) also take up quite a bit of space. For example, you can regain 7 MB of precious space by deleting the *.avi files from your c:\Windows\Help folder.
Want to restart Explorer? You could do it by restarting Windows 95 (select Start, Shut
Down, select "Restart the computer," and then hold down Shift while clicking
Yes) but there's an even faster way. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to open the End Task dialog box.
Select Explorer, click End Task, and when you're asked if you want to shut down, click No.
After a short wait, you'll be presented with an Explorer dialog box. Click End Task, and
Explorer is officially restarted.
WHO NEEDS YA, MOUSE? (PART 1 OF 2)
If you're a keyboard person and a mousephobe, you'll be happy to know there's a
keyboard equivalent to pressing the right mouse button: with an item selected, press
Shif+F10. Once the context menu is expanded, just use your up or down cursor keys to
highlight the command you want, then press Enter.And here's another keyboard tip: In an
open window, pressing F10 shifts the cursors focus to the first menu (typically, File).
Press the down cursor key to expand the highlighted menu, or press the left or right
cursor keys to select another menu. In our next tip, we'll show you how to minimize a
single open window or all open windows using the mouse.
WHO NEEDS YA, MOUSE? (PART 2 OF 2)
In our last tip, we showed you that Shift+F10 is the equivalent of pressing the right mouse button, and that F10 moves the cursor's focus to a window's first menu (File). We've got another keyboard shortcut for you. Tired of clicking that straight-line caption button every time you want to minimize a window? Press Alt+Spacebard+N instead.To minimize all open windows, press Ctrl_Esc (to open the Start menu) then Esc (to close it), and finally, press Alt+M. It seems like a lot of steps, but after a couple of times, you'll get the hang of it.
DOS BOOTS
You can boot directly to MS-DOS every time you start your computer. All it takes is a simple change to the MSDOS.SYS file. (You'll need to remove MSDOS.SYS's Hidden and Read-only attributes first. In an Explorer window, find MSDOS.SYS [right on your hard drive]; right-mouse click it and select Properties; deselect Hidden and Read-only; and click OK. (And of course, use the reverse technique to reapply these attributes when you're done.)Open MSDOS.SYS in Notepad. Find the line that reads BootGUI=1, and change it to BootGUI=0. Select Save under the File menu, reboot your computer, and it's DOS-ville all the way. To start Windows 95, just type WIN.
In our last tip, we showed you how to boot directly to DOS: In the MSDOS.SYS file, change the line BootGUI=1 to BootGUI=0. Would you like to exit to MS-DOS? Simply selecting "Restart the computer in MSDOS mode" at shut-down won't get you out of Windows 95 completely. In order for this technique to work, you need to have configured your system to boot to DOS, as explained in the previous tip. In this case, you'll start Windows 95 by typing "WIN" at the DOS prompt (or perhaps you've added the line "WIN" to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file). Once this condition has been met, you can exit to DOS during the shut down process. As soon as you see the "It is now safe to turn off your system" screen, type MODE CO80 and press Enter.
MAKE CLIPBOOK A PERMANENT FIXTURE
In our last tip, we introduced ClipBook, a program for storing cut or copied items,
available on the Windows 95 installation CD (double-click D:\Other\Clipbook\Clipbrd.EXE to
start the program). If you find this program useful, you won't want to access it off the
installation CD every time you want it. It's much easier to install it on your hard
drive.With the installation CD in your CD-ROM drive, click Add/Remove Software (or open
the Control Panel and double-click Add/Remove Programs). Click Have Disk, then click
Browse and navigate your way to D:\Other\Clipbook. The Clipbook.INF file will appear in
the box under File name. Click OK twice, select ClipBook Viewer under Components, and
click Install. Click OK when the installation is complete, and from now on, you'll be able
to launch ClipBook by clicking Start, Programs, Accessories, ClipBook Viewer.
RESTRICTED ACCESS, PART 1 of 5(parts 3-5 on the next page, accessible at the bottom)
Tired of other people messing with your computer? The System Policy Editor, located on
the Windows 95 installation CD, allows you to set up restrictions, such as locking people
out of the Display Properties dialog box or your Registry. While designed for network
administrators, the
Policy Editor works on non-networked systems as well. To access the System Policy Editor,
navigate your way to ADMIN\APPTOOLS\POLEDIT (on the Windows 95 installation CD) and
double-click POLEDIT.EXE. Select Open Registry under the File menu, then double-click the
Local User icon.You'll need to access this tool off the installation CD every time you
want to set or deselect restrictions -- that is, unless you install the System Policy
Editor on your hard drive. (Note: You'll only want to do this if the people you're
protecting yourself against won't know how to undo your restrictions!) To install the
System Policy Editor, with the Windows 95 installation CD in your CD-ROM drive, Open the
Control Panel and double-click Add/Remove Programs. On the
Windows Setup tab, click the Have Disk button, then click Browse and navigate your way to
X:\ADMIN\APPTOOLS\POLEDIT, where X is your CD-ROM drive. Click OK twice, then in
the Have Disk dialog box, select Group policies and System Policy Editor. Click Install,
and finally click OK. To run the System Policy Editor, select Start, Programs,
Accessories, System Tools, and System Policy Editor. If you see the Open Template dialog
box the first time you open the Policy Editor, navigate your way to the ADMIN.ADM file --
ours was in C:\WINDOWS\INF -- and double-click it.
RESTRICTED ACCESS, PART 2 of 5
In our last tip, we introduced the System Policy Editor, which allows you to set up restrictions on your computer. To access this tool, navigate your way to ADMIN\APPTOOLS\POLEDIT (on the Windows 95 installation CD) and double-click POLEDIT.EXE. Select Open Registry under the File menu, then double-click the Local User icon. Now let's watch it in action.Suppose you want to keep people from messing with the settings in your Display Properties dialog box. Inside the Policy Editor, double-click the Control Panel book, then the Display book; and select "Restrict Display Control Panel." In the list that appears at the bottom of the dialog box, select Disable Display Control Panel. (You could also select any of the individual options there.) Click OK, select Save under the File menu, and the restriction is set. From now on, anyone who attempts to open the Display Properties dialog box will see an error message. (If you've restricted access to individual tabs, they simply won't appear in the Display Properties dialog box).
(To undo this restriction, deselect it and save your change.)
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