By TCA GAFOOR OTHUKKUNGAL
Speed
up your Modem
Even
if your modem is apparently working well, the baud rate of your COM Port might
not allow you to reach top-speed. To improve your port's speed:
1. Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > System.
2. Click the Device Manager tab, and click on the "+" sign next to
Ports (COM & LPT).
3. Select the port your modem uses, click Properties, then click the Port
Settings tab and set the Bits per second to 115200 bps. That way you won't have
a sort of filter on the Port.
Trace the route
A
great utility included with Windows 98 is a program called Trace Route. Open a
DOS window and type tracert . The location name can be any IP address or
Internet domain like tracert www.chip-india.com.
The program will then trace the route from your Internet service provider to
that location, and show you every server along the way. This could be useful for
when you can't connect to a site - it will show you if some server is down along
the way
Redialing
Dial-Up Networking provides for automatic redial.
1.
Open Dial-Up Networking.
2. Select your connection.
3. From the menu select Connections > Settings.
4. Enable Redial, select the number of times to redial and Click OK
Speed-up your Connecting time
To
Speed-up the time it takes for Dial Up Networking to establish a connection with
your ISP:
1. Open Dial-Up Networking.
2. Right-click your connection and choose Properties.
3. On the Server Types Tab, under Advanced Options, make sure that the check-box
for Log on to network is unchecked.
4. Under Allowed network protocols select only TCP/IP and uncheck NetBEUI &
IPX/SPX
Stay Connected
If
you get disconnected frequently, try this extra modem setting:
1. Open Control Panel > Modems.
2. From Modems select Properties, select the Connection Tab and click the
Advanced button.
3. In the Extra settings dialogue box, enter ATS10=250.
Icon spacing and Resizing
Changing icon size & spacing is handy if you
have a desktop clustered with dozens of icons.
1.
Right-click on the Desktop Choose Properties from the context menu. On the
Appearance tab look in the Item list box.
2. Once you find Icon you can choose the size from the Size box.
3. Similarly, locate Icon Spacing (Horizontal) and Icon Spacing (Vertical) and
you can choose different values for each.
4. Once you are satisfied, click OK to exit the dialog box.
5. Press F5 to refresh the Desktop.
Select your Monitor
Windows
98 might not always detect your Monitor accurately. This affects display and
refresh rates. To select your monitor manually:
1. Right-click on the Desktop.
2. Choose Properties from the context menu. On the Settings tab press the
Advanced button. Select the Monitor tab. If your monitor is not listed
(correctly) here, click on Change.
3. Select your Monitor from the list, or if you have a driver disk for your
monitor, select have Disk.
4. Click Apply, and follow any other instructions on screen.
Change the Refresh rate of your Graphics Adapter
Refresh
rate of your monitor determines how fast the screen is updated. Generally, the
higher refresh rate the monitor can support, the better. Optimum refresh rates
can be set manually for flicker-free display, if Windows hasn’t already
configured it.
Right-click on the Desktop, click on Properties and open Settings > Advanced
> Adapter. Depending on your graphics card and monitor, you will get
different choices for the refresh rate. Click on Apply after setting the
appropriate refresh rate. Click through the warning messages to change the
refresh rate. If, for some reason the display becomes garbled, don’t do
anything ? Windows will restore the original refresh rate.
Adding items to Send To
Send
To is an option available when you right click any file in Windows. It can
greatly simplify file management, especially routine tasks.
1. Browse to the \Windows\SendTo Folder using Windows Explorer.
2. Right-click an empty space on the window and click on New > Shortcut.
3. In the Create Shortcut window, enter the source of the program or the
directory (e.g. C:\My Documents\) in the Command line box.
4. Click Next and Finish to create the shortcut.
You can use the Send To feature not only for copying or moving files, but also
for quickly opening files with programs they are not associated with. For
example, you could create a shortcut to Notepad and send any ASCII text file
(like .HTM files) to Notepad. Similarly, you could use a shortcut to an image
viewing program to quickly view images.
Opening files with multiple programs
To
be able to open a file with more than one program, do the following:
1. Select Start > Settings > Folder Options > File Types.
2. Locate the file type you want to work with and double click it.
3. In the Edit File Type dialog that opens, you will see a box marked Actions.
This is where Windows 98 stores the various actions that can be implemented on a
particular file type.
4. To add an entry, click New. In the New Action dialog box, type the name of
the action in the Action box. Use the Browse button to find the Application that
you want to open the file with.
5. The action that is set as default would be carried out when you double click
the file. Other actions will be available on right-clicking the file.
Associations in a jiffy
To
associate files of a certain type with a different program, hold down the Shift
key while right-clicking on a file of that type and click on Open With... from
the context menu. Select the program you want to open files of this type with
and enable Always use this program to open this type of file. Henceforth, the
file will always open with this program when double-clicked.
Adding
a File Type to the 'New' Menu
When
you right-click on the desktop or in Windows Explorer, the New menu lists many
options of registered file types. Clicking on any of these creates a blank file
of that type. You can add more items to the New menu.
1. In the program that creates the file type you wish to add, create a blank
document with any preferences you wish to use and save it.
2. Copy this file to \Windows\ShellNew ? this is a hidden folder.
3. Start the Registry Editor.
4. Open HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and locate the extension for the file type you wish to
add to the New menu.
5. Right-click and click on New > Key from the context menu. Name it ShellNew.
6. Within this key, create a String Value and name it FileName.
7. Double-click the string and modify it to be the filename of the blank
template you created, including the extension.
8. Exit the registry editor and restart Windows.
Cascading menus on clicking Start
Cascading
menus of folders like Control Panel or My Computer could be very handy to have
at start up. Here’s how to get them there.
Right click the Start button and click on Explore. Create a new folder and type
the following string, all on one line, replacing the words New Folder with this
new line. You must type the period, the curly braces, all four hyphens, and the
hexadecimal numbers exactly as shown.
Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
Briefcase.{85BBD920-42A0-1069-A2E4-08002B30309D}
Dial Up Networking.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}
Fonts.{BD84B380-8CA2-1069-AB1D-08000948F534}
Inbox.{00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
Internet Cache.{7BD29E00-76C1-11CF-9DD0-00A0C9034933}
Network Neighborhood.{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}
My Computer.{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}
Recycle Bin.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
Subscriptions.{F5175861-2688-11d0-9C5E-00AA00A45957}
URL History.{FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000}
Back to old ways
In
Windows 98, when a menu is too tall to fit on your screen, you will see a scroll
arrow at the bottom, allowing you to scroll further down. In Windows 95, a
second menu would appear next to the first, where the entries which would
otherwise not fit on your screen would be displayed. For Windows 95 like
behaviour in Windows 98:
1. Start the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Advanced.
3. Right-click an open area in the right pane and select New > String Value.
4. Name it StartMenuScrollPrograms.
5. Double-click this entry and add the value false.
6. Exit the registry editor.
To restore Windows 98 behavior, simply change the value of
StartMenuScrollPrograms to true.
Window and Menu Animations
One
of the desktop enhancements built into Windows 98 is the animation displayed
when you minimise and maximise windows or when displaying menus. Disabling this
makes navigating Windows a lot faster.
Open the Desktop Properties dialog by right-clicking any blank area of the
desktop and clicking on Properties. Disable Animate windows, menus and lists
from the Effects tab.
F8 free start-ups
Instead
of hastily clicking on F8 at StartUp to display the start up menu, you can
configure it to open automatically.
1. Use Explorer and locate Msdos.sys in the root directory ? it is a hidden
file.
2. Maintain a copy of the Msdos.sys file in case of an error.
3. Open a command prompt window and strip the file’s attributes by typing
attrib –h –s c:\msdos.sys
4. Edit the file in Notepad. Under the [Options] section, type:
BootMenu=1
BootMenuDefault=1
BootMenuDelay=x
where x is the delay in seconds. Default value for x is 30.
5. Save the file.
6. Again, open a command prompt window and reset the file’s attributes by
typing
attrib +h +s c:\msdos.sys
Arrow-free Shortcuts
Shortcut
icons have a small curved arrow in the lower-left corner. To remove the arrow,
follow these instructions:
1. Start the Registry Editor.
2. Locate the keys HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\piffile.
3. Delete the value IsShortcut under both these keys.
4. Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows.
You can also do this using TweakUI.
Automatic Logon
You
can have Windows log on automatically every time you start Windows.
1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
3. Add the following String values.
AutoAdminLogon
DefaultPassword
DefaultUserName
4. Double-click each of them to enter their respective data. Set the value of
AutoAdminLogon to 1. Enter your user name and password in the DefaultUserName
and DefaultPassword items respectively.
You can also do this using TweakUI.
Instant Shut Down or Restart
To
shut down or restart Windows with one mouse click:
1. Right-click the Desktop and select New > Shortcut.
2. In the Command line box type:
C:\WINDOWS\rundll.exe user.exe,ExitWindows (for shut down)
C:\WINDOWS\rundll.exe user.exe,ExitWindowsExec (for restart)
3. Click Next, name it appropriately and click on Finish to create the shortcut.
Be careful, clicking on the shortcuts will not ask for any confirmation before
shutting down.
Reclaim CD-ROM Cache
If
you do not use the CD-ROM drive very often, you could very well reclaim some
precious memory. This could be especially useful for low-end computers.
1. Right click on My Computer and click on Properties.
2. Click File System from the Performance tab.
3. From the CD-ROM tab, you can configure the amount of cache that is assigned
to the drive. Adjust the slider according to your needs. The minimum amount is
64KB and the maximum is 1238KB.
4. Changing the Optimise access pattern for drop-down selection also affects the
amount of memory used (maximum for Quad-speed or higher and minimum for No
read-ahead).
A clean Run
To
remove unwanted items from the Run menu:
1. Start the Registry Editor.
2. Open HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU.
3. Delete the entries that you do not want on the Run menu.
4. Close the Registry Editor and Restart Windows.
Note: Do not delete the (Default) or MRUList values.
Permanently delete files
To
permanently Delete files without moving them to the Recycle Bin, hold down the
Shift key while pressing Delete. To stop using recycle bin altogether,
right-click the Recycle Bin and click on Properties. On the Global Tab, select
Do not move files to the Recycle Bin. If you enable Configure drives
independently, you can set this up for the drives you want to.
Dummy entries in Add/Remove Programs list
Sometimes,
even after programs are uninstalled, or due to the files being deleted instead
of a uninstalled, the entry in the Add/Remove Programs list does not get
deleted. To remove it from the list:
1. Start the Registry Editor.
2. Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall.
3. Delete the program entry here.
You can also use TweakUI to do this.
Windows 98 Easter Egg
1.
Right-click an empty space on your Desktop, and select New > Shortcut from
the context menu.
2. In the Command line field, type the following line, exactly as it appears:
"C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\WELCOME\WELDATA.EXE"
You_are_a_real_rascal
3. Click Next and then Finish.
4. Edit the Properties for this shortcut. Change the Run field to Minimized.
Also, make sure that the Start in field shows “C:\WINDOWS\Application
Data\Microsoft\WELCOME”.
5. Double-click the shortcut and enjoy the Easter Egg.
Preview
Media Files
Internet Explorer 4 and allow previewing media files (wav, mid, avi, mov, mpg)
in Windows Explorer. Using Windows Explorer, navigate to \Windows\Web, and open
Folder.htt in Notepad. Look for wantMedia = false and replace this with
wantMedia = true. You should now be able to preview media files in folders that
are viewed as a web page.
Optimising the Windows 98 Registry
Windows
98 compresses the registry by default at restart if it finds that there is more
than 500KB of empty space in the registry. This is controlled by the line
Optimize=1 in the Scanreg.ini file in the \Windows directory.
To compress the registry manually:
1. Restart in MS-DOS mode.
2. At the MS-DOS prompt, type scanreg/backup. This will backup your registry.
3. Now type scanreg /opt.
4. Scanreg will compress the registry.
Preview Images
You
can preview your Image files by viewing the folder they are in as "Web
View". From the Windows Explorer menu, select View > as Web page. A
better way to preview images is as thumbnails instead of icons. To enable this
view in Windows Explorer, right-click the folder you want to preview and click
on Properties. Check the box against Enable thumbnail view and click Ok to exit
the dialog box. Now, from the View menu, select Thumbnails.
A clean registry
A
computer's registry accumulates a lot of corrupted, unused, and unnecessary
registry keys, especially if keys are not removed when you uninstall a program.
As a result, you may begin to experience problems and your machine might
function slower than expected.
The latest version of Microsoft's RegClean could delete a lot of such registry
junk. You can download this from ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/REGCLEAN.EXE.
System Configuration
A
very useful tool included with Win98 is the System Configuration Utility. Select
Start > Run and type msconfig in the Open box to launch the application. The
System Configuration Utility makes fiddling with programs to launch at Startup
or editing autoexec.bat, config.sys etc. a lot easier. The System Configuration
Utility also allows you to create a backup of your system files ? it would be a
good idea to use this before you begin making changes. Be careful with what you
enable or disable. Do not touch anything that you may not understand.
Optimising the Swap File
With
most resource hungry applications today, the RAM is not enough to hold all its
data. Windows uses a portion of the hard disk as RAM, constantly swapping data
between the RAM and the hard disk as required. The speed of your hard disk is
nearly 1000 times slower than that of your main memory. Inefficient use of the
swap file could considerably slow down your system to a very great extent.
One of the best ways to speed up the swap file usage is to create a permanent
swap file. In a permanent swap file, the file used for swapping information has
a fixed size and location on your hard disk. When a temporary swap file is used,
the location and size of the file is determined by the application being used
and is not predictable. Also, since a temporary swap file is constantly written
to and is not fixed in size, it would be highly fragmented across the partition
that holds it.
A better option is to create the swap file on a dedicated partition on your hard
disk. By doing this, the swap file will never be fragmented since that partition
is only being utilised by the swap file itself. You can configure the swap file
size and location from Control Panel > System > Performance > Virtual
Memory. The size of the swap file should be around 2.5 times the amount of RAM
on the system.
Direct Memory Access
The
advantage of using Direct Memory Access (DMA) with IDE CD-ROM and disk drives is
that it lowers CPU usage during I/O transfers. This drastically improves
performance when using these devices.
Ensure that your drive supports DMA before making these changes, otherwise it
could lead to unpredictable results. To use DMA:
1. Open Control Panel > System > Device Manager.
2. Click the + sign next to the Disk drives entry.
3. Select the drive you want to enable DMA for and click Properties.
4. On the Settings tab, there should be a DMA check box. You can enable this to
enable
DMS for the drive.
Note:
If there is no check box (or it is greyed out), your motherboard chipset does
not support the feature. If the check box is not checked after you restart your
system, your hard disk probably has been automatically disabled again because
the hard disk may not support DMA. If you are unable to restart Windows after
the change is applied, boot to Safe Mode and disable DMA from here.
Improve Removable Disk Drive Performance
Windows 98 gives you the option to use write-behind caching to improve the
performance of removable disk drives.
1. Open Control Panel > System > Performance and click on File System.
2. Check the Enable write-behind caching on all removable disk drives check box
under the Removable Disk tab and click OK.
Note: If this results in a problem with disk operations, uncheck the Enable
write-behind caching on all removable disk drives check box.
Change the Typical role of your computer
If
you have 24MB or more RAM, you can optimise performance by selecting Network
server as the typical role of your computer.
1. Open Control Panel > System > Performance > File System.
2. On the Hard Disk Tab, select Network Server as Typical role of this computer.
The setting you use controls the size of various internal data structures used
by the 32-bit file access driver (VFAT).
When you use the Mobile Or Docking System setting, VFAT allocates memory to
record the 16 most recently accessed folders and the 337 most recently accessed
files. This consumes approximately 4KB of memory.
When you use the Desktop Computer setting, VFAT allocates memory to record the
32 most recently accessed folders and the 677 most recently accessed files. This
consumes approximately 8KB of memory.
When you use the Network Server setting, VFAT allocates memory to record the 64
most recently accessed folders and the 2729 most recently accessed files. This
consumes approximately 16KB of memory.
MS Office memory hoggers
A
typical installation of MS Office installs Find Fast, an indexing utility that
loads at startup. This hogs system resources by regularly indexing the entire
hard disk(s). You can improve performance of your computer by removing Find Fast
from your StartUp folder. To reclaim the space used by the Find Fast index, open
Control Panel > Find Fast, select your hard drive(s) and from the Index menu,
click on Delete Index. When you've deleted your Index, click on Close and Stop
from the Index menu.
Another item installed in the StartUp folder is named Microsoft Office. This
does nothing apart from loading all MS Office libraries at startup to speed up
launching of any Office applications. Since this is not necessary, you can
delete this shortcut, too.
Restart only Windows
When
restarting Windows, you don’t always need to go through the BIOS
initialisation and POST. Instead of simply clicking on Restart from the Shut
Down Windows dialog box, hold down the Shift key as you click on Ok. This will
restart only Windows. This is particularly useful when you change some registry
entries or a few system settings.
Stop
Automatic Dialling
Many Internet applications or software are
often set to automatically dial up and connect. To stop automatic dialling, open
Control Panel > Internet Options. Under the Connections tab, enable Never
dial a connection.
Automatic maintenance
The
Windows Maintenance Wizard can automate a lot of the routine system maintenance
tasks. To open this wizard, choose Start > Programs > Accessories >
System Tools > Maintenance Wizard. It sets up the Task Scheduler to regularly
run Scandisk, Disk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup.
Using two monitors
You
can install two display adapters (AGP or PCI) and connect them to two monitors
to increase screen display area. First, install a single display adapter with
its drivers. Shut down Windows, install the second card and start the machine.
When you turn on your system, Windows will recognise the new video card and the
attached monitor and install drivers for both. You'll then be prompted to
restart your system. You'll see both your video cards in the Device Manager tree
once the drivers are installed.
If everything is functioning correctly, as Windows is loading, you'll see a
message that reads "If you can read this..." on the second monitor.
Once Windows loads, right-click on the desktop and click on Properties and then
the Settings tab. You'll now see two monitors in the middle of the page. Click
on the second monitor icon. When you do so, a message box prompts you to enable
the second monitor. To continue, click Yes.
Make sure that the monitor icons correctly represent your actual monitor's
physical positions. The icons' positions control how you drag icons and windows
from one monitor to the other. Right-click on the first monitor icon and select
the Identify command from the shortcut menu. If the monitor icons are in the
wrong positions, simply click on one of them and drag it to the correct
position.
After you're finished, click Apply.
Customise the Start menu
You
can customise the start menu to show only certain items.
Open the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.
To remove the Run command, create a new DWORD value and name it NoRun.
Double-click it and change it’s value to 1.
To remove the Documents folder, create a new DWORD value and name it
NoRecentDocsMenu. Double-click it and change it’s value to 1.
To remove the Favorites folder, create a new DWORD value and name it
NoFavoritesMenu. Double-click it and change it’s value to 1.
To remove the Log Off … command, create a new DWORD value and name it NoLogOff.
Double-click it and change it’s value to 1.
Restart Windows once you are finished.
Clean Desktop
To
hide all the icons on your Desktop, open the Registry Editor and navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer.
Add a DWORD value and name it NoDesktop. Change it’s value to 1. Close the
Registry Editor and restart Windows.
Bitmaps as icons
You can preview bitmaps (.BMP files) as icons in Explorer instead of the default
icon of the application it is associated with. Open the Registry Editor and
navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Paint.Picture\DefaultIcon. Double-click the
Default string and change it’s value to ‘%1’ (without double-quotes).
Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows.
ToolTips
To
disable ToolTips in Windows, open the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control
Panel\Desktop. Double-click UserPreferencemask and change its value to 3E 00 00
00. Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows.