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                                            Win 98 Tips and Tricks

                                                           By   tcagafoor othukkungal

1.      Tip: To open an associated file with a different program hold down Shift, and then use the right mouse button to click the file. Click Open With on the menu to open the file with a different program.

2.      Tip: Closing Consecutive Windows If you are using multiple window browse, and you want to close all open windows, hold down the Shift key, and then click the close (X) button in the upper right corner of the title bar.

3.      Tip: Drag objects from one open document to another open document (one covering the other) by dragging the object to the target's taskbar, waiting until the target window is displayed, and then dragging the object onto the target window.

4.      Tip: Make Your Own Icons Simply take any .BMP file and rename it to give it an .ICO extension. You access the file in the normal way: Right-click on the current icon for a shortcut, select Properties from the Context menu, select the Shortcut tab and click on the Change Icon button. Now use the Browse button to find your new icon.

5.      Tip: Get System Info On Paper Right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties from the context menu. Click on the Device Manager tab, then the Print button. Select the "All Devices and System Summary" radio button, then click on OK. This will give you more information about your hardware, IRQs, ports, memory usage, devices and drivers than you ever wanted to know. Keep this printout handy for future reference.

6.      Tip: Fast Dial-Up Networking Place your Dial-Up Networking Folder and its contents on the Start menu as a cascading menu by adding a folder with this name: Dial Up Net.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}

7.      Tip: Auto Don't Play! 'To bypass the AutoPlay function, press and hold the Shift key while inserting the CD.  

8.      Tip: Add new items to your Send To list. Instead of finding the folder in a My Computer or Explorer window, take the quick route. Click Start, choose Run, type 'sendto' (no space) on the command line, click OK, and there's the open SendTo window. This technique works for any folder in the Windows folder or on your hard drive. (If a folder you want to open is buried in another folder, you'll need to type its full path to open it).

9.      Tip: Visual Display of Directory from Command Prompt If you are at a command prompt and want a visual display of a directory (folder), type start ., or start .. and an open folder of that directory appears on the desktop.

10.  Tip: Disable Call Waiting If incoming phone calls disconnect you from your online sessions, you probably have call waiting. To disable it, open the Control Panel, double-click on Modems and select Dialing Properties. Choose the code that disables call waiting.

11.  Tip: Quick Access to Desktop. Here's is a quick way to get to the desktop. Either Hold down the windows key + press 'M' key or hold down the windows key and press 'D' key. Either one will go directly to the desktop. Also, to go directly to the "run" dialogue press windows key and R. To get to the "find" dialogue press windows key and F.

12.  Tip: Close All Apps Fast Close all your running programs by selecting Shut Down from the Start menu and choosing the "Close all programs and log on as a different user?" option. Then, log back on as the same user.

13.  Tip: Make a Quick Exit Right-click on the taskbar buttons of minimized applications and select Close from the menu to quickly exit them.

14.  Tip: Sound Off / On You can display or hide that little yellow speaker in the Taskbar's tray any time you want. To remove it, click it with the right mouse button, choose Adjust Audio Properties, and, in the Audio Properties dialog box, deselect Show volume control on the Taskbar. Click OK, and it's gone-zo. To get it back, open the Control Panel, and double-click Multimedia. On the Audio tab of the Multimedia Properties dialog box, select that same option and click OK.

15.  Tip: ENLARGING WINDOW SCROLLBARS Are the buttons on your windows' scrollbars too small to grab? (Scrollbars are the bars on the right and bottom edges of windows that allow you to scroll through the current window.) Did you know you can easily change their size? Here's how : 1. Right-click the desktop and select Properties to open the Display Properties dialog box. 2. Select the Appearance tab, and in the dropdown list under Item, select Scrollbar. Adjust the Size (just to the right of the Item field), and watch the preview area until you like what you see. 3. Click OK to keep the change. Extra tip :  To make the change a permanent part of a desktop scheme, click Save As, type the name of the scheme, and click OK.

16.  Tip: Getting System errors? Call Dr Watson Sometimes the Windows program Dr. Watson can figure out what ails your computer. It will diagnose problems, intercept  errors from your software, and prescribe a course of action. To run Dr. Watson, you must go to your Windows  folder and open the Dr. Watson (drwatson.exe) program. If you're having problems,  It's a good idea to have Dr. Watson load on start-up; to do this, drag the program or a shortcut to your Startup folder.

17.  Tip: Off Screen Window Ever have a window that has wandered partially off-screen? Not a big problem, unless you can't get to the title bar to move it. For example, what do you do if you have a window that gets its title bar hidden above the TOP of the screen? (It happens, sometimes due to a system error, sometimes due a change in screen resolution.) The problem is, you can't grab the title bar with your mouse to move the window. Don't worry, there's an easy way to move the window. Here's how:
A. Make sure the window has focus (i.e. it's the active window).
B. Next, click ALT-SPACE, then press the letter "m"
C. Now, use your arrow keys to move the window
back to where you want it. Press enter to "drop" it

18.  Tip: Change Taskbar Text Want to change the font and size of your Taskbar text? All it takes is a quick trip to the Display Properties dialog box. Right-click the desktop, select Properties, and in the Display Properties dialog box, click the Appearance tab. Click the down arrow below Item, then scroll up and select Active Title Bar. (Note: As you might guess, this change affects the text of your window title bars, too.) In the bottom row of settings, use the Font and Size options to change the appearance of the text. As you do, you'll see your changes in the preview area. When you like what you see, click Apply or OK to keep the change.

19.  Tip: RESTORING DELETED FILE from RECYCLE BIN Just delete a file and now you need it back? As long as you haven't emptied the Recycle Bin since your deletion, you can restore that file to its original location. Switch to the desktop and double-click the Recycle Bin icon. Locate the item you'd like to undelete, right-click it, and select Restore. Note: This tip assumes you haven't opted to bypass the Recycle Bin. Right-click the Recycle Bin icon, select Properties, and make sure Do Not Move Files To The Recycle Bin.... is not selected. Also, if you permanently delete a file the first time around--by pressing
Shift-Delete and then clicking Yes--the Recycle Bin can't help you.

20.  Tip: Print from your Desktop Need to print a file--fast? There are two ways to do it without manually opening the application in which it was created. One, right-click a document icon and select Print. Windows opens the file's native application and prints the file. Two, place a printer shortcut on your desktop. (Open My Computer, double-click the Printers folder, right-click and drag your printer icon out to the desktop, release the mouse button, and select Create Shortcut(s) Here.) Then, to print a document, drag and drop its icon on the printer icon. (Again, Windows will open the file's native application for you and then print the file.)

21.  Tip: Show File Types in Explorer. Sometimes, you can't remember what the icon looks like for a particular file type and sometimes you have two files with the same name but differern't extentions. Eg Install.ini and Install.txt. To make things a little (actually a Lot) clearer, set explorer to show the file extention. Inside an Explorer window, select View, Options (or View, Folder Options). Click the view tab. Make sure to uncheck the option that says "hide file extententions for known file types" Now when you view files the the "Details" mode, you will see the file extentions.

22.  Tip: Print your Systems Configuration Next time the tech support guy asks you some or other impossible question about your system configuration, throw the book at him - hand over that print outs you made aaaffter reading this tip. Right-click on My Computer, select Properties from the drop-down list, click the Device Manager tab, and click the print button. Select a system summary or a complete report on all devices and a system summary, and click OK. Make sure you've got paper in that printer ...

23.  Tip: Shortcut Keys If you are using Windows 98, you can get the 'Properties', of any file or folder, by highlighting it, and pressing the Alt enter

24.  Tip: Shortcut Keys II Another Windows 98 keyboard shortcut tip. If you have a Windows keyboard, you can get to the 'System Properties', by holding down the 'Windows Logo' key, and pressing the 'Pause - Break' key,

25.  Tip: Highlight Text. Before you resort to clicking and dragging, try these shortcuts: To highlight a word, double-click it. To highlight a line of text, click once to its left (in the left margin). To highlight an entire paragraph, double-click to its left (again, in the margin). To highlight a large area of text, click once at the beginning of the text, then hold down Shift and click at the end; or while holding down Shift, use the cursor keys to expand the selection. To highlight an entire document, place the cursor at the very beginning of the document and press Ctrl-Shift-End; or, with your cursor anywhere, press Ctrl-A. Triple-click in the left margin. Hold down the Ctrl key as you click anywhere in the left margin.

26.  Tip: Print Screen. Pressing the Print Screen key sends the current screen to the clipboard (not to the printer, as one would expect). To print the contents of the clipboard, you'll need to use a separate application, such as Paint. Open Paint--select Start, Programs, Accessories, Paint--and select Edit, Paste. If you see a message stating that the image is larger than the current bitmap, click Yes to confirm that you'd like to enlarge the bitmap. The image on the clipboard now appears on screen. From there, you can use Paint's Print command to print the screen.

Windows Keyboard tricks

If you are using Windows 98, you can get the 'Properties', of any file or folder, by highlighting it, and pressing the Alt enter

If you have a Windows keyboard, you can get to the 'System Properties', by holding down the 'Windows Logo' key,  and pressing the 'Pause - Break' key,

Put Phone Dialer to Work

Many people have dismissed Windows' Phone Dialer as practically useless. That may be because (except for eight measly speed-dial buttons) this accessory has no customizable directory for storing names, addresses, and phone numbers for multiple contacts. But with a little work, you can use its Call Log as a dialing directory or a basic address book. And you'll find that making calls from this directory requires a lot fewer clicks than trying to place calls via Microsoft Exchange, Outlook 97, or Outlook Express. The trick lies in editing the source file for Call Log, calllog.txt, located in your Windows folder.

Here's what to do: First, open the calllog.txt file. If you've never used Phone Dialer, you must make at least one call with Phone Dialer to create a calllog.txt file. Because this file is tab delimited, you needn't use a text editor that converts tabs into spaces. Notepad will do just fine.

The log always adds new calls to the top of the list, so to keep your dialing directory entries separate, you'll want them to appear at the bottom. But because everything you type into calllog.txt shows up in the opposite, top-to-bottom order in Call Log, you'll have to add your entries in reverse alphabetical order if you want them to appear alphabetically in Call Log. You can start by typing hyphens or other characters to separate your entries from the calling list; don't just add multiple carriage returns, because Call Log will ignore these.

When adding entries, you're restricted to the widths of the various Call Log columns. For instance, because the first column is so narrow, you might want to use it for title abbreviations--Ms., Dr., Lt., and so on. Then press Tab to move to the next column. The second column is the widest; when Call Log is maximized, you should have room for a name, an address, and maybe more (depending on your screen resolution). You must use the third column for the phone number if you want to use this list for dialing. You can skip the 1 for long-distance numbers; Phone Dialer adds it automatically. Fill out the remaining three entries with short items, such as dates. Be sure to press Tab to separate entries. When you're done, save the file and exit.

To use your dialing directory, choose Start, Accessories, Phone Dialer (Start, Accessories, Communications, Phone Dialer in Windows 98). If you don't see Call Log, choose Tools, Show Log.

Double-click Call Log's title bar to make it as large as possible, displaying what you typed in. Press End to jump to the end of the list where you added your custom entries. To call one of your new listings, simply double-click its line. If you want the Call Log to open automatically the next time you start Phone Dialer, leave its window open when you exit Phone Dialer.

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