Customise the Start Menu

Customising the Start menu in is quite similar to that of Windows 9x. , however, has a common Start Menu and a user-specific Start Menu. The common Start Menu displays the applications that everybody in a group uses and can be changed only by administrators. Users can change the user-specific menus.

The user-specific Start Menu folder is found under Win\Profiles\(username)\Start Menu.

The common Start Menu folder is found under Win\Profiles\All Users\Start Menu.

To customise the Start Menu, click Start > Settings > Taskbar. Under the Start Menu Programs tab, use the Add and Remove buttons to add and remove shortcuts. The Advanced button will show an Explorer view of the Start Menu.

Drop and Run

You can open the Run dialog box (Start > Run), then drag and drop a file or application oo it from My Computer or Explorer. The complete pathname appears in the Run dialog box. Now you could add command-line options or simply click OK to launch the file.

Cut network traffic

Windows uses NetBIOS to communicate with all the computers on the network, and for all iernal communication as well. However, this traffic caused by NetBIOS can significaly reduce bandwidth if you also have an Iernet connection. You can disable the NetBIOS Ierface on outbound Iernet adapters; that is, all modem or communication devices that connect Server to the Iernet.

Open the Network applet from the Corol Panel. On the Bindings tab, change the Show Bindings For drop-down to select all adapters. Double-click your outbound Iernet adapter. Under the WINS Clie (TCP/IP) binding, select the NetBIOS Ierface, and click the Disable button.

Re-create installation disks

You can re-create installation disks if you lose or damage your original set. Format three floppy disks and load your Windows 4.0 CD-ROM in the drive. From the Run dialog box, browse to the i386 folder on the CD-ROM and select win32.exe and click Open. Alter the Run command line to d:\i386\win32/ox (where the first d is the CD-ROM drive letter). Click OK and follow the prompts.

List of settings and addresses

For a complete list of the settings and addresses currely assigned to your system, open the Command Prompt from the Start button's Programs menu, and type ipconfig/all. This will display all TCP/IP related settings on the system. This is similar to winipcfg in Windows 9x.

Easy addition of users

Creating a user template makes it easy to add multiple new users with the same group and access privileges. Open User Manager for Domains. Add a new user by selecting New User from the User menu. Label this user as a template for the user level, such as Template--Worker or Template--Secretary and set the correct privileges and options for Groups, Profile, and Dial-in. The next time you need to add a user, simply select the template accou, and select User > Copy from the menu. All you need to do is change the name and password.

Monitoring disks

Windows 4.0's Performance Monitor can track disk activity and performance. Though a very useful tool for troubleshooting, you will experience 5 to 10% degradation in the performance of whatever storage device you're monitoring. To turn the Performance Monitor on, launch the Command Prompt from the Start button's Programs menu item. Type diskperf –y and reboot Windows. You can launch Performance Monitor from Start > Administrative Tools > Performance Monitor.

When you're done, be sure to turn Performance Monitor off again by typing diskperf -n at the Command Prompt.

Maiaining a Repair disk

The Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) holds a record of the settings and boot parameters for your primary partition Boot Sector. Every time you make a change to these areas, you should also re-create the ERD; otherwise, the repair disk will not restore your system to the most rece functioning state. To create an updated ERD, type rdisk /s in the Run dialog box.

Restoring a damaged boot sector

An up-to-date Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) can aid you in recovering from a damaged boot sector. To restore a damaged boot sector, reboot the computer using the Windows Setup disk 1, followed by disk 2 when prompted. Select R for Repair. From the next menu, select only

Inspect boot sector (to check the boot sector for damage). Insert disk 3 and then the ERD when prompted and follow the instructions on screen.

Coping with a drive failure

The Disk Administrator can restore a system's drive and partition structure after a drive failure or other system failure.

To create a backup file, start Disk Administrator from Start > Programs and select Partition > Configuration > Save. This creates a floppy that coains all drive-related configuration information. Any time you need to restore your drive configuration, select Partition > Configuration > Restore from the menu, and insert the disk when prompted.

Compressing data

Windows 4.0 lets you compress and decompress directories and files on FS partitions. Compression reduces storage requiremes for seldom-accessed files without degrading overall drive performance. You can compress and expand files and directories from My Computer or Explorer — just right-click an item, select Properties and enable Compress from the list of attributes.

To view which files and directories are compressed, enable Display compressed files and folders with alternate color feature using View > Options from Explorer.

Scheduled backups

Windows 4.0 offers a system you can use to schedule backups. Open Corol Panel > Services and start the Schedule service. Change the Schedule Startup settings to Automatic. This loads Schedule each time boots. Create a CMD file that coains the command string for the backup operation (the complete command line instructions are listed in the Backup help documeation). For example, a CMD file that coains backup backup c: /d "8/8/99 Backup" /b /l "c:\backup.log" would launch Backup to perform a backup of the C: drive. It will then label the backup 8/8/99 Backup and create a log file called c:\backup.log.

Launch the Command Prompt and add the CMD file to the automated schedule with the command line at 18:00 /every:m,w,f mybackup.cmd (for AT task-addition command details, type at /? at the command prompt). This sample would execute mybackup.cmd every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6 p.m.

Documeation Books on your hard drive

Wish to avoid inserting the CD-ROM every time you access Books Online? Simply copy the \Support\Books from the CD-ROM to your hard drive. Next, remove the disc from the drive and attempt to launch the Books Online Shortcut. When you're prompted to insert the CD-ROM or specify an alternate route, click the Browse button, and select the directory where you copied the files.

LKGC

If you manage to cause your 4.0 system to cease functioning properly, you may be able to restore the system using the Last Known Good Configuration (LKGC). LKGC is saved each time a successful user login occurs. To return to the LKGC, reboot your 4.0 system and watch the boot process. When the message "Press spacebar NOW to invoke Hardware Profile/Last Known Good menu" appears, press the spacebar. Press L to use the LKGC. Your system should return to its state as of the last successful user login.

Hiding the name of the last logon

Windows 4.0 displays the name of the last person who logged on to the system. To stop it from doing so, launch the Registry editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre Version\Winlogon. Select the ReportBootOK item, create a new String Value and name it DoDisplayLastUserName. Double-click the new string and change its value to 1. Close the Registry editor.

Startup message

You can display a message every time someone attempts to log on to a Windows machine. Launch the Registry editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows \CurreVersion\WinLogon. Add or edit the following keys:

LegalNoticeCaption (the title for the message box).

LegalNoticeText (the text to be displayed in the pop-up dialog box).

Close the Registry Editor and reboot.

Administrator Decoy

Two accous that everyone already knows exist on are the Administrator and the Guest accous. Fortunately, the Guest accou is disabled by default. However, you must have an Administrator accou — the one with the widest access and privileges.

For additional security, rename the Administrator accou. Then, create a new user accou named Administrator, but give it restricted privileges, so it can't access anything, and don't make it a member of any group. This creates a decoy and protects your real administrative accou.

Segregate 16-bit apps

A few memory manageme tweaks can make running your old 16 bit applications (Win 3.11 style) a lot more reliable.

All Windows 16-bit applications are executed within the same virtual machine, so they share the same memory space. While, by default launches all Windows 32-bit applications and DOS applications in a separate memory space. So if one of the 16-bit applications fails, then they will all fail. Launching each application in its own individual memory space, however, you will preve the failure of one application from ierfering with others.

Note that 16-bit applications in separate memory spaces are unable to exchange OLE information.

To launch applications in a separate memory space, run the file from the Run dialog box and check the "Run in Separate Memory Space" box. You could also create a shortcut to the 16-bit application, edit its Properties and check the "Run in Separate Memory Space" box.

Corol an application's speed

Setting the application’s priorities can corol the speed at which applications run. uses 32 levels of priorities to manage how much CPU processing time an application or process receives. Higher-priority applications get more system resources as soon as they ask for them. You can launch a program at the predefined priorities low(4), normal(8), high(13), or realtime(24). Realtime is available only to Administrators and should be used with caution. It will place a task at the same priority level as the core system itself.

To change the priority for any process, bring up the Task Manager, right-click on the process and select the appropriate priority from the Set Priority menu item.

To start a process at a particular priority, open the Command Prompt and type one of the following commands:

start /low <application>

start /normal <application>

start /high <application>

start /realtime <application>

where <application> is the path and name of the executable you wa to launch.

Using the Windows Task Manager

Windows Task Manager can aid you in finding the amou of RAM you can regain by disabling unnecessary system services. Right-click on the taskbar and select Task Manager from the coext menu. You can view the CPU usage and memory usage under the Performance tab. To regain resources, you can kill unnecessary processes from the Processes tab.

Sharing Resources Secretly

To secretly share a resource, simply append a dollar sign ($) to its share name. When you do so, the resource doesn't appear in Network Neighborhood, but is readily available by either mapping the drive or typing the UNC in the Run dialog box. This provides an additional degree of privacy and security to a shared resource. Furthermore, any access restrictions or passwords assigned to that shared resource remain in effect.

Easter Egg

If you have the 3D Text screensaver installed, edit its settings according to the following:

Type I love as the text and click OK. The screen saver text shows good? and cycles through a list of Windows programmers. Type Volcano and the screensaver cycles through a list of volcanos.

Command History

When you eer a command in the Command Prompt window, that command gets saved by the system (up to 50 commands), and you can use it again without having to retype it. All you have to do is press F7 to open the history. use the arrow keys to highlight the command you wa to use and press Eer to execute it. If you need more than the default 50 commands, click in the Command box (upper left corner) and click on Properties > Options. Set the Buffer Size to the number of commands you need.

NTFS

If your machine is running off an NTFS volume, each time you use Explorer or the Dir command to list a directory on an NTFS volume, Windows updates the LastAccess time stamp on each directory it detects. If you have a large number of folders on an FS partition, you may be able to speed up Windows Explorer by telling Windows to not update the Accessed time. Start the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurreCorolSet\Corol\FileSystem. Add a new DWORD value. Eer the name as fsDisableLastAccessUpdate. Double-click this and type 1 to enable it.

Fast Menus

You can change the Start menu delay in displaying sub-menus. Run Regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRE_USER\CorolPanel\Desktop. Change the value for MenuShowDelay to any number between 0 (fastest) and 4000 (slowest). If the value does not exist, add a string value with this name.

Launch Faster

You can change the default boot delay of 30 seconds. Open Corol Panel > System > Startup/Shutdown. Under the Show List For, change the setting to the desired boot delay value. To bypass the boot menu altogether, set the delay value to 0.

Note: If you dual boot between two Operating Systems using the boot loader, do not set the boot delay value to 0.

Scheduled Priing

If you'd like to pri while you are away, you can schedule the pri jobs. Click Start > Settings > Priers. Right-click the prier icon and click on Properties. Select the time range from the Scheduling tab. Click OK to close the dialog box and record your changes. If you would like to pri some documes immediately and some later, you can create a new prier as a copy of the curre prier and enable scheduling for that.

Messing with Partitions

Before using Disk Administrator to make changes to the partitions, you may wa to make sure you save your curre configuration. To do this, click Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Disk Administrator > Partition > Configuration > Save. Insert a formatted floppy disk io your drive and click OK. You can restore the partition structure later by clicking on Partition > Configuration > Restore.

Performance Monitor

The Performance Monitor will not monitor disk performance unless you turn on the disk couers first. To do this, open the Command Prompt window and type diskperf -Y. Restart the computer. You can monitor disk activity with the Performance Monitor. Since the couers will affect disk performance, you should turn them off by typing diskperf -N at the Command Prompt when you have finished testing.

Themes Win95 Style

If you have both, and Windows 95 with the Plus Pack, you can use Desktop Themes under 4.0. Find Themes.cpl and Themes.exe in the C:\Windows\System folder under Windows 95 and copy them to \Win\System32. Reboot the system to Windows . A Desktop Themes icon will appear in Corol Panel.

Two-Pane Explorer

To use the two-pane Explorer view by default, open the Registry Editor and locate HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Folder/shell/open/ddexec. Change the ery for (Default) from [ViewFolder("%I",%I,%S)] to [ExploreFolder("%I",%I,%S)]. The ery for both, open/ddexec and explore/ddexec should be the same.

No Desktop

Turn the desktop off for computers with little memory. Right-click in the Taskbar click on Task Manager. Under the Processes tab, locate explorer.exe. Select it and click on End Process to shut down Explorer. You can save between 1 to 3MB of RAM this way. You can start programs using the Task Manager itself. To get your desktop back, click New Task and run explorer.exe.

Desktop Gone Forever

If you can do without the regular 4.0 desktop permanely, it's possible to start with just the Task Manageror even with the Command Prompt. Launch the Registry Editor and locate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows /CurreVersion/WinLogon. Double-click on value named Shell (set by default to Explorer.exe). Eer Taskmgr.exe for the Task Manager. For a command prompt, eer Cmd.exe. Close the Registry Editor and log off.

Protocol Analyser

Server 4.0 includes a software-based protocol analyzer called the Network Monitor Age. To install it open Corol Panel > Network > Services and click on Add. Select Network Monitor Age from the list. You can now start Network Monitor from the Administrative Tools. To capture network data, click on Capture > Start. Click Capture > Stop to stop monitoring.

Alerter and Messenger

If messages don't reach their destination(s) when using the "net send" command, turn on the Alerter and Messenger services in the Services applet of the Corol Panel. Also, make sure that the iended recipie is not logged in to multiple machines.

Adding a Command Prompt to any Folder

Open Windows Explorer and click View > Options > File Types. Locate Folder and click Edit. Click New to open the New Action dialog box. Type Command Prompt in the Action box, and type cmd.exe in the Application Used to Perform Action box. Now you can right-click a folder and click Command Prompt to open a Command Prompt window at the folder's path.

Sharing the Swap File

If you dual boot between Windows and Windows 9x, you can save space by allowing both systems to share the same swap file. First, configure the Windows swap file, setting it to a FAT partition. To do this, open Corol Panel > System > Performance > Virtual Memory. Next, boot to Windows 9x and configure the virtual memory using the same settings as you used for . Again, you will find this setting from Corol Panel > System > Performance > Virtual Memory.

Windows uses a file called Pagefile.sys and Windows 9x uses Win386.swp for the swap file. However, you can set Windows 9x to use Pagefile.sys by modifying the System.ini in the Windows folder. Open the file in Notepad and make the following changes under the [386Enh] section:

PagingFile=X:\PAGEFILE.SYS

PagingDrive=X:

MinPagingFileSize=NNNNN

MaxPagingFileSize=NNNNN

where X: is the drive where the swap file is located and NNNNN is the size of the file in kilobytes. Restart the system delete the Win386.swp file.

AutoComplete

Windows can automatically fill in file and folder names at the command prompt, much like a UNIX terminal. launch the Registry editor and move down to the HKEY_CURRE_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor. Select CompletionChar and set its value of to 9. Restart the system for the changes to take effect. Now, at the Command Prompt window, type in the first few characters of the file or folder and press Tab to complete it automatically.

Saving Rece Desktop Settings

Windows saves the Desktop settings on normal exits only. You could lose your rece Desktop modifications if crashes or hangs. You can save your curre Desktop settings by selecting an object on the Desktop and pressing F5 key.