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Windows 98: Is it worth it?
A quick assessment of Windows 98 and links to more information
Power Productivity Tips:
Squeeze Out a Little More Speed
Speed up your Windows 95
and more...
Reviews & Resources:
Fill'er Up and Check the Oil
Let this cybermechanic tune-up your website
and more...
Archive:
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In general, the more upper memory your computer uses the faster your system will run. To increase the upper memory use go to Start/Settings: Control Panel and double-click the System icon. Now, select the performance tab and click on the File System button. If you change the machine role to Network server you should notice a slight speed increase while using your system.
Keyboard Editing (Netscape 4.X)
Try using the following shortcuts when editing documents. Press CTRL + X to Cut, then CTRL + C to Copy and finally CTRL + V to Paste. This will save you the time and effort of repeatedly going to the Edit menu to access these commands.
Running a Program (Windows 95/98/NT)
Most of the time when you install a program it will be listed in the Programs menu. Click Start/Programs and if you haven't explored you computer yet, you'll see a wonderful list of all the programs that are installed and waiting to be used. Most programs come with additional features that can only be accessed from the program's folder or subfolder in the Program menu. Check to see if you've been missing something!
Hassle Free CD Installation (General)
Resource conflicts, IRQ conflicts and many other problems are usually the factors that make CD-ROM installation notoriously difficult. The next time you install any hardware you can avoid installation problems if you have a diagnostic report of your system. Make a list of all the devices in your system so you'll know what IRQ's, DMA's and I/O addresses are in use. Go to an MS-DOS Prompt and run the MSD.EXE program to diagnose nearly all system configurations. First find out what resources the CD-ROM will need and look for any possible conflicts. If you rearrange your settings ahead of time, the installation should go much smoother.
Speed Calling (IE 4.X)
NetMeeting includes a SpeedDial similar to that of a regular telephone. To access, call or make changes, click Call someone, then SpeedDial. Now Click Add SpeedDial. If you've used other speed dialing apps before, this should be a snap.
1+1=2, But What Does 1x^y Mean? (Windows 95/98/NT)
When you hold the mouse cursor over any of the funny looking symbols and keys on the calculator, click the right mouse button then press the What's This box. You'll receive a nice explanation of the key's function. If you're looking for the calculator, click Start/Programs/Accessories/Calculator.
Truncation! (Windows 95/98/NT)
By default Windows doesn't truncate the long file names. If you like the DOS style file names you can have Windows only display the first eight letters of your files. Try the following:
- Goto Start/Run, type 'regedit' and press OK
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/FilesSystem
- Right click any blank space on the right side and select New/Binary Value.
- Type in 'NameNumericTail Followed by enter'
- Double click the new entry and enter 0 as the value
Drop And Drag Your Favorites (IE 4.X)
Try this tip to help put your favorites in a specific order. Click Favorites on the Toolbar, then Organize Favorites. Click the Favorite you want to move. Hold down the left mouse button and drag it to the new location and release your mouse. Repeat this procedure often if you amass a large number of favorites.
Those Cool Letter§ (Windows 95/98/NT)
Do you ever wonder how people put those really weird symbols (§(c)§¤¡¢£¿) in their documents? You can too. Goto Start/Programs/Accessories and click on the Character Map icon. Select the Font type from the top left and look over in the bottom right for the corresponding keys you need to press to display the character. You can put random character in your documents by pressing ALT+21 or ALT+?? for any character. Just play around until you find characters you like.
De-Hassled Installation (All Windows OS's)
If you're the type of person who often formats when installing Windows, then you should make a separate partition only for your Windows system files. Make the C drive, a relatively small partition - 200 MEGS and install only Windows and perhaps a backup directory. You can install all other programs and files to another partition/drive. This way if you ever need to reinstall windows all you have to do is format c: or deltree c:, and reinstall to the C drive with little hassle. After installing replace with your backup copies of the Registry, USER.DAT, and SYSTEM.DAT files. Reboot your system, and TADA! Your system is back up with no messy transferring of files and you still have all your software settings.
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