windows_98_tricks.txt

			  WINDOWS 98 TIPS + TRICKS

		   (C) 1998 by CptSiskoX@Geocities.com


Foreword: Feel free to submit any modem tips you may have and would like
included to me at CptSiskoX@geocities.com - Good luck with the tips/tricks and
best of luck.

Please visit my web page at:
http://members.tripod.com/~ComputingX/index.html

These tips are also available for direct download from:
http://members.tripod.com/~ComputingX/tricks98.zip
Enjoy.

Additionally, I do welcome personal mail with comments about my Win98
tips/tricks, and of course I do benefit greatly from hearing the specifics
about tips and tricks you have found. Please do NOT write me asking for
specific drivers or other manufacturers' support materials -- I have none.

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for anything that happens as a result of
using this information.

Updates:

7-11-98  This File Started and Tips Added
	 Internet Address Time Saver
	 Instant System Properties
	 Easier Minimizing
	 Reboot Just Win98 [Updated 10-4-98]
	 Full vs. Windowed DOS Prompt
	 Bypass Upgrade Check
	 Add New Quick Launches
	 New Quick Launch Toolbars
	 Faster Network Settings Adjustments
	 Cascading Control Panel
	 Read News Only Using Outlook Express
	 Start Menu on the Fly
	 Rename Items in Start Menu
	 Screen Capture Win98
	 Rename Win98's Recycle Bin
	 Capture Current Window Only
	 Setup Duplicate Installations of Win98
7-28-98  Hide The Startup Group
10-4-98  Updated "Reboot Just Win98"
	 Solving Floppy Drive Problems In Win98
	 Stop Programs From Loading at Startup
	 Elementary, My Dear Watson!
	 3rd Party AutoScan
	 Always a Two-Pane Explorer
	 Search the Web Using Keywords with Internet Explorer
	 Gimme Back My Registry!
	 Win98/95/NT Easy Migration
	 Captain Sisko's Quad OS Machine
	 Win98 Logo Bug
	 Win98 CPU Info
	 IE 4.0/4.01 Easter Egg
	 Win98 Easter Egg Unleashed - Part 1
	 Win98 Easter Egg Unleashed - Part 2
	 Plus! 98 Easter Egg
	 Add a Windows Key to your keyboard
	 Update Win98 Components
12-6-98  Move "My Documents"
12-17-98 Power Management Troubleshooting
2-4-99	 Configuring Internal PC Speaker Beeps

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Internet Address Time Saver

If you right-click your taskbar, choose the "toolbars" option, and select
"Address" you will get a new item on the taskbar that allows you to type in
any URL (on the Internet, your hard drive, or a network share) and
automatically open that page or folder.
This saves the steps of having to open your web browser, then type the address
in.

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
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Instant System Properties

If you have a "Windows" keyboard with the special "Windows Key" on it, you can
hit the <WinKey>+<Pause/Break> to instantly open the System Properties dialog
box. This saves you the extra step of going to the Start Menu and opening the
Control Panel, then clicking on the System Icon.

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
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Easier Minimizing
With Windows 98 or Internet Explorer 4.x/5.x you can minimize almost any open
window by simply clicking on its depressed button in the taskbar.

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
============

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Reboot Just Win98

If you ever want to reboot just Win98, and not your whole machine, create a
shortcut and use the following text as your Target:

C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,ExitWindowsExec

This takes the place of having to go through a whole reboot of your system
when you only want to restart Windows. Holding down SHIFT while choosing to
"Restart the Computer" from the Shut Down Menu will have the same results.
[Updated 10-4-98] - Use CAUTION with this tip, it only works on some systems
and can cause data loss and other severe problems if it doesn't work on your
system. Microsoft does not officially support this feature. If you try it
and have problems, you may want to disable "Fast Shutdown" by running MSCONFIG
by clicking Start, Run, typing "MSCONFIG" and disabling it. This has been
known to help on some systems that experienced problems.
Special thanks to Ojatex@aol.com (http://members.aol.com/ojatex/laptop.htm)
for the information about disabling Fast Shutdown in Win98. Additional
thanks to AXCEL216@aol.com for supplemental information he provided regarding
this issue.

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
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Full vs. Windowed DOS Prompt

If you are working at a DOS Prompt (command line) from within Windows, you can
easily switch between full-screen and Windowed mode by simply pressing
<Alt>+<Enter> at the same time.

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
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Bypass Upgrade Check

When wanting to do a clean install of Win98 yet bypass the check for an older
version of Windows.
Boot your system from a boot diskette (Windows 95/98 startup disk, or DOS
bootable diskette). Create a file in the root directory of your boot partition
named "ntldr" (no quotes). The file can't be a zero-byte file, so edit it and
put rem on a single line with no spaces in front of it.
This should bypass the check for previous version of Windows by fooling the
system into thinking that NT is installed.

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
============

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Add New Quick Launches

It's great to be able to create additional Quick Launch icons to the quick
launch toolbar to reside next to the 4 built in defaults and it's easy to do.
1. Right click and drag an existing shortcut from the desktop to the area
next to the start button and release it, or, using Explorer, right click and
drag the icon for a program file (exe) in the same manner and release.
2. Select create shortcut here.
3. If you are always looking for "My Computer" to explore or check something,
it's a good choice to drag on down to the quick launch bar for instant access
at any time.

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
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New Quick Launch Toolbars

Drag any folder or any item from the desktop (e.g. My Computer, Recycle Bin,
Network Neighborhood, Control Panel icon etc.) to the edge of the screen and
release. You get a Single Click Quick Launch Toolbar with all the icons inside
it.

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
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Faster Network Settings Adjustments

Instead of going through Start, Settings, Control Panel, Network, you can
shorten the keystroke by right-clicking on Network Neighborhood and selecting
Properties.

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
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Cascading Control Panel

To cascade the Control Panel applets off your Start Menu:
1. Right-click on the Start button and select Open.
2. Create a new folder and call it
Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
Don't forget the period in the folder name!

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
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Read News Only Using Outlook Express

If you start Outlook Express (msimn.exe) using the /outnews switch, it will
act as a newsreader only. A handy way is to create a shortcut that points to:

msimn.exe /outnews

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
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Start Menu on the Fly

You can right click on any item in the start menu and move it, copy it, delete
it, and even change its properties. The only thing you can't do is rename it.

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
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Rename Items in Start Menu

This is directly related to the last tip. If you right click on an item in the
start menu/toolbar, there is no 'rename' option. To rename an item:
1. Left-click drag the item in question to the desktop.
2. Rename the new item on the desktop whatever you want.
3. Right-click drag the newly-renamed item back to its previous location and
choose 'Move here'.

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
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Screen Capture Win98

You don't need a fancy graphics program to get a screenshot of what's on your
computer. If you are in any windows based program, just hit the print screen
key on your keyboard and you have a full screenshot. Paste it into Paint or
any other Windows based graphics program.

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
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Rename Win98's Recycle Bin

To add the rename option to the right-click menu for the Recycle Bin create a
new text file and add the following:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=hex:50,01,00,20

Rename the file extension to .reg rather then text then run the file and it
will add the above registry key.
Right click on the Recycle Bin and Rename it.

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
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Capture Current Window Only

Hightlight one window on the desktop and hit Print Screen while holding down
the ALT key and it captures only that one window to the clipboard instead of
the entire desktop.

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
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Setup Duplicate Installations of Win98
When installing Win98 will generate a SETUPLOG file in the root of your boot
partition (C:\). This file can then be used to set up identical machines in
batch mode using the SETUPLOG as an input file.

CptSiskoX@geocities.com
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Hide The Startup Group

This tip appears courtesty of Matt Foster (mattfoster@clara.net).

Matt writes:
"Hi, I found your Windows 98 Tips and Tricks file really useful, and I thought
that you might be interested to know my tip. I never use the StartUp folder,
but Win98 won't allow it to be deleted, so by right clicking it and selecting
properties I changed its attributes to hidden, and stopped it being displayed,
however, this doesn't stop any programs in it from being run.
I hope you find this useful."

Matt Foster (mattfoster@clara.net)

Note from CptSiskoX@geocities.com: You must have Windows Explorer configured
NOT to show hidden and system files for this to hide the Startup Group from
your Programs Menu off of the Start button.
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Solving Floppy Drive Problems In Win98

Several people have reported floppy drive problems since upgrading to or
installing Windows 98, even when the floppy drives worked perfectly under
Windows 95 or previous versions of Windows and MS-DOS. This tip might help if
you are having problems.

Right click on My Computer on the desktop. Click on Properties, then
Performance. Then click on File System. Click on Floppy Disk and if there is a
check in "Search for New Floppy Drives Each Time Your Computer Starts" remove
it. Then click on Removable Disk and make sure write-back caching is not
checked. This may also help with Zip Drives and other removable media such as
tape backup, Jazz, and other non-hard drives and CD-ROM/DVD drives.

CptSiskoX@Geocities.com
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Stop Programs From Loading at Startup

Everyone at one time or another, has probably installed a program that insists
on loading itself on startup, even if it isn't in the Startup group. This
could be due to it loading from WIN.INI or the Windows registry. A good way to
stop specific programs from loading is to use The System Configuration Utility
(MSCONFIG). To run it, click Start, Run, type in "MSCONFIG" (no quotes) and
press ENTER. When it comes up, click on "Startup" and check or uncheck items
you want to load or not to load. This is very useful if you have a program or
programs that you only want to run sometimes or not at all. Then you can
almost always load the program from the Start Menu anyway, or simply re-enable
it to load on Startup again at any time if you change your mind.

CptSiskoX@Geocities.com
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Elementary, My Dear Watson!

If you frequently get illegal operation or invalid page fault error messages
in Windows 98, there is a great utility that Microsoft included which you can
use to troubleshoot, find the cause of, and correct those errors to prevent
yourself from getting them again. It also logs all errors so you can report
them to Microsoft or your software program's vendor so that they can fix the
problem. To start this program:

Click Start, Run.
Type "DrWatson" and press ENTER.
An icon for Dr. Watson will appear on your taskbar tray.
Double click it. From here on you can view de