WINDOWS Magazine. 2,501 Tips. The content of this file is Copyright © 1997 CMP Media Inc. and is the property of CMP Media, Inc. This material is not freeware or shareware. It may not be resold for compensation of any kind or redistributed in print or electronically or by any other means without prior written permission from CMP Media, Inc. If you have any questions about these terms, or would like information about licensing materials from Windows Magazine, please contact: psilverm@cmp.com, or write to: Paul Silverman Attn: TIPS (REQUIRED) WINDOWS Magazine One Jericho Plaza, 3rd Floor Jericho, NY 11753 MS-DOS Prompt Folder Finder Type the command START followed by a period (.) at the MS-DOS Prompt to open the current folder. Type command START followed by two periods (..) to open the parent directory (if there is one) of the directory that you are currently in. Down and Dirty DOS DOS applications and games can be exremely finicky about system configuration and drivers. Get around this by giving each of your DOS programs a custom setup. First create a shortcut for your programs, then right-click on the shortcut and bring up Properties. Click on the Program tab, then the Advanced button. Click on MS-DOS Mode, then the "Specify a new MS-DOS configuration" radio button. Now type in whatever AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS commands your DOS program needs. Note that you can launch batch files from the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. DOS Is Boss Unlike Windows 3.x, Win95 launches the GUI automatically. But you can shut it off and go straight to DOS each time you start Win95 by editing a file called MSDOS.SYS. Launch Notepad, open the file C:\MSDOS.SYS, find the entry BootGUI=1 and change the 1 to a 0. Exit, save the file and reboot. Quick Launch Launch any Windows program from the MS-DOS Prompt command line. The directories containing the programs you want to launch should be in your PATH statement. Make sure they are, then type in the name of the program's EXE file and press Enter. Use Long Filenames in DOS Launching Win95 programs or folders with long filenames from the MS-DOS command prompt doesn't seem to work. The trick is to enclose the file or folder name in quotation marks. For example, to open a folder called My Favorite Folder from the command prompt, type Start "My Favorite Folder" and press the Enter key. Don't worry about capitalization. The command prompt is not case sensitive. Tell DOS Who's Boss Batch files in Win95 leave an embarrassing DOS residue behind: the open DOS Prompt window. To close it, create a shortcut to the batch file, right-click on the shortcut to bring up the Properties dialog, select the Program tab and click on the Close on Exit item at the bottom. The Path Is Clear Win95 folder windows show you by default only the name of the folder in the title bar. If you'd like the whole DOS pathname, then open a folder window or the Explorer, select Options from the View menu, click on the View tab and select "Display the full MS-DOS path in the title bar." Auto-Launch DOS If you're a fan of the MS-DOS Prompt, then make sure it's always readily available. Right-click on the Start button and select Open. Double-click on the Programs icon, then drag the MS-DOS Prompt shortcut and drop it on the StartUp icon. Now, double-click on the StartUp icon, right-click on the MS-DOS Prompt shortcut and select Properties. Select Minimized from the Run drop-down box. Finally, click once in the Shortcut Key box and type in the hotkey of your choice (say, Ctrl+D). From now on, the MS-DOS Prompt will launch at startup, but minimized. Whenever you want to enter a quick command, just press your shortcut key and it'll come right up. Make DOS Apps Ask for Input You can run a DOS program from a Windows 95 shortcut even if it requires variable parameters each time it's run. Create a shortcut for the DOS program, and then right-click on the shortcut and pick Properties from the context menu. Click on the Program tab and add a question mark to the end of the path in the "Cmd line" field. When you run the program from the shortcut, it will open a parameter window where you can type the variable information. The Perfect Power Prompt Graphical computing is better than working from a command prompt. But you can still have the command line in Windows 95 and the graphical interface. Right-click on the Start button and select Open. Double-click on the Programs folder and then the StartUp folder. Right-click anywhere in the window, select New/Shortcut, and a wizard will open up. Click on the Browse button, navigate to the Windows directory and double-click on the file DOSPRMPT. Finish the wizard, launch the DOS Prompt and place the command line window where you want it on the desktop. The next time you start Windows, it'll open in the same location. DOS Vanishing Act If you have a program or batch file that you don't want lingering on your desktop after it runs, then tell it to go away. Just create a shortcut to the program, right-click on the shortcut and select Properties. Click on the Program tab and select "Close on Exit." Drag-and-DOS I Here's a shortcut for typing in a long path to a DOS program. From Explorer, a folder or the Desktop, drag any file and drop it into the MS-DOS Prompt window. The path and the filename will appear on the command line. Drag-and-DOS II Copy or cut information from a Windows application and paste it into a DOS application or the MS-DOS Prompt command line. After copying or cutting the information, right-click on the MS-DOS Prompt title bar and select Edit/Paste from the context menu. Drag-and-DOS III A quicker way to paste into the MS-DOS Prompt is to click on the Paste button, which is the third button from the left. If the toolbar doesn't appear in the MS-DOS Prompt window, right-click on the title bar and select Toolbar from the context menu. Drag-and-DOS IV To copy data from the MS-DOS Prompt, right-click on the title bar and select Edit/Mark. In the MS-DOS Prompt window, highlight the area that you want to copy by pressing and holding the left mouse button and dragging across the data. Press Enter and you're ready to paste the information. Drag-and-DOS V Here's another way to copy data from the MS-DOS Prompt. Click on the Mark button on the MS-DOS Prompt toolbar, highlight the area you want to copy by dragging the cursor, then click on the Copy button. Make DOS Cooperate Create a shortcut for a DOS program by right-clicking on the shortcut icon and selecting Properties. Select the Program tab, click on the Advanced button and select the MS-DOS mode check box. Windows 95 will run the application in real DOS, quitting all current Windows and DOS-box applications. Windows will automatically restart when you exit the DOS application. DOS, Behind-the-Scenes Click on the toolbar's Background button to set a DOS window to run in background. You can then open a second MS-DOS Prompt and execute commands while the other DOS app keeps running. A Period Piece DOS veterans know that typing two periods after the Change Directory command (CD ..) brings you to the parent directory of the current directory. The Win95 MS-DOS Prompt improves on this quick command by letting you use three, four or more periods to move you further up the directory chain-to the grandparent directory and the great-grandparent. New DOS DIR Type the DIR command in an MS-Prompt window to see a new variation on an old theme. In addition to the standard DOS 8.3 filenames displayed on the left, the Windows 95 long filenames are displayed on the right. Dress Up DOS Set the size of the type that appears in the DOS window from the MS-DOS Prompt Properties dialog. Click on the Font tab and choose a set of font dimensions from the scrolling window. When you select one, the preview window shows what it will look like. You set the font size for individual MS-DOS Prompt windows, so if you have two or more running, they can use different type sizes. Fun, 32-Bit Style Game users, listen up! For maximum DOS memory in an MS-DOS session, add the line LocalLoadHigh=1 to the [386Enh] section of SYSTEM.INI. Players of Duke Nukem 3D and Quake-or anyone who plays a game that uses 32-bit DOS extender software-will reap the benefit of that much more memory. Exchange Client Fastest E-Mail Sometimes you need to dash off a quick e-mail message, but you don't want to load the whole bloated Exchange program. Here's how to open only a Create Message window: Make a shortcut on your Desktop (or wherever you want it) and type in the path to the file EXCHNG32.EXE, followed by a space and /n (the /n should follow the trailing quotes in the space in the dialog box). Give the shortcut a name. (Note that the message won't actually be sent until you launch Exchange.) Order, Order Right-click on the column bar of your choice in the Exchange Inbox to get a menu giving you the option to sort one way or the other. For example, if you right-click on the Received column bar, you'll get a menu for sorting in ascending or descending order. Get a Sneak Peek If you'd like to take a sneak peek at your messages before you open them, select Columns from the View menu, choose Item Text from the list on the left and click on the Add button and then on OK. (You can try various alternatives in the Columns dialog box for column width and placement.) This will give you as much of the first line of the message as can fit in the space allotted. Famous Disappearing Columns Increase the size allocated to the text column by changing the size of the columns in your Exchange window. Move your cursor over the border of the column (in the header field at the top of the window) and drag the border to any position you like. Get Personal Right-click functionality is useful for a number of operations in Exchange. For example, here's a quick way to add addresses to your Personal Address Book. When you open any message from a person whose address you'd like to save, right-click on the address in the From: field and select "Add to personal address book." (Not So) Quick Fix Up You should run the Inbox Repair Tool once in a while to prevent lockups and problems in the future. The file looks for errors in the document that stores all of your Inbox messages. It's on your Start menu (Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools) or you can find it by launching the Find utility and searching for SCANPST.EXE. Warning: If you've got multiple megabytes of messages, it will take a long time to scan and repair them. Remote Ideas If you access your mail while on the road, use Exchange's Remote features. To activate your Remote Mail client, go to the Tools menu and click on Options. Highlight Microsoft Mail and click on Properties. Then click on the Remote Configuration tab. Check boxes allow you to select whether to use Remote Mail or not, and whether to use a local copy of the address book or not. Avoid (Not So) Quick Fix Ups Keep your PST file small. Prune it ruthlessly of messages that you don't need. One fertile field for file removal is the Sent Items folder, which can get huge while you're not watching. If you need to save files but want your PST file smaller, save messages to local storage in a folder called something like Saved Messages, and delete them from your Exchange window. That will save the message as a text file, so you'll lose the fancy formatting that Exchange supports, but you'll have all the information you need. To Local or Not Using a local address book can be a lot faster than using a networked address book over a dial-up connection. Click on the local address book option under Remote Configuration, and Exchange will set up a local address book for you. When you connect to your mail server, be sure to check the "Download address lists" box so you'll get a local copy of your addresses. Local Message Store Woes While a local address book is probably a good deal, a local PST file is a must. Many people have very large PST files that contain all their saved messages. If you are using a remote PST file at the other end of your Dial-up Networking connection, be prepared to wait many minutes to download your PST file from your mail server. A local PST file saves that time and aggravation. To set one up, select Tools/Options. Click on Add and then on Personal Folders. You'll get an Open File dialog, which you navigate to enter the name of the local PST file you want. Customize Your Exchange Tools Like many Windows 95 applications, Exchange lets you customize the toolbars so the functions you use a lot are always available at the touch of a button. Go to Tools/Customize Toolbar. A dialog box pops up with many choices for tool buttons. Highlight a button in the left-hand pane, select a location in the right-hand pane and click on Add. Musical Folders If you used Exchange remotely without using Remote Mail, you downloaded your mail to the Remote client and erased it from the mail server. If you need those messages that are now found only on your remote machine, copy your PST file on the remote machine to a floppy disk and take it with you to the office. Open the Exchange client at the office, click on Tools/Services and click on Add. Choose Personal Folders and browse to the copy of the remote PST file that you brought to work with you. It's faster if you copy that file to your hard disk somewhere (the Desktop is simplest). When you go back to the Exchange window, you'll see two icons in the left-hand pane for Personal Folders. One will be the original one set up on your office computer, the other will be the copy of the PST file from home. Move messages from one to the other as you choose. Move Those Messages You can move messages from your Inbox to another folder two ways. Dragging and dropping is often easiest: Grab the message icon and drop it on the folder you want it in. If you're not into dragging, use the File/Move command, click on the folder to which you want to move the message and click on OK. To save only attachments to a message, select File/Save As. You'll get a dialog box that lets you choose to save the entire message, select attachments to save, and select the location to which you will save the attachments. Networking Get Fast Access to Network Resources Browsing the Network Neighborhood can be extremely time-consuming. You can save time by typing in the UNC (Universal Naming Convention) of the device that you're trying to use, if you know it. Do so from the Start/Run command line. The syntax for the Universal Naming Convention is \\servername\share. If you know only the server name, type \\servername and all of the server's shared resources will be shown in a folder. Bypass the Password You can bypass the Windows NT log-on prompt and automatically be logged into Win95 and the NT domain. But do so with caution-you could leave your PC and network resources open to anyone who boots your computer! To have Windows 95 cache your passwords, open the Control Panel and double-click on the Network icon. Change the "Primary network logon" to "Windows logon." Click on OK, but don't reboot when prompted. Click on the Passwords icon and then on the "Change Windows password" button. At the next screen, click on the OK button, but don't check off the "Microsoft networking" button. Type in your old password, but don't type anything for your new and confirmed password. Restart the computer. When prompted for the domain log-on password, be sure to check off "Save this password in your password list." The next time you reboot the computer, you won't be prompted for a password. Troubleshoot IP Connections Use the Ping utility included with Win95 to determine the status of devices you're trying to access. From the DOS command line, test to make sure you can ping yourself. If you don't know your IP address, you can get it by typing WINIPCFG in the Run dialog box in the Start menu. Explore Neighborhood Properties Hold down the Alt key and double-click on the Network Neighborhood icon on your Desktop, or on the icons within Network Neighborhood if you want to quickly access the Properties dialog boxes. NetWare Likes Long Filenames Take complete advantage of long filenames on NetWare servers by loading the OS/2 name space support on the NetWare server. First you need to load the name space NLM at the server console by typing load OS2. Then type add name space OS2 to SYS. SYS can be replaced with any other volume name you wish, but the OS2 name space NLM only needs to be loaded once. It's also a good idea to get the latest OS2 name space file and place it on the server's local DOS partition. Then add Load c:\directoryname\OS2.NAM to the server's startup.ncf file. Type Regedit at the Start/Run command line and open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\NWREDIR. From the menu, choose Edit/New, then Binary Value. Name the binary value you just created SupportLFN and press Enter. Go to the Edit menu again and choose Modify, then enter 02 next to the existing 0000. Exit the Registry and reboot for the change to take effect. How Do I Get There? If you're curious about how many routers you pass before you finally reach a destination Web site or other TCP/IP host, run the Trace Route utility included with Win95 TCP/IP Networking. It's interesting to see how many hops (router crossings) it takes to get to a site on the opposite coast or elsewhere. But Tracert.exe is useful for other things as well. It's a helpful tool for determining slow links and Web sites that might be down. Type tracert from the DOS command line. Trash the Network Neigborhood If you're a standalone user connected to an ISP, Network Neighborhood is unnecessarily using up real estate on the Desktop. Hide the Network Neighborhood by using the Policy Editor, which you can install through Control Panel. Go to Add/Remove Programs and choose the Win95 Setup tab, then "Have disk." Policy Editor is located at D:\admin\apptools\poledit (where d: is the CD-ROM drive). Once you've installed it, select File/Open Registry and double-click on Local User. Navigate through the folders and open Local User/Shell Restrictions. Click on the "Hide Network Neighborhood" selection, so that it's checked off. Click OK and Save. Reboot for the change to take effect. Who's Sharing? Find out who's using your shared resources with the NetWatcher utility in Windows 95. You can monitor who's using your network resources, disconnect a user, and add new shares or stop existing shares. You can also create hidden shares by placing a $ as the last character in the share name. Hidden shares can only be accessed if a user knows the entire UNC name for the hidden share. Go Directly to a Directory You can create shortcuts to network folders and directories by dragging and dropping them onto your Desktop. When you attempt to access a directory shortcut that you haven't logged into already, Win95 will prompt you for a log on and password. Browse the Network Neighborhood Fast! To move quickly through Network Neighborhood, hold down the Ctrl key and double-click on the icons in Network Neighborhood. Synchronized Network Time-All the Time From the DOS command line, type NET TIME [\\computername | /DOMAIN[:domainname]] [/SET] to synchronize Win95 to a specified server's time. Automate time synchronization with a server or workstation by creating a batch file and placing the Net Time command inside it. Then place the batch file in the StartUp folder. For example, open Notepad and enter NET TIME \\MARK'SCOMPUTER. Save the file as SYNCTIME.BAT. When you turn your computer on each morning, the command in the batch file will be executed. Receive NetWare Broadcasts Place WinPOPUP.EXE in your StartUp folder so broadcasts from Netware servers and users will be displayed in Win95. Dial-Up Networking Turn Win95 into a Remote Access Server One of the many features included with Microsoft Plus is a Dial-Up Server option. After installing Plus you can enable Dial-Up Server by opening the Dial-Up Network icon, clicking on Connections and choosing Dial-Up Server. Next, set up shares, set your security under Win95 and dial into your own computer. Run and Dial-Up Access a Dial-Up configuration from the Run command line by typing rundll32. exe rnaui.dll,RnaDial can be replaced with a number that represents the number of minutes before the modem time-out. tips from the top Breeze Through Your Routine Tasks By Mike Elgan Editor Explorer Columnist Speed Up Boot-up Win95 pauses for about two seconds during boot-up to give you the opportunity to press a start-up key such as F8. You can remove the pause and make boot-up faster. First, right-click on the MSDOS.SYS file and select Properties. Make sure the read-only attribute is unchecked. Now, open MSDOS.SYS in Notepad and add the entry BootDelay=0 to the [Options] section. When you're through, re-check read-only, for safety's sake. Hot, Hot, Hotkeys Assign hotkeys to your most frequently used programs. Right-click on each program and select Properties. Click on the Shortcut tab and once in the Shortcut Key field. Type in the hotkey combination you want to assign, then click on OK. Assigning a hotkey this way will allow you to switch to the program if it's already running on your Desktop. Fun with Find You can search more than one drive at a time using an undocumented feature of Find by separating the drive names with a semicolon. For example, if you want to search your A:, C: and D: drives, type A:;C:;D: in the Look In box. Hotkey Secret A shortcut's hotkey combination will launch a program only if it's on the Start menu or the Desktop. Quick! Put It on a Diskette! The quickest way to put a file or folder on a diskette is to right-click on it, select Send To from the context menu and choose 31/2 Floppy (A). Quick-Close Trick If you give Win95 the ol' three finger salute (Ctrl+Alt+Del) you'll get the Close Program dialog, which gives you the option to close running applications one at a time. Task Manager, a holdover from Windows 3.x, lets you close any number of running applications-or all of them-at once. To launch Task Manager, select Start/Run and type TASKMAN and press Enter. From the resulting Task dialog, press and hold the Ctrl key, click on each of the programs you'd like to close and select Windows/End Task. To close all your running applications, press and hold the Shift key, click on the first application, then the last and select Windows/End Task. Save your findings If you find yourself searching the same folder or for the same kind of file (say, a Word document), save your search for future use. After you conduct a search, select File/Save Search. It'll place an icon on your Desktop, which, when launched, will bring up Find with all the parameters preset. Find's wildcard The Win95 Find utility sports some unique-and undocumented-wildcard capabilities you can use in the Find dialog's Named box. For example, use a question mark to replace each unknown letter or number in a filename. Each question mark must replace exactly one unknown character, so you have to know how many characters are in the filename. Each asterisk, on the other hand, can replace any number of unknown characters. You can use combinations of question marks and asterisks to refine your search. search drives Search your floppy, hard and mapped network drives simultaneously by selecting My Computer in Find's Look In box. Here's a Tip Tip Find the ultimate collection of Win95 tips at http:www.winmag.com/win95/m1.htm. Here you'll see the Win95 Tip of the Day. Below that, you'll find every tip we've ever published in WinTips, plus all the tips printed in this issue. tips from the top Get a Handle On Win95's Registry By John Woram Senior Contributing Editor Optimizing Windows Columnist Ignore These Tips Before you try any of these tips, make sure you back up your Registry. All Registry edits are effective immediately, and there's no such thing as an unedit option. Due to the obvious space limitations, not much explanation is given here about basic Registry editing techniques. Therefore, if you're not already comfortable with the Registry Editor, don't try to learn how it works by reading here. Instead, read the final tip in this section and then go on to some of the other tips in this issue. Create a Registry Registry If you've decided to ignore the previous tips, create a C:\Registry folder and then write a Desktop shortcut to the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE). Open its Properties sheet and edit the Shortcut tab as follows:Start in: C:\RegistryShortcut key: Ctrl + Alt + R (or similar, if desired) The C:\Registry folder becomes a convenient central location for Registry files, and the Editor will now look there whenever you select the Import or Export option (see below). The Emergency (No-)Recovery Utility According to the ERU.TXT file that accompanies the Emergency Recovery Utility, "... the recommended [backup] location is a bootable floppy in drive A." But it doesn't point out that no diskette can possibly store all the files you need to save. To find out why, run the utility (ERU.EXE) and click on the custom button to display a list of files that will be backed up. In most cases, the critical SYSTEM.DAT file will be unchecked, because there's not enough room on the diskette for it. But you won't know this unless you remember to check the list. You may prefer to back up all the files to a folder on drive C:, then copy them to two diskettes. Or, for subsequent Registry recovery only, back up just the SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT files. When in Doubt, Copy First Before you edit a complex Data entry, create a duplicate entry for reference purposes. Double-click on any entry in the Name column, press Ctrl+C to copy the highlighted contents of the Value data box and click on the OK button. Then create a new value of the same type (string, binary or dword) and press Ctrl+V to paste the copied data into its Value data box. Now edit the original value as desired and, if the edit doesn't work out, reverse the procedure to restore the original value. When you're done, don't forget to delete the duplicate entry. Get into the Import/Export Business Before you edit a Registry key, highlight it and select Registry/Export Registry File. Enter a distinctive name in the File Name box and click on the Save button to copy that key into the C:\Registry (or other) folder. Now edit the key as desired. If the edit doesn't work, delete the edited key and import the original version back into the Registry. Note that Export really means Copy to a file, and Import means Paste from a file. Unsure About a Subkey? Kill it One sure way to learn what a Registry subkey does is to delete it and note the effect of its absence. But first, export the subkey so that you can make a graceful recovery once you discover the missing data was really important. As an experiment, look at any object's context menu, before and after you delete the appropriate ContextMenuHandlers subkey. Once you've noted the missing options, import the key back into the Registry to restore them. Having Trouble? Get Real Don't forget the Registry Editor has a Real mode too. If you can't resolve an editing misadventure or other problem while the Windows GUI is running, reboot or restart in MS-DOS mode and type REGEDIT /? at the command prompt to review the available command-line options. For example, REGEDIT filename.REG will import filename.REG into the existing Registry. As for the /C switch, be careful-REGEDIT /C filename.REG replaces the entire Registry with the contents of the filename.REG file. Take Out Uninstall Insurance If a well-behaved Win95 app's setup procedure modifies the Registry, that app will remove all traces of itself from the Registry when it's subsequently uninstalled. So much for theory. In practice, little Registry droppings are sometimes left behind, and although they may do no harm, they don't do much good either. Before you install any questionable new app, copy the SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT files into the C:\Registry folder, and rename both with a .000 extension. Next time, use a .001 extension, and so on. Maintain a README.TXT file in the same folder with a brief description of each file set. If you run into trouble, uninstall the problem application, rename the last-known good file set and copy it back into the C:\Windows folder. This removes all doubt about the Registry's post-uninstall condition. Read a Good Book Had enough? If not, head for your nearest bookstore and pick up a copy of my new book, The Windows 95 Registry: A Survival Guide for Users, from which most of these tips were swiped. Learn Your IP Address Find out a computer's IP address by running Winipcfg from the Start/Run command line. In some cases, a network administrator has set up a pool of IP addresses called DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) under Windows NT Server. A workstation requests an IP address from a DHCP server and "leases" the IP address for a duration set by the network administrator. A common problem occurs when the DHCP server is moved to a different subnet and workstations on the network continue to look for the DHCP server at the old IP address. If the computer is not receiving an IP address from the DHCP server, run the Winipcfg utility to determine if the IP address of the DHCP server is correct. Click on the More Info button for details on where Win95 is looking for the DHCP server. If the DHCP server address is wrong, choose Release and then Renew. The IP address should now be updated with a new lease. Windows 95/Miscellaneous Fast Network Properties Most people get at their Network Properties by launching Control Panel, then double-clicking on the Network icon. There's a faster way: Right-click on the Network Neighborhood icon and select Properties. Find Your Path, Part I By default, Windows 95 hides from you the paths of files and folders. If you want the full paths spelled out on your window title bars (the colored area at the top of all open file and folder windows), double-click on My Computer, select View/Options, click on the View tab and select "Display the full MS-DOS path in the title bar." Find Your Path, Part II Here's another trick for finding out the path of a file: Launch the Run command dialog (Start/Run), clear the Open box by hitting the Backspace key, and then drag and drop the file of your choice into the Open box. Windows will type the full path of the file into the box. Enlarge Your Pointers It's easy to miss Win95's pointer schemes. But if you want bigger pointers and cursors, here's the easiest way to get them. Just double-click on the Mouse item in the Control Panel, click on the Pointers tab, then click on the drop-down Scheme menu. Choose from 3-D, Animated Hourglasses, Large and Extra Large pointer schemes. Send To 'SEND TO' If you use the Send To menu a lot, put a shortcut to the SendTo folder into the SendTo folder. Whenever you want to put a Send To destination on your context menu, just use the Send To function. Take the Right Cab If you need a fresh copy of a Win95 file, you'll find it in one of the CAB files. But which one? To find out, open Explorer and select the Win95 folder on the CD-ROM. Now open the Tools menu, select Find\Files or Folders and type *.CAB in the Named box on the Name & Location tab. Now click on the Advanced tab, type the name of the file you want in the Containing Text box and click on the Find Now button. Free Tips Delivered! Get a free daily Windows tip delivered right to you via e-mail. Just send a message to our automated listserv at listserv@winlist.winmag.com and type the following: SUBSCRIBE TIPS . Don't use punctuation or put anything into the subject field. Use Your ClipBook There's a free utility that comes with Windows 95 called ClipBook. It lets you store items from the Clipboard and share them across the network. You can view text, graphics or anything else that can be copied to the Clipboard in thumbnail view-and you can copy as many items as you like. To install it, open the OTHER folder on the Win95 CD, then drag the CLIPBOOK folder from the CD to your C: drive. Open the new folder, drag the file CLIPBRD.EXE and drop it on your Start menu. Find Files Faster Use Win95's Find utility to search for several files at once. Type in as many filenames as you like in Find's Named box, each separated by a space. Neither Rain Nor Sleet ... If you find yourself checking often for new messages in Exchange, put a button on your toolbar that sends and receives mail when clicked. Double-click on the toolbar to bring up the Customize Toolbar dialog. Scroll down in the left window until you find the Tools - Deliver Now button and double-click on it to move it to the right window, which indicates it's been included on the toolbar. Now double-click on the button in the right window and use Move Up or Move Down to place the new button where you want it on your toolbar. When you're done, click on Close. Edit Docs Menu The items on your Documents menu (Start/Documents) are really just shortcuts in your C:\WINDOWS\RECENT folder. You can selectively delete items there by opening the folder and deleting the shortcuts you don't want. Tell Docs Where to Go A well-behaved Windows 95 application lets you pick the folder your documents are dumped into by default. You can do the same thing for all other documents as well. Just give each application a shortcut, right-click on the shortcut and select Properties from the context menu. Select the Shortcut tab and type in the path to the folder of your choice in the Start In box. Take Inventory Chances are, you have useful programs on your computer you didn't even know were there. And just as likely, you have programs you don't want that are eating up valuable hard disk real estate. The solution? Take an inventory! It's easy. Just create a folder on your desktop called PROGRAM SHORTCUTS, launch the Win95 Find utility (Start/Find/Files or Folders), type *.EXE *.COM in the Named box, then click on the Find Now button. After Find is finished with the search, choose Select All from the Edit menu and drag and drop all the files in the Find window into your new desktop folder. Now you have a folder with shortcuts to every program on your Windows PC. (Before proceeding, make sure you have a good backup.) Now, one at a time, double-click on each shortcut to find out what it is. Once it's identified, you can find and delete the program if you don't want it or move the shortcut to another folder if you do. Remember, if you're not absolutely sure, don't delete it. Open Dialog Right-click on the command line of any dialog box and you'll get a handy context menu with options to Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete and Select All. Faster than E-mail Here's how to set up a convenient routing system for documents in a small workgroup. Each person in the workgroup should do the following: 1) Create a folder on your desktop and label it "IN" 2) right-click on the IN folder and select Properties, then the Sharing tab. Click on the "Shared As" radio button and put your own name in the "Share Name" box, then click OK. 3) After all in the group have completed step two, open the Network Neighborhood, find all the "IN" folders your co-workers shared, and create shortcuts to each of them in your C:\WINDOWS\SENDTO folder (use the right mouse button to drag and drop them from Network Neighborhood and select "Create shortcut here" from the context menu). Now, whenever you want to send a document to a member of your workgroup, just right-click on it, select Send To, then the name of the person. April Fools' Tip Download Glitch from our Web site (http://www.winmag.com/win95/software.htm) and install it on the machine of an unsuspecting victim. Glitch displays realistic but hilarious error messages that will drive victims crazy. (Warning: Installing this on the wrong machine can be hazardous to your career!) Faster Keyboard You can determine how fast your keyboard repeats characters and moves the cursor in a document by launching the Keyboard item in Control Panel, then experimenting with the speed settings on the Speed tab. Fast Find Sometimes simple tricks are the most useful. If you want to search for a file and you know roughly where it is, just right-click on the folder it's in and select Find from the Context menu. Find will search the folder and all the subfolders within, based on the search criteria you specify. Tune-Up with Wintune! If you've been reading WINDOWS Magazine for a while, you're probably familiar with our incredibly popular free Wintune test and tune-up utility. Well, it just got better. The new version is now available at our Web site and at our online areas on America Online (keyword WinMag) and CompuServe (GO WINMAG). Good Things in Small Packages Are those icons that are cluttering your desktop getting you down? Bring them down to size and give yourself more room. Right-click on the Desktop and select Properties. Click on the Appearance tab, then the Icon drop-down menu. Select Icon, then pick a size of 16 (the default is 32). Click on OK. (This works best if you make the words under the icons as short as possible). Know Your Computer Windows 95 comes with a utility called MS-Info that tells you more about your computer than you'll ever want to know. It lists detailed information on all your DLLs, drivers, fonts, memory, hardware and much more. Just launch the Find utility (Start/Find/Files or Folders) and search for the executable: MSINFO32.EXE. NT Power Toys Some Power Toys previously mentioned in WinTips are now supporting Windows NT 4.0. These include Find X 1.2, Send To X 1.4, Shortcut Target Menu 1.2, Tweak UI 1.1 and Explore From Here as well as Command Prompt Here 1.1. 'Web' Your Schedule Internet Assistant for Microsoft Schedule+ lets you save your schedule as an HTML document you can publish on your company intranet or on the Internet. You choose which information is available or hidden. Download the software free from WinMag's Web site at http://www.winmag.com/win95/software.htm. Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Here's a utility for you news junkies who have constant Internet connections. MSNBC News Alert, which is available free from the WinMag Web site, polls the MSNBC news site as often as you wish, looking for news items with your keywords. When it finds matching stories, it alerts you immediately. Cool CoolSwitch Tip The most recently "CoolSwitched" application is always the first choice. That means that by selecting via Alt+Tab item A, then item B, you can toggle between them regardless of how many applications or folders you have open by repeatedly pressing Alt+Tab and letting go. Remove Read-Only We've run tips in the past that involved editing the MSDOS.SYS file. Some readers sent mail saying the file is "read-only" so they couldn't edit it. Here's how to remove the read-only and other attributes of MSDOS.SYS. Open Explorer, select View/Options and click on the View tab. Select "Show All Files" and then OK. Now, use Find to search for the MSDOS.SYS file. When you find it, right-click on it and select Properties from the Context menu. When the Properties dialog appears, remove all the check marks in the Attributes section at the bottom. Then use the instructions above to "Hide these types of files." Cheap Microphone Instead of buying a microphone for your PC, you can use any available "Sony Walkman" style headphones instead. Just plug them into your sound card's microphone plug, and talk into the speakers. ********************************************** Copyright © 1997 CMP Media Inc. WINDOWS Magazine (ISSN 1060-1066) is published monthly with two bonus issues a year for $24.94 per year by CMP Media Inc., 600 Community Drive, Manhasset, NY 11030. Periodicals postage paid at Manhasset, NY, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WINDOWS Magazine, P.O. Box 420215, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0215. Registered for GST as CMP Media Inc. GST# 131288078, Agreement Number 0225932. BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID CMP Media Inc.