... Windows Tips 'n Tricks 15 ...
As he teaches, so he learns.

The shut down screen is saved as a file called LOGOW.SYS in the Windows folder. Your paint program can open it up. The picture is actually 320 x 400 and Windows stretches it. To create your own display, make a picture that is 640 x 480. When you're done, set its size for 320 x 400 and save it as LOGOW.SYS in the Windows folder. Be sure that the picture uses no more than 256 colors.

Don't feel right about clicking Start to shut down your system? With the focus on your desktop (click a blank area once to be sure), press Alt-F4. It's the same as selecting Start, Shut Down.

(Note: If the focus is on an open window or application, pressing Alt-F4 will close that window.)

Web View means that you'll never have to double-click a file again to open it. Roll your mouse over a file to highlight it, and click once to open. How to achieve it?

Open My Computer, click View/Folder Options/ and check the "Web style" button. Click OK. Now all your entries look like links and can be treated as such.

Reformatting a PC every time something goes wrong is about as foolish as rebuilding an automobile engine every time the car runs out of gas. "Reformat & Rebuild" is the sledgehammer approach to fixing a system, and not infrequently results in as many problems as it fixes.

Help Desk technicians are human (I think), and many of them would prefer to be sitting around the lunchroom rather than helping you figure out what's really wrong with your computer--so they jump on this "reformat/rebuild" solution just to get you out of their hair. Even well-intentioned friends who remain baffled by your computer woes may suggest this drastic step; but unless you enjoy the tedium of backing up all your user files, reformatting your hard drive, reinstalling the OS and all your applications and utilities, then updating all your drivers and plugins and restoring the user files to their proper locations, and trying to remember all your option/preference settings so the GUI's look and "feel" the same way they did before--only to discover you've forgotten a bunch of stuff you'll never be able to recover or reconstruct...you should consider reformatting an absolute last resort.

If your PC is "acting slow" it's almost certainly because your memory resources are being eaten up by stuff that's running "in the background" that you're not even aware of. In addition to the relatively conspicuous items of software that load into memory from your "Start, Programs, StartUp" group, lots more load from the less conspicuous locations of Win.ini and the Registry.

To check your memory resources: Do a cold reboot. immediately upon entering Windows (i.e., before starting any applications) do this: Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, Performance (last of the four tabs) and look at "System Resources." If you're up around "90% free" you're in good shape here; if not, you should consider offloading some of the stuff that auto-loads on Windows startup.

To do this: Click Start, Run, then in the "Open" field type "msconfig" and click OK. Select the "Startup" tab and you'll see all the stuff that loads up when Windows starts. Some of the "descriptions" may seem a little cryptic so you may have to disable the ones you think are the ones you want disabled one-at-a-time, reboot, then see if it actually disabled the program you thought. If not then just re-check the box and try another one. (This exercise won't permanently affect anything else on your drive: it just toggles autoload-on-startup ON and OFF.) NOTE: The only things that ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY MUST BE LEFT RUNNING in msconfig are "Explorer" and "SystemTray." There may be other things you would miss (like Bookshelf, Encarta Dictionary, DirectCD, a virus detector or special mouse drivers--if you have them) and might also not want to turn off; but there's probably a ton of files in there you can turn off without missing it, and that would greatly improve the performance of your machine.

For example: the last step of many software Setup procedures these days is to prompt you to register online; and if you decline to do so they will advise you that you will "be reminded in X days" to register (how thoughtful). Believe it or not, these "reminder" programs are permanently loaded into memory and gobble up system resources until you turn them off (or actually register online).

After you've unchecked all the items in msconfig you think you can live without, restart your computer and repeat the steps outlined above for checking your memory resources. Once again: you have to check these resources immediately upon reentering Windows...before you load a single program. The reason for this is that Windows' management of memory resources is imperfect, and things (once loaded into RAM+VM) are incompletely flushed from these resources. You can see this after hours of computing without having rebooted: if you recheck your System Resources after hours of launching and quitting programs your resources will appear substantially reduced--even if you have "closed" all the programs you had running before rechecking.

Those that don't need to be installed to run are programs written to where they do not:

1. write to the registry
2. add to or make changes to the autoexec, bat, config.sys, win.ini, or win.sys files
3. need to use windows shared files.

In the previous tip, we used Sound Recorder to make our own sounds. Now what do we do with them? Lets attach them to events in the Sounds Properties window. Here's how...

1. Open the Sounds Properties dialog box. You'll find it as an icon in the Control Panel, named "Sounds".

2. Highlight the line item named "Close program" by clicking on it once. The "Name:" field comes alive. You can select from pre-existing sounds there, but we're going to browse for our new sound.

3. Click the 'Browse...' button, and navigate to your desktop (or to wherever you saved that file), and select your new sound. The speaker will appear in the Preview box if you had no sounds selected previously.

4. Preview the sound by clicking the right arrow button in the Preview area. Like what you hear? Okay.

5. Click the Apply button. Select another Event, attach a new sound, click Apply, until you've set up all the sounds you want.

6. Click the OK button to put the dialog box away.

The Details button will give you additional details on the sound file you select. In the Schemes field, you can choose from existing sound schemes, if they exist on your system.

See ya later, dude.

Does your system have a sound card and speakers? Did it come with a microphone? If yes, let's have some fun. You can make your computer say anything when it starts up and shuts down, or when you click on some item... all you need to do is record your voice. First, let's do the recording, then we'll set up the sounds in the next tutorial. I'm sticking with the recording stuff that comes with Windows. If you have some other sound recorder, you can use it.

1. Open the Sound Recorder. It's under Start, Programs, Accessories, Entertainment.

2. With your microphone hooked up, click the red round dot on the far right side. This is the record button.

3. Say a few words, then stop the recorder by clicking the square Stop button next to the Record button. An example of what you might record is a voice for closing Windows (a shutdown message; something like "See ya later, dude."

4. Save the file (click File, Save As, and give it a name.) Save it in your Documents folder, under My Recordings. If there's no folder named My Recordings, you can create the folder, or just save the file on the desktop for now.

You can record phrases, words, anything. Add music if you want. If you're into telephone answering machine messages, hook up your answering system to your computer. (Now that's a tricky one)

Remember, a "document" is not just a word document. It can be a picture, a sound, a spreadsheet, whatever. In the purest terms, a document may be written words... but in computer parlance, it's more.

Note: The sound recorder has a 60 second limit. That's way more than you'll need for simple voice work. And by the way, 60 seconds of sound during my test took up 1.2 megabytes of disk space. You can record a LOT of sound and still have room to spare. So have fun with this; you can always delete the files later if you find you aren't using them. See next tip for installing this sound file.

Click the Start button, then go to Settings, Control Panel, and double-click Sounds. The events that can be assigned to sounds are listed at the top. Select an event, such as "Start Windows." The sound currently assigned that event (if one is assigned) is listed in the Name drop-down menu. To hear a preview of that sound, click the Play button next to the Preview box.

To select a new sound, choose one from the Name drop-down menu (Windows comes with several sound schemes), or click Browse to search for other sound (WAV) files on your hard drive. When you select a sound, click the Play button to confirm it's one you can live with for a while, then click OK to save the new setting.

You probably already know that you can right-click the Start button on the taskbar to quickly access handy features, such as Windows Explorer and the contents of your Start menu. Some programs, such as anti-virus software, add a shortcut to that menu when they're installed, providing a convenient way for you to access the program. But if you remove the program from your system, that item on the context menu no longer serves a purpose. Fortunately, you can easily remove it.

From Windows Explorer, choose View, Folder Options from the menu and click the File Types tab. Scroll through the list of registered file types, select File Folder, and then click Edit. The item you want to remove should be listed in the Actions list box. Select it and click Remove. Choose Yes when prompted to confirm, and click OK through the remaining dialog boxes. Right-click the Start button to confirm that the item is gone from the menu.

Notice how your Start Menu adds new items to the end of the list and you have to constantly re-alphabetize them by right clicking and choosing "Sort by Name"? Well, here's how to tell Windows to always alphabetize them. Navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\StartMenu

Click the Menu folder, then right-click Order in the right pane and select Delete from the pop-up menu. You can do the same for your Favorites, located in the same StartMenu folder.

After you close Regedit and reboot your system, the Windows Start menus will always appear in alphabetical order."

If you frequently add shortcuts to your Start menu (drag and drop an item on the Start button, and its shortcut appears in the top area of the main menu), you may soon find your Start menu stretching out of control. To cut down on the disarray, create a new Start menu folder in which to store these Start menu items. Right-click the Start button and select Open to open the Start Menu folder. Right-click a blank area inside the window and select New, Folder.

Type a name for the folder, something that will direct you to important files or folders that you use frequently, then press Enter. Now just fill the folder with frequently used shortcuts. Drag and drop items from the Start Menu window (that you've already added to your Start menu) directly on top of this folder; or drag items in from other locations, such as another folder or the desktop. When you're done, close the Start Menu window. Click Start, select your new folder, and out pops a menu of the shortcuts you placed inside.

Come on--do you really need your Start menu to include the item Log Off (your name)? If you're using a networked or shared computer, maybe. (If you need to restart Windows, just select Restart from the Shut Down menu and hold down the Shift key.) Here's how you do it:

1. Back up your Registry and launch RegEdit.
2. Under HKEY_CURRENT_USER, select Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer.
3. Select Edit/New/Binary Value.
4. Name the new entry NoLogOff.
5. Press Enter and set the value to this: 01 00 00 00.
6. Save your changes as you quit RegEdit and restart Windows.

The Start menu can become crowded pretty quickly, especially if you install a lot of programs. Remember that after you click the Start button, you can press the letter key of the first letter of any Start menu item, and the highlighting will leap to that item. You don't have to scroll around looking for it.

In Windows 95, you can't modify the Start menu while it's still open. But Windows 98 lets you modify on the fly. While the menu is open, you can right-click on any icon and modify it with the options available. Also, you can sort any menu in alphabetical order by right-clicking and selecting "Sort by Name" or you can drag contents into different places, all while the menu is open. Just click on an icon and drag it anywhere you please.

Rearranging the items in your Start menu is as simple as drag-and-drop. To move an item either within the current menu or to a new submenu, click and drag the item to its new location. As you drag, a separator bar will appear indicating the spot where the item would appear if you dropped it. Note, however, that some system items (such as Find or the Programs menu) cannot be moved with this method.

You can also alphabetize any part of your Start menu by right-clicking on it and click Sort by Name.

After rearranging your Start menu, you may find you have a number of unwanted items scattered throughout your submenus (e.g., old program shortcuts, unused Internet links, read me files). You can quickly delete an item from the Start menu by right-clicking it and choosing Delete from the context menu. (As I noted above, certain system items, such as the Program menu, cannot be removed in this fashion.)

When working on the submenus, I right-click the Start button, click Explore, and cut/copy/paste or just drag or delete files or folders to suit my needs.

If you would like to rename a program in the list (doing so will not affect the actual program in your computer), find the program you want to rename, right-click on the name, select Rename, type in the new name, and hit the Enter key. See Renaming a File on this page for more "renaming" tricks.

Be aware that the default arrangement on your Start menu is alphabetical. You can get around that for specific entries, by:

1. Renaming and placing a number followed by a few dots, and then the name, which will keep it on the top of your menu, or
2. Renaming, and placing an x, y, or z following by a few dots and then the name, which will keep it near the bottom of your menu.

1. This tip is for Windows 98. First back up your Registry.
2. Launch RegEdit (select Run from the Start menu, type RegEdit in the text box, and press Enter).
3. Under HKEY_CURRENT_USER, select Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer.
4. Select Edit/New/DWORD value.
5. Change the default name to NoFavoritesMenu.
6. Press Enter and change the contents of the Value Data to 1.
7. Save your changes as you quit RegEdit and restart Windows.

The Favorites menu will still be available from windows in Explorer, but it won't be cluttering your Start menu.

Tired of waiting for those menus to pop out as you navigate your way through the Start menu? Or just the opposite--do you wish these menus would slow down a bit? The easiest way to adjust the "menu delay" is using TweakUi. Follow the installation instructions given on their site; once it's installed, open the Control Panel, and double-click TweakUI whereupon you'll find yourself on the Mouse tab.

Use the lever under Menu Speed to adjust the menu delay, then click OK. (To try out a setting, before clicking OK, right-mouse click the Test Icon and select an item in the drop-down menu.)

Now for the Registry method.

Click Start, Run, type: regedit, click OK, which opens the Registry Editor. Navigate your way to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.

Right-mouse click a blank area in the right pane, select New, then select String Value. Name the new value "MenuShowDelay." Right-mouse click the new value, select Modify, and in the Edit String dialog box, type a number to indicate the delay in milliseconds. (The default is 400, close to half a second.) Click OK, close the Registry Editor, and restart Windows.

1. Navigate to … HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\StartMenu.
2. Click the Menu folder, then right-click Order in the right pane and select Delete from the pop-up menu. You can do the same for your Favorites, located in the same StartMenu folder.
3. Close Regedit and reboot the system.

One of the advantages of Windows is that there are many ways to accomplish a single task. Here's another method for starting a program: Click the Start button and choose Run (even faster, press WinKey+R). Then drag the icon of the program to this Run window, click OK, and voilá.