... Windows Tips 'n Tricks 20 ...
As he teaches, so he learns.

You're in charge of the images that splash the screen when Win95 starts and when it stops. You know, the flying windows, the "Wait" message during shutdown and the "It is now safe" message when shutdown is complete. Why not use that power to add something more personal.

1. Use Windows Explorer to get into the C:\Windows directory.
2. Change the name of LOGO.SYS to LOGO.BAK.
3. Change the name of LOGOW.SYS to LOGOW.BAK.
4. Change the name of LOGOS.SYS to LOGOS.BAK.
5. Use the Paint program to make any image you like. Use the Image menu's Attributes command to set the size. When you save it will be a BMP format file (Windows Bitmap).
6. Save the image you want for startup as LOGO.SYS in the Windows directory (C:\Windows). Save the shutdown wait image as LOGOW.SYS in that same directory. Save the image for the end of shutdown as LOGOS.SYS.
7. Now try restarting Windows to see the effects.

When you installed Windows, you were given the option to create a Startup Disk--a "boot disk" that includes diagnostic and repair utilities. Did you create the disk? If not, make one now. It may just keep you from losing your mind in the event that you--yes, even you--can't start Windows 95.

Open the Control Panel (Start, Settings, Control Panel) and double-click Add/Remove Programs. Select the Startup Disk tab, then click the Create Disk button. When asked, place a blank disk in your floppy drive, click OK, and wait while Windows makes the disk. Simple enough. And be sure to put the disk in a safe place.

The files in the Startup folder load in alphabetical order. Simply place a number before each shortcut name to determine when it loads. For example, if you have files named: MyFile, HerFile, HisFile, YourFile, you can rename them to:

1_YourFile
2_MyFile
3_HerFile
4_HisFile to set the loading order.

If Windows keeps crashing with a "Protection Error," keep a log of what happens when you start up. Next time you start Windows:

1. Watch for the "Starting Windows" image, and press F8.
2. In the Startup Menu that appears, choose 2: Logged (Bootlog.txt)

Ever wonder how to remove those tray applications that Windows loads even if you don't use them? Here's how.

1. Open the Registry (Start, Run, type Regedit).

2. Go to My Computer-> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> Software -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Run

3. Select the program you want removed, right click, and choose Delete.

4. Once removed, Windows will no longer load this program at start up.

5. Close Registry Editor and restart Win2000 for the changes to take effect.

1. Right click "My Computer", select "Properties," and select the "Performance tab".
2. Press the "Virtual Memory" button. Select "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings."
3. Use a value that is 2.5 times the amount of RAM you have (i.e. if you have 32 megs of RAM, use 80 megs). Enter the same value is both minimum and maximum.
4. Select OK until you are asked to restart, then restart.

Now what are you going to so with those extra seconds you saved?

Do you feel like you have to play finger-twister to get all those fancy keyboard combinations to work? Windows offers an Accessibility option that makes the Ctrl, Alt, and Delete keys "stick." That way, you only have to press them one at a time.

Open the Control Panel (Start, Settings, Control Panel), double-click Accessibility Options, and in the Keyboard section, select Use StickyKeys. Click the Settings button on the same line, and in the resulting dialog box, select Use Shortcut. Click OK twice, and you'll see three little black boxes in the tray of the Taskbar indicating that StickyKeys are on.

Now to check out how sticky those keys really are: With one finger, press Ctrl, then Alt, then Delete. Up pops the End Task dialog box. To turn off StickyKeys, press the Shift key five times. To turn it back on, press Shift five times, then click OK to confirm.

If you already know the site URL, go to Start/Run and enter it into the space, click OK and no one can tell where you came from or where you are going.

First, confirm which directory your swap file is in: Go to Start/Find/Files & Folders, and type "Win386.swp" in the "Named" field and make sure you're looking in your C:/ Drive It should be in either your C:/ or C:/Windows directory Now restart in DOS mode. In DOS, type:

ren c:\Win386.swp Win386XXX.swp

You have to type that line exactly as shown, with the spaces. Except for the XXX which is just to change the name of the file. You can name it whatever you want, just make it something you'll remember. And make sure you type the proper directory. In the example above I'm assuming the swap file is in "C:\".

Now, hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE and Windows will reboot and create a new Win386.swp file. You can then choose to delete the old swap file. You can only delete it from DOS because Windows is using it while Windows is running. This is a good thing to do once in a while just to make sure your swap file is not corrupted.

This is a super-notepad that uses a "multiple document interface" to open five important Windows 9x system files at once for easy, side-by-side scrutiny and editing. With a click, SysEdit lets you access and edit your Autoexc.bat, Config.Sys, Win.Ini, System.Ini, and Protocol.Ini files. It's a favorite of Windows power users everywhere.

You can see if SysEdit is available on your machine by typing SysEdit as a Run command on your Start menu. Even though SysEdit is installed on hundreds of millions of machines, many users don't even know they have this handy tool.

Magnetic waves can hurt computers. Keep all magnets away from your computer and your computer disks.

Most high-end word processors come with a built-in feature for inserting special symbols, such as copyright, degree and mathematical symbols. But if you're working in an application that doesn't, you'll need a quick and easy way to access these symbols. That's where Windows Character Map comes in. Click the Start button, go to Programs, Accessories, and choose Character Map (Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Character Map). By default, the symbols from the Symbol font are displayed, but you can select a different font to reveal what special characters they may contain. Click once on a symbol to select it, click Select, click Copy to send it to the clipboard, and then Close. Position your insertion point in your text and press Ctrl+V to paste the symbol.

When you're having trouble with Windows 98--and who doesn't at some point--you might want to try a little-known utility called the System File Checker. Close all open programs and click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information, Tools, System File Checker. Another way is to go to Run in the Start menu. Type SFC and click OK.

Check the "Scan for altered files" radio button and click Start. SFC will look for files that have been corrupted. If it finds any, you can use it to extract clean versions of the files directly from your installation disk.

Windows 98 provides lots of handy tools to keep the system running smoothly. Among them: the System File Checker, a utility that can search out files that are corrupted or versions that predate the ones on the O/S distribution model. To access the repair utility, click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information, Tools, System File Checker. To prevent unexpected hang-ups, run System File Checker after you install new applications and every other month as a matter of maintenance.

Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, Performance tab, File System button, Hard Disk tab, Settings section, "Typical role of this computer" line, Use down arrow to select: "Network Server" and Click OK … Improvement will take place after re-booting.

If you're getting a lot of system errors, sometimes the Windows program Dr. Watson can figure out what ails your computer. It will diagnose problems, intercept errors from your software, and prescribe a course of action. Keep in mind that Dr. Watson does not load by default

To run Dr. Watson, you must go to your Windows System folder and open the Dr. Watson (drwatson.exe) program. It's a good idea to have Dr. Watson load on start-up; to do this, drag the program or a shortcut to your Startup folder.

Windows is full of Properties: dialog boxes where you can see and change the system settings. You can get at these Properties in more than one way. For example, for System properties:

1. Click on Start, then Settings, then Control Panel, then double-click on the System icon.
2. Double-click on the My Computer icon, double-click the Control Panel icon, then double-click on the System icon.
3. Right-click on the My Computer icon and then choose Properties from the pop-up menu.

Your system resources are the amount of memory Windows has available to do stuff with. If system resources are low, adding more RAM *won't* solve the system resources memory problem, because more RAM isn't the issue. The real problem is with the way the Windows operating system handles memory.

The bottom line: Resources run out; that can't be helped. You can verify this from the System Properties screen. Right click My Computer, click Properties, and you'll see the amount of remaining resources listed on the Performance tab as a percentage. Open another program ... the percentage of free resources drops. Close the program, and the percentage rises.

The whole point is that Windows resources keep on dwindling. As you keep on computing, opening and closing programs, opening and closing ... resources will eventually drop to nothing. But before that, you'll freeze up, lock up, stall out. Your computer died. The only way to resurrect it is to restart the whole thing. And a "reboot" as it's known is the best way to cure a whole slug of ills. Problems? Reboot. Running slow? Reboot. Of course a reboot won't cure everything, but it cures a lot.

So, keep tabs on your resources. Check on them from time to time, and when they're lower than 30%, consider a reboot. It'll refresh everything; you'll have a "born-again-computer".

Want a printout of all your system settings--a handy resource for troubleshooting hardware problems? Ask the Device Manager to make one for you. Hold down the Alt key as you double-click My Computer. In the resulting System Properties dialog box, click the Device Manager tab. Click the Print button, select the type of report you'd like to print, then click OK.

Depends upon which programs they are. Many programs have a way to choose whether to start them when Windows starts or not by going to their options menus. If there is no option in the program, go to System Information. Click on the tools menu and pick System Configuration Utility. Or you can go to Run on the start menu and type in "msconfig"/OK/Startup tab, and uncheck what you don't want to see in your taskbar tray (tasktray) or system tray (systray, my preference).