by Caroline Horton

Looking to buy an IBM computer, by an ACER instead. That’s right buy an ACER and save some money. Seems as though IBM signed a contract with ACER to produce their computers, so if you buy a new IBM you will be buying an ACER system.

The new CYRIX 686 (133 MHz & 166 MHz) processor chips are having a heat problem, which is causing chip failure. CYRIX has two versions of these chips – those made in their own foundry and those made by IBM. The ones made in their own foundry are not being tested as thoroughly as the ones made in the IBM foundry. So if you are looking to buy a system using a CYRIX 686 processor chip make sure to request an (IBM) CYRIX 686 processor chip!

The September Peter Trapp show held many surprises, price wise. I saw 8 Meg SIMMs chips selling for only $35 and the price for a 8 speed CD-ROM of only $85 and a 10 speed CD-ROM for only $115. Just one year ago 8 Meg SIMMs were selling for $280, and a 4 speed CD-ROM was selling for over $100.

If you need memory and have not bought it yet, buy it now. If you attended the October Peter Trapp show you probably suffered from "sticker" shock. During the first week of October memory prices went up 40% (8 Meg SIMMs - $49). The manufacturers have finally dumped their surplus chips and have a handle on the supply – this means that memory chips will be going up in price.

Intel has announced plans for a new Pentium© called the Klamath due out in the spring of 1997. This processor is going to be produced with speeds up to 350 MHz and Intel is going to produce a board that will support up to eight of these 350 MHz CPU processor chips. My understanding is that Intel intends to cut the prices on all their CPU’s – so that sometime around the end of the first quarter of 1997 the P55 200 MHz CPU will cost about $250.

Intel has also told the manufacturers of graphics cards to get their act together. The needs of graphics cards by the end of 1997 requires a ten (10) fold increase in rendering of graphics images. Does this give you a clue to the speeds of future computers – only one year away?

Award BIOS chips are now upgradable – you down load the upgrade and install the new BIOS on your own system. The current BIOS is truly plug and play, if you install a new board the BIOS senses it and installs it and initializes it automatically – pretty neat when combined with Windows 95.

Matrox (manufacturer of video cards) also has an upgradable BIOS and some manufacturers of modem cards also have upgradable BIOS chips. So to get the most out of your new purchases now an in the future

To Create Special Folders:

To put the contents of the Control Panel, or other ‘special’ folders, on your Start menu (or in any folder). Create a folder and paste in the appropriate name below:
For Use This Name
Control Panel Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
Dial Up Network Dial Up Net.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}
Printers Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}

To Drag & Drop Filenames to the Command Prompt – drag file and folder icons from the desktop or a folder and drop them on an MS-DOS Command Prompt. The filename (file and folder icons) will then be placed in the keyboard buffer of the running MS-DOS–based application.

For Copying & Pasting Between Windows and the MS-DOS Command Prompt – simply activate the toolbar in the MS-DOS – based application window. This enables the point & click access to copy the cut & paste operations from the Windows based application to the MS-DOS application.

To View MS-DOS Names Associated with Long File Names – just right-click the file and select properties, you will see both representations of the file name.

For Toggling Between The Windows Screen and The Full MS-DOS Screen – use the Alt+Enter key combination.

To Enter DOS Command Line Parameters – simply enter a "?" to the command line of the MS-DOS application and when you start the application it will prompt you to add the parameters. (Especially useful with MS-DOS based shortcuts.)

To See A Visual Display of A Directory From A Command Prompt – just type "start .", or "start .." and an open folder pointing to that directory will display on the desktop.

For Starting Windows Applications From A DOS Prompt – simply type the name of the application you want to run – specifying any needed parameters. For example, to start Word, simply type "word" at the prompt and press .

To Edit A Command.pif – suppose you set the wrong properties for DOS application and cannot start it, go into the DOS application’s PIF directory and edit the command.pif, or locate the command.com path and edit the application’s properties there.

To Use The DOSKEY Command – in your DOS window without loading it in AUTOEXEC.BAT file or creating a startup batch file just for this purpose, go into the Program properties and enter doskey as the startup batch file. Later if you decide you want to have a real startup batch file, move doskey into the batch file.

New & Old Directory Shortcuts – related directories now have the following shortcuts:

. = current directory (old)

.. = parent directory (old)

... = parent directory once removed directory (new)

…. = parent directory twice removed (new)

Notice the two new commands, they will allow you to do something like – changing from the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VIEWERS directory to the C:\ root directory, by entering CD.… at the prompt and the directory will change to the root directory.

Use The System Agent To Schedule Additional Programs – you can use System Agent to schedule any .com (command), .exe (executable), or .bat (batch) file. Start System Agent if it is not running or if it is double click on the System Agent Icon on the Taskbar. Select Program, then click on Schedule a New Program – choose a program from the list or click on browse to select from additional programs. Once you have selected the desired program – click on When to Run and schedule the time you want it to run.

To Access Internet Resources By Using the Run Command – Click on the Start button and select Run and enter the URL address in the Run Command Line. Example: http://www.msn.com. This will cause the Internet Explorer to launch automatically and attempt to make the connection.

To Save An Image As Wallpaper While Using Internet Explorer – while using the Internet Explorer, right click on the image you would like to use as a wallpaper and select Set As Desktop Wallpaper.

Sysedit – the same program carried over from Windows 3.1. Click on the Start button and select the Run command. Enter the command sysedit, which will launch the System Configuration Editor which allows you to edit the operating files: protocol.ini, system.ini, win.ini, config.sys, and autoexec.bat.

Available Disk Tools – left click on My Computer right click on any drive and then select Properties. This tab offers the following disk tools: ScanDisk, Backup and Defrag which can be used to optimize your system and protect your data.

Use Drive Space – to compress your hard drive and floppy to creates more free space on the disks. You can also use DriveSpace to configure disk drives that have already been compressed using either DoubleSpace or DriveSpace.

You Can Use the Troubleshooting Guide in Windows 95 Help – click on Start and then select Help from the Command Bar, choose Help Topics, Contents tab, and then click on Troubleshooting. This opens the trouble shooting list which allows you to select the topic you are having trouble with. Once you have entered this section it contains jump buttons and Wizards to help you correct your problem.

To Restart the Taskbar Without Restarting Windows – to restart the Taskbar for any reason, use the key combination Ctrl+Alt+Del, select Explorer from the Close Program dialog box and then click on the End Task button. When the Shutdown Windows dialog pops up, choose No and then when the End Task confirmation pops up, click End Task. The Taskbar will shut down and automatically restart.

To Restart Windows 95 Completely without rebooting the Computer – click on Start, Shut Down, and then when the Shutdown Windows dialog pops up select Restart the computer – BUT before clicking on Yes hold down the shift key and continue to hold it down while clicking on the Yes option. Once Windows starts to shut down you can release the shift key. Using this method to reboot Windows saves a lot of time!

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