THE WIZARD OF PLUG AND PLAY (PART 1 OF 3)
So you just got yourself some new hardware, eh? If you aren't installing a Plug and Play device, and you don't have a Plug and Play compatible system, does that mean you're in for a gruelling, hair-pulling installation? Nope. Windows 95 comes with an Add New Hardware wizard.
Using Plug and Play technology, this wizard makes most new hardware installations a snap. You do the connect-the-hardware-to-the-computer part, and the wizard goes to town with the rest of that brainy configuration stuff and makes the hardware jive with the rest of your system. Pretty good deal, huh? You do the plugging and the wizard makes it play.
The Add New Hardware wizard works in two ways: After you physically install your new hardware, you can ask the wizard to search your system for it or you can tell the wizard exactly what it is (and avoid a lengthy search). Either way, the wizard will install the correct driver--the file needed to make it work with your system--and any other necessary configurations.
Stay tuned for our next tip, when we'll put the wizard through its paces.
In our last tip, we told you what the Add New Hardware wizard does. Now, let's make it do it...
To wake up the wizard, open the Control Panel and double-click the Add New Hardware icon. As the dialog box asks, click Next to begin installing your hardware.
Click Yes in the next dialog box, and the wizard does a complete system inspection and tells you what it finds. If it detects what you installed, click Finish and follow the instructions to complete the hardware installation. (You'll probably be asked to insert the hardware's installation disk or your Windows 95 installation CD or diskette.) Pretty slick, eh?
(If the wizard doesn't find anything, you'll need to obtain the correct Windows 95 driver from the hardware manufacturer or Microsoft's library. For more information, look in the online Help topic entitled `Getting additional drivers from the Windows Drivers Library.' To get there, choose `Setting up hardware,' then click `Related Topics.')
In our next tip, we'll see if the wizard can take `No' for an answer...
In our last tip, we wondered how the Add New Hardware wizard would respond to your choosing No, that you don't want it to search the system for your new hardware. (Say, if you know exactly what you're installing or you have a hardware installation disk.) It simply asks you to specify the type of hardware you're installing and the manufacturer and model. (You only need to answer these questions if you don't have a hardware installation diskette.) Then just follow the instructions to complete the installation. (You'll probably be asked to insert your Windows 95 installation diskette or CD.)
If you do have an installation disk for the hardware, you don't have to tell the wizard anything about the hardware. Simply click Have Disk, insert the disk in your floppy drive, and click OK. When the wizard's done copying the files it needs, follow the instructions to complete the installation.
(If you didn't see your hardware in the list of products for that manufacturer, and you don't have an installation disk for the hardware you'll need to obtain the correct Windows 95 driver from the hardware manufacturer or Microsoft's library. For more information, look in the online Help topic entitled `Getting additional drivers from the Windows Drivers Library.' To get there, choose `Setting up hardware,' then click `Related Topics.')
Did you know that printers and modems have their own installation wizards? Stay tuned....
Windows 95 has a couple of specialized wizards that deal with only one type of hardware, including one for printers called the Add Printer wizard.
You can get to this wizard through the Add New Hardware wizard (select No, you don't want the wizard to detect your hardware, then double-click Printer in the list under Hardware types), but there's an easier way. Just open your Printers folder in the Control Panel or under Settings in the Start menu, then double-click the Add Printer icon.
After physically installing your printer, call up the Add Printer wizard, and it will take you through a series of questions. Answer them, clicking Next after each to move on to the next dialog box, and in the last dialog box, click Finish. (You'll probably be asked to insert your Windows 95 installation CD or diskette.)
When the installation is complete, an icon for your new printer will appear in the Printers window, and you'll see a dialog box telling you it's about to print a test page (if you've selected that option, which we recommend). Turn your printer on, and you'll see the Windows 95 Printer Test Page roll on out. Lookin' good? Click Yes to confirm that everything's A-OK, and your installation is officially complete.
(If you don't see a test page or it doesn't print correctly, click No and the wizard takes you through a troubleshooter. Hang in there! It'll find the problem.)
Just as there's an Add Printer wizard (our last tip), Windows 95 has a special wizard to help you with modem installation. Again, you have two ways to access it: Either go though the Add New Hardware wizard and select Modems under Hardware types or double-click the Modems icon in the Control Panel, then click the Add button to open the Install New Modem dialog box.
As always, you need to connect your modem before this installation wizard can do anything. Once you do, open the Install New Modem dialog box and decide whether you want the wizard to detect it or not. Either way, just follow the steps it gives you, and you'll be online in no time!
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Install new harddisk and replace old one:
The obvious solution is to copy all the files from the old drive. However, this is not as straightforward as it sounds, so I've documented the steps involved. The first two depend completely on the particular hardware you have, so you're on your own with that. If you can't get to the third step, you'll just have to do it the official way.
NOW:
Q. Every issue of PC World tells me at least a dozen times to back up my data. Can you provide a definitive list of files (for Windows 95, preferably) that I should archive the next time I read this caveat?
A. Judging by most magazines and books, only crazed daredevils don't back up their data every day. The reality is that backing up several hundred megabytes is time-consuming and complicated, and restoring it even more so. With so many programs and operating systems now available on CD-ROM, reinstalling them is often a lot less work--but it won't bring back lost data and configuration files.
Windows 95 makes matters even worse. Currently, no native Windows 95 backup program comes with a command-line restore utility, which means you have to reinstall Windows before you restore anything. Existing DOS and Windows 3.x backup programs don't support Windows 95's long file names, and Win 95's own backup program is short on tape drive support.
I can't provide a definitive list of files to back up, but I can give you a simple guideline: Back up those files you can't live without, or can't restore from another source. That means data files, configuration files (including the various .ini files), and any programs for which you don't have installation disks. Don't forget e-mail and fax program in-boxes, Windows Cardfile, Schedule+ data, communications program scripts and dialing directories, and, of course, config.sys and autoexec.bat. FIGURE 1 on the next page lists extensions of some key files.
You'll find backing up easier if you put all these files on the same hard disk or partition or, better still, under one subdirectory if that's practical. To make backup even more painless, use the Backup applet in the Systems Tools folder contained in Windows 95's Accessories folder (see "Win 95 Tools Tune Your PC").
OOOPs...although you have surely heard the above statements made, they are completely wrong. Why? Win95 is not a 100% true operating system, but like Win3.1, it is an operating system shell that resides on top of Dos7 (why else would changes made in the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files affect Win95)? This, however, can be used to your advantage.
When running DOS sessions under Win3.1, running windows applications was impossible without the help of exterior utilities. With Win95, however, this limitation has been removed, and now any Win95 program can be launched from the command prompt. Instead of releasing Win95 from its grasp, Dos has been integrated even tighter with its GUI cousin.
This site will attempt to provide you with many tips on how to take advantage of this integration. For now, however, here is a tip for accessing batch files under Win95. Instead of accessing batch files directly under Win95, it is recommended to do the following:
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Copy the following batch file and paste it to a file called ENVVIEW.BAT in your WINDOWS directory. Open that directory, right-click the file, choose properties, and force the program to close on exit and run minimized