Full Screen MS-DOS
If you want to see your MS-DOS window at full screen, and we mean full
screen, click the four-arrowed icon on the toolbar. Yikes! Who turned
out the lights? To get out of there, just hit Alt+Enter (same as in
Windows 3.x). It'll bring you right back to that beautiful window.
(Tip: If you don't see the Toolbar in your MS-DOS window, click the
DOS symbol in the upper-left corner of the window and choose Toolbar
from the drop-down list.)
Changing desktop resolution
Want to change the size of your desktop on the fly? Windows 95 will
switch your desktop to another size at the click and drag of a mouse.
Click the right mouse button on the Desktop, choose Properties and
click the Settings tab. See the box called Desktop area? Move the
lever toward Less or More and you'll see the dimensions change before
your eyes. (Options depend on your monitor, of course). If you like
what you see in the preview and want to go through with the change,
click OK, then click OK again.
You get one last chance to change your mind once the life-size version
appears on screen. In the Monitor Settings dialog box, either click No
to get back to where you started or Yes to set your change.
Backing up your registry
If you do a lot of Registry tweaking, back it up to protect yourself in the
event of a mistake. You can make full or partial backups of the Registry from
inside the Registry Editor. The backup is stored as a.REG file in the
location of your choice--a folder on your hard drive, on a network drive, or
on a floppy disk (if the file's small enough).
To back up the entire Registry, open the Registry Editor: Click Start, choose
Run, type "regedit" (without the quotes), and click OK. Pull down the
Registry menu and choose Export Registry File. Type in a File name for the
backup you're about to create (you don't have to fill in the REG extension),
then navigate your way to the folder where you'd like to store the backup (a
full backup usually won't fit on a floppy disk--for example, our backup was
1.91M bytes large). Finally, make sure All is selected under Export range,
click Save, and wait as the REG file is created.
If you're working on only a small area within the Registry, you can back up
just that part. With the Registry Editor open, navigate your way to the
branch you'd like to back up. (A branch is a key, or entry, in the Registry,
and all of its contents.) With the key at the top of the branch highlighted,
choose Export Registry File from the Registry menu. In the resulting dialog
box, you'll see the highlighted branch listed under Selected branch. Now just
follow the same steps as before to create a full backup--name the REG file,
navigate your way to the location where you'd like it stored, and click Save.
Restoring your registry
In our last tip, we showed you how to create full or partial backups
(REG files) of the Registry. In the Registry Editor, choose Export
Registry File under the Registry menu, then fill in the resulting
dialog box (give the file a name and location), and click OK.
Just make a mistake during some Registry editing? No problem.
Restoring, or importing, a REG file is just as easy as creating one.
In the Registry Editor, choose Import Registry File under the Registry
menu, then navigate your way to the REG file you have in mind. Select
the file, click Open, then wait a few minutes while the Registry
refreshes itself. When it finishes, you'll get a message telling you
the operation's been a success. (Tip in a Tip: You can also import a
REG file without setting foot in the Registry Editor. Just
double-click the REG file icon, or click it with the right mouse
button and choose Merge.)
Oh, one last thing. If you'd like to be able to see the contents of a
REG file when you double-click it (to edit it, if you're into that
kind of thing) simply change it's extension to.TXT. Then
double-clicking the file opens it in Word Pad. Of course, before
restoring that file's contents to the Registry, you'll need to change
the extension back to.REG.
Where is your registry?
You know that to tweak the Registry, you have to go into the Registry
Editor, but have you ever wondered exactly where the Registry is
stored on your computer? It's actually split up into two files,
SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT. Windows 95 creates backups of these
files--SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0--every time you start Windows 95
successfully. (That's a zero, not the letter O, on the end of that extension.)
To prove the existence of these files, fire up Find (hit F3), click
Browse, navigate your way to the Windows folder, and click OK. On the
"Files named" line, enter *.DA*. Click Find Now, and you'll see all
four files, among others. (If you don't see them, open any Windows 95
window, choose Options under View, click the View tab, select Show all
files, and click OK. Now go back to the Find dialog box, and you'll be
able to see these "hidden" files.)
Replacing .DAT files with .DA0
In our last tip, we told you that the Registry is stored in two files
(SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT) on your system, and that Windows 95 keeps
backups of these files (SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0) around and
up-to-date. In the event of an emergency, you can replace the Registry
files with these backups.
The first thing you'll need to do is get to a DOS prompt. Turn your
computer off and then back on. When you see the "Starting Windows 95"
message, press F8 and choose the Command Prompt Only option from the
Startup menu. Type "cd windows" (without the quote marks) to get to
the Windows directory.
The idea is to copy the.DA0 files over the.DAT files. Problem is,
these files all have hidden, read-only, and system attributes attached
to them (which means DOS won't let you mess with them). To remove
these attributes from the SYSTEM.DAT file, type the following at the
DOS prompt and hit Enter:
attrib -h -r -s system.dat
Follow these same steps to remove the attributes from the remaining
three files (using a command line identical to the one above, with the
proper file name inserted at the end).
Once all the attributes are removed, copy the SYSTEM.DA0 file over the
SYSTEM.DAT file and the USER.DA0 file over the USER.DAT file, with the
following commands (hitting Enter after each):
copy system.da0 system.dat
copy user.da0 user.dat
Turn your computer off, then turn it back on, and the Registry files
will have been successfully replaced. Whew!
Print directly to your printer
What's more important when you print a document: Having the printed
copy in your hand sooner, or getting back to work as quickly as
possible? If you answered "printed copy," then it's time to change
your printer's habits. As long as your printer isn't shared, you can
tell Windows 95 to send your document directly to the printer,
avoiding the first spooling process (by default, it sends the print
job to your hard drive first in order to free up your program sooner).
Changing this option will keep you locked out of your program longer
while the document prints, but that's the trade-off. You'll have your
printed document in hand much faster.
Open your Printers folder (choose Start, Settings, and then Printers),
click your printer with the right mouse button, and choose Properties.
Select the Details tab, click the Spool Settings button, and in the
resulting dialog box, choose the last option, Print directly to the
printer. (Note: Doing so will prevent you from being able to pause a
job, as you could previously.) Click OK, try printing something, and
watch your printer get right to business. Who wants to get back to
work faster anyway?
Windows 95 product team
Got nothing to do? Dying to see the names of all the people that were
part of the Windows 95 Product Team? Then follow these steps:
1. Create a folder on your desktop called "and now, the moment you've
all been waiting for"
2. Rename this folder "we proudly present for your viewing pleasure"
3. Rename the same folder "The Microsoft Windows 95 Product Team!"
Type everything verbatim, including the caps and exclamation point in
step 3 (and not including the quotation marks in any of the
steps--those are for your reference). When you're done, double-click
the folder. Flying names, background music, people with too much time
on their hands!
Hot key to start menu item
Is there a shortcut buried a few layers into your Start Menu that you
use fairly frequently but not enough to add to your Desktop? Take all
those System Tools, for instance. Way too many clicks to get to them,
if you ask us. For a much shorter route, set up a hot key to that
Start Menu shortcut. From then on, you'll be able to access that
program with the press of a keyboard combination.
Click the Start Menu with the right mouse button and choose Open to
display its contents. Navigate your way to the program to which you'd
like hot-key access, click its shortcut with the right mouse button
(it has to be a shortcut, not a folder), and choose Properties. Select
the Shortcut tab, click anywhere on the Shortcut key line to place
your cursor after the word None, and finally, type a letter that you'd
like to be used in combination with Ctrl+Alt to access that program
(such as D for Disk Defragmenter). When you do, the entire hot-key
combination will appear on that line. Click OK, and from now on,
pressing that keyboard combo will open the program.
Word wrap option in Notepad
Have you ever noticed that if you open up Notepad and start typing,
the text just keeps going... and going... and going to the right?
That's because by default, Notepad's Word Wrap option is turned off.
The only thing that will start your text on the next line is hitting Enter.
If you'd prefer to have Notepad wrap your text (in other words, move
it to the beginning of the next line) whenever you reach the right
edge of the window, just choose Word Wrap under the Edit menu before
you start typing. Once this option is set, you can size the Notepad
window up or down and still see all of your hard work inside it.
Notepad adjusts the word wrap to match the size of the window.