Format floppies

Have a floppy disk full of information you'll never use again? Don't throw it away. Recycle it. Pop it in your floppy drive, and in an Explorer or My Computer window, click the drive with the right mouse button and choose Format. Select the Quick format type, which simply erases files on the disk; type in a label for your disk if you want (11 characters only, please), and click OK. Unless you've deselected the summary option, you'll see all the formatting results when it's through. Now all you need to do is stick a fresh label on that disk, and it's good as new.

Disk formatting options

In our last tip, we told that you can use the Quick formatting option (after clicking your floppy drive with the right mouse button and choosing Format) to erase files on a floppy disk. Interested in the other formatting options you saw there? Choose Full to prepare a disk for information storage (for example, if you inherited the disk from a friend who uses a Mac). This option also scans the disk for bad sectors, which is why it takes so much longer than the Quick option.
Copy system files only--well, that's a horse of a different color. With a preformatted disk in the drive, choosing this option copies system files--COMMAND.COM, IO.SYS, and MSDOS.SYS--to the disk, creating a system disk. (You can use a system disk to boot your computer in the event that your hard drive has a brain cramp.) Or you can choose Full and select Copy system files under Other options to format the disk and copy the system files all in one step.

Remove item from new list

Ever wish you could remove an item from your New list--the one you see when you click the Desktop with the right mouse button and choose New? You can, by editing the Registry. (As with all Registry tips, we recommend backing up the Registry before making any changes, in case you make a mistake.)
Open the Registry Editor (click Start|Run, type in regedit and click OK), double-click HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT to expand it, and scroll down to the extension associated with the file type you'd like to remove from the New list. With this extension selected, hit the asterisk (*) key on your numeric keypad to display its contents, and you'll see that it contains a ShellNew key. Click ShellNew with the right mouse button, choose Delete, and click OK to confirm. Right-mouse click on the Desktop or in any folder window, choose New, and you'll see that the item is erased from the list. Later!

Add item to new list part I

In our last tip, we showed you that you could remove an item from the New list: In the Registry Editor, find the extension associated with the file type under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and delete its ShellNew key. As you might expect, you can add items to the New list by adding some settings to the Registry. This process is fairly involved, so we recommend it for advanced Registry users only. (Also, we take no responsibility for incorrect settings!) It's a two-step deal, so we'll show you the first part here, and the second part in our next tip.
The first step is to create a blank file of the type you'd like to add to the New list and save it in the C:\Windows\ShellNew folder. Open the application whose file type you'd like to add to the list, and with a blank file open, choose Save As under the File menu. Give the file any name you'd like (with the proper extension, of course), navigate your way to the C:\Windows\ShellNew folder, and click OK. (If you can't access the ShellNew folder from the application's Save As dialog box, save the file in the Windows folder, and then move it to the ShellNew folder using Explorer.) Close the open application.

Add item to new list part II

In our last tip, we showed you that the first step to adding an item to your New list is to save a blank file of that type in the C:\Windows\ShellNew folder. (We also mentioned that this tip is not for beginners, and that we take no responsibility for incorrect settings!) Now for the second step: Adding a ShellNew key to the file type's key in the Registry.
In the Registry Editor (click Start|Run, type in regedit and click OK), double-click HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, scroll down to the extension associated with the type you'd like to add to the New list, and select it. Click it with the right mouse button, select New, then select Key in the pop-out menu. Name the new key "ShellNew." Click ShellNew with the right mouse button, choose New, select String Value in the pop-out menu, and name the new value "FileName." Double-click FileName, and on its Value data line, enter the name of the file that you saved in the Windows\ShellNew folder (from yesterday's tip). Click OK, and you'll see this name in quotes under the Data column. Mission accomplished. Close the Registry Editor and go check out your new list!

Choosing own logo files

So many of you have asked how to replace the Windows 95 startup and shut down logo screens, that we're re-running our 5-part series on this technique.
You can take any 640-by-480 bitmap file and use it as Windows' cloud-covered startup or shut-down screen or the one that says "It is now safe to turn off your computer." Currently, Windows 95 uses the logo.sys (on your hard drive), logow.sys and logos.sys (both in the Windows folder) files, respectively, but if you open your bitmap file in Paint and save it under one of these names, Windows 95 will use yours instead.
There are two very important tricks to this: One, the bitmap files have to be 256 Color Bitmap; and, two, you have to shrink your 640-by-480 bitmaps to 320 by 400 for Windows 95 to use them. (Windows takes a 320-by-400 file and stretches it to 640 by 480 for each of these three screens. Strange, but that's the way it works.)
In our next tip, we'll show you how to keep the old logo files around in case you ever want them again.

Saving old logo files

In our last tip, we told you could replace the LOGO.SYS, LOGOW.SYS, and LOGOS.SYS files (the ones Windows 95 uses for the startup and shutdown screens) with the 640-by-480-pixel bitmap files of your choice. Before you go replacing the old ones, though, you'll want to save them under different names, in case you want them in the future.
Launch Paint (it's under Accessories), then choose Open under File and select All Files under "Files of type." Now open each of the three files (remember, LOGO.SYS is on your hard drive, and the other two are in the Windows folder) and rename them. (If you don't see them in Paint's Open dialog box, from any window on the desktop, choose Options under View, and on the View tab, select Show all files.)
For example, in the root directory, select LOGO.SYS, choose Save As under File, and name it LOGO2.SYS (or whatever helps you remember it, just as long as it's different than the original name). Click OK, move on to LOGOW.SYS in the Windows folder, and then rename the LOGOS.SYS file.
In our next tip, we'll look at how to shrink your 640-by-480-pixel bitmaps to 320 by 400 pixels.

Resizing old logo files

If you followed our last two tips, you've selected up to three 640-by-480-pixel bitmap files you want to use as the Windows 95 startup and shutdown screens, and you've saved the old ones--LOGO.SYS, LOGOW.SYS, and LOGOS.SYS--under new names. Now for the tedious part.
To get your image(s) to the size that Windows wants--320 by 400 pixels--launch Paint and open one of the 640-by-480 images. Choose Stretch/Skew under Image. Select Horizontal, change the percentage to 50, and choose OK. You're halfway there. Open the Stretch/Skew dialog box again, but this time, select Vertical. To change the height from 480 to 400 pixels, you have to make two changes: set the Vertical stretch to 104 and choose OK, then go back to the same dialog box and set it to 80. Choose OK, and there's your resized image, now 320 by 400 pixels. Check in the Attributes dialog box (under Image) to prove it. (By the way, you can't just change the attributes here and expect your bitmap to shrink. Nice try.)
Repeat these steps for each bitmap you want to use, and don't forget to save your file(s). In our next tip, you'll get to see these bitmaps in action!

Use your new logo files

After our last three tips, you should now have up to three 320-by-400-pixel bitmap files that you want to use as the Windows 95 logo screens. Now for the easy part: saving each file under the right name, as the right type.
Open each 320-by-400-pixel file in Paint, pull down the File menu, chose Save As, and type in the name of the screen for which you'd like to use this image--LOGO.SYS for the startup screen, LOGOW.SYS for the cloud screen you see at shutdown, or LOGOS.SYS for the "It is now safe to turn off your computer" screen. Then, under "Save as type," select 256 Color Bitmap (if it isn't already selected). Click OK, and your bitmap is officially saved as one of the Windows 95 logo screens.
If you'd like, repeat the same steps (saving them under each of the three logo names, of course) for up to three different bitmap files. That's it. Now let's see if they work.
Ready (you did use the correct file names, right?) Get set (as long as the bitmaps are the correct size and type, there's no reason this won't work)...shut down your system. You'll see the file you saved as LOGOW.SYS first, then the LOGOS.SYS screen, to let you know you can safely turn off your computer. Now give your keyboard the ol' Ctrl+Alt+Delete to restart your system, wait a few minutes, and--there's that new LOGO.SYS file! Beats those clouds any day, doesn't it?

Odd-sized bitmaps as logo files

If you followed the instructions in our last four tips, you should now have some interesting Windows 95 startup and shutdown screens. The question is, if you have bitmaps that aren't 640 by 480 pixels, can you use them anyway? Of course! You could always figure out the math to size it to 320 by 400, but an easier way is to make the bitmap as close as you can to 320 by 400, then put a frame around it to make it exact.
With your image displayed in Paint (already sized to just under 320 by 400), choose Attributes under Image and change the Width and Height to 320 and 400, respectively. Click OK, and your image, plus the white space that appears, is now a 320-by-400-pixel image.
To center the image, choose Select All under Edit, and one at a time, click and drag each frame edge by the handle (using the double-pointed arrow) in to the edge of the original image. Once the original image is framed, use the four-pointed arrow to click and drag it anywhere you want within the white area. Now save the file under one of the logo screen names we discussed in the past four tips (as a 256-Color Bitmap, of course), and you're all set. You'll see the frame when the screen appears, but who cares? You get the picture!

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