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Hints & Tips
MONITORS
When cleaning your monitor, never spray cleaner directly
on the screen. First turn the power off, then spray a good glass cleaner on a
clean rag or paper towel. You may be surprised to see the difference a clean screen
makes!
Check your controls. Especially the brightness control. If
it’s set too high, you could shorten the life of your monitor. If the
image on your screen seems washed out, turn down the brightness and turn up the contrast.
If you’ve had your monitor for a few years, it may be a great
time for an upgrade. Prices are down and features are up. Today’s
monitors are bigger and better. You can get more information on your screen, get better
resolution and also save energy. An energy efficient monitor can be set to turn itself off
if you aren’t using it.
COMPUTERS
Keep it clean. Your computers worst enemies are dirt, dust
and smoke. If you are a smoker, the tar from your cigarette is entering your
computer, coating it’s internal working parts with the same stuff that stains your
fingers. What’s worse, this tar, when it builds up enough, can conduct
electricity, shorting out the delicate electronics inside your computer.Your computer also
has a fan that keeps the internal components cool. Unfortunately,the fan also sucks in
dirt and dust. This dust can build up over time. This layer of dust acts
like insulation, keeping the heat in on the parts that need to stay cool
to operate efficiently. This dust layer can even clog the fan that is supposed
to keep your system cool. If you know where your fan is, take a look at it when
your computer is turned off. If you see dust on the blades, it’s time for a
cleaning.
PRINTERS
Print problems? Check the least expensive part first. When was the last time
you changed the ribbon, ink cartridge or toner? Dirt and dust are also major
players in printer problems.‘Paper Dust’ is a common problem and can effect
print quality, paper jams and other print errors.
INPUT DEVICES
Erratic mouse or keyboard behaviour can also be traced to
dirt, dust, smoke or coffee! A good cleaning can get your mouse or keyboard working
properly again.
WINDOWS 95 TIPS
Print it by Dragging
If you need to print a file fast here is what you need to do. Create a shortcut on your
desktop to your printer. You can do this by opening the Printers folder and dragging a
printer icon to the Desktop. Now if you ever want to print things you just have to
drag-and-drop them into the icon you just created.
Move the Start Button
Here’s a neat, undocumented trick for moving your Start button to another place on
the Taskbar: Click on the Start button, then hit the Esc key. Press Alt+- (the Alt key
and, at the same time, the hyphen key) then let go of both. Click on "Move" from
the menu, then use your right-and left-arrow keys to move the button. When the button is
where you want it, press the Enter key. Note that when you restart Windows, the Start
button will be back in its original location on the far left of the Taskbar.
Have you forgotten your password
If you have forgotten your password for logging into Windows95 go to the DOS prompt and
type *.pwl. Find the file with your user name in front of it and delete it. Restart
Windows95 and insert your new information (password, and user name).
BMP files can be used as icons
To make BMP files as icons you can go to the change icon option in the properties dialog
box. In the file types box you select All Files and then find a BMP that you want to use.
Secret stash of icons
The Windows95 "secret stash" of icons can be found in the Windows System folder
in PIFMGR.DLL. As a note, the normal Windows95 icon file is SHELL32.DLL and the Windows
3.1 icon file is in PROGMAN.EXE.
Hiding in your memory
If you want to know what's going on in your system's use of memory, just select Start/Run
and type MEM.
File Associations
There's an easy way and a hard way to change file associations. Here's the easy way. Click
on a document to select it, then hold the Shift key while right-clicking on it and select
Open With from the context menu. In the Open With dialog, make sure there's a check mark
in the "Always use this program to open this type of file" box, then
double-click on an application in the Choose window. Warning: Once you've done this,
the box will be checked by default next time the dialog comes up.
Look at Your Hardware
Right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties. This tabbed dialog is your
hardware's "Rosetta Stone". By exploring the various tabs and items, you can
find out about all the devices installed on your system, as well as your memory and port
settings.
Setup made easy
If you install a lot of software, save yourself some time by creating shortcuts on your
desktop to A:\SETUP.EXE and A:\INSTALL.EXE. Also it might be a good idea to create
shortcuts to your cd-rom drive SETUP.EXE and INSTALL.EXE.
Win95 Etiquette
Ill-behaved Win 3.x apps sometimes just don't mind their manners in Win95.Fortunately,
Win95 comes with a handy utility that forces good behaviour. Select Start/Run and type
MKCOMPAT. Selecting File/Choose Program, then click on the behaviours you'd like to
induce.
Program Manager, File Manager
Program Manager and File Manager are part of Win95, and they work in Win95 exactly as they
did in Windows 3.X. Both sport unique advantages. For example, File Manager is faster than
Explorer. If you miss Program Manager and File Manager, you can find PROGMAN.EXE and
WINFILE.EXE in the WINDOWS folder. Just create shortcuts to them on your desktop.
Save Space by Configuring the Recycle Bin
On its own, Recycle Bin will consume up to 10 percent of your hard disk space. If you want
it to use more, or less, right-click on the Recycle Bin and select Properties. You can set
exactly how much-or how little-space the Bin should use.
Turn off the delete confirmation on the Recycle Bin
Windows 95 always asks if you really mean it when you try to delete a file or drag it to
the Recycle Bin. If you often kill the wrong file, that’s a useful confirmation. But
if you generally only throw out files you really want thrown out, the confirmations are a
pain. Right-click on Recycle Bin/Properties, and you can turn off delete confirmations.
How to Erase a File Forever
Some files may be sensitive (budget reports, for example) or toxic (some bad Internet
downloads, for example) and you want them immediately gone forever, without a stop in the
Recycle Bin. To immediately delete a file, no fooling around, hold down the Shift key when
you delete it (Shift-delete).
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