Compiled from Microsoft's Electronic Newsletter WinNews
The following are a few useful hints and tips that will result in a more
productive work environment. These are some of the most powerful features
in Windows 95.
Toll Free Fast Tips
If you are in the U.S. , you can call and get Fast Tips
for Windows 95 toll-free at 1-800-936-4200. This provides
special Windows 95 announcements, frequently asked
questions, technical library items, information on the
Microsoft support network and lots of important facts.
Hiding the Taskbar
Choose Taskbar properties (from the Start button or by
right-clicking the Taskbar), and enable the Auto Hide
feature from the Taskbar Options property page. The
Taskbar will now be hidden until the mouse moves near the
Taskbar area.
Changing Languages and Keyboard Layouts
Open the Keyboard control panel applet. Choose the Language
tab, and add some other languages to your keyboard layout.
Check the 'Enable indicator on Taskbar' option. A Language
layout icon will appear on the Taskbar. Clicking this icon
will expand a menu of installed Languages from which to
choose.
Alt-Tab
Many PC users use Alt-Tab as the method to switch
between open applications. While Windows 95 has new
features that make going from application to application
easier and more intuitive, the Alt-Tab function still
works for those who prefer it.
Opening Additional Windows In Single Window Browse Mode
If View Options are set to Browse Folders Using a Single
Window for each folder, you can open an additional window
in the folder by holding CTRL while you double click.
Suppressing Startup Shortcuts
Hold down the CTRL key while entering Windows. This will
keep items in the Startup folder from launching.
Master Volume Control Panel
On the Audio page of the Multimedia control panel applet,
select the 'Show volume control on Taskbar' option. Once
enabled, clicking the speaker icon on the Taskbar will
launch the volume control slider. Double-clicking the
speaker icon will launch the full volume control applet.
Create shortcuts on the desktop
Right click on the desktop, choose "New" from the drop
down list, and select "Shortcut". After providing the
path and shortcut name, the new shortcut will be
created on the desktop.
Copying and Moving Files
Select the files you want to copy or move, right-click and
select "Copy" or "Cut". Open the destination location,
right-click and select "Paste".
Moving the Taskbar
If you don't like where the Taskbar is located
(it is at the bottom of the screen by default), you can
drag it to one of the other 3 edges of the desktop.
Minimize all windows
If you want to quickly minimize all the windows you have
open, right-mouse button click on an open area of the
Taskbar (where there is no button) and select:
"Minimize All Windows."
Quickly Close Window
If you want to quickly close a window you have open,
right-mouse button click on its Taskbar button and
select "Close."
No Taskbar
If you don't want the Taskbar on your desktop, go to
Start, Settings, Taskbar - and select the Taskbar
Options tab and select Auto-Hide.
Adjusting Memory Cache Size for CD-ROM's
Go to Control Panel and select systems. Choose the
Performance Tab and then select File System. Finally,
choose the CD-ROM Tab. Here you can adjust the
memory cache size for your CD-ROM drive.
Deactivating Autorun On Audio CD's:
There are two options to deactive Autorun
Hold down the shift key when you insert the CD-ROM
Open any folder and select the View drop-down menu.
Then choose Options, then File Types. Choose Select
AudioCD and click Edit. Click once on Play from the Action
listbox. Then click on Set Default - this toggles the
Autorun default. If Play is bolded, the CD will play when
inserted. If it is not bolded, it will not play.
Opening the Media Player from an .AVI
When an .AVI file is playing, you can bring up the Media
Player by double-clicking the title bar of the .AVI.
Double-clicking the Media Player title bar will make
it disappear.
Accessing Internet Resources Via the Run Command
Click the Start button and choose Run. Type the URL
address in the Run Command Line.
Example: http://www.microsoft.com.
Internet Explorer will launch and automatically initiate
a connection to the desired address.
Saving Images As Wallpaper Using Internet Explorer
From Internet Explorer, right click on the desired image
and choose Set As Desktop Wallpaper.
BITMAP VIEWER
MS Paint can serve as a bitmap viewer. Drag a bitmap icon
onto MS Paint window to view it. The current image will be
replaced with the new bitmap.
OPEN WITH
If you want to open a file with a program that is different
than the one it is associated with, hold down the shift
and then right click on the file icon. Select "Open with"
and you can choose another program that will open the file.
Creating a New File or Folder
Right-click on your desktop and select "New". Then you can
choose to open the any of the file types offered or a
new folder.
Create a New Folder While Saving a File
When using "Save As" in a Windows 95 application, you can
create a new folder while saving the file. Select "save as"
then choose a location for the new folder in the "save in"
drop-down menu. Then choose the folder icon on the toolbar
on the far right (when you hold the cursor over the icon it
will say "Create New Folder"). When you click on this icon
you will then be able to name the new folder.
Start up Programs
If you want to have a program open when you start your PC,
go to the "Start" button, then select "Settings" and then
"Taskbar".
Choose the "Start Menu Programs" tab, and select "Advanced".
On the right side of the Explorer screen find the program
you want to add and drag it onto the "StartUp" button on
the left side. This program will come up every time you
start your PC.
Deleting Files Without Moving them to the Recycle Bin
Select the file(s) to be deleted. Right-click on the
selection and hold the Shift key down while selecting Delete.
Closing Consecutive Windows
To simultaneously close all the windows you have opened,
hold the shift key and click the X button on the right side
of the folders title bar.
Disk Tools
Right-click any drive in My Computer and select Properties.
The Tools tab offers ScanDisk, Backup and Defrag, which
help optimize your system and protect your data.
Drive Space
Right-click any drive in My Computer and select Properties.
Under the Compression tab, you can use DriveSpace to
compress hard and floppy disks, creating more free space
You can also use DriveSpace to configure previously
compressed drives that used DoubleSpace or DriveSpace.
Printer Queue
If you want to see documents in the queue on a
particular printer, choose "Start" then "Settings" then
"Printers", then select the printer you want to see.
To see information on the printer to which you have just
sent a document, double-click on the printer icon that
will appear in the bottom-right box of your taskbar.
Moving up a folder level
To move up a level in folders, simply select "Backspace"
Selecting all files
To select all files in a folder select "Ctrl+A".
Viewing files with Explorer
To view all of the files on your computer you can:
Open "Windows Explorer" by going to the Start Button,
selecting "Programs" then "Windows Explorer" - or -
Going into "My Computer", selecting your hard drive
then the "Windows" folder, then the "Explorer" file.
Here are a couple for mobile PC users:
Synchronizing files between laptop and desktop PCs
If you want to synchronize a set of files between your
portable PC, your office desktop PC, and your home PC,
create briefcases on your desktop PC(s) and keep the documents
on your laptop. Drag the documents from your portable to
the Briefcase on your desktop machine(s). Each time you
connect your portable the docking station, the Briefcase
on will automatically synchronize the files.
Viewing remaining battery life of laptop
For computers with Advanced Power Management, clicking on
the battery icon in the Tray status area (on the toolbar)
brings up a detailed battery meter.
Creating Web Shortcuts
When on a web page, right-clicking with the mouse offers
an option to create a short-cut. These shortcuts can be
enclosed in Exchange mail messages or Microsoft
Word documents.
Freeing up monitor space
To free up more space on a monitor, you can choose to
hide the Taskbar. Just right-click on the Taskbar,
select "properties" and "Autohide" on the Taskbar
options menu.
MORE RAPID RENAME WITH [F2]
Are you tired of using the slow double-click method to name
a file? This procedure involves highlighting the file with
one click, waiting long enough for Windows to know you're
not double-clicking, and then clicking the file's name to
open the rename box in which you type the file's new name.
A quicker way to open the rename box in Windows Explorer
is to press [F2] as soon as you've highlighted the file.
TRANSFORM MY COMPUTER INTO EXPLORER
Your users may prefer the friendly face of My Computer to
the more powerful Windows Explorer. But when it's time to
move files around, Explorer's the tool to use. In fact,
Explorer and My Computer are just two faces of the same
program. You can show your users how to open My Computer
as the more functional dual-windowed Explorer by holding
down the [Shift] key as they double-click the My Computer icon.
OPEN FIND
When you want to locate files quickly, you first have to
find Find. One way to open Find is to click Start, highlight
Find and, when the next menu appears, click Files or Folders
.... A quicker way to get there is to click anywhere on the
desktop (or on a blank bit of the Taskbar, if you can't see
the desktop) and then press [F3].
CREATING AN INSTANT SCREEN SAVER
Do you work with confidential data? If you do, there are
probably instances when you need to quickly remove that
information from your screen. For example, suppose someone
without authorized access to your data knocks on your office
door and wants to see you. In these situations, you can
easily minimize the window to remove the data from view.
However, there's another technique for hiding your screen's
contents.
You can create a shortcut on your desktop to a screen saver
and then assign a shortcut key--or hot key--to the shortcut.
Then, when you need to hide your confidential data, you
can do so quickly and easily by pressing the hot key. Let's
take a look at how you set up this technique. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/cobb/cobb8.htm
ICONOGRAPHY
When you put a shortcut on your desktop or in a folder, you're stuck
with the icon that Windows 95 gives you, right? Wrong. Picking a
brand-new look for that shortcut's icon is only a few clicks away.
Click the shortcut in need of a makeover with the right mouse button,
choose Properties, and in the dialog box that pops up, click the
Shortcut tab. Click the Change Icon button, and you'll see a list of
icons from which to choose under Current icon. Scroll through the
list, pick the one you like, and click OK. It's a whole new view!
EXPLORE EVERY BRANCH
The next time you're in Explorer and want to see everything
that's in a particular drive or folder, don't waste time
double-clicking to expand all those branches. Click the drive
or folder once, then click the asterisk (*) on your numeric
keypad. (Don't try Shift+8 or you'll end up changing the name
of the drive or folder to *!) Double-click the top dog to
close all of its branches up again, and from then on,
you'll see all of its branches just by double-clicking it.
CAPTAIN'S LOG
Notepad is a small, can't-even-really-call-it-a-word-
processor program that comes with Windows 95. It isn't
fancy, but it does have one unique talent: If you type .
LOG at the top of a Notepad file, it becomes a log file,
just like a journal. Every time you make an entry, Notepad
will time and date stamp the file, which you'll see the next
time you open it.
OFF TO A FRESH RESTART
In the past, we've shown you the trick to restarting Windows 95
without rebooting your entire system: Choose Shut Down in the Start
menu, select Restart the computer?, then hold down Shift as you click
Yes. Want an icon that does all this without ever setting foot in the
Shut Down dialog box? Just set up a simple MS-DOS batch file and place
its icon within arm's reach. From then on, restarting Windows 95 is
just a double-click away.
Open Notepad and type the following:
@EXIT
Save the file anywhere you want with an appropriate name, such as
RESTART.BAT, and close Notepad. Find the new file in Explorer and
place a shortcut to it on the desktop (assuming you want to access
this icon from the desktop). Close Explorer and rename the new
shortcut.
Click the shortcut with the right mouse button, choose Properties, and
on the Program tab, select the Close on Exit option. Click Advanced,
select MS-DOS mode, and deselect Warn before entering MS-DOS
mode. Click OK twice.
Ready to restart Windows 95? Double-click your new desktop icon!
Printers
Quickly print a document
To print a document quickly, you can drag its icon onto a printer icon.
Printer Desktop shortcuts
You can put shortcuts to your printers on your desktop.
Printer icon while printing
When you print a document, a printer icon appears on the
Taskbar. Double-click it to see a list of documents
waiting to print.
Using the keyboard with Windows 95
List of Keyboard Shortcuts
For a list of keyboard shortcuts, look up "Shortcut Keys"
in the Windows Help Index.
"FIND" Function
When the desktop is active you can access the "Find"
function by simply pressing the F3 key. Find is also
available from the Start Menu.
The Keyboard provides right-mouse button (or alternate
mouse button) capabilities.
On the desktop select SHIFT+F10 for the desktop right-
mouse button menu. Options here include arranging
icons, opening Display Properties or opening a new
desktop folder or shortcut.
Selecting CTRL+ESC will open the Start Menu. From there
press ESC then press SHIFT+F10. This will open the
right-mouse menu for the Start Button. (Choosing
"Open" will allow you to easily edit the contents
of your Start Menu).
Selecting ALT+ENTER brings up properties information
in many areas of Windows 95.
From the Start Menu is brings up Taskbar Properties
When you select "My Computer" ALT+ENTER brings up
the Systems Properties dialog box from Control Panel
ALT+ENTER also allows you to toggle between a Windowed
and a Full DOS Screen
Using the cursor from the Keyboard instead of the Mouse
You can operate the cursor without using the mouse by
going to Control Panel/Accessibility Options select the
Mouse tab and activate the "MouseKeys" box.
Improved Keyboard Access By Numbering Start menu items
Rename the items you have placed at the top of the Start
Taskbar menu by placing a number at the beginning of the
name. When you access the Taskbar using Ctrl-Esc (or
by clicking on the Start button) then type the number you
added the program name, that program will open.