Creating new folders the quick way
As you probably know, creating new folders in Windows Explorer takes several mouse clicks. To do so, you have to pull down the File menu, select the New submenu, and finally select the Folder command. You can also create new folders by right-clicking in Windows Explorer's Contents pane and, when the context menu appears, selecting the Folder command from the New submenu. Both these tasks require three mouse clicks and can be time consuming - especially with a slow computer.
Fortunately, you can quickly create folders from either Windows Explorer or My Computer with the keystroke combination
[Alt]F+W+F
In this keystroke combination, [Alt]F activates the File menu, W selects the New submenu, and F selects the Folder command. To use this shortcut, just press [Alt]F, then W, and then F again. While it may sound awkward, it's really handy once you get used to it.
Muting your sound system
Have you ever turned the volume control on your speakers all the way down to mute the sound? While turning the control on the speaker is easy enough, there's another way to quickly mute the sound: Just click the speaker icon in the taskbar and when the pop-up volume control window appears, select the Mute check box. Now, click anywhere on the desktop to close this pop-up window. When the sound is muted, you'll see that the speaker icon has a red circle around it and a slash through it to indicate that the sound is turned off.
Find Fast 97 can be a drag on overall system performance
If you've installed Office 97 on your system, you may notice your hard disk burst into a frenzy of activity at regular intervals and perform slowly. The activity is generated by the Find Fast utility. This feature creates and manages an index that Office applications such as Word and Excel use to launch full-text searches from the File Open dialog box. By default, Find Fast is configured to run every two hours, which is usually too often for most casual Office users. To set a less frequent schedule, first open Control Panel and double-click the Find Fast icon. Then, pull down the Index menu and select the Update Interval... command. Now, enter a more reasonable time span, such as every 24 hours.
Working with scraps
Did you know that in many applications you can drag scraps of text or graphics to the desktop for later use in their original or another application? For example, let's say that you're working on a report in Microsoft Word and you decide to cut a paragraph. However, you may want to use that paragraph later in the document or even in another file. To create a scrap, select the text you wish to use and then drag it onto the desktop with the right mouse button. When you release the button, select the Move Scrap Here command from the context menu (dragging with the left mouse button will automatically copy the scrap). Now when you want to copy the scrap into a document, just drag it from the desktop into the text.
Adding or removing optional Windows 95 components
No matter what installation type you chose when you installed Windows 95, chances are good you didn't install every optional component available. When you want to add one of the components you didn't previously install, Windows 95 makes it easy. Likewise, Windows 95 makes it easy to remove optional components that you installed but never use. Begin by opening Control Panel (accessible from the Settings folder on the Start menu). Next, double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon to open the corresponding property sheet. Then, click the Windows Setup tab.
The Components list shows you each category of optional Windows 95 components. If the check box next to a category already contains a check mark, you've installed components in that category. If the check box is gray, you've installed only some of the components in that category. To see which components a category contains, double-click the category name (not the check box). A dialog box similar to the Windows Setup page will open, listing the category's components with a check box beside each. If you double-click Accessories, for example, you'll find components like Briefcase, Document Templates, and Quick View. The Description section explains the function of the highlighted component and a check mark indicates an already installed component. Clicking a check mark removes it and indicates that you want to uninstall the component. Clicking an empty check box adds a check mark to indicate that you want to install the component. For instance, you can click the Briefcase check box to add the Briefcase accessory to your desktop.
After choosing the component(s) you want to add or remove, click OK to return to the Windows Setup page. At this point, you can double-click another category and choose more components to add or remove, or you can click OK to start the addition/removal process. If necessary, Windows 95 will prompt you for a particular installation disk or the installation CD containing a component's files. Insert the requested disk and then click OK. Windows 95 will copy the required files, set up the component, and close the Add/Remove Programs property sheet.
New icons for your shortcuts
When you create shortcuts to executable files, folders, or network drives, you may want to customize the icons Windows 95 uses for those shortcuts. Maybe you want to use an icon that more accurately represents the task performed by the shortcut. For example, you might create a Windows Explorer shortcut to your second hard drive using the command line.
C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /n,/e,d:\
When you do, Windows 95 assigns a computer icon to the shortcut. However, suppose you'd rather use a hard disk icon.
Fortunately, changing a shortcut's icon is a snap. To assign a new icon to a particular shortcut, simply right-click the shortcut and select the Properties command from the context menu. When you see the shortcut's properties sheet, click the Shortcut tab. Then, click the Change Icon... button, as shown below. (If the shortcut is to an MS-DOS program, you'll find the Change Icon... button on the Program tab.)
Once the Change Icon dialog box appears, as shown below, you can select any one of the icons in the Current icon list. To see all the icons in the file, simply use the scroll bar.
As you can see, the icons in the Current icon list come from the SHELL32.DLL file. (If the shortcut is to an MS-DOS program, the icons in the Current icon list come from the PIFMGR.DLL file.) If you don't see an icon in the list that catches your fancy, you can click the Browse... button to open other files, such as ICO, EXE or DLL files, that contain icons. The table shown below, lists some of the Windows 95 EXE and DLL files that contain a selection of icons.
File name Location Awfxex32.exe C:\Windows\System Cool.dll C:\Windows\System Defrag.exe C:\Windows Gnaapp.exe C:\Windows\System Moricons.dll C:\Windows Pifmgr.dll C:\Windows\System Progman.exe C:\Windows Shell32.dll C:\Windows\System Systray.exe C:\Windows\System User.exe C:\Windows\System Winpopup.exe C:\Windows
Taking advantage of right-click functionality
Did you know that most 32-bit Windows 95 applications support the same right-click file-management tools that you use in Windows Explorer? To see an example of this right-click capability, launch Microsoft Word, pull down the File menu, and select the Open... command. Now, right-click a filename in the Open dialog box, and a familiar context menu will appear. Using this context menu, you can cut, copy, delete, rename, and perform additional file-management operations. Remember, Word isn't the only application that has right-click functionality. You'll find this feature in most applications designed for Windows 95.
Quickly accessing the Web
Did you know that you can use Internet Explorer to create shortcuts on your desktop that link directly to an Internet site? First, pull down Internet Explorer's File menu from the site you want to create a shortcut to and select the Create Shortcut command. You'll see a message telling you that the shortcut will be placed on your desktop. Click the OK button, and a shortcut to the current URL will appear on your desktop. From now on, you can launch Internet Explorer and connect to the site simply by double-clicking your shortcut.
Quick access to Device Manager
As you may know, when you're troubleshooting a problem in Windows 95, Device Manager is invaluable. If you need to access it often, there's a quick way to open Device Manager from the desktop--simply hold down the [Alt] key, double-click My Computer, and choose Device Manager from the shortcut menu.
Disk Defragmenter to the rescue
When you save a large file on your hard disk, Windows 95 divides it into small pieces, or clusters, and then stores each cluster in a different area. Windows 95 keeps a master list of all the clusters, which is fine most of the time. However, this storage method isn't so good when Windows 95 has to search for clusters that are scattered all over your hard drive. When a hard drive becomes too fragmented, your system will slow down while Windows 95 scurries to put together the scattered clusters. Windows 95 includes a built-in program called Disk Defragmenter, which groups the scattered clusters in one place, thereby speeding up your system. You should run Disk Defragmenter on a regular basis--say, once every month or two for moderate PC use, and more than that if your hard drive is nearly full.