PC Computing's 1,001 Windows Tips • 1,001 Tips Introduction: Work Smarter Operating Environments DOS DOS Utilities Windows Windows for Workgroups 3.11 Windows NT Windows Utilities OS/2 Word Processing WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS WordPerfect 6.0 for DOS WordPerfect 6.0 for Windows Word 2.0 for Windows Word 6.0 for Windows Ami Pro 3.0 Spreadsheets 1-2-3 Release 4 for Windows Lotus 1-2-3 Release 2.x Lotus 1-2-3 Release 3.x Microsoft Excel 4.0 Microsoft Excel 5.0 Quattro Pro for DOS Quattro Pro for Windows Lotus Improv for Windows Databases FoxPro 2.5 for DOS dBASE IV dBASE for Windows Microsoft Access Approach 2.1 Paradox 4.5 for Windows Lotus Notes Programming Visual Basic 3.0 for windows CA-Realizer for Windows Assembler Visual C++ 1.5 Good Windows Programming Borland C++ Presentation Graphics Lotus Freelance Graphics Microsoft PowerPoint 4.0 SPC Harvard Graphics Aldus Persuasion: Any Presentation Package Desktop Publishing Aldus PageMaker for Windows: QuarkXPress for Windows Microsoft Publisher 2.0 Frame Technology FrameMaker 4.0 Frame Technology Framemaker 5.0 Painting & Drawing CorelDraw 3 CorelDraw 4 Virtus WalkThrough for Windows 1.2 Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Micrografx Picture Publisher Workgroup Applications PIMs Networking Communications E-mail/Scheduling Peripherals, Systems, Ergonomics Peripherals Systems Ergonomics Easter Eggs and Games Easter Eggs Games Celebritips Introduction: Work Better, Faster, and Smarter From PC Computing, August 1994 Productivity. It's your obsession, and for good reason. Productivity means saved time. It means faster results. Simply put, productivity means success. That's why you need to improve your productivity, from efficient order processing down to faster file access. And once you buy a product, you want to get the most from it. We want you to get the most from it, too. So we installed nearly 90 major applications like DOS and Windows (of course), and WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, Lotus 1-2-3, Excel, and dBASE. We went hunting for the best secrets, tricks, and productivity-boosting tips we could find. We pored over the manuals to see what the vendors left out. We went through bulletin boards and electronic forums to see what questions users were asking. We contacted experts for their best advice. In all, we gathered more than 2,500 tips, then we chose the very best. And we TESTED them all. Every tip went through PC Computing Labs and worked. We'll be honest, though: Sometimes tips work for one person and not another--there are too many variables to guarantee that every tip will work for everyone, every time. If you find one that doesn't, tell us on our electronic forum, PC Contact, on ZiffNet for CompuServe (GO ZNT:PCCONTACT). You'll find advice for every major application--probably more than you can absorb at once. When you're tipped out, click here for the most complete guide ever compiled to Easter eggs--those hidden rolling animated cast lists in almost every application. ----- Windows 113 Quick Environment Adjustment 114 Fine-Tune Your Mouse 115 Remember When DOS Is Running 116 Too Many Fonts? 127 More Icons 128 Load No DOS Mouse 129 DOS Session Fonts 130 The 24-Hour Clock 131 Fast Disk 132 Back to the Way You Were 133 Sound Advice 134 Maintenance Mode Setup 135 Burning the Midnight Oil 136 Speed Boost DOS Under Windows 137 Restrict Windows 138 No More Instructions! 139 Sharing a Microsoft Mouse 140 Remote Printing 141 Use NoEMM Setting in SYSTEM.INI 142 Make Sure Files and Buffers Are Set High Enough 143 The Cool Switch 144 Alternate Maximizer 145 Use Your Mouse in a DOS Box 146 Two Configurations 147 Back Up SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI 148 Keep Your TrueType Font List Lean and Mean 150 Easy Selection 151 Speed Up Response 152 Mouseless Navigation 1 153 Mouseless Navigation 2 155 Type As Fast As You Can 156 Expanded Memory 157 Icon See Clearly Now 158 New Program Manager Items 160 SmartDrive and Buffers 161 Monitor System Resources 162 Troubleshooting Startup 163 I'd Like to Be Like Mac 164 Moving TrueType Fonts 165 Open Multiple Documents 166 Printing from Terminal 168 Logical Grouping 169 PS/2 Mouse Hangs When Exiting 171 Set MaxBPs=768 172 Terminal Situation 173 Long Filenames in Windows 174 DOS Communications 175 Buffer Runneth Over 176 Recorder Macros from Icons 177 Font Substitutes 178 Speedy Launches 186 Make a Permanent Swap File 187 Run Defrag Before Swap File 199 Clipboard in DOS Sessions 200 Windowed DOS Apps 201 Registry Editor 202 Navigating File Manager 203 Where's BOOTLOG? 204 Elementary, My Dear Watson. . 217 - 238 Time-saver Program Manager 239 Alt Menus 240 Delete Files Save Disk 241 Keep Track of Your Crashes 242 Windows for Workgroups Naming With LAN Manager 243 Control Client-Server performance 244 Windows NT 3.1 Set Up Your Guest 245 Event Log Maintenance 246 Don't Delete That User 261 - 281 File Manager Time-saver 113 Quick Environment Adjustment Ever encounter an "Out of environment space" error message when running DOS under Windows? You don't need to edit your CONFIG.SYS file's SHELL= line to get things working right. Instead, open DOSPROMPT.PIF with PIF Editor. In the Optional Parameters: box, type /E:800, then save your changes and exit. This expands the environment space for your DOS session to 800 bytes. If you still get "Out of environment space" messages, increase the number until the errors go away. 114 Fine-Tune Your Mouse You want your mouse pointer to move as if there were a hungry tabby on its trail. When you set up a new PC, open the Control Panel, click on the Mouse icon, and slide the Sensitivity slider all the way to the right. This works on almost every system, except notebooks like IBM's ThinkPad, that is--the built-in pointing device is great, but it's tricky to maneuver at warp speed. On those systems, the Sensitivity slider should go almost all the way to the left. 115 Remember When DOS Is Running With full-screen DOS sessions, it's easy to forget that you're still running Windows. But with Windows 3.1 there's an easy way to remind yourself that you're shelled out to DOS so that you don't carelessly run CHKDSK or try to use a disk-utility program. Using a text editor such as Notepad, open AUTOEXEC.BAT and find the PROMPT statement that defines your DOS prompt. Add this line after it: SET WINPMT=$e[1;31mWARNINGWindows!$e[1;37m$_$p$g This displays a red message that is very hard to miss. You can change the text that follows WINPMT= to any prompt you want, and you can use any of the special characters allowed in normal PROMPT statements. Reboot your computer and start Windows. When you shell out to DOS, you'll see a prompt that is different from the ordinary DOS prompt. 116 Too Many Fonts? Windows loads very slowly when it carries the heavy baggage of too many fonts. You may need all those fonts when you use a desktop publishing program, but you want a speedier startup procedure for other applications. Make a copy of your WIN.INI file and name it WIN.FNT. Using a text editor such as EDIT or SYSEDIT in Windows, search for FOT. Insert a semicolon in front of each line that loads a TrueType font, such as Onyx BT (TrueType)=TT0519M_.FOT, to disable the entire line. Leave Arial, Times New Roman, Courier, and your favorite fonts intact (you need some fonts to work). Resave WIN.INI, and the next time you load Windows, it will come up significantly faster. You may also notice an increase in the available Windows Memory (at Program Manager, select Help, About Program Manager to view your available memory). For those occasions when you do need all of your fonts, rename WIN.INI as WIN.OLD (or a similar name), and copy WIN.FNT to WIN.INI. 127 More Icons If you want your icons closer together, edit your WIN.INI file in any text editor and go to the [Desktop] section. Add the line IconVerticalSpacing=44. Save, exit, and restart Windows. This will place icons neatly on top of each other. You can experiment with the value. 128 Load No DOS Mouse If you don't use a mouse for any of the DOS applications you run, don't load it. Make sure neither AUTOEXEC.BAT nor CONFIG.SYS loads any file that even vaguely looks like MOUSE.SYS or MOUSE.COM. That will save around 17K of memory. 129 DOS Session Fonts As long as you're messing around with your DOS session, try changing the onscreen font. Select Control Menu (the minus button at the left of the title bar), Fonts. A dialog box will give you a choice of a wide variety of fonts and show you how much space the window will take if you select that font. 130 The 24-Hour Clock If you prefer 24-hour time, edit WIN.INI, go to the [Intl] section, and change the line iTime=0 to iTime=1. 131 Fast Disk To boost I/O performance, go into the Control Panel's Enhanced option. Select Virtual Memory, Change and turn on Use 32-bit File Access and Use 32-bit Disk Access. You should see a 5 to 10 percent performance improvement in everyday activity. 132 Back to the Way You Were If you have deleted program groups or icons and want a quick way to restore them, go to Program Manager and select File, Run. In the Command Line field, type SETUP /P. This won't do away with additional icons and groups you've installed, it will just restore the ones you've deleted. 133 Sound Advice Use your sound card's mixer program to create a Program Manager item that silences your system's sounds fast. The Pocket Mixer program included with Media Vision's Pro Audio Spectrum 16, for example, lets you store alternate settings in a file. Open the Mixer utility, turn the volume all the way down, and save the settings in a file called MUTE.MIX. Now copy the Pocket Mixer program icon and edit the command line, adding MUTE.MIX as a parameter. You now have an instant silencer. 134 Maintenance Mode Setup If you can't get into Windows to change specific hardware settings (such as video driver or mouse driver) you can go into "maintenance mode setup" from MS-DOS. To do this, type SETUP from the WINDOWS directory in MS-DOS. 135 Burning the Midnight Oil Some people lose all sense of time when they work. Make sure the clock is always visible by clicking once on the minimized clock icon and selecting "Always on top." The clock program will also display the time and date when minimized. 136 Speed Boost DOS Under Windows You can control how fast your DOS sessions run under Windows by controlling what percent of the CPU's attention they get. Run a DOS session and select System, Settings. Increase the Foreground and Background priority settings. The higher the number, the more attention the DOS session will get. Try doubling the default values for a start. 137 Restrict Windows Windows isn't very secure, but you can make it less vulnerable to accidental customizations and edits. Edit PROGMAN.INI and find the section called [Restrictions]. If it doesn't exist, create it. Then you can keep people from fooling around with your setup by adding any or all of the following commands: EditLevel=4 Disables creation, deletion, or changing of program groups and items. NoSaveSettings=1 Keeps Windows from saving settings. NoRun=1 Disables File, Run. NoClose=1 Makes it impossible to exit Windows gracefully (you can still reboot). NoFileMenu=1 Removes the File menu and its shortcut keys. 138 No More Instructions! After you've seen them a few times, you'll probably memorize the DOS session instructions that Windows 3.1 provides every time you shell out to DOS. Fortunately, it's easy to remove that screen so that your DOS sessions begin with a pristine C:\ prompt. Using a text editor such as Notepad, open SYSTEM.INI. In the section labeled [386Enh], add the following line: DOSPromptExitInstruc=no Save your changes, then exit and restart Windows. When you shell out to DOS, the instructions will no longer clutter your screen. You'll see only Microsoft's copyright message followed by the prompt. 139 Sharing a Microsoft Mouse You share your PC with a left-handed colleague who wants Windows to start with the mouse buttons swapped--without having to use the Control Panel. Go to the \WINDOWS directory and copy MOUSE.INI to MOUSE.RH and MOUSE.LH. If you can't find MOUSE.INI in the Windows directory, look for it in \MSMOUSE. Make MOUSE.LH a "left-handed" file by editing it in a text editor, as follows: Change the lines PrimaryButton=1 and SecondaryButton=3 to PrimaryButton=3 and SecondaryButton=1. If these lines are not already there, type them in. Next, edit the batch file that calls Windows (usually AUTOEXEC.BAT). Insert the following lines before the WIN command: CHOICE "Are you a left-handed mouse user?(Y/N) " IF ERRORLEVEL 2 COPY \MSMOUSE \MOUSE.RH \MSMOUSE\MOUSE.INI IF ERRORLEVEL 1 IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 2 COPY \MSMOUSE\MOUSE.LH \MSMOUSE \MOUSE.INI 140 Remote Printing If you print your files at a location that doesn't have your application or fonts, you may find that your document doesn't come out looking at all like what you want. You can correct this situation with a bit of Sneakernet savvy. Set up Windows with the remote printer's driver. In the Control Panel, select Printers, Connect and set up File as the port to print to. When you select this printer during a print job, Windows will prompt you for a filename. If you have a disk in drive A:, type a:filename.prn. For example, A:NWSLTR.PRN. Take that disk to a computer that's attached to the printer and type copy a:\NWSLTR.prn lpt1: /b at a DOS prompt. Substitute the drive letter and the printer port as needed. 141 Use NoEMM Setting in SYSTEM.INI Modern applications almost never use expanded (EMS) memory. You're only two-thirds of the way there if you add NOEMM to the EMM386 line in CONFIG.SYS and set EMMSize=0 in the [386Enh] section of SYSTEM.INI. Even if you set the latter line to 0, Windows still (unnecessarily) loads the EMM driver. So do what we've done and give your RAM some breathing room by adding the following line right after EMMSize=0 in SYSTEM.INI: NoEMMDriver=ON 142 Make Sure Files and Buffers Are Set High Enough Sometimes that out-of-memory error message means something completely different. Windows might just have run out of available file handles or buffers. Many systems come preconfigured with a woefully minimal 30 files and 10 buffers set in CONFIG.SYS. Ha! Try setting both numbers much higher depending on the applications you run most often. Set FILES=50 and BUFFERS=20 as a bare minimum. If you use more than one large application at a time, bump the settings to 80 and 30, respectively. If you regularly work with many large applications, including a database, kick the numbers to 120 and 80. You'll pay a price in conventional memory, but if you use Windows applications exclusively, that's irrelevant. 143 The Cool Switch Use Alt-Tab to cycle through applications in Windows 3.1. Try Alt-Shift-Tab to go backward. This shortcut is called the Cool Switch for obvious reasons. 144 Alternate Maximizer Don't like Windows 3.1's maximize icon? Double-click on an app's title bar to run it full-screen. Double-click again to restore the window's original size 145 Use Your Mouse in a DOS Box To use your mouse in a DOS box, open your SYSTEM.INI file. Under the heading [NonWindowsApp], change the MouseInDosBox setting from 1 to 0. 146 Two Configurations It never fails. As soon as you've finished arranging Windows to your liking, an office mate rearranges everything: windows, icons, and wallpapers. You need two configurations, one for you and one for your colleague. Arrange Program Manager and File Manager according to your preferences. Save this setup by making sure that Save Settings on Exit is selected under the Options menu, then exit Windows. Change to your Windows directory (usually \WINDOWS), and type: COPY win.INI win.IN1 COPY system.ini system.in1 COPY progman.ini progman.in1 COPY *.GRP *.GR1 Return to Windows, let your colleague rearrange everything, save, and exit. Then type: COPY win.INI win.IN2 COPY system.ini system.in2 COPY progman.ini progman.in2 COPY *.GRP *.GR2 Repeat the process for each additional user. Then create a batch file called WIN1.BAT as follows: @echo off CD \WINDOWS copy *.in1 *.ini copy *.gr1 *.grp win Repeat the process for WIN2.BAT, WIN3.BAT, and so on. User 1 should load Windows by typing WIN1 rather than just WIN. User 2 should type WIN2, and so on for each user. Note: If you install a new application and need to update the setting, the entire process needs to be repeated. 147 Back Up SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI Even if you back up the rest of your system only as often as Halley's Comet appears, back up these two files regularly. Someday a rogue application will change one byte in one of these files and cause Windows to go to never-never land. When it does, you'll replace the appropriate INI file with its backup, and you'll be back in business. 148 Keep Your TrueType Font List Lean and Mean Unnecessary TrueType fonts take up huge chunks of memory and slow system performance. Periodically go into the Fonts section of Control Panel and weed out fonts you don't use often. Better yet, use a font-management utility to swap fonts in and out only as needed. The one found in Microsoft's TrueType Font Pack works well, and there are great shareware options as well. 150 Easy Selection To select the menu in any Windows app, press Alt or F10. 151 Speed Up Response Running Windows on a286 is, well, slow. Edit SYSTEM.INI, go to the [Standard] section, and add the line Fastermode Switch=1 to make Windows respond more quickly to hardware interrupts on 286-based machines only. 152 Mouseless Navigation 1 In Program Manager, type the first letter of an icon's name to select it. Hit Enter to launch the program behind it. 153 Mouseless Navigation 2 If you're tired of hunting for an application's icon to run it, try File, Run in Program Manager. 155 Type As Fast As You Can If you type very fast, you can fill Windows' keyboard buffer, causing characters to disappear. To increase the keyboard buffer size, edit WIN.INI and go to the [Desktop] section. Set TypeAhead= and specify a number from 0 to 2,047 (bigger is better). 156 Expanded Memory To provide expanded memory to your DOS applications that need EMS, create a PIF for the program's EXE and specify the amount of EMS you prefer. For example, if you need 2MB of Expanded memory for your application, specify 2,048 for the EMS Memory: KB Required field in the PIF editor. 157 Icon See Clearly Now Windows and most Windows applications include an extensive list of icons. To get an idea of how many, go into Program Manager, select an application, and hit Alt-Enter to bring up its properties. Click on Change Icon, Browse and open MORICONS.DLL. You'll see lots of icons. Want more? Open PROGMAN.EXE or any Windows EXE, ICO, or DLL to see what icons it holds. 158 New Program Manager Items Add an item to Program Manager just by dragging it from File Manager. If the item is a Windows program, you'll probably get a nice icon, too. 160 SmartDrive and Buffers Using SmartDrive reduces the number of DOS buffers you need. Edit CONFIG.SYS and change BUFFERS=i to 15. 161 Monitor System Resources What's the most frustrating part of Windows? By a unanimous vote, we declare the winner to be the group of puny 64K "resource heaps" Windows doles out for applications to use. Savvy Windows users watch those numbers like hawks with the help of Program Manager or one of dozens of third-party utilities. Any time free system resources (FSR) dip below the 30-percent marker, you're on shaky ground. Consider shutting down one or more applications before starting another. If you're about to work with a crucial application or file, and system stability is at the top of your list, try restarting Windows to push FSRs to their maximum. 162 Troubleshooting Startup When Windows refuses to load properly, the first diagnostic tactic is to run WIN/B at the command prompt. The /B switch creates a text file called BOOTLOG.TXT in your Windows directory. The log will sometimes point out the name of the Windows component that needs to be replaced or updated. To temporarily disable certain Windows features and track down potential problems, try these startup switches: /D:X excludes the entire upper memory block (UMB) area; /D:V shuts down Windows' ability to handle hard-disk interrupts; /D:S disables system ROM breakpoint searching; /D:F turns off 32-bit disk access; and /S starts Windows in Standard mode. If Windows will start with only one of these settings, your task is a lot easier. 163 I'd Like to Be Like Mac The PC is not a Macintosh, but you can easily create a "kinda sorta" trash can. First, create a directory called \TRASHCAN by selecting File, Create Directory in File Manager. Now double-click on that directory name, and hit the Restore button if it's maximized. Double-click on the drive letter, and then on any directory you commonly work with (that opens a second window), and select its Restore button. Maximize File Manager, minimize \Trashcan, and arrange the size of the other directory's window to your liking. To save the settings, check the "Save settings on exit" bar in the Options menu and Shift-double-click on the Control Menu (the button at the left of the title bar). From now on, you may Shift-drag files from any directory to the trash can icon, just like you would on a Mac. Remember to clear the contents of the TRASHCAN directory every once in a while. 164 Moving TrueType Fonts You can free up disk space on the Windows drive by moving TrueType fonts to another drive. First copy all *.TTF files from the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory to the drive:\directory in which you want to store them. Next run the Control Panel and select the Fonts icon to bring up the Fonts dialog box. In the Fonts dialog box, select all of the TrueType fonts in the list, select the Remove button, and select the "Delete font file from disk" checkbox. Go back to the Control Panel and select the Fonts icon to bring up the Fonts dialog box. In the Fonts dialog box, select the Add button, then select the drive:\directory to which you have moved the *.TTF files. After Windows has searched for and found the font files, click on Select All, uncheck the "Copy fonts to Windows directory" option, and click on OK. At this point the *.FOT files will be re-created, the entries in WIN.INI will be updated, and the TrueType fonts will operate normally from their new location. 165 Open Multiple Documents Notepad and Paintbrush are not multiple document interface-compliant, which means you can open only one document at a time. If you need to cut and paste between documents, it can get tedious. The solution is easier than you think. Open multiple instances of Notepad or Paintbrush with different documents in each, and perform the clipboard operations. These programs are small enough that they shouldn't bog down your system. 166 Printing from Terminal To print the information from Terminal to a printer, use Printer Echo. Turn on Printer Echo by choosing it from the Settings menu in Terminal. All of the information displayed on the screen is captured in a buffer, and when a complete page of information is stored in the buffer, printing begins. Terminal will continue to print one page at a time as the buffer fills. The printout will consist of every line and command issued within the Terminal session. If you would like to dump the buffer to the printer manually, turn Printer Echo off by choosing it again from the Settings menu during the session. This will dump the contents of the buffer to the printer. 168 Logical Grouping If you primarily use Windows to launch the same applications, create a special group to hold them. Open Program Manager and select File, New, Program Group. Name it something like Applications. Now open the program groups that include the icons of your favorite applications, and hold down Ctrl as you drag the icons into your new Applications folder. Holding down Ctrl copies the icons, rather than moving them. Next, maximize the Applications folder and save your settings. Now your main Program Manager desktop will be a kind of quick-launch tool. 169 PS/2 Mouse Hangs When Exiting Some IBM PS/2 models seem to hang when you exit Windows 3.1, but after a delay, they return you to the DOS prompt. This is because the system waits for the mouse port to reinitialize. This problem is worst on PS/2 models 56 and 57, but it's also noticeable on models 90 and 95. Correct the problem by adding the following line to the [386Enh] section of SYSTEM.INI: InitPS2MouseAtExit=FALSE 171 Set MaxBPs=768 If you run Windows for Workgroups 3.11, you should add the line MaxBPs=768 to the [386Enh] section of SYSTEM.INI. You'll have fewer system crashes than before, largely because Windows refuses to run some applications in situations where it knows you don't have enough memory or resources. 172 Terminal Situation Terminal doesn't provide aphone book, but you can emulate one. In Terminal, select Settings and set up the parameters for the service you want to call (phone number, kind of terminal emulation, transfer protocol, and so on). Once you've set it up, select File, Save As to save the settings in a TRM file. Give it a descriptive name. Do this for any other services you regularly call. Use File, Open to call up a list of all your settings files and load the one you want. 173 Long Filenames in Windows For long Windows filenames, run Program Manager, select File, New, and select Group. Name the new group Documents. While the Documents group window is open, select File, New, Program Item. After Description, type up to 40 characters. After the Command Line prompt, type the filename--for example, LNCHLIT.DOC--and after Working Directory, enter the directory where that file is stored. When you double-click on this icon, it will launch Word and bring up the document. 174 DOS Communications You love your DOS communications program but it runs slowly (or worse, not at all) from within Windows. Here's why: Windows supports multitasking, but most DOS communications programs don't. If you run a Windows application and your DOS communications program at the same time, the Windows application can keep the communications program from getting the CPU time it needs. To overcome this, edit the communications program's Program Information File (PIF) as follows: In the Main group, Double-click on PIF Editor, select File, Open, and double-click on the appropriate PIF (for example, PROCOMM.PIF). Check the Full Screen and Background Execution boxes, click on the Advanced button, and check the Lock Memory box, which disables application memory swapping. Save and exit. For this tip to work, Windows must be in 386 Enhanced Mode and you must have a permanent swap file and enable 32-bit disk access. 175 Buffer Runneth Over If you have a sound or video capture card that uses DMA with a non-Windows application, you should increase your DMA buffer's size so you don't fill the buffer and crash your system. Edit SYSTEM.INI, go to the [386Enh] section, find the line DMABufferSize=, and change the value after the = to at least 64. If this line isn't there, add it. Then restart Windows. 176 Recorder Macros from Icons After you have created a macro with Windows' Recorder, launch it quickly from the Program Manager. In Program Manager, select File, New Item. In the Command line field, type: RECORDER -H shortcutkey filename where shortcutkey is the key combination you assigned to the macro when you recorded it, and filename is the name of the file into which you saved the macro. Make sure Recorder isn't running when you make this assignment or this won't work properly. 177 Font Substitutes If you use aspartame and non-dairy creamer in your coffee, you'll appreciate some of the font substitutions that Windows can make automatically--particularly if you receive files that include fonts you don't have on your system. Edit WIN.INI and go to the [Font Substitutes] section. In it, add a line such as Courier = Arial to make every occurrence of Courier in the sent file appear as Arial on your machine. 178 Speedy Launches If you have particular applications you run all the time, launch them with hotkeys. In Program Manager, select the icon of the application you want to launch and hit Alt-Enter. In the Shortcut Key field, type the letter, number, or function key you want to use. Close the dialog box and the key combination you specified will now launch your application. 186 Make a Permanent Swap File By default, Windows 3.1 creates a temporary swap file. It works, but it's slow. Make it faster by making it permanent. Run the 386 Enhanced section of the Control Panel. Select Virtual Memory, then Change. Under New Swapfile Settings, select Permanent and say OK to the default size. 187 Run Defrag Before Swap File Before you create a permanent swap file in Windows 3.1, make sure your hard disk is not heavily fragmented. Run MS-DOS 6's DEFRAG utility or any other disk defragmenter. Make sure you do it before creating the swap file: Most defragmenters have trouble defragmenting an existing Windows swap file. 199 Clipboard in DOS Sessions You use DOS applications under Windows and want to use the Clipboard to cut/copy/paste to or from Windows applications. Easy as pie. Run the DOS application in a window--not full-screen, using Windows' MS-DOS prompt, for example, or by hitting Alt-Enter during your DOS session. You can also use the Windows PIF Editor to change the DOS application's information, designating the display as windowed. While that program is running in a window, click on the Control Bar and select Edit, Mark. Using the mouse, block the text you wish to copy to the Clipboard, then select Edit, Copy. Alternatively, you can select Edit, Paste to paste text from a Windows application. 200 Windowed DOS Apps Running a windowed DOS application can be frustrating because you can't maximize the window. The maximum setting for a DOS window is 80 columns by 50 rows, but there's a way around this. Press Alt-Enter to switch to full, non-windowed mode, and toggle back to a window with another Alt-Enter. 201 Registry Editor In Program Manager, use File, Run and type REGEDIT. You'll see Windows' Registration Database--it's equivalent to the DOS path, only better. 202 Navigating File Manager Looking for a file in a 300-file directory can take too much clicking and scrolling. The easiest way to go quickly to a specific file is to sort the directory by name (select View, Sort by name), click anywhere in the file window (on the right), then type the first letter or character of the filename you wish to reach. This will take you to the first file that starts with that character. Type the same character again, and you'll go to the next file that starts with that character. 203 Where's BOOTLOG? If WIN/B doesn't create a bootlog, it usually means that it didn't get past loading virtual device drivers (VxDs). You may need to examine the [386Enh] section of your SYSTEM.INI file for the offending VxDs (start with third-party ones). You'll need to disable them one by one by placing a semicolon before the line that loads each, and reload Windows until you isolate the culprit. 204 Elementary, My Dear Watson. . Add DRWATSON to your LOAD= line in the WIN.INI file, so that the Dr. Watson utility will constantly lurk in your system, waiting for crashes. Once it finds a crash (lucky you), it'll prompt you to enter adescription of what you were doing at the time and will create a text file (DRWATSON.LOG) with all of the relevant system information so that you can share it with a technical support person. 217 - 238 Time-saver Program Manager Repetitive Task Shortcut Exit Windows Alt-F4 Maximize a window Alt-space, X Minimize a window Alt-space, N Move a window Alt-space, M Maximize a secondary (internal) window Alt-hyphen, X Minimize a secondary window Alt-hyphen, N Moving around Applications Go to next application Alt-Esc Go to previous application Alt-Shift-Esc Toggle through running applications Alt-Tab List running application Ctrl-Esc Moving around Items and Groups Select next program group Ctrl-F6 or Alt-W Move around program items Arrow keys Open selected program item or group Enter Call up program item properties Alt-Enter Move program item to a different group F7 Copy program item to a different group F8 Delete program item or group Delete Dealing with Windows Cascade open windows Shift-F5 Tile open windows Shift-F4 Close current window Ctrl-F4 The Menu Bar Activate menu bar Alt or F10 Select a pull-down menu Alt-menu letter 239 Alt Menus Do you hate using the mouse to navigate through menus? Use the Alt key to activate Windows application menus, then use the arrow keys to navigate menu options. 240 Delete Files Save Disk Run Windows' Setup program to delete unnecessary files. Launch SETUP, select Custom, and deselect programs and help files you don't use--you can save up to 5MB. 241 Keep Track of Your Crashes To keep a log of your Enhanced mode Windows startup, load Windows with the WIN/B command, which creates a text file BOOTLOG.TXT. 242 Windows for Workgroups Naming With LAN Manager If you use Windows for Workgroups with LAN Manager, don't use spaces in your Windows for Workgroups node names: It can handle them, but LAN Manager can't. 243 Control Client-Server Performance If your system feels slow and it's acting as a server, open the Control Panel in the Main group, and double-click on the Network icon. You'll see a slider that controls foreground (client) operation. Move the slider to get more foreground performance. 244 Windows NT 3.1 Set Up Your Guest By default, the Windows NT Guest account has no password. That's fine, except when you try to print to an NT server from a Windows for Workgroups client--the account needs that password. Use the User Manager to create one. 245 Event Log Maintenance When the Windows NT event log fills, Windows NT terminates all tasks and threads. To get around this, go into the Event Log Settings dialog box and choose Overwrite Events as Needed. 246 Don't Delete That User Windows NT tracks users via an internal number, not by name. If you delete an account, even if you recreate an account with the same name, it won't have the same internal ID. The configuration information saved for that account will also disappear. 261 - 281 File Manager Time-saver Repetitive Task Shortcut Exit Alt-F4 Disks, Directories, and Files Show drive list F2 Move a file F7 Copy a file F8 Rename a file Alt-F, N Open file or directory Enter Delete file or directory Delete Undelete a file (DOS 6.x only) Alt-F, U Show current file's properties (attributes, size, date, etc.) Alt-Enter Sort files by name Alt-V, S Display date, size and file attributes Alt-V, A Go to a specific file first letter of name Go to a specific directory first letter of name Dealing with Windows Cascade windows Shift-F5 Tile windows vertically Shift-F4 Move among File, Disk, and Directory windows Tab or F6 3The Tree Expand tree one level + Expand branch * Collapse branch - Expand everything Ctrl-* Miscellaneous Refresh view F5 Windows for Workgroups 3.11 170 Set Your Hard Disk to Warp Speed 179 Share and Share Alike 180 Server List 181 Customize File Manager 182 Share a CD-ROM Drive 183 Notepad Fix 184 Icon Copies 185 Lefty Menus 188 Force Client or Server Status 189 Fixing Setup Problems 190 Small WIN.INI 191 Speed DOS under Windows 192 Don't Restart Windows 193 File Manager Selections 194 Missing a Double-Click 195 Load Apps Minimized 196 Cardfile Movies 205 Time-saver ICON FONTs 212 Remove Expanded Memory 213 Add SysEdit 214 Bypass Startup Group 170 Set Your Hard Disk to Warp Speed There's gold buried deep under the 386 Enhanced icon in the Control Panel of Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Click on the Virtual Memory button, then Change. Turn on 32-bit disk access if your disk controller supports it, and enable 32-bit File Access under any circumstance. Then make sure the new virtual file cache setting matches the level of disk caching you need. This parameter replaces SmartDrive, so use the same rules you would with that real-mode disk cache. On a system with 16MB of memory, you'll probably get the best performance with the cache size set to 1,024 bytes. 179 Share and Share Alike Windows users have long lamented the DOS program called SHARE. It's been accused--wrongly--of contributing to the general instability of Windows, adding overhead where none is necessary, and generally acting like an ogre perched at Windows' door. Unfortunately, many Windows programs require SHARE. If you look in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, chances are good that it has a line more or less like this: C:\DOS\SHARE.EXE Windows for Workgroups has a new, much improved version of SHARE called VSHARE.386. Instead of clunking around with the other DOS effluvium loaded before Windows runs, VSHARE provides SHARE-style services within Windows itself. If you have Word 6.0 for Windows and would like to run VSHARE instead of SHARE, call Microsoft at (800) 426-9400 and ask for the free Word 6.0a for Windows upgrade. When you install the upgrade, VSHARE will also be installed on your system (it will be copied to your \Windows\System subdirectory, and the appropriate line will be added to SYSTEM.INI). If you use VSHARE only under Windows, you may then remove any reference to SHARE from AUTOEXEC.BAT. 180 Server List Windows for Workgroups knows about all the active servers around it because it keeps a list. That's fine, except that by default your system may hold the master list of servers for your workgroup, which can slow you down. Edit SYSTEM.INI and go to the [Network] section. Find the line MaintainServerList=. If the value is auto, your machine may or may not be holding the master list of servers. If you set it to yes, you are definitely holding a list, even if it's only for your own reference--that speeds your system up when you're searching for a server. If you set it to no, you'll save some memory, but it may take a while to find servers. 181 Customize File Manager Don't forget that you can customize the File Manager toolbar--add the Sendmail button, for instance. Select Options, Customize Toolbar to make your changes. And with DOS 6, the DOS utilities show up on the toolbar. 182 Share a CD-ROM Drive Windows for Workgroups 3.11 lets you share CD-ROM drives, but you also need Version 2.2 of MSCDEX. After you install your CD-ROM drive and its software, edit AUTOEXEC.BAT. Find the line that loads MSCDEX and add the /S switch to it to enable sharing, then share the CD-ROM drive like any other disk from File Manager. 183 Notepad Fix You want Notepad to display all of the available files in the File Open option instead of just TXT files. In File Manager, copy NOTEPAD.EXE to NOTEPAD.BAK. Launch Write, open NOTEPAD.EXE, and click on No Conversion. Select Find, Find, type TXT and press Enter. Write highlights the first occurrence of TXT. Click twice on Find Next to skip to the third occurrence and click on Cancel to stop the search. TXT should be highlighted. Type an asterisk followed by two spaces. Save and exit. Next time you launch Notepad, it will display all the files in a directory when you select File, Open. 184 Icon Copies If you want to copy an icon from one Windows 3.1 Program Manager group to another, hold down Ctrl as you drag the icon to its new home. 185 Lefty Menus By default, Windows menus display with their left edges aligned to the left side of the name of the menus. That's great for righties, but if you're a lefty, it's inconvenient, so make the menus align to the right by adding the line MenuDropAlignment=1 to the [Windows] section of your WIN.INI file. 188 Force Client or Server Status One problem with Windows for Workgroups is that users can control whether their systems are clients or servers. Add the line: NoSharingControl=0 to the [network] section of SYSTEM.INI. This line modifies the Network Control Panel, removing the check box that lets you turn the server portion of Windows for Workgroups on and off. The settings remain unchanged until you remove the NoSharingControl line from SYSTEM.INI. 189 Fixing Setup Problems If you mess up a setup--for example with a new video driver--and Windows won't load, change the directory to \WINDOWS (or wherever Windows is installed) and run SETUP. You can set most parameters from here and get Windows running enough to fix things. 190 Small WIN.INI When you load Windows, it loads the entire WIN.INI file into memory. That means memory is being hogged by all the fonts you load but don't use and all the old software you've deleted that added lines to WIN.INI. Delete these and free memory. Remember to back up the file before editing it. 191 Speed DOS under Windows Open SYSTEM.INI and add the line FileSysChange=Off to the [386Enh] section. From now on, when a non-Windows application does something to a file (create, rename, or delete, for example), Windows won't waste time updating File Manager. 192 Don't Restart Windows After you edit WIN.INI, rather than restart Windows to make the changes take effect, double-click on the Enhanced icon in the Control Panel, then click on OK. You won't need to restart for your changes to take effect. This works for all icons except Fonts, Ports, Printers, and Drivers. 193 File Manager Selections To select one file in File Manager, you click on it. Simple. To select more than one file, hold down the Ctrl key as you click on the files you want to select. If you want to select a bunch of files that are right next to each other, hold the Shift key, click on the top file, then the bottom file: You'll select the entire range. 194 Missing a Double-Click If you move the mouse more than a tiny distance between the first and second clicks of a double-click, nothing will happen. If you're not steady of hand, this is a problem. Edit WIN.INI, and go to the [Windows] section. Find the lines DoubleClickHeight= and DoubleClickWidth= and change the numbers after the = signs to 10. If the line isn't there, add it. This is the number of pixels your mouse can move before the second click becomes ineffective. 195 Load Apps Minimized For speedy application launch, hold down the Shift key and double-click on an icon to launch its application in minimized mode. Once you've opened several applications, use the Cool Switch (Alt-Tab) to scroll through them. 196 Cardfile Movies The Cardfile works as a client for Audio/Visual Interleave (AVI) movie files, but once you've placed the movie on a card, you have to remember to choose Edit Picture in order to click and play back the movie. 205 Time-saver ICON FONTs If squinting at tiny fonts on the Windows Desktop gives you a headache, try this: Launch Notepad, Open WIN.INI, and add the following lines under the [Desktop] heading: IconTitleFaceName =Arial IconTitleSize=11 IconSpacing=86 Change the font name and size to your liking (ours might be a little too big for you). Note that the larger the font size, the higher the icon spacing should be, or your icon titles will overlap. 212 Remove Expanded Memory If you don't use any TSRs or applications under Windows that require expanded memory (EMS), you can disable Windows' EMS driver to improve performance. Edit SYSTEM.INI, go to the [386Enh] section, and add the line NoEMMDriver=On. Restart Windows and you should see a performance improvement. If you're not sure whether your applications use EMS, don't alter this setting. 213 Add SysEdit Windows 3.1 includes a configuration editor that automatically opens all of your system's important configuration files. Select File Run from the Program Manager menu, and type in SYSEDIT. Press Return and AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, WIN.INI, and SYSTEM.INI will all open, ready for your editing pleasure. 214 Bypass Startup Group If you don't want Windows to load the programs in your StartUp group, type WIN, press Enter, and hold down the Shift key. Windows NT 197 Mousing Around 198 Security Disable Floppy 206 Custom Program Manager Title 197 Mousing Around Tired of the pointer? Change it to an animated horse. Go to the Control Panel, double-click on the Cursors icon, and click on Arrow. Then click on Browse and select HORSE.ANI. Now you'll have a galloping horse as your default mouse cursor. 198 Security Disable Floppy If you have workstations used by temporary employees and you want to make sure they don't take data home, disable their floppy drives. Log on as Administrator and double-click on the Devices icon in the Control Panel. When the dialog box opens, scroll through the list until you find Floppy, and select it. Then click on the Startup. . . button to modify the startup options. Click on Disabled, then on OK. Click on Yes in the resulting warning dialog box, then restart the system. Make sure you have a complete backup first, because if you disable the floppy drive and something goes wrong, you risk losing all of the data on that workstation. 206 Custom Program Manager Title Normally, Program Manager's title bar says "Program Manager - MachineName\UserName." If you want it to say something more interesting, add Program Manager to your Startup program group by opening the Startup group and selecting File, New, Program Item. Click on OK. Under Command Line, type \WINNT\SYSTEM32\PROGMAN.EXE or the correct path to PROGMAN.EXE (if you don't know what it is, use the Browse button). In the Description field, type the text you want to appear in the title bar and click on OK. Next time you log in, Program Manager's title bar will have your text in it