One Step Delete
To delete a file or folder without dragging it to the Recycle Bin, simply hold the SHIFT key while you press the DELETE key.
Desktop - Clean
If would you like your desktop to show only your wallpaper and hide all your icons, you can by using Active Desktop.
The first step is to hide the current desktop. To do this, open My Computer and choose View, Folder Options.
Click View and select the check box labeled "Hide icons when desktop viewed as Web page."
Click Apply, OK, then close the My Computer window.
Right Click on the desktop and select Active Desktop then "View as Web Page"
Your icons will now disappear to show only your wallpaper on the desktop.
Now to make your icons accessible you'd have to put them in the Task bar.
To do this right-click a blank spot on the Taskbar.
Choose Toolbars, Desktop.
Now the complete contents of your desktop will appear in the Taskbar.
If your Taskbar is already hidden, you should now be faced with a completely bare desktop. When you need to open a folder, just look in the Taskbar.
Docking the Desktop
If you use Active Desktop here's a variation that you might like.
Drag the My Computer icon to the right (or top, or left) side of the screen.
The icon will dock and form a new icon bar displaying the contents of My Computer.
To make it display the desktop, right-click the icon bar and select Toolbars, Desktop.
Now your desktop icons will appear in the new icon bar.
If you'd like to eliminate the My Computer contents, right-click the icon bar and choose Toolbars, My Computer to deselect it.
You can now open My Computer and choose View, Folder Options then click the View tab and select "Hide icons when desktop is viewed as Web page." Click Apply and then OK.
Now the only thing on your desktop is the new My Computer icon bar displaying the contents of your desktop.
Variations on desktop dockings
The new desktop icon bar described above can be a more useful addition to your system than you might think.
Let's say you're working in an application and you'd like to get to something on the desktop quickly.
Just mouse your way over to the spot where your new icon bar resides and it appears instantly, allowing you to make your selection. When you're finished, it disappears again.
To make the icon bar behave this way, right-click it and choose Always on Top.
Now right-click it again and choose Auto Hide.
With these two selections made, the icon bar will appear whenever you move the mouse pointer over its area.
At all other times, it will recede into the unknown.
You must install Service Pack 3 before you attempt to run Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 in Windows NT 4.0.
If you need to briefly uninstall the service pack, IE will warn you that the IE 4 shell cannot run without the service pack.
If you need to continue with the uninstall, go ahead, but don't run Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 again until after you reinstall Service Pack 3.
Hide icon text background
Control Panel / System / Advanced / Performance Tab / Settings Button
Check: Use Drop Shadows for Icon Labels on the Desktop
Icon label color (XP)
You only have the option of black or white text which is chosen by windows depending on the colour of the background.
The desktop colour is studied to see whether it is mostly dark or mostly light, if mostly dark the icon text is white, if mostly light the icon text is black.
This is fine if you are using a colour but for wallpaper the desktop color might not correspond to the dominant color in your wallpaper which may lead to a poor choice of text colour.
A remedy at this time is to manually set the desktop color to get either black or white text.
Display control panel / Desktop tab
Change the desktop color to something dark to get white icon text and to something light to get black icon text.
If you don't want Web based Desktop(strongly recommended)
Go to the Control Panel\Display\Web tab, deselect View My Desktop as Web page. Then go to the Effects tab, deselect all.
Click StartMenu\Programs\Windows Explorer, click View\Folder Options\View Tab, there is many options there, I would have only Show All Files selected.
In the General Tab, select Classic Style.
Re-create the Send To Desktop As Shortcut
In windows XP the SendTo folder is in \Documents and Settings\[username]\SendTo
If you can't find the Send To Desktop as Shortcut option in your Send To menu or if you accidentally delete its shortcut from the SendTo folder, here's how to get it back:
Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the SendTo folder, right-click in an empty space in the SendTo folder and select New, Text Document from the pop-up menu.
Name the newly created text document:
Desktop as Shortcut.DESKLINK
and press Enter, you may be warned that changing the file's extension may render the file unusable, click yes to change it anyway and then quit Windows Explorer.
Or
Click Start, Run and type:
REGSVR32 SENDMAIL.DLL
Restart Windows.
Re-create the Show Desktop Icon on Quick Launch Toolbar
To re-create the Show Desktop icon on the Quick Launch toolbar:
Use any text editor (such as Notepad) to create a file with the following lines:
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop
Save the new file as "Show Desktop.scf" in the Windows\System or Winnt\System32 folder.
Note:
Notepad may automatically append a .txt extension to the file name. Remove this extension if Notepad adds it.
These steps do not work if the file is named Show Desktop.scf.txt.
Using Windows Explorer or My Computer, right-click the Show Desktop .scf file, and then click Create Shortcut.
Copy the new shortcut to the appropriate folder.
In Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows 98, copy the shortcut to this folder:
Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
In Microsoft Windows NT or Microsoft Windows 2000, copy the shortcut to this folder:
Winnt\System32
Rename the shortcut to Desktop.
The Show Desktop icon automatically appears on the Quick Launch toolbar.
NOTE: This information applies to Internet Explorer 5 only if the Windows Desktop Update component is installed. This component is installed with Windows 98 or can be installed with Internet Explorer 4.
Customise the DIR command
Customise the DIR command by adding SET DIRCMD= /P in your autoexec.bat, this will automatically use the page break feature whenever you type DIR from the command prompt. Or, try SET DIRCMD= /P /O:GNE to also arrange the files. G will list the directories first, N places the files in alphabetical order and E will list files of the same in order by the extension.
Direct X
DirectX is a group of technologies (drivers) designed by Microsoft to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-colour graphics, video, 3D animation, and surround sound.
DirectX was primarily developed for Windows 95, but Windows NT 4.0 currently supports a subset of DirectX.
Service Pack 3 for Windows NT 4 adds software-only support for all DirectX components.
DirectX is an integral part of Windows 98 and Windows NT 5.0, as well as Internet Explorer 4.0.
DirectX components may also be automatically installed on your system by advanced multimedia
Games and applications written for Windows 9x. (Early releases of Windows 95 may not include DirectX.)
If you think your Windows 95 operating system does not include DirectX, you can download it from
http://www.microsoft.com/directx/download.asp)
Will it effect my systems performance?
Not usually. DirectX has a non-volatile install process. It searches your system for drivers and only modifies the drivers if it has a better driver than the one currently installed.
What is the difference between the different DirectX versions?
DirectX has been released as part of the Microsoft Game Software Development Kit (SDK).
DirectX is the generic label for any revision of the DirectX set of components.
DirectX 1.0
Consisted of DirectDraw,DirectInput,DirectPlay,and DirectSound.
DirectX 2.0
Introduced Direct3D.
DirectX 3.0
Marked the introduction of special DirectInput files, a special Joystick Control Panel applet, and an updated Virtual Math Coprocessor Device file to support Intel's MMX technology.
DirectX 3.0a
Was a minor update to 3.0 that (primarily) fixed some problems on MMX machines.
DirectX 3.0b
Was a minor update to 3.0a that fixed a cosmetic problem with the Japanese version of Windows 95.
DirectX 5.0
Adds many improvements including support for force feedback controllers, multi monitor support (in Windows 98), A new Game Controllers control panel, better MMX support,and an overall improved user interface.
DirectX 5 is incorporated in to Windows 98.
DirectX 5.2
Will install on international language versions of Microsoft® Windows® 95.
In earlier versions setup could not install drivers onto unsupported language versions of Windows 95 and did not install the correct drivers if the regional setting was different than the default setting.
Updates older drivers that are not supported by Microsoft® DirectSound®.
DXBUG.EXE and DXINFO.EXE files are included with DirectX 5.2.
These tools report incorrectly placed DirectX components.
DirectX 6.0
DirectX7.0
Do I need DirectX? If so, which revision do I need?
Yes, you do if you want to run any program that was written to take advantage of any DirectX components.
You need the revision of DirectX that the program was written for, or any higher revision. Therefore, if a program is written for DirectX 2.0, you need to have DirectX 2.0 or higher to play.
Because DirectX is upward compatible, you should install the latest version of DirectX since it should work with any DirectX programs.
Where do I get DirectX?
DirectX is usually included by programs that use DirectX components.
Your hardware manufacturer may also provide drivers that include DirectX functionality, plus added features.
DirectX 5.2 End-User Release (English version; 3.5 MB) can be downloaded from
http://www.microsoft.com/directx/download.asp
I've installed everything but some drivers show up as not certified. What's wrong?
When developers release updated drivers, they have to be submitted to Microsoft where they undergo a series of tests. It can take some time for Microsoft to certify them, so often the drivers are also made available to the public at the same time.
What this means is that while they may not be certified, they may still provide all the DirectX functionality.
Whenever updated drivers are made available, check the release notes to see if there is any mention of DirectX compatibility. If not, email the manufacturers and ask. In other words, it is possible for a non-Certified driver to provide all the DirectX functionality.
How much space does DirectX take on my hard drive?
The DirectX End User installation process will require approximately 34MB of free space on your hard drive.
After installation, the DirectX downloads will occupy approximately 7.5MB to 8MB of hard drive space.
Hiding Directories in DOS and Explorer
To hide a directory in DOS and Windows 95 Explorer. Create a directory using the following method:
Type mkdir and space.
Hold down the ALT key and on the numeric keypad type 0255 and release the ALT key followed directly by the new directory name. This will only work with the numeric keypad. To change to the directory type 1. cd and space hold down the ALT key and on the numeric keypad type 0255 and release the ALT key. Explorer will not display the directories contents
Disk Defragmentation
A hard drive should be defragmented once a month as a good preventative action.
Avoid using a defragmentation program that isn’t aware of long filenames. You can not only destroy your long filename space, you might end up corrupting the drive's data as well, especially on volumes that are 1GB to 2GB in size.
Finding Disk Utilities
Right-click a drive in My Computer and select Properties. The Tools tab offers the following disk tools: ScanDisk, Backup and Defrag which can be used to optimize your system and protect your data.
Freeing Up Disk Space
Time for a little hard drive Spring cleaning. First, close down all your running applications. Then, do a search (using Find) for these kinds of files: GID FTS BAK ~MP TMP Once you've found them, you can delete them.
If you're feeling saucy, you can remove CNT files, too (they're the Table of Contents data for some HLP files). While you're cleaning house, you should open up your Temp folder and get rid of the stuff that's piled up in there.
To free up disk space, try emptying the Recycle Bin.
Emptying the \Windows\Temp folder of all its contents then running a Scandisk and Defrag can cure a lot of intermittent and annoying problems and also speed your system response up. This folder is supposed to be emptyied whenever you shut down your computer, but if you don't shut it down or there are other than ".tmp" Files or folders in there, then they will not be removed. This can cause boot problems, system lockups and shutdown hangups. These files also take up space that could be better used for other things.
Search your system for *.zip and *.avi files (and other types of video files you might have), and delete the ones you don’t need. ZIP files are typically left over from Internet downloads. Once an application is installed, you probably don’t need the ZIP file it was packaged in (unless it’s something you know you’ll need to reinstall). Video files (*.avi) also take up quite a bit of space. For example, you can regain 7 MB of precious space by deleting the *.avi files from your c:\Windows\Help folder.
Unless you are using Windows 95 for the first time, you don't need them.
More Free Space.
To save memory, turn off the Recycle Bin. Alt+Tap the Recycle Bin then check "Do not move files..." Files will no longer be sent to the Recycle Bin when you delete them. Instead they will be permanantly deleted. You can then free up space that would otherwise have been taken up by trash.
Creating New Documents
Right click on the desktop, select New, then select the type of file you want to create from the list.
Drag and drop links
If you have active desktop installed you can drag and drop links from web pages, e-mail and newsgroups to almost anywhere on your computer.
To do this move your mouse over the link and click with the left mouse button and hold.
Drag either to the desktop or to your start menu or to a folder minimised on the task bar.
If you drag it to your start menu you can continue deeper into it by holding it over folders until they open up to where you want to put it.
If you drag it to a minimised folder on your task bar, hold it over the minimised folder until it opens up.
Then drag into the folder and release.
Thats your link
DriveSpace
You can use the DriveSpace utility to compress hard and floppy disks, for added disk space.
Fast Way to Exit DOS
When you restart the computer in MS-DOS mode, when exiting back to Windows 95, there is a quicker way than typing EXIT and having the whole computer restart. Type win, this will bring you right to Windows without restarting the computer. If it says that Windows is running a DOS program, type exit and it will not restart and bring you right to Windows.
Dropping to DOS 7 After ShutDown
Edit your MSDOS.SYS to show BOOTGUI=0.
From here on you will not go automatically to Windows on bootup. You may modify your autoexec.bat to contain a line saying "WIN" to take you to Windows on bootup.
Now, when you shutdown from Windows95 and it is SAFE TO SHUTDOWN YOUR COMPUTER type "mode co80". your screen will then show you the DOS prompt. Just as if you booted to the command prompt.
Start Windows Apps from DOS
You can start Windows based applications from a command prompt by simply typing the name of the application you want to run, and specifying any parameters as needed.