If Windows starts displaying any of the odd symptoms described here, you may need to adjust a Registry entry. When in doubt, check these keys.
If You See This Symptom... Inspect This Key...
And Suspect These Values...
A program you've never seen before runs whenever
you boot Windows; it may flash by on the screen or appear in the system
tray or Taskbar. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunAny
program that you don't recognize. To see if you can figure out where it
came from, find the program file, right-click on its icon, then inspect
its Properties.
Same as above, but the strange program runs
only when a specific person logs on to the machine.
Same as above.
When you double-click on an HTML file, or right-click and pick Edit or Open, Windows fires up a program (for example, an Internet Browser) that you don't want.
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTtmlfile\shell\Editorpossibly
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTtmlfile\shell\open
The program you don't want to run. To fix
the unwanted Windows behavior, open Windows Explorer, choose View, Options
(or Folder Options), File Types; select the Internet Files (HTML) listing
and click on Edit.
When you open a Word document and right-click on its icon in Windows Explorer, then choose Print, Word closes the document without saving any changes you may have made.
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WordDocument.8\shell\printto\ddeexec
This is an acknowledged bug in Word. Follow the detailed instructions available
in Knowledge Base article Q182837.
You're using NetWare Core Protocol (NCP)
on NT 3.51 or 4.0 machines. Traffic on the network slows greatly because
"packet burst protocol" won't run on NCP. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NWCWorkstation\Parmeters
Follow the instructions in Knowledge Base article Q160187. Note that this
isn't a problem if you use Microsoft's Client Service for NetWare (CSNW).
Office 97's Office Assistant (the paper clip
character, for example) doesn't appear on your screen. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Common\AssistantUse
Regedit to change the values of AsstLeft and AsstTop both to 0 (zero).
Windows 95 or Windows 98 shows your name
or business name incorrectly when you run Control Panel's System option. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
Change the RegisteredOwner and/or RegisteredOrganization keys.
When using IE4 with the Active Desktop in NT 4.0, you get the message "Explorer caused an invalid page fault in module MSHTML.DLL at 0137:703e34c." HKEY_LOCAL_MHKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\InternetExplorer\S Change the value of Use My Stylesheet to 0 (zero).
CPU Sleuth
The General tab on the My Computer Properties
sheet probably reports that your computer is a GenuineIntel (one word)
Pentium(r.) Processor (or similar). For more details, open the following
Registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Hardware\Description\System\CentralProcessor\0
Double-click on VendorIdentifier and put a space between "Genuine" and
"Intel" or make some other edit in this line. Now re-open the Properties
sheet. Underneath the Genuine Intel line, you’ll see that your CPU comes
from the "x86 Family X Model Y Stepping [version] Z," where X, Y, Z are
the appropriate values in your system. Close the Properties sheet, reopen
the Registry key and the same information will be seen on the Identifier
line. Restart Windows 98 and the default information will be restored.
(This tip has not been tested on non-Intel systems.)
You can change the default Web search engine that IE 4.0 opens when you select Find/On the Internet from the Start menu. Run Regedit and open the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main key. Double-click on SearchPage and in the Value Data box, enter the URL of the search engine you want.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Regdone
make the value "1"