The following tips are some I find particularly interesting.

These hints and tips have been gleened from all over the web, from all kinds of help files.
Thanks to all those who took the time to set up their great web pages.... The sites I searched

Winhelp Index....
Registry Tips      Stop Windows 98 from...      Error Messages...      Other Windows 98 tips...      Last tip number

======================= End of Tip Index ==========================

Registry Tips....     Back to the index
001) Compressing/Compacting the Windows 98 Registry
002) Avoid Accidental Registry Imports (Windows 9x and NT)
003) Windows 98 saves five backup copies of the Registry
004) Cleaning the Registry with RegClean
005) Restoring a corrupted Registry
006) How can I make Explorer Icons bigger?

===================================================================

001) Compressing/Compacting the Windows 98 Registry     Back to the list     Back to the index

STRONG ADVISORY: No matter how safe and sound the method, or who suggests it to you, it is always smartest to backup the Windows Registry before attempting to make any changes in it!

Here are 3(4?) ways to compress the 98 registry. Windows 98 does backup the registry when you startup each day, but if you leave your computer on for days at a time, you should take a new backup.
You can do this under windows with Start/Run/Scanregw

Method 1..the automatic way...for what it's worth...
Windows 98 now compresses the registry by default. If there is more than 500KB of empty space in the registry, Windows 98 will compress the registry at the next restart. This is controlled by the line
        Optimize=1
in the Scanreg.ini file in your \Windows directory.

Method 2...
To compress the registry manually:
First, you should clean up the registry with RegClean

In Windows 98, a special utility is provided for this purpose.
As always we suggest you to make a backup of the registry before you begin.
If you're running in Windows, restart in MS-DOS mode (click Start > Shut Down, and choose Restart in MS-DOS mode from the Shut Down Windows menu.
At the MS-DOS prompt type:

    scanreg /backup      This will backup the registry.
    scanreg /opt /fix    This will compress the registry.
    win                  This will put you back into Windows.

Method 3...
First, you should clean up the registry with RegClean
Export the registry with the registry editor:

    Click on Start/Run then enter regedit and click OK.
    Make sure My Computer is highlighted.
    Click on Registry/Export Registry File
    Make sure Save In is set to the Windows directory.
    Set the filename to export.reg and click Save.
    Click on Start/Shutdown/Restart in MS_DOS Mode then click OK to boot to DOS.


At the MS-DOS prompt type:
    If you are not in the WINDOWS directory:
        c: then press Enter.
        cd \windows and press Enter.
    regedit /c export.reg and press Enter. This will compress the registry.
    win and press Enter. This will put you back into Windows.

Method 4...
First, you should clean up the registry with RegClean

    Click on Start/Shutdown/Restart in MS_DOS Mode then click OK to boot to DOS.


At the MS-DOS prompt type:
    If you are not in the WINDOWS directory:
        c: then press Enter.
        cd \windows and press Enter.
    smartdrv and press Enter. This will Load the DOS mode disk cache (which makes a lot of difference!)
    regedit /e export.reg and press Enter. This will export the registry.
    regedit /c export.reg and press Enter. This will compress the registry.
    win and press Enter. This will put you back into Windows.

======================================================================

002) Avoid Accidental Registry Imports (Windows 9x and NT)     Back to the list     Back to the index

By default, if you double-click on a file with a '.REG' extension
the file will be imported into the system registry. You can change
the default so it opens the file for editing instead.

From either Explorer or My Computer click on View | Options, then
the 'File Types' tab. Scroll down the list of registered file type
until you find 'Registration Entries', highlight it and click 'Edit'.
Listed in the 'Actions' box should be three actions: Edit, Merge and
Print. Highlight 'Edit' and click 'Set Default', Edit should become
Bold.

Next time you double-click on a .REG file, notepad should open
instead. You can still import a file by simply right-click on it and
select 'Merge'.

======================================================================

003) Windows 98 saves five backup copies of the Registry     Back to the list     Back to the index

One Step Forward, Five Steps Back....
Remember that Windows 98 saves five backup copies of the Registry,
and for good measure throws in the SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI files, too.
You'll find them in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSBCKUP folder, in files named
RB00x.CAB (where x is a number in the 0 to 5 range). With any luck,
you'll never need them. But if some odd glitch causes an otherwise
insoluble problem, just extract the contents of the most recent CAB
file and use those files as replacements for the existing set.

===================================================================

004) Cleaning the Registry with RegClean     Back to the list     Back to the index

Over time, your computer's registry may begin to contain corrupted,
unused, and unnecessary registry keys, especially if keys are not
removed when you uninstall a program. As a result, you may begin to
experience problems when using OLE to embed objects or Automation to
control other programs.

Microsoft's RegClean utility is designed to clean up unnecessary
registry entries in your registry. For more information, read the
Microsoft Knowledge Base Article Q147769.

The latest version of Microsoft's RegClean [781KB - version 4.1a,
build 7364.1] is safe to use with Windows 98.

===================================================================

005) Restoring a corrupted Registry     Back to the list     Back to the index

If you can't start Windows and you are getting a Windows Protection Error message, your registry may be corrupted. Try restoring it from one of the backups that Windows does when it is started.

To restore the registry you must boot to DOS mode either from SAFE MODE or with your Win98 emergency boot disk (you did make one...). Once you are at the C: prompt do the following:

At the MS-DOS prompt type:
    If you are not in the WINDOWS directory:
        c: then press Enter.
        cd \windows and press Enter.
    scanreg /restore and press Enter.
    Select the registry backup you wish to restore.
    win and press Enter. This will hopefully now start Windows.

===================================================================

006) How can I make Explorer Icons bigger?     Back to the list     Back to the index

In Explorer, You can select Large Icons, Small Icons, List, and Details from the View menu. You can alter the size that explorer uses by adding a Value to the registry and/or modifying an existing Value. Both Values are type REG_SZ. Edit:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

Double click on Shell Icon Size, if you have Large Icons selected, and change the default (32) to 48 or 64.

I prefer the to leave Shell Icon Size at 32 and add Shell Small Icon Size which defaults to 16 and set it to 32, 48, or 64. This also effects the Start Menu and Open Dialogue boxes.

Both these Values work in consort so you may have to play around if you want to change both.
Setting View to Details and Shell Small Icon Size to 32 works well at high monitor resolutions.

You can also change the color depth by double clicking on Shell Icon BPP. The values are:

Value	Colors
4	16
8	256
16	65536
24	16 million
32	True Color

If you had Large Icons set and you change Shell Icon Size, the change will happen instantly. For all others, Logoff/Logon.

============================= End of Registry tips =======================

=====================================================================

Stop Windows from....     Back to the index
001) Stop Windows 98 from Randomly Searching the Floppy Drive
002) Stop Windows 98 from Wildly Accessing your Hard Disk
003) Stop Windows 98 from Altering Floppy Disks
004) Stop Windows 98 from connecting to the Internet every time you open your browser
005) Stop Windows 98 from saving Window locations
006) Stop Windows 98 from automatically playing a music CD

===================================================================

001) Stop Windows 98 from Randomly Searching the Floppy Drive     Back to the list     Back to the index

A strange bug that popped up in Windows 95 occasionally shows itself in Windows 98, where the floppy drive (or drives) is searched every time an application is launched. This problem is not confined to the use of Explorer, or necessarily on systems with Norton Navigator installed. This problem is not caused by an intial access to the floppy, as rebooting does not solve the problem.

The following are possible solutions to this problem:
Clear the documents menu.
Clear Unwanted Entries from the Start Menu's Run Command.
Check for any viruses on your system (some users have reported the NEUVILLE virus)
Search your hard disk for all .PIF that point to programs on a floppy drive
Take out LocalLoadHigh=1 from your MSDOS.SYS file.
Check HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID in the Registry for any references to OCX's or DLL's referenced on the floppy.
Double-click on the System icon in Control panel, choose the Device Manager tab, and delete the GENERIC FLOPPY DISK entry (found under Disk drives). When Windows restarts, it'll re-detect the drive and the problem should go away.

If you're using Norton Navigator:
Clear Norton Navigator's Run history (or disable the Run history all together).
If you're noticing this behavior with only particular applications, you must clear the History List for that application.
Download the bug fix from Symantec.

Other programs known to cause this problem:
McAfee Antivirus '95 - try removing this program entirely, or just disabling the Access & Shutdown options in the Scan Disks On area in the Detection tab of the VShield Configuration Manager.
FirstAid '95 - try removing this program or disabling certain features.
Long Filenames for Windows 98 - View Software has a patch that supposedly fixes this problem.
HiJack for Windows 98 - turning off "Enable HiJaak shell extensions" in the HiJack Control Panel.
Konica Picture Show - try removing this program entirely.

=====================================================================

002) Stop Windows 98 from Wildly Accessing your Hard Disk     Back to the list     Back to the index

Many users have complained about Windows 98 seizing up for up to a minute because of random, pointless disk activity. This is due to the way that Windows 98 is set to handle disk caching and virtual memory. Although Windows 98 instructs you to "let Windows handle disk cache settings" for best results, this obviously does not yield the best results. Here's how to eliminate the random disk activity and improve system performance:

Part One: Virtual Memory
Right click on My Computer, and select Properties.
Click the Performance tab, and then click Virtual Memory
Choose Let me specify my own virtual memory settings.
If you want to choose a different drive for your swapfile, run Disk Defragmenter first.
Specify the same value for the Minimum size and the Maximum size, so Windows 98 won't spend so much time resizing the file. A good size is roughly 2 1/2 times the amount of installed RAM (i.e. create a 40MB swapfile if you have 16MB of RAM).
Press OK, and then OK again, and confirm that you want to restart your computer.

Part Two: Defragmenting the Swapfile
Once you've set the swapfile size to be constant (see Part One), you won't have to worry about a fragmented (broken up) swapfile again. However, you'll need to defragment it at least once for it to remain that way in the future.
If you have Norton Utilities, you'll be able to optimize the swapfile with Speedisk. Otherwise, if you want to take the time, you can defragment it manually:
If you have more than one partition or hard disk in your system, defragment all drives first. Then, move the swapfile (using the configuration procedure in Part One above) to another drive, defragment the first one, and then move it back. Although it's also possible to disable the swapfile entirely while you defragment the drive (and then re-enable it so it will be recreated whole), it isn't advisable because Windows 98 may not start without a Swapfile.

Part Three: Virtual Cache (only if you have 16 megabytes of RAM or more)
Open SYSTEM.INI for editing.
Add the following two lines to the [vcache] section (add the section if it's not there):
MinFileCache=4096
MaxFileCache=4096
These values, in kilobytes, regulate the size of the VCache, so you can stop it from filling up all available RAM and paging all loaded apps to disk. If you have more than 16 MB of RAM, then set the above values (both of them) to about 25% of the amount of installed RAM.

Part Four: RAM
You may've thought we overlooked the obvious - add more RAM! The more memory you have, the less frequently Windows 98 will use your hard disk, and the better your system performance will be.
Since Windows 98 isn't very efficient or compact (by any stretch of the imagination), you'll need to feed it as much memory as you can afford. 16 megabytes is the absolute minimum, but 32 is better. If you have the money, 64 or even 128 megabytes will literally make Windows 98 fly.

===================================================================

003) Stop Windows 98 from Altering Floppy Disks     Back to the list     Back to the index

You probably don't know it, but Windows 98 will change the contents of any floppy inserted into a Windows 98 System. This is to update the file system on the floppy to accept long filenames, but can have disasterous effects on your valuable data. Diskettes affected include some older versions of MS-DOS startup diskettes, many copy-protected programs, and software that inspects the validity of the diskette before installing. In particular, the place being changed is the OEM- ID of a disk, offset 3 in the boot-sector. To prevent Windows 98 from altering your floppies, the solution is quite simple:

Write protect any floppies before putting them into a Windows 98 machine.

===================================================================

004) Stop Windows 98 from connecting to the Internet every time you open your browser
        Back to the list     Back to the index

Double-click on the Internet Options icon in Control Panel.
Choose the Connections tab, and select the Never dial a connection option, and click Ok.
This will fool Windows into thinking that it doesn't need to dial your modem to connect. Intuitive, huh?

===================================================================

005) Stop Windows 98 from saving Window locations     Back to the list     Back to the index

To stop Windows 98 from saving Window locations, install and run the System Policy Editor (poledit.exe)
- it's in the \tools\reskit\netadmin\poledit folder of the CD.
Select Open Registry from the File menu.
Double-click on the Local User icon.
Open Local_User\ Shell\ Restrictions.
Turn off Dont save settings at exit.
Click OK, and select Save from the File menu.
Click on the desktop, and press F5 to refresh the desktop so that this change will take effect.

Note: If you turn off this setting, Windows 98 will not remember any of your window positions or settings
          (icon sizes, sort orders).
Note: This setting can also be changed with TweakUI, one of Microsoft's PowerToys.

===================================================================

006) Stop Windows 98 from automatically playing a music CD     Back to the list     Back to the index

To stop Windows from automatically playing a music CD, hold the SHIFT key down while inserting a CD in the player.

==================== End of Stop Windows 98 from... tips =================

===================================================================

    Back to the index

001 Invalid Page Fault in Kernel32.dll Errors
002) Kernel32.dll Errors
003) General Protection Fault in Module Dibeng.dll
004) Fatal Exception 0E Errors
005) Windows Protection Error
Back to the index

=====================================================================

001) Invalid Page Fault in Kernel32.dll Errors     Back to the list     Back to the index

If you frequently receive Invalid Page Fault in Kernel32.dll Errors,
from different drivers (Explorer, Guide.exe, Msgsrv32, Commgr32,
Mprexe and others), it is possible that your password list file is damaged.
Try re-creating your password list file:

In Windows Explorer select your \Windows folder
Press F3. This will bring up the Find: All Files window
In the Named: box type *.pwl
Click Find Now
When a list of found files is displayed, delete them all
Close the Find window and restart Windows
Note: you will lose any passwords you have stored, so make sure that
you have the passwords written down so you can re-enter them when
needed

If you receive an error MSIMN caused an invalid page fault in module
KERNEL32.dll, chances are that your computer is infected with the
Happy99 worm. For more information on this worm and it's removal see
http://www.infinisource.com/cleaner.html.

=====================================================================

002) Kernel32.dll Errors     Back to the list     Back to the index

Here are a few of the more common causes of Kernel32 errors:

Bad memory modules
Insert the command DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:ON into your
Config.sys file. You can use the System Configuration Utility (Select
Start > Run and type msconfig in the Open box and press OK, select the
Config.sys tab and add the HIMEM.SYS line by pressing the New button).
Windows will tell you to reboot your computer, watch your screen for a
message HIMEM has detected unreliable memory at address xx:xxxxxx
which will certainly indicate that there's a memory problem.

It may take several reboots over a period of days for this to show up.
You can also download diagnostic software from BCM, BCM Diagnostics
[3.87MB], or from AMI, you have to register to download a free demo
version.

There is no 100% certain way to test memory except to either
substitute known good modules or to use a hardware tester.

CPU, bus speed or multiplier overclocking.
If you are overclocking... what do you expect?

Graphic acceleration set too high.
Select Control Panel > System, then select the Performance tab, click the Graphics button. Turn down Hardware acceleration by moving the slider a notch to the left, reboot, try again. Repeat as necessary.

Bad or outdated drivers, especially video drivers.
Check with your card manufacturer for an updated set of drivers. Video drivers are updated constandly, it pays to have the latest release, specially if
you find yourself having problems with Internet Explorer.

Faulty or dirty cooling fans on your CPU or power supply.
The CPU fan can be cleaned with a small paintbrush and some compressed air. The power supply fan should be cleaned only by someone who is comfortable working around high voltage components.
See also Invalid Page Fault in Kernel32.dll Errors

ANIMATED MOUSE CURSORS, MOUSE TRAILS, AND ACTIVE DESKTOP
can also rarely cause these kinds of problems. Try disabling them all and re-adding one at a time until you find the culprit.

The following has solved many people's Windows Explorer KERNEL32.DLL crashes. It is given solely as information. In the root directory of C:\, modify or create a CONFIG.SYS file to include the following lines: FILES=65
BUFFERS=40
STACKS=64,512
If the error persists, try adding this line to your SYSTEM.INI file in the [386Enh] section:
; Increases default stack pages from 2 to 6
MinSPs=6
(The default is 2. If required, increase by increments of 2 until you find a value that solves the problem. The ; [semicolon] works the same as REM works in AutoExec.Bat.) Click Edit, Save, Edit, exit. Shut down and restart for the changes to take effect.

=====================================================================

003) General Protection Fault in Module Dibeng.dll     Back to the list     Back to the index

When running Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Internet Explorer
4.x, 5, you may receive a random General Protection Fault (GPF) which
looks like:

<Program Name> caused a general protection fault in module DIBENG.DLL.

where <Program Name> is the name of the program where the error
occurred.

This error can occur if an incompatible display driver is installed on
the computer. To resolve this error, try updating your display driver
by contacting the manufacturer of your video adapter.

To work around this error:

Select Start > Settings > Control Panel, and then double-click Display
Select the Settings tab, click the Advanced button, select the Adapter
tab and click the Change button
Click Next, select Display a list of all the drivers in a specific
location, so you can select the driver you want, and then click Next
Select Show All Devices, and then select (Standard Display Types) in
the Manufacturers box
In the Models box, click Standard Display Adapter (VGA), click OK, and
then click Next
Click Next (2 times), and then click Finish
Click Close (2 times), and then click Yes to restart your computer

=====================================================================

004) Fatal Exception 0E Errors     Back to the list     Back to the index

The Fatal Exception error's related to 0E (that's zero E) are hard to
track down. I'm not pretending that I have all the answers for you
here, but I will attempt to list some things that have fixed this
problem for a number of users.

First, what are Fatal Exception Errors? There's a good article in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base, describing these errors. See MSKB article
Q150314.

Here is a list of Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles dealing with these
types of errors:

16-Bit DMA May Cause Static or System Hang Q127022
Windows Sockets Programs Using WSIPX May Not Work Q159254
Fatal Exception Error When Opening or Closing Control Panel Q175211
(HP Scanner software)
Err Msg: A Fatal Exception 0E Has Occurred at 0028:C02A0201... Q187214
(Corel CD Creator 2)
Novell Client32 Does Not Work After Upgrading to Windows 98 Q188168
(Novell Client32)
Setup Hangs in Plug and Play Detection Upgrading Over Client32 Q189185
(Novell intraNetWare Client)
Errors When Shutting Down Windows with Compaq FX-Series Monitors
Q189329 (Compaq FX-Series Monitors)
Err Msg: A Fatal Exception 0E Has Occurred at 0028: Q189655 (Norton
AntiVirus or other Symantec program)
Fatal Exception 0E at 0028:c028bac6 in VXD Vwin32 05... Q190915
(Desktop Management Interface (DMI) Start utility)
Problems Using Media Player to Play .avi Files Q191195 (IBM Aptiva or
Acer computer with earlier model IBM Mwave sound card drivers)
Computer Hangs After Upgrade to Windows 98 with EtherFast Card Q192844
(Linksys EtherFast 10/100 network adapter)
Fatal Exception Error Message in VXD IOS(04) Q192925 (Sb16.vxd file is
located in the Windows\System\Iosubsys folder)
Fatal Exception in CDVSD Starting Windows 98 Q197004 (SCSI DVD drive)
General Protection Fault or Invalid Page Fault During Setup Q209321
(problem in the Dblbuff.sys file)
Error Message: Fatal Exception 0E in VxD IOS (04) Q243037 (Iomega
Tools and Iomega Backup software)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

If you are running with an AMD chip, you should also note that there
have been quite a number of reports on faulty L1 cache (the cache on
the chip). Go in your computers BIOS (see your handbook for
instructions), and disable the Level 1 cache. If this resolves your
problems, consider buying a new CPU.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's another short list to follow:

Check to see if you have the latest drivers installed for your
motherboard.
Check to see if you have the latest drivers installed for your video
card.
Turn off the external cache in BIOS.
Replace RAM chips.
Reinstall the OS. Do a clean install, by formatting the
drive/partition.

===================================================================

005) Windows Protection Error     Back to the list     Back to the index

The only time I have run into this, it was a corrupted Registry.
See Restoring a corrupted Registry for how to restore the Windows 98 Registry.
There are also some great tips in www.windowstrouble.com

======================== End of Error Messages tips ====================

===================================================================

    Back to the index

001) Identifying the programs that Windows runs at boot
002) How to copy a hard drive/partition under Windows
003) How to quickly expand a directory
004) Restoring Windows 98 After a Crash
005) Speed up the Start Menu
006) Error: Improper Shut Down Detected
007) Hide the Links Folder
008) Using the Windows Scripting Host
009) Show Me the Desktop
010) Cool Hardware Diagnostic Tool!
011) Deleting Files without moving them to the Recycle Bin
012) Display Attributes Column in Windows Explorer - Details View
014) Customizing ScanReg
015) Improving Performance
016) Using DMA (Bus Mastering)
017) Optimizing Removable Disk Drive Performance
018) Windows 98 Second Edition Hangs During Suspend
019) LoadPowerProfile is Listed Twice in System Configuration > Startup
020) Uninstalling updated Device drivers, system patches, or hot fixes
021) Troubleshooting Video problems
022) My Desktop Icons are Constantly Refreshing
023) Windows Update - Save to Disk
024) How to remove the Shop button from Netscape Communicator 4.7
025) How do I know which Windows 98 Updates are Installed?
030) "Hard Disk Is Low on Disk Space" Message
031) USB Devices May Not Work in Windows 98 Second Edition
032) Setup Command-Line Switches
033) Make a Cascading My Computer Toolbar
034) Changing the Sort order in Explorer
035) Using System File Checker
036) Dr. Watson
037) Version Conflict Manager
038) Restore Full System Backup with the System Recovery Wizard
039) Print Configuration Summary
040) Clear Unwanted Entries from Explorer's New Menu
041) Get Rid of the Unwanted Explorer Windows at Startup
042) Getting Rid of the Little Yellow Speaker in the Tray
043) Getting Rid of the MSN Icon
044) Learn about Version Control
045) Replacing Start Menu scrolling with good 'ol multiple columns
046) Use Quick View with Any File
047) What to Throw Away
048) Speeding Up Windows
049) Clearing Recent Documents Automatically
050) Faster Startup After Adding Network Card
051) One Click Shut Down
052) One Click Restart
053) Switches may be preset in the DIRCMD environment variable.
054) New XCOPY Switches
055) DOS Tips..The Handy Undelete Tool
056) The DOS Diskcopy command.
057) WIN.COM Switches
058) Hidden COMMAND.COM Switches
059) Change the DOS session from full-screen to window mode.
060) Running Shortcuts Under DOS
061) Removing Control Panel Applets
062) Make Older Applications Compatible
063) Using Paint To Convert Graphic Formats
064) Saving Favorites Folder
065) Save Your Search Engine
066) Launch Apps from Your Browser
067) Saving Windows Update Files
068) Hardware Profiles
069) Order the Menu (Windows 98)
070) Change the Location of System and Special Folders (Windows 9x and NT)
072) Make the Columns Fit (Windows 9x and NT)
073) Remove the Start Banner on the Taskbar (Windows 9x and NT)
074) Running Scandisk on Boot Up (Windows 9x)
075) Display the Windows Splash Screen While Loading (Windows 9x)
076) Configure the Contiguous File Allocation Size (Windows 9x and NT)
077) Optimizing the DefaultRcvWindow & DefaultTTL Settings (Windows 9x)
078) Optimizing Dial-Up Modem Connection Speed (Windows 9x)
079) Control Whether Windows Performs Smooth Scrolling (Windows 9x and NT)
080) Configure 32-bit Protected Mode IO Drivers (Windows 9x)
081) Configure Protected-Mode Hard Disk Interrupt Handling (Windows 9x)
082) New Command Missing in Windows Explorer (Windows 9x and NT)
083) CD-ROM Does Not Run Automatically When Inserted (Windows 9x)
085) Getting Ready to Shop On The Internet
086) Quickly Minimize All Windows
087) Faster Security
089) Problems with Standby - Resume
090) Screen capture.
091) How to Improve Browsing Performance in Internet Explorer
092) How to interpret the Ppplog.txt file.
093) Quickly Change Internet Explorer to show pictures
094) Find out what's going on while Windows is loading
095) Too lazy to type the full directory name?
096) Speed-up the response of your Start Menu
097) Get statistics for all drives at once
098) Suspend auto-play
099) Find out if it's time to upgrade your processor under NT
100) Write your own help
101) Quick undo in edit boxes
102) A is for All
103) Make Windows Explorer View stay in Detail
104) Quickres
106) Uninstalling IE5

===================================================================

001) Identifying the programs that Windows runs at boot     Back to the list     Back to the index

From Windows 98 Annoyances...
There are several places that programs are listed to be run automatically at boot. The most obvious is your Startup folder in your Start menu - by looking at the properties of the icons in your Startup folder, you should be able to easily figure out what each one does. To stop a program from loading at boot, simply remove it's icon from the Startup folder.

The less obvious places for these programs to hide include the following:

In your Registry, at the following locations:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ RunServices
Listed in your WIN.INI file, under the LOAD= and RUN= lines (rarely used anymore).

Many of the items in the registry can be difficult to identify, although some of them can be self explanatory. There are two parts to every listing (listed in the right pane) - the value name (in the left column) and the value data (in the right column). The name doesn't do anything, but can be descriptive - "SystemTray" operates the tray notification area (containing the clock and the volume control by default). The value data is what contains the filename of the program to run - in the case of the "SystemTray" listing, "SysTray.Exe" is run when it's encountered. Note that any application can place a program to run here - look at the description and the folder name for a clue. Some of the other common items that may be found include:

COMSMDEXE: 3Com networking component
HP JetDiscovery: HP network printing component
HPSCANMonitor: HP scanning component
LoadPowerProfile: Microsoft power management profile loader
ScanRegistry: Microsoft Registry Checker
StillImageMonitor: Microsoft component for scanners and cameras
SystemTray: Battery Meter for portable computers
TaskMonitor: Microsoft component for keeping Explorer from crashing
(ha-ha)
Tweak UI: Portion of Microsoft Tweak UI that performs certain
operations at boot, such as clearing the Run history.

===================================================================

002) How to copy a hard drive/partition under Windows     Back to the list     Back to the index

To copy data on a hard drive or partition to a new hard drive/partition, use XCOPY32.
To use WCOPY32, you must be in Windows. Do the following:

    Click on Start/Run.
    The command to do the copy is:  xcopy32 c:\*.* d: /s/e/c/r/h/k. Click OK.

===================================================================

003) How to quickly expand a directory     Back to the list     Back to the index

To quickly expand a directory, high-light the directory and then press the asterisk(*) on the number pad.

===================================================================

004) Restoring Windows 98 After a Crash     Back to the list     Back to the index

If you back up your hard disk using Windows 98 backup software (either the included Backup utility or a third party solution), and your hard disk crashes, you'll have to re-install Windows 98 as well as your backup software from scratch before you can restore everything else. Furthermore, you won't be able to restore most of the files in your Windows 98 directory, because they're system files and will be in use. It is a good idea to be aware of all these issues before your computer crashes, however. There are ways of getting around this:

A complete restore, requiring a re-installation of Windows 98:
Back up your entire hard disk with Windows 98 software, including the Windows 98 directory.
After the crash, re-install a bare-bones version of Windows 98, and your backup software.
Restore all the files, except for the ones in the Windows 98 directory. Now, install your Windows 98 files into a different directory or drive temporarily.
Then, exit Windows 98 completely, and copy the restored files into the appropriate directories.

A complete restore, without re-installing Windows 98:
Obtain a DOS version of your backup software (some Windows backup software, such as Seagate Backup, come with an Emergency DOS restore just for this purpose).
If you don't have a backup program that's aware of long filenames, you'll have to back up your long filenames separately (see below).

Note: It is a really good idea to back up your registry frequently.

Note: if your backup software does not support long filenames, all long filenames will be lost when restoring the files. To back up your long filenames, Microsoft has included a command-line utility on the distribution CD called LFNBK. They call it "Temporary Compatibility, " as it is only for use with programs that don't yet support long filenames. Read the included text file for more information. There's a free utility called DOSLFNBK which reportedly does a better job of this.

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005) Speed up the Start Menu     Back to the list     Back to the index

In the Registry Editor, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Control Panel\ desktop\, and add a string value named MenuShowDelay, with a value specifying the number of miliseconds (400 is default, smaller numbers are faster).

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006) Error: Improper Shut Down Detected     Back to the list     Back to the index

If you receive an Improper Shut Down Detected, Checking Disk For Errors message, you probably turned off the computer without using the Shut Down command on the Start menu. Because some files might not have been saved and, as a result, need to be recovered, your machine takes the time to check your system.
To bypass this checkup, press the X key.
Make it a habit, though, to shut down and restart your computer properly.

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007) Hide the Links Folder     Back to the list     Back to the index

You can't delete, move, or rename the Links folder permanently; it reappears every time. However, you can hide it. Open the Favorites menu, right-click the Links submenu, and choose Properties. In the dialog that appears, check the Hidden box and click OK. Close IE and reopen it. For more information, see Microsoft's Knowledge Base article Q179599, titled "Cannot Move, Delete, or Rename Links Folder on Favorites Menu," at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q179/5/99.asp

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008) Using the Windows Scripting Host     Back to the list     Back to the index

For many people, education in computer programming ended abruptly in the seventh grade with a class in the BASIC programming language. (Those who continued ended up with pocket protectors, tape on their glasses, and job offers at companies like Microsoft.) However, if you want to take advantage of the new scripting language included in Windows 98 and Windows NT 5.0, and you recognize code like this:

10 print "hello"
20 goto 10

your education is about to get a jump-start. I'll show you how to start writing simple scripts in VBScript for use with the new Scripting Host found in Win 98 and Win NT 5.0.

Jump to:
Using the Windows Scripting Host
Helpful Tips
Want to Know More?
Other Resources

Using the Windows Scripting Host
The cool thing about the Windows Scripting Host is that it is language-independent, meaning that it will work with any modern scripting language. It has built-in support for JavaScript and VBScript, but can be extended (with third-party add-ons) to use almost any other language, such as Perl, TCL, Rexx, and Python. I'll demonstrate scripting using VBScript (based loosely on the Visual Basic language) here, because it's easy to learn and VB is widely known. However, it is a "Scripting" language rather than a programming language, which not only implies that the resulting scripts are much simpler and smaller than full-blown applications, but that the language is much simpler as well.

VBScript files are just plain text files with the .VBS extension, and can be edited with any text editor, such as Notepad. To run a script, just double-click on the script file icon - you'll probably never need to run the Scripting Host program (wscript.exe) directly.
You can quickly open an existing script file for editing by right- clicking on it and selecting Edit.

Scripts are built by typing commands, one on each line. Commands are used to either set a specific property of an object to some value, or to carry out some action. Much of VBScript involves referencing objects and setting properties. Most scripts will require the following line:

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

which creates the WshShell object. The various properties and methods of this object are used to accomplish many tasks in VBScript, such as displaying message boxes and retrieving system information.
The following excerpt of code shows several examples.

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
age = InputBox("Please type your age.")
newage = age + 5
WshShell.Popup "In 5 years, you will be " & newage & "."

The first line creates our WshShell object for the Popup later in the script. The second line does two things: it first asks the user to type something, and then puts the typed text into the variable age. The third line then creates a new variable, newage, and assigns it to the user's input and adds five (note the lack of any error checking: if the user does not enter a number, this statement will cause an error). The fourth line then concatenates a text string to our adjusted variable, and displays the result in a message box.

Using this simple syntax, we can create more useful scripts that launch and control applications, communicate with the network, and make changes to the registry.

Here's an example of a more complex script. Let's say you use a portable computer that is sometimes connected to a local-area network. While the process of mapping and disconnecting a network drive is not difficult, it can be tedious to do repeatedly. Here's a script that lets you map and un-map a network drive with just one click:

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set WshNetwork = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Network")
Set AllDrives = WshNetwork.EnumNetworkDrives()

DriveLetter = "N:" 'must be capitalized
RemotePath = "\\dave\c"

AlreadyConnected = False
For i = 0 To AllDrives.Count - 1 Step 2
If AllDrives.Item(i) = DriveLetter Then AlreadyConnected = True
Next

If AlreadyConnected = False then
WShNetwork.MapNetworkDrive DriveLetter, RemotePath
WshShell.PopUp "Drive " & DriveLetter & " connected successfully."
Else
WShNetwork.RemoveNetworkDrive DriveLetter
WshShell.PopUp "Drive " & DriveLetter & " disconnected."
End if

This script requires no user-interaction once it has been executed, and displays only a single confirmation message when it's done. The first three lines initialize our various objects and list all currently mapped network drives. The next two set our custom variables: you'll want to change these.

The next section uses a For...Next loop to go through the list of mapped drives looking for n:; if it's listed, the AlreadyConnected variable is set to True for later use. Finally, an If structure is used to connect or disconnect our network drive, depending on the value of the AlreadyConnected variable.

The WSH also includes cscript.exe, a command-line variant of wscript.exe, which makes it a great replacement for DOS batch files. You can also launch DOS batch files from your scripts to complete even more tasks.

The command-line application of VBScript is quite appealing. For example, you can use VBScript or JavaScript to create simple web server scripts (a.k.a. CGI). Here's a simple script that prints CGI- compatible output

Wscript.Echo "Content-type=text/html "
Wscript.Echo
Wscript.Echo "The current time on this server is: " & Now()

To run this script, type cscript.exe //nologo filename.vbs, where filename.vbs is the filename of your script. You can also associate the .VBS extension with cscript.exe (click View, Options, File Types in Explorer) to run it in command-line mode every time.

Helpful tips
If you're thinking that the Windows Scripting Host (WSH) would be great for distributing if it was only supported by Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0, you'll be glad to hear that Microsoft has made it available for free download. Just go to Microsoft's web site and download wsh.exe; sample scripts and other information is available there as well.

If you're an administrator for an office full of systems running Win 98 or Win 95 with the WSH installed, you can write and distribute scripts to easily install software, make global registry changes, or put new shortcuts on all your users' desktops.

Using scripts in conjunction with the Scheduled Tasks folder allows you to schedule more than just the launching of a program. Write a simple script to, say, ask before running Scandisk at 5pm every day, or display an anniversary reminder to avoid a night on the couch.

Want to know more?
Windows 98 Annoyances, the book, contains an entire chapter devoted to the Windows Scripting Host. Find out how to access the registry, connect and disconnect from a network, manipulate files, create shortcuts with the Windows Scripting Host, and more!

Additional Resources
VBScript's roots are in Visual Basic (VB) and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which means that these two environments are good places to learn about VB. While VBScript, VB, and VBA aren't identical, their documentation is a good place to start learning about methods, objects, variables, and some syntax.

If you have Microsoft Office 95 or 97, you can use the included VBA macro language help documentation as a partial technical reference for VBScript. If you don't have it installed, run Office setup and choose "Help for Visual Basic." If you don't have Office, you can download the Visual Basic Control Creation Edition 5.0 for free from Microsoft's web site - not only is the documentation somewhat relevant to VBScript, but it's a good environment to expand your programming beyond VBScript.

Be aware, however, that some VB statements and syntax will differ in VBScript. For example, VB's x=shell("cmdline") method isn't supported; instead, use x=WshShell.Run("cmdline").

For those of you who are already familiar with Visual Basic, there is a brief technical reference, which lists the objects built into VBScript, and their respective properties and syntax. Snoop around Microsoft's web site for other resources, including those intended for VBScript for web pages - Microsoft Scripting is a good place to start, and has some more documentation and samples.

Also built-in to the Windows Scripting Host is support for JavaScript. You'll find far more documentation and examples of JavaScript than VBScript on the web and in books, due to it's popularity (JavaScript is supported by both Netscape and Internet Explorer, while VBScript is only supported by IE).

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009) Show Me the Desktop     Back to the list     Back to the index

Version 1:
If you accidentally delete the Show Desktop shortcut from the taskbar's Quick Launch toolbar, here's how to restore it: In C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch, create a new text file with the following contents:

[Shell]
Command=
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

Save the file as ShowDesktop.SCF. This will put the shortcut back on your Quick Launch toolbar.

Version 2:
NOTE....Jan 12/2000...
The above didn't work on my Win98SE system, but the following does..

Create file C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ShowDesktop.SCF with the following contents:

        [Shell]
        Command=2
        IconFile=explorer.exe,3

        [Taskbar]
        Command=ToggleDesktop

Save the file, then in Explorer, right-click on it, hold the button down, and drag it to
C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch.
In the pop-up box, left-click on Create Shortcut here.
If you show the Properties for the shortcut, the target: s/b...
        C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ShowDesktop.SCF.scf

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010) Cool Hardware Diagnostic Tool!     Back to the list     Back to the index
The hardware diagnostics tool (Hwdiag.exe) which was first included in Windows 95 OSR2, is included in Windows 98. To start, type "hwinfo /ui" in the Run box on the Start menu.

Hwdiag.exe lists every key in the Windows Registry that refers to hardware in your system. The entries are color-coded:

Registry entries are displayed in green
File attributes in magenta
Configuration Manager information in brown
Error messages in red
Warnings are displayed in blue

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011) Deleting Files without moving them to the Recycle Bin     Back to the list     Back to the index

When you want to Delete files without moving them to the Recycle Bin, hold down the SHIFT KEY while pressing Delete (or right-clicking Delete with the Mouse).

The above solution lets you select files to delete immediately, you can also make this a default solution for all files you want to delete:

Right-click the Recycle Bin and select Properties
On the Global Tab, select Do not move files to the Recycle Bin
If you select Configure drives independently, you can choose from which drive you want to delete files immediately

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012) Display Attributes Column in Windows Explorer - Details View     Back to the list     Back to the index

To show File Atributes in Windows Explorer, you can go to View > Folder Options select the View tab, and check Show file attributes in Detail View. Sometimes however, this option is not present. When you do not see the option to turn on this feature, you can turn this on using this registry hack:

Start the Registry Editor
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \
CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced
Double-click the entry ShowAttribCol and change the value from 0 to 1
If the entry ShowAttribCol doesn't exist, you can create it by selecting Edit > New > DWORD Value from the Registy Editor's menu.

Exit RegEdit and restart Windows Explorer

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014) Customizing ScanReg     Back to the list     Back to the index

It is quite easy to customize ScanReg to include files in the daily backup made by this utility. Just edit the file Scanreg.ini (found in \Windows) which is well annotated with instructions. For a start it would be a good idea to save the backups outside the \Windows directory, if possible maybe even on another disk.

For the number of backups, change the number at the line
MaxBackupCopies (from 1-99).

Note: Scanreg /restore (which you run from MS-DOS to restore a previously backed-up registry) only shows the first 5 (meaning the 5 oldest) backup's. You can work around this by moving a number of these backups to another folder, or deleting some older ones. Another option is to manually extract the backups.

See the default scanreg.ini

Note: The limit on additional files you can add is 15.

The Windows 98 Resource Kit includes a handy utility called SrEdit which lets you add certain files, and change the number of scanreg backups.

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015) Improving Performance     Back to the list     Back to the index

Although Windows 98, when running on an identical setup as Windows 95, outperforms the latter, there are still a few "tweaks" to improve the performance of Windows 98.

Although today's hard disk drives are fast, you might want to limit the use of the Virtual Memory (swap file). One easy way to achieve this is to limit the amount of memory Windows allocates to the Disk cache (replacement for Windows 3.* smartdrive).

You can check on the amount of memory used by Windows for the Disk cache by using System Monitor. If you haven't installed it, go to Control Panel (Start > Settings > Control Panel) and choose Add/Remove Programs. Select the Windows Setup tab, select System Tools from the Components window and press Details. Scroll down to the entry for System Monitor and click OK. This will place an entry for System Monitor in your Programs > Accessories > System Tools.

To view your Disk cache size:

Start System Monitor (select Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Monitor)
To add an item to be displayed, select View > Add Item
The entries for the Disk Cache size are found under the Memory Manager category (Disk cache size, Maximum disk cache size, Mid disk cache size, Minimum disk cache size)
You can also find the items to monitor your Swapfile here
On a typical machine (32MB RAM installed), with only Windows 98 installed, the Disk cache size (right after a fresh reboot, with nothing else running) was reported at 12MB, while the Maximum disk cache size could go up to 27MB.

To limit the amount of memory used by Windows for the Disk cache:

Open System.ini (select Start > Run and in the Open: box type sysedit)
Add the following two lines to the [vcache] section (add the section if it's not there):

        MinFileCache=1024
        MaxFileCache=8192

Note: Some users only use a maximum setting, others a maximum and minimum setting. Just experiment and find what's best in your situation.

These values limit the size of the vcache (in kilobytes), so that Windows is prevented from using more of your available RAM for the vcache. This will increase the amount of free memory available to your system, so that when you open another program it is not paged to disk immediately due to lack of free memory.

The MinFileCache (=Minimum File Cache) setting prevents Windows from shrinking the cache below 1024Kb. As a rule of thumb, use 25% of your RAM for the MaxFileCache. In general, most users say that a MaxFileCache (=Maximum File Cache setting) of up to 9Mb works best for them, even if they have more RAM available. Just experiment with these settings to find what works best for you.

The settings explained above are valid if you use FAT16 on your hard drives. When using FAT32, we advise you to leave the vcache managed by Windows. The reason for this is that with FAT32 in combination with an "aligned" program, Windows 98 can run applications from the disk cache itself. Unfortunately the only "aligned" programs so far are the MS Office programs so until more authors align their programs on 4K page boundaries, the over whelming majority of programs will still be causing two copies of an app to be in RAM until the disk cache is re-used. This would mean that for the time being the Windows 95 guidelines for assigning VCACHE size (as above) are still good guidelines to follow for Windows 98. If you don't use FAT32, then this is a non- issue since with FAT16 the alignment process does not work and Windows 98 can never run an application from the cache.

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Optimizing the Swap File
The best way you can ensure high swap file performance is to make sure that the disk containing the swap file has enough free space so that the swap file size can shrink and grow as needed.

We do not suggest setting a minimum/maximum swap file size. Windows 98 does a much better job managing the swap file then Windows 95.

If you have multiple drives, the swap file should be placed on the drive with the fastest performance, unless that disk is overused.

If you put the swap file on a dedicated partition, use the largest possible cluster size [32KB].

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If you have 24MB or more RAM, you can optimize performance by selecting Network server as the typical role of your computer:

Change the Typical role of your computer

Select Start > Settings > Control Panel
Open System, select the Performance tab, click on File System under the Advanced Settings header On the Hard Disk Tab, select Network Server as Typical role of this computer.

The setting you use controls the size of various internal data structures used by the 32-bit file access driver (VFAT).

When you use the Mobile Or Docking System setting, VFAT allocates memory to record the 16 most recently accessed folders and the 337 most recently accessed files. This consumes approximately 4KB of memory.

When you use the Desktop Computer setting, VFAT allocates memory to record the 32 most recently accessed folders and the 677 most recently accessed files. This consumes approximately 8KB of memory.

When you use the Network Server setting, VFAT allocates memory to record the 64 most recently accessed folders and the 2729 most recently accessed files. This consumes approximately 16KB of memory.

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Optimizing I/O Transfers by Using Direct Memory Access
The advantage of using direct memory access (DMA) with integrated device electronics (IDE) CD-ROM and disk drives is that it lowers CPU usage during I/O transfers.

To Bus Master your system and determine whether your drive supports DMA:

Open System Properties in Control Panel (select Start > Settings >
Control Panel > System)

OR... Right click MY Computer, then click Properties.

Select the Device Manager tab
Click the + sign next to the Disk drives entry
Select the drive you want to enable for DMA and click Properties
On the Settings tab, there should be a DMA check box, if this box is unchecked, place a checkmark. If there is no check box (or it is grayed out), your motherboard chipset does not support the bus master interface. If the check box is not checked after you restart your system, your hard disk probably has been automatically disabled again because the hard disk may not support a multiple-word DMA protocol.
For more information see Microsoft's Knowledge Base Article No. Q159560.
You can use the same procedure to Bus Master your CD-ROM Drive.

Note: You do not need to install Bus Master drivers, they are already build in the Windows 98 system.

See this page on information how to test your system for DMA
capabilities.

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Optimizing DVD File System Performance
Digital Video Discs (DVDs) uses the main file system cache (VCACHE), and there are no performance settings for end users to change.

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Optimizing Removable Disk Drive Performance
Windows 98 gives you the option to use write-behind caching to improve the performance of removable disk drives, such as the Iomega ZIP or JAZ drive.

To set write-behind caching for removable disk drives:

Open System from Control Panel, select the Performance tab, select File System, and then select the Removable Disk tab
Select the Enable write-behind caching on all removable disk drives check box and click OK
If this causes a problem with disk operations, clear the Enable write- behind caching on all removable disk drives check box.

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Networking

Run only one network client, if possible. For example, configuring a computer with both the Client for Microsoft Networks and Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks requires more memory than running a single client
Run a single network protocol. For example, running Microsoft TCP/IP, NetBEUI, and the IPX/SPX-compatible protocol requires a larger working set than running a single protocol
Run the fewest possible network services. Running File and Printer Sharing services, the Microsoft SNMP agent, and so on, all require memory and increase the working set of Windows 98
Network Settings can be changed by accessing Control Panel > Network.

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MS Office
If you have MS Office installed, you can increase the performance of your computer by removing Find Fast from your StartUp folder. Normally Find Fast will from time to time index the files on your drive(s), to speed-up opening them in MS-Office. We personally don't care if we have to wait the additional mili-seconds when opening a document in Word, at least we know what we're waiting for!

To reclaim the space used by the find-fast index, go to Control Panel, select Find Fast, select your hard drive(s) and from the Index menu, choose Delete Index. When you've deleted your Index, choose Close and Stop.

More information on the Office 97 Find Fast utility can be found on Microsoft's Web site.

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Win386.swp
Recently it was discovered that the Win386.swp file (Windows virtual memory) could be set to Read-only. This will cause a number of errors. Some of them are:

Control Panel and My Computer icons may change to the default Windows icon
There was an internal error and one of the windows you were using will be closed. It is recommended that you save your work, close all programs, and then restart your computer
There is not enough free memory to run this program. Quit one or more programs, and then try again
Internet Explorer cannot open the site
http://c:\windows\web\controlp.htt
This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down.
If the problem persists, contact the program vendor
When you get these error messages, and you click the Details button, any of the following error messages can be displayed:

IEXPLORE caused an invalid page fault in module Mshtml.dll at 015f:70c449bb
IEXPLORE caused a stack fault in module Shdocvw.dll at 0167:77c8ebe0
IEXPLORE caused a stack fault in module Shlwapi.dll at 0167:70bd3114
To resolve this:

Select Start > Find > Files or Folders
In the Named box, type win386.swp
In the Look in box, select drive C, and then click Find Now (the box Include subfolders should be checked)
Right-click the Win386.swp file, click Properties, and then click to clear the Read-only check box
Click Apply, and then click Close

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016) Using DMA (Bus Mastering)     Back to the list     Back to the index
15:45 1/29/2000

IMPORTANT: Know what you're doing when using this information! You might have to re-install your system when getting it wrong (So make a backup before)! I provide links to the documents at Intel® and other places where you can read the full information. I provide this information because people are asking for it. It is YOUR system, it is YOUR responsibility!

Bus Master IDE General Overview
How to enable Bus mastering
Test your Hard Drive for DMA capability
Troubleshooting

Bus Master IDE General Overview
Traditionally IDE devices where programmed to transfer data in PIO (Programmed I/O) mode. In this mode data is transferred to and from IDE devices via CPU instructions. This requires a relatively large amount of dedicated CPU time, especially when transferring large amounts of data. A typical machine today will use 40% of the CPU doing hard drive transfers in PIO mode and use only 25% of the CPU doing hard drive transfers in DMA mode, on the same hardware.

DMA (Direct Memory Access) mode of operation allows the DMA channels to handle data transfer so that it's not required for the CPU to monitor the transfer, thus reducing CPU overhead. The transfer rate for a particular data transfer event will not noticeably increase.

Theoretically DMA mode 2 allows up to 22.2Mb/sec and UDMA (Ultra DMA allows up 33.3 Mb/sec, whereas PIO mode 3 & 4 allow only up to 16.6 Mb/sec. (But in real-world operation actual data I/O rates are significantly less for all).
More information on DMA and UDMA can be found at PCGuide.

You can use this procedure to test your HDD for DMA support.

Now to measure and compare the speed of your hard drive while operating in different modes I would suggest you download shareware utility called HD Tach.

The measurements which are important here are Read burst speed, Read speed and CPU utilization. When operating in PIO mode the Read burst speed is more or less equal as the maximum Read speed data transfer rate, whereas the CPU Utilization is typically above 30%. In DMA modes the Read burst speed is typically 25 to 50% higher than the Read speed data transfer rate, and the CPU Utilization usually drops below 25%. In UDMA modes the Read burst speed is typically double the Read speed data transfer rate (although it can be significantly less), and the CPU Utilization is usually the same as for DMA mode (less then 25%).

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To Bus Master your system and determine whether your drive supports DMA:

Open System Properties in Control Panel (select Start > Settings > Control Panel). Select the Device Manager tab Click the + sign next to the Disk drives entry
Select the drive you want to enable for DMA and click Properties
On the Settings tab, there should be a DMA check box, if this box is unchecked, place a check mark. If there is no check box (or it is grayed out), your motherboard chipset does not support the bus master interface. If the check box is not checked after you restart your system, your hard disk probably has been automatically disabled again because the hard disk may not support a multiple-word DMA protocol.
For more information see Microsoft's Knowledge Base Article No. Q159560
You can use the same procedure to Bus Master your CD-ROM Drive.

Note: You do not need to install Bus Master drivers, they are already build in the Windows 98 system.

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It seems that when using this method (as opposed to buying a system which had DMA (properly) enabled by the OEM), an entry of the registry is not updated. To check, Open the file Mshdc.inf (found in \Windows\Inf), and look for the header [ESDI_AddReg], it should look like:

[ESDI_AddReg]
HKR,,DriverDesc,,"ESDI Port Driver"
HKR,,DevLoader,,*IOS
HKR,,PortDriver,,ESDI_506.pdr
HKR,,IDEDMADrive0,3,01
HKR,,IDEDMADrive1,3,01

If the two bold-faced lines shown above appear (with the other 3 lines), you are set. If not, add the 2 (bold) lines, and manually remove all IDE devices from Device Manager (Control Panel > System, Device Manager tab), the system will tell you to re-boot, and it will re-detect the controller, and set them up in DMA mode.

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To determine whether your IDE hard disk supports multiple-word DMA protocol, you can test the primary IDE drive and the secondary IDE drive using debug.

To test the primary IDE drive:

Restart the computer. Press the CTRL key to get the Windows 98 Startup menu, and then choose Command Prompt Only
At the command prompt, type "debug"
At the hyphen prompt, type the following lines, pressing Enter after each line. Do not type the comment
Note: The first character of each line is the letter o, not the numeral zero

Type Comment
o 1f6 a0 a0 (a-zero) is for a master drive; use b0 for a slave
o 1f2 22 22 is for DMA mode 2; use 21 for DMA mode 1
42 is for UDMA mode 2; use 41 for UDMA mode 1 and 40 for UDMA mode 0
o 1f1 03 03 (zero-3) is to program the hard disk timing
o 1f7 ef ef is the set feature command for the hard disk
i 1f1 Reads in the error status; a value is returned

If the number returned after entering i 1f1 is 00, the hard disk accepts the DMA protocol timing that you entered with the o 1f2 statement, and the hard disk supports DMA. A return value of 04 indicates that the hard disk does not support a DMA multiple-word protocol. If the value returned is not 00 or 04, you may not have typed the characters correctly, or you may need to quit Windows.

PIO mode 3 hard disks may support multiple-word DMA mode 1. PIO mode 4 hard disks should support multiple-word DMA mode 2. If you have a PIO mode 4 drive that does not support multiple-word DMA mode 2, it is possible that the hard disk has a firmware problem. Contact the hard disk manufacturer, and verify the firmware version.

To quit Debug, type q and press Enter
To test the secondary IDE drive:

Restart the computer. Press the CTRL key to get the Windows 98 Startup menu, and then choose Command Prompt Only
At the command prompt, type debug
At the hyphen prompt, type the following lines, pressing Enter after each line. Do not type the comment
Note: The first character of each line is the letter o, not the numeral zero

Type Comment
o 176 a0 a0 (a-zero) is for a master drive; use b0 for a slave
o 172 22 22 is for DMA mode 2; use 21 for DMA mode 1
42 is for UDMA mode 2; use 41 for UDMA mode 1 and 40 for UDMA mode 0
o 171 03 03 (zero-3) is to program the hard disk timing
o 1f7 ef ef is the set feature command for the hard disk
i 171 Reads in the error status; a value is returned

If the number returned after entering i 171 is 00, the hard disk accepts the DMA protocol timing that you entered with the o 172 statement, and the hard disk supports DMA. A return value of 04 indicates that the hard disk does not support a DMA multiple-word protocol.

If your drive does support a DMA multiple-word protocol and the DMA check box will not remain enabled, the IDE controller may not be compatible with the Microsoft IDE bus mastering driver.

To quit Debug, type q and press Enter

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017) Optimizing Removable Disk Drive Performance     Back to the list     Back to the index

Windows 98 gives you the option to use write-behind caching to improve the performance of removable disk drives, such as the Iomega ZIP or JAZ drive.

To set write-behind caching for removable disk drives:

Open System from Control Panel, select the Performance tab, select File System, and then select the Removable Disk tab
Select the Enable write-behind caching on all removable disk drives check box and click OK
If this causes a problem with disk operations, clear the Enable write- behind caching on all removable disk drives check box.

===================================================================

018) Windows 98 Second Edition Hangs During Suspend     Back to the list     Back to the index

Windows 98 Second Edition may hang when the machine is being suspended.

This is due to an obscure bug, which exhibits itself when the path specified for the swapfile in the [386Enh] section of the System.ini file includes a lowercase drive letter.

The name of the swapfile used by Windows 98 can be changed by adding a PagingFile= line to the [386Enh] section of the System.ini file. If the path specified for the swapfile includes a lowercase drive letter, it can cause Windows 98 Second Edition to occasionally hang during a suspend.

To fix this:

Select Start > Run and type msconfig in the Open: box, then press OK
Select the System.ini tab
Click the + sign next to the [386Enh] section to expand it
Select the line PagingFile= and click Edit
Change the lowercase drive letter to uppercase
Click Apply and OK
When prompted, restart your computer

When you try to resume your computer from Suspend mode, your computer may take 30 seconds or more to resume. This behavior can occur if you have a network adapter that is not attached to an active network connection.

When your computer enters Suspend mode, the drivers for your protocols are unloaded. When you try to resume your computer, Windows attempts to load the drivers for your protocols, and then bind them to the network adapter. If an active network connection is not found, a time out occurs and causes the delay.

To resolve this behavior, you either have to connect to an active network connection, or disable your network adapter:

Select Start > Settings > Control Panel, and then double-click System
Select the Device Manager tab, double-click the Network Adapters branch to expand it, and then select your network adapter
Select Properties, click to select the Disable in this hardware profile check box, click OK (twice), and then click Yes to restart your computer

===================================================================

019) LoadPowerProfile is Listed Twice in System Configuration > Startup     Back to the list     Back to the index

If you view your systems Startup configuration in Microsoft's System Configuration Utility (access from Start > Run, type msconfig in the Open box and press OK), you may notice two entries for Power Management. Both listed as Rundll32.exe powerprof.dll,LoadCurrentPwrScheme.

If you view Microsoft System Information > Software Environment > Startup Programs (access from Start > Run, type msinfo32 in the Open box and press OK), you will notice that one is loaded from the Machine Run entry of the registry, while the other is loaded from Machine Service.

This is by design. The first instance runs as soon as the GUI is up. This is so that power management is running even if no one logs on.
The second instance runs after logon, and loads the user settings.

===================================================================

020) Uninstalling updated Device drivers, system patches, or hot fixes     Back to the list     Back to the index

Device drivers, system patches, or hot fixes you installed using the Windows Update feature, can be uninstalled using the Restore page from the Web site. If you are unable to connect to the Windows Update Web site, you can uninstall the latest updates by using Update Wizard Uninstall found on the Tools menu of Microsoft System Information (Select Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information).

Existing files and drivers are automatically backed up before the new ones are installed.

===================================================================

021) Troubleshooting Video problems     Back to the list     Back to the index

If your having problems with your Video, first make sure you have the latest drivers for your graphics adapter.

In Windows 98, graphics hardware acceleration features can be turned off when system performance indicates incompatibility problems:

In Control Panel, open System, select the Performance tab, and then

click Graphics
Drag the slider to change the Hardware acceleration setting, as summarized in the list below. Then click OK

The default setting is Full, which turns on all graphics hardware acceleration features available in the display driver.BR> The first notch from the right can be set to correct mouse pointer display problems. This setting disables hardware cursor support in the display driver by adding SwCursor=1 to the [Display] section of System.ini
The second notch from the right prevents some bit block transfers from being performed on the display card and disables memory-mapped I/O for some display drivers. This setting adds SwCursor=1 and Mmio=0 to the [Display] section of System.ini, and SafeMode=1 to the [Windows] section of Win.ini
The last notch from the right (None) can be set to correct problems if your computer frequently stops responding to input, or has other severe problems. This setting adds SafeMode=2 to the [Windows] section of Win.ini, which removes all driver acceleration support and causes Windows 98 to use only the device-independent bitmap (DIB) engine rather than bit block transfers for displaying images

===================================================================

022) My Desktop Icons are Constantly Refreshing     Back to the list     Back to the index

If you are having problems with Desktop icons (or the icons in Control Panel) constantly refreshing themselves, you need to increase the cache size for your icons:

Start the Registry Editor
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \
CurrentVersion \explorer
Right-click an empty space in the right pane
Select New > String Value
Name the new value Max Cached Icons
Double-click on the Max Cached Icons string and enter a value of 2048 (you can increase that size if necessary)
Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows
P.S. it could take up to 3 restarts before this fix "takes".

===================================================================

023) Windows Update - Save to Disk     Back to the list     Back to the index

How to reinstall the Windows 98 updates downloaded from the Windows Update Page. By Tom Porterfield - tpp@m9.sprynet.com

Microsoft gave in to numerous complaints from advanced & corporate users and finally made the Windows 98 updates available "the old way".

According to Microsoft: "If you are a corporate IT Manager and would like to download Windows 98 Updates for installation at a later time or on a different machine, use the Windows 98 Updates for Corporate IT Managers site. This site is designed for Advanced Users who are familiar with the Windows Registry and know how to roll back to previous versions of software."

So if you have want to save the downloads for later use, just head over to the new download site.

As you know, when you download an update from the Windows update page, it installs automatically after the file has finished downloading. But what if you want to install that same update on another PC. Or what if you want to save the files that were downloaded so that you can reinstall them later if need be without having to download them all over again. This can be done with a little planning.

Before you go to Windows update, empty your Internet cache folders.

Right click on the Internet Explorer icon on the desktop and choose Properties. You can also get there by running IE and clicking on View > Internet Options.
On the General tab under Temporary Internet Files, hit the Delete Files button. This will make it easier to identify and copy out the files that get downloaded from the update site.

Now, go to the Windows update site and download the updates that you want. During the download, watch the Temporary Internet Files folder. You should be able to tell which files it is downloading to do the updates. They are *.cab files or *.exe files. Once the files have downloaded, copy them to a directory for storage. If you can't find them in the Temporary Internet Files folder, do a search for an msdownload.tmp directory on your PC after they have finished downloading, you may find them there.

The Windows Update will automatically install the files once they are finished downloading. However, reinstalling them is not as automatic is it should be, but we'll find a way around that as well.

For the *.exe files, it is easy to reinstall this update. Simply double (or single) click on the exe file and it will reinstall. For the *.cab files, there is a little more to it. To start with, you will need to extract the contents of the cab file to a temporary directory.

Since cabview is built into Windows 98, this requires nothing more than double (or single) clicking on the cab file, selecting all of the contents, and choose Extract from the File menu. Extract them to a temporary folder.

One of the files that gets extracted is a *.inf (setup information) file. The usual procedure is to right click on the file and choose Install. This won't work on some of the files downloaded from the update page. They are a new type if inf file that we will call an "advanced inf file." These require a little more to install. After digging through some of the dll's on my machine, I found this command will work to install:

RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection <inf file(required)>,
<inf section(optional)>
(line wrapped for better readability)

So, to install the advanced inf files, you will need to run this command from a MS-DOS window, supplying the name of the inf file as the first parameter, the second parameter is not needed.

Now for the way to automate this. You can create a simple batch file that will extract the contents of the cab files and install the updates using the inf files. To do this, first copy the *.cab files to a temporary directory. Next, use notepad to create the batch file and copy and paste these two line into the file:

for %%1 in (*.cab) do extract %%1 /E
for %%2 in (*.inf) do RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %%2

Run the batch file in the temporary folder containing the *.cab files and it will first extract everything from the cab file and then install the update using the advanced inf file. You can use this to either reinstall the updates if you ever need to reinstall 98, or to copy the downloaded updates to another machine and install them there without having to re-download the updates.

===================================================================

024) How to remove the Shop button from Netscape Communicator 4.7     Back to the list     Back to the index

The new Netscape Communicator 4.7 includes a Shop button, which will take you to Netscapes Shopping Center when you press it.

Here is how to remove this button:

Close Netscape
Go to \ Program Files \ Netscape \ Users \ Username \. There should be a file there called prefs.js. Open it with Notepad and add this line: user_pref("browser.chrome.disableMyShopping", true);

If you did not set-up a user profile, you'll find the prefs.js file in \ Program Files \ Netscape \ Users \ Default

You can get rid of the Radio listing on your Communicator menu in the same way, just add the line

user_pref("browser.chrome.disableNetscapeRadio", true);

===================================================================

025) How do I know which Windows 98 Updates are Installed?     Back to the list     Back to the index

There are 2 ways to check which updates have been installed on your
computer:

Connect to the Windows Update Web site, and when prompted:

Windows Update
This program can determine what components are installed on your
computer, and whether new components, upgrades, or enhancements are
available, specific to your computer. This check is done without
sending any information to Microsoft.

Would you like to check now?

click Yes. When the page with updates is displayed, click on Download
History to view a complete list of updates on your system, and when
they were installed.

Use Windows Explorer, and Open the file \Windows\WULog.txt. The update
information is contained in this text file.
Note: The file WULog.txt is a hidden file, so you have to Show all
files to be able to see it in Windows Explorer.

Microsoft has updated the Windows update, and now a new folder is
created under your Program Files called WindowsUpdate. In this folder
you will also find the new history file, called wuhistv3.log.

You can view entries in this file by richt-clicking on the file, and
choosing Open Width..., and selecting Notepad (or you can use this tip
to add Notepad to your Send To folder. Once you've done this, you'll
have the option to "Send" the file to Notepad, by right-clicking on
it,
and choosing Send To > Notepad).

=====================================================================

030) "Hard Disk Is Low on Disk Space" Message     Back to the list     Back to the index

When free space on your computers hard disk falls below a specific
level, you may receive the following message:

   Hard Disk is Low on Disk Space
   You are running out of disk space on drive C.
   To free space on this drive by deleting old or unnecessary files,
click
   Disk Cleanup.

These are the specific levels used by Windows 98:

HD Size Threshold Percentage Threshold Space
<= 512 MB 10.0 25.6 - 51.2 MB
<= 1 GB 5.0 25.6 - 51.2 MB
<= 2 GB 2.5 25.6 - 51.2 MB
<= 4 GB 1.2 24.6 - 49.15 MB
<= 8 GB 0.6 24.6 - 49.15 MB
<= 16 GB 0.3 24.6 - 49.15 MB
<= 32 GB 0.2 32.8 - 65.5 MB
> 32 GB 0.1 32.8 - ?? MB

If you do not want to receive this error message, and do not want to
use the Disk Cleanup tool to free disk space:

Start the Registry Editor
Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \
FileSystem
Select Edit > New > DWORD Value and name it
DisableLowDiskSpaceBroadcast
Set the data value of the DisableLowDiskSpaceBroadcast value to the
appropriate value from the following table:
A 1
B 2
C 4
D 8
E 16
F 32
G 64
H 128
I 256
J 512
K 1024
L 2048
M 4096
N 8192
O 16384
P 32768
Q 65536
R 131072
S 262144
T 524288
U 1048576
V 2097152
W 4194304
X 8388608
Y 16777216
Z 33554432

If you want to disable the error message for more than one drive, you
can add the data values of the drives located in the table, and then
set the data value of the DisableLowDiskSpaceBroadcast value using the
sum of the data values that you added. For example, drive E has a
value of 16 and drive G has a value of 64. These two data values added
together equal 80. To disable the low disk space notification for
drive E and drive G, set the data value of the
DisableLowDiskSpaceBroadcast value to 80.

=====================================================================

031) USB Devices May Not Work in Windows 98 Second Edition     Back to the list     Back to the index

Universal Serial Bus (USB) devices that are plugged in to a computer
running Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition may not work if the your
computer uses the following hardware components:

An AMD processor (running at 350 MHz or faster)
A VIA Technologies USB controller
This behavior occurs because there is a timing-specific problem in the
Universal Host Controller driver (Uhcd.sys), which may prevent USB
devices from enumerating under specific timing conditions. To resolve
this issue, download and run the appropriate file for your language
version of Windows. The following files are available for download
from the Microsoft Download Center:

English
German
Spanish
French
Italian
Japanese
Portuguese
Swedish

=====================================================================

032) Setup Command-Line Switches     Back to the list     Back to the index

Windows 98 Setup switches are:

Switch Meaning
/? Provides help for syntax and use of setup command line switches
/C Do not load the SmartDrive disk cache
/D Do not use the existing version of Windows for the early phases of
Setup. Use this switch if you have problems starting Setup that might
be due to missing or damaged supporting files for Windows
/DOMAIN:
domain_name Set the Windows NT Logon Validation domain used by Client
for Microsoft Networks to domain _name.
/F Do not look in the local cache for file names. Setup runs a little
slower and saves a small amount of memory.
/IA Turn off the "after providers" listed in the [AfterProvider]
section of the Setupc.inf file.
/IB Turn off the "before providers" listed in the [BeforeProvider]
section of the Setupc.inf file.
/IC Do a clean boot. If this is set and KeepRMDrivers=1 is not in the
registry, drivers are commented out from the Config.sys/Autoexec.bat
file.
/ID Do not check for the minimum disk space required to install
Windows 98.
/IE Skip the Startup Disk screen.
If this switch is used, the Windows\Command\EBD folder is not created.

/IF Do a "fast" setup. Do not notify setupx DOS FindFirst to not look
up file names in the cache.
/IG Allows Setup to run on some older Gateway and Micron computers
with an early BIOS.
/IH Run ScanDisk in the foreground so that you can see the results.
Use this switch if the system stalls during the ScanDisk check or if
an
error results.
/IL Load the Logitech mouse driver. Use this option if you have a
Logitech Series C mouse.
/IM Skip the check for low conventional memory.
/IN Do not call the networking Setup software. Neither the networking
software nor the Networking Wizard screens will be used.
/IQ Do not check for cross-linked files.
/IR Do not update the master boot record (MBR).
/IS Do not run ScanDisk.
/IV This switch bypasses displaying the Setup screens during an
upgrade within Windows.
/M Bypasses the playing of the Setup sound (.wav) files.
/N This switch causes Setup to run without a mouse.
/NA# This switch bypasses the program check and can use the following
values:
#=0 Default.

#=1 No Windows-based program check, but MS-DOS-based program are
blocked.

#=2 No MS-DOS-based program check, Windows-based programs are blocked.

#=3 No Windows-based or MS-DOS-based program check.

/ND This switch ignores the presence of a Migration.dll file and is
used to force Windows 98 to overwrite newer files.
Note: Files that use the ",,,32" flag in the .inf file still force
Windows 98 Setup to keep the newer files.

/NF Do not prompt to remove the floppy disk from drive A at the end
of the Copying Windows 98 Files to Your Computer Setup step (step
three). Use this switch when installing Windows 98 from a bootable
compact disc.

Same as if there is a file named BOOTCD in the cabinet folder
Same as if there is a "BootCD=1" line in the Msbatch.inf file

/NH Do not run Hwinfo.exe when running Setup from the Windows 95 user
interface.
/nm Bypass the check for minimum processor (66MHz 486)
/NOSTART Copy a minimal installation of the required dynamic-link
libraries (DLLs) used by Windows 98 Setup, then exit to MS-DOS without
installing Windows 98.
/NR Skips the registry check.
/NX Do not check the version of Setupx that is running.
/PI Keep forced configured hardware settings (hardware not using
default settings). Some BIOS require hardware to have a forced
configuration to work. By default, Setup removes the forced
configuration and some hardware does not work properly after this is
done.
/PJ
script_filename
 Load Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) by default.
Use settings in the specified script to install Windows 98
automatically; for example, setup msbatch.inf specifies that Setup
should use the settings in Msbatch.inf. You must specify the full file
name. The setup script file name must be eight characters long with a
three-character extension (8.3 file name).

/SRCDIR Specifies the source directory where the Windows 98 Setup
files are located.
/S filename Load the specified Setup.inf file when starting setup.
/T:tempdir Specifies the directory where Setup is to copy its
temporary files. This directory must already exist, but any existing
files in the directory will be deleted.
/U:UPI Specifies the UPI.
/IV Do not display billboards.
/IW Do not display the License Agreement dialog box.
/IX Do not perform a character set check.

=====================================================================

033) Make a Cascading My Computer Toolbar     Back to the list     Back to the index

You can have a cascading menu of the My Computer folder on your
Toolbar:

Just right-click a blank part of the Taskbar, select Toolbars from the
context menu, and choose New Toolbar from the menu. Then use the
dialog box that appears to select a folder. select the My Computer folder.

Now resize this folder, by "grabbing" it's handle, and dragging it to
the right site of the Toolbar, until you only see the words My
Computer, and all icons will be hidden. You will also note a » sign.
When you click on it, a cascading menu will appear with the contends
of My Computer.

Pointing to any of the items will open a sub-menu.

=====================================================================

034) Changing the Sort order in Explorer     Back to the list     Back to the index

To change the sort order of the right window of Explorer simply click
on one of the buttons underneath the toolbar to change the sort order
from ascending to descending.

To make the columns fit the largest item in the column, just Double-click
on the column heading separator. (The little line between the headings)....

=====================================================================

035) Using System File Checker     Back to the list     Back to the index

You can use the System File Checker to verify the integrity of your
operating system files, and to restore them if they are corrupted. The
System File Checker also gives you a convenient way to extract
compressed files (such as drivers) from your installation disks.

You can have System File Checker back up the existing files before
restoring the original files. You can also customize search criteria
based on folder and file extension, choose a different backup
location, choose a different verification data file, or if you experience
severe problems, you can Restore the default system information
(System File Checker will prompt you about any system files that have
changed since you installed Windows).
You have also the ability to create/view a logfile.

You can start the System File Checker by clicking Start > Programs >
Accessories > System Tools > System Information, and then selecting
Tools > System File Checker from the Microsoft System Information
toolbar.

We recommend to enable Check for changed files and Check for deleted
files, as well as selecting to Always back up before restoring.

Also recommended is to manually change the default settings to include
the the missing sub-folders of C:\Windows and C:\Program Files. These
folders are certainly important enough to deserve the modification in
SFC.

To do this, select the Search Criteria tab, and select the C:\Windows
and C:\Program Files in turn, pressing the Include Subfolders button
on
each of them.

To keep your files in good shape, run the SFC after installing new
software.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Sometimes you will receive the following error message when you
attempt to extract a new copy of a Windows 98 file using the System
File Checker tool:

The file was not found. Verify that you have selected the correct
Restore from' location and try again.

This error message occurs when:

You specify the wrong path to the Windows 98 cabinet files
The file you are attempting to extract was created during Windows 98
Setup and is not located in a Windows 98 cabinet file
You specify a path to a shared Windows 98 CD-ROM on a network
Resolutions:

Error #1:

In the Restore File dialog box, click Browse, locate and click the
folder in which the Windows 98 cabinet files are located, click OK,
and
then click OK again.

Note: The Windows 98 cabinet files are located in the \Win98 folder on
the Windows 98 CD-ROM.

Error #2:

If you need a new copy of a file that was created during Windows 98
Setup, install Windows 98 again. You can install Windows 98 "on-top"
of
itself (run Setup from MS-DOS), without loosing anything. Some values
might be reset to default values however.

The following files are created during Windows 98 Setup and are not
located in the Windows 98 cabinet files:

Control.ini Exchange32.ini Msbatch.inf
Msmail.ini Msoffice.ini Ndislog.txt
Powerpnt.ini Progman.ini Protocol.ini
Qtw.ini Ripaux.dll Setup.old
Site.ini Telephon.ini Wavemix.ini
Wininit.ini Index.dat Mstask.cnt
Mstask.hlp Drvidx.bin Mstask.inf
Setup.inf Classes.zip Tclasses.zip
Computerinfo.ocx Crypt32.dll Icwscrpt.exe
Ie32dsw.ocx Ie32dsw.txt Intro.dcr
Javaee.dll Javasntx.dll Jsproxy.dll
M5drvr32.exe M5drvr32.rst M5if32.dll
Mstask.dll Mstask.exe Mstinit.exe
Rnaph.dll Selectfiledlg.ocx Swadcmpr.x32
Swastrm.x32 Sysagent.exe Vmm32.vxd
Vsrevoke.dll Winoa386.mod Wintrust.hlp
Xobglu16.dll Xobglu32.dll

Error #3:

System File Checker does not support extracting files from a Windows
98 CD-ROM shared on a network. For System File Checker to work
properly, the Windows 98 files should be shared from a hard disk
instead of the CD-ROM.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Also note that sometimes when you use System File Checker to restore a
Windows 98 system file (for example, the Gdi.exe, Krnl386.exe or
User.exe file) from a Windows 98 cabinet (.cab) file, the wrong
version
of the file can be extracted from the Mini.cab cabinet file. This can
result in the inability to start Windows 98 or you will receive a
Windows Protection Error error messages in normal and Safe mode.

This can occur when System File Checker prompts you to restore a
corrupt system file during a scan or when you manually extract and
replace a system file.

This problem is documented in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article No.
Q192832, which also gives you instructions on how to fix this problem.

This problem was fixed in Windows 98 Second Edition.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

The following Microsoft Knowledge Base Article may be of your
assistance:

Q188186 - How the System File Checker Baseline Is Determined

=====================================================================

036) Dr. Watson     Back to the list     Back to the index

Windows 98 includes a version of Dr. Watson, the Diagnostics software.
However, Dr. Watson is not loaded at default, nor will you find an
entry in the place where you would expect it: in the Programs >
Accessories > System Tools.

To have Dr. Watson running all the time, create a shortcut in your
\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp folder to the file
\Windows\Drwatson.exe. When you restart your PC, you will see the Dr.
Watson icon in the System tray (the indented part at the right on your
Taskbar).

If you only occasionally want to run Dr. Watson, you can also just
type drwatson in the Run > Open dialog box (click Start > Run).

When you double-click this icon, Dr. Watson will create a snapshot of
your system, and display any errors it finds.

If you choose View > Advanced View from the menu, you can see some
information on the state of your system. Dr. Watson will sow you a
Diagnostics, System, Tasks, Startup, Kernel Drivers, User Drivers, MS-
DOS Drivers and a 16-bit Modules tab, with all kinds of information.

By default, Dr. Watson starts in Standard view, only showing the
Diagnostics tab. If you want to start Dr. Watson in Advanced view by
default, select View > Options from the menu, and in the View box,
place a check-mark in the Open new windows in Advanced view.

You can save a Snapshot of your system by starting Dr. Watson and when
it finishes with the snapshot, choose File > Save from the menu, give
the file a name and click Save. To open a saved logfile you can select
File > Open Log File... from the menu.

According to the Microsoft Help file, Dr. Watson was included to
evaluate problems when you contact Microsoft technical Support for
assistance.

=====================================================================

037) Version Conflict Manager     Back to the list     Back to the index

Sometimes, when installing software, you may have a newer version of a
file on your system than the one being installed. Windows 98 Setup
automatically installs the (older) Windows 98 file over the newer file
and stores the newer version of the file in the \Windows\VCM folder.
Those files can be viewed with Version Conflict Manager (VCM).

Note: The determining factor in identifying an older file is the file
version, not the file date.

You can use Version Conflict Manager (Vcmui.exe) to restore an
application's version of a file. Reinstalling the entire application
is no longer necessary.

To launch Version Conflict Manager:

Select Start > Run and type vcmui in the Open: box.
Version Conflict Manager displays the file name, the backup date, and
the backed- up version of every newer file that was replaced. It also
lists the current version being used of the file

When Version Conflict Manager restores an older file, the older file
is moved in the \Windows\VCM folder with it's extension changed to
.000. You can then use Version Conflict Manager to determine the
original configuration.

======================================================================

038) Restore Full System Backup with the System Recovery Wizard     Back to the list     Back to the index

The System Recovery Wizard restores your Windows 98 installation by
using a full backup that you previously created with Backup. To be
able to use the System Recovery Wizard to restore your Windows 98
installation, you must have a few items available:

A Windows 98 Startup disk
A CD-ROM drive supported by the Windows 98 Startup disk
Your Windows 98 CD-ROM
A backup device connected to your computer
A full system backup created with MS Backup
You can create a Windows Startup disk from Start > Settings > Control
Panel > Add/Remove Programs - Startup Disk tab, or use the
instructions
found on this page, to create a Windows 98 Startup disk with FAT32
support.

To restore Windows 98 on your computer, use the following steps:

Insert your Windows 98 Startup disk into the floppy disk drive, and
then start your computer
Note: you might need to change a setting in your PC's BIOS to boot
from the floppy drive, instead of the hard drive. Consult your PC's
manual if you need to do this.

When you boot from the windows 98 Startup disk, the Windows 98 Startup
menu will be displayed. From the menu, choose Start Computer With CD-
ROM Support
At the command prompt, type the following line, pressing the Enter key
after each line:
<CD-ROM>: cd tools\sysrec pcrestor

where <CD-ROM> is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive

Note: The Pcrestor.bat batch file starts an automatic version of
Windows 98 Setup. After Windows 98 Setup is complete, the System
Recovery Wizard is automatically started.

After Windows 98 Setup starts, remove the Startup disk from the floppy
disk drive
In the System Recovery Wizard, click Next
Type your name and company name, and then click Next
In the System Recovery Wizard, click Finish. The Microsoft Backup
Welcome screen appears
In the Microsoft Backup dialog box, click Restore Backed Up Files, and
then click OK
In the Restore Wizard, use the following options when you are
prompted:
Restore From: Select the location where your backup is stored

Select Backup Sets: Select the most recent full system backup

What To Restore: Click to select the check box next to each local
drive

Where To Restore: Click Original Locations

How To Restore: Click Always replace the file on my computer

Click Start to start the restore process
Important: You can use these steps only to restore data to the same
hardware on which it was backed up. If your computer hardware has
changed since the backup was made, you can use these steps to restore
your data, but you will need to reinstall all of your Windows-based
software after the process is complete.

=====================================================================

039) Print Configuration Summary     Back to the list     Back to the index

To print a copy of your system configuration summary, double-click the
System icon in the Control Panel, click the Device Manager tab, click
Computer and then click Print, select the type of report you want and
click Print.

You can also "print" this information to a text file. First we need to
add a Generic/Text only printer:

Select Start > Settings > Printers
Double-click the Add Printer icon
Click Next
When you are prompted How is this printer attached to your computer?
select Local Printer and then click Next
In the Add Printer Wizard window, select Generic from the
Manufacturers box. In the Printers box, select Generic/Text Only, and
then click Next
In the Available Ports box, click FILE, and then click Next
On the next screen you can give this "Printer" a name, and select No
under the Do you want your Windows-based programs to use this printer
as the default printer? question. Click Next
When you are prompted Would you like to print a test page? click No
and then click the Finish button
To print the contents of Device Manager to a file, follow these steps:

Click the Print button in Device Manager
In the Report Type box, click the option button for the report you
want
Note: To print the Selected Class Or Device report, you must first
click the class or device you want on the Device Manager Tab

Click the Setup button
In the Specific Printer box, click Generic/Text Only On FILE, and then
click the OK button
Click OK again
In the File Name box, type the name you want to use for the file,
select a location where you want to save it, and click OK
To view the report, you can "send" it to Notepad. For more information
see Adding Notepad to Send To.

======================================================================

040) Clear Unwanted Entries from Explorer's New Menu     Back to the list     Back to the index

If you right-click on the desktop or an open folder (or click on the
File menu in Explorer) and choose New, you will be presented with a
list of registered file types that can created on the spot.
Basically, Explorer will just create a new, empty file (sometimes
with a special template) with the appropriate extension in that
location. Most of us will not need to be creating new Ami Pro
documents on the fly, and there is a way to remove these unwanted
entries.

Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE).
Select Find from the Edit menu, type ShellNew, and press OK.
Every ShellNew that is found will be a branch of a particular file
type. If that file type is not wanted in the New menu, delete the
entire ShellNew branch.
Repeat this for every unwanted tile type, and close the Registry
Editor when finished.

======================================================================

041) Get Rid of the Unwanted Explorer Windows at Startup     Back to the list     Back to the index

Several users have complained about Explorer windows and Folders
being loaded every time Windows 98 starts. This "feature"
automatically loads any Explorer windows and Folders that were opened
when Windows 98 was last shut down. If the same windows are being
loaded every time you start up, even if they weren't open when you
last shut down, there are a couple of possibilities:

Make sure you close all Explorer windows and Folders before shutting
down.
You might not be shutting down completely; make sure you see the
screen that says, "It is now safe to turn off..."
If this is the result of a Windows 98 bug, there doesn't seem to be
any way to turn this off.

======================================================================

042) Getting Rid of the Little Yellow Speaker in the Tray     Back to the list     Back to the index

The little yellow speaker in the lower-right of the screen, next to
the clock (which you can remove by right-clicking on the taskbar, by
the way), lets you display the volume control by clicking on it. For
those of us who have volume controls elsewhere, or simply do not need
to repeatedly change the volume, there is a way to remove the icon.

Open Control Panel by selecting Settings from the Start menu.
Double-click on the Multimedia icon.
Under the Audio tab, in the Playback section, turn off the Show
volume control on the taskbar option.
Click OK.

Want to change the volume after deleting the little yellow speaker?
You can do it through Start/Programs/Accessories/Entertainment/Volume Control

======================================================================

043) Getting Rid of the MSN Icon     Back to the list     Back to the index

MSN, Microsoft's faultering online service, has undergone several
metamorphoses since it's introduction in Windows 95, but one thing
has always remained the same - Microsoft doesn't make it obvious how
to get rid of this icon. Even if you specifically chose not to
include the MSN service when installing Windows 98, this icon still
appears on the desktop. If you're unable to remove MSN the icon from
your desktop by dragging it into the Recycle Bin, follow these
directions:

If it's currently installed on your system, you should first remove
it: Double-click on Add-Remove Programs in Control Panel, choose the
Windows Setup tab, turn off the The Microsoft Network option, and
click Ok.

To remove the icon:
Right-click on the MSN icon on the desktop.
Select Delete, and press OK.

Note: You must delete the icon before using Add/Remove Programs to
remove the MSN icon. If you use Add/Remove Programs first, the delete
option on the MSN icon goes away.

If that doesn't work:
If the MSN icon doesn't have a Delete option, you can also create a
new folder, drag the MSN icon into that folder, and then drag the
folder into the Recycle Bin.

Note: If you delete the MSN icon, and wish to get it back, use
TweakUI, one of Microsoft's PowerToys.

Note: See Hide all Icons on the Desktop for more information.

======================================================================

044) Learn about Version Control     Back to the list     Back to the index

Here's a tough one - many program share files are called DLL's (Dynamic Link Libraries).
These files provide functionality that many applications can use (such as how you can see the same "File Open" box on many applications). The problem arises when one errant application overwrites a newer version of a DLL with an older (or just different) version. This problem has been addressed with Version Control, although the problem hasn't been solved. Try this; right-click on any DLL on your hard disk, and click Properties - you should see a Version tab (if not, choose another file and try again). This tab displays the version of the file, and usually the manufacturer and a short description. If that isn't enough, every DLL file (every file, actually) has a date - newer dates usually mean newer files, but not always. Although we can't list every DLL file in existance, and their newest revisions, we will list a few troublemakers.

WINSOCK.DLL
This file is used by most (if not all) internet applications, and the version depends on which dialer you're using. If you're using Dial-Up Networking (built-into Windows 98), the file should be dated the same as most of the other files in your Windows\System folder (dates not yet available). For other dialers (also known as Winsock Stacks), such as Trumpet, the file will have a different date, version, and size. The issue here is to make sure you only have one of these files on your hard disk, and that it's the appropriate (not necessarilly the newest) version.

CTL3D.DLL
this file (and it's cousins, CTL3DV2.DLL and CTL3D32.DLL) seem to cause lots of problems. It's used by older applications to display certain 3-D effects, where the controls in some windows look "carved" out. Although the newer versions usually are preferred, some applications will display an error if you use anything but the version that came with the product. You guessed it; bad programming. As of this writing, for CTL3D.DLL, you should have version 2.05; for CTL3DV2.DLL, you should have version 2.31; and for CTL3D32.DLL, you should have version 2.31. If you don't have these versions, don't panic (and please don't ask where you can get them) - it's just a guideline if you are having trouble with this. Make a habit of backing up these files (Windows 98 provides a directory, SYSBCKUP, for this purpose), so that you can easily restore them if overwritten.

New: The DLL Archive is a large, indexed online depository for DLL files. If you suspect a problem with a DLL file on your system, try replacing it with a newer version to solve the problem.

======================================================================

045) Replacing Start Menu scrolling with good 'ol multiple columns     Back to the list     Back to the index

NOTE.. Jan 10/00. On my win98SE, I had to do BOTH settings...

One of the most frequently requested fixes for Windows 98 is to make
the Start Menu behave like it did in Windows 95. That is, instead of
those tiny arrows that let you scroll through the list, slowly and
painfully, you can configure it to have multiple columns. Microsoft
has been no help on this issue, but we've found a way:

Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE).
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\
CurrentVersion\ explorer\ Advanced.
Select New and then String Value from the Edit menu, and type
StartMenuScrollPrograms as the name for the new value.
Now, double-click on the StartMenuScrollPrograms value, and type
FALSE as the data for this value.
Click Ok and then close the Registry Editor when you're done.
This setting should take effect immediately.

Note: This will affect your Start Menu's Programs folder and all
folders underneath it, but it surprisingly won't affect folders
directly in your Start Menu folder (which appear above Programs in
the main Start Menu).
Note: If this doesn't work on your machine, try adding a second
StartMenuScrollPrograms value, as described above, to the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\
explorer key (just the parent key of the one in the instructions).
There have been reports that this is ocassionally necessary.
Note: If this still doesn't work, check your spelling and make sure
you're putting the values in the right keys. Try restarting Windows
to see if that helps. Also, make sure you've installed all of the
latest Windows Updates, including IE5.

======================================================================

046) Use Quick View with Any File     Back to the list     Back to the index

A handy tool that comes with Windows 98 is the Quick View
application. By right-clicking on some files, you'll see an option
called Quick View, that will allow you to view the contents of a file
without opening the application. The problem is that this doesn't
work with just any file. To get your favorite files to work with the
Quick Viewer, follow these steps:

Solution #1:
Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE).
Open My Computer\ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.
Look for an key that reads "*" - if it isn't there, add it (select
New, Key from the Edit menu).
Under this key, add a new key named "QuickView."
Set the value of the "(Default)" value to "*" and close the Registry
Editor.
This should work for all files with extensions, except (for some
reason) for PCX files.

Solution #2:
Double-click on the My Computer icon, and choose Options... from the
View menu.
Click on the File Types, and choose a file type or extension from
the list.
Click Edit..., turn on the Enable Quick View option, and press Ok.
If the file you want to add to Quick View is not listed, press New
Type... to add the extension of the desired file to the list.
You'll have to do this for every file you want to use with Quick View.
Note that Quick View may not have a filter for every file you view,
but sometimes viewing the raw data is better than nothing at all.

Solution #3:
Add a shortcut to QUIKVIEW.EXE (in your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ folder) to
your \WINDOWS\SENDTO folder.
This way, Quick Viewer will be accessible from the Send To submenu
when you right click on any file.

Solution #4:
Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE).
Open \HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ Unknown\ shell\ openas\ command.
Replace the (default) value with QuickView, or any other desired
program.

Solution #5:
Create a shortcut on the Desktop for QUIKVIEW.EXE, allowing you to
drag any files onto it to be viewed.

======================================================================

047) What to Throw Away     Back to the list     Back to the index

When you install (or upgrade) to Windows 98, there are many files
placed in your root and Windows directories that can be deleted.
These include:

In your root directory:
Anything with the extensions *.TXT, *.PRV, *.LOG, *.OLD, *.- - -,
and *.DOS (unless you use the dual-boot feature)

Jan 10/00.... on my system...
        *.TXT = 790000 bytes
        *.PRV = 0
        *.LOG = 13814
        *.OLD = 128
        *.--- = 11240
        *.DOS = 22810

Af you don't plan on uninstalling Windows 98, you can delete
WIN95UNDO.DAT (if it's there).

In your Windows directory:
Anything with the extensions *.LOG, *.OLD, *.- - -, *.BAK, and
*.000, *.001 (and so on...)
Any files with the following dates can also be deleted, for they
belong to old versions of Windows:
03-10-92 - Windows 3.1
09-30-92 - Windows for Workgroups 3.1
11-01-93 - Windows for Workgroups 3.11
12-31-93 - Windows 3.11
Do a search (Start Menu -> Find -> Files or Folders) and search for
any *.BMP and *.TXT files in the Windows 98 directory. Use QuickView
to view them, and delete them if desired.

Jan 10/00.... on my system...
        *.BMP = 896,852 bytes

In your Windows\System directory:
The entire WIN32S directory under your System directory - this is
used only in Windows 3.x to allow certain 32-bit applications to run,
but some older applications errantly install it in Windows 98. If you
remove this directory, make sure to remove any references to it in
your SYSTEM.INI file, and restart Windows 98.

In your Temp directory (usually Windows\Temp):
You should never delete any files from this directory, unless the
dates of the files are earlier than the last time you booted up. Your
applications use these files to store temporary information, and
won't function properly if you try to remove them. Usually, any files
in this directory that are more than a day old can be safely removed.

Anywhere on your system:
Other files that can be deleted include MSCREATE.DIR (an absolutely
useless hidden file created by Microsoft installation programs -
there may be hundreds of these empty files on your hard disk - see
Slack Space.)
Any directory named, ~MSSETUP.T - this is a temporary directory
created during the installation of a program, and can be freely
deleted once the installation is complete.

Uninstallation Files:
There may be up to 70 megabytes of "uninstallation" information -
files kept around if you decide to remove Windows 98 (assuming you've
upgraded from Windows 95).
The best way to get rid of these files (surprisingly) is to use the
Tune-Up Wizard - don't bother with the scheduling of Scandisk and
Disk Defragmenter (unless you want to) - it will present you with a
list of the useless files you can remove. Hack away!

Files NOT to delete:
Anything in your SYSBCKUP directory.
Your Registry (SYSTEM.DAT, SYSTEM.DA0, USER.DAT, USER.DA0), as well
as SYSTEM.1ST, which you can use if the first four become corrupted.
Any files in your root directory not mentioned above.

If in doubt:
If you're not sure if something should be deleted, try moving it to
another directory first to see if it makes a difference.
Check the file's date - if it's recent, most likely it's still being
used.
For information on removing a particular application, contact the
manufacturer of that application, or refer to the application's
documentation.

======================================================================

048) Speeding Up Windows     Back to the list     Back to the index

Faster Dialing

Double-click the Modem icon in the Control Panel. Click on the
Properties button. Select the Connection tab. Click on the Advance...
button. On the Extra Settings text box, type S11=50. That will speed
up the dial tone from 100 milliseconds ( the default ) to 50
milliseconds.

Speedier Connection

You might notice that sometimes, you are already connected but Dial-
up Networking is still toiling around saying you are "Connecting to
Network". The culprit it Dial-up Networking itself. To solve this,
right-click your ISP connection and select Properties. Click on the
Server Types tab. Uncheck Log on to Network, NetBEUI & IPX/SPX
Compatible.

Latest Dial-up Networking From Microsoft

Get the latest Dial-up Networking from Microsoft. MS DUN 1.3 is
available here (Windows 95/98 Only)

======================================================================

049) Clearing Recent Documents Automatically     Back to the list     Back to the index

To clear the list of recent documents, you will need to go to Start
menu properties click on Add/Remove and the Clear button and poof!
All the documents are zapped clean. Security isn't that good here
since others can know which documents you opened recently. You don't
want to disable the Documents menu but just want to make them
disappear upon the next boot-up, you have a solution.

Use Autoexec.bat. Open it up via Sysedit or Notepad. Add the
following lines

echo Y | del c:\windows\recent\*.*

Save and exit. Please note that your path may differ if you install
Windows under a different directory. If you are using multiple user
profiles, just find your folder in the Windows directory and point to
the c:\windows\yourname\recent. You can even choose to clear up only
certain user profiles.

Clearing Specific File Types

Say you just want to clear a specific file type only say your
confidential Word Documents and want to leave the rest alone. The
trick is the same with a little twist. Again, edit Autoexec.bat and
add the following lines.

echo Y | del c:\windows\recent\*doc*.lnk

This will search your recent documents for shortcuts with DOC
registered as an extension. Pretty useful huh?

======================================================================

050) Faster Startup After Adding Network Card     Back to the list     Back to the index

After adding a network card to your Windows 95/98 installation you
may notice a 10 to 20 second delay when Windows is loading at the
graphic splash screen. This is caused by Windows attempting to poll
your network for a TCP/IP address. Under normal circumstances Windows
will not be able to find one and will manually assign you one. The
delay you experience is the process where Windows is polling the
network.

To eliminate this polling follow these steps:

Go to your Network Neighborhood, right click and bring up the
properties dialog.
Scroll down in the install protocols list until you see an entry
marked "TCP/IP -> [Network Card Name]". DO NOT select the one marked
"TCP/IP -> Dial-up Adapter" as this is your modem and your Internet
service provider will normally assign you a TCP/IP address upon
connect.
Click on the property tab for this protocol and go to the "IP
Address" tab.
Click "Specify an IP Address" and type in any IP address. Do not
include "zeros" in any of the four fields. For example, mine is set
to 192.198.1.11.
Change the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0
Click "OK" and Windows will inform you it needs to restart. Let it.
The delay should now be gone. IP addresses for a small, local
network are not too terribly important. Just be sure that you give
EACH computer on the network a unique IP address. For consistency
sake, always keep the first 3 set of numbers the same. There are
technical details about why, but suffice it to say it's the best
option.

Good luck and enjoy your "extra" time!

Tip submitted by: Robert Stinett

======================================================================

051) One Click Shut Down     Back to the list     Back to the index

To Shut Down Windows with one mouse click:

Create a new shortcut.
Right-click the Desktop and select New > Shortcut
In the Command line box type:

       "rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows"

Click Next and give it the appropriate name (Shut Down)
You could drag it on to the quick launch bar.
Now, whenever you want to exit, click on this shortcut and you are off.
No menus and no 'black curtain' screen with it.
Also to make life even easier you can add a shortcut key (s) by
right-clicking on the shortcut and going to properties and type the
key (s) in the Shortcut Key box.

======================================================================

052) One Click Restart     Back to the list     Back to the index

To Restart Windows with one mouse click:

Right-click the Desktop and select New > Shortcut
In the Command line box type:

       "rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindowsexec"

Click Next and give it the appropriate name (Restart)

Also to make life even easier you can add a shortcut key (s) by
right-clicking on the shortcut and going to properties and type the
key (s) in the Shortcut Key box.

======================================================================

053) Switches may be preset in the DIRCMD environment variable.     Back to the list     Back to the index

Just set the DIR command like this:
    SET DIRCMD=/V/P/O/A/L/4
Now whenever you type just dir, DOS will help you type the whole
thing - dir /v/p/o/a/l/4. Useful isn't it?

To permanently stick it onto your DOS Prompt, add
    SET DIRCMD=/V/P/O/A/L/4
to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

======================================================================

054) New XCOPY Switches     Back to the list     Back to the index

There are quite some new switches added to the XCOPY command as Windows 95/98/NT are 32-bit Operating Systems. Below are some of the additions over the old XCOPY command from DOS 6.x.

* /C - Continues copying even if errors occur
* /I - If destination does not exist and copying more than one file, assumes that destination must be a directory
* /Q - Does not display file names while copying
* /F - Displays full source and destination file names while copying
* /L - Displays files that would be copied
* /H -Copies hidden and system files also
* /R - Overwrites read-only files
* /T - Creates directory structure, but does not copy files. Does not include empty directories or subdirectories.
* /T /E - includes empty directories and subdirectories
* /U - Updates the files that already exist in destination
* /K - Copies attributes. Normal XCOPY will reset read-only attributes
* /Y - Overwrites existing files without prompting
* /-Y - Prompts you before overwriting existing files
* /N - Copy using the generated short names

======================================================================

055) DOS Tips..The Handy Undelete Tool     Back to the list     Back to the index

Why do you need this tool? Because when the Recycle Bin is emptied,
files are longer "recoverable". But there lives the Undelete program
from old DOS. So, the question is, how does it recovers files that
are already deleted when even the Recycle Bin can't do it?

Perhaps a little explanation will do. All deleted files will still
exist in your hard drive until you format it. When you delete a file,
your computer will erase the first character of the file and mark it
is "deleted". That means that any other file can be written over it
or replace it. The file can remain forever until another file is
copied and takes the location of the file on the hard drive. This
means that if you deleted a file and you didn't copy any new files or
make major disk alteration, chances are, you can still recover the
file. The same applies to Norton's UnErase Wizard but of course, the
utility is much better with more advance recovery. But Undelete is
free and works in DOS.

The first thing to do is to get the utility first. It is available
at your Windows CD in a /olddos/ directory. Search for it. Next, you
need to copy it in to your c:\windows\command\ directory. Now you are
done. To recover a file, type say gone.wav :

c:\>undelete gone.wav
Specify the full path. You will notice that the first character is
not typed. Instead it is replaced by a # sign. You must specify the
first character to recover the file. Typing

c:\>undelete
by itself will give you a list of file to recover. Now, lets say you
want to recover the whole bunch of file deleted. If you already know
which file to recover and know the first character, type

c:\>undelete gone.wav /all
and DOS will automatically stick the first character to #one.wav.
You can also apply wildcards - like this:

c:\>undelete *.wav /all
Now, you might find typing the first character a bit tiring. It is
ironic that as a computer, won't it just know it? The fact is, it
does, if you will just tell it how. Stick the following line to your
Autoexec.bat:

UNDELETE /TC
Once you want to undelete any file, just press Y to resurrect your
"dead" file to life.

Although the Undelete utility may sound very useful, we are
disappointed to say that it might not work under some Windows
systems. Try it to see whether it works on yours.

======================================================================

056) The DOS Diskcopy command.     Back to the list     Back to the index

The DOS Diskcopy command includes a /v switch, which ensures that
the tracks on your target disk are written to reliably. If your
target disk is bad, the /v option will detect it and abort the
process. The drawback of using this option is that it increases the
time it takes Diskcopy to copy a disk. Use it only If you're
concerned about the reliability of your floppy disks.

If you don't like working on DOS, create a shortcut to the desktop
with the following command

C:\Windows\Command\Diskcopy A: A:
for easier access.

======================================================================

057) WIN.COM Switches     Back to the list     Back to the index

Do you know that you can configure how the way Windows should boot
from DOS? WIN.COM includes a /D switch and a few options to help you
achieve this for troubleshooting when Windows does not start
correctly. This is the syntax:

C:\>WIN /D:[F][M][S][V][X]
These are the brief explanation of the options available:

:F Turns off 32-bit disk access.
        Equivalent to SYSTEM.INI file setting: 32BitDiskAccess=FALSE.
:M Enables Safe mode.
        This is automatically enabled during Safe start (function key F5).
:N Enables Safe mode with networking.
        This is automatically enabled during Safe start (function key F6).
:S Specifies that Windows should not use ROM address space between
        F000:0000 and 1 MB for a break point.
        Equivalent to SYSTEM.INI file setting: SystemROMBreakPoint=FALSE.
:V Specifies that the ROM routine will handle interrupts from the hard
        disk controller.
        Equivalent to SYSTEM.INI file setting: VirtualHDIRQ=FALSE.
:X Excludes all of the adapter area from the range of memory that
        Windows scans to find unused space.
        Equivalent to SYSTEM.INI file setting: EMMExclude=A000-FFFF.
These options are only meant for troubleshooting purposes only. This
is useful when you meet with some error upon loading Windows and back
to the command prompt.

In any case you want to stick to the certain way of bootup as stated
above, change the line under MSDOS.SYS :

BootGUI=0
Then use add a

WIN /D :{option}
line to your Autoexec.bat. For more information on editing
MSDOS.SYS, go here.

======================================================================

058) Hidden COMMAND.COM Switches     Back to the list     Back to the index

To get the list of the whole COMMAND.COM switch, type the /? the
command prompt. But the thing is, we now have 3 switches that are not
documented at all, not even under the /? list. So, now let us have a
brief explanation.

The first switch is the /D switch. COMMAND /D used on the CONFIG.SYS
SHELL= line (the primary shell), or at the MS-DOS prompt (secondary
shell in combination with the COMMAND /P parameter), prevents the
execution of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file at bootup. Example:

SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /E:512 /D /P
The next switch is the /F. Remember the annoying "Abort,Retry, Fail"
error? Most of us usually just select "Fail". This is exactly what
the switch does - it will automatically reply with a "Fail" if the
floppy disk drive is not ready or available. You can activate it on
the CONFIG.SYS file SHELL= line. Example:

SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /E:512 /F /P
or just added to any PIF file or the DOS Prompt shortcut through
"Command.Com /F"

The third switch is th /Z. This will display "errorlevel" return
code messages after executing each external DOS command - which is
normally used to examine the return code for use of batch files. This
switch can be activated through the CONFIG.SYS file SHELL= line.
Example:

SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /E:512 /P /Z
It can also be used in a Windows PIF file. You should see the below
message:

"Microsoft(R) Windows 95
(C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1996.
Return code (ERRORLEVEL): 0
WARNING: Reloaded COMMAND.COM transient"

======================================================================

059) Use Alt+Enter to change the DOS session from full-screen to window mode.
        Back to the list     Back to the index

======================================================================

060) Running Shortcuts Under DOS     Back to the list     Back to the index

Shortcuts under Windows has been quite a convenience. However,
running shortcuts under DOS Prompt can be quite a chore. Now the
first thing we need to do is know how to do it.

If you create a shortcut to a folder named "mystuff" on your
desktop. To run this shortcut, we need to type:

C:\Windows\Desktop\>start mystuff.lnk
The .lnk is the extension for shortcuts. Now if we want to run a
shortcut to a program say "wintips.lnk". Just type

C:\Windows\Desktop\>start wintips.lnk
Now the problem arouses when you have multiple shortcuts with the
same name. Of course under the same directory, Windows won't allow
you to put up the same file names. But under the C:\Windows directory
where there a plenty of subfolders, the filename may be a bit mixed
up. To fully identify the shortcut, we will need the extension of the
original file. In this case, we will have to type

C:\Windows\Desktop\start ie.exe.lnk

======================================================================

061) Removing Control Panel Applets     Back to the list     Back to the index

Yeah, the Control Panel is considered as every Windows 98 users
friend. But some certain applications comes with their own Control
Panel applet. Sure, why not? It can be pretty useful such as the
DirectX, TweakUI or Music controls bundled by your sound card. But if
you find the Control Panel crowded, you can't just right-click the
item and delete. But you can remove it in a sneaky way.

Go to your C:\Windows\System\ directory and use the Search tool to
search for *.cpl files. These files are the Control Panel applets or
files. Since the names are not so organized, check which applet you
want to remove, press delete or move them to another folder and they
are off your Control Panel for good.

======================================================================

062) Make Older Applications Compatible     Back to the list     Back to the index

There are still some stubborn Windows 3.x that behave poorly under
Windows 95/98. It is time to teach your program some manners and
behave more politely under 32-bit Windows. There is a hidden program
in you C:\Windows\System\ directory.

Select Run and type: mkcompat.exe

This will launch a program called Make Compatible. First click on
File, Choose Program. Select the darn program and make your settings
It is advisable that you use the Advance Settings for further
customization.

======================================================================

063) Using Paint To Convert Graphic Formats     Back to the list     Back to the index

In Windows 98, the new version of Paint allows you to quickly
convert between BMP, GIF and JPG graphics formats. Doing so is very
simple, open a graphic file in the usual way, then click the File
menu and choose Save As. Select the desired format from the "Save As
Type" drop-down list and click Save.

======================================================================

064) Saving Favorites Folder     Back to the list     Back to the index

Some people like to just reinstall windows by doing the "Deltree"
command on the Windows directory. Here is how to simply save your
favorites folder before doing so. Go to "C:\Windows\" Right click on
your FAVORITES FOLDER and then select COPY - next go to the folder
you would like to back-up the Favorites into, then Right click in the
folder and press PASTE.

Adding Programs To Favorites
You can place links to programs such as - DUN dialup, a telnet app,
an Msmail remote mail dial-in. You can also link to any folder on
your driver so you can get there even quicker.

======================================================================

065) Save Your Search Engine     Back to the list     Back to the index

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.

======================================================================

066) Launch Apps from Your Browser     Back to the list     Back to the index

Presumably, you've got your favorite applications on the Start menu,
so they're just two clicks away. Here's how to make them only one
click away: Right-click on the Start button and select Open from the
Context menu. Select all the shortcuts you want, and drag and drop
all of them onto the Links toolbar.

======================================================================

067) Saving Windows Update Files     Back to the list     Back to the index

You can backup WindowsUpdate files prior to pressing the ok sign
after downloading the updates by:loading explorer goto \windows you
should see a msdownld.tmp folder containing the updates. *you may may
have to view all files*

======================================================================

068) Hardware Profiles     Back to the list     Back to the index

Hardware Profiles are used to set up multiple hardware
configurations. This is especially useful for laptops that have
docking stations or workstations with removable storage media.

The following example demonstrates how to set up hardware profiles
for a laptop with a docking station that has this configuration:

Configuration Docked Undocked
Display driver S3 VGA
Network w/Microsoft Network None
RNA no RNA with RNA

To open Systems Properties:

Right-click My Computer.
Click Properties, and then click Hardware Profiles.
Verify that two hardware profile options labeled
Docked and Undocked exist. If these options are not available,
highlight Original Configuration, and then click Rename. Type DOCKED
and then click OK. Highlight the word DOCKED and then click Copy. In
the Copy Profile Dialog Box type UNDOCKED.
To install the VGA driver:

Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
Click Display.
Click Settings, and then click Change Display Type.
In the Adapter Type area, click Change, and then install the VGA
driver.
To Set Up the Video Driver for Docked and Undocked Configurations

In Control Panel, click System, and then click Device Manager.
Click Display Adapter, and then click VGA.
In the Device Usage area, make sure the Undocked check box is
selected and the Docked check box is clear. Click OK.
On Device Manager, click Display Adapter, and then click the S3
adapter.
In the Device Usage area, make sure the Docked check box is selected
and the Undocked check box is clear.
Click OK to exit Device Manager.
To Set Up for No Network in an Undocked State:

In Control Panel, click System, and then click Device Manager.
Click Network Adapter, and then click the network card.
In the Device Usage area on General, click to clear the check box
for the Undocked option. Click OK, and then return to Device Manager.
To set up for no RNA while docked:

In Control Panel, click System, and then click Device Manager.
Click the Dial-up Networking adapter. Click to clear the check box
for the Docked option.

======================================================================

069) Order the Menu (Windows 98)     Back to the list     Back to the index

It's easy to reorder the items on any Windows 98 cascading menu by
holding down the mouse button and drag a highlighted file or folder
up or down the list. With this tip it's even easier to force the
entire list into permanent alphabetical order.

Open the Registry Editor and find the key below.

Highlight the Order entry in the Contents pane, then delete it. The
list will be in alphabetical order the next time Windows opens.

You'll find a similar Menu subkey under each of the &Program subkeys
Accessories, Games and so on). Follow the same procedure to
alphabetize those lists, too.

Registry Settings:
Key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
MenuOrder\Start Menu\&Programs\Menu]

======================================================================

070) Change the Location of System and Special Folders (Windows 9x and NT)     Back to the list     Back to the index

Windows keeps a number of special folders such as "My Documents", "Desktop", "Favorites" and the "Start Menu".
These folders can be moved anywhere on you system and the new location updated in this key.

1. Using Regedit open the key below, listed are all the special folders Windows uses.
2. Note the current location of the folder you want to move, and then using explorer move the folder to the new location.
3. Edit the value in the key below for the folder you moved to reflect the new directory location.

Registry Settings:
Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ User Shell Folders]

Note: Log off, or restart Windows for the changes to take effect.

======================================================================

072) Make the Columns Fit (Windows 9x and NT)     Back to the list     Back to the index

Want to quickly see all the column in explorer without having to
resize them individually? This tip does it for you.

Simple press CTRL + + (press the plus button twice on the numeric
keypad), this will adjust the column width so you can view the info
in each column.

This tip may also work with programs based on the Windows explorer
interface. Try it out!

Note: You may have to expand the window borders to see all the
columns.

======================================================================

073) Remove the Start Banner on the Taskbar (Windows 9x and NT)     Back to the list     Back to the index

Hides the arrow and "Click here to start" caption that appears on
the taskbar when you start Windows.

Registry Settings:
Key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]
Value Name: NoStartBanner
Data Type: REG_BINARY
Data: (00 00 00 00 = disabled, 01 00 00 00 = enabled)

======================================================================

074) Running Scandisk on Boot Up (Windows 9x)     Back to the list     Back to the index

If Windows 9x is shutdown incorrectly, or the turn power turned off
without shuting down, the system will attempt to run Scandisk on the
next boot. You can control whether Scandisk doesn't run, prompts
whether to run, or runs automatically.

1. Change the attributes for MSDOS.SYS so it is not 'Read Only',
MSDOS.SYS is found in the root directory of your C:\ drive. Open the
file using Notepad or another text editor (not Microsoft Word or any
word processor).

2. Change the value of 'AutoScan=' to:

AutoScan=0 : Scandisk is Disabled
AutoScan=1 : Scandisk Prompts First
AutoScan=2 : Scandisk Runs Automatically
3. Changes will take place on the next reboot.

Note: It is advisable to run Scandisk after an incorrect shutdown to
avoid file corruption.

Note: This feature is only available on Windows 95 OSR 2 and greater.

Registry Settings:
Key: [MSDOS.SYS]
Data: AutoScan=1 (default)

======================================================================

075) Display the Windows Splash Screen While Loading (Windows 9x)     Back to the list     Back to the index

When Windows is loading normally you see the Windows clouds splash
screen, this can be disabled to show the background DOS boot process.

1. Change the attributes for MSDOS.SYS so it is not 'Read Only',
MSDOS.SYS is found in the root directory of your C:\ drive. Open the
file using Notepad or another text editor (not Microsoft Word or any
word processor).

2. Change the value of 'Logo=' to 'Logo=1' for splash screen enabled
or 'Logo=0' for disabled.

3. Changes will take place on the next reboot.

Hint: Pressing <Esc> while the splash screen is showing will have
the same effect for that session.

Registry Settings:
Key: [MSDOS.SYS]
Data: Logo=1 (default)

===================================================================

076) Configure the Contiguous File Allocation Size (Windows 9x and NT)     Back to the list     Back to the index

This setting optimizes the contiguous file allocation size for the
file system. This is especially useful for disk intensive
applications.

Open your registry and find the key below.

Create a new DWORD value named 'ContigFileAllocSize', set the value
to equal '200' (in hex).

Close the registry and restart the computer for the change to take
affect.

For example, the setting may look like:

 ContigFileAllocSize 0x00000200 (512)

Registry Settings:
Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
Value Name: ContigFileAllocSize
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 200 (hex) or 512 (decimal)

===================================================================

077) Optimizing the DefaultRcvWindow & DefaultTTL Settings (Windows 9x)     Back to the list     Back to the index

Cool!
The optimization of RcvWindow and DefaultTTL along with other
registry settings such as MaxMTU and MaxMSS can speed up TCP/IP modem
networking connections (eg. Internet connections).

RWIN (Receive WINdow) is the buffer your machine waits to fill with
data before attending to whatever other TCP transactions are
occurring on the other threads and sockets WinSock has open while a
connection is in progress.

The value of TTL (Time To Live) defines how long a packet can stay
active before being discarded. The default value is '32'.

1. Open the registry and find the key below.

2. Create a new string value named 'DefaultRcvWindow' and set it to
'4288'. If 'DefaultRcvWindow' already exists, then simply modify the
current value.

3. Also create another string value named 'DefaultTTL' under the
same key and set that to '128'. Again if it already exist, simply
modify the value.

4. Exit the registry and reboot your PC.

Registry Settings:
Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP]
Value Name: DefaultRcvWindow, DefaultTTL
Data Type: REG_SZ
More info:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q120/6/42.asp

===================================================================

078) Optimizing Dial-Up Modem Connection Speed (Windows 9x) Cool!     Back to the list     Back to the index

By optimizing the MaxMTU & MaxMSS settings along with the RWIN and
TTL settings you can increase dialup modem connection reliability and
performance by as much as 200%.

What is the MTU and MSS?

MTU stands for Maximum Transmission Unit and in basic terms, it
defines the maximum size of a packet that can be transferred in one
frame over a network.

MSS or Maximum Segment Size defines how much actual data can put in
that packet, and it is therefore a marginally smaller value than MTU
to allow for packet addressing and other information.

Why do the default values need to be changed?

By default Windows hardcodes the value of MTU to equal 1500 bytes.
This value is adequate for normal LAN networking, but when your
connecting to the Internet with a modem this value is too high. This
can show itself in different ways, the most noticeable affect is less
than peak performance.

By adjusting this value to more closely match the requirements of a
modem Internet connection huge performance gains can be achieved.

Below are the instructions on how to modify these values for
yourself. Please remember though, modifying the Windows registry is
not for the faint hearted. Always remember to back it up first!

1. To change the settings you first have to find the details of your
Dial-Up Adapter.

2. Find the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\Root\Net and within there
will be one or more sub-keys such as 0000, 0001 ...

3. Open each key and find the one that contains the value of
'DeviceDesc' equal to 'Dial-Up Adapter'.

4. Within that key there will also be another sub-key named
'Bindings'. Open the 'Bindings' sub-key and you will find a string
name like 'MSTCP\0000'. Take note of the four digit number after
'MSTCP' (in this case 0000) and use it in the next step.

5. Now go to the key 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\Network\MSTCP' and
expand the sub-key with the same four digit number as from the
previous step.

6. In this key you will find a value called 'Driver' and it will be
equal to something similar to 'NetTrans\0002'. Take note of this four
digit number (in this case 0002) and use it in the next step.

7. Now open the key
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans]
below there will be one or more sub-key's. Expand the key with the
name equal to the four digit number from the previous step.

8. Within this key create a new string value named 'MaxMTU' and set
it to '576', and also add a string value named 'MaxMSS' and set it to
'536'.

9. Then exit the registry and restart your computer.

Registry Settings:
Key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans]
Value Name: MaxMTU, MaxMSS
Data Type: REG_SZ
More info:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q120/6/42.asp

Last Reviewed: 23-Feb-1999

===================================================================

079) Control Whether Windows Performs Smooth Scrolling (Windows 9x
and NT)     Back to the list     Back to the index

This setting allow you to disable the Windows smooth scrolling
function, which on an low-powered system can cause performance
degradation.

1. Using RegEdit find the key below.

2. Modify the value of 'SmoothScroll' to either '00 00 00 00' for
disabled, or '01 00 00 00' for enabled. If the value doesn't already
exist create a new REG_BINARY value, naming it 'SmoothScroll'.

Registry Settings:
Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
Value Name: SmoothScroll
Data Type: REG_BINARY
Data: (00 00 00 00 = disabled, 01 00 00 00 = enabled)

Last Reviewed: 3-Jan-1999

===================================================================

080) Configure 32-bit Protected Mode IO Drivers (Windows 9x)     Back to the list     Back to the index

This setting controls whether fixed disk access is performed through
Windows protected mode drivers or through real mode drivers and BIOS
routines. If you are experiencing drive IO errors enabling this
setting may be a possible solution.

Registry Settings:
Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
Value Name: ForceRMIO
Data Type: REG_BINARY
Data: (00 00 00 00 = protected mode, 01 00 00 00 = real mode)

Last Reviewed: 12-Jan-1999

===================================================================

081) Configure Protected-Mode Hard Disk Interrupt Handling (Windows 9x)     Back to the list     Back to the index

This switch allows Windows to terminate interrupts from the hard
disk controller, bypassing the ROM routine that handles these
interrupts. Some hard drives might require that this setting be
disabled in order for interrupts to be processed correctly. If this
setting is disabled, the ROM routine handles the interrupts.

Registry Settings:
Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
Value Name: VirtualHDIRQ
Data Type: REG_BINARY
Data: (00 00 00 00 = disabled, 01 00 00 00 = enabled)

Last Reviewed: 12-Jan-1999

===================================================================

082) New Command Missing in Windows Explorer (Windows 9x and NT)     Back to the list     Back to the index

After you install Internet Explorer with the Windows Desktop Update
component you may notice that the New command is missing from the
right-click context menu. This tip will help you fix the problem.

To resolve this issue, use Registry Editor to verify that the
registry key listed below has the value listed, and if needed, edit
the value to match the value listed.

Note: This registry entry only exists if the Windows Desktop Update
component is installed. If the Windows Desktop Update component is
not installed, add the registry entry and (Default) value.

Registry Settings:
Key:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Ne
w]
Value Name: (Default)
Data Type: REG_SZ
Data: {D969A300-E7FF-11d0-A93B-00A0C90F2719}
More info:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q180/2/57.asp

Last Reviewed: 23-Feb-1999

===================================================================

083) CD-ROM Does Not Run Automatically When Inserted (Windows 9x)     Back to the list     Back to the index

When you insert a CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, it may not be run
automatically, changing this registry key should correct the problem.

Registry Settings:
Key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]
Value Name: NoDriveTypeAutoRun
Data Type: REG_BINARY
Data: 0000 95 00 00 00
More info:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q177/8/80.asp

Last Reviewed: 18-Aug-1998

===================================================================

085) Getting Ready to Shop On The Internet     Back to the list     Back to the index

IE 4.0 comes with an Internet wallet that lets you securely store
your credit-card payment information. Select View/Internet
Options/Content. Click on the Payments button (if you're prompted to
load the CreditCard wallet extension, click Install). In the next
dialog box, pick Add and follow the wizard to load your credit-card
information.

===================================================================

086) Quickly Minimize All Windows     Back to the list     Back to the index

Did you know just how easy and fast you can minimize all the windows
you have open? Just RIGHT CLICK on the taskbar and then go to
"Minimize All Windows".

Even quicker is to press the "window" and "m" button at the same time!.

===================================================================

087) Faster Security     Back to the list     Back to the index

The fastest way to change your security settings is to double-click
on the lower right-hand part of the browser's Status bar. This will
launch the Internet Security Properties dialog box. From there, you
can specify high, medium, low and custom security levels for
different zones.

=====================================================================

089) Problems with Standby - Resume     Back to the list     Back to the index

If you're having problems with Standby - Resume, see Microsoft
Knowledge Base Article No. Q193473

===================================================================

090) Screen capture.     Back to the list     Back to the index

Remember that you can use ALT-PRINT SCREEN to snap the active window
to the clipboard. It can then be PASTEd into a document.

===================================================================

091) How to Improve Browsing Performance in Internet Explorer     Back to the list     Back to the index

MORE INFORMATION
The most common cause of poor performance in Internet Explorer is large pictures, sounds, videos, or other multimedia files that appear or are played automatically when you access a Web page. If you are using a slow connection to access the Internet, these files may take a long time to appear or be played.

To improve browsing performance in Internet Explorer, you can prevent pictures, sounds, videos, and other multimedia files from appearing or being played automatically when you access Web pages. To do so, follow these steps:

Internet Explorer 5.0
Start Internet Explorer, and then click Internet Options on the Tools menu.

On the Advanced tab, click one or more of the following check boxes in the Multimedia area to clear them:

Show Pictures (prevents pictures from appearing automatically)
Play Sounds (prevents sounds from being played automatically)
Play Videos (prevents videos from being played automatically)
Play Animations (prevents animations from being played automatically)

Click Apply.

Click the Security tab, and then click Custom Level.

Click Disable for one or more of the items in the following Active Content areas:

ActiveX Controls And Plug-ins (prevents Internet Explorer from automatically using items that show active content).
Java (prevents Internet Explorer from viewing Java programs automatically)
Scripting

Click OK and then click OK.

=======================================================================

092) How to interpret the Ppplog.txt file.     Back to the list     Back to the index

SUMMARY
This article describes how to interpret the Ppplog.txt file. It also provides information about background concepts used in the development of the Point-to-Point protocol (PPP) and its peripheral components.

References to an IETF Request-for-Comments (RFC) can be followed by locating the RFC, by number, at the following Web site: http://ds.internic.net/ds/rfc-index.html

Because PPP is the predominant connection type used today, this article focuses primarily on interpreting the Ppplog.txt file when a PPP connection is used. Information not related to troubleshooting, but instrumental in understanding the framework of PPP, is also provided.

Notes
Excerpts from Ppplog.txt files in this article have been edited for readability. Specifically, the date stamp has been removed and the time stamp has been reduced to the format [seconds.tenths-of-a- second]. Comments are at the bottom of each listing. For the sake of brevity, unnecessary lines may have been removed. Where this has been done, ellipses have been placed between the line numbers.

The term "peer(s)" is used in this article to describe either or both computers involved in a connection.

MORE INFORMATION

Enabling Ppplog.txt File Generation
The Ppplog.txt file is generated by Pppmac.vxd, also known as the Dial-Up Adapter. The file is appended each time the Dial-Up Adapter is used. To enable the generation of a Ppplog.txt file, follow these steps:

In Control Panel, double-click Network.
On the Configuration tab, double-click the Dial-Up Adapter.
Click the Advanced tab.
In the Property box, click Record A Log File.
In the Value box, click Yes.
Click OK or Close until you return to Control Panel. When you are prompted to restart your computer, do so.

The next time you use the Dial-Up Adapter, the Ppplog.txt file is created in the Windows folder.

Frame and Packet Structure
The structures are listed in OSI model order, from the data-link layer up. Individual protocol structures are not included; that level of complexity exceeds the scope and purpose of this article. A complete HDLC-framed PPP packet has the following structure:

   [-Flag-|-Address-|-Control-|-Protocol-|-Information-|-Padding-|-FCS-|-Flag-]

This structure can be broken into the following two logical parts:

HDLC Framing of PPP Data:

   [-Flag-|-Address-|-Control-|-PPP Encapsulation-|-FCS-|-Flag-]

The PPP frame's beginning and end is marked by a Flag sequence. In a data stream, the end of one frame and the beginning of the next is not noted by the presence of consecutive Flags; only one is needed. The field's length is one octet, and its value is always 01111110 (0x7e).

Because PPP deals with point-to-point connections, the majority of implementations do not support individual addressing of PPP frames. The address that is used and must be supported by all implementations of PPP is the All-Stations broadcast address: 11111111 (0xff).

The Control field is a single octet in length and, unless negotiated otherwise, has the value 00000011 (0x03).

PPP Encapsulation is covered below.

The Frame Check Sequence (FCS) is the checksum for the frame. It can be two or four octets (16- or 32-bit value) in length. The FCS defaults to the 16-bit value. It is calculated using the Address, Control, Protocol, Information, and Padding fields. Excluded are bits or octets inserted at the physical layer for transmission (synchronous or asynchronous) framing purposes, the FCS and Flag fields, and any bits that are flagged for transparent transmission in the Asynchronous Control Character Map (the ACCM is described later in this article).

PPP Encapsulation:

   [-Protocol-|-Information-|-Padding-]

The Protocol field can be either one or two octets in length, depending on whether protocol field compression is being used. It indicates the protocol contained within the PPP frame. With PPP, protocol identification numbers are based on the ISO 3309 extension mechanism for address fields. This states that if address field identifiers comply with the format stated in ISO 3309, implementations of PPP can reliably compress a 16-bit (2-octet) field down to an 8-bit (single octet) field while retaining all necessary information.

The Information field consists of zero or more octets, which, including padding octets, does not exceed the Maximum Receivable Unit (MRU) length negotiated for the connection.

The Padding field is optional, and any data used as padding must be easily discernible as such by the peers. If padding data is included, and exceeds the MRU, it is discarded silently.

Control Mechanisms
In order to properly interpret the Ppplog.txt file, read the following section to familiarize yourself with PPP's underlying control mechanisms and the phases the connection passes through.

Finite-State Automaton (FSA)
The FSA processes status messages from different layers, and then, after evaluating the message, tells other layers what they should do next. In general, the FSA relates information from layer to layer, without actually interacting in the exchange of data. For example, if the physical layer (modem-to-modem connection) is interrupted, the FSA notifies the network layer that it can no longer function, and must shut down. The automaton is said to exist in "states." The progress of the connection is dependent on the current state of the automaton.

Link Control Protocol (LCP)
The link control protocol's job is to manage the data-link layer.
It sets up, configures, and tests the connection.

There are three classes of LCP packets:

Link Configuration packets establish and configure the link.
Link Termination packets terminate the link.
Link Maintenance packets manage and test the link.

Knowing the three classes of packets is important because a malfunctioning implementation of PPP can be indicated by the presence of a certain class of packet appearing at an inappropriate time. You may also see this behavior if the connection between the two peers is poor or the modems are misconfigured or malfunctioning. More information about the specific packets within each class and their relevance to the Ppplog.txt file is contained in the "Parsing the Ppplog.txt File" section of this article.

Network Control Protocol (NCP)
An NCP is a "protocol manager." Each protocol that is used in the connection has an NCP. They work with the LCP to get the protocols up and ready to be used. When an NCP has opened, it is possible for network-layer traffic to be carried by the protocol that the NCP configured. NCPs are not defined in the same RFC as the Point-to-Point protocol. They are defined separately, and as such are not covered in detail in this article.

Phase Breakdown
A PPP session consists of five distinct phases. Ppplog.txt file entries are more readily understood based on what happens during these phases. When common failures in a phase in Windows 95 are referenced, any existing Microsoft Knowledge Base articles about that failure are referred to.

Link-Dead
Every PPP connection starts in the Link-Dead condition. In this condition, the physical layer is said to be "Down," and the FSA "Closed." In a switched circuit such as a modem connection over a telephone line, this condition exists when the modems are not connected. In a continuous connection, such as a leased line, there is usually some mechanism in place that enables the hardware to signal PPP that the link is available. When a carrier has been negotiated or the connection established, the hardware-handling routines signal the FSA that they can carry traffic, and PPP moves on to the Link Establishment phase.

Link Establishment
In the Link Establishment phase, the LCP configures and establishes the data-link layer. Its aim is to provide a solid foundation on top of which the network layer can operate. This process primarily involves the exchange of Class 1 LCP packets, and starts when one peer receives a Configure-Request packet from another. When all configuration options have been negotiated, a Configure-Ack packet is returned to the peer that initiated negotiation. At this point, the layer is up and PPP can proceed to the next phase.

The following example illustrates a hypothetical conversation between two peers, Peer1 and Peer2. Each line represents a packet being transmitted. The peer sending the packet is listed in parentheses, and the packet type is listed in brackets. When the peer sending the packet is noted as "PeerN(a,b,c)," a possible response to a request is being noted, not sequential packets from the same peer.

Synopsis:

(Peer1)-[Configure-Request]: Contains information about all configuration options to be negotiated. All options are negotiated simultaneously.

(Peer2a)-[Configure-Ack]: If the peer receiving the Configure-Request accepts all configuration options, it returns a Configure-Ack. Receipt of a Configure- Ack signals the end of LCP configuration.

(Peer2b)-[Configure-Nak]: If the peer receiving the Configure-Request accepts all of the configuration option fields but not all the values of the fields, it must send a Configure-Nak. The Configure-Nak packet specifies which option field values were not acceptable and suggests changes to the peer.

(Peer2c)-[Configure-Reject]: Indicates to the peer that some of the option fields requested for negotiation are unrecognizable or unacceptable. The peer must send a new Configure-Request, omitting the rejected option fields.

(Peer1)-[Configure-Request] . . . (Peer2)-[Configure-Ack]

(Link configuration complete)

It is important to note that because the majority of Windows 95 PPP connections are asynchronous, according to RFC 1662 the following configuration options will always be negotiated:

Asynchronous Control Character Map
Magic Number
Address and Control Field Compression
Protocol Field Compression

These options may not necessarily be negotiated in the order shown.

Authentication
When the link has been configured, the FSA changes state to "Opened." The next step for the PPP connection is the Authentication phase. If a client fails to successfully authenticate itself, or if the host cannot authenticate the client for some reason, the connection is terminated.

Usually, failure at this stage is due to an incorrect user name, password, logon domain, or preferred server entry. If this is the case, a User Logon dialog box is displayed, prompting for the correct information. For additional information about this dialog box, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: Q148899
TITLE : Dial-Up Networking Dialog Box Prompts for Domain Name

Depending on the protocol used for authentication, the client may be given an infinite number of logon attempts, although usually the limit is three. These protocols are described later in this article.

Network Layer Configuration
After successful authentication, the last step is to configure and open all network protocols that have been selected on each peer. The NCP for a given network-layer protocol takes care of any configuration options that need to be negotiated. When option negotiation is finished, the protocol is opened and can begin carrying network-layer traffic. If one peer is not configured to use a protocol that the other peer is attempting to use, it returns the packet in a Protocol-Reject. A Protocol-Reject is a Class 3 LCP packet. The message shown in the Ppplog.txt file when a Protocol- Reject is sent or received is covered in the "Parsing the Ppplog.txt File" section of this article. Upon receipt of a Protocol-Reject packet, the peer must stop using the protocol contained within the packet. In Windows 95, if both sides reject all protocols, a dialog box is displayed indicating that this situation has occurred. For additional information about this dialog box, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: Q130079
TITLE : Dial-Up Networking Could Not Negotiate Compatible...

The following example uses the same conventions as the previous example for LPC option negotiation.

Synopsis:

(Peer1)-[8021 NCP packet]: Peer1 transmits a packet over the link containing the Internet Protocol Control Protocol (PPP ID# 8021).

(Peer2)-<receives packet>: Peer2 receives the packet, and upon inspection of the protocol identifier field, does not recognize the protocol being used. In Windows 95, this translates into one of the following three scenarios: the protocol is disabled in the connectoid, the protocol is not bound to the Dial-Up Adapter, or the protocol is not loaded on the computer. The message generated in the Ppplog.txt file is covered later.

(Peer2)-[Protocol-Reject]: Peer2 encapsulates a stripped-down version of the unsupported packet inside a Protocol-Reject packet, and returns it to Peer1.

(Peer1)-[Protocol-Reject]: Peer1 receives the Protocol-Reject, and upon inspection of the protocol identifier field, immediately shuts down the protocol.

(Protocol-Reject complete)

Link Termination
Link Termination can be caused by a number of events. These events include, but are not limited to: link failure (loss of carrier), authentication failure, and failure to negotiate at least one network protocol. Link Termination is affected by the exchange of Class 2 LCP packets. When the link begins the process of closing down, the network layer is notified that physical transport services are about to become nonexistent. Any non-LCP packets received during this time are discarded. When both sides have disconnected, PPP returns to the Link-Dead phase.

Synopsis:

(Peer1)-[Terminate-Request]: When one peer wants to close the connection it can send a Terminate-Request.

(Peer2)-[Terminate-Ack]: Upon reception of a Terminate-Request, a peer must respond with a Terminate-Ack.

(Connection closed)

Parsing the Ppplog.txt File
The following sections are divided into loosely categorized groupings of messages. They are not necessarily listed in order of appearance, and a message listed here may not appear in every Ppplog.txt file.

State Transition Messages
Messages that indicate a layer's transition from one state to another appear frequently, and occur in several forms: Started, Up, Down, and Finished. The message can be prefixed and suffixed with information detailing its origin and what particular part of the session it is reporting about.

NOTE: The status messages described below use the following conventions for describing variables that may change in different instances of the message:

"aaa" is an abbreviation or acronym referring to the source of the message.

CHAP: acronym for Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol

PAP: acronym for Password Authentication Protocol

ND: acronym for No Description, this is the Shiva-PAP (SPAP)

aaa: Layer Started:

This message, when prefixed with:

LCP: Indicates the beginning of configuration option negotiation.

CHAP, PAP, or ND: Indicates the beginning of user authentication.

NCP: Indicates that the NCP for a particular network-layer protocol has begun configuration negotiation.

aaa: Layer Up:

This message, when prefixed with:

LCP: Indicates the completion of configuration option negotiation.

CHAP, PAP, or ND: Indicates that the user logged on successfully.

NCP: Indicates that the protocol's negotiation options were successfully negotiated with the peer.

aaa: Layer Down:

This message, when prefixed with:

LCP: Indicates that a Terminate-Request packet has been received and acknowledged.

CHAP, PAP, or ND: Is displayed as a formality, all protocols are closed when the link is being terminated.

NCP: Indicates that the network-layer activity of this protocol has been stopped, usually due to link termination.

aaa: Layer Finished:

This message, when prefixed with:

LCP: Indicates that the link has proceeded to the Link-Dead phase.

NCP: Indicates that the NCP has completely ceased operation.

Static Status Messages
Static messages appear in every Ppplog.txt file, at the beginning of each new addition to the log file. They serve little purpose other than to provide a familiar point of reference when you are trying to distinguish where one session starts and another ends.

NOTE: The status messages described below may use the following conventions for describing variables that may change in different instances of the message:

"aaaa" is an acronym for the server type.

"bbbb" is a friendly name for the server type.

Remote Access Driver Log Opened:

This line is the first line in the Ppplog.txt file. It is written when the file is opened, and control of the connection is handed to Pppmac.vxd from TAPI.

No Installable CP VxDs Are Loaded:

The architecture of Pppmac.vxd allows for installable Control Protocols to be added in the form of a virtual device driver (VxD). Windows 95 includes only one: Spap.vxd. In addition, the following registry key contains the list of installable VxDs currently in use on the computer:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\PPP\CPList

The entries listed in this key are string values consisting of a description of the protocol for the value name, and the actual VxD file name for the value data.

Installable CP VxD SPAP Is Loaded:

This line indicates that the Shiva Password Authentication Protocol has been loaded.

Server Type Is aaaa (bbbb):

This message displays the type of connection being attempted. Note that although all of the following server types listed are supported by the Windows95 Dial-Up Networking client, Dial-Up Networking Server accepts only RAS and PPP connections:

RAS: Remote Access Server
PPP: Point-to-Point protocol
NRN: NetWare Connect (version 1.0 only)
SLIP: Serial Line Internet protocol
CSLIP: Compressed SLIP (uses Van Jacobson IP header compression)

Note that SLIP, CSLIP, and Dial-Up Networking Server are not part of a default Windows 95 installation, but are installed separately. SLIP and CSLIP are installed with the Dial-Up Scripting tool included on the Windows 95 CD-ROM, or as part of the Internet Jumpstart Kit included with Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95. Dial-Up Networking Server is included only with Microsoft Plus!.

To install the Dial-Up Scripting tool, follow these steps:

In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.
On the Windows Setup tab, click Have Disk.
In the Copy Manufacturer's Files From box, type the following line and then click OK

<drive>:\admin\apptools\dscript

where <drive> is the CD-ROM drive containing the Windows 95 CD-ROM.

Click OK.
Click "SLIP and Scripting for Dial-Up Networking."
Click Install.

If you have Windows 95 on floppy disks and you are interested in obtaining the Dial-Up Scripting tool, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: Q135315
TITLE : CD-ROM Extras for Microsoft Windows 95 Upgrade

Dynamic Status Messages (FSA)
Messages prefixed with "FSA :" report information about the status of the connection.

NOTE: The status messages described below use the following conventions for describing variables that may change in different instances of the message:

"xx" is an 8-bit hexadecimal value.
"xxyy" is a 16-bit hexadecimal value that identifies a protocol.
"nnnn" is an abbreviated name for protocol xxyy.

Adding Control Protocol xxyy (nnnn) to Control Protocol Chain:

This message indicates that an NCP that is supported by the implementation of PPP has been selected in the connectoid for this connection.

Protocol Disabled by User - Skipping Control Protocol xxyy (nnnn):

This message indicates that a protocol that is supported by the implementation of PPP has been disabled by the user in the Server Types dialog box in the Dial-Up Networking connectoid.

Protocol Not Bound - Skipping Control Protocol xxyy (nnnn):

This message indicates that a protocol that is supported by the implementation of PPP is not bound to the Dial-Up Adapter in the Network tool in Control Panel.

Encrypted Password Required:

This message indicates that both peers have the ability to exchange an encrypted password, and the option is enabled at both ends of the connection. When applied to Windows 95, this message indicates that the client has enabled the Require Encrypted Password option in the Server Types Settings dialog box, and the DUN server has the same option enabled in its Server Types Settings dialog box. When only one is enabled, the setting is ignored. It does not affect the outcome of the connection.

Sending Protocol Reject for Control Protocol xxyy:

This message is direction-specific. It indicates that the computer on which the Ppplog.txt file is currently being examined has sent a Protocol- eject packet for a specific network-layer protocol that the implementation does not support. The packet contains, among other things, a field that contains the 16-bit protocol identifier and a field that contains as much information from the rejected packet as possible up to the session's Maximum-Receivable Unit (MRU) length.

Received Protocol Reject for Control Protocol xxyy:

This message is direction-specific. It indicates that the computer on which the Ppplog.txt file is currently being examined has received a Protocol-Reject for an NCP whose use it is attempting to negotiate with a peer.

Remote PPP Software Sent Unrecognized Packet of Type xx to CP xxyy!:

This message follows immediately after the message "Received unknown code nn" described later in this article. It indicates the packet type identifier of an unrecognized packet and the control protocol named in the protocol type field. This usually indicates a faulty physical connection such as a misconfigured modem, not a malfunctioning implementation of PPP.

Last Control Protocol Is Up:

This message indicates that the last control protocol loaded by PPP has changed to the "Up" state. This does not necessarily mean that the connection will be successful.

Last Control Protocol Failed:

This message indicates that the last control protocol selected for use with the PPP session has failed to change to the "Up" state. This does not necessarily mean that the connection will fail.

No Network Protocols Were Successfully Negotiated:

This message usually follows the one above. The "Dial-Up Networking could not negotiate a compatible set of network protocols..." error message displayed by Dial-Up Networking is generated when this condition exists. Stepping backward from this message through the Ppplog.txt file will show you which computer rejected which protocol, and can aid in determining which computer has a problem.

Dynamic Status Messages (LCP)
Messages prefixed with "LCP :" report LCP event information. These events usually consist of option negotiation status messages or layer transition notifications.

NOTE: The status messages described below use the following conventions for describing variables that may change in different instances of the message:

"nn" is a decimal number.
"xxxx" is a decimal number indicating a quantity in bytes.
"xxyy" is a 16-bit hexadecimal value that identifies a protocol.
"nnnn" is a semi-friendly abbreviated name for the same protocol.

Received and Accepted ACCM of yyyyy:

This message indicates that the peers have agreed on an ACCM of yyyyy. The ACCM is the Asynchronous Control Character Map. It can range in length from one to four octets. Its function is to provide a method for making control characters, which could be misinterpreted as actual data, transparent in the data stream. The default value for the ACCM is 0xffffffff, although 0xa0000 is most commonly seen with Windows 95. If you want to determine which characters are being mapped into the ACCM, convert it to binary, and then locate the positions of all bits set to 1. For example:

ACCM = a0000h or 0000101000000000b

0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5

Hex 0x04 = EOT <End of Transmission> Hex 0X06 = ACK <Acknowledge>

Using this method, all of the lower 128 ASCII characters (with the exception of DEL) can be mapped in the ACCM.

There are some additional steps taken before a control character is transmitted, but these steps are not included because they are not within the scope of this article. If you want more information about this process, please see RFC 1662. This RFC covers the framing style that PPP uses.

Received and Accepted Authentication Protocol xxyy (nnnn):

This message indicates that the configuration option for the authentication protocol to be used was accepted by both peers. The Windows 95 implementation of PPP can use one of three authentication methods: Password Authentication Protocol (PAP), Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP), or the Shiva Password Authentication Protocol (SPAP).

PAP is the least secure of the three authentication types. It uses a clear-text transmission of the password from the client to the host. Such a transmission can be easily intercepted.

CHAP uses a secure challenge-response authentication method that allows the peer to be authenticated by an "authenticator" without transmitting the password in the clear as PAP does. The host sends a "challenge" to the client that consists of a randomly generated octet stream. Upon receiving the challenge, the peer concatenates the CHAP session ID, challenge value, and the user's password and then hashes it. This hash value and the user name of the peer being authenticated is then sent to the authenticator in a response. The authenticator maintains a database that correlates user names to passwords. When it receives the response from the peer, it looks up the user's password, performs the same concatenation and hashing, and compares the hash value it generates to the one from the peer. If the values match, the peer is authentic.

Hashing is a mathematical operation performed on a given value using a known algorithm to ensure that it is computationally unfeasible to reverse-engineer intelligible data from hashed data. The hashing algorithm most commonly used by CHAP is known as Message-Digest 5 (MD5). RFC 1321 outlines MD5.

SPAP is used exclusively with the Shiva LAN Rover remote access unit and when you are dialing into a Windows 95-based computer that is performing pass-through validation with a Novell NetWare server. It is more secure than PAP in that it provides encryption of PAP-transmitted passwords and access attempts to Novell NetWare binderies.

Received and Accepted Magic Number aabbxxyy:

A magic number is a hexadecimal value between two and four octets in length. It is a unique number generated from a random seed value that is determined from some external source, such as the intervals between the operator's keystrokes or the Nth decimal measurement of the system clock. Each peer generates a magic number during LCP negotiation. It is used to ensure that the PPP session actually involves two peers, in order to prevent looped-back connections. In Windows 95, if a peer receives a magic number equal to its own, or one of value 0, it is rejected, and the peers must re-exchange magic numbers. All diagnostic packets use the magic number to identify the sender of the packet.

Naking Possibly Loopback Magic Number:

When an invalid value for the magic number is received, that configuration option is returned to the offending peer in a Configure-Nak, prompting the exchange of a new and hopefully valid magic number. If the condition cannot be resolved, the link terminates immediately. This error is extremely rare. If it is received, try the following steps:

In the Dial-Up Networking connectoid, in TCP/IP Settings, set all options to "Server Assigned."

In the Network tool in Control Panel, configure the instance of TCP/IP bound to the Dial-Up Adapter with the user's TCP/IP information; specifically the DNS servers and IP addressing information.

Reboot and try the connection again.

If this, coupled with standard troubleshooting procedures, fails to resolve the issue, have the user contact his or her Internet service provider or system administrator.

Received and Accepted Protocol Field Compression Option:

This message indicates that both peers have agreed to compress the information contained in the PPP frame's protocol field. This reduces the size of that field from two octets to one. This configuration option was designed into PPP with slow or low-bandwidth links in mind.

Received and Accepted Address+Control Field Compression Option:

This message indicates that both peers have agreed to compress link-layer address and control fields within the PPP frame. This option is easily implemented as the values of these fields are constants in a Point-to- Point connection. Like the protocol field compression option, this option was included to improve performance on slow or low-bandwidth links.

Received Configure Reject for Callback Control Protocol Option:

This message is direction-specific. It indicates that the computer on which the Ppplog.txt file is currently being examined has rejected the use of the callback control protocol. This computer is usually a Dial-Up Networking server that does not support the callback control protocol. It is included in the Dial-Up Networking client for use with Microsoft Windows NT. With Windows 95, this rejection message is a non-catastrophic event. Other implementations of PPP, for security reasons, may use a callback feature to augment user authentication and require that the peer be called back.

Rejecting Callback Protocol Negotiation Request:

This message is direction-specific. It indicates that the computer on which the Ppplog.txt file is currently being examined has rejected an attempt by the peer to negotiate the use of the callback control protocol.

Received Unknown Code nn:

This message indicates that the computer on which the Ppplog.txt file is currently being examined has received an LCP packet that contains an LCP packet identifier that the implementation does not support. These packets are discarded.

Callback Control Protocol (CallbackCP)
The CallbackCP is seldom seen in the Ppplog.txt file. The messages shown in the Ppplog.txt file are described below, and a log example is provided later in this article.

CallbackCP : Layer Started:

This message is shown when the CallbackCP has not been rejected by either peer, and peer authentication was successful. One of the next three messages listed will follow this message.

Callback : Skipping Callback and Continuing with Current Connection:

This message indicates that the server supports the CallbackCP, and that the use of the peer callback has been disabled. This is commonly seen when dialing into a Windows NT RAS server.

Callback : Telling Server to Callback at User Specified Number:

When callback is enabled on the server, it can be configured to let the user supply the phone number to be called back with. When this is the case, the user will see a dialog box that prompts him or her to enter the phone number.

Callback : Telling Server to Callback at Administrator Specified Number:

When callback is enabled on the server, it can be configured with a preset number for each user. This is typically used in high-security environments to guard against the possibility that a user's logon information has been compromised. The user must be at a prearranged telephone number known to the server. When this is the case, the user will see a dialog box that prompts him or her to accept the "<Administrator>" password, at which point the callback procedure either terminates or continues depending on the user's selection of OK or Cancel.

CallbackCP : Layer Finished:

When the user has either supplied the necessary information or canceled the connection, this message is displayed. If the connection is going to be reestablished through a callback, PPP shuts down and enters a wait-for- call mode. When the server calls back, PPP answers the phone, final link negotiation takes place, and the connection is established.

CallbackCP : Layer Up:

When the peers skip the callback procedure, this message is shown. When the connection is terminated, the CallbackCP is closed just like any other protocol. The actual skipping of callback is not considered a catastrophic event, and as such, the protocol is not closed at that point.

Values for xxyy and nnnn
Values for xxyy in the [0xxx-3xxx] range represent the network-layer protocols of specific datagrams. Values in the [8xxx-bxxx] range identify NCP datagrams for the associated protocol, if it has one. Not all of the protocol identifiers listed below are present in the Windows 95 implementation of PPP. This information can be found in greater detail in RFC 1700. Listings with an asterisk (*) are supported in Windows 95.

 0021 Internet protocol *
 0023 OSI network layer
 002b Novell IPX *
 002d Van Jacobson compressed TCP/IP
 002f Van Jacobson uncompressed TCP/IP
 003d Multi-link
 003f NETBIOS framing *
 0049 Serial Data Transport protocol (PPP-SDTP)
 007d Reserved (Control Escape) [RFC 1661]
 007f Reserved (compression inefficient) [RFC 1662]
 00cf Reserved (PPP NLPID)
 00fb Compression on single link in multi-link group
 00fd First choice compression *

 8001-801f Not used - reserved [RFC 1661]
 8021 Internet Protocol Control protocol *
 8023 OSI Network Layer Control protocol
 802b Novell IPX Control protocol *
 803d Multi-Link Control protocol
 803f NETBIOS Framing Control protocol *
 807d Not used - reserved [RFC 1661]
 8049 Serial Data Control protocol (PPP-SDCP)
 80cf Not used - reserved [RFC 1661]
 80fb Compression on single link in multi-link group control
 80fd Compression Control protocol *
 80ff Not used - reserved [RFC 1661]
 c021 Link Control protocol *
 c023 Password Authentication protocol *
 c025 Link quality report
 c027 Shiva Password Authentication protocol *
 c029 CallBack Control protocol (CBCP) *
 c081 Container Control protocol [KEN]
 c223 Challenge Handshake Authentication protocol *
 c281 Proprietary Authentication protocol [KEN] *
Sample Ppplog.txt Files
This section contains examples of Ppplog.txt files generated during different types of PPP connections, both successful and unsuccessful. These examples have been interpreted and commented to show the value of each part of the Ppplog.txt file as applied during troubleshooting sessions.

Example 1 - Windows 95/Windows 95 [NetBEUI]
01) 35.15 - Remote access driver log opened.
02) 35.15 - Installable CP VxD SPAP is loaded.
03) 35.15 - Server type is PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol).
04) 35.15 - FSA : Adding Control Protocol 80fd (CCP) to control protocol chain.
05) 35.15 - FSA : Adding Control Protocol 803f (NBFCP) to control protocol chain.
06) 35.15 - FSA : Protocol disabled by user - skipping control protocol 8021 (IPCP).
07) 35.15 - FSA : Protocol disabled by user - skipping control protocol 802b (IPXCP).
08) 35.15 - FSA : Adding Control Protocol c029 (CallbackCP) to control protocol...
09) 35.15 - FSA : Adding Control Protocol c027 (no desc.) to control protocol chain.
10) 35.15 - FSA : Adding Control Protocol c023 (PAP) to control protocol chain.
11) 35.15 - FSA : Adding Control Protocol c223 (CHAP) to control protocol chain.
12) 35.15 - FSA : Adding Control Protocol c021 (LCP) to control protocol chain.
13) 35.15 - LCP : Callback negotiation enabled.
14) 35.15 - LCP : Layer started.
15) 35.36 - LCP : Received configure reject for callback control protocol option.
16) 37.96 - LCP : Received and accepted ACCM of a0000.
17) 37.96 - LCP : Received and accepted authentication protocol c223 <CHAP).
18) 37.96 - LCP : Received and accepted magic number 995dc00.
19) 37.96 - LCP : Received and accepted protocol field compression option.
20) 37.96 - LCP : Received and accepted address+control field compression option.
21) 37.96 - LCP : Layer up.
22) 37.96 - CHAP : Layer started.
23) 38.37 - CHAP : Login was successful.
24) 38.37 - CHAP : Layer up.
25) 38.37 - NBFCP : Layer started.
26) 38.37 - CCP : Layer started.
27) 38.38 - FSA : Sending protocol reject for control protocol 8021.
28) 41.39 - CCP : Received and accepted compression value 1.
29) 41.40 - NBFCP : Layer up.
30) 44.37 - CCP : Received and accepted compression value 1.
31) 44.37 - CCP : Layer up.
32) 44.37 - FSA : Last control protocol is up.
33) 04.90 - Remote access driver is shutting down.
34) 04.90 - CRC Errors 0.
35) 04.90 - Timeout Errors 0.
36) 04.90 - Alignment Errors 0.
37) 04.90 - Overrun Errors 0.
38) 04.90 - Framing Errors 0.
39) 04.90 - Buffer Overrun Errors 0.
40) 04.90 - Incomplete Packets 0.
41) 04.90 - Bytes Received 62373.
42) 04.90 - Bytes Transmitted 9403.
43) 04.90 - Frames Received 323.
44) 04.90 - Frames Transmitted 330.
45) 04.90 - LCP : Layer down.
46) 04.90 - CHAP : Layer down.
47) 04.90 - NBFCP : Layer down.
48) 04.90 - CCP : Layer down.
49) 05.03 - LCP : Received terminate acknowledgment.
50) 05.03 - LCP : Layer finished.
51) 05.03 - Remote access driver log closed.

Lines 1-12:

Lines 1-12 outline the computer's current configuration: which protocols are bound and enabled, what the server type is, and so on. In a PPP phase diagram, this section would most closely correspond to the Link-Dead phase. Lines 5-7 are important as they describe the status of the network protocols installed. At least one of the three protocols should say "Adding Control Protocol..." or the connection will fail. In this example, IP and IPX are disabled in the connectoid used to make the connection; only NetBEUI will be used.

However, if lines 5-7 looked like this:

Protocol not bound - skipping control protocol 803f (NBFCP).
Protocol disabled by user - skipping control protocol 8021 (IPCP).
Protocol disabled by user - skipping control protocol 802b (IPXCP).

The connection would fail with a "Dial-Up Networking could not negotiate..." error message. If this is the problem, determine which protocol is common to both computers, then make sure that it is loaded and bound to the Dial-Up Adapter on both computers.

Lines 13-21:

Lines 13-21 show the Link Control Protocol (LCP) negotiating the operational parameters for link-layer control of the connection, illustrating the Link Establishment phase.

In this example, the process is completed the first time through. Depending on peer configuration, option negotiation can be repeated several times, until both sides agree on the options and their values. This process must finish. If it does not, the connection is terminated immediately.

When there is a hardware problem related to the modem or serial cable, or if the phone line is unreliable, it is common for this portion of the Ppplog.txt file to resemble the following:

Callback negotiation enabled.
Layer started.
Layer finished.

This is significant because the Ppplog.txt file does not list what Pppmac.vxd cannot make sense of. If one peer sends a frame that contains a valid Configure-Request packet, and it is damaged in transit, the receiving peer cannot identify it and it will be discarded as outlined in RFC 1661. If, within a certain amount of time, LCP configuration does not finish, the Finite State Automaton (FSA) will time out. As a consequence, the connection will be terminated. Typically, between 5-10 seconds elapse during a high-speed connection after carrier negotiation finishes before the connection is terminated due to LCP option negotiation failure. If you see this message sequence in a Ppplog.txt file, consider the following items:

The modem, cable, or serial port is bad.

Enable the Post-Dial Terminal window to verify that there are no menus to navigate or additional information required from the user after connection to start the PPP connection.

You may be using the wrong line protocol type (PPP instead of SLIP, and so on).

Lines 22-24:

Lines 22-24 log the actions taken during the Authentication phase of the PPP connection. If peer authentication fails, the connection must terminate immediately. Lines 22-24 document this process. Normally, this portion of the Ppplog.txt will be only three lines long. However, depending on the type of authentication taking place, this section can be much longer. When PAP is used for peer authentication, the number of password retries can be infinite, unless there is a mechanism in place to limit the number of tries.

Lines 25-32:

If user authentication finishes, the next step is to configure the negotiated network protocols for use. This is the Network Layer Configuration phase, and it continues until the operational parameters for all protocols common to both peers have been negotiated. If this is successful, the following message will be displayed:

FSA : Last control protocol is up.

If network layer configuration is unsuccessful, the following message will be displayed:

FSA : No network protocols were successfully negotiated.

This will be accompanied by the "Dial-Up Networking could not negotiate..." error message in the user interface, and the connection will be terminated.

Lines 33-51:

When either peer, whether by user or administrative (automaton) action, decides to end the PPP session, the connection transitions to the Link Termination phase. This is initiated when one peer transmits a Terminate- Request packet. When all upper-level protocols have been closed, the peer transmits a Terminate-Ack and the connection then closes completely.

For the most part, this section lists the session statistics, such as frames transmitted, CRC errors, and so on. This information can be useful when troubleshooting. For example, if you are being spontaneously disconnected, and you have an unusually high number of CRC errors (with a good modem, 1-2 are allowable), you might want to have your telephone lines checked for excessive noise. The telephone line is not the world's friendliest transmission medium, and while the quality of telephone connections is generally excellent, in some areas, and during certain weather conditions, the line quality can be very poor. When the modems cannot maintain a reliable connection, they disconnect. With external modems, a poorly made serial cable can also be a problem. A high-quality, well-shielded cable is desirable for the best performance with an external modem.

Example 2 - Windows 95/Internet Service Provider (ISP) [TCP/IP]
01) 26.07 - Remote access driver log opened.
...
02) 27.59 - IPCP : Layer started.
03) 27.59 - IPCP : IP address is 0.
04) 27.76 - IPCP : Received and accepted compression protocol request f 0.
05) 27.76 - IPCP : Received and accepted IP address of 95aed753.
06) 28.83 - IPCP : Changing IP address from 0 to c7aef648.
07) 28.83 - IPCP : Accepting primary DNS 95aed305.
08) 29.35 - IPCP : Layer up.
09) 29.35 - FSA : Last control protocol is up.
10) 10.39 - Remote access driver is shutting down.
...
11) 10.39 - LCP : Layer down.
12) 10.39 - IPCP : Layer down.
13) 10.92 - Remote access driver log closed.

Lines 2-8:

These lines document the procedure by which the client is assigned an IP address by the ISP. Initially, the client's IP address is 0, as shown by line 3. IP addresses are assigned to the client by the host. The host can also assign the client primary and secondary nameserver (DNS and WINS) addresses. To determine if your ISP will assign DNS addresses in the event that you do not specify them, you can do one of two things:

Call your IPS and ask.

Set your connectoid to "Server assigned name server addresses" and use Winipcfg.exe to see if the server has assigned DNS addresses.

In line 6, the client changes its IP address from 0 to C7-AE-F6-48. If the IP addresses look strange, it is because in the Ppplog.txt file, IP addresses are shown in hexadecimal format. The decimal equivalents of IP addresses are used when configuring network connections that use TCP/IP because they are easy to handle. The actual information is transmitted in binary, which would be difficult to remember because the addresses total 32 binary digits. For example:

Binary: 11000111 10101110 11110110 01001000
Hex: C7-AE-F6-48
Decimal: 199.174.246.72

Lines 9-13:

With line 9, the connection has stabilized and interaction with the Internet is possible. Line 10 indicates that an administrative action (the user or the host) has caused the connection to begin closing. The remaining lines chronicle the status transitions of the LCP and IPCP modules. With line 13, the connection has been completely terminated, and all parameters negotiated during the connection have been flushed from the TCP/IP stack.

Example 3 - Windows 95/Windows NT 3.51 RAS [NetBEUI, IPX/SPX, TCP/IP]
01) 13.94 - Remote access driver log opened.
...
02) 13.95 - LCP : Callback negotiation enabled.
03) 13.95 - LCP : Layer started.
04) 17.31 - LCP : Received and accepted ACCM of 0.
05) 17.31 - LCP : Received and accepted authentication protocol c223 (CHAP).
06) 17.31 - LCP : Received and accepted magic number 5b88.
07) 17.31 - LCP : Received and accepted protocol field compression option.
08) 17.31 - LCP : Received and accepted address+control field compression option.
09) 17.36 - LCP : Layer up.
10) 17.36 - CHAP : Layer started.
11) 19.25 - CHAP : Login was successful.
12) 19.25 - CHAP : Layer up.
13) 19.25 - CallbackCP : Layer started.
14) 19.26 - Callback : Skipping callback and continuing with current connection.
15) 19.46 - CallbackCP : Layer up.
16) 19.46 - IPXCP : Layer started.
17) 19.46 - IPCP : Layer started.
18) 19.46 - IPCP : IP address is 0.
19) 19.46 - NBFCP : Layer started.
20) 19.46 - CCP : Layer started.
21) 19.50 - CCP : Received and accepted compression value 1.
22) 19.57 - IPXCP : Changed net number from 0 to ed420f01.
23) 19.57 - IPXCP : Received and accepted peer node number 0 0 0 0 0 1.
24) 20.10 - IPXCP : Layer up.
25) 20.18 - IPCP : Changing IP address from 0 to 9d3a29bb.
26) 20.18 - IPCP : Accepting primary WINS 9d361099.
27) 20.18 - IPCP : Accepting backup WINS 9d36109b.
28) 23.15 - CCP : Layer up.
29) 23.33 - NBFCP : NAK received - Projection failed.
30) 23.33 - NBFCP : Layer down.
31) 23.48 - NBFCP : Layer finished.
32) 23.80 - IPCP : Received and accepted compression protocol request f 1.
33) 23.80 - IPCP : Received and accepted IP address of 9d3a2b98.
34) 23.80 - IPCP : Layer up.
35) 23.80 - FSA : Last control protocol is up.
36) 34.88 - Remote access driver is shutting down.
...
37) 34.88 - LCP : Layer down.
38) 34.88 - CHAP : Layer down.
39) 34.88 - CallbackCP : Layer down.
40) 34.88 - IPXCP : Layer down.
41) 34.88 - IPCP : Layer down.
42) 34.88 - CCP : Layer down.
43) 35.07 - LCP : Received terminate acknowledgment.
44) 35.07 - LCP : Layer finished.
45) 35.07 - Remote access driver log closed.

Lines 3-9:

Lines 3-9 show the LCP configuration. An ACCM of 0 was negotiated, indicating that no characters are flagged for transparent transmission.

Lines 10-12:

This is the point at which the Windows 95 DUN client logs into the Windows NT RAS server. If the user has specified in the properties for the Client for Microsoft Networks that he or she wants to log into the Windows NT domain, that takes place after the user has logged into the RAS server. In this example, the client logged into a Windows NT domain. There is nothing in the Ppplog.txt file that indicates this difference.

Lines 13-15:

These lines illustrate something common to Windows NT RAS servers: the use of the Callback Control Protocol (CallbackCP or CBCP). Most of the time, the server has this option disabled, and as such, the sequence shown above takes place. This is normal.

Lines 16-35:

Lines 16, 17, and 19 show the NCPs for the installed protocols starting. All were selected in the connectoid, so PPP will attempt to configure and open them.

Line 18 is a status message from IPCP indicating the initial IP address of the client, 0. This is normal and is expected.

Lines 20, 21, and 28 show the Compression Control Protocol (CCP) as it starts, negotiates the compression options for the connection, and then transitions to the Up (operating) state.

Lines 22-24 show the IPX Control Protocol (IPXCP) receiving and setting its IPX network and node numbers, then opening. At this point, IPX/SPX is configured and functioning.

Lines 25-27 and 32-34 show the configuration of the TCP/IP protocol, handled by the Internet Protocol Configuration protocol (IPCP). The RAS server used for this example supports DHCP, which handles the assignment of WINS and node IP addresses. With line 34, TCP/IP is configured and functioning.

Lines 29-31 document the failure of the NetBIOS Frames Control protocol to be properly configured. Line 29 lists the actual cause for failure:

NBFCP : NAK received - Projection failed.

This means that the client broadcast a packet to the remote network in an attempt to see if its network name was unique, and a computer responded as having the same name. Because NetBIOS is completely dependent on its NetBIOS name, a duplicate name on the same network cannot be tolerated. Therefore, the protocol closes immediately. Line 35 indicates that all NCP activity has completed and the link is ready to pass network-layer traffic.

Lines 36-45:

Line 36 indicates that the connection has been terminated, and from this point on, all the NCPs shut down, ending with the LCP entering the Finished state at line 44. PPP has come full-circle to the Link-Dead phase.

NOTE: Between lines 36 and 37, the link statistics are usually displayed. They have been removed for this example.

Example 4 - Windows 95/Windows NT [CallbackCP Example]
Nearly all messages have been removed from the example below. This example is provided to illustrate the flow of a Windows 95 DUN connection to a server that supports the CallbackCP option. In this particular connection, the user was allowed to specify the phone number.

01) 12.93 - Remote access driver log opened.
...
02) 12.93 - LCP : Callback negotiation enabled.
03) 12.93 - LCP : Layer started.
...
04) 13.17 - LCP : Layer up.
05) 13.17 - CHAP : Layer started.
...
06) 13.52 - CHAP : Layer up.
07) 13.52 - CallbackCP : Layer started.
08) 16.28 - Callback : Telling server to callback at user specified number.
09) 17.11 - Callback : Telling server to callback at user specified number.
10) 17.25 - CallbackCP : Layer finished.
11) 17.25 - FSA : Preparing for callback from server.
12) 17.25 - LCP : Layer down.
...
13) 17.36 - LCP : Layer finished.
14) 17.37 - Remote access driver is shutting down.
...
15) 17.37 - Remote access driver log closed.

 <server calls back at this point>

16) 51.41 - Remote access driver log opened.
17) 51.42 - LCP : Layer started.
...
18) 53.40 - LCP : Layer up.
19) 53.40 - CHAP : Layer started.
...
20) 53.79 - CHAP : Layer up.
21) 53.79 - NBFCP : Layer started.
...
22) 58.41 - NBFCP : Layer up.
23) 58.41 - FSA : Last control protocol is up.
24) 40.66 - Remote access driver is shutting down.
...
25) 40.66 - LCP : Layer down.
...
26) 40.77 - LCP : Layer finished.
27) 40.77 - Remote access driver log closed.

Lines 7-11:

These lines are the most critical part of the connection. If there are any errors here, the callback will fail. There are currently no examples of this failing due to an error in the implementation of PPP.

The most common cause for failure is a modem that is physically set using DIP switches or jumpers to the S0=0 condition (auto-answer disabled). In some cases, the switch setting will override any command issued to set the modem to answer after 'n' number of rings (ATS0=n). The next most common cause for failure is PCMCIA modems connected to a telephone network (either the PSTN or a PBX-type environment) that is not supplying enough ring voltage to trip the modem's ring-detect circuit. Unfortunately, in this case, there is nothing that can be done.

Either way, the best way to test this condition is to use a terminal program such as HyperTerminal to issue the ATS0=2 command to the modem, and dial the line the modem is connected to. If the modem does not answer the line, the modem has a hardware-related problem as described above. If it does, you may want to add the S0 command to the modem's initialization string.

Line 15:

This is the point where DUN enters the wait-for-call state. When the server calls back, the log is opened again.

The one thing to remember is that network-layer protocols do not go through option negotiation until the callback has finished. Just because the peers agree to the callback does not mean that the protocol configuration is correct. If the callback works, and protocol negotiation fails, continue to troubleshoot the issue normally.

Additional query words: msn

Keywords : kbnetwork win95 wincomm win98
Version : 95
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: January 29, 1999
© 2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use.

Article ID: Q156435

Last Reviewed:
January 29, 1999

Provided by Microsoft Product Support Services.

===================================================================

093) Quickly Change Internet Explorer to show pictures     Back to the list     Back to the index

As I found out, quite by accident, there is a quick way to "force"
Internet Explorer to reload a web page with or without pictures, and
at the same time, change the setting in the advanced options.
In c:\WINDOWS\FAVORITES\LINKS there is a program called TOGGLE IMAGES.EXE
that does the change.

======================================================================

094) Find out what's going on while Windows is loading     Back to the list     Back to the index

Are you wondering what's going on behind the Windows 95 logo while it's booting?

Simply hit ESC key while Windows is booting to see behind the scene actions. You may want to use this feature if you're loading programs during the startup or trying to trace boot-up errors.

======================================================================

095) Too lazy to type the full directory name?     Back to the list     Back to the index

Did you know that you can avoid typing full directory names when changing directories from the Command Prompt?

Let's say you have a directory named MyNewYorkOfficeFilesFolder that you want to changed to. Instead of typing:

CD MyNewYorkOfficeFilesFolder
next time try:

CD myn*
If you have multiple directories starting with the letters "myn" then you'd have to use more characters before the *, until the name can be distinguished from the rest of the directory names in the current directory

======================================================================

096) Speed-up the response of your Start Menu     Back to the list     Back to the index

Feel like your Start Menu takes just too long to open pop-up (sub) menus? This could delay could add up if you have to travel through a few pop-up menus to get to your word processor every day. Here's how you can speed thing up a little:

Run Registry Editor (regedit.exe in Windows 95 and regedt32.exe in Windows NT).
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Modify "MenuShowDelay" parameter to contain something from 2 to 20. If you don't see the MenuShowDelay parameter, add it as a string item and set the value.

======================================================================

097) Get statistics for all drives at once     Back to the list     Back to the index

If you have more than a couple of drives, it's not always fun to get properties for each drive one by one to check free space, etc. Here's a better way:

Simply select all the drives in your "My Computer" folder.
Right click on the selection and then select properties. You'll notice that now you can see properties for all the selected drives at once.

======================================================================

098) Suspend auto-play     Back to the list     Back to the index

To stop Windows from automatically playing a music CD, hold the SHIFT key down while inserting a CD in the player

======================================================================

099) Find out if it's time to upgrade your processor under NT     Back to the list     Back to the index

If you're not sure if you need to upgrade your processor speed, here's a way to find out:

        1: Run Performance Monitor -- "Start | Programs | Administrative Tools | Performance Monitor"
        2: Press CTRL+I to add a counter to the chart.
        3: Set "Object" to "System" and "Counter" to
                "Processor Que Length"
        4: Click on "Add"
Now, run your day to day programs and watch the "Processor Que Length" counter which you just added to the Performance Monitor. If this counter is greater than 20 for long periods of time, this suggests that your computer is waiting that long until your processor is ready handle next set of instructions -- it's time for a processor upgrade!

======================================================================

100) Write your own help     Back to the list     Back to the index

Feel like your Windows help topics are missing some information or you just want to add comments to them?

Open the help file you want to update or add comments to and go to the topic you're interested in.
Right click on the help topic.
Select "Annotate..."
Type in your notes and click on "Save"
You'll now see an attachment icon which you can click on in the future to see the notes you just added.

======================================================================

101) Quick undo in edit boxes     Back to the list     Back to the index

If you overwrite text in an edit box by mistake, you can quickly undo your action by pressing ALT+BACKSPACE keys. Actually, you can use this key combination to undo many actions in many different Windows applications. Give it a try and see what happens!

======================================================================

102) A is for All     Back to the list     Back to the index

CTRL+A is the almost-standard short cut for "Select All" menu item / function. Try it the next time you have to select everything (files, text, graphics, etc.) in a program.

======================================================================

103) Make Windows Explorer View stay in Detail     Back to the list     Back to the index

If you have trouble trying to make the View in Windows Explorer stay in Detail, Try this... it worked for me.

	1) Set the View to Detail.
	2) Leave the window open, either maximized or minimized.
	3) Restart your computer.

======================================================================

104) Quickres     Back to the list     Back to the index

QuickRes is now built into Win98, so there is no need to use the old one.
In Win98, go to Desktop Properties | Settings | Advanced, and you can check the box to have the icon appear in the task bar.

======================================================================

106) Uninstall IE5     Back to the list     Back to the index

If you want to uninstall the IE5 that is installed with Windows 98, try this command:

    rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE5Maintenance "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Setup\SETUP.EXE" /g "C:\WINDOWS\IE Uninstall Log.Txt"

======================================================================

The sites I "gleaned" the above tips from...

vietnam411.com-computer tip-windows

98lite Windows98 without IE

Absolute WinInfo Home

FixWindows.com - The Windows Troubleshooting Site

Inside Microsoft Windows 98 - Home Page

J.Helmig's FAQ Windows95 Networking

MalekTips Home

NetEngineer.com --Windows 95-98 Tips and Tricks

Ray's Windows 95-98 Support, Upgrades and Fixes

RegEdit Windows Registry Guide

Story Snag the Very Latest Win98 Downloads

Windows 98 Annoyances - TweakUI

Windows 98 Megasite Windows 98 Tips, Win98 Info, Win98 News! (2)

Windows 98 Megasite Windows 98 Tips, Win98 Info, Win98 News!

Windows 98 Tips and Tricks. - Windows-Help.NET

WinDrivers.com (printer drivers, cdrom drivers, modem drivers, sound drivers, mouse drivers, monitor drivers, etc.) - WinDrivers.com

98lite: Windows98 *without* IE

Windowstrouble

    Back to the top  Back to the top of Win 98 sites

Windows 95-98 » Utilities » Disk

The SAIX mirror of the Simtel.Net Windows 95-98 Collection, simtelnet-win95-diskutl- (2)

Windows95 Drivers for Release B

Windows 95 + DOS 7.xx Tips + Tricks Files Contents

Windows Magazine - Windows 95 Web Site - Windows 95 Update Center - (Win 95, Windows95, Win 95, Windows 95)

Windows95 Annoyances

32bit Discussion forums - Windows 95 INTERNET

Troubleshooting Windows 95

Win95 Tips and Tricks Page 6

    Back to the top