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[ Go to 500 Tips Table of Contents ]
500 Tips Fast Network PropertiesMost people get at their Network Properties by launching Control Panel, then double-clicking on the Network icon. There's a faster way: Right-click on the Network Neighborhood icon and select Properties.Find Your Path, Part IBy default, Windows 95 hides from you the paths of files and folders. If you want the full paths spelled out on your window title bars (the colored area at the top of all open file and folder windows), double-click on My Computer, select View/Options, click on the View tab and select "Display the full MS-DOS path in the title bar."Find Your Path, Part IIHere's another trick for finding out the path of a file: Launch the Run command dialog (Start/Run), clear the Open box by hitting the Backspace key, and then drag and drop the file of your choice into the Open box. Windows will type the full path of the file into the box.Enlarge Your PointersIt's easy to miss Win95's pointer schemes. But if you want bigger pointers and cursors, here's the easiest way to get them. Just double-click on the Mouse item in the Control Panel, click on the Pointers tab, then click on the drop-down Scheme menu. Choose from 3-D, Animated Hourglasses, Large and Extra Large pointer schemes. Send To 'SEND TO'If you use the Send To menu a lot, put a shortcut to the SendTo folder into the SendTo folder. Whenever you want to put a Send To destination on your context menu, just use the Send To function. Take the Right CabIf you need a fresh copy of a Win95 file, you'll find it in one of the CAB files. But which one? To find out, open Explorer and select the Win95 folder on the CD-ROM. Now open the Tools menu, select Find\Files or Folders and type *.CAB in the Named box on the Name & Location tab. Now click on the Advanced tab, type the name of the file you want in the Containing Text box and click on the Find Now button. Free Tips Delivered!Get a free daily Windows tip delivered right to you via e-mail. Just send a message to our automated listserv at listserv@winlist.winmag.com and type the following: SUBSCRIBE TIPS <your name>. Don't use punctuation or put anything into the subject field. Use Your ClipBookThere's a free utility that comes with Windows 95 called ClipBook. It lets you store items from the Clipboard and share them across the network. You can view text, graphics or anything else that can be copied to the Clipboard in thumbnail view-and you can copy as many items as you like. To install it, open the OTHER folder on the Win95 CD, then drag the CLIPBOOK folder from the CD to your C: drive. Open the new folder, drag the file CLIPBRD.EXE and drop it on your Start menu. Find Files FasterUse Win95's Find utility to search for several files at once. Type in as many filenames as you like in Find's Named box, each separated by a space. Neither Rain Nor Sleet ...If you find yourself checking often for new messages in Exchange, put a button on your toolbar that sends and receives mail when clicked. Double-click on the toolbar to bring up the Customize Toolbar dialog. Scroll down in the left window until you find the Tools - Deliver Now button and double-click on it to move it to the right window, which indicates it's been included on the toolbar. Now double-click on the button in the right window and use Move Up or Move Down to place the new button where you want it on your toolbar. When you're done, click on Close. Edit Docs MenuThe items on your Documents menu (Start/Documents) are really just shortcuts in your C:\WINDOWS\RECENT folder. You can selectively delete items there by opening the folder and deleting the shortcuts you don't want. Tell Docs Where to GoA well-behaved Windows 95 application lets you pick the folder your documents are dumped into by default. You can do the same thing for all other documents as well. Just give each application a shortcut, right-click on the shortcut and select Properties from the context menu. Select the Shortcut tab and type in the path to the folder of your choice in the Start In box. Take InventoryChances are, you have useful programs on your computer you didn't even know were there. And just as likely, you have programs you don't want that are eating up valuable hard disk real estate. The solution? Take an inventory! It's easy. Just create a folder on your desktop called PROGRAM SHORTCUTS, launch the Win95 Find utility (Start/Find/Files or Folders), type *.EXE *.COM in the Named box, then click on the Find Now button. After Find is finished with the search, choose Select All from the Edit menu and drag and drop all the files in the Find window into your new desktop folder. Now you have a folder with shortcuts to every program on your Windows PC. (Before proceeding, make sure you have a good backup.) Now, one at a time, double-click on each shortcut to find out what it is. Once it's identified, you can find and delete the program if you don't want it or move the shortcut to another folder if you do. Remember, if you're not absolutely sure, don't delete it. Open DialogRight-click on the command line of any dialog box and you'll get a handy context menu with options to Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete and Select All. Best Tip TipFor the biggest and best collection of Windows tips ever assembled, check out our massive database now available on the WinMag Web site: http://www.winmag.com/. April Fools' TipDownload Glitch from our Web site (http://www.winmag.com/win95/software.htm) and install it on the machine of an unsuspecting victim. Glitch displays realistic but hilarious error messages that will drive victims crazy. (Warning: Installing this on the wrong machine can be hazardous to your career!) Faster KeyboardYou can determine how fast your keyboard repeats characters and moves the cursor in a document by launching the Keyboard item in Control Panel, then experimenting with the speed settings on the Speed tab. Fast FindSometimes simple tricks are the most useful. If you want to search for a file and you know roughly where it is, just right-click on the folder it's in and select Find from the Context menu. Find will search the folder and all the subfolders within, based on the search criteria you specify. Tune-Up with Wintune!If you've been reading WINDOWS Magazine for a while, you're probably familiar with our incredibly popular free Wintune test and tune-up utility. Well, it just got better. The new version is now available at our Web site and at our online areas on America Online (keyword WinMag) and CompuServe (GO WINMAG). Good Things in Small PackagesAre those icons that are cluttering your desktop getting you down? Bring them down to size and give yourself more room. Right-click on the Desktop and select Properties. Click on the Appearance tab, then the Icon drop-down menu. Select Icon, then pick a size of 16 (the default is 32). Click on OK. (This works best if you make the words under the icons as short as possible). Know Your ComputerWindows 95 comes with a utility called MS-Info that tells you more about your computer than you'll ever want to know. It lists detailed information on all your DLLs, drivers, fonts, memory, hardware and much more. Just launch the Find utility (Start/Find/Files or Folders) and search for the executable: MSINFO32.EXE. NT Power ToysSome Power Toys previously mentioned in WinTips are now supporting Windows NT 4.0. These include Find X 1.2, Send To X 1.4, Shortcut Target Menu 1.2, Tweak UI 1.1 and Explore From Here as well as Command Prompt Here 1.1. 'Web' Your ScheduleInternet Assistant for Microsoft Schedule+ lets you save your schedule as an HTML document you can publish on your company intranet or on the Internet. You choose which information is available or hidden. Download the software free from WinMag's Web site at http://www.winmag.com/win95/software.htm. Extra! Extra!Read all about it! Here's a utility for you news junkies who have constant Internet connections. MSNBC News Alert, which is available free from the WinMag Web site, polls the MSNBC news site as often as you wish, looking for news items with your keywords. When it finds matching stories, it alerts you immediately. Cool CoolSwitch TipThe most recently "CoolSwitched" application is always the first choice. That means that by selecting via Alt+Tab item A, then item B, you can toggle between them regardless of how many applications or folders you have open by repeatedly pressing Alt+Tab and letting go. Remove Read-OnlyWe've run tips in the past that involved editing the MSDOS.SYS file. Some readers sent mail saying the file is "read-only" so they couldn't edit it. Here's how to remove the read-only and other attributes of MSDOS.SYS. Open Explorer, select View/Options and click on the View tab. Select "Show All Files" and then OK. Now, use Find to search for the MSDOS.SYS file. When you find it, right-click on it and select Properties from the Context menu. When the Properties dialog appears, remove all the check marks in the Attributes section at the bottom. Then use the instructions above to "Hide these types of files." Cheap MicrophoneInstead of buying a microphone for your PC, you can use any available "Sony Walkman" style headphones instead. Just plug them into your sound card's microphone plug, and talk into the speakers.[ Go to 500 Tips Table of Contents ]
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