From...

January 27, 1999
Web posted at: 11:04 a.m. EST (1604 GMT)

by the PC World staff

(IDG) -- Many folks want more from their operating systems: They wish that Windows would behave a certain way, or that it could perform a particular function more quickly. In many cases, these wishes can come true. We've rounded up 50 of our favorite tips, tricks, and tweaks to help you fix problems and squeeze every last drop of efficiency out of Windows. Read on and let the discovery begin.

Note: Throughout this article, the IE abbreviation signifies that a tip requires Internet Explorer 4.0 with the Desktop Update installed; similarly, the W98 abbreviation indicates that a tip requires Windows 98.

Oh, no! Windows is broken!

If you turn on your PC and Windows won't load, you may have any of several problems: a device conflict, a corrupted software driver, a trashed Registry -- the list goes on and on. Here are some suggestions for identifying and fixing such problems.

Launch in safe mode

As soon as you see the "Starting Windows" message on your screen, press F5. This launches a bare-bones version of Windows that bypasses all the start-up files and loads the plain-vanilla VGA video driver.

If it loads successfully, go to the Device Manager (select Start, Settings, Control Panel, then double-click the System icon and click the Device Manager tab). Expand the entries in the device tree by double-clicking each one.

The expanded tree shows all installed devices by type. Yellow exclamation points appear next to any device that's experiencing a problem -- inspect these first. Double-click a device's entry to open its Properties box, check the Device Status area for conflicts, then click the Resources tab and look at the Conflicting Device list. If it reports a conflict, launch the Hardware Conflict Troubleshooter (select Start, Help, then click the Contents tab and double-click the Troubleshooting icon to open the list of Troubleshooters). If there's no conflict, shut down your system and move on to the next tip.

Launch with step-by-step confirmation

After you spot the "Starting Windows" message, press F8 to display the Windows start-up menu. The Step-by-Step Confirmation option walks you through start-up one step at a time. You can load or skip each device listed in the Registry and each action specified in your autoexec.bat and config.sys files. An error message will appear when any device or program fails to load properly.

When you start in step-by-step mode, you'll get the option of creating a start-up log file, called bootlog.txt, in the root directory. Do so. This document logs the successful -- or unsuccessful -- completion of each step. The data is arcane, but it can save you a lot of time if you end up calling technical support.

Run an antivirus program

Viruses are easy to acquire, especially if you download lots of material from the Internet. Fight back with a good antivirus program. Several are available for free download from PC World Online's FileWorld. (In some cases, these programs are time-limited demos.) If you're not sure which one to get, read PC World's February antivirus roundup first.

Be prepared

The best offense, as we all know, is a good defense. For times when your PC just won't boot, you need to have a working boot disk stowed away. To make a boot disk in Windows 98, click Start, Settings, Control Panel, then double-click Add/Remove Programs, select the Startup Disk tab, and click Create Disk.

You can create a boot disk in Windows 95 using the same procedure, but the disk won't give you access to your CD-ROM drive, which is necessary if you have to reinstall Windows. Here's how to create a boot disk that does let you access the CD-ROM drive.

Insert a floppy disk, then open My Computer, right-click the A: icon, and select Format. Click the "Copy system files" check box, then click Start. When the formatting is done, click Close twice.

In Notepad, open the file Windows\Dosstart.bat, then save it as a:autoexec.bat (that a: is very important). Look for a line in the file containing mscdex.exe and delete everything up to it, so that the line begins with mscdex.exe. (You can remove all subsequent lines from the file, too.) Save the file.

Copy the file Windows\Command\Mscdex.exe onto your floppy.

Now comes the hard part: Back in Notepad, open config.sys on the C: drive and look for a device= command that might be for your CD-ROM drive. The letters cd anywhere in the command are a good sign, as is the name of your CD-ROM drive's manufacturer. If you can't find a likely suspect, see if there's another file on drive C: that begins with config -- for instance, config.dos. When you've found a file with what you hope is the right line, save the file as a:config.sys. If the line begins with rem, delete that word; the line should begin with device=. The device= line refers to a file by its path and name -- c:\nec_ide.sys, for example. Copy that file to drive A:. Then remove the path from the line in a:config.sys. For instance, if the line reads device=c:\nec_ide.sys /d:neccd0, trim it to device=nec_ide.sys d:/neccd0.

Now it's time to test what you've done. Stick a CD-ROM in your drive, put the floppy in drive A:, and reboot. When you get an A> prompt, type dir d:(or whatever letter your CD-ROM drive uses). If you get a file list, rejoice! Then remove the floppy, reboot, write-protect the floppy, and store it in a safe place. But if the dir command results in the error message "Invalid drive specification," go back and try again. This trick might help: Compare the commands in the floppy's config.sys and autoexec.bat files. Each should have a parameter that starts with /D:, followed by other letters. If that parameter isn't identical in both files, try changing one to match the other.

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Files, folders and shortcuts

"File management" sounds like an ugly chore, but Windows actually makes it easy for you to organize various projects. These hints help you find files, keep track of them, and ensure that Windows knows what to do with them.

Missing file extensions

Can't see file extensions such as .doc or .zip in Windows Explorer? That's because Microsoft assumes you don't want to see them. Sounds backward, we agree. To display extensions in Explorer or within a folder view, select View, Options (or View, Folder Options), then choose the View tab and deselect "Hide MS-DOS file extensions for file types that are registered" (or "Hide file extensions for known file types").

Get rid of 'Shortcut To'

As if the little arrow on every Shortcut icon weren't enough of a clue, Windows automatically adds the words "Shortcut To" to every desktop shortcut. A Windows 95 PowerToy, Tweak UI, will turn off this annoying feature. Once you've installed the utility (you'll find it hiding out in the Control Panel), open it, click the Explorer tab, and deselect "Prefix 'Shortcut To' on new Shortcuts."

Bad associations

Double-click a data file in Windows Explorer, and it launches the file from within the appropriate application, right? Not necessarily. If you've installed Internet Explorer, for instance, Windows will use it to open GIF or JPEG files, regardless of which program you've associated with those file types. To reassert your own preferences, you need to remove the new association and restore the old one.

First, open any folder, select View, Options (or View, Folder Options), and click the File Types tab. Select the file type you want to change (GIF Image or JPEG Image, for instance), click Remove, and select Yes to confirm the change.

Now you need to associate that file type with the desired application. Double-click a .jpg or .gif file. In the Open With dialog box that appears, select the application you want to use to open the file. Make sure "Always use this program to open this file" is selected, and click OK.

Fix associations directly

Instead of relying on the Open With dialog box to repair file associations, you can manually change the program associated with a particular file type -- if you know where to look. But no reasonable person would ever think to look in the place where Microsoft hides this function.

To change a file type's association, open a folder, select View, Options (or View, Folder Options), and click the File Types tab. You'll see an alphabetical list of registered file types currently on your system. Double-click the file type you want to alter; the Edit File Type dialog box will appear. In the Actions list, double-click open.

You guessed it: Another dialog box appears. In the "Application used to perform action" field, enter the path and file name of the application you want the files to open in, enclosed in quotes -- for instance, "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IExplore.exe". If you can't remember the full path and file name of the program, click the Browse button to make your way there. Click OK to return to the Edit File Type dialog box, then click Close a couple of times to apply your changes.

Add shortcuts to the 'Send To' list

Windows provides a handy Send To menu that pops up when you right-click icons. You can add items to that menu so that, for example, you can send a document to your oft-used Projects folder.

Here's how: Create a Shortcut to the folder you want to add by holding down the right mouse button while you drag it to your desktop, then releasing it and selecting Create Shortcut(s) Here. Click the new icon, press F2, and rename the Shortcut as you wish. Press Enter to accept the new name. Now right-click the icon, select Cut, and go to C:\Windows\SendTo. Right-click that folder and select Paste.

To try out your new Send To command, right-click a file or folder and select Send To. You should see your folder in the list.

The absolutely ultimate Windows Send To tip

If you're one of those Send To junkies, here's a quick way to add destinations to the Send To menu. The trick is to add a shortcut to the SendTo folder.

To do that, right-click My Computer and select Explore.Open the \Windows\SendTo folder, then select it in the left pane. Hold down the right mouse button while you drag the SendTo folder from the left pane into an empty area of the right one. Release the button, then select Create Shortcut(s) Here from the resulting pop-up menu.

Now, when you want to add a program to the SendTo folder, right-click the program in Windows Explorer and choose Send To, Shortcut to SendTo. The next time you right-click an object in Windows Explorer and select Send To from the pop-up menu, the new destination will appear. One caveat: Don't use "Shortcut to SendTo" to add folders to the Send To menu. Instead of creating a shortcut to the folder in the \Windows\SendTo directory, it moves the entire folder and its contents there.

To add a folder to the Send To menu, use the drag-and-drop method described above, or open the \Windows\SendTo folder in Explorer, right-click the right pane, choose New, Shortcut, enter the folder's path in the Command Line field, click Next, then click Finish.

If you employ Shortcut to SendTo frequently, your Send To menu will quickly balloon out of control. When it does, simply create subfolders under \Windows\SendTo and organize those shortcuts to your heart's content.

How big are my subfolders?

In a perfect Windows world, you'd be able to see how much disk space all your subfolders consume at a glance. But no -- instead, you have to right-click each folder and select Properties to view the size and contents of the folder. If you want to view all folder sizes at once, install TreeSize Personal, a free program available on FileWorld.

Recover deleted files

We all make mistakes. DOS 6.x gives us tools for undeleting files we accidentally throw away. But Windows 95 and 98 aren't so forgiving. They offer only the Recycle Bin, figuring we won't empty it by mistake.

But what happens if you do? Is there any way to get those files back? If you upgraded to Windows 95 or 98 from DOS and still have your DOS undelete.exe utility, the answer is yes.

Here's what to do: The moment you discover that you've deleted a file you need, stop what you're doing. If you continue to use your hard disk, the file may disappear permanently.

Select Start, Shut Down. Click "Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode," then click Yes.

When your PC restarts, use the DOS change directory command (CD) to navigate to the folder where the deleted file last resided. Note that if the directory or folder name is longer than eight characters or contains a space, it will appear as a truncated name containing the tilde (~) character. To establish the correct folder name, type cd \ to go to the root directory, then type dir /p to view the contents and locate a name that resembles what you're looking for. You may need to continue drilling down (again, using the CD command) through several subdirectories until you find the right one.

To allow the undelete utility to access the disk directly, type lock c: (your drive letter may differ) and press Enter. Type Y and press Enter to acknowledge the scary message (don't worry; we won't leave the disk locked for long).

Now type undelete and press Enter. Follow the prompts to restore your file.

When you have restored the file and are back at the DOS prompt, type unlock c: to prevent further direct disk access. Then type exit to return to Windows.

Create custom searches

Windows' Find command isn't the most cooperative of utilities. But with a little work, you can get it to start with the search parameters you desire. The trick lies in the Save Search function.

In Windows 95, choose Start, Find, Files or Folders. In the Named box, type the file specifications you prefer, separating multiple entries with a comma, a space, or both. For example, if you usually search for text files, you might type *.txt *.doc. (Wild-card characters such as * and ? are optional.) In the Look In box, type the paths you use most often, separated by a semicolon (plus an optional space) -- for example, c:\doc; d:\temp; e:\. Use the Date Modified and Advanced tabs to limit the search by date, file type, size, or text content.

When everything is set, click Find Now. If the resulting list of found items is one you expect to work with regularly, choose Options and make sure a check mark appears next to Save Results. Now choose File, Save Search. Unfortunately, Windows doesn't let you choose where to save the file or what to call it; it simply appears on the desktop with a name of its own choosing, like "Files named @.txt.fnd." But you can rename the file and move it to a convenient location, such as a folder within the Start Menu. If you frequently perform a series of different searches, save each of them for fast access.

Windows NT 4.0, Win 98, and Internet Explorer 4 marginally improve customized finds. For starters, you can choose local hard drives from the Look In drop-down box rather than typing in each path. And Windows 98 and IE4 save the last location you entered in the Look In box so you don't have to choose File, Save Search. Unfortunately, no version of Windows preserves the Find window's position or size.

Change an application's default folder

You can change the default folder (which opens when you select File, Open or File, Save As) of an application, including Notepad, WordPad, and Clipboard Viewer, by changing the properties of the shortcut you use to open that program. You'll need to use that shortcut to open the application in order to keep this default in effect.

Right-click the shortcut you use to open the application. Select Properties, and in the resulting dialog box, click the shortcut tab. On the Start In line, type the path of the folder you'd like the program to recognize as the default and click OK. For example, if you want to use a folder off the root directory named Lunch Money, you'd type c:\Lunch Money, then click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.

From now on, selecting File, Open inside that application points to the specified folder -- as long as you use the modified shortcut to open the application. Note that this tip doesn't apply to Microsoft Office applications, which require you to set the default folders through the File Locations tab in the Tools, Options box.

Missing ScanDisk files

ScanDisk sometimes encounters lost file fragments on your hard drive and offers to convert them to files so that you can peruse the data before it vanishes. But where do these files go once they're converted?

Look for files named File0000, File0001, and so on in your root directory. These are the files that ScanDisk has created from lost file fragments. To track them down, select Start, Find, Files or Folders. Type File*.* in the Named text box. Select your root directory in the drop-down list under Look In, and click Find Now.

Note: You may wish to view the contents of these files -- use a text editor such as Notepad -- before deleting them.

Global viewing (IE, W98)

Would you like to use the same View options, such as Details and Arrange Icons by Date, for all open folder windows? If you have Internet Explorer 4 or Windows 98, you can set your system's default viewing options from any open folder window. (Note: Toolbar settings don't apply.)

Open any folder and set the viewing options the way you want them for all folders. Then select View, Folder Options, and in the dialog box that opens, click the View tab. Click the Like Current Folder button, click Yes to confirm, then click OK. From now on, every folder window will open with these same View options already set.

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This article was edited by Matthew Newton.