Windows 95 Basics

Basic Windows 95 Tips Page 1

Quick Access for Favorite Files. Save yourself time by creating a Shortcut to any document you load regularly. Simply right-drag the file onto your desktop and select Shortcut.

Desktop Floppy Access. For quicker access to your floppy drive, place a Shortcut on the desktop. In Explorer, My Computer, or any folder window, right-click the drive, drag it to the desktop, and when you let go, select Create Shortcut(s) Here.

Easy Move to Floppies. The Send To menu, which you can access by right-clicking a file and selecting Send To, lets you copy the file to drive A:. To move files there easily, use Notepad to create a text file called "Floppy move.bat," with the line @ move %1 a:, in the c:\windows\sendto folder.

Name That Tune. If your old CD-ROM drive doesn't play audio CDs automatically, you can at least make it play them semiautomatically. Right-click the desktop and select New*Shortcut. Enter the command line c:\windows\cdplayer.exe /play. Click Next, name the Shortcut, and click Finished. Now all you need to do is pop in a CD and double-click the Shortcut.

Making a Good Pointer. Want to have some fun with your mouse cursors? Select Start*Control Panel, double-click Mouse, and go to the Pointers page. Highlight the pointer you'd like to change, click Browse, and double-click a pointer you want to change to. Select Apply or OK to make your change stick.

Folder Jumping. "Times New Roman""> Would you rather type than click? In Explorer, you can jump to any folder or file by typing the first few letters of its name very quickly. Just don't type too slowly, or Windows will jump to a file whose name begins with the second letter you type.

Does <Caps Lock> Ring a Bell? Have you ever hit the <Caps Lock>, <Scroll Lock>, or <Num Lock> key by mistake? To make those keys sound a warning tone when they're tapped, go to Control Panel, double-click Accessibility Options, select Use ToggleKeys, and click OK.

Finders, Keepers. If you use Windows Find to search for the same set of files regularly--for instance, to locate all the files in c:\data saved in the last month--you can save your search criteria for later use. After you've clicked Find Now and you have your results, select File*Save Search. Windows will create on the desktop a Shortcut to that exact find.

Explorer View, Please. Switching an open folder to an Explorer view is an easy and efficient way to browse from folder to folder. To open an Explorer view, right-click the icon in the upper left corner of the window and choose Explore.

The Captain's Log. You can use Notepad to create a time-stamped log file--a handy tool for logging your voice mail or creating a to-do list. Simply type .LOG as the only text in the first line of a Notepad file. Then make your entries, save the file, and close it. Next time you open the file, you'll see that Notepad has added a time-and-date stamp beneath each entry.

Long File Name Compatibility. Windows 3.x applications generally work fine with Win 95's long file names; not so with utilities, which can truncate long names. If the documentation doesn't explicitly say the utility is compatible with Windows 95, don't use it.

Long File Names No Longer. Some old, obscure DOS programs can wipe out a file's long name. If you must keep such a program, disable long file names. Right-click My Computer and select Properties, then Performance. Click the File System button and select the Troubleshooting tab. Check Disable long name preservation for old programs and click OK.

Emergency Startups. If you can't boot your hard drive, you'll be glad you have a start-up floppy disk handy. To create one, from Control Panel double-click Add/Remove Programs. Insert your disk, select the Startup Disk tab, and click Create Disk.

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