Windows Watcher

Beeping the birthday tune off key ... by Tom S. Bair Jr.

Holy Smoking Pentium Chips ... time has surely flown by! Windows Watcher is two years old this month. I'd like to see a dozen Gateway PCs lined up singing Happy Birthday to this column. However, I'm afraid the best I'd get would be two Palm IIIs beeping the birthday tune off key.

Good news for Power Users!

Microsoft has made available a new version of TweakUI for Windows Millennium Edition. Version 1.33 is also backwards compatible with all versions of Windows from 95 to Me. It has some nice enhancements and a few bug fixes. Best of all, it's free. You can download TweakUI v 1.33 from http://www.Microsoft.com/ windowsme/guide/tweakui.exe.

Other news: Microsoft Office 10 is planned for release next year. However, it will not run on the 64.7 million copies of Windows 95 which are still in use. If you plan to upgrade your version of Microsoft Office and you run W95, best plan on upgrading your operating system as well.

The fourth Wi ndows 2000 Compatibility Update is now available for download. You can also get a list of the 116 software titles which are addressed by this update.

Correct Shut Down Procedure

[95/98/SE/ME] I've had several people in the past few months complain of losing data or of having corrupted configuration files develop on their systems. After investigating, we found that none of these people were shutting down Windows correctly. Are you correctly shutting down Windows?

1. Exit all open or running programs.
2. Left-click on the Start button.
3. Left-click on Shut Down.
4. When the "Shut Down Windows" dialog box appears, left-click on 'Shut Down.'
5. You will come to a point where the computer will notify you to turn off the power. On newer systems, you may not see this message since the PC itself will power down. It is safe at this point to turn off your computer, or turn off your master power console, or unplug the PC, depending on your practice.

Here's an interesting bonus for those with older PCs that don't automatically shut off the power. You can actually leave the power on. Later you can gain almost instant access to Windows by hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del. This will cycle Windows Operating System back up without going through the hardware and system checks.

Booting PC to MS-DOS

[98/SE]I've discovered an easier way to boot directly to DOS without running Windows. Better still, you don't need a bootable floppy disk to accomplish this. All you need is TweakUI installed on your system.

1. Left-click on Start.
2. Highlight 'Settings' and click on 'Control Panel.'
3. Click on the TweakUI icon.
4. Click on the Boot tab.
5. Deselect "Start GUI Automatically" by clicking on the box with the checkmark in it.
6. Click on the OK button to close TweakUI.

When you next boot your computer, it will fire up in DOS mode and stay there. To run Windows, just type WIN at the DOS prompt. Note that the latest version of TweakUI (v 1.33) does not have a Boot tab, and you will be unable to perform this tip.

Phone Dialer History List

[98/SE/ME] Want to edit the history list of the last 20 numbers you called via the Phone Dialer? Do you wish to delete the numbers you called for reasons of privacy?

1. Click on the Start button.
2. Highlight 'Programs' and click on 'Windows Explorer.'
3. Navigate to your Windows folder.
4. Click on Dialer.ini and Notepad will display this file on your screen.
5. Look under [Last dialed numbers] and you will see a list of the 20 phone numbers you last dialed. To remove them, just delete the phone numbers from the list and click on File and Save.

Remove Commands

[95/98/SE/ME] Reader David Shawn e-mailed me the following question: "How do I remove a few unwanted entries in the context menus of 98SE?"

To explain what David is speaking of, if you right-click your Start button, a list of commands such as 'Open,' 'Explore,' 'Search,' and so forth pop up. That is a Context Menu. Many times when you install a new program or application on your computer, it will place a command in this pop-up menu. Yet when you remove the program from your computer, the command remains behind. Or you just may not want that command crowding up your Context Menu. Here's how to remove a command from the menu.

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Click on View (for Windows ME users, click on Tools).
3. Click on Folder Options.
4. Click on the File Types tab.
5. Scroll down the list of "Registered file types" and click on 'Folder.'
6. Click the Edit button (ME users click the Advanced button).
7. Your commands will be listed in the "Actions" box. Click on the command you wish to delete and click on the Remove button.
8. Click on Yes to confirm you want to remove the command.
9. Click the OK button twice to close the open dialog boxes.

Now if you right-click the Start button, you will discover the command has been removed.

Show Desktop Icon Tip

[98/SE/ME] Do you have a Quick Launch Toolbar next to your Start button? If so, you may be familiar with the "Show Desktop" icon, which when clicked will minimize all windows and display your desktop. What I discovered while playing around with the icon one day is that after clicking it to show your desktop, clicking it again will restore all the windows to their original position.

If you do any actions on the desktop before clicking the icon a second time, you will have to click the "Show Desktop" icon twice to restore your windows. To explain, let's say you have Microsoft Word open and are online with Outlook Express. You click the "Show Desktop" icon and then click on Windows Explorer to locate a file. After finding the file, you close Windows Explorer and are back to your desktop. You will need to click on the "Show Desktop" icon twice to bring back up both Word and Outlook Express.

Try playing with this tip for a bit. I have grown so used to it that I have actually taken it for granted, not realizing that not everyone knows of this function. It wasn't until I was working on a customer's computer, and flashing back and forth at lightning speed between the desktop and several open applications, that the customer stopped me to discover how I was able to flash around several applications almost instantly.

Change Item Color

[95/98/SE/ME] Are you getting tired of seeing all your highlighted items appearing in dark blue? Let's perform a quick demonstration. Right-click on any empty spot of your desktop. When the pop-up Command menu appears, move your mouse pointer up and down over the commands. Notice how the words change color and a colored bar highlights them as you point at the commands? Let's change this appearance to something more pleasing to your tastes. (To exit our demonstration, just left-click on an empty space of your desktop).

1. Right-click on an empty area of the desktop.
2. Click on Properties.
3. Click on the Appearance tab.
4. Click on the down arrow to the right of "Item:" and click on "Selected Items."
5. To the right of the "Item:" box is the Color window. Click on the down arrow next to it and select a color of your choice from the pallet. This will be your highlighter color.
6. Below the "Item:" box is the "Font:" box. You can change the appearance of your text by selecting a different font from this list. Looking to the right of this box you will see another Color window. This window controls the color of your text when highlighted. Default is dark yellow. You may change the color to suit your taste. I enjoy the light yellow highlighter on light red text.
7. Click on the OK button to apply your changes and close the "Display Properties" window.