Windows Watcher

You do not need to be a certified computer technician ... by Tom S. Bair Jr.

I have talked to many people who say they would like to get a computer for home use, yet they talk themselves out of it in their very next breath: "I could never figure out how those things work," or "Computers are so complicated and confusing."

These very same people drive cars. Do they really know how the car works? Automobiles can be very complicated and confusing under the hood, yet we are still able to drive them.

You do not need to be a certified computer technician to operate a computer, just as you do not need to be a mechanic to drive a car. You only need to learn how to operate both in order to use them. One source of learning is Computer Bits. Carla Schroder's "Basic Computing" column, along with this column, will take you a long way down the path of getting familiar with your new computer.

Dialog Menu [95/98/NT]

When I compose an article, I will often end up with a dozen or so draft files before I'm finished. Whenever I open the latest draft of an article I am working on, it is quite common for me to make a mental note to myself to delete the several dozen files left over from previous articles. Yet I often forget to do so!

My wife showed me the solution to my problem. When you select File | Open within a Windows application, you can delete files before you open the file you want. Here's how:

1. In the File | Open dialog box of any Windows 95/98 application, select the file you wish to delete. You may even select multiple files by holding down the Ctrl key as you select the files.

2. Right-click on the file and choose 'Delete' in the pop-up menu. A 'Confirm File Delete' box will appear; click on the 'Yes' button.

I have discovered that this will also work in the Save and Save As dialog boxes.

Stop CD Autoplay [95/98]

Most times it is handy just to slip in a CD and have Windows automatically play the music or launch a CD's install program. There are times, however; when you just want to grab one file off the CD or simply browse the CDs contents. Here's how to disable the CDs autoplay feature for just the current CD:

1. Place the CD into the drive drawer.

2. Hold down the keyboard Shift key while closing the drawer.

3. Do not release the Shift key until the CD light goes out. You shouldn't have to wait any more than a second or two for the light to go out.

Hide the Taskbar [95/98/NT]

Many applications have status lines and toolbars at the bottom of the screen which cannot be seen because the Windows taskbar covers them up. You can hide the taskbar so that it will only appear when you need it.

1. Right-click on any blank space of the taskbar.

2. When the Shortcut menu pops up, left-click on Properties.

3. Left-click on the box next to Auto Hide so that a check mark appears in the box.

4. Left-click on the OK button.

From now on, your taskbar will be out of sight. To activate it, just move your mouse cursor to its location (commonly at the bottom of the screen) and pause for a fraction of a second. The taskbar will slide up into view. It will take you a bit of time to become used to quickly selecting options in your applications toolbar before the taskbar activates.

Taking out the Trash [95/98/NT]

Many novice readers have asked me to explain the Recycle Bin to them. Why is it called Recycle Bin instead of "Delete Bin" or "Trash Can"? How come they don't gain any hard drive space when they send files to the Recycle Bin?

Could it be that in a fit of public consciousness, Microsoft attempted to make us environmentally aware by naming the deleted files folder Recycle Bin? Heck, that sounds good to me. Actually, I did attempt to contact Microsoft via e-mail to ask this question, but I received no reply. The support staff either lost me in the vastness of the Corporation, thought I was a crackpot bashing their OS, or, just maybe, had no idea why that name was chosen.

If you use the default settings for the Recycle Bin, when you delete an item it is sent to the Recycle Bin. Yet this 'deleting' process does not delete the item from your hard drive. It only moves the item from its pre-deleted location to the Recycle Bin folder. Microsoft provided this feature as a safety net for inexperienced users who may accidently delete something important. If this happens, the deleted item can then be recovered. In the meantime, you are not regaining any hard drive space by sending files to the Recycle Bin.

To remove deleted items from your hard drive, you have to empty the Recycle Bin. Right-click on its desktop icon, click on Empty Recycle Bin, then click on Yes to confirm. (I just wish that emptying the kitchen trash were this simple!)

To set up the Recycle Bin to empty itself automatically when it reaches a certain percentage of your hard drive capacity, do this:

1. Right-click on the desktop Recycle Bin icon.

2. Left-click on Properties.

3. On the Global tab, adjust the sliding lever to the percentage of hard drive space you wish to use for deleted items storage. A good common figure would be around 5 percent.

4. Click on the OK button.

Audrey W. tells me that the Recycle Bin stores your deleted files in case you need to recover a file deleted by mistake. Even so, Windows will flash a "Are you sure you want to delete ..." confirmation box whenever you try to delete a file. This drives her nuts, and she wishes to put an end to the confirmation box always popping up.

Here is an easy four-step process to do just that.

1. Right-click on the Recycle Bin icon on your Desktop.

2. Left-click on Properties from the Shortcut menu.

3. Left-click the Global tab.

4. Deselect the Display Delete Confirmation Dialog, then left-click the OK button.

Turn Off Password [98]

If your Windows machine is on a network, or even if your network usage is limited to a TCP/IP connection to the Internet, you will be asked for a password each time you turn on your computer. I found this so annoying that I disabled it.

1. Right-click on the Network Neighborhood icon.

2. Click on Properties.

3. On the Configuration tab, select "Windows Logon" in the 'Primary Network Logon' box.

4. When Windows 98 prompts you to restart your computer, click on the NO button.

5. Now select Start | Settings | Control Panel.

6. Double-click on the Passwords icon.

7. On the 'Change Passwords' tab, click on the "Change Windows Password" button.

8. Click on the OK button.

9. Now set a blank password by simply hitting the Enter key.

10. Close the Control Panel.

If you have TweakUI installed (it can be found on your Windows 98 installation CD in the \tools\reskit\powertoy folder), you can set up Windows 98 to log on automatically whenever you turn on your computer.

All you need to do is select Start | Settings | Control Panel | TweakUI, click on the 'Network' tab and perform these steps:

1. Under "Logon," click the box to the left of 'Log on automatically at system startup.' A check mark will appear in the box.

2. Type in your User name in the box provided. This is the name you use to log onto your network or Internet service provider (ISP) account.

3. Type your password in the appropriate box.

Beware, however, that disabling password protection means that anyone who sits down at your computer will be able to access your network accounts. If your computer is physically secure, then it's no problem. Otherwise, it's better to be annoyed with a password prompt than to be surprised when someone else has mucked around in your network accounts.

Remove Find Fast

If you are using MS Office, you can improve the performance of your computer by removing the Find Fast feature from your StartUp folder. What is Find Fast? It is a utility that creates an index file on your hard drive, containing the names and locations of the files on your drive(s), in order to speed up opening them in MS-Office. The utility will update this index file automatically from time to time.

The problem is, this feature only saves you milliseconds when you actually open a file, time you could easily lose while you're waiting for it to finish its periodic spurts of indexing activity. So let's get rid of it and reclaim the drive space used by the index file.

1. Select Start | Settings | Control Panel.

2. Click on the Find Fast icon.

3. Select your hard drive(s) and from the 'Index' menu, choose "Delete Index."

4. Now click on 'Close' and 'Stop.'

Windows 2000 is Born

Windows 98 is the end of the line for Microsoft's hybrid 16-bit/32-bit operating system. All future versions of Windows -- including home-user versions -- will be true 32-bit operating systems based on Windows NT. The Windows 98 bells and whistles will be included in the new OS.

The official Windows 2000 is scheduled to be released sometime in 1999. It will actually be nothing more than a combination of Windows 98 and Windows NT 5.0 melded together into one operating system.

Microsoft reports that Windows 2000 will be supplied in four separate versions for desktop and server use.

What is now known as Windows NT Workstation will become Windows 2000 Professional. This will be the home/small office use version.

The remaining three versions will be for servers. They are Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, and Windows 2000 Data Center Server. Just so you don't forget the parent who gave birth to this group, all versions will carry the tagline "Built on NT Technology."

Windows 98 Service Pack

Microsoft also plans to have the Windows 98 Service Pack 1 out and available sometime in January. It will be available via the Windows Update feature on your desktop. So you may want to run your Update once a week or so.

Among other things, it will contain expanded support for the Device Bay spec -- which will drag us closer to true Plug and Play -- and patches for minor bugs like the security hole in Outlook Express.