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Undocumented Secrets

Ed Bott

Yael Li-Ron

Windows 95: Ten Top-Secret Tricks

OK, you've nailed down the basics, you've read (well, at least skimmed) the
manuals, and you're feeling pretty good about your newfound Windows 95
skills. But to maintain your position at the top of the information food
chain you need more--a few extra nuggets to impress your coworkers and
strengthen your grasp on this new operating system. Here they are:

Finding the Pentium Bug:

All the fuss over the Pentium has died down now, but there are still plenty
of Pentium PCs out there whose numeric coprocessors can't be trusted with
simple arithmetic.

Fortunately, Windows 95 includes code that checks the integrity of your
CPU's coprocessor. If it's one of the flawed Pentiums, you can disable that
part of the chip while you wait for an upgraded CPU to arrive. Look in the
Device Manager--you'll find the "Numeric data processor" entry under the
System Devices heading. Click on the Properties button to run the
coprocessor test and the Settings tab to see the results.

One-Click Access to the Control Panel:

You can drag a shortcut to the Control Panel onto the Start menu, but that
doesn't really save you much time.

You still have to open a folder window, scroll through the list of Control
Panel applets, and double-click on the one you want. The lightning-fast
secret to instant Control Panel access is to install it as a system folder
on the Start menu. When you do, you'll see the Control Panel on the Start
menu, with each applet just a click away on a cascading menu. To add the
system folder, right-click on the Start button and choose Explore from the
shortcut menu. Right-click on any blank space in the right-hand Explorer
pane and choose New, Folder. Rename the folder using this exact string:

    Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

Note that these are curly brackets, not square brackets or parentheses.
Press Enter and close Explorer. Next, click on the Start button to see the
cascading list of Control Panel applets. Warning: If you install a program
that adds a new entry to the Control Panel, you'll need to re-create this
shortcut; its contents won't be automatically updated.

Streamlining Exchange's Address Book:

The good news about the Exchange e-mail client is that you don't have to
scroll through a lengthy address book or memorize a finger-cramping
Internet address to send a message. But there's bad news, too.

Exchange does its best to translate partial names into names it recognizes
from your address book. And it uses the display name--the friendly name you
create--rather than the sometimes arbitrary name the mail provider
requires. To send a message to Bill Gates, for example, just type Bill. If
there's more than one Bill in the address book, Exchange offers a list of
alternatives, including the option to create a new address book entry. The
bad news? If there's only one matching address, Exchange automatically
sends the message to that address without asking you to confirm that it's
the right one. That could be embarrassing if the only matching entry in the
address book isn't the one you intended. The fail-safe solution? Click on
the Check Names button before sending a new message, then check the names
in the To: box carefully.

Drag-and-Drop Commands:

It works to think of the Windows 95 Run dialog box as a miniature command
prompt. But you're not sure how to attach a long, complicated pathname onto
the end of a command.

Just drag the filename from a folder window and drop it into the Run box.
Windows tacks on the full pathname--including quote marks, if
required--leaving plenty of room for you to add another command, a set of
switches, or a crucial parameter.

One-Click Folder Access:

After you've used the Windows 95 Find utility to track down an elusive
file, you want to jump directly to the folder where that file is stored.

There's the slow way--use the Explorer tree to browse through the directory
structure until you find the right folder--but there's also a much faster
way. In the Find window, pull down the File menu and choose Open Containing
Folder. Windows will immediately open a window on the folder containing the
selected file. This feature looks as if it was added to Windows 95 almost
as an afterthought: You can't select more than one file, and the command is
nowhere to be found on the right-button menu. But it's still a handy
time-saver.

Extending Your Extension:

Both Word for Windows and WordPad claim the DOC extension as their own, but
the Registry can handle only one association per extension. You want to
know how you can tell which app should open a particular DOC.

The key is in long filenames. The 255-character limitation includes the
extension, meaning you can conceivably have a filename of 20 characters and
an extension that's 235 characters long. So save your WordPad files with an
extension such as DOCPAD, and establish an association to that extension.
To do so, select Options from the View menu of an open window, then click
on the File Types tab, then on New Type.

Cleaning Up Your New Menu:

Some applications take liberties with the New option in the context menu
(you know, the one you get when you right-click anywhere on the desktop or
in a folder). You wonder if you really need the option to add a new Lotus
1-2-3 worksheet on that menu.

Sure, the world has gone document-centric, but you may not want to jump on
the bandwagon just yet. To remove unwanted items you'll need to hack the
Registry. Select Start, Run, and type REGEDIT. At the Registry Editor
screen, press Ctrl+F (Find), then type the string you're looking for
(1-2-3, for example). When you find that string, see if there's a ShellNew
folder under it. If there isn't, hit F3 to continue the search. When you
find the ShellNew entry, you can remove it by pressing the Del key. Note:
You may need to repeat this search-and-destroy operation, because some
entries are repeated two or three times.

Hacking the Code:

Programmers and other technical types who want to view or edit binary files
are disappointed that Write is no longer included with Windows 95.

Apparently, Microsoft wasn't too pleased with the freedom to
reverse-engineer Windows programs that Write's binary viewing ability gave
users. That's why WordPad can't edit binary files. But not all is lost. If
you're installing Windows 95 over Windows 3.x, be sure to copy WRITE.EXE to
a floppy disk or another directory before you start, because WordPad will
overwrite it. Another way to edit binary files is to type edit/70 filename
at the DOS prompt--the /70 sets the line width at 70 characters.

Previewing Your E-mail:

You're drowning in e-mail and can't spare the time to read all of it. You
want a way to preview your Exchange messages.

In the InBox folder, click on View, Columns, and add the column Item Text
to your view. Now you can see the first 20 characters of each message, or
expand the column with the mouse to view more.

Tracking Your PC's Usage:

If you go on vacation for a month and want to find out if anyone has been
snooping around on your PC, Windows 95 has a way to help.

Unbeknownst to most users, Windows 95 keeps a log of everything you do,
including applications you run, documents you open, and servers you access
(including remote servers, through the dial-up networking feature). Most of
that information is kept in different areas in the Registry. To find it,
select Start, Run, and type REGEDIT (for Registry Editor). Under the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER entry, look for any folder labeled with MRU (Most
Recently Used). RunMRU, for example, lists the applications that have been
most recently run. Under the Network folder, look for a folder named
Recent. And don't forget to check the Start menu for the Documents submenu,
which lists all the recently opened documents.

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