Disk File and folder tips
Accessing Disk Tools
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
Right-clicking a drive's icon in My Computer
will let you access a dialog box to run disk tools, and will show you the last
time you used them on the drive.
Accessing Files Within Programs
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Intermed.
Submitted by: Geoff
For programs like QuickTime for
Windows you can access certain files quicker rather than clicking open etc...
Make a shortcut to the program on your desktop, or Start Menu, after the
shortcut is made right click on the shortcut, and click on 'Properties'. Click
the shortcut tab, and you'll see where the shortcut is pointing (e.g.
C:\WINDOWS\PLAYER32.EXE). After that you can write a file that was designed for
that program (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\SAMPLE.MOV) so you get something like
"C:\WINDOWS\PLAYER32.EXE" "C:\SAMPLE.MOV". Apply it, and
viola! Every time you open that program, that file will open along with it!
This works with more than QuickTime, you can do this with NotePad, WordPad, and
TONS more applications! Try It!
Activating the Fat32 File System in Windows95B
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Advanced
To activate the FAT32 file system
when upgrading to Windows95B (OEM Release 2) or if your new system came with
Windows95B installed without the FAT32 file system activated, back up your
system and then run FDISK from the a bootable floppy and follow the
instructions. The only unclear part of the instructions is that it is necessary
to delete and then re-add the primary partition choosing the FAT32 option as
you do this. Follow the remainder of the instructions explicitly.
Application Removal
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Beginner
Submitted by: Andy Stranks
Do NOT delete the files associated
with an application before removing it using the Control Panel - Add/Remove
Programs. Failure to do this will leave the registry entries in place and can
cause all sorts of nasties. You'll then have to re-install the app to enable
Win95 to remove it properly.
Avoid Fragmenting & Optimize
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
Submitted by: John Pertocelli
I have found a reasonable
performance gain by separating the system drive (C:) from the swap file on
drive (d:) which is physically different. I have 3 physical drives and C: is
the system, D: is extensions and the Windows swap file, and E: is for the
internet temp files and work files. A small drive, 200-300MB, can be had for a
cheap price today and can be designated as both the Windows swap drive and
internet temp files drive. Just think.. the heads are not constantly moving
from program files to swap/temp files.
Avoiding AutoPlay CD-ROMs
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
You can hold down the shift key when
you insert a CD-ROM to disable AutoPlay or you can make the following changes: Open
any folder and select view, options, file types. Select AudioCD and click Edit.
Select Play from the Action listbox, choose Set Default (this actually toggles
the default). If Play is bolded, the CD will play when inserted. If it is not
bolded, it will not.
Avoiding the Recycle Bin
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
To delete files without sending them
to the recycle bin, select the file or files to be deleted. Right-click the
selection and hold the Shift key down while selecting Delete.
Back up your emails!!
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Intermed.
Submitted by: Raymond Hicks
If you have some important emails
that you can afford to lose, you can back them up. But this only works with
Outlook (and Outlook Express) for IE 3 through IE 5. Open the find files dialog
and search for *.mbx When it's done searching, you will find a number of files.
You need to open explorer and navigate your way to that directory. Highlight
and copy all the files... all of them (the mbx's are mailboxes and contain the
emails while the other files are like an index). Don't be surprised if the
files total more than 20 megs. Move them somewhere else. When you're ready to
have them back (say after a reinstall), move them back to their original directory.
Viola, there they are!
Backing Up the Registry
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Intermed.
Submitted by: Ricardo Amaral
Andrade
Create a Recover or other folder and
copy the Hidden files System.Dat (and .Da0) and User.Dat (and .Da0) to this
directory. If someday your Windows crash, and the message: "Error in
Explorer.exe. You must reinstall Windows" appear, boot to DOS mode (or
command prompt only) and replace files with backup. If your damage isn't very
big, your Windows will recover. Your changes made after the backup will lost,
but you'll safe your Windows... Back up them every month, for example.
Backtrack
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Beginner
Submitted by: Diego Barco
To "backtrack" to a folder's
parent directory, just press the backspace key while in that folder's window.
Repeated performance of thi operation will take you all the way to C:>
Box Selections
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
Click and drag a box around a group
of files to select them all at once. Then you can copy, move, delete, or do any
other file operation to them all.
Briefcase Backup
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Intermed.
Submitted by: David N. Fonck
To backup items on your desktop, start
menu, or any other folder(s) you choose, first create a new briefcase on a
floppy. Then Drag any folders onto the briefcase you just created. I prefer to
right click & choose make sync copy, but you can left drag & the
default will be the same. After copies are done & any time you make changes
to any of the chosen files, just insert disk & double click on the new
briefcase. When you see all the folders on the list choose update all from the
briefcase menu or the tool bar & it will show you all the changes & let
you decide which ones to update.
CDPlayer and the titles
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT User Level: Intermed. Submitted by: Raymond Hicks
We all have that nice little
cdplayer app that comes with windows. And we all know you can enter the CD Titles
and authors and song names. But did you know you can back up that information
so you don't lose it and have to enter the information for all your cd's (if
you anything like me, that comes close to 100 CD's). Open the find files dialog
and do a search for cdplay*,ini. When you find it, go ahead and open it. Of
course, windows won't know what to use to open it with so you need to tell it
to open it with notepad. It's a text file! But once you find it, you can back
it up where ever you like.
Changing The Properties Of Forbidden Folders
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Advanced
Submitted by: Peter Ubriaco
Go into the registry editor and type
in the name of the folder (or shortcut) that you wish to change. The file
should appear under: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\. Now go over to the side, where
it should say Default Information and the name of the folder or icon. So if you
are looking to change the name of the icon that starts IE, which is on your
desktop under the name "The Internet", you would search for The
Internet. Then where in the information area, you double click on the icon, and
it will bring up a dialog to change the information. Then change it to the name
you wish. To change an icon, under where it says "SHELL32.DLL,3" or
whatever it says, change it to the name of the DLL or the name of the icon, and
if in a DLL, then add a comma, and the number of the icon. (Count from the
left, first icon counts as 0).
Collapsing Folders
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Beginner
Submitted by: VJ
If you go to explorer and try to
open a folder like 'Windows' which itself contains a lot of subfolders, it
could take you a long time to click each one of them to open them. To open all
the subfolders all you have to do is click on the main folder (Ex. Windows) and
hit the "+" on the numPad, you'll see that all the subfolders will be
opened. On the other hand, if you want to close them all together you can click
on the main folder and hit "-" on the numpad for a reverse effect.
Contiguous File Allocation
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Advanced
Submitted by: Adam Runions
To optimize the file system for
running multimedia applications add the following double word value:
"ContigFileAllocSize" with a value of:"0x000001F4(500)" to:
Hkey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem and reboot.
Copying to Multipule Floppies
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Beginner
Submitted by: David Morgan
On the left side of the explorer
window select the folder you wish to copy, from the Edit scroll click
"select all", again from the Edit scroll click "copy", on
the left side of the explorer window click on A:\, and from the Edit scroll,
click on Paste. This copies the files to the A: disk and prompts for a new disk
when it is needed. The files can then be copied onto a new machine without
having to deal with splicing or spanning programs.
Creating New Documents
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
Right click on the desktop, select
New, then select the type of file you want to create from the list.
Deleting Undeletable Files
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Advanced
Submitted by: _-X-_
Want to format your Hard Disk to
install newer things but can't delete the command.com or command.dos? Just go
to DOS-Prompt and type attrib command.com -r or attrib command.dos -r and they
will be deletable.
Drop program or batch file
Platform: Windows NT
User Level: Intermed.
Do you have a file that needs to be updated
on every workstation in your NT lab? Create a batch file to do the work for you
with the net use command. net use z: \\wgnrNT-01\c$\directorynamehere net use
y: \\wgnrNT-02\c$\directorynamehere net use x: \\wgnrNT-03\c$\directorynamehere
the previous three lines from a batch file map drives x: y: and z: on the host
computer as the target directory for the file. When running the batch file,
type "Dropfile.bat filenamehere" The filename should be the name of
the file you wish to drop on every computer. Include the following lines of
text to use that command line parameter: copy %1 "x:" copy %1
"y:" copy %1 "z:" Then if you wish to clear all the
mappings include: net use z: /del net use y: /del net use x: /del This can also
be done in a nice c++ program, but it serves as a quick fix for somebody who
doesn't have time to do his own programming let alone leisure programming.
Easy Backups
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
To make backups easier, keep all of
your data files in a single directory. Organize the information into
sub-directories, by project, or whatever other division makes sense to you.
Easy Open Folder
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Beginner
Submitted by: Brandon Kelly
To open a folder into the current
window, even if you do not have this option selected in your Explorer View
Options, hold down control when you double click the window. To make this your
default setting for the Windows Explorer, in the explorer menu, goto View, then
Options ... then select "Browse folders using a single window."
Edit Batch Files
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Advanced
Submitted by: Iván Vega
To edit a batch file with a
double-click instead of execute it, just open the Registry Editor and go to
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\batfile\shell\open, now change it to
HKCR\batfile\shell\r&un. Next change the binary value EditFlags in
HKCR\batfile to 00 00 00 00 (WARNING: DO NOT INCREASE THE LENGHT OF THE VALUE).
The final step is to go to the explorer and select File Types tab in 'option' Options
in View menu and search MS-DOS Batch File then select Edit. Now as you can see,
the three last buttons now are enabled and you can select the Edit Action as
the default.
False Security with Recycle Bin
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
Not everything you delete ends up in
the Recycle Bin. Files you delete from network drives, floppy drives, or other
external drives (like Zip drives) will be deleted permanently.
Filename First Letters
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
In any Explorer Folder, typing a
letter will take you to the first file in the folder that starts with that
letter. Pressing the letter again will take you to the next file that starts
with that letter.
Finding Files
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Intermed.
To find a file in MS-DOS, use
ATTRIB. Type : attrib filename /s. This will list the path your file is in. You
can use wildcards and redirection. To find all the jpegs on a PC from MS-DOS
and to save the result to floppy disk type : attrib *.jpg /s >
a:jpeglist.txt
Finding the Context Menu
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
Right-clicking on top of file,
folder, or disk icons will show you a context menu with options available for
that item (such as cut, copy, paste, delete, etc.).
Hidden Creator
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Intermed.
Submitted by: Dan Karas
When creating a directory in ms-DOS,
name directory and press ALT255. Directory can be seen in directory but can not
be opened without pressing ALT255 at end of directory name. Great security
feature to keep people out of your private directroty or directories.
Installing to a Subdirectory
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Beginner
Submitted by: Ben Canant
When installing a new program you
can put it any number of levels deep in the Start Menu. When it asks you to
name the folder, type - (for example) - "Games\LucasArts\XvT". Now,
instead of installing XvT into simply "XvT" it installs into
subdirectories.(Only newer games or programs work like this)
Keyboard File Selections
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
Use the CTRL key when selecting
files in Explorer to select and deselect multiple files one at a time. Use the
SHIFT key to select lists of files.
Locate the Location
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
To see the full path of any item in
Explorer, right click on it, select Properties, and hold the mouse over the
info Location field.
Not too many windows…
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Beginner
Submitted by: Diego Barco
To change from folder to folder
without all the windows that are open staying open, just hold down the Ctrl key
while double-clicking the icon of the folder you want to open. The window of its
parent directory will be automatically closed and you'll be left only with the
window of the desired folder open.
NT Disk Tools
Platform: Windows NT
User Level: Intermed.
Submitted by: William
There is no scandisk with Windows
NT. There is also no defragmentation utility. The Microsoft Solution for
Windowes NT Fragmentation is dependent upon the type of file system in use. If
it is NTFS, then you muat perform a backup, blow the data away and then restore
it to achive defragmentation. If it is a FAT partition, then they recommend
booting into DOS 6.22 and using the DOS 6.22 defrag utility. The disk checking
feature with Windows NT is Check Disk. Right-click a drive in My Computer and
choose check for errors. If the drive cannot be locked a dialog box will appear
asking if you would like to do it the next time NT starts up.
One Step Delete
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
To delete a file or folder without dragging
it to the Recycle Bin, simply hold the SHIFT key while you press the DELETE
key.
Organize Your SendTo Folder
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Beginner
If you have lots of destinations in
your SendTo folder, you may want to organize them into cascading menus. Open
the SendTo folder, which is in the Windows folder. Select New, Folder, then
place your shortcuts in the new folders.
Properties View
Platform: Windows CE
User Level: Beginner
To view the properties of a file or
folder, select the item, and then press Alt+Enter.
Quick CD Eject
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
You can open or close your CD-ROM
drive by right-clicking your CD-ROM drive icon in My Computer and pressing
Eject.
Quick Name Change
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
Press F2 to change the name of a
selected file or folder.
Self Help Folder
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
Submitted by: Mocha Nelson
Make yourself your own help file using WORDPAD. Create a new TXT
file in WORDPAD and name it MYINFO or something to that effect. Every time you
learn a new trick or procedure write a new description of it in your MYINFO.TXT
file. Things you don't do or use often have a tendency of getting forgotten,
with your MYINFO.TXT file you won't have that problem and spend a lot of time
trying to find that "I did this once, but how did I?" thing.
Simple Backup
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
For easy backups, keep all of your
data files in a single folder. To organize your data, put it in subdirectories
by whatever division makes sense to you.
Start Menu's Document List
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Intermed.
Submitted by: William Thomas
Ok, you want to get rid of some
information on your documents menu, but you also want to keep some of the
important shortcut's in there for future use. But the only way you know how to
get rid of the shortcut's you don't want your boss or any spying co-workers to
see is to clear the entire Documents menu! Well all you have to do is: 1) Go to
explorer or my computer, 2) Open the file "Windows" 3) Then Open the
file "Recent" 4) and bingo! You have access to every thing you've
been working on! The pathway is: C:\WINDOWS\Recent. The realy fast way to do
this is go to the find menu in your start menu and type in "Recent"
when it finds the file open it and delete what you want to keep and what you
don't!
Swap Brick
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Advanced
Submitted by: The Grub
With this trick, you will be able to
speed up the swap file access by using a technique I call the Swap Brick. You
can implement it in one of two ways. #1 From the control panel go to System
Icon, Then to Virtual Memory button. Click the "Let me specify my own
virtual memory settings", then set the max amount and set it to 50MB, also
set the minimum amount to 50 also. Once you hit the ok button it will ask you
if you want to restart your computer, hit yes and that's it. This stops the
annoying swap file re-sizing every time you go over the minimum. And for you
performance geeks out there, including me. #2 Create a 100-250MB partition, and
from step (#1) Select the Hard disk drive letter that you created, set the max.
and the min. values to use the entire partition. This variation of step #1
prevents the swap file from becoming fragmented. This trick will speed things
up for you 8mb and 16mb windows 95 users. :)
The Recycle Bin
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
Deleted files and folders are saved
in the Recycle Bin until you empty it.
Unknown files
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Advanced
Submitted by: Andrew Branson
A file of unknown type has a special
miscellaneous type in the Windows registry, under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Unknown To
make this key editable from the folder options/File Types dialog, simply create
a new key in HKCR called .unknown or something. Set the (default) setting to
"Unknown". Then open the Unknown key and set the (default) to
'Unknown File Type' or however you want unknown files to be described. Then you
can add context menu options such as 'Open with Notepad' or 'Open with
PaintShop' just as you would for any other filetype. You may need to reconfirm
the 'openas' action as the default.
Use Long File Names
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
With 32-bit applications, you can
use long filenames when you save documents. You can even use spaces!
Viewing DOS File Names
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
To view MS-DOS names associated with
long file names, right-click the file and select properties - you should see
both representations of the file name.
Where did it go?
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT
User Level: Beginner
Submitted by: Manuel Negron Jr
Ever wonder where did your last file
went after download? Try using the briefcase as your default place for
downloads and you will always know where your downloaded files are all of the
time!
Windows 95 Fibs?
Platform: Windows 95
User Level: Beginner
Submitted by: Steven Lewis
Yup! It does! When you go to defrag
and Windows says that you only have 4% fragmentation and that you don't need to
defrag now, DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT. Even 2% fragmentation can affect system
performance and anything above 5% will have a definite affect. Think...4% of 2
GB (2048 mb)=81.92 MEGAbytes (More than an ENTIRE PC/XT hard drive(20-30 meg)
of 6 or 7 years ago.) AND... Know that most of that fragmentation is going to
be in files and programs that you use the most. So your harddrive is going to
be thrashing around the whole disk just to load the stuff that you normally
use. Do yourself and your system a favor, run Scandisk and Defrag on a regular
basis and don't go over 2% fragmentation. Also.. Check your fragmentation after
coming off of the internet. Bet you its around 1-3%!