Windows

The Windows Registry Guide is full of registry tweaks, tricks, and hacks to optimize, enhance, and secure Microsoft Windows. This is really a wonderful site. There are dozens of mini-tutorials to make Windows do all sorts of nifty things. I really like this place.

Nobody asked me to play (boo hoo) … but I thought I’d jump in on this meme anyway. The contents of my system tray are (left to right):

• Windows Task Scheduler
• Volume control
• InoculateIT - virus protection
• quicklink to desktop
• Adaptec DirectCD
• Diamond InControl Tools
• AutoText - a little app I wrote that inserts text into applications for me so I don’t have to type the same thing all the time
• EditPad
• Palm HotSync
• Microsoft Money Express
• ‘net connection
• ICQ
• Outlook

Here’s a workaround for one of Windows 9x’s annoyances. Sometimes when you make a change in a window — for example, when you create a new folder through an open application — you won’t see it until you refresh the window by pressing F5 or until you close and reopen that folder.
To have Windows refresh its display automatically, start RegEdit (Select Start | Run; type “regedit”; and press Enter.) and go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ System\ CurrentControlSet\ control\ Update

Double-click UpdateMode in the right pane and change the value from 01 to 00.
Click OK and close RegEdit (choose Registry, Exit).
You’ll have to restart the computer to see the change.

Are there applications in your Install / Uninstall list (in the Add/Remove Programs dialog box) that you’ve already deleted from your system? Or that, when you select them and click the Add / Remove button, give you a message that the uninstallation can’t proceed? Sure, you could leave them there and forget about them, but if you like to keep things neat and tidy, you’ll be happy to know you can remove unwanted items from this list.

The easiest way to remove items is using Tweak UI, one of the Microsoft PowerToys. You can download it from the MS web site. If you don’t have Tweak UI, or you want to learn how to be really cool, you can remove items from the Install / Uninstall list by editing the Windows 95 Registry. (As always, back it up first. If you don’t know how to back up your registry, either a. be superhumanly careful screwing around in there or b. learn how and back it up first!)

Open the Registry Editor (Select Start | Run, type “regedit” and click OK.) and navigate your way to

HKEY_LOCAL MACHINE\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Uninstall

Under the Uninstall key, right-mouse click the item you want to get rid of, and select Delete. Click Yes to confirm, then repeat these steps to delete other items.
When you’re finished, close the Registry Editor. The next time you open the Add / Remove Programs dialog box, you’ll find that those unwanted items are gone.

Ever wanted to take a snapshot of your screen? Well, hit the ‘Print Scrn’ key and a bitmap will be placed onto your clipboard. You know the clipboard - it’s that mysterious Microsoft netherworld where things go temporarily when you hit Edit | Copy or Edit | Cut.
Open up your favorite image editor, and then Edit | Paste it as a new image, and edit to your heart’s content. Then save it (or do whatever you want to do with it).
You probably already knew all that, right? … But did you also know that if you pushed ‘Alt’ and ‘PrintScrn’ that it would capture only the active window? Ha ha!

If you frequently open the Device Manager, place a shortcut to it right on your Start menu for one-click access. It beats having to open the Control Panel, double-click System and select the Device Manager tab every time.

Right-mouse click the Start button and select Open to open the Start Menu folder. Right-mouse click inside the window, select New, then select Shortcut. Next to Command Line, type exactly:

C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.EXE Sysdm.cpl, System,1

(where c:\Windows is your Windows 95 directory) Click the Next button, name the shortcut Device Manager, and click Finish. The next time you want to open the Device Manager, click Start and select your new shortcut.

If you want to show the door to the InBox, Recycle Bin, or Microsoft Network, here’s how:

Run REGEDIT and drill down through the layers to find

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer\ Desktop\ NameSpace

Click the plus sign (+) next to NameSpace to reveal several numeric fields. Clicking on any one of these will tell you what it is in the right window pane under the Data field. If you decide you really don’t want the Inbox, for example, identify it, highlight its numeric string in the left pane, and press Delete. There you go!

If you’re in north central Florida and you need your windows tinted, call Daryl or Jason @ Custom Glass Tinting (1-800-939-TINT or 352-377-TINT) I just got the windows on my Rodeo extra-tintified; I am now stylin’ and profilin’ …

Jason received this error message from one of the NT Servers at work:

While validating that COM3 was really a serial port, the contents of the divisor latch register was identical to the interrupt enable and the receive registers. The device is assumed not to be a serial port and will be deleted.

This wins the Quote-of-the-Day award from the hundreds of workers slaving away here at davidgagne.net:

“plus, it runs winCE on a RISC processor. when will people learn: winCE is for toothless vietnamese hookers with no thumbs. if you’re serious about mobile computing, at least use PalmOS, if not Mobile Linux on a Crusoe” - My Bong Runs Linux