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I collected this document from the collection of best friend of mine Ravindranath to publish.
If you ever lose the Desktop but Explorer is still running with the Start Button,
you can do this to bring back your Desktop in a Windows box.
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1. Click Start
2. Click Run
3. Type a period " . "
4. Then press Enter
Creating a New E-Mail Shortcut
To create a shortcut that will open your default e-mail program starting a new e-mail,
1. Right click on an open area of the desktop
2. Select New / Shortcut
3. For the Command Line, enter mailto:
4. For the title enter something like New E-Mail
5. When you click on this your default e-mail program should start with a new e-mail form.
Creating 3D Window Effect
If your Start Menu Program or Favorites are not sorting alphabetically, it is easy to fix this:
1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/MenuOrder
3. Under here is are Favorites and Start Menu folders
4. In each there is a value called Order
5. Simply delete (or rename this) and restart Winodws
6. Your Favorites or Start Menus should now sort alphabetically
Increasing the Icon Cache
1. Run Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\explorer
3. Create a new string called Max Cached Icons
4. Give it a value of 10000
5. This will increase response time in windows and give the Shellicon cache file more elbow room.
Make Icons 256 Color 16-Bit
1. Open the Registry
2. Hit Ctrl+F
3. Type Shell Icon BPP
4. When found, right click the Shell Icon BPP icon
5. Click Modify
6. Change the value from 4 to 16
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7. Click Ok
8. Close the registry
9. Restart your computer
Removing Shortcut Arrows
An easy way to remove those irritating arrows from your desktop shortcut icons and not change their
properties
1. Right click the Desktop / Properties / Appearance tab
2. Select Item
3. Scroll for Icon
4. The default size is 32
5. Change this to 30
6. Clicking Apply
Adding the Control Panel to the Start Menu
To make changes to the Desktop like window size, positon after rebooting:
1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer
3. Create a New Binary Value
4. Name it NoSaveSettings
5. Give it a value of 01 00 00 00
Easy Shortcuts on the Desktop
Here is an easy way to put shortcuts on the Desktop where they can easily be moved to other group
icons.
1. Using the Explorer, create a SHORTCUT to the \Windows\Desktop directory in your \Windows\SEND
TO directory.
2. Now whenever you want to make a shortcut and move it to the desktop:
3. Just make the shortcut you want using Explorer
4. Right click on that shortcut
5. In the pop up menu select the Send To and Desktop shortcut.
Changing a Folder's Icon
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There's no need to exit Win95 and delete the SHELLICONCACHE file in order to reset icons that you may
have changed (like Network Neighborhood).
1. Go to Control Panel, Display, Appearance Tab.
2. Select Icon from the Item drop down list.
3. Change the Size up or down one and apply.
4. Change the Size back to your original and apply.
If your Start Menu is slow or your icons are black for some reason, it means your Shelliconcache file is
corrupt and should be deleted.
Delete the hidden file.
It will be recreated the next time you start Win95
If you need to get a screen shot, and you do not have a screen capture program, try this:
* Hit the Print Screen key. This copies a bitmap of the full screen into the Windows clipboard. Start up a
graphics editor and paste it in.
* Alt + Print Screen will capture only the active window.
If you can't create shortcuts on your Desktop, you might have a corrupted registry.
1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellNew\Command
3. Make sure it has a value of:
4. RunDLL32 AppWiz.Cpl,NewLinkHere %1 if you don't have IE 4
5. or RunDLL32 AppWiz.Cpl,NewLinkHere %2 if you have IE 4.0 or IE 4.01
Removing the InBox from the Desktop
[.ShellClassInfo]
IconFile=file name,number
(e.g. IconFile=C:\Icon\CustomFolder.ico,0)
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That way you can just right click on a file you want to delete, and send it to the recycle bin without
having to confirm each time.
Having Icons with No Name
Normally you have to have a name for an icon, just spaces are not allowed.
To create an icon with no name attached:
1. Make sure NumLock is on
2. Highlight the Icon you want to change
3. Right-Mouse click and select Rename
4. While holding down the Alt key, type 0160
5. Now the icon will have no name below it.
To Create Multiple Icons with No Name -
1. Follow directions detailed above
2. With the second icon simply add one space-bar character AFTER the 0160 number.
3. Each successive icon gets an additional space-bar character at the end (to prevent a duplicate naming
error).
Moving the Start Button
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Normally, you only options for displaying a background bitmap are tiled, centered, or stretch to fit (with
the Plus Pack).
You can edit the registry and have a third option which is to place the bitmap anywhere on your screen
by specifying the X and Y coordinates.
1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel / Desktop
3. Create new Strings called WallpaperOriginX and WallpaperOriginY
4. Give them values to position them around your desktop
5. The bitmap must be smaller than your desktop size
Changing Drive Icons
For the name of the icon file you can either specify the path and name (e.g.
ICON=C:\WINDOWS\ICONS\MY_ICON.ICO) or
a specific icon in a library (e.g. ICON=ICONFILE.DLL,2)
Previous examples of adding items to the SendTo usually require editing the Registry.
An easy way around this is to use the following methods.
To add ANYFOLDER:
To add Mail:
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1. Start Regedit
2. Go to:HKEY_USERS \ .Default \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer
3. Add binary value to Explorer:link="00,00,00,00"
4. Now You can make Shortcuts to desktop without Shortcut To" text.
Add a menu item named "Open THIS folder!" to each of your cascading menus off of the Start menu.
This makes it easier to put items wherever you want them!
It takes a little while, but when you are finished you have a much easier interface to work with.
1. Click on the start menu button twice, so there is a dashed line around the button
2. Press Alt and the minus sign
3. Choose Close to make the start button disappear, or move to move it to the right!
Note from Bob: - You have to re-boot to get it back again, or:
1. Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete
2. Highlight Explorer
3. Click on the End Task button
4. Select No to doing a full shutdown
5. Wait a few seconds and the click on the End Task button
Removing the InBox and Recycle Bin Icons from the Desktop
To remove the InBox from your desktop, without needing to run the Policy Editor:
1. Start Regedit
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* I have recently found that if you want to send something from A: drive or from any where to any
drive, you can just make a short cut of that drive in subdirectory SENDTO.
* For example I have two hard drives, a Floppy Drive, and a CDROM
* After I have make a copy of each of my drive I will be able to send a whole directory of E:\XXX from
the CDROM drive to A: drive or any other drive that i have had made the short c t in the SENDTO subdir
of WINDOWS.
You can make your briefcase a shortcut on the on desktop so if you have multiple users on your PC and
you don't want to have a password for your briefcase, you can at least protect it from inadvertent
deletion by just making the briefcase a hidden file or in a different location other than
\Windows\Desktop\My Briefcase, then send a copy or shortcut to the desktop.
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The same can be done with NT 4.0, just the offset will be different but the location to just before "There
was an internal error..." is the same.
This allows you to quickly see all the devices attached to your computer.
I use it a lot to select Refresh when I add new external SCSI devices that were not
powered up at startup. This way you do not need to restart the computer. To add the Device Manager
Icon:
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4. Click OK
This will make the task bar slide off the screen when the cursor moves away from it,
and it will slide back on when the cursor is moved near it again.
The same can be done for the MS Office task bar. The "sliding" effect is nice, and can free up some
desktop space.
If you have several nested folders (folders within folders) and want to close them all,
simply, hold the Shift key while closing the last folder
This will close all previous ones as well.
You can move the taskbar by pointing on a corner panel and dragging it
It is easier to move if you close all your windows first
You can also resize it by moving the mouse to the edge and dragging it larger or smaller.
If you have a problem with your non-true type fonts, here's what you do:
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1. From the Explorer, create a folder somewhere OTHER than the desktop, and call it something like
"Desktop Folders."
2. Move all your desktop folders into that folder.
3. Create shortcuts to all of those folders on your desktop.
4. Now, you are free to change the icons of each shortcut individually, to anything you like!
If you want to update the desktop, for example after you've been changing the registry.
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The following steps will change the icon that is displayed as the default Folder icon.
Note: I haven't experimented with too many of the other icon changes possible.
1. Click the Start Button once with your right mouse button. You should see a right-button menu (called
a context menu because it offers different choices in different contexts).
2. You should see the items Open, Explore, and Find on the context menu. Click Explore with your left
mouse button.
3. An Explorer file management window should open. A directory tree should appear in the left pane,
with the right pane displaying the contents of the Start Menu folder.
4. Right-click any empty space within the right pane. A context menu should appear. Click New and then
Folder.
5. The Explorer will create a highlighted icon called New Folder. Type in the following string, all on one
line, replacing the words New Folder with this new line. You must type the period, the curly braces, all
four hyphens, and the hexadecimal numbers exactly as shown. After the closing curly brace, press
Enter.
Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
* Dial-Up Networking.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}
* Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}
* Inbox.{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}
* My Computer.{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
* Recycle Bin.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
* Network Neighborhood.{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}
* Desktop.{00021400-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
* Briefcase.{85BBD920-42A0-1069-A2E4-08002B30309D}
* Fonts.{BD84B380-8CA2-1069-AB1D-08000948F534}
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This makes it a lot easier to minimize windows when all your open applications are full screen.
With the Microsoft Keyboard, you can accomplish the same thing by pressing the Window-M key.
1. Open REGEDIT.EXE
2. Open the Key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
3. Open the Key LNKFILE
4. Delete the value IsShortcut
5. Open the next Key PIFFILE
6. Delete the value IsShortcut
7. Restart the Win95
This should allow you to create new folders that have AutoArrange selected by default.
You only need to specify by Name, Size, etc. if you want to change it from the default you set above.
Note: I have only tested this on a few computers. Please give me feedback regarding any problems.
How do you access your darn desktop when you have a ton of applications open?
Well you could right click on the taskbar and do a minimize all, but that can be slow.
Instead:
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Additional Note from Bob: You can also drag the Desktop folder to the start menu.
Then you just press Ctrl-ESC and click on Desktop
* If you use a graphic Card and you change the resolution, sometimes the icons are bad.
* End Win95 and restart. When you see the starting message press F8 then type standard.
* After this start of Win95 exit and restart.
* Change back to your Resolution and restart.
* The icons should be corrected.
You can shut off the animation displayed when you minimize and maximize windows.
This tip makes navigating Windows 95 a lot faster especially for those that don't have
super fast video cards.
1. Open Regedit
2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER
3. Control panel
4. Desktop
5. WindowMetrics
6. Right Mouse Click an empty space in the right pane.
7. Select new/string value.
8. Name the new value MinAnimate.
9. Doubleclick on the new string value (MinAnimate) and click on "Modify"
10. Enter a value of 0 for Off or 1 for On then hit
11. Close Regedit and all programs then reboot.
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Note: One side effect is the your CD will no longer automatically play when it is inserted.
If you are setup to dual boot between your old Win 3.x and want to add in the old groups, just click on
the *.GRP file in your old windows directory. The programs will be added to your list under Programs in
the task bar.
1. Open Regedit
2. Find My Computer or Recycle Bin
3. Tab to the left panel
4. Double click on the highlighted line
5. Double click on DefaultIcon in the left panel
6. Double click on DefaultIcon right panel
7. Type in the value for the new icon
8. Note: DLL files can be used. Specify the location of the new icon with the filename,#
1. Open Regedit
2. Go to Hkey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\FileSystem
3. Right Click on the Right pane
4. Select New / Hex
5. Add the value NameNumericTail= 0
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Startup Screen
Logoff Screens
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