Windows 98 Tips
The following are some tips for using and maintaining your Windows 98 computer:
NOTE: These are tips that we have collected over time. Some of these tips require advanced user skills. Backup your system before attempting these tips, and use them at your own risk.
Internet Address Time Saver
Instant System Properties
Easier Minimizing
Bypass Upgrade Check
Add New Quick Launches
New Quick Launch Toolbars
Faster Network Settings Adjustments
Cascading Control Panel
Start Menu on the Fly
Rename Items in Start Menu
Screen Capture Win98
Capture Current Window Only
Setup Duplicate Installations of Win98
Solving Floppy Drive Problems In Win98
Stop Programs From Loading at Startup
Illegal Operation Errors
Third Party AutoScan
Always a Two-Pane Explorer
Search the Web Using Keywords with Internet Explorer
Restore Your Registry
Move "My Documents"
Power Management Troubleshooting
Configuring Internal PC Speaker Beeps
Find Your Own IP Address
Setting Up Internet Connection Sharing
If you right-click your taskbar, choose the "toolbars" option, and select "Address" you will get a new item on the taskbar that allows you to type in any URL (on the Internet, your hard drive, or a network share) and automatically open that page or folder. This saves the steps of having to open your web browser, then type the address in.
If you have a "Windows" keyboard with the special "Windows Key" on it, you can hit the <WinKey>+<Pause/Break> to instantly open the System Properties dialog box. This saves you the extra step of going to the Start Menu and opening the Control Panel, then clicking on the System Icon.
With Windows 98 or Internet Explorer 4.x/5.x you can minimize almost any open window by simply clicking on its depressed button in the taskbar.
This shows you how to do a clean install of Win98 yet bypass the check for an older version of Windows.
Boot your system from a boot diskette (Windows 95/98 startup disk, or DOS bootable diskette). Create a file in the root directory of your boot partition named "ntldr" (no quotes). The file can't be a zero-byte file, so edit it and put rem on a single line with no spaces in front of it.
This should bypass the check for previous version of Windows by fooling the system into thinking that NT is installed.
It's great to be able to create additional Quick Launch icons to the quick launch toolbar to reside next to the 4 built in defaults and it's easy to do.
1. Right click and drag an existing shortcut from the desktop to the area next to the start button and release it, or, using Explorer, right click and drag the icon for a program file (exe) in the same manner and release.
2. Select create shortcut here.
3. If you are always looking for "My Computer" to explore or check something, it's a good choice to drag on down to the quick launch bar for instant access at any time.
Drag any folder or any item from the desktop (e.g. My Computer, Recycle Bin, Network Neighborhood, Control Panel icon etc.) to the edge of the screen and release. You get a Single Click Quick Launch Toolbar with all the icons inside it.
Faster Network Settings Adjustments
Instead of going through Start, Settings, Control Panel, Network, you can shorten the keystroke by right-clicking on Network Neighborhood and selecting Properties.
To cascade the Control Panel applets off your Start Menu:
1. Right-click on the Start button and select Open.
2. Create a new folder and call it Quick Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} Don't forget the period in the folder name!
You can right click on any item in the start menu and move it, copy it, delete it, and even change its properties. The only thing you can't do is rename it if you are running Internet Explorer 4.01 or below. If you have Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher, you can right click to rename as well.
This is directly related to the last tip. If you right click on an item in the start menu/toolbar, there is no 'rename' option if you have Internet Explorer 4.01 or earlier. To rename an item:
1. Left-click drag the item in question to the desktop.
2. Rename the new item on the desktop whatever you want.
3. Right-click drag the newly-renamed item back to its previous location and choose 'Move here'.
You don't need a fancy graphics program to get a screenshot of what's on your computer. If you are in any windows based program, just hit the print screen key on your keyboard and you have a full screenshot. Paste it into Paint or any other Windows based graphics program.
Hightlight one window on the desktop and hit Print Screen while holding down the ALT key and it captures only that one window to the clipboard instead of the entire desktop.
Setup Duplicate Installations of Win98
When installing Win98 will generate a SETUPLOG file in the root of your boot partition (C:\). This file can then be used to set up identical machines in batch mode using the SETUPLOG as an input file.
Solving Floppy Drive Problems In Win98
Several people have reported floppy drive problems since upgrading to or installing Windows 98, even when the floppy drives worked perfectly under Windows 95 or previous versions of Windows and MS-DOS. This tip might help if you are having problems.
Right click on My Computer on the desktop. Click on Properties, then Performance. Then click on File System. Click on Floppy Disk and if there is a check in "Search for New Floppy Drives Each Time Your Computer Starts" remove it. Then click on Removable Disk and make sure write-back caching is not checked. This may also help with Zip Drives and other removable media such as tape backup, Jazz, and other non-hard drives and CD-ROM/DVD drives.
Stop Programs From Loading at Startup
Everyone at one time or another, has probably installed a program that insists on loading itself on startup, even if it isn't in the Startup group. This could be due to it loading from WIN.INI or the Windows registry. A good way to stop specific programs from loading is to use The System Configuration Utility (MSCONFIG). To run it, click Start, Run, type in "MSCONFIG" (no quotes) and press ENTER. When it comes up, click on "Startup" and check or uncheck items you want to load or not to load. This is very useful if you have a program or programs that you only want to run sometimes or not at all. Then you can almost always load the program from the Start Menu anyway, or simply re-enable it to load on Startup again at any time if you change your mind.
If you frequently get illegal operation or invalid page fault error messages in Windows 98, there is a great utility that Microsoft included which you can use to troubleshoot, find the cause of, and correct those errors to prevent yourself from getting them again. It also logs all errors so you can report them to Microsoft or your software program's vendor so that they can fix the problem. To start this program:
Click Start, Run.
Type "DrWatson" and press ENTER.
An icon for Dr. Watson will appear on your taskbar tray.
Double click it. From here on you can view detailed information about your
Win98 system.
I recommend putting a shortcut to Dr. Watson in your Startup group, especially if you frequenty experience crashes, as it will automatically log all illegal operations and invalid page faults/general protection faults that you might get.
If you have Nuts & Bolts or Norton Utilities installed on your system, you can cause their DOS mode disk repair utilities to run on bootup after a bad Windows shutdown, instead of ScanDisk. Copy the utility you want to use (e.g. NDD.EXE or DMDOS.EXE) to your \Windows\Command folder, rename SCANDISK.EXE to SCANDISK.WIN and then rename the copied file to SCANDISK.EXE.
The next time you boot up after a bad shutdown, your third-party disk scanning
application will run. This can easily be reversed by deleting or renaming
SCANDISK.EXE. More information about configuring this is available from
axcel216@aol.com on his website at:
http://user.aol.com/axcel216/
listed under the "BYPASS AUTOSCAN" topic online:
http://user.aol.com/axcel216/osr2.htm#BYPASS
and in his OSR2TIPS.TXT file, part of W95-11D.EXE (freeware):
http://user.aol.com/axcel216/95.htm
I recommend reading that before proceeding with this tip.
Follow these instructions to automatically get the two-paned Explorer view for easier navigation
- Open any folder (i.e. "My Computer").
- Choose "View|Folder options..." from the menu.
- Move to the "File Types" tab.
- Locate the "Folder" entry (to do this fast, click onto the Listview and type
the word "folder").
- Choose Edit.
- Select "Explorer",
and finally
- Press "Set as default",
and leave the dialogs using Ok/Close.
Now, whenever you open any sort of folder, may it be a drive/directory, the Control Panel or your Mobile Devices folder, you automatically get the two-paned Explorer view.
Search the Web Using Keywords with Internet Explorer
If you type in "go x" in IE 4.x or later (where "x" is any keyword) you can search for ANYTHING using IE, it will default to Yahoo for searching for that item that you entered for "X".
If you have a computer crash and you think that your registry has been affected, follow the instructions below to restore the registry in Microsoft Windows 98:
Restart the computer to MS-DOS mode. This can be done by choosing Command Prompt Only on boot or by clicking Start, Shut Down, Restart the Computer in MS-DOS mode and clicking "yes" when prompted.
Type:
scanreg /restore
Press ENTER.
Restart your computer. These steps will restore your registry to its state when you last successfully started your computer.
Windows 98 comes with a "My Documents" folder in the root folder of your hard drive. By default, it is located at C:\My Documents - but you can change this if you prefer it to be someplace else. Simply right-click "My Documents" on your desktop and type in the new location you want Windows 98 to use for it.
Power Management Troubleshooting
Windows 98 includes support for APM (Advanced Power Management) and ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface). While this may or may not work on many systems, this tip is for use on systems where Win98's power management is not working properly.
If you see a "Standby" option when you load the shut-down menu in Windows 98, chances are that your system supports one of the two standards. Microsoft has recommended that users close all programs, including virus scanners, utilities, and other applications if the system is not suspending or resuming properly. They have also suggested that users upgrade to the latest version of their system BIOS (your vendor has more information). If you have APM support, but the system isn't suspending/resuming properly, try these steps, rebooting after testing each one:
1. Right-click on "My Computer" and choose "Properties." Click "Device Manager" and then click the plus sign next to "System Devices" in the list. Click on "Advanced Power Management support" and then click "Properties." Next, click on "Settings" and then place a check in "Force APM 1.0 mode." Close "Device Manager" and reboot your system. Once it has loaded back up, close any programs that launched on startup, and select "Standby" from the Shut Down menu.
2. Make sure Power Management is disabled in your system's BIOS. Consult your vendor for information on how to adjust this setting manually if you don't know how. Then try suspending the system in Windows 98 again. If this doesn't work, try the opposite. See if the system will suspend/resume using only the BIOS set to manage power resources, and disable Win98's control over it by using the "Power Management" applet in the Control Panel.
3. If you have an NIC (Network Interface Card) try disabling it or removing it from the system. According to Microsoft, network cards can cause many power management problems with Win98. This option may not be a realistic solution for many people, but it might narrow down what is causing your problems.
4. If the failure is a "Your computer cannot go into standy" error, try clicking "Start" then "Run" and type in C:\Windows\Susfail.txt (path may be different). In some cases, this will list what driver, if any, that caused suspend/resume to fail.
5. Try going through Microsoft's online troubleshooter for Power Management problems in Win98: http://support.microsoft.com/support/windows/tshoot/apm98/
6. Try suspending just one hardware element - such as your monitor or hard drive. Does it suspend/resume properly? Continue this for all your hardware, until you are able to find out which device caused the failure.
7. Disable USB (Universal Serial Bus) and see if the system suspends/resumes properly.
8. There is a utility called the Power Management Troubleshooter that you can try to use to diagnose what is causing harware failure on your system. This is available on your Windows 98 CD-ROM, but also a *newer* version is available online. The newer version is available at this location: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles/pmtshoot.exe Thank you to Ojatex@aol.com for information about the updated PMT (Power Management Troubleshooter) utility.
Configuring Internal PC Speaker Beeps
You can use this tip to enable or disable the internal PC speaker in Windows 95, 98 or NT 4.0:
1. Click Start -> Run and type Regedit. Then press ENTER or click OK.
2. Browse to this Registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Sound
3. Find the Beep value in the right hand pane, or create it if it doesn't exist, by clicking Edit -> New -> String Value and naming it "Beep" (no quotes).
4. Double-click on Beep and change its value to "Yes" (no quotes) if you want PC speaker beeping turned on, or "No" to have the beep sounds turned off.
Click "Start, Run" and type "WinIPCFG.exe" and click OK. Click "More Info" for additional information. It can display information for Ethernet cards, Dial-Up Networking, and America Online Adapter information if applicable.
Setting Up Internet Connection Sharing
This tip assumes you have at least one machine running Windows 98 Second Edition, a network interface card in each machine you plan to use with ICS [Internet Connection Sharing], and at least one Internet connection [Dial-Up, Cable, DSL, ISDN etc.]
If you are running any previous version of Internet Explorer 5.0 on the host computer [who's connection you wish to share] you should first uninstall it before upgrading to Windows 98 Second Edition.
Once Windows 98 Second Edition has been setup on the host computer, you must do the following: "Start, Settings, Control Panel." Once it opens, click on "Add-Remove Programs." Click "Windows Setup" and select "Internet Tools" from the categories. Place a check in "Internet Connection Sharing" and click OK. Follow the instructions that come up on the screen. The "Sharing" button is now present in IE5's Connection tab of Internet Settings window. [Found on the "Tools" tab in Internet Explorer 5.0]. Click it.
It will create a client disk. You must run the file from the client disk so your other machines may access the connection you have shared. The other machines may be running Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows NT, Macintosh, Linux or almost any operating system that supports the TCP/IP protocol. You must have TCP/IP installed on each machine you wish to use with ICS and bind it to the network interface cards in each of them. You may do this by clicking "Start, Settings, Control Panel, Network" and following the instructions. Windows Help, "Start, Help" has more information about how this is done. Do NOT set the client machines to use a proxy server.
ICS is not compatible with some versions of AOL and other ISPs that use proprietary software to connect. For assistance, contact the appropriate ISP. Microsoft Corporation has posted some information about configuring and troubleshooting ICS to its Knowledge Base Center at http://support.microsoft.com/
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