TClockEx enhances the standard Windows taskbar clock, adding the ability to display the date, time and lots of other information in any format you like. TClockEx is highly customizable, from the format to the font and colour, and even the tooltip information. Many people have wondered why this wasn't built into the standard clock to begin with.

Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP Freeware 456K
Version 1.4.2

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If you are searching for missing files or DLL's (Dynamic Link Library), Try this:

• Insert your Windows CD. 

• Open a DOS window, and type extract.exe (which should already be installed). 

You can "extract" files from CAB files quickly and easily. 

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Click a blank area of the Taskbar and hold the click.  Move your mouse pointer to the top, left, right or bottom of your screen and let go of the click.  Your Taskbar will snap right into place.

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To print your screen when using Windows Explorer, just depress the print screen key (PrtScr) on your keyboard. Next, open up Microsoft paint and select Edit, then Paste. The Explorer screen you've chosen will show up.  You can now save the file to be added to your web site or print it out on paper. 

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To add programs to your Send To feature, open Windows Explorer and go to Windows> Send To. Click on the "Send To" folder to open its contents in the right pane.  Drag and drop any program into this folder that you would like. For an example of its usefulness:
If you have a file that you would like to send to your text editor (Notepad), instead of opening up Notepad and selecting "Open" and finding the file of choice...why not put Notepad in "Send To" so that all you have to do is right-click the file, select "Send To" and choose Notepad.

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If you find yourself going into Device Manager a lot.  You may want to put a shortcut to it on your desktop. Here's how: Right-click on your desktop and choose New, Shortcut. In the Command Line field, type: 
C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.EXE Sysdm.cpl, System,1  Note:  If you are typing this into the field make sure that you enter this exactly as it is above.  You may want to just copy and paste the code into the field for better accuracy.

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Windows provides a nice feature for the hearing impaired that will make being online a much more interactive experience. Here is how to set this up:

Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel and select Accessibility Options.

Note: You may have to install this from your Windows 98 CD if it's not visible in your Control Panel window. Click the Sound tab, and check either the SoundSentry or the ShowSounds box. SoundSentry causes part of your screen to flash whenever a sound is made (you can configure the part of the screen that flashes by using the options on the Settings tab. Make sure to choose either Flash Active Caption Bar or Flash Active Window, so you'll know which application made the sound). ShowSounds displays a small caption that stands in for the Windows sound. When you've selected one of these options, click OK. 

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If you prefer to set the volume level at maximum and adjust your external speakers, you probably don't need to keep the Volume Control speaker Icon in the taskbar.  If you want to remove it, here's how:

Go to Start> Settings> Control Panel and double-click the Multimedia icon. Click the Audio tab, and in the Playback section, uncheck the Show Volume Control On The Taskbar option. Click OK and the Volume Control icon is removed. 

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Many programs give you an option for a "Quick View". The quick view option allows you to get a quick look at something without having to open a possibly very large applications. To access the Quick View option for a specific kind of file, you need to designate it as such in the File Types box. In any folder, go to View, Folder Options and click the File Types tab. Select the kind of file you want to use Quick View for, and click Edit. Check the Enable Quick View For box, and then click OK twice.

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If you know the approximate time period that you downloaded or were working with a file, it is easy to find that file using the date. Press Windows Key-F to open the Find box. Then click the Date tab. Click the Find All Files button and select Modified, if you want to search for the file based on when you last remember modifying it. Click Between and fill in the date range you want to look for, and then click Find Now. 

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If you find it annoying that every-time you access your Windows folder you first have to go thru the warning folder first, then access your files.  Here is how to disable that warning folder: 

1. Go to View, Folder Options in any folder 

2. Click the View tab, and choose Show All Files. 

3. Go to the Windows folder and look for a file named Folder. This file contains HTML information that redirects your request to that warning page whenever you access the Windows folder. 

4. Change the name of it (I chose Folder1) and press Enter. 

The Windows warning should not appear the next time you try to access the Windows folder. 

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Here's how to remove the Documents folder from the Start menu:

1. Go to Start> Run, type in regedit click OK.

2. Follow this path:  HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/ Explorer.

3. Click once on Explorer to empty its contents into the right pane.

4. Right-click an open area in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value

5. Type in NoRecentDocsMenu

6. Double-click this entry and enter a value of 1

7. Exit Regedit and restart Windows

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To set up a quick defrag using the right-click:

1. Go to Windows Explorer/View/Options. 

2. Click the File Types tab, scroll down, and select Drive. 

3. Click Edit, then select New. 

4. Where it says Action, type quick defrag. 

5. In the Application line, type C:\windows\defrag.exe "%1" /noprompt. 

This will immediately invoke the Disk Defragmenter with no prompts, and will exit as soon as it is done. 
To try it out. Go to My Computer, right-click a drive, select Quick Defrag, and it will begin automatically.

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You can configure your system to delete the temp files every time you reboot, here's how:

Windows 98:

1. Go to Start> Run, type in msconfig then click OK.

2. Choose the Autoexec.bat tab

3. Select "NEW"

4. Add the following to the resulting text box:  del C:\Windows\Temp\*.tmp > nul

5. Exit saving your changes and reboot.

Windows 95:

• The Autoexec.bat file can be found in your C:\ root directory.  Locate this file and open it in Notepad.  Add the above line, exit saving your changes and reboot.

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To remove the Logoff <user name> entry from your Start menu:

1. Go to Start> Run>, type in regedit click OK.

2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER /Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/ Explorer

3. Click once on Explorer to empty its contents into the right pane.

4. Right-click an open area in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value

5. Name it NoLogOff

6. Double-click this entry and add the value 1

7. Exit RegEdit and restart Windows

To put "Log Off user" back on the Start menu, simply rename the value to 0.

This can also be done using TweakUI  [Download it here].
Click on the IE4 tab, and remove the check mark from the Allow logoff box.

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The Windows registry is a huge database of information compiled of every nook and cranny of your Operating System. As you add information and delete information, you will tend to get virtual holes in your registry. A manual way of dealing with these holes is to run a DOS based program called ScanReg.  By booting to your MS-DOS prompt, you type in: scanreg /opt  This will compact your registry and optimize it for you. 

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System Requirements:
Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98 or Windows 95.

How to Download:

1. Create a folder by right-clicking on the desktop, click New, and then click Folder. Type a name for the folder.I  named mine PowerTools.

2. Click the TweakUI link below. In the File download dialog box that appears on your screen, click Save Program to Disk.

3. In the Save As dialog box, choose to save the file in the folder you just created, then click Save.

4. Open the folder and double-click the downloaded file. This may create several new files in your folder. Among these, look for "Read Me" or "INF" files.

5. The "Read Me" file will contain any additional download information you need to know. To install the file, right click the .INF file and click Install

Note: There's a bug in this installer (it's been there since the very first release, except for the new version for Windows XP). If it prompts you to insert a disk or specify the location of the Tweakui files, just point to the folder containing the files you just unzipped, and click OK.

Version 1.33 |  64KB  |  1 Min @ 28.8
Information supplied by: Microsoft

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If you would like to remove the desktop icons, here's how:

1. Open the registry editor to this key: 
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

2. In the right pane, right-click and select Binary Value. 

3. Rename it: NoDesktop 

4. Right-click the entry, select modify and assign a value of: 1

To reverse this, assign NoDesktop a value of: 0
As an alternative to the above, use Tweak UI, Desktop tab.

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In any Windows folder, if you know the file name that you are searching for, you can easily narrow your search by simply pressing the key on your keyboard of the first letter of that file name.  For instants, pressing "Y" will take you to the first file starting with the letter "Y".  You can narrow the search even closer by typing more of the file name.

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If you would like to use the old file manager go to Start> Run>, type in: winfile  Now you will see the file manager used prior to Windows 95/98 Explorer.

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FYI (for your information) Folder

Create a new .TXT file in WordPad, and name it FYI or whatever you like. Any time you find new information worth saving, write a description of it in your FYI.txt file.

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Shut down Windows quickly

At a blank spot on your desktop, right-click. Select "New", then "Shortcut". In the resulting text field titled "Command Line", type exactly (or cut and paste for better accuracy) C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL32.EXE User,ExitWindows  Once this is accomplished, you will see your new shortcut. Right-click on the new folder and select "Rename".  In the text box, name the new folder whatever you would like. Click a blank spot on your desktop to accept the change. When opened, this shortcut will immediately shut down Windows without prompting.

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Win 95/98 Installed Components

• (Windows 95) http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q123/8/76.asp
• (Windows 98) http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q188/1/25.asp

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Disable CD-ROM AutoPlay

1. Open any folder and select View> Options> File Types. 
2. Double-click Audio CD. 
3. Select Play, and choose "Set Default" which actually toggles the default. 

If Play is bold, the CD will play when inserted. If it is not bold, it will keep quiet until you order it to play.

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Change Icons

Some icons don't have options to change. For a few of the system icons, you can go to Control Panel/Display/Effects to pick another icon. For other system icons, you can use Activicons (a freeware utility) which you can download from
http://www.cursorarts.com/ca_ai.html

For program icons, you can right-click the file and select Create Shortcut. This will allow you to assign an icon to the shortcut.

Finally, for some of the document icons, you can go to Explorer > View > Folder Options > File Types to re-assign the icons.

Fonts installed in Windows 98

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Fonts installed in Windows 95

Windows 95 also installs several hidden font files (e.g., Marlett.ttf, Dosapp.fon, Vgafix.fon, etc.), which do not appear in Windows Explorer or in the Fonts Control Panel, but may appear in font management utilities (e.g., Ares FontMinder). Windows requires these hidden font files to run. Do not delete them or remove them from the Fonts folder.

Make a printer shortcut

1. Go to Start> Settings> Printers. 
2. Right-click the icon of your default printer and choose "Create Shortcut". 
3. Windows will tell you that the shortcut has to go on the desktop (which is where you want it anyway), so click OK.

Note:  The next time you have something that you need to print, just drag it and drop it on your new icon. 

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Disable Modem sound

Note:  Each of the Internet Connections in the Dialup Networking window must be modified separately.

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Browse folders in the same window

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Windows Default CD Player

Go to View, Folder Options in any folder and click the File Types tab. Scroll down to Audio CD, select it, and then click the Edit tab. Select Play, click Edit again, and under Application Used To Perform Action, type C:\WINDOWS\Cdplayer.exe  Click OK and then click Close twice to exit. 

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Address bar on Task bar

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Getting additional memory

The following will help allow your computer to load programs into memory more efficiently allowing you to have more memory for MS-DOS programs / games.

Insure you have the following lines at the beginning of your config.sys file.

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS

By placing the DOS=HIGH,UMB on the second line this can in some cases save memory because it is loading DOS into upper memory before loading the memory manager. Additionally the first and third line cannot be loaded into high memory because these lines are the memory managers.

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Windows 98SE Shutdown Problems

http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/contents/WURecommended/S_WUFeatured/
Win98SE/Default.asp 

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CD-ROM Auto Play won't work

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Computer Information

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Copy floppy to floppy

1. Double-click My Computer
2. Right-click the floppy drive
3. Select Copy Disk
4. Insert the disk to be copied
5. Click start
6. Insert the destination disk when prompted
7. Click start and click close when finished. 

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Quick Reboot

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Remove items from the Start Menu

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WinKey

Version: 2.8 | 1.20 MB | Freeware
Approx. download time: 7 min. at 28.8 kbps

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To put a cascading Printers Folder on your Start Menu, right-click the Start Menu, select Open. Right-click a blank area in the Start Menu and select New, then in the resulting window, select Folder. Right-click the new folder and select name. Type into the text field exactly what I have listed below. (Or cut and paste the code) When finished, single click a blank area in the Start Menu.

Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}

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To connect to your ISP faster go to: Start> Programs> Accessories> Communications> Dialup Networking, right-click your connection, select Properties> Server Types, and un-check all of the boxes except "TCP/IP".

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Most people know about the most common method of renaming folders, which is:

1. Right-click on a folder.

2. Select Rename from the resulting popup menu.

3. Rename the folder what you wish. 

4. Press enter on your keyboard.

Another way is:

1. Click on the text area of the file or folder.

2. Click again in the text area. Wait 2-3 seconds between clicks.

3. Now rename the file or folder whatever you wish.

4. Press Enter on your keyboard.

Yet another way:

1. Single click the file or folder you wish to rename.

2. Press F2 on your keyboard.

3. Rename the file or folder whatever you wish.

4. Press Enter on your keyboard.

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By default, Windows won't search local drives using case sensitive searches.  But, if you have many files that you are searching for that have similar names and you would like to be able to narrow your search a bit, you can enable the case sensitive search feature. Go to Start> Find> Find Files or Folders... (or Windows key-F),  then select Options> Case Sensitive.

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I have had a few questions from guests who have lost their windows off of the edge of their screen and were unable to drag it back using the title bar. To remedy this, use one of Windows tile features in the taskbar. Here's how:
1. Right-click a blank area of the taskbar (your clock resides on the taskbar).
2. In the resulting menu, select Cascade Windows, Tile Windows Horizontally or Tile Windows Vertically. 
Note: Any of the tile features will give you access to your title bar.

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Here is a way I have found to improve on the speed of your boot cycle. You will have to modify the msdos.sys file using Notepad.  Follow the instructions below:

1. Select Find/Files or Folders from the Start Menu.

2. Enter msdos.sys in the Named box and C: in the Look In box; then click the Find Now button.

3. When the file appears, right-click it and select Properties from the pop-up menu.

4. Click to remove the check marks from the Read-Only and Hidden attributes and click OK.

5. Right-click msdos.sys again and select Open With from the pop-up menu.

6. Enter Notepad as the opening program and click OK.

7. Under [Options], enter BootDelay=0 or BootDelay=1 on its own line. (They represent respective delays of zero seconds and one second, both of which are faster than the default.)

8. Save your changes and close Notepad.

9. Return msdos.sys to its hidden, read-only state.  (Right-click it, select Properties from the pop-up menu, and check the Read-Only and Hidden check boxes; then click OK.)

10. Quit and restart Windows.

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Notice your system periodically stalling while the hard drive thrashes? This phenomenon is often caused by the Windows virtual cache feature. Like onboard caching, this cache is designed to reduce disk access, but it can easily grow large enough to put a dent in your performance. If you've got 32MB of RAM or more, try setting the cache size at a fixed number. I recommend 4MB for systems with less than 48MB of RAM, and 8MB for those with 48MB or more.  Here's how to set it up:

1. Run SysEdit. (Select Run in your Start menu, type SysEdit in the text box, and press Enter.)
2. Click in the system.ini window.
3. Scroll down to the [vcache] section. If you don't see one, type in [vcache] as a new heading.
4. If you have 48MB of RAM or less, enter these two lines:
   MinFileCache=0
   MaxFileCache=4096
5. If you have more than 48MB of RAM, enter these two lines:
   MinFileCache=0
   MaxFileCache=8192
6. Close SysEdit, saving changes on the way out, and restart Windows.

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Drag and Drop Methods

Files: Move 
Objects: Copy
Programs: Create Shortcut

If you want control over these operations, you can right-click files, objects or programs which will give you the same choices in a pop up menu. Simply choose any of the operations listed.

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Restore .GIF and .JPEG Preview

When you click an image icon in Windows Explorer, the picture preview may not be displayed on the left side of the pane.  Below, you will find the remedy for this issue:

If the computer has any version of Internet Explorer 4, click Start, then Run, and type:
regsvr32.exe /i shdocvw.dll

If the computer has Internet Explorer 5, click Start, then Run, and type:
regsvr32.exe /i shdoc401.dll

You may also want to examine the following MS Knowledge Base article:
"Image Previews Not Displayed in Windows Explorer"

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Extract a file using SFC.EXE

Extract a new copy of the Kernel32.dll file from the Windows 98 CD-ROM then install it to the Windows\Systems folder:

1. Click 'Start' on the Windows taskbar. (The 'Start' menu appears.)
2. Select 'Run...'. (The 'Run' dialog box appears.)
3. Type the following in the 'Open' box: SFC.EXE
4. Click 'OK'. (The 'System File Checker' dialog box appears.)
5. Select the 'Extract one file from installation disk' radio button.
6. Insert the Windows 98 installation CD or disk into the appropriate drive. 

NOTE: If the Autorun feature is enabled, the 'Windows 98 CD-ROM' window appears. Close the window by clicking the 'Close' button (represented by an X in the upper right-hand corner of the window). 

7. Type the following in the 'Specify the system file you would like to restore' text box:
   KERNEL32.DLL
8. Click 'Start'. (The 'Extract File' dialog box appears. The selected file is displayed.)
9. Type the complete path of the desired .cab file in the 'Restore from' text box.
10. Type the following in the 'Save file in' text box: :\WINDOWS\SYSTEM (where X is the drive on which Windows 98 resides, typically C).
11. Click 'OK' to extract the file.
12. Click 'Close' to exit the System File Checker.

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