Tips and Bits of information

The right mouse button in Windows 95 has many hidden talents. Here are a few to be getting on with.
If you've lots of open windows and you want to get to the desktop, simply right-click on the taskbar. This brings up a menu for minimising, tiling or cascading all windows; right-click on the taskbar a second time to restore the windows.
A right click on the recycle bin gives the option to empty it straight away.
Disks can be quickly formatted by right-clicking on the disk drive icon in My Computer or Explorer.

When you switched on your shiny new PC for the first time, or as Windows 95 was being installed, you were invited to make an emergency start-up disc.
Did you?
Probably not.
It's one of those little jobs you think you'll get around to later, but inevitably never will.
Do it now!
Click on Start, then Settings, followed by Control Panel and Add/Remove Programs.
You'll find the tab for the Start-up Disk there, just follow the instructions.
That disk could get you out of big trouble when - as may happen one day - Windows 95 refuses to run from the hard disk.
The disk contains the necessary files and diagnostic programs, that can get you up and running again.

Four Windows 95 keystrokes worth remembering:
1. Help is always at hand. If you encounter a problem or get into difficulty, (as if) just press F1 and the associated Help file will be called up.
2. Swapping between programs running in Windows 95 is easy; hold down the left "Alt" key and press the "Tab" key. By pressing Tab you can step through all the programs your computer has on the go.
3. If for any reason a program freezes, or the mouse stops responding, try pressing "Alt" and you may find that you can still select menus and options, using the four arrow cursor keys.
4. If a program refuses to respond, press and hold down "Ctrl", "Alt" and "Delete" in that order - once only - and the PC will display the Close Program window. This gives the opportunity to shut down the offending program without having to exit Windows.

You will often find that you want to change the volume of your PC's sound system, but the volume control is not very accessible on a standard Windows 95 installation. Normally most users get to it via the View menu option in CD Player, (Start - Programs - Accessories - Multimedia - CD Player - View - Volume Control), but there's a quicker way.

From the Start menu click on Settings, Control Panel, the Multimedia icon and select the Audio tab. About halfway down there's a small box marked Show Volume Control on the Taskbar. Check the box and it's done.

Incidentally, it's a good idea to put the CD Player on the Start menu, if you're in the habit of playing audio CDs on your PC. From the Start menu click on Settings then Taskbar and select the Start Menu Programs tab. Click on the Add then Browse buttons and look for the Windows folder. Double click on it to open it up then move the horizontal slider along until the CD Player icon appears. Highlight it, click open, then next and select the Start Menu folder at the top of the file tree. To complete click next and then Finish.

You can make your life easier by putting Windows utilities and frequently used programs into the Start menu. The most useful are Windows Explorer, My Computer, Control Panel and CD Player.
Start with My Computer and drag the desktop icon on to the Start button. Next, open Explorer and double click on the Windows 95 folder. Follow the same procedure, by clicking and holding on the CD Player, Explorer and Control Panel icons or folders and dragging them to the Start Button.

Follow the same procedure for other programs. If you make a mistake and choose the wrong icon or folder, or you want to remove something from the Start Menu, click on Start, then Settings, Taskbar and choose the Start Menu Programs tab. Select the Remove button and scroll through the directory tree until you find the offending item. Highlight it and click the remove button.

If your Start menu becomes overcrowded and icons disappear, check the "Show small icons in Start Menu" box on the Taskbar Options dialogue box.

If you have a paper jam do not force it. Always try to remove the blockage in the normal direction of travel, if it tears make sure all the fragments are removed. If you can't clear the paper path refer to the manual. Store paper flat in the original packaging, always fan it before loading to free up the sheets and stop them sticking together. If the paper hopper is partially full always load it so the old paper is used first.

Always check to make sure the paper you are using is within the printer's handling limits. Keep printers well away from heaters and out of strong sunlight - especially laser printers - as this can affect print quality.

Two tips for Outlook Express (version 4).
The first is a way of disabling the opening "splash" screen to make it open more or less instantaneously.
It involves editing the Registry, so don't tinker with it unless you know what you are doing and accept the risk, and don't forget to make a backup first.
Close OE and start the Registry Editor by typing "regedit" in Run on the Start menu.
Click on the plus sign next to HKEY-CURRENT-USER and then drill down through the directory tree by clicking on the plus signs next to Software, Microsoft and then double-click on the Outlook Express folder.
Move the mouse pointer to an empty area in the right-hand pane and right-click.
Select New and then DWORD Value.
Rename the icon that appears "NoSplash" (without the inverted commas), double-click the icon and change the numerical value from 0 to 1.
Close the Registry Editor and see OE fly!

Tip two is the hidden "Easter Egg" in OE4.
Don't get excited, it's not very interesting, but if you have a few minutes to waste click on the Compose Message icon on the toolbar and on the Format drop-down menu select Rich Text (HTML).
Click into the message window then into the Font window and type "athena",
hit the Return key,
close the window and choose "No" when asked if you want to save changes.
Finally,
click on the Outlook Express icon at the top of the directory tree on the left hand side of the screen then click once between Read Mail and Read News in the right pane and type "about" and watch what happens.

If you're spending several hours each day staring at your computer's monitor it's important to make sure it is properly set up.
Incorrect picture settings can result in fatigue, headaches and eyestrain.
Adjusting brightness and contrast by eye can be quite difficult. Monitors also go out of alignment, but some picture faults - such as slowly deteriorating focus, geometry or colour registration - are difficult to spot in their early stages.

For that reason it's worth checking your monitor periodically with a program such as Ntest.
It was created by Nokia's monitor division and features a dozen test patterns, to help you set up your monitor and give it a complete health check. What's more it's free.

You can download NTest from the Nokia Web site; it is a 1.2Mb zip file,
so you will need a decompression utility such as WinZip to open it up.
www.nokia.com/products/monitors/monitor_test.html

In Word 97 there's a useful unpublished facility called Random Word.
Every so often you might want to create a block of text quickly, to test out your faxing or email facilities, or produce dummy text to check a page layout.

You can of course copy and paste text from another document but Random Word is far quicker.
Simply type in the following: =rand() and press Return.
Word will then generate three paragraphs, each containing the sentence 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog', five times.
You can alter the number of paragraphs and sentences by inserting numbers into the brackets.
For example, =rand(6,8) generates a text block of six paragraphs, each containing eight sentences.

When you make changes to your system you will often be asked to load the Windows 95 CD-Rom, but can you find it? It's a well-known fact that CD-Roms grow legs at night and go walkabout. Rather than play hunt the disc, why not copy the essential files on to your hard disk? They're contained in a folder called Win95. It's not as large as you might think: only around 40Mb on early versions, rising to 125Mb on the later releases, which is relatively small beer on a multi-gigabyte hard disk drive. Open Windows Explorer and create a new folder in the C: drive called Win95. Highlight the Win95 folder on the CD-Rom and click on Copy on the Edit menu, then open the empty Win95 in drive C: and click Paste on the Edit menu and the files will be copied across. The next time your PC asks you to insert the Windows 95 CD-Rom simply change the drive path from D:Win95 to C:Win95.