WINDOWS - (Continuation)

The PrintScreen key works differently under Windows. In DOS, pressing PrintScreen immediately dumps the screen to the printer. Under Windows pressing the PrintScreen key dumps the image of the full screen to a buffer. Pressing Alt + PrintScreen dumps only the active window to a buffer. This is useful if you have a small window open and wish only to print that. To then print the screen, you must paste it into any program that accepts images. You can use WordPad or Paint which come free with Windows, or your favourite wordprocessor. To paste the image into an existing or new file, press Ctrl + V or from the menu select Edit, Paste. Then you can print it in the normal way that you print a document. If you press PrintScreen  from a DOS box  with only text on the screen then only text is placed into the buffer and it must be pasted into a wordprocessor and not a paint program. Note that for a screen dump from DOS, the DOS box must be a window and not full screen. Press Alt + Enter to toggle quickly between the full screen and a window.

 

    How do I make Explorer start where I want it to start?

You can do this by creating an appropriate shortcut. Right-click on the Desktop, select New, Shortcut and in the Command line, enter C:\Windows\Explorer.exe /n,/e, "C:\My Documents". Note that the quotes are required as the folder name contains a space. In this case it is the My Documents folder.

If you wish to highlight a particular file within that folder then enter C:\Windows\Explorer.exe /select,c:\windows\sol.exe and in this example the game Solitaire will be highlighted. Note that the file must already exist.

To open at the root directory of a drive, type C:\Windows\Explorer.exe /n,/e,/root,,/select,C:\  Perhaps an even better for keyboard users is to simply press the Windows key + e.

 

    Preventing others from fiddling with your desktop

If discussion with your colleagues does not work, then you can use a feature in Windows 9x called User Profiles that allow several users sharing the one computer to have their own desktop settings. This also allows kids to have their own wallpapers, sounds, and cursors without annoying their parents who may like to have simple settings.

 However, the security of this approach is not strong and you may consider upgrading to Windows XP for a better solution to this problem.

 To create a user profile in Windows 9x, click on Start, Settings, Control Panel and then double-click on Passwords and then select the User Profiles tag. It is not surprising that many users don't know of this feature as it is well hidden. Click on the item that states "Users can customise their preferences..." and then select one or both options offered in the User Profile Settings. Having done this you will have to re-boot the computer to continue. (See Figure 12 )

 

When you restart the computer, you will be presented with a small login box asking for your name and password. After entering the name, tab to the password box and enter your password. A password is optional and having a password will prevent others from modifying your desktop, but it will not prevent others from using the computer.

After the re-boot you will then be informed that this is your first time on as this user and asked if you wish to retain your individual settings. Say Yes and any changes you make to the desktop will be retained in the future. The other users can do the same. To change users, you do not have to re-boot the computer because you will have the option to log on as another user from the Shut Down screen. Any changes the new user makes will not affect your desktop setting from now on.

 To disable all user profiles on a computer, in the Passwords option in Control Panel , click the User Profiles tab. Select the option named All users of this PC who use the same preferences and desktop settings.

 User Profiles  allow individuals to have different settings on the desktop, but all share the same folders and data. User Profiles are not designed to provide data security.

 

     Should I convert to NTFS?

NTFS  (NT File System) is a completely different file system from FAT (File Allocation Table). It has many advantages over FAT32 but there are a few drawbacks. Answering your last question first, you will be able to access the NTFS drive from your Windows 98 computer via a network connection and the Windows XP operating system will read the hard disk and pass the required files to the Windows 98 computer via the network redirection.

The main advantages of NTFS  over FAT32  are:

·         NTFS provides some ability to recover from file system errors and can automatically fix some errors

·         Better security. Ability to restrict access to files on the hard disk from other users

·         Ability to automatically compress individual files or all files in given folders

·         Encryption facilities (with XP Pro but not XP Home)

·         Slightly better performance for large or badly fragmented disks and for folders containing thousands of files

·         You can set quotas for other users of your computer to prevent, say, your kids from copying many CDs onto your hard disk and filling it.

However, there are a few drawbacks:

·         If you have a dual-boot  configuration then Windows 9x will not be able to access the NTFS drive.

·         When things go wrong, you have no DOS options. That is, you cannot boot on a floppy and see your hard disk. Microsoft supplies a program called the Recovery Console and this goes a long way to helping in this regard, but only for advanced users.

·         For small hard disks, less than 250 MB, performance is better with the FAT (File Allocation Table)  file system.

Conversion is quite easy. To convert to NTFS, click Start, click Run, and then type CMD, and from the DOS box type:  CONVERT x: /FS:NTFS where x is the drive that you wish to convert. Note that once you have converted there is nothing in Windows that will allow you to revert back.

 

     Can Windows 98 use dual CPU computers?

Windows 98 is not capable of using multiple Central Processing Units (CPUs) and it would be a waste of money to purchase such a motherboard. If you need to utilise multiple CPUs then you must use Windows 2000 or Windows XP Pro.

Depending on the applications that you intend to run, adding a second CPU may increase the performance by up to about 1.8 times for some specialised programs but for most programs such as Word there will be no noticeable improvement as the process is single-threaded. The improvement in performance will be most noticeable when you are running many programs simultaneously.

Of the more common programs Photoshop will utilise the second CPU and give approximately a 50% improvement in performance. Some WAV to MP3 converting programs will also use the extra CPU as this is a very calculation intensive process. Again, a typical improvement will be in the order of 50%.

You will never get twice the processing speed because the operating system overheads increase in deciding on what part of the executing code runs on what CPU, which part of the memory is allocated where, how to balance the constantly changing work load etc.

 The dual processor may be required more for stability reasons rather than performance. One reason for locking up is that the CPU is 100% busy due to some process that is looping and it cannot respond to the mouse or keyboard. The second processor is unlikely to be as busy and therefore you will be able to stop that errant process and continue normally.

 However, a second processor will give you far less degradation in performance while running multiple programs simultaneously, and in this way the performance of even programs such as Word will be improved as the other background programs will not degrade performance. I performed a test by burning a 650 MB CD while simultaneously downloading several programs via a cable modem, recalculating a large complex spreadsheet, re-paginating and re-indexing a 250 page book in Word, zipping files to a floppy, and accessing and copying files from this computer across the LAN while monitoring the load on the CPUs, memory, etc. The computer had dual 700 MHz processors and the operating system (Windows 2000) balanced the load while the CD was burned successfully.  Normally the burn process would have failed with a fraction of the above loading.

 

     In Windows XP mine are the only programs in the menu

XP is different from Windows 9x, as it has individual Start menus for each user, as well as a Start menu that is common for all users. However, as many programs are written for Win9x, they may go where the install program puts them and on some occasions they only appear in the Programs menu for the one user.

 The easiest way to fix the current problem, assuming you have administrator privileges, is to right-click on the Start menu, and Explore and click on Programs. This is the start menu that only you can see, but not anyone else, and it should be in \Documents and Settings\yourname\Start Menu\Programs. Next ensure that the Explorer window does not fill the entire screen and move it to one side. Next, right-click on the Start menu again but this time select Explore All Users. This will allow you to drag shortcuts from the open individual menu in the prior open screen to the All Users menu, and then everyone should be able to see them.

For future reference, make your account as Administrator, and install under that account because all programs installed under the local Administrator account should usually be installed for all users.

 

    

      I hate cAPS LOCK

I agree with you as on occasions I make this error. However some Microsoft programmers must have had the same problem because there is a feature that you may find acceptable. You can modify Windows to make a sound each time the Caps Lock button is hit.

Do this by clicking on Start, Settings, Control Panel, Accessibility Options and on the Keyboard tab click the ToggleKeys check box. Now when you press Caps Lock it will make a sound, and when you press it again to turn it off it will make a different sound. With this enabled the accidental press immediately becomes noticeable. See Figure 13 for the Accessibility Options screen.

If the Accessibility Options option is missing then you can add it by opening Control Panel, click on Add/Remove programs, click the Windows Setup tab and ensure that the Accessibility Options box is ticked. Then Windows will make this available for you.

Note that this uses the internal tiny speaker and not the sound card and therefore the volume cannot be adjusted. Some computers may not have this internal speaker.

 

    

 

     Deleting references to non-existent devices

If you are running Windows 98 or higher run a program called Msconfig. See How to eliminate a Windows Startup  error  on page 54 for more details.

It you are running Windows 95 then you must locate this reference manually and the best option is to delete the reference to this file. Start with the easier option of editing the System.ini file found in the Windows folder. Use Notepad, found under Accessories, to open this file, then search for the string vserver.vxd and if it is found, delete that line or place a semi-colon (;) in front of it to make it into a comment. Search again and delete all references to vserver.vxd.

If that reference is not found in System.ini, then click on Start, Run, and type regedit to use the Registry Editor. Again search for that string and carefully delete only the line(s) that contain references to vserver.vxd.

As the Registry  is a critical file, and Regedit  performs no error checking, it would be prudent to back it up before starting. See Changing the registered user in Windows on page 44 for how this is done.

 

     What causes random hard disk activity

When your computer is idle, Windows performs various housekeeping activities. In most cases the worst culprit for this is Find Fast  that comes with Office and is installed by default in versions prior to XP. This is a program that runs in the background every two hours and creates an index of all words so that you can quickly locate any text and it especially speeds up advanced searches. My recommendation is that if you have not used Find Fast then probably you do not require it and you should disable it and observe what difference it makes to your mysterious disk activity and computer stability. For instructions on how to turn off Find Fast see: - What are these hidden *.FF files? on page 42 .

Another activity that can cause mysterious disk activity is the compacting of the virtual memory swap file after one minute of inactivity. This is done to conserve disk space. The Windows swap file is dynamic, so it can shrink or grow based on the operations performed on the system and also on available disk space. A dynamic swap file is usually the most efficient use of resources.

Another reason is that Windows performs several other useful functions in the background, but only after the computer has been idle for some time. These activities can cause quite considerable and sustained disk activity. Windows checks for low disk space, defragments the hard disks using Defrag to improve disk performance, and regularly runs Scandisk  which is a disk analysis and repair program. Scandisk can automatically fix problems in the following areas: file allocation table; long filenames; file system structure (lost clusters, cross-linked files); directory tree structure; physical surface of the drive bad sectors; DriveSpace or DoubleSpace volume header, volume file structure, compression structure, and volume signatures. Both Scandisk and Defrag can run continuously for a considerable time.

Apart from the Find Fast, the other activities are generally desirable, normal operations in a multi-tasking operating system and should not cause any concern.

 

     What are these hidden *.FF files?

These files are created by the Office Find Fast utility that creates an index of all Office documents to enable users to search all their files for a particular word or phrase. Searching with a Find Fast index is much faster than searching without one. Note that the Find Fast utility is not associated with the Find command on the Windows Start menu. Find Fast assists in Word by searching an index for files containing specific words. This is accessed through the File, Open dialogue box and then Advanced in Word . It is this method that uses the index files that you refer to. In theory this is a good idea, but in practice Find Fast  can tend to dominate your computer and slow down response even while you are typing. Many readers have reported that Find Fast was found to be responsible for their numerous (General Protection Faults) GPFs.

My recommendation is that if you have not used Find Fast and are not likely to use it then you should disable it.

To turn off Find Fast on all your drives, click Start, Settings, Control Panel, Find Fast icon. Then click each drive and click Index, Delete Index, OK. Then you should remove it from the Startup program group. To do so, delete the Find Fast shortcut icon from your Startup folder by right-clicking on the task bar then Properties, Start Menu Programs, Remove, then scroll down to the one marked StartUp and click on the plus sign. In the right hand side of the screen you will see the shortcuts to all the programs that automatically start when Windows starts. Now you can delete the shortcut to Find Fast.

If for some reason you ever want to start Find Fast again on a specific drive, reverse the procedure, clicking Index, Create Index. (See Figure 14 )

 

     How can I stop my print job?

The correct way to delete print jobs is to click on the printer icon that normally appears in the bottom right-hand corner during printing, display the print queue and cancel the printing. When you print a document the print job is spooled to disk so that you can continue working and not be held up by a slow printer because the operating system is able to continue the printing in the background. The reason why the printing continues after the computer is restarted is because the print job is in the spool folder on the hard disk and when you turn it back on it looks in that folder, finds it and duly prints it.

As you have discovered, when you cancel the print job it is possible that the printer keeps going. This is because the printer has an internal memory and it may contain many pages in this buffer. Switching the printer off or hitting its reset button (only a few printers have a reset) will flush the printer’s buffer.

As to the hieroglyphics, these are caused because starting a print job in midstream means that the printer has not received the correct initialisation and is printing raw data. If anyone has ever looked at, say a BMP file with Notepad, you will then see these pages of hieroglyphics and not the image that you may have been expecting.

 

    Changing the registered user in Windows

This can be achieved by using Regedit. Note that Regedit is a powerful tool and you should use it carefully, as it does no error checking. Do not alter any other setting unless you are absolutely sure of what you are doing.

Before you edit the Registry , you should first make a backup copy of the Registry files (System.dat and User.dat). Both are hidden files  in the Windows folder. There are several other ways to back up the Registry. Possibly the easiest way is to copy it using Windows Explorer, being very careful not to move it but just copy it.

Figure  15

Note that the above applies only to versions of Windows prior to XP. In Windows XP the Registry   is stored in several areas These are the \windows\system32\config and \Documents and Settings\{username} folders.

The best way to back this up is to export it using the export function in the System Registry Editor. Click on Start, Run and type Regedit then with My Computer highlighted click on File, Export and select a destination. Note that you cannot use a floppy disk as the exported registry can be greater then 50 MB.

To backup onto another part of the hard disk, open Explorer and click on View, Options and click on “Show all Files” and then click Apply. This is necessary because the Registry is normally hidden. Decide in what folder you wish to create the backup copy. In many cases the Registry will be too large to fit on a floppy. If no folders are suitable create one by clicking on File, New, Folder and give it an appropriate name. Then open the Windows folder and locate a file called System.dat. This is the Registry file and System.da0 is the backup. Both should be copied. When copying files on the same disk you must hold down the Control key when dragging the file to its new folder, otherwise the file will be moved and no copy made. During the dragging process a plus sign must appear near the cursor indicating that a copy is being made. For backup purposes it is advisable to also copy User.dat.

The best way to run Regedit is to click on Start, Run, then type Regedit, then Click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion and you will notice in the right-hand side a field called RegisteredOwner and one called RegisteredOrganization.

Double-click on the word RegisteredOwner and you will see an Edit String dialogue box appear which will allow you to alter the name. If required you can change the RegisteredOrganization as well. See Figure 15 for Windows XP RegisteredOwner location in the Registry.

 

     What is 16-bit colour?

The amount of information that can be stored for each pixel  will determine the number of colours that can be displayed by that pixel stated in a binary form. 16-bit means two raised to the power of 16 or 65,536 colours. 16 colours is actually 4-bit colour (two raised to the power of four). The reason why Windows refers to 16 and 256 colours and not 4 and 8-bit colours is that each pixel is represented by a 1-byte index in a predetermined colour table. With 16-bit and 24-bit (over 16 million colours) the representations of each pixel displays the relative intensities of red, green, and blue.

Now, after all that, which one should you use? It depends on the type of work that you do and what images you display. For wordprocessor and spreadsheet work, 256 colours are quite adequate. If you view pictures then try 16-bit and finally 24-bit colour and then choose the lowest one that meets your needs, because the more bits you use in the display, the slower will be the screen refresh time.

 

     What is a Beta version?

The beta  version is a pre-release version of a program, or a program update circulated by software manufacturers to allow wider testing of the software than is possible in their labs. No software manufacturer can have access to all types and versions of LANS, operating systems, computer models, printers etc on which to test software. You cannot buy beta versions. They are given to experienced users of the current versions of the software for extensive testing to find and report bugs before the final version is released.

     How do I remove file associations?

This is a frequently asked question and I feel that Microsoft could have made the removal of association of file types somewhat easier.

To reassociate a file type, do the following:

·         Click to highlight the wanted file.

·         Hold the Shift key and right-click on your selected file

·         Select Open With then choose the required program

·         Check the Always use the selected program, as shown in Figure 16 .

 

     Removing remnants of unwanted programs

The programs that appear when you select Start, Programs are controlled by a separate menu and not by what Explorer shows. To remove unwanted entries do the following:

·      right-click near the right-hand side of the task bar on the empty space,

·      select Properties on the screen that pops up,

·      select the Start Menu Programs tab,

·      select Remove...

·      then click on the program that you wish not to appear, select Remove and close the windows.

Now that program will not appear in the “Programs” list.

To remove the icon on the desktop, just click once on the icon and then press the Delete key. This will delete the shortcut but not the actual program. Note that when you delete the programs, the shortcut is not deleted.

 

 

     Opening the DOS box in the desired folder

Yes it is. Use Explorer to open C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office \Office\Shortcut Bar\Office and then right-click on DOS Prompt. Then click on Properties, Program and in the Working area you can type in the folder name, which can include the drive letter. (See Figure 17 ). I also load my Doskey shortcuts via a BAT file on starting. Type DOSKEY /? for more information.