Windows - Speeding up

Please be patient, this animation requires some time

In this section , I have included a couple of Tips & Tricks regarding Windows 95/98. This will help you in tuning your OS for the optimum performance

Optimizing performance in MS-DOS mode
Many a times you must have noticed a slight degradation in the performance of MS-DOS programs while windows is running.This is caused because the Smart Drive disk cache is not loaded in windows by default. You can enable this feature to give high performance in MS-DOS mode. To go about it follow these steps.

Goto the C:\Windows directory , here click on the MS-Dos PIF named Exit to Dos.
Right Click on the Icon & select Properties
In the properties menu select the Program Tab & Click on the Advanced Button
Make sure whether the MS-Dos mode check box is ON.
Now select the Radio button named Specify a new Ms-Dos configuration.
Then click on the Configuration button & check the Disk Cache Check box.

& that's it. Now check-out the performance of your Ms-Dos based programs. It would run more faster than before.

Quick Find
As u know that finding a file in windows is a very common task, most of the times we do not remember the file names & so we take the help of the Find Files & Folders utility of Windows.This window has a shortcut key to & that's the F3 key. But a all new combination of key also can be used to get instantly to the Find Files & Folders box and that's the combination of your windows key + F. Remember the new windows 95 key added to most of the keyboards now a days which give instant access to the Start menu. Press the Win95 key + F & the Find Files & Folders dialog box will appear instantly.

What's Behind Windows
Wanna know what's cooking behind when your Windows is starting up . i.e when you see the Windows 95/98 logo on the screen. If you want to know what's going on behind when this logo comes on the screen , Press the ESC key & you will see the startup steps taken by Windows to UP the system resources.

IE 4.x & Active Desktop Tips & Tricks

The hidden Egg in IE 4.x
Wanna know the hidden Egg in IE. If you want to have a look behind the scenes of the making of IE i.e. as to who were those super brains who contributed in making one of the worlds most famous browser , then check this out , you will be amazed by the results.
Start Internet explorer & Select "About" from the Help menu , An animated box will appear describing the version of IE. Now press hold the Ctrl key & Drag the Internet explorer logo which is on the right side of the box on the Globe , then again press the Ctrl key & drag the IE logo back to the original position. At this moment a button will appear with the text "Unlock" & also the globe will start moving , click the Unlock button & again drag the IE logo on the Globe & Boooo, watch out what happens then.
You will see a animated list of all people who contributed in making Internet Explorer.

Quick URL
If you are using Internet explorer & you are tired of the writing the same old URL line again & again like http://www.blablabla.com, then don't worry cause Big 'M' , I mean Micro$oft has a facility to get this right & quick. In IE 4.x just type in the main URL or name of the site , for example,
'netscape ' & then just press Ctrl+Enter together ,in the location bar , IE will add www & .com at the front & end of the name. The result will be http://www.netscape.com automatically. But remember this trick works only for .com domains & not for other ones.

Making your WebPages as Active Desktop wallpaper
First of all create your Web page using any of the editors available like Netscape Composer etc. then while saving your web-page choose File- Save as & then save the html in the directory named C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper.
Similarly save all the images or graphics in the same directory.

Now the next thing is to make windows use your web-page as active desktop. To do this select Properties when you right click on an empty space on the screen or select Display from control panel, choice is yours. On the properties window select Web tab , under this Select the check box named View my Active desktop as a web page. If you are using Win 98 then while viewing you can hide all the desktop icons when you are viewing your Active desktop web page by selecting "Hide Icons when desktop is viewed as a web page.

Next, configure Windows to use a Web page as its background. Right-click on any empty space on the desktop and choose Properties. Click on the Web tab and check the box labeled View My Active Desktop As a Web Page. Windows 98 users can also completely eliminate all normal desktop icons--including My Computer and the Recycle Bin. Open the Display Properties dialog box, click on the Effects tab, and check the box marked Hide Icons When the Desktop Is Viewed As a Web Page.

Now to use your web page select Background from properties & from the list box select your web page.

The Other Way around
If you don't want to save your desktop in the C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper directory or if you have already created your web page in some other directory, then don't worry, even that can be worked around. To use a web page stored in some other directory in some other location other than C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper then do the following,
1) When you reach at the Properties dialog box , select Web tab , select the check box "View my Active desktop as a web page & then press the New button.
2) After this Windows will prompt you do goto the Microsoft web site to collect some Active desktop samples , here click on the No button.
3) Now you will get a Browse window where in you have to select the loation of your web page as to where its located.
4) Select the Html file you want to view on desktop, & that's it, Click on Apply & OK.

And that's all to have your web-page on the active desktop, now you can move , scroll, select a link or can even use ActiveX controls on your web-pages.