Upper and Lowercase in Your Folder Name

When you type a new name for a folder or a file in the Explorer, by default Windows will capitalizes the first letter and makes all the rest of the letters lowercase. Even if you try to type all of the letters in uppercase, you only get one uppercase letter. However, if you type only lowercase letters, the first letter isn't capitalized. If you type more than eight characters in uppercase or mixed case, they will keep their individual cases.

If you include characters that are not allowed in the DOS format for file or folder names (e.g. a comma), the case of the individual letters is kept. Typing long file or folder names (over eight characters) keeps the name as you typed it.

Find the Actual Location

Want to find the actual location of a file's shortcut? Right-click on the shortcut, choose Properties, and then click on the Shortcut tab. In Shortcut, click on Find Target and Windows will take you there.

Print in Full Details

Here's how to print several directories with lots of files and also print full details of the file, date size etc. Open MS-DOS Command Prompt dialog box. Change to the C:\ root directory by typing in CD\ and then hit Enter. From the C:\ prompt type in DIR /S > DIRLIST.TXT and then hit Enter. That will give you a text document called DIRLIST.TXT which will contain all directories and all the files under each directory, including file sizes and dates. To print or edit the document, open it with Edit application (simply type EDIT DIRLIST.TXT and press Enter).

Viewing Several Type of Files at the Same Time

In the Open dialog box of any applications, Microsoft Word for example, you can see list of several type of files at the same time. You only need to type all extensions, and use semicolon as the separator. For example, to see the .DOC, .TXT, and .RTF files, just type *.doc; *.txt; *.rtf in the File name column, and then press Enter

Using The WinDiff Utility

One of the tools that come with the Windows 9X Resource Kit Sampler is Microsoft WinDiff, a file and folder comparison tool. Very handy for version checking and troubleshooting, this tool gives you a graphical display of the differences found between files and/or folders, on a line-by-line, color coded list.

WinDiff isn't installed as part of Windows 9X, but you can easily set it up yourself. Just pop in your Win9X CD and go to the \tools\reskit\file folder. Look for and copy WINDIFF.EXE and GUTILS.DLL (and optionally, the Help file WINDIFF.HLP) to any folder, for example C:\Windows, then create a shortcut to WINDIFF.EXE and drop it into your System Tools folder for easy access later.

Using Archive Properties

Archive properties used to know whether a file need a backup or not. For example, all files that have backed up with Microsoft Backup application will be removed its Archive attributes. One day when you edit those documents, the Archive attribute will be activated again as a sign the documents need the new backups.

You can use this situation to remove the Archive attribute for your large size documents that you don't want to backup. To do so, right-click their names in the Windows Explorer, choose Properties, and then unselect the Archive option. After that, you may run the Microsoft Backup application.

Saving the Find Result

After finding all the files that match specific criteria (by clicking the Start-Find/Search-Files or Folder menu), you can save the result by clicking the File-Save Search menu. In the Windows 9X/Me desktop will appear a shortcut to the result. Therefore, on the future when you need to find all those files, you do not have to manually open the Find/Search dialog box again.

Remembering Folder Settings

Windows has a hard time remembering folder settings, such as toolbar, status bar, sort order etc. You can do this, which will retain your settings. To do so, double click My Computer, open your C: drive folder and, without opening any other folders, arrange and configure it exactly as you would like all your folders to look. When you have satisfied, press Ctrl + Alt + Shift simultaneously while you click on the X in the upper right-hand corner to close the window.

Quick New Folder

Want the fastest way to create a new folder? Press the Alt + FNF key (Alt followed by F and then N and then F again) inside My Computer, Network Neighborhood, or Explorer windows. The new folder will appear immediately.

Protecting a File From Accidental Deletion

There is a simple way to protect a file from accidental deletion and changes by changing the file's attributes. You can flag the file as "READ ONLY," and then no one can accidentally delete or change the contents of that file until the attribute is reset. To do this, right click on the file name in any Windows Explorer window. Select Properties from the drop down menu. On the General tab, check the "Read Only" check box. Click the Apply button, then the OK button. To remove the "Read Only" setting so you can work on the file again, simply uncheck the "Read Only" check box.

New Folder in The Same Folder Window Frame

You open a folder window. Then you click a folder icon inside it. Then you click another folder icon. You keep doing this until your desktop is covered with folder icons. To get around this situation, hold down the Ctrl key. Double click the folder you want to open. When you do this, Windows displays the contents of the new folder in the same folder window frame. It doesn't matter how many folders within folders you open, just one window appears on-screen.

Keep Your Folders Open All The Time

If you find yourself constantly opening the same folder, perhaps it is better to keep it open all the time. You can keep any folder continuously open simply by leaving it open, even during a shut down. The folder will reappear in its last state through all your reboots, as long as you never close it. If you left it minimized, that's where you'll find it next time.

Logo Bug for New Shortcut

Right click on Windows 98 desktop, and then click on New, Shortcut. The image displayed on the left side still says "Windows 95" !!

Find Several Type of Files

If you want to find several files with different types, you only need to use a space to separate its extensions, for examples *.doc *.xls *.txt. The same method can be used to find files in several drives at a time. For example, if you want to find files in drive C:, D:, and E: then type C: D: E: in the Look In box.

Fast Move to Main Folder

Wherever you are while you open a subfolder, inside the Explorer, My Computer, Open or Save box dialog from an application or Registry Editor, you can close it by pressing Backspace (¬). Press it as many times as levels of subfolder that you want to close.

Faster Quick View

Do you want to see your document previews faster? Open Windows Explorer, and then activate the Quick View application to see the first file's content. For the next files you can drag the file icons directly into the Quick View window. For easier operation, both windows (Explorer and Quick View) can be tilled vertically on the screen. If you only want to see bitmap, jpeg or gif files, open the Paint window instead of Quick View. The same method can be applied in Media Player to see multimedia files (wave, midi, avi, etc.) or NotePad for text file (*.txt).

Dotted File Names

If you run Notepad or any other application and save your document with Dr.Amanda as the file name, then Notepad will save it as Dr.Amanda.txt file. Meanwhile, if you type “Dr.Amanda”, then your document will be saved as Dr.Amanda file (with Amanda as a new extension). You may use this feature to create a special name/extension for your file.

Creating Your Own Icon

It is easy to create your own icon, just pick a bitmap (.bmp) file and change its extension to .ico. To do so, open the Windows Explorer, click on the View menu (or Tools in WinMe), click Folder Options, click View tab, remove the check on the "Hide file extensions for known files types" option, and then click OK. Select a bitmap file from your drive, press F2 key, and then change its extension to .ico.

Creating a Transparent Icon

Do you want to create your own transparent icon? The secret is selecting a color to paint the top left corner pixel of your icon. Use the same color to paint another part of your icon, which you want to become a transparent

Creating an Unique File Name

To get an attractive document name, use unique characters. For example, ®WORLD WIDE.doc, ß-Ray.xls, Presentation©.ppt, etc. To find these unique characters, click on the Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tool-Character Map menus. From within the Character Map application, select System font. Click on a character you want to use, such as ß or Ó. At the bottom right corner you can see information that shows the combination keys you must type, for example ALT+0223 for ß.

Go back to your application. Click on the File-Save As menus to save the document and then in the File name box press ALT+0223 to get the ß character.

Creating a Documents Folder using Find

If you have many documents with various types of files, you may use this tips to organize your documents. Just perform these steps:

Click the Start-Find-Files or Folders menu to open the Find dialog box. Alternatively, you can click Windows 9X/Me desktop and press the F3 key. In the Named column type *.DOC, meanwhile in the Look in column select My Computer. Also, select the Include subfolders option.

Click the Find Now button. Windows 9X/Me will find all Word documents in your disk and viewing the result. Right-click the desktop, and then select New-Folder. Name the new folder, for example Word Documents. Select all Word documents by pressing the Ctrl+A key, or you can select several files only. Right-click on this group, drag into the new folder, and then select Create Shortcut(s) Here.

Creating an Icon from a Mouse Pointer

You can use a mouse pointer as an icon. To do so, right-click on a document or a shortcut icon you want to change its icon. From the pop-up menu, choose Properties. Click on the Shortcut tab, and then click on the Change Icon button. Use the Browse button to switch to the C:\Windows\Cursors folder. Choose All Files from the Files of Type box, select one of the pointers, and then click OK.

On the other hand, you can use an icon as a mouse pointer. To do so, open the Control Panel, double-click on the Mouse icon, and then click on the Pointers tab. Double-click on a pointer you want to use. Select All Files from the Files of Type columns, and then select and double-click on an icon. Finally, click on the OK button.

Create Subfolders Using File Manager

Have you ever wanted to create a new folder and include a new subfolder all in one step? You can, just not in Windows Explorer. Use File Manager to do the job by clicking the Start button, Run, type “winfile” (without the quotes) and then click OK. Simply highlight the drive you want to create the new folder on, go to the File Menu, select "Create Folder" and enter the name of the new folder and subfolder, such as FOLDER\SUBFOLDER. Click OK and it's done.

Closing All Folders

Sometimes, when you are navigating through folders, you can make quite a mess of your desktop. For example, you want to look in your Fonts folder. What you must do is double-click My Computer, double-click Control Panel, and then double-click Fonts--leaving three folders to close when you are finished. It would be great if you could just close them all at once. To do so, hold down the Shift key and then click the Close button (the button with the "X" on it, on the right end of the Title bar). Windows closes the current folder and all its parent folders.

Change Folder Icon

Open any folder, and from the View menu select Options in Win98/95. In WinMe click on Tools, Folder Options. Elect the File Types tab and scroll down the list of Registered File Types to the Folder item. Select the Folder item, click Edit in Win98/95 or Advanced in WinMe, and then click the Change Icon button. Select a new icon (.dll, .exe or .ico format). Save your changes. All your folders will display the newly changed icon from now on.

Adding Flexibility on Quick View

Quick View is a Windows application used to read documents with specific extensions, such as *.DOC, *.BMP, *.XLS, *.TXT, *.PPT, etc. You can force Quick View to open all extensions, just follow these steps:

Run Windows Explorer, click the View, Options (or Folder Options) menu in Win98/95. Go to the View tab, and then select the Show all files option. In WinMe click on Tools, Folder Options, go to View tab and then select the Show Hidden Files and Folders.

Right-click the QuikView.exe file in the Windows\System\Viewers folder, and then drag and drop it to the Windows\SendTo folder. Select Create Shortcut(s) Here from the menu.

From now on, you can right-clicking any files in the Windows Explorer or My Computer and use Quick View to read its content. If you can't see the Quick View option in the menu, you can select the Send To - Quick View menu.

Separator for Long Start Menu

You have a very long Start Menu, full with files and folders and takes several seconds to find the appropriate program icon to be launched. Try to create several “dividing files” to simplify the hierarchy. Name each file with a different number of dash characters and put it between every 4 – 7 icons on your long Start Menu.

Shift Key Trick for Start Menu

Browse through the Start Menu and click a program you want to launch, but keep your SHIFT key depressed during the process. This trick allows you to launch other programs (as many as you want) without having to browse back from the Start button.

Working through cascading menus

As you know, the Start-Programs menu can have many levels. For example, you may choose Start, Programs, Accessories, Entertainment before you get to the last level of menus where you can choose a particular application, such as CD Player. When you want to back up to a previous level, you can just move your mouse back to the previous level and make another choice, or you can press the Esc key to have the last level disappear from your screen.

Maximize Your Favorites

When you find an interesting web site, then you will bookmark it in your Favorites folder by pressing Ctrl+D (or click on Favorites – Add to Favorites menu) in Internet Explorer. Most of you probably never visit it again in the future. Since you'll browse your local system more often, then make a subfolder inside that Favorites and put shortcuts to frequently accessed folders and files in there.

You are not limited to access these shortcuts through Internet Explorer. The Favorites folder (and your shortcuts inside it) can be accessed anywhere, from the Start Menu, My Computer menu, or even Windows Explorer menu. 100% faster than browse your hard disk manually.

Find A File within Your ZIP Archive

If you have a lot of ZIP archive files probably finding a specific file within those archives could put you into a trouble. Now you can use the Windows Find/Search tool to locate that file. First click on Start-Find/Search-For Files or Folders (or hit F3) to display the Find/Search window. Enter "*.ZIP" (without the quotation marks) in the 'Named' field, and then type the whole or partial file name in the 'Containing text' field under the Advanced tab. The results should contain a list of ZIP files containing the file for which you were looking.

Delete all or one item

Here's a quick way to clear the list of files that appears when you select Start, Documents. Right click the Taskbar and select Properties. Click the Start Menu Programs tab (Win98/95) or Advanced tab (WinMe), click the Clear button, and then click OK. Alternatively, you can delete a single item from the Documents list in Start Menu without wiping out the entire list. Just right click on the item in the Document list you want to delete and select Delete.

Search Across All Drives

These are the steps if you want to search for files across all drives, including your network drives:
First press F3 to open the Find/Search dialog box. Secondly, in the Named box, enter file or folder you want to search for. In Look in select My Computer. This will search all drives including mapped network drives. Easier than using the comma's.

Windows 98 is an Unfinished Program?

Click on the Start button and point to Settings. While holding down the CTRL key, click on the Taskbar & Start menu option. The Taskbar Properties dialog box will appear on the screen. Watch there is a new tab called DeskBar Options, but you cannot change anything on this tab.

Start Menu Cleanup Utility

Here is another utility you definitely want to put into your System Tools folder. It's called Start Menu Cleanup and it's located in C:\Windows folder as SMTIDY.EXE. It is only available if the Microsoft Plus! Maintenance Wizard installed in your computer.

It locates any non-working Start Menu shortcuts, as well as any folders that may only contain a single object. In the case of broken shortcuts it will simply remove them. As for folders containing only one item, it will offer to move them up one level to cut down on the number of folders. Best of all, you can be selective about which items to change and which ones to leave alone. Simply uncheck any items you don't want to change before clicking OK. To get a log of all Start Menu Cleanup activity, look for SMWIZ.LOG in C:\Windows folder.

Simplifying the Start Menu

Probably you want to simplify your Start-Programs menu, since too many shortcuts inside it. For examples, you can remove the StartUp folder or shortcuts to unusable applications. You do not have to delete those items from the Start Menu-Programs folder that make you difficult to display it again in the future. The better method is by activating hidden attribute on all those items. To hide the StartUp folder for example, try these steps:

Right-click on the Start button, choose Open, and then go to Programs folder. Right-click on the StartUp folder and choose Properties. Check the Hidden attribute, and finally click OK.

From now on, the StartUp folder will disappear from the Start-Programs menu, but all files/programs inside it are still be activated on Windows startup.

Save One Click

Save one mouse click when you activate an application using the Start button. Hold down the mouse button while clicking the Start button and then drag the mouse pointer to the application you want to activate.

Quick Method to Activate an Application (2)

Add & character right before the name of an application on the Start menu (C:\Windows\Start Menu), for example Microsoft &Excel. From now on, you can activate Microsoft Excel by pressing Ctrl+Esc, P, and then E.

Quick Method to Activate an Application (1)

Placing too much shortcut in the Start menu can make it difficult to access. To get around this situation, you can use the Run menu to activate your favorite applications, which is not yet including in the Start menu. To do so, perform these steps:

First, open the Windows Explorer, and then select your favorite document or folder. Click Edit-Copy menus. Switch to c:\Windows\command folder, and then click Edit-Paste Shortcut menus.

Select the shortcut, press F2 key, and then type a new shorter name. For example, for a shortcut to Microsoft Paint you can name it "paint" or "pnt". From now on, to activate Microsoft Paint, all you must do is click on the Start button, click Run, (or press Ctrl + Esc + r), type paint, and finally press Enter.

Preventing the Screen Saver

When you are waiting for the Disk Defragmenter, Scan Disk, or Compression Agent process, the screen saver suddenly appears on the monitor screen. Obviously, the defragmentation process for example, will be repeated from the beginning. To solve this problem, usually you have to deactivate the screen saver facility by using the Display Properties dialog box. Actually, there is another method. First, run the Disk Defragmenter or Scan Disk and then press Ctrl+Esc key to show the Start menu. Leave the Start menu open until the Disk Defragmenter or Scan Disk process is completed. This method will prevent the screen saver from appearing on the screen.

Optimizing Run menu

- To open a folder usually you have to run the Windows Explorer first, and then explore the hard disk contents until you find the right folder. Actually, there is another method by using the Run menu. Click your mouse on the Start button, point to Run, type the name of the folder you want to open (e.g. "Recent"), and then press Enter. A window filled with all files in C:\Windows\Recent folder will appear on the screen.

- To open the main folder, click your mouse on the Start button, click Run, type \ (backslash) character, and then click OK.

- Click on the Start - Run, enter .. (two dot characters), and then click OK or press Enter. You will see C:\Windows folder.

- Want to open your favorite web site via Run menu? Just click on the Start - Run, enter its address (ex: www.microsoft.com), and then click OK or press Enter. Internet Explorer will be opened and after a moment you will see that site.

- If you are working in a network, use the Run box dialog to enter UNC (Universal Naming Convention) to folder at the server.

- To find out about full path and hidden extension for some files that hidden in the Explorer window, just click and drag that file to the Run box dialog.

Opening Folders inside the Programs branch

If you are using Win ME/98SE or Win 98/95 with Internet Explorer 5.0 installed, you can open every folder inside the Start Menu Programs branch. For example, click on the Start button, and point to Programs-Accessories. Double click on Accessories folder will open that folder in a window.

Faster Run Commands

If you open a folder in the Explorer, Windows will use that folder as an active folder in the Run dialog box. Therefore, you can activate all applications in that folder without typing its full path and drive letter. For example, you can activate Tetris game only by typing “tetris” (without quotation marks) in the Run dialog box, if the Wingames folder (with tetris.exe file inside it) currently opened by Explorer. Don't forget that you can use several last used commands in the Run dialog box, just by clicking the arrow symbol and select them from the list.

If you are running a file with the Run menu, then Windows will search it in that active folder. If they can't be found, Windows will search it in the system directory (C:\Windows, C:\Windows\System). If still can't be found, Windows will search it in the location appeared in the C:\Autoexec.bat file or App Path folder in the registry file.

Therefore, to get faster activation for files that used many times, type the file location in the C:\Autoexec.bat file. Use Sysedit (click the Start-Run button, type sysedit, click OK) to edit the autoexec.bat file. Now, you don't need to access Wingames folder with Explorer anymore, only to get faster activation for tetris.exe file.

Easy Access to Your Drive

To get easy access to all drives, just open My Computer, and then click and drag all icon drives inside it into the Start button. Shortcuts to all of your drives will appear in the Start menu. This method is effective when your desktop is closed by the running applications.

Accommodating All Kinds of Needs

If your computer used by many people with different kinds of need, you can use the User Profiles facility. To activate it, double-click the Password icon on the Control Panel. Alternatively, try to modify the Programs folder. Right-click on the Start button, click Explore, and then double-click Programs folder. Start creating a private folder for every user.

Application Key or Right-Click

The latest version of PC's keyboard equipped with an Application key. It looks like a mouse arrow highlighting a menu command. If you aren't familiar with this key, think of it as a right-click's mouse equivalent. With any item selected, click the Application key to display that item's shortcut menu. Or, if the focus is on the desktop, click the Application key to "right-click" the desktop.

Reducing Finger Action

Don't you know that you can reduce your finger action to a single click? When you click somewhere to open a menu, keep holding down your mouse button. When the menu drops down, slide the mouse pointer until it rests over the item you want, and then release the mouse button to choose that item.

Tips for Copy and Paste

Try the following tips inside Notepad or other text editor with a single-level undo feature. Copy text selection 1 (press Ctrl+C) and paste it over selection 2 (press Ctrl+V). Undo that operation (press Ctrl+Z), and while that text is still selected, copy it to the clipboard (press Ctrl+C). Now, undo that operation again (press Ctrl+Z) and you have the changed the text (from 2 to 1) as well as copied the old text (2) to the clipboard.

Show that Hiding Dialog Box

When you right-clicking the desktop and selecting Properties--switched to another window, and then come back to the desktop, do not surprise if suddenly the Properties box is gone. These happen if you clicked the Show Desktop icon (on the Quick Launch toolbar) or pressed Windows key + D. To show that hiding Properties box, press Alt-Tab to display all open windows. While holding Alt key, press Tab key repeatedly until the icon representing the missing Properties box is highlighted. Release the keys, and there's that Properties box.

Left or Right

Probably you didn't realize that you can use both left and right button to choose an item from shortcut menu. Normally you only use one of these buttons.

Manage Your SendTo Menu

Normally the list of options in your SendTo context menu appears in alphabetical order. You can manage them by renaming the shortcuts in the SendTo folder so that a number is the first character. The order of the numbers will be the order of the options. The list is alphabetized, with numbers first.

Another Way To Put Shortcut on Desktop

You don't have to drag and drop in Desktop view only to create your favorite application shortcuts. If you work on Windows Explorer, you can simply right click the filename for which you want to create a shortcut and from the popup menu choose Send To and then choose Desktop As Shortcut.

Another Way Selecting Icons

Normally to select a group of icons you must click and drag a box. Once you have a group selected, then you can click any one with the right mouse button, select a command, and that command will apply to all of them. To save a step, just click and drag the icons using the right mouse button, and when you release the button, the Context menu will pops up automatically.

Using SendTo to Copy and Move Files

Use the SendTo feature to quickly copy and move files. First, create a shortcut to a drive or a folder using the previous tips. To move an object, you can use the SendTo feature by right-clicking the object, click the SendTo menu and then click the new location. To copy an object you must press Ctrl key while activating the SendTo feature. Meanwhile, to create a shortcut you must press Control and Shift keys while using the Sendto feature.

The Alternative Shortcuts

It is a common to use Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, or Ctrl+Z, to perform Cut, Copy, Paste, or Undo operations inside Windows 9X/Me applications. Those shortcuts are designed to be pressed easily with the left fingers while the right fingers hold the mouse.

Actually, you can perform the same action using your right fingers. The shortcuts are Shift+Delete for Cut, Ctrl+Insert for Copy, Shift+Insert for Paste and Alt+Backspace for Undo.

WARNING: Use the Shift+Delete keys only inside an application, if you use this shortcut inside Windows Explorer it will permanently deletes your files.

Quick Switch to Another Tab

There is an easy way to switch to another tab when you work inside a dialog box. Just press Ctrl+Tab keys to switch to the right tabs or press Ctrl+Shift+Tab keys to move to the left tab.

Quick Swap Mouse

As you probably know, when you drag an object to or from the desktop using the right mouse button, you're given the option to Move, Copy, Create Shortcut or Cancel when you let go of the button. If you do not want to use the right mouse button, you can accomplish the same thing by pressing and holding Ctrl+Shift, and then drag using the left mouse button.

Quick Exit and Resizing

Rather than using Alt+F4 or drop-down menus to close an application, you can double-click the mini icon in the upper-left corner of that application.

The same trick works for quick resizing. You can quickly maximize and restore the open windows by double-clicking anywhere on the title bar.