No More Disturbing Sounds

Want to listen to your favourite audio CDs through headphone without being bothered by the unexpected background sounds? Here is how: Open the volume control (double-click its icon in the System Tray), move the slider buttons up to the volume you want, and then select the Mute Box check box. Close the volume control, plug in your headphones to your CD-ROM drive, and run CD Player (Start, Programs, Accessories, Multimedia, CD Player). You can use a similar method to listen to music with the speakers. Open Volume Control and select Mute for all the check boxes except the one for the CD. This will prevent your hearing the computer sounds while you enjoy your CD.

Change Default Audio CD Player

To change your default CD player simply change its association to match the program you want to use.

To do so, inside any Explorer window, select View (Win9x) or Tools (WinMe), Folder Options. Click the File Types tab, select Audio CD in the list of Registered File Types, and then click the Edit button. Select the Play action and click the Edit button. Under Application Used To Perform Action, type the path of the program you'd like to use to play audio CDs, followed by a space and “/play” (without quotation marks).

In WinMe, just click the Change button in the Folder Options windows, and then select your new program.

Title of Your Favorites Song

This tip is for Windows 98/95 user. Before you play an audio CD, first enter the title of the songs in the appropriate box on the CD Player. So, every time you want to play a specific song, you do not have to see the track number of the song.

To enter the titles of your favorites songs, run the CD player, click on the Disc, Edit Play List menus. Enter all information that is needed in the Disc Setting dialog box, such as singer name, CD title, and the songs list. Every time you have finished setting a track, click the Set Name button

Note: The song list is saved in the CDPLAYER.INI file.

Simplified Media Player Controls

Click File, Open on the menu bar and then double-click a multimedia file you want to play. Double-click the title bar to simplify the Media Player controls that show up on the screen. To see all Media Player controls you can double-click on the title bar again.

NOTE: You need to use Mplayer.exe (located in your Windows folder). Don't use it on the Windows Media Player (Wmplayer.exe) in Windows Millennium, since this tip will not work.

Selecting WAV Compression Formats

To save your disk free space, you can convert you WAV files into a compressed format. There are several different formats. To select a format, open your WAV file on Sound Recorder, click the File-Properties menus, and then click the Convert Now button. Here is more detail about WAV compression formats:

DSP Group, Inc. Truespeech

Featuring real-time decompression but is not good enough at the compression process. The best choice to compress human voice, but not for music. Use on the WAV file that you want to insert into a document, worksheet, or mail message.

MS GSM 6.10 Audio

Featuring real-time compression and the best choice to record sounds using the Sound Recorder.

MS CCITT G.711 A-Law and U-Law

It has compression ratio 2-to-1 and compatibility with the US and Europe telephones standard.

MS ADPCM

Featuring real time compression and decompression. Good to save music. Usually used in encyclopedia, like MS-Encarta.

IMA ADPCM

Similar with MS ADPCM

MS PCM converter

Using this format, an 8-bit sound card can play 16-bit sound by decreasing the audio quality.

Recording an Audio Clip from CD

You can insert an audio clip to your Word document or Excel spreadsheet. Here is the procedure to record an audio clip from CD audio (music):

Double-click the speaker icon at the right corner of Taskbar and once again double- click the speaker icon. Two Volume Control dialog boxes will appear on the screen. Click the Options-Properties menu from one of the dialog boxes, select the Recording option at the Adjust volume for area. Only the CD input option can be selected, all other options such as MIDI input, Line-In, and Microphone must be removed.

Run the CD-Player and Sound Recorder applications. Play your favorite song on the CD Player, and then click the circle button in the Sound Recorder to start recording the song. To stop recording, press the rectangle button. The same method can be used to record the sounds from MIDI, AVI or MPEG files.

Playing WAV Quickly

Windows 98/95 use the Sound Recorder application to play all sound files with WAV format. Unfortunately, this method is too slow for big size files since Sound Recorder needs to load the complete file into the computer memory. To get around this situation, you can associate the WAV file with Media Player application. Just perform these steps:

Run Windows Explorer, and then select one of your WAV files. Click the View - Options menu and go to the File Types tab. In the list, find the WAVE SOUND item (or Sound Clip), and click the Edit button. In the Actions column select Open, click Edit, and then type c:\windows\mplayer.exe. Click OK, in the Actions column select Play, click Edit, and then type c:\windows\mplayer.exe /play /close.

Starting from now on, if you click on a WAV file, the Media Player will play it.

Playing a Single Track CD

Windows 9X/Me allows you to play a single track of Audio CD. To do so, open the Windows Explorer, and then click the CD-ROM drive icon. Before you do that, make sure you have inserted an audio CD into the drive.

On the right-pane of your Windows Explorer, you will see Track01.cda to Track??.cda. You can click one of those tracks to start playing. The track also can be played automatically by double-clicking their icons. Try to drag a track into the Windows 9X/Me desktop to create its shortcut. Rename this shortcut with the title of the songs. From now on, you can play that song (as long as the audio CD has inserted) by double-clicking its shortcut. You also can place this kind of shortcut in the Start menu or a special folder.

Playing a MIDI file on Windows 9X/Me Welcome

Bored with your Windows 9X/Me's welcome sound? Try to change that sound with your favorites MIDI files. Open the Control Panel, double-click on the Sounds icon to open the Sound Properties dialog box. Delete the sound reference for "Start Windows" events by selecting "none" option.

Next, create a shortcut to a .MID file. Put this shortcut in the C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp folder. If you do not want the applications that are used to play the MIDI file to appear every time you start Windows 9X/Me, right-click on the shortcut, and then click Properties. Click on the Shortcut tab, and then choose "Minimized" from the Run box.

Move CD Player Settings to Another Computer

You can transfer the Artist, Track, and Title settings on your CD Player to another computer by copying the Cdplayer.ini file to the other computer. To do so, copy the Cdplayer.ini file from the Windows folder to a floppy disk and then copy it to the Windows folder on the other computer. If the computers are connected to a network, use the network to copy the file from the Windows folder on one computer to the Windows folder on the other computer.

If there is already a Cdplayer.ini file in the Windows folder on the second computer, rename it before you copy the file from the first computer or you will overwrite the existing file. You can also merge the contents of two Cdplayer.ini files using the Copy and Paste commands in Notepad.

Editing Multimedia Files

It is not a secret that you can play all types of multimedia files on the Media Player. However, do you know that you can place Media player's object, such as video clips, into the clipboard and then paste it into a document? To do so, first you have to mark the beginning and the end of your selection. To mark the beginning of a clip, click the Start Selection button. To mark the end of a clip, click the End Selection button. Finally, click the Edit-Copy menus to paste your clip into the clipboard.

Count Frames

Windows keeps count of dropped frames during video playback. To display this feature, after you have played a video clip, hold Ctrl and press F5. A box called "Send MCI String Command" will appear on the screen. In the Command box type "Status Frames Skipped" and click Send. Windows will tell you how many total frames were displayed.

NOTICE: You need to use Mplayer.exe (located in your Windows folder), the default Windows (multi) Media Player to access the frame rate options. Mplayer.exe can play (among other media file formats): .AVI, MOV, MMV, .MPG, .MPEG, .MPE, .MID, .RMI, .WAV, .FLI, .FLC etc. Don't use it on the Windows Media Player (Wmplayer.exe) in Windows Millennium, since this tip will not work.

Cheap Microphone

Use any headphone as a microphone to record your voice into the computer. Just plug in the headphone to the mic-in socket of your sound card.

Control Event Volume using Sound Recorder

Open Control Panel and then double-click on the Sound icon. You have to see with what event a WAV file is associated. For example, Critical Stop event on the default setting is associated with Chord.wav. Start Sound Recorder and then open file Chord.wav in Windows\Media folder. Click on Effects, and then choose Decrease Volume. Use the playback button to listen to the result. Repeat this procedure until you are satisfied with the result. Finally, save Chord.wav file. You can do the same procedure on other events.

Adjusting Volume in The Easiest Way

The easiest way to adjust your sound card volume is by clicking and dragging its icon from taskbar to any place in the desktop. A dialog box will appears on the screen, and then you can use it to adjust your sound card volume. To make this dialog box smaller, press CTRL+S. Press this combination key once again to return it to the normal size.

Take control of the volume, using either of the following two methods:

* slide the volume control up or down by dragging it.

* move the slider by pressing the Tab key until a box appears around the slider, and then press the arrow keys to slide up or down.

A New Day, A New Sound

Try this tip if you are bored with the same welcome sound every day and want to use a different sound every time you start Windows 9X/Me.

Create a new folder, for example C:\Windows\Sound. Put your WAV files in this folder, change their names to sound01.wav, sound02.wav, sound03.wav, etc. Open Control Panel, double-click on the Sounds icon, select Start Windows option from the Events list, and then click the Browse button. Choose a WAV file that you want to play, for example C:\Windows\Media\Welcome.wav. Click OK.

Now use Notepad to create a batch file with these following contents:

cd c:\windows\sound

ren sound01.wav soundxx.wav

ren sound02.wav sound01.wav

ren sound03.wav sound02.wav

ren sound04.wav sound03.wav

ren soundxx.wav sound04.wav

copy sound01.wav c:\windows\media\welcome.wav

If you have more than four files in the C:\Windows\Sound folder, you can add as many more commands as you want, just follow the command pattern. Save that batch file, for example as C:\Windows\Change.bat. Add a command into the Autoexec.bat file to activate Change.bat file. From now on, you will hear a different Windows 9X/Me welcome sound every time you start your computer.

Tip:

For a better solution, use our new software, DesktopCycler. You are not limited to rotate the sounds, but also Windows logo, wallpaper, Start Menu icon, and many more. Download it from our site http://www.magellass.com

Choose Line Thickness First

Want to draw a bold oval or polygon? Paint allows you to choose the thickness of the line of a Rectangle, Polygon, Oval, or Rounded Rectangle. But, before you select your geometric drawing tool in the Toolbox on the left of the window, choose the Straight Line tool. Now choose a thickness from the set of 5 possibilities. Now click on the geometric shape drawing tool you want to use. Draw that shape. This thickness will remain your choice as you choose other geometric shape tools.

Smart Erasing in Paint

Is there an element of your Paint drawing you'd like to erase, without affecting the rest of your work? Before you move the Eraser tool around your drawing elements, remember that Eraser tool will selectively erase (or replace) a single color. Drag the tool over any part of the canvas, and everything but the selected color remains untouched.

First, click the color you'd like to erase (or replace). Then, right-click the color you'd like to replace it with (usually the background color). Select the Eraser/Color Eraser tool, then hold down the right-mouse button as you drag the mouse pointer over the color you're trying to erase or replace. Only the selected color disappears!

Create WordPad Template

You frequently use WordPad to type documents in same format (same font, same heading, same paragraph style, and so on). To save time for those formatting jobs, you need to create a WordPad template. Here's how:

Open WordPad and make all the formatting changes you'd like, such as change the font and design your company heading. Save the file using a name "template.tpl".

Open Explorer and select View (Win9x) or Tools (WinMe), Folder Options. On the File Types tab, click the New Type button. Next to Description Of Type, type "WordPad Template". Next to Associated Extension, type “tpl”. All without the quotes.

Click New, and in the Action box of the New Action dialog box, type “Open”. Under Application Used To Perform Action, type your WordPad's path, C:\Program Files\Accessories\Wordpad.exe

Click OK three times to close all open dialog boxes.

Now double-click template.tpl and it opens in WordPad, complete with all your formatting. Make sure to save it under a new name before creating a new document from the template.

Safely Switch Calculator Views

As you probably know Calculator clears the display when you switch between Standard and Scientific views. If you need to switch between views without losing the current number, you must use this tip. Store the currently displayed number by clicking MS. Then choose View, Scientific to switch view. Click MR to recall the number you stored in Standard view.

Select All

To select an entire WordPad document you can use one of these methods:

- Hold down the Ctrl key and click anywhere in the left margin.

- Place the cursor at the very beginning of the document and press Ctrl-Shift-End

- With your cursor anywhere, press Ctrl-A

- Triple-click in the left margin

Quick Highlight

Use these methods to quickly highlight the text in your word processor, including WordPad:

To highlight a word, double-click it.

To highlight a line of text, click once to its left (in the left margin).

To highlight an entire paragraph, double-click to its left (again, in the margin).

If you need to jump between words and/or sentences simply depress CTRL (and plus SHIFT, if you want to select) while tapping any arrows key.

Motion Effects in Paint

Click the Start button and choose Programs, Accessories, Paint to open Windows Paint. Click any of the shape tools and draw a single shape on the "paper." Click the Select tool (the top right tool, which looks like a box with a dotted outline) and draw a box around the shape you just drew. Hold down the Shift key. Drag the shape around the screen.

Quick WordPad Tab

Want to know the quickest way to set a WordPad tab? Double-click over the Ruler right where you want the tab stop.

The Format Killer

A simple text editor such as Notepad, which doesn't have formatting capabilities, can be used to remove a document's format (for example, bold or italic in MS Word document). Simply by cutting and pasting it to Notepad, and then cut it out of the Notepad document and paste it into your target message or document. The formatting that your text had in the original document will be gone.

Viewing a Message to Your Computer User

Before lend your PC or Notebook to a friend, you can type a message inside it, just to remind him or her. Type this message on WordPad, use big size font, and then save it. Open Windows Explorer, and then move the message to C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp folder. Now, every time your friends use your computer, the message will appear on your Windows 9X/Me desktop.

Undo The Job in Paint

While working in Paint, you can undo any operations (drawing a box, selecting an object, etc) before you finish. At any point as you draw your box or select your object, continue to hold down the LEFT mouse button but click the RIGHT mouse button. Paint cancels whatever you're doing.

Triple Click

Using click or double-click mouse inside Windows 9X/Me is like an everyday job. If you work in WordPad, there is another type of click: people call it triple click. Triple click is also available on more complex word processors, such as Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect. You can use triple click to select a paragraph or to select all paragraphs on your document. That depends on locations where you use the triple click. If you use the triple-click inside a paragraph, it will select a paragraph. But, if you use the triple-click to the left of a paragraph, it will select all paragraphs on your document.

Sort a Group of Numbered File Name

If you use Notepad, Wordpad, or Paint, probably you create and save a file using a numbered name like pic01.pcx, pic02.pcx, and pic03.pcx. If so, make sure that you have inserted enough leading zeros in each name. Without leading zeros, you can end up with disordered file name list, for example pic11.pcx appearing before pic2.pcx.

Save without Save

Just like another applications for Windows 9X/Me, WordPad supports "scraps". You can take benefit from this feature. First, open WordPad and set it to a minimal view with no toolbar or status bar. Type your note. Highlight the text and then drag-and-drop it into your Desktop. A "WordPad Document Scrap" will be created and automatically saved.

Preventing a File with Double Extension

If you create a new file in WordPad or Notepad and save it, these applications add a TXT extension regardless of whether you add an extension by yourself. You can end up with filenames like DOCUMENTS.TXT.TXT. To prevent them from adding the extension, put quotation marks around your filename ("DOCUMENTS.TXT") in the Save As dialog box.

One Shortcut for Three Applications

It is possible to create a shortcut that opens three applications in the same time. To do so, open Notepad, type start followed by a space and the command line of an application (for example, start c:\windows\calc.exe), and then press Enter. If your path includes long file or folder names, you must either enclose the path with quotation marks (for example, start "c:\programfiles\accessories\notepad.exe") or use shortened versions of the long names (for example, start c:\progra~1\ access~1\notepad.exe). Add more lines following this pattern for each programs you want to start with one icon. When you are finished, choose File, Save and type a file name (in quotation marks) with the .bat extension. Double-click the batch file or its shortcut to launch the programs.

Mysteries in Solitaire

Choose Game, Deck from menu bar and then choose one of card designs. The last design is a magician's hand holding three Aces. The fourth Ace sometimes mysteriously peeks out of the hand's sleeve. Meanwhile, the cocoa tree design has a sun that sometimes wears sunglasses and sticks out its tongue.

Fitting a Picture in The Workspace

If you often use Copy and Paste to create and edit a picture on Paint, there is a tip to make your work easier. Click Image, Attributes on menu bar to display Attributes dialog box. Type 1 in the Width and Height box, choose pels from Units group, and then click OK. Now, every time you Paste into the workspace, Paint displays a question dialog box, asking whether you want to enlarge the bitmap. Choose Yes and you will get a picture that fits the workspace size.

Cheating at Solitaire

Start a game. Choose Game, Options from the menu bar, and then click Draw three. You can also put the scoring and status on. Type in "xyzzy" (without the quotes). Hold down the CTRL + ALT + SHIFT & click on the deck of cards.

Cheating at Minesweeper

Start a game. Click the right mouse buttons & the left mouse button together. While clicking both buttons press Escape. The timer has stopped. Play as slow as you want.

More cheating:

Start a game. If you've moved the wrong card in FreeCell, quickly press F10 before clicking on another card. It's the Undo button.

Click on Game – Select Game menu (or press F3), type –1 for your new game, and click OK. You will get all cards sorted by color in ascending order.

Click on Game – Select Game menu (or press F3), type –2 for your new game, and click OK. You will get all cards sorted by color in descending order.

Try to finish both games!

And finally, you have to know that after you have won all the 65,535 games, FreeCell resets your winning streak back to zero.

Cheating at FreeCell

If you have no more idea how to finish FreeCell game, you can hold down CRTL+SHIFT+F10 keys. A message will appear on the screen. Choose Abort, and then drag a card to the top. Computer will finish the game for you.

Automatic Time and Date

Notepad can create automatic time and date. To activate this feature, type ".LOG" (without quotation mark) at the first row of your document and then save using Save option on menu bar. Every time you open that file, you will see a note that shows the current date and time.

Always Open TXT Files on WordPad

Click once on any TXT file, and then hold down the Shift key and right-click on the file. Choose Open With from the pop-up menu, scroll through the list of programs and choose WordPad. Check the box labeled "Always use this program to open this type of file" before you click on OK.

Quick Saving an Image

While surfing the Internet, you might found an interesting image (or other objects) that you want to keep it. Instead right-clicking and saving it, you can drag & drop it onto the Desktop. Just click and drag the image from your browser to an empty area on taskbar or systray, wait a second until the Desktop appears, and then drop it. For better organization, create your favorite images folder on Desktop and drop the image inside it.

Visiting Similar Sites

You want to find web pages similar to the web page you are currently viewing. Have you know about Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer Related Links feature? In Internet Explorer click on Tools – Show Related Links menu. In Netscape Navigator click What's Related button on toolbar.

There is another method. Using a field-supporting search engine (like www.altavista.com), you can enter the term "like:URL" (without the quotation marks). Replace URL with a complete web address and you're on your way to finding similar sites and pages.

Jump to URL Quickly From Any Window

Computer window! Simply replace the current address at the Address bar with your URL of choice. Click on View, Toolbars, Address Bar menu if you don't see an Address bar. For example, you might type winboost, press Enter, and http://www.winboost.com shows up inside the current window.

Opening Downloaded Files Automatically

You can configure Windows to open downloaded files automatically when the download is complete, saving you the time of opening the file yourself. The trick is to set the download file type (zip for example) to open automatically in the Folder Options dialog box. Open Windows Explorer, click on View (Win9x) or Tools (WinMe), Folder Options, and click the File Types tab. In the list, find the download file type you're looking for, click to select it, and click the Edit button (Win9x) or Advanced (WinMe). Uncheck the Confirm Open After Download box and click OK. The next time you download a file of this type, Windows will automatically open the file when the download completes. These tips can be a good choice for several file types, such as image or audio.

Note: Be careful about choosing which files to set up for automatic running. MS Office, for example, can contain macro viruses that could be spread when they are opened. It's best to save those kinds of documents first, and then scan them with your anti-virus software before opening them.

Better Zip Files Name

You have downloaded so many files from Internet until today. Now, can you remember what 'ctv32410.zip' or 'dm2k40.zip' contains inside?

Immediately after downloading something, rename it to something a bit more meaningful. You can have it as long as 255 characters! If it's software, name it appropriately (including full name, version/release number and the company maker).

Resize Your Browser

Netscape Communicator 4.x and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4/5 have several undocumented JavaScript 1.1 commands to resize your browser. Just type one of these commands in the Address/Location URL box:

javascript:resizeTo(640,480);
javascript:resizeTo(800,600);
javascript:resizeTo(1024,768);
javascript:resizeTo(1152,874);
javascript:resizeTo(1200,1024);
javascript:resizeTo(1600,1200);
javascript:resizeTo(1792,1344);
javascript:resizeTo(1800,1400);
javascript:resizeTo(1972,1600);

Now just hit Enter to see the effect.
Note: you can only use the screen resolutions supported by both your video card controller and monitor.

Keep That Cool Flash Animation

Several sites on Internet using flash animation picture to enhance their page. To keep a cool animation, follow these steps. While a Flash animation is in your browser window, activate Find/Search utility (click on Start, Find/Search, Files and Folder) and look in your drive for all files named: *.SWF. Copy and paste the result to your Desktop. Use your Internet Explorer to open the files. Enjoy the animation and save several of it if you want.

Tracking the Data Channel

Use the Tracert facility to track the route that traveled by the data from a Web site server to your computer. To activate Tracert, click on Start, Run menus. Type command and then click OK to show the MS-DOS prompt windows. In the C:\, type TRACERT site name.

On the screen will appear 30 steps (maximum) that showing names, addresses, and response time of all router. Press the Ctrl+C key to exit.

The access speed to a Web site depends on the total response from its channel. Although only five router passed by your data, if each router needs 200 ms to respond, that is worse than nine routers with a total response time of 200 ms. Using the Tracert facility, you can find out the slowest router. If this router is your ISP router, probably you need to try another ISP.

Speed up the Dial-Up Networking

Double-click the Dial-Up Networking icon in My Computer. Right-click on a connection that you want, click Properties. Click Server Type tab, and then uncheck the NetBEUI and IPX/SPX options (make sure the TCP/IP option still checked). Next, uncheck the Log on to network option. Click OK, and OK to close the dialog box. Double-click Network icon on the Control Panel, click the Dial-Up Adapter option from the list, and then click Properties. Click the Bindings tab, and then remove all options on the list, except the TCP/IP option. Click OK and OK.

Removing Logon to the Internet

Every time you connect to the Internet, you always see the logon dialog box that asking you to enter your name and password. Do not waste you time just to reenter the same name and password. You can remove this logon stuff in a second. To do so, click the Start, Programs, Accessories menus, and then open the Dial-Up Networking folder. Click the Connections, Settings menus. Uncheck the Prompt for Information Before Dialing option. If you want to redial when the channel is busy, check the Redial option, and then enter the information in the appropriate box.

Speed up TCP/IP

You can speed up your Dial-Up Networking (DUN) TCP/IP connection time in Windows 9X/Me, when you dial in to your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to log on to the Internet. To do so, first locate your "Dial-Up Networking" icon in Explorer, found by default in the C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Dial-Up Networking folder.

Right-click on your connection icon (the name varies, depending on your ISP) and select Properties. Select the "Server Types" tab. On the "Advanced Options" screen, check ONLY the "Enable software compression" box. On the "Allowed network protocols" screen, check ONLY the "TCP/IP" box. Click the "TCP/IP Settings" button. Check the "Server assigned IP address" and the "Specify name server addresses" boxes.

Type in your own ISP's server assigned address numbers in the "Primary DNS" and "Secondary DNS" boxes. In the "Primary WINS" and "Secondary WINS" boxes, type only zeroes. Check the "Use IP header compression" and the "Use default gateway on remote network" boxes. Click OK until all dialog boxes are closed, to save all your settings.

Optimizing Your Modem Speed

Click the Start-Run menu, type Sysedit, and then click OK. Open WIN.INI file and go to the [Port] section. Edit the port mode value to:

COMx:=921600,n,8,1,p

x = the modem port number
921600 = maximum speed (bps)
n = non-parity
8 = 8 data bits
1 = 1 stop bit
p = hardware flow control

No more Enter key

If you are using Internet Explorer 5.0, you can simply paste or type a URL in the address bar and then click on "Go" button. You don't need to press the Enter key anymore.

More Internet Hidden Settings and Tips & Tricks

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Extra Settings to Optimize Your Modem

Use these following settings to optimize your modem performance:

1. Double-click the Modems icon in the Control Panel, click the Properties button, click the Connection tab, and then click the Port Settings button. Check the Use FIFO buffers option, and drag the button to the right corner (High (14)).

2. Double-click the Modems icon in the Control Panel, click on the Properties button, and from the Maximum speed drop down list choose 115200. Click on the Connection tab, click the Advanced button, and then uncheck the Use error control and Required to connect options. Finally, click OK to save the new setting.

3. If you place your modem too close to a fluorescent lamp, it might cause interference when you transmit or receive data from the Internet. That is why, if you have a fluorescent desk lamp it is necessary to place it far from your modem.

Extra Parameter for Your Modem

By adding an extra parameter into the Dial-Up Networking, you can speed up your modem dial speed to the Internet. To do so, click the Start-Settings-Control Panel menus, and then double-click Modems icon to open Modem Properties box. Click the Properties button, click Connection tab, and then click the Advanced button. In the Extra Settings box, type S11=40, and then click OK. The 40 number shows the times between two dial tone in milliseconds.

Easter Egg on Internet Explorer 5.0

Open Notepad, and then type "" (without the quotes). Save the file as "test.htm". Open up "test.htm" in Internet Explorer 5.0 and enjoy the first Easter Egg.

Now for the second Easter Egg. You must go online, and the open up Internet Explorer 5.0 browser. From the menu, select Tools > Internet Options > General (tab) > Languages (button). Press Add, type "ie-ee" (without the quotes) and click OK. Move "User Defined [ie-ee]" to the top of the list. Exit back to the browser, and then click on the Search icon (to pull up the side search menu). Click on Customize and enjoy the Easter Egg.

Easter Egg on the Internet Explorer 4.0

Load up a browser window and go into Help. Click on - About Internet Explorer. Once the animation has stopped, hold down CTRL and drag the 'E' in the top-right corner of the dialog to the left of the 'Microsoft Internet explorer 4.0' text. Keeping CTRL held down, "push" this text to the right and you will reveal an 'Unlock' button. Release CTRL and click on this button... After this, pick up (with CTRL down) the 'E' again and let it drop on the globe! What you see will be a credit video will start playing at the top left of the screen.

Easter Egg in Outlook Express 4.0

Click the Compose Message toolbar button. Select Format-Rich Text (HTML) from the menu. Click on the body of the message. Select the font box, and type "athena" (without quotation mark). Press Enter. Close the Compose Message window. When asked "Do you want to save changes to this message?" select No. Go back to the main Outlook Express window. Select the Outlook Express icon, above Inbox, on the left-hand side. Click on an empty space between, for example, Read Mail and Read News. Type about. This will launch the Easter egg.