Use the Monitor Preview

When you are in the Control Panel - Display Settings, under the "Appearance" tab, you can change the Windows colors. Instead of just selecting an item to change the color by selecting it from the pull menu, try clicking on it in the monitor preview. Open Display Properties, click the "Appearance" tab, and then click on an item on the monitor to change the Window color.

US Keyboard in International Style

Open up the 'Keyboard' from your Control Panel, select the 'Language' tab, then pull up the Properties for the 'English (United States)' layout. Now, in the drop-down menu, change it from 'United States 101' to 'United States - International.' From now on, you don't have to remember the code to make an accented lowercase E, you can type an apostrophe first and then the letter. Windows will transmogrify it for you. ~n will become an 'n' with a tilde over it; "u will become a 'u' with an umlaut mark over it. In addition, you can also use: ALT+/ (upside-down question mark), ALT+1 (upside-down exclamation mark), and ALT+c (copyright symbol).

Maximizing a video clip

If you have not changed anything with your multimedia settings in Windows 98/95, your video clips will be played in a small window. You can maximize the video by clicking the maximize button in the top right corner of the window, or from your player configuration, or do that through the Control Panel. To do the last alternative just double-click the Multimedia icon. Click the Video tab on the top of the window. In the drop-down menu next to Window, select Show Video in Full Screen. Click OK and view the video.

Eliminating Slow to Display Icons

If you are heavily using the Control Panel then leave it open on the first time. That way, you don't have to repeat the clicks to open it again, and you don't have to wait for the slow-to-display Control Panel icons to redisplay.

The Easiest Way to Install True Type Fonts

As you know, it's much simpler to install True Type fonts in Windows 9X/Me than previous versions of Windows. The easiest way to do so is to first open Control Panel and double-click the Fonts icon. Open Explorer and drag the fonts from your disk or CD to the Fonts window. Note that the installation process is invisible, you can verify that it worked by trying to use the new fonts in any Windows-based applications.

The 24-hours System and AM/PM

If you want to show the zero number on the clock (for example, 9:00 appear as 09:00), try to change the time style to HH:mm:ss ttt. The "H" is a code for 24-hours system that used on some countries in the world. Meanwhile, if you want to use AM/PM (Ante/Post Meridian) system, you need to enter "h" or "hh" code.

Removing the Similar Fonts

To save hard disk space and to get faster Windows startup, you might want to delete several types of fonts. To do so, click on the Start button. In the Settings menu, click Control Panel, and then click the Fonts icon. In the View menu, select List Fonts By Similarity. In the List Fonts By Similarity To box, click a standard font type (Arial, Times New Roman, etc). All available fonts will be appeared by their similarities with the selected font. You can delete some of them.

Organizing Control Panel

To get more effective desktop, you can organize the Control Panel icons into several Start menu subfolders. Try to organize them based on icon function. For example, Hardware tab consists of the Add New Hardware, Mouse, Joystick, Keyboard, Modems, and Printer icons. Settings tab consists of the Display, Accessibility, Regional Setting, and Password icons, etc. Use the Windows Explorer to do all the procedures, and then create all the shortcuts that are needed to activate the Control Panel-in the C:\Windows\Start Menu folder.

Move Fast Between Two Desktop Schemes

You can take a benefit from High Contrast, one of the accessibility features, to move fast between two Windows desktop schemes. Click on Start-Settings-Control Panel-Accessibility Options. If there is no Accessibility Options icon on Control Panel, then you must first install it from Windows 9X/Me CD. Move to Display tab to open the High Contrast feature, and then select Use High Contrast. Click on Settings, and select Use shortcut. On Color Scheme area choose Custom. Choose one of desktop scheme from the list on the right, and click OK.

Move to General tab, deselect Automatic reset, and click OK. Starting from now you can move fast between two desktop schemes by pressing LEFT ALT + LEFT SHIFT + PRINT SCREEN.

Make Your Friend Annoyed, Again!

Click on Start-Setting-Control-Panel-Accessibility Options. Move to Keyboard tab, select Use Filter Keys and then click on Settings button. Select on Use Shortcut inside the Settings for Filter Keys area. Select only beep when keys pressed or accepted inside the Notification area. Select on Ignore quick keystrokes and slow down the repeat rate inside the Filter options area, and then click on Settings button next to it.

Advanced Settings for Filter Keys dialog box will be displayed. Select on Slow down keyboard repeat rates, move all sliding button to the Short, click OK, and OK again. Now move to Sound tab, select on Use Sound Sentry and then click on Settings button next to it.

Settings for Sound Sentry dialog box will be displayed. Choose Flash Desktop on the first column, Flash Display on the second column, and then click OK. Click OK again to close Accessibility Options box.

Starting from now, monitor screen will be blinked every time your friend types something on keyboard.

Control Panel CPL Files

The following are the files that display icons in the Control Panel. They reside in the C:\Windows\System folder. If you are missing any icons in the Control Panel, you want to make sure the CPL file is in the System folder. You can also remove (or hide) unneeded files by deleting them, moving them to another location, or renaming them (example *.cp~ or *.cp$)

Access.cpl - Accessibility properties
Appwiz.cpl - Add/Remove Programs properties
Desk.cpl - Display properties
FindFast.cpl - FindFast (included with Microsoft Office)
Inetcpl.cpl - Internet properties
Intl.cpl - Regional Settings properties
Joy.cpl - Joystick properties
Main.cpl - Mouse properties
Mlcfg32.cpl - Microsoft Exchange Service properties
Mmsys.cpl - Multimedia properties
Modem.cpl - Modem properties
Netcpl.cpl - Network properties
Odbccp32.cpl - Data Sources (32-bit ODBC)
Password.cpl - Password properties
Sysdm.cpl - System properties
Themes.cpl - Desktop Themes (available with Microsoft Plus!)
TimeDate.cpl - Date/Time properties

Control Panel Applet Descriptions

Still confused by a lot of applets inside the Control Panel window? Open the Windows Explorer, click on the View – Details menu, and then browse to the Control Panel folder. In the right pane of Explorer you'll see a brief description of each icon in Control Panel.

Clean up Control Panel

If you look closely, you will see there are several CPL files in the C:\Windows\System folder. Those files are the property of Control Panel. Sometimes when you install a specific application, a control icon is added to the Control Panel window. Examples are the Find Fast icon from Microsoft Office, the Corel Version icon from CorelDraw 8, etc. If you want, you can delete some of Control Panel files that cannot be used. For safety, it is much better not to delete but just move them to another folder so they can be used on other time.

Benefit from the Control Panel Icons

When you are bored with all of Windows 9X/Me shortcut icons, perhaps it's the time for you to take benefit from the Control Panel icons (*.CPL extension). All those files are located in the C:\Windows\System folder, such as Main.cpl, Mmsys.cpl, Desk.cpl, Intl.cpl, Joy.cpl, etc. The Control Panel only uses the first icon of the available application icons, the rest are yours.

Note:

The right procedure is by right clicking the Fonts icon and select Properties. The resulting dialog box will tell you the total size of all installed fonts.

Make Your Friend Annoyed

As you know, you can select all files inside a folder in Windows Explorer, right clicking the selection, and click on Properties to display a single Properties dialog box listing the total size of all the selected files. Tell your friends if they didn't know about it. Now, ask your friend to open the Control Panel, double click the Fonts icon, and then select all fonts inside the folder. Right click the selection and choose Properties. Doing so will not open a single Properties dialog box listing the total size of all the selected fonts, as he might expect. Instead, Windows will proceed to open a Properties dialog box for EVERY selected font!

An Easier Shortcut

If you often to use shortcuts on you daily tasks, you might want to use the Sticky Keys feature to get easier task. For example, you need to press Ctrl+U key with left hand to activate a macro (while your right hand used to control the mouse). Obviously, this is a difficult task since both keys is far from one to another. On the contrary, if the Sticky Keys feature activated, you can press Ctrl key, release your finger then press the U key. To activate Sticky Keys, perform these steps:

Click on Start-Settings-Control Panel-Accessibility Options. You need to install it first from Windows CD if there is no Accessibility icon. In the Keyboard section, select Use Sticky Keys, and then click the Settings button. Select all options in the Settings for Sticky Keys box, and finally click OK

An Alternative Way to activate Control Panel

Actually, every Control Panel file can be activated by typing: Control name.cpl command. "Name" means name of file that you want to activate. For example, you can directly activate the Main.cpl, Mmsys.cpl, Desk.cpl, Intl.cpl, Joy.cpl files, etc. Use this method to get faster access to configure the Control Panel items, via the Run box or MS-DOS prompt window.