Tips for windows95

Tips for Win95

Maximum dos memory

For maximum DOS memory in an MS-DOS session, add the line
LocalLoadHigh=1 to the [386Enh] section of system.ini.

Explorer

To get Explorer to show a two directory view similar to File Manager just open two instances of the Explorer, right-click on the Task bar, and select
"Tile Vertically".
Win95 will retain both if you leave them running when you shut down so that they're instantly available the next time you boot up.

Windows 95 with SyQuest Drives

More and more people are asking about using SyQuest IDE drives under Win95. The following information may be helpful. The support for SyQuest IDE drives as removable drives started with build 431. In order to enable the support, one has to put:

RemovableIDE=True in the [386Enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI file.

If this line is not there, then Win95's protected mode IDE driver will not load. In addition, one may find an entry in the IOS.LOG file in the Win95 subdirectory in which there will be messages such as:
"ESDI punting due to removable hard disk.Unit number xx going through real mode drivers." When the line mentioned above is added to the [386enh] section of SYSTEM.INI, the IOS.LOG file will disappear and the Win95 file system will be 32-bit.
The other requirements for this support are that the SyQuest drive MUST have a formatted cartridge inserted when Win95 starts and there must not me another 32-bit module loaded in SYSTEM.INI such as the one provided by DTC for their IDE boards.
There is another setting called "Virtue Memory" in Win95. This will be in "MS-DOS compatibility mode" if C: drive is a removable drive, SCSI or IDE.

DOS 8.3 filenames in Win95

When having a folder name that consists out of more than 8 letters, e.g. NEW DOWNLOADS, this will become NEWDOW~1.
You can get rid of the tildes with a simple registry hack. Add the value NameNumericTail = 0 in the following Registry key:

Hkey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

and the above example (assuming there wasn't already a DOWNLOAD directory) would resolve to the correct eight-character name.

BMP icons

You can have the icon of all your BMPs a small picture of the actual bitmap.
Open regedit Find Paint.Picture (or whichever program BMPs are registered to) Add a New Key under Paint.Picture
DefaultIcon In the right pane,change the Default Value (by Double Clicking it) to %1.
%1 tells windows the default icon for this file type is in the file itself-since there is no icon in a BMP file, Windows 95 makes a small preview image of the BMP for the icon. Makes sorting and viewing BMPs super easy.

Deleting files immediately

If you hold down shift while dragging items into the Recycle Bin they will be DELETED immediately rather than being placed in the bin. Just be careful not to accidently multi-select more files than you wanted. Similarly, pressing Shift-Del gives you the same effect.

Win3.11 program groups

Is there a wayto get back my WfW 3.11 groups after an upgrade to Win95? Run the program grpconv.exe in your Windows directory. It will allow you to convert your Program Manager groups to Win95 folders in the Start Menu.

Video cards

Even if Win95 recognises your video card it often requires an entry in AUTOEXEC.BAT to set the correct refresh rates. For instance a Stealth 64 card requires a ref to S64MODE in AUTOEXEC.BAT.

Send To feature in explorer.

It's a hidden folder in C:\WINDOWS. You can add folders to it and be able to quickly move things around(right click on file - use Send To). You can also put WINZIP in there to make quick ZIP files.

Actions in explorer

In Explorer you can set up different actions to be performed on a document in addition to just the standard 'open' command that will be available to you when you right click on your icon. Go to an Explorer window and choose View | Options and then the tab 'File Types'. In the list you see, find the association for the file type you want to add an action to, e.g BMP. Double click on it to bring up the edit window. You should see that there is already at least one action here, probably Open, maybe Print, etc. Click on the New . . . button and type in a new command, like Edit or View or whatever you want. Then select the application you want to use to Edit your Bitmap, as opposed to just viewing it. Then when you right click on a BMP file you will see your new command there and you can easily choose to View, Edit, Open, Print . . . .whatever you want with whatever app you want to do it with.

MAking win3.11 programs more compatible

There's a magical little program that is automatically installed by Win95 that you can use to make Win 3.x programs more compatible under 95.It is called MKCOMPAT.EXE and is in the Windows\System directory.
Just run MKCOMPAT.EXE - Select File/Open - Open the EXE file that you are having problems with - Start highlighting things that seem like they may make a difference. - Select File/Advanced for more control options - Select File/Save to save the new configuration There is no online help - so some trial and error is in order until you find the optimal settings.

Turning off the logo

To turn off the Logo put the following in your CONFIG.SYS -or- MSDOS.SYS
[options] logo=0

CONTROL PANEL in the START-MENU

Create a new folder on your desktop... rename it, call it

Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

Now is should look like the normal Control Panel icon you see in My Computer (not a shortcut). Now do a right click on start (taskbar), click on open. Move the new folder we just created to the start menu folder. Close the start menu folder. Now when you click on start, you should see conrol panel on it... click on it and it will expandand show all the items!

PRINTING from START-MENU

Create a new folder on your desktop... rename it, call it Now is should look like the normal Printer icon you see in Control Panel.Move the new folder we just created to the start menu folder.

Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}

DIAL-UP NETWORKING in the STARTMENU

Create a new folder on your desktop... rename it, call it

DUN.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}

Now is should look like the normal DUN icon you see in Control Panel. Move the new folder we just created to the start menu folder.

Changing start-up and log-off logo's

You can change those lovely screens you see as you exit Windows95! Simply start up paintbrush and load up the files LOGOS.SYS and LOGOW.SYS and change them to whatever you want... they're just bitmaps( with the specificaties 320x400x8bits) with a different extension!

dual boot with Win95 & WFWG 3.11

1. Copy (duplicate) the whole Windows directory and all it's sub directories to another directory, like \WIN31. Copy the \DOS directory to another one as well, like \DOS6 .

2. Edit all the INI files in the WIN31 directory and change all references from \WINDOWS to \WIN31. The "find and replace" command in most word processors makes this easier, but be sure you save them as text files.

3. Boot up your PC and install Win95 SETUP through windows program manager "FILE-RUN". As you install WIN95 it will rename your CONFIG.SYS AND AUTOEXEC.BAT files to CONFIG.DOS and AUTOEXEC.DOS. (When you dual boot it renames them back to CONFIG.SYS AND AUTOEXEC.BAT....and then backups the WIN95 versions as .W40).

4. After Win95 finishes installing and you are on the desktop, use notepad with "select all files *.*" to edit the CONFIG.DOS and AUTOEXEC.DOS files and change all \WINDOWS references in them to \WIN31, and all \DOS references to \DOS6 .

5. In order for the dual boot menu to work, the following lines must appear in the [Options] section of your MSDOS.SYS file: (If you use Doublespace or Drivespace disk compression you must change both MSDOS.SYS files - one on the boot drive and one in the compressed drive)
[Options]
BootGUI=1
Network=0
BootMulti=1
BootMenu=1
BootMenuDefault=7 (original DOS as default. Use 1 for Win95 default)
BootMenuDelay=5 (number of seconds to select something else)
;
To add these lines, first, open "My Computer" and use the menu bar to VIEW - OPTIONS - VIEW - Show All Files, and also unclick "hide MS-DOS file extensions". Then double-click on the MSDOS.SYS icon and look. If it doesn't have all the above lines, you'll need to edit this file and put them in.
Since the MSDOS.SYS file is "read-only-hidden" you'll need to first change the file attributes and then use the notebook editor to insert the new line(s). Then you'll have to change the attributes back to their original states when done to protect the file.
To change the attributes, click on the MSDOS.SYS icon using your RIGHT mouse button. Select Properties and uncheck the attribute blocks. Exit and make your text changes, then save the file. Then put the attribute check marks back where they were.

7. Now, exit Win95 and re-boot. You should now see the boot menu and be able to select which mode you want to boot into.
Remember, any programs you install after this will only appear in the system you were running at install time. For example, if you install MS Word under Win95 you will have to install it again under old DOS/Windows if you want to run it both ways. You can install the program to the same directory both times and you'll simply overwrite the files and avoid having two sets of the new program on your hard drive.

To repair a corrupted or missing Start Menu directory

1.Click the Start button, and then click Shut Down.
2.Click Restart The Computer.
This creates a new Start Menu folder. If you continue to receive an error message when dragging items to the Start button, delete the Start Menu directory in My Computer or Windows Explorer, and then repeat this procedure.

Hidden taskbars

Whenever you maximize an application, Windows 95 resizes the window so it does not cover the taskbar. However, if an application (e.g. a DOS program) maximizes itself by using screen metrics to resize its window to take up the entire screen, the taskbar may be obscured. Because this type of application commonly has problems with the taskbar, Windows 95 hides the taskbar when this occurs, giving the application the entire screen. To display the taskbar, manually resize the application�s window or minimize the application. To display the Start menu, press CTRL+ESC.