WINDOWS 95 MORE READY FOR 2000

     For the most part PC users have little to fear on 
Janurary 1, 2000.  That doesn't mean the transition will 
go without a hitch, though.  If you use Windows 95 Date
command at the DOS prompt to change your system date,
windows will squawk at you unless  you type in all four 
digits (in other words, it likes 2000 but balks at 00) for
the years 2000 to 2079.  A 258kb update at support.microsoft.
com/download/support/mslfiles/win95y2k.exe updates the 
command, and adds a new switch to the Dir command that 
forces it to display file dates using four digits instead
of two.  The patch also includes an updated version of the
16 bit File Manager utility; the version included on the 
windows 95 CD couldn't handle file dates after 1999 correctly.
     Windows NT 4.0 has its own trouble with the year 2000.
If you happen to set a user's account to expire on Feburary
29, 2000, the User Manager utility dutifully, and incorrectly
informs you that 2000 is not a leap year.  The problem
is resolved in the forthcoming Service Pack 4.

  UNCLOG YOUR NET ACCESS FOR FAST RELEIF!!


     Ever hear of the MTU??  Nope??  It's not the Boston
subway or the music video channel.  It's an obscure 
setting in Windows 95's Registry most people are unaware
of!!
     Tweaking the MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) can double,
and in some cases even triple the throughput of your Internet
access in less than five minutes.  And for an unbelievable
price: Free!!
      How does it work??  Prepare for a little geekspeak.
Data shoots across the Internet and into your computer in
packets.  The packets are sized for optimal transfer speed
over Internet backbones, routers, and ethernet networks.
But if  your connected through a modem and an Internet 
Service Provider, this default packet size is less than
optimal.  The result??  A substantial performance hit 
because the packets are fragmented and need to be re-assembled.
     Naturally, I'm gonna point my finger at Microsoft.
The computer giant obviously wasn't paying attention when
it set the MTU default to 1500 in the Windows 95 Registry.
Lower that number to 576, and your throughput will increase
substantially.  Even Microsoft has admitted that the change
is useful and has repaired the problem in Windows 98.

     With nothing more than RegEdit, a free tool that's 
probably already on your hard drive, you can make the 
change in a few minutes.
     But don't mess with the Registry just yet.  First,
back it up with Microsoft's free Configuration Backup
utility.  That way, if you wreck your system or screw 
anything up, you can always restore the old settings.
You already have a copy of Configuration Backup--it's
on your Win95 CD-ROM in the Other/Misc/Cfgback directory.
If you can't find your disc, download the program from
www.fileworld.com part of PC World Online.
     If your Registry saavy, you'll find that there's 
nothing to it.  Use RegEdit's Find feature to search for
Max-MTU, pressing F3 to repeat the search if necassary.
Once there, right click on MaxMTU in the right pane, 
choose Modify, and change the Value Data to 576.  Then
close the registry, reboot the system, and get ready to
fly.
     If RegEdit can't find a MaxMTU setting, or if you 
feel at all confused, or afraid to mess with your registry
files..(they are very, very, critical)..don't worry.  You
can download one of several great MTU presto-change-o 
utilities in minutes.  All of these will make the changes
for you, and they're available at www.fileworld.com.
     The easiest of the programs to use is PPP-Boost
(www.c3sys.demon.co.uk).  It's free, and the interface
takes no special skills to use.  Good luck!!     

         Back Up Your Registry:

     Its' a good idea to keep a backup of your Registry
on your hard drive before you attempt to make any potentially
dangerous change.  Here's how to do it:

     First, open Windows Explorer, select View*Options, and on
the View tab select Show All files; then click OK.  Create
a folder named C:\regback.  Navigate to the c:\Windows 
folder, and find the files system.dat and user.dat.  Right
click and drag these files to another folder, selecting
the Copy Here option from the pop-up menu.
     Should you need to restore your Registry, shut down
Windows, selecting the Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode
option.  At the c:/windows> prompt, enter the following
commands, where c:/regback is the path to the folder 
containing your Registry backup:
        attrib-s-h-r system.dat
        attrib-s-h-r user.dat
        attrib-s-h-r C:\regback\*.dat
        copy c:\regback\*.dat
        attrib+s+h+r system.dat
        attrib+s+h+r user.dat
        Enter Y in response to the two prompts you get 
after entering the copy command.  Then reboot to windows.

        FAT 16 vs Fat 32

     The traditional FAT 16 file system cant manage partitions
larger than 2GB and it can handle that size only by storing
files in wasteful 32kb clusters.  A FAT32 drive can work
with partitions up to 2 terabytes and can use 4kb clusters
on partitions as large as 8GB.  Until windows 98 ships,
(which it has now) FAT32 will be available only on new 
systems.
     To see if your system can use FAT32, right-click
My Computer and select Properties.  Under System on the
General tab, look for the number 4.00.950 B.  To see if 
your system  is using FAT32, double click My Computer,
right click the C: drive, and select properties.  If the
Type line includes the word 'FAT32', that's what you've 
got!!