Windows 98 Tips Page 7



*1.   DR. WHO? PART 1 OF 2 

Have you been experiencing system faults? Before you call a Windows 98
 support technician, call Dr. Watson. Dr. Watson is a troubleshooting
 utility that takes system snapshots of the present state of your system
 that may be able to help solve a problem. 

Select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information.
 In the System Information window, select Tools, Dr. Watson. Click the
 Dr. Watson icon that appears in the tray of your Taskbar, select
 Dr. Watson, and wait as this utility generates a system snapshot,
 resulting in (you hope) a diagnosis of the problem. 

(Tip: To view nine tabs-worth of details captured by the snapshot,
 select View, Advanced View.) Name and save the log file. You now have
 a great resource for that support technician you're about to call. 


*2.   DR. WHO? PART 2 OF 2 

In our last tip, we introduced Dr. Watson, a Windows 98 troubleshooting
 utility that takes system snapshots to help diagnose problems. A nice
 feature of this utility is that it takes a snapshot automatically when
 a system fault occurs. But--Dr. Watson has to be running in order to
 take a snapshot. 

To be sure that Dr. Watson is running all the time, place a shortcut to
 Windows\Drwatson.exe in your Startup folder (likely in
 C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp). From now on, this utility
 will load whenever Windows 98 starts. 


*3.   Fix Windows Update

If the Windows Update item on your Win98 Start menu stops working, here's
 how to fix it. First, delete the Windows Update entry on the Start menu
 by right-clicking on it and choosing Delete. Now replace it with a
 shortcut to C:\WINDOWS\WUPDMGR.EXE. Name the shortcut Windows Update.


*4.   MAXIMUM WINDOW CTRL 

Ever click IE 4.x's Full Screen button in order to make that window just
 as big as it can be (the menus shrink and the title bar disappears)?
 Well here's a little secret: This trick is available from inside any
 Explorer window. Assuming the window is not currently maximized--in
 other words, you can see all of its edges--hold down the Ctrl key as
you click the middle caption button in that window's upper-right corner.
 And watch it grow. 

The tricky part is getting the window back to the size you started with.
 Of course, one way is to close and reopen the window. The other, less
 obvious route is to move your mouse pointer down to the bottom of the
 screen (to make the Taskbar appear), right-click the window's Taskbar
 item and select Restore. (Note: If you minimize the window first,
 right-clicking the Taskbar item and selecting Restore will only return
 the window to the full screen view.) 


*5.   Undo Win98 back to Win95

Here's what to do if you've saved your Win95 configuration and want to
 reinstall Win98 - and retain the option of uninstalling it and returning
 to Win95. Search for WINUNDO.* using the Find utility; you should see
 the two files that store your Win95 configuration: WINUNDO.DAT and
 WINUNDO.INI. Note their folder, then close Find and reboot your PC.
 When Windows first boots, hold down the Ctrl key to open the Startup
 menu. Select Command Prompt Only. At the prompt, navigate to the
 directory for the WINUNDO files, then create a folder named UNDO on
 your drive using the MD command. Type attrib -r -s -h WINUNDO.* at the
 prompt to remove the attributes of the WINUNDO files. Use the DOS MOVE
 command to move the WINUNDO.* files into the UNDO folder. Restart and
 reinstall Win98. Now the Win98 installation program won't know where
 to find your Win95 undo files, and they'll be safe.


*6.   NO-SEE-'EM MENUS 

In a previous tip, we showed you how to enlarge any Explorer window to
 full screen view (just like clicking the Full Screen button in IE 4.x):
 Assuming the window is not currently maximized--in other words, you can
 see all of its edges--hold down the Ctrl key as you click the middle
 caption button in the window's upper-right corner. 

Still not enough viewing space for you? Try hiding the toolbars too.
 Right-click a blank area on the menu bar (at the top of the screen)
 and select Auto Hide. Poof! The menu and button bars disappear from
 view. If and when you need them, move your mouse pointer up to the
 top edge of the screen, and they slide back into place. 

(Tip: To undo this option, right-click the menu bar and deselect Auto Hide.) 


*7.   When you perform an upgrade to Win98 on a Win95 machine that has or
 had Tweak UI for Win95 installed, you may see error messages that say
 Windows can't find TWEAKUI.CPL. If so, uninstall all instances of Tweak
 UI and reboot. Next, run Start/Find/Files or Folders and search for
 tweakui*.* across your entire hard disk. You should find no instances
 of the program, except for any setup files that might be on your hard
 disk. If you find Tweak UI files in your C:\WINDOWS folder or its
 subfolders, delete the files.


*8.   You can also follow the same steps in yesterday's tip to
 remove the Start menu's Favorites menu. First, back up your
 Registry files - C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT - before
 making any changes. Next, launch RegEdit and go to
 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
 \Policies\Explorer.

In the right pane, right-click on the background and select New/Binary
 Value. Type NoFavoritesMenu and press Enter. Double-click on the new
 icon and enter 01000000 in the Edit Binary Value dialog box. (Note:
 RegEdit automatically inserts three spaces into the value). Click on OK.
 Close RegEdit and restart Windows. To reverse the tip, delete the new
 binary value you added, or change it to 00000000.


*9.   Tweak UI To The Rescue

If you liked either of our last two tips but don't want to dive into
 the Registry, you can implement them using Tweak UI for Win98. Install
 Tweak UI from the Win98 CD's\TOOLS\RESKIT\POWERTOY folder. (Right-click
 on TWEAKUI.INF and choose Install to launch the setup process.) Then
 open the Tweak UI Control Panel, click on the IE4 tab and uncheck the
 "Show Documents on Start menu" option to remove the Documents menu and
 the RECENT folder. Uncheck the "Show Favorites on Start menu" option
 to remove the Favorites menu. Click on OK and reboot. (NOTE: You can
 also download Tweak UI for Win98 from WINDOWS Magazine's Web Site at
 http://www.winmag.com/win98/software.htm.)


*10.   START WITH A DESKTOP SHORTCUT 

Do you find your desktop a handier place for shortcuts than the Start
 menu? Then create shortcuts to your oft-used Start menu items on the
 desktop. Whereas in Windows 95, this operation required you to
 right-click Start, select Open, and so on..., now you can copy a
 shortcut using a simple click-and-drag operation. 

With all open windows minimized, click Start and navigate your way to
 a favorite shortcut, such as Start, Programs, Accessories, Paint.
 Click the item you want to turn into a shortcut (here, Paint), and
 without letting go (or else you'll open that item), drag it out to
 the desktop. Let go, and there's your shortcut!
