WinDOwS Tricks - Part 15
NECESSARY STEPS:
[boot]
drivers=mmsystem.dll whatever.vxd
etc...
; power.drv
DO NOT remark/disable ANY other filenames on the "drivers=" line!
[386enh]
; device=*vpowerd
Save your file.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
and then to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\VCOMM
Under each key above -> double-click on the "EnablePowerManagement" DWORD/Binary (depending on your Win9x/ME release) Value in the right hand pane -> change ALL characters to read 0 (zero) -> click OK/press Enter.
Your Windows machine should perform significantly smoother from now on, without annoying interruptions and/or intermittent errors. :)
FYI:
See this Windows 98/98 SE/ME APM (Advanced Power Management)
guide.
Are you tired
of watching the same old spinning icon (called "throbber" or "flying logo") in the right upper corner of your Netscape
browser window until a web page stops loading? If your answer is YES, read on...
You can easily replace it with a better
looking one you can download from the pages linked further below, or you can create your own using an animated GIF
editor/creator. I prefer these Windows 9x/NT4/2000/ME/XP/2003 32-bit tools: GifIcon [1.85 MB, nag
shareware] + Microsoft GIF Animator [1 MB, free].
Usually these two files are called
30M.BMP (30x30 pixels) and 48M.BMP (48x48 pixels), and they are just animated GIFs converted to Windows
bitmaps (.BMP format). The number of colors can be anything between 256 and 16 million, but pay attention that they may look
ugly if you have set your Windows resolution to only 256 colors and the logos are rendered for example at 16-bit (65,000
colors).
The frames that make up the animation must be lined up side by side horizontally without spaces. You can cut
& paste them together using any graphic/image viewer/editor supporting BOTH the BMP and GIF formats. I prefer:
config("toolbar.logo.win_small_file","30m.bmp");
config("toolbar.logo.win_large_file","48m.bmp");
config("toolbar.logo.frames",20);
config("toolbar.logo.url","http://www.mdgx.com/");
Replace
the frames number above (20 in this case) with the actual number of frames in your throbber, and the URL on line #4 with the
Internet address of your choice, which will load up whenever you click on the flying logo (default is the Netscape web site).
Save your file.
Note that Netscape 4.xx supports any names for its logos ONLY IF you match the Prefs.js lines with your
file names.
ATTRIB +R C:\NETSCAPE\USERS\USERID\PREFS.JS
If you don't do this, your custom throbber lines will be erased from Prefs.js the next time you open the browser. :(
Dedicated Netscape spinning logo pages:
FYI:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cplfile\DefaultIcon
Double-click the right hand pane "(Default)" String Value and modify it to read "%1" (no quotes).
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\DefaultIcon
Double-click the right hand pane "(Default)" String Value and modify it to read "%1" (no quotes).
From now on when you
look at a folder listing these file types you'll see some cool (hidden) icons. :)
The only disadvantage is that files that
don't contain ANY icons will still display the default "unknown type" icon. :(
Alternatively, and especially if you dislike "messing" with the Registry, you can run [(double)-click in Windows Explorer or File Manager (FM = %windir%\WINFILE.EXE)] the .REG file below (copy & paste its lines in Notepad and save it for example as OWNICON.REG), to achieve all this in one "swift" move:
-----Begin cut & paste here----- [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cplfile\DefaultIcon]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\DefaultIcon]
REGEDIT4
@="%1"
@="%1"
------End cut & paste here------
And the beauty is that you can do this for other file types too, like: .ACM, .AX, .BMP, .DRV, .EXE, .GIF, .JPG, .OCX, .SCR, .VBX, .VXD etc.
FYI: See "ICON BITMAP", also in REGISTRY.TXT [part of W95-11D.EXE], for more details.
"Run Regedit and go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Modify/create the
"ShowInfoTip" DWORD Value (no quotes) and give it a value of 0 in the Decimal box. To restore the tooltips
change its Decimal value to 1.
The Start button tooltip still pops up though. :("
HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\desktop
Backup this key FIRST
to be able to restore the tooltips later on: click the Registry item from the Menu -> select "Export Registry File..." ->
browse to the folder of your choice -> type TTIPON.REG (or whatever name you want, but keep the REG extension) ->
click the Save button.
Now scroll to the "UserPreferencemask" Binary Value in the right hand pane. Double-click on
it -> delete the first 2 digits by placing the cursor after the second character (there are a total of 8 editable digits
there) -> hit Backspace twice -> type 3e (case insensitive) -> click OK or press Enter.
You can also use this REG
file (copy the lines bellow in Notepad and save it as TTIPOFF.REG), if you dislike "messing" with the
Registry:
-----Begin cut & paste here----- [HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control
Panel\desktop]
REGEDIT4
"UserPreferencemask"=hex:3e,00,00,00
------End cut & paste here------
To restore the tooltips to the previous state, just run TTIPON.REG.
More info @ MSKB.
But this canNOT be achieved without a Registry tweak, because the maximum transfer
speed (default) allowed by Windows 9x/ME is 115200 bps, enabled from: Control Panel -> Modems -> Your Modem
Name -> Properties -> General tab -> Maximum speed -> 115200 -> OK -> OK.
To enable and use this higher speed,
run Regedit and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Modem\0000
Note that your modem
might be installed under the 0001, 0002 etc keys, not necessarily under 0000. Highlight the appropriate one.
In the
right hand pane double-click the "Properties" Binary value. You'll notice that the 7th up to the 10th digits on the
4th row (the one that begins with 0018) show C2 01 (or 84 03), which corresponds to a maximum connection speed of
115200 (or lower) bps. Highlight and replace them with 10 0E to bump it up to 921200.
Geek speak: replace the 24th
up to the 27th byte (0x18h) as shown above.
Do NOT change anything else there! Click OK when done and close
the Registry Editor.
For convenience you can use the REG file below to do this without having to alter the Binary value.
Just make sure the modem key matches the one in your Registry (replace 0000 with 0001 or 0002 etc if necessary):
-----Begin cut & paste here----- REGEDIT4 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Modem\0000] "Properties"=hex:80,01,00,00,ff,00,00,00,ff,00,00,00,07,00,00,00,0f,00,00,00,\ 77,07,00,00,00,10,0e,00,00,fa,00,00 ------End cut & paste here------
Paste the lines between cut &
paste into Notepad (the empty line at the end is necessary!) and save this file as 921200.REG. Then (double)-click
on it in Windows Explorer or File Manager (FM = %windir%\WINFILE.EXE) to merge it into your Registry.
Now if you open
Control Panel -> Modems... and follow the same steps above, you can see that 3 new settings are available: 230400, 460800
+ 921600.
Reset your modem's "Maximum speed" to one of these new values (some experimenting might be necessary
depending on your hardware specs), save your changes, and finally, connect to the Internet as usual. I'm sure you'll notice
the speed boost. :)
CAUTION: If you try this on internal 56K modems, your connection may lock up, and/or experience various errors while using any communications apps or the Internet, which may also occur if your external modem does NOT have a 25 MHz or faster CPU! If that is the case, reset the "Maximum speed" (see above) back to 115200.
TIPS:
UPDATE: "My US Robotics Sportster external modem shuts down and is not recognized by
the PC when I set it to any speed above 115200. :("
[Thank you Brian!]
FreeMem=Space(24000000)
Save it as FREEMEM.VBS (Visual Basic
Script file) and place it on the Desktop. The filename is of no importance, but the extension must be kept.
But first you
need to make sure your Windows 9x/ME system has the newest version of Microsoft Scripting Engines (MSE) 5.6 properly
installed.
If using Windows 98/ME or MS IE 5/6, you already have all these system components installed, but an older
version (5.1 or 5.5).
If using Windows 95, OSR1 or OSR2 without MS IE 5.x, you need to download and install MSE.
For
more WSH info read this MSKB article.
Now whenever
you want to regain a little more RAM, especially after long periods of time, when system memory depletion might start
impairing overall Windows performance, just (double)-click on FREEMEM.VBS, and your system's available RAM will
increase with the amount specified in parenthesis (see above), in this case 24 Mb. You can adjust this number to match your
needs (even create more VBS files to free different memory amounts), but try not to go over 1/2 your installed RAM.
If you
do exceed the maximum of (re)usable RAM, you'll get a "Windows Scripting Host - Script Execution Error" message box,
like:
"Category: Microsoft VBScript runtime error
Description: Out of string space:
'Space'"
Make sure to close ALL programs you're done with BEFORE running FREEMEM.VBS.
To execute the VBS file
unattended, you could use System Agent (Task Scheduler) to run it at will (i.e. once an hour), but that would consume extra
CPU cycles and Windows GDI resources. :(
"This technique detects the presence of Windows in a DOS batch (.BAT) file, useful for preventing crashes, if your batch file needs to run ONLY from native MS-DOS, or ONLY from a Windows DOS box/session, i.e. while manipulating the Registry with REGEDIT.EXE (example):
@ECHO OFF
MEM /C | FIND /I "vmm32">NUL
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO NO
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO
OK
:OK
:: Your batch command lines go here...
GOTO END
:NO
ECHO Windows
detected!
:END
EXIT
Save these lines as DETWIN.BAT, or place them in batch files before the lines that
depend on Windows presence/absence to run.
This batch file example continues to execute only from a DOS
box/prompt/session/window within Windows GUI, and aborts if Windows is not running.
You can force this BAT example to work
only from native/real/true/pure MS-DOS mode outside Windows, and abort if Windows is running, by replacing all NO
instances above with OK (and vice versa)."
SET | FIND.EXE "windir" | IF ERRORLEVEL 0 ECHO Windows detected!
Save line above as DETWIN.BAT (or any other .BAT name), place it in a directory (folder) in your path (specified in your AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS), or paste it into batch files depending on Win9x/ME or Win31 GUI detection to run certain DOS commands/programs selectively (i.e. temporary directory/file "cleaners" using DELTREE, DEL, COPY, MOVE etc).
NOTES:
If using MS IE 5/6/newer make sure BLANK.HTM file size is LARGER than 512 Bytes!
-----Begin cut & paste here-----
<html><head><title>Go
Away!</title></head><body
onLoad=this.focus();self.opener=this;self.close()><center><h2>Go
Away!</h2></center></body></html>
------End cut & paste
here------
This particular JavaScript will also automatically close the MS IE window.
JavaScript MUST be enabled
in MS IE for this to work!
Save your file, exit Notepad, and then (re)start MS IE.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
In the right hand pane double-click on
"Local Page" and replace C:\Windows\System\blank.htm with the file name of the HTML document you want, found
preferably on your local computer, so you won't have to wait for a remote web page to load off the Internet. Make sure to
type the full path to your file (drive letter and folder name) in the "Value data:" box.
I use a simple web page which
displays a cool JPG. Example of creating such an HTM document in Notepad (save it as 1STPIC.HTM, or whatever other
name you wish, just keep the HTM or HTML extension):
-----Begin cut & paste
here-----
<html><head><title>1st Pic</title><style>
BODY{OVERFLOW:AUTO;MARGIN:0px}
</style></head><body><center><a
href=http://www.mdgx.com/><img border=0
src="file:///C|/pics/1stpic.jpg"></a></center></body></html>
------End cut & paste here------
Note that 1stpic.jpg resides in this case in
C:\PICS.
If you place your image into the same directory/folder as your HTML file, there is no need to specify its path on
the src= line, which should look like this:
src=1stpic.jpg
You can modify the page
title/layout/etc, JPG file name/path to your liking, or replace it with your favorite GIF or PNG file.
Exit Regedit when
done, (re)start MS IE and then surf away.
FYI:
file:///C|/WINDOWS/WEB/BLANK.HTM
-> click OK/Apply.
"To extract any file(s) from your Windows 95/98/ME Setup CD-ROM CABinets (CABs), create a small DOS batch (.BAT) file using Notepad in Windows or EDIT.COM in DOS, say EXTRACT.BAT [or any other suggestive name, just keep the BAT extension :)], with these lines:
@ECHO OFF
MEM /C |
FIND /I "vmm32">NUL
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO END
C:
CD\
IF NOT EXIST \EXTRACT\NUL MD
\EXTRACT>NUL
CD\EXTRACT
VER | FIND /I "95">NUL
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO W95
VER | FIND /I "98">NUL
IF
NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO W98
VER | FIND /I "Mill">NUL
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO WME
GOTO END
:W95
EXTRAC32.EXE
/A /L C:\EXTRACT D:\WIN95\WIN95_02.CAB %1 %2 %3 %4 %5
GOTO END
:W98
EXTRAC32.EXE /A /L C:\EXTRACT
D:\WIN98\WIN98_21.CAB %1 %2 %3 %4 %5
GOTO END
:WME
EXTRAC32.EXE /A /L C:\EXTRACT D:\WIN9X\WIN_10.CAB %1 %2 %3 %4
%5
:END
CLS
EXIT
D is your CD/DVD drive letter (change if necessary).
You could also use the DOS
based EXTRACT.EXE tool instead of Extrac32.exe, but if the original files have
Long File Names (LFNs), this information will be lost. :(
Note that EXTRACT.BAT works ONLY from a Windows DOS
box/session/window, NOT from native/real/true/pure MS-DOS mode!
Place this BAT file anywhere. Create a shortcut to it. Then
right-click on it -> click Properties -> on the Shortcut tab add a space after the command line:
drive:\path\EXTRACT.BAT
Place this shortcut into the folder of your choice, i.e. on your
Desktop.
Now when you need to restore a corrupted or overwritten Windows system file or any type of files from the
installation CD-ROM, just (double)-click the shortcut and type in the filename (wildcards are accepted). Extracted files will
go to C:\EXTRACT in this case.
Voila."
UPDATE: "Win98/98 SE(U)/ME users can also extract
any Windows System files this way: click the Start button -> Run... -> type SFC (System File Checker) or
MSCONFIG (System Configuration Tool = WinME users ONLY) -> click the Extract File... button (MSCONFIG ONLY) -> type in
the EXACT name AND extension of the file you want to extract -> click OK.
If you copied the CAB files to your local hard
disk/partition, you can extract from there, otherwise point to your Windows Setup CD-ROM."
[Thank you Silimtao!]
Extract Files From Windows Setup Cabs VBS Script (free).
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Look (or create if not present) in the right hand pane for the "PagingFiles" MultiString Value [REG_MULTI_SZ]. Edit it with a right-click, and give it these values: 80 80 to match the ones from Windows 3.1x/9x/ME SYSTEM.INI (see example below).
PagingFile=X:\PAGEFILE.SYS
PagingDrive=X:
MinPagingFileSize=xxxxxx
MaxPagingFileSize=xxxxxx
Where X: is the drive/partition letter you selected for the Win9x/ME swap file, and
xxxxxx represents both the Maximum and Minimum sizes (which should be IDENTICAL) of PAGEFILE.SYS in
KiloBytes.
Modify/add them to show actual values, depending on your system configuration and preferences. Example using
drive E: and an 80 MB fixed swap file:
PagingFile=E:\PAGEFILE.SYS
PagingDrive=E:
MinPagingFileSize=81920
MaxPagingFileSize=81920
Now highlight and copy all these lines to the Clipboard.
FYI:
"To have a "Mailto:" URL you click in an external browser open in AOL e-mail instead of Outlook Express (or whatever 3rd party e-mail application you're using), you need to Edit the "Open" Action for the "URL:Mailto Protocol" under File Types in Explorer to point to Aol.exe, by adding these command line switches (quote marks are necessary as shown):
"drive:\directory\aol.exe -nUsername -pPassword -u" "%1"
[Thank you Troy for the correct syntax!]
Where:
NOTE: To learn about all AOL command line parameters see "AOL.EXE SWITCHES", also in AOLTIPS.TXT [part of both W95-11D.EXE and W31-11D.ZIP].
UPDATE: "With AOL 7.0 in Windows 98 the shortcut target for supplying AOL with name and password is (default location):
"C:\Program Files\America Online 7.0\aol.exe" -nUserName -pPassWord
Note that the name and password
parameters are not between the quotes."
[Thank you Ken!]
"To open an URL (internet address) directly with AOL, add this new command to the "Internet Shortcut" file type in Explorer -> View -> Options -> Open with AOL. The command line should read (quote marks are necessary as shown):
"drive:\directory\aol.exe -u" "%1"
Any
stand-alone browser that was the default for the "Internet Shortcut" should remain the default. Right-clicking an Internet
Shortcut and selecting "Open with AOL" will now open and dial AOL, and then open the Internet Shortcut with the normal
(default) browser.
This is tricky though, and may cause some strange results with different browsers and
versions."
NOTE: To learn about all AOL command line parameters see "AOL.EXE SWITCHES", also in AOLTIPS.TXT [part of both W95-11D.EXE and W31-11D.ZIP].
"I don't know if you (or anybody else)
have seen this, but I discovered this technique, and have written a dedicated X-Setup plugin.
It allows changing the current and default
identities in Outlook Express 5 without knowing the password. Useful if you've forgotten your password, or you want to look
at other peoples' e-mail. :)
Open Regedit and go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities
which is the
base Registry key for all this. Here you'll find a bunch of LUID/GUID subkeys. Each of them holds the value
"Username". If you look at the "Username" of each LUID/GUID key, you can find which account you are interested in. For
example, my LUID/GUID key {23AE6B7B-34B3-11D3-93C9-C38154464F49} has the Username value "My Account".
Copy
this LUID/GUID key to "Last User ID" or "Default User ID" (see below), to change the current or default user to
this identity without having to know the password.
Here is a snapshot (.REG file) containing the keys mentioned
above:
-----Begin cut & paste here-----
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities]
"Last Username"="My Account"
"Last User ID"="{23AE6B7B-34B3-11D3-93C9-C38154464F49}"
"Default User ID"="{23AE6B7B-34B3-11D3-93C9-C38154464F49}"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{23AE6B7B-34B3-11D3-93C9-C38154464F49}]
"Username"="My Account"
"User ID"="{23AE6B7B-34B3-11D3-93C9-C38154464F49}"
------End cut & paste here------You can make these changes by editing the
Registry using Regedit, or by merging such a .REG file into the Registry by (double)-clicking on it in Explorer or File
Manager.
Backup the Registry FIRST to revert back to original when you're done, to allow other users to access their OE
e-mail accounts, if you're not the only one using that computer. :)
You have to exit and restart OE5 to see the
effect."
[Screen Saver.SSName]
Just substitute the SSName string above with your actual Screen Saver name, and change one (or both) of these lines (depending on your particular SS settings) under the SS section of your choice:
Password=#@$%& [or any other weird characters = encrypted password]
and/or:
PWProtected=1 [password protection ON]
to read:
Password= [leave it blank = NO password]
and/or:
PWProtected=0 [password protection OFF]
Alternatively, if you'd like
to get rid of a particular SS, just open Windows Explorer (Win9x/ME users) or File Manager (Win31 users) and search for the
.SCR files, located by default in your Windows or Windows\System directories.
Now delete (or move to a safe
location) the .SCR file(s) you want.
Some 3rd party Savers install other files in these (see above), and/or other
(separate) directories, so you may want to erase/move them too, to properly remove them from your system, and keep your hard
drive(s) as "clean" as possible.
If a particular SS allows it, you can also (completely) remove it by:
"MS IE 3/4/5 and MS RegClean have a bug which prevents having the same internet cache as Netscape. MS puts a Cache subfolder within Netscape's Cache folder. I hate Microsoft's four folder Internet Cache arrangement, and I only want one internet cache, so I do the following:
F:\\Internet\\Netscape\\Users\\UserName
instead of:
F:\\Internet\\Netscape\\Users\\UserName\\Cache
But Explorer and the Registry are correct.
-----Begin cut & paste here----- REGEDIT4 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Cache\Paths] "Directory"="F:\\Internet\\Netscape\\Users\\UserName\\Cache\\" "Paths"=dword:00000004
"NewDirectory"="" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Cache\Paths\Path1] "CachePath"="F:\\Internet\\Netscape\\Users\\UserName\\Cache\\" "CacheLimit"=dword:00001e296 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Cache\Paths\Path2] "CachePath"="F:\\Internet\\Netscape\\Users\\UserName\\Cache\\" "CacheLimit"=dword:00001e296 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Cache\Paths\Path3] "CachePath"="F:\\Internet\\Netscape\\Users\\UserName\\Cache\\" "CacheLimit"=dword:00001e296 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Cache\Paths\Path4] "CachePath"="F:\\Internet\\Netscape\\Users\\UserName\\Cache\\" "CacheLimit"=dword:00001e296 ------End cut & paste here------
Substitute all UserName strings
above with your real user name.
Change the drive letters and/or folder names if different on your machine.
Then
double-click on CACHE.REG to merge this information into your Registry."
CAUTION: BACKUP your Registry files FIRST!
