The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group
Make your life easier
George Skarbek
 gskarbek@melbpc.org.au

Adding to the Win 95 Startup group

To add a program to the Startup group, right click on the Taskbar, Properties, Start Menu, Advanced, then open Programs and finally look in StartUp. In there are the programs that start automatically. You can then add (drag) the shortcuts into there.

Finding things on your Win 95 system

Ever used Explorer to find a file, but it was on another drive, so you had to use Find again and possibly again?

Well, Explorer allows you to search all drives in the one hit. Just select "My Computer" when you have Explorer open and Find will search all drives, or right-click on "My Computer" icon and select Find.

Need to find a file containing a particular word or phrase because you forgot the file name?

Still no problem. Under Find, select Advanced and in the box marked Containing Text just type in what you are seeking.

File extensions and WordPad

When you save a new file in WordPad, it will be given an extension of .DOC unless you specify one. However, there is a catch. You can only specify extensions that are recognised by Windows.

If you save a new file as ABC.INI it will work as Windows knows the .INI extension but saving it as ABC.XYZ will create a file called ABC.XYZ.DOC. To save the file, as you want it, enclose the name in quotes.

Deleting old programs

Often users, including myself, wish to delete old software that is no longer required. If that software has been specifically written to comply with Windows 95 standards then there is no problem. You just go to Control Panel, Add/Delete programs and remove it. This will remove all traces of the program, including any files in the Windows and System folders. Unfortunately much of the old software does not comply with Win 95 standards and a manual delete is required. The problem then becomes how can you be sure that all traces have been deleted.

Unfortunately there is no method that you can use to determine if all components of a program have been deleted. I will give you some guidelines on how to safely remove such programs. I will refer to the program as OLD-PROG. Before deleting the OLD-PROG folder and sub-folders look at the dates of the programs and associated files. If Windows Explorer does not show them, click on View, Details and adjust the width of the Explorer window until the Modified column appears. If you are using File Manager in Windows 3.1 then click on View, All File Details. See if most of the programs were created on the same date and time and if so, record that date.

The next step is to delete the OLD-PROG folder (sub-directory) and everything below it, unless you have created your own folders there.

Now there may, or may not, be some files left behind in the WINDOWS or WINDOWS\SYSTEM folders and a little bit of effort will be required to decide what else can be removed. If there is an OLD-PROG.INI file in the Windows folder then it can be safely deleted.

Using Explorer or File Manager, sort the files in the Windows folder by date. (In Explorer just click on the Modified heading and in File Manager click on View, Sort By Date). Check to see if any files have the same date and time as the OLD-PROG files. If there are some then these can be moved into a temporary folder and if all programs continue to work, these files can then be deleted in due course. If some other program fails, then these files should be put back. Repeat this procedure for the Windows\system folder. To move a file, just click once on it and drag it into the temporary folder.

The final step is to examine the WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI files in the Windows folder. Just double click on these files from Explorer or File Manager and they will be opened in the editor called Notepad. Use the Search option to find any references to OLD-PROG. If any are found just place a semi colon ( ; ) in front of that line, which makes it into a comment. If you find that something else is not working, remove the semi colon and re-boot the computer (as instructions in the WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI files are only read as Windows is starting).

Manipulating files

I have found that most users do not read the basic manuals. Therefore even relatively experienced users occasionally miss a very handy shortcut method.

When you are using Explorer, File Manager or any other Windows product to mark some files in a sub-directory, or folder, as Windows 95 refers to sub-directories, to copy, move or delete them, the following conventions apply to all Windows programs:

  • Clicking once on a file marks it by highlighting it
  • Clicking on another file, will mark it, and will de-select the first
  • By holding the Ctrl key when clicking, all the previously selected files remain selected
  • By holding the Shift key down when clicking, all files between the last highlighted file and the current file that is being selected will also be highlighted.
B oth Shift and Ctrl clicking can be used in the same session. An example of this use would be if you wanted to delete all but two or three files from a folder that contains very many files. This is achieved by using the Shift key process first:
  • Click once to highlight the first of the files to be deleted
  • Scroll down to the last file
  • Hold the Shift key down and click on the last file to mark the lot
  • Release the Shift key and scroll until you see a file that you wish to keep, then, holding the Ctrl key, click on it. This will unmark just this file and leave the others marked.
T o delete the marked files just press the Delete key. In Windows 95 if you hold the Shift key down when you press the Delete key, the files will be deleted immediately, rather than going into the Recycle bin and then having to be deleted from there.

In Windows 95 Explorer, to sort by date just click on the "Modified" heading. This helps you to quickly find the recent files. Or click on Size to find all the large files. Clicking a second time will reverse the sort order.
  • If these headings are not visible, but other headings are, then extend the Explorer window to the right.
  • If no headings are visible below the line which reads: Contents of ... then click on View and select Details.

Some quick tips

  • To see how much disk space is occupied by one branch of the directory when using Windows Explorer, right-click on the parent folder and select Properties, then the total space, number of folder and files will be shown.
  • At regular intervals:
    • Delete all *.TMP files
    • Run SCANDISK
    • Run DEFRAG.
  • For Windows 95 users with a Windows keyboard press the Windows key and F to quickly bring up the Find window.
  • When you are deleting files, do not delete hidden files unless you are absolutely sure of what they do and that they are dispensable.
  • To find how much wasted space there is in any given folder just open a DOS box and type DIR /V. This command will not work in DOS 6.x but only with Windows 95.
  • In Windows 95 to quickly view the Properties of an object just press Alt+double-click.
  • If you don't like the Icon of a shortcut in Windows 95 you can alter it by right-clicking on it, Properties, Program, Change Icon. If you still can't find the one you like then browse in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SHELL32.DLL, C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\PIFMGR.DLL or C:\WINDOWS\MORICONS.DLL.
Reprinted from the April 1998 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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