Tips & Tricks

For

Windows 95

______________________________Version 1.0______________________________

Windows 95 Tips, Tricks and Undocumented Feature

Here it is …. The FIRST Win95 Tips & Trick .hlp file on the scene…

If u have a tip or a trick for Windows 95 that is not included in this file, please send it to eneuman@haddock.cd.chalmers.se and you will be added to my mailing list and receive a update of this file as soon as there is one ;)

I DONT TAKE ANY RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT THEES TIPS & TRICKS MIGHT DO TO YOUR COMPUTER.

If you have any suggestion or FeedBack please email eneuman@haddock.cd.chalmers.se

Here we go …..

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Tip No #1

For maximum DOS memory in an MS-DOS session, add the line

LocalLoadHigh=1 to the [386Enh] section of system.ini.

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Tip No #2

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.

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Tip No #3

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.

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Tip No #4

To speed up the Program tree accessed from the START button ,open the Registry Editor, expand the HKEY_CURRENT_USER and then Control panel.Inside of Control Panel you'll find Desktop, highlight it w/o expanding it.

In the right pane make a right click and choose New-String value.

The name of the string is "MenuShowDelay" w/o the quotes, give it a value of 10 or less.

This value is the time in milliseconds that the popup will wait before showing.

When you restart WIN95 you'll see that the Start menu opens it's popups almost instantaneously.

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Tip No #5

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.

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Tip No #6

I installed Win95 into a new directory. Is there a way, now,to get back my WfW 3.11 groups?

I copied all the .grp files to the win95 directory, but how can I now tell Windows to use or convert these files?

-Run the program grpconv.exe in your Windows directory. It will allow you to convert your Program Manager groups to Win95 foldersin the Start Menu.

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Tip #7

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.

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Tip #8

Have you played with the SENDTO 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.

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Tip #9

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.

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Tip #10

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.

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Tip #11

To turn off the Logo put the following in your CONFIG.SYS -or- MSDOS.SYS

[options]

logo=0

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Tip #12

To turn off the Auto Load feature of Windows 95 Put the following in your

CONFIG.SYS -or- MSDOS.SYS...

[options]

BootGUI=0

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Tip #13

To have the option of booting your old DOS everytime you boot up put this in

your CONFIG.SYS -or- MSDOS.SYS...

[options]

BootMenu=1

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Tip #14

I always forget my PIN code to my creditcards. Now i use Schedule+ from Office for Windows 95, where i put them in as an "TO DO" that never will be checked, Then they, or it, will automatic be transfered to my Timex DATA LINK Watch for Windows, when i daily update my calender. That means, when I have my watch and my creditcards, I can always use the cash dispensers if needed. You can put in the digits in reverse order, or scramble them in another way. Simple - but very usefull   :-)

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Tip #15

Ever have too many programs open, and the taskbar has a bunch of "icons" that you can't read the title in?  Make it bigger!

This should have been obvious, but I just came across it one day. Just move your mouse cursor to the top of the task bar (if it's on the bottom) and drag it up. Win95 remembers position as well.

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Tip #16

Here's a simple trick that saves a bit of time.

When you want to rename a file, folder or desktop item do you find it a hassle to right click the item, choose Rename etc, etc before you can type in the new name?

Well, try this ....

1) LEFT click on the file, folder, or desktop item as you

normally would to select it.

2) Wait a moment, long enough for Windows to know that you aren't

double clicking it, and LEFT click again.

3) The file, folder or desktop item is now ready for a name change.

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Tip #17

You can drag icons into your documents...  This will create a static link to that icon, just drag 'My Computer' onto a new Wordpad doc, and double Click to see!

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Tip #18

I just stumbled to this one on my hard drive.  With release 490, there is a wonderful file called Tips.Txt in the windows directory! If you're running 490 (or above) and installed Win95 in your C drive, read the file.

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Tip #19

Want to make your single or double speed drive perform like a quad+ speed drive in Win '95 ?  It's easy..

Go to My Computer / Properties / Performance / File System / CDROM

and set the supplemental cache speed to its maximum and the access pattern to 'Quad speed or higher'.  I was shocked to see my little 'ole single speed drive play the previously choppy avi's on a Bugs Bunny CDROM I have.

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Tip #20

Spell Checking in Exchange

If you can't understand why there is no spell check in MS Exchange then read on.  It is

because MS Exchange requires a 32bit Spell Checker.  MS Word's 16 bit spell checker won't cut it with MS Exchange.  This is what you do to get a 32bit Spell Checker, call MS and ask for MS Office NT sidegrade.  (Assuming you already have MS Office).  The CD-ROM sidegrade will cost about 15 bucks.  This will allow you to sidegrade your current MS Office to NT MS Office (Which is 32bit).  Not only will your spell checking now work in Exchange, but Word will now support long file names....all for 15 bucks!  If you don't want to install the whole sidegrade and are just interested in the spell checking....just install Word and select spell check as the only option to install.  This will only add Spell Check to your system rather than the whole Word package.

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Tip #21

Windows 95 allows you to do some strange things with audio CDs.  Try some

of the following:

(1) Go into Explorer and click on your CD drive with an audio CD in it.

(2) In the right panel you will see Track01.cda throuhg Track??.cda.

(3) If you right-click on a track, you can play it automatically by choosing Play from the Quick Menu.

(4) If you double-click on a track, it will play automatically.

(5) Try dragging a track onto your desktop (you can copy it or create a shortcut, it doesn't matter).  Rename the track's copy/shortcut to the song's real name.  Whenever you have the CD in the drive, you can now double-click on it on the desktop to play it.

(6) You can also drag tracks to your hard drive and put them in your Start Menu, or create a directory with CD tracks in it.

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Tip #22

Try this tip if you are using The Internet Explorer that comes with Plus!

The Explorer has it's favourites (bookmarks) menu. Click on open favourites then a window will appear with all your favourites.

Right click, then select "New" then "Folder" now you can create several folders and name them accordingly to your links! This is one easy way categorizing your links into several groups or folders.

The folders will appear in the menu when you click on "Favourites" with your links within them..

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Tip #23

If you hate going through the NetHood to find a computer or hate searching through

My Computer or explorer when you know right where you want to go, here is a solution.

Click on Start...Run... and then type in your path.

i.e

Start... Run...C:\win95 > will open a window of the Win95 directory.  This works great with UNC's.  Like Start... Run... \\<server name>\<share name> or you can just use the server name by itself.  If you're looking for a computer, this is a lot faster.

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Tip #24

I use this one all the time.  A real saver...

Right click in a Win95 application's file open box for new, copy, delete, arrange, etc. Most of Explorer's functions except half the toolbar and no pull down menus.  Try it.

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Tip #25

I wanted to have a directory named "New Downloads" in Win95, but have the short file name be just "DOWNLOAD" instead of "NEWDOW~1" which is less than helpful.

The only time short filenames are relevant is in a mixed computing environment, when you're planning to share files with other users whose systems do not support LFNs. In that case, why not try two things:

1. Train users to start LFNs with the short version they plan to use. In your case, that

would mean naming the folder DOWNLOADS-NEW, which would resolve to Downlo~1.

2. 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.

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Tip #26

The "Send To" quick menu shows only the floppy drives as a destination. You can any other disk area or folder as a destination by adding short cuts to the "Send To" folder.  You must add a short cut or a ".LNK" file to that folder; ie:  a short cut to to

"Recycle Bin" is great as it will avoid the prompt dialogue "Do you want to send to Recycle Bin?".

Alternatively, any other directory such as a temp directory.

Here is a bonus, if you have different places to send file to but are

related such as:

        "Customers"

                  Customer1

                  Customer2       etc...

You can place in the Send To folder an additional "folder" (not a short cut) called "Customers", then open that folder and place short cuts to all your customer's individual folders and name them appropriately.  Then when you right click a file icon, your "Send To" quck menu will show the new "Customers" "Sub menu" and then move to it and you will see a submenu of all your customer's short cuts.

(You may want to remove the "short cut to" text from the icons in the "Send To" folder).

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Tip #27

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.

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Tip #28

Dual Boot Setup for Win95/Win 3.1-WfWG

  A text file describing a step-by-step procedure I developed to install a

  dual-boot menu function for my DOS 6/Win 3.11 and Win95 systems.   This

  way, I can choose which system I want to use at boot-up.   Doublespace and

  Drivespace drives can also be handled with this  configuration.  Use this

  method to continue running your critical  programs under your old DOS/Win

  system while you're testing Win95.

*********************************************************************

I wanted to install a dual boot with Win95 & WFWG 3.11 so I could try

out Win95 without sacrificing my old system setup.   Here are the steps

you can take to duplicate my dual boot installation:

*********************************************************************

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.

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Tip #29

Here is a little tip on how to install PC Speaker on a computer with Win95.

Go to Control Panel, then "Add New Hardware", then "Sound, Video, Game Controller."

Don't let Win95 search for new hardware.  Select "Have Disk".  Browse to where

you have your PC Speaker .drv file.  Install !!!

Presto...your mute PC will now have sound.

To modify the settings for PC Speaker go to Control Panel, Multimedia,

Advanced Tab, In Audio devices you will see PC Speaker.

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Tip #30

If you want to have another start-logo place a file named logo.sys in your root directory.  logo.sys must have the same format as logow.sys and logos.sys

(320 x 400,256) bitmap.

1. Drag and drop files or desktop objects with the RIGHT mouse button instead of the left, and when you drop them on the target, you get a little pop-up menu giving you options like Move Here, Copy Here, Create Shortcut Here.

2. Also, to drag a file from one folder to another, using only one explorer window, drag the icon near the top or bottom of a scrolling pane, and "nudge" to scroll.

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Tip #31

Do you have a Logitech mouse?  This hack will let you use the middle mouse button as a doubleclick!  Save this as "midclick.reg" and double click it!

**start of midclick.reg**

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Logitech\MouseWare\CurrentVersion\SerialV\0000]

"DoubleClick"="001"

**end of midclick.reg**

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Tip #32

Click on start... shutdown... click on restart computer.  Now hold down the shift key and click on yes.  This will only restart Windows 95, NOT the computer (warm boot).  This is a lot faster than a normal reboot (warm or cold).

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Tip #33

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 tothe 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!  You can do the same with the printers folder and dial-up networking...here are names that you need to name your folders..

Dial Up Network

Dial Up Net.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}

Printers

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

If you're browsing through folder windows, it's usually nicest to have Windows 95 set so that it uses a single window that changes when you open a new folder. However, if you want to copy or move files around, it's nice to be able to quickly open a separate window for a folder.

This can be done by holding "CTRL" as you double-click, but it would be nice to have this option on the right-click menu, next to "Open" and "Explore".

To add this to the menu, you need to change the registry a bit. Run the Registry Editor and find the entry for "Directory" under the "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT" branch.

Under, "Directory", you'll find "Default Icon", "shell", and

"shellex". The one we want is "shell."

Under "shell", add a new key called "opennew". Modify its (Default) value to say "Open New &Window". Then, add another key under "opennew". Call this one "command", and set its (Default) value to "explorer %1".

And that should do it. One side effect is that "Open New Window" now also appears when you right-click on the Start Button, which is completely pointless because it does that anyway. Oh well.

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Tip #34

Ever want to open an object with a different application than the

one it is already associated with and the right mouse menu no longer

let's you choose Open With...?

Just hold down the SHIFT key when you right mouse click over the object, and the Open With... command will now appear in the menu.

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Tip #35

If you want to "permanently" delete a file instead of sending it to the recycle bin, hold down the SHIFT key and press the DELETE key, or right mouse click then hold down the shift key before selecting DELETE from the menu.

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Tip #36

Object dragging with SHIFT and CONTROL: Hold down the following keys for different actions:

NO SHIFT, NO CTRL

Same Drive:      Move

Different Drive: Copy

Unless the objects selected are *ALL* .COM's or .EXE's in which case:

Same Drive: Create Link

Different Drive (Non-Removable Storage): Create Link

Different Drive (Removable Storage):     Copy

SHIFT, NO CTRL: Always Moves

NO SHIFT, CTRL: Always Copies

SHIFT, CTRL:    Always Creates Link

Certain folders do no allow objects to be dropped (i.e. Control Panel,

and Printers), others always Move To regardless of SHIFT/CTRL status

(i.e. Recycle Bin).

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Tip #37

Want to "Explore" a folder instead of it's icon view? You could open Explorer, click here, click there, finally get to where you want. A quick solution: Hold down the shift key and double click on the folder/drive.

This will bring up an Explorer window of that folder.

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Tip #38

Here's how to add file types to the New submenu on the mouse menu.

To add file types to the New menu item on the mouse menu you must edit the Registry.  First, find the extension of the data file for the program in question

(i.e. .doc for Word) under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.  Below the files extension you need to add a new key with the value 'ShellNew'.

Once that key is in place you have two options:  One is to start with a null file

(one with no preset styles, etc), the other is to start from a template file.

For a null file, in the ShellNew key insert a new string value named 'NullFile' and

leave the value blank. To use a template file, insert a new string value named 'FileName' and set the value equal to the path of the template document.  The default is in the hidden ShellNew directory beneath your windows directory.

When you use the New feature of the button menu, Win95 either copies the template file or creates a null file.

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Tip #39

Do you hate that you can't control the directory or even the drive where Explorer opens?

You CAN control it.  Create a shortcut to the Explorer with the following command line to open it at the root of C:\

c:\windows\explorer.exe /e,root,c:\

where the syntax is: explorer [/e][,root,<object>]

Actually there is even more to this ... you can use subobjects, but I don't want to type it all out.  Perhaps you have this info anyway.

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Tip #40

Start Explorer FAST!  Right click on the Start menu and choose Explorer.

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Tip #41

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 a different extension!

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Tip #42

You can drag scraps from your documents to the desktop or to folders and create Document Scraps. With these Scraps, you can archive bits and pieces of your documents to use later or to share with another person.

To try it:

Open Wordpad

Type some text

Select the text

Put the cursor over the highlighted text and drag to the desktop

It creates a scrap with some of the actual text in the name of the scrap.

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Tip #43

Did you know that FONT SMOOTHING and FULL WINDOWS SIZE/MOVE are available on the preview version?

In the win.ini file, add the following line to the [WINDOWS] section (really!):

ILOVEBUNNY32=1

Restart Windows 95, then right click on the desktop.  Choose properties, then settings.  You will notice 2 new check boxes!