Two Hoots Software Windows 95/98 Tips

It's easy to update the Icons used on your computer. Find a website with icons you like and download them to your pc. Now goto Control Panel and Select Display and the Effects Tab. Select the image to update, Click on the Change Icon button and select the downloaded icon.
If you've minimised your task bar so that you can't get it back first, press Ctrl and Esc at the same time. The Program menu should pop up. Now, press Esc and the Program menu will disappear, but the Taskbar will still be selected, though not visible. Now, press Alt and Spacebar. This will bring up a small menu, from which you will choose Size. Your mouse cursor should change to an arrow. Do not click anything. Using your keypad arrows, press the up arrow. Arising from the depths to which it disappeared comes the taskbar. When you get it back where you want it, click on it.
Want to have the latest and greatest from Microsoft? Then close down all of your applications, connect to the Internet and go to WINDOWSUPDATE.MIRCOSOFT.COM. From there, Explorer will receive a file that will compare what Microsoft has out there as the latest, and what you have on your PC. Then it will inform you of what you can download. If any of the downloads are labeled Critical, download those first. You may be required to reboot your PC, so before doing updates, save your work.
You can free 7 megabytes' worth by deleting the video clips in the Windows 95 Help folder. (They're for novice users only.)
To arrange programs alphabetically on the start task bar just click Start, Programs and then, with your cursor in the Programs area, right-click and select Sort By Name. All your programs and program folders will be arranged alphabetically.
One way to change the application associated with a file type is to change how you open the file. When in explorer, hold the shift key down whilst right-clicking on a document. You are then presented with an 'Open With' option. Select this and then choose the program you want to open this particular kind of file with in the future. Check the box that says Always Use This Program To Open This Type Of File before clicking OK, and the file association changes. Also see Registry Tips below.
If you have ever accidently moved a window outside the screen and unreachable by the mouse, you can always use the following keyboard shortcut to move it back: First, select the window, either by clicking on it (if visible) or by using Alt+Tab. Once selected, press Alt+Space+M and then an arrow key. You can now move the window with your mouse, no clicking required.
Here's a handy keyboard trick that's good for opening contextual menus without using the mouse. Just have your file or folder highlighted on screen, then press Shift-F10 to simulate a right-click from the keyboard. From there, you can use the arrow keys and the Enter key to select something from the pop-up menu.
Windows takes the liberty of animating all sorts of on-screen processes. When you minimize a window, for instance, a very brief animation shows the window getting smaller until it disappears. These animations are meant to provide clues as to what is happening on screen, but you can speed up your computer's operation a tad by getting rid of them. To get rid of window animations, right-click on the desktop and choose Properties. Click Effects and uncheck the box that says Animate Windows, Menus And Lists. Your computer will look a little "off" at first, but once you get used to it, you'll probably enjoy the extra speed.
On the Start-> Run command line, type "hwinfo /ui", without the quotes. This displays a complete list of your hardware information, including the registry keys for every piece of hardware in your system. It is a good idea to print out your system's information for future reference.
To restart Windows without shutting down your computer click Start, Shutdown, Restart and hold the [Shift] key as you hit the OK button.
To resize the Minimize, Maximize, Restore, and Close buttons in Windows 98, select the Start Menu go to Settings, Control Panel. Click the Display icon, and choose the Appearance tab. Click the Close button (it has an X on it) in any of the sample windows and adjust the Caption Buttons size property until the buttons are the size you want. Click OK to confirm your settings.
Press the '*' key on the numeric keypad while in Explorer to immediately expand all folders and subfolders on that drive. Be careful of what you choose to expand, however; if it's a giant Network drive, you could be sitting idle for a minute or two.
Right-click on your desktop and select Properties. Go to the Screen Saver tab and select the 3D Text. Click Settings and change the text box to 'volcano' (no quotes) and click OK. Now, the screen saver will display names of volcanoes near Microsoft buildings.
You can manually optimize your registry in addition to the regular automatic optimization. To do so, just type: SCANREG /OPT at the DOS prompt. This compacts the Registry down and fills in the holes. Caveat: This procedure won't work from within Windows, only at the DOS prompt. Also, the procedure will not work at all with Windows 95.
To monitor your pc run DRWATSON.EXE which is a system-tray utility with information about what's going on in your PC. Also run SYSMON.EXE to monitor system resources and memory usage.
To control the mouse from the keyboard, go to the Control Panel and select the Accessibility Options icon. Go to the Mouse Tab and check the "Use Mouse Keys" option. Click the settings button. Check the Use Shortcut box. Change the pointer speed to something that's reasonable, click OK, followed by Apply. Now, press the Alt + Shift + Num Lock buttons and you can use your numeric keypad to move your pointer instead of a mouse controller.
To set the View settings in Windows Explorer to all be the same then simply go to Tools, then Folder Options, then View. Click on 'Like Current Folder'
In both Windows 95 and 98 the start-up and shut-down screens can be modified. The start-up screen is c:\windows\logo.sys and the shut-down screens are c:\windows\logow.sys and c:\windows\logos.sys. These are bitmap files and can be edited with any graphics package or replaced with another image of the same size and set to 256 colours. The start-up screen can be amended by placing a bitmap file called logo.sys it in the c:\ directory. Windows will use this file rather than the default screen embedded within the system files.
To add the Device Manager to your start menu Right-mouse click the Start button and select Open to open the Start Menu folder. Right-mouse click inside the window, select New, then select Shortcut. Next to Command Line, type exactly: C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.EXE Sysdm.cpl, System,1 where c:\Windows is your Windows 95 directory. Click the Next button, name the shortcut Device Manager, and click Finish.
To eject a CD from the CD drive select the drive in My Computer or Explorer, right click on the drive and select eject.
A printout of your system settings is a good reference to keep handy for hardware troubleshooting. Right-mouse click on My Computer, select Properties, and click on the Device Manager tab. Click on Print, choose the type of report you'd like to print, and click on OK. "System summary" prints a report organized by resource type--IRQ, I/O port, memory, and DMA channel--listing the hardware that uses each resource. (Double-click on Computer back on the Device Manager tab to view this information on-screen.) "Selected class or device" lists the resources and any device drivers used by the selected hardware. Of course, you'll need to select the hardware before clicking on Print. And the third option, "All devices and system summary," prints a system summary and details for every piece of hardware on your system.
DOSKEY is a great utility. When in DOS enter 'DOSKEY' and you can then access previously typed DOS commands by hitting the up arrow. Cycle though your recent DOS commands by using the up and down arrows, then press 'ENTER' to select the command again. To view the DOSKEY history select 'DOSKEY /h' or 'F7'. To clear DOSKEY's history enter 'DOSKEY /r'.
To remove entries from your the start menu's document list go to 'c:\windows\recent' directory and delete any shortcut no longer requried. This folder is a hidden one so check you are viewing all files from the 'View/Options' menu option.
If you're working in a DOS prompt window (running under Windows 95), and don't feel like typing the long path of a file or folder, try this: Drag and drop any file or folder into the DOS window to insert its path at the command prompt.
To add shortcuts to the Send To list (the one that appears when you right-mouse click a file or folder and select Send To) just add a shortcut to the C:\windows\SendTo folder, and from then on, it shows up in the Send To list.
If you're in an MS-DOS Prompt window and you need to view a folder's contents, you aren't limited to DOS commands. Type explorer at the command prompt, press Enter, and presto--up pops a single-paned window focused on the current directory. Note: Simply typing 'explorer' without the space and period opens a window focused on the root directory. If you'd prefer a two-paned, Windows Explorer-style window, type explorer /e at the command prompt.
All shortcuts created on your desktop can have a shortcut key. Right Click the icon and select properties, then enter the key in the Short-Cut Key box.
If you always open explorer on a specific drive, create a shortcut for explorer. Right-mouse-click the new shortcut, select Properties, and in the resulting dialog box, click the Shortcut tab. Change the text on the Target line to C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /n,/e, X:\ where "X" is the drive you want to view using this shortcut. Click once inside the box labelled Shortcut Key, type the letter you'd like to use in combination with Ctrl-Alt to invoke the shortcut, and click OK. Finally, change the name of the shortcut to something appropriate, such as Drive D. To edit the explorer icon in the start menu, right-click it and change the text in the target box.
If Windows Explorer is always goes to a specific folder when starting, then open the registry editor and naviagate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D\Shell and delete the Open Key.
To remove the windows user name and password dialog on starting windows, Click Start, then Settings and Select the Control Panel. Double click the Network icon and select the Configuration Tab. Select Windows Logon as the Primary Network Logon, then close the dialog box. Delete any files with the .pwl extension in the c:\windows directory. Reboot the computer and the dialog should have vanished.
To check which fonts belong to your version of windows, check the date stamp of the font file.

Windows 95 - 11/07/1995
Windows 95 OSR 2 - 24/08/1996
Windows 98 - 11/05/1998
Windows 98 SE - 23/04/1999
Windows ME - 06/08/2000

To create an easily-accessible 'Folders' folder in the Start Menu. Right-click on the Start button, select 'Open', create a New Folder (name it 'Folders' or whatever), double-click it, then create shortcuts to whatever folders you frequently access. To create a shortcut for a folder, simply right-click on the folder for which you wish to create a shortcut, drag & drop it onto the shortcut's destination, then select 'Create Shortcut(s) Here' from the pop-up menu.
To put Notepad on the Quicklaunch area of the Task bar Select Start->Programs->Accessories, then Notepad. Depress the CTRL key and Click and drag the Notepad icon off the menu and drop it onto the QuickLaunch area on the taskbar (directly to the right of the Start button).
You can change the drive letters of your CD/DVD player, should you feel so inclined. Go to the Control Panel, select the System icon and go to the Device Manager tab. Select the drive you want to change, and click the Settings tab. At the bottom, you will see the current drive letter, followed by two boxes called 'Start drive letter' and 'End drive letter.' Click the drop-down arrow in the 'Start Drive Letter' and choose the drive letter you want. Click Apply and reboot.
To change the default folder when starting explorer open explorer with the command explorer /e,d:\ to select the d: drive.
If you get the message 'Find Tab 177 not found' when trying to load a helpfile in Windows 95, delete all the file with an FTS file extension in the Windows\Help folder and then run Help again. Alternatively if you've just installed IE5 then rename the 'UPDATE.CNT' file in the Windows\Help folder to 'UPDATE.XXX', then delete the 'WINDOWS.GID' file and try accessing help again.
To create floating toolbars on the Windows 98 Desktop, right-click on the taskbar or ant existing desktop toolbar and select Toolbars, then New Toolbar. Next, choose a folder from the pop-up Browse dialog. The toolbar appears on the taskbar, but you can then drag it onto the Desktop as a floating toolbar or be dock it at the side or top of the screen.
If your Recycle Bin has become corrupted then restart your system and after the initial Power On Self Test sequence is completed, press and hold down the Ctrl key. When you get the Startup menu, select Command Prompt Only. At the command prompt enter the following without the quotes - 'attrib -r -s -h c:\recycled' and enter, followed by 'deltree c:\recycled' and enter. Now restart your system.
To add a shortcut to System Properties to your desktop create a shortcut with the command line 'c:\windows\control.exe Sysdm.cpl, System,1'. To change the icon select 'c:\windows\system\sysdm.cpl' in the inco path property. Changing the '1' to another value will display other Control Panel applets.
To remove any programs that load on startup Select Start->Run and type msconfig, then hit Return to load the System Configuration utility. Click on the Startup tab to see a list of services and programs that stat as you boot windows. Clearing the check box next to any entry will stop that program from loading.
To keep Windows from looking for new floopy drives on bootup (and to slightly speed up booting time), right-click on 'My Computer' and select 'Properties.' Then click the 'Performance' tab, press the 'File System' button, then select the 'Floppy Disk' tab. Remove the checkmark from the box.
To add a Scheduled Task, double-click My Computer, then double-click Scheduled Tasks. Select Add Scheduled Task and then click Next. Select a program you want to schedule and click Next, finally click a schedulig option, Click next and then click Finish.
To speed up the boot process set the Bootdelay value to 0 in the options section of the msdos.sys file.
To add hotkeys to windows select right click the start button and select explore. Select your application such as notepad. Right click the program and select properties. In the Shortcut Key on the Shortcut tab enter N. You can now start notepad by entering &;lt;CTRL><ALT> + N.
For more icons for your desktop programs, right-click the icon you want to change and select properties. Click the change icon button and then browse. Go to either cool.dll or pifmgr.dll in the c:\windows\system folder for more icons.

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Have you ever noticed that when you stick a CD into the CD drive that it automatically starts playing, or tries to begin the installation process? This is all well and good, but if you've already installed the program or don't want it to run right then, this feature can become a nuisance.You can turn off this auto insert feature in two ways:

Hold down the Shift key while inserting the disk. You will need to continue holding down the key until the disk activity stops. This deactivation is a temporary one as you insert each CD.

You can permanently turn off this feature within the Control Panel. First select the System icon, then select the Device Manager tab and press the ( + ) symbol next to where your CD is listed. Right-click the CD's name that appears and select Properties. Select the Settings Tab and remove the check mark next to Auto Insert Notification. You'll need to reboot for the changes to become active.

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Hold the Windows Key and press:

E to open Windows Explorer
R to open the Run dialog box
F to open the Find dialog box
<CTRL> + F to open the Find Computer dialog box
F1 to open Windows Help
M (or D) to minimise all open windows (Shift-Windows-M to undo minimise all)
<Pause>/<Break> key to show the System Properties Dialog Box
<Tab> Key to cycle through the buttons on the Taskbar
<BREAK> to open the System Properties dialog box

Other Windows short Cut Keys..

<CRTL><ESC> to display Start Menu
<CRTL><TAB> to rotate through dialog tabs
<CRTL><SHIFT><TAB> to rotate through dialog tabs in reverse order
<CRTL><ALT><DEL> to display close program tab
<ALT><TAB> to cycle though running programs
<ALT><ESC> to switch to the Taskbars next program
<ALT><F4> to close the active window
<ALT><SPACEBAR><N> to minimise the active window
<ALT><SPACEBAR><C> to close the active window
<ALT><SPACEBAR><X> to maximise the active window
<ALT><SPACEBAR><R> to restore the active window
<SHIFT><F10> to display right-click menu
<F10> move cursor to first menu of open windon, down arrow opens the menu, whilst the right arrow moves to the next menu

Shortcuts from the Run Menu..

Enter 'wab' to open the Windows Address Book
Enter '"' to open Explorer on the c:\ directory
Enter '..' to open Explorer on the c:\windows directory
Enter 'msconfig' to open the System Configuration Utility
Enter 'msinfo32' to open the System Information Application
Enter 'winipcfg' to open IP configuration Utility
Enter 'winfile' to open Windows 3.x file manager application
Enter 'control' to open the Control Panel
Enter 'control fonts' to open Control Panel Fonts application
Enter 'control color' to open Control Panel Color application
Enter 'control date/time' to open Control Panel Date/Time application
Enter 'control international' to open Control Panel International application
Enter 'control keyboard' to open Control Panel Keyboard application
Enter 'control mouse' to open Control Panel Mouse application
Enter 'control printers' to open Control Panel Printers application
Enter 'control ports' to open Control Panel Ports application
Enter 'explorer' to open Windows Explorer
Enter 'cmd' or 'command' to open DOS window
Enter 'iexplore' + 'website' to open Internet Explorer

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To make an Registry change click on the Start button and select the Run menu option and enter regedit. You can then use the Registry editor to make the required changes. All required entries must be entered without the quotes.

Don't forget to make backup copies of the Registry DAT files before making amendments to the Registry. The easiest way to do this is to use the 'Export Registry File...' on the File Menu. You can select to backup a subset by selecting the 'Selected Branch' option.

To add regedit to your Start Menu, find the file REGEDIT.EXE in your Windows directory and drag it onto the Start button of your taskbar.

Change Company Name

To change the company name displayed by programs amend the RegisteredOrganisation and RegisteredOwner values in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

Add 'Open With...' to Explorer pop-up Menu.

The following steps will add an 'Open With...' to the pop-up menu when you right click on a file in Explorer. The alternative way can be as above in the section 'File Association'.

Open the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT entry and click on the '*' folder to open it.

Right click on the folder, select new and then key. Enter 'shell' as folder name.

Right click on the new 'shell' folder and select new, then key and enter 'openas' for new folder.

Right click on the new 'openas' folder and select new, then key and enter 'command' for a third new folder.

Double click on the 'Default' entry in the right hand pane and enter the following as written -

c:\windows\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL %1

Remove the Shortcut Arrow key from Desktop Icons.

Search the Registry for the following two keys and remove the IsShortCut value from them.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\piffile

Restore previous versions of the Registry files.

The two registry files 'SYSTEM.DAT' and 'USER.DAT' are backed up every time windows starts as 'SYSTEM.DA0' and 'USER.DA0'. These files can be used to replace the '.DAT' files in the event of an emergency. To do this -

Reboot the system and press 'F8' when you see the 'Starting Windows' message and select the Command Prompt only command to put the PC into DOS mode.

Go to the 'c:\windows' directory'.

Remove the hidden, read only and system attributes from the '.DAT' and '.DA0' files by typing 'attrib -h -r -s system.dat (repeated for the other three files).

Now copy the '.DA0' files over the '.DAT' files by entering 'copy system.da0 system.dat' and 'copy user.da0 user.dat'.

Replace the attribues of all four files i.e 'attrib +h +r +s system.dat'.

Turn the computer off and restart Windows.

Remove an entry from the 'Start' 'Run' list.

Follow the steps below to remove entries from the 'Start' 'Run' menu.

Open the Registry editor and go to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/RunMRU'.

In the right pane right click the entry you wish to delete and select 'Delete', then 'yes' to confirm.

Remove an user profiles from the registry.

Follow the steps below to remove user profiles.

Open the Registry editor and go to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\(username)'.

In the right pane right click the entry you wish to delete and select 'Delete', then 'yes' to confirm.

You now need to remove user profile information from the windows folder.

Ensure that all files can been see in explorer, by selecting View, Options, click the View tab, select Show All Files, and click OK.

To delete an individual profile, delete the corresponding C:\Windows\Profiles\(username) folder.

Remove an entry from the Add/Remove programs list once the program has been uninstalled.

Follow the steps below to remove unwanted entries.

Open the Registry editor and go to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall'.

Scroll down the list of programs under that key in order to find the one you want, select it in the left hand list (check the values that appear in the right-hand list box, just to make sure you have the right program) and then delete the entry.

Amend the number of registry backups.

By default, windows maintains four backups of the registry plus the current day. To increase this setting go to the Start menu, select Run and enter SCANREG.INI, and then hit OK to open the file in notepad. Change the line beginning 'MaxBackupCopies=' by inserting your number of days after the '='.

To restore an older backup go to DOS-Mode and at the > prompt type the following:

c:\
cd \windows
extract /e c:\windows\sysbckup\rb0??.cab
Change the ?? to the day number you want to substitute.

Rename the Recycle Bin.

Follow the steps below to rename the recycle bin.

Open the Registry editor and go to 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}'.

Amend the 'Default' value, close the registry editor and reboot windows.

Modify the list of Programs that run when you start Windows.

Run the Policy Editor (Poledit.exe)

Open the Local Computer object, then locate the section entitles 'Programs to Run'. This section contains listings for Run, Run Once and Run Services. With these services, you can configure the programs that you want or do not want to run st Startup.

In the right pane right click the entry you wish to delete and select 'Delete', then 'yes' to confirm.

Modify the list of Programs that run when you start Windows.

Set logging for Windows Installer

To set logging for WIndows Installer navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer'. Add a new String value, double-click it, and enter the following Value data: "voicewarmup" (with out the quotes). These letters can be entered in any order: v = Verbose output; o = Out- of-disk-space messages; i = Status messages; c = Initial UI parameters; e = All error messages; w = Non-fatal warnings; a = Start up of actions; r = Action-specific records; m = Out-of- memory or fatal exit information; u = User requests; p = Terminal properties. If you add a plus, the existing file will be appended. If you add an exclamation mark, each line is flushed. Now, when something fails, just check in the "Temp" directory and look for the log files. They'll vary in name, but will always start with "Msi" and end with the .LOG extension.

Show Hidden Folders and Files in Explorer

To control whether hidden files and folders are displayed in explorer find the 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced. Add a new DWORD called Hidden, setting its value to 1 for show hidden or 0 for do not show.

Add a Menu Option to Move and Copy Folders

Add the following two REZ_SZ keys to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers key.

To enable the Copy To Folder menu option create a new subkey called "Copy To" and set the default value to "{C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}"

To enable the Move To Folder menu option create a new subkey called "Move To" and set the default valur to "{C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}"

Sort Start Menu and Favorites in Alphabetical Order

Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder key.

To sort the Favorites menu hightlight the "Favorites" sub-key and delete it.
To sort the Start Menu highlight the "Start Menu" sub-key and delete it.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

This key maps onto the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes branch and is used mainly for storing information used by the OLE and DDE architecture, drag and drop, and file associations.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER

This key maps onto the current user branch in the HKEY_USERS tree. Under Win95 this mapping is fixed, but under NT it dynamically changes accordingly to which user is logged on.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

This tree contains user-independent settings which relate the the hardware and installed software on the PC. Some important subkeys are:

Config - Configuration data for each defined hardware configuration.

Enum - Configuration information for every device known to the PC.

Software - Configuration for installed software, arranged by vendor name.

System - System-level configuration used with the pc starts executing.

HKEY_USERS

A tree which (under NT etc) contains per user configuration information for all users known to the system. Under Win95, it contains a single branch called (Default). Some important subkeys are:

AppEvents - Used to store configuration information relating to whic WAV files are played when a specific 'event' occurs.

Control Panel - Informattion related to control panel settings.

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG

This tree maps onto the current hardware configuration in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE tree. Under Win95, you'd normally have only one hardware configuration defined unless, for example, you have a notebook PC with 'docked' and 'un-docked' configurations defined.

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Follow the following steps to add an icon to your desktop that reboots your computer.

Right Click the desktop, click New. Click the Shortcut option.

Click the Browse button and navigate to c:\Windows\Rundll.exe and then Click Open.

Add one space to the command line and then type 'user.exe,ExitWindowsExec', without the quotes.

Click Next and then give your Shortcut a name, such as Restart and then click Finish.

Now whenever you double click your Restart icon, windows will restart without you having to go to the Start menu.

To put a shortcut icon to Shutdown your computer, right-click on your desktop and choose New, Shortcut.

In the Command Line enter 'c:\windows\Rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows', without the Quotes.

Click Next and choose and appropiate name and then click Finish.

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Don't load all the fonts you can lay your hands on. Many applications load details of every font taking up memory and slowing your pc down. Delete fonts you don't require via the Fonts panel in Control Panel.
Choose the Custom option when installing applications to load only the options you require.
Don't use themes, wallpaper or animated cursors as this impairs your pc's performance.
Don't run your display in 32 bit colour unless you need it. The lower the resolution and colour dept the quicker your pc will seem.
Be selective in what software you install and don't install what you don't really need.
Don't litter your desktop with unwanted folders and icons as they use windows resources.
Run Scandisk occasionally to fix hard disk problems and possibly free up disk space.

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Follow the following steps to amend the text on the start button.

Select Start, Run and enter command to open a DOS window.

Change directory to 'c:\windows' or the directory containing your windows files.

Create a copy of the explorer.exe, naming it explorer.wrk for example.

Then type 'Edit /70 explorer.wrk', the switch /70 specifies a column width of 70 characters.

Now locate the text that needs updating. It's location varies from operating system, but on Win98SE and NT the line number is around 2390 and for windows 2000 it's either 3299 or 3236.

The text consists of 'S t a r t', with the spaces and a club symbol preceeding it.

Replace the five letters with five letters of your own, then save the file and exit the edit program.

Reboot to DOS to rename the explorer.wrk to explorer.exe, having first backed up the original version.

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Follow the following steps to add the control panel to the Start Menu.

Right-click the Start button and select Open. The Start Menu folder will open

In the Start Menu folder, right-click, select a new folder and name it: 'Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}'

Close the Start Menu window

Click on the Start button and you'll see the Control Panel icon, and the control panel applications will cascade from it.

To add the Printers use the name 'Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}'

To add Dial-Up Networking use the name 'Dial-Up Networking.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}'

To add the Recycle Bin use the name 'Recycle Bin.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}'

To add the Desktop use the name 'Desktop.{00021400-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}'

To add the Network Neighborhood 'Network Neighborhood.{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}'

To add the Inbox use the name 'Inbox.{00020d75-0000-0000-c000-000000000046}'

To add the My Computer use the name 'My Computer.{20D04FE0-3AEA-10690A2D8-08002B30309D}'