|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Give yourself some room to work. Right-click on the desktop and select Properties. Click the Settings tab and choose a "Screen Area" with higher numbers. Also, don't run in 16 or 256 color mode. Things look much better in either High color or True color. You should also readjust your monitor settings to make the image centered and stretched to the edges of the screen.
Move your often-used shortcuts from your desktop to your Quick Launch Tray in WIndows 98, so you only have to single click rather than double-click them.
Microsoft Windows 98. If you want to get to Explore Windows quickly, simply right-click on the Start button and select it from the list. This beats hitting Start, Programs, and then trying to find it on the long list of applications.
Right-click on Network Neighborhood to get to the Network Properties.
All versions of Windows. Does your computer, which seemed so fast just a year or two ago seem to have a case of the "slows"? There are a variety of possible reasons for this, but one that people often overlook is fonts.
Many applications will load a large number of fonts onto your system, word-processors and graphics programs are notorious for this. What most people don't realize is that in addition to taking up disk space, they consume memory resources as well. Even if you uninstall an application, it most likely will not uninstall the fonts, so your list of fonts can grow to monumental proportions over the years as you install and uninstall software. Anything over about 250 fonts will have an impact, over 500 will create a noticeable slowdown, and over 1000 fonts (don't laugh, I've been there) will bring a system to its knees.
It's nice to have a huge selection to pick from, but let's get real, how many do you actually use? Eliminate fonts you don't need and you will likely see a performance improvement in addition to saving disk space.
Microsoft Windows 3.11WFW, 95, 98, NT. If you have more than one PC at home running Windows, you owe it to yourself to network them together. This may strike you as a geeky thing to do, but there are some hardnosed, pragmatic, money saving reasons to do it. You can save money overall by networking an older machine with a newer machine and sharing hardware, instead of buying another new machine. The way you save money is by sharing peripherals.
Why not share your printer (or printers) among all your computers? If you have a Zip drive or tape drive on one machine, why not share that? If one PC has a fast CD-ROM drive and the other has none (or an old & slow one) why not share the fast and expensive new stuff with your older machine? I can tell you from personal experience that running a 32x CD-ROM over my network is much faster than running a 4x CD-ROM locally. A simple peer-to-peer network is fast and easy to setup, requires zero maintenance and can save you a bundle of money.
Microsoft Windows 98 - Right clicking on an empty area of the taskbar will bring up a shortcut menu that allows the user to minimize all windows at once. A great timesaver!
Microsoft Windows 98 - to make a screen capture, press Alt-PrintScrn. Then switch to or open Word, PowerPoint, or almost any other program you wish the screenshot to appear in. Then select Paste (Ctrl-V at the keyboard, or Edit... Paste from the menu).
You can also capture the entire screen as opposed to only the active window by pressing PrintScrn alone, without the Alt key.
Save, and save often. Windows still crashes far too often to give yourself any sense of security. In most programs it's as simple as hitting Ctrl-S. Make it a habit -- people might think you have a nervous twitch as you hit Ctrl-S so often, but who will be nervous when the power goes out or Windows freezes up again?
Microsoft Access: In the Visual Basic Editor, you can find the VBA code of the object you are working with by scrolling in the upper left window (the Project Explorer). This is a fast way to move between two objects that have similar code between them.
The art of file naming: Gone are the old days of cryptic 8 character filenames... who could remember what LSRPNTR3.PRN was anyway? You can now use 255 character names, but don't be tempted to go overboard. Most windows only display the first 15 or 20 characters. Keep your filenames concise but unique.
Give yourself more interesting mouse cursors. "Tumi" has some really great 3D animated cursors -- surf over to http://plima.pfri.hr/~astamac/cursors.html and check them out -- installation instructions can be found on his site also.
My major computer fix it is Control-Alt-Delete and finally rebooting the entire system. It usually helps restore function. Just remember to save your important work before doing so.
Put your most often used programs on your Start Menu. Just right-click the Start button, click Explore, find the program you wish to add to the Start Menu, and just drag it onto the Start button.
Microsoft Access: In any view, right-click on the tool or menu bar to show tool bar menu items. From here, you can show or hide your favorite tool by clicking on it.
Put your most often used files on your desktop and use the Desktop button on most Windows 98 File -> Open dialog boxes to find them in two mouse clicks. You can of course also double-click on them from the desktop itself to launch the associated program.
Right-click on Network neighborhood or My Computer to map a network drive.
If you're just going to be working with a file temporarily, save it to the desktop--that way you won't lose it and have it waste space for the next few years buried in some sub-folder. Most Windows 98 File -> Save dialogs have a Desktop button to take you there in one click. When you're done, just drag it into the Recycle Bin.
A+
Computer Solutions, Inc.
Boise, Idaho
Phone: (208) 377-1794
email
[Site Map]
copyright ©
2004, A+ Computer Solutions Inc.
All rights reserved
last updated 11.24.04
