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Speed Up The PC - Control Panel Applets |
 The
Control Panel has lots of small, highly useful
applications or utilities that are commonly called
"applets." Here's the lowdown on some of them.
First, though, if you're using Win 98/ME, you need
to deal with Microsoft's idiot attempt to
second-guess you. When you first view Control Panel,
you'll only see a few applets -- the rest are hidden
from immediate view. Click the "View All Control
Panel Options" link to see everything Control Panel
has to offer. You can also expand the Start Menu
settings to give you an expanded Control Panel menu:
from the Start Menu, choose Settings, Taskbar and
Start Menu. Click Advanced, put a check by "Expand
Control Panel," and OK out. Now when you go to the
Control Panel shortcut in the Start Menu, you get a
submenu that gives you direct access to all of
Control Panel's applets.
Hey, Beev, let's put a shortcut to the Control Panel
in the Quick Launch bar! Keen, huh? Yeah, well, not
for everyone, but if this sounds appealing, here's
how you do it: Right-click the desktop and choose
New, Folder. Name the folder:
ControlPanel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
just as it appears. The shortcut appears on your
Desktop; just right-click and drag it to the Quick
Launch bar. There's gotta be an easier way, right?
Sure 'nuff. Just browse for the CONTROL.EXE file,
normally located in your Windows folder, or either
the System or System32 folders beneath it, and drag
the file to the Quick Launch toolbar. A shortcut is
created automatically using a generic icon.
Right-click on the shortcut, click on Properties,
and click on the Change Icon button. If you slide
the scroll bar to the middle in the resulting
display, the Control Panel icon should be visible.
Select the icon and click OK, then OK again. If you
want a Control Panel icon with some extra features,
do this: Launch Windows Explorer and navigate to the
folder whose contents define the Quick Launch
toolbar. (Typically, it will be something like
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application
Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch.)
Right-click on the right-hand pane, select New |
Folder from the menu, and name the new folder
Control
Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}, same
as above. This will create a Control Panel shortcut
that uses the correct icon (though it may appear as
a simple folder icon until you restart Windows). As
a bonus, it will also have a ToolTip appropriate to
the Control Panel. Now, resize the Quick Launch
toolbar so the new icon doesn't quite fit. A button
with the » symbol will appear. Click on the button,
and then click on the Control Panel menu item.
You'll get a menu of all the Control Panel applets
without having to open the Control Panel window.
Cool.
When uninstalling programs, go through Add/Remove
Programs in Control Panel first. If the program
isn't listed, or that doesn't work, see if the
program has its own Uninstall program (programs
written for Windows 9x should have this). Only as a
last resort should you directly delete the file or
directory for the program. Why? Because doing so may
let the program leave bits of itself strewn around
your hard drive, not to mention clogging up your
Registry. Did the program reside in its own folder?
Check out Explorer, and if that fails, go into the
Registry. Look up the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \
Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \
Uninstall and scroll down the list until you find
the program you're trying to delete. Check the value
of its UninstallString setting, which will include a
folder reference. Note the complete path of the
folder and go back to Explorer to ferret it out and
delete it. What else? Use a program like TweakUI
or Add/Remove Cleaner to clean up your
Add/Remove listing, if necessary. Now clean it out
of your Start menu by right-clicking the Start
button and choosing Explore to bring up the Start
Menu contents in Explorer. Expand the Programs
subfolder, search out any references to the little
critter, and delete them. Don't forget to hunt down
shortcuts or remnants in your StartUp folder as
well. The program may leave bits of itself written
in your WIN.INI, SYSTEM.INI, CONFIG.SYS, and
AUTOEXEC.BAT files. One way to check these files is
to copy one -- say, WIN.INI -- into your word
processor and change its name to, say, WIN.NEW. Look
carefully through its lines to spot references to
deleted programs. Delete 'em. Save this file. Rename
your original (unchanged) WIN.INI file as WIN.OLD.
Rename WIN.NEW as WIN.INI and reboot your computer.
If your computer works OK, save the old WIN file for
a few weeks as insurance and use the new,
streamlined WIN.INI file. If problems ensue, revert
to the old WIN.INI and trash the new, troublesome
WIN file. (To do this with the CONFIG and AUTOEXEC
files, you'll have to use SYSEDIT, MSCONFIG, or run
Edit from the C: prompt. Never ever delete your old
files until you're damned sure the new, edited files
work properly.) If you're not sure about doing this
kind of rewriting, either let a program like
CleanSweep do it for you, or don't do it at all.
Some experts recommend using a third-party
uninstaller program to remove programs from Windows,
although one computer manufacturer says that
uninstaller programs cause more problems than they
solve. Recommended uninstaller programs include
CyberMedia's Uninstaller 5.1 (for both Win95 and
98), Norton's CleanSweep 2002, Norton's Uninstaller
Deluxe, and MicroHelp's Uninstaller 4.5. Warning: No
uninstaller program works perfectly, particularly
with programs that were installed before the
uninstaller. Make sure your uninstaller has a backup
feature to let you reinstall files it overzealously
deletes. (Early versions of the Norton program
caused system crashes when using the keyboard to
enter commands; Norton promised a fix pronto.
Alpha's PowerCleaner was found to be quite
ineffective in trials; Alpha promises an updated
version soon. And IMSI's WinDelete 97 is slow,
unreliable, outdated, and prone to remove essential
files. Do I need to warn you to be careful of these
programs, and to make sure you don't let them wreak
havoc on your disk?
CleanSweep users may want to read the Microsoft
Knowledge Base article "Explorer.exe Has Generated
Errors and Will Be Closed by Windows," available at
support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q314867,
if they are running a Windows 9x/ME machine with
Norton CleanSweep installed and planning on
upgrading to Windows 2000/XP. It turns out that when
you upgrade, you then geth an EXPLORER.EXE error.
Bringing up the Task Manager shows you that
EXPLORER.EXE is consuming almost 100 percent of the
available resources. The article talks you through
three possible methods of resolving this problem and
getting your machine back to a respectable booting
and usable state.
Sometimes you uninstall programs but their listing
remains in Add/Remove Programs. This happens most
often when you either delete the program without
going through the uninstall procedure, you delete it
without going through Add/Remove, or the program is
just persistent. While several shareware programs
exist to purge your Add/Remove list, you can do it
yourself by editing the Registry. Go to Start/Run,
type REGEDIT in the box to open the Registry Editor,
and navigate down the left pane to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows
\ CurrentVersion \ Uninstall. Delete the unwanted
listing(s), close the Editor, and reboot. Don't
delete the wrong keys!
Sometimes you use the Add/Remove applet to uninstall
a program and instead of getting a successful
uninstall, you get this error message: "The log file
DEISL1.ISU is not valid or the data has been
corrupted," and your uninstall attempt fails. Here's
how to squash this bug. First, find this program's
folder (it'll most likely be in Program Files) and
delete the DEISL1.ISU (or UNINST.ISU) file. (Don't
fail to poke around in the subfolders if you can't
find it in the main folder.) Reinstall the errant
program. Now uninstall it. If this doesn't work, use
the brute-force method detailed above (deleting the
program's folders and deleting its keys from the
Registry).
Microsoft's TweakUI PowerToy is a good
utility to tweak the Add/Remove Programs applet
(i.e. removing unwanted entries from the
Install/Uninstall listings). TweakUI, available for
almost every flavor of Windows and even for various
versions of Internet Explorer, can be had from
www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/
contents/wutoys/w95pwrtoysset/default.asp.
Install it according to the directions on the
download page, then open it through Control Panel.
Select the Add/Remove tab, then select the item
you'd like to delete from the Install/Uninstall
list. Click Remove, click Yes to confirm, and the
entry's gone. Repeat as needed. A good place to find
out more about installing and using TweakUI is at
Scot Finnie's guide to TweakUI.
There are a couple of oddities about installing
TweakUI, so this page is worth perusing.
If you don't want to fiddle with the TweakUI
utility, and you're feeling confident, then you can
tweak the Add/Remove listings through the Registry.
Back up the Registry for safety's sake, then open
Regedit and drill down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \
Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \
Uninstall. Now, in the left pane, with the Uninstall
key expanded, right-click any item and select
Delete. Click Yes to confirm, and that item is
officially off the list. Repeat these steps for each
item you'd like to remove, then close the Registry
Editor. Not too difficult after all.
You can remove some of the oddities that Windows has
already installed through Add/Remove. Let's say
you're a Win ME user who wants to get rid of
NetWatcher and WinPopup, two network-only items Go
through Add/Remove and click the Windows Setup tab.
In this case, you'd go through System Tools to
access the WinPopup and NetWatcher items. Remove the
check marks beside each of them. Click OK. Click OK
again to actually delete the unwanted items. You've
just saved yourself a few megabytes of precious disk
space.
The System applet contains all manner of goodies.
We'll talk more about it as we go, but one thing you
need to be aware of inside the System applet is your
Device Manager. Go here to find out what's
installed, what drivers correspond to what hardware,
and what hardware's giving your system constipation.
Everything you've got is listed in Device Manager.
Rummage around in there and get to know it. Just
don't make any changes until you know for sure what
you're doing.
What happens if you open Device Manager and no
devices show up? Did your computer suddenly escape
into the Twilight Zone? No, you have a conflict in
your SETUPX.DLL file -- or files, since you've
probably got more than one, and they're fighting for
control. Hunt all of them down using the Find
command, and rename them all to something else, say,
SETUPX.DLQ. Now plug in your Windows CD, find a new
copy of SETUPX.DLL in there, and extract it to your
Windows System folder. Restart your machine, assure
yourself that Device Manager is now showing your
various and sundry devices, and then delete all the
bogus copies of SETUPX.DLQ. Want more info? Check
out Microsoft's Knowledge Base article at
support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q244/1/66.asp.
If you aren't sure how to extract original files
from the .CAB files on your Windows disk, go to
support.microsoft.com/support/kb/
articles/Q129/6/05.asp.
The Windows Scripting Host works well for Visual
Basic users, but the rest of us might do better if
it was turned off; it is, after all, a gaping hole
for virus attacks. You can disable this feature by
going to the Control Panel and selecting the
Add/Remove Programs Icon. Then, click the Windows
Setup tab and double-click the Accessories option.
Towards the bottom you'll see the Windows Scripting
Host. If it's there, and check-marked, uncheck it.
If you install Explorer 5.0 or reinstall Windows,
you'll need to reset this option.
What is the ODBC applet in Control Panel? It lets
you play with the data source drivers used by
Windows. If this leaves you scratching your head,
stay out of it. If it interests you, find out what
adding, deleting, or changing data drivers will do
to your data source files before monkeying with it.
Want to install new fonts? Most are installed
automatically by the program they come with, but
others can be installed manually by going through
Control Panel to the Fonts applet. Choose File,
Install New Font, choose the folder where the new
font is located, and click on the fonts you want
installed. Then click OK. The files are copied to
the Windows font folder. Office97 users, check your
CD for a folder of new fonts. Look under VALUPACK\MSFONTS
on the CD. Also, check the Microsoft Web site for
new fonts, including special Web fonts, and updates
to include the new Euro currency symbol. Surf over
to www.microsoft.com/typography for more
info. This site also includes the Font Properties
Extension; download and install it, then right-click
on a font and choose Properties to see a boatload of
info on the font. This works for Win98 and NT as
well as 95. Want to look your most professional on
your documents? Skip the exotic fonts and use at
most 2 or 3 per document. "Sans serif" fonts such as
Arial work well for headers, while "serif" fonts
like Times New Roman (the font this is written in)
work well for body text. Of course, this pairing is
so overused as to be boring; you are free to explore
new combinations. Don't forget, not only do fonts
suck up system resources, they are each stored in
the Registry. Normally you can only have 800-1000
fonts installed without using some sort of font
manager program. Think 800 fonts is a lot? Well, it
is to some of us, but to others it's just a good
start. Store extra fonts in a designated folder
without installing them. Then, when you want to use
a particular font in a document/graphic, go to your
fonts folder, double-click on the font you want to
use (be sure to keep the font open!), and launch the
application in which you wish to use it. The font
should show up in your regular list as if it were
installed the "normal" way. When you're done, you
can close the font preview window and Windows is
none the wiser.
If you did the Typical Install on your Win 98/ME
machine, you may be missing out on some fonts. Boot
to DOS and insert your Windows CD. At the C:\
prompt, type the following:
For Windows ME: EXTRACT /A /L C:\COOLFONT
E:\WIN9X\BASE2.CAB *.TTF
For Windows 98: EXTRACT /A /L C:\COOLFONT
E:\WIN98\BASE4.CAB *.TTF
where E stands for your CD drive. This sends the
fonts where they need to go on your machine.
Speaking of the Fonts applet, double-click its icon
to see a list of all the fonts on your machine. You
can use the List or Details icons for more info.
Double-click a particular font's icon to see its
name, size, whether or not it's a TrueType font, and
what it looks like in sizes ranging from 12 to 72
points. You can even print the list for further
reference.
Print samples of your fonts by choosing Settings
from the Start menu, then in Control Panel,
double-clicking the Fonts folder. Hold down the Ctrl
key, click the desired fonts, then right-click one
of them and choose Print. Once you click OK in the
dialog boxes for each font you selected, your
printer will then print sample pages for each font.
You can even create a font sampler book for your
use.
What's so special about TrueType (TT) fonts? TT
fonts "scale" well -- in other words, they look good
at just about any point size. Non-TT fonts often
look strange or warped at unusual point sizes. I
strongly advise you to stick with TrueType fonts
whenever possible.
PostScript fonts often find their way onto Windows
machines. They are useful in and of themselves, but
you'll need Adobe's Type Manager if you wish to use,
view, or print them in Windows 9x/ME, or Adobe's
Multiple Master fonts for use in any flavor of
Windows. You can get a "lite" version of Adobe's
Type Manager free from www.adobe.com/products/atmlight/main.html.
The Deluxe version ($65) adds support for TrueType
fonts, among other things. Win 2K/XP doesn't need
ATM to manage PostScript Type 1 fonts.
Windows may be hiding all but TrueType fonts from
you. Go through the Fonts applet, choose View,
Options or Tools, Folder Options (depending on the
version of Windows you're using), and click the
TrueType tab. If the box beside "Show only TrueType
fonts" is checked, uncheck it. Click OK and follow
the prompts to restart Windows.
While most of us can get by with a couple of dozen
fonts, some of us are just font-crazy. The lists can
get pretty unmanageable. Use the View, Hide
Variations command to pare down the listings. This
scrunches the "Bold," "Bold Italic," "Narrow," and
similar variations under one overall listing.
Win 95 users, download and install the Font
Smoothing utility from Microsoft at
www.microsoft.com/truetype/grayscal/smoother.htm.
Open Control Panel, click Display, and on the Plus
tab, turn on the option Show Window Contents While
Dragging. Win 98/ME users, you have a similar
function already available to you in your Display
panel, under Effects.
A similar, more modern feature to the Font Smoothing
utility above is ClearType. A few years back,
ClearType was touted as being the best thing since
automatic hardware detection. Well, it isn't all
that, but it does significantly improve the
legibility of type (alphanumeric characters) printed
on a computer screen. Here's how to enable ClearType
on your XP computer (it doesn't work on other
flavors of Windows, and it uses an ActiveX applet,
so be aware of that). Download the online tool from
www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/cleartypeactivate.htm
and follow the steps. To turn on ClearType manually,
go to Control Panel, Display, Appearance, Effects
and click the checkbox for "smooth edges of screen
fonts," making sure that the pop-up menu reads "ClearType."
Reverse the process to turn it off. For more
information about ClearType, see the ClearType
Information page at www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/default.htm.
Note that ClearType is very useful -- almost a
necessity -- for many flat-panel monitors. Go to the
Microsoft ClearType page to "fine-tune" your
display: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/1.htm.
Sometimes you run into difficulty installing fonts
for the simple reason that your Font applet lacks
the "Install New Font" command. There are several
reasons for this: either your system and read-only
attributes are no longer set on the Fonts folder,
your FONTEXT.DLL file is missing or corrupt, or the
DESKTOP.INI file is missing or corrupt. Here's how
you deal with each situation:
Click Start, Run, type COMMAND, and click OK. At
the command window, type CD\WINDOWS and hit
Enter. You'll then be at the C:\WINDOWS
directory. Now type in attrib +s +r fonts and
restart Windows, and your Install New Font menu
item should be back.
Fixing the FONTEXT.DLL File:
Restart Windows in MS-DOS mode. At the command
prompt, type CD\WINDOWS\SYSTEM and hit Enter to
switch to the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder. Now,
type DIR FONTEXT.DLL and hit Enter. (If your
machine does not have a FONTEXT.DLL file, then
proceed to the next step in these instructions.)
If it does find a FONTEXT.DLL file, then you
need to type RENAME FONTEXT.DLL FONTEXT.OLD, and
hit Enter to rename your damaged FONTEXT.DLL
file. Type EXIT to restart back into Windows.
Now, to recreate your FONTEXT.DLL file, you must
extract a good copy of it from your Windows 98
install files. Click Start, Run, type SFC and
click OK. Click "Extract one file from
installation disk" and in the "Specify the
system file you would like to restore" box, type
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\FONTEXT.DLL. Click Start, and
in the "Restore From" box, click Browse. Now,
browse to your Windows 98 CD or to your Cab
files. (On some machines you can find the Cab
files in C:\Cabs or in C:\Windows\Options\Cabs.)
Click OK and follow the on-screen instructions.
When all this is done, restart Windows.
Fixing the DESKTOP.INI File:
Restart Windows in MS-DOS mode. At the command
prompt, type CD\WINDOWS\FONTS and hit Enter to
switch to the C:\WINDOWS\FONTS folder. Type
RENAME DESKTOP.INI DESKTOP.OLD and hit Enter to
rename your damaged DESKTOP.INI file. Type EXIT
to restart into Windows. Now, let's extract a
good copy of the DESKTOP.INI file from your
Windows 98 install files. Click Start, Run, then
type SFC and click OK. Click "Extract one file
from installation disk," and in the "Specify the
system file you would like to restore" box type
C:\WINDOWS\FONTS\DESKTOP.INI. Click Start, and
in the "Restore From" box, click Browse. Now
browse to your Windows 98 CD or to your Cab
files. All that is left is to restart Windows.
Adjust the click speed of your mouse by going into
Control Panel and clicking on Mouse. On the Buttons
tab, move the Double-Click speed slider to where you
want it, and test your click speed in the area
provided. Keep playing with it until you're
comfortable with the click speed. While you're in
the Mouse app, you can change the handedness of your
mouse (switch the functionality of the left and
right buttons). Under Pointers you can change the
icons for your cursors around, though your choices
aren't that varied. Under Motion you can choose how
fast your cursor moves as you move the mouse, and
whether or not you want to leave "mouse trails."
Finally, under General, you can switch from one
mouse to another, if you have more than one mouse
driver installed.
When the monitor display is set to 15-bit color or
higher, the cursor leaves a shadow on the desktop.
Some people like this feature; it helps the cursor
stand out more. If you don't like it, you can turn
it off: Open the Mouse icon in Control Panel, click
on Pointers, and uncheck the "Enable Pointer Shadow"
box.
The Keyboard applet has its uses. If you find
yourself working in a language other than English,
you can adapt your keyboard's input through the
Keyboard applet. Open the Control Panel,
double-click Keyboard, and click the Language tab.
Click the Add button, click the down arrow and
select the desired language, then click OK. Back on
the Language tab, you'll see this language and the
corresponding keyboard layout below the default
language. Click OK, and a dark blue symbol appears
in the tray of your Taskbar. To change languages,
click this button and select a language in the
pop-up list. B'ismallah, sahib. Don't want this icon
taking up valuable Taskbar real estate? Then hide
it. You can still switch among installed languages
using the keyboard. Open the Control Panel,
double-click Keyboard, and click the Language tab.
Deselect Enable Indicator On Taskbar, then select
one of the two keyboard combos under Switch
Languages. Click OK and watch as the symbol
disappears from your Taskbar. To switch from one
installed language to the next, simply press the
appropriate keyboard combo.
If you frequently create documents that require
foreign characters (of multiple languages), then you
can either search through the Character Map for the
ones you need, or change your keyboard layout to
United States-International. Changing your keyboard
over allows you to type these characters right from
your keyboard. (Note: This assumes your default
language is set to English [United States].) Open
the Control Panel, double-click Keyboard, and click
the Language tab. With English (United States)
selected under Language, click the Properties
button, then click the down arrow and select United
States-International. Click OK twice and then insert
the Windows installation CD when asked. The
international layout adds one or two characters to
certain keys on your keyboard. I can't print a
diagram, but you can view all of these characters:
Hold down your keyboard's right Alt key (also
called the Alternate Character, or AltChar, key) as
you press each key on your keyboard; then do the
same thing pressing Shift-AltChar. As you do, make a
mental note of the keyboard combos necessary to type
the characters you use. For example, to type an
uppercase E with an acute accent mark, you'd press
Shift-AltChar-E. Now let's look at another component
of this international layout: assisting keys. There
are five keys on your keyboard--the apostrophe ('),
the back quote (`), the circumflex (^), the double
quote ("), and the tilde (~)--that now act as
assistants in making, respectively, an acute accent,
a grave accent, a hat over a vowel, an umlaut, and a
squiggle, as over the "n" in the Spanish word "señor."
For example, to type an E with an umlaut (the two
dots) over it, press the double quote ("), then
press the letter E. Or to type an O with a hat over
it, press the circumflex (^), then press the letter
O. Now, how do you use one of the assisting keys as
it's supposed to be used? For example, let's suppose
you wanted to type the letter E in single quotes:
'E' With the international layout turned on, typing
a single quote and then typing E would result in an
E with an accent over it. And typing the second
single quote would do absolutely nothing (that
assisting key is waiting for a key to assist). The
solution? Any time you want to type an assisting key
as it was meant to be used, follow it with a
Spacebar. So in the example above, to type the
letter E in single quotes, you'd type a single
quote, press the Spacebar, type E, type a single
quote, and press the Spacebar. Not the easiest
method of making these odd characters, but if you
find yourself typing them a lot, you'll get used to
using it. Win ME users can access the Character Map
through Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools,
Character Map; make sure the font your app is using
is showing in the menu window.
While we're going international here, if you prefer
the metric system to the English system of inches
(Windows's default preference), you can change over
by going through Control Panel's Regional Settings
applet. Double-click it, click the "Number" tab,
choose "Metric" from the Measurement System
drop-down list, and click OK. You can switch back by
going through the same process and choosing "U.S."
as your region.
Start the Control Panel Multimedia applet by
double-clicking it, click on the Audio tab, and
check the box that adds the yellow Volume Control
icon to the Taskbar. This assumes your Windows setup
didn't already do this for you. If you don't have
the option, you can add it by going through
Add/Remove, clicking on Windows Setup, scrolling
down to the Multimedia line, highlighting it (click
it once) and clicking the Details button. Look for
the Volume Control line and check the box. Click out
with OK -- you may need to insert your Windows CD
for verification.
By the way, Win 98/ME users have a bug in their
Multimedia applet that reduces their sound volume by
1% every time they open and close that applet. The
only fix is to manually restore the volume after it
drops.
You may or may not know how to assign sounds to
different "events" in Windows: you just double-click
the Sounds icon, select an event in the Events list,
and select a sound under Name. You can even browse
through your .WAV and other audio files to find the
perfect sound. But, not all events are listed in the
Events listing. Add a particular Event by tweaking
the Registry. Go through Regedit and drill down to
the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps
registry key. There, you'll see a list of
applications with events in the Sounds Properties
dialog box. (.Default is Windows, by the way.) Now
create a new key for the application whose events
you'd like to add to the Sounds dialog box.
Right-click the Apps key, select New, Key, type the
name of the program's *.exe file without the
extension or path (for example, type WINWORD for
Microsoft Word), and press Enter. In the right pane,
right-click (Default) and select Modify. In the Edit
String dialog box, on the Value Data line, type the
application name, such as Microsoft Word and finally
click OK. Repeat these steps for other applications.
Now, under each new application key, create a key
for each event with which you'd like to associate
sounds. Right-click the application key, select New,
Key, type a legitimate event name, and press Enter.
(To view a list of these names, double-click the
.Default key under HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ AppEvents \
Schemes \ Apps.) Repeat these steps for each of the
application's events you'd like to see in the Events
list, then follow these same steps to add events for
other applications. Close the Registry Editor and
you're done. The next time you open the Sounds
Properties dialog box, you'll see your new
application and events in the Events list. You can
now associate these sounds with events just as you
normally would: Select an event, then select a sound
under Name.
Sounds provides a list of Schemes -- typically
Jungle, Musica, Robotz, Utopia, and possibly others
-- for use with your various programs. Experiment
with them all you like, or change over all the named
events at once into a single, themed sound
experience.
Want to create your own sound scheme? Easy, just
make the changes you like under the Sounds applet,
click Save As, and give your creation a name.
Get rid of system sounds by going through the Sounds
applet, and under Schemes, selecting No Sounds. Now
the system will stay quiet but you can still get
music from audio CDs.
When you open the Sounds applet, you'll see some
programs listed in the Events listing, but not all
of them. You can add a program to the Event listing
so that sounds can be associated with that program,
but it involves tweaking the Registry. If you're
game, here's what you do: Crank up Regedit, and find
the HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ AppEvents \ Schemes \ Apps
section. Then, right-click the Apps key and select
New, Key. Type the file name of the program you're
adding -- just the name, no extension or path. Press
Enter. On the right side, right-click Default.
Select Modify. Type the application's name on the
Value Data line. Click OK. That takes care of it!
Now go back into the Sounds applet and associate
sounds to your heart's content.
You can change the sound that Windows makes at
startup to any MIDI sound file you like simply by
placing a shortcut to any .MID file in the Startup
folder, and that song will play every time you start
Windows. Here's how: First, silence the sound that
currently plays at startup. Select Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and double-click Sounds. Inside the
Sounds Properties dialog box, under Events, select
Start Windows. Select None in the list of sounds
under Name, and then click OK. Now place a shortcut
to the desired *.MID file in your Startup folder.
Open any Explorer window and locate the *.mid file
you want to use--for example, WINDOWS\MEDIA\CANYON.MID.
Next, open your Startup folder by right-clicking the
Start button, selecting Open, double-clicking
Programs, and double-clicking Startup. Right-click
and drag the *.mid file into the Startup folder,
release the mouse button, and select Create
Shortcut(s) Here. Finally, a Properties adjustment:
Right-click the new shortcut, select Properties, and
click the Shortcut tab. Edit the Target line to read
exactly:
C:\WINDOWS\MPLAYER.EXE /PLAY /CLOSE C:\WINDOWS\CANYON.MID
where
C:\WINDOWS\CANYON.MID is the target of your new
shortcut. Now click OK. That's all there is to it.
The next time you start Windows, the *.MID file
starts, too.
Occasionally Windows will override a program's own
sound settings, usually resulting in a game with no
sound (what fun is blasting the aliens if you can't
hear the explosions?). You might look at the System
control panel and see if the IRQ and DMA channel
settings for the sound board are the ones the
manuals dictate. Also check to see that the game is
compatible with your type of sound board and if you
need to install any special driver software that
came with the board or game. (Note that in XP, you
have to go through the Advanced tab to access the
DMA settings. Thanks to the faithful reader who
pointed that out.)
Lots of fun sounds that work well with e-mail have
been collected at newmail.monsterserve.com/.
This certainly isn't the only site that has sound
files for the PC -- far, far from it -- but it's a
good place to start.
Want to control the fonts in Windows' display?
Too-small fonts make our heads hurt, and too-large
fonts look wonky. Go through Control Panel's Display
applet, or right-click the Desktop and choose
Properties. Click the Appearance tab and choose a
screen element such as "Active Title Bar" from the
drop-down list. Now select a typeface from the Font
drop-down list and a size from the box to the right.
Click Apply to see the results. Experiment if you
like, and click OK to lock in your choice.
Sometimes icons in Control Panel become "orphaned:"
the particular device or app may be long gone, but
the icon remains. When Windows starts, it looks in
the Windows/System directory and loads all the .CPL
files there. Each .CPL file contains one or more
Control Panel applets. To get rid of orphaned icons,
use Find Files to find all your .CPL files (type
*.CPL in the box). Then go to the Advanced
page, and enter the name of the offending item in
the Containing Text box. If a file is found,
rename it to have a different extension. If not,
keep trying with different possible words or
phrases. Now open Control Panel, or if it's already
open, select View/Refresh. Make sure that only the
unwanted icons have disappeared. If so, you can
delete the renamed .CPL file. If not, restore the
extension of the .CPL file and keep hunting. Of
course, the easy way to do this is through TweakUI.
You know that by hovering your mouse over the time
display in the System Tray, you get a Tool Tip
display of the date and time. That's not quite all
you can do with the time display; you can add an
8-character string to appear after the time by
opening Control Panel's Regional Settings applet,
going into the "Time" tab, and changing the "AM
Symbol" and "PM Symbol" fields to whatever you want
it to read. A little bit of personalization at best,
but every little bit counts, right?
This tip only works for Win 98/ME. If you want to
keep prying fingers from changing your Display
options, this Registry tweak will keep the Display
option in Control Panel, as well as the Properties
function on the right-click Desktop menu, from
functioning. Remember, this is a Registy tweak, and
not for the uninitiated. Open Regedit and once
inside, drill down to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \
Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \
System. Edit the value "NoDispCPL" (DWORD value) and
set the value equal to "1" (without quotes) to
disable the Display icon (if the value/key does not
already exist, create it). To re-enable the option,
delete the above value or set the value to "0". The
setting will take effect immediately and does not
need a reboot. (See above for a less dangerous
method of restricting access to your Display options
by using Policy Editor.)
And here's a tip that only works with Windows
Millennium. Win ME (and 2K, and presumably XP)
allows users to put the Control Panel onto the Start
menu. Here's how: To have Control Panel available as
a cascading menu off the Start, Settings menu,
choose Start, Settings, Taskbar and Start Menu, or
right-click an empty area of the taskbar and choose
Properties. Click the Advanced tab, make sure that
"Expand Control Panel" is selected in the list of
check boxes at the bottom, and click OK. But why
stop there? You can customize the Control Panel menu
(i.e. cutting down the menu items to the few that
you regularly use) by right-clicking the Start
button and clicking Open. Right-click in a bare area
of the Start Menu folder and choose New, Folder.
Type a new name beginning with a letter not already
used as a Start menu shortcut, and press Enter. Open
the new folder, and then open the Control Panel
window. Hold down the Ctrl key and select the
Control Panel icons you want to include. Right-click
them and drag the group into the new folder. Choose
"Create Shortcut(s) Here."
See the HyperTerminal applet? Leave it alone. It
only works with text-based online services such as
old-style BBSes. If you need it, you'll know it (and
you either know more than I do about this goodie, or
you'll have instructions.) While you're at it, leave
the ODBC applet alone also, unless you know what
you're using it for (basically, very sophisticated
database connectivity) and how to use it.
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