Win98 Tips

The following section contains tips that are specific to Windows98.


Hiding the Windows98 Version on the Desktop
Disabling the Active Desktop
Running the Windows Update Manager
Disabling the Windows Update Manager
Disabling Automatic IP Addressing
Adding Shortcuts to the Desktop

Adding Shortcuts to Menus

Gradient Fill Title Bars

Installing the OEM Version Over Win95

Adding Microsoft Fax and Windows Messaging
Right Mouse Click and the Start Menu Programs
Changing the Names of the Programs on the Quck Lauch Toolbar
ScanReg
Installing the Resource Kit
Increasing Drive Performance
Configuring for Single Click
Running the System File Checker
System Information Utility with Win98
System Configuration Utility with Win98
Putting the Desktop Back on the Quick Launch Bar (Win98)
Adding Programs to Windows98 Quick Launch Bar
Installing Pinball with Win98










Hiding the Windows98 Version on the Desktop

Added 10/17/98

  1. Start Regedit
  2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
  3. Add a String Value
  4. Name it PaintDesktopVersion
  5. Give it a value of 0
  6. Reboot the computer

Disabling the Active Desktop

  1. Start Regedit
  2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
  3. Create a new Binary Value
  4. Name it NoActiveDesktop
  5. Give it a value of 01 00 00 00

Running the Windows Update Manager

To run the Windows Update Manger, connect to the Internet and run WUPDMGR.EXE


Disabling the Windows Update Manager

To disable the Windows Update Manager, make the following registry edit

  1. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
  2. Add ad DWORD entry called NoWindowsUpdate
  3. Give it a value of 1

Disabling Automatic Private IP Addressing

A Windows98 computer on a LAN and configured for DHCP will first try to obtain an IP address from a DHCP server.
If that fails they will assign themselves an IP address from the 169.254.x.x range. This range is only for small, private networks.
This is a advantage for those users setting up a small local LAN. They don't need to worry about assigning IP addresses for their computers.
However, there are situations where you might want to disable this feature. For example, a laptop user that has a network adapter installed but is not connected to their local LAN.

If you don't want this feature, you can disable it by:

  1. Starting Regedit

  2. Go to Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ VxD \ DHCP

  3. Add a DWORD entry with the name IPAutoconfigurationEnabled

  4. Give it a value of 0x0

  5. Restart the computer

This will disable Automatic Private IP Addressing but not DHCP


Adding Shortcuts to the Desktop

An easy way to add a shortcut of a program to the desktop is to:

  1. Right click on the icon

  2. Select Send To / Desktop as Shortcut


Adding Shortcuts to Menus

If you drag a shortcut to the Start Menu and drop it, you will get a shortcut on your Start Menu.
To add it to a Program group below the Start Menu, hover it there for a second or two and the group will expand.
You can then insert the shortcut into that Program Group.
A divider line will be displayed to let you know where you will be placing the shortcut.

To move a shortcut, left-click on it and move it to the new location.


Gradient Fill Title Bars

If you have Win98 and are using at least 16 bit color, you can have a gradient fill for your title bars.
The effect is that your title bar gradually changes color from left to right.
To enable this:

  1. Right click on an open area of the Desktop

  2. Right-Click

  3. Select Properties

  4. Click on the Appearance tab

  5. Pull down the Item list

  6. Select Active or Inactive Title Bar

  7. You can select Color and Color2 (only if you have 16 bit or higher color saturation)

Now your title bars will have a gradient fill


Installing the OEM Version Over Win95

Normally you can't install the OEM Version of Windows98 if you have an existing Win95 on your system.
To get around this problem:

  1. Boot the PC with the Windows 95 Emergency Startup Disk to the MS-DOS prompt but make sure your CD ROM drivers are loaded on the disk and have access to the CD_ROM drive.
  2. Run the MS-DOS editor EDIT and create a dummy file NTLDR (no extension) in the root dir C:\
  3. In the Windows95 directory (usually C:\WINDOWS), rename the file WIN.COM.
  4. Start the Windows 98 Setup with: SETUP.EXE /NTLDR
  5. You will be prompted for the directory to load Windows98 into, by default if you already have Windows95 loaded and are upgrading, it will have c:\windows.000 make sure you change it to c:\windows or it will load Win98 in another directory.

Adding Microsoft Fax or Windows Messaging

If you want to install Microsoft Fax or Windows Messaging, these don't normally show up as options.
They are on the Win98 CD in the Tools\Oldwin95\Message\US directory.
Run WMS.EXE to install Windows Messaging
Run AWFAX.EXE to install Microsoft Fax


Right Mouse Click and the Start Menu Programs

A new way you can use the Right Mouse click with Win98 are with the programs listed in the Start Menu and the menus below it.
You can now Delete, Rename, Cut, Copy, Sort, Drag Shortuts to the desktop and more.
You can even move them to different parts of the Start Menu.


Changing the Names of the Programs on the Quck Lauch Toolbar

Iin case you want to change the name that gets displayed when you hover your mouse over the icons in the Quick Lauch Toolbar,
the icon names can be changed in c:\windows\application\microsoft\internet explorer\quick launch


ScanReg

Windows98 has a DOS mode registry scanning program
Several switches can be used with this program

/BACKUP - Backup the registry and related system configuration files.
/RESTORE - Choose a backup to restore.
/OPT - Optimizes the  Registry by removing wasted space. This will be done automatically by Win98 if there is more than 500K of wasted space
/FIX - Repair the registry.
/COMMENT="<comment>" :- Adds the specified comment to the CAB file while backing up.


Installing the Resource Kit

From the CD in the \TOOLS\RESKIT directory, you can install the Windows98 Resource Kit.
The following is an excerpt from a document included on the CD that lists all the programs that can be installed.

  1. BATCH.EXE: Microsoft Batch Setup utility. Creates files for automated installation of Windows 98 and components.
  2. CHDOSCP.EXE: Code Page Changer. Changes the Code Page used for MS-DOS-based programs to match Windows 98 Regional Settings.
  3. CHECKLINKS.EXE: Link Check Wizard. Finds and eliminates dead links and shortcuts.
  4. CLIPTRAY.EXE: Clip Tray. Optimizes and manages the Clipboard.
  5. FAT32WIN.EXE: Fat32 Conversion Information Tool.
  6. INFINST.EXE: Windows 98 Inf installer Utility.
  7. LFNBACK.EXE: Long Filename Backup Utility.
  8. MINITEL .TTF Files. Minitel font emulation files for HyperTerminal.
  9. NETMON: Network Monitor. Service for remote monitoring of network performance on Windows 98 client machines.
  10. QUIKTRAY.EXE: Quick Tray. Organizes the icons in the Windows 98 system tray.
  11. POLEDIT.EXE: System Policy Editor. Sets administrative policies to define configuration settings for individual users, individual computers, or groups of users.
  12. PWLEDIT.EXE: Windows 98 Password List Editor.
  13. REMOTREG: Microsoft Remote Registry. Service for remotely viewing and editing the Registry on Windows 98 client machines.
  14. RPCPP: Remote Procedure Call Print Provider. Service for administering network printers from Windows 98 machines.
  15. SNMP Agent: Windows 98 SNMP network protocol agent.
  16. TEXTVIEW.EXE: Text file viewer. Quickly displays the contents of text files.
  17. TIMETHIS.EXE: Time This. Scripting tool that times how long it takes for the system to execute a given command.
  18. TWEAKUI.EXE: Power Toy. Enhances and customizes the Windows 98 desktop.
  19. TZEDIT.EXE: Time Zone Editor. Creates and edits time zone entries for the Date/Time icon in Control Panel.
  20. USBVIEW.EXE: USB Viewer. USB Device information and troubleshooting tool.
  21. WAITFOR.EXE: Scripting tool that causes the computer to wait for a signal sent over the network.
  22. WHERE.EXE: Command-line tool that reports the location of a specified file on the hard disk.
  23. WINDIFF.EXE: File and Directory comparison. Compares the contents of files or directories and reports differences.
    WINSET.EXE. Command-line/scripting tool that sets global environment variables for Windows 98.
  24. WSHADMIN.HLP: Windows Scripting Host Administrator's Guide. Guide to running scripts and designing applications for Windows Scripting Host.

Increasing Drive Performance

You can likely increase your Hard Drive or CD ROM performance by:

  1. Opening up the Device Manager
  2. Double click on  the CD or Hard Drive
  3. Click on the Settings tab
  4. If you have a DMA box that is not grayed out, check that box
  5. Reboot when prompted
  6. When Win98 starts again, see if that box is still checked.
  7. This is especially beneficial with the newer UDMA drives which are supported by Win98
  8. This will also greatly reduce CPU utilization during hard drive activity.

Configuring for Single Click

One of the configuration changes you can make with Win98 is to have the mouse only need a single click to open programs or shortcuts.
To make this change:

  1. Open any folder, the Explorer or My Computer
  2. Select View / Folder Options
  3. Check Custom, based on settings you choose
  4. Click on the Settings button
  5. The last section, Click items as follows allows you to configure Win98 for single click

Running the System File Checker

To check the integrity of key system file, you can run SFC.EXE in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory
It can restore corrupted files, check for changed or deleted system files, as well as restore default settings


System Information Utility with Win98

To check on various system configurations such as:

Run the System Information utility from Start/Accessories/System Tools/System Information


System Configuration Utility with Win98

There is a program called MSCONFIG.EXE located in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.
With it you can configure your

You can then easily check or uncheck any of the items in each section


Putting the Desktop Back on the Quick Launch Bar (Win98)

If you should delete the the Show Desktop icon from the Quick Launch toolbar, you can easily get it back again.

  1. Go to C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
  2. Create a Text file called ShowDeskop.SCF with the following contents:

    [Shell]
    Command=
    IconFile=explorer.exe,3[Taskbar]
    Command=ToggleDesktop
  3. This will put the shortcut back on your Quick Launch toolbar.

Adding Programs to Windows98 Quick Launch Bar

With Windows98, you can have programs on the tool bar where they can be quickly launched.
This area of the toolbar is right next to the start button.
To add a program, simply right-click and drag it there
When prompted, select Create Shortcut
To access the program, press Ctrl-Esc to bring up the toolbar and click on the program's icon


Installing Pinball with Win98

Normally you can't install Pinball from the original Win95 Plus Pack if you are running Win98.
To get around this:

  1. Insert your Win98 CD
  2. Go to the \Tools\Mtsutil folder
  3. Copy the PINBALL.INF to your hard drive
  4. If your CD is in other than the D: drive, edit the file by changing the line layoutfile = d:\pluslayt.inf to reflect the location of your CD.
  5. Insert the Plus Pack CD for Win95
  6. Right-click the PINBALL.INF and select Install.
  7. If you receive a dialog box requesting FONT.DAT, simply type in the correct drive letter.
  8. It will automatically copy the Pinball files to your hard drive.
  9. You can find the Pinball game by going to Start / Programs / Accessories / Games, and then clicking Space Cadet Table

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