Table of Contents of MOM 98

Table of Contents

Do You Need Mom98? xxii
Windows for Dullards NOT! xxiii
Manual Labor xxiii
MOM's Point of View xxiv
Conventions xxvi
Billy98's Road Map xxx
1 Fast Track 1
The Facts 2
System Requirements 3
What's New In 98? 4
All the Patches, All the Time 5
New Utilities 6
Stability 7
Integrity 9
FATter Disks 10
Speed 10
Startup 11
Power Management 11
Webby 12
Networking 12
Monitors 12
Tv Connection 14
New Hardware 16
Windows Resource Kit Sampler 16
For Fun . . . 17
Windows 3.1 Upgrade 17
The IE 4 Changes 17
Is Win98 for You? 18
Plus 20
Janet and the Grasshoppers 21
On Monopolies 21
On the Effect of Monopolies 21
What Belongs in the Operating System 22
On Using Monopolies Unfairly 24
Mom98 for Upgraders 26
2 Windows Concepts 28
Of Mice and Menus 29
Anatomy of a Window 29
Waiter--Menu, Please 34
Good Dialogs Are the Key to a Healthy Relationship 37
The Wizard Behind the Curtain 40
Belly Up to the Button Bar 40
For the Select Few 42
Keys to the Kingdom 44
Super Natural Keyboard 47
Mice Is Nice but MouseKeys Is Slicker 48
Objection, Your Honor 50
Right On 50
Drag 'til you Drop 52
Common Dialogs 55
Common Controls 58
Clip Bored 60
DDE 62
OLÉ, José 63
A First Look Under the Hood 66
Directories and Folders, Folders and Directories 67
Hidden Pleasures 69
Special Windows Folders 72
Don't Be a FAThead 74
Shortcuts 77
The Tree-based Menu 81
Long Filenames 83
Drivers 88
The Registry 90
Plug 'n' Whatever 92
Crash 'Em, Bash 'Em 93
And Dots Not All 95
Well, Blast My Raster 95
The Scales of Just Us 98
That's a Cockroach of a Different Color 99
Ain't Just Missionaries that Do Conversions 100
Putting Up A Good Font 102
Fonts 101 103
Fonts 201 106
Fonts 378 107
Windows TrueType Fonts 110
Good Writing Needs Character Development 111
The Font of All Wisdom 115
Could You Gimme a Hint? 118
Love Me True (Type) 120
How Much Is That Font Pack for Windows, the One with the Shiny Ohs? 121
Portable Documents 122
Font Tools in Windows 98 124
Installing and Removing Fonts in Windows 98 126
Winning On the First Palette 129
Which One Is Burnt Umber? 129
Some of My Friends Are Pals and Some Are Palettes 132
Putting Windows On a Sound Basis 135
Wav and MIDI 135
Riding the Perfect Wav 136
'mid the MIDI 138
Wasn't General MIDI in the Battle of the Choral C? 140
Trip the Light Fantastic: Video 141
Compression 142
Media Control Interface--Do You Mean Mike McCurry? 144
CD Mania 147
No PC Is an Island 148
Networking Light 148
The Mother of All Networks 150
Internet for Smartypants 152

Me Love Cookies 155

MAPI and TAPI 156

3 Core Components 159

Taken to Taskbar 160
Taskbar Basics 161
Notification Area 165
Launch and Web Toolbars 166
Taskman Lives! 169
Explorering the Great Unknown 170
Fix Explorer Options 170
Views, Filtering and Sorting 172
Fifth View: Thumbnails 176
Directory Tree 178
Property Sheets 178
File Operations 180
Using the Clipboard 182
Diskettes 183
Explorer Command Line 184
More Explorer Tips 186
Hotkeys 187
Two Directories Conundrum 188
QuickView 190
Explorer Lacks 191
You Gave Me Such a Start 194
Configuring the Start Menu 195
Reordering and Reorganizing the Start Menu 198
I'm Hot for Hotkeys 199
Using FileFind 200
The Run Box and the Documents Menu 204
I'm Gonna Shut You Down 206
Advanced Start Menu Tips 210
Ye Olde Shell Game 211
Desktop Dancing 212
Free the My Computer Four 213
The Active Desktop 214
Desktop Tips and Tricks 216
The Mother of all Easter Eggs 217
Configuring Context Menus and Associations 219
File Types Dialog: An Overview 220
Open With Dialog 224
Stupid File Types Tricks 227

ScanDisk 228
Disabling Autoplay of CDs 230
Editing Batch Files 231
Editing Generic Files 231
Quick Install 231
Converting a .DOC File 232
Adding a Local DOS 233

Printing a Directory Listing 234

Looking at the Folders Hierarchy 234
Adding an Open New in Explorer 235

Sarah's Context Menus 235
Send To Menu 236
Sarah's Smart Setup Step by Step 239
I've Got It Under Control Panel 243
A Fistful of Applets 244
Software Installation 247
Printers 249
User Profiles 253
Dos V'Danya 256
Take a Deep Pif 257
General Settings 259
Faking 'Em Out 260

Fonts 261
Memory Settings 262
Toolbar 263
Screen Setting 264
Other Settings 265
The APPS.INF File 266

Mom's Favorite DOS Commands 267

Help 267
Mem 268
Start 268
Edit 268
Doskey 269
xcopy 269
dir 269
deltree 269
move and copy 269

Other DOS Commands 270

ansi.sys 270
Attrib.exe 270
fc 270
Debug, Sort, Find, 271
Fdisk, Format 271
MSCDEX 271
Qbasic 272

Windows Batch Language 272
Penalty Box 273

Standard MS-DOS Exclusive Mode 274
Custom MS-DOS Exclusive Mode, aka the Penalty Box--How It Works 275
Setting Up the Penalty Box 276
Turning On UMBs 278
Dealing with CD-ROM Drives and Sound Cards 278
DriveSpace 280
Mr. Rogers's Network 280
Browsing the Net 281
Mom's Tip-Top IE Tip List 281
Mom's Tip-Top Web Sites 284
Outlook Express 286
OE's Basic Services 287
Setting Up an E-mail Connection 287
Dealing with E-mail 291
Online Address Searches 295
Newsgroups 295
Mom's Tip-Top Mailing Lists 296
Microsoft Fax 298
Overview of Windows 98 Fax Software 298
Nothing but the Fax 299
Sending and Receiving Faxes 302
Windows Messaging Tips 304
I've Got You Covered 305
The So-Called Microsoft Fax Printer 306
Windows Secret File Transfer Program 307
Helping Those who Help Themselves 308
Help Basics 309
Esoteric Win95 Help 314
Win95 Help Under the Covers 315
Beyond the Basics of HTML Help 317

4 Applets, Utilities, and More 319
Disk 'n Dat 320
ScanDisk 321
Defragmenter 323
Aligning Segments and Intelligent Caching 324
DriveSpace 327
Backup 330
Disk Cleanup 332
UnderCover Agents 333
System Information 333
Dr. Watson 335
Let Me Work That Into My Schedule 336
Scheduled Tasks 336
Maintenance Wizard 341
Gettin' It Together 342
Dial-Up Networking 343
Logon Scripts for CompuServe 347
The Logon Scripting Language 348
Direct Cable Connection 350
Floppy Briefcase 355
Network Briefcase 357
Hyperterminal 358
Dialer 359
WinChat and WinPopup 360
Online Bazaar 361
Gettin' Hitched to the Net 362
Net 101 362
Internet Connection Wizard 364
Can't Get Connected 368
Can't Get Your Mail 370
Internet Tools 370
The Internet Applet 370
Browsing the Web with Internet Explorer 373
Push, Active Channel Bar, and Subscriptions 377
FrontPage Express 382
Microsoft Chat 383
NetMeeting 383
NetShow 385
Personal Web Server 385
Other Internet Tools 386

Telnet 386
FTP 388
Miscellaneous 388
Your Wordpad or Mine? 389
Draw, Pardner 392
Painted into a Corner 392
Imaging for Windows 394
Little 'Ns 395
Calculator 396
Charmap 398
Clipboard Viewers 399
Packager 402
Resource Meter 403
Magnifier 404
Multimediaaaaahhhhh 404
Multimedia Player 405
Sound Recorder 406
CD Player 409
Sound Mixer and Volume Control 410
Active Movie Control 411
Da Games 412
5 Add 'Em On 415
Microsoft Presents 416
Resource Kit Sampler 416
Plus! Pack 418
Full Resource Kit 422
Power Toys 424
File Utilities 425
QuickView 425
WinZip 426
PowerDesk 426
Internet Tools 427
FTP Voyager 427
ICQ 428
Netscape Navigator and Netscape Communicator 429
Other Goodies 430
Microangelo 430
ATM 431
Notepad on Steroids 431

6 Crank 'er Up 432
Installation Blues 433
Deciding How to Install 433
Which Win98? 434
Where From? 434
Where To? 436
How Much 98 Do You Need? 437
FAT32? 441
Get Rid of Win95? 442
Preparing for Installation 443
Step 1: Double-Check the Minimum Requirements 443
Step 2: Make a DOS Emergency Boot Disk 444
Step 3: Win 3.x Users Prep 444
Step 4: Win95 Users Prep 446
Step 5: Check Your Hard Drives 447
Step 6: Back Up, Back Up, Back Up 447
Step 7: Gather the Stuff You’ll Need 447
Step 8: Brace Yourself 448
SetUp Vérité 448
A Perfect Installation 450
What Can Go Wrong? 458
Boot, Boot, and Boot Again 458
Safe Recovery Mode 459
Safe Mode 459
Missed My CAB 461
The High Price of Nonsuccess 461
PostPartum Blues, Part 1 462
Checking the (Emergency) StartUp Disk 462
Uncompress Hard Drives 464
Nuking Win95 466
Check Out Your Hardware 469
Register 470
Convert to FAT32 472
Tooling Along 474
Windows Resource Kit 474
Tweak UI 475
Windows Update Wizard 476
PostPartum Blues, Part 2 478
Print System Information 478
Start Maintenance Wizard 478
Fix Weird Settings 480
Get Rid of Real Mode Drivers 485
Set Up Sharing for Your Drives 487
How Win98 Starts 488
BIOS Bootstrap 489
Real Mode 489
Automatic Skip Driver 491
Windows 98 Emerges 492
Nonstandard Ways of Starting 496
Shifty Starts 496
F Key Express 497
System Configuration Utility 501
System Recovery Wizard 505
How Win98 Really Boots 506
7 Techie Files, Techie Programs 508
SetUp 509
Log File Anatomy 509
setuplog.txt 509
system.1st 511
detlog.txt 511
netlog.txt 515
autoexec.bat and config.sys 516
system.ini and win.ini 517
Startup 518
bootlog.txt 518
msdos.sys 519
ios.ini, ios.log 525
Logon Password 525
System Files 526
System File Checker 526
Extract File 528
Windows File Information 530
Version Conflict Manager 533
Sysbckup 534
Other Files and Programs 535
An INI Still? 535
Recycology 537
Changing the Splash Screens 539
Emergency StartUp Disk 541
Mom's Better ESD 548
Bad Programs 551
Cleaning Up 553
Yet More Files 553
Active Desktop 556
Turn It On 557
HTML for VBScript Programmers 561
VBScript for Everyman 564
MAW's Start Word and Excel 573
Windows Scripting Host 575
Adding Active Cool Stuff 578
Security in an ActiveX World 582

8 Control Panel 586

Abbreviations in the Belfry, er, Registry 587
Accessibility Options 587
Add New Hardware 589
Guru Installation 590
Naive Installation 595

Add/Remove Programs 597
Date/Time 598
Desktop Themes 601
Display 605

Background Tab 606
Screen Saver Tab 610
Appearance Tab 614

3D Objects 621
Active Title Bar 622
Active Window Border 622
Application Background 622
CaptionButtons 622
Desktop 622
Icon 622
Icon Spacing 623
Inactive Title Bar 624
Inactive Window Border 624
Menu 625
Message Box 625
Palette Title 625
Scrollbar 625
Selected Item 625
ToolTips 626
Window 626

Effects Tab 626
Web Tab 628
Settings Tab 629
Fonts 634
Game Controllers 635
Internet 637
General Tab 637
Security Tab 639
Content Tab 642
Connection Tab 644 Programs Tab 645
Advanced Tab 646
Keyboard 646
Modems 648
Mouse 652
Multimedia 657
Network 662
Passwords 669
Power Management 670
Printers 672
Regional Settings 672
Zounds! . . . Er, Sounds 678
System 679
Device Manager Tab 680
Hardware Profiles Tab 693
Performance Tab 695
Telephony 699 Tweak UI 700
Mouse 701
General 702
Explorer 704
IE 4 705
Desktop 708
My Computer 709
Control Panel 710
Network 711
New 711
Add/Remove 712
Boot 713
Repair 714
Paranoia 715
Users 716
9 Oh Registry, My Registry 717
Regedit 718
Keys, Values, Names, and Data 718
New Keys and Values 721
Import/Export 723
Care and Feeding of the Registry 725
Registry Genesis 725
Registry Checker (aka ScanReg) in Windows 727
ScanReg in DOS 730
Copying .DAT Files 731
Merging .REG Files 732
.INF and the Registry 733
The Mysterious Sixth 736
Final Word on .REG 736
Gettin' Around 738
Aliases 738
Classes 739
Current User 740
Local Machine 740
Users 741
Current Configuration 741
Dynamic Data 742
HKCR 743
Orientation 744
\.EXTENSION to \PROGID and Back 745
ProgIDs and File Types 746
\SHELL 750
Default Action 752
HKCR\* and \UNKNOWN 752
Directory, Drive, Folder 753
HKCR/CLSID 754
Keys and Context Menus 756
\SHELLEX 759
\SHELLNEW: Keys and the "New" Context Menu 762
Edit Flags 764
%1 Bugs 771
Where the Icons Come From 773
HKCU 773
Orientation 774
Sounds 776
MRUs 777
Streams and Restoring the Desktop 779
RUN and RUNONCE 780
\SHELL FOLDERS 781
Other HKCUs 781
HKLM 782
Orientation 782
App Paths 785
RUN, RUNONCE, RUNSERVICES, RUNSERVICESONCE 786
Other HKLMs 787
Registry Hacks, Ultimate Power Users' Tricks 790
Renaming, Moving Desktop Icons 790

My Computer 791
Network Neighborhood 793
Recycle Bin 793
Internet Explorer 794

More Iconoclasms 794

Icon Numbers 795
Changing System Icons 796
Thumbnails 797

Run Accelerators on the App Path 798

Back to Mom98