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Are you tired of the 'default' sound that you hear
when your computer boots? Changing the Startup sound is fairly
simple to do.
Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel and
double-click on the Sounds icon. In the Events box, go ahead and
select Start Windows and then click the Browse button below Sound
to look for a new sound. You can 'audition' the sounds as you
choose them by clicking the Play button in the Preview section
whenever you wish. When you find the sound that you like, go
ahead and click OK twice and when you start your computer next
time, you will hear your new sound.
Every now and again, we all misplace a file. When
this happens, we need to use Windows' Find feature to locate it
again. In most cases, you would just press Windows Key-F to open
the Find application ( or Start > Find > Files or
Folders... ) then type the name of the file that you are looking
for in the Named box and then click Find Now.
Once in awhile, you may only remember a portion of
the file's name. This is when you would need to do your search
using a wildcard.
Wildcards are simply symbols that stand for unknown
characters. There are two kinds / types of wildcards used in
searches. The asterisk is the most common of the two. The
asterisk stands for any length of text and is limited only by
it's position to the other words you are searching for. For
example, if you are searching for a specific file and can only
remember that it had the word 'Management' in the name, you
simply type
as your search standard to locate every file name
containing the word 'Management'. The second kind of wildcard is
the question mark...which stands for a single character only. For
example, typing
C?st Management
would search for both 'Cost Management' and 'Cust
Management'.
Some users know that you can take a screen shot at
any time in Win98 by pressing the Print Screen key. But, you can
also make a screen shot of a single window as well.
To do this, just press Alt-Print Screen. This
command copies a picture of the window ( or screen ) to the
clipboard. Thus making it possible to paste the picture where you
wish. A great FREE program that assists in this is
Irfanview
If you have certain file-search parameters that you
do again and again, you don't need to retype the search
parameters every time. You may save the search and execute it
with but a couple of clicks.
To save a file search, you must first execute the
search as you would normally ( Windows key-F, enter search
parameters ) and then go to File > Save Search. This will save
the search as an icon on your desktop. The icon will appear as a
folder with a computer on top of it. You can open this icon to
preload the Find utility with the specified search parameters.
Now, instead of pointing to the files in your original search,
this new folder will save the search parameters themselves...so
that as more files fit the search parameters they will be
included in the search. Also, if you already have Find open, then
you can access your saved searches by selecting them from the
Named pull down menu.
Windows98 can be configured to automatically open
downloads when they are complete, thus saving you the time of
searching for and opening them yourself later. What you have to
do is set the file type to open automatically in the Folder
Options.
Go to Start > Settings > Folder Options and
then click the File Types tab. In the list, look for the file
type, click on it once and then click on the Edit button. Now
check the Confirm Open After Download box and go ahead and click
OK. Now, the next time that you download a file of that type,
Windows will automatically open the file after the download
completes
Note: Please be careful as to which files you
choose to set up this way. Some word files can contain viruses
that can be spread when they are opened. Automatic opening does
not give you the opportunity to virus-scan them first. I suggest
saving document and executables to disk and them using your
anti-virus program to scan them prior to opening them. This
method ( auto-open ) is best used for image and audio
files.
File extensions are the three-letter suffixes that
are attached to files to let your PC know what and which kind of
file it is dealing with. Most people prefer to keep the
extensions hidden. It looks much nicer and it won't clutter up
your desktop and folders with all that unnecessary text. But, you
can display them if you wish for certain kinds / types of files
only. As an example, if you want to know if a certain file is a
text ( .txt ) or some other. You can choose to display the
extension for that type only.
Go to Start > Settings > Folder Options and
then click on the File Types tab. Select the file type you wish
to change and click on the Edit tab. Now go ahead and choose the
Always Show Extension box. Then click OK twice.
Since the Start Menu is so frequently accessed, it is a great place to keep your most frequently used / accessed programs and files. It is quite easy to add any type of file to the Start Menu. Just drag the file and drop it on the Start button to create a Start Menu shortcut. By doing this, it adds the file to the top of your Start Menu ( up above the Windows Update icon ). But you can also move the file anytime you want. Simply click the Start Menu and move your mouse to the new icon and grab it, then drag and drop it anywhere else on the Start Menu.
The standard / default Windows desktop icons are
okay but may not be suited to your specific desktop look. You can
choose from a few alternative icons for My Computer, Network
Neighborhood, Recycle Bin, and My Documents folders. To do this,
simply...
Right click on the desktop and select Properties.
Now click on Effects and choose the icon you wish to alter from
the box at the top. Go ahead and click on the Change Icon tab and
select a new icon from the list. You can browse the folder
containing all the icon files if you need to. Now click OK twice.
That's all there is to it.
Thank you and come again...spider!
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