PC TIPS FOR WINDOWS 95/98

By Dave Wallace

RIVER BENDER - March 1999

It always surprises me how many people are not aware of some of the simpler tricks using their PCs. Here's a few, most of which have been have been brought up in the past at the New Bern Computer Users Group meetings:

What's wrong with my PC? The program's not working right.

Shut down and restart your PC and often the program will work fine. You've probably hit a wrong key and caused a glitch in the program.

I've got a problem with my PC. Has anybody had the same problem?

I've had good success finding answers to tricky PC problems by searching in the 20,000 plus Internet newsgroups using the search engine http://www.dejanews.com. Try different search words and follow the thread of the conversations. You can even post your questions here.

How can I get an Icon on the desktop for my favorite Windows 95 game called Freecell so I can click on it to play? One can create a shortcut icon for any program, file or folder on their desktop for quick easy access. My desktop is full of icons for things I use often. To place an icon on the desktop for Freecell, find the file FREECELL.EXE using Start, Find . Right click on it, select Create Shortcut and select Yes to placing it on the desktop.

How can I connect my PC to the Craven County Regional Library?

Look for the folder HYPERTERMINAL using Start/Program/Accessories. Click on it then click on the application program HYPERTRM. Enter a name like "Library", pick an icon and finish answering the setup questions, many of which the default can be accepted. The library's telephone number is 636-3834 (no area code). Be sure to save the session before closing out the Hyper Terminal folder and a library icon will be created in the folder. To call the library simply click on the icon. The library also has a second number 636-0439 that you can set up but for some reason it doesn't work sometimes.

I was lurking in DOS and I'm unable to get back into Windows despite rebooting. What can I do?

Ordinarily one gets back to Windows by typing exit but when that or rebooting fails your DOS AUTOEXEC.BAT and/or CONFIG.SYS files probably got screwed up. Since neither is needed in Windows 95, rename them to become defunct files using the following two DOS commands: ren autoexec.bat autoexec.old and ren config.sys config.old

Help, I'm stuck in Menuland. Nothing seems to work .

Press and release Alt or press Esc. Next try Esc twice. Finally hit Ctrl/Alt/Delete keys simultaneously and one by one, end the task of the programs shown and shutdown. As a last resort, you'll have to hit the reset button and restart the PC but you may lose some data.

Should I have an emergency backup diskette?

Yes and here's how to make one: Go to Start/Settings/Control Panel and double click on Add/Remove Program . Click on Windows Startup Disk . Click on Create Disk button. Follow instructions - put a blank floppy in Drive A. When completed, click OK , label diskette "Win95 Emergency Startup Diskette" and store the disk for use when your hard drive fails. When this happens, put the diskette in Drive A and hit the Reset button on the PC. A DOS prompt will come up. Several utilities are on the diskette such as Chkdsk and Scandisk.

How do I defragment my hard drive and is it necessary?

You should defrag your hard drive at least as often as you change oil in your car (well, maybe more often) as it will speed up access to data on the drive. Here's how:

Go to Start\Programs\Accessories\System Tools\Defragment Disk and follow instructions. This will take a bit of time, especially if you have a large hard drive. You'll probably have time to go out and mow the grass or wash your car.

Why does everybody reply to my e-mail by sending my message back along with their reply?

Probably because they hit the "reply" button in their mail program which has been optioned to send your message back. Unless there is something specific in your message that they want to point out and comment on, it really is a bad practice to send a message back. It can be deleted before one types their reply by selecting Edit/Select All followed by Edit/Clear . Or one could selectively edit out portions of a message by clicking the left mouse button and dragging it over the text followed by Edit/Clear .