RIVER BENDER - November, 2000
Here's some tips and tricks that you may find useful. They are based on Windows 98 but most likely will apply to Windows 95 as well.
PERFORMANCE STATUS
Get in the habit of right-clicking on My Computer icon and selecting Properties/Performance. Just after booting your PC the percent of free resources may be in the 90s but after opening your browser or other programs the percent may drop in the 80s depending on how much RAM memory you have. If the percent gets down in the 60s or so and your PC seems sluggish something is probably wrong or you may be running out of RAM memory.
ASSOCIATING A PROGRAM TO A FILE
Sometimes when you install new software it changes your file associations. For example, you may notice text files that you formerly clicked on using WordPad suddenly display them using NotePad. To change it back, right click on the file while holding down the Shift key and select Open With.
Scroll to the program you want to use, click on it then select OK. Be sure to click on "Always use this program" otherwise the association will only be temporary.
TASKBAR IN THE WRONG PLACE OR DISAPPEARED
Left click and hold down the mouse button while dragging the task bar where you want it. If it has disappeared put the cursor on the very bottom of the desktop display until a up/down arrow appears. Hold down the left mouse button while dragging upward and the taskbar will reappear. It was just hidden.
USE A PHOTO AS YOUR DESKTOP BACKGROUND
I personally don't care for busy desktop backgrounds that make icons hard to see but you can make your background anything you want. Right click out in space on your desktop and select Properties/Background. You can select any of the listed backgrounds and patterns or you can select Browse and go to any folder where you've save photos. Nancy Orr, Town Clerk of River Bend, uses an aerial photo from the River Bend web page. She says she can keep an eye on her house while at work!
MAKE YOUR DESKTOP BACKGROUND ANY COLOR YOU LIKE
I prefer pleasing light pastel colors for my desktop background. You can select any color you like by right-clicking in space on your desktop and selecting Properties/Appearance. Click on the little block labeled Color and click on Other at the bottom (sometimes it's hard to see Other). Move the cursor around in the color spectrum to the desired color as displayed in the sample block then use the vertical slider to get the shade. Click OK on each panel to exit out.
DELETE THE USELESS NETWORK NEIGHBORHOOD ICON
Once you've install any kind of network (and installing Dialup-Networking creates a network), you get a desktop icon called "Network Neighborhood". Unless you are on a Local Area Network (LAN) it is useless. The problem is that "Delete" is not on the menu. To delete it you must get into the sacred "Registry." Don't get scared - it's easy. Here's how: Go to Start/Run and type in "regedit." Click on the + sign by each of the following items in the path below and follow the instructions very carefully:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. On the right, right click on NoNetHood and select Modify. Under Value Data and change the figure from 0 to 1. Hexadecimal will already be checked. Click OK , exit the Registry and reboot to enable the change.
USING START/HELP FOR TROUBLESHOOTING
I have found that going to Start/Help in Windows 98 is very helpful in troubleshooting. Under the index tab type "troubleshooting" and when found scroll down to the item you are having a problem with, such as modems, printers, sound, startup, memory, etc. When you start the process, resize the troubleshooting guide smaller and move it off to the side of your desktop so that you can perform the instructions as you read them. If you don't know how to resize move your cursor to the border of the display until a double-arrow appears. Hold the left mouse key down and drag the border. To move the display put the cursor in the blue area at the top, hold down the left mouse key and drag the display where you want it.