Windows 98 Tips and Tricks


Be VERY careful while you are running RegEdit.
You can easily render your machine UN-BOOTABLE
if you play with settings you aren't familiar with!

You may want to immediately back up your Registry before doing any editing.
We will not be responsible for your mistakes while editing the Windows Registry.
The Tips below are there for you to follow at your own risk.

1.To Shut Down or Restart Windows with one mouse click

Right-click the Desktop and select New > Shortcut
In the Command line box type:
rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows for a one click shut down

rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindowsexec for one click restart

rundll.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 0 for a one click Log off

Click Next and give it the appropriate name (Shut Down or Restart)
To change the icon on the shortcut, right-click on the shortcut, and select Change Icon. Some nice icons can be found in \Windows\System\shell32.dll.

2.Deleting Files without moving them to the recycle bin

When you want to Delete files without moving them to the Recycle Bin, hold down the Shift key while pressing Delete (or right-clicking Delete with the Mouse).

The above solution lets you select files to delete immediately, you can also make this a default solution for all files you want to delete:

Right-click the Recycle Bin and select Properties
On the Global Tab, select Do not move files to the Recycle Bin
If you select Configure drives independently, you can choose from which drive you want to delete files immediately.

3. To Remove the Favourites folder from the start menu.

Start the Registry Editor (At your own risk remember)

Click on Start-->
Click on Run -->
Type Regedit -->
Press OK .

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
Right-click an open area in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value
Name it NoFavoritesMenu
Double-click this entry and add the value 1
Exit RegEdit and restart Windows
To put your Favorites back on the Start menu, simply rename the value to 0.

4. How to change the start up and log off screens.

There are two files in the \Windows directory, both are 320 x 400 bitmaps
LOGOW.SYS is the "Windows is shutting down" screen
LOGOS.SYS is the "You may now shut down ...." screen

You can edit these files or create your own, they just have to be 320 x 400 bitmaps
If you have 640x480 images, here's how to make them 320x400 and keep their normal appearance when they are displayed at start up or shutdown:

To create your custom Start-up Screen
Create a file as described above, and name it Logo.sys. Place this file in the Root directory (e.g. C:\)

5. Playing a midi file on startup.
You can play a Midi file at startup - instead of a wave file, this is how:

Select Control Panel > Sounds and make sure that the entry for Start Windows is set to [None]
Create a shortcut to your favorite Midi file in \Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp (you can do this by selecting your favorite Midi file, clicking the right mouse button, and dragging it to the StartUp folder. When you release the mouse button, a menu will pop-up, one of the choices will be Create Shortcut(s) Here)
Right-click the shortcut you just added to the StartUp folder, and select Properties
Select the Shortcut tab, and in the Target box type:

c:\windows\mplayer.exe /play /close <path to your midi file>\filename.mid

In the Run: box select Minimized
Where <path to your midi file> is the full path to your midi file (c:\directory name\midifilename.mid).

6. How to remove the speaker Icon from your System Tray (Bottom Right Hand Corner)

Right-click the speaker icon and choose Adjust Audio Properties from the menu
At the bottom of the Audio Properties window, there's a check-box Show volume control on the taskbar, removing the check-mark in the box will remove the Icon from the Tray.
Now if you ever want to restore the Speaker icon in your Tray, you have to:

Click Start, Select Settings > Control Panel
Open Multimedia, and place the check-mark back in the Show volume control on the taskbar box (on the Audio tab)

7. How to display the startup menu without pressing F8 on startup.

When you want to display the start up menu at the time you start Windows, you need to press F8. There is also a way of displaying it automatically:

Use Explorer and find Msdos.sys in the root directory -- it is a hidden file .
Make a copy of the Msdos.sys file in your TEMP directory, or any other directory. (just in case...)
Right-click Msdos.sys and select Properties
Uncheck the Read-only attribute
Open a Msdos window (click Start > Programs > MS-DOS Prompt and type edit C:\Msdos.sys
Under the [Options] section, type:
BootMenu=1
BootMenuDefault=1
BootMenuDelay=xx (where xx is the delay in seconds)

Save the file
In Explorer right-click on Msdos.sys, select Properties and check the Read-only attribute.

8. Multiple File Registrations.

To be able to open a file with more than one program, follow the instructions below:

From Windows Explorer's menu select View > Folder Options, select the File Types tab
Find the file type you want to work with and double click it
In the Edit File Type dialog that opens you will see a box marked Actions. This is where Windows 98 stores the actions to be taken when you double click on a file, drag it to a printer, and so on. You can have more than one Open, so long as each action is a unique character string. For example, you could edit the Gif file type registration so that you have one entry named Open and another named Open (Paint Shop Pro). For each entry edit the actions needed to open the file with the appropriate application
To add an entry, simply press New and in the New Action dialog box, type the name of the action in the Action box
You can use the Browse button to find the Application used to perform action
Highlight one of the entries and click the Set Default button. That will be the application used when you double click on a file of that type. If, however, you right click the file, all of the entries you placed into the Actions box will appear on the context menu making it easy to open the file with the application of your choice.

9. How to remove all Icons from your Desktop.

Start the Registry Editor
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Current Version \ Policies \ Explorer
From the menu select Edit > New > DWORD value
Name it NoDesktop
Double-click this entry and give it the value 1
Close the registry editor and reboot your computer
To restore the Icons on the desktop, you have to change the value of the NoDesktop Key to 0.