This is a collection of tips and ideas to enhance the user experience with the various Windows Operating Systems. I have been collecting this information since I started using Windows 95. Since then I upgraded to 98 and am now using 2000 Professional. I'm labeling each item below to specify which version of the Windows OS it applies to. Some marked for Windows 2000 will probably also work with Windows XP Home & Professional but may not (I don't use those OS's so have no way to test functionality). I take NO RESPONSIBLITY for any damage or loss brought about by your usage of this information. If you are not comfortable doing these things then don't do them!

REGISTRY TWEAKS:

• (95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000) Ever been asked for the Windows CD or Windows disk #x after installing or removing hardware or a Windows component? Well, you can tell Windows where to look first by changing the value for registry key HKLM \SOFTWARE \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \SETUP \SOURCEPATH. This way for 95, 98, and ME you can copy all the .CAB files over to your hard drive, tell Windows (with this key) where to look for them, and never again have to insert the original floppies or CD. With NT4 & 2000 you can instead copy the I386 folder from the CD to the hard drive and change this key to point to wherever you copy the folder on your hard drive.
• (95 OSR2) Want to use FAT32 with OSR2? Then you must first use the FDISK utility that came with OSR2 to set up hard drive partitions. Then use the FORMAT utility that came with OSR2 on the hard drive. Microsoft also has a CVT.EXE which will supposedly upgrade a hard drive currently using FAT16 to FAT32. I don't know if the utility will keep all your file data or not, however. Win98 comes with an installable FAT32 converter called CVT1.EXE that does maintain all files.
• (95, 98, NT4, ME, 2000, XP) This one pissed me off, even more so when I figured out how it's done. To change the size of your taskbar, just click and drag the edge of it! I inadvertently had made it huge with a stray mouse click, and spent half an hour scanning the Registry, Control Panel, and Win.INI / System.INI files trying to figure out how to set it back! I was almost to the point of re-installing Windows, when I happened upon the click-and-drag method! Yes, I felt stupid. You can also click and drag the taskbar to any of the four sides of the screen and don't have to leave it at the bottom by default.
• (95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000) Do you wonder where those damn programs are hidden that run every time Windows starts up? I wondered the same thing, and have met many people who suffer watching stupid programs run every time they boot their computers up because they don't know where the run commands are kept. You can find them in the following places:
  1. In the folder %WinDir%/Start Menu/Programs/StartUp (replace %WinDir% with %USERPROFILE% when dealing with NT4 or 2000).
  2. In the [boot] section of WIN.INI; all load= and run= commands.
  3. In the Run, RunOnce, & RunServices registry keys of HKLM \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion.
     NOTE: Programs listed in RunServices are run BEFORE you are prompted to log-in to Windows or Networks.
  4. In the HKCU \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \Run registry key (for NT4 & 2000 also look in HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\ and not just the current user profile key).
  If you don't find the program listed in one of the above places it probably is configured to run as a service. Your best bet then, unless you are VERY comfortable working with Windows registry settings, is to uninstall the program. If you are comfortable with it, however, just go to key HKLM \SYSTEM \CurrentControlSet \Services, find the service's key, and delete it (along with all subkeys and values)!
• (95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000) To make the Explorer shortcut open other than the boot drive's root directory, add "/e,<dir>" to the Target field of Shortcut properties, where <dir> is the directory you want opened.
  Ex: "C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /e,C:\temp\".
• (95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000) This one's really cool. I use it as a quick way to open HTML pages in Notepad for reading/editing. What I do is add options to the context menu that comes up by right clicking on any file within Windows. In Windows Explorer, just go to the View or Tools menu (depending on OS) and select Options (in 98 and 2000 it's called Folder Options). Then click on the File Types tab, and select the file type for which you want to add a menu option. Now click on the Edit button. In the new dialog that comes up, click the New button, and put the name you want appearing on the menu in the Action field, and what program you want run in the Application field.
  Ex (with Internet Document/HTML selected): I put 'Edit with Notepad' in the Action field, and browse to C:\WINDOWS\Notepad.exe for the Application field. Now, when I right click on HTML files, I can select the 'Edit with Notepad' option to quickly load the files up in Notepad.