Tips on Windows '95
Tips on Windows '95
By John Calandrino
Version 1.1
For the month of OCTOBER
ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT:
+ I encourage you to distribute this file. However, it should not have
been altered in any way (especially things like the author's name and
the rest of the heading above). If you are confused about this
distribution policy of mine in any way, just E-mail me in the same
place everyone else will: jcalandr@aol.com (that's J CALANDR for AOL
users who don't want to type an I-net address).
+ This file is separated into different parts, each of which is updated
monthly. Every month, I edit this file on my computer, then add .1
to the version number, change the month, and re-upload it. As you can
see from the top, this is my second release of this document. I have
been using Windows '95 since it came out on August 24th. I hope my
information can be useful to you.
+ Here are the parts this document is divided into...
-NEW THIS MONTH: Things that are new or revised this month.
-DAYS I'VE BEEN USING WIN95: Just what it says. This is also
the amount of days since the release date (Aug. 24, 1995).
- (*NEW*) CORRECTIONS: Where I correct myself about things I
said last month that were not true in some way.
-*THE* ADVICE/QUOTE/TIP OF THE MONTH: To me, this is the
most important part of this file.
- (*BETTER*) REASONS TO UPGRADE TO Win95 FROM WIN 3.x: The
reasons to upgrade from WIN 3.x to Win95. This part of the
document I feel will gradually fade away after WIN 3.x is
not used that much anymore. This was formerly DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN WIN 3.x AND WIN95.
-TOP 10 DO's OF THE MONTH: Top 10 things you should to with
Win95.
-TOP 10 DONT's OF THE MONTH: The 10 things you should NOT do
with Win95, because it won't work or Win95 won't run it, etc.
-TIPS: General tips on Win95.
-APP ADVICE: Advice for running certain apps in Win95.
- (*NEW*) UNSOLVED PROBLEMS: Problems with Win95 and its apps
that remain unsolved by me and my E-mailers. E-mail me if you
know the answer to any of the problems mentioned here.
- (*NEW*) E*MAILERS: People who sent me mail about Tips for
Windows '95 last month. If I use what you sent in my document,
I will mention your name there, too.
+ By the way, if you have any contradictions of what I say in this
article or have something else to share with me about Win95, etc.,
E-mail me at JCALANDR@AOL.COM. If I decide to use what you said,
I'll mention your name in my document. If I forget to mention
your name, just tell me and I'll correct it next month. Also
"mkdubois@aol.com" suggested that I have a mailing list for my
tip sheet. If you wish to be on the list, just E-mail.
+ One final note: There are too many sections of this tip sheet. It is
getting a little confusing and needs to be simplified. For instance,
the DO's section is almost the same as the TIPS section. I would
really like it if people gave me some ideas for simplification so
it's a little more readable.
ALL RIGHT, LET'S BEGIN!
NEW THIS MONTH:
As you may have noticed, I have added a section called CORRECTIONS.
This section corrects misinformation from last month. My DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN WIN 3.x and Win95 section has been revised to say REASONS TO
UPGRADE TO Win95 FROM WIN 3.x. I did this because all that section is
doing is saying positive things about Win95 and negative ones about
Win 3.x. Also, I have some symbols in the beginning, and I'd like to
tell you what they mean...
(*NEW*) - New this month and probably described here
(*BETTER*) - Revised for clarity and made "better"
DAYS I'VE BEEN USING WIN95: 38 days
CORRECTIONS:
(SENT BY kevinbeth@aol.com) Firstly, I said the following last month
in the TIPS section of my tip sheet:
"Use Scandisk and Defrag often, and use MS Anti-Virus, too.
MSAV is upgraded from your old DOS; the way to tell is that
this version has less clutter at the bottom of the screen
(it says 1 instead of F1, etc.) Small but noticeable
difference, and I think it's intentional by MS to let you
know that you're using a different version of MSAV."
MSAV may not really be any different than before. I think it was the
same the entire time, as Kevin corrected me. Sorry.
(SENT BY kevinbeth@aol.com & tkrumhol@mail.orion.org) Last month, I
said the following in the TIPS section of this document:
"Get rid of SmartDrive, since Win95 doesn't need it. It's an
additional 2.5 megs or more of RAM that I'm sure you'll be
happy to reclaim."
First of all, some people may want to keep SmartDrive on
their system even after they install Win95. It's a sacred few, but
they're still there, because people who open a lot of .GIF (graphic)
files and use the CD-ROM a lot may enjoy the increased speed in these
situations. On the other hand, you may find something useful for the
additional RAM, especially if the SmartDrive was big like mine, like
2.5 megs. Secondly, it's not always an additional 2.5 megs
of RAM: people using a small SmartDrive can only be using 22K-1.5 megs
on their system.
(SENT BY ejh418@aol.com) I also didn't tell anyone how to remove
SmartDrive. Only remove it if it's really unnecessary and taking up
a lot of RAM. Here's how to know to remove it and remove it:
1. At the MS-DOS prompt, type EDIT C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
2. You may see a line like LH C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE 2048 128
3. Delete this line, which is necessary only if it's unneeded and if
the number after SMARTDRV.EXE (2048, in this example) if about 1024
or more, meaning it's using a meg or more RAM on your system.
(SENT BY johnp61@aol.com & fly2fight@aol.com) I also said this in my
DO's section of the tip sheet last month:
"Download MS Money from your nearest on-line service/Internet
while you still can!!! It's 32-bit, so you can really see
a big 32-bit program in "action". Plus, it's one less
upgrade you have to pay for."
Three things. First, it's not a "big" program, per se; it's just 32-bit,
which is nice. Secondly, I have no idea where to get this program on
AOL anymore. You see, on around September 23rd or so, AOL switched this
area of their on-line service around a lot and I can't find anything.
However, if you have access to the Internet (which all AOL members do),
you can get it through there. Just go to the Explore the Internet
section of AOL, click on World Wide Web, and type the following I-net
address: "http://www.microsoft.com/MSHOME/". Then, follow the directions
on the screen. Thirdly, this offer from Microsoft expires Oct. 31, '95,
so act soon!
*THE* ADVICE/QUOTE/TIP OF THE MONTH:
This month, I have decided to show you what MS has to say about Win95,
and then what I have to say about what they have to say. Confused?
Just read on. I'll all make sense in a minute.
Microsoft Says... (this is not quoted, but it's what they believe are
the reasons that you should upgrade to Win95)
1. Improved GUI (Graphic User Interface, i.e. desktop)
2. Windows Explorer (a better version of the file manager)
3. Long filenames
4. Better support for MS-DOS games than Win 3.x and better/faster video
support
5. Plug and play.
6. 32-bit multitasking (you could use a lot of different parts of your
computer at the same time, like formatting a disk and using the
modem)
7. MS Exchange (E-mail and Fax thing)
8. MS Network (a very new network by Microsoft
Here's what I think...
1. Improved GUI - It's much, much, much better than Win 3.x's desktop,
as I mentioned below in my reasons to upgrade. They were right here.
2. Windows Explorer - It's a better file manager, sure, but not so
much better that anyone would buy Win95 just for the Explorer. I
don't think that the Windows Explorer could even sell alone as a
file manager upgrade.
3. Long filenames - True, but only with 32-bit apps. In MS-DOS windows,
you can sort of use it, as long as you use no spaces. To make 32-bit
filenames in 16-bit apps (like Word 6.0), you can the file and
rename it in the Windows Explorer, My Computer, or a similar file
browsing area of Win95.
4. Better support... - Support for MS-DOS games is much better, but it
still has a lot of problems, and I still recommend MS-DOS mode for
games like DOOM II, etc. Video support is a little bit better,
though.
5. Plug and Play - Yes, but only with internally known devices by Win95. Any
other device and you'll have to use it's driver just as usual.
6. 32-bit Multitasking - Certainly, but there are a few small exceptions so
watch out for them. You could also screw up your system if you make it do
10 or 20 things at once. Be careful with this, and when you use many
different parts of the computer at once, make sure you only use about 5
or so different apps.
7. MS Exchange - Only good if you use a lot of E-mail and Fax software and
want an easy way to retrieve responses from people
8. MS Network - A great network, but you do need to pay for it (monthly).
Just to let you know, I still think that Win95 is much better than any other
OS I've used, but you can't go insane when you do things with it (like with
the multitasking). Now, on to the real tips...
REASONS TO UPGRADE TO Win95 FROM WIN 3.x:
1. Better and better-looking desktop.
2. MS Plus themes.
3. VERY quick printing.
4. The games Hover and Space Cadet Table.
5. Plug-and-Play.
6. Folders in folders; windows in windows.
7. MS-DOS 7.00!
8. You can get MS Money until Oct. 31, '95.
9. You'll find the desktop less cluttered.
10. Ease of switching between programs through the little buttons at
the bottom of the screen.
TOP 10 DO's OF THE MONTH:
1. Edit your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files and remove unnecessary
drivers, etc.
2. When Win95 starts up, a welcome window appears with tips in it and
a bunch of buttons on the side of the window. You can take time to
scroll through a few tips on Win95 here. Some are actually useful!
3. Click with the right mouse button on Start, and set up the menus
better, since now "windows" can be put in other "windows".
4. Multitask! Format a disk, download a file, and work on a document
at the same time. Trust me, it comes in handy more than you think.
5. Read the manual(s)! I know this may sound a little stupid and
elementary to some of you, but a lot of people never take the time
to read the manuals with their computer software. Even if you
don't read the manuals for your other apps, at least read the
manual that came with you new operating system :-)
6. Buy some floppies and PKWARE's PKZIP/UNZIP. You'll need them to
compress the excess files you don't need on your hard drive
to conserve space.
7. Upgrade, yet again, if you have the money. Otherwise, don't worry,
the upgrades are nothing really special, especially if your programs
all run real fast anyway and you don't care about long filenames.
8. Get 8 more megs of RAM if you only have 8 megs now.
9. Remember Ctrl-Alt-Delete; it can be used even when you think it's
hopeless.
10. Download MS Money from you nearest on-line service/Internet while
you still can!!! It's 32-bit, so you can really see a big 32-bit
program in "action". Plus, it's one less upgrade you have to pay
for.
TOP 10 DONT's OF THE MONTH:
1. Don't force yourself to restart the computer when a program hangs;
if a program hangs, close it. Otherwise, you may find it harder to
"escape" the problem (even with Ctrl-Alt-Del) later.
2. Don't run other programs with Defrag. If the other programs alter
the hard drive, Defrag starts over! Since Defrag tends to take
forever already, don't screw up the process. This is one time
you don't want to multitask.
3. Don't empty the recycle bin unless you're sure...
4. Don't use the MS-DOS versions of Scandisk and Defrag, use Win95's.
5. (SENT BY spocjr@aol.com) Win95 has an option to remove your old DOS
and Win 3.x files. It really would not be wise to, even though you
would think you're doing your computer a favor by giving the hard
drive some extra space. You see, the result is that Win95 takes all
the upper memory and adds it to the XMS (extended memory). As a
result, when you exit to MS-DOS mode from Win95, it shows that since
upper memory no longer exists, all your TSR's including COMMAND.COM
are loaded low into conventional memory. I'm sure you're aware of
the resultant conflict this would have with a number of DOS programs
("not enough memory" errors). Instead of 531K to run DOS programs
in, you may only have 438K left because the upper memory is gone.
This may not be a problem for ONLY those people who delete the
Win 3.x and old DOS files; I have 0K upper memory, too. E-mail me
if you wish to add to this possible "DON'T".
6-10. Don't bug me for not finishing this list. Next month, this list
will most likely not exist anymore, as with the DO's, since they
are really just taking up a lot of space when the TIPS section
covers everything just fine.
TIPS:
1. Use Scandisk and Defrag often, and use MS Anti-Virus, too.
2. Get rid of unnecessary files. After Win95 installation "drained"
about 50 megs of hard drive space, it's good to get a little back.
A good idea is to go into the MS Word, WordPerfect, Excel, etc.
directories and delete what isn't needed, or ZIP it up to a bunch of
disks, using a program like PKZIP. I had 11 megs worth of documents
in the Word directory, which I zipped up with the line "pkzip -&f
a:\worddoc.zip *.doc", which formats and spans as many disks as
needed and stores the compressed files. To see a list of these files
after they are compressed & deleted, you can use the command
"pkunzip -vm a:\worddoc.zip". To extract a single file, this command
works: "pkunzip a:\worddoc.zip ???.doc c:\msoffice\winword".
This would extract ???.doc (no such real file could be created, just
to let you know) from worddoc.zip and put it in the c:\msoffice\
winword directory. NOTE: You must have the PKFILES in a PATH directory
in order to use these commands anywhere at the prompt.
3. If something isn't working (hardware, etc.) you can always toy
with the control panel configurations as a last resort. To get
there, try Settings, Control Panel.
4. (SENT BY jessief18@aol.com) Delete the FILES=50 or (+) line in your
CONFIG.SYS file unless you need this line to play games that ask
for it in Win95's MS-DOS mode (in most cases Win95 should automatically
set up the file handle info when you reboot in MS-DOS mode, anyway).
I was once a Win 3.x owner like the person who sent this info to me,
and I know about that line (anybody who once had MS-DOS probably
knows about that line, too.) This line should give you about 3K more
memory and if you're like me, you'll gladly reclaim any memory you
can get. The unlucky ones who need 22K for the DOS Stacker 4.0 are
most likely the same way.
5. (SENT BY kevinbeth@aol.com) If you installed Win95 in a different
directory than Win 3.x was in, MS tells you to run the install
apps for all your apps to migrate them to Win95. Try the application
first; it still might work in WIN 95. Then you can add them to the
Start Button manually (right-click on the Start button to add extra
programs to the menus and folders).
6. (SENT BY kevinbeth@aol.com) Dual Boot is possible using the
startup menu that Win95 uses. Modification of the MSDOS.SYS
is required. Not for the faint of heart. See the Win95 message
board for steps on this complicated little thing for those who like
to really mess around with their new operating system.
7. (SENT BY mikeyd5000@aol.com) Having trouble using some of your MS-DOS apps,
even in MS-DOS mode because when all the drivers are loaded in this mode
there's not enough EMS/XMS or Conventional memory left? There's still a way
to run these programs, although it's not as easy. Shut down, but instead of
restarting the computer in MS-DOS mode, pick the option that just plain
restarts it. Then when you see the message "Starting Windows '95...", push
the F8 key to get a list of possible boot configurations for your computer.
There are various windows modes at different safety levels as well as a few
pure DOS modes. Most importantly, there's the option to boot with DOS as
it was before Win95 was installed. This option might work, or you can
uninstall (or hide) all your Win 3.x (if they still exist) and Win95
files, edit CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT for just those DOS programs that
you need the memory, etc. for, and unhide/reinstall Win 3.x, then Win95.
Restart the computer and you'll have the option to use plain old DOS with
all the configurations you specified in CONFIG.SYS & AUTOEXEC.BAT that
you wrote while all the Windows programs were hidden.
APP ADVICE:
ALL 16-bit WIN APPS FOR WINDOWS 3.0/3.1/3.11 - These apps all should
at least run in Windows 95. In fact, most of these apps should not only
run, but run perfectly just as they did in DOS 6.x/Win 3.x or better.
However, some apps do run slower and that is expected. People with
8 megs of RAM and less will feel the hard drive burn (maybe even
crash and burn?!) However, everyone with 12 megs or more (and definitely
16 megs) should have no real problems at all. Remember, if you want to
keep you hard drive running longer than 3 months, don't ditch Win95
because it's not worth it; get the RAM.
MS OFFICE 4.x (16-bit) - This package's main programs are MS Word,
Excel, PowerPoint, and (w/Office Pro) Access. All of these programs are
big RAM consumers in general, and they will run a little slower. Some
people with 8 megs RAM might find MS OFFICE to run at the same speed,
but the hard drive cranks away much harder than before. There's only
one real solution: get the RAM! People with at least 16 megs shouldn't
find any real problems, however.
OMF 2097 II (One Must Fall 2) - This game is planned to be released
by Epic MegaGames soon and is supposed to be more compatible with
Win95. It's not specifically made for Win95, however, so don't
get your hopes up.
MS WORD UPGRADE PATCH (FROM VERSION 6.0 TO 6.0a) - Maybe it's
just me, but I have a complete installation of MS Word from
MS Office 4.3 and the patch won't work because of something
missing in my WIN.INI file. I think Win95 alters the file
and now the upgrade patch can't find what it needs to.
MSD (MS System Diagnostics) - This programs detects Win95 as
Windows 3.0, Enhanced. There's kind of a difference there. No
big deal, it's just that I wonder if other (older) apps detect the
same thing...
STACKER 4.0 - (SENT BY jessief18@aol.com) You can still use
Stacker to Defrag drives currently using Stacker on Win95. Simply
install Win95 on the uncompressed (part of?) the C: drive (You don't
have to, but to save work, it's much better to put it on drive C:
anyway.) There are a few problems with this, though. First, Win 95
will NOT use 32-bit file access on the stacked drive. (That's why
I suggest you install it on the uncompressed C: drive or your
second host drive.) Secondly, when Defraging your stacked drive (with
Stacker), you will have to rename some of your files with long file
names back to standard, MS-DOS 8-character file names. The best way for
you to counter these problems is to wait a few months until Stacker
releases the Win95 upgrades. However, if you leave your drive to
become too fragmented you will hear constant grinding and risk
losing valuable data. I rather defragment my drive and avoid using
long file names until the upgrade arrives than lose data. If you're
this worried about your long file names, however, you might consider
getting MS Plus with DriveSpace 3 and using Defrag for Win95. Or, you
may not have the $40 to do so. Also, remember that Win95 doesn't have
an automatic "plug-and-play" device driver for Stacker 4.0 and that
you will lose about 22K of the base 640K conventional memory to
Stacker. This line about Stacker in your CONFIG.SYS file has to stay,
too.
AMERICA ONLINE FOR WINDOWS (THRU 2.5) - (SENT BY jessief18@aol.com)
You may experience trouble with Win95 and AOL freezing up. AOL
may freeze on or around the 10th graphic file downloaded when
using the WEBB Net Browser. When that occurs your entire system will
freeze with it, sometimes (but not all the time) crashing completely
the whole Win95 itself. It's not your normal "crash", either, as the
person who sent this in told me; it took that person 5 hours to get
their system up and running again. The problem (and solution, kinda)
is, AOL and it's WEBB Graphics Driver are not 100% compatible with
Win95's new Graphic Drivers and GUI. To prevent this from happening,
I recommend configuring Win95's graphics settings to make it more
compatible with AOL. To do this, re-configure your 16bit graphics
Mode to 1024x748 and then cut it to 24bit 800x600. This way the AOL's
graphic display engine will not have a conflict when assigning
and matching colors with the 16bit (64,500 colors). You must have
be in a 24-bit mode (32,000 or 256 color or lower mode). This problem
usually will occur with most of the S3 Video cards that were made
by the Win95 programmers (especially with the TRIO64 chipset).
SOFTRAM FOR WINDOWS '95 - (SENT BY richsol@aol.com) SoftRam for Win95
may force your computer into the 16-bit MS-DOS compatibility mode for
Win95. When SoftRam is disabled, it returns to 32-bit mode. It could
be a configuration problem on some computers, because if this bug was
apparent on all computers running SoftRam the product would be making
a new release. Don't bother calling SoftRam's tech support line, either,
(at least not yet) as they are no help since they are not using Win95(?).
UNSOLVED PROBLEMS:
1. (SENT BY eileephoto@aol.com) Some laser printers do not print in
MS-DOS mode when the PrintScreen button is pressed, even when
Shift-, Ctrl-, and Alt-PrintScreen are used. The person who sent
this problem in got it to work with Shift-PrintScreen, but since
I (we) have no idea how, it still goes unsolved.
2. (SENT BY eileephoto@aol.com) You may not hear your modem dial in
Win95. I usually still works fine, except you hear no noise. You
could try raising the volume of the modem's speaker if that's the
problem, but usually it isn't. I'd like an answer to this if anyone
who reads this has one.
3. (SENT BY louisad4rp@aol.com) You may notice that the text in WordPad
and in Notepad sometimes scrolls blurry and can be hard on the eyes
to look at. This problem seems to occur whenever you run a program
in MS-DOS Mode or if you run a DOS program in Win95. Why does it
happen? I don't know. That's why it's in this section. Any info?
Just E-mail.
E*MAILERS:
1. jessief18@aol.com - Also known as Jessica and as Jessief18 on AOL.
2. eileephoto@aol.com - Also known as Eileen and as EILEEPHOTO on AOL.
3. kevinbeth@aol.com - Also known as Kevin and Kevinbeth on AOL.
4. louisad4rp@aol.com - Also known as Louis and as LouisAD4RP on AOL.
5. mkdubois@aol.com - Also known as MKDUBOIS on AOL.
6. johnp61@aol.com - Also known as John and as JohnP61 on AOL.
7. spocjr@aol.com - Also known as Wayne and as Spoc Jr on AOL.
8. tkrumhol@mail.orion.org - Also known as Truman.
9. richsol@aol.com - Also known as Rich and as RICHSOL on AOL.
10. ejh418@aol.com - Also known as Erik and as EJH418 on AOL.
11. fly2fight@aol.com - Also known as Scott and as Fly2Fight on AOL.
12. hockeyjay@aol.com - Also known as HOCKEYJAY on AOL.
13. deathmaster@sys609.chatlink.com
14. mikeyd5000@aol.com - Also known as Mike and as Mikeyd5000 on AOL.
15. 102006.2625@compuserve.com - Also known as Joe.
THIS IS ALL I HAVE TO SAY FOR THE MONTH. WHILE I'M HERE, I MIGHT AS
WELL TELL YOU ABOUT MY OTHER CREATIONS COMING SOON FROM ME:
MYTOURNS.ZIP - OMF Tournaments
Version 1.0
Planned Release Date: 10/??/95
NOTES: A collection of OMF 2097 tourneys created
by me with the OMF tournament compiler.
DOOMKILL.ZIP - The DOOMKILLER Pwad Package by John Calandrino
Version 1.0
Planned Release Date: 10/31/95
NOTES: A Wad Package for DOOM II containing
a small collection of Wads that I have created.
Includes 32 levels (not 62 anymore because of problems
with too little TIME!), as well as new
enemies and text in certain areas.
UTILFONT.ZIP - UtilFont by John Calandrino
Version 1.0 (Shareware); Version 1.1 (Registered)
Planned Release Date: ??/??/96
NOTES: A small collection of fonts. A shareware
version will be uploaded with only one font, the
entire package will be sold for $10? (price is
"iffy" right now).
JCFILE12.TXT - Tips on Windows '95
Version 1.2
Planned Release Date: 11/1/95
NOTES: An update of this file. Updates usually
occur monthly, with the exception of a
special release every so often.
By John Calandrino
Version 1.1
For the month of OCTOBER
ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT:
+ I encourage you to distribute this file. However, it should not have
been altered in any way (especially things like the author's name and
the rest of the heading above). If you are confused about this
distribution policy of mine in any way, just E-mail me in the same
place everyone else will: jcalandr@aol.com (that's J CALANDR for AOL
users who don't want to type an I-net address).
+ This file is separated into different parts, each of which is updated
monthly. Every month, I edit this file on my computer, then add .1
to the version number, change the month, and re-upload it. As you can
see from the top, this is my second release of this document. I have
been using Windows '95 since it came out on August 24th. I hope my
information can be useful to you.
+ Here are the parts this document is divided into...
-NEW THIS MONTH: Things that are new or revised this month.
-DAYS I'VE BEEN USING WIN95: Just what it says. This is also
the amount of days since the release date (Aug. 24, 1995).
- (*NEW*) CORRECTIONS: Where I correct myself about things I
said last month that were not true in some way.
-*THE* ADVICE/QUOTE/TIP OF THE MONTH: To me, this is the
most important part of this file.
- (*BETTER*) REASONS TO UPGRADE TO Win95 FROM WIN 3.x: The
reasons to upgrade from WIN 3.x to Win95. This part of the
document I feel will gradually fade away after WIN 3.x is
not used that much anymore. This was formerly DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN WIN 3.x AND WIN95.
-TOP 10 DO's OF THE MONTH: Top 10 things you should to with
Win95.
-TOP 10 DONT's OF THE MONTH: The 10 things you should NOT do
with Win95, because it won't work or Win95 won't run it, etc.
-TIPS: General tips on Win95.
-APP ADVICE: Advice for running certain apps in Win95.
- (*NEW*) UNSOLVED PROBLEMS: Problems with Win95 and its apps
that remain unsolved by me and my E-mailers. E-mail me if you
know the answer to any of the problems mentioned here.
- (*NEW*) E*MAILERS: People who sent me mail about Tips for
Windows '95 last month. If I use what you sent in my document,
I will mention your name there, too.
+ By the way, if you have any contradictions of what I say in this
article or have something else to share with me about Win95, etc.,
E-mail me at JCALANDR@AOL.COM. If I decide to use what you said,
I'll mention your name in my document. If I forget to mention
your name, just tell me and I'll correct it next month. Also
"mkdubois@aol.com" suggested that I have a mailing list for my
tip sheet. If you wish to be on the list, just E-mail.
+ One final note: There are too many sections of this tip sheet. It is
getting a little confusing and needs to be simplified. For instance,
the DO's section is almost the same as the TIPS section. I would
really like it if people gave me some ideas for simplification so
it's a little more readable.
ALL RIGHT, LET'S BEGIN!
NEW THIS MONTH:
As you may have noticed, I have added a section called CORRECTIONS.
This section corrects misinformation from last month. My DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN WIN 3.x and Win95 section has been revised to say REASONS TO
UPGRADE TO Win95 FROM WIN 3.x. I did this because all that section is
doing is saying positive things about Win95 and negative ones about
Win 3.x. Also, I have some symbols in the beginning, and I'd like to
tell you what they mean...
(*NEW*) - New this month and probably described here
(*BETTER*) - Revised for clarity and made "better"
DAYS I'VE BEEN USING WIN95: 38 days
CORRECTIONS:
(SENT BY kevinbeth@aol.com) Firstly, I said the following last month
in the TIPS section of my tip sheet:
"Use Scandisk and Defrag often, and use MS Anti-Virus, too.
MSAV is upgraded from your old DOS; the way to tell is that
this version has less clutter at the bottom of the screen
(it says 1 instead of F1, etc.) Small but noticeable
difference, and I think it's intentional by MS to let you
know that you're using a different version of MSAV."
MSAV may not really be any different than before. I think it was the
same the entire time, as Kevin corrected me. Sorry.
(SENT BY kevinbeth@aol.com & tkrumhol@mail.orion.org) Last month, I
said the following in the TIPS section of this document:
"Get rid of SmartDrive, since Win95 doesn't need it. It's an
additional 2.5 megs or more of RAM that I'm sure you'll be
happy to reclaim."
First of all, some people may want to keep SmartDrive on
their system even after they install Win95. It's a sacred few, but
they're still there, because people who open a lot of .GIF (graphic)
files and use the CD-ROM a lot may enjoy the increased speed in these
situations. On the other hand, you may find something useful for the
additional RAM, especially if the SmartDrive was big like mine, like
2.5 megs. Secondly, it's not always an additional 2.5 megs
of RAM: people using a small SmartDrive can only be using 22K-1.5 megs
on their system.
(SENT BY ejh418@aol.com) I also didn't tell anyone how to remove
SmartDrive. Only remove it if it's really unnecessary and taking up
a lot of RAM. Here's how to know to remove it and remove it:
1. At the MS-DOS prompt, type EDIT C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
2. You may see a line like LH C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE 2048 128
3. Delete this line, which is necessary only if it's unneeded and if
the number after SMARTDRV.EXE (2048, in this example) if about 1024
or more, meaning it's using a meg or more RAM on your system.
(SENT BY johnp61@aol.com & fly2fight@aol.com) I also said this in my
DO's section of the tip sheet last month:
"Download MS Money from your nearest on-line service/Internet
while you still can!!! It's 32-bit, so you can really see
a big 32-bit program in "action". Plus, it's one less
upgrade you have to pay for."
Three things. First, it's not a "big" program, per se; it's just 32-bit,
which is nice. Secondly, I have no idea where to get this program on
AOL anymore. You see, on around September 23rd or so, AOL switched this
area of their on-line service around a lot and I can't find anything.
However, if you have access to the Internet (which all AOL members do),
you can get it through there. Just go to the Explore the Internet
section of AOL, click on World Wide Web, and type the following I-net
address: "http://www.microsoft.com/MSHOME/". Then, follow the directions
on the screen. Thirdly, this offer from Microsoft expires Oct. 31, '95,
so act soon!
*THE* ADVICE/QUOTE/TIP OF THE MONTH:
This month, I have decided to show you what MS has to say about Win95,
and then what I have to say about what they have to say. Confused?
Just read on. I'll all make sense in a minute.
Microsoft Says... (this is not quoted, but it's what they believe are
the reasons that you should upgrade to Win95)
1. Improved GUI (Graphic User Interface, i.e. desktop)
2. Windows Explorer (a better version of the file manager)
3. Long filenames
4. Better support for MS-DOS games than Win 3.x and better/faster video
support
5. Plug and play.
6. 32-bit multitasking (you could use a lot of different parts of your
computer at the same time, like formatting a disk and using the
modem)
7. MS Exchange (E-mail and Fax thing)
8. MS Network (a very new network by Microsoft
Here's what I think...
1. Improved GUI - It's much, much, much better than Win 3.x's desktop,
as I mentioned below in my reasons to upgrade. They were right here.
2. Windows Explorer - It's a better file manager, sure, but not so
much better that anyone would buy Win95 just for the Explorer. I
don't think that the Windows Explorer could even sell alone as a
file manager upgrade.
3. Long filenames - True, but only with 32-bit apps. In MS-DOS windows,
you can sort of use it, as long as you use no spaces. To make 32-bit
filenames in 16-bit apps (like Word 6.0), you can the file and
rename it in the Windows Explorer, My Computer, or a similar file
browsing area of Win95.
4. Better support... - Support for MS-DOS games is much better, but it
still has a lot of problems, and I still recommend MS-DOS mode for
games like DOOM II, etc. Video support is a little bit better,
though.
5. Plug and Play - Yes, but only with internally known devices by Win95. Any
other device and you'll have to use it's driver just as usual.
6. 32-bit Multitasking - Certainly, but there are a few small exceptions so
watch out for them. You could also screw up your system if you make it do
10 or 20 things at once. Be careful with this, and when you use many
different parts of the computer at once, make sure you only use about 5
or so different apps.
7. MS Exchange - Only good if you use a lot of E-mail and Fax software and
want an easy way to retrieve responses from people
8. MS Network - A great network, but you do need to pay for it (monthly).
Just to let you know, I still think that Win95 is much better than any other
OS I've used, but you can't go insane when you do things with it (like with
the multitasking). Now, on to the real tips...
REASONS TO UPGRADE TO Win95 FROM WIN 3.x:
1. Better and better-looking desktop.
2. MS Plus themes.
3. VERY quick printing.
4. The games Hover and Space Cadet Table.
5. Plug-and-Play.
6. Folders in folders; windows in windows.
7. MS-DOS 7.00!
8. You can get MS Money until Oct. 31, '95.
9. You'll find the desktop less cluttered.
10. Ease of switching between programs through the little buttons at
the bottom of the screen.
TOP 10 DO's OF THE MONTH:
1. Edit your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files and remove unnecessary
drivers, etc.
2. When Win95 starts up, a welcome window appears with tips in it and
a bunch of buttons on the side of the window. You can take time to
scroll through a few tips on Win95 here. Some are actually useful!
3. Click with the right mouse button on Start, and set up the menus
better, since now "windows" can be put in other "windows".
4. Multitask! Format a disk, download a file, and work on a document
at the same time. Trust me, it comes in handy more than you think.
5. Read the manual(s)! I know this may sound a little stupid and
elementary to some of you, but a lot of people never take the time
to read the manuals with their computer software. Even if you
don't read the manuals for your other apps, at least read the
manual that came with you new operating system :-)
6. Buy some floppies and PKWARE's PKZIP/UNZIP. You'll need them to
compress the excess files you don't need on your hard drive
to conserve space.
7. Upgrade, yet again, if you have the money. Otherwise, don't worry,
the upgrades are nothing really special, especially if your programs
all run real fast anyway and you don't care about long filenames.
8. Get 8 more megs of RAM if you only have 8 megs now.
9. Remember Ctrl-Alt-Delete; it can be used even when you think it's
hopeless.
10. Download MS Money from you nearest on-line service/Internet while
you still can!!! It's 32-bit, so you can really see a big 32-bit
program in "action". Plus, it's one less upgrade you have to pay
for.
TOP 10 DONT's OF THE MONTH:
1. Don't force yourself to restart the computer when a program hangs;
if a program hangs, close it. Otherwise, you may find it harder to
"escape" the problem (even with Ctrl-Alt-Del) later.
2. Don't run other programs with Defrag. If the other programs alter
the hard drive, Defrag starts over! Since Defrag tends to take
forever already, don't screw up the process. This is one time
you don't want to multitask.
3. Don't empty the recycle bin unless you're sure...
4. Don't use the MS-DOS versions of Scandisk and Defrag, use Win95's.
5. (SENT BY spocjr@aol.com) Win95 has an option to remove your old DOS
and Win 3.x files. It really would not be wise to, even though you
would think you're doing your computer a favor by giving the hard
drive some extra space. You see, the result is that Win95 takes all
the upper memory and adds it to the XMS (extended memory). As a
result, when you exit to MS-DOS mode from Win95, it shows that since
upper memory no longer exists, all your TSR's including COMMAND.COM
are loaded low into conventional memory. I'm sure you're aware of
the resultant conflict this would have with a number of DOS programs
("not enough memory" errors). Instead of 531K to run DOS programs
in, you may only have 438K left because the upper memory is gone.
This may not be a problem for ONLY those people who delete the
Win 3.x and old DOS files; I have 0K upper memory, too. E-mail me
if you wish to add to this possible "DON'T".
6-10. Don't bug me for not finishing this list. Next month, this list
will most likely not exist anymore, as with the DO's, since they
are really just taking up a lot of space when the TIPS section
covers everything just fine.
TIPS:
1. Use Scandisk and Defrag often, and use MS Anti-Virus, too.
2. Get rid of unnecessary files. After Win95 installation "drained"
about 50 megs of hard drive space, it's good to get a little back.
A good idea is to go into the MS Word, WordPerfect, Excel, etc.
directories and delete what isn't needed, or ZIP it up to a bunch of
disks, using a program like PKZIP. I had 11 megs worth of documents
in the Word directory, which I zipped up with the line "pkzip -&f
a:\worddoc.zip *.doc", which formats and spans as many disks as
needed and stores the compressed files. To see a list of these files
after they are compressed & deleted, you can use the command
"pkunzip -vm a:\worddoc.zip". To extract a single file, this command
works: "pkunzip a:\worddoc.zip ???.doc c:\msoffice\winword".
This would extract ???.doc (no such real file could be created, just
to let you know) from worddoc.zip and put it in the c:\msoffice\
winword directory. NOTE: You must have the PKFILES in a PATH directory
in order to use these commands anywhere at the prompt.
3. If something isn't working (hardware, etc.) you can always toy
with the control panel configurations as a last resort. To get
there, try Settings, Control Panel.
4. (SENT BY jessief18@aol.com) Delete the FILES=50 or (+) line in your
CONFIG.SYS file unless you need this line to play games that ask
for it in Win95's MS-DOS mode (in most cases Win95 should automatically
set up the file handle info when you reboot in MS-DOS mode, anyway).
I was once a Win 3.x owner like the person who sent this info to me,
and I know about that line (anybody who once had MS-DOS probably
knows about that line, too.) This line should give you about 3K more
memory and if you're like me, you'll gladly reclaim any memory you
can get. The unlucky ones who need 22K for the DOS Stacker 4.0 are
most likely the same way.
5. (SENT BY kevinbeth@aol.com) If you installed Win95 in a different
directory than Win 3.x was in, MS tells you to run the install
apps for all your apps to migrate them to Win95. Try the application
first; it still might work in WIN 95. Then you can add them to the
Start Button manually (right-click on the Start button to add extra
programs to the menus and folders).
6. (SENT BY kevinbeth@aol.com) Dual Boot is possible using the
startup menu that Win95 uses. Modification of the MSDOS.SYS
is required. Not for the faint of heart. See the Win95 message
board for steps on this complicated little thing for those who like
to really mess around with their new operating system.
7. (SENT BY mikeyd5000@aol.com) Having trouble using some of your MS-DOS apps,
even in MS-DOS mode because when all the drivers are loaded in this mode
there's not enough EMS/XMS or Conventional memory left? There's still a way
to run these programs, although it's not as easy. Shut down, but instead of
restarting the computer in MS-DOS mode, pick the option that just plain
restarts it. Then when you see the message "Starting Windows '95...", push
the F8 key to get a list of possible boot configurations for your computer.
There are various windows modes at different safety levels as well as a few
pure DOS modes. Most importantly, there's the option to boot with DOS as
it was before Win95 was installed. This option might work, or you can
uninstall (or hide) all your Win 3.x (if they still exist) and Win95
files, edit CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT for just those DOS programs that
you need the memory, etc. for, and unhide/reinstall Win 3.x, then Win95.
Restart the computer and you'll have the option to use plain old DOS with
all the configurations you specified in CONFIG.SYS & AUTOEXEC.BAT that
you wrote while all the Windows programs were hidden.
APP ADVICE:
ALL 16-bit WIN APPS FOR WINDOWS 3.0/3.1/3.11 - These apps all should
at least run in Windows 95. In fact, most of these apps should not only
run, but run perfectly just as they did in DOS 6.x/Win 3.x or better.
However, some apps do run slower and that is expected. People with
8 megs of RAM and less will feel the hard drive burn (maybe even
crash and burn?!) However, everyone with 12 megs or more (and definitely
16 megs) should have no real problems at all. Remember, if you want to
keep you hard drive running longer than 3 months, don't ditch Win95
because it's not worth it; get the RAM.
MS OFFICE 4.x (16-bit) - This package's main programs are MS Word,
Excel, PowerPoint, and (w/Office Pro) Access. All of these programs are
big RAM consumers in general, and they will run a little slower. Some
people with 8 megs RAM might find MS OFFICE to run at the same speed,
but the hard drive cranks away much harder than before. There's only
one real solution: get the RAM! People with at least 16 megs shouldn't
find any real problems, however.
OMF 2097 II (One Must Fall 2) - This game is planned to be released
by Epic MegaGames soon and is supposed to be more compatible with
Win95. It's not specifically made for Win95, however, so don't
get your hopes up.
MS WORD UPGRADE PATCH (FROM VERSION 6.0 TO 6.0a) - Maybe it's
just me, but I have a complete installation of MS Word from
MS Office 4.3 and the patch won't work because of something
missing in my WIN.INI file. I think Win95 alters the file
and now the upgrade patch can't find what it needs to.
MSD (MS System Diagnostics) - This programs detects Win95 as
Windows 3.0, Enhanced. There's kind of a difference there. No
big deal, it's just that I wonder if other (older) apps detect the
same thing...
STACKER 4.0 - (SENT BY jessief18@aol.com) You can still use
Stacker to Defrag drives currently using Stacker on Win95. Simply
install Win95 on the uncompressed (part of?) the C: drive (You don't
have to, but to save work, it's much better to put it on drive C:
anyway.) There are a few problems with this, though. First, Win 95
will NOT use 32-bit file access on the stacked drive. (That's why
I suggest you install it on the uncompressed C: drive or your
second host drive.) Secondly, when Defraging your stacked drive (with
Stacker), you will have to rename some of your files with long file
names back to standard, MS-DOS 8-character file names. The best way for
you to counter these problems is to wait a few months until Stacker
releases the Win95 upgrades. However, if you leave your drive to
become too fragmented you will hear constant grinding and risk
losing valuable data. I rather defragment my drive and avoid using
long file names until the upgrade arrives than lose data. If you're
this worried about your long file names, however, you might consider
getting MS Plus with DriveSpace 3 and using Defrag for Win95. Or, you
may not have the $40 to do so. Also, remember that Win95 doesn't have
an automatic "plug-and-play" device driver for Stacker 4.0 and that
you will lose about 22K of the base 640K conventional memory to
Stacker. This line about Stacker in your CONFIG.SYS file has to stay,
too.
AMERICA ONLINE FOR WINDOWS (THRU 2.5) - (SENT BY jessief18@aol.com)
You may experience trouble with Win95 and AOL freezing up. AOL
may freeze on or around the 10th graphic file downloaded when
using the WEBB Net Browser. When that occurs your entire system will
freeze with it, sometimes (but not all the time) crashing completely
the whole Win95 itself. It's not your normal "crash", either, as the
person who sent this in told me; it took that person 5 hours to get
their system up and running again. The problem (and solution, kinda)
is, AOL and it's WEBB Graphics Driver are not 100% compatible with
Win95's new Graphic Drivers and GUI. To prevent this from happening,
I recommend configuring Win95's graphics settings to make it more
compatible with AOL. To do this, re-configure your 16bit graphics
Mode to 1024x748 and then cut it to 24bit 800x600. This way the AOL's
graphic display engine will not have a conflict when assigning
and matching colors with the 16bit (64,500 colors). You must have
be in a 24-bit mode (32,000 or 256 color or lower mode). This problem
usually will occur with most of the S3 Video cards that were made
by the Win95 programmers (especially with the TRIO64 chipset).
SOFTRAM FOR WINDOWS '95 - (SENT BY richsol@aol.com) SoftRam for Win95
may force your computer into the 16-bit MS-DOS compatibility mode for
Win95. When SoftRam is disabled, it returns to 32-bit mode. It could
be a configuration problem on some computers, because if this bug was
apparent on all computers running SoftRam the product would be making
a new release. Don't bother calling SoftRam's tech support line, either,
(at least not yet) as they are no help since they are not using Win95(?).
UNSOLVED PROBLEMS:
1. (SENT BY eileephoto@aol.com) Some laser printers do not print in
MS-DOS mode when the PrintScreen button is pressed, even when
Shift-, Ctrl-, and Alt-PrintScreen are used. The person who sent
this problem in got it to work with Shift-PrintScreen, but since
I (we) have no idea how, it still goes unsolved.
2. (SENT BY eileephoto@aol.com) You may not hear your modem dial in
Win95. I usually still works fine, except you hear no noise. You
could try raising the volume of the modem's speaker if that's the
problem, but usually it isn't. I'd like an answer to this if anyone
who reads this has one.
3. (SENT BY louisad4rp@aol.com) You may notice that the text in WordPad
and in Notepad sometimes scrolls blurry and can be hard on the eyes
to look at. This problem seems to occur whenever you run a program
in MS-DOS Mode or if you run a DOS program in Win95. Why does it
happen? I don't know. That's why it's in this section. Any info?
Just E-mail.
E*MAILERS:
1. jessief18@aol.com - Also known as Jessica and as Jessief18 on AOL.
2. eileephoto@aol.com - Also known as Eileen and as EILEEPHOTO on AOL.
3. kevinbeth@aol.com - Also known as Kevin and Kevinbeth on AOL.
4. louisad4rp@aol.com - Also known as Louis and as LouisAD4RP on AOL.
5. mkdubois@aol.com - Also known as MKDUBOIS on AOL.
6. johnp61@aol.com - Also known as John and as JohnP61 on AOL.
7. spocjr@aol.com - Also known as Wayne and as Spoc Jr on AOL.
8. tkrumhol@mail.orion.org - Also known as Truman.
9. richsol@aol.com - Also known as Rich and as RICHSOL on AOL.
10. ejh418@aol.com - Also known as Erik and as EJH418 on AOL.
11. fly2fight@aol.com - Also known as Scott and as Fly2Fight on AOL.
12. hockeyjay@aol.com - Also known as HOCKEYJAY on AOL.
13. deathmaster@sys609.chatlink.com
14. mikeyd5000@aol.com - Also known as Mike and as Mikeyd5000 on AOL.
15. 102006.2625@compuserve.com - Also known as Joe.
THIS IS ALL I HAVE TO SAY FOR THE MONTH. WHILE I'M HERE, I MIGHT AS
WELL TELL YOU ABOUT MY OTHER CREATIONS COMING SOON FROM ME:
MYTOURNS.ZIP - OMF Tournaments
Version 1.0
Planned Release Date: 10/??/95
NOTES: A collection of OMF 2097 tourneys created
by me with the OMF tournament compiler.
DOOMKILL.ZIP - The DOOMKILLER Pwad Package by John Calandrino
Version 1.0
Planned Release Date: 10/31/95
NOTES: A Wad Package for DOOM II containing
a small collection of Wads that I have created.
Includes 32 levels (not 62 anymore because of problems
with too little TIME!), as well as new
enemies and text in certain areas.
UTILFONT.ZIP - UtilFont by John Calandrino
Version 1.0 (Shareware); Version 1.1 (Registered)
Planned Release Date: ??/??/96
NOTES: A small collection of fonts. A shareware
version will be uploaded with only one font, the
entire package will be sold for $10? (price is
"iffy" right now).
JCFILE12.TXT - Tips on Windows '95
Version 1.2
Planned Release Date: 11/1/95
NOTES: An update of this file. Updates usually
occur monthly, with the exception of a
special release every so often.
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