In our last tip, we introduced Disk Cleanup, a utility that will search and destroy unnecessary files on your system. To run Disk Cleanup, select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup, select the drive you want to clean, click OK, select the file types you'd like to remove from your system, click OK, then click Yes to confirm.

Still in the deleting mood? Disk Cleanup does more than file clean-outs; it provides direct access to the Add/Remove Programs dialog box, where you can remove Windows components and applications you don't use.

While you've got Disk Cleanup open, select the More Options tab, then click one of the Cleanup buttons. The button under Windows components takes you to the Windows Setup tab (equal to opening the Control Panel, selecting Add/Remove Programs, then clicking the Windows Setup tab). Deselect any components you want to remove, then click OK. (Note: Be very careful about deselecting; one wrong click and you could end up removing a whole category of components.) When you're finished, click OK to return to Disk Cleanup.

The Cleanup button under Installed programs takes you directly to the Install/Uninstall tab of the Add/Remove Programs dialog box. Select an unwanted program, click the Add/Remove button, click Yes to confirm, and follow any steps necessary to complete the uninstall operation. Click OK to return to Disk Cleanup, then click OK to exit this utility altogether. 

Wish you had a bit more free space on your hard drive(s)? You could spend precious hours searching out files to delete. Or, you could ask Disk Cleanup to do the research for you. In a matter of seconds, this new utility can search out and destroy the most common waste-o'-space files--for example, temporary files and old ScanDisk files. Difficult choice, eh?

To run Disk Cleanup, select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. Select the drive you want to clean, click OK, and wait patiently as Disk Cleanup determines the amount of space you'll recover from the big clean-out.

On the Disk Cleanup tab, select which of the file types you'd like to remove from your system (or, just go ahead and select them all). If you aren't sure exactly what a particular category represents, select it and read its description at the bottom of the dialog box. Once you've made your selections, Click OK, click Yes to confirm, then just watch as Disk Cleanup does its thing.

(Note: You can also run Disk Cleanup automatically, as part of the Maintenance Wizard. A couple of tips from now, we'll discuss this wizard in more detail. Stay tuned.) 

An undocumented SCANREG.INI file entry automatically backs up the files of your choice along with the other Registry Checker files, but only if those files reside in your root, C:\WINDOWS or C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directories. To specify the files to back up, open SCANREG.INI in Notepad and add the line Files= followed by the folder code (enter 30 for the root directory, 10 for the Windows directory or 11 for the System directory) and the filename, separated by a comma. You can also add multiple files within a folder; simply separate them  with commas. For example, if you wanted to add the SCANDISK.LOG and CONFIG.SYS files (located in your root directory) to your Registry Checker backup, add the following line to your SCANREG.INI file: Files=30 (see note), scandisk.log,config.sys. 

editors note: If you use the DOS Command Line version of scanreg.exe you will only see the first 5 backups.

In our last tip, we introduced Windows Update, an "online extension of Windows 98" that checks your system for installed components and then lets you know what you're missing. To use Windows Update, select Start, Windows Update, complete any necessary steps to connect to the Internet, click Product Updates, click Yes to install and run Microsoft Windows Update Active Setup, then click Yes to allow a system check. The resulting Select Software page lists all available updates NOT installed on your system.

In addition to determining available updates, Windows Update can also check for outdated device drivers. (Device drivers are the files that tell devices, such as a modem, how to communicate with your system.) On the left side of the Select Software page, click the Device Drivers link, then click Yes to allow the update wizard to check your system for outdated drivers. Click Yes again to install and run the Windows 98 Update Wizard Control. The resulting window will (supposedly) list any available updates for your system. (The wizard didn't find any updates for our very old P75 system, so we can't say for sure whether it works or not.) To install an update, select it and click Install.

Wish you had your very own computer technician who could make sure you had all the latest and greatest Windows 98 updates? You have one -- right on your system. Windows Update, an "online extension of Windows 98," will check your system for installed components and let you know what you're missing.

Select Start, Windows Update, then complete any necessary steps to connect to the Internet (if you aren't connected already). Click the Product Updates link, then click Yes to confirm that you want to install and run Microsoft Windows Update Active Setup. Click Yes again to allow Windows Update to check your system for installed components. And wait.

The resulting Select Software page lists all available updates NOT installed on your system. (Click the Show All bar at the top of the page to see installed updates, too.) See some things you'd like to install? Select them, then click the gray download arrow at the top or bottom of the screen.

At the Download Checklist, review your selections (and click the View Instructions bar if you want more information about installing the updates you've selected), then click the Start Download button. Feeling a little more up to date?

User writes, "Can you tell me about the System.1st file that resides on my C drive's root directory? It's almost 5MB on both my portable and desktop systems!"

System.1st is the Registry that Windows 98 Setup creates upon completion. (For those of you who aren't familiar with the Registry, it's a set of instructions that tells Windows 98 exactly how to operate. For example, the Registry tells Windows 98 which color to use for your desktop. Your Registry files are System.dat and User.dat, both of which are hidden files in the Windows folder.)

The fact that System.1st is a hidden file, and also that it's listed in the Windows 98 Resource Kit under Key System Files, means that you should definitely leave it alone.

A reader, I., writes, "Is there any way to move the icons for My Computer, Recycle Bin, Network Neighborhood, and Internet Explorer to the Quick Launch toolbar? I'd like to have a clean desktop."

First, place shortcuts to these items in the Quick Launch toolbar as follows: Click and drag one of the icons, such as My Computer, to a spot next to an existing icon on the Quick Launch toolbar (a black line will appear). Let go, then click Yes to confirm that you want to create a shortcut. Repeat these steps for each desktop icon you'd like to access from the toolbar.

Now for the clean desktop part. As long as you're willing to view your desktop as a Web page -- one of IE 4.0's Active Desktop features -- you can view an icon-free desktop. If you aren't already viewing your desktop as a Web page, right-mouse click the desktop, select Active Desktop, then choose View As Web Page. Then, right-mouse-click the desktop and select Properties to open the Display Properties dialog box. Click the Effects tab, select Hide Icons When the Desktop Is Viewed as a Web Page, then click OK . . . and watch your desktop icons disappear!

You can change the directory that Windows 9x taps for installation files. Copy the Setup files to a local directory on your C: drive (C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS, for example). Then launch the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup; [note: Line break inserted by editor.] Locate (or create) the SourcePath entry. Modify it to show the new path Win9x should use to find your installation files. (Don't forget to end with a backslash.) 

[editor's note] If you decide to copy your install files from the CD to the hard drive after you have already installed Win9x then you need to make the above registry changes. See install ideas.

If you spend most of your time working in and moving among Office suite applications and a browser, create the ultimate Desktop by integrating the two. Click on IE 4&5s Favorites button to open the Explorer Bar, then open each Word, Excel or other document you often work with one at a time by typing its path and filename in IE 4&5's Address bar. You'll notice that OLE-compliant applications launch "in place" in the browser window, and that the Word and IE 4&5s menus and button bars merge. Each time you open a document, drag and drop it into the Favorites bar. Do the same for your commonly accessed folders (just type the path to the folder in the Address bar). After you've built up your Favorites bar, you can move from your Desktop work to the Internet without switching applications.

PS: Instead of slowly entering the location into the Address bar open Windows Explorer and Drag and Drop each file or folder into IE4&5. This is a very quick method for viewing MS Office files.

How many times have you installed a new program only to have it automatically start when you boot the OS. You look in the Startup folder and it is not in there. How they do it and more importantly how do I STOP it?

Can't answer the how it got there part but I can tell you how to stop it. It's called msconfig.exe. You can start msconfig from the Start>Run or from the System Information Utility.

The Windows 98 System Configuration Utility allows you to turn off any annoying auto-start programs using simple check boxes. Select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information. In the resulting window, pull down the Tools menu and select System Configuration Utility. Select the Startup tab, and you'll see a list of all programs that start whenever Windows 98 starts. Deselect the one(s) giving you grief, click OK, and they won't bother you again (unless you select them again in this dialog box).  

WinMe Tip: In a past tip we explained how you could add a item for the Control Panel and it would expand to list all items in the Control Panel instead of opening an Explorer windows with all of the panel's items. 

Now you can eliminate this item from the Start menu and just have Start>Settings>Control Panel expand instead of opening.

To view and change Start menu customization options, right-click a blank spot on the Taskbar; choose Properties from the shortcut menu. Alternatively, choose Start>Settings>Taskbar and Start Menu. Either way, the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box opens. Now select the Advanced tab. Now in the Start Menu Settings list box you’ll find individual checkboxes for expanding these Start Menu items: Control Panel; My Documents; My Pictures (a folder inside My Documents); Network and Dial-Up Connections; Printers.

WinMe Tip: For many of you tampering with the Start Menu is close to a criminal offence. Therefore every time you install an application it goes no farther than the Start>Programs folder. Eventually you have so many items listed under Programs that you need to use the scroll up and down feature to find a program. If you refuse to reorganize the Start Menu you might try using the the Use Personalized Menus feature which is one of the Start menu customization options.

To view and change Start menu customization options, right-click a blank spot on the Taskbar; choose Properties from the shortcut menu. Alternatively, choose Start>Settings>Taskbar and Start Menu. Either way, the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box opens.

When Use Personalized Menus is turned on, Windows keeps track of which programs you use each time you use your computer, and hides the programs you have not used recently. You have to give it some time to get used to your habits. This means you should try this option for at least a week at the minimum.

You can also select Use Small Icons in Start Menu to reduce the amount space required to display menu items.

IE Tip: I have difficulty reading Web pages that use Times Roman or similar fonts. My personal favorite font for reading Web pages is Verdana. Verdana is a free font posted at Microsoft. Another bug I have with Web sites is whenever they reduce the size of fonts. They get more information on a page at the expense of being able to READ it. 

You can correct this by forcing your browser the use the font you specify. First go to Tools>Internet Options... and click the Fonts button and select a font you are confortable with. Click OK. Back at the Internet Options screen click the Accessibility button. You can now: Ignore colors specified on Web pages; Ignore font styles specified on Web pages; Ignore font sizes specified on Web pages. You can also specify a style sheet of your own to be used by Web pages but that is beyond the scope of this site.

Try one option at a time and see if it helps you in reading Web pages.

PS: This site is designed with Microsoft Frontpage and the default font used to build pages is Verdana. 

WinMe Tip: Those pesky variables that were previously in your Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files are now stored in the Registry. To Add/Delete/Edit one of these variables you need to use msconfig. You will find the variables under the Environment tab. I recommend you get familiar with the msconfig utility, you will use it often in the future.

To run msconfig use the Run command under the Start button. 

Win Me Tip: If you lose track of a file or folder you can quickly search for it by first using Windows Explorer to get as close to the file or folder as you can then press F3. Doing so splits the disk or folder window in half—the left half now contains the Search controls, which are already set up to search only inside that disk or folder window. In other words, you’re spared the first two steps of this search setup business. (Press F3 again to remove the Search panel.)

Remember the combination of the Windows key and the character E will activate Windows Explorer and Windows key and the character F will start activate the Search Window.