If you want to start windows fast, then you can skip many programs during startup by pressing Shift key.

If you do not like your applications that load up and clutter your screen, run your applications in minimised mode. Click the icon with right mouse button to select Properties Now select Shortcut and run the drop down list box, select minimised. If your applications are already open then press Window Key +D in this way you can minimise all the application. If you want all the applications to close quickly, hold down shift key and use close button.

To run your explorer faster place a shortcut on the Desktop and modify it's Properties the syntax for explorer is

C:\Windows\Explorer.exe [\e] Directory [/n] [/root, Directory] [[select],Directory].

If no parameter is specified, Explorer will start with a divided window in the main directory c:\.

The parameter

/e[Directory] starts the Explorer with a divided window in the specified directory,

/n starts it in an undivided window without a tree structure

/root, Directory or root,\\Server name\Directory opens a network computer's relevant directory, where the specified directory represents the highest level of directory structure possible. If the call is Explorer/root, ie without specifying a directory name, a window with the contents of the Desktop will open. The parameter /select[Directory] will permit you to mark the mentioned directory in the left half of Explore window.

Windows cannot detect all file extensions, but there are many file extensions which can be easily open through notepad. File extensions like diz, read.me, nfo, bat some system files like config.sys, ini can be easily open through this. Make a shortcut of notepad in send to folder so that you can quickly view such files. This tip of how to make a shortcut of notepad in send to folder is already discuss.

To Boot a machine from a Windows Startup Disk you need to create a bootable diskette, Select Start > Settings > Control Panel and select Add/Remove Programs , under Startup Disk tab click Create Disk.

To open a document without opening the program use Quick View option of Windows. To install this feature select Start > Settings > Control Panel and double click Add/Remove Programs Under Windows Setup tab, select Accessories and click Details check Quick View option and click ok. This will install Quick View. Now Right Click on a document to view it without opening the program. To install Quick View, select Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs, now select Windows Setup > Accessories and scroll for Quick View. Check on the box and click ok.

If you are using MS-DOS prompt and want to launch a program from there, then you must first ensure that the directories containing the programs are in your autoexec.bat file. You can check this by using path command on the prompt.

When you are editing an image using Windows Paint application, hold ctrl key while you select the image and drag the selected part in new location where you want to copy it. Holding Shift key will leave a trail of the image that you have dragged.

To access the Properties of a file/folder quickly, double-click on that file/folder name holding down the ALT key.

In folder C:\Windows\Send To, Create a shortcut c:\Windows\notepad.exe. In this way you can quickly view your txt files, you can also edit files like autoexec.bat, config.sys or log files.

If your desktop link is deleted then you can add it. First open the folder C:\Windows\Send To, now right click on the background of folder. Choose New >Text Document and rename it Shortcut.DESKLINK. This is the link which you have created.

Before deleting any dll, right click on it and select Quick View. This will give you information regarding that dll.

Windows 98 shut down fast, this is done by terminating the application, this may sometime cause the malfunctioning of the application when Windows is restarted. You can disable this by launching the System Configuration Utility. Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information. and then click Tools > Advanced Button. Check the Disable Fast Shutdown and click ok

If you are using scroll mouse, then you can resize on-screen fonts in I.E. by holding ctrl key and rolling the mouse whell up and down ( to increase/ decrease the font size).

The Back Up program helps to take the back up of all your important files and folders. You can use this utility by Accessories > System Tools > Back Up. If this utility is not installed then you have to install it from Add/Remove Programs from Control Panel.

Every time you install a new software, or make alterations to the default settings you have to reboot the system. Now, use this tip, press Ctrl+Alt+Del, select Explorer, and click End Task When Windows Ask Are you sure you want to … Shutdown your computer, then Click no then click End Task at the next prompt.

To trace the route from your internet provider to your location, and show you each and every computer system along the way. Use the program called Trace Route. Open a DOS windows and type tracert. The location name can be any IP address or number such as xyz@abc.ef. This also helps you to locate any breaks in communication such as Error locating server.

The mkcompat.exe program in windows/system directory enables you to convert the older versions (Win3.1) of your program to Win95 compatible programs.

By default when you save a program using notepad it saves it with extension txt. Now if you want to save a file asc.efg in notepad having extension efg, save file with File > Save as and in dialog box save in quotation marks abc.efg. This gives you extension of efg not adc.efg.txt.

To increase performance of your system change your swap space from boot partition (generally c) to another partition. If possible leave one partition for swap space. Fix the swap size (min and max size same). This will help to increase performance.

Use command line parameters for intalling (Setup) Windows faster. Try on formatted hard disk

Setup /is To disable the automatic scandisk which is executed at startup.

Setup/ id To disable disk-space check.

Setup/ iq To disable test for cross linked files and folder integrity.

Setup /in To disable network module.

Setup /ie By passes Startup disk wizard.

If you have installed IE 4.0 or higher than before re-installing Windows uninstall it. As installation of IE changes Windows system files with newer version. Reinstall IE later.

To view properties of all drives at once, then open My Computer select all drives by holding Ctrl key and clicking on each drive. Right-click and choose Properties from context menu. Windows will create one Dialog box with tabs for each drives.

DMA (Direct Memeory Access), lets your PC access Drives( CD-ROM, CD-Writer, HDD, FDD, Removable Drives) directly to the processor which boost the speed of your system. Right Click on My Computer and select Properties. Click on Device Manager, expand the Drives( CD-ROM, CD-Writer, HDD, FDD, Removable Drives) , click on Settingsand check for DMA option. Restart Required. This is applicable only to the IDE or E-IDE drive types.

To start msconfig click on Start > Run and type msconfig, click on Startup tab, from here you can select the programs which are launch during boot up of your system. Select minimum number of programs, as this effect your boot up time and you can start your programs manually afterwards.

To create shortcut on desktop, right-click on desktop, select New > Shortcut, now enter the path C:\Windows\rundll.exe user.exe Exitwindows. By clicking on this icon you can shutdown your system.

During boot process Windows check several things like FDD, CD-ROM, you can tweak them to enhance your boot up process. FDD Right-click on My Computer > Properties>Performance > File System > Floppy Disk. Here you will see a option Check for floppy drive each time your computer starts, uncheck this option. This will prevent Windows to take time in detection of floppy drive each time Windows start. For CD-ROM, click on next tab labelled CD-ROM. Here select Quard speed or higher in Optimize access pattern for….

You can browse, explore from the taskbar by using Address bar. Right-click on on Taskbar , select Taskbars > Address. The address bar will appear on taskbar.

If you are sure that your registry is corrupted then you can create a new registry without reinstalling windows. Start MS-DOS mode, and start installation by Setup /pf command from Windows installation. This will create a new registry by replacing system.dat and user.dat.

To change drive icons, create a file autorun.ini by using notepad, add lines

[Autorun]
ICON= PATH
Here give path of your icon.

To change folder icons, create a file desktop.ini by using notepad, add lines

[.ShellClassInfo]
ICON= PATH
Here give path of your icon.

To create shortcut on desktop, right-click on desktop, select New > Shortcut, now enter the path C:\Windows\rundll.exe user.exe ExitwindowsExec. By clicking on this icon you can restart your system.

Use WinIPCfg tool to find your IP address. By this you also know network card's MAC address, which is useful to know IP address conflict in a network. If you know IP addresses you can directly connect to internet.

There are a few utilities provided for this purpose. Select Control Panel > Accessibility Options. Here you can find options which will make your work easy. To install this Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs > Windows Setup > Accessibility Options.

when you are asked for login, click on cancel button. Once inside search for file *.pwl, pwl stands for password list. Here you should find that file with your login name, ie if login name is xyz than the file name will be xyz.pwl. Delete this file. Now when you login again it will again ask password. At this moment press OK and change password through Control Panel > Users and Passwords .

In Control Panel > System > Device Manager , you can see the list of all devices connected to your system. If you see a yellow circle with an exclamation mark in front af any item, check the properties of that item. Look for any conflict in the driver. Try remove that item and refresh or restart your computer. Install suitable drivers.

In folder C:\Windows\Send To, Create a shortcut of printer. Go to printer applet and create a shortcut. Copy that shortcut in C:\Windows\Send To folder. In this way you can quickly print files.

Accidently you have deleted standard windows fonts. To recover them, follow these steps. From the installation CD, Extract the files from Win95_04.cab. Extract it to any temporary directory, and then install the fonts which you have deleted by selecting Control Panel> Fonts. Now, select File > Install New Fonts and browse the path of temporary directory.

Want to create a log file, open notepad and add first line .LOG, now every time you open notepad automatically adds time and date after a new line.

Notepad cannot open file more than 56kb, this limitation is removed in Windows 2000.

To create a perfect square in Ms Paint, click on rectangle tool, hold Shift key, while dragging mouse.

To create a perfect circle in Ms paint, select ellipse tool and hold Shift key while dragging mouse. This will help you in creating a perfect circle.

You can check your system resources by using Resource Meter. Select Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Resource Meter. If you have not install this, then in Add/Remove Select Windows Setup > Accessories > System Resource. By checking up this option you can install.

You can monitor your system performance by using System Monitor. Select Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Monitor. If you have not install this, then in Add/Remove Select Windows Setup > Accessories. Checking up for System Monitor option.

You can select different images for your folder background. Right Click in any folder, select Customise this folder > Select a background picture press next, select any picture( bmp, jpg, tif) and click next and finish. You can do this to any folder. This requires IE 4.0 or above. Do not work in Windows Xp.

To close them quickly hold Shift key and click close button. This will close all parent windows.

Earlier if you have to view cab files in Windows then you have to use Extract utility. But you can use IE4 or above, to view them, you can view them as a reguler foder. To extract them, select the file and right click on it, select Extract to use them.

Generally this type of problem exist due to old version of Drvspace.bin and a newer version of Drvspace.vxd. This occurs when you upgrade from Dos to Windows. If you have doubled your hard disk then its difficult to recover however you can try by deleting .bin file from root.

The easiest way to know is to run chkdsk from command prompt.

You can easily re-associate your programs by right-click on that program holding Shift key and select Open with, from here you can select the program.

You can change your start up screen by replacing logo.sys file in root directory, shutdown wait and shutdown screen by logow.sys , logos.sys in Windows folder respectively. You can edit these files through Ms-Paint. Remember the dimensions on these files will be 320 x 400 pixels. Size 127 kb.

This type of error occurs due to unavailability of proper drivers. Download proper driver according to your system or use standard software for playing media files.

If you want to allow different users with their own settings then select Control Panel > Passwords > User Profile and enable option Users can customise their preferences and desktop settings. Windows switches to your personal settings whenever you log in. Windows will always ask password before the user login.

To remove entries from Control Panel, remove entries with extension cpl in your Windows/System folder.

This can happen when Ifshlp.sys file is missing or Winboot.ini file from a previous incomplete installation is present in the root folder of boot disk.

If Ifshlp.sys is missing from Windows folder then you can extract it from setup.
For Windows 95 extract /e /1 c:\Windows /a win95_02.cab ifshlp.sys
For Windows 98 extract /e /1 c:\Windows /a win98_22.cab ifshlp.sys.

If Winboot.ini exist in root directory of boot disk then delete this file. If nothing works then copy Msdos.sys from rescue disk .

If you want to convert your drive from FAT 16 to FAT 32, then select Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Drive Converter. If you have not install this, then you can do this by Add/Remove > Windows Setup > System Tools > Drive Converter. Its recommended that you defrag your drive before conversion.

When you open your Volume Control windows, then press Ctrl + S, you will find that your windows is shrink. It will remain in small state unless you press Ctrl + S again.

If you want to type Program Files, you generally type progra~1, here is a tip, instead type Program Files, using quotation marks.

If you are using network then reinstall networking drivers, and if you are not using them then uninstall all network components.

To do this, selectControl Panel > Multimedia.Check the option Show Volume Control on taskbar..

If you have two or more browsers installed and want to select IE as default then open IE andselect, Tools > Internet Options and check option Internet Explorer should always check if its a default browsers. Next time you open it, it will prompt you to make IE your default browser, click yes.

If you want to start an application and wish that application to work in background then, select that application and press Shift key, double click the application and you will see that the application will be launched in the background.

Click on help topic where you would like to add your own help topic. Click Options and select Annotate. A text box appears where user can type his own tips and select Save. A bookmark will appear on top-left corner of the Help box. This Bookmark will take you to your newly saved file which is saved by .ann extension.

By default, Windows hide extensions of known types, but this can be dangerous too. Therefore you can remove this setting by select View > Folder Options > View, here uncheck option Hide file extensions of known types.

This happens if Window is unable to delete the Wnbootng.sts file in the Windows folder. This file is created each time you start Windows and is deleted after Windows starts successfully. Delete the Wnbootng.sts file in the Windows folder and restart your computer. If this doest work, rename the io.sys file in the root of the boot drive. Do this by booting your system through a startup disk.

To solve this problem, Start your computer in Safe mode. Select Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Device Manager. Expand the Sound Video and Game controllers list and remove your soundcard. Restart your PC. Windows should now detect your soundcard as a new hardware and will ask for the proper drivers.

If you are advance user and want to remove delete confirmations which appear every time you delete a file or folder, right-click on Recycle Bin, select Properties > Global . Uncheck option Display delete confirmation dialog box.

To access CD-ROM drive in safe mode, edit config.sys and autoexec.bat to load CD-ROM drivers. Restart Windows in command prompt, and type Win /D:M and press Enter.

If you want to quickly restart your system without BIOS POST test, then select Restart + Shift key from Shut Down Windows dialog box.

For maximum use of memory in Dos, add line in System.ini > [386Enh] section. LocalLoadHigh=1.

To make a network share hidden, simply add a dollar sign $ on the end of share name. Only users who know the exact share name can access it.

If you find icons in start menu are black that means your Shelliconcache file is corrupt. You should delete this file as it will be recreated when Windows restart. You can find this hidden file under Wnidows directory.

If you do not want to see logo file in start up, then edit Msdos.sys file. Under [Options], add a line logo=0.

To create a icon without a name simply rename it using num pad. Rename it to 255. Do not forget that you should type this number from Num pad only.

To set Windows temporary directory edit autoexec.bat and add a line SET TMP= DIRECTORY PATH SET TEMP= DIRECTORY PATH. Restart required.

If you do not like the text which is displayed at startup edit autoexec.bat, add a line at top @echo off.

To modify scandisk options, edit the value of Autoscan
AutoScan = 0 Scandisk is Disabled.
AutoScan = 1 Scandisk Prompts .
AutoScan = 2 Scandisk Runs Automatically.

To control whether GUI should load automatically, edit the value of BootGUI
BootGUI =1 GUI is enabled.
BootGUI=0 GUI is disabled.

To control Safe mode Boot options, edit the value of BootSafe
BootGUI =1 Windows boot in safe mode.
BootGUI=0 Windows run normally.

To change Date And Time quickly, instead of going to Control Panel, double click on the Clock displayed on the bar.

To capture the screen of acitve window only then, press Alt + Print Screen and copy it in mspaint, now you can save it in your desired format.

To quickly preview animated cursor, right-click on the ANI file and choose Properties. In the upper-left corner of the dialog box you'll see the animation.

If old 16-bit programs are not running or giving compatibility problems then, use the utility mkcompat. You can run this by clicking on Start > Run button, and type mkcompat. This utility is strictly ment for 16 bit programs.