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Have you ever tried to figure out how a magician does her tricks?
It's tough because a good magician has practiced those tricks over and over again
so she can do them effortlessly. Good magic is about
illusion. But there is no illusion when it comes to uncovering
the power of Windows 95. All you have to do is
learn a few tricks at the trade. Hi, I'm Anne Christensen
and I'm not really a magician, but then you don't have to be to learn
Windows 95 tips, tricks, and shortcuts.
Today we're going to explore
some of the tricks that you can use to make Windows 95 do what you want it to
do effortlessly. And who better to demonstrate the magic waiting inside Windows 95
than the software guys? Keith White and
Tom Jaffe.
Keith and Tom spent a combined 12 years at Microsoft as Windows product managers. They've
trained the Microsoft sales force and traveled the world, lecturing the audiences of all
those. Just like millions of other people do these days, Tom will be working at home
and Keith will be working in the office. If you're new to
Windows 95, you may want to start by watching our Getting Started video so you'll have a solid
understanding of the major components and functions of the software. Now it's time
to reach into our bag of tricks and pull out some of our magical tips, tricks,
and shortcuts. First up, the start menu and the taskbar.
The
start
menu and taskbar are where you click most often when you want
Windows to do something for you. Microsoft designed these the way they think most people work.
Of course, they also know that many of us like to do things our way and they've
made it easy to personalize our PCs to work best for us. So Keith,
why don't you show us a few of the tricks you have up your sleeve? The first tip we want to share is that you can get
Windows to work much more efficiently if you add programs that you use most to the top of your start menu.
Now I use Microsoft Excel all the time, so let me show you how we add the Microsoft Excel
icon to the top of our start menu. First, right click on the taskbar
and select properties to bring up the taskbar properties dialog box. Now click on
the start menu programs tab. Here we can add programs or remove them from the start
menu. To add a program at the start menu we click on add and the dialog box asks us to
type in the command line of the program we want to add. This means we need to type in the full
path to the program. This can be a little tricky because you have to know where your program is located
and you have to type it in exactly right. A much easier way to find your program
is by clicking on the browse button. Let's browse for Excel. We know it is in our
Microsoft Office folder, so we double click on it. Here's the Excel folder, so
we double click on it and here's our Excel program. Let's select it
and choose open. Notice that Windows has entered the full path to Excel in the command
line box. We click on next and it asks us to select the folder where we want to place
our shortcut. We can put it in any existing folder on the start menu such as the programs
folder or we can even create a new folder by clicking on the new folders button.
Now we want Excel to appear at the top level of the start menu, so we'll click on the start menu folder
and choose next. Here we can type in a descriptive name of the program like
Microsoft Excel. To complete the process, click on finish
and then press OK. Now click on the start button
and Microsoft Excel is at the top of the start menu and we can just start it by clicking on it.
Now there is an easier way to add items to your start menu and that is by using drag and drop.
Let's add Word for Windows to the top of the start menu. To do this we double click on the
My Computer icon to open it up. Then double click on the C drive.
Word is located in the MS Office directory, so we'll double click on the MS Office folder.
Then on the WinWord directory where the Word program file is located.
Now in Windows 95 you'll recognize program files because they have the program icon next to them.
Here we can see the Word icon, so this WinWord file is the program file we need to select.
So let's select it and drag and drop it onto the start button.
Again we can click on the start button. We see WinWord in the start menu.
To start Word for Windows, just select it.
You can also add documents or folders to the top of the start menu. I have a Word document
that I work on called Vacation Plans. I'd like to be able to find and open it with just one click
of the mouse. As you can see, the Vacation Plans file
is also located in the WinWord directory. To add this to the start menu
let's simply drag and drop it on the start button.
So to open it, just click on the start button and select it.
First you see that Word starts up.
Then the document is automatically opened up inside of it.
Now drag and drop makes it so easy to add programs and files to the start menu that it might get cluttered with things you don't really need.
Keith, how about showing us how to remove some of those programs?
Let's go back to the add or remove programs dialog box. Now last time we got there by
selecting the taskbar and choosing properties. We can also get there by selecting the start button
and choosing settings, taskbar, click on the
start menu programs tab. This time let's click the advance button.
Notice here we see the folders in the start menu on the left
and the items within that folder on the right. Now if I click on the plus sign next to the folders
it expands this folder to show me all the program groups we have.
In this view I can organize my programs any way I please. Now I'd like to combine all of the programs I use at work
into a new folder I'll call business programs. To create this business programs folder
I select the programs folder, right mouse click anywhere in the right hand window
and choose new folder.
I'll name it business programs. Now I can move all of my
shortcuts to the programs I use most often for work into this business programs folder. I can
select act from my act for windows folder and drag and drop it into the business
programs folder. This moves the act shortcut into my business programs folder.
I can remove the act folder by right mouse clicking on it and choosing
delete. Now we can see the act icon in the business programs folder.
Note that the icons we see in the dialog box are all just shortcuts or pointers
to the actual programs and files on my hard drive and you can tell their shortcuts by the
little arrow on the bottom left hand corner of the icon. In other words you can have several
shortcuts for the same file or program in as many places as you want such as in a program
group and on top of the start menu. This way you can have quick access to your programs from
wherever you're likely to use them. That's right. For example the calculator icon
is located in the accessories folder. Since I use it all the time I'm going to place
a copy of it on the start menu. To do this I'll right mouse click on the calculator
drag and drop it on top of the start menu folder
and release the right mouse button. Now we can choose copy.
This copies the calculator shortcut to the top of the start menu and leaves the original in the
accessories group. Wow that's easy enough.
But again the start menu is getting cluttered. Could you show us how to group all your favorite files
together in one folder on the start menu? That's easy too. To create a new
folder on the start menu click on the start folder then right mouse click on
any open space in the right hand side and choose new and then choose folder.
You can see that a new folder icon has appeared at the bottom of our list and now
I'll just type in a name. Let's call it fun stuff and then
click anywhere in the box to enter the name in the start menu. Now when I click on the start
menu you can see that our new folder called fun stuff appears in the list. That's great.
So now we have a folder on the start menu but nothing in it. The next
thing you'll want to do is add files or programs into the folder. Personally I'm going to be
spending a lot of time planning a vacation. I want to have quick access to my vacation plans document
so I'll put it in my fun stuff folder. I'll select it with the right mouse button
drag and drop it into my fun stuff folder and choose copy here.
Now you can add lots of things to your fun stuff folder such as
shortcuts to other files in your hard drive. You can add shortcuts to locations that
you want to go to quickly on the Microsoft network or you can even add shortcuts to
home pages out on the internet. Now we'll actually show you how to do this in our
25 internet email faxing and more video. So basically fun stuff is my
own personal file folder that contains whatever I want to put in it. Exactly and
when you're done adding items to your folder just close the exploring the start menu window
close the taskbar settings dialog box and you'll have instant access to all of
your fun stuff right here on the start menu. As you can see
you can set up the start menu the way you like to work but you know what
there's even a quicker way to get to the start menu in the explorer view and that is
to right mouse click on the start button and choose explore. Notice this looks a little
different since we're actually in the explorer and we can see everything on your system
but it still works the same way as Keith showed you. Now that you have your start menu
set up the way you want there are a couple of shortcuts we'd like to show you that let you switch to
or open your programs quickly. First if you have a lot of icons on the start menu
you can put them in the order that you want by renaming each item with a number
in front. To rename each item on the start menu let's right click on the
start button and choose explore. Now let's right click on each of the items on
our start menu and choose rename. Here's another tip
to quickly rename an item just select it and press the F2 key.
Now we'll add a number to the beginning of each name. The item that we want
on the top of the list is calculator. So let's put a 1 in front of it.
Next is vacation plans so we'll add a 2
and we'll make Microsoft Excel the third one on our list.
Now that we have all of these numbered let's launch
number 1 that is the calculator. To do so we'll press control escape
to bring up the start menu and press the number 1 on our keyboard.
This launches the calculator without using the mouse. That's definitely a good way
to organize and start your programs but an even easier and faster way to get to the
programs you use most often is to assign a shortcut key. Then by entering those
shortcut keys it will either start your program or if it's already running Windows will bring it
to the foreground. Let's create a shortcut key for Microsoft Word. Let's right mouse
click on the start button and choose explore.
Now right click on the win word icon and choose properties.
Now choose the shortcuts tab. Here we see all of the information about this shortcut
such as the file it opens when we select the shortcut icon but most important here is the
shortcut key entry. Now shortcut keys typically include control plus alt
plus another key that you assign. Let's use control alt plus the letter W so we'll type
W here for Microsoft Word. To launch Word we don't have to select the start button
at all. Just press control alt W and word starts.
Wow. These are some really great tips and tricks you can use with the start menu.
Now how about some tips or tricks for making the task bar easier to use?
Sure. We have some useful tips and tricks for the task bar. To start let's
review a couple of tips we showed you in our getting started video. We can move the task bar
to any side of the desktop we want depending on how we like to work. To do this
click on any open space on the task bar and drag and drop it to where you'd like it
to go. It can be on the side, on the top
or back to the bottom.
We can also increase
the size of the task bar so that we can see more of the buttons. To do this
simply place the mouse pointer on the edge of the task bar until it turns into a two headed
arrow. Then hold down the mouse button and drag it
in or out. Now we can hide the task bar in order to
get more screen space for our programs by right mouse clicking on the task bar
choosing properties and putting a check next to the auto
hide option. Click OK and now the task bar disappears.
When we move the mouse to wherever the task bar was located it automatically reappears.
That's a great tip. How about tricks? Any new ones?
Absolutely. Take a look at some of these. First you can right mouse click on the task
bar and get a number of options. Now the first three allow you to organize your open windows
any way you like. You can cascade your windows so you can see each of their title bars.
You can tile them horizontally
or vertically, whichever makes it easier to work with several programs or windows
at the same time. This is very useful for example if you're trying to copy information from
one program to another such as placing an Excel graph into a Word document.
Well now that we have all these windows open on the screen how do we get to icons on the desktop
like my computer? Do you have to minimize each window that's open? There is a quick way to get back
to the desktop and that is by right mouse clicking on the task bar and selecting
minimize all windows. This minimizes all the open windows
into the task bar. Now you can get to the desktop and open programs like my computer
or the Microsoft network. And Windows 95 remembers how you were working before you minimized all your windows.
If you right click on the task bar you'll notice the undo minimize all windows
option and it reopens all the windows right back to the way you were working. That's very
cool. Now I noticed that we have a number of programs or windows open that we're not using
anymore. Is there a quick way to shut them all down? There is. Whenever you
have a program or a window open a button will always appear on the task bar representing
that window or program. To shut down that item quickly just right mouse
click on the button and choose close.
There's one more task bar tip I'd like to show you. On the right side of the task
bar you'll see the little time displayed. If you need to reset your clock just double click
on the time. This can come in handy if you want to impress your coworkers by having
them think you've been working late. Now what you do is you reset your clock to say 1am
then send them all a piece of email. It will be time stamped 1am and they'll think you'll be working
late. Now if any of you are thinking about being as sneaky as my friend over here don't
forget to set your clock back to the original time or else you might get caught too.
Music.
Music.
If you're like me the reason you use a new operating system in the first place is
to make life easier and do things faster. So software guys it's time to show us
some tips to make working with the desktop easier and faster. With
Windows 95 there's a lot of ways that you can get to your files very quickly and easily.
One of the fastest ways is if you create a shortcut on your desktop that goes out to your
computer. Now I have a folder called home information which I've been using a lot
lately but every time I want to use it I have to dig it up inside of my computer.
It would be a lot easier to get to if it were right on my desktop. To place it on my desktop
I'll double click on the my computer icon then on the C drive
right mouse click on the home information folder and drag and drop it to the
desktop. When I release the mouse button it asks me if I'd like to move
copy or create a shortcut here. I want to create a shortcut
and now we have a folder called shortcut to home information right on my
desktop. Now to get to any of the documents in my home information folder
all I have to do is just double click on this folder and open it right up. Now I'm not
a neat freak or anything but once again you're starting to clutter the desktop with all these icons.
Sometimes when my desk gets really stacked up I just wish I could
say abracadabra and poof have it automatically organized.
With a real desk this might be wishful thinking but with Windows it's a snap.
That's true. If your Windows desktop has icons scattered around you can quickly
arrange them by right mouse clicking on the desktop and choosing
arrange icons. This will give you a choice to arrange the icons by
their name and alphabetical order, by type so for example all your word
documents and excel spreadsheets will be grouped together, by the size of the
item so the biggest items appear on the top of the list or by the date it was last
modified so the thing you've worked on most recently will appear at the top of the list.
To make it really easy I'll choose auto arrange. This will arrange your icons automatically
into columns whenever you place a new icon on the desktop or move an icon away from
the column. For example let's drag and drop this word document onto the
desktop. Notice how it automatically snapped to the next available spot on the desktop.
Looks better but that's not the way we had it.
How do we get the icons lined up the way they were before? Well that's easy just
right mouse click on the desktop and choose arrange icons by type.
Okay so I can create shortcuts to existing files and folders
and organize my desktop but what if I want to create a new file or
folder on the desktop? Can I do that? That's what the new option is for on the shortcut
menu. You'll find the same shortcut menu option throughout Windows 95 and it allows
you to create a new file or folder from wherever you are. Now I work with a lot of
marketing plans so I'm going to create a marketing plans folder on the desktop. To do this I simply
right mouse click on the desktop, choose new, then folder.
Then type in the name marketing plans. Now I've just created a new
folder on the desktop. Now I can drag all of my marketing documents into this folder.
This brings up a couple of good points about Windows 95. First is that Windows 95 is
designed to let you focus more on the information you're working on rather than on what program or
tool that you're using to create it with. Second, Windows 95 makes it much
easier to organize your information so you can find it faster. For example, we can
place folders inside of other folders on the desktop which gives you a lot of flexibility to
organize your projects in a way that makes sense for you. Just like you'd do with your file cabinet.
For example, you'd have drawers, section dividers, folders, and then finally
you'd put your documents in there. Well can you give us an example of how Windows lets you focus
on your information rather than the tool you're using? Sure. Let's say I wanted to create
an itinerary for my vacation plans. To do this, I simply right mouse click
on the desktop and choose new. Here we see a list of the tools
I can use for this task. This is actually a list of the programs that I have installed on my PC.
By choosing Microsoft Excel worksheet, this creates a brand new
worksheet on the desktop which I can name Tom's Vacation Itinerary.
You'll notice when I double click on it,
it's just a blank Excel worksheet that I can open up and begin to work on.
So when you're creating a new document that you'll want to access frequently, this is an easy way to do it.
And even if you have an older 16-bit Windows 3.1 program, you can still use a long
name. Up to 255 characters that will appear under the icon on your desktop.
I see. So having all your programs available in the new list
means you don't have to hunt around looking for the right tool. Instead you can spend more time thinking about
your information just by creating a desktop icon. And creating a desktop icon lets you
add Windows 95 functionality into your older programs. But when you're finished with an icon,
how do you delete it from your desktop? There are three ways to delete an icon from your desktop.
First, you can click on the icon and press the delete key.
Second, you can right click on it and choose delete.
And third, you can just drag and drop it into the recycle bin.
Whenever you accidentally delete a shortcut or item from the desktop,
you can always right mouse click on the desktop and choose undo to undo what you just did.
For example, let's retrieve our marketing plans folder from the recycle bin.
Notice when I right click on the desktop, there's an undo delete option.
When I select it, the folder comes right back to the desktop. Now the undo command will also
undo other actions you may have taken such as renaming an icon. And it will even
remember the previous actions and undo them as well. You also mentioned that we could put
folders inside of other folders. Can you show us how to do that?
I'll take this one. Putting folders inside of other folders fixes one of the major
limitations of the Windows 3.1 program manager that people complained a lot about.
Now let's create a top level folder. I'll right click on the desktop,
choose new, and folder. We'll call this
top level. Now let's open the folder
and right click inside the window and choose new
and folder. We can name this
level 2. Of course we can add other items here or we can double click on level 2
and add yet another level inside of it. Again, right click on the white space
and choose new, folder. And we'll call this one level 3.
Double click one more time and you can see that we can have more
folders inside of other folders to help you organize your files. Windows 95 really is
incredible when it comes to customizing. You know, making things work and look the way you want them to.
Well, can you give me another example?
This? What does this have to do with anything? At least anything that's any of your business.
Okay, let me ask you. Suppose you wanted to change that tablecloth.
Maybe not even use one at all. How long would it take you to do that?
I bet I could do it pretty fast. You saw my magic tricks at the top of the show, right?
They were great, Ann. Alright, go ahead. Let's see you change it.
Alright.
Impressive.
Guess my magic doesn't always work.
Well, let's just say it's not as reliable as Windows 95. Let me show you the kind of magic that is
available in Windows 95 to redecorate your tabletop or we'll call it the desktop when you're
tired of looking at the same old thing. The easiest way to redecorate your desktop is
to right mouse click on the desktop and choose properties. This brings up the display properties
dialog box. From here we can change the wallpaper or the background
to one of the patterns that comes with Windows or we can choose one of
our own like the Software Guys logo. Wow, that's cool.
I have some pictures that would be great to show on my PC. So if I scan them in, how would I
add them to my list of wallpapers? You can have any picture as your wallpaper as long as it's in a bitmap
or BMP file format. Let's right mouse click on the desktop and choose properties.
See this browse button? This allows you to browse your hard drive
to select the BMP file you want. I have the SoftwareGuys.bmp file located
here on my hard drive. It's in the Kees Personal Stuff folder.
Once I select it and choose OK,
it becomes my wallpaper. So to answer your question, if you place your bitmap files
into your Windows directory, they will appear in the wallpaper list. Well, what do you know?
Well, now that we're improving the appearance, sometimes the fonts on the menus are hard to see.
Is there a way to increase the size of the letters so nearsighted people like me can read it?
You can customize just about anything on the desktop, including colors and fonts.
To do this, in the display properties dialog box, click the appearance tab.
Windows 95 has set up a number of predefined schemes that include
coordinated colors and fonts, so you can go through this list and choose the scheme that you like best.
Let's choose rows large and see how the desktop changes.
Or you can create your own scheme by clicking on the item
that you want to change, such as the menu. Notice below, it gives you a list
of all the options that you can change for that item, such as the color, the font, and the size.
To make the fonts larger in the menus,
for example, select menu in the item list box, and then choose a larger
size, say 24 point. That ought to make it easy to read.
Notice you can go through each item and customize it to meet your needs.
And the display above shows you how your new scheme will look.
Another tip we have for the desktop is in the display properties dialog box under the settings tab.
If you have a video card that supports 256 colors and
resolutions higher than 640 by 480, you can increase or decrease
the resolution without having to reboot your machine.
Oh, the resolution number corresponds to the number of pixels or the little dots
that pick up the picture on your screen. Typically, most computers are set to
640 by 480 pixels, but many video cards can display at 800 by 600 pixels
or even at 1024 by 768. This comes in handy if you're having trouble
seeing something like this chart. Now in my current screen resolution, it appears too big
and I can't really see the whole thing without scrolling up and down through it.
Notice we can change the resolution to a higher resolution.
Now, the screen resolution is 640 by 480. If we move the slider to the right,
the pixel count increases to 800 by 600.
Notice the window above shows you how the items will appear. When you click apply,
you get a dialog box that says the screen will go away and reappear in its new size.
To go back to the original size, it will do so automatically in 15 seconds
or press yes to keep the new setting.
Notice now we can see the entire chart. No scrolling is necessary.
That's pretty clever. If you don't like the new screen resolution, you can just switch back to your original settings automatically.
Might be pretty hard to do with a tablecloth trick.
Our guys will be right back after they clean up this mess with their tips and tricks about
my computer and the network neighborhood.
Keith, are you all set? Because we're starting with you.
To the top of the screen, that is. In the upper left-hand corner of your screen,
there's a whole lot of customizing you can do with the My Computer icon.
The first thing I want to do is rename the My Computer icon so it feels more like my own computer.
Now, there are a couple ways to do that. By clicking on the icon and then clicking on the name,
this activates the label. Now you can type in any name you like. I'll type in
computer.
Another way to rename any item is by right mouse clicking on it and choosing rename from the shortcut menu.
When I double click on the
My Computer icon, it opens to show you all the disk drives on my system.
This includes floppy drives, hard drives, CD-ROM drives,
and network drives that we're connected to. When you double click on one of these disk drives,
like the C drive, it brings up a new window that shows you the folders or directories
and the files that are in that drive. And if you double click on one of the folder icons,
like the program files, it'll bring up yet another window that shows you the subfolders
or subdirectories of that directory. You can continue to drill down
the folder of files that you're looking for and watch how each time we do, it brings up yet another
window. Let's see. I'll double click on the plus folder, which is the plus pack
companion for Windows. Let's check out Pinball. So I'll double click on the Pinball
folder and then on the icon to open it up and start a game.
One thing I don't like about my computer is that it opens
so many windows when I'm looking for a file. Is there an easy way to close all these
windows or not have them at all? Tom? Tom?
Why don't I answer that? It looks like Tom's a little preoccupied over there. The easiest way to close
all the windows is by holding down the shift key and selecting the close button in the
last window that was open. This will close all the windows that you opened to get to that window.
As we just showed, to get to the Pinball folder, we had to double click on the C drive
and then on the program files folder, then on the plus folder,
then on the Pinball folder. So to close down all these windows, simply hold down the shift key
and click on the X in the Pinball window, which was the last one that we opened.
Excuse me, guys. I'm back. You know, there is a way that you can avoid having all these
windows open. Instead, when you double click on a folder, it could use the same
window to display the contents of each successive folder. To set this up,
go to the view menu and choose options. Now, under the folder tab,
select the option that says browse folders by using a single window
and choose OK. Now, when we double click on My Computer,
then on the C drive, and then continue drilling down to our Pinball file,
you'll notice that all the layers of folders stay inside of one window.
OK. But how do you go backwards through those windows to get back to the My Computer view?
Good question. There are two ways to go backwards through your folders.
The first way is press the backspace key. For the second way, you need to have
the toolbar displayed. So click on the view menu and select toolbar.
Now we'll see a folder with an arrow, and if we hold the mouse pointer over it,
the tooltip says up one level. By clicking it, it moves us back through the level
of folders that we just came. One tip I recommend to everyone is to put the
My Computer icon onto the start menu. This way, you can always open up My Computer
quickly, even if you have other windows covering the desktop.
To do this, just drag and drop the My Computer icon onto the start button,
and as you can see, it appears on the top of the start menu.
That makes sense. Do you have any more tips for My Computer?
In fact, we do. My Computer will display the total size of your hard drive
and how much free space is available in megabytes. The easiest way to see this
information is in the details view. So, select view, then details from the menu,
and we can see the total size and free space for each of our drives.
If you prefer another view, such as large icons, you can display your disk
information by right mouse clicking on the hard drive and choosing properties.
This will show you a diagram of the amount of free space and use space on your system.
This information is also available for your folders. One thing that I like to
know is how much disk space my various folders are taking up.
Let's check out the Windows directory. So, I'll double click on the C drive,
and right mouse click on the Windows folder, and choose properties.
Under the general tab, we see that Windows takes 62.2 megabytes and includes
1,285 files located in 46 folders.
Wow, Windows has a lot of files. Now, I work with a lot of files too.
I move them around, I open them up, I view their contents, I print them out,
and then I close them down again. Can you give me some tips on how I can work
faster with my files?
There are a number of ways to work faster with your files.
The first is through the send to option. Now, send to allows you to quickly send
a file or folder to another place, such as a floppy disk or your fax program.
A quick way to copy a file to a floppy disk is to right mouse click on the file
and choose send to.
Notice this brings up a list of places I can send this file to.
If I then choose the floppy drive, it copies the file to my floppy disk.
As Keith mentioned, Windows already has a number of items in the send to list,
but you can add other items to the send to list, such as a printer,
a network drive, or even another program like Notepad.
To add a printer to the send to list, click on the start button and choose run.
Now type in send to with no spaces. This brings up your send to folder.
To add our printer to the list, I'll click on the start button, choose settings,
and printers, and our printers folder comes up.
Here we can right mouse click on the printer that we want to add to the send to menu,
and in our case we're going to add our QMS printer.
So I'll click on it and drag and drop it into the send to folder.
Let's choose create a shortcut, and our printer is added to the send to list.
Now to quickly print out a file, we can right mouse click on the document, choose send to,
and the shortcut to our QMS printer is right here, so just click on it.
Windows 95 automatically opens the right program, loads the file that you're going to print,
prints it out, and then closes the file and the program back down.
Wow, those are some great tips for working with my computer.
But I also use Windows 95 at the office where all of the PCs are connected with a network.
Can you show me some quick tips for working with a network?
When you're working on a computer that's connected to a network,
there are a lot of times when you'll want to connect to other computers that are on that network
to access information that may be on their hard drives or CD-ROM drive,
or maybe you want to just use their printer.
The network neighborhood provides the easiest way to browse and access these files and printers
that are on your network.
When you double click to open the network neighborhood,
it shows you the other computers that are in your work group.
But you can view the rest of the computers on your network
by double clicking on the entire network icon here.
Can we personalize the network neighborhood like we did earlier with the My Computer icon?
Can we personalize it? Sure we can.
Why don't we rename it to Winstrux Network?
Click on the network neighborhood and press the F2 key to rename it by typing in Winstrux Network.
Let's take a look at the network neighborhood.
When you double click on the network neighborhood icon,
it shows you all of the other computers in your work group.
Now if there are computers on your network that you access all the time,
you can create shortcuts to them inside of the network neighborhood.
To do this, find the computer you'd like to have access to
and drag and drop it into the network neighborhood.
This will automatically create a shortcut to that computer.
You can take this one step further and place any shared network resource
like a folder or printer onto your desktop.
For example, I use a folder called KeysInfo all the time.
This folder and its contents are stored on a remote PC called the Server out on the corporate network
so my coworkers can get to them even when I'm not in the office.
Since I use this folder all the time, I'm going to create a shortcut to it on my desktop.
To do this, I'll right mouse click on the folder, drag and drop it onto my desktop,
and choose Create a Shortcut.
Now anytime I want to get to the information in the KeysInfo folder,
I simply double click, it automatically connects me and shows me the contents of the folder.
Well, we now know some shortcuts for organizing our desktop files and network.
In our next module, the software guys will take you one step closer to being a Windows Wizard,
showing you how to work faster with your programs.
We'll be back quicker than you can say.
Abracadabra.
Keith, where do you suppose she goes when she does that?
I don't know. Clipboard?
And now let's see what other tricks we can pull out for you
so you can work faster with your applications.
One fast way to get going is with the Run command.
To get there, click on the Start button and select Run.
Or from your keyboard, just press Control-Escape and the letter R.
Either way, up pops the Run command dialog box,
asking for the name of the program, folder, or document you want to run.
We saw this a few minutes ago when we opened the Send To dialog box,
but you can use Run to start any program like Word or Excel,
or any file like Tom's Vacation Plans.
To open a program like WordPad, just type in the name,
WordPad, and the Run command launches the program.
Can I start any program or file just by typing its name in the Run dialog box?
Not exactly.
Now Windows will automatically look in the Windows directory
to find the program or file you typed in.
If it's located somewhere else,
you'll need to type in the full path to tell Windows where to find it.
So a much easier way to run your file is to click on the Browse button
and then click your way through the directories
until you find the file you want to run.
For example, to run the My Vacation Plans document, click Browse.
Now you need to click on the Files of Type option and choose the All Files,
then double-click on My Computer, then the C Drive, the Home Information,
then Vacation Plans, and say OK.
But what if you can't find the file you want to run from the Browse button?
If you're not sure where a document is located,
the fastest way to find it is by using the Find tool on the Start menu.
Run also provides an easy way to view the contents of a floppy disk.
Just type in the name of the floppy drive, usually A colon backslash,
and up pops the contents of the floppy disk.
Even better, if you're on a network, Run can help you find a server on the network.
Just type in two backslashes, then the name of the computer you're looking for,
like double backslash, the server.
Run will automatically connect you to that server,
and it will display all the shared resources on that computer that Run connected you to.
To open a file like Tom's Vacation Plans document, just double-click on it.
So the document that's open on your PC is actually located on Tom's PC
that you're connected to over the network.
That's right.
Then how do you save the document onto your own PC?
To save the document, just choose File, Save As.
Since we're using a 32-bit version of Word,
we see the new Windows 95 Save As dialog box.
To click on the drop-down menu and select the C drive.
Now a big enhancement here is that you can create a new folder from inside of the Save As dialog box
by clicking on the Create New Folder icon.
Now I can name the file folder, Family Vacation,
and double-click on the folder to save my new documents inside of it.
Remember, this only works with the new 32-bit Windows 95 programs,
not with the older 16-bit Windows 3.1-based programs.
Now that we're working with our Vacation Plans document,
it would be great if we could add some mileage charts and pictures of our destinations.
Can you show us some tips to do that?
Sure can.
In fact, one of the great benefits of Windows is that it makes it really easy
to share information between several programs,
and you can easily create those great-looking documents.
Take this mileage chart I have in Excel.
I want to move it to my Vacation Plans document.
To do this with the older version of Windows,
I'd have to go through a lot of steps to open and close documents and copy and paste information.
But with Windows 95, we can move the information with just one click of the mouse.
Let's take a look.
First, hold down the Control key and select the chart by clicking on it.
Hold the mouse button down and drag the mouse pointer down to the taskbar
and point to the Word button for a second.
As you can see, this brings Word up.
Now keep holding the mouse button down and point to the spot in the Word document
where you want the chart to go.
Now let go of the mouse button and voila!
We've moved the chart into the Word document with just one click of the mouse.
Another great tip for sharing information between documents
is to create what's called a scrap on the desktop.
Now you mentioned that you also wanted pictures in your Vacation document.
Well, I have a map of the United States that I created in Excel
and it would be useful to include this in a number of documents.
The fastest way for me to get to this map at any time is to create a scrap.
To do this, we select the map in Excel and we drag and drop it onto the Windows desktop.
This creates a scrap of this information.
To name it, we'll type in map scrap.
Now if I want to place it into a document, I just drag and drop it onto the dock.
So once again, we can click on the scrap, pull down the mouse button,
and drag the pointer down to the taskbar and point to Word.
When Word pops up, we just point to the place in the document
where we want the map to go and release the mouse button.
Very nice! But does that work with all my programs?
It does work with most of your Windows 3.1 based programs and all of your new Windows 95 programs.
Well, that's a great time saver for creating documents.
How about some time savers for printing documents?
You got it! A fast way to print a document is to drag and drop the file that you want to print onto the printer icon.
But first, you need to create a shortcut on your desktop to your printer.
To do this, we'll click on the start button,
select settings, and then printers to open up the printer's folder.
Select your printer with a right mouse click,
and drag and drop it onto your desktop to create a shortcut.
Now that we have a shortcut on the desktop,
we can drag and drop any document icon from my computer
or from the network neighborhood on top of the printer.
Let's drag our vacation plans icon and drop it onto the printer.
Windows automatically starts Word, opens a document, prints the document, and then closes Word.
And since printing in Windows 95 is done in the background,
while all this is going on, you can work on something else.
You can also print multiple documents at one time by selecting them using the control or the shift key
and dragging and dropping them onto the printer.
It's a nice trick, but in my office we store all our files in floppy disks rather than printing out paper copies.
It seems like I spend a lot of time copying files from one floppy disk to another floppy disk.
Any trick for making that easier?
Definitely. We can create another shortcut on our desktop to copy files from one floppy disk to another.
Right mouse click anywhere on your desktop and choose new, then shortcut.
The create shortcut wizard pops up and asks us for the command line to our shortcut.
Now usually this would just be the full path to a program,
but we're going to type in the command for what we want to do, and that is
disk copy space a colon space a colon.
When I choose next, it asks me for the name of the shortcut.
I like to call this copy my floppy.
We'll click on next, which brings up a list of icons we can assign to the shortcut.
I like this icon with the paper with an AB on it, since it looks like a copy.
Let's choose finish, and now we have a shortcut on the desktop.
Now to copy information from one floppy disk to another,
I just double click on the shortcut and follow the directions.
Oh, that'll sure make it easier to back up my file.
You know, Anne, for those people who know MS-DOS commands, like disk copy,
you can create lots more shortcuts with other DOS commands you may find useful,
like dir or copy or move.
You know, some of you old MS-DOS users out there may have some other
ingrained habits that you'd like to hold onto,
like using your keyboard instead of the mouse whenever possible.
Well, stay with us then, because in our next module,
the software guys will show us lots of shortcuts for using the keyboard,
as well as the mouse.
So wherever your hands are most comfortable, you can get the most out of Windows 95.
We're back, and in this section, you're going to get well acquainted
with what Windows 95 can do for your mouse and keyboard.
Let's start with that hard-working little mouse.
Excuse me.
That's better.
You've already seen how much you can accomplish using the right mouse button,
and there's plenty more where that came from.
Windows has a few fun features that help you enjoy the time you spend with your PC.
One is that you can easily change the mouse pointers from arrows to hands
or horses or, to my favorite, animated cursors.
You can change these very easily through the mouse icon in the control panel.
Click on the Start button, choose Settings, Control Panel,
double-click on the mouse icon, and select the Pointers tab.
Now, Windows 95 has designed a number of schemes for you to use.
When you select one of these schemes, Windows changes each of the different pointers.
So let's select the animated hourglasses and notice all the cursors change.
Now, when your computer is busy working on something,
you can watch the hourglass flip over.
I've heard that with Windows 95 you can customize the mouse for people with physical disabilities.
How does that work?
You can customize your system using the Accessibilities option icon in the control panel.
Click on the Start button, choose Settings, and Control Panel.
The Accessibility options is here at the top.
Let's double-click on it to open it up.
At the top, you'll find tabs where you can access special features for the keyboard,
special sound options, a General tab, but since you asked about the mouse,
let's click on the Mouse tab.
The option here called Use Mouse Keys allows you to simulate the mouse functionality
using your numeric keypad.
By choosing Settings, you can set the speed for how fast the mouse moves,
and when you click on Apply, this little mouse icon appears at the right side of your taskbar.
Now, you can move your mouse using the arrows on your numeric keypad.
Press 1 to move the arrow down, 4 to move the arrow to the left, and 6 to move the arrow to the right.
Use the 5 key to select something, and the Enter key to double-click and launch an item.
You know, now that you mention it, the mouse can be inconvenient sometimes.
Have any other keyboard tips I can use?
Are we talking about a regular keyboard or the Microsoft Natural Keyboard?
Let's start with regular and work our way up.
Okay, there are a lot of fun, quick tips you might not know about on your keyboard, like this one.
If you hold down the Control and the Escape key at the same time, it opens up the Start menu.
Now, by entering the first letter of an item, Windows 95 automatically launches that program
or opens that menu item.
If I press the letter D, it opens my Documents menu.
If some items have the same first letter, like Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, and My Computer,
Windows 95 will cycle you through them by pressing the letter, in this case M,
and then you need to press Enter to launch the program.
When you have some programs open, there are a couple of keyboard shortcuts
that you can use to switch quickly between them.
First, there's the Alt-Tab combination.
When you have more than one application running, hold down the Alt key and then press the Tab key,
and this will pop up a dialog box listing all the programs that you have open.
Continue holding the Alt key and then tap the Tab key,
and it will cycle you through all of your open programs.
When you get to the one that you want to switch to, just let go of the Alt and the Tab keys,
and it brings it right up.
You can also rotate through the open programs and applications on the taskbar
holding down the Alt key and then pressing the Escape key.
Now, this will switch you between each of the open programs and windows on the taskbar.
Now, if the program or window is maximized, it will bring it to the foreground,
and if a window is minimized on the taskbar, such as My Computer,
it will just select that button.
To maximize it, you have to press the Enter key.
In My Computer, there are a couple keyboard tricks to show you as well.
Let's say I'd like to delete all the files in this folder.
Well, I could select them by clicking on the first item,
holding down the Shift key, and then clicking on the last item.
But an easier way to select all the files in the folder is to press Control
and the letter A for all the files.
Now that I have all the files selected, to delete them,
I can just press the Delete key and send them to the recycle bin.
But what if I know I want to delete these files for good?
I don't want them to take up any more hard disk space.
Well, to permanently delete these files from my hard disk,
hold down the Shift key and then press Delete.
This will not send the files to your recycle bin.
Instead, it will remove them from your hard disk.
Another thing you may want to do while you're working with your files
is to get to the Explorer view.
You can always get to the Explorer by right mouse clicking on My Computer
or on any file or folder, and then choose Explorer.
But another way to get to the Explorer view is to hold down the Shift key
and then double click on any file or folder.
By doing so, it takes us right to the Explorer,
highlighting the location that we were just clicking on.
Now, what about those function keys at the top of my keyboard?
Does Windows 95 use any of those as shortcuts?
Definitely. There are three keys that I find to be most useful.
F1, as many of you know from the Windows 3.1 days,
brings up the Windows Online Help.
This works in Windows and in all your Windows programs.
F2 allows you to rename a file, folder, or an icon,
as we did earlier with My Computer and the Network Neighborhood.
Finally, F3 automatically brings up the Find dialog box
so you can quickly find a file.
Now, let's quickly review those keyboard shortcuts.
Control and Escape at the same time brings up your Start menu.
Entering the first letter of the item on the Start menu
selects that program or opens the corresponding menu.
Alt plus Tab brings up a list of your open programs in Windows
and tapping on the Tab key cycles you through them.
Alt plus Escape cycles you through the buttons on your task bar
and if the program is opened as a window,
it brings it to the foreground.
Control plus A selects all the files in a folder.
Holding down the Shift key as you delete an item
it's gone for good, no recycle bin.
Holding down the Shift key while double-clicking on My Computer
or any file or folder launches the Explorer view.
And the three function keys used most often are F1 for help,
F2 to rename a file, folder, or icon,
and F3 to launch the Find option.
That's a lot of information.
But remember, we outline all of these keyboard shortcuts
in the quick reference guide that came with your video.
Wait, we almost forgot about my favorite keyboard,
the Microsoft Natural Keyboard, and how it works with Windows 95.
If you have a Microsoft Natural Keyboard,
you'll notice there are a couple of keys available on it
specifically for Windows 95.
The key that has the Windows flag symbol on it
brings up the Start menu automatically.
The key with the picture of the menu on it
is the same thing as a right mouse click.
With the Windows 95 flag, you can quickly do a number of tasks.
For example, to get to the Run dialog box,
press the Windows flag and press R.
To minimize all the windows that are open on the desktop,
hold down the Windows flag and then the letter M.
And to undo the Minimize All so your desktop looks the same as before,
press the Shift key, then the Windows flag, and then the letter M.
To start the Explorer, just press the Windows flag and the letter E.
And finally, to get to the Find dialog,
press the Windows flag plus the letter F.
Well, now that we've covered that, we can...
Hey, what's going on?
I'd say Keith's monitor needs a little troubleshooting.
Speaking of troubleshooting, isn't that our next topic?
Well, that's really up to you software guys.
But if you'll join us right here after a tiny break,
we'll all find out together.
Welcome back.
As you've seen so far, there are a lot of great tips, tricks,
and shortcuts in Windows 95.
But no operating system is perfect.
It needs to be fine-tuned in order to work correctly,
and sooner or later, you may have to do some troubleshooting.
When that time comes, you couldn't ask for a better pair of troubleshooters
to draw from than the software guys.
We could take the time to take you through all the specific problems
you may run into, but that would get pretty boring pretty fast.
Instead, we're going to show you a methodology for troubleshooting
so you'll know how to approach a problem if you run into one.
The troubleshooting methodology we're going to lay out for you
is a five-step process.
Figure out which part of the computer is giving you problems.
Make sure all the wires are connected
and the right software drivers are installed.
Look in the online help troubleshooting section for advice on your problem.
Check Microsoft's Windows 95 support forums
on either the Microsoft network or up on the Internet.
And if you still can't figure out what the problem is,
call the technical support line at Microsoft or at your computer manufacturer.
So let's go through this in more detail.
Your first step is to identify specifically where the problem is.
Is it a hardware problem or a software problem?
If you're unable to print, is it something to do with the printer?
Is it a problem with the program you're trying to print from?
Or is it a problem with Windows 95?
Sometimes this is obvious, like if your printer's not turned on,
and believe it or not, that's a common printing problem people run into.
To find out if it's a problem with your program,
try using a different program and see if you still have the same problem.
Next, if you think it could be a hardware problem,
check all the wires and make sure they're plugged in firmly into the right spots.
And make sure everything is turned on and in the right mode.
Now if you still have a problem,
you'll need to make sure that the right drivers are installed.
A driver is a piece of software that Windows needs
in order to communicate with each piece of hardware that's connected to your PC.
So for example, if you have an XYZ brand piece of hardware,
you'll need to have an XYZ brand software driver.
Sometimes a driver has a known problem,
and the company that makes this will create a new version that you'll need to install.
Now you can usually find the new driver by connecting to that company's internet site,
or if you don't have a modem, you can call their technical support line
and ask them to send you a disk.
Another easy way to check to see if you have a hardware problem
is in the System Properties dialog box under the Device Manager tab.
To get there, right mouse click on My Computer and choose Properties.
Then choose the Device Manager tab.
This will show you all the items connected to your system.
If an item has a yellow exclamation point or a red X through it,
you should select it and choose Properties.
This will give you a message of what exactly is wrong with that specific device.
First of all, let me just say that if you have any trouble with Windows 95,
the online help has been really improved.
Just press F1 in any dialog box and help will instantly appear on that topic.
Or, click the Start button and choose Help.
Choose the Contents tab, and then either double click on Troubleshooting from the list,
or click once on Troubleshooting and choose Open.
Here we see a list of the problems that you may have.
So if we double click on If You Have Trouble Printing,
notice that a box pops up that will step you through troubleshooting your problem.
If the online help doesn't solve your problem,
the next step is to connect to the Microsoft network
and look in the Windows 95 Support Forum.
Here you'll find something called the Knowledge Base.
This is a database of articles that describe how to solve specific problems.
You just type in the topic you'd like to search on, such as Windows 95 Printing,
and all the articles that have been written on that topic will appear.
Just double click on the article that sounds like your problem and read the steps.
If all else fails, you should give the Product Support Center a call.
These experts will be able to walk you through the steps to solve your problem.
Now, if you've purchased a new computer with Windows 95 installed on it,
you'll need to contact the computer manufacturer, not Microsoft, for support.
This may come in handy someday, so you can solve your own problems
and avoid the weight or cost of calling technical support.
So let's review the five-step process.
Figure out which part of the computer is giving you problems.
Make sure all the wires are connected and the right software drivers are installed.
Look in the Online Help Troubleshooting section for advice on checking your problem.
Check Microsoft Windows 95 Support Forum on the Microsoft Network or on the Internet.
If you still can't figure out what the problem is,
call the technical support line at Microsoft or your computer manufacturer.
Remember, the answers to your questions are only the push of a rewind button away.
Be sure to look for our other videos in this series,
Learn Windows 95 Getting Started, and Internet Email, Faxing, and more.
Until next time...
This is Tom Jaffe and Keith White.
And I'm Anne Christensen, wishing you the very best,
the magic that's waiting for you in Windows 95.
Thank you.
Thank you.