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Tips & Tricks

Finding Disk Utilities

Platform: Windows 95/98/NT Right-click a drive in My Computer and select Properties. The Tools tab offers the following disk tools: Scandisk, Backup and Defrag, which can be used to optimize your system and protect your data.

Freeing Up Disk Space

Platform: Windows 95/98/NT to free up disk space, try emptying the Recycle Bin.

The following 4 tools listed below are ones that I have used and am comfortable with. You can substitute other tools in their places if you have them handy and/or have your own preferences. By and large it's more important to be up-to-date than to stick with brand names. The best spyware/adware or antivirus scanner is of no use if it's not the latest version and fully updated.

AdAware - http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
Get the 6.181 version of AdAware, and also get the latest signature files for that version from their download section.
(Yep, I know there's a newer version of AdAware, but as of this date it's still rather early-on in its development and deployment cycle.)

Spybot Search&Destroy - http://www.spybot.info/
Get the latest version along with the latest signatures. 
(Personally I do not recommend Spybot for the first-time user as it will want to remove items that I don't think it should be removing, and its advanced features can cause problems that are tricky to solve if you don't know how to reverse the changes it makes. But if you prefer it and are comfortable with it, then by all means go ahead.)

McAfee Stinger - http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/
Get the latest version to remove the most common worms and viruses.

SpywareBlaster - http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
You'll need to download the latest version and install it, then download the updates for it.

Add/Remove Entries

Platform: Windows 98/NT this explains how to remove those annoying entries in the Add/Remove programs list. I commonly delete the folder from the directory and I am left with a non-removable entry in the Add/Remove programs list. 1. From the Start button, run Regedit 2. Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE 3. Select Software 4. Select Microsoft 5. Select Windows 6. Select Current Version 7. Select UninstallThis will give you a list of all the programs in your Add/Remove programs list. Highlight the file and select delete. This will remove the entry from the list.

Applications that refuse to go away

Platform: Windows 95 Have you got a list of applications in your add/remove applications lists that are no longer on your system but refuse to go away? Yes, well the easiest way to get rid of these items is to manually delete them through regedit. This is how you do it. Start regedit and click on the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key and drill through the following keys SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS?Current version/Uninstall.Now locate the offending applications and just delete them. The offending applications should no longer appear in the add/remove programs list.

Avoiding the Startup Programs

Platform: Windows 98/NT hold down the CTRL key while entering Windows. This will keep items in the Startup folder from launching.

Changing the Registered Username and Company

Platform: Windows 98/NT click start then run. Type in REGEDIT and press enter double click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE then SOFTWARE then MICROSOFT then WINDOWS. Double-click the REGISTERED OWNER or REGISTERED ORGINIZATION key and type in a new name. Click OK and check by double-clicking system in the control panel.

Changing Time and Date

Platform: Windows 98/NT to change your systems time and date, simply double-click the clock in your task bar.

Making the Modem Dial Faster

Platform: Windows 98/NT If you would like your modem to dial your ISP Faster Do the Following: double-click on the Modems item in the Control Panel and then click on the properties button. Open the Connections tab and click on the advanced button. Enter s11=50 in the extra settings field. 50 (milliseconds) is the new speed, the lower the faster, some modems may not go that fast, but if you enter a number too low it will use the default fastest setting.

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