Tips and Tricks for Windows 95/98
Windows 95/98 Tips and Tricks



Welcome to my Windows95/98 Tips and Tricks page. In here I hope you will find something that will make your computer run a little smoother, or will just give you a chuckle. Come back often as I will be adding more tips and tricks every few days. All of the tips and tricks you see on this page came from other sites, or were submitted to me by readers just like you. If you would like to send me a tip for Windows 95/98 drop me a line at hunney@usa.net and include "Tips and Tricks" as the subject line. Thanks and enjoy.

Yep you are web surfer # to want to tweak, mess, change, mess-up, and just plain have fun with Windows


Windows 95 Easter Egg

Follow these steps in precise order, with exact spelling, puncuation, and capitalization:



Replacing the Startup, Shutdown, and Please wait screens

These files are 320x400 Windows Bitmap files (*.bmp), located in the Windows directory. They are named:

If you use Microsoft Plus!, the Logo.sys file is located in the directory of C:\ not in the Windows directory.

You can use Microsoft Paint, AdobePhotoshop, Paint Shop Pro or any other image editing programs to create your new screens. (Be sure to back up the originals or simply rename them). While editing, work at 534x400. Then, before saving, resize them, (do not crop) back to 320x400. After saving, rename them to *.sys. Move them into the Windows directory when finished.


Using *.BMP files as Icons

You can rename any *.BMP file to *.ICO, and then use it as an icon! Windows 95 resizes it to icon size, and changes it to 16 colors, but otherwise it works fine, except smaller.


Removing the Start Button

To remove the Start Button:

Note: To make the Start button reappear, restart Explorer or press Ctrl + Alt + Del, click on Explorer press End Task. When it asks if you want to shut down the computer, press No. Another screen should come up and you should click End Task.

Link to the page where I got these Tips and Tricks.


Getting Screen Shots

If you need to get a screen shot, and you do not have a screen capture program, try this:

Hit the Print Screen key. This copies a bitmap of the full screen into the Windows clipboard. Start up a graphics editor and paste it in.

Alt + Print Screen will capture only the active window.


Turn Off Window Animation

You can shut off the animation displayed when you minimize and maximize windows. This tip makes navigating Windows 95 a lot faster especially for those that don't have super fast video cards.
Be sure to back up your registery before attempting anything involving regedit, and registery changes.


    1.Open Regedit
    2.HKEY_CURRENT_USER
    3.Control panel
    4.Desktop
    5.WindowMetrics
    6.Right Mouse Click an empty space in the right pane.
    7.Select new/string value.
    8.Name the new value MinAnimate.
    9.Doubleclick on the new string value (MinAnimate) and click on "Modify"
    10.Enter a value of 0 for Off or 1 for On then hit
    11.Close Regedit and all programs then reboot.



To speed up the Start Menu


Be sure to back up your registery before attempting anything involving regedit, and registery changes.


    1.Start the REGEDIT program
    2.Search for the word desktop
    3.This should be in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT / CLSID / {00021400...
    4.Right Click on the right panel
    5.Pick NEW / String Value.
    6.Name it MenuShowDelay, all one word.
    7.Select a value from 1-10, 1 being the fastest.
    8.Exit REGEDIT
    9.Restart Windows



Backing up the Registry


Use CFGBACK.EXEon the Win 95 CD. It is in the /OTHER/MISC/CFGBACK directory. It will save up to 9 copies of the registry in*.rbk file format. You can restore any of these when necessary.


Fixing VMM32 Memory Leak

Over time, real-mode drivers which are added to VMM32, might not be releasing memory . To see if this is a problem on your system, run MEM /C /P and check the size allocated to VMM32. It should not be much more than 2K or at least not growing over time.

If it is:


    1.Rename both your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT file
    2.Reboot
    3.Rename them back again
    4.Reboot again
    5.Run MEM /C /P again to note any change in size.
Link to the page where I got these Tips and Tricks.


Additional icons can be found in:

    \WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE
    \WINDOWS\PROGMAN.EXE
    \WINDOWS\WINFILE.EXE
    \WINDOWS\MORICONS.DLL
    \WINDOWS\SYSTEM\PIFMGR.DLL
    \WINDOWS\SYSTEM\COOL.DLL
    \WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SHELL32.DLL


Fixing Corrupt Registry

If your registry has gotten corrupted, and re-installing Windows95 over your existing version does not fix the problem, there is a a hidden, read-only, system file on the root of your boot drive called SYSTEM.1ST. This is the initial system registry created when you first installed Windows95. To use this file:


    1.Go to your Windows directory
    2.Un-Attrib your current SYSTEM.DAT file (attrib -r -s -h system.dat)
    3.Copy your current SYSTEM.DAT to something like SYSTEM.BAD file (just in case)
    4.Move to your root directory
    5.Un-Attrib the SYSTEM.1ST file
    6.Copy SYSTEM.1ST to \WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT
    7.Re-start your system
You will need to install your 32-bit apps and any other programs or changes that modifyied your system registry but you will not need to go through a new again. Your 16-bit apps should not need to be re-installed since they do not modify the registry. You will also retain your current desktop configuration.

Link to the page where I got these Tips and Tricks.