If you're trying to free up some hard disk space or speed up your Windows startup, you may opt to remove some unused fonts from your system. Good idea, but whatever you do, don't try to find out how much space they all take up by opening the Control Panel's Fonts folder, selecting all the fonts inside, right-mouse-clicking the selection and choosing Properties. Doing so will not open a single Properties dialog box listing the total size of all the selected fonts, as you might expect. Instead, Windows will proceed to open a Properties dialog box for EVERY selected font (yikes), most likely resulting in a system crash. (Go ahead, try it and see. We dare ya.)
Instead, right-mouse-click the Fonts folder (inside the Control Panel or your Windows folder), and select Properties. The resulting dialog box will tell you the total size of all installed fonts.
In a previous tip we discussed compacting as a means of decreasing a folder size in Windows Messaging. A reader offers another way to decrease the size of a mail folder (for example, if your mailbox size is restricted): Save your messages as text files.
Select a group of messages, select File, Save As, navigate your way to the desired location of the file, name the file, and click Save. The result is a single *.txt file. (Note: This technique does NOT save attachments, so you'll need to save them in another location. Just be sure to change the attachment reference in the *.txt file to match your new storage location.)
If you use a dual boot computer, one that runs both Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows 95, you may be using up a lot of disk space needlessly for your temporary Internet files. This happens because Microsoft Internet Explorer will set up two identical caches: one in \Windows, and one in \Winnt. When you delete the cache files (choose View, Options, click Advanced, click Settings, and then click Empty Folder), both caches are deleted.
If you'd rather get rid of this redundant disk usage, boot to Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and then run Microsoft Internet Explorer. Choose View, Options and click the Advanced tab. Click Settings and then click Move Folder. Select \Windows\Temp (the default for Windows 95) as the folder for the Internet files and click OK. Close the Options dialog box and then close Internet Explorer.
From now on, Microsoft Internet Explorer will use the same cache folder for both operating systems.
eVER HIT THE caps lock KEY BY MISTAKE? Load the Kernal Toy's Remap tool for Microsoft at www.microsoft.com/windows/software/krnltoy.htm, then select KEYBOARD in Win 95's Control Panel, reprogram the key to be another key, and that particular annoyance goes away.
Want to see your system's right-at-this-very-second memory usage? Click Start, choose Run, type 'mem' (no quotes), and click OK. Note: If you get an error message, you may need to type the entire path-- most likely C:\Windows\Command\mem.
In another tip, we showed you a way to make your windows settings stick. Here's another. By now, you may have heard of the Microsoft Power Toy Tweak UI. Among other things, this gem lets you save your Windows settings. On the Explorer tab, select the Save Settings option, and any changes you make to a window's settings will be saved. Get your copy of Tweak UI (file date 6/17/96) at the Microsoft site,
"http://www.microsoft.com/windows/software/powertoy.htm"
For Win 98, it's on the CD).