Welcome to the Unpublished Tips Corner of MicroMetric's TipSheet, the monthly newsletter targeted at addressing the needs of our customers. Since we are constantly collecting more tips than we have room for in the published TipSheet, we have opened this area for the one's that haven't been used yet. As they are published, the tip number will change from the unpublished one used here to the sequential published one. These unpublished tips have been gathered in groups of no more than 100, for ease of viewing.
Want to convert one of your old Windows 3.x program groups into a Start menu folder (assuming you've installed Windows 95 over Windows 3.x, and haven't deleted all those old files)? Click Start, choose Run, type 'GRPCONV /M' and click OK. In the resulting dialog box, choose the group you want to convert, click Open, and Windows 95 makes the conversion. To check your work, click Start, choose Programs, and there's your old group, Windows 95-style!
You know that little white box with the arrow in it on every shortcut? Have you ever noticed that when you start dragging icons around, the contents of that box change, disappear, or even appear on regular (non-shortcut) icons? Pay attention. They're telling you exactly what's going on with that icon. While you're dragging an icon, an arrow inside the white box means it will become a shortcut when you drop it. A plus sign (+) means you're copying the icon. And if you see nothing at all--no plus sign, no arrow--that means you're moving the icon. So the next time you forget whether holding down Shift copies or moves an icon, or whether clicking and dragging a file copies or moves that file, just look for the box. It's a dead giveaway.
Do you have Microsoft Plus? Would you like to be able to use one of its Desktop Theme's sound schemes without the rest of the scheme? First, open the theme whose sound scheme you'd like to save: In the Control Panel, choose Desktop Themes, select a Theme from the drop-down list, and click OK. Now save the current sound scheme under the name of your choice: Click Sounds in the Control Panel, click the Save As button, and give the scheme a name. Click OK, and the scheme's been saved. You won't be needing that Desktop Theme any longer, so go back to the Desktop Themes dialog box and switch back to the theme you'd rather use (or none at all). Ready for that scheme? Open the Sounds dialog box, select the newly named scheme in the list (and choose whether you want to save the one that was previously active), and click OK.
Want more text on a single line of your icon titles, both on the Desktop and in folders? So titles such as The Microsoft Network and Netscape Navigator will appear all on one line? You can determine whether shortcut titles wrap to the next line or fall all on one line by working with the horizontal icon spacing. Click the Desktop with the right mouse button, choose Properties, click the Appearance tab, and select Icon Spacing (Horizontal) under Item. Now click the up arrow next to Size until the number looks good to you. How about 90? Or 100? If you aren't sure, click Apply, and check out the effect on the Desktop. The bigger the number, the more text Windows allows on each line of an icon's title. When you find a setting you like, click OK to set it. (Tip: It's easier to see the effect this setting has on your Desktop icons if Auto Arrange is on--click the Desktop with the right mouse button, choose Arrange, and select Auto Arrange).
To restart Windows 95 without re-booting, click on StartButton, Shutdown. Hold down Shift and click on double click on Restart Computer. Continue holding Shift until the message 'Restarting Windows...' is displayed.
If you do a lot of Registry tweaking, back it up to protect yourself in the event of a mistake. You can make full or partial backups of the Registry from inside the Registry Editor. The backup is stored as a.REG file in the location of your choice--a folder on your hard drive, on a network drive, or on a floppy disk (if the file's small enough). To back up the entire Registry, open the Registry Editor: Click Start, choose Run, type 'regedit' (without the quotes), and click OK. Pull down the Registry menu and choose Export Registry File. Type in a File name for the backup you're about to create (you don't have to fill in the REG extension), then navigate your way to the folder where you'd like to store the backup (a full backup usually won't fit on a floppy disk--for example, our backup was 1.91M bytes large). Finally, make sure All is selected under Export range, click Save, and wait as the REG file is created. If you're working on only a small area within the Registry, you can back up just that part. With the Registry Editor open, navigate your way to the branch you'd like to back up. (A branch is a key, or entry, in the Registry, and all of its contents.) With the key at the top of the branch highlighted, choose Export Registry File from the Registry menu. In the resulting dialog box, you'll see the highlighted branch listed under Selected branch. Now just follow the same steps as before to create a full backup--name the REG file, navigate your way to the location where you'd like it stored, and click Save. In our next tip, we'll show you how to restore REG files to the Registry.
In our last tip, we showed you how to create full or partial backups (REG files) of the Registry. In the Registry Editor, choose Export Registry File under the Registry menu, then fill in the resulting dialog box (give the file a name and location), and click OK. Just make a mistake during some Registry editing? No problem. Restoring, or importing, a REG file is just as easy as creating one. In the Registry Editor, choose Import Registry File under the Registry menu, then navigate your way to the REG file you have in mind. Select the file, click Open, then wait a few minutes while the Registry refreshes itself. When it finishes, you'll get a message telling you the operation's been a success. (Tip in a Tip: You can also import a REG file without setting foot in the Registry Editor. Just double-click the REG file icon, or click it with the right mouse button and choose Merge.) Oh, one last thing. If you'd like to be able to see the contents of a REG file when you double-click it (to edit it, if you're into that kind of thing) simply change it's extension to.TXT. Then double-clicking the file opens it in Word Pad. Of course, before restoring that file's contents to the Registry, you'll need to change the extension back to.REG.
You know that to tweak the Registry, you have to go into the Registry Editor, but have you ever wondered exactly where the Registry is stored on your computer? It's actually split up into two files, SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT. Windows 95 creates backups of these files--SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0--every time you start Windows 95 successfully. (That's a zero, not the letter O, on the end of that extension.) To prove the existence of these files, fire up Find (hit F3), click Browse, navigate your way to the Windows folder, and click OK. On the 'Files named' line, enter *.DA*. Click Find Now, and you'll see all four files, among others. (If you don't see them, open any Windows 95 window, choose Options under View, click the View tab, select Show all files, and click OK. Now go back to the Find dialog box, and you'll be
(ADVANCED USERS ONLY) In our last tip, we told you that the Registry is stored in two files (SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT) on your system, and that Windows 95 keeps backups of these files (SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0) around and up-to-date. In the event of an emergency, you can replace the Registry files with these backups. The first thing you'll need to do is get to a DOS prompt. Turn your computer off and then back on. When you see the 'Starting Windows 95' message, press F8 and choose the Command Prompt Only option from the Startup menu. Type 'cd windows' (without the quote marks) to get to the Windows directory. The idea is to copy the.DA0 files over the.DAT files. Problem is, these files all have hidden, read-only, and system attributes attached to them (which means DOS won't let you mess with them). To remove these attributes from the SYSTEM.DAT file, type the following at the DOS prompt and hit Enter: attrib -h -r -s system.dat Follow these same steps to remove the attributes from the remaining three files (using a command line identical to the one above, with the proper file name inserted at the end). Once all the attributes are removed, copy the SYSTEM.DA0 file over the SYSTEM.DAT file and the USER.DA0 file over the USER.DAT file, with the following commands (hitting Enter after each): copy system.da0 system.dat [NEWLINE] copy user.da0 user.dat [NEWLINE] Turn your computer off, then turn it back on, and the Registry files will have been successfully replaced. Whew!
What's more important when you print a document: Having the printed copy in your hand sooner, or getting back to work as quickly as possible? If you answered 'printed copy,' then it's time to change your printer's habits. As long as your printer isn't shared, you can tell Windows 95 to send your document directly to the printer, avoiding the first spooling process (by default, it sends the print job to your hard drive first in order to free up your program sooner). Changing this option will keep you locked out of your program longer while the document prints, but that's the trade-off. You'll have your printed document in hand much faster. Open your Printers folder (choose Start, Settings, and then Printers), click your printer with the right mouse button, and choose Properties. Select the Details tab, click the Spool Settings button, and in the resulting dialog box, choose the last option, Print directly to the printer. (Note: Doing so will prevent you from being able to pause a job, as you could previously.) Click OK, try printing something, and watch your printer get right to business. Who wants to get back to work faster anyway?
Got nothing to do? Dying to see the names of all the people that were part of the Windows 95 Product Team? Then follow these steps: 1. Create a folder on your desktop called 'and now, the moment you've all been waiting for' 2. Rename this folder 'we proudly present for your viewing pleasure' 3. Rename the same folder 'The Microsoft Windows 95 Product Team!' Type everything verbatim, including the caps and exclamation point in step 3 (and not including the quotation marks in any of the steps--those are for your reference). When you're done, double-click the folder. Flying names, background music, people with too much time on their hands!
Is there a shortcut buried a few layers into your Start Menu that you use fairly frequently but not enough to add to your Desktop? Take all those System Tools, for instance. Way too many clicks to get to them, if you ask us. For a much shorter route, set up a hot key to that Start Menu shortcut. From then on, you'll be able to access that program with the press of a keyboard combination. Click the Start Menu with the right mouse button and choose Open to display its contents. Navigate your way to the program to which you'd like hot-key access, click its shortcut with the right mouse button (it has to be a shortcut, not a folder), and choose Properties. Select the Shortcut tab, click anywhere on the Shortcut key line to place your cursor after the word None, and finally, type a letter that you'd like to be used in combination with Ctrl+Alt to access that program (such as D for Disk Defragmenter). When you do, the entire hot-key combination will appear on that line. Click OK, and from now on, pressing that keyboard combo will open the program.
Ever wish you could remove an item from your New list--the one you see when you click the Desktop with the right mouse button and choose New? You can, by editing the Registry. (As with all Registry tips, we recommend backing up the Registry before making any changes, in case you make a mistake.) Open the Registry Editor (click Start|Run, type in regedit and click OK), double-click HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT to expand it, and scroll down to the extension associated with the file type you'd like to remove from the New list. With this extension selected, hit the asterisk (*) key on your numeric keypad to display its contents, and you'll see that it contains a ShellNew key. Click ShellNew with the right mouse button, choose Delete, and click OK to confirm. Right-mouse click on the Desktop or in any folder window, choose New, and you'll see that the item is erased from the list. Later!
In a previous tip, we showed you that you could remove an item from the New list: In the Registry Editor, find the extension associated with the file type under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and delete its ShellNew key. As you might expect, you can add items to the New list by adding some settings to the Registry. This process is fairly involved, so we recommend it for advanced Registry users only. (Also, we take no responsibility for incorrect settings!) It's a two-step deal, so we'll show you the first part here, and the second part in our next tip. The first step is to create a blank file of the type you'd like to add to the New list and save it in the C:\Windows\ShellNew folder. Open the application whose file type you'd like to add to the list, and with a blank file open, choose Save As under the File menu. Give the file any name you'd like (with the proper extension, of course), navigate your way to the C:\Windows\ShellNew folder, and click OK. (If you can't access the ShellNew folder from the application's Save As dialog box, save the file in the Windows folder, and then move it to the ShellNew folder using Explorer.) Close the open application. Now for the second step: Adding a ShellNew key to the file type's key in the Registry. In the Registry Editor (click Start|Run, type in regedit and click OK), double-click HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, scroll down to the extension associated with the type you'd like to add to the New list, and select it. Click it with the right mouse button, select New, then select Key in the pop-out menu. Name the new key 'ShellNew.' Click ShellNew with the right mouse button, choose New, select String Value in the pop-out menu, and name the new value 'FileName.' Double-click FileName, and on its Value data line, enter the name of the file that you saved in the Windows\ShellNew folder (from yesterday's tip). Click OK, and you'll see this name in quotes under the Data column. Mission accomplished. Close the Registry Editor and go check out your new list!
Want to replace the Windows 95 startup and shut down logo screens? You can take any 640-by-480 bitmap file and use it as Windows' cloud-covered startup or shut-down screen or the one that says 'It is now safe to turn off your computer.' Currently, Windows 95 uses the logo.sys (on your hard drive), logow.sys and logos.sys (both in the Windows folder) files, respectively, but if you open your bitmap file in Paint and save it under one of these names, Windows 95 will use yours instead. There are two very important tricks to this: One, the bitmap files have to be 256 Color Bitmap; and, two, you have to shrink your 640-by-480 bitmaps to 320 by 400 for Windows 95 to use them. (Windows takes a 320-by-400 file and stretches it to 640 by 480 for each of these three screens. Strange, but that's the way it works.) Before you go replacing the old ones, though, you'll want to save them under different names, in case you want them in the future. Launch Paint (it's under Accessories), then choose Open under File and select All Files under 'Files of type.' Now open each of the three files (remember, LOGO.SYS is on your hard drive, and the other two are in the Windows folder) and rename them. (If you don't see them in Paint's Open dialog box, from any window on the desktop, choose Options under View, and on the View tab, select Show all files.) For example, in the root directory, select LOGO.SYS, choose Save As under File, and name it LOGO2.SYS (or whatever helps you remember it, just as long as it's different than the original name). Click OK, move on to LOGOW.SYS in the Windows folder, and then rename the LOGOS.SYS file. Now for the tedious part. To get your image(s) to the size that Windows wants--320 by 400 pixels--launch Paint and open one of the 640-by-480 images. Choose Stretch/Skew under Image. Select Horizontal, change the percentage to 50, and choose OK. You're halfway there. Open the Stretch/Skew dialog box again, but this time, select Vertical. To change the height from 480 to 400 pixels, you have to make two changes: set the Vertical stretch to 104 and choose OK, then go back to the same dialog box and set it to 80. Choose OK, and there's your resized image, now 320 by 400 pixels. Check in the Attributes dialog box (under Image) to prove it. (By the way, you can't just change the attributes here and expect your bitmap to shrink. Nice try.) Repeat these steps for each bitmap you want to use, and don't forget to save your file(s). Now for the easy part: saving each file under the right name, as the right type. Open each 320-by-400-pixel file in Paint, pull down the File menu, chose Save As, and type in the name of the screen for which you'd like to use this image--LOGO.SYS for the startup screen, LOGOW.SYS for the cloud screen you see at shutdown, or LOGOS.SYS for the 'It is now safe to turn off your computer' screen. Then, under 'Save as type,' select 256 Color Bitmap (if it isn't already selected). Click OK, and your bitmap is officially saved as one of the Windows 95 logo screens. If you'd like, repeat the same steps (saving them under each of the three logo names, of course) for up to three different bitmap files. That's it. Now let's see if they work. Ready (you did use the correct file names, right?) Get set (as long as the bitmaps are the correct size and type, there's no reason this won't work)...shut down your system. You'll see the file you saved as LOGOW.SYS first, then the LOGOS.SYS screen, to let you know you can safely turn off your computer. Now give your keyboard the ol' Ctrl+Alt+Delete to restart your system, wait a few minutes, and--there's that new LOGO.SYS file! Beats those clouds any day, doesn't it? Now, a trick or two for odd-sized bitmaps. The question is, if you have bitmaps that aren't 640 by 480 pixels, can you use them anyway? Of course! You could always figure out the math to size it to 320 by 400, but an easier way is to make the bitmap as close as you can to 320 by 400, then put a frame around it to make it exact. With your image displayed in Paint (already sized to just under 320 by 400), choose Attributes under Image and change the Width and Height to 320 and 400, respectively. Click OK, and your image, plus the white space that appears, is now a 320-by-400-pixel image. To center the image, choose Select All under Edit, and one at a time, click and drag each frame edge by the handle (using the double-pointed arrow) in to the edge of the original image. Once the original image is framed, use the four-pointed arrow to click and drag it anywhere you want within the white area. Now save the file under one of the logo screen names we discussed in the past four tips (as a 256-Color Bitmap, of course), and you're all set. You'll see the frame when the screen appears, but who cares? You get the picture!
Tired of bland graphics? Windows 95 offers a variety of color palettes, all just waiting to make your graphics look as glorious--or as simple--as you wish. But before you dive into changing your palette, you should know something about how Windows 95 works with colors and how the palettes differ from one another. Briefly, the fewer colors Windows is set to use, the faster it---and your video card---can get the images to your screen. Also, fewer colors mean less video memory is needed to display them all. (Video memory, or VRAM, is the memory that's built into your system's video = card.) There are four standard color palette settings: 16 Color, 256 Color, High Color, and True Color. The 16 Color palette is color in its simplest form, allowing Windows only 16 colors with which to display any and everything. This palette is a resource saver, and it allows the fastest video speed. However, it is obviously the most limited in terms of displaying your graphics. In a future tip, the remaining three color palettes.
In a previous tip, we told you that Windows 95 offers four color palettes (depending on your system), the first of which is 16 Color.This palette doesn't offer many colors with which to display graphics, but the good news is it doesn't hog system resources. Next in line is 256 Color, which gives Windows 256 colors to work with, resulting in a better display of your graphics. 256 Color means greater video memory, or VRAM, usage and slower video speed compared to its 16 Color cohort but not enough to make a significant difference. This is why 256 Color is the most popular setting. The High Color palette allows Windows 95 over 65,000 colors to display images. Unless you have loads of VRAM, though, the High Color palette can slow your video display significantly. If you're big on true-to-life graphics, it's worth the sacrifice; if it's efficiency you're looking for, stick to the lower-color settings. Finally, there's True Color, which allows for somewhere around 16.8 million colors. The thing is, what you see on screen doesn't look that much different from High Color (at least, not to the untrained eye), so unless you're really into graphics---meaning you work with them for a living or you're playing around with photographs---there's no need to waste your system resources (not to mention your time) with this setting. In a future tip, we'll show you how to change your color palette setting.
Your resolution setting determines how many pixels (dots of color,really) are displayed on your screen. So, for example, a resolution of 640 by 480 means that there are 640 pixels across the screen and 480 going down. The higher the resolution setting (the more pixels), the more items you can fit on your screen, because these items appear smaller. Take a window that's 300 by 200 pixels. Three hundred is close to half of a 640-pixel-wide screen, but more like a third of an 800-pixel-wide screen. Higher resolution equals greater desktop real estate. To adjust your screen resolution, open the Display Properties dialog box to the Settings tab, and move the lever under Desktop one way or the other to select an option (these options will vary depending on your system). Click Apply; click OK to go ahead with the change; and finally, click Yes if you like what you see. (If not, click No, and you're back where you started.)
In a previous tip, we showed you how to change your screen resolution---simply adjust the lever under Desktop on the Settings tab of the Display Properties dialog box. In the tip before that, we told you that you can change your color palette setting in the same dialog box, by choosing an option under Color palette. Now let's look at the relationship between resolution and color palette settings. Screen resolution can limit your Windows 95 color palette selection and vice versa. High resolution or color palette settings use up more video memory (VRAM), leaving less left over to deal with color or resolution. Windows knows what combinations of color and resolution your system's VRAM can and can't handle and will adjust accordingly. For example, at the lowest resolution, you may be able to choose from four different color palettes, but at your monitor's highest allowable resolution, you may only be able to choose 16 or 256 Color. (Just because you see other, more complex, color palette options in the list, doesn't mean they're fair game. On our system, you can choose the True Color and High Color palettes, even with the highest resolution selected, but doing so bounces the resolution back down to a lower number---all the way to 640 by 480, for True Color. Gotcha!) The only people out there who can mess with deluxe color palettes while using a high resolution setting are those with a hyper-deluxe system. Lots of VRAM, a state-of-the-art monitor---the works.
Having trouble printing? The Enhanced Printer Troubleshooter may be able to help. Pop your Windows 95 installation CD into your CD-ROM drive, navigate your way to D:\Other\Misc\Epts, and double-click the Epts.exe file. Just answer the questions as it asks them, and, most likely, you'll get to the bottom of your problem.
There's a new version of Windows 95 called OEM Service Release 2 (or OSR2). But it isn't available in stores, and you can't download it off the Internet. As the OEM (or Original Equipment Manufacturer) portion of the name implies, this version of Windows 95 has been made available to PC manufacturers only. In other words, the only way to get your hands on it is to purchase a new PC on which Windows 95 OSR2 is already loaded. OSR2 is Windows 95 as you know it with some enhancements to support the latest hardware. According to Microsoft, that's the whole purpose of OSR2: 'to allow PC manufacturers [OEMs] to install an integrated Windows 95 product that contains the latest available individual updates and supports recent advances in hardware that require core operating system support.' Basically, they're giving PC manufacturers a version of Windows 95 that will work with their latest and greatest hardware. Unless you're buying this new hardware, you probably don't need OSR2 anyway (so it's no big deal that you can't get it). Feel better?
You can display or hide that little yellow speaker in the Taskbar's tray any time you want. To remove it, click it with the right mouse button, choose Adjust Audio Properties, and, in the Audio Properties dialog box, deselect Show volume control on the Taskbar. Click OK, and it's gone-zo. To get it back, open the Control Panel, and double-click Multimedia. On the Audio tab of the Multimedia Properties dialog box, select that same option and click OK.
When you click the Start button and choose Programs, there's about a half-second delay before you see Programs submenu folder. This also applies to selecting any Start menu item that displays a submenu. You can change this delay to anything you want, right down to no delay at all. All it takes is a quick trip to the Registry Editor. (As always, back the Registry up first.) Open the Registry Editor (click Start|Run, enter Regedit and click OK) and navigate your way to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Right-mouse click anywhere in the right pane, choose New, and select String Value in the popup menu. Name the new value MenuShowDelay. Right-mouse click this new value, choose Modify, and in the Edit String dialog box, enter a number as close to zero as you dare (to indicate the delay in milliseconds). Enter any number you want, even 0. (The default is 400, which accounts for the almost half-second delay.) Click OK and close the Registry Editor. Restart Windows 95, then click Start and select some folders to see your change. (If things are moving too fast or too slow, go back to the Registry Editor and change the setting to a higher or lower number. If it's too low, you'll find that unwanted menus pop out and block what's under them.)
Did you know you can set up templates in WordPad? It doesn't come with the built-in tools to do so, like other word processors have, but you can improvise a little. Just set up a file type for WordPad templates and associate this type with WordPad. From then on, double-clicking a file with this extension (i.e., a template you've designed) will open the file in WordPad where it will work just like one of those fancy word processor templates. To create the new file type, in any Windows 95 window, choose Options under View, and select the File Types tab. Click the New Type button, and in the resulting dialog box, type a description and the extension you'd like to use to represent the WordPad template file type. (We chose. TEM, but you can use anything you want. Just don't use an extension that's already associated with another file type.) Don't click OK yet. Now to add an action to the file type. Click New, and in the New Action dialog box, type the word Open on the Action line, then enter, in quotes, the path for WordPad's.EXE file on the Application used to perform action line. Click OK, then click Close twice to get out of those dialog boxes. Your file type's all set. Ready to use the new file type? Open WordPad, and design a template. (You know, the basic framework for a document type you produce frequently.) When you're done, choose File|Save, give your template a name with the new extension, and click Save. Your template is complete. (You may want to set up a folder in which to store all your WordPad templates. Just make sure the folder name doesn't include spaces or WordPad won't see it.) Whenever you want to use the template, double-click it (assuming WordPad isn't already open), and it'll open in a WordPad window. As with any template, complete the document, and save it under any name you'd like, with a .DOC, .TXT, or .RTF extension. Tip: To ensure that you don't save changes to a template (overwriting the original), mark it read-only. Click the template icon with the right mouse button, choose Properties, select Read-only in the Attributes section, and click OK. Now if you try to save a file under the same name as the template, you'll get an error message.
If you're having trouble double-clicking (in other words, if you feel you have to click too fast to get the double-click result), Windows 95 lets you adjust this setting. From the Start menu, open the Control Panel, double-click the Mouse icon, and, on the Buttons tab, move the lever under 'Double-click speed' closer to Slow. To test the new speed, double-click the jack-in-the-box in the Test area using the speed at which you're comfortable. If Jack appears, click OK to save your changes. If not, adjust the lever until he does.
If you've set up user profiles in the past but have since gone back to the 'All users of this machine use the same preferences and desktop settings' option, you probably find it annoying that the log-in dialog box still appears every time you start Windows 95. Fortunately, you can get rid of it. All you have to do is change the current password to no password. Select Start|Settings|Control Panel, double-click the Passwords icons, and on the Change Passwords tab click the Change Windows Password button. On the Old Password line, enter the current password, then press Tab to move down to the New Password line, and press Enter. That's it. You'll see a dialog box telling you your password has been successfully changed. That Welcome to Windows 95 log-in dialog box won't bother you again.
Did you just send a whole bunch of documents to your non-network printer, and now you'd like to cancel one of them? You can cancel a print job from your printer queue, which is the list of everything printing or waiting to be printed. (Note: Sometimes, you can control the activity of a network printer from the queue, but it depends on the individual setup.) Choose Start|Settings|Printers, and double-click your printer's icon to open the queue. Right-click the document whose printing you'd like to cancel and choose Cancel Printing. Poof! The document disappears from the list. If it was in the process of printing, choosing this command stops it in its tracks. If hadn't started printing yet, well, it never will.
If you can print to multiple printers from your Windows 95 system, you can set any one of them as your default printer. Choose Start|Settings|Printers to open the Printers dialog box. Right-click the printer you have in mind for the job and choose 'Set As Default.'
If you've got the Auto Arrange option set for your desktop, good luck trying to move icons around. Drag-and-drop all you want--those icons will snap right back to the left side of the screen in perfect formation when you let go. For complete freedom of icon movement, click the desktop with the right mouse button, choose Arrange Icons and deselect Auto Arrange. You can still have all your icons in neat, perfectly spaced rows. Once you've got everything approximately where you want it, click the desktop with the right mouse button and choose Line up Icons. (Tip: This command works best if you line up the icons close to their desired arrangement by hand first.)
Windows 95 has a United States-International keyboard that adds new characters to many of the keys on your keyboard. Choose Start|Settings|Control Panel, then double-click Keyboard, click the Language tab, and click the Properties button. Now click the down arrow and select United States-International. Click OK twice. The new layout adds one or two characters to a number of keys on your keyboard. To use these characters keys, press a key in combination with the Alternate Character (AltChar) key (or Shift-AltChar for a second character). The AltChar key is the right Alt key on your keyboard. For example, if you wanted to type the letter E with an accent that goes up to the right, you'd hold down the AltChar key and press the letter E on your keyboard. And for a capital E with the same accent, you'd hold down Shift+AltChar and press E. (Note: It's impossible for us to print a diagram of which characters are added to which keys, so you'll need to play around to find the ones you use frequently.)