Windows 98 From A to Z

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WaveTop Data Broadcasting

WaveTop Data Broadcasting is a new wireless technology that allows you to acquire the "Best of the Web" content, as well as software downloads, without using either an ISP or a telephone line. WaveTop uses a combination of your local television service and the TV Tuner card that is installed in your PC.


NOTE: If you don't own a TV Tuner card, this service (just like WebTV) isn't for you. Likewise, this technology isn't quite ready for laptop/notebook computer prime time, so don't attempt to use it unless you possess a solid knowledge of your computer's hardware and internal components.
1. To install the WaveTop Data Broadcasting service, click the Start button and choose Settings, Control Panel, as shown in Figure W.1.

Figure W.1

2. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon in the Control Panel window, as shown in Figure W.2.
3. Click the Windows Setup tab in the Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box, and then scroll to the Web TV for Windows selection. Click the Web TV for Windows selection box to highlight it, and then click the Details button, as shown in Figure W.3.

Figure W.2

Figure W.3

4. Click the WaveTop Data Broadcasting check box, as shown in Figure W.4, and then click the OK button to return to the previous screen.

Figure W.4

5. Click OK in the Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box. The software will be installed from the Windows 98 CD-ROM.

Configuring WaveTop Data Broadcasting To configure the WaveTop Data Broadcasting service, do the following:

1. Click the Start button, choose Programs, Accessories, and then click the WaveTop entry, as shown in Figure W.5.
2. The WaveTop Network Initialization window appears, as shown in Figure W.6.

Figure W.5

Figure W.6

3. The WaveTop software scans all the TV channels in your viewing area in an attempt to find the local PBS station (a public broadcasting station). During this process, the WaveTop Receiver Channel Scan window, shown in Figure W.7, appears. This screen estimates the time remaining for the scanning process.
4. Unfortunately, as shown in Figure W.8, most of the time you'll receive an error message stating that a compatible WaveTop channel could not be found. This shouldn't discourage you from continuing to try to use this service. This idea is way ahead of its time, and as such, will probably take a bit more time for it to work on a regular basis (just like the early days of cellular telephones).

Figure W.7

Figure W.8

Web-Based Enterprise Management

Web-based Enterprise Management includes the components necessary for system administrators and technical support personnel to provide remote problem tracking and systems administration. This isn't a feature for a home computer, nor is it designed for the non-professionals in the audience. However, those of you on corporate networks should probably be aware of this feature so that you don't accidentally delete it because you want more hard drive space available for your games.

Web Publishing Wizard

The Windows 98 Web Publishing Wizard provides an easy way to place, or publish, your individual Web pages or sites on an Internet or intranet server. To use this utility, do the following:

1. Click the Start button, choose Programs, Internet Explorer, and then click Web Publishing Wizard, as shown in Figure W.9.

Figure W.9

2. The first screen of the Web Publishing Wizard, shown in Figure W.10, provides information about the wizard. Click Next to continue.
3. Select the file or folder that you want to publish to the Web in the screen shown in Figure W.11. If you don't know the entire path to the folder or file, click either the Browse Folders button or the Browse Files button. When the file or folder name is in place, click Next to continue.
4. In the screen shown in Figure W.12, type a descriptive name for your Web server, and then click Next.
5. Specify your server provider in the screen shown in Figure W.13, and then click Next to continue.

Figure W.10

Figure W.11


NOTE: It is very important that you select the correct service provider; failure to do so might result in your page being shown incorrectly or not at all. When in doubt, select the Automatically Select Service Provider option. This might alleviate some troubles down the road.
6. Specify the URL and directory in the screen shown in Figure W.14, and click Next to continue.

Figure W.12
Figure W.13


NOTE: The URL is used to locate the Internet or intranet site, whereas the local directory is used to locate files on your hard drive.

Figure W.14

7. If you are publishing a page or site to the Internet, the server name is required. If your service provider is an HTTP post, the posting command will also be required on this screen, as is the case in Figure W.15. (Depending on which service provider you have, this second requirement may vary.) Click the Next button to continue.

Figure W.15


NOTE: All the information required in this screen can be obtained from your network system administrator (if you are posting to your company's intranet site) or your Internet Service Provider (if you are posting to an Internet site).
8. Click the Finish button to post the site to the server. You should now be able to view the site online.

WebTV for Windows

WebTV for Windows enables your PC to display both standard and interactive television broadcasts, as well as Internet data broadcasts. You can receive the standard and interactive TV broadcasts only if a TV Tuner card (a hardware device for receiving television broadcasts) is installed on your PC. The Internet data broadcasts, though, will allow you to capture TV broadcast listings and display them in the Windows 98 program guide that is a part of WebTV. To use WebTV for Windows, do the following:

1. Click the Start button, choose Programs, Accessories, Entertainment, and then click WebTV for Windows, as shown in Figure W.16.

Figure W.16

2. The WebTV introductory screen, shown in Figure W.17, appears. Your system will pause here for a few seconds before taking you directly to the WebTV Program Guide screen, shown in Figure W.18. Scroll up and down this screen to figure out what television shows are scheduled in your area.

Figure W.17

Figure W.18


NOTE: As part of the installation process for WebTV, you will be prompted for your zip code. This is how the software knows where you live.
3. Click the Search tab to view the screen shown in Figure W.19. Type in the text string that you want to search for, and then click the Search button to initiate the search. When you have found the show that you are seeking, click it once to highlight it, and then click the Watch button.

Figure W.19


NOTE: The left side of the Search tab features a scrollable Categories list. WebTV splits the television shows into categories such as Action or Drama. The Categories listing enables you to find a TV show that you want to watch, even if you aren't sure of its name.
4. To reconfigure your WebTV settings, you must first return to the channel guide. Click the Guide tab to view a screen like the one shown in Figure W.20.
5. Double-click Channel 96 on the dial. This will take you to a screen like the one shown in Figure W.21.


NOTE: If you want to take the interactive multimedia tour, click the Next button at the bottom of the screen, and off you go!
6. To adjust your settings, pull down the menu at the top of the screen (see Figure W.22) and click the Settings button.

Figure W.20

Figure W.21


NOTE: You might want to click the Help button for clarification on some of WebTV's more confusing screens and hidden menus (like the Settings menu).
7. A screen like the one shown in Figure W.23 opens. Here you can deselect channels to block them, and you can add closed-captioning to your screen. Click OK to return to the previous screen.

Figure W.22

Figure W.23

Welcome to Windows

The Windows 98 Welcome to Windows screen will automatically appear the first time you start your computer after installing Windows 98. If you want the screen to continue to appear at boot time, check the check box in the bottom-left corner of the screen. To access this screen at a different time, do the following:

1. Click the Start button, choose Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Welcome To Windows, as shown in Figure W.24.

Figure W.24

2. The Welcome to Windows 98 screen, shown in Figure W.25, appears. Click any of the options in the Contents menu to jump directly to that online topic. Alternatively, you can hover your mouse pointer over one of these options to view information about it on the right side of the screen, as shown in Figure W.26.

Figure W.25

Figure W.26


NOTE: The screen shown in this example varies slightly from the one that
will appear immediately after Windows 98 is installed. On the screen shown here, the Register Windows 98 option isn't present because I have already registered my copy of Windows 98. Presumably, you will have registered right away in order to get free product support and updates. For more information, refer to the section titled "Registering Windows 98."

Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer is the most important end-user application in Windows 98. It is everywhere: inside other applications, behind Browse buttons, and inside the Internet Explorer Web browser. It is even the core component of the Windows 98 desktop environment itself.


NOTE: If you've upgraded to Windows 98 from Windows 3.0 or 3.1x, consider Windows Explorer the replacement for File Manager.

To use Windows Explorer, do the following:

1. Click the Start button and choose Programs, Windows Explorer, as shown in Figure W.27.

Figure W.27

2. The main Windows Explorer screen, shown in Figure W.28, opens. The contents of this screen represent the contents of your computer. Using the scrollbar, scroll down the left pane until you find the drive letter that represents your CD-ROM/DVD drive (in this case, D:).

Figure W.28

3. Click the drive letter; the contents of that drive automatically appear in the right-hand pane (see Figure W.29).

Figure W.29

Sharing a Drive If you are on a network and you want to share a drive or folder, do the fol-
lowing:

1. Start Windows Explorer.
2. Right-click the folder or drive that you want to share (in this case, I've right-clicked the D: drive, as shown in Figure W.30) and select Sharing from the shortcut menu.

Figure W.30

3. The Sharing tab of the drive's (or folder's) Properties dialog box will appear, as shown in Figure W.31. To share the drive, click the Shared As option button, type a share name and a description, set the access type, set a password if needed, and click Apply to immediately effect the share.

Figure W.31


NOTE: Only 32-bit versions of Windows (Windows 95/98/NT) can see shares with long filenames (containing more than eight characters). The filename you enter in the Share Name field shouldn't contain more than eight characters if those who need this share are using older versions of Windows.

For more information on moving around and accomplishing tasks in Windows Explorer, review the following sections:

Windows 98 Help

Windows 98 contains numerous interactive help screens, demos, quick hints, pop-up messages, and links. To access the primary Windows 98 Help feature, do the following:

1. Click the Start button and choose Help, as shown in Figure W.32.

Figure W.32

2. Click the Index tab in the main Windows Help screen that appears to view the screen shown in Figure W.33. Highlight an item, and then click the Display button to view information about the topic you selected.
3. Click the Contents to view Help information in a table-of-contents-type format.
4. Click the Search tab to search for help by entering a keyword.

Figure W.33

Windows Update

Microsoft is pushing the envelope by presenting Windows Update, an Internet-based software update and delivery system, in a major software application release.


NOTE: You must have Internet access to use this incredible feature.

To use the Windows Update feature, do the following:

1. Establish an Internet connection.
2. Click the Start button and choose Settings, Windows Update, as shown in Figure W.34.

3. Your web browser starts automatically, with the Windows Update web site open by default (see Figure W.35). To start the software-upgrade process, click the Products Update option found along the left side of the window or in the middle of the screen (they both take you to the same place.

4. The Internet Explorer 4.0 Active Setup message box, shown in Figure W.36, will appear, notifying you that your computer's hard drive will be searched to determine what Microsoft Windows 98-compatible Internet components are already installed on your PC. If this is okay with you, click the Yes button (if you click No, the Products Update process will not work correctly).

Figure W.34

Figure W.35

5. When the search is complete, the Product Updates web page site, shown in Figure W.37, appears. Scroll down the page, and select the additional Internet components that you want by clicking the check box just to the left of each feature. After you have made your selections, click the Start Download button.

Figure W.36

Figure W.37

6. The download start screen appears (see Figure W.38). Choose a download site that is the geographically closest to you (this can help to shorten your download time). Because I live in Chicago, the ConXion Corp. site in Chicago is my choice.
7. After you've made your selection, click the Install Now button to begin copying files. You see the screen shown in Figure W.39.
8. When the download process has completed, an Installation Summary message box like the one shown in Figure W.40 will appear.

Figure W.38

Figure W.39

Figure W.40

9. Click the OK button to return to the Windows Update web page, shown in Figure W.41.

Figure W.41

10. Click the Click Here to Return to the Windows Update Home Page hyperlink to return to the Windows Update web page, shown in Figure W.42. From here you can click the Device Drivers and System Files update selection to update those areas of your computer (this installation process works just like the Product Updates feature).

Figure W.42

WinPopup

WinPopup provides a great way to send electronic messages between two or more users. To use this utility, do the following:

1. Click the Start button and choose Run, as shown in Figure W.43.

Figure W.43

2. In the Run dialog box, type winpopup (as shown in Figure W.44) and then click OK.

Figure W.44

3. Click the envelope icon in the WinPopUp window (see Figure W.45) to initiate a message send.

Figure W.45

4. Type the name (system logon ID) of the computer, user, or workgroup that you want to receive the message, and then type the message in the box below (see Figure W.46). Click OK to transmit the message.

Figure W.46

5. You are returned to the main WinPopUp screen. Click the Options button to view the dialog box shown in Figure W.47, where you can check any or all of the three options. Click the OK button to accept all the changes.

Figure W.47

6. You are returned to the main WinPopup screen. When you close WinPopup, the warning shown in Figure W.48 will appear. Click OK to end the session.

Figure W.48

WordPad

WordPad, which is built into Windows 98, enables you to create and edit text. WordPad files can be any size you want, but if they are smaller than 64 KB, consider using Notepad instead. To use WordPad, do the following:

1. Click the Start button and choose Programs, Accessories, WordPad, as shown in Figure W.49.
2. The WordPad window, shown in Figure W.50, opens. To begin using the application, just start typing in the white space as soon as the program begins.
3. You can create a new file by clicking the File menu option and choosing New.
4. To edit an existing file you must first open it by clicking File and then Open. You'll see a window like the one shown in Figure W.51. Navigate to the file you want to open, click it to select it, and then click Open.

Figure W.49

Figure W.50


NOTE: The Files of Type list box shows which file types are supported by the WordPad application.

5. As shown in Figure W.52, the file you selected opens onto the desktop. Make your changes, and then click the File menu option and save, print, or exit the file.

Figure W.51

Figure W.52


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