Windows 98 keeps track of the system date and time for the computer. As shown in Figure D.1, you can easily view the date by hovering your mouse pointer over the time display, which appears on the right end of the taskbar.
To set the month, day, year, and time zone, follow these steps:
NOTE: Notice the parenthetical items containing the initials GMT that appear in every Time Zone entry. As you might expect, GMT stands for Greenwich Mean Time, and the numeral following it (if any) indicates how many hours that time zone is ahead of or behind Greenwich Mean Time.
The Windows 98 desktop is the primary screen from which all activities originate;
it is the screen you see when you first enter Windows 98. This screen typically contains
a series of icons--including My Computer, Network Neighborhood, and Recycle Bin--as
well as a Channel bar that enables you
to easily reach Internet content. The desktop can also be enabled as the Windows
98 Active Desktop, a concept that was discussed earlier in this book.
Desktop Themes, which are built in to Windows 98, enable you to easily change your desktop background (also known as wallpaper), screen saver, sound events, mouse pointer graphics, system colors, desktop icon graphics, and system display fonts. Microsoft is releasing several additional variations to these Desktop Themes in its Windows 98 add-on product known as Microsoft Plus! 98, which should be available about 30 days following the initial Windows 98 release date of June 25 1998. To use these themes, follow these steps:
6. After you are satisfied with the theme you have chosen and any modifications you have made, click the OK button.
The Dial-Up Networking feature of Windows 98 enables you to connect to a remote network via a modem. To configure a Dial-Up Networking session, follow these steps:
You can either wait until you use this connection to confirm that the default telephony settings suit your needs, or you can confirm that those settings are correct now by viewing them in the My Connection dialog box. To check these settings using the latter technique, follow these steps:
TIP: DNS addresses represent the TCP/IP address for that particular DNS server. When you connect to the Internet via your local ISP, all you usually need is that ISP's DNS addressing scheme. This usually comes in the form of the primary and the secondary DNS addresses.
NOTE: You must have a distinctly separate telephone line for each modem placed in this tab; a party line will not work for this purpose.
NOTE: If you are a home user, you probably will not use this feature.
NOTE: To access the Add button on the Multilink tab, you must have multiple modems already installed and available for use. If the Add button is not grayed out, you can click it and select additional modems to be used with the Multilink process. If it is grayed out, you must add more modems to your Windows 98 installation to use this feature. To do this, and add a modem to the selection list, use either the Add New Hardware or the Modems functions of the Windows 98 Control Panel.
The Windows 98 Dial-Up Server feature enables you to use your own PC as a server to which other computers can dial up for remote access. This feature cannot be configured unless you have installed the proper files for the Dial-Up Networking function. (Refer to the "Components" section for information about installing components, and refer to the "Dial-Up Networking" section for more information about this feature.)
To configure the Dial-Up Server feature, follow these steps:
NOTE: The Enable Software Compression option should be left as is (selected), unless your modem's hardware functions better (that is, it can transmit more data in the same period of time) than the software compression that is built in to Windows 98.
The Direct Cable Connection feature is useful if you want to exchange files between two computers but you don't want to set up a network. To configure a direct cable connection, follow these steps:
NOTE: The host computer contains the resources that you want to access; the guest computer is the system that will be performing the accessing. It is important to note, however, that regardless the connection type, a guest computer can still copy its own files to the host computer. This means that a guest computer can act like a host computer even though it is the guest.
NOTE: To begin the connection process, you must have a serial or parallel cable to connect the two computers.
NOTE: A parallel cable connects into the parallel port of each computer--on the guest side as well as on the host side. This cable closely resembles a standard parallel printer cable, and transfers data much faster than a serial cable could (average transmission rate is roughly three times faster over a parallel cable than a serial one).A serial cable connects into a serial port of each computer--on the guest side, as well as on the host side. Note that it can be connected to the COM1: port on the guest side, while using the COM2: port on the host side. The serial cable closely resembles a standard modem cable, and provides a relatively slow transmission rate (especially when compared to that of a parallel cable).
Microsoft's Discover Windows 98 application demonstrates a vast improvement over the online assistance offered in Windows 95. To use this new online tutorial, follow these steps:
TIP: Note the Show This Screen Each Time Windows 98 Starts check box at the bottom of the screen shown in Figure D.30. If you leave this option checked (the default), you will automatically see this screen every time you start Windows 98. To disable this option, just click it to remove the check box.
- Computer Essentials This section, for people who are new to Windows, walks the user through the basics of using the mouse and keyboard, and teaches basic maneuvering skills.
- Windows 98 Overview This section is for people who are familiar with a Windows 3.x environment.
- What's New This section is for people who are upgrading to Windows 98 from Windows 95.
- More Windows 98 Resources
The Disk Cleanup function is an automated way for Windows 98 to delete extraneous files such as temporary Internet files, other temporary files, downloaded ActiveX and Java program applets, documents in the Recycle Bin, temporary Windows 98 files, and remove the Windows 98 uninstall information. To use the Disk Cleanup feature, follow these steps:
NOTE: Click the View Files button to view a list of files contained within the highlighted bin. In the case of Figure D.37, clicking the View Files button would reveal the names of the temporary Internet files that you are about to delete. The View Files button is only present for use with temporary Internet files, downloaded program files, and the Recycle Bin.
NOTE: If you use the Internet as much as I do (which is about 30 to 45 minutes daily), the Temporary Internet Files entry will probably contain most of the disk-cleanup opportunities.
warning... Be very careful about deleting files that you do not understand. In the case of Recycle Bin and temporary Internet files, this warning might not apply. But with the others, please think about what you are doing prior to performing the cleanup process. It is always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to your PC.
6. After you have made your selections, click the OK button to process the changes. This returns you to the Disk Cleanup screen.
NOTE: It is strongly recommended that you do not remove applications you do not recognize, unless you are the only user of the PC and it is a computer for home use. Deleting things you do not understand can lead to computing oblivion.
The Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter enables you to rearrange files on your hard drive so that software programs can find files faster. This, in turn, will help applications run faster. Another plus of the Disk Defragmenter is that it automatically rearranges the free disk space on your hard drive, which might give you more free space to work with. To use the Disk Defragmenter, follow these steps:
NOTE: Disk Defragmenter's help text states that you can run other programs while using Disk Defragmenter. Although this might technically be a true statement, it is strongly recommended that you run Disk Defragmenter program by itself because Disk Defragmenter greatly affects the performance of other running programs. Even worse, running other programs, such as word processors, alongside Disk Defragmenter can cause Disk Defragmenter to continually lose its place and start over because word processors and other programs write to the hard drive that Defragmenter is trying to defragment. I have seen people use Disk Defragmenter throughout the course of an entire day, never finishing the process while dramatically slowing their PCs.Even when other applications aren't running, Defragmenter can take a long time to complete. Do not fret if it takes several hours to run the Disk Defragmenter utility, especially if it has been a long time since you last ran this utility. I recommend that you run Defragmenter during a down time, such as during lunch, just as you are leaving work (letting it run overnight while you are out of the office), or just before you go to bed. One way to avoid some of the headaches you are bound for is to use the Task Scheduler component of Windows 98. Refer to the section titled "Task Scheduler" for more information.
The art of disk management is only as complex as you make it. That is, how you arrange programs and directories on your hard drive largely depends on your own organizational skills or lack thereof.
The Windows 98 Explorer feature provides a directory-tree structure for finding files and folders (in Windows 98, a subdirectory is known as a folder). When viewed through Explorer, a folder looks just as you might expect: like a manila folder. When you click a folder, the icon changes from a closed manila folder to an open one, and the contents of the folder are revealed. The applications you use are typically spread among multiple folders.
Most programs produced by commercial companies (such as Microsoft) probably install
in the C:\Program Files directory. This, for the most part, is helpful
because it leaves you with a common starting point for most of the applications on
your hard drive. Some commercial packages, however, do not follow this trend, nor
do some applications that you produce yourself. It does not hurt anything to install
applications all over the hard drive, but it might make it more confusing to find
them by using the Windows 98 Explorer
feature.
As a rule of thumb, you should minimize the number of files that you copy or install
into your root (C:\) directory. This will make troubleshooting Windows
98 operating system errors a bit easier, and might limit problems that can occur
as a result of copying too many similarly named files to the same
directory.
NOTE: By file, I mean documents, spreadsheets, and the like--not file direc-tories.
For more information about disk management, see the following sections in this book:
Windows 98 display options enable you to change how your computer desktop is displayed, as well as to manipulate the various screen fonts and colors that will be present throughout the many Windows applications on your PC. To make changes to the display options, follow these steps:
NOTE: The tabs in your Display Properties dialog box might differ slightly from the ones shown here. The core tabs--which you will have on your machine--are Background, Screen Saver, Appearance, Effects, Settings, and Web. The STB Vision tab shown in Figure D.46 pertains specifically to the video card that came with my PC. Chances are that your computer will have a vendor-specific tab as well.
NOTE: The original purpose of screen savers was to prevent a phenomenon known as burn-in, in which a faint image of the contents of your screen remained present even after you turned off your computer. Although people with older monitors still use screen savers for this purpose, screen savers are now used primarily for entertainment value.
NOTE: Details on modifying screen-saver components, as well as further instructions on configuring a screen saver, can be found in the section titled "Screen Savers."
NOTE: If the Settings button is grayed out, that indicates that your monitor does not support energy-saving features.
9. Alter the manner in which icons and the Windows 98 desktop appear to users by checking or unchecking features in the Visual Effects section. Play around with these options to find the effects that please you most.
NOTE: When you click the New button, you are just telling Windows 98 that you want to use an existing file (regardless of whether it is already on your hard drive). Although the content might already be on your hard drive, it is not in a location that Windows 98 can see. Following this process puts the content into the correct location so that Windows 98 can use it.
NOTE: The lower the screen resolution (for example, 640x480), the larger the characters and graphics will appear to be. If you were to choose a higher resolution (such as 800x600), the screen characters and graphics would appear to be smaller.
NOTE: If, in the Colors area, you specify that a large number of colors be used, as is the case when you select High Color (16 bit), it might negatively impact your system's overall performance.
A document template is a file that permits you to easily create a certain type of document for a specific Windows 98 application. Windows 98 comes with several predefined templates, including the following:
If you create your own document templates, you can better customize the starting point for document creation. The Microsoft Word template, for instance, just gives you a blank document. If you make your own template within Microsoft Word (a DOT file) and save it into the Document Templates folder for Microsoft Office (usually C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\ Templates), you can apply this template to your Microsoft Word documents. This becomes very useful if you create the same types of documents over and over, such as office memos that have a standard letterhead.
In Windows 98, document refers to any file you generate using a Windows 98-compatible application. For example, a document could be a business letter typed in WordPad, a spreadsheet generated in Excel, or a picture created in Paint.
The Documents menu selection found in the Windows 98 Start menu, shown in Figure D.54, provides a quick way to access a recently used document.
To use the Documents menu, click the Start button and then choose Documents. You can click a folder appearing above the solid line at the top of the Documents menu to open that folder's window. The filenames appearing below the solid line are the files that you have used most recently on your computer. You can open one of these files by clicking it; Windows 98 will then automatically start the file's application and opens that file inside the appli-cation.
NOTE: Not all applications are capable of putting their most recently accessed files into this area. Typically, only 32-bit Windows applications with the Windows 95 (or later) seal of approval will place the names of their most recently accessed files into this holding area. It is, for the most part, safe to assume that most Microsoft-built applications will place their most recently used files here.
NOTE: To learn how to delete filenames from this area, see the section titled "Taskbar Properties."
The purpose of the FAT32 driver converter is to help you convert your existing 16-bit FAT drives to FAT32. FAT32 is an improvement of the file allocation table (FAT) file system that improves hard drive disk space efficiency on drives larger than 512 MB. FAT32 is not recommended for users whose hard drives are smaller than 512 MB or for users who need to dual-boot between Windows 98 and another operating system (you cannot dual-boot after FAT32 has been installed).
To use Drive Converter, follow these steps:
DriveSpace enables you to artificially expand the size of your hard drive, which enables you to save more information on that hard drive, even though its physical size has not changed. DriveSpace might seem a bit like magic; it just uses a different storage algorithm for mapping bytes of information to a drive.
NOTE: DriveSpace 3 is not compatible with a FAT32-formatted hard drive. Therefore, if you are using FAT32, this application is not for you. When you run out of space on FAT32, you will need to purchase another hard drive.
To use DriveSpace, follow these steps:
NOTE: You do not want to put files on the new drive because that would actually lower the amount of free space available on the C: drive.Sound confusing? It is. Think of it this way: Pretend you have a cup of water (your C: drive) floating in a bowl of water (your H: drive). As you add more water (files) to the cup (your C: drive), it begins to fill. That is okay, as long as the water in the bowl (the H: drive) doesn't overflow (signifying that the hard--H:--drive is completely full). If you add wa-ter (files) to the bowl (the H: drive), it directly relates to how much water (files) you can add to the cup (your C: drive) before the bowl (your hard drive) overflows.
Another choice is to create a new drive from your current drive's free space. This process eliminates the need to compress any of your current drive's files or applications, but will result in less free hard drive space upon completion. To compress just the free space on a drive, follow these steps:
NOTE: For the nonbelievers in the crowd: Yes, DriveSpace is a safe application that will not corrupt your data at whim.
Windows 98 uses a software programming feature known as a drop-down list box throughout the operating system. This list box usually contains a list of items or options from which you are to select. The primary purpose of a drop-down list box is to limit the choices for whatever you are attempting to do. In the "Desktop Themes" section of this book, for example, you had to choose which theme you wanted for your PC. The list containing the themes was a drop-down list box. (See? You have already used them like an expert!)
The Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) Player uses a revolutionary new format for DVD discs. DVD discs look and act just like CD-ROMs, except that they can store quite a bit more data (roughly 2600 MB on DVD versus 640 MB on CD-ROM). As the DVD standards evolve, this storage level is expected to increase immensely (at least double). Both DVD discs and CDs can be read by the DVD-ROM drive, and the drive will function just as your old CD-ROM drive did.
The most noticeable difference will be in the operation of a DVD-ROM drive. Because a DVD disc can store not only audio and computer data (the two things a CD-ROM can store), but video as well, you must have special hardware and software to access this video portion. The hardware is called an MPEG decoder card (MPEG stands for Moving Picture Experts Group). The DVD software required is the DVD Player that is built in to Windows 98.
To start the DVD Player, click the Start button, choose Programs, Accessories, Entertainment, DVD Player, as shown in Figure D.61.
Because most DVD-ROM players require specialized software specific to their decoder
card, the DVD software support built in to Windows 98 might not be sufficient for
your DVD-ROM drive. For this reason, you are generally better off using the custom
DVD playing software that came with your DVD-ROM drive than you would be using the
Windows 98 DVD Player software.
Figure D.61
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