Windows Key Cheat Sheet If you bought a new PC since Windows 95 shipped, chances are you've got a Windows

95 keyboard, which comes with at least one Windows 95 key. The picture on it is the Windows 95 logo. Press this thing once, and you'll see the Start Menu open. But did you know it also offers shortcuts to several system functions when used in combination with other keys? Win key + E Opens an Explorer window Win key + R Opens the Run dialog Win key + Pause Opens System Properties Win key + F Opens Find: All Files Win key + Ctrl + F Displays Find: Computer Win key + M Minimizes all open windows Win key + Shift + M An undo for Win key + M Win key + D Toggle that minimizes or maximizes all open windows Win key + Tab Cycles through program buttons on the taskbar Win key + F1 Opens Windows help. Ditch Office Utilities for Speed If you're running Microsoft Office, you may be robbing Peter to pay Paul. Office Startup and Find Fast work to boost performance of various aspects of Office, but they tend to drag down Windows performance. Start by removing the program icons that launch the utilities from your Windows Startup folder by right clicking the Start button and choosing Open, then opening your Programs folder, and inside that your Startup folder. Delete the Microsoft Find Fast and Office Startup icons there. Find Fast is a Control Panel applet, and your best bet to fully remove it is by running Office Setup again. This isn't as big a deal as it sounds. Insert your Office CD and then use Add/Remove Programs to open the Office Setup tool. In Office 97, Find Fast is listed under Office Tools in the Setup program. Just uncheck the box beside it, click OK and Continue, and Office Setup takes over from there. You'll have to reboot to see the Find Fast Control Panel go away. On some systems, even that won't do it. To make it go away forever, shutdown to MS-DOS mode. Change directories to the Windows System folder. Delete the findfast.cpl file.

Fast Explorer Windows Did you know you can right click any folder icon and choose Explore to open it as a two-paned window with a navigation tree? Or hold down the shift key and double click any folder to launch it as an Explorer window. If you really just prefer the two-paned Explorer windows in most cases, you can make that type of window open by default with this simple change: Open any folder and choose View | Options. (This will be View | Folder

Options under IE4.0 or Windows 98.) Choose the File Types tab. Scroll down to and select the Folder item. Press the Edit button. Highlight "explore" under Actions. Click the Set Default button. The explore entry will become bold. Click OK, and OK on the dialog below. If you ever want to reverse the setting, follow the same steps, but highlight "open" instead of "explore" to set it as the default. Dump Unwanted Launching Programs Beyond the StartUp folder, there are two ways that programs can direct Windows to launch them whenever Windows starts. Some programs load this way from a section in the Registry; you can disable them by removing their program strings from the following two keys: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices Any changes you make to the Registry will be *permanent*, so you may want to backup up your settings first. The second way is by appending themselves to the LOAD= line in the WIN.INI file, which is found in the Windows folder. Open the file with Notepad and delete any unwanted program names you find on this line. You can also place a semicolon before LOAD= to prevent Windows from reading the entire line -- a good way to test your changes while making it easy to revert to the previous setting. New and Improved Desktop on Top Here's the easiest way to make a folder containing all the icons from your Win 95 Desktop and have it always available to you. Create a shortcut in your StartUp folder with this target: C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /ROOT, Don't forget the comma at the end. Unlike some other solutions, this folder will show both the icons you've placed on the desktop and all those that Windows 95 placed there, such as My Computer, Network Neighborhood, Recycle Bin, Internet Explorer, and Inbox. Make the folder automatically minimize to the taskbar by choosing Run: Minimized on the Shortcut's properties screen. --Scot Finnie

The Column Win95 keystrokes: TASK SHORTCUT Scroll without moving the selection Ctrl+Arrow key Expand everything under the selection) Num Lock+Asterisk (on numeric keypad) Collapse the selection Num Lock+Minus sign (on numeric keypad)

Expand the selection Num Lock+Plus sign (on numeric keypad) Expand current selection if it's collapsed, otherwise select first subfolder Right Arrow Collapse current selection if it's expanded, otherwise select parent folder Left Arrow Display Properties dialog box Alt+Enter Bold Ctrl+B Copy Ctrl+C Italics Ctrl+I Underline Ctrl+U Paste Ctrl+V Cut Ctrl+X Display an alternate context menu Ctrl+Right-Click Place in Recycle Bin Delete Rename selected file F2 Delete immediately without putting in Recycle Bin Shift+Delete Context menu for selected item Shift+F10 Select all Ctrl+A Find F3 Refresh F5 Switch between panes F6 Go to the parent folder Backspace Go To Folder Ctrl+G Undo Ctrl+Z Windows Help F1 Go to menu mode F10 Switch active DOS program between full screen and window operation. Alt+Enter Save with a new name

Alt+F+A Quit current program Alt+F4 Print file in current program Alt+F+P Minimize all windows Alt+M (when taskbar is selected) Put the active window on Clipboard Alt+Print Screen Control menu Alt+Spacebar Minimize active window Alt+Spacebar+N Reduce window size Alt+Spacebar+R Enlarge window Alt+Spacebar+X Switch among active programs on Taskbar Alt+Tab Select all Ctrl+A Reboot or end task Ctrl+Alt+Delete Go to end of document Ctrl+End Open the Start menu Ctrl+Esc Go to beginning of document Ctrl+Home Move forward through tabs in dialog box Ctrl+Tab Close current folder and its parents Shift+File/Close Bypass Autorun CD Shift while inserting Accessibility Options (Shortcut keys must be enabled. See "Accessibility, shortcut keys" Help.) Toggle StickyKeys on and off Tap Shift 5 times Toggle FilterKeys on and off Hold down Right Shift for 8 seconds Turn ToggleKeys on and off Hold down NumLock for 5 seconds Toggle MouseKeys on and off Left Alt+Left Shift+Num Lock Toggle High Contrast on and off Left Alt+Left Shift+Print Screen