The former "Windows Advisor"
is now
CNet's "Windows Helpdesk"
and this is the Tips Page

If you've read my "Windows Advisor" column in Computer Currents Magazine, my "Windows Help Desk" column on CNet, or either of the books I've written, or have sent me e-mail asking about your problems with Windows or PCs in general, you can probably imagine that I get a LOT of e-mail - indeed I do.

While not everyone has read the old column, the new column at CNet (search on Aspinwall) or catches all of the editions, and though they are archived on the Computer Currents site it may not always be clear that many of the problems shown and that many people have are related or have similar solutions. Thus, I end up copying and pasting a lot of the same advice to dozens of people each month. I don't mind, since I like to hear from our readers and always catch a new challenge or two in the process, but I thought that after 12 years of book-work and 4 years of writing the column I probably ought to provide a central location for folks to grab the more common tips from.

After ComputerUser acquired and merged in Computer Currents I had not been doing a regular Q&A column for some months. Check www.ComputerUser.com for some of my past articles. Check in to my latest work at the "Windows Helpdesk" on CNet.com.

Below you will find but a few key tips that should help get your system setup right, and generally keep it out of trouble as you use it. Of course there always exceptions since there are reportedly over 75 millions PCs in use and no one can tell you everything about them all. That's my first disclaimer. My second is that I hope most of these tips will be easy to implement with a modest amount of experience with Windows, and a few DOS programs that you need to run in command-line mode, from a DOS prompt. If not, by all means, email me and I'll provide more step-by-step directions and then update this page.

Without further distraction…

Jim's Tips

I would make a table of contents, index and link to these items, but I feel that it is important to go through all of these tips to get the most awareness and benefit when dealing with your PC, DOS and Windows. I've tried to list these in order of their increasing relevance to the system, DOS, and Windows.

Just Plain System Stuff

Two easy tips...get "Troubleshooting Your PC" and "IRQ, DMA & I/O"....more to follow!

DOS Level Stuff - yes, Windows 9x still uses some of this....

Be sure you have the ATTRIB.EXE and EDIT.COM programs, or other suitable DOS tools available to change file attributes and edit files in plain old ASCII-text so that you can follow these tips. Yes, you can do some of these things with NOTEPAD and Explorer or File//Properties functions in Windows - BUT - if you can't get Windows to load....

Getting to a DOS Prompt at Boot Up

Sometimes you have to revert to a boot diskette - keep one handy!
Most of the time Windows (DOS) displays "Loading Windows 9x..." when a system first boots up. When you see this press the [F8] key and you should get a Windows boot menu (not the DOS boot menu you make in CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT.)
The menu will show you options for at least 'Normal', "Safe Mode", "Command-prompt only", etc. Most of the time selecting "Command-prompt only" is the option you want.

Making a Bootable DOS Diskette

OK, hiding 'DOS' behind a fancy graphical interface is fun, for awhile, until you really to get at things before Windows gets in the way, crashes, etc. (I don't know how some of us will tolerate Windows 2000 without a 'DOS' around before the graphical OS loads.)

Windows 98 users, go ahead and make your Startup disk when you setup Windows, or in the Add/Remove Programs feature of the Control Panel - neat feature - overkill most of the time. Then follow the next few steps with another diskette.
Most of us need one 1.44 megabyte 3.5" diskette (OK, yes, you need the floppy part that is inside the diskette case too, but a 'floppy' alone is generally useless by itself. Confused? Don't be, folks who know me know my pet peeve about the word 'floppy' - it's not a "guy thing" - it's just that the real thing you use as a whole is a diskette that contains a floppy medium. You don't call your hard disk drive a spinning aluminum platter, and you don't call Zip cartridges floppies (they have floppies in them too y'know) so diskette it is - get used to it.) If you need to use 720kByte 3.5" or some variant of 5.25" diskettes for your A: drive, hmmmm....
Place the diskette in your A: drive and format it in DOS with the /S command switch, or in Windows using Explorer, doing a complete format and placing the system files on it.
Copy the following files from your hard drive to the diskette:
- C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ATTRIB.EXE
- C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EDIT.COM
- C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\FDISK.EXE
- C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\FORMAT.COM
- C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.COM
- C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\SYS.COM
If you're so inclined and know which file is the right DOS/Config.sys driver for your CD-ROM drive, copy it over too.

This will provide you with the basic files to get your system booted to DOS, and as you'll see later under DOS CD-ROM Drivers, you can get your CD-ROM to work too - which is essential for installing Windows, unless you follow another tip listed below.

Avoiding Memory Conflicts Using CONFIG.SYS

Quite simply, do this! The first two lines of your C:\CONFIG.SYS file should be:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS X=A000-BFFF

Because - the A000-AFFF and B000-B7FF regions of memory is already recognized by Windows and left alone, but... the B800-BFFF region is not officially recognized by any one group, standard, etc. and thus is open to a lot of 'debate' and conflict between Windows wanting to manage it as available upper memory, and video cards wanting to use the region for enhanced video card functions. Problem is that the video cards and drivers don't claim this area before Windows can get to it, video stuff has no other enhanced access to the video card, and if Windows has got the memory in use, the video driver will slam right into it.

You must load HIMEM, even though Windows will load it by itself, but EMM386 needs to have HIMEM explicitly installed first. EMM386 is then configured not to provide EMS (the old Lotus-Intel-Microsoft Enhanced Memory Specification) and to eXclude the A000-BFFF video memory region.

Let me know if this doesn't help you and then we'll figure out what else could be the problem.

DOS CD-ROM Drivers

At some time in your work with Windows you will probably want to re-install it and cannot figure out how to get your CD-ROM recognized in DOS so you can install Windows off the CD.

If you follow the next tip you may be able to avoid having to load CD-ROM drivers, unless you reformat or change your hard drive. However, before the next tip can be done you'll need this one:

If you don't have your Windows 98 Startup disk, or if you're still using Windows 95 you'll need to create a a bootable diskette (as indicated above). (Windows 98 users can use a Startup diskette made on another Windows 98 system, or the original SETUP boot diskette.)
Run the EDIT program, loading it from your hard drive or from the diskette. You'll start working with a blank file that we'll call CONFIG.SYS and saving it to the A: drive.
Key-in the following line in the EDIT program box.
```
DEVICE=MYCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001
```
- NOTE: Replace the characters 'MYCDROM.SYS' with the actual, full name of the proper CD-ROM driver file for your CD-ROM drive. Remember the characters that appears after the /D: - the characters can be almost anything, but Microsoft typically uses 'MSCD001' - these characters will be used in the next step.
Press the Alt+F then X keys to close the file. You will be prompted to save the file - naming it A:\CONFIG.SYS - then OK and exit the EDIT program.
Run the EDIT program again, loading it from your hard drive or from the diskette. You'll start working with a blank file that we'll call AUTOEXEC.BAT and saving it to the A: drive.
Key-in the following line in the EDIT program box.
```
MSCDEX /D:MSCD001
```
- NOTE: In BOTH command lines you will see a /D:MSCD001 designation. This is a virtual name given to the CD-ROM drive first by the device driver, then picked up by the MSCDEX program. This designation MUST be the same in both lines!
Press the Alt+F then X keys to close the file. You will be prompted to save the file - naming it A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT - then OK and exit the EDIT program.

(*) Using DOS-level device drivers with Windows may leave your entire disk system running in real/compatibility-mode with possibly decreased disk performance. Why? Because some CD-ROM drives or their drivers do not provide enough support or compatibility with Windows and will not run without a DOS driver, and the older drivers are not Windows-friendly, keeping Windows from managing the IDE interface devices, including the hard disk drive, in full 32-bit mode. Hint: get a late-model ATAPI-compliant IDE CD-ROM drive.

Quicker Windows SETUP

Remember those times that some program says "insert your Windows CD...." ?? Well, this little trick solves that problem! This #1 tip to save you lots of time and grief later....copy the essential files from your Windows CD to your hard drive and then install Windows from there! Do this after getting your hard drive installed, partitioned, FORMATted and ready to boot off the C: drive.

All you need are the files (not the sub-folders) under the \WIN95 or \WIN98 folder of your Windows CD-ROM. For good measure I also copy over \Tools\Reskit\Powertoy to have the TweakUI files handy.

Place these in a new folder on your hard drive - call it \Win98CD, call it \Windows\Options\Cabs (where the pre-built systems typically have these files) or whatever.

You'll get the setup program and everything you need to install and later add things to Windows, and the files will copy faster too!

Don't Reformat....

One way to recover from some of Windows serious problems is to re-install - right?

WRONG!

Instead - kill your Registry and let Windows figure it out after a re-start.

Here's how (get used to DOS.....):


First, restart and stop your system at a Safe Mode MS-DOS prompt.
At the C: prompt, get to the Windows folder - CD \WINDOWS [Enter]
Remove the file attributes from the main Registry files:

ATTRIB -R -A -S -H SYSTEM.DA* [Enter]

ATTRIB -R -A -S -H USER.DA* [Enter]

(note: there must be blank SPACEs between the -R and the -A, etc. !!)
Delete the Registry files (you're sure now?) - DEL *.DA* [Enter]
Remove the attributes from the SYSBCKUP folder:

ATTRIB -R -A -S -H SYSBCKUP [Enter]

Delete the backed up Registry files - DEL SYSBCKUP\RB*.CAB [Enter]
Restart the system and stop at DOS - now is when you use the SETUP program from
the C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS folder, or you need to have your CD-ROM drivers loaded
or use your Windows startup diskette to be able to access the CD-ROM to run setup from there.

Windows Stuff

Get Control At Startup

Had enough of the cloudy Microsoft Windows background at startup? No, I'm not going to tell you that you can replace the C:\WINDOWS\LOGOW.SYS with a 320x240 256 color BMP file of your own choosing. We're talking about the C:\MSDOS.SYS file here. Under DOS versions 6.x and earlier this file used to be binary code that actually ran as part of the bootup process. Under Windows 9x this file is a boot-up configuration file (much like NT's BOOT.INI file.)

What we're going to do here is alter this file so that Windows gives us more and obvious control over the startup process. To do this we need to remove some file system attributes to make this file accessible and replaceable by the EDIT program:

There are two ways to make this file workable by EDIT or NOTEPAD:
- At a DOS prompt, get to the root directory - CD \ [Enter] - then run the Attrib program as:
```
ATTRIB -R -A -S -H MSDOS.SYS [Enter]
```
- Using Explorer, well, er, first you have to set Explorer's View/Folder Options to allow you to see Hidden and System files and their extensions. Then, navigate to the root of your C: drive and find the MSDOS.SYS file. Right-click on it, select Properties and remove (clear the check boxes for) the Read-only, System and Hidden attributes. You may have to do this twice to clear any greyed-out attributes.
Next, use NOTEPAD or DOS EDIT, whichever you prefer, wherever you are working, and edit the MSDOS.SYS file [Options] section to include:
```
[Options]
BootKeys=1
BootMenu=1
BootMenuDelay=5
Logo=0

The remaining lines and filler lines should be left as-is!
```

These additions make sure that the bootup key options are available (in case [F8] didn't work in one of the tips above); ensure that the boot menu appears; that the menu waits 5 seconds before going ahead with the default selection (Normal) by itself; and that the 'cloudy' logo is not loaded during boot-up, so you will see all the 'ugly' DOS things happening before Windows really loads - which is useful for troubleshooting. Leave out the 'Logo' line if you like the visual distraction or have provided your own prefered graphic.

Windows Swap File

A lot of folks have a lot of opinions and experiences to share about this tip, so I'll leave it to you to try it and determine if it works best in your case or not.

I set my own parameters for the Windows virtual memory swap file. I typically use a fixed minimum and maximum value equal to the amount of RAM installed on the system. Thus, if I have a 16 megabyte system I set the swap file to 16 megabytes, 32 => 32, etc.

To do this:

Go to the Control Panel - from My Computer on the Windows desktop or from Start//Settings.
Double-click the System icon.
Select the Performance tab.
Click on the Virtual Memory button.
Select the "Let me specify..." radio button
Enter the amount of RAM you have in the Minimum and Maximum edit boxes.
Click OK. Windows will warn you about how it can manage things better, blah, blah...but continue,
Click OK again and Windows will tell you that it needs to restart your system. Do it.
After your system has restarted, I'd really suggest running Norton's Speed Disk to optimize your files and let it 'defrag' the swap file as well - though this has already been done by the creation of a new single fixed size swap file.

Windows Graphics Performance

This is an interesting 'feature' that is probably related to the memory management 'fix' under CONFIG.SYS above. First, I know that if you reduce this setting you probably won't be able to play DVD movies....so beware.

Microsoft gives us different hints about what they recommend the graphics acceleration settings be changed to for various types of prolems - program errors, mouse lockups, etc.

I have to say 'phooey' to some of this. If your system, graphics card, programs, etc. act weird and you need to alter this setting to get things to behave, then you need to start with the memory management fix above, and getting the right/updated drivers for your devices, or get better devices.

That said, I've only tried reducing the setting a notch or two for troubleshooting and then left it either full on, or full off if the system is not going to be used for any fancy graphics work.

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI Performance Tip

An interesting one I caught someplace, the line "ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1" in the [386Enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI file seems to tame Windows' want to thrash on your hard drive all the time, keeping more in memory as a good OS should. Works with Windows 98-Me. [386Enh] ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1

Put Your Temp File Trash Elsewhere

I hate having my 'temp' files fragment and clutter the operating system area. Under Windows 3.x through 98SE you can tell Windows where to put 'temp' files - by a set of DOS commands in C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT:

SET TEMP=J:\JUNK\TEMP SET TMP=J:\JUNK\TEMP SET WINTMP=J:\JUNK\TEMP

I just happen to have a lot of partitions and stash my stuff on drive J: in whichh I made a \JUNK\TEMP folder (other stuff goes into \JUNK, like my browser cache) - you can use another drive or simply a C:\TEMP folder.

You have to edit the Windows Registry to make the change from the default of C:\WINDOWS\TEMP, and this is the only way you can affect the chhange in Windows Me unless you had these settings in place before Me was installed. (There is no effective CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT file execution when Windows Me boots.)

Windows Lockups

Man, I just hate it when Windows won't even BSOD (blue screen of death) and instead just stops, freezes, halts, no mouse, no keyboard - nadda.

I have roughly isolated a couple of suspects for lock ups, as follows:

Bad memory - so it says PC100 or PC133 or whatever - a goofy memory stick will screw up Windows every time. Linux will not install on a system with a suspect RAM stick - one of my first clues that unseen memory problems can hose you. How do you know you have bad RAM? Only with a serious diagnostic program like PC-Doctor. Why is memory an issue? Let's see - you have a data bus cruising along at 66, 100 or 133 MHz, designed and implemented by companies who are destined to squeeze every cent - literally pennies - out of every system board they make. RAM sticks are NOT tested in any environment but an ideal RAM tester - not real systems with real noise and timing problems.
Over-used Netscape - yes I am a Netscape user - for a lot of reasons - but from 4.6 on it occassionally seems to get over-whelmed after 3-6 months of heavy use. Simply re-install Communicator/Navigator as see what happens.

Windows and Large Hard Drives

Windows 98 and 98SE are the most common, well, perhaps the only place you'll see this - a BSOD and an indication that IFSHLP.SYS or IFSMGR.VXD has crashed. IFS means the Installable File System - the main drivers that let Windows figure out what's up with your hard drive.

These two critters seem to have trouble with drives and/or partitions larger than 8 gigabytes. It is unclear whether the drivers for the IDE interface sub-system or BIOS are in conflict or buggy, and there are no fixes, except to a) keep your individual disk partitions/logical drives below 8 gigabytes or b) upgrade to Me.

This is not usually a problem with Windows Me.

Windows Me Unstable ??

If you have specific data about this I want details - and I mean DETAILS!

Details means:

Make & model of system board
BIOS version - not just "Award 4.51G" - but the specific string of numbers at the bottom of the screen during bootup - that will uniquely identify the original vendor/provider of the BIOS - no it's not Phoenix or Award but the motherboard maker.
Specific make and model of every I/O device in the system - sound, network, IDE drive, CD-ROM drive, video, chipset (Intel, SiS, Via, etc.)
If your IDE drive is DMA-33, 66, or 100 (it's make and model and if you know that the system board supports the native/maximum mode of the drive) - AND if a DMA-66 or higher drive, is it connected with a 40 or 80-pin IDE cable.
CPU - and if it's working at native speed or over-clocked
Type of RAM - Fast Page, SD-RAM, EDO
Saved file from running MSINFO32.EXE - it's a huge file, but contains some nuggets and clues.
Specific version of Windows and if any service packs/patches have been applied. This also means if Windows was pre-installed by the system builder or was a full or upgrade package bought off the shelf. (If you got a copy from a friend, well, god-bless you, but it might not be the version you should be running on this system.)
If the Windows Me install was to a clean system or an upgrade from 95, 98, or 98SE

Why so much data? It is my suspicion, based on experience with several types of name brand and "white box" systems, that apparent instability of the OS is *NOT* the OS but the system. The system may have been unstable with different symptoms under 95 or 98. In any case, Microsoft is not always to blaim (I do not get paid to say that - I have my own beefs with Microsoft!) With several dozen hardware vendors, many more developers, and thousands of PC configuration variables - you cannot tell me that you have a consistent reference platform to judge the OS by.

Other Tips Sites

BugNet

- of course! If something is wrong with Windows or any of several drivers, applications or pieces of hardware, the folks at BugNet will probably have a report about it. Sensational reading!

Annoyances.ORG

- they probably pioneered documenting a lot of Windows' quirks. They don't have it all, but what they do have seems to be OK, has helped me a lot, and is what a lot of other sites have cloned.

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The former "Windows Advisor" is now CNet's "Windows Helpdesk" and this is the Tips Page