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Click on the links below:
Compress a Floppy
Print Screen
Turn Off - Keyboard Shortcut
System Properties - Keyboard Shortcut
How to Purge your Print Queue
Can’t Print, Won’t Print
Printer Installation Fails
Speed up your PC
How to Restore a Dell
The Mouse Problem
Boot from a USB Drive
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Compress a Floppy
Not everyone has a thumb drive available when you need to copy more than a floppy’s worth of files, so why not compress the floppy and get more on it? It's easy, it works, it doesn't slow access and I used it daily for years with no problems.
So, how do you do it?
Assuming you are using Windows 9x:
Hit the 'Start' button, then Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Drivespace
Select "3 1/2 Floppy (A:)"
Go up to: Advanced, Settings - click "Standard Compression" and "Automatically mount new compressed drives".
Hit "OK"
Go up to: Drive, Compress... Start, Compress Now
When it's done, look at: Drive, Properties
Your 1.44MB Floppy is now a 2+MB Floppy!
Compressing a floppy doesn't slow access because the data can be decompressed in much less time than it takes to read it from the disk.
If you are going to store things that are already compressed (.gif, .jpg, .zip) you won't gain anything from this, but word processor files, spreadsheet files and bitmaps can all be compressed - you'll be surprised.
It's better than using WinZip (or PKZip) because the compression is totally transparent.
What about Windows XP? Sorry, it doesn’t let you compress floppies directly, you have to create a new compressed folder containing your files, then copy it to the floppy:
Open My Computer.
Double-click a drive or folder.
On the File menu, point to New, and then click Compressed (zipped) Folder.
Type a name for the new folder, and then press ENTER.
Paste the files into the compressed folder and then click the compressed folder and select Send to: 3 1/2 Floppy (a:).
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Print Screen
Why doesn’t the “Print Screen” button print the screen?
Most of the extra keys on a PC keyboard were added to the old typewriter keyboard set when PC’s first came out and DOS was the operating system. Back then “Print Screen” did just that.
When Windows came along the function of this key was changed - but they didn’t change the label.
The Windows function of this key is to COPY the screen image to the clipboard.
Try it out - press the “Print Screen” button when you are viewing a web page say, then open pretty well any program that prints graphics - Word, Excel, Wordpad or even Paint. Click Edit, Paste and the screen image will be pasted into the open document.
THEN you can print it using the program’s print button.
To make a copy of just the active window, instead of the whole screen, press “Alt”+“Print Screen”.
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Turn Off - Keyboard Shortcut
In Windows XP, hit the Windows key then the U key then the U key again.
In Windows 98, hit the Windows key then the U key then Enter.
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System Properties - Keyboard Shortcut
You can go Start, Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance, System (in Windows XP).
Or right click My Computer and select Properties (in Win 98, ME and XP).
Or quickest of all, hold down the Windows key and hit the Pause/Break key (in Win 98, ME and XP).
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How to Purge your Print Queue
If the document is printing (or the computer thinks it is printing) there will be a printer icon in the notification area in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Double left click that icon and the print queue box for your printer will open.
Left click Printer then Cancel All Documents then the Yes button.
(You can also open the print queue box by left clicking Start, then Control Panel, then Printers and Other Hardware, then Printers and Faxes then double left click the printer for which you want to view the documents waiting to print.)
If you want to resort to brute force and can type without any mistakes you can do it with a command:
First open Printers and Faxes (see above) and write down the EXACT name of your printer (including capitals, spaces, hyphens, etc.).
Then open the Command Prompt - Start, All Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt
You need to change to the systemroot\system32 directory - if your Windows is set up in the c:\windows directory you should type:
cd c:\windows\system32
now, if your printer’s name is, say, “Canon Bubble-Jet BJC-1000” you should type:
cscript prnqctl.vbs -x -p “Canon Bubble-Jet BJC-1000”
(make sure you put the speech marks round the printer name)
If you get that all right you will be rewarded with a message like:
Success Purge Printer Canon Bubble-Jet BJC-1000
And your printer should be purged!
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Can’t Print, Won’t Print
Sometimes a corrupt file will cause a printer to stop printing leaving one document in the print queue that you just can’t clear out.
All attempts to “Cancel all documents” in the Print Queue won’t work (see tip above) and you are considering deleting and reinstalling the printer!
Don’t try it - with a document in the queue the printer is very difficult to uninstall.
Instead, try to clear out the corrupt file from the print queue as follows:
Disconnect the printer from the PC.
Right click on the taskbar then left click on Task Manager.
Select the Processes tab and then right click SPOOLSV.EXE in the Image Name list. Left click End Process and say Yes to the warning.
(Windows may automatically start SPOOLSV.EXE again in a few minutes, but you have time to do the next stage.)
Now open C:\Windows\system32\spool\PRINTERS\ and delete all the files that are in there.
The printer blockage should now be clear but you will probably need to reboot the PC to reset everything.
Remember to reconnect your printer!
If the problem happens again when you try to print the same document then you have a corrupt file. Open it in the application that created it and save it under a different name - then try to print that one. If it prints OK then delete the old corrupt version.
Why was the file corrupt? Could be faulty memory, hard disk read/write error, application error, bad programming, in fact virtually anything! Just hope it was a one off.
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Printer Installation Fails
Sometimes, for no apparent reason, the installation of a new printer (or other hardware device) fails part way through. Usually the installation program just hangs and you end up using either the Cancel button or Control+Alt+Delete, Applications, End task to get out.
You can try it again, but it may fail again.
If it does, leave the printer connected, the installation disk in the CD drive and (assuming you are working from an Administrator account) open Device Manager by going:
Hold Windows key, press Pause/Break,
Click the Hardware tab, then Device Manager button
You should see a yellow question mark beside “USB printer” or something similar. This is Windows recognising that it has a printer attached that has not been properly installed.
Left click to select the item, then right click on it and select Update driver. Follow through the Wizard, selecting the default options whenever it asks for a decision.
In many cases that will do the job - but why it should work when the original installation didn’t is one of those wonderful Windows mysteries.
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Speed up your PC
If your PC hard drive is NTFS formatted then the Indexing Service will have been automatically switched on when Windows was installed.
The Indexing Service works in the background and produces an index of the content of your documents. This makes it much faster when you do a search for documents - i.e “search for documents containing the word xxxx”.
But for that occasional speed boost you pay heavily in terms of general computer speed and disk capacity. Every time you save a document the index is updated, hence slowing down the action.
And the index for a document occupies an additional 30% of the documents original space.
If the File system is FAT32 then you don’t have the option of using Indexing. So you don't need to proceed with this tip.
But if the File system is NTFS then you should:
Left click:
Start,
(Settings),
Control Panel,
Add or Remove Programs,
Add/Remove Windows Components,
Find Indexing services and left click to deselect it.
When Windows has finished implementing this change (it takes a while) you should notice a real improvement in speed.
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How to Restore a Dell
Most modern Dell computers have a hidden diagnostic utility partition on the hard drive. This contains diagnostic programs and a disc image to enable you to restore your Operating System to how it was when it left the factory.
To access the diagnostic programs:
Turn off the computer completely (not standby or hibernate). Turn on again. When the DELL logo appears, press F12. Select Diagnostics from the boot menu and press Enter.
The computer runs the Pre-boot System Assessment - a series of initial tests of your system board, keyboard, hard drive, and display.
During the assessment, answer any questions that appear.
If a failure is detected, the computer stops and beeps. To stop the assessment and restart the
computer, press “n”; to continue to the next test, press “y”; to retest the component that failed, press “r”.
If failures are detected during the Pre-boot System Assessment, write down the error code(s) and contact Dell.
If the Pre-boot System Assessment completes successfully, you receive the message “Booting Dell Diagnostic Utility Partition”. Press any key to continue. Press any key to start the Dell Diagnostics.
To restore the operating system:
Windows XP System Restore returns your computer to an earlier operating state without affecting data files. Use Windows XP System Restore first to try to restore your operating system and preserve data files.
Dell PC Restore restores your hard drive to the operating state it was in when you purchased the computer. Dell PC Restore permanently deletes all data on the hard drive and removes any applications installed after you received the computer. Use PC Restore only if System Restore did not resolve your operating system problem.
Turn on the computer.
During the boot process, a blue bar with www.dell.com appears at the top of the screen.
Immediately you see the blue bar, press Ctrl+F11.
If you do not press Ctrl+F11 in time, let the computer finish starting, and then restart it again.
On the next screen that appears, left click Restore.
On the next screen, left click Confirm.
The restore process only takes about 10 minutes to complete.
The Mouse Problem
(With apologies to Monty Python)
We all had problems with double clicking when we first started using Windows, but most of us mastered it quickly and only have problems when using a computer that has been set up with a very different “click speed” to the one we are used to.
I use many different PCs and even I sometimes struggle to double click with some setups.
Some of my clients are “silver surfers” and some of them have great difficulty double clicking because of certain medical conditions or even purely old age.
None of them are aware (until I tell them) that double clicking is not necessary. In fact it is not necessary to use a mouse or any other sort of pointing device at all.
And for those of us that have no problem (usually) with using a mouse it is useful to know how to continue on those occasions when the mouse stops working.
To adjust the double-click speed for your mouse
Left click Start, then Control Panel, then Printers and Other Hardware, and then click Mouse.
On the Buttons tab, under Double-click speed, drag the slider.
To test the speed, double-click the image in the test area. When you are happy with the speed, left click OK and exit the Control Panel.
To open items with a single click:
Left click Start, and then Control Panel.
Left click Appearance and Themes, and then Folder Options.
On the General tab, under Click items as follows, left click Single-click to open an item (point to select).
But if you don’t want to change the setup of the PC you are using there is an even simpler way:
Left click once to select (highlight) the icon that you want and then press the Enter (or Return) key on the keyboard to open it.
To open desktop items without using the mouse at all:
Press the “Windows” key on the keyboard (bottom left between Ctrl and Alt) and then press the “Esc” key (top left hand corner).
You will see a faint dotted box on the start button.
Hold down the shift key and press the Tab key once and the faint dotted box will move into the desktop items. It will actually be around the writing under the last icon that you previously selected, but will be difficult to spot until you:
Use the arrow keys (up, down, left and right) to move the highlight from icon to icon. (The dotted box will change to a proper highlight so that you can see it better).
When the icon that you want is highlighted press the Enter (or Return) key on the keyboard.
To open taskbar items without using the mouse at all:
Press the “Windows” key on the keyboard (bottom left between Ctrl and Alt) and then press the “Esc” key (top left hand corner).
You will see a faint dotted box on the start button.
Press the Tab key once and the faint dotted box will move into the first section of the taskbar.
Press Tab again and the highlight will move into the next section of the taskbar.
Eventually pressing Tab will move the highlight onto the desktop (see above) before returning to the Start button.
Within any section of the taskbar use the arrow keys (up, down, left and right) to move the highlight from icon to icon.
When the icon that you want is highlighted press the Enter (or Return) key on the keyboard.
To open things without icons on the desktop:
Press the “Windows” key to open the normal Start menu.
Then use the arrow keys (up, down, left and right) to move the highlight from item to item.
When the item that you want is highlighted press the Enter (or Return) key on the keyboard.
To switch off correctly when the mouse has failed:
And if you haven’t got a Windows key...
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Boot from a USB Drive
Modern motherboards can be configured to boot from a USB drive - that can be a Flash memory (thumb/pen) drive or a portable hard drive.
With the computer switched off, plug in the USB drive and then start the computer. Keep pressing F2 and Delete alternately during startup until the BIOS settings screen opens. (If the PC starts loading Windows then you have missed it!)
You need to go to the Boot section of the BIOS and check in the list of hard drives and removable drives to see if your USB drive is listed. If it is, then you need to modify the boot sequence so that your USB drive comes before the hard drive (but both should be after the CD drive). If it is not listed then your motherboard does not support USB booting.
Save the change and exit the BIOS. Your PC will then boot into Windows because you haven’t yet got an operating system on your USB drive.
Now you can download one of the many Linux Live CDs (Puppy, DSL, etc.), burn the ISO file to CD and then boot from the CD. Most of the Linux Live CDs have a simple option to install themselves on a USB drive. Just follow the instructions.
Booting Linux from a USB Flash drive is liberating - it loads in seconds and you don’t have any security worries - there are virtually no threats to Linux and even if there were, what would it matter - just wipe the drive and reinstall. You still have the CD and it’s all free anyway!
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