Windows NT Tips - Page 2

Desktop Cycler

Applications May Fail with Access Violation During File Open

RAS Uses Fixed TCP/IP MTU Size

• You are able to download data normally but you are not always able to upload data successfully.
• Your Internet mail or news reading programs may time out or stop responding (hang) when you attempt to send new messages.

No More Double-Click

Make the middle button of your 3-button mouse a double-click. Instructions and a simple utility are at http://www.windows-nt.com/tipsandinfo.

Whodunit

NT has a couple of nifty Easter eggs. Start NT 4.0's 3D Text (OpenGL) screen saver module by select-ing Properties from the Desktop's Context menu and clicking on the Screen Saver tab. Select 3D Text (OpenGL) from the list and click on the Settings button. Type I love NT, select OK and click on the Preview button, and the screen-saver text will say, "good?" Click on Settings again, type not evil, select OK and then click on the Preview button. A 3D screen saver will display the names of Windows NT 4.0 programmers. If you type volcano, select OK and click on the Preview button, you'll see the names of volcanoes in 3D.

Themes Like Old Times

If you have both NT and Windows 95 with the Plus Pack loaded on your C: drive, you can use your Desktop Themes under NT 4.0. Find THEMES.CPL and THEMES.EXE in Win95's C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory and copy them to C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32. Reboot your system. A Desktop Themes icon will appear in Control Panel.

CONVERTING FAT 32 DISK

In one a recent tip we mentioned that Windows NT can't use or view a FAT 32 disk formatted by Windows 95b. We suggested that the only way around the problem is to reformat the disk using FAT 16. This is the only route if you're using only utilities shipped with Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0. Jeffrey V. and several other readers have requested that we mention Partition Magic that will convert a disk from FAT 32 to FAT 16 and vice versa without having to go through a backup-and-restore cycle. We have not tried this utility ourselves and can only recommend that you investigate it.

BOOTING THE DEFAULT BOOT

When you use a dual-boot system, by default you'll boot into Windows NT 4.0. If you'd like to change this, click Start, then choose Settings|Control Panel. When the Control Panel opens, click the Startup/Shutdown tab. Next, click the down arrow at the right side of the Startup list box to expand the list. Now you can select the system you'd like to boot into by default. Note that you can also change the time the computer waits before booting the default system. When you finish making your selections, click OK to close the dialog box and store your new selection.

ADDING AN ADMINISTRATOR PASSWORD IN AN UNATTENDED SCRIPT

You can't conventionally add a password for an Administrator account in an unattended script. But you can put a Net Use Password /user:Administrator command in cmdlines.txt and place the net.exe file in the $OEM$ directory.

DELETING COM PORTS

There are times when you might want to get rid of a Com port--at least temporarily. To do this, click Start, Settings, Control Panel and double-click Ports. Click the port you want to delete to select it and then click Delete.

After you delete the port and restart the computer, you may find that you still get an error event associated with the offending port. This can happen because there's still information about the port in the Registry. If this happens to you, you need to eliminate the port using RegEdit.

To do this, run RegEdit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Serial\Parame ters. Under Parameters, you'll find each of your serial ports. Delete the one in question and choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit. Now restart the computer.

If the port is active, it could appear again in Control Panel, Ports. If this happens, the only thing you can do is run your BIOS CMOS Setup utility and turn off the port.

SOME THINGS LAST FOREVER

When you use Windows NT 4.0 along with other operating systems, you can tell the system how long to wait before booting into the default selection. You can set the time to as short or as long as you like (provided you like 0 to 999). If you want, you can even tell the system to take no action until you make a selection and press Enter.

To do this, run Windows NT Explorer and locate Boot.ini. Right-click Boot.ini and choose Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, deselect the Read-only check box and click Apply. Now click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.

Now double-click the Boot.ini icon to open it in Notepad. When the file opens, locate Timeout and change it to
Timeout = -1

Then save the file (File, Save) and restart the computer. Now the system will wait for you to make a selection until Miami freezes over.

KEEP IT RUNNING

If you'd like to hide Task Manager but still keep it running and ready for immediate use, here's how. Open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc. Next, choose Options, Hide When Minimized. Now you can run Task Manager and it won't take up space in the taskbar. To make it visible again, double-click its icon. It's a small bar graph display in the right side of the taskbar near the time display.

AUTO-DELETION

If you like to use Notepad to store notes for yourself while you work, here's something you may not have noticed. When you use cut and paste to move all the text from Notepad to your primary document, Notepad will then decline to save an empty document. It will delete the file instead, with your permission of course.

To take a look at how this works, add some text to a Notepad document and save it under a new name. Now select and cut the text and then choose File, Save. Because there's nothing left in the document to save, Notepad will offer to delete it.

PLANNING FOR DOMAIN GROWTH

When you're planning your company's NT domain model, make sure you give your domains the room they need to grow. Remember that every user, computer and group account in a NT domain takes up file space in the domain's SAM (Security Accounts Manager) database. Microsoft recommends that a domain's SAM database should be no larger than 40 Mb. Each user account uses 1Kb. Each computer account uses 500 bytes. Each group account uses 4 Kb. Therefore, a single NT domain could conceivably hold 40,000 user accounts or 25,000 user accounts, 14,000 computer accounts and 2,000 group accounts. If you use a single master domain model where all user and global group accounts are stored in the master domain and all computer and local group accounts are stored in the resource domains, you may need to implement multiple master domains if you have more than 40,000 users.

USE CAUTION WHEN SCALING RASTER FONTS

Windows NT includes a set of raster fonts. These are the fonts that you commonly use in the various parts of the system. They come in specific sizes. For example, you'll find MS Serif in 8, 10, 12, and 14 point sizes. Although you can use these fonts for any of your applications (and NT will scale them), they always look best in their supplied sizes. If you scale them more than one or two point sizes, they will become jagged looking. Here is a list of the Windows NT raster fonts.

• Courier
• MS Serif
• MS Sans Serif
• Small
• Symbol

EIGHTY-SIXING THE STARTUP SCREEN

In a recent tip we said that you can eliminate the startup screen by renaming winnt.bmp and winnt256.bmp files to winnt.old and winnt256.old. You can also use your own BMP files by naming them winnt.bmp and winnt256.bmp you can also use RegEdit to change the name of the file you want to use as a startup screen.

As usual, we must warn you that messing with the Registry can cause you some real headaches if you make a mistake. With that in mind, follow the procedure listed here very carefully.
Click Start, Run and type in
RegEdit

Now click OK or press Enter. Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop. In the right pane locate Wallpaper and double-click it to open the Edit String dialog box. The current value is most likely Default. Change it to the BMP file you want to use and click OK. Now choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit. Restart the computer and your new startup screen will appear.

If you don't want a startup screen, just delete Default in the Edit String dialog box and click OK. Now close RegEdit as described.

WHY DRAG?

You can print a document quickly if you put a shortcut to the printer on your desktop and drag a document icon to it. You can do the job even quicker if you put a printer shortcut into the Send To folder.

To do this, open Windows NT Explorer and navigate to Winnt\Profiles\Administrator\Send To (assuming you're the administrator). Now click Start, Settings, Printers. When the Printers window opens, hold down Ctrl and drag the printer icon to the Send To folder.

Now you can right-click a document icon and choose Send To, YourPrinter (or whatever you called your printer).

FORMATTING A DOS DISK

If you sometimes boot into MS-DOS, you should make a bootable floppy disk in case of problems. When you do, make sure to format the floppy disk from MS-DOS, not from the Windows NT command prompt. A disk formatted from the command prompt will not produce the correct Partition Boot Sector on the floppy disk.

Also, just in case you need to be reminded (you probably don't), you can't read an NTFS partition when you boot from an MS-DOS floppy disk.

ANOTHER WAY

A number of people have reported a problem with a recent tip. We said you could put Control Panel into the Start menu by creating a new folder and naming it Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}. This method works fine on systems we tested it on and we've been unable to duplicate the problems reported by readers.

However, since this causes a problem for some Windows NT 4.0 Workstation installations, we suggest that you add Control Panel to your desktop by opening My Computer and then right clicking the Control Panel. Next you select Create shortcut. We apologize to those who have had trouble with the original tip.

OH NO! MY DRIVE IS BAD?

Here's a bug that could cause some serious anxiety. Let's say you decide to go to the Command Prompt and type
Chkdsk n: /f
where "n" is a drive letter. Instead of getting what you expect in the Event Log, you get:
Event ID: 41
Source: Disk
Description: The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the Chkdsk utility on the device Device\Harddiskx\Partitionx with label x.

NOTE: X is the partition's volume label.

Don't get too excited; the problem is that Chkdsk displays the wrong message. The message should be:
Autochk will be run on this volume because user has selected it.

That's much better isn't it?

NAMING IT

If you've installed the Windows NT Resource Kit and decide to use the WinAT Command Scheduler, you could get the message:
"The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect."
Then, after you press OK a few times, WinAT will appear. The only problem is that when you try to use it, you get a Dr. Watson error.

This problem will occur when you install the Windows Resource Kit into a folder with a long file name. Unfortunately, WinAT can't handle those long file names.

To correct the problem (or to avoid it) install the Windows Resource Kit to a folder with a standard short name.

SEPARATE THE MEN FROM THE BOYS

You know that Windows NT won't read hard disks compressed in Windows 95. The same thing applies to compressed floppy disks created in Windows 95. However, Windows NT 4.0 will gladly format a compressed floppy disk. So if you run a dual system, you need to keep those NT and 95 disks separate.

ICON SEE CLEARLY NOW

Windows NT 4.0 will let you use .BMP files as icons. To check this out, right-click on a shortcut's icon, then choose Properties from the menu. When the dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab. Next, click Change Icon. When the next dialog box opens, click Browse. When the Change Icon dialog box opens, click on the Files of Type list box to expand it and choose All Files. Now locate a .BMP file that you'd like to try. There are several files in the \Winnt folder that you can use. Select the file and click Open. When the next dialog box appears, click OK. This takes you back to the Properties dialog box. Click OK to close this dialog box and to record your change.

FREE CHECKING ACCOUNT

You can check drive space in the Explorer by right-clicking on the drive in question, then choosing the Properties command from the menu that opens. The Properties dialog box will show you how much disk space is in use and how much remains for use. It also shows you a neat pie chart representation of the selected disk. This works for any drive: hard disk, floppy, CD, or removable.

SCENIC VIEW AHEAD

By default My Computer in Windows NT 4.0 doesn't display hidden and system files. Since you may need to see these files, open My Computer and choose View|Options and click the View tab. Now select the Show All Files radio button, then click OK.

EXTENSION PROBLEMS

The last tip showed you how to tell Windows NT 4.0 that you don't want to see extensions for known file types (View|Options|View tab).

This is great, but there is at least one particular problem: If you add an extension to one of these files thinking that you're changing the extension name, you could be mistaken. For example, if you have a file named Test.TXT, the extension won't show in the drive folder. If you then click on the name and type in .TXT, the file will be renamed to Test.TXT.TXT.

SMALL, MEDIUM OR LARGE?

Do those scrollbars seem a little too narrow at times? A bit hard to grab with the mouse pointer? If so, why not change the scrollbar size?

To modify the scrollbar in Windows NT 4.0, right-click on the desktop, then choose Properties. When the dialog box opens, click the Appearance tab. Click the arrow at the right of the Item list box to expand the list. Choose Scrollbar from the list, then use the Size spin box to set the scrollbar width. After you select the size you want, click OK to close the dialog box and record your changes.

TRACKING PAGEFILE SIZE FOR PEAK EFFICIENCY

If you'd like to see if your page files are optimum, try this: First, click Start|Settings|Control Panel. In the Control Panel, double- click System to open it, then click the Performance tab.

Now click Change under Virtual Memory. This will open the Virtual Memory dialog box. See how much initial memory is assigned in your system. Record the value, then click OK twice to back out of the dialog boxes.

Now go ahead with your work and at the end of each day open Windows NT Explorer and click once on Pagefile.SYS to see how large it is. Check this for a few days and if the file size is consistently larger than the initial size, you may want to change the initial size to make your system more efficient.

FULL OF YOURSELF

If you have some old MS-DOS applications that you simply must run, you might want to run them in full-screen mode. To switch an open MS-DOS window to full screen, press Alt+Enter. To get back to window mode, press Alt+Enter again.

FULL OF YOURSELF, II

If you have an MS-DOS program that you run full screen on a regular basis, create a shortcut for the program and while the MS-DOS window is in view, press Alt+Spacebar to open the Control menu. Choose Properties, then click the Options tab. Under Display Options, select the radio button labeled Full Screen. Now click OK to close the dialog box. In the next dialog box select the Apply Properties To Current Window Only radio button and click OK. Now your MS-DOS program will always open in full-screen mode.

SET YOUR MODEMS TO SPEED

Some Windows NT 4.0 users have reported a problem using 14.4K modems. If you use one, set the port speed to 19.2K. This will get around the problem. And it never hurts to set the port speed a bit higher than the actual modem speed.

NOWHERE TO AUTORUN

In the another tip, we pointed out that disabling Autorun can cause a problem if you play audio discs. Besides the CD problem, enabling Autorun can cause other problems. For example, if you use a disc changer, Autorun will force you to wait while it cycles through all the discs loaded in the changer.

Enabling or disabling Autorun requires you to edit the Registry. As usual, be careful when using RegEdit--you can seriously damage your installation--so make a backup. That said, here's how to enable and disable Autorun. Run RegEdit (it's in the \Winnt folder) and choose HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\ CDRom, then double-click the Autorun key in the right pane of the RegEdit window. This opens a dialog box into which you enter a value. To disable Autorun, enter 0; to enable it, enter 1. Now click OK to close the dialog box. When back in RegEdit, choose Registry|Exit to close the program and save the change.

PORTAGING

If you need to add a communication port to your computer, remember that Windows NT 4.0 is not a plug-and-play system. This means that you'll have to tell the system about your new port.

Let's say you've just plugged in a new serial card set to COM 3. The next thing to do is click Start|Settings|Control Panel. When Control Panel opens, double-click the Ports icon. Now click Add and add COM 3. Click Settings and choose the appropriate setting for your new card. When you're finished, click Close and restart the computer.

'ROUND, 'ROUND, I GET AROUND

The usual way of getting around in a window is to use the mouse, but it isn't the only way. Let's say you're in the Drive C window and the first folder is selected. If you want to move to the second folder, you can use the mouse to click the folder, or you can press the right arrow key. To open a folder, you can double-click it. If the folder is already selected, you can open it by simply pressing Enter.

GETTING ALONG

In Windows 95, if you go to the command prompt and type
md This is a test
you'll get an error message telling you that you're trying to enter too many parameters. If you enter the same thing at the Windows NT command prompt, you'll get folders named
c:\This
c:\is
c:\a
c:\test

In either Windows 95 or Windows NT, you can use quotes to create long folder names. For example, entering
md "This is a test"
will create a folder named This is a test in either system.

CLEANING UP CAREFULLY

If you're trying to clear out some unnecessary files, be careful in the root folder. For example, be sure not to accidentally delete Bootsect.DOS. This file contains the boot record for the alternate operating system in a dual-boot configuration. If you delete the file, you'll be unable to start your alternate system.

KEEP TIME YOUR WAY

If you'd like to change the time format of your Windows NT 4.0 installation, click Start|Settings|Control Panel and double-click Regional Settings. When the dialog box opens click the Time tab.

To change the time format, click the arrow at the right of the Time Style list box to expand the list. Choose the format you want from the list and click OK.
If you want to use 24-hour format, choose H:mm:ss.

HANDY NOTEPADS

NotePad is a handy text editor. It's so handy that you might like to keep it readily available. Perhaps you'd like to place a shortcut to it on your desktop.

If so, open Windows NT Explorer and locate the Winnt folder. In the right pane of Explorer, locate the Notepad.EXE icon and use the right mouse button to drag it to the desktop. When you release the mouse button, NT will open a menu from which you need to choose Create Shortcut(s) Here. Now NotePad will always be readily accessible.

A CRIB FOR YOUR PAD

In our last tip we explained how to create a desktop shortcut to NotePad (Right click Notepad.EXE, drag to desktop, choose Create Shortcut(s) Here). Would you like to have your NotePad shortcut to save files to a specific folder? If so, right-click the shortcut and choose the Properties command from the pop-up menu. In the Properties dialog box click the Shortcut tab. Now click in the Start In text box and type in the desired folder name and path. For example, if you want the files to save in the Data folder on Drive C, you'd enter
c:\Data
then click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.

If you need to choose between two folders, you can create another NotePad shortcut and set its Start In folder to another folder name. For example, if you enter
c:\Keep
the files will be saved to the Keep folder. Choose which shortcut to use depending on the folder in which you want to save the files.

You'll have to name the shortcuts differently of course. Something like Data Files and Keep Files will work.

COMMAND THE PROMPT COMMAND'S ATTENTION

You can change the command prompt during an MS-DOS session with the Prompt command. For example, you could type
What is your command? $P$G
to make the prompt look like this:
What is your command? C:\>
This prompt will remain in effect until you change it or close the command window.

If you'd like to change the prompt permanently, click Start|Settings|Control Panel and double-click System. Next, click the Environment tab and click in the Variable text box. Type Prompt, then click in the Value text box. In this box, you need to enter your new prompt text. Sticking with our original example, you could enter
What is your command? $P$G

Now click Add, then click OK to close the dialog box. When you open the command prompt window again, it will display your new default prompt.

SOME NT POINTERS

If you'd like to try some different mouse pointers, click Start|Settings|Control Panel and double-click the Mouse icon. Click the Pointers tab to see what pointers are currently in effect.

Let's say you want to change the Normal Select pointer. You can choose one of the pointers in the list, or you can choose a third-party cursor (provided you have some on your hard disk). To look for a pointer, click Browse, then locate and select an appropriate cursor (a *.CUR file). After you make a selection click Open, then OK.

DON'T START WITH AUTOEXEC.BAT

Windows NT 4.0 looks at the Autoexec.BAT file to read environment information. It doesn't act on any commands in the file. So if you want to start a file when Windows NT 4.0 starts, don't use Autoexec.BAT. Place the file you want to start in the Startup folder instead.

FINDING FILES

If you're working at the desktop and need to search for a file, you don't have to open Windows NT Explorer or My Computer. All you have to do is click a blank spot on the desktop, then press F3. This will open the Find dialog box that you can use to locate your file.

CHECKING UP ON YOUR START UP

If you need to see what drivers are being loaded as Windows NT 4.0 starts, you can use Boot.INI to tell NT to display the drivers.

When you edit the Boot.INI file, you need to first make sure you have a backup of the current file. Here's what we do: We rename Boot.INI to Boot.TXT. Next, open Boot.TXT with NotePad and make the changes. Finally, choose File|Save As, then select All Files from the Save As Type list box. Now name the file Boot.INI and save it. This keeps your original file in the form of Boot.TXT.

Now save the file as Boot.INI and restart your computer to see the drivers loading during start up.

START OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT

If you need to start a Win 16 application from the command prompt and would like to run it in its own memory space, type

where 'Drive' is the drive on which the file resides, 'Folder' is the name of the folder where the file is located, and 'App' is the name of the Win 16 executable file.

A GOLDEN RETRIEVER

You can use the Documents menu to revisit files that you've used recently. For example, if you've worked with several Word files, you'll find those files appear in the Documents menu. All you have to do to open one of them is click Start|Documents and select the file.

You may notice that some files don't appear in Documents. Chances are these are files that fail to properly register with NT. Only the files of applications that registered properly during setup will appear in the menu.

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE WIN.INI?

Windows NT 4.0 doesn't need, or use, Win.INI. All the information NT needs is in the Registry. If you install Windows NT 4.0 over a Windows 3.x installation, the setup program extracts needed information from Win.INI, System.INI, Progman.INI, Control.INI, Winfile.INI, and System.INI during the installation. Win.INI and System.INI remain only to provide backward compatibility with those older programs that need them.

POINT YOURSELF IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

If you start the Windows NT 3.51 File Manager in Windows NT 4.0, you'll probably get the message

File Manager Initialization: Unable to initialize background update support. File Manager will exit. The specified procedure could not be found.

File Manager will then close. What's happening is that the Windows NT 3.51 File Manager is not compatible with NT 4.0. There is a Version 4.0 File Manager. The file (Winfile.EXE) is dated 8/2/96 1:30 A.M. It's 250,640 bytes in length and is located in the Winnt\System32 folder. To double-check the file size, right-click the icon and choose Properties. Click the General tab to see the size in bytes.

This problem usually occurs when users set up shortcuts that point to the incorrect file. Make sure your shortcuts all point to the 8/26/96 version of File Manager.

MULTIPLE ASSOCIATIONS

Ever wish you could open a document with more than one application? Well, you can. Let's say you usually open text files with NotePad, but sometimes you'd like to open them using Word for Windows. To do this, open Explorer and choose View|Options. Then click File Types and locate the Text Document entry. Double-click the Text icon and when the dialog box opens, click New. In the Action text entry box, enter Open and the name of the application you want to use. In this case, you can enter Open (Word for Windows). Now click in the "Application used to perform action" text box and click Browse. Locate the application you want to use (Winword.EXE) and double-click its icon. Click OK, then click Close twice to close all the dialog boxes. To open the .TXT file with NotePad, just double-click the icon as usual. To open it with Word for Windows, right-click the document's icon and choose Open (Word for Windows).

ADDING TO SEND TO

If you right-click a file icon, then choose Send To, you get a menu of possible destinations. Did you know you can add items to this list? Just add a folder or application's shortcut to the C:\Winnt\Profiles\YourProfile\SendTo folder, in which YourProfile is the name of your profile folder. You should work only with your own Send To folder, even if you can access others.

To add an item to the Send To folder, locate the item's icon and drag it to the C:\Winnt\Profiles\YourProfile\SendTo folder. This will create a shortcut in the Send To folder.

FINDERS KEEPERS

If you've just ran a Find that you know you'll need again, keep it around for future use. It's a lot quicker than having to type in all those conditions again.

Once you've completed your search, choose File|Save Search. Doing so places an icon that represents that Find on the desktop. (Of course, you can move it wherever you want, such as into a folder you've set up for Finds.) To conduct the same search in the future, double-click the shortcut. Find will open with all the conditions set--all you have to do is click Find.