Windows NT 4.0 USA Tips

MICROSOFT'S POWERTOYS

We've mentioned in the past that TweakUI from PowerToys works in Windows NT 4.0. You can also use FlexiCD and DeskMenu. FlexiCD places an icon in the taskbar from which you can control your audio discs. DeskMenu places an icon in the taskbar that will give you access to the desktop from a menu on the toolbar. To install t hese two utilities, put your PowerToys disk into Drive A and right-click on Deskmenu.inf. When the menu opens, select Install. To install FlexiCD, open the PowerToys floppy, right-click on Flexicd.inf, and choose Install from the menu. What's not supported in Windows NT 4.0? Clock, Tapinta, QuickRes, and Xmouse.

MORE POWERTOYS

Here are some more of the PowerToys collection of utilities that will run in Windows NT, along with the ones we've already discussed (TweakUI, DeskMenu, and FlexiCD).
Cabview -allows you to view cabinet files
SendTo X -adds extra SendTo commands
Send To Any Folder
Send To Clipboard as Contents
Send To Clipboard as Name
Send To Command Line
FindX - Lets you add custom commands to your Find menu. To start you off,  FindX ships with: Find On the Internet (requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 or 4.0) Find In the Knowledge Base -- Lets you access Microsoft's online database.
Find Address - Requires Microsoft Exchange
Find Email Message - Also requires Microsoft Exchange
DOSHere - Lets you right-click on a folder and start an MS-DOS prompt right there.

COPY PROBLEM

If you sometimes use the command prompt, here's a problem you need to know about. When you use the Copy command at the Windows NT 4.0 command prompt, it will fail to warn you when you're about to copy over a file of the same name. This is a bug, and Microsoft will probably announce a fix one of these days. In the meantime, just make sure what files are in the target folder before you start copying.

BOOT PROBLEMS WITH PROSIGNIA SERVER

Here's one we thought you might like to know about just in case you have a Compaq Prosignia server. It appears that if you have a disc in the first CD-ROM drive, the computer may hang waiting for the CD to boot. The computer will then refuse to boot until you remove the disc from the drive.To correct the problem, change the CMOS settings to boot from the hard disk first, then Drive A, and then the CD-ROM drive. If you must boot from Drive A to correct a problem, go into the CMOS and temporarily set it to Drive A first.

KEEP THAT EMERGENCY RECOVERY DISK

Here's a doubly safe way to be ready in case of emergency. Let the system make an Emergency Recovery Disk (ERD) for you during installation, and then keep that disk. As you work with Windows NT, you should use Rdisk to make a new ERD, but use a new disk, not the one you made during installation. This way, you'll have an up-to-date disk and an original configuration disk

SOUND FILES AND WINDOWS NT 4.0

People often like to use special sound files (Beavis and Butthead, Monty Python, President Clinton, etc.) to mark certain Windows events. If you acquire some sound files that you intend to use with your Windows NT installation, copy the files into the \Winnt\Media folder. This is where Windows NT looks for its sound files, and putting them there to start with can save you a lot of trouble.. By the way, for shut down with a bang, there's a great scream in "A Christmas Story."

A GOOD FONT UTILITY

There's a useful utility called ShowFonts that is very handy for those of us with a large font collection. ShowFonts lets you print a list with samples of all your fonts without having to load and print each one separately. ShowFonts is freeware. The file is 452KB long. You'll find it at
http://hem.passagen.se/nmw/program/showfonts/showfonts.htm

PROPERTIES ON THE FLY

You don't necessarily have to open a folder or Windows NT Explorer to check a file's properties. You can check the item in the Start menu as well. Click on Start, Programs, and then select one you'd like to check and right-click on its icon in the menu. When the menu opens, choose Properties. This is a helpful method to employ when you want to find a file's location. Right-click on it in the Start menu, choose Properties, and then click on the Shortcut tab. In Shortcut, click on Find Target and Windows NT will take you there.

NO STARTUP SCREEN

You may have heard that you can eliminate, or change, the Windows 95 startup and shutdown screens. You never hear anything about Windows NT, though. Windows NT doesn't have a shutdown screen, but it does have a startup screen. If you'd like to eliminate this screen completely, open Windows NT Explorer and locate the Winnt folder. Now find the winnt.bmp and winnt256.bmp files and rename them. You can just change the extension if you like and name them winnt.old and winnt256.old. Of course, you can also substitute another .BMP file to make your own startup screen. Perhaps you'd like to use the company logo, or some personal photographs. To do this, copy your selected file into the Winnt folder and name it Winnt256.bmp. If your system is running at 256 or more colors, then you don't need to worry about winnt.bmp.

SPECIAL WALLPAPER

If you use no wallpaper and no background pattern, then your desktop icon titles will use the default background color. If you decide to use wallpaper, your icon titles will continue to use the default background colors, which usually won't match the wallpaper color. If you'd like to make the title backgrounds match the wallpaper, run Microsoft Paint and load your wallpaper file (it's in the Winnt folder). We used Solstice as our example wallpaper. Now, select the Pick Up tool (it looks like an eyedropper) and click on what appears to be the most prevalent wallpaper color. Next, choose Options, Edit Colors, and then click on Define Custom Colors. In this dialog box, you'll see values for the primary colors (red, green, and blue). Copy these values and close Paint. Next, right-click on the desktop and choose Properties. Then, click on the Appearance tab. Now click on the arrow beside the Color list box to expand it and then click on Other. Double-click on the Red value and change it to the value you copied from Microsoft Paint. Press Tab to get to, and select, the Green value and enter the copied green value. Then press Tab again to get to the Blue value and type that in. Click on OK, and when you get back to the Display Properties dialog box click on OK again. Now your icon title colors will match the wallpaper colors (the color you selected anyway). Of course, the busier the wallpaper, the harder it is to get a good match, but at least you won't have blue on brown.

A SIMPLE TERMINAL PROGRAM

If you don't spend a great amount of time connecting to bulletin boards, you might want to consider using HyperTerminal for your connections. HyperTerminal can do a creditable job of reading information and downloading and uploading files. If HyperTerminal isn't installed on your computer, click on Star, Settings, Control Panel, and double-click on Add/Remove Programs. When the dialog box opens, click on the Windows NT Setup tab. Double-click on Communications and select HyperTerminal. Click on OK. and when you get back to the Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box, click on OK again to start the installation. You'll need to put your Windows NT 4.0 CD into the CD-ROM drive. To set up HyperTerminal, click on Start, Programs, Accessories, HyperTerminal, HyperTerminal and then type in a name for your new connection. Now type in the phone number and click on OK. Next, click on Modify and add all the necessary information (this is dependent on your setup). When you've entered all the parameters, let HyperTerminal dial the number and connect to that BBS.

QUICK CONTROL PANEL

Several readers have asked about adding the Control Panel to the Start menu so that it directly displays the components rather than having to go to Settings and then open Control Panel. You can place individual Control Panel items into the Start menu quite easily. To do this, open Control Panel and select the items that you most often use. Drag those items to the Start button and release the mouse button. Now they'll appear in the Start menu for immediate use. This will work for only a few Control Panel items, because putting them all in the Start menu would make it too crowded. However, consider this: Most people frequently use Add/Remove Programs, System, and perhaps Date/Time. The others are generally used very infrequently.

QUICK BACKUP

If you commonly use Ntbackup to back up a single folder, you might like to create a simple batch file to handle the job for you. Suppose you'd like to make a daily backup of a folder named Data. Open notepad and enter ntbackup backup c:\data /a /v /d"Data Folder" /hc:on /t daily where /a tells the program to append the data, /v turns on the Verify operation, /d "Data Folder" is the name you want to assign, /hc:on turns on hardware compression (if available), and /t:daily specifies the backup type. Give your new batch file a name--back.bat will do--and save it. Now you can open Windows NT Explorer and use the right mouse button to drag the icon to the desktop. Release the mouse button and choose Create Shortcut(s) Here. Right-click on the shortcut and choose Properties. Click on the Shortcut tab and then choose Run Minimized. Click on OK to close the dialog box. Now you can double-click on the Back icon (shortcut) to back up your data. Of course, you do have to have a usable tape in the drive before you run Back.

PRINTER MEMORY

In some cases, Windows NT can assign more memory to the printer than the printer has installed. When this happens, NT will attempt to send more data than the printer can accept. If you just installed a printer and are getting errors, you should check the memory assignment. To check the memory, click on Start and choose Settings, Printers. Click on the printer to select it and then press Enter. This opens the printer dialog box. Choose Printer, Properties and then click on the Device Settings tab. Select Installed Memory and modify it if necessary. When finished, click on OK and then close the Printer dialog box.

STOP CONDITIONS

What do you do when you get a Stop condition in Windows NT? Well, you've got a few options. You can ask NT to record the Stop condition in the Event log. You can also tell NT to send a message to the administrators. Or perhaps you'd like to write debugging info. Finally, you can tell NT to reboot. If you choose to record the condition, the log will store the time of the event along with details of the event. You can choose to send a message to the administrators only if Alerter has been started. Perhaps the best choice is to reboot. With this option selected, resources such as printers are available immediately after the crash. There are some drawbacks to this choice however:
1. It may not be apparent that there's been a crash.
2. Less information gets entered into the Event log.
To make your choices, click on Start and choose Control Panel. Double-click on System and then click on the Startup/Shutdown tab. Make your selections under Recovery and then click on OK.

SORTING IT OUT

Did you know you can customize the DIR command? You can set the DIR sort options so that when you do a DIR, the files will appear in the order you specify. To do this, type Set dircmd=/o:xxx /a at the command prompt. For xxx substitute from the following list:
N - sorts by name
E - sorts by extension
D - sorts by date
S - sorts by size
A - sorts by last access date
G - sorts by groups directories first To group the directories first and then sort by name, and then by date, you'd enter Set dircmd=/o:GND /a
To force a reverse order, use a minus sign before the letter. The command Set dircmd=/o:-N /a
Will tell DIR to sort by name starting with Z moving to A.

ADD A MESSAGE

Would you like to add a message to your Windows NT 4.0 startup? If so, you can do the job with RegEdit. As usual, we must warn you that you can damage your installation using RegEdit. So, you should be very careful when following the steps shown here. Run RegEdit and select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon. Look in the right pane for LegalNoticeText. If the string exists, double-click on its icon and then add your text. Click on OK and close RegEdit. Restart to see the changes. If you don't see LegalNoticeText in the right pane, you'll have to create it. Click in the right pane and then choose Edit, New, String Value. Name it LegalNoticeText, add your text, and click on OK. Close RegEdit and restart the computer.

ADD A TITLE

In the last tip we showed you how to add a message to your Windows NT startup. You can use the same procedure to add a title to your message dialog box. Once again, be careful when using RegEdit. Run RegEdit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon. This time, look in the right pane for LegalNoticeCaption. If it's there, double-click on it and add the text you want to appear in the title bar of the legal notice dialog box. If LegalNoticeCaption doesn't appear in the right pane, click in the right pane and then choose Edit, New, String Value. Name it LegalNoticeCaption and then add your text and click on OK. After you finish, close RegEdit and restart the computer.

MS-DOS PROBLEMS

If you have a problem running an old DOS application, first check Autoexec.nt and Config.nt to make sure the environment is set properly. If the program still won't run from the command prompt, try using Forcedos. Type at the command promptForcedos yourApp where yourApp is the full path and name of the application. You may find this method particularly helpful if you'd like to run some old MS-DOS games.

IMPROVING SPEED

Many people install a new processor to increase their system speed. In most cases, this means a new motherboard, or perhaps even a new bare computer. And this is where you can run into trouble: When you purchase a new motherboard or a new bare computer and then use the old drives, video, and so on, you may find that the new system isn't as peppy as you thought it would be. If you're really serious about increasing the speed of one or more of your systems, take a really good look at your video and hard disk requirements. Windows NT uses the hard disk extensively, so the faster the better. When it comes to video, the quicker you can get something on the screen, the quicker NT can go about its other business. The point is, don't depend on processor speed alone--moving from 166 MHz to 233 MHz won't necessarily be very impressive unless you address the hard disk and video speeds too.

PAGING FILE TIP

One way to speed up your Windows NT system is to place the paging file on some disk other than the system disk. The reason this results in faster operation is that the system files are accessed very frequently and so is the paging file. If you place the paging file on a different disk, you split up the work a bit. You'll see an even greater speed increase if your system has a separate controller for each drive. And you'll see still more improvement if your controller can perform simultaneous reads and writes.

EVENT VIEWER

Many Windows NT users never think of the Event Viewer until there's a rather serious problem somewhere. Don't wait for a major problem--you can get an idea of how your system is running by simply checking the Event Viewer now and then. To open Event Viewer, click on Start, Programs, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer. Look for events with red or yellow icons. These icons represent potential problem events (red is an error, yellow is a warning). To see the details of an event, double-click on it. A recent check of the Event Viewer on one of our machines turned up several occurrences of yellow and red icons. Double-clicking on one of the red ones provided this information: The control registers for COM2 overlaps with the COM4 control registers.(This isn't really a problem unless we try to run COM2 and COM4 at the same time.) Double-clicking a yellow icon produced the message:A data error occurred on the tape. Using error correction to recover data. From device: \Device\q117i0 We didn't know this error occurred. It's something to keep in mind, but it may never occur again. Keep the Event Viewer in mind--it can help you avoid future problems.

AUTO LOG-ON

If you use Windows NT 4.0, you can set automatic log-on using TweakUI. If you're still using Windows NT 3.51 (or if you use 4.0 and don't have TweakUI) you can do the same with some Registry editing.Keeping in mind the usual warnings about making changes to the Registry, run RegEdit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon. Look in the right pane for AutoAdminLogon. If it's there, double-click on it and change the value to 1. If it isn't there, choose Edit, New, String Value (NT 4.0) or Edit, String Value (NT 3.51). Name the new value AutoAdminLogon and give it the value 1. For the Auto log-on to work, you have to add your password. Look for DefaultPassword in the right pane. If it isn't there, create it by choosing Edit, New, String Value (4.0) or Edit , Add Value (3.51). Assign your password to it. Now you can close RegEdit and restart the computer. Note that you've just destroyed most of your security since anyone can now log on. Only do this if security isn't a problem for you.

USING TOGGLEKEYS

It's easy to accidentally hit the Caps Lock key without realizing it. The next thing you know, you're generating some strange-looking text. sOMETHING LIKE THIS. You can eliminate this problem by using ToggleKeys. It's part of the Accessibility Options. Click on Start, Settings, Control Panel. Double-click on Accessibility Options and then select Use ToggleKeys. Click on Apply and then on OK. Now when you press Caps Lock, you'll get a beep to let you know that's what you've done. You'll also get a beep when you press Num Lock or Scroll Lock.

TASK MANAGER AT THE READY

If you use Task Manger frequently, you can keep it ready for quick use. Open the Task Manger by pressing Ctrl-Shift-Esc. Now choose Options, Hide When Minimized. Task Manager will remain active, but it won't take up much taskbar space--just a tiny little icon. To use Task Manager, locate its tiny icon (a small bar graph display) in the right side of the taskbar near the time display and double click. You may also notice that you can move the mouse pointer over the icon and the tool tip will report CPU usage.

EDITOR CHANGE

Windows NT 4.0 Workstation uses NotePad as the default batch file editor. However, many people have become accustomed to the old MS-DOS Edit program. If you fall into this group, you can make Edit.com your default editor. All you have to do is make a change to the Registry. Click on Start, Run, type in RegEdit and click on OK. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\batfile\shell\edit\command. In the right pane, double-click on the Default icon to open the Edit String dialog box. Type in e:\winnt\system32\edit.com and click on OK. Choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit and then restart the computer. Now when you right-click on a batch file and choose Edit, the file will open in Edit.com.

MAKE A BOOT FLOPPY

NT Workstation 4.0, 3.51
There are times when Windows NT won't start, and you know why it won't start. Suppose Ntdetect.com is bad. When you try to boot the computer, you get an error message telling you that the system can't find, or load, Ntdetect.When something like this happens, you can go through the usual procedures to restore the system. But since you know what's wrong, you can get running again more quickly if you have a boot floppy.To create a boot floppy, insert a floppy disk into Drive A. Right-click on the floppy disk icon and choose Format. Format the disk using Full Format (just to be safe). Now open Windows NT Explorer and click on the root folder (usually C:\). Copy the following files to the floppy disk:
Boot.ini
Ntdetect.com
Bootsect.dos (for dual start-up installations)
NTLDR
Ntbootdd.sys (if it's in the root folder, copy it)
If you don't see these files in your root folder, choose View, Options in Windows NT Explorer. Select the radio button labeled Show All Files. Now click on Apply and then OK. Now you should see the files. If you don't, press F5 and look again.Using the boot floppy, you can boot into your damaged system and make the appropriate repairs.

SYSINFO PROGRAM

NT Workstation 4.0
If you use Office 95 or Office 97, you might like to check out the Office System Information utility. Open Word, or some other application, and choose Help, About . . . . Now click on System Info to see a rather complete display of information about your system.You can select the areas that you want to view and print the information using System Info.

HOW MUCH MEMORY DOES IT USE?

NT Workstation 4.0
This is a question that many new Windows NT 4.0 users ask. The easiest way to tell how much memory a given application uses is to run the application and then press Ctrl-Shift-Esc to open Task Manager. Click on the Processes tab and then locate your application in the list. We found that Winword.exe was using about 6MB of memory just sitting around doing nothing in particular. To close Task Manager, click on the Close box.

DISK DRIVE PROBLEMS

NT Workstation 4.0
If you're about to install Windows NT 4.0 on a computer, check to make sure how the hard disk is set up. If the disk drive exceeds 1024 cylinders (most do these days) make sure you format and partition the disk with LBA enabled.You can have some serious problems if LBA is applied to a disk formatted when LBA was disabled. You'll most likely get a Stop error telling you that the boot device is not accessible.If this happens to you after you've been running a hard disk for a while, the problem is more likely to be a corrupt partition boot sector.

NT Workstation 4.0
If you suddenly get a corrupt partition boot sector error after you've been running a hard disk for an extended period of time, you may wonder how it happens. One cause (one we recently encountered) is a defective disk controller. However, hardware isn't necessarily the problem. There is a chance that some software can corrupt the partition boot sector.So how do you identify the problem? You can try to eliminate one factor at a time. It could be the hard disk; try another one. It could be the controller; try another controller if possible.

QUICK PATH IN MS-DOS

NT Workstation 4.0
If you use the command prompt frequently. You can open Windows NT Explorer and drag a file you want to run to the command prompt window. This will enter the complete file name (path + file name) at the command prompt. All you have to do is click in the command prompt window to activate it and then press Enter.

ADDING CONTROL PANEL TO THE START MENU
NT Workstation 4.0
Right-click on Start and choose Open. Right-click on the Start Menu window, and then select New, Folder. When the new folder appears, give it the following name (you must type the name exactly as shown here): Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} Now click on Start and Control Panel will be the first item (top of the list). When you move your mouse over the new Control Panel folder, a cascading menu of all your system's Control Panels will appear.

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\Parameters. 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.

QUICK CONTROLPANEL 2

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, subscriber K. L. suggests 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.

STARTUP SCREEN ANOTHER

SEND TO FOLDER = PRINT

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).

SEMI-AUTOMATIC, ALMOST INVISIBLE BACKUPS

The difference is that you can run a program in a command prompt window by simply typing its name and pressing Enter. When you use the Start command, however, you run a program in a NEW command prompt window by entering Start ProgramName and pressing Enter. For example, if you want to run a program named program.exe, you can simply type program at the command prompt and the program will run. Let's try this with xcopy. Open the command prompt window and go to the root folder (type md c:\test and press Enter). Now type xcopy c:\data c:\test Press Enter and xcopy will run and copy c:\data to c:\test. Now let's use Start. Open a command prompt window and type Start xcopy c:\data c:\test and press Enter. This time, xcopy will run in a separate command prompt window. You can continue to use the original window to perform other work.

MOONLIGHT PRINTING

MY COMPUTER TELLS ALL

RENAME RECYCLE BIN

HOW MANY DOS PROGRAMS DO YOU WANT TO RUN?

DOUBLING COMMANDS

A SAVING STEP

CRITTERS AND SCOTTIES

WHAT KIND OF MEMORY?

In the last tip, we listed some Windows NT keyboard shortcuts. Two of them deal with the Print Screen command. If you press Print Screen, NT copies the entire window to the Clipboard; if you press Alt-Print Screen, NT copies only the active window to the Clipboard.

I COMMAND IT

If you need to use the Command Prompt frequently, here's a feature that can help make your life easier. Let's say you've been working with some MS-DOS programs, and by this time you've entered quite a few commands. If you'd like to reuse some of those commands, or at least see what you've done, press F7. Your command history will pop up in the Command Prompt window. You can scroll through the commands and press Enter to execute a selected command.

WORKING WITH BOOT.INI

Copy Boot.ini to a file named Boot.txt. Then make Boot.txt a read-only file. Using Windows NT Explorer, right-click Boot.txt and choose Properties. When the dialog box opens, select Read Only and click OK. Now select Boot.ini and choose Properties, this time deselecting Read Only; click OK.
>From this point on, we open Boot.txt with NotePad and edit the file. Then we save the file (File, Save As) as Boot.ini. If you like, you can right-click Boot.ini and make it a read-only system file. However, it isn't really necessary, since Boot.txt is read-only and thus protected from inadvertent modification.
However you choose to do it, the main goal is to protect your original read-only file.

ONLY A SINGLE CLICK AWAY

Here's a neat trick from subscriber R.H. If you click Start, hold down the mouse button, and drag the pointer to the program you want to run, that program will launch as soon as you release the mouse button. It doesn't seem to matter how deep you have to go to locate your program. All you have to do is keep that mouse button down until you reach your program.

SHORTCUTTING THE SHORTCUT

If you liked the single-pane version of Explorer that we discussed in the last tip, you might like to put a shortcut on the desktop that will open the single-pane version for you.
Open Windows NT Explorer and navigate to \Winnt and locate Explorer.exe. Use the mouse to drag the Explorer.exe icon to the desktop to create a shortcut. Now right-click the shortcut and choose Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab. Now click the Target text entry box and enter
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe ..
(one space and two periods) to open a single-pane Explorer at the root folder of your Windows NT drive.

PAGING FILE SIZE

For the best performance, you should set the initial paging file size to 12MB more than your system RAM. To check or modify the paging file settings, right-click My Computer and choose Properties. When the System dialog box opens, click the Performance tab, click Virtual Memory, then Change to check your current settings. If the initial setting isn't the desired RAM + 12MB, select the drive on which you want the paging file to appear (or the one it's currently on) and type in Initial and Maximum settings. This should be RAM + 12MB for Initial and more, if you like, for Maximum (watch that hard disk space though). Now click Set and then click Close to close the dialog box and record your change. You'll have to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

MS-DOS AND WINDOWS NT 4.0

In a recent tip, we mentioned that you can't view an NTFS partition when you boot the computer from an MS-DOS floppy. And we were correct. However, subscriber V. points out that you can get some software that will allow you to view that NTFS partition after an MS-DOS boot.
The software is called NTFSDOS and you'll find it at
http://www.ntinternals.com/ntfs20.htm
After you download and extract the file (it's a ZIP file), format an MS-DOS floppy with the system (format a: /s using MS-DOS--not Windows NT). Now copy the two extracted files (ntfsdos.exe and ntfshlp.vxd) to the floppy. When you restart with the floppy in Drive A, you'll be able to view the NTFS partition. You won't be able to make changes, but you can view it.

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

If you're just now getting interested in working with voice and sounds, you have the perfect starting point already on your hard disk. Let's say you'd like to record some sound bites from some of your CDs. Here's how.
Put the audio disk into the CD-ROM drive and open the CD Player (it will probably open automatically; if it does, click the Stop button). Now open the Recorder (Start, Programs, Accessories, Multimedia, Sound Recorder). Now click Record on the Sound Recorder and then click Play on the CD Player. Watch the graphical indicator on the Sound Recorder. If you see some of the waveforms flatten out, the record volume is too high. Choose Edit, Audio Properties, and when the dialog box opens, reduce the Recording volume. Note: If the waveform is flattening out, your sound file will be distorted.
The recording time is entirely dependent on your system memory. With 64MB of RAM installed, we can record 150 seconds (stereo, 16 bits, 44100 samples per second). You can also get more recording time if you reduce the sound requirements. To do this, choose Edit, Audio Properties and click the arrow at the right side of the Preferred Quality list box. Choose Radio Quality and click OK.
Alternatively, you can click Customize and then choose the audio parameters from the Customize dialog box. Click OK when you're finished and then click OK again to close the Audio Properties dialog box.
If you have a microphone or tape player, you can try working with both. To use a tape player, you'll need an adapter to connect both the right and left channel cables to the type of connector used by your sound card. You can get these adapters at Radio Shack. The adapter plugs into the Line input on the sound card.
The Sound Recorder is far from a full-featured digital recorder, but it does a great job with sound bites and comments. And it's a great way to get started.

AUTOMATIC MS-DOS?

Right-click the Start button and choose Open. When the window opens, double-click the Programs icon. Now right-click the Command Prompt icon and choose Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab. Now click in the entry box labeled Shortcut Key and type D (or whatever key you want to assign). When you do, Windows NT will finish the line, making it Ctrl-Alt-D. Click OK to save your change and close the dialog box.
Now you can open the command prompt window by simply pressing Ctrl-Alt-D.

LOST PASSWORD

Click Start and choose Run. Type in regedit and press Enter.
Navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Ratings.
In the right pane, you'll see Key and a string of hexnumbers. Click Key to select it and then press Del. Click Yes when the Confirm dialog box appears. Now choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit.
Note: If you don't find Ratings where we describe it, run RegEdit and choose Edit, Find. Type in Ratings and click Find Next. This will locate the folder for you. The remainder of the procedure is the same.

WinAT Command label syntax is incorrect

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.

DISK FULL ERD FILES

What to do when the files for your Emergency Repair Disk won't fit on a floppy disk. You have a few options depending on your hardware. For example, if you have a Zip drive (or some other large removable disk drive), you can put your emergency files there. A rewritable CD is another possible location for those emergency files. If you have only a floppy disk drive to work with, you can use Backup to hold the files. Backup will prompt you to insert disks as needed. You'll find the Emergency Repair files in \Winnt\Repair.

A NEW LOGO

The Windows NT 4.0 startup logo is in the \Winnt folder. There are actually two of them: Winnt.bmp and Winnt256.bmp. Winnt.bmp is used if your video system doesn't handle at least 256 colors. Otherwise, Winnt256.bmp is used. Since most people now have systems that handle more than 256 colors, the file name to use is Winnt256.bmp. If you'd like to use a different BMP file, simply click once on the name tag of Winnt256.bmp. Wait a second or so and then click again. Now you can change the file's name. We used "Winnt256.old." The system will ask if you want to change the extension; click Yes.
Now locate the BMP file you want to use, and name it "Winnt256.bmp." Move this file to \Winnt. You can use a file of almost any size, but for it to appear normal, it needs to be no larger than your screen. So, if your screen is 800 by 600, you should use a file of that size or less.
After you have your new file in place, restart the computer to view it as a startup logo. Note: If you choose Close All Programs and Log On as a New User, the logo may appear only very briefly. You need to restart the computer to get a good look at the new startup logo.

HANDY DESKTOP

Windows NT Workstation 4.0 In a recent tip, we described a way to put a desktop icon in the taskbar. Several readers suggested a better way than ours. Run Windows NT Explorer and go to \Winnt\Profiles\Username\Desktop (where Username is the name you use in Win NT). Now right-click Start and choose Open. Use the right-mouse button to drag the Desktop icon from Windows NT Explorer to the Start menu. Release the mouse button and, when the menu appears, choose Copy.
This procedure produces a Start menu item that acts like a standard Start menu item. That is, when you move the mouse pointer over the item, a submenu opens.

CALL IT IN

Use Briefcase from a remote laptop using Windows 95. Yes, you can--as long as you have RAS installed so you can call in to your Windows NT Workstation 4.0 system.
Before you leave on that trip, put the necessary documents into the Briefcase on the laptop. Now, call your system and move the Briefcase to a location on the NT system. Note that the Briefcase icon will disappear from the laptop. This is normal.
Now make a few minor changes to the document on your laptop. Call your system now and open the Briefcase on the system computer. Now you can update the Briefcase to get your files in sync. And there's always this to consider: If it works when you call from another room, it will work just as well when you call from Margaritaville.

DO IT LONG DISTANCE

If you're away from the office and would like to add another file to your Briefcase, you can simply access the office system and move your new file into the remote Briefcase. There's no reason to copy the Briefcase to the laptop and then move it back to the system computer. To enable this, make sure before you catch the plane that you have access to all the necessary folders from a remote site.

SWITCH IT ON

The basic syntax is
Explorer [/n][/e][,/root,(object)][[,/select],(sub object)]
/n opens a new single-paned window (as we reported in a recent tip).
/e opens Explorer in the standard view at the current folder.
/root,(object) opens at the specified root level.
/Select, Folder tells Explorer which folder gets the focus.
/select,(filename) tells Explorer which file gets the focus.
If you want to open Explorer in desktop view, right-click the Windows NT Explorer shortcut and choose Properties. Now click the Shortcut tab and enter
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,/root,
into the Target text entry box and click OK.
Let's suppose that you'd like Explorer to open in your data folder. Right-click the Explorer icon and choose Properties. Click the Shortcut tab and enter
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /select, c:\data
and click OK. To open Explorer in the data folder, enter
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e /select, c:\data
and click OK.
You can even have Explorer select a specific file for you. For example, if you'd like to select the Calculator when Explorer opens, you'd right-click the Explorer icon, choose Properties, click the Shortcut tab, and enter
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /select,c:\winnt\system32\calc.exe
If your installation isn't on Drive C, enter the drive letter that you use.

AUTORUN NOT!

MENU DELAY

AUTOMATIC LOGON

USING WILDCARDS IN COMMANDPROMPT

Let's suppose, for example, that you're in the root directory of drive C and you'd like to move to the Program Files directory (folder). You can type
cd\prog*
press Enter, and there you are.
What if you have more than one match? Don't worry--NT won't get confused and hang up; you'll simply end up at the first folder that matches the wildcard specs. You can check this out, if you like. Open the Command Prompt window and (from the root), type
md "Program Files and Much More"
If you now enter
cd\prog*
as before, you'll still end up at c:\Program Files. But if you type
cd\prog*mu*
and press Enter, Windows NT will take you to c:\Program Files and Much More.
When you finish with your testing, you may want to get rid of that new directory. To do this, go to the root directory (cd\) and type
rd \"Program Files and Much More"
then press Enter.

CHANGE STARTUPLOGO

This method requires you to modify some Registry settings. As usual, we must caution you that incorrect Registry settings can disable your system. Be careful.
Click Start, Run, type
regedit
and click OK. When RegEdit opens, navigate to
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop
In the right pane, look for the Wallpaper string. Double-click the Wallpaper icon and then enter the full name of the file you want to use in place of the default. Note that you must enter the full path and name. For example, if you have a file in the c:\Pictures folder that you'd like to use as a logo, you'd enter
c:\pictures\newWall.bmp
After you type in the new name, click OK. Now close RegEdit (Registry,
Exit).

RUNWAY

This is an especially useful technique when you want to open a network drive quickly. Let's say that you need to access a folder named Remote on a computer named PCWorld. You'd click Start, Run and type in
\\PCworld\Remote.
When you click OK, the remote folder will open.
You can also open a local folder using Run. If you click Start, Run and enter
c:\data
when you click OK, the Data folder will open.

QUIT IT! STARTUP PROGRAM

regedit
and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and look at the Run string in the right pane. Make a note of the key and its contents in case you need to replace them later. Now, select the string's icon and then press Delete (make sure you don't change or delete any of the other strings in Run). Close RegEdit (Registry, Exit) and restart the computer. That pesky program should not appear.
Note: There may be other locations that could affect the program. This depends on your User setup. You can run RegEdit and do a search for the offending string to see if other identical strings exist. You can then delete each of them. Don't forget to record the location and value for later replacement should that become necessary.

SELECTING AN INPUT TO SOUNDCARD

You may find that your sound card doesn't accept input from the Line or the Mic. You can change these settings. Click Start, Programs, Accessories, Multimedia, Volume Control. When Volume Control opens, choose Options, Properties. This opens a dialog box from which you can select the inputs you want to use. After you make the selections, click OK. This takes you back to the Volume Control panel. Now select the input device that you want to activate and close the Volume Control panel by clicking its Close box (the X in the upper-right corner).

BRIEFCASES EVERYWHERE

What if you have a Briefcase that you'd like to use on more than one computer?
Yes. All you need to do is right-click the (populated) Briefcase and select Create Shortcut. Do this as many times as you need Briefcases. Now rename the Briefcase shortcuts to match the computer on which they will reside (this isn't absolutely necessary, but it will help you keep track of which belongs where).
Now log on to the networks (or network) where each will reside and drag the appropriate Briefcase to the network. Repeat as needed.

CHANGE THE CD-ROM DRIVE

What to do about playing music after you add a new CD-ROM drive. Let's say your original CD designation was D. Now you have two CD-ROM drives--D and E, and you'd like to listen to music on E.
First of all, if you haven't already done so, you need to move the audio cable that runs from the sound card to the new drive. Next, click Start, Settings, Control Panel. When Control Panel opens, double-click the Multimedia icon. When the dialog box opens, click the CD Music tab. Now, under CD-ROM Drive, select Drive E. Click OK to close the dialog box. You might as well close Control Panel while you're at it (choose File, Close).

WHATEVER DRIVE LETTER YOU WANT TO CD-ROM

Why would you want to change the CD's drive designations? Let's imagine that you just installed a new CD-ROM drive--and you want to use the new one as your primary drive. The only thing is, the Setup program installed it as Drive E rather than D. Now, you decide to add something to one of your programs, and the Setup looks for files on Drive D. So, you may want to make the new drive Drive D.
Click Start, Programs, Administrative Tools (Common), Disk Administrator. Choose View, Volumes. Now click Drive D to select it and then choose Tools, Assign Drive Letter. When the Assign Drive Letter dialog box opens, use the spin box to select an unused letter--something like X will do. Click OK and then click Yes in the next dialog box.
After this change has taken place, click Drive E to select it and choose Tools, Assign Drive Letter. Assign the letter D to this drive. Click OK and then click Yes again when the warning dialog box opens. Now select your new drive letter (X) and choose Tools, Assign Drive Letter again. This time, assign E to the drive and click OK and Yes. Now you can close Disk Administrator (choose Partition, Exit), and the new drive will be Drive D while the old drive becomes Drive E.
This kind of change will affect Windows 95.
The answer is that it won't. Windows 95 will continue to use its own drive assignments, regardless of what you do in Windows NT.

Saving your drive configurations

Have a blank, formatted, floppy disk available and Run Disk Administrator (Start, Programs, Administrative Tools [Common], Disk Administrator) and choose Partition, Configuration, Save. The program will prompt you to place a floppy disk into Drive A. Insert the floppy and click OK.
To restore a saved disk configuration, put the floppy disk that contains the saved data into drive A, run Disk Administrator and choose Partition, Configuration, Restore. After the restoration is complete, Windows NT will restart the computer.

UPDATE THE SOUND

It's always a good idea to look for updated sound drivers now and then. Below is a list of companies where you can find drivers.
Creative Labs
Media Vision
Compaq
Hewlett Packard
Packard Bell
Dell
IBM
Gateway:
Micron:
OK, so now you probably know where to find those new drivers, but what do you do once you download the driver? First, put the new drivers on a floppy disk (or somewhere on the hard disk so you can locate them later). Next, click Start, Settings, Control Panel. When Control Panel opens, double-click the Multimedia icon. Now click the Devices tab and then click the little plus sign at the left of the Audio Devices icon. Now, select the sound card and then click Remove. Windows NT 4.0 Workstation will prompt you to restart.
After the restart, click Start, Settings, Control Panel and open Multimedia again. This time, at the Devices tab, click Add. Have your new disk ready and select Unlisted or Updated driver. Now, from this point, you're on your own. Just follow through the dialog boxes. If you're informed that a card wasn't found at the listed address, try other addresses until you find the right one. We can't go into great detail here, because exactly what you see depends on your sound card and your system.

BACKUP REGISTRY

All the Registry files are located in \Winnt\System32\Config. If you copy this directory to another location (preferably on another drive), you'll have a complete backup.
The problem with this is simply that the Config folder is likely to be very large (ours is 5.5MB), and you'll never fit it onto a floppy. However, if you have a Zip Drive, a CD Recorder, or some other removable storage device, you can copy the files to that and then keep the disk in a safe place.
If you get a warning that some files are in use, restart the computer and try again.

DELETE ON START

One way to accomplish this is to use a batch file. In our example, if you want to delete all the TMP files in your Data folder, open Notepad and enter
del c:\data\*.tmp
Now choose File, Save As and give the file a name. You can use any name you want, but you need to use the BAT extension. DelTemp.bat would work.
After you save your new batch file, run Windows NT Explorer and locate the Startup folder for the appropriate user (you'll find it under Winnt\Profiles). Now use the right-mouse button to drag the DelTemp.bat icon to the Startup folder. When you release the mouse button, choose Create Shortcut(s) Here from the pop-up menu.
Now open the Startup folder and right-click the new shortcut. When the Properties dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab. Click the arrow at the right side of the Run list box to expand the list. Select Minimized and click OK. When the appropriate user logs on, the batch file will run, deleting those pesky TMP files.

OPEN DOKUMENT IN COMMAND PROMPT

If you're working in a Command prompt window, and you run across a TXT file that you'd like to read, you don't need to leave the Command Prompt window to read the file. All you have to do is type in
filename.txt
where "filename" is the name of the file you want to open. When you press Enter, Notepad will open with the file loaded. You can do this with most registered file types. For example, if you use Microsoft Word, you can open a Word document by typing its full name at the prompt and then pressing Enter.
Note: You must type in the full file name--name plus extension. In some cases, you may also need to type in the path and the name.

SEND IT TO ZIP

"I run Windows NT Workstation 4.0 with an external Zip drive. I would like to know if I can add a Send To Zip Disk command to the right-click menu."
Coitenly! Run Windows NT Explorer and locate
C:\WINNT\Profiles\Adminstrator\SendTo
(We're assuming you're the Administrator--substitute whatever name is necessary.) Now that you have the SendTo folder located, locate your Zip drive in Windows NT Explorer and use the right-mouse button to drag the drive's icon to the SendTo folder. When you release the mouse button, a menu will appear. Choose Create Shortcut(s) Here from the menu.
Now you can close Windows NT Explorer, and the new item will appear in your SendTo menu selection.

NOT EVIL?

Here's an Easter Egg.
Right-click the Windows NT 4.0 desktop and choose Properties. When the Display Properties dialog box opens, click the Screen Saver tab.
Now, click the arrow at the right side of the Screen Saver list box to expand the list. Select 3D Text (OpenGL) from the list. Click Settings and change the text to
Not Evil
and click OK. Now click Preview and you'll see the names of the people on the Windows NT development team.

SENDTO NOTEPAD

If you'd like to use Notepad as your editor for most text files, why not add it to SendTo? With Notepad in SendTo, you'll have it handy for looking at unregistered text files and won't have to bother registering a bunch of files types.
Run Windows NT Explorer and locate your SendTo folder (\WINNT\Profiles\Adminstrator\SendTo). Now open \Winnt\System32 and locate Notepad.exe. Use the right-mouse button to drag its icon to \WINNT\Profiles\Adminstrator\SendTo. When the menu opens, choose Create Shortcut(s) Here. You can now close Windows NT Explorer (if you wish).
Now, when you run across readme.1st, or read.me, you can right-click the file's icon and choose SendTo Notepad to read the file.

GET RID OF MESSAGE IN START

To get rid of the arrow and its companion message, click Start, Run, type
regedit
and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
In the right pane, double-click the NoStartBanner icon. When the Edit Binary Value dialog box opens, you'll notice that the default value is
00 00 00 00
Change it to
01 00 00 00
and click OK. Now close RegEdit (choose Registry, Exit) and restart the computer. You'll no longer see the offending arrow and message.

USE THE WHOLE DISK--PART 1 OF 2

If you use more than one hard disk drive or more than one partition, you can easily use any currently unused space by turning that space into a Volume or Stripe set. To see if you have any free space, click Start, Programs, Administrative Tools (Common), Disk Administrator. When Disk Administrator opens, choose View, Disk Configuration. If you see two areas of unassigned free space, click the first one, and then press Ctrl and click the second space. This selects both areas.
Let's say that your free space appears on two partitions of the same disk drive. Choose Partition, Create Volume Set. When the Create Volume Set dialog box opens, click OK to continue. This will create a single volume using both areas of free space.
To format your new volume, right-click it and choose Assign Drive Letter. When the dialog box opens, assign a drive letter and click OK. Right-click the new volume again, and this time choose Commit Changes Now. When the confirmation dialog box opens, click Yes. Now, right-click the volume and choose Format. When the format dialog box opens, click Start. Note: Make sure you right-click the new volume and not some other volume--you don't want to accidentally format an existing drive or partition. When the formatting finishes, click Close.
Now close Disk Administrator (choose Partition, Exit) and start using your new volume.

USE THE WHOLE DISK--PART 2 OF 2

In the last tip, we showed you how to create a Volume Set. If you use more than one hard disk drive, you may well have free space on both drives. If so, you can create a Stripe Set rather than a Volume Set. A Stripe set offers greater disk throughput, although you probably won't notice any difference using the small amount of free space that we're describing.
To create the strip Set, click Start, Programs, Administrative Tools (Common), Disk Administrator. When Disk Administrator opens, choose View, Disk Configuration. If you see two areas of unassigned free space (one on each physical disk drive), click the first one, then press and hold down Ctrl while you click the click the second space.
With both spaces selected, choose Partition, Create Stripe Set. When the Create Stripe Set dialog box opens, click OK. Now, right-click the Stripe Set and choose Assign Drive Letter. Select a drive letter and click OK. Right-click the new Stripe Set and choose Commit Changes Now. This will open a dialog box asking if you really want to save the changes. Click Yes to continue. Right-click the Stripe Set again and choose Format. When the Format dialog box opens, click Start. Click Yes in any warning dialog boxes and then click Close when the formatting is finished. You can close Disk Administrator now and start using your new Stripe Set.

MY ICONS REDRAW TOO OFTEN

Run, type
regedit
and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer.
Right-click in the right pane and choose New, DWORD Value. Name the new DWORD Max Cached Icons. Now, double-click the new entry and, when the Edit DWORD Value dialog box opens, enter
8000
and click OK. Close RegEdit by choosing Registry, Exit, and restart the computer.

BOOT IN "X" SECONDS

Click Start and choose Settings, Control Panel. When Control panel opens, double-click the System icon. When the System dialog box opens, click the Startup/Shutdown tab. Under System Startup, you'll see a spin box labeled Show list for XX seconds. Use the spin box to set the number of seconds you want the system to wait before automatically starting the default operating system.
After you set the time, click OK to close the dialog box and save your change. The next time you restart, the new time will take effect.

DON’T RUN BAT AND REG FILES ON DOUBLECLICK

From time to time, we provide REG files in these tips, and you often find REG files with programs. The problem is, once you double-click a REG file, its contents get placed into the Registry. Sure, you get a dialog box that tells you the file has been entered into the Registry, but it tells you it has--it doesn't ask if that's what you want. Here's a way you can make sure that REG file contents don't accidentally get loaded into your Registry.
To prevent REG files from changing the Registry on a double-click, open My Computer and choose View, Options. When the Options dialog box opens, click the File Types tab and then scroll to Registration Entries and select it. Now, click Edit. In the Actions list, select Edit and click Set Default. Now click Close and back in the Options dialog box, click Close again.
>From now on, when you double-click a REG file, it will open in Notepad. When you want to use the file to modify your Registry, right-click its icon and choose Merge.

DUAL BOOT WITH 98

If you run a dual boot computer with Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 95, you may be interested in upgrading to Windows 98. If so, you should have no problems with your dual boot system. All you have to do is upgrade the Windows 95 installation to Windows 98. Your Windows NT Workstation 4.0 installation should run as before.
Windows 98 includes a utility that will convert the standard FAT16 disks to FAT32. Since Windows NT Workstation 4.0 can't view FAT32 disks, don't use this option. Also, the disk compression used by Windows 98 (like the one used by Windows 95) produces disks that are not accessible to Windows NT Workstation 4.0. Other than these items, Windows 98 seems to co-exist well with Windows NT Workstation 4.0.

DEFRAG THAT NTFS VOLUME

Even NTFS volumes need to be defragmented now and then. There's no doubt that your disk operations will get a new lease on life with less fragmentation. Unfortunately, Windows NT Workstation 4.0 doesn't include a defrag utility. But Diskeeper Lite from Execsoft will do the job for you.
If you'd like to try Diskeeper Lite, go to
http://www.execsoft.com/dklite/
and click Download. You'll be asked to fill out Execsoft's Guest Book before you begin. Although previous versions of Diskeeper Lite for the Intel platform had a 30-day expiration, this one is free and has no expiration. Note that, because the program is free, there is no support. If you decide you want the features of the full version, all you have to do is request the upgrade.

SHUTDOWN ONLY AFTER LOG-ON

By default, you can shut down Windows NT Workstation 4.0 without logging on. If you don't wish to allow users to do this, you can make a Registry change that will eliminate the option. As usual, be very careful when editing the Registry. Now click Start, Run, type
regedit
and click OK (or press Enter) to run RegEdit. When RegEdit opens, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
In the right pane, locate ShutdownWithoutLogon and double-click its icon. When the Edit String dialog box opens, change the entry from its default value of 1 to 0 (zero). Close RegEdit by choosing Registry, Exit. Now, restart the computer.
When the computer restarts, you'll notice that the shutdown option is no longer available. The only way to shut down is to first log on.

THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT

Although NTBackup doesn't allow spaces in the path name of the files you want to back up, the short file names will always work. For example, if a backup file is named
C:\Program Files\Mail\Data
You'll have a problem with the space. However, if you use the short name version of the Program Files folder as shown here
C:\Progra~1\Mail\Data
you'll have no problems.

SIGNING ON AGAIN

Question: If I use the automatic log-on (the undead tip) that you described in a recent tip, can I still log on as another user?
Answer: To log on as another user, click Start and then choose Shut Down. Select the radio button labeled Close All Programs and Log On as a Different User? Click Yes and hold down the Shift key while Windows NT restarts. When Windows NT Workstation 4.0 restarts, the sign-in box will appear. Just type in the new name and associated password.

YOUR OWN LOG-ON MESSAGES

regedit
and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon.
Look in the right pane for entries named LegalNoticeCaption and LegalNoticeText. If the two entries already exist, you can add the text you want to use for the title in LegalNoticeCaption. Double-click the LegalNoticeCaption icon, enter your text, and press Enter. Repeat for LegalNoticeText. After you've entered your text, close RegEdit (choose Registry, Exit) and restart the computer.
If the two entries don't exist, right-click in the right pane and choose New, String Value. Name the new entry LegalNoticeCaption. Now, create a new entry named LegalNoticeText. Enter text into the new entries as described above.

EDITING INI FILES

When you need to edit the Win.ini or System.ini files, why not use a tool designed for the job? If you open Windows NT Explorer and navigate to \Winnt\System32, you'll find a file named Sysedit.exe. When you run this program, it opens with Autoexec.bat, Config.sys, Win.ini, and System.ini. Click the file you want to edit and make your changes. When you're finished, choose File, Save to save your changes. To exit the program, choose File, Exit.

INSTALL NETWORKING BEFORE SERVICE PACK

Here's one we ran across with our own installation. If you install Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and then install Service Pack 3 before you install networking, you may get an error telling you that the Server service failed due to lack of memory. To correct the problem, reinstall Service Pack 3. To avoid the problem, install all the network components before you install Service Pack 3.

OPEN IT NOW

If you're working with an application and need to open the current Disk's folder, click Start, Run. Type in a single period (.) and press Enter. This will open the current disk's folder. For example, if you're running your on Drive D, then the Drive D folder will open.

SHORTCUT ARROWS

Some people like the little arrow on shortcut icons so they know the icon represents a shortcut. Other people would rather do without the arrow. If you belong to the latter group, here's a Registry edit that will remove those shortcut arrows. As usual, we need to warn you that you embark on Registry edits at your own risk. Be careful.
Click Start, Run. Type
regedit
and click OK (or press Enter). When RegEdit opens, navigate to KEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Lnkfile. In the right pane, click the IsShortcut icon to select it and then press Delete. To see the changes, you need to log off and back on (or restart the computer).

ONE RINGY-DINGY

"When I use the dial-up server (RAS), it answers on the first ring. I'd like to have it wait for the second ring. Is there a way to do this?"
regedit
and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class. Now, expand
Class and look for the Modem entry (it's usually the fourth one down).
The first modem (if you have more than one) will be 0000. Expand this and then click Monitor. In the right pane you should see
1 ATSO=o[cr]
Double-click this icon and change the 0 to a 2 (or the number of rings you want to use). Click OK and then close RegEdit (choose Registry, Exit). Restart the computer (or log off and log back on). You can start RAS now, and it will answer on the number of rings you selected.

AN ENHANCED DELETE COMMAND

In a recent tip, we showed you a batch file that could help you recover files deleted from the Command prompt. We suggested that you use a simple one-line batch file to move the deleted files to a newly created folder named Trash. Here's our batch file:
move %1 c:\Trash
We received the following from subscriber M. R.:To better emulate the Windows trash can, it would be nice to keep track of folder information for each file sent to the Trash folder. Here is my updated file:
@echo off
if not exist %1 goto noexist
if exist c:\trash\%1 goto alreadytrashed
dir %1 > c:\Trash\%1.dir
move %1 c:\Trash
goto end
:alreadytrashed
echo Error: %1 already in trash can.
goto end
:noexist
echo Error: %1 does not exist.
:end
To create the file, run Notepad and enter the code exactly as shown here. Choose File, Save As and name the file Trash.bat. Save the file in the root folder (C:\). If you haven't already created a Trash folder, run the Command prompt and go to C:\. Type
md Trash
and press Enter to create the new folder.

A DOSKEY MACRO

In the last tip, we discussed an enhanced way to move files for possible later recovery. Here's a tip from reader Jeff D. that you might like to use.
Rather than write a separate batch file to delete files to a folder for potential recovery, you can use Doskey to alias the Del command and make a new Delete command:
doskeydoskey DEL=move $* C:\Trashdoskey DELETE=DEL $*
Using this macro, you don't have to remember to use a new command--just use Del. When you are sure you want to delete a file permanently, use Delete.
To create and use the macro, run Notepad and type in the code as shown above. Name the file Del.bat and save it in your Startup folder. When you start, the Doskey macro will be in place for use.

KEY ASSIGNMENT RULES

In the last tip, we described a way to assign keystrokes to desktop shortcuts. When you assign hotkeys to open programs, you need to place those shortcuts on the desktop or in the correct folders. Otherwise the keystrokes won't work.
Let's suppose that you have a desktop folder that contains shortcuts for Microsoft Office applications. Assigning keystrokes to open these programs will fail. The shortcuts themselves need to be on the desktop--not in a folder on the desktop.
What if you don't want all those program icons on the desktop? In this case, you can place those shortcuts on the Start menu. Try this: Run Windows NT Explorer and navigate to the Startup folder. You'll find it under
\Winnt\Profiles\UserName (substitute your current username here)
Next, create the shortcuts to which you want to assign hotkeys in the Start menu. Right-click one of the icons and choose Properties. Click the Shortcut tab and then single-click in the Shortcut Key entry box. Make your key assignment and click OK. Repeat for each program you want to open with keystrokes.

Open Windows NT Explorer, were you want

For the sake of this discussion, let's assume that you have an Explorer shortcut on your desktop. Right-click the Explorer icon and choose Properties. When the dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab. Click in the Target entry box and add
/e
to the end of the line. Your line will now look something like our example line:
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e
Next, click in the Start In entry box and type in the path to your networked drive. For example, the path could be
\\NetComputer\Data
Click OK to close the dialog box and record your changes. When you double-click the Explorer icon, Explorer will open to the new drive assignment. If the network drive is unavailable, Explorer will open to the desktop. Note that we tested this procedure using a   peer-to-peer network. We did not test it using a server.   

To back up the Registry

rdisk /s

NO NETWORK NEIGHBORHOOD ICON

(Note: The line numbers are there to show you what goes on a single line--do not type them in. In the past we have had some problems with REG files due to the way the e-mail is formatted. To alleviate these problems, we now use line numbers in all REG files. This will help you see how the file should be formatted even if the format is incorrect in your e-mail. Don't enter these numbers--if you enter them, your REG file will not work. Also, whether this appears in your e-mail or not, there should be a blank line between REGEDIT4 and the first line of code.)
1 REGEDIT4
2
3[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
4"NoNetHood"=dword:1
Choose File, Save As and name the file Net.reg. Save it in the folder of your choice. To merge the file with the Registry, double-click its icon. After the file successfully merges, restart the computer. After you've restarted, the Network Neighborhood icon will no longer appear on your desktop.     

When you place remote drive icons on your desktop, NT 4.0 will take a few moments to make sure you're reconnected every time you start the computer. However, you can turn off this option.
Double-click the Network Neighborhood icon to open it. Locate the drive you want to place on your desktop. Right-click the icon and choose Map Network Drive. To stop the automatic reconnects, deselect the check box labeled "Reconnect at logon." Click OK to record your selection.
Now you can open My Computer and place a shortcut to the new drive on your desktop. When you restart the computer, Windows NT Workstation 4.0 will not attempt to connect the remote computer. However, when you double-click the remote drive icon, you'll get connected. The first time you attempt to open the remote drive, you may notice a slight delay, but it will connect rather quickly.

In the last tip we said that a Microsoft Mail postoffice installed on an NTFS partition would be functional even if other computers on the network use Windows 95 (or Windows 98). This time, let's look at how to install a Microsoft Mail system on your Windows NT Workstation 4.0 computer.
Click Start, Settings, Control Panel. In Control Panel, you'll see an icon labeled Microsoft Mail Postoffice. If you do not, double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon. When the dialog box opens, click the Windows NT Setup tab and select Windows Messaging. Click OK to install. After you restart the computer, the Microsoft Mail Postoffice icon will appear in Control Panel.
Now double-click the Postoffice icon to open a wizard that can guide you through installation. On the first page of the wizard, select the radio button labeled "Create a new Workgroup Postoffice" and click Next.
On the next screen, you need to decide where you want to place your postoffice. Click Browse and select the folder you want to use. Click Next to continue. The next page will ask for confirmation of your selected location. Click Next to continue or Back if you want to change the location.
Next, you'll be asked to enter your Account data. Enter the name and so on, and click OK when you're finished. A dialog box will open, warning you that you must share the postoffice folder if you want others to have access. Click OK to close the dialog box.
Run Windows NT Explorer now and locate the postoffice folder. Right-click its icon and select Sharing. When the Properties dialog box opens, select Shared As and enter the name you'd like to use, then click OK.
Now your postoffice should be accessible from the other computers on your network.

If you installed Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0, and you do not have Exchange Server, chances are you also installed the SMTP server. Using this server, you can send mail from your NT Server to any e-mail address, as long as you are on the Internet and have a valid DNS. To configure your SMTP server to send mail from your local machine, you will have to change the Relay Restrictions. Launch the Internet Service Manager and expand the Internet Information Server node. Double-click on the Default SMTP Site node to display the Default SMTP Site dialog box. Next, select the Directory Security tab and click on Edit? in the Relay Restrictions section to launch the dialog box shown in Figure C. Select the Allowed To Relay radio button and click OK. Apply the configuration changes and your SMTP server is ready to send e-mail. You will need to configure your mail reader to use the local host IP address of 127.0.0.1 as the outgoing mail server.
For a free issue of Exploring Windows NT or to receive the Exploring Windows NT Tip of the Week in e-mail, visit
http://www.cobb.com/go/msdnflash

Open My Computer. You should see a drive for each of the mapped network drives. Right-click a drive you want to delete and choose Disconnect. The drive assignment will disappear from My Computer and from the Map Network Drive dialog box.

You can do this very easily. All you have to do is replace either Winnt.bmp or Winnt256.bmp with your own BMP file. You'll find both files in the \Winnt folder. We suggest that you rename the current file rather than writing over it. Open Windows NT Explorer and locate \Winnt. Now find Winnt256.bmp and rename it to LogoFile.bmp. Rename your replacement file Winnt256.bmp. The next time you start the computer, the new logo will appear.
Winnt256.bmp is the 256-color version of the logo. This is the one most people will use. However, if you don't use a 256-color (or greater) video system, rename the file currently named Winnt.bmp and then name your replacement Winnt.bmp.

In the secure environment that I am responsible for, all our shares are hidden. A quick and easy way to access hidden or built-in shares in an Explorer view is to open the Start menu, select Run, then type \\server\sharename. Almost instantly, an Explorer view pops up containing the contents of the share. This is particularly useful for hidden shares when you cannot browse them within Explorer.

RegEdit has a limit on how big the text field can be when you're adding or changing text. For example, our Legal Notice is too large to update with either RegEdit or Profile Editor. However, if you use a REG file to update the values, then the contents of the field can be significantly longer.
To create a REG file for this job, run Notepad and enter the following as shown here, except be sure to press Enter to create a blank line in place of the text "Blank line goes here."
REGEDIT4
Blank line goes here
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"LegalNoticeCaption"="Put your caption here"
"LegalNoticeText"="Enter your personal text here"
Blank line goes here
Type in your personal caption and notice, then choose File, Save As and locate a folder for your new file. Name the file Legal.reg and save it. To use the file, double-click its icon and then restart the computer. As always when working with the Registry, please proceed with extreme caution.

Let's say you open Explorer using the Start menu. Right-click Start and choose Open. When the Start menu window opens, double-click the Programs icon. You should now see the Windows NT Explorer icon. Right-click it and choose Properties. Click the Shortcut tab and then click in the entry box labeled Target. The box will display something similar to
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe
Click again in the box to make sure the current line is not selected. Now, move to the end of the line, type a space, and add
/e
Your Target line should now read
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e
Next, click in the Start In entry box and delete the current contents. Now, type in the new drive letter. For example, if you want Explorer to start in drive D, type in
d:\
and click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.

Let's do a REG file for this task to make the job a little easier. As usual, we must warn you that there's no guarantee the REG file will work as you expect. Use REG files at your own risk.
To create the REG file, run Notepad and type the following exactly as shown, substituting a blank line for the text "Blank line goes here":
REGEDIT4
Blank line goes here
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Windows]
"run"="c:\\MyFolder\\Myprogram.ext"
Blank line goes here
Enter the program and the path of your program as shown in the example line
"run"=
Don't leave out the quotation marks. Choose File, Save As and locate a folder for your new file. Name the file Runit.reg and save it. To merge the file with the Registry, double-click its icon and restart the computer after the merge completes. (You'll go through a few dialog boxes that will let you know when the data has been added to the Registry.

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Colors]
"Background"="0 0 255"
The key to the color is the line "Background"="0 0 255". These numbers
represent the values of red, green, and blue. To get a fully saturated
blue, enter 0 for red, 0 for green, and 255 (maximum) for blue. To
get the most attractive background, you may wish to experiment with
these values.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard]
"InitialKeyboardIndicators"="2"
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard]
"InitialKeyboardIndicators"="2"

If you decide you want to put the system back to its default
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"DontDisplayLastUserName"="0"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Cdrom]
"Autorun"=dword:00000000
If you decide to turn Autorun back on
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Cdrom]
"Autorun"=dword:00000001
Note: Some software may not like having AutoRun turned off. For example, we get a warning that our HP rewritable CD drive may not function properly with AutoRun off.

To display a message one time only, use the RunOnce key in the Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Registry. Since you'd like to apply this to several computers at one time, let's look at how you can write a REG file to do the job for you
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce] "Welcome"="c:\\welcome.cmd"
Now you need to generate a message file. Run Notepad and type in the following.
@echo off
echo Your message goes here
pause
Exit
Choose File, Save As and locate the root folder, C:\. Name the file Welcome.cmd and click Save.
The welcome message will run only the first time someone logs onto the system. Windows NT Workstation 4.0 will then remove the new entry from the Registry, and the Welcome file won't run again.

"If you use Xcopy to copy files from a CD-ROM to a hard disk or a floppy, the read-only attributes are stripped. To keep the read-only attributes on the copied files, go to the Command Prompt and type
xcopy (your folder) /k
and press Enter. The read-only attribute will now be active on the copied files."

"I wrote a batch file that calls ten MS-DOS programs. The problem is that I often get a stack overflow error. Do you know of a way to run the file without errors?"
Assuming that you don't have a problem with one of the MS-DOS programs, you could try renaming your batch file's extension to CMD.
Also, check Config.nt and make sure that DOS Only isn't specified.

"When I tell Notepad to save a file such as Regfile.reg, the file is saved as Regfile.reg.txt. It appears that Notepad insists on using the .txt extension. I have to change the file's name to make it a working REG file. Am I missing something?"
The workaround is to enclose the new name in quotes. For example, to name your file Regfile.reg, choose File, Save As and then type in
"Regfile.reg"
and click Save. This should solve the problem.

Need more lines in that Command Prompt window? You can change the window by typing in a Mode command. For example, if you need 50 lines in the window (as an example), type
mode con lines=50
and press Enter. You'll now have 50 lines available for use. If you'd like to change the window width, type (for example)
mode con cols=90
and press Enter.
When you close the window, the mode setting reverts to the default, so when you open the Command Prompt window again, it will use the default values.
To modify the default settings, right-click the Command Prompt shortcut and choose Properties. Click the Layout tab and enter a new size into the Window Size Height and Width spin boxes. Click OK to close the dialog box and record your changes.

We recently reported that you can create an Emergency Repair Disk by choosing Start, Run, typing in
rdisk /s
and pressing Enter. Windows NT Workstation 4.0 will first copy the information to the hard disk and then prompt you to insert a floppy disk. As Dave T. points out, you can skip the floppy disk creation if you wish. All you have to do is add a minus sign after /s. Choose Start, Run. Type in
rdisk /s-
and press Enter. Windows NT Workstation 4.0 will now write the new emergency information to the hard disk, but will not prompt for a floppy disk. As Dave mentions, this technique is especially useful because you can use it in an AT schedule without having to be present to put a floppy into drive A.

You can stack commands at the command prompt. To see how this works, open a command prompt window, type
chkdsk & mem
and press Enter. This runs CHKDSK and then, when CHKDSK finishes, runs MEM.

Here's a Registry backup
regedit
then press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to the key you intend to change and choose Registry, Export Registry File. Give the file a name and click Save. For example, let's say you're about to make a modification to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon.
Before you make the change, click the Winlogon key and choose Registry, Export Registry File. Name the file Winlog and click Save.
With the key saved, you can later double-click the Winlog.reg file's icon to restore the original settings for this key.

Windows NT Workstation 4.0 to read data on Windows 95 and 98 FAT32 partitions. You can also copy files from the FAT32 partition to other partitions. This is a great utility for those of us who need to use a dual boot system. To check out this program, go to
http://www.sysinternals.com/fat32.htm
and download FAT32 for Windows NT 4.0. Once you install the program, you'll be able to read your FAT32 partitions from Windows NT Workstation 4.0. If you'd like to have read and write capabilities, you can purchase the full read and write version for $39.

When researching a topic in reference books, many people find it useful to use sticky notes to make notes to themselves concerning a particular topic. When you work with the Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Help files, you might also find it convenient to make notes to yourself--and you can do just that without ever reaching for a sheet of paper. Let's take a look at how to annotate your Help topics.
Double-click My Computer to open it and then choose Help, Help Topics. When the Help Topics dialog box opens, click the Index tab. Select a topic and click Display. Now, click Options and choose Annotate. This opens the Annotate dialog box. Enter your note and click Save to close the dialog box and save your note. You'll notice a green paper-clip icon next to the topic now. Click the icon to open the Annotate dialog box and read your notes.

Standard GMT is the same as UTC. Click Start and choose Settings, Control Panel. When the Control Panel opens, double-click Date/Time. When the Date/Time dialog box opens, click the Time Zone tab. Make sure the check box labeled "Automatically adjust clock for daylight saving changes" is deselected.
Now, click the arrow at the right side of the time zones list box and choose (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time; Dublin, Edinburgh, London, Lisbon. Then click the Date & Time tab and set the current time. Click OK to close the dialog box and record your changes.

There are times when you need to see what environment variables are currently in use. For example, if you unsuccessfully attempt to run a program from the Command Prompt, the program may not be in the path. In this case, all you have to do is type
set
and press Enter. Windows NT Workstation 4.0 will display all the environment variables. If the list is too long to fit in one screen, type
set|more
and press Enter. The More command will cause the display to pause at the end of each page of information. To continue to another page, press Space.
If you'd like to check the system variables from the Windows NT Workstation 4.0 user interface, click Start, Settings, Control Panel. When the Control Panel opens, double-click the System icon. When the System Properties dialog box opens, click the Environment tab. After you finish viewing the variables, click OK to close the dialog box.

Run Windows NT Explorer and navigate to \Winnt\system32. Locate Main.cpl and use the right mouse button to drag its icon to the desktop. Release the mouse button and choose Create Shortcut(s) Here. All you have to do now is double-click your new shortcut to open the mouse panel.

You can hide disk drives from the desktop and Windows NT Explorer with a simple Registry edit. Be careful with this because we can't guarantee that all will run as you expect, and you can damage your system with an incorrect Registry Edit.
To hide drive C, click Start, Run, then type
regedit
and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Right-click in the right pane and choose New, DWORD Value. Name the new key NoDrives and then press Enter twice (once to accept the name and once to open the Edit DWORD Value dialog box.
In the dialog box, select the radio button labeled Decimal. Now, enter 4 and click OK. Choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit and restart the computer. Upon restarting, drive C will no longer appear in Explorer or in My Computer.
This isn't absolute protection--you can still access drive C if you click Start, Run, type
c:\
and press Enter. However, not all your users will know this, so you'll have some degree of protection.
If you need to hide some drive other than C, the following is a list of a few drives and their associated numbers.
Drive A: 1
Drive B: 2
Drive C: 4
Drive D: 8
Drive E: 16
So if you want to hide drives C, D, and E, set NoDrives to 28 decimal (16 + 8 + 4). To hide only drive A, you'd enter 1.

When Windows NT Workstation 4.0 was last started requires that you use the Command Prompt. At the prompt, type
net statistics workstation
and press Enter. The first line shows the last time the system was started. To see the first line, you may need to type
net statistics workstation |more
at the prompt. More causes the program's output to pause at the end of the first page.

Those of us who deal with MS-DOS programs could use this batch file from reader Dan D. Dan uses this batch file when he needs to run programs that use drive A.
Let's say you have a program that uses drive A. You run the program and have no problems until the program needs to write to a floppy disk in drive A. Oops--no disk. If you use Dan's batch file to start your MS-DOS program, you won't have that problem--the batch file will check for a floppy in drive A before calling your MS-DOS program.
To generate the batch file, run Notepad and type in the following exactly as shown.
@echo off
dir a: >nul
if errorlevel=2 goto end
@echo Insert a blank formatted floppy into Drive A
pause
:end
rem Run MS-DOS Program
After you enter the code, choose File, Save As. Give the file a name using the .bat extension (we used Detect.bat). Locate a folder for your new file and click Save.
To use Detect.bat, replace the rem statement (Run MS-DOS Program) with your program's name--for example, MyProg.exe. When you double-click Detect.bat, the batch file runs a Dir on drive A. If this fails, there is no floppy disk in drive A or the floppy is not formatted. You'll be prompted to insert a blank formatted disk. When you press a key to indicate that you have inserted a formatted floppy, Detect proceeds with running your MS-DOS program.
If there is already a formatted floppy disk in drive A, Detect runs your MS-DOS program without further ado. Note that Detect.bat does nothing to detect how much space is available on a formatted floppy disk. If the disk is nearly full when you start your MS-DOS program, you could run out of disk space. Let's hope that the MS-DOS program acts as expected and detects a disk-full condition for you.

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"AutoAdminLogon"="1"
"DefaultPassword"="Your Password goes here"
For this tip to work, you must have a password, and you must enter the password that you chose for your system log-on. If you enter a different password, you'll have problems with other programs. Type your password into the REG file at DefaultPassword. Make sure you retain the quotes.

You can do this with a simple Registry edit. That said, it's time to warn you that a Registry edit gone awry can thoroughly mess up your system. Click Start, Run, type
regedit
and press Enter. When RedEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion. In
the right pane, you'll see the key "RegisteredOrganization"="Your old company name". Click this key to select it and press Enter. When the dialog box opens, type in the new name and press Enter. Close RegEdit (choose Registry, Exit) and restart the computer. Upon restarting, your new name will become active.
Note that software installed before you made the change will continue to use the original name.

To do this, click Start and choose Programs, Administrative Tools, Disk Administrator. Now, before you start work, choose Partition, Configuration, Save. Insert a formatted floppy disk into drive A and click OK.
When you're done using Disk Administrator, you can restore your original configuration by choosing Partition, Configuration, Restore and clicking Yes.

"The scrollbars in all the windows are too narrow. I have a difficult time clicking the scroll button. Is there a way to change the size of the scrollbars?"
You can make those scrollbars just about as big as you want. You can certainly make them much larger than the default. Right-click the desktop and choose Properties. When the Display Properties dialog box opens, click the Appearance tab.
In the Display Properties dialog box, click the scrollbar. In the Item list box, you should now see the word Scrollbar. Next, locate the spin box labeled Size and click the up arrow until the scrollbar size looks more like what you need. Now, click OK to close the dialog box and record your changes.
The newly sized scrollbars now appear in all your Windows programs.

"I like to mess around with the sounds in Windows NT Workstation 4.0, so I was looking for a way to put the Sounds panel from Control Panel on my desktop. I thought some of your other readers might be interested in doing the same, so here's a description of what I did.
"Right-click the desktop and choose New, Shortcut. When the Create Shortcut dialog box opens, type
%SystemRoot%\System32\Mmsys.cpl sounds
into the Command entry box, and then click Next. Now, name the shortcut Sounds and click Finish. To open the Sounds Properties dialog box, all you have to do is double-click the new Sounds shortcut."

You can make an MS-DOS application print directly to the printer. The only problem is that some printers won't print the data sent to them until you issue a form feed.
However, here's how to use Print Screen directly from an MS-DOS app if your printer will handle it. Locate the shortcut to the program (if there is no shortcut, create one) and right-click it. Choose Properties from the menu and then click the Misc tab. Under Windows Shortcut Keys, deselect the check box labeled Alt, PrtSc and click OK to close the dialog box and save your selection.
Now, when you press PrtSc while you're in the command prompt window, the screen contents go directly to the printer.

regedit
and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion. The
ProductId string contains the CD Key in digits 6 through 15. Note: This may not be the case if you use an OEM version of Windows NT Workstation 4.0. Some OEM users report that the entire ProductId string is the CD Key.

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Providers]
"RetryPopup"=dword:00000001

Open My Computer in Explorer view. Place an Explorer shortcut on your desktop. Right-click the shortcut and choose Properties. When Properties opens, click the Shortcut tab. Click in the Target entry box and type
C:\WINNT\EXPLORER.EXE /e,/root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
"Click OK to close the dialog box and save your addition. Now double-click the shortcut, and you'll get an Explorer view of My Computer--with none of the folders expanded."

regedit
and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.
Right-click the right pane of the Explorer folder and choose New, DWORD Value. Name the new value NoLogoff and press Enter twice. Set the value to 1 and click OK. Choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit.

REGEDIT4
BLANK LINE GOES HERE
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}]
@="Trash"

Windows NT maintains a spool directory where it stores the spooled documents before transmitting the documents to the local printer (or print server in case of a networked printer) when you run a print job. The default location of this spool directory is \winnt\system32\spool\printers. To change this location, you have to edit the value of the Registry key DefaultSpoolDirectory in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers.
However, an easier way exists to change the spool directory location. Just open the Printers window in My Computer, select the printer, and from the File menu, choose Server Properties. Then click the Advanced tab, which has a field where you can enter the spool folder location. You also have options for enabling logging on spooler error events, warning events, and information events. This method eliminates the dangers of tampering with the Registry.

RUNNING \I386 FROM A HARD DISK

Let's suppose for this example that your CD-ROM drive is D. Therefore, your Source path is d:\i386. You copy your i386 folder to c:\i386. Once you've copied the folder from the CD to the hard disk, click Start, Run, type in
regedit
and click OK (or press Enter). When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion. In the right pane, you'll see that SourcePath is set to
d:\i386\
Change the value to
c:\i386
and then choose Registry, Exit. When you restart the computer, the new path takes effect.

To do this, run Windows NT Explorer and choose View, Options. When the Options dialog box opens, click the File Types tab. Now type
fol
to select the Folder entry. With Folder selected, click Edit. In the Edit File Type dialog box, click New, and in the Action entry box type
New Folder
Press Tab to move to the "Application used to perform action" entry box and type
c:\winnt\system32\cmd.exe /c md """%1\NewFolder"""
Click OK to close the dialog box and return to Edit File Type. In Edit File Type, click Close. This gets you back to the Options dialog box, where you'll click Close to close the dialog box.
Now right-click a folder in Windows NT Explorer, and you find the New Folder command. Select the new command, and a new folder appears in the selected folder.
Note that to create more than one new folder, you have to rename the first one you created. You cannot create two folders using the same name, and this method has no way of naming a folder anything other than New Folder.

The Network Adapter Control Panel properties dialog box does not always show the Ethernet hardware address. To determine the address on a running system, you can use the following tip:
If you have TCP/IP installed, then typing ipconfig /all at the command prompt will show all the parameters. If you have only IPX installed, type ipxroute config to get the network address and the Ethernet card address. I discovered this by needing to connect a SQL client over a WAN link to a SQL server running only IPX.

Are you looking for an easy way to control multiple computers from one main system? Desktop Rover acts as a keyboard/video/mouse (KVM) switch, letting you use one main system as a mouse and keyboard server to control other consoles on your TCP/IP network. Desktop Rover turns all your monitors into one giant virtual desktop. Want to launch an application on another system? Simply move the mouse cursor off of the server's screen and onto the other computer's desktop and you're controlling the second system. This is an excellent program for those who work with multiple systems.
http://www.neslosoftware.com/

When a user logs on with a roaming profile, and the server-based profile is corrupt, the local Windows NT system automatically creates a new user profile based on the settings in \Winnt\profiles\default user. The system stores the new profile in the Profile directory in a folder with the same name as the username.
When the system boots, you expect it to load the local profile because the local profile has a newer timestamp than the corrupted server-based version. However, when checking for timestamps, the local NT system only looks at profiles defined in the Registry, and the new local profile does not have a Registry entry. The end result is that the system ignores the new local profile and the system again attempts to download the corrupt server-based profile. To work around this problem, manually copy the new local profile to the server before rebooting the local NT system. According to Microsoft Support Online article Q216867, Microsoft has corrected this problem in an updated version of Userenv.dll, dated February 5, 1999, which is available from Microsoft Support Services.
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q216/8/67.asp

The Microsft Office installation places FindFast in your system. You can remove the shortcut from your Startup menu if you wish, but this leaves the index files on your system.
To remove FindFast, click Start, Settings, Control Panel. When Control Panel opens, double-click the Find Fast icon. When the Find Fast dialog box opens, select an index entry and choose Index, Delete Index. Click to the affirmative in any warning dialog boxes that open. Repeat this procedure for all the index entries. When you've deleted all of them, choose Index, Close and Stop to close the dialog box.
Now it's time to get rid of the shortcut in Startup. Right-click Start and choose Open. When the Start menu window opens, double-click the Programs icon to open it. Next, locate the Startup menu and double-click to open it. Click the FindFast entry to select it, then press Delete. Click Yes to confirm deletion. Close all the open Start Menu windows and restart the computer.

To use Print Screen directly from an MS-DOS application, locate the shortcut to the program (if there is no shortcut, create one) and right-click it. Choose Properties from the menu, then click the Misc tab. Under Windows Shortcut Keys, deselect the check box labeled Alt + PrtSc, then click OK to close the dialog box and save your selection.
With these changes made, the screen contents go directly to the printer when you press PrtSc in the command prompt window.
So now the problem is to get that laser printer to go ahead and print your screen. Click Start, Programs, Command Prompt. Type
copy con now.bat
and press Enter. Then type
echo off echo ;
At this point, make sure NumLock is active and hold down the Alt key while you type
012
from the keypad. Now add
>prn
to the end of the line. When finished entering this line, you should see
echo ^L >prn
Now press Enter, then F6, and press Enter again.
To force a form feed (which causes the printer to print your screen capture), all you have to do is run Now.bat.
You may find other uses for this batch file, so you may want to place it on your desktop. To do this, run Windows NT Explorer and locate the file. Use the right mouse button to drag the file's icon to your desktop. When you release the mouse button, choose Create Shortcut(s) Here from the menu. You can now simply double-click the shortcut to force a page feed on your printer.

In today's IT world, it's not always a question of whether to use NetWare or NT. Integration is the name of the game. Novell offers several tools to make integration of NT servers into your NetWare environment less painful. One of those tools is Workstation Manager 1.0.
This tool from Novell allows you to administrate your NT workstations via NDS. Workstation Manager lets you specify NT properties (group memberships, policy, profiles, and so forth) for NDS users; these properties get assigned dynamically when the user logs into any NT workstation on the network. For more information about Workstation Manager, check out the Novell Web site at
http://www.novell.com/support

Before you open RegEdit, locate the screen saver you want to use. You'll find them in \Winnt\system32. The screen savers have an SCR extension. Write down the name of the one you want to use--you'll need it later.
Now click Start, Run, then type:
regedit
and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_USERS \DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop. In RegEdit's right pane, locate SCRNSAVE.EXE and double-click its icon. When the Edit String dialog box opens, type in the full path and name of your screen saver file. For example, you might select
c:\winnt\system32\ssmaze.scr
to use the Maze screen saver. After you enter the name of the screen saver, click OK to close the dialog box and save your selection. Next, locate ScreenSaveTimeOut and double-click its icon. When the Edit String dialog box opens, enter the delay time you want to use in seconds. You mentioned you'd like a delay of about 30 seconds, so enter 30 and click OK to close the dialog box and record your selection. Now choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit.
The next time you start your computer, the screen saver starts after 30 seconds if no one logs on. Note that these changes have no effect on your standard screen saver selection.

You can get your dual-boot menu back quite easily. In Windows 98, run Windows Explorer and navigate to the root folder. Right-click Boot.ini and choose Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, deselect the Read Only check box and click OK. Now double-click Boot.ini to open it. Your Timeout value is currently set to zero. Set it to a higher value of your choice and then choose File, Save to save your changes. With Boot.ini saved, right-click its icon again and choose Properties. Select the Read Only check box and click OK.
When you restart your computer, you can choose to boot Windows NT Workstation 4.0.

Let's suppose for the purpose of this example that you have some unregistered files with an ASC extension that you'd like to print from the right-click menu. Run Windows NT Explorer and choose View, Options. When the Options dialog box opens, click the File Types tab.
Now click New Type and under Description Of Type enter
ASCII File
Then press Tab to move to Associated Extension and type in
ASC
Now click OK to continue. Back in Options, click Edit. When the Edit File Type dialog box opens, click New. Next click the Action entry box and enter
Print
Now press Tab to move to Application Used To Perform Action and enter
C:\WINNT\system32\NOTEPAD.EXE /p
assuming this is the correct folder for your installation. If not, substitute the path on your system. Click OK to continue. When you get back to the Edit File Types dialog box, click Close. In Options, click Close again.
Although your ASC file retains the original default icon, and will not open in Notepad if you double-click it, you can right-click the file and choose Print from the menu.

regedit
and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet \Services\Sermouse\Parameters. Right-click the right pane and choose New, DWORD Value. Name your new key OverrideHardwareBitstring. Double-click the new entry and enter 1 if you use COM1 and 2 if you use COM2. Close RegEdit (choose Registry, Exit) and restart the computer.
Note: This tip does NOT apply to the PS/2 mouse port.

regedit
and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace\ {a4d92740-67cd-11cf-96f2-00aa00a11dd9}. Now, since you want to be able to undo what you're about to do, choose Registry, Export Registry File. When the Export Registry File dialog box opens, name the file DialOn and click Save. You can use this file later to reinstall your Dial-Up Networking icon.
With the key exported to a file, click {a4d92740-67cd-11cf-96f2-00aa00a11dd9} and press Delete to delete the key. Choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit.
At this point, you can double-click My Computer to open it. You should no longer have a Dial-Up Networking icon. If the icon is still visible, restart the computer.
You can still use all your dial-up connections, but without the icon you can't add or delete connections.
If you decide to reinstall the Dial-Up Networking icon, locate your exported Registry file, DialOn.reg, and double-click its icon. This merges the original key back into the Registry, and the Dial-Up Networking icon reappears. Again, you may need to restart the computer.

This is a job for RegEdit. Be very careful when using RegEdit.
Close Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 if it's running. Now click Start, Run, type in
regedit
and press Enter (or click OK). When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows \CurrentVersion\Policies\Ratings.
You'll see a key (aptly named 'Key') in the right pane of RegEdit. Click to select it, then click Delete. When the dialog box opens, click Yes.
Now move to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows \CurrentVersion\Policies\Ratings\.Default. Click .Default, then press Delete again. Click Yes when the warning dialog box opens.
Choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit. Then run Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 and choose View, Options. When the Options dialog box opens, click the Security tab. Now click Disable Ratings. When the Password dialog box opens, leave the password blank (you deleted it in RegEdit) and click OK. You'll get a dialog box informing you that Content Advisor is off. Click OK in this dialog box to continue. Now click OK to close the Options dialog box and save your changes.

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"DefaultUserName"="Public"
"AutoAdminLogon"="1"
"DefaultPassword"="public"
We're assuming that you already have a user named Public and you've already set all the policies and so forth.
Now restart the computer. You may get an error message telling you that the password or name is incorrect. If so, the log-on dialog box appears. Enter the name and password--for example:
Public
and
public
and click OK. Now you're in Public. If you restart the computer, the system automatically logs on to Public with no input from the users. When you need to log on as an administrator, click Start, Shut Down. When the Shut Down Windows dialog box appears, select the 'Close all programs and log on as a different user?' radio button. Click Yes and hold down Shift while the system starts. This time, you'll get the startup dialog box, where you can enter
Administrator
and your password. When you're ready to go back to Public, use the same method to restart and change the log-on to the following:
Public
and
public

You can change the source to point at the \i386 folder on your installation CD using RegEdit. If you decide to do this, be careful and back up your Registry first.
With your backup ready, click Start, Run, type in
regedit
and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\ CurrentVersion. In RegEdit's right pane, you'll see a key named SourcePath. Double-click its icon and enter into the Edit String dialog box
d:\i386
(assuming that D: is your CD-ROM drive)
Click OK to save your change and close the dialog box. Now choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit. Restart the computer and the system will now look in d:\i386 for its files.

Would you like to take a really good look at what hardware your system detects? If so, you need to try Windows NT Workstation 4.0's Hardware Query Tool. This tool can check all the hardware installed in your computer--Plug and Play or not.
To use the program, put your Windows NT Workstation 4.0 installation CD into the CD-ROM drive. The disc should autostart. If it doesn't, open My Computer and double-click the CD-ROM icon. When the opening screen appears, click Browse This CD. Navigate to \Support\Hqtool and insert a blank floppy disk into drive A:. Now double-click the Makedisk.bat icon to open the program. Makedisk.bat creates a bootable floppy disk.
With your new floppy disk in A:, restart the computer. Follow the dialog boxes in the Hqtool program. and it will investigate your system and present a report. You can print or save the results of the hardware report.

To compress a folder (or a file), run Windows NT Explorer and locate the folder you want to compress. Right-click the folder and choose Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, select the Compress check box, then click OK. This opens a dialog box, offering OK and Cancel. It also contains a check box labeled "Also compress subfolders." If you want to compress all the subfolders in the folder, along with all the files, select this check box and click OK to continue.
Compression may not be available on your system. Windows NT Workstation 4.0 only compresses files and folders on an NTFS disk with a cluster size of less than 4KB. When the cluster size is larger than 4KB, compression isn't an option.
All disks over 2048MB in capacity have a cluster size of 4KB or greater.

Help file annotation. Double-click My Computer, then choose Help, Help Topics. When the Help Topics dialog box opens, click the Index tab. Now select a topic and click Display. Next click Options and choose Annotate. When the Annotate dialog box opens, you can enter your note. Click Save to close the dialog box and record your note.
To indicate there's a note present, Help now displays a green paper clip icon next to the topic. Click this icon to open the Annotate dialog box and read your notes.

Remember, REG files can prove dangerous, and we don't guarantee this one will do what you expect. To generate the REG file, run Notepad and enter the following information exactly as shown. Where you see BLANK LINE GOES HERE, press Enter (don't type BLANK LINE GOES HERE).
REGEDIT4
BLANK LINE GOES HERE
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
"ClearPageFileAtShutdown"=dword:00000001
BLANK LINE GOES HERE
Now choose File, Save As, and name the file Page.reg. Locate a folder for the file and click Save.
This REG file inserts the Value name ClearPageFileAtShutdown and sets it to 1. This causes Windows NT Workstation 4.0 to clear as much of the page file as it can at shutdown. Note that Windows NT Workstation 4.0 can't clear all the pages since some are active at shutdown. It clears only the inactive pages.

While running Windows NT Workstation 4.0, double-click My Computer to open it, then choose Help, About Windows NT. The About Windows NT dialog box reports the build number and the Service Pack number.
You can also run Windows NT Explorer and choose Help, About Windows NT. This produces the same dialog box you saw in My Computer.

Run two programs on the same line in the Windows NT 4.0 Workstation Command Prompt window. To run two programs, you type in their names separated by an ampersand (&). For example, you'd type:
Program1 & Program2
"and press Enter. In this example, Program2 starts as soon as Program1 finishes executing.
"This is OK if you're sure Program1 will run. If Program1 should fail, Program2 will never start. If you should run across a situation where you need to run Program2 only if Program1 fails, you can enter:
Program1 || Program2
"and press Enter. Program2 will run only if Program1 fails to execute."

The refresh rate specifies the number of times per second your screen gets refreshed. Many people see flicker when the refresh rate is set to 60. You could try setting the refresh rate to a higher value, but you first need to make sure your monitor can handle the increased rate. Too high a refresh rate setting can damage some monitors.
To set the refresh rate, right-click the desktop and choose Properties. When the dialog box opens, click the Settings tab. Now click the arrow at the right side of the Refresh Frequency list box to expand the list. Select a higher refresh rate from the list (a rate consistent with what your monitor can accept). With the new rate selected, click Test. Windows NT Workstation 4.0 will now test the new rate. If all looks well, click Yes. Next, click Apply to apply your new setting. Note that in some cases you may need to restart the system to see the changes.

SHAREWARE: ADVANCED SECURITY CONTROL

You've got to love the brilliance of solitaire. Launch it for a quick game and you might find yourself preoccupied for hours. So if your users spend valuable company time playing games, Advanced Security Control (ASC) is the perfect tool to reclaim those lost hours. With ASC, you can specify time periods in which users can execute certain
applications (i.e., Quake 2), maximizing your user's productivity.
http://www.protect-me.com/asc.html

Do you support users where the hardest part is trying to determine their computer name or the logged-on username? Wouldn't it be great if this information were always on the desktop?
- Start regedt32.exe and go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-
3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}.
- Select the <No Name> value and Delete.
- From Edit, select Add Value.
- Leave the value name blank and set the type to REG_EXPAND_SZ.
- Click OK and enter the text "User: %USERNAME% on: %COMPUTERNAME%".
- Click OK.
- Click the desktop and press F5 (refresh) for the change to take
effect.
Now, when each user logs on to the workstation, the My Computer icon on
the desktop will have the text "User: xxxxxx on: wwwwww" in place of
the text "My Computer." The usual warnings and disclaimers about
editing the Registry apply.

CHANGE A USER'S PASSWORD
Have you ever wanted to change a user's password stored in a local directory database without having to visit the user's computer. Here's how you do it.
Click Ctrl+Alt+Del and select the Change Password button. In the Username box, type the username for the local account, and in the Domain text box, type the computer name where the local account is held. Enter the appropriate Old Password, New Password, and Confirm New
Password. You should receive a message indicating "Your password has been changed."
This tip also applies to directory databases on domain controllers and is especially useful if you want to change a password in a directory database that is outside your domain. A trust relationship doesn't need to exist between the domains, and you don't have to be logged on with administrator rights. This tip is also useful when users need to change their password outside the allowed logon hours or when the password has expired and the user is not able to log on.

As a systems administrator, you must work within the limitations of your company. Usually, you'll have one or two servers with two disks (or more), but what happens when your disk space is low, and you have nothing else to delete on the (sometimes) C:\ boot-system partition?
Your server also acts like a print server, so in the systemroot\system32\spool are the spooled files that are wasting your hard disk space. You can move these spooled files by opening Control Panel\Printers. Click File and select Server Properties. Click Advanced tab and change the Spool Server path from C to D. This trick will free disk space and also enable the print server spooled files to run faster.

Windows NT has a feature that lets users of the anonymous logon feature list domain usernames and enumerate share names. Customers who want enhanced security have asked Microsoft for help in restricting this feature as they see fit. Service Pack 3 (SP3) and SP4 for NT 4.0 (as well as a hotfix for NT 3.51) gives you this ability. To implement your restrictions, use the following Registry key and value:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\LSA
Name: RestrictAnonymous
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1
Be sure to read Microsoft Support Online article Q143474, which contains complete details on this function.
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q143/4/74.asp

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Current Version\Winlogon
Name: LegalNoticeText
Type: REG_SZ
Value: Text shown in the logon notice dialog box

Alter a login script based on group membership.

\\SERVER\NETLOGON\ifmember "Accountants" "Accounts Payable"
REM 0=none, 1=one of the groups, 2 =two of the listed groups
if ERRORLEVEL 1 goto apac%errorlevel%
:sales
\\SERVER\NETLOGON\ifmember "Sales"
If NOT ERRORLEVEL 1 goto common
net use s: \\ServerName\Sales$ /persistent:no
goto common
:apac1
REM Either a member of Accountants or Accounts Payable
\\SERVER\NETLOGON\ifmember "Accountants"
if ERRORLEVEL 1 goto acct
net use x: \\ServerName\ap$ /persistent:no
goto sales
:acct
net use y: \\ServerName\acct$ /persistent:no
goto sales
:apac2
REM Membership in both Accountants and A/P
net use x: \\ServerName\ap$ /persistent:no
net use z: \\ServerName\accctap$ /persistent:no
goto acct
:common
net use h: /home
exit

Click Start, Run, then type
Regedit
and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. If you don't see an entry called NoSaveSettings, you need to add it.
To add the value, right-click RegEdit's right pane and choose Binary Value. Name the new value NoSaveSettings and press Enter twice (once to save the name and once to open the Edit Binary Value dialog box). Set the value to 01 00 00 00 and click OK.
If you already have NoSaveSettings, double-click it and set its value to 01 00 00 00. Click OK to continue.
Close RegEdit and restart the computer.

Open HyperTerminal (click Start, Programs, Accessories). Type the new name in the Name entry box (Answer will work just fine) and click OK. Now, you need to enter a phone number. Since you don't need to use a real number here, you can enter 555-5555 and click OK. When the Connect dialog box opens, click Cancel, since you don't want to connect to anything right now.
At this point, the HyperTerminal window will open. Choose File/Properties. When the Test Properties dialog box opens, click the Settings tab and then click ASCII Setup. Select the check boxes labeled "Send line ends with line feed," "Append line feeds to incoming lines," and "Wrap lines that exceed terminal width," and click OK to close the dialog box. Back in Test Properties, click OK again to get back to the HyperTerminal window.
Finally, type in:
ATS0=1
and press Enter to tell your modem to answer incoming calls. The modem will respond with
OK
if all is working properly. If your modem won't support auto answer, you'll get an error message. When you need to turn off the auto answer feature, type
ATS0=0
and press Enter. The modem will respond with
OK
to indicate that it accepted the command.
To save your new setting, choose File, Save As. When the Save As dialog box opens, you can click Save to save the file and close the dialog box. If you prefer, you can enter a new name and then click Save.

The format always fails when I try to use this method. If I open My Computer, right-click the floppy disk icon and choose Format, the disk still won't format. But if I close Windows NT Explorer, I can format the disk using the icon in My Computer. Has my Windows NT Workstation 4.0 installation gotten messed up?"
No, there's no problem with your system. You can't format a disk while its contents are displayed. This is why the format works when you close Windows NT Explorer.
If you want to format the floppy disk in Windows NT Explorer, run Explorer and then, while Explorer still displays the contents of drive C:, right-click the drive A: icon and choose Format. The format will work now because Explorer is not displaying the contents of the floppy disk.

Click Start, Run. Type
regedit
and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKey_Classes_Root.
Now scroll down to Briefcase and click to select it. Choose Registry, Export Registry File. When the Export Registry File dialog box opens, type
Brief
and click Save.
Note: Do not skip this step--it is very important that you make this backup of the Briefcase key. If you do not, you won't be able to restore the Briefcase later.
With the Briefcase key saved, you can now choose Edit, Delete to delete the key. Finally, choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit and apply your changes.
When you right-click the desktop and choose New, you'll see that there is no Briefcase option listed.
If you want to return Briefcase to your system, locate Brief.reg and double-click its icon to merge the original Registry entries with the current Registry.

You can use the mouse to select text in the Command Prompt window. To do this, close any open Command Prompt windows and click Start, Settings, Control Panel. When the Control Panel opens, double-click the Console icon. When the Console Windows Properties dialog box opens, click the Options tab. Now select the check box labeled QuickEdit Mode. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply your new setting. Open a Command Prompt window and you'll find you can use the mouse to select text.
After you select the text you want to copy, press Enter to send it to the Clipboard.

In a recent tip, we mentioned that you could store only 512 entries in a root folder. We failed to specify the drive format. As several readers pointed out, 512 files is correct only for a FAT 16 drive. A FAT 12 drive can handle only 224 files in the root folder. Both FAT 32 and NTFS set no limit on the number of files in the root folder.

If you need to use more than one locale because you sometimes send information to other countries, you can easily set up multiple locales in Windows NT 4.0 Workstation. Begin by clicking Start, Settings, Control Panel. When Control Panel opens, double-click Regional Settings. In the Regional Settings Properties dialog box, select the Input Locales tab.
To add a new locale, click Add. When the Add Input Locale dialog box opens, click the arrow at the right side of the Input Locale list box to expand the list. Then, select your new locale from the list. Let's say that you need to send material to the United Kingdom. In this case, you'd select English (United Kingdom). Now, click OK to record your selection and close the dialog box.
Back in the Regional Settings Properties dialog box, select the Enable Indicator On Taskbar check box. Then, click OK to close the dialog box and save your selections. You can now close Control Panel by clicking its close box (the X in the upper-right corner).
To switch between your locale selections, press Left Alt-Shift. To make sure you made the switch, move the mouse pointer over the locale icon in the taskbar. The ToolTip will display the currently selected locale.

We assume that you want to see if the file is present on the hard disk. If so, you can use a batch file like the one shown here to search for a file in a given folder (directory). To generate the batch file, run Notepad and enter the following commands:
@echo off
if exist %myfile.xxx goto here
echo Not found
goto end
:here
echo Found it
:end
Now, choose File, Save As and name the file Look.cmd. Locate a folder for your new file, then click Save to save the file and close the Save As dialog box.
To run the file, go to the Command Prompt window (click Start, Programs, Command Prompt), type
look
and press Enter. If the file you specified in Look.cmd is in the current folder, Look.cmd will display Found It. If the file is not in the current folder, Look.cmd will display Not Found. You can expand on this routine to locate other files in other folders.

"File fragmentation can really slow down your NT system, especially since Windows NT 4.0 Workstation does not include a defragmentation program. I think the biggest performance hit occurs if you resize the virtual memory pagefile and that gets fragmented. Third-party defraggers such as Diskeeper can help and can even defrag the pagefile and directories, if there is enough contiguous free space on the drive.
"I think the best way to avoid fragmenting the pagefile is to isolate it on its own partition. Create a partition big enough to hold the pagefile, with some room to spare.
"To move the pagefile to a new partition, right-click My Computer and select Properties. When the System Properties dialog box opens, click the Performance tab. Now, click Change and then set the maximum and minimum pagefile sizes to zero. Click Set to record your changes. Next, select the new partition and re-create the pagefile in the new partition (enter the original size in megabytes and click Set). Click OK to close the Virtual Memory dialog box, then click Close to dismiss the dialog box. Since you made a change to the system, you will need to restart the computer.
"With the pagefile isolated from the data and application files, it has little chance of getting fragmented, and defragmentation programs will work more effectively on the rest of the drive."

When you update or change your LMHOSTS file, the changes will not take effect until you do one of two things. The obvious answer is to reboot, but a better answer is to type NBTSTAT -R from the command line. This approach will reload your local name cache table. The switch for -R is case sensitive.

WINDOWS KEY SHORTCUTS

regedit
and press Enter. When RegEdit opens, navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Word\Options
Right-click the right-pane and choose New, String Value.
Name your new value LiveScrolling.
Double-click the new icon and enter 1.
Click OK to close the dialog box and record your setting.
Now choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit.
"The next time you start Word 97, you will get real-time screen updates as you scroll." 

start /min c:\Folder1\Prog1.exe
start /max c:\Folder2\Prog2.exe 
start /min c:\Folder3\Prog3.exe
"After you enter all the programs you want to start, choose File,
Save As, and name your new file Startit.cmd.
Locate a folder for the file and click Save.
"Now run Windows NT Explorer and navigate to the folder that holds your new file.
Use the right mouse to drag the file's icon to the correct Startup folder.
You'll find the folders under \Winnt\Profiles.
When you release the mouse button, choose Create Shortcut(s)
Here from the pop-up menu.
"Right-click your new shortcut and choose Properties.
When the Properties dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab,
then click the arrow at the right side of the Run list box.
From the list, select Minimized.
"Finally, click the General tab and select the check box labeled Read-Only.
Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box." 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.
Right-click the right pane and choose New, DWORD Value. Name your new entry NoLogoff and press Enter twice to open the Edit DWORD Value dialog box. Enter 1 and press Enter.
Now you can choose Registry, Exit to close RegEdit. The change takes effect immediately--no restart is required.

"If you use Microsoft Office 97 or 2000 on your Windows NT Workstation 4.0, you might like to try the Microsoft System Information tool (Msinfo) to get information on your system. This utility provides more information than you get with WinMSD.
"To locate the file, run Windows NT Explorer and go to \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Msinfo. The file is named msinfo32.exe. You can drag a shortcut to your desktop to keep it handy."

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RasMan\Parameters]
"DisableSavePassword"=dword:00000001
When you restart the computer, your changes will take effect. If you want to turn password saving back on, change the DisableSavePassword line to
"DisableSavePassword"=dword:00000000
and save the file as PassOn.reg. Run the new file to turn password saving back on.

It's common knowledge that Windows and DOS do not display shares ending in a dollar sign. Therefore, you can use this method of share-naming to hide any shares that you don't want users to see. This feature is also the reason that administrative shares (C$, D$) are not visible when you browse the network. Because these shares are not displayed in a network browse list, you can connect to hidden shares only if you know the exact share name.
You cannot remove default administrative shares by simply unsharing them. Although deleting the share might remove it, that removal is only temporary. The next time you reboot the system, the shares reappear. To remove administrative shares permanently, edit or create the appropriate Registry key below. Change the value to 3D0 and reboot the system.
For NT Server:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: System\CCS\Services\LanManagerServer\Parameters
Name: AutoShareServer
Value: 3D0

For NT Workstation:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: System\CCS\Services\LanManagerServer\Parameters
Name: AutoShareWks
Value: 3D0

Try this one on your PDCs and BDCs because this shortcut is much faster than Server Managers' kludgy interface:
1) Right-click on the Desktop, and select New Shortcut.
2) In the command-line field, type Net Accounts/sync, and click Next.
3) In the Select a Name for the Shortcut field, type Sync Domain, or some such descriptor, and click Finish.
All done! Now, when changes are made to the directory database (i.e., new user or changed password), simply double-click the new icon and a quick CMD window will pop up and complete the command successfully. Your domain directory database will also start its synchronization process.
If you're slick, you can put this shortcut in your Start Menu, and give it a cool icon and a keyboard shortcut.

Windows NT has a sporadic synchronization problem that can crash the OS. If one of your systems has this problem, you'll see a blue screen with Stop Code 0x0000001e in the module win32k.sys. Microsoft documents the crash in Microsoft Support Online article Q237955 (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q237/9/55.asp) and offers a new win32k.sys that corrects the synchronization problem. The bug fix applies to all versions of NT and NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition, independent of service pack level.

Having trouble installing Microsoft Office 97's Service Release 2 (SR2) because the new msjet35.dll won't install? Microsoft Support Online article Q193386
(http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q193/3/86.asp)
reports that the Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition licensing service uses the file, and you can't update a file that's in use. Turn off the licensing service, install SR2, and restart the service.

A: Although Microsoft claims that each terminal client session will use 2-6Kbps of network bandwidth, I have found that this estimate isn't always accurate. To get a more accurate picture of how Terminal Server sessions will affect your network, you can use Network Monitor in conjunction with Performance Monitor. First, install the Network
Monitor Tools and Agent in the Services tab of the Network Control Panel. This will add the Network Segment object to Performance Monitor (the other object you'll need--Network Interface--should already exist as it installs with TCP/IP).
Monitor the %Network Utilization counter of the Network Segment object to track the total bandwidth being used on the network segment where the terminal server is. The Network Interface object's Bytes received/second and Bytes total/second counters provide the total bytes received or processed (respectively) by the server's adapter.If possible, use the version of Network Monitor that comes with
Systems Management Server (SMS) or a third-party software product such as Data General's NetXRay, not the NetMon that comes with NT or Windows 2000(Win2K). NT's NetMon can only monitor the traffic to and from its own adapter, and I've found this version's % Network Utilization counter to be unreliable at times, especially on Fast Ethernet and 100Mbps networks.

If you install IE 5.0 on a terminal server after installing SP4, you might run into the following problem. When users without administrative privileges log on to the terminal server for the first time after the installation, their personal settings should install.
However, they'll see error messages telling them an .inf install failure occurred because access was denied. To resolve this problem, put the terminal server into Install mode, run the IE 4.0 application compatibility script, and return the server to Execute mode. See Microsoft Support Online article Q237813
(http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q237/8/13.asp) for more information.

GET, POST, AND COOKIES

NETBT BLUE SCREEN

INSTALL IIS SNAP-IN

A BETTER WAY TO CLEAR THE DOCUMENTS FOLDER

EXPANDING THE FILES FROM THE WINDOWS NT WORKSTATION 4.0 CD-ROM

Insert the Windows NT Workstation 4.0 disc into your CD-ROM drive and navigate to \i386. Double-click winnt32.exe to open it. When the Windows NT 4.00 Upgrade/Installation dialog box appears, click Options and deselect the Create Boot Floppy Disks check box. Click OK to close the dialog box. Now click Continue to save all the expanded files on drive C: in a folder named $win_nt$.500ls. Rename this folder to something such as NTSetup.

ADDING PERMISSIONS AUTOMATICALY TO SUBFOLDERS

OR

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon check to see if the following location contains a default user name, password, and auto admin login is set to 1.
Try holding down shift during boot process and you can see if your logon is set this way.
OR TRY THIS
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft \Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon Change the value of the AutoAdminLogon key from 1 (true) to 0 (false).
Alternatively, if you delete the DefaultPassword string, Windows NT will automatically change the value of the AutoAdminLogon key from 1 to 0, thus disabling the AutoAdminLogon feature.

SID=Security Identifier. 32,000 is the limit. It seems to be the best solution is to not delete an account, just rename it and change its properties--therefore not creating a new SID each time you want another account. Once you delete an account that SID is not used again.