Windows NT Tips and Tricks

If Windows 95 and Window NT are installed on the same machine, then the program installed under Win 95 will not work in NT. The better solution is to add Win 95 system folder in NT path. In Win NT, right click My Computer, select Properties, and choose Environment tab. Click Path in the System Variable box, and in the Value box add the path of the Win 95 System folder. Then select OK to save the changes

If the system does not start because of known file or driver, then boot in DOS system disk and remove the error file manually. Hint: this will work only if NTFS is not used.

To change the default Window NT set up path, edit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows \CurrentVersion\Setup\Sourcepath and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\ CurrentVersion\Sourcepath to the desired path.

To create repair disk in Win NT, there are two possible ways. One is through explorer select the System 32 folder and double-click the rdisk and the second option is to enter rdisk.exe in the Run prompt. This process starts the repair utility and allows creating a new or modifying an old repair disk.

To decide where to open MS-DOS, select Start, Settings, Control Panel, Console, and click Layout in open dialog box and deselect the check box containing the message, let system position window. Finally use set the window’s position by using spin box.

To change startup, open control panel and double-click the system icon.

To modify startup, right click My Computer, select Properties, and click Startup/Shutdown tab.

To run registered program in the path, select Start, Run and enter the file name. To use this procedure to run program that don’t need Registry entries, enter full path name or file name.

To know the lost CD Key of Win NT, open RegEdit and select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion. In the product id, select the digits from 6 to 15, which is nothing but the CD key. Save the key in a file and close RegEdit.

To check the disk performance, turn on the disk counters, type diskperf in the Command Prompt, press enter, and restart the system. When the computer boots again, disk performance along with activity can be checked.

To turn off the disk counter, type diskperf –N in command prompt, press enter, and restart the system.

To protect the files in floppy disk, create a folder in desktop and move files from floppy to that folder to keep them until it is safe to remove the file.

For adding sound to the alert, open Control Panel, click Sounds icon, and select a sound for the alert.

To navigate back to Control Panel tool from other window use Alt-Esc or use mouse to select the tool. Alt-Tab won’t work because Control Panel tools are modeless dialog boxes.

To examine the fonts available in the system, navigate to \Winnt\Fonts folder to view all the fonts.

To schedule massive printing, select Start, Settings, and Printers. In the Printer page, right click printer icon, select Properties and choose Scheduling tab. Select the time range and save the changes.

To recover lost data due to any hard disk failure, use good data recovery software or services.

To change the scrollbars size, right click desktop, select Properties, and choose Appearance tab. In the menu, select scrollbar and change it to the desired size. Save the changes and close the window.

To rename the icon, right click and select Rename. Enter new name and press enter.

To find the size of the selected folders, hold Ctrl and select the folders. Right click the selection and select Properties. The dialog box will show the total size of the files and type of each file in folders.

To start explorer without rebooting the computer, select Ctrl + Alt + Del and task manager opens. Choose explorer in the task manager and end the task.

Basic window NT explorer shortcut keys are F4 to display combo box, F5 to refresh, F6 to tab among panes, and Ctrl + G to navigate to dialog box.

To close multiple windows of same application simultaneously, hold Shift key and press the X in the right corner of the window opened lastly.

To hide the task manager, click Ctrl + Shift +Esc, open Options, and select hide when minimized.

To turn off CD AutoRun make zero toHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom\Autorun.

To delete and recreate WINS database enter net stop WINS ren %SystemRoot%\System32\WINS\Wins.mdb %SystemRoot%\System32\WINS\Wins.old
net start WINS in the command prompt.

To Ghost/Un-Ghost connections, edit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\NetworkProvider value to 0 for ghost and 1 for not ghosted connection.

To delete the directory or file with reserved or illegal names, type del \\.\Drive:\directory\filename in the command prompt.

To disable NumLock at startup set HKEY_Current_User\ControlPanel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators to 0 and to enable Numlock change the value to 2.

To enable DOS application to print to a network printer enter NET USE LPTx: \\computername\sharename /PERSISTENT:YES in the command prompt.

To change the logon bitmap, replace WINNT.BMP in C: WINNT with the desired picture.

More Windows NT Resources
There are many more tips and tricks on how to make Windows NT easier to work with and more customized:

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