|
QUICK TIP -- COOKIES! LOW ON DISK SPACE?
If you use IE4 or 5 in Win9x and FAT16, your cookies are taking up more space than first appears. Your C:\Windows\Cookies folder may report a couple of hundred small cookie files, all of which may only add up to a total of about 100KB. However, if you right-click on the that folder view its properties you'll probably be surprised to find that it takes up a whopping 5 to 7MB of space. This is because of the 32KB sectors that FAT16 uses for each of these tiny files. The moral of the story: Clean out your cookie jar! Get rid of all those old cookies unless you really need them.
FIX PICTURE PREVIEW IN WINDOWS EXPLORER
Thanks to Steve Yandl, the solution to a typical Win9x problem, losing the preview feature in Windows Explorer, can be easily rectified. It takes a little work and a quick download though. This is what to do:
- Download FixPix.inf to a temporary directory. Make note of where you've stored it, you'll need it later.
- Next you need to check to see if you can use this file to fix your preview problems.
- Launch Windows Explorer and drill down to C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer and take a look inside. If the file Iexplore.exe is in this sub directory then go to the left pane and right click the folder itself.
- Select Properties and make sure that the DOS file name for this folder is INTERN~1. If it is you're OK -- you can use this fix. If not, STOP, delete the .INF file and do not proceed.
- What this .INF file will do is delete all the problem Registry entries for .JPG (all sub-types), .GIF and .BMP file types and then rebuild them with the default Win9x standards (.JPG and .GIF with Internet Explorer and .BMP with MS Paint). If you have different associations for these file types you'll have to re-associate them after you're done fixing the preview problem.
- OK, now we're all set. To repair the preview feature in Windows Explorer first make sure that you have Explorer set to view all folders as Web Page.
- Double check that you actually have a problem. Go to a folder in Explorer and highlight a .JPG or .GIF or .BMP file and see if it previews.
- If it doesn't, while still in Explorer go to the directory with FixPix.inf in it and right-click it. Choose Install.
- Done. You should have your preview feature back and the default association for picture files.
- To re-associate the files with some other program, follow this procedure for each of the file types:
- Launch Windows Explorer and find a .JPG file.
- Hold down the SHIFT key and right click the file. Choose Open with....
- Wait for the dialog box and make sure that the little box that says Always use this program to open this type of file is checked and then select the program with which you'd like that file type to be associated.
- Microsoft has also addressed this issue. Read about it here.
- That's it. All fixed. Enjoy!
FIX ANNOYING AUTOCOMPLETE DELAY
In some Windows installations, when you start to type an address into IE, your disk starts chugging, your CD starts to spin, and there's a delay before Autocomplete starts to work. This is because IE is searching for LOCAL paths. You can turn this off by going into Tools/Internet Options/Advanced, then unchecking Use inline AutoComplete.
This forces IE to look only for URLs in its Autocomplete. Try it. You'll find your Autocomplete works much faster, and without all the disk fuss.
(Props to Andre.)
|
