You Asked Us PC June 1998

by Alan Zisman (c) 1998. First published in Computer Player, June 1998

Robert L. Kunz asked

What is Folder "Sysbckup" in W95? I see that it duplicates a lot of files that are in the W95\System folder. Is this something I need? Where did it come from?

As the name and contents suggest, it is a collection of backups of system files... it is created as a safety precaution, during the W95 Setup. The contents are files that are often over-written with older versions during poorly-written application installations.

If you are desperate for the 4 megs of drive space, delete it (or better yet, ZIP the contents to floppy or other backup source)... but otherwise, keep it around-- for when you find that you now have an incompatible version of a file that's stored there.

Richard Crist wondered:

I am using Window 95 on a 486dx66 with 20 megs of ram. The problem I am have is running DOS games. They want to use 500K or more of conventional memory. I set up the properties to give it 640K and still won't run and states that I have too many TRS's . When I was using Windows 3.11 and DOS 6.22 I could run MemMaker or edit Config.sys and Autoexec.bat to load all the drivers high. With Windows 95 I am not sure how to free up some the conventional memory.

You can continue to run MEMMAKER... the old DOS version will still work as
advertised, and will give you more DOS ram (or use the version on your Win95 CD).

Or, by hand, start off making sure you have the following three lines in CONFIG.SYS:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS  (unless you have games requiring
 expanded memory, in which case replace NOEMS with RAM)
DOS=HIGH,UMB

That may give you the memory you need. If not, run MEMMAKER, or by hand, change any remaining DEVICE= statements in Config.sys with DEVICEHIGH=, and add the word LOADHIGH (or LH) in front of any memory resident programs loaded in Autoexec.bat.

Pat Tan said :

I am really annoyed by the DOCUMENTS menu Windows 95 Start Menu. I
am figuring out a way on how to eliminate the documents PERMANENTLY because I always click on the properties on the Taskbar and clear the files under DOCUMENT.  It eats away my time when I am trying to go to the programs.

The  multi-talented free TweakUI Control Panel add-in from Microsoft includes a Paranoia tab, with options to (among others):

[ ] Clear Document history at log-on

Bobby Craig said:

I have just discovered that I have a copy of both HIMEM.SYS & EMM386.EXE in C:\DOS and C:\WINDOWS and they are both different.

When running Windows should I be using the DOS ones or the WINDOWS ones?

Use the more recent version. If you?re running Windows 3.1 and DOS 6.22, for example, use the C:\DOS versions. If you?re using Windows 95, use the C:\Windows ones.

Similarly,if you?re using Windows 95, you?ll have many DOS utilities in C:\Windows\Command.. use those versions in place of the C:\DOS copies.. In fact, you can delete C:\DOS unless you're booting to your old DOS version.

Romain Lacroix wondered:

I used to work with Macintosh and want to put some 'nice looking' icon upon the Win95 trash.

You may want to check out the freeware WinMac, which puts a working Macintosh menu bar (complete w. Apple Menu) at the top of the screen, and allows changing both Recycle Bin icons to trash bins. It even includes Mac startup and shutdown screens. Look for WinMac at: http://home.hkstar.com/~ritchie/winmac.html
 

Jesse Canfield said:

I have win95 and I was reading the manual and it says that you can have direct connections with another computer via cable and I was just wondering how or what do I go to make it start the connection or make it realize that it is connected to the other computer or transfer files?

In order to use DCC (Direct Cable Connection) you need the following:

1) A networking client installed on each machine (I tend to use Client for Microsoft Networking).

2) A unique computer name for each machine, but exactly identical Workgroup names (in Control Panel/Network/Identification)

3) Direct Cable Connection installed on both machines

4) Either a null-modem serial cable or (preferably) a data-transfer parallel cable

5) File Sharing turned on (Control Panel/Network/File & Printer Sharing), and at least one drive or folder set as shareable (right-click on the item to be shared in My Computer/Explorer, and choose the Sharing item).

6) Network Neighborhood must be visible on the Desktop of each machine.

Once you have all those things, run DCC on each machine, identifying one as the HOST computer (the one with sharing turned on), and the other as the GUEST. Once connection is made, the Guest computer will be able to read/write, and run programs on the shared items of the Host.
 



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Alan Zisman is a Vancouver educator, writer, and computer specialist. He can be reached at E-mail Alan