Windows 95 for Power Users

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Windows 95 & 98 for
power users

Following is a short list of some tools and sites I've found on the internet which can be very worthy to intermediate and advanced Windows 95 / 98 users. After three years of the initial release, it is now possible to find quite some interesting stuff to make it more enjoyable from a power user's point of view.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not a Windows 95 fan. I cope with it as it currently has the largest software base which lets me do my work quickly (despite the usual crashes) on my "consumer level" computer. Personally, I prefer Linux's stability and performance.

Every software and site featured here is freeware and it is not necessarily well known. It took me more that a few minutes to find them. Therefore, be assured that you will not find the power toys or links to windows95.com here, except this one. I've decided to write this page since most "hints and tricks" pages out there are for beginners and I don't consider myself as one. As usual, everything here must be used... at your own risk.

Please drop me an e-mail if you have any comments or questions. Some things listed here (especially in the tricks section) take for granted that you have basic knowledge of DOS and other things, but I'll be glad to help if you if you need assistance.

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W h y freeware?

quality:
someone who gives away his/her software is usually someone who enjoys coding enough to write something decent.
it's free:
you don't feel cheap or bad when using freeware.

Microsoft Task Scheduler
Once titled System Agent, you had to pay for this automation tool included with MS-Plus. Microsoft now gives it away for free. There's a catch, though: you need IE4. There are many alternatives (such as the excellent Poltergeist), but Task Scheduler has a nice advantage over its competitors: it takes very few memory. And you all know that this makes me happy.

Clean system directory
Finds DLLs in your system directory which are not used by any program. This cutie is smooth, fast and reliable. It will definetely blow your socks off.

ZDDesk
People looking for a virtual desktop for Win95 will be delighted. Many missing options could have been useful, but the source code is included so add them yourself!

Atomtime95 1.4b
Here's one that will please UNIX administrators used to have their system clocks always on time. Atomtime95 is a freeware that connects to a time server in order to set your PC's clock. There is also a more recent shareware version at http://www.atomtime.com.

Waterfall
Having a tough time cooling your CPU? This utility helps cooling it by sending HLTs to your processor when your system is idle. This is probably a little more drastic than your greenboard's doze mode, but it will help those who have an overclocked chip (or a 6x86 like me) cope with the heat without upgrading their fan.

MTU-Speed
If you have Trumpet Winsock nostalgia, cry no more. This nice utility lets you easily tweak Win95's hidden MTU and RWIN settings and test which are best.

Partition Manager
Someone out there finally made a freeware partition/boot manager. We all owe him some congratulations! This one supports both FAT16 and FAT32.

Batchrun
If you think you're writing too much batch files, take a look at this GUI editor which runs special scripts with a little more punch.

Ping Plotter
This wonder is a GUI-based traceroute which plots a graph depending on the response time of each router on your way.

Freemem
This one exploits an interesting idea: it allocates and frees a specified number of kilobytes of crap in order to page out unused applications. The result is a faster system with lots of physical RAM available. This program supports a range of command-line options, so it can be set to be launched by your task scheduler.

Regclean
Being a professional system cleaner, I was glad to find out this nice utility that Microsoft doesn't talk about much. Try out regclean /? to see the undocumented command-line options which lets you run the program automatically or interactively.

Sinfo
This nice program has a lot of features, but the most useful one is its process manager that gives you much more control on running processes and threads than the standard task manager. Try it out, you'll like its power. This isn't NT's process manager yet, but it is way better than nothing (nothing being Windows 95/98's task manager).

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Windows 95 system updates
Having a hard time finding the system updates you need? This site clears out the puzzle. A must for power users who like to have the latest and greatest. A really nice piece of work from Ben Jos Wallbeehm.

Bios upgrades
This one is not related to windows, but I thought I'd mention this site which is useful to find upgrades to even the most cryptic bioses.

BOARS don't read manuals
A really good site which gives you hardware tips from enabling Bus Mastering to setting your MTU.

Gord's Windows 95 FAQ
This FAQ answers a lot of basic as well as advanced Windows 95 questions.

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Automatically deleting unwanted files
Want to delete crap with a lot of flexibility? Don't use any GUI tool - do it the old way!

Setting your system on time with a dial-up connection
This short trick will help you keep your PC clock on time with a nuclear clock even if you do not have a dedicated access on the internet.

Keeping updated bookmarks on your home page
If you have a public bookmarks file that you wish to update easily without looking for a GUI, try this trick.

Sending voice mail to your e-mail address
This trick might please to people who would like to listen to their voice mail when they're away without having to call back home.

More to come
Eventually...

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Comments or suggestions: omasse@iname.com

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Last update: September 29th 1998

visitors since June 2nd 1998