Windows 95 Tips

Almost all Windows users are familiar with GPFs, Illegal operations, abrupt system hangs... These have become almost a daily affair for Windows95 users. Still the OS provides us with so many other beneficial features that we tend to ignore the drawbacks. And again, most users will not know some important things, which have a major impact on the performance of the system.
Given below is a compiled list of 10 most important features, with a brief description of each.

Feature What does it do How to enable When to do

Typical Role of the PC There are 3 typical roles of the PC - Desktop, Portable & Network Server. Setting this feature to Network Server, set a read ahead cache to a max. of 64Kb. It gives faster disk access.

Click on Performance tab in Device Manager. Select FileSystem.

Set typical role to Network Server & reboot.

When Windows95 is installed.

Virtual Memory Windows95 makes use of a dynamic swap file, whose size changes as per the requirements. But this is a inefficient process. Setting a specific swap file size, will decrease the load on the disk & CPU, when lots of memory hogging programs are being used.

Follow Step1 of previous feature. Select Virtual Memory, instead of File System.

Choose 'Let me set my own Virtual Memory settings'.

Enter the same maximum and minimum sizes. For a 32MB machine, 100MB of swap file is ideal.

Reboot

When Windows95 is installed.

Colour Depth The colour depth refers to the number of colours your video card can display simultaneously on the screen. If you are not into 3D modelling or rendering, CAD, or are not a DTP specialist, 256 colour depth(8 bit) is more than sufficient. The refresh rates supported at lower colour depths are also higher.

Right click on the desktop. Select properties.

In the Settings tab, set colour depth to 8 bit(256 colours). Click OK.

You may or may not require a restart depending on the OS version you have.

Whenever more colours are not needed

Defragment As more and more files get accumulated on your hard disk, the fragementation increases. The hard disk has to work more to find all the files required to load an application. Defragmenting a drive, puts related files together so that the drive can access them faster.

Select Disk Defragmenter from Accessories/System Tools.

Select the drive you wish to defragment.

Select Full Optimization.

Weekly once.

Scan Disk Due to a power failure, or due to a faulty install, or due to a hard disk crash, errors such as Lost Clusters, Invalid Time Stamps, Invalid directory entries, might occur, which might slow down your system, or in the worst case, Windows might not load. Scandisk checks for these errors and corrects them.

Select Scan Disk from Accessories/System Tools.

Select the drive.

Select Auto Correction.

Weekly once.

Startup Folder Many applications put some of their assistants( I mean some related programs!) into the Startup folder. The more applications are in the Startup folder, the more time it takes for Windows to load. As far as possible keep the Startup folder clean.

Select Taskbar from Settings in Start Menu. Click Remove from Start Menu Programs tab.

Open Startup folder and delete unwanted applications.

No specific time duration. But keep a watch.

Fonts The more fonts you have installed ,the slower your system will be. Keep only those fonts which you will be using regurlarly. Delete all others.

Double Click on Fonts icon in Control Panel.

Select the unwanted fonts and click Delete.

Same as above.

Microsoft Find Fast When you install MSOffice97, it will put Find Fast in the Startup folder. Unless you do a lot of searches for files over a network, remove it from Startup. When Find Fast is indexing your HDD, the system may take ages to respond to your commands.

Proceed on similar lines to the Startup Folder step.

When you install MSOffice97.

Apps Install only those applications which you will be using regurlarly. The more apps you install the more time it will take for windows to load, as it has to load the necessary DLLs of all the installled apps.

Remove unused apps using Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel.

No time duration

The Ultimate Tip If the above fail to speed up your system to your expectations, then this is the tip for you. Go and get a more powerful system!

Take your Credit card or smart card, go the a computer shop, buy what you want.

Depends on how much moolah you have!

Feature	What does it do	How to enable	When to do
Typical Role of the PC	There are 3 typical roles of the PC - Desktop, Portable & Network Server. Setting this feature to Network Server, set a read ahead cache to a max. of 64Kb. It gives faster disk access.	Click on Performance tab in Device Manager. Select FileSystem. Set typical role to Network Server & reboot.	When Windows95 is installed.
Virtual Memory	Windows95 makes use of a dynamic swap file, whose size changes as per the requirements. But this is a inefficient process. Setting a specific swap file size, will decrease the load on the disk & CPU, when lots of memory hogging programs are being used.	Follow Step1 of previous feature. Select Virtual Memory, instead of File System. Choose 'Let me set my own Virtual Memory settings'. Enter the same maximum and minimum sizes. For a 32MB machine, 100MB of swap file is ideal. Reboot	When Windows95 is installed.
Colour Depth	The colour depth refers to the number of colours your video card can display simultaneously on the screen. If you are not into 3D modelling or rendering, CAD, or are not a DTP specialist, 256 colour depth(8 bit) is more than sufficient. The refresh rates supported at lower colour depths are also higher.	Right click on the desktop. Select properties. In the Settings tab, set colour depth to 8 bit(256 colours). Click OK. You may or may not require a restart depending on the OS version you have.	Whenever more colours are not needed
Defragment	As more and more files get accumulated on your hard disk, the fragementation increases. The hard disk has to work more to find all the files required to load an application. Defragmenting a drive, puts related files together so that the drive can access them faster.	Select Disk Defragmenter from Accessories/System Tools. Select the drive you wish to defragment. Select Full Optimization.	Weekly once.
Scan Disk	Due to a power failure, or due to a faulty install, or due to a hard disk crash, errors such as Lost Clusters, Invalid Time Stamps, Invalid directory entries, might occur, which might slow down your system, or in the worst case, Windows might not load. Scandisk checks for these errors and corrects them.	Select Scan Disk from Accessories/System Tools. Select the drive. Select Auto Correction.	Weekly once.
Startup Folder	Many applications put some of their assistants( I mean some related programs!) into the Startup folder. The more applications are in the Startup folder, the more time it takes for Windows to load. As far as possible keep the Startup folder clean.	Select Taskbar from Settings in Start Menu. Click Remove from Start Menu Programs tab. Open Startup folder and delete unwanted applications.	No specific time duration. But keep a watch.
Fonts	The more fonts you have installed ,the slower your system will be. Keep only those fonts which you will be using regurlarly. Delete all others.	Double Click on Fonts icon in Control Panel. Select the unwanted fonts and click Delete.	Same as above.
Microsoft Find Fast	When you install MSOffice97, it will put Find Fast in the Startup folder. Unless you do a lot of searches for files over a network, remove it from Startup. When Find Fast is indexing your HDD, the system may take ages to respond to your commands.	Proceed on similar lines to the Startup Folder step.	When you install MSOffice97.
Apps	Install only those applications which you will be using regurlarly. The more apps you install the more time it will take for windows to load, as it has to load the necessary DLLs of all the installled apps.	Remove unused apps using Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel.	No time duration
The Ultimate Tip	If the above fail to speed up your system to your expectations, then this is the tip for you. Go and get a more powerful system!	Take your Credit card or smart card, go the a computer shop, buy what you want.	Depends on how much moolah you have!