You Asked Us PC February 1999
by Alan Zisman (c)
1999.
First
published in Vancouver Computes,
February
1999
Maxine Mandell wondered:
When I go to "Find" and type in my request, I get
the location of
the file. Frequently, the location is the Windows directory and is
listed
as C:\Windows\.... How do I determine the exact path? As you
know,
Windows has many directories.
Alan?s answer:
In the Find results dialogue box (and in many other
similar Explorer
dialogue boxes), you can enlarge the field with the folder name-- by
going
to the tabs where the field names are listed, and placing your mouse on
the line in between two field names (in this case, the In Folder and
Size
fields)... you'll see your cursor change to a double-headed arrow.
When this happens, drag to the right, to enlarge the
In Folder field
until you can read the whole name.
Scott Roberts pondered:
I have a Cyrix 686 P166+ with 32mb ram 2.1gb
h-dd, 256 cache.
What are the optimum swapfile settings???
Alan pontificated:
Unlike Win 3.x, with W9x, the optimal swapfile
settings are to let Windows
manage it.
Ken Warnock commented:
I must not be looking in the proper place, but
after transitioning
to Windows '98 I find that I can't seem to locate where the FAX
transmitting
capability which used to be associated with Microsoft Exchange.
Has
it been eliminated from Win '98. The only real use I had for the
whole Exchange routine was the ability to drop a document on the FAX
printer
icon and have it sent as a FAX.
Alan corresponded:
Win98 sort of 'hid' the Microsoft Fax program... it no
longer shows
up on the list of options to install.
Instead, there are two roads to take:
1) a free 'lite' version of Symantec WinFax is
available w. Outlook
98
2) the 'classic' MS Fax is included on the W98 CD, but
hidden in the
folder \tools\oldwin95\message\us.
Click on wms.exe to install Windows messaging (Exchange). Then click
on awfax.exe to install the fax software.
Raymond Rosch asked:
Is there a way to get Windows '95 OSR2 to
automatically do a scandisk
of the system crashes (i.e. so I don't have to press the key to keep
the
next boot up going)?
Alan answered:
For users of Win95B/Win95C/Win98, if you happen to exit
abnormally,
Scandisk automatically alerts you when
you reboot that it will scan your drive and fix any errors. To make
this scan take place automatically, with no prompt, add the line
AUTOSCAN=2
to the [Options] section of the text file C:\Ms dos.sys. To prevent any
such automatic scans, use the line AUTOSCAN=0.
Since MSDOS.SYS is a hidden, system boot file, you?ll
need to set the
Explorer/My Computer View options to ?View All Files?. Then, when you
can
see MSDOS.SYS, right-click on it, choosing Properties from the popup
menu.
This will show a dialogue box with the file attributes showing. Remove
the checkmark next to [x] Read Only, or you won?t be able to save your
changes.
Open MSDOS.SYS in Notepad, and add the desired
Autoscan line to the
file?s [Options] section. Save, and exit. Restore the Read Only
attribute.
William Hurn queried:
What in a PC and/or Windows needs a y2k fix?
I thought that
whole problem had to do with programmers of yore leaving off the first
two digits of the year, as in yyyy being programmed as 89 in lieu of
1989.
I further understood that this was done in old slow systems to save
drive
storage and processor time and that the problem mainly involved Cobol,
and some other old mainframe hardware-software. I thought even
very
old versions of Lotus were OK.
Alan answered:
There are several levels of the Y2K issue that affect
PCs.
1) Data files in spreadsheets, databases, accounting
programs can be
problematic if they use two-digit year forms. For instance, I'm still
keeping
my business accounts in an old version of MS Money... I haven't
bothered upgrading because my needs are simple, and it works for me...
but it lists today as 12/28/98.
After next year-end, I predict the sort by date
function will sort the
'00 dates prior to the '99 dates-- an incorrect, and potentially
problematic
result.
2) The problems fixed in Microsoft?s Windows95 Y2K
patch are of those
sorts... Command.com and Winfile (the old Windows File Manager) both
used
two-digit year listings to sort by date.
3) BIOS clock, real-time clock, and operating system
clocks that incorrectly
adjust to the 1999-2000 turn over. These could cause problems for virus
scanners that won't work if their data files are too old, and for
some date-sensitive programs... think of the demo programs that are
set to run for 30 days or so-- what will happen if they find the system
reporting a date 99 years prior to when they were installed?
-- In most cases, more of an irritation than life or
business threatening,
but a hassle none the less.