QUICK VIEW TECHNIQUES
In our last tip, we introduced Quick View, a command that allows you to preview files without opening them in their native applications. Right-click a file, select Quick View, and up pops a preview of that file. (If you don't see a Quick View command, see the note at the end of this tip.) Now, let's move on to some Quick View tricks.
If you've just opened a file in a Quick View window, and it isn't the one you were looking for, try another. Simply drag and drop another file into the open Quick View window, and its contents replace those of the first file.
Just found the file you were looking for? You can open it in its native application right from the Quick View window. See the icon just below the File menu? Click it. (Or, select File, Open File For Editing.)
Okay, one more tip. You can change your Quick View to a full page viewby selecting View, Page View.
For our final tip in this series, we'll show you how to use Quick View for any file type.
(Note: If you don't see a Quick View command when you right-click a file, either Quick View doesn't have a file viewer for that file type, or Quick View isn't installed on your system. To install Quick View, pop your Windows 98 installation CD in your CD-ROM drive, open the Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs, click the Windows Setup tab, double-click Accessories, select Quick View, and click OK twice.)

ADD QUICK VIEW TO SEND TO MENU
In the first tip in this series, we introduced Quick View, a command that allows you to preview files without opening them in their native applications. Right-click a file, select Quick View, and up pops a preview of that file.
The problem with this command, however, is that it appears only in the context menu of file types for which a file viewer is available (as determined by Microsoft). If you want to use Quick View for other file types, try adding its shortcut to the Send To menu.
Open an Explorer window and navigate your way to the Windows\System\Viewers folder. Inside, you'll see Quikview.exe. Create a shortcut to this file in your Windows\SendTo folder. (Inside a second Explorer window, open the Windows folder, right-click and drag Quikview.exe into this window, release the mouse button, and select Create Shortcut(s) Here.) With the Quikview.exe shortcut selected, press F2 (for Rename), name the file Quick View, and press Enter. Close all open windows. Right-click any file, select Send To, then choose Quick View in the pop-out menu. Click Yes to confirm that you want to try the default viewers, and you'll see a preview of your file (in rough form, of course, but that's all you wanted anyway).

USE ASTERISK TO FULLY EXPAND FOLDER
Want to fully expand a folder in the left pane of a two-paned Explorer window? Select the folder and press the asterisk key (*) on your numeric keypad. The result is a fully expanded view of all folders and
subfolders inside.

COLLAPSE EXPANDED FOLDER
In our last tip, we showed you how to fully expand a folder in the left pane of a two-paned Explorer window: Select the folder and press the asterisk key (*) on your numeric keypad. Want to collapse it
again? If you simply press the minus sign (-) at the top of the expanded branch, the folders inside will appear to collapse; but the next time you expand that folder, its contents appear fully expanded. So what's the trick? After clicking the minus sign (-) at the top of the branch, press F5.

EDITING REGISTERED USER INFO
We frequently receive requests asking how to change a system's registered user information--your name, company, and so on--as it appears in the System Properties dialog box. If you don't mind editing
the Registry, there's an easy way to change your identity. (Note: As always, we recommend that you first back up your Registry files--User.dat and System.dat, hidden files on the root of your hard drive.)
Open the Registry Editor by selecting Start, Run, typing regedit and clicking OK. Navigate your way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion. In the right pane, right-click RegisteredOwner and select Modify. Type the correct information on the Value Data line of the Edit String dialog box, then click OK. Close the Registry Editor, and the new information will appear in the System Properties dialog box.

INTRO TO USER PROFILES
Are there a number of people who use your system? Can't seem to agree on a desktop color? What you need are user profiles.
In case you aren't familiar with them, user profiles enable different users of the same system to use different settings--wallpaper, desktop shortcuts, color schemes, and so on. With user profiles enabled,
everyone who uses the system logs on using his or her user name and password, and sees only his or her personal settings.
To set up user profiles, select Start, Settings, Control Panel, then double-click Users. Now just follow along to complete the Enable Multi-user Settings wizard. You'll need to select a user name, a password, and the items you want to customize. Click Finish, wait for Windows 98 to set up the new profile, then click Yes to restart Windows (or No to restart later). To set up the next user, double-click Users, click the New User button, and so on.
>From now on, whenever you start Windows 98, you'll get a Welcome To Windows dialog box. Type your user name and password, then click OK. Now go ahead and start customizing. Your changes won't affect anyone else's settings.

USER PROFILES: SWITCHING USERS
In our last tip, we showed you how to enable user profiles so that multiple users can use different settings--wallpaper, desktop shortcuts, color schemes, and so on--on the same system: For each user, open the Control Panel, double-click Users, then follow along to complete the Enable Multi-user Settings wizard. From now on, whenever you start Windows 98, you'll get a Welcome To Windows dialog box. To log on, type your user name and password, then click OK.
Once you've enabled user profiles, it's easy to switch from one user to the next without shutting down the system. Select Start, Log Off [user name], click Yes to confirm, and up pops the Welcome To Windows dialog box. (Type a new user name and password, then click OK.)

DISABLE USER PROFILES
In a previous tip, we showed you how to enable user profiles so that multiple users can use different settings--wallpaper, desktop shortcuts, color schemes, and so on--on the same system: For each user, open the Control Panel, double-click Users, then follow along to complete the Enable Multi-user Settings wizard. From now on, whenever you start Windows 98, you'll get a Welcome To Windows dialog box. To log on, type your user name and password, then click OK.
When you don't want to use user profiles anymore, you can simply disable them. Open the Control Panel and double-click Passwords. Select the User Profiles tab, select All Users Of This Computer Use The Same Preferences And Desktop Settings, then click OK. Click Yes to restart your system, and user profiles are officially disabled.

SIZE COLUMNS TO FIT WIDEST ENTRY
When you view a folder's contents in Details view (select View, Details), some columns of information are probably cut off. (Each cut-off entry is followed by ellipses.) One way to view the hidden information is to resize each column. Or, try this trick: Hold down the Ctrl key as you press the plus sign (+) on your numeric keypad. Instantly, Windows sizes every column to fit the widest entry. (Note: In many cases, you'll need to enlarge the window to see every column of information.)
(Tip-in-a-tip: Pressing Ctrl-+ also shrinks oversized columns to fit the widest entry.)

RE-CREATE SHOW DESKTOP SHORTCUT
Just delete the Show Desktop item from your Quick Launch toolbar by mistake? Don't worry--you can get it back. Open an Explorer window, navigate your way to the Windows\System folder, and locate a file named Show Desktop. (If you don't see one, we'll show you how to create one in the next tip.) Open a second Explorer window and navigate your way to Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch. Right-click and drag the Show Desktop file from the System folder into the Quick Launch folder, release the mouse button, and select Create Shortcut(s) Here. That shortcut is right back where it started.

RE-CREATE SHOW DESKTOP SHORTCUT FROM SCRATCH
In our last tip, we showed you how to restore the Show Desktop shortcut to the Quick Launch toolbar, assuming you've deleted it by mistake: Open the Windows\System folder and locate a file named Show
Desktop; then create a shortcut to this file in the Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch folder. Don't see a file named Show Desktop in your System folder? Then you'll need to create one.
Open Notepad--select Start, Programs, Accessories, Notepad--and type the following:
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop
Select File, Save, then navigate your way to the Windows\System folder and name the file Show Desktop.scf. Finally, click Save and close Notepad.
Now just create a shortcut to this file in the Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch folder, as described previously, and a Show Desktop item will appear on your Quick Launch toolbar.

DISPLAY WINDOWS 98 STARTUP MENU
Back in Windows 95, you saw a "Starting Windows 95" message during the boot process, at which point you could press F8 to display the startup menu. Well, watch your Windows 98 system's boot as closely as you want--you won't see any such message.
So how do you get to the startup menu? After turning on your Windows 98 system, press and hold the Ctrl key (or F8). Eventually, the startup menu appears.
In our next tip, we'll show you how to start up with the Startup Menu every time.

DISPLAY STARTUP MENU AT STARTUP
In our last tip, we showed you how to access the Windows 98 startup menu during the boot process: After turning on your Windows 98 system, press and hold the Ctrl key (or F8). If you find yourself pressing Ctrl more often than not, make the startup menu appear automatically every time you start your system.
Select Start, Run, type
msconfig
and press Enter to open the System Configuration Editor. On the General tab, click the Advanced button, select Enable Startup Menu, then click OK twice. Click Yes to restart your system.

GLOBAL FOLDER VIEWING OPTIONS
Do you have a favorite way of viewing a folder's contents--for example, always as a Web page and always the Large Icon view? Rather than set these options every time you open a new window, set them once and be done with it. Windows 98 will apply your view options globally (unlike Windows 95, where you had to reset these options constantly).
Open any Explorer window and select View, Folder Options. Select the View tab, click the Like Current Folder button, then click Yes to confirm. Every window you open from that point forward will look the
way you want it to.

DRAG AND DROP START MENU ITEM ON DESKTOP
Do you find your desktop handier than the Start menu? Then create shortcuts to your oft-used Start menu items on the desktop. Whereas in Windows 95, this operation required you to right-click Start, select Open, and so on, now you can copy a shortcut using a simple click-and-drag operation.
With all windows minimized, click Start and navigate your way to a favorite shortcut, such as Start, Programs, Accessories, Paint. Click the item you want to turn into a shortcut (here, Paint), and without releasing the mouse button, drag it out to the desktop. Release the mouse button, and there's your shortcut.

LINKS TOOLBAR
Have you ever noticed the word "Links" on the far-right side of an Explorer window's Address bar? Double-click it (or the word "Address"), and you've got another whole toolbar! The Links bar provides you with--what else?--links to Web sites.
Of course, you'll want to customize the links to suit your own needs. To delete a link, right-click it and select Delete. To add a link, point the current window at that Web page (type its URL on the Address
bar and press Enter), then drag that Web page's icon from the Address bar directly over the Links bar and release the mouse button.
Want your Address bar back? Double-click Address or Links.
(Note: If you're missing the Address bar or the Links bar from your folder window, select one or the other, or both, from the View, Toolbars window.)

CHANGE ICONS ON LINKS TOOLBAR
In our last tip, we introduced the Links toolbar--a bar of Web-site links that hides out to the right of any Explorer window's Address bar. To display this toolbar, just double-click the word "Links" on the right side of the Address bar. (To view your Address bar again, just double-click Address.) Tired of having to choose between the Address bar and the Links bar? This default arrangement of sharing a bar isn't written in stone. If you prefer, you can give each bar its very own row.
Hold your mouse pointer over the vertical bar at the left end of the Links toolbar. When it changes to a double-pointed arrow, click and drag the bar downward, then release the mouse button. Instantly, the
bar expands to fill the row just below the Address bar.
(Tip: If you'd rather have the Address bar on the bottom, after following the steps above, use the vertical bar on the Address bar to drag it down below the Links bar, then release the mouse button.)