USE BROWSER WINDOW IMAGE AS WALLPAPER
Did you just come across a great picture while browsing the Web in Internet Explorer? Slap it on the desktop as desktop wallpaper. Right-click the graphic, select Set As Wallpaper, and there's that
picture.
(Tip: If you currently have the Tiled option selected on the Background tab of the Display Properties dialog box, that's the way the image will appear. Most likely, you'll want to change this setting to Centered or Stretched.)

USE FIND TO LOCATE ALL EXECUTABLE FILES
Doing a little Start menu or Desktop reorganization? How about using Find to locate all the executable files on your system? Then you can sort through them and select the ones you want to work with (and even drag them from the Find window to a new folder).
Select Start, Find, Files Or Folders. On the Name & Location tab of the Find window, type
*.exe
on the Named line. Make sure the drive you want Find to search is selected on the Look In line. Click the Find Now button, and Find locates every executable file.

CHANGE QUICK LAUNCH TOOLBAR INTO PALETTE
Do you have so many shortcuts on your Quick Launch toolbar that they aren't all visible at once? For one-click access to all of them, turn this toolbar into a floating palette.
Click the vertical bar on the left edge of the Quick Launch toolbar, drag the entire toolbar to a new location on your desktop, and release the mouse button. And don't worry--you aren't stuck with that huge
resulting window. Resize it as you would any window--hold your mouse pointer over any corner, and when the pointer changes to a double-pointed arrow, click and drag in either direction. Move the
palette to any location on screen, and you've got one-click access to all shortcuts inside.
(Tip-in-a-tip: If you want to make sure your Quick Launch palette doesn't get buried by other windows, right-click its title bar and select Always On Top.)
Want your toolbar back? We'll show you how to return it to the Taskbar in our next tip.

CHANGE QUICK LAUNCH PALETTE INTO TOOLBAR
In our last tip, we showed you how to change your Quick Launch toolbar into a floating palette: Click the vertical bar on its left edge, drag the entire toolbar bar to a new location on your desktop, and release
the mouse button. From there, you can size or move the palette, just as you would any other window.
Just decide you like the toolbar better? In a few quick steps, you can put it right back where it started. Click the palette's title bar and drag it downward until it expands to the full width of the screen (across the top of the Taskbar). Release the mouse button, and the toolbar jumps down to its original form--but on the right side of the Taskbar.
To move the toolbar next to the Start button, hold your mouse pointer over the bar's left edge, and when the pointer changes to a double-pointed arrow, click and drag the bar to the left. When your mouse pointer is just to the right of the Start button, the Quick Launch toolbar will jump into place there.
(To get everything back in perfect order, you'll need to resize the other toolbars on the Taskbar. As a quick review, hold your mouse pointer over a toolbar's left edge, then click and drag in either direction.)

HOT KEY ACCESS TO APPLICATION
Want to open your favorite application on the fly? Create a hot key to it, and you can open it from anywhere with the press of a keyboard combo.
Right-click the shortcut you use to open the application, then select Properties. Click the Shortcut tab and click inside the text box next to Shortcut Key. Type the letter you'd like to use in combination with
Ctrl-Alt to open the program (Windows 98 fills in the Ctrl-Alt part). For example, you could type "W" to stand for Microsoft Word. Click OK, and from now on, pressing Ctrl-Alt-W launches Word.

CHANGE DEFAULT AUDIO CD PLAYER
Want to change the utility that plays your audio CDs? You won't need to go anywhere near the Registry to make this change. Audio CD is one of the file types in the list of registered types. Just change its association to match the program you want to use.
Inside any Explorer window, select View, Folder Options. Click the File Types tab, select Audio CD in the list of Registered File Types, and then click the Edit button. Select the Play action and click the
Edit button. Under Application Used To Perform Action, type the path of the program you'd like to use to play audio CDs, followed by a space and /play. For example, if you wanted to use FlexiCD, you would
type
C:\WINDOWS\FlexiCD.exe /play
Click OK, then click Close twice. The next time you pop in an audio CD, your program of choice goes to work.

CHANGE COLOR AROUND ICON LABELS
Want to change the color that Windows 98 uses around your icon labels--for example, if the color doesn't blend with the wallpaper you selected? This color is determined behind the scenes by the current
desktop color.
Right-click the desktop, select Properties, and in the Display Properties dialog box, click the Appearance tab. Under Item, select Desktop, if it isn't already selected, then choose your color in the
dropdown palette under Color. Click OK, and the boxes around your desktop icon labels will take on a new hue.
(Note: If you don't see the change right away, you may need to right-click the desktop and select Refresh.)

DISPLAY AND EXPAND STATUS BAR
P. Chamberlain writes, "How do I make Windows Explorer show the disk free space information at the bottom of the window--for example, 180KB (Disk free space: 9.22GB)?"
Pull down the View menu and make sure you see a check mark next to Status Bar. If not, select this option to display the status bar at the bottom of your Explorer window. If you STILL can't see the disk
free space information, your Explorer window is too narrow. Hold your mouse pointer over the window's left or right edge, and when the pointer changes to a double-pointed arrow, click and drag to make the
window wider. As you do, the free space information will appear in the center of the status bar.

SORT CONTENTS OF START MENU FOLDER (FOR IE 5.X USERS)
Want to alphabetize a folder inside your Start menu? Assuming you have Internet Explorer 5.0 or beyond installed, it's a snap. Click Start and navigate your way to the Start menu branch you want alphabetized.
Right-click any item at this level, select Sort By Name, and all non-folder shortcuts at that level will be sorted alphabetically.

GRAYED-OUT COMMANDS IN START CONTEXT MENU
We can't tell you how many people have written asking what to do if they right-click the Start button and the resulting Open and Explore options are inactive (grayed out). It seems this problem arises if you
use the Tweak UI PowerToy to hide one or more drives on your system. To resolve this problem, Microsoft suggests that you unhide any drives.
Open Tweak UI, click the My Computer tab, select any unselected check boxes, then click OK. Restart Windows 98, right-click Start, and those Open and Explore commands should be back in business.
(Quick review: The Tweak UI PowerToy is on your Windows 98 installation CD, in the tools\reskit\powertoy folder. To install it, right-click tweakui.inf and select Install. To open Tweak UI, double-click its icon inside the Control Panel.)

CREATE A POP-OUT CONTROL PANEL FOLDER IN THE START MENU
Want quick access to all the items in your Control Panel? Add a pop-out Control Panel folder to your Start menu.
Right-click the Start button, select Open, and in the resulting Start Menu window, select File, New, Folder. To name the folder, type exactly
Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
and then press Enter. (Note that there's no space between the period and the opening bracket.) Click Start, select the new folder, and you'll see a menu of all Control Panel items.
In our next tip, we'll show you how to create Printers and Dial-Up Networking folders using a similar technique.

CREATE MORE POP-OUT FOLDERS IN THE START MENU
In our last tip, we showed you how to create a pop-out Control Panel folder in your Start menu: Right-click the Start button, select Open, and in the resulting Start Menu window, select File, New, Folder. To name the folder, type exactly Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} and then press Enter. (Note that there's no space between the period and the opening bracket.) To create a Printers folder, follow the same steps, but name the folder Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D} To create a Dial-Up Networking folder, name the folder DUN.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48} (Note: The end result is an empty folder. You'll need to add items to it manually by dragging them from the original folder and dropping them inside the new one on the Start menu.)

KEEP MODEM SPEAKER QUIET
Tired of hearing all that racket as your modem connects to your ISP? Windows 98 includes a setting designed to silence your modem. (It doesn't work for all modems; you'll have to try it on yours and see.)
Open the Control Panel and double-click Modems. On the General tab, select your modem, click the Properties button, and move the lever under Speaker Volume all the way left, to Off. Click OK and then
Close. From now on, that modem will connect in silence.

THE SHOW FILES WARNING MESSAGE
If you're viewing the contents of your hard drive as a Web page, and you double-click the Windows folder (or the Windows\System folder), you'll see this warning message: "To view the contents of this folder,
click Show Files." (Thanks, but if I didn't want to view the files inside, I wouldn't have opened the folder.) Want an easy way to bypass this warning? Don't view your folders as Web pages.
In any folder, deselect View, As Web Page. Then, to apply the setting globally, select View, Folder Options. Click the View tab and then click the Like Current Folder button. Click Yes to confirm, then click
OK. Not good enough? In our next tip, we'll show you how to remove these warnings while still viewing your folders as Web pages.

REMOVE SHOW FILES WARNING FROM WINDOWS FOLDER
In our last tip, we pointed out that if you're viewing the contents of your hard drive as a Web page, and you double-click the Windows folder (or the Windows\System folder), you'll see this warning message: "To view the contents of this folder, click Show Files." You can avoid these warnings by opting not to view your folders as Web pages.
Not good enough? You can remove those warnings and still view your folders as Web pages. The warning messages are part of the customization for the Windows and Windows\System folders. Remove the
customization and you remove the messages.
Open the Windows folder, locate the folder.htt and desktop.ini files, and create copies of these files in the same folder. (Name them anything you want, such as folder1.htt and desktop1.ini, or just leave
them as "Copy Of folder.htt" and "Copy Of desktop.ini.") Still in the Windows folder, select View, Customize This Folder and select Remove Customization. Click Next twice, then click Finish. Repeat these steps for the Windows\System folder, and those warning messages are history.

INSTALLING MICROSOFT FAX IN WIN 98
We frequently receive requests asking how to install the old Windows 95 fax capability on a Windows 98 system. Actually, Microsoft Fax is on the Windows 98 installation CD.
Pop the CD into your CD-ROM drive, click Browse This CD, and navigate your way to the Tools/OldWin95/Message/Us folder. To install Microsoft Fax, run awfax.exe.
(Note: According to Microsoft, this utility "requires a Full MAPI
Client in order to function, such as: Microsoft Exchange, Windows Messaging, Microsoft Exchange Server Client or Outlook [the full version, not Express].")

TASKBAR'S AUTO-HIDE OPTION
Do you find that no matter where you place your Taskbar (on any side of the screen), it's in the way? If desktop real estate is at a premium, keep this bar out of sight entirely until you need it.
Select Start, Settings, Taskbar & Start Menu. Right-click a blank area of the Taskbar and select Properties. On the Taskbar Options tab, select Auto-hide, then click OK. Click anywhere on your desktop and
watch as the Taskbar shrinks from view. If and when you need the Taskbar, hold your mouse pointer over the side of the screen where it's hiding (you'll be able to see its edge), and the Taskbar rises to the occasion.

SHOW FILE ATTRIBUTES IN DETAIL VIEW
Want to see file attributes right next to each file, as you could back in the days of Windows 3.x? You can, as long as you have the window in which you're viewing the files set to Detail view.
Open any Explorer window and select View, Folder Options. Click the View tab, and in the list under Advanced Settings, select Show File Attributes In Detail View. Click OK.
The next time you open a folder in Detail view, you'll see a brand new Attributes column on the far right. (You may need to widen the window to see it.) What's more, if you're viewing the folder as a Web page
(select View, As Web Page), you'll see the attributes for any selected file on the left side of the window.

MICROSOFT'S LIST OF KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
We often receive requests for a listing of all keyboard commands for Windows 98. Microsoft has compiled a fairly extensive list inside its Knowledge Base. Check it out at
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q126/4/49.asp

TURN OFF SCHEDULED TASKS
Don't want the Task Scheduler running in the background all the time (and taking up valuable Taskbar space)? Simple--turn it off.
Select Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Scheduled Tasks to open the Task Scheduler. Now select Advanced, Stop Using Task Scheduler. The program's icon will disappear from the tray of your
Taskbar, and the scheduler will no longer start when you start Windows 98.
(To turn Scheduled Tasks back on, follow the steps above, but select
Advanced, Start Using Task Scheduler.)