369 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
369 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
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Tweak UI -- The control panel applet for Type A personalities
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0. Meta-information
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0.1. Install
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To install Tweak UI, right-click the tweakui.inf file and select
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Install. The inf file will do the rest. When it is finished, you
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will have a new control panel applet called "Tweak UI".
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0.2. Run
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To run Tweak UI, go to the Control Panel and double-click the
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"Tweak UI" icon.
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0.3. Uninstall
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To uninstall "Tweak UI", go to the Control Panel and double-click
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the "Add/Remove Programs" icon. From the list of programs,
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double-click "Tweak UI" to uninstall it.
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Here follows a description of each tweakable.
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1. General
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Items on the General page affect all applications.
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1.1. Menu speed
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"Menu speed" allows you to control the speed at which cascading
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menus automatically open themselves when you move the mouse over
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them. The fastest setting causes them to open immediately. The
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slowest setting will wait for you to click explicitly on the menu
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item in order to open the cascading submenu.
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To test the menu speed setting, right-click on the test icon.
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Note that some systems do not support interactive testing of the
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menu drop speed. On such systems, right-clicking on the test
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icon won't do anything, and the instructions telling you to do
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so will not appear. However, the changed settings *will* take
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effect the next time you log in.
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This is a per-user setting.
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1.2. Mouse sensitivity
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1.2.1. Double click
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This setting allows you to control how close together two mouse
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clicks need to be (in pixels) in order to be considered a
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double-click. This is the spatial counterpart to the double-click
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time setting in the mouse property sheet.
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To test the double-click sensitivity, click twice on the test icon
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with the left mouse button. If the two clicks were close enough
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together both temporally and spatially, then the icon will change.
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This is a per-user setting.
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1.2.2. Drag
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This setting allows you to control how far (in pixels) the mouse
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must move with the button held down before the system decides that
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you are dragging the object. Increase this value if you find that
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you are dragging objects accidentally when you click on them.
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To test the drag sensitivity, try to drag the test icon with the
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left mouse button. The icon will begin dragging when you have
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moved the mouse the necessary distance.
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This is a per-user setting.
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1.3. Effects
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1.3.1. Window animation
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The "Window animation" check-box allows you to enable or disable
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the window animation effect that occurs when you minimize,
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maximize, or restore a window.
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This is a per-user setting.
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1.3.2. Beep on errors
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Windows normally plays a beep sound (customizable in the "Sounds"
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control panel) when an error occurs. Removing this check box
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causes Windows not to play a beep sound.
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This is a per-user setting.
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1.4. Restore Factory Settings
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The "Restore Factory Settings" button sets all the options on the
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page to the default settings.
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2. Explorer
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Items on the Explorer page affect the Windows 95 Explorer.
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2.1. Shortcut overlay
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Use this area to customize the effect used by Explorer to indicate
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that an icon represents a shortcut.
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"Arrow" is the default setting, which overlays a bold arrow in the
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lower-left corner of the icon.
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"Light arrow" is the same as "Arrow", but uses a more subtle
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arrow.
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"None" removes the effect completely. With this setting,
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shortcuts are indistinguishable from normal files. Use this
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setting with caution, because you might end up deleting a file
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instead of a shortcut by mistake, so don't say I didn't warn you.
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"Custom" allows you to choose any icon in the system to be used as
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the overlay effect icon.
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The shortcut overlay effect is a system-wide setting. When
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changing the overlay effect, it is your duty to inform all users
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of the machine of the change, particular if you change the effect
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to "None". Restore the shortcut overlay effect to the system
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default before calling Microsoft Product Support. (Remember,
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PowerToys are provided as-is with no support.)
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If you uninstall Tweak UI, the customized shortcut overlay is
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uninstalled as well.
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2.2. Settings
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2.2.1. Prefix "Shortcut to" on new shortcuts
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By default, the name of a shortcut is "Shortcut to", followed by
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the name of the target. Unchecking this box causes the shell not
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to prepend this phrase to new shortcuts.
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Note that some systems do not support dynamic changing of the
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prefix setting. On such systems, the changed settings will
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take effect the next time you log in.
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This is a per-user setting.
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If you uninstall Tweak UI, this customization is uninstalled as
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well.
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2.2.2. Save settings on exit
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By default, when you close an Explorer window, the shell remembers
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the settings of that window and restores them when you reopen that
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folder. Moreover, when you shut down, it also remembers the settings
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of all the open Explorer windows and reopens them when you log on
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the next time.
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If you uncheck the "Save settings" box, then these settings are not
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saved when you close an Explorer window or shut down.
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Note that the shell remembers the settings for only the 50 most
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recently visited folders. When you visit the 51st folder, the
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folder setting you visited least recently is discarded.
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This is a per-user setting.
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2.3. Restore Factory Settings
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The "Restore Factory Settings" button sets all the options on the
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page to the default settings.
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3. Desktop
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Items on the Desktop page affect the Windows 95 Desktop.
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3.1. Special desktop icons
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As you've noticed, the Windows 95 desktop contains several special
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icons which cannot be manipulated in the traditional manner. This
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page allows you to tinker with these special desktop icons.
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You are presented with a list of all possible special desktop
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icons; next to each one is a check-box indicating whether it is
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currently on the desktop or not. Click on a check-box to add or
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remove special desktop icons to or from the desktop.
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Some of the icons won't have a box next to them. These icons
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cannot be placed on the desktop as special desktop icons, but
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you can still use Create As File (below) to put them on the
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desktop, or anywhere else for that matter.
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You can rename an icon by double-clicking its name. However,
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changes to the name may require manually refreshing the desktop
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after you close the property sheet. (Sorry.)
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Note that the status of special desktop icons is a system-wide
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setting. Removing a special desktop icon removes it from
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everybody's desktop. The one exception is the Network
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Neighborhood, which is a per-user setting.
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Note that removing the desktop icon merely removes the icon.
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Any software associated with the desktop icon remains installed.
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This page exists so you can (1) get rid of pesky icons that
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refuse to go away by other means, or (2) restore icons after
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you accidentally nuke them.
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If you add or remove the Network Neighborhood, you must log off
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and back on for the changes will take effect.
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3.2. Create As File
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If you select a special desktop icon, then click the "Create As
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File" button, Tweak UI will create a special file which behaves
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just like the special desktop icon, but with the added feature
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that, since it is a file, you can drag and drop it anywhere you
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want. For example, if you want to move The Internet into a
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folder, first remove it from the desktop by unchecking the
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check-box, then click "Create As File", and place it in whatever
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folder you want.
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A fun place to save special desktop icons is on the Start Menu.
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(Control Panel is everybody's favorite.) Try it!
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Suppose you want to let your young children use the computer, but
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don't want the Inbox on their desktop, because they might
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double-click on it and mess up your mail. After creating a
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separate login for your kids and configuring the system to use a
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different desktop for each user, you can delete the Inbox from the
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system-wide desktop, then create the Inbox as a file on your
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private desktop. When you log in, you get an Inbox on your
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desktop, but your kids don't.
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4. Templates
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The Templates page allows you to do stuff with document templates.
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There isn't much here right now. Someday, I may write more.
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4.1. Create New Document Template
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If you drop a file onto the Create New Document Template area,
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Tweak UI will automatically convert it into a document template,
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which will then appear on the list of document types when you
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right-click and select "New".
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When you drop the file, one of a few things can happen.
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0. "Drop only one file at a time, please."
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Tweak UI can create only one document template at a time.
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1. "No application is associated with this file."
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This means that the file type was not recognized. Go
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to the Explorer, View, Options, File Types dialog and create
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an association for the file, then try again.
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2. "A template for this document type has already been defined."
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Somebody else beat you to it and created a document template
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already.
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3. "Unable to copy the file to the templates folder."
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There was an error copying the file into the templates folder.
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Tweak UI doesn't tell you what sort of error actually happened;
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that's left for you to figure out.
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4. "The document template was created succesfully."
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Oh frabjous day. You can now right-click the desktop and
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select New, and look! your document is on the list of
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document templates.
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Yes, you may have noticed that there is no keyboard interface to
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this feature. If you're such a propeller-head that you don't want
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to use the mouse, you probably didn't need this applet in the
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first place.
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\*
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\* Strange things happen if you drag a folder, but fortunately we
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\* stop before things get out of hand. (Albeit with a weird error
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\* message.)
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\*
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5. Boot
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The Boot page allows you to customize UI-related aspects of the
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Windows 95 boot process. This page won't appear if you are
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running Windows NT. (Duh.) It also won't appear if Tweak UI
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can't find your Windows 95 boot configuration file.
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Obviously, any changes made on this page won't take effect until
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the next time you reboot the computer.
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5.1. General
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5.1.1. Function keys available for nn seconds.
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Uncheck the "Function keys available" option to disable the
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various function keys that modify the boot process, such
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as F5 and F8.
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If the option is enabled, you can adjust how long Windows 95
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will pause after the "Starting Windows 95" message to see
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if you are pressing a function key.
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5.1.2. Start GUI automatically
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Uncheck the "Start GUI automatically" option to make Windows 95
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stop the boot process once it has reached a command prompt instead
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instead of continuing to the GUI automatically.
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5.1.3. Display splash screen while booting
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Uncheck the "Display splash screen" option to suppress the
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Windows 95 splash screen that appears during the boot process.
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5.1.4. Allow F4 to boot previous operating system
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If you check the "Allow F4 to boot previous operating system"
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option, then you will be able to press F4 when the "Starting
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Windows 95" message is on the screen to cause Windows 95 to
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load the operating system that you were running before installing
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Windows 95.
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Of course, this assumes that you (1) actually had a previous
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operating system, and (2) didn't delete any files required
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by the previous operating system in the meantime...
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5.2. Boot menu
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5.2.1. Always show boot menu
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Check "Always show boot menu" to see a boot menu every time you
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start Windows 95. Normally, Windows 95 will show a boot menu
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only if it detected that there was a problem with the previous
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boot.
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5.2.2. Default menu option
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Changing the default menu option allows you to choose which
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option on the boot menu will be highlighted automatically.
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5.2.3. Continue booting after nn seconds.
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Setting the value of "Continue booting after" controls how long
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the boot menu will remain on the screen before the default action
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is taken.
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5.3. Restore Factory Settings
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The "Restore Factory Settings" button sets all the options on the
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page to the default settings.
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z. Other stuff
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z.1. The speaker on the TaskBar
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To enable or disable the speaker on the task bar, go to the
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Control Panel, select Multimedia, and then check or uncheck
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the box that says "Show volume control on the taskbar."
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Or you can right-click the speaker icon on the taskbar and
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select "Adjust Audio Properties". Then check or uncheck the
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box that says "Show volume control on the taskbar."
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z.2. Save as default Explorer settings
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To save the current window settings as the default Explorer
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settings for all new windows, hold the Ctrl key while you
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click the "X" button. Note that "Save settings on exit"
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must be enabled for this to work.
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