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Go to the LIVE online forum
Q: I’ve just bought a machine from a friend and got myself a legal licence for the operating system installed. My question is, how can I change the name of the user and company that it’s currently registered to? Will I have to delete the whole thing and then install a new copy of Windows 98?
A:You don’t need to delete and install, although it may be wise to do so, unless you’re absolutely happy with all that’s loaded on the system already. If you are happy, make the change by heading for the Registry (make sure you do the backup before starting). Run regedit.exe, head for the Edit menu, select Find, look for the following keys and change their values: RegisteredOrganization RegisteredOwner
Q:Is there a limit to the number of TrueType fonts you can have on your system? I’ve been buying loads of font packages, but a mate of mine has told me that I can’t have all that many on the machine at one time. He thinks 100 is the limit. Is that right?
A:No, the actual limit varies, but is in fact around the 1,000 mark, which I hope will prove to be enough for you. There are two reasons for the limit – one is to do with the Windows Registry, and the other is to do with the GDI (graphics device interface), both of which store font data in Windows 95. All font files are registered under a single key in the Registry, and a Registry key can’t exceed 64Kb in total size. Assuming font names average 20 characters in length, and font filenames average ten characters in length, then the number of TrueType fonts you can install would fall somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500. If a TrueType font file is located in a folder other than the Fonts or the System folder, the full path to the font gets included in the Registry, using up more space in the key and reducing the number of fonts you can install. The GDI maintains an internal list of fonts, with 10Kb reserved for font filenames. If font filenames average ten characters in length, the maximum number of TrueType fonts you can install is approximately 1,000. While we’re discussing large numbers of fonts, you might find it useful to know that if you try printing to a PostScript printer you may get a crash in the pscript.drv file if you have more than 589 ATM (Adobe Type Manager) fonts on your system.
Q: I’m having trouble setting up Outlook Express to suit my needs. I run two PCs: one at work and one at home. I use a removable 17Gb drive set up as a D drive and transport the drive between the two PCs so that I can continue working. How can I configure Outlook Express so that when I leave the office and start work at home I can see emails that I’ve written at the office, and vice versa?
A: I must admit to not being an Outlook Express user, but it seems to me that if you put your message store on the removable drive and configure both copies of Outlook Express to look there for their messages, you should be able to move the drive about freely between the two machines and read all your messages wherever you happen to be. To change the location of the Outlook Express message store, do the following: 1 Start Outlook Express, go to the Tools menu, and select the Options… menu item. 2 Click on the Maintenance tab, then look down towards the bottom of it and you’ll see a button labelled ‘Store Folder…’. Click on this and use the next dialog to point it to a folder you’ve already created on your removable drive. 3 Click on OK until all dialogs have vanished, and that should be that. As I say, I’ve never tried this, so make sure you have everything backed up, and that you take a note of the original location of the message store before you move it, so you can point back to it should any problems occur.
Q: Sometimes, well nearly always, when I start my machine and it begins to load Windows, I get the Windows Protection Error message on a blank screen. I can go into Safe mode with no problems, so I’ve presumed it must be a driver problem. I’d like some clarification before I do anything further.
A: Windows Protection Error messages can be caused by a variety of conditions, so this is another of those questions that could fill the whole column if I tried to answer it. Instead, I suggest you take a look at Microsoft Knowledge Base document Q149962. The URL you want is http://support.microsoft.com/ support/kb/articles/Q149/9/62.asp?LNG=ENG&SA=ALLKB
Q: I read somewhere a method of deleting the Favorites menu item from the Start button menu. Windows 98 Second Edition Update does not appear to have a Powertoy folder on the CD, and no tweakui.inf file can be found! Have I done something wrong or missed the obvious? If not, can you kindly advise on how to remove this folder.
A: Caught me out did that – I hadn’t realised that Microsoft
had withdrawn Powertoys from that version of Windows 98. Sorry about that.
All is not darkness however, as thanks to the sterling efforts of Andy (ahumphreys),
Jason (jason_o), and Philip (p_elphick) from the windows_98 conference on
the CIX Conferencing System, I am able to tell you of two different ways to
solve the problem. The first is to go to http://www.abtons-shed.com/ and download
TweakAll, a freeware utility that, among other things, provides you with the
ability to get rid of that menu item. I found the Web site extremely slow
to load when I visited it so be patient, or see what you can find on Tucows
or Winfiles (though they may not have the latest versions there). The second
option involves assaulting the Windows Registry and creating a new value in
an existing key. If you chose to go down that route, these are the steps you
need to follow, after having first backed up your system.dat and user.dat
files, just in case things go wrong: 1. Head for the Start button, click on
it, and select the Run… menu item. 2. Type ‘regedit’ (without the quotes)
into the edit box and hit the
Q: My problem is that every time I try to shut down my system it restarts instead. It is a brand-new system running Windows 98 Second Edition. I’ve spoken to the supplier but it has no idea why this is happening
A: It’s happening because your system is set up for Fast Shutdown and this is a problem that can occur on some systems when they’re configured in this way. To stop it from happening, follow these steps: 1 Click on the Start button, select the Run menu item, and then type “msconfig” (without the quotes). 2 Hit the OK button. 3 Click on the General tab when it loads, and then on the Advanced button. 4 Look for the checkbox labelled ‘Disable fast shutdown’, click in it to enable it and then click on the OK button until you’ve closed the dialog. After restarting your system, the problem should now be cured.
Q: I’ve been trying to find a way to print the details from Device Manager in Windows 98 to a file on my system rather than to paper but, when I try to do it, the data in the file is just garbage. Why is this? I can’t see what I’m doing wrong.
A: Don’t worry, you’re not doing anything wrong, it’s just that the Device Manager has no default support for printing directly to a file. The solution is to install the Generic/Text Only printer driver. This will cause it to print English to the text file, rather than the printer-specific language it’s been using when you tried this before. To install the Generic/Text Only printer, you need to do the following: A Click the Start button, point to Settings and click Printers. 2 Double-click the Add Printer icon. 3 Click the Next button. 4 When you’re prompted ‘How is this printer attached to your computer?’, click the Local Printer option button, and then click Next. 5 In the Manufacturers box, click Generic. In the Printers box, click Generic/Text Only, and then click Next. 6 In the Available Ports box, click FILE, and then click Next. 7 When you’re prompted ‘Do you want your Windows-based programs to use this printer as the default printer?’ click the No option button, and then click Next. 8 Finally, when you’re prompted ‘Would you like to print a test page?’ click the No option button, and then click the Finish button. Once you’ve done all that, if you want to print the contents of Device Manager to a file, you should follow these steps: A Use the right mouse button to click My Computer, and then click Properties on the menu that appears. 2 Click the Device Manager tab, then click the Print button. 3 In the Report Type box, click the option button for the report you want. To print the Selected Class Or Device report, you must first click the class or device you want on the Device Manager tab. 4 Click the Setup button. 5 In the Specific Printer box, click Generic/ Text Only On FILE, and click OK. 6 Click OK. 7 In the File Name box, type the path and name that you want to use for the file, then click OK.
Q: I recently acquired a new machine with a Pentium III/500 processor, lots of RAM and an ATi Rage Xpert 128 graphics card with 16Mb of memory and GL in hardware. Until then I’d been using a Matrox Millennium II with a Creative Labs Voodoo2 card to get GL for my games, and this setup still works fine on my old system. While the new card works fine with modern games, I can’t get it to work with GLQuake at all. Every time I try to run GLQuake, I get an error message demanding that I tell it where to find glide32.dll. I’ve tried copying the same files from my Quake folder on the old machine, and installing GLQuake again, but that didn’t fix it. Please help, as this is most frustrating.
A: Your problem is that you have two versions of opengl32.dll on your system: one will be located in your Quake folder, the other in Windows\System. The one in your Quake folder is the MiniPort GL version, designed specifically to work with your old video card setup. To fix the problem, simply go into your Quake folder and rename the opengl32.dll file in there to something like opengl32.dll.sav which will prevent it being used, so the one in your System folder gets used instead. These two files will be quite different sizes: the one in the Quake folder will be around 150Kb compared to well over 700Kb for the one in your System folder, so you should have no trouble telling them apart.