Advanced Tips and Tricks

Installing Hardware - Handle with Care

Backup your Registry

Stop programs from automatically starting up

HANDLE WITH CARE

Never touch the gold-edged connectors when handling computer add-in cards! Static electricity can easily damage the components on the card. Also, the oil on your skin can corrode the connectors. Always touch only the green edges or the metal bracket at the back of the card when handling the card.

BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY!

Full Backup

1. Open the Registry Editor.

Click on the Windows 95 start button
Go to RUN
Type REGEDIT and click the OK button

2. Pull down the Registry menu and choose Export Registry File.
3. Navigate to where you'd like to store the backup file, type in a name for the file, select All under Export range, and click on Save.

Partial Backup

1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate your way to the branch you'd like to back up.
3. Choose Export Registry File under Registry. (Selected Branch will be selected under Export range.)
4. Navigate to where you'd like to store the backup file, type in a name for the file, and click on Save.

Whether you do a full or partial backup, the result is a REG file.

To restore this information to the Registry:

Double-click on the REG file.

Choose Import Registry File under Registry, navigate your way to the REG file, and click on Open.

In addition, if you are familiar with using .ZIP files, you can also zip your Windows 95 Registry files user.dat and system.dat (in your \WINDOWS folder) and store them on a floppy disk or other removable storage disk.

STOP THAT PROGRAM!

If an unwanted program starts when Windows 95 starts, there are several places you can look in order to delete the reference to that program. You may need to consult that software’s manufacturer to ensure that problems will not arise by preventing that particular application component from starting automatically.

There are 3 main locations that program commands can be executed from in order to start each time Windows 95 starts. These are the WIN.INI file, Windows 95 Startup folder, and the Windows 95 registry.

STOP THAT PROGRAM - Part 1

Part 1 covers the 1^st of the possible locations for program startup, the WIN.INI file:

In your \WINDOWS folder you can edit the WIN.INI file and locate the "LOAD=" and "RUN=" lines and remove the reference to the particular program you do not wish to have started.

STOP THAT PROGRAM - Part 2

Part 2 covers the 2^nd of the possible locations for program startup, the Windows 95 Startup folder:

Launch Windows Explorer and locate the undesired program’s shortcut inside your \WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs\Startup folder. Delete the undesired shortcut from Startup.

STOP THAT PROGRAM - Part 3

Part 3 covers the 3^rd of the possible locations for program startup, the Windows 95 Registry. Always back up the Registry before making any changes!

The places to look for an undesired program’s startup command inside the Windows 95 registry are:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RUN.

and

HKEY_USERS\DEFAULT\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RUN

Plus, if user profiles are enabled:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RUN