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Windows 95

You'll never lose FreeCell again if you use this trick.

Once you get to a point where you have no more options (and haven't lost yet), hold down CTRL+SHIFT+F10. This gives you a window with three options:

• Abort to win
• Retry to love
• Ignore to cancel

If you click Abort the next card you double-click on will send all cards to piles to win the game.

submitted by: Jonathan Prevost
posted: 3/31/00

Solitaire Cheat

In Solitaire you can go through the deck three times.

If you select a game with three cards at a time, hold down CTRL-ALT-SHIFT and click on the deck. It will only flip over one card instead of three!

This allows you to go through the deck three times.

Open Windows Explorer, click on Windows, and find a file called system.ini and double-click on it. Under the title [386Enh] look for the lines MessageTextColor= and MessageBackColor=. If they are not there create them. Finally, you will need them to set them equal to something. Here is what numbers/letters you can use:

0 - Black
1 - Dark Blue
2 - Dark Green
3 - Dark Cyan
4 - Dark Red
5 - Dark Mauve
6 - Dark Yellow
7 - Grey
8 - Dark Grey
9 - Blue
A - Green
B - Cyan
C - Red
D - Mauve
E - Yellow
F - White

So your code looks like:

MessageTextColor=A
MessageBackColor=5

Then crash your PC and look at your new color scheme on the BSOD!

submitted by: Erik Temesi
posted: 10/29/99

1) Close all applications.
2) Press the PrintScreen button (it's on your keyboard way above the arrow keypad and just above the ins/home/pgup/pgdn/del/end/ins keypad)
3) Open the Paint application from your Start Menu. (Start / Programs / Accessories / Paint)
4) From the Edit menu in the Paint program, Select Paste (you may have to accept the resizing of the image, due to its size.)
5) From the File menu, select Save and give it an appropriate filename.
6) From the File menu, select Set As Wallpaper - Tiled
7) Close the Paint program.
8) Your wallpaper is now a copy of your wallpaper PLUS your icons.
9) Any icons you wish to remove (temporarily) are now gone, but the former image of them remains.
10) Try this and you will soon find useful situations where this might be "cute."
11) Courtesy demands remaining within earshot of the afflicted computer user and a quick Restore of the Icon from the Recycle Bin will make you a hero!
12) Change the wallpaper to the previous ACTUAL wallpaper and delete the spurious file when you wish to restore civil order.

This was conceived in whole by myself and I take full responsibility for any results. Nepotism is a true Evil that must be destroyed.

submitted by: Deep
posted: 10/29/99

If you have no soundcard or a rubbish laptop, you can still hear the Windows system sounds by going to microsoft.com and downloading a set of drivers in a file called speak.exe. This will give you an option in your Multimedia Control Panel applet called PC internal speaker sound.

Very useful for Star Trek computer sounds to impress your friends...

submitted by: Ian
posted: 4/30/99

Make WAV files play when you open any program

You know how you can make Windows play a sound when it boots up, shuts down, etc.? If you've ever explored within the "Sounds" option of the Control Panel, you've probably noticed that you can also assign open/close sound events for "Sound Recorder" and "Media Player."

What if you wanted Netscape to play a sound when it opens? All you have to do is the simple following steps:

1. Open the Windows Registry--click the Start button, choose Run, then type: "Regedit" (without quotes)
2. Open the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder
3. Open the AppEvents folder
4. Open the Schemes folder
5. Open the Apps folder
6. Create a new key and name it the exact name of the program you want to assign a sound to. To make a new key, right-click on the right side of the Explorer, click New, then Key.
7. Make two new keys inside the program's folder: the first key is "Close" (without the quotes), and the second key is "Open" (without the quotes).
8. Get yourself into the Sounds option located in the Control Panel. Scroll down until you find your new program. Assign it open/close sounds.

submitted by: tom mahar
posted: 4/30/99

Quick way to send e-mail

Choose Start, then Run, then type "mailto:" without the quotes and you will get an Outlook Express new message window.

If you were ever wondering if people from Microsoft had a sense of humor, try this little trick. Type in the phrase "I'd like to see you naked" (without the quotes) in a Word document and then highlight the phrase and choose Thesaurus. See what you get!

Netscape is God

Try the new Smart URL Finder in Netscape Communicator 4.5. Type in "God" and you get www.home.netscape.com--is this hubris or what?!

Thanks to [email protected]

Excel 95 Easter Egg

1. Open Excel for Windows 95 with a blank worksheet
2. Scroll down to row 95
3. Click on the number 95 to select the whole row
4. Press Tab once to move to column B
5. Select the Menu Help...About MicroSoft Excel
6. Hold down Ctrl+Alt+Shift and click on the Tech Support button
7. A window labelled Hall of Tortured Souls appears
8. Directly ahead of you are stairs with a scrolling cast list
   - go up and take a look around - use cursor keys
9. But there's more! Turn around, go back down the stairs
10. Face the wall straight on and walk until the display area is all one shade of gray
11. Type "excelkfa" (no quotes)
12. The wall disappears, and there's a winding path to navigate to see pictures

Windows 95 Easter Egg

1. Right Click on the Desktop.
2. Select New... then Folder.
3. Name the folder "and now, the moment you've all been waiting for."
4. Rename the folder to "we proudly present for your viewing pleasure."
5. Rename it again to "The Microsoft Windows 95 Product Team!"
6. Open the folder and the Windows 95 credits will be displayed.

The folder will remain around so anytime you want to view the credits again all you have to do is re-open the folder.

Stop the clock in Windows 95 Minesweeper

1. Click on a square to get the timer going
2. Hold down both mouse buttons and a 9-square indentation will appear
3. Hit the ESC key
4. Get the best time

Windows 95 Help Credits

1. Go to the Start menu and click Help
2. Click the tab marked Find
3. At this point you may get a wizard asking you to set up Find. If you do, use the defaults
4. In the Find dialog box click Options
5. Set the top section to: "All the words you typed in order", set the next section to: "begin with the characters you typed".
6. Click OK to return back to the main dialog box and enter in the top box exactly: "Who knows who built this tool?"
7. Hold down Shift and Control while clicking the Clear button.
8. Click Options again and set the top section to: "At least one of the words you typed", set the next section to: "contain the characters you type". And click OK to return back to the main dialog box.
9. In the top box enter exactly: "The Shadow knows!"
10. Hold down Shift and Control while clicking the Clear button.