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Capture Desktop | Create Bootable Disk | Installing WinME on Slower Systems | Pure DOS in WinME | Speed up IE 5 | Modem Connection Timeouts | Change Regd. owners of OS | WinME Drivers | DirectX8 | Microsoft Knowledge Base | Increase System Speed

1.      Capturing the Desktop screen.
Arrange the screen display the way you want it then press the Print Screen key, then click inside the program where you want to paste the image (WordPad, Word, etc.) and press Ctrl-V to paste the screen image into the document window. You can also capture only the active window by pressing Alt-Print Screen instead of just Print Screen. This makes an image out of the foreground window only. This tip works with all Windows version not just Windows ME.

2.     Creating a bootable disk.
To make a clean boot disk first: format a floppy disc, then go to the c:\windows\command\ebd folder, then copy the files io.sys and command.com to a: - reboot your computer with the floppy disc in the drive. This is also the technique you will use when updating the motherboard bios using real mode DOS.

3.     Installing Windows ME on slower systems.
Microsoft recommends that your PC includes at least a 150-MHz Pentium CPU to run Win Me and if you try installing WinME on a slower machine, you'll get an error message saying you'll need a faster processor, click OK to exit Setup. You can override the 150-MHz limitation by using the command setup /nm - you will still need 32 MB of RAM and adequate free hard-disk space. A typical installation requires 500 MB to 575 MB, but can range between 460 MB and 675 MB, depending on your system configuration and the options you choose to install - Windows-ME should run just as slow as Windows 98!

4.     Pure DOS mode in Windows ME. Back to Top
One of the most significant limitations is that Microsoft has made it difficult to get at pure, vanilla DOS. It's not that ME doesn't use DOS - it does, just as every other member of the Win9x family does - this link Real DOS-Mode Patch for Windows Millennium will show you how you can restore access to real-mode DOS in WinME by using some files from the WinME Emergency Recovery Disk.
Here's another site that offer a fix for restoring real mode DOS by using the DOS files from the Win98 boot disk: Windows Millennium DOS.
... And antoher DOS Fix for Windows Millennium

5.     Speed up Internet Explorer 5 Back to Top
The HTTP 1.1 spec limits the number of simultaneous connections any one browser can make to a given server. This IE tweak turns off IE's built-in compliance with this standard, and lets your copy of IE open far more simultaneous connections with a server. This means your browser can grab many chunks of a web page at one time, speeding load times.
1) Run Regedit
2) Navigate to the following folder:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\InternetSettings]
3) Create the following "DWORD": MaxConnectionsPerServer
4) Set the value to any high number (the default is 2)
5) Creat the following "DWORD": MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server
6) Set the value to any high number as well (the default is 4)
Related MS Knowledge base article:
Q183 - INFO: WinInet Limits Connections Per Server.

6.     Modem Connection Timeouts.
This little tweak will reduce the amount of Timeouts you may experience.
1) Run Regedit
2) Navigate to the following folder:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\ Services\Class\Net\000x]
3) Double click on: Slownet
4) Change the value to: 00

7.     Change Registerd Owner of the O.S
1) Run Regedit
2) Navigate to the following folder:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\ WINDOWS\CURRENT VERSION]
3) Double click on: RegisteredOwner
4) Type in any name you like.

8.     WinME Drivers
Back to Top
If you are having trouble finding new drivers for a particular piece of hardware, check out windrivers.com - they just might be able to help you out.

9.     DirectX 8 Get DirectX 8 for Win 98/ME Get DirectX 8 for Win 2000
This latest version of DirectX offers updated graphics, faster frame rates, & support for massively multiplayer games. It also offers more immersive audio when running and displaying programs rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3-D animation, & surround sound. If you had an earlier version of DirectX installed on your system, you will see little difference in available space on your hard drive following the installation. DirectX 8.0 will overwrite any earlier versions.

10.     WinME Related Microsoft Knowledge Base (MSKB) Back to Top
A few WinME related MS Knowledge base articles:

Q269030 - How to Increase Available File Handles for MS-DOS-Based Applications in Windows Millennium Edition.
Q264887 - How to Enable and Disable System Restore.
Q267794 - Recently Saved Files May Not Remain in the My Documents Folder.
Q265371 - How to Extract and Replace a Protected File in Windows Me.
Q267176 - Unable to Access the System Restore Buttons If Screen Resolution Is 800x600 or Less.
Q228548 - WINUP-Err Msg: Windows Update Was Disabled by Your System Administrator - ie. When you try to access the Windows Update Web site, you may receive one of the following error messages: "Your organization has decided to provide software updates internally rather than through Windows Update. To download updates for your Windows computer, please see your Network Administrator." or "Windows Update was disabled by your System Administrator."
Q274847 - When you search for files or folders, you may not receive any search results.
Q221438 - After you install Office 2000, you may notice files whose name begins with "fff" appearing in your Windows folder. For example, the file name may be similar to "fffeeecf_{44BE8B61-235B-11D2-8E66-D59A4E66D32D}.tmp". Also, every time you restart your computer, two more files beginning with "fff" appear in your Windows folder.

11.     Increase Speed of your system. Back to Top
     a)   Right click on My Computer.
     b)   In the System properties Window, click on Performance tab.
     c)   Here click on the Advanced settings button "File System".
     d)   Now click on the Hard Disk tab (automatically selected as default).
     e)   Now set the Typical role of this computer to -- Network Server.
     f)   Also in the floppy disk tab uncheck the statement which prompts the computer to check for new floppy
           disk each time the computer starts.
     g)   Restart your computer. Your system now run fastly.

"WINDOWS --      A 32 bit extension and graphical shell, for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit operating system, originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company, that can't stand 1 bit of competition. Good thing there isn't any."

© 2001 Rohini Bakshi. Back to Top