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The new animated windows in Win98. To tone down the animation effects, right-click any empty portion of the Desktop and select Properties from the pop up menu. Select the Effects tab and clear the checkbox that reads Animate Windows, Menus, and Lists. And, while you're there, uncheck the Show Window Contents While Dragging box to save time when moving items. TweakUI, an incredibly useful configuration tool (found on your Win98 CD-ROM) can also help with those out-of-control windows. You will find it in the POWERTOY folder (D:\\TOOLS\RESKIT\POWERTOY). Here, you can install it by right-clicking the Tweakui.inf file and selecting Install from the pop-up menu. You can then launch the utility from the Control Panel and click the General tab to access several more animation controls.

You arrange your folders so they display information the way you want, but Win98 always messes them up. Hold down the CTRL key when you close a folder. I tried it, my settings were maintained in most cases. Win98 has to be successfully shut down if you want it to remember your settings.

You accidentally moved a file. Now you need to figure out what folder it went to and how to move it back to its original location. If you happen to be in Windows Explorer, click the Edit menu and select Undo. Win98 will then restore the program to its former location or file name. You can also perform the Undo command on the Desktop. Simply right click any empty spot on the Desktop and select the Undo option from the pop-up menu. If you really want to speed things up, CTRL-Z is the keyboard equivalent of the Undo command, and it works in nearly any environment.

You use Internet Explorer a lot, but every time it crashes, your Win98 Desktop goes with it, sometimes causing you to lose unsaved information in other applications. The easiest alternative if you encounter this problem frequently is to simply ditch Internet Explorer by using Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel. Then, download a copy of Netscape Communicator/Navigator from the Netscape Web site at http://www.netscape.com and browse away. If you want to keep Internet Explorer and the Active Desktop components, however, you're going to need a fast PC with at least 32MB of RAM, preferably more. Launch Internet Explorer and click Tools, then Internet Options, and select the Advanced tab from the dialog box that appears. In the Browsing submenu, check the Launch Browser Windows in a Separate Process. This will force Internet Explorer to run in its own, separate portion of RAM. This eats into your system resources, but it prevents the browser from inflicting a crash on other applications.

You have so many applications loaded on your PC that the Programs list on the Start menu expands beyond the screen. You want to organize the list so the programs you use the most are easily accessible. Simply click the icon of the program or folder you want to move, then drag it to a spot on the list that is easily accessible. Also remember that when you have the Programs list displayed on-screen, you can press a letter on the keyboard and the selector will jump to the first folder or entry that starts with that letter. This is great for skipping directly to the Quicken entry, for example.

More than one person uses your PC, and you are tired of tailoring the computer to your preferences every time you want to work. First, click the Start menu, select Settings, and click Control Panel. Double click the Users icon in the Control Panel and read the text that pops up before clicking Next. Enter a user name for the other person who will be using the PC, then click Next to bring up the Password dialog box. You don't need to enter a password, but if you or the other users are concerned about security or privacy, it's a good idea to use separate account passwords. The next screen is the most important; it's where you tell Win98 what settings each user wants to keep for himself or herself. Choose the settings you want to keep independent between users and click Next. When you boot your PC, you'll be able to tell Win98 your User Name and Password to access your personalized settings. You can also change users without rebooting by clicking Start and looking for the menu entry that says Log Off (user name) (where the user name is the name of the person using the computer). Launch the Passwords utility in the Control Panel and click the User Profiles tab. Click the Users Can Customize Their Preferences button to allow all the new users to go crazy with their settings without disturbing yours.

Your Desktop is cluttered, as is your Start menu; there is so little room on the Taskbar that launching frequently used programs has become a chore. You want to set up some quick keyboard commands to instantly launch these applications. Find the shortcut for the program you want to make a keyboard command for, then right-click it. (You can even use shortcuts from the Start menu's Programs list if you run the mouse over it before right clicking.) From the pop-up menu, select Properties, and then click the Shortcut tab. You'll be entering information in the Shortcut Key field. Type the letter you want to associate with the program. After that, you're done. Win98 automatically launches or switches to that program when you press CTRL-ALT along with the letter you selected.

Your mouse has bit the dust, or you accidentally moved a window to a location where you can't drag it back with the mouse. You need to find an alternative way to move the mouse cursor. Go to the Control Panel and launching the Accessibility Options configuration utility. Click the Mouse tab and the Settings button then Use Shortcut box. Notice that the shortcut to enable MouseKeys is Left ALT-Left SHIFT-NUM LOCK. Write that combination on a sticky note or piece of tape and stick it to the bottom of your keyboard (this is a handy place to p ut all the important keyboard commands you seldom use). If you apply the settings above, you can use the key combination to initialize MouseKeys and move the mouse pointer by pressing numbers on your numeric keypad. When using MouseKeys, the number 5 is used to left-click, the INS key is used to hold down the button for dragging, and the DEL key is used to release the button. If your mouse is working, but a window has moved off the screen (this can happen when your screen resolution changes), hold down the ALT key and press TAB until the window you want to move is highlighted. Next, press ALT-Spacebar and press the Down Arrow key until Move is highlighted. Press ENTER and then use the arrow keys to move the window back to the Desktop.

You used Microsoft Fax when you had Win95, but you can't find it in Win98. Microsoft is trying to move all the faxing duties to the Outlook Express program that ships with Win98, so Microsoft Fax is not installed, regardless of the installation type you choose. The program is on the CD-ROM, though, and it's relatively easy to install. Insert your Win98 CD-ROM, right-click the drive icon where the disc was inserted (usually D:) and select Open or Explore. Navigate to D:\\TOOLS\OLDWIN95\MESSAGE\US and read through the Wms-fax.txt file first. If you simply want to set up Microsoft Fax, double-click Awfax.exe to begin the installation.

You want to see file extensions and gain the ability to view every file present on your computer, but Win98 constantly defaults to different settings. Open any folder on your system and click the View menu. If you want to save a lot of screen space, uncheck the As Web Page option. This will eliminate that pane of information on the left side and allow more space for displaying items. Next, click the Folder Options entry and the View tab. In the HIDDEN folder, click the Show All Files radio button, then click Apply. If you want this setting applied universally throughout your system, click the Like Current Folder button. Next, click the General tab. If you dislike Win98's web-like interface, you can change it in this panel so it acts more like Win95. The best way is to select the Custom, Based On The Settings You Choose radio button, and then click Settings. Here, you can disable most of the interface settings.

You delete files on a regular basis and want to eliminate the need to tell Win98 that it's OK to get rid of files two or three times per deletion. Right-click the Recycle Bin and select Properties. Uncheck the box labeled Display Delete Confirmation Dialog Box and click Apply. This command will force Win98 to move your deleted files to the Recycle Bin without making a peep. If you want even more control, check the Do Not Move Files To The Recycle Bin box. Now, Win98 will immediately erase every file you delete, and the hard drive space the unwanted files previously used is reclaimed. But this also means you won't be able to get that file back without reinstalling it, so be very careful. You can apply all these changes to every hard drive on your computer simultaneously by clicking the Use One Setting For All Drives radio button. Otherwise, you will have to perform the above steps for each separate drive. If you don't want to permanently change your settings, however, you can press SHIFT when deleting a file to skip the Recycle Bin step and wipe it off your PC for good.

You use the Windows Update feature frequently, but you just heard about a new patch and aren't sure if you've already downloaded it. When you are at the Windows Update portion of the Web site http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/default.htm, follow the Product Updates link, then click Installation History. Your system has a log of all the files you've downloaded from the site, which is compared to Microsoft's database of updates.

Every time you have to reboot Win98, it completely resets the machine, forcing you to wait through the entire boot process. Just hold down the SHIFT key while you click Restart from the Shut Down window.

You uninstalled some programs from the Add/Remove Programs utility in the Control Panel, but the names for the programs are still there. Sometimes the uninstallation process goes snafu and leaves a ghost entry in the Add/Remove Programs window. You can use the TweakUI utility that came with the Win98 CD-ROM to clean out these leftovers. Follow the directions mentioned above to install it now if you want. Launch the utility from the Control Panel, find the Add/Remove tab, highlight the entry you want to get rid of by clicking it, and then click Remove. If you don't want to install TweakUI, you can also delete the remnants by using the Registry. Click Start, select Run, and type regedit in the text field. Next, click the plus sign (+) next to HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE to expand the list. Do the same thing to the Software entry, then to the Microsoft, Windows, and Current Version entries. There's an entry on this list called Uninstall; it contains all the lines you see in the Add/Remove Programs box. Highlight the one you want to get rid of, click Edit, then Delete.

You want to reformat your hard drive, but you're afraid that you'll have to reinstall Win95 before you can install Win98. If you're reformatting a hard drive or just bought a new one, you can use your Win98 upgrade CD-ROM to perform a fresh install. You will be prompted to insert your old Win95 CD-ROM to prove you qualify for the upgrade, but no files will be installed from that CD-ROM.

Spool EMF files to your printer. Often, Windows defaults to outputting, or spooling, data to your printer in RAW format, which requires Windows to convert the data from your application to a printer-specific format. Switching to EMF (enhanced metafile) format converts your application data into a generic format, shifting the processing burden to the printer. To switch data formats, click Start, Settings, then Printers. Right-click the printer icon, choose Properties, Details, then Spool Settings. Use the pull-down option for Spool Data Format and select EMF.

Optimizing drive performance. Windows uses look-ahead caching functions to help boost drive performance. You can fine-tune and/or maximize this caching by doing the following: Click Start, Settings, and Control Panel. Open System and click the Performance tab. Click File System and click the Hard Disk tab. Make sure the read-ahead optimization is set to Full. Under the CD-ROM tab, be sure your Supplemental Cache Size slider is placed at the largest setting and your access pattern is set for Quad-Speed Or Higher, assuming that fits your hardware description.

Change your computer's role. Also under the Hard Disk tab, there is an option for Typical Role Of This Computer. If you have more than 16MB of RAM, set this to Network Server. This setting allocates more memory resources for your most recently used files.

Terminate TSRs (Terminate and Stay Residents). Press CTRL-ALT-DELETE to see a list of all the programs currently active, both visible and invisible. Those are all utilities and other applications associated with software you've installed, running in the background of Windows and sucking up memory. Most of these applications are unnecessary. Close any applications you don't feel are essential. To keep the TSRs from reappearing next time you start Windows, go to Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, then System Information. Select Tools, System Configuration Utility and click the Startup tab. Uncheck the items you don't want to load automatically when the system boots.

Quicker access. Want to save a click? If you drag a file name over the Start button, Windows will open the Start menu. Then drag the shortcut to any spot in the top portion of the menu and drop it into position.

Free up more memory. To give your applications more memory resources, click Start, Programs, MS DOS Prompt. You should see a window that looks like this C:\WINDOWS>. At the prompt type CD.. (the two dots should follow CD) and hit Enter. You should see C:\ at this point. At the prompt, type edit config.sys and hit Enter. You should see a blue window with a few lines of text. Look for the text line that says DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE. This enables some upper memory to be set aside for DOS to use. If you don't use any DOS applications, type REM DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE. This will REMARK out that line and when your computer boots, this line will not be executed. The REM must be followed by a space before the line in order to work. Use your mouse and click Save and then Exit. At the prompt type Exit to close the DOS window; reboot your system. If your system acts funny after performing this, reboot your computer; when Starting Windows appears, press the F8 key and select Command Prompt Only option. This will put you into DOS. Follow the above directions to get to your Config.sys file and remove the REM before the command. To save the change, press ALT + S then ALT + X to exit. At the prompt type win to boot Windows.