system runs 800 by 600 at 256 colors right-click the desktop and choose Properties. When the dialog box opens, click the Settings tab. Look under Color Palette. Try to change it to a higher value�the higher the better as far as color pictures go. Your computer may run a bit slower at the higher color value, but if you want to get a good look at those colorful pictures, you may be willing to make the trade-off.

Have you ever considered using a different bitmap? Here's how to add a new bitmap to the background. This trick requires you to edit the Registry, so as usual, be careful. First, run Internet Explorer and choose View, Options.

When the dialog box opens, click the General tab and then deselect the Background bitmap check box.

Click OK and then close Internet Explorer. Now click Start, then select Run and, in the Run dialog box, type

regedit

and click OK. When RegEdit opens, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet

Explorer\Toolbar. Click the Toolbar folder and then look in RegEdit�s right pane for a string value named ->BackBitmap<-. Double-click its icon and type in the name and path of your new bitmap. For example, you might type

c:\windows\clouds.bmp

Now click OK and close RegEdit (choose Registry, Exit).

Open Internet Explorer and choose View, Options.

Click the General tab and select the Background

bitmap check box. Your new bitmap selection will now

appear in the background

"I am running the OEM Service Release 2 version

of Windows 95 and have a screen saver called 3D Flying Objects. A friend of mine, who is running the original release of Windows 95, claims he doesn�t have this screen saver. Is there a way for him to use it? We tried copying the 3D Flying Objects.scr file to his system, but it didn�t work."

There are a number of screen savers that are unique to the OSR2 version of Windows 95. In order for them to work on a system running a previous version of Windows 95, you�ll need to copy the screen saver file (*.scr) AND two additional files�GLU32.DLL and OPENGL32.DLL�to the older system.

Copy the two DLL files above, along with any or all of the following screen saver files to the Windows\System folder of the system not running OSR2:

3D Flying Objects.scr

3D Flower Box.scr

3D Maze.scr

3D Pipes.scr

3D Text.scr

The new screen savers will now join the ranks of the others on your system. (To use one, right-mouse-click the desktop, select Properties, click the Screen Saver tab, select a screen saver in the drop-down Screen Saver list, and click OK.)

This tip describes an Active Desktop feature. When you're browsing the Web with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4, you may run across a picture that you'd like to have. Of course, you can right-click the picture and choose Save Picture As. But if you're using the Active Desktop, you can simply drag a picture to the desktop. When you drag a picture to the Active Desktop, the system will open a dialog box that asks, "Do you want to add a desktop item to your active desktop?" Click Yes to add the item to your desktop. Next, you'll get a dialog box asking if you want to subscribe to the page represented by the picture. If you want the picture, you'll have to take the subscription along with it. Note that this trick doesn't work with hyperlinked images (those you can click on to get somewhere else). If you attempt to drag a linked picture, you'll only end up with a shortcut to the link. But you can grab all the unlinked pictures you like