• What version of Windows do I have ?
  ---Go to Start Menu, up to Settings and open Control Panel. Further down, click on System. On the General tab in the system dialogue box is where it will have what version you have.
  

• How can I see how much space is left on my Hard Drive ?
  ---You can either open Windows Explorer, click on the Drive (eg.C:\), which will show what is left at the bottom of the page, which is at the top of the Windows explorer box OR open My Computer (on the desktop), click on Drive icon and you will see the space that is left on the Drive at the bottom of the dialogue box.

- Of course, if you don't see anything at the bottom of the boxes, go to Windows Explorer (which is in Start Menu,Programs), and click at top on View, and tick Status bar. This is if you have Internet Explorer installed, if you don't, the Folder options will just be called Options.

• How often should I Defrag my Hard Drive ?
  ---That is really entirely up to you, but some people do it once a week, fortnightly, monthly. Defrag puts files that are scattered all over the Drive closer together so they are more continuous and thus, making them faster to access, since the data is easier to find for the computer.
  

• Where should I go to uninstall different Programs ?
  ---First open the Control Panel and click on Add/Remove programs. Look in the list for your program.

---If it is not go to the Start Menu and see if it has an icon you can click on to uninstall it.

---If not go into Windows Explorer, go to the Directory where it is and look for an uninstall, often uninstalls are put into Windows\System, but they are ones that should have been in Add/Remove.

---If you cannot find any uninstalls whatsoever, ONLY then, if you do not have a program especially for uninstalling programs (eg.CleanSweep), you will have to uninstall manually. Delete the whole Directory and any shortcuts to it. The only thing with this is it does leave remnants behind in the Registry, and Windows\System maybe. It will not cause you problems though but over time they could. Do not be worried though as we all have remnants of some programs in our registry etc.

---Going into the Registry is another subject,WHATEVER you do, do not change the Registry without backing it up. I will only say that you could go into the Registry and find anyData, Values etc concerning the uninstalled program and delete them. The Registry is to be found here - C:\windows\regedit.exe or go to Start Menu, Run and type in regedit.It will open the Registry.

• How can I find out what I have in my computer (Hardware etc) ?
  ---You could go to your Dos Directory and run MSD (Microsoft Diagnostics). It should be run from Dos not Windows. Click on Shut down, then Restart in MS Dos mode. Once in Dos at the C:\ prompt, type CD Dos (Press Enter). Now you are in Dos Directory. Now type MSD and the program will run. Read what is on your screen so you are able to look at different parts of your system.

---Also you can go to your Control Panel, click the System icon and under the Device Manager tab it will have everything in your system, so if you click on one and click Properties you can find out more about that certain item.

---Of course there are lots of Shareware programs available to give you info. too, like SiSoft Sandra, a good diagnostics program, then there are simple little programs like sysinfo.

• What is Windows Safe Mode ?
  ---The computer either goes into Safe mode itself or you can do it, which is for helping you to sort out problems. When Safe Mode loads it only loads a basic system, no CD Rom Drive, only standard VGA screen, basically no device drivers are loaded, very basic and bare-boned. This is the only way some people can access Windows if they are having problems with Windows loading..
  

• What is fdisk ?
  ---You use Fdisk to partition your Hard Drive, say to have a C:\ and a D:\. You must have a Dos Primary partition and it must be activated and D: would be the extended Dos partition and the Logical drive, then formatted before it can be used.

---But after you have fdisked you MUST reset, then format, then reset again, before the drives will be usable. And that goes for D: E: etc.

---This is just a very quick overview of fdisk.

• How do you create a Boot disk (Startup Disk) ?
  ---From Windows open My Computer, right click on A:\ select Format. In the next dialogue box it gives you a few options, select and press Start. From Dos type: format A: (Drive letter) /s , which wipes the disk, and copies the system files to it and the format and the fdisk files, so to make it bootable.

---If you want to be able to run your CD Rom Drive you need to copy your CD Drive's driver over to the disk and MSCD.EXE to it too. Now I put a basic Autoexec.bat and config.sys files on the disk also with the same lines loading your cd rom BUT instead of the lines showing that the drivers are on C:\, change it to A:\. Because remember your Hard Drive will have been formatted and you will lose it all, so you put a copy of the drivers on the floppy. And put, say, Edit.com or anything else useful on the boot disk also, as long as it fits :)

---If this sounds a bit confusing just email me at the address below and I will explain more clearly.

• Now what I do when I redo my computer goes like this ::
  1.---Make sure I have a boot disk with the system files, format.com, fdisk.exe files and my cd rom drivers on it.
  2.---I reboot the computer with the boot disk in. Now this boot disk does not take you to Windows, but you stay in Dos.
  3.---From here when you are at the dos prompt C:\ type in fdisk if you want to change any partitions. I described very briefly before what it is. After you have fdisked RESET your computer. Then when you are back at the C:\ again, type *format C: /s*(No asterix of course). It will warn you that all data will be erased. Don't let that scare you, gee it is only going to wipe everything off your drive BUT hey that is what you are wanting to do isn't it?? Give it a good clean out?? To give it a good clean out.
  4.---After the format RESET.
  5.---I tend to copy the config.sys and the autoexec.bat file off the disk to C:\ so that any sound card installs, etc, in dos, will be able to write to them. BUT remember to change the lines in it that say the drivers etc are in A:\ - as they are now on C:\. I make a directory called cdrom, and put the drivers off the disk in there. So the autoexec.bat and the config.sys files should have the lines that state where the drivers are now, - Like on C:\cdrom\mscdex.exe for example. Now your drives will be recognised. And since you had the cd drivers etc on the disk, your cd drive will be loading too.
  

---So as long as all is going well and the cd drive is being loaded you are now able to install windows

---The only reason I bother with all this, is so that my CD Drive will load in Dos.

---There is no need to install any Dos whatsoever.

---Put your Win95 CD in and type (depending on the letter of the cd drive, lets say for now e:) so type in E:\ (Enter), then type setup. From here the install program will take you through the install. Have your S/n# ready as it will ask you this. All should run fine, but people do have troubles sometimes.

---There is plenty of info on the net to help you through any trouble. I will be able to shortly, I just have to type it in, so for now email me if you need to:)

• TIP : If your cd drive seems to be loading but it is not there, it sometimes does not know what drive letter it should be assigned, so what you need to do, is type in the next letter available for the CD Drive at the end of the cd driver line in the config.sys file.
  eg. c:\cdrom\sbcd.sys /MSCD001 /p:220 /L:G
  The cdrom\ is the directory that I put my drivers and the mscdex.exe file into.BUT the bit I am talking about is the end item *L:G*,which tells the computer that the cd rom will be assigned G:\. DON'T FORGET when you copy the autoexec.bat and config.sys files to C:\, remember to edit it and change the lines which state that the drivers etc were on A:\, as they are now on C:\.
  

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