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Creating a FAT32 Emergency Boot Disk
Did you know that the Windows 98 CD-ROM contains a program that you
can run to quickly create a Boot Disk that's capable of creating and reading
FAT32 partitions? The program is called Fat32ebd.exe and it's
located in
the Tools\Mtsutil\Fat32ebd folder on the CD-ROM. Just place a
disk in the
floppy drive and double-click on the Fat32ebd.exe file. Then
follow the
on-screen instructions to create the bootable disk. When finished, we
recommend write-protecting the disk to protect it from viruses.
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Customizing Web view background
When you pull down the View menu in either My Computer or Windows
Explorer and select the As Web Page command, you know that Windows 98
automatically uses a cloud image for the background of the Web view.
However, if you'd like to use your own image for that Web view
background here's what you need to do:
1) Open either My Computer or Windows Explorer and access the
C:\Windows\Web folder.
2) Locate and rename the file Wvleft.bmp.
3) Open Paint, press [Ctrl]-E and type 242
and 600 in the Width
and Height text boxes respectively.
4) Create your image and save it in the C:\Windows\Web folder
as Wvleft.bmp. |
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Plugging Windows 98's Registration Wizard leak
By now, you've probably heard about the leak in Windows 98's Registration
Wizard that compromises your privacy by exposing unique ID numbers that
identify you and your PC. The ID numbers are only supposed to be available
to Microsoft and were designed help Microsoft identify registered
users of
their products. However, it has been determined that the numbers are also
attached to files created with Office applications, and even more alarming,
that the numbers are available via Internet Explorer to any Web site
developer who knows how to access the ID number. For more information
on the Registration Wizard leak, follow the links at the bottom of
the page.
To see the leak in action, point your browser to Phar Lap Software's
Windows 98 RegWiz privacy leak demo page at
http://security.pharlap.com/regwiz/index.htm
While Microsoft is working on a solution to this Registration
Wizard leak,
you may want to plug the leak immediately. Fortunately, you can do so
simply by disabling the Registration Wizard. To begin, select the Run
command on the Start menu. When the Run dialog box appears, type the command
regsvr32.exe -u c:\windows\system\regwizc.dll
in the Open text box and click OK. You'll then see a dialog box containing
the text string "DllUnregisterServer in c:\windows\system\regwizc.dll
succeeded'' that informs you that the operation was a success.
(To reenable
the Registration Wizard, you'll use the same command, but substitute
a -c
for the -u.)
Now, return to Phar Lap Software's Windows 98 RegWiz privacy
leak demo page and click the Refresh button. When you do, you'll see
that the demo page can no longer access your ID numbers.
The Registration Wizard also creates an easily identifiable
document on
your hard disk called Reginfo.txt that can leak information
about you.
To prevent this, simply rename, move, or delete the Reginfo.txt file.
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Viewing Web Graphics with Windows 98
The traditional method to open a file is to load the application
first. Windows Explorer allows users to open a file by simply double
clicking on the file to load the associated application. Assigning
or reassigning file types to applications is done in Windows Explorer
(View--Folder Options--File Types). This is fine
if you do not need
to change file type-application associations regularly.
Supposing you have a number of graphic applications for viewing or
editing JPEG files, and you need to switch between these applications
frequently, you can do so easily in Windows Explorer. Single click on
the file to select it. Hold down the Shift key while right-clicking
the mouse to bring up a menu of actions. Select "Open with..."
to
display the "Open With" dialog box. Simply click the
program you want
to open the file with. In addition, you can lock in the selected
application for that particular file type by checking "Always use
this program to open this type of file". In this way, you
can change
application for a given file type literally on the fly.
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