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The
LangaList
30-Aug-99
A Free
Email Newsletter from Fred Langa About BrowserTune,
HotSpots, Columns, Tips & Tricks, and Other Activities
In This
Issue:
Win98SE Shutdown Patch Concerns
Fred's System Setup Secrets
New Aug 30th BT2K Update
HotSpots Sizzling
A Fix For The MS Office HTML Woes
Still Room For More Opinions
Those IE5 Clicking Noises...
What Is The Sound Of One Palm Being Won?
Just For Grins
More!
Last week, I featured the
brand-new Win98SE shutdown patch as a HotSpot of the Day; HotSpot visitors
found out about this new Microsoft patch very early on. The patch is
designed to correct one of the most common complaints about
Win98SE---indeed about Win98 as a whole: Slow shutdowns, or hangs at
shutdown.
You see, Win98 shuts down a PC in a way different from Win95's method:
Win95 shuts down each running component essentially one at a time, in
linear fashion, and waits for one component to finish shutting down before
moving on to the other.
Win98, in contrast, issues a general "shut down now" order to
all running elements, and only waits for those relatively few apps,
services and other components that have to clean up after themselves of
perform sequential functions to shut down properly. Microsoft's theory was
that most Windows components don't need to be shut down one at a time,
serially.
For systems with these kinds of apps and add-ins, Win98's "fast
shutdown" works great: The system responds almost instantly to a
shutdown request and is ready for power-off in just a couple seconds.
But it turns out that there's a lot more software and drivers than
Microsoft thought that needs the slower, one-at-a-time shutdown process,
and simply don't work well with Win98's Fast Shutdown. The too-frequent
result is that Win98 often is slow or balky in shutting down.
Prior to the release of the Shutdown Patch, the only workaround for
Win98 users was to disable Fast Shutdown-- that is, to tell Win98 to
revert to the slower, but more reliable Win95-style of shutting down. This
works in the majority of cases.
If you're interested in trying that approach, the simplest thing is to
type MSCONFIG.EXE on your Win98 machine's Start menu's command line. Then,
on MSconfig's General tab, click the Advanced button, and check
"disable fast shutdown."
Clearly, this is an inelegant solution, but it does resolve the
majority of Fast Shutdown woes.
Win98SE was supposed to resolve many of the long-standing issues
with Win98, but alas, it seemed to make the fast shutdown problem worse.
So Microsoft created a Fast Shutdown patch that's supposed to resolve the
fast shutdown issues. If you're running Win98SE, you can grab the patch at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/contents/WURecommended/S_WUFeatured/Win98SE/Default.asp
The patch adds new VxDs and DLLs to your system and updates or adds INF
files (all of which address common fast-shutdown problem areas such as the
handling of PCI devices and power-management software). But here's the
kicker: The patch also gives you a new version of Msconfig. That version
is nearly identical to the old version, except that it does not offer the
"Disable Fast Shutdown" option.
Plus, once the Fast Shutdown patch is installed, there's no way to
uninstall it. So, the patch is a one-way trip--- once you install it,
you're locked in to using it, and the new versions of the applets , DLLs ,
etc. it installs.
I'm using the patch on several systems here, and---although I was
alarmed to lose the reliable "disable fast shutdown" option in
MSconfig---the patch seems to be working fine. If I'd known in advance
what the patch was going to do, I would have backed up the files it alters
so I could restore them more easily, if need be.
FYI: These are the files the Patch adds or changes in case you want to
make backups first:
239887UP.inf, Setup Information, 8/17/99, 4:17
PM, 2,623 bytes
qfecheck.exe, Application, 7/27/98, 3:48 PM, 36,864 bytes
Qfecheck.hlp,Help File, 2/9/96, 6:28 PM, 8,042 bytes
3675.cat, Security Catalog, 8/12/99, 1:26 PM, 5,903 bytes
CSETUP.exe, Application, 8/12/98, 9:32 PM ,16,896 bytes
MSConfig.exe Application, 8/11/99, 10:32 AM, 59,392 bytes
tshoot98.chm, Compiled HTML Help file, 7/22/99, 11:12 AM, 240,797 bytes
Pci.vxd, Virtual device driver, 8/11/99, 10:41 AM, 65,919 bytes
apmbatt.SYS, System file, 8/11/99, 10:46 AM, 4,384 bytes
239887UN.inf, Setup Information, 8/17/99, 4:17 PM, 1,632 bytes
configmg.vxd, Virtual device driver, 4/23/99, 10:22 PM, 125,057 bytes
ver_chk.inf, Setup Information, 8/12/99, 12:30 PM, 1,520 bytes
Advpack.dll, Application Extension, 7/15/97, 6:53 AM, 74,960 bytes
W95inf32.dll, Application Extension, 7/15/97, 6:53 AM, 4,608 bytes
W95inf16.dll, Application Extension, 7/15/97, 6:53 AM, 2,272 bytes
If you're using Win98SE and are having shutdown problems, you might
want to try the patch. If you're using a non-SE version of Win98 and are
having problems, try the Msconfig trick instead!
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Call me a slow learner. But over the years I've had to develop a series
of defensive strategies to cope with the inevitable problems and hassles
of hardware and software failure---especially because I test a lot of
hardware and software, and regularly make my PCs blow up. (In a figurative
sense, of course.)
I just bought a new PC--- my best guess is it's maybe the 30 th
machine I've used as my day-to-day personal system at work or at home.
With each new machine I've used, I've tried various tricks and techniques
and eventually developed a set routine that ensures that the system runs
right from the start, stays right for as long as possible, and can be made
right with minimum fuss when things inevitably go awry.
Many of these tips and tricks will work on any kind of system--- Mac,
Linux, BeOS, etc.: Although the specifics I'll discuss below are for
Windows machines, the ideas and concepts are easily transferable to other
OSes.
And no matter what OS you run, some or all
of these tips---learned the hard way from painful experience---may help
you. Yes, a few of them may be overkill for normal users who don't abuse
their PCs the way I do, but others are universal and can help anyone.
Although the
sequence of steps might seem daunting at first, it gets
the awful, messy, grunt-work of system maintenance out of the way
right away, and lets you reap the rewards of a stable-to-start, and
easy-to-restore system for as long as you own it. Of course, the same
techniques can be used on older systems too--- it's never too late to
start fresh!
The actual
step-by-step would more than fill this entire newsletter, so rather than
send you a gigantic email, I made these system setup tips and tricks the
basis of this week's Dialog Box on the WinMag BBS area; accessible from
the front page of the WinMag site starting this afternoon (Aug 30, EDT,
GMT-4): Go to http://www.winmag.com
and look in the right hand column for the exact link to the column and
discussion area.
The column will
detail all the steps I take (and why I take them) so you can decide for
yourself which ones might be useful to you, and which may be overkill.
I'll be glad to answer whatever questions I can about the steps listed
above, and I'd also love to hear from you: What tricks or techniques do
you use? What tips can you share? What steps do you take to keep your
system running smoothly?
Please check out the column and then join
in the discussion via the
front page of the WinMag site http://www.winmag.com
starting this afternoon (Aug 30, EDT, GMT-4)!
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I've posted a new update to BT2K, and am working on what I hope will be
the final steps to killing the last of the beta bugs. If you haven't run
the beta in a while, please check out the home page to see when the
current version was posted: If it's newer than your last run, you may wish
to give the newer version a test drive!
FYI: The BT2K full beta is
at http://www.browsertune.com/bt2k/
The BT2K demo (think of it
as "BT2K Lite") is still available at http://www.browsertune.com/bt2kdemo/
And the tried-and-true
manual version of BrowserTune (BT98) awaits you at http://www.browsertune.com/bt98/
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In the first item in this newsletter---about the Fast Shutdown Patch---
I mentioned how the patch site was featured in last week's HotSpots;
HotSpots is another web site I run that features "Every Day, The Best,
Most Interesting, Most Useful, and Strangest
Sites the Web has To Offer!"
This newsletter is twice-weekly, but the HotSpots site runs 365 times a
year---a new site very day, without fail. As such, it's a great mechanism
for me to highlight not only timelessly interesting or useful sites, but
also brand-new, just-available sites--- such as the Fast Shutdown Patch
Site. Regular HotSpots visitors were among the first to know of the
release of the Shutdown Patch.
If you're not a regular Hotspots visitor, you're missing a lot. Check
it out (every day!) at http://www.browsertune.com/flanga/hotspots.htm,
and check out past HotSpots in the HotSpots Hall Of Fame at http://www.browsertune.com/flanga/hof.htm
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Last
week, I told you about an MS Office 2000 weirdness in which Word2000's
"export as HTML" function creates code that crashes Netscape
Navigator. FrontPage2000, on its own, won't or can't remove the code that
Word puts in, even if you explicitly tell FP2K to create
Navigator-compatible pages and not to use any fancy or advanced features.
(See http://www.langa.com/newsletters/aug-26-99.htm#bug2
for more info.)
Reader
Gunter Hartel found a fix:
Dear Mr. Langa
I stumbled upon an MS add-in that might solve your
problem of microsoft
codes in you HTML files after using WORD to grammar check.
Cheers
Gunter
The add-in is called the "Microsoft Office 2000 HTML
Filter" and it strips out the MS-Office-specific code that Word puts
in by default. You have to register at the site to get the download, but
it's freely available at http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/2000/downloadDetails/htmlfilter.htm
To me, is
seems that Microsoft has the defaults backwards: The default should be to
produce generally-compatible code, with the special option to produce code
that allows the use of Office's advanced features. It seems silly to have
to add in a special filter just to produce basic, generic HTML.
But I'm glad
there is such a filter, and thanks, Gunter, for finding it for us!
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The LangaList
is approaching two years old and I'm considering several major changes.
The list is growing phenomenally--- the subscriber base grows by some
10-20% *per month*--- so clearly many of you find the current format,
frequency, etc. fine. But everything can be made better, and this
newsletter is no exception.
May I ask a
small favor? Can you spare about 5 minutes to answer a few questions that
will help directly shape the future of the LangaList? (I promise not to
ask anything too personal <g>)
If you'd like
to have your opinion counted please drop me a note at changesurvey@langa.com
. I appreciate your help, and look forward to working together to make
this newsletter---your newsletter---as good as it can be!
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Reader "Rick"
wrote:
Here's the deal. Baffled every techie I can find. I
have been getting a strange sound out of my WAVE OUTPUT whenever I
hyperlink. The sound is very similar to what you'd hear when you turn on
one of those "stun guns"....you know the electrical
"popping" noise.......
It's only happening when I'm using MSIE 5.0 So what's
the deal, Fred ? Can you find somebody that can figure this out ? The
only way to stop it is to shut the system down and re-start....then,
eventually, for no apparent reason, this rapid "popping" noise
starts when I click on something to go to another link.
HELP!---Rick
Those little pops or clicklets are both erratic and annoying. They
appear to be activated (or not) depending on how you launch a browser
session. It's rather weird.
As far as I can tell, the navigation sound effect is controlled by a
setting in Start/Settings/Control Panel/Sounds/Windows Explorer/Start
Navigation
Yes, Windows Explorer is not the same as Internet Explorer, but they share
the same code for HTML display. I'm assuming that the fact that the sound
effect is bound via Windows Explorer is the reason why you don't always
hear the sound when using Internet Explorer; but eventually, some common
code is triggered, and the little rapid pops start sounding.
Anyone else have a better idea?
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The
"Recommend-It" service is an ad-based site (you’ll see banners
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Thought for the day:
When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane!
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See you next issue!
Best,
Fred
( fred@langa.com )
(P.S. Please email
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