Starting and Stopping The Desktop Taskbar Tweaking Tuning Up Explorer Keyboardese Shortcuts Galore Sound Advice Registry Review Improving Performance Installing Software Custom Looks Net Working Dos Forever SOUND ADVICE AutoPlay Disable To keep CD's from playing automatically, hold the SHIFT key for a few seconds after closing the CD-ROM drive door. Changing Sound Record Directory Many are annoyed that using a Win95 program to record sound defaults the control panel to c:\windows\media\. Here is a fix: Run Regedit Open the folders HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Select, but don't open the CurrentVersion key. There should be a string called MediaPath. Reset the value to the directory you want. You may also change the registered owner (RegisteredOwner) registered organization (RegisteredOrganization) default program directory (ProgramFilesDir). How to install PC Speaker with Win95. Open the Control Panel Double-Click "Add New Hardware," "Next" Do not let Win95 search for new hardware, "Next" Highlight "Sound, Video, Game Controller" then Select "Have Disk." Browse for your PC Speaker ".drv" file. Install. Presto! Your mute PC will now have sound. To modify settings for PC Speaker click "Multimedia" in the "Control Panel," then, "Advanced" tab. In the Audio devices folder you will see "PC Speaker." Music CDs and Autoplay By default, Windows 95 CD Player applet starts automatically when a music CD is inserted and begins playing This is set up in Windows 95 much like a file extension association. To change this: start Explorer select "View/Options/File Type." Scroll the list and highlight "Audio CDs." Click "Edit." Highlight "Play" and click "Edit." You will see the command path used to invoke the cdplayer. The default is set to "C:\WINDOWS\cdplayer.exe /play." If you delete the path the audio CD is won't play when inserted. If you delete just the '/play' parm, the CD Player applet is started when an audio CD is inserted, but CD does not play. Hidden classical music There are some classical music scores on the Win95 CD. Search for an ".RMI" extension in the WIN95 directory. Titles include Bach, Beethoven, Canyon, Passport. A compatible media player is supplied with Win95. Play single tracks on your CD Windows 95 allows you to do some strange things with audio CDs. Insert Audio CD, Select Your CD drive in Explorer and find the tracks (.CDA files). Here are some things to try. Right-click on a track to play it automatically, by choosing "Play" from the Quick Menu. If you double-click on a track, it will play automatically. Try dragging a track onto your desktop. Copy or create a shortcut, it doesn't matter. Name the track after the song. Whenever you have the CD in the drive, you can now double-click on it on the desktop to play it. You can also drag tracks to your hard drive and put them in your Start Menu, or create a directory with CD tracks in it. Soundcard Volume Single click on the speaker icon in the tray to bring up the master volume control. Double-click that icon to bring up the full mixer controls. Turn Off the CD-ROM Auto run When A Windows95-aware CD-ROM is inserted into the CD-ROM drive, Windows95 automatically launches the program on the disk and the audio CD player pops and starts playing immediately. This is cute at first, but soon gets annoying. If you hold down the Shift key when inserting the CD, this doesn't happen. You may turn this "feature" off as follows: Right-click on the My Computer icon Choose the Device Manager tab. Open the CD-ROM branch, and select the entry for your CD-ROM drive. Click Properties, and then choose the Settings tab. Turn off the Auto insert notification option. Click OK, and then OK again. (strangely enough, the folks at Microsoft had no idea how to do this): Unabridged version of Tips and Tricks for Windows 95 copyright © 1995 - 2001 Hanar Software, all rights reserved. Tips and Tricks for Windows 95 Abridged Internet Edition copyright © 1997-2001, Hanar Software and William Foard Publishing, all rights reserved. AmericaToday.com copyright © 1995 - 2001 William Foard Publishing. Microsoft, MS, Windows, and the Windows logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Corporation in no way endorses or is affiliated with Tips and Tricks for Windows 95. All other trademarks are the sole property of their respective owner(s).