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Windows 98 ships with several little-known utilities that can make your life easier. They're all on the Windows 98 CD and the ones I'm going to tell you about today are located in what's known as the ResourceKit. Just go to your Windows CD and look in the Tools/ResKit/Desktop folder; they're all there.
There are 3 utilities in particular I want to mention today. And they are: CheckLinks, ClipTray and QuikTray. Each of these can be very helpful, but to get that help, you've got to install them.
The first one is called CheckLinks. This is a neat little applet that will do exactly what it says. CheckLinks will scan both your Start menu and your Desktop. It'll look for and remove shortcuts that point to files that no longer exist on your hard drive. Keeping your desktop clean is pretty easy. When you no longer need a shortcut, just drag and drop it in the Recycle Bin. But keeping your StartMenu up to date can be a real pain in the...neck. CheckLinks is a painless way to clean up your StartMenu in a heartbeat.
Now, the second utility I want to tell you about is the ClipTray. If you do a lot of word processing, you may find this one to be very useful. ClipTray lets you store chunks of standard wording you use frequently. It copies them into the clipboard at your request. So, if you have documents that use the same wording over and over again, you'll find the ClipTray to be a real time-saver.
And the last one of these utilities is called QuikTray. Ever wish you could add a shortcut to your SystemTray? Well, this neat utility lets you add, or remove, programs from your SystemTray. It's a great convenience to be able to access programs from your systray and when you use QuikTray, you can launch programs with a single click.
Of course, the granddaddy of them all is TweakUI which does multiple things and I've talked about that in the past. If you haven't installed TweakUI, I prescribe you do so as soon as you can. It's on the Windows 98 CD in the Tools/ResKit/PowerToy folder.
Keep in mind that, for the most part, these utilities are not officially supported by Microsoft. That doesn't mean if you have a friendly tech they won't help you, but officially, you're on your own with these utilities. If you do have a problem with any of them, try searching Microsoft's Knowledge Base for answers. If you can't find them there, just search the Web...someone else out there has definitely had your problem, whatever it may be. And someone else will have the answer.
And that's my Prescription of the week. |
