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Creating shortcuts on the desktop 1: right click the item and drag it onto the desktop. 2: click “Create Shortcut Here” from the menu. Customising the Win95 Computer Bits desktop & start menus The Windows 3.11 Program Manager is obsolete. In its place, Windows 95 presents a slick new interface that lets you place icons and folders directly on the desktop. Here’s how to go about it. By GREG SWAIN Unlike its predecessor, the Win95 desktop can play host to virtually anything you care to drag there. While the Windows 3.11 desktop limits you to the Program Manager and the icons of mini­mised applications, the Win95 desktop is a far friendlier place to be. Want to place shortcuts to your drives directly on the desktop? No problem – just open My Computer, right click (yes, right click) the relevant drive, drag it onto the desktop and release the mouse button. Choose 82  Silicon Chip “Create Shortcut Here” when the popup menu appears and there’s your shortcut. If you now double-click on the new shortcut icon, the Ex­plorer opens to show the contents of the drive. You can do exactly the same thing to folders (the new word for direct­ories), applications or even individual files. All you have to do is launch the Explorer, right click on the appropriate folder, executable (exe) file or program file, and drag it onto the desktop. When the job is done, the application’s icon appears on the desktop but with one minor difference – there’s a little arrow to indicate that it is a short­ cut to the application (see example at right). Don’t clutter your desktop with shortcuts though. They should be reserved for your most frequently used appli­ c ations. When you no longer want a particular shortcut on the desktop, just drag it to the Recycle Bin. Note that this gets rid of the shortcut only and not the original file or hardware item. Renaming shortcuts When you create a shortcut, Win95 automatically adds the words “Short­ cut to” to the desktop icon; eg, “Short­ cut to Explor­er”. However, the little 3: that’s it – your shortcut appears on the desktop. 4: right-click the shortcut icon to rename it. Rearranging the start menus Problem: the CD Player entry is buried four menus deep. 1: right click the Start button, then left click “Explore”. 2: the Explorer opens at the Start Menu folder. 3: “drill” down to the Multimedia folder. continued next page August 1996  83 4: left-click the CD Player shortcut and drag it onto the Start Menu folder. arrow that’s added to the icon makes it obvious that it’s a shortcut so these words are superflu­ous. Deleting them is easy – just right click on the icon and left click on “Rename” from the pop-up menu. It’s now simply a matter of typing in the new name for the shortcut and left click­ing off the icon. By the way, get used to using the right mouse button when you install Windows 95. Right click on just about anything, including the Task Bar, and a menu pops up that lets you carry out certain functions. Unlike Windows 3.11, the right mouse button now actually does something useful and it’s easy to use. Rearranging the Start menus Apart from using desktop shortcuts, applications are usual­ly launched via 5: now when you click the Start button, the CD Player entry appears in the first menu. the Start button. When you click the Start but­ ton, you navigate through a series of menus to the application you want. Windows 95 automatically adds its own applications to the Start menus during installation. Any applications that you later install are also automatically added and these can even include entries for readme files or on-line registration of the software. As a result, your Start menus quickly become clut­tered with entries that are seldom (if ever) used. Worse still, an application that you use frequently can be buried three or four menus deep and drilling down to it each time you want to run it can become annoying. Fortunately, it’s easy to rearrange the Start menus to suit the way you Moving the status bar You can move the Task Bar to the top of the screen by left clicking on it and dragging it to its new location. It automatically snaps into place and the desktop icons move to make room for it. 84  Silicon Chip want to work. The first thing to realise here is that the entries in the Start menus mirror the entries in the Start Menu folder and its sub-folders when you open the Explorer. The second thing to realise is that these entries are shortcuts and not the actual files themselves, as indicated by the little arrows at­tached to their icons. What’s the easiest way of getting to the Start Menu folder in the Explorer? Just right click the Start button and then choose “Explore” from the popup menu. From there, you can start explor­ ing the contents of the Start Menu folder and its sub-folders. To delete an entry (eg, a readme shortcut), just drag it from the Explorer to the Recycle Bin. To move an entry, just left click it and drag it to its new location. Now, when you want to launch the application via the Start button, it will appear on the corresponding menu. In the example given, the CD Player was buried four menus deep. By opening the Explorer and dragging the Shortcut entry directly to the Start Menu folder, it now appears on the opening menu. You can do this to any individual item or to groups of items. Moving the status bar Finally, if you don’t like having the Task Bar along the bottom of the screen, left click it with the mouse and move it. It can be “snapped” into position along one side of the screen or along the top and your desktop icons will automatically adjust their SC positions to make room for it.