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PC911 > Tips & Tweaks> Customizations Index > Customizations #2

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Shut Down Win9x With One Click!
Microsoft has Windows set up so that it takes at least four clicks to shut down Windows. Would you like to do it in one click? It's easy to do. Here you go:

  • Right click on the desktop and select New/Shortcut.
  • Once the Create Shortcut wizard loads, type C:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows in the Command Line text box. (Make sure that there isn't a space between the comma and the exitwindows parameter otherwise the command won't work.) Click Next.
  • When the next page appears, type Shut Down NOW! in the Select a Name For the Shortcut text box and click Finish.
  • Now, when you're ready to shut down Win9x, close all your applications as you normally would, and then just double-click the new Shut Down NOW! icon.
  • Enjoy!

Quick Tip -- Faster Internet Connections in Win9x & Win2K!
Those of us fortunate enough to have fast internet connections (cable modem, DSL, etc.), the following registry tweak allows more concurrent HTTP connections while downloading a web page. Each item on a web page requires a separate HTTP "Get", so if your connection can handle more concurrent connections, you can "Get" more items downloading at once. This is what to do:

  • Create a new plain text file and call it Tweak.reg.
  • Highlight the text below and press CTRL+C to copy it:

    REGEDIT4

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]
    "MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=dword:000000a
    "MaxConnectionsPerServer"=dword:0000000a

  • Paste it into your new text file by pressing CTRL+V.
  • Note: If you prefer not to create the file yourself, feel free to download Tweak.zip, and unzip it to a temporary directory. When you're done, you may delete the REG file.
  • If you decide to make your own, make sure everything one the line that starts with "[HKEY_CURRENT_USER....\Internet Settings]" is on one line. Also make sure that there are no blank trailing spaces, and that there is one carriage return after the last character in the text you paste.
  • Right click on the file. From the context menu choose Merge. Wait a few moments. Remember to delete the REG file when you're done.
  • Enjoy!

Add Functionality To MS Paint!
Do you occasionally do some light graphics editing? MS Paint is remarkably good at minor stuff that is just too cumbersome for larger graphics editors. Unfortunately, depending on the particulars of your Win9x installation, you may find that you can only save your edits as bitmaps. And that's if you can edit them at all; some MS Paint installations won't even open a GIF file, much less edit it. But here is a way to enhance MS Paint so that you can edit GIFs, JPGs as well as BMP files. The trick is to use an older version of the MS Paint executable. This is how to do it:

  • Download Paint95.zip to a temporary directory. Make note of where you've stored it.
  • Launch Windows Explorer and go to C:\Program Files\Accessories and locate Mspaint.exe.
  • Copy Mspaint.exe to the hidden folder C:\Windows\Sysbckup. Now you have a back up of Paint in case you are unhappy with the results if this tweak.
  • Now unzip the file you just downloaded to C:\Program Files\Accessories, overwriting your standard OEM version of Mspaint.exe.
  • The next time you launch Paint you should be able to edit a broader range of graphics files.
  • Enjoy!

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