Windows 95 and Windows 98 have an important configuration dialog box called the System Properties dialog box. You can access this dialog box via the System icon in Control Panel. This dialog box has four configuration tabs: General, Device Manager, Hardware Profiles, and Performance.
The General tab is appropriately named because it presents general system information, such as operating system version, registered user, amount of memory, and the type and speed of the processor. The other tabs are described in the following sections.
Note: You can also click the right mouse button while pointing at the My Computer icon and choose Properties from the resulting menu to open the System Properties dialog box.
Device Manager
The Device Manager tab (Figure 10.8) lets you see all the hardware devices configured on your system. Through this tab, you can see the resources used by each device (I/O range, IRQ, and DMA) and remove individual devices.
When you think a hardware device is malfunctioning in Windows 95 or Windows 98, you should check here first. If your hardware has a problem, a red X or yellow ! will appear next to the device. If you check the properties for the device, you will get a further explanation of the problem (usually a resource sharing problem). You can reconfigure the resources that the device is attempting to use via the Device Manager.
Hardware Profiles
The Hardware Profiles tab lets you set your system for different hardware configurations; this tab is most useful for laptops that use docking stations. Docking stations usually give laptop computers access to a larger monitor, printer, network connection, CD-ROM, or other enhancements. When the laptop is docked, all the devices will be online and ready to use. However, when the laptop is undocked, some of the devices will not be available.
In these cases, you can create two different hardware profiles — one that supports all devices in the docked configuration and another that supports only the devices available in the undocked configuration. After you create the two hardware profiles, you will receive an extra boot selection menu, which lets you choose the docked or undocked configuration. By creating two profiles, you can avoid the typical error messages concerning devices that could not be found.
Performance
The Performance tab (Figure 10.9) shows the memory and CPU statistics displayed by the General tab. However, it also lists the available system resources and gives you additional information about the file system and virtual memory. The three buttons at the bottom of the Performance tab are File System, Graphics, and Virtual Memory.
File System
Clicking the File System button on the Performance tab brings up the File System dialog box. The options here vary depending on whether you’re using Windows 95 or Windows 98, as shown in Table 10.5.
Graphics
If you find that the mouse pointer is jumping around erratically or that the display is showing some anomalous behavior, consider changing the graphics acceleration. Click the Graphics button on the Performance tab of the System Properties dialog box and move the slide bar as far left as it will go. Reboot the system and see if the behavior continues. If the problem disappears, slowly work the slide bar up until the strange behavior returns. The idea is to leave the system configured with the maximum amount of graphics acceleration that it can handle.
Virtual Memory
In Windows 95 and Windows 98, the paging file is dynamic and self-configuring — the swap space on the hard disk uses as much space as is available and necessary to support physical RAM. You are encouraged not to modify the virtual memory settings in Windows 95 and Windows 98 unless you have a specific reason. Some reasons for modifying the virtual memory settings are
You added a new hard disk that would better support the virtual memory
You are running out of space on the default virtual memory partition and need to move it to another location
You want to ensure that a minimum amount of space is always available for virtual memory
All these reasons lead you to the same setting: “Let me specify my own virtual memory settings.” After you click that option, you can specify the drive, minimum size, and maximum size of your swap file.
Note: You can also disable virtual memory, which is typically not a good idea — it can cause systems with little RAM to stop responding altogether.
REVIEW
This chapter covered many of the utilities that are available for MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, and Windows 95. Many of the MS-DOS utilities also work with Windows 3.x and Windows 95. Windows 95 is a more robust and self-tuning OS than either MS-DOS or Windows 3.x.
The most useful utilities are those that let you configure memory. MS-DOS uses the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files to set up UMA and HMA, which free up MS-DOS’s conventional memory. Other utilities are Smartdrv and Memmaker; they help allocate memory resources.
Windows 3.x uses .ini files to configure most of the settings and also uses the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat. Windows 3.x also uses a swap file to allocate virtual memory for applications. The swap file can be configured as a permanent or temporary file. The Control Panel is the central configuration point for Windows 3.x, Windows 95, and Windows 98.
Several important operating system settings can be found in the Windows 95 and Windows 98 System Properties dialog box. The System Properties dialog box can be launched via the System icon in Control Panel. Through the System Properties dialog box, you can access the Device Manager, where you can adjust hardware resource settings, review hardware conflicts, and remove or disable hardware devices. The Performance tab of the System Properties dialog box lets you modify the speed of your graphics acceleration, hard disk, and CD-ROM drive. You can also adjust the Virtual Memory configuration via the Performance tab.
VOCABULARY
Before proceeding to the next chapter, review the following terms and definitions.
Term
Definition
Active partition
The partition that contains the master boot record and identifies the boot sector.
Boot sector
The part of the hard disk that tells the computer where to find the operating system.
Buffer
A reserved area in memory that provides temporary storage for information. Printer drivers use buffers to store information before sending the information to the printing device.
Conventional memory
The first 640K of memory (RAM).
Emm386.exe
Expanded Memory Manager for MS-DOS and Windows 3.x; stores code in the upper memory area (UMA).
Enhanced memory
A 64K chunk of area above 640K but below 1 MB that is used to increase the usable memory beyond the normal 640K. A memory manager swaps 16K pages in and out of memory.
Extended memory
All memory above 1 MB.
Extended partition
A partition that does not contain the OS and does not have a drive letter but is subdivided into logical drives.
Font
A style for printing characters to the screen or printer.
High memory area
The first 64K of extended memory.
Himem.sys
The memory manager of the HMA for MS-DOS and Windows 3.x.
Logical drives
Subdivisions of an extended partition that have drive letters, usually starting with D:\.
MIDI
The Musical Instrument Digital Interface specification; a standard supported by many devices for recording and playing back digital music.
Paging file
An area of the hard drive that is used in conjunction with RAM to increase the amount of useable RAM for running programs. Memory code is swapped in specific sizes called pages between the hard disk and physical RAM. Also known as the swap file and/or virtual memory.
Primary partition
The place where the operating system is stored; contains the boot sector.
Stack
Reserved memory locations used to track internal program operations.
Swap file
See paging file.
Upper memory block (UMB)
Blocks of memory between 640K and 1024K used for running applications in Windows.
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