Here's a passel of tricks from the wild world of Windows (InfoWorld)

June 17, 1996
Here's a passel of tricks from the wild world of Windows

This is a good week to bring together a few different subjects on undocumented and little-known features and products for Windows 95. What with summer movies and all, our attention span may not be quite what it used to be. Here we go...

A zoom with a view
My June 3 column shed light into a dark corner of Windows 95: its newfound capability to zoom almost all text and buttons on the screen to any magnification. (See "Mysterious zoom feature eludes users and coders.") The trick is uncovered by clicking Start, Settings, Control Panel, Display, Settings, Custom. You pick a new font size, which is really a zoom level. (This doesn't exist in Windows 3.1, although a typo in the column erroneously referred to Windows 3.1 rather than Win95.)
Unfortunately, some people magnified their displays so much that the OK button on the Custom dialog box went off the screen and they couldn't change back to their old setting. If this happens to you, click the Color Palette box, then press Tab five times. This highlights the OK button. You can then press Enter to save any settings.

Kernel of truth
Last week, I announced a new set of tools, called KernelToys, offered by Microsoft Corp.'s Win95 kernel development team. You get Krnltoys.exe (54KB) by setting your Web browser to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/software/krnltoy.htm and following the instructions. A few readers couldn't install KernelToys' KeyRemap applet, which rearranges some control keys. This applet does not have the normal Setup.exe or Install.exe of most applications. Instead, to install it you right-click the Keymap.inf file, then left-click the Install menu item that appears.

The check is in the e-mail
After many delays, Version 3.0 has emerged for E-Mail Connection (EMC), a universal inbox program offered by ConnectSoft, in Bellevue, Wash. The program enables you to search and sort e-mail messages, store them in various ways, and so on.
The new version of EMC, though, has taken on some bad habits that Microsoft is teaching developers. The new document-centric philosophy has led EMC and other programs to spurn the Multiple Document Interface -- a way to display multiple "child" windows within an application's "client area." Instead, you see a hierarchical, Explorer-type "tree" of folders. You select an e-mail folder from the tree, but it's difficult to see two windows side by side.
Fortunately, there's an undocumented work-around. Open the Prof0001.ini text file in your E-mail/Database folder. In the EMail Con section, change the value of ShowInbox Folder and ShowOutbox Folder from 0 to 1. Save the file and restart EMC. Presto. You've got the side-by-side windows back.
Contact ConnectSoft at (206) 827-6467 or http://www.connectsoft.com.

CDs to sample software
The Windows User Group Network (Wugnet) has released Version 1.1 of its CD Sampler. Version 1.1 has two CDs, not one, with more than 70 shareware programs and 70 commercial applications in a free trial version. The commercial programs "drop dead" in 30 to 60 days or have no Save and Print functions. This is a cheap ($29.95) way to check out Quarterdeck Corp.'s CleanSweep, Visio Corp.'s Visio, Adobe Systems Inc.'s PageMaker, and many others. Contact Wugnet at (610) 565-1861 or http://www.wugnet.com.

Brian Livingston is the coauthor of the new Windows 95 Secrets and author of three other Windows books (IDG Books). Send tips to brian_livingston@infoworld.com or fax: (206) 282-1248.
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