My computer here at work went Tango Uniform last week, so we finally did what I have been dreading for a long time and installed a new hard drive, new video card, and upgraded from Windows 98 to Win2K.

Now, Win2K is different from what I'm used to, so it can't be any good. That's a given. But I am trying to get along with it as best I can.

There are a couple of petty annoyances that perhaps somebody may have answers for.

First, it boots up with Numlock turned off. I can watch the indicator on the keyboard, and the BIOS turns Numlock on, like it should, and then in the final stages of loading Win2K (the progress bar is a bit over halfway) the Numlock light goes off. What might be causing this? How can I fix it?

Second, I read the bbs using Netscape, opening each thread in a separate Netscape window. In Win98 I could open up as many as 50 windows/threads at one time. Win2K starts getting unhappy at 10. The first nine copies of Netscape open up normally -- I open the thread, then do an alt-tab to take me back to the list of threads so I can open the next one. But on the 10th thread, the alt-tab doesn't take me back to the list of threads in the forum but instead takes me back to the most recently opened thread (in this case, the 9th thread.) What might be causing this? How can I fix it?

I've also had to upgrade my beloved Ami Pro word processor to the later version Word Pro because Ami Pro generates General Protection Faults in Win2K. I hate Word Pro. They took a beautifully small, elegant, program and bloated it with useless "features" that I will never use that turn even the simplest operations into adventures in submenus. Any advice on how to make an old, obsolete 16-bit program work reliably in Win2K?

Where am I? And why am I in this handbasket?

tanstaafl.

Any advice on how to make an old, obsolete 16-bit program work reliably in Win2K?

Tip: don't try to install Win98 without any research. Trust me

I don't think you'll get very far with that. I think Win2K has some of that "compatibility" stuff that XP does (you can chose to run a program with DOS, Win3.11, Win98, etc compatibility), but I'm not sure. I think I tried it once and it didn't do much.

As for the other issues, I don't have those problems at all. My numlock always defaults to ON. I also use IE so of course I don't have problems with lots of windows Still, I don't think I would. My system is running smoothly for the most part (with the exception of some drive problems ), so even if I were using Netscape (which I never would), I don't think I'd have problems. What kind of machine is it after the upgrade?

Now, Win2K is different from what I'm used to, so it can't be any good

Hehe, true. I think I was swayed to try it purely due to the pretty fading menus

First, it boots up with Numlock turned off.

It remembers the state of Num Lock at the point that you either logged off (in which case it'll restore it when you log back in) or when you shut down (in which case, it'll restore it when it boots). The BIOS setting (as you saw) is ignored.

I thought the Numlock was set to whatever was active when the login screen comes up. Could be wrong tho.
Doesn't Microsoft have the phrase "windows aint done til lotus/netscape..... wont run"?
I don't know what could be freaking it out. I use Opera and can open huge numbers of windows without much happening. Occationally it does bomb but I can continue where I left off when I restart it.
I think there may be a way to get Amipro to work by making a PIF for it. I don't know how to make the PIF in w2k but that would be my guess. have a pif launch it into 16 bit world.

The Numlock (and Scroll/Caps) are per user settings and stored when you logoff. The values are stored at:

HKCU\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators

The values can be:
0= All off
1= Caps Lock on
2= Num Lock on
4= Scroll Lock on

You can add these to combine them eg. 5= Caps and Scroll Lock on.

If you want to set the values before any users login (e.g. at the login prompt) then you need to set the value for the .DEFAULT user: HKU\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators

If you use Netscape for browsing the web and like opening a lot of windows, you may want to try either Mozilla or Opera, they have a tabbed browsing interface, and IMO it's better than opening up a new window for each page. In Mozilla I use my mouse wheel click (middle button) to open a link in a new tab, then you can middle click again on the tab to close it. It's very fast, especially for viewing forums and threads like this one. You can also save groups of tabs as bookmarks, and when you launch the bookmark, it will re-open all your tabs. I have a group for News Sites, Comics, etc.

middle click again on the tab to close it

Thank you!!!

Now if only didn't conflict with the also useful feature of middle-clicking-to-paste-a-URL under Unix, I'd be good to go.

No problem. That's payback for the tip on using parameters in bookmarks that I now use for Google all the time.

Can you Alt+Tab between bookmarks? If you can't, no thanks.

Between bookmarks? You mean different tabs or sub-windows? Sorta. It's not Alt-Tab, but in Mozilla, you can Ctrl-PgUp and Ctrl-PgDn to shift tabs. I'll bet that Opera allows Ctrl-Tab to do an internal version of Alt-Tab.

Oops, I meant between tabs.

Also Ctrl-Tab works inside Phoenix. For Windows users looking to make a move to a Gecko based browser, but don't want all the features in Mozilla, definitly take a look at Phoenix. All the nice features are defaulted on like popup blocking, and tabbed browsing with new tabs created from links working with the middle mouse button.

To me on Windows, you can either use IE and be forced into downloading a pop-up blocker to kill pop-ups, or you can instead download one browser that kills pop-ups, has no ActiveX crap, and has tabbed browsing.

I second the Phoenix recommendation. I've been using it for quite a while now as my primary browser, and I haven't looked back since I started.

Just a side note, Phoenix will be renamed soon (a new name has been chosen) due to legal problems, as it states on the main project page.

If you want to set the values before any users login (e.g. at the login prompt) then you need to set the value for the .DEFAULT user: HKU\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators


Thank you! That did the trick perfectly. (Although I confess it took me a few minutes to figure out that your HKU reference was an abbreviation for HKEY_USERS. Sometimes I'm not too bright.)

I have found the other problem (number of Netscape windows I can open) to be a Netscape problem. There is no limit on the number of IE windows I can open, so I am experimenting with IE now to see if I can get the same happy coexistance between it and my macro keyboard that I had with Netscape.

Is there any way to pre-define the size of new IE windows? When I first start IE, that original window pretty much fills the screen, but still leaves the task bar visible. All subsequent windows that I open are much smaller, perhaps 40% of the screen. How can I make the additional windows automatically open up at the same size as the first window?

tanstaafl.

I think there may be a way to get Amipro to work by making a PIF for it.

Sorry, but that won't work. Ami Pro is not a DOS program; it is a 16-bit program requiring Windows 3.x or Windows 9.x to run. It will run sometimes in Win2K, but other times it blows up with a General Protection Fault.

The more I use the 32-bit replacement for Ami Pro (Lotus Word Pro) the less I like it.

tanstaafl.

Is there any way to pre-define the size of new IE windows?

IIRC, it opens the same size as the last one closed. So open one, size it properly, then close it. The next one you open will be of the same size.

Of course, that means that you have to be careful with the order in which you close your windows when pop-ups occur, as they are usually of a much smaller size. Make sure you close them first (which can be a chore as they sometimes lower themselves under your current windows), but not the last one before you want to open a new window.

Wouldn't it be much easier to use a browser that incorporated tabs (Mozilla or Phoenix) or MDI (like Opera)?

Is there any way to pre-define the size of new IE windows?

Yes. If you're launching from the Quick Launch bar, or pretty much anywhere: right click>properties> and under run, choose "Maximized"

As for subsequent windows, I wish I could figure that one out. It's been annoying me.

*edit* Bitt is right, but the only size that won't get learned, AFAICS, is the maximized window.*edit*