Use SAFE MODE To Check System Configuration
by Tom Stepanek

  Q. How can I check to see if my system is correctly configured? (This is really a question made up so I could tell you about a tip given to me by a Computer Technician.)

  A. Navigate to the Control Panel and double click the System icon, then on the Device Manager tab. If you click on the plus sign next to each item in the list it will display the details of each item and show what is installed. Or will it?

  When I clicked on the Disk Drives icon, it displayed and named my floppy disk drive and my hard disk drive. Everything looked OK.

  The Technician told me to recheck the configuration after rebooting my machine in SAFE MODE. You can reboot in SAFE MODE by holding down the F8 key while your computer is Booting (Re-starting). Select Safe Mode from the menu that appears.

Established June 5, 1999 for TOGGLE
by
Raymond Mills & Associates

  I did that and navigated to the Control Panel/System/Device Manager. This time when I clicked on the plus sign by the Disk Drives icon it showed that I had three hard disks installed -- not just one! That meant that maybe system resources were being used unnecessarily and maybe some confusion might exist as to which drive was addressed.

  I deleted the multiple hard disks from the list and rebooted normally, letting the Plug and Play capability of my computer find the hard disk and re-install it. It seems to me that my system runs faster now.

Keyboard REFRESH Shortcut
 by Dave Rowe

 Q. Want a quick way to refresh your screen display?

 A. You don't have to use your mouse to move the pointer over the Refresh icon on your screen. I find it much quicker to press the F5 key.