24th May 2002

How many floppy drives do you plan on adding to your computer in the near future? The average user won't add any, but Windows 98 attempts to be intuitive by searching for new floppy drives on every boot-up. To keep Windows from looking (and to slightly speed up booting time), right-click on 'My Computer' and select 'Properties.' Then click the 'Performance' tab, press the 'File System' button, then select the 'Floppy Disk' tab. Remove the checkmark from the box. While you're there, you might scope out the 'Removable Disk' tab, too. Don't start with me today. Actually, you can start, but not until I give you the 'go ahead.' How many items are in your Startup folder? Not sure? Click the Start Button, select 'Run,' type "STARTUP" (without the quotes), and hit ENTER. Wow, ya gotta lotta pretty stuff in there! They'll launch in alphabetical order, and you should be able to rename all of the shortcuts in there. If you want to specify their exact launching order, rename them with numbers. '1_program' would go first, '2_program' would go second, etc.. Okay, you can start any day now.