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Windows 95, unlike Windows 3.*x*, does not use a permanent swap file, but you can make the swap file a fixed size. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties. Click on the Performance tab and then on the Virtual Memory button. Activate the radio button that specifies the settings, and enter the same value for the Minimum and Maximum size. To determine an appropriate size, select OK and allow Win95 to restart. Select Sensor/Add/Swapfile Size. Right-click on the sensor, select Properties and Change Information To Display to Amount Used. Choose OK, then right-click on the sensor and select History Window. Open the applications you usually run, switch to the History Window and check the Highest value to see the maximum size your swap file reached. Add a small cushion for safety, then set a fixed size.
Bring up System Information by right-clicking on My Computer and selecting it from the Context menu.
You can create several System Doctor views and save them as .REG files. Then you can distribute them to others or switch between them using File/Open. Simply set up System Doctor the way you want it and select File/Save As. Use File/Open to open a System Doctor view.
Use System Doctor to make unattended updates of your Rescue Disk information on a network drive. In addition to saving critical drivers, Rescue stores a backup copy of your crucial Registry file, which contains the configuration information for your system. Create a minimal Rescue diskette containing your bootable files, then right-click on the Rescue sensor and select Properties. In the Alarm tab, select Take Corrective Action Immediately. When Rescue launches, select a network drive as the destination. System Doctor will update the information as often as you'd like.
System Doctor also automatically updates your Image files. To remove the Image sensor but still let System Doctor perform the automatic updates, right-click on the Image sensor and select Properties. Activate the Hidden check box under Sensor Size.
Here's a way to ensure your swap file is always defragmented. First, make your swap file a fixed size. Then open Speed Disk, select Cancel in the Optimization Method dialog box and select File/Options. Click on the Customize button and the Files Last tab. Type WIN386.SWP
into the File Specification box and click on Add. The next time you do a Full optimization, Speed Disk will move the unfragmented swap file to the free space at the end of your drive. Whenever Windows restarts, it will search for contiguous free space for the swap file and put it at the end of your disk.
Use the file-modification date to reduce future fragmentation. Select File/Options/Customize, then choose the By Date tab and check Sort File By Last Access Date. Speed Disk will put the files you modify frequently at the end of your disk, where they're less likely to fragment program files and other files you don't modify.
Norton Protection allocates disk space dynamically; as you need more space, NP removes files in the order they were deleted. If you've just deleted one or more large files that you won't want to recover, purge them from Norton Protection. This frees disk space immediately, and makes it less likely that a file you want to recover has been removed from protection. Double-click on the Recycle Bin icon to open UnErase, then right-click on the file(s) you want to purge and select Delete.
Here's how to get detailed information on an application's memory usage. With the application running, select the Memory tab. Double-click on the module name to see how much memory the application requires. System Info tells you how much memory is fixed versus swappable, how much is unique to the application or shared with others, and how much of the memory is being used by operating-system overhead.
Find out whether your new applications are taking advantage of Windows 95's multithreading feature. With the application running, select the Memory tab. Double-click on the module name and expand the Threads branch to see how many threads the application has and their priority.
You can customize the Commonly Discardable Files list in Space Wizard. Open Space Wizard, choose a Comprehensive list and continue to the Commonly Discardable Files screen. Right-click on any filename and select Configure Files or Configure Folders to specify which types should be included in the search.
To speed up Disk Doctor, select Options, go to the Appearance tab and uncheck the Enable Animation check box.
Use Disk Doctor to avoid lost clusters that occur when an application hangs or fails to clean its temporary files. Select Options/Repair Options/Custom. Click on the Custom button and check the Auto-Repair lost clusters box. Adjust the number of chains (groups of clusters) you'd like to use as a threshold for automatic repairs (a large number of lost chains may indicate a serious problem; set the value to 10 or less). You can save the lost clusters as files in your root directory, or have them deleted.
To customize the buttons available in Info Desk, open any topic in Info Desk and select the Tools button (the hammer and screwdriver icon).
Quickly scroll between the LFN (long filename) panes and the default pane with the F11 and F12 keys.
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