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Answers from e-Zine!


Welcome back to your source for answers to all your OS/2 questions! Each month we bring you tips, tricks, questions and answers from our readers and contributors. If you've got a question or tip you would like to share with us, send it in!


Q -- How do I change the fonts used in Netscape/2? I have used the 'Options' menu and saved options. No change is made upon reopening.

A -- Unfortunately, the early beta of Netscape Navigator for OS/2 seems to have a "few" bugs. Not only do some people have problems setting the fonts, some are unable to change many other defaults in the 'Options' menu. Our advice is to wait and hope Netscape/IBM gets it right in the next release.

- OS/2 e-Zine! Staff

Tip -- I've been using the Navigator 1a beta as well as WebExplorer at work. I had the problem of not having my bookmarks from home available at work, so I FTP'd my bookmark.htm (Navigator for Windows) to my Web space on my ISP's Web server. From there I have my bookmarks available to me anywhere. This circumvents the limited bookmark list in the Navigator beta. For WebEx, I just drop the bookmark URL object into the client window and there they are, all my bookmarked URLs.

- Cliff Kelley

Q -- I have used OS/2 for several years, but have never used HPFS. This is because of two concerns.

First, the inability to defragment an HPFS drive, short of erasing and recopying the files from tape and/or reinstalling software on the drive. Though HPFS is supposed to be resistant to fragmentation, I use my computer very intensively, with much creation and deletion of many large and small files that at times completely fill the disk.

Second, I have been afraid of the eventual problems encountered with all operating systems, and the apparent inability to correct this problem if booting from a DOS diskette. Are there ways to address these two problems so that I can get the benefits of HPFS while not increasing the risk of losing access to data?

A -- Yes there are solutions to these problems. First, both the Graham Utilities and Gammatech Utilities (and possibly others) include HPFS defragmentation utilities. (They also contain a LOT of other great features.)

Second, you can make OS/2 boot diskettes as easily as creating them for DOS. Granted they take more space -- the "Create Utility Disks" program in the System Setup folder makes three floppies for Warp 3 and 4 for Warp 4 (some of these disks contain only tools like FDISK, FORMAT, etc.) -- but you can boot from them and have access to your HPFS disks.

Also, there is a utility called BOOTOS2 which has a few useful options. One of them is the ability to set up a small boot partition on a hard drive with minimal files so that if something goes wrong with your main OS/2 partition, you can boot to this "emergency drive" and have access to all the other HPFS and FAT partitions on your system. BOOTOS2 also has an option to make a set of boot disks that requires just two floppies (this does not yet work for Warp 4). A beta version of BOOTOS2 supporting Warp 4 has been announced.

- OS/2 e-Zine! Staff

Q -- I have non-fixpack OS/2 Warp. Recently, I purchased a Sound Blaster AWE32 PnP card. I have downloaded the newest drivers from Creative Labs and everything works great except one thing. Whenever I play a MIDI file, it comes out sounding like the old FM synthesis card instead of wavetable. I can go into the AWE32 Control Panel, select General MIDI and apply this while a song is playing and it comes out in wavetable synthesis. However, if I stop the song, load a new one in, etc., it goes back to playing the old FM synthesis. I have gone into the Multimedia Setup folder and changed the MIDI from Sound Blaster to General MIDI, but it doesn't help. Any ideas?

A --One possibility is, if you had a sound card installed before the AWE32, to get everything to work out right with the Sound Blaster install, you need to perform the following in order (or at least I did).

  1. Delete all of the .INI files in the X:\MMOS2 directory.

  2. Place your Warp CD in your CD-ROM and hit "Selective Install" (OS/2 System -> System Setup -> Selective Install).

  3. Deselect whichever sound card was there and select the Sound Blaster AWE32. Choose whichever settings you want or need.

  4. Shutdown and reboot.

  5. Only now do you want to install the AWEOS2.EXE file that you downloaded from Creative Labs. Follow the readme's instructions.
That should be all you will need.
- Brian L. Juergensmeyer

Tip -- Here's a simple way to make a rudimentary "trash can" for your Desktop.

First, create a normal folder on the Desktop by dragging and dropping a folder template. Next grab a "trash can" icon from somewhere (there are many available in collections at anonymous FTP sites) and make it the default icon for the folder. Don't forget to make a corresponding "bulged trash can" icon the default for the open folder. Name the folder "Trash". Put the folder somewhere like F:\ (or anywhere you like except the Desktop) and drag a shadow of it to your OS/2 Desktop.

Now you can drag files to this folder instead of the shredder to safeguard against deleting files you really need. You can periodically open the folder, highlight everything in it (Ctrl-/) and delete the files with the pop-up menu item or drag them to the shredder when you're sure you don't need them anymore.

This solution lacks the elegance of "real" shareware Trash Cans, but it's free!

- OS/2 e-Zine! Staff

That's it for this month. If you have a tip or question that you don't see covered here, don't forget to send it in!

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