Prep an Old PC for a New Home

Lincoln Spector

I recently purchased a new computer and would like to give away my old machine. How should I prepare the old PC for use by its new owners?

Victoria Bernhardt, Brewster, New York

First you need to transfer your data files from the old computer to the new one. You can use a CD-RW, a Zip drive, a network, or a simple cable connection. You'll want to transfer all the files now in C:\My Documents and C:\Windows\Application Data. If you or your applications also store files somewhere else, find out where the files are (using Windows' Find/Search feature if necessary) and copy those as well.

Next, destroy any sensitive files that you do not want the new owners to see. Simply deleting such files won't do, because a deleted file can be recovered--even from a reformatted drive.

You may already have a program that can overwrite data so it can't be recovered. Norton Utilities, for instance, comes with an application called WipeInfo, which will securely delete a file or folder, or the "deleted" data in the free space of your drive.

If you lack such a program, download the free version of Ontrack's wonderful PowerDesk file manager, which you'll find at our Downloads library and at the vendor's site. PowerDesk lets you permanently erase a file or folder by selecting File, Destroy.

Once you've destroyed your sensitive files, reformat the hard drive and reinstall your operating system. Windows tends to collect bugs and incompatibilities that can make it unstable after just a few short months of use. This will let the new owners start off with a clean slate.

To reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows 98/Me, follow the instructions on the restoration CD your hardware vendor supplied.

The process is more complicated when you use a Windows CD-ROM, however. First, you have to create a Windows start-up disk on your new PC. Next, select Start, Settings, Control Panel, double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon, choose the Startup Disk tab, then click the Create Disk button and follow the prompts. Put the start-up disk in your old PC's floppy drive and your Windows CD in the old system's CD-ROM drive, then reboot. You'll get a simple text menu. Select the option Start computer with CD-ROM Support.

That sequence will eventually bring you to an A> DOS prompt. To ensure access to the CD-ROM drive, type dir x:, where x is the letter after the one you normally use for that drive. For instance, if the CD-ROM drive is D:, type dir e:. If you get a list of folders and files that includes setup.exe, you're ready for the next step. (If you don't see the list, try re-creating the Startup disk, perhaps on the old PC.)

Type a: if you're not at the A> prompt again, and enter format c:. When asked if you're sure, press y, then Enter. The next time you're at the A> prompt, type x:setup ( x is the drive letter you entered above). Press Enter and follow the prompts.

Reload any programs that came with the PC, including Windows and hardware drivers, and reload any upgrades to these programs. Most software you purchased separately can be reloaded onto the old PC or added to the new one, but check your licensing agreements first. Note that it is almost always illegal to put the software on both the old and the new machine.

Maintenance at Shutdown

I want to run my disk defragmenter and my antivirus utilities along with other maintenance programs at the time that I shut my computer down. Do you know of any way for me to create a shortcut that will run these maintenance programs and then exit Windows?

Andrew Hobbs, Raleigh, North Carolina

The best tool for this is Moon in June Software's Exits95 freeware, which you'll find at the author's Web site and at our Downloads library. Don't worry about the name; Exits95 runs just fine with Windows 98 and Me, though not with NT or 2000.

Installing Exits95 is a bit unusual. After unzipping the files and saving them to a folder, right-click the file named exits95.inf, select Install, and follow the prompts from there. To make Exits95 run programs before shutting down, right-click the program's icon in your system tray and select Options, Run before Exit. The resulting dialog box, which lets you select four programs to run in sequential order, is pretty easy to figure out (see FIGURE 1).

To prevent an accidental shutdown, right-click the system tray icon and select Toggles, Confirm Exit. To remove Exits95 from your system tray, right-click the icon and select Options, Create Shortcut. Enter the location where you want the shortcut to appear, and click OK twice. Right-click the icon one more time and select Change Settings. Select Save current settings to the registry, uncheck Enable auto-run from registry at startup, and click OK twice.

Now when you click the Exits95 icon, it will run your maintenance programs, then shut the PC down. To load Exits95 so you can change your settings, select Start, Run, type exits95.exe, and press Enter.

Make Autostart CDs

When I put a disc into my CD-ROM drive, it launches a program automatically. I'd like to have this happen when I insert CD-Rs that I create myself. Is there any way for me to accomplish this?

Deepak Mansukhani, North Bergen, New Jersey

It's much easier than you might think. You just have to add a text file named autorun.inf to the CD's root directory. You can create autorun.inf in Notepad, another text editor, or any other program that can create plain ASCII text.

The first line of the file contains only the text [autorun]. The text you enter after that depends on what you want the CD to do. If you want it to run a program, type open=. If you want Windows Explorer to open to the disc automatically, your file should read

[autorun]

open=explorer.exe /n,/e,.

Yes, as strange as it may seem, that last line ends with a comma, then a period. And don't forget to type a space before the first slash. The n in the second line of text indicates to Explorer that it should open in a new window, while the e tells Explorer to open in expanded view, which shows your folders in the left pane.

Microsoft offers a list of all the commands that you can use in this file.

Windows Me and.Zip

Windows Me's help files say the program can read, write, and create.zip files, but I can't get this to work. Can you tell me how to find this feature?

Mike Ouyang, Los Angeles

Windows Me adds.zip file support, which the operating system should have had all along. Microsoft calls the feature Compressed Folders, which people aren't likely to associate with.zip files. Microsoft also omitted Compressed Folders from the default Windows Me installation.

If you want Windows Me to use Compressed Folders to access.zip files, select Start, Settings, Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs, click the Windows Setup tab, scroll down the Components list, and double-click System Tools. Then check Compressed Folders, click OK twice, and follow the prompts.

With Compressed Folders installed,.zip files will appear in Windows Explorer as folders with zippers. You can add, move, and delete the files inside just as with regular folders, but files launched within a 'compressed folder' go to C:\Windows\Temp when saved. To create a.zip file, right-click a blank spot in Windows Explorer and select New, Compressed Folder.

A Better Office Toolbar

The Shortcut Bar that comes with Microsoft Office 97 and 2000 is a convenient way to launch Office applications, record appointments, and start other tasks. For many people, however, the Shortcut Bar is simply a waste of Windows resources and screen real estate.

Dave Meekins of Los Angeles describes two tricks for tapping the advantages of the Office Shortcut Bar without wasting space. The first trick is best if you use only a few of the Shortcut Bar's icons. Open the folder containing your Shortcut Bar icons--it will probably be C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Shortcut Bar\Office. Then drag the shortcuts that you regularly use to the taskbar's Quick Launch toolbar.

For easy access to all the Shortcut Bar's icons, right-click the taskbar and select Toolbars, New Toolbar. In the New Toolbar dialog box, navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Shortcut Bar\Office (or whichever folder the icons are in), and click OK. This creates a toolbar on your taskbar.

To regain screen space lost to the toolbar, drag its left edge until nothing is visible except its title (Office) and the button with the chevron--the greater-than symbol (see FIGURE 2). You can click the chevron for a pop-up menu of everything in the Shortcut Bar.

Now that you don't need the Shortcut Bar, you can remove it by double-clicking the colorful box in its upper-left corner. In the resulting dialog box, click No.

Easier DUN Backup

In March 2001's Answer Line, I suggested that you use the Registry to back up and restore your dial-up networking settings. Guy Simmons of Ilford, Essex, England, offers a solution that's so much easier I'm kind of embarrassed that I didn't think of it myself. Just open My Computer and double-click Dial-Up Networking. Then drag one or more of the connection icons to a floppy disk. To restore the settings to another computer, simply open the floppy disk on that machine and double-click the icon.

Send questions to answer@pcworld.com. We pay $50 for published items. You'll find Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector's humorous writing at The Link Inspector.