Make Windows HeelMake Windows Heel

The Online Services folder contains shortcuts that launch the software installation and sign-up process for several online services or ISPs, including America Online, AT&T, CompuServe, Microsoft Network and Prodigy Internet. Under Win95, this folder size ranges anywhere from 15MB to 40MB. This time around, the folder, whose location is \PROGRAM FILES\ONLINE SERVICES, uses 1.5MB or less on a FAT32 hard disk (depending on the state of Win95 before you upgraded). And because it's a setup option, you can remove it from the Windows Setup tab in Add/Remove Programs. The option on the Windows Setup screen is Online Services; if you click on the Details button you'll see you can selectively add or delete online services. Our recommendation: Remove them all. If you get a hankering to join one of these services later on, just surf over to the company's Web site.

The My Documents icon looks like a folder, but it's really a useful Desktop shortcut to the C:\MY DOCUMENTS folder. The only thing you might want to do is make it point to some other folder instead.

To do so, right-click on the icon and choose Properties from the Context menu, then click on Find Target and select a folder. Now open your C: drive and delete the My Documents folder. If you just want to change the name of My Documents, first rename the folder on your C: drive to an eight-character name (so DOS can recognize it), then rename the Desktop folder labeled My Documents. The new name can be as long as you like, but make it something easy to remember.

As long as you're renaming things, consider renaming My Computer to something more relevant to your specific PC, such as your workstation name. This way, it's easy to know which version (user profile) of Windows you're looking at in multi-boot or multi-user environments. And Network Neighborhood is just too long for the Desktop. Network is far shorter and far less cutesy.

As for the Internet Explorer icon, you might want to keep it just for the convenience of right-clicking on it and choosing Properties to open the Internet Properties sheet quickly. But if you never use IE and you don't frequent the Internet settings dialog, right-click on the icon and choose Delete from the Context menu.

© 1998 Windows Magazine
September 1998, Page 145.

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