CSG Q&A, Windows

Department of Computing	Imperial College
Q&A on Windows

A number of basic questions are covered in the Introduction to Windows.

My workstation won't boot, it says "NTLDR is missing"?
My workstation takes a long time to boot up sometimes?
Printing is slow.
My workstation keeps saying that disk space is full.
How do I install CD writing software?
Can I get my bookmarks from the old browser I used?
How do I get Word to produce a PostScript file?
How to convert Word documents to PDF?
How can I open .ps.gz files?
How do I download free software from the ICT shop?
How can I minimise all windows at once?
I am having trouble adding path variables.
Printers and options like stapling are missing.

My workstation won't boot, it says "NTLDR is missing"?

The normal cause of this is a floppy disk in the drive. If there is one, remove it. If not... then the machine will probably need to be rebuilt.

My workstation takes a long time to boot up sometimes?

If we have packaged new software to be installed this happens on bootup. If you haven't rebooted your workstation for a while there may be several new packages to install and they could be quite large and therefore take some time to install.

Printing is slow.

The time taken to print is because Windows is trying to call functions on the print server that don't exist - Windows is expecting a genuine Windows server, and the server print is a Unix machine with Samba, which emulates much of the functionality of a Windows print server, but not all.

My workstation keeps saying that disk space is full.

You appear to be below profile quota now, so either you've worked it out, or some program you were using has cleared up some temporary working files it was using.

This happens because your profile goes above 30MB usage. Common causes are files on the desktop, or in "my documents", (move these to H:), or your Mozilla cache. Mozilla should be told not to keep a disk cache:

Edit -> preferences -> advanced -> cache -> Disk Cache

set to 0 KB and click "clear disk cache".

How do I install CD writing software?

If you have a CDRW in your CSG supported desktop workstation we can do that for you on request. If it isn't one of our supported machines (your home workstation, for instance), I'm afraid we can't help you.

Can I get my bookmarks from the old browser I used?

Most browsers have an "Import bookmarks" option.

For example, in Mozilla, go to:

Bookmarks -> Manage bookmarks -> File -> Import bookmarks

This should open a window with a box marked "Look in" at the top.

Click on the arrow at the right and select your H: drive. You then need to look around on the H: drive to find where your old browser's settings files are. If you used Netscape on Windows NT4 before you would probably need to look in a folder called "WindowsNT". If you can't find that try your '.windows' folder. Somewhere there should be a "Netscape" folder.

Open 'bookmark.htm'

That should open some netscape bookmarks.

How do I get Word to produce a PostScript file?

Select File -> Print and choose the printer called postscript. This is a print driver not a real printer and when you 'print' to it, it will pop up a box asking for a location and file name to save the file to. You'll find that Windows will add .prn to the file name so you might want to rename it afterwards.

This driver is a straight passthrough to the PostScript engine built into Windows, which is licenced from Adobe and produces clean PostScript files, which work correctly in Ghostscript et al.

29/09/05

How to convert Word documents to PDF?

Microsoft Word on one of the Macs in the lab is your best bet. They output very nice PDF.

06/01/04

How can I open .ps.gz files?

GSView will open .ps.gz files directly. Start GSView:

Start -> Programs -> Viewers -> GS Tools -> GS View 2.9

select Open (File -> Open), select your .ps.gz file in the dialog, and click "open".

How do I download free software from the ICT shop?

Downloading free software from the college shop requires authentication against the main college Windows domain. When the dialog box appears, it should have three fields. Username and password should be filled in with your normal username and college password (which should be different from your DoC password). In the domain field, enter ic.

If you access the server via the Start -> Run... box on your workstation be sure to enter the full name of the server. For example:

\\icss1.cc.ic.ac.uk

then in the username box precede your college username with IC\ and enter your college password (which should be different from your DoC password).

How can I minimise all windows at once?

If you wish to get access to the desktop (ie minimise all windows) there is a windows shortcut which you can use. Press the windows key (the one between Ctrl and Alt) and the d key together.

If you use it a second time it will return all the minimised windows back to their previous state (assuming you have not opened any other windows).

I am having trouble adding path variables.

It could be that you've hit the maximum length permitted for the path. The path environment variable can only be a certain length (1023 chars IIRC). If this is the case you must remove some of the entries you no longer need from the path, thus giving yourself some space to add the new entries.

30/08/05

Printers and options like stapling are missing.

On a CSG installed machine, running the printer maintenance script:

perl \\win\dfs\admin\maint\printers\install.pl

will fix missing options like stapling, as well as missing core printers. You'll need admin privs to run the script by hand. It also runs when the machine boots, so rebooting the machine should also fix problems with printers not being configured properly or not being installed. If you run it, and the printer you are after isn't installed, try it with the --installall option, like this:

perl \\win\dfs\admin\maint\printers\install.pl --installall

This will install every printer, not just the commonly used ones. This includes a lot of printers you may not have access to, so will probably need thinning out to remove the ones you don't use. Any printer that isn't deleted will be automatically maintained by the script, even if it is not part of the default set.

To staple, you need to select the printer, click "properties", go to "finishing", change the drop-down list of finishing options from "collate" to "staple and collate", then click "staple position" and set where you wish the job to be stapled (the options are: top corner, left hand side, bottom corner).

(If you were looking at the "staple position" button and wondering why it is greyed out, that's because you need to pick "Staple and Collate" before it becomes live).

26/01/06