Save time, solve problems, and have more fun with Windows XP using these tried-and-true tips.

Keyboard Short cuts:

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APPLIES TO

•	Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
•	Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition
•	Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition
•	Microsoft Windows 95

 

Simplify using your mouse: change double-click to single-click

When you browse the Web with Microsoft Internet Explorer, links open with a single click. Yet, when you browse My Computer or My Documents, a single click lets you select a file or folder, but you have to double-click to open it.

If you'd rather single-click to open files and folders, you can change the setting on your mouse (don't worry, this process doesn't require any double clicks).

To change the settings on your mouse

1.	Click Start, and then click My Computer.
2.	Click Tools, and then click Folder Options.
3.	Click Single-click to open an item. Then, click OK.

Now you can navigate folders and open files with a single rather than a double click. If you need to select a file, simply hold your mouse over the file for a few seconds without clicking.

Change Out Your Pointer Scheme

Tired of seeing your pointer as an arrow or an hourglass all the time? Windows XP offers a number of alternative pointer schemes, such as Dinosaur, Ocean and Sports.
Open the Control Panel, double-click Mouse, and select the Pointers tab. (If you start in Category view, select Appearance and Themes, then click Mouse Pointers under "See Also.") Next to Schemes, click the down arrow and select a scheme to preview its pointers. Click OK to apply the scheme to your desktop. Simple as that.

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Check Out the Read1st File First

When you’re ready to install Windows XP, what are the first two things you should do? First, place the installation CD into your CD drive, but do not start Setup. Instead, click Browse this CD, open the file named READ1ST.txt, and then go read it. This file contains a variety of useful information including:

• Last minute information that did not make it into other documentation.
• Selected pre-installation information.
• A roadmap that will help you find other useful text files.

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Use the ultimate configuration tool (Professional Edition only)

One of the most full featured Windows XP configuration tools available is hidden right there in your system, but most people don't even know it exists. It's called the Local Group Policy Editor, or gpedit for short. To invoke this editor, select Start and then Run, then type the following:
gpedit.msc
After you hit ENTER, you'll be greeted by gpedit, which lets you modify virtually every feature in Windows XP without having to resort to regedit.

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Want to remove MSN Messenger?

A lot of people want to know how to remove the MSN Messenger service from XP... here's how:
Locate SYSOC.INF in the WindowsINF folder (hidden file and folder), Open it in Notepad and locate the line: msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
Remove the word "hide" from the line and save the file. You will now have an entry in add/remove programs. Do what you will
OR (XP Pro Only) leave it installed, but tell Windows to never let it run. If you're running XP Professional, you can use GPEDIT.MSC to prevent Messenger from loading. Otherwise, even disabling it in startup won't cause it to "always" not run. NOTE: Outlook, Outlook Express and some Microsoft web pages can still make it load.

 

Internet Connection Sharing

To enable Internet Connection Sharing on a network connection:

1. Open Network Connections.
2. Click the dial-up, local area network, PPPoE, or VPN connection you want to share, and then, under Network Tasks, click Change settings of this connection.
3. On the Advanced tab, select the Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection check box.
4. If you want this connection to dial automatically when another computer on your home or small office network attempts to access external resources, select the Establish a dial-up connection whenever a computer on my network attempts to access the Internet check box.
5. If you want other network users to enable or disable the shared Internet connection, select the Allow other network users to control or disable the shared Internet connection check box.
6. Under Internet Connection Sharing, in Home networking connection, select any adapter that connects the computer sharing its Internet connection to the other computers on your network.

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Watch your cookies

In XP, the Documents And Settings folder holds all user information, including configuration settings, favorites, and cookies. The Documents And SettingsUsernameCookies folder is where XP stashes cookies. How do you control the number of cookies you allow on your system? Click Start > Control Panel > Network And Internet Connections > Internet Options. Click the Privacy tab, then use the slider bar to modify your cookie settings. For instance, you can block cookies from sites that use personal identification without your consent. To increase your security, try out the other privacy settings in this dialog. The lowest level is Accept All Cookies while the highest is Block All Cookies, with low, medium, medium-high, and high settings in between. (An explanation of each appears as you move between settings.) Keep in mind that rejecting cookies may limit your actions on some Web sites, and some sites use cookies to track how many times you see a popup, for example, on this website, if you blocked cookies, you would see a popup on every page.

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The omnipotent Administrator

When you use Windows XP, you belong to one of two groups: Administrators or Users. Administrators are all-powerful: if you have a so-called Admin account, you can make systemwide changes and change other users' accounts. While this power is a boon to the ego, it's also dangerous. If, for example, you encounter a virus, a Trojan horse, or a worm while you're logged on as Administrator, you could wreck all the accounts on your entire system. Log in as User, on the other hand, and any damage you cause will be less extensive, because ordinary users are prevented from making systemwide changes. A word to the wise: Do your everyday computing as a regular user and log on as Administrator only when it's absolutely necessary, such as when adding a new user or changing security settings. To sign on as User, use the Run As command: just right-click a shortcut and select Run As. As long as you know the username and password, you can sign on as another user.

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Reduce Temporary Internet File Space

The temporary internet files clutter your hard drive with copies of each page visited. These can build up over time and take up disk space. Even more bothersome is that instead of getting new pages each time IE often takes the page out the temp internet files. This can be a problem if you are viewing a website that is updated all the time. If you are on a slow connection such as a 56K or lower then this can be good but if you are on a fast broadband connection, like me, then you can get away with decreasing the size of your temp internet files to just one meg without any performance decrease.

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Launch Internet Explorer.

Select the Tools from the menu bar. Then select Internet Options... from the drop down menu. Once the internet options has loaded click on the general tab. Under the temporary internet files section click the settings button. A settings window will load. Slide the slider all the way to the left so the size indicated in the text box on the right is one. Click OK Click Ok

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Turn Off System Recovery

Right click on My Computer and choose Properties. Click on the System Restore tab and check the box Turn off System Restore. (This will increase Windows performance & save disk space)

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Enable / Disable Firewall

Open Control Panel and double click on Network Connections. In the new box that appears right click on the Connection and click on the Advanced tab. Check or uncheck the box according to your desire.

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Win XP Won’t Completely Shutdown

• Goto Control Panel, then goto Power Options.
• Click on the APM Tab, then check the "Enable Advanced Power Management support."
• Shut down your PC. It should now successfully complete the Shut Down process.

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WinXP Clear Page file on shutdown

Go to Control panel Administrative tools, local security policy. then goto local policies ---> security options. Then change the option for "Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile"

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Turn off hibernation

Control Panel-Screen Saver Power-Hibernate Tab-uncheck hibernation box-reboot and hiberfil.sys is no more.

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Adjust various visual effects

1. Open up the control panel
2. Go under system and click on the advanced tab
3. Click settings under Performance options
4. You can now change various graphical effects (mainly animations and shadows)

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Disable error reporting

• Open Control Panel
• Click on Performance and Maintenance.
• Click on System.
• Then click on the Advanced tab
• Click on the error-reporting button on the bottom of the windows.
• Select Disable error reporting.
• Click OK
• Click OK

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Close Multiple Windows : Note works in all versions of Windows

If you just opened a number of separate, related windows (a folder inside a folder, and so on), there's an easier way to close them all than one-at-a-time. Hold down the Shift key as you click the X caption button in the upper-right corner of the last window opened. Doing so closes that window and all windows that came before it.

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Remove shortcut arrow from desktop icons

Here's how you can remove those shortcut arrows from your desktop icons in Windows XP.

1. Start regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTlnkfile
3. Delete the IsShortcut registry value.

You may need to restart Windows XP.

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Remove Shared Documents

Open Regedit(Start- Run- Regedit) and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Explorer My Computer NameSpace DelegateFolders There will see a sub-key named {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}. By Deleting this you can remove the 'Other Files stored on This Computer' group.

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Change the text in Internet Explorers title bar to anything you want

In regedit navigate to this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMain
change the value of the string "Window Title" to whatever you want on the title bar of Internet Explorer - to have no title except the title of the web pages you are browsing do not enter anything for a value.

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Easy sendto menu modification

first open - X:Documents and SettingsusernameSendTo (it is hidden) where X is your drive letter and username is your username make and delete shortcuts to folders at will

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Enable Clear Type

Easy way- Click on or cut and paste link below: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/cleartypeactivate.htm?fname=%20&fsize= or

• Right click on a blank area of the Desktop and choose Properties
• Click on the Appearance Tab; Click effects
• Check the box: Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts
• In the drop down box select: Clear Type

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Turn of CD Auto Play

• Open My Computer
• Right click on your CD ROM and choose Properties
• Click on the Auto Play tab
• In the drop down box you can choose the Action for each choice shown in the drop down box

Or

1. Go to Start->Run->gpedit.msc
2. Computer Config -> Administrative Template -> System
3. Double click Turn off Autoplay
4. Enable it.

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Getting MP3 ripping to work in Windows Media Player 8 in XP

Enter the following in the registry : [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE
MicrosoftMediaPlayerSettingsMP3Encoding] "LowRate"=dword:0000dac0 "MediumRate"=dword:0000fa00 "MediumHighRate"=dword:0001f400 "HighRate"=dword:0002ee00 This corresponds to 56, 64, 128 and 192 Kbps. You can change this to your liking using the following dword hex values : 320 Kbps = dword:0004e200 256 Kbps = dword:0003e800 224 Kbps = dword:00036b00 192 Kbps = dword:0002ee00 160 Kbps = dword:00027100 128 Kbps = dword:0001f400 112 Kbps = dword:0001b580 64 Kbps = dword:0000fa00 56 Kbps = dword:0000dac0

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Increase BROADBAND

This is for broad band connections. I didn’t try it on dial up but might work for dial up.

1. make sure your logged on as actually "Administrator". do not log on with any account that just has administrator privileges.
2. start - run - type gpedit.msc
3. expand the "local computer policy" branch
4. expand the "administrative templates" branch
5. expand the "network branch"
6. Highlight the "QoS Packet Scheduler" in left window
7. in right window double click the "limit reservable bandwidth" setting
8. on setting tab check the "enabled" item
9. where it says "Bandwidth limit %" change it to read 0

Effect is immediate on some systems, some need to re-boot. This is more of a "counter what XP does" thing. In other words, programs can request up to 20% of the bandwidth be reserved for them, even with QoS disabled, this is no big deal and most programs do not request it. So, although QOS has caused a big stink because people think it reserves 20% of their bandwidth, you can still disable it, just to be sure, hehe.

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Increase your cable modem or DSL speed in XP

This tweak is for broad band cable connections on stand alone machines with winXP professional version - might work on Home version also. It will probably work with networked machines as well but I haven't tried it in that configuration. This is for windows XP only, it does not work on win2000.
I use 3 Com cards so I don't know how it works on others at this point. It does not involve editing the registry. This tweak assumes that you have let winXP create a connection on install for your cable modem/NIC combination and that your connection has tcp/ip - QoS - file and print sharing - and client for microsoft networks , only, installed. It also assumes that winxp will detect your NIC and has in-box drivers for it. If it doesn't do not try this.
In the "My Network Places" properties (right click on the desktop icon and choose properties), highlight the connection then at the menu bar choose "Advanced" then "Advanced Settings". Uncheck the two boxes in the lower half for the bindings for File and Printer sharing and Client for MS networks. Click OK

1. From the windows XP cd in the support directory from the support cab, extract the file netcap.exe and place it in a directory on your hard drive or even in the root of your C: drive.
2. next, open up a command prompt window and change directories to where you put netcap.exe. then type "netcap/?". It will list some commands that are available for netcap and a netmon driver will be installed. At the bottom you will see your adapters. You should see two of them if using a 3Com card. One will be for LAN and the other will be for WAN something or other.
3. Next type "netcap/Remove". This will remove the netmon driver.
4. Open up control panel / system / dev man and look at your network adapters. You should now see two of them and one will have a yellow ! on it. Right click on the one without the yellow ! and choose uninstall. YES! you are uninstalling your network adapter, continue with the uninstall. Do not restart yet.
5. Check your connection properties to make sure that no connection exists. If you get a wizard just cancel out of it.
6. Now re-start the machine.
7. After re-start go to your connection properties again and you should have a new connection called "Local area connection 2". highlight the connection then at the menu bar choose "Advanced" then "Advanced Settings". Uncheck the two boxes in the lower half for the bindings for File and Printer sharing and Client for MS networks. Click OK.
8. Choose connection properties and uncheck the "QOS" box
9. Re-start the machine
10. after restart enjoy the increased responsivness of IE, faster page loading, and a connection speed boost.

Why it works, it seems that windows XP, in its zeal to make sure every base is covered installs two seperate versions of the NIC card. One you do not normally see in any properties. Remember the "netcap/?" command above showing two different adapters? The LAN one is the one you see. The invisible one loads everything down and its like your running two separate cards together, sharing a connection among two cards, this method breaks this "bond" and allows the NIC to run un-hindered.

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Use a Shortcut to Local Area Network Connection Information

Something new in Windows XP, instead of using the command line program and typing ipconfig to find local area network information, you can use the following shortcut:

• Click Start, point to Connect to, and then click Show All Connections.
• Right–click the connection you want information about, and then click Status.
• In the connection Properties dialog box, click the Support tab.
• For even more information, click the Advanced tab.

To automatically enable the status monitor each time the connection is active, in the connection Properties dialog box, select the Show icon in taskbar notification area when connected check box.

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Change the Start Menu Style

Does the new Windows XP Start menu take up too much space on your desktop? You can easily change the look back to the Windows Classic Start menu by following these steps:

• Right–click the Start button, and then click Properties.
• Click Classic Start menu.
• Click the Customize button to select items to display on the Start menu.

By default, selecting the Classic Start menu also adds the My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, and Internet Explorer icons to your desktop.

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Add a Map Drive Button to the Toolbar

Do you want to quickly map a drive, but can’t find the toolbar button? If you map drives often, use one of these options to add a Map Drive button to the folder toolbar.

1. Option One (Long Term Fix)
   • Click Start, click My Computer, right-click the toolbar, then unlock the toolbars, if necessary.
   • Right-click the toolbar again, and then click Customize.
   • Under Available toolbar buttons, locate Map Drive, and drag it into the position you want on the right under Current toolbar buttons.
   • Click Close, click OK, and then click OK again.
   You now have drive mapping buttons on your toolbar, so you can map drives from any folder window. To unmap drives, follow the above procedure, selecting Disconnect under Available toolbar buttons. To quickly map a drive, try this option.
2. Option Two (Quick Fix)
   • Click Start, and right-click My Computer.
   • Click Map Network Drive.

If you place your My Computer icon directly on the desktop, you can make this move in only two clicks!

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Do Not Highlight Newly Installed Programs

Tired of that annoying little window that pops up to tell you that new software is installed? If it gets in the way when you’re logging off, turn it off completely.

• To do this Click Start, right-click at the top of the Start menu where your name is displayed, and then click Properties.
• In the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box, on the Start Menu tab, click Customize.
• Click the Advanced tab, and then clear the Highlight newly installed programs check box.
• Click OK, and then click OK again.

Now that message won’t be popping up when you least want to see it.

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Speed up the Start Menu

You can use this tip to speed up the Start Menu in Windows XP release candidate 1. You can customize the speed of the Start Menu by editing a Registry Key.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type Regedit in the box, and then click OK.
3. Expand the menu in the left panel and select the HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop folder.
4. Scroll down in the right panel and double click on the MenuShowDelay file.
5. In the Value Data box, change to default value for the menu speed from 400 to a lesser number, such as 1.
6. Click OK.

Caution: Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on your computer.

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Use the Windows Classic Look

More comfortable performing a task with the familiar Windows Classic user interface? You can quickly switch the user interface to the familiar Windows Classic appearance on your computer if it helps you remember a task in your operating system or program. You can go back to the original Windows look with a couple clicks.

• Right-click on your desktop, and then click Properties.
• Click the Appearance tab.
• On the Windows and Buttons menu, select Windows Classic. Click OK.

There you go, now you can feel right at home with the old look, and you'll still get the best out of Windows XP, new look or old.

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Add Familiar Icons back to your desktop

It’s the case of the missing icons. Many of you may be wondering where all the icons from your desktop are in Windows XP? Well if you're like me, you like to have at least My Computer, My Network Places, and My Documents on the desktop.
To do this:

• Right-click on the desktop, and then click Properties.
• Click the Desktop tab and then click on Customize Desktop.
• Put a check mark in the box next to My Document, My Computer, My Network Places, or Internet Explorer, to add those familiar icons to your desktop.

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Unlock Toolbars to Customize Them

Windows XP now features locking toolbars, and you can adjust them. You can customize a lot of the Windows XP features such as the Taskbar, Start Menu, and even toolbar icons in Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. Remember your right-click:

• Right-click on a toolbar, and then click Lock the Toolbars to remove the check mark.
• Right-click on the toolbar again, and then click Customize.
• You can add and remove toolbar buttons, change text options and icon options. When you've got the toolbar customized, click Close.
• Now right-click on the toolbar and then click Lock the Toolbars to lock them in place.

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Display Your Quick Launch Toolbar

Is your Quick Launch toolbar missing from the taskbar? To display your familiar Quick Launch toolbar:

• Right-click an empty area on the taskbar, click Toolbars, and then click Quick Launch.
• Easy as that your Quick Launch bar appears. To add items to your Quick Launch toolbar, click the icon for the program you want to add, and drag it to the Quick Launch portion of the taskbar.

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Keep Your Favorite Programs Near the Top of the Start Menu

Do you have a favorite program that you frequently use? Elevate its priority on the Start menu by putting it at the top of the list. This ensures that the program will remain on the Start menu and cannot be bumped by other programs, even if you use the others more frequently. Right-click the link to your favorite program on the Start menu and select Pin to Start Menu. Your program will be moved permanently to the top part of the list, just below your browser and e-mail programs.

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Use the Address Bar to Launch Programs or Web Pages

Windows XP Professional enhanced the functionality of the Address bar to make it easier to launch your favorite programs. You can add the Address bar to the taskbar on the bottom of your desktop. Then you can launch programs simply by entering their names in the Address bar. For example, to launch Calculator, simply enter calc in the Address bar. Anything you would normally enter in the Run box on the Start menu can be entered in the Address bar. The Address bar also lets you quickly go to any Web page you specify.
To add the Address bar to the taskbar:

• Right-click an empty area on the taskbar.
• Point to Toolbars, and then click Address.
• Open the Address bar by double-clicking it.

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Stop Password Expiration

After you have run Windows XP for a while, you may receive this message when you log on: "Your password will expire in 14 days.....".
By default, Windows XP is set up with passwords which will expire after 42 days. 14 days in advance, Windows will start warning you of this fact. If you do not want your passwords to expire:

1. Go to Start > Run and in the Open: box type control userpasswords2
2. Select the Advanced tab in the User Accounts window
3. Press the Advanced button below the Advanced user management header
4. Select Users in the Local Users and Groups
5. In the right pane, right-click the user name for which you want to change the setting, and select Properties
6. On the General tab, check Password never expires
7. Click Apply and OK (all the way out)

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Safely Remove Hardware Icon?

If you have an USB device attached to your system, you will notice an icon in the Notification area, which - when clicked - will give you the option to Stop your hardware, before you unplug it.
It is possible that you never unplug this hardware. So how do you get rid of the icon? As far as I know the only way is to right-click the notification area, and selecting Properties. Under the Notification area heading, click Customize. Find the Safely Remove Hardware icon and select Always hide in the Behavior column next to it (press OK and Apply to back out).

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Multiuser features

Like Windows 2000, but unlike Windows 95, 98, and Me, the ability to log in multiple users simultaneously plays a big role in Windows XP. There is a default Administrator account set up when Windows XP is first installed, but you can create as many accounts as you need later, depending on how many people will be using the machine. Each user, once he or she has an account, can customize XP to his or her liking. Individual users get their own subfolders in the Documents And Settings folder; this folder serves as a centralized location for most personalized information, such as the Start Menu, Favorites, and Documents settings.

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Missing Administrator account

Once you have created regular user accounts, the default Administrator account vanishes from the Welcome screen, which you see when the computer starts up. Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete twice at the Welcome screen to retrieve the standard logon dialog. You can log on as Administrator from here. To switch among accounts, just click the Log Off button on the Start menu. You'll then see the Log Off Windows dialog box. Click the Switch User button, and you'll be taken to the Welcome screen where you can select and log on to other accounts.

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Show yourself

Only the Administrator can set up new user accounts (go to Control Panel > User Accounts > Create A New Account). You can select a picture to identify the account. When you're logged on to the system under your username, this picture, along with your username, peeks out at you from the top of the Start menu. There are a slew of 48x48-pixel bitmap images to choose from within XP. They're housed in D:Documents And SettingsAll UsersApplication DataMicrosoftUser Account PicturesDefault Pictures. But why limit yourself? You can also copy any graphic you want into this folder or browse for another from your hard drive. Usable file types are BMP, GIF, JPEG, or PNG. However, always use a square picture, to limit the white space on the side. Your image can be any size but will be displayed as 48x48-pixel image, so a close-up works best.

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Hide yourself

Once you've created a user account, password-protect it to keep other users from viewing your files, Favorites, and cookies. Why? You may not want your child to see the note that you're sending to his or her teacher, or you may be planning someone's surprise party. (Note: Anyone with an Administrator account can still see them.)
Worried about remembering your password? Create a hint to help you when you initially create it by following the prompts during setup. XP stores the password hints in the Registry at Hkey_local_machineSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrent VersionHints.
What if the hint doesn't help? Any user or Administrator can create a password reset disk, which you can use to log on and create a new password. Go to Control Panel > User Accounts and select "Prevent a forgotten password" in the Related Tasks box on the left. Follow the wizard's instructions. After creating the disk, find a safe place for it. Don't forget the password or where you put the disk. Someone else could use it to change your password without you knowing it.

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Not A Tweak, But A Double XP Surprise!

Neither Win2K nor WinME has the ability to create a simple, basic, DOS- based boot floppy (a "startup disk") unless you jump through hoops or do things in nonstandard ways. Because XP is the fusion of Win2K and Win9x/ME, I assumed it would follow the same "no boot floppy" tack. But instead, I was surprised to poke around in XP and see that the format option there does indeed offer a "Create MS-DOS Startup Disk."
As an experiment, I created a startup disk, and all went smoothly. I was able to use the disk to boot my PC without any problems. But when it started up, I got the second surprise. The DOS boot message showed "Microsoft Windows Millennium." To confirm this, I typed "Ver" to see what version of DOS was running, and the screen showed: Windows Millennium [Version 4.90.300]
Although it's very strange to see the WinME startup message on an XP-created floppy, all this means is that Microsoft cribbed a few essential DOS boot files from WinME, and made it so XP can drop them onto a freshly- formatted floppy for you. I'm glad they did: It's a very good thing that Microsoft restored the ability to make a simple boot disk.

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Fast Boot /Fast Resume Design

Customer research shows a frequently requested feature that users want from their PCs is fast system startup, whether from cold boot or when resuming from standby or hibernation. The Windows development team at Microsoft has taken bold steps in making fast startup PCs a reality with the Microsoft Windows XP operating system.
The design goals for Windows XP on a typical consumer PC are:

• Boot to a useable state in a total of 30 seconds
• Resume from Hibernate (S4) in a total of 20 seconds
• Resume from Standby (S3) in a total of 5 seconds

Boot and resume times are measured from the time the power switch is pressed to being able to start a program from a desktop shortcut. Click here to go to Microsoft's development center and learn how, download boot tools and read white papers on the subject.

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Display Hibernate Option on the Shut Down dialog

For some reason, Hibernate isn't available from the default Shut Down dialog. But you can enable it simply enough, by holding down the SHIFT key while the dialog is visible. Now you see it, now you don't!

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Speed up the Start Menu

The default speed of the Start Menu is pretty slow, but you can fix that by editing a Registry Key. Fire up the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER Control Panel Desktop MenuShowDelay
By default, the value is 400. Change this to a smaller value, such as 0, to speed it up.
If this doesn't work for some reason, then you might try the following: Navigate to Display Properties then Appearance then Advanced and turn off the option titled Show menu shadow. You will get much better overall performance.

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Automatically defrag drives with a new context menu item

Create a new Registry import file named context_defrag.inf in Notepad (be sure to save with it with the Save as type set to All Files and not Text Documents) and place the following text inside:
; context_defrag.INF
; Adds Defrag to the right click context menu in Windows XP
[version]
signature="$CHICAGO$"
[DefaultInstall]
AddReg=AddMe
[AddMe]
HKCR,"DriveShellDefragcommand",,,"DEFRAG.EXE %1"
Then, right-click and choose Install. This will add a context menu to XP that allows you to automatically defrag drives, using the command line version of the built-in defragmentation utility. To use it, navigate to a drive in My Computer, right-click, and choose Defrag. A command line window will appear, and that drive will be defragged. When it's complete, the window just disappears.

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Display the Sharing Tab in Folder Properties

In Windows 2000, getting to the Sharing options for a folder was simple: Just right-click, choose Properties, and you'd see a Sharing tab. In Windows XP, this feature is missing by default, but you can make the system display the Sharing tab if desired. Simply open up Folder Options (My Computer, then Tools, Folder Options) and navigate to the View tab. In the Advanced Settings section, scroll down to the bottom and uncheck Use simple file sharing (Recommended), a Mickey Mouse feature if there ever was one. Now share your folders on the LAN as you would in Windows 2000.

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My Computer Won't Shut Down Itself After Installing XP

There are a number of users who have been complaining that their PC will no longer automatically power down/shut off without pressing the power off button on the computers unlike in Windows Me/95/2000. There could be a number of reasons for this - but the main one seems to be that ACPI is not enabled on the computer or in Windows XP. Here is how to enable it:

1. Click - Start - Control Panel - Performance and Maintenance - Power Options Tab
2. Then click APM - Enable Advanced Power Management Support

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Create a Password Reset Disk

Microsoft has enhanced security features in XP including the the ability to create a floppy diskette to recover your password incase it is forgotten.

• Click Start
• Click Control Panel
• Click User Accounts
• Click on the account which you want to create a password disk
• Click Prevent a forgotten password which starts the Forgotten Password Wizard . This is found under Related Tasks
• Insert a blank, formatted disk into drive A, and click Next
• Enter the password in the Current user account password box

To use the recovery disk, at the Welcome screen

• Click the user name whose password is on the recovery disk
• Click the question mark button
• This causes the Did you forget your password message to appear.
• Click use your password reset disk
• This will start the Password Reset Wizard.

From this point, just follow the wizard's instructions and you will be able to set a new password. It is different if you are part of a domain, see next tip.

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How to Create a Password Reset Disk for computers that are part of a domain

Note that this procedure requires one blank, formatted floppy disk.
To create a password reset disk for your local user account:

1. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE. The Windows Security dialog box appears.
2. Click Change Password . The Change Password dialog box appears.
3. In the Log on to box, click the local computer. For example, click Computer (this computer) .
4. Click Backup . The Forgotten Password Wizard starts.
5. On the "Welcome to the Forgotten Password Wizard" page, click Next .
6. Insert a blank, formatted disk in drive A, and then click Next .
7. In the Current user account password box, type your password, and then click Next . The Forgotten Password Wizard creates the disk.
8. When the progress bar reaches 100 percent complete, click Next , and then click Finish . The Forgotten Password Wizard quits and you return to the Change Password dialog box.
9. Remove, and then label the password reset disk. Store the disk in a safe place.
10. In the Change Password dialog box, click Cancel .
11. In the Windows Security dialog box, click Cancel.

If you forget your password, you can log on to the computer with a new password that you create by using the Password Reset Wizard and your password reset disk.
To gain access to your local user account on a computer that is a member of a domain, or has been disconnected from a domain:

1. In the Welcome to Windows dialog box, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE.
2. In the Log On to Windows dialog box, type an incorrect password in the Password box, and then click OK .
3. In the Logon Failed dialog box that appears, click Reset . The Password Reset Wizard starts. The Password Reset Wizard lets you create a new password for your local user account.
4. On the "Welcome to the Password Reset Wizard" page, click Next .
5. Insert the password reset disk in drive A, and then click Next .
6. On the "Reset the User Account Password" page, type a new password in the Type a new password box.
7. Type the same password in the Type the password again to confirm box.
8. In the Type a new password hint box, type a hint that will help you remember the password if you forget it. NOTE : This hint is visible to anyone who attempts to log on to the computer by using your user account.
9. Click Next , and then click Finish . The Password Reset Wizard quits and you return to the Log On to Windows dialog box. The password reset disk is automatically updated with the new password information. You do not have to create a new password reset disk.
10. In the Log On to Windows dialog box, type your new password in the Password box.
11. In the Log on to box, click the local computer. For example, click Computer (this computer) , and then click OK . You are logged on to the local computer with your local account information.

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Disable Automatic Windows Update

Windows XP is configured out of the box to routinely scan for and download updates to Windows XP automatically. While this can be somewhat convenient for those with very fast Internet connections and those who would otherwise forget to check for updates, it can be a nuisance for the rest of us, who are still using 56k or, even worse 33k modem connections.
To control or disable automatic updating, open the System icon in Control Panel (or right-click My Computer and select Properties), and choose the Automatic Updating tab.
To check for updates manually, open Internet Explorer and select Windows Update from the Tools menu.

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Try automatic camera recognition in windows xp

If you have a digital camera, try this trick for downloading pictures to your machine. Don't load any of the drivers or software that comes with your digital camera. Instead--if your camera supports USB--connect your camera via a USB port. There's a good chance that Windows XP will recognize the digicam. After a few moments, the Scanner And Camera Wizard should start up and walk you through the steps involved in copying your pictures from the camera to a folder of your choice on your computer--much faster than doing it manually. You may still need to install your camera's software if it provides configuration controls you can't access in any other way, such as those for changing the picture resolution on your camera or the software's special editing functions.

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HOW TO: Use Automatic Completion with a Command Prompt in Windows XP

To Activate Automatic Completion
For example, to change to the Program Files folder, you can type cd pro control_character. Or, to display the contents of the Myfile.txt file, you can type type myf control_character. If there are multiple folders or files that match the characters you type, typing the control character again displays the next matching instance. When the correct folder or file is displayed, press ENTER to complete the command. If no folder of file matches the characters that you type, you hear a beep. You can activate or deactivate this feature for a computer, for a user, or for only the current command session.
Click here for the article from Microsoft.

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Easy CD Creator 5.0 Does Not Function In Windows XP

When you try to use Roxio Easy CD Creator 5.0, any of the following symptoms may occur:
Your computer may stop responding (hang) or may stop functioning correctly.
You may receive an error message on a blue screen. The error message may be similar to:
Stop 0x00000050: PrtSeqRd deferencing null device object
After you receive this error message, your computer restarts.
You may receive an error message that is similar to:
Createcd50.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
Click here for the article from Microsoft.

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Damaged Registry Repair and Recovery in Windows XP

When a registry hive becomes damaged, your computer may become unbootable, and you may receive one of the following Stop error messages on a blue screen:
Unexpected Shutdown
Stop:0xc0000135
Registry damage often occurs when programs with access to the registry do not cleanly remove temporary items that they store in the registry. This problem may also be caused if a program is terminated or experiences a user-mode fault.
Click here for the article from Microsoft.

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Be sure to return to Windows XP Tips soon, we are constantly finding and adding tips to our website, and hope to be adding direct downloads for drivers and other free downloads of windows xp software.

1)lock ur folder this is a different way to lock up ur folder without using any software this is not hiding ur folder but locking it..using batch file... What is batch file??? It is this file (command.com) which handles all DOS commands that you give at the DOS prompt---such as COPY, DIR, DEL etc. code... cls @ECHO OFF title Folder Locker if EXIST "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" goto UNLOCK if NOT EXIST Locker goto MDLOCKER :CONFIRM echo Are you sure u want to Lock the folder(Y/N) set/p "cho=>" if %cho%==Y goto LOCK if %cho%==y goto LOCK if %cho%==n goto END if %cho%==N goto END echo Invalid choice. goto CONFIRM :LOCK ren Locker "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" attrib +h +s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" echo Folder locked goto End :UNLOCK echo Enter password to Unlock folder set/p "pass=>" if NOT %pass%==type your password here goto FAIL attrib -h -s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" ren "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" Locker echo Folder Unlocked successfully goto End :FAIL echo Invalid password goto end :MDLOCKER md Locker echo Locker created successfully goto End :End steps to do it........ 1) Copy the give code in a note pad and save the note pad in your pc with the name name.bat (that is with the extension of .bat). you can replace the name portion with anything u want. ( In place of password in the code given type your desired password.) 2) A batch file will be created where you hav saved. Now double click on it , it will make a folder with the name locker at the same place where the batch file is save. 3) Now add the files you want to be locked in that folder. 4) Double click on the batch file. It will ask for locking the folder formed. Type y(yes). The folder will be locked and hidden. 5) To unlock,double click on batch file again and enter the password in the new window opened. 2) Change someone's windows password ♥♥♥ This hack works if you are at someone else's home and you are logged into the account of the person whose account you want to hack. This also works if you want to hack someone else's account on your pc bit do not know his/her password. Click on START-->RUN. Type compmgmt.msc & press enter. In the left pane, select COMPUTER MANAGEMENT--> SYSTEM TOOLS--> LOCAL USERS AND GROUPS--> USERS. Then in the right pane, select the user name whose account you want to hack. RIGHT CLICK and then click on SET PASSWORD from the pop-up menu. Enter the new password. Click on OK. 3) Startup parameters (go to Start/Run and type "c:Program FilesGoogleGoogle Talkgoogletalk.exe" /one_parameter_from_the_list_below) * /nomutex: allows you to open more than one instance of Google Talk. * /register: write Google Talk settings in the registry. * /checkupdate: check for new version. * /factoryreset: revert to default settings. * /mailto email@gmail.com: send an email with Gmail. * /diag: start Google Talk in diagnostic mode. 4) Increase ur RAM and so ur System Speed 1). Start any application, say Word. Open some large documents. 2). Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to open Windows Task Manager and click Processes tab and sort the list in descending order on Mem Usage. You will notice that WINWORD.EXE will be somewhere at the top, using multiple MBs of memory. 3). Now switch to Word and simply minimize it. (Don't use the Minimize All Windows option of the task bar). 4). Now go back to the Windows Task Manager and see where WINWORD.EXE is listed. Most probably you will not find it at the top. You will typically have to scroll to the bottom of the list to find Word. Now check out the amount of RAM it is using. Surprised? The memory utilization has reduced by a huge amount. 5). Minimize each application that you are currently not working on by clicking on the Minimize button & you can increase the amount of available RAM by a substantial margin. Depending upon the number and type of applications you use together, the difference can be as much as 50 percent of extra RAM. In any multitasking system, minimizing an application means that it won't be utilized by the user right now. Therefore, the OS automatically makes the application use virtual memory & keeps bare minimum amounts of the code in physical RAM. 5) go onto ur desktop Right click->Create a new folder->Rename it as: ALT + 0160 (i.e. pressing the ALT key type 0160 from ur numpad...mindwell making things clear only numpad... nothing else) The above character wud seem a space.Now press enter & then right click-> Properties->customize->change icon->next look for a blank icon and select it. thats it...u have successfully created a invisible folder. its not hidden one...so no1 can even find it.  6)u must try this one... step- 1- go to run type cmd 2- in command window type netstat -ab and follow the instructions as mentioned there.. this helps in removing trojens and many hackers which have there eyes on ur pc...... have fun..... 10)Increase ur netspeed upto 20% Xp reserves 20% bandwith, to unreserve it,follow following steps: ------------------------------------>> 1. Click Start 2. Run:"gpedit.msc" 3. Goto:>Local Computer Policy -------–>Computer Configuration -------–>Administrative Templates -------–>Network–>QOS Packet Scheduler -------–>Limit Reservable Bandwidth 4. Double click on Limit Reservable bandwidth 5. Select Enable 6. Change 20% to 0% 7. Click Apply 7)Forgot Logon password ?.....don't worry Forget password dont worry Whenever u install XP, it automatically creates a built in account called "Administrator". It has administrative priviliges. Most Windows users don't use this account since its not displayed on the welcome screen. One more thing bout dis account is that it is not password protected (until n unless u have changed the password). To access this account you have 2 start XP in Safe mode. To start XP in Safe mode: 1. Restart XP. 2. Before it starts to load, press F8 key continously. 3. A menu will appear. In that select 1st option ie. Safe Mode and press enter. 4. Next it shows all the Windows OS installed on your hard drive. Select the one of which you have forgotten the password and press enter. 5. Wait for OS to load... 6. On the welcome screen you can now see the built in Administrator account. Just log in...:) 7. If you have a classic logon then in User name field type "Administrator" and press enter... 8. Enjoy...:) Send Files to a folder in a single click Send Files to a folder in a single click suppose ders a file xyz.jpg on your desktop and you want to send this file to my documents u right click on the file and goto " send to > My documents.... now if u want tat d "send to" option to display a folder "songs"(D:songs) were u store all your songs do dis goto this folder C:Documents and SettingsAdministratorSendTo and paste d shortcut of the folder (D:songs) now ull see d folder in d send to options enjoy 9)TURN ON UR PC IN JUST 10 SECONDS TURN ON UR PC IN JUST 10 SECONDS---For Advanced Users Only Aight so u wanna know how to turn the pc on in 10 seconds (may vary)Aight heres what u have to do to turn ur pc on in 10 seconds Aite Click on the start button then press R it will take u to Run well go to run n type Regedit press enter this will open Registery Editor now look for the key HKEY_LOACAL_MECHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlContentIndex now there find the Key Called "Startup Delay" Double Click On It Now where its Base Click Decimal Now its Default Value Is 4800000 (75300:hexadecimal) Change The Value To 40000 here u go u have done it now close the Registery Editor and Restart Your Computer 10)Screen Saver Trick Screen Saver Trick well this trick is to display symbol 'om',which is a hindu religious word as screen saver- 1.on desktop right click go to properties->screen saver 2.select yr screen saver as '3d text' 3. go to settings of screen saver. 4.in 3d text settings check the custom text and write '' (without inverted commas),and click on choose font 5. choose the font as Wingdings and click ok 6. apply the settings and you are done................ 11)surprises in Windows XP I dont know if you know this but I found these out recently... (1) WIN SOLITARE Press and hold: "Alt + Shift + 2" (2) WIN FREECELL Press and hold: "Ctrl + Shift + F10" (3) PINBALL (1) To get extra balls type "1max" at the start of the new game (2) To icrease your ranking without playing type "rmax" (4) TO EDIT FONTS (1) Go to Start > Run (2) Type "eudcedit" This will open an application called "Private Character Editor" 12)Strange, but true that some good programs are hidd Programs : 1. Private Character Editor : Used for editing fonts,etc. ** start>>Run ** Now, type eudcedit 2. Dr. Watson : This an inbuilt windows repairing software ! ** start>>Run ** Now, type drwtsn32 3. Media Player 5.1 : Even if you upgrade your Media Player, you can still access your old player in case the new one fails !!! ** start>>Run ** Now, type mplay32 4. iExpress : Used to create Setups You can create your own installers ! ** start>>Run ** Now, type iexpress 13)Block a site on your PC Are you trying to block a website on your PC? You need not setup firewall filters to do this. Here is a simple trick to block the site on your system. Although many of you know this, this is for the unknown.... First of all I need to describe about the "Hosts" file It is a file located in C:WINDOWSsystem32driversetc , and it contains information about the hosts on your system... Here are the steps 1. Go to the location C:WINDOWSsystem32driversetc 2. You will find a file by name "hosts" with no extension. 3. Open that file in "Notepad" 4. Go to the bottom of the page where you could find the following line "127.0.0.1 localhost" 5. Now add another line at the bottom for ex: "127.0.0.1 http://www.xyz.com/ localhost" 6. This line will block the site http://www.xyz.com The trick behind this 127.0.0.1 is the IP address of local system the so called loop back address... Now when you enter a site the browser will first check the hosts file and then it would go for the DNS service of your ISP. Now we have added the Ip address of the xyz site as 127.0.0.1, so the browser will assume that 127.0.0.1 is the IP address of the xyz site and will connect to the local host itself and so the websites doesn't get opened... This is the basic trick to block and we can overcome it very easily..... 14) Cool Trick - SHOW YOUR PC PENTIUM 5 OR MORE SHOW YOUR PC PENTIUM 5 OR MORE GO TO START>RUN>TYPE REGEDIT>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>HARDWARE>DISCRIPTION>SYSTEM>CENTRAL PROCESSOR>ON RIGHT HAND SIDE RIGHT CLICK ON PROCESSOR NAME AND STRING AND THE CLICK ON MODIFY AND WRITE WHAT EVER YOU WANT OR NAME IT PENTIUM 5 OR MORE HEYY FRNDS DO REPLY IF U LIKE THIS TRICK 15)Guys Now get your computer to be really fast.. " All u need is a High GB Pendrive " Follow these steps :- 1. Insert the Pen Drive (1Gb atleast) in the USB port 2. Let the PC do what it wants to do to detect it.. 3. After he finished his work, you have to act smart " Here goes the real thing " 4. My Computer -> Properties 5. Advanced -> Performance Settings 6. Advanced -> Change 7. Select the Pen Drive 8. Click on Custom Size " Check the value of space available " 9. Enter the same in the Initial and the Max columns " You just used the space of the PenDrive as a Virtual Memory " 10. Now u have to release the memory from C: to make the PC faster 11. Select the C: and Click on Custom Size 12. Decrease the size to as low as u want.. Not "0" please.. 13. Restart... " VOILA !!! Your PC is fast and furious " 16) Hide ur drives How to Hide the drives(c:,d:,e:,a:...etc) How to Hide the drives(c:,d:,e:,a:...etc) This is a great trick you can play on your friends. To disable the display of local or networked drives when you click My Computer. 1.Go to start->run.Type regedit.Now go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer Now in the right pane create a new DWORD item and name it NoDrives(it is case sensitive). Now modify it's value and set it to 3FFFFFF (Hexadecimal) .Now restart your computer. So, now when you click on My Computer, no drives will be shown(all gone...). To enable display of drives in My Computer, simply delete this DWORD item that you created.Again restart your computer.You can now see all the drives again. Magic........lol.... 17)SHUTDOWN UR PC IN ONE CLICK Creating Shutdown Icon or One Click Shutdown: Navigate to your desktop. On the desktop, right-click and go to New, then to Shortcut (in other words, create a new shortcut). You should now see a pop-up window instructing you to enter a command line path. Use this path in "Type Location of the Item" SHUTDOWN -s -t 01 If the C: drive is not your local hard drive, then replace "C" with the correct letter of the hard drive. Click the "Next" button. Name the shortcut and click the "Finish" button. Now whenever you want to shut down, just click on this shortcut and you're done. 18) START A MOVIE IN PAINT Start A movie in paint! Start movie in Paint! * First start a movie in any player. * Then open Paint. * Now, in the player when the movie is being played, press "Print screen" button on your key board. * Now, Press ctrl+v in Paint * Leave the movie player open and don't minimize it. * Open Paint now and see the movie in the Paint! 19)HACK INTERNET EXPLORER & IMPRESS UR FRIENDS This is not a big trick Just for timepass Go to start->run Type regedit press enter in registry editor go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER->Software->Microsoft->Internet explorer->main there u will find something like "windows title" double click on that and change the value data with anything u want and click ok press F5 restart ur internet explorer see the title of it 20)Changing title of windows media player You can change the title bar for the Windows Media Player 1. Start Regedit  2. Go to HKEY_USERS .DEFAULT Software Policies Microsoft WindowsMediaPlayer  3. Create a string value of TitleBar  4. Give it a value of whatever you want to appear in the title bar 21)Increase your Netspeed go to desktop->My computer-(right click on)->manage->->Device manager-> now u see a window of Device manager then go to Ports->Communication Port(double click on it and Open). after open u can see a Communication Port properties. go the Port Setting:---- and now increase ur "Bits per second" to 128000. and "Flow control" change 2 Hardware. U WILL NOTICE AN IMMEDIATE RESULT this will increase the receiving capacity of your input port and thus ur netspeed will be increased 22) Crack into admin acc from limited account(99.99% works) Go to cmd type AT (time) /interactive “cmd.exe” enter time in 24hr format means if you want to enter 5.00pm then enter 17:00 then a new window of cmd will open at specified time In new window type net(space)user press enter after this u will see some names on ur screen notedown the name of admin acc then type net user (name of admin acc u want to crack into) * e.g if the name of admin acc is john then type net user john * then it will ask u for new password enter password of ur choice and u got the admin password 23)task manager has been disabled by administrator Method 1 Click Start, Run and type this command exactly as given below: (better - Copy and paste) REG add HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesSystem /v DisableTaskMgr /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f Method 2 Download and run this REG fix and double-click it. Method 3 * Click Start, Run and type Regedit.exe * Navigate to the following branch:         HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Policies System  * In the right-pane, delete the value named DisableTaskMgr * Close Regedit.exe Method 4:  Using Group Policy Editor - for Windows XP Professional  * Click Start, Run, type gpedit.msc and click OK.  * Navigate to this branch:         User Configuration / Administrative Templates / System / Ctrl+Alt+Delete Options / Remove Task Manager  * Double-click the Remove Task Manager option.  * Set the policy to Not Configured. 24)increase ur browsing speed Open up the Registry and go to : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace Under that branch, select the key : {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF} and delete it. This is key that instructs Windows to search for Scheduled Tasks. If you like you may want to export the exact branch so that you can restore the key if necessary. This fix is so effective that it doesn't require a reboot and you can almost immediately determine yourself how much it speeds up your browsing processes. 25)Net Speed Detect it is it connecting at 256K or 52 K or 32 K is enough while u cant browse faster. check ur real internet connection speed test ur nternet speed http://www.internetfrog.com/mypc/speedtest/ Increase it 26)increse ur net speed copy these lines and paste them in any text editor...now save this file as a .reg file and run it.. *********start copying********* REGEDIT4 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesTcpipParameters] "SackOpts"=dword:00000001 "TcpWindowSize"=dword:0005ae4c "Tcp1323Opts"=dword:00000003 "DefaultTTL"=dword:00000040 "EnablePMTUBHDetect"=dword:00000000 "EnablePMTUDiscovery"=dword:00000001 "GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize"=dword:0005ae4c ***************end copying************* Test it for VOIP http://www.internetfrog.com/myinternet/voip/ 27)open block site vid its ip address go to start >> run >> cmd type NSLOOKUP www.orkut.com this will provide u IP of orkut.. instead of name use this IP to surf.. or try kproxy . com 28)Who Used Your Pc In Your Absence,what Did He Do? first you should go start > run >eventvwr.msc Events are stored in three log files: Application, Security, and System. These logs can be reviewed and archived. For our purposes we want the System log. Click on "System" in the left-hand column for a list of events. Look for a date and time when you weren't home and your computer should have been off. double click on the eg: info n it will show u the detail. You can also use this log to see how long someone was on the computer. Just look at the time the computer was turned on and off for that day. Hope u all will like it. Thnks n enjoy 29)talk free from 1 rupee coin box.. Check this talk free from 1 rupee coin box.. 100% Works ! yes u can talk free from 1 rupee coin box wht u hve 2 do is first pick up the reciever dial *** then 68807 then first 7 no.s which u r calling then #" 999" this 999 is for your limit u can talk 999 min so u can only press no.s like this for eg 333 , 444, 555 do 999 it will be better then #0 then insert the coin nd dial full number nd u can talk for 999 minutes free full code ***68807 first seven no.s #999#0 imp thing ------ this only works on red 1 rupee coin box do it.. It works 100% !!! 30)Greatest Trick Ever Hey folks, do u know that windows XP is having a hidden "Star Wars Movie" inside it??? You should be connected to the NET for using this. Go to Starts-->Programs-->Run Type telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl And hit enter......... Enjoy the magic!!!! 31)The first step to increase 10 times faster ur airtel gprs Hi, This step is simple but give amazing performance. You only need to take run from start after connected mobile office. in the textbox of run type ping -t 202.56.231.117 press ok, then a command prompt will come note that it displaying reply from 202.56.231.117 minimize it and create two more windows using the same way,minimize all and start browsing.There is some problems occured when you used any speed accelerators. 32)Game secrets in xp FreeCell Secret - Instant Win Instructions - Hold down Ctrl + Shift + F10 during game play. Then you will be asked if you want to Abort, Retry or Ignore. Choose Abort, then move any card to instantly win. Secret - Hidden Game Modes Instructions - In the "Game" menu choose "Select Game". Enter -1 or -2 to activate the hidden game modes. Hearts Secret - Show All Cards Instructions - Edit this registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionAppletsHearts and create a new String value named ZB with a Data value of 42. Start Hearts and Press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + F12 to show all the cards. Background - This secret is a reference to Douglas Adams' book the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 'ZB' is the initials of the character Zaphod Beeblebrox, the Galactic President. '42' is the answer to The Ultimate Question Of Life, the Universe and Everything. Minesweeper Secret - Reveal Mines Instructions - Minimize or close all running applications. Launch Minesweeper, then type xyzzy. Next hold down either shift key for one second. Now when you move the mouse cursor over a Minesweeper square you will see a tiny white pixel in the top left corner of your desktop screen. This pixel will change to black when your mouse moves over a mine. You may need to change you desktop background to a solid color other then white or black to see the pixel. Secret - Stop Timer Instructions - Launch Minesweeper and start a game so the timer starts counting, then press the Windows Key + D to show the desktop. Now when you select minesweeper from the taskbar you can continue playing with the timer stopped. Pinball Secret - Extra Balls Instructions - Type 1max at the start of a new ball to get extra balls. Secret - Gravity Well Instructions - Type gmax at the start of a new game to activate the Gravity Well. Secret - Instant Promotion Instructions - Type rmax at the start of a new game to go up in ranks.

To change drive letters

To change drive letters (useful if you have two drives and have partitioned the boot drive, but the secondary drive shows up as "D")

Go to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management, Disk Management, then right-click the partition whose name you want to change (click in the white area just below the word "Volume") and select "change drive letter and paths."
From here you can add, remove or change drive letters and paths to the partition.

How to Convert FAT to NTFS file system

To convert a FAT partition to NTFS, perform the following steps.

Click Start, click Programs, and then click Command Prompt.

In Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type cmd and then click OK.

At the command prompt, type CONVERT [driveletter]: /FS:NTFS.

Convert.exe will attempt to convert the partition to NTFS.

NOTE: Although the chance of corruption or data loss during the conversion from FAT to NTFS is minimal, it is best to perform a full backup of the data on the drive that it is to be converted prior to executing the convert command. It is also recommended to verify the integrity of the backup before proceeding, as well as to run RDISK and update the emergency repair disk (ERD).

20 things you didn't know about Windows XP

You've read the reviews and digested the key feature enhancements and operational changes. Now it's time to delve a bit deeper and uncover some of Windows XP's secrets.

1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).

2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).

3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.

5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.

6. XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.

7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.

8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.

9. XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.

11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.

12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.

13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.

14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.

16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.

17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.

18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.

19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.

20. The next release of Windows XP, codenamed Longhorn, is due out late next year or early 2003 and won't be much to write home about.

Make your Folders Private

•Open My Computer
•Double-click the drive where Windows is installed (usually drive (C:), unless you have more than one drive on your computer).
•If the contents of the drive are hidden, under System Tasks, click Show the contents of this drive.
•Double-click the Documents and Settings folder.
•Double-click your user folder.
•Right-click any folder in your user profile, and then click Properties.
•On the Sharing tab, select the Make this folder private so that only I have access to it check box.

Note

•To open My Computer, click Start, and then click My Computer.
•This option is only available for folders included in your user profile. Folders in your user profile include My Documents and its subfolders, Desktop, Start Menu, Cookies, and Favorites. If you do not make these folders private, they are available to everyone who uses your computer.
•When you make a folder private, all of its subfolders are private as well. For example, when you make My Documents private, you also make My Music and My Pictures private. When you share a folder, you also share all of its subfolders unless you make them private.
•You cannot make your folders private if your drive is not formatted as NTFS For information about converting your drive to NTFS

Windows XP Step-by-Step Installation Instructions

These steps are for a clean install of XP. Read this article for steps on upgrading your current system to XP.

First, you're going to need to change your BIOS boot order to boot from CD-ROM. Once you do this you'll then be able to boot your computer from the Installation CD.

After changing the boot order in BIOS, save the changes, and then reboot your computer. Make sure your Installation CD is in your CD-ROM. If it is you'll be prompted to press your space bar to directly boot from CD-ROM emulation. Press your space bar as soon as you see this message.

Wait a few minutes while the installation begins to copy the preliminary setup files to your computer. After this completes you'll be ready to start directing the install process.

You will be asked if you want to perform a new installation, repair an existing installation, or quit. In this case, you will be performing a new install. Press the correct key to perform a new installation.

Read the terms of the end user license agreement, and press F8 to agree.

The next phase of the installation is real similar to that of Windows 2000. So, if you're familiar with the Windows 2000 installation process this should be a cinch.
Basically, you need to decide which partition of your hard drive you will install Windows XP on. You will have the opportunity to create and/or delete partitions or just allocate the available disk space to one partition. However, try to keep your partitions within reasonable size.

We recommend using multiple partitions of 4-8GB, preferably on more than one hard drive. This will help you back up your data and optimize system performance later on down the road. Once you have figured out which partition XP will be installed on it's time to format it.

Choose to format the partition to either FAT32 or NTFS (recommended for single OS install). You'll also see two additional choices to perform a quick format of each option. Stick with doing a full format of either option instead. After you've determined which option is right for you, press the correct key to format the partition.

This would be a good time to take a break and come back in a few minutes. The setup program will automatically start copying files after the partition is formatted.
From this point on, you're going to see each and every file name that's being copied over to your hard drive appear in the lower left corner. As the file names go from A to Z, the installation completion percentage will increase.

Choose the region and language.

Type in your name and organization.

Enter your product license key.

Name the computer, and enter an Admin password. Don't forget to write down your Administrator password. After the installation is complete it would be extremely wise to create a password restore disk in the event you forget your Administrator password someday.

Enter the correct date and time.

Choose your network settings. Leave on automatic if you use a dhcp server to assign IP addresses. If you have static IP address for broadband access, enter the settings that your ISP has provided you.

Choose workgroup or domain name.

Register this copy of Windows XP if you've installed all the current hardware on your machine. Otherwise, wait until you've finished installing any additional hardware so you don't have to activate your copy of XP again.

Add users that will sign on to this computer.

Log in, and update drivers.

Driver install

XP found drivers for all of the hardware in our test machines, with the exception of a wireless network adapter that was added. Update all drivers that had updates available for download.

It takes about 30 minutes to perform this installation. After that, you will be a few personalized settings away from getting started on your XP-experience. With a little use, the GUI even starts to grow on you.

Install Windows XP Professional - New Installation

There are three reasons why you may need to install a new copy of Windows XP:

• Your current operating system doesn’t support an upgrade to Windows XP Professional.
   
• Your current operating system supports an upgrade to Windows XP Professional, but you don’t want to keep your existing files and personalized settings.
   
• Your computer does not have an operating system.

The setup process is similar for new installations and upgrades with a few notable exceptions. For example, during a new installation, you are able to configure Special Options, convert your file system, and create a new partition for the Windows XP installation.

IMPORTANT A new installation deletes all programs or system files from a previous installation.

Special Options

Under Special Options, you have the choice to change Language, Advanced, and Accessibility settings during the setup process.

Note:  If you are in a country that has recently adopted the euro as its currency, you may have to modify the currency settings to display monetary amounts correctly.

For more information, go to Help and Support Center and type “euro” in the Search box.

Select	If you want to...
Language	Choose the primary language and regions for Windows XP, which affects the default settings for date, time, currency, numbers, character sets, and keyboard layout. Choose additional language groups and character sets to use with the programs you are running on Windows XP.
Advanced Options	Change the default location of the Setup files. Store system files in a folder other than the default (Windows) folder Copy the installation files from the CD to the hard disk.
Accessibility	Use Narrator or Magnifier during Setup.

IMPORTANT Unless you're an advanced user, it's recommended that you use the default settings.

Choosing a File System

During a new installation of Windows XP, you may have to choose which file system your computer should use. Windows XP Professional supports:

• FAT32: An enhanced version of the file allocation table (FAT) system that is standard on all Windows operating systems starting with later (32-bit) versions of Windows 95. The FAT32 system can be used on large hard disks, from 512 megabytes (MB) to 32 gigabytes (GB).
• NTFS: The NT file system (NTFS) is used with the Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP operating systems. NTFS provides enhanced reliability, stability, and security, and supports large hard disks of up to 2 terabytes (TB).

IMPORTANT You can convert your file system any time, even after you install Windows XP, without losing any of your data. The conversion to NTFS is one–way only; if you convert your FAT or FAT32 file system to NTFS you can’t convert your hard disk back to FAT later.

If you’re not sure which file system to use, keep the one your computer defaults to during Setup. If you want to change your file system, here are a few recommendations:

• Use FAT32 if your hard disk is smaller than 32 GB.
• Use FAT32 if you want to install more than one operating system on your computer.
• Use NTFS if your hard drive is larger than 32 GB and you are running only one operating system on your computer.
• Use NTFS if you want enhanced file security.
• Use NTFS if you need better disk compression.

Disk Partitions

You can create partitions to organize information—for example, to back up data—or to install more than one operating system on your computer. A hard disk can contain up to four partitions.

If you’re performing a new installation, the appropriate disk partition is selected automatically during Windows XP Setup unless you click Advanced Options and specify your own requirements

For more information about configuring, sizing, reformatting, or converting disk partitions, see your current online Help before you install or upgrade to Windows XP Professional.