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-   -   Windows XP Tips & Tricks (http://bzupages.com/f271/windows-xp-tips-tricks-321/)

.BZU. 28-03-2008 09:49 AM

Windows XP Tips & Tricks
 
Following are a collection of Windows XP Tips & Tricks
  • Delete Files Immediately
    This will allow you to delete files from your system without sending them to the recycle bin first.
    Select Start > Run? type gpedit.msc then select User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer then locate the ?Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin? setting and set it.
  • Faster Start Menu Appearance
    Ever wondered why it takes the start menu a few seconds to appear when you click on it? To speed it up, go to Start > Run? Type regedit then navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay section and change the value from 400 to 0
  • Disable Unneeded Startup Services
    Disabling these services will not only make your machine a little safer, but will speed things up a bit. To disable services, go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services and disable the following:
    • Alerter
    • Clipbook
    • Human Interface Access Devices
    • Indexing Service
    • Messenger
    • Net Logon
    • Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
    • Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
    • Remote Procedure Call Locator
    • Remote Registry
    • Routing & Remote Access
    • SSDP Discovery Service
    • TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
    • Telnet
    • Upload Manager
    • Windows Time
    • Wireless Zero Configuration
  • Turning Off The Welcome Screen
    Navigate to the Control Panel and select User Accounts then select the option that says Change the way users log on or off.
  • Speed Up Shared File Viewing across Network
    Machines have been known to have a bit of a delay when ever trying to view files shared across a network, due to the fact that Windows is taking the extra time to search and see if the networked computer has any Scheduled Tasks. To prevent Windows from searching for scheduled tasks on a remote computer click Start > Run? Type regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace and delete the key {D62277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}
  • Speed Up Shutdown Process
    Many times, the shutdown process takes a while due to the fact that Windows is trying to clear the Page File. To stop Windows from clearing the Page File on shutdown click Start > Run? type regedit navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\ClearPageFileAtShutdown and set the value to 0.
  • Add Your Own Folders To The Send To Menu
    Having your own folders in the Send To menu can be a big help. This way, when you right click on something and select Send To you can choose to send it to your very own special folder. To do this navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\username\SendTo\ and simply add your own shortcuts to what ever folders you want to appear.
  • Launch Any Program From The Run Dialog
    We?ve been running applications like regedit by going to Start > Run. Now what if we could launch any application by doing this. We can! To do so, we need to once again, go to Start > Run? and type regedit. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\App Paths and 1) Add a subkey of the file name you wish to use. For example, Photoshop.exe. Set the default value?s data to the full path of the application. For example, C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop\Photoshop.exe. 2) Create a string value named Path that contains only the path. For example, C:\Progarm Files\Adobe\Photoshop\.

.BZU. 28-03-2008 10:00 AM

Re: 8 Windows XP Tips & Tricks
 
ZIP Files as Folders:
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 alone by typing ?regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll? at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can change things back by typing ?regsvr32 zipfldr.dll?.


XP Has ClearType:
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.


Remote Assistance:
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 friend?s real IP address - they can find this out by going to WhatIsMyIP.com - 208.97.139.12 - and get them to make sure that they?ve got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.


User Task Management:
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.



Disable Default Notifications:
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 go insane 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.



Delete Temp Internet Files Automatically:
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.



Network Activity Light:
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.


Speed-Up Your Start Menu:
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.



Batch Rename Files:
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.



Album Cover Arts:
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.



Handy Shortcut Keys:
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.


Windows File Protection:
Windows XP secretly KNOWS that the average user has no idea what they are doing. Therefore, it doesn?t let you do really stupid things like deleting the windows directory (at least not without spending several hours convincing it that you REALLY want to do this).


.BZU. 22-06-2008 03:40 AM

Re: Windows XP Tips & Tricks
 
Reach Run quickly
Here's a quicker way to reach the Run dialog box, if you don't want to go through the Start menu. Just hit the Windows key + R.
Looking for a better screen font display?
Enable ClearType, Microsoft's trademark font display technology, for a drastic improvement in screen font rendering. Right-click anywhere on your desktop. Now select Properties. Under the Appearance tab, click Effects. Check the box for Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts, and in the drop-down menu, select ClearType. Press OK, and apply the change.
Change your mouse pointer scheme
Bored of the same old arrow? To change your mouse pointer scheme, in the Control Panel, select Mouse and go to the Pointers tab. Scroll through the available schemes, pick one that you like and click Apply.
Check that your Windows Firewall is turned on
To make sure your Windows Firewall hasn't been accidentally disabled, go to your Control Panel and click Windows Firewall. Make sure the radio button for On (recommended) is selected. Add exceptions to your Firewall by going to the Exceptions tab and adding the programs that you think should have access to the Internet to the list of exceptions.
Instantly activate your screensaver
In XP, you can put a short cut of your favourite screensaver on your desktop to instantly start your screen saver. Here's how. Go to Start on your desktop and click on Search. In the help box, click on All files and folders. and then type in *.scr. Select your screen saver file and right click. Then select Send To, and then Desktop.
Put your Monitor to sleep
Right click on the desktop and click on Properties. In the dialog box that appears, click on the Screen Saver tab. Click on Power and in the dialog box that appears click on the Turn off Monitor list. Select a time to automatically after which the monitor will be turned off. Click OK twice and you're set.
Using your Windows Key
Your Windows key can be used to for many short cuts. If you want to open your Windows Explorer quickly just press your Windows key and E. If you want to open the Run dialog box, just press the Windows key and R. If you want to open your search dialog box, press your Windows key and F.
Instantly lock your PC
If you have password protected your Windows, here is a quick way to lock it. Press the Windows key and L together.
Change the look of folder icons
If you don't like the look of the folder icons on your desktop, you can change them. Right click on the folder, select Properties. Click on the Customize tab, and under the Folder icons area, click on the Change Icons button. Select the icon of your choice and select OK.
Minimize a Window to your taskbar
If you're tired of using the mouse over and over again to minimize a window, here's a handy tip. To minimize a window using just the keyboard, press Alt, Spacebar and N together.
Display album art in your music folder thumbnails
If your music files are in WMA format, XP automatically picks up the album art and displays it, both in the folder thumbnail as well as in the Windows Media Player display. If your files are in MP3 format, you can download the album art from the Internet and then customize each folder to display it. But this takes a lot of time. A faster way around is to save each image as 'folder.jpg' and put it in the correct folder. Once you do this, XP will pick up that image and use it as the thumbnail for the folder, and also use the image to display in Windows Media Player while playing songs from the album.
How to stop Windows Media Player from accessing your information
You may be uncomfortable with the idea of Windows Media Player collecting your information and sending it to various websites. You can stop this. Go to the Tools menu of Windows Media Player. Select Options and then go to the Player tab. Look for the check box that says "Allow Internet sites to uniquely identify your player?" and make sure it is not selected.
Opening folders with a single click
If you'd rather not have to double-click everything to open it, here's the way out. Go to My Computer, and select Options in the Tools menu. Choose Folder options. In the dialog box that opens, select the check box that says 'Single-click to open an item (point to select)', and click OK.
Making web pages available offline
You may occasionally need to refer to a website, and you may not be able to connect to the Internet at the time. An easy way out of the situation is to go to the Favourites tab in Internet Explorer, and click Add to Favourites. In the dialog box that is displayed, select the Make available offline check box, and press OK.

Waqas Ahmed 30-09-2008 10:47 PM

Re: Windows XP Tips & Tricks
 
Very Helpful !!!


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