Windows XP tips and tricks
Posted on March 18th, 2005 by fizzle in How To's
This is a list of tips, tricks, tweaks, hacks, and modifications that anybody can do following simple instructions to make windows XP faster, better, smoother, and lighter in size and memory usage. Also has some cool Windows XP customizations.
XP/2000 Show all Windows Components in Add/Remove
How To Clear Past Items from the Notification Area
Buttons missing in Task Manager?
Display the Sharing Tab in Folder Properties
Change number of Windows before grouping occurs
Replace Start Menu scrolling with multiple columns
Do Not Highlight Newly Installed Programs
XP/2000/ME Restrict Users from Running Specific Applications
Make programs available for all users
Making the View Settings stick in Explorer
Removal of Shared Documents from My Computer
Disabling Windows File Protection
Automatically kill programs at shutdown
Prioritizing individual processes
Setting DMA mode on IDE drives
Turn off built-in support for ZIP files
Rename loads of files at oncea
Turn off Picture and Fax Viewer as default image viewer
Stop sending reports to Microsoft after a crash
Add album art to any music folder
Remove users from the Welcome Screen
XP/2000 Enable Command Line Completion
XP/2000 Enable Path Command Line Completion
Prevent programs being displayed in MFU of Start Menu
Shorten the Checkdisk boot up delay
Remove Frequent Program List from Start Menu
XP/2000-Show all Windows Components in Add/Remove
For some reason, Microsoft has removed the ability to specify which Windows components you want to install during interactive Setup, and when you go into Add/Remove Windows Components in the Control Panel, you still don’t have the full list of applications and applets you can add and remove. Thankfully, this is easy to fix.
To dramatically expand the list of applications you can remove from Windows XP after installation, navigate to C:WINDOWSinf (substituting the correct drive letter for your version of Windows) and open the sysoc.inf file.
[Components]
NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4
WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7
Display=desk.cpl,DisplayOcSetupProc,,7
Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7
NetOC=netoc.dll,NetOcSetupProc,netoc.inf,,7
iis=iis.dll,OcEntry,iis.inf,,7
com=comsetup.dll,OcEntry,comnt5.inf,hide,7
dtc=msdtcstp.dll,OcEntry,dtcnt5.inf,hide,7
IndexSrv_System = setupqry.dll,IndexSrv,setupqry.inf,,7
TerminalServer=TsOc.dll, HydraOc, TsOc.inf,hide,2
msmq=msmqocm.dll,MsmqOcm,msmqocm.inf,,6
ims=imsinsnt.dll,OcEntry,ims.inf,,7
fp_extensions=fp40ext.dll,FrontPage4Extensions,fp40ext.inf,,7
AutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,au.inf,hide,7
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
RootAutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,rootau.inf,,7
IEAccess=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,ieaccess.inf,,7
This is a list of all components installed at the moment. I�ve taken the example of MSN Messenger - the program entry called �msmsgs�, third-last line. You can see the word �hide� highlighted - this is the string which tells Windows not to display the component in the Add/Remove Programs list. Fix this up by simply deleting the word hide like so:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
To this: msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7
Now, after restarting, you should be able to see MSN Messenger in the Add/Remove Programs list. If you want to be able to quickly view and remove all components, simply open the sysoc.inf file and do a global find and replace for the word “,hide” and replace it with a single comma “,”.
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How to clear past items from the notification area
To clear the Past Items list, perform the following steps:
Delete the IconStreams and PastIconsStream values from the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerTrayNotify
Open Task Manager, click the Processes tab, click Explorer.exe and then click End Process.
In Task Manager, click File , click New Task, type explorer and then click OK.
Restarting might be necessary.
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Buttons missing in Task Manager?
When you open the Task Manager, the only thing you see is your username and 2 choices : Disconnect and Log off.
Double-click to the left of Disconnect and your menu will return.
Double-click again and they disappear again. Call it a feature
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ClearType basically works
to make text on your screen appear much clearer and readable, a massive boon
for laptop owners. It works wonders for desktop owners as well, as you can
observe from the below pictures.
Clear Type Off
Clear Type on
To turn ClearType on, just access your Display properties in Control Panel, then click on the Appearances tab. Then click the Effects button, and you will get a dialog like the one below.
Tick Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts and change the listbox to ClearType. Then just click OK > Apply, and close down your dialogs
Most of you will be familiar with MsConfig, which is basically a built-in system configuration utility for Windows. Open it up by simply going to Start > Run, then type msconfig in the box and press enter. Now, the tab we are interested in here is the Startup tab… simply click on it and you should see a screen similar to the one below.
This box displays all of the programs that will be started when Windows boots up. None of these programs are vital for Windows, so don�t feel worried about removing some of them in experimentation. You can see from the screenshot that I have disabled both NDetect (ICQ�s start-up program) and WinAmpa (WinAmp, obviously). Now, if you�ve unchecked some boxes, Windows should start up faster and will take less resources by not running these programs in the background.
Go to Start > Run again, then type services.msc. You should get:
This is a more detailed list of processes that are starting up with Windows. All those items with Automatic listed next to their names are booting with Windows. Click on the items to find out just what they do. If you decide you don�t need a certain service, you can simply right-click on it and change it�s properties from Automatic to Manual.
This is a handy little trick you can use with Internet Explorer 6 (which ships with XP) to make it boot up extremely fast. For those of you who aren�t familiar, simply right-click on a shortcut to Internet Explorer (such as the one in the Quicklaunch bar) and add the parameter -nohome to the end of the command line, like so:
A great tweaking file that comes with XP is gpedit.msc. Go to Start > Run and then type in gpedit.msc and press enter. This is effectively the Policies Editor, and it comes in handy often. For example, if you hate CD autoplay and want to permanently disable it, you can use this tool to do so. Just run gpedit.msc, then go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System. In here you can see the value Turn Off Autoplay. Right-click on it and then click Properties.
Now you can simply play around with the settings for this and other values in these folders, customizing appearance and performance issues.
Display the Sharing Tab in Folder Properties
In Windows 2000, getting to the Sharing options for a folder was simple: right-click, choose Properties, and you’d see a Sharing tab. In Windows XP, this is missing.
But you can still 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, at the bottom, uncheck Use simple file sharing (Recommended), Now share your folders as you would in Windows 2000.
In Windows XP Home the only way to get to the sharing tab is in Safe Mode.
Change number of Windows before grouping occurs
Change number of windows that are open before XP will start grouping them on the Taskbar
“HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvancedTaskbarGroupSize”
itemtype = “REG_DWORD” A value of two will force grouping as soon as more than one instance of a program is open.
Replace Start Menu scrolling with multiple columns
Intended For
Windows XP
Windows 2000
Windows Me
Windows 98
Windows Me/2000:
Select Settings in your Start Menu, and then select Taskbar & Start Menu.
Choose the Advanced tab, and turn off the Scroll the Programs menu option.
Windows XP:
Select Settings in your Start Menu, and then select Taskbar & Start Menu.
Choose the Start Menu tab, choose Classic Start Menu, and click Customize.
Turn off the Scroll the Programs menu option, and click Ok when you’re done.
Windows 98:
Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE).
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion explorer Advanced.
Select New and then String Value from the Edit menu, and type StartMenuScrollPrograms as the name for the new value.
Now, double-click on the StartMenuScrollPrograms value, and type FALSE as the data for this value.
Click Ok and then close the Registry Editor when you’re done.
This setting should take effect immediately.
Note: This will affect your Start Menu’s Programs folder and all folders underneath it, but it surprisingly won’t affect folders directly in your Start Menu folder (which appear above Programs in the main Start Menu).
Note: If this doesn’t work on your machine, try adding a second StartMenuScrollPrograms value, as described above, to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion explorer key (just the parent key of the one in the instructions). There have been reports that this is occasionally necessary.
Note: If this still doesn’t work, restart Windows. Also, make sure you’ve installed all of the latest Windows Updates.
Do Not Highlight Newly Installed Programs
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.
XP/2000/ME Restrict Users from Running Specific Applications
Open your registry and find the key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion PoliciesExplorer]
Create a new DWORD value and name it DisallowRun set the value to 1 to enable application restrictions or 0 to allow all applications to run.
Then create a new sub-key called:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion PoliciesExplorerDisallowRun]
and define the applications that are to be restricted. Creating a new string value for each application, named as consecutive numbers, and setting the value to the filename to be restricted (e.g. “regedit.exe”).
Restart Windows for the changes to take effect.
Make programs available for all users
Log in as administrator. Go to C:Documents and SettingsAdministratorStart MenuPrograms
Move the shortcut of the program to C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersStart MenuPrograms
If you use NTFS check the permissions on the Security tab. In XP Home you will have to do this in safe mode to see the Security tab.
Making the View Settings stick in Explorer
Backup these regkeys (just in case anything goes wrong):
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsShellNoRoamBagMRU]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsShellNoRoamBags]
Then delete them and restart windows to take effect.
Now you can change each folder�s setting and it will stick.
Removal of Shared Documents from My Computer
If your computer is part of a Workgroup, you will notice that a Shared Documents folder appears in My Computer. This folder lets you share files with multiple users easily. If you want to remove this folder you can:
Method1:
Start the Registry Editor
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Policies Explorer
Right-click an empty space in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value
Name the new value NoSharedDocuments
Double-click this new value, and enter 1 as its Value data
Close the registry editor
Log off, or restart Windows for the changes to take effect
To reverse this process, change the Value data to 0, or delete the NoSharedDocuments Value.
Method2:
Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Explorer My Computer NameSpace DelegateFolders
Look for a sub-key titled {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}. Delete this one and all of the Shared Documents folders (normally grouped as “Other Files Stored on This Computer”) will be gone.
Reboot after the changes to make them active.
Disabling Windows File Protection
WARNING: Using this tweak means you will be able to delete vital Windows files.
Here�s a quick tweak to be able to totally disable Windows File Protection, the system that prevent users from deleting system and program files. Simply find the key SFCDisable in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon and edit it to hold the value 0xFFFFFF9D.
If you want to re-enable File Protection, just re-set the value to 0.
Automatically kill programs at shutdown
Making it so that Windows automatically kills applications running is a snap. Simply navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop directory in the Registry, then alter the key AutoEndTasks to the value 1.
Note: the key AutoEndTasks might not exist. If not, simply create it with a value of 1. To disable the AutoEndTask feature, simply change the value back to 0.
There are several memory tweaks that can be performed with Windows XP - all of them are located in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management section of the registry.
Disable Paging Executive
In normal usage, XP pages sections from RAM memory to the hard drive. We can stop this happening and keep the data in RAM, resulting in improved performance. Note that only users with a large amount of RAM (256MB+) should use this setting. The setting we want to change to disable the �Paging Executive�, as it is called, is called DisablePagingExecutive. Changing the value of this key from 0 to 1 will de-activate memory paging.
System Cache Boost
Changing the value of the key LargeSystemCache from 0 to 1 will tell Windows XP to allocate all but 4MB of system memory to the file system cache, basically meaning that the XP Kernel can run in memory, greatly improving it�s speed. The 4MB of memory left is used for disk caching, but if for any reason more is needed, XP allocates more. Generally, this tweak improves performance by a fair bit but can, in some intensive applications, degrade performance. As with the above tweak, you should have at least 256MB of RAM before attempting to enable LargeSystemCache.
Input/Output Performance
This tweak is only really valuable to anyone running a server - it improves performance while a computer is performing large file transfer operations. By default, the value does not appear in the registry, so you will have to create a REG_DWORD value called IOPageLockLimit. The data for this value is in bytes, and defaults to 512KB on machines that have the value. Most people using this tweak have found maximum performance in the 8 to 16 megabyte range, so you will have to play around with the value to find the best performance. Remember that the value is measured in bytes, so if you want, say, 12MB allocated, it�s 12 * 1024 * 1024, or 12582912. As with all these memory tweaks, you should only use this if you have 256MB or more of RAM.
Basically, when you connect to another computer with Windows XP, it checks for any Scheduled tasks on that computer, a fairly useless task, but one that can add up to 30 seconds of waiting on the other end, not good!
Fortunately, it�s fairly easy to disable this process. First, navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace in the Registry. Below that, there should be a key called {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}. Just delete this, and after a restart, Windows will no longer check for scheduled tasks.
Prioritizing individual processes
Press Control+Alt+Delete, then click on the Processes tab, you should get a dialog like the one above. You can see a list of all the processes running at the time. Now, if you are running a program that you want to dedicate more processing time to - eg, 3D Studio Max, as in my example, you can just right-click on the process, click Set Priority, then select how high you want that program prioritized. While I�m checking my email, I might want a Normal priority for Max, but if I leave my Computer, I can increase it to RealTime to get the most rendering done.
The main components of your computer have an IRQ number assigned to them. With this tweak you can increase the priority given to any IRQ number and improve the performance of that component. The most common component this tweak is used for is the System CMOS/real time clock, which improves performance across the board. First of all, decide which component you want to give a performance boost to. Next, you have to discover which IRQ that piece of hardware is using. To do this, go to Control Panel, then open the System panel. Click the Hardware tab, then the Device Manager button.
Now, right click on the component you want to discover the IRQ for and click Properties, then click on the Resources tab
You can plainly see which IRQ this device is using (if there is no IRQ number, select another device). Remember the number and close down all of the dialog boxes you have opened, then start up RegEdit. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlPriorityControl in the registry. Now, we have to create a new DWORD value, called IRQ#Priority (where # is the IRQ number), then set the data to 1. For example, if the IRQ of your System CMOS is 8, you would create the key IRQ8Priority.
Now, after restarting, you should notice improved performance in the component you tweaked. I would strongly recommend the CMOS, as it improves performance around the board. Also note that you can have multiple IRQ prioritized, but it is fairly inefficient and can cause instability.
To remove this tweak, simply delete the value you created.
Windows XP has a feature to create Restore Points, which are simply files that contain information about the setup of a system, so that if it crashes, all settings, et cetera, are not lost. However, sometimes Windows creates multiple unnecessary restore points, gigabytes worth in some cases. To delete all but the most recent restore point, simply go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup.
Select the drive you wish to clean up, then Clean Up, and finally, click Yes
By altering a few registry settings, you can dramatically decrease the amount of time it takes for Windows to shut down. To do this, first open up the registry editor and navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop
Once there, find the value HungAppTimeout and make sure it is set to 5000 (that’s the default). Now, in the same folder, look for the value WaitToKillAppTimeout. Set this to 4000 (the default is 20000).
Lastly, navigate to the folder
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControl
and change the value WaitToKillServiceTimeout to 4000 as well. Another thing that helps speeding up shutting down is going to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services and then setting the NVidia Driver Help service to Manual.(if you have that card)
Setting DMA mode on IDE drives
For some reason, Windows XP sometimes sets itself to use a PIO transfer mode on IDE channels instead of the DMA mode. If this is the case, you can manually set the IDE channel to DMA mode, which will reduce the amount of CPU cycles being used on that device. To set this, go to Device Manager (press Windows-Break, or right click My Computer > Properties, then go to the Hardware tab, then finally click Device Manager), then open up the branch labelled IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Now, double click on Primary IDE Channel and go to Advanced Settings.
and check the Transfer Mode scroll boxes. Set them all to DMA If Available, then click OK. Continue to do this for each IDE Controller.
This isn’t really a ‘tweak’ per se, but more of a fix. Basically, in another of XP’s weird quirks, it sometimes disallows network access to people, including the Guest account, meaning that most people cannot connect to your computer and access your shares, etc. To fix up this problem, open the Control Panel, go to Administrative Tools, and open up Local Security Settings. Now go to Local Polices > User Rights Assignments.
Now find the value called Deny access to this computer from the network. Right click on it and go Properties. Now, if the Guest account is in here, remove it by clicking it once then going to remove, then close down the properties dialog. While you’re in the User Right Assignments dialog, check the Access this computer from the network setting, and make sure Everyone is in there.
If you were having trouble trying to access computers over a network, hopefully these few adjustments will help.
With Windows XP comes a service called the Prefetcher. This service monitors which programs initialize when Windows boots, then in future, fetches them quickly. The Prefetcher is enabled by default, but you can improve its performance. Simply navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory ManagementPrefetchParameters
in the registry and find the value EnablePrefetcher. Most likely, it will be set to 3. The recommended setting for the prefetcher is 5. Feel free to play around with it a bit, though, and find out what works best for you.
It is possible to disable the Prefetcher by setting the value to 0, but the only reasons you might want to do this is if you wanted to test a machine in a lab environment.
Turn off built-in support for ZIP files
A really quick tweak… Windows XP has built-in support for .ZIP files, so that you can view them as normal folders. However, the system uses a sizeable portion of resources doing this, so disabling this feature can increase performance. It’s easy to do, you just have to un-register the zipfldr.dll, by going to Start > Run and typing:
regsvr32 /u %windir%system32zipfldr.dll at the prompt, and click Ok.
The change will take effect immediately, but you may have to restart Windows for all traces of the built-in ZIP support to disappear.
If, at any time, you wish to re-enable Windows XP’s built-in ZIP support, just follow these steps:
Select Run from the Start Menu.
Type regsvr32 %windir%system32zipfldr.dll at the prompt, and click Ok.
The change will take effect immediately, but you may have to restart Windows for all features of the built-in ZIP support to be available.
Explorer often caches DLL files in memory for a period of time after they have finished being used. This can result in large amounts of memory being taken up by DLL files that are not even being used. To stop this happening, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorer
Now, you have to create a new sub-key called AlwaysUnloadDLL with a default value of 1.
If you want to disable this tweak, just delete the key. Note: Windows has to restart for this tweak to take effect.
Another really quick and easy tweak, if you’re not going to be using Hibernation (as most people don’t), make sure it is disabled, as Windows reserves an amount of Hard Drive space equal to that of your RAM for hibernation. To disable Hibernation, go to Control Panel > Power Options > Hibernate Tab.
As you can see, for people with larger amounts of RAM, this tweak can free up large portions of space.
With Windows XP comes a long acronym, the QoSRRP. This stands for Quality of Service Resource Reservation Protocol. Basically, programs either use QoS APIs and are passed through QoS when trying to access information through whatever bandwidth is available, or they are passed to another API called TCI. One of the differences between QoS and TCI is that it is possible to reserve bandwidth for QoS applications. This is great if you are using QoS applications, but if you don’t use any, it means that a percentage (20% by default) of your bandwidth is sitting unused.
To change this, we have to go to Start > Run, then type gpedit.msc. Now, open the branches Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > QoS Packet Scheduler.
Now, double-click the option in the right-hand window Limit reservable bandwidth, and then set it to Enabled, and the Bandwidth Limit to 0%.
Now, you should have more free bandwidth to play with.
The L2, or second-level, cache, is an integral part of your CPU. However, XP is very shoddy at detecting it, so setting it manually is sometimes necessary. It’s easy to do, though, you simply have to navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management
in the registry and find the value SecondLevelDataCache. You must then adjust it to the value (in kilobytes) of the L2 Cache of your processor.
You should be able to find the L2 Cache value of your processor from its manufacturer.
Note: The L2 Cache of your processor should be entered in Decimal mode.
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.
Turn off Picture and Fax Viewer as default image viewer
The Windows Picture and Fax Viewer is set as the default image viewer for all sorts of file types in Windows XP. Unfortunately, choosing a new program as the default in the File Types window won’t change this, and there’s no option in the Windows interface that can disable this component. It’s a really stupid design, and it takes a Registry change to fix it:
Solution #1:
Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE).
Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT SystemFileAssociations image ShellEx ContextMenuHandlers.
Delete the ShellImagePreview key.
Close the Registry Editor when you’re done, the change will take effect immediately.
Solution #2:
Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE).
Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT CLSID {e84fda7c-1d6a-45f6-b725-cb260c236066} shellex.
Delete the MayChangeDefaultMenu key.
Close the Registry Editor when you’re done, the change will take effect immediately.
Windows sometimes offers tips and advice to new users by opening a balloon window from the taskbar. The feature can disabled using this tweak.
Open your registry and find the key below. You may need to create the key if it does not already exist.
Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, called EnableBalloonTips and edit the value according to the settings below.
Exit your registry, you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect.
(Default)REG_SZ(value not set)
EnableBalloonTipsREG_DWORD0×00000000 (0)
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion…
Settings
Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion
ExplorerAdvanced]
Value Name: EnableBalloonTips
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = disabled, 1 = enabled)
Press the Windows key and the L key (WinKey+L) at the same time.
Additionally, you can create a new shortcut, with the following command line:
rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation
Copy the new shortcut to your Quick Launch bar and you have one click access to locking the desktop.
Notes: If you are using the Welcome screen and Fast User Switching is enabled, other users will still have access to you computer, by selecting their Username and entering their password. Additionally, if you don’t have a password on your account, then all that is required is to click on your Username on the Welcome screen.
Stop sending reports to Microsoft after a crash
Whenever a program crashes, whether it�s a Microsoft application, a component of Windows, or a third-party application, a window appears, prompting you to send a “report” to Microsoft.
Here’s how to disable this feature, either completely or selectively:
Open System in the Control Panel (or right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties.
Choose the Advanced tab, and click Error Reporting.
You can disable error reporting entirely here, or enable it selectively for certain programs. Click Ok when you’re done.
Windows XP Pro:
Go to Start > Run and type gpedit.msc
Navigate to:
Computer Config > Administrative Template > System
Double click Turn off Autoplay
Enable it.
Windows XP Home:
Click Start > Run and type regedit
Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionpoliciesExplorer
Create a new value called: NoDriveTypeAutoRun
Type is: DWORD
Value is: 0×000000b5 (181)
You may need to log off/log on or reboot for the change to take effect. Additionally, you may need Administrator privileges to edit the Registry.
To check if a version of XP is already activated or not:
Go to Start > Accessories > System Tools > Activate Windows
Or go to Start > Run and type:
“%SYSTEMROOT%system32oobemsoobe.exe /A”
It will show the current status of activation.
Pro version:
Some options in user accounts are hidden when you’re not on a domain.
However going to:
Start > run and typing control userpasswords2 will get you there too.
In there, under the Advanced tab check require users to press ctrl+alt+delete.
Home version:
Only works if you use the classic logon instead of the welcome screen.
The registrykeys for this area
Enable classic logon:
Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NT
CurrentVersionWinlogon]
Value Name: LogonType
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: 0
<0 = Classic Mode, 1 = Welcome Screen>
Enable CAD:
Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NT
CurrentVersionWinlogon]
Value Name: DisableCAD
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: 0
<0 = Require Ctrl+Alt+Delete, 1 = Disable>
Add album art to any music folder
One of the coolest new features in Windows XP is its album thumbnail generator, which automatically places the appropriate album cover art on the folder to which you are copying music (generally in WMA format). But what about those people that have already copied their CDs to the hard drive using MP3 format? You can download album cover art from sites such as cdnow.com or amguide.com, and then use the new Windows XP folder customize feature to display the proper image for each folder. But this takes time–you have to manually edit the folder properties for every single folder–and you will lose customizations if you have to reinstall the OS. There’s an excellent fix, however.
When you download the album cover art from the Web, just save the images as folder.jpg each time and place them in the appropriate folder. Then, Windows XP will automatically use that image as the thumbnail for that folder and, best of all, will use that image in Windows Media Player for Windows XP (MPXP) if you choose to display album cover art instead of a visualization. And the folder customization is automatic, so it survives an OS reinstallation as well. Your music folders never looked so good!
If you don�t have a repair option you can reinstall IE6 and/or IE6 by doing the following:
While you are logged on as an administrator go to Start > Run.
In the Open box, type regedit and then click OK .
Browse to the appropriate registry subkey, right-click the IsInstalled (REG_DWORD) value, and then click Modify . To reinstall only the Internet Explorer 6 browser component on Windows XP, use the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftActive SetupInstalled Components{89820200-ECBD-11cf-8B85-00AA005B4383}
To reinstall only Outlook Express 6 on Windows XP, use the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftActive SetupInstalled Components{44BBA840-CC51-11CF-AAFA-00AA00B6015C}
Change the value data from 1 to 0 and then click OK .
Quit Registry Editor, and then download and install Internet Explorer 6.
Remove users from the Welcome Screen
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows
NTCurrentVersionWinlogonSpecialAccountsUserList]
“Username”=dword:00000000
Change “Username” with the user’s login (like “LadyDi” for example) and
it’s no longer on the Welcome Screen. Make sure you use the exact name
that shows up on the Welcome Screen where it says “Username” above.
This is how the Administrator account is hidden (it has a 0 by default),
but you can change them to a 1 (dword:00000001) and the account will be
visible.
XP/2000 Enable Command Line Completion
Command completion allows you to type a portion of a file name, and then have the system complete the rest by pressing the specified key. This is similar to the UNIX shell command completion feature.
Open your registry and find the key below.
Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, called CompletionChar and set it to equal the hex value of the required control character. For example to use the TAB key set the value to 9, to use Ctrl-D set the value to 4 and for Ctrl-F set the value to 6.
Exit your registry, you may need to restart Windows for the change to take effect.
Now when you type the first part of a filename then press the specified key, Windows will complete the filename for you. Pressing the key multiple times will scroll through all the options.
(Default)REG_SZ(value not set)
CompletionCharREG_DWORD0×00000009 (9)
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftCommand Processor
Settings:
Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftCommand Processor]
Value Name: CompletionChar
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: Hex Control Character
XP/2000 Enable Path Command Line Completion
Path completion is similar to the concept of command completion. This setting allows you to specify a key, that when pressed completes the remainder of an incomplete directory name.
Open your registry and find the key below.
Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, called PathCompletionChar and set it to equal the hex value of the required control character. For example to use the TAB key set the value to 9, to use Ctrl-D set the value to 4 and for Ctrl-F set the value to 6.
Now when you are using a command prompt and type the first part of a directory name then press the specified key, Windows will complete the remainder for you. Pressing the key multiple times will scroll through the available options.
(Default)REG_SZ(value not set)
PathCompletionCharREG_DWORD0×00000009 (9)
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftCommand Processor
Settings:
Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftCommand Processor]
Value Name: PathCompletionChar
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: Hex Control Character
Prevent programs being displayed in MFU of Start Menu. 42
To prevent a program from being displayed in the Most Frequently Used Programs list Start Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
Add an empty string value named NoStartPage to the following registry key, where Program name.exe is the name of the executable file that is used to start the program:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTApplicationsProgram name.exe Quit Registry Editor, and then restart the computer.
Shorten the Checkdisk boot up delay
Start regedit.exe and locate the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession Manager
“AutoChkTimeOut”=dword:00000010
The default is 10 seconds. Change it to less to decrease the time you have
To cancel checkdisk.
Remove Frequent Program List from Start Menu
Run regedit.exe and locate the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion
PoliciesExplorer
Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, called NoStartMenuMFUprogramsList
0 = default, 1 = enable restriction)
Note: This setting only applies to the Windows XP Start Menu, not the Classic Start Menu.
Exit your registry, you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect.
For added security you could always clear the page file upon shutting down your computer. Please note, this will slightly increase the amount of time it takes to shut down your computer.
Start Regedit.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > SessionManager > Memory Management
Select ClearPageFileAtShutdown from the list on the right.
Right-click on it and select Modify.
Change the value to 1 to enable.
Restart your computer.
If you would like to display a legal message or any other message in a pop-up window when windows starts read below:
Start regedit.
Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/WindowsNT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon
Modify the key legalnoticecaption with the name you want for the pop-up.
Modify the key legalnoticetext with the text you want in the pop-up.
Restart your computer.
Tags: customizing windows xp, windows tweaks, windows xp, windows xp hacks, winxp tricks
January 14th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Yet another tweaking guide.
This one contains the same confused (and inaccurate) descriptions, the same useless teeaks.
Unfortunately some are not useless but will actually impair performance - or worse.
This list does contain much useful information. But avoid any that claim to improve
performance, they rarely will.
Larry Miller
Microsoft MCSA