Windows XP General Tips Page 2

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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:

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.

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:

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

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!

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.

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

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_USER\Control Panel\Desktop 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.

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.

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.

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:

 

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:

 

Display Your Quick Launch Toolbar

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

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.

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:

 

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)

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).

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.

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.

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 Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\Default 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.

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_machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Hints.

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.

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.

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 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.

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!

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.

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,"Drive\Shell\Defrag\command",,,"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.

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.

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

 

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.

To use the recovery disk, at the Welcome screen

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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