Add folder to your Taskbar to quickly access it.
First, unlock your taskbar. (right click on taskbar -> Lock the Taskbar) Next, drag the icon of the desired folder to the space between the taskbar buttons and the clock. (Wait for the no-entry cursor to change to an arrow. It's a very tiny space, you will have to hunt for it.) You can rearrange and resize the taskbar toolbar you just created. You can even turn the taskbar toolbar into a menu by resizing it until only its name is visible.

Add or remove columns in Details mode in a folder.
To add or remove columns from Details mode, select Choose Details from the View menu, or just right-click the column header bar and choose what all details you need about a file or a folder.

Adding Internet Prefixes
Your browser can automatically add "http://www." and ".com" when you type the name of the website and press Ctrl+Enter.

For example, if you type google in an address bar and then press Ctrl+Enter, your browser will  add the full url "http://www.google.com" and start opening it.

Album art in Windows Media Player
If you create a file called Folder.jpg in a folder where all your music files contain, that image will be used as the thumbnail for the folder. the same image will also be used as the album art in Windows Media Player for all media files in that folder.

Application and Boot file Defragmentation
Defragmentation pushes all commonly used programs and boot files to the edge of the hard drive for faster access. Windows XP normally schedules this every three days when it is idle, however you can force it to do this by using the b switch anytime Ex:- defrag C: -b

Arranging selected Windows on Desktop
To select and arrange two or more windows side-by-side on your desktop, first switch to the first window, then hold the Control key while right-clicking the taskbar button of the second window. Select "Tile Vertically".

Back up registry
It is always safe to back up your system Registry before you modify it. The backup will help you to restore Registry in case any problem occurs after modifying.

To backup system registry right-click and select export on any key in the registry that you want to back up and enter the name with date and time and click save.

Backup your Files and Settings
Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, It is one of the least known new features in Windows XP, but it can be a very useful feature. You can backup all your setting and file types and then restore it to any other computer running XP.

Be cautious while you are handling with stuffs that you are not sure of.
Don't assume anything if you don't know what it is, try to find out if you cant or don't understand, ask someone who knows, There's nothing more dangerous than doing something you don't really know what you are doing. Doing so might harm your computer.

Be cautious while you are using Public Computers
If you have to type in your login details or save personal files, don't use public computers, they usually have Trojan horses or Key loggers that capture your passwords or any other personal details.

Boot menu countdown timer
If your computer has more than one operating system installed, you can change countdown timer at the boot menu to any number of seconds by editing the boot.ini file located in the boot partition
( Usually C:/boot.ini ).

Ex:- [boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(...

Changing "timeout=30" value to "timeout=5" will make the boot menu to appear for 5 seconds, the value can be anything between 0 and 999.

Browse the internet Faster and Safer, download and install Mozilla
 Mozilla Firefox is a free web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite, managed by the Mozilla Corporation. It is the second-most popular browser currently worldwide, after Internet Explorer. Firefox includes tabbed browsing, a spell checker, incremental find, live bookmarking, a download manager, and an integrated search system that uses the user's desired search engine. Functions can be added through around 2,000 add-ons created by third-party developers, the most popular of which include NoScript (script blocker), Stumble Upon (website discovery), Tab Mix Plus (adds many customizable options to tabs), FoxyTunes (controls music players), Adblock Plus (ad blocker), DownThemAll! (download functions) and Web Developer (web tools).

Browse the Network Faster
If you have little bit of knowledge with system registry, open regedit and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
\RemoteComputer\NameSpace

 and then Delete subkeys {2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D} and {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}. This will speed up network browsing of old Windows machines on the LAN by ignoring their scheduled tasks and printers.

Quickly start browsing the internet.
You can start browsing internet without opening browser, windows will automatically open your default web browser and open your web page. You can do this if you put an Address Bar on your Taskbar.

Right click on your system taskbar -> Toolbars and then click on "Address" option ("Address" should be checked). After this a Address Bar will appear on your system Taskbar, you can open any web page by typing URL name here and press Enter, Windows will automatically open your web page in be default set browser. You can also browse files and folders on your computer by using the Address Bar. simply type drive letter like C:\ , D:\ in Address Bar and Press Enter.

Change desktop background through your browser
You can quickly set the background of your desktop with the image displayed in your browser by right clicking the image and then select "Set as Background". Most of the browsers have this option.

Quick Zoom in or Zoom Out in Web Browsers
If your mouse has a wheel for scrolling, you can change font size or the entire web page in your web browser. To do this, hold the Control key on your keyboard and then roll the wheel forth to zoom in and back to zoom out. Almost all the web browsers have this option.

Change or Choose the default Sounds in Windows XP
It is possible to change logon, logoff or any window event sounds in windows XP. There are two ways to change these sounds as explained below.

1) Go to Start -> Run and type Media and press enter now in the media folder you can see all the sound files. Replace these files with the sound files of your choice and close it.

Note: It is safe to back up all the sound files before you make any changes through this method.

2) Open Sound and Audio Devices in the Control Panel and in the sounds tab you can change the sounds that your windows makes.

Change the CHKDSK countdown time
Change the CHKDSK countdown time When you schedule CHKDSK to run at the next boot, by default the system will prompt you to press a key within 10 seconds to cancel the CHKDSK operation. You can change this value in the system registry under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\AutoChkTimeOut

The value allowed is between 0 and 259,200 seconds (3 days). With a timeout of zero, there is no countdown and you cannot cancel the operation and the CHKDSK runs immediately.

It is recommended not to cancel CHKDSK as CHKDSK is needed to recover from errors that might have occurred on your hard drives.

Change the Start Menu Style for faster access
If your Start Menu takes too much time to show when you click the start button, change it to classic type to open faster, to do this Right-Click on your taskbar and then Properties, now in the "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" click on Start Menu tab. Now you can see the option to change the Start Menu Style.

Changing the Icon Spacing
You can change the size and in between space of icons, to do this first Right click on your desktop then click on Properties option, then click the Appearance tab then Advance, here you change the spacing or size of your icons. Don't forget to Click on apply before close the dialog boxes.

Classic theme in Windows XP increases performance of your computer
Apply the classic theme in Windows XP to increase system performance. The classic theme occupies less memory compared to the Windows XP theme.

Cleaning Temporary Internet Files is always a good practice
If you are using Internet Explorer as the default browser, deleting Temporary Internet Files will save disk space and you can always see the updated webpage that you are browsing. Internet explorer can automatically do this for you if you want it to, to change: Go to Tools menu and then Internet Options In the advanced tab go to Security area and check "Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed" Option.

Clear Type Font
Windows XP has ClearType (Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology) font option which is not enabled by default, To enable this: Right click on the desktop -> select Properties -> Appearance -> Effects -> select ClearType from the second dropdown menu.

Clicking on Pop-ups is not always safe.
It is not safe to click on pop-ups, doing so your computer might get infected with ad-wares or spyware's. Remember, no trusted site's will show pop-ups. To safely close Pop-ups highlight the popup by clicking on the taskbar and then press Alt+F4, if this does not work, open task manager and in the applications tab right click on the pop-up window and then "Go To Process" this will highlight the process of the popup window, now end this process.

Closing multiple windows at once.
To close several windows at once, hold down the Control key while clicking on the taskbar buttons of each window. Once you have selected all the windows you want to close, right-click the last button you selected and pick "Close Group".

Confirming for multiple files.
If you hold down the shift key while clicking "No" in a Confirm File Operation dialog, the response will be interpreted as "No to All".

Copy the contents of iPod to another iPod without computer.
miShare is a smart little gadget for sharing files and playlists between iPods. No computer or cable is needed, and it's easy to use. Just attach the two iPods to miShare and press button to start the transfer.

Create a Password Reset Disk
If you're running Windows XP Professional as a local user in a workgroup environment, you can create a password reset disk to log onto your computer when you forget your password. To create the disk:

In Control Panel open User Accounts and click your account name. Under Related Tasks, click Prevent a forgotten password. Follow the directions in the Forgotten Password Wizard to create a password reset disk.

Note: Anyone using your password reset disk can access your local user account so store the disk in a secure location.

Create a Shortcut to Start Remote Desktop
You can quickly start Remote Desktop and connect to your remote computer by adding a shortcut of the remote desktop on your desktop.

To create a shortcut icon Click Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Communications and then click on Remote Desktop Connection. Click Options. Configure settings for the connection to your office computer. Click Save As, and enter desired name and click Save. Now Open the Remote Desktops folder, Right-click on the file you just named and then click Create Shortcut or drag the file onto the desktop to create a shortcut. Now you can quickly startt Remote Desktop and connect to your remote computer by double-clicking the shortcut.

Create password reset disk
It is always safe to create password reset disk to prevent forgotten passwords. To create password reset disk Go to Control Panel, and then User Accounts, click your account name and under Related Tasks, click Prevent a forgotten password. The wizard helps you create a password reset disk.

Create personalized screensaver.
To create a screensaver that contains photos of your choice, put all your selected photos in the My Pictures folder in My Documents and then change the screensaver to "My Pictures Slideshow" in the screensaver tab or desktop properties.

Create Toolbars on desktop of your choice
You can turn a folder into a desktop toolbar by dragging the icon of the desired folder to the edge of the screen. You can then turn it into a floating toolbar by dragging it from the edge of the screen into the middle of the screen. (It helps if you minimize all application windows first.)

Customizing XP Boot Screen
Ever wonder what's going on behind the boot screen? to find that out, right-click on
My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Startup and Recovery -> Edit. wait until the BOOT.INI is opened in a notepad. Add "/SOS" right after "/fastdetect" with a space in between and save it. The line will look something like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /SOS

Note: the value in between the Open and close braces (0) will not be the same on all computers.

Delete a particular AutoComplete entry in Internet Explorer.
To remove a particular AutoComplete entry from a Web form, highlight the item in the AutoComplete dropdown and press the Delete key.

To remove all Web form AutoComplete entries, go to the Internet Explorer Tools menu, select Internet Options, Content, AutoComplete, then press the "Clear Forms" button. This will ensure more privacy.

Delete files permanently
Windows moves files to the Recycle Bin when you delete something in your computer. If you want to delete files without moving to Recycle Bin Hold the Shift key and then the delete button. If you don't want to hold shift key but still delete the file permanently:

Go to Start -> Run then type gpedit.msc and enter Go to User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Explorer and locate "Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin" setting and change it.

Delete files without moving to Recycle bin
Hold down the shift key when deleting a file to delete it immediately instead of placing it in the Recycle Bin.

Note: Files deleted in this way cannot be restored.

Directly upload images to flickr from webpages.
Install Flickr Uploader to upload any image from any web pages directly to Flicker. You can also add titles, tags and descriptions etc.. before you upload.

Disable AutoComplete Password Storage to secure your passwords.
If you are not the only user who uses your computer, it is always safe to turn the AutoComplete feature off.

Disable Balloon Tips if it annoys you.
If you are annoyed by the Balloon tips show at the taskbar in windows XP, you can disable it, to disable it Start Regedit and navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

and create a DWORD value of EnableBalloonTips Give it a value of 0. To enable it, give it a value of 1.

Note: Restarting of computer or log off once is required to take effect.

Disable Cache Thumbnails to save disks pace
If you have the knowledge of windows registry: Navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

then add or Edit DWORD value DisableThumbnailCache and set the Value to 1 to disable thumbnails in Windows and save hard disk space. Change the value to 0 to enable thumbnail view.

Note: If you disable Caching of thumbnails, you can no more see the thumbnails of your images in a folder.

Disable DHCP and assign static IP to Protect your Wireless Network.
Safe way to use wireless Network is to Disable DHCP in the wireless router and assign static IP in your computer. This reduces the risk of your wireless network being hacked.

Disable error reporting if it annoys you.
Disabling error report will decrease recovery time when any application crashes.

To Disable/Enable Error Reporting Service right-click on My Computer icon on your desktop and then click Properties, in the system Properties box click on Advanced tab and then click on Error Reporting button.

Disable password  prompt when resuming from standby
If you do not want to type in your password each time you resume your windows from standby or hibernation, you can disable the prompt for password screen.

To disable open Power in Control Panel and uncheck "Prompt for password after returning from standby" on the Advanced tab.

Disable User Tracking
If you are concerned about your privacy, its good to disable User Tracking. Follow the steps only if you are familiar with system registry Navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

then add or edit the DWORD value "NoInstrumentation" to 1.
Disabling User Tracking will also increase system performance.

Disable Windows Messenger at startup
If you don't want Windows Messenger to start automatically, you can disable it, to do this: Open Windows Messenger Click Options in Tools menu In Options click on Preferences tab Uncheck the "Run Windows Messenger when Windows starts" checkbox.

Disable Zip Folders if you don't use it.
If you use third party software to handle your Zip files and do not like Zip Folders in XP, you can disable it by:
Start -> Run and then type "regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll" and enter To enable Zip folders: Start -> Run and then type "regsvr32 zipfldr.dll" and enter.

Do not open file that you received from a stranger.
E-mail and instant messaging (IM) can spread viruses and worms if you aren't careful. Most e-mail viruses are spread by people who are tricked into opening an infected file. Never open a file attached to an e-mail or a file that you received while chatting until you scan them with a good virus scanner. If you do not have a good virus scanner, you can scan the file online by online scanners like http://virustotal.com. It is still not safe to open the file that you received from a known person too, the person may not know that he/she has sent an infected file.

Do Not Use Real Words as Passwords
Using common password cracking tools, an attacker can crack the password that is a real word like January, Feb.....

Including special characters into your passwords and assigning long passwords is always safe.

Edit any webpage you are browsing
To edit any web page instantly add this link to your bookmark "Web page Editor". Once you finished adding, open any web page and click on the bookmark that you just added, you can now edit the page you are viewing in your own browser.

Energy saving feature
Electricity can be saved by turning off your monitor or put to standby mode while your computer is not in use. To change the power options of your monitor, Right click on your desktop -> Properties and in the screensaver tab click the Power button.

Faster Start Menu
If you are familiar with windows registry. Navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

and change the value of MenuShowDelay to 0 or any lesser value than 400 (the value you enter is taken as milliseconds)

Fax Utility in Windows XP
You need not install separate software to send or receive fax, Fax utility is integrated in Windows XP which is not installed by default. To install it follow these steps

* Click the Start button and select "Control Panel"
* From the Control Panel, open "Add or Remove Programs"
* Click "Add/Remove Windows Components" (on the left side of the Add or Remove Programs dialog)
* Place a check mark in the "Fax Services" check box and click next
* Windows may prompt you for your Windows XP CD ROM, so place it in your CD ROM, drive when
   needed and click ok
* When Windows is done copying files, click "Finish"

Fix Movie Interference in AVI files
If you have any AVI files that you saved in Windows 9x, which have interference when opened in Windows XP, there is an easy fix to get rid of the interference:
Open Windows Movie Maker and import the movie file that has interference and drag it onto the timeline and then save the movie. During the rendering, the interference will be removed. You can also use any other video converting software to accomplish this.

Full screen Internet Explorer or Folder View
To view Internet Explorer or any Folder in full screen, press F11. Do it again normal view.

Good to have only one Anti-Virus installed
Installing more than one Antivirus programs may help you secure your computer better, but this will degrade the system performance badly. Instead, install one Anti-Virus program that has more features like File scanner, Web antivirus, Firewall, parental control, anti-spy etc...

One such example is Kaspersky Internet Security.

Group Policy for Windows XP
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 gpedit.msc, after you hit ENTER, wait for Group Policy Editor, here you can change the entire behavior of your Windows XP.

Hibernate Computer
Hibernation in Windows XP is a feature which stores current state of the computer onto hard disk and shuts down the computer, this can be later resumed once you switch it on.

To hibernate your Computer, hold down the shift key when the shutdown dialog box appears, this will change the "Stand By" button to "Hibernate", now click on the Hibernate button or press Enter to hibernate. You can also simply press H to Hibernate.

Note: You can hibernate your computer only if hibernation is enabled. If it is not enabled,
Go to Start -> type powercfg.cpl and press enter. Wait for the 'Power Options Properties' window, now click on the hibernate tab and then check the Enable Hibernation check box.
If there is no Hibernate tab in 'Power Options Properties', your administrator might have disable this feature or there is some problem with your display drivers.

Hide the file names at thumbnail view
To hide the file names at thumbnail view Hold down the shift key when switching to thumbnail view. Do it again to see the file name with thumbnail view.

How to rename Recycle bin
You can change the name of Recycle Bin of your system if you wish. You can do this if you are familiar with registry, navigate to

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder

and change the Attributes value from "40 01 00 20" to "70 01 00 20" and then restart your computer or logoff and login once and try renaming the Recycle bin.

Fast recovery if your windows are hung.
If the windows on your computer are hung and gone irresponsive Press CRTL+ALT+DEL, go to the 'processes' tab and right-click explorer.exe and then click 'end process. After explorer.exe is gone in the task manager click New Task in the File menu of Task Manager and then type explorer.exe and enter This method is useful only when explorer is frozen.

Note: This applies only for explorer.

Improving browsing performance for Internet Explorer.
You can improve Internet Explorer's browsing performance by disabling graphics, sound, music, video, and other multimedia files. This will allow you to browse faster and more efficiently if you are just interested in getting text. To do this:

Click Options from the Tools menu -> Click the Advanced Tab and in the Multimedia section you can deselect the options you don't want to have from the Multimedia section.

Increase or Decrease the size or capacity of Recycle Bin
You can increase and decrease the size of the Recycle Bin. The default size is 10 percent of the drive total space. With this 10 percent space you cannot retrieve your accidentally deleted files that are too large in size. To Increase the percentage of space of the Recycle bin Right click on the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop and then Properties. Adjust the slider in the center of the recycle bin properties window from 10% to maximum size as you want.

Increase system performance by disabling system restore
By turning System restore off you can increase system performance and also save disk space. To turn off system restore: Right-click on My Computer -> Properties and then click on System Restore tab and then check the "Turn off System Restore on all drives" checkbox.

Note: You must have Administrative rights to do change system restore options.

Insert smiley's in your emails.
You can insert any images or smiley's in your emails. Just drag and drop the the image or smiley from any web page in to message editing window. The image or the smiley stays in the email as long as it stays on the web page.

Easily navigate Back & Forth in Internet Explorer
To navigate to the previous or next page in Internet Explorer, hold the Shift key while turning the mouse wheel.

It is Safe to Turn on firewall in XP
If your Operating System is Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and above, turn the inbuilt firewall on to prevent your computer from unauthorized access over internet. However it is not required to turn on the firewall if you do not have an internet connection or have a third party firewall software installed.

Keep your windows XP updated

Keep your windows updated to the latest service pack available. Current windows XP Service Pack available is 3 and can be found on below link.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsxp/sp3/default.mspx

Keyboard shortcuts makes working on computer easier.
You can work faster with your computer if you are good at keyboard shortcuts. You can find all the available keyboard shortcuts onhttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/301583

Launch Task Manager.
Other than Ctrl+Alt+Del, Task manager can be launched by:

1. Ctrl+Shift+Escape
2. Go to Start -> Run...->type "taskmgr" and press Enter

These methods helps opening task manager if some viruses disable the functionality of Ctrl+Alt+Del.

Make your own icon files with Mspaint
You can make your own icons with MsPaint, to do this you have to create or open any image in MsPaint and then change the size to 32 x 32 pixels and then save it with the file extension .ico

Ex:- <filename>.ico

Move your taskbar to a new place.
If you want more windows to be shown at the same time on your taskbar or if you don't want the taskbar to be at the bottom of your screen, you have an option to place the taskbar at the top, right and left ends of your screen, to do this first unlock the taskbar by right-clicking on empty space on the taskbar uncheck the "Lock the taskbar" option, now drag the taskbar to any side (right, left, or top) of your screen.

Narrator in Windows XP
If you want your computer read text for you that is shown on any window, start Narrator located in Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Accessibility -> Narrator or just press WinKey + U

NTFS (file system of your hard drive partitions) conversion
If your drives are FAT file system, you can save disk space and increase system performance by converting your drives to NTFS. System performance is increased when the data is accessed faster, data can be accessed faster with NTFS. Disk space can be saved by compressing your drives, you can compress drives only in NTFS.

Opening a link in new window on Internet Explorer
Hold the Shift key while clicking on a link to open the Web page in a new window in Internet Explorer Browser, you can also right click on the link and then click "Open in a new window".

This also applies for Mozilla Firefox.

Open files and folder at Single click
It will be easier to browse your computer when you can single click on a file or a folder to open. To enable this option Open My Computer or any folder and then click on Folder Options in the Tools menu and in the general tab and at the end you can change this option.

Organize your files into groups.
You can arrange files in your folder by grouping them. Open a folder containing several different subfolders and file types. Right-click any empty space on the window's contents pane, click Arrange Icons By, and then click Show in Groups.

Password protect your computer.
It is always a good practice to password protect your computer to prevent unauthorized access over a network or by someone who can physically access your computer.

Place volume icon in the taskbar
If you do not see a volume control icon in the taskbar and if your sound drivers are installed correctly, go to the Sounds and Audio Devices in Control Panel and select "Place volume icon in the taskbar".

Prevent from getting infected by Internet worms & Trojans
Internet worms are mostly spread through removable devices like CD ROM's, Floppy Drives and Flash Drives. Most of these removable devices have autorun functions in them which maybe a virus or a software that is necessary for you. Turning off autorun feature makes your computer less vulnerable from security threats.

To disable autorun feature Go to Start -> Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC Go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System. Locate the entry for "Turn autoplay off" and change it.

Printing in DOS Mode
If you are working at the Command Prompt your can print a text file by the command "PRINT filename.txt" and while you are editing the file press Alt then F and then P to print.

Protect yourself from spyware's
If your Web browser has been taken over by pop-up ads, or there are toolbars on your computer that you didn't download and install, your computer might be running spyware. Spyware is software that collects personal information from you without first letting you know what it's doing, and without asking for your permission. Be careful while installing free screensavers and free games that are available on internet, these free stuffs mostly contain ad-ware and spyware in them.

Quick Document Printing
Put a shortcut of the installed printer on your desktop and drag and drop any document on it, there will be no need to open file for printing. To place shortcut on desktop click Start button -> Settings -> Printers. When the Printers window opens, right-click on the default printer and then click on "Create Shortcut". Now you can see the shortcut of the printer on your desktop. Another quick way to print documents is right-click on the icon of document and then click "Print"

Quick Format Vs Normal Format
You can format a partition or drive in two types (Quick and Default or full format). When you first time format the partition, it is recommended to use default method (full format). This is slow and low-level formatting but this removes all data from the partition as well as the partition is scanned for bad sectors and fixed. If you select the quick format method, you can save time but you can remove only data from the partition which does not scan the partition for bad sectors. If you sure about your hard disk health then quick format should be enough.

Quick Lock Desktop
You can quickly lock desktop by pressing Win + L, this will lock your computer and switch to the Welcome screen.

Quick Minimize all open windows
Control all open windows using windows shortcut keys To minimize and maximize all your active windows programs you may usually use your mouse, but if you want to do this with keyboard Shortcut, simply press "Windows key+D" to minimize all windows, pressing the same key combination again will maximize all the windows that were maximized before.

Quickly add to Favorites
In your browser, press Ctrl+D to add the any webpage to your Favorites. The same Ctrl+D can be used to delete files and folders in your computer (explorer).

Quickly close all tabs in Firefox.
You quickly close all the tabs in Mozilla Firefox by a single key strike by installing Panic Plug-in. This will close all the tabs except the one which you don't want to be closed with a single key on your keyboard. Very useful tool to avoid being caught by boss.

Quickly start screensaver
If you want to instantly activate screensaver, Go to Start -> Run and type the name of the screensaver and press enter. The default screensavers name in XP is "logon.scr"

Quickly switch users.
You can switch users without going through the Welcome screen: From Task Manager, go to the Users tab, right-click a user, and select Connect.

Remove Compression Option at Disk Cleanup
If you want to avoid the compression analysis when you start disk cleanup, you can disable it by navigating to the following key in registry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches
\Compress old files

 and then delete the "Default" Value Key.

Remove Printers and Faxes at start menu
If there are no printers installed on your computer or if you are not using Printers and Faxes at the start menu, you can hide it by stopping or disabling the Print Spooler service.

Go to Start -> Run and type services.msc and press enter. Wait for the Services console to open and search for the Print Spooler service in the list. Double-click on it and in the Startup type field, select Disabled and close the window.

Note: You must be having administrative privileges to do this.

Fast start Mozilla Firefox with Firefox Preloader
Mozilla Firefox takes some to start on some computers that are slow, you can make it start instantly when you open it by installingFirefox Preloader.

Note: Firefox may still delay starting if the internet speed is too low.

Rename Multiple files at once in XP
It is possible to rename more than one file at a time in windows XP, to do this, select all the files that you want to rename and right-click on any one file and rename it, all other files you selected will be renamed to the same name that you renamed with an incremental number added to it.

RESTORING MEDIA PLAYER CLASSIC
If you did not like the Windows Media Player that you just updated or for any other reason you wanted your previous version of media player back, you can restore it by the following steps:
Insert the the XP CD into the CD drive (if auto starts, click exit).
Go to Start -> Run and then type
"rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection InstallWMP7 132 c:\windows\inf\wmp.inf"
and enter.

Safer Registry Editing
If you are a novice with system registry, make sure that you back up the registry before you make any changes in the registry. Registry contains all information of how your system runs. Backing up Registry will help you to restore Registry in case any problem occurs after modifying. You can backup the whole Registry or only Registry sub keys. Go to File menu option then click on Export option for backup and save it with on any in a safe place. To restore the backed up registry, just double click the reg file that you backed up.

Save files with different extensions in Notepad
To save a document with an extension other than the one a program wants to use, enclose the entire name in quotation marks. For example, if you run Notepad and save a file under the name file1.dba, it will actually be saved under the name file1.dba.txt.
But if you type "file1.dba" (with quotes) then the document will be saved under the name file1.dba. Note that a document so-named cannot be opened via double-clicking since the extension is no longer ".txt"

Save space on your taskbar
If your monitor is not big enough to provide enough space on the taskbar, you can free some space by hiding the icons in the notification area that you don't use frequently. To to this :

Right-click on your taskbar -> Properties -> and then check the "Hide inactive icons" checkbox, you can also which icon to hide or show by clicking on the customize button.

Selected file details in Explorer
In a folder on the View Menu, select "Choose Details" to select which file properties should be shown in the Explorer window. To sort by a file property, check its name in the "Choose Details" in order to make that property available in the "Arrange Icons by" menu.

Shut down/Restart/Hibernate via Remote Desktop
To Shut down/Restart/Hibernate via Remote Desktop, click on desktop, then press Alt+F4, you can now see the shutdown dialog box. Alternate way to shutdown via remote desktop is
Go to start -> Run and then type "shutdown -s -t 0".

User security in a computer.
It is always safe to enable Guest account and password protect your account. Do this if you don't want anybody else to access your personal data.

Stop noise while copying Audio CD's
Stop noise while copying Audio CD's When using 3rd party burning software (eg, Nero Burning Rom) to copy audio CD, some noise may be heard at the end of each track. To prevent this, try the following method:

1. Enter System Properties\device manager
2. Select IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
3. Double click on thee CD writer IDE channel
4. Select Advance Setting tab
5. Change the transfer mode to 'PIO Only'
6. Restart Computer

Stop Windows Messenger from Auto-Starting
If you're not a big fan of Windows Messenger, simply delete the following Registry Key after closing Messenger completely:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\MSMSGS

Terminate Crashed Applications faster
Terminating crashed Applications quick will not make you wait until the it closes by itself, you can change the wait time in system registry. To do this, Open Regedit and navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

and change the value of "HungAppTimeout" key to 500 or 1000

500 = .5 seconds

The Print Screen Key
If you want to save an image that is being displayed on the website or an application that is protected from being copied, Press the "Print Screen" button on you keyboard, now the entire screen of your computer will be copied to the clipboard, you can now paste the content of the clipboard (screenshot of your desktop) into paint or any image editing software and save it.

Turn off CD Auto Play
To 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 Go to Start -> Run -> gpedit.msc Computer Config -> Administrative Template -> System Double click Turn off Auto play Enable it.

Unlock Toolbars for easy access
Unlock the toolbars by right-clicking on the toolbar then uncheck "Lock the toolbars". This will help you quickly move the toolbar buttons to anywhere you like.

Website that reads web pages.
WebAnywhere is a web-based screen reader for the web. It requires no special software to be installed on the computer and is very useful for visually impaired people.

WinXP Clear Page file on shutdown
It is possible to retrieve your personal through the pagefile.sys file located in system drive (usually C:\Pagefile.sys). This file can only be accessed in DOS mode or a different operating system. It's safe to clear pagefile when you shutdown your computer, to do this navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

and then change the value of ClearPageFileAtShutdown to 1 ie:- dword:00000001

XP Hidden Back-up utility
There is a hidden backup utility in Windows XP. You can have a look at it by clicking the Start -> Run and then type "ntbackup" and then press enter, the wizard will help you backup or restore files on your computer.

XP Sound decreases performance.
If you think your computer is slow, you can increase its performance by disabling sounds. You can disable/enable sounds at Control panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices and then switching to Sounds tab.

Disable Windows from Saving The Thumbnail Cache
By disabling Windows from saving the Thumbnail Cache you can speed up your Windows.

In Windows Explorer, click Tools - Folder Options. Choose the View tab, and turn off the Do not cache thumbnails option.

Disabling ZIP Folders
If you do not use Zip Folders in windows XP, you can disable it in Windows Explorer by following this steps: Click Start - Run.

Type "regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll" without quotes and click OK.

Common Command Console Utilities
Windows XP comes with quite a few console utilities you can easily run from the command line
(Start    ->    Run)

 

Computer Management	-	compmgmt.msc
Device Manager	-	devmgmt.msc
Disk Defrag	-	dfrg.msc
Disk Management	-	diskmgmt.msc
Event Viewer	-	eventvwr.msc
Group Policies	-	gpedit.msc
Local Security Settings	-	secpol.msc
Local Users and Groups	-	lusrmgr.msc
Performance Monitor	-	perfmon.msc
Resultant Set of Policies	-	rsop.msc
Services	-	services.msc
Shared Folders	-	fsmgmt.msc
Component services	-	comexp.msc
Windows Management Infrastructure	-	wmimgmt.msc

Creating a Shutdown Shortcut
Windows XP has a program called shutdown.exe which allows you to easily create shortcut to shutdown or restart your computer. To create a shutdown shortcut on the desktop:

Right click on the desktop.
Click New - Shortcut.
Enter in "shutdown -s -t 00" (type without quotes).
Press the Next button.

Type a name for this shortcut. Click Finish button.

Customize Drive Icons
With the following tips you can change the drive icons. Create autorun.inf file in the root directory of the hard disk you wish to change. You can use Notepad to create inf file. Insert this code into autorun.inf,

[autorun]
icon=C:\Data\icon1.ico

Note: You have to specify the full path of the icon file in place of "C:\Data\icon1.ico"

Restart Windows to take effect.

Hiding a XP Computer from Network Neighborhood
If you want to share files from a XP computer, but want to remove it from showing up in the Network Neighborhood, Run:

net config server /hidden:yes

Hiding All Icons on your Desktop
You can hide all icons on your desktop. Start regedit Navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Add a new DWORD value "NoDesktop" Setting for Value Data: 0 or 1 (0 = Enabled / 1 = Disabled) Close regedit and reboot computer.

Disabling Right Click on the Desktop
It is possible to disable the right click on the desktop. Start regedit Navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Modify/Create DWORD Value of Data type REG_DWORD Named "NoViewContextMenu" Setting for Value Data: 0 or 1 (0 = Enabled / 1 = Disabled) Close regedit and reboot computer

Disable The Right Click on the Taskbar
It is possible to disable right clicking on the taskbar. Start regedit and navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

and Modify/Create DWORD Value of Data type REG_DWORD Named "NoTrayContextMenu" Setting for Value Data: 0 or 1 (0 = Enabled / 1 = Disabled) Close regedit and reboot computer.

IP Command Lines
Ipconfig is small utility that come with Windows XP. This utility provides you with diagnostic information related to TCP/IP network configuration. Ipconfig also accepts various Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) commands, allowing a system to update or release its TCP/IP network configuration, and so on.

To run the Ipconfig.exe utility, at a command prompt, type ipconfig, and then add any appropriate options.

ipconfig /all   -   Display full configuration information.
ipconfig /release   -   Release the IP Address for the specified adapter.
ipconfig /renew   -   Renew the IP address for the specified adapter.
ipconfig /flushdns   -   Purges the DNS Resolver cache.
ipconfig /registerdns   -   Refreshes all DHCP leases and re-registers DNS names
ipconfig /displaydns   -   Display the contents of DNS Resolver Cache.
ipconfig /showclassid   -   Display all the DHCP class IDs allowed for adapter.
ipconfig /setclassid   -   Modifies the DHCP class id

Disable Search from Looking in ZIP Files (make faster search)
Compressing files, folders, and programs decreases their size and reduces the amount of space they use on your drives or removable storage devices. Drive compression decreases the amount of space used by all of the files and folders stored on that drive. Windows XP Search can get slow if you have a lot of compressed files on your hard drive. You can speed up your searches by disabling this.

Click Start - Run. Type:
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\zipfldr.dll /u Click OK.

To turn this feature back on: Click Start - Run. Type:
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\zipfldr.dll Click OK.

Change Internet Explorer Title
With this tweak you can customize Internet Explorer by adding your own window title for your internet explorer.

Open regedit. Navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

On the right pane, create or modify the string value name "Window Title". Double click "Window Title" and enter the text desired In Title Bar. Close regedit.

Change the Windows Default Installation Path
Sometimes when you add components or software to Windows XP, the Windows installation files are needed. Windows XP will prompt for the installation CD. To facilitate the process, you can copy the i386 folder on the CD to you local hard drive and change the registry, so that XP will look for them automatically Open Regedit (registry editor) Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

On the right pane, double click string value "Source Path" and change the value to the correct i386 folder (e.g. D:\i386 to E:\i386). Navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup

On the right pane, double click string value "Source Path" and change the value to the correct i386 folder (e.g.. D:\i386 to E:\i386). Close Regedit.

View Windows System Info
You can follow this tip to view the windows system information:

Open command prompt (DOS Prompt), type systeminfo then press Enter. Once the system has finished gathering the information you can view the windows system information: OS Name, OS Version, Original Install Date, System Up Time, etc

Change Internet Explorer Download Directory
You can change the default path which Internet Explorer uses to save downloaded files, to do this, In Regedit navigate to:

"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer"

Change the value of the string "Download Directory" to the new path you want to assign as IE's Default Download directory i.e. "C:\IEDownloads"

Dial-up connection window launches automatically while working
While working on your computer, the dial-up connection dialog may come up automatically. This is due to some application trying to connect to the internet. The exact application maybe unknown. Most applications are configured/designed to check for updates automatically by contacting the authors website. Some applications notify the user before contacting their servers (most don't). Adwares contact their servers to fetch Ads and some Trojan may even send out your valuable information.

To prevent this automatic dialup box, turn off the Remote Access Auto Connection Manager Service. This Service creates a connection to a remote network whenever a program references a remote DNS or NetBIOS name or address. To disable this service, try these steps: Right click My Computer icon, choose Manage and wait for Computer Management window. Select services in the left pane and in the right pane, select Remote Access Auto Connection Manager and double click Use the Startup type drop box and choose Disabled.

You may identify the outgoing traffic using an application-based firewall like Sygate or Zone Alarm. Also, it's advisable to scan for parasites. Use any of these programs to eliminate the parasites.

 If 'Send To -> Mail Recipient' does nothing

If nothing happens when you right-click a file and choose 'Mail Recipient' in the SendTo option, following the below steps may fix it.

1. Go to Start -> Run and type MSIMN.EXE /REG and press enter

2. Go to Start -> Run and type inetcpl.cpl and press enter. Wait for Internet Options window,
    click on Programs tab and in the Email field, set your default mail client. Click Apply and OK.

3. Go to Start -> Run and type Regedit and press enter, wait for the Registry Editor and navigate to
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mailto\shell\open\command and make sure that the default value is
   "%ProgramFiles%\Outlook Express\msimn.exe" /mailurl:%1

4. Go to Start -> Run and type the below line
             Regsvr32 "%ProgramFiles%\Outlook Express\msoe.dll"

Note: You must be having Administrative rights to fix this.
         This might not fix the problem if the default mail client is uninstalled from your system.

How to restore the original Guest account picture
When you change the Picture for the Guest account, via User Accounts applet, the original guest.bmp (with the briefcase icon) gets replaced. If you want to revert back to the same old icon for your Guest account, download Guest.bmp and then place the file in the following folder:

"%allusersprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures"

Type the above in Start -> Run dialog. Then place the downloaded guest.bmp file in that location. Overwrite if prompted. Note that the following folder holds all the default picture files, except guest.bmp - %allusersprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\Default Pictures

Restore missing User account pictures and the default Wallpapers
If some of the user account pictures and the default wallpaper images that ship with Windows XP are missing, you may use the information in this article to restore them back.

Solution Click Start, Run and type %Windir%\INF Locate the shl_img.inf file. The file may be shown as shl_img, if you have configured Windows Explorer to hide known file extensions. To see the file extensions for all file types, then try this: On the Tools menu in My Computer, click Folder Options. Click the View tab. Clear the Hide extensions for known file types check box. Right-click the shl_img.inf file, and then click Install Windows will now attempt to restore the missing picture files, and may prompt you for the Windows installation source path. Point to %Windir%\i386 folder, or insert your Windows XP CD.

Easy Way to Share Multiple Folders
If you need to share multiple folders, running the program SHRPUBW.EXE at Start -> run, will bring up a simple dialog box to let you:

Browse to the folder you want to share
Enter in a Share name
Enter in a Share description
Set permissions.

Several choices are available. Restart the process from within the same program

Hiding Folders and Files with the Encrypting File System (EFS)
Windows XP has Encrypting File System (EFS) feature that disallows other users on the computer to access them. Encrypted files and folders show up in Windows Explorer as green. Encrypted files or folders does not need any special method to access it, you open them and close them as you normally would any other file. They're immediately decrypted as you open them, and then encrypted back as you close them. EFS does have few minor limitations:

EFS works only on NTFS volumes.
EFS won't work on compressed files.
EFS can't compress files in the C:\Windows folder or any files marked with the System attribute.

To Encrypt any file or folder Right-click on the folder or file, Choose Properties -> General -> Advanced. The Advanced Attributes dialog box appears. Check the box next to "Encrypt contents to secure data."  Click OK.

Disable Desktop Cleanup Wizard
The Desktop Cleanup Wizard displays a list of the desktop icons that have not been used for 60 days or more, enabling you to remove those icons that you don't want on your desktop. You can retrieve icons you have removed by opening the Unused Desktop Shortcuts folder on your desktop. If you want to disable this annoying feature you can follow these steps:

Right-click on an empty space on the Desktop then click Properties. Select the "Desktop" tab. Click "Customize Desktop" button. At the bottom uncheck the box labeled 'Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard Every 60 Days'.

Resolving Inability to Add or Remove Programs
If a particular user cannot add or remove programs, there might be a simple registry edit to be done. Open Registry Editor and Navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Uninstall

and change the DWORD NoAddRemovePrograms to 0 disable it.

Reducing Viruses in E-Mail (Outlook)
You can greatly reduce the amount of viruses you might get through e-mail attachments by simply installing the free Outlook E-mail Attachment Security Update from Microsoft. You should also have a good virus protection program installed. This update strips out any attachments where, if you click on them, they will automatically run on their own. Examples of restricted extensions are: .exe, .com, .bat, .vbs, .scr This will work for Outlook98 and Outlook2000. OutlookXP has it already built in as part of the product.

Changing Notepad Defaults
If you want to change the default settings of notepad such as word wrap, font and size: Start Regedit Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software / Microsoft / Notepad From here it is pretty easy to see what items you can change

Opening Files with Other Than the Default Application
If you have more than one application you use for the same type of file (media, text, graphics etc.) Use one as your default player, make a shortcut to the other player and put it in the C:\WINDOWS\SENDTO folder. When you want to open a file with the non-default application, right click on the file and send it to the other application

Hidden FDISK Switches
Here are a few additional switches that can be used with FDISK:

/Status - Give the status of the partitions. Similar to option #4
/FPRMT - FAT32 in drivers smaller than 512 MB
/MBR - Fix master boot record
/PRI:xx - Primary partition of size XX in megs
/EXT:xx - Extended partition
/LOG:xx - Logical drive in extended partition

To play DVD's with the Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player which is inbuilt in windows XP can play DVD's. To make Windows Media Player as the default DVD player or open DVD files through Windows Media Player, Open Registry Editor and navigate to

"HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ MediaPlayer \ Player \ Settings"

and create a new string EnableDVDUI Give it a value of yes The next time you start the Media Player, you can do a File / Open DVD

Stopping Applications from Starting Automatically
For Windows2000 or Windows XP, you can now use the MSCONFIG.EXE that comes with Windows XP. It also lets you change the Services and BOOT.INI file as well. Click on the Startup tab to remove apps that are starting automatically from the registry. You can also search through the AUTOEXEC.BAT and WIN.INI files as well. If you have applications that you want to stop from starting automatically, there are three places you need to look, the WIN.INI file, the Startup Folder and the Registry. The load= or run= lines in the WIN.INI file.

Note: Do not remove programs from startup if you are not sure of it.

Opening a File by Dragging to Task Bar
If you already have a application showing on the taskbar, a quick way to open a file is to drag it with from the Explorer to that icon and hold it for a second or so. (Don't release the mouse). The app will re-open with that file loaded.

Create Shortcut to Hibernation
The hibernate feature saves everything in memory on disk, turns off your monitor and hard disk, and then turns off your computer. When you restart your computer, your desktop is restored exactly as you left it. It takes longer to bring your computer out of hibernation than out of standby. To create a shortcut you can follow these steps: Right click on an empty space on the Desktop and select "New->Shortcut". In the 'Type the location of the item' box type:

"rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll SetSuspendState"

Click the Next button. In the 'Type a name for this shortcut' box type 'Hibernate' then click on the Finish button.

Remove Previous Network Share Shortcuts to speedup
When you open My Network Places , by default windows will scan and show shortcuts to previous network shares, this will take some time and may slow down your computer. To turn this off and remove any current shortcuts, Open Windows Explorer Go to Tools -> Folder Options -> View tab, in the Advanced Settings, uncheck Automatically search for network folders and printers checkbox and then open My Network Places and delete all the previous network connections.

Setting Swap File Size (Pagefile)
When you start your computer for the first time, a swap file will be created. You can speed the boot process by specifying this as the minimum swap file size. Boot your system and don't open any applications Note the size of your swap file (WIN386.SWP) Open the System Properties dialog box (right click on My Computer and select Properties) Click on the Performance tab Click on the Virtual Memory button Check Let me specify my own virtual memory settings If you have a hard drive or partition that is not over used, you can change the location For the minimum size, select the size (or slightly larger) of the swap file when you first booted. Don't select a maximum. Let it default to the rest of your hard drive space.

Defragmenting the Swap File
Normally when you use Windows95's Disk Defragmenter, this will not defrag the swap file. To defrag the swap file:

Open the System Properties dialog box (right click on My Computer and select Properties) Click on the Performance tab Click on the Virtual Memory button Check Let me specify my own virtual memory settings Check Disable virtual memory (Note: This will cause the system not to use a swap file) Click on the OK button Answer Yes to the warning, Click on the Close button Reboot when prompted You system will reboot. Check to see that there is no swap file. If one still remains (WIN386.SWP), you can safely delete it. Defrag your system as you usually do Now reset the swap file to your previous setting and reboot. (Note: Do not leave your system running without a swap file)

Power Surfing
This will be useful if you have large monitor and run at a high resolution... If you want to really power surf the web, open up more than one browser. Arrange them on the screen so that you can see at least part of each one at all times. Once this is done, you can now drag links from one browser to another. This saves you from having to use the back button constantly, especially if you are on a page like a search engine, where there are lots of links and you want to try a bunch of them. Also, if you encounter a web page with frames, and you want to break out of the frames, you can drag a link to a new browser. No more frames. (You can also right-click a link and choose "Open in New Browser".)

Here's an example of using two browsers... Let's say you are going to be use a search engine for the next hour or so. Start two browsers and tile them vertically. (Minimize all programs except the two browsers, and right click a blank spot on the taskbar, then choose 'tile vertically'). Now drag the edges of the browsers so that the browser on the left is about 3 inches wide. Drag the edges of the browser on the right so that it takes up the rest of the screen. Now, using the browser on the left, open your favorite search engine and do a search. When the list of hits are displayed, drag a link into the browser on the right. This lets you see all the hits from the search engine while you are surfing those sites... no more hitting the 'back' button all day long.

Easy Access to Folders from the Toolbar
You can quickly access commonly used folders from your Taskbar, To do this, right click on an empty space Taskbar and Select Toolbars -> New Taskbar, Browse to the directory you want to add Now on the Taskbar you will see the name of that folder displayed.

Organizing the Start / Programs Listing
As you add more and more programs, the listing of them in Start / Programs can get fairly long. One solution is to categorize your programs into several groups, create a folder for those groups, and move the shortcuts to those folders. For example:

Start the Explorer Go to Windows / Start Menu / Programs Create new folders with the categories you want (e.g. Graphics, Utilities, Internet etc.) Now move the shortcuts to those programs in Windows / Start Menu / Programs to whichever category you want. This can greatly reduce clutter and make it a lot easier to find your programs.

Note: Windows 2000 and Windows XP Users will need to go to the following path
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs directory

Restoring a Lost Desktop
If you ever lose the Desktop but Explorer is still running with the Start Button, you can do this to bring back your Desktop in a Windows box.

Click Start -> Run, type a period " . " and press Enter

Increasing the Icon Cache
Run Registry editor and navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer

Create a new string called "Max Cached Icons" Give it a value of 10000 This will increase response time in windows and give the Shell icon cache file more space.

Changing 256 color icons to 16-Bit color icons.
Open the Registry Hit Ctrl+F
Type "Shell Icon BPP"
When found, right click the Shell Icon BPP icon Click Modify Change the value from 4 to 16
Click Ok
Close the registry and restart computer for the changes to take effect.

Faster Start Menu
If you are familiar with windows registry. Navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

and change the value of MenuShowDelay to 0 or any lesser value than 400 (the value you enter is taken as milliseconds)
 

Common Control Panel Applets
The follow are some common Control Panel Applets that are located in the \windows\system32 directory. If you find yourself using any of these frequently, then you can simply make shortcuts to them on your desktop.

appwiz.cpl   -   Add/Remove Programs
desk.cpl   -   Display Properties
firewall.cpl   -   Firewall Settings
inetcpl.cpl   -   Internet Options
mmsys.cpl   -   Sound and Audio
ncpa.cpl   -   Network Connections
nusrmgr.cpl   -   User Accounts
powercfg.cpl   -   Power Options
sysdm.cpl   -   System Properties
wscui.cpl   -   Security Center
wuaucpl.cpl   -   Automatic Updates Configuration
inetcpl.cpl   -   Internet Explorer Options

Making Desktop Changes Permanent
To make changes to the Desktop like window size and position after rebooting: Start Registry Editor and navigate to

"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer"

Create a New Binary Value Name it NoSaveSettings Give it a value of 01 00 00 00

Running SFC without a CD ROM

If you run sfc /scannow (System files checker) and get prompted to insert a Windows XP installation CD. To avoid this, copy the contents of the Windows XP installation CD to one of your hard drive and change the path in the below given registry path to the path where you have copied Windows XP installation CD.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\ServicePackSourcePath HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\SourcePath

the last one might not be necessary

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SourcePath

Note: You need to have administrative privileges to change the registry values mentioned above.

Getting Screen Shots

You do not have to install a screen capturing software to get a picture of your desktop, instead hit the Print Screen key on your keyboard. This copies a bitmap of the full screen into the clipboard. Start up a graphics editor or Microsoft Paint and paste it in. Alt + Print Screen will capture only the active window.

Identify Faulty Device Drivers
If you are having problems with lockups, blue screens, or can only get to safe mode, often the problem is due to a faulty device driver. One way to help identify them is through the use of the Verfier program

Run "Verifier" in the start - > Run and follow the steps.

Keep the default of Create Standard Settings
Select the type of drivers you want to confirm
A list of drivers to be verified on the next boot will be shown.
Reboot If your computer stops with a blue screen, you should get an error message with the problem driver
To turn off the Verifier, run verifier /reset at start - > Run

How to Enable Hibernation
The hibernate feature saves everything in memory onto disk and turns off computer as you would normally shutdown your computer. When you restart the computer, your desktop is restored exactly as you left it within seconds. To enable Hibernation, follow these steps:

Go to Start -> Run and type control, wait for the Control Panel to open. Click on Power Options icon, click on the Hibernate tab. Check the Enable Hibernation Support checkbox. Now to hibernate your computer, Click Start -> Turn Off Computer as you usually do. Now press the shift key on your keyboard, you will notice the Stand By button is replaced with Hibernate key while you are holding the shift key, now press enter or or click on the hibernate button to hibernate.

Increasing the Size of the Scroll Bar
How to adjust the width of the scroll bar: Right Click on Desktop Select Properties Select the Appearance tab Go to the item list and find scrollbar. Increasing the value in the Size field will increase the scrollbar width.

Adding Shortcuts to Desktop Without "Shortcut To" text
Whenever you create a shortcut on your computer, you see the ' Shortcut To ' prefix added to the file or folder that you created shortcut of. It is possible to remove the Shortcut To prefix, to do this

Open Registry Editor and then navigate to
H KEY_USERS\ .Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

and change the binary value of "link" to "00,00,00,00" Now You can make Shortcuts to desktop without ' Shortcut To ' text.

Note: You must restart computer or logoff and login once for the changes to take effect.

Changing the clock to 24-Hour Time
To change the display of the clock on the taskbar to 24-hour format: Open the Control Panel, Double-click on the Regional and Language Settings icon, Click on the Customize button and then the Time tab. Now in the Time Format section select H:mm:ss.

Adding Drive to the SendTo List
You can quickly copy data from any location to any of the drives on your computer without opening the drives to paste the copied data. To do this, Go to Start -> Run and then type sendto and enter, wait for the sendto folder to open, create a shortcut of the drive that you want to send data to.

To test it, right click on any file or folder and select "Send To", in the sub menu you will now be able to find the drive that you recently created a shortcut of, now click on the drive or the shortcut of the drive that you just created. The data is copied into it.

You can also create shortcut of any folder in the sendto folder to quickly send data into it.

How to make the task bar autohide
You can free up some space at the bottom of your computer screen by auto hiding the taskbar, to do this, right-click on the taskbar and Select Properties, now check the checkbox Auto-hide the taskbar and Click OK. This will make the task bar slide off the screen when the cursor moves away from it, and it will slide back on when the cursor is moved near it again. The same can be done for the MS Office task bar as well.

Taking Ownership Of a File or Folder
If you have ever got a message saying Access Denied when tried opening a folder or change the file content, that maybe because you do not have permission to access it or the file or folder has been corrupted. If it is that you do not have rights to access it, you can take ownership of that folder or file. To do this:

Log on with an account that has administrator rights
Right click on the folder or file  and Select Properties
Click on the Security tab
Click on the Advanced button
Click on the Owner tab In the list of Names
Click on your name To take ownership
Click on Replace owner on sub-containers and objects Click OK and then Yes.

Network Connection Always Shows Access Denied
If you are always getting Access Denied errors when trying to connect to a XP computer in the network, and you know you have the correct user names and passwords on the computer, the solution may be a simple registry edit. Start Regedit and navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/Lsa

Change the value of a key named "restrictanonymous" to 0 instead of 1 Don't change "restrictanonymoussam" value. Reboot computer for the changes to take effect.

Hiding "Manage" on Right-Click context menu of My Computer
If you want to remove Manage from Right-Click context menu of My Computer, Start Regedit and navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer

and create a DWORD value called NoManageMyComputerVerb and set the value to 1. You need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

Recover Forgotten Admin or User's Password
There is no need to reinstall windows if you forgot the administrator password. There is a boot disk you can download at: http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/ that will let you reset the password of any account on NT4, Windows2000 or XP. Just follow all the default settings which are for the administrator account. You can also download a bootable CD image at the above given link.

Viewing Installed Drivers
If you want to see a list of installed drivers, you can run the driverquery program in windows XP There are a lot of available switches to view different types of information. One use can be to export to a CSV file for viewing in Excel An example would then be: Driverquery /v /fo csv > drivers.csv

Windows Help and Support Error

If you get an error Windows cannot find HELPCTR.EXE, it may be that a registry entry has got corrupted. To fix this, Start Regedit and navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\HELPCTR.EXE

If the key isn't there, right click on App Paths key and create a new key HELPCTR.EXE It should have a value of C:\WINDOWS\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Binaries\HelpCtr.exe. Now reboot computer for the change to take effect.

Disable Windows Explorer Thumbnail View
You may have noticed that your windows sometimes freeze's when you open a folder that contains too many pictures in it, this is because of the thumbnail view of the images that windows shows. You can disable the Windows Explorer's ability to show the Thumbnail View whenever you open the folder that contain too many images.

To do this, Open regedit (registry editor) Navigate to
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced" and change the value of ClassicViewState to 1. Close regedit and reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

Shortcut for System Properties Dialogue box
To get system properties dialogue box, you have to either right-click on My Computer icon and then select properties or open Control Panel and then double-click on System icon.
There are easier ways to open the system properties dialogue box which are mentioned below.

1. Press Win Logo key and Pause Break key simultaneously
2. Hold the alt key and double-click on the My Computer icon on your desktop
3. Click on start button --> Run and then type sysdm.cpl

Pressing Win Logo key and Pause Break is the easiest.

Add Insert to Right-click menu of CD/DVD Drive
Did you know that you can eject the CD/DVD drive by right clicking on the CD / DVD drive and then Eject
. But there is no option to insert the ejected CD/DVD drive. Here is small utility which adds Insert
to the right click menu of the CD/DVD drive which will insert it. Follow the below steps.

1. Download cdtraycontrol.zip

2. Extract the content of the downloaded zip file to C:\Windows\System32\
    (Change the drive letter if your windows is not installed on C Drive)
3. Run cdtraycontrol.reg file, click Yes and then OK when prompted.

Now you can see Insert
on the right click menu of the CD Drive.

Note: You must have administrator rights to do this.

Allowing Network Access with Blank Passwords
Although you can log in locally without a password, but by default Windows XP does not allow network users to access the computer without a password. Typically you will get 'Unknown error 31' or 'Access denied' errors. To override this problem follow the below steps.

Go to Start -> Run and type gpedit.msc and then press enter. Wait for the Group Policy Editor, go to Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options and then double click on Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console login only and Disable it.

Note: You must be having administrative privileges to do this.

Bringing Up the Shutdown Dialog Box
Here is a small script that can bring the Shutdown Dialog Box . Open notepad and copy paste the below line and save it as <somefilename>.js (Extension must be .js)

(new ActiveXObject("Shell.Application")).ShutdownWindows();

Now double clicking on the file is same as clicking on Turn Off Computer in the Start Menu.

Disabling the Desktop Cleanup Wizard
In Windows XP the Desktop Cleanup Wizard will keep popping up every 60 days to move or cleanup all the icons that you don't use. If you are annoyed by this, you can disable it by :

Right click on the desktop -> Select Properties -> Click on the Desktop tab -> Click on Customize Desktop button -> Uncheck Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard.

Decreasing Boot Time in XP
Microsoft has made a program called BootVis to analyze and decrease the boot time in Windows XP. It is a small software that you need to Download
and install, also its a freeware. After downloading and installing, start it. (Can be found in the Start Menu).

After you start BootVis click on Trace menu and then click Next Boot + Driver Delays , click on OK in the next dialog box and then Reboot. Wait for the system to reboot, after rebooting BootVis will automatically start (you will have to wait for some time for it to start automatically).

After the BootVis is automatically started click on Trace menu and then Optimize System , this will again ask for the system reboot, allow it to reboot. At the next reboot, your system will be optimized, wait for the confirmation. Later when you start computer, you can notice a difference (decrease) in the boot time.

Note: You must be having administrative right to do this.
         It is recommended to Turn off or Disable your Antivirus.
         Save all your work and close all the programs before working on BootVis.

Disabling Shared Documents in My Network Places
If you do not want to see the Shared Documents folder in My Network Places you can remove it by following the below steps :

Go to Start -> Run and type Regedit and press enter. Wait for the Registry Editor navigate to the below path.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Create a new DWORD Value and name it as NoSharedDocuments , give it a value of 1 to remove

Give it a value 0 to show

Note: Log off or reboot your computer once for the changes to take effect.

Disabling or Enabling Balloon Tips
If you are annoyed by the Balloon tips that are shown in the tray area of the taskbar, you can turn it off by following the below steps :

Go to Start -> Run and type Regedit and press enter. Wait for the Registry Editor navigate to the below path.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\

Create a DWORD value of EnableBalloonTips and give it a value of 0 to disable
Give it a value of 1 to enable.

Enabling or Disabling Task Manager

To enable or disable Task Manager, follow the below steps :

Go to Start -> Run and type Regedit and press enter. Wait for the Registry Editor navigate to the below path.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

Create a DWORD value DisableTaskMgr and give it a value of 0 to enable it
Give it a value of 1 to disable.

Do you want to change Drive Letters?
Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management, wait for the all the partitions to show up. Right-click on the partition whose drive letter you want to change and select Change drive letter and paths and then click on Change button.

Note: It is not possible to change the drive letter of the drive from were windows is running.
         Some programs might not work correctly if they are associated with the drive that you
         change the drive letter.

Hide or Show User Names on Logon Screen
If you want to hide or Show the names of all or any of the user in your computer on the logon screen, follow the below steps :

Go to Start -> Run and type Regedit and press enter. Wait for the Registry Editor navigate to the below path.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\
SpecialAccounts\UserList

Create a DWORD with the name of the user account you want to hide and give it a value of 0, you can unhide it by giving it a value of 1.

Note: You must be having administrative privileges to do this.

Hiding the Last Logged On User at logon screen
If the logon screen of your computer is classic (if dialogue box shown at the start to enter username and password to login) and if you want to hide the username that is shown in the username field, follow the below steps :

Go to Start -> Run and type gpedit.msc and wait for the Group Policy Editor . Go to Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options, in the right side scroll down and find Interactive logon: Do not display last user name, double click on it and  enable it.

Note: You must be having administrative privileges to do this.

Hide or Show Windows Version on the Desktop
If you want to show or hide the version of your Windows XP on the desktop, follow the below steps:

Go to Start -> Run and type Regedit and press enter. Wait for the Registry Editor navigate to the below path.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

Edit or Create a DWORD entry PaintDesktopVersion . Give it a value 1 to show the version on desktop or give it a value 0 will hide.

Note: Logoff or Reboot for the changes to take effect.

Hiding Recycle bin on the desktop

If Recycle bin icon on your desktop is of no use to you, you can remove it by following the
below steps :

Go to Start -> Run and type Regedit and press enter. Wait for the Registry Editor navigate to the below path.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace
\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

right-click on {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} folder and click delete. This will remove recycle bin from the desktop.

If you want to put it back, create {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} folder under NameSpace folder in the same registry path.

Note: You must have administrative rights to do this.

Not using Default Picture and Fax viewer in XP?
If you find the default Picture and Fax Viewer to be annoying, it can be removed by following the below steps:

Go to Start -> Run and type Regedit and press enter. Wait for the Registry Editor navigate to the below path.

Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/SystemFileAssociations/image/ShellEx/ContextMenuHandlers
and delete the key ShellImagePreview under ContextMenuHandlers

If you change your mind later that you want to restore the Picture and Fax Viewer. Create the ShellImagePreview key and assign the value {e84fda7c-1d6a-45f6-b725-cb260c236066} under (Default) .

Note: You should Logoff or Reboot once for the changes to take effect.

If you want to see the Administrator account along with all the users at the logon screen,
Go to Start -> Run and type Regedit and press enter. Wait for the Registry Editor navigate to the below path.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
\SpecialAccounts\UserList

Create a DWORD value called Administrator if not found, give it a value 1. Now logoff to check the Administrator account on the logon screen.

Note: You must be having Administrative right to do this.

Disabling Logon, Logoff, Startup and Shutdown Status Messages

These status messages are shown at the system logon and logoff screen. If you want to turn these off follow the below steps :

Go to Start -> Run and type Regedit and press enter. Wait for the Registry Editor navigate to the below path.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system

search for DWORD value DisableStatusMessages and change its data to 1. If you cannot find the DWORD value, create one by right clicking on the white space at the right side and give it a value 1.

Note: You must be having administrative privileges to do this.

Power-off after Windows Shutdown

There are some computers that does not Turn off completely when you shutdown windows. If your computer is one of them, Try this tweak, it works on some computers.

Go to Start -> Run and type Regedit and press enter. Wait for the Registry Editor navigate to the below path.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

and edit the key PowerOffActive and give it a value of 1, do the same in

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop

Re-Enabling System Restore
If you previously disabled system restore through the Group Policy Editor , the option to start it again does not show in the System Properties, You can re-enable it again by following the
below steps :

1. Go to Start - > Run and then type gpedit.msc, press enter and wait for Group Policy Editor window
2. Go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> System Restore.
    Double-click on system restore and set Turn off System Restore and Turn off Configuration to
    Disable.
3. Go to Start - > Run and then type services.msc , press enter and wait for Services window
4. Scroll down to System Restore Service and set it for Automatic and then click on the Start button
    to start the service. Now close the Services window
5. In the Group Policy Editor, set both Turn off System Restore and Turn off Configuration to
    Not configured and close Group Policy Editor.

Now when you right click on My Computer and then properties, there should be a tab for System Restore where you can configure system restore.

Note: You must be having administrative privileges to do this.

Remembering Folder Settings

If your OS is Windows XP and does not remember your folder settings, delete or rename the following registry keys

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\BagMRU]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\Bags]

Restore the Show Desktop icon in Quick Launch bar
Clicking on the Show Desktop icon icon in the Quick Launch bar will minimize all the windows and show the desktop. If the Show Desktop icon is missing in the Quick Launch bar you can create it manually by following the below steps :

Open Notepad and Copy paste the below text and save it as 'Show Desktop.scf' on your desktop (type the name with quotes while saving).

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

Now, drag the file to the Quick Launch Toolbar.

Saving Desktop Settings
If the desktop or folders on your computer does not retain their settings, follow the below steps to fix it:

Go to Start -> Run and type Regedit and press enter. Wait for the Registry Editor navigate to the below path.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Program Manager\Restrictions

Create or edit the DWORD value NoSaveSettings and give it a value of 0.

Speed Up Browsing (Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox)

You can speed up Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox by following the steps below.

For Internet Explorer :


1. Go to Start -> Run and type Regedit and press enter. Wait for the Registry Editor navigate to the
    below path.

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

2. In the right pane change the DWORD values of  MaxConnectionsPerServer and
    MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server to above 10 (14 or 20)
3. Close Regedit and test the page loading speed of Internet Explorer.

For Mozilla Firefox :


1. Start Mozilla Firefox and type about:config in the address bar and press enter
2. Scroll down the page until you find browser.tabs.showSingleWindowModePrefs , and then double-
    click it. This will set it to 'True '.
3. Next, scroll down look for the line that says n etwork.http.pipelining , and double-click this.
    Set this to ' True '.
4. Now, scroll down and look for network.http.pipelining.maxrequests . double-click it and change the
    number to 60.

Close Firefox. You will now experience a 10% to 40% increase in speed.

Speeding the Startup of CD Burner Software's
If you are using programs' other than the native Windows XP CD Burner software, it is possible to increase the speed of its loading. Follow the steps below :

Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services and Double-click on IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service . Now in n the Startup Type select Disabled, click on the OK button and then close the Services window.

Note : You must be having administrative privileges to do this.

Stop messages from system Messenger Service (not the MSN Messenger)
The Microsoft Windows Messenger service is meant to provide a means for the system administrators to broadcast simple text messages to one or more users on a local area network (LAN). When you are connected to the Internet, without using firewall protection, anyone on the Internet can transmit a Messenger popup (Broadcast Spam) to your computer. You can stop these unwanted messages from the internet by stopping the messenger service. Follow the below steps :

 Click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Click Performance and Maintenance -> Click Administrative Tools -> Double click Services and scroll down until you find Messenger . Double-click on it and Click the STOP button, select Disable or Manual in the Startup type drop-down box to prevent from automatically starting every time you start windows.

Note: You must be having administrative privileges to do this.

Test the functionality your Anti-Virus
Open notepad and copy paste the below code and save it with some name.

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

If your Anti-Virus detects this file as a virus, then your Anti-Virus is working fine. You need not worry about the file that you just created, its completely harmless. Click here for another tip

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