Windows XP Tips
The following are some tips for using and maintaining your Windows XP computer:
NOTE: These are tips that we have collected over time. Some of these tips require advanced user skills. Backup your system before attempting these tips, and use them at your own risk.
Never Reactivate Again
Windows Explorer Tip
Backup After Fresh Install
Java
XP Browsing Speed Tweak
Group Multiple Open Windows
No Recent History
A Network Without All the Equipment
Help is Just a Directory Away
Speed Things Up a Bit
Create a Password Reset Disk
Change Web Page Font Size on the Fly
WinXP Group Policy
Forgot What's in Your Files?
Temporarily Assign Yourself Administrative Permissions
Create a Shortcut to Lock Your Computer
Activate the Screen Saver Instantly
Software Not Installing?
The Windows Keyboard Key
Remove Shared Documents Folders from "My Computer"
Rip High Quality MP3s in Windows Media Player 8
Speed up Start Menu - Part 1
Speed up Start Menu - Part 2
Stop Windows Messenger From Auto Starting
Add Album Art to Any Music Folder
Change the Location of My Music and My Pictures Folders
Remove Windows Messenger
ASPI for CD Burning
Show File Extensions
XP Memory Tweaks
If you have to reinstall Windows XP you normally will have to reactivate it
too. Well not anymore. Just backup the Wpa.dbl file after you activated the first
time. It is located in the System32 subfolder. Now if you reinstall Windows XP
just copy the file back and you're up and running again.
Here's how to check if your copy of XP is Activated.
Go to the Run box and type in:
%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe /a
and hit OK. There's your answer.
When launched in Windows ME/2000/XP Windows Explorer by default will open the
"My Documents" folder. Many people prefer the behavior from previous versions
of Windows, where Explorer would open and display "My Computer" instead of the
new way. To revert to the old way (My Computer rather than My Documents as
default), simply edit the shortcut to Windows Explorer by right-clicking on
it, then left-clicking "Properties" and changing the "Target" box to:
%windir%\EXPLORER.EXE /n,/e,
The key is to add "/n,/e," at the end of the shortcut (don't type the quotes).
After you complete your clean install and get all your software installed I would recommend that you use something like Drive Image 3 or 4 to do an image of your install partition, then burn the image to CD and keep it. XP is a different creature for some people. If you mess it up when playing around with it, just bring the image back. You can be up and running again in 20 minutes vs. the two to three hours it will take to get the whole thing and all your stuff installed again.
Note the default install of XP is about 1.5 GB and the download image may be
larger that 700 MB. So don't install too much on the OS partition. To help
downsize the Image I run the System File Checker (SFC) and reset the cache
size to 40 or 50 MB (it's well over 300 MB by default).
To run it open a command prompt and run:
SFC /?
SFC /purgecache
SFC /cachesize=50
and finally rebuild the cache by typing (have your XP Setup CD ready):
SFC /scannow
I also delete the Pagefile.sys and Hibernate.sys files before running Drive
Image.
MS Java Virtual Machine (JVM) may not appear on the Microsoft Windows Update
site. Some web sites will prompt you to install it upon visiting their pages.
However this might change in the near future due to problems between SUN and
MS so the link you get pointed to might not be there.
You can download JVM and have it ready to use when you install XP:
http://www.microsoft.com/java/
Get JVM 3805 Update for Windows 9x/NT4/ME/XP + MS IE 4/5/6 [5.3 MB]:
http://www.krm.com/ms/msjavx86.exe
Keep it in a safe place and run it after you install XP.
When you connect to a web site your computer sends information back and forth, this is obvious. Some of this information deals with resolving the site name to an IP address, the stuff that TCP/IP really deals with, not words. This is DNS (Domain Naming System) information and is used so that you will not need to ask for the site location each and every time you visit that site. Although WinXP and Win2000 have a pretty efficient DNS cache, you can increase overall performance by increasing its size.
All you need is the Registry entries below:
-----Begin cut & paste here-----
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache\Parameters]
"CacheHashTableBucketSize"=dword:00000001
"CacheHashTableSize"=dword:00000180
"MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000fa00
"MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000012d
------End cut & paste here------
Copy and paste this text in Notepad and save it as DNSCACHE.REG. Then merge it into your Registry by (double)-clicking on it.
WinXP will group multiple open windows (IE windows for example) into one group on the taskbar to keep the desktop clean. This can be annoying at times, especially when comparing different web pages because you have to go back to the taskbar, click on the group and then click on the page you want and then you only get one page because you have to click on each one separately. I think the default for this is 8 windows - any combination of apps or utilities open.
You can modify this behavior by adding a Registry value at:
HKEY_CURRRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Change the number of windows that are open before XP will start grouping them
on the Taskbar by adding a new REG_DWORD entry called "TaskbarGroupSize".
Modify "TaskbarGroupSize" to show the number of windows you want open before
XP starts to group them on the task bar. A value of 2 will cause the Taskbar
buttons to always group.
Disable or enable recent documents history. Start Regedit and go to: HKEY_CURRRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer This Registry value should already be present. If it isn't you need to add it: REG_BINARY = "NoRecentDocsHistory" (no quotes). Modify it so its value reads 01 00 00 00 for disabled or 00 00 00 00 for enabled (don't type spaces).
A Network Without All the Equipment
If you want to network two XP machines together you don't have to install a full blown network setup, i.e. switches, hubs, routers, etc... All you need is 2 NIC cards (3 if you want to share an Internet connection) and a crossover cable.
1. Connect one NIC to your broadband connection device as normal.
2. Install a second NIC in the machine with the broadband connection.
3. Install a NIC in the second machine.
4. Connect the crossover cable between the second machine NIC and the second
NIC in the broadband connection machine.
5. Reboot both computers.
6. Run the Networking Wizard if necessary.
Or:
Use a Direct Connection setup with a parallel port to parallel port connection
between the 2 machines.
You will NOT be able to share a connection using Direct Connect.
In Windows XP Pro in C:\Windows\Help you will find many *.chm files. These are help files. Just start one up and find what you're looking for without going thru the main Help menu. If for example you are interested in command line tools or command line references start up the Ntcmds.chm file. If you use the command line a lot, just create a shortcut on your desktop to Cmd.exe and simply start it up when you need it.
You could go thru the Help menu to find these but on the Home version of XP some are not linked in some of the help files.
This might help some of you:
1. Go to Control Panel -> System.
2. Click on the Advanced tab.
3. Under Performance click on the Settings button.
4. Click on the Advanced tab.
5. Click on the Background Services button.
6. Click OK.
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:
Click Start, click Control Panel and then click User Accounts.
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.
Store the disk in a secure location, because anyone using it can access your local user account.
Change Web Page Font Size on the Fly
If your mouse contains a wheel for scrolling, you can change font size on the
fly when viewing a web page in MS IE. To do so:
Press and hold Ctrl. Scroll down (or towards yourself) to enlarge the font
size. Scroll up (or away from yourself) to reduce the font size.
You might find it useful to reduce font size when printing a web page, to fit more content on the page.
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 -> Run -> type:
gpedit.msc
After you hit ENTER, you'll be greeted by Gpedit, which lets you modify virtually every feature in Windows XP without having to resort to Regedit. Dig around and enjoy!
This procedure works ONLY under NTFS.
As times goes along you have a lot of files on your computer. You are going to forget what they are. Well here is a way to identify them as you scroll through Windows Explorer in the future.
1. Open up a folder on your system that you want to keep track of the different files you might one to identify in the future.
2. Under View make certain that you set it to show Details.
3. Highlight the file you want to keep more information on. Right-click the file and you will get a pop-up menu. Click on Properties.
4. Click on the Summary Tab (make sure it says Simple not Advanced on the
button in the box). You should now get the following fields: Title, Subject,
Author, Category, Keywords, Comments.
You will see Advanced also if you have changed it to Simple. Here will be
other fields you can fill in.
5. Next, you can fill in what ever field you want.
6. After you finished click the Apply button then OK.
7. Next, right-click the bar above your files, under the address bar and you should get a drop down menu. Here you can click the fields you want to display.
8. You should now see a list with the new fields and any comments you have done.
9. Now if you want to sort these, just right-click a blank spot to sort the information to your liking.
Temporarily Assign Yourself Administrative Permissions
Many programs require you to have Administrative permissions to be able to
install them. Here is an easy way to temporarily assign yourself
Administrative permissions while you remain logged in as a normal user.
Hold down the Shift key as you right-click on the program's setup file.
Click Run as.
Type in a username and password that have Administrative permissions.
This works also with the Start menu applications.
Create a Shortcut to Lock Your Computer
Leaving your computer in a hurry but you don't want to log off? You can double-click a shortcut on your desktop to quickly lock the keyboard and display without using CTRL+ALT+DEL or a screen saver.
To create a shortcut on your desktop to lock your computer:
Right-click on the Desktop.
Point to New -> click Shortcut.
The Create Shortcut Wizard opens. In the text box, type the following:
rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation
Click Next.
Enter a name for the shortcut. You can call it "Lock Workstation" or choose
any name you like.
Click Finish.
You can also change the shortcut's icon (my personal favorite is the padlock
icon in Shell32.dll).
To change the icon:
Right click the shortcut and then select Properties.
Click the Shortcut tab, and then click the Change Icon button.
In the Look for icons in this file text box, type:
Shell32.dll
Click OK.
Select one of the icons from the list and then click OK.
You could also give it a shortcut keystroke such CTRL+ALT+L. This would save you only one keystroke from the normal command, but it could be more convenient.
Activate the Screen Saver Instantly
Turn on a screen saver without having to wait by adding a shortcut to your
Desktop:
Click the Start button -> click Search.
In the Search Companion window, click All file types.
In the file name box, type *.scr.
In the Look in box, choose Local Hard Drives (C or the drive where you have
system files stored on your computer).
Click Search.
You will see a list of screen savers in the results. Pick a screen saver you
want. You can preview it by double-clicking it.
Right click on the file, choose Send To, and then click Desktop (create
shortcut).
To activate the screen saver, double-click the icon on your Desktop.
If you have a piece of software that refuses to install because it says that
you are not running Windows 2000 (such as the Win2K drivers for a Mustek
scanner!) you can simply edit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProductName
to say Microsoft Windows 2000 instead of XP and it will install. You may also
have to edit the version number or build number, depending on how hard the
program tries to verify that you are installing on the correct OS. I had to do
this for my Mustek 600 CP scanner (compatibility mode didn't help!) and it
worked great, so I now have my scanner working with XP (and a tech at Mustek
can now eat his words).
Don't forget to restore any changes you make after you get your software installed.
Do this at your own risk.
The Windows logo key, located in the bottom row of most Win95/98 keyboards is a little used treasure. Don't ignore it. Use it for these command shortcuts:
WinKey: Display Start menu
WinKey + D: Minimize or restore all open windows
WinKey + E: Display Windows Explorer
WinKey + F: Display Search for files
WinKey + Ctrl + F: Display Search for computer
WinKey + F1: Display Help and Support Center
WinKey + R: Display Run dialog box
WinKey + Break: Display System Properties dialog box
WinKey + Shift + M: Undo minimize all open windows
WinKey + L: Lock the workstation
WinKey + U: Open Utility Manager
WinKey + Q: Hold WinKey and then tap Q to scroll and switch thru the different
users on your PC (XP Power Toys only).
Remove Shared Documents Folders from "My Computer"
One of the most annoying things about the new Windows XP user interface is
that Microsoft saw fit to provide links to all of the Shared Documents folders
on your system, right at the top of the My Computer window. I can't imagine
why this would be the default, even in a shared PC environment at home, but
what's even more annoying is that you cannot change this behavior through the
shell. Those icons are stuck there and you have to live with it.
Until now, that is.
Simply fire up the Registry Editor and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\My Computer\NameSpace\DelegateFolders
You'll see a subkey named {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}. If you
delete it, all of the Shared Documents folders (which are normally under the
group called "Other Files Stored on This Computer") will be gone.
You do not need to reboot your system to see the change.
Before: a cluttered mess with icons no one will ever use (especially that
orphaned one).
After: simplicity itself, and the way it should be by default.
Rip High Quality MP3s in Windows Media Player 8
The relationship between Windows Media Player 8 and the MP3 audio format is
widely misunderstood. Basically, WMP8 will be able to playback MP3 files, but
encoding (or "ripping" CD audio into MP3 format) will require an MP3 plug-in.
So during the Windows XP beta, Microsoft is supplying a sample MP3 plug-in for
testing purposes, but it's limited to 56 Kbps rips, which is pretty useless.
However, if you have an externally installed MP3 codec, you can use WMP8 to
rip at higher bit rates. But you'll have to edit the Registry to make this
work.
Fire up the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key: Here you'll see subkeys for LowRate and LowRateSample, which of course equates
to the single 56 Kbps sample rate you see in WMP8. To get better sampling
rates, try adding the following keys (using New -> DWORD value):
"LowRate" = DWORD value of 0000dac0 Now, when you launch WMP8 and go into Tools -> Options -> Copy Music, you will
have four encoding choices for MP3: 56 Kbps, 64 Kbps, 128 Kbps, and 192 Kbps.
Note that you will not get higher bit rate encoding unless you have installed
an MP3 codec separately. The version in Windows Media Player 8 is limited to
56 Kbps only.
And now you'll be ripping CDs in higher quality MP3 format!
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: If you're frustrated by the slow speed of the Start Menu, even after using the
tip above, then you might try the following: navigate to Display Properties ->
Appearance -> Advanced -> turn off the "Show menu shadow" option.
You will get much better overall performance.
Stop Windows Messenger from Auto Starting
If you're not a big fan of Windows Messenger simply delete the "MSMSGS"
Registry value from: Add Album Art to Any Music Folder
One of the coolest new features in Windows XP is its album thumbnail
generator, which automatically places the appropriate album cover art on the
folder to which you are copying music (generally in WMA format). But what
about those people that have already copied their CDs to the hard drive using
MP3 format? You can download album cover art from sites such as www.cdnow.com
or www.amguide.com and then use the new Windows XP folder customize feature to
display the proper image for each folder. But this takes time--you have to
manually edit the folder properties for every single folder--and you will lose
customizations if you have to reinstall the OS. There's an excellent fix,
however.
When you download the album cover art from the Web, just save the images as
folder.jpg each time, and place them in the appropriate folder. Then, Windows
XP will automatically use that image as the thumbnail for that folder and,
best of all, will use that image in XP Windows Media Player (WMP) if you
choose to display album cover art instead of a visualization. And the folder
customization is automatic, so it survives an OS reinstallation as well. Your
music folders never looked so good. :)
Change the Location of the My Music and My Pictures Folders
In Windows 2000, Microsoft added the ability to right-click the My Documents
folder and choose a new location for that folder in the shell.
With Windows XP, Microsoft has elevated the My Music and My Pictures folders
to the same "special shell folder" status as My Documents, but they never
added a similar (and simple) method for changing those folder's locations.
However, it is actually pretty easy to change the location of these folders,
using the following method.
Open a My Computer window and navigate to the location where you'd like My
Music (or My Pictures) to reside. Then, open the My Documents folder in a
different window. Drag the My Music (or My Pictures) folder to the other
window, and Windows XP will update all of the references to that folder to the
new location, including the Start menu.
Or use TweakUI:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe
It seems that a lot of people are interested in removing Windows Messenger for
some reason, though I strongly recommend against this: in Windows XP, Windows
Messenger will be the hub of your connection to the .Net world, and now that
this feature is part of Windows, I think we're going to see a lot of .Net
Passport-enabled Web sites appearing as well. But if you can't stand the
little app, there are a couple of ways to get rid of it, and ensure that it
doesn't pop up every time you boot into XP. The best way simply utilizes the
previous tip (see above).
If you'd like Windows Messenger to show up in the list of programs you can add
and remove from Windows, navigate to C:\Windows\Inf (substituting the correct
drive letter/folder name for your version of Windows) and open Sysoc.inf in
Notepad (see the previous tip for more information about this file). Change
this line:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,HIDE,7
to read this:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,7
and Windows Messenger will appear in Add or Remove Programs -> Add/Remove
Windows Components, where you can remove it for good.
WinXP does not come with an ASPI layer. So far almost 90% of the problems with
WinXP and CD burning software are ASPI layer problems. After installing WinXP,
before installing any CD burning software do a few things first:
1. Open up "My Computer" and right click on the CD Recorder. If your CD
recorder/rewritable was detected as a CD recorder there will be a tab called
"Recording". On this tab uncheck ALL the boxes. Click Apply/OK and close My
Computer.
2. Next install the standard Adaptec ASPI Layer for Windows XP [534 KB, free]:
ftp://ftp.adaptec.com/software_pc/aspi/aspi_v471.exe That's it. After the reboot you can install any of the currently working CD
recording applications with no problems. If using Easy CD Creator, do not
install Direct CD or Take Two as they are currently incompatible with WinXP,
but Roxio promised to fix that:
http://www.roxio.com/
Ever wonder where your file extensions went? Working with files when you
cannot tell what the file extension is can be a huge pain in the butt.
Thankfully, MS has made it possible for all file extensions to be shown.
In any folder that contains files, click on the Tools menu and select Folder
Options. Then click on the view tab. Locate the Hide extensions of known file
types box and uncheck it. Click OK.
Below are some Windows XP memory tweaks, located in the Registry at: - DisablePagingExecutive = When enabled, this setting will prevent the paging
of the Win2000 Executive files to the hard drive, causing the OS and most
programs to be more responsive. However, it is advised that people should only
perform this tweak if they have a significant amount of RAM on their system
(more than 128 MB), because this setting does use a substantial portion of
your system resources. The default value of this key is 0. To enable it set it
to 1.
- LargeSystemCache = When enabled (the default on Server versions of Windows
2000), this setting tells the OS to devote all but 4 MB of system memory
(which is left for disk caching) to the file system cache. The main effect of
this is allowing the computer to cache the OS Kernel to memory, making the OS
more responsive. The setting is dynamic and if more than 4 MB is needed from
the disk cache for some reason, the space will be released to it. By default,
8 MB is earmarked for this purpose. This tweak usually makes the OS more
responsive. It is a dynamic setting, and the kernel will give up any space
deemed necessary for another application (at a performance hit when such
changes are needed). As with the previous key, change the value from 0 to 1 to
enable it. Note that by doing this, you are consuming more of your system RAM
than normal. While LargeSystemCache will cut back usage when other apps need
more RAM, this process can impede performance in certain intensive situations.
According to Microsoft, the 0 setting is recommended for servers running
applications that do their own memory caching, such as Microsoft SQL Server,
and for applications that perform best with large amounts of memory, such as
Internet Information Services.
- IOPageLockLimit = This tweak is of questionable value to people that aren't
running some kind of server off of their computers, but I will include it
anyway. Boosts the Input/Output performance of your computer when it is
processing large amounts of file transfers and other similar operations.
This won't do much for a system without a significant amount of RAM (if you
don't have more than 128 MB, don't even bother), but systems with more than
128 MB of RAM will generally see a performance boost by setting this to
between 8 and 16 MB. The default is 0.5 MB (512 KB). This setting requires a
value in Bytes, so multiply the desired number of MegaBytes * 1024 * 1024.
That's X * 1048576 (where X is the number in MegaBytes). Test out several
settings and keep the one which seems to work best for your system.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Settings\MP3Encoding
"MediumRate" = DWORD value of 0000fa00
"MediumHighRate" = DWORD value of 0001f400
"HighRate" = DWORD value of 0002ee00
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
"MenuShowDelay" default value is 400. Change this to 0 to speed it up.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Reboot when asked.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
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