Microsoft Windows XP
General Tips Page 2
Use a Shortcut to Local Area Network Connection Information
Something new in Windows XP, instead of using the command line program and typing ipconfig to find local area network information, you can use the following shortcut:
- Click Start, point to Connect to, and then click Show All Connections.
- Right–click the connection you want information about, and then click Status.
- In the connection Properties dialog box, click the Support tab.
- For even more information, click the Advanced tab.
To automatically enable the status monitor each time
the connection is active, in the connection
Properties dialog box, select the Show icon in
taskbar notification area when connected check box.
Change the Start Menu Style
Does the new Windows XP Start menu take up too much space on your desktop? You can easily change the look back to the Windows Classic Start menu by following these steps:
- Right–click the Start button, and then click Properties.
- Click Classic Start menu.
- Click the Customize button to select items to display on the Start menu.
By default, selecting the Classic Start menu also
adds the My Documents, My Computer, My Network
Places, and Internet Explorer icons to your desktop.
Add a Map Drive Button to the Toolbar
Do you want to quickly map a drive, but can’t find the toolbar button? If you map drives often, use one of these options to add a Map Drive button to the folder toolbar.
- Option One (Long Term Fix)
- Click Start, click My Computer, right-click the toolbar, then unlock the toolbars, if necessary.
- Right-click the toolbar again, and then click Customize.
- Under Available toolbar buttons, locate Map Drive, and drag it into the position you want on the right under Current toolbar buttons.
- Click Close, click OK, and then click OK again.
You now have drive mapping buttons on your toolbar, so you can map drives from any folder window. To unmap drives, follow the above procedure, selecting Disconnect under Available toolbar buttons. To quickly map a drive, try this option.
- Option Two (Quick Fix)
- Click Start, and right-click My Computer.
- Click Map Network Drive.
If you place your My Computer icon directly on the
desktop, you can make this move in only two clicks!
Do Not Highlight Newly Installed Programs
Tired of that annoying little window that pops up to
tell you that new software is installed? If it gets
in the way when you’re logging off, turn it off
completely.
- To do this Click Start, right-click at the top of the Start menu where your name is displayed, and then click Properties.
- In the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box, on the Start Menu tab, click Customize.
- Click the Advanced tab, and then clear the Highlight newly installed programs check box.
- Click OK, and then click OK again.
Now that message won’t be popping up when you
least want to see it.
Speed up the Start Menu
You can use this tip to speed up the Start Menu in Windows XP release candidate 1. You can customize the speed of the Start Menu by editing a Registry Key.
- Click Start, and then click Run.
- Type Regedit in the box, and then click OK.
- Expand the menu in the left panel and select the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop folder.
- Scroll down in the right panel and double click on the MenuShowDelay file.
- In the Value Data box, change to default value for the menu speed from 400 to a lesser number, such as 1.
- Click OK.
Caution: Incorrectly editing the registry may
severely damage your system. Before making changes
to the registry, you should back up any valued data
on your computer.
Use the Windows Classic Look
More comfortable performing a task with the familiar Windows Classic user interface? You can quickly switch the user interface to the familiar Windows Classic appearance on your computer if it helps you remember a task in your operating system or program. You can go back to the original Windows look with a couple clicks.
- Right-click on your desktop, and then click Properties.
- Click the Appearance tab.
- On the Windows and Buttons menu, select Windows Classic. Click OK.
There you go, now you can feel right at home with
the old look, and you'll still get the best out of
Windows XP, new look or old.
Add Familiar Icons back to your desktop
It’s the case of the missing icons. Many of you
may be wondering where all the icons from your
desktop are in Windows XP? Well if you're like me,
you like to have at least My Computer, My Network
Places, and My Documents on the desktop.
To do this:
- Right-click on the desktop, and then click Properties.
- Click the Desktop tab and then click on Customize Desktop.
- Put a check mark in the box next to My Document, My Computer, My Network Places, or Internet Explorer, to add those familiar icons to your desktop.
Unlock Toolbars to Customize Them
Windows XP now features locking toolbars, and you can adjust them. You can customize a lot of the Windows XP features such as the Taskbar, Start Menu, and even toolbar icons in Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. Remember your right-click:
- Right-click on a toolbar, and then click Lock the Toolbars to remove the check mark.
- Right-click on the toolbar again, and then click Customize.
- You can add and remove toolbar buttons, change text options and icon options. When you've got the toolbar customized, click Close.
- Now right-click on the toolbar and then click Lock the Toolbars to lock them in place.
Display Your Quick Launch Toolbar
Is your Quick Launch toolbar missing from the taskbar? To display your familiar Quick Launch toolbar:
- Right-click an empty area on the taskbar, click Toolbars, and then click Quick Launch.
- Easy as that your Quick Launch bar appears. To add items to your Quick Launch toolbar, click the icon for the program you want to add, and drag it to the Quick Launch portion of the taskbar.
Keep Your Favorite Programs Near the Top of the Start Menu
Do you have a favorite program that you frequently
use? Elevate its priority on the Start menu by
putting it at the top of the list. This ensures that
the program will remain on the Start menu and cannot
be bumped by other programs, even if you use the
others more frequently. Right-click the link to your
favorite program on the Start menu and select Pin to
Start Menu. Your program will be moved permanently
to the top part of the list, just below your browser
and e-mail programs.
Use the Address Bar to Launch Programs or Web Pages
Windows XP Professional enhanced the functionality
of the Address bar to make it easier to launch your
favorite programs. You can add the Address bar to
the taskbar on the bottom of your desktop. Then you
can launch programs simply by entering their names
in the Address bar. For example, to launch
Calculator, simply enter calc in the Address bar.
Anything you would normally enter in the Run box on
the Start menu can be entered in the Address bar.
The Address bar also lets you quickly go to any Web
page you specify.
To add the Address bar to the taskbar:
- Right-click an empty area on the taskbar.
- Point to Toolbars, and then click Address.
- Open the Address bar by double-clicking it.
Stop Password Expiration
After you have run Windows XP for a while, you may
receive this message when you log on: "Your
password will expire in 14 days.....".
By default, Windows XP is set up with passwords
which will expire after 42 days. 14 days in advance,
Windows will start warning you of this fact. If you
do not want your passwords to expire:
- Go to Start > Run and in the Open: box type control userpasswords2
- Select the Advanced tab in the User Accounts window
- Press the Advanced button below the Advanced user management header
- Select Users in the Local Users and Groups
- In the right pane, right-click the user name for which you want to change the setting, and select Properties
- On the General tab, check Password never expires
- Click Apply and OK (all the way out)
Safely Remove Hardware Icon?
If you have an USB device attached to your system,
you will notice an icon in the Notification area,
which - when clicked - will give you the option to
Stop your hardware, before you unplug it.
It is possible that you never unplug this hardware.
So how do you get rid of the icon? As far as I know
the only way is to right-click the notification
area, and selecting Properties. Under the
Notification area heading, click Customize. Find the
Safely Remove Hardware icon and select Always hide
in the Behavior column next to it (press OK and
Apply to back out).
Multiuser features
Like Windows 2000, but unlike Windows 95, 98, and
Me, the ability to log in multiple users
simultaneously plays a big role in Windows XP. There
is a default Administrator account set up when
Windows XP is first installed, but you can create as
many accounts as you need later, depending on how
many people will be using the machine. Each user,
once he or she has an account, can customize XP to
his or her liking. Individual users get their own
subfolders in the Documents And Settings folder;
this folder serves as a centralized location for
most personalized information, such as the Start
Menu, Favorites, and Documents settings.
Missing Administrator account
Once you have created regular user accounts, the
default Administrator account vanishes from the
Welcome screen, which you see when the computer
starts up. Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete twice at the
Welcome screen to retrieve the standard logon
dialog. You can log on as Administrator from here.
To switch among accounts, just click the Log Off
button on the Start menu. You'll then see the Log
Off Windows dialog box. Click the Switch User
button, and you'll be taken to the Welcome screen
where you can select and log on to other accounts.
Show yourself
Only the Administrator can set up new user accounts
(go to Control Panel > User Accounts > Create
A New Account). You can select a picture to identify
the account. When you're logged on to the system
under your username, this picture, along with your
username, peeks out at you from the top of the Start
menu. There are a slew of 48x48-pixel bitmap images
to choose from within XP. They're housed in
D:\Documents And Settings\All Users\Application
Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\Default
Pictures. But why limit yourself? You can also copy
any graphic you want into this folder or browse for
another from your hard drive. Usable file types are
BMP, GIF, JPEG, or PNG. However, always use a square
picture, to limit the white space on the side. Your
image can be any size but will be displayed as
48x48-pixel image, so a close-up works best.
Hide yourself
Once you've created a user account, password-protect
it to keep other users from viewing your files,
Favorites, and cookies. Why? You may not want your
child to see the note that you're sending to his or
her teacher, or you may be planning someone's
surprise party. (Note: Anyone with an Administrator
account can still see them.)
Worried about remembering your password? Create a
hint to help you when you initially create it by
following the prompts during setup. XP stores the
password hints in the Registry at Hkey_local_machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current
Version\Hints.
What if the hint doesn't help? Any user or
Administrator can create a password reset disk,
which you can use to log on and create a new
password. Go to Control Panel > User Accounts and
select "Prevent a forgotten password" in
the Related Tasks box on the left. Follow the
wizard's instructions. After creating the disk, find
a safe place for it. Don't forget the password or
where you put the disk. Someone else could use it to
change your password without you knowing it.
Not A Tweak, But A Double XP Surprise!
Neither Win2K nor WinME has the ability to create a
simple, basic, DOS- based boot floppy (a
"startup disk") unless you jump through
hoops or do things in nonstandard ways. Because XP
is the fusion of Win2K and Win9x/ME, I assumed it
would follow the same "no boot floppy"
tack. But instead, I was surprised to poke around in
XP and see that the format option there does indeed
offer a "Create MS-DOS Startup Disk."
As an experiment, I created a startup disk, and all
went smoothly. I was able to use the disk to boot my
PC without any problems. But when it started up, I
got the second surprise. The DOS boot message showed
"Microsoft Windows Millennium." To confirm
this, I typed "Ver" to see what version of
DOS was running, and the screen showed: Windows
Millennium [Version 4.90.300]
Although it's very strange to see the WinME startup
message on an XP-created floppy, all this means is
that Microsoft cribbed a few essential DOS boot
files from WinME, and made it so XP can drop them
onto a freshly- formatted floppy for you. I'm glad
they did: It's a very good thing that Microsoft
restored the ability to make a simple boot disk.
Fast Boot /Fast Resume Design
Customer research shows a frequently requested
feature that users want from their PCs is fast
system startup, whether from cold boot or when
resuming from standby or hibernation. The Windows
development team at Microsoft has taken bold steps
in making fast startup PCs a reality with the
Microsoft Windows XP operating system.
The design goals for Windows XP on a typical
consumer PC are:
- Boot to a useable state in a total of 30 seconds
- Resume from Hibernate (S4) in a total of 20 seconds
- Resume from Standby (S3) in a total of 5 seconds
Boot and resume times are measured from the time the
power switch is pressed to being able to start a
program from a desktop shortcut. Click here
to go to Microsoft's development center and learn
how, download boot tools and read white papers on
the subject.
Display Hibernate Option on the Shut Down dialog
For some reason, Hibernate isn't available from the
default Shut Down dialog. But you can enable it
simply enough, by holding down the SHIFT key while
the dialog is visible. Now you see it, now you
don't!
Speed up the Start Menu
The default speed of the Start Menu is pretty slow,
but you can fix that by editing a Registry Key. Fire
up the Registry Editor and navigate to the following
key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \
MenuShowDelay
By default, the value is 400. Change this to a
smaller value, such as 0, to speed it up.
If this doesn't work for some reason, then you might
try the following: Navigate to Display Properties
then Appearance then Advanced and turn off the
option titled Show menu shadow. You will get much
better overall performance.
Automatically defrag drives with a new context menu item
Create a new Registry import file named
context_defrag.inf in Notepad (be sure to save with
it with the Save as type set to All Files and not
Text Documents) and place the following text inside:
; context_defrag.INF
; Adds Defrag to the right click context menu in
Windows XP
[version]
signature="$CHICAGO$"
[DefaultInstall]
AddReg=AddMe
[AddMe]
HKCR,"Drive\Shell\Defrag\command",,,"DEFRAG.EXE
%1"
Then, right-click and choose Install. This will add
a context menu to XP that allows you to
automatically defrag drives, using the command line
version of the built-in defragmentation utility. To
use it, navigate to a drive in My Computer,
right-click, and choose Defrag. A command line
window will appear, and that drive will be
defragged. When it's complete, the window just
disappears.
Display the Sharing Tab in Folder Properties
In Windows 2000, getting to the Sharing options for
a folder was simple: Just right-click, choose
Properties, and you'd see a Sharing tab. In Windows
XP, this feature is missing by default, but you can
make the system display the Sharing tab if desired.
Simply open up Folder Options (My Computer, then
Tools, Folder Options) and navigate to the View tab.
In the Advanced Settings section, scroll down to the
bottom and uncheck Use simple file sharing
(Recommended), a Mickey Mouse feature if there ever
was one. Now share your folders on the LAN as you
would in Windows 2000.
My Computer Won't Shut Down Itself After Installing XP
There are a number of users who have been complaining that their PC will no longer automatically power down/shut off without pressing the power off button on the computers unlike in Windows Me/95/2000. There could be a number of reasons for this - but the main one seems to be that ACPI is not enabled on the computer or in Windows XP. Here is how to enable it:
- Click - Start - Control Panel - Performance and Maintenance - Power Options Tab
- Then click APM - Enable Advanced Power Management Support
Create a Password Reset Disk
Microsoft has enhanced security features in XP
including the the ability to create a floppy
diskette to recover your password incase it is
forgotten.
- Click Start
- Click Control Panel
- Click User Accounts
- Click on the account which you want to create a password disk
- Click Prevent a forgotten password which starts the Forgotten Password Wizard . This is found under Related Tasks
- Insert a blank, formatted disk into drive A, and click Next
- Enter the password in the Current user account password box
To use the recovery disk, at the Welcome screen
- Click the user name whose password is on the recovery disk
- Click the question mark button
- This causes the Did you forget your password message to appear.
- Click use your password reset disk
- This will start the Password Reset Wizard.
From this point, just follow the wizard's
instructions and you will be able to set a new
password. It is different if you are part of a
domain, see next tip.
How to Create a Password Reset Disk for computers that are part of a domain
Note that this procedure requires one blank,
formatted floppy disk.
To create a password reset disk for your local user
account:
- Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE. The Windows Security dialog box appears.
- Click Change Password . The Change Password dialog box appears.
- In the Log on to box, click the local computer. For example, click Computer (this computer) .
- Click Backup . The Forgotten Password Wizard starts.
- On the "Welcome to the Forgotten Password Wizard" page, click Next .
- Insert a blank, formatted disk in drive A, and then click Next .
- In the Current user account password box, type your password, and then click Next . The Forgotten Password Wizard creates the disk.
- When the progress bar reaches 100 percent complete, click Next , and then click Finish . The Forgotten Password Wizard quits and you return to the Change Password dialog box.
- Remove, and then label the password reset disk. Store the disk in a safe place.
- In the Change Password dialog box, click Cancel .
- In the Windows Security dialog box, click Cancel.
If you forget your password, you can log on to the
computer with a new password that you create by
using the Password Reset Wizard and your password
reset disk.
To gain access to your local user account on a
computer that is a member of a domain, or has been
disconnected from a domain:
- In the Welcome to Windows dialog box, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE.
- In the Log On to Windows dialog box, type an incorrect password in the Password box, and then click OK .
- In the Logon Failed dialog box that appears, click Reset . The Password Reset Wizard starts. The Password Reset Wizard lets you create a new password for your local user account.
- On the "Welcome to the Password Reset Wizard" page, click Next .
- Insert the password reset disk in drive A, and then click Next .
- On the "Reset the User Account Password" page, type a new password in the Type a new password box.
- Type the same password in the Type the password again to confirm box.
- In the Type a new password hint box, type a hint that will help you remember the password if you forget it. NOTE : This hint is visible to anyone who attempts to log on to the computer by using your user account.
- Click Next , and then click Finish . The Password Reset Wizard quits and you return to the Log On to Windows dialog box. The password reset disk is automatically updated with the new password information. You do not have to create a new password reset disk.
- In the Log On to Windows dialog box, type your new password in the Password box.
- In the Log on to box, click the local computer. For example, click Computer (this computer) , and then click OK . You are logged on to the local computer with your local account information.
Disable Automatic Windows Update
Windows XP is configured out of the box to routinely
scan for and download updates to Windows XP
automatically. While this can be somewhat convenient
for those with very fast Internet connections and
those who would otherwise forget to check for
updates, it can be a nuisance for the rest of us,
who are still using 56k or, even worse 33k modem
connections.
To control or disable automatic updating, open the
System icon in Control Panel (or right-click My
Computer and select Properties), and choose the
Automatic Updating tab.
To check for updates manually, open Internet
Explorer and select Windows Update from the Tools
menu.
Try automatic camera recognition in windows xp
If you have a digital camera, try this trick for
downloading pictures to your machine. Don't load any
of the drivers or software that comes with your
digital camera. Instead--if your camera supports USB--connect
your camera via a USB port. There's a good chance
that Windows XP will recognize the digicam. After a
few moments, the Scanner And Camera Wizard should
start up and walk you through the steps involved in
copying your pictures from the camera to a folder of
your choice on your computer--much faster than doing
it manually. You may still need to install your
camera's software if it provides configuration
controls you can't access in any other way, such as
those for changing the picture resolution on your
camera or the software's special editing functions.
HOW TO: Use Automatic Completion with a Command Prompt in Windows XP
To Activate Automatic Completion
For example, to change to the Program Files folder,
you can type cd \pro control_character. Or, to
display the contents of the Myfile.txt file, you can
type type myf control_character. If there are
multiple folders or files that match the characters
you type, typing the control character again
displays the next matching instance. When the
correct folder or file is displayed, press ENTER to
complete the command. If no folder of file matches
the characters that you type, you hear a beep. You
can activate or deactivate this feature for a
computer, for a user, or for only the current
command session.
Click here
for the article from Microsoft.
Easy CD Creator 5.0 Does Not Function In Windows XP
When you try to use Roxio Easy CD Creator 5.0, any
of the following symptoms may occur:
Your computer may stop responding (hang) or may stop
functioning correctly.
You may receive an error message on a blue screen.
The error message may be similar to:
Stop 0x00000050: PrtSeqRd deferencing null device
object
After you receive this error message, your computer
restarts.
You may receive an error message that is similar to:
Createcd50.exe has encountered a problem and needs
to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
Click here
for the article from Microsoft.
Damaged Registry Repair and Recovery in Windows XP
When a registry hive becomes damaged, your computer
may become unbootable, and you may receive one of
the following Stop error messages on a blue screen:
Unexpected Shutdown
Stop:0xc0000135
Registry damage often occurs when programs with
access to the registry do not cleanly remove
temporary items that they store in the registry.
This problem may also be caused if a program is
terminated or experiences a user-mode fault.
Click here
for the article from Microsoft.