Windows XP Top Tricks

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How to create a boot disk


How This Tip Works

1. Go into MY COMPUTER
2. Have a floppy disk in your drive and then RIGHT click on on the floppy drive and then click on FORMAT
3. You will be greeted with a number of options. The one you need to select is "Create an MS-DOS start up disk".
4. Click Start

Note: This requires up to 5 floppy disks and DOES NOT contain ANY CD-ROM drivers to boot from. A proper CD-ROM boot up disk is going to be release by Microsoft after the Windows XP public release. You can however use you old Windows Me start-up disk if you would prefer, as long as you have not upgraded to an NTFS drive.

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Enabling and Disabling The Windows XP Firewall
Windows XP contains its own firewall. A firewall is a security system that acts as a protective boundary between a network and the outside world. Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) is firewall software that is used to set restrictions on what information is communicated from your home or small office network to and from the Internet to your network.

If your network uses Internet Connection Sharing(ICS) to provide Internet access to multiple computers, ICF should be enabled on the shared Internet connection. However, ICS and ICF can be enabled separately. You should enable ICF on the Internet connection of any computer that is connected directly to the Internet. To check to see if ICF is enabled or to enable the firewall, see Enable or disable Internet Connection Firewall.

ICF also protects a single computer connected to the Internet. If you have a single computer connected to the Internet with a cable modem, a DSL modem, or a dial-up modem, ICF protects your Internet connection. You should not enable ICF on VPN connections because it will interfere with the operation of file sharing and other VPN functions.

1: Enable the ICF by right clicking on your Internet or Network connection and then going to the ADVANCED option and ticking the ICF enable box.

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Adding Programs To Stay On The Start Menu
Right click on any .exe file in Explorer, My Computer, Desktop and select 'Pin to Start Menu', the program is then displayed on the start menu, above the separator line. To remove it, click the file on the start menu and select 'Unpin from Start Menu'. Below you can check the before and after shots

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Make Use Of Your Windows Key

Windows: Display the Start menu
Windows + D: Minimize or restore all windows
Windows + E: Display Windows Explorer
Windows + F: Display Search for files
Windows + Ctrl + F: Display Search for computer
Windows + F1: Display Help and Support Center
Windows + R: Display Run dialog box
Windows + break: Display System Properties dialog box
Windows + shift + M: Undo minimize all windows
Windows + L: Lock the workstation
Windows + U: Open Utility Manager
Windows + Q: Quick switching of users (Powertoys only)
Windows + Q: Hold Windows Key, then tap Q to scroll thru the different users on your PC

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How Do I Install Netmeeting?


1. Click START then RUN
2. Enter "conf" without the quotes

That's it - now you can Netmeet to your hearts content.

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Disable Error Reporting
As many of you would have noticed - every time a Microsoft program crashes in Windows XP - and Error Report comes up allowing you to send some information on the crash to Microsoft. Well this can get quite annoying, so here is how you disable it.

1. Open Control Panel
2. Click on Preformance and Maintenance.
3. Click on System.
4. Then click on the Advanced tab
5. Click on the error reporting button on the bottom of the windows.
6. Select Disable error reporting.
7. Click OK
8. Click OK

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Turn Off Thumbnail Caching
The fact is though that these days having a thumbnail cache isn't that important, the thumbnails load up here in my machine in seconds without it. So here is how you remove the caching system for thumbnails:

1. Click on "CONTROL PANEL" from the Start Menu.
2. Click on "FOLDER OPTIONS" in the Control Panel.
3. Click the view tab
4. Finally - tick the "DO NOT CACHE THUMBNAILS" box and then click APPLY.

Your Windows XP system will now no longer cache thumbnails. If you wish to go back to caching them, get back to the folder options menu like we did about and untick the box.

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Change Internet Explorer Browser Title Text
1. Click Start > Run > Type gpedit.msc
2. Click User Configuration > Windows Setting > Internet Explorer Maintenance > Browser User Interface
3. Double click on Browser Title
4. Click on Customize Title Bars
5. Change the text to what whatever you want
6. Click on Ok

Now you changed the title of your browser and you sure see what you wrote when you
open a New Widow.

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Reading and Understanding The Events Log
You can use Event Viewer to view and manage the event logs, gather information about hardware and software problems, and monitor Windows security events.

* To open Event Viewer, click Start, click Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Event Viewer.
* For information about using Event Viewer, in Event Viewer, on the Action menu, click Help.

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How To Uninstall Windows Messenger
On XP Systems without SP1:

Click Start / Run Then type the following:
RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
Press ENTER
Restart Windows

On XP Systems WITH SP 1:

Control Panel
Add / Remove Programs
Click on "Add/Remove Windows Components" on the left
UNcheck "Windows Messenger"
Click "NEXT"
Click "Finish"
Reboot

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Where has Scan Disk gone?
1: Open My Computer, and then select the local disk you want to check.

2: On the File menu, click Properties.

3: On the Tools tab, under Error-checking, click Check Now.

4: Under Check disk options, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box.

* All files must be closed for this process to run. If the volume is currently in use, a message box will appear prompting you to indicate whether or not you want to reschedule the disk checking for the next time you restart your system. Then, the next time you restart your system, disk checking will run. Your volume will not be available to perform other tasks while this process is running.
* If your volume is formatted as NTFS, Windows automatically logs all file transactions, replaces bad clusters, and stores copies of key information for all files on the NTFS volume.

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Speed Up Browsing
When you connect to a web site your computer sends information back and forth. 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 information and is used so that you will not need to ask for the site location each and every time you visit the site. Although Windows XP and Windows XP have a pretty efficient DNS cache, you can increase its overall performance by increasing its size.

You can do this with the registry entries below:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Dnscache\Parameters]
"CacheHashTableBucketSize"=dword:00000001
"CacheHashTableSize"=dword:00000180
"MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000fa00
"MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000012d

Make a new text file and rename it to dnscache.reg. Then copy and paste the above into it and save it. Merge it into the registry.

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Never Re-Activate After Installation
If you have to reinstall Windows XP you normally will have to reactivate too. Well not anymore. Just copy wpa.dbl after you activated the first time. It is located in the WINDOWS\system32 folder. Now if you reinstall Windows XP just copy the file back and you're up and running again.

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Show Hidden Files & Folders
Wondering how to find files or folders that you have used before but they seem to have vanished in Windows XP?

1. In any folder that contains files. Click on the tools menu and select folder options.
2. Then click on the view tab.
3. Locate where it lists Hidden files and folders and select Show hidden files and folders.
4. Click OK.

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Disable Bootup Splash Screen
You can, if you feel like it, disable the Windows XP boot up splash screen. Although this doesn't speed boot times at all, it does allow you to see if there are any boot up messages appearing on your computer that might otherwise be covered up.

1. Edit boot.ini
2. Add " /noguiboot" right after "/fastdetect".

You will need to restart your PC for the splash screen to disappear. To enable the splash screen again, just remove the switch that you added.