Windows XP n Vista Tricks

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Hide 'User Accounts' from users
2007-10-28 03:29:00
Go to Start/Run, and type: GPEDIT.MSC Open the path User Config > Admin Templates > Control Panel doubleclick "Hide specified Control Panel applets" put a dot in 'enabled', then click 'Show" click Add button, type "nusrmgt.cpl" into the add box
More About: Users

How to remove the Default Picture and Fax Preview Action
2007-10-28 03:28:00
How to remove the Default Picture and Fax Preview Action Go To Start > Run and type `Regedit` and press `ok` Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Classes/CLSID /{e84fda7c-1d6a-45f6-b725-cb260c236066}/s hellex Deleted the MayChangeDefaultMenu key.

AVI File Fix in Windows XP
2007-10-28 03:26:00
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. Click View and then click Options. Click in the box to remove the check mark beside Automatically create clips. Now, import the movie file that has interference and drag it onto the timeline. Then save the movie, and during the re-rendering, the interference will be removed.
More About: File , Windows Xp

Set up and Use Internet Connection Sharing
2007-10-28 03:21:00
With Internet Connection Shari ng (ICS) in Windows XP, you can connect one computer to the Internet, then share the Internet service with several computers on your home or small office network. The Network Setup Wizard in Windows XP Professional will automatically provide all of the network settings you need to share one Internet connection with all the computers in your network. Each computer can use programs such as Internet Explorer and Outlook Express as if they were directly connected to the Internet. You should not use this feature in an existing network with Windows 2000 Server domain controllers, DNS servers, gateways, DHCP servers, or ...
More About: Internet Connection Sharing

How to use Windows Update Properly
2007-10-28 03:20:00
If you want to save your files to your hard drive, so after a format you dont have to download them all again, here's How: - Logon to Windows Update - Choose Windows Update Catalogue (left hand pane) - Choose Find updates for Microsoft Windows operating systems (right hand pane) - Choose your version and language then Search - Choose one the following: - Critical Updates and Service Packs - Service Packs and Recommended Downloads - Multi-Language Features (0) ...
More About: Prop , Rope

NTFS vs. FAT (Vista uses NTFS only)
2007-10-28 03:19:00
To NTFS or not to NTFS?that is the question. But unlike the deeper questions of life, this one isn't really all that hard to answer. For most users running Windows XP, NTFS is the obvious choice. It's more powerful and offers security advantages not found in the other file systems. But let's go over the differences among the files systems so we're all clear about the choice. There are essentially three different file systems available in Windows XP: FAT16, short for File Allocation Table, FAT32, and NTFS, short for NT File System. FAT16 The FAT16 file system was introduced way back wit...
More About: Vista

How to make your Desktop Icons Transparent
2007-10-15 04:21:00
Go to ontrol Panel > System, > Advanced > Performance area > Settings button Visual Effects tab "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the Desktop "
More About: Icons , Make , Transparent , Spar

Speed up your browsing of Windows 2000 & XP machines
2007-10-15 04:21:00
Here's a great tip to speed up your browsing of Windows XP machines. Its actually a fix to a bug installed as default in Windows 2000 that scans shared files for Scheduled Tasks. And it turns out that you can experience a delay as long as 30 seconds when you try to view shared files across a network because Windows 2000 is using the extra time to search the remote computer for any Scheduled Tasks. Note that though the fix is originally intended for only those affected, Windows 2000 users will experience that the actual browsing speed of both the Internet & Windows Explorers improve significantly after applying it since it doesn't ...
More About: Machines , Browsing , Speed

How to Upgrade Windows 98 or Windows Millennium Edition Profiles to Windows
2007-10-15 04:18:00
This guide describes how to upgrade a Microsoft Microsoft Windows 98-based, or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition -based client that has user profiles to a Microsoft Windows XP-based client. The following steps enable the Windows 98 and Windows Millennium Edition (Me) profiles to be retained throughout the process. Your best method to retain the profiles is to join the domain during the upgrade installation process. Otherwise, you must use a workaround method to transfer the profile information over to the Windows XP profile. During the upgrade installation process,...
More About: Profiles , Profil

Upgrading to Windows XP from Windows 98 0r Me
2007-10-15 04:17:00
You can upgrade a computer that runs Windows 98, 98SE, or Me to Windows XP Home Edition. Those same versions, along with Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows 2000 Professional, can be upgraded to Windows XP Professional. (1).To ensure a smooth upgrade and avoid networking problems, follow these tips before starting the upgrade: (2)Install all network cards. XP will detect them and automatically install the right drivers. (3)Have your Internet connection available. The XP setup process will connect to a Microsoft server to download the latest setup files, including changes that have been made...
More About: Windows Xp , Windows 98

Set the Search Screen to the Classic Look
2007-10-15 04:16:00
When I first saw the default search pane in Windows XP, my instinct was to return it to its classic look; that puppy had to go. Of course, I later discovered that a doggie door is built into the applet. Click "Change preferences" then "Without an animated screen character." If you'd rather give it a bare-bones "Windows 2000" look and feel, fire up your Registry editor and navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Explorer CabinetState. You may need to create a new string value labeled "Use Search Asst" and set it to "no".
More About: Screen , Classic , Cree

How to Remove Windows XP's Messenger
2007-10-15 04:12:00
Theoretically, you can get rid of it (as well as a few other things). Windows 2000 power users should already be familiar with this tweak. Fire up the Windows Explorer and navigate your way to the %SYSTEMROOT% INF folder. What the heck is that thingy with the percentage signs? It's a variable. For most people, %SYSTEMROOT% is C:Windows. For others, it may be E:WinXP. Get it? Okay, on with the hack! In the INF folder, open sysoc.inf (but not before making a BACKUP copy first). Before your eyes glaze over, look for the line containing "msmsgs" in it. Near the end of that particular line, you'll notice that the word "hide" is not so hidde...
More About: Messenger , Windows Xp , Messen , Mess

Turn on your firewall
2007-09-17 04:10:00
Microsoft included a firewall in Windows XP to keep you safe from hackers while you cruise the Internet. How do you know that the Internet Connection Firewall is on? Go to the Control Panel and double-click the Network Connections icon. In the dial-up, DSL, or cable connection dialog that appears, check the Status column. If your firewall is on, it should say Firewalled. You can turn the firewall off with the check box, but unless you are going to add a third-party firewall for heightened security, it's best to leave it on.Now that you know that your firewall is on, how do you know that it's doing its job? Test it with ShieldsUp, the free testing service sponsored by Gibson Research. According to our tests, XP's Internet Connection Firewall kept the computer in full stealth mode. Hackers could not break in and couldn't even see the computer online.But, given the latest security problems with USB 2.0, etc, you should always go to Windows Update to make sure you have the latest pa...
More About: Turn

Customize the Start menu
2007-09-17 04:08:00
The Start menu gets more real estate in XP than in previous versions, and it's more customizable. To make the Start menu display only the applications you want, rather than the default determined by Microsoft, right-click in an empty section of the Start menu's left column, and select Properties > Start Menu > Customize. Here you'll find a list of your most frequently used programs. (XP keeps track of what you use and what you don't, then updates this list dynamically.) Don't want your boss to know that Pinball, Solitaire, and Quake all make your list? Go to the General tab, click Clear List, and set the counter to zero.
More About: The Star

Swap out the defaults
2007-09-17 04:08:00
In XP, your favorite programs are displayed in the top left column of the Start menu. Microsoft starts you off with Internet Explorer and Outlook Express.Want to display a different set of applications in this spot? Right-click an empty portion of the Start menu's left column and select Properties > Start Menu > Customize. At the bottom, deselect the program you no longer want displayed in the "Show on the Start menu" dialog, and, using Windows Explorer or My Computer, navigate to the program you want instead. Right-click the program and select "Pin to Start menu." To rename the new shortcut, right-click it and select Rename. Note: You can't pin files, just programs.
More About: Swap , The D

Organize your desktop
2007-09-17 04:08:00
The only default icon on XP's desktop is the Recycle Bin, but we think it's a good idea to add a shortcut to Computer Management, a quick and dirty way to get to such important tools as the Event Viewer, Local Users and Groups, Shared Folders, the Device Manager, and Disk Management. To surface this handy management dialog, click Start > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Administrative Tools. Right-click the Computer Management shortcut. Select Copy from the dialog menu. Right-click an empty portion of the desktop and select Paste Shortcut. Use this procedure to add shortcuts to anything else; use Windows Explorer or My Computer to find your target
More About: Organize , Desktop , Organ

Turn back the clock
2007-09-17 04:07:00
Gray is definitely out. The folks at Microsoft bathed Windows XP in color. Don't like XP's look? To switch back to the Classic look that resembles Windows 2000, right-click the desktop, select Properties, click the Themes tab, and choose Windows Classic from the drop-down list. Voilà! You're back to comfy shades of blue and gray--not to mention having all those familiar icons.Click "Switch to Classic view" in the upper-left corner of the Properties dialog to bring back the familiar Control Panel icons of earlier versions of Windows. To get back to a Start menu that looks more like Windows 2000's, right-click in an empty portion of the Start menu's left-hand column, select Properties, and go to the Start Menu tab. Select Classic Start Menu. To bring the new look back, just reverse these steps.
More About: Clock , Back , Turn

Protect your identity
2007-09-17 04:07:00
Like many other audio players, Windows Media Player rushes out to the Internet to find information for you when you play a CD. Some of this information, such as song titles and album art, is useful, but Media Player also identifies your copy of Media Player to the site where it's getting data. Why? According to the help file, "The server uses this unique identifier to monitor your connection. By monitoring your connection, the server can make adjustments to increase the playback quality and to alert you about events that occur when receiving streams over the Internet."If you're disturbed by this exchange of information, here's how to stop it. In Windows Media Player, click Tools > Options and go to the Player tab. Notice the option that says "Allow Internet sites to uniquely identify your player?" Turn it off.
More About: Identity , Prot

Group and Ungroup Similar Taskbar Items
2007-09-17 04:07:00
Just open three or four Internet Explorer windows and you won't see them all in a row on your Task bar, as you did in previous versions of Windows. By default, Windows XP groups similar items on one button. For example, if you have 3 Internet Explorer windows open, you'll see an Explorer item with the number 3 on it. Click it to see a pop-up list of those windows, then select the one you want.If you would like, Windows XP will display all open windows separately on the Taskbar. Right click a blank area of the Taskbar and select Properties. Under Taskbar Properties, deselect Group Similar Taskbar Buttons, then click OK.
More About: Items

Want to remove MSN Messenger?
2007-09-17 04:06:00
A lot of people want to know how to remove the MSN Mess en ger service from XP... here's how:Locate SYSOC.INF in the WindowsINF folder (hidden file and folder), Open it in Notepad and locate the line: msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hid e,7Remove the word "hide" from the line and save the file. You will now have an entry in add/remove programs. Do what you will :)OR (XP Pro Only) leave it installed, but tell Windows to never let it run. If you're running XP Professional, you can use GPEDIT.MSC to prevent Messenger from loading. Otherwise, even disabling it in startup won't cause it to "always" not run. NOTE: Outlook, Outlook Express and some Microsoft web pages can still make it load. Start, Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Messenger You can now modify whether it starts initially and/or whether it's to run at all. UPDATE: I have recieved some email that say this fix slows down outlook when start...

Know your rights
2007-09-17 04:06:00
Windows XP comes bundled with Windows Media Player 8.0. While Media Player plays just about any digital media file format--it supports 35, including MP3, it records music only in the Windows Media Audio, or WMA, format. The reason? Content protection.When recording, or ripping, music from CDs, Media Player allows you to make protected recordings so that no one will be able to copy the recording from one computer to another. You can turn copy protection on or off on the Copy Music tab by checking or unchecking the box that says Protect Content.
More About: Rights , Know Your Rights

Stop Password Expiration in windows XP
2007-09-17 04:03:00
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)
More About: Stop , Windows Xp

How to Install the Netbeui Protocol on a Windows XP-Based Computer
2007-09-17 04:03:00
This article describes how to install the NetBEUI protocol on a Windows XP-based computer. This may be useful because the NetBEUI protocol is not included in the list of installable protocols in Windows XP even though the files that are needed to install the protocol are included with the installation CD-ROM. It is important to note that the NetBEUI protocol is not supported on Windows XP.The Netnbf.inf and Nbf.sys files are the files that are needed to install the NetBEUI protocol. To install the NetBEUI protocol: Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Network Connections. Right-click the adapter you want to add NetBEUI to, and then click Properties. On the General tab, click Install. Click Prot ocol , and then click Add. Click Have Disk, insert your Windows XP CD-ROM, open the Valueaddmsft et etbeui folder, click the Netnbf.inf file, and then click Open. Click OK, and then click OK to complete the installation.
More About: Computer , Windows Xp

Increase your cable modem or DSL speed in Windows XP
2007-09-17 04:02:00
This tweak is for broad band cable connections on stand alone machines with winXP professional version - might work on Home version also. It will probably work with networked machines as well but I haven't tried it in that configuration. This is for windows XP only, it does not work on win2000.I use 3 Com cards so I don't know how it works on others at this point. It does not involve editing the registry. This tweak assumes that you have let winXP create a connection on install for your cable modem/NIC combination and that your connection has tcp/ip - QoS - file and print sharing - and client for microsoft networks , only, installed. It also assumes that winxp will detect your NIC and has in-box drivers for it. If it doesn't do not try this.In the "My Network Places" properties (right click on the desktop icon and choose properties), highlight the connection then at the menu bar choose "Advanced" then "Advanced Settings". Uncheck the two boxes in the lower half for the bindings f...
More About: Windows , Modem , Speed , Windows Xp , Cable

Memory Tweaks for windows xp
2007-09-17 03:59:00
There are 3 tweaks you can make to change how XP uses memory. Open Regedit and Find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSet ControlSession ManagerMemory Management Disable Paging Executive:XP pages data from RAM memory to the hard drive. We can stop this happening and keep more data in RAM, resulting in better performance. Users with a large amount of RAM (256MB+) should use this setting. The setting we change to disable the ?Paging Executive?, is DisablePagingExecutive. Changing the value of this key from 0 to 1 will de-activate memory paging. System Cache Boost:Changing the value of the key LargeSystemCache from 0 to 1 will tell XP to allocate all but 4MB of system memory to the file system cache, allowing the XP Kernel to run in memory. The 4MB of memory left is used for disk caching, if more is needed, XP allocates more. Generally, this tweak improves performance by a fair bit but can, in some intensive applications, degrade performance. As with the previous ...
More About: Windows , Windows Xp , Tweak

Create a Shortcut to Lock Your Computer
2007-09-17 03:57:00
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 the desktop. Point to New, and then click Shortcut . The Create Shortcut Wizard opens. In the text box, type the following: rundll32.exe user32.dll,Lock WorkStation 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...
More About: Computer

Speeding Up Share Viewing:
2007-09-17 03:56:00
This is a great tweak. Before I found it, I was always smashing my head against the table waiting to view shares on other computers. Basically, when you connect to another computer with Windows XP, it checks for any Scheduled tasks on that computer - a fairly useless task, but one that can add up to 30 seconds of waiting on the other end - not good! Fortunately, it's fairly easy to disable this process. First, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Win dows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace in the Registry. Below that, there should be a key called {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}. Just delete this, and after a restart, Windows will no longer check for scheduled tasks - mucho performance improvement!
More About: Share , Speeding , Viewing

Increasing options in add/remove programs:
2007-09-17 03:54:00
Not a fan of MSN Messenger? don't want Windows Media Player on your system? Fair enough, but if you go to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, by default none of Windows XP's 'built in' programs are visible. it's fairly easy to change, though... just open the file X:Windowsinfsysoc.inf (where X: is the drive letter where Windows XP is installed) in Notepad. You should see a section of the file something like this: [Components]NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSet upProc,,4WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.in f,hide,7Display=desk.cpl,DisplayOcSetupPr oc,,7Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsoc m.inf,,7NetOC=netoc.dll,NetOcSetupProc,ne toc.inf,,7iis=iis.dll,OcEntry,iis.inf,,7c om=comsetup.dll,OcEntry,comnt5.inf,hide,7 dtc=msdtcstp.dll,OcEntry,dtcnt5.inf,hide, 7IndexSrv_System = setupqry.dll,IndexSrv,setupqry.inf,,7Term inalServer=TsOc.dll, HydraOc, TsOc.inf,hide,2msmq=msmqocm.dll,MsmqOcm,m smqocm.inf,,6ims=imsinsnt.dll,OcEntry,ims .inf,,7fp_extensions=fp40ext.dll,FrontPag e4Extensions,fp40ext...
More About: Options , Grams , Gram

No Shutdown
2007-09-17 03:53:00
Wanna play with your friends by removing the shutdown option from start menu in their computer.Just hack it down !!!RegeditHKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicros oftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorer"NoClose" ="DWORD:1"
More About: Shutdown

Automatic Administrator Login:
2007-09-17 03:52:00
Well here's the trick which you can use to prove that Windows XP is not at all secure as multi-user operating system. Hacking the system registry from any account having access to system registry puts you in to the administrator account.REGEDIT 4[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWind ows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon]"AutoAdminLogon" ="1"
More About: Automatic , Strato , Administrator , Logi