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Windows XP Tips

Windows XP Twenty Use Full Tips & Tweaks

1) Cracking Windows XP Login Password:

Download the nice and easy Nt/2k/xp password cracker from http://www.astalavista.com/or other way is if u get acess to the computer then go to Start>Run and type “control userpasswords2” without Quotes and a new pop up windows will open and u will reach to user account properties. Here u can Reset the Administrator and any Users password so anytime when u Want to use the Computer start it in safemode pressing F8 at Booting get into the xp as u have Administrator password and go to Controlpanel>Useraccounts and create a New Account .Start Computer Normally and get into WinXP with ur newely made account and do ur job. (Don’t forget to Delete ur newely made account Otherwise u will be in trouble) Delete ur account again starting the computer in Safemode as Administrator and Delete ur Account.

2)Disable XP Boot Logo:

It is possible to disable the XP splash screen, which will slightly speed up the overall boot process. Be aware that removing the splash screen will also cause you not to see any boot-up messages that might come up (chkdsk, convert ... ), but if your system runs without any problems then it should not matter.

Edit boot.ini. Add " /noguiboot" right after "/fastdetect". Upon restarting, the splash screen will be gone. It can be re-enabled by removing the new switch.

3)Turn Off Indexing to Speed Up XP:

Windows XP keeps a record of all files on the hard disk so when you do a search on the hard drive it is faster. There is a downside to this and because the computer has to index all files, it will slow down normal file commands like open, close, etc. If you do not do a whole lot of searches on your hard drive then you may want to turn this feature off:

Open My Computer.

Right-click your hard drive icon and select Properties.

At the bottom of the window you'll see "Allow indexing service to index this disk for faster searches," uncheck this and click ok.

A new window will pop up and select Apply to all folders and subfolders.

It will take a minute or two for the changes to take affect but then you should enjoy slightly faster performance.

4)Clean Your Prefetch to Improve Performance:

This is a unique technique for WinXP. We know that it is necessary to scrub registry and TEMP files for Win9X/ME/2000 periodically. Prefetch is a new and very useful technique in Windows XP. However, after using XP some time, the prefetch directory can get full of junk and obsolete links in the Prefetch catalog, which can slow down your computer noticeably.

Open C(system drive):/windows/prefetch, delete those junk and obsolete files, reboot. It is recommended that you do this every month.

5)Performance Increase Through My Computer:

Easy enough tweak to usually find out about it on your own, but still, some of us still don't find it right away. So here it is:

Start > right-click on My Computer and select Properties.

Click on the "Advanced" tab.

See the "Performance" section? Click "Settings".

Disable the following:

Fade or slide menus into view

Fade or slide ToolTips into view

Fade out menu items after clicking

Show Shadows under menus

Slide open combo boxes

Slide taskbar buttons

Use a background image for each folder type

Use common tasks in folders

There, now Windows will still look nice and perform faster.

6)Reduce 10 Second Scandisk Wait Time:

Start MS Dos Prompt (Start run CMD), and type: CHKNTFS /T:4

where 4 is the amount of wait time.

CHKNTFS /?

for more info.

7)DMA Mode on IDE Devices:

Just like Windows 2000, Windows XP still fails to set the DMA mode correctly for the IDE device designated as the slaves on the primary IDE and secondary IDE channels. Most CD-ROMS are capable of supporting DMA mode, but the default in XP is still PIO. Setting it to DMA won't make your CD-ROM faster, but it will consume less CPU cycles. Here's how:

Open the Device Manager. One way to do that is to right-click on "My Computer", select the Hardware tab, and select Device Manager.

Expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and double-click on "Primary IDE Channel".

Under the "Advanced Settings" tab, check the "Device 1" setting. More than likely, your current transfer mode is set to PIO.

Set it to "DMA if available".

Repeat the step for the "Secondary IDE Channel" if you have devices attached to it. Reboot.

8)Load Internet Explorer the Fastest Way Possible:

Edit your link to start Internet Explorer to have -nohome after it. For Example: "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" -nohome

This will load internet explorer very fast because it does not load a web page while it is loading. If you want to go to your homepage after it is loaded, just click on the home button.

9)Easy Way to Adjust LargeSystemCache:

Normally, the tweak I've seen asks you to go into HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management and change the value to either O or 1 to the adjustment the LargeSystemCache.

However, in Windows XP, all you have to do is:

Right-click My Computer.

Select Properties.

Click Advanced.

Choose Performance.

Click Advanced again.

Select either Programs or System Cache under Memory Usage.

Programs = 0 for the registry tweak equivalent

System Cache = 1 for the registry tweak equivalent

10)Shutdown XP Faster:

Like previous versions of windows, it takes long time to restart or shutdown windows XP when the "Exit Windows" sound is enabled. To solve this problem you must disable this useless sound.

Click Start button.

Go to settings > Control Panel > Sound, Speech and Audio devices > Sounds and Audio Devices > Sounds.

Then under program events and windows menu click on "Exit Windows" sub-menu and highlight it. Now from sounds you can select, choose "none" and then click Apply and OK.

Now you should see some improvements when shutting down your system.

11) Use the Desktop Cleanup Wizard in Windows XP

To start the Desktop Cleanup Wizard:

Click Start , and then click Control Panel.

In Control Panel, click Appearance and Themes under Pick a category.

Under or pick a Control Panel icon , click Display. The Display Properties dialog box is displayed.

In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Desktop tab, and then click Customize Desktop. The Desktop Items dialog box is displayed.

Under Desktop cleanup , click to clear the Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days check box if you do not want the Desktop Cleanup Wizard to automatically start every 60 days.

Click Clean Desktop Now. The Desktop Cleanup Wizard starts.

12) Remove Unwanted Shortcuts

In the Welcome to the Desktop Cleanup Wizard dialog box, click Next.

In the Shortcuts dialog box, a list of shortcuts are displayed in the Shortcut to Clean Up list. The shortcuts that you click are removed from the desktop and placed in the Unused Desktop Shortcuts folder on the Windows desktop.

If you do not want a shortcut to be removed from the desktop, click to clear the check box for that shortcut, and then click Next when you are finished.

In the Completing the Desktop Cleanup Wizard dialog box, view the items in the Shortcuts box to confirm that you want them removed from the desktop, and then click Finish.

The Desktop Cleanup Wizard moves the selected shortcuts to the Unused Desktop Shortcuts folder and then quits.

13) Restore Shortcuts

If a shortcut that you want is removed, follow these steps to restore the shortcut:

On the Desktop, double-click the Unused Desktop Shortcuts folder. The Unused Desktop Shortcuts dialog box is displayed. Note: If the Unused Desktop Shortcuts dialog box is maximized, click the Restore Down button (appears to the left of the red Close button).

Drag the shortcut that you want to the Windows desktop.

Close the Unused Desktop Shortcuts dialog box.

14) How to Turn On Automatic Updates

Click Start , click Control Panel , and then double-click System.

Click the Automatic Updates tab, and then click one of the following options:

- Download the updates automatically and notify me when they are ready to be installed. (This is the default setting.)

- Notify me before downloading any updates and notify me again before installing them on my computer.

15) How to Turn Off Automatic Updates

Click Start , click Control Panel , and then double-click System.

Click the Automatic Updates tab, and then click Turn off automatic updating. I want to update my computer manually.

16) How to Update Your Files Manually by Using Windows Update

If you choose not to use automatic updating, you can still install specific updates from the Windows Update Web site. Windows Update is a catalog of items such as drivers, security fixes, critical updates, the latest Help files, and Internet products that you can download to keep your computer up-to-date.

Click Windows Update in Help and Support Center.

On the Windows Update home page, click Scan for updates.

Click Yes when you are prompted to install any required software or device drivers.

17) How to Have Windows Remind You About Pending Updates

Click Remind Me Later in the Automatic Updates dialog box before you download or install the update.

In the Reminder dialog box, you can specify the amount of time Windows should wait before reminding you.

If the reminder is for downloading, Windows reminds you only when you are connected to the Internet.

If the reminder is for installing, Windows reminds you according to the schedule that you specify.

18) How to Download Available Updates

If you configured automatic updating to notify you before downloading any updates, an icon is displayed in the notification area each time new updates are found.

Double-click the icon in the notification area.

Do either of the following steps:

If you want Windows to download an update, make sure that the check box beside it is selected.-or-

If you do not want Windows to download an update, click to clear the check box beside it.

Your selected updates are downloaded in the background; this behavior allows you to continue working uninterrupted. Downloading does not interfere with or slow down other network activity, such as Internet browsing.

When downloading is finished, the icon is displayed in the notification area to notify you that updates are ready to be installed.

19) How to Pause or Resume Downloading

After the download process has started, you can pause or resume downloading at any time. If you close your Internet connection or restart your computer after pausing a download process, Windows automatically resumes the download process the next time you are connected to the Internet.

During the download process, click the icon that is displayed in the notification area, and then click Pause.

When you are ready for Windows to start downloading again, click the Automatic updating icon, and then click

Resume.

Restore an Update that You Previously Declined

If you decide not to download a specific update, you can prompt Windows Update to offer that update again.

Click Start , click Control Panel, and then double-click System.

Click the Automatic Updates tab, and then click Restore Declined Updates.

20) Using the Ultimate Configuration Tool (Professional Edition Only)

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. It just like old Poledit.exe.

To start this editor:

Select Start and then Run, then type the following:

gpedit.msc

After you hit Enter, you'll be greeted by gpedit, which lets you modify almost every feature in Windows XP without having to go to regedit.

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