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XP to Windows 7 Remix
 Cast your mind back to the back end of 2007 and you may
recall a brief flurry of interest in programs that made XP computers look and
work a bit like Vista machines,whether you had a PCI video card or not. Well, now it’s happening all over again but
this time there’s a rash of downloads that mimic the look of Windows 7. One of
the first off the block is Seven Remix XP, which
contains a whole lot of material hacked from Windows 7, including icons,
animations, backgrounds, like the famous fish, and logon screens. It’s really
rather eye-catching. Needless to say it won’t turn your XP PC into a Windows 7
computer, but it’ll certainly look a bit like one.
23/02/09
Vista Sidebar for XP
 Maybe you’ve been putting off upgrading to Vista, but quite
like the look of the operating system? Well, we’ve already shown you how to
upgrade XP to look and feel like Vista, but one thing has been missing, the
Sidebar, which hosts the famous’ Gadgets’. These are small desktop applications
and utilities that have proved to be one of Vista’s most popular features. Now
they’re yours, for free, with the Windows
Sidebar Real One Pack. It’s not just a copy but the original Sidebar,
rescripted for XO, so it looks and behaves just like the real thing, you can
download gadgets, funky clocks and so on from Microsoft and all of the other goodies
developed for the original.
20/11/08
Pretend Mac for XP
 You may remember a while ago I pointed you in the direction
of some software called Inspirat
that would make your Windows XP computer look and sound a lot like a Vista PC,
and very good it was too. Well, here’s another one, this time it's a set of
themes to make Windows XP look just like Mac OS X. It’s called Flyakite OSX 3.5 and it really does,
though behind the scenes good old Windows is still calling the shots. It’s
freeware, or course, and the download is a chunky 30Mb but it installs smoothly
and once it is up and running there are plenty of nice little Mac features to
play with, including a docking bar, and it will even install put an iTunes icon
on it for you. It’s well housetrained too, and the first thing it does is set a
Restore Point, so it’s easy to get back to the comfort of Microsftland if you don’t
find the Mac-like experience to your liking.
10/04/08
A Head Start for XP
 If you have been following my Boot Camp series in The Daily
Telegraph you may have see the recent three-parter on making XP look and behave
like Vista (Poor Man’s Vista, archive on Bootlog and the DT
Website) Here’s another utility to add to the mix, called Vista Start Menu Emulator. It does what
it says, giving XP a Vista-like Start menu, complete with transparent borders
and a Live Search facility. It’s looks and works well, though my only complaint
is that I can’t seem to shift it from the default bottom right hand corner of
the screen, which looks a bit odd if, like me you prefer to have your Taskbar
down the right side of the screen.
25/02/08
Super Speedy Shutdown
 Some time ago I published a tip for forcing Windows to shutdown
quickly, without worrying about exiting running programs and the other behind
the scenes goings on that can make shutting down Windows XP a long and tedious
business, and that’s without having to contend with unresponsive programs.
Well, here’s another one, this time using a command entered in Run on the Start
menu.
The command in question is shutdown.exe, and just by typing
‘shutdown -s’ will start the normal shutdown process, but we can beef it up a
bit by adding some command line ‘switches’. These are extra instructions that
tell it to do things in a certain way. Putting –f after the shutdown command,
for example, tell it to force the shutdown, closing running applications without
any warning. Here’s another one, adding –t xx tells your PC to wait a specified
amount of time (xx represents time in seconds), before shutting down. So here is
an example command, and feel free to modify the switches and time delay to suit
your way of working: ‘shutdown –f –s –t 3’.
If you want to experiment here’s some other switches. –r restarts
the computer, -c “text” lets you add a comment to the shutdown dialogue box (up
to 127 characters) –l tells Windows to you to logoff the user.
24/12/07
Free XP to Vista Conversion
 Actually that’s a wee bit misleading but if you like the
appearance of Vista, but don’t want to go to the fuss, bother and expense of installing
the new operating system on your PC then have a look at BricoPack Vista Inspirat
Ultimate 2. This collection of graphical tweaks makes your 32-bit Windows
XP PC look like it is running Vista. It’s basically a set of themes, icons and
sounds that closely mimic those in Vista and it includes some interesting extras, such as a Mac-like Docking bar . It definitely works best on faster
PCs, 2GHz and above, slower machines might find it a bit hard going, it can
have an impact on performance, and it only works on 32-bit versions of XP. Be sure to read the Installation advice,
especially the bit about what to do if it doesn’t work and you need to
uninstall it.
17/12/07
Copy Error Messages To Clipboard
 What’s the first thing you do when you see a baffling error
message in Windows? If you are anything like me you’ll pick out the keywords
and look it up on Google. That’s fine when it’s something simple but all too
often error messages are long-winded and contain lots of gibberish, which are a
pain to type into the search box The temptation, is to try and copy and paste
the message, but you will find that this doesn’t work as you can’t highlight
the words in an error box, but there is another way.
Here’s a nifty little tweak that I came across the other day
on Asp.net. From Windows 2k onwards you have been able to copy the text in
error messages to the Windows Clipboard by pressing Ctrl + C, but Microsoft
forgot to tell anyone. So the next time you get an indecipherable error message,
just press Ctrl + C then open Notepad, WordPad, Word etc and press Ctrl + V,
then you can highlight the text, and use it to search for a solution.
18/06/07
Make XP Look (A Little) Like Vista
 Most people who see Vista for the first time really like the
look of the new operating system and some features, like 3D Flip and Thumbnail
Preview are an instant hit. However, for old fuddy-duddies, like me, who are
waiting for things to settle down before switching their main PCs to Vista, here’s
a way to get that Vista feel, but still keep hold of XP.
This tip will give you Vista like Thumbnail previews, which
basically means when you hover your mouse over a Taskbar icon you see a thumbnail
image of the program or document it represents. All you need is a small
freeware program called Visual ToolTip,
download and install it and you’re almost there. As it stands the thumbnails it
produces are really small, so right-click on the Visual Tool Tip icon in your
System Tray, select Options then the Thumbnails tab and increase the size to
50% or larger. You can also improve the look by selecting the Display tab and
unchecking the item ‘Show Windows Title’ which gets rid of the large ugly
label.
13/04/07
Hidden XP Utilities
 Deep inside Windows XP there’s all sorts of forgotten tools
and utilities, some of which were carried over from earlier versions of
Windows, or left behind by the developers. Here’s a few for you to be getting
on with and all you have to do is type the name in Run on the Start menu
(without the quotes of course). Most of them are undocumented, though a few of
them have some Help files which might help you figure them out but as always
you use and try them at your own risk
‘charmap’ – the Windows Character Map, the place to look for
unusual characters
‘eudcedit’ – create or modify your own characters
‘perfmon’ – versatile system monitor, everything you wanted
to know about your PC
‘progman’ – the old Windows 3.1 Program Manager (removed by SP2)
‘rasphone’ – remote access phonebook, used to manage dial-up
networking
‘telnet’ -- ancient PC to PC remote command and
communications system
‘winchat’ – communications tool for exchanging messages over
a network
16/03/07
Wallpaper Changer, Freeware
 Bored with your backdrop? Weary of your wallpaper? There’s
no need to be, Uncle Bill has kindly developed a small free utility, part of
the PowerToys suite, called Wallpaper
Changer.
This simple little program automatically switches your
wallpaper as often as you like, from every 15 minutes to once a week. All you
have to do is tell it where to look for images on your hard drive, set the
switching times and away it goes.
05/09/06
 The
CD and DVD burning facilities are quite basic but here’s a way to beef them up
a bit by adding an ISO image file and disc copying facility. An ISO file is a collection of all of
the files or the ‘image’ of all the files on a CD or DVD.
ISO Recorder was originally developed
as a PowerToy by Microsoft during the Windows XP beta testing program but was
dropped. Now it’s been revived, and improved and what’s more it’s compatible
with Windows Vista. ISO Recorder is a Shell Extension so there’s no program to
launch, simply right-click on an image file with the extension *.iso and select
‘Copy Image to CD’ from the drop-down menu. To copy a disc just click on the CD
or DVD icon in Windows Explorer and choose Create image from CD, it’s that
simple!
10/07/07
[ Top ]
AUTOMATICALLY
CLOSE FROZEN PROGRAMS
Okay,
so worse things happen at sea, but don’t you just hate it when you shut down
your XP Computer, only to be confronted with error message boxes telling you
that ‘This
Program
has stopped Responding’ and asking daft questions like what do you want to do
about it? This tip, known as a Forced Exit, gets rid of those irritating messages
and force unresponsive programs to close automatically. However, it is for
Experts only because it involves tinkering with the Registry, and if you try it
you do so entirely at your own risk. Actually it’s quite safe and very easy so
assuming that you know what you are doing, have set a new Restore Point or
backed up the Registry, proceed to Run on the Start menu. Type ‘regedit’ (sans quotes) to open the
Registry Editor. Work your way to HKEY_USERS\Default\Control Panel\Desktop,
double click Desktop to open in the right hand pane and look for
‘AutoEndTasks’. Double-click the key and change the Value Data from 0 to 1,
Exit the Registry Editor and the change should be applied the next time you
start Windows. You can undo the change by switching the Value Data back to 0 in
the very unlikely event you run into problems.
By
the way, the same key also contains a control that determines how long Windows
waits before declaring a program as unresponsive. ‘WaitToKillApp’ sets the
timeout delay in milliseconds (the default is 2000, or 20 seconds) and you can
change this setting to speed things up a bit.
16/06/06
WINDOWS
XP PROGRAM PROTECTION
There’s
a heart-stopping moment, when you’ve just downloaded a program from the
Internet and you click on the file or .exe icon to install it. What if it
contains a virus or something nasty that will crash the computer, or worse? It’s impossible to be one hundred percent
certain about downloads and even software from reputable sources has been
tainted, but Windows does have a way of protecting itself.
The next time you want to
run or install a download that you are not sure about right-click on the file
and select ‘Run As’. This will open a dialogue with the option to ‘Protect My
Computer’; make sure it is selected and click OK to proceed. This allows the
program to read information from the Windows Registry, but it won’t allow it to
make any changes, nor will it allow the program to mess around with User
Profiles or interfere with My Documents folders, Temp files, the Desktop. The
only points to watch out for are that before using Protect Mode you should
close all running programs, and some otherwise harmless applications may not
work properly under these restrictions.
06/06/06
WINDOWS
XP PRO GOBBLING UP YOUR BANDWIDTH
The
jury is still out on this tweak for speeding up the Internet connection in
Windows XP PRO. I’m making no claims for it but it’s easy to do, and undo so
see what you think….
The premise of the tip is
that XP Pro (sorry XP Home users it doesn’t work for you…) is configured to
reserve 20 percent of your available bandwidth for Windows housekeeping
activities, downloading updates and so on. There’s some debate as to whether
this is true or not but XP itself claims it to be the case. To check for
yourself go to Run on the Start menu and type ‘gpedit.msc’ (without the quotes)
and this opens the Group Policy Editor dialogue. Now work your way to Local
Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates >
Network and double click QOS Packet Scheduler. In the right hand pane click on
Limit Reservable Bandwidth and a brief explanation of what it does will appear.
To make the change right-click on Limit Reservable Bandwidth, click Properties
then the Enabled button and set the Bandwidth Limit to zero, Exit the box,
reboot and give it a try.
03/06/06
CUSTOMISE THE PLACES BAR
 The Places Bar is the left
hand panel in the Open and SaveAs dialogue boxes used by Windows and most
Windows applications. It contains a set of icons for frequently used locations
and folders on your hard drive including Desktop, My Computer, My Documents and
so on. But what if you want to change them or include your own folders, let’s
say you keep all you images in a folder on the C: drive called ‘Pix’? There is
a way to customise the Places bar to show your Pix folder and that’s using our
old friend Tweak UI for XP. Tweak UI is a freeware utility from Microsoft, download the file and open the program. Go to Common Dialogues > Places bar,
click the ‘Custom’ button and either make a selection from the drop down menu
of Windows presets or enter your own by typing in the drive letter and path,
which in the case of our example would be C:\Pix.
SHOWING
HIBERNATE ON SHUTDOWN
Hibernation mode in Windows
XP is useful for putting your PC to sleep for extended periods, and quickly
reviving it in the state that you left it, with the programs that you were
using still open. However not all PCs display the Hibernate option when you
click the Turn Off Computer button on the Start menu. This could be because
Hibernate mode isn’t enabled or supported. To find out open Control Panel,
double-click Power Options then the Hibernate tab (if displayed) and check ‘Enable
Hibernation’, then OK. If Hibernate still won’t appear on the shutdown dialogue
box try pressing the Shift key and the Standby button should change to
Hibernate. After a few shutdown and boot-up cycles the Hibernate button should
become a permanent fixture and you will need to press Shift to make the Standby
button appear.
ADDED
PROTECTION FOR YOUR PROGRAMS
You might think you are well
protected with your anti-virus software, firewall, malware scanner and all of
the other bits of software designed to protect your PC but the fact is
malicious programs can still slip past your defences but there is something
more you can do to safeguard your programs. Windows XP has a built in facility
called Data Execution Protection that keeps a watchful eye on System files but
its coverage can be extended to monitor for suspicious activity in all of the
programs on your PC. To switch it on open System Properties by pressing Winkey
+ Break (or right-click My Computer on the Start menu and select Properties)
Next select the Advanced tab, under Performance click the Settings button then
select the Data Execution Protection tab and check the option ‘Turn on DEP for
all programs and service…’ Click OK and after a restart it’s done.
[ Top ]
QUICK
ROUTE TO DEVICE MANAGER
If you are anything like me
and an inveterate tinkerer, then you’ll be a frequent visitor to Windows Device
Manger, to fiddle with configuration settings or undo all the damage you keep
doing to drivers and so on. The quickest way I know to get to it is to use the
keyboard shortcut Winkey + Break then click Hardware and the Device Manager
button. Now I’ve got an even faster way, a one-click desktop or Quick Launch
shortcut. It’s dead easy, right click on an empty portion of your desktop and
click New > Create Shortcut. Use the Browse button to work your way to the
file ‘devmgmt.msc’, which you should find in C:\WINDOWS\system32, select the
file, click Next, give the shortcut a name click Finish and the deed is done.
CHECKING
SYSTEM FILES
If Windows XP has
been misbehaving recently - crashing or slowing down -- then there’s a chance
that one or more of your critical system files may have been changed, possibly
by malware or a virus. It’s easy enough to check and eliminate from the list of
possible causes. Just go to Run on the Start menu and type ‘sigverif’ and this
will start the Windows File Signature Verification utility. It takes a few
minutes as it cross-checks files against its database and at the end you will
get a report showing any files that haven’t passed the test, along with the
date they were modified, which might point to a program or application you’ve
installed that’s behind the problem.
JAZZ UP YOUR APPLICATION SWITCHER
I’m sure you know that by
pressing the Alt + Tab keys you can switch between the various programs and
applications running on your PC but did you know that there’s a simple way to
make the Application Switcher a lot more useful, and interesting to look at?
Well there is, and it’s called Taskswitch, a free little add-on from Microsoft;
in addition to the normal icon view it also generates a preview or thumbnail of
the applications you are switching between. It’s part of the Powertoys suite
(which includes the most excellent Tweak UI). Just click on the download link,
accept the defaults and it’s ready to run.
WINDOWS XP PASSWORD GENERATOR
You are probably sick of me
wittering on about the importance of using non-guessable passwords, especially
for on-line transactions, banking and so on. I’ve mentioned websites that will
come up with random assortments of letters and numbers on several occasions but
did you know Windows XP can be persuaded to generate a gobbledegook password?
It’s easy; just go to Run on the Start menu and type ‘cmd’ (without the quotes)
and a DOS like command prompt window opens. At the flashing cursor type the
following:
‘net user administrator /random’
(no quotes and don't forget the space before /random). Press Enter and up one pops and don't forget to make a note of it...
SIMPLE
SECURITY TRICK
If you share your PC with
others you obviously know that it is next to impossible to keep your personal
files and data private, but there is a way. The trick is to use a built-in
Windows facility for protecting System files, by ‘hiding’ them from view in
Windows Explorer and all of the programs on your PC. To hide a folder and its
contents simply open Windows Explorer then right-click on the folder icon. Select
Properties and under Attributes check ‘Hidden’. In order for this to work
Windows Explorer must be set to hide nominated files, so go to Tools >
Folder Options, select the View tab and a short way down the list make sure that
the item ‘Do not show hidden files’ is checked.
[ Top ]
CRASH
AVOIDANCE
Windows XP is fairly
forgiving but if you routinely have a lot of folder windows open you may find
that Windows crashes or freezes when you switch between folders. This is due to
the way Windows manages RAM memory; each open folder is allocated the same
amount of memory, whether it needs it or not. This isn’t very efficient it puts
a big stain on the CPU and memory resources when you switch between folders.
You can reduce the chances of a crash by changing the way Windows handles these
processes. Go to Folder Options in Control Panel and select the View tab. In
the Advanced settings window scroll down the list and check the item ‘Launch
folder windows in a separate process’. Click OK and it’s done.
AUTOMATIC
UNATTENDED LOGOFF
This tip might
interest Windows XP users who work in a busy office and who find that they are
occasionally and unexpectedly called away from their desk, leaving their PC’s
unattended. Clearly this has security and privacy implications but the good
folks at Microsoft have come up with a solution in the shape of a screensaver
called Winexit. After a preset period it will automatically exit any running programs
then log the user off.
Winexit is free but
the only trouble is Microsoft has bundled it in with a lot of other utilities,
in the Windows 2000 Resource kit, which you have to download in order to get at
it. When the download has completed and it has finished installing open up the
Resource Kit folder (you should find it in C:\Program Files\Windows Resource
Kits\Tools), right-click on Winexit.scr, select Install and the Display
Properties box appears, click Settings and set your timings as appropriate.
PAINT - HIDDEN
ZOOM FACILITY
Windows Paint as you
know is a handy, though not especially sophisticated image editing program. In
amongst the tools there’s a zoom control and if you click on the magnifying
glass icon you’ll see there’s a choice between 1x, 2x, 6x and 8x magnification.
In fact there is another hidden setting of 10x magnification but it requires
some precision mousing to get at it. Open a picture in Paint then click on the
Zoom icon to open the magnification selector box, now place your mouse pointer
very carefully in the tiny space below 8x and left click the mouse.
REVIVE
AN OLD TIMER -- NETMEETING IN XP
Those
of you who have been around Windows for a while may remember NetMeeting, a
really handy utility that lets PC users communicate over the Internet using
live text, webcam and ‘whiteboard’. Sadly it fell into disuse -- it was a swine
to configure on a dial-up connection -- and when Windows XP came along it had
apparently disappeared. It’s well worth getting to know once again, especially
if you have a webcam and broadband. You and a webcam-equipped friend can set up
a private one-to-one link simply by inputting each other’s IP addresses (and if
you want to find out what your IP address is click here).
NetMeeting is included with
Windows XP but it has been hidden away. To install it simply go to Run on the
Start menu and type ‘conf’ (without the quotes), then follow the prompts. Set
up your webcam first, (Tools > Options > Video) and when you can see
yourself in the video screen (click the Start Video button) you can link up to
your friend by clicking Call > New Call and enter their IP address in the To
box. Your friend should do the same (they enter your IP address) and all being
well the two-way video link should be established.
[ Top ]
DEFRAG THE REGISTRY
I’m sure you know all about defragging your hard disc drive, to optimise
your PC’s filing system and hopefully make Windows run more smoothly, but did
you know you can also defrag the Windows Registry? This is the large system
file that controls just about every aspect of Windows and like your data files
it can become disorganised, which can slow your PC down. To defrag the Registry
you will need a freeware tool called NT Registry Optimiser. It can reduce the
size of your Registry by up to 10%. It does this not by deleting anything, but
by making more efficient use of the space it occupies so it should be quite
safe. Nevertheless I still recommend that you set a new Restore Point before
you use this tool, and make sure that all of your backups are up to date.
TURN YOUR PC INTO A TIMELAPSE VIDEO RECORDER
If you are using Windows XP
and you have a webcam then you have the makings of a simple time-lapse
video security system. It’s ideal for keeping watch on your home or property, or
capturing the wildlife visiting your garden. All you have to do is download a
free utility from Microsoft -- it’s part of the PowerToys suite -- called
Webcam Timershot. Once installed you can program it to take and save a still
image at preset intervals, from once a second to once every 999 days. The pictures
are saved in a file location of your choice as *.jpg images, in a choice of
resolutions, and you can view them using Paint or the image viewer of your
choice.
FIND LOST WINDOWS & MAKE THEM DISAPPEAR
This tip can be a real lifesaver if you have inadvertently
opened a window and somehow managed to move it off the screen and no amount of
mouse clicking on the edges will bring it back. You can manually move any
active window around the screen -- even if you can’t see it -- from the
keyboard by pressing Alt + Spacebar + M. The mouse cursor then changes into a
four-headed arrow and you will now find that the hidden window can be bought
back into view using the keyboard’s cursor arrow keys.
Tip-in-a-Tip: this
also works the other way around and you can make a window disappear by shifting
it off the screen, using the same technique. This could be handy if, for
example, you need to leave your PC unattended for a short while and you don’t
want nosey parkers to see what you are doing.
SPEED UP WINDOWS XP BOOT (SLIGHTLY)
Here’s another tip for
speed demons, determined to shave the last few nanoseconds off their Windows XP
boot up times. Truth be told this one probably won’t save more than a second or
so but every little helps. The idea is that XP wastes time and resources checking to
see if there are any devices connected to empty IDE slots on the PC’s
motherboard. To stop this happening open Device Manager (Winkey + Break >
Hardware > Device Manager) and click on the plus sign next to the IDE
ATA/ATPI listing to expand the tree. Right click on Primary IDE Channel and
select Properties then the Advanced Settings tab. If either Device 0 or Device
1 is ‘Device Type’ box is empty (not greyed out) change the drop down menu setting
for this box to ‘None’ and click OK. Repeat for the Secondary IDE Controller
listing. Note that if you add a new IDE device you will have to go back and
change the Device Type drop down menu back to Auto Detect.
WHEN DID YOU LAST INSTALL WINDOWS?
Well, it might be
handy to know one day… A hidden utility in Windows XP Pro*, called Systeminfo will
also tell you a lot more about your computer, including how long it has been
running, what patches and updates have been installed and probably more than
you want to know about your computer’s motherboard and memory. To unearth this
treasure trove of trivia just go to Run on the Start menu, type ‘cmd’ (without
the quotes) then when the DOS type window opens type systeminfo’ (no quotes
again) after the flashing prompt press Enter and prepare to be amazed.
* If you are using Windows XP Home don't worry, you can still try systeminfo, simply download systeminfo.exe HERE, copy the file into your Windows System32 folder and follow the procedure above.
[ Top ]
MUSICAL REMINDER OR WAKE UP CALL
The Windows Task
Scheduler is an extremely useful but surprisingly under used facility that
allows you to launch programs or carry out routine tasks, like backups, at
scheduled times. Here’s a quick and easy way to get to know it, by programming
it to play a tune, so you could use it as an alarm clock, to wake you up in the
morning, or remind you to do something at a particular time. Open Windows
Explorer and navigate your way to the folder you use to store your MP3 or music
files then open Task Scheduler by going to Start > Programs > Accessories
> System Tools. Now all you have to do is drag and drop your chosen MP3 or
music file into the Task Scheduler window. Right click on the music file icon,
select Properties then the Schedule tab and set your times and dates, click OK
and it’s done. Note that if you haven’t set a User Password for Windows it
won’t work -- this is a safety feature -- so if you want to use Task Scheduler
you will have to set one up, as you can’t leave the password field blank.
FIX
FOR USB SECURITY HOLE
USB
pen drives have become a source of some concern for a lot of system administrators.
There’s almost nothing to stop someone with one of these devices from using it
to copy or steal data from PCs in offices, commercial premises, schools and
colleges. In fact the problem was addressed in Windows XP Service Pack 2, which
includes a new Registry key that stops data being copied to USB memory devices
by classifying them as Read-Only media; this tip shows you how to use it.
Safety
Warning! This tip is for advanced users as it involves editing the Registry.
It’s not difficult but tinkering willy-nilly with it can cause problems. Even
if you know what you are doing you should still set a new System Restore Point
or backup the Registry.
Now
that’s out of the way open the Registry Editor (type 'regedit’ in Run on the
Start menu) and work your way to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
CurrentControlSet\Control
If
there is no StorageDevicePolicies subkey shown you will need to create one by
right-clicking into the right-hand pane select New > Key; right click on the
new key and Rename it. Double click the key to select it and from the Edit menu
select New > DWORD Value and give the new value the name WriteProtect, press
Enter then double-click the new value and set it to 1. Exit Regedit and reboot.
To revert back to open access change the value to 0 or delete the key
AUDIO
POWER USER PERFORMANCE BOOST
This
tip is for XP ‘power users’ who use their PC’s for audio recording. The idea is
that in normal use your PC’s CPU allocates its time doing lots of small jobs,
which is fine for normal applications, but high end audio programs do a lot of
intensive calculations in the background, which means they have to wait their
turn. This tip gives priority to the Background Services, effectively giving
them a bigger slice of the CPU cake. To make the change open System Properties by
pressing Winkey + Break, select the Advanced tab then under Performance click
the Settings button. Select the Advanced tab and under Processor Scheduling
click ‘Background Services’ then OK. If you notice a drop in the performance of
other applications just switch it back.
CREATE
YOUR OWN HOTKEY LAUNCHERS
This really quick and simple
XP tip lets you launch any program or application that’s on your desktop with a
simple keyboard shortcut or ‘Hotkey’ combination. Just right-click on the
program’s desktop icon and click Properties then select the Shortcut tab. Click
your cursor into the Shortcut Key box (it should say ‘None’) and press any
number, letter or symbol key and if it’s available it will be automatically
added to the end of Ctrl + Alt + . You can now use the Hotkey to open your
program at any time simply by pressing Ctrl + Alt + your chosen character.
RIGHT-CLICK
BUG IN XP AND WINDOWS EXPLORER
Recent versions of Windows
Explorer running under Windows XP Home and Pro can suffer from an annoying
glitch. It can cause the PC to freeze, slow down, drop a network connection or
make Media Player stutter whenever you right-click on a file icon in Windows
Explorer. If this has ever happened to you there is a simple workaround, which
will have to do for the moment as apparently Microsoft are still working on it.
Go to Start > Control Panel and double-click the Display icon, select the
Appearance tab then click the Effects button. Deselect the top item ‘Use the
following transition effects for menus and tool tips’. Click OK, then OK again
to close all the boxes and with a little luck the problem should disappear.
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WHERE’S MY KEY?
Several times a year I hear
from distraught Windows users vainly trying to re-install their operating system only
to find that they’ve lost their product registration key. The obvious thing to
do is keep it in a safe place but if you’ve lost yours and are concerned that
wouldn’t be able to carry out a reinstall then all is not lost. Simply download
a little freeware utility called Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder and it will
display your product key and give you the option to save it to the Windows Clipboard,
so you can make a copy of it. Keyfinder works in all versions of Windows (from
98 onwards) and recent editions of MS Office.
Here’s a quick bonus tip for XP users. If for any reason you ever need to
find out if your copy of Windows has been activated simply type ‘oobe/msoobe
/a’ (without the quotes) in Run on the Start menu and your PC’s activation
status will be displayed.
BANISH NEW PROGRAM MESSAGE
If you install a lot of
programs on your Windows XP PC will know only too well that it has an extremely
annoying habit of telling you, that you’ve just installed a new program… To get
rid of that irritating announcement all you have to do is right-click onto an
empty area of the Taskbar, select Properties then the Start Menu tab and click
the Customize button. Next click the Advanced tab and deselect the item
‘Highlight newly installed programs’ and click OK and it will never bother you
again.
DISABLE SHUT DOWN
This quick and simple little
tip is for anyone who shares their PC. The idea is that it disables the
Shutdown button, so the PC can’t be switched off accidentally. When you really
want to shut down the machine you have to enter your Logon. To begin go to
Start > Control Panel and select Performance and Maintenance then Administrative
Tools (or go direct to Administrative Tools in XP). Select Local Security
Policy then double-click to expand Security Options. Scroll down the list in
the right-hand window to ‘Shutdown: Allow system to be shut down without having
to Log on...’, double click the entry and select the Disabled button then click
OK
AUTOMATIC DEFRAG
As you know over time the
Windows filing system can become disorganised and this will eventually lead to
a slow down and a reduction in performance. ‘Defragging’ the hard drive can
restore order but most of us forget to do it regularly and leave it until the
system has started to slow down. Here’s a way to program Windows to
automatically Defrag your drives once a month or every few weeks. Go to Start
> Control Panel and click Performance and Maintenance then Scheduled Tasks
(or just go direct to Scheduled Task in Windows XP) and double-click Add
Scheduled Task. This will launch the Scheduled Tasks Wizard. Click Next then
the Browse button to C:\WINDOWS\system32, click defrag.exe and select Open. Now
you can give it a name and set the timings for defrag to run and when you have
finished check the box ‘Open Advanced Properties …’. If there’s more than one
User Account on your PC you may want to set up a Password, otherwise leave the
fields blank. To finish off in the Run line add n the drive letter for the disc
you want to defrag after the command, so it should look like this:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\defrag.exe c: click OK and it is set.
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WASTEFUL BIN
By default Windows XP sets
aside up to 10% of your hard disc drive capacity for deleted files sent to the
Recycle Bin. Apart from being wasteful it’s rarely necessary to require that
much space, and even if it does get full up quicker it will encourage you to
empty it more often. To change the amount of space allocated to the Bin simply
right-click on the icon and select Properties then move the slider to 1 or 2
percent and click OK.
DRESS DOWN FOR SPEED
The default Windows XP visuals look pretty but they do
nothing for system speed; in fact some of them can slow your PC down quite
noticeably. Not all of the fancy fripperies are bad, though, and you can still
keep the XP look and feel without sacrificing too much performance. Here’s how,
go to Start > Control Panel > System, select the Advanced tab then click
the Settings button under Performance. For the best compromise between speed and appearance uncheck everything
except:
Show shadows under menus
Show shadows under mouse pointer
Show translucent selection rectangle
Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
Use visual styles on windows and buttons
Click Apply and OK to exit
the dialogue box and your new visual settings will be applied.
HIBERNATION SPACE SAPPER
If you do not use the Hibernate feature on your
Windows XP computer then you could be losing a large chunk of disc space equivalent
to the size of your PC’s RAM memory. When Hibernate is enabled Windows creates
a hidden system file, called hyberfil.sys. To switch it off and reclaim the
space go to Control Panel > Power Options (or Performance and Maintenance
> Power Options) select the Hibernate tab and deselect ‘Enable Hibernation’.
SPEEDY SHUTDOWN SCRIPT
This tip probably won’t save you much time but it is an
interesting little exercise that creates a file or desktop shortcut that takes
you directly to the Windows XP Shutdown dialogue box. Start by opening Windows
Notepad by going to Start > Programs > Accessories (or your chosen text
editing program) then enter, or better still, copy and paste the following
line:
(new
ActiveXObject("Shell.Application")).ShutdownWindows();
Next, give the file a name -- something like
‘Quikexit’ -- use Save As on the File
menu to save it in a folder where you can easily find it. Open Windows
Explorer, locate your newly created txt file and change the extension to ‘js’, in
other words change ‘Quickexit.txt’ to ‘Quikexit.js’. You can ignore the Windows
warning about changing file extensions. It’s now ready to use. If you double-click
the file you’ll see the shutdown dialogue box, or you can turn it into a shortcut
by right-clicking on it, select Send To and ‘Create Desktop shortcut’
LOCK YOUR PC
Worried about someone interfering with your PC while
you are out of the room or away from your desk? Windows XP has a powerful
Locking facility built in but before you even think about using it make absolutely
sure you know your password, particularly if you don’t use it to log on to your
machine! To invoke the lock press Winkey + L, the Lock is engaged and the only
way to get back is enter your password. If the Windows XP Logon screen appears instead
that means Fast User Switching is enabled. If you want to turn it off go to
Control Panel > User Accounts, select ‘Change the way users log on or off’
and deselect ‘Use Fast User Switching’.
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SINGLE CLICK SHUTDOWN
Here's the updated version of the popular shutdown shortcut for Windows XP. Just right-click onto an
empty area of the desktop then select New then Shortcut from the menu that
appears. Click the Browse button and navigate your way to: C:\Windows\System32\Shutdown.exe.
Click Next, give the shortcut a name and click Finish. Now right-click the new shortcut, select Properties
and in the Target box, add the command line ‘switch’ -l (to log off), -s (to
shut down) or -r (to reboot). A basic shutdown shortcut command line should
look like this:
C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe -s
If you want to add a 3 second delay to the Shutdown
then add the ‘-t xx’ switch, thus:
C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe -s -t 03
To avoid mistakes simply copy and paste the command into the Target box. Your can also add own your own comments or text in the
Shutdown box with a -c "Your
text" switch.
HOLD THAT RESTART
A lot of Windows XP users may experience a sudden and
unexpected shut down and restart, which is not very convenient if you happen to
be in the middle of something. This is caused by a setting in Control Panel and
by default XP will automatically reboot in the event of a system failure. Of
course when something drastic goes wrong the PC may well be unusable but there
is a small chance it may recover or at least leave you with enough
functionality to save your work. At any rate you have nothing to loose by
switching this facility off and you can find it by going to Start > Control
Panel > System. Select the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery click
the Settings button and deselect ‘Automatically Reboot (Restart) on System
Failure’, click OK and exit.
EXPLORER TAMED
The way Windows Explorer has been configured in XP to
open on the My Documents folder drives a lot of people nuts. It doesn’t have to
be that way. All you have to do is right-click the Windows Explorer icon or
shortcut that you use and select Properties. Next, in the Target box add the
following ‘switches’ /n,/e,c: where c: is your primary hard drive. The
Target command should now look like this:
%SystemRoot%explorer.exe /n,/e,c:
Don’t forget the space before /n and the commas after
the n and the e.
CLASSIC COMEBACK
Although most Windows XP users quickly adapt to the
look and ways of the desktop and menus some just don’t get on with it, do not
like it or simply hanker for the good old days. Fortunately Windows XP lets you revert to
the old Windows 9x style with a few clicks of the mouse. All you have to do is right-click onto an
empty area of the desktop and select Properties from the drop-down menu. Select
the Themes tab and on the Themes drop-down menu click Windows Classic then
click Apply. Alternatively you can change just the buttons and icons by going
to the Appearance tab, and choose Windows Classic Style from the Windows and
Buttons drop-down menu then click OK.
OFF TO A GOOD START
Here are a couple of quick and simple tips to help you
tidy up and customise your Windows XP Start menu. You can get rid of that
annoying list of ‘frequently used’ programs that XP insists on displaying by
right-clicking into an empty area of the Start menu and select Properties. On
the General tab, under Programs, click the Clear List button and set the
‘Number of programs on Start menu’ to zero. Now, if you want to create your own
more functional list of frequently used programs go to the All Programs list at
the bottom of the Start menu, click to open the folder of the program that you
want to include then right-click on the actual program icon and select ‘Pin to
Start Menu’ from the list.
ICON IF YOU CAN
Did you know that you can change the appearance of the
boring little yellow folder icons in Windows Explorer and My Computer? All you
have to do is right-click on the folder icon you want to change, select
Properties from the drop-down list then select the Customize tab. At the
bottom, under Folder icons click, the ‘Change Icon’ button and you will be presented
with several dozen alternative designs. Make your selection, click OK and the
new icon will replace the standard one. If you ever want to change back simply follow
the same procedure and when you get to the icon selection click the Restore
Default button.
REACTIVATE XP FROM FLOPPY
If you ever need to re-install Windows XP you can save
yourself the bother of going through the Product Activation procedure by making
a copy of the activation files stored on your PC. Simply pop in a blank floppy,
open Windows Explorer and work your way to C:\WINDOWS\system32 and copy the
files wpa.dbl and wpa.bak to a floppy disc or USB memory stick and keep it in a
safe place. Following reinstallation, when you are asked to of you want to
Activate Windows XP decline the kind offer and let the installation continue.
When it has finished reboot XP and press F8 to start the computer Safe mode.
Open Windows Explorer, work your way to C:\WINDOWS\system32 once again, rename
the existing wpa.dbl and wps.bak files (call then wba.old 1 and 2 for example)
and copy your backed your wpa files from the floppy or memory stick into the
same location. Exit Windows and reboot.
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MOVING FOLDERS
Thanks to Richard H. for this very useful tip for
anyone who want to safeguard their data:
I have seen numerous articles encouraging computer
users to partition their hard drive or to install a second hard drive in order
to keep their documents separately in case the operating system (in my case XP
Pro) crashes. After giving detailed instructions on how to do the deed they all
seem stop short of telling you what do after you have installed or partitioned
the drive. I recently saw the solution, which had up until now escaped me.
The solution is to use MS TweakUI , first create the new folder on the drive or partition you want to use then in Tweak UI click Special Folders in the My Computer section, select My
Documents (in the present drive) and select "change location",
inserting either the new partition or the second hard drive. All future documents are then automatically
stored on the new hard drive.
SECRET MUSIC
Here’s a little oddity for Windows XP users with
five minutes to spare. Buried deep in a system sub-folder there’s quite a
pleasant little tune that you’ve probably never heard, unless you were present
when Windows was being installed on your PC. After that it’s never played
again, unless you know where to look for it. To hear what you’ve been missing
open Windows Explorer or My Computer and work your way to
C:\WINDOWS\system32\oobe\images and look for a file called ‘Title.wma’ or
possibly ‘Windows welcome music.wma’. It should be around 2.56Mb in size. Double
click the file and this will open Windows Media Player, or your preferred media
player and proceed to regale you with a gently swooping (though somewhat
repetitive) melody for the next five and a half minutes.
MAKE YOUR OWN SCREENSAVER
Here’s a really simple way to personalise your Windows XP
computer, with a custom screensaver using your own stored digital images.
Right-click on an empty area of the desktop select Properties then the
Screensaver tab. Scroll down the list and click My Picture Slideshow. By
default it will use photos stored in My Pictures but you can switch to any
other folder by clicking the Settings button, and from here you can also adjust
picture dwell time, size and transition effect.
SAFE MODE SHORTCUT
Here’s a tip for advanced
users with troublesome Windows XP Pro PCs (it also works with XP Home but see
note below). Repeatedly restarting in Safe Mode can be a bit of a chore so
here’s a way to add Safe Mode start to your Boot Menu. Right click My Computer,
select Properties then the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery click the
Settings button then the Edit button. Boot.ini opens in Notepad. Carefully
highlight and Copy the line:
‘multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP
Professional” /fastdetect’. Paste the copied line immediately underneath the
original and change “Microsoft Windows XP Professional” to Microsoft Windows
Safe Mode”. At the end of this line add the following ‘/safeboot:minimal /sos
/bootlog’ (without the quotes), Save and Exit Boot.ini, restart and Safe Mode
should be listed on the Boot Menu.
N.B if you don’t see a Boot
Menu when you start Windows XP select the option in the Startup and Recovery
dialogue box (see above) by checking the item ‘Time to display Operating
Systems’ and reduce the time setting to between 5 and 10 seconds.
DISABLE SPLASH SCREEN
This quick tip will only
save a couple of seconds by disabling the Windows XP ‘splash screen’ that
appears during boot up but every little helps! Go to Run on the Start menu and
type’msconfig’ (without the quotes) and select the BOOT.INI tab. In the lower
half of the box, under Boot Options check the item /NOGUIBOOT, click OK,
Restart your PC and work out what you are going to do with all of those extra
seconds you have just saved…
RECOVERY CONSOLE
If you haven’t installed
Recovery Console on your computer you can start it using your Windows XP
installation disc, however you first have to change the PC’s ‘boot order’. To
do that you need to enter the BIOS program (see your PC or motherboard manual)
and set the PC to boot from your CD-ROM drive. Load the XP disc, restart the PC
and after Windows Setup has finished you will see a menu screen. Choose the
second option ‘To Repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console press
R’. If you don’t have an XP disc you can download a set of XP start up files
from Microsoft, which you copy on to 6 floppy discs. For more details go to:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310994
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UNINSTALL SP2
If you cannot get SP2 to
load properly or you can’t resolve your problems by any other means then the
first thing to uninstall SP2. Normally this is quite straightforward from
Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel, it should be listed under Windows XP
Updates (make sure the ‘Show Updates’ box is ticked at the top of the page).
However, in some cases this may not be displayed and there’s a selection of
alternative methods involving the use of a hidden Service Pack uninstaller,
System Restore and the XP Recovery Console at:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875350
FASTER REACTIVATION
Windows XP normally only
needs to be reactivated following a clean install on a freshly formatted hard
drive but occasionally the Product Activation Key may be lost during a
reinstall, in which case you will have to go though the activation process. You
can avoid this by making a copy of the file C:\windows\system32\wpa.dpl on a
floppy disc (it’s less than 20kb) and keep it somewhere safe. If following a reinstallation
you are asked to reactivate Windows simply rename the existing \wpa.dpl file to
\wpa.old and copy your backup file from the floppy into the same location.
CHECK YOUR STARTUP
It’s not always clear what
the items on the Startup list are for and whether or not they’re important,
superfluous or possibly even dangerous, like a spyware or adware component. If
you are not sure whether to uncheck an entry refer to the very comprehensive
list of common Startup items at: www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php.
RECOVER RESTORE
The Restore Points created
by System Restore use a lot of space, a gigabyte or more in the case of large
hard drives. One simple and safe way to claw back some of this space is to
delete old redundant RPs. To do that go to Start > Programs > Accessories
> System Tools and click Disk Cleanup. Your system drive (usually C:) should
be selected by default, click OK and when it has finished scanning your system
click the More Options tab then the Clean Up button next to System Restore and
all RPs, with the exception of the current one, will be erased
CLEAN OUT THE CRAP
Regular readers will know
that Windows secretly logs the address of every web site you have ever visited
from the day you first switched on your PC in hidden and protected files called
index.dat. You may also know that over the years we have been a big fan of a
freeware index.dat cleaner utility called Spider but unfortunately it doesn’t
work on Windows XP. Now the long search for an effective freeware cleaner for
XP is over, and it’s called (excuse the language…) Crap Cleaner or ‘CC’ as
we’ll refer to it from now on. It does a bang-up job of removing all traces of
your web browsing, as well as clearing out all of the other little tell tales
that Windows stores and it also includes a registry cleaner utility. Crap Cleaner is freeware, there are no adware or spyware components and it is polite to
make a small donation to the author if you find it useful and continue to use
it.
REMOTE ASSISTANCE TIPS
Remote Assistance may not
work if one or both PCs are behind a Firewall, if so they should be switched
off for the duration of the session. PCs on a network may require permission
from the Administration before Remote Assistance can be used. If you use Remote
Assistance regularly, with help from the same person, then you can save time by
clicking ‘Save Invitation as a File’ (on the opening page of the Remote
Assistance wizard), and the next time you use it just attach the file to an
email message. One final point to watch out for, whilst you are controlling a
remote PC you will using the other user’s mouse and keyboard settings, which
means you may accidentally encounter unfamiliar keyboard shortcuts, or reversed
mouse buttons, if they are left-handed.
PASSWORD EXPIRE
Shortly after you have
started using your new XP computer you will receive messages telling you that
your password will expire, usually in 14 days. If you are happy with your
passwords and do not want to change them go to Run on the Start menu and type
‘control userpasswords2’ (without the quotes of course) and on the dialogue box
that appears select the Advanced tab then the Advanced button. Double click the
Users folder and right click the user name whose setting your want to change
and select Properties then check the box ‘Password never expires’.
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BALLOONS BEGONE
You half expect the
Tellytubbies to come waddling over the rolling green desktop and where would
Windows XP be without little balloons appearing every five minutes, telling you
about something or other it has just done? Some find the cutesy design theme
quite endearing; others would like to have a few words with the designers but
the good news is that almost everything can be changed, and the dreaded
‘Balloon Tips’ can be banished forever using XP version of our old friend Tweak
UI (see Jargon Filter). As regular readers will know Tweak UI is part of a
suite of tools called Power Toys, which are unsupported by Microsoft but don’t
let that worry you, they’re usually very safe to use. PowerToys are free and
can be downloaded from:
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp
and the Tweak UI utility is only around 500kB. After it’s installed you’ll find
it on the Programs menu, double-click the Taskbar option and in the Setting
Window deselect ‘Enable Balloon Tips’ then OK.
While
you are at it have a look through some of the many other useful things Tweak UI
can do, including an auto log-on facility, which is useful if you are the only
user.
AUTOMATICALLY RENUMBER FILES
Windows XP has a little-known facility for renaming and
numbering files in batches. The first step is to highlight all of the files you
want to change. You can do this individually by holding down the Ctrl key and
clicking each one in turn, or if there are a lot of them, hold down the Shift
key and use cursor arrow down or the Page Down keys to speed up the operation.
Next, right-click the first file in the block and select Rename. Enter the new
file name, hit Return and all of the highlighted the files will be
automatically renamed and numbered. If you want to specify the start number
then enter the number you want to start at in brackets, so in your case the
first file would look something like this: ‘mypicture(51).jpg and all subsequent
files will be numbered in sequence.
ERROR REPORTING
Windows XP is very stable
but it’s certainly not immune to crashes and when it does you are presented
with an offer to report the error to Microsoft using Windows Error Reporting (WER). It’s well meant and should, in
theory, help Microsoft to identify bugs and glitches a lot faster, but it can
become very annoying when you are trying to install a piece of hardware or
software and the message keeps popping up. More worringly Error Reports can also contain a considerable amount of personal information about you and your PC, including credit card numbers, PINs, passwords and so on -- read the Privacy Statement, it's quite scary! To switch it off go to Control Panel
and click System, select the Advanced tab then the Error Reporting button at
the bottom and check the item ‘Disable Error Reporting’ and click OK.
AUTO UPDATE
Generally speaking
automatic updates are quite a good idea and it means your PC will always have
the most up to date security patches and bug-fixes but a lot of people don’t
like the way that Windows automatically decides for itself when to search and
download updates and for those with slower dial-up connections it can be
inconvenient. To switch off automatic updates completely, or tell Windows to
ask permission before accessing the Internet go to System in Control Panel,
select the Automatic Update tab, change the Notification Settings as
appropriate then click OK.
NETMEETING
Microsoft are keen for us
all to start using MSN Messenger (.NET Messenger) for chatting and video
telephony but a lot of people still prefer the much friendlier NetMeeting
program. The good news is that it is included with XP but it has been buried
away; to get it up and running all you have do it go to Run on the Start menu
and type ‘conf’.
CONTROL EXPLORER
For some reason best known
to Microsoft, Windows Explorer in XP opens on My Documents, which can be
incredibly frustrating if you’re trying to access the contents of your C:
drive. Fortunately there is a solution, the first step is to create a desktop
shortcut to Windows Explorer, so go to Start > Programs > Accessories and
right click on the Explorer icon and select Send To > Desktop (Create
Shortcut). Return to the desktop and right-click on the new Windows Explorer
icon and select Properties. In the Target line, after explorer.exe, add the
following ‘/e,c:\’, so it should now read … explorer.exe /e,c:\
(Note the space between
.exe and /e, there’s a comma after the /e and it’s a backslash, not forward
slash after c:). You might also want to put a copy of this shortcut onto the
Quick Launch toolbar, under the Start button, to do that hold down the Ctrl key
(to make a copy) then drag and drop the new Windows Explorer icon.
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DISABLE SPLASH SCREEN
You probably know that you
are using Windows XP and may not want to be reminded every time you boot up, in
which case why not disable the XP opening screen? This is easy, just go to Run
on the Start menu and type ‘msconfig’ then select the Boot.Ini tab. Check the
item ‘/NOGUIBOOT’, click OK and when prompted restart your PC. This time it
will go straight from the opening white progress bar or a blank screen to the
XP desktop. You may get a warning message from the System Configuration Utility
telling you the PC is in Selective Startup Mode, this is not a problem though
and you can safely tick the ‘Do not show this message…’ check box.
MOUSE POINTERS
XP has a wealth of
alternative mouse pointer and cursor schemes. Go to Mouse in Control Panel and
click the Pointers tab then the Scheme’ drop down Menu. (If you are in Category
View click Appearance and Themes then Mouse Pointers). If you are using XP Pro
have a look at Dinosaur or if you are of a musical disposition try Conductor;
in XP Home you should also find Ocean and Sports schemes.
FILE SORTING
Windows Explorer has
several new features for displaying and sorting files and folders. One of the
most useful is Show In Groups, which is enabled on the View menu. You can now
select the type of grouping that you require, if you click on the Name header
the groups will be alphabetical, click on ‘Type’ and they will be sorted so
that documents, images and spreadsheets etc. are grouped together. As a further
enhancement you can enable Show In Groups in Details, Icons, Tiles and
Thumbnails Views.
PASSWORD REMINDER
The security features in
XP are obviously a welcome change to Windows 9x, which is about as a secure as
a wet teabag; however, forgetting your logon password could be a major
inconvenience. You could write it down somewhere but that rather defeats the
object - XP does have a recovery utility that you should make use of if you are
prone to forgetfulness. With a blank formatted floppy to hand go to Control
Panel, click on User Accounts then your account name. In the Related Tasks pane
on the left select the item ‘Prevent Forgotten Password’, pop in the floppy and
follow the on-screen instructions. If you forget your password XP will give you
the option of using your recovery disc to help you to reset your password so
keep it in a safe and secure place and don’t for heaven’s save label it
‘Password Recovery’…
COPY ACCOUNT
Sooner or later XP, like
all incarnations of Windows, slows down as it becomes overloaded with redundant
files and Registry entries so if your machine is starting to get a bit sluggish
try this quick and simple trick that should help to speed it up a bit (or maybe
even a lot…). Go to User Accounts in Control Panel and create a new account,
make sure it’s an Administrator type and this will allow you to copy across and
export all of your data files and settings from your old account in to the new
and hopefully much livelier one.
TIMER SHUTDOWN
Here’s
a useful tip if you
want to make sure your children switch the PC off at a particular time,
or even
limit your own usage to prompt you to go home/get to bed at a
reasonable hour.
XP has a built-in utility called Shutdown that can be programmed to
switch the
PC off after a predetermined delay. To use Shutdown go to Run on the
Start menu
and type ‘cmd’ (without the quotes) and this will bring up a DOS type
window.
Now type the following command: ‘shutdown.exe –s –t xx’, where –s is
the shutdown ‘switch’, -t is the time switch and xx is the delay in
seconds. So, if you want the PC to shutdown in 15 minutes, say, the
command
would be: ‘shutdown.exe –s –t 900’. When the Enter is pressed the
countdown
begins, with a dialogue box on the screen showing the time left and
warning the
user to save their work. For a full list of the switches available for
this utility
just type shutdown.exe at the command prompt.
FIREWALL
Here’s how to switch on
the built-in Internet Firewall in Windows XP. This very useful feature protects
your PC from snoopers but for some reason it's not enabled by default, or
easily found, unless you know where to look. The procedure is Start >
Control Panel > Network Connections, highlight your Internet or Network
connection then click Change Settings in the Network Tasks Window. Select the
Advanced tab and check the item 'Internet Connection Firewall' and its done.
INTERNET TIME
The internal clocks in
most PCs are usually fairly accurate but they can drift by a few seconds a
week. XP has a useful facility that allows you to synchronise your PC to an
atomic clock when you are connected to the Internet. The next time you are
online double click on the time display on the taskbar and select the Internet
Time tab, check the item ‘Automatically Synchronise…’ and click the Update Now
button. If the time-server web site selected by default is slow to respond or
busy you can find a list of alternate servers at:
http://ntp.isc.org/bin/view/Servers/NTPPoolServers
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