The Start menu takes quite a while to display the list of programs installed. In order to get Windows XP to display the list faster, you will have to edit the registry settings. To speed up your Start menu, go to Start > Run and type regedit. This will open the registry window. Then navigate to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Scroll down in the right panel and double-click on 'menushowdelay'. In the Value Data box, change the default value for the menu speed from 400 to a lesser number, such as 1 or even 0. Click OK. You should now find a significant increase in the Start menu speed. Note: Remember to back up your registry before making any changes.
* MODIFYING VISUAL SETTINGS:
If you have only 128 MB RAM, your machine might be a bit sluggish after installing Windows XP. So to achieve optimal performance without buying additional RAM, disable certain visual settings and free up some precious memory. Go to the Control Panel > system > Advanced, and click on the Settings button under Performance. Change various graphical effects, and ensure that the animation and shadow options are unchecked, as they tend to consume a lot of memory. You should get a better response from your operating system, without spending any money on RAM.
* ENABLING/DISABLING CLEAR TYPE TEXT: Microsoft has introduced a new technology called 'Clear Type' with Windows XP. However, it is not enabled by default. To enable it, right click on a blank area of the Desktop, and choose Properties. Click on the Appearance Tab, and then click on Effects. Check the 'Use following method to smooth edges of screen fonts' option and then choose as per your monitor. For desktop monitors choose the 'Standard' option, and for laptops and other flat screen monitors, choose Clear Type. This option improves the readability of large screen fonts.
* GROUPING/UNGROUPING TASKBAR ITEMS:
Try opening more than three windows of any program, such as Internet Explorer, and you will see them automatically grouped together under a single button. This happens because Windows XP, by default, enables the option of grouping similar programs. To uncheck this option, right click on a blank area of the Taskbar and select Properties. Under Properties, deselect 'Group Similar Taskbar Buttons', and then click OK. If you want to change the number of windows that can be opened, without grouping, you will have to change a registry entry. Go to Start > Run and type regedit, and press [Enter]. Navigate to the key to KEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Taskbar Groupsize. Right click on 'Taskbar Groupsize', and change the hexadecimal value to whatever you like-for example, 4, 5 or even 10. XP will now group the programs according to the number you set.
* GROUP POLICY EDITOR:
In Windows XP Professional, there is a utility that allows you to change almost every setting of the OS, without having to manually edit the registry. In order to access the program, go to Start > Run and type gpedit.msc and press [Enter]. Now you can navigate and change the options as you wish. We have some examples here, but you can also try changing other settings.
* Disabling MSN Messenger from starting automatically:
Navigate to User configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Messenger. In the right pane, you will find options to change the settings for this program. Click on 'Do not automatically start windows messenger initially' and enable this rule to prevent starting MSN Messenger when you start Windows. This will shorten your boot up time, and also save memory.
* Removing unnecessary options from Task Manager: XP hides inactive icons in the system tray by default. In order to remove this facility completely, you will have to navigate to User configuration > Administrative templates > Start menu and Taskbar. On the right-hand side, scroll down to 'Turn off notification area clean up'. Now your icons cannot be hidden at all.
* Customising IE interface: Tired of the same old IE interface? Customise it by going to User configuration > Internet Explorer Maintenance > Browser User Interface. Change the browser title name and manually add the name you want to see on the browser. You can even add a customised animated logo and change the background of the toolbar by going to 'Browser toolbar customisation'.
* Disable list of startup programs: To disable the list of startup programs, go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Logon and enable 'Do not process the run once list'. This prevents programs from starting up automatically, thus giving you a faster boot up time.
* Removing inactive icons from system tray: XP hides inactive icons in the system tray by default. In order to remove this facility completely, you will have to navigate to User configuration > Administrative templates > Start menu and Taskbar. On the right-hand side, scroll down to 'Turn off notification area clean up'. Now your icons cannot be hidden at all.
* Turning the firewall on: Microsoft has included a firewall in Windows XP to keep you safe from hackers, while on the Net. It's quite easy to enable the firewall. Just click on the dial-up icon, which you must have created to connect to your ISP, and go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Communications > Network Connections > Properties > Advanced, now select the box 'Internet Connection Firewall' and you are done.
* Sharing Internet connection: If you are connected to a network and want to enable Internet connection sharing, it's easy with Windows XP. Go to Control Panel > Network Connections and click on 'Set up or change your home or small office Internet connection'. A wizard will guide you through the process of creating a connection. If you want this connection to dial automatically, when another computer on your home or small office network attempts to access external resources, check the 'Establish a dial-up connection whenever a computer on my network attempts to access the Internet' option. If you want other network users to enable or disable the shared Internet connection, select the 'Allow other network users to control or disable the shared Internet connection' option.
* Controlling cookies: Often, when you visit a Web site, it sends a cookie which is placed on your hard disk. Through the cookie, the site may steal and misuse information from your computer. To prevent this, Internet Explorer 6 comes with an option for blocking these cookies. In order to change this option to suit your requirements, right click on Internet Explorer, go to Properties, and click on the Privacy tab. Here you can select the option you want. For instance, in order to ensure maximum privacy, you can keep it on 'High'-all the cookies that contain your personal information and are sent to third-party Web sites without your consent are now blocked
* Increasing connection speed: Some of us may find that after installing Windows XP, the Internet connection gets slower. A possible reason for this is the QoS (Quality of Service) installed. This service reserves 20 per cent of the bandwidth for itself, even with QoS disabled. In order to remove this reserved quota, you will have to make sure you are logged on as Administrator. Go to Start > Run and type gpedit.msc. Expand the 'local computer policy' branch, the 'administrative templates' branch, and the 'network' branch. Highlight the 'QoS Packet Scheduler' in the left window. In the right window, double-click the 'limit reservable bandwidth' setting. Then, on the Setting tab, check 'enabled', and change the 'Bandwidth limit %' to read 0. After doing this, you should immediately notice a boost in your Internet connection speed.
* Speeding up network browsing: A bug in Windows 2000, causes the scheduled tasks folder to be searched, whenever the user browses network drives. While Microsoft has developed a fix for this bug, the fix slows down the browsing of Microsoft networks. In order to fix this problem, go to Start > Run, type in regedit and press [Enter]. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace. Then find a key named {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}. Right-click on it and delete it. Restart the computer. Now you will be able to browse the network a lot faster.
* Bridging connections: If you'd like to connect two or more computers via a LAN, then you should utilise the Network Bridge option, provided in Windows XP. There is no configuration required, and you do not need to purchase additional hardware, such as routers or bridges. IP addressing, address allocation, and name resolution, are highly simplified in a single subnet IP network. To use this feature you will have to open Network Connections. Under LAN or High-Speed Internet, select each of the private network connections that you want to be part of the bridge. Right-click one of the highlighted private network connections and click Bridge Connections.
* Unable to uninstall MSN Messenger: To remove MSN Messenger in Windows XP, you have to locate the SYSOC.INF file, located in the \Windows\INF folder-this is a hidden file and folder. Open it in Notepad and locate the line 'msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7'. Remove the word 'hide' from the line and save the file. After making the necessary changes, you'll be able to see MSN Messenger in the Add/Remove Windows components list. You can then remove it for good.
* Disabling error reporting: Windows XP, like Windows 2000, provides a report of errors that are generated during a session. In order to disable it, right-click on the My Computer icon, go to Properties, and click on the Advanced tab. At the bottom of this tab, you will find the 'Error reporting' option. Click it and you will get an option to enable or disable it. Click Disable and you are done.
* Renaming multiple files: In Windows XP, you can easily rename multiple files at a single go and save a lot of time. Click Start and click My Pictures or the folder where you have saved the pictures. Switch the view from the default Filmstrip to Thumbnails by clicking the Views button on the toolbar. Select all the pictures you want to rename, right click the first picture, and then click Rename. Rename the first picture, and then click in the white space next to one of the pictures. The pictures are renamed all at once! For example, if you select 10 JPEG pictures, and name them XYZ, the files will be named: XYZ.JPG, XYZ (1).JPG, XYZ (2).JPG, and so on to XYZ (9).JPG.
* Creating boot-up disk: In order to create a bootable floppy disk in XP, insert a floppy and go to the floppy icon in My Computer. There you will have to right click the floppy drive icon and click on the Format option. You will see the option 'Create MS-DOS Start up Disk'. After creating the boot up disk, you will be able to boot into Windows XP using this disk.
FOR WINDOWS Me:
* Organising System Restore: If your Restore folder is full, assigning more space won't do any good. To get rid of this problem, you have to go to Control Panel > System and click on the Performance tab, and then click on the File System button. A new window will pop up. Here, click on the Troubleshooting tab. Select the 'Disable System Restore' option. Close the applet and reboot the machine for the setting to take effect. The Restore folder will be emptied while rebooting. To keep recent System Restore files intact, go to Control Panel > System > File System and look for the Read-ahead Optimization slider. Set this slider to 'Minimum'. The hard drive will start deleting files from the Restore folder. Now, set the slider back to maximum and close the applet. Only the most recent files will be restored. This is a good exercise to do before defragmenting. your hard disk.
* Previewing images: To preview a saved image or picture, click on the My Computer icon and find the folder containing the images. Once you locate it, choose View from the toolbar and click on 'Customize the folder'. This will open the wizard. Click Next, then check the option 'Choose or edit an HTML template for this folder'. Now, click on Next and select 'Image preview' and click Finish. This will allow you to preview an image in that folder.
* Creating a Web folder: You can create a folder on the desktop, for online documents. This will make it easier for you to upload new files or folders, and streamline your browsing activities. To create a Web folder, click on My Network Places. In the window that opens, click on 'Add network places'. Enter the Web address-for example, webfolder.mydocsonline.com for www.mydocsonline.com. You will be asked for a login name and password. After you have furnished this information, click OK and a connection will be established to the Net. In the next window, select Finish. In a few seconds, the Web folder will be created. Now you can just drag and drop files to this folder to save them online.
* Closing multiple programs with one click: If you ever need to close many programs at once, you have an easier option than going to each application and individually shutting it. Just hold down the [Ctrl] key and select the applications you wish to close. Now right click on one of the applications and click on the Close option. All the programs you selected will shut down simultaneously. The same trick could be used to minimise and maximise more than one program.
* Consolidate your browsing: In Windows Me, you can browse through your hard disk, internal network or the Internet from the same window. Just type in the address and the toolbar button will change according to the address. For example, if it's an Internet address, the Refresh and Home buttons will be added to the toolbar.
* One-click shutdown: For this, you will need to create a shortcut. In the path name, type in C:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe.exitwindows. You can also add this shortcut to your quick launch bar. Now, if you click on the shortcut, the machine shuts down instantly.
* Drag and drop video: To quickly import videos to your computer, open both Windows Moviemaker and My Computer. Navigate to the folder with the video files, using My Computer. Now, drag and drop video files to the My Collections window in Windows Moviemaker.
* Surfing from the taskbar: You can search or surf the Internet without even opening a browser, using the 'Always There' taskbar. To get the address bar in the taskbar, just right click on the blank area on the taskbar and then click Toolbars, and then on Address. You can now Access Web pages directly from the taskbar by entering their address.
* Upgrading BIOS from DOS: In order to update the BIOS, you need to create a boot disk to run BIOS update. To do this, take a 1.44 floppy and format it. Now, go to the folder C:\Windows\Command\EBD, and copy the files io.sys and command.sys to the floppy drive. Finally, copy the BIOS files to the floppy. Reboot the machine with the floppy in it, and update the BIOS.
* Home networking with Windows Me: If you have a Windows Me machine and wish to network it with a machine running an older Windows OS, go to Control Panel and click on Add New Hardware. This will install the necessary networking drivers. Now, you can introduce the computers to one another in the following manner. First, on the machine running Windows Me, which is the server, go to Start > Programs > Accessories. Then, click on Communication > Home Networking Wizard and create the client setup disk. Run this disk on the other machine to set it up on the network.
* Sharing Internet connection: If you plan to network machines, then you can also share Internet access. If you are not using an internal DSL (digital subscriber line) connection or sharing your modem, you will need to install one more Ethernet card in the PC that is connected to the Internet. The advantage of having two Ethernet cards in your machine, is that it prevents information from being seen by people outside your home network, and thus safeguards you from hackers and other malicious intruders.
* Networking mobile devices: If you plan to use a mobile device or laptop on the network, using the Ethernet card or phone line, then use the subnet or second network facility in Window Me. This will allow you to access shared resources, and give you freedom of movement. You will need to have a wireless (IEEE 1394) connection for the mobile device. Internet connection sharing can also be set up between two home networks. The first or primary network will be used to share the Internet connection with the secondary network. To share your Internet connection via the subnet, first set up your primary connection using the Home Networking Wizard in the control panel. Then go to Control Panel and click on Internet Options > Connection. In this window, click the LAN Setting tab. Click on Sharing. From the list that pops up, select 'Network adapter', which connects you to the client. Click OK and restart your PC.
FOR WINDOWS 98:
* Application shortcuts: Shortcut keys can be assigned to any application. In order to do so, right click on the application icon, click Properties and then click on the Shortcut tab. Here, you will see the text field for the shortcut key. Enter the hotkey of your choice and click Apply to access that application through that hotkey
* Hiding a desktop icon:
It is not easy to remove icons, such as My Computer, from your desktop, but they can be hidden. To do this, create a 32 x 32 pixel image in Paint, with the same colour as your desktop background. When creating the image in Paint, go to the Image menu, click on Attributes and set the size as 32 x 32 pixels. Use the Fill tool to fill in the desktop background colour. Save the image with a .ico extension. Now, right click on the desktop, and select Properties. This will open the Display Properties settings. Go to the Effects tab, select the My Computer icon, and click on Change Icon. Finally, specify the path to the file you just created, and press the Apply button. You will not see the My Computer icon anymore, but the text will still be there. To get rid of this, right click on the My Computer text, select Rename, and rename it to [Spacebar], so that it will appear blank. You have to do this, as Windows needs at least a single character to name an icon.
* Assigning drive letters to network computers: If you often work on shared folders, on a networked machine, then accessing folders can be made easier. To do so, go to the network folder in Windows Explorer, by typing \\machine_name\share_folder. In the left pane of the window you will find the folder name, right click on the folder and select Map Network Drive. Select Reconnect at Logon if you wish to automatically get connected to the network drive as soon as Windows starts. From now onwards, you can access the network folder as if it were a local drive on your machine.
* Understand your machine better: To get information about your machine, go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information. This tool will provide you with information about the resources on your motherboard, the hardware components and drivers and also software applications running on your machine.
* Troubleshooting Windows Errors; The first step to troubleshooting is to go to Start > Help and type the error message. Follow the steps suggested by Windows Help. If you can't find help with Windows help then go to http://support.microsoft.com, type the error message and press search. If necessary, change your search criteria to related topics and search again. Finally, if you find that nothing is working, then while the error message is on the screen, press [ALT] + [PrintScreen], open Paint, paste the content, save the file and send it to Microsoft customer support
* Command Prompt and Explorer hand in hand:
It can be tedious to type in the entire path of a folder when you need to access it through the Command Prompt. An easier way is to open an Explorer window and drag the required folder from there into the Command Prompt window. This will show you the folder's path within the prompt. Now all you have to do is hit [Enter]. Similarly, if you are working on a particular folder in Command Prompt and wish to open the same folder in Explorer, just type explorer /e on the prompt and press [Enter]. The Explorer window appears with the desired folder as the current folder.
FOR WINDOWS 2000 Pro
* Shortcuts to Task and Device Managers: In order to quickly get to the Windows 2000 Task Manager or Device Manager, first create a shortcut, by right-clicking on the desktop, selecting New and then Shortcut. When you are in the Create Shortcut window, type in the following string: %windir%\System32\mmc.exe %systemroot%\system32\devmgmt.msc. Click Next, and call the shortcut 'Device Manager'. Finally click Finish and the shortcut will be created on your system. The following are default shortcuts: [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [Esc] to access the Task Manager, and [Windows] + [Break] for System Properties.
* Distortion-free audio: When your CD-ROM drive reads an audio CD, the signals are in a digital format. When the signals are transmitted through the audio cable, they are analogue, and so there is a chance that the signal might get distorted. In Windows 2000, you can overcome this problem. Go to Control Panel > System > Hardware, and in the Device Manager window click on DVD/CD-ROM Drives. Right click on the drive you are using and select Properties. In the new window that opens, click Properties again and select the option named 'Enable digital CD audio for this CD-ROM'. Restart Windows and enjoy better quality digital audio.
* Converting to NTFS: The NTFS file system, provides you with better security as compared to the FAT and FAT32 file systems. You can convert your FAT or FAT32 file system to NTFS. To do so, go to the command prompt and type convert drive_letter: /fs:NTFS. For example, convert drive_c: /fs:NTFS, will convert drive C to NTFS file system. * Specifying page file size: You can increase the size of your virtual memory to improve performance by using a Page file. A page file is a certain amount of allocated space on the hard disk, that acts as additional memory. To change the amount of disk space allocated to page files, go to Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Options > Change. Now you will see the drives in your computer and the current disk space allocated for page file on each drive. To change the size, select the drive and, in the blank field below, specify the initial and maximum size in MB. Finally click on Set. Click on OK and restart the computer for the changes to take effect.
* Changing user password: To change the user password, go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management. Here, click on Local Users and Group and expand the branches, then click on the Users folder. Now you will be able to see the names of the users in the right pane of the window. Right click on the user whose password you want to change, click Set Password, enter the new password and click OK.
* Initializing your modem: In Windows 2000, you have to turn on your modem when the OS boots. If you do not, you have to restart the system and remember to turn on the modem, otherwise it refuses to work. There is a way around this problem. Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel, and on Add/Remove Programs and select the 'Phone and Modem' option. In this screen, click on the Modem tab and then on Add. The Add/Remove wizard will pop up. Click on Next. A few seconds later, a new window will pop up saying that it did not find any modem attached. Click Cancel-this means the system couldn't find a new modem-and your old modem has been initialised. You will see that your modem is initialised and attached to COM1 under the Attached To tab.
* Faster parallel port performance: If you are using a faster parallel port device, such as a scanner, with Windows 2000, you can really speed up its performance. To do this, go to Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager > Port (COM & LPT). Right click on Printer Port, and click on Properties. In the screen that appears, click on Port Settings. Here, select the radio button beside the option 'Use any interrupt assigned to the port'-if your parallel device uses an IRQ, then enabling this will improve performance. Note: do this only if you are sure that this feature is present-you can check this in the user manual of the device. Otherwise, select the radio button beside the option 'Try not to use interrupts'. This way, the PnP will check the parallel port device, and automatically determine if it needs an IRQ. Finally click OK for the setting to take effect.
* Disabling IDE scanning: If you do not regularly plug-in and unplug your IDE devices, then disabling IDE device monitoring will speed up your computer. To do this, go to Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager. A new window will pop up, in the console tree, look for the IDE ATA/ATAPI controller. This will show you the list of the IDE channels of your computer. Select one-for example, the primary IDE channel-and right click on it. Now, go to Properties, and click on the Advanced Settings tab. You will see 'device 0' and 'device 1'. Look for the 'auto-detection' option-if it is greyed out it means there is a device attached to that port. In the one that isn't greyed out, change 'auto-detection' to 'none', click OK and reboot the machine. Note: If you happen to attach a device to that port later, you have to set this setting back to 'auto-detection', or else the new device will not be detected
* Adding sub-menus to the Start menu: In Windows 2000, you can add a sub-menu to the Start menu for a group of users. This means that if you log in as user ABC, you will see a certain sub-menu, while user XYZ will see a completely different one. To enable this feature first log in as an administrator, then right click on the Start menu and click on Open All Users, and an explorer window will open. Click on the program folder, where you would like to add a sub-menu. Then click File > New > Menu. Enter the name of the new sub-menu and click anywhere on the desktop. Now, when users log in, they will see their personalised menus, as specified by you
* AutoDial in 2000: If you have a dial-up connection to the Net, instead of dialling, waiting to connect and then typing a URL, you can connect to the Net, just by entering a URL into your browser. To configure auto-dial, go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Network and Dial-up Connection. In the main tool bar, click on Advanced > Dial-up Preferences. In the auto-dial section, select My Location (Current Location) and click OK. Now, go to the computer management console, to start the Remote Access Auto-Connection Manager. To do this, click on Administrative Tools in the Control Panel. Then click on Computer Management. Here, expand the Services & Application tree, and then click on Services. A list of the services will be displayed. In the list, look for the Remote Access Control Manager, and right click on it. In the drop-down window, click Start. You will see the word 'started' highlighted in the Services list under the Status section.
* [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Del]: Trojans act like ordinary programs, and retrieve information about your system, which can later be used to hack into your system and cause damage. In order to protect the system from Trojans, in Windows 2000, you need to activate the [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Del] logon function. To do this, go to the Control Panel, and click on Users and Passwords, then click on the Advanced tab. In the window that appears, select the box with the option 'Require user to press [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Del] before logging on' under the Secure Boot Setting section.
* Input locale: Windows 2000 can support many languages, other than English, and there are many applications available that allow this. When you change the input locale to another language, the keyboard layout for that language is added-so when you type in an alphabet, it will output the character assigned to that key. To activate this, go to Control Panel > Regional Options > Input Locale > Change > Key Settings. In this window, click on the hotkey for the input locale, whose sequence you want to change, then click Change Key Sequence. In the window that appears, assign the key of your choice by selecting the options available.
* Free system resources: We know that Windows 2000 is resource-hungry. To free up some memory-usage, go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. You will see the list of applications. From this list, look for applications you do not use. Double-click on them, and disable those services from the window that pops up.
* Disabling startup programs: To disable programs from automatically starting, you will need to do some registry tweaking. Go to Start > Run and type Regedit; the registry editor will open. Here, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Run. Here, look for the program strings of programs that you don't want to load at start up. Right click on that string and select Delete. The program will not be loaded during the next start up. Note: before you do anything to the registry, always make a backup, so you can restore it in case something goes wrong.
* Improving serial port performance: You can get more out of your serial connection and get your modem working at its fastest with the help of the Device Manager. Go to the Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager. This will show you a list of all the devices attached to your PC. Look for the 'Port (COM)' communication port. Right-click and select Properties, and click the port settings tab. Increase the bits per second from '9600' to '115200' and flowchart to 'Hardware'. Then, click on the Advanced tab and set the Receive and Transmit buffers to maximum. Click OK and close all windows. Your COM port will now run at full throttle.
