Windows XP Tips Collection

Windows XP Tips Collection

Here's how to check if your copy of XP is Activated
Go to the run box and type in oobe/msoobe /a
and hit ok ...

Windows Explorer Tip
When launched in Windows Millennium/Win2k/WinXP,Explorer by default will open the "My Documents" folder. Many people prefer the behavior from previous versions of Windows, where Windows Explorer would open and display "My Computer" instead of the new way. To revert to the old way [My Computer by default rather than My Documents as the default], simply edit the shortcut to Windows Explorer, by right clicking on it, and left clicking "Properties" and changing the "Target" box to: "C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /n,/e," [adjust the path/drive letter if needed]. The key is to add the "/n,/e," to the end of the shortcut (don't type the quotes).
Backup your Fresh install
After you complete your clean install and get all your software installed I would recommend that you use something like Drive Image 3 or 4 to do an image of your install partition, then burn the image to CD and keep it. XP is a different creature for some people. If you mess it up when playing around with it, just bring the image back. You can be up and running again in 20 minutes vs. the two to three hours it will take to get the whole thing and all your stuff installed again.
Note the default install of XP is about 1.5gigs and the DI image may be larger that 700 meg. So don't install too much on the OS partition. To help downsize the Image I run the System file checker and reset the cache size to 40 or 50 meg (It's well over 300 by default).
To run it open the command prop and type:
SFC /?
SFC /purgecache
SFC /cachesize=50
and finally rebuild the cache with SFC /scannow (have the CD ready)
I also Delete the Pagefile.sys and hibernate.sys files before running Drive Image..


1.When setting up the system with tweaks or making changes to the core OS or hardware always be logged in as administrator. Seems that while XP does create an account upon install that has administrator privileges, its not the same as the administrator account is. Think about it this way - if the account created was the same then why have an administrator account period?

2.It is always better to install winXP clean than to do an upgrade.

3. The files and settings wizard is your friend. However it doesn't save the account passwords for your e-mail and news groups accounts in OE. Export these accounts manually from within OE first before hand and save them in a safe place. This way you will not need to remember what the account info was, just import the account again.

4. If using a SB Live sound card and trying to run Unreal (the game) you may have some problems. This is not the fault of winXP or Unreal. the problem is a bad driver design from creative and the Devloader portion. There is currently no work around for this problem.

5. Many - many games do run in winXP with comparability mode. The easiest way to do this is to simply create a shortcut on the desktop to the game executable and choose the compatibility tab of the shortcut and set up for win98.

6. Do not disable all the services that you find outlined in the win2K tweak guides floating around. Instead set them to manual instead of disabled. This will allow something to start up when it is needed and you'll avoid the BSOD thing that can occur if something gets disabled that wasn't supposed to.

7. The winXP firewall is actually very good. However it is not very configurable. I would recommend tiny personal firewall from www.tinysoftware.com. It free and all you need. It so far is the most compatible with winXP - why you may ask? - because (little known trivia fun fact here) this is where the winXP firewall came from. Both the XP built in firewall and tiny will give complete stealth. However what you can do - which is kind of cool is divide the work between the two and use both. use tiny to just filter the ports you want to filter instead of everything and let the built in XP firewall take care of the rest. The result is a smoother running firewall system that reacts much more quickly. I've used Nortons , zone alarm (which contrary to popular belief is not a real firewall and a joke in the IT community as a whole) and several of the rest, Tiny has been the best so far.

8. After you complete your clean install and get all your software installed I would recommend that you use something like drive image 4 to do an image of your install partition, then burn the image to CD and keep it. XP is a different creature for some people. If you mess it up when playing around with it, just bring the image back. You can be up and running again in 20 minutes vs. the two to three hours it will take to get the whole thing and all your stuff installed again.

9. choose winXP pro over the personal version because it has more bells and whistles. However if the bells and whistles do not appeal to you then the home (personal) version is the way to go.

10. Avoid problems with WinXP. Insure that your hardware is on the HCL. Don't be mad because the latest and greatest doesn't work with your hardware. It is not the fault of MS , winXP or anything or one else. Not defending them here, just being practical. Look at it this way - if your dream car costs $100,000 dollars and you don't have $100,000 is it the car manufactures fault? nope because thats the free enterprise system and the way it works. Try to upgrade your hardware if you can. If you can't, wait for drivers from the manufacturer that support winxp. I would highly recommend before installing winXP that you go out and get the win2000 drivers for all your hardware. 99% of the win2000 drivers will work in winXP. This way if winxp doesn't have drivers, you do.

XP will ship with out the Virtual Java Machine.
It will not appear on windows update either. Some sites will prompt you to install it upon visit to their sites. However this might change in the near future due to the problem between SUN and MS so the link you get pointed to might no be there.

You can get the virtual Java machine now and have it ready to use when you install XP.
Download the VJM for winNT. If you try to d/l the one for win2000 (which is exactly the same as the one for NT) you will be told to get the service pack. You don't want to do this for XP.
keep it in a safe place and use it when you install XP.
XP browsing speed up tweak
when you connect to a web site your computer sends information back and forth, this is obvious. Some of this information deals with resolving the site name to an IP address, the stuff that tcp/ip really deals with, not words. This is DNS information and is used so that you will not need to ask for the site location each and every time you visit the site. Although WinXP and win2000 has a pretty efficient DNS cache, you can increase its overall performance by increasing its size.

You can do this with the registry entries below:

************begin copy and paste***********
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

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

************end copy and paste***********

make a new text file and rename it to dnscache.reg. The copy and paste the above into it and save it. Then merge it into the registry.

Grouping multiple open windows
WinXP will group multiple open windows (IE windows for example) into one group on the task bar to keep the desktop clear. This can be annoying at times - especially when comparing different web pages because you have to go back to the task bar, click on the group and then click on the page you want and then you only get one page because you have to click on each one separately. I think the default for this is 8 windows - any combination of apps or utilities open.

You can modify this behavior by adding this reg key at:

Change number of windows that are open before XP will start
grouping them on the Taskbar

HKEY_CURRRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\
add reg_Dword "TaskbarGroupSize"

modify "TaskbarGroupSize" entry to be the number of windows you want open before XP starts to group them on the task bar.
A value of 2 will cause the Taskbar buttons to always group

Another tweak is to disable or enable recent documents history. This can be done at:

HKEY_CURRRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\
this key should already be present - if it isn't you'll need to add it:
reg_Binary "NoRecentDocsHistory"
modify it so that value reads 01 00 00 00

Wanna network but don't have all the stuff?
If you want to network two winXP machines together you don't have to install a full blown network setup, i.e...switches, hubs, routers, etc...

All you need is two NIC cards (three if you want to share an Internet connection) and a cross over cable.

1. Connect one NIC to your broadband connection device like normal.
2. Install a second NIC in the machine with the broadband connection.
3. install a NIC in the second machine.
4. connect the cross over cable between the second machine NIC and the second NIC in the board band connection machine.
5. re-boot both.
6. Run the networking wizard if necessary.

or:
use a direct connection setup with a parallel port to parallel port connection to the two machines. You will not be able to share a connection with the direct connect.
Help is just a directory away! - Tip
In windows XP pro at C:\Windows\help - you will find many *.chm files. These are the help files. Just start one up and find what your looking for without going thru the main help menu. If for example you are interested in command line tools or command line references start up the ntcmds.chm file. If you use command line a lot for things just create a shortcut on your desktop to this file and it there when you need it.

You could go thru the Help thing to find these but on the home version some are not linked in some of the help. This is shorter.

Speed things up a bit tip
this might help some of you.

1. go to control panel - system.
2. click on the advanced tab
3. under "performance" click on the settings button
4. click on the Advanced tab
5. click on the "Background Services" button
6. Click OK

Section 3

Windows XP Tips 'n' Tricks
==========================
Please note that some of these tips require you to use a Registry Editor (regedit.exe), which could render your system unusable. Thus, none of these tips are supported in any way: Use them at your own risk. Also note that most of these tips will require you to be logged on with Administrative rights.

Unlocking WinXP's setupp.ini