Compatibility Mode Make older programs run in Windows XP

If you're having trouble running older programs originally developed for previous versions of Windows, you're not out of luck. Luckily for consumers, Microsoft built Compatibility Mode into XP. Compatibility Mode allows you to run a program using the shell of the original program it was developed for.

Here's how to access a program's Compatibility Mode in XP:

Find the executable or program shortcut icon you'd like to run.
Right-click the icon and select Properties.
Click the Compatibility tab and place a checkmark next to the text labeled "Run this program in compatibility mode."
Select the operating system that the program was originally intended to run on.
You may need to fine-tune the three fields under "Display Settings" if an older program requires 640x480 resolution or 256 colors.
Click Apply.
Try starting the program after making these changes. If it still gives you trouble, try a different operating system. If the program was written for Win95 and worked fine in Win98, there's nothing that says it still won't work fine with Win98.

Install Windows XP Professional - New Installation

There are three reasons why you may need to install a new copy of Windows XP:

Your current operating system doesn’t support an upgrade to Windows XP Professional.
Your current operating system supports an upgrade to Windows XP Professional, but you don’t want to keep your existing files and personalized settings.
Your computer does not have an operating system.

The setup process is similar for new installations and upgrades with a few notable exceptions. For example, during a new installation, you are able to configure Special Options, convert your file system, and create a new partition for the Windows XP installation.

IMPORTANT
A new installation deletes all programs or system files from a previous installation.

Special Options

Under Special Options, you have the choice to change Language, Advanced, and Accessibility settings during the setup process.

Note: If you are in a country that has recently adopted the euro as its currency, you may have to modify the currency settings to display monetary amounts correctly.

For more information, go to Help and Support Center and type “euro” in the Search box.

Select	If you want to...
Language	· Choose the primary language and regions for Windows XP, which affects the default settings for date, time, currency, numbers, character sets, and keyboard layout. · Choose additional language groups and character sets to use with the programs you are running on Windows XP.
Advanced Options	· Change the default location of the Setup files. · Store system files in a folder other than the default (Windows) folder · Copy the installation files from the CD to the hard disk.
Accessibility	· Use Narrator or Magnifier during Setup.

IMPORTANT
Unless you're an advanced user, it's recommended that you use the default settings.

Choosing a File System

During a new installation of Windows XP, you may have to choose which file system your computer should use. Windows XP Professional supports:

FAT32: An enhanced version of the file allocation table (FAT) system that is standard on all Windows operating systems starting with later (32-bit) versions of Windows 95. The FAT32 system can be used on large hard disks, from 512 megabytes (MB) to 32 gigabytes (GB).
NTFS: The NT file system (NTFS) is used with the Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP operating systems. NTFS provides enhanced reliability, stability, and security, and supports large hard disks of up to 2 terabytes (TB).

IMPORTANT
You can convert your file system any time, even after you install Windows XP, without losing any of your data.

The conversion to NTFS is one–way only; if you convert your FAT or FAT32 file system to NTFS you can’t convert your hard disk back to FAT later.

If you’re not sure which file system to use, keep the one your computer defaults to during Setup. If you want to change your file system, here are a few recommendations:

Use FAT32 if your hard disk is smaller than 32 GB.
Use FAT32 if you want to install more than one operating system on your computer.
Use NTFS if your hard drive is larger than 32 GB and you are running only one operating system on your computer.
Use NTFS if you want enhanced file security.
Use NTFS if you need better disk compression.

Disk Partitions

You can create partitions to organize information—for example, to back up data—or to install more than one operating system on your computer. A hard disk can contain up to four partitions.

If you’re performing a new installation, the appropriate disk partition is selected automatically during Windows XP Setup unless you click Advanced Options and specify your own requirements

For more information about configuring, sizing, reformatting, or converting disk partitions, see your current online Help before you install or upgrade to Windows XP Professional.

Windows XP Step-by-Step Installation Instructions

These steps are for a clean install of XP. Read this article for steps on upgrading your current system to XP.
First, you're going to need to change your BIOS boot order to boot from CD-ROM. Once you do this you'll then be able to boot your computer from the Installation CD.
After changing the boot order in BIOS, save the changes, and then reboot your computer. Make sure your Installation CD is in your CD-ROM. If it is you'll be prompted to press your space bar to directly boot from CD-ROM emulation. Press your space bar as soon as you see this message.
Wait a few minutes while the installation begins to copy the preliminary setup files to your computer. After this completes you'll be ready to start directing the install process.
You will be asked if you want to perform a new installation, repair an existing installation, or quit. In this case, you will be performing a new install. Press the correct key to perform a new installation.
Read the terms of the end user license agreement, and press F8 to agree.
The next phase of the installation is real similar to that of Windows 2000. So, if you're familiar with the Windows 2000 installation process this should be a cinch.
Basically, you need to decide which partition of your hard drive you will install Windows XP on. You will have the opportunity to create and/or delete partitions or just allocate the available disk space to one partition. However, try to keep your partitions within reasonable size.
We recommend using multiple partitions of 4-8GB, preferably on more than one hard drive. This will help you back up your data and optimize system performance later on down the road. Once you have figured out which partition XP will be installed on it's time to format it.

Choose to format the partition to either FAT32 or NTFS (recommended for single OS install). You'll also see two additional choices to perform a quick format of each option. Stick with doing a full format of either option instead. After you've determined which option is right for you, press the correct key to format the partition.
This would be a good time to take a break and come back in a few minutes. The setup program will automatically start copying files after the partition is formatted.
From this point on, you're going to see each and every file name that's being copied over to your hard drive appear in the lower left corner. As the file names go from A to Z, the installation completion percentage will increase.

Choose the region and language.
Type in your name and organization.
Enter your product license key.
Name the computer, and enter an Admin password. Don't forget to write down your Administrator password. After the installation is complete it would be extremely wise to create a password restore disk in the event you forget your Administrator password someday.
Enter the correct date and time.
Choose your network settings. Leave on automatic if you use a dhcp server to assign IP addresses. If you have static IP address for broadband access, enter the settings that your ISP has provided you.
Choose workgroup or domain name.
Register this copy of Windows XP if you've installed all the current hardware on your machine. Otherwise, wait until you've finished installing any additional hardware so you don't have to activate your copy of XP again.
Add users that will sign on to this computer.
Log in, and update drivers.
Driver install
XP found drivers for all of the hardware in our test machines, with the exception of a wireless network adapter that was added. Update all drivers that had updates available for download.
It takes about 30 minutes to perform this installation. After that, you will be a few personalized settings away from getting started on your XP-experience. With a little use, the GUI even starts to grow on you.

XP Game Compatibility

You want to know if all your favorite games are still going to run under Windows XP. Remember what happened when we tried to run games on our Windows 2000 machines? Sometimes we were a little disappointed. Windows 2000 was made more for corporate applications than "Quake," but true techno-geeks know they don't have to sacrifice death matches for a robust business environment -- at least not anymore.

Windows XP has shown an impressive track record of game compatibility. We ran a number of standard games, such as "Tiger Woods Golf," "NHL 2001," "Max Payne," and "Unreal" on our Windows XP Professional machine. Some of these games were specifically slated for Windows 95 and 98, and were shown not to work in Windows 2000. The installation in XP was as smooth as silk. The games ran quickly and beautifully -- not a problem in sight (except for my bad chip shot -- Tiger was hanging his head in shame).

Some less-sophisticated programs may not run as smoothly, and we found that some older applications, such as the Atari 2600 Classic Game Collection, did not appreciate the Windows XP environment. In this case you can use the Application Compatibility Wizard, found in the accessories menu. XP includes integrated compatibility layers to mimic older versions of Windows, so if your program does not work in Windows XP, the compatibility wizard will walk you through the process of getting even your favorite DOS games up and running. In this case, we ran the Atari Classic Game Collection in the Windows 95 environment, at 256 colors and 640x480 screen resolution. Then we set XP to always run our Atari application in this environment, and everything was smooth sailing after that.

One final tip about compatibility: Don't run the compatibility wizard if your program appears to be running well in the normal environment, as the wizard will give you an error message. In general, XP has great program compatibility, so you can upgrade your operating system without giving up all your old favorites.

Windows XP and Symmetric Multiprocessing

Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) is a technology that allows a computer to use more than one processor. The most common configuration of an SMP computer is one that uses two processors. The two processors are used to complete your computing tasks faster than a single processor. (Two processors aren't necessarily twice as fast as a single processor, though.)
In order for a computer to take advantage of a multiprocessor setup, the software must be written for use with an SMP system. If a program isn't written for SMP, it won't take advantage of SMP. Not every program is written for SMP; SMP applications, such as image-editing programs, video-editing suites, and databases, tend to be processor intensive.
SMP in Windows XP
Operating systems also need to be written for SMP in order to use multiple processors. In the Windows XP family, only XP Professional supports SMP; XP Home does not. If you're a consumer with a dual-processor PC at home, you have to buy XP Professional. Windows XP Advanced Server also supports SMP.
In Microsoft's grand scheme, XP Professional is meant to replace Windows 2000, which supports SMP. In fact, XP Professional uses the same kernel as Windows 2000. XP Home is designed to replace Windows Me as the consumer OS, and Windows Me does not support SMP.
The difference between XP Professional and XP Home is more than just $100 and SMP support. XP Professional has plenty of other features not found in XP Home; some you'll use, others you won't care about. Get more information on the differences by reading this article.

Burning CDs in Windows XP and the Limitations

Windows XP's integrated CD burner is powered by the Roxio engine but lacks the familiar Easy CD Creator interface. There is no CD Burner icon on the desktop or in the start menu. So where is this promised CD burner? There are two answers, depending on if you want to burn audio or data CD's.

To burn data CDs

Open a folder. Look at the folder options on the left of your screen. You should see an option to Copy All Items to CD or Copy to CD, depending on your folder view. You can also right-click a file or folder and choose Send To and then CD drive. I appreciate that XP has made it as easy to drop files to a CD as it is a Zip disk. It does not copy the files immediately. Instead, it places them into a repository and waits for further instruction on when and where to burn the CD. Now, place a blank CD into your CD drive or navigate to your CD drive in My Computer, and choose to write the files to a CD.

To burn music CDs

The Windows Media Player was always a monstrosity, and now it now includes a new function -- CD burning. Select a song in your My Documents folder, and choose Copy to Audio CD from the folder options on the left. Surprise! Up pops the Windows Media Player, waiting for you to choose Copy to CD. Hit the record button, and have a good time.

Limitations of the incorporated CD burner

You cannot create bootable CDs with the Windows XP CD burner, nor can you create a CD from an image (like a .iso file). If you want this functionality, you need to install your favorite CD burning software. Don't try to install Easy CD Creator 5 just yet -- Windows XP won't let you.

Roxio will have XP patches available on their website soon, but only for their latest edition of CD creator. Roxio will not support Easy CD Creator 3.X and 4.X for Windows XP, and the user will be required to purchase the upgrade to Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum.

Windows XP does not have a CD burning interface, but it has CD burning artfully integrated into the operating system. However, third-party CD burning software is still necessary for those who want to burn more than the occasional audio CD.

Mega Shutdown and Restart Troubleshooting Guide

Thus far, Windows XP shutdown issues most resemble those of Windows Millennium Edition. That is, most of them center around a very few issues, especially driver version and other legacy hardware and software compatibility issues. These are detailed below. The driver and software issues are expected to resolve substantially as hardware and software manufacturers release updated versions, now that Win XP has been officially launched.
Reboot Instead of Shutdown

The majority of shutdown problems reported with Windows XP thus far have been that it reboots when shutdown is attempted. This may be a global symptom emerging from several distinct causes, because XP executes an automatic restart in the event of a system failure. I'm guessing that this means that more or less anything compromising the operating system during the shutdown process could force this reboot. If this is true, then our job will be to prepare a series of steps suitable to isolate the most likely cause. Disabling the "restart on system failure" feature may permit the exact cause to be isolated:

Right-click on My Computer and select Properties. Click the Advanced tab. Under 'Startup & Recovery,' click Settings. Under 'System Failure,' uncheck the box in front of 'System reboot.'
Some things that have produced this reboot-instead-of-shutdown symptom are:
" By now, Roxio's Easy CD / Direct CD software is well documented as being a major cause - possibly the major cause - of this undesirable shutdown behavior. On November 1, Roxio released new drivers to solve this problem in Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum in its Windows XP updater for the Platinum product. A fix for Easy CD Creator 5 Basic is in the works. In the first few hours of its release, several peple have written me saying that this fix has resolved their Windows XP shutdown problem. I suspect that < least>of the Windows XP shutdown problems will go away with Roxio's release of this patch for Platinum and the pending patch for Basic. This has been the single most common cause of Win XP shutdown problems thus far. One person after another has written to me with the simple message that this reboot behavior went away as soon as they uninstalled Easy CD. HINT No. 1: PCBUILD subscribers, by trial and error, identified the file CDRALW2K.SYS (version 1.0.0.1048) as the Roxio file that was causing his shutdown problems and error conditions. When he deleted this one file, his problems went away. HINT No.2: The Mystic Overclocker and others have reported that installing Easy CD 5.0 does not cause the shutdown problem, provided they do not install the Direct CD component. Though this isn't universally true, enough people have mentioned it by now for me to suggest it as a work-around.
Unassigned Device Drivers

PCBUILD subscribers have found that Windows XP won't shutdown properly if unsigned device drivers are used. Since all necessary device drivers have not yet been created for Win XP, this will be a problem for the next few months. It resembles the pattern for Win ME shutdown problems, because even today, many hardware manufacturers have not prepared suitable drivers for use with ME.
SBLive: DEVLDR32.EXE PROBLEMS

In the early days of Win ME, one of the biggest culprits for shutdown issue was the Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live. History repeated itself in the early stages of Win XP. This now has been fixed for some users (but not for all) by the release of new drivers.
Here's the commonly reported scenario: On attempting shutdown, nothing at all appears to happen for a prolonged period of time. Eventually, an "End Task" window appears wanting to terminate DEVLDR32.EXE. No matter what one does, one ultimately is locked out of shutting down other than by a power switch shutoff. (This problem exists with the SBLive in Windows 2000 also.)
In mid-July, Microsoft posted new Win XP drivers for the SBLive on the Windows Update site. According to PCBUILD subscribers, these drivers solve the shutdown problem the SBLive was causing. I recommend you go to Windows Update and download the new driver if you have an SBLive card. However, some users are reporting that the DEVLDR problem continues to plague them even with the new drivers:

" In the event installing the new drivers does not solve your shutdown problem, try some of the solutions people have been using prior to the release of these new drivers. PCBUILD subscribers have written that they solved the well-documented SBLive/DEVLDR32 problem by downloading and installing the LiveService software. (We caution that one should disable all antivirus software while executing this program. I do recommend that you at least virus-check anything you download first!)
" PCBUILD subscribers" gave another solution to this problem: Uninstall the LiveWare software pack (of which DEVLDR is part). Uninstall the SBLive card. Restart Windows, let it detect the new hardware, and use the Windows XP driver. However, other users have reported that this isn't satisfactory because the XP native driver gives very poor sound quality. If the new drivers work for you, they are definitely the preferred option.
3D PROPHET 4500 VIDEO CARD

Other video cards that have created problems are those based on the Kyro II video chip, such as the Hercules Prophet 4500. PCBUILD subscribers have reported that until they removed the Kyro II / Prophet 4500, they could shutdown, hibernate, or go to stand by just fine, but Restart wouldn't work - it would shutdown Windows instead. Others with this video card have reported this strange behavior on both restart and shutdown.

Apparently, this problem is now solved. Microsoft reports that new drivers for this card, specific to Windows XP, are now available from Hercules. At present, they remain uncertified (PowerVR, who makes the Kyro II chip, is working on that), but they reportedly work just fine. Download the Kyro II drivers here.
SHUTDOWN HANGS ON "SAVING YOUR SETTINGS"

During shutdown or reboot, Win XP may hang (stop responding) at the "saving your settings" screen. During such a hang, there is no response to Ctrl+Alt+Del; the mouse may or may not work. (The problem may be intermittent.)

This is a known bug in Windows XP, for which Microsoft has a supported fix. Because this patch is scheduled for further quality assurance testing in the future, Microsoft only recommends that you install it if you have a serious problem; otherwise, they recommend waiting for Service Pack 1, which will include the more permanent version of the fix. To learn how to get this patch, see Windows XP Stops Responding (Hangs) During Windows Shutdown.

As a workaround, we resolved this problem by dismantling the Windows XP logon Welcome screen. In the Control Panel, click User Accounts, then click "Change the way users log on or off." Uncheck the box that says "Use the Welcome screen." This removes the initial logon screen with individual icons for each user and, instead, pops up the classic logon prompt that requires each user to type a user name and password.
"ShutMeDown" REGISTRY PATCH

Download the "ShutMeDown" Registry patch. Please follow sensible Registry editing protocol. Backup your Registry before the change (or run System Restore to create a restore point). This is not the appropriate fix for most machines, but does help a significant number. After installing, test Windows shutdown. If the fix does not work for you, remove it by restoring the Registry to its prior state.
For those who want a little more background information, the fix provided by this patch is based on a Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q155117 for Windows NT 4.0. It apparently still works in NT 5.1; that is, in Windows XP.
Stop Erros messages at shutdown

Some users have gotten an error message similar to the following when attempting either to shutdown or restart Win XP:

STOP 0000009F, DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
STOP 0x0000001E: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
STOP 0x000000D1: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

TechNet and the Microsoft Knowledge Base have numerous articles discussing this type of error condition; for example, these. As a review of these articles will show, these are commonly device driver problems, but may also be caused by troublesome software (such as the notorious CrashGuard), or a problem in a system service. MSKB article Q262575 discusses a shutdown problem of this type, known to exist in Windows 2000 due to a resource (IRQ) conflict, if you have PACE Interlok anti-piracy software installed. This problem may occur in Windows XP as well.

Try the following as one approach to these problems: Restart the computer. Press F8 during the restart and select "Last Known Good Configuration." If you catch the problem when it first occurs (meaning you likely have installed only one or two drivers or new service), this will return you to a previous working condition.

It has been reported by a PCBUILD Subscriber that these STOP code error message occur when Windows XP is trying to shut down devices. He says that he has seen this twice: once with Logitech Quickcam installed (with an unsupported driver), and once with a USB DSL modem that would hang if it wasn't disconnected before shutdown.
Shutdown Works but its real slow

If it appears that Win XP is not shutting down, give it some time. Some users have reported a minute or longer for shutdown to visibly start. Thus far, it appears that this is a consequence of software that is running when shutdown is attempted, and it also may have something to do with particular hardware. If you are experiencing this problem, be sure to close all running programs before attempting shutdown and see if this solves your problem. If so, then you can determine, by trial and error, which program(s) are involved.

One specific solution for this can be found: In Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Services. (You can also get this by launching SERVICES.MSC from a Run box. This utility is also built into the Computer Management console.) Stop the Nvidia Driver Helper service. Many other newsgroup participants quickly confirmed that this solved this "extremely slow shutdown" problem for them.
Powerdown Issues

"Powerdown issues" are quite distinctive from "shutdown issues." I define a shutdown problem as one wherein Windows doesn't make it at least to the "OK to shut off your computer" screen. If Windows gets that far, or farther, then it has shut down correctly. However, the computer may not powerdown correctly after that. This is a different problem, and I encourage people reporting these issues to make a clear distinction in their labeling.

When Windows XP won't powerdown automatically, the APM/NT Legacy Power Node may not be enabled. To enable this, right-click on the My Computer icon, click Properties | Hardware | Device Manager | View. Check the box labeled "Show Hidden Devices." If it's available on your computer, there will be a red X on the APM/NT Legacy Node. Try enabling it and see if this resolves the powerdown problem. (Tip from Terri Stratton.)

This should resolve the powerdown issue in most cases. However, other factors can sometimes interfere with correct powerdown functioning. In that case, consider the following tips:
" If you changing the default power settings in the BIOS, it can lead to a powerdown problem. Restoring all BIOS power settings to default will likely fix it.
PCBUILD subscribers reported that, when the above didn't work , they restored powerdown functioning by disabling his CD-ROM's AutoRun feature. The fastest way to do this is with the "Disable AutoRun" Registry patch which you can download here.
Other Known Issues and Hints

" BIOS UPGRADE. As with every new operating system that comes along - especially one that is as much of a "step up" as Windows XP is from Windows 9x - the recommendation is made to be sure your BIOS is updated. Many people have reported that this has solved their shutdown problems (and had other advantages) with Win XP, just as it has in earlier versions of Windows.

Quick Switching user Accounts

One reported quirk affecting shutdown is the three-account shuffle. Windows XP gives the ability to rapidly bounce between user accounts, with Win+L. If at least three user accounts exist, and you quick-switch through all three, and then log off all three in reverse order - "backing out" in an orderly way - then the machine may hang on shutdown. There may be other variations of account shuffling that cause this, but this one, clear example was provided by newsgroup correspondent John Ward. So far, I have no concrete clue on what may be occurring here.

How to Write a Windows XP Driver

Source: Microsoft Corporation July 2001

Summary: This document describes the steps you should take to create a Microsoft® Windows® XP driver for your device. To create a Windows XP device driver:

· Install the current Windows DDK. Read the system requirements and installation instructions in the stand-alone Getting Started HTML file supplied with the DDK.

· Read Getting Started with Windows Drivers. This document guides you through the planning and decision-making process involved in making a Windows device driver from design through distribution. You should also look through the DDK documentation for device-type-specific information.

The DDK documentation set has the following device-type-specific nodes:

· Battery Devices

· Display and Print Devices

· IEEE 1284.4 Devices

· Interactive Input Devices

· Modem Devices

· Multifunction Devices

· Network Devices and Protocols

· Parallel Ports and Devices

· Serial Ports and Devices

· Smart Card Devices

· Still Image Devices

· Storage Devices

· Streaming Devices (Video and Audio)

· Devices Requiring VDDs

· IDE bus are described in System Support for Buses. Driver development for most device types also requires a strong understanding of Windows operating system fundamentals, which are described in Kernel-Mode Driver Architecture.

· Look through the driver source code provided with the DDK for a sample that represents your device type. Use the sample code where possible, modifying it for your device's specifics.

· The sample code can enhance your understanding of Windows XP driver implementation requirements and speed your development time.

· Compile and build your driver. This should be done using the Build utility and not some other compiler, because the Build utility has certain features that are necessary for driver development.

· Obtain a checked build of Windows XP, so that you can test and debug your driver using free and checked system builds.

· The checked build of Windows XP provides extensive kernel-mode debugging capabilities not available in the free build.

· Create an INF file so that you can install and test your driver.

· Test and debug your driver. You should use Driver Verifier, a program that puts your driver through a variety of tests, stresses, and deliberate failures in order to test its response and reliability in many extreme situations. You should also use a debugger. Microsoft provides several powerful debuggers that can monitor and debug kernel-mode and user-mode drivers.
Using Driver Verifier in conjunction with these debuggers, on both the checked and free versions of the operating system, can be a powerful way to test your driver.

· Provide an installation package so that customers can install devices that use your driver.

· Submit your driver and installation package to Microsoft so that it can be digitally signed.

There are many resources available to you while developing your driver. The following sites describe some of the support available to you:

· http://www.microsoft.com/ddk describes how to obtain the current DDK and provides other information, such as a driver development reading list.

· http://www.microsoft.com/hwdevprovides information, such as device-type-specific white papers and late-breaking news, and a list of resources available to driver developers.

· http://support.microsoft.com/support/ddkcontains DDK product support information.

http://www.windows-help-central.com/remote-computer-access.html

How to recover a lost xp password

These techniques to recover a lost xp password are among the more advanced Windows XP Tips and Tricks. In some cases, recovering from a lost password can be very easy though.
For completeness' sake we start with the simplest tips that can help you regain access to a locked account. But even if you find yourself in a more complex situation, please read on. You'll find out what to do.
Warning : Be extra careful if you are using Encrypting File System (EFS) in Windows XP Professional. If you don't know what EFS is, you probably shouldn't worry about it. It's a feature in Windows XP Professional that deals with file security on a local level. If you do use it, please alwaysmake sure to export your private and public keys before attempting to reset your password.

If you can login with another user account

If you share your computer with other users it's fairly simple to regain access to your account. You could ask one of the other users to log on to Windows with their password and perform the following steps :

Click the Start button
Click "Run"
In the "Open" field, type "control userpasswords2" (without the quotes)
Click ok

Windows opens a user accounts dialog. Select the user with the lost password and click the "Reset Password" button. Enter a new password (and a second time in the confirmation box) and click ok. Click ok once again and you are ready.
Now you can log on to your account using the new password.

More advanced password recovery

If there are no other users on your machine to unlock your account, you need to reset your password "offline". Offline means that you boot your pc from outside your usual Windows XP environment using a boot disk or a bootable cdrom.
This offline technique to recover a lost xp password isn't for the faint of heart; the procedure isn't presented in a nice graphical interface and there even is a small risk involved ...
Sometimes the password reset fails and as a consequence you cannot log on with the locked user account afterwards. This doesn't happen often though, and if you are reading this because you need to recover a lost xp password ...
you weren't able to log on after all ...
Of course you will need access to another pc to create a boot disk or bootable cd.

Is your boot sequence right ?

Your computer's boot sequence is set in the BIOS and determines if the pc can boot from a floppy or cdrom. To get into the BIOS, you typically need to press a certain key or key combination during startup. Depending on the brand of your computer this can be :

The F1 key
The F2 key
The F10 key
The del key
Ctrl+Alt+Enter
Ctrl+Alt+Esc
...

If you have made your way into the BIOS, now would the time to choose either your floppy drive or your cdrom as primary startup device.
Below is a BIOS boot sequence screenshot where the floppy drive has top priority.
Lost XP Password

Creating the boot disk

You can download an offline password and registry editor to create the bootable disk at http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/ or if this url has become invalid over time, you can request your copy with the small form below. You will receive a mail with a valid download link shortly afterwards.
Don't worry, we will use your email address only to send you the download link, not for anything else. We hate spammers as much as you do.

After you have downloaded the Offline Password and Registry editor you have a .zip file on your hard drive that could use some unzipping. Depending on the choice that you have made in your BIOS, you either need to carry out the steps to create a bootable floppy, or the steps to create a bootable cdrom.
Instructions for the boot disk (floppy)
Once unzipped, you'll have 3 files : rawrite2.exe, install.bat and a .bin file. Put a blank, formatted floppy in your floppy drive and launch install.bat. That will create a bootable floppy from which you need to boot your pc (the one with the lost xp password).
The bootable cdrom
The unzipped file delivers a .iso file that you need to burn to a cd with your cd burner software. That creates a bootable cd to boot your pc (again, the one with the lost xp password).

Time to fix that lost xp password

Shortly after you boot your computer from the floppy or cd you'll have an intimidating screen filled with text staring you in the face.
Like this :
Lost XP Password

There's no need to feel overwhelmed. In order to reset your lost xp password you need to go through some questions in a number of steps. In each step the program offers a default answer. Usually these defaults are ok and you just need to press ENTER.
Step 1 : Select the disk where the Windows XP installation is.

Step 2: Select PATH and registry files. For most Windows installations you can safely accept the defaults.

Step 3: Password or registry edit. Select "Edit user data and passwords" - the default. After that you need to choose the user account. The program defaults to "Administrator", so you need to type the name of the user with the lost xp password if it's not the administrator account that you're trying to unlock. Once you've made clear which user account's lost xp password you want to reset, you need to supply the new password. To finish it off confirm the password change and type "!" to quit the user selection menu. Now type "q" (for quit) to continue with ...

Step 4: Writing back changes. This step requires one more confirmation and then wants to know if you want another run. Answer with the defaults, remove the bootable floppy or cdrom and reboot your pc.
You should now be able to log on with your account and the new password.

next…..

In this tip you can learn how you can insert your own logo in the system properties dialog and complete it with your own contact information.

To invoke the system properties dialog, click the Start button, right-click "My Computer" and select "Properties".

This will open up your general system information dialog. On our Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pro laptop, the Windows XP System Properties logo looks like this :

If you want to put your own graphic in there, you should create your image in a .bmp graphic file. It's also a good idea to create this bitmap image with the same background shade of gray (RGB: 192, 192, 192) used in the Properties dialog. Otherwise, you risk letting Windows make its own judgments regarding color contrast and background shading.

The next thing to consider is the image size. The system properties dialog only offers enough real estate for an image of about 180 (wide) x120 (high) pixels. Make sure that you can fit your logo in this area.

Once you have created your logo and saved it as a .bmp file, copy it over to the system32 subfolder of your Windows system folder. If you don't know where your system folder is :

§ Click the Start button and select "Run"

§ In the "open" field, enter "cmd" (without the quotes) and click ok

§ Windows will open up a dos command window

§ In the command window, type "set system" (without the quotes)

§ Look for the line that contains "SystemRoot", this is where your system directory is (generally, the Windows XP system folder is c:\windows)

Now that you know where your system folder is, copy your logo image file over to the system32 subfolder of your system folder. Then rename your logo image file to oemlogo.bmp

Additionally you can create a new file in this same folder and name the new file oeminfo.ini

In this file you can enter your contact information like in the example below :

[General]
Manufacturer=Windows Help Central
Model=ShowCase

[Support Information]
Line1=" "
Line2=" For support, sales, upgrades or questions:"
Line3=""
Line4=" Some text to demonstrate the XP System Properties logo"
Line5=" Windows XP Tips and Tricks "
Line6=" yadayada"
Line7=""
Line8=" +1 (888) 888-888 (voice)"
Line9=" +1 (888) 888-889 (fax)"
Line10=""
Line11=""
Line12=" http://www.windows-help-central.com/"

Save and close the file and you are ready. From now on, if someone opens up the system properties dialog, your own Windows XP System Properties logo is in there.

And if someone clicks the "Support Information" button :

Return from "Windows XP System Properties logo" to the other Windows XP tips and tricks

Learn how to change system properties logo in Windows Vista

Parental controls in Windows XP

Are there any parental controls in Windows XP ? Sure there are. And if you're worried about the online safety of your children you can find out how to use them in this article.
Tip : also read this great tip that will make your (somewhat older) children explore the internet in a more exciting, constructive way. It's a proven method to make young people realize that there's much more to the internet than instant messaging alone. They learn valuable, in-demand skills and if they play it smart they can even generate an income with it.
If you want to learn how to protect your internet and computer privacy you could easily spend the better part of your weekend reading reviews on parental controls and internet filtering software.
It's a complex matter.
But why not start by using the built in parental controls in Windows XP ? No filtering software is perfect and they all have their weak spots, but in order to prevent your children from viewing inappropriate content, you have to explore the possibilities.

Content Advisor in Internet Explorer

The Content Advisor in Internet Explorer is one way to protect your family's online safety. That is if you use Internet Explorer to go on the internet of course. Most other browsers offer their own mechanism to deal with internet safety.
To enable the content advisor in Internet Explorer ...

click on the "Tools" menu and select "Internet Options"
In the Internet Options dialog, click on the "Content" tab and then click the "Enable" button

That opens up the Content Advisor properties window :
Parental Controls in Windows XP

In this window, click each category and use the slider to set the desired level.
You will also notice the "Approved Sites" tab. It allows you to add sites manually and specify if you want the site to be always blocked or always allowed.
The "General" tab lets you specify if websites without rating system should be blocked or not. You can also set a supervisor password and find rating systems in the "General" tab. Choose a secure password, write it down and store it in a safe place.
You will need this password whenever someone needs access to restricted content and whenever you need to change or disable the Content Advisor.
In addition to the Content Advisor in Internet Explorer you can also set parental controls in Windows XP in ...

Windows Media Player

If your computer has a DVD drive, you can play a DVD by putting it in the drive and choosing "Play" in Windows Media Player. To implement parental controls on DVDs played on the computer, select "Tools" -> "Options" in Windows Media Player and click the DVD tab.
You will see a check box to enable parental controls and a rating drop-down list to specify the rating to apply.

Instant messaging

Chatting on the internet is immensely popular. Exciting and fun, but not without danger. Parents often don't have the faintest idea about what is going on in chatrooms.
On the internet everybody can pretend to be anyone. Young kids don't always realize that. They don't know that there are people out there with phony identities, completed with fake pictures, fake hobbies and fake favorite snacks.
You can learn how to protect your children from these individuals in our instant messenger monitor article. (The link takes you to another page. At the bottom of that page you will find a link that brings you back here. I'll wait here.)
Back already ? Ok.
Apart from parental controls in Windows XP, nothing can replace common sense when it comes to protecting yourself and your family on the internet.
Here are a few additional recommendations :

Install your home computer in the living room, where you can walk by from time to time. Try not to make your teenager feel like you are spying on him / her though.
Try to show some interest in what your child is doing on the internet. Talk about the fun stuff, so that they know that it's o.k. to talk about it.
Make sure they understand not to send their name or address over the internet to someone they have never seen in real life.
You can find a lot of "free" stuff on the internet. Often you only need to provide your email address to get the goodies. Consider opening a separate hotmail account, used for internet sites. That makes it a lot harder for spammers to abuse your private email address.
Use a nickname or only a first name for chat or instant messaging.
Don't enter phone information in a chat profile.

Special tip :
We have to admit it : MSN Messenger is fun. Everyone with youngsters in the house knows that instant messaging programs are extremely popular. But nowadays more and more bright teenagers are exploring the web in a new, promising way.
They build their own website. Not just awebsite (everyone else already does that), but a SiteSell website.
SiteSell sites are different.
Why ? Because they work. More than once they have proven to enjoy more popularity than many existing bigger commercial or official sites in their domain.
SiteSell was founded by Ken Evoy, M.D. who has developed a deadly efficient all-in-one system to create content-rich websites that stand apart by their heavily-stressed hit counters.
Today the market is flooded with dummy-proof systems to create personal and hobby websites, but 99% of them are only collecting e-dust because no-one ever knows they exist.
SiteSell is the only company that proves that it can be done differently and a growing number of bright young people know it.
A SiteSell website isn't free, but in most cases it pays itself back (and more) after one year. The possibilities and techniques to generate income from a website are also covered in the excellent documentation.
Everything that your teenagers need to make their friends jealous with their new extra income is included in the package.
The only disadvantage to the system is ...
... some people have a hard time believing that it can be so simple to learn these valuable, in-demand skills for such a reasonable price.
Nevertheless, that shouldn't restrain you from trying it, because the product is covered with a risk-free 30-day money-back trial.
To the top of "Parental Controls in Windows XP"

Performance tips for Windows XP

Everybody and their dog will tell you they know some great performance tips for Windows XP. The internet is overcrowded with them. How to tell which ones work and which are to be avoided ?
And why on earth is this yet another Windows XP tips and tricks page about performance tips for Windows XP ?
It's because there are some simple techniques that really work without compromising your system stability. And they are simple to implement, so let's get started.

1. Optimize your paging file

Windows XP uses a paging file on your hard disk to store information when the amount of available RAM memory isn't sufficient to hold all the data that is being processed. For instance, when you are working on a very large Word document that is too big to fit in your computer's RAM, Windows XP starts swapping part of it's data in and out the paging file on your hard disk.
Hard disk access is typically a lot slower than RAM access, that's why you should optimize your paging file.

Click the Start button, right click "My Computer" and select "Properties"
Select the "advanced" tab
Under "Performance" click on the "Settings" button
Again, select the "advanced" tab
Under "Virtual Memory" click on the "Change" button

Windows will then show the available hard drives in your computer and the paging file settings for each drive. If you have more than one hard disk, you should place your paging file on another disk than the system disk (where Windows is installed).
That is to avoid contention on the disk controller when Windows is working with system files and the paging file simultaneously.
Usually the system disk is C:, so select any other disk if you have one and then check the "Custom size" radio button. Type in the same value for "Initial size" and "Maximum size", so that Windows doesn't need time to resize the paging file while you are working with your computer. Microsoft recommends about 1.5 times the amount of RAM in your computer. Click the "Set" button to commit the changes you have made.
It is possible to have multiple paging files on multiple disks, but try to avoid having a paging file on your system disk. Just select that disk and select the "No paging file" radio button.

2. Optimize display settings

A lot of performance tips for Windows XP talk about the overall sexy-ness of Windows XP and the performance price you have to pay for it. If you are working on an older computer and you care more about speed than graphical coolness of the Windows XP interface, you might want to consider toning down the graphics a bit.

Click the Start button, right click "My Computer" and select "Properties"
Select the "advanced" tab
Under "Performance" click on the "Settings" button
Click the "Visual Effects" tab
Select the "Adjust for best performance" radio button and click ok

If this change is too radical for you, you can try experimenting with the different individual settings as well.

3. Indexing service

The indexing service is a program that indexes files on your computer to speed up search results when you perform a search. It usually wakes up and starts doing it's job when your computer is idle. That's the reason why some pc's hard disks often start making a lot of noise when nobody's working on them.
The indexing service is also mentioned in a lot of performance tips for Windows XP, because it can interfere with your work. If you don't perform a lot of file searches on your pc, you might want to disable the indexing service.

Click on the Start button, right click "My Computer" and select "Manage"
In the navigation tree at the left, go to the bottom and click the little "+" sign next to "services and applications"
Select "Services"
In the right Windows pane, scroll to "Indexing service", right click it and select "Properties"
Make sure that "Manual" is selected from the drop-down list under "Startup type"

4. Use the NTFS file system

Performance tips for Windows XP often mention the use of the NTFS file system because it works slightly faster than the FAT32 file system. Besides the performance benefit, you will also enjoy improved stability and security in comparison with the FAT32 file system.
You can convert an existing FAT32 file system to NTFS without data loss, but always remember that older operating systems like Windows 98 cannot work with NTFS.
Proceed with care if you have more than one operating system on your pc.

Click on the Start button, right-click "My Computer" and select "Manage"
In the navigation pane on the left, expand "storage" and choose "Disk Management"
The details on the right will reveal the file system details for each of your drives. Also make a note of the drive's volume name.

To convert a drive's file system :

Click the Start button and select "Run"
Type "convert d: /fs:ntfs" (without the quotes - replace d: with the drive letter that you want to convert) and click ok
A dos box will open and ask for the drive's volume name
Enter the volume name and hit the ENTER key

Windows will start the conversion to NTFS and notifies you when it is finished.
Back to the top of these performance tips for Windows XP

Windows XP shutdown

Windows XP shutdown can be slow from time to time. Windows XP contains all kinds of internal mechanisms that sometimes deliberately slow down your machine. The functions Shutdown, Restart and Switch User illustrate this clearly.
What happens when you shutdown your computer ?
First you need to click the Start button, then click the shutdown button. Windows takes you to a dialog where you need to - again - click shutdown ...
... and it's only then that the waiting starts.
What a pain !
Only few people know that Windows XP offers a powerful alternative that does the shutdown job in half the time. There is a power-restart and a power-switch-user as well.

A Windows XP shutdown icon on your desktop

Right-click an empty space on your desktop
Select the option "new shortcut"
Type "shutdown -s -t 0" (Exactly as shown here, but without the quotes. The last character in the command is a zero.)
Click next
Type a name for the shortcut (e.g. Fast shutdown) and click finish

Now you have a new icon on your desktop. Let's customize it some more.

Right-click the new icon and select properties.
In the dialog box that opens up, click change icon.
You may see a warning message that shutdown.exe contains no icons, just click ok if you see this
Choose a new icon

You are now ready to test your new Windows XP shutdown button. Make sure to close all applications and double-click your new icon to shutdown your computer.
Once the shutdown mechanism is started, there is only one way to stop your machine from going down. That's what the next part is all about.

An icon to stop the shutdown mechanism

Suppose that you double-click the power Windows XP shutdown icon and just a split second later you realize that there was one more thing you wanted to do before shutting down.
To create an anti-shutdown icon :

Right-click an empty space on your desktop
Select the option "new shortcut"
Type "shutdown -a" (Exactly as shown here, but without the quotes.)
Click next
Type a name for the shortcut (e.g. Anti shutdown) and click finish

You know now how to choose a better looking icon.

An icon to restart your computer fast

Create a new icon like the previous ones, but type "shutdown -r -t 0" in the "location of the item" box.

An icon to switch user fast

If you have enabled the Windows XP feature "Fast User Switching", you can create an additional icon to switch user FAST.

Right-click an empty space on your desktop
Select the option "new shortcut"
Type "rundll32.exe user32.dll LockWorkStation" (Exactly as shown here, but without the quotes. LockWorkStation is case-sensitive.)
Click next
Type a name for the shortcut (e.g. Switch User Fast) and click finish

This icon is so fast and handy and completely safe that I would recommend dragging it to your Quick Launch bar.
Click here if you don't know how to work with the Quick Launch toolbar. (opens a new window)

Experiment

If you feel confident enough to try other possibilities of the shutdown command, try this :
Click your start button, then click "run", type "cmd" (without the quotes) and click ok
In the command window, type shutdown /help and hit the enter key
Amongst the list of shutdown options, you will even find shutdown parameters to shutdown or restart remote computers. Neat.
Feel free to learn more XP shutdown tips :

Return from this Windows XP shutdown tip to the main tips

Windows XP slow shutdown

You may experience Windows XP slow shutdown sequences when something is wrong with your Windows installation. Shutdown problems are one of the most common computer problems.
It may be a small comfort, but one thing is for sure : if you are experiencing shutdown problems, you are not alone.
Some of the symptoms that may occur :

Slow shutdown
Shutdown seems to hang
Computer reboots instead of shutdown

These problems often remain unsolved for several reasons. Most of the time it only slows you down, but you can still work on your computer. Most people don't even try to solve it because they think it requires expert skills to fix Windows XP slow shutdown situations.
Don't be like most people.
Troubleshooting Windows XP slow shutdown sequences can be a lot easier than you think.

Your computer reboots rather than shutting down

A lot of computers with shutdown problems do this. It's because Windows XP has a default setting to reboot the computer in the event of a system crash. When something goes wrong during the shutdown event, Windows may think that it crashed and restarts your computer.
First thing to do when this happens to your computer is configure Windows so that it doesn't automatically restart after a critical failure :

Click the start button, right-click "My Computer" and select properties
Click the "advanced" tab
In the "Startup and Recovery" section, click the "settings" button
The "Startup and Recovery" dialog appears
In the "System failure" section, deselect the "Automatically restart" checkbox
Click ok
Click ok

Turn off the auto-reboot option to prevent reboot instead of shutdown

This workaround prevents your computer from rebooting during shutdown, but unfortunately it doesn't take away the root cause of the failure. Here are some other steps that you can try to solve the underlying problem.

Hardware device drivers

Problematic device drivers are another well-know cause for shutdown problems. To quickly check if your system contains devices with problematic drivers :

Click the Start button
Right-click "My Computer" and select "Properties"
Click the "hardware" tab
In the "Device Manager" section, click the "Device Manager" button

Windows shows the Device Manager with a complete list of all the hardware it finds in your computer. Look for any devices with an exclamation point or a question mark in a yellow circle. These are devices that have problems with their drivers and that can cause you a lot of trouble.
Some feature-rich keyboards or other input devices are known to cause trouble during the shutdown sequence. If you see any of those easy-replaceable, problematic (yellow circle) devices in your device manager, try replacing it with a more standard piece of hardware and test shutdown.
Return from this windows xp

Windows XP shutdown automatically : it took some time to figure THIS one out.

Someone brought us her computer for repair because her Windows XP shutdown automatically several times a day. In the beginning the pc experienced this type of spontaneous shutdown only very occasionally, but the situation got worse week after week.
In the end she couldn't work one straight hour on the pc without being interrupted several times by an unexpected, sudden computer shutdown. Without any kind of warning her pc would just instantaneously power-off, no matter whether she was in the middle of editing a document, using her email program or surfing the web.
We're not talking about Windows not responding or blue screens, but total power-down with halted cooling fans like during a power failure.
Needless to say that this is very frustrating, to say the least. Having your pc shutdown randomly throughout the day gets on your nerves.
Take my word for it : a pc with this kind of behavior won't win any popularity contest. No one wants to click the save button every three minutes just because the computer might go down the next second.
We were faced with this stubborn computer with following characteristics :

Windows XP shutdown automatically
The problem apparently wasn't application-related, because it would happen regardless with which program the user was working
When a spontaneous shutdown occurred, the computer would act like someone unplugged the power cable

We started to analyze the pc and checked for the presence of viruses and other malware, but this pc was clean as can be. The sasser worm virus is known to shut down computers, but this behavior was different. Shutdown sequences that are initiated by the sasser worm display a shutdown dialog that allows the user 30 seconds to abort the shutdown, but on this computer no such dialog was even remotely noticeable.
Inspection of the Windows XP event log didn't make us any wiser. Nothing unusual there either.
It took some serious diagnostic testing without any result before someone proposed to open up the computer case. A close look inside the case revealed something interesting :
There were several leaking capacitors on the motherboard. If you don't know what a capacitor is : capacitors are these cylinder-shaped objects on your motherboard that regulate power supply to other components.
We've included some pictures of the leaking capacitors below.

You could say that capacitors sort of play the role of batteries : they accumulate power when there is enough of it and they can release power shortly afterwards when needed.
As you can see on the pictures, a leaking capacitor looks a bit like a leaking battery. You can see a brown substance (electrolyte) coming out of it and the capacitor may look bulged.
Sure enough, when the capacitors in your computer start to look like those in the pictures above, you're computer won't be in good shape. It won't be long before you have Windows XP shutdown automatically on you.
After we had replaced the bad capacitors on the motherboard, the computer worked like a charm again.
Take a look at the replaced, healthy capacitors :
Repaired capacitors

But that's not all ...
... we've had several other computers brought to us for repair with similar symptoms. Yes, that's right, more pc's with auto shutdown symptoms due to leaking capacitors !
In fact, we've had enough cases like this to dedicate this entire page to the problem. If you see your Windows XP shutdown automatically, it might be a good idea to open up your computer case and have a good look inside ...

RESOLUTION
Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

To resolve this problem, follow these steps:1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Softwar e\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\System
3. In the right-pane, right-click the NoDispAppearancePage value if the value exists, and then click Delete.
4. Repeat step 3 for the following registry values if these values exist in the registry:• NoDispCPL
• NoDispBackgroundPage
• NoDispScrSavPage
• NoDispSettingsPage

Note Locate any registry value that says "Wallpaper" if it exists. In the right pane, right-click the registry value, click Delete, and then click OK.
5. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_\Softw are\Microsoft\Windows\Cur rentVersion\Policies\Syst em
6. In the right-pane, right-click the NoDispAppearancePage value if the value exists, and then click Delete.
7. Repeat step 6 for the following registry values if these values exist in the registry:• NoDispCPL
• NoDispBackgroundPage
• NoDispScrSavPage
• NoDispSettingsPage

Note Locate any registry value that says "Wallpaper" if it exists. In the right pane, right-click the registry value, click Delete, and then click OK.
8. For the changes to take effect, you may have to restart the computer after you delete these registry values.

Win XP Won?t Completely Shutdown

Goto Control Panel, then goto Power Options.
Click on the APM Tab, then check the "Enable Advanced Power Management support."
Shut down your PC. It should now successfully complete the Shut Down process.

Adjust various visual effects

1. Open up the control panel

2. Go under system and click on the advanced tab

3. Click settings under Performance options

4. You can now change various graphical effects (mainly animations and shadows)

Disable error reporting

Open Control Panel
Click on Performance and Maintenance.
Click on System.
Then click on the Advanced tab
Click on the error-reporting button on the bottom of the windows.
Select Disable error reporting.
Click OK
Click OK

Remove shortcut arrow from desktop icons

Here's how you can remove those shortcut arrows from your desktop icons in Windows XP.

1. Start regedit.

2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTlnkfile

3. Delete the IsShortcut registry value.

You may need to restart Windows XP.

Remove Shared Documents

Open Regedit(Start- Run- Regedit) and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Explorer My Computer NameSpace DelegateFolders There will see a sub-key named {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}. By Deleting this you can remove the 'Other Files stored on This Computer' group.

Change the text in Internet Explorers title bar to anything you want

In regedit navigate to this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMain
change the value of the string "Window Title" to whatever you want on the title bar of Internet Explorer - to have no title except the title of the web pages you are browsing do not enter anything for a value.

Easy sendto menu modification

first open - X:Documents and SettingsusernameSendTo (it is hidden) where X is your drive letter and username is your username make and delete shortcuts to folders at will

Enable Clear Type

Easy way- Click on or cut and paste link below: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/cleartypeactivate.htm?fname=%20&fsize=or

Right click on a blank area of the Desktop and choose Properties
Click on the Appearance Tab; Click effects
Check the box: Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts
In the drop down box select: Clear Type

Turn of CD Auto Play

Open My Computer
Right click on your CD ROM and choose Properties
Click on the Auto Play tab
In the drop down box you can choose the Action for each choice shown in the drop down box

1. Go to Start->Run->gpedit.msc

2. Computer Config -> Administrative Template -> System

3. Double click Turn off Autoplay

4. Enable it.

Getting MP3 ripping to work in Windows Media Player 8 in XP

Enter the following in the registry : [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE
MicrosoftMediaPlayerSettingsMP3Encoding] "LowRate"=dword:0000dac0 "MediumRate"=dword:0000fa00 "MediumHighRate"=dword:0001f400 "HighRate"=dword:0002ee00 This corresponds to 56, 64, 128 and 192 Kbps. You can change this to your liking using the following dword hex values : 320 Kbps = dword:0004e200 256 Kbps = dword:0003e800 224 Kbps = dword:00036b00 192 Kbps = dword:0002ee00 160 Kbps = dword:00027100 128 Kbps = dword:0001f400 112 Kbps = dword:0001b580 64 Kbps = dword:0000fa00 56 Kbps = dword:0000dac0

Increase BROADBAND

This is for broad band connections. I didn?t try it on dial up but might work for dial up.

1. make sure your logged on as actually "Administrator". do not log on with any account that just has administrator privileges.

2. start - run - type gpedit.msc

3. expand the "local computer policy" branch

4. expand the "administrative templates" branch

5. expand the "network branch"

6. Highlight the "QoS Packet Scheduler" in left window

7. in right window double click the "limit reservable bandwidth" setting

8. on setting tab check the "enabled" item

9. where it says "Bandwidth limit %" change it to read 0

Effect is immediate on some systems, some need to re-boot. This is more of a "counter what XP does" thing. In other words, programs can request up to 20% of the bandwidth be reserved for them, even with QoS disabled, this is no big deal and most programs do not request it. So, although QOS has caused a big stink because people think it reserves 20% of their bandwidth, you can still disable it, just to be sure, hehe.

Increase your cable modem or DSL speed in XP

This tweak is for broad band cable connections on stand alone machines with winXP professional version - might work on Home version also. It will probably work with networked machines as well but I haven't tried it in that configuration. This is for windows XP only, it does not work on win2000.
I use 3 Com cards so I don't know how it works on others at this point. It does not involve editing the registry. This tweak assumes that you have let winXP create a connection on install for your cable modem/NIC combination and that your connection has tcp/ip - QoS - file and print sharing - and client for microsoft networks , only, installed. It also assumes that winxp will detect your NIC and has in-box drivers for it. If it doesn't do not try this.
In the "My Network Places" properties (right click on the desktop icon and choose properties), highlight the connection then at the menu bar choose "Advanced" then "Advanced Settings". Uncheck the two boxes in the lower half for the bindings for File and Printer sharing and Client for MS networks. Click OK

1. From the windows XP cd in the support directory from the support cab, extract the file netcap.exe and place it in a directory on your hard drive or even in the root of your C:\ drive.

2. next, open up a command prompt window and change directories to where you put netcap.exe. then type "netcap/?". It will list some commands that are available for netcap and a netmon driver will be installed. At the bottom you will see your adapters. You should see two of them if using a 3Com card. One will be for LAN and the other will be for WAN something or other.

3. Next type "netcap/Remove". This will remove the netmon driver.

4. Open up control panel / system / dev man and look at your network adapters. You should now see two of them and one will have a yellow ! on it. Right click on the one without the yellow ! and choose uninstall. YES! you are uninstalling your network adapter, continue with the uninstall. Do not restart yet.

5. Check your connection properties to make sure that no connection exists. If you get a wizard just cancel out of it.

6. Now re-start the machine.

7. After re-start go to your connection properties again and you should have a new connection called "Local area connection 2". highlight the connection then at the menu bar choose "Advanced" then "Advanced Settings". Uncheck the two boxes in the lower half for the bindings for File and Printer sharing and Client for MS networks. Click OK.

8. Choose connection properties and uncheck the "QOS" box

9. Re-start the machine

10. after restart enjoy the increased responsivness of IE, faster page loading, and a connection speed boost.

Why it works, it seems that windows XP, in its zeal to make sure every base is covered installs two seperate versions of the NIC card. One you do not normally see in any properties. Remember the "netcap/?" command above showing two different adapters? The LAN one is the one you see. The invisible one loads everything down and its like your running two separate cards together, sharing a connection among two cards, this method breaks this "bond" and allows the NIC to run un-hindered.

Use a Shortcut to Local Area Network Connection Information

Something new in Windows XP, instead of using the command line program and typing ipconfig to find local area network information, you can use the following shortcut:

Click Start, point to Connect to, and then click Show All Connections.
Right?click the connection you want information about, and then click Status.
In the connection Properties dialog box, click the Support tab.
For even more information, click the Advanced tab.

To automatically enable the status monitor each time the connection is active, in the connection Properties dialog box, select the Show icon in taskbar notification area when connected check box.

Change the Start Menu Style

Does the new Windows XP Start menu take up too much space on your desktop? You can easily change the look back to the Windows Classic Start menu by following these steps:

Right?click the Start button, and then click Properties.
Click Classic Start menu.
Click the Customize button to select items to display on the Start menu.

By default, selecting the Classic Start menu also adds the My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, and Internet Explorer icons to your desktop.

Add a Map Drive Button to the Toolbar

Do you want to quickly map a drive, but can?t find the toolbar button? If you map drives often, use one of these options to add a Map Drive button to the folder toolbar.

1. Option One (Long Term Fix)

o Click Start, click My Computer, right-click the toolbar, then unlock the toolbars, if necessary.

o Right-click the toolbar again, and then click Customize.

o Under Available toolbar buttons, locate Map Drive, and drag it into the position you want on the right under Current toolbar buttons.

o Click Close, click OK, and then click OK again.

You now have drive mapping buttons on your toolbar, so you can map drives from any folder window. To unmap drives, follow the above procedure, selecting Disconnect under Available toolbar buttons. To quickly map a drive, try this option.

2. Option Two (Quick Fix)

o Click Start, and right-click My Computer.

o Click Map Network Drive.

If you place your My Computer icon directly on the desktop, you can make this move in only two clicks!

Do Not Highlight Newly Installed Programs

Tired of that annoying little window that pops up to tell you that new software is installed? If it gets in the way when you?re logging off, turn it off completely.

To do this Click Start, right-click at the top of the Start menu where your name is displayed, and then click Properties.
In the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box, on the Start Menu tab, click Customize.
Click the Advanced tab, and then clear the Highlight newly installed programs check box.
Click OK, and then click OK again.

Now that message won?t be popping up when you least want to see it.

Speed up the Start Menu

You can use this tip to speed up the Start Menu in Windows XP release candidate 1. You can customize the speed of the Start Menu by editing a Registry Key.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.

2. Type Regedit in the box, and then click OK.

3. Expand the menu in the left panel and select the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop folder.

4. Scroll down in the right panel and double click on the MenuShowDelay file.

5. In the Value Data box, change to default value for the menu speed from 400 to a lesser number, such as 1.

6. Click OK.

Caution: Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on your computer.

Use the Windows Classic Look

More comfortable performing a task with the familiar Windows Classic user interface? You can quickly switch the user interface to the familiar Windows Classic appearance on your computer if it helps you remember a task in your operating system or program. You can go back to the original Windows look with a couple clicks.

Right-click on your desktop, and then click Properties.
Click the Appearance tab.
On the Windows and Buttons menu, select Windows Classic. Click OK.

There you go, now you can feel right at home with the old look, and you'll still get the best out of Windows XP, new look or old.

Add Familiar Icons back to your desktop

It?s the case of the missing icons. Many of you may be wondering where all the icons from your desktop are in Windows XP? Well if you're like me, you like to have at least My Computer, My Network Places, and My Documents on the desktop.
To do this:

Right-click on the desktop, and then click Properties.
Click the Desktop tab and then click on Customize Desktop.
Put a check mark in the box next to My Document, My Computer, My Network Places, or Internet Explorer, to add those familiar icons to your desktop.

Unlock Toolbars to Customize Them

Windows XP now features locking toolbars, and you can adjust them. You can customize a lot of the Windows XP features such as the Taskbar, Start Menu, and even toolbar icons in Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. Remember your right-click:

Right-click on a toolbar, and then click Lock the Toolbars to remove the check mark.
Right-click on the toolbar again, and then click Customize.
You can add and remove toolbar buttons, change text options and icon options. When you've got the toolbar customized, click Close.
Now right-click on the toolbar and then click Lock the Toolbars to lock them in place.

Display Your Quick Launch Toolbar

Is your Quick Launch toolbar missing from the taskbar? To display your familiar Quick Launch toolbar:

Right-click an empty area on the taskbar, click Toolbars, and then click Quick Launch.
Easy as that your Quick Launch bar appears. To add items to your Quick Launch toolbar, click the icon for the program you want to add, and drag it to the Quick Launch portion of the taskbar.

Keep Your Favorite Programs Near the Top of the Start Menu

Do you have a favorite program that you frequently use? Elevate its priority on the Start menu by putting it at the top of the list. This ensures that the program will remain on the Start menu and cannot be bumped by other programs, even if you use the others more frequently. Right-click the link to your favorite program on the Start menu and select Pin to Start Menu. Your program will be moved permanently to the top part of the list, just below your browser and e-mail programs.

Use the Address Bar to Launch Programs or Web Pages

Windows XP Professional enhanced the functionality of the Address bar to make it easier to launch your favorite programs. You can add the Address bar to the taskbar on the bottom of your desktop. Then you can launch programs simply by entering their names in the Address bar. For example, to launch Calculator, simply enter calc in the Address bar. Anything you would normally enter in the Run box on the Start menu can be entered in the Address bar. The Address bar also lets you quickly go to any Web page you specify.
To add the Address bar to the taskbar:

Right-click an empty area on the taskbar.
Point to Toolbars, and then click Address.
Open the Address bar by double-clicking it.

Stop Password Expiration

After you have run Windows XP for a while, you may receive this message when you log on: "Your password will expire in 14 days.....".
By default, Windows XP is set up with passwords which will expire after 42 days. 14 days in advance, Windows will start warning you of this fact. If you do not want your passwords to expire:

1. Go to Start > Run and in the Open: box type control userpasswords2

2. Select the Advanced tab in the User Accounts window

3. Press the Advanced button below the Advanced user management header

4. Select Users in the Local Users and Groups

5. In the right pane, right-click the user name for which you want to change the setting, and select Properties

6. On the General tab, check Password never expires

7. Click Apply and OK (all the way out)

Safely Remove Hardware Icon?

If you have an USB device attached to your system, you will notice an icon in the Notification area, which - when clicked - will give you the option to Stop your hardware, before you unplug it.
It is possible that you never unplug this hardware. So how do you get rid of the icon? As far as I know the only way is to right-click the notification area, and selecting Properties. Under the Notification area heading, click Customize. Find the Safely Remove Hardware icon and select Always hide in the Behavior column next to it (press OK and Apply to back out).

Multiuser features

Like Windows 2000, but unlike Windows 95, 98, and Me, the ability to log in multiple users simultaneously plays a big role in Windows XP. There is a default Administrator account set up when Windows XP is first installed, but you can create as many accounts as you need later, depending on how many people will be using the machine. Each user, once he or she has an account, can customize XP to his or her liking. Individual users get their own subfolders in the Documents And Settings folder; this folder serves as a centralized location for most personalized information, such as the Start Menu, Favorites, and Documents settings.

Missing Administrator account

Once you have created regular user accounts, the default Administrator account vanishes from the Welcome screen, which you see when the computer starts up. Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete twice at the Welcome screen to retrieve the standard logon dialog. You can log on as Administrator from here. To switch among accounts, just click the Log Off button on the Start menu. You'll then see the Log Off Windows dialog box. Click the Switch User button, and you'll be taken to the Welcome screen where you can select and log on to other accounts.

Show yourself

Only the Administrator can set up new user accounts (go to Control Panel > User Accounts > Create A New Account). You can select a picture to identify the account. When you're logged on to the system under your username, this picture, along with your username, peeks out at you from the top of the Start menu. There are a slew of 48x48-pixel bitmap images to choose from within XP. They're housed in D:\Documents And Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\Default Pictures. But why limit yourself? You can also copy any graphic you want into this folder or browse for another from your hard drive. Usable file types are BMP, GIF, JPEG, or PNG. However, always use a square picture, to limit the white space on the side. Your image can be any size but will be displayed as 48x48-pixel image, so a close-up works best.

Hide yourself

Once you've created a user account, password-protect it to keep other users from viewing your files, Favorites, and cookies. Why? You may not want your child to see the note that you're sending to his or her teacher, or you may be planning someone's surprise party. (Note: Anyone with an Administrator account can still see them.)
Worried about remembering your password? Create a hint to help you when you initially create it by following the prompts during setup. XP stores the password hints in the Registry at Hkey_local_machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Hints.
What if the hint doesn't help? Any user or Administrator can create a password reset disk, which you can use to log on and create a new password. Go to Control Panel > User Accounts and select "Prevent a forgotten password" in the Related Tasks box on the left. Follow the wizard's instructions. After creating the disk, find a safe place for it. Don't forget the password or where you put the disk. Someone else could use it to change your password without you knowing it.

Not A Tweak, But A Double XP Surprise!

Neither Win2K nor WinME has the ability to create a simple, basic, DOS- based boot floppy (a "startup disk") unless you jump through hoops or do things in nonstandard ways. Because XP is the fusion of Win2K and Win9x/ME, I assumed it would follow the same "no boot floppy" tack. But instead, I was surprised to poke around in XP and see that the format option there does indeed offer a "Create MS-DOS Startup Disk."
As an experiment, I created a startup disk, and all went smoothly. I was able to use the disk to boot my PC without any problems. But when it started up, I got the second surprise. The DOS boot message showed "Microsoft Windows Millennium." To confirm this, I typed "Ver" to see what version of DOS was running, and the screen showed: Windows Millennium [Version 4.90.300]
Although it's very strange to see the WinME startup message on an XP-created floppy, all this means is that Microsoft cribbed a few essential DOS boot files from WinME, and made it so XP can drop them onto a freshly- formatted floppy for you. I'm glad they did: It's a very good thing that Microsoft restored the ability to make a simple boot disk.

Fast Boot /Fast Resume Design

Customer research shows a frequently requested feature that users want from their PCs is fast system startup, whether from cold boot or when resuming from standby or hibernation. The Windows development team at Microsoft has taken bold steps in making fast startup PCs a reality with the Microsoft Windows XP operating system.
The design goals for Windows XP on a typical consumer PC are:

Boot to a useable state in a total of 30 seconds
Resume from Hibernate (S4) in a total of 20 seconds
Resume from Standby (S3) in a total of 5 seconds

Boot and resume times are measured from the time the power switch is pressed to being able to start a program from a desktop shortcut. Click here to go to Microsoft's development center and learn how, download boot tools and read white papers on the subject.

Display Hibernate Option on the Shut Down dialog

For some reason, Hibernate isn't available from the default Shut Down dialog. But you can enable it simply enough, by holding down the SHIFT key while the dialog is visible. Now you see it, now you don't!

Speed up the Start Menu

The default speed of the Start Menu is pretty slow, but you can fix that by editing a Registry Key. Fire up the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ MenuShowDelay
By default, the value is 400. Change this to a smaller value, such as 0, to speed it up.
If this doesn't work for some reason, then you might try the following: Navigate to Display Properties then Appearance then Advanced and turn off the option titled Show menu shadow. You will get much better overall performance.

Automatically defrag drives with a new context menu item

Create a new Registry import file named context_defrag.inf in Notepad (be sure to save with it with the Save as type set to All Files and not Text Documents) and place the following text inside:
; context_defrag.INF
; Adds Defrag to the right click context menu in Windows XP
[version]
signature="$CHICAGO$"
[DefaultInstall]
AddReg=AddMe
[AddMe]
HKCR,"Drive\Shell\Defrag\command",,,"DEFRAG.EXE %1"
Then, right-click and choose Install. This will add a context menu to XP that allows you to automatically defrag drives, using the command line version of the built-in defragmentation utility. To use it, navigate to a drive in My Computer, right-click, and choose Defrag. A command line window will appear, and that drive will be defragged. When it's complete, the window just disappears.

Display the Sharing Tab in Folder Properties

In Windows 2000, getting to the Sharing options for a folder was simple: Just right-click, choose Properties, and you'd see a Sharing tab. In Windows XP, this feature is missing by default, but you can make the system display the Sharing tab if desired. Simply open up Folder Options (My Computer, then Tools, Folder Options) and navigate to the View tab. In the Advanced Settings section, scroll down to the bottom and uncheck Use simple file sharing (Recommended), a Mickey Mouse feature if there ever was one. Now share your folders on the LAN as you would in Windows 2000.

My Computer Won't Shut Down Itself After Installing XP

There are a number of users who have been complaining that their PC will no longer automatically power down/shut off without pressing the power off button on the computers unlike in Windows Me/95/2000. There could be a number of reasons for this - but the main one seems to be that ACPI is not enabled on the computer or in Windows XP. Here is how to enable it:

1. Click - Start - Control Panel - Performance and Maintenance - Power Options Tab

2. Then click APM - Enable Advanced Power Management Support

Create a Password Reset Disk

Microsoft has enhanced security features in XP including the the ability to create a floppy diskette to recover your password incase it is forgotten.

Click Start
Click Control Panel
Click User Accounts
Click on the account which you want to create a password disk
Click Prevent a forgotten password which starts the Forgotten Password Wizard . This is found under Related Tasks
Insert a blank, formatted disk into drive A, and click Next
Enter the password in the Current user account password box

To use the recovery disk, at the Welcome screen

Click the user name whose password is on the recovery disk
Click the question mark button
This causes the Did you forget your password message to appear.
Click use your password reset disk
This will start the Password Reset Wizard.

From this point, just follow the wizard's instructions and you will be able to set a new password. It is different if you are part of a domain, see next tip.

How to Create a Password Reset Disk for computers that are part of a domain

Note that this procedure requires one blank, formatted floppy disk.
To create a password reset disk for your local user account:

1. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE. The Windows Security dialog box appears.

2. Click Change Password . The Change Password dialog box appears.

3. In the Log on to box, click the local computer. For example, click Computer (this computer) .

4. Click Backup . The Forgotten Password Wizard starts.

5. On the "Welcome to the Forgotten Password Wizard" page, click Next .

6. Insert a blank, formatted disk in drive A, and then click Next .

7. In the Current user account password box, type your password, and then click Next . The Forgotten Password Wizard creates the disk.

8. When the progress bar reaches 100 percent complete, click Next , and then click Finish . The Forgotten Password Wizard quits and you return to the Change Password dialog box.

9. Remove, and then label the password reset disk. Store the disk in a safe place.

10. In the Change Password dialog box, click Cancel .

11. In the Windows Security dialog box, click Cancel.

If you forget your password, you can log on to the computer with a new password that you create by using the Password Reset Wizard and your password reset disk.
To gain access to your local user account on a computer that is a member of a domain, or has been disconnected from a domain:

1. In the Welcome to Windows dialog box, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE.

2. In the Log On to Windows dialog box, type an incorrect password in the Password box, and then click OK .

3. In the Logon Failed dialog box that appears, click Reset . The Password Reset Wizard starts. The Password Reset Wizard lets you create a new password for your local user account.

4. On the "Welcome to the Password Reset Wizard" page, click Next .

5. Insert the password reset disk in drive A, and then click Next .

6. On the "Reset the User Account Password" page, type a new password in the Type a new password box.

7. Type the same password in the Type the password again to confirm box.

8. In the Type a new password hint box, type a hint that will help you remember the password if you forget it. NOTE : This hint is visible to anyone who attempts to log on to the computer by using your user account.

9. Click Next , and then click Finish . The Password Reset Wizard quits and you return to the Log On to Windows dialog box. The password reset disk is automatically updated with the new password information. You do not have to create a new password reset disk.

10. In the Log On to Windows dialog box, type your new password in the Password box.

11. In the Log on to box, click the local computer. For example, click Computer (this computer) , and then click OK . You are logged on to the local computer with your local account information.

Disable Automatic Windows Update

Windows XP is configured out of the box to routinely scan for and download updates to Windows XP automatically. While this can be somewhat convenient for those with very fast Internet connections and those who would otherwise forget to check for updates, it can be a nuisance for the rest of us, who are still using 56k or, even worse 33k modem connections.
To control or disable automatic updating, open the System icon in Control Panel (or right-click My Computer and select Properties), and choose the Automatic Updating tab.
To check for updates manually, open Internet Explorer and select Windows Update from the Tools menu.

Try automatic camera recognition in windows xp

If you have a digital camera, try this trick for downloading pictures to your machine. Don't load any of the drivers or software that comes with your digital camera. Instead--if your camera supports USB--connect your camera via a USB port. There's a good chance that Windows XP will recognize the digicam. After a few moments, the Scanner And Camera Wizard should start up and walk you through the steps involved in copying your pictures from the camera to a folder of your choice on your computer--much faster than doing it manually. You may still need to install your camera's software if it provides configuration controls you can't access in any other way, such as those for changing the picture resolution on your camera or the software's special editing functions.

HOW TO: Use Automatic Completion with a Command Prompt in Windows XP

To Activate Automatic Completion
For example, to change to the Program Files folder, you can type cd \pro control_character. Or, to display the contents of the Myfile.txt file, you can type type myf control_character. If there are multiple folders or files that match the characters you type, typing the control character again displays the next matching instance. When the correct folder or file is displayed, press ENTER to complete the command. If no folder of file matches the characters that you type, you hear a beep. You can activate or deactivate this feature for a computer, for a user, or for only the current command session.
Click here for the article from Microsoft.

Easy CD Creator 5.0 Does Not Function In Windows XP

When you try to use Roxio Easy CD Creator 5.0, any of the following symptoms may occur:
Your computer may stop responding (hang) or may stop functioning correctly.
You may receive an error message on a blue screen. The error message may be similar to:
Stop 0x00000050: PrtSeqRd deferencing null device object
After you receive this error message, your computer restarts.
You may receive an error message that is similar to:
Createcd50.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
Click here for the article from Microsoft.

Damaged Registry Repair and Recovery in Windows XP

When a registry hive becomes damaged, your computer may become unbootable, and you may receive one of the following Stop error messages on a blue screen:
Unexpected Shutdown
Stop:0xc0000135
Registry damage often occurs when programs with access to the registry do not cleanly remove temporary items that they store in the registry. This problem may also be caused if a program is terminated or experiences a user-mode fault.
Click here for the article from Microsoft.

Now you can unlock the power of your Internet! Unleash the full potential of your Internet Connection! Internet Tweak changes all of the default settings windows xp comes with, those settings that are used to make sure that your system runs every program and hardware configuration without errors and change them to their optimum settings to speed up windows xp more than you can imagine.
By default, most modems and network connections in Windows are not configured to transfer data at their maximum or their most efficient speed. While the maximum transfer speed of a modem/network connection can only be changed by costly hardware upgrades, our software will optimize your modem, browser and network connections settings for faster download speeds, faster web site loading, and an overall increase in web surfing session speed. Our software helps you fine-tune your specific settings to get the best-possible performance out of your current hardware.

Optimize 180+ of hard-to-find modem, internet browser, and e-mail applications secret settings
Increase your Internet connection's performance
Optimize modem settings and boost modem transfer speed
Speed up Internet searches and disable browsing local files
Open Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator in Kiosk mode
Hide your e-mail account
Personalize & secure your Internet Explorer/ Outlook Express/Netscape Communicator settings from unwanted people
Change IE's logo, background and title bar with your own logo or our template and hundreds more...

Full access to 300+ of hard-to-find modem and internet browser optimization tips & tricks!
How to catch e-mail spammer
How to open Internet Explorer, Microsoft Chat, Outlook Express and Netscape Communicator Easter Eggs
How to backup account settings in Outlook Express
How to get rid off annoying warning screen in Internet Explorer
How to protect your active desktop wallpaper
How to convert caches into their original names in Netscape Communicator
How to optimize caches for faster browsing in Netscape Communicator
How to use untracked URL in Netscape Communicator
How to check your ISP performance
How to get a faster dial-up-networking access
How to add optimization parameter for your modem
How to test your modem's performance
How to get the actual speed of your modem
How to optimize streaming media in a slow connection and hundreds more...

These are GUI applications that can be opened from the run line. These applications are not located in the C:\windows\system32\ directory, the keys for these applications are located in the registry under:
HKLM\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\app paths

	CONF.EXE - NetMeeting
	DIALER.EXE - Phone Dialer
	HELPCTR.EXE - Help and Support
	HYPERTRM.EXE - HyperTerminal
	ICWCONN1.EXE - Internet Connection Wizard
	IEXPLORE.EXE - Internet Explorer
	INETWIZ.EXE - Setup Your Internet Connection
	INSTALL.EXE - User's Folder
	MIGWIZ.EXE - File and Settings Transfer Wizard
	MSCONFIG.EXE - System Configuration Utility
	MSIMN.EXE - Outlook Express
	MSINFO32.EXE - System Information
	MSMSGS.EXE - Windows Messenger
	MSN6.EXE - MSN Explorer
	PBRUSH.EXE - Paint
	WAB.EXE - Windows Address Book
	WABMIG.EXE - Address Book Import Tool
	WINNT32.EXE - User's Folder

These .EXE files reside in (c:\windows\system32\) or(c:\windows\) directory.

	ACCWIZ.EXE - Accessibility Wizard
	CHARMAP.EXE - Character Map
	CLEANMGR.EXE - Disk Space Cleanup Manager
	CLICONFG.EXE - SQL Client Configuration Utility
	CLSPACK.EXE - Class Package Export Tool
	CMSTP.EXE - Connection Manager Profile Installer
	CONTROL.EXE - Control Panel
	DCOMCNFG.EXE - Component Services
	DDESHARE.EXE - DDE Share
	DRWATSON.EXE - Doctor Watson v1.00b
	DRWTSN32.EXE - Doctor Watson Settings
	DXDIAG.EXE - DirectX Diagnostics
	EUDCEDIT.EXE - Private Character Editor
	EVENTVWR.EXE - Event Viewer
	EXPLORER.EXE - Windows Explorer
	FXSCLNT.EXE - Fax Console
	FXSCOVER.EXE - Fax Cover Page Editor
	FXSEND.EXE - MS Fax Send Note Utility
	LOGOFF.EXE - System Logoff
	MAGNIFY.EXE - Microsoft Magnifier
	MMC.EXE - Microsoft Management Console
	MOBSYNC.EXE - Microsoft Synchronization Manager
	MPLAY32.EXE - Windows Media Player version 5.1
	MSTSC.EXE - Remote Desktop Connection
	NARRATOR.EXE - Microsoft Narrator
	NETSETUP.EXE - Network Setup Wizard
	NSLOOKUP.EXE - NSLookup Application
	NTSD.EXE - Symbolic Debugger for Windows 2000
	ODBCAD32.EXE - ODBC Data Source Administrator
	OSUNINST.EXE - Windows Uninstall Utility
	PACKAGER.EXE - Object Packager
	PERFMON.EXE - Performance Monitor
	PROGMAN.EXE - Program Manager
	RASPHONE.EXE - Remote Access Phonebook
	REGEDIT.EXE - Registry Editor
	REGEDT32.EXE - Registry Editor
	RESET.EXE - Resets Session
	RSTRUI.EXE - System Restore
	RTCSHARE.EXE - RTC Application Sharing
	SFC.EXE - System File Checker
	SHRPUBW.EXE - Create Shared Folder
	SHUTDOWN.EXE - System Shutdown
	SIGVERIF.EXE - File Signature Verification
	SNDREC32.EXE - Sound Recorder
	SNDVOL32.EXE - Sound Volume
	SYNCAPP.EXE - Create A Briefcase
	SYSEDIT.EXE - System Configuration Editor
	SYSKEY.EXE - SAM Lock Tool
	TASKMGR.EXE - Task Manager
	TELNET.EXE - MS Telnet Client
	TSSHUTDN.EXE - System Shutdown
	TOURSTART.EXE - Windows Tour Launcher
	UTILMAN.EXE - System Utility Manager
	USERINIT.EXE - My Documents
	VERIFIER.EXE - Driver Verifier Manager
	WIAACMGR.EXE - Scanner and Camera Wizard
	WINCHAT.EXE - Windows for Workgroups Chat
	WINHELP.EXE - Windows Help Engine
	WINHLP32.EXE - Help
	WINVER.EXE - Windows Version Information
	WSCRIPT.EXE - Windows Script Host Settings
	WUPDMGR.EXE - Windows Update

The following are Control Panel applets that can be run from the run line. They are located in the c:\windows\system32 directory, and have the file type extension ".CPL".

	ACCESS.CPL - Accessibility Options
	APPWIZ.CPL - Add or Remove Programs
	DESK.CPL - Display Properties
	HDWWIZ.CPL - Add Hardware Wizard
	INETCPL.CPL - Internet Explorer Properties
	INTL.CPL - Regional and Language Options
	JOY.CPL - Game Controllers
	MAIN.CPL - Mouse Properties
	MMSYS.CPL - Sounds and Audio Device Properties
	NCPA.CPL - Network Connection
	NUSRMGR.CPL - User Accounts
	ODBCCP32.CPL - ODBC Data Source Administrator
	POWERCFG.CPL - Power Options Properties
	SYSDM.CPL - System Properties
	TELEPHON.CPL - Phone and Modem Options
	TIMEDATE.CPL - Date and Time Properties

The following are Microsoft Management Console Snap-ins that can be opened from the run line. These applications have the file type extension ".MSC".

	CERTMGR.MSC - Certificates
	CIADV.MSC - Indexing Service
	COMPMGMT.MSC - Computer Management
	DEVMGMT.MSC - Device Manager
	DFRG.MSC - Disk Defragmenter
	DISKMGMT.MSC - Disk Management
	EVENTVWR.MSC - Event Viewer
	FSMGMT.MSC - Shared Folders
	LUSRMGR.MSC - Local Users and Groups
	NTMSMGR.MSC - Removable Storage
	NTMSOPRQ.MSC - Removable Storage Operator Requests
	PERFMON.MSC - Performance Monitor
	SERVICES.MSC - Services
	WMIMGMT.MSC - Windows Management Infrastructure

Windows XP Restarts When You Try to Shut Down Your Computer

When you shut down your Windows XP-based computer, your computer may restart instead of shutting down, and you may see a blue screen for just a moment before the computer restarts.

The behavior can occur if the following conditions exist:

You have "automatically restart" selected. (Press WinKey-Break, or (Start/Run/Sysdm.cpl), Advanced Tab, Start Up and Recovery/Settings/System Failure/Unmark "Automatically Restart"/Ok/Ok.

The Roxio Easy CD Creator 5.0 or Direct CD 5.0 program is installed on your computer.

Resolution:

To resolve this issue, contact Roxio or view the following Roxio Web site to download and install the updated driver for Easy CD Creator 5.0 for Windows XP: http://www.roxio.com. To work around this issue, uninstall Roxio Easy CD Creator or Direct CD.

Easy CD Creator 5.0 Does Not Function In Windows XP

When you attempt to use Easy CD Creator 5.0, you may see an error message that is similar to the following message on a blue screen, or your computer may become unstable:

Stop 0x00000050: PrtSeqRd deferencing null device object

Easy CD Creator 5.02b and earlier has not been tested or approved by Roxio for use on Windows XP.
As of October 22, 2001, the latest version for Easy CD Creator is version 5.02b; this version is known to have problems running on Windows XP. Easy CD driver updates from Roxio are available from the following Roxio Web site:

http://www.roxio.com/en/support/ecdc/ecdcupdates.jhtml
http://www.roxio.com/en/company/roxio_xp.jhtml

More Information:

Windows XP may encounter a problem during startup that results in a STOP error message. Depending on the system configuration, the error message on a blue screen may not be displayed long enough to record the error information. To gather important information about the STOP error message and to verify the cause:

Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
Click to clear the Automatically restart check box under System failure, and then click OK. The error message on a blue screen should remain on the screen so you can record the error information.
Instantly Reboot Upon a System Fault
Start/Run/Regedit. Navigate to...
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl

In the right pane choose AutoReboot/Right Click/Modify. Change value to 0 to disable and 1 to enable.
Windows Hangs While Saving Your Settings
When you shut down your computer, Microsoft Windows XP may stop responding (hang) while the following message is displayed: Saving your settings. When this occurs, you may be able to move the mouse pointer, but when you press CTRL+ALT+DEL, nothing happens. This issue may occur only occasionally. Supported Fix: "Restarting Windows XP".
Modify Hung App Time
Start/Run/Regedit. Navigate to...
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

In the right pane, choose HungAppTimeout/Right Click/Modify/Change Value/Exit/Reboot.
Force Program Exit

Start/Run/Regedit
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop In the right pane find, "AutoEndTasks" (Create if not present). Set the Value of 0 or delete it. No reboot needed.
Disable Error Reporting

Start/Settings/Control Panel/System/Advanced/Error Reporting/Disable.

Windows Boots without Warning!

By default when WinXP encounters a system failure, it reboots without warning. The setting that controls this can be changed:
Control Panel/System/Advanced/Settings (Startup & Recovery)/System Failure/Uncheck-Automatically Restart. To view the event log: Administrative Tools/Event Viewer or Start/Run/eventvwr.To bypass the BSOD altogether and enable the instant "Auto Reboot" feature: Start/Run/Regedit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl. Right click on "AutoReboot", modify and change the value to 1. Exit, reboot. To disable set the value back to 0.
Windows® Online Crash Analysis

If you experience a blue screen crash event, or Stop error, while using Microsoft Windows XP, you can upload the error report for analysis. http://oca.microsoft.com/welcome.asp
By default when WinXP encounters a system failure, it reboots without warning. The setting that controls this can be changed:
Control Panel/System/Advanced/Settings (Startup & Recovery)/System Failure/Uncheck-Automatically Restart. To view the event log: Admistrative Tools/Event Viewer or Start/Run/eventvwr.

To bypass the BSOD altogether and enable the instant "Auto Reboot" feature, run Regedit and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl

Right click on "AutoReboot", modify and change the value to 1. Exit, reboot. To disable set the value back to 0.
Windows® Online Crash Analysis

If you experience a blue screen crash event, or Stop error, while using Microsoft Windows XP, you can upload the error report for analysis. http://oca.microsoft.com/welcome.asp
Force Exit
Start/Run/Regedit
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
In the right pane find, "AutoEndTasks" (Create if not present). Set the Value of 0 or delete it. No reboot needed.

The Computer Continuously Restarts

When you start your computer, the Microsoft Windows XP start up screen appears, and then the computer restarts. The Windows XP logon screen does not appear. This error can occur if the Kernel32.dll file is missing or damaged.

To resolve this issue, use the Windows Recovery Console to extract a new copy of the Kernel32.dll file from the original Windows XP compact disc (CD). To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start the Recovery Console. If you do not have the Recovery Console installed, start it from the Windows XP compact disc (CD). To do this, follow these steps:

a. Insert the Windows XP CD and restart the computer. If prompted, select any options required to boot from the CD.

b. When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the prompts; choose the repair or recover option by pressing R.

c. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access from the recovery console.

d. When prompted, type the Administrator password.

2. At the command prompt, type "cd system32" (without the quotation marks), and then press ENTER.

3. Type "ren kernel32.dll kernel32.old" (without the quotation marks), and then press ENTER.

4. Type "map" (without the quotation marks), and then press ENTER.

5. Note the drive letter assigned to the CD-ROM drive that contains the Windows XP CD. It is displayed in a format similar to the following: D: \Device\CdRom0

6. Type "expand <drive>\i386\kernel32.dl_" (without the quotation marks) (where <drive> is the drive letter of the CD-ROM drive that contains the Windows XP CD), and then press ENTER. For example:

Expand d:\i386\kernel32.dl_ <ENTER>

Note the underscore character after the "L" in Kernel32.dl_

The following message appears: Kernel32.dll, 1 file(s) expanded.

7. Type "exit" (without the quotation marks). The computer restarts.

8. Remove the Windows XP CD and start the computer normally.

How to Install the Windows Recovery Console

Disable Error Checking at Startup

Start/Run/Regedit. In the right pane, delete this entry: BootExecute autocheck autochk*
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager

Disable/Remove Serious Error Message Upon Boot

Start/Control Panel/System/Advanced/Performance/Settings/Advanced/Virtual Memory/Change/Set to 0. Reboot/Reset Pagefile to System Managed Size.

Disable Windows XP's Windows Tour Prompt for all Users

Start/Run/Regedit. Navigate to...
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets

In the right pane, locate Tour (if it doesn't exist, add it. Edit/New/Key. Then select New Value and set it to 0).

To set the same option for users, navigate to...and repeat the above steps.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets

Disable Unnecessary Programs at Startup

Start/Run/Regedit. Right Click/Delete unnecessary programs listed here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Runonce HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Disable or Enable Boot Defrag

Start/Run/Regedit. Navigate to...
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction

Select Enable in the right pane/Right Click/Modify/Change Value to Y to enable, N to disable. Exit/Reboot.

What is the Registry?
The Registry is a database used to store settings and options for the 32 bit versions of Microsoft Windows including Windows 95, 98, ME and NT/2000. It contains information and settings for all the hardware, software, users, and preferences of the PC. Whenever a user makes changes to a Control Panel settings, or File Associations, System Policies, or installed software, the changes are reflected and stored in the Registry.
The physical files that make up the registry are stored differently depending on your version of Windows; under Windows 95, 98 & ME it is contained in two hidden files in your Windows directory, called USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT, while under Windows NT/2000 the files are contained separately in the %SystemRoot%\System32\Config directory. You can not edit these files directly, you must use a tool usually known as a "Registry Editor" to make any changes (using registry editors will be discussed later in the article).

The Structure of the Registry

The Registry has a hierarchal structure, although it looks complicated the structure is similar to the directory structure on your hard disk, with Regedit being similar to Windows Explorer.

Each main branch (denoted by a folder icon in the Registry Editor, see left) is called a Hive, and Hives contains Keys. Each key can contain other keys (sometimes referred to as sub-keys), as well as Values. The values contain the actual information stored in the Registry. There are three types of values; String, Binary, and DWORD - the use of these depends upon the context.

There are six main branches, each containing a specific portion of the information stored in the Registry. They are as follows:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT - This branch contains all of your file association types, OLE information and shortcut data.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER - This branch links to the section of HKEY_USERS appropriate for the user currently logged onto the PC.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE - This branch contains computer specific information about the type of hardware, software, and other preferences on a given PC, this information is used for all users who log onto this computer.
HKEY_USERS - This branch contains individual preferences for each user of the computer, each user is represented by a SID sub-key located under the main branch.
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG - This branch links to the section of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE appropriate for the current hardware configuration.
HKEY_DYN_DATA - This branch points to the part of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, for use with the Plug-&-Play features of Windows, this section is dymanic and will change as devices are added and removed from the system.

Each registry value is stored as one of five different data types:

REG_BINARY - This type stores the value as raw binary data. Most hardware component information is stored as binary data, and can be displayed in an editor in hexadecimal format.
REG_DWORD - This type represents the data by a four byte number and is commonly used for boolean values, such as "0" is disabled and "1" is enabled. Additionally many parameters for device driver and services are this type, and can be displayed in REGEDT32 in binary, hexadecimal and decimal format, or in REGEDIT in hexadecimal and decimal format.
REG_EXPAND_SZ - This type is an expandable data string that is string containing a variable to be replaced when called by an application. For example, for the following value, the string "%SystemRoot%" will replaced by the actual location of the directory containing the Windows NT system files. (This type is only available using an advanced registry editor such as REGEDT32)
REG_MULTI_SZ - This type is a multiple string used to represent values that contain lists or multiple values, each entry is separated by a NULL character. (This type is only available using an advanced registry editor such as REGEDT32)
REG_SZ - This type is a standard string, used to represent human readable text values.

Editing the Registry

The Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE) is included with most version of Windows (although you won't find it on the Start Menu) it enables you to view, search and edit the data within of the Registry. There are several methods for starting the Registry Editor, the simplest is to click on the Start button, then select Run, and in the Open box type "regedit", and if the Registry Editor is installed it should now open and look like the image below.
Picture of regedit.exe

An alternative Registry Editor (REGEDT32.EXE) is available for use with Windows NT/2000, it includes some additional features not found in the standard version, including; the ability to view and modify security permissions, and being able to create and modify the extended string values REG_EXPAND_SZ & REG_MULTI_SZ.
Create a Shortcut to Regedit
This can be done by simply right-clicking on a blank area of your desktop, selecting New, then Shortcut, then in the Command line box enter "regedit.exe" and click Next, enter a friendly name (e.g. 'Registry Editor') then click Finish and now you can double click on the new icon to launch the Registry Editor.
Using Regedit to modify your Registry
Once you have started the Regedit you will notice that on the left side there is a tree with folders, and on the right the contents (values) of the currently selected folder.
Like Windows explorer, to expand a certain branch (see the structure of the registry section), click on the plus sign [+] to the left of any folder, or just double-click on the folder. To display the contents of a key (folder), just click the desired key, and look at the values listed on the right side. You can add a new key or value by selecting New from the Edit menu, or by right-clicking your mouse. And you can rename any value and almost any key with the same method used to rename files; right-click on an object and click rename, or click on it twice (slowly), or just press F2 on the keyboard. Lastly, you can delete a key or value by clicking on it, and pressing Delete on the keyboard, or by right-clicking on it, and choosing Delete.
Note: it is always a good idea to backup your registry before making any changes to it. It can be intimidating to a new user, and there is always the possibility of changing or deleting a critical setting causing you to have to reinstall the whole operating system. It's much better to be safe than sorry!

Importing and Exporting Registry Settings

A great feature of the Registry Editor is it's ability to import and export registry settings to a text file, this text file, identified by the .REG extension, can then be saved or shared with other people to easily modify local registry settings. You can see the layout of these text files by simply exporting a key to a file and opening it in Notepad, to do this using the Registry Editor select a key, then from the "Registry" menu choose "Export Registry File...", choose a filename and save. If you open this file in notepad you will see a file similar to the example below:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup]

"SetupType"=dword:00000000

"CmdLine"="setup -newsetup"

"SystemPrefix"=hex:c5,0b,00,00,00,40,36,02

The layout is quite simple, REGEDIT4 indicated the file type and version, [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup]indicated the key the values are from, "SetupType"=dword:00000000are the values themselves the portion after the "=" will vary depending on the type of value they are; DWORD, String or Binary.
So by simply editing this file to make the changes you want, it can then be easily distributed and all that need to be done is to double-click, or choose "Import" from the Registry menu, for the settings to be added to the system Registry.
Deleting keys or values using a REG file
It is also possible to delete keys and values using REG files. To delete a key start by using the same format as the the REG file above, but place a "-" symbol in front of the key name you want to delete. For example to delete the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup] key the reg file would look like this:

REGEDIT4

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup]

The format used to delete individual values is similar, but instead of a minus sign in front of the whole key, place it after the equal sign of the value. For example, to delete the value "SetupType" the file would look like:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup]

"SetupType"=-

Use this feature with care, as deleting the wrong key or value could cause major problems within the registry, so remember to always make a backup first.
Regedit Command Line Options
Regedit has a number of command line options to help automate it's use in either batch files or from the command prompt. Listed below are some of the options, please note the some of the functions are operating system specific.

regedit.exe [options] [filename]

filename   Import .reg file into the registry

/s         Silent, i.e. hide confirmation box when importing files

/e         Export registry file

           e.g. regedit /e file.reg HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT

/L:system  Specify the location of the system.dat to use

/R:user    Specify the location of the user.dat to use

/C         Compress [filename] (Windows 98)

Maintaining the Registry

How can you backup and restore the Registry?
Windows 95
Microsoft included a utility on the Windows 95 CD-ROM that lets you create backups of the Registry on your computer. The Microsoft Configuration Backup program, CFGBACK.EXE, can be found in the \Other\Misc\Cfgback directory on the Windows 95 CD-ROM. This utility lets you create up to nine different backup copies of the Registry, which it stores, with the extension RBK, in your \Windows directory. If your system is set up for multiple users, CFGBACK.EXE won't back up the USER.DAT file.
After you have backed up your Registry, you can copy the RBK file onto a floppy disk for safekeeping. However, to restore from a backup, the RBK file must reside in the \Windows directory. Windows 95 stores the backups in compressed form, which you can then restore only by using the CFGBACK.EXE utility.
Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 98 automatically creates a backup copy of the registry every time Windows starts, in addition to this you can manually create a backup using the Registry Checker utility by running SCANREGW.EXE from Start | Run menu.
What to do if you get a Corrupted Registry
Windows 95, 98 and NT all have a simple registry backup mechanism that is quite reliable, although you should never simply rely on it, remember to always make a backup first!
Windows 95
In the Windows directory there are several hidden files, four of these will be SYSTEM.DAT & USER.DAT, your current registry, and SYSTEM.DA0 & USER.DA0, a backup of your registry. Windows 9x has a nice reature in that every time it appears to start successfully it will copy the registry over these backup files, so just in case something goes wrong can can restore it to a known good state. To restore the registry follow these instruction:
1. Click the Start button, and then click Shut Down.
2. Click Restart The Computer In MS-DOS Mode, then click Yes.
3. Change to your Windows directory. For example, if your Windows directory is c:\windows, you would type the following:

cd c:\windows

4. Type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each one. (Note that SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0 contain the number zero.)

attrib -h -r -s system.dat

attrib -h -r -s system.da0

copy system.da0 system.dat

attrib -h -r -s user.dat

attrib -h -r -s user.da0

copy user.da0 user.dat

5. Restart your computer.
Following this procedure will restore your registry to its state when you last successfully started your computer.
If all else fails, there is a file on your hard disk named SYSTEM.1ST that was created when Windows 95 was first successfully installed. If necessary you could also change the file attributes of this file from read-only and hidden to archive to copy the file to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT.
Windows NT
On Windows NT you can use either the "Last Known Good" option or RDISK to restore to registry to a stable working configuration.
How can I clean out old data from the Registry?
Although it's possible to manually go through the Registry and delete unwanted entries, Microsoft provides a tool to automate the process, the program is called RegClean. RegClean analyzes Windows Registry keys stored in a common location in the Windows Registry. It finds keys that contain erroneous values, it removes them from the Windows Registry after having recording those entries in the Undo.Reg file. You can download this free utility from our downloads page.
Contributed by:

Winguides.com
One of the reasons that computers are getting cheaper is because monitors are getting cheaper. The video hardware that drives them is also more affordable than ever before. Microsoft realized that when they released Windows 98 and built in support for multiple monitors. That support continued with 98SE, 2000 and ME. If you use NT, you're not out of luck, but this article won't help you. Your best alternative is to use a dual headed card, like the Matrox G450, one with two monitor outputs.
Getting dual monitors to work correctly seems to be a hit or miss affair. In many cases, it's just a matter adding a second video card and monitor and rebooting the computer. In other cases, you need to do some cyber gymnastics to get things working correctly.
The process is the same no matter which version of Windows you are using. First, be sure that your system is working correctly. Boot into safe mode and verify that you have only one video adapter and monitor showing in the Device Manager. If there are more, but you only have one adapter and monitor, you'll need to remove the extras.
Once you're sure that your video setup is working fine, turn off the system and look inside. Remember that you'll need a video card for each monitor that you plan to run under Windows. That means that your system must have a free expansion slot for each one. You may find that you have problems with IRQ sharing or DMA channels, depending on your motherboard and video card, although many video cards seem relatively intolerant of IRQ and DMA conflicts. Install your video card in the appropriate slot, and then connect the monitor.
Restart your system. If all goes well, your computer will boot the same way that it always has…the second monitor will still be dark. If your system prompts you to login, do it. You may need to install drivers for your second video card, depending upon whether or not Windows has built in drivers or not. Just follow the on-screen instructions.
Once the drivers are installed, check the Device Manager to make sure that the display adapter is properly detected:

Once the drivers are installed, open the Display Properties window. In the settings screen, you should see something like this:

You'll see that a second display is shown. Click on the grayed out display marked as "2". The window will change slightly to look like this:

You can then change the desktop resolution and color depth. Once you've done that, click your mouse on the "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" to enable it. Remember that the resolution, color depth and refresh rates of each monitor adapter combination don't have to be the same. The window should look something like this now:

Click on OK and your second monitor should activate itself as an extension of the first:

You'll find that you can change the relative geometries of the two monitors by moving their respective boxes around in the Settings window.
What if things don't work?
If you can't get your second monitor to work at all, there are a couple of steps that you can take. In some systems, you need to change a BIOS system to allow the PCI display adapter to initialize first, instead of the AGP adapter. You should be sure that both of your display adapters are supported by the version of Windows that you are using.
Also, be sure that the display parameters (resolution, color depth, etc.) are within your monitor's limits. Windows allows you to select different display parameters for each monitor, so even though one might have lower performance than another, you'll still be able to use it.
Windows 2000 driver support for older PCI cards may be a little iffy. Many popular cards do have drivers, but just about as many don't. Also, remember that your computer has only one AGP slot, so you can only use one AGP card. The rest have to be PCI or ISA.
And speaking of ISA video cards, I'd really recommend against using one. You'll find that your video resolution and color depth are very minimal and you may create more problems with IRQ sharing than you want to get into. Also, of course, many newer motherboards don't have ISA slots.
If you have a motherboard with one of Intel's i815 chipsets, you may have onboard AGP video. While it might be tempting to use the built in video and get a separate PCI card for the second display, please let me talk you out of it. Almost any AGP card that you buy, even the cheapest one, will outperform the video from these chipsets. If the onboard video is your main video source, put your money into a new video card before you consider adding a second monitor.
Dual monitor setups are a great way to expand your desktop without buying a monstrously expensive large monitor and, in most cases, it's very easy to do. A little preparation before you do the job should result in a whole lot of fun at the end.

Guide to Windows Dual Boot

At one time, there was only Windows and only one Windows, Windows v3. Now there are Windows, plural: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows Me. What's more, the possibility exists that you, as a power user, have more than one copy of Windows -- or more than one type of Windows -- on one machine.

Having multiple installations of Windows on one computer is called dual booting or multiple booting. Windows NT and 2000 are designed to be installed in conjunction with other operating systems, especially Windows 95/98/Me. Windows 95/98/Me are not: When you install them on a PC, they want to be the only OS on that PC.
Is there any way around this? Yes; in fact, there are many possibilities. This article will step you through how to get the various versions of Windows to coexist with each other on the same PC. Over the years, Windows has grown slightly more tolerant of having more than one installation of itself in a given PC -- especially NT and 2000 -- but a number of scenarios aren't supported at all by Microsoft and require a little coaxing or, in some cases, trickery.
You can take several paths to achieve multiple booting. These depend on what's already installed in your computer, how many hard drives and partitions you have, and whether or not you're amenable to (or capable of) using third-party programs to control boot choices. If your machine is sufficiently powerful enough (500MHz or better and at least 128MB of RAM), you also have the option of using an emulation system such as VMware to run your other OSes.
First, you need to verify which OS you're currently running, and which OS you want to add to your system. If you're adding Windows 95, 98, or Me to a machine running Windows 2000 or Windows NT, that's the most complex scenario. Because it's also the scenario about which we've received the most correspondence from our readers, we'll address it first.
Adding Win NT or 2K to a machine running either Windows 95, 98, or Me is actually much easier, because both NT and 2K are designed to coexist to a high degree with other operating systems. Some pitfalls may be in store, but we'll cover them in the following pages.

Install 95/98/Me on a NT/2000 PC

Installing Windows 95, 98, or Me on a Windows NT system is probably the most difficult of the scenarios listed here. The reason is fairly simple: Windows 95/98/Me wants to be the only OS on a given computer, and will take steps to insure that nothing else can boot up.

If you have Windows NT already installed on the computer (on a FAT partition), for example, you'll get a warning during the Win95/98/Me installation process about the presence of NT system files. If you have an NTFS partition, Win95/98/Me will report it as being damaged and won't let you do anything about this except abort the installation, since it doesn't let you interactively repartition your disk during setup.
If you have NT/2K on a FAT partition and install Win95/98/Me on it anyway, any NT/2K boot files will be erased, and the boot sector will be replaced with a Win95/98/Me edition. Win NT/2K, however, has repair tools to address this problem, which we'll discuss in detail later.
Here are the steps for adding a Win95/98/Me installation to a Windows NT machine.
1. Ensure your NT PC has Service Pack 6a.
Windows NT, in an out-of-the-box installation, has problems that can cause serious disk corruption if you're using a drive larger than 2GB (and who isn't these days?). Before doing anything else at all, make sure you have patched the system with the latest Windows NT Service Pack plus whatever hotfixes are relevant to your computer. With Windows 2000, you can patch with Service Pack 1, but it's not required, since it comes 95/98/Me-aware out of the box.
2. Make a Windows NT/Windows 2000 repair disk.
Repair disks in Windows NT/2K are floppies, created with a system utility, that contain copies of key Registry entries as well as a description of the partition geometry of the disk. If either of those things gets damaged, you can rebuild them to an extent. A repair disk is one of those underrated Win NT/2K features that can often save you when you least expect it. If you make a mistake during this process, you won't regret having it.
To build a repair disk in Windows NT, use the RDISK.EXE command-line utility. Just run it and follow the prompts. In Windows 2000, run the Backup utility and click the Emergency Repair Disk button on the Welcome tab.
3. Prepare a FAT partition.
Windows 9x can't install onto anything other than a FAT or FAT32 partition. FAT, also referred to as FAT16, is the original partition format used by DOS and, later, Windows 95. Windows 98 introduced FAT32, a revised version of FAT that could support bigger partition sizes and was more reliable. But NT supports only FAT, so you need to have a FAT partition with enough free space for Windows 9x to be installed. FAT32 cannot be read or written by a Windows NT machine.
To be scrupulously honest, it's possible to have Windows NT read and write FAT32 partitions with a third-party utility. However, if you want your system to be as reliable as possible, we don't recommend using such a method.

	(click to expand view)
	Only FAT16 or FAT32 partitions, not NTFS, can support a Windows 95/98/Me installation. FAT16 provides the best cross-compatibility with other operating systems.

The partition in question doesn't have to be the primary boot partition in the computer, but it must be a DOS-accessible partition for the installation to succeed, and the bootable partition in the system must be FAT. If there's no such spare partition in the system, you will have to make one using a third-party tool such as PartitionMagic. Windows doesn't support the selective editing of partitions and neither does Windows NT, for that matter!
You can use the same partition that holds Windows NT itself, but we don't recommend it for two reasons:
1) You must not use the same directory name for both operating systems. This actually varies by default: NT installs in \WINNT, and Windows 9x installs in \WINDOWS. However, if NT were installed in \WINDOWS for whatever reason, it would create problems, and some applications stupidly expect Windows to be installed in \WINDOWS and nowhere else.
2) The \Program Files directory is used by both operating systems to hold apps that are installed by default -- everything from IE to Solitaire. Because some of these apps are OS-specific -- some are specifically for NT that aren't for 9x and vice versa -- you may wind up breaking one OS's default app set if you install it on top of the other. This alone is reason not to install both OSes on the same partition, since the \Program Files directory can't be easily redirected during the install process.
Preparing a partition in Windows NT is done through the Disk Administrator utility. Right-click in the listed free space on a drive and choose Create; right-click in the same space again and choose Commit Changes Now; then Format.

4. Create a Windows 9x boot floppy.
Sure, you're always supposed to have a boot disk handy, but more often than not, you don't. For dual booting, you'll definitely need a Windows 9x boot floppy disk. Find a PC running Win9x and a blank floppy disk. You'll be preparing a bootable floppy disk that will have nothing on it save the command-line version of Windows, which is basically, DOS. To do this, boot Win 95/98/Me and run the following command-line operation: FORMAT A: /S with a blank floppy in drive A:.

From the \Windows\Command directory, copy the SYS command to the A: disk as well.
NOTE: Don't mix and match OSes here. If you're installing Windows 95, don't use a Windows 98-prepared boot disk. It won't work. Windows 95, 98, and Me all practice pretty stern revision control over their own internal files and utilities.
5. Copy Win98 installation files onto the hard drive.
With Win NT running, insert the Windows 98 CD-ROM and copy the contents of the \SETUP folder onto an available FAT partition. Use the same folder name unless a folder named SETUP is already there. If it is, try a folder name such as NewSetup.
6. Boot with the floppy; then run the install files from hard drive.
Put the prepared boot floppy in your A: drive and reboot. Once you've booted into command-line Windows (DOS mode), type "SYS C:" to transfer the boot files. The command should return the statement "System transferred."
Switch to the \SETUP folder you copied over and run SETUP.EXE. Windows Setup should begin the install process.
As we mentioned before, you're going to get a warning about Windows NT system files being present (or a generic warning about files from another OS, depending on what else may be in your computer) when you go through the install process. Ignore this for now, as we'll be back later to take care of it.
The installation process for Windows 98 should not vary greatly from the way you would normally set it up. The one major difference needs to be the location of the Windows installation; it can't be on the same partition with your NT install, or your \Program Files folder will contain inconsistent copies of some programs.
Once the installation finishes, make sure your system boots correctly into Windows 98 before continuing. If Windows 98 refuses to boot, unrepaired disk problems may have occurred during Setup.

7. Repair your Windows NT boot files.
Once Win98 is in and running, the last step is to repair the Win NT/2000 boot files. This will allow you to use the NT boot loader to choose between NT/2K and Windows 9x.

Repairing the boot files is fairly automatic. Boot the Windows NT/2000 setup disks -- or the CD-ROM, if you can boot CD-ROMs -- and select R in Setup to repair. Choose to repair only the Windows NT boot sector -- nothing else. Note that if your Windows NT/2K installation can't be found, you should pop in the repair disk you made (you DID make one in step 2, correct?) and use that to help the repair program find your installation.
Once the repair operation is finished, boot the computer to see whether you get the Win NT/2K boot options menu with a new entry at the bottom for Windows 9X. Usually you will. If not, you'll need to add a line to the file BOOT.INI, which should be a read-only file in the root directory of your boot drive. You'll need to modify the file's permissions so that it's not read-only in order to change it.

	(click for expanded view)
	Editing the BOOT.INI file is easy enough -- use Notepad or another plain-text editor -- but you'll need to turn off the file's read-only attribute before you can save it. Also be careful not to edit anything except the reference to Windows 95/98/Me

Add the line:
C:\="Windows 95"
to the bottom of the BOOT.INI file, and reboot. The comment in quotes can be anything you like, as long as it's distinct from the other menu choices.
The next time you reboot your system, simply choose the appropriate selection from the boot menu to boot either Win 95/98/Me or NT/2K.

Install NT on a Win2000 PC

Adding Win NT to a Win2000 PC should in some ways be treated like adding Win95/98/Me to a Win NT/2000 installation. The main reason for this is, on the whole, that NT cannot recognize Win2000 NTFS partitions (unless you have Service Pack 6A, and even then it seems to have problems). Win2000's edition of NTFS contains some features, such as changes to how permissions work, that are not entirely backwards-compatible with WinNT. The best thing to do is place NT on a separate partition, where it can use its own version of NTFS.

You'll also need to repair Win2000's boot files, just to be safe. The process for doing this is identical to the repair process in Windows NT.

Install NT/2000 on a 95/98/Me PC

Adding Windows NT or Windows 2000 to a machine that already has Windows 95, 98, or Me on it is much simpler than the reverse for one simple reason: Windows NT/2000 is smart enough to detect the presence of another operating system during installation and modifies its boot files accordingly. Because of this, if you install WinNT/2000 in a machine that already has another version of Windows on it -- and it doesn't matter what version -- you'll see an entry in the boot manager for both editions of Windows.

The installation procedure to follow when adding NT/2000 to a 95/98/Me computer isn't enormously different from installing NT/2K in general. There are, however, a few guidelines to follow.
1. Do not install NT on a FAT32 partition.
This is probably the single most important rule. NT supports only FAT and NTFS, not FAT32, and can't be installed on a FAT32 partition. In fact, it generally can't even read FAT32 partitions. So if you're planning to make data readable by both operating systems, be sure not to place it on a FAT32 partition. Place shared data either in a FAT partition or on a networked drive.
Also, do not convert a FAT16 partition that has NT installed on it. Converting a partition with NT installed on it to FAT32 will render it unbootable.
The sole exception to this rule is with Windows 2000. Win2K can read and write FAT32 partitions without problems. Installing Win2K on a FAT32 partition, however, means you won't be able to use NTFS security features on your system partition.
2. Don't use disk compression.
In fact, this is a global rule: Never use disk compression on any multiple booting system. It's not worth it, and it creates more problems than it solves. Most drives today are big enough that disk compression is contraindicated, anyway. Windows Me won't even install onto a system that has disk compression running.
3. Do a disk check before an installation. Lingering disk errors can cause terrible problems later on down the line when you install an operating system. During Windows installation, there's a disk check; don't skip this step.
4. Always use a discrete partition for other operating systems. As with installing Win 95/98/Me on an NT/2K system, this rule also applies here, and for the same reasons. Installing one Windows application set over another can cause horribly unpredictable things to happen. In most cases it will break IE and Outlook Express, and if shared .DLLs are overwritten, it may cause other apps to malfunction, too.

(click for expanded view)
Each operating system should always reside on its own partition for the best possible results. Here, a FAT32 partition has been prepped for a new installation of Windows Me.

If you want to share applications between operating systems, the best way to do this is to install the app on one OS, boot the other OS, and then reinstall it into the exact same folder. However, a few applications may not work correctly if you do this: for instance, any application that uses CTL3DV2.DLL or CTL3D32.DLL, since there are discrete versions of those .DLLs for 95/98/Me and NT/2K. Your safest bet is to install apps in separate partitions, although a few programs can be coaxed into running without being reinstalled.
Another thing to be aware of when adding a new partition to a Windows 9x machine is how Windows 9x translates partitions as drives. In some cases, if you add a partition, you may break your drive-lettering scheme and possibly render your Windows 9xsystem unbootable.
Here's an example of this: On a computer that had two primary partitions, C: and D:, I had Windows NT on C: (which was marked as bootable) and Windows 98 on D:. When I added a third, logical partition, the drive lettering was thrown off and D: turned into E:, making Windows 98 unbootable.
There are two simple ways to defeat this. One is to use only primary partitions (a maximum of four per hard drive) and to add them in sequence. Another is to add Windows 9x last whenever you set up a system, to preserve the integrity of the drive mapping. The downside of this method is that it goes against the common wisdom of putting 95/98/Me on a system first, so this is recommended with some reservations. Forcing Win9x to map drives a certain way is difficult and not always successful. (Windows NT and 2000 let you map drives any way you like and are not as prone to this problem.)

Third-party Programs for Multiple Booting

Sometimes the easiest thing to do in multiple boot scenarios is to let someone else take control of the whole process. The Windows NT/2K multiple boot loader is not simple to configure and has no easy way to add operating systems that aren't directly supported. If you're booting between more than one OS, or various revisions of OSes, the boot loaders you have may not be enough to do the job.

Boot loaders work in a couple of different ways. Some of them are installed in a special partition, only a few megabytes in size that is marked as bootable. When that partition is booted, the boot loader program takes over and presents the user with a menu of possible boot choices. Usually the program analyzes the available partitions at each boot, to determine whether anything has changed since the last boot.

(click for expanded view)
System Commander works with just about any PC-based operating system to let you choose the OS you want to boot.

The best third-party boot loader out there so far appears to be System Commander from Vcom. System Commander automatically detects any changes made to your PC since the last boot and updates its menus automatically to reflect those changes.
The makers PartitionMagic also have a multiple boot manager program named BootMagic, which does many of the same things as System Commander and supports Windows 2000 as well.
VMware is another way to run multiple OSes on the same system, but without using multiple booting. Instead, VMware creates a virtual computer console on your PC -- basically, a computer within a computer. The virtual computer runs at about two-thirds the speed of your real computer and has access to many of the same resources -- disk drives, printers, network, etc. This allows you to run one or more operating systems, as many as you can devote disk space for, without having to reformat a drive partition or play around with dualboot settings.

	(click for expanded view)
	VMware lets you run a 'virtual computer' in your computer, letting you install any operating system you choose. But it'll only work in NT or Windows 2000 and needs plenty of memory.

One main weakness of VMware is it runs only under Windows NT or Windows 2000, and it won't work in Windows 95, 98, or Me. VMware also needs a lot of memory and processing power to get good results: On anything less than a Pentium II 400, it crawls, and it needs at least 128MB of RAM to really work well. You can try before you buy, though; the official site contains instructions on obtaining a 30-day trial license via e-mail

Direct Bootup Without Typing Password

1. At a command prompt, type "control userpasswords2" and press Enter to open the Windows 2000-style User Accounts
    application.
2. On the Users tab, clear the Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer check box and then
    click OK.
3. In the Automatically Log On dialog box that appears, type the user name and password for the account you want to be
    logged on each time you start your computer.

Remove Login Password

Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Local Security Settings/Minimum Password Length/Reduce it to 0 (No password required). Control Panel/User Account/Your Account/Remove Password.

Cannot Change the Administrator Password in Control Panel

After you log on as an administrator to a computer that is not a member of a domain, when you double-click User Accounts in Control Panel to change the password for the built-in Administrator account, the Administrator account may not appear in the list of user accounts. Consequently, you cannot change its password.

This behavior can occur because the Administrator account logon option appears only in Safe mode if more than one account is created on the system. The Administrator account is available in Normal mode only if there are no other accounts on the system. To work around this behavior:

- If you are running Windows XP Home Edition, restart the computer and then use a power user account to log on to the
computer in Safe mode.

- If you are running Windows XP Professional, reset the password in the Local Users and Groups snap-in in Microsoft
Management Console (MMC):

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type "mmc" (without the quotation marks), and then click OK to start MMC.
3. Start the Local Users and Groups snap-in.
4. Under Console Root, expand "Local Users and Groups", and then click Users.
5. In the right pane, right-click Administrator, and then click Set Password.
6. Click Proceed in the message box that appears.
7. Type and confirm the new password in the appropriate boxes, and then click OK.

How to Change User Password at Command Prompt

How to use the net user command to change the user password at a Windows command prompt. Only administrators can change domain passwords at the Windows command prompt. To change a user's password at the command prompt, log on as an administrator and type: "net user <user_name> * /domain" (without the quotation marks)

When you are prompted to type a password for the user, type the new password, not the existing password. After you type the new password, the system prompts you to retype the password to confirm. The password is now changed.

Alternatively, you can type the following command: net user <user_name> <new_password>. When you do so, the password changes without prompting you again. This command also enables you to change passwords in a batch file.

Non-administrators receive a "System error 5 has occurred. Access is denied" error message when they attempt to change the password.

How to Enable Automatic Logon in Windows

If you set a computer for auto logon, anyone who can physically obtain access to the computer can gain access to all of the computer contents, including any network or networks it is connected to. In addition, if you enable autologon, the password is stored in the registry in plaintext. The specific registry key that stores this value is remotely readable by the Authenticated Users group.
As a result, this setting is only appropriate for cases where the computer is physically secured, and steps have been taken to ensure that untrusted users cannot remotely access the registry.
1. Start/Run/Regedit, and then locate the following registry subkey:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
2. Using your account name and password, double-click the DefaultUserName entry, type your user name, and then click
    OK.
3. Double-click the DefaultPassword entry, type your password, and then click OK.

NOTE: The DefaultPassword value may not exist. If it does not:

a. Click Add Value on the Edit menu.
b. In the Value Name box, type DefaultPassword, and then click REG_SZ for the Data Type
c. Type your password in the String box, and then save your changes.

Also, if no DefaultPassword string is specified, Windows automatically changes the value of the AutoAdminLogon key
from 1 (true) to 0 (false), thus disabling the AutoAdminLogon feature.

4. Click Add Value on the Edit menu, enter AutoAdminLogon in the Value Name box, and then click REG_SZ for the Data
    Type.
5. Type "1" (without the quotation marks) in the String box, and then save your changes.
6. Quit Regedit.
7. Click Start, click Shutdown, and then click OK to turn off your computer.
8. Restart your computer and Windows. You are now able to log on automatically.

NOTE: To bypass the AutoAdminLogon process, and to log on as a different user, hold down the SHIFT key after you log off or after Windows restarts.

Note that this procedure only applies to the first logon. To enforce this setting for subsequent logoffs, the administrator must set the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Value: ForceAutoLogon
Type: REG_SZ
Data: 1

Windows XP Inherits Autologon Setting After Upgrade from Win2000

After you upgrade a Microsoft Windows 2000-based computer, Windows XP Professional may start directly to the desktop without stopping at the Welcome screen or requiring you to type a username and password. If you then create a new user account, you may not receive any option that allows you to log on by using the new account.
This behavior can occur if Windows 2000 was configured for automatic logon (Autologon). Windows XP inherits this configuration setting.
To resolve this behavior, turn off the automatic logon feature and require a username and password at logon:

1. Click Start on the Windows taskbar, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type control userpasswords2, and then click OK.
3. In the dialog box that appears, click to select the "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer"
check box, and then click OK.

To work around this behavior, log off from the Autologon account, and then log on by using the new account.

Not Prompted to Create Password with New XP User Account

When you create a new user on a Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition-based computer, you are not prompted to create a password. To create a password for a user account, click the icon for the account, and then click "Create a Password".

Stored User Names and Passwords Feature Interoperability at a Command Prompt

By default, the Stored User Names and Passwords feature creates a "key" for any connection that you make in the graphical user interface (GUI) that requires alternate credentials. When you make a connection at a command prompt by using the net use command and by passing alternate credentials, a key is not created.
For the net use command to save the credentials in Credential Manager, use the /savecred switch. When you use the /savecred switch, any credentials that you are prompted for when you use the net use command are saved as a key.
Therefore, if you are prompted for the user name and password (or if you are prompted only for the password) when you use the net use command (but not because you used an asterisk [*] in the net use command for password prompting) and the /savecred switch, the credentials are saved.
When you type the net use * \\ computer_name \ share_name /savecred command, the user is prompted for a user name, and then the user is prompted for a password.

When you type the net use * \\ computer_name \ share_name /u: domain_name \ user_name /savecred command, the user is prompted for a password.

However, when you type one of the following commands, a key is not created:
net use * \\ computer_name \ share_name * /user: domain_name \ user_name /savecred
-or-
net use * \\ computer_name \ share_name * /savecred /user: domain_name \ user_name

If you type net help use at a command prompt, more information is displayed about the net use command.

Password Has Expired Message

Start/Programs/Administrative Tools/Local Security Policy/Account Policies/Password Policy. In the right pane, right click, properties, modify (use accordingly). And Start/Programs/Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Local Users and Groups/Right Click "User"(intended)/Properties...Or with Admin privileges, at a command prompt type: net accounts /maxpwage:unlimited.

To Create a Password Reset Disk

The Forgotten Password Wizard lets you create a password reset disk that you can use to recover your user account and personalized computer settings if you forget your password. The steps to perform this task differ depending on whether your computer is a member of a network domain or is part of a workgroup (or is a stand-alone computer).

My Computer is on a Domain

Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to open the Windows Security dialog box. Click Change Password.
Click Backup to open the Forgotten Password Wizard. Click Next and then follow the instructions as they appear on the screen.

My Computer is not on a Domain

The steps to perform this task differ depending on the type of user account you have. If you have a computer administrator account: Open User Accounts in Control Panel. Click your account name. Under Related Tasks located on the left side of the window, click Prevent a forgotten password. In the Forgotten Password Wizard, follow the instructions as they appear on the screen.

If you Have a Limited Account

Open User Accounts in Control Panel. Under Related Tasks located on the left side of the window, click Prevent a forgotten password. In the Forgotten Password Wizard, follow the instructions as they appear on the screen.

Notes: To open User Accounts, click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then click User Accounts.
     Certain Programs Do Not Work Correctly If You Log On Through a Limited User Account.
     After you log on to a computer by using a Limited User Account, you may observe one or more of the following
     behaviors when you try to use a program that is not expressly designed for Windows XP. Information here.
Password Reset Disk Overview

To protect user accounts in the event that the user forgets the password, every local user should make a password reset disk and keep it in a safe place. Then, if the user forgets his or her password, the password can be reset using the password reset disk and the user is able to access the local user account again.

Resetting the Password

After you reset the password of an account on a Windows XP-based computer that is joined to a workgroup, you may lose access to the user's: Web page credentials, File share credentials, EFS-encrypted files, Certificates with private keys (SIGNED/ENCRYPTed e-mail). More information in detail here.

I assume no responsibility for the purpose to which this information is used. This includes employees attempting to bypass restrictions put into place by System Administrators on corporate machines.

Delete Admin Password

Boot up with DOS and delete the sam.exe and sam.log files from Winnt\system32\config in your hard drive. Now when you boot up in NT the password on your built-in administrator account will be blank (No password). This solution works only if your hard drive is FAT. [Editor's note: Use with caution, there may be other ramifications from performing this tip.]

Forgot your Admin Password

This is a utility to (re)set the password of any user that has a valid (local) account on your NT system, by modifying the crypted password in the registrys SAM file. You do not need to know the old password to set a new one.

It works offline, that is, you have to shutdown your computer and boot off a floppydisk. The bootdisk includes stuff to access NTFS partitions and scripts to glue the whole thing together. Note: It will now also work with SYSKEY, including the option to turn it off! More information here. Download here.

All Passwords-Master Copy

With Darn! Passwords! Just one password opens the safe that holds all those other ones for programs and web sites that require you to log in. Download Here.

Just pick the password, and drag it and it's log-in (if there is one) into the program that uses it. No retyping is necessary (even in programs that do not accept the drag, you can just paste the password in). Go to the URL of a password protected site with the click of a button.

Information on System Restore and Password Restoration

Passwords That Are Restored:

1. Program passwords are restored, such as Hotmail Messenger, AOL Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and other Web server-based passwords. This behavior is by design: The programs simply cache these passwords; the actual passwords are
stored on a Web server. System Restore does not actually change the password, but it changes the password that is remembered by the program. You can use the current password for the program to log on to the server.

2. Domain and Computer passwords are restored. This behavior is by Design and is a limitation of System Restore. System Restore only rolls back the local machine state. Part of the information about joining domains resides in Active Directory, and Active Directory is not rolled back by System Restore.

Migration Wizard Does Not Migrate Passwords

The Migration Wizard does not migrate passwords. Passwords for Dial-Up Networking connections, Microsoft Outlook Express accounts, Microsoft Internet Explorer saved passwords, mapped drives, and so on will need to be reconfigured once the migration is complete.

Administrator Account Not Used for Logon

The administrator account and password created during Setup are used to log on in Safe Mode only. To create a password for user accounts, double-click Manage Users in Control Panel.
Therefore, if you are prompted for the user name and password (or if you are prompted only for the password) when you use the net use command (but not because you used an asterisk [*] in the net use command for password prompting) and the /savecred switch, the credentials are saved.
When you type the net use * \\ computer_name \ share_name /savecred command, the user is prompted for a user name, and then the user is prompted for a password.

When you type the net use * \\ computer_name \ share_name /u: domain_name \ user_name /savecred command, the user is prompted for a password.

However, when you type one of the following commands, a key is not created:
net use * \\ computer_name \ share_name * /user: domain_name \ user_name /savecred
-or-
net use * \\ computer_name \ share_name * /savecred /user: domain_name \ user_name

If you type net help use at a command prompt, more information is displayed about the net use command.

Logon Name Not in Task Manager or Under Documents & Settings

When the Welcome screen is appears, the names that are displayed do not match any of the names of users' folders under the Documents and Settings folder or any of the names on the Users tab in Task Manager.

This behavior may occur if you have changed the name of the account in the User Accounts tool in Control Panel. By doing so, the new name appears on the Welcome screen, but the actual account name remains the same. The folders under the Documents and Settings folder and the names that are listed in Task Manager show the actual account name.

To resolve this behavior, if the display name for a user account has been changed, you can find out which account the new display name belongs to by logging on as that user, starting Task Manager, and then clicking the Users tab.

The user account that is marked as active is the one that is currently logged on. Also, you can find out which of the folders under Documents and Settings belongs to the currently logged-on user by right-clicking Start, and then clicking Explore. Windows Explorer will then start in the Start Menu folder of the currently logged-on user's folder.

Administrator Unable to Unlock a "Locked" Computer

This behavior can occur for either of the following reasons: When the default screen saver is set to use a non-existent screen saver program. And/or When you use a corrupted screen saver that is password protected. More Information.

Information About Unlocking a Workstation

The following registry setting is received every time the computer is locked: Start/Run/Regedit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

ForceUnlockLogon
REG_DWORD

0 - Do not force authentication inline (default)
1 - Require online authentication to unlock

The preceding value controls whether a full logon is performed during the unlock process. This can force a validation at the domain controller for the user attempting the unlock process.

NOTE: If the value is not present, it functions as if it had been set to 0 (zero).

Lock Your Computer and Use Other Windows Logo Shortcut Keys

To use the shortcut, press the Windows logo key+L. The following list has different computer lock-up scenarios that are available to you, as well as other ways to lock the computer: Click Here.

Create a Shortcut to Lock Computer

Right click a blank space on the desktop, select new, shortcut. Copy and Paste this line: "rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation" in the program location box. Click next and create a name for your shortcut, click finish.

Lock the Taskbar

This restriction is used to force the locking of the taskbar and restrict users from making any changes to its position. Start/Run/Regedit: Navigate to this key and create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, called 'LockTaskbar' and edit the value according to the settings below. Exit your registry, you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
Value Name: LockTaskbar
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = Unlocked, 1 = Locked)

windows xp myths

System Requirements

Myth - "Windows XP requires a high end PC to install and run."

Reality - "Windows XP can be installed on surprisingly low system requirements contrary to popular opinion. With the average life cycle of a regular PC being roughly 4-6 years, just about any PC being used today can run Windows XP. The following requirements are Microsoft's "official" minimum system requirements which I have tested to work fine with the exception of only 64 MB of RAM (performance is poor). Increasing your RAM to 128 MB would be the only upgrade I would strongly consider as my absolute minimum Windows XP system requirements."

233 MHz CPU (300 MHzRecommended) *
128 MB Recommended (64 MB of RAMminimum supported, limits performance and some features) *
1.5 GB of available hard disk space *
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

* Actual requirements will vary based on your system configuration and the applications and features you choose to install. Additional available hard disk space may be required if you are installing over a network. - Source - Source 2

Notes - Again 128 MB of RAM is recommended as the minimum, since below that disables some features, reduces prefetching benefits and reduces overall performance. Anyone who claims Windows XP will not work with these settings has never actually installed Windows XP on this hardware. Older systems generally benefit from faster harddrive performance (5400 RPM to 7200 RPM, 40 conductor IDE cables to 80 conductor ect...) and faster Internet Connections (Dial-up to Broadband) before upgrading the RAM and so forth. Adding more RAM is almost always a good idea but it is important to understand what exactly you are trying to improve. The most common complaints on older systems are loading times and Internet Performance. Windows XP will work fine for basic Office, Email and Internet use. Many do not realize how low Office 2000 or Office XP's System Requirements are either. These are the minimum requirements for Windows XP NOT any third party software you choose to use. The system requirements for any third party software must be met to use that software properly.

4GB RAM Limit

Myth - "Windows XP does not support 4GB of RAM"

Reality - "On any 32-bit Operating System (not only Windows), you only have access to 4GB of address space by default. A 32-bit Operating System can actually handle 4GB of memory. The issue is the way in which the hardware allocates memory for its own resources. The hardware needs to allocate memory space to use for things like the PCI bus, BIOS, the video card and others. It allocates this from the address space presented to it, which is not necessarily the same as the amount of physical RAM installed. Also of note, it allocates this memory from top to bottom. The problem is, when you have 4GB of RAM installed, the amount of physical memory installed is the same as the address space. If you have 4GB RAM, and the hardware needs to allocate a large chunk of memory for its own use, and it does this from top to bottom, the memory that is blocked off starts at 4GB and allocates downwards. So, the final amount of RAM the OS will be able to see is the difference. This is because when it actually allocates for the physical RAM in the system, it has to skip the chunk that was blocked off by the hardware. Since a 32-bit OS can only see 4GB, the rest of the RAM is invisible because it is above the 4GB barrier. By using the /PAE switch, you enable the OS to see above this barrier, and you can see all of your RAM, sometimes. The real problem comes back to hardware. The OS can only handle whatever resources are shown to it by the hardware BIOS. If the hardware does not support a large enough addressing range, then it simply won't report anything above that so the OS is in the dark. If the hardware supports 36-bit PAE Intel Extensions or the AMD equivalent, and you use an OS that supports PAE, you should be able to enable both and see all of the RAM." - Source - Source 2 - Source 2

DOS Game Compatibility

Myth - "You cannot run DOS games on Windows XP."

Reality - "Many MS-DOS-based games will run on Windows XP and a community out there is dedicated to smoothing the way. MS-DOS was a 16-bit platform. Windows 95 meshed 16-bit and 32-bit code with MS-DOS at its core. Most 16-bit MS-DOS based programs would work fine on Windows 95. Windows 95, 98, and Me were all based on the same core technology (called kernel). Windows XP is based on a completely different kernel. It's built on code that was introduced in Windows NT, evolved into Windows 2000, and was enhanced for Windows XP. The Windows NT kernel doesn't have any MS-DOS components in it at all-it's a pure 32-bit beast. It includes a 16-bit emulator and a command prompt mode that looks like MS-DOS. MS-DOS-based games don't have the friendly installers found in the Windows 9x-based games. You should install MS-DOS-based games from a command prompt. One of the trickiest parts of making MS-DOS-based games to run on Windows XP is getting the sound to work. Succeeding at getting your ancient games up and running on Windows XP can be as rewarding as playing the game itself!" - Source - Source 2 - Source 3

Notes - If all else fails you can always try the - DOSBox DOS Emulator.

NTFS Game Compatibility

Myth - "NTFS is not compatible with games."

Reality - "Your normal software and games could not care less what file system they are being stored on. As long as it's supported by the operating system you are using, there will be no problem. With NTFS, however, permissions can play a factor in whether a game runs correctly or not. If you don't have access to a particular file that's needed by the software, it's not going to work. This is different than when a file is stored on FAT32, and is probably responsible for the mistaken belief that a game, or other software, must be compatible with NTFS. This is another good reason to familiarize yourself with the file and folder permissions in NTFS." - Source

^ TOP

Reliability Myths

Windows 95/98/ME vs XP Reliability

Myth - "Windows 95/98/ME is as reliable as XP." - Comparison Chart - Reliability Video

Reality - "Windows XP is 10-30 times more reliable then Windows 95/98/ME. Windows XP Professional is built on the proven code base of Windows 2000, which features a 32-bit computing architecture, and a fully protected memory model. Windows XP offers several enhancements that make it the most reliable version of Windows yet: Application Compatibility, Compatibility Mode, Improved Device and Hardware Support, Shared DLL Support, Shutdown Event Tracker, Windows Driver Protection, Device Driver Rollback, Windows Installer, Auto Update, Dynamic Update, Windows Update, Shadow Copy Integration with Backup, Last Known Good Configuration, Automated System Recovery, System Restore Enhancements, Error Messaging and Product Support, Online Crash Analysis, " - Source

Lab Report: Windows XP More Reliable
- Windows XP Professional ran over 30 times as long without encountering problems as those running Windows 98 SE.
- None of the Windows XP Professional systems had a single application or operating system failure during the test period.
- None of the Windows 2000 Professional Gold systems had a single application or operating system failure during the test period.

^ TOP

Optimization Myths

Also known as "Bad Tweaks" these are frequently recommended and included in various tweaking programs claiming to improve performance. In each case they either do absolutely nothing or even worse, actually hurt performance. For Tweaks that work use the Optimize XPguide.

Key

= No Effect on Performance

= Reduces Performance

= Partial Performance Improvement

= Causes other Problems

Always Unload DLL

(Disable DLL Caching, Force XP to unload DLLs)

[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer] "AlwaysUnloadDLL"

Myth - "Enabling AlwaysUnloadDLL frees up more memory and improves performance."

Reality - "Adding this Registry Key in Windows 2000 or XP has no effect since this registry key is no longer supported in Microsoft Windows 2000 or later. The Shell automatically unloads a DLL when its usage count is zero, but only after the DLL has not been used for a period of time. This inactive period might be unacceptably long at times, especially when a Shell extension DLL is being debugged. For operating systems prior to Windows 2000, you can shorten the inactive period by adding this registry key." - Source- Source 2

/Prefetch:1 Switch

Myth - "Adding the /Prefetch:1 Switch to the startup path of a program's shortcut will decrease the program's startup time."

Reality - All it does is change your hash number - the OS is doing exactly the same thing it did before, and just saving the prefetch pages to a different file. It does not improve performance in any way. Ryan Myers of Microsoft's Windows Client Performance Team writes: "The /prefetch:# flag is looked at by the OS when we create the process - however, it has one (and only one) purpose. We add the passed number to the hash. Why? WMP is a multipurpose application and may do many different things. The DLLs and code that it touches will be very different when playing a WMV than when playing a DVD, or when ripping a CD, or when listening to a Shoutcast stream, or any of the other things that WMP can do. If we only had one hash for WMP, then the prefetch would only be correct for one such use having incorrect prefetch data would not be a fatal error - it'd just load pages into memory that'd never get used, and then get swapped back out to disk as soon as possible. Still, it's counterproductive. By specifying a /prefetch:# flag with a different number for each "mode" that WMP can do, each mode gets its own separate hash file, and thus we properly prefetch. (This behavior isn't specific to WMP - it does the same for any app.) This flag is looked at when we create the first thread in the process, but it is not removed by CreateProcess from the command line, so any app that chokes on unrecognized command line parameters will not work with it. This is why so many people notice that Kazaa and other apps crash or otherwise refuse to start when it's added. Of course, WMP knows that it may be there, and just silently ignores its existence. I suspect that the "add /prefetch:1 to make rocket go now" urban legend will never die, though." - Source - Source 2

Cleaning the Prefetch Folder

Myth - "Deleting the contents of the Prefetch folder improves performance."

Reality - "Every time you delete an application's Prefetch (.PF) file you will cripple that application's load time the next time you go to launch it. This can temporarily increase load times by as much as 100%. For one thing, XP will just re-create the Prefetch (.PF) trace files anyway; secondly, it trims the files if there's ever more than 128 of them so that it doesn't needlessly consume space. However you do not regain optimal application load times back until after the second time you launch the same application due to the Prefetch (.PF) trace file being re-created. Prefetch (.PF) trace files are not a cache and are not preloaded into memory upon windows startup. They are never even accessed until you launch an application. Only one Prefetch (.PF) trace file per application is created. There is never ANY reason to delete these files. Cleaning the Prefetch folder is actually a temporary self-inflicted unoptimization. Why you would want to deliberately hurt your PC's performance I have no idea." - Source- Source 2 - Source 3 - Source 4- Source 5

Malware/Viruses - Some people irresponsibly recommend cleaning this folder due to possible Malware/Virus infection. Malware/Viruses can place an infected file(s) in any folder and the Prefetch folder is no different. Do these same people recommend deleting the contents of the Windows folder because it is a popular location to find an infected file(s)? Of course not, you simply clean or delete the infected file(s) not the contents of the folder. This Myth got started due to the indiscriminate nature of the Windows Prefetcher, which will Prefetch any executable file that you load or loads during Windows start up. Thus it is quite common on an infected machine to find a Prefetch (.PF) trace file in the Prefetch folder with the same name as an infected executable. These files are NOT Malware/Viruses. They are there to improve the load time, in this case ironically, of the Malware/Virus but do not contain any infected code. Once the associated infected executable is deleted, these Prefetch (.PF) trace files do nothing and will eventually automatically be cleaned by Windows.

Corrupted Files - Some people claim that Prefetch (.PF) trace files can get randomly "corrupted" and thus they need to be periodically deleted. Files do not get "corrupted" unless something is wrong with your computer. Any file corruption is a warning sign something is wrong with your system. Overclocking, using defective components like Memory and Harddrives and using FAT32 instead of the superior NTFS file system are common causes of file corruption. NTFS is very resilient to file corruption as compared to FAT32. When storing data to disk, NTFS records file I/O events to a special transaction log. If the system crashes or encounters an interruption, NTFS can use this log to restore the volume and prevent corruption from an abnormal program termination or system shutdown. NTFS doesn't commit an action to disk until it verifies the successful completion of the action. This precaution helps prevent corruption of an NTFS volume. NTFS also supports hot-fixing disk sectors, where the OS automatically blocks out bad disk sectors and relocates data from these sectors. This housecleaning happens in the background. An application attempting to read or write data on a hot-fixed area will never know the disk had a problem. Thus the solution is fixing the cause of the file corruption.

CCleaner - Finally the useless, performance slowing cleaning option "Old Prefetch data" was moved to the advanced section and is now not selected by default. Never select this option for cleaning as it will increase application and Windows load times. This option removes Prefetch files that are a few weeks old based on the NTFS last access date. Since Windows XP already cleans this folder at 128 entries, this is a useless option that will only reduce system performance. You should never delete a Prefetch file for any installed application since that would cripple it's load times. Just because a program was not used in a few weeks does not mean you want it to load as slow as possible when you do decide to use it. If you disable the NTFS last access date stamp then this option will delete the whole contents of the Prefetch folder after a few weeks, which will cripple Windows Boot and all application load times. The Prefetch folder is also ridiculously small so cleaning Prefetch files before the 128 limit will reclaim next to no disk space. This option clearly needs a warning to prevent people from unknowingly hurting their system performance. Anyone who claims this should be cleaned for ANY reason does not understand how Windows Prefetching works. - Source

Bad Advice - This bad advice to clean the prefetch folder is posted frequently on the Internet by people who do not understand how the Windows XP Prefetcher works. Their explanations are 100% inaccurate. - Bad Advice 1 - Bad Advice 2 - Bad Advice 3- Bad Advice 4

EnablePrefetcher

[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement\PrefetchParameters] "EnablePrefetcher"

Myth - "Setting any value higher then 3 to EnablePrefetcher will improve performance."

Reality - The Prefetcher component in Windows XP is part of the Memory Manager, and helps to shorten the amount of time it takes to start Windows and programs. This is a new feature in Windows XP which improves application load times and Windows boot times automatically. The slower your system and the larger an application, the more Prefetching helps. Even high end systems benefit from prefetching with large, slow loading applications, such as large games. By default Prefetching is enabled in Windows XP and already configured optimally. The following list describes the different possible values for the EnablePrefetcher registry key.

0 = Disabled
1 = Application launch prefetching enabled (Will cripple Window's boot times)
2 = Boot prefetching enabled (Will cripple all application load times)
3 = Applaunch and Boot enabled (Optimal and Default)

By default the Prefetcher is set to a value of 3 in Windows XP. Values such as 4, 5, 6 ect... do not exist and are thus useless. Leave this at the default value of 3 which is already optimal for maximum performance on both Windows XP Boot and initial application launches. - Source

Low Memory Systems - Recommendations to disable Prefetching on low memory systems (128 MB - 512 MB) is based on the fallacy that portions of application code are preloaded into memory before the application load is initiated during Windows startup. This is completely false and is spread by people who do not understand how Windows XP Prefetching works. The slower the system the more it will benefit from Prefetching. 64 MB systems will suffer due to insufficient RAM, reducing but not eliminating Window XP's prefetching benefits. 128 MB is the recommended minimum for optimal prefetching performance.

Boot Performance - Recommendations to set the EnablePrefetcher value to 2 to improve boot performance is based on the fallacy that portions of application code are preloaded into memory before the application load is initiated during Windows XP startup. This is completely false and is spread by people who do not understand how Windows XP Prefetching works. Only the files used during boot will be Prefetched. The Prefetch folder is not a cache. Windows XP will boot in the exact same amount of time with either value 2 or 3, the only difference with 2 is that now all of your initial application launches will not be Prefetched and thus load slower. The default value of 3 in no way negatively affects Windows XP boot times. Leave the value at 3 for optimal Windows XP boot and initial application launch times.

Enable Superfetch

[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement\PrefetchParameters] "EnableSuperfetch"

Myth - "Adding EnableSuperfetch to the registry improves performance in Windows XP as it does in Windows Vista."

Reality - "This myth was started when the Inquirer irresponsibly ran a bogus letter without doing any fact checking. Windows internals guru Mark Russinovich said this won't work, the "Superfetch" string isn't even in the Windows XP kernel. You can confirm this yourself by checking with the strings.exe utility. This makes it impossible for it to do anything since no "Superfetch" command exists. Windows cannot execute a nonexistent command and will simply ignore it. Anyone who says this works is not only lying but a fool." - Source

Conservative Swapfile

Myth - "Adding ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 to the System.ini file improves performance."

Reality - "The System.ini and Win.ini files are provided in Windows XP for backward compatibility with 16-bit applications. They have no effect on the Windows XP paging file settings which are stored in the Registry. This setting only effects Windows 95/98 operating systems. The default setting for ConservativeSwapfileUsage is 1 for Windows 95, and 0 (zero) for Windows 98. On Windows 98 systems you can set ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 under the [386Enh] heading of the System.ini file causing the system to behave as Windows 95 does, at some cost in overall system performance." - Source

Deleting Temp Files

Myth - "Deleting Temp Files improves performance."

Reality - Deleting temporary files does not improve application, gaming or system performance on NTFS volumes. All it does is increase your available disk space. This is because performance does not degrade under NTFS, as it does under FAT, with larger volume sizes. While AntiVirus, AntiSpyware and general disk scan/search times can be reduced, these are not what people associate with improved performance. Deleting the contents of your browser cache actually reduces performance for previously visited webpages since they must be reloaded into the cache. This does not mean you should not do this periodically for house cleaning reasons. Only that you should not expect improved performance from doing so.

NTFS - Maximum files per volume: 4,294,967,295
NTFS - Maximum files and subfolders within a single folder: 4,294,967,295
FAT32 - Maximum files per volume: 4,177,920
FAT32 - Maximum files and subfolders within a single folder: 65,534*

* The use of long file names can significantly reduce the number of available files and subfolders within a folder.

Notes - "With the NTFS file system, small folder records reside entirely within the MFT structure, while large folders are organized B-tree structures and have records with pointers to external clusters that contain folder entries that cannot be contained within the MFT structure. The benefit of using B-tree structures is evident when NTFS enumerates files in a large folder. The B-tree structure allows NTFS to group, or index, similar file names and then search only the group that contains the file, minimizing the number of disk accesses needed to find a particular file, especially for large folders. Because of the B-tree structure, NTFS outperforms FAT for large folders because FAT must scan all file names in a large folder before listing all of the files." - Source

Disable Dr. Watson

[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug]

Myth - "Disabling Dr. Watson improves performance since it is always running."

Reality - "If a program error occurs, Dr. Watson will start automatically but not before unless you manually start it. Which means disabling Dr. Watson has no effect on system performance. Dr. Watson (Drwtsn32.exe) for Windows is a program error debugger that gathers information about your computer when an error (or user-mode fault) occurs with a program. Technical support groups can use the information that Dr. Watson obtains and logs to diagnose a program error. When an error is detected, Dr. Watson creates a text file (Drwtsn32.log) that can be delivered to support personnel by the method they prefer. You also have the option of creating a crash dump file, which is a binary file that a programmer can load into a debugger. This is valuable information to help troubleshoot a system problem, thus it makes no sense to disable Dr. Watson." - Source - Source 2 - Source 3

Notes - Programs errors should be addressed and not ignored by making sure you are using the latest non-Beta version of the application that crashed and apply all patches that are available from the developer of the application. This can also be a warning sign something is wrong or misconfigured with your system. Use the Diagnose XP Guide to help troubleshoot the most common causes of system problems.

Clearing the Paging File

[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement] "ClearPageFileAtShutdown"

Myth - "Clearing the Paging File at Shutdown improves performance."

Reality - "Enabling this will clear the Window's paging file (Pagefile.sys) during the shutdown process, so that no unsecured data is contained in the paging file when the shutdown process is complete. If you enable this feature, the shutdown time will be increased. Some third-party programs can temporarily store unencrypted (plain-text) passwords or other sensitive information in memory. Because of the Windows virtual memory architecture, this information can be present in the paging file. Although clearing the paging file is not a suitable substitute for physical security of a computer, you might want to do this to increase the security of data on a computer while Windows is not running." - Source

Disable the Paging File

Myth - "Disabling the Paging File improves performance."

Reality - "You gain no performance improvement by turning off the Paging File. When certain applications start, they allocate a huge amount of memory (hundreds of megabytes typically set aside in virtual memory) even though they might not use it. If no paging file (pagefile.sys) is present, a memory-hogging application can quickly use a large chunk of RAM. Even worse, just a few such programs can bring a machine loaded with memory to a halt. Some applications (e.g., Adobe Photoshop) will display warnings on startup if no paging file is present." - Source

"In modern operating systems, including Windows, application programs and many system processes always reference memory using virtual memory addresses which are automatically translated to real (RAM) addresses by the hardware. Only core parts of the operating system kernel bypass this address translation and use real memory addresses directly. All processes (e.g. application executables) running under 32 bit Windows gets virtual memory addresses (a Virtual Address Space) going from 0 to 4,294,967,295 (2*32-1 = 4 GB), no matter how much RAM is actually installed on the computer. In the default Windows OS configuration, 2 GB of this virtual address space are designated for each process' private use and the other 2 GB are shared between all processes and the operating system. RAM is a limited resource, whereas virtual memory is, for most practical purposes, unlimited. There can be a large number of processes each with its own 2 GB of private virtual address space. When the memory in use by all the existing processes exceeds the amount of RAM available, the operating system will move pages (4 KB pieces) of one or more virtual address spaces to the computer's hard disk, thus freeing that RAM frame for other uses. In Windows systems, these "paged out" pages are stored in one or more files called pagefile.sys in the root of a partition. Virtual Memory is always in use, even when the memory required by all running processes does not exceed the amount of RAM installed on the system." - Source

Moving the Paging File

Myth - "Moving the Paging File to a different partition on the same drive improves performance."

Reality - "Moving the Paging File (pagefile.sys) to a different partition on the same physical hard disk drive does not improve performance. Simply using a different partition on the same drive will result in lots more head-seeking activity, as the drive jumps between the Windows and paging file partitions. Even though moving the paging file in this case can have the positive effect of defragmenting it, the loss in I/O performance out weighs any gains. It is better to simply defragment the paging file using PageDefrag and keep maximum I/O performance by leaving the paging file where it is with a single drive setup. - Source

Notes - However you can enhance performance by putting the paging file on a different partition and on a different physical hard disk drive. That way, Windows can handle multiple I/O requests more quickly. When the paging file is on the boot partition, Windows must perform disk reading and writing requests on both the system folder and the paging file. When the paging file is moved to a different partition and a different physical hard disk drive, there is less competition between reading and writing requests."

Paging File RAMdisk

Myth - "Putting the Paging File on a RAMdisk improves performance."

Reality - "Putting a Paging File in a RAM drive is a ridiculous idea in theory, and almost always a performance hit when tested under real-world workloads. You can't do this unless you have plenty of RAM and if you have plenty of RAM, you aren't hitting your paging file very often in the first place! Conversely, if you don't have plenty of RAM, dedicating some of it to a RAM drive will only increase your page fault rate. Now you might say "yeah, but those additional page faults will go faster than they otherwise would because they're satisfied in RAM." True, but it is still better to not incur them in the first place. And, you will also be increasing the page faults that have to be resolved to exe's and dll's, and the paging file in RAM won't do diddly to speed those up. But thanks to the paging file in RAM, you'll have more of them. Also: the system is ALREADY caching pages in memory. Pages lost from working sets are not written out to disk immediately (or at all if they weren't modified), and even after being written out to disk, are not assigned to another process immediately. They're kept on the modified and standby page lists, respectively. The memory access behavior of most apps being what it is, you tend to access the same sets of pages over time... so if you access a page you lost from your working set recently, odds are its contents are still in memory, on one of those lists. So you don't have to go to disk for it. Committing RAM to a RAMdisk and putting a paging file on it makes fewer pages available for those lists, making that mechanism much less effective. And even for those page faults resolved to the RAMdisk paging file, you are still having to go through the disk drivers. You don't have to for page faults resolved on the standby or modified lists. Putting a paging file on a RAMdisk is a self-evidently absurd idea in theory, and actual measurement proves it to be a terrible idea in practice. Forget about it." - Source - Source 2

Disable Certain Services

Myth - "Disabling these Services improves performance."

Reality - "Disabling these Services actually reduces performance."

DNS Client Service - "The overall performance of the client computer decreases and the network traffic for DNS queries increases if the DNS resolver cache is deactivated. This effectively reduces Internet Performance for sites you have previously visited and puts an unnecessary load on your ISP's DNS server." - Source

Task Scheduler Service - "Disabling the Task Scheduler completely cripples Windows XP's Boot and Application Load times by preventing Prefetch (.PF) trace files and the Layout.ini file from being created or updated." - Source

Notes - Disabling other unnecessary services in general has only one affect on performance and that is reduced Windows XP boot times. - Source

Disable Paging Executive

Low Memory Systems,

High Memory Systems

[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management] "DisablePagingExecutive"

Myth - "Setting DisablePagingExecutive to 1 improves performance by preventing the kernel from paging to disk."

Reality - "DisablePagingExecutive applies only to ntoskrnl.exe. It does not apply to win32k.sys (much larger than ntoskrnl.exe!), the pageable portions of other drivers, the paged pool and of course the file system cache. All of which live in kernel address space and are paged to disk. On low memory systems this can force application code to be needlessly paged and reduce performance. If you have more than enough RAM for your workload, yes, this won't hurt, but then again, if you have more than enough RAM for your workload, the system isn't paging very much of that stuff anyway. This setting is useful when debugging drivers and generally recommended for use only on servers running a limited well-known set of applications." - Source- Source 2 - Source 3

Disable System Restore

Myth - "Disabling System Restore improves performance."

Reality - "System Restore does not cause any noticeable performance impact when monitoring your computer. The creation of a Restore point also is a very fast process and usually takes only a few seconds. Scheduled System Checkpoints (every 24 hours by default) are created only at system idle time to avoid interfering with a computer during use." - Source

Disk Defragmenter

Myth - "The built-in Disk Defragmenter is good enough."

Reality - "This statement would be true if the built-in defragmenter was fast, automatic, and customizable. Unfortunately, the built-in defragmenter does not have any of these features. The built-in defragmenter takes many minutes to hours to run. It requires that you keep track of fragmentation levels, you determine when performance has gotten so bad you have to do something about it, and then you manually defragment each drive using the built-in defragmentation tool." - Source - Comparison Chart (PDF)

Disk Defragmenter Limitations - "The Disk Defragmenter tool in Windows 2000/XP is based on the full retail version of Diskeeper by Executive Software International, Inc. The version that is included with Microsoft Windows 2000 and later provides limited functionality in maintaining disk performance by defragmenting volumes that use the FAT, the FAT32, or the NTFS file system. The XP version has the following limitations." - Source

- It can defragment only local volumes.
- It can defragment only one volume at a time.
- It cannot defragment one volume while scanning another.
- It cannot be easily scheduled without scripts or third party utilities
- It can run only one Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in at a time.

Hiberfil.sys

Myth - "It is necessary to delete the Hiberfil.sys before defragmenting."

Reality - "The Hiberfil.sys is a file to which the system's physical memory is written during hibernation. On resuming from hibernation, the BIOS reads Hiberfil.sys to restore the state of the computer to its pre-hibernation state. Because the location of the Hibernate file is determined very early in the startup process, it cannot be moved. It can, however, be defragmented safely at startup using an enterprise-level defragmenter such as Diskeeper or the freeware utility PageDefrag." - Source

FAT32 vs. NTFS

Myth - "The FAT32 file system is faster/better than NTFS."

Reality - "NTFS provides performance, reliability, and advanced features not found in any version of FAT. NTFS features: Built-In Security, Recoverability, Alternate Streams, Custom File Attributes, Compression, Object Permissions, Economical Disk Space Usage using a more Efficient Cluster Size and Fault Tolerance. Windows XP comes with NTFS 3.1 which includes even more advanced features such as: Encryption, Disk Quotas, Sparse Files, Reparse Points, Volume Mount Points. None of which is available with FAT32." - Comparison Chart

Performance
"NTFS is built for speed with impressive disk I/O performance on large volumes (Over 400 MB). NTFS uses a binary tree structure for all disk directories, which reduces the number of times the system has to access the disk to locate files. This system is best for large directories, and NTFS easily outperforms FAT32 in these situations. In addition, NTFS automatically sorts files in a folder on the fly. NTFS gains an edge over FAT32 by using relatively small disk allocation units (cluster sizes) for NTFS volumes. Smaller clusters prevent wasted disk space on volumes, especially those with numerous small files. Because NTFS uses small clusters better and has a more efficient design, its performance doesn't degrade with large volumes, in contrast to FAT's." - Source - Source 2

"NTFS is generally believed to be slower than FAT. However, with a correctly created NTFS volume, NTFS performance optimizations, and improved disk defragmentation, NTFS performance (including the extra "journaling") is equivalent to FAT on small disks and is faster than FAT on large disks. FAT32 performance is further reduced for volumes larger than 32 GB in two areas:

- Boot time with FAT32 is increased because of the time required to read all of the FAT structure. This must be done to calculate the amount of free space when the volume is mounted.
- Read/write performance with FAT32 is affected because the file system must determine the free space on the disk through the small views of the massive FAT structure. This leads to inefficiencies in file allocation." - Source

Gaming Performance
"The numbers show...not much difference. In fact, the only test that doesn't show near-perfect parity is PCMark04, and the difference between the results on the two file systems is less than two percent. HDTach's read and access tests, which respectively measure how fast data can be read from the drive and how quickly the drive can locate data, were nearly identical. More importantly, the gaming tests showed nary a difference in all-important frame rates between the file systems and the cluster sizes. Based on the uniformity we experienced, we highly recommend that users of Windows XP take advantage of the NTFS file system. Its gaming prowess matches that of FAT32 and it boasts a healthy line-up of advantages over its opponent." - Source

Reliability
"NTFS is a reliable file system. When storing data to disk, NTFS records file I/O events to a special transaction log. If the system crashes or encounters an interruption, NTFS can use this log to restore the volume and prevent corruption from an abnormal program termination or system shutdown. NTFS doesn't commit an action to disk until it verifies the successful completion of the action. This precaution helps prevent corruption of an NTFS volume. NTFS also supports hot-fixing disk sectors, where the OS automatically blocks out bad disk sectors and relocates data from these sectors. This housecleaning happens in the background. An application attempting to read or write data on a hot-fixed area will never know the disk had a problem." - Source - Source 2

Converting FAT32 to NTFS

Myth - "Converting FAT32 volumes to NTFS instead of formatting them will reduce performance by forcing a 512 byte cluster size."

Reality - "Windows XP CONVERT creates the best possible cluster size according to the existing FAT format. On NTFS volumes, clusters start at sector zero; therefore, every cluster is aligned on the cluster boundary. For example, if the cluster size was 4K and the sector size was 512 bytes, clusters will always start at a sector number that is a multiple of 4096/512 for example, 8. However, FAT file system data clusters are located after the BIOS Parameter Blocks (BPB), reserved sectors, and two FAT structures. FAT formatting cannot guarantee that data clusters are aligned on a cluster boundary. In Windows 2000, CONVERT handled this problem by forcing an NTFS cluster size of 512 bytes, which resulted in reduced performance and increased disk fragmentation. In Windows XP, CONVERT chooses the best cluster size (4K is the ideal)." - Source

Notes - The FAT32 file system does not use a default cluster size smaller than 4 KB. The maximum NTFS default cluster size under Windows XP is 4 KB because NTFS file compression is not possible on drives with a larger allocation size. - Source

Free Idle Tasks

Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

Myth - "This will free up processing time from any idle tasks and allow it to be used by the foreground application."

Reality - "Idle tasks do not use up any resources unless the system is idle and not being used. The Task Scheduler service will check if the computer is in an idle state every 15 minutes. The computer is considered to be in an idle state if there is 0% CPU usage and 0% disk input or output for 90% of the past fifteen minutes and if there is no keyboard or mouse input during this period of time. The system cannot be running on battery power either. Any user input marks the end of the idle state. Windows schedules some maintenance tasks when the system is idle and running on AC power. Other third-party programs and services may be running during system idle time also. To optimize system performance and reliability, Windows XP is designed to automatically run system maintenance tasks during system idle time:

- The Disk Layout task (every 3 days)
- The System Restore task
- The Help Services and Data Collection task

The command Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks sole purpose is to allow benchmarks a simple way to force any pending idle tasks to be executed immediately, without having to wait a lengthy period of time. - Source- Source 2- Source 3

IO Page Lock Limit

[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement] "IoPageLockLimit"

Myth - "Increasing the IO Page Lock Limit will lock more memory for exclusive access by the kernel, improving performance."

Reality - "Indeed, it does do this but only in an RTM Windows 2000 machine. It does absolutely nothing in Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 and up, and absolutely nothing in Windows XP. This makes it effectively useless, since no one in their right minds would be running RTM Windows 2000. The RTM kernel references IoPageLockLimit. The SP1 kernel does not. Neither do any subsequent editions of the kernel; neither does the XP kernel in any of its incarnations." - Source

IRQ Priority

[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl] "IRQ8Priority"

Myth - "Adjusting the Priority of IRQs especially IRQ 8 improves system performance."

Reality - "IRQs don't even HAVE a concept of "priority" in the NT family; they do have something called "IRQL" (interrupt request level) associated with them. But the interval timer interrupt is already assigned a higher IRQL than any I/O devices, second only to the inter-processor interrupt used in an MP machine. The NT family of OSes don't even use the real-time clock (IRQ 8) for time keeping in the first place! They use programmable interval timer (8254, on IRQ 0) for driving system time keeping, CPU time accounting, and so on. IRQ 8 is used for profiling, but profiling is almost never turned on except in very rare development environments. Even if it was possible it doesn't even make sense why adjusting the real-time clock priority would boost performance? The real-time clock is associated with time keeping not CPU frequency. I would not be surprised if this originated in an overclocking forum somewhere. This "tweak" can be found in most XP all-in-one tweaking applications. This is a perfect example of why they are not recommended." - Source

Launch folder windows in a separate process

Myth - "Enabling Launch folder windows in a separate process improves performance."

Reality - "Use this setting if your computer frequently crashes, and you are trying to minimize problems or troubleshoot. Be aware, however, this process uses more memory and that doing this could slow down the performance of your computer." - Source

Notes - Windows XP is a very stable operating system and should never Lock-up (freeze), display Blue Screen Stop Errors or Randomly Reboot. These are all warning signs something is wrong or misconfigured with your system. Use the Diagnose XP Guide to help troubleshoot the most common causes of system problems.

Large System Cache

[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement] "LargeSystemCache"

Myth - "Enabling LargeSystemCache improves desktop/workstation performance."

Reality - "LargeSystemCache determines whether the system maintains a standard size or a large size file system cache, and influences how often the system writes changed pages to disk. Increasing the size of the file system cache generally improves file server performance, but it reduces the physical memory space available to applications and services. Similarly, writing system data less frequently minimizes use of the disk subsystem, but the changed pages occupy memory that might otherwise be used by applications. On workstations this increases paging and causes longer delays whenever you start a new app. Simply put enable this on a file server and disable it on everything else." - Source

"System cache mode is designed for use with Windows server products that act as servers. System cache mode is also designed for limited use with Windows XP, when you use Windows XP as a file server. This mode is not designed for everyday desktop use. When you enable System cache mode on a computer that uses Unified Memory Architecture (UMA)-based video hardware or an Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP), you may experience a severe and random decrease in performance. For example, this decrease in performance can include very slow system performance, stop errors, an inability to start the computer, devices or applications that do not load, and system instability. The drivers for these components consume a large part of the remaining application memory when they are initialized during startup. Also, in this scenario, the system may have insufficient RAM when the following conditions occur:

- Other drivers and desktop user services request additional resources.
- Desktop users transfer large files.

By default LargeSystemCache is disabled in Microsoft Windows XP." - Source

L2 Cache

(SecondLevelDataCache)

[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement] "SecondLevelDataCache"

Myth - "Adjusting the SecondLevelDataCache Registry value to match your CPU's L2 Cache size improves performance."

Reality - "SecondLevelDataCache records the size of the processor cache, also known as the secondary or L2 cache. If the value of this entry is 0, the system attempts to retrieve the L2 cache size from the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for the platform. If it fails, it uses a default L2 cache size of 256 KB. If the value of this entry is not 0, it uses this value as the L2 cache size. This entry is designed as a secondary source of cache size information for computers on which the HAL cannot detect the L2 cache. This is not related to the hardware; it is only useful for computers with direct-mapped L2 caches. Pentium II and later processors do not have direct- mapped L2 caches. SecondLevelDataCache can increase performance by approximately 2 percent in certain cases for older computers with ample memory (more than 64 MB) by scattering physical pages better in the address space so there are not so many L2 cache collisions. Setting SecondLevelDataCache to 256 KB rather than 2 MB (when the computer has a 2 MB L2 cache) would probably have about a 0.4% performance penalty." - Source - Source 2

NTFS is Fragmentation Free

Myth - "The NTFS File system does not get fragmented and Defragmenters are unnecessary."

Reality - "Even though NTFS is more resistant to fragmentation than FAT, it can and does still fragment. The reason NTFS is less prone to fragmentation is that it makes intelligent choices about where to store file data on the disk. NTFS reserves space for the expansion of the Master File Table, reducing fragmentation of its structures. In contrast to FAT's first-come, first-served method, NTFS's method of writing files minimizes, but does not eliminate, the problem of file fragmentation on NTFS volumes." - Source

QoS

Myth - "Disabling QoS will free up the 20% bandwidth reserved by QoS."

Reality - "There have been claims in various published technical articles and newsgroup postings that Windows XP always reserves 20 percent of the available bandwidth for QoS. These claims are incorrect. As in Windows 2000, programs can take advantage of QoS through the QoS APIs in Windows XP. 100% of the network bandwidth is available to be shared by all programs unless a program specifically requests priority bandwidth. This "reserved" bandwidth is still available to other programs unless the requesting program is sending data. By default, programs can reserve up to an aggregate bandwidth of 20% of the underlying link speed on each interface on an end computer. If the program that reserved the bandwidth is not sending sufficient data to use it, the unused part of the reserved bandwidth is available for other data flows on the same host."
- Microsoft Knowledge Base - Source

RAM Optimizers/Defragmenters

Myth - "Increasing the amount of available RAM using RAM Optimizers/Defragmenters improves performance."

Reality - "RAM Optimizers have no effect, and at worst, they seriously degrade performance. Although gaining more available memory might seem beneficial, it isn't. As RAM Optimizers force the available-memory counter up, they force other processes' data and code out of memory. Say that you're running Word, for example. As the optimizer forces the available-memory counter up, the text of open documents and the program code that was part of Word's working set before the optimization (and was therefore present in physical memory) must be reread from disk as you continue to edit your document. The act of allocating, then freeing a large amount of virtual memory might, as a conceivable side effect, lead to blocks of contiguous available memory. However, because virtual memory masks the layout of physical memory from processes, processes can't directly benefit from having virtual memory backed by contiguous physical memory. As processes execute and undergo working-set trimming and growth, their virtual-memory-to-physical-memory mappings will become fragmented despite the availability of contiguous memory."
- Mark Russinovich, Ph.D. Computer Engineering, Microsoft Technical Fellow- Source - Source 2

Clearmem

Myth - "Running Clearmem improves performance by freeing up memory."

Reality - "Microsoft's Clearmem, the memory-consuming test tool, is a simulation tool that lets developers measure the minimum working set for a process and to help system administrators isolate cache bottlenecks on servers. Clearmem was originally found on the Windows NT Resource Kit 4.0 CD and can now be found on the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit. It allocates and references all available memory, consuming any inactive pages in the working sets of all processes (including the cache) and effectively clears the cache of all file data. As Clearmem increases its working set the working sets of all other processes are trimmed until they contain only pages currently being used and those most recently accessed. This reduces the performance of all running applications every time you run this by reducing their amount of available memory, forcing them to needlessly page and causing any cached file data to have to be reread from disk." - Source - Source 2

RegClean

Myth - "It is safe to use Microsoft's RegClean."

Reality - "The RegClean utility is no longer supported by Microsoft and has been removed from all Microsoft download sites. This was done for legitimate compatibility reasons with certain applications and Operating Systems. The RegClean utility was originally supplied with Microsoft Visual Basic version 4.0 for Windows. The last version of RegClean was 4.1a (build 7364.1) released on March 13, 1998 (RegClean.exe is dated December 30, 1997). During this time the latest Operating Systems were Windows 95 OSR2.1 and Windows NT 4.0. Windows 98 was not released until June 25, 1998. Compatibility with any Operating System besides Windows 95 and NT 4.0 was never substantiated, especially Windows XP. It is very dangerous to run a Registry Cleaner that was never certified to run on your Operating System since removing the wrong Registry Keys can break Applications and the Operating System. RegClean breaks functionality in the following Applications:

- Microsoft Access 2002 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Developer Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Premium Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Small Business Edition
- Microsoft Office 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Office Access 2003
- Microsoft Office Access 2007
- Microsoft Office Basic 2007
- Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007
- Microsoft Office Excel 2003
- Microsoft Office Excel 2007
- Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
- Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
- Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007
- Microsoft Office OneNote 2007
- Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
- Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
- Microsoft Office Professional 2007
- Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007
- Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007
- Microsoft Office Project Standard 2007
- Microsoft Office Publisher 2003
- Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
- Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007
- Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Standard 2007
- Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003
- Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007
- Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007
- Microsoft Office Visio Standard 2007
- Microsoft Office Word 2003
- Microsoft Office Word 2007
- Microsoft Office XP (Setup)
- Microsoft Outlook 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Visual InterDev 6.0 Standard Edition - Microsoft Knowledge Base- Source
- Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Windows Media Player - Microsoft Knowledge Base - Source- Source 2

"This issue occurs for any Microsoft Windows Installer product on which the program's installation state is set to Installed on First Use."
- Microsoft Knowledge Base - Source

Registry Cleaners

Myth - "Registry Cleaners improve performance."

Reality - "A few hundred kilobytes of unused keys and values causes no noticeable performance impact on system operation. Even if the registry was massively bloated there would be little impact on the performance of anything other than exhaustive searches."
- Mark Russinovich, Ph.D. Computer Engineering, Microsoft Technical Fellow- Source

Notes - "Registry Cleaners can fix problems associated with traces of applications left behind due to incomplete uninstalls. So it seems that Registry junk is a Windows fact of life and that Registry cleaners will continue to have a place in the anal-sysadmin's tool chest, at least until we're all running .NET applications that store their per-user settings in XML files - and then of course we'll need XML cleaners."
- Mark Russinovich, Ph.D. Computer Engineering, Microsoft Technical Fellow- Source

Set CPU Priority (Priority Tweak)

[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl] "Win32PrioritySeparation"

Myth - "Setting this value to 26 gives a boost to the priority of foreground applications."

Reality - "This is one of the most useless tweaks since this is already the default and optimal setting in Windows XP. Thus you are changing nothing. The GUI control for this is built-in to Windows. Go to the Control Panel, System Icon, Advanced Tab, Performance - click Settings, Advanced Tab, Processor Scheduling - Programs is the default setting. Choosing the Programs option (26 Hexadecimal) will result in a smoother, faster response time for your foreground program (default and optimal). If you want a background task, such as a Backup utility, to run faster, choose the Background services option (18 Hexadecimal)." - Source

Myth - "Setting this value to 38 gives a boost to the priority of foreground applications."

Reality - "People are confusing the Hexadecimal and Decimal value settings of this Registry Key. By Default Windows XP already sets this value optimally to 26 Hexadecimal = 0x00000026 which is automatically translated to 38 Decimal = (38). This is shown as 0x00000026 (38) in this registry key. The Windows XP Registry Editor defaults to changing the Hexadecimal Value when you go to modify a Registry Key. The problems is it is commonly recommended to change this value to "38" with no mention of this being the Decimal value and instead the Hexadecimal Value is changed because it is the default. This makes the key show 0x00000038 (56). This is not one of this key's functional values and setting a bit field in Win32PrioritySeparation to values other than those shown in the table will result in the default option being selected (26 Hexadecimal). Thus this does absolutely nothing." - Source

Functional Values:
0x28 (0x29, 0x2A)
0x18 (0x19, 0x1A)
0x24 (0x14)
0x25
0x26 (Default and Optimal)
0x15
0x16

^ TOP

Security Myths

Cookies

Myth - "Cookies are Spyware."

Reality - "Cookies are not Spyware. It's grossly irresponsible for these Anti-Spyware companies to treat cookies like Spyware. REAL Spyware is malicious, machine-hijacking junk that throw pop-ups on your computer, resets your start page, and all sorts of other ugly tricks. A cookie is a text file that has some non-personal information what banner ads have shown on certain sites. That's it. Go ahead and open the cookie on your computer and you'll see it's harmless. Cookies are not Spyware, no matter how hard these Anti-Spyware companies try to make them out to be." - Source - Source 2 - Source 3

Notes - "Certain Cookies can still pose some privacy concerns and if you wish to remove them it will do no harm. The point is when you find many of these after running a standard Anti-Spyware scan you should not get excited that you are infected with malicious Spyware. You don't need anti-spyware software to get rid of these cookies, simply use these steps."

Limited User Accounts

Myth - "Limited User Accounts are a Realistic Security Solution."

Reality - "On a nonmanaged XP machine today, it isn't realistic to run without Administrator privileges. Unlike UNIX and UNIX-like systems such as Linux and Apple Computer's Mac OS X, Windows isn't very useable with a non-Administrator account, largely because so many applications are ignorant of rights and were written to work only with Administrator-level accounts. This is particularly problematic in a home environment, in which XP Home Edition's crippled Limited Account type, designed for children and less-technical users, is virtually useless. In Windows XP, the lame Run As option, virtually hidden under a right-click menu that typical users will never know about, is a poor substitute." - Source

"After you log on to a computer by using a Limited User Account, you may observe one or more of the following behaviors when you try to use a program that is not expressly designed for Windows XP.

- The program does not run.
- The program stops responding (hangs).
- You receive notification of run-time error 7 or run-time error 3446.
- The program does not recognize that a CD-ROM is in the CD-ROM drive.
- The program does not allow you to save files.
- The program does not allow you to open files.
- The program does not allow you to edit files.
- The program displays a blank error message.
- You cannot remove the program.
- You cannot open the Help file.

This behavior can occur because the Limited User Account prevents older programs from performing certain functions. Microsoft lists over 189 applications in this article alone that do not work right on a Limited User Account." - Source

Power User Accounts

Myth - "Power User Accounts are a Good Compromise Security Solution."

Reality - "Power User accounts allow the installation of software, including ActiveX controls and can easily be elevated to fully-privileged administrators. The lesson is that as an IT administrator you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking that the Power Users group is a secure compromise on the way to running as limited user."
- Mark Russinovich, Ph.D. Computer Engineering, Microsoft Technical Fellow- Source

Hosts File

Myth - "Special AntiSpyware Hosts Files are necessary to prevent Spyware infections."

Reality - "Using Special AntiSpyware Hosts Files are a waste of time and leads to a false sense of security. Any Malware/Spyware can easily modify the Hosts File at will, even if it is set to Read-only. It is impossible to "lock-down" a Hosts File unless you are running as a limited user which makes using it in this case irrelevant anyway. Various Malware/Spyware uses the Hosts File to redirect your Web Browser to other sites. They can also redirect Windows to use a Hosts File that has nothing to do with the one you keep updating. The Hosts file is an archaic part of networking setups that was originally meant to be used on a LAN and was the legacy way to look up Domain Names on the ARPANET. It tells a PC the fixed numeric address of the internal server(s) so the PC doesn't have to go looking for them through all possible addresses. It can save time when "discovering" a LAN. I don't consider 1970's ARPANET technology useful against modern Malware/Spyware. When cleaning Malware/Spyware from a PC, it is much easier to check a clean Hosts File then one filled with thousands of lines of addresses. Considering how easily a Hosts File can be exploited, redirected and potentially block good sites, it is strongly recommended NOT to waste time using Special Hosts Files. Especially when proper Malware/Spyware protection can be achieved by simply using these steps, all without ever using a Hosts File."

127.0.0.1
"Special AntiSpyware Hosts Files attempt to associate a known safe, numeric address (127.0.0.1) with the names of sites or IP addresses you want to block. When the user or any process on the PC then tries to access a blocked site, it is instead directed to the safe location. It is simply impossible to update a Hosts file frequently enough since it is cheap and easy to purchase new domain names and move to new IP addresses. You also run into problems in accidentally blocking good sites since many sites share the same IP addresses with other sites using Shared IP Hosting. Also once a malicious site is shutdown, that IP Address then becomes free and can easily be acquired by another non-malicious site."

Large Hosts Files
"Large Hosts Files cause Internet related slowdowns due to DNS Client Server Caching. This negatively effects your browsing speed. AntiSpyware Hosts File authors irresponsibly recommend disabling the DNS Client Service to solve this problem. This is not a solution. The overall performance of the client computer decreases and the network traffic for DNS queries increases if the DNS resolver cache is deactivated. This effectively reduces Internet Performance for sites you have previously visited and puts an unnecessary load on your ISP's DNS server." - Source

Notes - There is a much better solution for bad site blocking using SpywareBlasterwhich more intelligently use's Internet Explorer's built-in Zone Security settings and the registry. Mozilla/Firefox protection is also provided.

Notes - "IE has never implemented a specific DNS Pinning feature." - David Ross, Microsoft Security Engineer - Source

Spyware, Malware and Virus Security

Myth - "It is impossible or difficult to secure Windows XP from Spyware, Malware or Viruses."

Reality - "It is very easy to secure Windows XP, simply use Secure XP - A Windows XP Security Guide. To put it bluntly I simply do not get infected with anything. Keep in mind nothing can fully protect you from something you manually install." - Source

Really Hidden Files

Myth - "There are Really Hidden Files in Windows XP that are impossible to see."

Reality - "Any file can be seen in Windows XP once you change from the default view settings. Go to the Control Panel, Appearance and Themes, Folder Options, select Show hidden files and folders and uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended). Protected operating system files also known as Super Hidden Files are by default hidden from view. They are critical system files that if deleted can cause various system problems." - Source - Source 2 - Source 3

Notes - It is possible to get infected by malicious programs known as "Rootkits" which can truly hide themselves from being viewed in Windows Explorer. These malicious programs can be detected using special scanners such as RootkitRevealer.

Virus Hoaxes

Myth - "All Email Virus warnings are real."

Reality - "With the increase in the growth of viruses and Trojan programs, many computer users have turned to the Internet as a fast and easy tool to warn friends and co-workers of these threats. At the same time, there has also been a growth of virus hoax warnings. These warnings often describe fantastical or impossible virus or Trojan program characteristics, but appear to be real and forwarding these hoax warnings to friends and co-workers only perpetuates the problem. If you receive an Email that you suspect is a hoax, do not forward it to anyone and never open the attachments. Check in the Vmyths Hoax Database to confirm it is a hoax and delete the Email. If the Email originated from someone you know, send them an Email explaining the hoax." - Source

Vulnerabilities

Myth - "The Windows Platform has more Security Vulnerabilities than the Linux/Unix Platform."

Reality - "Between January 2005 and December 2005 there were 5198 reported vulnerabilities: 812 Windows operating system vulnerabilities; 2328Unix/Linux operating vulnerabilities; and 2058 Multiple operating system vulnerabilities" - Source

Notes - Software vulnerabilities are categorized in the appropriate section reflecting the operating system on which the vulnerability was reported; however, this does not mean that the vulnerability only affects the operating system reported since this information is obtained from open-source information.

Reality - "The Linux Kernel v2.6.x has had 231Vulnerabilities compared to 213 Vulnerabilities for Windows XP." - Source

XP Firewall

Myth - "The Windows XP Firewall is not good enough because it lacks outbound filtering."

Reality - "I believe there are a lot of incorrect assumptions and outright myths about outbound filtering. I really like the Firewall in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). It is lightweight, centrally manageable, does the job well, is unobtrusive, and does something very critical: it protects the system at boot. That last one is crucial; we have seen many systems in the past get infected during boot even with a firewall turned on. Any outbound host-based firewall filtering in Windows XP is really just meaningless as a security feature in my opinion. True, it stops some malware, today, but only because current malware has not been written to circumvent it. There simply are not enough environments that implement outbound rules for the mass market malware authors to need to worry about it. In an interactive attack the attacker can circumvent outbound filters at will. To see how, consider this. Circumventing outbound host-based firewall filters can be accomplished in several ways, depending on the scenario of the actual attack. First, the vast majority of Windows XP users run as administrators, and any malware running as an administrator can disable the firewall entirely. Of course, even if the outbound filter requires interaction from the user to open a port, the malware can cause the user to be presented with a sufficiently enticing and comprehensible dialog, that explains that without clicking "Yes" they will not ever get to see the "dancing pigs". See, the problem is that when the user is running as an administrator, or the evil code runs as an administrator, there is a very good chance that either the user or the code will simply disable the protection. Of course, the user does not really see that dialog, because it is utterly meaningless to users. That is problem number one with outbound filtering. Given the choice between security and sufficiently enticing rewards, like "dancing pigs", the "dancing pigs" will win every time. If the malware can either directly or indirectly turn off the protection, it will do so. The second problem is that even if the user, for some inexplicable reason clicked "No. Bug me again" or if the evil code is running in using a low-privileged account, such as Network Service, the malware can easily step right around the firewall other ways. As long as the account the code is running as can open outbound connections on any port the evil code can simply use that port. Ah, but outbound Firewalls can limit outbound traffic on a particular port to specific process. Not a problem, we just piggy back on an existing process that is allowed. Only if the recipient of the traffic filters based on both source and destination port, and extremely few services do that, is this technique for bypassing the firewall meaningful. The key problem is that most people think outbound host-based firewall filtering will keep a compromised asset from attacking other assets. This is impossible. Putting protective measures on a compromised asset and asking it not to compromise any other assets simply does not work. Protection belongs on the asset you are trying to protect, not the one you are trying to protect against! Asking the bad guys not to steal stuff after they have already broken into your house is unlikely to be nearly as effective as keeping them from breaking into the house in the first place." - Source - Source 2

^ TOP

"Secret" Myths

There are various myths people incorrectly think are hidden Secrets, Easter eggs or bugs in Windows XP.

'CON' Folder

Myth - "Not being able to name a file or folder 'CON' is a bug or a secret"

Reality - "Several special file names are reserved by the system and cannot be used for files or folders: CON, AUX, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, PRN, NUL. This goes back to DOS 1.0 which didn't support subdirectories, lowercase, or filenames longer than 8.3. 'CON' is a reserved word from the old DOS days, simply meaning 'console'. If you wanted to create a new text file in DOS you could type 'copy con newfile.txt' meaning copy from the console to newfile.txt. This would let you type some lines and when you ended the file you would have a file called newfile.txt containing whatever you wrote in the console. Since they are still relied on with things like batch files (redirect to >NUL) they are still reserved today." - Source - Source 2

Notes - This has nothing to do with the patched "DOS Device in Path Name" Vulnerability of Windows 95/98.

Notepad Phrases

Myth - "There are Secret phrases like "bush hid the facts" you can type into Notepad"

Reality - "Notepad makes a best guess of which encoding to use when confronted with certain short strings of characters that lack special prefixes. The encodings that do not have special prefixes and which are still supported by Notepad are the traditional ANSI encoding (i.e., "plain ASCII") and the Unicode (little-endian) encoding with no BOM. When faced with a file that lacks a special prefix, Notepad is forced to guess which of those two encodings the file actually uses. The function that does this work is IsTextUnicode, which studies a chunk of bytes and does some statistical analysis to come up with a guess. Sometimes it guesses wrong and displays random characters after you save and open the file. Any combination of characters in the same order 4-3-3-5 will cause the same problem: "Bill lie and cheat" "this app can break", "hhhh hhh hhh hhhhh", "this isa bug dummy" ect..." - Source - Source 2

Telnet Star Wars

Myth - "There is a hidden ASCII version of Star Wars in Windows"

Reality - "No hidden version of Star Wars exists in Windows. This version is accessed over the Internet using a program called Telnet. Telnet is a simple, text-based program that allows you to connect to another computer by using the Internet. While Telnet is included in Windows, the ASCII (text-based) version of Star Wars is not. Simply disconnecting or powering down your modem will prevent you from watching it. This is no different from watching a video file over the Internet but instead of using a web browser you are using the Telnet program. These text-based animations can be viewed online at ASCIIMATION.co.nz" - Source - Source 2

^ TOP

Pages

Saturday, 21 April 2012

Compatibility Mode Make older programs run in Windows XP raaz

Special Options

Choosing a File System

Disk Partitions

How to recover a lost xp password

If you can login with another user account

More advanced password recovery

Is your boot sequence right ?

Creating the boot disk

Time to fix that lost xp password

Parental controls in Windows XP

Content Advisor in Internet Explorer

Windows Media Player

Instant messaging

Performance tips for Windows XP

1. Optimize your paging file

2. Optimize display settings

3. Indexing service

4. Use the NTFS file system

Windows XP shutdown

A Windows XP shutdown icon on your desktop

An icon to stop the shutdown mechanism

An icon to restart your computer fast

An icon to switch user fast

Experiment

Windows XP slow shutdown

Your computer reboots rather than shutting down

Hardware device drivers

Windows XP shutdown automatically : it took some time to figure THIS one out.

Win XP Won?t Completely Shutdown

Adjust various visual effects

Disable error reporting

Remove shortcut arrow from desktop icons

Remove Shared Documents

Change the text in Internet Explorers title bar to anything you want

Easy sendto menu modification

Enable Clear Type

Turn of CD Auto Play

Getting MP3 ripping to work in Windows Media Player 8 in XP

Increase BROADBAND

Increase your cable modem or DSL speed in XP

Use a Shortcut to Local Area Network Connection Information

Change the Start Menu Style

Add a Map Drive Button to the Toolbar

Do Not Highlight Newly Installed Programs

Speed up the Start Menu

Use the Windows Classic Look

Add Familiar Icons back to your desktop

Unlock Toolbars to Customize Them

Display Your Quick Launch Toolbar

Keep Your Favorite Programs Near the Top of the Start Menu

Use the Address Bar to Launch Programs or Web Pages

Stop Password Expiration

Safely Remove Hardware Icon?

Multiuser features

Missing Administrator account

Show yourself

Hide yourself

Not A Tweak, But A Double XP Surprise!

Fast Boot /Fast Resume Design

Display Hibernate Option on the Shut Down dialog

Speed up the Start Menu

Automatically defrag drives with a new context menu item

Display the Sharing Tab in Folder Properties

My Computer Won't Shut Down Itself After Installing XP

Create a Password Reset Disk

How to Create a Password Reset Disk for computers that are part of a domain

Disable Automatic Windows Update

Try automatic camera recognition in windows xp

HOW TO: Use Automatic Completion with a Command Prompt in Windows XP

Easy CD Creator 5.0 Does Not Function In Windows XP

Damaged Registry Repair and Recovery in Windows XP

Easy CD Creator 5.0 Does Not Function In Windows XP

Stored User Names and Passwords Feature Interoperability at a Command Prompt

Reliability Myths

Optimization Myths

Security Myths

"Secret" Myths