XP Handy Tips

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been having similar problems ,will give a try,thanks.
 
Ok seeing as we are swapping handy tools. Heres a list of mine:
  • MD5 for Win32 v1.0 - used to quickly check md5 hashes of files
  • TransBar - makes your Windows taskbar transparent
  • PowerMenu - adds the ability to minimize any windows to the system tray, too much stuff to talk about, see homepage
  • T-Clock 3 - Customize the Windows clock, so that it is more informative, aswell as changing text etc etc
  • BBIE10 - used to extract boot images from various bootable media
  • CDIMAGE - used to create bootable images
  • TweakUI - Microsoft made tweaking utlity
  • Wget - command line download manager, with loads of functions. Plenty of different complies out there for Win32, but I prefer this one
 
Perhaps we should have a handy tool tips sticky!

And just like magic.......its now a sticky.:D Will also keep my eye on this as it could get a little bit crazy with people posting every freeware available for xp. So for starters this will be tweaks and updates that you run in order to tweak xp only. You can still point to software if that allows the tweaks. ;)



One of mine: Click Start, Run and type in regsvr32 /u wmpshell.dll removes media player from the right click option ;)
 
One of mine: Click Start, Run and type in regsvr32 /u wmpshell.dll removes media player from the right click option ;)
This also works in Vista. However, regsvr32 /u wmpshell.dll also removes the ability to double click on media files and have them auto open in WMP.

Another tip:

Copy the contents of the code box below and paste it into notepad, then save it as tweaks.reg, double click to add the entries to the registry. Just incase you are wondering what each entry does, I've added descriptions.

This tweak works on both XP and Vista.

Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
;This will add the entry 'Copy To Folder' to your right click context menu
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Copy To]
@="{C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}"
 
;This will add the entry 'Move To Folder' to your right click context menu
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Move To]
@="{C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}"
 
And just like magic.......its now a sticky.:D Will also keep my eye on this as it could get a little bit crazy with people posting every freeware available for xp. So for starters this will be tweaks and updates that you run in order to tweak xp only. You can still point to software if that allows the tweaks. ;)



One of mine: Click Start, Run and type in regsvr32 /u wmpshell.dll removes media player from the right click option ;)

Excellent!


Just an idea to help keep the sticky manageable and relevant, why not have a sticky which is closed but a thread in which the tips/tweaks are posted and refer the thread URL in the sticky and a request to a mod to consider it for inclusion?

As I said, just a thought!
 
One feature that I showed SWMBO and for which she now cannot live without, is the Hibernate mode.

You need enough free space on your boot up drive to activate this, but if you can it is a must have if you haven't used it before.

To set up, CONTROL PANEL; POWER OPTIONS; HIBERNATE [enable].

Then ADVANCED; and choose HIBERNATE when pressing the sleep key (assuming you have one, otherwise use the Power Button).

This is a big boon if like SWMBO you have many applications and files open to carry out your work, and you'd like to be returned to the exact same state as when turning off the PC altogether (rather than standby which still has the computer whirring away). Hibernating does this. It also means that boot up and login are quicker as all the usual systme background tasks are also restored to the same state.
 
;This will add the entry 'Copy To Folder' to your right click context menu

;This will add the entry 'Move To Folder' to your right click context menu

Reminds me that one of the big issue I have with speed (and I've improved it no end but not completely solved it) is the fact that right click can produce so many entries with installed programs: Winzip, WinRar, AVG, plus a whole host of others.

This free utility I've used to examine and disable context menu items that were just not needed. Keeps things nice and tidy.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html

Have fun!
 
Reminds me that one of the big issue I have with speed (and I've improved it no end but not completely solved it) is the fact that right click can produce so many entries with installed programs: Winzip, WinRar, AVG, plus a whole host of others.

This free utility I've used to examine and disable context menu items that were just not needed. Keeps things nice and tidy.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html

Have fun!
Damn you beat me to it, I was just about to post that program.
 
Nice program lads but Q...

I love winrar but the context menu additions! I want to keep
"Add to archive"
"Add to filename.rar"
in the menu but get rid of the other 2

"Compress and email"
"Compress to filename.rar and email"

I can't seem to only delete the last two with the program? All or nothing? :confused: Thanks
 
Nice program lads but Q...

I love winrar but the context menu additions! I want to keep
"Add to archive"
"Add to filename.rar"
in the menu but get rid of the other 2

"Compress and email"
"Compress to filename.rar and email"

I can't seem to only delete the last two with the program? All or nothing? :confused: Thanks
Mate you can do that in winrar...

Start > Run > Winrar

Then options > settings.

Select the integration tab, then click on the button that says "Context Menu Items".

Check what you want, and deselect what you don't.

Simple as ;)
 

What is XP Anti-Spy:
The xp-AntiSpy is a little utility that lets you disable some built-in update and authentication 'features' in WindowsXP.
For example, there's a service running in the background which is called 'Automatic Updates'. I don't know what this service transfers from my machine to other machines on the internet, especially the MS ones. So I play it safe and disable such functions. If you like, you can even disable these functions manually, by going through the System and checking or unchecking some checkboxes. This will take you approximately half an hour. But why wast time when a little neat utility can do the same in 1 minute? This utility was successfully tested by lots of users, and was found to disable all the known 'Suspicious' Functions in WindowsXP. It's customiseable, but comes up with the Default settings, which are recommended. This utility is DONATIONWARE! This means, you don't have to pay anything for this program and you can give it to anyone who's interested in it, as long as you don't sell it. If you find this tool useful, and wanna gimme something back, think about donating a small amount of money.

Description of the Automatic Updates service:
Enables the download and installation of Windows updates. If this service is disabled, this computer will not be able to use the Automatic Updates feature or the Windows Update Web site.

Yeah stay away from XP Anti Spy.
 
So? Just re-enable it, when you're aware of updates. You don't need those services if it's not connected to the net.
 
I've never had automatic updates services enabled ever

But Microsoft serving a cease and desist on Autopatcher looks to have put paid to that :mad:
 
When you install WMP11, you'll find that it opens in 'Library' tab by default. To make it open in 'Now Playing' tab by default, add the following to the target path:
Code:
[SIZE=3]/task:nowplaying[/SIZE]
So your complete target path should look like this:
Code:
[SIZE="3"]"C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" /task:nowplaying[/SIZE]
 
I came across this tip today and so far it appears to be working quite well, so I thought I'd share it.

Firefox, Internet Explorer and the main system use temp directories for caching files and other information.

Qsoft's free Ramdisk allows a 64MB ramdisk to be created on XP which can be used by the aforementioned proggies instead of harddisk. This has three benefits IMO, (1) speed of system improves through faster access, (2) less disk thrashing and (3) being volatile memory all temp files are erased on shutdown.

Move Firefox's cache according to these instructions
Also as the free ram disk is max 64Mb, changing the size of the cache directory to say 16MB is a good idea.

Internet Explorer's cache location can be changed also. Also set the max cache to say 16Mb as well, leaving smae for the next set of temp folders.

Then change the system environment variable for %TEMP% and %TMP%.

A reboot may be necessary along the way, but I think it's worth the effort.
 
Somehow I managed to delete the "Show Desktop" quick command from the Quick Launch (on the WindowsTaskbar).

Heres how you restore it:

1) Go to C:\Documents and Settings\YOURUSERNAME\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
2) Create a new text document
3) Paste the following into it:
Code:
[SIZE="3"][Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop[/SIZE]
4) Save it as Show Desktop.scf NOT Show Desktop.scf.txt
 
Not so much an XP tip, but a MS Word tip......

When pasting into Word I often use the Paste Special, Unformatted option. To do this in standard Word you click on the Edit menu, then Paste Special option. Wouldn't it be more useful to have the Paste Special option on the right click menu options? I think so!

2102579601_dc67241493.jpg


You have to do this a couple of times if you want the option to be on say just the plain "TEXT" or a "Heading" text in the word doc.
Here's how to do it:

Adding the Paste Special option to context menus

You can add Paste Special to the context menus in Word.

1. Open normal.dot in Word.
2. Click View > Toolbars > Customize. The Customize window opens.
3. On the Toolbars tab, check Shortcut Menus. The Shortcut Menus toolbar displays.
4. To make working with the context menu editor easier, position the Shortcut Menus toolbar at one side of your screen and the Customize window at the other. Figure 1 illustrates why this layout is recommended.
5. In the Customize window, click Commands.
6. Select the Edit category in the left pane and scroll through the list of commands in the right pane until you find Paste Special.
7. On the Shortcut Menus toolbar, click Text. A list of context menus will display. When you select a context menu name, you will see the context menu that is defined for that context.
8. To add Paste Special to a context menu, drag it from the Customize window to the context menu you want to add it to and drop it there.

Example

To add Paste Special to the context menu that displays when you right-click in a heading paragraph, expand the Headings context menu and drag Paste Special into the sample menu.

For the most consistent behavior, add Paste Special to every menu that has the Paste command. Review the Table and Draw context menus as well as the Text menus.
9. Add Paste Special to each context menu that you want it available from.
10. When you are finished, click Close in the Customize window to return to the document.
11. Save normal.dot.
 
Since updating my windows xp, I find now that utorrent is very slow, due to the port not being forwarded. It was fine before updating. Does anyone know how to get round this problem? without doing a clean instal and starting all over.
Thanks
Pete:lease:
 
5 ways to make your pc faster
1 go to start,run and type prefetch,there alot of files would come delete all of them
2 go to start,run and type regedit now go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER >Control Panel > Desktop and now look for menuShowDelay open it and change it from 400 to 0
3 go to start,run and type msconfig, now go to start up and uncheck your programs(like messengers,managers,etc)not the windows program they are important and when u exit press ok and leave without restarting
4 go to start,control panel> system, go to Advanced> Performance Settings,and now choose "the Adjust for best performance"
THE 5 one will make your internet connection faster to 100.0 Mbps

but i can't put it right here u will have to download it it has all the instruction inside
HERE IS THE LINK TO MAKE YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION FASTER UP TO 100.0 Mbps,download faster,and other thing
MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service
 
Make ur very own Windows bootable CD XP environment using Bart Pe builder or similar...

this is the best and simple way, computer crashing, slowing down, registry errors, virus, ram problems or harddrive a repair cd will solve the problem for you

if you heard of Geek squads there use the same thing to repair ur computers but make lots of money doing nothing but running bootable repair cd/dvd,

if help is needed let me know and i help out in anyway explaining how to make a repair cd/dvd....
:thumbsup:
 

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