How to Instantly activate a screen saver

Screen savers were originally intended to prevent monitor burn-in, which could occur if a single image was displayed most of the time. Over time, that image would essentially become etched into the display, making the monitor harder to use. Monitor technology has improved over the years, and screen savers have become more a form of entertainment than a way to avoid burn-in.

Screen savers can be used to display your favorite photos or other images you'd like to see. Sometimes you might want to immediately start your screen saver like you would any other program, without waiting several minutes for it to start automatically.

To add a shortcut to your desktop that you can double-click to instantly start your screen saver

1.	Click the Start button, and then click Search.
2.	In the Search Results window, click All files and folders.
3.	In the All or part of the file name box, type *.scr. Then, click Search.
4.	You will see a list of screen savers in the search results. Pick the screen saver you want. You can preview it by double-clicking it. To add a shortcut to your desktop, right-click the file, click Send To, and then click Desktop.

Now you can instantly start your screen saver by double-clicking the icon on your desktop.

source: www.microsoft.com

How to Speed up menu display

Microsoft Windows XP uses many visual effects to provide a rich, friendly interface. One of these settings allows menus to fade into view when you open them. This visual effect is so smooth that you may never have noticed it; however, the effect does cause menus to take a little longer to appear.

On a fast computer, this shouldn't be an issue. But on a computer that isn’t responding as quickly as you'd like, you can make menus display faster.

To speed up menu display

1.	Click Start. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2.	Click the Advanced tab. In the Performance area, click Settings.
3.	On the Visual Effects tab in the Performance Options dialog box, clear the Fade or slide menus into view check box.
4.	Click OK.
5.	In the System Properties dialog box, click OK.

Now when you click a menu, it will appear almost instantly.

Source: www.microsoft.com

Tired of chasing your mouse? Use keyboard shortcuts

he mouse, one of the greatest advances in computing history, provides you with an intuitive point-and-click method for using your computer. Depending on the type of work you're doing, however, sometimes using a mouse actually slows you down. If you are a good typist, taking your hands away from the keyboard to move the mouse can use up a few seconds. Over the course of a full day, you could save several minutes by using keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse.

You can use your keyboard instead of your mouse to do these three tasks:

You can use your keyboard instead of your mouse to do these three tasks:

Start a program using a keyboard shortcut

The Start menu is great for finding programs, but its multiple levels of folders can be time consuming to navigate. If there is a program you start frequently, you should set a keyboard shortcut for it so that you can start the program without taking your hands off the keyboard.

To set a keyboard shortcut to start a program

1.	Click the Start menu, and then click All Programs. Right-click the program that you want to start with a keyboard shortcut, and then click Properties.
2.	Click in the Shortcut key box. Now press the letter on your keyboard that you want to use to start the program. Make it easy to remember—for example, press I for Microsoft Internet Explorer. Note: You can use either uppercase or lowercase letters when creating your keyboard shortcuts—and when accessing them later. In the Shortcut key box, Microsoft Windows XP automatically adds Ctrl + Alt + before the key you pressed. When you want to start the program, hold down both the CTRL and ALT keys simultaneously, while also pressing the letter you chose. This way, your program won't start every time you type that letter.
3.	Click OK.
4.	Now test your shortcut. Hold down the CTRL and ALT keys, and then press the letter you chose. If you find it difficult to hold down two keys at once, read Turn on the Sticky Keys feature. Your program should start.

When your friends see you start up programs without touching your mouse, they just might think you have a psychic connection with your computer!

Navigate menus using the keyboard

You can speed up tasks in almost any program by choosing menu items using your keyboard instead of your mouse. This operation is particularly handy when you're performing repetitive tasks.

To control menus using your keyboard

1.	With your program open, press the ALT key. Notice that one letter on each menu name is now underlined. To open the menu, press the underlined key. For example, in Internet Explorer, the View menu name shows the V underlined after you press the ALT key. To open the View menu, press the ALT key, and then press V.
2.	Now, each menu item will show one letter underlined. To access or activate the menu item you want, simply press the underlined key. For example, in Internet Explorer, after you open the View menu, the Privacy Report menu item shows the V underlined. Instead of clicking Privacy Report with your mouse, you can just press the V key.
3.	You can also choose menu commands by pressing key sequences quickly, without waiting for the menus to open. For example, to quickly view a Web page's privacy report in Internet Explorer, press ALT, V, V. Similarly, to save a Web page in Internet Explorer, you would normally click the File menu, and then click Save As. To choose the same commands using your keyboard, press ALT, F, A.

Control windows using your keyboard

If you like to keep four or five windows open while you work (or play) on your computer, you'll appreciate knowing these keyboard shortcuts. You can quickly switch between your Web browser, e-mail, instant message windows, and other programs without taking your hands off the keyboard.

Action	Shortcut
Minimize a window to your taskbar	ALT, SPACEBAR, N
Maximize a window so it takes up your whole desktop	ALT, SPACEBAR, X
Restore a window so it's visible but doesn't take up your whole desktop	ALT, SPACEBAR, R
Close a window	ALT+F4
Switch to the last window you had open	ALT+TAB
Switch to any window	Hold down the ALT key, and press TAB until the window you want is active

Programs often start up in a "restored" state, where the window takes up only part of the screen. To maximize the window so that it takes up the entire screen, press the ALT key, press the SPACEBAR, and then press X. This will feel natural after you do it a few times, and you will feel much more efficient while using your computer.

Source: www.Microsoft.com

Things to know about Windows XP

1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).

2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).

3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.

5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.

6. XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.

7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.

8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.

9. XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.

11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.

12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.

13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.

14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.

16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.

17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.

18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.

19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.

How to speed up your browsing of Windows 2000 & XP machines?

Here's a great tip to speed up your browsing of Windows XP machines. Its actually a fix to a bug installed as default in Windows 2000 that scans shared files for Scheduled Tasks. And it turns out that you can experience a delay as long as 30 seconds when you try to view shared files across a network because Windows 2000 is using the extra time to search the remote computer for any Scheduled Tasks. Note that though the fix is originally intended for only those affected, Windows 2000 users will experience that the actual browsing speed of both the Internet & Windows Explorers improve significantly after applying it since it doesn't search for Scheduled Tasks anymore. Here's how :

Open up the Registry and go to :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace

Under that branch, select the key :

{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}

and delete it.

This is key that instructs Windows to search for Scheduled Tasks. If you like you may want to export the exact branch so that you can restore the key if necessary.

This fix is so effective that it doesn't require a reboot and you can almost immediately determine yourself how much it speeds up your browsing processes.

How to Repair Install windows XP?

If XP is corrupted to the point where none of the previous solutions get it to boot,
you can do a Repair Install that might work as well as keep the current settings.
Make sure you have your valid WindowsXP key.
The whole process takes about half an hour depending on your computer
If you are being prompted for the administrator's password, you need to choose the 2nd repair option, not the first.

1. Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD
2. At the second R=Repair option, press the R key
3. This will start the repair
4. Press F8 for I Agree at the Licensing Agreement
5. Press R when the directory where WindowsXP is installed is shown. Typically this is C:\WINDOWS
6. It will then check the C: drive and start copying files
7. It will automatically reboot when needed. Keep the CD in the drive.
8. You will then see the graphic part of the repair that is like during a normal install of XP (Collecting Information, Dynamic Update, Preparing Installation, Installing Windows, Finalizing Installation)
9. When prompted, click on the Next button
10. When prompted, enter your XP key
11. Normally you will want to keep the same Workgroup or Domain name
12. The computer will reboot
13. Then you will have the same screens as a normal XP Install
14. Activate if you want (usually a good idea)
15. Register if you want (but not necessary)
16. Finish
17. At this point you should be able to log in with any existing accounts.

How to Share Multiple Folders

If you need to share multiple folders, running the program SHRPUBW.EXE will bring up a simple dialog box to let you:

1. Browse to the folder you want to share
2. Enter in a Share name
3. Ender in a Share description
4. Set permissions. Several choices are available
5. Restart the process from within the same program

Speeding Up Network Browsing

There are a lot of things which can negatively impact how fast XP will browse network shares.
One has been previously covered regarding browsing to Win9x computers.

Other things you can try, especially when there is slow browsing to network shares with a lot of files:

1. Remove current shortcuts in My Network Places

2. Change the registry so shared folders on remote computers are not automatically added to My Network Places when you even open a document from that shared folder

1. Start Regedit
2. Create a DWORD value:
3. HKEY_Current_User \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer \ NoRecentDocsNetHood to 1.
4. I have also seen setting the following help as well.
   HKEY_Current_User \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer \ UseDesktopIniCache to 1.

Download Reg file to do both

3. Increase the amount of data is buffered at one time to send to a client. On the computer with the shared directory:

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters
3. Create a DWORD Key called SizReqBuf
4. Give it a value of Hex FFFF

Download Reg file

How to Increase Graphics Performance

To turn these off selectively:

1. Right click on the My Computer icon
2. Select Properties
3. Click on the Advanced tab
4. Under Performance, click on the Settings button
5. To turn them all of, select Adjust for best performance
6. My preference is to leave them all off except for Show shadows under mouse pointer and Show window contents while dragging

Various WindowsXP Command Line Utilities

bootcfg - Configures, queries, or changes Boot.ini file settings.

driverquery - Displays a list of all installed device drivers and their properties.

getmac - Returns the media access control (MAC) address and list of network protocols associated with each address for all network cards in each computer

gpresult - Displays Group Policy settings and Resultant Set of Policy (RSOP) for a user or a computer

netsh - You can use commands in the Netsh Interface IP context to configure the TCP/IP protocol

schtasks - Schedules commands and programs to run periodically or at a specific time

systeminfo - Displays detailed configuration information about a computer and its operating system

how to rollback a Device Driver

If you install a device drive that does not work correctly,
you can restore the previous one fairly easily.

1. Log in with an administrator account
2. Right click on My Computer
3. Select Properties
4. Click on the Hardware tab
5. Click on the Device Manager button
6. Go to the device you want to reconfigure
7. Click on the Driver tab
8. Click on the Roll Back Drive button

how to rename the Start Button

To rename the start button, you will need a hex editor.
My preference is UltraEdit

1. Copy the \windows\explore.exe file to a new name (e.g. explorer_1.exe)
2. With the hex editor, open that file and go to offset 412b6
3. You will see the word start with blanks between each letter
4. Edit it be any 5 characters or less
5. Save the file
6. Boot to DOS
7. Copy the existing c:\windows\explorer.exe to explorer.org
8. Copy explorer_1.exe to explorer.exe
9. You will also need to replace the explorer.exe in the c:\windows\system32\dllcache file as well with the new one.

Note: If the partition is NTFS and you can't access the files from DOS:

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon.
3. Change the value of Shell from Explorer.exe to explorer_1.exe

How to decrease Boot Time

Microsoft has made available a program to analyze and decrease the time it takes to boot to WindowsXP
The program is called BootVis

1. Uncompress the file.
2. Run BOOTVIS.EXE
3. For a starting point, run Trace / Next Boot + Driver Delays
4. This will reboot your computer and provide a benchmark
5. After the reboot, BootVis will take a minute or two to show graphs of your system startup.
6. Note how much time it takes for your system to load (click on the red vertical line)
7. Then run Trace / Optimize System
8. Re-Run the Next Boot + Drive Delays
9. Note how much the time has decreased
10. Mine went from approximately 39 to 30 seconds.

How do I repair Internet Explorer?

The ability to Repair Internet Explorer does not exist in the version that ships with Windows XP. This feature only becomes available after you upgrade to a newer version. This is normal and has been this way since Windows 98 and IE4.

However, you can reinstall IE in Windows XP by clicking Start, Run and entering the following command:

rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %windir%\Inf\ie.inf

You will need to have your XP CD available.

Some people have problems with the command line above. A small VB Script that will execute the command for you can be downloaded here. Save the file to your hard drive and double click it to run IE Setup.

How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in Windows XP (Q318378)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q318378

Changing Drive Letters in Windows XP?

When you add drives to your computer, such as an extra hard drive, a CD drive, or a storage device that corresponds to a drive, Windows automatically assigns letters to the drives. However, this assignment might not suit your system; for example, you might have mapped a network drive to the same letter that Windows assigns to a new drive. When you want to change drive letters, follow these steps:

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.
2. Under Computer Management, click Disk Management. In the right pane, you’ll see your drives listed. CD-ROM drives are listed at the bottom of the pane.
3. Right-click the drive or device you want to change, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
4. Click Change, click Assign the following drive letter, click the drive letter you want to assign, and then click OK.

You will not be able to change the boot or system drive letter in this manner. Many MS-DOS-based and Windows-based programs make references to a specific drive letter (for example, environment variables). If you modify the drive letter, these programs may not function correctly.

HOW TO: Change Drive Letter Assignments in Windows XP (Q307844)

To enable Autologon in Windows XP Professional

Option 1: Download and install TweakUI from the Powertoys for Windows XP collection. In the Logon section, set the default username and password to be used.

As of 4/24/2002, the individual Powertoys for Windows^® XP are available here.

Option 2: Do the following

1) Click Start, Run and enter CONTROL USERPASSWORDS2
2) In the list of users, highlight the user account you want automatically logged on.
3) Uncheck Users must enter a Username and password.................
4) Click Apply.
5) In the next dialog, enter the password for the account you selected in Step 2, if any
6) OK your way out.

Enable autologon in Windows XP Home Edition

Option 1: Download and install TweakUI from the Powertoys for Windows XP collection. In the Logon section, set the default username and password to be used.

As of 4/24/2002, the individual Powertoys for Windows^® XP are available here.

Option 2: Do the following

1) Click Start, Run and enter CONTROL USERPASSWORDS2
2) In the list of users, highlight the user account you want automatically logged on.
3) Uncheck Users must enter a Username and password.................
4) Click Apply.
5) In the next dialog, enter the password for the account you selected in Step 2, if any
6) OK your way out.

Activate Windows XP from Floppy Diskette Backup

Activate Windows XP from Floppy Diskette Backup

Circumstances arise where you'll need to reinstall Windows XP on your machine when no hardware changes have been made. Rather than go through the reactivation process, create a floppy disk to back up the activation status file. Once XP has been reinstalled the floppy can be used to restore the previous activation status.

Create the Activation Status Floppy Diskette

• Navigate to %systemroot%\system32 folder.
• Copy the wpa.dbl and wpa.bak files to the floppy diskette.

Reinstall Windows XP

• Reinstall XP in the normal manner. After the install is completed and the XP Out Of Box Experience (OOBE) appears where you'd normally activate the product, decline to activate and let the installation complete.

Activate the XP Reinstallation

• Restart the computer and use the F8 key to bring up the Advanced Boot Options menu.
• Select Minimal Safe Mode using Up and Down Arrow Keys and press Enter.
• Navigate to %systemroot%\system32 folder.
• Rename the existing wpa.dbl and wpa.bak files.
• Using the floppy diskette, copy the previously backed up wpa.dbl and wpa.bak files to the %systemroot%\system32 folder.
• Reboot the computer.