All PC Tips

If you just switched to a wide-screen monitor, your desktop wallpaper image may no longer look right, or maybe you just want to make a small adjustment to it. For more-granular control of your wallpaper's placement, highlight the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\desktop Double-click the WallpaperOriginX icon in the right pane. (If you don't see this icon, right-click in this pane, choose New, String Value, type WallpaperOriginX to name the value, and press .) Type a number (in pixels) for the starting horizontal position of your wallpaper's left edge, and press . Now double-click the WallpaperOriginY icon (create it if necessary as explained above) and enter a number for the starting vertical position of the image's top edge. If your wallpaper image is larger than the screen, type a negative number (for example, -200) to push the picture's top or left edge off the screen. To test the effect, first minimize the Registry Editor (and any other...

When you start to shut down Windows XP, it has to quit, or "kill," any live applications or processes that are currently running. So close all applications first. However, some applications and processes are always running in the background. You can reduce the amount of time that Windows XP waits for those applications and processes to close before Windows XP kills them. 1. Open registry editor 2. Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop. Set the WaitToKillAppTimeout and set the value to 1000. Select the HungAppTimeout \newline value and set it to 1000 as well. {mine r set to 100.} 3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control. Select the WaitToKillServiceTimeout value and set it to 10000. {mine is set to 100.} 4. Close the Registry Editor.

You can speed up your startup procedures by changing the BIOS with the built-in setup utility. How you run this utility varies from PC to PC, but you typically get to it by pressing the Delete, F1, or F10 keys during startup. You'll come to a menu with a variety of choices. Here are the choices to make for faster system startups: Quick Power On Self Test (POST) When you choose this option, your system runs an abbreviated POST rather than the normal, lengthy one. Boot Up Floppy Seek Disable this option. When it's enabled, your system spends a few extra seconds looking for your floppy drivea relatively pointless procedure, especially considering how infrequently you use your floppy drive. Boot Delay Some systems let you delay booting after you turn on your PC so that your hard drive gets a chance to start spinning before bootup. Most likely, you don't need to have this boot delay, so turn it off. If you run into problems, however, you can turn it back on.

You start to shut down the computer, you wait a few moments, and then you see a dialog box asking if you want to kill an application or service that is running. Instead of prompting you, you can make Windows XP take care of the kill task automatically. Here's how: 1. Open the Registry Editor. 2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. 3. Highlight the value AutoEndTasks and change the value to 1. 4. Close the Registry Editor.

If you dual-boot your computer with Windows XP and another operating system, you see an operating system selection menu on startup. If you typically boot into Windows XP and not the other operating system, you can speed up the dual-boot timeout value so that you do not wait so long for the boot process to select your default operating system and continue with the boot process. The default timeout value is 30 seconds but you can change this setting to 10. This gives you enough time to select the alternate operating system if you want but also speeds up the boot process. You can skip this section if you do not use a dual-boot configuration. Follow these steps: 1. Locate the boot.ini file on your computer. It is a hidden file by default; mine is located in C:\boot.ini. 2. Open the file with Notepad (which is what opens it by default). 3. Change the Timeout value to 10. 4. Select File/Save and close Notepad.

If you use a Point-to-Point Protocol connection over Ethernet (PPPoE), you may notice a delay in using the PPPoE connection after startup. By default, there is a 120 second delay but you can stop this behavior by manually configuring an IP address for the network adapter card. If you do not use a PPPoE connection, you can skip this section. 1. Select Start/Connect to/Show All Connections. 2. Open the TCP/IP properties for your LAN network interface card. 3. Manually set the IP address on the TCP/IP properties to an appropriate IP address and subnet mask for your network.

Learn how to backup your Windows XP computer quickly. This is a down and dirty full system backup. This will allow you to restore everything on your system if you had a system crash. Steps 1. Click Start -> Run -> type in, with out the quotes, "ntbackup.exe" . 2. Click on Backup Wizard and then "Next". 3. Select the radio button "Backup everything on this computer" and click "Next". 4. Choose a location where you will save your backup. 5. Type in a name of your backup that you will recognize and click "Next". 6. Click "Finish" and your backup will begin. 7. It will complete and provide you a report of the backup. 8. Click "Close" and your backup is complete. Tips * Make sure the location you are backing up to has enough storage space to backup your entire computer. * You will have to be certain you won't have to turn off your computer during the backup. * Full System backups can take exte...

This trick increase Simultaneous Internet Download Connections and increases the number of allowed simultaneous connections to a higher number. The default value is only five connections. Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings. Right click on the window pane and create a DWord key with the name “MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server” as it is without quotes. Set the value to a higher number like 0000000a. Note that they are zeros and not alphabet ‘O’. Right click on the window pane and create another DWord key with the name “MaxConnectionsPerServer”. No quotes please. Set the value to a higher number like 0000000a. Note that they are zeros and not alphabet ‘O’.

1)Right Click on the taskbar,select "Lock the Taskbar" 2)Click on "Start|Run",type "regedit". Click on "OK". 3)In the regisry Editor, navigate to the key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Polices\Explorer". Click on the "Edit|New|DWORD-Value" and create an entry with the name "LockTaskbar" 4)Double Click "LockTaskbar" to open it and set the "Value" to "1". This deactivates the context "LOck the Taskbar" command. Close the registry editor. 5)Right click on the taskbar.The "Lock the Taskbar" command will appaer greyed out. 6)To revert back to the old state, set the value of "LockTaskbar" to "0"

When you right-click a file, you see the menu option “Open With”, which provides a list of programs for you to open the file with. You can clean up the Open With list by using a registry hack. Run the registry Editor (Start [1] Run [1] Regedit) and go to the key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer \FileExts. Look for the file extension whose Open With list you want to edit and find its OpenWithList subkey. The subkey will have an alphabetical list of String values. Open each value and examine the value data. It will be the name of one of the programs on the Open With list . Delete any entry you don't want to appear. Don't delete the value data; delete the String value listing. In other words, if the value data for the String value is Winword.exe, delete the entire string rather than just the value data. Exit the registry .

If you would like to share a folder so that users on your network can access it easily, but are worried about displaying the folder for anyone to browse through, there is an easy way to render a shared folder invisible but still accessible. From the shared folder dialog: (right click on desired folder\sharing and security\). You can hide a shared folder by simply adding a '$' to the end of the name you give the folder in the 'sharing and security' window. In this way, you can maintain network access to shared folders, while hiding them from prying eyes. To browse to a hidden shared folder from another computer, simply click 'start/run' then type \\(name of the computer the share is on)\(sharename$) and press enter.

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 seems to be missing, and the Beta 2 trick to displaying it (hold down CTRL as you right-click) no longer works. But fear not, you can still cause your Windows XP RC1 or RC 2 system to 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.

Add/Remove optional features of Windows XP I first mentioned this technique in an old Technology Showcase for Windows 2000, but it still works in Windows XP, and can be quite useful: For some reason, Microsoft has removed the ability to specify which Windows components you want to install during interactive Setup, and when you go into Add/Remove Windows Components in the Control Panel, you still don't have the full list of applications and applets you can add and remove. Thankfully, this is easy to fix. To dramatically expand the list of applications you can remove from Windows XP after installation, navigate to C:\WINDOWS\inf (substituting the correct drive letter for your version of Windows) and open the sysoc.inf file. Under Windows XP Professional Edition RC1, this file will resemble the following by default: [Version] Signature = "$Windows NT$" DriverVer=06/26/2001,5.1.2505.0 [Components] NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4 WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc....

When you search for a file in Windows Windows searches only for file types it recognizes. Files that aren't listed in the 'Registered file types' list are ignored. Fortunately, a simple edit of the Registry will make Windows search for every file, regardless of its extension. Open the Registry Editor as described above, and then navigate to and select: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex. Double-click the FilterFilesWithUnknownExtensions icon in the right pane, change the 0 in the 'Value data' box to 1, and press Enter. To ensure that Windows XP searches for every possible file, select All Files and Folders under 'Type of file' in the Search Companion pane. (If you don't see this option, click More Advanced Options.) Check Search system folders, Search hidden files and folders, and Search subfolders (as desired). In Windows 2000, click Search Options, check Type, and make sure that (All Files and Folders) is s...

Few people are aware of Windows XP's cloaked administrator account (called, appropriately enough, "Administrator"). This account is invisible unless either your system has no other accounts or you are booting in Safe Mode. To remove Administrator's camouflage and add it to XP's Welcome screen, navigate to & select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\ UserList in the Registry Editor, and double-click the Administrator icon in the right pane. If you don't see this icon, right-click in the pane,choose New, DWORD Value, name it Administrator, and press Enter. Type 1 in the 'Value data' box, and press . From now on, when you open the User Accounts window via the Control Panel, you'll see the Administrator account. You can easily change its picture or give it a password. In addition, the next time you see the Welcome screen, your Administrator account will be visible, along with the ent...

Slow Shutdown Some people have noticed that they are experiencing a really slow shutdown after installing Windows XP Home or Professional. Although this can be caused a number of ways, the most clear cut one so far is happening on systems with an NVidia card installed with the latest set of drivers. A service called NVIDIA Driver Helper Service is loading up on start up and for whatever reason doesn't shut itself down properly. The service isn't needed and can also increase the amount of memory available to your system. Here is how to disable it. 1: Go into your Control Panel 2: Select Administrative Tools and then click on Services 3: Right click on the file "NVIDIA Driver Helper Service" and then select STOP. 4: To stop this loading up every time you boot up your PC Right click it again and select properties - then where the option "Startup Type" is shown - make sure it is set at Manual like we have shown in the image below.

Search For Hidden Or System Files In Windows XP The Search companion in Windows XP searches for hidden and system files differently than in earlier versions of Windows. This guide describes how to search for hidden or system files in Windows XP. Search for Hidden or System Files By default, the Search companion does not search for hidden or system files. Because of this, you may be unable to find files, even though they exist on the drive. To search for hidden or system files in Windows XP: Click Start, click Search, click All files and folders, and then click More advanced options. Click to select the Search system folders and Search hidden files and folders check boxes. NOTE: You do not need to configure your computer to show hidden files in the Folder Options dialog box in Windows Explorer to find files with either the hidden or system attributes, but you need to configure your computer not to hide protected operating system files to find files with both the hidden and sy...

The WGA Notifications patch is installed if the user has opted to automatically update Windows via the Windows Update Website or if a XP users manually downloads the latest Windows updates. A workaround posted on internet WGA install workaround (KB905474) suggests the following: End the process wgatray.exe in Windows TaskManager and restart Windows XP in safe mode. Now delete the following files: Delete WgaTray.exe from c:\windows\system32 Delete WgaTray.exe from c:\windows\system32\dllcache Start Windows Registry editor and delete the folder "WGALOGON" located in the following location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinlogonNotify. Delete all references in your registry to WgaTray.exe Another alternative suggest that three files are installed Windows XP System Folder: \WINDOWS\system32\WgaLogon.dll \WINDOWS\system32\WgaTray.exe \WINDOWS\system32\LegitCheckControl.dll The wgatray.exe process makes the check for genuine wi...

You know what would make a great toolbar? One where you could put your favorite applications and documents so that you could open them from any window at any time. Guess what? You can and here's how: click Start, then My Computer. Now right-click the toolbar and then click Links. You now have the Links toolbar on your windows, just like in Internet Explorer. Note: Make sure that Lock the Toolbars is not checked. Click on it to deselect it if it is. The really cool thing about the Links toolbar is that it's completely customizable. Try this: Navigate to your favorite application and drag and drop its icon to the Links toolbar. You just created a shortcut. Do this again and again for as many applications as you want to appear on the toolbar.

Go to run and type "services.msc". A list of background services will be displayed and clicking on each will display a brief description. Here is a list of services you can disable if you have a standalone computer: 1.Computer Browser. 2.Messenger. 3.Net Logon. 4.Net meeting remote desktop share. 5.Performance logs and alerts. 6.Network provisioning service. 7.Qos RSVP. 8.Remote desktop help. 9.Remote Registry. 10.TCP/IP netbios helper service. 11.Terminal Services. 12.Wireless Zero Configuration. 13.Smart Card. Note:Some sevices may be already disabled. This will free some space on your memory.

The amount of space Windows uses for restore points is a little more complicated than a single percentage value. The Registry includes its own setting for the maximum disk space given to System Restore, and Windows uses whichever amount is larger: the percentage you specify via the System Properties dialog box, or the Registry's maximum value. Any disk space you free up via System Properties won't instantly be used by System Restore; it will be available until a new restore point requires more space than the amount allotted via the percentage value. The percentage and max values tell Windows only when to stop making new restore points. To lock in your System Restore allocation, open the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore. Select the SystemRestore icon in the left pane to see several icons appear in the right pane. Do not experiment with just any of these icons! While you can safely change t...

General keyboard shortcuts • CTRL+C (Copy) • CTRL+X (Cut) • CTRL+V (Paste) • CTRL+Z (Undo) • DELETE (Delete) • SHIFT+DELETE (Delete the selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin) • CTRL while dragging an item (Copy the selected item) • CTRL+SHIFT while dragging an item (Create a shortcut to the selected item) • F2 key (Rename the selected item) • CTRL+RIGHT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word) • CTRL+LEFT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word) • CTRL+DOWN ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph) • CTRL+UP ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph) • CTRL+SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Highlight a block of text) • SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text in a document) • CTRL+A (Select all) • F3 key (Search for a file or a folder) • ALT+ENTER (View t...