Purge Your Windows XP Computer

1. he first step is always to remove all of the spyware ,viruses and registry errors that may be on your computer. This is because they cause the most harm, and they may also hinder the other steps of this guide. If you don't have a spyware virus scanner or cleaner, there are many free ones that can be almost as effective as retail ones, such as Ad-Aware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware) and AVG Antivirus (http://free.grisoft.com) and CNET respectively. But it is always advisable to read product reviews and buy products because they come with valuable service support.

2. Delete all of your unnecessary files. Having your hard drive full, or nearly full, will severely slow down the speed of your computer. You need to Uninstall all of your programs using Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel. For everything else (documents, images, and music) that you want to delete, make sure you empty the Recycle Bin afterwards, or hold down Shift Delete to permanently delete files. Alternatively, you could burn the files to a disk to save a backup.

3. Monitor your startup programs. Open the Start menu, and go to Run. Type in 'msconfig' and press Enter. Go to the Startup tab, uncheck any programs which you think is spyware/adware, and press OK. Run a search on any startup programs which you are unsure of. Warning: Do not uncheck items that belong to antivirus/antispyware scanners. This can cause an adverse effect.

4. Monthly Run Disk Cleanup. Go to Start/All Programs/Accessories/System/Disk Cleanup. Run this utility for all of your drives to free up any remaining disk space and clear out useless files.

5. Finally, run Disk Defragmenter. Get it in Start/All Programs/Accessories/System/Disk Defragmenter. This moves all of your files which have been split into pieces closer together so they can be accessed much faster. This process may take hours, so it's best to leave it on overnight or when you don't need to use your computer.

6. Your computer is now (to an extent) clean, but you can help yourself by keeping it clean. Run virus,spyware and cleaner checks at least every week, and try to run Disk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup every month. Also you can download WinPatrol (http://www.winpatrol.com/) or a similar security program, which runs in the background and alerts you if any malicious changes are made to your computer.



7. You can also activate your firewall. Go to Start/Control Panel/Windows Firewall and activate it. Allow exceptions for programs you recognize and trust, and refuse any unknown connections. Some alternative firewalls are also available such as the free edition of ZoneAlarm (http://www.zonealarm.com/)

Protect Folders and Files With Window XP Professional Edition

1. Log on your computer as administrator with a password.

2. Assign or Modify Permissions.

· For purposes of this demonstration, you'll create a folder and will be using this folder.

· Select "Start", "My Computer", "View" (top left hand corner), "Explorer Bar", "Folders".

· Check that "Simple File Sharing" is disabled. (The default Windows XP setting is for Simple File Sharing to be enabled)!

· Select "Tools" (5th menu), "Folder Options", "View" tab.

· Scroll down "Advanced Settings" to bottom option ("Use simple file sharing (Recommended)") and uncheck if checked.

· Select "OK".

Select Drive (C:), "File" (top left hand corner), "New", "Folder". Key in your first name as the new folder name and hit [Enter].

With the right mouse button, select the new folder with your first name, select "Properties", then the "Security" tab on the top.

Under "Groups or users names:", select "Administrators".

Under "Permissions for Administrators", notice all permissions are checked under the "Allow" column.

Under "Groups or users names:", select "Everyone".

Under "Permissions for "Everyone", notice all permissions are checked under the "Allow" column except the "Full Control" permission.

Select the "Deny" column for the "Modify" permission.

This will prevent others on your computer from having access to this folder.

3. Grant or Deny Special Permissions.
Using the same folder you created for this demonstration, select the folder with the right mouse button, select properties.
Under the "Group or user names:", select "Everyone" to grant or deny special permissions and select the "Advanced" button.
Select "Everyone" and the "Edit" button.
Notice all permissions are inactive while "Full Control" and "Delete Subfolders and Files" are unchecked.
Do not change any settings.

9. Take Ownership of Files and Folders.
In the "Advanced Security Settings" dialog box, select the "Owner" tab at the top.
As Administrator, you can take ownership of a folder or file by selecting your name below the "Change owner to:" column.
Select the "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects" check box.
Select the "Permissions" tab at the top.

14. Prevent Permissions Inheritance.


By default, subfolders and files inherit permissions that you assign to their parent folder.
To prevent a subfolder or file from inheriting permissions from a folder, clear the "Inherit From Parent The Permission Entries That Apply to Child Objects" check box.

Prepare in Advance for Clearing Windows XP Boot Sector Viruses

1. Download a good anti virus program. Whatever you use, be sure it is reputable.

2. Using the anti virus software, create an emergency disk. You will need a Windows boot disk for it. After creating the disk, keep it in a safe place.

3. If a boot virus enters your PC, do the following:

4. Reboot your computer.


Insert the emergency disk you created.
Boot your PC from CD. The emergency disk will automatically scan your PC without booting into Windows. This scan will remove every virus from your PC.

Play Star Wars "A New Hope" for Free on XP

1. Start by clicking "Run..." from the Start menu.

2. Type in "Telnet" and press enter.

3. Type in "o" and hit "Enter" when the word < to > appears underneath.

4. Type in "towel.blinkenlights.nl"

5. Wait a bit. Random subliminal messages will pop up for 20 seconds. Disregard them.



6. Star Wars "A New Hope" will commence playing!

Play Pinball While Installing Windows XP

1. Wait for the pinball file to be installed. This is usually after it asks you for the product key.

2. Press Shift+F10. Once the Command Prompt appears, type: cd \

3. Press Enter, then type: cd "Program Files"

4. Press Enter, then type: cd "Windows NT"

5. Press Enter, then type: cd Pinball

6. Press Enter, then type: pinball.exe



7. Press Enter.

Ping in Windows XP

1. Open the command window by clicking START, then RUN. Type CMD, and hit Enter or click OK.

2. Type "ping" in the Command Window.

3. Hit the space bar once.

4. Type the IP or website address that you want to ping. For example, if you want to ping eBay, type "www.ebay.com" after the space. If you want to ping your Router, it might be "192.168.1.1"

5. Hit "Enter." If the website is up and actively responding, you receive replies back from the server that you pinged with the following information:
The IP address
The number of Bytes sent
The time it took in milliseconds
The TTL is Time to Live (This indicated the number of "hops" back from the computer pinged from that computers initial TTL value.)



10. Analyze the information. The lower the round trip number in milliseconds, the better. The higher the round trip number in milliseconds, the higher the latency, which may indicate a network problem between your computer and the server you pinged.

Perform a Backup on Windows XP

To use the built in Windows XP backup tool, follow the instructions.

2. Click the Start button > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup.

3. The Windows XP backup tool allows backing up all user files in just one task.If you select the option of the My Documents backup, it will copy the entire contents of the Documents and Settings folder including MS Outlook/Outlook Express messages and settings as well as your profile settings.

4. However, in most situations full backup is not necessary. In all likelihood the My Documents folder of your computer will be large in size and contain a lot of irrelevant information. If this is the case, Windows XP backup tool suggests that you manually specify files that you want to include or exclude from the backup set.

5. Lastly, don't forget to backup your Internet Explorer favourites from within IE.You can export them from the Menu.



6. And, for really important backups, nothing beats writing down names, phone numbers, email addresses and bank account details.