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.

Migrate Windows 98 Applications to XP

1. Consider KernelEx to run Windows XP applications on Windows 98.

2. You will need a separate drive from the one containing W98. For example, if W98 is installed on C:\ then you will need a D:\ drive. Either install a new drive D:\ in your machine or use an external USB drive D:\

3. Copy the contents of the old C:\ drive onto the D:\ drive. Ignore and folders that cannot be copied because they are in use during the copy operation.

4. Install XP on the old C:\ drive.



5. Go into the directory on the D:\ drive where your old W98 application exists and try to execute it.

Password Protect Safe Mode in Windows XP

1. Print this page for reference.

2. Restart the computer. Repeatedly press the F8 key until the Advanced Boot Options screen appears. Select the Safe Mode option using the up and down arrow keys, then press the ENTER key. Choose "Windows XP Home/Professional", depending on the version of the operating system. Press ENTER. Shortly, the welcome screen should show.

3. Log in as "Administrator". Click Yes to not use System Restore Mode.

4. Click the Start button. Choose Run and type in "control userpasswords" (without the quotes). Click OK.

5. Select the "Administrator" user. Click Change my password. Enter a new password in the corresponding text boxes. Click OK. Write this password down and store it in a secure place. I do not recommend that a password hint be used.

Close the User Accounts window and restart Windows

Obtain System Level Privileges in Windows XP

1. Go Start -> Run and type in cmd.

2. type in 'at' without the quotes.

3. If it comes up access denied, bad luck. If it doesn't, good.

4. Type 'at (time in 24 hr format +1 minute) /interactive cmd.exe' without the quotes.

5. It should say something like 'task created with ID=0' or something like that.

6. Close cmd. As soon as the time gets to the time you set, another command prompt window should come up. Bring up task manager (ctrl+alt+del). Go to the processes tab and look for 'explorer.exe'. Click on it and say 'end process'.

7. Go back to the command prompt window and type 'explorer.exe' without the quotes.



8. After a minute or two, your computer should look similar to how it usually looks. But, if you bring up the start menu, it will say 'system' as the user name. You are now working under the system account and have unrestricted access to your own computer. As soon as you log off, this will be reset back to your normal account. Have fun!

Make an Inaccessible Windows XP Folder

1. Open notepad(by typing notepad on run box) and copy-paste the following text to it. "Ren games games.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} || Ren games.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} games" (without quotes)

2. Save this text file as loc.bat in drive D:

3. Press loc and the folder games will change to control panel and you cannot view its contents



4. Press loc again and you will get back your original folder.

Make a Windows Desktop Into YouTube

1. Right click desktop and click properties.

2. Click Desktop tab.

3. Click Customize Desktop.

4. Click the Web tab. Click new.

5. Type YouTube.com. Click ok



6. Select YouTube, and then YouTube is the desktop.

Make a Windows Desktop Into YouTube

1. Right click desktop and click properties.

2. Click Desktop tab.

3. Click Customize Desktop.

4. Click the Web tab. Click new.

5. Type YouTube.com. Click ok



6. Select YouTube, and then YouTube is the desktop.

Make a User Agreement Appear at Startup in Windows XP

1. Make sure you are logged on as an administrator.

2. Click on Start>Control Panel>Classic View (if you aren't already in it)>Administrative Tools>Local Security Policy.

3. Under the "Local Policies" category, go to "Security Options".

4. Scroll down to the button that says "Interactive Logon: Message text for users attempting to log on" and double click it. In the box that appears enter the text for the message that appears, and hit Ok.

5. Under the last button you used there will be a button that says "Interactive Logon: Message title for users attempting to log on". Double click this and enter the title for the message you want to appear in the box. Press the Ok button.



6. You are done. Exit out of the Local Security Settings window and the Administrative Tools window if you wish. Or you can just turn off the computer and do something active.

Make a Popup Reminder in Windows XP

1. Copy the code in setalarm.bat (listed below) and paste it into Notepad.

2. Save this file as setalarm.bat in your Windows folder.

3. Do the same for showalarm.bat

4. Right-click on the desktop and choose New... Shortcut

5. Type in C:\Windows\setalarm.bat

6. Click Next. Click Finish.

7. Double-click the new shortcut. A good old-fashioned command prompt appears.



8. ]Type in the time you want the reminder to pop up. (You have to use 24 hr time) Then type a description for your reminder.

Make Windows XP Startup Faster

1. Click on Start, then Run, and type "msconfig". Wait for a new window to pop up.

2. Look under the "BOOT.INI" tab. You will see a box labeled "Timeout:", and a numerical value. By default, it's 30, which means 30 seconds of wait time before boot. This can be changed, make it 4 seconds. (Note: if you have more than one operating system, this means the wait time to startup to the highlighted Operating System is longer. Sometimes you might want a bit more than 4 seconds, then you can opt 5 or 10 seconds)

3. Delete The Temporary Files Periodically From Your Computer To Make The Applications Run Faster. Type %temp% in the run dialog box by clicking on Start -> Run, and click on "OK". You will see an open folder with many files. Click on the Edit menu and click on Select all and then click on the File menu and select Delete. Note: Always confirm that the folder which is opened has the word "temp" on the top of the menu bar and the folder indicates that it is a temporary folder.

4. Perform a Scandisk To See That Your Computer Hard Drive is in Healthy Condition and it helps Your Computer Run Faster



5. Always Perform a Disk Defragmentation at least once a month. Start the disk defragmentation from the System Tools menu available in the Accessories menu from the Start menu. It takes a longer time and it is advised not to run any applications in the computer including the screen savers, while running disk defragmentation.

Make Windows XP Hibernate

1. Enable hibernation. The user must enable the hibernation mode. Go to Power Options icon under "pick a Control Panel Icon." Select the Hibernate tab, and click on the Enable Hibernation box. This will replace the "Standby button" to "Hibernation"

2. Press the start button on the taskbar at the bottom then press the red 'Turn Off Computer' icon.

3. A box will show up with three buttons inside it. A yellow Hibernate button, a red Turn Off button and a green Restart button respectively.



4. Click the yellow hibernation button and wait for your computer to hibernate.

Make Windows XP Genuine Forever

1. Click Start choose Run.

2. ype “regedit” (without the quotation marks).

3. Double click on KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

4. Click on Software.

5. Click on Microsoft.

6. Click on Windows NT.

7. Click on CurrentVersion.

8. Now chose the “WPAEvents” option.

9. Right click on OOBETimer and select Modify.

10. In the Edit Binary Value window, remove all the values in the value data box. Click OK and close the registry editor.

11. Go back to Run and type the following command without quotation marks: "%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a".

12. In the Activate Windows wizard, chose the second option. It should be “Yes, I want to telephone a customer service representative to activate Windows.” Click on Next.

13. Click on Change Product Key.

14. Enter your genuine key in the New Key box and click on Update.

15. Check whether your Windows XP is genuine (optional). Type the following command in Run without quotation marks: "oobe/msoobe /a".



16. If a box appears saying “Windows is already activated," it means your Windows XP is genuine.

Login to the Hidden Administrator Account

1. To do this extremely easy feat, the last accessed account must be logged off, or the computer must have just been turned on.

2. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del twice to bring up the classic logon screen. Where it says 'User name, type 'Administrator'. Leave the password field blank.



3. Press enter.

Log on to Windows XP Using the Default Blank Administrator Password

1.      Reboot your machine.

2.      Press F8 before the Windows boot screen appears. Do not press F5 as used on the NT/9x versions of Windows. You will be be prompted with a boot options menu.

3.      Select the Start Windows in Safe Mode option.

4.      Click through several self-explanatory screens until your reach the familiar 'Welcome' screen.

5. Note that this welcome screen is limited to 256 colors and 640x480 resolution because the primary graphics will have been set to the Windows Safe Mode software VGA adapter. You will not be able to change this mode even in Display options, while Windows is running in Safe Mode.
6. Find the icon for the Administrator user. If the default settings of your system haven't been changed, there should be no password for this account.
7. The Safe Mode Welcome screen might display some of the other users on your system.
8. Login as the admin.
9. Press Yes at the prompt asking if you would like to continue using Safe Mode.
10. Open up the command shell. Press START, click RUN, and type in CMD, press ENTER. This will bring up a window likely unfamiliar to you. This is the command line, it allows you to manage files or change settings without restriction (no restriction on the administrative account). Before the graphical environment of Windows, this is what Microsoft users used.
11. Change the password of the account. Type in (without the quotes, and yes, the asterisk (*) is necessary) "net user (username) *". It will ask you to type in a password, then to retype it. You just changed the password!
12. Log in. Exit the command shell dialogue, don't type in anything else if you don't know what you're doing, you could really hose down your computer. Log out of the administrative account, then log back in to your account with the new password.
13. Reboot your computer. As long as you don't press any keys (e.g. F8) during the boot-up the computer will start up normally.

14.  Login as the user for which you set the password.

Make Songs on a Computer (for Kids)

1. Use your computer to record your singing. On a Windows computer, click on "Start" or hit the little button on your keyboard that has a picture of a flag on it

2. Move your mouse over "All programs" and hover up to "Accessories".

3. Hover your mouse over "Entertainment" and click on "Sound recorder". In order to record your singing, you would need headphones with a microphone on them, or just a plain old microphone.

4. Record by pressing the red button and just talk away. You can save it and if you have Windows Movie Maker can add music or voices to your videos.



5. Continue practicing. Play back what you have made and see how you sound. It is important to learn from this and to keep trying to improve.

Lock Icons on a Desktop

1. Go to your "targets" computer. Make sure it is a Windows 7 and that nobody sees you.

2. Take a screenshot of their desktop by pressing Print Screen or SysRq.

3. Open up Microsoft Paint. If its not there go to "start", "All Programs", "Accessories", and click on Paint.

4. Paste the picture with Ctrl+V. Then Save it.

5. Right click on the desktop. Press "Personalize" then press "Desktop Background". Then press "Browse" and look for the file you just saved. Make sure that you remember what the current screen is called.



6. Right click again on desktop and go to "View" and uncheck "Show Desktop Icons"

Learn the Basics of the XP Operating System

1. Alternate your background for some variety.

2. To change the background of your computer you must go to the main screen and right click, then scroll down to properties.

3. Click on the Desktop tab, you will see a list of backgrounds and pictures you have to choose from. Once you have discovered the background and way the background is to be displayed i.e. size of picture, click apply and you have a new background.

4. Learn how to change the time. Next is changing the time, on the bottom right hand corner of your task bar you will see the time.

5. To change this time double-click on the current time and a new window will open. Set the time, date, year, and time zone to the way you wish and hit apply.

6. Create some shortcuts. Then there is creating shortcuts on your desktop. To create a shortcut simply hit the start menu scroll over to the application you which to create a shortcut to and right click, once you right click yet another scroll down box will appear on this box you will see the option to create a shortcut, left click on this option and there you go.



7. To delete a shortcut off your desktop, simply right click the shortcut and left click the option delete a shortcut. This will bring the shortcut into the recycle bin.

Install the Recovery Console in Windows 2000 or XP

1. Put in your Windows Operating System Installation CD

2. Click Start > Run

3. In the Run box, type "X:\i386\WinNT32.exe /cmdcons" without the quotes [X represents your CD drive letter; if it's D: replace X with D]



4. Click Yes to install the recovery console

         Click here...

Install Windows XP Mode on MyPortablePCc

1. First, install Windows XP Mode. Then install the PortablePC Launcher. A window will popup saying "You do not have a driver installed. Do you want to continue?" Click Yes, because a driver CAN fiddle with the BIOS so if you click No, your XP Mode is going to crash.

2. Restart your computer by clicking "Reboot Now" for updates. Now turn your MyPortablePC on, choose "File", and press "Import XP Mode from Windows 7". It will import ALL the files, I do mean all, to the portable. Now launch Windows XP Mode and get ready to set it up!

3. Now just wait for it to load up.

4. Now, it's time to choose Set Up Windows XP Professional Now. (Just press A to make your selection, OK?)

5. You must now accept the license!!!

6. Select OR create the partition on which you will install Windows XP.

7. Select a file system for the installation partition. Choose NTFS because you will have 1024 MB for your disk.

8. Setup will now start copying files from the CD that came with your portable.

9. NOW this will take 5 minutes so just leave the portable, OK?

10. Now it will restart in graphical mode, and the 2nd installation will NOW begin. It will run XP for the first time.

11. Now it will launch the computer, and you STILL need to continue.

12. Now just wait for it to reboot again, OK?

13. Still continue. Right, now it shows a welcome screen. If you hold the Start and Select button for 2 seconds during any time, it will skip it.

14. Now it will connect to the Internet.

15. Will it connect to the Internet directly or through a network? Choose a network. If you don't want to, click Skip.

16. Now it will ask you to register with Microsoft. Think again, click no.

17. Now time to say what accounts you want. The administrator is on the startup, no need to see it.

18. You are now done. Now it starts up.

19. Now it sets up your resolution. Adjust style.

20. It's now adjusting it...Wait. It's too big.

21. YOU CAN NOW PLAY AROUND ON XP MODE. for your myportablepc!!! You may want to choose Windows XP Tour.

22. But before you start playing, choose My Computer, then under "Devices with Removable Storage", click on "PortablePC Tools". This will install PortablePC Tools 2003 for Windows XP Mode.

23. Now, when the installation comes up, click Next. Do you want to choose "Custom" which means choose what software you would like. "Advanced" will install all of the software. Click on Custom if I were you.

24. Tick "Word Processor", "Spreadsheet", "PowerPoint Maker", "Database" and "Publisher".

25. Now it is installing. It will uninstall Microsoft Office and replace it with PortablePC Tools 2003 hopefully.



26. And there you have it! You can now play around with it!

Install Hebrew Keyboard on Windows

1. Go to Control Panel.

2. Click Regional and Language Options.

3. Click Languages tab at top.

4. Click "install files ... for right-to-left languages".

5. Click Apply.

6. Insert Windows CD, click "OK", wait for the install to complete.

7. Click Languages Tab, go to Details.

8. Click the "Add" button, you will be able to select "Hebrew".



9. After the software is installed, you will have a keyboard tool appearing in your system task bar. From there, you can switch between the English and Hebrew keyboard.

Install East Asian Language Support for Windows XP

1. Insert the Windows XP Service Pack 2 disc into your CD drive. If a window titled "Welcome to Microsoft Windows XP" opens, close it by clicking the "Exit" button.

2. Navigate to the Control Panel by clicking the Start Button, then clicking "Control Panel." If you are using Classic View, you should click the Start Button, then "Settings," then "Control Panel."

3. Click on "Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options," then click on "Regional and Language Options." If you are using classic view, "Regional and Language Options" will be available directly from the Control Panel. A new window will open.

4. Click on the tab labeled "Languages," then click the checkbox labeled "Install files for East Asian Languages." A window will pop up to warn you that you will need at least 230 MB of free disk space to install the files. (See "Related wikiHows" to learn how to check this)

5. Click OK to close the popup.

6. Click OK on the “Regional and Language Options” window to begin the installation. Be patient, as it can take several minutes. Once all the files have finished copying, a popup window will tell you to reboot your computer to complete the installation.

7. Before you reboot, remove the CD from your CD drive.

8. Reboot your computer.



9. Launch Firefox and browse to the East Asian web site of your choice to test out your new language packs.

Install Brico Pack for Windows Vista Inspirit

1. Go to CrystalXP.net and download the Brico pack for Windows Vista Inspirit.

2. Once finished, unzip it with Winzip or download a free unzipping program (search on Google).

3. Install it to your computer.(Now that you're waiting for it to finish, take a break and rest your eyes)

4. After installation, it may or may not prompt you to restart your computer, depending on the model of your computer.

5. If you are resource cautious or computer savvy, you could try to use the visual styles method.

6. At the same site where the Brico pack is located there is a place for visual styles.

7. Download the desired visual style and unzip it. You must copy all extracted files on C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes before you continue.

8. Double click on the .mss file.

9. If it doesn't work, you will have to patch your UXTheme.dll. To do this, download and run uxtheme patcher or Google search "uxtheme patcher". http://www.neowin.nethas a good one.

10. Once you run the program, the computer will prompt you to reboot and then repeat step 12.

11. Well...now on to the widgets, basically a widget is a very small program on your computer that you can customize to do almost whatever you want it to. Widgets can be alarm clocks, calculators, weather reports, etc... http://widgets.yahoo.com/info



12. Simply follow the instructions at http://widgets.yahoo.com/info and download (or make) your own widget

Increase Windows XP Virtual Memory for Games

1. First you will need to find out how much RAM your computer has installed on it. To do this, open the Start menu, then right click on "My Computer", then click "Properties". You will see the amount of RAM you have displayed on the lower right-hand corner of the dialog box, underneath your operating system specs and your processor speed.

2. Now you will want to do some quick arithmetic. To run smoothly, the Windows XP minimum requirements are 256MB of RAM. However this is simply for running the operating system, and games will require more. To run most modern games, 2GB of ram is a good amount to have. To decide which size to set your paging file to, a good benchmark is roughly 2-3 times your installed RAM. However you may require more. For example, if you have 2GB of RAM and a 1GB page file which equals 3GB of total usable memory, but your peak usage when running multiple programs are 5GB, your computer will run extremely slowly to the point of being completely unusable. However if you have 2GB of RAM and a 1GB page file and your peak memory usage is 1.5GB, you will be fine. However 2-3 times your RAM is a good enough benchmark for most people.

3. To change the page file size, open the Start menu, right click on "My Computer, then click "Properties". Click on the "Advanced" tab, then click on the "Settings" button in the "Performance" box. Click on the "Advanced" tab. Set both "Processor scheduling" and "Memory usage" to "Programs". Now click on "Change" in the "Virtual memory" box.

4. Click on the drive your page file is currently on. Change the selection from "System managed size" or "No paging file" to "Custom size". Enter in a minimum and maximum value for the paging file on this drive in megabytes (MB). Remember that 1024MB = 1GB. Repeat this step for all the drives you want to have a paging file on. Even though on some tweaking sites it is recommended that you turn the paging file off, DO NOT do this as this will make your situation worse. Also remember that the paging file takes up hard disk space, so do not increase it beyond the free space you currently have on your hard drive(s), and you will want to leave some free space.



5. Click OK and restart your computer. You have now increased the size of your paging file. If the problem persists, buy more RAM or consider upgrading to a new computer.

Install ActiveX on Windows XP

1. Open a new session of Internet Explorer.

2. Click on "Tools" in the menu bar, and select "Internet Options."

3. Click on the tab labeled "Security."

4. Click on the button labeled "Custom level."

5. Scroll down through the list of settings until you locate "ActiveX controls and plug-ins."

6. Select "Enable" next to "Automatic prompting for ActiveX controls."

7. Select "Enable" or "Prompt" next to "Download signed ActiveX controls."

8. Choose "Enable" or "Prompt" next to "Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins."

9. Click "Enable" or "Prompt" next to "Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting."

10. Click on "OK" to save your security settings.



11. Click "OK" to close Internet Options. Internet Explorer is now equipped with the ability to allow you to install Active X controls when visiting certain websites.

Install AHCI Support for ATI SB600 SATA Controllers on Existing Windows Installations

1. Back up your critical data, and especially your registry. There are lots of programs out there to do it. Hopefully you won't have to use your backup, and the procedure is pretty safe, but consider yourself warned anyway.

2. Make sure AHCI is disabled in the BIOS. If it's enabled and you can boot into windows, you don't need this walkthrough.

3. Make sure AHCI is disabled in the BIOS. If it's enabled and you can boot into windows, you don't need this walkthrough.

4. Extract the zip file.

5. Copy the appropriate .sys (in my case, ahcix64.sys) to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\.

6. Copy the following text, paste it into Notepad, and save it to a .reg file (for instance, ahci.reg):

7. Download a handy Linux-based live CD (or even better, dual-boot with Linux), boot it, and run something to the effect of
sudo lspci -vvnn | lessto make sure that the device and subsystem numbers are correct. This will list, in great detail, all of your PCI devices and their properties. Your AHCI controller will be in there somewhere, and its subsystem and device number will be listed. Edit the registry file as necessary.

8. Double-click on the registry file to add its entries to your registry.

9. After modifying the registry, you must do this on the next boot. If you don't, it is likely that your changes will be lost and you'll have to install the .reg file again. Reboot, go into the BIOS and enable AHCI. Then squint, pray, and let Windows boot.

10. Disable AHCI in the BIOS, if Windows bluescreens and reboots your system. If it does fail, tweak the registry file a little and try again.

11. Replace the ugly hackjob of a driver "installation" with a true installation by running AsusSetup.exe (or the like) from the driver zip. and let the official driver install on the computer.



12. Reboot the computer, to have the driver take effect.

Have an Empty Desktop in Windows XP

1. Right-click an empty spot on your desktop.

2. Click "Arrange Icons By"

3. Click "Show Desktop Icons". This will uncheck the box, and hide all of your icons

4. Your icons are still exactly where they are. Just hidden. You can still access your shortcuts in Explorer. All you need to do is simply check the box "Show Desktop Icons" again.

5. Enjoy the great view of your wallpaper, with no obstructions whatsoever.



6. If you want to do individual files in XP (ultimate hiding trick), right click on the file, go down to properties. Under properties select change icon. make sure the icon directory is windows/system32. Select the blank icon. Here comes the tricky part, now only the title is visible, right click on it and go to rename. Once your cursor is in the box press and hold ALT. while holding down ALT type 255 with the NUM pad, when you release the ALT key the name will be gone, and the icon will be completely blank, you must know the physical spot on the screen to open it. If you try to rename a file to a blank name, it will revert back to its original name, so the ALT 255 is necessary.

Get Rid of Programs Stuck on Windows XP

1. Go to "My Computer", either through the START menu or on the desktop.

2. Click on "HDD (C:/)".

3. Click on "Program Files". A message may appear saying "This folder contains files that keep your computer working properly..." Ignore this, and click "Show the contents of this folder".

4. Find the program that you want rid of, right click, and select "Delete". When the pop up says "Are you sure you want to send this folder and all its contents to the recycle bin?" click yes.

5. If a message pops up and says you can't delete this program as it is used by another instance, check if the program is closed, and if it is, press Ctrl+Alt+Delete, open the Task Manager under the processes tab, and search if there is a process named like the program you want to delete. If there is, click it and then End Task and OK. Try to delete the folder again.



6. If a message pops and says the folder is a system folder or such, double check that it is safe to delete, and if you are sure, delete it.

Format a PC and Install Windows XP SP3

1. Get Windows XP installation CD. You usually get it with your pc, if you buy windows. If you don't have, Buy a CD from Microsoft. You will need the key for installation.

2. Start your pc and press key F2, F12 or delete key (Depends on your PC model). Your PC Bios settings will be displayed. Find boot menu. In boot device priority select CD-ROM as first boot device.

3. Insert your Windows XP cd and restart your pc. Your pc will boot from CD and windows installation will start. Press enter at this screen.

4. Accept License agreement by pressing F8 key.

5. Select hard drive partition for installation of XP.

6. If you want, you may create seperate partition at this screen by pressing 'C' key and defining the size of partition.

7. Now select your desired partition for installation of Windows XP and press enter.

8. Choose to format the partition. Choose NTFS quick.

9. Setup will format the partition.

10. After formatting, Setup will start copying files on to the hard disk.

11. After copying of files, setup will start installing Windows. You can see the progress in the progress bar on left pane.

12. Select desired language and regional settings, when prompted by setup.

13. Enter windows key. This usually comes with windows installation disk, written behind the pack. You can also buy a key online from microsoft.

14. Type a name for your computer. If you need, you can also type a password to login or else you can leave it empty.

15. Select time and date settings and time zone according to your country.

16. Provide network settings for networking pc's or select typical settings and press enter

17. Setup will install devices and register components.

18. After completion setup will do a cleanup of files and will restart your pc automatically. At this stage you can remove CD from drive.



19. Click ok, When windows prompt you to improve your screen

Gain Access into Windows XP

1. Log into windows xp. wait till it tells you to enter the password.

2. Press ctrl+alt+delete two times, this takes you to the classic view of login password.

3. Clear the default account name and type in 'administrator' (without the quotes).
This opens the administrator version of windows.

1. Click start -> run and type in 'control userpasswords2' without quotes.

2. Enter the new password and restart the computer.



3. Enter the new password and restart the computer.

Format the C Drive on a Windows XP SP2

1. Insert the Windows XP disk, and turn off your computer

2. Turn on your computer

3. A screen will come up during the boot and tell you to press any key to boot from CD, (if not you will need to change the start up sequence in the BIOS).Press any key you like.

4. Next, you are asked which file system to use, the FAT Filesystem or NTFS Filesystem. NTFS Filesystem is the newer and faster one, so use that. FAT would also limit you to small hard disk drives.

5. It might take a while. Once everything is loaded, there will be a few options on the screen. The one you want says 'To set up Windows XP, press enter.' So select it and press enter.

6. Follow the rest of the on screen instructions to finish formatting.



7. Alternatively, if you just want to format a secondary hard drive you can go to 'My Computer', right click on the drive and press format and follow the instructions accordingly.

Fix a DNS Server Problem for an Aussie PC

1. If you have Windows XP you can just follow the steps.

2. If you have Windows Vista, keep reading.

3. Hit start.

4. Hit network connections

5. Right click your wireless connection.

6. Hit properties.

7. From the list of adapters, select IPV4, then properties

8. Set OBTAIN DNS AUTOMATICALLY.

9. Do this for IPV6 as well.



10. All should now work perfectly.

Find Your Windows XP Product ID

1. Click "Start" go up to "My Computer".

2. Right-click on it and select "Properties".


The window that comes up should have your product key displayed under "Registered to".

Fix a "Can't Boot" or "Hal.Dll Not Found" Problem Easy Without Losing Data on Windows XP

1. First, what you want to do is getting the windows disk inside there. Boot up your computer and insert the windows XP disc inside. After that, restart the computer.

2. Then, depending on what computer your using, press the one time boot up button (On dell it's f12).

3. Select CD-ROM

4. When it boots up, wait for it to load. Then press enter to continue with setup.

5. When it asks you to select a partition, select the partition that isn't booting right.

6. It'll say to either do a quick format, full format, or leave it alone

7. Select leave it alone and wait.

8. When it is finished, you have to reinstall all your drives, but when you check inside your program files...



9. BOOM! Everything SHOULD be there if you did it right.

Find Where All Your Disk Space Is Going Using Directory Report

1. Download Directory Report at http://www.file-utilities.com/downloads/wdir.zip

2. Click on the binoculars button and add 1 or many directories and/or 1 or many disks
Each folder is shown with its size and with size-with-subdirectories
The default sorting is by size-with-subdirectories descending

5. Click on any folder and its subdirectories and files are shown - just like the MS-Explorer. But all the subdirectories are automatically shown with their size

6. You can send the screen to a printer or save to a text file, XML file, HTML file, Excel file (CSV), clipboard, or directly to an Excel program



7. Before printing or saving to a file - pick which attributes you want printed - select menu: Print / Set Printing Options

Enable Windows XP Routing

1. In the Run command type Regedit.exe and press Enter.

2. In the registry navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

3. Select the "IPEnableRouter" entry (by default the value is 0 and change its value to 1.

4. Close Regedit.



5. Reboot.

Enable Search Companion

1. Go to Start

2. Click on Control Panel

3. Click Add or Remove Hardware

4. Click on Windows Desktop Search



5. Hit Remove and "Ok" your way through the removal wizard

Enable Automatic Logon in Windows XP

1. Click the Start button and then click Run.

2. In the Run box, type 'control userpasswords2' (without quotes) then click OK.

3. Clear the "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer" check box, and then click Apply.

4. In the Automatically Log On window, type the password in the Password box of the user account you will use for auto logon, then retype the password in the Confirm Password box.

5. Click OK to close the Automatically Log On window, and then click OK to close the User Accounts window.

6. Restart your Computer to test auto log on. How to manually set up of registry:

7. Using RegEdit, navigate to the registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

8. Create or Open and fill the String Type value of "DefaultUsername" with the desired username.

9. Create or Open and fill the String Type value of "DefaultPassword" with the desired password.

10. Create or Open and fill the String Type value of "AutoAdminLogon" with the data "1".



11. To set up de desired DomainName, modify the data from value "DefaultDomainName"

Enable Program Task Scheduling in Windows XP

1. Go to Start > Control Panel then click on scheduled tasks.

2. Click on add scheduled task then follow the prompts.

3. Select a program to use then click next.

4. Click on when the program will start. e.g. 3:45PM every Tuesday, or you can also make it start when you open up the computer.



5. When you have finished, click Finish.

Edit Group Policy in Windows XP

1.     This option is utilized when you would like to develop or edit the list of applications that load automatically when you log into your PC. To do so, follow the instructions listed below:

2.     Click the Start button from the taskbar.

3.     From the popup menu choose Run and in the dialog box that appears, type mmc and press the enter key or click OK.

4.     Click File from the menu bar and in the drop down list choose Add or Remove Snap-in and choose Add.

5.     Look for the tab labeled Available Stand-alone Snap-ins and click on Group Policy Object Editor. Thereafter click Add and then choose Finish.

Easily Resize Photos in Windows XP

1.     Microsoft offers a free downloadable utility for Windows XP called Image Resize PowerToy. It lets you resize a photo in seconds with a just a couple clicks.

2.     Download the Image Resizer Powertoy.

3.     Go to the Microsoft download page shown in Sources and Citations (below).

4.      Click on the PowerToys tab.

5.     Locate Image Resizer, and click on the Download link and your download should start automatically.

6.     Install image resizer. Double click on the .exe file and follow the prompts for installation.

7.     Open your pictures folder. In the Thumbnail view, right-click on the picture you want to resize, and then select Resize Pictures.

8.     You can select all the pictures in the folder by typing CTRL-A.

9.     You can select a consecutive series of pictures by clicking on the first picture, holding down the Shift key, then clicking on the last photo in your series.

10.  You can select non-sequential pictures by clicking on the first photo, and then holding down the CTRL key and clicking on any other photos you want to add to the selection.

11.  In the Resize Pictures dialog box, find and select the size you want by clicking on the appropriate radio button.

12.  Click the OK button. A new, resized file will be created in the same folder as the original.

13.  In the Resize Pictures dialog box, you can click on the Advanced > > button and set your own custom size; confine the operation only to those pictures that would become smaller; or resize the original without making a copy.

Dramatically Speed up Windows XP

Convert your hard drive to NTFS. If your drive is using FAT16 or FAT32, you can gain performance by converting it to NTFS.

· To do so, press WinKey + R and in the window that comes up, type "CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS" (without quotes). Follow the instructions and your drive will be converted to NTFS. Bear in mind that NTFS drives can only be accessed by Windows 2000/NT/XP/Vista/7. Older versions of Windows are only compatible with FAT, FAT16 and FAT32.

· 2. Remove malware from your system. Spyware comes bundled with a lot of free software found on the Internet. It can slow your machine down to a crawl. Download and install Spybot Search & Destroy, start your computer in Safe Mode and give your machine a full scan for spyware. For more free security programs, try checking out this article on Wikipedia for more programs.

· 3. Clean the registry. Cleaning the registry could also speed up Windows XP significantly as there are a lot of calls to the registry by Windows and other programs in a short period. You can get a good tool from Intel Software Partners

· 4. Disable the Indexing Service. The Indexing Service scans your hard drive and indexes files to help speed up searching. It runs in the background using up memory and processor time, and is generally thought to be unnecessary by most nerds and/or geeks. It can also wake you up if your hard disk is noisy and you leave your machine on at night. To disable the Indexing Service, open My Computer, right-click on the hard drive, go to Properties and click on the check box to clear the check mark next to "Allow indexing service to index this hard drive for faster searching". Click OK. It may take a while for the operation to complete.

· 5. Reduce Visual Effects. Windows XP can look good, but displaying all the visual items can waste system resources. To optimize, go to Start, right click My Computer, and go to the Advanced tab in the Performance area and click Settings, then choose "Adjust for best performance". If you still want to keep the look of Windows XP, you can leave the last 3 check boxes selected. It is recommended that you do uncheck these boxes when installing a big or graphics heavy program (like the Adobe programs). Sometimes unchecking these will help rendering pictures, movies or listening to music.

· 6. Speed up folder browsing. Go to My Computer > Tools menu > Folder Options > View tab. Uncheck "Automatically search for network folders and printers" and "Launch folders in a separate process". Click Apply, then click OK.

· 7. Increase computer download speed. Go to Google.com and type "tcp optimizer" into the search bar. Click the first link. Download the program and run it. Once open go to File > Backup current settings and save it. Once saved adjust your speed to what your max internet speed it suppose to be. Then click on optimal settings then apply and reboot. Then your download speed should increase.

· 8. Make menus load faster. Press WinKey + R and then type "regedit" and press Enter. Now find "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop", double click "MenuShowDelay", reduce the number to around 100, but not too less.

· 9. Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP offers a lot of services and there run many programs that take up system resources and you may never need those programs. Below is a list of services that can be disabled on most machines: Alerter, Clipbook, Computer Browser, Distributed Link Tracking Client, Indexing Service, IPSEC Services, Messenger, Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing, Portable Media Serial Number, Remote Desktop Help Session Manager, Remote Procedure Call Locator, Remote Registry, Secondary Logon, Routing & Remote Access, Server (do not disable if you share folders with other Windows systems in your household), SSDP Discovery Service, Telnet, TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper, Upload Manager, Universal Plug and Play Device Host, Windows Time, Wireless Zero Configuration (Do not disable the last one if you use a wireless network). To disable these services, press WinKey + R and type "services.msc", double click on the service you want to change, change the startup type to "Disable".

· 10. Speed up folder access by disabling Last Access Update. Press WinKey + R and type "regedt32", click through the treeview until you arrive at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem", Right click in a blank area of the window on the right and select New > DWORD Value. Call it "NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate" and then double click the new value and change the value data to "1", and press Enter.

· 11. Improve boot times 1. Many PC's are shipped with Gb's of pre-installedTrialware. Many of these useless programs insist on loading parts of themselves at boot time. In addition to grabbing huge chunks of RAM (and then having to be swapped out) all these components have to be loaded from the hard disk thus extending the boot time. Even MS Office does this. To discover what is being 'RUN' at boot-up, open a CMD (DOS Box) Window using WinKey + R and type 'msconfig'.

· 12. Improve boot times 2. You can also speed up Windows itself by preventing it from 'shuffling around' files during the boot sequence. To do this, press WinKey + R and type in "regedt32", then press Enter. Find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction", Select "Enable" from the list on the right, double click on it, change the value to "Y", and press Enter, and close the window. Now press WinKey + R, type in "msconfig" and click OK. Click on the Startup tab and uncheck every item you don't need. Do NOT disable entries added by antivirus and antispyware programs as doing so will make your computer more vulnerable to viruses and malware.

13. Improve swapfile performance 1. Many desktop computers have at least 2 physical hard drives. If yours is one such, you can improve swap file performance by moving the file to the D: drive (so that access does not clash with the loading of programs from C:).

· Swap file settings are found in My Computer / Properties / Performance tab. The swap file should be set to twice your RAM size,

14. Improve swapfile performance 2. If you have 4Gb of RAM, you will discover that Windows XP is unable to use it all. Typically XP is limited to about 3.25Gb - so you have approx .75 Gb of hidden RAM that is can be used for a high speed swap file. To get access to this free RAM, use the totally free 'VSuite Ramdisk Free Edition' RAM Disk utility.

· Be warned that if you allow your computer to 'Hibernate', you may loose the contents of the RAM Disk and thus the swap file and thus the computer will crash when it tries to 'wake up'.

15. Improve swapfile performance 3. (Note: some people say that this only helps on Win9x and is useless for Windows NT based systems, including WinXP and Win2000). It basically makes sure that your PC uses every last drop of memory (faster than swap file) before it starts using the swap file.

· Press WinKey + R, type in "msconfig" and then press Enter. Click on the System.ini tab, and expand the 386enh tab by clicking on the plus sign. Click on New, then in the blank box type "ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1". Press Enter, and restart your pc to see the changes taking place.

· 16. Improve your XP's shutdown speed. This tweak reduces the time that XP takes before automatically closing any running programs when you give it the command to shutdown. Press WinKey + R and type in "regedt32" and press Enter. Find "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop", double click "WaitToKillAppTimeout" and change the value to "1000", and press Enter. Double click "HungAppTimeout", change the value to "1000". Press Enter and find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control", double click "WaitToKillServiceTimeout" and change the value to "1000", and press Enter.

· 17. Remove the background image on your desktop. Right click the Desktop and click "Properties", and go to the "Desktop" tab. Change the wallpaper to "None". This will greatly speed up Windows XP. Also go to the "Settings" tab, and change "Colour quality" to "Medium (16 bit)".



· 18. Remove unwanted programs. Go to Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs. Remove unwanted programs and free up some space.

Do a Windows XP "Repair Install"

1.     Place your Windows XP® Setup disk in your CD drive.

2.     Restart your computer (You must have the CD as the first boot option in your BIOS).tutu

3.     Press any key on your keyboard when it asks you to.

4.     Press enter when you see a blue screen, one of the options will say, "To set up Windows XP now, press ENTER".

5.     Press enter to start the windows setup.

6.     Accept the Licence and Agreement by pressing F8, setup will now search for and list Windows XP installations found on your computer.

7.     Press "R" when the set up has found your current version of Windows XP®.

8.     Notice that the Set up is deleting all your Windows XP® files and replacing them (This will not cause loss of data).

Dual Boot Windows XP and Ubuntu

1. Insert the Ubuntu Installation CD into your CD-ROM Drive. It is assumed that you already have Windows XP installed on your computer and that you have Ubuntu Desktop Edition downloaded and burned onto a CD already

2. Restart your computer.

3. Press your BIOS/Setup key (Usually: F1, F2, ESC, or DEL key) while the computer starts up to get into the BIOS.

4. Go to the screen where you can adjust the boot priority of your devices and move the CD-ROM Drive up the priority list, by pressing the + key, so that it comes before the Hard Drive entry as seen below.

5. Save & Exit out of the BIOS with the F10 key, your computer will restart.

6. On the Ubuntu Setup screen, hit Enter to Start or install Ubuntu.

7. Double-click Install on the Desktop.

8. Go through the installation wizard (if using Ubuntu 8.04 until you reach step 4). Ubuntu 8.10 installs a dual-boot by default installation.

9. If using Ubuntu 8.04, then at step 4, select the first option, Guided - resize and you can specify how much disk space you want the new partition to use as shown below.

10. Continue through the rest of the steps and click Install on step 7.

11. Click Restart Now and remove the CD from CD-ROM drive.



12. Done!! Every time you start up your computer now you will be prompted to select what operating system you want to start up through the GRUB Bootloader screen as seen below.

Download the Royale Noir (Secret) Theme on Windows XP

1. Type in "Royale Noir download" on Google.

2. There should be a website that says, 'Royale Noir: secret XP theme uncovered (download) - istartedsomething'. Click on it.

3. Scroll down, and there should be some download links. Click on the 'Download Royale Noir (.ZIP) [403K]'. You can either open it or save it to disc. Now there should be three icons. Click 'luna.msstyles'.



4. The 'properties' box should appear with the 'Royale' theme being previewed.This is a default color, so click on Color Scheme, and change to the 'Noir' color scheme. Click 'Apply', and you're done!

Disable Windows Error Reporting

1. Right click on "My Computer" and click on "Properties".

2. Click on the advanced tab in "Properties".

3. Select "Error Reporting" in "Advanced Tab".



4. Select "Disable Error Reporting". All done!

Disable/Enable the Windows XP Welcome Screen

1. Click on Start.

2. Click on Control Panel.

3. Double-click on User Accounts.

4. Click on "Change the way users log on or off".

5. Uncheck "Use the Welcome Screen".

6. Click on Apply Options.

7. Close the User Accounts window and the Control Panel.



8. The next time you reboot your computer, the classic login prompt will be used.

Disable the Shut Down Event Tracker in Windows XP

1.    Click Start

2.    Click Run

3.    In the run dialog window that appears type gpedit.msc and click OK

4. You will now see a window that looks something like this:

5.    Look in the left panel for a computer icon named Computer Configuration.

6. If the symbol to the left of the icon is a (+) plus symbol then click on the (+) symbol. If the symbol to the left of the icon is the (-) minus symbol then do not click it and continue to the next step.
7. Look in the left panel for a folder icon named Administrative Templates .
8. If the symbol to the left of the icon is a (+) plus symbol then click on the (+) symbol. If the symbol to the left of the icon is the (-) minus symbol then do not click it and continue to the next step.
9. Look in the left panel for a folder icon named System.
10. If the icon named System looks like a closed folder then double click it so that it opens. There should be a (-) minus symbol beside this icon and the folder should be open like in the Editor preview image above.
11. Look at the bottom of the right panel and make sure that the Standard tab is selected. If not click on the Standard tab so that it will be selected.
12. Look in the right panel for an icon named Display Shutdown Event Tracker.

·                       Single click Display Shutdown Event Tracker. It should now be highlighted.

·                       Double click Display Shutdown Event Tracker.

·                          You should now see a new window open that looks something like this:

13. Click the radio button that is labeled Disable.
14. Click the OK button at the bottom of the properties window.