I took some old threads, combined them all together to get a nice clear overall view of the various windows tweaks. Thanks to the guys who made this happen.
For questions and concerns drop me a PM.
Windows XP tweaks:
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Want to know everything about your system?
Instead of typing systeminfo in a dos box, your can simply do it in windows too.
1. Start
2. Select Run
3. type winmsd
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Remove shortcut arrow from desktop icons :
1. Open regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile
3. Rename IsShortcut in AriochIsShortcut
4. Reboot xp
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Remove MSN Messenger from your system :
If you'd like Windows Messenger to show up in the list of programs you can add and remove from Windows, navigate to C:WINDOWSinf (substituting the correct drive letter for your version of Windows) and open sysoc.inf (if you cannot see this folder, click on Tools, folder options,view then check "Show hidden files or folders).
Open the sysoc.inf file, you'll see a line that reads:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
Change this to the following:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7
You only remove the word hide, nothing else. Save the file. Windows Messenger will appear in Add or Remove Programs, then Add/Remove Windows Components, then , and you can remove it for good.
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Getting rid of unwanted items in "open with..." shell extension
When rightclicking any file you´re likely to see an option called "open with", which lists any available program on you computer to open the file with. To simply clear up this list of unwanted items, or to remove useless associations, like opening an mp3 file with a paint program, follow these steps:
- Click on the start button, click on Run... and type the word "regedit" (without the quotes) in the box that appears to open the registry editor, Navigate to " HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre
ntVersion\Explorer\FileExts"
- Find the extention you wish to edit and click on the "+"-sign to locate the key that says "OpenWithList"
- In the right pane of the registry editor you´ll see a list with the programs in the list, like "paint.exe" or "notepad.exe"
- Simple click on the one you wish to delete and press the delete button on your keyboard
Don´t worry if you´ve removed an entry you rather hadn´t removed. When rightclicking a file there will be another option in the "open with" extension where you can choose any program on your computer. Once used, it will reappear in the list of associated programs.
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Q. How can I enable autologon for Windows XP?
A. To enable autologon and bypass XP's prompt to enter a username and password, perform the following steps:
1. Select Run from the Start menu.
2. Enter control userpasswords2 and click OK.
3. Select the Users tab.
4. Clear the "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer" check box.
5. Click OK.
6. When the system prompts you, enter a username and password for users who automatically log on, and click OK.
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Q. How can I perform a bulk file rename in Windows XP?
A. XP lets you rename files in bulk by simply selecting multiple files within Windows Explorer and pressing the F2 key. When you use this feature, the OS applies the name you enter to the first file and applies the same name with a number in parentheses to the other files you selected (the file extensions remain unchanged).
For example, if you select the following files,
* notes.doc
* figures.xls
* disney.jpg
* holiday.gif
and rename the first file (notes.doc) to file.doc, XP renames the remaining files as follows:
* file (1).xls
* file (2).jpg
* file (3).gif
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You can easily create an icon on your desktop that allows you to compose and send a mail by double clicking on it without opening Outlook Express.
1- Find a free space on your desktop and right click on it on -> New -> Shortcut
2- Enter in the space 'mailto:' (w/out quotes)
3- Press 'Next' button.
4- Enter in the space a name for the icon (i use 'Q-Mail')
5- Click 'finish'.
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This Tweak will prevent Messenger from loading when you access your account via the Hotmail web page, it will also prevent the delay when Messenger has been removed or disabled.
Go to Start --> Run and type regedit Navigate to the Registry Key below.
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Messenger.MsgrObject.
Right click on the Messenger.MsgrObject key and select rename. Rename it to Messenger.MsgrObjectold
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Shut down fast
Start -> Run -> regedit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro
l\
set WaitToKillServiceTimeOut to the time (ms) you want to wait for the kill service to timeout
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Create Your own Logon message:
1 Click start, click run, type regedit, then click ok!
2 In The registry editor, drill down to the following key:
hklm\software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current version\Winlogon
3 Right click LegalNoticeCaption, click modify, Type: My windows XP Machine,
and then click ok!
4 Right click legalNoticeText, click modify, and then Close your message!
5 The message will appear every time you logon!
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Windows XP Services
Here is a way to figure out which services to set as Automatic and which to set as manual or disabled.
Step1: Set ALL your services to *manual* setting.
Step2: Reboot computer and wait for windows XP to load. XP will boot pretty slowly, since it has to turn on each service
separately. Use your computer for a bit, doing what you normally do during a computing session. This will allow any
other services to activate (such as DHCP or other services that didn't load during the boot process).
Step3: Go back to the list of services, and see which ones are Started. Change the services that are marked as Started, to
*Automatic*. This way windows will automatically load all of the services that you normally use, and the ones that
you don't use will stay unloaded.
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Unsigned Drivers - Use Sigverif.exe:
1. Click Start, click Run, type "sigverif" (without the quotation marks), and then click OK.
2. Click Advanced, click "Look for other files that are not digitally signed", navigate to the Winnt\System32\Drivers folder,
and then click OK.
3. Click Start.
After Sigverif.exe is finished, a list of all unsigned drivers installed on your computer are displayed.
The list of all signed and unsigned drivers found by Sigverif.exe can be found in the Sigverif.txt file in the %Windir% folder, typically the Winnt or Windows folder. All unsigned drivers are noted as "Unsigned".
File signature verification is something I hate in Win XP. I like testing beta drivers. I disabled those annoying popups that says the file is not Microsoft Digital Signe........etc. If you want to disable signature verification, goto control panel, System icon, hardaware tab, Driving signing and click on ignore.
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Adds Defrag to the right click context menu in Windows XP
Save the following text as a ".inf" file, then just right click & install
That's it..just right click on a drive letter & defrag.
; context_defrag.INF
; Adds Defrag to the right click context menu in Windows XP
[version]
signature="$CHICAGO$"
[DefaultInstall]
AddReg=AddMe
[AddMe]
HKCR,"Drive\Shell\Defrag\command",,,"DEFRAG.EXE %1"
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To speed up boot time
run "regedit" and navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > Session Manager > MemoryManagment > PrefetchParameters
There you'll see a DWORD called "EnablePrefetcher" double click it and set the value between 5 to 7, which ever works better, I recommend 5.
Also after time it gets filled with unneeded stuff, navigate to C:\Windows\Prefetch and delete unnecesary files, if unsure, delete all files and restart twice, all needed files will be automatically created
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To make Windows XP use L2 cache
by default windows doesn't recognise your L2 cache on processor and doesn't make use of it, to enable it run regedit and navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > Session Manager > MemoryManagment
there is a DWORD called "SecondLevelDataCache" double click it, select Decimal and set the amount of L2 cache you have (e.g. if you have 256KB, then just type 256, and make sure you enter it in Decimal, not Hexadecimal)
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theres a quick way to restart/exit windows without going throught the start menue
first of all create a shortcut with the following paths:
C:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindowsexec
This Shortcut on clicking will restart Windows immediately without any Warning. To create a Shortcut to Restarting Windows, type the following in the Command Line box:
c:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows
This Shortcut on clicking will shut down Windows immediately without any Warning.
however i havent tried this on xp, but im sure it will work
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Increasing System Performance
If you have 512 megs or more of memory, you can
increase system performance
by having the core system kept in memory.
Start Regedit
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro
l\Session
Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive
Set the value to be 1
Reboot the computer
Increasing File System Caching
To increase the amount of memory Windows will locked
for I/O operations:
Start Regedit
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro
l\Session
Manager\Memory Management
Edit the key IoPageLockLimit
4096 - 32megs of memory or less
8192 - 32+ megs of memory
16384 - 64+ megs of memory
32768 - 128+ megs of memory
65536 - 256+ megs of memory
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Remember all of this is to use at your OWN risk
Enjoy
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by KoolDrew
But thank you for that friendly comment.
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