Windows XP
Twenty Useful Tips and Tweaks
1) Cracking Windows XP Login Password
download the nice and easy Nt/2k/xp password cracker from
our community or other way is if u get acess to the
computer then go to Start>Run and type “control userpasswords2” without Quotes
and a new pop up windows will open and u will reach to user account properties.
Here u can Reset the Administrator and any Users password so anytime when u Want
to use the Computer start it in safemode pressing F8 at Booting get into the xp
as u have Administrator password and go to Controlpanel>Useraccounts and create
a New Account .Start Computer Normally and get into WinXP with ur newely made
account and do ur job. (Don’t forget to Delete ur newely made account Otherwise
u will be in trouble) Delete ur account again starting the computer in Safemode
as Administrator and Delete ur Account.
2) Disable XP Boot Logo
It is possible to disable the XP splash screen, which will slightly speed up the
overall boot process. Be aware that removing the splash screen will also cause
you not to see any boot-up messages that might come up (chkdsk, convert ... ),
but if your system runs without any problems then it should not matter. Edit
boot.ini. Add " /noguiboot" right after "/fastdetect". Upon restarting, the
splash screen will be gone. It can be re-enabled by removing the new switch.
3) Turn Off Indexing to Speed Up XP
Windows XP keeps a record of all files on the hard
disk so when you do a search on the hard drive it is faster. There is a downside
to this and because the computer has to index all files, it will slow down
normal file commands like open, close, etc. If you do not do a whole lot of
searches on your hard drive then you may want to turn this feature off: Open My
Computer. Right-click your hard drive icon and select Properties. At the bottom
of the window you'll see "Allow indexing service to index this disk for faster
searches," uncheck this and click ok. A new window will pop up and select Apply
to all folders and subfolders. It will take a minute or two for the changes to
take affect but then you should enjoy slightly faster performance.
4) Clean Your Prefetch
to Improve Performance This is a unique technique for WinXP. We know that it is
necessary to scrub registry and TEMP files for Win9X/ME/2000 periodically.
Prefetch is a new and very useful technique in Windows XP. However, after using
XP some time, the prefetch directory can get full of junk and obsolete links in
the Prefetch catalog, which can slow down your computer noticeably. Open
C(system drive):/windows/prefetch,
delete those junk and obsolete files, reboot. It is recommended that you do this
every month.
5) Performance Increase Through My Computer
Easy enough tweak to usually find out about it on your own, but still, some of
us still don't find it right away. So here it is: Start > right-click on My
Computer and select Properties. Click on the "Advanced" tab. See the
"Performance" section? Click "Settings". Disable the following: Fade or slide
menus into view Fade or slide ToolTips into view Fade out menu items after
clicking Show Shadows under menus Slide open combo boxes Slide taskbar buttons
Use a background image for each folder type Use common tasks in folders There,
now Windows will still look nice and perform faster.
6) Reduce 10 Second Scandisk
Wait Time Start MS Dos Prompt (Start run CMD),
and type: CHKNTFS /T:4 where 4 is the amount of wait time. CHKNTFS /? for more
info.
7) DMA Mode
on IDE Devices Just like Windows 2000, Windows XP still fails to set the DMA
mode correctly for the IDE device designated as the slaves on the primary IDE
and secondary IDE channels. Most CD-ROMS are capable of supporting DMA mode, but
the default in XP is still PIO. Setting it to DMA won't make your CD-ROM faster,
but it will consume less CPU cycles. Here's how: Open the Device Manager. One
way to do that is to right-click on "My Computer", select the Hardware tab, and
select Device Manager. Expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and double-click on
"Primary IDE Channel". Under the "Advanced Settings" tab, check the "Device 1"
setting. More than likely, your current transfer mode is set to PIO. Set it to
"DMA if available". Repeat the step for the "Secondary IDE Channel" if you have
devices attached to it. Reboot.
8) Load Internet Explorer the Fastest
Way Possible Edit your link to start Internet Explorer to have -nohome after it.
For Example: "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" -nohome This will
load internet explorer very fast because it does not load a web page while it is
loading. If you want to go to your homepage after it is loaded, just click on
the home button.
9) Easy Way to Adjust Large SystemCache
Normally, the tweak I've seen asks you to go into HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session
Manager\Memory Management and change the value to either O or 1 to the
adjustment the LargeSystemCache. However, in Windows XP, all you have to do is:
Right-click My Computer. Select Properties. Click Advanced. Choose Performance.
Click Advanced again. Select either Programs or System Cache under Memory Usage.
Programs = 0 for the registry tweak equivalent System Cache = 1 for the registry
tweak equivalent
10) Shutdown XP Faster
Like previous versions of windows, it takes
long time to restart or shutdown windows XP when the "Exit Windows" sound is
enabled. To solve this problem you must disable this useless sound. Click Start
button. Go to settings > Control Panel > Sound, Speech and Audio devices >
Sounds and Audio Devices > Sounds. Then under program events and windows menu
click on "Exit Windows" sub-menu and highlight it. Now from sounds you can
select, choose "none" and then click Apply and OK. Now you should see some
improvements when shutting down your system.
11)Easily Disable Messenger
Go into: C:/Program Files/Messenger. Rename the
Messenger folder to "MessengerOFF". This does not slow down Outlook Express or
hinder system performance.
12) Turn Off Autoplay
for Program CDs How can you stop Windows XP from launching program CDs? Click
Start, click Run, type GPEDIT.MSC to open Group Policy in the Microsoft
Management Console. Double-click Computer Configuration, double-click
Administrative templates, double-click System, and then click Turn off autoplay.
The instructions on your screen describe how to configure this setting. Click
Properties to display the setting dialog. Click Enabled, and choose CD-ROM
drives, then click OK, to stop CD autoplay. This setting does not prevent
Autoplay for music CDs.
13) Synchronize Your Computer Clock with an
Internet Time Server Does your computer
have the right time? If your computer is not part of a domain, you can
synchronize your computer clock with an Internet time server. To do so:
Double–click the time on your task bar. Click the Internet Time tab. Select the
time server you want to use and make sure to select the Automatically
synchronize with an Internet time server check box.
14) Win XP Won’t Completely Shutdown
Go to Control Panel, then go to Power Options. Click on the APM tab, then check
the "Enable Advanced Power Management support." Shut down your PC. It should now
successfully complete the Shut Down process.
15) Adjust Various Visual Effects
Open up the Control Panel. Go under System and
click on the Advanced tab. Click settings under Performance options. You can now
change various graphical effects (mainly animations and shadows).
16) Disable Error Reporting
Open Control Panel. Click on Performance and Maintenance. Click on System. Then
click on the Advanced tab. Click on the error-reporting button on the bottom of
the windows. Select Disable error reporting. Click OK. Click OK.
17) Increase Your Cable Modem or DSL Speed in
XP This tweak is for broad band cable
connections on stand alone machines with WinXP professional version - might work
on Home version also. It may also work with networked machines as well. This
tweak assumes that you have let WinXP create a connection on install for your
cable modem/NIC combination and that your connection has tcp/ip - QoS - file and
print sharing - and client for Microsoft networks , only, installed. It also
assumes that WinXP will detect your NIC and has in-box drivers for it. If it
doesn't do not try this. In the "My Network Places" properties (right-click on
the desktop icon and choose properties), highlight the connection then at the
menu bar choose "Advanced" then "Advanced Settings". Uncheck the two boxes in
the lower half for the bindings for File and Printer sharing and Client for MS
networks. Click OK.
18) Stop Jerkey Graphics
If you are connected to a LAN and have problems with jerkey graphics, this might
be the solution: Right-click "MyComputer". Select "Manage". Click on "Device
Manager". Double-click on your NIC under "Network Adapters". In the new window,
select the "Advanced" tab. Select "Connection Type" and manually set the value
of your NIC. (Not "Auto Sense" which is default.). You should reboot.
19) Speeding Up Your Old Shit Pentium by 50%
We all know that you really shouldn't try to run Windows XP on anything less
that about a Pentium 3 of some sort if you are out for speedy operations and
amazing reaction times, but for those of us with the good old Pentium 2's who
want to see just how well we can run XP, we have to tweak as much as we can
where-ever we can. A real killer to the system's performance is Windows Media
Player. Although it may look desirable and fancy with it's rounded off edges and
3rd-Dimensional appearance, the truth is, it takes up a large amount of that
precious processing power. All of these troubles however, lead to one thing in
particular with this 'new-look' over-rated music and video player...the
Visualizations. The look-great I'll admit but like a lot of software these days,
it has no purpose. If you run the task manager, and click the Performance tab
along the top, you'll see that when Windows Media Player is running and nothing
else is active, it takes up around 50% of the processors power. Once these
visualizations are turned off, it barely takes up 2-3% of the processors power,
which leaves much more room for other applications to work efficiently. Here's
how to disable the feature: Open Media Player. Make sure the Now Playing tab on
the left is selected. Click the View menu along the top. Go down to Now Playing
Tools
20) Turn Off System Restore to Save Space
By default, Windows XP keeps a backup of system files in the System Volume
Information folder. This can eat up valuable space on your hard drive. If you
don't want Windows to back up your system files: Open the Control Panel.
Double-click on System. Click the System Restore tab. Check "Turn off System
Restore on all drives". Hit Apply. You may now delete the System Volume
Information folder. ............................