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Windows Restarts After Failure
If you encounter a serious problem with your PC, Windows XP
is set to restart automatically. You can change this setting and see details of
an error when it occurs by going along to 'System Properties'. Select the
'Advanced' tab and click on 'Settings' under 'Startup' and 'Recovery'. Then
under 'System failure' uncheck 'Automatically restart'.
Improve Start Menu Display
The ‘start’ menu can become cluttered with program
shortcuts. The answer is to use separators which can be added to the ‘Pinned
items’ menu to help you distinguish between programs. Create a new shortcut on
the desktop using any file as a target. Now, right click the shortcut click
‘Rename’. Delete the text label then hold down the ‘Alt’ and press 0160 on the
number pad. This gives you a blank filename. Next, right click on your icon,
choose ‘Properties’ and under the ‘Shortcut’ click ‘Change Icon’. Browse to
‘C:\windows\system32\shell32.dll’ and scroll until you reach one of the black
icons then hit ‘OK’. Remove anything in ‘Target’ in case you select it by
mistake. Close the ‘Properties’ window then drag this blank icon to the ‘Start’
menu and use it as a separator.
More Start Menu Improvements
For faster access to your applications add them to the
'Start' menu instead of the 'All Programs' menu. Right-click the .exe file of a
program and choose 'Pin to Start menu'.
Adding and Removing ALL Your Applications & Programs
The 'Add or Remove Programs' option doesn't show you the
entire list of applications that are installed on your system.
To get this
information, browse to 'C:\Windows\inf and open the file 'sysoc.inf. Remove the
word 'hide' from alongside an item to ensure that it's displayed in 'Add or
Remove Programs'.
Using Windows XP as a Narrator
Hold down the Windows key and press 'U' which will open the
'Utility Manager' and enable you to run 'Narrator'. This clever program will
talk you through everything that's taking place in Windows XP. It will even read
out the contents of a web page for you!
I deleted it, is it really gone?
When an email message or folder is deleted it's not removed
from your system, just hidden from view. To delete messages permanently and free
up disk space click on 'File', 'Folder', 'Compress All Folders'.
Desktop Icons Improvements
A delay when icons are being drawn on-screen can be due to
old icons being stored in the icon cache.
Open 'My Computer'and browse to
'Documents and Settings/Username/Local Settings/Application Data'. Then locate
the file 'IconCache.db' file and delete it.
Improving Device Manager's Display
Add a 'Details' tab for each device that appears in 'Device
Manager'. Open 'System Properties', select the 'Advanced' tab and click on
'Environment Variables'. Under 'System Variables' click on 'New' and in
‘Variable name' type 'DEVMGR_SHOW_DETAILS'. In Variable value' type '1'.
Speed up Page File Access
There are two types of memory which help XP function
correctly. One is physical memory / RAM and the other is Virtual Memory,
referred to as the paging file. This is an area of your hard drive used as
buffer when RAM is low on resources. If you have another hard disk installed you
can move the paging file there and reduce the stress of two activities on your
main hard disk.
Reducing the work on your main hard disk can speed up
application response times (this will only benefit you if you have another disk
installed). Open 'System Properties' in the Control Panel and select 'Advanced'.
Under 'Performance' click on 'Settings' then select 'Advanced'. Go to Virtual
Memory' and click on 'Change' to see your current settings. At the moment 'C'
will be selected so click to highlight your other drive instead. Having selected
a different drive you can choose the 'Custom size' option and set an 'Initial
size' and 'Maximum size' for the paging file. Or, opt for the 'System managed'
size and XP will decide what's best for you.
WindowsXP - Quick Wins |
WindowsXP - Registry Tweaks
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