Archive for the ‘Windows XP’ Category

Remote Shutdown

Posted: August 20, 2009 in System Tricks, Tricks, Windows XP
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XP PRO has a lot of fun utilities. One of the most useful ones I have found to date is the ability to remotely reboot a PC. There are 2 ways of doing this. You will need to have admin access to the PC to preform these actions. That being said, here is the first way to do it:

Right click my computer, choose manage.

Highlight the Computer Management (Local) then click on Action, choose connect to another computer.

In the window that opens fill in the machine name of the PC you want to connect to and click ok.

Once connected right click on Computer Management (Remote machine name) and choose properties.

Go to the “Advanced” tab and click the Settings button under Start up and recovery.

Click on the Shutdown button.

Under action choose what you want to do (you can log off current user, shut down, restart, or power down. you can also choose if you want to force all applications to close, close hung apps, or wait for all apps to close by themselves).

The second way… Remember dos… that good old thing. Open up a command prompt and enter in the following:

%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -r -m \\Machinename. The command prompt has more switches and options. I highly suggest using shutdown.exe /? to see all the posibilities.

HOW TO DISPLAY PENTIUM 5 OR EVEN MORE IN XP

Posted: August 20, 2009 in Tricks, Windows XP
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HOW TO DISPLY PENTIUM 5 OR EVEN MORE IN XP
NOW U CAN ABLE TO SHOW PENTIUM 5 AND EVEN MORE

I AM GIVING U THE TRICK BY WHICH YOU CAN NOW ABLE TO SHOW OR DISPLAY EVEN PENTIUM 4 OR EVEN 5{EVEN U NOT HAVE THAT MUCH}
AND PROCESSOR
VALUE UPTO 3.0 HRTZ OR MORE THAN THIS

TYPE “REGEDIT” IN RUN BOX {START->RUN->TYPE REGEDIT}
NOW CLICK IN
H-KEY-LOCAL-MACHIN . THEN ON HARDWARE. THEN ON DISCRIPTION.THEN ON SYSTEM,THEN ON
CentralProcessor.THEN ON 0
{H-KEY-LOCAL-MACHIN/HARDWARE/DISCRIPTION
/SYSTEM/CentralProcessor/0}
NOW U GET IN RIGHT PANE THE VALUE THAT IS
“ProcessorNameString”
DOUBLE CLICK ON THIS VALUE
VALUE NAME AND VALUE DATA IS NOW IN FROUNT OF U NOW IN DATA COLOM U CAN EDIT IT RANDOMLY WHAT U WANT IN PLACE OF THAT
VALUE
AND THEN PRESS OK

NOW SEE SYSTEM PROPERTY JUST RIGHT CLICKING IN U ARE MY COMPUTER ICON OR SEE SYSTEM PROPERTY JUST BY PRESSING {WIN+PAUSE BREAK }

Change Drive Letters in Windows

Posted: August 20, 2009 in System Basics, System Information, Tricks, Windows XP
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Change Drive Letters in Windows

When you add drives to your computer, such as an extra hard drive, a CD drive, or a

storage device that corresponds to a drive, Windows automatically assigns letters to the

drives. However, this assignment might not suit your system; for example, you might have

mapped a network drive to the same letter that Windows assigns to a new drive.

· Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.

· Under Computer Management, click Disk Management. In the right pane, you’ll see your

drives listed. CD-ROM drives are listed at the bottom of the pane.

· Right-click the drive or device you want to change, and then click Change Drive

Letter and Paths.

· Click Change, click Assign the following drive letter, click the drive letter you

want to assign, and then click OK.

You will not be able to change the boot or system drive letter in this manner. Many

MS-DOS-based and Windows-based programs make references to a specific drive letter (for

example, environment variables). If you modify the drive letter, these programs may not

function correctly.

Disable the Shut Down Button on the Welcome Screen

Posted: August 20, 2009 in System Information, System Tricks, Tricks, Windows XP
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Disable the Shut Down Button on the Welcome Screen

Do you have little ones that like to click all over the screen when you’re not

looking? Afraid of someone shutting down the computer without logging on?

· Click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click

Administrative Tools.

· Double-click Local Security Policy.

· Expand Security Settings, then expand Local Policies, and then click Security

Options.

· In the right pane, double-click the Shutdown: Allow system to be shut down without

having to log on policy, click the Disabled radio button, and then click OK.

No more shutting down without logging on!

Create Your Own Restore Points

Posted: August 20, 2009 in Restore, Windows XP
Tags:
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Create Your Own Restore Points

Windows XP makes it easy for you to take a snapshot of critical system files before

you make any major changes, such as installing new software, adding hardware devices, or

changing the registry. (Windows XP automatically creates system restore points, called

system checkpoints, but you can create your own to make it even easier to recover your

system in case of a failure.) Note that using restore points doesn’t affect your

personal files, such as the My Documents or Favorites folders.

· Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and

then click System Restore.

· In the System Restore dialog box, click Create a restore point, and then click

Next.

· Type a description for your restore point, such as “Before Office XP”, then click

Create.

· If your system fails, press F8 in the boot menu, and then click Last known good

configuration. Windows XP restores your system to the most recent restore point.

Disable Error Reporting

Posted: August 20, 2009 in System Information, System Tricks, Windows XP
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Disable Error Reporting

You can get rid of the Windows XP error report messages if you don’t want to send

another one in.

· Click Start, and then click Run.

· Type msconfig to open the System Configuration Utility.

· Click the Services tab.

· Clear the Error Reporting Service check box, and then click OK.

· Hit Restart to reboot your system.

Your computer will now start without loading the error reporting service.

Block USB in Windows XP SP2

Posted: August 20, 2009 in System Modifications, Tricks, Windows XP
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Systems by default will allow USB storage devices to connect without problems. This allows an easy pathway for a user to download or upload large files from the system. In some environments, this is helpful; other times it can be a security nightmare.

Here’s the registry key to turn it off.

(If you don’t know registry, don’t mess with this stuff.)

If you don’t have this key, you might need to create it.

    Location:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\
    CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

    Setting name:
    WriteProtect

    Dword values:
    0 (is the default and allows USB devices to connect)
    1 (prevents USB devices from connecting)

Windows XP Tweaking….

Posted: August 18, 2009 in System Tricks, Tricks, Tweaking, Windows XP
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Win XP Tweaks

———–

STARTUP

———–

Windows Prefetcher

******************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management \ PrefetchParameters]

Under this key there is a setting called EnablePrefetcher, the default setting of which is 3. Increasing this number to 5 gives the prefetcher system more system resources to prefetch application data for faster load times. Depending on the number of boot processes you run on your computer, you may get benefits from settings up to 9. However, I do not have any substantive research data on settings above 5 so I cannot verify the benefits of a higher setting. This setting also may effect the loading times of your most frequently launched applications. This setting will not take effect until after you reboot your system.

Master File Table Zone Reservation

**********************************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ FileSystem]

Under this key there is a setting called NtfsMftZoneReservation, the default setting of which is 1. The range of this value is from 1 to 4. The default setting reserves one-eighth of the volume for the MFT. A setting of 2 reserves one-quarter of the volume for the MFT. A setting of 3 for NtfsMftZoneReservation reserves three-eighths of the volume for the MFT and setting it to 4 reserves half of the volume for the MFT. Most users will never exceed one-quarter of the volume. I recommend a setting of 2 for most users. This allows for a “moderate number of files” commensurate with the number of small files included in most computer games and applications. Reboot after applying this tweak.

Optimize Boot Files

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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Dfrg \ BootOptimizeFunction]

Under this key is a text value named Enable. A value of Y for this setting enables the boot files defragmenter. This setting defragments the boot files and may move the boot files to the beginning (fastest) part of the partition, but that last statement is unverified. Reboot after applying this tweak.

Optimizing Startup Programs [msconfig]

**************************************

MSConfig, similar to the application included in Win9x of the same name, allows the user to fine tune the applications that are launched at startup without forcing the user to delve deep into the registry. To disable some of the applications launched, load msconfig.exe from the run command line, and go to the Startup tab. From there, un-ticking the checkbox next to a startup item will stop it from launching. There are a few application that you will never want to disable (ctfmon comes to mind), but for the most part the best settings vary greatly from system to system.

As a good rule of thumb, though, it is unlikely that you will want to disable anything in the Windows directory (unless it’s a third-party program that was incorrectly installed into the Windows directory), nor will you want to disable anything directly relating to your system hardware. The only exception to this is when you are dealing with software, which does not give you any added benefits (some OEM dealers load your system up with software you do not need). The nice part of msconfig is that it does not delete any of the settings, it simply disables them, and so you can go back and restart a startup application if you find that you need it. This optimization won’t take effect until after a reboot.

Bootvis Application

*******************

The program was designed by Microsoft to enable Windows XP to cold boot in 30 seconds, return from hibernation in 20 seconds, and return from standby in 10 seconds. Bootvis has two extremely useful features. First, it can be used to optimize the boot process on your computer automatically. Second, it can be used to analyze the boot process for specific subsystems that are having difficulty loading. The first process specifically targets the prefetching subsystem, as well as the layout of boot files on the disk. When both of these systems are optimized, it can result in a significant reduction in the time it takes for the computer to boot.

Before attempting to use Bootvis to analyze or optimize the boot performance of your system, make sure that the task scheduler service has been enabled – the program requires the service to run properly. Also, close all open programs as well – using the software requires a reboot.

To use the software to optimize your system startup, first start with a full analysis of a fresh boot. Start Bootvis, go to the Tools menu, and select next boot. Set the Trace Repetition Settings to 2 repetitions, Start at 1, and Reboot automatically. Then set the trace into motion. The system will fully reboot twice, and then reopen bootvis and open the second trace file (should have _2 in the name). Analyze the graphs and make any changes that you think are necessary (this is a great tool for determining which startup programs you want to kill using msconfig). Once you have made your optimizations go to the Trace menu, and select the Optimize System item. This will cause the system to reboot and will then make some changes to the file structure on the hard drive (this includes a defragmentation of boot files and a shifting of their location to the fastest portion of the hard disk, as well as some other optimizations). After this is done, once again run a Trace analysis as above, except change the starting number to 3. Once the system has rebooted both times, compare the charts from the second trace to the charts for the fourth trace to show you the time improvement of the system’s boot up.

The standard defragmenter included with Windows XP will not undo the boot optimizations performed by this application.

———————————–

General Performance Tweaks

———————————–

IRQ Priority Tweak

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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ PriorityControl]

You will need to create a new DWORD: IRQ#Priority (where # is the number of the IRQ you want to prioritize) and give it a setting of 1. This setting gives the requisite IRQ channel priority over the other IRQs on a software level. This can be extremely important for functions and hardware subsystems that need real-time access to other parts of the system. There are several different subsystems that might benefit from this tweak. Generally, I recommend giving either the System CMOS or the video card priority. The System CMOS generally has an IRQ setting of 8, and giving it priority enhances the I/O performance of the system. Giving priority to the video card can increase frame rates and make AGP more effective.

You can give several IRQs priority, but I am not entirely certain how the system interacts when several IRQs are given priority – it may cause random instabilities in the system, although it is more likely that there’s a parsing system built into Windows XP to handle such an occurrence. Either way, I would not recommend it.

QoS tweak

*********

QoS (Quality of Service) is a networking subsystem which is supposed to insure that the network runs properly. The problem with the system is that it eats up 20% of the total bandwidth of any networking service on the computer (including your internet connection). If you are running XP Professional, you can disable the bandwidth quota reserved for the system using the Group Policy Editor [gpedit.msc].

You can run the group policy editor from the Run command line. To find the setting, expand “Local Computer Policy” and go to “Administrative Templates” under “Computer Configuration.” Then find the “Network” branch and select “QoS Packet Scheduler.” In the right hand box, double click on the “Limit Reservable Bandwidth.” From within the Settings tab, enable the setting and then go into the “Bandwidth Limit %” and set it to 0%. The reason for this is that if you disable this setting, the computer defaults to 20%. This is true even when you aren’t using QoS.

Free Idle Tasks Tweak

*********************

This tweak will free up processing time from any idle processes and allow it to be used by the foreground application. It is useful particularly if you are running a game or other 3D application. Create a new shortcut to “Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks” and place it on your desktop. Double-click on it anytime you need all of your processing power, before opening the application.

Windows Indexing Services

Windows Indexing Services creates a searchable database that makes system searches for words and files progress much faster – however, it takes an enormous amount of hard drive space as well as a significant amount of extra CPU cycles to maintain the system. Most users will want to disable this service to release the resources for use by the system. To turn off indexing, open My Computer and right click on the drive on which you wish to disable the Indexing Service. Enter the drive’s properties and under the general tab, untick the box for “Allow the Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching.”

Priority Tweak

**************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ PriorityControl]

This setting effectively runs each instance of an application in its own process for significantly faster application performance and greater stability. This is extremely useful for users with stability problems, as it can isolate specific instances of a program so as not to bring down the entire application. And, it is particularly useful for users of Internet Explorer, for if a rogue web page crashes your browser window, it does not bring the other browser windows down with it. It has a similar effect on any software package where multiple instances might be running at once, such as Microsoft Word. The only problem is that this takes up significantly more memory, because such instances of a program cannot share information that is in active memory (many DLLs and such will have to be loaded into memory multiple times). Because of this, it is not recommended for anyone with less than 512 MB of RAM, unless they are running beta software (or have some other reason for needing the added stability).

There are two parts to this tweak. First is to optimize XP’s priority control for the processes. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ PriorityControl and set the “Win32PrioritySeparation” DWORD to 38. Next, go into My Computer and under Tools, open the Folder Options menu. Select the View tab and check the “Launch folder windows in separate process” box. This setting actually forces each window into its own memory tread and gives it a separate process priority.

Powertweak application

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xxx.powertweak.com

Powertweak is an application, which acts much like a driver for our chipsets. It optimizes the communication between the chipset and the CPU, and unlocks several “hidden” features of the chipset that can increase the speed of the system. Specifically, it tweaks the internal registers of the chipset and processor that the BIOS does not for better communication performance between subsystems. Supported CPUs and chipsets can see a significant increase in I/O bandwidth, increasing the speed of the entire system. Currently the application supports most popular CPUs and chipsets, although you will need to check the website for your specific processor/chipset combo – the programmer is working on integrating even more chipsets and CPUs into the software.

Offload Network Task Processing onto the Network Card

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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Tcpip \ Parameters]

Many newer network cards have the ability of taking some of the network processing load off of the processor and performing it right on the card (much like Hardware T&L on most new video cards). This can significantly lower the CPU processes needed to maintain a network connection, freeing up that processor time for other tasks. This does not work on all cards, and it can cause network connectivity problems on systems where the service is enabled but unsupported, so please check with your NIC manufacturer prior to enabling this tweak. Find the DWORD “DisableTaskOffload” and set the value to 0 (the default value is 1). If the key is not already available, create it.

Force XP to Unload DLLs

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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer]

“AlwaysUnloadDLL”=dword:00000001

XP has a bad habit of keeping dynamic link libraries that are no longer in use resident in memory. Not only do the DLLs use up precious memory space, but they also tend to cause stability problems in some systems. To force XP to unload any DLLs in memory when the application that called them is no longer in memory, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer and find the DWORD “AlwaysUnloadDLL”. You may need to create this key. Set the value to 1 to force the operating system to unload DLLs.

Give 16-bit apps their own separate processes

*********************************************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ WOW]

“DefaultSeparateVDM”=”Yes”

By default, Windows XP will only open one 16-bit process and cram all 16-bit apps running on the system at a given time into that process. This simulates how MS-DOS based systems viewed systems and is necessary for some older applications that run together and share resources. However, most 16-bit applications work perfectly well by themselves and would benefit from the added performance and stability of their own dedicated resources. To force Windows XP to give each 16-bit application it’s own resources, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ WOW and find the String “DefaultSeparateVDM”. If it is not there, you may need to create it. Set the value of this to Yes to give each 16-bit application its own process, and No to have the 16-bit application all run in the same memory space.

Disable User Tracking

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[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer]

“NoInstrumentation”=dword:00000001

The user tracking system built into Windows XP is useless to 99% of users (there are very few uses for the information collected other than for a very nosy system admin), and it uses up precious resources to boot, so it makes sense to disable this “feature” of Windows XP. To do so, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer and find the DWORD “NoInstrumentation”. You may need to create this key if it is not there. The default setting is 0, but setting it to 1 will disable most of the user tracking features of the system.

Thumbnail Cache

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[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced]

“DisableThumbnailCache”=dword:00000001

Windows XP has a neat feature for graphic and video files that creates a “thumbnail” of the image or first frame of the video and makes it into an oversized icon for the file. There are two ways that Explorer can do this, it can create them fresh each time you access the folder or it can load them from a thumbnail cache. The thumbnail caches on systems with a large number of image and video files can become staggeringly large. To disable the Thumbnail Cache, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced and find the DWORD “DisableThumbnailCache”. You may need to create this key. A setting of 1 is recommended for systems where the number of graphic and video files is large, and a setting of 0 is recommended for systems not concerned about hard drive space, as loading the files from the cache is significantly quicker than creating them from scratch each time a folder is accessed.

Add a Safe Mode option to the Boot menu in Windows XP

Posted: August 18, 2009 in System Basics, Windows XP
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Follow these steps to add a Safe Mode option to the Boot menu.
When you’re experiencing a problem with Windows XP, you may need to boot the system into Safe Mode more than once. However, doing so can be a tiresome process. When the Boot menu appears, you must press [F8], and then you must select Safe Mode from yet another menu.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Safe Mode were available from the Boot menu? In fact, it’s relatively easy to add a Safe Mode option to the Boot menu.
Here’s how.

1. Press [Windows][Break] to open the System Properties dialog box.
2. On the Advanced tab, click the Settings button in the Startup And Recovery section.
3. In the System Startup section, click the Edit button.
4. When the Boot.ini file opens in Notepad, locate the line that ends with the /fastdetect switch.
5. Highlight and copy that line and paste it in the line below.
6. Change the section on the line that reads WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” to WINDOWS=”Safe Mode.”
7. Add the following to the end of the line:
/safeboot:minimal /sos /bootlog

Use registry shortcuts to disable and enable screensavers in Win XP

Posted: August 18, 2009 in Registry, System Tricks, Windows XP
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Use registry shortcuts to disable and enable screensavers in Win XP:

The steps in this tip will show you how to edit the registry for a time-saving shortcut for enabling and disabling your screensaver.
When you perform maintenance operations such as defragmenting or backing up the hard disk, you probably disable your screensaver before you begin to prevent it from interfering with the maintenance operation. However, disabling your screensaver manually is a multistep operation that involves accessing the Display Properties dialog box, navigating to the Screen Saver tab, and setting the screen saver to None. Then, you need to re-enable the screen saver after you complete the maintenance operation.
Fortunately, you can automate the disabling and enabling screen saver procedures with a couple of registry shortcuts. Note: Editing the registry is risky, so make sure you have a verified backup before making any changes.
Here’s how.

1. Launch Notepad and type the following four lines. (Note: The second line must be blank.)
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
“ScreenSaveActive”=”0”
2. Save the file to your desktop with the name Disable Screen Saver.reg.
3. Change the 0 to a 1 in the fourth line.
4. Save the file to your desktop with the name Enable Screen Saver.reg.

Now, when you need to disable the screen saver, just double-click the Disable Screen Saver.reg shortcut. To enable the screen saver, double-click the Enable Screen Saver.reg shortcut.
When you run either of these files, the Registry Editor will display two confirmation prompts—one before making the change and one after making the change.

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