When you start to shut down Windows XP, it has to quit, or "kill," any live applications or processes that are currently running. So close all applications first.
However, some applications and processes are always running in the background.
You can reduce the amount of time that Windows XP waits for those applications and processes to close before Windows XP kills them.
1. Open registry editor
2. Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop.
Set the WaitToKillAppTimeout and set the value to 1000. Select the HungAppTimeout set it to 1000 as well.
3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control.
Select the WaitToKillServiceTimeout value and set it to 10000.
4. Close the Registry Editor.
Win XP Tip #13: Automatically Killing Tasks on Shutdown
You know the drill. You start to shut down the computer, you wait a few moments, and then you see a dialog box asking if you want to kill an application or service that is running. Instead of prompting you, you can make Windows XP take care of the kill task automatically. Here's how:
1. Open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.
3. Highlight the value AutoEndTasks and change the value to 1.
4. Close the Registry Editor.
Win XP Tip #14: Stop Noise
When using 3rd party burning software (eg, Nero Burning Rom) to copy audio CD, some noise may be heard at the end of each track. To prevent this,try the following method:
1. Enter System Properties\device manager
2. Select IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
3. Double click on thee CD writer IDE channel
4. Select advance setting
5. Change the transfer mode to 'PIO Only'
6. Restart Computer
Win XP Tip #15: Disable Unsigned Driver Dialogue
First go to: Start >> Run
Then type: gpedit.msc and hit enter. Browse the folder tree to the following location
User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> System. Right-click Code signing for Device drivers and select Properties. On the Settings tab, either select / enable, and then select ignore from the appearing listbox or click the disable option. Click apply and Ok and your set!
Win XP Tip #16: A Flying Start for the Start Menu
A simple Registry tweak can give speed up your start menu and sub-menus. Open the
Registry Editor, and navigate to and select:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop .
Double-click the MenuShowDelay icon on the right, and change 'Value data' from its default of 400 (milliseconds) to something speedier, like 0. When you have finished, press Enter.
Win XP Tip #17: Resize Your Wallpaper
If you just switched to a wide-screen monitor, your desktop wallpaper image may no longer look right, or maybe you just want to make a small adjustment to it.
For more-granular control of your wallpaper's placement, highlight the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\desktop
Double-click the WallpaperOriginX icon in the right pane. (If you don't see this icon, right-click in this pane, choose New, String Value, type WallpaperOriginX to name the value, and press
To test the effect, first minimize the Registry Editor (and any other open window), right-click the desktop, choose Properties, and click OK or Apply to refresh the wallpaper placement. Repeat these steps as needed until the wallpaper is positioned correctly. The settings work whether you've set your wallpaper to be centered, tiled, or stretched.
Win XP Tip #18: Unhide the Administrator
Few people are aware of Windows XP's cloaked administrator account (called, appropriately enough, "Administrator"). This account is invisible unless either your system has no other accounts or you are booting in Safe Mode. To remove Administrator's camouflage and add it to XP's Welcome screen, navigate to & select
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList in the Registry Editor, and double-click the Administrator icon in the right pane. If you don't see this icon, right-click in the pane, choose New, DWORD Value, name it Administrator, and press Enter. Type 1 in the 'Value data' box, and press
Win XP Tip #20: Hack Your BIOS for Faster
Startups
You can speed up your startup procedures by changing the BIOS with the built-in setup utility. How you run this utility varies from PC to PC, but you typically get to it by pressing the Delete, F1, or F10 keys during startup. You'll come to a menu with a variety of choices. Here are the choices to make for faster system startups:
Quick Power On Self Test (POST)
When you choose this option, your system runs an abbreviated POST rather than the normal, lengthy one.
Boot Up Floppy Seek
Disable this option. When it's enabled, your system spends a few extra seconds looking for your floppy drive a relatively pointless procedure, especially considering how infrequently you use your floppy drive.
Boot Delay
Some systems let you delay booting after you turn on your PC so that your hard drive gets a chance to start spinning before bootup. Most likely, you don't need to have this boot delay, so turn it off. If you run into problems, however, you can turn it back on.
Win XP Tip #21: Find Every File
When you search for a file in Windows Windows searches only for file types it recognizes. Files that aren't listed in the 'Registered file types' list are ignored. Fortunately, a simple edit of the Registry will make Windows search for every file, regardless of its extension. Open the Registry Editor as described above, and then navigate to and select:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex.
Double-click the FilterFilesWithUnknownExtensions icon in the right pane, change the 0 in the 'Value data' box to 1, and press Enter.
To ensure that Windows XP searches for every possible file, select All Files and Folders under 'Type of file' in the Search Companion pane. (If you don't see this option, click More Advanced Options.) Check Search system folders, Search hidden files and folders, and Search subfolders (as desired). In Windows 2000, click Search Options, check Type, and make sure that (All Files and Folders) is selected in the resulting drop-down menu. Check Advanced Options, and make sure Search Subfolders is checked. Finally, to ensure that Windows 2000 finds system and hidden files, choose Tools, Folder Options and click the View tab. In the 'Advanced settings' list, select Show hidden files and folders. Uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended), click Yes to acknowledge the warning, and finish by clicking OK.
Win XP Tip #22: Rework System Restore
The amount of space Windows uses for restore points is a little more complicated than a single percentage value. The Registry includes its own setting for the maximum disk space given to System Restore, and Windows uses whichever amount is larger: the percentage you specify via the System Properties dialog box, or the Registry's maximum value. Any disk space you free up via System Properties won't instantly be used by System Restore; it will be available until a new restore point requires more space than the amount allotted via the percentage value. The percentage and max values tell Windows only when to stop making new restore points.
To lock in your System Restore allocation, open the Registry Editor and navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore. Select the SystemRestore icon in the left pane to see several icons appear in the right pane. Do not experiment with just any of these icons! While you can safely change the value of some of them, Microsoft warns that others should not be altered under any circumstances. Fortunately, you can safely edit the values for the DiskPercent and DSMax icons, which control System Restore's disk-space allotments.
To change the maximum amount of disk space System Restore will use (providing it's larger than the percentage value), double-click the DSMax icon. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, click Decimal so you can see the specified number of megabytes in the 'Value data' box (the default on most systems is '400'). Change this to the desired amount, and click OK.
While you're there, you can also safely edit the DSMin value, which specifies the minimum space System Restore needs to work at all. Normally, if free space on your Windows drive gets too low, System Restore shuts down and makes no restore points until you have at least 200MB of free space. Setting this value determines the amount of disk space at which System Restore will wake up and attempt to start saving restore points again. However, just because System Restore will try to do so, it won't necessarily succeed if the available space is too small. Unfortunately, we know of no method to determine how much space a single restore point will require, so setting this amount too low could render the feature useless. Still, you can fit a lot of system files in 100MB of disk space.
To change this value, double-click the DSMin icon, click Decimal, and enter your desired amount of free disk space (in megabytes) in the 'Value data' box. Click OK.
Win XP Tip #23: Pop Up a Message at Start Up
To pop a banner which can contain any message you want to display just before a user is going to log on, go to the key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System.
Now create a new string Value in the right pane named LegalNoticeCaption and enter the value that you want to see in the Menu Bar. Now create yet another new string value and name it LegalNoticeText. Modify it and insert the message you want to display each time Windows boots. This can be effectively used to display the company's private policy each time the user logs on to his NT box.
Win XP Tip #24: Hide All Icons in the Notification Area
The system tray, also called the notification area, is the small area on the far right side of the taskbar, in which utilities and programs that run in the background, such as antivirus software, show their icons. I don’t find it a particularly intelligent use of screen real estate, so I prefer not to see the icons there.
To hide them, run the Registry Editor and go to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer.
Among other things, this key controls the display of objects throughout XP.
Create a new DWORD called NoTrayItemsDisplay. Assign it a value of 1. (A value of 0 will keep the icons displayed.) Exit the Registry and reboot. While you’re at the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer key, you can also delete the My Recent Documents
icon on the Start menu. Create a new DWORD called NoRecentDocsMenu. Assign it a value of 1. (A value of 0 will keep the icon displayed.) Exit the Registry and reboot.
Win XP Tip #25: Turn Off System Beeps
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Sound, and find the Beep and
ExtendedSounds String values. Set each value to No. Exit the Registry and reboot.
The beeps will no longer sound. Hey, your XP is no longer noisy!!
Win XP Tip #26: Add Specific Folders to Open Dialog Box (XP Home only)
When you use certain Windows applications (such as Notepad) to open a file, on the left side of the Open dialog box are a group of icons and folders (such as My Documents, My Recent Documents, Desktop, My Computer, and My Network) to which you can navigate to open files. A registry hack will let you put just the folders of your choosing on the left side of the Open dialog box. Note that when you do this, it will affect XP applications such as Notepad and Paint that use the Open and Save common dialog boxes. However, it won’t affect Microsoft Office applications and other applications that don’t use the common dialog boxes. Run the Registry Editor and go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Policies\comdlg32. This is the key that determines how common dialog boxes are handled.
You’re going to create a subkey that will create a customized location for the folders, and then give that subkey a series of values, each of which will define a folder location.To start, create a new subkey underneath HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\comdlg32 called Placesbar, and create a String value for it named Place0. Give Place0 a value of the topmost folder that you want to appear on the Open dialog box, for example, C:\Projects. Next, create another String value for Placesbar called Place1. Give it a value of the second folder that you want to appear on the Open dialog box. You can put up to five icons on the Open dialog box, so create new String values up to Place4 and give them values as outlined in the previous steps. When you’re done, exit the Registry. You won’t have to reboot for the changes to take effect. If you do not want any folders to appear in common Open dialog boxes, you can do that as well. In
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\ comdlg32, create a new DWORD value called NoPlacesBar and give it a value of 1.
Exit the Registry. If you want the folders back, either delete NoPlacesBar or give it a
value of 0.
Win XP Tip #27: Place Windows Kernel into RAM
It’s a given that anything that runs in RAM will be faster than an item that has to access the hard drive and virtual memory. Rather than have the kernel that is the foundation of XP using the slower Paging Executive functions, use this hack to create and set the DisablePagingExecutive DWORD to a value of 1. Perform this hack only if the system has 256MB or more of installed RAM! Edit the Registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive to 1 to disable paging and have the kernel run in RAM (set the value to 0 to undo this hack).
Exit the Registry and reboot.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
