WindowsXP Tips

Services You Can Disable

There are quite a few services you can disable from starting automatically.
This would be to speed up your boot time and free resources.
They are only suggestions so I suggestion you read the description of each one when you run Services
and that you turn them off one at a time.

Some possibilities are:
Alerter
Application Management
Clipbook
Fast UserSwitching
Human Interface Devices
Indexing Service
Messenger
Net Logon
NetMeeting
QOS RSVP
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry
Routing & Remote Access
SSDP Discovery Service
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Web Client

Cleaning the Prefetch Directory

WindowsXP has a new feature called Prefetch. This keeps a shortcut to recently used programs.
However it can fill up with old and obsolete programs.

To clean this periodically go to:

  1. Star / Run / Prefetch
  2. Press Ctrl-A to highlight all the shorcuts
  3. Delete them

Not Displaying Logon, Logoff, Startup and Shutdown Status Messages

To turn these off:

  1. Start Regedit
  2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system
  3. If it is not already there, create a DWORD value named DisableStatusMessages
  4. Give it a value of 1

 Accessing Non-Listed Display Configurations

If you want to access display configurations not normally listed (e.g. 256 colors)

  1. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab.
  2. Click the Advanced button.
  3. Click the Adapter tab,
  4. Click the List all modes button.
  5. Select the resolution, color depth, and refresh rate that you want and click OK.

Repair Install

If XP is corrupted to the point where none of the previous solutions get it to boot,
you can do a Repair Install that might work as well as keep the current settings.

  1. Make sure you have your valid WindowsXP key
  2. Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD
  3. At the second R=Repair option, press the R key
  4. This will start the repair
  5. Eventually you will be prompted for your XP key

NTOSKRNL Missing or Corrupt

If you get an error that NTOSKRNL not found:

  1. Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD.
  2. At the first R=Repair option, press the R key
  3. Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair.
    Typically this will be #1
  4. Change to the drive that has the CD ROM.
  5. CD i386
  6. expand ntkrnlmp.ex_ C:\Windows\System32\ntoskrnl.exe
  7. If WindowsXP is installed in a different location, just make the necessary change to C:\Windows
  8. Take out the CD ROM and type exit

HAL.DLL Missing or Corrupt

If you get an error regarding a missing or corrupt hal.dll file, it might simply be the BOOT.INI file on the root of the C: drive that is misconfigured

  1. Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD.
  2. At the first R=Repair option, press the R key
  3. Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair.
    Typically this will be #1
  4. Type bootcfg /list to show the current entries in the BOOT.INI file
  5. Type bootcfg /rebuild to repair it
  6. Take out the CD ROM and type exit

Corrupted or Missing \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG

If you get the error:
Windows could not start because the following files is missing or corrupt
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM or \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SOFTWARE

  1. Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD.
  2. At the first R=Repair option, press the R key
  3. Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair.
    Typically this will be #1
  4. Enter in the administrator password when requested
  5. cd \windows\system32\config
  6. Depending on which section was corrupted:
    ren software software.bad or ren system system.bad
  7. Depending on which section was corrupted
    copy \windows\repair\system
    copy \windows\repair\software
  8. Take out the CD ROM and type exit

NTLDR or NTDETECT.COM Not Found

If you get an error that NTLDR is not found during bootup,

If you have FAT32 partitions, it is much simpler than with NTFS.
Just boot with a Win98 floppy and copy the NTLDR or NTDETECT.COM files
from the i386 directory to the root of the C:\ drive.

For NTFS:

  1. Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD.
  2. At the first R=Repair option, press the R key
  3. Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair.
    Typically this will be #1
  4. Enter in the administrator password when requested
  5. Enter in the following commands (X: is replaced by the actual drive letter that is assigned to the CD ROM drive.
    COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C\:
    COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:\
  6. Take out the CD ROM and type exit

Bringing Up the Shutdown Dialog Box

  1. Create a new txt file somewhere on your system, open it and put in this one line:
    (new ActiveXObject("Shell.Application")).ShutdownWindows();
  2. Save and Close the file. Change the extension to js and your got it.
  3. You can make a shortcut to that file to make it easy to shut down your system.

Adding TCP/IP Printers

To create a connection to a printer connected to your network:

  1. Start to add a new printer through the control panel.
  2. Select Local Printer / Next
  3. Instead of a LPT port, check Create a new port at the bottom on the window
  4. Scroll to Standard TCP/IP Port
  5. Keep going and enter the IP address of the printer.

Increasing the Folder Cache

The default setting for WindowsXP is to cache the Explorer settings for 400 folders.
To increase it:

  1. Start Regedit
  2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam
  3. Change the vaule of BagMRU  to whatever size you want (hex)

1000 - 3e8
2000 - 7d0
3000 - bb8
4000 - fa0
5000 - 1388

Hiding the Last User Logged On

If you use the standard NT style of login and want to hide the last user:

  1. Start the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
  2. Go to Computer Configuration / Windows Settings / Security Settings / Local Policies / Security Options
  3. Scroll down to Interactive logon: Do not display last user name
  4. Set it to Enable

Poweroff at Shutdown

If your computer does not turn off the power when doing a shutdown,
you may need to edit the registry. I have all the correct BIOS and Power settings and still needed to do this.

  1. Start Regedit
  2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
  3. Edit the key PowerOffActive and give it a value of 1
  4. You can do the same in HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop

Remembering Folder Settings

If XP does not remember your folder settings, delete or rename the following registry keys

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\BagMRU]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\Bags]

Stop Password Expiration

If you want to do this for all users, enter:

Start / Run / net accounts /maxpwage:unlimited

If you are getting an error message that your password is about to expire:

  1. Right click on the My Computer icon
  2. Select Manage
  3. Go to Local Users and Groups / Users
  4. Right-click on the user you want to change
  5. Select Properties
  6. On the General tab, check Password never expires
  7. Click OK

Preventing Applications from Stealing the Focus

To prevent applications from stealing the focus from the window you are working

  1. Start Regedit

  2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop

  3. Edit the key ForegroundLockTimeout

  4. Give it a value of 00030d40

Disable Explorer Thumbnail View

If you want disable the Explorer's ability to show the Thumbnail View ,

  1. Start Regedit

  2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced \

  3. Change ClassicViewState to 1

Adding Environment Variables

Since any version of NT does not use an autoexec.bat file,
to add environment variables to WindowsXP:

  1. Right click on My Computer

  2. Select Properties

  3. Click on the Advanced tab

  4. Click on the Environment Variables button

  5. From here you can change it for the system or just the current user.