How to info & News.

Create hidden user accounts · Monday, March 30, 2009

You can prevent an account from appearing on the Welcome screen, thereby creating a "hidden" account. (It's not completely hidden, because the account is visible to administrators in Local Users And Groups and the account's profile in the Documents And Settings folder is visible to all users.) Use Registry Editor to open HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserLis t. Create a new DWORD value, setting its name to the user name of the account you want to hide and leaving its value set to 0.

But be careful with this trick: you won't be able to get to the account with Fast User Switching because the account doesn't appear on the Welcome screen. Pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete two times at the Welcome screen to display the Log On To Windows dialog box works only when no other users are logged on. Therefore, if you want to use this type of hidden account, you should either disable Fast User Switching or resign yourself to using the account only when no one else is logged on.

Because the Internet Explorer engine is at the heart of the Help And Support Center, each topic has its own URL. If you know how to manipulate these URLs, you can save a specific Help topic as an external shortcut. Using that shortcut, you can jump directly to a specific topic without having to go through the Help And Support Center first. Unfortunately, Windows XP does not let you create a shortcut to a Help topic directly. To do so, follow the process outlined below:

Open the topic for which you want to create a shortcut, right-click anywhere on the page (except on a link), and choose Properties.
Select the entire URL from the Address field (be sure to scroll down to select the full address).
Press Ctrl+C to copy it to the Clipboard.
Right-click the desktop (or in a folder where you want to save the shortcut) and choose New, Shortcut.
In the Create Shortcut dialog box, type %systemroot%\pchealth\helpctr\ binaries\helpctr /url followed by a space, and then paste the copied URL.
Click Next, give the shortcut a name, and click Finish.
Shortcuts you create in this fashion work with URLs in two common Help formats:

The Help Center Pluggable protocol (with the prefix hcp://) is less common and is typically used for Help topics that link to external applications and locations, such as Remote Assistance or Windows Newsgroups.
HTML Help protocol (with the prefix ms-its://) is used for access to information in Compiled Help (.chm) files. If you just want quick access and don't mind opening this type of URL in the Windows 2000-style HTML Help viewer, you can use the Hh.exe Help engine. Open the Create Shortcut wizard and type hh followed by a space and the Help topic's URL. The resulting shortcut opens the selected topic in a window that lists only topics from the same Help file.

How do you know whether a downloaded version is newer than the currently installed driver on your system? A good Readme file should provide this information and is the preferred option. In the absence of documentation, file dates offer some clues, but are not always reliable. A better indicator is to inspect the properties of the driver files themselves. After unzipping the downloaded driver files to a folder on a local or network drive, right-click any file with a .dll or .sys extension and choose Properties. On the Version tab, you should be able to find details about the specific driver version, which you can compare to the driver details shown in Device Manager.

Double-clicking anywhere within the Performance tab—on the graphs themselves or the surrounding matter—removes everything but the CPU Usage and CPU Usage History graphs, allowing you to see more detail without expanding the window itself. With the window thus altered, you can resize the display and keep it on top as you work. To move to the Processes or Applications tab, press Ctrl+Tab. To return Windows Task Manager to its normal display, double-click again.

If you have Windows XP set up to perform automatic updating, you can keep tabs on the changes made to your system by examining the Windows Update.log file, which you’ll find in the %SystemRoot% folder. You can also review your Windows Update changes by going to the Windows Update site (select Start, All Programs, Windows Update) and clicking the View Installation History link.

The ARC path syntax supports more than 30 different switches that enable you to control various aspects of the Windows XP startup (or another operating system, as long as it’s Windows XP, Windows 2000, or Windows NT 4). You can either enter these switches by hand when editing Boot.ini in Notepad, or use the check boxes on the BOOT.INI tab of the System Configuration Utility. Here’s a summary of the switches that are most useful:

/safeboot:minimal Boots Windows XP in safe mode, which uses only a minimal set of device drivers. Use this switch if Windows XP won’t start, if a device or program is causing Windows XP to crash, or if you can’t uninstall a program while Windows XP is running normally.

/safeboot:minimal(alternateshell) Boots Windows XP in safe mode but also bypasses the Windows XP GUI and boots to the command prompt instead. Use this switch if the programs you need in order to repair a problem can be run from the command prompt or if you can’t load the Windows XP GUI.

/safeboot:network Boots Windows XP in safe mode but also includes networking drivers. Use this switch if the drivers or programs you need to repair a problem exist on a shared network resource, if you need access to e mail or other network-based communications for technical support, or if your computer is running a shared Windows XP installation.

/safeboot:dsrepair Boots Windows XP in safe mode and also restores a backup of the Active Directory directory service (this option applies only to domain controllers).

/noguiboot Tells Windows XP not to load the display driver that normally is used to display the progress bar during startup. Use this switch if Windows XP hangs while switching video modes for the progress bar, or if the display of the progress bar is garbled.

/bootlog Boots Windows XP and logs the boot process to a text file named Ntbtlog.txt that resides in the %SystemRoot% folder. Open Ntbtlog.txt. in Notepad, move to the end of the file, and you may see a message telling you which device driver failed. You probably need to reinstall or roll back the driver. Use this switch if the Windows XP startup hangs, if you need a detailed record of the startup process, or if you suspect (after using one of the other Startup menu options) that a driver is causing Windows XP startup to fail.

/basevideo Boots Windows XP using the standard VGA mode: 640 × 480 with 256 colors. This is useful for troubleshooting video display driver problems. Use this switch if Windows XP fails to start using any of the safe mode options, if you recently installed a new video card device driver and the screen is garbled or the driver is balking at a resolution or color depth setting that’s too high, or if you can’t load the Windows XP GUI. Once Windows XP loads, you can either reinstall or roll back the driver, or you can adjust the display settings to values that the driver can handle.

/sos Displays the path and location of each device driver (using the ARC path syntax) as it is loaded, as well as the operating system version and build number and the number of processors.

/maxmem=MB Specifies the maximum amount of memory, in megabytes, that Windows XP can use. Use this value when you suspect a faulty memory chip might be causing problems.

/numproc=n In a multiprocessor system, specifies the maximum of processors that Windows XP can use. Use this switch if you suspect that using multiple processors is causing a program to hang.

/pcilock Tells Windows XP not to dynamically assign hardware resources for PCI devices during startup. The resources assigned by the BIOS during the POST are “locked” in place. Use this switch if installing a PCI device causes the system to hang during startup.

/debug Enables remote debugging of the Windows XP kernel. This sends debugging information to a remote computer via one of your computer’s serial ports. You can also add any of the following switches:

/debugport=port Specifies the serial port, where port is one of com1, com2, com3, com4, or 1394. Specifying 1394 will require that you also use the /channel switch.

/baudrate=speed If you use a COM port, use this switch to specify the transmission speed of the debugging information, where speed is one of the following: 300, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, or 115200.

/channel=number If you use an IEEE 1394 (FireWire) connection, use this switch to specify the channel, where number is a value between 1 and 64.

If you have a large number of check boxes to test (such as on the Services tab), selecting one check box at a time and rebooting can be tedious, to say the least. A faster method—called “troubleshooting by halves”—is to begin by selecting the first half of the check boxes and rebooting. One of two things will happen:

The problem doesn’t reoccur. This means that one of the items represented by the cleared check boxes is the culprit. Clear all the check boxes, select the other half of the check boxes, and then reboot.

The problem reoccurs. This means that one of the selected check boxes is the problem. Select only half of those check boxes and reboot.

Keep halving the number of selected check boxes until you isolate the offending item.

Instead of deleting reg files the manual way one can create reg files to do that job without having to get ones hands dirty digging through all those registry entries.

Warning
Deleting reg keys indescriminately can and often leads to an inoperable system. Use with caution

To delete a setting using a .reg file, set its value to a hyphen (-), as in this example:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Test]"BinarySetting"=-
To delete a key, add a hyphen to the start of the key name, as in this example:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Test]

Remember these commands are to be typed in a text file first and then saved as a .reg file.

On systems with 512 MB or more of physical memory, the large initial size of the page file can consume excessive amounts of disk space. On a system with 1 GB of RAM, for instance, the starting page file size is 1.5 GB, and under normal circumstances it's likely that this file will never be used. The best strategy for page-file management in this configuration is to set Initial Size to be relatively small—say, 512 MB—while setting a large maximum size so that Windows can increase the page file size if necessary. This setting keeps disk space use in check but prevents the possibility of experiencing out-of-memory errors. If disk space is really tight, set the initial page-file size to its minimum of 2 MB and set the maximum size to a value that is at least as large as the amount of installed memory. Use your computer normally for a few weeks and allow Windows to create a page file of the proper size. Use Task Manager to monitor the size of the page file and make certain that it's below the maximum size you specified.

add the open cmd prompt to folder context menus also drives and My Computer

copy what's in the code area to notepad and save as cmd here.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\cmd]
@="Command Prompt"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\cmd\command]
@="cmd.exe /k \"cd %L\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd]
@="Command Prompt"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd\command]
@="cmd.exe /k \"cd %L\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{20D04FE 0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell\cmd]
@="Command Prompt"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{20D04FE 0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\shell\cmd\command]
@="cmd.exe /k \"cd %L\""

If u r having any important docs and u r afraid abt it . dont wory windows XP provides (not officialy ) a utility by which u can hide urs one or more drives .

1. Go to Start > run > type "diskpart".
a dos window will appear with following discription: DISKPART>

2. then type "list volume" this will look like it

Volume### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
-------------- ---- ------ --- ----- ---- ------- -----

Volume 0 F DC-ROM
Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 7000MB Healthy
Volume 2 D soft NTFS Partition 8000MB Healthy
Volume 3 E Porn NTFS Partition 8000MB Healthy

3.if u wanna hide drive E then type "select volume 3" then a message will appear in same winwods { Volume 3 is the selected volume}

4.now type " remove letter E" . Now a message will come { Diskpart Removed the Drive letter } , sometime it requires the reboot the computer .

Diskpart will remove the letter .Windows XP is not having capabilty to identify the unkown volume.

Don't afraid ur Data will ramin same .
To Come backe the Drive repeat the process . but in 4th step whish is shown in this post replace " remove" to "assign"
i mean type " assign letter E"

Also adds "Show Recycle Bin icon on desktop" to Folder Options, Show/Hide "Recycle Bin" to Start Menu Properties

I got it to work. Heres what I got it to put the Recycle Bin icon on the start menu using the Manufacturer Link in the registry.

Here is end result:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;"Recycle Bin in Start Menu" RegTweak by Cygnus, Tom, VA(s)T & ricktendo64

;Adds Recycle Bin shortcut to Star Menu

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}]

@="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\SHELL32.dll,-8964"

"InfoTip"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\SHELL32.dll,-22915"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\DefaultIcon]

@="%SystemRoot%\\system32\\shell32.dll,32"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\InProcServer32]

@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\

00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,\

64,00,6f,00,63,00,76,00,77,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00

"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\Instance]

"CLSID"="{3f454f0e-42ae-4d7c-8ea3-328250d6e272}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\Instance\InitPropertyBag]

"CLSID"="{13709620-C279-11CE-A49E-444553540000}"

"method"="ShellExecute"

"Command"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\SHELL32.dll,-8964"

"Param1"="::{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}]

@=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\shellex\MayChangeDefaultMenu]

@=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\ShellFolder]

"Attributes"=dword:00000000

;Adds "[ ] Recycle Bin" Check Box to Strat Menu Properties (Show/Hide Start Menu Item)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartMenu\StartPanel\ShowOEMLink]

"Type"="checkbox"

"Text"="@%SystemRoot%\\system32\\SHELL32.dll,-8964"

"HKeyRoot"=dword:80000001

"RegPath"="Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\Advanced"

"ValueName"="Start_ShowOEMLink"

"CheckedValue"=dword:00000001

"UncheckedValue"=dword:00000000

"DefaultValue"=dword:00000001

"NoOEMLinkInstalled"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartMenu\StartPanel\ShowOEMLink\Policy\NoOEMLinkInstalled]

"RegKey"="Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\StartMenu\\StartPanel\\ShowOEMLink"

;Adds "[ ] Show Recycle Bin icon on desktop" to Folder Options (Show/Hide Recycle Bin)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\RecycleBinOnDesktop]

"RegPath"="Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\HideDesktopIcons\\NewStartPanel"

"Text"="Show Recycle Bin icon on the desktop"

"Type"="checkbox"

"ValueName"="{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}"

"CheckedValue"=dword:00000000

"UncheckedValue"=dword:00000001

"DefaultValue"=dword:00000000

"HKeyRoot"=dword:80000001

Copy and Paste into notepad then save as Recycle.reg
Apply, Reboot and Enjoy

We have seen a large number of computers coming in with problems navigation on the internet. Also unable to go to Windows update and viurs update sites. Here is a quick fix that also seems to speed navigation up some.

Just for safety create a copy of the file before making changes.

goto

C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\ (Windows XP)
C:\I386 (Windows 2000)
Open the host with notepad.
remove all entries bellow
127.0.0.1 localhost
then save and close

When using the start menu the you will notice a delay between different tiers of the menu hierarchy. For the fastest computer experience possible I recommend changing this value to zero. This will allow the different tiers to appear instantly.

Start Regedit. If you are unfamiliar with regedit please refer to our FAQ on how to get started.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Select MenuShowDelay from the list on the right.
Right on it and select Modify.
Change the value to 0
Reboot your computer

If you've ever asked for help with your Windows computer that won't boot anymore, you've probably been told to "Backup all your data and then reinstall"… but if you can't boot, how can you get to your data? That's the question we'll be answering today.

One of the easiest methods to access your data is to simply boot off an Ubuntu Live CD… and it's completely free (except for the cost of a blank cd).

Burn an Ubuntu Live CD

If you have another computer, you can download and burn the Ubuntu Live CD using a very simple application called ImgBurn. Otherwise, you can bug one of your friends to help you burn a copy.

Just open up ImgBurn, and click the icon to "Write image file to disc"

Then click on the icon next to "Source", pick the downloaded ISO file, stick a recordable CD into the drive, and click burn.

Now that you have the boot cd (which you should keep in a safe place, as it's very useful), just stick it in the drive of the computer and boot from it. You should see an option to "Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer".

Once the system has started up, the first thing you want to do is choose Places \ Computer from the menu.

This should show you all the drives available in the system, including your Windows drive. In my case, that is the 52.4 GB volume.

You can try and double-click on the drive to open it… and if it immediately works then lucky you! Most of the time it's going to give you an error saying "Unable to mount the volume", because Windows didn't shut it down cleanly.

Click the Details link so that you can see the full message, and leave this window open. You'll see a "Choice 2″ in the message, which includes the commands to force Ubuntu to use that drive even though there's something wrong.

What you'll want to do is open a new Terminal from Applications \ Accessories \ Terminal on the top menu. Once you've done that, then you'll want to type in a bunch of commands, which I'll walk you through.

First, we'll want to switch to "administrator" mode, which in Linux terms is known as "root". The simplest way to do it is with this command:

sudo /bin/bash

Now we'll need to create a directory that we'll mount the drive on. The full explanation of mounting drives is a little complex, so just run this command:

mkdir /media/disk

Now comes the tricky part. You'll need to type out a command very similar to this one, but you'll need to replace /dev/sda1 with what you see in that message box we showed you above. This command tells Ubuntu to use the ntfs-3g driver, and force mount even if there is a problem.

mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /media/disk -o force

If your drive is FAT32 instead of NTFS, then you can use the following command instead:

mount -t vfat -o umask=000 /dev/sda1 /media/disk

If you are having problems figuring out whether you have NTFS or FAT32, and you can't figure out which /dev/whatever to use, then type in the following command at your prompt (make sure you already ran the command to run things as root)

fdisk -l

In the output you should see a lot more information about the available drives… you can see in this example that the filesystem type is NTFS and the device name is /dev/sda1.

At this point, you should be able to access your hard drive through the icon in Computer.

Note: If you have more than one drive in the computer, or more than one partition, they should show up separately in Computer. You should perform the same steps as above to open those drives up as well.

Backing Up to External USB

The absolute simplest thing to do at this point is to plug in an external USB drive, which should place an icon on the Ubuntu desktop, and most likely immediately pop up a nautilus window showing the contents of the drive.

Note: I plugged in a USB Flash drive for illustration… it would be better to plug in a full external USB drive so you'll have more space for backups.

What Should I Backup?

If you aren't extremely technical, you might be wondering what on earth you should be backing up… and that's a very good question.

1) Best Method

If you have loads of empty space on your external drive or network share, you should simply backup the entire contents of the drive, and sort through it later. It'll take a little longer, but at least that way you can be sure everything has been backed up.

2) Still Good

You should try and backup your entire user folder… on XP you'll go to "Documents and Settings", and on Vista you'll go to "Users", and you should see your username in the list:

You can simply copy this entire folder to your backup drive, which should contain your music, documents, bookmarks, and most of your important files.

Important Note: This will not backup your application files, and you should look around your drive and see if you've saved anything important somewhere else. This is especially true if you have more than one drive. Again, your best bet is to simply backup everything.

Backing Up to Network Share

If you would rather backup your drive to a network share on another computer, you can use the Places \ Connect to Server item on the menu.

Change the Service type menu to "Windows share"…

And then enter in the details for your network drive, with these being the required fields:
Server: Computer Name
Share: Shared Folder Name
User Name: your username

Once you click the Connect button, you'll be prompted to enter in your password. Typically you can leave Domain set to the default, but if you have a custom workgroup name you should enter that instead. I also chose the "Remember password until you logout" button just so I won't have to enter the password again.

Once you click the Connect button you should have an icon on the desktop for your network share.

Now you can open up the network share, and if everything is setup correctly on the shared folder side of things, you can copy all of your files across the network using the instructions above on which files to choose.

At this point you should have a backup of your data. If you backed up to an external hard drive, you might want to consider also copying those files to another computer just in case, and if you copied across the network you could consider backing that up elsewhere as well.

Now you can proceed with reinstalling or whatever else you'd like to do.

So you want to know what really goes on when you turn on your computer.

Your computer follows a boot process that loads Windows XP, called the boot or startup sequence. This process loads all of the operating system files so you can actually use Windows XP. Here’s what happens:
1. When you first turn on your computer, a power-on self test (POST) process occurs. Your computer checks its hardware and memory and then begins to load your operating system.
2. Windows XP has a database of information called the Registry where information about your computer is kept. The Registry is loaded first so it can be read in order to boot Windows XP.
3. Next, Windows loads a file called System.ini. The System.ini file is used to load older system configuration information.
4. Next, Kernel32.dll is loaded. Kernel32.dll is the main operating system code used by Windows XP.
5. After Kernel32.dll is loaded, Gdi.exe and Gdi32.exe are loaded. These files give you the graphical Windows user interface.
6. Next, User.exe and User32.exe are loaded. These files provide code necessary to manage the user interface, including your windows.
7. Resources and Fonts load next.
8. Then, Win.ini is loaded, which provides older system programs and user support.
9. Next, the Windows shell loads, which is your basic graphical interface settings, and policies for your computer are loaded as well.
10. The desktop components are loaded next.
11. Next, a logon dialog box appears. Once you provide a valid username and password, the logon process begins. If you are connected to a network, any appropriate network policies are loaded.
12. Finally, all of the final information from any policies are loaded, and you see your desktop. The boot process is fast and efficient, and is more stable than ever before in Windows XP.

Not able to remove or uninstall an application in Windows XP using either the Uninstall option or the Add/Remove Programs tool? Try using the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility. As long as you installed the application using the Windows Installer, this utility will remove all the folders, files, registry keys, and entries from your system and allow you to start over with a clean slate.

Here's how:

1. Download the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility from the Microsoft Download Center.
2. Locate and run msicuu2.exe to install the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility.
3. Locate and launch the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility on the Start menu.
4. From the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility window, locate the application in the list and click the Remove button.
5. Once the application has been removed, click the Exit button to close the utility. You can now reinstall the application.

When you install a device driver on a Windows XP machine, the operating system loads that driver each time the computer boots regardless of whether the device is present—unless you specifically uninstall the driver. This means that drivers from devices that you have long since removed from your system may be wasting valuable system resources.

Follow these steps to view and remove these unnecessary device drivers:

1. Press Windows + Break to bring up the System Properties dialog box.
2. Select the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.
3. Click the New button below the System Variables panel.
4. In the New System Variable dialog box, type devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices in the Variable Name
text box and 1 in the Variable Value text box.
5. Click OK to return to the System Properties dialog box and then click OK again.
6. Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.
7. In Device Manager, go to View | Show Hidden Devices.
8. Expand the various branches in the device tree and look for the washed out icons, which indicate unused device drivers.
9. To remove an unused device driver, right-click the icon and select Uninstall.

This tip applies to Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional.

If you’re like most Windows XP aficionados, chances are good that you prefer the Folders pane in Windows
Explorer to the Task pane that displays by default in My Computer. As a result, you probably avoid My Computer or simply click the Folders button on the toolbar each time you open My Computer. If this is the case, you’ve probably never spent much time looking at the commands on the Task pane and may be missing many handy command shortcuts.

For example, how many times have you dug into the Control Panel to access Add/Remove Programs? If you use the Task pane in My Computer, you can simply click Add Or Remove Programs in the System Tasks section. And if you open a drive from My Computer, you will find another command that you frequently use in the Files And Folders section of the Task pane: the Make A New folder command.

When you select a folder, you can copy and move folders anywhere on your hard disk easily by selecting the
Copy This Folder or Move This Folder command. When you do, a Browse dialog box will appear. This essentially serves as an alternate version of the Folders pane in Windows Explorer.

When you select a file, you can choose either the Copy This File or Move This File command and get the same Browse dialog box with a Folders pane.

This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional.

In what some may call the olden days, before there were fancy graphical user interfaces and RGB monitors, early computer monitors were monochrome, meaning that they displayed only one color on a black background.

Monochrome monitors were available in three colors: green, amber, and white.

When you open up a Command prompt in its default configuration, it comes up in a white monochrome
configuration with white text on a black background. If you’re like most command line users, you’ve changed the color scheme from the Color tab on the Command Prompt Properties dialog box to make the screen more appealing.

However, if you’re ever feeling nostalgic when working from a Command Prompt, you can change the settings on the Color tab to emulate the old green monochrome or amber monochrome monitors. Here’s how:

1. Open a Command Prompt window.
2. Right the title bar and select the Properties command.
3. Select the Colors tab.
4. Select the Screen Background button and select the black box in the color palette.
5. Select the Screen Text button.
6. To emulate an old green monochrome monitor, select the green box in the color palette, and then in the Selected Color Values panel use the spin button for the Green setting to move the number up to 255.
Make sure that the settings for the Red and Blue remain at 0.
7. To emulate an old amber monochrome monitor, select the green box in the color palette, and then in the Selected Color Values panel use the spin button for the Red setting to move the number up to 185. Make sure that the settings for the Green remains at 128 and Blue remains at 0.

This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Professional.

When securing a wireless Windows XP network, in addition to using Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption, you can use Media Access Control (MAC) address filtering.

When you enable MAC address filtering, the wireless access point or wireless router verifies that the network card in the computer requesting access has a MAC address in its filter list before allowing the computer to access the network. This means that you must first obtain the MAC addresses of each client computer. To do so, you might think that you have to manually visit each computer and use the Getmac command.

An easier way to gather MAC addresses is to take advantage of the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
command. Here’s how:

1. From one computer, use the Ping command to ping each of the other client computers that will connect to the wireless access point or wireless router.
2. Type the ARP command along with the -a parameter: Arp -a

When used with the -a parameter, the ARP command displays the ARP cache, which stores the IP and MAC addresses of the computers that most recently accessed the system—or in this case, those computers that responded to the Ping command.

My sibling mentioned above is driving me crazy. Although he has his own Username on the Computer we share he somehow always manages to crack my Password and use my account instead. Is there a way to get a stronger and safer password for my username?

This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional systems in either a stand-alone or peer-to-peer workgroup configuration.

Computer users consistently use very simplistic logic when creating passwords. For example, many of us choose meaningful words, personal dates, or a word commonly found in the dictionary because it makes the password easy to remember. These common practices cause us to sacrifice the security that passwords are intended to provide.

If you’re really at a loss when it comes to thinking of a strong password, you can let Windows XP create and assign a random password to your account. To let Windows XP generate your password, follow these steps.

Warning: Before you follow these steps, please be sure that you are paying careful attention and are ready to actually use a password that might not be as memorable as you’re accustomed to! Also, you cannot use this tip on a Windows Server domain.

1. Open a Command Prompt window and type:
net user username /random (username is your login account name)
2. Press Enter. Windows XP will randomly generate a secure password, as well as assign that strong password to your account. Windows XP will also display the strong password so you can remember it.
At your discretion, you may want to create a Password Reset Disk at this point. This disk will allow you to gain access to your computer in the event you forget your password. Here’s how to create the disk:

1. Open the Control Panel and double-click the User Accounts tool.
2. Click your account icon.
3. Select Prevent A Forgotten Password under Related Tasks.
4. Follow the instructions provided by the wizard.

I would like to input some special characters in my threads and documents, but MicroSoft makes sure that I am stuck with the same boring fonts it ships windows with. Is it another ploy by them to take over 98% of the world Font Market somewhere in the future

Have you ever wanted to create your own font or maybe just a special character—for example, a character
showing your initials for approving documents with your “signature”? You can easily create your own characters using a hidden Windows XP tool called the Private Character Editor. Here’s how:

1. Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog box.
2. Type eudcedit in the Open text box and click OK.
3. When the Private Character Editor launches, you’ll see the Select Code dialog box. Click OK.
4. A user interface that looks and works very much like Paint will appear. Here, you can use standard tools
to create your characters.
5. When you finish, select the Save Character command on the Edit menu.

Once you save your new character, you can access it using the Character Map tool. Here’s how:

1. Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog box.
2. Type charmap in the Open text box and click OK.
3. When the Character Map appears, select the Font drop-down list and select All Fonts (Private
Characters).
4. Select your character, click the Select button, and then click the Copy button.
You can now paste your font character into any document that you want.

I'd like to be able to personalize Windows to some extent can anyone help?

During those times when the urgent need for high-powered technical intelligence wanes a bit—especially on a slow Friday afternoon—try this fun trick and amaze your colleagues. Here’s how to make your “own” time by putting your name in the notification area:
1. Access the Control Panel from the Start menu.
2. Double-click Regional And Language Options.
3. Click the Customize button in the Standards And Formats panel of the Regional Options tab.
4. When the Customize Regional Options dialog box appears, select the Time tab.
5. In the AM Symbol and PM Symbol boxes, you can replace that text with your name or whatever word you want, as long as it's no longer than 12 characters.
6. To complete the operation, click OK twice—once to close the Customize Regional Options dialog box and once to close the Regional And Language Options dialog box.

You’ll instantly see your name appear in the notification area right next to the time.

I need to update my Windows XP from the Microsoft site BUT my younger sibling has the last use of the Computer and always shuts it down even if I tell him not to. Is there a way to stop him from doing this and stop the aggravation for me?

This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional. Since editing the registry is risky, be sure you have a verified backup before saving any changes.

By default, at three o’clock every morning Windows XP’s Automatic Updates tool contacts the Windows Update site and automatically downloads and installs updates for your system. However, that can't happen if other people who use the computer shut it down at the end of the day. Fortunately, you can prevent anyone from shutting down Windows XP with a little registry tweak. Here’s how:

1. Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies \Explorer.
3. Right-click the Explorer subkey and select New | DWORD Value.
4. Name the key NoClose and press Enter twice.
5. Type 1 in the Value Data text box and click OK.

To enable the setting, close the Registry Editor and restart your system. Once your system restarts, you will not be able to it shut down by clicking the Shutdown button on the Start menu. This will prevent most users from inadvertently shutting down the computer.

When you do want to shut down your system, just access Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Delete, then pull down the Shut Down menu and select the Turn Off command.

I want to be able to change the font or font size used in Windows Explorer but just cannot figure out the trick. Please advice.

Note: This tip is for both Windows XP Home and Professional.

Windows Explorer and My Computer display the same font that Windows XP uses for icon titles on your desktop: 8-point Tahoma. If you want to change the font or font size used in Windows Explorer, follow these steps:
1. Access the Display Properties dialog box by right-clicking the desktop and selecting the Properties command.
2. Select the Appearance tab and click the Advanced button.
3. Select Icon from the Item drop-down list.
4. Use the Font drop-down arrow to select a font from the list.
5. Click OK twice—once to close the Advanced Appearance dialog box and once to close the Display Properties dialog box.
You can see the new font by launching Windows Explorer or My Computer. If you don't like what you see, simply repeat the steps and select a different font.

I've read of a bug that affects a certain type of motherboard chipset, but this information isn't exactly laseretched on the front of my PC. How can I find out what's inside my PC without having to pop the hood?

Your PC is made up of dozens of separate components, most of which aren't made by your PC vendor. Although you can certainly open up your computer and look at the label on your hard disk or CPU, most of the "devices" are nothing more than chips soldered to your PC's motherboard. Rather than trying to read the microscopic text on each chip, you can use software to scan your system and produce reports in excruciating detail.

First, open up Windows's own Device Manager by going to Start --> Run and typing devmgmt.msc .

Here, you'll see a manifest of every device for which a driver is loaded. Unfortunately, the information can be spotty at best. For instance, your FireWire controller is probably called simply "1394 Net Adapter." If you're trying to find out whether or not it's a VIA VT6306, for instance, you'll have to look elsewhere.

One of the best tools for this, and a free one at that, is Everest Home Edition, available at http://www.lavalys.com . (Lavalys also offers commercial versions with more features.) Among other things, Everest displays copious details about your hardware, digs into your CPU (indicating, for example, whether or not it can be overclocked), and even performs system diagnostics and memory benchmark tests.

Another worthy tool is WCPUID/XCPUID, available for free at http://www.h-oda.com , which provides exhaustive details about your processor (CPU). This tool's output is useful for overclocking, as well as for finding a compatible CPU if you're interested in upgrading.

During a recent visit to the Windows Update web site, I was tempted by a driver update listed in the "Hardware, Optional" category. I installed the driver and restarted Windows, and now the device no longer works. Did I do something wrong, or did I just fall for a trap?

While Microsoft has the right intentions, it doesn't always have the right drivers. In theory, Windows Update should only suggest a driver upgrade if your device is already using a Microsoft driver, but sometimes it oversteps its bounds. Fortunately, Windows is prepared for this!

Open the Device Manager (go to Start --> Run and type devmgmt.msc ), find your device in the tree, right-click it, and select Properties. Choose the Driver tab and click the Roll Back Driver button. If all goes well, Windows should remove the new driver and reinstate the old functional driver automatically.

Sometimes this doesn't work, though. If Windows complains that it can't roll back the driver, or if the device still doesn't work after the old driver was supposedly restored, your best bet is to dig through your disks and install the original driver that came with your gadget. Better yet, visit the manufacturer's web site, download the latest driver for your model, and install it over the one already on your system.

I installed the wrong driver for a new piece of hardware, and now Windows can't install the correct one. Isn't there any way to uninstall drivers?

Yes most of the time but it's not always obvious how to do it. You could open the Device Manager (go to Start --> Run and type devmgmt.msc ), right-click the device, and select Uninstall, but oddly enough, this usually doesn't remove all traces of the driver. Unfortunately, Windows saves details about uninstalled hardware both in the Registry and in .inf files located in the \Windows\inf folder, which means the next time your device is detected, Windows is likely to detect it incorrectly again.

If it's listed in the Add or Remove Programs control panel, or if there's an uninstaller hiding in your Start menu or in the driver's folder, you may be able to remove the driver completely. However, odds are you'll have to turn to the manufacturer's support web site for help. Search the site for "uninstall," and you might find a procedure or even a download able utility to cleanse your system of the driver. If not, search Google for the word "uninstall" and the name of your device.(Don't be surprised if the instructions you find have you deleting obscure Registry keys and renaming DLLs in your \Windows\System32\drivers folder .)

The good news is that uninstalling the driver isn't always necessary. Windows ties each detected device to the port or slot to which it's connected. If you pull a sound card out of PCI slot 2 and insert it into PCI slot 3, Windows will detect the card as a brand new device and offer you a chance to install the device correctly. The same goes for hard disks and CD/DVD drives (all IDE/ATA devices, really), all SCSI devices, cards inserted into your laptop's PCMCIA/PC Card slots, and even USB devices; just plug them into different ports to force Windows to re-detect them, and your plug-and-play woes may simply melt away.

My PC has four USB ports, and they're all full. Rather than using a USB hub, which I've heard can be problematic, I bought a PCI card that gave me another six USB ports and a pair of FireWire ports to boot. When I installed it, however, Windows appeared to detect it but couldn't properly identify it or accept the installation of the included drivers.

There are essentially two reasons why Windows doesn't detect a device, or detects that a device has been added but can't identify it properly: either the device isn't compatible with Windows XP, or some other device is causing a conflict.

You can test the first hypothesis pretty easily by consulting the documentation or checking the manufacturer's web site for XP compatibility.

The second possibility is a little harder to troubleshoot. You'll encounter this problem mostly in desktop PCs as opposed to laptops that have a bunch of internal expansion slots. (Laptops have fewer expansion options, and thus fewer opportunities for conflict.) The system BIOS and chipset are responsible for parceling out IRQs to all the devices in your system, but when you add a handful of cards to the dozen or so devices already built onto your PC's motherboard, devices must share IRQs, and that's when the conflicts start making life difficult.

You can confirm that this is the problem by simply moving the card to a different PCI slot. This fools Windows into thinking the card is an entirely new device, which gives you another shot at installing the right drivers; the new location may also eliminate a conflict with a device on your motherboard. Despite Windows's plug-and-play capabilities, you may have to shuffle PCI cards in a full system until you find a setup that works.

If you still aren't having any luck, enter your PC's BIOS setup screen, find the "Reset Config Data" option (sometimes called "Reset NVRAM"), and set it to Yes. When you're done, save your settings and reboot. This setting makes the BIOS reset and reconfigure all your plug-and-play devices every time your system starts, which forces Windows to do the same. The change may increase boot time, but you can turn it off later, and it may be just the thing to get all your devices to work in harmony.

I'm trying to install the drivers for this new device, and all of a sudden, Windows warns me that the drivers are not digitally signed. Is this something to worry about?

Not even a little. A driver with a digital signature is one that has earned Microsoft's esteemed seal of approval, indicating that it has passed a series of rigorous compatibility tests administered by the Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL). In theory, this warning is supposed to scare customers into rejecting any driver that does not come with Microsoft's digital signature, thereby coercing hardware manufacturers into submitting their drivers to the aforementioned WHQL tests.

In practice, however, digitally signed drivers are rarely any more stable, reliable, or safe than drivers lacking the signature. In other words, if you see this warning, just click the Install Anyway button and forget about it.

If the decision makers at Microsoft had thought about it, they might have applied this sort of warning to all software installations, not just hardware drivers. If Windows users were warned before installing software components that weren't digitally signed, we could probably say goodbye to spyware, viruses, Trojan horses, worms, and all the other forms of malware that can make their way onto your PC without so much as a peep from Windows!

Thanks to DSL, I haven't used my old dialup modem in years. But now I have to send a document to someone who apparently thinks it's still 1986 and can only accept it via fax. Isn't that modem supposed to let me send faxes? I'm darned if I can figure out how to do it.

Windows XP's built-in fax service actually works pretty well, but it's not installed by default, and it's not entirely obvious how to use it once you set it up. Here's how you do it.

Open the Add or Remove Programs control panel, and click the Add/Remove Windows Components button on the left. Place a check mark next to the Fax Services component, click the Next button, and then complete the wizard. (If the Fax Services box is already checked, the required software is installed; click the Cancel button and continue to the next step.)

Once the fax service is installed, you'll need to do a little setup. Open the Printers and Faxes control panel, right-click the Microsoft Shared Fax Driver icon (the name may vary), and select Properties. Choose the Devices tab, find your modem in the list (if it's not there, you'll need to install your modem driver), and click the Properties button. On the Send tab, place a check mark next to the "Enable device to send" option, and type your phone number in the TSID field.

Note: Rather than using your PC to receive faxes, set up a free account with an online fax service such as eFax (eFax - Email Fax Services ). You get your own dedicated phone number, albeit in a distant area code (local phone numbers are available for a fee), and any faxes you receive are emailed to you as attachments. You use the service's special advertiser-sponsored viewer to read and print your received faxes, all without tying up your phone line .

Next, choose the Receive tab. If you want to receive faxes with your PC, place a check mark next to the "Enable device to receive" option. Give this some thought, though, particularly if you use this phone line for other things (such as placing and receiving phone calls). You may not want your PC picking up the phone every time Mom calls (or then again, maybe you do). There's also a "Manual" setting in the "Answer mode" section, which causes the fax service to listen on your line but only pick up when you tell it to. But beware: this "listening" can wreak havoc with some phones and answering machines and may result in dropped calls.

When you're done with the fax modem properties page, click OK. Back in the Fax Properties window, choose the Tracking tab to configure the fax monitor. The fax monitor is the little progress window that pops up when you send and receive faxes, from which you can manually receive faxes, cancel an outgoing call, and so on. Finally, choose the Archives tab and specify where you want Windows to store your sent and received faxes (the defaults are subfolders of \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\MSFax\ ).

Finally, to send a fax, open your document in whatever application created it (e.g., Word or Excel), go to File --> Print, and select the fax driver from the list of printers. (A fax machine is nothing more than a remote printer, after all.) Click OK, and the Send Fax Wizard walks you through the rest of the process; type the recipient's fax number, choose a cover sheet, pick a time to send the fax, and you're off!

Recently, my D : drive (a DVD writer) disappeared in Windows Explorer. How do I get it back?

The obvious solution is to open up your PC and make sure the cables are firmly connected, but if that doesn't help, an errant Registry setting may be the cause of the problem.

Open the Registry Editor (go to Start --> Run and type regedit ), and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} .

You'll know if you're in the right place if the (Default) value in the right pane says "DVD/CD-ROM drives."
Highlight the UpperFilters value on the right, press the F2 key, rename the value UpperFilters.old , and press Enter. Do the same for the LowerFilters value.

Next, navigateto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services , and click [+] to expand the Services branch to reveal all the subkeys. Look for the Cdr4_2K key on the tree, and delete it if it's present. Do the same for the following keys: Cdralw2k, Cdudf , and UdfReadr .

Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows when you're done.

I connected a larger monitor to an unused monitor port on the back of my PC, but I can't get a picture on it. Am I taking the phrase "plug-and-play" too seriously?

Plug-and-play technology allows Windows to recognize newly attached devices and install drivers for them automatically. Sometimes this is sufficient; other times, you need to help things along. If you plug in a USB microphone, for instance, Windows will change your sound settings immediately so the new microphone works, but monitors do not enjoy the same privileged service. Here's how to get it to work.

If you're using a laptop, there's probably a key on your keyboard (CTRL/LCD ) that switches between the built-in LCD screen and any external monitor that might be attached. Press this key (typically while holding the Fn key) repeatedly until the video shows up where you want it.

Don't have a monitor key? Want more control? Right-click an empty area of the desktop, select Properties, and choose the Settings tab. If Windows has detected both monitors (as well as both video cards, if applicable), they'll show up here as numbered rectangles. If you're not sure which monitor is which, click the Identify button, and an enormous number "1" will appear on the primary monitor.

To use both monitors simultaneously side by side, creating one huge desktop, click the #2 rectangle and place a checkmark by the "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" box.

If you only want to use the second monitor (and turn off the first one), click the #2 rectangle and then place a checkmark next to the "Use this device as the primary monitor" option. When the numbers switch, click the new #2 rectangle, and remove the checkmark next to the "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" option.

If you still have problems, click the Advanced button, choose the Monitor tab, and click the Properties button to verify that the correct drivers are installed for each of your monitors. Then do the same (via the Adapter tab) for your video card(s).

I know my scanner is working and properly connected, but sometimes when I try to scan something, the scanner software complains that the scanner isn't connected. I tried unplugging the scanner and plugging it back in, but that didn't help. What gives?

You've encountered a bug in Windows XP that affects USB devices. Although many drivers compensate for the problem, some devices particularly older scanners will exhibit the "disconnected" problem as a result. Scanners remain totally dormant, sending no information to your PC until you try to scan something, and Windows misinterprets this inactivity as an opportunity to shut down the USB port to save power.

At the time of this writing, Microsoft hasn't released a patch that effectively fixes this problem. My suggested workaround: the next time you see that error, try scanning again right away. It can take Windows a few seconds to reactivate the USB port, and your scanner software may not have waited long enough for this to happen.

No luck? Restart Windows, and your scanner should be available immediately. But don't dawdle; Windows gives inactive USB devices only a 15-30 minute grace period before cutting power to the port again.

Naturally, you can also try visiting the scanner manufacturer's web site for a driver or software update that may provide a more convenient or reliable workaround.

At seemingly random times, Windows slows down or even stops responding for a few seconds, during which time I can distinctly hear my hard disk thrashing. What's going on, and how do I stop it?

When Windows uses up all your memory, it starts using a portion of your hard disk as " virtual memory." Since hard disks are much slower than memory (RAM), this causes a noticeable drop in performance. Of course, adding RAM will help significantly; the more RAM you have, the less frequently Windows will resort to using virtual memory.

The thrashing problem is caused by the way that Windows handles disk virtual memory by default. The space Windows sets aside for virtual memory is called the swap file or paging file , which grows and shrinks as needed. As a result, the swap file can become very fragmented, reducing system performance and increasing the thrashing sound you've been hearing significantly.

You can effectively eliminate the problem by first defragging your hard drive (Start --> Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools --> Disk Defragmenter), then setting a fixed swap file size.

Open the System control panel, choose the Advanced tab, and click the Settings button in the Performance section. Choose the Advanced tab here, and click the Change button to show the Virtual Memory window (Figure).

Highlight your drive in the list and select "Custom size" below. At the bottom of the window, take the "Recommended" paging file size and add 512. Type this number (e.g., 1534 or 2048 ) into both the "Initial size (MB)" and "Maximum size (MB)" fields, and then click the Set button. If you typed 2048 , it should now say 2048-2048 under "Paging File Size (MB)" at the top of the window. When you're done, press OK in each of the three dialog boxes to confirm your choices. If Windows suggests that you restart your PC, do so now.

I'm running out of disk space, and given how cheap new hard drives are, I figured I'd upgrade. But I don't know where to start; do I just crack open my PC's case and plug it in, or is there more to it?

It all depends on whether you want to replace your current hard disk or simply augment it with a second drive. If your PC has an unoccupied drive bay and your old hard disk isn't an antique, it's much easier to install the new drive as a second hard disk. But if you're using a laptop, for instance, and there's only room for one drive, or if your current drive is so old that its capacity is measured in megabytes instead of gigabytes, you'll want to replace the old drive with the new one. The course you choose also determines whether or not you'll need to move all your data to the new drive, a process that can be a bit of an ordeal.

Whether you're replacing or augmenting, you'll need to connect both drives to your PC at the same time. Doing so means fussing with cables and changing tiny jumpers. Consult the documentation that came with your PC and drives for details, or visit the drive manufacturer's web site for instructions.

So that Windows will still boot, connect the new drive such that your old unit is still configured as the primary hard disk. When adding a new IDE/PATA drive, for instance, you can configure it as a "master" or "slave" device: for now, leave the old drive as the master and configure the new drive typically by setting a jumper on the back of the unit as a slave. (The master and slave designations are used to prevent conflicts; a single IDE cable should never have more than one master or slave.)

Note: Make sure the controller to which you connected the new drive is set to "Auto detect" in your system BIOS. Otherwise, your PC won't see the drive, and neither will Windows.

If you're installing an SATA drive, just connect it to a free SATA port. If you're adding a second SCSI drive, leave the old drive set to SCSI ID 0 and set the new drive to ID 1. (Depending on your setup, you may have to temporarily disconnect your CD drive to make room for the new hard disk on the IDE or SCSI chain.)

When you're done and you've closed up your PC, start Windows. Go to --> Start --> Run, and type diskmgmt.msc to open the Disk Management utility. In the lower pane, right-click the box labeled "Unallocated" (which represents your new drive), and select New Partition. (If you don't see an unallocated drive, your new disk may already be partitioned and formatted, which means you can skip this step.)

Note: If you have a laptop or a micro desktop PC, odds are you won't find any free slots or drive bays. In this case, your best bet is to temporarily install your new drive in an external enclosure and connect it to your PC with a USB 2.0 or FireWire cable .

n the New Partition Wizard, select "Primary partition" and then specify the maximum capacity for the partition size. (Chances are the system has already calculated this number for you.) Next, select "Assign the following drive letter" and choose a drive letter that you'll remember from the list, such as J . On the Format Partition page, select "Format this partition with the following settings," choose NTFS for the filesystem, and leave the other settings on the page unchanged.Click Finish when you're done. Depending on the speed and size of the drive, it may take Disk Management a while to format the drive anywhere between a minute and half an hour. When formatting is complete, right-click the new drive in Disk Management and select "Mark Partition as Active."

If all you wanted to do was augment your existing storage, you're essentially done. You can begin saving stuff to your new drive, or even move existing files by dragging and dropping them in Windows Explorer (hold the Shift key to move instead of copy).

If, on the other hand, you want to replace your old drive with this new one, you'll need to copy everything from the old drive to the new one. This can be tricky, for several reasons. For one, there's more to a Windows installation than just the files; the boot loader, is installed on your disk's boot sector and can't be copied. Also, Windows won't let you copy files that are in use, so you can't simply drag and drop all of the folders on drive C : to copy them to your new drive J :.

Fortunately, there are a few workarounds that solve these problems:

Norton Ghost
The easiest solution is to use a disk imaging utility such as Norton Ghost, available at AntiVirus, Anti-Spyware, Endpoint Security, Backup, Storage Solutions | Symantec Corp. ; check out the "Enterprise" section on the Downloads page for a free trial. Use Ghost to create an "image" of your old hard disk, and then restore the image to the new drive. When you're done, you'll have an exact copy of your original drive, complete with all the necessary boot information. All that's left to do is to remove the old drive and set the new one as the primary drive (i.e., set your IDE drive to "master" or your SCSI drive to ID 0).

Note: Store the image file on the old drive, not the new one. For Ghost to restore it, the target drive must be empty. If you don't have enough space on the old drive for the image, divide the new drive into two partitions with the Disk Management utility. Save the image file on the second partition, and then use Ghost to restore the image onto the first partition .

Back up and restore
If you have a tape backup or other device capable of storing the entire contents of your hard disk, use it to do a full system backup. Then, just restore the backup onto the new drive. When you're done, shut down the PC, unplug the old drive, put the new one in its place, and start your PC. If Windows won't start, you'll need to write the master boot record to the new drive.

Start from the beginning
Your final option is to install the new drive as the primary master drive, install a fresh copy of Windows XP on the drive, and then install all your applications. Next, connect your old drive as the "slave," and copy over your data files. Don't forget the stuff in your My Documents folder (usually found at \Documents and
Settings\{username}\My Documents ), plus the contents of your desktop (\Documents and Settings\(username}\Desktop ) and extras such as your email and web browser bookmarks (typically found in \Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data ) and your IE Favorites (\Documents and Settings\{username}\Favorites ). Keep your old drive connected for a few weeks (if practical), until you're sure you've gotten everything.

I recently tried to use Windows Update, but I got a "Validation Failure: Product Key Failed Validation" error. What does this mean, and how do I get past it?

Microsoft has shipped millions and millions of copies of Windows XP since its release in 2001, and each one has a unique product key: the 25-digit series of letters and numbers you had to type when you installed XP. Of course, if your PC came with Windows XP preinstalled, that key was entered when your machine left the factory, but it's in there nonetheless.

In an attempt to combat software piracy, Microsoft has taken further steps to ensure that every copy of Windows XP that is installed is installed with a valid, legitimate license. To that end, Microsoft added a new component to the Windows Update service that checks to see if you have a valid product key. The problem is that quite a few (we're talking millions here) product keys that were once valid such as the one printed on the hologram sticker on the bottom of your laptop have become invalidated for one reason or another. In theory, all you need to do is contact Microsoft (or perhaps your PC vendor) and request a new key. Whether you get one, however, is a different matter.

However, you can get your Windows updates without spending hours on the phone with Microsoft technical support. First, note that the Automatic Updates feature doesn't (at the time of this writing) require the same validation as the standard Windows Update web site. To use the Automatic Updates feature, open the System control panel, choose the Automatic Updates tab, and select either "Automatic (recommended)" or "Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them," and click OK.

If you'd rather use the Windows Update web site and manually select which updates to install, open Internet Explorer, go to Tools --> Internet Options, choose the Programs tab, and click the Manage Add-ons button. Highlight "Windows Genuine Advantage" in the list, select the Disable option below, and click OK. Then, go to Tools --> Windows Update to get your update without the validation hassles.

According to the Windows Update site, there's a new version of Internet Explorer, but I'm afraid to install the update lest it oerwrite a bunch of settings without asking. What are my options?

You're right to be suspicious; if you install IE via Windows Update, it will almost certainly overwrite your file types and make itself the default browser, whether you want it to or not. Fortunately, you can download a standalone installer from http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ , which will let you choose the installation options. Make sure you click any "Advanced" or "Custom" buttons you encounter during installation so you can customize IE's installation to suit your needs.

I've been getting an obscure error message that says, "The instruction at 0x30303731 referenced memory at 0x30303731. The memory could not be 'read'." I searched Google for the message and came upon an article that tied it to Hotfix Q328310, which I gather is an update from Microsoft. Will removing the update fix the problem? If so, how do I do it?

Well, it's worth a shot. If you suspect that a Windows update is causing a problem, you can uninstall it by opening the Add or Remove Programs control panel and placing a checkmark next to the "Show updates" option at the top of the screen. Scroll down to the "Windows XP Software Updates" section, select the update from the list, and click the Remove button. (Of course, if this doesn't fix the problem, you can always go to the Windows Update site and reinstall the update).

But what happens if Add or Remove Programs says "This update cannot be removed," or if the update isn't in the list at all? First, it's possible your article got the number wrong confirm it, search Google or the Microsoft KB at Help and Support for the update number (e.g., Q328310). It's also possible that the hotfix was installed along with a service pack and thus might not show up in Add or Remove Programs.

If you're sure you have the right number for the installed update but it doesn't show up in Add or Remove Programs, there's another place you can look. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the Windows folder (usually C:\WINDOWS ). Make sure Explorer is configured to show hidden files, and locate the subfolder that begins with a "$" character and corresponds to the hotfix you want to remove. In the case of Q328310, you'd want the \WINDOWS\$NtUninstallQ328310$ folder; use Explorer's Search feature (Ctrl-F) if you can't find it.

When you've located the correct folder, open it, go to the spuninst subfolder, and double-click the spuninst.exe file inside to uninstall the update.

I maintain a bunch of PCs for a small company, and I've turned off the Automatic Updates feature on every machine, mostly for my own sanity. The last thing I need is for Microsoft to deliver a "fix" to all the employees that ends up causing more problems than it solves. Is there an easy way to keep these PCs up to date while excluding the more troublesome patches?

Ever feel like an unpaid beta tester for Microsoft? If so, join the club.

The problem with being too conservative about the updates is that many of them fix serious security holes in Windows and we all know how common those are. If you're an experienced user and take the proper precautions, you can probably forgo most updates and be perfectly safe. But when you're administering PCs for an office full of people who can't tell the difference between virus-infected attachments and letters
from their mothers, you may be better off installing many of those updates.

Still, there's no rule that says you have to install updates right away. Instead, wait a few weeks to see what ugly problems the press and users report. First, disable the Automatic Updates feature: open the System Properties control panel, choose the Automatic Updates tab, and then select "Turn off Automatic Updates." Click OK when you're done.

As they become available, research new patches. Sites such as http://www.patchmanagement.org and Annoyances.org are full of stories, complaints, and solutions relating to Microsoft's "fixes.

Once you've decided to install an update, visit the Windows Update Catalog at Microsoft Windows Update (Figure 6-4 ) and click the "Find updates for Microsoft Windows operating systems" link. Select your Windows version from the list of operating systems, and then click the Search button to reveal all the updates released to date. Select the desired category (such as "Critical Updates and Service Packs"), and in the "Sort by" drop-down menu, sort the listings by "Posted date" to group together the most recent updates. Click the Add button below any update to add it to your download queue.

Note: One advantage to using the Windows Update Catalog is that you'll get a self-contained installer that you can use repeatedly without having to download the update for each PC, saving you time and bandwidth .

Note: To install SP2 on multiple computers remotely, download the Windows XP SP2 Deployment Tools for Advanced Users package from Microsoft Download Center .

It's especially important to install service packs manually, as opposed to letting the Automatic Updates feature do it. These Ã¼ber-updates are enormous and can require several hours per PC to install. The last thing you want is a new service pack tying up all the PCs in your office. Instead of allowing these to be installed automatically, wait a few months for the bugs to be ironed out (in the form of subsequent updates) before you install any Microsoft service pack. When you're ready, pick a weekend or a day when everyone is in a meeting, and download the "Network install" version of the service pack directly from Microsoft's web site (go to Download details: Windows XP Service Pack 2 for IT Professionals and Developers for a shortcut to the SP2 network install). Put the installer on a network share or burn it to a CD, and run it directly on each PC.

Why does Windows take so long to load? Is there anything I can do to speed it up?

All the software and hardware devices you add to your PC eventually take their toll, creating more for Windows to load each time it boots. The most effective way to combat this bloat is to routinely format your hard disk and reinstall the operating system and all your applications. Unfortunately, reinstalling can be a time-consuming and frustrating process, and when all is said and done, it'll only be a matter of time before Windows once again becomes bogged down. Instead, optimize a few key areas of your PC to effect a more permanent performance increase.

First, add more memory (RAM) to your system. You should have a minimum of 384 MB of RAM to run Windows XP, but 512 MB or even 1 GB is better. The more memory you have (up to a point), the easier it will be for Windows to find space for all those drivers and programs during boot time.

The rest of the time, that extra RAM means Windows will use slower virtual memory less often.

One of the biggest contributors to a slow bootup is the long list of programs configured to load at boot time. Not only do these programs take time and processor cycles to load, but they eat up memory and even more processor cycles while they're running, further sapping your PC's performance. Most of the startup programs you can control are listed in your Startup folder and in the Registry.

The Startup folder Start --> All Programs --> Startup) is merely a collection of shortcuts to programs that load every time Windows boots. This folder is empty by default; anything you see in your own Startup folder has been added presumably by you or by an application you installed since Windows was installed, and thus none of them are actually required by Windows. To stop a startup item from loading with Windows, just drag it into another folder for safekeeping (or straight into the Recycle Bin if you want to delete the shortcut).

Note: Startup Delayer, available for free at r2 Studios, allows you to have your proverbial cake and eat it, too. Instead of
deleting startup programs, Startup Delayer simply staggers when they're loaded, allowing you to begin using Windows more quickly.

So how do you tell what belongs and what doesn't? The names of most of the shortcuts in your Startup folder should be self-evident; the Microsoft Office Startup Assistant, for instance, is a component of Microsoft Office that's supposed to help Office applications start faster. Delete the Startup Assistant from your Startup folder, and you likely won't notice any difference… except that Windows will load slightly faster. Deleting other shortcuts here may disable some (typically noncritical) features, so be sure to check the program's documentation for the purpose of the shortcut.

Note: If you want to see all your startup programs in one place, whether they're listed in the Registry or your Startup folder, open up
the System Information tool (go to Start --> Run and type sinfo32.exe), expand the Software Environment branch, and select Startup Programs.

Programs configured in your Registry to start with Windows are typically listed in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Run and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run. (Use the Favorites menu in the Registry Editor to bookmark these locations, making it easy to return to each key
and clean out any unwanted programs as they appear.)

To remove an unwanted program from either Registry key, just highlight it and press the Delete key. You'd be wise to back up both keys before making any changes, though: to create a backup, just highlight a key, select File --> Export, and type a filename for the .reg backup file.

Then, if you need to reinstate a deleted value, just double-click the .reg file to merge its contents with the Registry.

Programs listed in these Registry keys are typically less self-descriptive than their counterparts in the Startup folder, so you may need to do some research before you remove anything.

While you're at it, open the Services list (go to Start --> Run and type services.msc) to see some other programs Windows loads at startup. Any service that says "Automatic" in the Startup Type column is set to load when Windows starts, and ones that say "Started" in the Status column are currently running. (Click either column header to sort the list to make these services easier to find.) If you double-click a service, you can stop it by clicking the Stop button, or prevent it from loading the next time Windows starts by selecting Manual or Disabled from the "Startup type" drop-down list. Be warned, though: most services listed here are essential Windows components.

Read the description shown to learn more about any particular service.
Aside from startup programs, sometimes having too many files in your Temp folder can not only slow Windows startup but, in extreme cases, prevent Windows from loading at all. Windows and your applications use this folder to temporarily store data, usually from documents you have
open. When you close applications (or when applications crash), temporary files are often left behind, and these files can proliferate faster than rabbits in spring. To clean out this folder, open Windows Explorer, navigate to \Documents and Settings\{username}\Local Settings\Temp, and delete any files with modification dates earlier than the last time you started your PC. (You can use Creative Element Power Tools, available at Creative Element Power Tools, to
clean out this folder automatically.)

If you have hundreds of fonts installed on your system, they may be adding to boot time as well. If you can survive without 400 different decorative typefaces (especially if all you ever use is Times New Roman), thin out your fonts to speed Windows bootup. Open the Fonts control panel and uninstall any unwanted fonts by dragging them to another folder (or to your Recycle Bin to delete them permanently). Be careful not to delete any Windows fonts, though, such as Marlett, Fixedsys, MS Sans Serif, or any other fonts that start with "Microsoft" or "MS" (you can find a list at Standard Windows fonts). If you do delete a system font by mistake, don't sweatXP's Windows File Protection system will restore it.

If you periodically need a lot of fonts, invest in font-management software such as Adobe Type Manager, which can remove and reinstall fonts in groups at the click of a button.

Sometimes it seems to take an eternity for programs to load. I stare at an hourglass while listening to the hard disk thrash about, and then the application's window finally appears. There's got to be a way to speed this up.

Before Windows can load an application, it must set aside enough room in your PC's memory. If you have a lot of applications already loaded, you'll probably run out of memory, at which point Windows will use part of your hard disk called virtual memory to make up for the deficiency. Since hard disks are much slower than RAM, this technique (called swapping) slows down your computer considerably. You can temporarily alleviate this problem by closing unneeded programs before opening any new ones, but a better long-term solution is to install more memory
(RAM) in your PC.

Of course, no matter how much memory you have, Windows will still use your hard disk to some extent. To keep your hard disk and thus your system running optimally, run Disk Defragmenter routinely (go to Start --> Run and type dfrg.msc). Also, the more space you set aside for virtual memory, the more efficiently Windows can utilize it. At a bare minimum, make sure you have half a gigabyte (500 MB) of free hard disk space at all times.

I thought I shut down my computer before leaving the office, but when I got back the next day I saw that it was still running. On the screen was a window that said an application had stopped responding. Why didn't Windows just close the program and shut off my PC?

As noted earlier Windows tries to close all running applications, stop all active services, and unload all drivers each time it shuts down. Often, Windows just sits and waits if one of those programs won't cooperate and close. All it takes to grease the wheels and change how Windows treats hung applications is a few quick changes to the Windows Registry.

Note: Another problem that may cause an interminable delay when shutting down is an inability to "save settings" in a timely fashion. The fix, which is perplexingly not offered by the Windows Update service, is to apply the User Profile Hive Cleanup Service, available at Microsoft Download Center.

Open the Registry Editor (go to Start --> Run and type regedit), and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Double-click the AutoEndTasks value in the right pane, type 1 (one) in the "Value data" field, and click OK. Next, double-click the WaitToKillAppTimeout value, type 1000 in the "Value data" field, and then click OK. Close the Registry Editor when you're done, and restart Windows so the changes can take effect.

Thereafter, Windows will close stubborn programs automatically and with all due haste (whenever possible) when it's time to shut do.

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