Added 1/10/02
With WindowsXP, you can manually select how you want individual icons in the System Tray to be displayed.
Right click on the Taskbar
Select Properties
Check Hide inactive icons
Click on the Customize button
This will bring up a dialog box that will allow you to select one of three options for your applications:
Hide when inactive, Always hide, or always show
Highlight current or past applications and make any changes you like.
A small arrow will now appear in the System Tray that will allow you to show or hide these icons.
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Faster Task Switching
Added 1/6/02
If you installed WindowsXP Power Tools from Microsoft, when you press Alt-Tab to switch between running applications,
you get a screen that shows a small graphic of the window that is of that application along with its icon.
This also takes a long time to display. (Or at least longer than I'm comfortable with)
You can speed this up and revert back to previous ways task switching is displayed.
To Turn This Off After Your Reboot:
Run MSCONFIG
Click on the Startup tab
Uncheck Taskswitch
Click on the OK button
If you want to keep working, click on Exit without Restart
To Turn This Off Immediately:
Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete
Click on the Processes tab
Highlight TaskSwitch.exe
Click on the End Process tab
Click on the Yes button
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WindowsXP Command Line Utilities
Added 1/5/02
While there are a lot of command line utilities in WindowsXP, here are some that I have been using lately.
bootcfg - Configures, queries, or changes Boot.ini file settings.
driverquery - Displays a list of all installed device drivers and their properties.
getmac - Returns the media access control (MAC) address and list of network protocols associated with each address for all network cards in each computer
gpresult - Displays Group Policy settings and Resultant Set of Policy (RSOP) for a user or a computer
netsh - You can use commands in the Netsh Interface IP context to configure the TCP/IP protocol
schtasks - Schedules commands and programs to run periodically or at a specific time
systeminfo - Displays detailed configuration information about a computer and its operating system
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Disabling Error Reporting
Added 12/5/01
By default, WindowsXP will request to report application errors to Microsoft.
To turn this off:
Right click on the My Computer icon on the desktop
Select Properties / Advanced
Click on the Error Reporting tab
Check Disable error reporting
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Adding a Title for the Command Prompt Title Bar
Added 11/27/01
If you create a batch file that might take a while to run,
you can add a title to the command prompt title bar it by simply adding the line:
title YOUR TEXT
where YOUR TEXT would be replaced by whatever text you want to show.
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Increasing Graphics Performance
Added 11/27/01
By default, WindowsXP turns on a lot of shadows, fades, slides etc to menu items.
Most simply slow down their display.
To turn these off selectively:
Right click on the My Computer icon
Select Properties
Click on the Advanced tab
Under Performance, click on the Settings button
To turn them all of, select Adjust for best performance
My preference is to leave them all off except for Show shadows under mouse pointer and Show window contents while dragging
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Creating an Automated Install of WindowsXP
Added 11/12/01
On the WindowsXP CP, in the SUPPORT\TOOLS directory,
there is a file called DEPLOY.CAB.
Extract the programs DEPLOY.CHM (help file) and SETUPMGR.EXE (main program)
Run SETUPMGR and answer the prompts.
This will create both a unattend.bat and unattend.txt file you can use for automated installs.
Note: The batch file might need some minor modification for file locations but it is fairly basic.
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Creating a Shutdown/Reboot Icon
Added 11/11/01
WindowsXP has a program called SHUTDOWN.EXE which allows you to easily create icons to shutdown or restart your computer.
To create a shutdown shortcut on the desktop:
Right click on an open area of the desktop
Select New / Shortcut
Enter in "shutdown -s -t 00" - no quotes
Press the Next button
For the name, enter in anything you like. I just use shutdown. Click on the Finish button.
For a reboot, enter "shutdown -r -t 00"
Shutdown [{-l|-s|-r|-a}] [-f] [-m [\\ComputerName]] [-t xx] [-c "message"] [-d[u][p]:xx:yy]
Parameters
-l - Logs off the current user, this is also the defualt. -m ComputerName takes precedence.
-s - Shuts down the local computer.
-r - Reboots after shutdown.
-a - Aborts shutdown. Ignores other parameters, except -l and ComputerName. You can only use -a during the time-out period.
-f - Forces running applications to close.
-m [\\ComputerName] - Specifies the computer that you want to shut down.
-t xx - Sets the timer for system shutdown in xx seconds. The default is 20 seconds.
-c "message" - Specifies a message to be displayed in the Message area of the System Shutdown window. You can use a maximum of 127 characters. You must enclose the message in quotation marks.
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Command Line Help Reference
Added 11/11/01
To get a quick help for all the commands you can enter from WindowsXP,
simply create a shortcut:
hh.exe ms-its:C:\WINDOWS\Help\ntcmds.chm::/ntcmds.htm
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Using the System File Checker
Added 11/11/01
You can run the System File Checker to verify protected system files.
Command line switches are:
sfc [/scannow] [/scanonce] [/scanboot] [/revert] [/purgecache] [/cachesize=x]
/scannow - Scans all protected system files immediately.
/scanonce - Scans all protected system files once.
/scanboot - Scans all protected system files every time the computer is restarted.
/revert - Returns the scan to its default operation.
/purgecache - Purges the Windows File Protection file cache and scans all protected system files immediately.
/cachesize=x - Sets the size, in MB, of the Windows File Protection file cache.
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Disabling Balloon Tips
Added 11/9/01
To turn off balloon tips in applications that support XP Themes:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\
Create a DWORD value of EnableBalloonTips
Give it a value of 0
Download reg file
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Speeding Up the Display of Start Menu Items
Added 11/8/01
An easy way to speed up the display of the Start Menu Items is to turn off the menu shadow.
Right click on an open area of the Desktop
Select Properties
Click on the Appearance tab
Click on the Effects button
Uncheck Show shadows under menus
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Installing the NetBEUI Protocol
Added 11/7/01
Microsoft no longer supports the NetBEUI protocol as part of WindowsXP.
You can add it as a installable protocol by going to the VALUEADD \ MSFT \ NET \ NETBEUI
directory on the CD ROM.
Note: %SYSTEMROOT% refers to the drive and directory where you installed WindowsXP.
Typically this is in the C:\WINDOWS directory
Copy the nbf.sys into the %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ directory
Copy netnbf.inf into the %SYSTEMROOT%\INF\ directory
Open the Network connection properties for your local area network and use "Install..." button to add NetBEUI protocol
I included a zipped file with the above files and a simple batch file to copy both to the appropriate directories
This is only if you absolutely need NetBEUI. It is not at all a necessary requirement for most networks.
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Setting System Time Over the Internet
Added 11/5/01
You can set your system clock to a time server on the Internet.
Double-click the time on your taskbar
Click the Internet Time tab
Check Automatically synchronize with an Internet time server
Click on the Update Now button
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Creating a Password Recovery Disk
Added 11/5/01
In case you forget your password, you can create a password recovery floppy disk beforehand to help you out of this problem.
Single-click Start menu
Go to the Control Panel / User Accounts
Click the User Account
On the left hand side, click on Prevent forgotten password
You will need to know your password to create the disk.
If you don't remember your password sometime in the future, click on the green arrow like normal at the login and you will be prompted to insert the password recover disk.
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Changing the Default Search Settings
Added 11/5/01
By default, when you start a search,
you are prompted for what you want to search for.
(e.g. Pictures, Documents, Files, Computers)
To change the preferences, simply click on Change preferences
From here you can:
Turn off the animated screen character
Change files and folders search behavior (setting it to Advanced changes the default search screen to be for simply files)
Internet search settings
Turn off balloon tips
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Opening an Explorer Window to the Directory You Want
Added 9/4/01
If you want to create a shortcut for the Explorer to a specific directory,
include the directory you want in the Target.
For example:
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n, /e, d:\internet
would open the Explorer to the D:\INTERNET directory
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Disabling Hibernation
Added 8/20/01
If you don't want to use up the disk space taken by Hibernation, or don't need to use it at all,
you can easily disable it.
Open up the Control Panel / Power Options icon
Click on the Hibernation icon
Uncheck Enable Hibernation
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Locking the Workstation
Added 8/19/01
There are two ways you can lock the workstation.
With a Windows key + L
Create an shortcut rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation
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Changing the Picture Displayed for a User
Added 8/19/01
You can change the picture that gets displayed for a particular user
Go to the Control Panel
Select User Accounts
Click on the Account to change
Click on Change my picture
You can then browse to the picture you want to use
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