Windows XP high performance settings (part I)
You can change the taskbar and the Start Menu with the option Taskbar and Menu Start in the Control Panel. On the tab Taskbar, you can switch on all options. By default the taskbar is show at the bottom, I prefer the option to hide the taskbar (you can show the taskbar by moving your mouse down or even quicker with the Windows-key). Hiding is done by enabling the option Auto-hide the taskbar. Most option are described on the page about the Start Menu and the Quick Launch toolbar.
Browsing your hard disk (CD-ROM, floppy disk, memory card, external hard disk, ...) is done with the Windows Explorer. Besides that, the Windows Explorer is very easy to copy and/or move files and folders and creating new folders. You will find the Windows Explorer by Start, All Programs, Accessories, icon Windows Explorer. This is a very strange location, first thing to do is placing it on a logical location: right click the icon and choose to pin the program to the start menu (now it is quickly available in the start menu).
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By default, many (system) files and folders are hidden. If you are not that experienced, you probably like this setting, but I prefer to see all files and folders. For that purpose, I especially like the following changes within the Windows Explorer: Tools, Folder Options, tab View:
With some other changes, the folder options should look like this:
I prefer to disable the first option (Automatically search for network folders and printers), if there are no files and printers to share on the network. Showing files and folders will be noticeably faster. If there are troubles with one of the Windows of the Windows Explorer process, all Windows will be closed automatically. If you don't like this setting, you can enable the option Launch folder windows in a separate process (remember that enabling this option, Windows Explorer will use more system resources).
Furthermore, I prefer to see all file and folder details (filenames, dates, file size, file type): this makes analyzing your files a lot easier. To view all details, like below: View, select Details. Go back to Tools, Folder options, tab View, button Apply to All Folders, to make sure all folders will have the detailed view.
Go to your My Pictures folder, which will be in details as well. If you are used to see the small pictures, change the view by View, Thumbnails (in stead of Details).
By default, opening folders containing AVI files (audio/video) can be
very slow because Windows is trying to extract non important information. This
can be solved, by deleting the following key with the
registry editor:
HKCR\CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}
To be able to go back to the previous situation, you first have to export
this key (File, Export).
If you think the file view is not up to date, you can update/refresh it with the key F5 (just like the Internet Explorer). With the key combinations CTRL-C/CTRL-X you can respectively copy/move files/folders and place them on a different location with CTRL-V. The key combinations SHIFT-HOME and SHIFT-END and/or the SHIFT and CTRL can be useful if you would like to select multiple files/folders.
The folder view on the left in Windows Explorer automatically expands
if you click on a folder containing sub-folders. You can disable this function
with a registry tweak: change the DWORD-value FriendlyTree to 0
(in stead of 1) in the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Automatically expanding folders will be disabled, expanding a folder is now
done by double clicking the folder.
If you don't use the hibernation switch it off (hibernation is very useful for laptops). Hibernation makes it possible to switch you computer on in the state you left it at shutting down. The main memory is stored in a file called hiberfil.sys on your C: partition. Disabling is done by Control Panel, Power Options, tab Hibernate, disable the Enable hibernation option. After a reboot the hiberfil.sys file will be disappeared (which gives you a lot of extra hard disk space).
By right clicking the Recycle Bin (desktop) and choose Properties you are able to change some recycle bin settings. I prefer to keep them unchanged. Did you know that you can delete files and folders bypassing the recycle bin? You can achieve this by deleting them while you hold down the SHIFT-key. If your fingers were faster there your brains, you might delete files, you wished you didn't. No problem, with the PC Inspector File Recovery utility (download: www.pcinspector.de) you are able to recover those files, even if you have emptied your recycle bin. Install this utility first, for possible future use! If you overwrite a file, you won't be able to recover it anymore.
You were probably asked what keyboard layout you have and what the default input language is. If there is more then one layout, you can change with the left ALT key combined with the right SHIFT key. Sometimes you hit this combination by accident, which will result in a strange keyboard layout. If you don't know better, you have to restart Windows to solve this issue (know you know better.....). By removing the unused keyboard layout, you won't have this problem anymore You can change those settings by Control Panel, Regional and Language Options, tab Languages, button Details. Remove the unused installed services (the bold one is the active service).
The €-symbol is probably available with the key combination ALT-5 or with the ASCII code 0128 on the numeric keyboard (hold down the ALT-key).
Be careful installing extra fonts, these fonts use a lot of system resources. You can change the fonts by Control Panel, Fonts.
The task scheduler enables automatic scheduled tasks (like regularly downloading of virus definitions). Many applications need this service. If you prefer to do everything yourself, you can disable the task scheduler, as show below:
If you use the task scheduler, there is a chance it doesn't function well
because you are not using a password on your user account. This can be solved
with a registry tweak with the registry editor. Change or add the DWORD-value limitblankpassworduse
with value 0 in the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
You can disable the irritating sounds of your Windows system. Go to Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices, tab Sounds and disable it at the Sound scheme combo box. You can also partly disable sounds in the Program events area. On the tab Volume you can manage the sound volume and (if you wish to do so) disable the volume icon in the taskbar.
By default Windows XP installs some extra software and tools, while you also have the possibility to install some extra. Go to the Control Panel, Software, tab Add or Remove Programs. Check them all and select/deselect items of your choice, for example you could decide to (de)select the Fax console or the Windows Messenger.
You can add hidden items to the list of software by following the next steps (to
be able to remove them from your system):
1: Open the file C:\WINDOWS\INF\SYSOC.INF with a simple text editor like
Notepad (Start, All Programs, Accessories)
2: Change all the ",hide," items by ",," (just delete all the hide
entries)
3: Save the file and restart the item Add or Remove Programs,
and see what happened......
By Control Panel, Internet Options you are able to change the Internet Explorer settings (this option is also available in the Internet Explorer through Tools, Internet options). First change the default page with one of your favorites, mine is a blanc page (or www.google.com).
Windows XP high performance settings (part I)
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