Speed up Windows XP's defrag operations 1. Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe). 2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce. 3. Right-click on the RunOnce subkey and select New | String Value. 4. Name the value Defrag and press [Enter] twice. 5. Type Defrag.exe c: /f in the Value Data text box and click OK. 6. Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows. Clear the Windows XP Run command's most recently used list 1. Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe). 2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU. 3. Right-click on the RunMRU key and select Export. 4. Name the REG file Clear Run MRU, click the Save button, and close the Registry Editor. 5. Open the Clear Run MRU.reg file in Notepad. 6. Add a minus sign to the beginning of the key name just inside the square brackets. 7. Delete all lines that follow the line containing the key path. 8. Save the file and close Notepad. Schedule a restart operation with Windows XP's Shutdown utility 1. Go to Control Panel | Scheduled Tasks. 2. Double-click Add Scheduled Task to launch the Scheduled Task Wizard. 3. Click Next and then click the Browse button. 4. Access the Windows\System32 folder, select Shutdown.exe, and click Open. 5. Follow the wizard through the next two screens to give the task a name and choose a schedule. 6. Enter your user account name and password and click Next. 7. Select the Open Advanced Properties check box and click Finish. 8. In the task's Properties dialog box, add the /r parameter to the end of the command line in the Run text box and click OK. (Be sure to include a space between the last character in the command name and the first character in the parameter list.) 9. Enter your user account name and password and click OK. When the Shutdown utility runs, you'll momentarily see a small dialog box on your screen before the system restarts. Disable Windows Messenger on a Windows XP machine 1. Access the Run dialog box by pressing [Windows]R. 2. In the Open text box type Gpedit.msc and click OK to launch the Group Policy Editor. 3. Go to Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Windows Messenger. 4. Double-click the Do Not Allow Windows Messenger To Be Run setting. 5. In the resulting dialog box, select the Enabled option and click OK. 6.Close the Group Policy Editor. Troubleshoot Windows XP with the Driverquery command 1. Open a Command Prompt window. 2. Type Driverquery on the command line. The results are displayed in a table format in the Command Prompt window. If you want to perform more detailed analysis, you can direct Driver Query to save the results in a CSV file so you can open them in a spreadsheet application, such as Excel. To do so, type the following on the command line: Driverquery /v /fo csv > drivers.csv Map drive letters to local folders in Windows XP 1. Open a Command Prompt window. 2. Type the following command and press [Enter]: subst x: C:\{pathname}\foldername} where x: is any available drive letter and {pathname}\foldername} is the complete path to your selected folder. For example: Subst K: C:\Downloads\Windows\Drivers Now, instead of typing the full path, you can reach the Drivers folder by accessing drive K: in Windows Explorer. Alter Windows XP's most frequently used programs list 1. Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe). 2. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications. 3. Right-click on the Applications key and select New | Key. 4. Give the key the same name as the application's executable file. 5. Right-click your new key and select New | String Value. 6. Name the string value NoStartPage. 7. Close the Registry Editor. 8.Reboot or log off and log back on for the change to take effect. Instantly create Restore Points in Windows XP 1. Launch Notepad. 2. Type these two lines: Set IRP = getobject("winmgmts:\\.\root\default:Systemrestore") MYRP = IRP.createrestorepoint ("My Restore Point", 0, 100) 3. Save the file as InstantRestorePoint.vbs. Get system info from Windows XP's Help and Support Center 1. Go to Start | Help And Support. 2. Under the Pick A Task heading on the Help And Support Center page, click Use Tools To View Your Computer Information And Diagnose Problems. 3. On the Tools page, select My Computer Information in the Tools column. 4. On the My Computer Information page, select any of the links to view a graphical report of your system. I hope this helps.
