Last week, I was explaining to a friend
that I am a quick launch toolbar afficionado {:-)
What the heck is that he asked. I said I was just referring to
the fact I use it instead of the desktop to keep all my
shortcuts, actually, lots of shortcuts, at least on my main PC.
As we continued to talk about this I found myself explaining a
lot of stuff I have done with my PCs and notebook in the past 6
or 8 years! An obvious question came up: “where do you come up
with these things?” At that point I explained I call these
“things…tweaks” and they come from dozens and dozens of places
including many newsletters, also some regular blogs, newspapers,
radio shows, other PC users I talk with and of course, the real
biggie, MICROSOFT! Yup, their knowledge base contains millions
of tips, solutions and you guessed it…TWEAKS! Our conversation
ended with a suggestion that I put some “tweaks” in my column,
so what follows are some that I like. But first, a reminder,
whenever you decide to play, experiment, alter, or as I say,
“tweak” an otherwise functioning computer, either do a backup
first, or at least, set a restore point you can return to if
what you do doesn’t work out for you. If you don’t know how to
do that, click on start and then help and support and then
choose index and type in system restore.
At the end of this list, I have a couple speed tweaks which I
advise should only be used by advanced users, and you will also
see I advise again to backup or set a restore point. With that
in mind, here is my list.
The area that sits between the start button
and the tray (with the clock), on the bottom of your screen, is
called the Taskbar.
I think one of the best additions you can make to your Taskbar
is the Quick Launch Toolbar. Quick Launch gives you fast access
to Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, and it includes a Show
Desktop icon. It's really easy to open your Quick Launch
Toolbar.
Right-click the Taskbar, click on Toolbars, and choose Quick
Launch. The Quick Launch Toolbar now appears on your Taskbar
right next to your Start button. You'll find the Quick Launch
Toolbar very useful and to move all the icons you have on your
desktop, just drag and drop them on the QL taskbar. You can play
around with it and also expand it if need be. After you drag an
icon there, you can delete it off your desktop so you have a
neat looking space where I put different pictures every week or
so. To be really neat, I hide the whole thing so it
automatically disappears until I Point at it with my mouse.
Right click on start, properties, taskbar and check auto hide.
If you can copy or move things to a folder, keeping information
on your computer more organized is easier. Here is how to add
copy or move to a folder to Windows Explorer. Open Windows
Explorer (not Internet Explorer) by clicking on Start and then
on My Documents. Next, click on an empty area of the standard
button bar, the one that starts with the Back button. Last,
click on customize. In the available toolbar buttons: list,
click on copy to and then click on add to add it to the current
toolbar buttons list. Click on Close to complete the
customization work. Now the next time you click on a file or
folder, the Move to and Copy to folder buttons will appear
If you ever have the need to copy both files and folders to a
CD, as in backing up your important information, here's an easy
way to do it. Click on Start, and then click on My Computer. Now
right-click on your hard drive (usually drive c:) and click on
Explore. Now you have a complete list of the files and folders
on that drive. Click on any file or folder, and then, while
holding down the Ctrl key, click on any other file or folder you
wish to copy to a CD/DVD. When you have finished, click on edit,
copy to folder. From the list provided click on the CD/DVD R/W
(Read/Write) drive you want to send your selection to, and then
click Copy at the bottom of that small window. This will result
in a folder with those items waiting to be copied. Put in a
CD/DVD and click on write these files to CD to the left.
Windows XP has several utilities programs that manage various
aspects of XP. You can run any of these utilities by using them
as "run" commands. Click on Start, and then click on Run. In the
Open: box, type one of these shortcuts and press the Enter key
or click OK. control Opens Control Panel clipbrd Opens Clipboard
Viewer notepad Opens simple text editor wordpad Opens Word-like
text editor compmgmt.msc Computer management devmgmt.msc Device
manager diskmgmt.msc Disk management dfg.msc Disk defrag
eventvwr.msc Event viewer fsmgmt.msc Shared folders gpedit.msc
Group policies lusrmgr.msc Local users and group perfmon.msc
Performance monitor rsop.msc Resultant set of policies
secpol.msc Local security settings services.msc Services. (Run
shows up when you have classic menu selected.)
I use My Computer, which shows me all of the drives on my
computer, like the floppy drive (A:), the Hard Drive (C:), and
others that include DVD and CD drives and removable drives, all
the time. Having My Computer show a menu of it’s items as your
mouse pointer touches the My Computer link on the start menu is
a quick way to get to what you want. To set this up, right-click
on the start button, and then click on properties. Click on the
customize button and then open the advanced tab. In the start
menu items window, scroll down to my computer, and click next to
display as a menu. Now click on OK, and again on OK. (This one
is the opposite of the one above in that you need to select
start menu instead of classic.)
That
little area to the right at the bottom of your desktop can get
pretty crowded. One way to get more space is to do away with the
clock. You can eliminate the clock by right clicking on any
blank section of the Task bar, and then clicking on Properties.
On the Taskbar tab, click on the checkmark next to "Show the
clock" and finally click OK. You can also check the hide
inactive icons box to gain a bit more space.
When you click on Start and open My Computer, you have to
right-click on a drive and then click Explore to get the
"Explore" view of that drive. If you simply double-click on that
drive, you get the drive's contents. The Explore view is better
because you can work with folders in the left pane and folder
contents in the right pane.
To have My Computer open the contents of a drive in the Explore
view, from within My Computer click on Tools and then on Folder
Options. Open the File Types tab and then click on (NONE)
Folder, to highlight it. Now click on the Advanced button, make
sure Explore is highlighted, and then click the Set Default
button. Click OK, and then click Close.
Now when you open a drive in My Computer it will display in the
Explore mode.
Your my documents folder in windows XP holds, by default, your
documents, the My Pictures folder and the My Music folder. For
most of us, the My Documents folder holds everything you use
most.
To make the contents of that folder invisible to nosy folks, do
this: Click on Start and right-click on My Documents. Now click
on Properties, and then open the General tab. Click in the box
next to Hidden in the attributes section and click ok. Now click
on Apply, Select "Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and
files," and click ok.
This is not encryption, it just makes it harder for a casual
user to open your private folders. When you want to view all
files again, just reverse the process.
Speeding up your PC is always something most of us think about
and the following tweaks are intended to do just that for your
XP Pro operating system, but beware, these are intended for
advanced users and involve using the registry…not recommended
for the faint at heart! Before even considering them, do a
registry backup- Here’s how:
Modification of Windows Registry files, which contain settings
and other information Windows needs to operate with is risky if
you don’t take care. Make a mistake here can cause your PC to
stop working. So it makes perfect sense to make a back-up copy
of your registry files before you attempt any modifications.
Create a batch file to back up your Registry, and then automate
the process with an icon on your Desktop.
Click on Start, Run, and then type NOTEPAD. Click OK or press
the Enter key. Now you have Notepad open to a blank page. Type "Regedit
/E C:\AAAA" (without the quotes) and press the Enter key. Now
click on File on the menu bar at the top of the Notepad window,
and then click on Save As. In the Save As window, click in the
box next to File Name: and type c:\windows\system32\REGBACKUP.BAT.
Now click on the down arrow to the right of the Save as type:
box and select All Files. Click on the Save button, and close
Notepad. To create a shortcut to the registry backup,
right-click on the Desktop, click on New and then on Shortcut.
At the cursor type c:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\REGBACKUP.BAT and click
on Next. Now type: Registry Backup and click on Finish.
If you want to change the icon for your new shortcut, right-
click on it and click Preferences. Click on the Change Icon
button, click Ok when the Change Icon window opens, and then
double-click on the icon you want to use. Click OK
Another way to be sure you are safe is to backup your complete
computer using either True Image (my favorite) or Ghost…both of
which completely copy an image of your entire computer. Also, do
a system restore point (see the help menu for how to) this may
be the quickest way to go back to where you were if you have
problems, but if not, the True Image or Ghost backup will do the
trick.
Here's a way to make XP even faster, by
making sure that Operating System functions stay in memory
(RAM), because memory is much faster than your hard disk. Try
this: Click on Start, on Run, and then type REGEDIT and click OK
or press the Enter. The word REGEDIT is not case-sensitive. Now
double-click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Drill down by opening
System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory
Management. Right-click on the DisablePagingExecutive entry
located in the right pane (side) of your screen and select
Modify. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, type the number "1"
(without the quotes) in the Value data field. Click OK and then
close the Registry Editor. Finally, make sure you don't have any
open programs, and restart your computer so that the change you
made can take effect.
Lastly, it seems that our Windows XP
computers just get bogged down with stuff we don't want or use.
One way to get more performance out of your computer is to
disable the "last access/update" feature. The NTFS file system
in Windows XP maintains last access/update details for each file
and directory on your computer's hard drive. This information is
useful sometimes but for most of us, this may not be of much use
most of the time. This process takes a lot of resources from
your computer, so it may make sense to disable it. Once you have
done that, you'll still have access to last modified information
for files and folders. Here's what you need to do. Click on
Start, Run, and at the prompt type REGEDIT and press the Enter
key. Now click to open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, and then drill down
by clicking on SYSTEM and then on CurrentControlSet, Control and
finally on FileSystem. On the right side of the Regedit screen,
look for the data key "NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate."
Double-click on that key and then just set its value to 1. Click
OK to save the change and then close the Registry Windows. The
next time you boot-up, this change will take place and give you
a bit more performance from your Windows XP computer. That’s it
so…
Not really, but after all that it is probably time to relax and
forget the PC for awhile, so be careful out there while you
enjoy all the fun things to do with your new toys and on the
‘net.
Aloha, Lou
This article has been provided personally by the
author solely for publication by APCUG member groups. All other uses
require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above)..
