WindowsXP Tips and Tricks


Some of the following tips/tricks/procedures were taken from various web-sites (mostly from www.ntfs.org). I have modified the text as necessary. The items on this page were tested with WindowsXP Professional, so I am not sure if all will work with the WindowsXP Home version.

Some of these tricks may involve editing the registry. It is always a GOOD idea to BACK UP THE REGISTRY before changing ANYTHING in the registry! Some of these may require modification of system files. BE SURE TO BACK THEM UP in case something goes wrong. Also, I cannot be held responsible for any problems arising from following any of these procedures.
I personally like to make a FULL system backup (preferably an image to another hard drive if you have one) of the entire computer. That way, if anything goes really wrong, you can retrieve important data.
So, enough of the warnings....have fun!

Clicking the links below will "jump" you to the right spot on this page. All quoted text is to be typed in without quotes. I put them there simply for readability.



Uninstall Windows Messenger

It's installed by default, and it doesn't appear in the Add/Remove Program applet in Control Panel.
  1. Edit the SYSOC.INF file (located in C:\[your Windows XP directory]\INF) in Notepad.
  2. Under the "[Components]" heading, you'll see a whole bunch of parameters for various Windows applets. Some of them contain the word "hide". Windows Messenger (msmsgs) is installed on your XP system, but its entry is hidden from and Add/Remove Programs dialog. To remove it, edit the line that reads:

    msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7

    so that it looks like this:

    msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,7

  3. Save and close the file.
  4. Open Add/Remove Programs.
  5. Click on the "Windows Components" button and you'll see "Windows Messenger" listed.
  6. Now you can remove it from your system.
Incidentally, you can edit everywhere the word "hide" appears in the SYSOC.INF file to reveal other removable Windows XP components: Terminal Server, Pinball, etc.


-OR-

  1. To simply uninstall Windows Messenger without all the hassle above, enter the following on the command line or in a Run prompt:

    RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
-OR-

  1. Simply install Windows Service Pack 1 and the option to remove Windows Messenger will appear in the Add/Remove Programs list.

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Enable DMA on ATAPI (CDROM/CDRW/DVD) Drives

Sometimes, ATAPI devices are set to PIO mode - even when the device attached is capable of much more efficient UltraATA (or DMA) mode data transfers. This can hurt the performance of CD reading, CD burning, DVD movie playback, etc. Plus, DMA mode data transfers require much less CPU overhead than PIO-mode transfers.
  1. Right-click "My Computer" and select "Properties".
  2. Click the "Hardware" tab.
  3. Click the "Device Manager" button.
  4. Expand the entry for "IDE/ATAPI controllers".
  5. Select the primary channel and click on "Properties".
  6. Then choose the "Advanced Settings" tab.
  7. For each device listed, change the transfer mode to "DMA if possible". Don't worry; devices that aren't capable of DMA mode will still work fine.
  8. Repeat the process for the secondary channel.
There are two types of IDE cables ( the cable used to connect CD and harddrives to the motherboard) currently available: 40-wire and 80-wire. 80-wire cables have thinner individual wires and are normally reserved for faster devices like harddrives, while the 40-wire cables are used for the slower CDROM/CDRW/DVD drives. However, they use the same connector, so they are interchangeable. I like to put the 80-pin cables on the CD/DVD drives as well; It can't hurt, but it may help. There really isn't much difference in price between the two. Using 40-wire cable on a harddrive will severely reduce performance for harddrives. Those extra 40 wires are actually ground wires between each of the 40 signal wires. This helps reduce the induced crosstalk between wires from data traveling at high speed.

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Remove Shared Folders from "My Computer"

The shared folders are folders which have been shared from other computers on the network. It generally provides quick access to other people's shared files, but may also delay the opening of Explorer since it has to look for these directories. Or, you may simply not want them to show up. However, this does not keep you from browsing to any shared folders by navigating "My Network Places".
  1. Open Notepad and copy/paste the following lines:

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\My Computer\NameSpace\DelegateFolders\{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee} "(Default)"=dword:00000

  2. Save the file to your desktop as "removeshared.reg".
  3. Close Notepad.
  4. Double-click the "removeshared.reg" file on your desktop.
  5. Click "Yes" to the confirmation box.
  6. An alert box should tell you the information was successfully entered into the registry. Click "Ok".
  7. You can now delete the "removeshared.reg" file you created earlier.
  8. Open "My Computer" and the shared folders should be gone.

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Cannot Get Windows Updates from Microsoft's website

I haven't had this happen to me, but this is supposed to work if, for some reason, you are unable to get updates for your system.
  1. Go into Internet Explorer and clear out the cache ("Tools" -> "Internet Options" -> press "Delete Files" and "Clear History" buttons). Then exit IE.
  2. Open the file C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts in Notepad.
  3. Add the following line to the end of the file:

    207.46.226.17     windowsupdate.microsoft.com

    (Make sure there's a tab in-between the IP address and the URL or else it won't work.)
  4. Save the file and exit Notepad.

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Install WindowsXP from DOS

You can follow these steps to install WindowsXP on your computer if the CD itself is unbootable for any reason, or your system is unable to be booted from a CD drive. You can usually make BIOS boot from the CD, it usually is just a matter of changing the boot order.
  1. You will need 6 Floppies. Download Microsoft's boot disk creator from here.
  2. Run the program and swap floppies when it tells you to.
  3. Once created, boot from floppy 1 of the set and follow the directions from there. You will still need the WindowsXP CD.

-OR-

  1. Boot with a Windows 98 Start Up floppy disk.
  2. Insert the Windows 98 CD into your CDROM.
  3. Run smartdrv.exe from the "Win98" directory on the windows98 CD. This enables file caching and is needed.
  4. When done, go back up to the CD's root directory.
  5. Take out the Windows98 CD and insert the WindowsXP CD into your CDROM drive.
  6. Copy the i386 folder on the CD to the C drive: xcopy D:\I386 c:\ /c/h/e/k/r (replace "D" with the letter of your CD drive).
  7. Go into "C:\i386" folder on the C drive and type "winnt32.exe" to launch the setup program from the hard drive.
If you do not have the windows98 CD, you can create a windows98 startup floppy from a Windows98 machine. Just make sure it also has tools on it like smartdrv.exe, xcopy, etc.

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Create a shortcut to lock computer or switch user

The end result is determined by how you have your PC configured:
  1. Right click on desktop and select "New" and then select "Shortcut".
  2. Copy and paste the following line in the program location box:

    rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

  3. Click "Next" and enter a name for your shortcut and then click "Finish".
  4. Now you can copy and paste that shortcut anywhere you want on your computer. Good places might be your quick launch bar, Start menu, etc. You can change the icon as well.

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Windows resets/locks up for no apparent reason

Check this out if Windows simply resets, "bluescreens", or locks up for no apparent reason.

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Remove Windows ZIP file handling

WindowsXP will treat ZIP files like folders when selected, but this can slow down file browsing since it has to read the ZIP file to display its' contents. You can speed things up, especially on slower machines, by making XP leave zip files alone.
  1. Click "Start" and select "Run".
  2. Enter this is the command line:

    regsvr32 /u %windir%\system32\zipfldr.dll

  3. If you change your mind later, you can revert this by typing the following on the command line instead:

    regsvr32 zipfldr.dll

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Volume control shortcut

Most soundcards enable you to add a volume control icon to the system tray. You can follow these instructions if this option is not available.
  1. Right-click on the desktop and select "New" and then select "Shortcut".
  2. Enter the following as the location:

    %windir%\system32\sndvol32.exe /tray

  3. Drag the new icon to the quick launch toolbar for best effect.

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Better Game Install

I'm not really sure if this works, but if you have trouble with the regular installation, there's nothing to lose by trying this: Run the setup program from the install CD from the "Run" command box using the following format:

X:\setup.exe -lgntforce

Where X is the CD drive letter, and setup.exe is the setup file used to install the game.

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Create a shutdown shortcut

Use this to create a shortcut to shutdown your PC. You can also create shortcuts to log off or restart by changing a parameter.
  1. Right-click on the Desktop and select "New" then "Shortcut".
  2. Browse to the file C:\Windows\System32\Shutdown.exe.
  3. Click "Next", name the shortcut, and click "Finish".
  4. Now right-click on the new shortcut and choose "Properties".
  5. In the "Target" field, append the command line switch -l to log off, -s to shut down, or -r to reboot.
  6. If you also add the switch -t xx (where xx is a number of seconds), "Shutdown.exe" will display a warning and count down the specified number of seconds before activating. You can specify a comment to be displayed with the warning by adding the switch -c "Your text". The countdown behavior is particularly useful if the shutdown program is launched through the "Scheduled Tasks" applet. For example, a library computer might be scheduled to shut down 10 minutes before closing, with a 60-second warning. Once the countdown has begun, the only way to stop it is to launch the "Shutdown.exe" program again with the -a (for abort) switch on its command line.

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Get Rid of LILO

This is used if you are dual-booting with a version of Linux. You may simply not want to use Linux anymore, but the LILO program will still display a list of Operating Systems to boot to. You can remove this so WindowsXP will boot without any prompts. Warning! Unless you have a Linux boot floppy/CDROM, you will no longer be able to boot into Linux after completing these steps.
  1. Boot from a Windows98 floppy disk.
  2. At the DOS prompt, type A:\fdisk /mbr
  3. When done, remove the floppy and reboot.

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Fix 404 Errors

You can use these tips if all of a sudden, you can no longer access a website that you should be able to. Before you do this, you should make sure the site isn't simply down by trying to navigate to the site from another computer. Also, this is only if a certain site is down; if you cannot access any sites, there is something else wrong (possibly your Internet connection).
  1. Check your firewall settings (if you have one).
  2. Check your browser security level; medium is usually adequate.
  3. Empty "Temporary Internet Files", "Cookies", and "History" caches.
  4. Check the file c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts and delete any addresses aside from the line: 127.0.0.1     localhost entry. Any other lines may have been added by another program.

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Disable Autoplay

Autoplay is the feature where you stick a CD/DVD in your drive, and once Windows reads it, it either asks you what you want to do or opens an associated application. You could shut this off by going through the CD/DVD drive's properties and manually setting the auto-play function to "Take no Action" for every data type; But it is much easier to follow one of these two steps.

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