Use BCDEDIT to change boot up options
If you are dual booting XP Prof and Vista, you most likely have the annoying “Earlier Version of Windows” in the boot list and have Vista booting as the default. Let’s change that!
Hide Highlighting of Compressed or Encrypted Files and Folders
By default, XP displays compressed or encrypted files and folders with a unique color. If you are a heavy user of these features, this highlighting can be painful on the eyes. Here is how to disable it.
How To Clear the MRU List for Find and Replace
To clear the MRU list for Find and Replace, do the following:
How to Boot into Vista’s Audit Mode
There are two different ways of booting into Vista — Windows Welcome and Audit Mode. Windows Welcome or OOBE (out of box experience) is the typical pathway and provides the user the customization wizards. Audit Mode, however, will allow the user to skip the Windows Welcome and boot directly onto the desktop as quickly as possible.
Determining Which Services are Associated with SVCHOST
Since so many critical services are run with each svchost, you can see which ones are being used by opening a cmd prompt and running:
Changing the User Type
Normally in XP Pro, through the Control Panel / User Accounts icon, you are only allowed to create administrators or limited users.
Create a Shortcut to Start Remote Desktop
You can add a shortcut to the desktop of your home computer to quickly start Remote Desktop and connect to your office computer. To create a shortcut icon to start Remote Desktop.
Rip high-quality MP3s in Windows Media Player 8
The relationship between Windows Media Player 8 and the MP3 audio format is widely misunderstood. Basically, WMP8 will be able to playback MP3 files, but encoding (or “ripping” CD audio into MP3 format will require an MP3 plug-in. So during the Windows XP beta, Microsoft is supplying a sample MP3 plug-in for testing purposes, but it”s limited to… Read More »
Add/Remove optional features of Windows XP
To dramatically expand the list of applications you can remove from Windows XP after installation, navigate to C:\WINDOWS\inf (substituting the correct drive letter for your version of Windows) and open the sysoc.inf file. Under Windows XP Professional Edition RC1, this file will resemble the following by default:
Create a Shortcut to Lock Your Computer
Leaving your computer in a hurry but you don’t want to log off? You can double-click a shortcut on your desktop to quickly lock the keyboard and display without using CTRL+ALT+DEL or a screensaver.