20 things you should know about Windows XP

20 things you should know about Windows XP


[b]You've read the reviews
and digested the key feature enhancements and operational changes. Now
it's time to delve a bit deeper and uncover some of Windows XP's
secrets.

1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous
versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP
is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the
Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then
type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info,
including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo >
info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later
with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).

2. You can delete
files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first.
Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type ' gpedit.msc'; then select
User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components,
Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle
Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many
interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your
computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).

3.
You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a
new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter
'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give
the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and
your computer will be locked.
And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

4.
XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows
Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using
Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for
the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove
Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and
there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.

5. For those
skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting
new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for
creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring
performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling
scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will
give a list of options --they're all far too baroque to go into here.

6.
XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately
this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on
your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your
existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find
out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.


7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the
command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just
'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist',
which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.

8.
XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a
fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well
alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you
change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing
'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.

9. XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's
anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by
default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS
and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of
an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop,
select
Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second
drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop
displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as
well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control
Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

10. You can use Remote
Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation
(NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email
you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the
RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace
this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by
going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've
got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant
computer.

11. You can run a program as a different user
without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run
As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only
applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to
have administrative permissions to install a program, which many
require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple
times on the same system as different users, but this can have
unforeseen effects.
12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you
checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows
Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you
feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit,
go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current
Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called
EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.

13. You can start up
without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from
the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the
user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users
Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on
OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name
and password for the account you want to use.

14. Internet
Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you
tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and
Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty
Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

15. XP
comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see
the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places
on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description
for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the
Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a
tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely
during network traffic.

16. The Start Menu can be leisurely
when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing
the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control
Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little
snappier. Like 0.

17. You can rename loads of files at once in
Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right
click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that
name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in
a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange
Icon By... Show In Groups.

18. Windows Media Player will
display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found
the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If
it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your
own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just
call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display
it.

19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties
dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab
moves through the taskbar buttons.

20. The next release of
Windows XP, codenamed Longhorn, is due out late next year or early 2006
and won't be much to write home about. The next big release is
codenamed Blackcomb and will be out in 2003/2007.