On screen keyboard

Click on the start button and select run. Then type in osk in the box and click OK.

That’s it! The screen keyboard is there and start using it!

Popularity: 12% [?]

Restoring Access to CD ROMs

Restoring Access to CD ROMs

If you removed CD Burning software, or for some other mystical reason, can not longer access your CD ROM’s,
in most cases following registry keys needs to be deleted:

Locate and delete the UpperFilters and LowerFilters values under the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965- E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Popularity: 13% [?]

Sharing and permissions

Sharing and permissions

If you want to share with permissions per user, go to folder options, next go to the tab view and disable ‘use simple file sharing’. Now you can set permissions for your shares per user. It doesn’t matter if you use the FAT system and even not the NTFS.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Speed up Network Browsing

Speed up Network Browsing

There was a bug in windows 2000 that would cause the scheduled tasks folder to be searched when ever the user would browse network drives. Microsoft developed a fix for this bug. The fix fixed the problem and it also had nice side affect of speeding up browsing of Microsoft networks. Below are instructions how to apply the fix.

1. Open up regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/ NameSpace.
3. Find a key named {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}.
4. Right click on it and delete it.
5. Restart

Popularity: 17% [?]

Swap File Optimization

Swap File Optimization

Optimizing your swap file may seem a moot point now, memory prices being that low, still it’s never a bad idea.

How much swap space do you need? That depends the amount of RAM you have and the programs you use. The rule of the thumb is 1.5 times the amount of system memory, unless you have too much memory on your system (make it 1 times or less) or too much load (make it more than you system’s load). Say we decided we must create a swap file of 512MB.

Linux guys have always relied on disk partitions specially designated for the swap. That way, the swap is never fragmented. You can use a similar approach in Windows. If you are doing a fresh install, leave some unpartitioned space in your disk drive to fit the swap file (A little more than 512MB). If your system is already installed, you must use some re-partitioning software like ‘Partition Magic’.

In Windows, you have to create and format the swap partition using the Disk Management settings (Start->Control Panel- >Performance and Maintenance->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Storage->Disk Management). Be careful because this tool has the ability to destroy your data if you are not careful!

Make sure you create an ‘Extended’ partition in the free disk space and then create a ‘Logical Drive’ inside the extended partition. Apply the changes and then format it. Note that you don’t need to format the swap partition using advanced filesystem types like NTFS or FAT32. FAT16 is quite faster than the other two, and since this partition is only going to host one file, you don’t need to worry about cluster size. Also, the security/fault tolerant features of NTFS are not needed for the swap, unless of course you are running under *real* tight security.

From then on, it’s easy. You have to go to Performance Options (Start->Control Panel->Performance and Maintenance- >Administrative Tools->System->Advanced->Performance->Settings->Advanced->Virtual Memory->Change). Change the values ‘Initial Size’ and ‘Maximum Size’ to the size of your swap (512MB). Note that you have to specify the *same* amount for both values. This will keep your swap file from resizing, fragmenting and eventually slowing itself down.

Another cool trick can be used if you have more than one disks. Provided that both disks are of almost the same speed, in the above dialog you can split the swap file in two or more equally sized partitions (256MB each in our example). This will result in greater swap file performance, since the system will be reading from two disks at the same time. This way you will be actually setting up a raid0-like swap!

Good luck and keep those drives spinning!

Popularity: 21% [?]

SystemPages Memory Tweak

I’m not 100% sure if this tweak will yield a great performance boost to the majority of users out there, but for me it seems to have shown very good results.

By default, if you look in the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]key, you’ll see the ‘SystemPages’ DWORD Value set to something around 500 MB (more accurately, 524288 (KB), or something close to that value). Simply reduce the value to something around 128 MB (131072 KB) or 256 MB (262144 KB). Personally, I’m using the 128 MB setting, since my total RAM is 256 MB. It might help to experiment a little, since each machine will most likely yield better or worse results. Good Luck!

Popularity: 43% [?]

The System Configuration Utility

A Handy utility for speeding up system performance in Windows XP (or any version of Win9x/me for that matter as well) is the System Configuration Utility.

To access the system configuration utility, go to Start and click Run.

Type msconfig and click ok. Click the tab labeled Startup.

Uncheck any items for which you do not care if they load when Windows loads or you do not have any idea what they are.

In Windows XP, no items that are listed here are essential to Windows running properly, so feel free to experiment.

After you removed everything you don’t need, click apply and then ok.

Say yes when it asks you to restart your system.

Enjoy the significantly enhanced performance!

Popularity: 18% [?]

Turn off Thumbs.db

Turn off Thumbs.db

Thumbs.db is a file which is created in a folder with Movies or Pictures so that you can view a piece of their content without actualy opening them (you can’t see thumbnails unless you have the option to view system files turned on). Thumbs.db is there so that you don’t need to reload a thumbnail everytime you browse that folder. Sad fact is, is Thumbs.db takes up about 2kb per file and if you edit a lot of stuff its annoying to keep seeing them popping up all over your computer. You can remove thumbs.db quite easily by following these steps:

1. Go to Run in the startmenu
2. Type gpedit.msc
3. Click OK and the Group Policy will open
4. Go to User Configuration/Administrative Template/Windows Components/ Windows Explorer
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the long list of stuff that now shows up in the menu on the right. Double-Click on Turn off caching of thumbnail pictures.
6. Click on Enable then Apply, Ok. And now you no longer have this annoying problem.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Log on as Administrator in Normal Mode

When you install Windows XP an Administrator Account is created (you are asked to supply an administrator password), but the “Welcome Screen” does not give you the option to log on as Administrator unless you boot up in Safe Mode.

First you must ensure that the Administrator Account is enabled:
1 open Control Panel
2 open Administrative Tools
3 open Local Security Policy
4 expand Local Policies
5 click on Security Options
6 ensure that Accounts: Administrator account status is enabled

Then follow the instructions from the “Win2000 Logon Screen Tweak” ie.
1 open Control Panel
2 open User Accounts
3 click Change the way users log on or log off
4 untick Use the Welcome Screen
5 click Apply Options

You will now be able to log on to Windows XP as Administrator in Normal Mode

Popularity: 20% [?]

How to really get rid of unneccesary software

To uninstall things like msn messenger and other hidden installs thru add remove programs, do this:

find sysoc.inf (you might have to enable “show hidden files” and “show hidden/protected system folders” in explorer) and open it in notepad replace all “,hide” with “,” (both with out quotes) which is easiest to do with the replace all command under edit then in add/remove programs under add/remove windows compnents and whole new list of things to uninstall and add are now listed (such as internet explorer)

Popularity: 19% [?]

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