One Tip A Day » Windows XP

Eboostr: Get ‘Readyboost’ For Windows XP

Tony Williams — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 21:58:52 +0000

Readyboost is one of the best features that was added to Windows Vista, which allows your computer to use flash memory to run faster.

Eboostr introduces similar functionality tboosto Windows XP, allowing you to use that spare flash drive to make your PC run even faster. It’s not free at $29 for the the full version, but the free version runs for four hours after each boot, which should be enough for most people.

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Tweak Windows With XdN Tweaker

Tony Williams — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 19:56:41 +0000

There are many 3rd party utilities out there that let you tweak Windows, but XdN Tweaker, which works with Windows XP, Vista and 2003, is a bit different as it focused on those tweaks that aren’t that well known. For instance, Martin from gHacks discovered that the following tweaks were available:

Disable and Enable ‘SendTo’ right-click menu
Add/Remove “Take Ownership” to right-click menus under Vista
Changes “Delete” to “Search…” on Recycle Bin
Remove/Restore hidden ASPNET user that prevents auto login

If you’re an obsessive Windows tweaker, then you might want to give XdN Tweaker a quick whirl.

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How To Increase Your Internet Speed By 20%

Tony Williams — Sat, 12 May 2007 19:46:41 +0000

If you use Windows XP Professional then it is possible to squeeze an extra 20% out of your internet connection. By default Windows XP Pro holds back 20% of your Internet speed for various services like windows update and spyware checks.

If you want to tap into this locked speed then make the following changes:

Go to Start-> Run-> and type gpedit.msc
Expand the Administrative Templates branch
Expand the Network tab
Highlight QoS Packet Scheduler
Click on Limit Reservable Bandwidth and check the ‘enabled’ box
Then Change the Bandwidth limit % to 0 %

Once you’ve done this click apply and restart your PC. After rebooting you should see a noticeable improvement in your net speed.

Thanks to the Techie Blog for the tip.

How to enable the DVD Library in Windows Vista Media Center

Tony Williams — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 23:59:34 +0000

Iv’e spent a lot of time copying my DVD library to my computer’s Hard Disk to protect my disks and to save having to swap them around everytime I want to watch them. In Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, DVD content that was stored on the hard disk automatically appeared in the My Videos folder, but it didn’t in Windows Vista.

I’ve finally worked out how to get my DVD Library to appear under Windows Vista Media Center and it involves a quick registry change to enable the ‘DVD Gallery’ feature that Microsoft have disabled in the default settings.

Warning: Remember all registry changes are made at your own risk.

Exit Windows Media Center if it is running.
Click StartStart button, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then click regedit in the Programs list.
Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\DvdSettings

In the results pane, right-click ShowGallery, and then click Modify.
Delete the contents that appear in the Value data box, type Gallery in the Value data box, and then click OK.
Exit Registry Editor

Now all of your DVD titles should appear in the new Vista DVD Gallery, providing easy access.

Visual Tooltip: Get Vista Thumbnails With XP

Tony Williams — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 21:55:47 +0000

Vista thumbnails are cool. I just realised today that the Vista thumbnails even show videos playing. Now you can create the experience with Windows XP with Visual Tootips, with a few tips curteousy of The How To Geek:

Download and start Visual Tooltips and open up the options from the tray icon
Increase the size of the sliders to make the thumbnail bigger, and then uncheck the option for “Size proportional to the target window”.

Then click on the Display tab, and then uncheck the “Show window title”

250 Page Windows Vista & XP Tweaking Guides

Tony Williams — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 21:58:35 +0000

My objective when setting up this site was to only posts and tips that take either 5 minutes to read or 5 minutes to implement, but today’s tip is too good to pass on.

TweakGuides.com publish what I would consider to be the Bible on tweaking Windows XP, which they’ve just updated as well as launching a Windows Vista version. The guides has to be downloaded as they span an impressive 250 pages. Although this may seem like too much to plough through the guide is well laid out so you can just jump to the section you want to focus on.

What separates this guides in my view from other tweaking guides is how well they are written, with even complex tweaks well explained so that you can be confident you won’t make a mistake.

To visit the site and to download your Windows XP or Windows Vista tweaking guide click here. I’m going to give the Vista version a run for its money tomorrow so that I can start my own experiments.

Ultimate List Of XP Tweaks

Tony Williams — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 11:40:38 +0000

I decided to do a clean build of my PC last night as it’s been a while and I’ve accumulated so much from my tinkering that my PC was starting to run really slow. Once I’d re-installed Windows XP and all my key apps I went hunting for some additional tweaks to really make my installation zip along.

I headed over to Connected Internet first as they’ve published some good XP tips in the past. I wasn’t disappointed as they have now created The Complete Guide To Optimizing Windows XP, which lists every XP tweak and mod under the sun.

What I particularly liked was that the guide was split into a Beginners, Intermediate and Expert section to ensure that every level of user can get something out of the guide.

To check out this great guide click here to get your PC zipping along like mine.

Unlock 43 Hidden Applications in Windows XP

Tony Williams — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 00:01:08 +0000

Windows XP is a very powerful operating system, but unfortunately a lot of the very useful functionality is hidden away.

These hidden gems can be unlocked by using the Windows XP Hidden Application Enabler. This great piece of freeware unlocks 43 hidden applications and adds them to the Start menu for easy accessiblity.

Applications that are unearthed include:

Configuration Utility
Task Manager
Synchronization Manager
Text to Speech Narrator
Character Map (great for adding those checks and crosses to Powerpoint slides!)

Dr Watson diagnosis
System Monitor

To download Windows XP Hidden Application Enabler click here