One Tip A Day » XP

Fix Windows 7 Blue Screen Of Death

Tony Williams — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:01:51 +0000

Many Windows 7 users have been confronted with a blank black screen since a Microsoft security update last month. The ‘Windows 7 Black Screen of Death‘ or BSOD is also affecting some Windows XP and Windows Vista users.

To fix the Windows 7 BSOD:

Restart your PC
Logon and wait for the black screen to appear
Make sure your PC should be able to connect to the internet (black screen does not appear to affect this)
Press the CTRL, ALT and DEL keys simultaneously
When prompted, Click Start Task Manager
In Task Manager Click on the Application Tab
Next Click New Task
Now enter the command: ”C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe” “http://info.prevx.com/download.asp?GRAB=BLACKSCREENFIX”

Note this command assumes that you are using internet explorer as your browser, if not substitute your browser path and file details for those of iexplore.exe or use the Browser option of Task manager to locate it.

Click OK and your browser should start up and begin the download process
When prompted for the download Click run, the black screen fix program will download and run to automatically fix the issue.
Now restart your PC and the black screen problem will hopefully be gone.

If the fix above for the windows 7 BSOD doesn’t work for you then you can get more Windows 7 Help here. Thanks to Windows 7 News & Tips for the fix.

Speedup Windows Settings By Increasing The Double-click Speed

Tony Williams — Sat, 17 May 2008 22:43:19 +0000

I have a great Windows optimization tip that all levels of users can follow!

I’ve always ‘felt’ that my PC runs faster when I’ve speedup my mouse double-click speed and Microsoft developer Raymond Chen has just confirmed that it does indeed speedup your PC. Raymond explains in his post that many other Windows settings use the double-click speed as a barometer for how fast the PC is, so speeding it up increases other settings:

If you go into the mouse control panel and speed up your double-click speed, then you’ll find that other user interface operations tend to speed up as well. The double-click time is a sort of barometer for how good the user’s reaction time is. If you set it too low, you may find that things just happen too fast.

Some of the settings that are increased by changing the double-click speed are:

The default tooltip timeouts are based on the double-click time. (Initial: 0.5s, autopop: 5s, reshow: 0.1s.)
Incremental searching in list boxes resets after 4 times the double click time (2s).
When you click and hold over a scroll bar arrow, autorepeat begins after 4/5 of the double-click time has elapsed (.4s), and autorepeat occurs at one tenth of the double-click time (0.05s = 20 repeats per second).
The menu speed used to be 4/5 of the double click speed (0.4s), but now it has its own setting (SPI_SETMENUSHOWDELAY).

Just in case you don’t know how to speedup your mouse settings then click on ‘Mouse’ under ‘Hardware and Sound’ in Control Panel.

TweakNow: Tweak Your XP Or Vista Machine Safely

Tony Williams — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:51:35 +0000

Many PC tweaking utilities can be risky to use as they present you with dozens of options at a time, and when you change a dozen things at once something is bound to go wrong. The problem in this situation normally is, how do you roll back so many changes?

TweakNow may finally make tweaking Vista and XP machines even safer for novices. Not only does it provide quick access to some useful PC tweaks, but it also keeps a record of your previous settings so that rollbacks can be performed quickly and safely. Within TweakNow you can edit:

Applications
Control Panel
Desktop
Miscellaneous
Network & Internet
OEM Info
Special Folders
Start Menu
User Accounts
Windows Core
Windows Explorer

More: TweakNow

Freeup Memory In One Click With Instant Memory Cleaner

Tony Williams — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:37:04 +0000

Managing PC memory isn’t as big an issue as it used to be, but freeing up memory can still provide benefits. Rather than spending a lot of time closing old processes, installing Instant Memory Cleaner is a quick solution.

Once installed, this tiny app (and it really is tiny at 1.8MB) sits in your system tray and if you hover your mouse, it will tell you how much memory is available. To free up memory all you have to do is right click on the icon and select ‘Clean Memory’. Within seconds your PC will have more memory available, which will make all those resource hungry apps you run, move along that little bit faster.

More: Instant Memory Cleaner

Five Quick Windows Tips

Tony Williams — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 18:44:53 +0000

A very quick and useful post for the weekend. Martin over at gHacks that in his own words are:

…are that short that I can’t write enough to justify an article for them which is why I have decided to collect five quick Windows tips that are still very useful and probably not know to anyone reading this article.

The five tips he has collected together are:

Start Windows Explorer 7 Without Add-ons
Rename Recycle Bin
Display All Symbols In System Tray
Make Sure All File Extensions Are Always Shown
Show All Devices In Device Manager

If any of these tips are of interest, then head on over to gHacks to get the full low down.

Vista Transformation Pack 8 For Windows XP

Tony Williams — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 23:56:06 +0000

I’ve promoted the amazing Vista Transformation Pack in the past that gives your XP machine that Vista look & feel for free. Well, now Version 8 is now available that makes windows XP/2003 look even more like Vista. The latest version of VTP 8 completely replicates Window Vista without paying the hefty price or compromising on stability of Windows XP.

In Vista Transformation Pack 8 you will now find WinFlip and better Aero glass-like transparency effects. Other features:

Added TrueTransparency 0.8.5 (Glass border with ported AeroStyle skin)
Added WinFlip 0.42 (Vista 3DFlip)
Updated Vista Sidebar to version 2.3 Lite
Updated Vista Sidebar user account configuration in Welcome Center
Updated ViStart to build 2661
Updated ViOrb to version 2.0
Updated VisualTooltip to version 2.2
Updated Welcome Center to pre-configure user account with system optimized option on the first run in that user account

Download Links:

Source: TechBuzz

Free Firewall For Windows PCs

Tony Williams — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 21:53:37 +0000

Every broadband user needs a decent firewall. Going online without one is tantamount to suicide.

Windows XP and higher has a respectable firewall, but it can be improved upon. Luckily there’s a good free one in PC Tools Firewall Plus from the makers of Spyware Doctor.

PC Tools Firewall Plus is much more than a simple firewall, and has an expert mode with more bells and whistles that can be configured. If you prefer the quiet life, PC Tools Firewall Plus can deal with most alerts for you automatically. It’s compatible with Windows 2000/XP/Vista.

More: PC Tools Firewall Plus

How To Add A FTP Server To Windows Explorer

Tony Williams — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:28:31 +0000

Anyone who manages a website at some point has to use a FTP client to upload and download files to their server. Although these aren’t too difficult to use once you get the hang of things, adding the FTP server to Windows Explorer can make it easier to upload and download files.

CyberNetNews have put together a great guide including pictures showing the steps required to add a FTP Server To Windows Explorer. Here’s a summary of the steps required:

Open Windows Explorer and choose the “Map Network Drive” option.
- Vista location: Along the top toolbar
- XP location: Tools Menu
Choose the option at the bottom that reads:
- Vista: “Connect to a Web site that you can use to store your documents and pictures”
- XP: “Sign up for online storage or connect to a network server”
Click “Choose a custom network location”
Enter in the FTP address for the site
Enter the username for the FTP server (you will be prompted for the password when you connect):
Choose a Name for your FTP Server
Close the wizard

Now all you have to do is open Windows Explorer to access your FTP Server. The first time you connect you will be asked for a password, but you can save the details so that you don’t have to add them again.

Add Vista Thumbnails To XP Toolbar

Tony Williams — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 19:44:32 +0000

The taskbar thumbnails on a are very cool. I love the way that they even show videos playing.

If you’re still saving your pennies for a copy of Vista, then a free way to add Vista-like thumbnails to XP is to install Visual Task Tips. This free program will add thumbnail preview images for each task in the Windows Taskbar. Best of all the app is only 90Kb, so it’s very light and fast.

More: Visual Task Tips

How To Add New Menu Items to Windows Explorer Right Click Menu

Tony Williams — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:58:16 +0000

Gili has put together a nice clear guide on hos to add add add Move to Folder and Copy to Folder items to Windows Explorer right click menu. It requires a few registry changes, so please don’t even start making the necessary changes if you’re not comfortable editing your registry!

Before starting, backup your operating system registry file. Use instructions provided in section 2 here.
Click Start.
Vista users: in the Start Search type Regedit to open your Registry Editor.
XP users: Click Run, then type Regedit to open your Registry Editor.
Browse to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers.
Right Click and select New and then Key. Name the key Copy To.
From the right hand side right click on the subkey named Default and select Modify.
In the Value data field enter the following string: {C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}
Browse to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
Right Click and select New and then Key. Name the key Move To.
From the right hand side right click on the subkey named Default and select Modify.
In the Value data field enter the following string: {C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}
Click OK
Close the Registry Editor

The Copy To Folder and Move To Folder options will appear when right clicking a file or folder in Windows Explorer.

20 No-Cost PC Upgrade Tips

Tony Williams — Mon, 21 May 2007 23:35:18 +0000

Techlogg.com is my site discovery of the week. One of the reasons I love blogs is that they allow normal people to share their knowledge and expertise with a large audience. One great post on Techlogg.com gives 20 no-cost PC upgrade tips.

Techlogg is correct in their assertion that many PCs are not running at their full capacity, and i’s not necessary to spend money to get a 20% increase when you could implement 20 tweaks that could potentially give a 1% increase each.

Here’s the list of tweaks they’ve come up with. Check out the site for the full guide.

1) Move the Windows system page file
2) Switch off XP’s fancy look
3) Use RAID 0 on your system
4) Starve integrated graphics of memory
5) Check the heatsink/fan combo
6) Check for dual-channel memory support
7) Clean your PC
8) Use aggressive CMOS settings
9) Adjust the front-side bus (FSB) speed
10) Look for multicore-enabled applications
11) Run fewer apps at the same time
12) Turn off hard drive power-down
13) If it’s charged, pull it out
14) Drop the screen resolution
15) Find faster video codecs
16) Get the latest device drivers
17) Patch your IDE drives
18) Defrag your hard drive
19) Get the latest motherboard BIOS updates
20) Reinstall Windows

Brilliant Freeware Apps To Keep Your Desktop Fresh & Tidy

Tony Williams — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 17:17:24 +0000

Sometimes even when you have multiple monitors it seems like there just isn’t enough space on your desktop. Windows XP likes to encourage multi-tasking but if you have a big PC session you can end up with multiple windows open that can make navigating around your desktop very hard.

I used to struggle, until I started some of the cool Freeware programs listed below to keep my desktop nice and tidy and fresh.

Deskloops 2.0

Deskloops is Windows XP’s answer to Vista’s Flip 3D function. In fact, I think it does a better job than Flip 3D. This brilliant freeware application adds all of your windows to a drop-down Strip which shows all of your windows as thumbnails. Windows within the stip can be scrolled a-la Vista Flip 3D, and once you find the window you want to use just stop and the window will open.

Download

Tray Devil

I discovered TrayDevil in December. TrayDevil allows windows to be minimized to the system tray simply by clicking on a Window at the same time as pressing CTRL, as well as the following very quickly on a window by window basis:

Set Windows To Be Always On Top
Disable The Minimize, Maximise and Close Buttons
Adds Additional System Tray Options
Control Restart, Shutdown or Lock Functions from the system tray

How To Do A Clean Windows Vista Install

Tony Williams — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 00:03:19 +0000

If you are planning on purchasing the upgrade version of Windows Vista, you may be surprised to find that you can’t do a clean install of Vista, as it requires you to have XP running on the machine you want to upgrade and the installation process has to be run from within XP.

Luckily there is a fairly simple workaround:

Boot your machine with the Vista DVD, but don’t enter your serial number just press Next (leaving the serial field blank).
Choose the copy of Vista that you purchased and continue to perform a clean install
Once the installation is complete you will need to restart the process over again but from within Vista. When prompted for the serial number this time make sure you enter in your Vista Upgrade serial number that you received with your purchase.
Now when prompted to Upgrade or Custom install, choose the Custom (advanced) option. You’ll be installing Vista for the second time but this is the only way to truly do a clean install of Vista using an upgrade DVD.
Optional: Since the installation was started from within Windows, you’ll still have a Windows.old folder on your drive that can be deleted after the installation is done.

Thanks to CyberNetNews for the guide and the pictures

Free Wallpaper Changer

Tony Williams — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 21:03:33 +0000

I’ve been doing a lot of work on my new theme today (what do you think by the way? I think it’s cool!) so I haven’t had a lot of time to find a good tip to write about. Then I looked at my desktop and realised I hadn’t told you about one of my favorite apps which I’ve been using for quite some time.

The Free Wallpaper Changer app is fantastic. Not only does it change your wallpaper automatically at a pre-determined interval which can be anything from 15mins to 24 hours, it also comes totally spyware and advertising free.

It has a simple interface that lets you add your own pictures to an Album, and then you can decide which Album to rotate pictures from. Once it is running it sits nicely in the system tray and if you don’t like the currently displayed wallpaper all you have to do is double-click on the system tray icon to change it.

More: Free Wallpaper Changer

Download Over 3000 Free Wallpapers

Tony Williams — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 22:20:40 +0000

Although I’m trying to not make any major changes to my PC as I’ll be upgrading to Vista soon, I’ve just added a few new Wallpapers from http://wallpaper.dontloveme.com/, who have over 3000 high quality images available for free download. The wallpapers are all nicely categorized, with over 20 categories.

Well, worth checking out if you’re looking for a quick way to spruce up your PC.

Remove Useless Junk From Your PC

Tony Williams — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 13:00:21 +0000

If you’re planning on upgrading to Vista at the end of the month then you won’t need this tip. Over time your PC can accumulate a lot of useless junk, particularly if you are not choosy about what apps, toolbars, widgets, drivers etc you install. I have to admit that I’ve fallen into this trap recently and my machine is crashing a couple of times a day. I can’t be bothered to fix it though as my copy of Vista arrives next week I think. At least then I can blame Mircosoft for my woes!

SunbeltBlog have put together a good checklist of things you can do to clean up your PC. Even though the list is quite long most of these are quite easy to implement, so I’ve decided to feature them. Three in particular are noteworthy:

Separate your data from everything else: Either partition your drive or get an external drive to hold your data, and keep your primary drive for the operating system and your applications.
Ditch utilities: Do you really need one of these “utility suites” you see that seem to promise so much? I don’t think so. Or how about a registry cleaner? They may be spiffy, but I doubt you really need them.
Kill toolbars: A toolbar has its use, but you only need one: Google’s or Yahoo’s. Choose one. Ashcan the rest.

I always put my OS and data on seperate drives or partitiions, so that if I need to reinstall the OS I don’t have to worry about my data.

To read all the tops click here.

Do More With Windows Taskbar

Tony Williams — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 20:20:51 +0000

Ryan from CyberNotes has put together a list of some great apps that will increase the functionality of your Windows Taskbar. And best of all, they are all free!

My personal favourite is the Easy Access Calculator. This cool little app attaches itself to the taskbar, and all you have to do is type in an equation like “7+3″ and press Enter to have it show you the result.

To check out the other cool Windows Taskbar apps Ryan has discovered, click here.

Great Guide To Disabling Windows Services

Tony Williams — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 18:16:44 +0000

Windows XP is designed to cater for the unique tastes of millions of users, which means it supports and runs a lot of stuff that most users don’t need as Services. Turning off Services can be a risky affair if you don’t know what you are doing, although a big performance boost can be gained if you pick the right ones. Turning off unnecessary services in Windows XP can also greatly reduce your exploit risk.

Normally sites that explain which services don’t give a lot of information as to which ones are safe, and which ones are riskier. This guide is so detailed, that even novice PC users can be confident they won’t nuke their PCs.

More: Guide To Turning Off Windows Services

Who Needs Vista??!! Show Your PC Some Love This Christmas And Tune It Up

Tony Williams — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 00:01:26 +0000

Vista may be coming out next year, but if like me you can’t afford to upgrade to Vista then why not show your current PC some love this Christmas and give it a tune up?

I’ve just reinstalled Windows XP as I’ve treated my PC to a new motherboard for Christmas. Here are some of the tweaks I’ve done so far to make my machine faster, which I think are worth sharing.

Disable Last Access Update To Speed Up Access To Files

When XP opens folders it can waste a lot of time trying to update the last access time. To stop XP doing this requires a registry tweak:

Open Regedit by going to ‘Start’. Click on ‘Run’ and type ‘regedit’
Navigate to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlFileSystem’
Right-click and select ‘DWORD Value’
Enter ‘NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate’ as your new DWORD Value
Once you’ve created the DWORD value, right-click on the new DWORD and click ‘Modify’
Change the Value Data to ‘1′
Click ‘OK’

Disable Indexing Services

Disabling Indexing Services can provide a significant performance increase depending on how you use your computer. If you rarely search for files on your PC then you should turn it off, to stop XP wasting time keeping the search index up to date. It also take up large amounts of RAM and can make your PC sound noisy.

Here’s how to turn off indexing:

Go to ‘Start’
Click ‘Settings’ then click on ‘Control Panel’
Next, click on ‘Add/Remove Programs’
Click the ‘Add/Remove Window Components’
Uncheck the ‘Indexing services’
Click ‘Next’

Clean Up Your Hard Drive

Over time you’ll be amazed how much crap can accumulate on your PC taking up valuable space. The best and quickest way to cleanup your hard drive is to install and run CCleaner. CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It also can clean remove all traces of what you’ve been doing online.

Install CCleaner
Once it’s installed Right-click on your Recycle bin and click ‘Open CCleaner’
Click on ‘Cleaner’ in the left-hand navigation
Tick ‘Internet Explorer’ and ‘Windows Explorer’ and ‘System’
Untick ‘Cookies’, ‘History’, ‘Recently Typed URLs’ and ‘Last Download Location’ in the Internet Explorer Sub-menu if you don’t want to lose your internet history
Next click on the ‘Applications’ Tab at the top and tick the applications you want to clean
Then click on ‘Analyze’ in the bottom right hand corner and CCleaner will start its magic
Once CCleaner finishes analysing it will tell you how much space it can free up. If you like what you see, click ‘Run Cleaner’ and the files will be removed

Speedup Folder Browsing

On most PCs, everytime a folder is opened there will be slight delay, while XP searches for any network files or printers. Stopping XP doing this can make a big difference to folder browsing speeds:

Open My Computer and click open the ‘Tools’ menu
Select ‘folder options’ and then select the ‘view’ tab
Uncheck ‘Automatically search for network folders and printers’
Click ‘Apply’ and then click ‘Ok’
If you are prompted to reboot your pc then do so

Make Your PC Boot Faster

If you don’t regularly clean your temp and history folder then XP will waste time checking these folders everytime you boot your PC. To stop this, you can create a batch file that will clear the temp and history folders when you shutdown your PC, so that your PC won’t waste time checking these folders the next time it starts up:

Open Notepad and create a new file with the following entries:

RD /S /q “C:Documents and Settings”UserName without quotes”Local SettingsHistory”
RD /S /q “C:Documents and SettingsDefault UserLocal SettingsHistory”
RD /S /q “D:Temp” < –”Deletes temp folder, type in the location of your temp folder

Save the new file as ‘cleantemp.bat’ somewhere where you can find it easily
Now go to ‘Start’ and select ‘Run’
Type in‘gpedit.msc’ and click ‘Ok’
Click on ‘Computer Configuration’ then ‘Windows Settings’
Click on ‘Scripts’ and then on ‘Shutdown’
Click ‘Add’ and find the batch file that you created and then press ‘Ok’

That’s it. I’ll post some more ways to give your PC a treat later on in the week.

Make Your Own FREE Video Screensavers

Tony Williams — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 00:01:46 +0000

Want to jazz up your desktop? Well there are two great apps that allow you to make your own free video screensavers.

The first one is ‘My Video Screen Saver‘ which supports the following features:

Plays AVI, MPEG, WMV video files as a screen saver
Displays videos randomly
Allows the volume of each video to be adjusted
Allows videos to be previewed from the settings window
Adjust videos to 100%, 150% or 200% for each file
Runs on all Windows operating systems

The second one was discovered by gHacks. The Windows XP Video Screensaver also allows you to adjust the playback size (Fullscreen or 50% – 400%), play a random file, loop the file, mute the audio and alter playback speed (from 0.1 to 3.0). Most file types are supported, the most common ones are of course avi, mp3 and wmv – the tool basically supports all file types that the windows media player is able to play.

Give Your Digital Photos Sensible Filenames Automatically In Windows XP

Tony Williams — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:59:37 +0000

Uploading Digital photos can be a pain, as most cameras give photos useless filenames that have to be changed manually if you want them to mean anything.

Well, help is at hand and there is a quick solution (XP only):

Open your photos folder and select “View > Thumbnails”
Then select all the photos you want to rename. If it’s all photos then just press “Ctrl+A” at the same time
Right-click the first photo, and select ‘Rename’
XP then will highlight the first photo which you can then give a sensible name
Click the white space outside of the photo and Windows will add the same name with a sequential number to each picture in the folder

Repeat the steps above for all your albums and pretty soon you’ll have a collection that is easier to manage.

Optimize Your Internet Connection

Tony Williams — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 21:21:27 +0000

Remember the days when 512K seemed fast? Even though most of us have connections much faster than this now it is still worthwhile to make sure that your connectedion is optimized.

One of the quickest ways to do this but by far the easiest is to run TCP/IP Optimizer. To run the tool do the following:

Download and install
Click the General Settings tab and select your Connection Speed (Kbps)
Click Network Adapter and choose the interface you use to connect to the Internet
Check Optimal Settings then Apply
Reboot

If you are feeling adventurous and want to find more simple ways to speedup your PC then follow the steps in this guide

Free Up PC Memory By Disabling Indexing Services

Tony Williams — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 19:39:39 +0000

Indexing Services is a small little program that uses large amounts of RAM and can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy. This system process indexes and updates lists of all the files that are on your computer. It does this so that when you do a search for something on your computer, it will search faster by scanning the index lists.

If you don’t search your computer often, or even if you do search often, this system service is completely unnecessary.

To disable do the following:

Go to Start
Click Settings
Click Control Panel
Double-click Add/Remove Programs
Click the Add/Remove Window Components
Uncheck the Indexing services
Click Next

Make Your Hard Drive Run Faster

Tony Williams — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 20:44:12 +0000

We spend so much time worrying about the speed of Graphics Cards and Memory, we tend to forget about optimizing one important component of all PCS – the Hard Drive.

These 10 tips will help to speedup your Hard Drives and your file access times. The ten tips are:

1. Disable Short Filenames
2. Name Your Files Appropriately
3. Use More Folders
4. Use More Partitions
5. Plan Your Cluster Size
6. Defragment Regularly
7. Reserve Space for the MFT
8. Disable Last Access Time
9. Turn Off (or On) the Indexing Service
10. Use FAT32 for the Paging File

To learn how to implement each tip follow this link

Automatically Defragment Your Pagefile

Tony Williams — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 19:44:52 +0000

Keeping your pagefile defragmented can provide a major performance boost. One of the best ways of doing this is to creat a separate partition on your hard drive just for your page file, so that it doesn’t get impacted by normal disk usage.

If you are unable to do this then another solution could be to install PageDefrag. This sweet little app can be used to defrag your pagefile, and can also be set to defrag the pagefile everytime your PC starts.

To install:

Download and Run PageDefrag
Tick “Defrag at next Reboot”,
Click “Ok”
Reboot

List Of Useful Microsoft Office Shortcuts

Tony Williams — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 21:29:59 +0000

I tend to use a laptop a lot and using keyboard shortcuts are essential if you don’t have a mouse.

Here are some useful ones I’ve learnt. Please share any others that you know.

SHIFT+F10: Display the shortcut menu
HOME or END: Select the first or last command on the menu or submenu
F1:Displays the Help task pane.
CTRL+F1: closes and reopens the current task pane.
F2: Edit
F4: Repeat the last command or action
F7: Spellcheck
F10: Selects the menu bar or closes an open menu and submenu at the same time
F12: Displays the Save As dialog box

Faster Windows XP Menus

Tony Williams — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 20:24:38 +0000

Sometimes making your PC ‘run’ faster is just about changing the way programs run e.g disabling splash screens. This tip will make your machine feel faster, by increasing the speed with which menus load, by removing the delay between clicking on a menu and that menu being displayed, which is enforced by XP.

To enable this tweak do the following:

Go to the Start Menu and then click on ‘Run’
Type in ‘Regedit’ then click on ‘Ok’
Navigate to ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\’
Once you’ve found this registry key, select ‘MenuShowDelay’
Right click on ‘MenuShowDelay’ and select ‘Modify’
Lower the speed to somewhere between 100 and 400
Close the registry editor

This is the delay time before a menu is opened measured in ms. You can set it to “0″ but it can make windows really hard to use as menus will open automatically when a mouse is just hovered over them. I personally go 100ms but experiment until you find a timing you like.

Use ClearMem To Freeup Windows XP Memory

Tony Williams — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 18:04:58 +0000

Although most modern computers have enough memory to run Windows XP properly, the longer you leave PC running without a reboot the more chance there is that old processes and programs you’ve been using are still ‘holding onto’ memory, making less available to other programs.

An easy way to fix this is to install ClearMem. THis great tool is made by Microsoft and what it does is automatically free up memory by reducing the size of running processes.

To run this tool, your paging file must be at least as big as physical memory. To see if your PC is setup correctly do the following:

Go into your control panel and click on ‘System’
Click the ‘Advanced’ and under the ‘Performance’ section click on ‘Settings’
Then click on the ‘Advanced’ Tab again
At the bottom there is a ‘Virtual Memory’ section and a value
Make sure that this value is at least as big as the amount of memory on your system. If it’s not then click on ‘Change’ and make the number bigger
Then click on ‘Set’ and follow the prompts to reboot your machine

More: Download ClearMem (part of the toolkit)

Remove Unused Drivers in XP

Tony Williams — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 21:42:08 +0000

Did you know that unless you uninstall a device driver on a Windows XP
machine that it still may be sucking up valuable system resources? If you are a serial upgrader like me, then you could have developed quite a mess on your machine.
TechRepublic has step-by-step instructions on how you can view and remove these
unnecessary devices.

More: TechRepublic

How To Improve Your Swapfile Performance

Tony Williams — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 20:13:43 +0000

If you have more than 256MB of RAM on your PC this tweak will considerably improve your performance. What it does is tell your PC to use every last drop of RAM before using the swap file, which is slower than real RAM.

To enable this tweak is easy. Just follow the steps below:

Go to Start then Run
Type ‘msconfig.exe’ then click ‘ok’
Click on the System.ini tab
Expand the 386enh tab by clicking on the plus sign
Click on new then in the blank box type ‘ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1′
Click ‘OK’
Then restart your PC

Once you’ve restarted your PC will have much better memory management.

Browse Windows XP Folders Faster

Tony Williams — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 19:31:52 +0000

You may have noticed that everytime you open My Computer on your PC to browse folders that there is a slight delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers everytime you open Windows Explorer.

To stop XP doing this follow the steps below:

Open My Computer
Click on Tools menu
Click on Folder Options
Click on the View tab
Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and printers check box
Click Apply
Click Ok
Reboot your computer

Once you’ve completed this step you will see a significant speed increase within My Computer