Tweaking Optimizing Windows.pdf - GEGeek
Tweaking Optimizing Windows.pdf - GEGeek
Tweaking Optimizing Windows.pdf - GEGeek
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To get Admin account on the "Welcome Screen" as well as the other usernames, make sure that there are no accounts logged in.<br />
Press "ctrl-alt-del" twice and you should be able to login as administrator!<br />
59. Enable Cleartype on the welcome screen<br />
Laptop users and other LCD owners are quickly realizing, Microsoft's ClearType technology in <strong>Windows</strong> XP really makes a big<br />
difference for readability. But the this feature is enabled on a per-user basis in <strong>Windows</strong> XP, so you can't see the effect on the<br />
Welcome screen; it only appears after you logon.<br />
But you can fix that. Fire up the Registry Editor and look for the following keys:<br />
(default user) HKEY_USERS \ .Default \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ FontSmoothing (String Value)<br />
HKEY_USERS \ .Default \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ FontSmoothingType (Hexadecimal DWORD Value)<br />
Make sure both of these values are set to 2 and you'll have ClearType enabled on the Welcome screen and on each new user by<br />
default.<br />
60. Setup XP for different uses<br />
WinXP allows multiple users [each with highly-separate system settings], which sounds like a rather useless capability for a single<br />
user system. However, I have set up my system as follows, and can see an almost limitless number of possibilities for those that<br />
want the most technically correct setup.<br />
My main user, X , is pretty much what you would call a standard setup, providing Internet access, protected by a background Anti-<br />
Virus program and a personal firewall, CD-RW software, Instant Messenger software, etc. Even though I am the only user on this<br />
PC, I have a second user login, Gamer , which does not load all those background programs, and is as optimized as I could get it for<br />
game play. Another user, Graphics , also doesn't load the AV (but I can run it on demand), firewall, or IM program, but does load<br />
the CD-RW software and scanner program, for example.<br />
61. Install Recovery Console<br />
Very useful for troubleshooting. Go to where your XP cab files are and type '\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons'. Where 'd:\' is<br />
cd drive or hard drive. Commands available when Recovery Console is installed :-<br />
LISTSVC<br />
List services<br />
ENABLE/DISALBE Enable/disable service<br />
DISKPART<br />
Equivalent of FDISK<br />
FIXBOOT<br />
Create a new boot sector on the system partition<br />
FIXMBR FDISK /MBR equivalent (problems with RAID etc)<br />
LOGON<br />
List installation of <strong>Windows</strong> XP and can choose which to work on<br />
SYSTEMROOT<br />
Move to the system root<br />
MAP<br />
Display a list of drives and ARC paths. Useful to fix boot.ini probs.<br />
62. Cable Modem & xDSL Speed Tweak<br />
To increase your broadband Cable Modem speed tip visit www.speedguide.net<br />
Also visit www.x9000.net and download XenTweak<br />
They have some excellent registry and inf files to download specially for cable access.<br />
63. Adaptive Menus<br />
Microsoft Office 2000 introduced personalized menus (a.k.a. adaptive menus) that remembers which items you use regularly and<br />
hides items you don't. This tweaks allows you to enable or disable this functionality. Exit all open Office 2000 applications, including<br />
Word, Excel, Access and Outlook. Then open your registry and find the key below, if it does not exist create it.<br />
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\Toolbars]<br />
Create a new DWORD value named 'AdaptiveMenus' and set the value to '0' for disabled and '1' for enabled.<br />
64. Control Smart Menus<br />
Switch them off ! <strong>Windows</strong> 2000 included a new feature called 'Personalized Menus', which remembers which items you use<br />
regularly and hides items you don't. This tweaks allows you to enable or disable this functionality.<br />
Open your registry and find the key mentioned below.<br />
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\<strong>Windows</strong>\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]<br />
Create a new string value, or modify the the existing value, named 'IntelliMenus'.<br />
Modify the value to equal 'YES' to enable smart menus or 'NO' to disable them.<br />
By using the same key except under the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE] tree the tweak can be enforced system wide, instead of only user<br />
based. Restart your machine.<br />
65. Hide or Display Administrative Tools Menu<br />
As with <strong>Windows</strong> NT and <strong>Windows</strong> 2000, XP has an 'Administrative Tools' folder on the Start Menu. This folder contains powerful<br />
administration utilities and therefore can be hidden to avoid accidental use.<br />
Open your registry and find the key mentioned below.<br />
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\<strong>Windows</strong>\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]<br />
For example, the setting may look like:<br />
(Default) (value not set)<br />
StartMenuAdminTools YES<br />
Create a new string value, or modify the the existing value, named 'StartMenuAdminTools'. Modify the value to equal 'YES' to show<br />
the administrative tools folder or 'NO' to hide it. By using the same key except under the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE] tree the tweak<br />
can be enforced system wide, instead of only user based.<br />
Exit your registry and log off for the changes to take effect. Note: Hiding the folder does not stop the use of the tools, it only make<br />
it more difficult to locate them.
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