Tips & Tricks for Windows XP
1. Remove the Recycle Bin
If you prefer to work with a completely clear desktop, you can hide the Recycle Bin with a title Registry hack.
You can still use the [Shift] + [Delete] shortcut to access the Bin when you need it. Choose 'Start|Run' and type Regedit in the 'Open' bar. click 'Ok'.
Now browse to the following location:
'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/HideDesktopIcons/NewStartPanel'
Create a new DWORD value and give it the following name:
'{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}'
Double-click this and change its value to '1'.
Quit Registry Editor, then right-click an empty space somewhere on your desktop and choose 'Refresh'.
The Recycle Bin icon will magically disappear from the desktop. You can get it back again at any time by changing the value back to '0'.
2. Make your own toolbar
You can turn a folder into a toolbar for quick and easy access to its contents.
Right-click the taskbar and choose 'Toolbar|New toolbar' from the menu.
This launches the 'New toolbar' dialog. Select the item that you want to use as a toolbar.
If necessary, browse through 'My Documents' or 'My Conputer' to find the folder you want.
Alternatively, click 'Make new folder' to create a custom one. Click 'Ok'.
Your new toolbar will appear as a button on the taskbar.
Click this to see an explanding menu of its contents.
Subfolder becomes their own expanding menus. Select a file to open it in its associated application.
3. Cut the Start menu delay
There's a slight delay built into the Start menu to give you thinking time. If you know your way around, you can shorten it with a Registry edit.
Open Registry Editor by choosing 'Start|Run' and entering Regedit in 'Open' bar, then clicking 'Ok'.
Now goto 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop'.
Double-click the 'MenuShowDelay' value and change it from the deafult 400 to a lower number of your choise.
4. Disable autorun for discs
Put a disc in your CD/DVD drive and you will notice an appreciable lag as it spins up, even if you're not just about to use it.
If you don't always need your CDs and DVDs to launch automatically when you insert them, the needless spinning up of the disc can slow your machine down.
You can disable CD autorun by modifying this registry key:
'HKEY_LOCAL_MACIHINES/SYSTEM/Current ContolSet/Services/Cdrom'.
Double-click the 'AutoRun Dword' value and set it to '0'. Chane its value to '1' to restore it.
5. Disable menu animation
You can turn off animated menus in Windows Xp for faster navigation.
In Regedit, open the key 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop' and create the string value 'MinAnimate'.
Give it a '0' value. To restore menu animations, delete this string.
6. Remove text from icons
You can improve the general look for your PC's desktop by removing the names of shortcuts, leaving the icon to speak for themselves.
If you try renaming the desktop shortcut to a single space, Windows XP won't let you.
However, you can force it to accept a space as the name by holding down [Alt] and typing 255 on the number pad.
If you want multiple shortcuts to have blank names, you'll need to give each one a different number of spaces to avoid them having identical names.
7. Remove programs from the 'Open With' list
Stop programs appearing on the 'Open With' list when you are trying to open an unrecognised file.
Open Regedit an browse 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Applications', and you'll see a list of programs that are installed on your PC as subkeys in the left-hand pane.
To remove an unwanted programs from the list, select it and right-click in the right hand pane.
Choose 'New String value'. Name it 'NoOpenWith'.
Repeat for each application that you want to remove from the list.
8. Correct file sorting
By deafult, a file name '2.jpg' will be sorted for one called '20.jpg'.
Many people work around this by starting single digit numbers in file name with leading zero, but you can change this behaviour by making a Registry edit.
Browse it to the Registry key HKEU_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explore.
Create new DWORD value and name it 'NoStrcmpLogical'. Right-click and modify its value to '1'.
9. Add shortcut popup menu
Add a 'Copy to folder' option to the right-click context menu so that you can quickly copy a file by right-clicking it.
In the Registry Editor, browse to 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/AllFilesystemObjects/shellex/ContextMenuHandlers' and create a new key called 'Copy to'.
Change its deafult vakue to '{C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}' and check it works in Windows. You can also add a 'Move to folder' option in this way.
From the same 'ContextMenuHandlers' key, simply create a new key called 'Move to' and then change its deafult value to '{C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}' to do this.
10. Skip welcome screen You can choose to log into Windows automatically and bypass the welcome screen by making a simple tweak. To do this, choose 'Start|Run' and enter control userpasswords2 into the 'Open' bar.
Click 'Ok' to see a dialog showing each user installed on the PC. Clear the box marked 'User must enter user name and password to use this computer'.
Click 'Ok'. Now restart your PC and you should go directly to your desktop.
11. Display shortcut keys
When you open a menu or My Computer window in XP, you can see what shortcut keys are available by pressing [Alt] once - underlined letters will appear.
And pressing that letter will trigger the appropraite shortcut, whether it's ticking a box or selecting a button.
12. Say 'No to all' requests
When you're copying or moving a group of files, you'll sometimes be promoted to provide a 'Yes' or 'Yes to all' response - if you need to give permission for a process to overwrite existing files.
For example, choose the latter option and similar files that prompt the same question will be ignored in future.
But what if you want 'No to all' instead? There's no visibile optio
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