Home • Windows FAQs • Reviews • Tech Showcases • Contacting Paul > WinInfo News

Windows XP Tips 'n' Tricks

Make Windows XP work the way you want it to!

These tips work with the final release of Windows XP. Unless otherwise noted, all tips
should work with both Home and Professional Editions. Please note that some of
these tips may require you to
use a Registry Editor Here's a movie of this tip in action
335 Kbps Windows Media Video format, 404K
(regedit.exe), which could
render your system unusable.
Thus, none of these tips are
supported in any way: Use them
at your own risk. Also note that
most of these tips will require
you to be logged on with
Administrative rights.

NEW! Microsoft recently sent

along a set of Windows Tips and
Office XP Tips that might also be
of interest.

Delete files when the Recycle

Bin is hidden
I actually discovered this tip
accidentally recently and
thought it was appropriate for
the Tips page, even though it's
probably been a feature of Windows for years. (UPDATE: Sure enough, it's been
around for a while. It's still a cool tip and proof that one learns something every
day).

By default, the Windows XP Recycle Bin sits at the bottom right of the desktop, just
above the tray notification area and system clock. If you've got a bunch of floating
windows open, however, it's possible to obscure the Recycle Bin and make it
impossible to drag files and folders there for deletion. However, Microsoft must have
thought of this event, because you can automatically hide all of those open windows
during a drag operation. The first time it happened, I thought it was a fluke. But it's
not. Instead, it's a cool hidden feature of XP.
Here's how it works: Make sure a bunch of windows are open on the screen, with at
least one of them hiding the Recycle Bin. Then, find a file or group of files you'd like
to drag to the Recycle Bin. Pick up the files with the mouse and move them to the
lower right of the screen. As you reach the bottom area of the screen, pass the
mouse cursor over a blank area of the task bar, hover there for an instant, and--
voila!--the open windows all minimize, leaving the Recycle Bin available to accept the
dragged files. Good stuff. This tip also works when windows are maximized,
assuming the file(s) you want to delete are visible in one of the available windows.

Add album art to any music folder

Contributed by Richard Davidson and Brian Donovan
This is easily my favorite tip! One of the coolest new features in Windows XP is its
album thumbnail generator, which automatically places the appropriate album cover
art on the folder to which you are copying music (generally in WMA format). But
what about those people that have already copied their CDs to the hard drive using
MP3 format? You can download album cover art from sites such as cdnow.com or
amguide.com, and then use the new Windows XP folder customize feature to display
the proper image for each folder. But this takes time--you have to manually edit the
folder properties for every single folder--and you will lose customizations if you have
to reinstall the OS. There's an excellent fix, however.

When you download the album cover art from the Web, just save the images as
folder.jpg each time and place them in the appropriate folder. Then, Windows XP will
automatically use that image as the thumbnail for that folder and, best of all, will use
that image in Media Player for Windows XP (MPXP) if you choose to display album
cover art instead of a visualization. And the folder customization is automatic, so it
survives an OS reinstallation as well. Your music folders never looked so good!

Album cover art makes music folder thumbnails look better than ever!

UPDATE: In addition to the folder.jpg file mentioned above, you can also optionally
create a smaller version of the image called albumartsmall.jpg, if desired. This is the
image used to display album art in MPXP when its sized so that the display area is
smaller than 200 x 200 pixels, and in the folder thumbnails for folders that contain
album folders. If you don't create albumartsmall.jpg, however, Windows XP will
automatically scale folder.jpg in these cases.

Automatically defrag drives with a new context menu item!

Contributed by Doug Knox
Create a new Registry import file named context_defrag.inf in Notepad (be sure to
save with it with the Save as type set to All Files and not Text Documents) and place
the following text inside:

; context_defrag.INF

; Adds Defrag to the right click context menu in Windows XP

[version]
signature="$CHICAGO$"

[DefaultInstall]
AddReg=AddMe

[AddMe]

HKCR,"Drive\Shell\Defrag\command",,,"DEFRAG.EXE %1"

Then, right-click and choose Install. This will add a context menu to XP that allows
you to automatically defrag drives, using the command line version of the built-in
defragmentation utility. To use it, navigate to a drive in My Computer, right-click,
and choose Defrag. A command line window will appear, and that drive will be
defragged. When it's complete, the window just disappears.

UPDATE: To remove this functionality, Open regedit.exe and navigate to the

following location:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\

Then delete the Defrag folder and close Regedit.

Add/Remove optional features of Windows XP

Contributed by Ong Choon Keong and Hans Breemer
I first mentioned this technique in an old Technology Showcase for Windows 2000,
but it still works in Windows XP, and can be quite useful: For some reason, Microsoft
has removed the ability to specify which Windows components you want to install
during interactive Setup, and when you go into Add/Remove Windows Components
in the Control Panel, you still don't have the full list of applications and applets you
can add and remove. Thankfully, this is easy to fix.

To dramatically expand the list of applications you can remove from Windows XP
after installation, navigate to C:\WINDOWS\inf (substituting the correct drive letter
for your version of Windows) and open the sysoc.inf file. Under Windows
XP Professional Edition, this file will resemble the following by default:

[Version] Signature = "$Windows NT$"

DriverVer=06/26/2001,5.1.2505.0

[Components]
NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4
WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7
Display=desk.cpl,DisplayOcSetupProc,,7
Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7
NetOC=netoc.dll,NetOcSetupProc,netoc.inf,,7
iis=iis.dll,OcEntry,iis.inf,,7
com=comsetup.dll,OcEntry,comnt5.inf,hide,7
dtc=msdtcstp.dll,OcEntry,dtcnt5.inf,hide,7
IndexSrv_System = setupqry.dll,IndexSrv,setupqry.inf,,7
TerminalServer=TsOc.dll, HydraOc, TsOc.inf,hide,2
msmq=msmqocm.dll,MsmqOcm,msmqocm.inf,,6
ims=imsinsnt.dll,OcEntry,ims.inf,,7
fp_extensions=fp40ext.dll,FrontPage4Extensions,fp40ext.inf,,7
AutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,au.inf,hide,7
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
msnexplr=ocmsn.dll,OcEntry,msnmsn.inf,,7
smarttgs=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,msnsl.inf,,7
RootAutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,rootau.inf,,7
Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,,7
AccessUtil=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,accessor.inf,,7
CommApps=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,communic.inf,HIDE,7
MultiM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,multimed.inf,HIDE,7
AccessOpt=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,optional.inf,HIDE,7
Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,HIDE,7
MSWordPad=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wordpad.inf,HIDE,7
ZoneGames=zoneoc.dll,ZoneSetupProc,igames.inf,,7

[Global]
WindowTitle=%WindowTitle%
WindowTitle.StandAlone="*"

The entries that include the text hide or HIDE will not show up in Add/Remove
Windows Components by default. To fix this, do a global search and replace for ,hide
and change each instance of this to , (a comma). Then, save the file, relaunch
Add/Remove Windows Components, and tweak the installed applications to your
heart's content.
Cool, eh? There are even more new options now under "Accessories and Utilities" too.

Remove the Shared Documents folders from My Computer

Contributed by Bryan Somerville
One of the most annoying things about the new Windows XP user interface is that
Microsoft saw fit to provide links to all of the Shared Documents folders on your
system, right at the top of the My Computer window. I can't imagine why this would
be the default, even in a shared PC environment at home, but what's even more
annoying is that you cannot change this behavior through the shell: Those icons are
stuck there and you have to live with it.

Until now, that is.

Simply fire up the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \
Explorer \ My Computer \ NameSpace \ DelegateFolders

You'll see a sub-key named {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}. If you

delete this, all of the Shared Documents folders (which are normally under the group
called "Other Files Stored on This Computer") will be gone.

You do not need to reboot your system to see the change.

Before: A cluttered mess with After: Simplicity itself, and
icons no one will ever use the way it should be by
(especially that orpaned one). default.

Display the Sharing Tab in Folder Properties

Contributed by Paul Knight
In Windows 2000, getting to the Sharing options for a folder was simple: Just right-
click, choose Properties, and you'd see a Sharing tab. In Windows XP, this feature is
missing by default, but you can make the system display the Sharing tab if desired.
Simply open up Folder Options (My Computer, then Tools, Folder Options) and
navigate to the View tab. In the Advanced Settings section, scroll down to the
bottom and uncheck Use simple file sharing (Recommended), a Mickey Mouse
feature if there ever was one. Now share your folders on the LAN as you would in
Windows 2000.

Use the ultimate configuration tool (Professional Edition only)

Contributed by several readers
One of the most full featured Windows XP configuration tools available is hidden right
there in your system, but most people don't even know it exists. It's called the Local
Group Policy Editor, or gpedit for short. To invoke this editor, select Start and then
Run, then type the following:

gpedit.msc

After you hit ENTER, you'll be greeted by gpedit, which lets you modify virtually
every feature in Windows XP without having to resort to regedit. Dig around and
enjoy!
GPEDIT: It's your best friend for XP configuration.

Use the Windows Sound Scheme

Contributed by Keith Furman
Windows XP ships with a really nice new sound scheme, but it's not loaded by default
for some reason. So once you've installed Windows XP, one of the first things you
should do is get that new sound scheme loaded.

To do so, open up Control Panel and navigate to Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices.
Then, choose the task titled Change the sound scheme. In the dialog that appears,
choose Windows Default for the sound scheme. Windows will ask you whether you
want to save the previous scheme, which is usually a brain-dead questions, since no
scheme was previously loaded. So choose No, and then click OK to exit the dialog.

Rip high-quality MP3s in Media Player for Windows XP (MPXP)

Contributed by Mark Elder, updated by Paul Thurrott
The relationship between Media Player for Windows XP (MPXP) and the MP3 audio
format is widely misunderstood. Basically, MPXP is able to playback MP3 files out of
the box, but encoding (or "ripping") CD audio into MP3 format will require an MP3
plug-in. During the Windows XP beta, Microsoft supplied a sample MP3 plug-in for
testing purposes, but it was limited to 56 Kbps rips, which is pretty useless, leading
some to report that Microsoft was purposefully hobbling MP3 to make its Windows
Media Audio (WMA) format look better. This is not the case.

To enable MP3 encoding in Windows XP, you'll need to to purchase one of three MP3
Creation Add-on packs for Windows XP. For more information, please visit the
Microsoft Web site.

Speed up the Start Menu

Contributed by Paris Paraskevas and Jarrett Miller
The default speed of the Start Menu is pretty slow, but you can fix that by editing a
Registry Key. Fire up the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ MenuShowDelay

By default, the value is 400. Change this to a smaller value, such as 0, to speed it
up.

If this doesn't work for some reason, then you might try the following: Navigate
to Display Properties then Appearance then Effects and turn off the option titled
Show menu shadow. You will get much better overall performance.

Enable ClearType on the Welcome Screen!

Contributed by Erdim Tanyeri
As laptop users and other LCD owners are quickly realizing, Microsoft's ClearType
technology in Windows XP really makes a big difference for readability. But the this
feature is enabled on a per-user basis in Windows XP, so you can't see the effect on
the Welcome screen; it only appears after you logon.
But you can fix that. Fire up the Registry Editor and look for the following keys:

(default user) HKEY_USERS \ .Default \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ FontSmoothing

(String Value)
HKEY_USERS \ .Default \ Control Panel \ Desktop \
FontSmoothingType (Hexadecimal DWORD Value)

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 default.

Stop Windows Messenger from Auto-Starting

Contributed by Kevin Mazzone
If you're not a big fan of Windows Messenger, you can use the tip "Add/Remove
optional features of Windows XP" above to remove it, or simply delete the following
Registry Key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\MSMSGS

Display Hibernate Option on the Shut Down dialog

Contributed by Graham Vosloo
For some reason, Hibernate isn't available from the default Shut Down dialog. But
you can enable it simply enough, by holding down the SHIFT key while the dialog is
visible. Now you see it, now you don't!

Why this isn't just there by default is unknown.

Mo' tips!
I'm looking for more good tips! So if you've got something interesting, please send
them along.

--Paul Thurrott
October 20, 2001
Updated January 2, 2002, April 24, 2002

Sponsored Links Featured Links

  Free Download - Job Scheduling  Comprehensive Active Directory
Software Batch Files, UNIX Scripts, Management Get superior backup,
SQL, DTS and SSIS Packages, SAP, reporting, auditing and offline group policy
FTP and SAS capabilities all in one with Active
Administrator. Free.
 PASS Summit 2010 Connect, share and  Virtual Event | Productivity in Action | Oct.
learn at PASS Summit 2010. The SQL 28 Attend this free event to learn how
Server educational and networking deploying integrated communication
event of the year over 3 action-packed technologies on one platform can
days with top SQL Server and BI significantly increase productivity and
speakers, Nov 8-11 in Seattle. Register enhance the user experience.
now.
 UK | 9-10 November | Desktop
Virtualization Roadshow Get the latest
information on virtualization products and
technology from Citrix and Intel! Register
now!

Windows IT Pro | SQL Magazine | Connected Home | Left-Brain | ITTV | Supersite for Windows |
Technology Resource Directory | Windows FAQ
WinInfo News | Windows IT Pro Europe | Windows Excavator

Subscribe / Register | About Us | Contact Us / Customer Service | Media Kit

Copyright © 2010 Penton Media, Inc., All rights reserved. Terms and Use | Privacy Statement

>