WinXP Tweaks UI Tweaks Rename desktop icons
You can easily rename various Desktop (System Icons).
Click Start, Run and enter REGEDIT. Navigate to the following Registry branch:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\CLSID
The Desktop Icons are located in the sub keys as follows:
My Network Places: {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}
My Computer: {20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
My Documents: {450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}
Recycle Bin:{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
Default IE Icon: {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}
Double click the Default value in the above keys and enter the text you desire. Right click on the Desktop and select Refresh to see the changes.
To undo the changes, just right click on the Default value and select Delete. Refresh the Desktop to see that things are back to normal.
Show file extensions
In any folder that contains files. Click on the tools menu and select folder options.
Then click on the view tab.
Locate where it lists Hide extensions of known file types and uncheck it.
Click OK
Remove Shared Doc's from My Computer
Start regedit
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/
CurrentVersion/Explorer/MyComputer/NameSpace/DelegateFolders.
Locate the key {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}.
Right click on it and select delete.
Reboot!
Show hidden files
In any folder that contains files. Click on the tools menu and select folder options.
Then click on the view tab.
Locate where it lists Hidden files and folders and select Show hidden files and folders.
Click OK.
Disable CD autoplay, completely, in Windows XP Pro
1) Click Start, Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC
2) Go to Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, System.
3) Locate the entry for Turn autoplay off and modify it as you desire.
Removes the 'Comments?' tag
Removes the 'Comments?' tag from every window. Remember, after applying the following Registry hacks.
Download the registry file -
HERE
Reboot your computer!
CopyTo/MoveTo - reg file
Add entires on the right click menu above the SendTo option -
Download the registry file -
HERE
Reboot !
No Splashscreen for Outlook Express
Removes the Splashscreen for Outlook Express -
Download the registry file -
HERE
Reboot !
Sort your start menu
Open your main menu
Slect a program
Right Click and choose "Sort by Name"
Dont Cache Folder Thumbnails
To make folders with thumbnail images start up faster
Go to control panel and then folder options
Click on the view tab and Uncheck "Do not cache thumbnails"
Create your own popup menu in the TASK BAR
You can create your own popup window other than START MENU in the taskbar.
Put all the shortcuts to the applications that you want to popup in a folder .
Then you right click on taskbar -->toolbars -->new toolbar --> and select the folder
System Performance Tweaks Speed up Diskcache
Open Regedit
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/ControlSession/ Manager/MemoryManagement/IoPageLockLimit];
Modify the value in Hex depending on the size of your
RAM RAM: modified value(Hex)
64M: 1000;
128M: 4000;
256M: 10000;
512M or more: 40000.
Reboot.
Disable Programs at Start Up
Go to start - run
Type "msconfig" (no quotes)
Go to the tab "Startup"
Untick anything you dont want starting when XP boots up
Reboot
Easily Disable Messenger
Go into C:Program FilesMessenger
rename the Messenger folder to something like "MessengerOFF"
This does not slow down Outlook or hinder system performance
Speed up Network Browsing
Open up regedit
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace
Find a key named {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}
Right click on it and delete it
Reboot !
XP memory tweaks
Below are some Windows XP memory tweaks. They are located in the windows registry at: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/ SessionManager/MemoryManagement
DisablePagingExecutive - When enabled, this setting will prevent the paging of the Win2k Executive files to the hard drive, causing the OS and most programs to be more responsive. However, it is advised that people should only perform this tweak if they have a significant amount of
RAM on their system (more than 128 MB), because this setting does use a substantial portion of your system resources. By default, the value of this key is 0. To enable it, set it to 1.
LargeSystemCache - When enabled (the default on Server versions of Windows 2000), this setting tells the OS to devote all but 4 MB of system memory (which is left for disk caching) to the file system cache. The main effect of this is allowing the computer to cache the OS Kernel to memory, making the OS more responsive. The setting is dynamic and if more than 4 MB is needed from the disk cache for some reason, the space will be released to it. By default, 8MB is earmarked for this purpose. This tweak usually makes the OS more responsive. It is a dynamic setting, and the kernel will give up any space deemed necessary for another application (at a performance hit when such changes are needed). As with the previous key, set the value from 0 to 1 to enable. Note that in doing this, you are consuming more of your system
RAM than normal. While LargeSystemCache will cut back usage when other apps need more
RAM, this process can impede performance in certain intensive situations. According to Microsoft, the "[0] setting is recommended for servers running applications that do their own memory caching, such as Microsoft SQL Server, and for applications that perform best with ample memory, such as Internet Information Services."
IOPageLockLimit - This tweak is of questionable value to people that aren't running some kind of server off of their computer, but we will include it anyway. This tweak boosts the Input/Output performance of your computer when it is doing a large amount of file transfers and other similar operations. This tweak won't do much of anything for a system without a significant amount of
RAM (if you don't have more than 128 MB, don't even bother), but systems with more than 128 MB of
RAM will generally find a performance boost by setting this to between 8 and 16 MB. The default is 0.5 MB, or 512 KB. This setting requires a value in bytes, so multiply the desired number of megabytes * 1024 * 1024. That's X * 1048576 (where X is the number, in megabytes). Test out several settings and keep the one which seems to work best for your system
Internet Tweaks Allow more than 2 simultaneous downloads in IE 6
This is to increase the the number of max downloads to 10.
1. Start Registry Editor
2. Locate the following key in the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/InternetSettings
3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value , and then add the following registry values:
"MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=Dword:0000000a
"MaxConnectionsPerServer"=Dword:0000000a
4. Quit Registry Editor.
Reboot
DNS Cache Tweak
This registry patch increases the DNS cache in XP, and will add an improvent in Internet speed.
Download the registry file -
HERE