20 things you didn't know about Windows XP

You've read the reviews and digested the key feature enhancements and

 operational changes. Now it's time to delve a bit deeper and uncover

 some of Windows XP's secrets.

1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of

 Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively
 proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu  from the
All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will
produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these,
type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at
later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).

2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the

 Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type

 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows
Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the
Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many
interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving
as you wish. (Professional Edition only).

3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse.

 Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter
'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut
a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be
locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as

 Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything.
Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for
the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs
in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your
prey, exposed and vulnerable. 

5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of

 interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and

 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring
performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As
usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options --
they're all far too baroque to go into here.

6. XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP.

 Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this
on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing
network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you
don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.

7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command

 line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process
number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about
what's going on in your system.

8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a

 fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well

 alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you

 change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing

 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.

9. XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display

 technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying,
especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen
have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on
the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the
second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop
displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set
the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/ControlPanel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network

 address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to
email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET
attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's
real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get
them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to
the errant computer.

11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and

 back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and
password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly
useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which
many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times
on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.

12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering
a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away,
but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit,
go to

 HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and
create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.

13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password.

 Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2',

 which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear

 the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This

 Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter
the user name and password for the account you want to use.

15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't

 see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network

 Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the

 description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the
Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network
icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.

16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you

 can speed things along by changing the registry entry

 HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400
to something a little snappier. Like 0.

17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer.

 Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it.
All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in
brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in
alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.

18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it

 plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you

 copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music
files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the
tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display
it.

19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box;

 Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through

 the taskbar buttons.

20. The next release of Windows XP, will b Windows Xp (Vista Wow ...

 Starts Now...)

THIS SPECIAL POST IS PRESENTED BY SRINEEL
http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=7815180985252492678
srineel_katta@yahoo.com
srineelchowdary@gmail.com

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