Top 10 Windows XP Hacks

Windows XP, arguably the world’s most popular operating system, still has lots of tricks up its sleeve. Today I will show you some hidden rooms, some unknown corners in this column that you never knew existed but wanted to. Without much ado lets login to the wonderful hidden world of Windows XP.

1. Security: Shortcut or Single-Click to Quickly Lock Down Windows
2. How to Remove Hidden Software
   
3. How to Remove Shortcut Arrows to Give Desktop Icons a Better Look
4. How To Delete Annoying Multiple Entries in Boot Screen
5. How to Convert between FAT32 & NTFS in Windows
6. How to Rename Recycle Bin on Windows
7. How To Prioritize Your Important Applications
8. How To Make Start Menu Arrive Faster
9. How to Permanently Stick Your Program in Start Menu
10. How to Send Any File to Any Place By One Click
11. Bonus Tip: How to Close Unwanted Services

1. Security: Shortcut or Single-Click to Quickly Lock Down Windows

Locking windows is very essential in office or even in home environments to prevent others from snooping on your potentially sensitive information or that surprise birthday party you have been planning for weeks. We will show you a way to lock your windows with a double-click / single-click or a shortcut. Now you have no excuse to leave your computer unprotected, even for a short break.

1. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click
2. enter rundll32.exeuser32.dll,LockWorkStation in the location field.
3. Name the shortcut with anything.
4. When needed just double click on it and you are done.its locked.
5. If you are lazier , just press Windows+L and that is it

2. How to Remove Hidden Software

Suppose you want to remove Windows Messenger, because its worthless according to you in this age of YM , G-Talks n all. How can you do it? Its not even listed in the Add Remove Program at the Control Panel.

1. Find and edit the text file at c:\windows\inf\sysoc.inf OR
   • Go to Windows folder
   • Find the Inf folder inside that
   • Search for the sysoc.inf file
2. Search for the word hide and remove it. Do NOT remove any other text from the line.
3. Now you can go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel
4. Select Add/Remove Windows Components and there you can find your unwanted software. Go ahead and Uninstall.

3. How to Remove Shortcut Arrows to Give Desktop Icons a Better Look

Here’s how you can remove those shortcut arrows from your desktop icons in Windows XP.

1. Go to registry by clicking on Start menu -> run and type regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT -> lnkfile
   or
   Press CTRL+F and then at the search box type lnkfile and search.
3. Delete the IsShortcut registry value.

You may need to restart Windows XP.

P.S.- Its always good to be on the safer side before modifying registry settings and make backups.

4. How To Delete Annoying Multiple Entries in Boot Screen

Suppose you have multiple copies of Windows XP installed in your PC in different drives or installed Windows XP on top of another operating system like Windows 98 or Windows 2000. Now, though you may have removed some or all of the older versions, still the boot screen continues to show the old operating system entries. Isn’t it annoying and confusing to remember and select every time the only right option? Don’t worry, here is how you can get rid of the problem forever:

1. Load windows and login if required
2. Go to Start menu, click on Run and then type cmd. This open up the command window.
3. Type this command:
   bootcfg /delete /id x
   where x is the number of the option you want to delete. Say, for example, you want to delete 2nd boot option then you will type bootcfg /delete /id 2 and so on.
4. Now reboot the machine to check that you have only the correct option(s) available.

Note:

• Please be careful in step 3 and don’t delete the correct operating system because that will prevent you from booting.
• Repeat step 3 to delete all unnecessary operating system menus.

5. How to Convert between FAT32 & NTFS in Windows

FAT32 & NTFS, for those its greek, are two popular file systems available in windows. For those who are curious let me give a simple overview of both of them:

NTFS provides:

• advanced security using access control lists
• Provides file & directory compression for storing more data
• Encryption
• Quotas
• Robustness

NTFS is highly recommended for sensitive data. A clean installed of Windows XP installs NTFS by default. However if you are installing Windows XP over other operating system like Windows 98, you may have installed FAT32 as your file system.

The only benefit of FAT32 is that you can simultaneously use FAT32 formatted disks with older operating systems like Windows 95 Service Pack 2 and Windows 98 in a machine with multiple operating systems.

Personally I would always recommend NTFS over FAT32 any day. More on FAT32 & NTFS here.

So now if you are allured to convert your files to NTFS , is there a way? Yes sir. there is.

1. Open Command Prompt.
2. Click Start, point to All Programs,
3. Point to Accessories
4. Click Command Prompt
5. In the command prompt window, type: convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs

For example, typing convert D: /fs:ntfs would format drive D: from FAT to NTFS.

Isn’t it simple ?

6. How to Rename Recycle Bin on Windows

How irritating is that when you want to do something from your own machine and you can not do it just because the programmer didn’t give you the facility? Let’s say one fine morning you said, I will rename ‘Recycle Bin’ to ‘Use Me’ or ‘Trash Can’. Can you do it? … Well, you are lucky this time. I will tell you how you can rename your recycle bin:

1. Go to registry by clicking on Start menu -> run
2. Type regedit
3. Go to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID/{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
   or
   Press CTRL+F and then at the search box type {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
4. Right click on default and click on Modify
5. Change the name of Recycle Bin to whatever you want.

You are done!

P.S.- Its always good to be on the safer side before modifying registry settings and make backups.

7. How To Prioritize Your Important Applications

We do multitasking all the time with our PC right? How unfair it would be to lose a CD while burning your favorite songs just because you were watching a video at the same time and the processor couldn’t take the load?

Here is your solution:

1. Press CTRL-SHIFT-ESC.
2. Go to the second tab called Processes
3. Right click on one of the active processes, you will see the Set Priority option
4. For e.g., Run your CD writer program, set the priority higher, and no more wasted cd from now on. Happy?

8. How To Make Start Menu Arrive Faster

Start menu is like an unemployed oaf. It makes a leisurely appearance while you are waiting for it after logging in to Windows. Here is how you can make it appear much faster:

1. Go to registry by clicking on Start menu -> run and type regedit
2. Find out HKEY_CURRENT_USER/ControlPanel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay
   or
   Press CTRL+F and then at the search box type MenuShowDelay
3. From the default 400, change to something a little snappier. Like 50,40, 30 or say 0!

P.S.- Its always good to be on the safer side before modifying registry settings and make backups.

9. How to Permanently Stick Your Program in Start Menu

Let’s say, you have a software that is very important but you don’t use it frequently like your tax software for example. So the practical difficulty is to find it every time from All Programs because you aren’t likely to get it under Start menu option. It kills time, complicates the process and consequently makes you less productive. So what you do is:

1. Right click on any .exe file in Explorer, My Computer, Desktop
2. Select Pin to Start Menu,
3. The program is then displayed on the start menu, above the separator line.
4. To remove it, click the file on the start menu and select ‘Unpin from Start Menu‘. Below you can check the before and after shots.

You are done now. Your program will forever remain in the Start menu or until the next window crash.

10. How to Send Any File to Any Place By One Click

What if I tell you a trick that helps you to send a particular file anywhere you like  in Windows XP without going to that particular place? Sounds interesting?

The process is simple. You can do that by providing more locations to Send To option that comes when you right click on a particular file. To do that,

1. Go to C:\Documents and Settings\User_name\SendTo
   (where User_Name is your user name)
2. The folder will be filled with shortcuts to all the locations you find on your Send To context menu.
3. To remove an item from the Send To menu, delete the shortcut from the folder.

AND

1. To add an item to the menu, add a shortcut to the folder by highlighting the folder,
2. Choose File → New → Shortcut, and follow the subsequent instructions for creating a shortcut. The new setting will take effect immediately; you don’t have to exit Windows Explorer for it to go into effect.

Bonus: How to Close Unwanted Services

“You never know what’s going behind your back”, That is how a famous quote goes. But in XP we can make sure that no unwanted service goes unnoticed . To disable unneeded start-up services for a safer, faster XP, do the following

1. Use the Services Admin Tool
   (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services)
2. If you are a single user of a non-networked machine, you can disable the following items (such as alerter ,clipbook ,net logon etc) with no ill effect.

Windows XP is like a big ocean of tips and tricks. In the coming days I will add more and more Windows XP tips & tricks to ths article. Subscribe to the blog so you can know about them.