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General
Notes
Service Packs
Service
Pack 2 should be installed under all cases.
This service pack corrects several major errors as well as installs
java. There was no Java support in XP pre-Service Pack 1 without
installing the Sun JRE.
MSN.com
is not installed by default.
MSN Messenger
is installed by default, however it is very simple to remove. See
instructions below.
XP is bulkier,
and more prone to security holes, but on a newer machine it is much
faster and has a better load time due to optimizations made
for newer hardware.
Passport
Microsoft
originally made Passport a requirement
to use Windows Messenger and other features. Despite the severe
security weaknesses of Microsoft's Passport authentication system
(http://www.avirubin.com/passport.html
from an AT&T Labs analysis), XP repeatedly requests the user's
e-mail address and password to create a Passport e-commerce account.
The passport authentication program, used
by millions of people to log on to Hotmail, is trivially easy for
a Trojan horse to compromise on Windows 9x and ME systems.
A breach can expose a user's financial information,
including credit card numbers that were typed in by a user and stored
on Passport's central Web server.
If you use MSN,
somebody can get your Passport ID, password, and the phone number
to dial your ISP. Because a person's e-mail address and password
are used to sign onto the Passport server, an
unscrupulous person at an ISP could easily steal credit card numbers.
Passport
enforces a single user name and password for all participating Web
sites. The service will be all but mandatory, which tells users,
"You need a Passport to use Windows XP Internet communications
features ... and to access Net-enabled features."
The Passport
agreement, which you accept by clicking OK, permits
Microsoft and its partners to send you an unlimited number of commercial
e-mail messages. You can't rescind
Microsoft's permission to use your e-mail address. You must unsubscribe
from every partner's e-mail list individually.
Passport
is not required in any version of XP. Passport is required for certain
features of XP such as Messenger. For 99% of users, they will
not need a Passport account. This was changed from early copies
of XP where a passport account was required after the holes in passport
were found.
Contract Terms
This agreement
says that Microsoft can change the contract's terms at any time,
merely by editing a Web page. Every time you use Passport, you're
supposed to reread this page to detect any changes. I'm fairly
sure that the chances of users rereading this agreement are close
to zero. I would also expect that eventually there will be a monthly
fee.
Internet Explorer
Internet
Explorer loses support for all Netscape-style plug-ins, including
embedded QuickTime clips.
New users surfing the Web under XP will undoubtedly run into sites
that IE will no longer handle properly.
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Classic
Mode
To change the look and feel
of XP back to that of Windows 2000 or previous version, there are two settings
that need to changing.
Start Menu
- Open Control
Panel
- On the left,
click Switch to classic view (This may or may not be needed
depending on if this has been done previously. If the bar on the
left says "Switch to Classic view" it is needed. If it
says "Switch to category view" it is not.)
- Open Taskbar
and Start Menu Control
- Click Start
Menu
- Select
Classic Start Menu or
- Select
XP
Mode Start
Menu
- Click Apply
- Click OK
Start Bar
To change the
start bar and the title bars to look like they did in previous versions.
Some older programs are incompatible with
XP style themes, so leaving this in XP mode will not always look
correct for older programs.
- Open
Control Panel
- Click on
Switch to Classic view
- Select Display
(It should open to the "Themes" tab if not,
click the Themes tab)
- In the dropdown
Theme:
- Select
Windows Classic or
- Select
Windows XP
- Click Apply
- Click OK
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QuickLaunch
By default, the
QuickLaunch toolbar is not shown. This is a handy feature and only requires
a single to open the application. It is always viewable on your taskbar
so you don't have to resort to your desktop or Start options to open
the app.
To enable it...
- Right click on
an open area of the toolbar
- Select Toolbars
- Select Quick
Launch
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Balloon
Tips
To turn off balloon
tips in most applications...
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter regedit
- Click OK
- Go to
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER
- Software
- Microsoft
- Windows
- CurrentVersion
- Explorer
- Advanced
- Click Edit
- Click New
- Create DWORD
value = EnableBalloonTips
- Value =
0
- Click OK
See
Microsoft Knowledge Base article.
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NumLock
To set NUMLock
on by default...
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Windows
Version
To turn
off the version number on the desktop...
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Taskbar
Buttons
By default, all
open windows using the same application are grouped under a single icon.
This saves Task Bar space.
If you want to group,
or ungroup, similar taskbar buttons...
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Logon
Style
To change the logon
screen so it looks like the traditional NT4 or 2000 style...
- Open Control
Panel
- Select User
Accounts
- Click Change
the way users log on and off
- Uncheck Use
the Welcome screen
- Click on Apply
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System
Tray Icons
Icons in the Notification
area (on the right side of the taskbar) are, by default, hidden when
they are inactive. This behavior is determined by a setting, which can
be cleared or selected for each item.
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System
Time
To make sure
your system time is accurate, you can automatically set the time
from an Internet server.
Certain Dell
machines lose their system time in XP. To correct this do the
following...
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Desktop
On some
occasions changes to desktop settings will not save. Sometimes
there is also a reason to disable this for public machines that users
should not be allowed to change settings. This can be used to make
it so your user's changes DO NOT get saved
by disabling save desktop setting.
The Desktop Cleanup
Wizard keeps track of your usage of the icons on your desktop and
periodically offers to remove the icons you have not recently used.
This is really not needed as most people can delete icons off their
desktop themselves.
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Java
Virtual Machine
Instead of including
the latest version of Java support, XP will default to a 4-year-old
version. Users can get a new Java download which is 5MB in size or
Install Service
Pack 1 as it fixes a large number of other bugs and installs
the Java Virtual Machine.
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Paging
File
To clear the Windows
paging file (Pagefile.sys) during the shutdown process and prevent any
unsecured data from being contained after the shutdown process is complete.
Some third-party programs can temporarily store
unencrypted (plain-text) passwords or other sensitive information in
memory.
Method 1
- Open Control
Panel
- Select Administrative
Tools
- Select Local
Security Policy
- Select Local
Policies
- Click on Security
Options
- In the right
hand menu, right click on Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile
- Select Enable
- Reboot
Method 2
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter regedit
- Click OK
- Go to
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- SYSTEM
- CurrentControlSet
- Control\Session
Manager
- Memory
Management
- Double click
on ClearPageFileAtShutdown
- Set Value =
1
- Click OK
- Reboot
See
Microsoft Knowledge Base article.
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Quick
Reinstall
To repair a corrupted
operating system. This also works on Windows 2000.
- On the Windows
CD, go to the location of your source files
- Run WINNT32
/unattend
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CD
Info
After you remove
either a CD recording software or other software from your computer,
your computer may not allow access to the CD drive.
To correct this
the following registry keys need to be deleted:
To increase
loading speed... If you use a program other
than the native XP CD Burner software.
To turn off
the ability to using the built-in CD burner software that comes
with XP do the following...
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E-mail
Message Count
Under your name
on the Welcome screen, there is a hyperlink that indicates the number
of unread e-mail messages. To remove the Unread E-mail message count
by user's login names: This feature is not always
active in XP for some reason.
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Administrator
Logon
If the administration
logon is not show on the Welcome screen
To access it...
- Hold down Ctrl
and Alt and press Del
twice
To unhide the
Administrator account so it always shows up...
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter regedit
- Click OK
- Go to
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- SOFTWARE
- Microsoft
- Windows
NT
- CurrentVersion
- Winlogon
- SpecialAccounts
- UserList
- If Administrator
exists...
- Double
Click on
Administrator
- Set Value
= 1
- Click OK
- If
Administrator doesn't
exist...
- Click Edit
- Click
New
- Select
DWORD value
- Enter the
name Administrator
- Double
Click
on line
- Set value
= 1
- Click OK
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Registration
To change your
name and company information...
To set that online
registration has been completed...
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Passwords
To change the
password to never expire. This is identical to Windows 2000
for the same issue.
- Right click
My Computer
- Select Manage
- Go to Local
Users and Groups/Users
- Right-click
on user to change
- Select Properties
- On General
tab, check Password never expires
- Click OK
To allow logging
in without a password... (Do not recommend)
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter gpedit.msc
- Click OK
- Select Computer
Configuration
- Select Windows
Settings
- Select Security
Settings
- Select Local
Policies
- Select Security
Options
- Double click
on Accounts
- Disable the
option Limit local account use of blank passwords to console
login only
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User
Names (Show/Hide)
To hide/unhide
the users on the logon screen...
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter regedit
- Click OK
- Go to
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- SOFTWARE
- Microsoft
- Windows
NT
- CurrentVersion
- Winlogon
- SpecialAccounts
- UserList
- Click Edit
- Click New
- Select Add
DWORD value = name of the user account
you want to hide
- To hide, set
value = 0
- To unhide, set
value = 1
- Click OK
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Guest
Account
We
highly recommend turning off the ability to login with guest
account.
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Fast
User Switch
To fix the the error
referencing CSGina.DLL that a recently installed program has disabled
the Welcome screen and Fast User Switching ...
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System
Restore
To disable system
restore. System
restore, which is supposed to "roll back" your system to a
previous point, does not always solve problems. This
feature can take up a large chunk of your hard drive and system resources.
To Disable
System Restore
- Open Control
Panel
- Select System
Control
- Click System
Restore tab
- Check Turn
off System Restore
- Click OK
To Re-Enable
System Restore
- Open Control
Panel
- Select System
Control
- Click System
Restore
- Uncheck Turn
off System Restore
- Use the slider
under Disk Space usage to set the limit on how much hard disk
space to give up
- Click OK
You can re-enable
it again by...
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter gpedit.msc
- Select Computer
Configuration
- Select Administrative
Templates
- Select System
- Select System
Restore
- Set Turn
off System Restore
- Set Turn
off Configuration to Disable
- Right click
My Computer
- Select Manage
- Select Services
and Applications
- Select Services
- Scroll to System
Restore Service
- Set to Automatic
- Click the Start
button to start the service
- Close window
- Go back to
the gpedit.msc and configure
both to Not configured
- Right click
My Computer
- Click System
Restore
- Configure
how much space will be used
See
Microsoft Knowledge Base article.
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Device
Drivers
To restore a previous
working device driver. If this does not work,
you need to remove the device and reinstall the drivers.
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Firewall
If you want to turn
off the firewall for your computer: Highly
recommended.
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Error
Reporting
To turn off
reporting of errors to Microsoft...
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Performance
By default, XP displays
extra graphic objects for menu items which can slow down your display.
To turn off
these selectively...
To speed up
the display of the Start Menu Items, turn off the menu shadow.
You can increase
system performance by loading more of the system into memory.
DO NOT attempt this with less then 512MBs of ram. Your system will
become unstable.
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Hibernation
Hibernation
takes up extra disk space.
To disable...
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MSN
Messenger
MSN
Messenger is typically a waste of system resources.
To remove the
MSN Messenger from starting...
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter RunDll32
advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
To totally
remove MSN Messenger, you need to first make Messenger appear
in Add/Remove programs.
- Edit
the file \Windows\Inf\sysoc.inf
- Change msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
- To msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7
See
Microsoft Knowledge Base article.
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Non-Responsive
Tasks
To set a time-out
to automatically delete "Not Responding" tasks...
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File
System Cache
To help speed up
the system, increase the amount of memory to use for I/O operations...
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DNS
Cache
DNS (Domain
Name System) caching is used to resolve hostnames for faster access.
The problem with this feature is that failed DNS
lookups also get cached.
To change so that
it will not cache failed DNS lookups...
1. Flush the DNS
cache manually
- Go to the Command
Prompt
- Enter ipconfig
/flushdns
2. To permanently
solve, modifing the Registry
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter regedit
- Click OK
Go to
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- SYSTEM
- CurrentControlSet
- Services
- Dnscache
- Parameters
- NegativeCacheTime=0
(DWORD default=300 seconds) Determines how long an entry recording
a negative answer to a query remains in the DNS cache. When the
time specified in the value of this entry expires, the DNS client
deletes the answer record from cache.
- NetFailureCacheTime=0
(DWORD default=30 seconds) Determines for how long the DNS client
stops sending queries when it suspects that the network is down.
When the DNS client does not receive responses to repeated queries
sent to any network adapter, the DNS client stops sending queries
for the time specified in the value of this entry. During that time,
the DNS client returns a time-out response to all queries. If the
value of this entry is 0x0, this optimizing feature is disabled.
DNS continues to send queries to an unresponsive network.
- NegativeSOACacheTime=0
(DWORD default=120 seconds) Determines how long an entry recording
a negative answer to a query for an SOA (Start of Authority) record
remains in the Domain Name System (DNS) cache. When the time specified
in the value expires, the DNS client deletes the answer record from
the cache.
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Bandwidth
If you run an application
that needs to send high priority/real time data, XP will restrict "best
effort" traffic to 80% of the bandwidth.
To change this...
- Log in as
Administrator (Not just any account with
admin privileges</
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