Tips and Tricks

[tuluvaguy]

Thanks Indianbaba.
Surely I will be updating the thread

[tuluvaguy]

Run Windows Explorer in its own process. Avoid Total Explorer Crash


This will further secure your windows explorer from crash though not a great idea if short on memory. Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\Advanced] . In this look for value of "SeparateProcess". If available set its value to 1 and if not (which could be the case ) then add a DWORD key by the name "SeparateProcess" and set its value to 1.

If you would rather prefer not to change registry settings , you can get similar results by following steps mentioned below
Click on "Start" Menu
Clcik "My Computer"
Click on "Tools" Menu
Click "Folder Options"
Check "Lauch folder windows in separate process"
Stability would be more because each Folder window will start in separate process and will not cause system to halt in case one or more of such processes stop responding. Although it is supposed to provide better stability but may be at the cost of performance.

[tuluvaguy]

Secure your computer: Enable Advanced File System Security Options


This will further secure your windows explorer and not really a performance tweak. Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Lsa] . In this look for value of "forceguest". If available, its default value would be 1. Set its value to 1. This would enables Windows XP logic for advanced permissions.

[tuluvaguy]

Define a logical value for System Cache

Depending upon how you intend to use your computer (like a workstation or server ), it may make sense to set the system cache. Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management] . In this look for value of "LargeSystemCache". If available, do one of the following:
If intention is to use the computer like a workstation, set its value to 0.
If intention is to use the computer like a server, set its value to 1.

[tuluvaguy]

Control parsing of autoexec.bat


In Window 3.1 autoexec.bat was one of the few choices of executing any app at boot time. But its importance has gradually thinned. It is still supported but you can pretty much do without it for most part. If you do not need to parse the autoexec.bat (there may not be anything in it anyway !), you can tell Windows XP to do that. Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon] . In this look for value of "ParseAutoexec". If available, do one of the following:
If you want to disable parsing of autoexec.bat, set its value to 0.
If you want to enable parsing of autoexec.bat, set its value to 1.

[tuluvaguy]

Disable default capability of Windows XP to open the compressed/zipped folder

I am comfortable with the default capability that Windows XP provides to unzip the zipped/compressed files/folders. But if you are used to winzip/pkzip or any other third vendor software, it may make sense to avoid confusion by disabling default unzipper code in windows. To do this go to START-RUN and entering "regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll" (without quotes). To enable it go to START-RUN and entering "regsvr32 zipfldr.dll" (without quotes).

[tuluvaguy]

Automatically kill non-responding application at shutdown

Remember this ! It happens to all of us invariably sometime or the other no matter what you do. Don't you hate waiting for those extra seconds and then simply responding yes to the windows query. Well you have a remedy. You can tell Windows XP to automatically close all non responding windows. Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktopn] . In this look for value of "AutoEndTasks". If available, do one of the following:
If you want to enable automatic killing of non responding tasks, set its value to 1. To disable it set it back to 0.

[tuluvaguy]

Improve Shutdown. Lets not save your active session's settings on exit


If you Don't care which windows app was located where when you are shutting down the system, this tip may in fact help improve the shutdown time a bit (a bit not too much)..Simply inform windows not to save the settings at exit time. To do this , open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer] . In this look for value of "NoSaveSettings". If available, do one of the following:
If you want to enable no save on exit, set its value to 1 else to save on exit. set it back to 0.

[tuluvaguy]

Disable use of Win key

I am not sure why you would ever want to do this except probably if you do not have a windows enabled keyboard but here is the tip anyway (tip for the sack of tip !!!!). To disable use of Win key, open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Keyboard Layout] . In this look for value of "Scancode Map". Its binary data so be extra careful:
Set its value to "00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 5B E0 00 00 5C E0 00 00 00 00" to disable the win key.

[tuluvaguy]

AutoReboot whenever Windows XP experiences BSOD (Blue Screen of Death!)

Since Windows XP is touted as most reliable Windows XP ever, you do not need this trick!. Well I am somewhat kidding. There is nothing in this world that is foolproof. I have faced this twice so far. To make windows reboot instead of producing the cryptic dump, open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\CrashControl] . In this look for value of "AutoReboot". Setting its value to 1 will activate Autoreboot. By default this is the value on my system but just in case if you have a 0,set it to 1.