Some Helpful Tips For XP Users - Part 1

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.

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.

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