Use system restore when you cannot boot your system normally If your system has failed to the point where you cannot access the Windows GUI either through booting normally or through safe mode, you may still have the chance to use the System Restore feature if you have it enabled, by running it form the command prompt. To do this: Restart your computer and press F8 after the POST screen to bring up the Windows XP boot menu. Choose 'boot in safe mode with command prompt.' If your system gets to the command prompt successfully, type '%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe' and then press enter. Follow the onscreen instructions to restore your computer to a previous saved point. Clear the Page File (virtual memory) when shutting down XP As mentioned above, the page file is an area of your hard disk that Windows uses as extra memory space to store files and data that are currently being used. Of course, since Hard drives are magnetic storage devices, and not dynamic like RAM, the data stored in the page file stays there until it is cleared or over-written. This data may possibly contain unencrypted passwords or other sensitive information since many third party programs do not bother to encrypt data that is being passed to the memory, even though it may end up on the page file. A simple registry change can force Windows XP to clear the page file each time it shuts down. Note that enabling this will increase the time it takes your system to shutdown. Open REGEDIT Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management Modify the ClearPageFileAtShutdown value to '1' Speed up the Start Menu The Windows XP start menu has a built in delay time between your pointer landing on a menu and that menu being displayed. Using the registry, you can reduce the time it takes the start menu to unfold its menus: Open REGEDIT Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\ Edit the MenuShowDelay value. The default is 400, lower values will speed up the start menu. I would not recommend using 0, but experiment to find your favourite setting. Try to create a folder in Windows with either of these names-- "con" or "nul" or "Aux" or "Lpt1". Windows will not let u create .... Reason: all this correspond to some of the famous ports >con corresponds to the console >Lpt1 corresponds to printer and so on..... Creating 3D Window Effect You can create a nice 3D effect for your windows Start Regedit Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Colors Make sure the following setting are there: ButtonHilight=128 128 128 ButtonShadow=255 255 255 try it........... Open Microsoft Word and type following =rand (200,99) and then HIT ENTER This is something pretty weird..! Worth a check..! try it..! open notepad type Q33N and select font as windings and size 72 and check it out. Q33N is the flight name which hit WTC. Unable 2 get Folder Options in Tools... 1: Open Start menu and from there select Run 2: type gpedit.msc and hit enter 3: now in the Group Policy window, from the left pane, select user configuration- >Administrative Tempelates->Windows components->Windows Explorer by highlighting it with the mouse cursor.. 4: now in the right side you will see an option which says "Removes the Folder Options menu item from the Tools menu" 5: right click on this option and select properties 6: now in the properties under Setting tab, select Disabled and hit OK TURN ON UR PC IN JUST 10 SECONDS TURN ON UR PC IN JUST 10 SECONDS Aight so u wanna know how to turn the pc on in 10 seconds (may vary)Aight heres what u have to do to turn ur pc on in 10 seconds Aite Click on the start button then press R it will take u to Run well go to run n type Regedit press enter this will open Registery Editor now look for the key HKEY_LOACAL_MECHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contr ol\ContentIndex now there find the Key Called "Startup Delay" Double Click On It Now where its Base Click Decimal Now its Default Value Is 4800000 (75300:hexadecimal) Change The Value To 40000 here u go u have done it now close the Registery Editor and Restart Your Computer You'll See The Result Comments Apriciated Increase 20% of broadband connection Increase 20% of broadband connection (Essential Microsoft reserve 20% of your available bandwidth for their own purposes (suspect for updates and interrogating your machine etc..) Here's how to get it back: Click Start-->Run-->type "gpedit.msc" without the "" This opens the group policy editor. Then go to: Local Computer Policy-->Computer Configuration-->Administrative Templates-- >Network-->QOS Packet Scheduler-->Limit Reservable Bandwidth Double click on Limit Reservable bandwidth. It will say it is not configured, but the truth is under the 'Explain' tab : "By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 20 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default." So the trick is to ENABLE reservable bandwidth, then set it to ZERO. This will allow the system to reserve nothing, rather than the default 20%. Works on XP Pro and 2000. Speed up your Hard Disk Speed up your Hard Disk To speed up your hard disk speed we need to configure a special buffer in the computer's memory in order to enable it to better deal with interrupts made from the disk. This tip is only recommended if you have 256MB RAM or higher. Follow these steps: Run SYSEDIT.EXE from the Run command. Expand the system.ini file window. Scroll down almost to the end of the file till you find a line called [386enh]. Press Enter to make one blank line, and in that line type Irq14=4096 Note: This line IS CASE SENSITIVE!!! Click on the File menu, then choose Save. Close SYSEDIT and reboot your computer. Done. Speed improvement will be noticed after the computer reboots. Update: The most speed improvement is visible with IDE drives, however there are reports that this tweak also does good for SCSI disks. In any case, it won't harm your system, so why not try it yourself and let me know what you find Set up and Use Internet Connection Sharing With Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) in Windows XP, you can connect one computer to the Internet, then share the Internet service with several computers on your home or small office network. The Network Setup Wizard in Windows XP Professional will automatically provide all of the network settings you need to share one Internet connection with all the computers in your network. Each computer can use programs such as Internet Explorer and Outlook Express as if they were directly connected to the Internet. You should not use this feature in an existing network with Windows 2000 Server domain controllers, DNS servers, gateways, DHCP servers, or systems configured for static IP addresses. Enabling ICS The ICS host computer needs two network connections. The local area network connection, automatically created by installing a network adapter, connects to the computers on your home or small office network. The other connection, using a 56k modem, ISDN, DSL, or cable modem, connects the home or small office network to the Internet. You need to ensure that ICS is enabled on the connection that has the Internet connection. By doing this, the shared connection can connect your home or small office network to the Internet, and users outside your network are not at risk of receiving inappropriate addresses from your network. When you enable ICS, the local area network connection to the home or small office network is given a new static IP address and configuration. Consequently, TCP/IP connections established between any home or small office computer and the ICS host computer at the time of enabling ICS are lost and need to be reestablished. For example, if Internet Explorer is connecting to a Web site when Internet Connection Sharing is enabled, refresh the browser to reestablish the connection. You must configure client machines on your home or small office network so TCP/IP on the local area connection obtains an IP address automatically. To enable Internet Connection Sharing on a network To enable Internet Connection Sharing on a network connection You must be logged on to your computer with an owner account in order to complete this procedure. Open Network Connections. (Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double–click Network Connections.) Click the dial–up, local area network, PPPoE, or VPN connection you want to share, and then, under Network Tasks, click Change settings of this connection. On the Advanced tab, select the Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection check box. If you want this connection to dial automatically when another computer on your home or small office network attempts to access external resources, select the Establish a dial–up connection whenever a computer on my network attempts to access the Internet check box. If you want other network users to enable or disable the shared Internet connection, select the Allow other network users to control or disable the shared Internet connection check box. Under Internet Connection Sharing, in Home networking connection, select any adapter that connects the computer sharing its Internet connection to the other computers on your network. The Home networking connection is only present when two or more network adapters are installed on the computer. To configure Internet options on your client computers for Internet Connection Sharing Open Internet Explorer.