Windows XP Tips & Tricks

Taking Ownership Of a Folder

Sometimes when you reinstall WindowsXP, you can receive an Access Denied error when trying to open a previous user's directory.
To take ownership of that folder again:

Log on with an account that has administrator rights
Right click on the folder
Select Properties
Click on the Security tab
Click on the Advanced button
Click on the Owner tab
In the list of Names, click on your name
To take ownership, click on Replace owner on subcontainers and objects
Click OK and Yes



Showing Common Tasks in Window

When you open a window from My Computer or the Control Panel, and you don't see the blue bar with additional options on the left side, you may simply need to turn on Common Tasks

From that same windows, go to Tools / Folder Options
Check Show common tasks in folders

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Renaming Multiple Files in a Directory

If you want to rename multiple files in the same directory:

Using the Windows Explorer, select all the files you want to rename
Press F2 or right click and select Rename
Enter the prefix for the name you want (e.g. Newname)
This will automatically rename the rest of the files Newname (1).jpg, Newname (2).jpg etc.
Make sure you include the extension if you have the Explorer configured to show them.

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Single Click To Open Programs and Folders

In order to open a program or folder, the normal procedure is to double-click the associated icon. Generally, one click will highlight the icon while two will open it. However, if you would prefer to open programs and folders with just one mouse click, you can easily configure your Windows XP system to allow this:

Press Windows Key + E to open Windows Explorer.

Click on "Tools" then on "Folder Options".

With the "General" tab selected, choose the item labelled "Single click to open an item (point to select)".

Click "OK" Exit out of the Folder Options dialog and out of Windows Explorer

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Viewing Your IP Address Information

There are several ways you can determine your IP address information:

IPCONFIG

Start / Run / cmd
IPCONFIG /ALL
This opens a command window. One advantage is that you can send the information to a text file (IPCONFIG /ALL > c:\ip.txt)
But sometimes the window shows show much information you need to scroll around to fine it.

VIEW STATUS

Control Panel / Network Connections / Double click the icons for your network (If the network has an icon in the system tray you can also just double click on that icon)
Click on the Support tab
Click on the Details button

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Changing the User Type

Normally in XP Pro, through the Control Panel / User Accounts icon, you are only allowed to create administrators or limited users.
If you want to create

Right click on My Computer
Manage
Local Users and Groups
Users
Right click on the user you want to change
Properties
Member of tab
Add button
Advanced button
Find Now button
From here you see the full list of possibilities (e.g. Power User, Backup Operator etc.)

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Identify Faulty Device Drivers

If you are having problems with lockups, blue screens, or can only get to safe mode,
often the problem is due to a faulty device driver.

One way to help identify them is through the use of the Verfier program

Start / Run / Verifier
Keep the default of Create Standard Settings
Select the type of drivers you want to confirm
A list of drivers to be verified on the next boot will be shown.
Reboot
If your computer stops with a blue screen, you should get an error message with the problem driver
To turn off the Verifier, run verifier /reset

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Common Control Panel Applets

The follow are some common Control Panel Applets that are located in the \windows\system32 directory.
If you find yourself using any of these frequently, then you can simply make shortcuts to them on your desktop.

appwiz.cpl Add/Remove Programs
desk.cpl Display Properties
firewall.cpl Firewall Settings
inetcpl.cpl Internet Options
mmsys.cpl Sound and Audio
ncpa.cpl Network Connections
nusrmgr.cpl User Accounts
powercfg.cpl Power Options
sysdm.cpl System Properties
wscui.cpl Security Center
wuaucpl.cpl Automatic Updates Configuration

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Guest Only Network Access

If you try and connect to an XP computer and are shown a logins screen with only the computername/Guest,
You may need to change one of the Local Security Policies:

Got to Control Panel - Administrative Tools
Go to Local Policies - Security Options
Check teh Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts
Set it to Classic - local users authenticate as themselves

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Not Displaying Previous Network Share Shortcuts


By default, when you go to Network Places, it will scan and show shortcuts to previous network shares.
To turn this off and remove any current shortcuts

Open up the Windows Explorer
Go to Tools / Folder Options / View
The top section should be Files and Folders
Uncheck Automatically search for network folders and printers
Then go into Network Neighborhood Select all the previous netowork connections Delete them
Next time you look at the Network Neighborhood, they should not repopulate

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Hiding a XP Computer from Network Neighborhood

If you want to share files from a XP computer,
yet want to remove it from showing up in the Network Neighborhood,

Run net config server /hidden:yes

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Easy Way to Share Multiple Folders

If you need to share multiple folders, running the program SHRPUBW.EXE will bring up a simple dialog box to let you:

Browse to the folder you want to share
Enter in a Share name
Ender in a Share description
Set permissions. Several choices are available
Restart the process from within the same program

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Enable ClearType for Improved Font Display

ClearType is a font display technology that comes built into Windows XP. Enabling ClearType can significantly improve the clarity and readability of onscreen text. Although the improvement will be especially noticeable on LCD monitors, it can also improve font displays on CRT monitors.

To enable ClearType:

Right-click the Windows Desktop

In the context menu, click "Properties". The "Display Properties" window should appear

Click the "Appearance" tab

Click the "Effects" button

Click to enable the checkbox labelled "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:" and select "ClearType" in the drop down menu.

Click "OK" to save the changes.

Click "OK" again to exit the Display Properties" window.

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Courtesy : http://www.onecomputerguy.com/windowsxp_tips.htm
http://www.xp-tips.com/enable-clearytype.html
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/net_tips.htm
http://freepctech.com/pc/xp/xpindex.shtml