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Clear pagefile on shutdown Tip:
By Raymond

 

For added security you should always clear the page file upon shutting down your computer. Windows uses this file as extra ram. Lets say that you are working on a confidential MS Word doc.

When you load this document it is loaded into ram. To save ram windows places certain items in the page file. The page file can then be opened and the document can be extracted as well as any other open program or files. However Microsoft has implemented a feature that will clear the page file but they do not have it enabled by default.

Please note, this will slightly increase the amount of time it takes to shut down your computer but it is well worth it.

Start Regedit. If you are unfamiliar with regedit please refer to our FAQ on how to get started.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management

Select ClearPageFileAtShutdown from the list on the right.
Right on it and select Modify.
Change the value to 1 to enable.
Reboot your computer. WinXpFix.com

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Put Back Desktop Icons Tip:
By Raymond

 

Although I personally appreciate having less clutter on my Windows XP desktop, many readers question where the My Computer, My Network Places, and My Documents icons have gone. By default, they are no longer on the desktop. If you would prefer to have them back there, simply right-click the desktop, and choose Properties. On the Desktop tab, click Customize Desktop. Check next to any of the icons that you would like to see on your desktop, then click OK.

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Windows Calculator - With Power Tip:
By Raymond

 

If you've used the Windows Calculator (under Accessories on the Start Menu), you may think that you have only the most basic and lackluster calculating tool for your use. There's where you'd be wrong. By default, the Calculator starts up in Standard Mode, but you can switch to Scientific Mode from the view menu.

This gives you a much more functional calculator that can handle computations in decimal, binary, hex, and octal. It also offers many other advanced features that I clearly remember paying HP hundreds of dollars for in college. For some of them, such as the statistical calculations, you may wish to read the help file for advice on how to use them properly.

Also from the View menu, you can choose Digit Grouping, which will insert commas when calculating in decimal, and spaces when calculating in hex. This makes it much easier to read.

Related: WinXpFix All Windows XP Tips List! - WinXP Basics 4 beginners - WinXP Updates & add-ons - Spy Software Reviews - More Windows XP Tip Pages!

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Disable error reporting Tip!
By Raymond

 

One feature that we can do without is error reporting. Every time a program crashes I do not want to send a report to microsoft. Read below to find out how to disable this stupid feature. WinXpFix.com

Open Control Panel
Click on Preformance and Maintenance.
Click on System.
Then click on the Advanced tab
Click on the error reporting button on the bottom of the windows.
Select Disable error reporting.
Click OK
Click OK

 

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Using the Keyboard to Right-Click Tip:
By Raymond

 

These days, using the mouse, you can right-click almost anything in almost any window or program and bring up a "context menu." This is a small list of things that you can do to the object that you right-clicked. For example, you can right-click a file, and choose Properties from the context menu that appears.

If you are used to using the keyboard, and try to avoid moving your hands off the keyboard to the mouse, then you will love this tip! You can bring up the context menu on any selected item by pressing Shift-F10. This is exactly the same as right-clicking with the mouse, and should work almost anywhere that right-clicking works.

 

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Show All Registered Devices Tip:
By Raymond

 

By default, the Device Manager only displays Plug-and-Play devices that are currently installed and working in the computer. In a previous tip, I mentioned a way that you can force the display of the non plug-and-play devices. There is also a way that you can force Device Manager to display the devices that are installed, but not currently present in the system. This is particularly useful with laptops, where it is not uncommon to have devices pulled out from time to time.

There is an environment variable called devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices that governs whether or not these devices appear in Device manager. Set this variable to 1 to display them, or to 0 to hide them again. You can set this variable at a command prompt by typing "set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1" without the quotes. You can also set it permanently as a variable by right-clicking My Computer and choosing Properties. Click the Advanced tab, and the "Settings" (XP) or Environmental Variables (older Windows) button. Click the New button, and enter the devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices for the name, and 1 for the value.

Note: You must also employ the tip mentioned above to display all devices in addition to setting the environment variable.

 

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Use the group policy tool to restrict access Tip:
By Raymond

 

If you would like to play super computer geek and limit and control just about every aspect of your computer you can use a great tool called the group policy editor.

Click Start and select Run
Type gpedit.msc in the text box and click on OK.
The group policy editor will load. Navigate through the folders and you will discover hundreds of items that you can limit access to and control. WinXpFix.com

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Turn Off IE Clicking Noise Tip:
By Raymond

 

A couple of versions ago, Microsoft added a clicking noise to Internet Explorer, so that each time you click on a link with the mouse, you hear an audible click. You may find it annoying after a while. This feature can be turned off in the Control Panel. In Windows XP open the Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices (it's just Sounds & Multimedia in Windows 2000) then Sounds and Audio Devices, then on the Sounds tab, scroll down to the section for Windows Explorer. Click the event called "Start Navigation," and change the setting to "none" from the dropdown box. Click OK to apply the change, and from now on you can navigate clicklessly through cyberspace.

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Media Player Privacy Tip:
By Raymond

 

When playing CDs with newer versions of Media Player, this handy little application will go out to the Internet and return with handy information for you such as information about the CD such as the play list, album cover, artists, etc. However, in the latest version (8.x), another feature has been added that may have privacy implications.

When you open the Media Player (Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment -> Media Player) and choose Options from the Tools Menu, you will see an option called "Allow Internet sites to uniquely identify your player?" What this does is to potentially allow other sites to monitor what you are listening to or watching with Media Player.

In the Help File, it claims that the purpose of uniquely identifying your player (using an identifier that your Media Player sends) is to monitor the connection quality when streaming audio or video files. That's probably all it is being used for -- for now. To turn off this feature, all you have to do is clear (click) the check box and click OK.

 

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Start Applications from the Command Window Tip:
By Raymond

 

It is often quicker for me to start applications by pressing CTRL-R, which is the same as clicking Start -> Run. Typing in the command and pressing Enter launches the application. For example, I can start Solitaire in less than a second by pressing CTRL-R, typing SOL, and pressing Enter. It could take me much longer to click Start, Programs, Accessories, Games, Solitaire.

There are times, however, when I don't want the last application that I've run to show up in the Run field of the Start Menu. For instance, on my kid's computer, I don't want to have the Registry Editor (regedit or regedt32) to be easily available to be started accidentally. Who knows what my preschooler might do if she accidentally started Regedit, or MSConfig. For this reason, I often open a command prompt window instead, and start the program from there.

For instance, to start the Registry Editor, I press CTRL-R, type "CMD" without the quotes, and press Enter (for Win9x/ME, I would type "command" instead of "CMD"). From the c:\ prompt, I then type "regedit" or whatever command starts the application, and then press Enter. This is handy not only for computers that kids use, but also for support techs on the computers of curious novice users.

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Start Explorer in Current Context from Command Prompt Tip:
By Raymond

 

When working with the Command Prompt, you can find yourself very "deep" into the different folders. If you decided that you would prefer to use Windows Explorer, you can simply type "Start ." without the quotes, and a Windows Explorer window will open, and it will already be pointed to the folder that you were in when you started it from the Command Prompt.

 

Related: WinXpFix All Windows XP Tips List! - WinXP Basics 4 beginners - WinXP Updates & add-ons - Spy Software Reviews - More Windows XP Tip Pages!

 

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