6 Tips for Windows XP

Topics Windows XP on March 2nd, 2008

1. How to Clean the Start Menu
The start menu of the Windows XP is populated with the number of shortcuts and newly installed programs. If you want to remove any of the programs from the start menu just right click on that program and click “Remove from this list”. The program will be removed from the start menu. Additionally, there are certain programs at the right side such as My documents, Run, Search etc and if you want to customize this list then right click on the empty place > Properties > Start Menu > Customize.

You will see a number of options there such as Large Icons, Small Icons and number of programs in the list. In the advance tab you will see the three options such as 1. display as a link, 2. display as a menu and 3. Don’t list this item and you can choose these options for the control panel, my documents, my music and my computer etc.

2. How to Distribute a Custom Desktop Theme to Users
You can send the customized them by email or by placing at the user’s desktop computer through the My Network Places. Users on the other computer will do the following steps to get the customized theme.

1. Right click on the desktop and click properties.
2. Open the theme tab and browse it.
3. Find the folder that has the theme file and double click it.
4. Click ok to load the new theme and close all the windows.

After letting you wait for a while Windows XP load the customized theme and apply all the new settings to your desktop.
Here you will learn that how to distribute a customized desktop theme to the other users in the network.

3. How to Create a Hardware Profile
Hardware profiles are used in multiple environments such as LAN, mobile and standalone. You can create hardware profiles in Windows XP Professional by doing the following steps.

1. Click start > Settings > Control Panel > double click system
2. Click hardware and the hardware profile. You can select eight docked or undocked profile.
3. Click copy type the profile name such as mobile and click Ok
4. Click mobile > Properties > and check this is a portable computer
5. Provides a description of the profile.

4. Create a Shortcut to Network Location
You can create a shortcut to the new network place by the following steps.

1. Start > Control Panel > Network and Internet connection.
2. Click “add a network place.”
3. Choose another network location and click next.
4. In the internet or network address box type the name of the network that you want to use.
5. You can type the network address by this format \\Servername\Sharename
6. Type the FTP address by this format ftp://ftp.pctipsbox.com
7. Click next > Finish

5. Connect to Printer by using Web Browser

By typing the URL of the remote printer in the address bar, you can connect to the remote printer as it were attached with your own computer.

To view the list of the printers in your print server type the following.

http://printservername/printers

In the web browser a page will open that will list the properties of the printer. To connect to the printer click connect under printer action. An icon of the printer and faxes folder will be added in your printer and faxes folder in your computer. You can perform the administrative tasks to theprinter as it were attached to your computer.

6. Encrypt a folder in Windows XP

You can encrypt a folder in Windows XP so that it cannot be read by others. Please note that the encryption is only applicable in the NTFS file system. You can encrypt a folder by doing the following steps.

1. Right click on the folder, which you want to encrypt and click properties.
2. On the general tab click Advance.
3. On the compress and encrypt attributes press the Encrypt contents to secure data.
4. Click ok.
5. If you want to encrypt only the folder click “Apply changes to this folder only” and then ok.
6. If you want to encrypt the all the contents of the folder and the parent folder then click Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files.
Now every file or folder that will be created in the encrypted folder will automatically be encrypted. The users of the network can view the items of the encrypted folder but they cannot copy or open the contents of the encrypted folder.