Tag: registry

Registry Tweaks to Enhance Your Windows XPerience – Part 5

November 27, 2008 by Jason

Once again, it’s time to enhance your Windows XP operating system exactly the way you want and without paying a cent on expensive programs that do something so simple that even a kid could handle it. This series allows you to make important changes to the look, feel and behavior of your Microsoft Windows XP with just the help of the good ol’ Notepad. These tweaks, performed on the Windows Registry, can be undone, but it’s very important that you follow a few steps and remember that the lines you are about to copy must be carefully selected and/or copied, because a single misplaced / missing / added character may seriously damage your OS.

So, before continuing our journey into the land of magical tweaks, it’s imperative that you read the first article in the series to understand not only the basic rules that must be followed in order to get the job done right, but also… what’s the deal with all the bold lines below. Before starting yet another series of desktop tweaks, please allow me to remind you not to leave the tweaks.reg file blank after opening it. Therefore, now that you’re viewing it in Notepad and have placed the “Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00” [without the quotes] at the beginning, let’s start optimizing. Read More»

Registry Tweaks to Enhance Your Windows XPerience – Part 4

November 25, 2008 by Jason

Welcome to yet another episode of our Microsoft Windows XP tweaking saga. If you’re not familiar with the procedure, please start by reading the first article in the series, so as to fully understand how exactly you should use the lines below and how to run the tweaks.

However, don’t hesitate to have a look at some of the other tweaking articles as well, other than part onepart two and part three, which might uncover some of the secrets behind Windows XP that you weren’t aware of.

If the previous article was focused on Folder Options-related tweaks, in today’s piece, we’ll only take a look at a few ways to change the behavior of Display Properties. If you’ve already read the other articles in the series, then you should already know they contain tweaks that cannot be activated from Control Panel, Folder Options, or any other standard Windows customization utility.

Of course, this is the case with this piece too, but, since activating some tweaks will no longer grant users access to very important areas of Microsoft Windows, I will also post the reverse tweak to ensure the way back, just in case you’re not very fond of a particular change in your system. Read More»

Make Your Own Sticky Notes with Notepad

November 24, 2008 by Jason

Someone had once remarked that simplicity is making the journey of life with just baggage enough. Sometimes, I try to apply the same axiom to my ‘soft aware’ life too. And that involves squeezing the maximum juice out of what’s available in my computer.

One thing that has always been available since the last 20 years from the birth of Windows has been the ‘un-noteworthy’ Notepad. Life with Notepad couldn’t be any simpler. It strips all formatting and keeps data in its plain format. It doesn’t ask for any special Windows resources, comes up in a blink of an eye and doesn’t nag you with any dialog boxes or prompts.

We all use Notepad to store our scraps of data as text files. But with a little bit of tip and tuck it can be made into an effective sticky note. Here I am going to show you how to get your own version of sticky notes with just the Notepad and any version of Windows. Read More»

Make Your Windows Vista Super Fast

November 14, 2008 by Jason

So you are using Windows Vista and feel that its slower than Windows XP? Then you have come to the right place.

Following tutorial will help you in tweaking your Windows Vista to the max and you’ll feel a significant improvement in your system performance. So without wasting any time lets start:

1. Following is a registry file containing a few registry modifications, which are completely safe and can increase the performance of Windows Vista. Just download the attached ZIP file, extract it and then run the file:

Tweak Windows Vista

Restore Default Settings (Use this file if you want to restore default Windows settings)

2. Right-click on My Computer icon on Desktop and select Properties (or press key + key), click on Advanced system settings link in left side pane (You can also open it by typing sysdm.cpl in RUN or start menu search box and press Enter). Now click on Settings button in Performance section: Read More»

How To Change Text On XP Start Button

November 05, 2008 by Jason

There’s been a number of articles on the Web about how to change the text on Windows XP Start button. So I decided to add one here at WinXpFix.com for those of you who support this site by spending your time here. First, most people think there is a limit of five letters that you can use on the Windows XP Start button, I have use more then five letters with no trouble. I’m still test this XP Start button hack and I will post any changes or updated on this page.

Here are the steps you need to edit and change the text on Windows XP Start button, also some links to software that will change XP start button text for you.

NOTE: Change XP text at your own risk. I’m not responsible for any of the damage you may do to your system.

The Steps!

1. You Need to Modify “Explorer.exe File” To make the changes you need to locate and edit the file “explorer.exe” it’s located at C:Windows. The file “Explorer.exe” is a binary file, so you will need special editor (Resource Hacker) will do. Resource Hacker is a good freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files. Read More»

PcTipsBox October 2008 Popular Tips – TOP10

November 01, 2008 by Jason

1. How do I install Windows XP on a computer with Windows Vista pre-installed?
2. Process Monitor 2.0 for Vista and XP
3. 5 Reasons Why Windows Vista Failed
4. The definitive guide to upgrading from Windows XP
5. Network Access Protection for XP SP3 and Vista SP1
6. How to Change a Computer Password Using Command Prompt
7. Vista 4,000 Applications Compatibility List
8. The successor of Windows XP Embedded
9. Microsoft Quest for Speed?
10. Understand your registry
Read More»

Windows Won’t Shutdown or Restart

October 30, 2008 by Jason

Have you ever clicked on the Shutdown or Restart button in Windows and have absolutely nothing happen? Sometimes Windows gets stuck because of some process that has become hung, meaning it is running, but can’t be ended in the normal way.

Hence, you try to shutdown or restart your computer, nothing happens at all. If you’re lucky, after a minute or two, you might see a message pop up saying that a process is hung and you can either let Windows try to end it or you can press End Now. I always prefer End Now!

Unfortunately, sometimes Windows simply refuses to shutdown and it won’t give you any kind of message. Don’t worry, the underlying cause of this is still a hung process, so all you need to do is kill the non-critical Windows processes one by one or modify the registry so that a hung process is automatically ended without manual intervention. I’ll explain both methods. Read More»

Registry Tweaks to Enhance Your Windows XPerience – Part 3

October 27, 2008 by Jason

Welcome back to the registry optimization saga! If you’re just joining us, please start by reading at least our first episode, which describes a few rules that must be followed in order for the optimization process to take place successfully…

So, now that you’ve opened your tweak.reg file and you’ve written ‘Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00’ at its beginning, let’s head on to some serious business: in today’s episode we’ll cover several important optimizations that you would usually access using Folder Options.

Folder Options is one of the key-windows of any Windows optimization process. You can easily find it by clicking on the Tools menu in Windows Explorer. From the View tab you have access to a variety of essential XP settings regarding the looks and behavior of your Windows Explorer. Therefore if you want to make some of these changes permanent on a regular basis (each time you install your Windows) or apply them on another computer too, just copy the tweaks you’re interested in to your tweak.reg file. Read More»

Registry Tweaks to Enhance Your Windows XPerience – Part 2

October 24, 2008 by Jason

Allow me to start this article by recommending you read (if you haven’t already) the first part of this “tweaking series,” as it sets the ground rules that must be followed in order to get the job done right.

The concept behind the “tweaking series” is quite simple, in that it shows you how to optimize your Windows XP the way you want, with just a few clicks and without the help of any expensive software.

So, now that you’ve read the first part, you’ve created your tweaks.reg file, and wrote “Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00” in it, let’s see what other tweaks you could add to your file in order to further enhance your XPerience.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer]
“Link”=hex:00,00,00,00

When creating a shortcut, Windows XP automatically names it “Shortcut to (name of the file).” If you find this annoying, the above tweak will remove the “Shortcut to” text and leave only the name of the file in the shortcut’s name. Read More»

Understand your registry

October 04, 2008 by Jason

Registry tweaks can fix problems, boost performance and improve Windows features, and the risks are minimal as long as you follow our advice.

There are many ways to change your settings and your applications within Windows. You might click Edit > Preferences or Tools > Options, right-click on a system tray icon, or just poke around in your Control Panel. But the end result is almost always the same. When you’ve tweaked an option and clicked OK, the new setting will be stored in a central database called the registry.

Normally you don’t have to worry about low-level technical details of individual registry settings. But occasionally they can come in useful. If a program won’t start or can’t be reinstalled, for instance, it could be down to a corrupt registry setting: change it and you might fix the problem. Other applications have useful settings that can only be accessed from the registry, too.

There is a potential down side, though. If you delete the wrong registry setting you could corrupt an application, and even prevent Windows from loading on your next reboot. But then Windows Explorer can be dangerous, too, if you start randomly deleting things from the Windows or Program Files folders. Don’t worry though, as long as you’re cautious and sensible – registry editing actually poses very little risk. Read More»