How to moving the taskbar

If you want to move your taskbar.  Mostly I leave mine at the bottom, like the rest of the population, but occasionally I feel like going wild and have the taskbar at the top of my computer.  The Taskbar is that thin bar at the bottom where you can see all your open programs, the start menu, the clock, etc.  Now, in WinXP they made it very nice to move it.  This is how:

1. Right Click on the Taskbar

2. Click, Lock the Taskbar, until there is no check there

3. Left Click on the task bar and move it to where you want it...it will always rest up against an edge, so top, left or right.

4. Then click, Lock the Taskbar, again and it won't move from that spot.

These are the same instructions for Windows 98, ME, 2k, only you don't have to unlock the taskbar, you just left click on it and move...this was easier, but also you sometimes accidentally moved the task bar when you didn't want it to move, ugh.  Well, there you have it, now put your taskbar to the top and see if you like it.

How to Select Multiple files using the Ctrl Key

This is a very simple process.  Here's what you do:

• Click on the first file you want to move

• Go to the second file you want to select before clicking this file, hold down the ctrl key and then click.  You'll notice that both files are now selected

• Repeat this process for as many files as you want to select at once

 It's just so simple.

How to Remove Content Advisor Password in Internet Explorer

The following steps will remove any password set in the Internet Explorer Content Advisor and allow you to reset the program to its original state.

• Click on Start and choose Run.

• Type in RegEdit and select OK.

• Now click on the little plus sign to the left of H_KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

• Continue to drill down, always clicking on the plus sign at the left of the named key, through Software, Microsoft, Windows, Current Version and Policies.

• Now click on the Ratings folder.

• In the right pane of the RegEdit window, you'll see an icon called Key. Click on it and press Delete.

• Next, choose Registry and then Exit to exit RegEdit. You've just deleted your original Content Advisor password.

• Restart the computer and run Internet Explorer again.

• Choose View and then Internet Options (or Options for version 3.x). For IE 5 or greater, Click on Tools, Internet Options.

• Click on the Content tab and click on Disable. When asked for a password, don't enter anything; just click on OK. This will disable Content Advisor because there's no longer a password.

How to Alphabetizing your Start Menu

In fact that if you go to try and find a program its actually becoming really hard because they're not alphabetized, new programs are stuck on the end, so forth and so on, well, this is a really quick, reallllly easy tip to organize your start menu in Windows XP (I think this also works in Win 98, but I'm upgrading my comp that has Win 98 and can't verify it).  Here are the steps:

1. First click on the start button

2. Move your mouse to "All Programs"

3. Move your mouse to any of the folders there

4. Right Click

5. A box will open up, scroll to "Sort By Names" and click

Like magic all the folders and programs will be alphabetized.  This is one of those simple but useful things that will help you organize your computer, unless you really like searching around for programs (bet you also used to enjoy Where's Waldo when you were growing up).  That's it for this tip, give it a try.

How to changing your Mouse Pointer

1. Go to the control panel

2. Go to Printers and Other Hardware

3. Go to Mouse

4. Go to the tab that says "Pointers"

5. Hit the pull down menu under "Schemes" 

6. You'll find a large collection of different pointers for you to use or you can browse and pick other graphics to use as pointers

7. Click Okay

There you have the completely silly hardly important tip of how to change your mouse pointer!  Enjoy.

How to Fix Problems with Content Advisor Missing Information

In most cases, this problem occurs when the Ratings.pol file is damaged, follow the instructions below to fix this issue.

1) Quit Internet Explorer

2) Open My Computer, click on Tools, Folder Options

3) Click on the View tab and make sure "Show hidden files and folders" is selected, you may also want to uncheck the box next to "Hide extensions for known file types" and click Ok

4) Double click on Drive C in My Computer

5) Double click on the Windows folder and then double click on the System folder

6) Search for the file RATINGS.POL and right click on it and choose Rename. Rename it to RATINGS.OLD

7) Close out of the open Windows and then reopen Internet Explorer

8) Click on Tools, Internet Options

9) Click on the Content tab, then click on Settings

10) Type in the Supervisor password if necessary and click Ok

11) Select the Ratings options you would like and click Ok and close out of Internet Explorer

12) When you reopen Internet Explorer, everything should work.

How to off / on the Autoplay CD Feature in Win XP

The Autoplay CD feature in Win XP launches every time you put a cd in and each time it will ask you, which application or which way you would want to view this cd you installed.  Now, this is a great function if you just use your CD occasionally, but when I was installing all my programs on my Win XP box, the Autoplay thing got on my nerves in a big way.  Here's the best way to handle the Autoplay situation...it also allows you to customize how Autoplay will function.

• Go to "My Computer"

• Go to your CD Rom Drive

• Right Click and go to properties

• The window above will open, click the autoplay tab

• Once there they give you a number of options.  In the box just below "Select a content type..."  you can select the various file types that autoplay will run for.  This is good if you want to customize your autoplay.  If for example whenever a music cd is put in you want it to play automatically you just fill in the box that says: Select an action to perform---> Select play--->Hit Apply.  Now whenever you put in a music cd it will autoplay in Windows Media player.  If you don't want XP to take any action, just select "Take No Action" hit apply, and do that for all the media types that's available in that box.

• This is the way you could customize your autoplay features.  The only thing that I use autoplay for is blank cds, whenever I put on it. its opens Nero for me, but all the other autoplay features are off on my comp.  If you want to restore it, just follow the same steps and hit restore defaults.  There you have it, how to turn on / off and customize your Autoplay in Windows XP.

Slow Shutdown Problem

Some people have noticed that they are experiencing a really slow shutdown after installing Windows XP Home or Professional. Although this can be caused a number of ways, the most clear cut one so far is happening on systems with an Nvidia card installed with the latest set of drivers. A service called NVIDIA Driver Helper Service is loading up on start up and for whatever reason doesn't shut itself down properly. The service isn't needed and can also increase the amount of memory available to your system. Here is how to disable it.

1- Go into your Control Panel
2- Select Administrative Tools and then click on Services
3- Right click on the file "NVIDIA Driver Helper Service" and then select STOP.
4- To stop this loading up every time you boot up your PC Right click it again and select properties - then where the option "Startup Type" is shown - make sure it is set at Manual like we have shown in the image below.

For a Safer, faster XP Close Unwanted Services

To disable unneeded startup services for a safer, faster XP, use the "Services" Admin Tool (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services). If you are a single user of a non-networked machine, you can disable the following items, with no ill effect.

Alerter
Clip book
Computer Browser
Fast User Switching
Human Interface Access Devices
Indexing Service (Slows the hard drive down)
Messenger
Net Logon (unnecessary unless networked on a Domain)
Net meeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (disabled for extra security)
Remote Procedure Call Locator
Remote Registry (disabled for extra security)
Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra security)
Server
SSDP Discovery Service (this is for the utterly pointless "Universal P'n'P", & leaves TCP Port 5000 wide open)
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Telnet (disabled for extra security)
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Upload Manager
Windows Time
Wireless Zero Configuration (for wireless networks)
Workstation

Disk Defragmenter

A very important new feature in Microsoft Windows XP is the ability to do a boot defragment. This basically means that all boot files are placed next to each other on the disk drive to allow for faster booting. By default this option is enabled but some upgrade users have reported that it isn't on their setup.
1. Start Regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftDfrgBootOptimizeFunction
3. Select Enable from the list on the right.
4. Right on it and select Modify.
5. Change the value to Y to enable and N to disable.
6. Reboot your computer.

You've read the reviews and digested the key feature enhancements and operational changes. Now it's time to delve a bit deeper and uncover some of Windows XP's secrets.

1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).

2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).

3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.

5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.

6. XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.

7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.

8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.

9. XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.

11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.

12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.

13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.

14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.

16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.

17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.

18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.

19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.

20. The next release of Windows XP, codenamed Longhorn, is due out late next year or early 2003 and won't be much to write home about. The next big release is codenamed Blackcomb and will be out in 2003/2004

AVI File Fix in Windows XP

If you have any AVI files that you saved in Windows 9x, which have interference when opened in Windows XP, there is an easy fix to get rid of the interference: Open Windows Movie Maker. Click View and then click Options. Click in the box to remove the check mark beside Automatically create clips. Now, import the movie file that has interference and drag it onto the timeline. Then save the movie, and during the re-rendering, the interference will be removed.

Search For Hidden Or System Files In Windows XP

The Search companion in Windows XP searches for hidden and system files differently than in earlier versions of Windows. This guide describes how to search for hidden or system files in Windows XP.

Search for Hidden or System Files By default, the Search companion does not search for hidden or system files. Because of this, you may be unable to find files, even though they exist on the drive.

To search for hidden or system files in Windows XP:
Click Start, click Search, click All files and folders, and then click More advanced options.

Click to select the Search system folders and Search hidden files and folders check boxes.

NOTE: You do not need to configure your computer to show hidden files in the Folder Options dialog box in Windows Explorer to find files with either the hidden or system attributes, but you need to configure your computer not to hide protected operating system files to find files with both the hidden and system attributes. Search Companion shares the Hide protected operating system files option (which hides files with both the system and hidden attributes) with the Folder Options dialog box Windows Explorer

Set Permissions for Shared Files and Folders

Sharing of files and folders can be managed in two ways. If you chose simplified file sharing, your folders can be shared with everyone on your network or workgroup, or you can make your folders private. (This is how folders are shared in Windows 2000.) However, in Windows XP Professional, you can also set folder permissions for specific users or groups. To do this, you must first change the default setting, which is simple file sharing. To change this setting, follow these steps:
•Open Control Panel, click Tools, and then click Folder Options.
•Click the View tab, and scroll to the bottom of the Advanced Settings list.
•Clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box.
•To manage folder permissions, browse to the folder in Windows Explorer, right–click the folder, and then click Properties. Click the Security tab, and assign permissions, such as Full Control, Modify, Read, and/or Write, to specific users.

You can set file and folder permissions only on drives formatted to use NTFS, and you must be the owner or have been granted permission to do so by the owner.