General Notes
Service Packs
Service Pack 1 should be installed under all cases. This service pack corrects several major errors as well as installs java. There was no Java support in XP pre-Service Pack 1 without installing the Sun JRE.
MSN.com is not installed by default.
MSN Messenger is installed by default, however it is very simple to remove. See instructions below.
XP is bulkier, and more prone to security holes, but on a newer machine it is much faster and has an incredible load time due to optimizations made for newer hardware.
Passport
Microsoft originally made Passport a requirement to use Windows Messenger and other features. Despite the severe security weaknesses of Microsoft's Passport authentication system (http://www.avirubin.com/passport.html from
an AT&T Labs analysis), XP repeatedly requests the user's e-mail address and password to create a Passport e-commerce account. The passport authentication program, used by millions of people to log on to Hotmail, is trivially easy for a Trojan horse to compromise on Windows 9x and
ME systems. A breach can expose a user's financial information, including credit card numbers that were typed in by a user and stored on Passport's central Web server.
If you use MSN, somebody can get your Passport ID, password, and the phone number to dial your ISP. Because a person's e-mail address and password are used to sign onto the Passport server, an unscrupulous person at an ISP could easily steal credit card numbers.
Passport enforces a single user name and password for all participating Web sites. The service will be all but mandatory, which tells users, "You need a Passport to use Windows XP Internet communications features ... and to access Net-enabled features."
The Passport agreement, which you accept by clicking OK, permits Microsoft and its partners to send you an unlimited number of commercial e-mail messages. You can't rescind Microsoft's permission to use your e-mail address. You must unsubscribe from every partner's e-mail list
individually.
Passport is not required in any version of XP. Passport is required for certain features of XP such as Messenger. For 99% of users, they will not need a Passport account. This was changed from early copies of XP where a passport account was required after the holes in passport were found.
Contract Terms
This agreement says that Microsoft can change the contract's terms at any time, merely by editing a Web page. Every time you use Passport, you're supposed to reread this page to detect any changes. I'm fairly sure that the chances of users rereading this agreement are close to zero.
I would also expect that eventually there will be a monthly fee.
Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer loses support for all Netscape-style plug-ins, including embedded QuickTime clips. New users surfing the Web under XP will undoubtedly run into sites that IE will no longer handle properly.
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Classic Mode
To change the feel back to that of Windows 2000 or previous version, there are two settings you need to change.
Start Menu
- Open Control Panel
- On the left, click Switch to classic view (This may or may not be needed depending on if this has been done previously. If the bar on the left says "Switch to Classic view" it is needed. If it says "Switch to category view" it is not.)
- Open Taskbar and Start Menu Control
- Click Start Menu
- Select Classic Start Menu or
- Select XP Mode Start Menu
- Click Apply
- Click OK
Start Bar
To change the start bar and the title bars to look like they did in previous versions. Some older programs are incompatible with XP style themes, so leaving this in XP mode will not always look correct for older programs.
- Open Control Panel
- Click on Switch to Classic view
- Select Display (It should open to the "Themes" tab if not, click the Themes tab)
- In the dropdown Theme:
- Select Windows Classic or
- Select Windows XP
- Click Apply
- Click OK
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QuickLaunch
By default, the QuickLaunch toolbar is not shown. This is a handy feature and only requires a single to open the application. It is always viewable on your taskbar so you don't have to resort to your desktop or Start options to open the app.
To enable it...
- Right click on an open area of the toolbar
- Select Toolbars
- Select Quick Launch
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Balloon Tips
To turn off balloon tips in most applications...
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter regedit
- Click OK
- Go to
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER
- Software
- Microsoft
- Windows
- CurrentVersion
- Explorer
- Advanced
- Click Edit
- Click New
- Create DWORD value = EnableBalloonTips
- Value = 0
- Click OK
See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.
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NumLock
To set NUMLock on by default...
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Windows Version
To turn off the version number on the desktop...
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Taskbar Buttons
By default, all open windows using the same application are grouped under a single icon. This saves Task Bar space.
If you want to group, or ungroup, similar taskbar buttons...
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Logon Style
To change the logon screen so it looks like the traditional NT4 or 2000 style...
- Open Control Panel
- Select User Accounts
- Click Change the way users log on and off
- Uncheck Use the Welcome screen
- Click on Apply
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System Tray Icons
Icons in the Notification area (on the right side of the taskbar) are, by default, hidden when they are inactive. This behavior is determined by a setting, which can be cleared or selected for each item.
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System Time
To make sure your system time is accurate, you can automatically set the time from an Internet server.
Certain Dell machines lose their system time in XP. To correct this do the following...
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Desktop
On some occasions changes to desktop settings will not save. Sometimes there is also a reason to disable this for public machines that users should not be allowed to change settings. This can be used to make it so your user's changes DO NOT get saved by disabling save desktop setting.
The Desktop Cleanup Wizard keeps track of your usage of the icons on your desktop and periodically offers to remove the icons you have not recently used. This is really not needed as most people can delete icons off their desktop themselves.
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Java Virtual Machine
Instead of including the latest version of Java support, XP will default to a 4-year-old version. Users can get a new Java download which is 5MB in size or Install Service Pack 1 as it fixes a large number of other bugs and installs the Java Virtual Machine.
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Paging File
To clear the Windows paging file (Pagefile.sys) during the shutdown process and prevent any unsecured data from being contained after the shutdown process is complete. Some third-party programs can temporarily store unencrypted (plain-text) passwords or other sensitive information in memory.
Method 1
- Open Control Panel
- Select Administrative Tools
- Select Local Security Policy
- Select Local Policies
- Click on Security Options
- In the right hand menu, right click on Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile
- Select Enable
- Reboot
Method 2
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter regedit
- Click OK
- Go to
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- SYSTEM
- CurrentControlSet
- Control\Session Manager
- Memory Management
- Double click on ClearPageFileAtShutdown
- Set Value = 1
- Click OK
- Reboot
See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.
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Quick Reinstall
To repair a corrupted operating system. This also works on Windows 2000.
- On the Windows CD, go to the location of your source files
- Run WINNT32 /unattend
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CD Info
After you remove either a CD recording software or other software from your computer, your computer may not allow access to the CD drive.
To correct this the following registry keys need to be deleted:
To increase loading speed... If you use a program other than the native XP CD Burner software.
To turn off the ability to using the built-in CD burner software that comes with XP do the following...
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E-mail Message Count
Under your name on the Welcome screen, there is a hyperlink that indicates the number of unread e-mail messages. To remove the Unread E-mail message count by user's login names: This feature is not always active in XP for some reason.
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Administrator Logon
If the administration logon is not show on the Welcome screen
To access it...
- Hold down Ctrl and Alt and press Del twice
To unhide the Administrator account so it always shows up...
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter regedit
- Click OK
- Go to
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- SOFTWARE
- Microsoft
- Windows NT
- CurrentVersion
- Winlogon
- SpecialAccounts
- UserList
- If Administrator exists...
- Double Click on Administrator
- Set Value = 1
- Click OK
- If Administrator doesn't exist...
- Click Edit
- Click New
- Select DWORD value
- Enter the name Administrator
- Double Click on line
- Set value = 1
- Click OK
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Registration
To change your name and company information...
To set that online registration has been completed...
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Passwords
To change the password to never expire. This is identical to Windows 2000 for the same issue.
- Right click My Computer
- Select Manage
- Go to Local Users and Groups/Users
- Right-click on user to change
- Select Properties
- On General tab, check Password never expires
- Click OK
To allow logging in without a password... (Do not recommend)
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter gpedit.msc
- Click OK
- Select Computer Configuration
- Select Windows Settings
- Select Security Settings
- Select Local Policies
- Select Security Options
- Double click on Accounts
- Disable the option Limit local account use of blank passwords to console login only
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User Names (Show/Hide)
To hide/unhide the users on the logon screen...
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter regedit
- Click OK
- Go to
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- SOFTWARE
- Microsoft
- Windows NT
- CurrentVersion
- Winlogon
- SpecialAccounts
- UserList
- Click Edit
- Click New
- Select Add DWORD value = name of the user account you want to hide
- To hide, set value = 0
- To unhide, set value = 1
- Click OK
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Guest Account
We highly recommend turning off the ability to login with guest account.
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Fast User Switch
To fix the the error referencing CSGina.DLL that a recently installed program has disabled the Welcome screen and Fast User Switching ...
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System Restore
To disable system restore. System restore, which is supposed to "roll back" your system to a previous point, does not always solve problems. This feature can take up a large chunk of your hard drive and system resources.
To Disable System Restore
- Open Control Panel
- Select System Control
- Click System Restore tab
- Check Turn off System Restore
- Click OK
To Re-Enable System Restore
- Open Control Panel
- Select System Control
- Click System Restore
- Uncheck Turn off System Restore
- Use the slider under Disk Space usage to set the limit on how much hard disk space to give up
- Click OK
You can re-enable it again by...
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter gpedit.msc
- Select Computer Configuration
- Select Administrative Templates
- Select System
- Select System Restore
- Set Turn off System Restore
- Set Turn off Configuration to Disable
- Right click My Computer
- Select Manage
- Select Services and Applications
- Select Services
- Scroll to System Restore Service
- Set to Automatic
- Click the Start button to start the service
- Close window
- Go back to the gpedit.msc and configure both to Not configured
- Right click My Computer
- Click System Restore
- Configure how much space will be used
See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.
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Device Drivers
To restore a previous working device driver. If this does not work, you need to remove the device and reinstall the drivers.
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Firewall
If you want to turn off the firewall for your computer: Highly recommended to disable it if you have Win XP SP1, you don't have/use a Internet connection or you already have your firewall.
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Error Reporting
To turn off reporting of errors to Microsoft...
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Performance
By default, XP displays extra graphic objects for menu items which can slow down your display.
To turn off these selectively...
To speed up the display of the Start Menu Items, turn off the menu shadow.
You can increase system performance by loading more of the system into memory. DO NOT attempt this with less then 512MBs of ram. Your system will become unstable.
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Hibernation
Hibernation takes up extra disk space.
To disable...
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MSN Messenger
MSN Messenger is typically a waste of system resources.
To remove the MSN Messenger from starting...
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
To totally remove MSN Messenger, you need to first make Messenger appear in Add/Remove programs.
- Edit the file \Windows\Inf\sysoc.inf
- Change msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
- To msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7
See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.
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Non-Responsive Tasks
To set a time-out to automatically delete "Not Responding"
tasks...
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File System Cache
To help speed up the system, increase the amount of memory to use for I/O operations...
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DNS Cache
DNS (Domain Name System) caching is used to resolve hostnames for faster access. The problem with this feature is that failed DNS lookups also get cached.
To change so that it will not cache failed DNS lookups...
1. Flush the DNS cache manually
- Go to the Command Prompt
- Enter ipconfig /flushdns
2. To permanently solve, modifing the Registry
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter regedit
- Click OK
Go to
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- SYSTEM
- CurrentControlSet
- Services
- Dnscache
- Parameters
- NegativeCacheTime=0 (DWORD default=300 seconds) Determines how long an entry recording a negative answer to a query remains in the DNS cache. When the time specified in the value of this entry expires, the DNS client deletes the answer record from cache.
- NetFailureCacheTime=0 (DWORD default=30 seconds) Determines for how long the DNS client stops sending queries when it suspects that the network is down. When the DNS client does not receive responses to repeated queries sent to any network adapter, the DNS client stops sending
queries for the time specified in the value of this entry. During that time, the DNS client returns a time-out response to all queries. If the value of this entry is 0x0, this optimizing feature is disabled. DNS continues to send queries to an unresponsive network.
- NegativeSOACacheTime=0 (DWORD default=120 seconds) Determines how long an entry recording a negative answer to a query for an SOA (Start of Authority) record remains in the Domain Name System (DNS) cache. When the time specified in the value expires, the DNS client deletes the
answer record from the cache.
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Bandwidth
If you run an application that needs to send high priority/real time data, XP will restrict "best effort" traffic to 80% of the bandwidth.
To change this...
- Log in as Administrator (Not just any account with admin privileges)
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter gpedit.msc
- Select Local Computer Policy
- Select Administrative Templates
- Select Network
- Select QOS Packet Scheduler
- In the right window, double-click limit reservable bandwidth
- On setting tab, check enabled setting
- Bandwidth limit % value = 0
- Click OK
- Close gpedit.msc
- Click My Computer
- Select My Network Connections
- Select View Network Connections
- Right-click your connection
- Under Protocol Properties, check QOS Packet Scheduler
- Reboot
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TCP/IP
To reinstall the TCP/IP protocol stack...
- netsh int ip reset [ log_file_name] The log_file_name needs to be specified
Example: netsh int ip reset ip_reset.txt
To change TCP/IP settings...
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter regedit
- Click OK
- Go to
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- SYSTEM
- CurrentControlSet
- Services
- TCP/IP
- Parameters
- Edit or Create the following...
- GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize="256960" (DWORD)
- Tcp1323Opts="1" (DWORD)
- DefaultTTL="64" (DWORD)
- EnablePMTUDiscovery="1" (DWORD)
- EnablePMTUBHDetect="0" (DWORD)
- SackOpts="1" (DWORD)
- TcpMaxDupAcks="2" (DWORD)
- Reboot
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NetBEUI
It is recommended that you do not install NetBEUI unless absolutely needed. It is no longer supported by Microsoft. You can add it by going to the VALUEADD\MSFT\NET\NETBEUI directory on your CD.
In the example below, C:\WINDOWS represents the common drive\directory where XP is installed.
- Copy nbf.sys C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ directory
- Copy netnbf.inf C:\WINDOWS\\INF\ directory
- Open the Network connection properties for your local area network
- use Install... button to add NetBEUI protocol
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