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 and won't be
much to write home about. The next big release is codenamed Blackcomb.
