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Here is a compliation of tips and tricks I've culled from the web.
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Enjoy!
To kill MSN Messenger enter the following into the Run box:
RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
To monitor what's going on behind the scenes during a normal bootup, you can temporarily disable Windows XP's splash screen.
You can accomplish this by adding a little-used switch to the Boot.ini file. Follow these steps:
Go to the Start menu, and right-click My Computer.
Select Properties from the shortcut menu.
In the resulting System Properties dialog box, select the Advanced tab.
In the Startup And Recovery section, click the Settings button.
In the resulting Startup And Recovery dialog box, click the Edit button in the System Startup section.
When the Boot.ini file opens in Notepad, add the /SOS switch to the line that ends with the /fastdetect switch.
Save the file, close Notepad, click OK twice to close the dialog boxes, and restart the system.
To restore the splash screen, follow the same directions, and remove the /SOS switch.
*from TechRepublic*
Follow these steps:
Right-click the desktop, and select New | Shortcut.
When the Create Shortcut Wizard appears, enter the following in the Type The Location Of The Item text box:
C:\Windows\system32\cscript.exe prnqctl.vbs -e -p <Printer_name> Replace <Printer_name> with the name of the printer from which you want to print the test page, and click Next.
Give the shortcut an appropriate name such as Print Test Page, and click Finish.
Now, whenever you need to print a test page on this particular printer, you can simply double-click the new shortcut.
*from techrepublic*
Safe mode is often used when troubleshooting computer issues. To access it, you have to press F8 during startup. If you´re not paying attention and don´t press the key at the right moment, you´ll be restarting a few times. So here is a way you can save yourself having to press F8 during startup to access Safe Mode. Instead, you can add it as an option to your Windows XP Boot Menu.
1. Right click My Computer and click Properties.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Under Start Up and Recovery, click the Settings button.
4. Click Edit. The boot.ini file will open in Notepad.
5. Copy the line that reads as follows: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=’Microsoft Windows XP Professional’ /fastdetect.
6. Paste the line you just copied after the original one.
7. Change the second line from “Microsoft Windows XP Professional’ to “Windows XP Safe Mode’ or something similar.
8. At the end of this line add the following: /safeboot:minimal /sos /bootlog.
9. Save the boot.ini file by clicking File then Save.
10. Restart your computer and Safe Mode should be available at the boot menu.
By default, Windows XP doesn't reserve a lot of memory for icon caching. By sacrificing a little bit of RAM, you can speed up perceived workstation performance.
Start the Registry Editor by selecting Run from the Start menu, typing regedit in the Open text box, and clicking OK. When the Registry Editor opens, navigate through the left pane until you get to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer. In the right pane, look for the value named Max Cached Icons.
If the value exists, it's probably set to 500, which is the default value for the key. To change the value, double-click it. You'll then see the Edit String screen. Enter a value of 2000 in the Value Data field and click OK.
If the value doesn't exist, you'll need to add it. Select New | String Value from the Edit menu. The new value will appear in the right pane, prompting you for a value name. Type Max Cached Icons and press [Enter]. Make sure you separate each word with a space. The proper value is Max Cached Icons, not MaxCachedIcons.
Double-click the new value. You'll then see the Edit String screen. Enter a value of 2000 in the Value Data field and click OK.
source: John Sheesley 3/16/04 MS Support
To create a shutdown shortcut on the desktop:
Right click on an open area of the desktop
Select New / Shortcut
Enter in "shutdown -s -t 00" - no quotes
Press the Next button
For the name, enter in anything you like. I just use shutdown. Click on the Finish button.
For a reboot, enter "shutdown -r -t 00"
For a logoff, enter "shutdown -l -t 00"
Shutdown [{-l|-s|-r|-a}] [-f] [-m [\\ComputerName]] [-t xx] [-c "message"] [-d[u][p]:xx:yy]
Parameters
-l - Logs off the current user, this is also the defualt. -m ComputerName takes precedence.
-s - Shuts down the local computer.
-r - Reboots after shutdown.
-a - Aborts shutdown. Ignores other parameters, except -l and ComputerName. You can only use -a during the time-out period.
-f - Forces running applications to close.
-m [\\ComputerName] - Specifies the computer that you want to shut down.
-t xx - Sets the timer for system shutdown in xx seconds. The default is 20 seconds.
-c "message" - Specifies a message to be displayed in the Message area of the System Shutdown window. You can use a maximum of 127 characters. You must enclose the message in quotation marks.
*techrepublic*
Create a shortcut or bookmark with the following as a target:
javascript:alert("The real URL of this site is: " + location.protocol + "//" + location.hostname + "/");
Then just click the shortcut/bookmark and a dialog box will pop up and list your current real URL.
Restart the system.
When the operating system begins to load, press [F8].
Select the Enable Boot Logging option from the Windows Advanced menu, and press [Enter].
After the system restarts, launch Notepad, and open the C:\Windows\Ntbtlog.txt file. This file contains a list of all of the files that Windows XP attempted to load during startup.
Every line in the file will begin with either "Loaded driver" or "Did not load driver," which makes it easy to determine what drivers or services could be causing the problem. In either case, the path and filename of the driver or service will follow.
Right-click your shortcut to Explorer and select 'Properties'.
In the "Target" dialog box, delete what's there and enter (or copy-paste) this:
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,C:
Note the space before the /e,C:\ switch.
If DirectX is installed on your PC, but you're unsure of the version, run DxDiag.exe, found in your system directory (usually C:\Winnt\System32 or C:\Windows\System).
DxDiag will gather information for a few seconds and then present you with its opening screen.
Near the bottom of the area labeled System Information, you will see the DirectX version. To obtain a later version of DirectX, go to www.microsoft.com/directx.
1. Click on Start and choose Run.
2. Type in RegEdit and select OK.
3. Click the plus sign for H_KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
4. Continue down through:
>H_KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
>Software
>Microsoft
>Windows
>CurrentVersion
>Policies
5. Click on the Ratings folder.
6. In the right pane of the RegEdit window, you'll see an icon called Key.
Click on it and press Delete.
7. Exit the registry editor
8. Restart the computer and run Internet Explorer again.
9. Choose Tools, then Internet Options (View > Options in IE 4 and below)
10. Click on the Content (Security in IE 4 and below) tab and if the 'Enable/Disable' button still says Disable, click on it.
When asked for a password, just enter a null (blank) password.
To disable ToolTips in Windows XP:
1) Open the Registry Editor
2) Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop.
3) Double-click UserPreferencemask and change its value to 3E 00 00 00.
4) Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows.
You can disable the built-in ZIP feature using the following process.
Open the Run command from the Start Menu and type: regsvr32 /u %windir%\system32\zipfldr.dll.
You can re-enable this feature at any time using the same command without the /u switch (regsvr32 %windir%\system32\zipfldr.dll).
Sometimes Firefox scrambles your favicons. This is the only way I've found that will fix them. It clears everything and sets them back to default, so you'll have to revisit the websites to regain the icons.
1. Put the following in the user.js file to remove bad favicons:
// Disable Bookmark Icons
user_pref("browser.chrome.site_icons", false);
user_pref("browser.chrome.favicons", false);
2. Restart firefox.
3. Delete the lines you added to user.js.
4. Restart firefox.
Kinda clunky, but it works.
Access the Printer User Interface command-line tool
If you're always on the lookout for easy-to-use command-line tools for managing local and network computers via old-fashioned batch files, here's another tool to add to your toolkit. Windows XP has a very powerful, yet little-known, command-line tool for working with printers called the Printer User Interface tool.
Using this tool, you can create some really fancy batch files for accessing and managing every aspect of local and network-based printers.
To view the full listing of printer operations that you can perform with the Printer User Interface command-line tool, you can open a detailed dialog box by entering the following command at a command prompt:
Rundll32 Printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /?
The first 60 lines in the dialog box list the syntax and the various parameters and switches that you can use with the Printer User Interface command-line tool. The remaining lines provide examples and descriptions of all the operations that you can perform.
*techrepublic (I think)*
Automated: Try System File Checker at the command line (sfc).
To manually replace:
If an essential Windows file gets whacked by a virus or otherwise corrupted, restore it from the Windows CD. Search the CD for the filename, replacing the last character with an underscore; for example, Notepad.ex_. If it's found, open a command prompt and enter the command EXPAND, followed by the full pathname of the file and of the desired destination: EXPAND D:\SETUP\NOTEPAD.EX_ C:\Windows\NOTEPAD.EXE. If either pathname contains any spaces, surround it with double quotes.
If the file isn't found, search on the unmodified filename. It will probably be inside a CAB file, which Win XP treats as a folder. Simply right-drag and copy the file to the desired location. In other Windows platforms, search for a file matching *.cab that contains the filename. When the search is done, open a command prompt and enter EXTRACT /L followed by the desired location, the full pathname of the CAB file, and the desired filename; for example: EXTRACT /L C:\Windows D:\I386\Driver.cab Notepad.exe. Again, if the destination or CAB file pathname contains spaces, surround it with double quotes.
*source: unknown*
Turn off Personalized Menus in IE 6 and MS Office:
The personalized-menu feature is controlled in a number of different locations. In Microsoft Word, select Customize from the Tools menu and click on the Options tab. Check the box titled Always show full menus. Do the same for Excel and Outlook. To turn off personalized menus in Internet Explorer 6's Favorites menu, select Internet Options from IE 6's Tools menu, click on the Advanced tab, remove the check next to Enable Personalized Favorites Menu, and click on OK. You will have to restart IE for this to take effect.
Turn off Personalized Menus in 2000 and XP
In Windows 2000 and XP, the personalized-menu feature is an option in the Start menu as well, and it is enabled by default. To turn it off, right-click on the taskbar, choose Properties, remove the check next to Use Personalized Menus, and click on OK.
The person who invented personalized menus should be taken out and publicly flogged. I fucking hate personalized menus. What's worse is there is no centralized control to turn them all off at once. UGh!
This tip only works on some computers sometimes, but it is the only 'fix' that doesn't involve registry edits:
First, close all open IE windows, then launch IE again. Right-click on any link and choose Open in New Window. Resize the resulting secondary window to the size you want for all secondary windows.
Now close the window by holding the Shift key and clicking the X icon in its top-right-hand corner. Set the remaining window to the size you want IE to have when initially launched, and close it in the same way. IE should now remember your preferred window sizes.
Good Luck.
Create a bookmark with the following javascript to enable right click on a page where it has been disabled.
javascript:void(function(){for(var c = 0;c <
document.images.length;c++){if(typeof document.images[c].oncontextmenu
== "function")document.images[c].oncontextmenu = function(){return
true;};};}());
Make this javascript the target of the bookmark.
This method works in several browsers.
Locate Control.exe (normally found in the Windows folder or the system or system32 folder below it) and drag the file to the Quick Launch toolbar. A shortcut is created automatically using a generic icon. Right-click on the shortcut, click on Properties, and click on the Change Icon button. If you slide the scroll bar to the middle in the resulting display, the Control Panel icon should be visible. Select the icon and click OK, then OK again.
There's another way to add a Control Panel icon with some interesting features. Launch Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder whose contents define the Quick Launch toolbar. Typically, it will be something like C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch. Right-click on the right-hand pane, select New | Folder from the menu, and name the new folder Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}. This will create a Control Panel shortcut that uses the correct icon (though it may appear as a simple folder icon until you restart Windows). As a bonus, it will also have a ToolTip appropriate to the Control Panel.
But wait—there's more! Resize the Quick Launch toolbar so the new icon doesn't quite fit. A button with the » symbol will appear. Click on the button, and then click on the Control Panel menu item. You'll get a menu of all the Control Panel applets without having to open the Control Panel window.
*source: PC World or PC Mag*
Create an Icon File. (There are plenty of freeware icon creators, or just use a trial version of MicroAngelo.)
Add the following HTML between the header tags:
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico">
Where favicon.ico is the name of the aforementioned icon file.
Web pages that require ActiveX Controls need IE to work properly. To force a web page to open in IE (when IE is NOT your default browser) you have to use a slightly different shortcut.
Just set the target like this:
"C:\pathotoexplorer\iexplore.exe" www.websiteyouwanttoopen.com