Windows XP Tips Page 5

10. Defragment Boot Files

XP's defragmenter can perform a boot defragment, placing all boot files contiguous to one another so that XP boots faster. The boot defragment option is usually enabled by default, but there's a possibility that it has been disabled, or not properly enabled. If it's not working, chances are XP will boot dog-slow.

To enable it:

  1. From a command line or from the Run line, run regedit. This opens the Registry Editor.

     

  2. Select the folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and follow the folder path \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction.

     

  3. Find the string Enable.

     

  4. If the string value is set to N, change it to Y. If it is Y, leave it as it is, since that means boot defragmentation is enabled.

     

  5. Exit the Registry and reboot. When you next defragment your disk, the boot files will be defragmented too.

 

11. Backup onto CDs

XP's backup program won't let you back up files to a CD-R or CD-RW – which is a real pain, especially since most computers have burners these days. However, there is a sneaky way around the problem.

First do your backup as you would normally, and then copy the resulting file to a CD-R or CD-RW. If you have to restore a backup from the CD-R or CD-RW, you'll be able to do that directly; you won't have to first copy the file to another medium.

One problem that you'll run across doing this is that your backup might be larger than the 650 MB or 700 MB that CDs hold. To solve the problem, create two or more different backup sets, each smaller than 650 or 700 MB (depending on your CD's capacity), and then copy each resulting file individually to different CDs.

By the way, if you have Windows Home Edition, the Backup program won't be installed by default. You'll have to do that manually. Insert the Windows installation disk go to the \Valuead\/Ms\Ntbackup folder and double-click on NTBACKUP.MSI. By default, the backup program is installed in the Professional version.

12. Create Separate Disk Cleanup Profiles

XP's Disk Cleanup tool, available by clicking on "Free up space on your hard disk" from the Performance and Maintenance section of the Control Panel, will clean your hard disk of unnecessary files. You can make the program even more powerful by creating separate disk cleanup profiles, using the command line version of the Disk Cleanup tool, cleanmgr.exe.

Here's how to do it:

  1. First, you'll need to create a disk cleanup profile. Start by typing cleanmgr /Sageset:n where n is any number between 1 and 65535.

     

  2. The Disk Cleanup Settings screen will appear, shown in Figure 3, allowing you to select which items you would like to be cleaned using this profile. It offers you more cleanup options than the version of Disk Cleanup run from the Windows GUI – you'll be able to automatically remove Debug dump files, Setup log files, Catalog files for the Content Indexer, temporary setup files, and old Chkdsk files, among other items that the GUI version of Disk Cleanup won't delete. However, if you're creating a profile to clean a drive other than the one that contains Windows, most of these options won't be enabled. You'll only be able to automatically clean the Recycle Bin and Catalog files for the Content indexer.

     

  3. Select the kinds of files you want to delete, click on OK and the profile will be created.

     

  4. Next, you need to run the profile you've just created. To run the profile, type cleanmgr /Sagerun:n where n is the number of the profile you've just created. You can create multiple profiles for different disks and purposes.

 

13. Disable the Disk Cleanup Warning

When your hard runs low on what XP determines is too little space, XP warns you and recommend that you run Disk Cleanup. You can turn off this warning if you'd like:

  1. From a command line or from the Run line, run regedit. This opens the Registry Editor.

     

  2. Select the folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER and follow the folder path \ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer.

     

  3. Create a DWORD value called NoLowDiskSpaceChecks.

     

  4. Give it a value of 1.

     

  5. Close Regedit and reboot. You should no longer get the low-disk space warning.

14. Change the Internet Explorer Logo

If you don't like Internet Explorer's animated logo in the upper-right-hand corner -- and lets face it, who needs yet another Microsoft ad staring you in the face -- you can change it to any logo you want.

First, find a logo you like. Then, you'll need to create four separate bitmap images in .bmp format, two that are 22 by 22 pixels, and two that are 38 by 38 pixels, to accommodate the two sizes of the logo. One bitmap in each set will be the static logo, and the other will be used to create the animation effect when the browser is at work. You can create the bitmaps with any graphics program.

After you've created the logos:

  1. From a command line or from the Run line, run regedit. This opens the Registry Editor.

     

  2. Select the folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and follow the folder path \SOFTWARE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar.

     

  3. Create two string values named SmallBitmap and BigBitmap and give them each the value of their file name and location, for example, \Windows\smalllogo.bmp. Make sure these are the non-animated bitmaps.

     

  4. Create two string values named SmBrandBitmap and BrandBitmap and give them each the value of their file name and location, for example, \Windows\animatesmalllogo.bmp.

     

  5. Shut down and restart Internet Explorer. Your new logos should now be in place.

15. Export, Import or Back Up Your Cookies

Cookies have a bad reputation among many online users, but cookies can be useful as well as intrusive. They can log you automatically onto Web sites, for example, and offer you customized views of information. So you might want to make sure that your cookies are backed up, and you might want to export them to another computer of yours – for example a laptop, or a new computer. Power surfers take note: if you're building a new computer, or you're particularly hard on notebooks, this is an essential task.

To back up cookies:

  1. From Internet Explorer, Choose Import and Export from the File menu.

     

  2. The Import/Export Wizard will launch. Choose "Export Cookies" and follow the directions.

     

  3. A single text file containing all your cookies will be created in My Documents, although you can choose a different location for them.

     

  4. To import the cookies on another computer, launch the Import/Export Wizard, choose Import Cookies and browse to the location or disk where the cookie file has been stored.

16. Customize Internet Explorer Printing

Internet Explorer has special printer options that let you print out a list of every link on a Web page, and to also print not just the page that you're on, but all linked documents as well. This is very helpful when a multi-page article fails to include a "Print" view, like we do here at ExtremeTech.

To print out a list of all the links on a page and to print out all linked documents:

  1. Choose Print from the File menu. The Print dialog box will appear.

     

  2. Click on the Options tab.

     

  3. Check the box next to Print table of links.

     

  4. When you click on Print, the page will print out, followed by a the list of links on a separate sheet. It will list the shortcut text for each link, along with its Internet address.

     

  5. To print out the page, as well as all the linked documents from it, check the box next to Print all linked documents and print.

17. Turn Off Multimedia and Graphics on Web Pages

If you want to browse the Internet fast, without being bogged down by animations, sounds, images or other multimedia content, you can turn them all off. This is very helpful on a dial-up or fading 802.11b connection. To do it:

  1. From Internet Explorer, choose Internet Options from the Tools menu.

     

  2. Click on the Advanced tab.

     

  3. Scroll down to the Multimedia section. It has a list of multimedia and graphics content, with checkboxes next to each.

     

  4. Put a check next to each type of content you want displayed, and uncheck each type of content you don't want displayed.

18. Change the Text of Internet Explorer's Title Bar

The title bar of Internet Explorer displays the text "Microsoft Internet Explorer," along with the title of the page you're visiting. If you're tired of constantly being assaulted with images and words from Big Green up in Redmond, you can change that text to anything that you want – including "My Other Computer Runs Linux":

  1. From a command line or from the Run line, run regedit. This opens the Registry Editor.

     

  2. Select the folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER and follow the folder path \Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main.

     

  3. Add a new String Value named Window Title. In the Value field type in the text you want to appear and then hit OK.

     

  4. Close Internet Explorer if it's open, and restart it. The title bar will now have your new text.

     

  5. If you want your title bar to have no text in it aside from the title of the page you're currently visiting, create the Window Title string value, but leave the Value field empty.

 

19. Turn Off Script Reporting Errors

A particularly annoying habit of Internet Explorer is the way it informs you about scripting errors whenever you encounter them on a Web page. There's nothing you can do about the error, so the error message serves no apparent purpose. This can be really aggravating with certain internet ad-blockers, like the Norton one.

To turn off the alerts:

  1. Choose Internet Options from the Tools menu.

     

  2. Click on the Advanced tab.

     

  3. Scroll to the Browsing section.

     

  4. Put a check next to the "Disable script debugging" entry. You will no longer receive the warning.


Windows XP Tips Page 6