Windows XP Welcome Screen

The Windows XP welcome screen is what you will most probably see when you power-up your Windows XP computer.

If your Windows XP welcome screen won't come up when you start your computer, your Windows is probably set to show the "logon screen" at startup.

You can easily switch between the welcome screen and the "logon screen" :

• Click the Start button
• Select "control panel"
• Select "user accounts"
• Select "Change the way users log on or off"
• (Un)check the "Welcome Screen" option
• Click "Apply options"

The next time you log on to your computer, you will logon through the welcome screen.

Note : if your computer is a member of a domain, you won't be able to use the welcome screen option.

The Windows XP Welcome screen vs logon screen :

Windows XP welcome screen

• When you hit ctrl-alt-delete, you invoke the Windows XP Task Manager
• Windows shows "turn off computer" on the Windows XP start menu
  
• You can not use "hidden" user accounts to log on

Windows XP logon screen

• The ctrl-alt-delete keyboard combination brings you to the Windows security dialog box
• Windows shows "shut down" on the Windows XP start menu
  
• You can enter ANY user/password combination in the logon screen, including hidden user accounts
• You can customize the Windows XP logon screen

Customize the logon screen ?

Yes, when you have your Windows set up to use the logon screen, you can customize the background color. Or you can personalize some more by giving it your favorite image or picture as background image.

To change the background color :

• Right-click an empty spot on your desktop
• Select "properties"
• Click the "appearance" tab
• Click the "advanced" button
• Click on the "color1" drop-down list and select "other"
• Pick the color of your choice and make a note of the red, green and blue values in the lower-right corner of the color dialog box (for instance 128 64 64)
• Click "cancel"
• In the "advanced appearance" dialog, also click cancel
• In the "display properties" dialog, click cancel once more
• Then, click the Start button and select "Run"
• In the "open" field, type regedit and click ok
• In the registry editor, navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\CONTROL PANEL\COLORS and double-click the "background" string. The default value should be 0 78 152, but you can now change it to the values for red, green and blue that you wrote down previously (e.g. 128 64 64). Enter the values in the correct red-green-blue order, separated with a space.
• Close the registry editor

The changes take place when you log off.

To put your favorite image or picture in the background of the logon screen :

• Click the Start button and select "Run"
• In the "open" field, type regedit and click ok
• In the registry editor, navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\CONTROL PANEL\DESKTOP and double-click the string "wallpaper"
• Enter the full path and filename of the .bmp image that you want to use as background (the image must be in .bmp format)
• Click "ok" and close the registry editor

The changes take effect as soon as you log off and on again.

A customized Windows XP logon screen

If you change the string HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\CONTROL PANEL\DESKTOP\TILEWALLPAPER to 1 instead of 0, you will get a tiled effect with the bitmap :

Windows XP shutdown icon on your desktop

* Right-click an empty space on your desktop
* Select the option "new shortcut"
* Type "shutdown -s -t 0" (Exactly as shown here, but without the quotes. The last character in the command is a zero.)
* Click next
* Type a name for the shortcut (e.g. Fast shutdown) and click finish

Now you have a new icon on your desktop. Let's customize it some more.

* Right-click the new icon and select properties.
* In the dialog box that opens up, click change icon.
* You may see a warning message that shutdown.exe contains no icons, just click ok if you see this
* Choose a new icon

You are now ready to test your new Windows XP shutdown button. Make sure to close all applications and double-click your new icon to shutdown your computer.

Once the shutdown mechanism is started, there is only one way to stop your machine from going down. That's what the next part is all about.
An icon to stop the shutdown mechanism

Suppose that you double-click the power Windows XP shutdown icon and just a split second later you realize that there was one more thing you wanted to do before shutting down.

To create an anti-shutdown icon :

* Right-click an empty space on your desktop
* Select the option "new shortcut"
* Type "shutdown -a" (Exactly as shown here, but without the quotes.)
* Click next
* Type a name for the shortcut (e.g. Anti shutdown) and click finish

You know now how to choose a better looking icon.
An icon to restart your computer fast

Create a new icon like the previous ones, but type "shutdown -r -t 0" in the "location of the item" box.
An icon to switch user fast

If you have enabled the Windows XP feature "Fast User Switching", you can create an additional icon to switch user FAST.

* Right-click an empty space on your desktop
* Select the option "new shortcut"
* Type "rundll32.exe user32.dll LockWorkStation" (Exactly as shown here, but without the quotes. LockWorkStation is case-sensitive.)
* Click next
* Type a name for the shortcut (e.g. Switch User Fast) and click finish

This icon is so fast and handy and completely safe that I would recommend dragging it to your Quick Launch bar.

Click here if you don't know how to work with the Quick Launch toolbar. (opens a new window)
Experiment

If you feel confident enough to try other possibilities of the shutdown command, try this :

Click your start button, then click "run", type "cmd" (without the quotes) and click ok
In the command window, type shutdown /help and hit the enter key

Amongst the list of shutdown options, you will even find shutdown parameters to shutdown or restart remote computers. Neat.

Windows XP taskbar

Save time with the Windows XP taskbar and work more efficiently with Windows :

• make the Windows XP taskbar work for you
• load important web pages fast
• put your favorite folders on the taskbar
• make a customized follow-up menu for the taskbar
• work more efficiently with Windows

Windows XP tips and tricks are often about saving time. When it comes to saving time, the taskbar is a very powerful tool. It beats everything else hands down. That small bar at the bottom of your Windows desktop is the place to be for quick and easy access to everything you need.

Image 1: The well-known taskbar in Windows XP

Microsoft knows that the taskbar is very important and that's why Windows offers a ton of possibilities to customize it.

Customize the Windows XP taskbar :

If you want to customize the taskbar, you need to unlock it. When the taskbar is unlocked, it shows a pattern of dots just next to the start button.

If you don't see these dots, your taskbar is locked. To unlock it, right-click on an empty spot on the taskbar and remove the checkmark on "Lock the Taskbar" by clicking that option.

When you move your mouse pointer over the upper edge of the taskbar it changes into a double arrow. Now you can drag the upper edge upwards to make the taskbar broader. When the taskbar is two or more lines broad, Windows shows the day of the week and the date in addition to the time (see image 1)

The address bar on the taskbar

If you like to work faster in Windows, you can put a full-blown Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer address bar on your taskbar. This is also visible in image 1 at the top of this page. You can use this address bar to enter :

• web addresses
• a command that you would ordinarily type in the "run" box from the start menu (e.g. regedit, ping, cmd, ...)
• the name of a folder
• the name of a document
• a search term that you want to look up on the internet in your favorite search engine

Right-click an empty area on the taskbar and choose "toolbars" and then "address". On the right, next to the system tray, you will see the word "address". You can drag the address bar handle (the dot pattern at the left of the word "address") over to the left. The input field becomes visible now.

If you feel that the "Go" button at the right of the address field takes up too much space, go via control panel to "internet options", click the "advanced" tab and scroll down to "show go button in address bar" and unselect it. You can even right-click the word address on the address bar and deselect "show title" to clean up even more.

Navigate from the Windows XP taskbar

If you want to add a favorite folder on your Windows XP taskbar, right-click an empty space on the taskbar and select "toolbars". Then choose "new toolbar" and navigate to the folder you want on your taskbar. Once selected, you will need to use the handle of this new toolbar to position it properly on the taskbar. To remove this toolbar, simply right-click the taskbar, select "toolbars" and deselect the name of the folder you just added.

Add a picture to a folder

Microsoft Windows XP usually shows icons for folders like My Music and My Pictures. If a folder contains pictures, Windows XP displays random thumbnails from within the folder. You can replace these icons with custom pictures to make browsing your files more fun, and to make it easier for children to find and open files.

Note: Your picture is visible only when you're browsing folders with the Thumbnails view. To access the Thumbnails view, click Thumbnails on the View menu.

To add a picture to a folder

1.	In Windows Explorer (the program that appears when you open folders such as My Computer, My Documents, My Pictures, or My Music), right-click the folder you want to add a picture to, and then click Properties.
2.	In the Properties dialog box, click the Customize tab. If there is no Customize tab, you cannot add a picture to that folder. You can add pictures to other folders, however.
3.	On the Customize tab, click Choose Picture.
4.	In the Browse dialog box, click the picture you want to use, and then click Open.
5.	Click OK.

When you view the folder using Thumbnails view, Windows displays a thumbnail of the picture you selected.

Set the Search Screen to the Classic Look

When I first saw the default search pane in Windows XP, my instinct was to return it to its classic look; that puppy had to go. Of course, I later discovered that a doggie door is built into the applet. Click "Change preferences" then "Without an animated screen character." If you'd rather give it a bare-bones "Windows 2000" look and feel, fire up your Registry editor and navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ CabinetState.

You may need to create a new string value labeled "Use Search Asst" and set it to "no".

Set Processes Priority

Follow this tip to increase the priority of active processes, this will result in prioritisation of processes using the CPU.

CTRL-SHIFT-ESC

1.Go to the second tab called Processes, right click on one of the active processes, you will see the Set Priority option

2.For example, your Run your CDwriter program , set the priority higher, and guess what, no crashed CD’s

Set up and Use Internet Connection Sharing

With Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) in Windows XP, you can connect one computer to the Internet, then share the Internet service with several computers on your home or small office network. The Network Setup Wizard in Windows XP Professional will automatically provide all of the network settings you need to share one Internet connection with all the computers in your network. Each computer can use programs such as Internet Explorer and Outlook Express as if they were directly connected to the Internet.
You should not use this feature in an existing network with Windows 2000 Server domain controllers, DNS servers, gateways, DHCP servers, or systems configured for static IP addresses.

Enabling ICS

The ICS host computer needs two network connections. The local area network connection, automatically created by installing a network adapter, connects to the computers on your home or small office network. The other connection, using a 56k modem, ISDN, DSL, or cable modem, connects the home or small office network to the Internet. You need to ensure that ICS is enabled on the connection that has the Internet connection. By doing this, the shared connection can connect your home or small office network to the Internet, and users outside your network are not at risk of receiving inappropriate addresses from your network.
When you enable ICS, the local area network connection to the home or small office network is given a new static IP address and configuration. Consequently, TCP/IP connections established between any home or small office computer and the ICS host computer at the time of enabling ICS are lost and need to be reestablished. For example, if Internet Explorer is connecting to a Web site when Internet Connection Sharing is enabled, refresh the browser to reestablish the connection. You must configure client machines on your home or small office network so TCP/IP on the local area connection obtains an IP address automatically. Home or small office network users must also configure Internet options for Internet Connection Sharing. To enable Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) Discovery and Control on Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition computers, run the Network Setup Wizard from the CD or floppy disk on these computers. For ICS Discovery and Control to work on Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition computers, Internet Explorer version 5.0 or later must be installed.

To enable Internet Connection Sharing on a network connection

You must be logged on to your computer with an owner account in order to complete this procedure.
Open Network Connections. (Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double–click Network Connections.)

Click the dial–up, local area network, PPPoE, or VPN connection you want to share, and then, under Network Tasks, click Change settings of this connection.

On the Advanced tab, select the Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection check box.
If you want this connection to dial automatically when another computer on your home or small office network attempts to access external resources, select the Establish a dial–up connection whenever a computer on my network attempts to access the Internet check box.

If you want other network users to enable or disable the shared Internet connection, select the Allow other network users to control or disable the shared Internet connection check box.

Under Internet Connection Sharing, in Home networking connection, select any adapter that connects the computer sharing its Internet connection to the other computers on your network. The Home networking connection is only present when two or more network adapters are installed on the computer.

To configure Internet options on your client computers for Internet Connection Sharing

Open Internet Explorer. Click Start, point to All Programs, and then click Internet Explorer.)

On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.

On the Connections tab, click Never dial a connection, and then click LAN Settings.

In Automatic configuration, clear the Automatically detect settings and Use automatic configuration script check boxes.

In Proxy Server, clear the Use a proxy server check box.

Speed up your browsing of Windows 2000 & XP machines

Here's a great tip to speed up your browsing of Windows XP machines. Its actually a fix to a bug installed as default in Windows 2000 that scans shared files for Scheduled Tasks. And it turns out that you can experience a delay as long as 30 seconds when you try to view shared files across a network because Windows 2000 is using the extra time to search the remote computer for any Scheduled Tasks. Note that though the fix is originally intended for only those affected, Windows 2000 users will experience that the actual browsing speed of both the Internet & Windows Explorers improve significantly after applying it since it doesn't search for Scheduled Tasks anymore. Here's how :

Open up the Registry and go to :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace

Under that branch, select the key :

{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}

and delete it.

This is key that instructs Windows to search for Scheduled Tasks. If you like you may want to export the exact branch so that you can restore the key if necessary.

This fix is so effective that it doesn't require a reboot and you can almost immediately determine yourself how much it speeds up your browsing processes.

How to make your Desktop Icons Transparent

Go to ontrol Panel > System, > Advanced > Performance area > Settings button Visual Effects tab "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the Desktop"

Upgrading to Windows XP

Upgrading to Windows XP

You can upgrade a computer that runs Windows 98, 98SE, or Me to Windows XP Home Edition. Those same versions, along with Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows 2000 Professional, can be upgraded to Windows XP Professional.

(1).To ensure a smooth upgrade and avoid networking problems, follow these tips before starting the upgrade:

(2)Install all network cards. XP will detect them and automatically install the right drivers.

(3)Have your Internet connection available. The XP setup process will connect to a Microsoft server to download the latest setup files, including changes that have been made since XP was released.

Some programs are incompatible with XP and can cause networking problems. Un-install these programs. After the upgrade is complete and the network is working, re-install XP-compatible versions of these programs: Internet Connection Sharing, NAT, Proxy Server Anti-Virus Firewall.