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Showing posts with the label Registry

Tweak for even more speed from XP

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Windows XP (like all Windows operating systems) uses a technique of storing some content of its system memory (RAM) to the hard drive, therefore using less memory for functions that are used less often. So what Windows is doing is keep functions used most often in RAM and "swapping" out less used functions on to your hard drive. Though great in principle, if/when a function is needed that is stored on the hard drive, the system must reload it in memory before it is used, which makes things work slower. This is particularly true when Windows stores central parts (referred to as the kernel) of Windows itself on the hard drive. If you have 256 MB or more of RAM, a simple Registry change keeping the kernel from being swapped to the hard drive can give you some performance improvements. Here's how you do it: Click Start Click Run... Enter Regedit and click OK (opens the Registry Editor) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ M

Speed up XP menus

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This is a simple Registry setting that will speed up your Windows XP menus. Click Start Click Run... Enter Regedit and click OK Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ MenuShowDelay Change the default value of 400 A value of 0 would open a menu even if you just pass the mouse over it, so try a value of 100 or 200.

Open My Computer view to Explorer View

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before I find that the My Computer view is much less helpful when interacting with files than the Explorer view. By default, when you click on My Computer or My Documents, and folder and drive shortcuts, the left pane contains links to Make a new folder, Publish this folder..., and other not-so-helpful links. I like the Explorer view which has a tree of all folder, open to the folder that I've selected.. Well, with an easy Registry change, the behavior of My Computer and the like can be changed to open in an Explorer view. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell and set the default value ( Value data ) to "explorer" -- that's it. after

Word and Excel files wont open unless application already open

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I recently started having a problem where my Excel 2003 and Word 2003 files would not open when clicked, unless Excel and/or Word was already open. If the application wasn't open, it would open the application, but not load the file. I did quite a bit of searching, but couldn't seem to find the right answer. Some sites recommended checking a setting to Ignore other applications -- a setting that wasn't even available in Word. Turns out for both applications, it was the Addins that were causing troubles. To remove the offending Addin, you need to edit the Registry. Here's the process I used. Go to Start > Run... , enter regedit, and click OK . Go to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\ Addins . Right-click on Addins and select Export . This will let you re-import the keys. Delete the individual Addins one at a time, testing each time to find the offending Addin. Once you identify the offending Addin, re-import all Addin keys, and de

Open the (DOS) Command Prompt at any Folder

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If you're like me, over the years I've started to forget some of those old DOS commands. One that we still need to use occasionally is the cd command to navigate to a file in a different folder, because whenever you go to the Command Prompt you begin in the C:\Documents and Settings\[your username] folder. With a minor entry into your Folder Options, you can actually open directly to the folder you want using Windows Explorer. Here's how you do it: 1. Open a Windows Explore window (Windows Key + E) 2. Click on Tools 3. Select Folder Options... 4. Click on the File Types tab 5. Click on [NONE] Folder 6. Click on Advanced 7. Click on New 8. Type " Command Prompt " in the Action box 9. Type " cmd.exe " in the Application used to perform action box 10 . Click OK on each of the dialog boxes until you are back to the Windows Explorer window Now see it in action: 1. Right-click on a folder in the left-pane 2. Click Command Prompt 3. You will see a (DOS)

Tired of the Reboot prompting?

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Windows has an annoying way of asking every five minutes whether I want to reboot after a Windows Update. Of course most cases, I don't because I'm working. Well I learned that there is a way to change the length of time between nags. Go to the Group Policy Editor (type gpedit.msc at the Run prompt) Expand the window to Local Computer Policy | Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Windows Update Double-click on Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations In the dialog box that opens, click Enable and enter a high number such as 1000 minutes Click OK and close the Group Policy Editor