Windows XP Tips and Tricks Part 1

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Now go have fun pimpin out XP!

XP Tips

Tweak Virtual Memory & Visual Effects

First off Right Click My Computer> Click Advanced tab> Click Settings.  Under the Performance Options window in the Advanced tab go to the bottom where it says Virtual Memory.  Click Change.  Now you'll see Custom size.  Click in the box and change it from whatever your physical memory is to 1.5x that amount (e.g. 2000 would be changed to 3000 that's in Initial and Maximum.)

After your memory has been entered in Click Set, Click OK.  Don't exit out of your Performance Options window just yet.  Click one tab over to the Visual Effects tab.  Select radio button Custom or Adjust for best performance.  I did custom because I like some things that it does.

For example I have two selected: Show shadows under menus & Use visual styles on windows and buttons.

XP Tricks


Shutdown/Restart Button

You ever get annoyed that you have to Click Start, Turn Off Computer, then select what you want it to do?  It's a thing of the past now.

To create a Shutdown and/or Restart button simply "right-click" your desktop, highlight "New" and then select "Shortcut".

In the dialog box type shutdown -s -t 5 -c "Shutdown"

-s = shutdown
-r = restart
-t = time delay in seconds for the command to execute.  Enter 0 for no delay which means your comment will not be displayed.
-c = is for a comment such as Restart or Shutdown and must be in quotations

Creating a Restart button would look like so...  shutdown.exe -r -t 5 -c "Restart Now"

After creating your shortcut press Next.  Give it a name.  Can be whatever you want.  Click Finish.

There you have it.  Only other thing left to do is give it an icon.  Right click> Shortcut> Change Icon.  There is a very fitting one for Shutdown.  For Restart I chose a green arrow pointing to the left.

Change Recycle Bin's Name

Step one Click Start> Run> Regedit

Once the Registry is open navigate your way to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID
Find the key {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-blah blah blah. Expand that and Click ShellFolder
Move to the right pane, Right Click Attributes and Click Modify.  It will bring up another window that says

0000   40  01  00  20

You will want to replace the "40"  with "70".  After the Click OK and exit the Registry.

Go to your Desktop and Right Click your Recycle Bin, Click Explore.  Now you should see Recycle Bin in the mid-left of the window.  Right Click> Rename and you will be able to rename it whatever you wish.

Just note that this can only be done once.  If you want to rename it again you must repeat these steps.

Change the Start Button Text (Logo)

#1 Download Resource Hacker below.

http://www.download.com/Resource-Hacker/3000-2352_4-10178587.html

#2 Once downloaded open up Resource Hacker and Click File> Open  C:WINDOWSexplorer.exe

#3 Open up String Table>37>1033 Look at line 578 you'll see "Start".  Change that to whatever you like.


#4 Next head up one to String Table>34>1033.  Look at line 533 and change that to whatever you like leaving the quotations.

#4a  Here's an added bonus step.  To rename Control Panel find Stringe Table> 515> Line 8234.  You will see Control Panel there.  You can rename that to whatever you want (I was just messing around when I named mine GTFO Panel.  I was just seeing if it worked. lol)

#5 Now you're on to the ol' ugly Windows logo that needs a face lift. Go to Bitmap>143>1033 Then you'll want to click on the main menu bar where it says Action. Look for replace Bitmap. It can be anything you want as long as it 23x23 px.

#6 So you're done editing your Start Button. Click File>Save As something like explorer2.exe

#7 The only thing left to do is edit your shell info to direct it from explorer.exe to explorer2.exe. This can be found by clicking Start> Run> Rededit  Navigate your way to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows NT CurrentVersion Winlogon

#8 Once you are there scroll down just a bit and look for Shell. When you find it right click Shell and then Modify. Change it from explorer.exe to explorer2.exe

Important note: before you restart your system you may want to save a copy of the original explorer.exe file. My first time doing this I screwed it up somehow but lucky for me I had a backup. If you followed the directions correctly then you should have a new Start button or in my case a slosh button.

Part 1 Completed. In Part 2 there will be a lot more Registry edits and possibly a "how-to" on changing Start button background.

To be continued...