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I actually discovered this tip accidentally recently and thought it was appropriate for the Tips page, even though it's probably been a feature of Windows for years. (UPDATE: Sure enough, it's been around for a while. It's still a cool tip and proof that one learns something every day).
By default, the Windows XP Recycle Bin sits at the bottom right of the desktop, just above the tray notification area and system clock. If you've got a bunch of floating windows open, however, it's possible to obscure the Recycle Bin and make it impossible to drag files and folders there for deletion. However, Microsoft must have thought of this event, because you can automatically hide all of those open windows during a drag operation. The first time it happened, I thought it was a fluke. But it's not. Instead, it's a cool hidden feature of XP.
Here's how it works: Make sure a bunch of windows are open on the screen, with at least one of them hiding the Recycle Bin. Then, find a file or group of files you'd like to drag to the Recycle Bin. Pick up the files with the mouse and move them to the lower right of the screen. As you reach the bottom area of the screen, pass the mouse cursor over a blank area of the task bar, hover there for an instant, and--voila!--the open windows all minimize, leaving the Recycle Bin available to accept the dragged files. Good stuff. This tip also works when windows are maximized, assuming the file(s) you want to delete are visible in one of the available windows.
Add album art to
any music folder
This is easily my favorite tip! One of the
coolest new features in Windows XP is its album thumbnail generator,
which automatically places the appropriate album cover art on the folder
to which you are copying music (generally in WMA format). But what about
those people that have already copied their CDs to the hard drive using
MP3 format? You can download album cover art from sites such as
cdnow.com or amguide.com, and then use the new Windows XP folder
customize feature to display the proper image for each folder. But this
takes time--you have to manually edit the folder properties for every
single folder--and you will lose customizations if you have to reinstall
the OS. There's an excellent fix, however.
When you download the album cover art from the Web, just save the images
as folder.jpg each time and place them in the appropriate folder.
Then, Windows XP will automatically use that image as the thumbnail for
that folder and, best of all, will use that image in Media Player for
Windows XP (MPXP) if you choose to display album cover art instead of a
visualization. And the folder customization is automatic, so it survives
an OS reinstallation as well. Your music folders never looked so good!
UPDATE: In addition to the folder.jpg file mentioned above, you can also optionally create a smaller version of the image called albumartsmall.jpg, if desired. This is the image used to display album art in MPXP when its sized so that the display area is smaller than 200 x 200 pixels, and in the folder thumbnails for folders that contain album folders. If you don't create albumartsmall.jpg, however, Windows XP will automatically scale folder.jpg in these cases.
Automatically
defrag drives with a new context menu item!
Create a new Registry import file named
context_defrag.inf in Notepad (be sure to save with it with the Save
as type set to All Files and not Text Documents) and
place the following text inside:
; context_defrag.INF
; Adds Defrag to the right click context menu in Windows XP
[version]
signature="$CHICAGO$"
[DefaultInstall]
AddReg=AddMe
[AddMe]
HKCR,"Drive\Shell\Defrag\command",,,"DEFRAG.EXE %1"
Then, right-click and choose Install. This will add a context menu to XP that allows you to automatically defrag drives, using the command line version of the built-in defragmentation utility. To use it, navigate to a drive in My Computer, right-click, and choose Defrag. A command line window will appear, and that drive will be defragged. When it's complete, the window just disappears.
UPDATE: To remove this functionality, Open regedit.exe and navigate to the following location:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\
Then delete the Defrag folder and close Regedit.
Add/Remove
optional features of Windows XP
I first mentioned this technique in
an old Technology Showcase for Windows 2000,
but it still works in Windows XP, and can be quite useful: For some
reason, Microsoft has removed the ability to specify which Windows
components you want to install during interactive Setup, and when you go
into Add/Remove Windows Components in the Control Panel, you
still don't have the full list of applications and applets you can add
and remove. Thankfully, this is easy to fix.
To dramatically expand the list of applications you can remove from Windows XP after installation, navigate to C:\WINDOWS\inf (substituting the correct drive letter for your version of Windows) and open the sysoc.inf file. Under Windows XP Professional Edition, this file will resemble the following by default:
[Version] Signature = "$Windows NT$"
DriverVer=06/26/2001,5.1.2505.0
[Components]
NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4
WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7
Display=desk.cpl,DisplayOcSetupProc,,7
Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7
NetOC=netoc.dll,NetOcSetupProc,netoc.inf,,7
iis=iis.dll,OcEntry,iis.inf,,7
com=comsetup.dll,OcEntry,comnt5.inf,hide,7
dtc=msdtcstp.dll,OcEntry,dtcnt5.inf,hide,7
IndexSrv_System = setupqry.dll,IndexSrv,setupqry.inf,,7
TerminalServer=TsOc.dll, HydraOc, TsOc.inf,hide,2
msmq=msmqocm.dll,MsmqOcm,msmqocm.inf,,6
ims=imsinsnt.dll,OcEntry,ims.inf,,7
fp_extensions=fp40ext.dll,FrontPage4Extensions,fp40ext.inf,,7
AutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,au.inf,hide,7
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
msnexplr=ocmsn.dll,OcEntry,msnmsn.inf,,7
smarttgs=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,msnsl.inf,,7
RootAutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,rootau.inf,,7
Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,,7
AccessUtil=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,accessor.inf,,7
CommApps=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,communic.inf,HIDE,7
MultiM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,multimed.inf,HIDE,7
AccessOpt=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,optional.inf,HIDE,7
Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,HIDE,7
MSWordPad=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wordpad.inf,HIDE,7
ZoneGames=zoneoc.dll,ZoneSetupProc,igames.inf,,7
[Global]
WindowTitle=%WindowTitle%
WindowTitle.StandAlone="*"
The entries that include the text hide or HIDE will not show up in Add/Remove Windows Components by default. To fix this, do a global search and replace for ,hide and change each instance of this to , (a comma). Then, save the file, relaunch Add/Remove Windows Components, and tweak the installed applications to your heart's content.
Remove the Shared
Documents folders from My Computer
One of the most annoying things about the new Windows XP user
interface is that Microsoft saw fit to provide links to all of the
Shared Documents folders on your system, right at the top of the My
Computer window. I can't imagine why this would be the default, even in
a shared PC environment at home, but what's even more annoying is that
you cannot change this behavior through the shell: Those icons are stuck
there and you have to live with it.
Until now, that is.
Simply fire up the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion
\ Explorer \ My Computer \ NameSpace \ DelegateFolders
You'll see a sub-key named {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}. If you delete this, all of the Shared Documents folders (which are normally under the group called "Other Files Stored on This Computer") will be gone.
You do not need to reboot your system to see the change.
Display the
Sharing Tab in Folder Properties
In Windows 2000, getting to the Sharing options for a
folder was simple: Just right-click, choose Properties, and you'd see
a Sharing tab. In Windows XP, this feature is missing by default, but
you can make the system display the Sharing tab if desired. Simply open
up Folder Options (My Computer, then Tools, Folder Options) and navigate
to the View tab. In the Advanced Settings section, scroll down to the
bottom and uncheck Use simple file sharing (Recommended), a
Mickey Mouse feature if there ever was one. Now share your folders on
the LAN as you would in Windows 2000.
Use the
ultimate configuration tool
(Professional Edition only)
One of the most full featured Windows XP configuration
tools available is hidden right there in your system, but most people
don't even know it exists. It's called the Local Group Policy Editor, or
gpedit for short. To invoke this editor, select Start and then Run, then
type the following:
gpedit.msc
After you hit ENTER, you'll be greeted by gpedit, which lets you modify virtually every feature in Windows XP without having to resort to regedit. Dig around and enjoy!
Use the Windows
Sound Scheme
Windows XP ships with a really nice new sound scheme, but
it's not loaded by default for some reason. So once you've installed
Windows XP, one of the first things you should do is get that new sound
scheme loaded.
To do so, open up Control Panel and navigate to Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices. Then, choose the task titled Change the sound scheme. In the dialog that appears, choose Windows Default for the sound scheme. Windows will ask you whether you want to save the previous scheme, which is usually a brain-dead questions, since no scheme was previously loaded. So choose No, and then click OK to exit the dialog.
Rip high-quality
MP3s in Media Player for Windows XP (MPXP)
The relationship between Media Player for Windows XP (MPXP) and
the MP3 audio format is widely misunderstood. Basically, MPXP is able to
playback MP3 files out of the box, but encoding (or "ripping") CD audio
into MP3 format will require an MP3 plug-in. During the Windows XP beta,
Microsoft supplied a sample MP3 plug-in for testing purposes, but it was
limited to 56 Kbps rips, which is pretty useless, leading some to report
that Microsoft was purposefully hobbling MP3 to make its Windows Media
Audio (WMA) format look better. This is not the case.
To enable MP3 encoding in Windows XP, you'll need to to purchase one of three MP3 Creation Add-on packs for Windows XP. For more information, please visit the Microsoft Web site.
Speed up the
Start Menu
The default speed of the Start Menu is pretty slow, but you can
fix that by editing a Registry Key. Fire up the Registry Editor and
navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ MenuShowDelay
By default, the value is 400. Change this to a smaller value, such as 0, to speed it up.
If this doesn't work for some reason, then you might try the following: Navigate to Display Properties then Appearance then Effects and turn off the option titled Show menu shadow. You will get much better overall performance.
Enable ClearType
on the Welcome Screen!
As laptop users and other LCD owners are quickly realizing,
Microsoft's ClearType technology in Windows XP really makes a big
difference for readability. But the this feature is enabled on a
per-user basis in Windows XP, so you can't see the effect on the Welcome
screen; it only appears after you logon.
But you can fix that. Fire up the Registry Editor and look for the following keys:
(default user) HKEY_USERS \ .Default \ Control Panel \ Desktop \
FontSmoothing (String Value)
HKEY_USERS \ .Default \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ FontSmoothingType (Hexadecimal
DWORD Value)
Make sure both of these values are set to 2 and you'll have ClearType enabled on the Welcome screen and on each new user by default.
Stop Windows
Messenger from Auto-Starting
If you're not a big fan of Windows Messenger, you can use the
tip "Add/Remove optional features of Windows XP" above to remove it, or
simply delete the following Registry Key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\
Display Hibernate
Option on the Shut Down dialog
For some reason, Hibernate isn't available from the default Shut
Down dialog. But you can enable it simply enough, by holding down the
SHIFT key while the dialog is visible. Now you see it, now you don't!
