If you’re an administrator, it might be useful to have Administrative Tools listed under Start > Programs. Items like Active Directory, Event Viewer or Services. Here is how to enable them.
1. Right-click on the Start button.
2. Select Properties.
3. Click the Customize button.
4. Check the Display Administrative Tools box.
5. Click OK.
Want the look and feel of Windows 7, but don’t want to spend the money to upgrade? Perhaps you have an older computer that won’t run Windows 7. Well, you can skin Windows XP to look like Windows 7. Here are a few downloads you can use.
Enjoy the Windows 7 look with the SevenVG Windows 7 Theme. You’ll get cool fonts, iconized taskbar hack, styler toolbar and fancy wallpaper that completes the look.
When you download the pack, you run several EXE files in each folder. Each one will automatically install everything you need. After a reboot of your system, the Styler app will run in the taskbar. Double-click on it and start configuring away.
Other downloads
Aero Snap – Docks windows to the side of your screen.
Aero Shake – Allows you to shake the window with your mouse to minimize all other windows.
When you try to use Terminal Services on a Windows XP computer, you may get the following error:
Could not start the Terminal Services service on Local Computer.
Error 1083: The executable program that this service is configured to run in does not implement the service.
To try to solve this issue, try the following:
1. Click Start > Run, type C:\WINDOWS\inf and click OK.
2. Look for a file called tsoc.inf. Right-click on it and select Install. This will reinstall Terminal Services.
If that doesn’t work, I suggest going to Start > Run again and typing SFC /scannow to try to restore the files associated with it.
If that still doesn’t work, see “Error 1083″ when attempting to start Terminal Services service in a Windows XP Service Pack 2 computer
Remove services that you don’t want in Windows 7, Vista or XP.
1. Hold down the Windows Key and press R.
2. Type regedit and click OK.
3. Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
then System
then CurrentControlSet
then Services
4. There are folders under Services that contain each service. The DisplayName values in each of these folders equals the Service Name. Go through the list or use Edit > Find to search for the service you wish to remove.
You can also remove services using a command line. Hold down the Windows Key and press R and type:
SC DELETE servicename
Where servicename = the exact name of the service.
Where can you set your default web browser in Windows XP?
You can set Google Chrome, IE, Firefox, Opera, or whatever browser you like to be the default all in one location:
1. Open the Control Panel.
2. Open Add/Remove Programs.
3. Click Set Program Access and Defaults on the left pane.
4. Open the Custom area.
5. Select the bullet for the browser you wish to be the default.
6. Click OK.
Clear the Java Web Start Cache using a command line in Windows XP.
1. Hold down the Windows key and press R or go to Start > Run.
2. Type javaws -uninstall and click OK.
The cache will then be cleared.
When you attempt to shut down Windows XP, it says:
It’s Now Safe To Turn Off Your Computer
and stays at that screen and won’t shut off. Here are a few steps you can try to fix this problem:
1. Go to the Control Panel and open Power Options.
2. Click the APM tab.
3. Check Enable Advanced Power Management support.
4. Click OK.
If you don’t see the APM tab, your computer may not support Advanced Power Managemet, or you may need to go into your BIOS before startup to enable it.
You can also try the following:
1. Click Start > Run and type regedit.
2. Click OK.
3. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
then Software
then Microsoft
then Windows NT
then CurrentVersion
then Winlogon
Set the value of PowerDownAfterShutdown to 1.
I put a DVD in my drive and only the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folder appeared. It didn’t Autorun the DVD. Sure, I could just go to Start > Programs > Windows Media Player and play it there. But I’m lazy and I want it to Auto Play.
To make a video DVD automatically play when you insert it into the drive, you can perform the following steps:
1. Open My Computer/Computer.
2. Right click on the DVD drive.
3. Select Properites.
4. Click the AutoPlay tab.
5. In the dropdown, select DVD movie.
6. Select the radio button for Select an action to perform.
7. Select Play DVD movie using Windows Media Player.
8. Click OK.
I recently encountered a problem with my printers after upgrading to Windows XP Service Pack 3. Nothing would happen when I printed to any printer. I found a solution though. You will need to setup a dummy printer to reset the permissions.
1. Click Start > Printers and Faxes.
2. Click Add a printer.
3. Click Next and select Local printer attached to this computer. Uncheck the box to Automatically detect and install my Plug and Play printer.
4. Select LPT2 for the Use the following port. Click Next.
5. Choose any manufacturer and model. Click Next.
6. Name your printer and set the printer as the default printer. Select No for the default printer setting. Click Next.
7. Choose Share Name. Give it a name of DUMMY. Click Next, then Next again.
8. No, we don’t want to print a test page. Click Finish.
This is all I had to do. I found another site that contained additional instructions to Configure the computer to use the printer attached to another computer. See Microsoft XP SP3 stops printers from printing if these steps don’t work for you.
Is the Customize tab missing from any folder Properties in Windows XP? Here’s how you can try to bring it back.
1. Click Start > Run and type regedit. Click OK.
2. In the registry editor, click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
then Software
then Microsoft
then Windows
then CurrentVersion
then Policies
then Explorer
3. On the right side, see if there are any values for any of the following:
If there are, double-click them and set the value data to 0.
4. If you can’t find it under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, check HKEY_CURRENT_USERS instead.
Administrators may set this value for you. If you are able to modify these registry keys and find that the Customize tab is there for a bit, then it’s gone again, you may have to talk to whoever administers your computers.
There is also a suggestion I picked up at Ramesh’s site about adding a subkey named {ef43ecfe-2ab9-4632-bf21-58909dd177f0} at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers. See Customize tab is missing in Folder Properties for more info on that tip.
You may encounter a problem in Windows XP or Windows 2000 where you canot open Help (HLP) files. When you try, you get an error:
Cannot open the file: mk:@MSITStore:<help file path>
To solve this issue, perform the following steps:
1. Click Start > Run
2. Type regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\hhctrl.ocx itss.dll and click OK.
The files should register sucessfully, and you should be able to open help files.
Is the Send To > Mail Recipient missing when you right-click on a JPG image file.
To fix it, some changes in the registry need to be made:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg]
@=”jpegfile”
“PerceivedType”=”image”
“Content Type”=”image/jpeg”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg\OpenWithProgids]
“jpegfile”=hex(0):
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg\PersistentHandler]
@=”{098f2470-bae0-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.jpg\UndoClass]
@=”jpegfile”
To import these settings into your Windows registry, download and open this file.
I had a customer that just couldn’t get MDAC to work under XP. Reinstalling XP SP3 didn’t work. Microsoft doesn’t make anything available to reinstall MDAC individually. So it’s a complete nightmare to fix it. Luckily, I was able to solve the issue with these steps:
1. Click Start > Run and type %windir%\inf and click OK.
2. Right-click mdac.inf and select Install.
This is where the nightmare started for me. I didn’t have any of the files below. I had to copy the OLE DB, msadc, Ole DB and Binaries folders from another computer and place them in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\ folder. If you are missing the servicepackfiles folder, you will have it after you reinstall XP Service Pack 3. You can also just extract the files from the SP3 file by using the windowsxp-kb936929-sp3-x86-enu.exe –x command.
3. When prompted for each of the following files, try to browse and locate them in the directories specified.
After all these steps, MDAC was working again.
This article was adapted from the article How to Repair MDAC 2.8 Under Windows XP with SP2 Installed. They also have a pretty useful MDAC repair tool, although it didn’t work for me in this case.
If you are trying to share a folder but you get the error:
An error occurred while trying to share FOLDERNAME. The server service is not started. The shared resource was not created at this time.
Here are some things to check:
Try to share the folder out again. Hopefully this works for you.
When I tried using the Search For Files or Folders option in Windows XP, it came up totally blank. Empty! To solve this issue I had to perform the following steps:
1. Click Start > Run.
2. Type regsvr32 jscript.dll wshom.ocx urlmon.dll
Restart the computer, and now the Search Companion option should work.
I had a problem in Windows XP where I would double-click any folder and it would open the Search box instead. Luckily the fix was easy.
1. Hold down the Windows key and press R or click Start > Run.
2. Type regsvr32 shell32.dll and click OK.
You should get a dialog that the file was registered sucessfully. Now try to open any folder. Hopefully it will have opened the folder instead of Search.
JCXP has introduced a new version of their famous Vista Transformation pack, releasing version 9 recently. The pack works well and completely converts Windows XP to look like Windows Vista. It’s a great way to breathe new life into your desktop without having to invest in an actual copy of Vista.
When you try to access the Previous Versions tab that is used with Shadow Copy, it is missing.
To bring it back, follow these steps:
1. XP: Click Start > Run
Vista:
2. Type regsvr32 twext.dll and press Enter.
Now give it a try and see if the Previous Versions tab has returned.
When you try to open any of the drives on your PC, instead of opening it so that you can see the files, it opens an Open With box instead.
Try the following to fix this issue:
1. Right-click on the problematic drive and select Explore. This should open the drive.
2. Look for anything related to AUTORUN on it. Like an autorun.inf file. (You may need to Show All Hidden and System Files on the drive in order to see everything.)
3. Delete any autorun.inf or autorun related files on the drive.
Alternately you may download and run Flash Disinfector. This application will remove the autorun junk that a virus usually leaves behind.
I had a strange problem with my computer, and I’m not sure how it got this way. Before I logged into Windows, I couldn’t right-click on any dialog buttons. Everything was switched around and I had to use the left mouse button instead on prompts to reset my password or when the login failed and I had to try again. I could right-click just fine though once I logged into the system.
I checked my Control Panel, and everything was setup normally. It turns out there is a setting in the registry that controls the swapping of the mouse buttons prior to login.
1. XP: Click Start > Run and type regedit.
Vista: Click Start, type regedit and open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Mouse and set SwapMouseButtons
Alternately, you can download and run the swapmouse.reg file to import these settings.
Also note, there is a separate registry entry for swapping the mouse buttons per user. That setting would be triggered after the login process.
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