If the Lock the taskbar option is grayed out under Taskbar and Start Menu Properties, a registry change can solve the issue.

1. Hold down the Windows key and press R (Or click Start > Run).

2. Type regedit and click OK.

3. Click the plus sign next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER
then Software
then Microsoft
then Windows
then CurrentVersion
then Policies
then click Explorer

4. Look for an entry on the right side for LockTaskBar. Right-click the entry and Delete it.

When installing a program, you may get the following error:

Error 2739. Could not access Javascript runtime action

This error is usually appears because the jscript.dll is not registered in Windows. To register it, perform the following steps:

1. Click Start > Run or hold down the Windows Key and press R.

2. Type regsvr32 jscript.dll.

3. Click OK when the message appears about the registration succeeding. If you receive an error instead, ensure you are logged into Windows as an Administrator.

Here’s a workaround for a problem when you sync your iPod with a Windows XP computer and you get an error:

Disk cannot be read from or written to

1. Disconnect the iPod.

2. Right-click My Computer and select Properties.

3. Click the Hardware tab.

4. Click the Device Manager button.

5. Expand Universal Serial Bus Controllers.

6. Right-click Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller choose Disable.

Now try attaching your iPod again and syncing. Hopefully it will work. If it doesn’t check out the Apple article: “Disk cannot be read from or written to” when syncing iPod or “Firmware update failure” error when updating or restoring iPod

My boss tends to judge when employees have arrived at work by when they make it into GoogleTalk. Since I am late all the time, I’m going to setup GoogleTalk to start every weekday morning at 8:00am. Here’s how I did it.

1. Click Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scheduled Tasks. This screen will appear. Click Next.

2. Select the program you want to schedule to be launched. Click Next.

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Is the Administrator account missing from the Windows welcome screen? Here is how to enable it in Windows Vista or Windows XP.

1. Hold down the Windows key and press R.

2. Type regedit and click OK.

3. Click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
then Software
then Microsoft
then Windows NT
then CurrentVersion
then Winlogon
then SpecialAccounts
then click UserList

4. Look for an entry on the right side for Administrator. If it doesn’t exist, you will need to create it. To do so, right-click on UserList and select New > DWORD Value. Give the value a name of Administrator. Press the Enter key when you are done.

5. Right-click the Administrator entry and click Modify.

6. Set the Value data to 1 and click OK.

7. Close the registry editor and restart the computer. The Administrator account should now be an option on the login screen.

Today I had a problem going when I clicked on the System Restore tab under System Properties on my Windows XP system. When I would click it, System Properties would crash with a System Error. Here’s how I fixed this problem.

1. Open the Control Panel.

2. Open Administrative Tools.

3. Open on Services.

4. Open System Restore Service on the right side.

5. Click Stop.

6. Let the service stop, then click OK.

Now you should be able to access the System Restore tab. Uncheck the Turn off system restore on all drives if you would like to enable the System Restore feature again.

Can’t find Network Connections in the Control Panel? Here’s how to enable it.

1. Hold down the Windows Key and press R.

2. Type regedit and click OK.

3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\don’t load

4. Delete ncpa.cpl on the right side.

5. Close the registry editor and now you should have the Network Connections option listed in the Control Panel.

Are you having trouble finding the Data Sources (ODBC) option in your control panel? This is common in Windows XP. Here’s how you can enable it.

1. Hold down the Windows Key and press R.

2. Type regedit and click OK.

3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\don’t load

4. Delete odbccp32.cpl on the right side.

5. Close the registry editor and now you should have the Data Sources (ODBC) option listed in the Control Panel.

I recently had a problem with Windows XP. I needed to create a simple text file in a directory. However, when I clicked on File > New, Text Document wasn’t showing in the menu. Neither was Wordpad Document, or Notepad document.

I tried the registry hack to add this at TweakXP, but that didn’t help me. Then I tried installing Tweak UI for Windows XP and played with the Templates option in there. I added Wordpad Document, but it still didn’t show up at all when I went to create a new text document.

Then it suddenly occurred to me that I had recently installed a third party notepad program recently. I didn’t like it, so I uninstalled it. Could that have jacked up my file associations? I opened My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > File Types. Sure enough, that was it. Windows XP had lost file associations for TXT files.

I highlighted TXT in the list and clicked Change. I then selected WordPad. I then had the option for WordPad Document listed when I clicked on File > New.

How to disable user tracking in Windows XP and Vista. Disabling this feature disables customized menus and other features that require user tracking information such as which files were accessed and the times they were accessed.

1. Hold down the Windows key and press R.

2. Type regedit and click OK.

3. Click the plus sign next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER
then Software
then Microsoft
then CurrentVersion
then Policies
then click Explorer

4. Look for an entry on the right side for NoInstrumentation. If it doesn’t exist, you will need to create it. To do so, right-click on Explorer and select New > DWORD Value. Give the value a name of NoInstrumentation. Press the Enter key when you are done.

5. Right-click the NoInstrumentation entry and click Modify.

6. To disable user tracking set the Value data to 1.
Set the Value data to 0 to enable user tracking.

Configure Windows XP or Windows Vista to perform a boot defrag. All of the boot files will be organized on the hard drive together and the system will boot slightly faster.

1. Click Start > Run and type REGEDIT

2. Click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
then Software
then Microsoft
then Dfrg
then click BootOptimizeFunction

3. Double-click on Enable on the right side and change the value from N to Y.

4. Restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

A feature that gets often overlooked is the ability to limit the hours that a printer is available to users. Let’s say you don’t want Al in Accounting to be able to print out flyers for his party on the high quality color printer after hours. You can lock down your printer during certain hours in Windows XP and Windows Vista. You will of course need administrator rights to do this.

1. Click Start > Control Panel > Printer.

2. Right-click on the icon for your printer and select Properties.

3. Click on the Advanced tab.

4. Select the option for Available from and you can set the hours you would like to keep the printer available to other users.

5. Click OK when done.

Enable or disable the Windows XP feature that allows you to burn CD’s using this registry hack.

Disclaimer: Modifying the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. We cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the registry can be solved. Use the information provided at your own risk.

When you run IPCONFIG on a Windows XP computer, you may get the following error:

The system will need to be restarted after this is done.

How to disable the File Compression feature in Windows. These steps should work in Windows 2000, XP and Vista.

2. Type regedit and click OK.
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