Few trips for using a system with XP

1. Changing boot sequence

This is usually used when installing the OS from a cd or using a Live cd for Linux. When the system is booting press del (F2 also works in some systems). In the BIOS settings select the boot sequence and choose the first boot device as cd/dvd drive and restart the system. From the next time the system will boot from the cd/dvd drive.

2. Some ways to speed up booting process

Usually whenever a new program is installed it is associated with the startup so that it starts quicker when we open it. But it slows the startup time significatly. In order to avoid it goto Run. Type msconfig and press enter. In the Startup tab deselect the applications which you donot want to startup automatically. From the next time those will not start. Also keep your desktop free of clutter. If there are lot of icons in the desktop save them in a single folder.

3. Avoiding matlab and oracle to eat up memory

This option should be handled carefully because it may cause these applications not to start at all. Goto Administrative Tools in the control panel and select services. It contains a list of all the services present in the system. All oracle services start with the name ora. Mark all of them as manual startup. Similarly do the same for matlab and matlab server. These services usually take a lot of the system memory and hence this should speed up the system a lot.

4. Seeing system folders

Many operating system files and folders are by default hidden by windows. They are not visible even if the hidden files are made visible. To make them visible goto Tools->Folder options. Select the view tab and deselect the Hide Protected Operating system files. Now we can see all the folders and files in the system. This option doesnot have any use by itself but this is just for information.

5. Unknown File types

Windows usually hides the file types of most of the files. If we want to know their extensions as above select folder options and in view tab deselect Hide extensions of known file types. Now all the files appear with their extensions.

6. Autorun problem

For those who use the pen drives often they come across any of these problems.

a. When double clicked the device doesnot open.
b. Many folders go missing.

It is usually not a good habit to double click a pen drive. Its better to right click and go to explore it. This is to avoid the first problem. The problem is usually caused by an autorun.inf file which is capable of changing the default option of open into autoplay. Now how to remove this. Usually the inf file comes along with an exe file which is mostly a virus. To remove that follow the procedure given above to show oprating system files and we can see the autorun file. Open the file and check the file for any exes or scripts mentioned in it. Delete this file and the files mentioned from the pen drive.

Folders going missing and an exe created in their place is the most frustating problem. At the first sight we think they have been deleted but actually they are hidden as operating system files. First we have to delete the exe files. They are Trojans and can usually be detected by an antivirus scan. To retrieve the hidden files follow the procedure

In command prompt,
attrib -s -h -r foldername

Do this for all folders. You wil get your files.

7. Changing my documents location

Usually the C drive is always overloaded because the registry entries are saved in the C drive and also the temporary files. We can avoid overloading it by movint the location of My documents to another folder in the system. To do this, right click my documents from the start menu and select properties. There change the target to the folder you want as My documents.

8. Visual and performance settings

If your system has limited RAM and your visual settings are configured to be best then you are losing the system memory unnecessarily. To avoid it or to tweak those settings goto My Computer's properties and in Advanced Tab select Performance settings. There select Let windows choose what is best for my computer.

9. Ending unresponsive program

If a program stops responding and could not be closed, goto task manager by pressing Ctl+Alt+Del and select the unresponsive program and right click it. Select goto process. It will point to the corresponding process. Right click it and select end process tree.

10. Messengers

If you think yahoo and gtalk are taking a lot of system space, try the alternate means like signing into the mail. The new version of yahoomail supports IM and gmail also has the option. Further use sites like http://www.meebo.com and http://koolim.com/

11. Yahoo messenger

We can save all our chats in yahoo messenger to our system as dat files. If these are copied to another system in same location they can be read there also. To do this, goto preferences and in archive, select Save all of my messages.

12. Gtalk

Gtalk by default saves all the chats in gmail itself. To see them goto gmail and click the chats link below the inbox link.

13. Open a password protected Word file

To open a password protected text only MS-Word file, open it with Wordpad. The file will open.




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