Edit your link (Short Cut) to start Internet Explorer to have -nohome after it. For Example:

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" -nohome
This will load internet explorer very fast because it does not load a webpage while it is loading. If you want to go to your homepage after it is loaded, just click on the home button.

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Have you ever wondered about your system's available physical memory, processor speed, or BIOS and wished you could access all this data in one place without having to hunt and peck through your operating system? In Windows XP, this information and a whole lot more is readily available for you in the System Information utility.

To access the System Information utility, click the Start button and choose All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | System Information. Once System Information is up and running, the right pane display many items of interest pertaining to your PC's hardware data.

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If you're on a network that's patched directly to the Internet, you probably keep Internet Explorer minimized on your taskbar all day long so you can quickly and easily access the Web when you need something. However, the whole time that Internet Explorer is running in the background, it's using valuable system resources that could be put to better use enhancing the performance of other tasks, such as calculating spreadsheet formulas in Excel.

A better solution to quickly accessing the Internet is to create an Address toolbar. You can do this by right-clicking on the taskbar and choosing Toolbars | Address from the context menu. Then, move the Address toolbar to the top of your desktop and configure it to use the Auto Hide and Always On Top features. Now, when you need to access the Internet, just move your cursor to the top of the screen and when the Address toolbar appears, type in the address. When you do, Internet Explorer launches and connects to the requested site.

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As you know, using the Run dialog box to quickly launch certain applications or utilities can come in handy in a number of situations. For example, suppose you regularly use the Run dialog box to open a command prompt by typing Cmd in the Open text box.

You can access the Run dialog box by clicking the Start button and then clicking Run, or by pressing [Windows]R. However, both of these methods require two steps to open the Run dialog box. Wouldn't it be nice if you could access the Run dialog box with a single click?

You can create a shortcut to the Run command. Simply select the Run command on the Start menu, and drag it to the Quick Launch toolbar. The new shortcut uses the same icon, so it's easy to identify.

However, the shortcut's name will be &Run..., which you'll see in a popup when you hover your mouse pointer over the shortcut. These extra characters come from the Start menu command configuration.

In this case, the ampersand character signifies that the R is underlined and acts as the hotkey. The ellipsis signifies that accessing the Run command from the Start menu opens a secondary dialog box.

You can rename the shortcut to something more appropriate, such as Run Command, by right-clicking the shortcut and selecting Rename.

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To share the printer.

1. Click Start, Settings, Control Panel, and Printers and Other Hardware.
2. Open the Printers and Faxes folder. You should see every printer installed on the PC.
3. Select the printer you want to share.
4. Click Printer Tasks in the left window.
5. Choose Share this Printer.
6. Give your printer a unique name, preferably something easy to remember.
7. Click OK.

Now you need to add the printer to other machines that will use the printer.

1. Navigate to the Printer folder.
2. Click Add a New Printer.
3. Select Network Printer instead of Local Printer.
4. Locate the correct printer on the network.
5. Click OK.
6. Run a Windows printer test to make sure everything works.

You now have access to the networked printer on the Windows XP machine. Remember, the Windows XP machine must remain on at all times in order to use the printer.

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You already have a Shared Documents folder in the root of My Computer. The easiest thing to do is put stuff you want to share in this folder.

Here's what to do if you want to share a different folder.

1. Right-click the folder you want to share and click Properties.
2. Go to the Sharing tab.
3. Either tell it you understand the risks, or walk through the wizard explaining the risks.
4. Select to "Share this folder on the network."
5. Only select "Allow users to share your files" if your Wi-Fi security is enabled.
6. Click OK.
When you open your Network Places, you'll see the shared folder and get prompted to log in.

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Outlook and Outlook Express have similar Import/Export options. Here's what you do in Outlook.

1. Click File.
2. Choose Import/Export.
3. Select Export to a File.
4. Select which folders you want to export.
5. Choose to include subfolders.
6. Select a new location to save your file.
7. Choose to replace duplicate items when exported.
8. It may ask you if you want to encrypt your information. If you're only transferring information to another computer in your home, you don't need to encrypt.
9. Save your new file to a floppy or burn it to CD.
On your other computer, insert your disc and launch Outlook's Import/Export wizard again, choosing to Import your file.

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1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click System Restore.
2. Click to add a check mark beside Turn off System Restore on all Drives, and click Apply.
3. When you are warned that all existing Restore Points will be deleted, click Yes to continue.

All system restore points are deleted. Now you should manually create a restore point.

1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click System Restore.
2. Click Create a Restore Point, and then click Next.
3. Name your restore point. ( I use the date as well as a descriptive term such as "New Restore Point.")

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Print jobs occasionally become jammed in the print queue. You can see the print job in the queue by going to Start | Printers And Faxes and double-clicking the appropriate printer. While the queue lists Printing as the status, the job never prints, and other print jobs begin to stack up behind it.

If you cancel the jammed print job, the Status column indicates that you've deleted it. However, it never completes the delete operation, and the jammed print job remains right where it is.

When you encounter a jammed print job, your first instinct may be to reboot the system, which will flush the jammed print job from the queue. But there's an easier way.

Follow these steps:

1. Open Control Panel, and double-click Administrative Tools.
2. Double-click Services.
3. Scroll through the list of running services, and select the Print Spooler service.
4. Click the Stop Service button on the toolbar.
5. After waiting a moment, click the Start button on the toolbar.
6. Close Services, and close Administrative Tools.

When you return to the print queue, the jammed print job should no longer be there. If it is, you should now be able to delete it normally. Keep in mind that you may have to manually update the queue by selecting Refresh from the View menu.

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If there are specific Web sites you want to prevent users from accessing, you could use Internet Explorer's Content Advisor or invest in a third-party solution to block access. But you can also block access to specific Web sites using the Route command to modify the route table.

When you type an Internet address into the browser, Windows XP uses the local route table as a network map to determine where to send the packet. In most cases, the route table directs the packet to the gateway, which then sends it out to the Internet.

However, you can configure the route table to send packets addressed to a certain Web site to a dead end. The result makes it appear as if the site doesn't exist.

To begin, you need the IP address of the Web site to which you want to block access. You also need an unassigned IP address within your local subnet that isn't in use by any computer or device.

For example, let's say that the IP address you want to block is 100.100.100.100, and an IP address on your local subnet that isn't in use is 192.168.100.51. Modify the route table with the following command:

Route -p add 100.100.100.100 mask 255.255.255.255 192.168.100.51

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1. Click Start and choose Control Panel. Click Appearances and Themes.
2. Click Display and go to the Appearance tab.
3. Select a new scheme from the Color Scheme drop-down menu.
4. Click OK.
To create your own scheme, play with the Appearance items. Get everything just how you like it and save it as a Color Scheme.

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Problems that you're troubleshooting in Windows XP often originate in the boot process. As such, one of your key troubleshooting techniques should be to create a boot log. Creating such a log is a relatively easy process. 

Follow these steps: 

1. Restart the system. 
2. When the operating system begins to load, press [F8] 
3. Select the Enable Boot Logging option from the Windows Advanced menu, and press [Enter]. 

After the system restarts, launch Notepad, and open the C:\Windows\Ntbtlog.txt file. This file contains a list of all of the files that Windows XP attempted to load during startup. 

Every line in the file will begin with either "Loaded driver" or "Did not load driver," which makes it easy to determine what drivers or services could be causing the problem. In either case, the path and filename of the driver or service will follow.

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13. Schedule a Task to Defragment Drives In XP!

Defragmenting drives is an important part of maintaining a smoothly running computer. Users upgrading from Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows ME may be used to scheduling a task to defragment drives. Here's how to do the same thing in Windows XP:

1. Open Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click Scheduled Tasks.
2. Double click Add Scheduled Task to open the Scheduled Task Wizard, and then click Next.
3. Click Browse, navigate to the %systemroot%\system32 folder, select defrag.exe, and click Open.
4. Use the wizard to set a schedule for when to run the defragmentation program, and be sure to supply a password for the account on which you want the task to run.
5. Check the box for Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish.
6. On the Run line, add the drive letter for the drive to be defragged. For example, %SystemRoot%\System32\Defrag.exe %HomeDrive%

Now the defragmenting task will be run according to your schedule.

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Here's how to launch the Forgotten Password Wizard to create your very own password recovery disk.

1. Click Start menu, Control Panel, and User Accounts.
2. Click your user account name.
3. Under Related Tasks on the left, click "Prevent forgotten password" to launch the wizard.

Now that you've launched the wizard, let it walk you through creating the recovery disk. Make sure the disk you use is formatted and in the drive. After it's finished creating the disk, label it and stash it away for an emergency.

If you happen to forget your password, all you need to do is click your user icon at the logon screen. Even though you don't have your password, go ahead and click the green arrow just like you would to finish logging on to your computer. This will launch a little yellow dialog box directing you to use your password recovery disk.

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If you manage a large network with many computers that you've configured to share resources on the network, quickly locating a specific computer can easily become a time-consuming and aggravating task. It can be quite a pain to open My Network Places and scan through a huge list of computers every time you just need to find one computer that you want to access.

However, there's an easier way to locate computers on a network. Follow these steps:

1. Right-click My Network Places, and select Search For Computers.
2. When the Search utility appears, enter the name of the system you want to find in the Computer Name text box, and click the Search button.

Windows XP will quickly return the computer you want to access. Best of all, XP will save the computer name in the history list. The next time you need to access the same computer, you can just enter a few letters of the name and select it from the drop-down list.

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