1. Here are 5 Windows XP reinstallation tips that will save your bacon.

1. Download and save any hardware drivers you might need on a USB key or blank CD beforehand, so you can install them quickly when Windows XP has finished installing itself.

2. Make sure you've got any other driver discs and program CDs to hand before starting; there's nothing more frustrating than running around looking for that missing Microsoft Office CD.

3. Avoid using the quick NTFS formatting option as it doesn't thoroughly wipe the hard drive. The full length format results in a far cleaner drive and much improved performance.

4. Make sure you're got all the requisite logon details for your ISP before reinstalling Windows XP, so you can quickly get connected and use Windows Update later.

5. If you use Office 2003, you can back up your emails and contacts and save them on CD by clicking File And Backup. You can then import them into your new Windows XP installation once you're ready for them.

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2. Access Your System-Checking Tools Easily

You can find out a great deal of information about your computers, as well as accessing a number of handy system-checking tools by clicking Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information.

Work your way through the various categories to find out about the hardware and software you've installed. From the Tools menu you can access utilities to check your system, from ensuring that you have the correct versions of files, through testing DirectX to creating a System Restore point.

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3. Optimize The Paging File And Alter Settings

When the programs you are running have occupied all available RAM, Windows XP has to use a section of your hard drive as virtual memory. This is know as paging file and Windows can change its size as and when required.

You can configure virtual memory settings manually: right-click My Computer, select Properties and go to the Advanced tab. Click Settings, go to the Advanced tab and click Change. Select the Custom Size option and set the Initial Size and Maximum Size to twice the amount of RAM you have installed. Click Set, then OK.

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4. Use The System File Checker To Repair Files

If you're regularly encountering errors (such as warnings of missing DLL files or programs not loading) and you think that some part of Windows XP may be to blame, you can check your system files to make sure they're in good order.

Go to Start>Run and type in sfc /scannow. This will check all your crucial Windows system files to see if they've been edited or modified. If they have, it should be able to replace them with backups, but if it can't find them on your hard drive then it will need to copy them from your Windows XP CD.

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5. Quick Access To The Device Manager

If you are having problems configuring a piece of hardware. The Device Manager section of System Properties is the place to go to, and as driver installation usually requires frequent rebooting you'll be spending a lot of time opening it up.

Accessing it in the usual way is quite a long winded process, so you may want to save yourself time by creating a new desktop shortcut pointing to 'devmgmt.msc'. If you do a lot of tinkering with your PC, you can drag it into the Start menu or the Quick Launch bar so it's always easily available.

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6. Repair Your Windows XP Installation

If you find that your Windows XP is suffering from poor performance or random crashes, don't immediately assume that your need to reinstall everything from scratch. You may well discover that a repair installation will solve all your problems.

To do this, you need to restart your computer with the Widows XP installation CD inserted, press F8 when the license agreement is shown and then press R. The setup routine will continue in the normal way, and any of your files that have become corrupt will be automatically replaced.

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7. Analyze Your PC's Recurring System Problems

Should your computer suffer from frequent recurring system errors it is possible to find out what the cause of the problem is.

Whenever an error occurs, Windows XP keeps a record of what has happened in a log file. In order to discover what's been happening to your machine, you should click on Start > Run and then type "eventvwr.msc". Any errors that have been encountered will be clearly listed, and you can view more details by simply double clicking on an entry that you're particularly interested it.

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8. Speed Up File Performance In XP

Here is a no-cost suggestion. Assuming you're using NTFS on your Win2000 or WinXP system, you can speed things up a bit by disabling one NTFS capability, namely, the ability to always keep the directory's last access time up-to date.

Whenever you access a directory or make a change to a file in a directory, the file system updates a time stamp at the directory level that notes the time and date you accessed the di­rectory or file. Eliminating this time stamp will reduce the overhead associated with accessing a file or folder.

On the down side, it can cause problems with applications that make use of the time stamp, such as some backup programs and data synchronizing applications. We rec­ommend making this change to your system only if you must have the best possible perfor­mance, and you're willing to make the trade-off.

To disable the last access time stamp, you will need to edit the Windows Registry. Click Start and select Run. In the Run dialog box, type regedit and click OK or press ENTER. Select the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\CON­TROL \FILESYSTEM. Right-click a blank area in the right pane and select New and DWORD Value from the pop-up menu. A new DWORD Value will appear, with its default name high­lighted.

Type NTFSDisableLastAccessUpdate and press ENTER. Right-click the NTFSDisableLastAccessUpdate DWORD you just created and select Modify from the pop-up menu. Set the Value Data to I, make sure Hexadecimal is selected under Base, and click OK. To exit Regedit, click File and select Exit.

The change will take effect right away. You may not notice much difference, but file system performance will improve because there will be fewer file structure writes for every directory or file access that occurs.

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9. Speed up XP's menu display

When using the start menu you'll notice a delay between different tiers of the menu hierarchy. For the fastest computer experience possible I recommend...changing this value to zero. This will allow the different tiers to appear instantly.

1. Start Regedit. Click Start, and then click Run >
> Type regedit in the Open box, and then press ENTER.

2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

3. Select MenuShowDelay from the list on the right.

4. Right Click on it and select Modify.

5. Change the value to 0

6. Reboot your computer.

Note: A setting of zero (0) is virtually instantaneous - experiment with other settings (200 or 300 or 400 perhaps) to see what you are most comfortable with.

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10. Crash And Freeze Avoidance In Windows XP

Windows XP has a high tolerance and is very forgiving. However, you can test its limits if you regularly have a lot of folder windows open you may find that Windows crashes or freezes when you switch between folders.

Here's the fix

This is due to the way Windows manages RAM memory; each open folder is allocated the same amount of memory, whether it needs it or not. This isn’t very efficient it puts a big stain on the CPU and memory resources when you switch between folders.

You can reduce the chances of a crash by changing the way Windows handles these processes.

Go to Folder Options in Control Panel and select the View tab. In the Advanced settings window scroll down the list and check the item ‘Launch folder windows in a separate process’. Click OK and it’s done.

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11. Restoring the Windows XP Registry

Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on your computer.

To open Registry Editor, click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

1. Choosing Last Known Good Configuration provides a way to recover from problems such as a newly added driver that may be incorrect for your hardware. It does not solve problems caused by corrupted or missing drivers or files.

2. When you choose Last Known Good Configuration, Windows restores information in registry key HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet only. Any changes you have made in other registry keys remain.

===========================================================

To restore the registry

1. Open Registry Editor

2. Click Options, and then click here to print these instructions. (If you are using the Help and Support Center, click Print above the topic area.) They will not be available after you shut down your computer in step 2.

3. Click Start, and then click Shut Down.

4. In the list, click Restart, and then click OK.

5. When you see the message Please select the operating system to start, press F8.

6. Use the arrow keys to highlight Last Known Good Configuration, and then press ENTER.

NUM LOCK must be off before the arrow keys on the numeric keypad will function.

7. Use the arrow keys to highlight an operating system, and then press ENTER.

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12. Enable Auto-Logon in Windows Vista (Warning: Security Risk)

1. Click Start and type ‘netplwiz’ or click that name on the Start menu
2. In the GUI window that comes up, uncheck the “Users must enter a username and password to use this computer” box
3. Click ‘Apply’
4. In the new dialog box that opens type the name of the account you want to auto-logon by default (if the account is not normally pass word protected then it is blank)
5. Click OK and exit.

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1. Start > run = “regedit”
2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced
3. Set “ShowInfoTip”=dword:00000000
4. Exit and reboot

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14. Delete The Hibernate File in Vista.

When you use hibernate in Windows Vista, it creates a file called hiberfil.sys. This file can grow rather large and you may want to remove it. A simple way to delete it:
1. Log on as the Administrator.
2. Start Command Prompt then type: powercfg -h off.
3. Hit enter.
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15. Enable Hidden BootScreen in Windows Vista.

The Windows Vista BootScreen is pointless, but Microsoft decided to hide a more visually appealing boot screen that can easily be enabled with very little trouble. I’m not sure why they didn’t make the boot screen better.

1. Press Win+R, type msconfig and press Enter.

2. If User Account Control prompts you to allow the action, click on Continue.

3. In the "System Configuration" window, click on the Boot tab.

4. Select your Windows Vista installation and under "Boot options", check "No GUI boot". Press OK.

5. In the dialog that appears, check "Don’t show this message again", and then click on Restart.

6. Your computer will now reboot, and you will see the Aurora boot screen with text that says "Starting Windows Vista".

Note: You may get a Windows Defender error on the next startup. You can enable the system config utility using the tray icon and this error will go away.

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