Our Favorite Tweaks

[Perris Calderon]

the following is a standard, but I think you should personalize the settings, and not just go for "best performance"

windows key+puase

in the window that pops up, under performance, hit settings, visual affects, custom

now, there is no need to adjust for best performance, pick and choose what you like, disable the rest...you will still have all the xp candy that you like, with performance to boot.

I disable everything but;

shadows under menues
shadows under pointer
slide open combo boxes
smooth edges of screen fonts
use common tasks in folders
use drop shadows for icon labels on desktop

those are my checks

experiment and find a balance between performance and appearance that suits your taste

 

[desie]

Ah sweet I'm going to try some of this tonight on my windows 2000 pro PC. Looks awsome some of these speed tweaks.

 

[Perris Calderon]

gonna dispell one of the more popular "tweaks"

on just about every site, you'll see a suggestion that it's a good security idea to clear the pagefile on shutdown of your computer

first, I"ll tell you what this tweak used to do.

it's a security tool that microsft wrote to over write your pagefile with zeros...this is an effort at makling the pagefile harder to hack if someone has gotten into your sysem.

first, the security measure does not do anything...most of you know, a data is recoverable even when it's overwritten...a single pass of zeros cannot possibly make the pagefile harder to hacl...anyone that knows how to get into your pagefile and read the contents of course knows how to overcome a simple overwrite of zeros.

second, this overwrite takes a good deal of time, and your computer will take a long time to turn itself off

and third, there is no performance gain, as the contents of the pagefile are ignored on every boot...in eccence, the pagefile is deleted as far as the os is concerned, and this utility is a security measure not a performance measure

in other words, it's a useless utility, it should be removed from the code...don't bother with it

 

[Perris Calderon]

On XP the Max Cached Icons is set too low, and you'll notice the icons rebuilding too often...you should fix this

windows key plus run paste:

regedit

navigate

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/currentversion/Explorer

In the right window, double click Max Cached Icons,
type the value 8192
then reboot
You should see a big speed boost icon load, and opening folders.

NOTE : If the value is not there, you can create very easily:

go to the location I just posted, then right-click an empty space in the right window and « new » > « string value »
For the name, type : Max Cached Icons
then double-click it and enter the value 8192

 

[chaos945]

Remove Context Entries

Doing a good job everyone, here is one of my own.

Snapping finally after looking at annoying context menus for months, I went looking in the registry and the entry to modify them was right there....

If you want to remove, context menus edit them from the following branch in your registry editor.

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\]

Note also the * designates this to be the list of context menus to be displayed with ALL file extensions, I wish I had noticed how stupidly simple it was earlier.

/edit
The context menus are stored under the following branch for Directories!

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\]

 

[B~B]

Is this is the right place to ask how to remove the list of 'past items' from the task bar icons. Not just 'hide when inactive' etc, but remove them altogether.
Cheers

 

[Perris Calderon]

I don't know where they're stored, but in the mean time, more then hide when inactive, you can hide altogether

right click the bar, properties, then click hide inactive, then hit customize

then there'll be a scroll down on each individual icon. hit always hide

 

[B~B]

Yup, I do that, but I know there's a way to totally remove them, but I cant remember how.

 

[chaos945]

To remove RUN items at startup

Yup, I do that, but I know there's a way to totally remove them, but I cant remember how.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\]

I think this is what you want?

 

[Khayman]

Is this is the right place to ask how to remove the list of 'past items' from the task bar icons. Not just 'hide when inactive' etc, but remove them altogether.
Cheers

might want to also check out this thread
http://www.ntfs.org/forum/showthread.php?t=497

 

[B~B]

Sorted.......... Thanks all

 

[freightgod]

Open up your volume control panel. Type CTRL-s. See.

[dealer edit] audio control panel [/dealer edit]

 

[Perris Calderon]

fright god...what was that tweak you had that made the volume control smaller?

 

[freightgod]

fright god...what was that tweak you had that made the volume control smaller?

um, that was it,

 

[chaos945]

Open up your volume control panel. Type CTRL-s. See.

I was very confused for a bit there, then I realized what control panel it was.

Screenshots below for those of you still struggling....

 

[Perris Calderon]

um, that was it,

yup...I didn't realize you meant the audio control panel

sorry

I added audio control panel to your post...hope you don't mind

 

[Perris Calderon]

frightgod...great to see you...glad to see you made it back after our crash

welcome back

 

[Perris Calderon]

very important to categorize your favorites and book marks into folders

just right click in the tree, hit "create a new folder"

drag all like favs into the respective folders, tech, family, work, etc

very important tip here, do not name your "ahem" educational sites "porn"

otherwise, use your best judgment

 

[chaos945]

Speaking of Favourites, if you want to change the folder they are stored in modify the following:

Internet Explorer:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders]
"Favorites"="C:\\Favorites"  [COLOR=Teal]<<<< this is the path[/COLOR]

Mozilla Firebird:
Download the following plugin: Bookmark Backup

 

[Perris Calderon]

if you use the run box a bunch, you're gonna love this

right click on your task bar at the bottom of your screen, put a check next to "address"

ha...address from this box is also "run"

you probably want to make it as small as possible so as not to clutter up your taskbar, so just unlock the taskbar, make it as small as possible, lock it up