Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) added the Security Center, which centralize most security-related functions to one control panel. By default, if it finds a problem it will start nagging you to fix it. For example, if you turned off automatic updates or it doesn't recognize your anti-virus application. Here is how to turn off this feature:

    * Open the Control Panel folder
    * Open the Security Center control panel
    * In the left pane, click the link labeled "Change the way Security Center alerts me"
    * Uncheck the item(s) that it's complaining about (i.e.: firewall, automatic updates, or virus protection)
    * Press the OK button.

When you install a new piece of hardware on your computer, you generally install a device driver that tells the OS how to access the new device. Later, if you remove the hardware from your system, the device drivers will still remain installed. These drivers will continue to be loaded even though they're not being used, and consume system resources.

To find and remove these unnecessary drivers follow the instructions below:

    * From the Start Menu, open the Control Panel folder.
    * Double-click the System control panel.
    * Click the Hardware tab, and press the 'Device Manager' button.
    * In the 'Device Manager' window, from the View menu, select 'Show Hidden Devices'.
  

There are times that you may need to disable a device driver for diagnostic or performance reasons. For example, if you think a device driver is preventing your computer from working properly, you can disable it to see if it fixes the problem. Also, by disabling unused drivers you may help decrease boot time of your computer because it doesn't have to load them.

To disable a device driver, follow the instructions below:

    * From the Start menu, right-click My Computer and select Properties.
    * Click the Hardware tab and press the 'Device Manager' button.
    * Expand the category that contains the device that you want to disable.
    * Right-click on the device and select Disable.

The taskbar by default will generally contain the Start button, the Quick Launch toolbar, and the Notification Area. You can customize the taskbar, with additional toolbars such as the: Address, Windows Media Player, Links, Language Bar, and Desktop.

To add a toolbars:

    * Right-click the Taskbar, and select Toolbars, then select the toolbar you want to add.

To remove a toolbars:

The Microsoft Windows Picture and Fax Viewer allows you to preview digital photos,
images, and faxes in the Windows Explorer or on the desktop. Sometimes, the file
associations (for .JPG, .GIF, .TIF, etc.) that is required to support this application
becomes damage or another application re-points it to itself.

If you want to restore the original functionality of the Windows Picture and Fax
Viewer then follow the steps below:

Sometimes when installing third party software, it may overwrite important operating system files. This can cause Windows or its applications to become unstable or fail altogether.

Windows includes a utility that can scan for problems, and replace the operating system files that may have been overwritten. This tool is called the 'System File Checker' (SFC), to access this tool follow the instructions below:

    * From the Start menu, select the Run... command
    * In the Run dialog box, type: "sfc /scannow" and press the Enter key.

Back in the DOS days you created environment variables to maintain certain settings on your system. These variables were used by applications to find files, and store information about you and your preferences.

These environment variables are still used by all versions of Windows for different reasons. To manage your these variables:

    * Right-click on My Computer
    * Select Properties from the drop down menu.
    * Click on the Advanced tab.
    * Press the 'Environment Variables' button.

Computer security has been a hot topic for a few years, and a good security practice is to lock your computer when you walk away from it. One of the quickest ways to lock your computer's screen is press the WinKey+L key (if your computer keyboard doesn't have the WinKey, then you can press the Ctrl-Alt-Del keys, then Enter). When you lock your computer's screen, you will be required to enter your log-on password to access your computer again (or have an administrator password).

In the previous tip, we talked about running your computer with a 'restrictive user account' that doesn't have administrator privileges. The only problem with running your computer this way, you will soon discover that there will be times that you need these rights to perform certain operations.

To do this, you can use the 'Run As' command, to perform administrator tasks even if you're logged in with a restrictive user account. To access this feature, right-click any program icon and select 'Run as...". A security dialog will display, click 'The following user' radio button, then enter the administrator usrename and password.

The Windows System Restore feature is designed to help you recover after a software installation failure or configuration changed that prevents your computer from booting. By default, new restore points are created after a system change, or every 24 hours. Also by default, the system restore points can consume up to 12% of the space on your hard drive.

To temporarily recover the used disk space, you can delete the system restore points from the Disk Cleanup utility.

If you have several open windows from the same or different applications cluttering up your display, you might want to consider using the cascading windows feature. This feature will automatically reorganize the open windows on your desktop so the are more accessable.

To tile all windows:
- Right-click an empty space on the Windows taskbar and select 'Tile Windows Horizontally' or 'Tile Windows Vertically'.

If an application error happens, a dialog box will display asking you if you want to send an error report to Microsoft. This can be really annoying, if you have the same problem over and over again.

If you don't want to use the error reporting utility, you can disable it altogether.

- Open the Control Panel.
- Open the System control panel.
- Select the Advanced tab.
- Press the 'Error Reporting' button.
- Select the 'Disable error reporting' radio button.
- Press the OK button (x2).

Did you know that by default, Windows allocates up to 10% percent of each
hard drive for files thrown into the Recycle Bin. If you have a large hard drive
that can be a lot of wasted space.
(ie: on a 100GB drive, that is 10GB of disk space).

With today's high capacity hard drive, you might want to consider setting this to
a lower value like 1% percent (on a 100GB drive, that is 1GB of disk space).
To change the size of the Recycle Bin:

The Netcraft has created an anti-phishing toolbar for Internet Explorer. The toolbar displays the operating system, web server software and country the web site is hosted in. This can help protect you against web sites are employing a form of URL spoofing.

URL spoofing is a technique commonly used in "phishing" attacks, in order to hide the real address of the web site your visiting. Phishing attack are fake web sites which are created to look like a real site that belong to of a legitimate company (such as a: bank or credit card company). These fake web sites that are designed in order to steal your personal and private data.

You can increase Windows XP's system performance by disabling different visual effects, such as: fade or slide menus, visual effects on buttons, slide open boxes, etc..

    * Right-click on My Computer, and select Properties.
    * Click the Advanced tab.
    * In the Performance section, press the Settings button.

From here you can adjust the performance by turning on and off individual visual effects, or by using pre-defined configurations by selecting one of the radio buttons.

Have you wanted to create your own toolbar in the taskbar or on your desktop. Windows will allow you to turn almost any folder into a toolbar, even special folders like the Control Panel. It is pretty easy, follow the instructions below to convert the Control Panel folder into a toolbar. This same procedure should also work on just about any other folder:

    * Minimize all your windows so that the desktop is exposed. (Press the WinKey+D)
    * Right-click on the Taskbar.
    * Scroll to Toolbars > 'New Toolbar...'.
    * In the dialog, select a folder (open 'My Computer', then select 'Control Panel').
    * Press the OK button to continue.
    * Click on the new toolbar in the Taskbar and drag it on of the edges of your monitor. It should automatically lock into place.

For: Windows XP Professional and Home Edition

When the Windows Explorer is launched, it opens the My Documents folder by default. To make Windows Explorer start in another folder, you can create a shortcut that causes it opens in a new location.

- Right-click on the desktop and select New > Shortcut.
- In the Location field type "explorer.exe /e,C:\", then press the 'Next >' button.
- Give your shortcut a new name, or accept the default, then press the Finish button.

For: Windows XP Professional and Home Edition

Before Windows XP SP2, in the Add or Remove Programs control panel the Microsoft updates that were applied to your system would show in here. This is great if want to see what patches were applied to your system. Although it was annoying if you had to scroll through the list trying to find the program that you wanted to remove, and accidentally removed a system patch or service pack.

In SP2 a new feature prevent the system updates from being displayed in the list by default. So if you want to see the system date you have enable this feature.

Microsoft offers several PowerToys for Windows XP as a free set add-on to enhance the operating system. Some of these are add-ons are more useful then others, for example Tweak UI allows you to modify certain aspects of the OS. Other add-ons Alt-Tab Replacement, are a little less useful in my opinion.

Note: These tools are unsupported by Microsoft, so if you have any problems you're on your own.

    * ClearType Tuner (New): Allows you to tune the ClearType technology to make it easier to read text on your screen.
    * HTML Slide Show Wizard (Updated): Creates an HTML slide show of your digital pictures, ready for your Web site.
    * Open Command Window Here: Provides a quick way to open a command window.
    * Alt-Tab Replacement: Displays the icon of the application window you are switching to, you will also see a preview of the page. This helps particularly when multiple sessions of an application are open.
    * Tweak UI: Grants you access to system settings that are not available in the Windows XP default user interface....

In Windows XP

1.Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2.Click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.
3.On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.
4.On the Advanced tab, under Virtual memory, click Change.
5.Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file that you want to change.
6.Under Paging file size for selected drive, click to Custom size check box. You can enter the amount of memory you would like to reserve for Virtual memory by entering the initial and maximum size.
7.Click Set
When you are prompted to restart the computer, click Yes.
Special Note: You should choose the same amount for the initial size and maximum size. This will Stop your CPU from constantly changing the paging file.

HOT TIP: To stop your CPU from constantly changing the paging file, set the initial and maximum size to the same value. For example, 500 and 500. The value should be at least 1.5 times more than your physical RAM. If your computer has 512MB of RAM increase the virtual memory paging file to 1.5*512= 768