Windows XP hidden Application

WINDOWS XP HIDDEN APPLICATIONS

1) Character Map = charmap.exe (very useful for finding unusual characters)

2) Disk Cleanup = cleanmgr.exe

3) Clipboard Viewer = clipbrd.exe (views contents of Windows clipboard)

4) Dr Watson = drwtsn32.exe (Troubleshooting tool)

5) DirectX diagnosis = dxdiag.exe (Diagnose & test DirectX, video & sound cards)

6) Private character editor = eudcedit.exe (allows creation or modification of characters)

7) IExpress Wizard = iexpress.exe (Create self-extracting / self-installing package)

8) Microsoft Synchronization Manager = mobsync.exe (appears to allow synchronization of files on the network for when working offline. Apparently undocumented).

9) Windows Media Player 5.1 = mplay32.exe (Retro version of Media Player, very basic).

10) ODBC Data Source Administrator = odbcad32.exe (something to do with databases)

11) Object Packager = packager.exe (to do with packaging objects for insertion in files, appears to have comprehensive help files).

12) System Monitor = perfmon.exe (very useful, highly configurable tool, tells you everything you ever wanted to know about any aspect of PC performance, for uber-geeks only )

13) Program Manager = progman.exe (Legacy Windows 3.x desktop shell).

14) Remote Access phone book = rasphone.exe (documentation is virtually non-existant).

15) Registry Editor = regedt32.exe [also regedit.exe] (for hacking the Windows Registry).

16) Network shared folder wizard = shrpubw.exe (creates shared folders on network).

17) File siganture verification tool = sigverif.exe

18) Volume Contro = sndvol32.exe (I've included this for those people that lose it from the System Notification area).

19) System Configuration Editor = sysedit.exe (modify System.ini & Win.ini just like in Win98! ).

20) Syskey = syskey.exe (Secures XP Account database - use with care, it's virtually undocumented but it appears to encrypt all passwords, I'm not sure of the full implications).

21) Microsoft Telnet Client = telnet.exe

22) Driver Verifier Manager = verifier.exe (seems to be a utility for monitoring the actions of drivers, might be useful for people having driver problems. Undocumented).

23) Windows for Workgroups Chat = winchat.exe (appears to be an old NT utility to allow chat sessions over a LAN, help files available).

24) System configuration = msconfig.exe (can use to control starup programs)

25) gpedit.msc used to manage group policies, and permissions

Increase XP folder Setting

Windows remembers 400 folder settings. When that number is reached some settings aren't retained any longer. You can change this to 8000 by adding this edit to the registry.

1. Copy the following (everything in the box) into notepdad.

QUOTE

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\BagMRU]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\Bags]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell]
"BagMRU Size"=dword:00001f40

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam]
"BagMRU Size"=dword:00001f40

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoSaveSettings"=dword:00000000

2. Save the file as folder8000.reg
3. Double click the file to import into your registry.

How to remove the Link folder in IE favourites

If you're one of the many people that NEVER use the "links" folder in your favorites and can't keep windows for re-creating it. Here's how:

[Start] [Run] [Regedit]

Registry Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Internet Explorer\ Toolbar

Modify/Create the Value Data Type(s) and Value Name(s) as detailed below.

Data Type: REG_SZ [String Value] // Value Name:

LinksFolderName

Value Data: [Set the String Value to a blank string]

Open Internet Explorer and manually delete the Links folder from Favorites Menu. The Links folder will not be recreated.
Exit Registry and Reboot.

How to make your own Radio Station

Must HAVE Winamp (Any Version):
First, things First your speed has to be at least 256/64 kbps (which means Dial-up users, will have alot of latency, just dnt bother)
Second, your going to have to have a domain, an updated one with the current i.p active. (Could be anything e.g. My sig)

Now, Your gonna have to download the Shoutcast Files.

Go to www.shoutcast.com to get the files.

Ok After downloading these, installing Both of them in any order i dnt care. Go to START>PROGRAM FILES>SHOUTcast DNAS>EDIT SHOUTCAST DNS CONFIG.

Ok your gonna have to Configure it:
Go Down and where it says password: change (that means your gonna have to change it to whatever, make sure u remember)
The Portbase: change it to whatever port you want it
Maxusers: (lets be realistic here, dnt put in 10000, like NXS's radio station) your bandwidth has to be extremely good, if your cable, 50 user max is ok, ADSL should stay below 10 users, and T1 connections should do whatever tickles there fantasy.

EDIT>SAVE.

Open winamp, RIGHT CLICK>OPTIONS>PREFRENCES>DSP EFFECT> and choose the NULLSOFT SHOUTCAST.

Go to OUTPUT, and then click on Connection, Through the ADDRESS, type your address which you have done through www.no-ip.com, PORT NUMBER, whatever u did in the EDIT.txt, and your password.

Then go to Encoder, and choose your quality of your music. Go back to OUTPU>OUTPUT CONFIG> YELLOW PAGES. this is your advertisemant information. dow hatever you like there.

Now Connect. to check that your Radio os on-line go to http://(your address that you added in the prefrence)

Create One-Click Shutdown and Reboot Shortcuts

First, create a shortcut on your desktop by right-clicking on the desktop, choosing New, and then choosing Shortcut. The Create Shortcut Wizard appears. In the box asking for the location of the shortcut, type shutdown. After you create the shortcut, double-clicking on it will shut down your PC.

But you can do much more with a shutdown shortcut than merely shut down your PC. You can add any combination of several switches to do extra duty, like this:

shutdown -r -t 01 -c "Rebooting your PC"
Double-clicking on that shortcut will reboot your PC after a one-second delay and display the message "Rebooting your PC." The shutdown command includes a variety of switches you can use to customize it. Table 1-3 lists all of them and describes their use.

I use this technique to create two shutdown shortcuts on my desktop—one for turning off my PC, and one for rebooting. Here are the ones I use:

shutdown -s -t 03 -c "Bye Bye m8!"
shutdown -r -t 03 -c "Ill be back m8 ;)!"

Switch
What it does

-s
Shuts down the PC.

-l
Logs off the current user.

-t nn
Indicates the duration of delay, in seconds, before performing the action.

-c "messagetext"
Displays a message in the System Shutdown window. A maximum of 127 characters can be used. The message must be enclosed in quotation marks.

-f
Forces any running applications to shut down.

-r
Reboots the PC.

Clear Unwanted Items From Add And Remove

Clear Unwanted Items From Add And Remove

Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT).
Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Uninstall,
and remove any unwanted subkeys under "Uninstall."

Change Your Ip In Less Then 1 Minute

How To: Change Your Ip In Less Then 1 Minute

1. Click on "Start" in the bottom left hand corner of screen
2. Click on "Run"
3. Type in "command" and hit ok

You should now be at an MSDOS prompt screen.

4. Type "ipconfig /release" just like that, and hit "enter"
5. Type "exit" and leave the prompt
6. Right-click on "Network Places" or "My Network Places" on your desktop.
7. Click on "properties"

You should now be on a screen with something titled "Local Area Connection", or something close to that, and, if you have a network hooked up, all of your other networks.

8. Right click on "Local Area Connection" and click "properties"
9. Double-click on the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" from the list under the "General" tab
10. Click on "Use the following IP address" under the "General" tab
11. Create an IP address (It doesn't matter what it is. I just type 1 and 2 until i fill the area up).
12. Press "Tab" and it should automatically fill in the "Subnet Mask" section with default numbers.
13. Hit the "Ok" button here
14. Hit the "Ok" button again

You should now be back to the "Local Area Connection" screen.

15. Right-click back on "Local Area Connection" and go to properties again.
16. Go back to the "TCP/IP" settings
17. This time, select "Obtain an IP address automatically"
tongue.gif 18. Hit "Ok"
19. Hit "Ok" again
20. You now have a new IP address

With a little practice, you can easily get this process down to 15 seconds.

P.S:
This only changes your dynamic IP address, not your ISP/IP address. If you plan on hacking a website with this trick be extremely careful, because if they try a little, they can trace it back

Change The Default Location For Installing Application

As the size of hardrives increase, more people are using partitions to seperate and store groups of files.

XP uses the C:\Program Files directory as the default base directory into which new programs are installed. However, you can change the default installation drive and/ or directory by using a Registry hack.

Run the Registry Editor (regedit)and go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

Look for the value named ProgramFilesDir. by default,this value will be C:\Program Files. Edit the value to any valid drive or folder and XP will use that new location as the default installation directory for new programs.

Optimize Boot Files

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Dfrg \ BootOptimizeFunction]

Under this key is a text value named Enable. A value of Y for this setting enables the boot files defragmenter.
This setting defragments the boot files and may move the boot files to the beginning (fastest) part of the partition, but that last statement is unverified.

Reboot after applying this tweak.

Windows Prefetcher

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management \ PrefetchParameters]

Under this key there is a setting called EnablePrefetcher, the default setting of which is 3. Increasing this number to 5 gives the prefetcher system more system resources to prefetch application data for faster load times. Depending on the number of boot processes you run on your computer, you may get benefits from settings up to 9.

However, I do not have any substantive research data on settings above 5 so I cannot verify the benefits of a higher setting. This setting also may effect the loading times of your most frequently launched applications. This setting will not take effect until after you reboot your system.

Browse the Network Faster

Browse the Network Faster

go to run->type "regedit"(without quotes)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace
Delete subkeys {2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D} and {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}
Speeds up network browsing of old Windows machines on the LAN by ignoring their scheduled tasks and printers




.

Registry Hack-Auto Sort Start Menu

Auto Sort Start Menu
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder
Go to Edit/Permissions,
click Advanced, clear the "Inherit From Parent" check box,
click Copy from the dialog box,
click OK and then clear the "Full Control" for your account and
now Windows will auto sort the start menu.

QoS tweak

QoS (Quality of Service) is a networking subsystem which is supposed to insure that the network runs properly. The problem with the system is that it eats up 20% of the total bandwidth of any networking service on the computer (including your internet connection). If you are running XP Professional, you can disable the bandwidth quota reserved for the system using the Group Policy Editor [gpedit.msc].

You can run the group policy editor from the Run command line.
To find the setting, expand "Local Computer Policy" and go to "Administrative Templates" under "Computer Configuration."
Then find the "Network" branch and select "QoS Packet Scheduler."
In the right hand box, double click on the "Limit Reservable Bandwidth." From within the Settings tab, enable the setting and then go into the "Bandwidth Limit %" and set it to 0%. The reason for this is that if you disable this setting, the computer defaults to 20%. This is true even when you aren't using QoS.

Windows Indexing Services

Windows Indexing Services

Windows Indexing Services creates a searchable database that makes system searches for words and files progress much faster – however, it takes an enormous amount of hard drive space as well as a significant amount of extra CPU cycles to maintain the system. Most users will want to disable this service to release the resources for use by the system.
To turn off indexing,
open My Computer and right click on the drive on which you wish to disable the Indexing Service.
Enter the drive's properties and under the general tab, untick the box for "Allow the Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching."

Free Ideal Task tweak

This tweak will free up processing time from any idle processes and allow it to be used by the foreground application. It is useful particularly if you are running a game or other 3D application.
Create a new shortcut to "Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks" and place it on your desktop. Double-click on it anytime you need all of your processing power, before opening the application.

Disable Thumbnail Cache

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced]
"DisableThumbnailCache"=dword:00000001



Windows XP has a neat feature for graphic and video files that creates a "thumbnail" of the image or first frame of the video and makes it into an oversized icon for the file. There are two ways that Explorer can do this, it can create them fresh each time you access the folder or it can load them from a thumbnail cache. The thumbnail caches on systems with a large number of image and video files can become staggeringly large.
To disable the Thumbnail Cache,
browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced
and find the DWORD "DisableThumbnailCache".
You may need to create this key. A setting of 1 is recommended for systems where the number of graphic and video files is large, and a setting of 0 is recommended for systems not concerned about hard drive space, as loading the files from the cache is significantly quicker than creating them from scratch each time a folder is accessed.

Disable User Tracking in windows

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer]
"NoInstrumentation"=dword:00000001

The user tracking system built into Windows XP is useless to 99% of users (there are very few uses for the information collected other than for a very nosy system admin), and it uses up precious resources to boot, so it makes sense to disable this "feature" of Windows XP.
To do so,
go to run
type->regedit
browse to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
and find the DWORD "NoInstrumentation".
You may need to create this key if it is not there. The default setting is 0, but setting it to 1 will disable most of the user tracking features of the system.

Auto End Tasks to Enable a Proper Shutdown

This reg file automatically ends tasks and timeouts that prevent programs from shutting down and clears the Paging File on Exit.

1. Copy the following (everything in the box) into notepad.


QUOTE
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
"ClearPageFileAtShutdown"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]
"AutoEndTasks"="1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control]
"WaitToKillServiceTimeout"="1000"


2. Save the file as shutdown.reg
3. Double click the file to import into your registry.

NOTE: If your anti-virus software warns you of a "malicious" script, this is normal if you have "Script Safe" or similar technology enabled.

20 Hidden XP Tips and Tricks

1. Total Uptime
Go to the Command Prompt and type in systeminfo The computer will produce a lot of useful info,including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type systeminfo >info.txt. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at laterwith Notepad.

2. Delete Files Immediately:
You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Open up Run and type gpedit.msc then select User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit willreveal a great many interface and system options, but take care — somemay stop your computer behaving as you wish.

3. Lock XP:
You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop and enter rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That’s it — just double click on itand your computer will be locked. And if that’s not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

4. Remove System Software:
XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as WindowsMessenger, but you can make it show everything. Using Notepad, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word hide and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be the software and you can now uninstall it.

5. Interesting New Commands:
For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include eventcreate and eventtriggers for creating and watching system events, typeperf formonitoring performance of various subsystems, and schtasks forhandling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by will give a list of options.

6. IP Version 6 Support:
XP has IP version 6 support — the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type ipv6 install into Run and then ipv6 at the command line to find out more.

7. Task Termination:
You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using taskkill /pid and the task number, or just tskill and the process number. Find that out by typing tasklist, which will also tell you a lot about what’s going on in your system.

8. ZIP Files as Folders:
XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you’ve got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files aloneby typing regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can change things back by typing regsvr32zipfldr.dll

9. XP Has ClearType:
XP has ClearType — Microsoft’s anti-aliasing font display technology —but doesn’t have it enabled by default. It’s well worth trying,especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring ata screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties > Appearance > Effects > select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

10. Remote Assistance:
You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who’s using networkaddress translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your friend’s real IP address — they can find this out by going to WhatIsMyIP.com - 208.97.139.12 — and get them to make sure that they’ve got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.

11. User Task Management:
You can run a program as a different user without logging out and backin again. Right click the icon, select Run As and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trickis particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have somefun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.

12. Disable Default Notifications:
Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might go insane before that point, run regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.

13. Faster Startup:
You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password.Select Run from the start menu and type control userpasswords2,which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box willappear; enter the user name and password for the account you want touse.

14. Delete Temp Internet Files Automatically:
Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools > Internet Options > Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

15. Network Activity Light:
XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can’t see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You’ll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.

16. Speed-Up Your Start Menu:
The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.

17. Batch Rename Files:
You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight aset of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. Allthe other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By… Show In Groups.

18. Album Cover Arts:
Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it playsthe tracks — if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn’t, or if you have lots of pre-WMPmusic files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows MediaPlayer will pick it up and display it.

19. Handy Shortcut Keys:
Windows key + Pause/Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.

20. Windows File Protection:
Windows XP secretly KNOWS that the average user has no idea what they are doing. Therefore, it doesn’t let you do really stupid things like deleting the windows directory (at least not without spending severalhours convincing it that you REALLY want to do this).

Change "Start" Button text in Windows XP

We all know that the "Start" button is one of the first things that a person starts to get familiar with whenever he/she encounters a computer. Now, after using computers for years, I've grown to be rather bored of the monosyllabic text on my "Start" button. Then, while I was browsing some sites, I stumbled upon an article regarding just how to do so.

Method 1
1. Download Start Button Caption, extract and run StartB.exe



2. Enter your specified name in the text box and press Change Start Button Name. As shown, there is an option to revert back to the default text.

Method 2
1. Get Start Button Renamer and install the.msi file.




2. Run Start Button Renamer and enter the intended text in the text box and select Click Here To Rename Start Button.

Note: Only the first 5 letters will be shown and will be displayed upon restart of Windows.

Image Sources: Softpedia

How to add your folder to 'send to' menu

Many a times we require a FOLDER too often, like to store our Multimedia files and all !!!

No no need to access the folder and carry out the traditional COPY & PASTE !!!

Just add it too "SEND TO" !!!

Do as follows :

-> Open any FOLDER.

-> Then, TOOLS >> Folder Options

-> Click view TAB.

-> In LIST of Advance Settings, click Show hidden files and folders !

-> Now, go to C:\Documents and Settings

-> Here, double click and open your (username) folder !

-> Now, open SendTo folder.

-> Here copy and paste the shortcut of your favorite folder.

Done !!!

Now, tranfer files to your favorite folder:

-Right Click the file
-Then, Send To
-Click the folder name

Ways to to make uTorrent or Bittorrent faster

Step 1: go Here to make the limit to 100.

Step 2: Open Bittorrent or uTorrent click Preferences for new torrents, Enable Local Peer Discovery, Enable Peer Exchange, Protocol Encrytion set to enabled and allow incoming legacy connections.

Step 3: Click Advanced and do this
bt.allow_same_ip True
bt.send_have_to_seed false
dht.rate 2
ipfilter.enable false
net.max_halfopen 100 please do not do this if you haven't patch it.
net.outgoing_port 50
net.wsaevents 150
peer.disconnect_inactive_interval 900
rss.update_interval 20

You are done!!

Turn Your Pc On in 10 Seconds

so u wanna know how to turn the pc on in 10 seconds Aight heres what u have to do to turn ur pc on in 10 seconds(tested on XP)

Click on the start button then press R it will take u to Run well go to run
n type Regedit
press enter
this will open Registery Editor
now look for the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex

now there find the Key Called
"Startup Delay"
Double Click On It
Now where its Base
Click Decimal
Now its Default Value Is 4800000
Change The Value To 40000
here u go u have done it
now close the Registery Editor and Restart Your Computer
You'll See The Result

How to fix corrupted windows files in XP

This tutorial has been made so people that are having problems with corrupted files, can learn how to fix them easy.

Requirement:

1. Windows XP CD

Now, follow this steps:

1. Place the xp cd in your cd/dvd drive
2. Go to start
3. run
4. type "sfc /scannow" (without ")

Now sit back and relax, it should all load and fix all your corrupted file on win XP.

Tips to Keep Windows XP Fast and Responsive

1. Install only necessary apps.
Installing every application you come across, trying them out for a few days and then uninstalling them is a bad idea. Install only the important applications, and then stay with it - do not uninstall. The reason is that more often than not, applications leave various files (temporary, shared etc.) even after uninstalling them. Over time, multiple install/uninstalls can lead to an unhealthy system with unnecessary bloat (and hence slowdown).

2. Install a good anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall.
Though the chances of being infected with malware is limited if you access only legitimate sites and downloads, it is still better to be on the safe side. Installing an anti-spyware is important, because spyware can simultaneously slow down your system and use internet bandwidth.

3. Defragment your harddrive.
Defragmenting hard drive is commonplace, and is advisable. However, the default defragmentation app on Windows defragmentation is very slow, so using a third-party tool is a good idea.

4. Use multiple partitions cleverly.
Using multiple partitions can improve data seek times significantly. Create partitions for operating system, program files (and use this partition as the location for all app installs), documents and media. Try to keep the partitions small in size, except for the media partition.

If you have more than one hard drive, use one of them for OS, and the other for other files (media, programs, My Documents etc.). This improves performance, and also increases the longevity of the hard drive on which the OS is located, since the data access is made for OS only.

5. Optimize page-file usage.
Windows controls the page-file usage by default, but performance can be improved by setting the limits manually. Go to Control Panel > System > Advanced, and click the settings button under Performance. In the Performance dialog box, click the Advanced tab. Click on the Change button under Virtual Memory. In the dialog box that comes up, click ‘Custom’ and set the value at 1.5 times that of your system RAM. For example, if your computer has 1GB RAM, enter 1536 (remember, 1 GB=1024 MB).

6. Control startup applications:
Startup items can plague your computer with slower startup times. The best way to improve boot times is to disable unnecessary startup programs. Unlike other tweaks mentioned in this post, this tweak will be different for everyone. Common apps to disable include Skype, Yahoo Messenger, iTunes etc. However, ensure that you do not disable antivirus, anti-spyware and firewall applications.

7. Ditch Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer renders pages poorly and gets a lot of flaming for it. However, an even more important aspect is security. Windows and Internet Explorer are tightly integrated. This means that any vulnerability in the browser can make the OS also vulnerable. Spyware attacks, phishing etc. are commonplace on IE. IE 7 is better in terms of security, but still has creases to iron out. A better idea would be to get a third-party browser - Firefox or Opera.

8. Disable unnecessary services
via Run -> Services.msc

9. Clear out unnecessary junk
Use cleaners like CCleaner.

10.Clean your registry.