Windows XP/Printable version

Windows XP

Windows XP is a free content online book published on English Wikibooks.

 

 

Customizing

1. Changing The Wallpaper
2. Add a Screensaver
3. Changing The Logon Screen
4. Changing the Look
5. Changing Fonts to Display Other Languages

 

Changing The Wallpaper

Commonly referred to as a background image, changing the desktop wallpaper on your personal computer is one of the first and easiest ways to personalize your PC. You may choose one of the attractive images that are bundled with Windows, you may download an image from the Web, or you may select a digital image from a camera. Almost any image on your computer or the internet may be tiled, centered, or stretched to fit your desktop, so possibilities are endless!

To choose one of the background images (wallpapers) that come with Windows:

1. Right-click on the desktop.
2. Click on Properties.
3. On the new window that appears, select the Desktop tab.
4. In the scrolling list labeled Background:, select any image.
5. Click OK.

To choose another image that you have saved onto your computer:

1. Right-click on the desktop.
2. Click on Properties.
3. On the new window that appears, select the Desktop tab.
4. To the right of the scrolling list labeled Background:, click on Browse....
5. In the new window that appears, go to the image you want as your background, and click Open.
6. Click OK.

To choose an image from the Internet without saving it first:

1. Right-click on the image you want as your wallpaper.
2. Click on Set as Wallpaper.
3. Click Set Wallpaper.

Note: The drop-down menu labeled Position: will change the image from Tiled, Centered, or Stretched across the screen. The menu labeled Color: will change the color behind the background image.

To automatically cycle your wallpaper:

If you change your wallpaper frequently, you may want to consider downloading an extra free program. There are many free automatic wallpaper changers available on the Internet; try searching Wallpaper Changer.

Here are a few wallpaper changers that are currently available for free.

• http://www.wallpaperchanger.de/ loaded with features and options.
• http://www.tropicalwares.com/wallmast.html the free version of WallMaster Pro.
• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ce1d596b-6851-4948-ab76-b5ff22d37d69&DisplayLang=en the genuine Windows version

 

Add a Screensaver

Adding a Pre-made Screensaver

You can simply use the screensavers Windows XP comes bundled with, if you wish. To use one of these screensavers, follow these steps:

1. Go to the desktop.
2. Right click and select "Properties" from the menu.
3. A window should appear.
4. Click on the "Screen Saver" tab at the top.
5. Click on the drop-down menu.
6. Pick a screensaver!

NOTE: If you want to edit something about the screensaver, click the settings button.

Making Your Own Screensaver

Want to make your own screensaver? Ok. This is very easy with the amount of free tools out there. I would recommend:

• 3D Screen Creator - Create your own 3D screensavers.
• Screensaver Tools - A list of free tools.

 

Changing The Logon Screen

Changing the XP Logon Screen

See http://www.updatexp.com/tip12.html.

 

Changing the Look

The Properties Dialog

You can change the basic colors of the title bars and windows. Right-click an empty area of the desktop and choose 'Properties'. A dialog will appear with several tabs. Choose the 'Appearance' tab. You will see a preview of your current theme. Clicking on areas of the preview will let you change the colors, fonts and sizes.

Changing the Title Bar

Click an active Title Bar on the preview (Light/Dark blue by default). You will be presented with controls that let you change the colors, change the font and font color, whether the font is bold of italic and the overall size. Customize these settings until you have a theme you like, and click 'Apply'. Clicking other areas of the preview change other settings - just experiment!

 

Changing Fonts to Display Other Languages

If you have an English version of Windows XP and are having problems working with non western fonts this article is for you.

Problem: You want to read and write for example in an Eastern European language but the non-western letters are displaying on the screen incorrectly.

Why this happens is because Windows picks a default language page code for non-unicode programs. Your default is probably some version of English.

The program you're using is a little dumb, it wasn't written to be used in environments outside of its locale, it's not checking to see if it's using the right font version. So you need to change the default page code for non-unicode applications.

1. Go to control panel and select regional settings.
2. Select the advanced tab.

It has a drop down box which probably says English, this needs to change to your desired language. In my case this was Polish.

If it's not an option, you might need to change the input method to Polish too; on a Polish keyboard you can change this back to default to an English layout. Once this has been changed, applied and okayed you probably need to restart Windows.

Try your program and hopefully this time your desired languages letters should be shown instead of the random symbols found in the western version of the font.

For writing in the desired language use the language bar to swap between keyboard layouts. Substitute your desired language for Polish in this article.

 

Securing

1. Security Fundamentals
2. Backups
3. Practical Steps
4. Security Software
5. End of Support

 

Security Fundamentals

What is computer security? And why should I care?

Computer security is the control of access to resources and the steps taken to achieve this.

Why do I need it?

This book will not delve into the sociological reasons for computer security but will touch on practical reasons by example. Pretend that someone called Joe buys a personal computer to use the Internet on and the concept of computer security does not exist. Any time Joe connects to the Internet, everybody else using the Internet at the same time would have total access to Joe's computer not only severely compromising Joe's privacy but also risking the working integrity of his computer.

In short if you either care at all about your computer working or any data you enter into it you need your computer to be as secure as possible.

Users

In Windows XP in order to use the operating system you must login as a user. Each user has information stored in a database (SAM). For each user the database must store a username, a password and at least one group. With these two pieces of information one can login to the operating system.

Permissions

Permissions define what resources may be accessed through Windows. Even for the most trivial tasks Windows XP requires access to computer resources. These resources are defined as "objects" and it is these "objects" that Windows XP screens access for. Common examples of objects include a file on a hard disk or the ability to add new users. Access to these objects is restricted to certain users or groups. Every time a user requests a resource or tries to perform an action Windows checks the ACL (Access Control Lists) to see if that particular user is allowed to, if for example the user is not allowed, access will be denied. Permissions are a fundamental concept in Windows XP and almost every other operating system.

 

Backups

Hardware eventually breaks down, like many other things. What matters is that your files survive the ordeal.

Making manual backups of your data is rather tedious, so we would just postpone the hassle... until Murphy strikes. A catastrophic event (a power spike, fire, spilling coffee on your keyboard?) or normal wear and tear will lead to losing several years of work. Maybe you were also in the middle of something and needed the data.

Beware of clacking noises from the hard disk during seeks (a tell-tale sign that the drive's controller is failing). One day your system may just not start because the boot sector has become unreadable.

Recovery should still be possible - after all, data has been recovered from drives destroyed by fire - but may be very expensive. If your data is of value to you store a copy on persistent media and avoid the grief.

If you find yourself in this situation, note that usually technicians' first move is to connect the drive to another disk and attempt a low-level data transferral using a specific (software) recovery tool.

The most efficient software for direct disk editing and recovery is WinHex(commercial product), it can edit the hard disk directly, make images of it, and recover files.

The other way is to make the image and edit it with your favorite hex-editor. An image can be made with SelfImage, an easy to use open-source utility.

CD/DVD-ROMs are a good choice for the home user (choose a good quality brand [Verbatim?] to avoid mischief like the CD's coating flaking off). A DVD is several Gigabytes worth but takes a long time to burn (each session must write at least 1GB of data; less than that will be padded with dummy values). Ah - you also need a DVD recorder ([some/all?] models can burn CDs too).

If you want to avoid "wasting" CD storage space you can use a few rewritable (RW) CD/DVDs for "minor" backup sessions and then make a contiguous copy on a write-once (R) medium.

• Disk imaging versus file backup?

A disk image is a snapshot of the filesystem's state, preserving file positions too. Frequently used with OEM PCs to restore a bundled Windows installation customized by the manufacturer (Note: you appear to get bundled software for free but it actually forms part of the retail price; if you want to use a Linux-like system try to return Windows and get refunded [how?]).

After creating a "master" image you can save "diffs" (changes to the file system) that usually take much less space. However defragmenting your files will change their positions on disk, so this

• What about tape/Zip drives (are they obsolete? if not state capacity & speed of both)
• Windows XP Professional has a backup utility. Is it usable/useful? What about XP Home edition? Any good (possibly open-source) third-party sw?

 

Practical Steps

Provide Physical Security for the machine

This is self-evident. To prevent people from using your computer(s), deny them physical access. If you want to limit or monitor computer usage, physically monitor what they are doing with your computer! These simple steps alone can reduce a large number of potential threats.

Disable or Delete Unnecessary Users

Disable any accounts that are not used. For example always disable the Guest account (disabled by default on brand new computers or a "fresh" Windows XP install).

There are two ways to disable a user in Windows XP.

(a) Start >> Settings >> Control Panel [the control panel window should appear] >> User Accounts [the User Accounts window should appear] in the User accounts window there are two headings: "Pick a Task..." and "or pick an account to change". If you select the user you want to disable under "pick an account to change" new links will appear. Choose "Turn off the [username] account".

(b) Start >> Run... >> Enter "lusrmgr.msc" >> Click "Users" >> Double-click the user you want to disable, check the "Account is Disabled" box and click "Ok".

Additionally it may well be worth renaming the "Administrator" account as this may be targeted in any attempt to breach security or run/install programs. There are two methods.

XP Home Edition	XP Professional Edition
At a command prompt type control userpasswords2. Select Administrator and click on Properties. Change the user name, NOT the full name.	Type secpol.msc at a command prompt Open Local Policies/Security Options In the details pane, double click Accounts: Rename Administrator Account Type the new name for the account

Remove Unnecessary Windows Services

A service is a privileged program that is loaded on startup and provides some low-level functionality in the background. It can be started and stopped on request (via the Control Panel >> Administrative tools >> Services window).

Unneeded Windows services use up a (small) amount of resources, but may also cause problems. For example, if you do not use TELNET you can disable the service so as to deny other people an opportunity to remotely log on your computer and send commands to it to see what happens.

The Windows Messenger service (nothing to do with the popular chat program) is a typical nuisance. It allows you to send/receive messages over a network (using the net send command). The text appears in a dialog box on the target computers' screens. People can thus spam the Internet with annoying messages.

Deactivating unneeded Windows services requires some caution, since stopping the wrong services may render your computer unusable. Be sure of what you're doing. A useful tool in this respect is Starter by Codestuff. This is free and allows you to deal with both Startup items and Services (and links to internet searches for items). While care is needed security can be improved as well as start up time.

To modify services select Start >> Run... >> type "services.msc" and click Run (this is a shortcut). Right click the service you wish to modify in the list to access options such as Disable.

Keep Your OS Updated

Security vulnerabilities are continuously discovered and exploited by virus writers and crackers. Microsoft's policy was to regularly release cumulative patches, available on the Windows Update site. Since SP2 Windows also has an Automatic updates feature (to find it right click on My Computer, choose Properties, select the Automatic updates tab).Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft and Microsoft will no longer provide security updates for Windows XP leaving users at risk.

 

Security Software

Antivirus

The cyberworld is full of threats to computer security. Among the most common are computer viruses.

Broadly speaking, a computer virus is a program that when executed attempts to "infect" other programs by modifying them (embedding a copy of themselves in the code) or by changing their execution path system-wise (so that a request to run program X causes the viral code to be executed too). Usually it stays active in memory, infecting programs run by the user.

Being self-replicating is damaging enough (they tend to clog the system's resources) but since virus writers are mostly malicious, they often include a payload - a damaging action triggered by an event the coder decided upon. The payload may cause data loss, damage to Windows' integrity and/or leakage of valuable information (passwords, email addresses, credit card numbers).

An active antivirus is a necessity when connected to the Internet, since some modern viruses (in the like of Sasser, MyDoom, etc.) try to exploit known security flaws (hopefully patched with a Windows security update... eventually) to remotely infect a computer without any user interaction.

Windows XP does not include built in antivirus functionality, but many products, free and commercial, exist to protect your computer in real time. Here is a short list of software that does the job.

• AVG™ Antivirus (Commercial product but includes free version)
• Clamwin Free Antivirus (GNU GPL - opensource project)
• Comodo Antivirus (Commercial product by Comodo, offers free version)
• avast! Antivirus (Commercial product by Alvil Software, offers free "Home" edition)
• Avira Antivirus (Commercial product by Avira, offers free "Personal" version)

Has an incremental update feature, ideal for slow Internet dialup connections

• Norton™ Antivirus (Commercial product)

Bundled on many OEM PCs. A rather heavyweight suite of programs.

• Trend Micro™ Antivirus (Commercial product)

Trend Micro™ also offers a free web-based scan.

Keep in mind however that all antivirus products essentially do a best-effort attempt to recognize and remove "code patterns" in an executable that resemble known viruses (some also use heuristics and behavioral analysis to guess if viral activity is taking place). Therefore:

• The viral definitions must be updated regularly for the software to remain effective
• They cannot detect all possible viruses, so always use caution with unknown executables (consider the circumstances: e.g. if emailed to you from someone you know ask the sender anyway before opening them)

For more information on the various Antivirus products, and for test results by independent bodies, visit: AV-Comparatives and/or AV-Test. Also check the Sunbelt blog periodically, where clearly summarized results from AV-Test.org are published regularly.

Firewall

A firewall basically monitors and filters network activity directed to and from your computer. It is first of all a security concept which involves a security policy, software and/or hardware components.

• By filtering Ping ICMP requests from the Internet (that mean "Is anybody there?") your computer will stay silent and hidden from hackers.
• Malformed messages may cause undesirable behavior if, as usual, there are known glitches in the software to exploit.

The main feature of the personal firewalls (e.g. Norton, McAfee etc.) is to block open ports so that they cannot be accessed from the Internet. This allows you to deny suspicious requests. The (very basic) Windows XP firewall does this too, and versions after the Service Pack 2 update should be sufficient to protect most home users with basic needs.

Since software firewalls also check outbound traffic, they should in theory prevent Trojan horse programs that have breached the system from sending data to their creator. Unfortunately certain advanced malware is capable once in control of disabling specific firewalls (and antiviruses).

A hardware firewall is a physical device that interfaces two network segments. Most routers have one built-in that is sufficient for most home networks when used in conjunction with a good software firewall. If you need better security a dedicated firewall can be used (like Cisco Pix if the budget allows it) or for instance a Linux-based firewall system run on a older computer (e.g. IP-Cop).

Most hardware firewalls also support VPN (Virtual Private Network) connections and are capable of NAT (Network Address Translation), a feature that hides the real IP addresses of your network's computers from the outside world.

Some personal firewall programs (software firewalls):

• Comodo Firewall (Free. Commercial Pro-Plus version also available)

Comodo's firewall has come to be regarded as one of the best free firewalls available by many experts. Having said that, it is more suitable for advanced users as it is highly configurable and produces more frequent warnings - which requires more decision-making by the user than other firewalls. Also included with the comodo firewall are a Host Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS) and a feature called "Clean PC Mode", which profiles a new PC and its applications and registers the existing applications as safe. From then on, only applications that are specifically allowed by the user, or those listed on Comodo's white-list of trusted applications are allowed to be installed on the PC.

• Zone Alarm (Free. Commercial "Pro" version also available)

The Zone Alarm firewall is relatively easy to use, but it has become slightly bloated over time with tutorials, wizards, et cetera. It is an improvement over the Windows XP firewall though. Update: The Zone Alarm firewall now comes bundled with the Ask toolbar. This toolbar has been rumored to border on spyware, and is produced by InterActiveCorp (IAC), which is a company with a dubious past. Although the former is open to debate, the option to install the ask toolbar is pre-checked during the installation of Zone Alarm, which in any case renders the ask toolbar foistware in many security analysts' view.

Unfortunately, these personal firewalls implement some features in a highly ineffective way (e.g. "stealthed ports") and some other security measures employed by them can be avoided quite easily, like ZoneAlarm's privacy protection.

Anti-Spyware

The term spyware refers to a relatively new breed of malicious software (that first came under scrutiny around 1999) that focuses on stealing personal information and valuable data for unsavory purposes like identity theft. (Adware is a slightly tamer version of spyware that tracks your web surfing and sends you targeted advertisement, usually in the form of popup windows.)

Spyware typically installs on a computer without the user's informed consent, either bundled with another program or by exploiting one of the many bugs of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (the mammoth web browser bundled with Windows) to perform a "drive-by download" on visiting a specially crafted web page.

Antiviruses and firewalls have a hard time with these programs. Once compromised the computer may be instructed to download more spyware. The user will then experience massive slowdowns and system instability.

To cut a long story short, prevention is the best strategy. The point is to try reducing your computer's "window of exposure." A passable, free solution could consist in the following programs that complement each other:

• Ad-Aware (Commercial, free "Personal" edition)

Can fix most spyware issues. To enable preemptive blocking you would have to buy the payed-for version.

• Spybot S&D (Free program distributed under a "Dedication License")

Slightly glitchy. Detects known malware using heuristics. It has several features (mostly accessible in "Advanced mode"). Useful ones are the 'Immunize' function, the download-blocker BHO, and a blacklist of "bad" URLs that can be added to your HOSTS file.

Note: to minimize the hassle of updating you can insert the following commands into a batch file (.bat or .cmd extension) (replace %SBPATH% with the installation path):

@echo off
CD %SBPATH%
SpybotSD.exe /taskbarhide /autoupdate /autoimmunize /autoclose

Consider also trying Microsoft's Windows Defender (freely downloadable if you use a "genuine copy" of Windows).

If you discover that you are heavily infected (with "advanced spyware" that self-repairs and/or kills known anti-spyware products), also consider if making a backup of your files, erasing your hard drive and reinstalling a clean version of Windows would be less time-consuming than trying to recover a completely compromised system.

Rogue Applications

There are many rogue security applications that exist for Windows XP. Rogue security applications are programs that pretend to clean and protect computers from malware, but the program itself is actually malicious. Visit Wikipedia's Rogue Software Article for more information on rogue applications. For a frequently updated list of rogue programs, visit: Spywarewarrior and Wikipedia's list of fake anti-spyware programs. As a general rule, stick to well-known and trusted security applications such as the ones mentioned in this wikibook.

 

End of Support

End of Support

As of April 8th, 2014 Microsoft announced that they will no longer provide support for technical issues or create new security updates for Windows XP.

What does this mean?

If new security vulnerabilities are found and exploited by malicious people or software, Microsoft will not develop a security update (often called a "patch") to fix the vulnerability for the operating system. This puts Windows XP at risk because it means that any new issues or problems that are found with it will not be corrected by Microsoft. Other security providers may still provide applications and support for Windows XP beyond this date.

Migration

Microsoft recommends that people still using Windows XP should migrate to a newer operating system as soon as possible. This means copying files and settings from Windows XP to a supported operating system which will still receive technical support and security updates from Microsoft. Also, some may prefer to not transfer files from Windows XP and start with a new operating system with no files on it.

 

Troubleshooting

1. Installation Problems
2. Removing Windows Passwords
3. Drive Failure

 

Installation Problems

Installing to a Third-Party RAID Array

One problem that comes up from time to time when installing Windows, particularly for performance enthusiasts, is the need to install Windows on a machine that implements a RAID array-- typically either RAID 0, RAID 1, or RAID 0+1. Often, the RAID controller is simply a chip on the motherboard; it may even be embedded in the chipset. If you need to do this, you should follow these steps:

1. Hunt for discussions on the web, and in newsgroups, for other people trying to do this with your exact configuration, particularly your exact RAID controller and your firmware version. See what their results have been. Pay close attention to whether or not firmware updates, if available, have been praised or cursed.
2. Download the latest firmware for your RAID controller, even if you don't plan to upgrade to it.
3. Download the latest XP driver for your RAID controller, unless the discussions you found recommended another version and you agree. If a separate driver is available for use during installation of Windows XP, you want both, on separate floppy disks. Often there is only one.
4. If it sounds like you need to, install the firmware update for your controller. Procedures for this vary; you will probably need to be able to boot into DOS. Since you can't easily do this anymore under Windows XP, you may need to make a FreeDOS' boot disk; see FreeDOS.
5. Shut off the machine and physically attach the drives to the controller, if you haven't already. For RAID-0 or RAID-1, put the drives on master and run only one drive per IDE port-- using slave drives will significantly degrade your performance.
6. Power-on the system and initialize the RAID controller's settings to match what you want (see your controller's documentation).
7. Reboot with the Windows XP installation CD in the drive, and the BIOS set to boot from the CD-ROM drive.
8. Watch the process carefully; when prompted, press F8 to install a third-party RAID or SCSI driver.
9. Put in the driver disk you made above.
10. Proceed normally through the rest of installation.
11. Run burn-in tests on the array.
12. Run benchmarks on the array and write down the results for possible future use (such as to compare firmware versions).

Downgrading a Compaq 620 laptop from Windows 7 to XP

The machine will BSoD when you run the XP install disc, if you don't change the hard drive type in BIOS to IDE.

 

Removing Windows Passwords

Setting Windows XP password can help us prevent others logging into our PC without permission. However, every coin has two sides. on the one hand, it helps us very much in our privacy protection. On the other hand, For the sake of carelessness or accidence, we are perplexed with the problem of losing password. Thanks to the development of technology, many tricks are available to recover a Windows XP password. In some cases, recovering from a lost password can be very easy though.

In order to show completeness, we start with the simplest tips that can help you regain access to a locked account.

Method 1: Log into an alternate account

If you have another user account or you share your computer with others, things will be much simpler. Log into the Windows with the other account and perform the following steps:

1. Click "Start" button
2. Click "Run"
3. In the "Open" field, type "control userpasswords2"
4. Click "OK"

Often many users will leave the administrator account alone and/or have other accounts with administrator rights. If you're not logging into the computer as administrator or have other accounts follow the below steps to reset your other account's password.

• Reboot the computer into Safe Mode.
• When logging into Safe Mode you should be prompted with an option to what account you wish to use. Select the Administrator account. If prompted for a password try simply pressing Enter on the keyboard for no password. If this does not work, try other passwords you may have used. If you're unable to log into the Administrator account skip to the next suggestion
• Once you've logged into the Administrator account open Control Panel and User Accounts.
• In User Accounts select the account you wish to change the password for, click change password and then enter the new password or click remove the password to remove the password from the account.

Windows opens a user accounts dialog. Select the user with the lost password and click the “Reset Password” button. Enter a new password, and click ok. Click ok once again and you are ready. Now you can log on to your account using the new password.

Method 2: Using the forgotten password diskette

If there are no other users on your machine to unlock your account, you need to boot your PC from outside your usual Windows XP environment using a boot disk or a bootable CD. But if you are not proficient with technology, it will be hard for you. How to solve this headache problem easier?

If you have forgotten your Windows XP password, but have created a forgotten password diskette earlier to use the diskette, follow the below steps.

• At the Windows XP login prompt when the password is entered incorrectly click the reset button in the login failed window.
• Insert the password reset diskette into the computer and click Next.
• If the correct diskette Windows XP will open a window prompting for the new password you wish to use.

Method 3: Use a third party Windows XP password recovery tool

Of course, you will need access to another PC to create a boot disk or bootable CD. Nowadays, many tools support bootable USB. Easily burn the BIOS image file to the CD/DVD/USB Flash Drive, reboot the PC with the CD/DVD/USB Flash Drive, then you regain access to your PC. Here let’s take Windows Password Recovery Enhance for example. Only four steps, we can log into the PC again.

Step 1. Download Windows password recovery tool and install the program on the other unlocked computer.

Step 2: Burn bootable CD/DVD or USB flash drive

Step 3: BIOS setting

Step 4: Recover Windows XP password

 

Drive Failure

A hard drive with important data on it should be treated like a firearm, a helicopter, or a race car engine: if it starts doing anything out of the ordinary, you should find out what's going on, and why-- quickly. Hard drives have gotten quieter, which is pleasant, but not necessarily helpful. "Odd noises" from a hard drive, particularly noises the drive has "never made before" when things haven't changed much, are usually bad signs; so are a few other things, listed below.

Three caveats, however. First, some of these symptoms can be signs of virus or other malicious code. Run virus scanners frequently! Second, poor performance that follows a software or hardware change may be related to that change-- though hard drives have occasionally been known to fail after being banged around during a case change, or after a power supply change. Finally, while users of normal IDE, SATA, and SCSI drives generally don't have to worry about this, RAID users need to watch out for possible driver bugs (and if you think you find one, check the discussion groups for your RAID card/motherboard before upgrading). Those said, here is the list.

Failure is imminent for drives which:

• Take a very long time to spin up on power-on, or frequently do not spin up at all. This is particularly common with 2.5" (laptop) hard drives, which have comparatively weaker spindle motors.
• Take a very long time to access certain areas of the disk; this is particularly worrisome if that area is the file allocation table (FAT) on FAT32 drives.
• Otherwise have periods of inaccessibility exceeding several seconds, even when the machine is largely idle.
• Never turn off their drive activity LEDs-- but used to, and nothing else has changed.
• A hard to track down random computer freeze for up to several minutes at a time, often ending with a pop-up message saying it was unable to write to $MSFT.

Be extremely wary of drives which:

• Change noticeably in audible pitch while running (excluding spindown for suspend, power off, etc.); you are hearing the spindle motor rate change, which is not good. If this corresponds with a period of drive inaccessibility, back up and replace the drive immediately.
• Develop bad sectors. Modern hard drives do not have this problem; the media may be oxidizing or otherwise degrading.

Additionally, be wary of drives which:

• Have ever been physically dropped onto a hard surface at any point, in any orientation-- running or not.
• Have ever overheated (failed to operate properly, and then you realized the cooling fans were off, etc.)-- even once.
• Have ever experienced a significant brownout.
• Have ever experienced a significant power spike.
• Seem to be running very hot.

Be somewhat wary of drives which:

• Have had their physical mounting orientation changed (flat to side-mount, for example) well into their run life (say, after a year or so).
• Have been rough-handled in shipping (but were properly packed in foam, etc.).
• Have exceeded 50% of their warranty period and are being used in a RAID-0 stripe set under high demand.
• Are operating or have operated continuously in a high humidity or marine environment.
• Are exposed to strong vibration, such as automotive, marine, and aircraft applications.

Drives which seem to be heading for doorstop duty should be backed up and replaced as soon as possible. Drives in a RAID-5 array can usually be left in service until they actually get disqualified by the controller or operating system, assuming you have a hot spare. However, if you have no choice but to live with a drive that is on its way out for a while, and cannot back it up immediately, following these guidelines:

• Do not use the drive any more than absolutely necessary.
• If at all possible, do not use the drive to host the swapfile.
• Try to avoid writing to the drive more than necessary.
• Do not defragment the drive. This will stress the actuator or voice coil assembly. Additionally, if the drive is having write problems, this will effectively destroy otherwise readable data.
• Do not power-cycle (turn off and on) the drive any more than absolutely necessary-- doing so places a lot of stress on the spindle motor. This usually means leaving the computer on all the time. Note that modern drives are designed to be power-cycled all the time; this is only a concern for drives which are already failing, or suspected of starting to fail.
• Shut off automatic spin-down in Power Saving options, for the same reason.

These are just tips to help you limp home. Treat the drive as a spare tire. Hard drives never "kind of" work-- if one is starting to fail, you must replace it, or it is not a question of if you will lose the data on it, just when.

Read More

• There is a Wikibook on Minimizing Hard Disk Drive Failure and Data Loss.

 

Miscellaneous

1. Optimizing
2. Advanced Optimizing
3. Windows-key Shortcuts
4. Authors & Contributors

 

Optimizing

Decrease Visual Effects

Turn off some of the "visual effects" to get a faster computer

1. Click Start on your taskbar
2. Select Control Panel
3. Click to Open "System"

An alternate method is to right click

My Computer on your desktop and select Properties. (A third way is to hold down the Windows key and press the pause/break button.)

The System Properties dialog box will appear.

1. Select the Advanced tab
2. Under Performance section click the Settings button

The Performance Options dialog box will appear

Remove the check beside the following options:

• Fade or slide menus into view
• Fade or slide ToolTips into view
• Fade out menu items after clicking
• Show Shadows after menus
• Slide open combo boxes
• Slide taskbar buttons
• Use a background image for each folder type
• Use common tasks in folders

Increase Virtual Memory

1. Right Click on My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced Tab
2. Under Performance Click Settings -> Advanced
3. Virtual Memory -> Change
4. Select Custom Size set your minimum and maximum as high as possible according to your Hard Drive's Free space, (Like 1024-2048)

Temporary Files

Note: This is for advanced users only.

1. Go to your Windows XP directory. (e.g: C:\WINDOWS)
2. Go to the C:\WINDOWS\prefetch\ folder and delete everything there. Restart Windows and your computer will be faster.
3. Go to C:\Documents and Settings\CurrentUsername\Local Settings\temp\ and delete everything there, where CurrentUsername is your username. (Hidden files must be viewable.)
4. Go to C:\WINDOWS\temp and delete everything there.
5. Search for *.tmp and *.chk and delete those.

Advanced Optimizing

Footprint Reduction

Removing Redundant Files

Internet Explorer Components

The following dynamic link library files belong to Internet Explorer and can be removed:

• C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WEBCHECK.DLL

Note that to permanently remove these files, it is necessary to also remove the shadow copy versions in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DLLCACHE\

 

Windows-key Shortcuts

Are you a user who finds reaching for the mouse an annoying action? If so, then consider keeping your fingers on the keyboard to accomplish the same objectives by using the keyboard shortcuts listed below.

Windows Key + E

Opens the Explorer window.

Windows Key + D

Brings the desktop to the foreground. If you repeat the keyboard combination, it returns the desktop to the background and the open windows will return to their original state.

Windows Key + F

Displays the Search Result window.

Windows Key + L

Locks your Windows computer (Windows XP or higher)

Windows Key + M

Minimizes all open windows to display the Desktop.

Windows Key + R

Displays the Run command. (try that and type in OSK - just in case you have no keyboard)

Windows Key + F1

Displays the Help and Support Centre window.

Windows Key + Pause/Break

Displays the Systems Properties dialog box.

Windows Key + Tab

Cycles through the buttons on the Task Bar. To activate the selected button on the Task Bar, press the Enter key.

Alt + Tab

Toggles or switches between open windows.

Alt + F4

Closes the active window.

 

Authors & Contributors

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1. Tortoise (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
2. Adrignola (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfps · rights [change])
3. Slava Ukraini Heroyam Slava 123 (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
4. Lobster (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
5. Breakpoint~enwikibooks (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
6. Herbythyme (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfps · rights [change])
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8. Iamunknown (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfps · rights [change])
9. MarcGarver (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
10. Dobz (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
11. Flonejek (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
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13. Robert Horning (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfps · rights [change])
14. Jguk (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfps · rights [change])
15. Happykaka1203 (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
16. Webaware (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfps · rights [change])
17. Whiteknight (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfps · rights [change])
18. Mortein (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
19. Yoric~enwikibooks (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
20. BenBauman (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
21. Ahc~enwikibooks (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
22. Cyberman~enwikibooks (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
23. Jnavas2 (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
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27. Blackest knight~enwikibooks (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
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29. Defishguy (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
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31. Jomegat (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfps · rights [change])
32. Xania (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfps · rights [change])
33. T-dog240 (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
34. Recent Runes (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfps · rights [change])
35. MonoBot (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfps · rights [change])
36. Mkz1000 (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
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38. Maggiena (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
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40. Speedeep (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
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48. Pietzki (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
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50. Alexcher (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
51. Vault (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
52. Alcinoe~enwikibooks (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
53. Dallas1278 (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfps · rights [change])
54. Dysprosia~enwikibooks (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])
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74. Jerome Frans (discuss · contribs · count · logs · block log · rfp · rights [change])