My Windows XP Tweaking and Customization
Many of you will find this hard to believe, but there was a time – long, long ago – when people would get things and then use those items exactly as they got them! That’s right: no customization, no “tricking out,” no modding, no skinning, no nothing. You just took the thing out of the box and used it the way nature – and the manufacturer – intended.
Yes, we know: barbaric.
Today, of course, things are very different. No one would ever dream of using an off-the-shelf item in this day and age; instead, everything needs to be personalized.***
And as a civilized person, and not one of those Macarbarians, Windows XP needs to be customized and personalized for me, before it's fit to use in my daily life. I had wished that there was a guide, a manual so to speak, that would tell me what changes I would need to make to a vanilla-fresh Windows XP install in order to make it useful to me. This is that guide. Now I need no longer fear the dark and unknown of the reformat and reinstall, the horrible vanillaness of starting from scratch. I have The Guide!!!
I can still do more work with organizing and formatting this Guide, but Jason wanted to see it sometime before Windows 7 comes out, I expect. So it's a work in progress that I'll keep updating... and I know I missed documenting many little tweaks and changes that I've done. So maybe I can catch those sometime - or maybe they're so minor as not to matter much.
(Note: Bother. My careful text file formatting and tab-based trees aren't coming through here. Well, eventually I'll format it in HTML)
Windows Classic Style for All
You can disable all of XPs visual effects by right-clicking the Desktop and selecting the "Properties" menu item, select the "Appearance" tab. In the dropdown box under "Windows and buttons", choose Windows Classic style.Start Menu Properties
Use Classic Start Menu
Initial Configurations
* Under User Accounts, change the way users log on or off, untick use welcome screen
* Disable HelpAssistant
* Start Menu Properties
o Classic Start Menu
o Display Administrative Tools
o Scroll Programs Menu
o Expand Control Panel
o Untick Hide inactive icons
o Untick Use Personalized Menus
* Display Properties
o Windows Classic Theme
o Screen Saver - blank
o Effects - No fade transitions
o Use ClearType
o No Shadows under menus
o Unhide underlined letters
* Automatic Updates on Notify but don't download or install them
Install Hardware
* Install XP SP2
o Disable Windows Security Center - Turn off All Alert Settings Under "Change the Way That Security Center Alerts Me"
* Get all remaining windows updates
* Install all custom DELL drivers
Additional Configurations
* Move Windows Update to programs menu, delete Windows Catalog shortcuts
* On Properties of X: change AutoPlay setting to your prefered settings (click Apply each time)
* Use Windows classic folders, List Details, show hidden, show extensions, untick Use simple file sharing, Disable Offline Files
* Change Long Date format to 'ddd, dd MMM yyyy'
* IE unlock toolbars, hide links toolbar, move toolbars to one, small icons, no text, close browser, open again, lock toolbars again
* Browser Settings: Use Blank, Check for new every visit, Dont show friendly HTTP errors, Dont show Go button, Use inline AutoComplete, Dont use smooth scrolling
* Windows Inverted (extra large), disable pointer shadow, put pointer speed to 60%
* Turn off System Restore from the System Restore Tab in My Computer->Properties
* Power Options
o On Battery: Turn off monitor after 15 mins, hard disks after 30mins, standby after 20 mins
o Enable hibernation
o Low battery alarm 10%, critical battery alarm 8% and action as Hibernate
o Prompt for password when resume from standby
o When close lid Do Nothing, When press button Hibernate
* Console Window Properties: Buffer Size 500, QuickEdit Mode, Lucida Console, Window Height 55, save to all future windows
* Sounds Device Volume High, Place volume icon on taskbar, all volume controls to max
* Laptop stereo speakers, No Sound Scheme
* Task Manager - Hide when minimized, Select columns - CPU Time
* TweakUI:
o no beep on error
o no menu fading
o no tooltip fade
o menu fast
o no Help or Logoff on startmenu
o no recent docs
o no desktop web content
o no maintain doc history
o no manipulate connected files as unit
o use Classic search in Explorer
o no prefix shortcut to
o no show my docs
o no show my pics
o no tooltip balloons
o Set special folders
o no warn on low diskspace
o Remove all document templates except Text Document
o Turn off Autoplay for all Drives and Types
* Add fax, Add PDF printer drivers, remove indexing, disable all performance counters
* Disable following services (See blackviper.com for info):
o Alerter
o Background Intelligent Transfer Service (Change to Manual)
o Computer Browser
o Distributed Link Tracking Client
o Error Reporting Service
o Fast User Switching Compatibility
o Help and Support
o Indexing Service
o Infrared Monitor
o IPSEC Services
o Messenger
o NTLM Security Support
o Net Logon
o Network Location Awareness
o Performance logs and alerts
o Portable media serial number
o QOS RSVP
o Remote Registry
o Remote desktop help session manager
o Security Center
o SSDP Discovery
o Secondary Logon
o Smart Card
o System Restore Service
o TCPIP NetBIOS Helper
o Terminal Services
o Themes
o UPS
o Universal PnP Device Host
o WMI Performance adapter
o Web Client
* Disable Error Reporting
* Startup and Recovery - Untick time to display list of operating systems
* Do not allow users to connect remotely
* Install and use LClock (Longhorn Clock)Disable Web Services prompt
To disable the prompt, navigate to the following folder in RegEdit (create it, if necessary):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Then create a new 32-bit DWORD value, title it "NoInternetOpenWith," and give it a value of 1.
Search All files (not just text files)
To do this, set the FilterFilesWithUnknownExtensions DWORD value to 1 in the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndexDisable Zip Folders:
regsvr32 /u %windir%\system32\zipfldr.dll
Windows Explorer Tweaks
Windows Explorer --> Tools --> Folder Options --> View
Uncheck
Display simple folder view in Explorer's Folders list
Hide extensions for known files types
Hide protected operating system files
Check
Show Hidden Files and Folders
Make Windows Explorer start in the C: Drive (add to the Target Properties of your shortcut)
C:\windows\explorer.exe /n,/e,c:\Replace default Notepad with Notepad++
* Copy notepad.exe which comes with this package into 3 directories (in given order) Backup the old files. :
1. c:\windows\system32\dllcache
2. c:\windows\system32
3. c:\windows
When you replace notepad.exe in c:\windows\system32 and c:\windows, a "Windows File Protection" message box appears, click Cancel. Then another message box appears, click OK.
Disable Disk Performance Counters:
diskperf -nTo disable all performance counters, run regedit and navigate to this registry key:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Perflib
Add a new DWORD Value named DisablePerformanceCounters. Set the value of DisablePerformanceCounters to 1 and either reboot or restart the registry service.
Disable Last Access Timestamp for NTFS
FSUTIL behavior set disablelastaccess 1
Cleartype Tuner
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/Step1.aspx
Use Cleartype PowertoyTweakUI Powertoy
Media Player 9 Powertoy
(Change Full Screen Settings)Copy over my HOSTS file
Drivers:
Use Intel Chipset Drivers for 865G Chipset FamilyDelete Windows Media DRM DLLs from Firefox
npwmsdrm.dll
npdrmv2.dll
***Paragraph shamelessly stolen from Microsoft. No, I don't know where they stole it from originally.
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