Category: Windows XP

Windows XP uses online time servers to keep the correct time on your computer. Windows uses its own Microsoft time servers (time.windows.com) to adjust the time periodically which do not work always and are slow to respond. Sometimes they are very slow to respond. But you can change the time servers to faster and free time servers available on the internet.

Windows XP asks you for choosing a time zone during Windows installation. If you want to choose a different time zone after Windows has been installed, then you can change the time zone even after the installation.

We have earlier published an article on how to clear the Recent Documents list in Windows XP. The method discussed in the article requires you to open Start Menu properties window and then proceed. But there is an easy way – just create a batch file and all you to do is double-click on the file and the Recent Documents list as well as the Run MRU will be cleared.

If you are using the modern style of Start Menu in Windows XP, then classic Desktop icons like My Computer etc. disappear from the Desktop. But if you want a shortcut to My Computer on your Desktop, then you can create it easily.

In the 32-bit editions of Windows XP, there is a default built-in admin account named Administrator. But as soon as you setup another user account, this Administrator account gets hidden and not shown in User Accounts in Control Panel. But you can easily unhide this account.

We all know that you can make changes in the Group Policies and disable some standard programs like Registry Editor or Task Manager to run. What if you want to disable other third party programs to run? You can do it by changing the access control lists (ACL) of the program on an NTFS partition.

Most people do not know that recycle bin takes up a lot of disk space to store the deleted files. If you are running out of hard disk space, then you may want to reduce the maximum size of the recycle bin.

If you have more than one user account in your Windows XP based computer, then you automatically get the load of another service – Fast User Switching service. If you do not use fast user switching, then you can disable it and save useful system resources.

Windows XP comes with Windows Messenger which can be used to send and receive messages over a network. But it can become a nuisance if you receive a lot of messages. If you want to disable the Windows Messenger so as to prevent it from running, you can follow these steps.

In an attempt to make Windows look more beautiful, Windows XP hides the underlined letters in the push buttons which can be used for easy keyboard navigation until you press the Alt key. But you can un-hide them, if you want to work with keyboard more than the mouse.