No Fear Computers - Windows XP Help
Windows Xp Basics
Desktop and Programs
If you would like to change these settings.
To Change Desktop Resolution:
Right click desktop – Left click Properties.
Then click Settings - Last Tab on Top.
Change resolution to match your monitor.
To Change Desktop Background:
Right click desktop – Left click Properties.
Then click Desktop - Second Tab on Top.
Click Browse, Choose new Desktop picture.
Change Desktop Fonts sizes – Adjust Font
Size (DPI)
Right click desktop – Left click Properties.
Then click Settings - Last Tab on Top.
Then click Advanced Button - DPI settings, the larger you make the font
the more distorted
the screen will become. (Try not to go above 110% or normal)
Start Menu (bottom left blue button)
Most recent used shown on open.
Right Panel has buttons that are short cuts to different folders.
Click or hold your mouse over “All Programs”
Click on the folder to open it, and then click the program you wish to
start.
Right click any program and left “Add to Quick Launch” to add a short
cut to the
quick launch bar. (Adding to Quick Launch only works in Windows Vista)
Quick Launch Bar - Items (bottom right next
to the Start Button)
To see all items in your quick launch click the two little white arrows.
The quick launch bar has been disabled in Windows 7 by Microsoft.
USB Hard Drives, Memory Sticks:
When you plug in an external USB hard drive or a memory stick it may not
have a drive letter. And it does not show up in your windows file
explorer or a window does not pop up asking you browse the drive or
memory stick. Go to your Start Button, pinned to the Start Menu you will
see a command called Computer Management, left click on Computer
Management, On the left side under Storage will see Disk Management left
click on Disk Management. Look at the right panel for a disk without a
drive letter. Right click on that disk, and left click on change drive
letter and paths. You will then see an empty window left click the add
button (choose a drive letter if you want) then click OK. Then a window
should pop up asking you if you would like to view the folders. It
should now also be available in your Windows File Explorer. (Left click
on Computer)
Desktop - Laptop Computers Built or Serviced
by No Fear Computers – Costa Mesa
Star Dock – click the tab for the items you want to see, To make changes
on how star dock looks or opens look under “Tools” “Configure
ObjectDock” To add new icons to the star dock, Just drag and drop any
icon, shortcut to the star dock. (if your stardock gets turned off, go
to your start menu under tools, StarDock, ObjectDock. Left click
ObjectDock Plus.
Hard Drive Setup:
Your default OS (operating system) drive will be C:\win7x64, C:\Win7x86,
C:\Vistax64, C:\Vistax86 C:\WinXP x64, C:\WinXP X86 if installing
windows. Your default document drive will be D:\Documents. If you are
having a gamming system built you will have a partition or drive named
E:\Games. If you have requested a single hard drive system it will be
two or three primary partitions. No Fear Computers always suggests two
hard drives, one for the OS and one for software apps the other hard
drive for personal documents, games and back-up. Most laptops will only
have one hard drive.
Software:
In your “Documents” folder, you will see a folder named “Software”. In
this folder you will see the software installed on your computer by No
Fear Computers. Anti-virus, anti-spyware, paragon hard drive back-up,
disk-defrag, stardock, registry tweaks to remove Favorites - Home Group
- Libraries icons from your Windows File Explorer, installed by No Fear
Computers – Costa Mesa.
Back-up:
On delivery there will be a folder called HD-Image, either on
D:\Documents or *:\Back-up partition or drive back-up drive. That folder
contains an image back-up of your OS - C:\ on delivery. So in the event
you download something bad, add to many tool bars and it just not
repairable. You can use the “Paragon Boot Disk” and restore your C:\
drive (OS) without changing or losing any of your personal files,
pictures, music etc. Unlike most recovery software installed by other
companies that will wipe the whole system by deleting everything
including all your personal files.
Menu \ All Programs:
(To move any item into a folder or up to the Stardock, hold down the
left mouse button and drag & drop.)
Accessories = Windows default programs.
Adobe = adobe reader, adobe bridge, adobe acrobat, adobe drive (if
installed)
Anti-Virus / Anti-Spyware = AVG, SuperAntiSpyware free editions. (if
installed)
Burning = Windows movie maker, Nero, NTI, any CD-DVD writing/burning
software. (if installed)
Dos = Dos command prompt.
Entertainment = Media center & player, VideoLan (VLC), itunes, DVD play
back software. (if installed)
Games = Windows default games, games you have requested to be installed.
Graphics = MS paint, ulead photo impact, adobe CS4, paint shop pro. (if
installed)
Internet = Mozilla firefox, IE8, Web cam, IM’s. (if installed)
Office Programs = Calculator, ms works, ms office, open office, notepad,
wordpad, windows fax and scan, windows speech recognition, XPS viewer.
(if installed)
Startup = Empty
Tools = Default programs, desktop gadget gallery, disk clean-up, system
restore, window update, 7-zip, administrative tools, auslogics disk
defrag, maintenance, paragon partition software, rocket dock, stardock.
If setting up a Acer, Dell, Gateway, HP, Toshiba…any tools from their
company.
Internet:
Firefox and IE8 use “Tabbed Browsing.” Right click on the link, left
click Open in New Tab to read multiple links from the same page, and not
have to keep hitting the back button. Firefox is set as your default
browser; Speed Dial is set as your home page, if you want to add sites
to your speed dial. Left click the little black on the second purple box
with a green + sign on it, move your mouse over Tab 1, Tab 2 or Tab 3
and left click any number on the right.
No Fear Computers has added default folders and links to your internet
browser/s. Bus=(business), Paypal, Facebook, NetFlix, NFC=(No Fear
Computers), TV.com, Merriam Webster, TRP=(The Raptor Pit),
Pravda(English), Dogpile, Speakeasy, You Tube, Snopes, Translator,
E-Stores, PC=(converters, internet speed tests, software, drivers,
games), SE(search), Forums, TV Online, MS(Microsoft links), Dow Jones,
(Snopes = urban legends) (Pravda = the real news around the world)
Dogpile or Bing have been set as your default search engine. Dogpile
searches inside every search engine. So it’s like having all the search
engines rolled into one. The difference is, if you don’t find it on
Dogpile, it’s something you don’t need to find.
Downloads:
Anything you download will automatically download to your Downloads
folder in your Documents.
DO NOT USE ‘LIMEWIRE,’ ‘KAZZA,’ ‘KAZAA,’
‘ROCKET MP3,’ OR ‘BEARSHARE.’ THESE PROGRAMS DO NOT SCAN FOR VIRUSES.
YOU WILL DOWNLOAD VIRUSES AND THEN RESHARE THEM CAUSING DAMAGE TO YOUR
COMPUTER AND THE PEOPLE/FAMILY/FRIENDS YOU EMAIL AND NETWORK WITH.
DO NOT USE ‘MYSPACE.’ Switch to “Facebook.”
(Link on Links Bar in your browser.) When you sign up for a “Myspace”
account, you AGREE to allow them to download and write to your computer
on the Agreement page, opening the way for viruses , spyware and
malware. Your virus protection will be useless. You gave PERMISSION to
‘MYSPACE’ to download and rewrite your system, in effect, giving
yourself a virus!
DO NOT ADD ANY TOOLBARS SUCH AS ‘Google,’
‘Yahoo,’ ‘ASK,’ ‘MySearch,’ etc,. Most tool bars have PERMISSION to
write to your system and download more malware & viruses. (The same
‘PERMISSIONS GRANTED’ agreement page used by ‘Myspace’, no doubt.)
Windows XP Tweaks
Fix Windows XP original system
files
Open a Dos command prompt type sfc /scannow and then hit enter. It can
take up to and hour to finish. It may ask for your Windows XP install
disc.
Windows XP manual activation without the internet.
Activation is an integer part of the Windows XP operating system.
Essentially, XP activation is designed to help reduce software piracy.
According to Microsoft, "casual copying" affecting XP is the behavior
targeted with activation. But outside of the initial grace period of XP,
users will only be able to use the operating system if they will
activate their copy. Microsoft offers three alternatives to activating
Windows XP, via the Internet, through a modem or by phone. Of course
that there also are illegal alternatives to XP activation. Various
cracks and workarounds circumvent Microsoft's antipiracy measure. But
none of the above is the method to manually activate Windows XP
presented in here.
The object of this article is to let you in on a way to easily and
effortlessly re-activate you copy of Windows XP after a reinstall. This
implies that you already have a genuine and activated copy of Windows XP
to begin with. But in case you have to format your hard drive, or just
the XP partition, and install XP all over again, you can spare yourself
the time and labor to re-activate the operating system, according to the
SunbeltBlog. All you have to do is make your way to the
C:WindowsSystem32 folder and identify the "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" files.
Copy both of them to a USB drive or burn them to a CD.
Format the HDD and reinstall Windows XP, but do not activate the
operating system. Instead restart and boot into SAFEBOOT_OPTION=Minimal,
press F8 during boot in order to access the SafeMode options. Navigate
to System32 where you will be able to find the "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak"
files. Since you already have the old files on your portable media
simply rename these as "wpadbl.new" and "wpabak.new" and copy the old
"wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" files in System32.
"Product activation makes sure that each Windows XP license is installed
in accordance with the EULA and is not installed on more than the number
of computers that the license permits. Windows creates a unique
installation identification (ID) that is based on information from the
product ID and a hardware identifier that are created when you install
Window XP. To activate, use the Windows Product Activation wizard to
provide the installation ID to Microsoft over the Internet or your phone
line. The installation ID records an association of the product ID to
your computer and a confirmation ID is sent back to your computer to
activate Windows XP. Activation is anonymous, and no personal
information is required to activate," Microsoft revealed in relation to
XP's activation process.
Remove recycle bin from your desktop
How to remove Recycle Bin Icon from Desktop
If using XP Pro
Go to START > RUN
Type GPEDIT.MSC
Navagate to USER CONFIGURATION >ADMINISTRATIVE TEMPLATES >Click on
DESKTOP,
On the right hand pane find " Remove Recycle Bin icon on the desktop " ,
double left click on it to ENABLE it.
Sorted!
If using XP Home
Either use TweakUI or make the change manually in the registry .
Create or modify the following registry entry
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
REG_DWORD 0x00000001
To Login automatically to a user account, follow the instructions below:
1) Click on Run
2) Type in the following command and click OK
control userpasswords2
3) Highlight the user you want to log into automatically, then uncheck
the box for
"Users must enter a username and password to use this computer"
4) Click on Apply and you'll be asked to verify the username and
password to log in automatically
5) Click OK and the next time you restart your computer, you'll
automatically be logged in without having the classic prompt or Welcome
Screen.
How To Fix System Restore
Find your Windows\Inf folder. (show hidden files and folders)
Locate and select the file "sr.inf". Right-click it and then click
Install.
You may need your Windows XP CD or search the i386 folder.
After Virus Removal No Internet
Click Start, Run type cmd and press Enter.
type netsh winsock reset at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.
Follow the prompts to restart the system.
Winsock and Tcp/Ip Fix
Start > Run > Type CMD > Type the following:
Reset TCP/IP stack to installation defaults, type: netsh int ip reset
reset.log
Press Enter > Type the following:
Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults, type: netsh winsock
reset catalog
Push Enter
Service Pack/s Install Fix
Step 1: Locate the specific registry key
To locate the correct registry key to change the permissions and enable
Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003 SP1 to install successfully,
follow these steps:
1. Include registry information in the Setupapi.log file by enabling
verbose logging. For more information about how to enable verbose
logging, click the following article number to view the article in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base:
906485 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906485/ ) How to enable verbose
logging on a Windows XP-based computer
Note By default, registry keys are not recorded in the Setupapi.log
file.
After you enable verbose logging, install Windows XP SP2 or Windows
Server 2003 SP1 again to capture the registry key.
2. Open the Setupapi.log file. By default, this file is located in the
C:\Windows folder. To open the Setupapi.log file, click Start, click
Run, type %windir%\setupapi.log, and then click OK.
3. Press CTRL+END to scroll to the end of the Setupapi.log file.
4. On the Edit menu, click Find.
5. In the Find what box, type Error 5: Access is denied under Direction,
click Up, and then click Find Next.
The found entry in the Setupapi.log file should resemble the following
example:
#-007 Deleting registry key HKCR\vnd.ms.radio
#E033 Error 5: Access is denied.
Note The line before the "Access is denied" entry indicates the registry
key in question. In this case, HKCR represents the registry hive that is
labeled "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT." "vnd.ms.radio" is one subkey that is
located under that registry hive.
Step 2: Reset the registry permissions
As soon as you have found the registry subkey that has the incorrect
permissions, update the permissions for that subkey.
To update the permissions of the registry subkey, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK to start
Registry Editor.
2. Locate and right-click the registry subkey that you noted in Step 2d,
and then click Permissions.
3. Under Group or user names, click Administrators.
4. Under Permissions for Administrators, make sure that the Allow check
box for the following entries is selected:
* Full Control
* Read
5. Click Apply, and then click OK.
6. On the File menu, click Exit to exit Registry Editor.
The permissions issue for the registry subkey should now be resolved,
and Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003 SP1 should install
successfully. If you experience additional problems when you try to
install Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003 SP1, repeat these steps as
needed.
Back to the top
Method 2: Reset your operating system back to the default settings
To reset your operating system back to original installation default
security settings, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then press ENTER.
2. Type secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\repair\secsetup.inf /db
secsetup.sdb /verbose, and then press ENTER.
You receive a "Task is completed" message, and a warning message that
something could not be done. You can safely ignore this message. For
more information about this message, view the
%windir%\Security\Logs\Scesrv.log file.
For more information about how to reset security settings back to the
defaults, click the following article number to view the article in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base:
313222 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313222/ ) How to reset security
settings back to the defaults.
Setupapi.log and scvpack.log
They can maybe give you an idea, what is wrong.
Search for following textstring "Install error" in scvpack.log and
"Error 5"
in setupapi.log.
Look for "access denied" in the registry, if that is
the case, you must give "Local Administrator" and "SYSTEM" Full Control
to those keys.