Please... don't post till i have say done at one of the thread !!
Add Seperators to Pinned Start Menu Items:
In XP, I like to disable including recent items on my start menu, and instead pinning all my most-used programs. But I have alot, and it can get confusing rather quickly, but I found a way to include seperators to organize my data on the start menu.
The first thing to do is create a new shortcut on the desktop. Select any file for the target, and under the name of the shortcut, use the trick to add a blank space for the filename (ALT+0160 on the keypad -- making sure NUMLOCK is on). Then click finish.
Next right click the file and choose properties -- change icon. You should automatically be browsing the windows\system32\shell32.dll folder. About 1/4 down the list, choose one of the blank icons (or another icon you may want to use). Then click OK. You can also remove the target. You now have a completely blank icon on the desktop.
Now just drag the blank icon to the XP start menu and you now have a seperator.
Add your own user account pictures
If you don't like the user account pictures that come with XP you can add your own.
1. First make sure the pic you choose is fairly square, that's because you have to resize it to 48 x 48 pixels, so you dont want it to distort too much. It also has to be a bitmap (.bmp extension) for it to work. A good graphic utility should take care of both the resizing and saving it into a bitmap.
2.After you have it ready go to the following folder:
X:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\Default Pictures (Application Data is a hidden folder)
That's the place where all the little account pixies are located, copy the one (or the ones) you had prepared into that folder.
3. Click the Start Button then click over the account picture and it will take you to a new window that tells you to choose another pic for your account, look for the one you just created select it, and click the "change picture" button and you're all set!.
So now you don't have to put up with the flower or that blue butterfly you just hate
).
Enjoy!
I know it is less fun, but Windows lets you use any picture and will automatically resize it for you. Look for the 'Browse for more pictures' button in Control Panel - User Accounts. yoyo
Admin User Option From Welcome Screen
Easy way to add the Administrator user to the Welcome Screen:
Start the Registry Editor
Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon \ SpecialAccounts \ UserList \
Right-click an empty space in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value Name the new value Administrator. Double-click this new value, and enter 1 as it's Value data.
Close the registry editor and restart.
Avi files causing high cpu usage again with installation of XP SP1 avi files causing high cpu usage again with installation of XP SP1
I have recently installed Windows XP SP1 update and have found that the problem with avi files causing 100% cpu usage started happening all over again. I tried to do the original tweak shown on the site, but the registry key specified was already deleted. I searched around and found this tweak that fixes the problem, in both the original release of Windows XP and the SP1 update.
The ultimate solution
To correct the misbehavior in Windows XP, remove the following registry key.
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{87D62D9 4-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}\InProcServer32"
This will prevent Explorer from loading shmedia.dll in response to file property queries on these files. This will not effect your ability to play files, get file attributes, or even view thumbnails. I really think Microsoft is trying to make sure people only use mpeg