Speed up the Start Menu
========================================================
The default speed of the Start Menu is pretty slow, but you can fix that by editing a Registry Key. Fire up the Registry Editor and navigate to
the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ MenuShowDelay
By default, the value is 400. Change this to a smaller value, such as 0, to speed it up.
Speed up the Start Menu (Part two)
========================================================
If your confounded by the slow speed of the Start Menu, even after using the tip above, then you might try the following: Navigate to Display
Properties then Appearance then Advanced and turn off the option titled Show menu shadow . You will get much better overall performance.
Speed up Internet Explorer 6 Favorites
========================================================
For some reason, the Favorites menu in IE 6 seems to slow down dramatically sometimes--I've noticed this happens when you install Tweak UI
1.33, for example, and when you use the preview tip to speed up the Start menu. But here's a fix for the problem that does work, though it's
unclear why:
Just open a command line window (Start button -> Run -> cmd) and type sfc, then hit ENTER. This command line runs the System File
Checker, which performs a number of services, all of which are completely unrelated to IE 6. But there you go: It works.
Do an unattended installation
========================================================
The Windows XP Setup routine is much nicer than that in Windows 2000 or Windows Me, but it's still an hour-long process that forces you to
sit in front of your computer for an hour, answering dialog boxes and typing in product keys. But Windows XP picks up one of the more
useful features from Windows 2000, the ability to do an unattended installation, so you can simply prepare a script that will answer all those
dialogs for you and let you spend some quality time with your family.
I've written about Windows 2000 unattended installations and the process is pretty much identical on Windows XP, so please read that article
carefully before proceeding. And you need to be aware that this feature is designed for a standalone Windows XP system: If you want to
dual-boot Windows XP with another OS, you're going to have to go through the interactive Setup just like everyone else: An unattended install
will wipe out your hard drive and install only Windows XP, usually.
To perform an unattended installation, you just need to work with the Setup Manager, which is located on the Windows XP CD-ROM in
D:\SupportTools\DEPLOY.CAB by default: Extract the contents of this file and you'll find a number of useful tools and help files; the one we're
interested in is named setupmgr.exe. This is a very simple wizard application that will walk you through the process of creating an answer file
called winnt.sif that can be used to guide Windows XP Setup through the unattended installation.
One final tip: There's one thing that Setup Manager doesn't add: Your product key. However, you can add this to the unattend.txt file
manually. Simply open the file in Notepad and add the following line under the [UserData] section:
ProductID=RK7J8-2PGYQ-P47VV-V6PMB-F6XPQ
(This is a 60 day cd key)
Then, just copy winnt.sif to a floppy, put your Windows XP CD-ROM in the CD drive, and reboot: When the CD auto-boots, it will look for the
unattend.txt file in A: automatically, and use it to answer the Setup questions if it's there.
Finally, please remember that this will wipe out your system! Back up first, and spend some time with the help files in DEPLOY.CAB before proceeding.
The default speed of the Start Menu is pretty slow, but you can fix that by editing a Registry Key. Fire up the Registry Editor and navigate to
the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ MenuShowDelay
By default, the value is 400. Change this to a smaller value, such as 0, to speed it up.
Speed up the Start Menu (Part two)
========================================================
If your confounded by the slow speed of the Start Menu, even after using the tip above, then you might try the following: Navigate to Display
Properties then Appearance then Advanced and turn off the option titled Show menu shadow . You will get much better overall performance.
Speed up Internet Explorer 6 Favorites
========================================================
For some reason, the Favorites menu in IE 6 seems to slow down dramatically sometimes--I've noticed this happens when you install Tweak UI
1.33, for example, and when you use the preview tip to speed up the Start menu. But here's a fix for the problem that does work, though it's
unclear why:
Just open a command line window (Start button -> Run -> cmd) and type sfc, then hit ENTER. This command line runs the System File
Checker, which performs a number of services, all of which are completely unrelated to IE 6. But there you go: It works.
Do an unattended installation
========================================================
The Windows XP Setup routine is much nicer than that in Windows 2000 or Windows Me, but it's still an hour-long process that forces you to
sit in front of your computer for an hour, answering dialog boxes and typing in product keys. But Windows XP picks up one of the more
useful features from Windows 2000, the ability to do an unattended installation, so you can simply prepare a script that will answer all those
dialogs for you and let you spend some quality time with your family.
I've written about Windows 2000 unattended installations and the process is pretty much identical on Windows XP, so please read that article
carefully before proceeding. And you need to be aware that this feature is designed for a standalone Windows XP system: If you want to
dual-boot Windows XP with another OS, you're going to have to go through the interactive Setup just like everyone else: An unattended install
will wipe out your hard drive and install only Windows XP, usually.
To perform an unattended installation, you just need to work with the Setup Manager, which is located on the Windows XP CD-ROM in
D:\SupportTools\DEPLOY.CAB by default: Extract the contents of this file and you'll find a number of useful tools and help files; the one we're
interested in is named setupmgr.exe. This is a very simple wizard application that will walk you through the process of creating an answer file
called winnt.sif that can be used to guide Windows XP Setup through the unattended installation.
One final tip: There's one thing that Setup Manager doesn't add: Your product key. However, you can add this to the unattend.txt file
manually. Simply open the file in Notepad and add the following line under the [UserData] section:
ProductID=RK7J8-2PGYQ-P47VV-V6PMB-F6XPQ
(This is a 60 day cd key)
Then, just copy winnt.sif to a floppy, put your Windows XP CD-ROM in the CD drive, and reboot: When the CD auto-boots, it will look for the
unattend.txt file in A: automatically, and use it to answer the Setup questions if it's there.
Finally, please remember that this will wipe out your system! Back up first, and spend some time with the help files in DEPLOY.CAB before proceeding.
