SASANK@TECHNOMANIA

Download Bootvis from www.microsoft.com and run it the next time you boot. Do a 'Trace'
If it shows a very long 'HDD init' time of minutes rather than seconds then this is how to fix it.

This example assumes you have 1 Hard drive on your primary IDE channel and a DVD-ROM(or CD)
and CD-R on your two secondary IDE channels.

Go to start > right click on my computer > click properties. Click Hardware > Device Manager.

Go to IDE/ATAPI Controllers. Select primary channel. Right click properties. Click the Advance settings tab. Then on the device (0 or 1)that does not have 'device type' greyed out select 'disable' instead of 'autodetect'. This should stop windows trying to find a drive that isn't there.

If you have your IDE channels set up differently simply repat the above for the secondary IDE channel settings.

"In the Run box, type "Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks". This frees up any idle tasks running in the background so that Windows XP can devote its full attention to what you want it to do. For example playing graphic intensive games."

While it DOES free up idle tasks, according to Microsoft, it can take up to 15 minutes to do so. You would not want to run this task before playing a game or using your machine as it will actually cause any tasks waiting for the system to become idle to be performed immediately.

Quote from Microsoft:

"When called from the command line, the ProcessIdleTasks work is done in the background asynchronously. It can take 10 to 15 minutes for idle tasks to complete. Task Manager will report processes running, and the disk will likely be active during this time"

The complete article can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/platform/performance/benchmark.mspx

"In the Run box, type "Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks". This frees up any idle tasks running in the background so that Windows XP can devote its full attention to what you want it to do. For example playing graphic intensive games."

While it DOES free up idle tasks, according to Microsoft, it can take up to 15 minutes to do so. You would not want to run this task before playing a game or using your machine as it will actually cause any tasks waiting for the system to become idle to be performed immediately.

Quote from Microsoft:

"When called from the command line, the ProcessIdleTasks work is done in the background asynchronously. It can take 10 to 15 minutes for idle tasks to complete. Task Manager will report processes running, and the disk will likely be active during this time"

The complete article can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/platform/performance/benchmark.mspx

This tweak is useful if you boot to the default OS most of the time and only boot to the other OS's on a limited basis.

1)Locate and Open the hidden file "boot.ini" in notepad or your favorite text editor. This file will likely be in the root directory on the boot partition of your "master" HD. For example, mine is located in "C:\boot.ini" even though I have Win98 loaded on this partition and the boot.ini file was generated when I loaded WinXP on "D:/"

2) Locate the line - timeout=30 (default is 30 seconds). Change this value to any time desired. I chose 10. Be careful not to choose too low of a setting or you may not have time to select your other OS's. Also, be careful not to change other lines as this may prevent your PC from booting at all.

3)Save the file. The next time you boot your PC, the changes will take effect.

Note: You can also adjust this in Control Panel > System > Advanced > Startup and Recovery > Settings > Time to display list of operating systems

This tweak is useful if you boot to the default OS most of the time and only boot to the other OS's on a limited basis.

1)Locate and Open the hidden file "boot.ini" in notepad or your favorite text editor. This file will likely be in the root directory on the boot partition of your "master" HD. For example, mine is located in "C:\boot.ini" even though I have Win98 loaded on this partition and the boot.ini file was generated when I loaded WinXP on "D:/"

2) Locate the line - timeout=30 (default is 30 seconds). Change this value to any time desired. I chose 10. Be careful not to choose too low of a setting or you may not have time to select your other OS's. Also, be careful not to change other lines as this may prevent your PC from booting at all.

3)Save the file. The next time you boot your PC, the changes will take effect.

Note: You can also adjust this in Control Panel > System > Advanced > Startup and Recovery > Settings > Time to display list of operating systems

UPDATE: V 1.1 is now available with 20 more tweaks! Howard Lo, Microsoft’s Regional Team Manager (APAC) released Ultimate Windows Tweaker, a Tweak UI for Windows Vista at the South Asia MVP Meet 2008. Windows Guides readers can get their hands on a copy, which does not need installation and is only 370kb. The program lets you apply over 130 tweaks without using the registry once!

Figure 1 - Configure Computer Information

Using Ultimate Windows Tweaker is easy and you will be surprised at how much you can do.

I changed my computer information (figure 1) to a more mintywhite kind of computer, and I even changed the OEM logo to a Windows Guides one by saving my logo as a BMP file and selecting it. See figure 4 for an example of how this looks on the system information screen.

As you can see from the enlarged screenshot, you can also change your context menu, shortcut specifics and more–and that’s only one screen. This really is Vista’s answer to XP’s Tweak UI.

Figure 2 - Display OS info on Your Desktop

One of the many options to choose from is the ability to display your OS information on your desktop (figure 2.) This is useful for me as I run Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Seven all on one machine and I often need a sanity check to ensure I’m in the right OS. These are just a few of over 130 tweaks you can apply to your Windows Vista operating system.

Figure 3 - Apply Changes

You can then apply the changes, and after a log off and log on (figure 3), you can see the results of your work (figure 4.) Grab yourself a copy today!

Figure 4 - See Your Changes

Ultimate Windows Tweaker

I began computing in the days of DOS, and I still can't give up the command prompt. When it comes to doing down-and-dirty tasks like mass deleting or renaming of files, nothing beats it. I find myself frequently switching back and forth between Windows Explorer and the command prompt.Often, when using Windows Explorer, I want to open the command prompt at the folder that's my current location.
That takes too many steps: opening a command prompt and then navigating to my current folder.
However, there's a quicker way: you can add an option to the right-click context menu that will open a command prompt at your current folder.
For example, if you were to right-click the
C:\My Stuff folder,
you could then choose to open a command prompt at
C:\My Stuff.To add the option, run the Registry Editor, then go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Classes/Folder/Shell.
Create a new key called Command Prompt. For the default value, enter whatever text you want to appear when you right-click a folderfor example, Open Command Prompt.
Create a new key beneath the Command Prompt key called Command.
Set the default value to Cmd.exe /k pushd %L.
That value will launch Cmd.exe, which is the XP command prompt.
The /k switch puts the prompt into interactive mode.
That is, it lets you issue commands from the command prompt; the command prompt isn't being used to issue only a single command and then exit. The pushd command stores the name of the current directory, and %L uses that name to start the command prompt at it.
Exit the Registry.
The new menu option will show up immediately.

Note that it won't appear when you right-click a file; it shows up only when you right-click a folder.While many of us like fussing around with the Registry rather than doing things the easy way, there's also a way to add this option to your right-click context menu without editing the Registry.
Download and install a free copy of Microsoft's Open Command Window Here PowerToy from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp.

After this tutorial,an option will be available whenever you right-click any folder which will display all the files and sub-folders inside that folder and save it to a text file.

1. Create a .bat file...Open Notepad and copy-paste the following data in it.

cd %1dir /a /b /-p /o:gen >C:\filelist.txtstart notepad C:\filelist.txt

You can edit the path to your preference.Now name this file anything you wish and save it anywhere you wish.

2. Make file visible in right click context menu.
Open explorer window, Go to Tools>Folder Options..>File types and from the registered file types list,select FOLDER.
Click on Advanced>New....In the Action box, type in the name you want in context menu. For e.g. Generate File List..
Then click on Browse.., navigate to the .bat file whch u hav created with some name..created in step 1 .

3. Congratulations!!You are done with the tutorial!!. Now right click any folder and select Generate File Listing. A text file will be created in your C:\ drive [or any path you specified in the .bat file.] called filelist.txt which contains list of all files and sub-folders in the parent folder!
Even the hidden files are listed......

There are two ways to stop applications that start when you startup your computer at login. You can use the System Configuration Utility or the new Software Explorer in Windows Defender. Take a look at the two sections to get control over your startup applications and speed up your computer:

Disabling auto-start applications with the System Configuration Utility

1. Click on the Start Button and key in msconfig and hit Enter.
2. Click on the Startup tab.
3. Remove the check next to any items that you do not want to startup and click OK.

Disabling auto-start applications with Windows Defender

1. Click on the Start Button and type in Windows Defender and hit Enter.
2. Click on the Tools from the top menu bar.
3. Click on Software Explorer.
4. Hit Show for All Users.
5. Select an application and then click either Remove or Disable

Windows Vista throttles your network bandwidth when you are playing any multimedia file such as an MP3 or a video. This was designed to ensure the CPU has enough free cycles available to play your media without skipping. The down side is that when you are playing a multimedia file you will notice that your network speed of file transfers will decrease on high speed network connections. By default when you are playing a multimedia file your network transfers are limited to 10 packets per millisecond.

In Windows Vista SP1 Microsoft introduces a registry key that allows you to customize this setting.

	[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile]
	NetworkThrottlingIndexValue

You can set NetworkThrottlingIndexValue between 1 and 70. If you want to disable set the hexadecimal value to FFFFFFFF.

Microsoft warns that if you increase the value above 10 you may experience playback quality issues. Depending on your network setup, it is worth experimenting.

After making any changes a restart is needed.

Read more about this tweak on KB948066