XP Tips, Tricks, & Tweaks
Listed In Microsoft's Expert Community

Most Popular Stuff...

Sherlock The Codec Detective
FREE utility that lets you verify what codec's you have.

Best XP Tips
Here are some of the best XP tips we've seen.

Tools and Utilities
Odds and ends that help coax XP to perfrom better.

Speed Up XP
Ever feel like your XP is running in slow motion?

Computer operating speed is of concern to almost everyone. In a recent series of tests PC SPY identified several programs that were responsible for the biggest cause of system performance slow downs.

Number one culprit...

Norton Internet Security which was responsible for slowing down the test computer by a staggering 58 percent.

Here are several other offenders...

Wouldn't it be fun to be able to find an IP address and then track it's geolocation with Google Earth? You never know when you might need to see exactly where that IP address is physically located on the planet.

Here is a video that shows the simple steps to locate the IP address and then georeference its location with Google Earth.

If you're like me you probably get just as frustrated when you boot up your computer because it just seems to take forever. Most of us develop a routine where we turn our computers on and then knowing it's going to take some time busy ourselves with other things.

Here's a way to put an end to all the waiting. In fact, when you press the power switch your computer can now roar to life in just seconds.

By putting your computrer into hibernation mode all the documents and applications that were opened will be exactly the same as they were when you put it into hibernation.

Bottom line:

Now when you start your PC in the moring it's ready almost instantly - NICE!

Each time you connect to a Wi-Fi hot spot, whether it's in a restaurant or at home, it logs the name of the access point that you connected to in the Windows Preferred Network settings.

If you're like us and you accidentally connect to your neighbor's access point, and then find yourself reconnecting again despite your efforts not to, you need to relocate your neighbors access point listing down in your connection list and move your router to the top.

If you are like most other Windows XP users you're probably leaving multiple windows open and the information in those windows has not been saved. One of the worst feelings is returning to your computer and finding out that good old XP has downloaded and installed new security updates AND the update required an automatic restart, OUCH!

Or... if you're like me you get tired of the pesky little pop-up window with a countdown that tries to reboot your computer in 15 seconds.

Well, it turns out that a simple edit to the system Registry will stop all this nonsense and will save you from loosing lost data because of an automatic system reboot.

CNET has reviewed the Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT and rate it 8 out of 10. they continue to write - "It all adds up to solid mainstream performance, especially for a sub-$200 3D card. The GeForce 7600 GT bested ATI's pricier competition, the Radeon X1800 GTO, on every Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and Doom 3 test resolution. That's impressive considering that ATI's card costs $50 more. On F.E.A.R., the most demanding game in our benchmark suite, the Radeon X1800 GTO came out ahead, at least in single-card mode. When you drop in a second GeForce 7600 GT, though, Nvidia's cards shine. They outpace ATI's Radeon X1800 GTO in CrossFire mode at every resolution on nearly every game test (the two lower-resolution Half-Life 2: Lost Coast tests excepted). That makes two GeForce 7600 GTs a formidable pairing for sheer frame rates, and at less than $400 for two of them, it's also very cost effective."

Network storage solutions can be a solid way for you to archive and store precious data. PC World has reviewed 5 of the top network attached storage devices and hear are their conclusions. "Infrant Technologies ReadyNAS NV is the clear winner with a superfast multidrive 1TB NAS and has lots of features, but its RAID configuration limits usable capacity to 660GB."

In an effort to be helpful Microsoft has filled Windows XP with all sorts of helpful applications. However, it is common knowledge that these helpful applications and be just a little too controlling or have other nasty effects on your system. Some of the more well know dead weight (as long as you're not using them)scoundrels are MSN Explorer, Outlook Express e-mail client, and Internet Explorer browser. These hard drive space squatters can eat up as much as 15-20 megs of precious storage space.