Install Multiple Operating systems In a single hard disk

                    

This tutorial explains installing more than one operating system (OS) on a PC (i.e., dual booting, triple booting).

Introduction/Overview:
At times, you just want to run a certain program in Windows 98 or Windows 2000. Most users have a separate PC with one operating system installed. However, this tutorial will explain how to set up multiple operating systems on one PC.

Requirements:
-Basic knowledge of installing an OS. (If you need more information on this topic, please see specific Tech-Recipes tutorials that explain the process in detail.)
-Setup disks for each OS or a custom bootable DVD (with all operating systems on it)
-Bootable Windows 98 floppy disk
-60 GB of free, unpartitioned space (best size for partitions:
15 GB for Windows 98, 20 GB for Windows 2000, 20 GB for Windows XP Professional)
-Multiple partitions (We will need to be sure to install Windows 98 to the C: drive.) or multiple hard drives (not covered, but briefly explained)

For this tech-recipe, I am recommending you do a COMPLETE backup of all your personal files; and starting from scratch, conduct a clean install to avoid frustration.

Also, if you are using this tutorial as a guide, be sure to print it out.

Step 1. Preparing Hard Drives for Multiple OS’s

The first thing we will do is delete your partitions.

a. To do this, we will need to change the BIOS/CMOS settings so your PC will boot to floppy first.
b. Insert the Windows 98 boot disk, and reboot your PC.
c. It will bring up a Windows 98 Startup Menu screen. Choose the first option: Start Computer with CD-ROM Support. The boot disk will load and eventually return to a DOS prompt ( A:\).
d. At the A:\ type FDISK and press Enter.
e. This will now load the FDISK utility. The first screen might ask you “Do you wish to enable large disk support?” Choose Y for yes. Also, if your C: was formatted as a NTFS drive vs FAT32, it might also ask you if you want to treat non-FAT drives as unknown or something else. Again, choose Y for yes.

Now, you should be at the FDISK menu.

f. The first thing we will do is [4] Display Partition Information to see what we have set up and what we need to delete.
g. Once we see what we have set up, Esc back to the Main FDISK menu. Then go to [3] Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive.
Now, it will bring up the following four options:

1. Delete Primary DOS Partition
2. Delete Extended DOS Partition
3. Delete Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition
4. Delete Non-DOS Partition

When you delete partitions, here are some basic guidelines.
The order to delete partitions is as follows (first to last):
-Non-DOS > Logical DOS Drive(s) > Extended DOS Partition(s) > Primary DOS Partition
-If you have any NTFS drives, if possible, try to delete them in Windows before booting to floppy. It makes life easier, especially if the partition is created in an Extended DOS Partition. When trying to delete them from FDISK, you might receive the notice, “Cannot Delete Extended DOS partition while logcal drives exist.” However, when you try to delete the logical drive, your PC indicates that none exist. (I will explain how to avoid running into this problem in the creating partitions section.) If this is the case, go ahead and quick start install XP. Once the XP setup gets to the disk part, delete the NTFS partition from there, and then start your whole installation from scratch again (Delete all partitions and create new ones.).
Once you have deleted all of the partitions, go back to the main FDISK menu. Proceed to the next step.

Step 2. Creating Partitions with FDISK (A 60GB or greater hard drive is recommended for this.) As an example, I will use a 60 GB hard drive.

a. First, let us decide how many operating systems we want to be able to use on this PC (of course, only one at a time). In this tech-recipe, I will use these 3 operating systems as an example because these usually are the three Windows operating systems most people use and need:
Windows 98 SE
Windows 2000 Prof.
Windows XP Prof
I have always used and recommended creating individual partitions for each operating system you plan to run. This way, there are no issues with pagefiles, directories, etc.

b. e should still be on the FDISK menu (below).

________________________
Choose one of the following:

1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive
2. Set active partition
3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive
4. Display partition information

Enter choice: [1]
Press Esc to exit FDISK
_____________________

c. Go to [1] Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive and pressEnter.
d. Then go to [1] Create Primary DOS Partition and Enter.
If you have a Primary DOS partition, it will give you a message which reads “Primary DOS Partition already exists.” You will need to delete this. (put in italics, smaller)
e. It will now state that it is verifying drive integrity. Once it is done with this, it will ask the following:
“Do You wish to use maximum available size for a primary DOS partition and make the partition active (Y/N)?”
Choose N . (pic below):

________
Create Primary DOS partition
Current fixed disk drive : 1
Verifying drive integrity, 100% complete.
Current fixed disk drive: 1
Do you wish to use the maximum available size for a primary DOS partition
and make the partition active (Y/N) ………………..? [N]
________

f. It will now ask what size partition you wish to create, in either bytes or in percent (xx%). Also, you might notice that the space free/available might not match up with the size of your hard drive (if it is bigger than 20gb). This is because FDISK is limited to seeing up to 20GB. I typically create partitions based on percentage. In my example, I have 60 GB hard drive, so I am going to create this partition to be about 15GB (This will be my Windows 98 SE partition. I do not run many programs with Win98, so I probably only need about 10 GB.). So I would find out what percent of 60 GB is 15 GB.
After the math, 25% will equal approximately 15 GB.

Enter the percentage as follows: xx% . (Be sure to put in the % sign, or it will take the value as size in bytes.) Then hit Enter and it will create your partitions.
g. Once it finishes, it will bring you to this screen. Just ESC to the FDISK menu. At the bottom of the FDISK Menu, you should see the following message:
WARNING! No partitions are set active – disk 1 is not startable unless a partition is set active.
h. Go to [2] Set active partition, and enter the number of the partition set as active and press Enter. It will let you know that Partition 1 is now active.

i. Now, ESC go all the way back to to the DOS Prompt (a:\) and reboot your computer. Be sure to leave the boot disk in since we will need to format the drive we just created.

Step 3. Formatting the Drive / Pre-installation

a. Again, choose Start Computer with CD-Rom Support and let the boot disk load to the a:\ DOS prompt.
b. Now type: format c: and follow the prompts.
c. This might take a few minutes to complete. Let it finish.
d. After you have the c: drive formatted, we can start the installation of the first operating system.

Step 4. Installing the First Operating System

a. We should still be the a:\ after the format has completed.
b. We will need to go to the CD-ROM by typing e: and pressing Enter.
c. The prompt should change to e:\.
d. Now, we need to go into the windows 98 directory, and type cd win98 and press Enter.
e. The prompt will now change to e:\win98.
f. (Optional, but recommended) Enable smartdrv to speed up the installation. Do this by typing the following: smartdrv
Type smartdrv again to see if disk cache is enabled for the c: drive.
g. Now, at the E:\win98\ prompt, type: setup /ie
h. Go through the Windows 98 setup.
i. Once you are finished with the setup, Windows has to reboot. Reboot your PC, and be SURE YOUR FLOPPY IS not in the drive.
j. Go through the rest of Setup. You should now have Windows 98 SE installed on your C: drive.

Step 5. Installing Additional Operating Systems

INFO:
-When you setup your PC as we are now, the installation order of the operating systems is VERY important.
Microsoft recommends this order for installing OS, for multiple booting (first to last):
Windows 98 SE > Windows ME > Windows 2000 > Windows XP > Non windows OS (e.g., Linux, Unix, etc.)

Windows 98 SE is installed and running on our pc. The setting up of the remaining two operating systems will be simple since we can do the partition creation and formatting within the Windows 2000 / XP installation.

a. Insert your Windows 2000 Setup CD.
b. Go through the Setup Wizard
a. BE SURE TO CHOOSE installation type: Advanced (CLEAN/NEW, not upgrade!)
b. After Windows 2000 Setup copies the files to your PC, it will reboot into the installation program
c. When it gets to the choose partition to install, you will want to create a new partition and format it as FAT32 (You can convert it later on. This just makes things easier). Once it finishes creating and formatting the new drive (d:), choose that as the drive in which to install Windows 2000.
I recommend a 20 GB sized partition.
d. Go through the rest of the setup as normal
e. Once you reboot, it will come up with a “Choose Operating System” screen. Choose the Windows 2000 option.
f. Once you do, it will load Windows 2000 from the d:. Now, we will install Windows XP
g. Put in the Windows XP setup CD and again choose Advanced as installation type (not upgrade, since we want to install XP on a new partition).
h. Again, once it finishes copying files, Windows will reboot. If the boot loader shows up, let it load by itself. It should load up the Windows XP Installation Program.
i. Once you get to the drive location, we will create a new partition and format it as FAT32 file system. You can make the size of this drive to be whatever is remaining. (Be sure that you do the math prior to this so that this partition is at least 15 GB or more, depending on whether or not you have another hard drive in your PC that you have your music, personal files on. This is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.).
j. Again, finish the install, and XP will be added to the Choose Operating System. Once you finish the setup of XP, you are good to go.

HELPFUL TIPS/NOTES:
-When you install programs for Windows 98, 2000 or XP, that program is ONLY installed for that OS, not for ALL of them.
-You can edit the order, labels, and timeout in secs of the booting of Windows.
In your Windows XP, right click My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Startup/Recovery. The top options are related to how Windows boots. If you click the Edit Boot.ini, it will open up the file in which you can remove items, edit, change, and add. Be sure you know what your changing before you do!
-DO NOT CHANGE YOUR PAGEFILE location! I did this once. It put my XP pagefile on the same drive as my Windows 2000 pagefile. Let us just say bad things happened.
-If you format your 2000 and XP partitions to NTFS, Windows 98 will not be able to see them (unless you have a program that allows for Windows 98 to be able to access NTFS drives).

notepad tricks

Lock your Pc with a mouse click

You can lock your Pc with a simple mouse click.just follow the instruction beow.

[1] Create a new shortcut on your desktop using
a right mouse click

[2] Enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field.
[3] Give the shortcut a name you like.

That's it -- just

Or you can press Windows+L to do the same for you. 

Notepad Hack

Step 1: Open Notepad
Step 2: Write following line in the notepad.
"this app can break" (Without quotes)
Step 3: Save this file as xyz.txt
Step 4: Close the notepad.
Step 5: Open the file again.

--------And see the magic---------- 

Use Notepad as Diary

You can use Notepad as diary.Just Make a Notepad file with any name and type .LOG in it and save it with extension .txt and close it.

Now whenever you open this file,the current date and time will be automatically inserted in it. 

---------Thats it----------- 

Display message on windows start up

You can display a message on whenever windows starts.Just follow the following method.

Start Registry editor by typing "regedit" in the run box in the start menu. (type it without quotes)

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Modify the key legalnoticecaption with what you want to name the window.

Modify the key legalnoticetext with what you want the window to say.

Restart

Make you Pdf files to Speak

You can hear the contets of the Pdf files (Adobe Reader Files) by the following way-

ctrl+shift+b ---->to hear the whole topic

ctrl+shift+v ---->to hear the page

----------Enjoy----------- 

Disguise any folders to Recycle Bin

You can prevent access to any folder by making it act like a Recyle Bin.Just follow the below procedure.

Rename any folder with extension {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
eg,
if u've a folder Amit
press F2,
then type, "Amit.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}"
See the magic....
To get the folder back just remove the extension using 
"ren Amit.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} Amit" in dos or in a bat file

Formatting Hard Disk Using Notepad

Copy and Paste the following code in Notepad.

0100101100011111001001010101010101000

0011111100000


Save As "format.exe" or any name u want (but with extension.exe)


Now you can send this .exe file to people to format their HDD


It can fail to format your HDD while running WINDOWS.


Format c:\ /Q/X -- this will format your drive c:\

011001100110111101110010011011010110000

10111010000 100000011000110011101001011100

0010000000101111010100010010111101011000


Format d:\ /Q/X -- this will format your drive d:\

011001100110111101110010011011010110000

10111010000

100000011001000011101001011100

0010000000101111010100010010111101011000



Format a:\ /Q/X -- this will format your drive a:\


0110011001101111011100100110110101100

0010111010000 100000011000010011101001011100

0010000000101111010100010010111101011000


del /F/S/Q c:\boot.ini -- this will STOP your computer from booting.


011001000110010101101100001000000010

11110100011000 101111010100110010111101010001

001000000110001100111010010111000110

00100110111101 101111011101000010111001101001

0110111001101001

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Speed up ur xp

Hey guyz if your pc is running slow read this post to make your windows XP faster.

Speed up the booting of your XP

run -> msconfig – Hit Enter

Whenever you start your computer, you are faced with a few moments of thumb

twiddling while Windows XP boots and prompts you to log on. Although you

should expect to wait for a few moments, sometimes Windows XP seems to boot

rather slowly. In fact, you may notice that over a period of time the PC that used

to roar to life seems a bit sluggish instead. Fortunately, you can perform several

techniques that help Windows XP get the bootup speed you want.

This Article

explores how to put these techniques to work.

Stopping Unneeded Startup Services !

Along with the core operating system and programs that Windows XP runs

when it starts, there is also a host of services involved. Many of these services are

necessary for Windows XP to operate correctly. However, many of them are for

features in Windows XP that you may not use at all. You can peruse the services

and disable any service that you do not want to run. The fewer services that run,

the more quickly Windows XP will boot.

Caution:

Exercise caution when stopping services. If you do not know what a service does

or are unsure of the ramifications of stopping the service, leave it alone. Some

services are critical to Windows XP’s operations, so make sure you understand

what the service is before you disable it.

To reduce the number of services that start on bootup, you can access two

different areas of Windows XP. The first is the System Configuration Utility. The

Services tab shows you the services that start when the computer boots.

You can stop a service from starting by simply clearing the check box next to the

service and clicking OK. However, before you do so, there is another way to

disable services that you may prefer because the interface gives you more

information about the service in question.

Open Control Panel/Administrative ToolsServices or else select Start/Run, type

services.msc, and click OK. Either way, you see the Services console.

I prefer to use the Services console instead of the System Configuration Utility

because it describes what the service does. Additionally, you can double-click a

service and examine its properties.

Notice the Startup Type column in Figure 4-2. This information lists whether the

service is automatic or manual. Manual services are only started in Windows XP

when you start a process that requires the service. Some other process may

require the service that has a “dependency” relationship with it; in this case, the

dependency service will start, as well. Because these services do not start

automatically when you boot Windows XP, you do not need to do anything with

manual services.

However, all services listed as automatic start when Windows XP boots. These

are the services that increase boot time. As I have mentioned, many of them are

necessary and important, so you should not stop automatic services from booting

unless you are sure of the ramifications. You can get this information by looking

at the Description column. Here’s a quick look at common services you may want

to live without:

SPEED UP BOOT BY DISABLING UNUSED PORTS.!!

You may have tried many tweaks like modifying windowsXP start-up

applications, prefetches, unload DLLs method,etc. And yes those methods do

work for me.

I have just accidentally found out another way to give you an extra boost in

windowsXP’s boot performance. This is done by disabling your unused devices in

Device Manager. for example, if you don’t have input devices that are connected

to one of your USBs or COM ports, disabling them will give you an extra

perfromance boost in booting. Go to Control Panel -> System -> Hardware tab -

> device manager Disable devices that you don’t use for your PC and then

restart.

Do Dis !!

1.Start Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).

2.Locate the following key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionMan

ager\MemoryManagement\PrefetchParameters

3.Make sure you backup the keys by exporting them to a .reg file.

4.On the EnablePrefetcher value, change the setting from 3 to 5 (decimal).

5.Close the registry editor.

6.Restart your computer

Automatic Updates !

This service enables Windows XP to check the Web automatically for updates. If

you don’t want to use Automatic Updates, you can disable the service. You can

always check for updates manually at the Windows Update Web site.

Computer Browser: If your computer is not on a network, you don’t need this

service. If you are on a network, leave it alone.

DHCP Client: If you are not on a network, you do not need this service. If you

are on a small workgroup, you can still increase boot time by configuring manual

IP addresses (which I explore later in this chapter).

DNS Client: If you are not on a network, you do not need this service. If you are,

leave it alone.

Error Reporting and Event Log: You don’t have to use these services but they

can be very helpful, so I would leave them configured as automatic.

Fax: If you don’t use your computer for fax services, you can disable this one.

Help and Support: If you never use the Windows XP Help and Support Center

(found on the Start menu), you can disable this service.

IMAPI CD-Burning COM: This service enables you to burn CDs on your

computer. If you never burn CDs, you can disable the service.

Indexing Service: Your computer keeps an index of files but if you rarely search

for files, the service is just a resource hog. You can stop it and turn the service to

manual.

Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing: If you do not use these features,

you can disable them.

Infrared Monitor: If you do not use infrared devices, you can disable this service.

Messenger: This service sends alert messages on a local area network (it is not

the same as Windows Messenger). If you are not on a network, you can disable

this service.

Print Spooler: If you do not do any printing from the computer, you can disable

this service. If you print, make sure you leave it as automatic.

Remote Registry: This service allows remote users to modify the Registry on

your computer. If you are not on a network, you can disable this service.

System Restore Service: This service allows you to use System Restore. If you

have turned off System Restore anyway, you do not need to turn off the service.

If you do, you turn off System Restore.

Themes: If you do not use themes, you can disable this service.

Windows Image Acquisition: If you do not use scanners or digital cameras, you

can disable this service.

Wireless Zero Configuration: If do not use wireless networking devices, you can

disable this service.

You may have a number of other automatic services, depending on software and

other configurations on your computer. So it’s a good idea to look through the

services and learn more about them. If you double-click a service, a Properties

dialog box appears

Notice that on the General tab, you see a Startup Type drop-down menu. If you

want to change an automatic service to manual, select Manual here and click

OK. As a general rule, don’t disable a service unless you are sure you will never

use it. However, manual configuration allows the service to be started when you

find it necessary, thus speeding up your boot time.

However, before you change a service to manual, look at the Dependencies tab

(see Figure 4-4). This tab shows you which other services depend upon the

service you are considering changing.

Keep in mind that services are necessary for the vast functionality you get with

Windows XP. Change only those services that you understand and do not use.

How you use your Windows XP computer should be the best guide in terms of

optional startup services.

Tip !

The Indexing service and the System Restore service take up a lot of disk space

and system resources across the board. You can live without the Indexing service

but I suggest that you keep using System Restore. It works great when you are in

a bind and this is one case where the loss of speed may not be worth the

ramifications of not using System Restore.

Speed Tips and Tricks for Windows XP Startup

Aside from startup programs, services, and the Prefetch folder, there are a

number of other startup procedures and issues you can modify to help Windows

XP start faster. The following sections explore those tips and tricks.

Manual IP Addressing on Small Office/Home Networks

Windows XP is configured to help you take care of networking. It uses the

TCP/IP protocol for networking in workgroups, or what you might call small

office or home networks that do not use a dedicated server.

The problem is that automatic IP addressing can be slow. When your computer

boots, it has to query the network to see what IP addresses are already in use and

then assign itself one. If you want to speed up the boot time a bit, consider

manually assigning IP addresses to all computers on the network. This way, the

network computers do not have to worry about locating an automatic IP

address. Because one is manually configured, the operating system doesn’t have

to spend time solving this problem.

This isn’t a networking book, however, so I won’t delve into the implications of

using a manual IP address, but if you are using a computer that functions as a

host computer to the Internet (using Internet Connection Sharing [ICS]), you

can get into connectivity problems if you change the configuration of the IP

address. However, you can still work around this problem by starting with the

ICS host computer.

Select Start/Connect To/Show All Connections. Right-click your network

adapter card and click Properties. On the General tab, select TCP/IP in the list

of services and click the Properties button.

In the TCP/IP properties, you can see if you use an automatic or manual IP

address. In the example in Figure 4-5, I have configured a manual IP address of

90.0.0.1 and a default subnet mask. The other computers on my office network

each use a different IP address in the same class, such as 90.0.0.2, 90.0.0.3,

90.0.0.4, and so on. This way, each computer has a permanent IP address, which

helps increase boot time. Note that if you change the IP addresses of your

computers, they must all use the same subnet mask. A default subject mask of

255.255.255.0 will keep you in good shape.

Make sure you understand the implications of changing IP addresses on your

network. If you have no networking experience at all, you may be wiser to leave

the automatic IP addressing as is and try to gain some speed using the additional

suggestions in this chapter.

Disabling Recent Documents History !

Windows XP includes a feature that keeps track of all recent documents you

have opened or used. The idea is that you can select Start/Recent Documents

History and quickly reopen any document you have recently used. I use many

documents each day and never use the feature myself. In my opinion, I can keep

up with what I want to use without Windows XP doing it for me.

The bad thing about Recent Documents History is that Windows XP has to

calculate what should be put there each time you boot Windows, which can slow

things down. So, if you never use the Recent Documents History, it’s a good idea

to disable it. Here’s how:

1. Open the Registry Editor (select Start/Run, type regedit, and click OK).

2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mcft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.

3. Create a NoRecentDocsHistory D_WORD key. Double-click the value to open

it once it is created.

4. Set the Data Value to 1 to enable the restriction.

5. Click OK and close the Registry Editor. You’ll need to restart the computer

for the change to take effect.

Disabling the Boot Logo !

You can remove the boot logo that appears when you start Windows XP. This

little tweak probably shaves only a few seconds off your boot time but seconds

count if you are serious about trying to get Windows XP up and running as

quickly as possible. The only negative is that if you remove the boot logo, you will

also not see any boot messages, such as check disk. (But if you are not having

problems with your computer, this isn’t such a big deal.)

To remove the boot logo, follow these steps:

1. Select Start/Run, type msconfig, and click OK.

2. In the System Configuration Utility, click the BOOT.INI tab.

3. On the BOOT.INI tab, click the NOGUIBOOT check box option. Click OK.

Removing Unwanted Fonts !

One trick that increases your boot time a bit is to lose any fonts in the Fonts

folder in Control Panel that you never use. The more fonts you have, the more

processing Windows XP has to do to prep all of those fonts for use. You must be

a bit careful here to not remove fonts that you might want, but there is a good

chance that you can live without many of them. For instance, you may have

foreign language fonts and other symbol fonts (such as Wingdings) that you

never use.

To delete unneeded fonts, follow these steps:

1. Open the Fonts folder in Control Panel.

2. Select Edit/Select All and then Edit/Copy.

3. Create a new folder on your desktop, open it, and select Edit/Paste.

4. In this new folder, delete any of the fonts you do not want.

5. Return to the Fonts folder in Control Panel. Right-click the selected fonts and

click Delete.

6. Go back to your new desktop folder and click Edit/Select All.

7. Return to your Fonts folder and click Edit/Paste. You now have only the

desired fonts in the Fonts folder.

Tip:

You can directly delete fonts from the Fonts folder without creating the

secondary folder. However, I recommend the preceding steps to help ensure that

you do not make a mistake in the deletion process.

Stopping Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop Sharing !

In Windows XP Professional, you have two remote networking features called

Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop Sharing. These remote networking

features are very helpful in a variety of situations but if you don’t use them, it is

good idea to disable them to save boot time. You can always enable them later if

you want to use them.

Note:

If you are interested in using Remote Desktop or Remote Assistance, see my

book Windows XP for Power Users: Power Pack published by John Wiley &

Sons.

1. Open the Start menu, right-click My Computer, and choose Properties.

2. Click the Remote Tab.

3. Clear both check boxes to disable Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop.

Speeding Up the Dual-Boot Timeout !

If you dual-boot your computer with Windows XP and another operating

system, you see an operating system selection menu on startup. If you typically

boot into Windows XP and not the other operating system, you can speed up the

dual-boot timeout value so that you do not wait so long for the boot process to

select your default operating system and continue with the boot process. The

default timeout value is 30 seconds but you can change this setting to 10. This

gives you enough time to select the alternate operating system if you want but

also speeds up the boot process. You can skip this section if you do not use a

dual-boot configuration.

Follow these steps:

1. Locate the boot.ini file on your computer. It is a hidden file by default; mine is

located in C:\boot.ini.

2. Open the file with Notepad (which is what opens it by default).

3. Change the Timeout value to 10 (see Figure 4-11).

4. Select File/Save and close Notepad.

Speeding Up Your PPPoE Connection !

If you use a Point-to-Point Protocol connection over Ethernet (PPPoE), you may

notice a delay in using the PPPoE connection after startup. By default, there is a

120 second delay but you can stop this behavior by manually configuring an IP

address for the network adapter card. If you do not use a PPPoE connection, you

can skip this section.

1. Select Start/Connect to/Show All Connections.

2. Open the TCP/IP properties for your LAN network interface card.

3. Manually set the IP address on the TCP/IP properties to an appropriate IP

address and subnet mask for your network.

Reducing the Wait Time

When you start to shut down Windows XP, it has to quit, or “kill,” any live

applications or processes that are currently running. So close all applications

first. However, some applications and processes are always running in the

background. You can reduce the amount of time that Windows XP waits for

those applications and processes to close before Windows XP kills them. Edit

three different Registry settings to change this:

1. Open the Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Select

WaitToKillAppTimeout and set the value to 1000.

3. Select the HungAppTimeout value and set it to 1000 as well.

4. Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop. Set the

WaitToKillAppTimeout and set the value to 1000. Select the HungAppTimeout

\newline value and set it to 1000 as well.

5. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control.

Select the WaitToKillServiceTimeout value and set it to 1000.

6. Close the Registry Editor.

Automatically Killing Tasks on Shutdown !

You know the drill. You start to shut down the computer, you wait a few

moments, and then you see a dialog box asking if you want to kill an application

or service that is running. Instead of prompting you, you can make Windows XP

take care of the kill task automatically. Here’s how:

1. Open the Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.

3. Highlight the value AutoEndTasks and change the value to 1.

4. Close the Registry Editor.