Thursday, December 16, 2010

Paging File

To clear the Windows paging file (Pagefile.sys) during the shutdown process and prevent any unsecured data from being contained after the shutdown process is complete. Some third-party programs can temporarily store unencrypted (plain-text) passwords or other sensitive information in memory.

Method 1

Open Control Panel
Select Administrative Tools
Select Local Security Policy
Select Local Policies
Click on Security Options
In the right hand menu, right click on Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile
Select Enable
Reboot

Method 2

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Control\Session Manager
Memory Management

Double click on ClearPageFileAtShutdown
Set Value = 1
Click OK
Reboot

Quick Reinstall

To repair a corrupted operating system. This also works on Windows 2000.

On the Windows CD, go to the location of your source files
Run WINNT32 /unattend

E-mail Message Count

Under your name on the Welcome screen, there is a hyperlink that indicates the number of unread e-mail messages. To remove the Unread E-mail message count by user's login names: This feature is not always active in XP for some reason.

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft\Windows
CurrentVersion
UnreadMaili

Click Edit
Click New
Select Create DWORD value = MessageExpiryDays
Set Value = 0
Click OK

Administrator Logon

If the administration logon is not show on the Welcome screen

To access it...

· Hold down Ctrl and Alt and press Del twice

To unhide the Administrator account so it always shows up...

· Click Start

· Click Run

· Enter regedit

· Click OK

· Go to

o HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

o SOFTWARE

o Microsoft

o Windows NT

o CurrentVersion

o Winlogon

o SpecialAccounts

o UserList

· If Administrator exists...

o Double Click on Administrator

o Set Value = 1

o Click OK

· If Administrator doesn't exist...

o Click Edit

o Click New

o Select DWORD value

o Enter the name Administrator

o Double Click on line

o Set value = 1

o Click OK

Registration

To change your name and company information...

· Click Start

· Click Run

· Enter regedit

· Click OK

· Go to

o HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

o SOFTWARE

o Microsoft

o Windows NT

· Double click on CurrentVersion

· Change the value in the Registered Owner key

· Click OK

To set that online registration has been completed...

· Click Start

· Click Run

· Enter regedit

· Click OK

· Go to

o HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

o SOFTWARE

o Microsoft

o Windows NT

o CurrentVersion

· Click Edit

· Click New

· Create a String value = RegDone

· Set Value = 1

· Click OK

Passwords

To change the password to never expire. This is identical to Windows 2000 for the same issue.

· Right click My Computer

· Select Manage

· Go to Local Users and Groups/Users

· Right-click on user to change

· Select Properties

· On General tab, check Password never expires

· Click OK

To allow logging in without a password... (Do not recommend)

· Click Start

· Click Run

· Enter gpedit.msc

· Click OK

· Select Computer Configuration

· Select Windows Settings

· Select Security Settings

· Select Local Policies

· Select Security Options

· Double click on Accounts

· Disable the option Limit local account use of blank passwords to console login only

User Names (Show/Hide)

To hide/unhide the users on the logon screen...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Windows NT
CurrentVersion
Winlogon
SpecialAccounts
UserList

Click Edit
Click New
Select Add DWORD value = name of the user account you want to hide
To hide, set value = 0
To unhide, set value = 1
Click OK

Fast User Switch

To fix the the error referencing CSGina.DLL that a recently installed program has disabled the Welcome screen and Fast User Switching ...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Windows NT
CurrentVersion
Winlogon

Delete key GinaDLL

File System Cache

To help speed up the system, increase the amount of memory to use for I/O operations...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Control\Session Manager
Memory Management

Edit IoPageLockLimit

4096 =32MB or less
8192 =32MB
16384 = 64MB
32768 = 128MB
65536 = 256MB+

Bandwidth

If you run an application that needs to send high priority/real time data, XP will restrict "best effort" traffic to 80% of the bandwidth.

To change this...

Log in as Administrator (Not just any account with admin privileges)
Click Start
Click Run
Enter gpedit.msc
Select Local Computer Policy
Select Administrative Templates
Select Network
Select QOS Packet Scheduler
In the right window, double-click limit reservable bandwidth
On setting tab, check enabled setting
Bandwidth limit % value = 0
Click OK
Close gpedit.msc

Click My Computer

Select My Network Connections
Select View Network Connections
Right-click your connection

Under Protocol Properties, check QOS Packet Scheduler
Reboot

TCP/IP

To reinstall the TCP/IP protocol stack...

· netsh int ip reset [ log_file_name] The log_file_name needs to be specified

Example: netsh int ip reset ip_reset.txt

To change TCP/IP settings...

· Click Start

· Click Run

· Enter regedit

· Click OK

· Go to

o HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

o SYSTEM

o CurrentControlSet

o Services

o TCP/IP

o Parameters

· Edit or Create the following...

o GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize="256960" (DWORD)

o Tcp1323Opts="1" (DWORD)

o DefaultTTL="64" (DWORD)

o EnablePMTUDiscovery="1" (DWORD)

o EnablePMTUBHDetect="0" (DWORD)

o SackOpts="1" (DWORD)

o TcpMaxDupAcks="2" (DWORD)

· Reboot

NetBEUI

It is recommended that you do not install NetBEUI unless absolutely needed. It is no longer supported by Microsoft. You can add it by going to the VALUEADD\MSFT\NET\NETBEUI directory on your CD.

In the example below, C:\WINDOWS represents the common drive\directory where XP is installed.