Turn off Personalized
Menus
Stop Security Center
from whinging
Customise your Start
menu
Install TweakUI, enable
tab completion
Use proper search
No to all
|
You may have the hottest hardware
under the sun, but it's nothing if your system
isn't running smoothly. After all, it's the
little things that make life bearable, and given
the undeniable nature of software to be
annoying, you'll want to set it up exactly how
you like. To that end, we've taken a dive into the
highly chlorinated pool of most commonly used
software, and come out itching with some handy
hints to make life a little easier. Note that a
number of these tips require administrator
access to your machine, and you may not (and
most likely should not) be able to do them at
work! - So come, wade with us, the water's
fine... |
Windows XP SP3
Note for the sake of this article, the
Classic View is used for Control Panel.
Turn off Personalized
Menus
Microsoft's Personalized Menus
was an interesting idea — hide
the commands you don't use often
to create a more streamlined
interface. Unfortunately all it
did was annoy users as they
couldn't find the menu entry
they wanted. To turn them off if
you're using the Classic Start
menu:
- Right-click on the
Start
button and click on
Properties
- Click Customize
- Scroll to the bottom of
the Advanced Start
menu options box
and untick Use
Personalized Menus
and click OK
You can also get rid of the evil
things in Office 2003:
- Right-click on a toolbar
and choose Customize
- Click the
Options tab
- Check Always
show full menus
- Click the Close
button
|
Customise your Start
menu
There's a number of options you
can choose to make the Start
menu a bit friendlier. For
example, for faster access to
Control Panel applications and
your network details, you can
expand their entries in the
Start menu.
- Right-click on an empty
space on the task bar, and
then click on
Properties
- Click on the
Start Menu tab.
Click the active
Customize button
- If you're using the
Classic Start Menu,
select Expand
Control Panel
and Expand
Network Connections
- If you're using the
standard Start Menu, in
the Control
Panel section
select Display
as a menu.
Network Connections
sadly doesn't obey the
same behaviour here, but
you can do the next best
thing and set it to link
to the right place —
under the
Network Connections
section, select
Link to Network
Connections folder
- Click OK,
then OK
again to effect the changes
There's plenty of other
options here, so feel free to
prod around.
An expanded Control Panel
and Network Connections
option should speed up your
navigation
|
Use proper search
By default, Windows XP hides a
bunch of files from the search
engine. It also uses a
plasticine-looking dog called
the "Search Companion" that
you'll want to get rid of post
haste.
- Open Windows Explorer,
and hit F3
to open the search panel
- Click the Change
preferences link, and
then the Without an
animated screen character
link
- Click Change
preferences again, then
click Change files and
folders search behavior
link and select the
Advanced option,
then click OK
- Expand the newly seen
More advanced
options section by
clicking on it, and make
sure Search system
folders,
Search hidden files and
folders and
Search subfolders
is selected to get the best
possible search results
How the search engine should
be
|
|
Stop Security Center
from whinging
Security Center, which was
introduced with Service Pack 2
and is still very much present
in Service Pack 3, likes to tell
you all the time that your
system is insecure, especially
if you've got Automatic Updates
turned off, or a firewall or
antivirus running that it
doesn't recognise. To silence
its complaints:
- Go to Start
> Settings
> Control Panel
> Security Center
- On the left-hand side of
the application click the
link that says Change the
way Security Center alerts
me
- Uncheck the item(s)
causing you grief — either
Firewall,
Automatic Updates,
Virus Protection
— then click OK
No, we're not as insecure as
you think we are.
|
Install TweakUI, enable
tab completion
No Windows XP user should be
without TweakUI. Amongst its
bundle of tweaks, it can set the
autocomplete function properly
for Command Prompt — meaning
that you only have to type the
first letter of the file or
directory you want, then hit
TAB and Command
Prompt will fill in the rest. If
it brings up the wrong answer,
simply hit TAB
again to cycle to the next, or
press SHIFT +
TAB to go
backwards if you've gone too
far.
- Download
TweakUI and install it
- Run the program, then go
to the Command
Prompt section and
set Filename
completion and
Directory completion
to TAB,
then click OK
Tab completion makes Command
Prompt work bearable
|
No to all
When moving files, Windows XP
will give four options:
Yes, Yes to All,
No and
Cancel. Sometimes
though, you want a No to All
— to enable this, just hold down
SHIFT while
clicking No.
Where's the "No to All"?
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