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Windows XP Release Candidate Tips 'n' Tricks
Make Windows XP RC1 and RC2 work the way you
want 'em to
Please
note that some of these tips might require you
to use a Registry Editor (regedit.exe), which could render your
system unusable. Thus, none of these tips are supported in any way:
Use them at your own risk. Also note that most of these tips will
require you to be logged on with Administrative rights.
NOTE: These tips have been
verified to work with Windows XP build 2505
(RC1) and 2526 (RC2). Older Beta 2 tips--many of which do work
in RC1 and RC2, by the way--can be found here.
UPDATED! Newer tips can be found at
the bottom of this
page.
Add album art to any music
folder
Contributed by Richard Davidson
This
is easily my favorite tip! One of the coolest new features in
Windows XP is its album thumbnail generator, which automatically
places the appropriate album cover art on the folder to which you
are copying music (generally in WMA format). But what about those
people that have already copied their CDs to the hard drive using
MP3 format? You can download album cover art from sites such as
cdnow.com or amguide.com, and then use the new Windows XP folder
customize feature to display the proper image for each folder. But
this takes time--you have to manually edit the folder properties for
every single folder--and you will lose customizations if you have to
reinstall the OS. There's an excellent fix, however.
When you
download the album cover art from the Web, just save the images as
folder.jpg each time and place them in the appropriate folder. Then,
Windows XP will automatically use that image as the thumbnail for
that folder and, best of all, will use that image in Windows Media
Player for Windows XP (MPXP) if you choose to display album cover
art instead of a visualization. And the folder customization is
automatic, so it survives an OS reinstallation as well.
Your music folders never looked so good!
Album cover art makes music folder thumbnails
look better than ever!
Change the location of the My Music or My Pictures
folders
Contributed by Larry Samuels
In Windows 2000, Microsoft added the
ability to right-click the My Documents folder and choose a new
location for that folder in the shell. With Windows XP, Microsoft
has elevated the My Music and My Pictures folders to the same
"special shell folder" status of My Documents, but they never added
a similar (and simple) method for changing those folder's locations.
However, it is actually pretty easy to change the location of these
folders, using the following method.
Open a My Computer window and navigate to the location where
you'd like My Music (or My Pictures) to reside. Then, open the My
Documents folder in a different window. Drag the My Music (or My
Pictures) folder to the other window, and Windows XP will update all
of the references to that folder to the new location, including the
Start menu.
Add/Remove optional features of Windows
XP
Contributed by Ong Choon Keong and Hans
Breemer
I first mentioned this
technique in an old Technology
Showcase for Windows 2000, but it still works in Windows XP, and
can be quite useful: For some reason, Microsoft has removed the
ability to specify which Windows components you want to install
during interactive Setup, and when you go into Add/Remove
Windows Components in the
Control Panel, you still don't have the full list of applications
and applets you can add and remove. Thankfully, this is easy to fix.
To dramatically expand the list of applications you can remove
from Windows XP after installation, navigate to
C:\WINDOWS\inf (substituting the correct drive letter for
your version of Windows) and open the sysoc.inf file. Under Windows
XP Professional Edition RC1, this file will resemble the
following by default:
[Version] Signature = "$Windows
NT$"
DriverVer=06/26/2001,5.1.2505.0
[Components]
NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4
WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7
Display=desk.cpl,DisplayOcSetupProc,,7
Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7
NetOC=netoc.dll,NetOcSetupProc,netoc.inf,,7
iis=iis.dll,OcEntry,iis.inf,,7
com=comsetup.dll,OcEntry,comnt5.inf,hide,7
dtc=msdtcstp.dll,OcEntry,dtcnt5.inf,hide,7
IndexSrv_System =
setupqry.dll,IndexSrv,setupqry.inf,,7
TerminalServer=TsOc.dll,
HydraOc,
TsOc.inf,hide,2
msmq=msmqocm.dll,MsmqOcm,msmqocm.inf,,6
ims=imsinsnt.dll,OcEntry,ims.inf,,7
fp_extensions=fp40ext.dll,FrontPage4Extensions,fp40ext.inf,,7
AutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,au.inf,hide,7
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
msnexplr=ocmsn.dll,OcEntry,msnmsn.inf,,7
smarttgs=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,msnsl.inf,,7
RootAutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,rootau.inf,,7
Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,,7
AccessUtil=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,accessor.inf,,7
CommApps=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,communic.inf,HIDE,7
MultiM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,multimed.inf,HIDE,7
AccessOpt=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,optional.inf,HIDE,7
Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,HIDE,7
MSWordPad=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wordpad.inf,HIDE,7
ZoneGames=zoneoc.dll,ZoneSetupProc,igames.inf,,7
[Global]
WindowTitle=%WindowTitle%
WindowTitle.StandAlone="*"
The entries that include the text hide or HIDE
will not show up in Add/Remove Windows Components by default. To fix
this, do a global search and replace for ,hide and change
each instance of this to , (a comma). Then, save the file,
relaunch Add/Remove Windows Components, and tweak the installed
applications to your heart's content.
Cool, eh? There are even more new options now
under "Accessories and Utilities" too.
Remove Windows Messenger
Contributed by Claus Bruun and many
others
It seems that a
lot of people are interested in removing Windows Messenger for some
reason, though I strongly recommend against this: In Windows XP,
Windows Messenger will be the hub of your connection to the .NET
world, and now that this feature is part of Windows, I think we're
going to see a lot of .NET Passport-enabled Web sites appearing as
well. But if you can't stand the little app, there are a couple of
ways to get rid of it, and ensure that it doesn't pop up every time
you boot into XP. The best way simply utilizes the previous tip:
If you'd like Windows Messenger to show up in the list of
programs you can add and remove from Windows, navigate to
C:\WINDOWS\inf (substituting the correct drive letter for
your version of Windows) and open sysoc.inf (see the previous tip
for more information about this file). You'll see a line that
reads:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
Change this to the following and Windows Messenger will appear in
Add or Remove Programs, then Add/Remove Windows Components, then ,
and you can remove it for good:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,7
Kiss Windows
Messenger goodbye!
Display the Sharing Tab in Folder Properties
NEW!
Contributed by Paul
Knight
In Windows 2000, getting to the Sharing
options for a folder was simple: Just right-click, choose
Properties, and you'd see a Sharing tab. In Windows XP, this
seems to be missing, and the Beta 2 trick to displaying it (hold
down CTRL as you right-click) no longer works.
But fear not, you can still cause your Windows XP RC1 or RC 2
system to display the Sharing tab if desired. Simply open up
Folder Options (My Computer, then Tools, Folder Options) and
navigate to the View tab. In the Advanced Settings section, scroll
down to the bottom and uncheck Use simple file sharing
(Recommended), a Mickey Mouse feature if there ever was one.
Now share your folders on the LAN as you would in Windows 2000.
Use the Windows Sound Scheme NEW!
Contributed by Keith
Furman
Windows XP RC1 and RC2 ship with a nice new sound
scheme, but it's not loaded by default for some reason. So once
you've installed Windows XP, one of the first things you should do
is get that new sound scheme loaded.
To do so, open up Control Panel and navigate to Sounds, Speech,
and Audio Devices. Then, choose the task titled Change the sound
scheme. In the dialog that appears, choose Windows
Default for the sound scheme. Windows will ask you whether you
want to save the previous scheme, which is usually a brain-dead
questions, since no scheme was previously loaded. So choose No, and
then click OK to exit the dialog.
Use the ultimate configuration tool NEW!
Contributed by several readers
One of
the most full featured Windows XP configuration tools available is
hidden right there in your system, but most people don't even know
it exists. It's called the Local Group Policy Editor, or gpedit for
short. To invoke this editor, select Start and then Run, then type
the following:
gpedit.msc
After you hit ENTER, you'll be greeted by gpedit, which lets you
modify virtually every feature in Windows XP without having to
resort to regedit. Dig around and enjoy!
GPEDIT: It's your best friend for
XP configuration.
I'm always looking for more good tips! If you've got something interesting, please
send them along.
--Paul Thurrott
July 5, 2001
Updated August 3, 2001
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