Speed up viewing shared files across a network

Windows 2000 & XP machines delay as long as 30 seconds when you try to view shared files across a network because Windows is using the extra time to search the remote computer for any Scheduled Tasks. Here's how to prevent this remote search for Scheduled Tasks:
Open up the Registry and go to :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace

Under that branch, select the key :

{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}

and delete it.

If you like you may want to export the exact branch so that you can restore the key if necessary. This fix is so effective that it doesn't require a reboot and you can almost immediately determine yourself how much it speeds up your browsing processes.

Enable / Disable Firewall

Open Control Panel and double click on Network Connections. In the new box that appears right click on the Connection and click on the Advanced tab. Check or uncheck the box according to your desire.

Remove Shared Documents in Windows

Open Regedit(Start- Run- Regedit) and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Explorer My Computer NameSpace DelegateFolders

There will see a sub-key named {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}. By Deleting this you can remove the 'Other Files stored on This Computer' group.

How to Hide 'User Accounts' from users

Go to Start/Run, and type:

GPEDIT.MSC

Open the path

User Config > Admin Templates > Control Panel

doubleclick "Hide specified Control Panel applets"

put a dot in 'enabled', then click 'Show"

click Add button,

type "nusrmgt.cpl" into the add box.

Restoring the Recycle Bin after deleting it from the registry

Ok, so I deleted the recycle bin from the system registry, because I wanted it off of my desktop, but now it's gone from my computer! Go to Start < Run < Type regedit
Find [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\
Click Edit < New < Key Then paste {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} and hit enter. Restart.

Restoring Media Player

To restore Windows Media Player insert the the XP CD into the CD drive (if it autostarts click exit). Open a command window and type the following :

rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection InstallWMP7 132 c:\windows\inf\wmp.inf

Load Applications Faster

Microsoft has this command in which to start up applications much faster just like Microsoft's Windows Media Player.

1) Choose an application that you want to start up quicker.
2) Create a shortcut and place it on the desktop.
3) Right click the shortcut item and click properties.
4) In the target field you will have it pointing to the location of the application. For Example it will say "C:\Program Files\Washer\washer.exe"
5) Add /prefetch:1 right after the last " marks in the target field. So you will have something that looks like this..
"C:\Program Files\Washer\washer.exe" /prefetch:1
6) Amazingly the application will start up quicker. For some applications like Kazaa Lite and some other 3rd party applicatins, this tweak will not work. You will get an error messege if it doesn't work properly. If you get the error, just simply remove the /prefetch:1 from the target field of the shortcut and the original shortcut will work fine again.

Internet Explorer lightning-fast startup

Isn't it annoying when you want to go to a new website, or any other site but your homepage, and you have to wait for your 'home' to load?
This tweak tells Internet Explorer to simply 'run', without loading any webpages. (If you use a 'blank' page, that is still a page, and slows access. Notice the 'about:blank' in the address bar. The blank html page must still be loaded..). To load IE with 'nothing' [nothing is different than blank]:
1. Right-click on any shortcut you have to IE[You should create a shortcut out of your desktop IE icon, and delete the original icon]
2. Click Properties
3. Add -nohome [with a space before the dash] after the endquotes in the Target field.
4. Click OKFire up IE from your modified shortcut, and be amazed by how fast you are able to use IE!

Fix Windows Media Player Library Problems

If you move your music around on your computer to different location on the hard drive a lot, you will end up with a quite a few broken entries in your Windows Media Player library. When you open up the same music file from a different location, Media Player will think that it is a new song and will add it yet again to your library resulting in various duplicate entries. As you can see, if you move your music around a lot, such as after you organized the file structure, you can end up having duplicate entries in your Windows Media Player libary with some of the entires pointing to files that are now in a different location. To fix this problem, you are going to want to compleatly remove the library file so that it can be automatically regenrated. To do this, follow the steps below:
1.If you have Windows Media Player started, close it so the library file will not be in use.
Navigate to X:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Index with Windows Explorer or using My Computer.
2.Locate the wmlibrary...db file and erase it.
3.Start Windows Media Player once again and hit F3 once it has started up.
4.Enter the location that you music is and Windows Media Player will create a new library.
5.Now you do not have to worry about duplicate entries and entries and point to moved files in your music library.

Turn off Welcome screen

Open User Accounts in Control Panel.
Click Change the way users log on or off