Windows Xp tweaks

Windows XP Tweaks


Opening Blurb


This tutorial will show you a few simple graphical & performance tweaks you can do to windows XP to make using the system a nicer experience. It also customises your system just that little bit more.

The Tweaks

• Add/Remove Items From SendTo Menu
• Renaming the recycle bin
• Changing Default Installation DIR
• Selecting "No To All" When Copying Files

Add/Remove Items From The SentTo Menu


For those of you who don't know what the SendTo menu is, it is the function in XP ( as well as many other O/S ) to right click a file, and select a location to send it to. Now usually there are only the predefined places to go, or places other programs have added, but what if you want to put your own places there? Such as second hard drives or other folders? It's really quite simple. For those of you who don't know what the SendTo menu looks like, an example is below.



The great thing about this tweak, is it doesn't involve any registry editing, so even inexperienced users will be able to do it.

Step One:


Firstly open up Run which is situated in the Start menu.



Step Two:


Next type "sendto" into the box that appears.



Step Three:


Drag and drop different locations from around your computer, into that box.

[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]




I have dragged links to all my hard drives into there, but you could put anything, for example a link to My Pictures or a link to My Music. You can put whatever you want in there.

[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]

Renaming the recycle bin


Say your bored of the term "Recycle Bin" and want to change it to something else? But alas right clicking and trying to find "Rename" does not work? There is however a fairly simple registry edit which allows you to change the name of your "Recycle Bin".

Step One


Firstly open up Run which is situated in the Start menu.



Step Two


Next type "regedit" into the box that appears.



Hit ok and you will be met with a screen as below

[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]





Step Three


Next, using the file structure to the left, you need to navigate to the following key, or create it if it is not there.
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVe rsionExplorerCLSID
{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]




Step Four


Double click the key in the right hand window, and add your new recycle bin name.

[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]




Then hit ok, and your recycle bin will be renamed. You may need to hit F5 on the desktop for it to change.

Changing Default Installation DIR


Step One


Firstly open up Run which is situated in the Start menu.



Step Two


Next type "regedit" into the box that appears.



Hit ok and you will be met with a screen as below

[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]




Step Three


Next, using the file structure to the left, you need to navigate to the following key, or create it if it is not there.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentV ersion

[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]




Step Four


Double click the key in the right hand window, and add your new installation DIR.

[Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]



Then hit ok, and your default installation DIR will be changed.

Selecting No To All When Copying Files


Isn't it annoying when your copying a large amount of files and a half of them are duplicates? Especially when XP only offers the "Yes to all" option. Well there is a simple solution to that. When met with the screen below, simply hold "Shift" and hit "No". It will then remember that you want to answer no to them all, and wont have to overwrite all your identical files.



This greatly reduces the amount of time it takes to copy file when there are duplicates you don't want to overwrite.

source: techtuts