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Thread ID: 27716	2002-11-29 06:42:00	WXPTFTW - Windows XP Tips for the Weekend	Babe Ruth (416)	Press F1

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102554	2002-11-29 06:42:00	WXPTFTW - Windows XP Tips for the Weekend Ok here's the first of (hopefully) a weekly Windows XP Tips session . Tips are from various sources, with thanks this week to Microsoft, Mark Minasi and John Savill . 1 Make it Clear 2 Hate that Search 3 Taskbar do my thing 4,5,6a,6b Common Places, uncommon tricks (3) Next week some SETUP tips and one or two extras for the novii, plus tame that registry scrawl . As always if you are going to modify the registry of your system, back it up first . {Start RUN Regedit Within regedit right click on the My Computer icon (right at the beginning of the registry) And select EXPORT . Give the exported registry file a realistic name to save . } Cheers, Babe . ========== 1 . Turn on ClearType Get that extra text clarity you've always wanted . The Microsoft ClearType technology can be enabled in Windows XP to smooth all fonts at all sizes, making the whole system so much easier to read . To turn on ClearType: 1 . Click Start, then Control Panel, and then click Appearance and Themes . 2 . Click the Display icon, then the Appearance tab, and then Effects . 3 . Click the Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts check box and select ClearType from the list . 4 . Click OK, and then click OK again . 2 . Hate that Search Companion? To get rid of the Search Companion and go back to the old way of searching, open up the Registry Editor (regedit . exe) and navigate to the following location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\CabinetState Then, add a new String Value called Use Search Asst and set the Data Value to No . 3 . Make your Taskbar do forced-window-clustering Any application that has "n" windows open will automatically cluster, regardless of how full your taskbar is . To set this, open up the Registry Editor (regedit . exe) and create a REG_DWORD with the name TaskbarGroupSize in the following location of the Registry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\Advanced Now, set this new key to 2 or the number of windows for each application you want to have on the screen before they are clustered together on the taskbar . You must either kill explorer and re-launch it, or logoff and log back in before this will take affect . 4 . Change the Common Places Bar - Windows Xp Pro ONLY To configure your Places bar (Windows Xp Pro only) in XP's common dialogs, and make it easier to open files from common locations, you need to edit a local policy . Here's how . 1 . Run the Local Group Policy Editor (Start, then Run, then gpedit . msc) 2 . Open the following policy: User Configuration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Windows Explorer | Common Open File Dialog | Items Displayed in Places Bar Click on the EXPLAIN tab for a full explanation of what can be put in the boxes 5 . Change the Common Places Bar - Windows 2000, Windows Xp Pro or Home Edition You can modify the five default quick links in the Open and Save common dialog boxes by performing the following steps: Start a registry editor (e . g . , regedit . exe) . (START | RUN and in the run box type REGEDIT and Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\comdlg32 subkey . (If this subkey doesn't exist, select New, Key from the Edit menu to create it . ) From the Edit menu, select New, Key . Enter a name of Placesbar and press Enter . Navigate to the new registry subkey . You can create five entries (Place0, Place1, Place2, Place3, and Place4) . Make each entry either a string value (REG_SZ) entry (for a named folder) or a DWORD value (REG_DWORD) entry (for a special folder, such as My Documents or My Network Places) . To create a new entry, go to the Edit menu, select New, DWORD Value or New, String Value (as appropriate), enter a name of Placen (e . g . , Place0, Place4), and press Enter . Double-click the entry and set its REG_SZ "Value data" to a path and folder name or its REG_DWORD "Value data" to a numeric ID (the table below shows a partial list of these numeric IDs - the shlobj . h file, which is part of the platform software development kit (SDK), defines the full list of special numeric IDs) . Close the registry editor . For example, the registry file below sets shortcuts to My Documents, the CD burning folder, and three named folders . Windows Registry Editor Version 5 . 00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion Policies\comdlg32\Placesbar] "Place0"=dword:00000005 "Place1"=dword:0000003b "Place2"="d:\\temp" "Place3"="d:\\documents" "Place4"="g:\\windows" This change will not affect applications within the Microsoft Office suite but will affect applications, such as Notepad and Paint, that use the Open and Save common dialog boxes . Each new entry you add will replace one of the default quick links . 0 Desktop 1 Internet Explorer 2 Start Menu \Programs 3 My Computer \Control Panel 4 My Computer \Printers 5 My Documents 6 <user name> \Favorites 7 Start Menu \Programs\Startup 8 <user name> \Recent 9 <user name> \SendTo a <desktop> \Recycle Bin b <user name> \Start Menu c logical "My Documents" desktop icon d "My Music" folder e "My Videos" folder 10 <user name> \Desktop 11 My Computer 12 Network Neighborhood (My Network Places) 13 <user name> \nethood 14 Windows\Fonts 16 All Users\Start Menu 17 All Users\Start Menu\Programs 18 All Users\Startup 19 All Users\Desktop 1a <user name> \Application Data 1b <user name> \PrintHood 1c <user name> \Local Settings\Applicaiton Data (nonroaming)0x001d // nonlocalized startup 1e Nonlocalized common startup 1f Common favorites 20 Internet Cache 21 Cookies 22 History 23 All Users\Application Data 24 GetWindowsDirectory() 25 GetSystemDirectory() 26 C: \Program Files 27 C: \Program Files\My Pictures 28 USERPROFILE 29 x86 system directory on RISC 2a x86 C: \Program Files on RISC 2b C: \Program Files\Common 2c x86 Program Files\Common on RISC 2d All Users\Templates 2e All Users\Documents 2f All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools 30 <user name> \Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools 31 Network and Dial-up Connections 35 All Users\My Music 36 All Users\My Pictures 37 All Users\My Video 38 Resource Directory 39 Localized Resource Directory 3a Links to All Users OEM specific apps 3b USERPROFILE\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\CD Burning 6a . Customise the Places Bar Office2000 / Office XP Adding a User-Defined Entry to the Places Bar To add user-defined entries to the Places Bar in Office2000 / Office XP Save, Save As, and Open dialog boxes, use the following steps: 1 . Click Start, and click Run . 2 . In the Open box, type regedit and click OK . 3 . Locate and select the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9 . 0\Co mmon\Open Find\Places {for Office2000} OR HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10 . 0\C ommon\Open Find\Places {for Office XP} 4 . On the Edit menu, point to New, click DWORD value, and name the DWORD value ItemSize . Right-click Name and click Modify . Type 0 for the Value data, and click OK . ItemSize sets the use of large or small icons in the Places Bar . You can only display five large icons if you set ItemSize to 1 . The Places Bar section in the Office 2000 Save As and Open dialog boxes does not scroll, and you are limited to a maximum of 10 items in small icon format . 5 . Locate and select the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9 . 0\Co mmon\Open Find\Places\UserDefinedPlaces {for Office2000} OR HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10 . 0\C ommon\Open Find\Places\UserDefinedPlaces {for OfficeXP} 6 . On the Edit menu, point to New, click Key, and name the key PlaceX, where X is a numeral between 1 and 10 . 7 . On the Edit menu, point to New, click String value, and name the String value Name . Right-click Name and click Modify . Type Name for the Value data, where Name is the text displayed in the Places Bar for the shortcut that you are adding . Click OK . 8 . On the Edit menu, point to New, click String value, and name the String value Path . Right-click Path and click Modify . Type PathName for the Value data, where PathName contains the entry to any drive or UNC path combination . Click OK . 9 . On the Edit menu, point to New, click DWORD value, and name the DWORD value SortAscending . Right-click SortAscending and click Modify . Type 1 for the Value data, and click OK . If SortAscending is set to 1 and Index is set to 0, it places the user-defined item in ascending order within the list of user-defined items . 10 . On the Edit menu, point to New, click DWORD value, and name the DWORD value Index . Right-click Index and click Modify . Type 0 for the Value data, and click OK . If Index is set to 1 through 10, the PlaceX Name entry appears in that position in the user-defined list and ignores the sort order . 1 1 . On the Registry menu, click Exit . 6b . Removing a Default Icon in the Places Bar You can also remove default icons from the Places Bar by modifying the system registry . NOTE: At least one icon will always be displayed in the Places Bar . If you attempt to remove all default icons from the Places Bar, the Desktop icon will remain . If you have added one custom icon, you will see it instead of the Desktop icon . If your operating system is Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP Pro, and you have Office 2000-SR-1 or Office XP, you can hide the Places Bar by using System Policies . To remove each default icon from the Places Bar in the Office 2000 Save As and Open dialog boxes, follow these steps: 1 . Click Start, and click Run . 2 . In the Open box, type regedit and click OK . 3 . Locate and select the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9 . 0\Co mmon\Open Find\Places\StandardPlaces {for Office2000} OR HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10 . 0\C ommon\Open Find\Places\StandardPlaces {for OfficeXP} 4 . Double-click the StandardPlaces folder . 5 . Click the folder that you do not want to appear in the Places Bar . The following table lists the default items displayed in the Places Bar . Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, and Microsoft Windows NT 4 . 0: Name in Registry Name in Places Bar Desktop Desktop Favorites Favorites MyDocuments My Documents Publishing Web Folders Recent History Microsoft Windows 2000 and Microsoft Windows XP: Name in Registry Name in Places Bar Desktop Desktop Favorites Favorites MyDocuments My Documents Publishing My Network Places Recent History 6 . On the Edit menu, point to New, click DWORD value, and name the DWORD value Show . Right-click Name and click Modify . Type 0 for the Value data, and click OK . 7 . The DWORD value "Show set to 1" displays the icon, whereas "Show set to 0" hides the icon . 8 . On the Registry menu, click Exit .	Babe Ruth (416)
102555	2002-11-29 07:56:00	Oh Babe, your blood should be bottled! :x Have saved this page for reference and the first thing I'm going to try is reset the Search Companion . I've given it a chance, I've given it long enough but I just can't get used to two or three extra steps to find things . Thanks for my highly successful Wednesday tip too . ;-) Fridays are really going to be even better than ever now! :D	Susan B (19)
102556	2002-11-29 18:01:00	WoW! Pretty comprehensive. Itd be great to see something like this become a weekly posting!	Chilling_Silence (9)
102557	2002-11-29 20:45:00	Went to Turn on Clear Type, in XP Home Edition, Control Panel, no icon for Appearances and Themes Went to Help and Support, typed in ClearType, instructions are go to Control Panel, Display, then as advised. Note there is a warning that ClearType may appear blurry on desktop monitors but is ideal for portables and flatscreen monitors, plus some instructions about colour settings.	FrankS (257)
102558	2002-11-29 22:54:00	Hey Susan, that's plagiarism. :O It's Godfather's blood that should be bottled, Babe's can be on tap though if you want. :^O At least Babe modified xxFTWE enough to avoid copyright arguments. :D Good idea though. Thinks.....Must see how many WFTWE's I have posted. Should be a milestone issue coming up soon.	Billy T (70)
102559	2002-12-02 06:38:00	Babe - thank you. I've been trying for ages (searching PF1 included) on a way to change my default places and adding my own...have created links to the 3 most commonly used folder I have, and it works perfectly....cheers and thanks again.	falvrez (390)
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