Windows XP Tips Part-III

21) To access the Administrator login/shutdown screen, log all users out and then press CTRL+ALT+DEL twice.

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22) To quickly access the computer management console, where you can see event logs (to see what's causing a problem, for example), right-click My Computer and choose Manage. Then, select the Event viewer and double-click highlighted events in the Applications or System areas to view detailed explanations of what went wrong. 

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23) Roxio Direct CD version 5.02 or older releases do not work properly under Windows XP-- they prevent the machine from shutting down properly; it restarts instead; Roxio has an update to 5.1 that solves the problem. However, there are other alternatives, too. A similar program is Instant CD/DVD V6.02 from www.vobinc.com.  It supports backing up to DVD-RAM/RW or CDRW and fully supports CDRW drag & drop and DVD drag & drop in Windows XP and earlier Windows releases. A 30-day demo download is available. Read more....

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24) Although the Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live is supported at a basic level by native Windows XP drivers, you can get additional features by installing Creative's Liveware 3.0. However, to get it to run successfully under XP, you'll need to replace the file called DEVLDR32.EXE with the version that comes on your the Windows XP CD, in i386/Drivers.Cab. Expand the cab Find DEVLDR32.EXE and copy it to a safe place.

Then install Liveware 3.0 for Windows 2000. When you reboot , make sure you boot into Safe mode (Press F8 at startup). Run the Task Manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL) and make sure DEVLDR32.EXE isn't running; if it is select it and click End Task. Then copy the DEVLDR32.EXE file you extracted earlier to your Windows/System32 folder and replace the Creative labs version. Read more....

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25) Although Windows XP comes with the cool-looking Windows Media Player 8.0, the older Windows Media Player 6.4 is installed, too. It's at C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\mplayer2.exe. Try it when playing movies -- it usually plays them more smoothly than WMP8.

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26) You don't need Adobe Type Manager to use PostScript Type 1 fonts under Windows XP. Just drag the Type 1 font files to your fonts folder; XP automatically installs and activates the font. This works for TrueType and OpenType fonts, too. 

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27) Want to remove that useless Welcome screen?
1 - Open TweakUI and go to About - Policy - Run Group Policy Editor
2 - Go to Administrative Templates - System - Logon - Don't display... welcome screen
3 - Set it to enable to remove the Welcome screen

And there is another option to remove the username from Start Menu:
1 - Open TweakUI and go to About - Policy - Run Group Policy Editor
2 - Go to User Configuration - Administrative Templates - Start Menu and Taskbar - Remove user name from Start Menu...
3 - Set it to enable to remove the username from the Start Menu
[Attribution: magoo, iexbeta]

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28) You can only uninstall Windows XP if you upgraded from Windows 98/98SE or Windows Me... not Windows 2000. If you are considering an XP upgrade from W2K, you should back up your drive first, so that you will not need to re-install everything should you encounter unexpected problems with XP. By the way, W2K users can only upgrade to the Pro version of XP.

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29) RhinoTrip at iexbeta discovered that you can run "wmiprvse.exe" as a process for quick shared network access to Win98/ME machines. Stick it in Startup or make it a service.

In the XP Networking forum over at NTCompatible.com, Robbie adds:

"On the PC running XP, log in as you normally would, go to users, manage network passwords.
Here is where the problem lies. In this dialog box remove any win98 passwords or computer-assigned names for the win98 PCs. In my case , I had two computer-assigned win98 pc names in this box (example G4k8e6). I deleted these names (you may have passwords instead). Then go to My Network Places and -- voilà -- no more delay!

Now, after I did this and went to My Network Places to browse the first Win98 PC, I was presented with a password/logon box that looked like this: logon: G4k8e6/guest (lightly grayed out) and a place to enter a password. I entered the password that I had previously used to share drives on the Win98 PCs long before I installed XP. I have the guest account enabled in XP.

This solves the problem for Win98 & XP machines on a LAN; I can't guarantee it will work for Win2K/ME machines as well, but the whole secret lies in the passwords.  If this doesn't solve your slow WinXP>Win98 access problems, then you probably have other things wrong. Don't forget to uncheck 'simple file sharing,' turn off your ICS firewall, enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP and install proper protocols, services & permissions."

[Attribution: RhinoTrip @ iexbeta and Robbie @ ntcompatible.com]

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30) The default Log-in password expires as a security precaution. If you've set your XP system up without a password, and you see this message (typically, 14 days after installation), just press Enter when prompted for the old and new passwords. For more control over  passwords (including the ability to change the default expiry behavior), run 'gpedit.msc' as noted in tip #15.