Windows XP Cookbook

Preston Gralla, the author of more than 30 books, including Internet Annoyances and Windows XP Hacks, is also a freelance journalist and columnist. He has written for major national newspapers and magazines, including PC Magazine, Computerworld, the Los Angeles Times, the Dallas Morning News (where he was the technology columnist), USA Today, and several others. A well-known technology expert, Preston has also appeared on many TV and radio programs and networks, including CNN, MSNBC, and NPR. In addition, he's won a number of awards for his writing, including Best Feature in a Computer Magazine from the Computer Press Association. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Robbie Allen is a Technical Leader at Cisco Systems where he has been involved in the deployment of Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, and several Network Management solutions. He enjoys working on Unix and Windows, and his favorite programming language is Perl. Robbie was named a Windows Server MVP in 2004 and 2005 for his contributions to the Windows community and publication of several popular O'Reilly books. Robbie is currently studying at MIT in the System Design and Management program. For more information, see Robbie's website at www.rallenhome.com.

Preface 1. Introduction Approach to the Book At Least Three Ways to Do It Where to Find the Tools Running Tools with Alternate Credentials A Brief Word on Windows Scripting Where to Find More Information 2. Operating System Installation and Maintenance 2.0 Introduction 2.1 Preparing to Install Windows XP 2.2 Installing from a CD or DVD 2.3 Installing from a Network Share 2.4 Installing from an nattended Installation 2.5 Cloning Windows XP Installations 2.6 Installing from Remote Installation Services (RIS) 2.7 Troubleshooting Installation Problems 2.8 Upgrading to Windows XP 2.9 Creating a Multiboot Installation 2.10 Troubleshooting Multiboot Problems 2.11 Activating Windows XP 2.12 Viewing the Installed Service Pack and Hotfixes 2.13 Installing a Hotfix 2.14 Installing a Service Pack 2.15 Slipstreaming a Service Pack or Hotfix into a Build 2.16 Configuring Automatic Updates 2.17 Disabling the Windows Firewall After Installation 2.18 Keeping an Installation Process Worm- and Virus-Free 3. Managing Hardware and Devices 3.0 Introduction 3.1 Adding Hardware 3.2 Resolving Unknown Devices 3.3 Repairing a Missing Modem 3.4 Recovering from a Bad Device Driver Update 3.5 Using the Last Known Good Configuration to Resolve Hardware Problems 3.6 Running Windows in Safe Mode 3.7 Using System Restore to Recover from a Hardware-Induced Problem 3.8 Resolving Device Conflicts 3.9 Resolving USB Bandwidth Problems 3.10 Resolving Hung USB Devices 3.11 Keeping USB Devices from Disappearing 3.12 Curing Stubborn USB Devices 3.13 Revealing Hidden Devices 3.14 Checking Drivers with the Driver Verifier Tool 3.15 Resolving Printer Timed-Out and Not Ready Problems 3.16 Troubleshooting Local Printing Problems 3.17 Printing to a USB Printer from DOS 3.18 Resolving Failed Network Printing with Internet Connection Sharing 3.19 Interpreting Device Manager Error Codes 3.20 Troubleshooting Sound Problems 3.21 Troubleshooting Video Problems 3.22 Troubleshooting Video Monitor Problems 3.23 Stopping LCD Monitor Resolution Messages 3.24 Interpreting Windows INF Files 3.25 Figuring out AUTORUN.INF Files 3.26 Correcting Parameters in BIOS 3.27 Troubleshooting CD Autorun Software Installation Problems 3.28 Troubleshooting CD-ROM and DVD-ROM Reading Problems 3.29 Resolving DVD Reading and DVD Movie Problems 3.30 Restoring Access to CD-ROMs 4. Installing, Uninstalling, and Working with Applications 4.0 Introduction 4.1 Uninstalling "Unremovable" Components 4.2 Removing Unruly Applications 4.3 Removing Stubborn Uninstall Entries from Already Uninstalled Programs 4.4 Changing the Default Location for Installing Applications 4.5 Launching Applications with Keyboard Shortcuts 4.6 Customizing the Way Applications Open Using Switches and Parameters 4.7 Running Older Applications 4.8 Using the Application Compatibility Toolkit to Solve Compatibility Problems 4.9 Troubleshooting Application Compatibility 4.10 Running DOS Programs in Their Own Optimized Environments 4.11 Forcing Older Programs to Use Windows XP Common Controls 4.12 Using Keyboard Application Shortcuts 4.13 Moving a New Microsoft Application to Another Windows XP System 4.14 Remotely Installing a Microsoft Application Using Group Policy 4.15 Remotely Redeploying a Microsoft Application Using Group Policy 4.16 Remotely Uninstalling a Microsoft Application Using Group Policy 5. Customizing the Interface 5.0 Introduction 5.1 Getting Rid of Undeletable Desktop Icons 5.2 Changing "Unchangeable" Desktop Icons and System Objects 5.3 Showing Your XP Version on Your Desktop 5.4 Turning Off Balloon Tips 5.5 Cleaning Your Desktop Automatically 5.6 Adding an Address Bar to the Taskbar 5.7 Adding a Shortcut to a Disk, Folder, or Internet Address to the Taskbar 5.8 Hiding Specific Icons in the Notification Area 5.9 Hiding All Icons in the Notification Area 5.10 Controlling the Start Menu's Frequently Used Programs List 5.11 Customizing the Start Menu's Pinned Programs List 5.12 Displaying Control Panel Applets in a Cascading Menu 5.13 Hiding and Recategorizing Control Panel Applets 5.14 Customizing Right-Click Menu Choices in Windows Explorer 5.15 Changing the Resolution of Thumbnails in Windows Explorer 5.16 Improving Laptop and LCD Resolution with ClearType 5.17 Converting to the Classic Windows Interface 5.18 Using TweakUI 5.19 Using Group Policy Editor to Alter the Interface 5.20 Saving Your Desktop Settings 5.21 Fixing the Start Shortcut Menu 5.22 Troubleshooting My Recent Documents 6. System Properties, Startup, and Shutdown 6.0 Introduction 6.1 Automatically Setting the Time on a Domain-Connected PC 6.2 Automatically Setting the Time on a PC Not Connected to a Domain 6.3 Changing the System Name 6.4 Create a Multiboot Menu 6.5 Using Virtual PC to Run Multiple Operating Systems Simultaneously 6.6 Performing a Clean Boot 6.7 Shutting Down Unnecessary Programs and Services that Run on Startup 6.8 Speeding Up Shutdown Time 6.9 Changing Your Boot Screen 6.10 Personalizing Your PC's Sounds 6.11 Creating Power Schemes 6.12 Extending Battery Life on a Laptop 6.13 Changing the Location of Your Startup Folders 6.14 Disabling Error Reporting 6.15 Creating Environment Variables 6.16 Creating a Reboot or Shutdown Shortcut 6.17 Scheduling a Reboot 6.18 Speeding Up System Startup 7. Disks, Drives, and Volumes 7.0 Introduction 7.1 Viewing the Disk, Drive, and Volume Layout 7.2 Converting a Basic Disk to Dynamic 7.3 Enabling Disk Performance Statistics 7.4 Formatting a Volume 7.5 Setting the Drive Letter of a Volume 7.6 Setting the Label of a Volume 7.7 Cleaning Up a Volume 7.8 Defragmenting a Volume 7.9 Compressing a Volume 7.10 Checking a Volume for Errors 7.11 Making a Disk or Volume Read-Only 7.12 Mapping a Network Drive 7.13 Creating a Virtual Drive to Another Drive or Folder 7.14 Finding Large Files and Folders on a Volume 7.15 Enabling Disk Quotas 7.16 Limiting a User to a Specified Disk Quota 7.17 Viewing Disk Quota Usage 8. Files, Folders, and Shares 8.0 Introduction 8.1 Creating and Deleting a File 8.2 Creating and Deleting a Folder 8.3 Undeleting a File 8.4 Securely Deleting a File 8.5 Viewing the Properties of a File or Folder 8.6 Creating a Shortcut 8.7 Creating a Link or Junction Point 8.8 Creating a Program Alias 8.9 Searching for Files or Folders 8.10 Copying, Moving, or Renaming a File or Folder 8.11 Comparing Files or Folders 8.12 Hiding a File or Folder 8.13 Making a File or Folder Read-Only 8.14 Compressing a File or Folder 8.15 Encrypting a File or Folder 8.16 Replacing a File That Is in Use 8.17 Taking Ownership of a File or Folder 8.18 Finding Out Who Opened or Modified a File Last 8.19 Finding Open Files 8.20 Finding the Process That Has a File Open 8.21 Viewing File Activity 8.22 Performing an Action on Several Files at Once 8.23 Creating and Deleting Shares 8.24 Viewing Shares 8.25 Restricting Access to a Share 8.26 Enabling Web Sharing 8.27 Publishing a Share in Active Directory 9. The Registry 9.0 Introduction 9.1 Creating and Deleting a Key 9.2 Setting a Value 9.3 Setting Keys or Values Using Group Policy 9.4 Exporting Registry Files 9.5 Importing Registry Files 9.6 Searching the Registry 9.7 Comparing the Registry 9.8 Restricting Access to the Registry 9.9 Backing Up and Restoring the Registry 9.10 Creating a Registry Link 9.11 Monitoring Registry Activity 9.12 Viewing Processes That Have a Registry Key Open 10. Processes, Tasks, and Services 10.0 Introduction 10.1 Viewing the Running Processes 10.2 Viewing the Properties of a Process 10.3 Viewing the Resources a Process Is Using 10.4 Suspending a Process 10.5 Killing a Process 10.6 Running a Task with Alternate Credentials 10.7 Running a Task on a Remote System 10.8 Running a Task Automatically via the Registry 10.9 Running a Task Automatically via Login Scripts 10.10 Running a Task via Group Policy 10.11 Viewing All Automatic Tasks 10.12 Scheduling a Task 10.13 Viewing Scheduled Tasks 10.14 Deleting a Scheduled Task 10.15 Troubleshooting Scheduled Tasks 10.16 Starting and Stopping a Service 10.17 Running Any Program or Script as a Service 10.18 Setting the Startup Type of a Service 10.19 Setting the Account and Password of a Service 10.20 Performing an Action Automatically When a Service Fails 10.21 Viewing the Antecedent and Dependent Services for a Service 10.22 Viewing the Service Load Order 10.23 Viewing the Startup History of a Service 10.24 Granting Permissions to Manage One or More Services 11. Digital Media 11.0 Introduction 11.1 Ripping Digital Music 11.2 Creating a Playlist 11.3 Burning a CD 11.4Troubleshooting CD Burning 11.5 Playing Internet Radio Stations 11.6 Protecting Your Privacy in Windows Media Player 11.7 Searching Through Digital Media Collections Using Metadata 11.8 Capturing Video to Your PC 11.9 Making Your Own DVDs 11.10 Converting Images Easily Between Graphics Formats 11.11 Processing Images for Email and the Web 12. Network Configuration 12.0 Introduction 12.1 Viewing the Network Configuration 12.2 Disabling a Connection 12.3 Configuring an IP Address 12.4 Renewing or Releasing a DHCP IP Address 12.5 Configuring DNS Settings 12.6 Registering DNS Records or Flushing the DN Cache 12.7 Finding a Computer's Active Directory Site 12.8 Managing Routes 12.9 Viewing the Open Ports and Connections 12.10 Troubleshooting Network Connectivity Problems 12.11 Configuring TCP/IP Filtering 12.12 Measuring Link Speed and Latency Between Two Hosts 12.13 Installing the IPv6 Stack 13. The Internet 13.0 Introduction 13.1 Using a HOSTS File to Speed Up Web Access 13.2 Troubleshooting DNS Problems 13.3 Installing Internet Information Services (IIS) 13.4 Using the IIS MMC Snap-in to Manage Your Internet Servers 13.5 Setting Up and Configuring a Telnet Server 13.6 Use the Telnet Administrator to Manage a Telnet Server 13.7 Customizing Internet Explorer's Log and Titlebar 13.8 Blocking Pop Ups 13.9 Protecting Your Privacy by Handling Cookies Properly 13.10 Protecting Yourself Against Spyware 13.11 Customizing Internet Explorer Security Settings 13.12 Allowing Programs to Bypass the Windows Firewall 13.13 Tracking Firewall Activity with a Windows Firewall Log 13.14 Protecting Yourself with the ZoneAlarm Firewall 13.15 Surfing the Web Anonymously 13.16 Finding and Reading RSS Feeds 14. Wireless Networking 14.0 Introduction 14.1 Installing a Wireless Adapter 14.2 Installing a Wireless Router 14.3 Connecting to Your Wireless Network 14.4 Troubleshooting WiFi Network Connections 14.5 Speeding Up a WiFi Network 14.6 Keeping Your WiFi Network Secure 14.7 Setting Up WiFi Encryption 14.8 Mixing 802.11b and 802.11g Devices 14.9 Setting Up an Ad Hoc Wireless Network 14.10 Connecting to a Hotspot 14.11 Sending Email from a Hotspot 14.12 Stopping Hotspot "Stuttering" 14.13 Protecting Yourself at Hotspots 15. User, Group, and Computer Accounts 15.0 Introduction 15.1 Creating a User Account 15.2 Unlocking a User 15.3 Troubleshooting Account Lockout Problems 15.4 Viewing and Modifying the Account Lockout and Password Policies 15.5 Enabling and Disabling a User Account 15.6 Setting a User's Password 15.7 Setting a Domain User's Account Options 15.8 Setting a Domain User's Profile Attributes 15.9 Finding a Domain User's Last Logon Time 15.10 Creating a Group Account 15.11 Viewing the Members of a Group 15.12 Viewing a User's Group Membership 15.13 Adding and Removing Members of a Group 15.14 Creating a Computer Account 15.15 Joining a Computer to a Domain 15.16 Renaming a Computer 15.17 Resetting a Computer Account 16. Event Logs and Log Files 16.0 Introduction 16.1 Creating an Event 16.2 Viewing Events 16.3 Creating a New Event Log 16.4 Viewing the Size of an Event log 16.5 Setting the Maximum Size of an Event Log 16.6 Setting the Event Log Retention Policy 16.7 Clearing the Events in an Event Log 16.8 Restricting Access to an Event Log 16.9 Searching an Event Log 16.10 Searching the Event Logs on Multiple Systems 16.11 Archiving an Event Log 16.12 Finding More Information about an Event 16.13 Triggering an Action When an Event Occurs 16.14 Troubleshooting a Corrupt Event Log 16.15 Enabling Boot Logging 16.16 Enabling User Environment Logging 16.17 Enabling NetLogon Logging 16.18 Enabling Windows Installer Logging 16.19 Enabling Windows Time Service Logging 16.20 Enabling Outlook Logging 16.21 Troubleshooting Application Failures with the Dr. Watson Logs 17. Security and Auditing 17.0 Introduction 17.1 Analyzing Your Security Configuration 17.2 Enabling Auditing 17.3 Renaming the Administrator and Guest Accounts 17.4 Disabling or Removing Unused Accounts, Services, and Software 17.5 Enabling Screen Saver Locking 17.6 Disabling Storage of the LM Password Hash 17.7 Requiring Strong Passwords 17.8 Getting Notified of New Security Vulnerabilities 18. Performance Tuning 18.0 Introduction 18.1 Speeding Up System Performance with the Task Manager 18.2 Tracking System Performance with the Performance Console 18.3 Using Memory More Efficiently 18.4 Balancing System Performance and Visual Effects 18.5 Optimizing Page File Size 18.6 Cleaning Up Your Hard Disk 18.7 Converting Your Hard Disk to NTFS 18.8 Disabling Startup Services and Programs 18.9 Removing Unnecessary Items from the Notification Area 18.10 Improving Startup Performance 19. Backup and Recovery 19.0 Introduction 19.1 Performing a Backup 19.2 Restoring from Backup 19.3 Using Automated System Recovery 19.4 Creating an ASR Disk "After the Fact" 19.5 Using System Restore to Revive a Broken Machine 19.6 Disabling System Restore Remotely 19.7 Retrieving a Shadow Copy of a Corrupted or Deleted File 19.8 Using XCOPY for Interim Backups 19.9 Using the Recovery Console During Boot Failures 19.10 Creating a Password Reset Disk 19.11 Recovering and Decrypting an Encrypted File or Folder 19.12 Backing up and Restoring Activation Data 19.13 Auditing Backup and Restore Actions 19.14 Caring for Backup Media 20. Crashes and Errors 20.0 Introduction 20.1 Using Safe Mode 20.2 Using Last Known Good Configuration 20.3 Using Boot Log to Trace Problems 20.4 Using VGA Mode to Solve Video Problems 20.5 Using Recovery Console 20.6 Repairing AUTOEXEC.NT or CONFIG.NT Errors 20.7 Fixing Cryptographic Services Error 20.8 Fixing NTOSKRNL Errors 20.9 Fixing a HAL Error 20.10 Fixing Corrupted or Missing /WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/CONFIG Errors 20.11 Fixing NTLDR or NTDETECT Not Found Errors 20.12 Configuring Error Reporting 20.13 Troubleshooting Blue Screen Error Messages 20.14 Setting Up and Using Dr. Watson to Troubleshoot Errors Appendix: Summary of Windows XP Versions and Service Packs Index