Windows Tips & Tricks

Prevent Frequent Disconnections in Windows 98

2007-05-12T01:17:00.000-07:00

If you get disconnected frequently, try this extra modem setting:

Go to Modems in Control Panel (Start > Settings > Control Panel)
From Modems select Properties, select the Connection Tab, click the Advanced button
In the Extra settings dialog box, enter S10=50

This will force the modem to stay connected without a carrier, up to 5 seconds.

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Configuring Windows XP Applications for Dual Core Processors

2007-05-12T01:13:00.000-07:00

If you have a dual-core processor, you may discover that certain older applications that ran fine on systems with a single core CPU have problems running with two cores. For example, your application may suddenly begin maxing out the CPU usage at 100 percent, appearing to lock up. Windows XP Professional's Processor Affinity setting allows you to work around such problems by configuring older applications to use only one of the cores. Here's how to set it up:

Access Task Manager.
Choose the Processes tab.
Right-click the process associated with the problem application.
Select the Set Affinity command. (If you don't have a dual-core system, you won't see the Set Affinity command.)
From the Processor Affinity dialog box, clear one of the CPU check boxes.

You could perform this manual operation every time you run the application, but the THG Task Assignment Manager (available for download from Tom's Hardware) allows you to create profiles that automatically assign applications to a specific CPU every time you run them.

Note: This tip applies only to Windows XP Professional.

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View Non-present Devices on Windows XP

2007-05-11T23:31:00.000-07:00

When troubleshooting driver problems in Windows XP, one of the first places you may look is Device Manager, which provides detailed information about every piece of installed system hardware. In light of devices such as removable USB drives becoming more and more common, you may need information about devices that are not currently connected; Device Manager recognizes these as non-present devices. Here's how to get information about these devices:

Go to Start, right-click My Computer, and select Properties.
In the System Properties dialog box, select the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.
In the Environment Variables dialog box, locate the System Variables panel and click New.
In the New System Variable dialog box, type DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES in the Variable Name text box and type 1 in the Variable Value text box.
Click OK twice.
To view the non-present devices, go to Start, right-click My Computer, and select Manage.
Click Device Manager, pull down the View menu, and select Show Hidden Devices.

Note: This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional.

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USB Architecture in Windows XP

2007-05-11T23:29:00.000-07:00

As long as you have enough power, attaching many USB devices to your Windows XP system can't cause degradation in performance -- even if you attach as many as 127 USB devices at one time.

While it's unlikely for that many devices to be connected at a time, that number is made possible by Windows XP's seven-tiered USB topology. The top, or tier number one, consists of the host controller or root hub, which is the USB hub built into the computer's motherboard. Tiers two through six are equipped to consist of a series of USB hubs (two or more at each tier) daisy chained together. Tier seven consists of any devices attached to the USB hub(s) at tier six.

While USB hubs can draw power from the root hub, the amount of power is limited to 100 milliamperes per port, and the hub can only have four ports. However, most USB hubs have their own external AC adapter and can provide up to 500 milliamperes of power per port on more than four ports.

Follow these steps to learn more about the root hub and the USB hubs attached to your system in Device Manager:

Go to Start, right-click My Computer, and select Manage.
Click Device Manager in the left pane.
Click Universal Serial Bus Controllers in Device Manager.
Double-click each root and USB hub and check the information on the tabs.

Note: This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional.

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Speed Up Windows XP Shutdown

2007-05-11T23:25:00.000-07:00

If your Windows XP Pro system slows or even stops when you shut it down, there's a good chance that Terminal Services is the reason. Users often overlook Terminal Services as a possible source of shutdown problems because it works quietly in the background.

Terminal Services is the brains behind such things as Remote Desktop, Remote Assistance, Fast User Switching, and Terminal Server. If you're not using any of these programs, you can disable Terminal Services. If you are using any of these programs, you can stop Terminal Services and reconfigure it to start up manually. Here's how:

Right-click My Computer and select Manage.
In the Computer Management window, open the Services And Applications branch in the left pane and click Services.
In the Services pane, locate and double-click Terminal Services.
In the Terminal Services Properties dialog box, click the Stop button and then set the Startup Type setting to either Disabled or Manual.
Click OK and then close the Computer Management window.
Restart Windows.

If you don’t find Terminal Services in the Services pane, or if it is there but is already disabled, or Windows still hangs during shutdown even after you change the Startup Type setting, then the source of your shutdown problem is not related to Terminal Services.

Note: This tip applies only to Windows XP Professional.

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Command Prompt Command History on Windows XP

2007-05-11T23:22:00.000-07:00

If you often work from Windows XP's command prompt, chances are you know that you can cycle through a list of all the commands that you've typed in a particular session using the up and down arrows on your keyboard. You can also change the size of this history list by clicking the command button in the upper left corner, selecting the Properties command and and then changing the buffer size number on the Options tab under Command History.

Particularly, if you mostly work on *nix system, you would surely miss the history command on Windows.

By default, the buffer size is set to 50, which means that the command history can potentially contain a lot of commands, making it difficult to cycle through all the commands that you've typed by using the up and down arrows on your keyboard. Fortunately, there's an easier way.

At the command prompt, enter the following command:

DOSKEY /history

When you do so, you'll see a full listing of all the commands that you've entered in a current session.

Note: This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional.

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Delete Duplicate Files on Windows XP To Free Space

2007-05-11T23:17:00.000-07:00

Even if you're a computer user keen on keeping your system healthy (i.e., you regularly delete unnecessary files, empty the Recycle Bin, and run Disk Defragmenter), you may be unaware of a potentially big waster of hard disk space: duplicate files. Applications can litter your hard disk with duplicate files, or you can actually create duplicate files by copying files from one folder to another.

Windows XP's default installation doesn't provide you with a decent utility for tracking down duplicate files. However, Microsoft does have a tool called Duplicate Finder, which is part of the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support Tools. Here's how to install and use the Duplicate Finder tool:

Download the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support Tools and follow the instructions for installing the Complete installation version.
Open the Run dialog box by pressing [Windows]R.
Type Dupfinder in the Open text box and click OK.
Once DupFinder loads, simply select the drive or folder to search and then click the Start Search button.
When DupFinder completes its search, you can scan through the list and examine the duplicate files.

Here are tips for working with the list of duplicate files:

Use either the Print Report or Export Data commands on the File menu to create a permanent record of the duplicate files.
Use the Sort command on the View menu to reorganize the list for better analysis.
To get more detailed information about any file, select the file, pull down the File menu, and select the Info command.
Leave duplicate files in the Windows folder and its sub folders alone.
If you don't recognize the duplicate file, it's better to use the Rename or Move commands on the File menu rather than the Delete command.

Note: This tip applies to both Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional.

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