How to's in XP sp3. =================== By Lorence Lombardo (lorylombus@gmail.com). Date commenced:- 17-Feb-2017 Last modified:- 14-Oct-2022 Here are some "XP how to's" that I have saved from the internet as PDF's with my browser. Quite often I have searched for these how to topics more than once so I have decided to bundle them into a single archive. The "how to's" are as follows:- Disable_Balloons_in_XP.pdf Remove_Items_from_XP_Startup.pdf Remove_Startup_Items_in_the_registry.pdf XP_Disable_Page_File.pdf (I am using the pagefile these days) xp_Disable_Ctfmon.pdf What_is_WebFldrs.pdf Disable_Autoplay.pdf Also putting msconfig & regedit on your desktop might speed things up a little. You may find msconfig in "C:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\binaries" and regedit in "C:\WINDOWS". Right click on these two and select "Send To -> Desktop (create shortcut)" to place them on the desktop. Also I recommend changing the default text viewer to WordPad rather than Notepad. To change the default text viewer to Wordpad, right click on a text file outside of a zipped archive with the mouse. Then select the "Properties" menu item, click on the "Change..." button and then select WordPad. Now you will have WordPad support within zipped archives. A startup manager can make life a little bit more easier such as "Starter" from here:- http://codestuff.obninsk.ru/products_starter.html This startup manager will disable offending items from your startup and delete their registry entries at the same time. Also with "Starter" you can temporarily disable items you are not sure about, as far as msconfig is concerned it is a removed item and if you choose then re-enable the item. Adding paths ============ The task of adding paths can be made a lot easier with the Rapid Environment Editor from here:- www.rapidee.com If you have a sufficient framework installation then you can also use the path manager from here:- https://sourceforge.net/projects/pathmanager/ If you are looking for a close replacement to the original Notepad then the closest I have seen is here:- http://jsimlo.sk/notepad/ Some additional features are zooming and fullscreen toggle. A registry cleaner is also worth considering. www.lifewire.com/free-registry-cleaners-2626176 I like SlimCleaner because it also has a disk optimizer which is also suitable for SSD's. The XP supplied defragment is not suitable for use on SSD's. Optimizing the SSD just before a system backup is good idea in my opinion. Having desktop icon alignment problems ? Shortcuts having names that are too long can cause these problems especially if using the large font. Try renaming "Rapid Environment Editor" to "REE" and "Free Download Manager" to "FDM". XP HardDrive BackUp =================== Here I will explain my own personal HardDrive backup procedure in hope that it will be useful but ultimately if you decide to use this information you do so at your own risk. My XP HardDrive is a 120GB NTFS formatted SSD. For the purpose of backups I have purchased a 128GB USB flash drive and have re-formatted it with NTFS using rufus to ensure that I have support for file sizes greater than 4GB. https://rufus.akeo.ie/ I have downloaded the latest "Xubuntu 16.04.2 LTS" ISO and burned it to DVD with Nero but perhaps with rufus or similar a bootable USB can also be created. http://xubuntu.org/ With the backup USB inserted I now boot "Xubuntu 16.04.2 LTS" and select "Try Xubuntu" for a live session rather than a permanent installation for starters. Once booted you may want to optionally adjust your display and time settings so that you are comfortable. Now open a terminal and enter "sudo apt-get install pv" without the quotes. "pv" is needed for the purpose of benchmarking and progress indication. In the terminal now enter "lsblk" and note the lack of drive labels. On the desktop now double click on the USB backup flash drive, then in the terminal enter "lsblk" and note the USB drive label. On the desktop now double click on the XP HardDrive, then in the terminal enter "lsblk", note its label and corresponding device name. Now in accordance with the "lsblk" information I have obtained in the terminal I enter the following:- sudo dd bs=4M if=/dev/sda | pv | gzip -c > /media/xubuntu/128GB/mySSDbk.img.gz This takes less than 39 minutes on my Pentium Dual Core @ 2.93GHz, while browsing the internet and talking on IRC. Optionally the integrity of the gzip is tested in the terminal as follows:- gzip -t -v /media/xubuntu/128GB/mySSDbk.img.gz Its OK so now I write the backup image back to the source immediately for the purpose of this explanation as follows:- gzip -d -c /media/xubuntu/128GB/mySSDbk.img.gz | pv | sudo dd bs=4M of=/dev/sda The 9.56GB image takes just under 15 minutes to write back to the source, again while browsing the internet and talking on IRC. Now I reboot to XP and open a terminal also known as a "Command Prompt". In the XP terminal I then enter "chkdsk c:" without the quotes and no errors are reported. For re-sizing partitions I like "Partition Wizard" from here:- www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html I used this tool to up scale from a 32gb SD backup to a 120gb SSD. Also GParted from the Xubuntu DVD could be used which I also like. https://www.partitionwizard.com/help/align-partition.html http://www.filepuma.com/download/minitool_partition_wizard_free_edition_9.1-9405/ Getting over 3GB ================ With the "VSuite Ramdisk Free Edition" I was able to dedicate the unused 1GB as a Ram Disk. https://download.cnet.com/VSuite-Ramdisk-Free-Edition/3000-2122_4-10906583.html See "RamDrive.png" for more details. Other useful software links =========================== http://www.timesynctool.com/ http://www.pool.ntp.org/en/ http://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/ https://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd/ http://www.fs-driver.org/ http://www.7-zip.org/ http://codecguide.com http://www.xpcodecpack.com/ http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/gzip.htm http://www.chrysocome.net/dd ; <-Dont forget to use an administrator shell...!!! https://www.techspot.com/downloads/6171-yumi.html https://www.npackd.org/p/net.sourceforge.unetbootin.UNetbootin/681