A few tips and tricks you can do in Windows XP!

Disclaimer: Before performing any of these, please note, all these are possible and worked under testing conditions. Neither me, nor CE is responsible for the damage caused to your system or files, by the following procedures. Use these at your own risk. I say this because, it uses the system's advanced processes. Just be careful.

Changing a user's password without knowing the old password
Press 'Start'.
Press 'Run'.
Type 'cmd'.
Then type 'net user'.
A list of users in your computer appears.

Type 'net user accountname *'.
(accountname is the name of the user account, one of those displayed in the above steps)

Then type the new password and press Enter.
You will be asked to retype the password for confirmation.
Type the same password and press Enter.

The password will be changed. You need not know the old password!
I am not sure whether this would work with the guest accounts, as all the corporate systems' users are guest users or limited users!

Screenshot:


Disable XP Boot Logo
It is possible to disable the XP splash screen, which will slightly speed up the overall boot process. Be aware that removing the splash screen will also cause you not to see any boot-up messages that might come up (chkdsk, convert ... ), but if your system runs without any problems then it should not matter.
1. Edit boot.ini.
2. Add " /noguiboot" right after "/fastdetect".
Upon restarting, the splash screen will be gone. It can be re-enabled by removing the new switch.

Turn Off Indexing to Speed Up XP
Windows XP keeps a record of all files on the hard disk so when you do a search on the hard drive it is faster. There is a downside to this and because the computer has to index all files, it will slow down normal file commands like open, close, etc. If you do not do a whole lot of searches on your hard drive then you may want to turn this feature off:
- Open My Computer.
- Right-click your hard drive icon and select Properties.
- At the bottom of the window you'll see "Allow indexing service to index this disk for faster searches," uncheck this and click ok.
- A new window will pop up and select Apply to all folders and subfolders.
It will take a minute or two for the changes to take affect but then you should enjoy slightly faster performance.

Clean Your Prefetch to Improve Performance
This is a unique technique for WinXP. We know that it is necessary to scrub registry and TEMP files for Win9X/ME/2000 periodically. Prefetch is a new and very useful technique in Windows XP. However, after using XP some time, the prefetch directory can get full of junk and obsolete links in the Prefetch catalog, which can slow down your computer noticeably.
- Open C(system drive):/windows/prefetch, delete those junk and obsolete files, reboot. It is recommended that you do this every month.

Auto Login
- Go to Start/Run, and type 'control userpasswords2'.
- From Users Tab, Uncheck "Users must enter ...."
- A dialog will allow setting a user and password to be used automatically.

Use the Ultimate Configuration Tool (Professional Edition Only)
One of the most full featured Windows XP configuration tools available is hidden right there in your system, but most people don't even know it exists. It's called the Local Group Policy Editor, or gpedit for short.

To invoke this editor:
- Select Start and then Run, then type the following:
gpedit.msc

After you hit Enter, you'll be greeted by gpedit, which lets you modify virtually every feature in Windows XP without having to resort to regedit.