Display a list of Started Services from the Command Line (Windows)

To interact with the services panel from the command line, Windows provides the Net utility. From the command prompt, you can use this utility to start, stop, pause and continue services. What most people don’t realize is that you can also use this to display a list of services that are running on your computer.

Syntax:

net start

Provides this output(will vary based on your machine):

These Windows services are started:

Adobe Active File Monitor
Adobe LM Service
Application Layer Gateway Service
Ati HotKey Poller
Automatic Updates
Background Intelligent Transfer Service
Bluetooth Service
Cisco Systems, Inc. VPN Service
COM+ Event System
Computer Browser
Cryptographic Services
DCOM Server Process Launcher
DHCP Client
Distributed Link Tracking Client
DNS Client
Error Reporting Service
Event Log
FTP Publishing
Help and Support
HID Input Service
HP WMI Interface
IIS Admin
Infrared Monitor
Logical Disk Manager
Machine Debug Manager
Microsoft Search

Disable Fast User Switching on Windows XP

Fast User Switching is a way for users to quickly switch between accounts without having to fully log off. This is just one more service that doesn’t really need to be started.

1. Navigate to the Services console in Administrative tools.
2. Double-click on Fast User Switching and change Startup Type to disable.
3. Hit the Stop button if the service is started, and then hit OK.

One more unnecessary service stopped

Save CPU and RAM: Disable the Indexing Service on Windows XP

If there is one bloated and unnecessary service that you should immediately disable, it’s definitely the Indexing Service built into Windows XP. The idea behind it is that you can search for files more quickly if it is enabled…. but you are using Google Desktop for that, right?

The indexing service seems to eat up a lot of CPU on every machine I’ve used, especially when you have the amount of files that I’ve got. Let’s disable it.

1. Navigate to the Services console via Administrative Tools.
2. Double-click on the Indexing Service and change the startup type to disabled.
3. Hit the stop button if it is started, which is likely, and then hit OK.

Yet another unnecessary service stopped!

Defrag Multiple Hard Drives At Once In Windows

The Disk Defragment utility in Windows XP does not include a way to defragment all hard drives at the same time, which is inconvienient when you have more than one hard drive in your computer.

The method we are going to use is by creating a batch file to defragment all of the drives, one after the other.

The disk defrag utility in Windows XP can be triggered from the command line with the following syntax:

Windows Disk Defragmenter
Copyright (c) 2001 Microsoft Corp. and Executive Software International, Inc.
Usage:
defrag <volume> [-a] [-f] [-v] [-?]
 volume  drive letter or mount point (d: or d:volmountpoint)
 -a      Analyze only
 -f      Force defragmentation even if free space is low
 -v      Verbose output
 -?      Display this help text

First, we’ll create a file named defragall.bat, and place it anywhere you like, as long as you’ll remember where it is. If you want to run it from the command line, you could place it in the \windows directory so that it will be available in the system path.

For each hard drive, add a line to the batch file. For instance, if we want to defragment drives C: , D: , and F: we will add these three lines:

defrag c: -f
defrag d: -f
defrag f: -f

To run the defrag, just either double-click on the batch file or start it from the command line

WinXP Clear Page file on shutdown

WINXPCPS.REG (WinXP Clear Page file on shutdown)

This Registration (.REG) file clears the Page file when you power off the computer.
Restart Windows for these changes to take effect!
ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR SYSTEM BEFORE MAKING ANY CHANGES!

Browse to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE System CurrentControlSet Control Session Manager Memory Management

and add the DWORD variable “ClearPageFileAtShutdown”=dword:00000001

You can also do this without reg hacking.
Go to Control panel Administartative tools, local security policy. then goto local policies —> security options.
Then change the option for “Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile

creat apersonal screen saver in win xp

This isnt a tweak, but a great little feature! For a great way to put your digital photos to work, try creating a slide show presentation for use as a screen saver. Here’s how:

1. Right-click an empty spot on your desktop and then click Properties.

2. Click the Screen Saver tab.

3. In the Screen saver list, click My Pictures Slideshow.

4. Click Settings to make any adjustments, such as how often the pictures should change, what size they should be, and whether you’ll use transition effects between pictures, and then click OK.

Now your screen saver is a random display of the pictures taken from your My Pictures folder

Change The Storage Location Of My Documents

I just found out about this today, and I use Windows XP for some time now, so i guess there are others out there who don’t know about this yet.

But normally windows saves the “My Documents” folder on your C-drive.

But when you right-click on it and go to properties, you can change the location where you want windows to save your Documents folder.

I have a partition set up with just windows on it, and all my things i want to keep are on different partitions/disks. So now

I put My Documents on another partition than where I have windows installed. If windows screws up and you have to format your C-drive again, your documents will be spared at least

chang the default location for installing apps

As the size of hard drives increase, more people are using partitions to separate and store groups of files.

XP uses the C:\Program Files directory as the default base directory into which new programs are installed. However, you can change the default installation drive and/ or directory by using a Registry hack.

Go to :
1. Start > Run
2. Type “regedit” (without “” NOOBS!)
3. Go to this directory…
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
4. Look for the value named ProgramFilesDir. by default,this value will be C:\Program Files.

Edit the value to any valid drive or folder and XP will use that new location as the default installation directory for new programs.

Auto End Tasks to Enable a Proper Shutdown

This reg file automatically ends tasks and timeouts that prevent programs from shutting down and clears the Paging File on Exit.

1. Copy the following (everything in the box) into notepad.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory Management]
“ClearPageFileAtShutdown”=dword:00000001

[HKEY_USERS.DEFAULTControl PanelDesktop]
“AutoEndTasks”=”1″

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControl]
“WaitToKillServiceTimeout”=”1000″

2. Save the file as shutdown.reg
3. Double click the file to import into your registry.

NOTE: If your anti-virus software warns you of a “malicious” script, this is normal if you have “Script Safe” or similar technology enabled.

Turn Off System Restore to Save Space on your computer

By default, Windows XP keeps a backup of system files in the System Volume Information folder.

This can eat up valuable space on your hard drive. If you don’t want Windows to back up your system files:

1.Open the Control Panel.
3. Double-click on System.
3.Click the System Restore tab.
4. Check “Turn off System Restore on all drives”.
5. Hit Apply.

You may now delete the System Volume Information folder.

Disable error reporting

To disable the stupid feature in WinXP which tries to send a report to microsoft every time a program crashes you will have to do this:

1. Open Control Panel
2. Click on Preformance and Maintenance.
3. Click on System.
4. Then click on the Advanced tab
5. Click on the error reporting button on the bottom of the windows.
6. Select Disable error reporting.
7. Click OK
8. Click OK

All Finished, all error reports disabled

Turn Off Autoplay for Program CDs

How can you stop Windows XP from launching program CDs?
Click Start, click Run, type GPEDIT.MSC to open Group Policy in the Microsoft Management Console.

Double-click Computer Configuration, double-click Administrative templates, double-click System, and then click Turn off autoplay.

The instructions on your screen describe how to configure this setting. Click Properties to display the setting dialog.

Click Enabled, and choose CD-ROM drives, then click OK, to stop CD autoplay.
This setting does not prevent Autoplay for music CDs

Add album art to any music folder with ease

One of the coolest new features in Windows XP is its album thumbnail generator, which automatically places the appropriate album cover art on the folder to which you are copying music (generally in WMA format).

But what about those people that have already copied their CDs to the hard drive using MP3 format? You can download album cover art from sites such as cdnow.com or amguide.com, and then use the new Windows XP folder customize feature to display the proper image for each folder.

But this takes time–you have to manually edit the folder properties for every single folder–and you will lose customizations if you have to reinstall the OS. There’s an excellent fix, however.

When you download the album cover art from the Web, just save the images as folder.jpg each time and place them in the appropriate folder.

Then, Windows XP will automatically use that image as the thumbnail for that folder and, best of all, will use that image in Windows Media Player for Windows XP (MPXP) if you choose to display album cover art instead of a visualization.

And the folder customization is automatic, so it survives an OS reinstallation as well. Your music folders never looked so good!

Album cover art makes music folder thumbnails look better than ever