32 Cool Tips for Windows XP

1. Press Win+L to switch to the Welcome screen.
2. Press Win+L to lock your workstation.
3. You can switch users without going through the Welcome screen:
From Task Manager, go to the Users tab, right-click a user, and select
Connect.
4. Hold down the shift key in the shutdown dialog to change "Stand By"
to "Hibernate". Or just press H to hibernate instantly. You can even
use the Power Control Panel to configure your power button to
hibernate.
5. To disable the password when resuming from standby or hibernation,
open the Power Control Panel and uncheck "Prompt for password after
returning from standby" on the Advanced tab.
6. You can rename multiple files all at once: Select a group of files,
right-click the first file, and select "Rename". Type in a name for
the first file, and the rest will follow.
7. Hold down the shift key when switching to thumbnail view to hide
the file names. Do it again to bring them back.
8. When dragging a file in Explorer, you can control the operation
that will be performed when you release the mouse button:
- Hold the Control key to force a Copy.
- Hold the Shift key to force a Move.
- Hold the Alt key to force a Create Shortcut.
9. If you create a file called Folder.jpg, that image will be used as
the thumbnail for the folder. What's more, that image will also be
used as the album art in Windows Media Player for all media files in
that folder.
10. From the View Menu, select "Choose Details" to select which file
properties should be shown in the Explorer window. To sort by a file
property, check its name in the "Choose Details" in order to make that
property available in the "Arrange Icons by" menu.
11. To display the volume control icon in the taskbar, go to the
Sounds and Audio Devices Control Panel and select "Place volume icon
in the taskbar".
12. Hold down the shift key when deleting a file to delete it
immediately instead of placing it in the Recycle Bin. Files deleted in
this way cannot be restored.
13. If you hold down the shift key while clicking "No" in a Confirm
File Operation dialog, the response will be interpreted as "No to
All".
14. To save a document with an extension other than the one a program
wants to use, enclose the entire name in quotation marks.
For example, if you run Notepad and save a file under the name
Dr.Z
it will actually be saved under the name Dr.Z.txt. But if you type
"Dr.Z"
then the document will be saved under the name Dr.Z. Note that a
document so-named cannot be opened via double-clicking since the
extension is no longer ".txt".
15. Put a shortcut to your favorite editor in your Send To folder and
it will appear in your "Send To" menu. You can then right-click any
file and send it to your editor.
16. Ctrl+Shift+Escape will launch Task Manager. 17. To arrange two
windows side-by-side, switch to the first window, then hold the
Control key while right-clicking the taskbar button of the second
window. Select "Tile Vertically".
18. To close several windows at once, hold down the Control key while
clicking on the taskbar buttons of each window. Once you have selected
all the windows you want to close, right-click the last button you
selected and pick "Close Group".
19. You can turn a folder into a desktop toolbar by dragging the icon
of the desired folder to the edge of the screen. You can then turn it
into a floating toolbar by dragging it from the edge of the screen
into the middle of the screen. (It helps if you minimize all
application windows first.)
20. You can turn a folder into a taskbar toolbar.
- First, unlock your taskbar.
- Next, drag the icon of the desired folder to the space between
the taskbar buttons and the clock. (Wait for the no-entry cursor to
change to an arrow. It's a very tiny space; you will have to hunt for
it.)
- You can rearrange and resize the taskbar toolbar you just
created.
- You can even turn the taskbar toolbar into a menu by resizing it
until only its name is visible.
21. In the Address Bar, type "microsoft" and hit Ctrl+Enter. Internet
Explorer automatically inserts the "http://www." and ".com" for you.
22. To remove an AutoComplete entry from a Web form, highlight the
item in the AutoComplete dropdown and press the Delete key. To remove
all Web form AutoComplete entries, go to the Internet Explorer Tools
menu, select Internet Options, Content, AutoComplete, then press the
"Clear Forms" button.
23. To organize your Favorites in Explorer instead of using the
Organize Favorites dialog, hold the shift key while selecting
"Organize Favorites" from the Favorites menu of an Explorer window.
24. You can organize your Favorites by dragging the items around your
Favorites menu. Alternatively, you can open the Favorites pane and
hold the Alt key while pressing the up and down arrows to change the
order of your Favorites.
25. To run Internet Explorer full screen, press F11. Do it again to
return to normal mode.
26. If your "Printers and Faxes" folder is empty, you can hide the
"Printers and Faxes" icon when viewed from other computers by stopping
the Print Spooler service.
27. To add or remove columns from Details mode, select Choose Details
from the View menu, or just right-click the column header bar.
28. In Internet Explorer, hold the Shift key while turning the mouse
wheel to go forwards or backwards.
29. In Internet Explorer, hold the Shift key while clicking on a link
to open the Web page in a new window.
30. In Internet Explorer, type Ctrl+D to add the current page to your
Favorites. This and many more keyboard shortcuts can be found by going
to Internet Explorer, clicking the Help menu, then selecting Contents
and Index. From the table of contents, open Accessibility and click
"Using Internet Explorer keyboard shortcuts".
31. In some applications (such as Internet Explorer), holding the
Control key while turning the mouse wheel will change the font size.
32. To shut down via Remote Desktop, click the Start button, and then
type Alt+F4.