My Windows XP Setup

(Publishing In Progress)

Version: Currently Running Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (WinXP Pro SP3)

System

... Enable Hibernation

If hibernation fails with the error: "Insufficient System Resources Exist to Complete the API" you may need the patch: KB909095

... Disable system restore

Disable Error Reporting

Control Panel > System > (or right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties)
Advanced (tab) > Error Reporting > Disable Error Reporting

Desktop

TaskBar

Place Vertically on the left hand side of screen

This make the screen area more square, and makes it possible to have many open programs.
Also when windows open/close they don't move around like they would if the taskbar was horizontal will multiple rows.

Right-click Task bar:

(Uncheck) Group similar taskbar buttons
(Uncheck) Hide inactive icons

Start Menu

Use Classic Start menu

Right-click start button > Properties > Select "Classic Start Menu"

Don't put links under "Start Menu > Programs" put them right under start menu so they are faster to get to

More Properties:

(Check) Expand Control Panel
(Check) Show Small Icons in Start Menu
(Uncheck) User personalized Menus

Folders

(From Explorer) Tools > Folder Options... >

General Tab:

(Radio Button) Use Windows classic folders

View Tab:

(Check) Display the full path in the address bar
(Radio Button) Show hidden files and folders
(Uncheck) Hide extension for know file types
(Uncheck) Hide protected onperation system files
(Button) Apply to All Folders

File Types:

To add "Command Line Here" in Contect Menu:

Select "Folder" > Advanced > New > Action: "Command Line Here" > Application: c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /K cd "%1"

reference: http://www.fileformat.info/tip/microsoft/cmd_prompt_here.htm

Focus Stealing

Stop windows and pop-ups from stealing focus. This is set by default but can get change by applications. Also it does not stop everything.

regedit.exe > HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel> Desktop > ForegroundLockTimeout > (Set the value to 30d40, with hexdecimal selected)

Reference: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windowsxp/ht/stealingfocus02.htm

Useful Software for Windows

Audio

Winamp - a small fast audio player with a "media library" to keep track of all you music files.

Computer Tools

AVG - a free (for personal use) Virus scanner
WinRAR - Compression / decompression software (free trial)
Command Prompt Here
Notepad2 - A replacement for Notepad. Fast with syntax highlighting, indentation tools and much more...
Unlocker - Remove file locks. Or move/copy locked files.
Process Explorer - A much better task manager. Allows manipulation of process trees and threads, and much more...
Path Editor - Edit system path settings in a nice GUI
Shell Extension Editor
cwRsync - Rsync on windows. Incrementally synchronizes files
Unix Utils - get some useful *nix tools: ls, cat, grep etc...

Startup Manager - control what programs automatically launch on start-up

Development

see Also: Notepad2 in Computer Tools above

Images

GIMP - a free and very powerful image manipulation Program

Internet

Firefox - Tabbed internet browsing with lots of useful plug-ins available.
Net Drive - Mount an FTP site as a drive partition (Abandonware)
Putty - Telent and Ssh in windows
KompoZer - Visual (wysiwyg) html editor.
Skype - Internet telephone

Tight VNC - Remote access to desktop.

Pidgin - Instant messanger

Office

Open Office - A free office suite including word processor, spread sheets, slide presentations etc..

Search

Locate32 - Index files and instantaneous search (in a GUI) like updatedb and locate in unix.
VGrep - A gui for grep.

Video

VLC Player - free video player with lots of codecs

To Add:

Exam Diff
WinDirStat
Command Prompt Here
Dsyncronize
GUI based rsync like file syncing and backup utility
FreeUndelete
asview (auto-start view)
TCP View