Hacking Windows XP 2004 phần 7 docx

206 Part II — Increasing Your System’s Performance F IGURE 8-7: Diskeeper Boot-Time Defragmentation configuration window. 4. Select the Defragmentation Method for the Selected Volume you want to defragment. It is recommended that you select COMPLETE/Access for this defragmentation. 5. Once you have selected the method, make sure to check the box for Activate BootTime Defragmentation and then click the Set button. WY026-P08[183-208].qxd 23/6/2004 5:35 PM Page 206 Quark09 Quark09:Books:WY026-Sinchak:Chapter: 207 Chapter 8 — Speeding Up the System Boot 6. Next, click the Time Plan tab and select when you would like the job to be run. You can also set up the job to be run on a weekly schedule by selecting Weekly in the Frequency drop-down box. 7. Click the OK button and you will see the job appear under the job list window. You are now finished setting up O&O defrag and your system will be defragmented at the time you scheduled the program to execute. Summary Throughout this chapter, you discovered many ways to lower the amount of time it takes your computer to boot up. First, you learned how to change some of the BIOS settings that can optimize your computer for maximum boot speed. Then, you discovered how you can remove your boot screen to shave off some more time. After that, you saw how you can disable other parts of Windows, such as hardware, fonts, and services, that you may never use, all of which take up time when your computer starts up. To wrap the chapter up, you found out how you can optimize the placement of the files used when your computer boots up, using the Prefetcher and two other disk defragment tools. This chapter showed you how to speed up the first half of your computer’s startup. The next chapter will pick up on the second half, the system logon. I will also show you some cool tips on how you can speed up. WY026-P08[183-208].qxd 23/6/2004 5:35 PM Page 207 Quark09 Quark09:Books:WY026-Sinchak:Chapter: WY026-P08[183-208].qxd 23/6/2004 5:35 PM Page 208 Quark09 Quark09:Books:WY026-Sinchak:Chapter: Making Your Computer Load Faster E ver wonder why it takes your computer so long to start up after you log on? After all, the system already loaded the majority of the operating system components. Does your computer take longer to load after you sign on than it used to take when you first brought it home? These are all questions that you will find the answers to in this chapter. You can make your system load faster by a number of methods. The last chapter touched on how to make the system boot faster. This chapter will concentrate on how to make the system load faster after the operating system has loaded and you are presented with the sign-on screen. But first, the system startup needs to be examined in more detail so that you will better understand what you will be doing. After you turn on your computer, it goes through the boot-up process, which loads the main system components and drivers. Eventually, when those are finished loading, the Windows shell is started and you will be presented with the sign-on screen. Once the sign-on screen is displayed and you sign on, the system begins to load the rest of the Windows shell programs, such as Windows Explorer, which is the program behind the spiffy new Windows XP navigation and look. Once that is finished loading, the system moves on to starting up the applications in the startup folder as well as other sneaky registry startup programs. Once these applications are finished loading, your mouse will no longer display the hourglass, and you are set to do whatever you want with your computer. This chapter will take you through the steps of speeding up all of the different parts of the system startup. First to be examined will be ways to speed up the logon process. Next to be discussed will be ways to get rid of all those extra applications that run at start that further slow down your computer. Additionally, interesting new features of Windows XP that are not turned on by default and will make your system even faster are explored. When you have finished reading this chapter and implementing the suggestions given, your system will have a much faster loading time and will be ready to use earlier than ever before.  Setting Up Automatic Logon  Removing a User’s Password  Cleaning Up Your Startup Programs  Customizing Startup Programs for Different Users  Removing Sneaky Programs from Startup  Other Time-Saving Tips chapter in this chapter WY026-P09[209-230].qxd 23/6/2004 5:36 PM Page 209 Quark09 Quark09:Books:WY026-Sinchak:Chapter: 210 Part II — Increasing Your System’s Performance Speeding Up the Logon The system logon is the first half of the loading time. This process starts when you see the Windows Welcome screen, or the Windows 2000 style logon screen. After you type in your user information, your credentials are checked and then you are allowed access to the system. Although seemingly not much can be done to speed up this part of the system startup, in actuality a few hacks will change the way the logon is performed. By changing the way a logon is done, you can speed up your system logon by automating your system logon and removing unneeded steps. Enabling automatic logon Automatic logon is for you, if you primarily use just one user account on your computer and do not want to be forced to click the username and then enter your password each time you start your computer. Enabling automatic logon is a great technique that will save you time that is often wasted when your computer is waiting for you to key in your information. Even if you do not have a password assigned to your account, you are still required by the logon Welcome screen to click your name to sign in. And if you have the Welcome screen disabled, then you are still forced to click the OK button on the Windows 2000 style logon screen to get in. Having to do these tasks yourself is unnecessary and just a waste of time. Automatic logon can be a great feature, but it can also create a security problem for your com- puter. If you use your computer for business, if you have data you prefer to keep safe from oth- ers, or both, I strongly recommend that you do not enable this feature. If you happen to step out of your office or if your laptop is stolen, you have left the door wide open to your computer. By enabling automatic logon, you are trading convenience for physical access security. However, you are not changing your network security so your data is still safe from network attackers. The risk of someone remotely connecting to your computer is the same as if you did not have automatic logon enabled. Hacking your computer with a program called Tweak UI, which is an unsupported application writ- ten by Microsoft, allows users to enable the hidden automatic logon feature. Open up your Web browser and visit www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp to download a copy of Tweak UI. You will find the link to download the install file on the right side of the page. If you have a standard CPU, like the majority of us, make sure you download Tweak UI and not Tweak UI for Itanium-based systems. The Itanium version is for the new 64-bit CPU by Intel. If you are one of the rare users of that new CPU, however, download that version. Once you have the application installed, enabling automatic logon is really easy: 1. Start up Tweak UI by clicking the Start Menu and navigating to the PowerToys for Windows XP folder and then selecting Tweak UI. 2. Expand the Logon item and then click Autologon, as shown in Figure 9-1. 3. Then, check the Log on Automatically at System Startup box, as shown in Figure 9-1. 4. Type in the username that you want to use, if it is not already entered into the User Name field. WY026-P09[209-230].qxd 23/6/2004 5:36 PM Page 210 Quark09 Quark09:Books:WY026-Sinchak:Chapter: 211 Chapter 9 — Making Your Computer Load Faster 5. Click the Set Password button and type your password in both text boxes, as shown in Figure 9-2. 6. Once you have entered your password twice, click OK to save the password. Then click OK once more to save the autologon settings and close Tweak UI. Your system is now set up to log you on automatically. Should you ever change your mind and wish to disable the automatic logon feature, just go into Tweak UI again and uncheck the Log on Automatically at System Startup box. Removing user passwords Some of you may have computer systems set up with multiple users. You might have a family computer for which each person has his or her own account for personal settings or for which you have separate accounts with different privilege levels. In some situations in which security is not a big concern, a requirement for each user to type in a password to access her account is F IGURE 9-1: Tweak UI autologon feature properties. WY026-P09[209-230].qxd 23/6/2004 5:36 PM Page 211 Quark09 Quark09:Books:WY026-Sinchak:Chapter: 212 Part II — Increasing Your System’s Performance not necessary. In those cases, instead of clicking the user name and then typing in the pass- word, the user would find it much easier to just click the name. An additional advantage of this simplification would be that, for those with a family computer, you would not have to worry about reminding everyone what their passwords were or needing to reset passwords when they were forgotten. Before you begin removing the user passwords, a word of caution is in order about the possible dangers of removing user passwords. First, I strongly recommend that you leave a password on the Administrator account and any account that has administrative privileges. Additionally, before you start removing passwords, I recommend that you secure your system from external intruders on the Internet. If you do not have passwords on your user’s accounts, it would be much easier to connect to your computer remotely. One simple solution is to turn on the built-in firewall and remove the Client for Microsoft Networks from your network adapter through which you get your Internet connection. Turning on the built-in firewall and removing the unneeded network protocol is really easy. If you need any help, refer to Chapter 12, which is all about protecting your computer from intruders. Now that you know the consequences of removing the passwords and have secured your sys- tem, you are ready to get started. They can be removed in two ways. For those of you that are familiar with the Windows 2000 style computer management user snap-in control, I recom- mend you follow the second method. For everyone else, you will feel more comfortable using the first method. New Windows XP user accounts method Windows XP includes a new simple account management applet called User Accounts. This applet is a new approach to user management that replaces the Windows 2000 style user list with a nice-looking wizard approach. Follow these steps to remove passwords with the new management applet: 1. Launch the new applet by clicking the Start Menu and then selecting Run. 2. Key in nusrmgr.cpl and click the OK button. The applet will now launch. F IGURE 9-2: Setting a user autologon password with Tweak UI. WY026-P09[209-230].qxd 23/6/2004 5:36 PM Page 212 Quark09 Quark09:Books:WY026-Sinchak:Chapter: 213 Chapter 9 — Making Your Computer Load Faster 3. Use your mouse to click the account from which you want to remove the password, as shown in Figure 9-3. 4. Next, click the text that says “Remove the password,” as shown in Figure 9-4. 5. After clicking the text, you will be taken to a confirmation screen, where you will be required to type in the password of the user. Type in the password and then click the Remove Password button. That’s it! The password is now removed for the user that you selected. Repeat the previous steps for any other accounts for which you would like to remove the password. If for any reason you change you mind and want to put a password back on a user’s account, just go back into the User Accounts applet and click the user you would like to change. Then, instead of showing “Remove My Password,” the applet will show, “Create a password.” Click the Create text and enter the new password in the two text boxes and then click the Create Password button. F IGURE 9-3: User Accounts applet home screen. WY026-P09[209-230].qxd 23/6/2004 5:36 PM Page 213 Quark09 Quark09:Books:WY026-Sinchak:Chapter: 214 Part II — Increasing Your System’s Performance Local user and groups method If you are like me, and like the Windows 2000 way of doing things, this section is for you. Windows XP was based off of code from Windows 2000. You could think of Windows XP as a revised version of Windows 2000. Although thousands of improvements have been made, some of the basic elements of Windows 2000 are still in place. However, they are not always easy to find, but they are still available if you know where they are. I have dug through the sys- tem files and have found the old MMC (Microsoft Management Console) applet that was used to manage local usernames and accounts. To start the old MMC applet and remove passwords, follow these steps: The old Windows 2000 style user manager can only be found on computers running Windows XP Professional. 1. Click the Start Menu and select Run. Then type lusrmgr.msc in the text box and click OK. F IGURE 9-4: User Accounts applet user properties. WY026-P09[209-230].qxd 23/6/2004 5:36 PM Page 214 Quark09 Quark09:Books:WY026-Sinchak:Chapter: 215 Chapter 9 — Making Your Computer Load Faster 2. This will start up the Local Users and Groups MMC applet. Click the Users folder to expand it to reveal the Users setup on your computer. 3. Next, right-click the name of the account you want to change and select Set Password, as shown in Figure 9-5. 4. A new window will pop up that informs you that you may lose some of the user’s data if you change their password. According to the Microsoft Help file, you will only lose any files and e-mail that the user encrypted and any saved passwords for Web pages saved in Internet Explorer. Most personal use users never need to worry about this limitation, because they would not be encrypting anything. Although they might lose some saved passwords, unless they wrote them down somewhere, the loss would just be a minor inconvenience. If you have a user who is so concerned about his privacy that he encrypted his files, you should think twice about removing his password. Once you have decided if you still want to proceed, click the Proceed button and you will be shown the Set Password For Username window. 5. Leave both of the password boxes blank and click OK. That’s it. You are now finished. If you ever need to set a password again with this method, repeat the previous steps and type the password in the text boxes instead of leaving them blank. F IGURE 9-5: Local Users and Groups MMC applet. WY026-P09[209-230].qxd 23/6/2004 5:36 PM Page 215 Quark09 Quark09:Books:WY026-Sinchak:Chapter: [...]... down Ever wonder what the XP in Windows XP stands for? It stands for “experiences.” This next chapter is completely dedicated to enhancing your experiences with Windows XP It will concentrate on making the system more responsive You will be working with making changes to the way the file system works, as well as changing settings for the user interface to improve your Windows eXPerience 229 Making Your... built into Windows XP A handful of settings will, when disabled, provide you with a much faster experience Although these options often take away visual effects and aspects of Windows XP, this section will help you find the right balance between the visual effects and a fast experience The last section of this chapter will show you how to remove one of the extra features built into Windows XP that does... the Registry Editor is started, expand the entry labeled HKEY_LOCAL _MACHINE Then scroll through the list and expand the entry labeled SOFTWARE Scroll through the list again until you locate Microsoft and expand it Then scroll through the list once again and expand Windows Next, you will want to expand CurrentVersion After you have gotten this far, you just have to expand Run and you will see a list... icon in the system tray or going to the Start Menu, expanding All Programs, and selecting Windows Messenger 2 Once Windows Messenger is loaded, click the Tools menu bar item and select Options 3 When the Options window is displayed, click the Preferences tab 4 On the Preferences tab, you will find a check box that says “Run Windows Messenger When Windows Starts.” Uncheck that check box, as shown in... the text box Click the OK button 3 After Registry Editor is open, you will want to navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER entry and expand it Then scroll through the list and expand Software After expanding Software, scroll through the list again and select Microsoft Then expand the Windows entry and then the CurrentVersion entry After a little more scrolling, you will find the Run entry This is where all... software is Windows Messenger, which was developed by Microsoft Every time I turn on my computer, Windows Messenger automatically loads and signs me on to the network I love Windows Messenger, but I do not want it starting up every time I turn on my computer It slows down my load and lets everyone know that I am on my computer, which makes avoiding certain people impossible On top of loading Windows Messenger,... RealPlayer does not come preinstalled with Windows XP If you did not download and install this application yourself, and it can not be found on the Start Menu, then you do not need to worry about taming RealPlayer One of the features of RealPlayer that I find most annoying is the Message Center application that automatically starts when you log on When you least expect it, no matter what you are doing... impossible The only way to get control of Windows Messenger is from the inside, just as with RealPlayer Although you have to go inside the program to change the settings, doing so with Windows Messenger is slightly easier than with RealPlayer because there is only one setting that has to be changed In order to change that setting, follow these steps: 1 Open Windows Messenger by clicking its icon in... blank, as well as the WINS fields 11 Click the OK button and then click the OK button for the network properties screen That’s it; you are now finished 2 27 228 Part II — Increasing Your System’s Performance Turning off the logon music The music that Windows XP plays every time I log on is something that, frankly, I can do without Hearing the tunes was really cool back when most people didn’t have soundcards... the music programs Winamp, iTunes, RealPlayer, and Windows Media Player The programs would fight for my music file associations (that is, what the file would be opened with) Every time I ran RealPlayer, it changed all of my music files over to be played in their player by default The 2 17 218 Part II — Increasing Your System’s Performance FIGURE 9 -7: System Configuration Utility with an unchecked (disabled) . of doing things, this section is for you. Windows XP was based off of code from Windows 2000. You could think of Windows XP as a revised version of Windows 2000. Although thousands of improvements. HKEY_CURRENT_USER entry and expand it. Then scroll through the list and expand Software. After expand- ing Software, scroll through the list again and select Microsoft. Then expand the Windows entry and. begins to load the rest of the Windows shell programs, such as Windows Explorer, which is the program behind the spiffy new Windows XP navigation and look. Once that is finished loading, the system