Access xp user account if you forget your password

If you think that if you forget your login password for your account in windows xp, you can never recover it and reinstalling the operating system is the only option, then wait! Maybe you can try this out.

Boot your pc in safe mode. To do this, press F8 key several times while your pc begins to boot. If you do this right, you will see a screen which shows the different ways in which you can start your windows xp. Select the option to boot in safe mode using the up or down arrow keys. Now, when your xp in safe mode has started, go to control panel > administrative tools. Click computer management. Double click Local Users and Groups, double click the folder Users. Right click on the account name that is locked out, and click on Set Password. Leave the New Password box blank, also leave the Confirm Password box blank. Click OK then OK and finally reboot your system. Now you can access your user account in xp easily.

Custom Boot Screens

The screen that shows that your operating system is being loaded while booting is called a boot screen. This picture shows the default boot screen for windows XP.

To change you boot screen, you can use an application called BootXP. On running the program for the first time, it will ask you to make a backup of your boot.ini file. Click save and run BootXP. This is necessary if you want to revert to the original Windows XP boot screen.. With BootXP, you can set your own images as boot screens. Just browse for the amage file, select and click,'Set as boot screen'. The next time you boot your machine, you can see your favourite photographs while loading Windows XP.

You can also download boot screens from www.themexp.org. In BootXP, browse the boot screen file in which it was downloaded, select 'ntoskrnl.exe' in 'Your boot screens' tab and click 'preview boot screen'. If you are satisfied with it click 'set as boot screen'. You can check it by restarting your machine.

Faster Printing in XP

Windows XP uses a service called 'Print Spooler' to print your documents, while you can simultaneously work on other application. What print spooler actually does is that it collects all the printing data and saves it to a temporary file before initiating the printing process. This may be time consuming when printing multiple documents or images. You can turn print spooler off and print directly from the printer rather than letting windows save your printing data in a temporary file and then start the printing.

To do this, head to Start > Printers and Faxes. Right click on the name of your printer, click on properties, click on Advanced tab, select ' directly from the printer' option to disable spooling. One thing to be kept in mind though, you may not be able to work on other applications until the whole printing is done.

Faster End Task

While working on your computer, if an application hangs, you press Ctrl+Alt+Del to open up the task manager dialog box. You select the application name from the application tab, and press end task to terminate the program. It is observed that the application takes some time to terminate after pressing the end task button.

To reduce this time, go to Start menu > Run. Type regedit and press OK. The registry editor will show up. Navigate through the options to locate 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ ControlPanel \ Desktop'. On the right side of the window pane, right click on ' HungAppTimeout' and click on Modify. You should see the 'Edit String' dialog box. The numerical value in the 'Value Data' field denotes the time in milliseconds to end the program. Change its value to somewhere around 500 and click OK. Finished!