WindowsXp Core System tricks

Determining Which Services are Associated with SVCHOST
Since so many critical services are run with each svchost,You can see which ones are being used by opening a cmd prompt and running:
tasklist /svc /fi "imagename eq svchost.exe"

Note: This is available only with XP Pro
Identify Faulty Device Drivers
If you are having problems with lockups, blue screens, or can only get to safe mode,often the problem is due to a faulty device driver.
One way to help identify them is through the use of the Verfier program
Start / Run / Verifier
Keep the default of Create Standard Settings
Select the type of drivers you want to confirm
A list of drivers to be verified on the next boot will be shown.
Reboot
If your computer stops with a blue screen, you should get an error message with the problem driver
To turn off the Verifier, run verifier /reset
Viewing Installed Drivers
If you want to see a list of installed drivers, you can run the driverquery programThere are a lot of available switches to view different types of information.On use can be to export to a CSV file for viewing in ExcelAn example would then be:
Driverquery /v /fo csv > drivers.csv
Operation Was Attempted on Something That Is Not a Socket Error
If you get this error when you try and renew your IP address, Likely the winsock2 registry entries are corrupted.
The basic steps to fix this are:
Remove the old registry entries -
Import the correct registry entries -
Reboot the computer

Opening Ports or Adding Allowed Programs with SP2's Firewall
Click on Start / Run
Enter in firewall.cpl
Click on the Exceptions tab
Adding a Port for Internet Access:
Click on the Add Port button
Name it whatever you want
Enter in the ports you want to open
Adding a Program for Internet Access
Click on Add Program... button
A list of all installed programs will be displayed
Highlight the one you want to include for Internet access
Click on the OK button
Autoexec.nt or Config.nt Errors
If you are getting errors similar to:The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.
Try copying the file from \windows\repair directory to the one that is in the \windows\system32 directory.

Windows Explorer Opens Search Companion Rather than the Folder
If the Windows Explorer opens up the Search Companion rather than opening up the actual folder, the default setting for opening a folder is changed.
To correct this:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Directory \ shell and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Drive \ shell]
Edit the default value to be explorer or none

Configuring the Firewall
WindowsXP has firewall capabilities built into the operating system.
For your network connection to the Internet, select Properties
Click on the Advanced tab
Check the Internet Connection Firewall section
Click on the Settings button to change the settings


Rollback a Device Driver
If you install a device drive that does not work correctly, you can restore the previous one fairly easily.
Log in with an administrator account
Right click on My Computer
Select Properties
Click on the Hardware tab
Click on the Device Manager button
Go to the device you want to reconfigure
Click on the Driver tab
Click on the Roll Back Drive button


Decreasing Boot Time
Microsoft has made available a program to analyze and decrease the time it takes to boot to WindowsXPThe program is called BootVis
Uncompress the file.
Run BOOTVIS.EXE
For a starting point, run Trace / Next Boot + Driver Delays
This will reboot your computer and provide a benchmark
After the reboot, BootVis will take a minute or two to show graphs of your system startup.
Note how much time it takes for your system to load (click on the red vertical line)
Then run Trace / Optimize System
Re-Run the Next Boot + Drive Delays
Note how much the time has decreased
Mine went from approximately 39 to 30 seconds.


WindowsXP will only format a partition greater than 32 GIGs as NTFS. If you want to format it with FAT32:
1. You can use a regular Win98 Boot disk and use that version of FDISK to create the partition (with Large Hard Drive Support)
2. Reboot with the same boot disk and format
3. WindowsXP will then be able to use the partition with no problems