Though Windows XP is overall a really good operating system, few people use it for anything beyond a container for their other programs. This is kind of like buying a van and using it to store things in; it works, but you're not really getting a lot of value out of the van.
The best tip overall for Windows XP is to spend some time with it. Use quickmenus everywhere – this is clicking your right-hand mouse button (in a lefty mouse, the left-hand button) while hovering over different elements: icons, the desktop background, the toolbar.
There are a lot of things you won't learn this way, though, like the following:
Speeding up the painfully slow Start menu: Have you noticed that when you click it, the Start menu doesn't exactly move like greased lightning? You can speed this up by editing the Registry key associated with it. Open Registry Editor (Start | Run, then type 'regedit' and hit Enter) and navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ MenuShowDelay
The value that will display here is 400. Change it to a smaller value; zero is nice. This should help somewhat. If it's still slow, it may just be your processor.
Undoing Mistakes: Sometimes you really, really regret installing a program, changing a registry setting, or otherwise fiddling with your system. In MS Windows XP Pro and up, you can fix these mistakes very easily without losing data by going to your now-zippy Start menu, accessing Programs | Accessories | System Tools | and selecting System Restore. Select the first option, "Restore My Computer to a Previous Time." Then pick the last time you were happy with the way your computer worked. Problem changes are undone, and the program or other issue that caused the changes will be deleted, without touching data files. It's like sending the computer back through time!
Show file extensions for all file types: By default file name extensions for all file types are hidden. To see all file extensions in Windows Explorer, follow these steps:
- Start | Settings | Control Panel
- Double click on Folder Options
- Select View tab
- Uncheck the tick for "Hide extensions for known file types" check box
- Click OK
Side-By-Side Windows: If you have two documents, or two web pages, or a doc and a web page, or spread sheet, etc. you want to compare side by side, open both of them and nothing else. Right-click on your Taskbar (the thing your Start button lives on) and select Tile Windows; you can tile vertically or horizontally. You will wind up with both or multiple documents, open side-by-side or each above the others.
[break=Universal XP Shortcut Keys]
Universal XP Shortcut Keys: After a while, you'll want to be able to do a lot of processes more quickly. Here is a short list of the most useful, commonly-used shortcut keys for your system.
- CTRL+Z - This is a shortcut to Undo
- CTRL+X - Cuts your selected text or item(s) in almost every Windows program, including Windows utilities, and places it or them in the clipboard
- CTRL+C - Copies selected text or item(s) to the clipboard
- CTRL+V - Pastes whatever is on the clipboard into your selected spot
- CTRL+B - Bolds text
- CTRL+I - Italicizes text
- CTRL+A (Select all)
- CTRL+(arrow) - Moves your cursor point a full unit over (e.g., in text the right or left arrow moves your cursor over a full word, not just a character; and up and down move you a full paragraph)
- CTRL+RIGHT ARROW - (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word)
- CTRL+LEFT ARROW - (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word)
- CTRL+DOWN ARROW - (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph)
- CTRL+UP ARROW - (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph)
- CTRL+SHIFT - with any of the arrow keys (Highlight a block of text)
- CTRL while dragging an item (Copy the selected item)
- CTRL+SHIFT - while dragging an item (Create a shortcut to the selected item)
- CTRL+F4 - (Close the active document in programs that enable you to have multiple documents open simultaneously)
- CTRL+ESC - (Display the Start menu)
- CTRL+SHIFT+ESC - (Open Task Manager)
- SHIFT+DELETE - (Delete the selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin)
- SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text in a document)
- SHIFT+F10 - (Display the shortcut menu for the selected item)
- ALT+ENTER - (View the properties for the selected item)
- ALT+F4 - (Close the active item, or quit the active program)
- ALT+ENTER - (Display the properties of the selected object)
- ALT+SPACEBAR - (Open the shortcut menu for the active window)
- ALT+TAB - (Switch between the open items)
- ALT+ESC - (Cycle through items in the order that they had been opened)
- ALT+SPACEBAR - (Display the System menu for the active window)
- ALT+Underlined letter in a menu name - (Display the corresponding menu)
- F2 key - (Rename the selected item)
- F3 key - (Search for a file or a folder)
- F6 key - (Cycle through the screen elements in a window or on the desktop)
- F4 key - (Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer)
- F10 key - (Activate the menu bar in the active program)
- F5 key - (Update the active window)
- BACKSPACE - (View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer)
- ESC - (Cancel the current task)
- SHIFT - when you insert a CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive (Prevent the CD-ROM from automatically playing)