My Computer Won't Shut Down Itself After Installing XP

There are a number of users who are noticing that their PC will no longer automatically power down/shut off without pressing the power off button on the computers unlike in Windows Me/95/2000. There could be a number of reasons for this - but the main one seems to be that ACPI is not enabled on the computer or in Windows XP. Here is how to try that out:

1. Click - Start - Control Panel - Performance and Maintenance - Power Options Tab
2. Then click APM - Enable Advanced Power Management Support

How To Enable Hibernation

Under Windows 98, Me, or 2000 there was an option in the shutdown dialog box to enter the computer into hibernation (where all the content of the RAM is copied to the hard disk). The shutdown dialog box of Windows XP doesn't offer any longer the hibernation button. Some users may get confused about how to enable the hibernation mode. If this mode is supported by your motherboard (ACPI) you have to do the following:

1. Click Start and Shut Down,
2. Point the standby button and maintain the shift key pushed,
3. A new hibernation button appears: click it while still holding the shift key: voila your PC will hibernate.

Microsoft Office 2007 filename extensions

Word 2007 File Type Extension


• docx - Word 2007 XML Document

• docm - Word 2007 XML Macro-Enabled Document

• dotx - Word 2007 XML Template

• dotm - Word 2007 XML Macro-Enabled Template

Excel 2007 File Type Extension

Restricting Logon Access

If you work in a multiuser computing environment, and you have full (administrator level) access to your computer, you might want to restrict unauthorized access to your "sensitive" files under Windows 95/98.
One way is to disable the Cancel button in the Logon dialog box.
Just run Regedit and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Network/Logon
Create the "Logon" subkey if it is not present on your machine: highlight the Network key -> right-click in the left hand Regedit pane -> select New -> Key -> name it "Logon" (no quotes) -> press Enter. Then add/modify a DWORD value and call it "MustBeValidated" (don't type the quotes). Double-click it, check the Decimal box and type 1 for value.
Now click the Start button -> Shut Down (Log off UserName) -> Log on as a different user, and you'll notice that the Logon Cancel button has been disabled.

Search For Hidden Or System Files In Windows XP

The Search companion in Windows XP searches for hidden and system files differently than in earlier versions of Windows. This guide describes how to search for hidden or system files in Windows XP.
Search for Hidden or System Files By default, the Search companion does not search for hidden or system files. Because of this, you may be unable to find files, even though they exist on the drive.
To search for hidden or system files in Windows XP:
Click Start, click Search, click All files and folders, and then click More advanced options.

Click to select the Search system folders and Search hidden files and folders check boxes.
NOTE: You do not need to configure your computer to show hidden files in the Folder Options dialog box in Windows Explorer to find files with either the hidden or system attributes, but you need to configure your computer not to hide protected operating system files to find files with both the hidden and system attributes. Search Companion shares the Hide protected operating system files option (which hides files with both the system and hidden attributes) with the Folder Options dialog box Windows Explorer.

Add Open With to all files

You can add "Open With..." to the Right click context menu of all files.This is great for when you have several programs you want to open the same file types with. I use three different text editors so I added it to the ".txt" key.

1. Open RegEdit
2. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\Shell
3. Add a new Key named "OpenWith" by right clicking the "Shell" Key and selecting new
4. Set the (Default) to "Op&en With..."
5. Add a new Key named "Command" by right clicking the "OpenWith" Key and selecting new
6. Set the (Default) to "C:\Windows\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL %1", C:\ being your Windows drive. You must enter the "OpenAs_RunDLL %1" exactly this way.

Turn off Welcome screen

Open User Accounts in Control Panel.
Click Change the way users log on or off

XP Computer management console

To quickly access the computer management console, where you can see event logs (to see what's causing a problem, for example), right-click My Computer and choose Manage.
Then, select the Event viewer and double-click highlighted events in the Applications or System areas to view detailed explanations of what went wrong.

Automatic Screen Refresh

When you make changes to your hard drive and use Explorer, the changes are not usually displayed until you press the F5 key
To make the updates automatic:

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / System / CurrentControlSet / Control / UpdateMode
3. Edit the DWORD value to be between 1 and 7
4. Restart Windows

Deleting Registry Keys from the Command Line

With the OEM Version of Windows95, a new switch, /D, is added to Regedit.
This enables you to delete items from Registry.
The syntax is: REGEDIT /L:system.dat_location /R:user.dat_location /D Reg_Key
where Reg_Key is the key you want to delete
There are two requirements:
1. That you have to boot to the same OEM version of Windows95 as the REGEDIT.EXE file.
2. You cannot be in Win95 at the time you use this switch.

Creating a Default File Opener

If you have a un-registered file type and want to view it with Explorer's Right-click
you can add your program to the right-click options by:

1. Starting Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_CLASS_ROOT / Unknown
3. Highlight the Shell Folder below it
4. Right click on Shell and create a New Key
5. Name it anything you want (For example NOTEPAD)
6. Create a New Key under that named command
7. Highlight the Command key
8. Double click on the Default value in the right hand panel
9. In Value Data, enter the path and filename of the program you want to use to open the file type
10. For example: C:\WINDOWS\NOTEPAD.EXE %1
11. Click on OK

In this example, when you right click on a file in Explorer, NOTEPAD will show up as an option.

Creating a Network Logon Banner

If you want to create a Network Logon Banner:

1. Start Regedit
2. Go To HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
3. Create a new String called LegalNoticeCaption
4. Enter the text for your banner

Changing the Location of Windows95's Installation Files

If you need to change the drive and or path where Windows95 will look for it's installation files:

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Setup \ SourcePath
3. Change the location from there

Getting Rid of Tips

Remember those "Tips of the day" that appeared when you first install Win95?
If you don't want them any longer and want to clear yet more Clutter, approximately 5K, you can delete them at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ explorer \ Tips

Saving Desktop Settings

When I would go to Control Panel or Start Menu Programs, or any other Desktop window setting; meaning size, position, icon arrangement, they would never be as I set them. I found an answer:
At [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
There is a "NoSaveSettings" key. I deleted it and now my all my stuff stays where I tell it.
The same key shows up at:
[HKEY_USERS\bwil\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer](where bwil is your password profile) Just thought I'd share this with you all.

Adding Explore From Here to Every Folder

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Folder \ shell
3. Add a key rootexplore
4. Give it a default value of E&xplore From Here
5. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Folder \ shell \ rootexplore
6. Add a key command
7. Give it a default value of Explorer.exe /e,/root,/idlist,%i

Now when you right click on any folder, you can open up an Explorer window

of that folder.
This will work for both Windows95 and NT 4.0

Adding an Application to the Right Click on Every Folder

Here is how to add any application to the menu when you right click on any Folder.
This could be useful if there is an app you always want available and don't want to go through the Start menu

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Folder \ shell
3. Add a key Name_of_Your_App
4. This can really be any label, just use one that makes sense to you
5. Give it a default value of Name_of_Your_App
6. Putting a & in front of a character will allow you to use the keyboard
7. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Folder \ shell \ Name_of_Your_App
8. Add a key command
9. Give it a default value of the application you want to run
10. For example: c:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe
11. Include the full path

Changing the Registered Owner

1. Starting Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion
3. From there you can edit the name in the Registered Owner key

Disable the Excel prompt for opening formats different than the extension

many web sites export tabular information from grids/tables into 'Excel' format. the file is not a true Excel format and actually contains X/HTML. if the file is opened in Excel 2007 you may get a prompt that the file is in a different format than specified by the file extension.


If you regularly work with files like this, there is a way to disable this prompt, add a DWORD key called ExtensionHardening with value 0 to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\Security

Change where sent e-mail messages are saved when using an Exchange account

By default, a copy of each message that you send is saved in the Sent Items folder.


When you reply to or forward an e-mail message that is saved in any folder other than the Inbox, you can configure Outlook to save a copy of the sent message in the same folder as the original message.

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then on the Preferences tab, click E-mail Options.

2. Under Message handling, the Save copies of messages in Sent Items folder check box must be selected.

3. Click Advanced E-mail Options.

4. Select the In folders other than the Inbox, save replies with original message check box.

Microsoft Outlook 2007 Running Slow? Fix the Problem Now

Microsoft Outlook 2007 is painfully slow. Whether you are running a trial copy of Outlook or a licensed version, the performance of Outlook 2007 software is much slower than even it's predecessor, Outlook 2003. 

The software freezes during start-up, the status bar shows "Loading Dataset.." for minutes and you can perform no actions on your email items unless that initial "Send/Receive" is complete.

If your work productivity is taking a hit due to the poor performance of Outlook, here are some suggestions and fixes to supercharge Outlook 2007:

1. Disable RSS Feeds in Microsoft Outlook 2007


Microsoft Outlook 12 installs with a set of RSS feeds - if you are not using Outlook to read RSS feeds, it's best to remove them from Outlook so that no resources are spent in synchronization of these feeds with the web. 

Goto Tools - Account Settings - RSS Feeds. Select all the RSS feeds and hit the Remove button. 

2. Disable Outlook Add-Ins You No Longer Use

Goto Tools - Trust Center and click the Add-ins tab. There's a GO button at the bottom of the dialog screen, click that button and uncheck (disable or even remove) the Outlook add-ins (like GoogleDesktop, iTunes Add-in, Acrobat PDF Maker, Mindjet Mindmanager, etc) that you no longer use.

[Do not disable the Windows Search Indexing addin] 

If you have upgraded to Outlook 2007 from Outlook 2003 or XP, chances are that the old addin are not compatible with the new release and may be the reason behind the slugging performance of Outlook.

3. Reduce the size of your Outlook.pst personal folder. 


Delete any items that you do not want to keep like emails with really large attachments). You can even archive them to a separate Outlook data file.

Now click Data File Management on the File Menu. Select the data file that you want to compact, and then click Compact Now in the Settings command. 

4. Start Outlook 2007 in Safe Mode

If none of the above tricks, try running Outlook 2007 in safe mode (start -> Run dialog and type outlook /safe). The second option is to disable all your email rules and filters. And if Norton antivirus or Zone Alarm is configured with Outlook, disable that association. One of these actions should identify the culprit that's making Outlook to crawl.

It's likely that some of the tricks above would help in improving the performance of your Outlook 2007. If you are looking to improve the performance of Outlook 2003, try removing the MSN Messenger association with Outlook.

An error occurred adding the following Windows SharePoint Services folder to Outlook

Error message:

1.       Quit Outlook 2007.

2.       Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

3.       Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook

4.       After you click the subkey that is specified in step 3, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click DWORD Value.

5.       Type AlwaysAllowSharePointPST, and then press ENTER.

6.       Right-click AlwaysAllowSharePointPST, and then click Modify.

7.       In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.

8.       On the File menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.