10 things you didn't know about Windows XP

You've read the reviews and digested the key feature enhancements and operational changes. Now it's time to
delve a bit deeper and uncover some of Windows XP's secrets.

1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were copy about how long they went
between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from
the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful
info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called
info.txt you can look at later with Notepad.(Professional Edition only).

2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu,
select Run... and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows
Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking
around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your
computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).

3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a
right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give
the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if
that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it
and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for
the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select
Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.

5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include
'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring
performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command
name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.

6. XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you
can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your
existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what
IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.

7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task
number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you
a lot about what's going on in your system.

8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you
can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you
change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.

9. XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by
default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen
have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select
Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection.
Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set
the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.