Windows 2000 Tips
A how to guide for setting up Windows2k
Compiled by Anthony W. Haukap
|
Tips and suggestions that will allow you to enhance and improve Microsoft's Windows 2000 OS. Related Links  Windows XP Tips
Windows ME Tips
Windows 98 Tips
Windows 95 Tips
Windows NT Tips
Windows 2000 Tips
The following computers and peripherals have passed compatibility testing with Microsoft Windows 2000. Some computers may be sold with peripherals that are not yet supported by the Windows 2000 operating system, or that require a device driver supplied by the manufacturer. Also, computers and devices on this list have not been tested in all possible configurations. Download updated HCL - Current Windows 2000 Hardware Compatibility List.
default /temp & /tmp directories: Default system /temp & /tmp directories:
Sometimes when you click on a link that opens a new window, the newly opened window comes up blank. To fix it run follow these steps... Click on Start, Run, and enter: "REGSVR32 URLMON.DLL" (sans quotes). You should then have a dialog tell you that the procedure was completed. Next, fire up Microsoft's Web Browser (IE) and Click Tools, Internet Options, Programs, then click the "Reset Web Settings" button. Now, check to see if Web links work like they should. With any luck, you'll have returned your system to normal.
Whenever you double-click on a folder in windows explorer, instead of it opening the folder it opens up a search window instead. Try this to fix it... Click Start, Run and enter "RegEdit". Look for the following: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell Locate the Default value and double click on Default. Set this value to "none" (without the quotes). It probably reads "find", now.
Doing this debug script will ERASE EVERYTHING!... all partitions, all data, everything. you will need to repartition and reformat when this is done, so use this as a last resort. Boot to a 98 floppy and get to the a:\> prompt. make sure debug is on the disk. The bold letters are what you type:
-F 200 L1000 0 - FILL Length of 512 bytes at offset 1000 with value 0. -A CS:100 - ASSEMBLE program at offset 100. xxxx:0100 MOV AX,301 - AH=03 INT13 function 03 - Write Disk Sectors AL=01 specifies how many sectors to write (1). xxxx:0103 MOV BX,200 - BH=02 BL=00 points to buffer area at offset 200. xxxx:0106 MOV CX,1 - CH=00 specifies cylinder 0 for INT13 function 03 CL=01 specifies sector 1 (first sector on drive). xxxx:0109 MOV DX,80 - (use 80 if its Hdd-0, use 81 if its hdd-1) DH=00 specifies head 0 (first head on drive) DL=80 specifies physical fixed disk drive 1 (81=2nd drive, 82=3rd drive, 83=4th drive). xxxx:010C INT 13 - Call INT13 BIOS Fixed Disk Device Service Routine. xxxx:010E INT 20 - Return to DEBUG (after assembling program). xxxx:0110 (leave this blank and hit enter) -G - Go! program terminated normally Now reset the computer, then partition and format the drive.
Several Registry settings can be used to tweak the memory subsystem from within Windows 2000. However, be careful, because it is very easy to kill Win2k by fooling around with the Registry. As was said before, you should be careful to back up copies of any of the values you choose to change, just in case the setting doesn't quite work out for you. The following values can be found at [HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/Session Manager/Memory Management]: DisableExecutivePaging - When enabled, this setting will prevent the paging of the Win2k Executive files to the hard drive, causing the OS and most programs to be more responsive. However, it is advised that people should only perform this tweak if they have a significant amount of RAM on their system (more than 128 MB), because this setting does use a substantial portion of your system resources. By default, the value of this key is 0. To enable it, set it to 1. LargeSystemCache - When enabled (the default on Server versions of Windows 2000), this setting tells the OS to devote all but 4 MB of system memory (which is left for disk caching) to the file system cache. The main effect of this is allowing the computer to cache the OS Kernel to memory, making the OS more responsive. The setting is dynamic and if more than 4 MB is needed from the disk cache for some reason, the space will be released to it. By default, 8MB is earmarked for this purpose. This tweak usually makes the OS more responsive. It is a dynamic setting, and the kernel will give up any space deemed necessary for another application (at a performance hit when such changes are needed). As with the previous key, set the value from 0 to 1 to enable. Note that in doing this, you are consuming more of your system RAM than normal. While LargeSystemCache will cut back usage when other apps need more RAM, this process can impede performance in certain intensive situations. According to Microsoft, the "[0] setting is recommended for servers running applications that do their own memory caching, such as Microsoft SQL Server, and for applications that perform best with ample memory, such as Internet Information Services." IOPageLockLimit - This tweak is of questionable value to people that aren't running some kind of server off of their computer, but we will include it anyway. This tweak boosts the Input/Output performance of your computer when it is doing a large amount of file transfers and other similar operations. This tweak won't do much of anything for a system without a significant amount of RAM (if you don't have more than 128 MB, don't even bother), but systems with more than 128 MB of RAM will generally find a performance boost by setting this to between 8 and 16 MB. The default is 0.5 MB, or 512 KB. This setting requires a value in bytes, so multiply the desired number of megabytes * 1024 * 1024. That's X * 1048576 (where X is the number, in megabytes). Test out several settings and keep the one which seems to work best for your system.
If you choose to display hidden files in the folder options it has no impact on the protected files they will still remain hidden. To display all the files in a my computer window, click Tools/Folder Options/View and uncheck 'hide protected operating system files'.
Show files in "Program Files" and "WinNT" automatically, instead of having to click "Show Files" every single time. Solution #1 -- You can disable web content, but then you'll also lose the thumbnail section where it shows file names, sizes, dates, and/or image thumbnails. Solution #2 -- Rename the file "folder.htt" in both the "Program Files" and "WinNT" directory to something like "folder.htt.old".
Click start/settings/taskbar and start menu then uncheck 'use personalized menus'.
Right click on Start Bar, select Properties. Click on Advance, Then select 'Expand Control Panel' - This will offer faster access to your Control Panel applets.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Sourcepath and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\Sourcepath If your CD drive is D: and you are working with an Intel-based machine, the value should be D:\I386 and D:\ respectively.
Arrange the screen display the way you want it then press the Print Screen key, then click inside the program where you want to paste the image (WordPad, Word, etc.) and press Ctrl-V to paste the screen image into the document window. You can also capture only the active window by pressing Alt-Print Screen instead of just Print Screen. This makes an image out of the foreground window only. This tip works with all Windows version not just Windows 2k
setup /? - list setup options.
To gain a small speed improvement, go into the Display applet and then the effects tab. Under visual effects, disable everything except "Show icons using all possible colors." This will speed up menus, moving windows around, and a few other things as well. Realigning your files can improve operating system and application speed by up to 10%. By aligning your files for Windows to make them run faster (the computer dynamically aligns all files loaded into memory anyway, so doing it beforehand saves CPU time) - There's a program that comes with Microsoft Office 2000 called OTUNEUP.EXE that does this process rather painlessly Under TweakUI disabling all of the 'effects' will increase system performance by disabling extra animations and features within the operating system. Also setting the menu speed to fast will allow you to browse through the start menu and any right-click menus as quickly as possible. Having trouble with icon refresh and display? Maybe your icon cache is too small. This patch will increase the IconCache setting. Download MaxCache.reg and when it ask you what you would like to do with this file tell it to 'Open this file from its current location.'
The HTTP 1.1 spec limits the number of simultaneous connections any one browser can make to a given server. This IE tweak turns off IE's built-in compliance with this standard, and lets your copy of IE open far more simultaneous connections with a server. This means your browser can grab many chunks of a web page at one time, speeding load times.
2) Navigate to the following folder: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\InternetSettings] 3) Create the following "DWORD": MaxConnectionsPerServer 4) Set the value to any high number (the default is 2) 5) Creat the following "DWORD": MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server 6) Set the value to any high number as well (the default is 4) Related MS Knowledge base article:
This little tweak will reduce the amount of Timeouts you may experience.
2) Navigate to the following folder: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\ Services\Class\Net\000x] 3) Double click on: Slownet 4) Change the value to: 00
2) Navigate to the following folder: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\ WINDOWS\CURRENT VERSION] -or- [HKEY_LOCAL-MACHINES\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS-NT\CURRENTVERSION] 3) Double click on: RegisteredOwner 4) Type in any name you like.
This tweak will allow you to play DVD movies using Windows media player.
2) Navigate to the following folder: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ MediaPlayer\Player\Settings] 3) Create the following "String value": EnableDVDUI 4) Give it a value of: yes
A new version of TweakUI is available for Windows 2000 you can get it right here: tweakui.exe.
The following URL links will help you keep Windows2k up-to-date!
A few tweaking guides:
Tuning Workstation for Server-like Loads NT Workstation and NT Server have vastly different performance characteristics due to the internal tuning that the NT operating system, which is identical on both, performs. Most tuning parameters are inaccessible, but a few are located in the Registry. If you are running Server and you double-click on the Server entry of the Services tab in the Control Panel's Network applet, you will get a dialog that lets you determine what type of application you want the machine to be tuned for. Choices let you select between "Minimize Memory Used", "Balance", "Maximize Usage for File Sharing", and "Maximize Usage for Network Applications". This dialog box is not presented on Workstation installations. The various selections actually change the values of two Registry values:
To preven windows from phoning home...
To disable autoplay, use regedit.exe and change the follow registry setting:
Click Start> Run> type "themes" and hit enter. You can just create a directory to store all your themes in, but the actual Windows themes manager software is built in.
MicroSoft has made it so you can't turn off WFP if you've insatlled sp2. You can hack one of the system files , however and then you'll be able to turn it off via the reg hack again. This DOES work, I have used it to change my start logo in my slipstreamed sp2 install. Here's the directions:
Pre-SP2 could be accomplished with this method... Take a look here Basically, it looks like if you put "0ffffff9dh" into this key:
If you're familiar with 'msconfig' in WIN98, you can copy that file and put it into Windows 2000 here: C:\WINNT\System32 Then just do Start>Run>msconfig as usual. But unlike WIN98, you won't get the the other tools in the usual System Configuration Utility (config.sys, autoexec.bat, etc). But those are already located elsewhere in Win2k. You can also copy the the msonfig file from WinXP (whistler) 0- it works just fine with Win2k. The Future...Someday, and that day may never come, this page will contain additional tips and tricks on how to get the most from Microsoft's 2000 Professional Edition (Windows 2k). Until that day you can peruse either my Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME or Windows NT Tips & Tricks pages - all of these, as well as other files that may be of intrest, are available on my web site at www.cyberspace.org/~awh/. |