The places bar which appears in the left side of the Open and Save As dialog boxes in Windows XP, contains shortcuts to the following folders by default:
The default places can be customized by editing the registry. After adding/removing custom places using a third-party tool, you may experience a problem where the places bar is completely empty.
When you open a dialog box (e.g. "View" tab under Folder Options, "Advanced" tab under Internet Options etc.) containing checkbox or radio button controls in Windows XP, the text labels may be appended with the word "ON" or "OFF" depending upon whether the option is enabled or not. (more…)
When you create sub-folders in the Quick Launch folder to better organize the shortcuts, the folders will appear in the Quick Launch toolbar correctly, but clicking them would launch Windows Explorer. Some people would like to view the contents of the folder (cascaded as a list) rather than opening the folder when clicked. Here is how to make folders in the Quick Launch toolbar cascade as menu when clicked. (more…)
After installing the Windows XP/Server 2003 Administration Tools Pack (adminpak.msi), some of the snap-ins in the Administrative Tools folder may show a generic icon. Also, the shortcut icons cannot be changed using the Properties page since they are Windows Installer Shortcuts. (more…)
When you attempt to run Disk Defragmenter using the property sheet of a hard disk drive, the following error may occur. We saw how to fix the Disk Defragmenter error using the registry editor in Windows Vista. Here are the instructions for Windows XP systems. (more…)
The NTBackup tool in Windows XP can be used to schedule a System State backup job so that it runs once in a week or month, or at a specified date/time. This is another way to keep the registry hives in the repair folder updated regularly. (more…)
When installing Windows 2000 or Windows XP, a backup copy of the registry hives is stored in the C:\Windows\Repair directory which can be used if the registry becomes corrupt at some point of time. The problem is that registry hives in the Repair folder do not get automatically updated whenever you install or uninstall a software, customize your profile or make configuration changes in your system. Therefore, if you restore the registry hives from the Repair directory in case of a disaster, all of your settings would be lost. (more…)
This article describes how to restore the registry hives from a recent System Restore snapshot in Windows XP, in the event of registry corruption that prevents your Windows XP computer from starting. If the registry hives become corrupted, the following errors are displayed when starting up. (more…)
When logged on to an user account that does not have administrative privileges, you may notice that the Wallpaper Changer PowerToy does not work correctly. When you try to change the wallpaper manually via the Wallpaper PowerToy user interface, error messages CreateFile, WriteFile and CloseHandle appear and the desktop background may not change. (more…)
BartPE bootable CD is an useful tool that comes with a complete Win32 environment. This can be used to rescue unbootable systems, recover files & settings and do much more. Bart’s PE Builder helps you build a BartPE bootable live Windows CD/DVD from the original Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 Setup CD. (more…)
