Windows XP Home and Professional Configurations

Notes for a happier Computer and User:

1. The first thing to do is make XP look more like what you might be used to. In other words to deflower it (get rid of some of the eye candy!). Most of the bells and whistles new to XP offer very little functionality, and only slow the computer down.

2. Right button click on the "Start" button and left button click on "Properties".

3. Click on "Classic Start Menu" and "Customize". The options here are a matter of personal choice, but our recommendations are:


• Display Administrative Tools.

Display Favorites.
• Display Run.
• Enable dragging and dropping.

Expand Control Panel.
Expand My Documents.
Expand My Pictures.
Expand Network Connections.
Expand Printers.
Scroll Programs.

• Show Small Icons in Start Menu.

Use Personalized Menus.

4. After clicking "OK" to return to the desktop, find and activate the "Windows Explorer" in "Programs/Accessories". Here we can now customize how the folder windows will look. Click on "Tools" and "Folder Options" in the menu. Choose the following options:


• Use Windows classic folders.
• Open each folder in the same Window.
• Double-click to open an item (single-click to select).

5. On the current window, Choose the Window Style (ie. normal or maximized) that you prefer, and the view (ie. Icons, or Details). These selections will be used to extend those properties to other window folders. Please note that XP overides these selections on certain windows

6. Click on the "View" tab. Again, the options here are a matter of personal choice, but our recommendations are:


• Automatically search for network folders and printers.
• Display file size information in folder tips.
• Display simple folder view in Explorer's Folders list.
• Display the contents of system folders.
• Display the full path in the address bar.

Display the full path in the title bar.
• Do not cache thumbnails.
• Show hidden files and folders.

Hide extensions for known file types.
Hide protected operating system files.
Launch folder windows in a separate process.
Remember each folder's view settings.
Restore previous folder windows at logon.

• Show Control Panel in My Computer.
• Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color.
• Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items.

For reasons unknown, Microsoft chose to hide certain file extensions. The logic behind this escapes us, but maybe they felt that most people didn't understand them. We do not share this view and strongly urge computer users to become familiar with them. It can mean the difference between becoming infected with a virus or not, and nothing is gained by hiding information from the user.

7. Click on the "File Types" tab. These are the associations that are used by Windows to determine what program is used to open a file with a particular extension. If the extension is not defined, your computer will give you a message that it can't open the file. One definition that seems to have been left out is the Cabinet (.CAB) definition. Without this definition, your computer will think that these are Directory or Folder names. Click on "New" and enter the extension "CAB".

8. Now return to the "View" tab and click "Apply To All Folders" and "Close". The selections you have just made will be applied to most other folders. The one caveat here is that you must not select "Remember each folder's view settings". Temporary changes on the last 400 folders accessed will be remembered by XP if this is selected, and cancell out the changes you have just made.

The next step is to deal with some of the security issues in XP.

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