Disable Windows Tour

If you want to disable the Take Tour of Windows XP that comes up after you install WindowsXP:

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Tour
3. Create a new DWORD key called RunCount
4. Give it a value of 0

Forgotten Admin or User's Password

You do not need to reinstall if you forgot the admin password.

There is a boot disk you can download at:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

that will let you reset the password of any account on NT4, Windows2000 or XP.

Just follow all the default settings which are for the admin account. Used it many
times with great success.

They also have a bootable CD image you can download.

Showing Common Tasks in Window

When you open a window from My Computer or the Control Panel, and you don't see the blue bar with additional options on the left side, you may simply need to turn on Common Tasks

1. From that same windows, go to Tools / Folder Options
2. Check Show common tasks in folders

Hiding Manage My Computer

If you want to remove Manage My Computer from My Computer

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Policies / Explorer
3. Create a DWORD value called NoManageMyComputerVerb
4. Set the value to 1
5. Reboot

Network Connection Always Shows Access Denied

If you are always getting Access Denied errors when trying to connect to a XP computer,
and you know you have the correct user names and passwords on the computer,
the solution may be a simple registry edit.

1. Start Regedit
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlSet / Control / Lsa
3. Change the value of a key called "restrictanonymous" to 0 instead of 1
4. Don't change "restrictanonymoussam" value.
5. Reboot

Repairing Damaged Winsock2

The symptoms when Winsock2 is damaged shows when you try to release and renew the IP address using IPCONFIG.
And you get the following error message:
An error occurred while renewing interface 'Internet': An operation was attempted on something that is not a socket.
Also Internet Explorer may give the following error message:
The page cannot be displayed Additionally, you may have no IP address or no Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) address, and you may be receiving IP packets but not sending them.
-----
If you have WindowsXP with Service Pack 2, there is a one line command you can run to reset the winsock2 registry entries
netsh winsock reset catalog
------
There are two easy ways to determine if Winsock2 is damaged:
From the XP source files, go to the Support / Tools directory
Winsock Test Method 1
Run netdiag /test:winsock
The end should say Winsock test ..... passed
Winsock Test Method 2

1. Run Msinfo32
2. Click on the + by Components
3. Click on the by Network
4. Click on Protocol
5. There should be 10 sections if the Winsock2 key is ok

MSAFD Tcpip [TCP/IP]
MSAFD Tcpip [UDP/IP]
RSVP UDP Service Provider
RSVP TCP Service Provider
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip...
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip...
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip...
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip...
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip...
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip...

If the names are anything different from those in this list, then likely Winsock2 is corrupted and needs to be repaired.
If you have any 3rd party software installed, the name MSAFD may be changed.
There should be no fewer than 10 sections.

To repair Winsock2

1. Run Regedit
2. Delete the following two registry keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock2
Download Reg file to delete these entries

3. Restart the computer
4. Go to Network Connections
5. Right click and select Properties
6. Click on the Install button
7. Select Protocol
8. Click on the Add  button
9. Click on the Have Disk button
10. Browse to the \Windows\inf directory
11. Click on the Open button
12. Click on the OK button
13. Highlight Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
14. Click on the OK button
15. Reboot

Task Manager in Menu Bar is Missing

If you start the Task Manager and menu bar and tabs are missing,
the Task Manager is running in Tiny Footprint mode.
To fix this, simply double click on an empty space in the top border

---

Taking Ownership Of a Folder

Sometimes when you reinstall WindowsXP, you can receive an Access Denied error when trying to open a previous user's directory.
To take ownership of that folder again:

1. Log on with an account that has administrator rights
2. Right click on the folder
3. Select Properties
4. Click on the Security tab
5. Click on the Advanced button
6. Click on the Owner tab
7. In the list of Names, click on your name
8. To take ownership, click on Replace owner on subcontainers and objects
9. Click OK and Yes