How To Hide Drives in Windows XP

Do you have important files stored on a disk drive (disk partition) that you don’t want tampered with or easily accessible to other users? Now you can hide it! Here are the steps to hide your important data:Control Panel -> Administrative Tools and double click Computer Management.

1. Go to Start ->

2. On the left side browse to Storage -> Disk Management.

3. Here you will see all your partitions and disk drives.
4. Right click the one you want to hide and select Change Drive Letter and Paths…

5. Select Remove to erase the letter assigned to that drive and therefore to hide it.

6. The changes will take effect immediately. Don’t worry, your data will remain the same.
7. Now if you want to unhide the drive, just repeat the process. But in 5th step, click on the Add… button in order to assign a letter for the drive so that Windows Explorer will recognize it.

 

100 keyboard shortcuts for Windows

CTRL+C (Copy)
CTRL+X (Cut)
CTRL+V (Paste)
CTRL+Z (Undo)
DELETE (Delete)
SHIFT+DELETE (Delete the selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin)
CTRL while dragging an item (Copy the selected item)
CTRL+SHIFT while dragging an item (Create a shortcut to the selected item)
F2 key (Rename the selected item)
CTRL+RIGHT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word)

How To Delete All XP’s Temporary Files With Disk Cleanup

Temporary files are usually created by applications that need to store information that is either too big for storage in RAM or that needs to be saved in non-volatile memory (such as a hard drive).
Microsoft Windows uses many temporary files to store data about the users’ web browsing history and settings. The most common files associated with Windows temporary files are index.dat and the entire Cookies folder under Documents and Settings that stores HTTP cookies.Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Explorer -> VolumeCaches -> Temporary Files.
3. In the right pane look for a value named LastAccess and double-click to modify it.
4. In the Value data field put 0 instead of 7. Click OK.
5. Restart your computer and from now on all your temporary files will be deleted no matter when they have been accessed.

You can use the Disk Cleanup built in utility to delete the temporary files in Windows XP. Even so this will now clean all the files, because it is set not to delete files that have been accessed in the last seven days. However with a little trick made to the Windows Registry you can get rid of all your temporary files. Here is how:

Note: Because you will make changes to the registry, a good idea is to backup it first.

1. Open the Registry Editor by clicking Start -> Run… and typing regedit. Click OK.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE ->

How to encrypt a folder in Windows XP

This article describes how to encrypt a folder by using Encrypting File System (EFS).

Encryption is the process of converting data into a format that cannot be read by others. You can use EFS in Windows XP to automatically encrypt your data when it is stored on the hard disk.

The EFS feature is not included in Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.

How to Encrypt a Folder

// NOTE: You can encrypt files and folders only on volumes that use the NTFS file system.

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Windows Explorer.
2. Locate and right-click the folder that you want, and then click Properties.
3. On the General tab, click Advanced.
4. Under Compress or Encrypt attributes, select the Encrypt contents to secure data check box, and then click OK.
5. Click OK.
6. In the Confirm Attribute Changes dialog box that appears, use one of the following steps:
   • If you want to encrypt only the folder, click Apply changes to this folder only, and then click OK.
   • If you want to encrypt the existing folder contents along with the folder, click Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files, and then click OK.

How To Stop Forever Unwanted Programs

You can improve your system performance, boot time and get rid of programs you don’t want running in the background by modifying your msconfig to do a Selective Startup.

1. Click Start -> Run.

2. Type msconfig and press Enter.

3. In the System Configuration Utility click the Startup tab.

4. Uncheck programs you don’t want to load each time your computer starts.

5. Click OK and restart the computer. You will receive a prompt, just check the box to not receive the prompt anymore and click OK.