Welcome to another edition of Windows Tips and Tricks

Disable Error Reporting
As much as you might have noticed - every time a Microsoft program crashes in windows XP and Error Report comes up allowing you to send some information on the crash to Microsoft.

Well this can get quite annoying, so here is how you disable it.
1. start -> Open Control Panel
2. Click on Preformance and Maintenance.
3. Click on System.
4. Then click on the Advanced tab
5. Click on the error reporting button on the bottom of the window.
6. Select Disable error reporting.
7. Click OK
8. Click OK

Making Use Of Your Windows Key AKA Short Cuts.
Windows:  Display the Start menu
Windows + D:  Minimize or restore all windows
Windows + E:  Display Windows Explorer
Windows + F:  Display Search for files
Windows + Ctrl + F:  Display Search for computer
Windows + F1:  Display Help and Support Center
Windows + R:  Display Run dialog box
Windows +  break: Display System Properties dialog box
Windows +  shift + M: Undo minimize all windows
Windows + L:  Lock the workstation
Windows + U:  Open Utility Manager
Windows + Q:  Quick switching of users
Windows + Q:  Hold Windows Key, then tap Q to scroll through the different users on your PC

Show Hidden Files & Folders
Wondering how to find files or folders that you have used before but they seem to have vanished in windows XP.
1. Go to any folder that contains files.  Click on the tools menu and select folder options.
2. Then click on the view tab.
3. Locate where it lists Hidden files and folders and select Show hidden files and folders.
4. Click OK.

Disabling Blue Screen Of Death Auto-Reboot
When you are running windows XP,  mostly during installation you may have noticed that every so often (rarely) that Windows reboots without you asking it to. This tends to be caused by a Blue Screen error. If you want to see what this error is, you will have to check the error log list because Windows reboots too quickly for you to read what happened.

Well with this tip you can disable the Auto-Reboot so you can finally read, and see the blue screen error.
Go to Start -> Control Panel -> System
Go to Advanced
Under the Startup and Recovery section, click Settings...
Under System Failure un-check "Automatically restart"

Slow Shutdown?
Some times you might be experiencing a really slow shutdown after installing window XP Home or Professional. Although this can be caused by a number of ways, the most clear cut one so far is happening on systems with an nvidia card installed with the latest set of drivers. A service called NVIDIA Driver Helper Service is loading up on start up and for whatever reason doesn't shut itself down properly. The service isn't needed and can also increase the amount of memory available to your system.

Here is how to disable it.
1: Go into your Control Panel
2: Select Administrative Tools and then click on Services
3: Right click on the file "NVIDIA Driver Helper Service" and then select STOP.
4: To stop this loading up every time you boot up your PC Right click it again and select properties - then where the option "Startup Type" is shown - make sure it is set at Manual like we have shown in the image below.

How To Enable Hibernation?
The shutdown dialog box of Windows XP doesn't offer any longer the hibernation button. Some users may get confused about how to enable the hibernation mode. If this mode is supported by your motherboard (ACPI) you have to do the following:
1: Click Start and Shut Down,
2: Point the standby button and maintain the shift key pushed,
3: A new hibernation button appears: click it while still holding the shift key:  there you go your PC will hibernate.

Shutdown Windows XP Faster
When you shut down window XP, the operating system tries its very best to make sure that all services running  shut down. But there are times when the services don't close or shut down, thus Windows XP allows services to shutdown itself. This amount of time that windows waits for the service to close is stored in the system registry. If you modify this setting, then windows will shut down the service earlier.

To modify the setting, follow the directions below:
 Start --> cmd --> Regedit.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control.
Click on the "Control" Folder.
Select "WaitToKillServiceTimeout"
Right click on it and select Modify.
Set it to a value lower than 2000, say 1000 as a test.

Clear Out Pagefile On Shutdown
When working with word documents or Webpages in your computer, opened pages get loaded into the RAM, to save RAM space windows tends to put various files into your Page File (Like a cache system). There is an option to clear out the Pagefile on shutdown off as default, here is the way to switch it on.
Take note, this increases shutdown time.
Caution if you are not familiar with regedit, take time and read about registry in the next edition
1. Start --> cmd --> Regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
3. Select ClearPageFileAtShutdown from the list on the right.
4. Right on it and select Modify.
5. Change the value to 1 to enable.
6. Reboot your computer.