If the systems fonts in Windows XP get corrupt or you experience difficulties in setting the scheme in Power Options, there’s no need to pick up the phone and call Bill Gates :o) - there are a few ways you can help yourself! The users who are not afraid to enter their operation system, I have summed up a few tips and tricks how to improve the behaviour of their computer or to eliminate any system error raised.
These tips and tricks are clearly listed and are not lined up in any thematic subgroups. Their application doesn’t request any special knowledge; every average-skilled user should be able to take a use of them. However, for those advanced ones who find it exciting to discover the system settings, I would suggest to take a look at a powerful tool for Windows XP system management - program TweakUl from the PowerToys collection. You can download it from www.microsoft.com.
Attention: Most of the times you want to adjust or make any changes the system settings, you have to log in as administrator. Some of the tricks request to enter and hit to the Registry database, which is already a „stronger cup of tea”. To the first-time users I would suggest to read the detailed informations.
The user takes the full responsibility for any possible damages caused, therefore I suggest proceeding very carefully and respecting the „rule No.1” when working with data:
„Back up, back up, back up...“

Well, and now the promised Tips and Tricks…

Automatic folders’ display
Missing or corrupted system fonts
Where do the filles with icons occure in Windows?
System File Checker
Automatic LogOn by system start
Power scheme options are unavailable
Turn off the Autoplay for CD/DVD drive
Change Drive Letter for logical disc
Removing MSN Messenger from Outlook Express
Thumbs.db
Deleting the content of Prefetch folder
Disable Hibernate function
Change of context menu item „Send to”
Deleting backup folders after system update
The computer restarts spontaneously
Not enough free disk space
Print to file
Printing from DOS - programs
Disable Error reporting
Lost tabs in Display Properties window
Desktop icons redraw frequently
Towards the end an ace…

Automatic folders’ display
When you click on the icon My Computer a window opens where you will see all your storage media - HD, CD/DVD and user’s files. If you wish to see the folders, you must click on the icon Folders.
Automatic folders display procedure: Doubleclick My Computer, go to menu Tools - Folder Options - File Types and select file type Folder [NONE]. Click Advanced, select action explore and click Set default. Confirm by clicking OK.

Missing or corrupted system fonts
If you experience that your computer displays the menu or files and folders names a different way as usual, some of your system fonts might be defected or erased (folder %Windows/Fonts).
How to fix the problem:
First of all create a new folder where you will copy the new fonts, e.g. c:\winfonts. Insert install-CD for WindowsXP in the CD drive, go to Start - Run, type cmd and click Enter. Then type the commands (as stated below) followed by pressing Enter.
e: (drive letter, where you have inserted the CD)
cd i386
expand *.tt_ c:\winfonts
expand *.fo_ c:\winfonts
c:
cd \winfonts
ren *.tt_ *.ttf
ren *.fo_ *.fon
Then you just simply install the fonts by copying them from the folder c:\winfonts to %Windows\Fonts.

Where do the files with icons occure in Windows?
In folder %Windows\System32 are libraries SHELL32.DLL, PIFMGR.DLL, MORICONS.DLL that contain variety of icons, which can be used e.g. for programs on a desktop. You can do it this way: Right click on the original icon of the program, select Change icon, pick one of the libraries listed and select a desired icon.

System File Checker
While some programs are being installed, they overwrite some system files, what may result in slow and unstable computer functioning.
The procedure of restoring the original Windows XP system files:
Insert install-CD for WindowsXP in the CD drive.
Go to menu Start - Run, type sfc /scannow and press Enter. A System File Checker routine starts. This will scan all system files and replace defected or missing files by the original ones from the installation CD.

Automatic LogOn by system start
If you want a user to log in automatically by skipping the welcome-screen with the user accounts, do the following:
Go to menu Start - Run, type control userpasswords2, and press Enter. User accounts window will pop up. Uncheck the option Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer. Then just select the user who should be automatically logged in when starting the system.

Power scheme options are unavailable
It’s impossible to set any power scheme in Start - Settings - Control Panel - Power Options (the panes are grey). This issue may occur if some or all the registry entries that are related to the power scheme options have been deleted.
Solution:
You can use the Powercfg.exe utility to copy the power scheme from the Default Userprofile to the user who is currently logged on. You can do this because power schemes are uniquely associated with individual user accounts. To copy the power scheme from the default user by using the Powercfg.exe utility, follow these steps:
1. Go to Start - Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
2. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
powercfg /RestoreDefaultPolicies
(MS Knowledge Base Art. 913622).

Turn off the Autoplay for CD/DVD drive
Not everyone wants the computer to automatically perform AutoRun, when they insert CD or DVD in the drive. To disable this, use the recommended program TweakUl.
In menu My Computer - Autoplay - Drives uncheck all drives, in menu Types uncheck both Enable Autoplay. One you wish to enable Autoplay again, check both options.
Comment: In case the above attempt was unsuccessful, try the solution from Microsoft Knowledge Base (read it carefully).

Change Drive Letter for logical disc
Sometimes you might find it uncomfortable the way the discs are named by the system. The names of all discs except the system disc (usually named c:) we can change freely.
Procedure:
Before changing the name of any hard disc, first deactivate CD/DVD drives as they always uses the first available letters after the system disc and doesn’t allow you to use these letters to name other discs. In order to do this right-click on My Computer - Properties - Hardware - Device Manager and disable any CD/DVD.
Reboot the computer, rightclick My Computer, select Manage. Computer Management starts. Select Disc Management and change the drive letter for selected discs.
Now you can enable CD/DVD drives again.

Removing MSN Messenger from Outlook Express
Are you irritated by the slow start of Outlook Express? The reason is that once you start Outlook, MSN Messenger automatically starts as well, even if you don’t want it. What to do…?
Go to Start - Run, type regedit and then click OK. Search for key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Outlook Express.
Double-click on the value Hide Messenger (if not exist, create a new DWORD value and set the value data to 2). That’s it.

Thumbs.db
Do you find in your folders some files called „Thumbs.db“, which you’ve never created? Do you wonder how they got there? These are miniatures of pictures-sight that occur in the file and are created by the system. If you don’t find this useful to see the content of the file by using thumbs, you can disable it. Go to menu Tools - Folder options - View and then check Do not cache thumbnails.

Deleting the content of Prefetch folder
At time (~ 1 time a 2 months) it is advisable to delete the content of the folder %Windows\Prefetch. It’s a folder where programs save the rules how the operation system is supposed to handle them. Sometimes, after uninstalling the programs these files remain in the Prefetch folder, which is unnecessarily getting larger. Once you have deleted the content of the Prefetch folder (not the folder!), the programs will create new „fresh“ rules.

Disable Hibernate function
If you are not using this function, maybe it’s better you disable it as you can save about 500 MB on a HD.
Go to Start - Settings - Control Panel - Power options. Disable Hibernate.

Change of context menu item „Send to”
If you right click on any folder, file or icon, a context menu will pop up, where among others, you also have the option Send to. However, if you’re not happy with the default destinations selection you can change it as you please.
To do that, go to Start - Run, type sendto, press Enter. You will access a folder called SendTo, where you can change, add or delete items.

Deleting backup folders after system update
When you update the system by running Windows Update or if you install Windows Service Pack, you will find folders in %Windows folder which contain conditions before the update. Names of these folder usually start with „$” and a part of the name is „uninstall”. If you don’t wish to uninstall the updates then just simply delete these folders what will clear a substantive space on the HD.

The computer restarts spontaneously…
Even though a reason for this defect could be more serious (conflict device, colision of system ressources), first I would suggest you check if any of the coolers is covered…? Gaseous power source or any other component could be quite a nuisance…

Not enough free disk space
You are attempting to copy a file to your hard disc, but the process has failed? You have received an error message „Error Copying File or Folder. Cannot copy XY: There is not enough free disk space...“, despite having plenty of space on your disc?
What’s causing it is the way your file system is formatted. The file sizes are limited by the file system:
FAT16 - 2 GB
FAT32 - 4 GB
NTFS - 16 TB (terrabyte).

Print to file
This feature is being used „printing without a printer“, e.g. in case you create a document at home on your laptop, and would like to print it at your office printer, which you have no access to at the moment. The principle of „Print to file“ is creating a binary printing file that can be saved to a removable medium (CD, USB-stick, floppy disc) and printed later.
Attention! The computer where the document has been created has to be compatible with the printer where you will be printing later (i.e. relevant drivers must be installed on the computer).
How to create a printing file:
Create a document in any application and click File - Print. In a dialog window select relevant printer, tick Print to file and click on Print. The new window will appear where you will be asked to save the binary printing file „PRN“. Type the name of the document (e.g. letter.prn) and save it to removable medium (CD, USB-stick, floppy disc). Close the application.
Now you can take the computer you will be printing from.
Insert the medium in the drive. In case the printer is connected through an USB port, detect the computer name and name of the shared printer first. How?
Once you did that, go to menu Start - Run, type cmd, and press Enter. In the popup window type:
copy E:\letter.prn /b lpt1 - if the printer is connected through parallel port (LPT1),
or
copy E:\letter.prn /b \\CompName\PrintName - in case the printer is connected through USB port, or to another computer in the LAN network, where
E:\letter.prn = pathname of the saved document,
CompName = name of the computer physically connected with the printer,
PrintName = share name of the printer.
Confirm by pressing Enter. If everything went well and we did not make any error, the document is being printed correctly.
Notice: The feature „ Print to file“ can also be used for frequently printed documents on the same computer with printer connected.
In this case complete the command copy... by using Windows Notepad and save them in a batch file (extended with .bat) on the desktop. The major advantage of this procedure is an extraordinary printing speed without the need of opening the application where the document has been created.
Attention: Save the file by using quotation marks (e.g. „PrintLetter.bat“) as otherwise Notepad would attach another extension .txt to the file name. ...

Printing from DOS - programs
The DOS - based progam can print to a parallel (LPT) or serial (COM) port. Most recent printers are equipped with USB port or TCP/IP port only. You can use those printers to print documents from DOS - programs too. How to do this?
If you have a local printer conected to a local computer, it's very easy:
Go to Start - Settings - Printers and faxes. Right-click on the icon of your printer and select Properties. On the Ports tab add a check mark to the Enable Printer Pooling check box and click on the port(s) corresponding to the print device(s) that are to be part of the pool to add a check mark to them. Click OK.
If your printer is a network printer, you can map the printer to an emulated local port that DOS know about (e.g. LPT1). Do the following:
Go to Start - Run, type cmd, confirm with Enter. At the command prompt write:
net use lpt1: \\PrintServer\PrinterName /persistent:yes and press Enter,
where
PrintServer = Name of the network computer with printer connected
PrinterName = Printer share name.
You can disconnect the created connection with following command:
net use lpt1: /delete.
Remarks:
- The port the DOS will print to (e.g. LPT1) must be activated both in BIOS and Device Manager. - The printer must have his own fonts installed (PCL, PS), because the DOS - based program can print the text in ASCII-mode only.

Disable Error reporting
In case Windows system experiences any error (even a minor one), you will be notified immediately since a dialog window will appear inquiring whether you wish to report the occurred error to Microsoft. If you find this command disturbing, you can disable it very easily.
Right-click on the icon My Computer, select Properties, click on Advanced - Error reporting and select Disable Error reporting. However, it is advisable to activate But notify me when critical errors occur as well.

Lost tabs in Display Properties window
Some viruses can cause some tabs in Display Properties (e.g. Desktop or Screen Saver) to disappear. You can solve this problem by Group policy editor.
Procedure: Click Start - Run, write gpedit.msc and press Enter. Group Policy window pops up. In the left pane click User Configuration - Administrative Templates - Control Panel - Display. In the right pane you can see the settings for several items. Click the appropriate item (e.g. if you want to restore the Desktop tab, you click the Hide Desktop Tab item), select Disabled and press Enter.
OK, close the Group Policy console. Now, when you open the Display Properties window, you can see the restored Desktop tab.

Desktop icons redraw frequently
You can solve this problem by increasing icons cache memory.
Procedure: Click Start - Run, write regedit and click Enter. In Regedit window add the Max Cached Icons string value with a value data of 2000 to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer. Restart your computer.
The Max Cached Icons value data range is between 100 and 4096. The default value is 500.

Towards the end an ace…
The routine Start - Search - For files or folders allows you to use searching symbols, so called “wildcarts”, when typing the searched expression. There is one well known symbol „*” (asterisk) which represents set of symbols. Less known is „?” (question mark) that represents only one symbol.
E.g. when you are searching for an expression a??k.* , system returns all four-letters words starting with „a” and ending with „k” with any possible file extension, e.g.
alik.exe
arak.html
attk.jpg ...

I believe that the above summary of tips and tricks for Windows XP will help you to solve at least some minor problems and at the same time will help you to improve your work with computer.