Change The Priority Of The Print Spooler - Hardware Enhancement Windows XP Registry Hack

The “priority” of a task is the degree of urgency that the task presents to the processor—requests from a task with higher priority are served earlier. Now, the default setting for the Print Spooler is to run at normal priority. Now if you mostly use your computer for printing, use this hack to change the priority class of the Print Spooler.

Navigate to:
HLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print

Create a new DWORD value called SpoolerPriority and set it according to what value you want (or if it exists, just set the value):
0xFFFFFFFF for Idle Priority
0 for Normal Priority
1 for High Priority

Remove Pinned Programs - Visual Enhancement Windows XP Registry Hack

Don’t like the pinned program list in the Start Menu? We do—so we don’t need to scroll—but some people don’t like it. Use this Registry edit to get rid of it.

Navigate to:

HCU\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer

And to:

HLM\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer

Change the DWORD value of NoStartMenuPinnedList to 1 to remove the pinned programs list. The default is 0. The hange should happen immediately, but as usual, if it doesn’t, just restart!

This will also remove the Internet and E-mail Programs. Also, it only applies to the XP Start Menu and not the Classic Start Menu.

Disable The Frequent Programs List - Visual Enhancement Windows XP Registry Hack

Use this hack if you don’t want the list of frequently used programs in the Start Menu to show up.

Navigate to:

HCU\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer

And to:

HLM\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer

Change the DWORD value of NoStartMenuMFUprogramsList to 1 to disable the display of the frequent programs list. If that DWORD doesn’t exist, create it.

This will only work with the XP Start Menu, not the Classic Start Menu.

Take Control Of Your Modem - Hardware Enhancement Windows XP Registry Hack

You’ve probably experienced this if you’re on dial-up: if remote connections are enabled, your computer initiates an Internet connection— at startup or when an application demands it—and you find your modem dialling all on its own. Here’s how to disable that behaviour. Navigate to:

HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Ole

Create a new String value (or modify the existing value) called EnableRemoteConnect. Set it to N to disable your modem stealing control. Of course, you can always set it to Y if bad things happen after you do this. A restart is required for the change to take effect.

Don’t Show Common Program Groups - Visual Enhancement Windows XP Registry Hack

If you don’t want to see the “common groups” in the Start Menu, use this hack to disable it from getting displayed.

Navigate to:

HCU\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer

And to:

HLM\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer

The first value above, as you know by now, is user-specific, and the second is the system-wide setting.

Change the DWORD Value of NoCommonGroups to 0 to disable the display, and to 1 to re-enable it.

Start Menu: Scrolling Or Columns? - Visual Enhancement Windows XP Registry Hack

By default, Start Menu items are cascaded as columns across the screen. This can get annoying and inconvenient when your Start Menu list becomes large. This hack will enable you to switch the default Start Menu display mode to a scrolling menu.

Navigate to:
HCU\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer\ Advanced

And to:
HLM\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer\ Advanced

To enable Start Menu scrolling, change the value of StartMenuScrollPrograms to “Yes”. Set the value to “No” for the default multiple-column display. Reboot or log out and back in for the change to take effect.

Make Your NIC Do Some Work - Hardware Enhancement Windows XP Registry Hack

This applies only if your network adapter has an onboard processor: you can find out from the spec sheet whether or not it does. If it does, it has been designed to offload network processing computations from the CPU. This hack can reduce system slowdown during high-speed data transfers. Navigate to:

HLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

Create a new DWORD value called DisableTaskOffload and set it to 0 to enable the NIC’s processor. Of course, if the key exists and is set to 1, reset it to 0. A restart is required for the change to take effect.