disable personalized menus in xp

Note - this one is for those who using classic start menu

When you click on start menu and point to programs you notice that some of your programs not displayed in right away. you have to click down arrow head to see rest of the program. this is happen because of personalized menu options, this is unnecessary and you can you can disable it. follow these steps.

• Right click on your taskbar and click Properties
• Click start menu tab
• Now click customize button at the "classic start menu"
• Now scroll down to the bottom
• Now deselect "use personalized menus"
• Click ok
  
• Then "apply" and "ok" to finish

Note - no need to reboot your pc, you'll see the difference right away

disable new program alert in xp

If you install new program to windows xp, it notify you by displaying new program alert, this is funny and sometimes unnecessary. because you already know that you install new program, then why some alert message, lets disable it (if you want)

Note - this can be done only if you use standard xp start menu, there is nothing to configure in classic menu.

• Right click on taskbar and click properties
• Go to the start menu tab and click customize
  
• Click on the advanced tab
• Deselect "Highlight newly installed programs"
  

clear recent documents using group policy

Instead of editing registry to clear recent documents, you can use group policy to do that. after configuring this you can clear recent documents ever appearing in the start menu, follow these steps.

• Click start and click run
• Type gpedit.msc and press enter to open group policy editor
• Now in the left side navigate to User Configuration - Administrative Templates - Start Menu and Taskbar
• In the right side find "Do not keep history of recently opened documents" and double click to open it
• Now click on "Enabled"
• Then click apply and ok
  

view hidden devices in the "device manager"

There can be no of hidden devices ( installed in the earlier time) under device manager. you can view these items and remove if some problem occur. we strongly recommend don't delete these devices for fun, you have to know what you are doing, then you can delete if you really wanted to. follow these steps.

• Right click on my computer
• Click manage to open computer management console
  
• In the left side under "system tools" click on device manager
• Now in the view menu click on hidden devices to show these devices.
  

add manufacture logo and informations in system properties window

In windows XP, you can set Computer Manufacturer Logo and other information's in system properties.follow these steps to change the default system Properties.

• First open new notepad
• Then type the following
• [General]
  Manufacturer="http://nstech-blog.blogspot.com"
  Model="Free Tips and Tricks!"
  [Support Information]
  Line1="Free technical information's,system optimize and more."
  Line2="Visit daily for new tips"
• Note - you can set more Lines as you like
  
• After editing notepad save it in the location of c:/windows/system32 and named the file as OEMINFO.INI
• Now select the picture you want to set as your logo (make sure picture size is 150X150 pixels and BMP format) save it in c:/windows/system32 folder with file name of OEMLOGO.BMP
• Now close all opened windows and restart your pc to changes go into affect
• To check newly created Manufacturer Logo and other information's, right click on my computer and click properties.
• Now in the general tab, verify the system properties with new settings
• Now click on Support Information for more detail