Many times you would have encountered an annoying pop-up window many times, which notifies you that you are running on low virtual memory, and Windows is trying to increase it. If it happens once in a while, then its OK. Nothing to worry about. But if it happens repeatedly, then you need to take action, because now it has started affecting the performance of your PC.

How to optimize Virtual memory in Windows XP
A few simple steps.

1.Open Control Panel > System.
2.Click on Advanced tab.
3.Click the Settings button in the Performance panel.
4.Click the Advanced tab.
5.Click the Change button in the Virtual memory panel.
6.Now, you have two options. If you exactly about your system, you can choose the size of the virtual memory, otherwise select the System managed size option. It is safe.

Sometimes it happens that disk check always starts to check the file system on one or more drives for consistency. If any key is pressed, the disk checking is aborted. Actually this is because some data structure of the drive or some file is corrupted which can not be recovered and check disk is always run at Windows startup. Or sometimes it may take several hours for disk checking to scan all the drives. So disabling it or postponing disk check is better. There are several methods to disable disk checking at Windows startup. Two of them are given below:

Method 1: Using CHKNTFS utility

CHKNTFS is a utility that has been developed by Microsoft to disable disk checking on certain drives at Windows startup. To use this utility go to Start –> Run –> cmd.

If you want to disable check disk on C: drive, use the following command on command prompt.

chkntfs /X C:

If you want to disable check disk on two or more drives, just keep on adding the drives:

chkntfs /X C: D: E:

This will disable check disk on C, D and E drives.

If you want to restore what you have done, that is, enable automatic disk checking on all the drives again, just run the following command:

chkntfs /D

This will restore all the drives to automatic disk checkup.

Method 2: Using Registry

To disable automatic disk checking at Windows startup through registry, go to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager

In the right hand pane, double click BootExecute.

The default value of the key is autocheck autochk *

* means every drive is checked for consistency. Just add /K:C at the end before *. /K switch will disable autocheck on C: drive at Windows startup. So the final value should look like this:

autocheck autochk /k:C *

If you want to add more drives, the key should look like this: (disabling C and D drives)

autocheck autochk /k:C /k:D *

If you want to restore everything to default, just replace the key with the default one i.e.,

autocheck autochk *

Microsoft’s Error Reporting in windows sometimes is disturbing, most of us don’t want to send that error report because it’s of no use. Even I am fed up of this stupid error pop up every time. There’s a easy way to disable Microsoft error report in windows.

Disable Microsoft Error report in Windows XP:

1- Open Control Panel (Start > Control Panel)

2- Open the Problem Reports & Solutions applet Under advanced options and disable error reporting.

Disable Microsoft Error report in Windows Vista:

1- Right click on my computer (Desktop) and click properties

2- Click the Advanced Tab

3- You’ll see a “Error reporting” button at the bottom, click it

4- Select Disable Error Reporting

And you’re done.

Normally when you want to access the Disk Cleanup tool, you usually have to either find it through the start menu, or open up the drive properties window. Instead of going through all that, we can use a simple registry hack to add a menu item to the drive right-click menu.

Using the Hack

After installation, you can simply right-click on a drive and choose “Disk Cleanup” from the menu:

If you are using Windows Vista, you’ll be asked whether you want to clean up your files or all files…

And then disk cleanup will begin:

Manual Registry Hack

Open up regedit through the start menu search or run box, and then browse down to the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell

Create a new key called “diskcleanup” and set the default value to “Disk Cleanup”. Then create another key underneath it called “command” and set the value to the following:

cleanmgr.exe /d %1

The change should be immediate, just right-click on the drive and you should see the new menu item.

Downloadable Registry Hack

Simply download, extract, and double-click on DiskCleanupDriveMenu.reg to enter the information into the registry. You can use the included RemoveDiskCleanupDriveMenu.reg file to reverse the changes.

Download DiskCleanupDriveMenu Registry Hack

Most programs written for Windows XP also work in this version of Windows, but some older programs might run poorly or not at all. If a program written for an earlier version of Windows doesn’t run correctly, use the Program Compatibility Wizard to change the compatibility settings for the program. To change settings for a program manually, use the individual program’s Compatibility tab.

If changing the settings does not fix the problem, go to the program manufacturer’s website to see if there is an update for the program.

Do not use the Program Compatibility Wizard on older antivirus programs, disk utilities, or other system programs because it might cause data loss or create a security risk.

Run the Program Compatibility Wizard

1. Open the Program Compatibility Wizard by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking Programs, and then clicking Use an older program with this version of Windows.

2. Follow the instructions in the wizard.

If you cannot install a program, insert the installation disc for the program and, using the wizard, browse to the program’s setup file, usually called Setup.exe, Install.exe, or something similar. The wizard is not designed to work on programs that have an .msi file name extension.

To change compatibility settings manually for a program, right-click the icon for the program, click Properties, and then click the Compatibility tab.

Setting Description

Compatibility mode: Runs the program using settings from a previous version of Windows. Try this setting if you know the program is designed for (or worked in) a specific previous version of Windows.

Run in 256 colors: Uses a limited set of colors in the program. Some older programs are designed to use fewer colors.

Run in 640 × 480 screen resolution: Runs the program in a smaller-sized window. Try this setting if the graphical user interface appears jagged or is rendered improperly.

Disable visual themes: Disables themes on the program. Try this setting if you notice problems with the menus or buttons on the title bar of the program.

Disable desktop composition: Turns off transparency and other advanced display features. Choose this setting if window movement appears erratic or you notice other display problems.

Disable display scaling on high DPI settings: Turns off automatic resizing of programs if large-scale font size is in use. Try this setting if large-scale fonts are interfering with the appearance of the program. For more information, see Make the text on your screen larger or smaller and Ways to improve display quality.

Privilege level: Runs the program as an administrator. Some programs require administrator privileges to run properly. If you are not currently logged on as an administrator, this option is not available.

Show settings for all users: Lets you choose settings that will apply to all users on this computer.

• Install Windows Vista as normal on a 20 GB or above space NTFS hard disk drive partition.After installing Vista don’t install anything like device driver’s, programs and other updates on this Windows Vista because Microsoft gives you then Machinekeynumbers, that cant be copied with the Windows Explorer.
• Boot the same Windows Vista installed computer using another hard disk contains Windows XP operating system or use an USB connected external hard disk drive to boot. The hard disk with installed Windows Vista stays connected.
• Copy all the files and folders from that Windows Vista installation to a folder called Vista32. Don’t paste the copied Vista32 folder on the same partition with Windows Vista, because this partition is deleted later in this tweak. Also make sure that in folder options all the system files are set visible like hiberfil.sys, pagefile.sys, System Volume Information.
• When you get a message, that a file cant be copied, use the program Beyond Compare 2 to look, what has happens. You can do those copy options also by hand. When you found that file or folder cant be copied, build this file or folder by manual mode with same extension and let it empty .
• Make a backup of your original Windows Vista installation.For this use Winhex and copy simple Byte by Byte of the installations hard disk including the Windows Vista bootsector to a file called vista32.dat. Remember that on a Fat32 partition no single file can be larger than 4.1GB. So, this created vista32.dat has to stay on any NTFS partition in your hard disk drive because it is about 20GB size.
• Before you delete the hard disk drive partition with the original Windows Vista on it with a third party software like Partition Magic 8, notice the exact size of this partition.After this delete this particular partition and build a new Fat32 partition at the same place with the same size as before on the same hard disk. Set the newly created partition as active.
• Now copy all the files and folders back from the Vista32 folder to that empty Fat32 hard disk drive partition.Also note that copy the Boot folder first and then the Windows folder last.
• Disconnect your USB XP drive or any other hard disk that is connected to your system. Only the hard disk with the newly created Fat32 partition and the copied files and folders of Windows Vista on it stays.
• When you try to boot your system from that hard disk you get a message like no OS found.
• Put the Windows Vista installation DVD in the drive and hit any key.
• Chose the option of install of Windows Vista, but at the next place choose the option System repair.
• Select a keyboard layout from the prompt.
• Hit CTRL+ ALT+ DEL and then choose no restart of Windows Vista.
• Hit “next”, and then choose Command Prompt.
• Type in cd and then the way to your DVD drive with the Vista DVD in it,say F: .
• Type in there cd F:\boot .
• Then type in there bootsect /nt60 C:
  A message is shown, that a new bootsector for FAT32 is written.
• Take the Windows Vista installation DVD out from the disk drive and shut down the computer. When you boot up your computer to the next time, don’t think that nothing happens. The hard disk seems to dead about 2 minutes.After this Windows Vista boots up and Vista Desktop with Fat32. hiberfil.sys, pagefile.sys, System Volume Information have also been build new