Fixing or tweaking Windows is often a complicated affair. Underneath its green rolling hills, bubbly colour scheme, and irritating animated dogs lay a number of interrelated subsystems that don't always get along with each other. Diagnosing and fixing these problems rely on having the right tool for the job and any experienced Windows user will have gathered their own personal set to fill their virtual toolkit.
So, to give you a head start, here are PC Authority's top 10 tools for the ultimate Windows user. All of them are free, and many of them are hidden deep within Windows itself, so put on your overalls and get ready to dive under the hood.
System Configuration Utility
You've just finished installing Windows XP, and it's booted itself up for the first time. Besides eliminating all signs of the XP Tour, where do you go first? Most seasoned XP veterans will say one thing: the System Configuration Utility, otherwise known as msconfig.
You can access it by hitting + to open the Run dialog, then type msconfig. With msconfig, you can streamline your system to run and boot faster, and you can also troubleshoot things like spyware or virus infections.
From the General tab, you can choose to have Windows start up normally, or in diagnostic (Safe) mode, or you can selectively choose which features are loaded. You can also launch System Restore, and there's a handy utility to extract files from Windows' CAB files on the XP CD.
The system.ini and win.ini files are not necessary for Windows XP, but they're used for older applications that need to store settings there instead of in the Registry. Unless you have software that specifically needs these files, you can experiment with disabling them both. The boot.ini lets you manage the specific settings Windows uses to boot, and you can select some troubleshooting options from this tab.
The services tab lets you selectively choose which services run at startup. This is useful, although if you're troubleshooting services in depth you should use the Services Console, which you can access by typing services.msc from the Run dialog.
From the Startup tab, you can see which applications are loading when Windows boots. The best part is it shows you the applications that are in your Start Up folder, as well as the ones referenced from the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run. This is where many sneaky apps are located, including some viruses and spyware.
If you see anything in the Startup tab that you don't recognise, you can see where it''s loading from, and decide whether it''s legitimate. Many times software will install things like system tray icons or quick load applets, and these things are not necessary - in fact all they do is use up valuable RAM. Experiment with turning these things off, and if you have problems, simply re-enable them. If there is something you don't recognise, you can choose to disable it, or uninstall it all together.
From the BOOT.INI tab of msconfig you can add special bootup options, such as entering Safe mode.
The Startup tab in msconfig lets you choose exactly what apps load when Windows boots.
With msconfig you can control exactly how Windows starts up.