The windows xp registry file is a database file that is part of windows xp. It contains all the information and parameters pertaining to your windows xp installation. It holds information about the programs that you have installed as well as the entire configuration parameters for your system. The windows xp registry file also holds all the information on how the desktop looks to you.

Your computer runs fast when your computer is new and the windows xp registry file has not got much in it and is clean without leftover information. As your computer gets older and you install more programs as well as removing programs you no longer want, your computer starts to slow down. This is because the  windows xp registry file get larger and larger causing windows XP to take longer to find information. Your registry will also start to contain errors, which also has a slowing effect. By removing unnecessary files, your computer finds what it needs in the registry a lot faster. Despite this, the windows registry will still get filled up over time. Frivolous entries will clutter the windows xp registry file as it becomes fuller and fuller and more and more programs are installed or removed.

One way to reduce this is by using a registry cleaner. This works by removing and deleting unnecessary program information. It will also remove all those errors that have accumulated in the windows xp registry file. When you create or delete files or install or uninstall software, it adds to your registry. Unfortunately by removing programs fragments are frequently left behind. Bits of the software programs are often still on your computer. If you leave these remnants, problems can be caused, sometimes making your Windows XP unstable and slowing it down causing problems in the future. A registry cleaner is programed to clean up your registry file by removing anything that should not be there and compacting it.

Because of the need for Windows XP to use the registry, there is no way to avoid cluttering up your windows xp registry file. You can fix the Windows registry errors, but you should avoid trying to delete registry errors yourself. You would be much better off purchasing a low-cost Windows registry cleaner and periodically running it.

Most types of registry cleaner provide a backup feature, which should be used before using any  registry cleaner software. Using the backup feature allows you to restore your registry settings if there is a problem during the cleaner use. Registry cleaner software allows you to clean and repair windows XP registry file without risk.

You should also have your system checkpoint enabled so that you can use the windows system restore feature if anything gets out of hand.

The most thorough registry cleanup can be performed using registry scanners and cleaners. With minimal instruction, the windows registry will be repaired and cleaned by these tools. Don’t make a mistake, a windows registry clean is of utmost importance to extend your computer’s life. One reasonable priced cleaner I recommend is “Registry Winner”. “Registry Winner” gives you a free scan that will give you an indication on how good or how bad your registry file is. Click on “Registry Winner” to get your free scan. “Registry Winner” also has additional optimization tools that will help to increase the performance of your PC. It is Multi-language and is compatible with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

The commercial registry cleaner programs now sold are much more efficient and up-to-date than the windows free registry repair tools available. Just remember it is important that you periodically clean your windows XP registry file not only to speed up windows XP but to keep it stable.

Now you know something about the Windows XP Registry File maybe you should learn something about the Windows Regedit Registry Editor.

When windows XP cannot load properly it may prevent you using some of the utilities such as System Restore that will return the system to a previous state. Booting in Windows XP Safe Mode bypasses the loading of a lot of programs, one that may be causing your problem.  You may have just installed a program that has caused you windows to load incorrectly. Booting in windows xp safe mode gives you the opportunity to recover from this by de-installing the program.

So how do you get into Windows XP Safe Mode? To get into safe mode reboot your computer. As the computer is booting keep pressing the “F8 Key”. You should find this usually in the top row on your keyboard. Doing this should eventually bring up the “Windows Advanced Options Menu” as shown below. You will find your mouse is inoperative so you will have to use your keyboard arrow keys to move to “Safe Mode”. Press the enter key on your keyboard to invoke Windows XP Safe Mode.

Windows Advanced Options Menu
Please select an option:

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt

Enable Boot Logging
Enable VGA mode
Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)
Directory Services Restore Mode (Windows domain controllers only)
Debugging Mode

Start Windows Normally
Reboot
Return to OS Choices Menu

As your computer is booting up in Windows XP Safe Mode, you will get the option either to go to the System Restore menu, or continue to boot to the safe mode of windows xp. To exit Windows XP Safe Mode all you have to do is restart your computer.

There are a few options for booting up in Windows XP Safe Mode, they are:

Safe Mode

This is the basic Windows XP Safe Mode option and is what most users will want to choose when troubleshooting their computer. In this mode you can perform basic Windows operations such as using the control panel.

Safe Mode with Networking

There are times when you may need access to the Internet to download drivers to replace one that is causing problems or other software.

Safe Mode with Command Prompt

This Safe Mode boots and allows you to use the command prompt. (MS-DOS prompt). This should only be used by advanced users.

You should practice booting in Windows XP Safe Mode so you get familiar with it. You do not want to be caught short if something happens to your system and then find you have problems entering it. Don’t worry you can’t stuff anything up practicing this.

Now you know how to invoke Windows XP Safe Mode and have fixed your problem you may want to learn how to defrag your hard drive.

At the same time there are quite a few you can go and stop the windows service for. Below you will find a list and a short explanation of each service. The stopping windows services list is not all inclusive and I will be building this list on a continuing basis.

What you should do is maintain a list of the services you disable. This means, if you have problems you have a list of what you disabled so you can go back and enable the service again. If in any doubt do not disable a service.

This list of Windows XP Services does not necessarily mean that you will find this service running on your computer as some services depend upon what has been installed on it.

For instructions on stopping a service go to “Disable Windows XP Services“.

Stopping Windows Services List

Alerter Service

The Alerter service is a tool that expands the usage of the windows performance monitor.
This is not required if you are not running this monitor so you can disable it.

Clipbook Service

Enables the ClipBook viewer to store information and share it with remote computers. If the service is stopped, ClipBook Viewer will not be able to share information with remote computers.

Stand alone computers do not require this so it can be disabled

Computer Browser Service

Microsoft Active Directory services in Windows XP replace the computer browser service used in earlier versions of Windows to provide the network basic input/output system (NetBIOS) name resolution. This service can be disabled

Fast User Switching

Fast User Switching is a way for users to quickly switch between accounts without having to fully log off. This is just one more service that doesn’t really need to be started so disable it.

Human Interface Access Devices (HID)

Windows service “Human Interface Device Access” enables generic input access to Human Interface Devices (HID), which activates and maintains the use of predefined hot buttons on keyboards, remote controls, and other multimedia devices.

If you are not using any special devices that have hot buttons, you can disable this freeing up at least 1MB of memory.

Indexing Service (Slows the hard drive down)

Indexing Service is a base service that extracts content from files and constructs an indexed catalog to facilitate efficient and rapid searching. Unless you perform heavy and continuous searches on your PC this is not required so disable it.

Messenger

If advertisements are opening on your computer in a window titled Messenger Service, it may indicate that your system is not secure. You should enable the Internet Connection Firewall and disable the Messenger Service in Windows XP to help protect your computer from unwanted spam and other potential threats. In their initial state, Microsoft Windows operating allow anyone on the Internet to actuate pop-up messages on your screen.

Disable the Messenger Service To prevent anyone on the Internet from generating pop-up messages on your computer, easily at a later time if you decide to use it.

Net Logon (unnecessary unless networked on a Domain)

Maintains a secure channel between this computer and the domain controller for authenticating users and services. If this service is stopped, the computer may not authenticate users and services and the domain controller cannot register DNS records. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start. This service is not required on a standalone system, or for a “home” network.

Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)

Enables an authorized user to access this computer remotely by using NetMeeting over a corporate intranet. You use Skype don’t you so you do not need this.

Disable “NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing”, and you will free up at least 1MB of memory.

Remote Assistance.

If this service is stopped, Remote Assistance will be unavailable. Before stopping this service, see the Dependencies tab of the Properties dialog box.

Now guys how many time have you used this. Probably like me “Ziltch” so disable “Remote Desktop Help Session Manager”, freeing up at least 2MB of memory.

Remote Procedure Call Locator.

Name service provider that maintains a database with available RPC services on the server, where local RPC services can register themselves. A client can then contact the RPC locator on the server to locate and access the wanted RPC service.

May affect Microsoft Outlook if disabled (Not Outlook Express). If you do not use Microsoft Outlook you can disable.

Remote Registry.

Enables remote users to modify registry settings on this computer. If this service is stopped, the registry can be modified only by users on this computer. Most unlikely that you would want this running on a home computer as it provides a nasty security hole. Disable it for extra security.

Routing & Remote Access.

Unless using a home network you can disable this for extra security..

SSDP Discovery Service.

This is for the utterly pointless “Universal P’n'P”, &  leaves TCP Port 5000 wide open to nasties getting into your system so disable it.

here is another article you may find useful on how you can cleanup your desktop if it becomes to cluttered read it at “Desktop Cleanup“.

Most of the Windows XPdesktop  shortcuts are created when we install programs. Most of the time the programs ask you if you want to install the Windows XP desktop shortcut for the program. What you may not know that you can create your own windows desktop shortcuts for just about anything you want. Shortcuts to folders, your video libraries, pictures and even shortcuts to your favorite web sites.

So how do you create your own windows XP shortcuts? There are several ways and I will show you how to do each way you can do it.

The first way is directly from you desktop as follows.

1. Find an empty spot on your desktop and right click on it with your mouse.
2. In the little window that comes up place your mouse pointer over “new”
3. Another window will appear near the top you will see an item called “Shortcut”, left click this with your mouse.
4. Another window will appear called “Create Shortcut”
5. Here you can browse to a location and create a shortcut to a folder, image or video.
6. One you have found your item just click on  “Next”
7. In the next window you have the opportunity to change the name of the Windows XP shortcut you have just created or leave it as it is. For example if you selected your “My Videos” folder it will show this name as the default. You could change it if you want to something like “Marie’s Videos”
8. Next just click “Finish” and your Windows XP shortcut is created.

I have Windows XP desktop shortcuts to my most used folders – “My Document”, “My Videos”, “My Pictures” and “My Music”

At instruction “5″ instead of browsing you can enter the folder path directly into the box if you wish.

This brings us to how you can create a Windows desktop shortcut directly to your favorite websites.

1. In your Web browser bring up the website you would like to create a Windows XP desktop shortcut for.
2. Once again find an empty spot on your desktop and right click with your mouse.
3. In the little window that comes up place your mouse pointer over “new”.
4. Another window will appear near the top you will see an item called “Shortcut”, left click this with your mouse.
5. Another window will appear called “Create Shortcut”.
6. Go back to your website browser and in its address box highlight the website address.
7. Right click and copy this location.
8. Go back to the “Shortcut” windows and paste it into the box then click  “Next”
9. In the next window you will need to change the shortcut name and change it to the name of your website. Then click “Finish”

You can create as many website Windows XP desktop shortcuts as you wish this way.

The final way to create Windows XP desktop shortcuts is through your Windows explorer file manager. You can do this as follows. You may already be at the location in the file manager where you wish to create a desktop shortcut to it.

1. All you have to do is “right click” on the folder.
2. In the window that pops up select “Send to”
3. In the next windows select  “Desktop (Create Shortcut)”
4. A shortcut Icon is then sent to your desktop with the name of the folder.

That one was simple.

So there you are not really hard to create Windows XP desktop shortcuts is it? Just remember that you can delete Windows XP desktop shortcuts at anytime without affecting the contents of the folder that they are pointing to.

You can go to “Windows XP Desktop Shortcuts Video” and watch the video version if you prefer.

You may also like to view the Windows XP Shortcuts Video and find how you can create your own  Desktop shortcuts.

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So why doesn’t a program like your browser have these sort of Windows XP Services built into them? There are a couple of reasons. One it would make the programs a lot bigger and more cumbersome. It would make updating them more difficult if there had been an update to Windows XP as every program on your computer would have to be updated so they would continue to run.

When one considers that a lot of programs use the same Windows XP services wouldn’t it be better to have one copy that is used by all of them? Of course it would.

There are two types of Windows XP Services, those that need to be running all the time and those that only need to run when they are used by a program. One big problem with windows XP is that a lot of Windows XP Services are running that do not really need be running. A lot of the time they may be there because a program you have subsequently removed needed a particular one running. It is not always removed when the program is removed. There are also Windows XP Services running that Windows XP installs and sets to run automatically as a default when Windows is installed. The consequence of this is that they stay in your PC’s memory taking up space.

How do you stop the Windows XP Services running that you don’t need thus saving valuable memory space? Fortunately it is easy but being easy has also ramifications if you stop a Windows XP Service that is needed. To help you with this I have supplied a list of the Windows XP Services that you can safely disable or put in the manual mode. You can find them by going to the Stopping Windows Services Page.

I recently read a review comparing Windows XP with Windows 7 using a reasonably configured PC. Windows XP came ahead on some counts Windows 7 on others (but not by a lot in either case) except in the “multimedia” area where windows 7 came further ahead. So If you are heavy into multimedia, maybe. The differences, except for this, again posed the question “Should I upgrade to Windows 7” as the gain looks minimal.

This leaves “functionality”, is there any extra functionality in Windows 7 that I may gain advantage of. First one should consider that many new features in Windows 7 (like ISO image burning) you probably do already with other programs under Windows XP. “Paint” for example has been jazzed up in Windows 7 but you probably already use much better graphics programs.

Look at it this way, in my opinion most Windows upgrades are mainly for show and to add some extra functionality to keep driving revenue into Microsoft. Microsoft gets steady revenue from new PC’s installed with their operating system no matter which one is installed. Where they keep pushing up their revenue is by creating new Windows versions as they get this by you and I upgrading. If they did not do that then this would be a revenue stream lost. I think this is where “Vista” fell down they tried to rush it out to get this revenue stream going and it fell in a heap, thus Windows 7.

Now Windows 7 didn’t fall in a heap but it is considered “bloatware” That is it has so much so called “functionality” and frivolity that most users would only look and use a fraction of its capability. Most OS’s are like this even Windows XP. Compare it to when VCR’s came out. Most people just wanted to push a button to watch a video or push one or two to record yet they were presented with so many options to do this that most people sort of gave up. Same thing with remote’s so many buttons most people do not know what they do.

Getting back to “Should I Upgrade to Windows 7”. Are you happy with Windows XP? Does it do everything you want? Well stay with it as you are not going to get any much extra benefit from upgrading to Windows 7. Later on you may need to as support for Windows 7 will vanish (and it will eventually) and even then you may not want to.

I have been in the Computer Systems” business over 35 years and one thing I have found is that most problems occur when new updates of existing operating systems (patches, fixes etc) are installed. (windows updates) When these stop happening the OS’s became very stable. I have found this with many “Mainframe” systems I used to look after when existing system support updates were discontinued. I would see Windows XP the same. As soon as support is discontinued (with Windows updates) many new problems will disappear. Unfortunately you may eventually have to upgrade to windows 7 as programmers will start developing programs that will only work on upgraded operating systems so if you want to use them then you will have to upgrade.

I hope this helps you to make a decision on  the question “should I upgrade to windows 7” or not. Basically if you have no need to then all you are doing is pushing money out your pocket at this time. Better to wait until Windows 7 matures if you feel you want to keep up with the game or you buy a new computer.

Personally I will be staying with Windows XP on my main PC desktop but will be upgrading to Windows 7 on my Laptop so I can start developing my expertise on it for my new “Windows 7” Blog.

Just as an aside I have listed below the functionality’s present in windows 7 over windows XP.

- Libraries
- Search Federation
- EnterpriseSearch Scopes – Requires Windows 7 Enterprise
- DirectAccess – Requires Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows Server 2008 R2
- VPN Reconnect
- BranchCache – Requires Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows Server 2008 R2
- Mobile Broadband
- RemoteApp& Desktop Connections
- BitLocker To Go – Requires Windows 7 Enterprise
- AppLocker – Requires Windows 7 Enterprise
- MultipleActive Firewall Profiles
- Domain Name SystemSecurity Extensions
- Biometric Support
- Scripting of Group Policy Settings – Requires RemoteServer Administration Tools for Windows 7
- Windows Troubleshooting Platform
- Problem Steps Recorder
- Remote Access to Reliability Data
- Dynamic Driver Provisioning
- Multicast MultipleStream Transfer
- VHD Image Management & Deployment
- Rich RemotingExperience (Multimedia, Bidirectional Audio, MultiMonitor)
- VHD Boot

Wether you can understand what some of them are is up to you. If you can’t do you need them. In all most of them are not of the slightest interest to the home user.