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Page 1 of 3 Introduction
Windows XP is, beyond doubt, the most anticipated Microsoft operating system since Windows 95. It is the latest Microsoft OS to be marketed towards the general consumer, instead of towards power users and server administrators in the case of Windows 2000. Because of this, there have been many new changes and features added to Windows XP which even experienced users may not notice.
I wrote this guide in order to help Windows XP users of any experience level gain familiarity with the new features that XP adds. It’s not so much of a tweak guide for performance, but a tweak guide for usability – by knowing the new features of the OS, you can get up to speed even faster.
So, without further ado, let’s begin!
The New Start Menu
This is something that some people may find shocking – the start menu is completely redesigned! Instead of simply having Programs, Settings, Search, Documents, etc. in the menu, it now has My Computer, My Documents, My Pictures and other shortcuts such as commonly used programs and Control Panel. At the bottom is an “All Programs” menu which brings up the familiar “Programs” menu.
The new start menu.
The new start menu is very configurable - right-click on the taskbar, click Properties, pick the Start Menu tab, click “Customize”, and have at it. If you want to switch back to the old Start Menu, pick “Classic Start Menu” under the Start Menu tab.
Due to all the new icons added, if you’re using the new start menu, Windows will remove several icons from your desktop (My Computer, My Documents and My Network Places, to name a few).
You may or may not like the new menu – this one is very dependant on your personal preferences. New users will probably like it, but I expect that old die-hards won’t be too fond of it. Luckily, it’s easy to switch back.
New Visual Effects
One of the coolest new features of XP is that it’s fully skinnable. Users familiar with Gnome or KDE under UNIX know that you can change the appearance of windows, buttons, scrollbars, etc – now Windows can do it too, without clumsy add-on programs.
 
The default theme for Windows XP is the “Windows XP” theme (surprising!). I think it’s cool, some people think it’s too fruity… it’s a personal preference. It’s pretty easy to switch between different themes, so if you think XP looks revolting, you can switch it back. A theme doesn’t just include the skin; it also includes wallpaper and a screensaver. Keep that in mind when you’re switching between themes, as you probably have a wallpaper preference that will be lost, so you’ll have to set it again.
There aren’t any other themes available yet, though I’m sure Microsoft will publish more, and the user-submitted skins should be fairly exciting. I believe that skins will be the main reason for people to switch to Windows XP. It almost redefines customizability, though other platforms have had the ability for a long time.
Themes are not the only new visual effects in Windows XP – there are a whole lot of new effects. To see the different options, right-click on My Computer, click Properties, choose the Advanced tab, and click on the first Settings button.
If you’ve been using XP, you may have noticed that your start menu, tool tips and some dialog boxes leave shadows behind them. This is neat, but you probably won’t notice them after a month, so I’d recommend turning them off by un-checking “Use shadows under menus”. The same goes for the shadow under the mouse cursor, and the shadows under the desktop icons. Disabling all the fading and sliding effects will make your computer feel more responsive, since menus will just pop up instead of fading or sliding into view.
 
Drop shadow, or no? Can you tell the difference?
There are “Adjust for performance” and “Adjust for appearance” buttons, so you can set all of them in one fell swoop. I’d suggest leaving a few of them checked, such as “Smooth edges of screen fonts” and “Show window contents while dragging”.
There are even more performance options when you switch to the Advanced tab of this dialog box. Here, you can adjust the priority of applications vs. system cache, and also adjust your paging file settings. I’d suggest leaving these alone for now, although you may need to increase your paging file size if you’re running very low on RAM.
System Restore
System Restore started out in Windows ME and Windows 2000 as a way to protect system files, such as important DLLs and VXDs. With Windows XP, it has evolved into an entire system protection mechanism. Windows XP takes snapshots of your configuration at various key times, such as when you install a new driver. If something goes wrong, you can “roll-back” the changes, and even roll-back specific drivers from Device Manager if they’re causing problems.
All this protection takes a lot of space, however. XP allocates 10% of your partition to System Restore by default, and if you have a large drive, you can be losing lots of space (4gb for my 40gb partition!).
You can change a variety of options for System Restore, though. Right-click on My Computer, click Properties, and choose the System Restore tab. In this window you can completely disable system restore (which I don’t recommend) or change the settings for specific drives (which I do recommend).
You should turn off System Restore for every drive except for the one XP is installed on. This prevents Windows XP from tying up space on drives that it isn’t supposed to use. You might also want to reduce the amount of space that System Restore will use, depending on the size of your hard drive and how much stuff you have on it.
New users might want to leave this setting alone, since the System Restore features will probably come in handy, but people who know what they’re doing may want to free up their hard drive space.
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