Windows 2000 more tips

Create an Emergency Repair Disk in Windows 2000

1. Go to Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools and click Backup.
2. On the General tab, click the Create an Emergency Repair Disk button.
3. When prompted, insert a blank, formatted floppy disk in your drive. Click OK.
4. When the process is complete, remove the disk, label it "Emergency Repair Disk," and then store it in a safe location.

To restore your settings from the disk, you need your Windows 2000 CD, the Windows 2000 Setup disks, and the disk. During the restoration process, you can press F1 for more information about your options.

Note : Because missing or corrupted files are replaced with files from the Windows 2000 CD, any changes you made to the system after the original installation are lost.

Create a Startup Disk in Windows 2000

1. Insert a blank, formatted disk into the floppy disk drive, and insert the Windows 2000 CD into the CD-ROM drive. You need four blank, 1.44 MB formatted 3.5-inch disks. Label them "Setup Disk 1," "Setup Disk 2," and so on.
2. Click Start/Run. At the prompt, type the following command, replacing d with the letter of your CD-ROM drive and a with the letter of your floppy disk drive.

d:\bootdisk\Makeboot.exe a:

3. Follow the instructions that appear.

Note: The startup disks are used to start Setup if you can't start Setup from your hard drive. Startup disks contain different information from the Emergency Repair Disk.

Windows 2000's Indexing Service

The Indexing Service, which Windows 2000 Professional obtained from Internet Information Services (IIS), indexes the content of files in local and network storage, enabling the file system to become a rich data store. Using search bar in Windows Explorer, users can find files faster. The Indexing Service indexes a file's contents and properties. For example, users can search the index for all documents that contain the words "Windows 2000" or search for all documents written by "Mohammed." Windows 2000 Professional does not enable the Indexing Service in a default installation, but users can easily enable it by clicking the Indexing Service hyperlink in Windows Explorer's Search bar.

Get Immediate Queries With Indexing Service

By default, Indexing Service only indexes when applications and peripherals are not in use. If you type or move the mouse, indexing ceases for a couple of minutes. Also, if there are changes on the disk, Indexing Service won't index them for up to five minutes. This can be frustrating if you want to immediately query for files you just changed. To update as soon as possible:

1. In the Indexing Service MMC, right-click Indexing Service and then click "Stop the service."

2. Right-click Indexing Service and then select All Tasks/Tune Performance.

3. Click the Customize radio button and then click the Customize button.

4. Click and drag Indexing over to Instant.

5. Press OK twice.

6. Right-click Indexing Service and then click Start.

Now your changed files will be indexed in a few seconds or less. For more Indexing Service samples, see the Windows 2000 Platform Software Development Kit.

Configure Your Calling Card Dial-up Setup

With Windows 2000, you can easily configure your calling card dial-up setup by controlling how each step is handled during the calling card PIN and account dialing process.

To modify an existing calling card:

1. In Control Panel, double-click the Phone and Modem Options icon.

2. On the Dialing Rules tab, select the location that you want to modify and click Edit to open the Edit Location dialog box. When you’ve finished your edits, click OK.

3. In the Edit Location dialog box, open the Calling Card tab page, click the card type you want to modify, and then click Edit.

4. To change the calling card name or number or your personal identification number (PIN), click the General tab and enter your changes into the appropriate text boxes.

5. To change the access number or dialing steps for the corresponding type of call, click the Long Distance, International, or Local Calls tab and enter the appropriate information.

Using Personalized Menus


The Personalized Menus option keeps the Programs menu clean by hiding items you haven't used recently, while keeping all of your programs easily accessible. When Personalized Menus is turned on, Windows 2000 keeps track of which programs you use each time you use your computer, and hides the programs you have not used in a long time. You can still gain access to hidden programs by clicking Start, pointing to Programs, and then clicking the down arrow at the bottom of the menu. To turn on Personalized Menus, click Start, point to Settings, click Taskbar & Start Menu, and then select Use Personalized Menus on the General tab.

Remove and Personalize Desktop Icons

If you want to streamline your desktop and frequently used applications, simply drag a desktop icon to the Quick Launch portion of the taskbar. The relocated icon appears next to the other Quick Launch icons (e.g., Internet Explorer, Outlook Express). To remove the icon that still remains on the desktop, drag it to the Recycle Bin. With this icon removed from the desktop, there will be one less icon to hunt for when you need to start a commonly-used program.
Also, if you need to access My Computer on a regular basis, drag the My Computer icon to the Start button and you will automatically create a cascading shortcut to My Computer that will expand to reveal your drives, folders, and files. With Windows 2000 incorporating the use of tool tips, you can also hold your cursor over a partition in the Start Menu for a moment to view its free space and capacity. You can execute a file just by single-clicking it in the Start Menu and open a folder by double-clicking it.

Installation Errors

In some cases, Win2K will abort its installation and report that it has detected software that has not completely installed. Win2K generates this message if there is any data associated in either of the Registry keys below. Navigate to the end of these keys and click the last entry to open it's contents in the right pane. You can correct the problem by deleting any data in these keys. Then, when you restart the install, it should proceed normally.

* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx
* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Runonce

Print Appt's and Meetings from Calendar

If you would like to print only the appointments or meetings for a particular day, here's how:

Click Calendar. Select View> Current View, and click Day/Week/Month. Display the days you want to print in the view. Select File, Print. Click Calendar Details Style in the Print Style box. To print a new page at the start of every day, click Page Setup. Select the "Start A New Page Each check box" and then select an option. Click
OK twice. That's it!

Note: If there's nothing going on for a day, it won't print!

Add web content to your desktop

You can add a picture from the Internet to your desktop or add an item from the Active Desktop Gallery (such as a stock ticker, updated news, entertainment, or weather. Right-click a blank area on the desktop, point to Active Desktop, click New Desktop Item, and then follow the instructions on your screen.

Create a locking desktop shortcut

Create a desktop shortcut that you can double-click to lock your computer. You'll find this shortcut handy for locking your computer whenever you want to step away from your desk. Here's how to set it up:

1. Create a shortcut to the rundll32.exe file in your \WINNT\System32 folder.
2. Modify the properties of the shortcut so that the Target text box reads as follows:

C:\WINNT\system32\rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation

3. Click OK to save your changes.

Note: When you double-click on this shortcut, Windows NT locks your computer and displays the Unlock Computer dialog box (for logging back in).

Changing Drive Letters

If you find the need to change a drive letter, Windows 2000 makes this possible. Here's how:

1. In the Control Panel, select Administrative Tools. The Administrative Tools folder will pop up.
2. In that folder, select Computer Management.
3. Click on Disk Management and wait for the Logical Disk Manager Service to finish scanning your system's drives. You will then see a list of the drives available in your system.
4. Click on the drive with the drive letter you want to change.
5. Right click and select the Change Drive Letter and Path... option.
6. All drive letters linked to that drive will be listed on this popup screen.
7. Click on the drive letter you want to change and click on Edit.
8. Click on the drive letter and a whole list of available drive letter choices will now appear.
9. Select the drive letter you want for this drive.
10. Click OK and your drive will have a new drive letter.

Notes: You will not be able to change the drive letter of your system or boot volume. However, the drive letters of all other drives and drive volumes are changeable.

If you want to change the drive letter of a CD/DVD-ROM or ZIP drive, make sure you insert a disk first. The drive letter cannot be changed unless there's a disk in the drive.

Some software may not work properly if you change any drive letter. So, you may need to do some registry editing to get those software to work with the new drive letter. If that doesn't work, you will have to reinstall the software using the new drive letter or reset the drive letter back to its original drive letter.

Prevent Programs From Loading

Windows is adding links directly into the Registry so that users can't easily remove them. These programs can be very taxing to your system resources and should you need to remove one (or more), here's how:

1. Open up the Registry Editor (Start Menu > Run > type in: regedit). [Enter]
2. In Registry Editor, go to My Computer -> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Run.
3. Select the program you want removed, right click and choose Delete.
4. Once removed, Windows 2000 will no longer load this program at start up.
5. Close Registry Editor and restart Windows 2000 for the changes to take effect.

Notes: Be careful of what you delete. It may be very hard to recreate the link. Just to be safe, it's best to save (export) the Run registry branch so that you can undo the changes later.

If you made a mistake and can't remember what the exact command line for the link was, you can try creating a shortcut to the program in question and moving it to the Startup folder.

Modem Detection At Start Up

If you forget to turn your modem on, Windows 2000 will certainly not recognize it and will give you an error "Unable to Connect". I know there are those of you that are just as annoyed as I am over this. Restarting Win2K all over again then turning on the modem is a waste of time. Below, is a permanent work-a-round for this issue:

1. Go to Control Panel and select Phone and Modem Options.
2. Select the Modems tab and you will see a screen similar to the one below
3. Remove your existing modem by selecting it and then clicking on the Remove button.
4. Click on the Add... button.
5. Tick the Don't detect my modem option and click on the Next button.
6. Select your modem model.

* If you have the driver for your modem on a disk or CD, you can load it using the Have Disk option. If your modem isn't listed in this screen and you don't have the specific driver for it, you can always select one of the generic drivers for your modem.

7. Select the correct port for your modem.
8. After clicking the Next button, Windows 2000 will install the driver.
9. Click on Finish and the Phone and Modem Options page should appear.

* From now on, you won't need to remember to turn on your modem before you boot up Windows 2000. You can turn on your modem just before you need to use it, saving power and reducing the wear and tear on your modem ( the modem will get very hot even when not actually in use).
* If Windows 2000 is auto detecting your modem at startup, that means you have left your modem on! If you always keep your modem turned on, then there's no need for you to use this tip. If you use this tip, make sure your modem is turned off before Windows 2000 boots to avoid the auto detection process.