Get rid of messages about swap files that are too small(Windows XP)

           Windows always displays a message reminding of a missing swap file or one that is too small. Here, there is nothing you have changed in the standard settings, the fi le is available and also suffi ciently large. Where does the problem lie?

            Here, an intervention in the registry is of help. Open the editor by starting ‘Start | Run’, Typing ‘regedit’ and clicking ‘OK’.
             In the program, navigate to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management’ and open the ‘PagingFiles’ entry to the right by double-clicking. You can ‘Edit Multiline Strings’ in the following dialog box. Windows displays ‘C:\pagefile.sys 384 768’ as a value for instance. Change it into ‘C:\pagefile.sys 512 1024’ and click ‘OK’. Then close the registry and restart the computer. After that, the error message will most likely not keep you from your work. If this message still continues to appear, you can gradually increase the values.

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Delete backup files and recover disk space(Windows XP)

            Windows uses backup copies for the installation of a service pack or an update, so that the modifications can be cancelled again. If everything works smoothly after some time, these fi les become unnecessary and only take up valuable storage space.

             Away with the space-consumers! For this, open ‘Start | My Computer’ and double-click the system partition; normally ‘C:\’. Now, open the Windows installation folder, normally ‘C:\ Windows’. After a long system run-time, there are many compressed folders that have accumulated here, whose names have a dollar sign in the start and at the end. Mostly, the names begin with ‘$NtUninstall’. But you might possibly also detect names that start with ‘$MSI’ or ‘$NtServicePack’. But all folders have ‘Uninstall’ as a part of their name.
               If you do not fi nd any such folders at all, ensure that you have activated the option ‘Display all Files and Folders’ in ‘Extras | Folder Options | View’ in the ‘Advanced Settings’ list under ‘Hidden Files and Folders’. The specified folders contain information for canceling an installed update or service pack. In order to clear the disk space occupied by this data, select this folder and press [Del]. Confirm the security query that follows by clicking on ‘Yes’. There is an important exception: do not delete the ‘$hf_mig$’ folder. It does not even have ‘Uninstall’ in its name.
 CAUTION: the moment you delete the directories, you can no longer remove the installed updates and service packs. Thus, only delete the directories if you are sure you can do without this option. Hence, work carefully with an eye on the date and only delete folders that are older than six months for instance.

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Automatic user log-in in the system(Windows XP, Vista)

            You have secured your user account with a password. But since you, for the most part, use the computer alone, you want to bypass the password entry at the system start – without deleting the password.
           Windows can automatically log in a user on starting. Log in to a user account with administrator rights and open the Registry Editor. For this, click ‘Start | Run’, type ‘regedit.exe’ and confi rm with ‘OK’. In Vista, you can directly enter the command in the search fi eld of the start menu. Navigate to the left side of the tool to the ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOTWARE\ Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ Winlogon’ key.

           Now you only need to change some values on the right side for activating the automatic log-in. For this, double-click the entry and enter the new configuration in the ‘Edit String’ dialog box under ‘Value’. Subsequently, confi rm this action with ‘OK’. If one of the values described in the following do not exist, create it. Use the command ‘Edit | New | String’ for this and name it ‘AutoAdminLogon’.
              Double click the ‘AutoAdminLogon’ and change the value to ‘1’ which basically turns on the automatic login. If you subsequently wish to turn off the mechanism, replace the ‘1’ with a ‘0’. Enter the name of the user account that you wish to log in to, under ‘DefaultUserName’. If it’s not there create it. You also need to enter your password under ‘DefaultPassword’, which will also need to be created if it’s not visible. But keep in mind that your user account password will now be visible to everyone in the registration database. This is a security risk, if the computer is accessible to other persons, without supervision. If you need to log-in to a specific domain, enter it under ‘DefaultDomain Name’. Otherwise, you can do without this value.
             Close the Editor with ‘File | End’. From now on, you need not log in manually, Windows does this automatically. You can temporarily bypass this function by keeping system start [Shift] pressed.
NOTE: this automatic login works only if the users account you intend this for is protected by a password. Otherwise, this process fails.

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