1.Windwos XP System Properties dialogue box, Fast! Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.

2. Easy Windows XP Lock: You can lock your Windows XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same. Wndows Key + L Key, Try it.

3. Free Up Hard Drive Space: Internet Explorer will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

4. Start Windows Fast, No Login: You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.

5. Reload Many Files, Fast: You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetized groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.

6. Free Network Activity Light: XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your computer network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.

7. Remote Assistance To Help A Friend: You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.

8. Stop The Windows XP Nagging: Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.

9. Create Your Only Personal Screen Saver Using Your Photos: If you like using a screen saver and have digital photos on your computer, you can easily make your own screen saver using the pictures that you have stored on your PC. You can set up your screen saver in Microsoft Windows XP to display a slide show of some or all of your pictures when you’re not using your computer.

To set up a My Pictures slide show. Right-click on the desktop, and then click Properties. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Screen Saver tab. Then, click the Screen saver list, and click My Pictures Slideshow. Click OK.

The next time your screen saver starts, you’ll see a slide show of all the pictures in your My Pictures folder. If you want to see your pictures right away, follow these instructions to add a shortcut to your desktop that immediately starts the slide show.

10. Free Windows XP Backup Software: Install Windows XP Home Edition Backup software: To manually install Windows Backup. Insert your Windows XP CD into your CD drive. If Windows XP Setup does not appear after several seconds, open My Computer, right-click your CD drive, and then click AutoPlay. In the Welcome to Microsoft Windows XP window, click Perform additional tasks. Click Browse this CD.

Double-click VALUEADD, double-click MSFT, and then double-click NTBACKUP to open the \VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP folder. In the NTBACKUP folder, double-click NTBACKUP. After setup is complete, click Finish.

You can now start Windows Backup by clicking Start, pointing to All Programs, pointing to Accessories, pointing to System Tools, and then clicking Backup. For more information about protecting your files from computer failure.