---
title: "System Tweaks & Tricks"
url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/5/8/system-tweaks-amp-tricks.md"
canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/5/8/system-tweaks-amp-tricks.html"
published: "2003-05-08T17:03:00"
updated: "2003-05-08T17:03:00"
tags: ["Tips & Tricks"]
author: "Roy Osherove"
description: "Some cool system tweaks and tricks can be found here . Here's the list: (I've highlighted the ones I liked) Unschedule a chkdsk Open Registry Explorer with a folder tree by default Customize shell icons Disable all…"
usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)."
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# System Tweaks & Tricks

By Roy Osherove May 8, 2003 In [Tips & Tricks](https://osherove.com/blog/category/tips-tricks)

**Historical article** · Originally published May 8, 2003; technical details may be outdated.

Some cool system tweaks and tricks can be found [here](http://www.regxplor.com/tweak_all.html). Here's the list:

(I've **highlighted** the ones I liked)

Unschedule a chkdsk
Open Registry Explorer with a folder tree by default
Customize shell icons
Disable all shutdown options
Make My Computer useful
Some Morpheus settings
Boot faster
Make your caret bigger
Add extra elements to Add/Remove Windows Components
Disable balloon tips in Windows XP
**Optimize NTFS performance**
**Change the Internet Explorer search engine to Google
**Open all folders in explore mode as default
Add "Explore from here" to a folder's context menu

Enable full privilege auditing
Protect your Event Log
Start your desktop as a separate process
Kill hung processes when logging off
Disable ICQ Auto Update
Give Windows a totally different look
Transform bitmap icons into thumbnails
Iconize your taskbar
Restrict access to Internet Explorer options (Part 2)
Restrict access to Internet Explorer options
Control the recent documents menu
Prevent changing file associations in Explorer
Automatically clear Internet Explorer Cache on close
**Speed up Internet Explorer**
Enable AutoCompletion in Command Prompt
Disable automatic sharing of hard disks on NT/2000
Clear the Start / Run history
Add options to the Start Menu Properties dialog
Add options to the Folder Options dialog
Open unknown filetypes with notepad as default
Put History on your desktop
Show extensions of .lnk and .pif files
Enable emergency reboot on NT/2k
**Add command prompt in every folder's context menu**

## More in Tips & Tricks

[All posts in Tips & Tricks](https://osherove.com/blog/category/tips-tricks)

- May 15, 2003

    ### [Shortcuts: Object Search and Toolbox Magic](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/5/15/shortcuts-object-search-and-toolbox-magic.html)

- May 8, 2003

    ### [A Better RegEdit](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/5/8/a-better-regedit.html)

- May 8, 2003

    ### [How Access 2003 Helped Me Out](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/5/8/how-access-2003-helped-me-out.html)

- May 1, 2003

    ### [More VS.NET Tips & Tricks](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/5/1/more-vsnet-tips-amp-tricks.html)


---

## About the author

**Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery.

### Sites

- [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership.
- [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts.
- [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin.
- [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model.
- [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps.
- [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes).

### Social

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### Contact

- Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7

### License

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/