Faster Windows XP Boot

The single thing you can do to drastically decrease Windows XP startup times is to download TuneXP and then select Ultra fast booting option as shown below. Wait for some time as it rearranges the boot file and then a command window will open p to de-fragment the files. Wait till it's gone and then restart your computer. Feel the difference!

Faster Windows Shutdown

If you are getting bogged down by long windows shutdown times, you can do some registry edits to get this process snappier. Details can be found in this CNet Article.

However, in short you need to do the following registry entries:









To make things easier, you can download and double click on this reg file that I have created to do those entries.

In addition to this, you need Microsoft User Profile Hive Service installed. This link however was not working, so you can try the one below:

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/uphcservice.html

This will make your system shutdown noticeably faster.

Next time: How to drastically improve startup times.

Measuring distance, route on Google Maps

WikiMapia is a Web 2.0 project to describe the whole planet Earth. The underlying map that it uses is the same as Google's but there is a wealth of additional information.

Clicking on the red link Wikimapia on the site will open a menu on which clicking Geotools will allow you to measure distances and areas.

The same functionality is available in Google maps by going to My Maps within the Google site, however, I find wikipedia more functional and easier to use.

An example of G-6 area Islamabad in wikimapia:
Move your mouse on the rectangles to view information about each place.

What's it all about?

This is going to be a repository of tips relating to computing, useful software, gadgets, health and life in general. It is supposed to serve as a public journal.