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Windows XP Hacks
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Rating: 3.7/5 from 10 reviews Great BookAdvanced User BewareSome hacks in this book are really basic: Hack 20: Making Windows XP look like Windows 2000 again. is this a book about "Customizing Windows XP and Shareware Info" or are they really hacks? There is even some mis-information: Hack 92: Claims that removing DLL from RAM will let other program have access to the RAM and make the computer faster... not true: they will be removed automatically from RAM when other applications need the RAM. The "Least Recently Used" DLL will be unloaded automatically. On the other hand, if you listen to an mp3 file and close Windows Media Player, and then see another mp3 and run Windows Media Player again, it will be much faster because the DLLs are already in RAM. This book should be more appropriately titled: Customizing, Shareware, and Hacks for Windows XP. How can you call downloading a free firewall a "hack"?Before I write anything else, I should make it clear that anyone telling you how to "hack" is almost certainly full of it. Downloading free software, changing the boot screen, and clicking an option in Windows Media Player cannot possibly be called "hacks." Realistically, these are just tips, but I guess saying "Windows XP Tips" ins't as sexy. "General PC Tips," is what this book should really be called due to the inclusion of so much that is neither XP-specific nor a hack. I give this book three stars for being readable and having some useful tips that make it worth borrowing from a library. I give it maybe 2 stars for the cost of actually having to buy it (I don't think it would make a very good reference anyway). This book is by no means advanced, as implied by the title. For example, it gives you some "security" hacks and it tells you about turning off unnecessary services, but so what? If you didn't already know what services were, how could you possibly know which ones to turn off? No mention at all of turning off DCOM and disabling it, or why you would want to do so (see (...) for why). If you want to "Hack" your computer with XP, borrow this book and read it. Ignore irrelevant tips and suggestions of software that you don't think you would use. Then return it and go to www.tweakxp.com for more information. In some cases I like Tweakxp.com better because the information is more candid (e.g., "Real Player is poorly written adware/spyware," from (...). There is no reason to buy this book. Even if your library doesn't have it, there are good, free online sources for the same information. As a note concerning previous posts about the BootVis "hack," Microsoft lied; Bootvis does improve performance. Here's a quotation from one site that actually tested the program: "I'm not sure what kind of game they are playing but the "Bootvis.exe is not a tool that will improve boot/resume performance for end users." is a blatant untruth." (from (...). These guys tested the program on four machines, and all four improved performance significantly. I must add that Bootvis also speeded up my own boot time from just over 34 seconds to less than 25 (about a 25% improvement- and this is not supposed to improve performance?). | ||||||||||||||||||||
To start with, even though this is an easy book to understand, if you are a new user to Windows XP or any of the newer MS OS's, go and buy another book first. If you have some experience with this OS, then go buy this. Its brilliant.
Many of the tweaks in this book are implemented by editing the registry, but that said, they are very easy to do. Some useful examples are those that speed up the booting of your PC, those that add useful commands to your right-click context menu and those that point you to some very useful 3rd party utilities.
The networking section has some very good tips and tools available, especially for those running wireless networks. There are also good tips on blocking spam, surfing with proxies and stopping popups and the like.
Its difficult to review a book that has 100 short (to the point) tips and the more I read what I have written, I am not doing this book justice. If you go to oreillys site and review the TOC I am sure you will make up your own mind.
My mind is already made up. As an experienced XP user, just a handful of the tips I have got from this book saves me a lot of time a day. I thoroughly recommend you taking a good look at this book. The tips in here will make your colleagues sit up and say 'how did you do that?'.