Try automatic camera recognition in windows xp

If you have a digital camera, try this trick for downloading pictures to your machine.
Don't load any of the drivers or software that comes with your digital camera.
Instead--if your camera supports USB--connect your camera via a USB port. There's
a good chance that Windows XP will recognize the digicam. After a few moments, the
Scanner And Camera Wizard should start up and walk you through the steps
involved in copying your pictures from the camera to a folder of your choice on your
computer--much faster than doing it manually. You may still need to install your
camera's software if it provides configuration controls you can't access in any other
way, such as those for changing the picture resolution on your camera or the
software's special editing functions.

Disable Automatic Windows Update

Windows XP is configured out of the box to routinely scan for and download updates
to Windows XP automatically. While this can be somewhat convenient for those with
very fast Internet connections and those who would otherwise forget to check for
updates, it can be a nuisance for the rest of us, who are still using 56k or, even
worse 33k modem connections.
To control or disable automatic updating, open the System icon in Control Panel (or
right-click My Computer and select Properties), and choose the Automatic Updating tab.
To check for updates manually, open Internet Explorer and select Windows Update
from the Tools menu.

My Computer Won't Shut Down Itself After Installing XP

There are a number of users who have been complaining that their PC will no longer
automatically power down/shut off without pressing the power off button on the
computers unlike in Windows Me/95/2000. There could be a number of reasons for
this - but the main one seems to be that ACPI is not enabled on the computer or in
Windows XP. Here is how to enable it:
1. Click - Start - Control Panel - Performance and Maintenance - Power Options Tab
2. Then click APM - Enable Advanced Power Management Support

Automatically defrag drives with a new context menu item

Create a new Registry import file named context_defrag.inf in Notepad (be sure to
save with it with the Save as type set to All Files and not Text Documents) and place
the following text inside:
; context_defrag.INF
; Adds Defrag to the right click context menu in Windows XP
[version]
signature="$CHICAGO$"
[DefaultInstall]
AddReg=AddMe
[AddMe]
HKCR,"Drive\Shell\Defrag\command",,,"DEFRAG.EXE %1"
Then, right-click and choose Install. This will add a context menu to XP that allows
you to automatically defrag drives, using the command line version of the built-in
defragmentation utility. To use it, navigate to a drive in My Computer, right-click,
and choose Defrag. A command line window will appear, and that drive will be
defragged. When it's complete, the window just disappears.

Missing Administrator account

Once you have created regular user accounts, the default Administrator account
vanishes from the Welcome screen, which you see when the computer starts up.
Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete twice at the Welcome screen to retrieve the standard logon
dialog. You can log on as Administrator from here. To switch among accounts, just
click the Log Off button on the Start menu. You'll then see the Log Off Windows
dialog box. Click the Switch User button, and you'll be taken to the Welcome screen
where you can select and log on to other accounts.

Disable error reporting

 • Open Control Panel
• Click on Performance and Maintenance.
• Click on System.
• Then click on the Advanced tab
• Click on the error-reporting button on the bottom of the windows.
• Select Disable error reporting.
• Click OK
• Click OK

Adjust various visual effects

 1. Open up the control panel
2. Go under system and click on the advanced tab
3. Click settings under Performance options
4. You can now change various graphical effects (mainly animations and
shadows)