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Versions & Licenses Windows XP Tips

Windows XP
About Office Appearance Features and Fixes Install/Restore
Access
Excel Balloon Tips Desktop Device Drivers
Classic Mode E-mail Message Count Java Virtual Machine
Word
Logon Style Error Reporting Paging File
Numlock Fast User Switch Quick Reinstall
Quick Launch Firewall System Restore
System Tray Icons Hibernation
Taskbar Buttons MSN Messenger
Windows Version Non-Responsive Tasks
Registration
System Time
General Notes

Security Networking Performance

Administrator Logon Bandwidth CD Access

Guest Account DNS Cache File System Cache
Passwords NetBEUI Performance
User Names TCP/IP
(Show/Hide)

General Notes
Service Packs
Service Pack 2 should be installed under all cases. This service pack corrects several
major errors as well as installs java. There was no Java support in XP pre-Service Pack 1
without installing the Sun JRE.

MSN.com is not installed by default.

MSN Messenger is installed by default, however it is very simple to remove. See

instructions below.

XP is bulkier and more prone to security holes, but on a newer machine it is much faster
and has a better load time due to optimizations made for newer hardware.

Passport
Microsoft originally made Passport a requirement to use Windows Messenger and other
features. Despite the severe security weaknesses of Microsoft's Passport authentication
system (http://www.avirubin.com/passport.html from an AT&T Labs analysis), XP
repeatedly requests the user's e-mail address and password to create a Passport
e-commerce account. The passport authentication program, used by millions of people
to log on to Hotmail, is trivially easy for a Trojan horse to compromise on Windows 9x and
ME systems. A breach can expose a user's financial information, including credit card
numbers that were typed in by a user and stored on Passport's central Web server.

If you use MSN somebody can get your Passport ID, password, and the phone number to
dial your ISP. Because a person's e-mail address and password are used to sign onto the

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Passport server, an unscrupulous person at an ISP could easily steal credit card numbers.

Passport enforces a single user name and password for all participating Web sites.
The service will be all but mandatory, which tells users, "You need a Passport to use
Windows XP Internet communications features ... and to access Net-enabled features."

The Passport agreement, which you accept by clicking OK, permits Microsoft and its
partners to send you an unlimited number of commercial e-mail messages. You can't
rescind Microsoft's permission to use your e-mail address. You must unsubscribe from
every partner's e-mail list individually.

Passport is not required in any version of XP. Passport is required for certain features of
XP such as Messenger. For 99% of users, they will not need a Passport account.
This was changed from early copies of XP where a passport account was required after
the holes in passport were found.

Contract Terms
This agreement says that Microsoft can change the contract's terms at any time,
merely by editing a Web page. Every time you use Passport, you're supposed to reread
this page to detect any changes. I'm fairly sure that the chances of users rereading this
agreement are close to zero. I would also expect that eventually there will be a monthly
fee.

Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer loses support for all Netscape-style plug-ins, including embedded
QuickTime clips. New users surfing the Web under XP will undoubtedly run into sites that
IE will no longer handle properly.

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Classic Mode
To change the look and feel of XP back to that of Windows 2000 or previous version, there are two settings that need to
changing.

Start Menu
Open Control Panel
On the left, click Switch to classic view (This may or may not be needed depending on if this
has been done previously. If the bar on the left says "Switch to Classic view" it is needed. If it
says "Switch to category view" it is not.)
Open Taskbar and Start Menu Control
Click Start Menu
Select Classic Start Menu or
Select XP Mode Start Menu
Click Apply
Click OK

Start Bar
To change the start bar and the title bars to look like they did in previous versions. Some
older programs are incompatible with XP style themes, so leaving this in XP mode will not
always look correct for older programs.

Open Control Panel

Click on Switch to Classic view
Select Display (It should open to the "Themes" tab if not, click the Themes tab)
In the dropdown Theme:
Select Windows Classic or
Select Windows XP
Click Apply
Click OK

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QuickLaunch
By default, the QuickLaunch toolbar is not shown. This is a handy feature and only requires a single to open the
application. It is always viewable on your taskbar so you don't have to resort to your desktop or Start options to open the
app.

To enable it...

Right click on an open area of the toolbar

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Select Toolbars
Select Quick Launch

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Balloon Tips
To turn off balloon tips in most applications...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Software
Microsoft
Windows
CurrentVersion
Explorer
Advanced
Click Edit
Click New
Create DWORD value = EnableBalloonTips
Value = 0
Click OK

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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NumLock
To set NUMLock on by default...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to
HKEY_USERS
.DEFAULT
Control Panel
Keyboard
InitialKeyboardIndicators
Set Value = 2
Click OK

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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Windows Version
To turn off the version number on the desktop...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to
HKEY_USERS
.DEFAULT
Control Panel\Desktop
Edit or Create the DWORD value = PaintDesktopVersion
Value = 0 (will hide the version from displaying on the desktop)
Click OK
Reboot

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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Taskbar Buttons

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By default, all open windows using the same application are grouped under a single icon. This saves Task Bar space.

If you want to group, or ungroup, similar taskbar buttons...

Right click on Taskbar

Select Properties
Check or Uncheck Group similar taskbar buttons

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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Logon Style
To change the logon screen so it looks like the traditional NT4 or 2000 style...

Open Control Panel

Select User Accounts
Click Change the way users log on and off
Uncheck Use the Welcome screen
Click on Apply

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System Tray Icons

Icons in the Notification area (on the right side of the taskbar) are, by default, hidden when they are inactive. This
behavior is determined by a setting, which can be cleared or selected for each item.

Right click on the Taskbar

Select Properties
Check Hide inactive icons
Click on Customize button This will bring up a dialog box that will allow you to select one of three options for
your applications:
Hide when inactive
Always hide
Always show
Highlight current or past applications and make any changes you like. A small arrow will now appear in the
System Tray that will allow you to show or hide these icons.

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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System Time
To make sure your system time is accurate, you can automatically set the time from an Internet
server.

Double-click the time on the taskbar

Click Internet Time tab
Check Automatically synchronize with an Internet time server
Click on Update Now button

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

Certain Dell machines lose their system time in XP. To correct this do the following...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter cmd
Click OK
Enter the following and press Enter after each line
Net stop w32time
w32tm /unregister
w32tm /unregister
w32tm /register
Net start w32time
exit

A patch is also available from Dell. See Dell.com for more information.

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Desktop

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On some occasions changes to desktop settings will not save. Sometimes there is also a reason to
disable this for public machines that users should not be allowed to change settings. This can be used to
make it so your user's changes DO NOT get saved by disabling save desktop setting.

Click Start
Click Run
Enterregedit
Click OK
Go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Software
Microsoft
Windows NT
CurrentVersion
Program Manager
Restrictions
Create or edit the DWORD value = NoSaveSettings
To save desktop settings, value = 0
To disable saving desktop settings, value = 1
Click OK
Close regedit
Reboot

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

The Desktop Cleanup Wizard keeps track of your usage of the icons on your desktop and periodically
offers to remove the icons you have not recently used. This is really not needed as most people can
delete icons off their desktop themselves.

Right click on desktop

Select Properties
Click on Desktop tab
Click on Customize Desktop button
Uncheck Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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Java Virtual Machine

Instead of including the latest version of Java support, XP will default to a 4-year-old version. Users can get a new Java
download which is 5MB in size or Install Service Pack 1 as it fixes a large number of other bugs and installs the Java
Virtual Machine.

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Paging File
To clear the Windows paging file (Pagefile.sys) during the shutdown process and prevent any unsecured data from
being contained after the shutdown process is complete. Some third-party programs can temporarily store unencrypted
(plain-text) passwords or other sensitive information in memory.

Method 1
Open Control Panel
Select Administrative Tools
Select Local Security Policy
Select Local Policies
Click on Security Options
In the right hand menu, right click on Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile
Select Enable
Reboot

Method 2
Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Control\Session Manager

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Memory Management
Double click on ClearPageFileAtShutdown
Set Value = 1
Click OK
Reboot

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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Quick Reinstall
To repair a corrupted operating system. This also works on Windows 2000.

On the Windows CD, go to the location of your source files

Run WINNT32 /unattend

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CD Info
After you remove either a CD recording software or other software from your computer, your computer
may not allow access to the CD drive.

To correct this the following registry keys need to be deleted:

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Control
Class
{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Delete UpperFilters value
Delete LowerFilters value

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

To increase loading speed... If you use a program other than the native XP CD Burner software.

Open Control Panel

Select Administrative Tools
SelectServices
Double-click on IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service
For Startup Type, select Disabled
Click OK
Close Services window
Reboot

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

To turn off the ability to using the built-in CD burner software that comes with XP do the following...

Open up Explorer
Right click on the drive that is your CD burner
Select Properties
Click Recording tab
Uncheck Enable CD

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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E-mail Message Count

Under your name on the Welcome screen, there is a hyperlink that indicates the number of unread e-mail messages. To
remove the Unread E-mail message count by user's login names: This feature is not always active in XP for some
reason.

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit

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Click OK
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft\Windows
CurrentVersion
UnreadMaili
Click Edit
Click New
Select Create DWORD value =MessageExpiryDays
Set Value = 0
Click OK

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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Administrator Logon
If the administration logon is not show on the Welcome screen

To access it...

Hold down Ctrl and Alt and press Del twice

To unhide the Administrator account so it always shows up...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Windows NT
CurrentVersion
Winlogon
SpecialAccounts
UserList
If Administrator exists...
Double Click on Administrator
Set Value = 1
Click OK
IIf Administrator doesn't exist...
Click Edit
Click New
Select DWORD value
Enter the name Administrator
Double Click on line
Set value = 1
Click OK

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Registration
To change your name and company information...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Windows NT
Double click on CurrentVersion
Change the value in the Registered Owner key
Click OK

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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To set that online registration has been completed...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Windows NT
CurrentVersion
Click Edit
Click New
Create a String value = RegDone
Set Value = 1
Click OK

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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Passwords
To change the password to never expire. This is identical to Windows 2000 for the same
issue.

Right click My Computer

Select Manage
Go to Local Users and Groups/Users
Right-click on user to change
Select Properties
On General tab, check Password never expires
Click OK

To allow logging in without a password... (Do not recommend)

Click Start
Click Run
Enter gpedit.msc
Click OK
Select Computer Configuration
Select Windows Settings
Select Security Settings
Select Local Policies
Select Security Options
Double click on Accounts
Disable the option Limit local account use of blank passwords to console login only

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User Names (Show/Hide)

To hide/unhide the users on the logon screen...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Windows NT
CurrentVersion
Winlogon
SpecialAccounts
UserList
Click Edit
Click New
Select Add DWORD value = name of the user account you want to hide
To hide, set value = 0
To unhide, set value = 1
Click OK

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Guest Account
We highly recommend turning off the ability to login with guest account.

Open Control Panel

Click User Accounts
Click Change an account
Click Guest account
Click Turn off the guest account

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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Fast User Switch

To fix the the error referencing CSGina.DLL that a recently installed program has disabled the Welcome screen and Fast
User Switching ...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SOFTWARE
Microsoft
Windows NT
CurrentVersion
Winlogon
Delete key GinaDLL

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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System Restore
To disable system restore. System restore, which is supposed to "roll back" your system to a previous point, does not
always solve problems. This feature can take up a large chunk of your hard drive and system resources.

To Disable System Restore

Open Control Panel

Select System Control
Click System Restore tab
Check Turn off System Restore
Click OK

To Re-Enable System Restore

Open Control Panel

Select System Control
Click System Restore
Uncheck Turn off System Restore
Use the slider under Disk Space usage to set the limit on how much hard disk space to give
up
Click OK

You can re-enable it again by...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter gpedit.msc
Select Computer Configuration
Select Administrative Templates
Select System
Select System Restore
Set Turn off System Restore
Set Turn off Configuration to Disable

Right click My Computer

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Select Manage
Select Services and Applications
Select Services
Scroll to System Restore Service
Set to Automatic
Click the Start button to start the service
Close window

Go back to the gpedit.msc and configure both to Not configured

Right click My Computer
Click System Restore
Configure how much space will be used

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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Device Drivers
To restore a previous working device driver. If this does not work, you need to remove the device and reinstall the
drivers.

Log in with an administrator

Right click My Computer
Select Properties
Click Hardware tab
Click Device Manager button
Go to the device you want to reconfigure
Click Driver tab
Click Roll Back Drive button

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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Firewall
If you want to turn off the firewall for your computer: Highly recommended.

Click Start
Click Settings
Click Network Connections
Right click network connection you want to change
Select Properties
Click the Advanced tab
Uncheck Internet Connection Firewall

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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Error Reporting
To turn off reporting of errors to Microsoft...

Right click My Computer

Select Properties
Select Advanced
Click Error Reporting tab
Check Disable error reporting

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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Performance
By default, XP displays extra graphic objects for menu items which can slow down your display.

To turn off these selectively...

Right click My Computer
Select Properties
Click Advanced tab
Under Performance, click Settings button

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To turn them all off, select Adjust for best performance Preference is to leave them all off
except for Show shadows under mouse pointer and Show window contents while dragging

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

To speed up the display of the Start Menu Items, turn off the menu shadow.

Right click open area of the Desktop

Select Properties
Click Appearance tab
Click Effects button
Uncheck Show shadows under menus

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

You can increase system performance by loading more of the system into memory.
DO NOT attempt this with less then 512MBs of ram. Your system will become unstable.

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Control
Session Manager
Memory Management
Double click on DisablePagingExecutive
Set Value = 1
Click OK
Reboot

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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Hibernation
Hibernation takes up extra disk space.

To disable...

Open Control Panel

Select Power Options
Click Hibernation
Uncheck Enable Hibernation

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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MSN Messenger
MSN Messenger is typically a waste of system resources.

To remove the MSN Messenger from starting...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

To totally remove MSN Messenger, you need to first make Messenger appear in
Add/Remove programs.

Edit the file \Windows\Inf\sysoc.inf

Change msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
To msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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Non-Responsive Tasks

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To set a time-out to automatically delete "Not Responding" tasks...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Control Panel
Desktop
Double click on AutoEndTasks
Set Value =1
Click OK
Change WaitToKillAppTimeout to the number of milliseconds to wait

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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File System Cache

To help speed up the system, increase the amount of memory to use for I/O operations...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Control\Session Manager
Memory Management
Edit IoPageLockLimit
4096 =32MB or less
8192 =32MB
16384 = 64MB
32768 = 128MB
65536 = 256MB+

See Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

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DNS Cache
DNS (Domain Name System) caching is used to resolve hostnames for faster access. The problem with this feature is
that failed DNS lookups also get cached.

To change so that it will not cache failed DNS lookups...

1. Flush the DNS cache manually

Go to the Command Prompt

Enter ipconfig /flushdns

2. To permanently solve, modifing the Registry

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Services
Dnscache
Parameters
NegativeCacheTime=0 (DWORD default=300 seconds) Determines how long an entry recording
a negative answer to a query remains in the DNS cache. When the time specified in the value of
this entry expires, the DNS client deletes the answer record from cache.
NetFailureCacheTime=0 (DWORD default=30 seconds) Determines for how long the DNS client
stops sending queries when it suspects that the network is down. When the DNS client does not
receive responses to repeated queries sent to any network adapter, the DNS client stops sending

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queries for the time specified in the value of this entry. During that time, the DNS client returns a
time-out response to all queries. If the value of this entry is 0x0, this optimizing feature is disabled.
DNS continues to send queries to an unresponsive network.
NegativeSOACacheTime=0 (DWORD default=120 seconds) Determines how long an entry
recording a negative answer to a query for an SOA (Start of Authority) record remains in the
Domain Name System (DNS) cache. When the time specified in the value expires, the DNS client
deletes the answer record from the cache.

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Bandwidth
If you run an application that needs to send high priority/real time data, XP will restrict "best effort" traffic to 80% of the
bandwidth.

To change this...

Log in as Administrator (Not just any account with admin privileges)

Click Start
Click Run
Enter gpedit.msc
Select Local Computer Policy
Select Administrative Templates
Select Network
Select QOS Packet Scheduler
In the right window, double-click limit reservable bandwidth
On setting tab, check enabled setting
Bandwidth limit % value = 0
Click OK
Close gpedit.msc

Click My Computer
Select My Network Connections
Select View Network Connections
Right-click your connection
Under Protocol Properties, check QOS Packet Scheduler
Reboot

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TCP/IP
To reinstall the TCP/IP protocol stack...
netsh int ip reset [ log_file_name] The log_file_name needs to be specified

Example: netsh int ip reset ip_reset.txt

To change TCP/IP settings...

Click Start
Click Run
Enter regedit
Click OK
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Services
TCP/IP
Parameters
Edit or Create the following...
GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize="256960" (DWORD)
Tcp1323Opts="1" (DWORD)
DefaultTTL="64" (DWORD)
EnablePMTUDiscovery="1" (DWORD)
EnablePMTUBHDetect="0" (DWORD)
SackOpts="1" (DWORD)
TcpMaxDupAcks="2" (DWORD)
Reboot

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NetBEUI

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It is recommended that you do not install NetBEUI unless absolutely needed. It is no longer supported by Microsoft. You
can add it by going to the VALUEADD\MSFT\NET\NETBEUI directory on your CD.

In the example below, C:\WINDOWS represents the common drive\directory where XP is installed.

Copy nbf.sys C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ directory

Copy netnbf.inf C:\WINDOWS\\INF\ directory
Open the Network connection properties for your local area network
use Install...button to add NetBEUI protocol

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