Ctrl+Alt+Del:
The infamous Three-Finger Salute brings up the Windows Task Manager. When Windows freezes, this is the way out. (Doing the Ctrl+Alt+Del combination twice no longer results in an automatic reboot of Windows.)

Alt+Tab:
Once known as the “CoolSwitch” holding down the Alt key and repeatedly pressing Tab cycles through all running programs. Unfortunately, the desktop isn’t one of your choices.

Shift:
Holding down the Shift key when you insert a CD temporarily overrides Windows’ attempts to run, play, copy, or otherwise automatically do something with the inserted CD. (If you need to insert the Windows installation CD to retrieve a file, hold down the Shift key while you slide in the CD, and you don’t have to close out of the installer’s starting screen.)

Shift+Del:
Permanently deletes an item and doesn't place it in the Recycle Bin.

Ctrl+drag:
Hold down the Ctrl key while you drag an item, and you make a copy.

Windows key or Ctrl+Esc:
Brings up the Start menu. (Easy way to exit Windows if your mouse freezes.)

Windows key+M or Windows key+D:
Minimizes all open windows so that you can see your desktop immediately.

Esc:
Stops whatever is happening.

Alt+F4:
Closes the current program.

Home:
Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line or list. (Ctrl+Home moves the cursor to the beginning of the document.)

End:
Moves the cursor to the end of the current line or list. (Ctrl+End moves the cursor to the end of the document.)

Ctrl+B:
Bold (usually toggles bold on or off , if it was off, this shortcut turns it on, and vice-versa).

Ctrl+I:
Italic (a toggle).

Ctrl+U:
Underline (usually a toggle, too).

Windows+E:
Opens Windows Explorer, starting at My Computer.

Windows+F:
Same as Start ➪ Search

Windows+R:
Same as Start ➪ Run

Windows+Pause or Break:
Brings up the System Properties dialog box.

Shift+F10:
Same as right-clicking.

Windows+L:
If Fast User Switching is enabled, it brings up the welcome screen.
If Fast User Switching is not enabled, it brings up the logon screen.

When Windows XP runs out of memory, the 128MB or 256MB or even 512MB that you have in your PC, XP needs to shuffle things around quickly. That shuffling is called paging, and it’s accomplished by copying blocks of memory out to your hard disk.

Think of it this way. Many different programs are running on your computer at the same time. Each needs memory in order to accomplish its tasks. When programs want more memory, they ask Windows to hand some over. When programs are finished with a chunk of memory, they hand it back to Windows. Your memory rapidly turns into a patchwork quilt of chunks, with Windows taking care of parceling out chunks of memory when they’re requested and returning them to the available pool when they’re no longer needed.

Everything goes along swimmingly until Windows runs out of chunks of memory. Suddenly a program wants more memory, but Windows has already handed out every single chunk. Windows solves the problem by taking a snapshot of a chunk of memory and tossing that snapshot to the hard drive. It then gives the chunk of memory to the program that requested it.
At some point, the program that originally had the chunk of memory wants it back. No problem. Windows runs out to the disk, retrieves the snapshot, sticks it in memory, and hands that chunk over to the old program. (I won’t mention the fact that bringing the snapshot into memory may, itself, force Windows to take yet another snapshot and send it out to disk. And so on. But you get the picture.)

The snapshots of chunks of memory out on your disk are called virtual memory. Virtual memory sits in paging files. Here’s where speed comes in. Windows works like crazy getting programs and their data into the computer. It also works like crazy keeping the virtual memory going. If your
virtual memory sits on the same disk as your programs and data, Windows has to hop all over the disk to keep all the programs going. On the other hand, if your paging file sits on a hard disk that doesn’t contain your programs, that helps solve the memory problem, simply because Windows can run faster if it’s juggling two different disks at the same time. The net result is that you should allow Windows to use all your fast hard drives for virtual memory (paging files), providing the drives have room available.

Web page?

Debugging is one of the most annoying so-called features in IE. If there’s a bug in a
Web page, that is, if the person who created the Web page made a mistake, why would you want to fix it? Relax if you’re worried that you are at fault for triggering these unwanted Debug messages. You didn’t do anything. The messages occur because IE can’t figure out how to read a Web page.
Fortunately, it’s easy to turn the error message off, permanently:
Start Internet Explorer. Choose Tools ➪ Internet Options ➪ Advanced. The Internet Options dialog box appears.

In the "Internet Options" dialog box, under the "Advanced" tab, Select the "Disable Script Debugging" check box (if it’s not selected by default), in the "Browsing" section.
It’s probably not selected, and that’s why you see the Do You Wish to Debug? messages.
Deselect the "Display a Notification About Every Script Error" check box.
Click on "Apply" and then "OK".

You’ll never be asked to debug a script again.

Here are three time saving key combinations that every IE user should know:
Ctrl+Enter:
If you type the middle part of an address in the Address bar~ say, dummy-essentials.blogspot ~ and then press Ctrl+Enter, IE immediately puts http://www. on the front and .com on the back. Type dummy-essentials.blogspot and press Ctrl+Enter, and IE immediately knows to look for http://www.dummy-essentials.blogspot.com (This doesn’t work in Internet Explorer 6.1.)
Ctrl+F5:
If you think that the Web page is “stuck” — it isn’t being updated properly, perhaps because it’s been put in the cache on your PC — pressing Ctrl+F5 forces Internet Explorer to go out and get
the latest copy of the current page. In theory, the browser even blasts past copies that are cached with your Internet service provider (which can be a real headache if your ISP is slow to update cached pages).
Shift+click:
When you click a link, sometimes the new page replaces the old window; sometimes the old window stays around, and the new one appears in a window of its own. Usually, the person
who designs a Web page decides what happens, but you can take over. To force IE to open a Web page in a new window, hold down Shift while you click the link.

Getting this error message, when you try to access the Command Prompt?
"The command Prompt has been disabled by your administrator"

You can get the Command prompt window to start functioning once again by following the steps illustrated below:
Begin by clicking on the "Start" menu on the taskbar. Followed which, click on "Run".

In the "Run" window, type: (preferably copy and paste from here)

REG add HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System /v DisableCMD /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

and click on "OK"

This would launch the Command Prompt window.

You can also enable the command prompt window using the Registry Editor or Group Policy Editor.

Let's start first, by illustrating how to do it using the Registry Editor.
Click on the "Start" menu on the taskbar. Followed which, click on "Run".

In the "Run" window, type: regedit and click on "OK"

Navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software \Policies \Microsoft \Windows \System
On the right side of the window, locate the key titled "DisableCMD" and double click on it.

In the "Edit DWORD Value" in the "Value data" field enter value as 0 and click on "OK".

Close the Registry Editor window. That's all to it.

Using the Group Policy Editor involves this:
Begin again by clicking on the "Start" menu on the taskbar. Followed which, click on "Run".

In the "Run" window, type: gpedit.msc and then click on "OK"

Navigate to the following location:
User Configuration\ Administrative Templates\ System
In the right pane of the window, double click on "Prevent access to the command prompt"

In the "Prevent access to the command prompt properties" dialog box that opens, under the "Setting" tab, click on "Not configured" and then on "Apply" button and "OK".

Working out any of the given three methods would allow an easy access to command prompt window.

Getting this error when you try to access the Registry Editor?

"Registry Editor has been disabled by your administrator."
You can get the Registry Editor to start working once again by following the steps illustrated below:
Begin by clicking on the "Start" menu on the taskbar. Followed which, click on "Run".

In the "Run" window, type: (preferably copy and paste from here)

and click on "OK"

This would launch the Registry Editor.

There is another method to it. Using the Group Policy Editor.
For this, begin again by clicking on the "Start" menu on the taskbar. Followed which, click on "Run".

In the "Run" window, type: gpedit.msc and then click on "OK"

Navigate to the following location:
User Configuration\ Administrative Templates\ System
In the right pane of the window, double click on "Prevent access to registry editing tools"

In the "Prevent access to registry editing tools properties" dialog box that opens, under the "Setting" tab, click on "Not configured" and then on "Apply" button and "OK".
This ensures that the "DisableRegistryTools" registry value is removed successfully.

Close the Group Policy Editor and you would not get the Registry Editor disabled error anymore.

Let's begin by clicking on the "Start" menu on the taskbar. Followed which, click on "Run".

In the "Run" window, type: regedit and click on "OK"

Navigate to:
My Computer \ HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies\ System
In the right-pane, right click and delete the value, "DisableTaskMgr" [Deleting this value from the Registry Editor would make sure that the task bar remains enabled at all times].

Now Navigate to:
My Computer \ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies\ System
Again, here in the right-pane, right click and delete the value, "DisableTaskMgr".

After this, close the Registry Editor and reboot the system. Now the next time, you want to access the Task Manager you can do it without any difficulty.

Yes, just one click and you will find your Win XP performing better than before. All you need to do is, download the File Speedup XP from here:
Download Speedup XP
Once downloaded when you open it and click on the "XP_Reg_Codes.reg" file, you will get this message:

Click on "yes" and it follows with this message box:
"Information has been successfully entered into the Registry."

Click on "OK" and reboot the PC.
With the next boot your PC will perform better and run faster.

If you wish to access the Control Panel in an easy manner, you can set it to open as a menu, instead of navigating from page to page. This is what you need to do:
Right click on the Taskbar and select "Properties"

In the "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" dialog box, under the "Start Menu" tab, click on the option "Start menu" and then click on the "Customize" button.

In "Customize Start Menu" dialog box, within "Start menu items" for "Control Panel", click on the option "Display as a menu" and click on "OK".

Close the dialog boxes and now when we view the "Control Panel" after clicking on the "Start" menu on the taskbar, you will see all the menu's of the Control Panel display right there with a click.

An easy access to your Control Panel menus!

A simple tutorial to swap mouse buttons, as per your convenience.
Let's begin by clicking on the "Start" menu on the taskbar. Followed which, click on "Run".

In the "Run" window, type: regedit and click on "OK"

Navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Control Panel \Mouse
On the right side of the window, locate the key titled "SwapMouseButtons" and double click on it.

In the "Edit String" dialog box that opens, change the "Value data" from 0 to 1 and click on "OK" to save the changes.

Close the "Registry Editor" and reboot your PC and you are done.

The Recycle Bin is constructed so that it keeps whatever ends up there until you manually delete it (or until the allocated disk space fills up). If the disk space fills up, then the oldest files in the Recycle Bin are deleted to make way for the newer items. If you have 8GB (or more) set aside for the Recycle Bin, the sheer size of the allocated area means you’re wasting a lot of disk space.
The solution is to change the amount of disk space allocated to the Recycle Bin. This is what you need to do.
Right click the Recycle Bin icon and choose "Properties"

In the "Properties" dialog box, under the "Global" tab, select the "Use One Setting for All Drives option". Use the slider to specify a smaller percentage of your hard drive for Recycle Bin space.

If you have a large drive or several large drives, consider setting the slider as low as one percent. (Remember that one percent of 80GB is 800MB. That’s still a large block of disk space for the Recycle Bin.)
Click "OK". Resizing the Recycle Bin help unclutter your system as Windows doesn’t need to track as many deleted files, the operating system is more responsive.

In an effort to make things easier, Windows XP lets people choose whether a single click or a double click should open a file or folder. But if you’re not satisfied with the click method Windows XP uses, here’s how to change it:
Open any folder and Choose "Folder Options" from the "Tools" menu

In the "Folder Options" window, within "Click Items as follows", you can select whichever option you like to. For single mouse click, select the first option and for double, select the second. Once done, click on "OK"

If you select the first option of "Single-Click", then you can open any folder with one click of the mouse.