Speed up CD-ROM data transfer

DMA mode

Windows XP sets DMA mode on IDE channels wrong. Most of CD-ROM devices support this, but Windows XP puts them in PIO ( slower ). DMA wont speed device, but it will use less RAM memory, and that way data transfer from CD-ROM to computer will be faster. 
Go to My Computer-Hardware-Device Manager.
Find "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and click «+» (plus) near it. Double click on «Primary IDE channel». Look at «Advance settings» and look at Device 1 settings. It's probably set up to PIO transfer mode. Set to «DMA if available». 
Back to "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers". Do same for «Secondary IDE channels» now. If it's in PIO mode. 
If this won't help, you can reinstall IDE channels that won't accept DMA mode. And that you can do in following way:
Right click on IDE channel, «uninstall» and OK.
Restart your computer and look if IDE channel excepted DMA mode. 
IN some cases, you can get only MultiWord, but that's better than PIO mode, too.

How to Uninstall Windows Messenger

Lots of PC users don't like Windows Messenger and find it dangerous and unuseful. But, it can be uninstaled in common way. Here is a tip how you can uninstall Windows Messenger.
Open Windows Explorer. Go to Windows directory (usually it's on C disk), and find folder named INF. In that directory, find sysoc.ini file. Right mouse click, open with, Notepad. Find row where 
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
is written. Delete word HIDE from it, and after, that row should look like this:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,7
Save file. 
Go to Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs, and Add/Remove Windows Components. Remove note near the «Windows Messenger», and click NEXT. After that, you will not have Windows Messenger on your computer. 

NOTICE: This can cause some problems if you use Outlook or Outlook Express.

Quick Case Conversion - MSWord

You are typing some text in Microsoft Word. If you need to convert the case of text, you can select character or word, delete it and replace with right case. But you can do that easier. Select caracter or word, and click Shift/F3. That will swap the case. If you forgot Caps lock , and have all caracters in Upper-case, now you have them all lower case. With another Shft/F3, you'll get TitleCase (capitals in sentences) and on third Shift/F3 text will get (UpperCase again. 

extra tip:
While selecting text, if you need select whole paragraph, that will be done with triple click.

Uninstalling software - safe way

You have some software installed on your computer and you don't use it anymore. So, you want to delete it. Don't ever use "right click - delete" on software. That way, Windows can pull some other file you need for some other program, and you'll get in trouble. 
You have two ways to do that properly. 
First, you can go to Start - Programs, find software you want to delete and look if "Uninstall" link is there. If there is, than click it and follow the instructions.

If there is not "uninstall", that you need 2nd way. Go to Start - Settings - Control panel - Add or remove programs. Find your program there and click on "Change/Remove".

Change Internet Explorer logo

In the right top corner of Internet Explorer and Outlook Express you will see logo. When you're online logo is animated, and on offline it's static bitmap. This is the way you can change that logo to any pic you want. 
First, make logo (bitmap image). You will need two images, 22 and 38 pixels for IExplorer and 2nd for Outlook Express. 
Make first 22pixels image. Make it 22 pixels high and 5x22=110 pixels width. There you will make 5 22x22 pics like on film. When it's animated, those 5 images will show one after another, and on offline only first frame will be visible. 
Same way, you will make 38x190 bitmap. 
Than, open registry and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Internet Explorer\Toolbar
Create 2 new strings, and name them "SmBrandBitmap" i "BrandBitmap". Values will be full paths to bitmap images you made. 
Restart IExplorer and Outlook Express and you shall see new images in top-right corner.

What is my IP address

You would like to know what is your IP address when you are connected on the Internet? You can get your answer on several different ways. You can go to whatismyipaddress.com and you'll see your IP and where are you on Google map. But if you need more information you can go to Start - Run, than type CMD and press ENTER. There, just type
"ipconfig/all" (without quotes) and press ENTER. You will get more than IP address, you'll see full profile of your connection like on image bellow: