While Windows XP and Vista offer a way to pin files to the Start Menu both operating systems do not offer a way to pin folders to it. You might have noticed that a right-click on a file on your hard drive does not give the option to pin it to the Start Menu as well, it only appears if you press the shift key while right-clicking the file.
Make XP look like Windows Vista
Not many users like Windows Vista. It surely looks better than Windows XP, but other than that ? Please raise your hand if you think that UAC is more annoying than helpful. Windows Vista is just not that ready for prime time and there is not really a good reason to make the switch.
XP Keep Per User Display Settings
If you share a computer with several other users you might have noticed that it is not possible to set a differing screen resolution, refresh rate and color depth for each user. Windows XP forces each user to use the same resolution, refresh rate and color depth which is a great annoyance.
XdN Tweaker for Windows
XdN Tweaker is not one of those usual tweaking softwares that give you access to change hundreds of Windows settings in one tiny menu. This one is different. It concentrates on only a handful of tweaks that are not so common and supports Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows 2003 both 32-bit and 64-bit versions and needs the .net framework 2.0 as well.
Send Windows to Nirvana with an animated cursor
One of the many disadvantages of every new Windows edition is the fact that the operating system becomes more and more bloated. Microsoft adds new features to Windows which could then be used to exploit the system.Instead of concentrating on fast efficient systems they produce heavy systems that look shiny but have problems under the surface. Recently a vulnerability in Windows Animated Cursor Handling was discovered. In order for this attack to be carried out, a user must either visit a Web site that contains a Web page that is used to exploit the vulnerability or view a specially crafted e-mail message or email attachment sent to them by an attacker.
Superfast Shutdown for XP and Vista
It sometimes takes ages to shutdown Windows XP and Windows Vista, most of the time when you are in a hurry. This can be caused by processes that are still open or not reacting. Windows tries to close those processes which can take a long time. If you don’t have the time or patience to wait for the shutdown you might want to try the excellent freeware Superfast Shutdown which does exactly what the name suggests.
Unknown Device Identifier
Did you ever try to identify devices in your device manager that have a yellow icon ? Devices with yellow icons are unknown devices that give you almost zero information about the type of the device. The freeware Unknown Device Identifier displays a list of unknown, disconnected or old devices with information about each of those devices.

