Ran across this tip while web browsing this morning.  It’s a golden oldie: when wiping your Windows XP installation to get things squeekly clean, copy c:\windows\system32\WPA.DBL off the system first.  After your reinstall boot to Safe Mode and paste it back: no reactivation needed.  This will only work if you’re not changing any hardware.

I’m from an admin background and love the granular control of shares and security that come with Windows Server products and Windows 2000 Professional.  In Windows XP Microsoft wanted to simplify the process with Simple File Sharing.  To turn this rubbish off:

Open My Computer
Pull down the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab
Navigate to the Advanced Settings section, and uncheck Use Simple File Sharing
Click OK

This one comes from my friend J:
I figured out how to sort the start menu alphabetically all the time.
In regedit go to:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
MenuOrder]
Right click Menu Order and select Permissions
Select Advanced Uncheck “Inherit from parent the permission…”
Click “Copy” when the dialog box appears
Click “Ok” to return to “Permissions for Menu Order” for all Group or User Names, uncheck “Allow” for the “Full Control” permission (leaving only Read selected to Allow).
Click “Ok”
After a restart, the Start Menu will be sorted with folders first and then alphabetically. Nicey nice.