How to repair windows Xp

* Make sure the BIOS is set to boot from the CD (put the CD above the HD in the boot order)

* Insert the XP CD and boot to it

* When you see " To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER", go ahead and press ENTER

* You will now see an option to repair Windows by pressing "R". Do not select this option - it will only take you to the Recovery Console which is not what we want to do. Instead, choose to continue the installation

* When you see the license agreement, press F8 to agree

* On the next screen make sure your current XP installation is selected and then press "R" to repair XP

* At this point XP will begin to install on top of itself, replacing damaged, missing or altered system files. Follow the instructions on the remaining screens to complete the Repair Install. It will look very much like a normal (new) OS installation.

If all goes well your repaired XP installation will remain iintact, keeping your personalized settings and installed programs as they originally were. Remember, choose the second repair option, not the first.

Tricks for Safer and Faster XP

To disable unneeded startup services for a safer, faster XP, use the "Services" Admin Tool (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services). If you are a single user of a non-networked machine, you can disable the following items, with no ill effect.
Alerter
Clipbook
Computer Browser
Fast User Switching
Human Interface Access Devices
Indexing Service (Slows the hard drive down)
Messenger
Net Logon (unnecessary unless networked on a Domain)
Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (disabled for extra security)
Remote Procedure Call Locator
Remote Registry (disabled for extra security)
Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra security)
Server
SSDP Discovery Service (this is for the utterly pointless "Universal P'n'P", & leaves TCP Port 5000 wide open)
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Telnet (disabled for extra security)
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Upload Manager
Windows Time
Wireless Zero Configuration (for wireless networks)
Workstation

Rename a series of files

When you download photos from your digital camera, they often have unrecognizable names. You can rename several similar files at once with the following procedure. This also works for renaming other types of files.

1.Open the My Pictures folder. (Click Start, and then click My Pictures.) Or open another folder containing files that you want to rename.

2.Select the files you want to rename. If the files you want are not adjacent in the file list, press and hold CTRL, and then click each item to select it.

3.On the File menu, click Rename.

4.Type the new name, and then press ENTER.

All of the files in the series will be named in sequence using the new name you type. For example, if you type Birthday, the first will be named Birthday and subsequent files in the series will be named Birthday (1), Birthday (2), and so on. To specify the starting number for the series, type the starting number in parentheses after the new file name. The files in the series will be numbered in sequence starting with the number you type. For example, if you type Birthday (10), the other files will be named Birthday (11), Birthday (12), and so on.