Windows FAQ

Q. My USB hard drive is marked as "read-only." There is no "tab" on the device. How do I fix this?

A. Start > Run "cmd"

diskpart
list volume
select volume #
attributes disk clear readonly

Q. The preview display for XP's theme and background settings is blank, and the Desktop tab disappears when I click on it. What do I do?

A. See if these commands help. From Start/Run:

REGSVR32 /i SHELL32.DLL
REGSVR32 /i MSHTML.DLL
REGSVR32 /i SHIMGVW.DLL

Q. My desktop background tab in Display Properties is greyed out. How do I get it back?

A. Open Regedit and go to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

Find an entry for "Wallpaper" and delete it, if any.

Q. How does one get an XP machine to automatically login?

A. One can issue the command line, 'control userpasswords2', to get at the "old-style" (Win2K) user admin dialog, which lets you turn off "users must enter name and password."

Q. How can we make "Administrator" appear in the list of available XP Home logins?

A. Save the following as a .reg file and merge it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList]
"Administrator"=dword:00000001