How to make your XP more quickly shut down?

If XP is inordinately slow about shutting down, it may be that it's waiting on a hung program. You can edit the registry to change the amount of time XP will wait for a program to close. As always when editing the registry, back it up first, just in case. Then perform these steps:

1. Open your registry editor.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop
3. In the right pane, find the item HungAppTimeout and double click it
4. In the value data box, change the default value (5000) to a lower number (for example, 1000). Click OK.
5. Next, find the WaitToKillAppTimeout and double click it
6. Change the default value from 20000 to 1000. Click OK.
7. Now navigate to:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Control
8. In the right pane, find WaitToKillServiceTimeout and double click it.
9. Change the default value to 1000 and click OK.
10. Then navigate to:HKEY_USERS \ DEFAULT \ Control Panel \ Desktop
11. Find HungAppTimeout and doubleclick it.
12. Change the default value to 2000 and click OK.
13. In the same key, find WaitToKillAppTimeout and double click it.
Change the value to (you guessed it!) 1000 and click OK.

If you don't want the timeout to be quite as short, change these values to something else (for example, 5000). Just make sure the value is the same for each.

How to make a program always start with administrative rights?

Some programs, especially utilities, need administrative rights to run correctly (or at all). This isn't the best programming model, but if you have programs like that and you need to run them on Vista, you can set the properties to allow the program to always run as administrator. Here's how:

1. Right click the shortcut icon for the program.
2. Select Properties.
3. On the Shortcut tab, click the Advanced button.
4. Check the box that says "Run as administrator."
5. Click OK.

Now when you use the shortcut to launch the program, it will run as administrator. You'll need to click Continue at the UAC prompt (unless you've disabled UAC).

How to increase the maximum bit rate for WMA files in Media Player?

The bit rate of an audio file refers to the number of bits that are processed per second. In the Windows Media Player, you can set the bit rate but you'll find that the maximum available for WMA files is 192 Kbps. If you want to set a higher rate, you can edit the registry. As always, be sure to make a backup before you make changes to the registry. Here's how to do it:

1. Open the registry editor and navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Preferences
2. In the right pane, double click the item WMARecordRate
3. Choose Decimal and enter the bit rate you want to use, in bits. For example, 320 Kbps is entered as 320000.
4. Close the registry editor.

Now your tracks will be stored at the higher bit rate.