====== Windows XP Initial Configuration ======

At work I don't have a fixed Windows environment. So every time I need one I get a newly imaged machine and need to reconfigure it. These are the steps I always go through to configure my Windows XP environment to prepare it for development work.

  * Create an OldIcons folder on the desktop and dump all icons into it (excluding MyComputer and the Trash). Icons such as IE which can't get moved get deleted.

  * Unlock the taskbar, add the quicklaunch toolbar.

  * Download a zip with essential utilities and unzip it to c:\mine. Make a link from c:\mine to the Desktop. The zip includes a subset of a [[notes:win32software | larger set of free Windows software]] I normally keep with me.

  * Open the start menu, right-click and configure it.
    * Check show clock
    * Uncheck hide inactive icons
    * Customize start menu
      * display admin tools
      * display control panel and my computer as menus
      * hide everything else

  * Customize a command prompt icon and put it in the quick launcher.
    * Increase buffer size to 999
    * Turn on quick edit and insert modes
    * Lucida Console font, yellow screen text

  * Change the default view to List, edit the folder options from the Tools menu - view everything, hide nothing.

  * Run and configure [[http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/processesandthreads/processexplorer.mspx|Process Explorer]] (already included in the zip). Include username, handles, threads, working set size, remove company, description, lower pane.