3 essential fixes for any irritated Windows XP user

I’ve been using Windows since version 3.1 and, with each new iteration, I’m both impressed and also slightly confused. Whenever you’ve been using a system for a long time, any change can be a bit unsettling.

We’ve had over five years to get used to the way Windows XP worked and while so many of the changes in Windows Vista are positive, there are a few little niggles that some of us initially find hard to get used to.

One is the way the control panel has changed; nothing’s where I expect it to be any more, although reverting to Classic view has made life a lot easier. The same goes for right-clicking on the desktop and choosing Personalize.

While this section is now enhanced so that you can change the look, feel and sound of Windows, I personally preferred the old way of being able to jump straight into the display properties.

However, the three problems I’m going to tackle here are the Shutdown button, defragmenting your hard drive and using the Windows Vista Sleep option. With a few easy tweaks, you can iron out those computing niggles for good.

1. The shutdown

When you want to shut down your PC, you first click on the Windows Vista Start button. Then, at the bottom of the menu, you see three icons – a power symbol, a padlock and an arrow. Logic would suggest that clicking on the power button would shut Windows Vista down, but in actual fact, it puts your computer into the Sleep mode.

To shut down Windows you actually have to click on the arrow, then choose Shutdown from the menu. OK, so I realise that this is not a huge deal – after all, what’s one extra mouse click between friends? – but it’s something that I do find annoying. It has a power button icon and, the way I see it, this should shut Windows down!

Luckily, it’s actually pretty easy to change the behaviour of this button, although it is necessary to go into the Advanced settings of the Power Options in the Control Panel. Considering that getting there involves a number of mouse clicks – and as this is exactly what I’m trying to avoid – I’ll show you a handy shortcut.

Press the Windows and R key on your keyboard and type ‘CMD’ to open up a command prompt. Now type in ‘powercfg.cpl,1’ to open up the advanced power settings.

You’ll see an item called Power buttons and lid. Click on the ‘+’ sign to expand it then click on the ‘+’ sign next to the Start menu power button. It should say Sleep, so click on this and change it to Shutdown. Voila! You can now shut down with two less mouse clicks.

An alternative to all of this, if you’re a fan of the Sidebar, is to install a Shutdown gadget. Have a look at the Gadgets gallery and choose one you like. I’m currently using one called Shotdown, by Fox-Kz.

2. Defragment speed

Defragmentation is needed because, as you move and delete files, gaps are created in the filing system. By regularly defragmenting your hard drive, you close up these gaps and place your data in blocks, rather than having it spread all over the disk.

The Windows Vista defragmentation tool is now automatic and runs at low priority in the background. You can still choose to defragment manually, but because the tool has been simplified, you have no way of knowing how defragmented your drive is, or indeed how far along the defragmentation operation the tool has progressed.

In addition, whenever I’ve defragged my disk using the Windows Vista tool, it’s taken hours and has had to be left running overnight, which is not very satisfactory.

So instead I’ve taken to running a free third-party solution, Power Defragmenter. It downloads as a zip file, so right-click on it, choose Extract all and unzip the files into a new directory. Double-click on the Power Defragmenter icon and the program will run.

You’ll see four choices: Defragment Files, Defragment Folder, Defragment Disk and PowerMode Disk Defragmentation. Choose either of the last two, choose the disk you want to defragment, then press the Defragment button. The first time you do this it might take a while to complete and it will launch a command window, but don’t be put off, as you’ll soon have a faster PC.

3. Sleep mode

One of the improvements in Windows Vista is the ability to put your PC into a low-power Sleep state, which combines the benefits of the Standby and Hibernation modes of Windows XP.

This is good if you want to save energy but don’t want to keep shutting down. Sleep tends to work well on quality laptops and desktops from, but not so well on cheaper systems or home-built affairs. You’re probably already familiar with the concept of signed drivers and you should use them wherever possible.

This is doubly important if you’re going to use the Sleep mode, as it requires specific standards to be adhered to. Unfortunately, many drivers haven’t undergone Microsoft WHQL testing and so can cause problems with Sleep, particularly when USB devices are used. Here are the three main problems and how to resolve them.

Avoid interrupted Sleep with these three fixes