Windows XP / Vista tweaks

Here's a couple of tweaks that I always do whenever I come across an XP or Vista installation:

1. Disable autorun/autoplay

Ever noticed that whenever a new drive or CD is plugged in, Windows will automatically run whatever that's on the drive, and if it doesn't find any, it tries to find something by popping up an annoying search window? This is how Sony was able to install its rootkit onto unsuspecting users when they inserted their audio CDs, and this is often exploited by viruses.

Disabling autorun/autoplay takes 3 steps:

• Go to this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom and set the Autorun value to 0.
• Go to this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and set the NoDriveTypeAutoRun value to 255/FF.
• Go to this key: HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and set the NoDriveTypeAutoRun value to 255/FF.

2. Do you use Vista and annoyed that you have trouble accessing network shares on an XP system?

Open this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa

If it doesn't already exist, create a DWORD value named LmCompatibilityLevel and set the value to 1.

3. Are you having trouble using sysinternal's psshutdown or other remote services on Vista?

Open this key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\system and set LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy to 1. Then reboot.

4. XP/Vista can get really chatty with the disk. If you notice XP/Vista accessing the disk WAY too often, try this:

• Prevent XP from updating the last access property on each file it touches by opening this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem, and set/create this DWORD value: NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate=1
• Disable superfetch by opening this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\MemoryManagement\PrefetchParameters and set EnableSuperfetch to 0. By the way, the meaning for the possible values are
  

0 to disable Superfetch
1 to enable prefetching when program is launched
2 to enable boot prefetching
3 to enable prefectching of everything

Now, isn't that better?