7. Changing the Number of Open Programs Required to 'Group' on the Taskbar

Windows XP introduced the idea of taskbar 'groups' wherein a number of similar open applications like multiple Internet Explorer windows are lumped together into a single taskbar item so things are less cluttered, and navigation made simpler for the user.

This is fine, but can get annoying if you often work within several similar windows and want to switch between them fast. In this circumstance, previous versions of Windows was better, as they would just jam every open application into a separate taskbar entry regardless of it's type.

You can change how many similar applications or windows need to be opened to cause them to 'group' with this simple registry edit:

Open Regedit and navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced' and double click the 'TaskbarGroupSize' subkey.

Change the value to decimal if necessary. The decimal number indicates how many similar windows will trigger the grouping effect.

8. Reduce Menu Delay to Speed up the Windows Desktop

Windows XP adds a slight delay between the time your mouse pointer rests on a menu button and the time the interface opens the menu. This is necessary to keep the pointer from activating every icon and menu it passes over, but the default delay time (0.4th of a second) can seem kind of lengthy after a while for us super-geeks. You can make the Windows interface seem much, much snappier just by lowering this menu delay time slightly with a simple registry edit.

To do this open Regedit and Navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\'

Double click the 'MenuShowDelay' value. The default value is 400, with lower values reducing the menu delay time. Experiment to see what suits you best. Note that setting this to zero is not a good idea, as it will activate every menu as your pointer passes over it, which will become really annoying, fast.

9. Show Control Panel as a Menu

For quicker access to the Windows XP control panel's assortment of applications, you can set the control panel to appear as a submenu in the start menu, similar to the existing 'accessories' submenu.

To do this Right click on the 'start' button and choose 'properties.' Select the 'customize' button to the right of the 'start menu' option. Choose the 'advanced' tab and then in the 'start menu items' box, find 'control panel' and select the 'display as menu' option.