Administrative Tools

Add Administrative Tools to Your Start Menu

If you are an administrator to your Windows XP Professional machine, you might want to be able to perform administrative functions. Yet, it is sort of a hassle to navigate to the Control Panel and select the Administrative Tools from there.

• Right-click the Start menu, and then click Properties.
• On the Start Menu tab, click Customize.
• Click the Advanced tab, and under Start menu items, scroll to System Administrative Tools.
• Click Display on the All Programs and the Start menu.

You can navigate through those tools right from the comforts of the Start menu.

Access the Administrator Account from the Welcome Screen

If you are at the Welcome screen and want to log on with the Administrator account, but it's not listed:

• Press Ctrl+Alt+Del twice to bring up the Windows 2000 logon window, which then allows you to log on as Administrator.

Logging on at the Welcome screen is not available on computers that are members of a network domain.

Three New Command-Line Tools

If you're running Windows XP Professional, you can use a number of great new command-line tools:

• Use schtasks.exe to script the scheduling of tasks from the command line.
• De fragments your drives from the command line with defrag.exe.
• Query all or any of the event logs from the command line with eventquery.vbs.

To execute some of these commands, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the computer that the command affects.

Temporarily Assign Yourself Administrative Permissions

Many programs require you to have Administrative permissions to be able to install them. Here is an easy way to temporarily assign your self Administrative permissions while you remain logged in as a normal user.

• Hold down the Shift key as you right-click on the program's setup file.
• Click Run as.
• Type in a username and password that have Administrative permissions.

This will also work on applications in the Start menu.

Enable Services to Work through Internet Connection Firewall. When people are having trouble getting to specific programs or services on your Windows XP machine after you enable Internet Connection Firewall (ICF), you may need to enable the program or service to work through the firewall.

• Click Control Panel, click Network and Internet Connections, and then click Network Connections.
• Right-click your Internet connection, and then click Properties.
• Click the Advanced tab in the Properties dialog box.
• Click Settings, and the Advanced Settings dialog box opens.
• From there you can enable most common services just by clicking them, or add your own by clicking the Add button.