If you are not comfortable editing the registry, I would recommend you get hold of a copy of the excellent X-Setup from XTeq Systems, which works superbly with Windows 2000. This programme will allow you to tweak a huge number of registry settings.

1.GROUP POLICY EDITOR: Various settings can be altered by accessing administrator setup. At the Start\Run prompt type "gpedit.msc". This will open a management console which gives access to various administrator settings. There are too many options to discuss here, so I have highlighted a couple of the more useful ones below:

Administrative Templates: In the System folder is an option to disable CD autoplay. Under Windows Components is an option to disable the Internet Explorer splash screen.

2. OUTLOOK EXPRESS: To disable the Outlook Express splash screen, open Regedit.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\GUID(Identity Number)\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\ 5.0

Right click in the right hand pane, and select New Dword Value. Name this value "NoSplash" and then set the value to 1.

3. INDEXING: If you do a lot of searching for files it may be worth enabling indexing on your drives. In NTFS this can be done simply by right clicking on the drive and amending the properties, but the procedure is a bit more involved if you are using FAT. Go to StartMenu/Search/For Files and Folders. Under search options click on the Indexing Service link to enable the programme.

4. HIDDEN DEVICES: In Device Manager, there is an option to show hidden settings: from the menu go to View/Show Hidden Devices. I had a couple of items here that were not installed correctly.

5. PMTU DISCOVERY: You can configure Windows 2000 to calculate the MTU between your machine and a remote host, e.g. your ISP. This avoids fragmentation of information sent over the connection, and can improve internet connection speeds.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

Right click in the right hand pane, and select New Dword Value. Name this value "EnablePMTUDiscovery" and then set the value to 1.

6. ENABLE DMA: DMA (Direct Memory Access) allows your IDE hard drive or CDRom to access memory directly, bypassing the CPU. This can free up CPU resources, especially when you are running many programmes simultaneously (multitasking), or using very CPU intensive programmes. You may also see this referred to as Ultra DMA, which is basically the same thing, but allowing for higher burst speeds. Firstly your drives must be DMA capable, most new drives will have this capability, secondly, all drives on a particular channel must be DMA capable too. In Windows 2000 DMA is enabled per channel, not per device: therefore if you have two devices on one IDE channel, both must be DMA capable - this is important as some CDRom drives are not DMA capable. To set DMA mode, click Administrative Tools, and then follow these steps to configure the DMA/PIO settings for a controller:

Click Administrative Tools, and then click Computer Management. Click System Tools, and then click Device Manager. Expand IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers. Click the specific controller for which you want to configure DMA/PIO settings. Click the Advanced Settings tab. In the Transfer Mode box, click either PIO Only or DMA if available.

7. SYSTEM INFORMATION: You can gather software and hardware configuration information using System Information in Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools. This information can be useful in troubleshooting a problem, or it can be used to document your initial configuration and any subsequent hardware or software additions or upgrades.

8. CLEAR PAGING FILE: Windows 2000 does not automatically clear the contents of the paging file when you reboot. As certain programmes can store unencrypted information in virtual memory, this is mainly a security issue - sensitive information may be available to others accessing your machine. To enable this open the following regisry key:

HKey_Local_Machine/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/Session Manager/Memory Management

Select the value ClearPageFileAtShutdown and set it to 1 to enable. This may slow down the shut-down process significantly however.

9.DISABLE LAST ACCESS TIME: To prevent ntfs from updating the last access time of each directory, open the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

Add a new DWord Value and name it NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate: set the value to 1 to disable this feature.

10. COMPATIBILITY MODE: Service Pack 2 (SP2) includeS a compatibility mode that lets programs run as if they were on a Windows NT 4.0 SP5 or Windows 95 machine. To enable this interface, perform the following steps:

Start a Run box (Start, Run).
Enter the following command: "regsvr32 %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll"

Click OK.
Click OK to the confirmation.

Now if you right-click a shortcut and select Properties, you'll see a Compatibility tab that lets you select whether the program target should run under an NT 4.0 SP5 or Win95 compatibility layer.