Windows XP Hacks

Speed Up Network Browsing

Speed up your network browsing by tweaking your registry.

When you use My Network Places to browse for other machines on your network, it usually takes a long time to display the list of shared resources for the target machine. This is because Windows XP first checks for the scheduled tasks on the target machine before listing the shared resources present on the computer.

Tip

To schedule a task using Windows XP’s Scheduled Tasks, choose Start → Programs → Accessories → System Tools → Scheduled Tasks.

This unnecessary checking can easily add 30 seconds of delay. You can decrease the time browsing takes by modifying the Registry to turn off this checking:

1. Invoke the Registry Editor by typing regedit [Hack #68] at the command line.

2. Open the Registry key:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
   Remote Computer\NameSpace

3. Delete the following key (the value for it is the Scheduled Tasks, as shown in Figure 5-25):

   {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}

4. Close the Registry and reboot.

Figure 5-25. Modifying the registry

That’s it! You should now be able to browse to another computer on the network without much delay.

—Wei-Meng Lee