How to Start System Restore from the Command Line - XP

Sometimes when you install a program or driver, it might render XP unbootable. If your computer won't boot into the operating system normally, you might be able to boot into Safe Mode and use System Restore to go back to a previous restore point to fix the problem. But what if you can't even boot into safe mode? Then you need to start the System Restore tool from the command line. Here's how: When booting your computer, press F8 to bring up a boot menu
Select Safe Mode with Command Prompt
Select the operating system to start (if you have multiple operating systems installed)

Log on with an account that is a member of the administrators group
At the command prompt, type %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe
Press Enter
This will start the "Welcome to System Restore" screen. Go through the steps of the Wizard and follow the instructions to restore your system to a previous restore point

How to Print over the Network from an MS-DOS program

If you're running an MS-DOS program in Windows XP, you may be wondering how to print. DOS programs usually print directly to LPT 1 or LPT 2. This is fine if you have a local printer attached, but what if you want to use a network printer that's attached to a different computer? You need to map an LPT port to the shared network printer. To do this, follow these steps:

Click Start and select Run
Type cmd to open a command prompt window
Click OK
At the command prompt, type: net use lpt[port number]\\[print server name]\[printer share name]/persistent:yes
Press Enter
Type exit to get out of the command window
In the example, for port number, put in the number of the printer port that you want to map (for example, lpt1 or lpt2, with no space between "lpt" and the number). For printer server name, put in the name of the computer to which the network printer is attached. For printer share name, put in the name by which the printer is shared on the network.

How to Make Folders Private in XP Home

If you're using Windows XP Home edition with simple file sharing, you can secure your data by performing these steps:

Right click the folder in which your data is stored and select Properties
Click the Sharing tab
Select Make this folder private
Sometimes, however, you might not see a "Make this folder private" option. This can happen for two reasons:
The folder isn't in your My Documents folder or one of its subfolders. In this case, you'll need to move the folder to the correct location.
The drive on which the folder is stored isn't formatted in NTFS. In this case, you'll need to move the folder to an NTFS drive or convert the file system for the drive where the folder is located to NTFS.
You can convert a drive to NTFS without losing any of your data by doing the following:
Click Start and select Run
Type cmd to open a command prompt window
Click OK
At the command prompt, type: Convert [drive letter]: /fs:ntfs
Press Enter
Type exit to get out of the command window

Important: if you have a dual boot system and you convert the drive to NTFS, you will not be able to access the data on that drive when you boot into Windows 9x/ME.