hacking xp and saving battery life

[wired076]

I want to hack my xp installation so I can customise it however I want.

I firstly want to figure out how to change the taskbar to half the width it normally starts out with to make it smaller. How can I achieve this as I can't see a setting to change this and make it the same size as the mac top bar is..

Also what software do people suggest to make changes to anything I want within xp that hacks the system so you can customise it how I want??

I also have a laptop and is wondering what people can suggest or implement to save battery life without turning down the brightness controls or having to change the battery settings within xp. It is a HP Pavillion dv5000. I also know that running less programs conserves power and so does turning off the wireless. But what else can give me a longer time out of my battery? Any tips.

Anything will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[shoes22]

First off to save battery, set your computer's battery performance to "Maximum Conservation". There should also be some battery settings in your computer's BIOS. (When you start your computer up press F12 or the DEL key). As well as turning off your wireless connection and bluetooth will help, disable all external devices such as PC card modems, firewire, usb devices and optical drives. Turn off auto-start applications and scheduled tasks. Also remove the battery pack from the laptop when not used for long periods of time, keep your battery at room temperature, and occasionally allow your battery to drain completely before charging again.

[shoes22]

For your second point, to hack your computer. To change things such as the width of the taskbar. It is impossible to do so without severely hacking your computer. Microsoft locked the files to edit things such as these in Windows, but other programs can allow you to do this and will make the changes you desire for you. My personal favorite is StyleXP, you can change complete Visual Styles, Themes, Wallpapers, ScreenSavers, Fonts, Logon Screens and Boot Screens. You can even design your own theme!
Check it out: http://www.tgtsoft.com/prod_sxp.php

[joseph0829]

to save buttery on your laptop try changing your battery profile to low mode, this will reduce CPU process speed and etc.