Enabling NumLock on by Default
To have numlock turned on for each user:

Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators
Change the value from 0 to 2
Turn Numlock on manually
Log off and back on again.
For all users, make the same change to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators

Changing the Internet Explorer Title
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Window Title
Enter what you want appear in the title bar

Automatically Ending Non-Responsive Tasks
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\AutoEndTasks
Set the value to be 1
In the same section, change the WaitToKillAppTimeout to the number of milliseconds you want.

Increasing System Performance
If you have 512 megs or more of memory, you can increase system performance
by having the core system kept in memory.

Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive
Set the value to be 1
Reboot the computer

To turn off balloon tips in applications that support XP Themes:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\Advanced\
Create a DWORD value of EnableBalloonTips
Give it a value of 0
Disable the Remote Desktop Sharing (RDS) icon's menu
Disable the Remote Desktop Sharing (RDS) icon's menu

To Disable the Remote Desktop Sharing (RDS) icon's menu:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Conferencing \Mcpt
Create a new string value (Click on Edit > New > String Value).
Name the value Nx
Double-click on it and set it's value to 1
Close the registry
Now the menu options will be grayed out.

Disable Shared Documents
To disable the Shared Documents folder that shows up on the network

Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer \
Create a new DWORD Value
Give it the name NoSharedDocuments
Give it a value of 1
Log off or reboot

Show Hidden Devices
You can show hidden devices in the Device Manager. One way is by making a simple registry change. The other is through a batch file.

Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ ControlSet001 \ Control \ Session Manager \ Environment
Create a string DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES
Give it a value of 1

Disable Passport Pop-Up
Normally, WindowsXP will prompt you 10 times that You Need a Passport to use WindowsXP Internet communication features...

To disable this

Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ MessengerService
Edit the binary key PassportBalloon
Give it a value of 0A (0A 00 00 00)

Preventing Applications from Stealing the Focus
To prevent applications from stealing the focus from the window you are working

Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop
Edit the key ForegroundLockTimeout
Give it a value of 00030d40

Creating a Password Recovery Disk
In case you forget your password, you can create a password recovery floppy disk beforehand to help you out of this problem.

Single-click Start menu
Go to the Control Panel / User Accounts
Click the User Account
On the left hand side, click on Prevent forgotten password
You will need to know your password to create the disk.
If you don't remember your password sometime in the future, click on the green arrow like normal at the login and you will be prompted to insert the password recover disk.

Renaming the Start Button
To rename the start button, you will need a hex editor.
My preference is UltraEdit

Copy the \windows\explore.exe file to a new name (e.g. explorer_1.exe)
With the hex editor, open that file and go to offset 412b6
You will see the word start with blanks between each letter
Edit it be any 5 characters or less
Save the file
Boot to DOS
Copy the existing c:\windows\explorer.exe to explorer.org
Copy explorer_1.exe to explorer.exe
You will also need to replace the explorer.exe in the c:\windows\system32\dllcache file as well with the new one.
Note: If the partition is NTFS and you can't access the files from DOS:

Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon.
Change the value of Shell from Explorer.exe to explorer_1.exe

Changing the Registered Owner
Start Regedit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
From there you can edit the name in the Registered Owner key

Enable / Disable the Task Manager
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\System
Create the Dword value DisableTaskMgr
Give it a value of 0 to enable it
Give it a vaule of 1 to disable it