The very first thing I do on any XP computer is to create two shortcuts.

• Restart button
• System Restore Button

Restart button

1. To create this shortcut; right-click on desktop, select New > Shortcut.
    
2. For location, type the following: shutdown -r -t 0 in the area that becomes available.
    
3. Click Next, enter a name for the shortcut ("Restart" is a good idea).
    
4. Finish.

System Restore button

Now, another great time saver for people that use the system restore. This is a very nice utility for some of you, and it's a good idea to have a more convenient method to creating a restore point.
So, create another shortcut, using the same method as I described above, but this time, paste the following in the target area:

1. To create this shortcut; right-click on desktop, select New > Shortcut.
    
2. For location, type the following: %System%\System32\restore\rstrui.exe in the area that becomes available.
    
3. Click Next, enter a name for the shortcut ("System Restore" is a good idea).
    
4. Finish.