Deleting
System Softwares:
XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such
as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything.
Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for
the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in
the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your
prey, exposed and vulnerable.
Creating
Shutdown Icon or One Click Shutdown:
Navigate to your desktop. On the desktop, right-click and go
to New, then to Shortcut (in other words, create a new shortcut). You should
now see a pop-up window instructing you to enter a command line path.
Use this path in "Type Location of the Item"
SHUTDOWN -s -t 01
If the C: drive is not your local hard drive, then replace
"C" with the correct letter of the hard drive. Click the
"Next" button. Name the shortcut and click the "Finish"
button. Now whenever you want to shut down, just click on this shortcut and
you're done.
Increasing Band-Width By 20%:
Microsoft reserves 20% of your available bandwidth for their
own purposes like Windows Updates and interrogating your PC etc
To get it
back:
Click Start then Run and type "gpedit.msc" without
quotes.This opens the group policy editor. Then go to:
Local Computer Policy then Computer Configuration then
Administrative Templates then Network then QOS Packet Scheduler and then to
Limit Reservable Bandwidth.
Double click on Limit Reservable bandwidth. It will say it
is not configured, but the truth is under the 'Explain' tab i.e."By
default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 20 percent of the bandwidth
of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default."
So the trick is to ENABLE reservable bandwidth, then set it
to ZERO. This will allow the system to reserve nothing, rather than the default
20%.It works on Win 2000 as well.
Renaming The
Recycle Bin icon:
To change the name of the Recycle Bin desktop icon, click
Start then goto Run, write Regedit and press Enter. It opens Registry Editor.
Now in Registry Editor go to:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID/{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
and change the name "Recycle Bin" to whatever you
want (don't type any quotes).
Managing
Tasks:
You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the
command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and
the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell
you a lot about what's going on in your system.
Removing Shared
Documents folder From My Computer window:
Open registry editor by going to Start then Run and entering
regedit. Once in registry, navigate to key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \
CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ My Computer \ NameSpace \ DelegateFolders
You must see a
sub-key named {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}. If you delete this
key, you have effectively removed the my shared documents folder.
Making Google
the Default Search Engine in Internet Explorer:
Open registry editor by going to Start then Run and
entering regedit and navigate to
following three keys separately and change it as shown below:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Main]
"Search Page"="http://www.google.com"
"Search Bar"=" http://www.google.com/ie"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\SearchURL]
""=" http://www.google.com/keyword/%s"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Search]
"SearchAssistant"="
http://www.google.com/ie" .
Improving the
Slow Boot up time:
There are a variety of reasons why your windows XP system
would boot slowly. Most of the times it this has to do with the startup
applications. If you would like to speed up the bootup sequence, consider
removing some of the startup applications that you do not need. Easiest way to
remove startup apps is through System Configuration Utility. Go to Start then
Run and enter MSCONFIG and go to the Startup tab. Deselect/UnCheck application(
s) that you do not want to startup at boot time.
Customize
Logon prompt with your Own Words:
Open Registry by going to Start then Run, entering regedit
and Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]. In right pane, look for key by the name
"LogonPrompt". Set its value to whatever text you want to see
displayed at login screen.
IP address of
your connection:
Go to Start then Run. Enter 'cmd' and then enter 'ipconfig'
.Add the '/all' switch for more info.
Making
Folders Private:
Open My Computer Double-click the drive where Windows is
installed (usually drive (C:), unless you have more than one drive on your
computer). If the contents of the drive are hidden, under System Tasks, click
Show the contents of this drive.
Double-click the Documents and Settings folder. Double-click
your user folder. Right-click any folder in your user profile, and then click
Properties. On the Sharing tab, select the Make this folder private so that
only I have access to it check box.
To change
Drive Letters:
Go to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools
> Computer Management, Disk Management, then right-click the partition whose
name you want to change (click in the white area just below the word
"Volume") and select "change drive letter and paths."
From here you can add, remove or change drive letters and
paths to the partition.
Removing the
Shortcut arrow from Desktop Icons:
Goto Start then Run and Enter regedit. Navigate to
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTlnkfile. Delete the IsShortcut registry value. You may need to
restart Windows XP.
Get Drivers
for your Devices:
Visit Windows Update (XP Only)
Look at the left hand pane and under Other Options click
Personalize Windows Update.
Now in the right hand pane check the box - Display the link
to the Windows Update Catalog under See Also
Below Choose which categories and updates to display on
Windows Update - make sure you check all the boxes you want shown.
Click Save Settings
Now look in the left hand pane under See Also click Windows
Update Catalog and choose what you're looking for. Choose either MS updates or
drivers for hardware devices.
Start the Wizard and off you go.
Customize
Internet Explorer's Title Bar:
Open Registry by going to Start then Run and Enter regedit.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet. Explorer\Main. In
right hand panel look for string "Window Title" and change its value
to whatever custom text you want to see.
Disabling the
use of Win Key:
If your are a gaming freak then you must be sick of the Win
key in your keyboard. To disable use of Win key, open registry by going to
Start then Run and entering regedit. Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_
MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout] . In this look for
value of "Scancode Map". Its binary data so be extra careful:
Set its value to "00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00
00 00 5B E0 00 00 5C E0 00 00 00 00" to disable the win key.
Restarting
Windows without Restarting the Computer:
This one is again is. When you click on the SHUTDOWN button,
make sure to simultaneous press SHIFT Button. If you hold the Shift key down
while clicking on SHUTDOWN button, you computer would restart without
restarting the Computer. This is equivalent to term "HOT REBOOT".
Stopping XP
from displaying unread messages count on Welcome Screen:
To stop XP from displaying count of unread messages, Open
registry and navigate to
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail] and
look for the data key "MessageExpiryDays". If you do not see this
key, create one DWORD key by the name "MessageExpiryDays". Setting
its value to 0 would stop Windows XP from displaying the count of unread
messages.
Modify Color
Selection of Default Theme:
Open registry by going to Start then Run. Entering regedit,
navigate to [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ThemeManager]
and locate the key "ColorName".
Right Click on it and select modify its value from
"NormalColor" to "Metallic"
Click Ok, and exit regedit and restart your computer.
Removing the
Recycle Bin from the Desktop:
If you don't use the
Recycle Bin to store deleted files , you can get rid of its desktop icon all
together. Run Regedit and go to:
20
Tricks in WIN – XP
You've
read the reviews and digested the key feature enhancements and operational
changes. Now it's time to delve a bit deeper and uncover some of Windows XP's
secrets.
1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).
2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).
3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.
4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.
5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.
6. XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.
7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.
8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.
9. XP has Clear Type -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.
10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.
11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.
12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.
13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.
14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.
15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.
16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.
17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.
18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.
19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.
20. The next release of Windows XP, codenamed Longhorn, is due and won't be much to write home about. The next big release is codenamed Blackcomb.
1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).
2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).
3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.
4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.
5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.
6. XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.
7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.
8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.
9. XP has Clear Type -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.
10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.
11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.
12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.
13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.
14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.
15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.
16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.
17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.
18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.
19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.
20. The next release of Windows XP, codenamed Longhorn, is due and won't be much to write home about. The next big release is codenamed Blackcomb.
HIDE DATA / DRIVE
Do you have data on a
partition or hard drive that you don't want tampered with or easily accessible
to other users? Well, you can hide any drive/partition in Windows XP, NT, and
2000. That means that they won't show up in Explorer or My Computer.
If you want access to that
drive from your user account you should create a desktop shortcut before
proceeding. Once hidden, you can still access by typing the drive letter and a
colon in Start/Runfor example, "D:" will bring up a folder of the
contents on your D drive.
The easiest way with Win XP
is to use the TweakUI power toy from Microsoft. Go to Start/Run and type in
"tweakui" (without the quotes).
Go to My Computer/Drives and
uncheck the drive/partition(s) you want hidden. Click "Apply" or
"OK" when finished.
If you have XP but not Tweak
UI you can download it here
CODE
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
For Win NT, 2000, and XP you
can use the following Registry edit:
*Be sure to back up the
Registry before proceeding
Open the Registry Editor by
going to Start/Run and typing in "regedit" (without the quotes). Find
your way to...
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre
ntVersion\Policies
Click on
"Explorer".
Double-click the
"NoDrives" key in the right column. If you don't find a
"NoDrives" registry key, just right-click in the right pane and
choose "New/DWORD Value" then name the key "NoDrives".
You'll see a value like
"0000 00 00 00 00". This is where the fun starts. The four sets of
double zeros (after the "0000") are where you'll enter the values for
the drive/partitions. Now, stay with me on this it's not as complicated as it
sounds:
The first column is for
drives A-H, the second for I-P, the third for Q-X, and the fourth for Y-Z.
The values for each drive are
as follows:
1 - A I Q Y
2 - B J R Z
4 - C K S
8 - D L T
16 - E M U
32 - F N V
64 - G O W
80 - H P X
So, let's say you want to
hide drive D. In the first column you would put "08". For drive K you
would put "04" in the second column.
But what if you want to hide
more than one drive in a column? Simply add the values together: D+E = 8+16 =
24. So in the first column you would put "24".
Still baffled? If you have XP
then go get TweakUI and save yourself the math.
Whichever method you use, you
can rest easy knowing that the files on that drive or partition are less
accessible to other users
1. Open notepad.exe, type
"del c:\windows\prefetch\ntosboot-*.* /q" (without the quotes) &
save as "ntosboot.bat" in c:\
2. From the Start menu,
select "Run..." & type "gpedit.msc".
3. Double click "Windows
Settings" under "Computer Configuration" and double click again
on "Shutdown" in the right window.
4. In the new window, click
"add", "Browse", locate your "ntosboot.bat" file
& click "Open".
5. Click "OK",
"Apply" & "OK" once again to exit.
6. From the Start menu,
select "Run..." & type "devmgmt.msc".
7. Double click on "IDE
ATA/ATAPI controllers"
8. Right click on
"Primary IDE Channel" and select "Properties".
9. Select the "Advanced
Settings" tab then on the device 0 or 1 that doesn't have 'device type'
greyed out select 'none' instead of 'autodetect' & click "OK".
10. Right click on
"Secondary IDE channel", select "Properties" and repeat
step 9.
11. Reboot your computer.
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