Windows XP Tweaks

Set the Search Screen to the Classic Look

imran — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:14:50 +0000

When I first saw the default search pane in Windows XP, my instinct was to return it to its classic look; that puppy had to go. Of course, I later discovered that a doggie door is built into the applet. Click “Change preferences” then “Without an animated screen character.” If you’d rather give it a bare-bones “Windows 2000″ look and feel, fire up your Registry editor and navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ CabinetState.

You may need to create a new string value labeled “Use Search Asst” and set it to “no”.

Set Permissions for Shared Files and Folders

imran — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:05:37 +0000

Sharing of files and folders can be managed in two ways. If you chose simplified file sharing, your folders can be shared with everyone on your network or workgroup, or you can make your folders private. (This is how folders are shared in Windows 2000.) However, in Windows XP Professional, you can also set folder permissions for specific users or groups. To do this, you must first change the default setting, which is simple file sharing. To change this setting, follow these steps:
•Open Control Panel, click Tools, and then click Folder Options.
•Click the View tab, and scroll to the bottom of the Advanced Settings list.
•Clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box.
•To manage folder permissions, browse to the folder in Windows Explorer, right–click the folder, and then click Properties. Click the Security tab, and assign permissions, such as Full Control, Modify, Read, and/or Write, to specific users.

You can set file and folder permissions only on drives formatted to use NTFS, and you must be the owner or have been granted permission to do so by the owner.

How to Remove Windows XP’s Messenger

imran — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:51:32 +0000

Theoretically, you can get rid of it (as well as a few other things). Windows 2000 power users should already be familiar with this tweak.

Fire up the Windows Explorer and navigate your way to the %SYSTEMROOT% \ INF folder. What the heck is that thingy with the percentage signs? It’s a variable. For most people, %SYSTEMROOT% is C:\Windows. For others, it may be E:\WinXP. Get it? Okay, on with the hack! In the INF folder, open sysoc.inf (but not before making a BACKUP copy first). Before your eyes glaze over, look for the line containing “msmsgs” in it. Near the end of that particular line, you’ll notice that the word “hide” is not so hidden. Go ahead and delete “hide” (so that the flanking commas are left sitting next to one another). Save the file and close it. Now, open the Add and Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel. Click the Add / Remove Windows Components icon. You should see “Windows Messenger” in that list. Remove the checkmark from its box, and you should be set. NOTE: there are other hidden system components in that sysoc.inf file, too. Remove “hide” and the subsequent programs at your own risk.

Remove invalid entries in Add/Remove Programs

admin0 — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:24:36 +0000

Sometimes when you uninstall a program, corresponding entry in the Add or Remove Programs listing may not be removed. This may be due to incomplete uninstall or poorly designed uninstaller itself. To manually remove the orphaned entries from theAdd or Remove Programs applet, follow these steps:

Click Start, Run and type regedit.exe
Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Uninstall

Backup the branch to a file

Note: Each subkey represents a program that you’ve installed. To determine which program that each key represents, click the key, and then view the DisplayName value data in the right pane

Select the subkey that you want to delete
Right-click on the subkey and choose Delete
Close Registry Editor

Manually crash Windows-XP

kami — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:15:14 +0000

Windows-XP has a “feature” (???) with which it is possible to manually crash a system by simply holding the right CTRL key and pressing the “Scroll Lock” key twice. This feature can be turned on by the following steps:

1. Start regedit. (If you are unfamiliar with regedit, please refer to this FAQ)
2. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters
3. Create a new DWORD value and name it CrashOnCtrlScroll
4. Right-click on this newly created value and click on Modify
5. Enter 1 in the Value data field and click on OK.
6. Close regedit and reboot your system.
7. Now you can blue screen (crash) your system by holding the right CTRL key and pressing “Scroll Lock” twice.

Note:

Your system may reboot or show a blue screen whenever this crash is initiated. If your system reboots after initiating the crash, and you want to see the blue screen, follow these steps:

1. Go to Control Panel > System
2. Click on the Advanced tab
3. Under Startup and Recovery, click the Settings button.
4. Under System failure, uncheck the option Automatically restart.

Happy crashing…

Making Your Own Admin Tool

kami — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:14:43 +0000

Create A Console:

Using the Management Console (click Start/Run and enter mmc.exe), you can build your own system management administrative components.

Add Components:

Create a new console by clicking File/New. Click Add/Remove Snap-in in the file menu, then click Add in the next window. Now choose which components to include.

A New Utility:

Now click OK, you can see it in the main view. Save it by pressing “Ctrl+S”, and name it. When you want to use your utility, just double-click on it or type its filename into Run.

Mac OS X - Like Large Icons Tasbar Dock

kami — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:14:26 +0000

You can turn your taskbar into an OS X-like dock by simply making the Quick Launch icons bigger:

1. Right click the taskbar and make sure that “Lock Taskbar” is not checked.
2. Enable the Quick Launch bar
3. Drag the Quick Launch bar onto the desktop
4. Right click inside the Quick Launch window and choose View>Large Icons
5. Drag the Quick Launch bar back into the taskbar
6. Voila! Put this together with certain Visual Styles and icon sets for some interesting effects.

Logitech keyboard and mouse

kami — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:14:11 +0000

I have a logitech keyboard and mouse, both are wireless, but im sure the same problem applies with the wired version too.

in games such as counter strike using the volume, play/pause, next track, prev track, mute, media…. keys on the top interfeer with the games controls. for example, every tiome u hit pause, u drop your gun.

the way arrround this is to download the official software for the keyboard and mouse, run and install it. the problem then goes away, but the software doesnt half get annoying with all its popups…

so…

dissable the program from startup by going into

start > run > msconfig > startup

remove the tick next to logitech iTouch

even though the program is dissabled, it no longer interfeers with other programs.

Lock Computer when Idle

kami — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:13:53 +0000

Go into c:\windows and create a new shortcut.

for the path of what you want the shortcut to be, paste this…

%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

click next

rename it (ex. sysdll) make it sound important, because it is after all going to make your PC more secure.

click finish

now goto control panel>scheduled tasks

double click add scheduled task

click next

at the next screen, click browse

browse to your new shortcut… (ex. c:\windows\sysdll.ink)

select it

pick daily and then click next

click next

type in a pw for your scheduled task
confirm

click next

click finish

now double click on the new scheduled task you just made

click the schedule tab

under scedule task: select When Idle

enter in how long you want your computer to go before it gets locked

click ok

your all set… it’s a nice little trick, and it beats the hell out of a screensaver password.

Litestep -l ike navigation in Windows

kami — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:13:32 +0000

Probably one of my most valuable tweaks which I discovered completely by accident.

This tweak makes use of the (much under utilized/ under appreciated/despised) links folder within favorites.

1)Right click on your bottom taskbar, select toolbars and choose links.
2)drag the links partition OFF the taskbar (hold mouse down over the toolbar and drag it off)
3)This will create a menu/folder view of links. Right click on this folder and choose to open folder. Get rid of all the existing junk links in here. Create a new folder in here and put either valuable links or shortcuts to applications/software inside. Add shortcuts to apps directly in the links folder. Close this folder when done.
4)Drag the links menu/folder to either the top of the screen or to either side. This will dock the menu.
5)Right click on your new docked toolbar and select view->small icons, check always on top and auto-hide (as desired)

This creates a new navigation menu with drop down menus that you can access by moving ur mouse to the left/right side of the screen.

note 1 - Shortcuts to folders will launch that folder in a new window as opposed to displaying a drop down menu

note 2 - you can create new toolbars and dock them to the other side of windows however the drop down feature only works within the links folder. If you figure out how to enable this within any toolbar please post. If you figure out how to make these navigation bars transparant (in xp) let me know.