Computer Tips n Tricks

You may have noticed that everytime you open my computer to browse folders that there is a slight delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers everytime you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing significantly:
1. Open My Computer
2. Click on Tools menu
3. Click on Folder Options
4. Click on the View tab.
5. Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and printers check box
6. Click Apply
7. Click Ok
8. Reboot your computer

1) Click Start, Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC
2) Go to Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, System.
3) Locate the entry for Turn autoplay off and modify it as you desire

1) Hold down the 'Windows' Key and Press the 'Pause/Break' button at the top right of your keyboard.
Another way is Right-Clicking 'My Computer' and then Select 'Properties'.

2) Click on the 'Advanced' tab.

3) Under 'Performance', click 'Settings'.

4) Then click the 'Advanced' tab on the button that pops up.

5) Under 'Virtual Memory' at the bottom, click 'Change'.

6) Click the 'Custom Size' button.

7) For the initial size (depending on your HD space), type in anywhere from 1000-1500 (although I use 4000), and for the Maximum size type in anywhere from 2000-2500 (although I use 6000).

8) Click 'Set', and then exit out of all of the windows.

9) Finally, Restart your computer.

10) You now have a faster computer and 1-2GB of Virtual RAM..!

here is a trick to convert ur
TEXT to VOICE without any
software.
­
­
steps are
­
>go to run
­
>type
Control speech
­
>write any text
it will be converted to voice
­
­

1. INSTALLER MUSIC :Start>run>"c:\\windows\system32\oobe\images\title.wma">hit enter

2. HIBERNATE :Start>turn off computer>press shift key to change the "Stand By" button to hibernate

3. HIDDEN DEVICES :Control pannel >system>hardware>device manager>select "view" and show hidden device

4. CHARACTER MAP :Start>run>"charmap.exe">ok

5. CLIPBOARD VIEWERS :Start>run>"clipbrd.exe">ok

6. Dr. WATSON :Start>run>"drwtsn32.exe">ok

7. IEXPREE WIZARD :Start>run>"iexpress.exe">ok

8. WINDOW MEDIA PLAYER 5.1 :Start>run>"mplay32.exe">ok

8. WINDOW MEDIA PLAYER 6.4 :Start>run>"mplayer2.exe">ok

9. ODBC DATA SOURCE ADMINIS. :Start>run>"odbcad32.exe">ok

10.OBJECT PACKAGER :Start>run>"packager.exe">ok

11.SYATEM MONITOR :Start>run>"perfmon.exe">ok

12.NTW SHARE FOLDER WIZARD :Start>run>"shrpuwb.exe:>ok

13.FILE SIGNATURE VERI. TOOL :Start>run>"sigverif.exe">ok

14.SYS CONFIGURATION EDITOR :Start>run>"sysedit.exe">ok

15.DRIVER VERIFIER MANAGER :Start>run>"verifier.exe">ok

16.WINDOWS 4 WORKGROUP CHAT :Start>run>"winchat.exe">ok

17.PRIVAET CHRACTER OR GRAPHIC EDITOR :Start>run>:eudcedit">ok

18.ADD OR REMOVE PROGRAMS :Start>run>:appwiz.cpl">ok

19.DIRECT X DIAGANOSIS :Start>run>:dxdiag">ok

Log in to an account having administrative privilages.

1. Go to
2. type this will open your group policy object editor
3. choose
4. In the setting search for prevent access to registry editing tools
5. Double click on it .. You will get another window where you can configure access to registry editing tools
6. choose disable/Enable option.
7. Apply and save your setting and try opening "regedit" again

Method to Remove Task Manager has been disabled by your Administrator


You have to use Group Policy Editor for Windows XP Professional

• Click Start>Run>type gpedit.msc and click OK.
• Navigate to this line:

User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> System >> Ctrl+Alt+Delete Options >> Remove Task Manager

• Double-click the Remove Task Manager option.
• Set the policy to “Not Configured”.

you know, there is a hidden music in Windows XP that you have never heard..

To hear this sound, first of all go to Folder Options and under the "View" tab, check "Show hidden files and folder" and uncheck "Hide protected system files".

Now navigate to the drive where Windows XP is installed.So if C:\ is the drive where Windows XP is installed, goto

C:\WINDOWS\system32\oobe\images

There you will find a file Title.wma.Open in with media player and listen to it.

Windows XP makes it easy for you to configure My Computer so it works like a menu, with
each drive listed as a menu item. Here's how

Right-click the Start button, and select Properties.Click Customize, which is adjacent to the Start Menu radio button, and selectAdvanced. Scroll through the Start Menu Items list box until you see My Computer. SelectDisplay As A Menu, and click OK twice. Now, when you select My Computer from the Start menu, you'll see a menu of individual drives. To access the contents of that drive, just select the drive letter from the menu

* Make sure the BIOS is set to boot from the CD (put the CD above the HD in the boot order)

* Insert the XP CD and boot to it

* When you see " To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER", go ahead and press ENTER

* You will now see an option to repair Windows by pressing "R". Do not select this option - it will only take you to the Recovery Console which is not what we want to do. Instead, choose to continue the installation

* When you see the license agreement, press F8 to agree

* On the next screen make sure your current XP installation is selected and then press "R" to repair XP

* At this point XP will begin to install on top of itself, replacing damaged, missing or altered system files. Follow the instructions on the remaining screens to complete the Repair Install. It will look very much like a normal (new) OS installation.

If all goes well your repaired XP installation will remain iintact, keeping your personalized settings and installed programs as they originally were. Remember, choose the second repair option, not the first.

When using 3rd party burning software (eg, Nero Burning Rom) to copy audio
CD,some noise may be heard at the end of each track. To prevent this,try the
following method:

1. Enter System Properties\device manager

2. Select IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers

3. Double click on thee CD writer IDE channel

4. Select advance setting

Go to run and type "services.msc".

A list of background services will be displayed and clicking on each will display a brief description. Here is a list of services you can disable if you have a standalone computer:

1.Computer Browser.
2.Messenger.
3.Net Logon.
4.Net meeting remote desktop share.
5.Performance logs and alerts.
6.Network provisioning service.
7.Qos RSVP.
8.Remote desktop help.
9.Remote Registry.
10.TCP/IP netbios helper service.
11.Terminal Services.
12.Wireless Zero Configuration.
13.Smart Card.

Open Control Panel ->
Regional and Language Options ->
Customize ->
Time
here u can see A.M. and P.M. change it with u r name.

Step 1:Open Ms Paint.

Step 2:Open your Video player.

Step 3:Click on the Print screen Button on your keyboard.

Step 4:In Ms Paint us the shortcut ctrl+v or got to the Edit Tab and choose Paste option.

Step 5:Bingo!!!!No step 5.The movie is playing.


Note:
This works only with Ms Paint.

For the movie to play in Paint the video player should not be closed and the movie should not be paused in the player.

When you search for a file in Windows Windows searches only for file types it
recognizes. Files that aren't listed in the 'Registered file types' list are ignored.
Fortunately, a simple edit of the Registry will make Windows search for every file,
regardless of its extension. Open the Registry Editor as described above, and then
navigate to and select:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex.
Double-click the FilterFilesWithUnknownExtensions icon in the right pane, change
the 0 in the 'Value data' box to 1, and press Enter.

To ensure that Windows XP searches for every possible file, select All Files and
Folders under 'Type of file' in the Search Companion pane. (If you don't see this
option, click More Advanced Options.) Check Search system folders, Search hidden
files and folders, and Search subfolders (as desired). In Windows 2000, click Search
Options, check Type, and make sure that (All Files and Folders) is selected in the
resulting drop-down menu. Check Advanced Options, and make sure Search
Subfolders is checked. Finally, to ensure that Windows 2000 finds system and hidden
files, choose Tools, Folder Options and click the View tab. In the 'Advanced settings'
list, select Show hidden files and folders. Uncheck Hide protected operating system
files (Recommended), click Yes to acknowledge the warning, and finish by clicking
OK.

If you just switched to a wide-screen monitor, your desktop wallpaper image may no
longer look right, or maybe you just want to make a small adjustment to it.
For more-granular control of your wallpaper's placement, highlight the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\desktop
Double-click the WallpaperOriginX icon in the right pane. (If you don't see this icon,
right-click in this pane, choose New, String Value, type WallpaperOriginX to name
the value, and press .) Type a number (in pixels) for the starting horizontal
position of your wallpaper's left edge, and press . Now double-click the
WallpaperOriginY icon (create it if necessary as explained above) and enter a number
for the starting vertical position of the image's top edge. If your wallpaper image is
larger than the screen, type a negative number (for example, -200) to push the
picture's top or left edge off the screen.

To test the effect, first minimize the Registry Editor (and any other open window),
right-click the desktop, choose Properties, and click OK or Apply to refresh the
wallpaper placement. Repeat these steps as needed until the wallpaper is positioned
correctly.The settings work whether you've set your wallpaper to be centered, tiled, or
stretched.

Go to Start then Run
Type 'Regedit' then click 'Ok'
Find "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\"
Select "MenuShowDelay"
Right click and select "Modify'
Reduce the number to around "100"
This is the delay time before a menu is opened. You can set it to "0" but it can make windows really hard to use as menus will open if you just look at them - well move your mouse over them anyway. I tend to go for anywhere between 50-150 depending on my mood.

It really works
There is a way to get the xp product code from the cd
just explorer the cd then
open the folder I386
then open the file UNATTEND.TXT and
scroll down to the last line
and it goes to show what microsoft are u have a product code.
Have fun u never need to search for a product code for xp again...!!!!

The bad thing about Recent Documents History is that Windows XP has to calculate
what should be put there each time you boot Windows, which can slow things down.
1. Open the Registry Editor (select Start/Run, type regedit, and click OK).
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mcft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer.
3. Create a NoRecentDocsHistory D_WORD key. Double-click the value to open it
once it is created.
4. Set the Data Value to 1 to enable the restriction.
5. Click OK and close the Registry Editor. You'll need to restart the computer for the
change to take effect

Useful Windows XP Tips, Tweaks, Walkthroughs and Shortcuts :)

1. Total Uptime:
It boasts how long it can stay up. 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.

2. Delete Files Immediately:
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.

3. Lock XP:
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. Remove System Software:
XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can make it show 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 the software and you can now uninstall it.
5. Interesting New Commands:
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.

6. IP Version 6 Support:
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.

7. Task Termination:
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. ZIP Files as Folders:
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 alone by typing ‘regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll’ at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can change things back by typing ‘regsvr32 zipfldr.dll’.

9. XP Has ClearType:
XP has ClearType — 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. Remote Assistance:
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 friend’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. User Task Management:
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. Disable Default Notifications:
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 go insane 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. Faster Startup:
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. Delete Temp Internet Files Automatically:
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. Network Activity Light:
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. Speed-Up Your Start Menu:
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. Batch Rename Files:
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. Album Cover Arts:
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. Handy Shortcut Keys:
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. Windows File Protection:
Windows XP secretly KNOWS that the average user has no idea what they are doing. Therefore, it doesn’t let you do really stupid things like deleting the windows directory (at least not without spending several hours convincing it that you REALLY want to do this).

In IE you can use Alt + D key combination to highlight the address bar. This allows you to
enter a URL without the mouse click. This will be helpful for the laptop users who find it
uneasy to use their touchpad every time they want to type a URL.

You can login with multiple ID's on the same yahoo messenger.Follow these steps : ==>>* Go to Start ==> Run ==>> Type regedit,hit enter * Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER ==>> Software ==>> Yahoo ==>> pager ==>>Test* On the right pane ==>> right-click and choose new Dword value .* Rename it as Plural.* Double click and assign a decimal value of 1.* Now close registry and restart yahoo messenger.* For signing in with new id open another messenger .

1. Right-click on the desktop
2. Select New
3. Select Shortcut
4. Paste this into the text box:"c:\program files\google\google talk\googletalk.exe" /nomutex(dont miss even a comma)
5. Click Next
6. Name it whatever: Google Talk Multiple, etc.
7. Click OK until you are done.

Click START,* Run,* Type "regedit"--->in HKEY_CURRENTUSER,double click control panel,[right side],desktop,hung application timeout,right click'modify',make value to 1000,then click OK.On Right side:right click "menu show delay",make it 80.Then on right side,right click on"waytokillapptimeout" modify,change value from 20000 to 3000.

1. Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. Scrolldown and look for the following entries:
browser.tabs.showSingleWindowModePrefs – truenetwork.http.max-connections – 48network.http.max-connections-per-server – 16network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy – 8network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server – 4network.http.pipelining – truenetwork.http.pipelining.maxrequests – 100network.http.proxy.pipelining – truenetwork.http.request.timeout – 300
Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time.When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which reallyspeeds up page loading.
Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer.Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0".This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it recieves.
If you're using a brodband connection you'll load pages 2-25 times faster now.

Logon wallpaper is the wallpaper or image that windows xp shows on screen when windows logs on (before it asks for username & password) . It’s usually set to the image-logo of the brand(manufacturer) of our computer (e.g. in compaq laptops). Now we can set it to our own image or any other image(any bmp file) by following trick.
Open Startmenu->Run type regedit and press ok to open registry editor.(shows a tree like structure of directories at left)
In that hierarchical structure in left, navigate to registry entryHKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop
In right side pane see a number of values placed in a table format. choose the value named Wallpaper from there and double click it. Now you see a box with value name as Wallpaper and value data as Path to the image file .There give the full path of the image(bmp file) which you want to set as logon wallpaper by deleting previous path and writing path to your bmp file e.g. C:\WINDOWS\lon.BMP (to set image lon.BMP file as log on wall paper).
Also double click on WallpaperStyle and change it’s value to 2 to get a stretched wallpaper at logon.
Put that bmp file in windows directory for better results.If that is a jpeg file, convert to bmp file by opening in Windows Image Viewer and save as bmp.

Microsoft reserves 20% of your available bandwidth for their own purposes like Windows Updates and interrogating your PC etc

You can 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.

Suppose you want to lock the folder movies in d: which has the path D:\movies.In the same drive create a text file and type
ren movies movies.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
Now save this text file as loc.bat
Create another text file and type in it
ren movies.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} movies
Now save this text file as key.bat

This is a great trick you can play on your friends. To disable the display of local or networked drives when you click My Computer.
1.Go to start->run.Type regedit.Now go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Now in the right pane create a new DWORD item and name it NoDrives(it is case sensitive). Now modify it's value and set it to 3FFFFFF (Hexadecimal) .Now restart your computer. So, now when you click on My Computer, no drives will be shown(all gone...). To enable display of drives in My Computer, simply delete this DWORD item that you created.Again restart your computer.You can now see all the drives again....

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.

Here's how you can remove those shortcut arrows from your desktop icons in Windows XP.

1. Go to registry by clicking on Start menu -> run and type regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT -> lnkfile
or
Press CTRL+F and then at the search box type lnkfile and search.
3. Delete the IsShortcut registry value.

You may need to restart Windows XP.

In run type regedit

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft \ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer

In the right side box, right click -> new -> DWORD Value

Give it the name ThumbnailSize

Right click on ThumbnailSize and click modify.

Now change the value data to any number between 20 to 100 (in hexadecimal) or between 32 to 256 (in decimal).

Done .. !! Your thumbnail size will change as your desired size.

Open the Chat Window of the User, you want to check the status for.

Click on option and click on "Go Off the Record".
Send a Message to User.
If you get "User is offline and can't receive messages" writen in red color, that means a User is actually offline.
But if you get nothing in response, know that a User is online and in Invisible mode

create a folder without any name...

just type these codes while renaming the folder n press enter once...

alt+0160
OR
alt+255

Now time to hide the folder, to hide a folder first select the folder then right click and go to properties, in properties select the change icon option ...now u can c a lot of folder icon.(C:\Windows\system32\imageres.dll)..u look for a blank icon select any of the 3 blank icon. click ok then apply u will c invisible folder...(now with no name and no icon too..secret)