Hacking Windows Explorer on windows vista

 Hacking Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer is one of the most used components of Windows Vista. Every time you go to My Computer and browse through files on your computer, you are using Explorer. Using the icons on the desktop, right-clicking on files and folders, and copying and pasting files are all examples of using the features that Explorer provides.

Many of the features that Windows Explorer provides can be easily customized to make your Windows experiences even better. This chapter will show you how you can change many of the features and how to take advantage of some of the new, lesser known features. It begins by showing you how you can customize the layout of the new Explorer interface. By the end of this chapter, you will have completely customized the Explorer features that enable you to browse through and create files on your computer.

Customizing Window Layout

Explorer in Windows Vista includes various new panes, including Details, Preview, and Navigation, that provide a wealth of new information that might change the way you use Windows Explorer. By default, all the new panels are turned on, which gives a cluttered feeling to the Explorer interface. Personally, I like to get rid of the panes that I don't use in order to speed up and streamline my Explorer windows. In addition to the new panels, Explorer includes many other new features, such as the Favorites section and the ability to search subfolders. The next few sections will show you how you can customize all of these.

Customizing Panes

The panes on the Explorer window are located on all sides of the window. Figure 5-1 shows a typical Explorer window with all panes visible.

Figure 5-1: Windows Explorer's panes

As shown in Figure 5-1, the Navigation pane is on the left, Details is on the bottom, and Preview is on the right. Each pane offers a different array of features that can either help your Explorer experience or clutter it up. Let's dive into customizing each of the different panes and hack up Explorer to make it work the way you want.

The Navigation pane

The Navigation pane in Windows Explorer is divided into two key areas of information: Favorite Links and the Folders sections. You can think of the Favorite Links section as a sticky dock that you can drag any folder onto to create a shortcut for accessing it in the future. This allows you to quickly access your common folder very easily at the expense of file browsing space and making your Explorer window look cluttered.

The Folder section, which is collapsed by default, offers a tree-driven interface that resembles the classic Windows Explorer that was in previous versions of Windows. The primary benefit of the Folder section is the ability to quickly jump between locations without having to go all the way back to My Computer to restart your navigation. Now that you know the basics, let's customize everything on the Navigation pane.

Adding and removing favorite links

You can manage your Favorite Links section in two different ways. The easiest is to simply drag and drop folders and saved searches onto the Favorites Links section to add them to the list. You can then remove items by right-clicking them from the list and selecting Remove Link. Alternatively, you can navigate to the Favorite Links folder that is located at C:\Users \Username \Links. There, you can easily copy and paste multiple folders or shortcuts at once to be added to the Favorite Links section.

Using Folders View

The Folders view section is collapsed by default in Windows Vista. You can easily pop it open by clicking the up arrow on the Folders bar or by dragging the top of the bar up. If you do not like the Favorite Links section, you can drag the top of the Folders bar all the way to the top of the window so that it completely covers the entire Favorite Links section. I like to do this because it gives me a lot of extra space to browse through the navigation tree and removes some extra clutter from the interface.

Removing the Navigation pane

If you want to have a super clean interface and have no use for the Favorite Links and Folders sections, you can easily remove the entire pane from view. Follow these steps to disable this view for your windows:

1. While a folder is open and showing the Navigation pane, click Organize on the toolbar.

2. Select Layout and then Navigation Pane. This will remove the entire left-side pane.

When you close the active window, the changes are saved to the Registry.

The Details pane

The Details pane, located at the bottom of the Explorer window, provides information on a file or folder when one is selected. Similar to the classic status bar in Explorer, the Details pane displays common information (such as the size of a file) but goes beyond that by also showing many other file settings. The actual contents of the Details pane depend on the type of file you have selected. For example, if you have selected a Word document, the Details pane will show the date modified, author, tags, size, title, comments, category, number of pages, status, content type, and offline availability. If you selected an image, it will show you a thumbnail preview as well as the date it was taken, tags, your star rating, dimensions, file size, title, author, and even the camera manufacturer.

The Details pane has proven to be a valuable source of information that can really help you tag and rate your personal documents, images, and music. Without the Details pane, setting all these values would be much more difficult.

Now that you know what the Details pane offers, you are ready to customize the look or remove it completely. You can customize the size of the Details pane simply by dragging the top border up or down. You can also right-click it and select Size and then Small, Medium, or Large. If you are not interested in using the Details pane at all, I suggest removing it completely to save screen real estate and create a cleaner Explorer interface. Just right-click the pane and select Hide Details Pane.

If you choose to remove the Details pane, I recommend turning on the original status bar so that you have some indicator of how many items you have selected and a quick and easy way to get file sizes. To do this, press Alt on the keyboard to bring up the classic menu bar, click View, and then select Status Bar.

The Preview pane

The Preview window is the one pane that is turned off by default in most folders but can be very useful for browsing through an image collection or screening your MP3 files. When you are browsing through your music collection and select an MP3 file, the Preview pane shows a picture of the song's album and mini audio controls to play and sample the song. When you select an image file, a large thumbnail of the photo is displayed. Unfortunately, you can't customize much on this pane. You can adjust the width by clicking and dragging the left border left or right when the preview pane is turned on. Turn it on and off by clicking Organize, selecting layout, and then clicking Preview Pane.

Microsoft hopes that over time more companies write preview filters that work with Explorer so that you can see their file contents previewed on the Preview pane.

Hacking Search

One of the most useful new features in Windows Vista is the Search box that is in every Explorer window and many of the other built-in applications. This Search box enables you to easily sort through your files like never before. Looking for all text files in a folder? Just type *.txt into the Search box and press Enter. Almost instantly you will begin to see a list of all text files in the current directory you are viewing.

Looking for all Word documents that reference a specific company or person? Just go to your Documents folder and search for the name and press Enter. Windows Search will look at the filenames but it will also search the contents of your files. This is possible because Windows Search has built-in readers for many of the most popular file types.

As you can see, Windows Search is a comprehensive search solution compared to the prior search options in Windows XP. With the addition of this new search system comes the ability to customize searches even more than ever before. Various search settings are hidden deep in various windows and will help you customize the way searching works for you.

Adjusting Scope

Every time you perform a search, the results are based on the scope, the folders, and types of files the search software looks in. Depending on the scope settings you have enabled, the results of your search can be drastically different. These next two settings will help you fine-tune what and how the search software searches, and then you will fine-tune the indexing service to index the files you want to be indexed for speedy searches.

Customizing what and how to search

You can find all the "where to look" settings for Windows Search on the Folder and Search Options window in Windows Explorer. Follow these steps to customize where Windows Search looks:

1. Open Windows Explorer to a folder you want to modify the search settings for, click Organize, and select Folder and Search Options.

2. Click the Search tab, as shown in Figure 5-2.

   
   

   

   igure 5-2: Windows Explorer search options

3. On the Search tab, you will see three separate sections. First, let's work with the What to search section. Here you can specify if you would like the search software to use the indexing service's data or if you would like it to check all the data it is searching on-the-fly. By default, Windows Search will search both filenames and contents of indexed files and just filenames of files not in the index. This works well for most users but if you don't care about file contents or don't want to use the indexer at all, experiment with the other options.

4. Now let's configure how searches are performed in the next section, How to search. Here you can choose from four different settings: the ability to search subfolders, report results with partial matches, turn on natural language searches, and disable searching from the index.

   The two settings here that you really want to pay attention to are the subfolder search and natural language search options. These features are usually the two that I tweak the most. First, to speed up searches, I uncheck searching subfolders. I also turn on the natural language search option so that I can perform easier searches. For example, if I want to find e-mails from a person, I normally have to type Kind:email from:person in the Search box. When I turn on natural language search, however, I can type email from person instead and get the same results.

5. The final section-When searching non-indexed locations-specifies what to do with compressed files and system folders that are not indexed or when index search is turned off. I leave these blank to speed up searches, but I strongly suggest that you do not turn on the compressed file option; it will cause your searches to take forever and make your hard drive go crazy with activity.

6. When you are finished tweaking the search options, press OK to save your changes. You might have to reboot for all settings to start working.

Customizing the indexing service

The indexing service runs in the background and reads and indexes your files when your computer is idle to speed up searches. This works by reading all the files and storing search keywords and other information in a single database that can be easily read instead of having to read all the file information again every time you perform a search.

In Windows Vista, the scope of the indexing service is limited to the user folders by default. If you use search a lot, you might want to tweak the folders and types of files that are indexed. The following steps will help you customize which folders are indexed as well as the file types so that you can control what is indexed and what is not.

1. Click the Start button, type Performance Information in the Search box, and then press Enter. Select Performance Information and Tool when it appears on the top of the list.

2. After Performance Information and Tools loads, click Adjust Indexing Options on the left menu. When Indexing Options loads, you will see all the locations the indexing service is currently monitoring.

3. Now you should see the Indexing Options window. First, tweak where the indexer looks. Click Modify and then Show All Locations on the Indexed Locations window. Next, navigate through the list of your drives and folders and simply check the boxes for the folders you want to be indexed. When you are finished, press OK and the indexer goes to work indexing the new locations.

4. Modify the file types that the indexer indexes. This can be done back on the Indexing Options window. This time, click the Advanced button and then click on the File Types tab.

5. Scroll through the list of file extensions and select the file type that you would like to modify. Then, check the box and pick how the file should be indexed in the section below. If your file type is not listed, type the file extension in the box at the bottom of the window, as shown in Figure 5-3, and press Add new extension.

   
   

   Figure 5-3: Adding additional file extensions to be indexed

6. When you are finished, press OK and then Close to exit the indexing options.

Because the indexing service runs only when the computer is idle, it may take up to a few hours before your new files, folders, and file types are added into the index and show up in the search results.

Customizing the Look of the Startup

Customizing the Look of the Startup
Windows Vista has a great new look, but after a while, the new look can get old. With the help of some cool tools and tricks, you can customize many components of Windows Vista.

This chapter guides you through customizing two parts of your computer: the boot screen and the Welcome/Logon screen. I show you how to replace the boring boot screen and even how to activate a hidden boot screen.

Then this chapter moves on to a discussion of customizing the second part of your computer startup, the Welcome/Logon screen. This screen can be customized in several ways, such as customizing the user pictures and various settings that will allow you to increase your privacy and change the way the Logon screen behaves. I even show you how to change your Logon screen background.

Customizing the Boot Screen
Every time I turn on my computer, I am forced to stare at the boring Windows boot screen. I must admit that I found the moving bars amusing at first, but after a few months I became bored and wanted something different. Changing the boot screen is not something that Microsoft made easy; however, it is still possible with a few cool hacks.

Activating the hidden boot screen
Over the several years that Windows Vista was in the planning stages and in development, many promises were made about new features and enhancements. One of those promises had to do with high-resolution boot screens. This was going to be a great feature replacing the ancient 256-color boot screen that has been with Windows since Windows 95. Over time, as development of Vista was slipping behind schedule and developers were plagued with hardware compatibility problems with the high-resolution boot screen code, the feature was pulled from the final product.

Although this feature never made it into the released version of Windows Vista, there appears to be some parts of it left in the system. This section shows you a cool trick that will enable a hidden boot screen that looks like it was part of the high-resolution feature, as shown in Figure 1-1. It is nothing super fancy or elegant, but it sure is better than the boring boot screen that Vista shipped with, which looks like it is missing the Vista logo.


Figure 1-1: Hidden boot screen in Windows Vista
Before we proceed, note that some users have problems with using the hidden boot screen-possibly the reason why Microsoft hid it in the first place. If you are one of those users, simply boot into Safe mode and undo the steps for enabling the boot screen. Unfortunately, it is not currently known exactly what hardware has problems with the hidden boot screen. When you are ready, follow these steps to enable this boot screen on your PC:

Click the Start button, type msconfig in the Search box, and then press Enter.

When the System Configuration Utility loads, click the Boot tab.

Locate the No GUI boot box and select it, as shown in Figure 1-2.


Figure 1-2: Using the System Configuration utility to enable the hidden boot screen

Click OK and reboot your computer.

You should see the hidden boot screen after you reboot your PC. As I mentioned earlier, if you have problems with the hidden boot screen, just boot into Safe mode (hold down F8 when you boot up) and remove the check from the No GUI Boot box.

Customizing the boot screen image
The alternative boot screen that you just enabled in the preceding section is a great improvement compared to the boring moving progress bar that shows by default. However, this is still not good enough. With the help of a few cool tricks, you can create your own high-resolution, 24-bit boot screen without hacking any system files.

How is that possible? Thanks to the new language-independent operating system components in Windows Vista, some resources are stored in regional language files rather than the actual system components. This allows Microsoft to easily create a localized version of Windows Vista in any language by just creating new MUI (multilingual user interface) files that contain localized versions of bitmaps and text. Because MUI files are not digitally signed by Microsoft, you can make your own that has your own boot screen image in it, which allows you to customize the alternative boot screen to use any image you desire.

This new feature in Windows Vista provides a great enhancement and alternative to the traditional method of hacking system files as you had to do in previous versions of Windows to do things such as changing the boot screen. In addition, there is a great tool developed by Dan Smith called the Vista Boot Logo Generator that will automatically compile the boot images you select into an MUI file. This makes the overall process simple compared to trying to change boot screens, as you did in the past.

To get started, you need two images, one 800 × 600 and one 1024 × 768 image, both saved as 24-bit bitmap images. When you have those images picked out, resized, and saved, you are ready to follow these steps:

Visit http://www.computa.co.uk/staff/dan/?p=18 and download the latest copy of the Vista Boot Logo Generator and install it.

Click the Start button, type vista boot logo, and press Enter.

After the boot logo is downloaded, click the Browse for Images button in the 800 × 600 section and select your 800 × 600 24-bit bitmap image. Do the same for the 1024 × 768 section.

After you have both images selected, click File and select Save Boot Screen file as to save your MUI file. Save it to your desktop.

Next you need to replace the winload.exe.mui file located in c:\windows\system32\en-us with the file you just created. However, it is not as easy as a simple copy and paste because the Windows system files are protected. First, I recommend making a backup of the existing winload.exe.mui file so that you can copy it back if you have problems later. To get around the file protections, you need to take ownership of all the files in the en-us folder. Right-click the en-us folder and select Properties.

Select the Security tab and then click the Advanced button at the bottom of the window.

Select the Owner tab, and then click the Edit button.

Select your account from the Account list and check Replace owner on subcontainers and objects. Click OK to apply your changes.

Click OK to exit all the open Properties windows. You need to go back into the folder properties to change the file permissions. This time you will have more rights because you are now the folder owner. Right-click en-us and select Properties again.

Click the Security tab, and this time click Edit.

Click the Add button. Type in your username and click OK. Your account name should now appear on the Permissions list.

Select your account, and then select the Allow column for Full control, as shown in Figure 1-3.

Figure 1-3: Giving your account full control over the en-us MUI files to change the boot screen

Click OK to save your changes and OK once more to close the Properties screen. You will now be able to copy the winload.exe.mui file you made and saved to your desktop to c:\windows\system32\en-us. After you copy the file and reboot, you should see your new boot screen.

If you do not see your new boot screen and instead see the progress bar, make sure that you turned on the alternative boot screen as shown in the previous section. If you have any problems with your new boot screen MUI file, you can always boot using your Windows Vista install CD into a command prompt and can copy back the old winload.exe.mui file.

Kill or Configure Windows Aero

Now those of you that have used the high end editions of Windows Vista, already know that the operating system is a tad slower than Windows XP. Responsible for the slow speeds is in par Windows Aero. Even on configurations that satisfy the systems requirements of Aero, there is a trade-off between the special effects and the actual functionality. In this case, there is also a direct impact on the workflow.

Windows Aero can be turned off by navigating to Personalize via the right-click menu on the desktop and the View Color and Appearance > Open classic appearance properties for more color options. In the menu that pops up, users can select Windows Vista Basic graphical user interface. 

Additionally, you can right-click Computer and select Properties and then Advanced System Settings in the left menu followed by Performance Settings. You can set up your Windows Vista system for best appearance versus best performance or even customize the effects you want enabled or disabled. 

Turning on the Administrator account is straight forward. First, open an 

Unlock the Administrator account

Unlock the Administrator account

Turning on the Administrator account is straight forward. First, open an elevated command prompt by typing cmd into the Search box on the Start menu, right-clicking the command prompt icon that appears at the top of the Start menu, then selecting Run as administrator.

Then enter this command and press Enter:

Net user administrator or active:yes

From now on, the Administrator account will appear as an option on the Welcome screen, along with any user accounts you may have set up. Use it like any other account. Be aware that it won't have a password yet, so it's a good idea to set a password for it.

If you want to disable the account and hide it, enter this command at an elevated command prompt and press Enter:

Net user administrator /active:no

Tweak Windows Vista even more for free with TweakVI, click the image below for details.

Change The Default Location For Installing Applications

-----------------------------------------------

As the size of hard drives increase, more people are using partitions to separate and store groups of files.

XP uses the C:\Program Files directory as the default base directory into which new programs are installed. However, you can change the default installation drive and/ or directory by using a Registry hack.

Go to :-

- Start > Run

- Type “regedit” (without “” NOOBS!)

- Go to this directory…

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

- Look for the value named ProgramFilesDir. by default,this value will be C:\Program Files. Edit the value to any valid drive or folder and XP will use that new location as the default installation directory for new programs.

how to back up registry

Before you edit the registry, export the keys in the registry that you plan to edit, or back up the whole registry. If a problem occurs, you can then follow the steps how-to restore the registry to its previous state.

How to Export Registry Keys

Click Start, and then click Run.

In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.

On the File menu, click Export.

In the Save in box, select the boxs at the bottom the bottom according to weather you want to export all or only selected branches of the registry.

Next select a location in which to save the backup .reg file. In the File name box, type a file name, and then click Save.

How to Restore the Registry

To restore registry keys that you exported, double-click the .reg file that you saved. 

windows vista Top 10 Tips & Tricks

Security & Protection

1 .Overall Security

All of your computer’s security needs are now bundled in

one easy-to-find, easy-to-monitor location. The Windows

Security Center helps make your PC more secure by alerting

you when your security software is out of date or when your

security settings should be strengthened. The Security

Center also tells you whether your PC is set up to receive

automatic software updates from Microsoft. Windows Vista,

along with Internet Explorer 7, contains many security

features to safeguard you and your organization from

threats, while keeping your intellectual property protected.

2

Windows Defender

One of the key tools in the Security Center is Windows

Defender. It works with Internet Explorer 7 to help protect

your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and

security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted

software, often defined as malware. By leveraging superior

platform enhancements in Windows Vista, which include

improved caching technology for faster scans and removal

technologies, using up-to-date spyware definitions created

by Microsoft, Windows Defender provides an always-on

protection that monitors key system locations, watching for

changes that signal the presence of spyware. The "Scan on

execute" functionality provides an added layer of Protection

by scanning downloaded files before they are saved and

executed, reducing the chance that spyware

might be installed by accident.

3

BitLocker

BitLocker Drive Encryption protects the information stored

on your computer from hackers or thieves who might obtain

access to your machine. It is a full disk encryption feature

included with Microsoft's Windows Vista designed to protect

data by providing encryption for entire volumes. By

encrypting the entire Windows system volume, data is better

protected. Ideally a v1.2 Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip

is the preferred method of encryption key storage. BitLocker

Drive Encryption is tightly integrated into Windows Vista and

provides a seamless, secure, and manageable data

protection solution for you.

4

Automated Backup

The new backup and restore functionality in Windows Vista

makes it easier to keep your data and computer safe from

user error, hardware failure, and any other issue that could

result in data loss. The Windows Backup and Restore Center

gives you one place to manage all backup and restore

features. Two particularly useful Automatic Backup features

are the ability to do a scheduled backup and the ability to

back up your files to an external hard drive, secondary hard

drive, writable CD or DVD, or to a network location.

Search & Organize

5

Instant Search

Looking for specific applications, Web sites, and e-mails is

faster than ever with the streamlined Windows Vista Start

Menu. To find a specific application or file, click the Windows

key on the keyboard (or open the Start menu) and enter the

file name in the Instant Search field. As you type, Windows

Vista dynamically searches filenames, metadata, and the full

text of all files and displays the choices by file type. For

example, to find the Calculator application, simply type “cal”

in the Instant Search field, and Windows Vista would display

a shortcut to all applications that start with “cal”. Calculator

will be the top option.

Part No. 099-94776

6

Integrated Search

Every explorer window in Windows Vista contains an

integrated Instant Search field in which you can enter a word,

part of a word, or a phrase. Try filtering by type using the

Search Pane and selecting “Documents.” Next choose to see

your files in another way, via the new Stack view. Select the

author column header control drop down menu, and choose

the option to “Stack by author”. Explore all the documents by

a particular author by double clicking on an author’s stack.

Now, save that search as a new Search Folder. Choose the

option “Save Search” found on the top Command Bar and

name and save your Search Folder. In the future, to re-run it,

simply select the “Searches” folder link on the left side

Navigation Pane, and double click on your Search Folder.

7

Aero

Windows Aero offers you a premium user experience. The

glass windows create an open, energizing environment, and

enable you to better focus on your content, rather than on

the surrounding interface. If your PC supports the Windows

Aero user experience, open multiple files and see how easy it

is to locate the right open window using the breakthrough

Windows Flip (simply ALT+TAB) or Flip 3D (Windows

key+TAB).

Mobility & Collaboration

8

Mobility

Windows Vista has multiple tools and features to help you be

productive when you’re on-the-go. It provides a centralized

location to access all of the relevant information you will

need within the Mobility Center. You no longer need to go to

various menus and folders. This tool provides options for

handling your wireless connection and synching your

devices, along with various choices needed for presenting.

9

Meeting Space

Windows Meeting Space enables face-to-face collaboration

among small groups of Windows Vista users—virtually

anytime, anywhere. Useful for both business and personal

purposes, this tool enables you to share work on computerbased

projects with other people more easily and comfortably.

With Windows Meeting Space, you can collaborate

with one person or as many as nine others over a wired

network, a wireless local area network (WLAN), or an ad hoc

(PC-to-PC) wireless network.

10

XPS

XPS Documents are a new archiving format perfect for

preserving content and for securely sharing information in an

application independent way. To create an XPS Document,

open any document in virtually any application, and select

the print option. In the printer selection menu, choose

“Microsoft XPS Document Writer” and save the file. Double

click on the file, which should open it in the XPS Viewer,

which is hosted by Internet Explorer 7. The XPS Document is

a pixel perfect rendition of the original source material.

Other Windows Vista Tips

Share a folder or file directly from your PC.

Windows Vista improves on the Windows network folder

sharing experience first introduced with Windows XP by

giving you more flexibility in what you can share with

other people and improving the setup process. With

Windows Vista you can now share folders and individual

files with any other user on the same corporate network.

From any Explorer, select a file or folder and on the

Command Bar choose the option to Share. Enter the

name of another user on the same network, and give

them appropriate rights of access – reader, co-owner, etc.

PC Performance

SP1 will contain changes focused on addressing specific

reliability and performance issues, supporting new types of

hardware, and adding support for several emerging

standards. SP1 also continues to improve upon the IT

administration experience.

How To Block Websties Without Software

How To Block Websties Without Software, block websites

 Steps:

1] Browse C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

2] Find the file named "HOSTS"

3] Open it in notepad

4] Under "127.0.0.1 localhost" Add 127.0.0.2 www.sitenameyouwantblocked.com , and that site will no longer be accessable.

5] Done!

-So-

127.0.0.1 localhost

127.0.0.2 www.blockedsite.com

-->www.blockedsite.com is now unaccessable<--

For every site after that you want to add, just add "1" to the last number in the internal ip (127.0.0.2) and then the addy like before.

IE: 127.0.0.3 www.blablabla.com

127.0.0.4 www.blablabla.com

127.0.0.5 www.blablabla.com 

etc

Boot Windowsxp Fast

Boot Winxp Fast 

Follow the following steps

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 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.

Auto End Tasks to Enable a Proper Shutdown

This reg file automatically ends tasks and timeouts that prevent programs from shutting down and clears the Paging File on Exit.

1. Copy the following (everything in the box) into notepad.


QUOTE
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
"ClearPageFileAtShutdown"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]
"AutoEndTasks"="1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control]
"WaitToKillServiceTimeout"="1000"


2. Save the file as shutdown.reg
3. Double click the file to import into your registry.

NOTE: If your anti-virus software warns you of a "malicious" script, this is normal if you have "Script Safe" or similar technology enabled.

How to change the serial number used in Windows XP, Valid for XP Corpworate

Step 1

Open Start/Run... and type the command:
regedit and click "OK" (or press ENTER).

Go to HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Current Version\WPAEvents,
on the right double click on "oobetimer" and change at least one digit of this value to deactivate windows.

Click "OK" and close the Registry Editor.

Step 2

Open Start/Run... and type the command:
%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a and click "OK" (or press ENTER).

This will bring up the "Activate Windows" window.

Check the option for "Yes, I want to telephone a customer service representative to activate Windows" and click "Next"


Step 3

Then click "Change Product Key" (don't enter any information on that screen)


Step 4

Type in the new key and click "Update"


The activate Windows by phone window will reappear at this point, just close it by clicking the X in the upper right hand corner

Step 5

Reboot your system and Open Start/Run... and type the command:
%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a and click "OK" (or press ENTER).

If you see "Windows is already activated" then everything is OK.

How to modify .exe files

learn how to change *.exe files, in 5 easy steps:

1) Don't try to modify a prog by editing his source in a dissasembler.Why?
Cause that's for programmers and assembly experts only.

try to view it in hex you'll only get tons of crap you don't understand.
First off, you need Resource Hacker(last version). It's a resource editor-
very easy to use, You can download it at h**p://www.users.on.net/johnson/resourcehacker/

2) Unzip the archive, and run ResHacker.exe. You can check out the help file too


3) You will see that the interface is simple and clean. Go to the menu FileOpen or press Ctrl+O to open a file. Browse your way to the file you would like to edit. You can edit *.exe, *.dll, *.ocx, *.scr and *.cpl files, but this tutorial is to teach you how to edit *.exe files, so open one.

4) In the left side of the screen a list of sections will appear.
The most common sections are
-String table;
-RCData;
-Dialog;
-Cursor group;
-Bitmap;
-WAV.

*Icon: You can wiew and change the icon(s) of the program by double-clicking the icon section,chossing the icon, right-clicking on it an pressing "replace resource". After that you can choose the icon you want to replace the original with.

*String table: a bunch of crap, useful sometimes, basic programming knowladge needed.
*RCData: Here the real hacking begins. Modify window titles, buttons, text, and lots more!

*Dialog:Here you can modify the messages or dialogs that appear in a program. Don't forget to press "Compile" when you're done!

*Cursor group: Change the mouse cursors used in the program just like you would change the icon.

*Bitmap: View or change images in the programs easy!
*WAV:Change the sounds in the prog. with your own.


5) In the RCData,Dialog,Menu and String table sections you can do a lot of changes. You can modify or translate the text change links, change buttons, etc.


TIP: To change a window title, search for something like: CAPTION "edit this".

TIP: After all operations press the "Compile Script" button, and when you're done editing save, your work @ FileSave(Save as).

TIP: When you save a file,the original file will be backed up by default and renamed to Name_original and the saved file will have the normal name of the changed prog.

TIP: Sometimes you may get a message like: "This program has a non-standard resource layout... it has probably been compressed with an .EXE compressor." That means that Resource Hacker can't modify it because of it's structure.

What is Registry?

What is the Registry?
The Registry is a database used to store settings and options for the 32 bit versions of Microsoft Windows including Windows 95, 98, ME and NT/2000. It contains information and settings for all the hardware, software, users, and preferences of the PC. Whenever a user makes changes to a Control Panel settings, or File Associations, System Policies, or installed software, the changes are reflected and stored in the Registry.

The physical files that make up the registry are stored differently depending on your version of Windows; under Windows 95 & 98 it is contained in two hidden files in your Windows directory, called USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT, for Windows Me there is an additional CLASSES.DAT file, while under Windows NT/2000 the files are contained seperately in the %SystemRoot%\System32\Config directory. You can not edit these files directly, you must use a tool commonly known as a "Registry Editor" to make any changes (using registry editors will be discussed later in the article).

The Structure of The Registry
The Registry has a hierarchal structure, although it looks complicated the structure is similar to the directory structure on your hard disk, with Regedit being similar to Windows Explorer.

Each main branch (denoted by a folder icon in the Registry Editor, see left) is called a Hive, and Hives contains Keys. Each key can contain other keys (sometimes referred to as sub-keys), as well as Values. The values contain the actual information stored in the Registry. There are three types of values; String, Binary, and DWORD - the use of these depends upon the context.

There are six main branches, each containing a specific portion of the information stored in the Registry. They are as follows:


* HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT - This branch contains all of your file association mappings to support the drag-and-drop feature, OLE information, Windows shortcuts, and core aspects of the Windows user interface.
* HKEY_CURRENT_USER - This branch links to the section of HKEY_USERS appropriate for the user currently logged onto the PC and contains information such as logon names, desktop settings, and Start menu settings.
* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE - This branch contains computer specific information about the type of hardware, software, and other preferences on a given PC, this information is used for all users who log onto this computer.
* HKEY_USERS - This branch contains individual preferences for each user of the computer, each user is represented by a SID sub-key located under the main branch.
* HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG - This branch links to the section of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE appropriate for the current hardware configuration.
* HKEY_DYN_DATA - This branch points to the part of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, for use with the Plug-&-Play features of Windows, this section is dymanic and will change as devices are added and removed from the system.



Each registry value is stored as one of five main data types:


* REG_BINARY - This type stores the value as raw binary data. Most hardware component information is stored as binary data, and can be displayed in an editor in hexadecimal format.
* REG_DWORD - This type represents the data by a four byte number and is commonly used for boolean values, such as "0" is disabled and "1" is enabled. Additionally many parameters for device driver and services are this type, and can be displayed in REGEDT32 in binary, hexadecimal and decimal format, or in REGEDIT in hexadecimal and decimal format.
* REG_EXPAND_SZ - This type is an expandable data string that is string containing a variable to be replaced when called by an application. For example, for the following value, the string "%SystemRoot%" will replaced by the actual location of the directory containing the Windows NT system files. (This type is only available using an advanced registry editor such as REGEDT32)
* REG_MULTI_SZ - This type is a multiple string used to represent values that contain lists or multiple values, each entry is separated by a NULL character. (This type is only available using an advanced registry editor such as REGEDT32)
* REG_SZ - This type is a standard string, used to represent human readable text values.



Other data types not available through the standard registry editors include:


* REG_DWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN - A 32-bit number in little-endian format.
* REG_DWORD_BIG_ENDIAN - A 32-bit number in big-endian format.
* REG_LINK - A Unicode symbolic link. Used internally; applications should not use this type.
* REG_NONE - No defined value type.
* REG_QWORD - A 64-bit number.
* REG_QWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN - A 64-bit number in little-endian format.
* REG_RESOURCE_LIST - A device-driver resource list.



Editing The Registry

The Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE) is included with most version of Windows (although you won't find it on the Start Menu) it enables you to view, search and edit the data within the Registry. There are several methods for starting the Registry Editor, the simplest is to click on the Start button, then select Run, and in the Open box type "regedit", and if the Registry Editor is installed it should now open and look like the image below.

An alternative Registry Editor (REGEDT32.EXE) is available for use with Windows NT/2000, it includes some additional features not found in the standard version, including; the ability to view and modify security permissions, and being able to create and modify the extended string values REG_EXPAND_SZ & REG_MULTI_SZ.

Create a Shortcut to Regedit
This can be done by simply right-clicking on a blank area of your desktop, selecting New, then Shortcut, then in the Command line box enter "regedit.exe" and click Next, enter a friendly name (e.g. 'Registry Editor') then click Finish and now you can double click on the new icon to launch the Registry Editor.

Using Regedit to modify your Registry
Once you have started the Regedit you will notice that on the left side there is a tree with folders, and on the right the contents (values) of the currently selected folder.

Like Windows explorer, to expand a certain branch (see the structure of the registry section), click on the plus sign [+] to the left of any folder, or just double-click on the folder. To display the contents of a key (folder), just click the desired key, and look at the values listed on the right side. You can add a new key or value by selecting New from the Edit menu, or by right-clicking your mouse. And you can rename any value and almost any key with the same method used to rename files; right-click on an object and click rename, or click on it twice (slowly), or just press F2 on the keyboard. Lastly, you can delete a key or value by clicking on it, and pressing Delete on the keyboard, or by right-clicking on it, and choosing Delete.

Note: it is always a good idea to backup your registry before making any changes to it. It can be intimidating to a new user, and there is always the possibility of changing or deleting a critical setting causing you to have to reinstall the whole operating system. It's much better to be safe than sorry!

Importing and Exporting Registry Settings

A great feature of the Registry Editor is it's ability to import and export registry settings to a text file, this text file, identified by the .REG extension, can then be saved or shared with other people to easily modify local registry settings. You can see the layout of these text files by simply exporting a key to a file and opening it in Notepad, to do this using the Registry Editor select a key, then from the "Registry" menu choose "Export Registry File...", choose a filename and save. If you open this file in notepad you will see a file similar to the example below:

Quote:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup]
"SetupType"=dword:00000000
"CmdLine"="setup -newsetup"
"SystemPrefix"=hex:c5,0b,00,00,00,40,36,02


The layout is quite simple, REGEDIT4 indicated the file type and version, [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup] indicated the key the values are from, "SetupType"=dword:00000000 are the values themselves the portion after the "=" will vary depending on the type of value they are; DWORD, String or Binary.

So by simply editing this file to make the changes you want, it can then be easily distributed and all that need to be done is to double-click, or choose "Import" from the Registry menu, for the settings to be added to the system Registry.

Deleting keys or values using a REG file
It is also possible to delete keys and values using REG files. To delete a key start by using the same format as the the REG file above, but place a "-" symbol in front of the key name you want to delete. For example to delete the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup] key the reg file would look like this:

Quote:

REGEDIT4

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup]


The format used to delete individual values is similar, but instead of a minus sign in front of the whole key, place it after the equal sign of the value. For example, to delete the value "SetupType" the file would look like:

Quote:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup]
"SetupType"=-


Use this feature with care, as deleting the wrong key or value could cause major problems within the registry, so remember to always make a backup first.

Regedit Command Line Options
Regedit has a number of command line options to help automate it's use in either batch files or from the command prompt. Listed below are some of the options, please note the some of the functions are operating system specific.


* regedit.exe [options] [filename] [regpath]
* [filename] Import .reg file into the registry
* /s [filename] Silent import, i.e. hide confirmation box when importing files
* /e [filename] [regpath] Export the registry to [filename] starting at [regpath]
e.g. regedit /e file.reg HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT
* /L:system Specify the location of the system.dat to use
* /R:user Specify the location of the user.dat to use
* /C [filename] Compress (Windows 98)
* /D [regpath] Delete the specified key (Windows 98)

Maintaining the Registry

How can you backup and restore the Registry?

Windows 95
Microsoft included a utility on the Windows 95 CD-ROM that lets you create backups of the Registry on your computer. The Microsoft Configuration Backup program, CFGBACK.EXE, can be found in the \Other\Misc\Cfgback directory on the Windows 95 CD-ROM. This utility lets you create up to nine different backup copies of the Registry, which it stores, with the extension RBK, in your \Windows directory. If your system is set up for multiple users, CFGBACK.EXE won't back up the USER.DAT file.

After you have backed up your Registry, you can copy the RBK file onto a floppy disk for safekeeping. However, to restore from a backup, the RBK file must reside in the \Windows directory. Windows 95 stores the backups in compressed form, which you can then restore only by using the CFGBACK.EXE utility.

Windows 98
Microsoft Windows 98 automatically creates a backup copy of the registry every time Windows starts, in addition to this you can manually create a backup using the Registry Checker utility by running SCANREGW.EXE from Start | Run menu.

What to do if you get a Corrupted Registry
Windows 95, 98 and NT all have a simple registry backup mechanism that is quite reliable, although you should never simply rely on it, remember to always make a backup first!

Windows 95
In the Windows directory there are several hidden files, four of these will be SYSTEM.DAT & USER.DAT, your current registry, and SYSTEM.DA0 & USER.DA0, a backup of your registry. Windows 9x has a nice reature in that every time it appears to start successfully it will copy the registry over these backup files, so just in case something goes wrong can can restore it to a known good state. To restore the registry follow these instruction:
[list=1]
* Click the Start button, and then click Shut Down.

* Click Restart The Computer In MS-DOS Mode, then click Yes.

* Change to your Windows directory. For example, if your Windows directory is c:\windows, you would type the following:

cd c:\windows

* Type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each one. (Note that SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0 contain the number zero.)

attrib -h -r -s system.dat
attrib -h -r -s system.da0
copy system.da0 system.dat
attrib -h -r -s user.dat
attrib -h -r -s user.da0
copy user.da0 user.dat

* Restart your computer.



Following this procedure will restore your registry to its state when you last successfully started your computer.

If all else fails, there is a file on your hard disk named SYSTEM.1ST that was created when Windows 95 was first successfully installed. If necessary you could also change the file attributes of this file from read-only and hidden to archive to copy the file to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT.

Windows NT
On Windows NT you can use either the "Last Known Good" option or RDISK to restore to registry to a stable working configuration.

How can I clean out old data from the Registry?
Although it's possible to manually go through the Registry and delete unwanted entries, Microsoft provides a tool to automate the process, the program is called RegClean. RegClean analyzes Windows Registry keys stored in a common location in the Windows Registry. It finds keys that contain erroneous values, it removes them from the Windows Registry after having recording those entries in the Undo.Reg file.

Rename Recycle Bin to anythinng

1. Start, Run, 'Regedit'.
2. Press 'Ctrl'+'F' to open find box and type 'Recycle Bin' to search.
3. Change any value data with 'Recycle Bin' to whatever name you want to give it ( ie, like 'Trash Can' or 'Dump' etc).
4. Press F3 to continue searching for 'Recycle Bin' and change wherever you come across 'Recycle Bin' to new its new name.
5. Repeat step 4 until you have finished with searching and changed all values to its new name.
6. Close regedit and hit F5 on desktop to see the new name on screen.

Note: As a good practice, always backup your registry before changing anything although changing 'Recycle Bin' name is a simple tweak and doesnt affect anything else.

search google for RAPIDSHARE links

how to search google for RAPIDSHARE links


If you wanna find some apps, files etc on rapidshare.de via google, do the following.

Paste this into the google search window (not the adress bar):

site:rapidshare.de -filetype:zip OR rar daterange:2453402-2453412

* this searches the site rapidshare.de for any file that is rar or zip, and
has been indexed between 1-11 February.

dvd site:rapidshare.de -filetype:zip OR rar daterange:2453402-2453412

* this is the same search but it specifically searches for "dvd" with the same
search criteria, so any app posted with the word dvd in it will be found.

There are mainly three criteria to keep in mind when doing this search.

1. site: your site of choice to search

2. filetype: filetypes you wanna search,if you put a "OR" after the first
filetype you can add more.

3. daterange: (start date-enddate)

* this uses the "julian calendar", converter can be found here:

Code:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/JulianDate.html

boot windows xp faster

First of all, this tweak only apply to those who only have one HDD on their primary IDE channel (nothing else on device 0 or 1) and a CD-ROM and/or DVD-ROM on the secondary IDE channel. Each time you boot Windows XP, there's an updated file called NTOSBOOT-*.pf who appears in your prefetch directory (%SystemRoot%Prefetch) and there's no need to erease any other files as the new prefetch option in XP really improves loading time of installed programs. We only want WindowsXP to boot faster and not decrease its performance. Thanks to Rod Cahoon (for the prefetch automation process...with a minor change of mine) and Zeb for the IDE Channel tweak as those two tricks, coupled together with a little modification, result in an EXTREMELY fast bootup:

1. Open notepad.exe, type "del c:windowsprefetch tosboot-*.* /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.

WindowsXP should now boot REALLY faster.

Disable send error report in windowsxp

A feature in WinXP which tries to send a report to microsoft every time a program crashes you will have to do this:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Open Control Panel
Click on Preformance and Maintenance.
Click on System.
Then click on the Advanced tab
Click on the error reporting button on the bottom of the windows.
Select Disable error reporting.
Click OK
Click OK

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

how add tabs to your blog

sooooon

How to access Your Folders From Your Taskbar

This is an easy way to get to the folders on your system without having to open a Windows Explorer Window every time you want to access files. I find it very useful to have this feature as it allows me to access my Folders and Drives immediately and saves me a lot of time.

This works in Windows XP:

1. Right Click an empty spot on your Taskbar (Between your Start Button and your System Tray).

2. Click Toolbars.

3. Click New Toolbar.

4. A Small Window will Open that allows you to pick the folder you wish to make a Toolbar. If you want to access your Desktop Without having to minimize all your windows. Just Pick Desktop. If you want to access ONLY your My Documents Folder, Select that. Any folder will work for this.

5. Click OK.

The New Tool bar will appear at the bottom of your screen next to your System Tray.

If you find this to be not useful, Repeat Steps 1 and 2 and then check click the Toolbar you created that has a check mark next to it. And it will disappear.