Win XP Won't Completely Shutdown

Go to Control Panel, then go to Power Options.
•Click on the APM tab, then check the "Enable Advanced Power Management support."
•Shut down your PC.
It should now successfully complete the Shut Down process.

Performance Increase Through My Computer

Easy enough tweak to usually find out about it on your own, but still, some of us
still don't find it right away. So here it is:
•Start > right-click on My Computer and select Properties.
•Click on the "Advanced" tab.
•See the "Performance" section? Click "Settings".
•Disable the following:

Fade or slide menus into view
Fade or slide ToolTips into view
Fade out menu items after clicking
Show Shadows under menus
Slide open combo boxes
Slide taskbar buttons
Use a background image for each folder type
Use common tasks in folders
There, now Windows will still look nice and perform faster.

Deal with System Hang at Startup

If your system hangs about 2 or 3 minutes at startup, where you can't access the Start
button or the Taskbar, it may be due to one specific service (Background Intelligent
Transfer) running in the background. Microsoft put out a patch for this but it didn't
work for me.
Here's what you do:
•Click on Start/Run, type 'msconfig', then click 'OK'.
•Go to the 'Services' tab, find the 'Background Intelligent Transfer' service.
•Disable it, apply the changes & reboot.

Disable CD Autorun, simple computer tweak

This trick involves only three simple steps:

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.

Rename Windows Xp Start button to any desired Name

I’ve read a number of articles on the internet about changing the text on the Start button in XP. On more than one occasion I’ve seen references to a five (5) letter limitation when the button is renamed. I always wondered if this was true or just an assumption someone made because the default ‘start’ just happened to fit the button size. So, I decided to run a test and see if there really was a five character limit.

First of all just u need to do is download Resource hacker.

Resource HackerTM is a freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res). It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler and works on Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP operating systems.

ll its just 541Kb in the size.. Click here to go to the Download Page




Download Resource Hacker

First Step The first step is to make a backup copy of the file explorer.exe located at C:\Windows\explorer. Place it in a folder somewhere on your hard drive where it will be safe. Start Resource Hacker and open explorer.exe located at C:\Windows\explorer.exe
The category we are going to be using is String Table In Resource Hacker. Expand it by clicking the plus sign then navigate down to and expand string 37 followed by highlighting 1033. If you are using the Classic Layout rather than the XP Layout, use number 38. The right hand pane will display the stringtable as shown in Fig. 02. We’re going to modify item 578, currently showing the word “start” just as it displays on the current Start button.

There is no magic here. Just double click on the word “start” so that it’s highlighted, making sure the quotation marks are not part of the highlight. They need to remain in place, surrounding the new text that you’ll type. Go ahead and type your new entry

Second Step – Modify the Registry Now that the modified explorer.exe has been created it’s necessary to modify the registry so the file will be recognized when the user logs on to the system. If you don’t know how to access the registry I’m not sure this article is for you, but just in case it’s a temporary memory lapse, go to Start (soon to be something else) Run and type regedit in the Open: field. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows NT\ CurrentVersion\ Winlogon

the Right pane , double click the Shell entry to open the Edit String dialog box as shown in . In Value data: line, enter the name that was used to save the modified explorer.exe file. Click OK.

Close Registry Editor and either log off the system and log back in, or reboot the entire system if that’s your preference. If all went as planned you should see your new Start button with the revised text.

Make A Autorun File For any Cd

Did You Notice, whenever You Insert any game 0r software cd, or simply consider Windows Xp Operating system cd. As soon as You Insert the disk in CD-ROM, It automatically runs the cd.

If you want to make a autorun file for that CD you are ready to burn just read this...

1) You open notepad
2) now you writ: [autorun]
OPEN=INSTALL\Setup_filename.EXE
ICON=INSTALL\Setup_filename.EXE

Now save it but not as a .txt file but as a .inf file.

But remember! The "Setup_filename.EXE" MUST be replaced with the name of the setup file. And you also need to rember that it is not all of the setup files there are called '.exe but some are called '.msi

3) Now burn your CD with the autorun .inf file included.

4) Now set the CD in you CD drive and wait for the autorun to begin or if nothing happens just double-click on the CD drive in "This Computer"

Change Drive Icon. Looks cool

First of all copy a icon file to the root of the drive.
example: c:\icon.ico

Then create a file called: autorun.inf in c:\autorun.inf
then open that file and type the following:

[autorun]
icon=icon.ico

save and close the file.

Now open my computer and refresh.. and woh! icon changed....
you can apply to other drives too.

be careful:
"autorun.inf" and "ico.ico" must be in the root of the drive.
example: c:\autorun.inf and c:\icon.ico.
same on the root.

Microsoft PowerToys to Customize Windows XP

PowerToys add fun and functionality to the Windows experience. What are they? PowerToys are additional programs that developers work on after a product has been released.

Alt-Tab Replacement
With this PowerToy, in addition to seeing the icon of the application window you are switching to, you will also see a preview of the page. This helps particularly when multiple sessions of an application are open.
Download

Virtual Desktop Manager

Manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar with this PowerToy.
Download

Webcam Timershot
This PowerToy lets you take pictures at specified time intervals from a Webcam connected to your computer and save them to a location that you designate.
Download

Tweak UI
This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more.
Download

For more Info, Visit http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

SpeedUp PhotoShop Startup.

Photoshop required large memory to function well (1 GB or more is preferable) because it handle image files. Here discussing how to speed up startup of Photoshop.

Each time Photoshop start, all plug-ins (necessary or unnecessary) also load with Photoshop. You can prevent unnecessary plug-ins by loading thus reduce start up time.

Navigate to C:\program files (assuming ‘C’ is your installed directory)\Adobe. Open the directory. Here you can see folder named ‘plug-ins’. Within this folder you find the plug in files, all of which loaded each time Photoshop started.

You can disable plug-ins which you scarcely use. To do this simply edits the name of the files or folders containing plug-ins and insert a tilde (~) before each name. You can always re-enable the plug-ins by deleting the symbol ‘~’.

Making undeletable, unreadable folders

Tested on Windows 95/98

By holding down alt, then typing numbers on the number pad (right of the keyboard) you can create special characters. If you hold down alt, then press 1, then let go, you got the ascii character 1. You try some randomn numbers. This goes all the way up to 255. Open a dos prompt, and type md (alt+1+9+4)someword. md is the dos command for creating a new directoy, now try and open the directory in Windows, you can't. To open it, type ren (alt+1+9+4)someword someword (ren is the dos command to rename)

Allowing dos and regedit in a restricted Windows

Open Notepad and type the following:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrent
VersionPoliciesWinOldApp]
"Disabled"=dword:0
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrent
VersionPoliciesSystem]
"DisableRegistryTools"=dword:0

Save it as something.reg then run it. its that simple

Secure Erase Your Computer History

In this step by step guide you will learn about: Deleting cache, cookies, all history from your browser under a limited account. Manually means without the use of programs or softwares

Step by Step:

1. To begin with you have to get to search utility in windows I will mention a couple of ways you can do this because sometimes under a limited account they block it or remove the shortcut so you can't get to it.

* A. Click start - > click where it says search
* B. Open up internet explorer -> look up where it says view -> explorer bar -> search
* C. Or just simply press Ctrl + E while in you browser

2. Now that your in search click all files and documents

* at the bottom it says more advanced options click on that
* Then check the line that says Search hidden folders and files

3. Now type history, click search.

4. When you get the results it should be a couple but the one you need should say history and at the side of it the location should be something like

C:\Documents and Settings\your user name\Local Settings

5. Now right click the result and the click Open Containing Folder

6. The rest is pretty simple you just need to open up the four different folders you will find there

* Open "Apps Folder" delete everything on it
* Open "Temp Folder" delete everything on it
* Open "History Folder" delete everything on it
* Open "Temporary Internet Files Folder" delete everything on it

7. Your finish nobody will ever know you were even online

Installing Programs on a Limited Account

In this step by step guide you will learn about: how to install programs and games in a limited account meaning an account thats not an administrator.

This might not always work but it's pretty useful because your able to install programs although your administrator has blocked it.


Step by Step:

1. When your installing the program here is what you have to do.

2. When it gives you the option of choosing the directory or destination where the program will be install, before clicking next click browse to choose a different destination.

3. The destination your going to choose is

C:\Documents and Settings\"your username"\"name of program being installed"\

4. So just browse to

* The C:\ drive(this is the operating system installed drive)
* Then Documents and Settings
* Then your User Name (Limited Account)

5. The reason why you do this is because since your installing it in your account name the computer doesn't stop or check anything because its your account and your name, but if you just select the desktop and choose to install it there it going to say something like "you do not have enough administrative privileges" something like that.

Pop a banner each time Windows Boots

Well I use this trick to pop a religious message when ever I boot up my system. you can also use it as a reminder too.


To pop a banner which can contain any message you want to display just before a user is going to log on, go to the key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\WinLogon

Now create a new string Value in the right pane named LegalNoticeCaption and enter the value that you want to see in the Menu Bar. Now create yet another new string value and name it: LegalNoticeText. Modify it and insert the message you want to display each time Windows boots. This can be effectively used to display the company's private policy each time the user logs on to his NT box. It's .reg file would be:

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"LegalNoticeCaption"="Caption here."