The Tweaks and Tricks Thread

[Spinner]

I thought it might be a good idea to have a place where people can post tweaks and work arounds that people might find usefull. So if you've got a tweak or tip for a popular piece of software, this is the place for it to be.

PLEASE USE THIS THREAD JUST FOR STRAIGHT UP INFORMATION, NOTHING MORE. USE THE REST OF THE FORUM IF YOU WANT TO DISCUSS THE INFORMATION IN THIS THREAD, I WILL LINK THE RELEVANT POST TO THE DISCUSSION.

ATTENTION! SOME TWEAKS MAY REQUIRE EDITING THE REGISTRY OF YOUR OS, IT IS RECOMMENED YOU BACK UP YOUR REGISTRY BEFORE PERFORMING ANY OF THE REGISTRY TWEAKS LISTED.

SOME TWEAKY LINKS:

www.bootdisk.com
www.tweakxp.com
www.blackviper.com Submitted by RADA

[Spinner]

WINDOWS MESSENGER REMOVAL

1. Click on the Start button and select Run.
2. Type:

RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

In the text box and click OK. You will see a progress bar appear shortly as it deletes its files and it will then ask you to reboot. After the reboot the program will be gone.

MSN MESSENGER REMOVAL

Click Start - Run

Type the following line:

RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

Will remove the msn messenger from XP

FIX THE SLOW LOADING OF OUTLOOK EXPRESS AFTER MESSENGER REMOVAL

Open up Register Editor by running "regedit" command. Click on "Edit" and select "Find". Copy and paste FB7199AB-79BF-11D2-8D94-0000F875C541 onto the "Find what" box and click on "Find Next". Once found, click on the plus sign in front of it and you will find InProc32 and LocalServer32. Select one of them then right click on default under the name column and select "modify", then simply delete what's in the Value Data box. Repeat for the other.

CHANGE THE MESSENGER BACKGROUND

Just go to "C:\Program Files\Messenger\" and replace the file "lvback.gif".

If you use the MSN add-in, you can change that icon aswell. It's simply called "icon.gif"

CHANGE THE WARNING MESSAGE ON MESSENGER

Open Regedit (start menu, run and type 'regedit' press enter)

Navigate to the following location

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Messenger Service\Policies

Locate the string value called 'IMWarning' and change its message to what ever you would like to appear at the top of each new conversation window.

Close regedit and open a new conversation and notice the new message. You do not have to reboot for this one to work.

[Spinner]

Open up the Windows Registry Editor by clicking Start -> Run and type regedit and press enter. Now locate HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\ - Once you've located this area find the value HungAppTimeout set to 5000 if it isn't already. Next up locate WaitToKillAppTimeout which is in the same folder and set it to 4000 from the default of 20000 - This is one of the key elements of decreasing the time it takes to shut down.

Finally for this tweak to work locate the following HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ and look for an option called WaitToKillServiceTimeout and change this to 4000.

Watch how quickly Windows XP shuts down for you now!

A discussion thread on this tweak: http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?p=91411#post91411

[Spinner]

Microsoft has designed a tool to help in monitoring the boot up process of your computer. The tool, named BootVis, has many cool features that allow you to find out how long each program running at start up is taking to load and when they load. To get the program click on the link below.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/platform/performance/fastboot/bootvis.mspx

[Spinner]

If you dual boot your PC using Windows XP's dual boot process, you can reduce the timeout period your PC uses before booting to the default OS. This tweak is useful if you boot to the default OS most of the time and only boot to the other OS's on a limited basis.

1)Locate and Open the hidden file "boot.ini" in notepad or your favorite text editor. This file will likely be in the root directory on the boot partition of your "master" HD.

NOTE: Under Windows XP another easier way to edit the file is to right click on My Computer - Properties - Advanced - Startup and Recovery - Settings - (System Startup) Edit.

2) Locate the line - timeout=30 (default is 30 seconds). Change this value to any time desired. Be careful not to choose too low of a setting or you may not have time to select your other OS's. Also, be careful not to change other lines as this may prevent your PC from booting at all.

3)Save the file. The next time you boot your PC, the changes will take effect.

[Spinner]

NTFS is a great filesystem, but its feature-set comes at a slight cost in performance. You can negate this a little with the following tips:

By default NTFS will automatically update timestamps whenever a directory is traversed. This isn't a necessary feature, and it slows down large volumes.

Disable it by pointing regedit to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem and set 'DisableNTFSLastAccessUpdate' to 1.

NTFS uses disparate master file control tables to store filesystem information about your drives. Over time these core MFT files grow and become fragmented, slowing down all accesses to the drive. By setting aside a little space, MFT's can grow without becoming fragmented.

In the same key where you disabled the last access feature creat a new DWORD value called 'NtfsMftZoneReservation' and set it to 2.

Note: This tweak will not work on FAT32 file systems!

[Spinner]

A Handy utility for speeding up system performance in Windows XP (or any version of Win9x/me for that matter as well) is the System Configuration Utility.

To access the system configuration utility, go to Start and click Run. Type msconfig and click ok. Click the tab labeled Startup. Uncheck any items for which you do not care if they load when Windows loads or you do not have any idea what they are. In Windows XP, no items that are listed here are essential to Windows running properly, so feel free to experiment. After you removed everything you don't need, click apply and then ok. Say yes when it asks you to restart your system. Enjoy the significantly enhanced performance!

[Spinner]

It is possible to disable XP splash screen, which will slightly speed up the overall boot process. Be aware that removing the splash screen will also cause you not to see any boot-up messages that might come up (chkdsk, convert ... ), but if your system runs without any problems then it should not matter.

1. Edit boot.ini
2. Add " /noguiboot" right after "/fastdetect".

Upon restarting, the splash screen will be gone. It can be re-enabled by removing the new switch.

[Spinner]

Microsoft clear type technology greatly increases clarity of text on laptop LCD screens. By default this feature does not start until after you log on. But with the tweak below you will be able to make it start as windows loads so it will be enabled on the welcome login screen.

Start regedit. Navigate to HKEY_USERS\DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop. Locate the key FontSmoothingType. Change the value to 2. Restart.

[Spinner]

Go to Start/Run, type in command, or cmd depending upon your windows version. Get to the root directory ; type"dir /s > whatever.txt" where whatever is whatever you want to name the file. Change it to "dir *. /s > whatever.txt" in order to get just directory names. It'll also put in any files without extensions.

THIS TIP ORIGINATED FROM THIS THREAD CURTESY OF GHoosdum

http://short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=422

[Bad_Karma]

Paranoid? Think windows is watching you? Try this:

http://www.xpantispy.de/

EDIT (SPINNER)

XP-AntiSpy is a little utility that let's you disable some built-in update and authentication 'features' in WindowsXP.

[El Cheapo]

One-click restore point:

______________

Set sr = getobject("winmgmts:\\.\root\default:Systemrestore")

msg = "New Restore Point successfully created." & vbCR
msg = msg & "It is listed as: " & vbCR
msg = msg & "Automatic Restore Point " & Date & " " & Time

If (sr.createrestorepoint("Automatic Restore Point", 0, 100)) = 0 Then
MsgBox msg
Else
MsgBox "Restore Point creation Failed!"
End If

Set sr = Nothing
________________

Copy & paste the above to a new text document,rename it to restore.vbs (or anything else that you want to,as long as it's got a .vbs extension),click on it, instant restore point.
I know not everyone uses system restore,but it's bailed my butt out a few times...

ec

[Spinner]

The more flexible method of bypassing the recycling bin is to simply hold SHIFT while you delete your selected item(s). This will promt you to choose whether you want to permanently delete the item(s) or not. Simply click "yes" and the action will be completed.

[Spinner]

Press Control and Backspace to delete the whole word instead of a single letter.

[Spinner]

Here is a way to send instant messages to folk over networks as long as you have their ip or the name of the computer on the network.

An easy way to find a computer's ip address is to type cmd in the run box on your start menu. This will start the command prompt. Type "ipconfig /all" with a space between "ipconfig and /all". That will list the computer's ip address along with other network specs. Now that you have the ip of that computer, you may send instant messages to it.

Go to the run command in your start menu. Type cmd in the box which will open the command prompt just like above. Type: net send "ip address" message. If the computer you were trying to send a "Hello" message to had the ip address of 127.10.1.1, you would type "net send 127.10.1.1 Hello"

Additionally, it is possible to use a wild card such as * in the ip address parameter.

Example: net send * message

The above command will send your message to every computer on your subnet. This is great for system administrators to send out messages to all windows computers on the network notifying them that you are going to be taking down the server or something.

[Spinner]

There is an application in XP that allows networked users to to communicate with each other. It is a very simple program located in the Windows System32 directory. A search for "winchat"
will also bring it up. This program can be very usefull to users that work in large office complexes and need to deliver a message to another individual quickly and efficiently. This application also has a real time chat screen, so you can see the other person typing.

1 start, search, "winchat" (or find in Windows, System 32 directory)
2 right click and select send to desktop (for easy opening)
3 run the program
4 choose dial button at the top
5 choose the computer of the person on the network who you wish to talk to.
6 both users must agree to connect to each other to talk.

[Spinner]

CTRL + ALT + ESC

While in a full-screen window will launch the task bar. If used while not in a full screen window, it will work like ATL + TAB without the option of choosing which window and simply go to the window whose button is to the RIGHT of the current window.

ALT + D [MSIE]

This will move the cursor to the Address bar, highliting all the text in the bar as well.

ALT + TAB (With Shift)

If you have many windows open, using ALT + TAB can be kind of annoying if you miss the program you're seeking. Adding SHIFT and pressing TAB again will move the highlite back one.

CTRL + TAB

When working with multiple frames/panes, this will jump from one frame to another without having to TAB to the end of the current pane to move to the next. Press TAB again to enter the frame/pane you select.

SHIFT + CLICK (Explorer/MSIE)

This does the same thing as RIGHT CLICKing and selecting "Open in new window". Sometimes, however, I find that you have to DOUBLE CLICK to make it work.

SHIFT + RIGHT CLICK (Explorer)

This gives you an extra option, "Open With..." for certain (most) files types.

WINKEY + L (Using the "Welcome" style logon)

Same as [Start>Log Off>Switch User].

F1

Opens the Help dialogue for most programs.

F3

When searching using a typical text "Find..." feature, this will do the same as "Find next".

[Spinner]

Instead of typing http://www.anysite.com you can just type anysite then press ctrl+return and it automatically puts in the http:// and the .com

yahoo + "ctrl+return" = http://www.yahoo.com

[Spinner]

Right click on desktop, create new short-cut.

Type shutdown.exe -i

Click next, type in name for your short-cut e.g. shutdown computers

Click finish.

Run the short-cut you just created. Now you can browse the network for computers to shutdown/reboot etc. or just type in the IP/Name of the computer.

You can even broadcast a message, and schedule the shutdown.

[Spinner]

This tip will show you how to create an unattended disk cleanup which will also empty your prefetch folder. This tip assumes you have Windows XP installed in c:\windows.

Step 1.
Create a new text file and place the following contents inside:

c:\windows\system32\cleanmgr.exe /dc /sageset: 1
c:
cd \
cd c:\windows\prefetch
del *.* /q

Step 2.
Save the file, changing the extension from .txt to .bat
For this tip's purpose, we will call it clean.bat

Step 3.
Execute the file. This will run the Disk Cleanup program in a special mode which asks what items you will want cleaned when Disk Cleanup performs an unattended cleanup. Check the items you wish to have cleaned up, then click OK.

Step 4.
Right-click on the clean.bat file and click edit. Change the first line to read:

c:\windows\system32\cleanmgr.exe /dc /sagerun: 1

Step 5.
Save the file. You can execute this file in place of running Disk Cleanup, or, to have this program run unattended, run the Add Scheduled Task Wizard in the Control Panel and create a scheduled task using the clean.bat file you just created.

Note: This cleanup script will also clear windows prefetch directory. Often this directory can become cluttered with old appication and a cleaning would free up disk space but it will result in a one time performance decrease and windows has to rebuild the cache with active software afterwards.

[Spinner]

If you've ever performed some kind of file operation, you'll be blasted with "Are you sure?"-type dialog boxes with the options, "Yes", "Yes to All", "No" and "Cancel". Hold down SHIFT and press "No" to mean, "No to All".

[LawnMM]

For anybody with an ATI TV Wonder running on windows XP...most people find that when they start the TV program the image is washed out and scrambled. A bug in the drivers that seems to only affect XP systems. ATI has a few workarounds, I believe holding the shift key while starting the tv program lets the program start with a normal display you can watch.

However, a better fix that I found is that by setting the TV app to run in windows 98/ME compatibility mode eliminates the problem altogether. It starts fine every time and you don't have to remember to hold any keys down in order to get the image feed from the TV tuner to load without being scrambled.

[Spinner]

Run notepad and paste this text:

[General] Manufacturer="You can display useful information here"

Model="You can display useful information here"

[Support Information]

Line1="You can display useful information here"

Line2="You can display useful information here"

Line3="You can display useful information here"

Line4="You can display useful information here"

Line5="You can display useful information here"

Line6="You can display useful information here"

Line7="You can display useful information here"

Line8="You can display useful information here"

Line9="You can display useful information here"

Line10="You can display useful information here"

Save it as oeminfo.ini in C:\windows\system You can also create a bitmap file and name it as oemlogo.bmp, save it in C:\windows\system Now, try to hold down Win key while pressing L. You'll notice that the text and image you created will appear in your System properties.

[Spinner]

Removing password from returning from hibernate / suspend

This tweak removes prompt for password on resume from hibernate/suspend

1. Click Start > Run > Type gpedit.msc
2. Click User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Power Management
3. Double click on Prompt For Password On Resume From Hibernate/Suspend
4. Click Enabled
5. click OK

[Spinner]

MSN Messenger 5.0 has already a feature for video conversations however, like with most of MSN Messengers standard features, they all try to communicate directly with their clients, which results in the video data or whatever is usually being sent, is stopped dead in its tracks by things like firewalls or ICS setups.

So what's the solution to this... well Logitech and Microsoft smartly came up with a plug-in for MSN Messenger that uses a web server to act as a third party handler of your MSN Messenger data, in this case video transmissions. This therefore allows MSN Messenger simply to bypass routers and firewalls for the purpose of a video link. This particular plug-in requires all partys to have it installed, but comes with the added benefit of making your video, or more specifically your webcam broadcasts accessible by more than one idividual at a time.

This particular plug-in is an exmaple of the direction Microsoft plans to take MSN Messenger in the future, using it's own servers to help the advanced functions of Messenger to work more efficiently. The file transfer functionality I believe is one feature which is due to get the same treatment in the near future.

Please also note, this plug-in only works with MSN Messenger and not Windows Messenger and also this add-on now comes built into version 6.0 of MSN Messenger.

Here's the link :

http://messenger.msn.com/support/webcam.asp

[Spinner]

Attrib - Changes the attributes of a file or directory.

Batch - Executes the commands specified in the text file.

Bootcfg - Boot file (boot.ini) configuration and recovery.

ChDir (Cd) - Displays the name of the current directory or changes the current directory.

Chkdsk - Checks a disk and displays a status report.

Cls - Clears the screen.

Copy - Copies a single file to another location.

Delete (Del) - Deletes one or more files.

Dir - Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory.

Disable - Disables a system service or a device driver

Diskpart - Manages partitions on your hard drives.

Enable - Starts or enables a system service or a device driver.

Exit - Exits the Recovery Console and restarts your computer.

Expand - Extracts a file from a compressed file.

Fixboot - Writes a new partition boot sector onto the specified partition.

Fixmbr - Repairs the master boot record of the specified disk.

Format - Formats a disk.

Help - displays a list of the commands you can use in the Recovery Console.

Listsvc - Lists the services and drivers available on the computer.

Logon - Logs on to a Windows installation.

Map - Displays the drive letter mappings.

Mkdir (Md) - Creates a directory.

More - Displays a text file.

Net Use - Connects a network share to a drive letter.

Rename (Ren) - Renames a single file.

Rmdir (Rd) - Deletes a directory.

Set - Displays and sets environment variables.

Systemroot - Sets the current directory to the systemroot directory of the system you are currently logged on to.

Type - Displays a text file.

[Spinner]

If you want to install the recovery console under XP as a startup option, instead of having to boot from the CD every time you want to use it, follow the instructions below.

With Windows running, insert the XP Setup CD into your CD-ROM drive. CLick Start and select Run. Type the following where D: is the CD-ROM drive letter: D:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons

Follow the instructions on the screen.

[Park_7677]

I had some time on my hands, so I figured I'd spend 10 minutes writing a MS Batch scipt to copy & compress my data on a spererate partition on my HDD, safe from "FORMAT C:" :) I ended up making 2 versions, WinZip & WinRAR. I just click a shortcut and folders across my HDD are compressed.

Very worth the time, many times I've forgotten to backup my Favorites and/or Email :(

I'd like to share with everyone here, maybe someone will get use out of it besides me! See Next Two Posts

[Park_7677]

Type #1: WinZip

This version uses WinZip's command line interface to compress a list of files & directories. README includes details on how to add folders and further configure it.


Option #1:
WinZip Code Generator (http://realm7677.com/?page=winzip)

Option #2
or Download the ZIP below for the "do it yourself" version.

[Park_7677]

Type #2: WinRAR

This version uses WinRAR's command line interface to compress a list of files & directories. README includes details on how to add folders and further configure it.


Option #1:
WinRAR Code Generator (http://realm7677.com/?page=winrar)

Option #2
or Download the ZIP below for the "do it yourself" version.

[Spinner]

Here's how to make Internet Explorer remember your preferred window size.

1) Open IE and resize the Window to your desired size
2) Simply press and hold the Ctrl key

After you have done the above, all the IE windows you open will be the size you specified.

[danball1976]

Pressing ctrl and scrolling your mouse wheel at the same time resizes the text on the fly.

[RWB]

You will need TweakUI or some similar program or way to change the "Program Files" destination to wherever you desire. In my case I want my Program Files folder on my D:\ so my C:\ can be as small as possible. You will need to do the same with "Common Files" folder also, it is located directly inside of the Program Files folder.

After you set the new destination, boot into "Safe Mode" and physically move the Whole folder to your desired destination.

The best way I use to fix the problems created by this is to run Norton System Check and make sure it fixes the problems it finds the correct way and keep the file in it's new destination.

After that, when you install Internet Explorer(which is why you should have a CLEAN install!) it will install into the new area, and you won't have any baggae left in the old destination(or in my case, partition). Of course everything else you install will also be Automatically directed to this area.

This is a good thing when you want a small C:\ drive. So your next Partition is closer to the faster area of your HDD. For me my C:\ is 5GB which includes SWAP and the Windows Dir. Windows 2000 Pro only takes up 967MB on my system.

[RWB]

After those large downloads for updating our OS, you may notice your system is taking up a bit more space than it should!

Goto your Windows Directory, for Windows 2000/XP it is WINNT. DELETE THOSE "$NTUninstall...." FOLDERS! You do this at your own risk of course, this gets rid of the ability to get rid of an update you put on your system. While your there, you can delete those " *.txt " files that have the wierd name similar to "Q235673" or something.

You can even get rid of those annoying Background images in the same directory of course, that is if you don't like them or use them.

[El Cheapo]

Circumstances arise where you'll need to reinstall Windows XP on your machine when no hardware changes have been made. Rather than go through the reactivation process, create a floppy disk to back up the activation status file. Once XP has been reinstalled the floppy can be used to restore the previous activation status.
Create the Activation Status Floppy Diskette

* Navigate to %systemroot%\system32 folder.
* Copy the wpa.dbl file to the floppy diskette.

Reinstall Windows XP

* Reinstall XP in the normal manner. After the install is completed and the XP Out Of Box Experience (OOBE) appears where you'd normally activate the product, decline to activate and let the installation complete.

Activate the XP Reinstallation

* Restart the computer and use the F8 key to bring up the Advanced Boot Options menu.
* Select Minimal Safe Mode using Up and Down Arrow Keys and press Enter.
* Navigate to %systemroot%\system32 folder.
* Rename the existing wpa.dbl file to wpa.noact.
* Using the floppy diskette, copy the previously backed up wpa.dbl file to the %systemroot%\system32 folder.
* Reboot the computer.


ec

[mcwc]

I just found this emergency boot cd and I am downloading it as I am typing out this post. This can be very helpful to rescue dead computers. From what I can find out on the site, it has DOS, Windows, and Linux tools to do the job. There are two version, pro and lite. Of course, the pro version has more programs included and both versions are free.

Here is the site. http://www.ebcd.i-am.ru/

[Spinner]

This is a great free tweak utility for Windows 2000 and XP with a lot of cool features which should help you tame your system.

<a target="_blank" href="http://planetmirror.com/pub/majorgeeks/allinone/winnertweaksetup.exe">WINner Tweak 1.3.2 Download (2 MB)<a>

Official Site:
http://www.softnews.ro/public/cat/12/2/12-2-93.shtml

A thread here at Short-Media discussing this utility:
http://short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1511

[Spinner]

In addition to your own personal user account in Windows, there is also a hidden master account called 'Administrator'. This account by default doesn't need a password to be accessed localy. So all someone would have to do to access your computer, would be to boot up to the welcome screen in safe mode, where the 'Administrator' is visible and log on.

To plug this little security hole it would be wise to rename the 'Administrator' account to something less universal and assign it a password. To do so, follow the instructions below:

1) Open the control userpasswords2 screen by choosing Run from the Start menu, typing control userpasswords2 and pressing ok.

2) Ensure that the 'Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer' box is checked and highlight the 'Administrator' account. Click Properties and change the username to something un-obvious but easy for you to remember. Finally, use the Reset Password button to secure the account with a strong but equally unforgettable password.

Job done!

[Spinner]

To manually stop Windows XP from throwing, more annoying than helpfull, balloon tips at you, then do the below.

1) Click start - run and then type regedit followed by enter.

2) Navigate to Hkey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

3) Click Edit - New - Dword value and create a new Dword called EnableBalloonTips.

4) Now double-click it and set the value date field to zero.

If you ever want the tips back again, then simply change the value from zero to 1.

[Spinner]

Follow the below instructions, if you want to remove the Shut Down or Turn Off Computer button from your Windows OS.

1) Click start - run and then type regedit followed by enter.

2) Navigate to Hkey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

3) Create a new Dword called NoClose and set the value date field to 1.

4) Restart you computer

To restore the button, simply delete the Dword value.

[Spinner]

To change your personal details under Windows XP do the following:

1) Click start - run and then type regedit followed by enter.

2) Navigate to Hkey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Cu
rrentVersion

3) Look for the entries 'RegisteredOrganization' and 'RegisteredOwner' and change the values so they are more to your liking.

[Spinner]

The link below is a great source of information regarding defrag trouble shooting under Windows 98. It also instructs you how to install the Windows ME defrag application onto a Windows 98 machine. Doing this apparently can solve of alot of issues with the built in Microsoft defragmentation program under Windows 98.

http://www.sandylee.net/computers/defrag.html

[Spinner]

Here is a little program I found which has the ability to create a two dimensional graphical representation of your hard drives folder tree and disk usage.

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.spinnershomepage.co.uk/RAIDpics/DirGraph20bin.zip">DOWNLOAD 'DIRGRAPH V.2'<a>

[Spinner]

If you want to change the size of the thumbnail preview icons under Windows XP, then follow the below instructions:

1) Start - Run - Regedit

2) Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

3) Create a new DWORD value named Thumbnailsize.

4) Double click the value and type in a decimal between 32 and 256.

[Spinner]

If you want to keep you dial up connection active, even when you log off, simply follow the below instructions:

1) Start - Run - Regedit

2) Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon.

3) Click Add String Value within the Edit menu.

4) Type KeepRasConnections in the dialog box, and select REG_SZ as the
Data Type.

5) Click OK.

6) In the next dialog box, type 1 and click OK.

7) Close the Registry Editor.

[Spinner]

To uninstall Windows Media Player 9, without performing a system restore, do the following:

1) Start - Run

2) Type RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\wmp.inf,Uninstall

3) Press Enter

[Spinner]

To manually remove Outlook Express (5.x or 6.0), follow the below instructions:

1) Double-click the My Computer icon.
On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.

2) In the Hide Files and Folders section, click Show hidden files and folders, and then click to clear the Hide file extensions for known file types check box.

3) Click to clear the Hide Protected Operating System Files (Recommended) check box, and then click Yes in the warning message dialog box.

4) Click OK to close the Folder Options dialog box.

5) Make sure you are now logged on the computer with Admin rights.

6) Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Windows Explorer.

7) Locate the following folders:

The Stationery folder:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Stationery

The Identities folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Identities

-or-

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities

The Address Book folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book

-or-

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Address Book

8) After you have located these folders, click them one at a time, and then press F2. Rename them to old_stationery, old_identities, and old_address respectively, and then press ENTER.

9) Click Start, and then click Run, and then type regedit in the Open box.

10) Locate the following registry keys, right-click the registry key, and then click Delete:

-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express
-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WAB
-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities
-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express
-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB
-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{44BBA840-CC51-11CF-AAFA-00AA00B6015C}
-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{7790769C-0471-11D2-AF11-00C04FA35D02}

11) Close the Registry Editor.

12) Click Start, point to Search, and then click For Files and Folders.

13) Find and rename the files listed below this paragraph using the previously instructed F2 method. (rename the file with the .old extension, e.g Inetcomm.dll would be renamed Inetcomm.old) Each of the below files are located in two directories, you must rename both.

When you receive the prompt about Windows file protection, do not insert the Windows 2000 CD-ROM. Instead, click Cancel.
At the prompt about keeping unrecognized file versions, click Yes.
Repeat this process with each file in the list.

These are the files you must rename:

Inetcomm.dll
Msoeacct.dll
Msoert2.dll
Msoe.dll
Msoeres.dll
Msimn.exe
Oeimport.dll
Oemiglib.dll
Oemig50.exe
Setup50.exe
Wab.exe
Wabfind.dll
Wabimp.dll
Wabmig.exe
Csapi3t1.dll
Directdb.dll
Wab32.dll
Wab32res.dll

[Spinner]

1) Click Start, point to Search, and then click For Files and Folders.

2) In the Search for Files and Folders Named box, type msoe50.inf, and then click Search. (The default location for this file is in the C:\Winnt\Inf folder.)

3) Right click the Msoe50.inf file, and then click Install.

4) Insert your Windows CD-ROM when prompted, locate the I386 folder on the CD-ROM, click Open, and then click OK.

[Spinner]

To reinstall Outlook Express 6.0, you need to log on to the following Microsoft Web site and download Outlook Express 6.0. Follow the instructions on the Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/ie

or

1) Insert the Windows CD

2) Start - Run and type rundll32.exe

[Spinner]

1) Start - Run - Regedit

2) Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Office \ 10.0 \ Outlook \ Preferences

3) Click on the right side of the screen, right-click and create a DWord Value called MinToTray.

4) Set value at: 1 (enable) or 0 (to disable MinToTray)

[Kwitko]

You can find the original, easy-to-read list here (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/tips/personalize/keyboardsc.asp). Most of these should work in Win9x also.

Copy. CTRL+C
Cut. CTRL+X
Paste. CTRL+V
Undo. CTRL+Z
Delete. DELETE
Delete selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin. SHIFT+DELETE
Copy selected item. CTRL while dragging an item
Create shortcut to selected item. CTRL+SHIFT while dragging an item
Rename selected item. F2
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word. CTRL+RIGHT ARROW
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word. CTRL+LEFT ARROW
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph. CTRL+DOWN ARROW
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph. CTRL+UP ARROW
Highlight a block of text. CTRL+SHIFT with any of the arrow keys
Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text within a document. SHIFT with any of the arrow keys
Select all. CTRL+A
Search for a file or folder. F3
View properties for the selected item. ALT+ENTER
Close the active item, or quit the active program. ALT+F4
Opens the shortcut menu for the active window. ALT+SPACEBAR
Close the active document in programs that allow you to have multiple documents open simultaneously. CTRL+F4
Switch between open items. ALT+TAB
Cycle through items in the order they were opened. ALT+ESC
Cycle through screen elements in a window or on the desktop. F6
Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer. F4
Display the shortcut menu for the selected item. SHIFT+F10
Display the System menu for the active window. ALT+SPACEBAR
Display the Start menu. CTRL+ESC
Display the corresponding menu. ALT+Underlined letter in a menu name
Carry out the corresponding command. Underlined letter in a command name on an open menu
Activate the menu bar in the active program. F10
Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu. RIGHT ARROW
Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu. LEFT ARROW
Refresh the active window. F5
View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer. BACKSPACE
Cancel the current task. ESC
SHIFT when you insert a CD into the CD-ROM drive Prevent the CD from automatically playing.


Use these keyboard shortcuts for dialog boxes:
Move forward through tabs. CTRL+TAB
Move backward through tabs. CTRL+SHIFT+TAB
Move forward through options. TAB
Move backward through options. SHIFT+TAB
Carry out the corresponding command or select the corresponding option. ALT+Underlined letter
Carry out the command for the active option or button. ENTER
Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check box. SPACEBAR
Select a button if the active option is a group of option buttons. Arrow keys
Display Help. F1
Display the items in the active list. F4
Open a folder one level up if a folder is selected in the Save As or Open dialog box. BACKSPACE


If you have a Microsoft Natural Keyboard, or any other compatible keyboard that includes the Windows logo key and the Application key, you can use these keyboard shortcuts:
Display or hide the Start menu.
Display the System Properties dialog box. logo+BREAK
Show the desktop. logo+D
Minimize all windows. logo+M
Restores minimized windows. logo+Shift+M
Open My Computer. logo+E
Search for a file or folder. logo+F
Search for computers. CTRL+logo+F
Display Windows Help. logo+F1
Lock your computer if you are connected to a network domain, or switch users if you are not connected to a network domain. logo+L
Open the Run dialog box. logo+R
Display the shortcut menu for the selected item. menu
Open Utility Manager. logo+U

Helpful accessibility keyboard shortcuts:
Switch FilterKeys on and off. Right SHIFT for eight seconds
Switch High Contrast on and off. Left ALT +left SHIFT +PRINT SCREEN
Switch MouseKeys on and off. Left ALT +left SHIFT +NUM LOCK
Switch StickyKeys on and off. SHIFT five times
Switch ToggleKeys on and off. NUM LOCK for five seconds
Open Utility Manager. +U

Keyboard shortcuts you can use with Windows Explorer:
Display the bottom of the active window. END
Display the top of the active window. HOME
Display all subfolders under the selected folder. NUM LOCK+ASTERISK on numeric keypad (*)
Display the contents of the selected folder. NUM LOCK+PLUS SIGN on numeric keypad (+)
Collapse the selected folder. NUM LOCK+MINUS SIGN on numeric keypad (-)
Collapse current selection if it's expanded, or select parent folder. LEFT ARROW
Display current selection if it's collapsed, or select first subfolder. RIGHT ARROW

[Spinner]

If you have another fixed hard drive besides the drive where your O/S (presumably C:\Windows) is resident that IS NOT an audio/video writing drive, let's say for example a drive for backup, samples, whatever, then you should put your swap file on it. If you are setting up the drive for the first time, make the first (outermost partition which is the fastest physical access) reserved for your swap file. A good rule is 2x your ram. So a 512MB Ram system should have a 1.1GB FIXED swap file formated with 32k clusters. You'll see a good boost since now as your drives write data they can simultaneously read from the swap. If you can't set up the drive fresh, it still pays to put the swap file on it anyway.

Note:
Having a separate partition for swap file set up on a slower hard drive would still be faster than having it on a faster hard drive that contains the O/S (presumably C:\Windows).

Having the swap file on a different partition than the O/S (presumably C:\Windows), but still on the same physical drive does not increase performance:cry:

Okay so what's all this about two swap files

By default at setup Windows puts the swap file in C:\Windows. If you change the swap file location at that point then the original, unused swap file in C:\Windows "sticks behind". No damage to the system but another file that the O/S has to "read around". If you add that new drive later and decide to create a swap file on it, the old swap file and it's resident data just lays there like a dead log and you can't delete it from Windows Gui

To remove the old swap file ONLY after you have successfully installed the new swap file:

Reboot into pure dos (hit f8 and choose command prompt only) and type:
C:\>Deltree /y C:\Windows\386.swp
hit enter and reboot

This post was brought to you by MERRICK

[Spinner]

This is a nice little trick, I picked up over at TechTV. Do the below to add much more functionality to the Add/Remove programs menu.

1) Navigate to C:\WINDOWS\inf

2) Open the sysoc.inf file in Notepad or another plain text editor. If you can't find the inf directory, it's probably hidden. Unhide it.

3) Click Tools and choose Folder Options.

4) Under View, enable Show Hidden Files & Folders.

5) In sysoc.inf, look for the section called "components" in XP or "old base components" in 2000. What looks like a bunch of gibberish is actually pretty easy to read. You'll see a component name, followed by an equals sign, followed by a list of parameters separated by commas.

For example: Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,HIDE,7

6) The deal: the "HIDE" between the two last commas indicates a hidden component. Remove "HIDE" to unhide the component.

For example: Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,,7

7) Unhide any component you want.

8) Save the file.

9) Reopen the Windows Component Wizard to see your new Add/Remove options!

Note:The reference to the swap file being in C:\Windows\ only applies to Windows9x/ME.

By default, Windows 2000/XP place the swap file in the root directory. (Thanks Danball')

[csimon]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager \Memory Management\SecondLevelDataCache
REG_DWORD Range: Kilobytes 0, 1 -cache size Default: 0 (256K)

SecondLevelDataCache records the size of the processor cache, also known as the secondary or L2 cache. If the value of this entry is 0, the system attempts to retrieve the L2 cache size from the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for the platform. If it fails, it uses a default L2 cache size of 256 KB. If the value of this entry is not 0, it uses this value as the L2 cache size. This entry is designed as a secondary source of cache size information for computers on which the HAL cannot detect the L2 cache.

This is not related to the hardware; it is only useful for computers with direct-mapped L2 caches. Pentium II and later processors do not have direct- mapped L2 caches. SecondLevelDataCache can increase performance by approximately 2 percent in certain cases for older computers with ample memory (more than 64 MB) by scattering physical pages better in the address space so there are not so many L2 cache collisions. Setting SecondLevelDataCache to 256 KB rather than 2 MB (when the computer has a 2 MB L2 cache) would probably have about a 0.4 percent performance penalty.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
"SecondLevelDataCache"=dword:00000200 (512)

[Spinner]

If you've downloaded and installed updates off the Microsoft Windows Update site, but after a reboot, the updates still remain on the Windows Update site for you to download. How do you convince Windows Update that you have actually already got those updates?

[For] windows update to know [you've] installed [an update], you need to stay online long enough for the new updater to pass a success signal to Windows update, then for the updater locally to try to commit the changes. [This is a common cause of the above stated problem with Windows Update.]

[Some] updates are re-released as OEM, on some boxes, they do not install as parts of packages. It is possible to get [files] corrupted in transit through the web, which is [why] you might get some of the 'same' things, though you should not get ALL of them unless you did not wait for the Windows Update site to verify that the update did complete.

[Under Windows] XP, sometimes you need to disable automatic rollback during for some of the updates, and to be logged in as administrator if you have XP, 2000 Pro, or a XP home with multiple IDs is something XP and 2000 favour very much.

[Administrator accounts] can change a lot of system files that are secured when you are online as [opposed to when you are logged on as] an ordinary user, and [the] same protection is NOT lifted when you try to update as an ordinary user. So XP will happily either undo or prevent updates if you are an ordinary user, and Windows update will not log updates [correctly] if the software has not been [authorized] in some cases.

If some [updates appear to install] each time, let it have up to three times to install what looks like the same [update], [as] there are subversions of some of them and later versions and [subsequently] re-released. Some could have partly installed [and] Microsoft [would know this] by the result codes, and the codes are complex enough that Microsoft can re-release what does not go in and [even replace already installed components]

The site itself [sometimes] can offer a couple [of] versions of some patches and you could be hitting a different server each time also within the Windows update network -- so if the result codes never were passed back the other server does not know you have them. Not always are new IDs used for fixes on Windows update, and oldest are passed first until pulled, then newer ones, unless older ones are completely pulled. Newer [updates] might get installed while [an] older one of same base ID might fail, on your one box.

I would also scan for [worm] type viruses, and hybrids, as sometimes well seated worms on a [system] can effectively delete some update files very fast (not the archive passed to your box over the web, the individual files after they are copied). Sometimes what Windows thinks is a delete is in fact a move plus rename, which is one reason not to run your box as admin all the time on the [web].

[Some] virus fixers [say] to disable rollback and to run as admin or in safe mode. When that happens (request to disable rollback and run as [an administrator]). I manually make a rollback point first (called a recovery point), [then] disable rollback as an [admin'] and then run Windows Update or the virus fixer. That protects me from a corrupt download, as Windows XP and 2000 Pro will auto-rollback on boot while (about halfway into full O\S load).

Written by [b]Ageek ; Edited by Spinner

Source thread: http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7531

[Spinner]

This utility will allow you to disable and/or hide Windows Messenger on per-user basis, or on a machine wide basis. Download the ZIP file and extract MessengerDisable.exe to your hard drive. You can either double click the EXE file, or create a shortcut to it, as you prefer.

This tool is particularly handy if you're having trouble running MSN Messenger along side Windows Messenger. Some users feel it necessary to keep the latter installed even if they prefer to use the former. The most common reason being because Windows Messenger contains much better quality functionality over that of MSN Messenger (due to its close integration with Windows XP), so to let MSN Messenger make full use of the Windows XP optimized Windows Messenger engine (for things like Video conferencing etc etc), Windows Messenger ideally needs to remain installed. This tool simply helps you keep Windows Messenger behind closed doors, so it doesn't keep loading up and interfering with MSN Messenger, but still allows use of its superior quality instant messaging features.

To reinstall Windows Messenger for Windows XP, visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/messenger and download the latest version.

Download MessengerDisable (http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/MessengerDisable.zip) (6.5KB)

Thanks to Lammypie for this tweak

[Spinner]

This tweak only works when a user actually physically logs on to a system. On a stand alone computer, there is no way, currently, to force a user to log off when their hours expire.

1) Open Help and Support and type "logon hours" (without the quotes) in the search box.
2) Go to Full text matches and click on "Net user". See the examples for setting a user's logon hours. Some examples would be:

net user johnsw /time:M-F,08:00-17:00
net user johnsw /time:M-F,8am-5pm
net user marysl /time:M,4am-5pm;T,1pm-3pm;W-F,8:00-17:00
net user johnsw /time:all (this one means this user can always log on)

3) Open a Command Prompt window.
4) Enter the appropriate "net user" command for the user(s) you wish to restrict access for.

[Spinner]

This tip does not apply to users of Nero Buring Rom, it is only for Windows XP's built-in CD burning feature.

1) Click Start, Run and enter REGEDIT. Go to:

2) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

3) Look in the right pane for AllocateDASD and double click the entry. Set the value to 2. On PRO, this is exposed in Local Security Policy under Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options "Devices: Allowed to format and eject removable media". For XP Pro, you can do this by clicking Start, Run and entering SECPOL.MSC

4) Go to Local Policies, Security Options, look in the right pane for Devices: Allowed to Format and eject removable media. Set this option to Administrators and Interactive Users

[Spinner]

Windows Messenger -> Comes with Windows XP (and exclusive to it), OE, IE etc integrated IM client. Currently at v5, v4.7 through Windows Update.

Messenger Service -> Net send and Alerter service

MSN Messenger -> All Windows OS (95,98,NT,2000,XP) compatible IM client, not bundled with XP, not as integrated when installed on XP, with less functionality but with better aesthetics. Currently at v6.1, not available through Windows Update.

[drasnor]

Take advantage of the deployment tools on the Windows CD to configure your system prior to installing including setting options that are a royal pita to change after install.

To begin, insert your Windows 2000 or Windows XP CD on a machine already running Windows and select "Explore this CD" from the autorun menu. Navigate to the Support\Tools directory and copy deploy.cab to your desktop. Extract all the files and launch setupmgr.exe and run through the wizard for an Unattended install where the install directories are on the CD.

The wizard will walk you through creating a basic answer file (unattend.txt) and a template that will activate it based on your machine configuration (unattend.bat). After you finish the setup wizard, open up the manual (ref.chm) and read about all the settings you can configure like disabling visible entry points for IE, Outlook, not installing MSN Explorer, placing your home directories on another partition, etc and edit your answer file in Notepad with any other options you want not covered by the wizard. Just remember that all drive letters you specify will be as they appear to the installer, so your RAID array may or may not be C to the Windows installer.

Advanced users can also specify OEM configuration files and driver locations. Super-advanced users will also have their security policy built in, as well as caches of all the Windows Updates.

When you're done, rename unattend.txt and unattend.bat to winnt.sif and winnt.bat respectively and copy them to a floppy disk. When you're ready to install, make sure the drive is already partitioned the way you want it and boot from the CD. Put in the disk as soon as the BIOS starts booting the CD.

There's a great article (http://www.hytekcomputer.com/Articles/XPInstall/1.shtml) about this over at Hytek Computer (http://www.hytekcomputer.com/).

The other main advantage to this method of installing Windows is that it doesn't ask you for input. In other words, You can go get some food and watch a movie without having to worry about the install process waiting for me to give it some mundane detail. It's also good if you set up a lot of machines in an almost identical configuration.

-drasnor :fold:

[Straight_Man]

A [few] things we forget (even me from time to time):

WindowsUpdate and restarting:

If you WindowsUpdate, please remember to restart afterwards. There are some Updates that do not ask you to restart, especially for XP. I have found a few that do not ask but do need restarting of Widnows, easier to make it a rule to restart. Most tell you to restart, and folks sometimes pick the restart later option. If you do, then please remember to restart. If you do an exclusive update, always restart-- those exclusives change lots of things in one lump, that is why they are exclusives.

Shutting down applications in an orderly way:

The graphical Windows Folding client likes to be quit before your restart windows. As it quits, it writes a CP file (completion or check point) up to almost the most minute of work-- definitely includes the last percentage completed. If you see a SIGTERM (Error #2) note, that was the client acknowledging a shut down and shutting down because you forgot to quit it. If you forget a lot, set your check point to minimum of 3 min, or some time (it is in minutes)you do not want to ever lose more work than.

If you remember to shut down client, you can drag it to 30 and never lose much more than a half hour'sd work if box crashes. The advantage of this drag is it stops to write the CP file less often, which can save you 3-30 seconds per file write depending on system speed.

Right click client ICON in the active process area by time in the taskbar, you will have all sorts of client options including the "quit" option. If you click Shutdown Computer in XP and remember before you tell it to do it, you can click cancel and shut client down with two clicks (one right click, then click quit).

This applies to lots of applications in Windows. Using the menu shutdown lets the application shut down right and lets Windows recover the RAM used by app and some swap file space adn windows runs better-- nto oly that, but settings of preferences in Widnows apps sometimes get saved at app shutdown time. The X button is for emergencies, not an orderly way to shut down an app-- most X button clicks do not make the app handle its cleanup work and housekeeping of setings right, so those things can get lost.

Icons in taskbar, and keeping the tooltips working:

First off, if you change any video parameter, text size for tooltips, change text size to large from normal, or change mouse settings, the only thing you need to do to get your tooltips back working is to log off and log back on. IF that does not work, then you have a setting out of bounds for what Widnwos likes to do with tooltips, or the wrong driver for the video or mouse.

Exception: If you change drivers for mouse, keyboard (sometimes, especially keyboard with rollerballs or mousy things stuck on them), or video, do a restart instead of logging off and back on. These driver changes need to be made for all users, usually, and that is why the restarting needs to be done instead of the logoff\login process.

Second, try this: keep two columns of active icons, with 3-4 Widnows is more likely to flake faster when you play with settings. I have a 5 row high taskbar, and it autohides. I run 8-10 active icons typcially in the active processes area of taskbar. Running two vertical columns of active process icons keeps things copastetic better with tooltips reflecting what icon actually uses which tooltip.

Minimizing the icon space and use of space on HD and in RAM:

Did you know that desktop shortcuts take up only 5-10 TIMES the space in RAM and on HD versus the taskbar's launch bar icons??? If you can live with smaller icons, set the taskbar to not be locked (right-click a blank space in middle of it, uncheck lock taskbar by clicking on the words), and drag all but the olders, My Computer (I made one such on desktop), recycle bin, and the folder My Documents one by one onto taskbar. when done, you will have a faster load as the XP does not have to figure out how to show them on desktop, and actually WILL save HD room. This is true for Widnwos 95 OSR2 and up through current Windows-- for 95 and 98, the launch bar actually hooked so much better that the bytes used per launch bar icon was 1\10th the space used for an icon on desktop itself.

Why??? The launch bar records an entry that goes to the program shortcut or icon, it does NOT have to track pathing and all the other things a regular icon does. Basicly, right-click a launch bar icon in XP, you get the properties "sheet" or tabbed dialog for the icon in the program area (you can copy a shortcut from start menu, you will then get the properties for the program menu icon, which lets you customize things like what commands you feed the program with a right-click and then a click or two followed by typing).

You can drag HD icons with CTRL-DRAG out of the My Computer list, right down to the launch bar, and My Computer will open that HD or let you maintain it as if you had clicked the icon in My Computer (that click runs Explorer.exe in one of its visual modes in XP, earlier Windows can run a different program entirely with a My Computer click or double-click). I have only 80-90% of my majorly used apps in the launch bar normally, one box has 30 launch bar icons and 6 on desktop.

Since the taskbar autohides and my video is set up right, the taskbar has never opended under an app window. You CAN have it set to always on top AND to autohide, and that is a good idea.

So, please think about really using your launch bar area in the taskbar.

John D.

[Spinner]

This little tweak has been claimed to fix everything ever wrong with the NF7 from stuttering in 3D games to crackling on sound cards. It is the NForce2 equivalent of snake oil.

I found this when I was experimenting trying to find a reason for my O/C Barton to be stuttering in a fairly plain 3D game (Horizons) which I was beta testing. It did make my stuttering go away, raised my benchmarks a few points, and generally made the board seem more responsive.

Go into control panel->System->device manager and select the computer and then ACPI Uniprocessor machine. Do properties and update driver. Select and manually choose "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface PC". It will tell you to reboot. It will then find new hardware and reboot again. Now all returns to normal with one exception. All the virtualized IRQ's (18,21,22, etc...) are gone and your IRQ's are back to hardware bios assignments. Same as if the Standard PC HAL had been installed. Except ACPI is still enabled and virtualized IRQ's are still available if needed in case of conflict.

I believe the response increase is due to the removal of the layer that does the IRQ redirecting. I have done this to 3 ABIT NF7-S systems without incident and got improvement on all of them.

I make no other promises and don't know how it works on other brands. Your mileage may vary.

Take it for what it is worth.

This tweak was brought to you by MissileMan. A discussion on this tweak can be found Here

[Spinner]

Microsoft doesn’t allow you to straight forwardly download Internet Explorer in its entirety so you can install it quickly from a backup copy when you need to. Follow the below steps for the easiest way to download IE6 in full.

1) Download the setup program from here (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/ie6sp1/default.asp) (500KB)

2) Go to the folder where you've placed the above file. Open a Command Prompt (CMD) in that folder, then run the following command in the CMD window: ie6setup.exe /c:"ie6wzd.exe /d /s:""#E"

That will allow you to choose where to download the files to, and to also select which operating system(s) you want to download it for.

[Spinner]

Windows Explorer by default, when you click on an .avi file, will try to obtain property information about the file e.g. width, height etc, which when the file is corrupted or not fully complete, won't be available to Explorer. So Explorer will start scanning the entire file in search of this information causing a significant drain on system resources.

To stop this from happening do the below:

1. Open up regedit
2. Goto HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler
3. Delete the "Default" value which should be "{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}"

Note: This tweak will make Explorer no longer provide you with the windows properties displaying the AVI file information such as width, height, bitrate etc. But it’s a small price to pay for saving you resources.

Submitted by Bradley99

[Guyute]

Use the import/export feature in IE to quickly create an archive of all of your Favorites, as you have them saved, then save the file to a floppy. My co-worker had his HD crash and he lost 3 years worth of fav's. It saves your fav's as a web page, organized just like your original fav menu, but MUCH more easily archived. I wish I knew about this feature when I manually copied every website onto a Word document when I left my last job. Took over 2 hours.

Note: You can also just copy their 'Favorites' folder out from their Documents and Settings directory and then copy it back on the new PC or newly-formatted PC.

[Spinner]

This little trick is one of my personal favourites:

For those users who find one Internet Explorer start page just isn’t enough you can very easily create a little .bat file to launch and navigate automatically to multiple sites all at once.

1) Right-click the desktop and create a new text document.
2) Open the new text document and click File - Save As - "iestart.bat"
3) Delete the blank text document and then right-click on the newly created iestart.bat file and select 'edit'.
4) Input the below commands into it:

START "" "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" http://www.short-media.com/forum
START "" "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" http://www.google.co.uk
START "" "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" http://www.spinnershomepage.co.uk
EXIT
Replace the above web addresses with ones of your choice.

[Gobbles]

You can speed up the time it takes firefox to load. On some older systems firefox can take several seconds to load where IE loads almost instantly.

Right click the firefox icon and select properties from the menu. Add the following to the end of the target line outside the quotes.

/prefetch:1

Now your target line should look something like this:


"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" /prefetch:1


apply the change and launch firefox. You may not notice a difference on the first launch but after that it should launch faster.

Gobbles

[Spinner]

To keep a particular user from appearing on the Welcome Screen under Windows XP do the following:

1) Open Regedit (Start - Run - Regedit)
2) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList
3) Create a new DWORD value with the exact same username as the person you want to hide. Set this value to 0.

[Spinner]

If you wish only non-administrator user accounts to be visible on the welcome screen (that way people have to guess the administrator user name as well as the password, and it is not readily visible for people to mess with) do the following:

1) Create another administrator account.
2) Use Tweakui to untick 'display administrator account'
3) Untick 'display newadmin account'

At this point, the welcome screen will not display the new administrator account but will still display the original 'administrator' account even though Tweakui is set not to display it.

4) So having created a new administrator account. Simply disable the original 'administrator' account in computer management.

Now no administrator account is displayed on the welcome screen.

You can access the new administrator account by pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL twice and inputting the userid and password.

This way none of the users have any idea of what account is the admin account, and seeing as the admin account is a completely different name to administrator it makes hacking it VERY hard.

Submitted by: Lammypie