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Archive for September, 2009
Boot Winxp Fast
Sep 29th
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.
Remove "Unremovable" Desktop Icons
Sep 29th
To customize XP to your liking, you’ll want to be able to delete these protected icons. To do so, you’ll need a Registry hack. Run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace. Here’s where you’ll find various special desktop icons. They’re not listed by name, but instead by CLSID—for example, {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} for the Recycle Bin.
To remove an icon from the desktop, simply delete the key of the icon—for example, {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} for the Recycle Bin. Then exit the Registry, go to your Desktop, and press F5 to refresh the screen. The Recycle Bin icon should now be gone.
Control the Control Panel
Sep 29th
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When I first started using XP, one of the things that annoyed me most was its new Control Panel. Yes, the big new icons for running applets are certainly pretty, but the Control Panel’s several-layer organization forces you to click far too many times in order to get to the applet that you want. And its clutter of applets that I rarely if ever use make it even more difficult and confusing.
My first reaction was to click on the Switch to Classic View button, to do away with the new design, but the Classic View has its problems as well: its long, alphabetized list of thumbnails is just as difficult to navigate as the new Control Panel.
The solution? Start by cleaning up the Control Panel, hiding applets that you rarely if ever use. Note that when you hide the applets, you can still use them; you just won’t see their icons in the Control Panel.
In this hack, you’ll not only find out ways that you can control the Control Panel—you’ll also see how you can apply that knowledge to create different customized Control Panels.
Hide Unused Applets with the Registry
To hide unused applets using the Registry, run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\don’t load.
The key, as its name implies, determines which Control Panel applet icons are not loaded into the Control Panel. You’ll still be able to run those applets from the command line after you hide them (as explained later in this hack); you just won’t be able to see their icons in the Control Panel.
To hide an applet, create a new String value whose name is the filename of the applet that you want to hide. For example, to hide the Mouse Control dialog box, the String value would be main.cpl for a list of Control Panel applets and their filenames.
Disabling Display of Drives
Sep 28th
To disable the display of local or networked drives when you click My Computer go to :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Now in the right pane create a new DWORD item and name it NoDrives. Now modify it’s value and set it to 3FFFFFF (Hexadecimal) Now press F5 to refresh. When you click on My Computer, no drives will be shown. To enable display of drives in My Computer, simply delete this DWORD item. It’s .reg file is as follows:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
“NoDrives”=dword:03ffffff
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Lock Your Computer with Easy Shortcut
Sep 24th
Leaving your computer in a hurry but you don’t want to log off? You can double-click a shortcut on your desktop to quickly lock the keyboard and display without using CTRL+ALT+DEL or a screen saver
.
Here the steps to create a shortcut on your desktop to lock your computer:
Right-click the desktop. Point to New, and then click Shortcut.
The Create Shortcut Wizard opens. In the text box, type the following:
rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation
Click Next. Enter a name for the shortcut. You can call it “Lock Workstation” or choose any name you like.
Click Finish.
You can also change the shortcut’s icon (my personal favorite is the padlock icon in shell32.dll).
To change the icon: Right click the shortcut and then select Properties.
Click the Shortcut tab, and then click the Change Icon button.
In the Look for icons
in this file text box
, type: Shell32.dll. Click OK.
Select one of the icons from the list and then click OK
You could also give it a shortcut keystroke such CTRL+ALT+L. This would save you only one keystroke from the normal command, but it could be more convenient.
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