TopTricks for Windows Xp

Tricks n Cheats

 

This Is crazy!!

Updated 14/Jan/07
keep checking

Set Processes Priority

 

 

Follow this tip to increase the priority of active processes, this will result in prioritisation of processes using the CPU.

CTRL-SHIFT-ESC

 

1.Go to the second tab called Processes, right click on one of the active processes, you will see the Set Priority option

 

2.For example, your Run your CDwriter program , set the priority higher, and guess what, no crashed CD’s 

Shutdown Trick !

Imidiate rapid shut down window 
while shutting down window. open task manager(Ctr+Alt+Del), 
Select shut down tab. and press ' Ctrl ' key while select Turn Off from dis tab. 
Count 5 4 3 2 1 Voila!!! U r window will rapidly shut down.


Speed Up Ur Shut down !!


Start Regedit.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control.
Click on the "Control" Folder.
Select "WaitToKillServiceTimeout"
Right click on it and select Modify.
Set it a value lower than 2000 (Mine is set to 200).

and !

Like previous versions of windows, it takes long time to restart or shutdown windows xp when the "Exit Windows" sound is enabled. to solve this problem you
must disable this useless sound. click start button then go to settings -> control panel -> Sound,Speech and Audio devices -> Sounds and Audio Devices -> Sounds, then under program events and windows menu click on "Exit Windows" sub-menu and highlight it.now from sounds you can select,choose "none" and then click apply and ok. now you can see some improvements when shutting down your system.


**new **

Crazy !!

Hide ur folders.. never known trick !!!!!!!!!! Disguise them to "Recycle Bin"

Rename any folder with extension {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
eg,
if u've a folder games
press F2,
then type, "games.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}"
c the magic....
then 2 get to original form,
remove the extension using 
"ren games.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} games" in dos or as a bat file


n u are done..

~cheers~

System information

 

system up time only for xp professional edition
It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous
versions of Windows were coy about how long they went
between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina.
Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from
the All Programs start button option, and then type
'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of
useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep
these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a
file called info.txt you can look at later with
Notepad. (Professional Edition only). 

lock pc just by double clicking mouse

You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of
the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using
a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe
user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field.
Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just
double click on it and your computer will be locked.
And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do
the same. 

SPEED UP UR ACROBAT READER (ALMOST LIKE NOTEPAD)

Do u get irritated when acrobat reader takes 5/10 seconds to load when you want to open a pdf document. There is a way to speed up the loading.

1. Go to the installation folder of acrobat reader
(C:\program files\adobe\acrobat\reader\.. whatever)

2. Move all the files and folders from the "plugins" directory to the "Optional" directory. (I repeat.. cut and paste the files NOT copy & paste).

Also make sure that acrobat reader is not open else it will lock the files and not allow you to move the files).

Now your acrobat reader will load very fast 
and almost as good as notepad..

Remove Stored username and Passwords !

To remove the Stored User Names and Passwords from your system, try this:
Click Start, Run and type Control keymgr.dll
Remove the entries from the list.
The other ways to access this dialog are: 
Type Control Userpasswords2 in RUN box, click Advanced, Manage Passwords 
-or- 
From Control Panel, select your User Account, click Manage your network passwords

It Works

~ Cheers ~


*

Remove the Username and picture from Windows XP New Start Menu

The User account picture can be removed by turning off the Welcome Screen. Or, by switching to Windows Classic theme. Follow the method described in this article if you want to remove the username and picture from the Start Menu, without disabling the Welcome Screen and Windows XP Theme.

For those who want to remove the user name and user account picture from Start Menu, in order to have a blank blue panel at the top, try this:
Start Windows Explorer and go to this folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures

From that folder, rename the BMP file which corresponds to your user account. 
( For example, if your username is Robert, rename Robert.bmp to old_Robert.bmp ) 
Next, rename the following folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\Default Pictures 

to something else, say...

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\No_Default Pictures 
To remove the user name, follow these steps

Start regedit.exe and navigate to the this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft\ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer 
In the right-pane, set NoUserNameInStartMenu value-data to 1

Close Regedit.exe and restart Windows. 

You'll end up with a blue space at the top of the Start Menu.

To get back the username and the picture, reverse the above procedure.

For the New Start Menu, Windows XP looks for the <username>.bmp file in the folder

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures

If the file is not found, it takes a picture from the "Default Pictures" sub-folder. By renaming the <username>.bmp and the "Default Pictures" folder, you're giving no chance for Windows to fetch an image for the Start Menu

~ Cheers ~.

 

Notepad Trick ! for complete list move to NOTEPAD TRICKS page !!

Well quite old but here is d complete collection

Step 1: Open Notepad
Step 2: Write following line in the notepad.
this app can break
Step 3: Save this file as xxx.txt
Step 4: Close the notepad.
Step 5: Open the file again.

Voilla!!

or

1> Open Notepad
2> Enter four words separated by spaces, wherein the first word has 4 letters, the next two have three letters, and the last word has five letters
3> DON'T hit enter at the end of the line.
4> Save the file.
5> Close Notepad.
6> Reopen Notepad.
7> Open the file you just saved. 

or

Open a note pad
type Bush hid the facts 
save that file, 
close it
again open and see...

NOTEPAD "world trade centre trick".. :Rahul

Did you know that the flight number of the plane that had hit WTC ...on
9/11 was Q33N ....Open your Notepad in ur computer and type the flight
number i.e Q33N... Increase the Font Size to 72, Change the Font to
Wingdings. U will be amazed by the findings.

log trick !! make ur Notepad a diary !!

Sometimes we want to insert current data and time, whenever we open the file in the notepad. If you are a lazy person like me, who don’t like to press F5 whenever you open a notepad. Then here is a trick to avoid this. Just add a .LOG in the first line of your text file and close it. 
Whenever you open the file with that text in the first line in the notepad, it will insert the current date and time at the end of the file. You can start entering your text after that.

WHY?

The reason this happens:

In notepad, any other 4-3-3-5 letter word combo will have the same results.
It is all to do with a limitation in Windows. Text files containing Unicode UTF-16-encoded Unicode are supposed to start with a "Byte-Order Mark" (BOM), which is a two-byte flag that tells a reader how the following UTF-16 data is encoded.

1) You are saving to 8-bit Extended ASCII (Look at the Save As / Encoding format)
2) You are reading from 16-bit UNICODE (You guessed it, look at the Save As / Encoding format)
This is why the 18 8-bit characters are being displayed as 9 (obviously not supported by your codepage) 16-bit UNICODE characters

~ cheers ~ 

SPEED UP MENU DISPLAY.!!

When using the start menu the you will notice a delay between different tiers of the menu hierarchy. For the fastest computer experience possible I recommend changing this value to zero. This will allow the different tiers to appear instantly.

Start Regedit. If you are unfamiliar with regedit please refer to our FAQ on how to get started.

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Select MenuShowDelay from the list on the right.

Right on it and select Modify.
Change the value to 0.
Reboot your computer.

CLICKING * .AVI FILES ON EXPLORER CAUSING 100% CPU USAGE.!!

Well windows seem to have a REALLY big problem when it comes to reading AVI files. It seems that when you click on an AVI file in explorer, it'll try to read the entire AVI file to determine the width,height, etc. of the AVI file (this is displayed in the Properties window). Now the problem with Windows is that if you have a broken/not fully downloaded AVI file that doesnt contain this info, Windows will scan the entire AVI file trying to figure out all these properties which in the process will probably cause 100% CPU usage and heavy memory usage. To solve this problem all you have to do is the following:
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}"
Voila! Please not that this will no longer provide you with the windows properties displaying the AVI file information such as width, height, bitrate etc. But its a small price to pay for saving you resources.
NOTE: Please use caution when using regedit. Improper usage may cause windows to behave imcorrectly. Also, I cannot be held resposible. Backup your registry first.

CD ROM STOPS AUTOPLAYING/AUTORUN.!!

And the AutoPlay Tab has disappeared in My Computer, Devices With Removable Storage, Right Click on CDROM, Properties.
Solution: The service: "Shell Hardware Detection" has been set to Manual or Disabled. Go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services. Return this service to "Automatic".

How to make your Desktop Icons Transparent

Go to Control Panel > System, > Advanced > Performance area > Settings button Visual Effects tab "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the Desktop"

DISPLAY MESSAGE ON STARTUP.

Start regedit, if you are unfamiliar with regedit please see our FAQ.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Modify the key legalnoticecaption with what you want to name the window.
Modify the key legalnoticetext with what you want the window to say. Restart

AUTO DELETE TEMPORARY FOLDER.!!

ll what i prefer is %temp% " without quotes.. at Start -> Run..
this opens ur temp folder n den u cal erase it neatly// still try dis one too..


First go into gpedit.msc
Next select -> Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Terminal Services/Temporary Folder
Then right click "Do Not Delete Temp Folder Upon Exit"
Go to properties and hit disable. Now next time Windows puts a temp file in that folder it will automatically delete it when its done! Note from Forum Admin: Remember, GPEDIT (Group Policy Editor) is only available in XP Pro.

make ur pdf files to speak

make ur pdf files to speak
here r the shortcuts for hearing pdf files in abobe reader 6.0 or higher

ctrl+shift+b ---->to hear the whole topic
ctrl+shift+v ---->to hear the page

 

 

Disabling Scandisk

When Windows is not shut down correctly, it will perform an AutoCheck
using CHKDSK on the next restart.

AutoCheck is executed after a short time delay. AutoCheck can be
disabled or delayed by tweaking a few Registry settings. 
Run ‘Regedit’ from ‘Start Menu|Run...’
Go to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE|SYSTE
M|CurrentControlSet|Control|Session
Manager’.
Create a new DWORD value, or
modify the existing value, called
"AutoChkTimeOut” and set it according
to the value data below.
Value Name: AutoChkTimeOut.
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value).
Value Data: Time in Seconds or 0 to disable
(default = 10).
Exit your registry, you may need to
restart or log out of Windows for the
change to take effect.

Monitoring the system

There are various applications you can use to monitor the state of your
system at any given time. One of them is a program called CoolMon (www.coolmon.org) where you can monitor about 22 of
the most geekiest system parameters like the temperature and speed of your system fans, the number of processes running, the total available memory on your hard disk and RAM, CPU utilization, etc. Each
of these can be individually con. gured to appear on the interface. Best of all, this monitoring happens in real time. Better still, the program is free.
If you need more details than what is offered by Windows System Information or the Device Manager, try out an application called Everest Home Edition (www.lavalys.com). This application hunts through your hardware and software setup and extracts every piece of information you might need about your processor, motherboard, graphics card,
hard disk and any other piece of hardware or software information that you might care to know about your computer.

Compress drive to save disk space

its not possible to increase ur memory size but u can compress ur data to save ur disk space, this feature is available in NTFS drive..
if u have a fat or fat32 drive, u can convert it to ntfs by running a command on dos:
for c drive:
convert c:/fs:ntfs
for d drive:
convert d:/fs:ntfs
for e drive:
convert e:/fs:ntfs
run the command similarly if u have more drive...

Compresing data in NTFS

* open my computer
* select any drive(drive with NTFS format)
* right click and select properties
* click on general tab
* select "compress drive to save disk space"
* Apply and OK

ur data will remain safe...

- Changing the Location of Special Folders

You can modify the registry to change the location of special folders like:

·                                 My Documents

·                                 Favorites

·                                 My Pictures

·                                 Personal

1.                              Start Regedit

2.                              Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

3.                              Double click on any locations you want to change and alter the path

4.                              Logoff or restart for the changes to go into effect

 

Eliminating the Right Click on the Taskbar

To eliminate the right click on the taskbar:

1.                              Start Regedit

2.                              Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer

3.                              Add a DWORD and give it a name of NoTrayContextMenu

4.                              Give it a value of 1

5.                              Reboot

 

Eliminating the Right Click on the Desktop

To eliminate the right click on the desktop:

1.                              Start Regedit

2.                              Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer

3.                              Add a DWORD and give it a name of NoViewContextMenu

4.                              Give it a value of 1

5.                              Reboot

These are only three tricks…..there are many more available on net…..the idea here is not to teach you how to disable right click or how to change the color, fonts, looks, etc…..The basic reason why we post this chapter is to teach that if registry is the place where all the information is stored then why cant we brake passwords from here???
E.g. I install a software on my system to guard some folders which contain material which I want to hide. In order to access the folder I have to input a password, and if it is right only then I can see the content of the folder. From this example it is clear that the password is stored somewhere in the system from where the software compares the value which I enter in the password field. For this example as well as for every other software which asks for password to access the system features including the windows login password, all these values are stored in windows registry. Whenever the user enters a password, it is compared with the value stored in the system registry, and if it is found correct only then the user is allowed to access the feature. In Windows registry we can search for specific items, keys, values or software’s using the search function in edit menu. But there is one problem the password is not stored in its original form, it is converted to some other format so that no one can recognize it. E.g.; If I set the password as "hacking” it is stored as "6167453291” or may be some other form depending upon the software. In such cases what we can do is reset the password i.e. delete the value (whatever it is). Once the value is deleted there is no password and our purpose is solved.

 

 

CHEERS:)

 

RAVI CHOPRA