Windows XP n' Tricks: August 2007

Friday, August 31, 2007

Block Or Unblock Websites without software !

Many times in schools, colleges & offices surfing some sites like orkut,etc are banned !

To overcome this you can unblock these or block some other websites and play pranks !

Do The Following :

fFor eg you want to block www.xyz.com !

* Open the folder C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

* There you will find a file named HOSTS

* Click on the file and press SHIFT and now right click on it .

* From the right click menu select Open with .

* Now, select Notepad to open the file from the list !

* Now, in the file under the line 127.0.0.1 localhost add another line as 127.0.0.2 www.xyz.com.

* Now, File>>Save !

Now, open your web browser and try openning www.xyz.com , it will not load !

To unblock sites just do the vice versa !

How you can add a Shortcut Key to Your Internet Connection?

This basic and common way to dial the internet connection using giving path:

Click on Start Button > sittings then click on Network and dial-up connections option, here you can dial your internet connection.

Another way to dial your internet connection if you have a shortcut to your internet connection on your desktop. Simply boot your system and dial your internet connection from your desktop shortcut.

A new cool tip to dial internet connection with out using the mouse, simply add a shortcut key that will allow you to do this. Just right-click on your Internet connection and go to Properties option. Click in the Shortcut Key box and then press a key combination that you would like to use here like (Ctrl-Alt-I). When you have a combination you like, click OK. Next time no need to use mouse to run your internet connection simply use this shortcut from your keyboard, you can just press your shortcut key combination (Ctrl-Alt-I) to launch your Internet connection.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Microsoft magics---Try this one amazing will be amazed!

MAGIC #1

An Indian discovered that nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the computer which can be named as "CON". This is something pretty cool...and unbelievable... At Microsoft the whole Team, couldn't answer why this happened!
TRY IT NOW ,IT WILL NOT CREATE " CON " FOLDER

MAGIC #2
For those of you using Windows, do the following:

1.) Open an empty notepad file
2.) Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)
3.) Save it as whatever you want.
4.) Close it, and re-open it.

is it just a really weird bug? :-??

MAGIC #3
microsoft crazy facts

This is something pretty cool and neat...and unbelievable... At Microsoft the whole Team, including Bill Gates, couldn't answer why this happened!

It was discovered by a Brazilian. Try it out yourself...

Open Microsoft Word and type

=rand (200, 99)

And then press ENTER
then see the magic...............................

Kill XP balloon pop ups, registry hack

to turn those balloon pop-ups off:

1. Launch regedit.
2. Open
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.
3. Create a REG_DWORD named EnableBalloonTips.
4. Set the value data to 0.
5. Close regedit.
6. Reboot the computer.

Setting the value to 1 will turn the balloon tips back on if you decide you can't live without them.

Change the Start Button Text(not Vista tested)

In lieu of the hacker resource method. You can find that method by typing in "hacker resource"; "start button" in google.

Get a binary file editor(or hex editor) to alter critical Windows system file. Just do a quick search; the're everywhere. This method has been successfully tested on Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 and XP and therefore should be quite safe.

You're going to be changing windows explorer so, please make a back up in case you mess up. "Explorer.exe" can usually be found in C:\WINDOWS for Windows 95, 98, Me & XP and C:\WINNT for Windows NT/2000. Copy/paste "Explorer.exe" into another directory, C:\BACKUP is my suggestion. Now, make another copy and name it something else. 'explorer2.exe or 'blowme.exe' will work just the same.

Find the file word "start". There should be quite a few of them named start so Use the search tool in the hex editor "Start" which is represented as "53 00 74 00 61 00 72 00 74" in hex values. This should find all the strings with this value. Becuase there are a lot of "Start" strings, keep looking until you find one located just above this text "There was an internal error and one of the windows you were using has been closed.".

Here's a list of offsets to help you find the right one.

Windows 98
Offset: 0x00028D6E - 0x00028D76
Windows NT4
Offset: 0x00028BEE - 0x00028BF6
Windows ME
Offset: 0x00033DDE - 0x00033DE6
Windows 2000
Offset: 0x0003860E - 0x00038616
Windows XP (Enhanced Start Menu)
Offset: 0x000412B6 - 0x000412BE
Windows XP (Classic Start Menu)
Offset: 0x0004158A - 0x00041592
Windows XP SP1 (Enhanced Start Menu)
Offset: 0x0004208E - 0x00042096
Windows XP SP1 (Classic Start Menu)
Offset: 0x0004259A - 0x000425A2

When you find the right one, just replace "Start" with five other characters. Yes, sorry, it can't be more than 5 characters. If you want less just fill it in with spaces.(A B C)

Put the changed "blowme.exe" in the Windows directory. Both 'explorer.exe' and 'blowme.exe' should be the same file size but have different modified dates.

Next step depends on your OS. Don't get these mixed up.

Windows 95, 98 & ME
Exit to DOS (or use a boot disk for Windows ME) and at the command prompt change to the Windows directory and rename "explorer.exe" to "explorer.old". Then copy the newly modified Explorer "blowme.exe" to "explorer.exe". Do a directory listing and confirm that "explorer.exe" has the most recent modified date and time. Restart the computer and Windows should reload along with the new Start button text.

Windows NT
First close any open applications and open a new Command Prompt window, then switch back to the GUI and open the Task Manager. Find the "explorer.exe" process and end it, you should now be left with only the command prompt and task manager. Switch back to the command prompt and change to the Windows directory, rename "explorer.exe" to "explorer.old", and copy the newly modified Explorer "blowme.exe" to "explorer.exe". Do a directory listing and confirm that "explorer.exe" has the most recent modified date and time. Switch back to Task Manager and launch a "New Task" called "explorer.exe" this should reload the shell along with your modified "Start" button.

Windows 2000 and XP
Open your registry editor and find the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]. Find the value named "Shell" and change it to equal the filename of the new explorer "blowme.exe". Exit your registry editor and restart Windows for the change to take effect. To reverse the change, modify the value of "Shell" and set it back to "explorer.exe".

(Default) REG_SZ (value not set)
Shell REG_SZ explorer1.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

If you have problems, just restore the backup.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Fooling Rapidshare

Its very easy to fool RapidShare server if your IP address is assigned by your ISP Just follow these simple steps clean up IE or netscape cookie ( In this case the one that belong to rapidshare website) On Command prompt type ----->ipconfig /flushdns<---Enter

type ----->ipconfig /release<---Enter

type ----->ipconfig /renew<---Enter

type ----->exit<--------Enter

Or save these commands in a bat file and run it everytime you need to fool Rapidshare server.Remember to clean up rapidshare cookie in your temp Internet files folder. Now you should be ready to download as many files as you want from their server.

Hacking' Coca Cola machines.

This will be a brief tutorial on hacking, if you can call it that, coca cola machines.

First off, the vending machines that you can do this on : Coke, Coca-Cola classic, Diet Coke/Coke light, Sprite, Dasani, Vanilla Coke, Cherry Coke, Fanta, Fresca, and any other products made by coke in the US, those are the ones I know of in the UK.

Pictures of the kind of machines this works on: This

Before you attempt this you might want to make sure that the machine your targeting has an LCD display saying something along the lines of "refreshing beverages", if not, your out of luck. Most of the newer vending machines will have this on.

Getting into the menu.

The buttons to select which drink you will be purchasing are all numbered, depending on how they are positioned. If they are vertical they will be numbered as follows -

[ 1 ]
[ 2 ]
[ 3 ]
[ 4 ]

However, If they are positioned horizontal they will be numbered like this -

[ 1 ][ 2 ][ 3 ][ 4 ]
[ 5 ][ 6 ][ 7 ][ 8 ]

And so on and so forth. The sequence used to get into the debug menu is [ 4 ][ 2 ][ 3 ][ 1 ]

Now you should notice that the debug menu says "Error", If this isn't the case, your target machine doesn't have a debug menu.

The debug menu

Once you are in the debug menu there is a number of options you have. We will discuss them soon.

Navigating the debug menu is relatively simple, the buttons are as follows -

[ 1 ] = Back
[ 2 ] = Up
[ 3 ] = Down
[ 4 ] = Select

Now to the options we have ;). On the debug menu there are CASH, SALE, VER, ERORR, and RTN.

Cash - Machine Sales
With this option we can view all the sales made by the machine and how much money has been made off each individual item. There are 10 or so different options available in here, I'm not too sure what they are but If someone else can post about it, that would be great.

Sale - Total Sale Count
The sale option displays how many beverages have been purchased from this machine. Not much we can do with this.

Ver - Machine Version (I believe.)
Selecting this option will make a pretty large combination of numbers and letters scroll across the LCD display. I'm not sure how many characters, I think it's 12 though.

Erorr - Error Log
Pretty straight forward, the error log of the machine. Column Jams, Vend, Char, Acce, door, bvall (sp?). And I think that's it, there isn't much you can do with this although if you press and hold button 4 for a few seconds, it will clear all logs.

Rtn - Exit.
Exit's the debug menu.

Now to the fun part

CPO - Coin Pay Out *
Selecting this option will allow you to get coins from the mechanism which you use to put money in to the machine. There are options with-in CPO that allows you to select which coins you want to dump. I've only ever found 2 machines with this option, 1 had Â£0 in it -_- and when I was browsing the other one the security guard came so I had to leave (Was in a mall :P).

Press select button 4 to enter mode and the lowest coin value dispensable will show on the display.
Press select button 2 or 3 to scroll through the different coin values available.
Press and hold select button 4 to dump the coins whose value is shown on the display.
Press select button 1 will return to "CPO".
Press select button 2 to scroll to the next routine.

PrIC - Change prices of drinks *
I've never used this section but I'd assume you would select the drink by navigating up and down, then select it, then change the price with the navigation buttons. Someone please correct me if they know otherwise.

Pass - Change the password *
I've never found a machine where this option is accessible but it allows you to change the pass from [ 4 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 1 ]. .

Rely - Relay (I think.) *
I'd advise you not to try this one, unless your a malicious little bugger :P. Selecting this option will usually cause the machine to jam and become unresponsive.

Time - Change the machines time *
Allows you to set the machines time.

CCo - Correct Change Only *
Change whether or not the machine will only accept correct change.

Note: * = May not be available, If the person who operates the machine has it turned off for safety purposes.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Shut down any computer at school

ok i found that if you have someones login for school that is relatively stupid use that so that they dont get in that much trouble because they are ruled out as a major cause what you do i get their login and pass secretively so you can get away scott free

ok onward go to the notepad type in shutdown-i and save as and save it as a bat file close it open it and type in the school number (ask like a tech guy at the school) then the room nunber then the computer number and when your done shutting down computer delete the file and empty the recycling bin

have fun i do it all the time lol

How To Access Blocked Sites At School or College

I was screwing around with the command prompt one day in school, and realized I could access blocked sites, I decided to share because I like you guys.

1. Start>Run and type in cmd, if you don't have run on your start menu, read another school hacking tutorial to tell you how to access it.

2. Once your command prompt box opens, type "ping www.yoururlhere.com" (of course without the quotes.)

3.Press enter and you should see some numbers that looks like an IP address pop up, copy those numbers.

4. Open up your school internet browser, and type in those numbers that you copied in the command prompt. Now you can access your website!

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

How to Delete Others Myspace Accounts

This is a really bastard thing to do, or funny as hell depending on what side you’re on.
(One man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter no?)
So I’m assuming all that read this are reading purely for the educational aspect right?
(Say Yes)

Ok, to make this short, the flaw is simple. It’s not a flaw in myspace, but in the way it’s setup. It’s not really a flaw at all, but oh well. It’s just the same as a mailing list. You sign up with your email, and unsubscribe by sending an email to an unsubscribe address with “unsubscribe” in the text field. When someone wants to legitimately unsubscribe to myspace, they open the form that does such, and unsubscribe. All that does is send an email from you (your account) to an email address that myspace uses for deleting accounts.

All you need to do is send an email from the victim’s email, to the server email used for removing accounts. This is very easy to do, very, no elite shell code programming involved or anything else.

The email address that myspace uses for account deletion is. cancelaccount@myspace.com This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Wow who would have thought it?
When you do delete an account, if you look in the URL bar when you delete your own account, it shows the variable input used, and that’s how the email address was found.
So what a no brainer, replace it with someone else’s.

So, just spoof an email from the target, with subject: delete, body: delete account
To cancelaccount@myspace.com This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Well you’re wondering how to get someone else’s myspace email. There are limitless ways, but the easiest it to first, communicate with them via AIM or in person, and just tell them you have some funny pictures of them drunk at a party and you want to send them to him/her. They won’t resist. Just social engineer them.

Mitnick has written a great book on the subject, “Art of deception”.

Once you have there email send a spoofed email from there email, to cancelaccount@myspace.com This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it with the subject:delete and body delete account
I don’t think it matters what you put in the subject and body, since It’s automated I’m assuming, and it’s a computer that looks at those emails, not a person. If you don’t know how to send spoofed emails,

Go to Google and find a tutorial how to send spoofed emails to do such. You need to learn how to use Google if you want to play with computers. It is the best way to direct information other than reading books, or asking someone smarter than you who is willing to tell you. It’s really freaking simple. You connect to an SMTP server (use the one on your ISP) and issue it the commands to make and send an email.

That’s it, within 48 hours the account will be deleted.
It works 100%, I have tested it out 100%.
It is not instant; it takes up to 48 hours.
If you were really evil, you could write a script or program that scans Google for email address’s, and then take those outputted address’s and send the requests to delete Myspace accounts on them. This is wrong though so I don’t advise anyone doing such. Also what is funny is that in High School or Middle School, most clubs and crap have mailing lists. Get access to one of those lists and it’s almost 100% assumed that all the addresses on those lists are kids who have myspace accounts.

How to Search Rapidshare: Find and Download Movies, Softwares..ETC

Some of you might be thinking: How can I search RapidShare when they don't offer a search box on their site? Unlike many of its file hosting competitors, Rapidshare doesn't let users browse or search through files that have been uploaded onto its servers. It's a decidedly anti-sharing attitude in the Web 2.0 era, but that hasn't kept Rapidshare.com from taking 18th place out of 500 sites worldwide according to Alexa.

Luckily, the lack of a Rapidshare search engine doesn't have to keep you from finding the movies, software, videos, and music that you're looking for. Let's say you want to find Windows Vista wallpapers that are hosted on Rapidshare.

Simply go to Google, and type in "site:rapidshare.com vista wallpapers" without quotes. You'll get back four results that match your search (see below). You can do other searches by replacing "vista wallpapers" with the query of your choice, but remember to preface it with "site:rapidshare.com".

You can then copy and paste the URL (circled in red in the screenshot above) into a download manager like RapidLeecher or RapGet to streamline your download.

If u wnt to search Any Uploader Files Like ( Deejam )

Jus type this on google Search Bar

rapidshare deejam

Reset WinXP Admin Pass with ONLY DOS

note : quotes (") are just for highlighting the word

1. click on start, enter "cmd" and press enter

2. enter "net user" or "net users"

you will see the list of users that are created on current running os

3. type "net user" "user name" "*"

you will see that windows will now ask you to enter new password for that particular account!

magic! no any type of super user privileges needed!

see the commands below:

If the administrator account user name is "admn" then command to change it's password will be...

net user admn *

OR see this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTPxdG2j5FA

How to Build Your Own PC

This guide will show you how to construct a brand spanking new PC and where relevant I’ll try to point out where things may differ slightly when dealing with older machines. First up you’ll need a few tools of the trade before you can start putting anything together, you can usually buy kits from your local computer store which will have all you need to get going, but if you wish to buy things individually here are the main tools you’ll need.

• Anti-static wristband
• Head screwdriver
• Flathead screwdriver

Remember to wear your Anti-Static wristband when dealing with fragile things susceptible to static such as the CPU and RAM, you don’t have to wear it all the time but just as a precaution you may want to keep it on during the course of putting your PC together, if you accidentally fry your CPU or RAM you’ll be kicking yourself for quite sometime - so remember that wristband.

The Case

If you’ve purchased a fairly decent case it’ll have it’s own 250-300 watt power supply. Anything lower and you may run into trouble with devices not having enough power to work. It will have come with a set of screws don’t worry if you find yourself coming up short of a specific screw just try to place them out evenly so the device you're screwing in is secure, I just presume case companys are evil and are trying to deprive us of screws, however if you have some spare don’t worry - you haven’t missed anything. They will be for other devices you may want to add in later on. The side panels of the case should be easily removable by just taking out a couple of screws; both sides should then be able to slide off.

Now you should have a clear view of the inside of the case ready for you to start fitting things in.

The Motherboard

Depending on your type of case it will either be in a fixed position or have a tray which can slide out to attach the motherboard. If it is a fixed plate you will have to lay the case on its side to install the motherboard. Now you can screw in the spacer mounts, these are the screws your mother board will sit on try to spread them out evenly as the tray may have several holes for spacer screws to fit in and you only have so many spacers, this is dependant on different mother boards so remember to screw in the spacers in a position which will align with the holes on the motherboard.

Once you’ve aligned the holes in the motherboard with the spacers you can now screw down the motherboard.

The CPU (Central Processing Unit) and Cooler

To insert the CPU into the socket on the motherboard you will first have to raise the lever on the side of the socket.

The socket will have a pin slot missing and the processor will have a pin missing and will have the corner coloured or marked in some way to indicate that it is the corner you must align with the missing pin slot, once aligned properly the processor will fit in easily without any force needing to be applied, once the processor is in lower the lever on the side of the socket to lock the processor in place. If your processor has come with a thermal pad or thermal paste you will need to apply this to the top of the processor now this helps to transfer heat to the cooler, after you have done this you can place the cooler on top of the processor. On older motherboards the cooler will have clips that fix to the motherboard which will click into place, the newer coolers for P4 will simply have 2 levers on either side of the cooler. Raise these then place the cooler on top of the processor and lower the levers to lock the cooler in place. Make sure the cooler is firmly attached. If it comes loose it can cause serious damage and on older processors you can wave bye bye if this happens to your processor, though all modern processors will have some degree of thermal protection to prevent overheating.

Now connect the power.

The RAM (Random Access Memory)

The RAM is easy to install. Different types of RAM will have the notch in different positions. Make sure you have the right type of RAM for your motherboard - check your motherboard manual to ensure this. Presuming you're using the right kind of RAM, the notch at the bottom will line up with the key in the memory slot. Now line it up and carefully press the memory into the slot - a little force may need to be applied to get it to seat correctly in the slot then once the clips close your know its securely seated. When dealing with older RAM it may be necessary to insert it on an angle to get it to fit in correctly.

AGP (Advanced Graphics Port)

All good modern video cards will need to be seated in the AGP slot, if you're dealing with an older video card it may need to be seated in the PCI slot which we will cover later, the AGP slot will be brown in colour. You will need to remove the metal tab at the back of the case, if it’s a new case you can just break these off, afterwards though you will need to screw in or use a plastic clip to hold the metal tab in place. Only do this if you have broken off a tab and do not intend to place a PCI card there. Installing the graphics card is easy - simply insert it into the slot and make sure it is seated correctly then use a screw to hold it in place.

PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)

Installing PCI cards such as sound cards and network cards are the same as installing the graphics card. There will be several free slots for various PCI cards, try to space them out if possible to prevent heat build up in the system. Once you have installed a PCI card it is best not to remove it then place it in another slot as this can cause IRQ conflicts with some motherboards.

Floppy Disk

To install the disk drive simply slide it into the drive bay remembering to remove the plastic front panels first and removing any metal panels behind this by knocking them out. It will be the smaller of the drive bays and will be located nearer the bottom compared to the larger CD-ROM drive bays which will be located nearer the top. Once you have slid the Floppy disk drive in, secure it with screws.

HDD (Hard Disk Drive)

The HDD goes in a similar way as floppy disk but will be hidden behind the casing and is fixed into position in the exact same way as the floppy disk drive, except will only require 2 screws instead of four. Just remember to set the drive as you want it either master single or slave. This is done by changing the jumper settings at the back of the drive.

CD-ROM (Compact Disk-Read Only Memory)

Putting in the CD-ROM drive or CD-Writer is the same as putting in the HDD - just remember to use the fine threaded screws, also remember to first set the jumper settings to either slave or master bearing in mind you cannot have 2 masters.

Ribbon Cables

Ok so now everything you want is installed and you’re getting close to finishing up but first you will need to connect all the cables. There are two main ribbon cables - the 40 pin IDE cable for the hard disk and CD-ROM drive and the 34 pin cable for the floppy drive. Cables are always colour coded to show pin 1. Most drives also provide some kind of identification for pin 1. If you find that this is not the case, just remember that pin 1 is the one next to the power plug.

Drive Power Connectors

The drive power connection is the large 4 pin connection they can only fit in one way so don’t worry about plugging them in the wrong way around, a bit of force to ensure there fitting snugly may be needed. Just remember the floppy drive will use a smaller plug. The last plug is the larger ATX plug that plugs into the power socket on the motherboard.

Other Connections

For this part you may want to refer to your motherboard manual which will clearly point out where each plug goes, it will also have abbreviations on the motherboard to point out where each connection should be plugged in for example.

• RS, RE, RST or RESET: connect the two-pin Reset cable here.
• HD, HDD LED: these two pins connect to the cable for the hard disk activity LED.
• SP, SPK, or SPEAK: the loudspeaker output. It has four pins.
• PWR, PW, PW SW, PS or Power SW: power switch, the PC's on/off switch. The plug is two-pin.
• PW LED, PWR LED or Power LED: the light located on the front panel of the case lights up when the computer is switched on. It is a two pin cable.

If you find a light not working try reversing the plug.

One last check

Now your PC is completely assembled but you may want to make a last minute check of the system before turning it on. Make sure all cables are properly connected and that all devices are properly seated or screwed in, you may want to leave the case cover off when turning the PC on for the first time just in case something isn’t connected correctly. If you hear any beeps this will indicate that something is not correctly connected or seated.

Congratulations you can now feel the satisfaction from having put your own PC together.

INTERNET EXPLORERLIGHTING-FAST STARTUP.

Isn't it annoying when you want to go to a new website, or any other site but your homepage, and you have to wait for your 'home' to load? This tweak tells Internet Explorer to simply 'run', without loading any webpages. (If you use a 'blank' page, that is still a page, and slows access. Notice the 'about:blank' in the address bar. The blank html page must still be loaded..). To load IE with 'nothing' [nothing is different than blank]:
1. Right-click on any shortcut you have to IE
[You should create a shortcut out of your desktop IE icon, and delete the original icon]
2. Click Properties
3. Add ' -nohome' [with a space before the dash] after the endquotes in the Target field.
4. Click OK
Fire up IE from your modified shortcut, and be amazed by how fast you are able to use IE!

STOP NOISE WHILECOPYING AUDIO CD

When using 3rd party burning software (eg,Nero Burning Rom) to copy audio CD,some noise may be heard at the end of each track. To prevent this,try the following method:
1. Enter System Properties\device manager
2. Select IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
3. Double click on thee CD writer IDE channel
4. Select advance setting
5. Change the transfer mode to 'PIO Only'
6. Restart Computer

Friday, August 24, 2007

Hibernate Your XP !

Hey your Windows XP has a very good but hidden feature !

Trick Advantage :
You can leave your work in between and shutdown the PC and resume it next time as it is !
Even I switched off my PC while writing this article and when I reopened it I resumed my article from where i left !

When you want to stop your work and shutdown(Keeping your programs open)
Do The Following :
1. Click start>Turn Off Computer
2. As the Turn Off menu comes up press 'Shift' and 'Stand By' changes to 'Hibernate'
3. Click Hibernate (Shift Kept Pressed)

Your xp will save the work and shutdown !

Now, when you switch it on again it will resume it again !

No loading of windows will take place and you will be resumed to your work as if you had just switched your monitor off and now on again !

Its Amazing !

Google Search Tips !

You can make your search more efficient by learning some search basics !

Try these tips :
1. Use Of '+' sign :
This ensures that the results returned to you will definatly consist of the word following the '+' sign. For Eg :
Search: reviews of +iPhone and iPod
This will show results containing the word reviews or iPod but the results will definatly consist of iPhone !

2. Use Of '-' sign :
Using '-' sign before any word will ensure that the particular word will not be included in the results !

3. Use Of '~' sign :
Using '~' before any word will return the results also containing the synonyms of the word !

4. Search a particular site :
To search a particular website you can use the following syntax in the google search :
Search: site:www.xyz.com abc
For Eg :
Search: site:http://pcremix.blogspot.com/ Google Search Tips

5. Define a word :
To get the definition of a word just use :
Search: define:abc
For Eg : Search: define:Computer
This will return you results which define 'Computer'.

6. Find Pages similar to a page :
To find a page similar i.e. consisting of same type of content, use the following syntax :
Search: related:http://www.xyz.com/

7. Search for exact phrase :
To search a set of words exactly together i.e.
For Eg :
Search: "contact us"
This will return the results containing both contact and us together !

8. Using the wild card '*' :
The * sign can be used in places where the whole word is not known.
For Eg:
Search: friend*
This will return the results containing friend , friends , friendship.

9. Using the '?' sign :
This is used when the full spelling of the word is not known.
For Eg:
Search: fri??d
This will result that in the results in which any alphabet can take the place of '?' sign.

10. Use of boolean operators :
The boolean operators like AND,OR,NOT can be used in search box to connect the words !
The search engine understands them as what they mean but the must be in capital letters !
For Eg:
Search: swim OR float
This will return the results containing either swim or float !

Freecell Winner

You need: Windows 95 or Windows 98

Do the following :

1. Choose Start, Programs, Accessories, Games and open FreeCell.

2. Press F3 and enter either -1 or -2 into the dialog box.

3. Click OK.

4. Win at FreeCell in no time at all.

Error In Notepad !

Do the following :
1. Open Notepad
2. Type : bush hid the facts
3. Save it !
4. Open it again !

Wow !
You got an error !

Reason :
The sentence you type is a 4-3-3-5 combination, which is not valid in UNICODE which is used to make notepad !

Change Text Size In Internet Explorer

To alter the Size Of Text displayed in firefox , Just hold ctrl and scroll your mouse wheel !

Scroll UP : To Reduce Text Size
Scroll Down : To Increase Text Size

Have you ever locked your car keys inside the car ?
This is a very frustating event in which you can't blame anyone !

Well the solution come here :

If you have remote control car lock system in your keychain (Very Common These Days), you are saved !

** Just call some one at home at his/her cell phone and ask for the duplicate keys to someone at home.

** Now, as usual the key chain of duplicate key would also be having the remote control, so ask the person at home to press the unlock key on the remote.

** While the person press the unlock key hold your mobile phone about a 10-12 inches from the car door.

** The unlock signal will travel on the cell phone network and your car will be unlocked !

## Please note that on some networks the trick may not work !

Scare Your Friend With Auto Shutdown !

-------------------OR-------------------

Read the following :
1. Right click on desktop>select New>shortcut
2. In the shortcut window type : shutdown -s -t 60 -c "the message you want to display"
3. Select Next
4. Name it anything

Now, double click it !

Scared ???

Nothing happened !

Remedy :
1. Go to start>Run
2. Type : shutdown -a
3. Hit Enter

Oh! You are rescued !

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Password Protect Folders in XP

Do you share a computer with other users and want some extra security on your folders? There are two ways to password protect a folder built into Windows XP (for other Windows flavors, there are some freeware/shareware programs out there).

#1 If you have a log in password for your account, this can be used to protect folders from other users. Your hard drive must be formatted using NTFS (which it probably is unless you're dual booting with another operating system). Here's what to do...

Right-click the folder that you want to make private and choose "Properties" (or Alt+Double-click). Go to the "Sharing" tab and check the "Make this folder private" box.

Click Apply . If you do not have a password on your account, a box will pop up asking if you want to assign a password. This must be done if you want to make the folder private, so click Yes . You will need to use your password to log on to your computer from then on.

Type in a password then confirm it. Click the "Create Password" button then close the Password window.

Click OK in the Properties dialog box.

Now anyone else logged on to your computer can't access that file without knowing your password.

#2 If the Folder is Zipped you can give it a unique password.

Just double-click the zipped folder. In the top menu select File then click "Add a Password".

Type a password into the Password box. Then again in the "Confirm Password" box.

Now, you are the only person who can access files in this folder. The folder can be opened allowing the files to be seen, but you are the only one who can access them.

Don't you feel more secure now?

Sunday, August 19, 2007

How To Make the Welcome Screen Available Tips:

How to make the Welcome screen available:

A. Go to Start and click on it, now click on Control Panel , and then double-click User Accounts .

B. You need to click on Change the way users log on or off .

C. Click to select the Use the Welcome screen for fast and easy logon check box, now click OK. WinXpFix.com

Logon, How to Configure Windows XP to Automatically Log On Tips!

How To Configure Windows XP to Automatically LogOn tips:
By Raymond

Applies to:
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

This article describes how to automatically log on a user account during the Windows startup process.

The Requirements:
1. The Welcome screen must be available !
2. There must be only one user account on the computer !
3. Guest account access must be turned off !
4. The user account must not have a password !

Related: Windows XP Logon Screen Does not Appear and the Computer Continuously Restarts Tip Page. WinXpFix.com

How To Change Text On XP Start Button!

How To Change Text On XP Start Button!
By Raymond, WinXpFix.com

There's been a number of articles on the Web about how to change the text on Windows XP Start button. So I decided to add one here at WinXpFix.com for those of you who support this site by spending your time here. First, most people think there is a limit of five letters that you can use on the Windows XP Start button, I have use more then five letters with no trouble. I'm still test this XP Start button hack and I will post any changes or updated on this page.

Here are the steps you need to edit and change the text on Windows XP Start button, also some links to software that will change XP start button text for you.

NOTE: Change XP text at your own risk. I'm not responsible for any of the damage you may do to your system.

Hard Drive Mechanic is the ONLY PC crash recovery program designed so anyone can get their PC back up and running in minutes. Hard Drive Mechanic!

The Steps!

1. You Need to Modify "Explorer.exe File" To make the changes you need to locate and edit the file "explorer.exe" it's located at C:Windows. The file "Explorer.exe" is a binary file, so you will need special editor (Resource Hacker) will do. Resource Hacker is a good freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files.

First Backup "explorer.exe" located at C:\Windows\explorer. You can place it in a special folder or save it to disk. You can also copy and change the file name to "explorerB.exe" (the B is for backup), then you can edit "explorer.exe".

2. Resource Hacker: In Resource Hacker the category will be using is String Table. You need to expand it by clicking on the plus sigh, then navigate down and expand string 37 followed by 1033, (For Classic Layout use number 38). On the right hand pane look for item 578 it show the word "start" this is what we are going to modify.

3. Edit start: To edit the word "start' you just double click on start so that it's highlighted, don't highlight the quotation marks on the sides of start, "start" NOT "start". The new text go's in between the quotation marks, like this "new" remember don't delete the quotation marks. So that it looks like this "new" replace new with your text. This is the old start text "start" delete start text "", inter your text "new" easy right!

4. Compile Script button: Now that you have changed the start text you need to click on the Compile Script button. After you have clicked on the Compile Script button you need to use the Save As command on the File Menu to save the altered file and give it a name. A good file name "explorernew.exe" or make your own. Don't use the Save command use the Save As commaned! Save the newly named file to the C:\Windows.

5. Modify the Registry: Now it's time to modify the registry so that your modified explorer.exe file that you created will be recognized when the user logs on your system. Go to the Start button click on it, then go to Run click on it, type regedit in the Open: field. Now Navigate download the list to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" click on the plus, to SOFTWARE, to Microsoft, to windows NT, to CurrentVersion, to Winlogon. The full string: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows NT\ CurrentVersion\ Winlogon

Look on the right pane for Shell, double click on Shell entry to open the Edit String dialog box. In the Value date: line enter the name that your used to save the modified explorer.exe file. click on OK.

Now close Registry Editor and exit Windows or log off your system, and then log back on. Now if the computer gods are happy and all went as planned you should see the new Start button with your cool text on it. Remember the force is with you!

Note: Ad-aware: Shell modification used to change text on XP Start button maybe picked up by ad-aware, Don't delete changes in Ad-aware.

Shutdown Windows Faster

All versions of Windows have the same problem. It usually takes a little longer to shutdown when you have the Exit Sound enabled. To disable this go to Start->Settings->Control Panel->Sounds and Audio Devices->Sounds. Scroll down and look for Exit Windows. Click on it once and then under Sounds, choose None. You should see faster shutdown times.

Hide Your Hardisk Partition

The partition "samsOoL Laptop (C:)" is the one that we will hide. For those who has more that one partition, you can choose which one you want to hide

1. Go to Start > Run > gpedit.msc (to open group policy)
2. Click User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer.
3. Right click on "Hide these specified drivers in My Computer". Click on Properties.
4. Select Enable and then select the particular partition you want to hide. (e.g. C:)

Finally, you can see in you My Computer window. The partition is gone!!

Hide Your Hardisk Partition

The partition "samsOoL Laptop (C:)" is the one that we will hide. For those who has more that one partition, you can choose which one you want to hide.

Change the Windows Explorer Default Startup Folder

To change the default startup folder for Windows Explorer: 1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then right-click Windows Explorer.
2. On the menu that appears, click Properties.
3. In the Target box, append the "/root" command-line switch to the "%SystemRoot%\Explorer.exe" command, using the startup location that you want. For example, if you want Windows Explorer to start at the root of drive C, edit the command to the following:
%SystemRoot%\Explorer.exe /root, C:\
4. Click OK.

Run Windows Explorer from a Command Prompt

To run Windows Explorer from a command prompt: 1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type Explorer, and then click OK.

Examples
The following examples describe the use of Windows Explorer switches. • Explorer /n
This command opens an Explorer window using the default setting. This is usually the root of the drive on which Windows is installed.
• Explorer /e
This command starts Windows Explorer using the default view.
• Explorer /e,C:\Windows
This command starts Windows Explorer using the default view, with the focus on C:\Windows.
• Explorer /root, C:\Windows\Cursors
This command starts Windows Explorer at the C:\Windows\Cursors folder. This example uses C:\Windows\Cursors as the "root" directory for Windows Explorer.

NOTE: Note the comma after the "/root" switch in the command.
• Explorer /select, C:\Windows\Cursors\banana.ani
This command starts Windows Explorer with the "C:\Windows\Cursors\banana.ani" file selected.

NOTE: Note the comma after the "/select" switch in the command.

The Windows Explorer switches can be combined in a single command. The following example shows the combination of the Windows Explorer command-line switches. • Explorer /root, \\server\share, select, Program.exe
This command starts Windows Explorer using the remote share as its "root" folder, along with the Program.exe file selected

Toolbar Wallpaper

Turn the Internet Explorer toolbar into a work of art! Run the download, close Internet Explorer, then start it up again. Choose Toolbar Wallpaper from the Tools menu and pick your wallpaper!

Exceptions

There is a small glitch in the Zoom In/Out function, mainly when you view an image in IE that is undefined in size the Zoom In\Out becomes distorted. Download a corrected version. Replace the originals in Windows\Web folder. [fixzoom.zip]

[Exception 2] The Image List option also has a small glitch, when you select the Image List from the right-click menu the page appears but it's blank. As a workaround press F5 or select: Refresh, the page will produce the Image List.

Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar (Beta) - many of the above features has now been incorporated into this new Toolbar. In my testing this Toolbar works great, although it is mostly intended for website developers.

Resize your IE Cache size (XP)

By default IE reserves 10% of your drive space for the Temporary Internet Files. This was fine several years ago but since then the hard drive capacities have increased dramatically. If you happen to have one of these large disks the 10% is truly unnecessary and wasteful.
Close all instances of Internet Explorer and Outlook Express
Control Panel | Internet Options | General tab
Click Settings and move the slider to 50 mb, click Ok
Click Delete Files and also select: "Delete all offline files", click Ok
Click Clear History, click Ok, Apply\Ok [more info]

Note: While viewing Newsgroup messages Outlook Express dumps a series of zero-byte files into the TIF. When Outlook Express is closed it fails to cleanup these files. To delete these zero-byte files you must select the above option "Delete all offline files".

Protecting Your Internet Explorer

Lately there has been a rash of incidents where either a web site or email spam has contained a hidden javascript that changes your Home Page entry, then disables the users ability to change it back. To prevent this from happening ... be one step ahead of these characters. Set your Home Page then disable the ability to change it via a Registry restriction. It is also recommended you use a Startup Monitor. Be aware that in some cases this method does not work as some of these parasites will re-write the registry entries on each restart. However a "Startup Manager" will prompt you if your setting are being changed.

HKCU_Hide_HomePage.reg (Current User)
HKCU_Undo_HomePage.reg (Current User)

To download: Right-click the above link(s) and select: "Save Target As".
To use: right-click and select: Merge (to view: open in Notepad)

HKLM_Hide_HomePage.reg HKLM_Undo_HomePage.reg

Note: this restriction can apply in 2 locations, the Registry checks the HKLM location first, then the HKCU location. The HKLM takes precedence and applies to all users. The HKCU applies to just the "Current User".

If your HomePage gets hijacked, you may need to "undo" both locations.
For more info and a reg file to unlock the Home Page [click here]
Note: XP Pro already has the ability to make these changes via the Group Policy Editor. If the HomePage restriction has been applied by an Administrator, "Limited Users" can not make this change. Start | Run (type) gpedit.msc

Opening Internet Explorer Full Size

Ever notice sometimes you right-click on a link and open a new window and it's not full screen? This usually occurs because IE remembers the last window size when closed. Many times a background pop-up will do this too, if it is the last window closed. To resize the window and regain control:
Close all instances of Internet Explorer except for one.
Right-click on a link in the page and select: "Open in New Window"
Close the first browser window using the [ X ] (upper right corner)
Resize the window manually by dragging the sides to the desired size.
Note: Do NOT click the Maximize button, you must do it manually.
Hold down the Ctrl key and click the Close button (upper right)

[Exception]
In some cases the "Remember last window size" info becomes corrupted in the Registry.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"Window_Placement"=

To reset the "Window_Placement" entry to default. You can download a small reg file to reset (to default) and correct this behavior.

Download: ResetWindowPlacement.reg [right-click and select: "Save Target As"]
To use: right-click and select: Merge - Ok the prompt and reboot

Missing Status Bar

The above registry file will correct this behavior, if your status bar disappears when opening a new IE browser window. However make sure that option is selected - right-click the top Toolbar and select: Status Bar. If you are still having problems verify the below Registry entries exist and are correct:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"Show_StatusBar"="yes"
"Show_URLinStatusBar"="yes"

Odd Toolbar Behavior

Did you ever get your Toolbars in IE set just right only to reboot and you lose your settings? Many times when Toolbars are added or removed the Registry entry that controls these settings does not get updated or has become corrupt. You can download a small registry file to reset (to default) and correct this behavior.
Download: ResetBrowserToolbar.reg [right-click and select: "Save Target As"
To use: right-click and select: Merge - Ok the prompt and reboot.

Gain more viewing space (XP only)

Right-click the Toolbar and select: "Unlock the Toolbars"
Left-click the Address Bar button, it changes to a four-way arrow
Drag the Address Bar into the empty space next to Help in the Toolbar
Next, right-click on any of the Icon Buttons, and uncheck Text Labels
Also you can select: Small Icons from the Customize menu.
Then right-click the Toolbar and select: "Lock the Toolbars"

SendTo Tip

Add Internet Explorer to your SendTo folder
Start - Run (type) "sendto" (no quotes) File - New - Shortcut (XP only)
In the command line, (highlight and paste the below - including quotes)
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE"

Note: IE supports opening: .gif, jpg, htm, html, .txt, ico, etc.

Windows Vista users will need to navigate to the following location:
Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo
[or]
Start | Run (type) shell:sendto (click Ok)

Right-click in the right pane and select: New > Shortcut
In the command line, (highlight and paste the below - including quotes)
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE"

Open Internet Explorer to a Blank Page

Create a new Desktop shortcut
In the command line, (highlight and paste the below)
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" -nohome
Name the shortcut: (example) IE Blank
From now on you can paste a saved URL without loading your ISP software, etc.
You can also drag this shortcut into your Quick Launch area.
Note: this is the same as setting your Home Page to: "about:blank"
Ad-Aware users, setting your page to "About:Blank" causes a false CWS detection.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Get More Hard-Disk Space by Using NTFS Compression

The quickest and easiest way to give your system more room is to use XP's built-in compression scheme for NTFS disks. Here's how to use itand how to convert your existing disk to NTFS if it doesn't already use it.

If you need more hard-disk space, don't buy another hard disk right away. First, consider using NTFS (NT File System) compression, which can give significantly more hard-disk space by compressing all the files on your PC. NTFS's on-the-fly compression capabilities can shrink the size of individual files and folders, or entire drives. When you use it, the files or folders will be compressed when they're on your hard disk to save space, but they will be decompressed automatically when you use them, and then compressed again when stored on your hard disk. This means that, unlike with a compression program such as WinZip (http://www.winzip.com), you don't have to deal with decompressing as well as compressing files. You can also easily turn compression on and off.

Note that NTFS compression isn't available with a FAT32 filesystem, so if you have a FAT32 system you'll first have to convert to NTFS, as explained later in this hack. If you're not sure which filesystem your volume uses, right-click your volume in Explorer, choose Properties General, and look for the information next to File System.

How much disk space can you save by using NTFS compression? That depends largely on the kinds of files you have on your system. Bit-mapped graphics files are very compressible, so you'll save quite a bit of hard-disk space if you have many of them. Document files, such as Word files, are also reasonably compressible, while certain kinds of files, such as PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files, are barely compressible at all.

If you use NTFS compression on a file, the file can't be encrypted using XP's encrypting capabilities, so be careful not to compress any files that you want to encrypt.

In tests on my own PC, I found that bit-mapped .tif graphics files were compressed by more than 80 percenta folder full of them shrunk from 295MB to 57MB. Word files shrunk by 66 percenta folder full of them shrunk from 131KB to 44KB. PDF files, by way of contrast, hardly compressed at all: a group of them shrunk by just more than 6 percent, from 5.59MB to 5.27MB.

When you use compression, you might notice a slight drop in system performance. There might be a slight lag when opening or closing files, depending on the speed of your system, because the files have to be decompressed for you to open them and compressed when you save them. With newer systems, though, you probably won't notice a lag. On my now-aging 1.8GHz desktop, for example, I don't see a difference between working with files that have been compressed and working with files that haven't been compressed.

You can use NTFS compression on individual files, folders, and entire disks. To use NTFS compression on a file or folder, right-click the file or folder in Windows Explorer and choose Properties General Advanced. You'll see the screen shown in Figure 3-20.

Figure 3-20. Enabling compression on files and folders to save hard-disk space

Check the box next to "Compress contents to save disk space," click OK, and click OK again when the Properties dialog box appears.

If you want to compress an entire drive, right-click it in Windows Explorer and choose Properties General "Compress drive to save disk space." You'll be asked for confirmation, and then every folder and file on the drive will be compressed, one after another. Depending on the size of the drive, the procedure can take several hours. You can continue to use XP while the compression takes place. During that time, however, you might be prompted to close a file you're working on so that XP can compress it.

By default, XP visually differentiates between compressed files and decompressed files; compressed files are shown in blue. If for some reason your compressed files aren't blue, and you want them to be, from Windows Explorer choose Tools Folder Options View, scroll down, and select the checkbox next to "Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color."

Don't compress system files or .log files (files that contain logging information). If you do, your system can take a severe performance hit because these files are in frequent background use and compressing and decompressing them constantly takes up CPU power. If these files are in folders that are compressed, you can decompress just those individual files by unchecking the "Compress contents to save disk space" box next to them. You can also decompress the folder in which they are located in the same way.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Edit File Association Actions

You can use Windows Explorer to change how XP handles file types; for example, you can choose the default action when the file type is double-clicked, choose the application associated with the file type, choose the icon for the file type, and choose whether the extension should be displayed or hidden in Windows Explorer. To perform most of these actions, choose Tools Folder Options File Types, choose the file type for which you want to customize an action, and then click Advanced. You'll see the screen shown in Figure 3-13.

Figure 3-13. Editing file associations and their actions

From the Edit File Type dialog box, you can change the icon, edit the action to be taken on the file, and choose whether to display the file type in Windows Explorer. The dialog box is fairly self-explanatory. For example, click Change Icon to change the icon; to edit any action, highlight it and click Edit. If you want to change the application associated with the file, choose Tools Folder Options File Types, choose the file type whose association you want to change, click Change, and then choose the application you want to be associated with the file type in the same way as shown in Figure 3-12

Add Shortcut Menu Items to Specific File Types

When you right-click a file in Explorer, you get a shortcut menu that includes a list of programs with which you can open the file. But the programs you want to open those files might not always be on the shortcut menu. It's easy to add new programs to that list. Let's say you want to add a shortcut menu item that allows .gif files to be opened with the freeware graphics viewer IrfanView . From Windows Explorer, choose Tools Folder Options File Types. In the Registered File Types list, select the file type for which you want to add a new shortcut menu item. In our example, we'll choose a GIF file. After this hack, any time you click a file of this type, you'll get a new choice to open the file with.

Once you've chosen your file type, choose Advanced New. You'll see the New Action dialog box shown in Figure 3-12.

Figure 3-12. Adding a new program to the shortcut menu

In the New Action box, type the text you want to appear on the shortcut menufor example, Open with IrfanView. In the "Application used to perform action" box, enter the executable program you want to open the file with, including the full path. Surround it by quotation marks. Then leave a space and type %1. The %1 is a placeholder; it will be used as a substitute for the name of the file on which you right-click. In our instance, the entire string looks like this:

"C:\Program Files\i_view32.exe" "%1"

Click OK. The change will take place immediately, and the new command will appear on the shortcut menu for the specified file type.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Change the Text of Internet Explorer's Titlebar

Internet Explorer's titlebar displays the text "Microsoft Internet Explorer," along with the title of the page you're currently visiting. However, you can change the "Microsoft Internet Explorer" text to any text you want. Run the Registry Editor and go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Add a new string value named Window Title and give it a value of whatever text you want displayed in the titlebar. Exit the Registry and close Internet Explorer if it's open. The next time you open Internet Explorer, the titlebar will have your new text.

If you want your titlebar to have no text in it, aside from the title of the page you're currently visiting, create the Window Title string value but leave the Value field empty.

Change the Text of Internet Explorer's Titlebar

Change the Internet Explorer Logo

Internet Explorer has both a static and an animated logo. The static logo displays when the browser is inactive, and the animated logo displays when the browser is locating a site, connecting, and actively downloading pages or images from the Web. Because you have the choice of displaying large or small icons on the Internet Explorer toolbar (to switch back and forth between the two, choose View Toolbars Customize Icon Options Large/Small icons), there are two sizes of both the static and animated logos.

Before you begin, you'll need to create new logos to replace the existing ones. You'll have to create two sets of icons in .bmp format: one set for the smaller logo and another set for the larger logo. Each set will have a static logo and an animated logo. The static logos should be 22 22 pixels for the smaller size and 38 38 pixels for the larger size. The animated logos have to be animated bitmaps, each of which should have a total of 10 frames. So, the smaller animated bitmap should be 22 pixels wide by 220 pixels high, and the larger animated bitmap should be 38 pixels wide by 380 pixels high.

Create the static bitmaps with any graphics program, including the version of Paint that comes with XP. You can also use special icon-creation programs to create your icons, such as Microangelo (http://www.microangelo.us/).(Make sure when using Microangelo to choose Tools New Image format, which will let you create the icons with the proper pixel dimensions, as explained in the previous paragraph.)

To create the animated bitmaps, you'll need special tools. Microangelo does a great job of creating them, and that's your best bet. If you prefer, though, you can create the 10 separate frames for the animated bitmaps in a graphics program such as Paint and then stitch the 10 separate frames together using the Animated Bitmap Creator (http://jsanjuan.tripod.com/download.html), a free command-line program.

To change Internet Explorer's static logos to your new ones, run the Registry Editor and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Create two string values named SmallBitmap and BigBitmap and give them each the value of their filename and location, including the full pathfor example, C:\Windows\IEbiglogo.bmp and C:\Windows\IEsmalllogo.bmp. As you might guess, the SmallBitmap value points to the smaller logo, and the BigBitmap value points to the larger logo.

To use your new animated logos, go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar

Create two string values named SmBrandBitmap and BrandBitmap and give them each the value of their filename and locationfor example, C:\Windows\IEbiganimatelogo.bmp and C:\Windows\IEsmallanimatelogo.bmp. Once again, as you might guess, SmBrandBitmap is for the smaller animated logo and BrandBitmap is for the larger logo.

Exit the Registry and close Internet Explorer. When you next start up Internet Explorer, it should display your new logos. To revert to the default logos, simply delete the values you've created.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Put a Command-Line Prompt on Your Desktop

Command-line junkies always want the command prompt within easy reach. Here's how to put a command prompt directly on your desktop, so it's there whenever you need it.

If you use the command line regularlyfor example, to launch Windows Explorer with shortcuts you'd like the command line within easy reach. In fact, you'd like it right on your desktop. XP has no built-in way to do that for you.

But there's a great free program called MCL (http://www.mlin.net/MCL.shtml) that runs as a small command line you can put anywhere on your desktop, as shown in Figure 3-22.

Figure 3-22. Putting the command line right on your desktop with MCL

Use it as you would use the normal command line, including any normal switches that you use to launch programs.

But MCL does more than just let you enter commands. It includes a number of other goodies that the XP command prompt doesn't, including these:

It keeps a history of your last 100 commands, so you can easily reenter or edit any commands you've already typed.

It includes an AutoComplete function that finishes your commands for you.

It lets you launch URLs directly from the command line. If you type a URL, your default browser will open to that URL.

It can be minimized to the System Notification area.

It can be launched with a hotkey. The default is Ctrl-Alt-M.

The program has a few eccentricities you'll have to keep in mind when using it. When executing a DOS command, you have to use the % prefix. For example, to copy a file from C:\Favorite Files to C:\Summer, you'd use this command:

%copy C:\Favorite Files\Gabecamp.doc C:\Summer\Gabecamp.doc

To open to a specific directory in Windows Explorer, precede the command with a $. So, to open to C:\Program Files, you'd issue the command $C:\Program Files.

Command-line fans will also want to get a copy of 4NT (http://www.jpsoft.com). Run it instead of the normal command prompt and get countless new features, such as a command-line editor for modifying and re-executing previous commands; the ability to copy, delete, and rename groups of files and directories with a single command; a built-in file viewer; the ability to select or include files by a variety of criteria, including date, time, and size; the ability to append descriptions (up to 511 characters) to files; and an exceedingly powerful batch language. It's shareware and free to try, but if you continue to use it, you're expected to pay $69.95.

3.12.1. See Also
The free Command Prompt Explorer Bar (http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/CommandBar.asp) lets you open a command-line toolbar from directly within Windows Explorer. It combines the command line with Windows Explorer navigation, so not only can you use the command line, but also you can navigate through your PC using Explorer.

Cygwin is a free command shell plus a set of applications that make your Windows XP installation perform more like a Linux environment. If you know what a bash prompt is and you lament the lack of one on Windows, download the Cygwin installer at http://www.cygwin.com. Cygwin installs differently than most applications. You download a small application that manages the rest of the installation process. You must have an active Internet connection when you run the installer so that it can find the correct packages on Cygwin mirror servers located all over the globe.

Find Files Faster by Mastering the Indexing Service's Query Language

Got a hard disk filled with many files, and no easy way to find what you want quickly? Use the Indexing Service and its query language to get what you wantfast.

Packrats like me (and my editor) have a hard time finding exactly what they want on their hard disks. I have thousands of files there, some dating back close to 10 years, which I dutifully copy to a new system every time I upgrade my hardware. After all, who knows when I might need to find the list of books I planned to take out of the library in 1996?

XP's Search Companion is too slow and the kinds of searches it can perform are fairly limited. It can't find files based on properties such as when the file was last printed or the word count of a file, or using a sophisticated search language.

The Indexing Service, first used with Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), is a far more powerful tool. It can perform searches hundreds of times faster and includes an exceedingly sophisticated query language you can use for performing searches. It works by indexing the files on your disk, and then, when you do a search, it queries that index rather than searching through your entire hard disk. The indexes the service creates are called catalogs.

By default, the Indexing Service is turned off. To activate it, first run the Search Companion by choosing Start Search[ For Files or Folders]. From the Search Companion, choose Change Preferences With Indexing Service. If the With Indexing Service option isn't available, and instead you see Without Indexing Service, it means the Indexing Service is already turned on.

When you activate the Indexing Service, it won't be available immediately. First it has to build an index, which can take a substantial amount of time, depending on the number of files on your hard disk and your processor speed. It's best to start the Indexing Service and leave your computer on overnight so that it can complete indexing.

To turn off the Indexing Service from the Search Companion, choose Change Preferences Without Indexing Service. When you do that, you'll use the normal Search Companion. The index will remain intact; when you do a search, you just won't search through it. You can always turn the index back on when you want.

3.6.1. Using the Indexing Service's Query Language
The Indexing Service's query language is a sophisticated language, letting you search on file propertiessuch as the author of documents or the number of bytes in a documentusing Boolean operators and other search criteria.

The language uses tags to define search criteria. For example, to search for the phrase "That dog won't hunt," the query would be:

{phrase} That dog won't hunt {/phrase}

You can search for text in the query language using either phrase or freetext. A phrase search searches for the exact words in the exact order, like this:

{phrase} old dog barks backwards {/phrase}

The search results will include only files whose text includes that exact phrase.

A freetext expression search looks for any words in the phrase and returns files that have any one of the words in the phrase. It works like the Boolean OR operator. So, the query:

{freetext} old dog barks backwards {/freetext}

returns many more searches than the phrase query, since it returns results that contain any of the words in the phrase.

3.6.2. Searching Using Properties
The Indexing Service's query language's power is contained in the way it can search not just for text, but also for document properties. The syntax for searching using properties in a query is:

{prop name=property name} query {/prop}

where property name is the name of the property, such as those listed in Table 3-2, and query is the text you're searching for. For example, to search for all documents last edited by Preston Gralla, you would enter:

{prop name=DocLastAuthor} Preston Gralla {/prop}

Queries can use *and ? wildcard characters, as well as Unix-style regular expression queries (for more on regular expressions, see Mastering Regular Expressions from O'Reilly). To use these wildcards, you must use the {regex} tag, like this:

{prop name=filename} {regex} *.xl? {/regex} {/prop}

The Indexing Service indexes not just the text of each document, but also all the summary information associated with each document. (To see summary information for any document, right-click the document and choose Properties Summary.) In addition to searching for properties in the summary, you can also search for the properties found in Table 3-2, which lists the most important properties you can use to search.

Table 3-2. Important properties for searching via the Indexing Service Property
Description

Access
The last time the document was accessed.

All
All available properties. Works with text queries, but not numeric queries.

AllocSize
The total disk space allocated to the document.

Contents
The contents of the document.

Created
The time the document was created.

Directory
The full directory path in which the document is contained.

DocAppName
The name of the application in which the document was created.

DocAuthor
The author of the document.

DocByteCount
The number of bytes in the document.

DocCategory
The type of document.

DocCharCount
The number of characters in the document.

DocComments
Comments made about the document.

DocCompany
The name of the company for which the document was written.

DocCreatedTime
The time spent editing the document.

DocHiddenCount
The number of hidden slides in a PowerPoint document.

DocKeyWords
The keywords in the document.

DocLastAuthor
The name of the person who last edited the document.

DocLastPrinted
The time the document was most recently printed.

DocLineCount
The number of lines contained in the document.

DocLastSavedTm
The time the document was last saved.

DocManager
The name of the manager of the document's author.

DocNoteCount
The number of pages with notes in a PowerPoint document.

DocPageCount
The number of pages in the document.

DocParaCount
The number of paragraphs in the document.

DocPartTitles
The names of document parts, such as spreadsheet names in an Excel document or slide titles in a PowerPoint slide show.

DocRevNumber
The current version number of the document.

DocSlideCount
The number of slides in a PowerPoint document.

DocTemplate
The name of the document's template.

DocTitle
The title of the document.

DocWordCount
The number of words in the document.

FileName
The filename of the document.

Path
The path to the document, including the document filename.

ShortFileName
The 8.3-format name of the document.

Size
The size of the document, in bytes.

Write
The date and time the document was last modified.

3.6.3. Searching Using Operators and Expressions
The query language also lets you use a variety of operators and expressions for both text and numbers:

EQUALS and CONTAINS operators

When you're creating a query using text, you can use the EQUALS and CONTAINS operators to narrow your search. Use the EQUALS operator when you want the exact words matched in the exact order, like this:

{prop name=DocTitle} EQUALS First Draft of Final Novel {/prop}

This query finds all documents with the title "First Draft of Final Novel." The query won't find a document with the title "Final Draft of First Novel" or "First Draft of Novel." The EQUALS operator works like the phrase expression.

Use the CONTAINS operator when you want to find any of the words in the document, in the same way you would use the freetext expression.

Relational operators

Use the following relational operators when you're searching using numbers:

=

Equal to

!=

Not equal to

<

Less than

<=

Less than or equal to

>

Greater than

>=

Greater than or equal to

Date and time expressions

You can use the following formats when searching using dates and times:

yyyy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss
yyyy-mmmm-dd hh:mm:ss

You can also use date and time expressions in combination with relational operatorsfor example, to look for files that were created within the last two days:

{prop name=Created} >-2d {/prop}

Table 3-3 lists the date and time abbreviations you can use.

Table 3-3. Date and time expressions that work with relational operators Abbreviation
Meaning
Abbreviation
Meaning

Y
Year
D
Day

Q
Quarter
H
Hour

M
Month
N
Minute

W
Week
S
Second

Boolean operators

The query language also uses the Boolean operators detailed in Table 3-4.

Table 3-4. Boolean operators used by the Indexing Service's query language Boolean operator
Long form
Short form

AND
&
AND

OR
|
OR

Unary NOT
!
NOT

Binary NOT
&!
AND NOT

Use the unary NOT when you're searching using numbers rather than text. For example, to search for all documents that do not have seven PowerPoint slides, use the query:

{prop name=DocSlideCount} NOT = 7 {/prop}

Use the binary NOT to narrow a search, by combining two properties in a query. For example, to search for all documents with an author of "Preston Gralla" that are not titled Chapter 10, use this query (on one line):

{prop name=DocAuthor} Preston Gralla {/prop} NOT
{prop name=DocTitle} Chapter 10 {/prop}

Alternative verb forms

You can use the double-asterisk wildcard (**) to search for alternative forms of verbs in a document. For example, the query:

{prop name=Contents} run** {/prop}

returns all documents with the word "ran" or the word "run."

3.6.4. Ranking the Order of Search Results
If you're doing a search likely to return many results, you'll want the most-relevant searches to appear at the top of the results, and the least relevant to appear at the bottom. You can determine the relative importance of each term in your search and have the results weighted by that importance by using the weight tag. Note that it does not get a closing tag:

{weight value=n} query

The value parameter ranges between 0.000 and 1.000.

If you are searching for the three terms "fire," "ice," and "slush," and you want to weight "fire" most heavily, "ice" second-most heavily, and "slush" least heavily, you can use this syntax (on a single line) in your query:

{weight value=1.000}fire AND {weight value=.500}ice AND {weight value=.250}slush

3.6.5. Editing the Indexing Service's "Noise" Filter
You can force the Indexing Service to ignore more words when you search, or you can have it ignore fewer words, simply by editing a text file. In a text file called noise.eng, usually found in C:\Windows\System32\, you can find the list of words the Indexing Service ignores. (The extension .eng is for English. You can find noise filters from other languages as wellfor example, noise.deu for German, noise.fra for French, and so on.)

The noise.eng file contains common articles, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, various forms of common verbs, and similar words. Open it in Notepad or another text editor, add words you want it to ignore, and delete words you don't want it to ignore. Then save the file, and the Indexing Service will follow your new rules.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Remove "Uninstallable" XP Utilities

Think you can't uninstall Windows Messenger, WordPad, and similar components? Think again. This hack shows you how.

Windows has always had a problem with uninstalling software, and it's particularly poor at uninstalling its own utilities, such as WordPad or Windows Messenger. Uninstalling these utilities can free up hard-disk space if your hard disk is starting to fill up. And if you never use Windows Messenger, you most likely will want to uninstall it because the program frequently launches itself automatically even after you've shut it down repeatedly, kind of like Dracula returning from the dead. It won't bother you any longer if you uninstall it.

To remove XP utilities and components, you normally choose Control Panel Add or Remove Programs Add/Remove Windows Components to get to the Windows Components Wizard, shown in Figure 2-12. To uninstall a utility or component, just follow the wizard's instructions.

Figure 2-12. The Windows Components Wizard

Ah, but there's a catch. A number of Windows utilities and componentsnotably Windows Messenger and WordPaddon't show up in the Windows Components Wizard so there's no apparent way to uninstall them. But you can, in fact, remove these components. XP has a Setup Information file that controls what appears in the Windows Components Wizard. If you edit this file, you can force these components to appear in the wizard, and then you can remove them as you would any others.

To start, use Notepad or another text editor to open the Setup Information file, sysoc.inf, which is generally found in the C:\WINDOWS\INF folder. For safety's sake, make a backup of the file before editing it, so you can revert to it if you need to. You should also set up a system restore point before making the changes. To set up a system restore point, choose Control Panel Performance and Maintenance System Restore and follow the instructions.

C:\WINDOWS\INF is a hidden folder, so if you want to view its contents, you will have to enable hidden folders by going into Windows Explorer and choosing Tools Folder Options View Show Hidden Files and Folders.

When you open the file, look for the line describing the program you want to uninstall. Lines in the file have the format:

program=program.dll,OcEntry,program.inf,,numeral

Programs that are uninstallable have the word hide (or HIDE) embedded in the string. When this word is included in the string, the program won't show up in the Windows Components Wizard. The Pinball game entry, which doesn't show up in the wizard, looks like this:

Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,HIDE,7

To force it to show up in the wizard, remove the word HIDE from the entry that refers to the component you want to remove. For example, if you want to remove Pinball, edit its entry to this:

Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,,7

Save the sysoc.inf file, then run the Windows Components Wizard. The component will now show up in the wizard. Remove it as you would any other component.

Keep in mind that not all of the entries in sysoc.inf are as easy to understand as Pinball and WordPad. For example, if you want to remove Windows Messenger, look for the entry that starts with the text msmsgs. If you want to remove the Accessibility Wizard, look for the entry for AccessOpt. Table 2-4 lists the "uninstallable" programs and their entries in the sysoc.inf file.

Table 2-4. "Uninstallable" programs and their sysoc.inf entries Entry
What entry refers to

AccessOpt
Accessibility Wizard

MultiM
Multimedia components, including Media Player, Volume Control, and Sound Recorder

CommApps
Communications components, including Chat, Hyperterminal, and Phone Dialer

AutoUpdate
Windows Automatic Update

TerminalServer
Terminal Server

dtc
Distributed Transaction Coordinator

dom
COM+

WBEM
Windows Management Instrumentation

Pinball
Pinball game

MSWordPad
WordPad

msmsgs
Windows Messenger

You might run into a few gotchas when trying to remove "uninstallable" components. On some systems, you simply won't be able to remove Windows Messenger because Windows Messenger won't show up on the Windows Components Wizard even after you edit the sysoc.inf file. And some components, such as Terminal Server, will show up in the wizard if you edit the sysoc.inf file, but the wizard still won't let you uninstall them.

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