Some Tips And Tricks For Your Windows XP(3)

XP HOME ADVANCED FILE PERMISSIONS.
This is actually an addition to my previous post entitled “Get XP Pro file security with XP Home”. In the aforementioned post I outlined how to access *Advance file Permissions* on NTFS file systems for XP Home simply by booting into *Safe Mode*, rt-clicking any file or folder, and navigating to the *Security tab*. This gives the user the ability to allow or deny read, write, execute, read & write, display contents, full-control, iheritance, and take ownership permissions, with many more options available to apply to different users and groups stored on the computer. Well, you don’t have to do this in *Safe Mode* (XP Home). Although it is a little less intuitive, you can simply go to your command prompt – Start>All Programs>Accessories>Command Prompt. Now type “cacls” in the window (without the quotes). This gives you the ability to add, remove or modify file permissions on files and folders through the command prompt. Type “cacls /?” for help on different options and variables. You do not need to be in safe mode to use this so it makes it a little quicker than using the safe mode security tab GUI. Remember – this only applies to NTFS. Here also is a very useful link to find a lot of extras and tweaks straight from the horse’s mouth – the Microsoft Resource Center. You will find a lot of very useful web-based extra’s here, most of them left unknowing to the general public – such as, “Online Crash Analysis” – a site that looks like Windows Update but you can upload your crash “dump logs” (when you get those system or application crash error reports). Microsoft will then analyze the log file and tell you some more info about WHY the system crashed (ie. faulty hardware/software/conflicts, etc).

FLASHGET :BYPASSING 8 MAX SIMULTANEOUS JOBS.
Users of Flash get will notice that the maximum number of file splits is 8. This number can be increased by the tweak below:

1. Run regedit.
2. Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\JetCar\JetCar\General\]
3. Right Click -> Add String Value.
4. Name as MaxSimJobs -> Set the value as what ever number you want. After a restart you should be able to download with more file splits.

OUTLOOK EXPRESS WINDOWS TITLE TWEAKS.
Change the window title of Outlook Express to anything you want!
In regedt32 and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{EE383506-901D-43C6-8E40-9A61901DF7CC}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0. Add a new string key called WindowTitle and make its value the desired window title. Then close the registry editor, and restart Outlook Express (if it’s running.) Your new title now shows up in the title bar!

WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 9.
When installing WMP 9 it leaves a watersign on your desktop. You can easily remove this with: regedit:
HKey_Local_Machine\SOFTWARE\microsoft\system certificates\CA\certificates\FEE449EE0E3965A5246F00E87FDE2A065FD89D4
HKey_Local_Machine\software\microsoft\system certificates\ROOT\certificates\2BD63D28D7BCD0E251195AEB519243C13142EBC3
Remove both lines and restart computer.

CHANGING THE WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER TITLEBAR.
This is a per-user tweak. Open RegEdit.
Browse to the following key:
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxx\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsMediaPlayer
(the x’s will vary from computer to computer , it’s the key without the “_Classes” at the end) Create the following String, “TitleBar” , the value of this will now become the TitleBar of Windows Media Player.

AUTO DELETE TEMPORARY FOLDER.
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.

CLEANUP STARTUP ITEMS IN MSCONFIG.
Do you ever uninstall programs and they are still listed under startup items in msconfig? Personally, I found myself with 30 such items from old installs. Microsoft leaves you no way to clean up this list, but have no fear, I have figured it out for you.

1. Open MSconfig and click on the startup items tab
2. Open Regedit and naviate to HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Sharedtools/MSconfig/startupreg
3. Compare the list of registry keys under startup reg with their counterparts in msconfig.
4. Delete the keys which are no longer valid.
5. Voila! You’ve cleaned up msconfig.

REMOVING SERVICES DEPENDENCIES.
This will allow you to disable a service or uninstall it from your system without effecting another service that depends on it. Here’s how you do it

1. After you have set your services the way you want them and you have disabled/uninstalled something that another services depends on, run “regedit”
2. Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\find the service that will not function, do to another service being disabled/uninstall (found in ControlSet001\Services, ControlSet002\Services, and CurrentControlSet\Services)
3. Once you have found the service right-click on the string value, “DependOnService,”and modify
4. You should now see a list of services that it is dependent on. Simply delete the service that you have disabled/uninstalled
5. Restart your computer and your ready to go Disclaimer
   
   REMEMBER TO BACKUP YOU REGISTRY FIRST I’m not totaly sure if this will have any negative effects on your system. I used this method after uninstalling “Netbios over Tcpip” from my system completely, so that my Dhcp service would function and I have had NO negative effects on my system.

ANOTHER WAY TO DELETE HIDDEN DEVICES.
You can view and delete or modify hidden devices by:

1. Openning Device Manager. (I usually right-click on My Computer, select Properties, select the Hardware tab, then select Device Manager.)
2. Select View and check “Show hidden devices”
3. Hidden devices will appear below with the others and can be modified.

HOW TO GET “My Briefcase” IN WINDOWS XP.
go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache. look for a file named “syncapp”.
double click it. an icon should appear on your desktop that says “My Briefcase”. double click it. it will come up with this window that tells you how to use it.

TURN NUMLOCK ON AT LOGON.
NumLock does not toggle on by default (system-wide), even if you have it set in your PC’s BIOS, because of XP’s multi-user functionality. Guess Microsoft doesn’t know everyone actually turns it on, which should be reason enough for what acts as “default”…
Anyway, you can hack the Windows Registry to change this behavior, or run a script at logon to turn NumLock on.
1. To enable NumLock through the Registry:
* Open Windows’ Registry Editor (START > RUN, type “REGEDIT”).
*. Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Keyboard.
*. Change the value for InitialKeyboardIndicators from 0 to 2.
2. To enable NumLock using a script, see this MS Knowledgebase article for complete instructions:
CODE

http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q262625

Option 1 is the quicker method, but if you have more than one user on your system and one or more don’t want NumLock on (stranger things have been known of), then option 2 is the way to go since it allows you to only attach the script to specific users.

FREE DISK SPACE BY DELETING RESTORE POINTS.
Start button-all programs-accessories-system tools-cleanup-more options. You will have the option of deleting your restore points.When your done creat one
restore point as a back up.

HOW TO REAL GET RID OF UNNECESSARY SOFTWARE
to uninstall things like msn messenger and other hidden installs thru add remove programs, do this: find sysoc.inf (you might have to enable “show hidden files” and “show hidden/protected system folders” in explorer) and open it in notepad replace all “,hide” with “,” (both with out quotes) which is easiest to do with the replace all command under edit then in add/remove programs under add/remove windows compnents and whole new list of things to uninstall and add are now listed (such as internet explorer)

HAVING PROGRAMS RUN WHEN WINDOWS LOADS SLOWS DOWN YOUR STARTUP.
There are two ways do disable programs that may be in your startup (like icq, messanger,) The easiest is to do the following:
1. start –> run –> msconfig
2. Click on the “startup” tab (furthest right)\
3. Unclick any items you don’t want to load when windows starts.
The second is by deleting registry entrys, this can be done the following way:

1. Start –> run –> regedit
2. Navigate to : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

3. Delete any entry’s that you don’t want to load up

TURN OFF INDEXING TO SPEED UP XP.
Windows XP keeps a record of all files on the hard disk so when you do a search on the hard drive it is faster. There is a downside to this and because the computer has to index all files, it will slow down normal file commands like open, close, etc. If you do not do a whole lot of searches on your hard drive then I suggest turnning this feature off:

1. Control Panel
2. Administrative Tools
3. Services
4. Disable Indexing Services

Some Tips And Tricks For Your Windows XP (2)

SPEED UP WEB BROWSING.
Iv’e personally found a dramatic increase in web browsing after clearing the Windows XP DNS cache. To clear it type the following in a command prompt: ipconfig /flushdns.

ALLOW MORE THAN 2 SIMULTANEOUS DOWNLOADS ON IEXPLORER 6.
This is to increase the the number of max downloads to 10.

1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
2. Locate the following key in the registry:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings
3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value , and then add the following registry values: ”MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server”=Dword:0000000a  ”MaxConnectionsPerServer”=Dword:0000000a
4. Quit Registry Editor.

IPV6 INSTALLATION FOR WINDOWS XP.
This protocol is distined to replace the Internet Protocal Version 4 used by Internet Explorer it uses hexadecimal ip addresses instead of decimal example (decimal ip 62.98.231.67) (hexadecimal IP 2001:6b8:0:400::70c)
To install To install the IPv6 Protocol for Windows XP:
Log on to the computer running Windows XP with a user account that has local administrator privileges. Open a command prompt. From the Windows XP desktop, click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt. At the command prompt, type: ipv6 install
For more information on IPv6, visit the site below:
CODE

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/techinfo/administration/ipv6/default.asp

ANOTHER WAY TO FIX IEXPLORER 6 SLOW PAGES LOADED.
Here’s an easier way to get to index.dat file as addresse in another tweak submitted here.

1. click on Internet Explorer
2. go to to your root dir (usually C:)
3. open Documents and Settings folder
4. open “your username folder”
5. open UserData
6. **close IE if you have it open**

rename index.dat to index.old
logoff and log back on (don’t need to restart) open up IE and go to a web page or site that always seemed to load slowly. It should load a lot more quickly now. NOTE. Always rename or backup .dat or other system files before deleting.

EASY WAY TO ADD THE ADMINISTRATOR USER TO THE WELCOME SCREEN.
Start the Registry Editor Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon \ SpecialAccounts \ UserList \
Right-click an empty space in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value Name the new value Administrator. Double-click this new value, and enter 1 as it’s Value data. Close the registry editor and restart.

DRIVE ICONS.
To set the icon of any drive (hard disk, cd rom or anything else) with a letter (C:\ etc.), run REGEDIT (Start -> Run -> regedit)
Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
If one doesn’t already exist, create a new KEY called “DriveIcons”. Under this key, create a new key with the letter of your drive. I.e. C for your C:\ drive.
To change the icon for that drive, create a key inside that one called DefaultIcon and set the path of (Default) to the location of your icon
eg C\DefaultIcon\ then (Default) = D:\Documents\C Drive Icon.ico
To change the name of that drive, create a key in the drive letter one (eg C\) called DefaultLabel and set the (Default) to what you want the drive to be called. This is useful if you want to assign a long name to the floppy drive.

ORIGINAL WALLPAPERS.
This is more of a fun tweak than it is useful. Go to run, type regedit press ok. when that comes up go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Control Panel>Desktop
Now find the orginalwallpaper, right click and select modify.In the text box type the path to the file you want to be your orginal desktop wallpaper.
DELETING My eBooks AND SPECIALS FOLDER IN MY DOCUMENTS.
Click Start, then Run and type: regsvr32 /u mydocs.dll
then delete them.

DISABLE WINDOWS PICTURE AND FAX VIEWER.
By default, Windows XP opens all picture files (gif,jpg,…) with the included Windows Picture and Fax Viewer no matter what other picture viewers you have installed. To disable the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, unregister shimgvw.dll. This can be done from command prompt: regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll

REMOVE PAST ITEMS ICONS IN TASKBAR.
Some times When you check your TasKbar properties or when you hide or unhide icons you can see old icons from Uninstalled or old programs you dont have anymore. This Tweak will help you how to get rid of this problem Thanks to leobull of Xperience.or How To clear the Past Items or Icons list in the TaskBar, perform the following steps:

1. Open Regedit Navigate to:  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify
2. Delete the IconStreams and PastIconsStream values
3. Open Task Manager, click the Processes tab, click Explorer.exe , and then click End Process .
4. In Task Manager, click File , click New Task , type explorer , and then click OK .

Some Tips And Tricks For Your Windows XP (1)

STOP NOISE IN COPYING 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

DISABLING THE ‘UNSIGNED DRIVER’ DIALOGS
This option wll disable the screen wich keeps popping up when you try to install ‘digitally unsigned drivers’. Normally you can choose to continue the install anyways, but I have had situations where you cannot continue the install.. very annoying.. This is how to fix it:
Click Start – Run
then type: gpedit.msc
then hit enter.
Browse the folder tree to the following location:
User Configuration – Administrative Templates – System
now right-click Code signing for Device drivers and select Properties.
On the Settings tab, either select

• enable, and then select ignore from the appearing listbox..
• or click the disable option. Click apply and Ok and your set!

Alternatively especially for XP Home users:
Open “System” properties (Windows key + pause or Right click ‘My Computer’ – properties or Control Panel – System).On the Hardware tab click the “Driver Signing” button. In the dialogue that comes up choose “Ignore” to install the new driver anyway.

DMA MODE ON IDE DEVICES VIEWS
Just like Windows 2000, Windows XP still fails to set the DMA mode correctly for the IDE device designated as the slaves on the primary IDE and secondary IDE channels. Most CD-ROMS are capable of supporting DMA mode, but the default in XP is still PIO. Setting it to DMA won’t make your CD-ROM faster, but it will consume less CPU cycles. Here’s how:

1. Open the Device Manager. One way to do that is to right click on “My Computer”, select the Hardware tab, and Select Device Manager.
2. Expand “IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers” and double-click on “Primary IDE Channel”
3. Under the “Advanced Settings” tab, check the “Device 1″ setting. More than likely, your current transfer mode is set to PIO.
4. Set it to “DMA if available”.

Repeat the step for the “Secondary IDE Channel” if you have devices attached to it. Reboot.

RESTORING MEDIA PLAYER
To restore Windows Media Player insert the the XP CD into the CD drive (if it autostarts click exit). Open a command window and type the following :
rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection InstallWMP7 132 c:\windows\inf\wmp.inf

RESTORING ACCESS TO CD ROM’S
If you removed CD Burning software, or for some other mystical reason, can not longer access your CD ROM’s, in most cases following registry keys needs to be deleted: Locate and delete the UpperFilters and LowerFilters values under the following key in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

DELETING THE INDEX.DAT
Del “C:\Documents and Settings\aeon\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat”

CONTROL PANEL ON THE DESKTOP.
On The Desktop, Right Click Your Mouse Then Choose “New | Folder”. Name The Folder As “ControlPanel. {21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}” Without The “Quote Things. And Now You Can Access The Control Panel More Faster Then Before.

CHANGING INTERNET EXPLORER ICON NAME.
Open Registry Editor Then Go To : “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID”. You Can See A Few Key Below It.
Now Go To This Key {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}, Double Click At The Default Value On The Right, Enter Whatever Name You Like.

REMOVING USERNAME IN THE STARTMENU
Open Registry Editor Then Go To : “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer”.
On The Right, Make A New Entry With Right Click On Your Mouse Then Choose “New | DWORD Value” Change The Entry’s Name Into “NoUserNameInStartMenu”, Double Click In The New Entry And Fill The “Value Data” With “1″. Press OK, Exit From The Registry Editor. Restart Your Computer.

nLite 1.4.9.1

Description From Softpedia.com

Remove Windows components like Media Player, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and more.

nLite is a GUI for permanent Windows component removal by your choice.
After removal there is an option to make bootable image ready for burning on cd or testing in virtual machines.
With nLite you will be able to have Windows installation which on install doesn’t include, or even contain on cd, unwanted components.
Mainly, it’s a little bit of a slipstreamer, customizer, reducer and iso creator all in one package.

Quick overview :

1. Slipstream – After you extract it to any folder and ran it, you can browse and point to folder on hard drive which contains your Windows installation.
   If you pointed to right folder with i386 in it and Windows id files, nLite will detect if you have already slipstreamed SP1 or SP2, and if not it will change Browse button to Slipstream, when pressed it asks for Service Pack installation file (or update.exe if you extracted it). Then it Slipstreams it passively. Or you can configure your existing version without slipstreaming.
2. Customize/Reduce – Choose which components to remove from your Windows installation permanently. It’s version independent, it’s possible because I’m not using filelists, well, allmost. There is only an inf-filelist which then gets parsed for used files, so ~95% of file names are automatically generated from your own inf’s. The other 5% are manually added. Most likely nLite will work with future versions of Windows XP without any problem.

Radmin 3 Remote Control Software

Radmin (Remote Administrator) is fast and secure remote PC access software that enables you to work on a remote computer as if you were sitting right in front of it and access it from multiple places. Radmin includes full support for Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit), file transfer, multi-user text and voice chats, Windows security, Kerberos authentication, 256-bit AES encryption for all data streams, telnet access, multiple monitors support and unique DirectScreenTransfer™ technology. Radmin utilizes the ever-present TCP/IP protocol – the most widespread protocol used in LANs, WANs and the Internet. This means you can access remote PC from anywhere in the world. Radmin is deployed on thousands of corporate PCs worldwide. Among our clientsare companies where Radmin is the standard application for network management.

Bad CD Repair Pro 4.06

Bad CD Repair Pro allows to copy files from bad CD or HDD.

Bad CD Repair Pro summary
Bad CD Repair Pro allows to copy files from bad CD or HDD. If your text or mp3 or any other type of file is corrupted then use Bad CD Repair to save it!

Main Bad CD Repair Pro features:

• Bad CD Repair Pro copies bad files from CD or HDD;
• Bad CD Repair Pro uses ASPI Driver. Thus it works with all versions of Windows;
• Bad CD Repair Pro works with ISO and Juliet CD filesystems;
• Bad CD Repair Pro is written using Visual C++. Thus it fast and reliable;
• Bad CD Repair Pro has user friendly interface.

Current version	:  4.06
Release date	:  November 21, 2005
Supported OS	:  Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003
Supported languages	:  English, Russian
Download	:  ZIP file (356 Kb)
Price	:  39.95

Homepage – http://solidlabs.com/

Download – Bad CD Repair Pro 4.06+Key

1000 Hacker Tutorial 2008

Download – 1000 Hacker Tutorial 2008_exploreyourbrain.com

Auslogics BoostSpeed v4.5

Start programs faster. Speed up computer start time. Increase Internet speed, optimize your Internet Explorer, Firefox and E-mail programs.

Boost Speed will clean up disks and the Registry to speed up your computer and tweak Windows to its peak performance.

Reviewed by: CNET Staff

BoostSpeed is an effective all-encompassing utility suite, combining some of Auslogics’ popular freeware titles such as Disk Defrag and Registry Defrag with services that they don’t offer elsewhere. There’s an uninstall manager, a startup manager for boot cycle customizations, RAM and browser optimizers, file shredder, DirectX diagnostic, Windows tweak manager, and several mini apps to manage Windows settings. It also comes with a rescue center that can back up any settings before you change them. No doubt, BoostSpeed gives you your money’s worth, at least in terms of services provided. Upgrading also only costs $10, for those who own older versions.

System Repair Engineer (SREng)

Reviewed by: CNET Staff

It offers a simple way to help users troubleshoot system issues, but the program is best used by experienced-to-expert users. System Repair Engineer’s operation is intuitive. That’s important since the primary Help file opens an online Simplified Chinese manual. Fortunately, individual functions include short help pop-ups in English.

After a short introduction, users can start tests by clicking on one of the three function buttons. Boot Items opens an eight-tab dialog that lists programs and services loaded at system start-up. Columns are easily sorted with a click. Deleting, adding, or editing start-up items is easily accomplished. The System Repair function presents simple lists of problem file associations, Windows shell options, Browser add-ons, Host file items, and Winsock providers. The application doesn’t explain programs or recommend fixes, though experienced users will easily use the information to fix problems. An Automatic Repair function offers only two options fix known Windows Registry issues or delete all policies. A final function performs a scan of select system areas and stores found information in a text file. Experienced users can take the information under advisement to fix problems.

System Repair Engineer includes an extension function to add tests to the program. This freeware testing utility is easy-to-use, gives helpful information, and performs minor system repair very well. It is easily recommended for those comfortable editing the Windows Registry and System Policy settings.

Publisher’s description

From Smallfrogs Studio :

System Repair Engineer, also called SREng, developed by KZTechs.COM webmaster Smallfrogs. SREng is a security related software and a system maintenance software, the main purpose of SREng is try to detect some common system issues and most common damages caused by Computer Virus. Under the help of System Repair Engineer (SREng), user can detects the most common issues in users computer and repair them by themselves. Beginner user of SREng can use Smart Scan function scan their computer to generate a report log, computer expert can analyze the log and provides some advices. This version is the first release on CNET Download.com

Homepage – http://www.kztechs.com

Download – System Repair Engineer v2.8.2.1321

Internet Download Manager v5.18.4

Internet Download Manager (IDM) is a tool to increase download speeds by up to 5 times, resume and schedule downloads. Comprehensive error recovery and resume capability will restart broken or interrupted downloads due to lost connections, network problems, computer shutdowns, or unexpected power outages. Simple graphic user interface makes IDM user friendly and easy to use.Internet Download Manager has a smart download logic accelerator that features intelligent dynamic file segmentation and safe multipart downloading technology to accelerate your downloads. Unlike other download managers and accelerators Internet Download Manager segments downloaded files dynamically during download process and reuses available connections without additional connect and login stages to achieve best acceleration performance.

Internet Download Manager supports proxy servers, ftp and http protocols, firewalls, redirects, cookies, authorization, MP3 audio and MPEG video content processing. IDM integrates seamlessly into Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, MSN Explorer, AOL, Opera, Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Firebird, Avant Browser, MyIE2, and all other popular browsers to automatically handle your downloads. You can also drag and drop files, or use Internet Download Manager from command line. Internet Download Manager can dial your modem at the set time, download the files you want, then hang up or even shut down your computer when it’s done.