How to Boot your Windows XP faster

If I talk about my personal experience, then slow booting of computer is major concern among

 users. No one wants to sit idle for a long time in front of their computer while the

computer get boot up. There are many reasons behind the slow startup of computer and

solving this is very easy to. By doing small changes in your system settings, you can totally enhance your system performance.

•        Click Start panel and then run. Type msconfig in the box.
•        Once System Configuration Utility opens, Select startup tab from the top.

• After selecting startup tab, you will see a list of programs. These are all the programs that automatically start when you boot your Computer. This result in slowing up your computer. Uncheck all the programs that you don’t like to start with booting process. Don’t uncheck your antivirus software.
•  Restart your computer and see the difference.   

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How to Lock a Folder without using any Software

If you have some sensitive data or data that you do not want to share with anyone, then this Hack may become very useful to you. In Windows, mostly softwares are been used for hiding a folder or locking a folder, but here I am going to do this without using any software. If you want to learn this trick then this will cost you nothing than a few minutes :-

• Suppose you have a folder named music in drive C: . The path for the folder is  C:\music. For hiding this folder you have to create a text file in same drive and type  

        ren  music music.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

•   Now save this text file as loc.bat
•   For Unlocking the folder, create another text file and type in

             ren music.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} music

•  Save this text file as key.bat
•  Now you have two batch files loc and key. Double click loc to lock the folder or double click key to unlock the folder. If you lock a folder, it will change into control panel Icon and it works like control panel.   

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How to improve Windows XP Shutdown Speed

Do you have a Computer with low configuration or a system in which you have installed bunch of software’s or programs? I know many of you would think, why I am asking this type of questions! Actually all these things may affect your computer performance and it leaves you with a low computing speed. If you are also feeling yourself a victim of low Computing performance then you may can turn things little bit up with my cool Hack Trick :-

•  Click on Start panel and run, Type regedit in the box.
•  Once regedit dialog box opens, select HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Control Panel, Desktop.
•  After selecting Desktop you will see a list of files in the right hand side. Select WaitToKillAppTimeout from the list and then right click it to Modify.

•  Once you select Modify, Change the value to 1000 and then click Ok.
•  Select HungAppTimeout from the list and right click it to Modify. Change the value to 1000. Click Ok
• Now Select HKEY_USERS, .DEFAULT, Control Panel, Desktop.
• Once again Select WaitToKillAppTimeout from the list of files. Right click it and select Modify. Change the value to 1000. Click Ok.
• At last, Navigate for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, System, CurrentControlSet, Control.
• Select WaitToKillServiceTimeout from the list of files. Right click it to Modify. Change the value to 1000.
• Click Ok to finish

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How to add your own items to Send To option in context menu

Customizing your Send To menu in context menu is very handy task to do because if you are a user like I am, then most probably you uses this feature rather than normal copy/paste for sending items to Desktop, My documents etc… . By adding items to Send To menu, a user can directly send his files to a particular folder/destination.

• Open My Computer, then open the drive in which you have your operating system installed, I have had in C.

• Navigate through Documents and Settings, your user name, and the Send To folder ( Please make sure that Sent To folder is not hidden ).
•  When you are looking at C:\Documents and Settings\Username\SendTo, you will see all of the files that appear in the Send To menu. If you want to add an entry to the menu, just copy a shortcut to this folder.
• If you want to add any folder to Send To menu, then simply send that folder to desktop by using Send To option and then cut and paste the shortcut that was created on desktop into the Send To folder.
• If you ever change your mind and want to remove the items from Send to, then simply delete them from Send To folder.       

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How to create four Desktops screens in single screen of Windows XP

Creating four Desktops in a single screen or splitting your desktop into four different windows screen is a very tricky  as well as very useful thing to do, if you are a Windows XP user. With the help of this nice Trick, you can enhance your Windows performance and can treat yourself like a Linux user. Only Linux provide the facilities to switch between the desktops for its users. If I frankly speak, then the number of Linux user is not as much large as Windows user. Although, Linux provide a bunch of great features and high security levels to its user, but the main thing with Linux is, it is not user friendly as Windows. A normal computer operate cannot handle a Linux running system because Linux needs commands to do a task ( Like DOS do in Windows ). So, the thing which I want to do is, I want to give a feel of Linux to all my Windows users, who never operated Linux or who do not know how to operate Linux.

• First, download a copy of the Virtual Desktop Manager from the Windows XP PowerToys Web site, located at  “http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/windows-xp “. Install it.
• After installing the Power Toy, you have to unlock the taskbar so that you can place the Virtual Desktop Manager on it.
• Once you have unlocked your taskbar, right click the taskbar, in the general location that you want the Virtual Desktop Manager to appear, and select Toolbars and then Desktop Manager.

• Now you have your Virtual Desktop Manager  on your taskbar, customize it as you want. Customizing background for different desktops can be a good thing to do because after this, you can easily determine which one you are on. To do this, right click the Virtual Desktop toolbar and select Configure Desktop Images.
• Another feature of Virtual Desktop Manager is shared desktop feature. By using this feature, a user can use the same taskbar in all four different Windows. But, if you disabling it, then you will find a new taskbar for every new Windows.
• If you are using a Large monitor screen then you may have some problem with its animation because in large Screen it doesn’t work properly. But you can disable it to come out of this problem. To doing this, right click the Virtual Desktop Manager and select Use Animation.

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How to remove the shortcut arrow from icon on the desktop

Creating shortcuts of a file on the desktop or anywhere the user want, is a facility that is provided by Windows for its better user experience. Although this facility is provided by Windows for their user convenience and its saves lots of time for their Users, now user doesn’t have to navigate through programs or any Hard drive files,  if he/she had created a Shortcut for that file. Instead of all this, sometimes the shortcuts Icon looks very odd because of it arrow in the lower left corner. If you feel same that I, then I have a solution for you. The best way to change the shortcut arrow setting is to use the most popular Microsoft Power Toy, Tweak UI.  You can get a copy of this from Power Toys Web page, located at “http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx”.

Follow these steps to remove arrow :-

• Click the Start Menu and expand all Programs, Power Toys for Windows XP, and then select Tweak UI to open.
• Expand The Explorer entry and select Shortcut.

• Now you have four different Shortcut Overlay options. I suggest you try the light arrow options first.    If you don’t like it, click None, to remove the Shortcut arrows.
• Click Ok to save. And reboot your system.

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How to Rename the Recycle Bin

In Windows, renaming a file is very easy for a user, but when it comes to rename a Recycle Bin, it become very difficult or nearly impossible task for a normal user. The main reason behind this is, windows doesn’t provide any facility related to this. The only way to do this is by hacking through the Registry Editor files. Although, this is also not an easy task for a normal user and specially for those, who doesn’t know anything about Registry Editor. But, I will make it easy for you :-

•  Click Start and select Run. Type regedit in the box.
•  Once Registry Editor opens, Expand the HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion, Explorer, CLSID, and {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} folders.

• After expanding the last folder, right click Default entry and select Modify.
• Type the name that you want to give and Click Ok. If you don’t want to give any name or wants to hide Recycle Bin name, then click on spacebar once and click Ok to save.
•  To see changes please refresh your computer or restart it.

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How to replace the text of Start Panel

Hacking the text of Start button is very simple. You have to just make some changes with Windows file and you are done. If anyone say to you to replace the Start panel text, I know many of you do not able to do it. But don’t worry I will make it easy for you. There are several ways to do this but I am going to show you the easiest of them all. For this, download a software from www.users.on.net/johnson/resourcehacker. After downloading it please follow these steps :-

• Once the Resource Hacker opens click File and then click Open. Select Windows folder from the drive in which you have installed Windows. After this navigate through the Windows file for explorer.exe.

• After loading explorer.exe, you will see a list of files on the left of the screen. Expand the String Table folder and then expand the 37 folder and select 1033.

•  Locate Start and replace it with the text that you want to use. I am going to replace it with “Windows Guru”. Please enter the text in between the quotes.

• Click the Compile Script button.

• After this, you have to save the file that you had just compiled. Click File and then save as button, Enter any name that you want. I am entering “StartHacker.exe”. Make sure that you had added .exe extension after your file name because without that it will not work.

• Once you have completed all that thing, close Resource Hacker.

• Click Start panel and select run. Enter regedit in the box and then click Ok.

• When the Registry Editor is loaded, expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, SOFTWARE, Microsoft, Windows NT, CurrentVersion, and Winlogon.

• After selecting WinLogon folder, right click the Shell entry and select Modify.

•  Enter the name of the file that you saved in Step 5. I used “StartHacker.exe”.

• Click Ok to finish.

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Blocking the help balloon from pop-up for users of both the Start panel and Menu

If you hover your mouse over program list in start menu, many times you have noticed that a balloon pop-up. That balloon is nothing but a yellow help box which gives you a small detail about the program. For other program’s that do not have this feature set up in their shortcut, it will just tell the user where the program is located on his/her computer. This feature can be very useful to a beginner but for a advance user it may create some problem in the sense of blocking your computer screen. Follow these steps  to block this feature :-

•  Click Start menu, then Run. Type regedit in the box and then Ok
•   In Registry Editor, navigate though HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion, Explorer, Advanced.

•  Right click the entry ShowInfoTip and then select Modify.
•  Enter 0 to disable this feature.
•  Click Ok to finish.

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How to Disable the new program highlight in Start panel

If you are using Windows XP new start panel then this trick may become very useful to you. Let’s take a example of mine, When I install Windows XP first time in my PC, I was very much impressed with the new looks and features that it is providing. In Windows XP, Windows has introduced a feature that search the new program installed and highlight it for the user convenient to make sure that, the user doesn’t have to make a search for the new program files. For first few days this feature worked great for me, but after some time I got to know that it is not working properly. Many times it doesn’t highlight the new program which is just installed and in some case it gets reverse, means they get highlighted for several weeks  although I had clicked them several times. I have to face this nonsense regularly and without knowing what to do? But after some time I had decided that enough is enough, I don’t need this feature anymore, I have to blocked this nonsense, but the most important question that arose in front of me was, what should i do to stop this stupid feature. But, all thanks to those Windows XP developers who had made it easy for everyone to come out of this sick feature. If you are also one of the victim of this then follow this nice trick :-

•           Right click the Start button and select properties.
•       Click on Start menu tab and then Click Customize.
•          Click Advanced menu tab on the top.

•   At last, uncheck the  ‘Highlight newly installed programs’ option.
• Click Ok to finish

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How to hide program from appearing in the Start panel

This is a cool trick to deal with and specially for those who doesn’t want to share there work with anyone. Just take an example of ‘John”. Johan works in a office and he  plays solitaire in his leisure time. Every time John plays this game, Windows automatically put a file of this in Start panel as recent run program. This tracking is a problem for John because he is concerned that one of his fellow employees might see the program on the list and report him. What should John do or you do if you are in place of John? Don’t think so much, just follow these easy steps and enjoy !!

• Click Start and select Run. Type regedit in the box and Ok.
• Once the Registry Editor dialog box opens, expand HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT folder.
• Navigate through the list of folders until you finds the folder called Application and expand that        as well.
• Now, to hide Solitaire, you have to expand the sol.exe folder.

•  Can’t find a folder called sol.exe? That’s because some Windows applications are not listed. If the application was listed, then you needs to skip this steps. Otherwise, you will need to create a folder. To do so, selects the Applications folder with the mouse. Then type the name of the executable for the name of the key. For Solitaire, you will want to name the key sol.exe.

•  Now you have found the folder for the application or created one, expands it so that you can see all of its values. Then, right – clicks the executable folder that he just created or found in the registry. Select New and then select String. Next, types in NoStartPage as the name of the string variable.
•  Close the Registry Editor and Logs Off and then back in. You will never see Solitaire in your frequently run programs list again.

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How to Increase the number of recently run programs in Start panel

In our daily life, we spend a very large amount of time in navigating through computer programs in start panel. By fixing some useful programs in front left of start panel, we can save our lots of time. This feature can become a very useful to those users, which uses some specific number of programs daily. By doing this, they don’t have any need to navigate through the programs in start panel.

Changing the number of programs depends completely on personal preference. By design, the Start panel cannot contain more than 30 programs on the list and most of the user cannot be able to do so. For adding that much programs in start panel a user must have a large monitor (  larger then 17inches ) with 1280 X 1024 Resolution. The most common computer screen resolution is 1024 X 768. At that resolution, 22 programs can fit on the Start panel when the small icons are used. If you are using an older computer with a resolution of 800 X 600, then you will only be able to display 15 programs on your Frequently Run Programs list.

•                 Right click the Start button and select Properties.
•                Click the Customize button to show the Customize Start Menu options.

•  Adjust the value by Clicking up or down in “ Number of programs on Start menu” option.
• Click OK to get finished.

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How to Add Log Off button to Start panel

When you Install a Windows XP operating system in your computer, some times you may have seen that there is no logoff button in your Start panel for login off the Computer. So, the question arises here is, what can a User do whenever he/she finds himself/herself in this kind of situation. Does he/she have to sacrifice with this feature or get ready for starting a new fresh installation. Don't think so much, i am going to help you. The whole story running behind this is, in many installation by default this Windows feature is turned off and user can manually change this settings. For doing this you have to do nothing but follow these nice and easy steps :-

• Click on Start panel and then Run. Enter gpedit.msc in the run box.
• Once your Group Policy Editor dialog box opens, expand the User Configuration, Administrative Templates, and the Start Menu and Taskbar folder.
• Navigate for Add Logoff to the Start Menu form the list. Right Click it and select properties.

•  Then, to turn the feature on Click Enable..
• Click Ok to finish.

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How to Hide User Name from Start Panel

Hiding user Name from start panel can be a great trick for some users and not very useful for some. Showing your User name to a stranger can become very risky because if a person knows our user name, then resting your password will become very easy for him or in other words he had won the half of the battle. So, if you have very sensitive data in your hard drive and you don’t want to share it with anyone then this trick will become a very handy tool for you. To get started :-

• Click the Start Menu and select Run. Then type gpedit.msc into the box and click Ok.
•  Once your Group Policy Editor dialog box opens, expand the User Configuration, Administrative Templates, and the Start Menu and Taskbar folder. 

• Use your mouse to locate Remove User Name from the Start Menu list. Right – click it and select properties.
• Then, to turn the feature on Click Enable.
•             Then, click Ok to finish.

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How to Enable Keyboard Num Lock On from the system Startup

If you having a password in your computer that is containing number, then you mostly use number pad to enter digits and even me too, I also use number pad to enter numeric charter in the password. When we turn on a computer, by default its number pad is disable. Nearly thousands of times my password goes wrong because of this and I don’t have any idea what has happened with me, for 2 – 3 seconds. And then I suddenly realize that my number pad is disable.

This trick is great for desktop user but not a such big deal for laptop user because if you enable this in laptop then half of the key will behave like a Number Pad. If you are using desktop computer with a full size keyboard with a separate number pad then it will work great for you. 

• To get started, Click Start and then Run. Insert regedit in the box, then Ok.
•   Once Registry Editor dialog box opens, Click HKEY_USERS, .DEFAULT, Control panel, and Keyboard.
•  Click on Initialkeyboard Indicators from the left column, right click it, and select Modify. To Enable Num Lock, you will want to enter ‘2’  into the box.

• Click ok to finish.

If ever you want to revert the setting then, repeat those steps again  and replace the value of InitialKeyboard Indicators to ‘0’.

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How to set a Background image for Logon Screen

Woo! Sounds cool na.  ya guys,  it is possible. You can change Windows XP Logon Screen image with your image or any image which you like to as a Logon screen. The thing which you have to do is some  modification with your system registry files and you are finished. To get started , follows these step : –

• Click Start, then Run and type regedit in the box. Click OK.     
• Once Registry editor startup, expand HKEY_USERS, .DEFAULT, Control Panel, and the Desktop Key. Once you done with this, you will see a list of files in your right hand panel. The file which you want are Wallpaper and WallpaperStyle.

                                                                 

•  Right click Wallpaper and Select Modify. Then type in the full path to the image that you want to use on your computer. Let’s assume that you want to set your own photo as your background. This file is located at C:\images\newfolder. The name of the file is photo21.bmp. Therefore, the full path of the image file is C:\images\newfolder\photo21.bmp.
                                                                                                             
• Once you have enter the path name, click OK to save. Now you can make changes to Wallpaperstyle. It will change appearance of your background. You have three different options: 0 = Centered,  1 = tiled,  2 = stretched to full Screen. For modification just right click the Wallpaperstyle and select Modify, then enter the number value you want to enter. Click Ok to save. 

                                                                                                               







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Hiding a User Account from the Welcome Screen

One thing which I don’t like about Windows is that it lists its all user accounts in Welcome Screenwhen we restart or logoff windows. Some time’s I doesn’t want to share my user account with anyone but windows has not providing any facilities relating to this. But now you can easily do this with my Super Trick.

Hiding of a User Account can be done easily with some changes in system registry. Microsoft have a Local System Settings in which lists of accounts are hidden.  These accounts are system accounts under which different processes run and execute in the Background.

Hiding an User Account can be done by following these simple steps :-

• Click Start, then Run. Type regedit in the box and OK.

• A Registry Editor dialog box opens. Expand the following Keys:  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,SOFTWARE,  Microsoft, Windows NT, Current Version, Winlogon, Special Accounts, and UserLists.

•  To add your user name in list, just right click on the blank area and select New, DWORD value. A DWORD is a specific data type of an entry in the system registry. In short, the DWORD data type allows an integer value to be stored.

• When the new key created, enter your User Account name in it. After that you can close the regedit dialog box.

After completing all these steps please restart your computer and see the magic. If you ever want to logon into that User Account, press CLR+ALT+DLT one or two times. Enter the name ofUser Account in which you want to Login. By this way you can hide your User Account from your family or friends.


If you ever change your mind and want to display User Account on welcome Screen, then delete the entry that you had made in regedit editor.














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